Groups, Teams, and Conflict Essay Example for Free

Groups, Teams, and Conflict Essay Strategies There are various strategies available to aid in effective team building. One step is developing a recruiting strategy that supports the organization’s diversity goals. Volunteering time to organizations that serve the needs of underrepresented segments of the population is another way to enhance your company’s reputation as an employer that values diversity. Another step that can be used is by registering the organization with local job agencies, such as the local Workforce Center. The organization can also contact universities, trade schools and other academic institutions with information about the company and keep them informed of job openings they can post for graduating students. Organizations can also create partnerships with national and local organizations to promote the company’s image. It can also help to participate in industry events, and include employees in the company’s current workforce who represent various forms of diversity. The organization should not limit its definition of diversity to race, color, sex, national origin or religion but should expand its concept of diversity to include multi-generational diversity as well as diversity in work styles and cultures. One of the most important strategies is to construct work teams with diversity in mind. Whenever possible, the organization should assign employees to work on teams together who otherwise would not have the opportunity to work together. They should assemble groups of people who represent varied work styles, generations, skills and culture and encourage collaboration and synergy among employees through embracing differences (Huebsch, 2013). Challenges One of the biggest challenges with diversity is misconception. Most people associate the word diversity with multicultural issues, but it also covers  the differences in age, sex, sexual orientation, religion, background, and even position of power. Failing to recognize this can result in accidental discrimination against certain groups. Several types of workplace diversity challenges exist. These issues can strengthen a company or ruin one. Communication is essential to diversity in the workplace. Every person and cultural group communicates differently, which can be the biggest challenge of a diversified team. Sometimes employees misinterpret tone, e-mails, and body language, and fail to respond appropriately. Employees that resist change can be a significant diversity barrier. If someone has been raised a certain way, it can be difficult to adapt overnight. Having one resistant employee can throw off the organization’s balance. An organization benefits more when its manager is on board with major decisions for maximum results. Diversity will not work without a supportive manager (Holt, 2013). Conclusion The best way for an organization to determine which strategy works best for, is by looking at the success of the team and ultimately how the organization benefits from the teams work. As we all know, there will be challenges with any team/group because you have different people from different backgrounds, different personalities, and different outlooks on life. However, if the organization can get each member to recognize that their success ultimately depends on the success of the company, I believe that the diversity of the group will no longer be a primary issue. Instead each team member will begin to pay more attention to the work and less about the differences of each team member in regard to themselves. Once the organization begins to benefit from the team’s success, it will be evident that the strategy chosen is a success. References Holt, M. (2013). Workplace Diversity Challenges. Retrieved from http://smallbusiness.chron.com/create-diverse-workplace-10154.html Huebsch, R. (2013). Workplace Diversity Strategy. Retrieved from http://smallbusiness.chron.com/workplace-diversity-strategy-4925.html

Degeneration of Women in The Great Gatsby and A Streetcar Named Desire

Degeneration of Women in The Great Gatsby and A Streetcar Named Desire The men they are influenced by and, often, married to, and the circumstances in which they live and work dictate the women’s characters and personalities. In ‘The Great Gatsby’ and ‘A Streetcar Named Desire’, Daisy and Blanche suffer degeneration in terms of their mentality and their morals due to the behaviour and actions of the men in their lives. The male characters act as catalysts in implementing this change, as they alter the lives of others yet are not themselves changed. However, it cannot be said that men are entirely responsible for this degeneration- to a certain extent, the fate of the women rests in their own hands. A comparison between the two texts, considering both the male characters’ responsibility, and the women’s own responsibility for themselves, will be decisive in determining how and why the women degenerate and the consequences of this deterioration. Men are an extremely dominant force within both ‘The Great Gatsby’ and ‘A Streetcar Named Desire’. The marriages in each text display a microcosm view of the text as a whole, in that they are a small representation of a larger context. The men in each marriage are dominant- Tom, for example, is ambiguous because a reader knows he is violent from his behaviour to Myrtle- ‘Making a short deft movement, Tom Buchanan broke her nose with an open hand†¦high over the confusion a long broken wail of pain.’ However, he does not act violently that we know of towards Daisy. This could be a direct result of the two women’s class. Daisy is described by Jordan as being, ‘ â€Å"By far the most popular of all the young girls in Louiseville†Ã¢â‚¬â„¢ whose wealth and class could be measured by ‘... ...ever had any real compassion or love for her. Their decision to move away comes despite his earlier assumption that, ‘ â€Å"I’ll stay in the East, don’t you worry†¦I’d be a God damned fool to live anywhere else.†Ã¢â‚¬â„¢ Gatsby himself is more ambiguous, as his obsession with Daisy creates his situation. He degenerates in terms of his morals, yet it seems that he has always been amoral when it comes to business and ‘gonnegtions’ as well. Ultimately, the men only change subtly and almost imperceptibly as a result of their actions towards the women, yet the women themselves change irreversibly. Each change that occurs within the women is significant not just to the characters themselves, but also to those surrounding them and the dynamics of the plot. The conclusion to each text has been determined by the actions of the men and the result that they have on the women. Degeneration of Women in The Great Gatsby and A Streetcar Named Desire Degeneration of Women in The Great Gatsby and A Streetcar Named Desire The men they are influenced by and, often, married to, and the circumstances in which they live and work dictate the women’s characters and personalities. In ‘The Great Gatsby’ and ‘A Streetcar Named Desire’, Daisy and Blanche suffer degeneration in terms of their mentality and their morals due to the behaviour and actions of the men in their lives. The male characters act as catalysts in implementing this change, as they alter the lives of others yet are not themselves changed. However, it cannot be said that men are entirely responsible for this degeneration- to a certain extent, the fate of the women rests in their own hands. A comparison between the two texts, considering both the male characters’ responsibility, and the women’s own responsibility for themselves, will be decisive in determining how and why the women degenerate and the consequences of this deterioration. Men are an extremely dominant force within both ‘The Great Gatsby’ and ‘A Streetcar Named Desire’. The marriages in each text display a microcosm view of the text as a whole, in that they are a small representation of a larger context. The men in each marriage are dominant- Tom, for example, is ambiguous because a reader knows he is violent from his behaviour to Myrtle- ‘Making a short deft movement, Tom Buchanan broke her nose with an open hand†¦high over the confusion a long broken wail of pain.’ However, he does not act violently that we know of towards Daisy. This could be a direct result of the two women’s class. Daisy is described by Jordan as being, ‘ â€Å"By far the most popular of all the young girls in Louiseville†Ã¢â‚¬â„¢ whose wealth and class could be measured by ‘... ...ever had any real compassion or love for her. Their decision to move away comes despite his earlier assumption that, ‘ â€Å"I’ll stay in the East, don’t you worry†¦I’d be a God damned fool to live anywhere else.†Ã¢â‚¬â„¢ Gatsby himself is more ambiguous, as his obsession with Daisy creates his situation. He degenerates in terms of his morals, yet it seems that he has always been amoral when it comes to business and ‘gonnegtions’ as well. Ultimately, the men only change subtly and almost imperceptibly as a result of their actions towards the women, yet the women themselves change irreversibly. Each change that occurs within the women is significant not just to the characters themselves, but also to those surrounding them and the dynamics of the plot. The conclusion to each text has been determined by the actions of the men and the result that they have on the women.

Reflection on my experience in the OB team Essay

Organizational behavior is concern with the study of the behavior of the people with in an organizational setting. It helps to understand predict and to control human behavior. In a working environment, we meet people with different ideas and characters. Therefore it is essential to understand how to cooperate with individual personalities to develop team working skills in different environments. Organizational behavior analyzes how people behave as individuals and as members of a group. With regard to the module Organizational Behavior, our module tutor divided our entire class into various groups of five and I found myself entitled with four other tremendously enthusiastic classmates of mine, namely Gayani, Jayan, Tharuka and Maheshi who I was very eager to work with. Our challenge was to imagine ourselves as external consultants and analyze the issues about a large planning consultancy named as Alpha Planning. The requirements were to relate the issues to specific organizational behavioral theories that we have discussed in class and as a group, we had to recommend solutions for the relevant issues as to how they could improve further in order to succeed. This reflective essay analyzes the individual basis theoretical areas covered by the module and integrates with my experience on team working with regard to the group course work. I have chosen to elaborate on the way Motivation interacts with Team Working. Team work is the key to a successful organization or a project. The notion of united we stand and divided we fall applies very well. Today there are many organizations employing hundreds of thousands of people all working together to build and keep the brand of companies. Having a team may be one issue and building cohesion within a team is another. It is not always easy to achieve unity but can be diligently sought through various levels of motivation. Motivation is stimulation or triggering of behavior and directing to achieve certain end goals. Many sociologists and psychologists have studied  motivation and developed certain theories to explain the concept of motivation. F. Herzberg was famous for his two factor theory while Abraham Maslow developed the Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. Different people are stimulated differently and will need a different trigger for action. In other words, there is no dearth of opportunities to learn on how to motivate a team. Individual differences and perceptions are common in team work as there will be people from all walks of life. Each of them comes from different backgrounds so they will have various characters, personalities, abilities, attitudes, perceptions and experiences. Therefore as a team, it is the responsibility of the team members to make sure that these personalities do not clash, but push other team members to forget about their differences and achieve their goal. The first and foremost question that appeared in my mind when I was asked to participate on a team to complete the course work was that, ‘why should I be a part of a team?’ Immediately the decision-making process began as follows. What is the purpose of the team? Is it a topic that interests me? Who will be on the team with me? What kind of authority will I have? What is the reward for participating? and What is the risk for not participating? These were the typical questions which related to my motivation to participate in the team. There are times when individuals are not given the opportunity to refuse participation on a team. For example, as in this scenario when it is a group course work for the partial fulfillment of a particular module, by default, I was a part of the team. The purpose of this team was the successfully completion of the module course work. The question, ‘who will be on the team with me’ didn’t create much of a concern as I had the opportunity to work with all of my team members a few times earlier. As soon as we were divided into group, we decided to appoint Maheshi as the Group Leader as we felt she was the best person to be in-charge of the team and decided to work under her guidance. We all realized that the reward for participating in the team is the successfully completion of the module course work and risk for not participating is the failure of the module course work. Therefore, I determined to contribute to the course work at my level best and assist my fellow team members in every way I can. Team motivation can rise or fall depending on a myriad of factors. For long-term motivation, there must be a purpose or mission that the team members find aligns with their personal wants and needs. Our purpose was to complete the course work successfully and all of us had one single motive in our mind with regard to the course work. That was to achieve an overall good grade for the Organizational Behavior module. A team member can be asked to participate on a temporary task force. If the mission is clear, he or she might be able to sustain motivation for the duration if he or she feels it is important. However, if it is a topic that is not in line with their needs, their motivation may to continue diminish. This didn’t create much of a concern as all of had the chance to clarify our doubts about our mission from the first group meeting. Throughout my life, I have heard many people say that their most rewarding team experiences resulted from some sort of challenge. When presented with a challenge, our defenses are alerted to move us to action or to run away from danger or address it directly. The challenge itself was the motivator. An additional criterion for a challenge is the level of difficulty. If a challenge is too difficult, perhaps perceived as impossible, then team members may give up before they start. However, the same result may occur if the members perceive the challenge as too easy. Little energy is required to accomplish something so easily obtained. Our course work was indeed a challenge, but it is safer to state that it was achievable as we were provided the theoretical knowledge throughout the whole semester during the module lectures. Yet it wasn’t a bed of roses as we had to do quite a lot of research to apply our theoretical knowledge on a practical working environment. We had to face some difficulties as not only we were informed to identify the organizational issues of the case study, but also to suggest recommendations and methods of implementations. Accordingly for our team, periodic stimulation in the form of a worthy challenge was another factor to maintain the team motivation. In general, people and teams are stimulated by being given responsibility. Having ownership of an identifiable block of work is a long-held principle of motivation in groups. However, responsibility can be tricky. It is important to understand that the responsibility comes along with authority to make the necessary changes. Teams that have both the responsibility and authority tend to maintain motivation over longer periods of time. Responsibility can be demotivating if the consequences of error or failure  are too great. The short-term performance may be good, but long-term motivation will suffer. It is difficult to sustain high performance when energy is being sapped by fear. We initialized the course work by reading the case study as a group. The discussion was informal and friendly and everyone had an idea to contribute and did not hold back thoughts as plenty of suggestions were being thrown. At the end of the discussion we came up with a list of possible issues and each of us were given two Organizational Behavior topics to research on, where we had to focus on finding theories, recommendations and implementations that we could relate to the issues. Therefore according to the task allocation which was conducted by our team leader, the responsibility was divided among the team fairly and each and every one of us was responsible for the total outcome of the course work. Another factor that motivates successful teams is camaraderie, meaning comradeship, fellowship, and loyalty. It’s a lot easier to perform as a team when the team members have a good relationship with each other. The outcome of this kind of relationship building is open and direct communication, frequent praising of each others’ contributions, and mutual support. Much of the time we like or dislike someone, it relates more towards how well we understand them. And since our formal training has not addressed this, most of us enter adulthood ill-equipped to deal with the myriad of personalities, temperaments, cultures, values, beliefs, ideologies, religions, and eccentric behaviors of those we meet. One way to break down these barriers is to expand our understanding on our own species. During the course work, the most important fact which I was able to realize was that the team members in our team as individuals had different talents and capabilities. Some of us were good in understanding the theoretical aspects when the others had a hard time understanding the theory and some of us had a wider knowledge in dealing with practical situations and were able to help others. Therefore we were able to use these various capabilities for different types of tasks. Each of us completed separate parts of the course work and this assisted us a great deal to finish the entire course work before the deadline. During the brainstorming session, I was able to help my team mates who were unable to grasp the organizational theories by explaining the case study thoroughly in much simpler terms. This act led  towards building camaraderie within the team. At the beginning, there were issues with regard to the fact that our team leader tended to take the entire burden and some of the team members weren’t aware of the work that has been done. However, after the submission of the Report Plan we were able to solve that issue by communicating directly with the Team Leader and expressing our ideas to her. Thereafter, there were no conflicts with regard to dissatisfaction in members’ work and there was no depression or tension even at the last minute. Therefore we all were motivated to work as a team and were able to finish the relevant tasks much easily. Personal and team growth can provide another basis for sustained team motivation. When people feel they are moving forward, learning new concepts, adding to their skill base, and stretching their minds, motivation tends to remain high. Personal growth adds value to the individual, enhancing self-esteem and self-worth. Accordingly, team members and team leaders should look for opportunities that help add knowledge and skills. Enrolling in the module, Organizational Behavior has enabled me to understand and analyze the way people interact within the organizations both now and in the future. As a second year student, I will be able to gain the exposure of a real working environment during my placement year. Therefore acquiring some of the career management and higher education skills through team working is essential for my career development. This was indeed a motivational factor for me to engage in this course work and provide my level best contribution to the team. As my team mates had the same motive, it was a motivational factor for the entire team. Being a part of this team made me realize that there are both the visible and invisible benefits of a highly motivated team. Highly motivated team members look forward in completing the tasks successfully, actively and consciously contribute to the team, get more done and have more ideas, focus their energy on the positives rather than the negatives and reinforce the team culture. Creating and sustaining motivation requires open communication, honesty and respect. Essentially, motivation is about bonding with the fellow team mates. If we make an effort to know them, listening to them and valuing them for their particular contributions and potential, they are more likely to work with us in meeting the challenges. In conclusion, I would like to state that in a team, whose members are  aligned with its purpose, feel a challenge in their task, have a strong sense of camaraderie, feel responsibility for the outcome, and experience growth as a team and in their personal lives, will tend to sustain motivation over the long haul. This is not to say that the team will not have difficulties at times, or the members’ needs won’t change over time. In these cases, sometimes changes will have to be made. But, as much as it is possible to sustain motivation indefinitely the factors which I mentioned above will tend to create the best possible environment for it. In fact I would like to state that those factors helped us as a team to be motivated in reaching our goal and as well as to develop our team working skills. The knowledge gained and skills that I have enhanced through successful interaction among team members will undoubtedly be useful in future. It has built up my confidence and ability to voice my concerns and opinions within a group as required. In addition this would enhance my leadership skills in terms of the ability to understand individual experiences and factors influencing motivation which could be effectively made use of in project management.

Should We Ban Smack Essay - 1059 Words

Smacking should be banned to protect children Before I get stated, I’d like to ask you guys for one question: Have you ever got smacked by your parents when you are a little child? If you have, please put your hands up. Alright, it seems everyone has been smacked before, so have I. A black and white picture of a cross father spanking a little boy who is crying on his knees could be described by people as the â€Å"bad old days†. Disciplinary action such as a smack on a child’s bottom is not illegal in Australia and it’s now viewed as â€Å"barbaric†. As a result, children get hurt. Many of the parents are the proponents of corporal punishment as it is quicker to implement, costs nothing and deters unruliness. Nevertheless, psychologists are†¦show more content†¦Especially when parents are frustrated, angry or upset with the child; it can inadvertently lead to them using brute force or in places where it does leave an injury. Do parents what that? Definitely not! In order to prevent our parents from the use of violence against children, smacking should be banned. Moreover, a lot of evidences show that smacking does not only harm children physically, but also links to mental disorders, which it can cause long-term psychological impact on children. I believe every one of you is interested in the psychological impact of physical discipline in the absence of more severe child maltreatment (like physical abuse and emotional abuse). There is a study that looked at the link between physical punishment and mental disorders in more than 20,000 American adults aged 20 and over. Taking into account sociodemographic variables and family history of dysfunction, they found that harsh physical punishment in the absence of child maltreatment is associated with mood disorders and personality disorders in a general population sample. A US study has found that the spanking of three-year-old children by mothers was associated with an increased risk of high levels of aggression. Now the way that it stands, we can’t deceive ourselves anymore, which time and time again corporal punishment has devastated the live of young generations and caused untold suffering. And we’veShow MoreRelatedDaily Fantasy Sports : Sports, Money, And A Lack Of Commitment1678 Words   |  7 Pagesmoney are passed around in this game. Recently this backyard game has exploded into a worldwide multi-billion dollar a year industry that closely resembles gambling. Despite this fantasy sports should be allowed to continue, but with some restrictions on money transactions. One reason lawmakers have to ban daily fantasy sports, sites like DraftKings and FanDuels have taken the idea of fantasy sport and have capitalized on them to the point of excess. 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