I am tired of racism. It is rampant in all forms of society. Even here, in Canada, where racial bias supposedly does not exist. It is mostly hidden, existing almost exclusively in the minds of a few ignorant. Recently, however, I was victimized so blatantly that I had no choice to become enraged.
Racism is nothing new to me. In the span of my entire life, I have been subjected to various forms of this discrimination. An Indian child, growing up in a predominantly Arab community, my daily life was plagued with the disease. Being kicked off soccer fields that my friends and I were first to start playing on, just to allow Arab children playing time was commonplace. Snide remarks by hosts in restaurants about "dirty Hindus" was the norm. It was almost as if contempt for Indians was expected of Arabs. Children are taught from their early years to exemplify these traits exhibited by their parents and relatives. Even policemen, who are expected to be the epitome of indiscrimination, are not exempted of the prejudice. If a local is responsible for a car accident, a few words in Arabic to a policeman is all that is required for the blame to be passed on to the expatriate. It is not feasible that an Arab could be remotely responsible for so minor an incident. I was constantly in shame of having the brown skin colour, trying hard to lose the pigmentation I had been cursed with since birth. Numerous tubes of "whitening creams" and gallons of sunscreen later, I was treated no different. I was ashamed of being Indian.
One would expect my fellow Indians to be more sympathetic towards me. Yet once again, I was an outcast. My less than perfect Malayalam caused me to be labeled...
Sunday, July 17, 2011
society
The process of socialisation, the role of the family, kinship, gender, rites of passage and changing rights and responsibilities in the development of the self."
Many of the successes and failures that people experience in areas of life are closely related to the process of socialisation in developing self-identity and satisfying personal needs.
It is learned
It is organized
It is dynamic
In regard to meeting personal needs, Maslow, a psychologist of the describes a hierarchy of needs which is often depicted as a pyramid consisting of five levels. The four lower levels are associated with fulfilling physiological requirements, the need to feel secure and safe, meeting emotional and esteem needs.
The top level is termed self-actualization, which is based on satisfying psychological needs, which are continually shaping our behaviour. In Maslow's theory the basic concept is that the higher needs in this hierarchy only come into focus once all the needs that are lower down in the pyramid are entirely satisfied.
The role of family, kinship, gender, rites of passage and changing rights and responsibilities influence this process and affect the ways that individuals learn to view themselves and their relationships to others. They are extremely significant influences among all social groups and their attributes are universal, common to all social and cultural groups. Despite the huge diversity that exists between many cultures, such as Aboriginal, Italian and middle and upper class Australians that make them unique, there are some features that are similar and common to all.
Within Aboriginal cultures, such as depicted in Yolngu Boy, their community has a complex kinship system which determines all behaviour among its members. This structure is complex, specific and predetermined. These experiences significantly shape, impact on and determine the form and context of an individual's development and the process of forming self identity and self actualising or lack there of Aboriginal extended families will co-operate to raise children with a strong sense of ethnicity and culture. (Betty Kiekebosch, 2006). In Yolngu Boy we see how this extended family support each other, in their treatment and handling of each other and with decisions that are made
Gender is also significant in Aboriginal culture in determining what land is sacred and holy to an individual and consequently impacts on the development of self identity. In Western culture gender also has major influences as it portrays the definition of femininity or masculinity and manipulates many aspects of daily life and self-image, including what you wear, how people treat you and what behaviour is expected and acceptable.
In Yolngu Boy, as children, Lorrpu and Botj, have basically the same existence. However, as the boys grow older their developing paths diverge as the need to feel secure, loved and belonging within their family and kinship intensifies and becomes evident. Lorrpu lives within a safe environment away from violence, delinquency, and aggression. He has the moral support and security of his family, extended kin and unique culture that provides meaning to the context and nature of his experiences. Consequently Lorrpu is able to advance to a higher level on Maslow's pyramid.
By contrast, Botj lives in a less secure environment as a result of domestic violence, incurring psychological and physical abuse from his father. He has no sense of being secure, loved or having a sense of belonging within his family or culture and is unable to progress any further in the self actualising process as defined by Maslow. In Australia Aboriginal women and children are more than 45 times more likely than other Australians to be victims of domestic violence.
The contrast between the two characters of Botj and Lorrpu becomes even more exaggerated when Botj returns from jail and is denied rites of passage in the process of initiation, unlike his peers who progress to the next step of adolescence, to become Yolngu men. His life lacks meaning and he feels so dislocated that he commits suicide. Similarly in Looking for Alibrandi John Barton is so overwhelmed by his family's expectations and the fear of disappointing them that he is pushed to the brink and commits suicide.
Similar to the Aboriginal culture in Yolngu Boy, the Italian context of Looking for Alibrandi has a strong impact on Josie's development through adolescence and into adulthood. As in the Aboriginal kinship system of Yolngu Boy, the large, extended Italian family in Looking for Alibrandi has a very strong core that maintains traditions, such as the tomato festival. This culture, enriched by tradition, provides the strong Italian bond of community and kinship for Josie. This Italian cultural influence and pride, however, alienates Josie and Christine because they are "cursed." This is brought on by the fact that Christina is a single parent.
This strong Italian identity provides security, similar to Lorrpu's, and allows Josie to easily satisfy the early stages of safety and emotional needs defined in Maslow's hierarchy. However, she still has not achieved the love and belonging stage according to Maslow's hierarchy. This is a consequence of the lack of any relationship that is denied by her father. As the film progresses Josie's father gains her trust and she learns to love and respect him. This attribute finally allows Josie to begin the self-actualization stage. Similarly Lorrpu is able to commence this process as he respects and understands that Botj and Milika no longer wish to continue the childhood dream "that we would become great hunters, become men together" as he does. .
Through a constant process of exposure to values and beliefs, my self-identity continues to be moulded. As a child I always accepted and respected what was told to me by my elders especially parents and family members. As I advance through my adolescence I am now in a position to make and develop my own opinion on issues and have the ability to question things that I may have previously accepted. My social and cultural literacy continues to grow as I discover who I truly am and consciously decide how I wish to portray myself as a person. I am able to progress to satisfying the third layer of human needs which is social interaction. This involves developing emotionally-based relationships in general, such as friendship, sexual intimacy, and I become less dependent on family.
One of the major rites of passage that I experienced and shaped who I am today is when I moved away from my family and boarded with a number of diverse families in Darwin.
Within one of these households I stayed in I was surprised by the lack of family interaction as compared to my family who were nearly always together or even physically near each other even while at school, which is where my parents both worked.
As their father worked as a barrister from dawn till late in the night, the children would often go for days on end without communicating with their father. Once he went away on business and the children did not even realise this until four days later. Their idea of family time was on Saturday, their father would take them out for lunch and go shopping. I found this to be really strange even though they considered their family to have a strong bond.
I often thought that my friend was very lucky to have so few responsibilities as compared to my family where these responsibilities changed and increased according to our age. In addition to this we were able to more readily gain the trust of our parents and were consequently given greater freedom and liberty in regard to outings and curfews.
My friend's upbringing is mirrored in her self-identity. To her appearance is vital, and she is exceptionally judgmental, in terms of stereotyping larger people. This value comes directly from her mother. Like her father who is very determined, my friend is also a strong willed, and one never to admit that she is wrong. She is quiet shy and rarely steps out of her comfort zone and is still very mothered making her dependant on others to complete simple tasks.
Up until this time I had not been exposed to the material life of the city, where females spent hours getting ready to go out, or acted out of character to be accepted within a social group. Within that first year away, I behaved how I thought girls my age were meant to act. I became much of a girly girl, one who would gossip about others and continually use the phrase "oh my god."
Technology also had not been a major aspect of my life as I was an average sporty tom boy, who would be outside kicking a football or mucking around rather than playing computer games. The SMS and MSN culture of communication was another daily aspect of modern adolescent lives that was alien to me.
In Yolngu Boy, Milika is also being exposed to modern day technology. He is seen to be carrying a personal Discman on the journey towards Darwin, in which the aboriginal band Yothu Yindi is playing. This music is an example of the acculturation process between traditional aboriginal and westernised culture. From this Milika has accepted the identity that modern aboriginal culture provides.
Another major rite of passage has recently occurred in my life which was moving interstate. This required me to leave my comfort zone including, my school, netball club and friendship group, in all of which I had gained respect and self-esteem. I needed to find new social groups to belong to in an environment where everybody had already gained respect and esteem and were further advanced on Maslow's self-actualization scale. I still feel that the self that I project and how others perceive me is not the self that I believe myself to be.
Humans have a need to be respected, to self-respect and to respect others. Every individual climbs Maslow's hierarchy at their own pace according to their own experiences and personality. People need to engage themselves in order to gain recognition and have an activity or activities that give the person a sense of contribution and self-value, be it in a profession or hobby. Every social being strives for this contentment in order to feel satisfied and happy. Imbalances at this level can result in low self-esteem, inferiority complexes and a lack of fulfilment.
Many of the successes and failures that people experience in areas of life are closely related to the process of socialisation in developing self-identity and satisfying personal needs.
<a href="http://ad.doubleclick.net/jump/bookrags.oao/products/students;s1=products;s2=students;section=index;url=products_students;kw=;topic=essays-2006/6/21/0010/61271;title=;test=;bkr=ad;pos=1;expand=0;dcopt=;sz=300x250;tile=3;ord=1569098513?" target="_blank"> <img src="http://ad.doubleclick.net/ad/bookrags.oao/products/students;s1=products;s2=students;section=index;url=products_students;kw=;topic=essays-2006/6/21/0010/61271;title=;test=;bkr=ad;pos=1;expand=0;dcopt=;sz=300x250;tile=3;ord=1569098513?" width="300" height="250" border="0" alt=""></a>
Self-identity has at least three major qualities. 
<a href="http://ad.doubleclick.net/jump/bookrags.oao/products/students;s1=products;s2=students;section=index;url=products_students;kw=;topic=essays-2006/6/21/0010/61271;title=;test=;bkr=ad;pos=1;expand=0;dcopt=;sz=300x250;tile=3;ord=1569098513?" target="_blank"> <img src="http://ad.doubleclick.net/ad/bookrags.oao/products/students;s1=products;s2=students;section=index;url=products_students;kw=;topic=essays-2006/6/21/0010/61271;title=;test=;bkr=ad;pos=1;expand=0;dcopt=;sz=300x250;tile=3;ord=1569098513?" width="300" height="250" border="0" alt=""></a> It is learned
It is organized
It is dynamic
In regard to meeting personal needs, Maslow, a psychologist of the describes a hierarchy of needs which is often depicted as a pyramid consisting of five levels. The four lower levels are associated with fulfilling physiological requirements, the need to feel secure and safe, meeting emotional and esteem needs.
The top level is termed self-actualization, which is based on satisfying psychological needs, which are continually shaping our behaviour. In Maslow's theory the basic concept is that the higher needs in this hierarchy only come into focus once all the needs that are lower down in the pyramid are entirely satisfied.
The role of family, kinship, gender, rites of passage and changing rights and responsibilities influence this process and affect the ways that individuals learn to view themselves and their relationships to others. They are extremely significant influences among all social groups and their attributes are universal, common to all social and cultural groups. Despite the huge diversity that exists between many cultures, such as Aboriginal, Italian and middle and upper class Australians that make them unique, there are some features that are similar and common to all.
Within Aboriginal cultures, such as depicted in Yolngu Boy, their community has a complex kinship system which determines all behaviour among its members. This structure is complex, specific and predetermined. These experiences significantly shape, impact on and determine the form and context of an individual's development and the process of forming self identity and self actualising or lack there of Aboriginal extended families will co-operate to raise children with a strong sense of ethnicity and culture. (Betty Kiekebosch, 2006). In Yolngu Boy we see how this extended family support each other, in their treatment and handling of each other and with decisions that are made
Gender is also significant in Aboriginal culture in determining what land is sacred and holy to an individual and consequently impacts on the development of self identity. In Western culture gender also has major influences as it portrays the definition of femininity or masculinity and manipulates many aspects of daily life and self-image, including what you wear, how people treat you and what behaviour is expected and acceptable.
In Yolngu Boy, as children, Lorrpu and Botj, have basically the same existence. However, as the boys grow older their developing paths diverge as the need to feel secure, loved and belonging within their family and kinship intensifies and becomes evident. Lorrpu lives within a safe environment away from violence, delinquency, and aggression. He has the moral support and security of his family, extended kin and unique culture that provides meaning to the context and nature of his experiences. Consequently Lorrpu is able to advance to a higher level on Maslow's pyramid.
By contrast, Botj lives in a less secure environment as a result of domestic violence, incurring psychological and physical abuse from his father. He has no sense of being secure, loved or having a sense of belonging within his family or culture and is unable to progress any further in the self actualising process as defined by Maslow. In Australia Aboriginal women and children are more than 45 times more likely than other Australians to be victims of domestic violence.
The contrast between the two characters of Botj and Lorrpu becomes even more exaggerated when Botj returns from jail and is denied rites of passage in the process of initiation, unlike his peers who progress to the next step of adolescence, to become Yolngu men. His life lacks meaning and he feels so dislocated that he commits suicide. Similarly in Looking for Alibrandi John Barton is so overwhelmed by his family's expectations and the fear of disappointing them that he is pushed to the brink and commits suicide.
Similar to the Aboriginal culture in Yolngu Boy, the Italian context of Looking for Alibrandi has a strong impact on Josie's development through adolescence and into adulthood. As in the Aboriginal kinship system of Yolngu Boy, the large, extended Italian family in Looking for Alibrandi has a very strong core that maintains traditions, such as the tomato festival. This culture, enriched by tradition, provides the strong Italian bond of community and kinship for Josie. This Italian cultural influence and pride, however, alienates Josie and Christine because they are "cursed." This is brought on by the fact that Christina is a single parent.
This strong Italian identity provides security, similar to Lorrpu's, and allows Josie to easily satisfy the early stages of safety and emotional needs defined in Maslow's hierarchy. However, she still has not achieved the love and belonging stage according to Maslow's hierarchy. This is a consequence of the lack of any relationship that is denied by her father. As the film progresses Josie's father gains her trust and she learns to love and respect him. This attribute finally allows Josie to begin the self-actualization stage. Similarly Lorrpu is able to commence this process as he respects and understands that Botj and Milika no longer wish to continue the childhood dream "that we would become great hunters, become men together" as he does. .
Through a constant process of exposure to values and beliefs, my self-identity continues to be moulded. As a child I always accepted and respected what was told to me by my elders especially parents and family members. As I advance through my adolescence I am now in a position to make and develop my own opinion on issues and have the ability to question things that I may have previously accepted. My social and cultural literacy continues to grow as I discover who I truly am and consciously decide how I wish to portray myself as a person. I am able to progress to satisfying the third layer of human needs which is social interaction. This involves developing emotionally-based relationships in general, such as friendship, sexual intimacy, and I become less dependent on family.
One of the major rites of passage that I experienced and shaped who I am today is when I moved away from my family and boarded with a number of diverse families in Darwin.
Within one of these households I stayed in I was surprised by the lack of family interaction as compared to my family who were nearly always together or even physically near each other even while at school, which is where my parents both worked.
As their father worked as a barrister from dawn till late in the night, the children would often go for days on end without communicating with their father. Once he went away on business and the children did not even realise this until four days later. Their idea of family time was on Saturday, their father would take them out for lunch and go shopping. I found this to be really strange even though they considered their family to have a strong bond.
I often thought that my friend was very lucky to have so few responsibilities as compared to my family where these responsibilities changed and increased according to our age. In addition to this we were able to more readily gain the trust of our parents and were consequently given greater freedom and liberty in regard to outings and curfews.
My friend's upbringing is mirrored in her self-identity. To her appearance is vital, and she is exceptionally judgmental, in terms of stereotyping larger people. This value comes directly from her mother. Like her father who is very determined, my friend is also a strong willed, and one never to admit that she is wrong. She is quiet shy and rarely steps out of her comfort zone and is still very mothered making her dependant on others to complete simple tasks.
Up until this time I had not been exposed to the material life of the city, where females spent hours getting ready to go out, or acted out of character to be accepted within a social group. Within that first year away, I behaved how I thought girls my age were meant to act. I became much of a girly girl, one who would gossip about others and continually use the phrase "oh my god."
Technology also had not been a major aspect of my life as I was an average sporty tom boy, who would be outside kicking a football or mucking around rather than playing computer games. The SMS and MSN culture of communication was another daily aspect of modern adolescent lives that was alien to me.
In Yolngu Boy, Milika is also being exposed to modern day technology. He is seen to be carrying a personal Discman on the journey towards Darwin, in which the aboriginal band Yothu Yindi is playing. This music is an example of the acculturation process between traditional aboriginal and westernised culture. From this Milika has accepted the identity that modern aboriginal culture provides.
Another major rite of passage has recently occurred in my life which was moving interstate. This required me to leave my comfort zone including, my school, netball club and friendship group, in all of which I had gained respect and self-esteem. I needed to find new social groups to belong to in an environment where everybody had already gained respect and esteem and were further advanced on Maslow's self-actualization scale. I still feel that the self that I project and how others perceive me is not the self that I believe myself to be.
Humans have a need to be respected, to self-respect and to respect others. Every individual climbs Maslow's hierarchy at their own pace according to their own experiences and personality. People need to engage themselves in order to gain recognition and have an activity or activities that give the person a sense of contribution and self-value, be it in a profession or hobby. Every social being strives for this contentment in order to feel satisfied and happy. Imbalances at this level can result in low self-esteem, inferiority complexes and a lack of fulfilment.
education
Education serves as protection against different forces. In a democratic society enlightenment is the question of life of separate people and the entire society. Understanding this issue causes the development of the movement for public learning. Essay on education may be written on the following topics: education in the USA, in Europe (Great Britain, France, Germany), in Japan, Korea or China, the system of school, college or higher education.
Essays on education may include information on school or special education, for example, scientific, music, technical, etc. Special and professional knowledge can be reviewed as education in its full sense only if it is connected with common education. Enlightenment aims, as well as the level of knowledge required, can be various depending on the culture, national peculiarities, geographical or social environment. Purposes of learning can be changed throughout history (noble, bourgeois, utilitarian, political, public education etc.).
Enlightenment is a spiritual image of a person that is created under the influence of moral and spiritual values which compose the essence of his cultural circle. It is a process of upbringing, self-education and impact; in other words, it is a process of personality formation. Moreover, the main aspect is not the knowledge gained, but its connection to personal qualities, the ability to use the knowledge for the good.
Education always has formal side, or spiritual activity or ability, as well as material one, or the essence of learning. The concept “education” that is used today gained its meaning at the end of the 18th century. It denotes general spiritual process of personality formation that is opposite to upbringing strategy of other researchers.
All essays on education should include statistics and data on the number of educational institutions, number of students who study in public or private colleges. Do not forget to compose a thesis statement that can be written in a form of a question. You should write down several important arguments connected with your thesis statement. Each essay on education should be organized according to a citation style specified by your professor. Besides, try to choose the easiest topic to write your paper so that the writing process becomes an interesting activity for you.
Essays on education may include information on school or special education, for example, scientific, music, technical, etc. Special and professional knowledge can be reviewed as education in its full sense only if it is connected with common education. Enlightenment aims, as well as the level of knowledge required, can be various depending on the culture, national peculiarities, geographical or social environment. Purposes of learning can be changed throughout history (noble, bourgeois, utilitarian, political, public education etc.).
Enlightenment is a spiritual image of a person that is created under the influence of moral and spiritual values which compose the essence of his cultural circle. It is a process of upbringing, self-education and impact; in other words, it is a process of personality formation. Moreover, the main aspect is not the knowledge gained, but its connection to personal qualities, the ability to use the knowledge for the good.
Education always has formal side, or spiritual activity or ability, as well as material one, or the essence of learning. The concept “education” that is used today gained its meaning at the end of the 18th century. It denotes general spiritual process of personality formation that is opposite to upbringing strategy of other researchers.
All essays on education should include statistics and data on the number of educational institutions, number of students who study in public or private colleges. Do not forget to compose a thesis statement that can be written in a form of a question. You should write down several important arguments connected with your thesis statement. Each essay on education should be organized according to a citation style specified by your professor. Besides, try to choose the easiest topic to write your paper so that the writing process becomes an interesting activity for you.
society
Humans have a need to be respected, to self-respect and to respect others. Every individual climbs Maslow's hierarchy at their own pace according to their own experiences and personality.
"The process of socialisation, the role of the family, kinship, gender, rites of passage and changing rights and responsibilities in the development of the self."
Many of the successes and failures that people experience in areas of life are closely related to the process of socialisation in developing self-identity and satisfying personal needs.
It is learned
It is organized
It is dynamic
In regard to meeting personal needs, Maslow, a psychologist of the describes a hierarchy of needs which is often depicted as a pyramid consisting of five levels. The four lower levels are associated with fulfilling physiological requirements, the need to feel secure and safe, meeting emotional and esteem needs.
The top level is termed self-actualization, which is based on satisfying psychological needs, which are continually shaping our behaviour. In Maslow's theory the basic concept is that the higher needs in this hierarchy only come into focus once all the needs that are lower down in the pyramid are entirely satisfied.
The role of family, kinship, gender, rites of passage and changing rights and responsibilities influence this process and affect the ways that individuals learn to view themselves and their relationships to others. They are extremely significant influences among all social groups and their attributes are universal, common to all social and cultural groups. Despite the huge diversity that exists between many cultures, such as Aboriginal, Italian and middle and upper class Australians that make them unique, there are some features that are similar and common to all.
Within Aboriginal cultures, such as depicted in Yolngu Boy, their community has a complex kinship system which determines all behaviour among its members. This structure is complex, specific and predetermined. These experiences significantly shape, impact on and determine the form and context of an individual's development and the process of forming self identity and self actualising or lack there of Aboriginal extended families will co-operate to raise children with a strong sense of ethnicity and culture. (Betty Kiekebosch, 2006). In Yolngu Boy we see how this extended family support each other, in their treatment and handling of each other and with decisions that are made
Gender is also significant in Aboriginal culture in determining what land is sacred and holy to an individual and consequently impacts on the development of self identity. In Western culture gender also has major influences as it portrays the definition of femininity or masculinity and manipulates many aspects of daily life and self-image, including what you wear, how people treat you and what behaviour is expected and acceptable.
In Yolngu Boy, as children, Lorrpu and Botj, have basically the same existence. However, as the boys grow older their developing paths diverge as the need to feel secure, loved and belonging within their family and kinship intensifies and becomes evident. Lorrpu lives within a safe environment away from violence, delinquency, and aggression. He has the moral support and security of his family, extended kin and unique culture that provides meaning to the context and nature of his experiences. Consequently Lorrpu is able to advance to a higher level on Maslow's pyramid.
By contrast, Botj lives in a less secure environment as a result of domestic violence, incurring psychological and physical abuse from his father. He has no sense of being secure, loved or having a sense of belonging within his family or culture and is unable to progress any further in the self actualising process as defined by Maslow. In Australia Aboriginal women and children are more than 45 times more likely than other Australians to be victims of domestic violence.
The contrast between the two characters of Botj and Lorrpu becomes even more exaggerated when Botj returns from jail and is denied rites of passage in the process of initiation, unlike his peers who progress to the next step of adolescence, to become Yolngu men. His life lacks meaning and he feels so dislocated that he commits suicide. Similarly in Looking for Alibrandi John Barton is so overwhelmed by his family's expectations and the fear of disappointing them that he is pushed to the brink and commits suicide.
Similar to the Aboriginal culture in Yolngu Boy, the Italian context of Looking for Alibrandi has a strong impact on Josie's development through adolescence and into adulthood. As in the Aboriginal kinship system of Yolngu Boy, the large, extended Italian family in Looking for Alibrandi has a very strong core that maintains traditions, such as the tomato festival. This culture, enriched by tradition, provides the strong Italian bond of community and kinship for Josie. This Italian cultural influence and pride, however, alienates Josie and Christine because they are "cursed." This is brought on by the fact that Christina is a single parent.
This strong Italian identity provides security, similar to Lorrpu's, and allows Josie to easily satisfy the early stages of safety and emotional needs defined in Maslow's hierarchy. However, she still has not achieved the love and belonging stage according to Maslow's hierarchy. This is a consequence of the lack of any relationship that is denied by her father. As the film progresses Josie's father gains her trust and she learns to love and respect him. This attribute finally allows Josie to begin the self-actualization stage. Similarly Lorrpu is able to commence this process as he respects and understands that Botj and Milika no longer wish to continue the childhood dream "that we would become great hunters, become men together" as he does. .
Through a constant process of exposure to values and beliefs, my self-identity continues to be moulded. As a child I always accepted and respected what was told to me by my elders especially parents and family members. As I advance through my adolescence I am now in a position to make and develop my own opinion on issues and have the ability to question things that I may have previously accepted. My social and cultural literacy continues to grow as I discover who I truly am and consciously decide how I wish to portray myself as a person. I am able to progress to satisfying the third layer of human needs which is social interaction. This involves developing emotionally-based relationships in general, such as friendship, sexual intimacy, and I become less dependent on family.
One of the major rites of passage that I experienced and shaped who I am today is when I moved away from my family and boarded with a number of diverse families in Darwin.
Within one of these households I stayed in I was surprised by the lack of family interaction as compared to my family who were nearly always together or even physically near each other even while at school, which is where my parents both worked.
As their father worked as a barrister from dawn till late in the night, the children would often go for days on end without communicating with their father. Once he went away on business and the children did not even realise this until four days later. Their idea of family time was on Saturday, their father would take them out for lunch and go shopping. I found this to be really strange even though they considered their family to have a strong bond.
I often thought that my friend was very lucky to have so few responsibilities as compared to my family where these responsibilities changed and increased according to our age. In addition to this we were able to more readily gain the trust of our parents and were consequently given greater freedom and liberty in regard to outings and curfews.
My friend's upbringing is mirrored in her self-identity. To her appearance is vital, and she is exceptionally judgmental, in terms of stereotyping larger people. This value comes directly from her mother. Like her father who is very determined, my friend is also a strong willed, and one never to admit that she is wrong. She is quiet shy and rarely steps out of her comfort zone and is still very mothered making her dependant on others to complete simple tasks.
Up until this time I had not been exposed to the material life of the city, where females spent hours getting ready to go out, or acted out of character to be accepted within a social group. Within that first year away, I behaved how I thought girls my age were meant to act. I became much of a girly girl, one who would gossip about others and continually use the phrase "oh my god."
Technology also had not been a major aspect of my life as I was an average sporty tom boy, who would be outside kicking a football or mucking around rather than playing computer games. The SMS and MSN culture of communication was another daily aspect of modern adolescent lives that was alien to me.
In Yolngu Boy, Milika is also being exposed to modern day technology. He is seen to be carrying a personal Discman on the journey towards Darwin, in which the aboriginal band Yothu Yindi is playing. This music is an example of the acculturation process between traditional aboriginal and westernised culture. From this Milika has accepted the identity that modern aboriginal culture provides.
Another major rite of passage has recently occurred in my life which was moving interstate. This required me to leave my comfort zone including, my school, netball club and friendship group, in all of which I had gained respect and self-esteem. I needed to find new social groups to belong to in an environment where everybody had already gained respect and esteem and were further advanced on Maslow's self-actualization scale. I still feel that the self that I project and how others perceive me is not the self that I believe myself to be.
Humans have a need to be respected, to self-respect and to respect others. Every individual climbs Maslow's hierarchy at their own pace according to their own experiences and personality. People need to engage themselves in order to gain recognition and have an activity or activities that give the person a sense of contribution and self-value, be it in a profession or hobby. Every social being strives for this contentment in order to feel satisfied and happy. Imbalances at this level can result in low self-esteem, inferiority complexes and a lack of fulfilment.
"The process of socialisation, the role of the family, kinship, gender, rites of passage and changing rights and responsibilities in the development of the self."
Many of the successes and failures that people experience in areas of life are closely related to the process of socialisation in developing self-identity and satisfying personal needs.
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Self-identity has at least three major qualities. It is learned
It is organized
It is dynamic
In regard to meeting personal needs, Maslow, a psychologist of the describes a hierarchy of needs which is often depicted as a pyramid consisting of five levels. The four lower levels are associated with fulfilling physiological requirements, the need to feel secure and safe, meeting emotional and esteem needs.
The top level is termed self-actualization, which is based on satisfying psychological needs, which are continually shaping our behaviour. In Maslow's theory the basic concept is that the higher needs in this hierarchy only come into focus once all the needs that are lower down in the pyramid are entirely satisfied.
The role of family, kinship, gender, rites of passage and changing rights and responsibilities influence this process and affect the ways that individuals learn to view themselves and their relationships to others. They are extremely significant influences among all social groups and their attributes are universal, common to all social and cultural groups. Despite the huge diversity that exists between many cultures, such as Aboriginal, Italian and middle and upper class Australians that make them unique, there are some features that are similar and common to all.
Within Aboriginal cultures, such as depicted in Yolngu Boy, their community has a complex kinship system which determines all behaviour among its members. This structure is complex, specific and predetermined. These experiences significantly shape, impact on and determine the form and context of an individual's development and the process of forming self identity and self actualising or lack there of Aboriginal extended families will co-operate to raise children with a strong sense of ethnicity and culture. (Betty Kiekebosch, 2006). In Yolngu Boy we see how this extended family support each other, in their treatment and handling of each other and with decisions that are made
Gender is also significant in Aboriginal culture in determining what land is sacred and holy to an individual and consequently impacts on the development of self identity. In Western culture gender also has major influences as it portrays the definition of femininity or masculinity and manipulates many aspects of daily life and self-image, including what you wear, how people treat you and what behaviour is expected and acceptable.
In Yolngu Boy, as children, Lorrpu and Botj, have basically the same existence. However, as the boys grow older their developing paths diverge as the need to feel secure, loved and belonging within their family and kinship intensifies and becomes evident. Lorrpu lives within a safe environment away from violence, delinquency, and aggression. He has the moral support and security of his family, extended kin and unique culture that provides meaning to the context and nature of his experiences. Consequently Lorrpu is able to advance to a higher level on Maslow's pyramid.
By contrast, Botj lives in a less secure environment as a result of domestic violence, incurring psychological and physical abuse from his father. He has no sense of being secure, loved or having a sense of belonging within his family or culture and is unable to progress any further in the self actualising process as defined by Maslow. In Australia Aboriginal women and children are more than 45 times more likely than other Australians to be victims of domestic violence.
The contrast between the two characters of Botj and Lorrpu becomes even more exaggerated when Botj returns from jail and is denied rites of passage in the process of initiation, unlike his peers who progress to the next step of adolescence, to become Yolngu men. His life lacks meaning and he feels so dislocated that he commits suicide. Similarly in Looking for Alibrandi John Barton is so overwhelmed by his family's expectations and the fear of disappointing them that he is pushed to the brink and commits suicide.
Similar to the Aboriginal culture in Yolngu Boy, the Italian context of Looking for Alibrandi has a strong impact on Josie's development through adolescence and into adulthood. As in the Aboriginal kinship system of Yolngu Boy, the large, extended Italian family in Looking for Alibrandi has a very strong core that maintains traditions, such as the tomato festival. This culture, enriched by tradition, provides the strong Italian bond of community and kinship for Josie. This Italian cultural influence and pride, however, alienates Josie and Christine because they are "cursed." This is brought on by the fact that Christina is a single parent.
This strong Italian identity provides security, similar to Lorrpu's, and allows Josie to easily satisfy the early stages of safety and emotional needs defined in Maslow's hierarchy. However, she still has not achieved the love and belonging stage according to Maslow's hierarchy. This is a consequence of the lack of any relationship that is denied by her father. As the film progresses Josie's father gains her trust and she learns to love and respect him. This attribute finally allows Josie to begin the self-actualization stage. Similarly Lorrpu is able to commence this process as he respects and understands that Botj and Milika no longer wish to continue the childhood dream "that we would become great hunters, become men together" as he does. .
Through a constant process of exposure to values and beliefs, my self-identity continues to be moulded. As a child I always accepted and respected what was told to me by my elders especially parents and family members. As I advance through my adolescence I am now in a position to make and develop my own opinion on issues and have the ability to question things that I may have previously accepted. My social and cultural literacy continues to grow as I discover who I truly am and consciously decide how I wish to portray myself as a person. I am able to progress to satisfying the third layer of human needs which is social interaction. This involves developing emotionally-based relationships in general, such as friendship, sexual intimacy, and I become less dependent on family.
One of the major rites of passage that I experienced and shaped who I am today is when I moved away from my family and boarded with a number of diverse families in Darwin.
Within one of these households I stayed in I was surprised by the lack of family interaction as compared to my family who were nearly always together or even physically near each other even while at school, which is where my parents both worked.
As their father worked as a barrister from dawn till late in the night, the children would often go for days on end without communicating with their father. Once he went away on business and the children did not even realise this until four days later. Their idea of family time was on Saturday, their father would take them out for lunch and go shopping. I found this to be really strange even though they considered their family to have a strong bond.
I often thought that my friend was very lucky to have so few responsibilities as compared to my family where these responsibilities changed and increased according to our age. In addition to this we were able to more readily gain the trust of our parents and were consequently given greater freedom and liberty in regard to outings and curfews.
My friend's upbringing is mirrored in her self-identity. To her appearance is vital, and she is exceptionally judgmental, in terms of stereotyping larger people. This value comes directly from her mother. Like her father who is very determined, my friend is also a strong willed, and one never to admit that she is wrong. She is quiet shy and rarely steps out of her comfort zone and is still very mothered making her dependant on others to complete simple tasks.
Up until this time I had not been exposed to the material life of the city, where females spent hours getting ready to go out, or acted out of character to be accepted within a social group. Within that first year away, I behaved how I thought girls my age were meant to act. I became much of a girly girl, one who would gossip about others and continually use the phrase "oh my god."
Technology also had not been a major aspect of my life as I was an average sporty tom boy, who would be outside kicking a football or mucking around rather than playing computer games. The SMS and MSN culture of communication was another daily aspect of modern adolescent lives that was alien to me.
In Yolngu Boy, Milika is also being exposed to modern day technology. He is seen to be carrying a personal Discman on the journey towards Darwin, in which the aboriginal band Yothu Yindi is playing. This music is an example of the acculturation process between traditional aboriginal and westernised culture. From this Milika has accepted the identity that modern aboriginal culture provides.
Another major rite of passage has recently occurred in my life which was moving interstate. This required me to leave my comfort zone including, my school, netball club and friendship group, in all of which I had gained respect and self-esteem. I needed to find new social groups to belong to in an environment where everybody had already gained respect and esteem and were further advanced on Maslow's self-actualization scale. I still feel that the self that I project and how others perceive me is not the self that I believe myself to be.
Humans have a need to be respected, to self-respect and to respect others. Every individual climbs Maslow's hierarchy at their own pace according to their own experiences and personality. People need to engage themselves in order to gain recognition and have an activity or activities that give the person a sense of contribution and self-value, be it in a profession or hobby. Every social being strives for this contentment in order to feel satisfied and happy. Imbalances at this level can result in low self-esteem, inferiority complexes and a lack of fulfilment.
habit
My Good and Bad Habits
A habit can be many things, some good, some not so good. Everyone has habits that they would like to change and maybe improve upon. I believe the majority of habits I have are good ones but some are not. These bad habits are the ones I will talk about.
Smoking is a bad habit that is not only harmful to myself, but also to the people around me, namely my wife and children. They are the ones that receive the most harmful and the most concentrated amounts of smoke. I inhale through a filter, my wife and children do not.
Another of my irritating and potentially harmful habits is my ability to let anger build up inside and redirect it to another source. The main reason that I say that this is potentially harmful is that when a man lets his anger build up over an extended length of time he eventually becomes a bomb, ready to explode at any time. This anger could show up at any time and be redirected toward anything, such as cars, other people, or things in the home.
After the birth of my first child, I had to learn to develop constructive ways to vent anger. One of those ways was to go off alone, count to ten, and think about what it was that made me angry. After I discovered the root of my anger, I often asked myself, "Will it do me or anyone else any good to be angry?", and, "Will being angry do anything to solve the problem", and the answer to both questions was usually no. By the time I had done the walking and thinking, I was usually not angry anymore.
Even in light of these habits I believe the worst habit is my use of foul language. I know that "four letter words" are only a sign of a limited vocabulary but old habits die hard. I believe I have gotten better after my son was born, due to the fact that it seemed he could repeat the "s" word more plainly than he could say "ball" and usually at the most inopportune times. But, as I have gotten better, so has he. That was three years ago and we are still working on this bad habit.
Everyone has habits, myself included. Both good habits and bad habits make up the personality of the human mind. It is up to the individual as to which habits to evolve and which habits to devolve.
A habit can be many things, some good, some not so good. Everyone has habits that they would like to change and maybe improve upon. I believe the majority of habits I have are good ones but some are not. These bad habits are the ones I will talk about.
Smoking is a bad habit that is not only harmful to myself, but also to the people around me, namely my wife and children. They are the ones that receive the most harmful and the most concentrated amounts of smoke. I inhale through a filter, my wife and children do not.
Another of my irritating and potentially harmful habits is my ability to let anger build up inside and redirect it to another source. The main reason that I say that this is potentially harmful is that when a man lets his anger build up over an extended length of time he eventually becomes a bomb, ready to explode at any time. This anger could show up at any time and be redirected toward anything, such as cars, other people, or things in the home.
After the birth of my first child, I had to learn to develop constructive ways to vent anger. One of those ways was to go off alone, count to ten, and think about what it was that made me angry. After I discovered the root of my anger, I often asked myself, "Will it do me or anyone else any good to be angry?", and, "Will being angry do anything to solve the problem", and the answer to both questions was usually no. By the time I had done the walking and thinking, I was usually not angry anymore.
Even in light of these habits I believe the worst habit is my use of foul language. I know that "four letter words" are only a sign of a limited vocabulary but old habits die hard. I believe I have gotten better after my son was born, due to the fact that it seemed he could repeat the "s" word more plainly than he could say "ball" and usually at the most inopportune times. But, as I have gotten better, so has he. That was three years ago and we are still working on this bad habit.
Everyone has habits, myself included. Both good habits and bad habits make up the personality of the human mind. It is up to the individual as to which habits to evolve and which habits to devolve.
culture
Webster defined Culture as "….the act of developing…. the intellectual and moral faculties," especially by education; "expert care and training"; "enlightenment and excellence of taste acquired by intellectual and aesthetic training"; "the total pattern of human behavior embodied in thought, speech, action and artifacts and dependent upon man's capacity for learning and transmitting knowledge to succeeding generations…."
The intensification of research on organizational effectiveness has led to the formulation of theories about factors within an organization that can make a difference in performance. Organizational culture is one such variable that has received much attention in organizational behavior literature. This attention is mainly because researchers have postulated that cultural factors play a key role in determining levels of organizational outcomes. A common hypothesis about this role suggests that if an organization possesses "strong culture" by exhibiting a well integrated and effective set of specific values, beliefs, and behavior patterns, then it will perform at a higher level of productivity. The development of theory to guide the definition of organizational culture, therefore, is of primary importance to improve organization performance, especially because the variables which comprise culture have been postulated to be under the control of organizational leaders.
Organizational culture has been defined as patterns of shared values and beliefs overtime which produce behavioral norms that are adopted in solving problems. Schein (1985) has also noted that culture is a body of solutions to problems which have worked consistently and are therefore taught to new members as a correct way to perceive, think about, and fell in relation to those problems. Infact these shared philosophies, assumptions, values, expectations, attitudes, and norms bind an organization together. Thus the set of integrated concepts becomes the manner of strategies through which an organization achieves its specific goals. It can therefore be postulated that an organization's collective culture influences both the attitudes and subsequent behaviors of its employees, as well as the level of performance the organization achieves.
Schein (1990) has noted that culture is thought to permeate the organization on at least three fundamental levels. At the surface, one may observe visible artifacts of the organization, which is, its structure, technology, rules of conduct, dress codes, records, physical layout, stories, and rituals. Beneath this dimension is a second level, organization values, and finally, underlying assumptions about the nature if organization "reality" that are deeper manifestations of values. Of course investigating process of culture at the later level is more difficult, as they can not be directly observed and measured.
How to Build the Cultural DNA
By Culture building we mean selecting, motivating, rewarding, retaining, and unifying good employees. For too long, our business goals have accentuated hard, quantitative management techniques over supposedly "soft" people skills. Returning to Webster we see that culture derives from "acquaintance with and taste in fine arts, humanities, and broad aspects of science as distinguished from vocational or technical skills." Culture building requires a sharpening of the "soft" people skills and it involves three steps:
• Instilling commitment
• Rewarding competence
• Maintaining consistency
THREE STEPS TO A STRONG, SUCCESSFUL CULTURE
Culture Components Action to be taken
• Commitment Instill commitment to a common philosophy and purpose,
recognizing that employee commitment to a Corporate
Philosophy must go inside with both individual and
collective interests.
• Competence Develop and reward competence in key areas, keeping in
mind that you will foster greater competence by focusing on
one or two key skills at a time rather than by addressing a
host of skills all at once.
• Consistency Consistently perpetuate commitment and competence by
attracting, developing, and keeping the right people.
Assessing an Organization's Culture
Assessing an organization's culture is the first step any executive must take before considering if and how a culture needs to be built, adapted, or changed. Any culture grows up over many years of operation, and you must first analyze it at a molecular level before using the culture to achieve an organization's purposes. Eighty to Ninety percent of all executives find themselves inheriting some kind of culture, whether a carefully nurtured one or one that developed almost haphazardly. Regardless, managing cultures in the new age requires extreme care. Because cultures, like the personalities of individuals, take a long time to develop and a long time to change, in most cases one can achieve better results by using an existing culture, good or bad than by destroying an old culture and building a brand new one. Unlike strategies, cultures can not survive dramatic change every time a new CEO takes over. Organizations, especially those with more than a hundred employees, can't adapt quickly. Attempts to force them to do so inevitably cost a lot of money and take a lot of time. However, some executives find themselves in start-up turnaround situations that require building a brand new culture. Effectively assessing and existing culture not only allows executives to put culture to use but also allows them to adapt and modify culture overtime as the environment and organization evolve.
Building a Culture of Performance
How to match Strategy and Culture
Strategy + Culture = Excellence
Strategy and Culture each contribute to the success of any organization. In the past, we have seen brilliant strategies bring great business success, and we have seen strong cultures survive great upheavals in the market place. Long term success and perennial corporate excellence require alloys of superior strategies and strong cultures.
When executives set about the arduous task of forging an ideal alloy from a brilliant strategy and strong culture, they begin by carefully analyzing two important groups: customers and employees. For strategic thinking aims at getting and keeping customers, culture building attracts, develops, motivates, and unifies the right kind of employees. When the organizations strategy to get in keep customers acquire employees to act and think in unaccustomed ways, employees may respond poorly. On the other hand, no matter how strongly an organizations culture motivates and develops employees, if customers do not perceive better products and services as a result, the culture has been wasted. The intertwined relationship between customers and employees requires watchful management by well trained executives with new age skills. Like paths of a complicated jigsaw puzzle, each piece of an internally consistent strategy must fit snuggly with each piece of an internally consistent culture. A single mismatched piece can destroy the overall picture. We have a strategy-culture matching grid based on nine different combinations of strategy and culture elements.
The nine combinations are as follows:
• Customers/Commitment: An organization's collective commitment to common purpose must coincide the organizations way of satisfying customer needs.
• Competitors/Commitment: Commitment to a common purpose must augment the organizations method for gaining a sustainable advantage over competitors. IBM's employees share a common commitment to superior customer service, the companies primary method of sustaining advantage over competitors.
• Company/Commitment: Commitment to a common purpose must support the company's attempt to capitalize on its strengths.
• Customers/Competence: An organization's competence deliver superior performance must satisfy the customer's needs.
• Competitors/Competence: Competence to deliver superior performance must match the organization's method of gaining a sustainable advantage over competitors. Proctor & gamble has long enjoyed a distinctive competence in product marketing thoroughness. But things have changed of lately, as small and faster moving competitors have taken advantage.
• Company/Competence: Competence to deliver superior performance must agree with the organizations efforts to capitalize on its strengths.
• Customers/Consistency: An organization's consistency perpetuating commitment and competence by attracting and keeping the right people must parallel efforts to get and keep customers. Delta Airlines satisfies its customer needs for superior airline service by consistently treating employees the way it would like customer's treated.
• Competitors/Consistency: Consistency in perpetuating the culture must agree with the organization's methods of gaining advantage over competitors. HP perpetuates its culture by hiring entrepreneurially oriented managers who fit into the company's culture. These same entrepreneurs fuel HP's advantage over competitors by maintaining technological innovation.
• Company/Consistency: Consistently perpetuating the culture must enhance the organization's efforts to capitalize on its strengths.
Evolution in the new age
To successfully maintain strong strategy-culture alloy in a changing environment, one must learn to adapt it carefully, applying versatility to anticipate changes, focus to make sure the adaptation takes hold, and patience to let the process run its natural course.
Focus helps you zero in on critical changes, eliminating all unfocussed activities that can distract you from successful adaptation.
Patience reminds you to take the time to let versatility and focus do their jobs, to live in the long term. Most of all, it conquers the sort of fear that erodes confidence and guarantees failure and future fear, in a never ending destructive cycle.
As we begin to fine tune our strong strategy-culture alloy, evolving it to adapt to a changing environment, we must remember the words of Thomas Watson, junior (former chairman of IBM) "Thomas Watson, senior didn't move in and shake up the organization instead, he set out to buff and polish the people who were already there and to make a success of what he had."
The intensification of research on organizational effectiveness has led to the formulation of theories about factors within an organization that can make a difference in performance. Organizational culture is one such variable that has received much attention in organizational behavior literature. This attention is mainly because researchers have postulated that cultural factors play a key role in determining levels of organizational outcomes. A common hypothesis about this role suggests that if an organization possesses "strong culture" by exhibiting a well integrated and effective set of specific values, beliefs, and behavior patterns, then it will perform at a higher level of productivity. The development of theory to guide the definition of organizational culture, therefore, is of primary importance to improve organization performance, especially because the variables which comprise culture have been postulated to be under the control of organizational leaders.
Organizational culture has been defined as patterns of shared values and beliefs overtime which produce behavioral norms that are adopted in solving problems. Schein (1985) has also noted that culture is a body of solutions to problems which have worked consistently and are therefore taught to new members as a correct way to perceive, think about, and fell in relation to those problems. Infact these shared philosophies, assumptions, values, expectations, attitudes, and norms bind an organization together. Thus the set of integrated concepts becomes the manner of strategies through which an organization achieves its specific goals. It can therefore be postulated that an organization's collective culture influences both the attitudes and subsequent behaviors of its employees, as well as the level of performance the organization achieves.
Schein (1990) has noted that culture is thought to permeate the organization on at least three fundamental levels. At the surface, one may observe visible artifacts of the organization, which is, its structure, technology, rules of conduct, dress codes, records, physical layout, stories, and rituals. Beneath this dimension is a second level, organization values, and finally, underlying assumptions about the nature if organization "reality" that are deeper manifestations of values. Of course investigating process of culture at the later level is more difficult, as they can not be directly observed and measured.
How to Build the Cultural DNA
By Culture building we mean selecting, motivating, rewarding, retaining, and unifying good employees. For too long, our business goals have accentuated hard, quantitative management techniques over supposedly "soft" people skills. Returning to Webster we see that culture derives from "acquaintance with and taste in fine arts, humanities, and broad aspects of science as distinguished from vocational or technical skills." Culture building requires a sharpening of the "soft" people skills and it involves three steps:
• Instilling commitment
• Rewarding competence
• Maintaining consistency
THREE STEPS TO A STRONG, SUCCESSFUL CULTURE
Culture Components Action to be taken
• Commitment Instill commitment to a common philosophy and purpose,
recognizing that employee commitment to a Corporate
Philosophy must go inside with both individual and
collective interests.
• Competence Develop and reward competence in key areas, keeping in
mind that you will foster greater competence by focusing on
one or two key skills at a time rather than by addressing a
host of skills all at once.
• Consistency Consistently perpetuate commitment and competence by
attracting, developing, and keeping the right people.
Assessing an Organization's Culture
Assessing an organization's culture is the first step any executive must take before considering if and how a culture needs to be built, adapted, or changed. Any culture grows up over many years of operation, and you must first analyze it at a molecular level before using the culture to achieve an organization's purposes. Eighty to Ninety percent of all executives find themselves inheriting some kind of culture, whether a carefully nurtured one or one that developed almost haphazardly. Regardless, managing cultures in the new age requires extreme care. Because cultures, like the personalities of individuals, take a long time to develop and a long time to change, in most cases one can achieve better results by using an existing culture, good or bad than by destroying an old culture and building a brand new one. Unlike strategies, cultures can not survive dramatic change every time a new CEO takes over. Organizations, especially those with more than a hundred employees, can't adapt quickly. Attempts to force them to do so inevitably cost a lot of money and take a lot of time. However, some executives find themselves in start-up turnaround situations that require building a brand new culture. Effectively assessing and existing culture not only allows executives to put culture to use but also allows them to adapt and modify culture overtime as the environment and organization evolve.
Building a Culture of Performance
How to match Strategy and Culture
Strategy + Culture = Excellence
Strategy and Culture each contribute to the success of any organization. In the past, we have seen brilliant strategies bring great business success, and we have seen strong cultures survive great upheavals in the market place. Long term success and perennial corporate excellence require alloys of superior strategies and strong cultures.
When executives set about the arduous task of forging an ideal alloy from a brilliant strategy and strong culture, they begin by carefully analyzing two important groups: customers and employees. For strategic thinking aims at getting and keeping customers, culture building attracts, develops, motivates, and unifies the right kind of employees. When the organizations strategy to get in keep customers acquire employees to act and think in unaccustomed ways, employees may respond poorly. On the other hand, no matter how strongly an organizations culture motivates and develops employees, if customers do not perceive better products and services as a result, the culture has been wasted. The intertwined relationship between customers and employees requires watchful management by well trained executives with new age skills. Like paths of a complicated jigsaw puzzle, each piece of an internally consistent strategy must fit snuggly with each piece of an internally consistent culture. A single mismatched piece can destroy the overall picture. We have a strategy-culture matching grid based on nine different combinations of strategy and culture elements.
The nine combinations are as follows:
• Customers/Commitment: An organization's collective commitment to common purpose must coincide the organizations way of satisfying customer needs.
• Competitors/Commitment: Commitment to a common purpose must augment the organizations method for gaining a sustainable advantage over competitors. IBM's employees share a common commitment to superior customer service, the companies primary method of sustaining advantage over competitors.
• Company/Commitment: Commitment to a common purpose must support the company's attempt to capitalize on its strengths.
• Customers/Competence: An organization's competence deliver superior performance must satisfy the customer's needs.
• Competitors/Competence: Competence to deliver superior performance must match the organization's method of gaining a sustainable advantage over competitors. Proctor & gamble has long enjoyed a distinctive competence in product marketing thoroughness. But things have changed of lately, as small and faster moving competitors have taken advantage.
• Company/Competence: Competence to deliver superior performance must agree with the organizations efforts to capitalize on its strengths.
• Customers/Consistency: An organization's consistency perpetuating commitment and competence by attracting and keeping the right people must parallel efforts to get and keep customers. Delta Airlines satisfies its customer needs for superior airline service by consistently treating employees the way it would like customer's treated.
• Competitors/Consistency: Consistency in perpetuating the culture must agree with the organization's methods of gaining advantage over competitors. HP perpetuates its culture by hiring entrepreneurially oriented managers who fit into the company's culture. These same entrepreneurs fuel HP's advantage over competitors by maintaining technological innovation.
• Company/Consistency: Consistently perpetuating the culture must enhance the organization's efforts to capitalize on its strengths.
Evolution in the new age
To successfully maintain strong strategy-culture alloy in a changing environment, one must learn to adapt it carefully, applying versatility to anticipate changes, focus to make sure the adaptation takes hold, and patience to let the process run its natural course.
Focus helps you zero in on critical changes, eliminating all unfocussed activities that can distract you from successful adaptation.
Patience reminds you to take the time to let versatility and focus do their jobs, to live in the long term. Most of all, it conquers the sort of fear that erodes confidence and guarantees failure and future fear, in a never ending destructive cycle.
As we begin to fine tune our strong strategy-culture alloy, evolving it to adapt to a changing environment, we must remember the words of Thomas Watson, junior (former chairman of IBM) "Thomas Watson, senior didn't move in and shake up the organization instead, he set out to buff and polish the people who were already there and to make a success of what he had."
caste
There are different theories about the establishment of Caste system. There are religious, mystical, biological and socio-historical theories about the Caste system. The word “caste” is derived from a Portuguese word “casta” which means “bread” or “lineage” (Encarta).
A Class vs. a Caste System In any country’s history, a high stage of social development is reached only when the main social divisions are formed. “The caste system penetrates the Hindu society to a level unknown elsewhere. It plays some part in other civilizations but in India it has invaded the whole. It is in this sense that we may speak of the caste system as a phenomenon peculiar to India” (Pocock 27). The class system of the United States and the caste system of India share common characteristics but, at the same time, they different in many ways. A caste system rigidly restricted occupationally, socially, members may not marry outside the caste. Caste system devalues and discriminates people according to their genetic and/or social background. There are said to be four major traits typical of caste systems. Included are the following: membership into the caste is hereditary; marriage within the caste is mandatory; mobility is nearly impossible; occupation is strongly related to caste (Hurst, 1998). Conversely, a class system is a society based upon different groups. These groups are composed of people whose strata’s are often related to occupational or property divisions. They are composed of a set of consistent and stable patterns that persist through time. In the United States it is based upon a classification of individuals who are grouped into power levels which “represent the structural inequality in the allocation of rewards, privileges, and resources.” These levels are often referred to as the “upper,” “middle.” And “lower” classes. They largely determine life chances in relating directly to the incomes and educational composition of each individual class (Davis 65-72). One of the strongest and most complex examples of the caste system can be found in Hindu India, where a hierarchy of thousands of distinct castes reflect religious practice, occupation, locale, culture status, or tribal affiliation. In addition, their society is divided into four social classes: -the Brahmans, priests and scholars; Kshatriyas, the military and rulers; Vaisyas, farmers and merchants; and Sudras, peasants and laborers. Below the Sudras were the untouchables, who performed the most menial tasks. The Untouchables are often regarded as the “polluters” include peoples whose occupations are those such as hairdressers, janitors, tanners, butchers, and undertakers. They were given this title because they make contact with such “pollutants” as blood, dirt, dung, hair, leather, menstrual flow, saliva etc. Popularly known in the past as “pariahs”, the politically correct terms now used are Dalits (“the oppressed”) and/or Harijans (“Children of God”), a term introduced by Mahatma Gandhi. Although caste segregation is officially illegal, it is very prevalent in India (Singh 9-19). An open system is a society in which people can change their economic, prestigious and power status easily. In contrast, a closed system is society in which people face great difficulty in changing these statuses. One should keep in mind that no society is completely open or closed, in fact, all societies have at least one or more characteristics of both closed and open systems.
The United States is a good example of a relatively open system. This is because the US is founded upon the assumption that each person is given the equal opportunity to achieve that maximum level of success at the highest level of the class system. America is based on the belief that this achievement can be reached through competence, contribution to the community and society and through diligence and hard work. Unfortunately, this ideal is often discounted when stereotypes assigned to people on the basis of gender, age, and race come into play. In lieu of this many sociologists often view the United States’ society as a very closed system because of the high degree racial inequality. Similarly, a Hindu caste system is a good example of a closed system. Although the caste system in India was far more closed before 1900, India still suffers similarly in rural areas. People in India have traditionally inherited their status at birth from their parents. As a matter of course, it is uncommon for this status to change through the course of their life. Unlike in the United States, personal merit and diligence go without reward. It seems that no matter how hard or how much this sector of the lower caste strives they can never reach the prestige and status of those who inherit their high status. Fortunately, through the aid of social variables such as, varying birth and death rate in caste level, discontent among the repressed and exploited, competition between the different castes, and introduction of modern technologies and religious conversions, India’s caste system has begun to allow greater mobility its social stratum. Many similarities exist when comparing the Indian caste system to the class system of the United States. One similarity is that “each caste plays important roles in society and benefits from the roles performed by others (Hurst, 1998).” The caste system is one of interdependence. Similarly, the United States class system is a one of co-dependence because each member of society plays a pivotal role in sustain the preservation of our culture. Another similarity focuses on the four basic characteristics of a caste structure and the U.S. system in terms of racial inequality. The first parallelism is that India’s caste is determined largely by who you parents are and likewise the United States follows that “the class that a parent(s) is a reliable predictor of what class their child will become a part of later on” (O’Hanlon 199). Both systems have social ideas that consist of two contradictory positions: different social groups are not equal, both for the well being of the state they’re equally important. Likewise, the United States developed what is now known as the middle-working class, in the United States, in contrast, the racial status of biracial children born of black and white parents is governed by what is often referred to as the “one drop rule” (Davis, 1991): In the South during the eras of slavery and Jim Crow laws, a person with “one drop of black blood” was black. This idea translated into the practice of classifying a person as black if he or she had any known black ancestors (Davis, 1991). The “one drop” rule still holds true in today’s society, though not as rigid. Professional golfer Tiger Woods describes himself as “Cablinasian”, because his mother is from Thailand and his father has African, European, and Native American ancestors. Because his main sponsor, Nike Company, has labeled him as black, he is now regarded as such in the press. The second basic characteristic, that marriage within one’s caste is mandatory, is not true in the legal sense. In the United States, there is no longer any laws forbidding interracial marriages. But, instead, it is a “rule” that is practiced by many. “Marriage statistics show that there are certain professions which inter-marry freely while there are many others which do so very rarely. A number of customs show that the different ‘worlds’ do not like to mix and thus certain quarters of the city, certain cafes and certain schools are frequented exclusively by certain categories of the population (Singh 111). So, therefore, this characteristic of the caste system is not necessarily as strict in the United States, but it is one that is followed by the majority of those living in the U.S. The third characteristic of the caste system, that mobility is virtually impossible, is clearly true of the black-white distinction that exists in the United States. There is essentially no mobility from black to white or from white to black for typical white and black people in the United States. “Passing” from one race to another has been known to happen, but it is something that occurs only in a closed system, such as the Indian caste system. This characteristic also contrasts with the U.S. class system. Mobility is possible in the class system. Upward mobility is somewhat higher in the United States than most other countries. The fourth characteristic, that occupation is strongly related to caste, also describes American society to a substantial degree. Law does not dictate occupations that can be held by blacks or whites. Throughout the nineteenth century, many African Americans did not hold high status jobs such as doctors, lawyers, and engineers. Nearly all African Americans were slaves during this time. By now, there has been substantial occupational mobility for African Americans, just as there has been for lower-caste persons in India in the late twentieth century. But the occupational distribution in the United States retains significant caste-like properties. “For example, in 1995 African Americans comprised 10.6 percent of the employed civilian labor force, but they were only 1.9 percent of the dentists, 1.5 percent of the aerospace engineers, and 2.5 percent of the architects. At the same time African Americans made up 30.4 percent of the nursing aides and orderlies, 20.1 percent of the janitors, and 20 percent of the textile machine operators” (U.S. Bureau of the Census, 1996). Though race does not determine occupation, it is clear that African Americans are substantially over represented in low status service and manufacturing jobs and underrepresented in highly paid, high-status professional jobs – just as the caste model predicts. The southern United States before the civil rights movement clearly operated under a caste-like system based on race. African Americans rode on the back of the bus, drank from “colored” water fountains, and used “colored” restrooms. The racial caste system in the United States today may be less rigid than this, but nonetheless it has yet to completely disappear. Both systems, the class system and the caste system, are models of social hierarchies. In India, the second place in the caste system was allotted to craftsmen and merchants, and this signifies an elevation that took in society due to the development of trade industry. Likewise, the United States developed what is now known as the middle-working class, also due to the development of modern trade industry (Vanina 35-36). Both systems are affected by life chances, the likelihood that individuals and groups will enjoy desired goods and services, fulfilling experiences, and opportunities for living healthy and long lives. Life chances have to do with people’s level of living and their options for choice. The members of the higher classes, in both types of societies, benefit in nonmaterial ways. Their children are more likely to go further in school and perform better than the children of parents who occupy lower socioeconomic positions. Class and caste systems also affect health and life expectancy. The infants of parents of the higher classes, in both systems, are more likely to survive than infants of parents of the lower classes. Among the elderly, the average life expectancy is greater for the nonpoor than for the poor, in both types of cultural. The class system of the United States and the caste system of India differ also. Certainly the number of differentiated occupations in India is less than in our own contemporary society. The class system of the United States contains many occupations accompanied by many roles. “A great distance separates the feudal system from the caste system proper. First of all to the extent that the former followed the principle that ‘the status of the land determines that of the landholder’, it contradicts a principle of the caste system” (Pocock 12). Moreover, American society has a much greater degree of opportunity towards upward mobility in society. The Indian culture restricts people on the basis of a culture that was developed hundreds of years ago. Based solely on heritage and lineage, their culture is unlike the United States. It does not consider the social problems and the psychological problems nearly as much when considering what has brought about such a distinction between the groups. The twenty-first century will surely be one of continuing social, economic, and political turmoil and challenge, at least in its early decades. The heart of the problem is one of gaining equality for the groups of those who are oppressed and discriminated against. These issues should not just be economic ones but should be ones of dignity and honor. The United States has developed an economic theory appropriate to a world economy in which knowledge has become the key economic resource and the dominant, if not the only, source of comparative advantage. Therefore it is imperative for the U.S. to continue to place an increasing importance on the education of Americans. Clark D. Cunningham, an expert on the legal system in India, has closely followed the country’s creation of the affirmative action program. Says Cunningham, “One country which offers striking comparisons and contrasts with American affirmative action is India, which actually developed a basis for assessing the relative need for affirmative action among various disadvantaged ethnic groups in its population.” The United States has no principled basis for deciding which groups really need preferential treatment and which do not. However, India did just that when it commissioned a study in 1979 that attempted to measure the extent of prejudice and degree of societal injury suffered by different groups, ranging from the untouchables and tribal groups to low-caste Hindus and religious minorities (Vanina 147). India’s bold experiments should challenge us to conduct more scientific and systematic studies of how past and present discrimination disadvantage various groups in the U.S. But there is also society’s need for these organizations to take social responsibility – to work on the problems and challenges of the community. Foreign investors can eliminate slave labor and the Indian caste system. Any foreign companies investing in India should check carefully that the Indian companies they do business with are not profiting directly, or indirectly, from slavery; for instance, through the raw materials they buy. Slaves could be freed through the persistent use of direct action and legal intervention. The Hindu caste system lies at the heart of the injustice. The caste system must be abolished, for as long as we justify the religious and social grounds that the caste hierarchies are based upon there will be forms of bonded labor and servitude. Another solution would be to maintain economic growth in India. The notion of the wealth “trickling downwards” offers hope to the lower groups of the caste system (Singh 173). This idea is founded upon the assumption that as long as the purchasing power and numbers of the wealthy people of India continue to increase dramatically (as it is presently) there are indications that the number of poor will be lowered as the income level increases. The opening of the Indian economy to globalization and foreign investment is believed to shrink the huge gap that separates the incomes of the wealthy from the impoverished. One can hold different opinions about the caste system being totally alien to the system of estates, which existed in other feudal societies. But it seems clear that the caste system, adopted in India by a considerable part of the population, was inimical to the development to social groups which would have distinctive attitudes to property, means of production, social status, etc. and, what is more important, common interests in economy, politics and culture. India is the favored land of the caste system: for this reason the history of India is, in a way, a crucial experience for anyone who wishes to submit that system to a sociological study (Pocock 28). The United States class system and India’s caste system are similar and different in many ways. Both deal with the way in which live people throughout society and with the roles in which people accompany in their given societies.
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