Posts

What does it mean to be “true to yourself”? Is being true to yourself more important than achieving personal career success in a male-dominated company?

/in /by

True to Myself

Ethney Gentry was thrilled to have infiltrated the ultimate“good old boy” network, landing a job with a mid-size, Tulsa-based oil company. Armed with solid credentials and what she considered the strengths of female leadership — listening, collaboration, consensus building, and organization — she looked forward to her first meeting with the company’s first female manager, Alexis Bale, who was about to retire. Alexis offered a firm, almost painful, handshake and a cup of coffee.

“I’ve been looking forward to meeting you, Alexis,” Ethney said.

“It’s Alex.” “Oh, I didn’t know.”

Ethney took a sip of piping hot coffee with a sudden vague feeling of discomfort. The first moments of this much-anticipated meeting seemed awkward and somewhat strained.

“I’ll be honest with you,” Alex said as she walked around and sat in the oversized chair behind her desk. “You’re here for the same reason I was here. When our founder, Champ Luman, died 12 years ago, his three middle-aged daughters, referred to throughout the company as the girls, became major shareholders. They pushed hard for the inclusion of a woman in management. That was me. Now it’s you.”

Ethney tried to show no reaction as she set her cup on the desk.“Are you implying that I was selected over more qualified male candidates?”

“No. I was not on the selection team. I’ve seen your résumé and you are an excellent addition to the organization. But qualifications aside, you and I fulfill, shall we say—the ‘diversity’ requirements for an otherwise all male club.”

Ethney could not believe the undisguised cynicism of the woman across the desk. She was torn between a desire to get up and march out of the office and a desire to stay and hear the entire lecture. She decided to take the high road.“My understanding was that you have been very successful here,” she said.

“I suppose so.” Alex gazed up at the numerous photographs showing oil rigs scattered across the Oklahoma plains.“I learned to play the game,” she said somewhat wistfully. Then she suddenly turned and looked at Ethney.“I’m not trying to intimidate you. But I think that coming in, you should understand some things.”

“Such as?”

“Such as … don’t be too eager with your ideas or opinions. When I started, I intended to jump right in and contribute. The men resented it. I was considered a ‘pushy broad,’ as one gentleman told me to my face. The reaction to me was harsh. They may have been stuck with me, but these guys could marginalize me; make sure I didn’t count, and make sure I knew it.”

“What did you do?”

“I stewed a while and finally tried the opposite tactic. I jumped up to get coffee for everyone. I sought the wise counsel of their opinions before daring to make a suggestion in meetings. I played the female image that was in their minds. I felt like an idiot. I kowtowed ’til I thought I would throw up.”

“How did they react?”

“I was no longer marginalized. But I wasn’t respected either. I had quietly stepped back and accepted my place.” “

Why didn’t you just quit?”

“Because I knew that’s exactly what they wanted me to do. And I’m just mean enough and stubborn enough not to give them what they wanted.”

Ethney took a deep breath and shook her head.“This sounds like Mad Men in the 1950s. I can’t believe men in management act like this.”

“Uh-huh. It may be a little better now, but they are still throwbacks to Mad Men.”

“So how did you develop this reputation for success if you went from being ignored to being a doormat?”

“Have you meet Bill Ledson?”

Ethney nodded, took a sip of coffee, and leaned forward, waiting to hear the secret of success. “At an industry meeting in Houston, his wife, Margaret, got drunk, cornered me, and drawled,‘Listen, Honey. I’ve been around oil men all my life. My daddy and his daddy were oil men. You’re going to have to wise up and take the plunge—become one of the boys. It’s the only way you’ll ever be accepted.’ She reminded me that I’m on their turf. Margaret told me,‘Honey, as a wife and hostess for this crowd, I’ve talked more football than you can imagine. I hate football. I hang on for the commercials. But they don’t know that. Bill doesn’t know that. Me and God— we’re the only ones who know that. Trust me,’ she said. ‘These guys do get down to some serious business, but not until they grouse about how Oklahoma State was robbed of its chance to play LSU for the national championship.’”

“Isn’t that trivializing the men in this company?” Ethney asked.

Alex shrugged.“It worked. I became Alex, and I became one of the guys. And, over time, I came to be treated with grudging respect, and promotions followed. I held the room spellbound for 15 minutes at the last board meeting with my theory that Texas A&M joined the Southeastern Conference in order to up their chances for better bowls because the BCS favors the SEC. Later, when I submitted my ideas for improving the coordination of teams in the oil fields, they thought it was brilliant! I’m one of them!”

Ethney nodded, somewhat impressed. “Take my advice. Change your name. Ethney is too girly. What’s your middle name?”

“Madison.”

“Be Madison.” Alex walked Ethney to the door and shook her hand. The meeting was over. As the door closed behind her, Ethney’s feelings about what she had just heard ranged from bewilderment to anger to depression.

“She sold out. All of these women sold out. They can’t even be who they are. I am an experienced, educated, qualified, capable woman. I don’t want to be Madison,”

Ethney thought confidently and pushed the elevator button.

The elevator opened and she stepped inside. What have I gotten myself into?

Questions:

  1. If you were Ethney, how would you try to conduct yourself at the oil company? Would you act differently from your normal personality? Do you think your approach would be successful? Why or why not?
  2. What other strategies might Ethney adopt to work with the oil company men as an active member of the team? What are the pros and cons of each strategy?
  3. What does it mean to be “true to yourself”? Is being true to yourself more important than achieving personal career success in a male-dominated company? Is it okay to enable the continuation of an “unhealthy” work environment for women? Why do you think the way you do about this?

The length of an answer to each question is typically 100 words.

Do not repeat the questions.

HR departments hire and develop human capital to serve the organization’s strategy and drive performance. Which approach—Kirby’s or Drew’s—is more likely to have a greater positive impact on performance? Discuss.

/in /by

The Right Way with employees?

As a senior manager for a global player in automobile production and sales, Kirby Ellis had joined thousands of fellow employees in the excitement surrounding production of the company’s new hybrid vehicles. But barely two years into production, embarrassing component shortages, delivery delays, and a recall of the first models had a ripple effect, presenting the company with mounting concerns. In the confusion, many customers canceled orders and turned to competitors for purchase of the eco-friendly vehicles. Ellis’s company was facing a financial downturn. With three decades of service to the company, Kirby led a contingent of managers intent upon keeping together as much of the company and as many employees as possible. “We know there will be some necessary cuts,” Kirby admitted.“But this company has a long history of sticking by its people. Our first priority should be internal streamlining of how we do things and making sure we have the right people on board.” Many managers liked what they heard from Kirby. He was well respected and had an unequaled reputation for his leadership and collaborative skills and his ability to work with managers as well as line workers on the factory floors. People marveled at the number of individuals he knew on a personal level throughout the company. Drew Cunningham influenced a second contingent within the management group. A brash go-getter with a reputation for fixing companies in crisis, he proposed across-the-board cuts in employees in order to implement a solution as quickly as possible. He proposed the immediate creation of a forced ranking system in order to identify and get rid of lower-ranking employees. Kirby raised his hand and rose to his feet in objection. “So we’re going to create a system to fire…” “I didn’t say fire .. .” “OK, cut our own hard-working people? It sounds like some lame government commission,” Kirby said. “We’ve got bright people. This thing simply got worse faster than we thought. We can work with the people we have in setting up more efficient workflow, establishing reasonable deadlines to increase output and . . .” “Kirby, these are not the days of knowing everyone in the plant,” Drew said. “You’re not throwing out your wife’s uncle Harry. We are taking a serious look at what we do, how we do it, and streamlining everything by keeping the right people in the organization and cutting the rest.”

Questions:

  1. What kind of employee social contract is assumed by Kirby and by Drew? Explain.
  2. If you were an HR manager at the company, which view would you support? Why?
  3. HR departments hire and develop human capital to serve the organization’s strategy and drive performance. Which approach—Kirby’s or Drew’s—is more likely to have a greater positive impact on performance? Discuss.

The length of an answer to each question is typically 100 words.

Do not repeat the questions (Only write your answers).

Identify the two different people or government programs that you will discuss; provide relevant date(s) or time frames.

/in /by

ASSIGNMENT 2: THE WRITING GUIDE (HIS105):
In your five paragraph essay using this Writing Guide, use the Schultz class text and at least two of the other sources provided for the topic you chose. Note, you need to include a list of Sources at the end (next page below); also you must cite each of those sources in the body of your paper with short in-text citations. Be sure to review the instruction sheet for Assignment 2. Also, see the help sheet called “Sources and Tips for Assignment 2”. That help sheet also explains about length and provides other tips.
Introduction
In your introduction section, cover the information listed in the bullets below. Your introduction should be one paragraph in length:
• Identify the two different people or government programs that you will discuss; provide relevant date(s) or time frames.
• Describe what you will cover in the paper.

HISTORY AND ISSUES
In two paragraphs, do the following:
For Topic Choice One: Describe briefly the background of each person’s early struggles or success at business development and the motivations. Describe key innovations in strategy that led to success. Devote one paragraph to each person and strategy.
For Topic Choice Two: Describe briefly the background of each government program and what motivated its proposal and passage. Describe the impact of each program on the economy. Devote one paragraph to each program and strategy.

COMPARISON
In your comparison paragraph, evaluate what you see as the strengths and weaknesses of each, and the impact of each in that period of history. Explain which approach you favor and why.

CONCLUSION
In your conclusion paragraph, identify similar issues or approaches that developed later, and any similar issues or approaches today.

In a minimum of a 500 word essay, how would you respond to either the rather radical first statement or the more moderate recommendation that follows it?

/in /by

PROMPT:

1. In a minimum of a 500 word essay, how would you respond to either the rather radical first statement or the more moderate recommendation that follows it?

a. Radical response: “The Abrahamic religions are shot through with patriarchy and homophobia. If women and/or LGBT+ individuals are to achieve true equality, they must leave the oppressive structures of the traditional religions and form their own denominations.”

b. More moderate response: “What do you think about the more open welcoming positions of churches and mosques like 1) the Protestant Disciples of Christ, a founding organization of Chapman / Brandman University, 2) Anglican, the English Catholic Church, or 3) the non-denominational Unitarian or Unity churches or 4) progressive Islamic groups such as linked here — https://www.mpvusa.org .

Be sure to include your definitions of what “patriarchy” and “homophobia” means with specific examples in your response.
Reference: Young, W. A. (2013). World’s Religions: World’s Views and Contemporary Issues 4th ed.

Describe your reasoning/method in choosing internet sites and explain why they were appropriate to fulfilling your objective in the assignment.

/in /by

The Myth: Emotions are Individual

Emotions and feelings are qualities of being human that are generally assumed to be unique to each individual’s physical and mental state and naturally or spontaneously expressed within various contexts. Contrary to this popular assumption, sociologists conceptualize emotion and feeling as social and cultural expressions that are part of the presentation of self. As such, they are subject to feeling rules and strategies of emotion management that are enacted by the self and others in different types of social interaction and social context. Further, within a sociological perspective feeling rules are understood to be differentially followed, and applied, according to social status (i.e., age, gender, sexuality, occupation, social class, ethnicity, etc.) and cultural background.

The Activity

To demonstrate understanding and comprehension of a sociological approach to the analysis of emotion (e.g., sympathy, frustration, happiness, contempt) this exercise asks you to objectively and systematically analyze your own emotional response to content you view on the internet. The type of content you focus on for this exercise should be something quite general, such as news articles or advertisements.

Before setting out to complete the fieldwork component of this activity (i.e., surfing the internet) read: “Arlie Hochschild: The Presentation of Emotion”(pdf in BB). Use the content of the article to develop a conceptual mapping of what you are looking for in order to objectively observe using a sociological perspective, the feeling rules that are operating as you view the selected sites on the internet. A review of the content of Modules 5 and 6 will also be useful at this point.

To select your sites, keep it in the public domain (I do not want to be privy to your private sites) and keep it simple…this is, after all a course in the analysis of everyday social reality, not the extreme, exceptional or bizzare. Select two sites that evoked very different emotional reactions on your part to their content (e.g., like, dislike; sad, happy; etc.). Use your conceptual mapping of Hochschild’s theory of feeling rules to explore how your various social statuses (male, female, parent, offspring, employee, employer, citizen, consumer, client, majority, minority, etc.) corresponding roles and individual experiences may have coalesced to produce your emotional reactions to the selected sites. Not an easy undertaking, I appreciate, but definitely one that you are capable of.

Report your findings using the following format: Communicate your results. Which means: Report on your objective, theory, method, findings and conclusions in two pages or less, plus appendices. For example:

Provide a substantively meaningful title that informs readers of the central topic and focus of your report
State your objective in this research activity? (Hint: Are emotions individual and spontaneous, or socially produced?)
Summarize (in your own words, with appropriate references) the theoretical insights that informed your approach to this research activity. This would involve a brief textual description of your conceptual map which you may attach as an appendix if you choose. (Gives you an extra page to make your argument, as appendices do not count in the page limit, nor do reference pages).
Describe your reasoning/method in choosing internet sites and explain why they were appropriate to fulfilling your objective in the assignment.
Describe what you found as a result of your empirical research.
Discuss what you have learned about the relationship between your emotional reactions to information on the selected sites, your social statuses, roles and individual experiences.
Conclude with a discussion of whether, based on your findings, emotions are individual and spontaneous, or socially produced.
The completed report should be no more than two type written pages, plus references and appendicies.

Explain the role of Public Human Resource Management (PHRM). Identify the major components of Public Human Resource Management.

/in /by

Explain the role of Public Human Resource Management (PHRM). Identify the major components of Public Human Resource Management. Summarize the historical development of Public Human Resource Management in the United States. Explain the impact of Public Human Resource Management reform.

How is the media, biased, more towards progressive-liberal values, conservative values or in both directions depending on the specific media outlets you may access? Explain your response.

/in /by

It has long been argued, particularly by conservatives, that there is a liberal bias in the mass media. On the other hand, progressives and liberals counter that conservative media has its own bias and that conservative media spends most of its time trying to invoke fear and division in the general public. With these two points of view in mind, please respond to the following question.

(1) How is the media, biased, more towards progressive-liberal values, conservative values or in both directions depending on the specific media outlets you may access? Explain your response.
(2) Find two or more examples of media bias (video clip, article, images) . Explain in detail how these example/s represent media bias and the impact that it has on public opinion. As part of your research and examination of media bias include recent polling data results showing the public’s confidence in the objectivity or fairness of the media. Provide an Internet citation for each polling source discussed.

• Essays should be submitted in a word processed document.
• Margins should be set to at least 1″. Use one of the following typefaces: Arial, Helvetica, Times or Palatino. Set the body of your essay in 12 point type, doubled spaced. Longer quotations can be set at 10 point type, single spaced, if indented.
• Include page numbers using the header/footer feature of your word processor.
• Include a cover page, with your name, the name of the assignment, the due date, the course number and contact information.
• Write in complete sentences.
• No bullet points or listing will be accepted.
• Feel free to use images and graphs but word counts must be adhered to.
• Correct grammar and spelling will be taken into consideration in the evaluation. Do a spell check and proofread your essay before submitting. Read it at least once printed out. You will catch different things on the printed page than you do on screen.
• You must cite your sources in text and provide a complete bibliography at the end. REMEMBER: Any information or idea that is not your own MUST BE CITED.

The subject is actually American Government, but since i couldn’t find it in the subject area i had to put journalism which i feel its the closest to it. Feel feel to ask any questions…thanks

Discuss the various aspects of this emerging issue. Write a summary of the salient themes of the article.

/in /by

Recently, there has emerged concern about the cultural competence/responsiveness of the APA ethics code. This concern has emerged in the research literature. Discuss the various aspects of this emerging issue. Please write a summary of the salient themes of the article. Please include the reference citation for the article..

“Having employee representatives on corporate boards reduces both the accountability of managers and the competitiveness of the businesses they run; interests of employees are best protected by mandatory labour law rules.” Discuss.

/in /by

“Having employee representatives on corporate boards reduces both the accountability of managers and the competitiveness of the businesses they run; interests of employees are best protected by mandatory labour law rules.”
Discuss.

Review health and safety regulations and legislation associated with the storage, handling and use of materials on a construction site.

/in /by

Review health and safety regulations and legislation associated with the storage, handling and use of materials on a construction site &
Discuss the environmental and sustainability factors which impact on and influence the material choices for a construction project Issue Date 20.01.19

You should submit a maximum of 2500-word report (excluding references and appendices). This report should be well-structured, comprising sections such as an introduction, main body, conclusion, references and appendices. You are encouraged to make use of images, graphics, drawings and other research material in support of your presentation of the report. Any material that is derived from other sources must be appropriately referenced using a standard form of citation.
Unit Learning Outcomes;
LO1 Review health and safety regulations and legislation associated with the storage, handling and use of materials on a construction site.
LO2 Discuss the environmental and sustainability factors which impact on and influence the material choices for a construction project Assignment Brief and Guidance.
A developer is looking into the possibility of constructing a sports complex on a plot of land next to the Roundhouse campus of Derby College. At present the details are very limited but information is being forwarded on a daily basis. The preliminary information available to date is as follows.
The sports complex will comprise a swimming pool (complete with a high diving board), squash courts, gym and sports hall equipped for a variety of activities. There will be a cafe area and kitchen, in addition to a number of rooms equipped for lectures. There will also be the associated changing rooms and showers.
It is expected that the building will comprise of a ground and first floor. The design team has advised you that the structure will be a steel frame with reinforced concrete foundations.
This proposed site is an unusual shape, being an irregular quadrilateral (truncated triangle) with maximum dimensions of, approximately, 185m x 235m and an area of approximately 2.95ha. The site is bounded by a small recreation area owned by Derby City Council, a busy road through a residential area, the access road to the college and one of the college’s car-parks.
Even though details are very sketchy, the developer is committed to an environmentally friendly design to comply with the ethos of the City Council’s planning department.
Task 1 (P1 & M1)
Several construction materials are to be used in this project. Your line manager has asked you to look into the following specific materials;
 Cement.
 PIR (Polyisocyanurate) insulation boards.
a) Explain how health and safety regulations impact on the use, storage and handling of the materials listed above (P1).
b) Assess how risk assessments can be used to address significant hazards posed by the materials listed above (M1).
Task 2 (D1)
One of the activities in the construction of this sports complex is excavating trenches and constructing reinforced concrete strip foundations.Discuss how multiple regulations and legislations would apply to this site activity, highlighting how to plan and manage for safe handling and use.
Task 3 (P2, P3, M2 & D2)
As part of studying the environmental and sustainability factors which impact on and influence the material choices for this construction project, you are asked to;
a) Explain material environmental profiling and lifecycle assessment. Use a relevant material to exemplify your explanation (P2).
b) Discuss the benefits of product declaration and environmental certification (P3).
c) Produce a waste management plan for this project, taking into account a typical range of relevant waste materials (M2).
d) Illustrate how the use of sustainable practices and considerations for material choice can improve the environmental rating of the completed building (D2).
Learning Outcomes and Assessment Criteria Pass Merit Distinction
LO1 Review health and safety regulations and legislation associated with the storage, handling and use of materials on a construction site
D1 Discuss how multiple regulations and legislations would apply to a given site activity, highlighting how to plan and manage for safe handling and use.
P1 Explain how regulations impact on the use, storage and handling of a selection of vocationally typical construction materials.
M1 Assess how risk assessments can be used to address significant hazards posed by selected materials or activities.
LO2 Discuss the environmental and sustainability factors which impact on and influence the material choices for a construction project
D2 Illustrate how the use of sustainable practices and considerations for material choice can improve the environmental rating of the completed building.
P2 Explain material environmental profiling and lifecycle assessment. Use a relevant material to exemplify your explanation.
M2 Produce a waste management plan for a given project, taking into account a typical range of relevant waste materials.
P3 Discuss the benefits of product declaration and environmental certification.