East Asian literature Essay Example for Free

East Asian literature Essay Based on Yasutaka Tsutsui’s â€Å"The Standing Woman†, the power of the collective over that of the individual is positive. This can be surmised based on three points of argumentation which are the main character’s thoughts at the beginning of the story, the old man’s revelation in his conversation with the main character, and the main character’s discussion with his wife. At the beginning of the story, we find the main character who is a writer thinking about the story that he finished. He mentions that the story is â€Å"capable of neither harm nor good†. Since he had spoken this to himself then it must be true. Later on it would be revealed in the story that his wife who he loves so much has been turned to a manpillar by the government. Yet instead of being angry and seeking vengeance, the man even at the start of the story already seems defeated by the very society that persecuted his wife. At the middle of the story, the writer converses with an old man who reveals that he had also been a writer but is now too afraid of persecution to write anything at all. The conversation shows that society has also broken the old man without even needing to arrest him and turn him into a mantree. The old man’s fear of getting exposed to the public and being ridiculed had already overpowered him and these fears came from society because it is the collective society that has the greatest power to ridicule. The last proof comes from the writer’s discussion with his wife. His wife who had once been so proud and strong has been reduced to a yielding subject to society’s whims to a point of not even protesting injustices done to her by drunks. In conclusion, the power of a collective society truly does overwhelm the resolve of any particular member.

Pre-fabrication Technology and Conventional Construction

Pre-fabrication Technology and Conventional Construction 1.1 Introduction Construction industry plays an important role in Malaysias economy. Therefore, it is important to introduce more advance or new technologies from overseas to our country in order to growth the economy. Pre-fabrication technology is a new construction method in construction industry. This technology has been widely used in many countries due to many pros it has over the traditional construction methods, which is cast in-situ method. Pre-fabrication is the assembling components making in a factory or manufacturing before deliver those components to the construction site. After completed the selected components on factory or manufacturing, those components will transport to the construction site where the structure is to be located. On the other hand, for conventional construction method, which is cast in-situ, is transporting those selected materials like cement, sand, aggregate, brick, etc from factory or manufacturing to the construction site. Then the assembly only will carry out on site after those materials have delivered to site. Industrialised Building System (hereinafter referred to as ‘IBS) is a technique of construction, which introduced by Construction Industry Development Board (hereinafter referred to as ‘CIDB) was succeed and applied the pre-fabricated technology into the construction industry in Malaysia. IBS is define as a construction system in which components are manufactured in a factory, on or off site, positioned and assembled into structure with minimal additional site work (CIDB, 2003). The first IBS project was a 7 blocks of 17 storeys flats, which involved 3000 units of low-cost flat and 40 units of shop lot along Jalan Pekeliling in the late 1960s. In addition, there have some of the projects been satisfied completed by used of IBS components such as campus building, apartment, residential, office, hospital, etc. 1.2 Problem Statement Pre-fabrication technology has become more and more famous and popular in Malaysias construction industry recently. This is due to the technology has many benefits over the traditional construction methods which is cast in-situ technology. However, it also contains some weaknesses for pre-fabrication technology. For example, the transportation costs may be very expensive to deliver the complete components to the construction site. Not only that, the maintenance cost and repairing cost is higher depend to the cast in-situ method. Therefore, for long term buildings are not suitable to construct by using pre-fabrication technology. 1.3 Aim The aim of this research is to compare the construction speed for typical wall element between pre-fabrication technology and conventional construction method, which is cast in-situ. 1.4 Objectives To define Industrialised Building System (IBS) There have some of the projects been satisfied completed by IBS of using pre-fabricated components such as campus building, apartment, residential, office, hospital, etc. To compare the advantages and disadvantages of using pre-fabrication technology and cast in-situ in construction industry Although pre-fabrication can save more construction costs and decrease construction period, but the demand of using this technology are still very low in Malaysia. To compare the construction speed by using pre-fabrication technology and cast in-situ in typical wall element In practically, the construction period of a project can take few years to complete. By using pre-fabrication technology, the construction period can be decrease, which compare with traditional construction method. 1.5 Hypothesis By using pre-fabrication technology is cheaper and efficiency than traditional method, which is cast in-situ technology. 1.6 Research Methodology There have three different types of research studies relating to the pre-fabrication and cast in-situ technology have carried out to fulfill this dissertation. They are literature review, questionnaire and case study. 1.6.1 Literature Review The study undertakes a comprehensive review of the relevant literature on the subject of pre-fabrication and cast in-situ technology. The resources for literature are from books, magazines, journal and articles, which available from library and internet research. 1.6.2 Questionnaire This stage involved preparing and sending out the questionnaire to number of Construction Company in Malaysia. The questions are mainly asking about the actual construction speed by using pre-fabrication technology in Malaysia. 1.6.3 Case Study Few case studies for pre-fabrication technology in Malaysia will be carrying out for this research, either in supplier and/or in construction. Through these case studies, the problems, benefits and cost for pre-fabrication technology in actual construction industry can defined. 1.7 Scope of Study The scope of study for this research included to define the background of the IBS system as well as the previous projects done by IBS system with satisfied completed in Malaysia. Besides, research on the advantages and disadvantages of the pre-fabrication and cast in-situ methods. In addition, it will cover the construction speed for actual construction projects, mainly in Malaysia. Pre-fabrication Technology and Conventional Construction Pre-fabrication Technology and Conventional Construction 1.1 Introduction Construction industry plays an important role in Malaysias economy. Therefore, it is important to introduce more advance or new technologies from overseas to our country in order to growth the economy. Pre-fabrication technology is a new construction method in construction industry. This technology has been widely used in many countries due to many pros it has over the traditional construction methods, which is cast in-situ method. Pre-fabrication is the assembling components making in a factory or manufacturing before deliver those components to the construction site. After completed the selected components on factory or manufacturing, those components will transport to the construction site where the structure is to be located. On the other hand, for conventional construction method, which is cast in-situ, is transporting those selected materials like cement, sand, aggregate, brick, etc from factory or manufacturing to the construction site. Then the assembly only will carry out on site after those materials have delivered to site. Industrialised Building System (hereinafter referred to as ‘IBS) is a technique of construction, which introduced by Construction Industry Development Board (hereinafter referred to as ‘CIDB) was succeed and applied the pre-fabricated technology into the construction industry in Malaysia. IBS is define as a construction system in which components are manufactured in a factory, on or off site, positioned and assembled into structure with minimal additional site work (CIDB, 2003). The first IBS project was a 7 blocks of 17 storeys flats, which involved 3000 units of low-cost flat and 40 units of shop lot along Jalan Pekeliling in the late 1960s. In addition, there have some of the projects been satisfied completed by used of IBS components such as campus building, apartment, residential, office, hospital, etc. 1.2 Problem Statement Pre-fabrication technology has become more and more famous and popular in Malaysias construction industry recently. This is due to the technology has many benefits over the traditional construction methods which is cast in-situ technology. However, it also contains some weaknesses for pre-fabrication technology. For example, the transportation costs may be very expensive to deliver the complete components to the construction site. Not only that, the maintenance cost and repairing cost is higher depend to the cast in-situ method. Therefore, for long term buildings are not suitable to construct by using pre-fabrication technology. 1.3 Aim The aim of this research is to compare the construction speed for typical wall element between pre-fabrication technology and conventional construction method, which is cast in-situ. 1.4 Objectives To define Industrialised Building System (IBS) There have some of the projects been satisfied completed by IBS of using pre-fabricated components such as campus building, apartment, residential, office, hospital, etc. To compare the advantages and disadvantages of using pre-fabrication technology and cast in-situ in construction industry Although pre-fabrication can save more construction costs and decrease construction period, but the demand of using this technology are still very low in Malaysia. To compare the construction speed by using pre-fabrication technology and cast in-situ in typical wall element In practically, the construction period of a project can take few years to complete. By using pre-fabrication technology, the construction period can be decrease, which compare with traditional construction method. 1.5 Hypothesis By using pre-fabrication technology is cheaper and efficiency than traditional method, which is cast in-situ technology. 1.6 Research Methodology There have three different types of research studies relating to the pre-fabrication and cast in-situ technology have carried out to fulfill this dissertation. They are literature review, questionnaire and case study. 1.6.1 Literature Review The study undertakes a comprehensive review of the relevant literature on the subject of pre-fabrication and cast in-situ technology. The resources for literature are from books, magazines, journal and articles, which available from library and internet research. 1.6.2 Questionnaire This stage involved preparing and sending out the questionnaire to number of Construction Company in Malaysia. The questions are mainly asking about the actual construction speed by using pre-fabrication technology in Malaysia. 1.6.3 Case Study Few case studies for pre-fabrication technology in Malaysia will be carrying out for this research, either in supplier and/or in construction. Through these case studies, the problems, benefits and cost for pre-fabrication technology in actual construction industry can defined. 1.7 Scope of Study The scope of study for this research included to define the background of the IBS system as well as the previous projects done by IBS system with satisfied completed in Malaysia. Besides, research on the advantages and disadvantages of the pre-fabrication and cast in-situ methods. In addition, it will cover the construction speed for actual construction projects, mainly in Malaysia.

Complaint Handling in the Hospitality Industry

Complaint Handling in the Hospitality Industry The issue of grievance handling has not been new in organizations and it has been one of the most persistent problems of all times. In the course of running an organization, there are many complaints that are handled daily by the management which constitute the process of grievance handling. Grievances are common not only in organization but also in our social life. However it has been shown that the nature of the grievances is not that important than the process that is used to handle the grievances. Before we look at the process of handling a grievance in an organization, let us look use first understand the nature of a grievance. What is a grievance? (Dentron and Boyd 2005, p. 61) A grievance can be defined as any complaint that is raised by an individual worker of a group of workers in an organization. A grievance is usually raised in allegation of violation of the terms of agreement in the workplace. Therefore it can be said to a complaint that is raised and which is aimed at expressing the dissatisfaction of the employees by what is happening in the organization. A grievance however differs from a complaint in that while a complaint can be verbally expressed, a grievance is usually stated in writing. A grievance can be caused by many things. It has been shown that some of the most controversial issues which usually ends up in a grievance include the discharge of employees from their workplace, lack of a process of collective bargaining for the employees which can be used to express their dissatisfaction, unfair labor practices, and others which are likely to happening in the work places. (Rahul 2005, p. 31) Therefore we can expound on this point by looking closely at the process which is usually used to handle these complaints. For the effective functioning of an organization, there is usually a need to look at the welfare of the employee. Any management will recognize that the employees are the most important asset that an organization holds and therefore the most important thing in the management of the resources of an organization will be first to look at the welfare of the workforces. It has been shown that most of the grievances which hare not well looked at often precipitate to a form of dissident by the workforce which in most case comes as strike. A strike in an organization will not only have economic effect on the organization but it will also have effects on the image of the management of the organization. Therefore many organizations have come up with an effective procedure that can be used to handle complaints of het employees. In order to ensure that there is less participant of the workforce in mass movement of labor unions, many organization came up with human resource departments which are well positioned to handle the complains of the employees. Therefore it is the duty of the human resource department to come up with a well structured way that can be used to look at the welfare of the workforce. The human resource department is the one which is entrusted with the duty of handling all the complaints regarding the employees. Human resource department must come up with a grievance handling procedure. (Finegan 2004, p. 71) A grievance handling produced clearly defines a process which is used by the organization to look at the complaints that has been given by the employees. It presents a process of initial resolving of the complaints through arbitration. It is a process that is used to indentify and resolve the companies in a timely manner in order to promoted the prevail a constructive discussion between the management and the representatives of the employees. therefore the aim of the grievance procedure is to ensure that there is a proper mechanism in place that is used by the management to look at the issues that pertains to employees in order to ensure that there is constructive resolving of the complains at they arises. (Dana 2001, p. 231) The hospitality industry has been one of the rapidly growing industries in the world. In a short period of time, the industry has grown short of its former self. In the last few decades there has been increased travelling by people all over the world. This has been enabled by the increasing wave of globalization which has opened the world and increased the interaction between people. As a result individuals have been able to travel from one corners of the world to the other with no political or legal limitation. The improve modes of transport has been the main factor that has contributed to the rapid growth of the industry. The industry has been one of the most important industries in the world that have been supporting the increased globalization and polarization of world culture. Therefore there has been unprecedented growth of the industry in a very short period of time. The industry has been offering supportive services in the tourism sector. Apparently tourism has emerged to be one of the most important industries in the world. It has been fueled by increased spending culture in the world and increased openness. Tourism has taken many dimensions in its growth in areas of cultural tourism, business tourism, leisure tourism, education tourism, medical tourism, and other areas. In all these segments, individual usually travels away from their homes to go to foreign countries. Therefore they need to be accommodated and given other services. In this regard the hospitality industry comes in hand as it offers them support in accommodation and other necessary services. The hospitality industry has therefore hinged its growth on the tourism sector. (Leornard 2001, p. 52) One of the emerging natures of the hospitality industry has been diversity that has been experienced in the customers that the industry target and also in the workforce. There has been an increasing trend in the industry towards culture convergence in which one hospitality facility in the world is serving people of diverse culture. Therefore there has been an aspect of standardization of culture in the industry. Cultural homogeneity is considered to be one of the competitive factors that need to achieve in order to survive in the competitive market. With the market become more diverse due to divers needs of the customers, the hotel industry have therefore tended to have a divers nature of employees in order to help their customers to feel at home every time they are being served. Therefore there has been an increasing trend of multicultural workforce in the industry. This of course has come with its own challenges to human resource management. One of the most challenges that faces any human resource management is a multicultural workforce is the way to handle complains by the employees. Many a times, employees feel that their welfare is not looked at as needed in the organization and there are usually incidences of unfair treatment of the employees. But due to the diverse nature of the employees, the human resource department may not be in a position to come up with standardized way of dealing with all the demands that employees have. Therefore there are incidence of complaints that are based on the favors in the workforce and discontent in the allocation of duties. Many of het case studies that have been presented about complain in the hospitality industry have all been based on issue of favors in the workforce which arise due to the diversity in the workforce. Therefore in the contemporary human resource management issues, diversity in the workforce in the hospitality industry have been one of the causes of complains in the workforce. The hospitality industry is one of the most hectic industries as visitors check in and checks out. As a result there is a lot of work that needs to be done by the workforce. The nature of services in the industry is based on the fact that the visitors have to feel as comfortable as they want and find value for the amount of money that they are charged. Therefore there has to be a lot of work that is done by the employees in order to meet the demands of the visitors. Some of the visitors can be a little nagging and may require excessive attention than others. Going by the nature of definition of the duties the employee have to perform some employee will always find themselves doing extra work that they have not bee assigned at the time they were hired. Therefore there is usually a conflict with their supervisors who have to make sure that the guest gets all what they want and therefore will have to assign extra duty to the employees. At the end to the day employees will feel that they have done more that they are supposed to do in their duties. This has been shown to be another source of complains from the employees who feels that they are unfair treated and their initial duty assignment is not respected. (Andrew Kurth LLP, 2008) In most cases supervisors are faced with a hard task of ensuring that employee perform all the duties that they have been assigned to and also perform the extra duties that the guests wants to be attendee to. Therefore there is a situation between the supervisors and the employees. The hospitality industry peaks with seasons. This means that there are periods when there will be an inflow of guest while there are other seasons when there will be less guest checking in. In there regard there is a fluctuating need of employees in the industry. When the season peaks, the industry will need to hire more employees and when the season is low the industry will need to lay off some of the employees. In this regard the tourism industry is most affected by the seasonality. Most of the hotels which operation in leisure industries will find the there are periods when there will be more guest especially during holidays and weekend while there are other when there will be less guest. The industry is also prone to political stability and other factors and therefore the times when there is a serene atmosphere will see an inflow of guest while the times when there is political turmoil there will be less guests who will be checking in. As a result the industry is force to keep on hiring and lying off some of the workers. It has continuously become difficult for the industry to hire more employees on permanent bases due to the fact that there are period when the industry will need more workers while the off seasons will need less workers. Therefore there is a factor of the way in which employees are hired and retained in the industry. This has been one of the most contentious issues especially when it come to the labor unions which have been arguing that there is need for the industry to hire employee on permanent bases. There are a times when the industry is forced to lay off the employee unexpected due to the prevailing circumstance. For example in Kenya which is one of the famed tourism destinations in Africa, the last year skirmishes had a negative effect in the industry. It is recorded that though it was the high season when the tourism and hospitality industry expected a great inflow of guest, more than 10,000 employees were laid off. This was due to massive cancellation of bookings that had been done. The industry has apparently hired more workers in anticipation for the high season that had just started to pick up. There has been a conflicting situation in the industry as the employee who had been hired on contracted bases want to be paid all the money as their contract had defend while the industry is trying to recover from a massive losses incurred due to the massive cancellation. The hospitality industry has also been shown as one of the industry which pays the workers low salaries. This has been caused by the fact that the industry sometime will need to hire more employees and other times it will have to lay off some the employees. Due to the fact that the industry goes on of very lean seasons when it has to maintain its operation, there have been incidence of some players in the industry paying their employee very low salaries in a bid to cover the expense in the low season. Therefore there have been conflicts between the workforce and the management on the issue of salaries. This is one of the most conflicting issues that have led to formation of labor unions in the industry. Most of the operators in the industry agree with the fact that the industry pays less money to its employees especially during the low seasons but they try to equate that with the operation of het industry during that period. It has been shown that although the industry has been growing at a high rate, there have been fewer incidences of increased salaries for the workforce even at times when the industry is performing well. There has also been incidence of customer complain in the industry. It has been shown that in most cases customer have been complains about the quality of service that they receive from particular employees in the industry and also from the facility in general. This has been a difficult situation for the human resource department especially since it has to ascertain the nature of the conflict between the employee and the guest. In most case the guest may have rubbed the employee on the wrong side and therefore there must be a way of asserting the truth before punishing the employee. Though the issue of customer complains has been shown to be a responsibility attached to the customer service department, at the end of the day it ends up as a management issue that has to be resolved. Both hotel and hospitality industries fall under any industry in the country. Therefore they are exposed to the same labor laws like any other industry. However the nature of employee relation in the industry has been changing due to some of the factors that have been shown. Although there has been increasing labor unionization of the industry there has also some legal aspects that have been protecting the employees in the industry. One of the laws that protect employee in the industry has been the National Labor Relation Act which are aimed at redressing complain of any employees that has been unlawfully discharged from their duties. Through the law the employee is able to seek redress in the law court. However there has been conflicting situation when it comes to address this issue and when it comes to the application of the law. This is because every time an employee is dismissed from their duties for a genuine reason, they run to the court to place complains and what follows is an argument about the rights of het employees. Although the employer has the responsibility of recognize the rightist of the employee, there has been the question of the responsibility of the employee especially when it comes to the nature of the operation of the industry. Being in an industry that calls for meticulous performance of duties in order to ensure the satisfaction of the employee, there has been incidence where the employee have been dismissed on the ground of misbehaving with the guest or failing to perform their duties and what follows is a lawsuits for the company. (Mitchell, 2007) There has been increasing misinterpretation of the National Labor Relation Act when it comes to the employees working in the hospitality industry. There has been a need to becoming familiar with the law and its interpretations. There has been misinterpretation of the act when it comes to the employers also. It has been shown that there are many incidences when the employers back off from their earlier salary agreement and fire off employee who complains. But the law has shown the act is inclusive even of the employee who works in the hospitality industry who are likely to work for part time bases. Holiday Inn has been one of the most prosperous hotels that have become major player in the hospitality and tourism industry. It has been able to spread its wings all over the world and has grown to be a multinational in a very short period. It has positioned itself in all the corners of the world which have tourism potential and therefore it has a world wide presence. Like any other play in the industry, the hotel has been receiving a number of complains from the customers as well as from the workers themselves. Since the hotel has been relying on tourism activities in its overseas operation, the hotel has been experience same problems as we have mentioned above which are all hinged on the satisfaction of the employee and on other factors. But is has successfully put in place a mechanism that is used to handle all these complains. It has been dealing with a range of complains about its employees and at the same time there have been complains from the employees on the way they are beign treated. (Dilts 2006, p. 34) In order to handle all these complains, the hotel first steps which were aimed at streamlining it relationship with the employees was the formation of the human resource department which was supposed to look at the welfare of the employees. The human resource department was apparently responsible for looking at the welfare of the employee and also it was to handle complains from the employee. Therefore it was given the authority to deal with issue of hiring and firing of the employees. In areas where the hotel has been hiring seasonal workforce, it has been putting the employee on a contractual agreement where they are supposed to be paid according to there performance and not on the bases that eh were hired. This has been made in order to avoid many complains that come from the workforce once they are dismissed from their employee when the low seasons comes. The hotel has also made sure that it has put in place a board that is supposed to scrutinize all the complains that are received from the employees so that it can look into the way of making sure that they are well addressed. The board or the arbitration body is supposed to work in close conjunction with the human resource department to make sure that there is a well defined procedure that is followed while dealing with the complains. Therefore there have been systematic efforts by the hotel that has been aimed at reducing the level of complains with the workforce. These efforts have also been aimed at ensuring that all the employees are handled as equal and that complains are dealt with as a matter of urgency. From time to time there will be complains from the workforce. These complains are most of the time genuine and they indicates that there is a problem that need to be fixed somewhere in the work process. The human resource department that has been given the mandate of dealing with the issue of these conflicts understands that employees are the most important treasure that ht organization holds. It has to deal with the employee well, so that it will gain a competitive edge in the market. Therefore it is good for the management to come up with proper way of dealing with these complains in order to avert further action from the employee. Most of the time if these complain is not dealt with they are likely to precipitate to strikes which will have a negative effect on the productivity of the industry and also on the image of he industry. The tourism and hospitality industry has been one of the industries that have been suffering major grievances from employee due to issues of off and on season employment and low payment. There have been major labor action in the industry which has been caused by these complain that has been expressed by the workforce. Therefore there is need for the players in the industry to handle some of these complains well and take the example of Holiday Inn which has come with effective mechanisms that are meat to deal with the problem firmly. Andrew Kurth LLP, 2008, Hospitality and Hotels: Employment and Labor, Retrieved from http://www.andrewskurth.com/industries-22.html on 10th May 2008 Dana, D 2001, Conflict Resolution, McGraw Hill Dentron, K. Boyd, C 2005, Employee Complaint Handling, Greenwood Publishing Group Dilts, D 2006, Cases in Collective Bargaining industry relations, McGraw Hill, New York Finegan, J 2004, The rigorous customer-complain, Harvard Business Review12 Leornard, A 2001, The service Driven Company, Harvard Business Review 69 Mitchell, M 2007, Union organization Trend in the Hospitality Industry, Retrieved from http://www.4hoteliers.com/4hots_fshw.php?mwi=2363 on 10th May 2008 Rahul, J 2005, Corporate Reputation, John Willey, New York Complaint Handling in the Hospitality Industry Complaint Handling in the Hospitality Industry The issue of grievance handling has not been new in organizations and it has been one of the most persistent problems of all times. In the course of running an organization, there are many complaints that are handled daily by the management which constitute the process of grievance handling. Grievances are common not only in organization but also in our social life. However it has been shown that the nature of the grievances is not that important than the process that is used to handle the grievances. Before we look at the process of handling a grievance in an organization, let us look use first understand the nature of a grievance. What is a grievance? (Dentron and Boyd 2005, p. 61) A grievance can be defined as any complaint that is raised by an individual worker of a group of workers in an organization. A grievance is usually raised in allegation of violation of the terms of agreement in the workplace. Therefore it can be said to a complaint that is raised and which is aimed at expressing the dissatisfaction of the employees by what is happening in the organization. A grievance however differs from a complaint in that while a complaint can be verbally expressed, a grievance is usually stated in writing. A grievance can be caused by many things. It has been shown that some of the most controversial issues which usually ends up in a grievance include the discharge of employees from their workplace, lack of a process of collective bargaining for the employees which can be used to express their dissatisfaction, unfair labor practices, and others which are likely to happening in the work places. (Rahul 2005, p. 31) Therefore we can expound on this point by looking closely at the process which is usually used to handle these complaints. For the effective functioning of an organization, there is usually a need to look at the welfare of the employee. Any management will recognize that the employees are the most important asset that an organization holds and therefore the most important thing in the management of the resources of an organization will be first to look at the welfare of the workforces. It has been shown that most of the grievances which hare not well looked at often precipitate to a form of dissident by the workforce which in most case comes as strike. A strike in an organization will not only have economic effect on the organization but it will also have effects on the image of the management of the organization. Therefore many organizations have come up with an effective procedure that can be used to handle complaints of het employees. In order to ensure that there is less participant of the workforce in mass movement of labor unions, many organization came up with human resource departments which are well positioned to handle the complains of the employees. Therefore it is the duty of the human resource department to come up with a well structured way that can be used to look at the welfare of the workforce. The human resource department is the one which is entrusted with the duty of handling all the complaints regarding the employees. Human resource department must come up with a grievance handling procedure. (Finegan 2004, p. 71) A grievance handling produced clearly defines a process which is used by the organization to look at the complaints that has been given by the employees. It presents a process of initial resolving of the complaints through arbitration. It is a process that is used to indentify and resolve the companies in a timely manner in order to promoted the prevail a constructive discussion between the management and the representatives of the employees. therefore the aim of the grievance procedure is to ensure that there is a proper mechanism in place that is used by the management to look at the issues that pertains to employees in order to ensure that there is constructive resolving of the complains at they arises. (Dana 2001, p. 231) The hospitality industry has been one of the rapidly growing industries in the world. In a short period of time, the industry has grown short of its former self. In the last few decades there has been increased travelling by people all over the world. This has been enabled by the increasing wave of globalization which has opened the world and increased the interaction between people. As a result individuals have been able to travel from one corners of the world to the other with no political or legal limitation. The improve modes of transport has been the main factor that has contributed to the rapid growth of the industry. The industry has been one of the most important industries in the world that have been supporting the increased globalization and polarization of world culture. Therefore there has been unprecedented growth of the industry in a very short period of time. The industry has been offering supportive services in the tourism sector. Apparently tourism has emerged to be one of the most important industries in the world. It has been fueled by increased spending culture in the world and increased openness. Tourism has taken many dimensions in its growth in areas of cultural tourism, business tourism, leisure tourism, education tourism, medical tourism, and other areas. In all these segments, individual usually travels away from their homes to go to foreign countries. Therefore they need to be accommodated and given other services. In this regard the hospitality industry comes in hand as it offers them support in accommodation and other necessary services. The hospitality industry has therefore hinged its growth on the tourism sector. (Leornard 2001, p. 52) One of the emerging natures of the hospitality industry has been diversity that has been experienced in the customers that the industry target and also in the workforce. There has been an increasing trend in the industry towards culture convergence in which one hospitality facility in the world is serving people of diverse culture. Therefore there has been an aspect of standardization of culture in the industry. Cultural homogeneity is considered to be one of the competitive factors that need to achieve in order to survive in the competitive market. With the market become more diverse due to divers needs of the customers, the hotel industry have therefore tended to have a divers nature of employees in order to help their customers to feel at home every time they are being served. Therefore there has been an increasing trend of multicultural workforce in the industry. This of course has come with its own challenges to human resource management. One of the most challenges that faces any human resource management is a multicultural workforce is the way to handle complains by the employees. Many a times, employees feel that their welfare is not looked at as needed in the organization and there are usually incidences of unfair treatment of the employees. But due to the diverse nature of the employees, the human resource department may not be in a position to come up with standardized way of dealing with all the demands that employees have. Therefore there are incidence of complaints that are based on the favors in the workforce and discontent in the allocation of duties. Many of het case studies that have been presented about complain in the hospitality industry have all been based on issue of favors in the workforce which arise due to the diversity in the workforce. Therefore in the contemporary human resource management issues, diversity in the workforce in the hospitality industry have been one of the causes of complains in the workforce. The hospitality industry is one of the most hectic industries as visitors check in and checks out. As a result there is a lot of work that needs to be done by the workforce. The nature of services in the industry is based on the fact that the visitors have to feel as comfortable as they want and find value for the amount of money that they are charged. Therefore there has to be a lot of work that is done by the employees in order to meet the demands of the visitors. Some of the visitors can be a little nagging and may require excessive attention than others. Going by the nature of definition of the duties the employee have to perform some employee will always find themselves doing extra work that they have not bee assigned at the time they were hired. Therefore there is usually a conflict with their supervisors who have to make sure that the guest gets all what they want and therefore will have to assign extra duty to the employees. At the end to the day employees will feel that they have done more that they are supposed to do in their duties. This has been shown to be another source of complains from the employees who feels that they are unfair treated and their initial duty assignment is not respected. (Andrew Kurth LLP, 2008) In most cases supervisors are faced with a hard task of ensuring that employee perform all the duties that they have been assigned to and also perform the extra duties that the guests wants to be attendee to. Therefore there is a situation between the supervisors and the employees. The hospitality industry peaks with seasons. This means that there are periods when there will be an inflow of guest while there are other seasons when there will be less guest checking in. In there regard there is a fluctuating need of employees in the industry. When the season peaks, the industry will need to hire more employees and when the season is low the industry will need to lay off some of the employees. In this regard the tourism industry is most affected by the seasonality. Most of the hotels which operation in leisure industries will find the there are periods when there will be more guest especially during holidays and weekend while there are other when there will be less guest. The industry is also prone to political stability and other factors and therefore the times when there is a serene atmosphere will see an inflow of guest while the times when there is political turmoil there will be less guests who will be checking in. As a result the industry is force to keep on hiring and lying off some of the workers. It has continuously become difficult for the industry to hire more employees on permanent bases due to the fact that there are period when the industry will need more workers while the off seasons will need less workers. Therefore there is a factor of the way in which employees are hired and retained in the industry. This has been one of the most contentious issues especially when it come to the labor unions which have been arguing that there is need for the industry to hire employee on permanent bases. There are a times when the industry is forced to lay off the employee unexpected due to the prevailing circumstance. For example in Kenya which is one of the famed tourism destinations in Africa, the last year skirmishes had a negative effect in the industry. It is recorded that though it was the high season when the tourism and hospitality industry expected a great inflow of guest, more than 10,000 employees were laid off. This was due to massive cancellation of bookings that had been done. The industry has apparently hired more workers in anticipation for the high season that had just started to pick up. There has been a conflicting situation in the industry as the employee who had been hired on contracted bases want to be paid all the money as their contract had defend while the industry is trying to recover from a massive losses incurred due to the massive cancellation. The hospitality industry has also been shown as one of the industry which pays the workers low salaries. This has been caused by the fact that the industry sometime will need to hire more employees and other times it will have to lay off some the employees. Due to the fact that the industry goes on of very lean seasons when it has to maintain its operation, there have been incidence of some players in the industry paying their employee very low salaries in a bid to cover the expense in the low season. Therefore there have been conflicts between the workforce and the management on the issue of salaries. This is one of the most conflicting issues that have led to formation of labor unions in the industry. Most of the operators in the industry agree with the fact that the industry pays less money to its employees especially during the low seasons but they try to equate that with the operation of het industry during that period. It has been shown that although the industry has been growing at a high rate, there have been fewer incidences of increased salaries for the workforce even at times when the industry is performing well. There has also been incidence of customer complain in the industry. It has been shown that in most cases customer have been complains about the quality of service that they receive from particular employees in the industry and also from the facility in general. This has been a difficult situation for the human resource department especially since it has to ascertain the nature of the conflict between the employee and the guest. In most case the guest may have rubbed the employee on the wrong side and therefore there must be a way of asserting the truth before punishing the employee. Though the issue of customer complains has been shown to be a responsibility attached to the customer service department, at the end of the day it ends up as a management issue that has to be resolved. Both hotel and hospitality industries fall under any industry in the country. Therefore they are exposed to the same labor laws like any other industry. However the nature of employee relation in the industry has been changing due to some of the factors that have been shown. Although there has been increasing labor unionization of the industry there has also some legal aspects that have been protecting the employees in the industry. One of the laws that protect employee in the industry has been the National Labor Relation Act which are aimed at redressing complain of any employees that has been unlawfully discharged from their duties. Through the law the employee is able to seek redress in the law court. However there has been conflicting situation when it comes to address this issue and when it comes to the application of the law. This is because every time an employee is dismissed from their duties for a genuine reason, they run to the court to place complains and what follows is an argument about the rights of het employees. Although the employer has the responsibility of recognize the rightist of the employee, there has been the question of the responsibility of the employee especially when it comes to the nature of the operation of the industry. Being in an industry that calls for meticulous performance of duties in order to ensure the satisfaction of the employee, there has been incidence where the employee have been dismissed on the ground of misbehaving with the guest or failing to perform their duties and what follows is a lawsuits for the company. (Mitchell, 2007) There has been increasing misinterpretation of the National Labor Relation Act when it comes to the employees working in the hospitality industry. There has been a need to becoming familiar with the law and its interpretations. There has been misinterpretation of the act when it comes to the employers also. It has been shown that there are many incidences when the employers back off from their earlier salary agreement and fire off employee who complains. But the law has shown the act is inclusive even of the employee who works in the hospitality industry who are likely to work for part time bases. Holiday Inn has been one of the most prosperous hotels that have become major player in the hospitality and tourism industry. It has been able to spread its wings all over the world and has grown to be a multinational in a very short period. It has positioned itself in all the corners of the world which have tourism potential and therefore it has a world wide presence. Like any other play in the industry, the hotel has been receiving a number of complains from the customers as well as from the workers themselves. Since the hotel has been relying on tourism activities in its overseas operation, the hotel has been experience same problems as we have mentioned above which are all hinged on the satisfaction of the employee and on other factors. But is has successfully put in place a mechanism that is used to handle all these complains. It has been dealing with a range of complains about its employees and at the same time there have been complains from the employees on the way they are beign treated. (Dilts 2006, p. 34) In order to handle all these complains, the hotel first steps which were aimed at streamlining it relationship with the employees was the formation of the human resource department which was supposed to look at the welfare of the employees. The human resource department was apparently responsible for looking at the welfare of the employee and also it was to handle complains from the employee. Therefore it was given the authority to deal with issue of hiring and firing of the employees. In areas where the hotel has been hiring seasonal workforce, it has been putting the employee on a contractual agreement where they are supposed to be paid according to there performance and not on the bases that eh were hired. This has been made in order to avoid many complains that come from the workforce once they are dismissed from their employee when the low seasons comes. The hotel has also made sure that it has put in place a board that is supposed to scrutinize all the complains that are received from the employees so that it can look into the way of making sure that they are well addressed. The board or the arbitration body is supposed to work in close conjunction with the human resource department to make sure that there is a well defined procedure that is followed while dealing with the complains. Therefore there have been systematic efforts by the hotel that has been aimed at reducing the level of complains with the workforce. These efforts have also been aimed at ensuring that all the employees are handled as equal and that complains are dealt with as a matter of urgency. From time to time there will be complains from the workforce. These complains are most of the time genuine and they indicates that there is a problem that need to be fixed somewhere in the work process. The human resource department that has been given the mandate of dealing with the issue of these conflicts understands that employees are the most important treasure that ht organization holds. It has to deal with the employee well, so that it will gain a competitive edge in the market. Therefore it is good for the management to come up with proper way of dealing with these complains in order to avert further action from the employee. Most of the time if these complain is not dealt with they are likely to precipitate to strikes which will have a negative effect on the productivity of the industry and also on the image of he industry. The tourism and hospitality industry has been one of the industries that have been suffering major grievances from employee due to issues of off and on season employment and low payment. There have been major labor action in the industry which has been caused by these complain that has been expressed by the workforce. Therefore there is need for the players in the industry to handle some of these complains well and take the example of Holiday Inn which has come with effective mechanisms that are meat to deal with the problem firmly. Andrew Kurth LLP, 2008, Hospitality and Hotels: Employment and Labor, Retrieved from http://www.andrewskurth.com/industries-22.html on 10th May 2008 Dana, D 2001, Conflict Resolution, McGraw Hill Dentron, K. Boyd, C 2005, Employee Complaint Handling, Greenwood Publishing Group Dilts, D 2006, Cases in Collective Bargaining industry relations, McGraw Hill, New York Finegan, J 2004, The rigorous customer-complain, Harvard Business Review12 Leornard, A 2001, The service Driven Company, Harvard Business Review 69 Mitchell, M 2007, Union organization Trend in the Hospitality Industry, Retrieved from http://www.4hoteliers.com/4hots_fshw.php?mwi=2363 on 10th May 2008 Rahul, J 2005, Corporate Reputation, John Willey, New York

Summit for hire? :: essays research papers

The day after Univ. of Tennessee’s Pat Summit eclipsed North Carolina’s Dean Smith for most career wins by a Division I Head Basketball Coach some suggested that she would be a good choice to lead the Vols' men's squad. UT has since hired a male coach. Yet we are still left with the question of whether Summit should be considered for, or accept any such job. The 800-pound gorilla in this argument is whether Summit deserves to lay claim to the title as "all-time winningest Division I basketball coach." In a purely statistical sense, she does. But comparing the women's and men's games is like comparing, well, women and men. They're completely different. Sadaharu Oh hit more home runs than Hank Aaron, but nobody would say the two men are comparable, since Oh played in Japan, and Aaron played in the U.S. John Gagliardi won more football games than Bobby Bowden. Again, a difference: Gagliardi coached in Division III, while Bowden spent most of his time in the I-A rank. And Summit has more wins than Smith. But we're talking about two different sports. Not better or worse, different. Smith is the men's wins champion, and Summit holds the women's title; two different sports, two different leaders. The reason Summit shouldn't consider taking the men's job is that she could end up damaging the women's game by doing so. She is a giant in her sport, the most successful coach ever and the builder of the program every other school wants to emulate. If she were to take over the UT men's team and not win big, there would be joy among those who consider women's college basketball inferior. Summit has never recruited men's players. She would have to build a new network of high school and AAU contacts to help funnel her players. She would have to deal with prep stars who believe their next dribble should be for NBA millions, not collegiate glory. That doesn't exist (yet) in the women's game. And she would face the challenge of convincing families and players that playing for a woman is no different than playing for a man. Fail to do any of that, and Summit won't get the players to compete at the highest level. And if she doesn't win -- and win big -- she will be viewed by many as the queen of the minor leagues who failed at her shot in â€Å"the bigs.

Truman Capotes In Cold Blood Essay -- In Cold Blood Essays

  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Many writers traditionally use their imagination to fabricate an interesting yet fictional story. Only their creativity and vision limit their writing. They can afford to neglect minor details because they do not base their stories on factual information. There existed a period when this was the only practiced style when writing a novel. However, Truman Capote pioneered the 'nonfiction novel', as he called it, when he undertook the writing of In Cold Blood. His book described the well-known murders of the Clutters, a model American family. Due to the fact that Capote was writing a factual account of the crime, he thought it necessary to make his novel correct in even the smallest details. This proved to be a very difficult project, but his perseverance paid off. Capote made use of many literary techniques in order to grab the interest of his readers. He wanted his novel to be more than just a newspaper description of the crime. Finally, In Cold Blood was a great s uccess because it told a true story in an interesting way. Capote overcame a big milestone by discovering a way to write a nonfiction novel, which appealed to everyone.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  First, Capote knew that he was creating a new art form when he wrote his greatest work, In Cold Blood. He was a writer for the New Yorker, which gave him good practice in gathering important facts It took him six years to complete this book because that is the amount of time that passed from the time the Clutters were murdered to the time the criminals were put to death. Truman Capote wanted his novel to be as close to the true facts as possible. He painstakingly gathered information from Holocomb, Kansas, the site of the murders, and various other settings. In reference to Capote?s obsession for accuracy, Gerald Clark wrote   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  In Cold Blood may have been written like a novel, but it is accurate   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  to the smallest detail, ?immaculately factual? Truman publicly boasted.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Although it has no footnotes, he could point out to an obvious source   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  for every remark uttered and every thought expressed. ?One doesn?t   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  spend almost six years on a book, the point of which is factual accuracy,   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  and then give way to minor distortions.?(358) Because Truman had to devote much of his time to the research and writing of this novel, he wanted to be thorough. He was so proud of his work that he dubbe... ...nent   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  to every event, and the creative vision of an artist who can arrange his   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  materials in such a manner that the reader is moved to pity, terror, joy,   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  and sorrow.(237) Capote proved his excellence in writing by maintaining a firm grasp on his reader?s attention.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  In conclusion, In Cold Blood was a pioneer novel because it combined journalism with fiction techniques. It was very difficult for Truman Capote to write this novel because he had to gather massive amounts of data in order to make the book factual. Next, he needed to organize that data in such a way that it would be interesting to the reader. Secondly, Capote used many literary techniques such as flashback and dramatic irony to make his novel more interesting. Finally, this novel was very appealing to all people because it was based on a true crime. Edward Weeks wrote ?he is providing the readers with a high-minded aesthetic excuse for reading about a mean, sordid crime.(160)? This means that Capote provided people with an artistic account of the Clutter murders rather than a straightforward, newspaper one. Works Cited: Capote, Truman. In Cold Blood. New York: Vintage, 1965.

Critically Evaluate the Contributions of Functionalism to the Study of Society Essay

Critically evaluate the contributions of functionalism to the study of society. Functionalist theory is one of the major theoretical perspectives in sociology. It can be argued that the functionalist theory has made a significant contribution to the study of society. It originates from the work of Emile Durkheim who suggests that social order is possible and society remains stable due to the functioning of several institutions. Everything has a specific function in society and society will always function in harmony. The main institutions studied by functionalism are the family, the education system, religion and crime and deviance. Murdock argues that the family performs four basic functions in all societies – sexual, reproductive, economic and educational. These four basic functions are essential for social life since without the sexual and reproductive functions there would be no members of society, without the economic function life would cease and without education there would be no socialisation or culture. Without these four basic functions human society could not survive. The family does not perform these functions alone however it makes important contributions to them all. Murdock is often criticised for his picture of the family as he did not consider whether its functions could be performed by other social institutions and he does not examine alternatives to the family. Equally, Murdock illustrates the nuclear family as very harmonious and perfect. There are many ill-functioning families in society which Murdock fails to examine and explain. What is the function of families when the husband and wife fail to have an integrated division of labour and have a healthy sexual relationship? Talcott Parsons offers an alternative view of the functions of the family and suggests it serves two purposes: primary socialisation and the stabilisation of the adult personality. Primary socialisation refers to socialisation during the early years of childhood, which take place mainly within the family. This is important in contributing to society as our parents supposedly bring their offspring up to grow to be well-behaved, obedient individuals with the right values to help society function. The stabilisation of adult personalities emphasises on the marriage relationship and emotional security the couple provides for each other. This acts to counteract the stresses of everyday life and keep the personality stable. Parsons claims that the family therefore provides a context in which husband and wife can express their childish feelings, give and receive emotional support, recharge their batteries and so stabilise their personalities. However, Parsons’ views on the family are criticised for being incomplete and idealising the family with his picture of well-adjusted children and sympathetic spouses caring for each other unconditionally. It is a over-optimistic and modernist and has little relationship to reality, because as mentioned before, not all families function perfectly. Similarly to Murdock, Parsons also fails to examine alternatives to the family which may provide the same functions for the development of society. The overall functionalist theory on the family is criticised by Marxism, feminists and some postmodernists. A Marxist would argue that the function of the family is to serve capitalism. Some feminists would argue that the function of the family is for women to serve men and that families are so diverse it is hard to argue that the family has a purpose. Some postmodernists suggest that the nuclear family is not as common as it seems and that there are now many diversities of families due to cultural and social changes. These views are clearly in conflict with the views of functionalism; therefore it allows us to question their validity. Functionalism also has its set of views on the education system. Emile Durkheim claimed that the main function of education was to transmit society’s norms and values through generations. Social solidarity is essential for the welding of mass individuals into a united whole. Functionalists such as Durkheim argue that education builds a sense of commitment and belonging to a society and a belief that the whole of society is more important than a single individual. Durkheim argued, ‘to become attached to society, they will come to see that they are part of something larger themselves; they will develop a sense of commitment to the social group’. Durkheim also claimed that the school serves a function which cannot be provided by the family the peer group. Individuals must learn to cooperate with those who are neither their family nor their friends. In this way, children learn to respect authority figures, such as teachers, and get along with other members of society they would be forced to interact with in later life such as bosses and colleagues. These social interactions are essential for keeping society harmoniously balanced and functioning. Durkheim claimed that along with teaching us to interact with different social groups, education serves to strictly reinforce school rules and ensure that children realise that these should be followed. Punishments should reflect the seriousness of the damage done to the social group by the offence and teach individuals that it is wrong to act against the interests of the social group as a whole. In Durkheim’s words: ‘it is by respecting the school rules that the child learns to respect rules in general, that he develops the habit of self-control and restraint simply because he should control and restrain himself. It is the first initiation into the austerity of duty. Serious life has now begun’. Durkheim finally argues that education teaches individuals specific skills necessary for their future occupations. Schools transmit both general values which provide the necessary skills for social survival. Industrial society is united by value consensus and a specialised division of labour whereby specialists combine to produce goods and services. Education is essential for this because it trains individuals to develop the skills which will be useful for their future occupations. In the current education system children are given the opportunity to learn technical and practical skills as well as academic skills which all come together to help society function. However, Durkheim is criticised for several reasons. Firstly, he assumes that societies have a shared culture which can be transmitted through the education system. Britain for example is now multi-cultural and it is therefore debatable whether there is a single culture on which schools could base their curriculum. If a school bases their curriculum on a single culture they are often accused of ethnocentrism, which is a difficult issue to overcome when schools bring together children of many different cultural backgrounds and ethnicities. Secondly, his views on the education system are in conflict with those of Marxism, which argues that education serves to transmit a dominant culture and serve the interests of the ruling class rather than the members of society as a whole. Finally, functionalism has its views on the way crime and deviance applies to society. Functionalism looks at society as a whole and looks for the source of deviance in the nature of society rather than in the individual. Social control mechanisms such as the police and courts are argued to be necessary to keep order in society. Durkheim argues that crime is inevitable because not every member of society can be equally committed to the collective sentiments of society. Durkheim also claims that crime can be functional because all social change begins with some form of deviance and a certain amount of social change is healthy for society. Merton, 1968, argued that deviance results from the culture and structure of society itself. Since members in society are placed in different positions in the social structure, for example different social classes, they do not all have equal opportunities. This situation can generate deviance – for example, members of the lower classes, such as the working or under class may resort to crime due to their position in the social structure because they are deprived of things essential for survival. Merton also outlined the five responses to cultural goals: conformity, innovation, ritualism, retreatism and rebellion. The first way in which society can respond to cultural goals is through conformity. Members of society conform both to success goals and to the normative means of reaching them. They strive for success by accepted means. The second response is innovation in which individuals reject normative means of reaching success and turn to deviant means such as crime. Merton argues that members of the lower social strata are more likely to select this route to success. Merton claims that they have little access to conventional and legitimate means of becoming successful. Low qualifications mean little opportunity for jobs and advancement since their route to success is blocked. Therefore they turn to crime, which promises greater rewards than legitimate means. Membership of the lower social strata is not alone enough to produce deviance however – pressures from society contribute to an individuals need to deviate. The third response is known as ritualism. Those who select this as an alternative are deviant because they have largely abandoned the commonly held success goals. Members of the lower middle class who have less opportunity than other members of the middle class are likely to take the path of ritualism. However, they have been strongly socialised to conform to social norms so they do not turn to crime. They scale down or abandon their success goals. Ritualists are deviant because they have rejected the success goals held by most members of society. The fourth and least common response is retreatism which applies to ‘psychotics, chronic alcoholics and drug addicts’. They have strongly internalised both the cultural goals and institutionalised means, however they are unable to achieve success. They resolve their situation by abandoning both the goals and the means of reaching them. They ‘drop out’ of society defeated and resigned by their failure. They are deviant in two ways: they have rejected both the cultural goals and the institutionalised means. The fifth and final response is rebellion. This involves both rejection of both success goals and institutionalised means and replaces them with their own different goals and means. They wish to create a new society. Merton says ‘it is typically members of a rising class rather than the most depressed strata who organise the resentful and the rebellious into a revolutionary group’. Hannon and Defronzo, 1998, carried out a study which gives empirical support for Merton’s five stages. In a study of 406 metropolitan counties in the USA, they found that those with higher levels of welfare provision had lower levels of crime. They argued that the welfare provision opened up opportunities for people to achieve the goal of material success. They argued that the welfare provision opened up opportunities for people to achieve the goal of material success through legitimate means and therefore reduced anomie and the crime which could result from it. However, critics have argued that Merton’s five stages neglect the power relationships in society as a whole within which deviance and conformity occur. Taylor, 1971, criticised Merton for not carrying out his analysis far enough and failing to consider who makes the laws and who benefits from them. The whole game may have been rigged by the powerful with rules that guarantee their success. These rules may be the laws of society. Merton is also criticised for being deterministic because it fails to explain why some people who experience effects of anomie do not become criminals or deviant. It over-exaggerates working-class crime and underestimates middle-class and white collar crime. Furthermore, Taylor, Walton and Young, 1973, criticise that Merton’s theory cannot account for politically motivated criminals such as freedom fighters who break the law because of commitment to their cause rather than the effects of anomie. In conclusion, functionalism has made great contribution to the study of society as it offers explanations for the functions of the major institutions in society. However, the whole functionalist theory is based around the idea that these institutions serve to keep society functioning and harmonious. Almost all their ideas are criticised by Marxism, which suggests the complete opposite – that all institutions serve the interests of the ruling class and capitalism rather than serving the needs of the general members of society as a whole. As shown above, we can compare perspectives such as Marxism, feminism and postmodernism with functionalism to assess its advantages and disadvantages. The functionalist theory is an important perspective widely covering most aspects of society, however it falls flat where it is criticised for being too deterministic and failing to consider the chaos and disorganisation in society.

Evaluation of Gender Inequality Essay

Charlotte Brontà « wrote in Jane Eyre, â€Å"I am no bird; and no net ensnares me: I am a free human being with an independent will.† No visible net ensnares womankind. However, long have women been viewed and treated as unequal to their male counterparts. This inequality is alive everywhere. As displayed in Of Mice and Men, gender inequality is alive even in fiction. Gender equality has been an ongoing struggle in fiction and reality, our country and foreign countries, and in the past and the present. Gender inequality effects the people of the entire world. For example, there are major issues involving gender in Egypt. In Egypt, there are the sparks of movements trying to introduce women into government without challenging the reigning Brotherhood. Another place that struggles with gender inequality is the U.S. where women representation in government is very low. Only 17 out of 100 senate seats are held by women. Even in the U.S., one of the most highly regarded nations in the world, women are not entirely equal. Gender inequality has effected people all through time. In example, it wasn’t until the 1920’s that women could vote in the U.S. Women have long been considered less than their male counterparts. Only recently have women put a dent in the extreme patriarchy that has existed all through history. Today, women still are of unequal representation, pay, and rights across the globe. For example, in the U.S. today, there is an average pay gap of 77% (as of 2009). This means women earn 77 cents to a man’s dollar as pay for the same positions. This is one example of how inequality lingers in modern day first world countries. Gender inequality is also existent in both reality and fiction. We have already given many examples of real cases and statistics including representation and wage gaps. However, there is also gender inequality in the fictional world. For example, in Of Mice and Men, Curly’s wife is a prime example of gender struggles. She is constantly being marginalized. Sheis viewed as a thing that would get Lennie in trouble instead of an actual person. Even her name is never spoken. She is referred to as â€Å"Curly’s wife† which reaffirms Curly’s ownership over her and her status as a possession or an object instead of a human being. When her dead body is found, the first and only comment made of her death was along the lines of, â€Å"Poor boy.† Curly’s wife’s death was seen as nothing but something unfortunate for Lennie. This contributes to the pile of evidence that can conclude that Curly’s wife was considered a mere object. Through time, in foreign countries, and even in between pages, gender inequality has been a constant struggle. Charlotte Bronte wrote that she, a woman, is no bird. A woman, after having a net thrown on her and her fellows time and time again, must decide to declare that they are not a bird, but a human being. Human beings aren’t to be ensnared. It is said that the first step of fixing a problem is the recognition that it exists. So, women must understand that the net encompassing them is not a blanket, but a prison. Together, womankind must stand and declare, â€Å"We are not birds.† Hopefully, these examples of gender inequality is bringing more attention to the â€Å"net.† Hopefully, the realization will dawn that gender inequality is thriving among us and will not die out on its own. It has existed everywhere, always. A mighty effort is to be made to begin the reversal of this inequality and injustice.