Employee Motivation Essay

Abstract. Employee motivation is the psychological feature that arouses an employee to behave in a certain manner for accomplishing certain organizational goals. Individuals differ in motivation along three parameters viz. self-esteem, need for achievement, and intrinsic motivation. There has been a growing emphasis on employee’s needs rather than just organizational needs, and recognition of the strategic value of employees being developed to their best potential. Organizations have become increasingly aware that the effective development of their employees’ skills and knowledge has benefits for the whole organization. Performance appraisal can be a crucial factor in the setting of career goals and the perception of job satisfaction leading to increased motivation and productivity. The paper examines employee motivation at the workplace. What is Motivation? Motivation is based on emotions. It is the search for positive emotional experiences and the avoidance of negative emotional experiences. Motivation is involved in the performance of all learned responses. It is a behavior that will not occur unless it is triggered. In general, psychologists question whether motivation is a primary or secondary influence on behavior. For example, is the behavior stemmed from personality, emotion perception, and memory or if motivation stems from concepts that are unique. Each year, billions of dollars are spent on motivation courses by large companies. The course involves training in motivation, meetings to boost motivation, incentives to strengthen motivation, meetings to analyze problems in the workplace motivation, tools to measure motivation mission statements, etc. These training sessions also include how to cope with problems in recruitment, productivity and retention, problems of commitment to teams and corporate agendas. Motivation is extremely important to success and to reach personal and business goals that one has set. Ethics Employees must learn to work together towards common goals. Employees must have an understanding of the organization as a whole and how they fit into the organization. They will most likely need training to acquire the knowledge needed for organizational understanding. Once an understanding of the organization and their role in it has been established, the employee with act on the goals set forth. Management must show the employee the need for their being there and for their output and input. The top to bottom role should be fair and there must be a clear code of corporate ethics. There must be communication between all levels, top to bottom, bottom to top. No employee should be left out. Management should ensure that their employees feel secure and they can be trusted and are equals among their peers. Performance should be viewed as a learning experience, not a horrific experience. Appraisals The annual performance review is one of the most feared and fearful processes that leaves employees angry and depressed as opposed to motivated to perform better. Companies have started to look at the appraisal as a more developmental approach to performance evaluation, instead of making the employee feel more insecure about their job performance. By using this technique, it would emphasize on giving employees the skills they need to perform effectively. The goal of a plan such as this would be to achieve goals that have been set by the company and be appraised on how many of those goals they have reached. Goals should be clear and sufficient to motivate employees into action. Business performance will improve by using an effective appraisal system. By defining clear objectives, the employees will be able to focus on the specified task and company goals. Appraisals help the employees feel that their good work is recognized and that they are valued. It also provides an opportunity to discuss concerns and weaknesses that the employee may have and suggestions may be made to find a solution to the problem. Motivation Techniques In order to motivate employees, they must know what is expected of them. Employees must have a clear understanding of challenges and realistic goals that they must meet. Employees that are encouraged to healthy competition ensure that the criteria for successes are clear and do not encourage resentment or low morale. Tough approaches, like firing staff that are not working to their full potential, can motivate other employees to do work better and strive for those goals that have been set. There is no perfect way to motivate staff. Some psychologists hold that financial bonuses or perks will be enough to motivate employees to give their best effort. Competition between employees is also commonly used as a motivation strategy at times. However, the keys to effective employees are motivation strategies that provide a range of incentives that appeal to the different personalities of the employees. While one individual may be driven by money, another may find job satisfaction or creative opportunities more powerful factors. Some company employee motivation techniques suggest that most employees respond to the same incentives. Money is most commonly used to improve motivation, staff retention and ambition. Everyone is different and has their own view about what is important to their life. For this reason, there are steps that can be used to motivate employees by doing things that they value and mean doing the right thing. They are as follows: Find the right job for the right person Empower Employees Co-operation vs. Competition Involve employees in company development When staff feel secure and nurtured in their work environment they perform  better. These steps help employees feel secure in their environment: Praise and recognition of the employee’s successes as much as you constructively criticize them. Let employees be aware of their job security. Be a Leader to staff. Create a comfortable working environment. Treat employees fairly. Mangers are responsible for overseeing employees who are engaged in work or learning tasks. Managers must be aware that some employees participate more out of interest in the task than others are. Others gain their satisfaction principally out the way in which their performance on the task leads to rewards like pay or status. But typically there is a mixture of motives for which a range of different incentives is relevant. Most employees will find at least some satisfaction in simply doing the work. The balance of these intrinsic and extrinsic sources of satisfaction varies from one person to another and between different situations. Some people indeed are highly motivated by both intrinsic interest and extrinsic rewards. Extrinsic and intrinsic motivation Most employees understand intrinsic satisfaction or intrinsic motivation, when an activity is satisfying or pleasurable in and of itself. These activities are things employees like and want to do. For most people, intrinsically enjoyable activities are things like eating, resting, laughing, playing games, winning, creating, seeing and hearing beautiful things and people, and so on. To do these things people do not need to be paid, applauded, cheered, thanked, respected, or anything. They do them for the good feelings that are automatically and naturally received from the activity. Intrinsic rewards also involve pleasurable internal feelings or  thoughts, like feeling proud or having a sense of mastery following studying hard and succeeding in a class. Many, maybe most, activities are not intrinsically satisfying enough to get most of people to do them consistently, so extrinsic motivation needs to be applied in the form of rewards, incentives, or as a way to avoid some unpleasant condition. There are many activities that are intrinsically satisfying to some people but not to other people. This diversity suggests that past experiences can have a powerful influence on determining what is intrinsically satisfying to an individual. In many activities, intrinsically satisfying aspects combine with extrinsic pay offs. For example, employees and people in general, intrinsically enjoy conversing and, at the same time, they get attention, praise, support and useful information. In this case where intrinsic and extrinsic motivations are mixed, one might suppose that over a period of time the accompanying extrinsic reinforcements gradually increase our intrinsic enjoyment of the activity and perhaps vice versa. Extrinsic Motivation Extrinsic Motivation comes from without, such as money, titles, honors, trophies or a date. Extrinsic motivation has been found to destroy intrinsic motivation. Presently there is a movement to eliminate extrinsic motivation from schools, hospitals, and government. Extrinsic Motivation can be based on the phrase, â€Å"Do this, and get this.† Methods of Extrinsic Motivation are sometimes controversial. Some argue that employees view their work as a form of punishment and the paycheck is their reward. Extrinsic rewards tend to focus attention more narrowly and to shorten time perspectives, which may result in more efficient production of predefined or standardized products. Job satisfaction and long term commitment to a task may also be affected. Management first thinks about rewarding employees with money as an effective reward. Unfortunately, money will not always motivate employees to perform better or stay with the company longer. Not everyone thinks money makes the  world go round. Intrinsic Motivation Intrinsic motivation is the satisfaction in which the rewards come from carrying out an activity rather from a result of the activity. Employees that are intrinsically motivated tend to be more aware of a wide range of phenomena, while giving careful attention to complexities, inconsistencies, novel events and unexpected possibilities. They need time and freedom to make choices, to gather and process information, and have an appreciation of well finished and integrated products, all of which may lead to a greater depth of learning and more creative output. Intrinsic Motivation is the outcome of a work situation that employees enjoy. It comes from inside of the employee. Employees feel that they are in charge and that they have the opportunity to acquire new skills and abilities to match a different challenge. Employees also feel that they are a part of a successful team. When rewards, such as praise, are based on performance standards that imply one is doing well and performing competently, then the intrinsic interest increases. People like to be told they are doing well. Intrinsic Motivation is an emotional preference that gives pleasure and enjoyment. It stems from a strong emotional interest in an activity. It can be classified as a sense of freedom. Theories. Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs. Abraham Maslow is considered as the father of Humanistic Psychology. Humanistic Psychology incorporates both Behavioral and Psychoanalytical Psychology. Maslow, although he studied both types of Psychology, he rejected the idea that human behavior is controlled by only internal and external factor. Maslow, instead, based his Motivation Theory on the basis that â€Å"man’s behavior is controlled by both internal and external factors.† (pp. ) He also emphasized that humans have the ability to make choices and  exercise free will. Maslow collected data for his theories by studying individuals with an outstanding presence. His studies led him to believe that certain people have needs which are unchanging and genetic. Some needs are more basic than others are and others are more powerful than others are. As these needs are satisfied, new needs are created and other needs emerge. Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs is as follows: Basic Needs: Physiological; The need for sleep and rest, food, drink, shelter, sex, and oxygen. Safety; The need to be safe from harm. The need for a predictable world with consistency. The need for fairness, routine, and a sense of stability and security. Growth Needs Love and Belonging: The need for love and affectionate relationships, belonging to a group, and caring. Esteem (two components): Self-respect: The desire for confidence, competence, adequacy, achievement, and mastery. Respect of others: The desire for acceptance, recognition, reputation, appreciation, status, and prestige. Understanding and Knowledge: The needs to satisfy curiosity, explore, discover, find solutions, look for relationships and meaning, and seek intellectual challenges. Aesthetics: The need for beauty in surroundings. Self-actualization: The need for growth, development and utilization of potential, becoming all that one can be; self-fulfillment. McGregor’s X and Y Theories Two theories of human behavior at work were developed by Douglas McGregor. Theory X and Theory Y. McGregor did not indicate that workers would be type X or type Y. He saw the two types as extremes, with various possible behaviors in between. Theory X workers would be described an individuals who dislike work and avoid work when possible. They also lack ambition and do not like responsibility and prefer to be followers instead of leaders. These individuals also have a desire for feeling secure. Theory Y workers are individuals that could be characterized as individuals who did not dislike work and are considered responsible. These workers consider work as play or a rest time. For Theory Y workers, management would need to challenge the individual and create a working environment where they can show and develop their creativity. With Theory X, receiving rewards motivates the individuals. Keller’s ARCS Theory of Motivation John M. Keller designed four conditions for an employee to be motivated. Attention, relevance, confidence, and satisfaction (ARCS) are these conditions that when an employee uses them, they will become more motivated to do their tasks and reach goals set by themselves or others. Keller suggests that ARCS must happen in sequence. By following the ARCS order, it will keep the employee interested in the topic. If it were to lose its sequential order, then interest will be lost and motivation would not take  place. This motivation theory argues that events that fulfill personal needs or goals will enhance performance and effort put forth by the employee. Each of Keller’s conditions build upon the next condition. The management should keep these conditions in mind when designing goals and assigning tasks. The Conditions set by Keller are as follows: Attention: The first and single most important aspect of the ARCS model. It is gaining and keeping the employees attention. Keller’s strategies for attention include sensory stimuli, question provocation, and variability. Relevance: Attention and motivation will not be maintained unless the employee believes the training is relevant. The training program should answer the critical question, â€Å"What’s in it for me?† Benefits should be clearly stated. For a sales training program, the benefit might be to help representatives increase their sales and personal commissions. For a safety-training program, the benefit might be to reduce the number of workers getting hurt. For a software-training program, the benefit to users could be to make them more productive or reduce their frustration with an application. Confidence: The confidence aspect is required so that the employee feels that they should put a good faith effort into the organization. If they think they are incapable of achieving the objectives or that it will take too much time or effort, their motivation will decrease. In technology-based training programs, employees should be given estimates of the time required to complete the task or a measure of their progress through the program. Satisfaction: The last is Satisfaction. The employee must obtain some type of satisfaction or reward for achieving the goal or finishing a task. This can be in the form of praise from a supervisor, a raise, or a promotion. If managers are to use this Theory of Motivation, they must address adequate  examples and/or choices for their employees to be available to complete the task or reach a goal. Some employees may be active learners and enjoy experimentation. Some employees may be reflective learners and are more in tune with observing and lectures. These styles must be taken into consideration in order for the employee to feel motivated and be able to help the organization. There are currently thousands of articles on employee motivation research that has evolved from the early work of Maslow, Keller and McGregor. The application of these theories into new communication situations, like the Internet, will be an important contribution for generations to come. Benefits of Motivation Employees It is important that employees are motivated to work hard and increase productivity. Yet some workers are not reaching their full potential. Managers need to be proactive and start or improve existing motivation programs. Employees are aware of what their employers are or aren’t doing to recognize their efforts. The time it takes to set up a program is minimal, program administration is easy and efficient with automated program tracking and reporting. The end result is a program tailored specifically to the needs of the company. To develop a successful motivation program that benefits a company the following suggestions may be helpful: Specific goals that provide a strong sense of motivation and are expected to be obtained. Equity for all participants. Employees perceiving inequity may lower productivity. High perceived value so the participant becomes emotionally involved in obtaining the goal. Employee involvement during the development of the program and timely feedback to employees continuing throughout the program. Employee motivation is the responsibility of the company and its managers. The company must create a workplace that is full of culture and high achievers in order for the business to improve. Recognition, appreciation and rewards are crucial to employee motivation. A pat on the back or a mention of thanks can literally move mountains. Productivity rises for employees that are rewarded for the work they do. A company’s reputation and productivity increases with employees that feel appreciated. Recognition keeps communication open. It is important to keep communication alive with staff. By opening the lines of communication and staying in touch with the employees it will keep you in touch with their needs and desires. Create an atmosphere of cooperation, and give credit where credit is due. In return, the company will have employees that will go the extra hundred miles, and the returns will be tenfold. When an employee is passionate about their involvement and contributions, there will be no limit to the success that can be achieved. Bibliography Pandy, Wayne. (2001) Safety Incentives & Recognition. Creating an Achievement Based Safety Culture. Retrieved September 18, 2004 from http://siri.uvm.edu/ppt/csseincentive/sld030.htm Captain Webb, Bob. (2001) Developing productive skills through self-discovery. Retrieved September 18, 2004 from http://www.motivation-tools.com/ Accel Team. (2004) Motivation. Retrieved from http://www.accel- team.com/motivation/index.html Accel Team. (2004) Theorists and their Theories. Retrieved from http://www.accel- team.com/motivation/theory_01.html Carnegie, Dale. (1981). How to Win Friends & Influence People; Be a Leader: How to Change People Without Giving Offense or Arousing Resentment (pp. 205-243). New York, NY: Pocket Books. Faculty of Information Studies. (1995) Motivation Theories. University of Toronto Retrieved from http://choo.fis.utoronto.ca/FIS/Courses/LIS1230/LIS1230sharma/motive1.htm

Great Works of Western Tradition: The Treatment of Time and History Essay

Not a few of the greatest works in the Western tradition tackle the evolution of humanity and of civilization throughout the ages. The question of the evolution of civilization is all the more difficult since it seems to be tortuous rather than linear and progressive. As it shall be seen, thinkers from very different times have pictured civilization in different ways, emphasizing either its wondrous development or its blatant imperfections. Thomas More, Voltaire and Sigmund Freud belong to very different ages of human civilization and have held very different opinions about history and the evolution or involution of man. As it shall be seen however, the major theme in all of the works under discussion is the evolution of man and society throughout the course of time. Moreover, in Utopia, Candide and Civilization and its Discontents the development of civilization is questioned and the achievements of humanity doubted. Despite the fact that the come from different turning points in human history, which had seen a prodigious advance of culture and understanding of the world, the three authors argue that the human civilization is very far from its ideal state. Thomas More’s Utopia is an imaginary project of the perfect human society which resembles Plato’s Republic. As a representative of Renaissance, More is a humanist and a socialist, who criticizes the state of thing in his native England. The work is therefore, in many ways an inverse mirror of his contemporary society. More openly addresses the precarious society and the politics in England and at the same time creates a reverse counterpart for these on the island of Utopia. The most salient target of the scholar’s criticism is the specific form of government characteristic for his society: feudalism. In his imaginary world, everyone is equal and no one is poor or in need, since everything is distributed justly: â€Å"In Utopia, where every man has a right to everything, they all know that if care is taken to keep the public stores full, no private man can want anything; for among them there is no unequal distribution, so that no man is poor, none in necessity, and though no man has anything, yet they are all rich; for what can make a man so rich as to lead a serene and cheerful life, free from anxieties. †(More 86) According to More, money and possessions in general are the key of civilization as he saw it. As such, he attacks his contemporary society at its very roots, by advocating a society in which everyone would be equal and in which money would hold no importance. As he saw it, the human world was moved and impulse by inequalities and disproportion in possessions: â€Å"And who does not see that the frauds, thefts, robberies, quarrels, tumults, contentions, seditions, murders, treacheries, and witchcrafts, which are indeed rather punished than restrained by the severities of law, would all fall off, if money were not any more valued by the world? †(More 87) Another important aspect that More notes is that, all the crimes and misfortunes arising from the pecuniary problems are punished rather than restrained by law. This aspect of the human society has remained true even today, since money is still a key element in the world and since the law is only designed to help maintain a relative order. Thus, More sees the state of civilization during Renaissance as very precarious, since the character of people and their morality is continuously undermined by the inequality regarding the distribution of possessions. Expressing truly revolutionary ideas for his age, More perceives that the nature of the government in his own time is nothing more than a â€Å"conspiracy of the rich† to monopolize the goods and to hold sway over the rest of the population, under the pretense of administering the public affairs: â€Å"Therefore I must say that, as I hope for mercy, I can have no other notion of all the other governments that I see or know, than that they are a conspiracy of the rich, who on pretence of managing the public only pursue their private ends, and devise all the ways and arts they can find out. †(More 157) More’s intuition about the workings of politics and economics in his own society is therefore incredibly accurate. Utopia is moreover a complete society, having all the institution of the modern world, including politics, religion, science, culture and family. More fundamentally remodels the social order of his time, designing an ideal community marked by simplicity. For instance, the political system is democratic, in the sense that we understand it today, with all of the members of society participating in the elections: â€Å"Once a year every group of thirty households elects an administrator, who used to be known as a syphogrant, but in modern times has been called a phylarch. There is another administrator in charge of every group of ten syphogrants with their households. He used to be called a tranibor, and is now called a senior phylarch. All the syphogrants–there are two hundred of them–elect the chief executive. †( More 96) The family is an important cell of this society which hints at the principles of brotherhood that should dominate and regulate the world. The society has very few laws, moreover, which emphasizes More’s views of the contemporary justice system. According to him therefore, the human society is inevitably based on complex and marginal laws, which strive to punish delinquency but which do not manage to restrain it. Furthermore, science and the arts are made accessible to the large public and not limited to a privileged category. More obviously points out to another essential feature of socialism which stipulates the intellectual equality of all people. This also pinpoints the fact that, in More’s view, the financial inequality of people is the key factor causing inequality in all other respects. It should be noted that More constructed his utopian world primarily as a satire for his contemporary society. He did not believe himself in the ideal society he proposed, simply because the project came considerably before its time and before there would be the necessary conditions to establish it. His main contention therefore is that the human civilization of the Renaissance England was a corrupted and dysfunctional system that revolved around the possessions and interests. All the institutions, the government, the law, the economy, politics and even the arts and sciences suffered from this corruption as they were based on inequality between people. More’s view is all the more revolutionary since the world of Renaissance believed in order and in the chain of things. This scale or hierarchy of things obviously applied to the human society as well, where the king was the highest link in the chain, being set there by divine will. In this context, More’s encouragement of equality is all the more mystifying. As it shall be seen, almost three centuries later, Voltaire published a satire that attacks the myth of human civilization and points out its main weaknesses. As More belongs to the Renaissance, Voltaire belongs to another period of cultural revolution and advancement, the Enlightenment. More so than the Renaissance that had established the faith in man and in his powers, the Enlightenment brought incredible evidence of man’s reasoning capacities and his ability for controlling nature and the universe and making these work in his own favor. As More before him, Voltaire satirically attacks the very roots of his contemporary society. His Candide can be easily considered one of the most potent philosophical satires of all times, as it is directed not to a particular aspect of the world but to the world as a whole and to the entire human race. What Voltaire mocks is not so much the state in which the world and humanity are in, but the inveterate optimism that characterized the Age of Reason. The values and creeds of the Enlightenment philosophers are demolished one by one in Voltaire’s work: the famous statement maintained by Leibniz and Rousseau that our world is â€Å"the best of all possible worlds†, the belief that the universe is in a state of unshakable harmony that only gives the impression of chaos, the general optimism that regarded even the dreariest events in the world as good, the faith in the human reason and the free will of man and many other similar optimist opinions. Voltaire makes the eponymous character of his work, Candide (who is, not by accident and as his name indicates, incredibly naive and simple) experience, through his journeys and adventures, the entire range of human sufferance: wars, natural disasters, maladies, slavery, religious persecution, rape and so on. In his way, Candide experiences all there is to experience and meets with all the evil in the world. His gullible nature disposes him to believe the more comfortable theory, which is that of his master Pangloss. Pangloss is thus the prototype of the Enlightenment thinker, the professed optimist who believes in the absolute perfection of the world. Despite of the disasters he meets with and despite of the evil nature of the men he encounters, Pangloss remains a stubborn optimist, an advocator of the perfect harmony of the universe: â€Å"Master Pangloss taught the metaphysico-theologo-cosmolo-nigology. He could prove to admiration that there is no effect without a cause; and, that in this best of all possible worlds, the baron’s castle was the most magnificent of all castles, and my lady the best of all possible baronesses. † (Voltaire 27) As More before him, Voltaire ironically notes here the way in which the belief in the perfection of the world is used by some to justify their own rights. The eulogy of the baron and baroness, who are obviously far from moral rectitude and nobleness, is a hint to the way in which people of rank had to be treated as great men despite the fact that in truth they were full of imperfections. Another bitter allusion is the image of war as one of the most absurd evils haunting the human society. This is one of the most terrifying proof that man has not reached yet the state of absolute civilization, and that he is still a savage: â€Å"Never was anything so gallant, so well accoutred, so brilliant, and so finely disposed as the two armies. The trumpets, fifes, hautboys, drums, and cannon made such harmony as never was heard in hell itself. The entertainment began by a discharge of cannon, which, in the twinkling of an eye, laid flat about 6,000 men on each side. The musket bullets swept away, out of the best of all possible worlds, nine or ten thousand scoundrels that infested its surface. â€Å"(Voltaire 9) In extremely light tones, Voltaire describes the carnage and absurdity specific to war, hinting that such a disaster would be sufficient to recognize the world and the state of civilization for what it is. Instead of the ordered, harmonious world that some of the greatest philosophers and scientists of the time discerned, Voltaire points to the actual state of humanity as he saw it. Discoveries were indeed being made, but man was far from living in an ideal and balanced universe. There are some obvious similarities between More’s and Voltaire’s satires therefore. More imagined an ideal society which would be the reverse of his contemporary world and Voltaire imagined a story of a naive character who is confronted with all the ills and evils of humanity and civilization. Both of the authors therefore imply that the human evolution is not as significant as it is believed. The beginning of the twentieth century, with the dawn of modernism saw equally great changes in all the aspects of human existence. Freud’s Civilization and its Discontents makes a potent critique of civilization as a web of negative impositions on the modern man. Freud puts forth that civilization can only become workable through an economical principle similar to that employed by the politics of a state: it restrains man’s instinctual force in order to concentrate his energy on the exploitation of its intellectual resources. Thus, while the two other authors under investigation proposed that the world was largely primitive at its core, despite the advancement of civilization, Freud points out the opposite. He elaborates on the benefits and incredible progress made by human civilization, all the same criticizing its prospects which have restrained the instinctual nature of man: â€Å"This contention holds that what we call our civilization is largely responsible for our misery, and that we should be much happier if we gave it up and returned to primitive conditions. †(Freud 33) In Freud’s view, as revolutionary for his time as the other two authors’ perspective during their own, it is the basic requirement of civilization which has become pernicious for man. Thus, civilization demands a repression of instinct in man, in favor of intellectual achievement: â€Å"No feature [†¦] seems better to characterize civilization than its esteem and encouragement of man’s higher mental activities–his intellectual, scientific and artistic achievements-and the leading role that it assigns to ideas in human life. †(Freud 41) According to Freud, it is the very nature of civilization which causes man to become more and more frustrated out of his natural freedom and lack of restraint: â€Å"Civilization is built up upon a renunciation of instinct, how much it presupposes precisely the non-satisfaction (by suppression, repression or some other means) of powerful instincts. †(Freud 44) The efforts and results of science and technology as they are perceived in modern times are indubitable. Man has strived to protect himself from nature thus becoming more and more alienated from it. Civilization is in many ways synonymous with comfort, but, in Freud’s view it is and will always be contrary to man’s happiness: â€Å"Is there, then, no positive gain in pleasure, no unequivocal increase in my feeling of happiness, if I can, as often as I please, hear the voice of a child of mine who is living hundreds of miles away or if I can learn in the shortest possible time after a friend has reached his destination that he has come through the long and difficult voyage unharmed? † (Freud 35) As Freud pertinently remarks, people usually think of the advanced state of civilization in terms of victories over nature, such as the invention of soap for instance: â€Å"Indeed, we are not surprised by the idea of setting up the use of soap as an actual yardstick of civilization. The same is true of order. It, like cleanliness, applies solely to the works of man. But whereas cleanliness is not to be expected in nature, order, on the contrary, has been imitated from her. †(Freud 40) Also, people tend to think of the previous ages as uncivilized in terms of cleanliness, order and comfort mainly. In Freud’s opinion however, these victories are as many frustration for the ego, who has definitively lost his liberty. He argues that civilization comes into harsh conflict with the human ego, since the ego’s instinctual nature cannot be ‘corrected’ by culture but only repressed or silenced. As many aspects of human behavior prove it, instincts only lie dormant inside the psyche and can be awaken at any time. Civilization comes with its impositions and claims, attempting to subdue the subconscious and promote only the sublimated characteristics of the mind. Therefore, being denied the attainment of the pleasure principle, men have to content themselves with exchanging it for the milder ‘reality principle’ which will only safeguard them from extreme sufferance. While More and Voltaire have endeavored to show that civilization is far from reaching its perfection, Freud points out the essential conflict there will always be between civilization and man in his natural state. Basically however, all the authors observe the degradation of humanity, despite the efforts of civilization. In modern times, as Freud notes, the primitive forms of violence have been subdued for the greatest part; however violence has only changed its form and not its nature. The same applies to the majority of the aspects of civilization today. Therefore, the fundamental ideas of the three authors selected have a common center. While the advancement of civilization seems to be undeniable at each of the turning points in history, Renaissance, Enlightenment and then Modernism, civilization seems to have evolved superficially without the possibility of reaching an ideal state. Man builds up an artificial civilization which comes in conflict with the natural world and therefore it is far from being balanced. Thomas More, Voltaire and Sigmund Freud all note that, from various stances, we still do not have the right formula for civilization. ? Works Cited: Freud, Sigmund. Civilization and its Discontents. New York: W. W. Norton, 1961. More, Thomas. Utopia. Trans. David Wootton. Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing, 1999. Voltaire. Candide. New York: Modern Library, 1918.

Your Own Preliminary Research Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 1

Your Own Preliminary Research - Essay Example It is also evident in the contexts of the national governments. It is very evident that in some countries there are specific laws regarding this field of education. According to the writers, almost all universities in Europe have endorsed the e-learning strategies and actually more, they have endorsed them and included them as a part of their school curriculum. Some courses such as the general courses in communication skills and HIV AIDS skills are exclusively being offered through the e-learning programs.   The adoption of e-learning technology has motivated the learning institutions and colleges to take their tutors through rigorous and mandatory training on how to work with this technology and to be effective at doing so. The e-book article also points out that e-learning processes are enhanced by availability of free materials for documentation hence the universities have found it more or less a better source of studying materials since they only need to provide connection to t he internet for students to access the digital campuses (Brigitte). This source interests me because it is very clear; it is simple to understand the basic arguments and reasoning. The source is also loaded with a lot of important information concerning the research topic mentioned above. From the online open public Library, according to ‘The e-learning e-volution in colleges and university’ by the Advisory Committee for Online Learning. There have been tremendous changes in the manner in which universities have been offering their courses in Canada. The e-book referred above was focusing on Europe and the adoption of e-learning in their institutions focusing on France, Italy and other European countries. Here, the insights on this topic from the Open library are based in Canada. According to the corporate author of this article, most universities and colleges in Canada have at least five courses which are fully offered on the online platform,

Analysis of the organization of a target company (General Motors Essay

Analysis of the organization of a target company (General Motors Corporation) - Essay Example Indeed, the company has been able to harness the capabilities of each individual so that they can help in the historic comeback of a legend in business that has succumbed to the pressures of the financial crisis that engulfed the United States (GM Website). The paper also aims to gather different perspectives from different authors and papers that have been available throughout the past two decades. As such, it is important to note the there has been two significant changes that affected the organization of General Motors. One is the transition from the industrial age to the information age which has yielded what Serrat (2008) calls the knowledge workers. Also, automobile giant has not been spared by the onslaught of the credit crunch that engulfed most of the advanced economies towards the latter part of this century’s first decade. Paradigmatic Perspectives The lens for analyzing this paper has already been settled. As such, the views presented herein will illustrate how Gen eral Motors was able to harness their diverse employees into one functioning organization. There will be various literatures that will be able to shed some light into the organization that has been formed within this company. However, the analysis will be anchored upon the basic paradigm that has been established for this study. As such, this will hopefully show the organization of GM and its employees as it rises back from bankruptcy. Looking at the organization of the company, the channels of communication has been established in order to capture the suggestions of their diverse employees (Hoffman and Gavin, 1998). Still, despite the diversity, the company’s organization has been able to maintain a certain degree of linearity as they are able to funnel all these suggestions from all their diverse employees into the top management. In addition, it is important to see how these employees can be effectively harnessed. Indeed, central to the efforts to improve a company’ s organization is its human resources department. As such, it is important that the company is able to maintain within its organization the needed manpower that fits its culture perfectly and contribute to the company (Huselid, 1995). Also, it is important to note that the employees ought to be able to identify themselves with the company and this is what the organization of GM has so far been banking on. Company Background The company that this analysis will focus on is General Motors Corporation (GM), one of the biggest players in the automobile industry in the United States. Last June 2009, at the height of the Global Financial Crisis, GMC filed for bankruptcy that has practically wiped out jobs and share value. However, after being bailed out by the United States government, the company has been able to recover and has been able to record decent profits. As such, the company has tried to distance themselves from their previous image putting forward the impression that General Mo tors has been remade (GM website). Aside from the help from the government, the company has been able to maintain its diverse pool of talents since they rely on their greatest asset – people. Hence, the company tries to maintain a workplace that employees would prefer to work on by making sure that theirs is an organization where people can perform to the best of their abilities. To do so, they have an organization that welcomes the