Friday, January 24, 2020

Rships after Downsizing :: essays research papers

ORGANIZATIONAL VIRTUES AND ORGANIZATIONAL PERFORMANCE: RELATIONSHIPS AFTER DOWNSIZING THE PREVALENCE OF DOWNSIZING BEFORE 911  ·Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Almost all medium and large firms downsized in the last five years. More than 90 percent of firms downsized in the last five years. A large majority downsized more than once in the last ten years.  ·Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Downsizing is not a one-time action. Approximately 62 percent of firms that downsized two years ago downsized again last year.  ·Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Downsizing is not motivated solely by bad economic news.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Only 37 percent of firms downsized last year because of economic difficulties compared to 71 percent at the beginning of the 1990s. Only five percent downsized because of decreased market demand.  ·Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  In one third of all U.S. households, a family member lost a job. Nearly three quarters of all U.S. households had a close encounter with layoffs in the last decade. AFTER 911  ·Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The number of layoffs has equaled the total of all previously announced layoffs for the year. 416,000 lost jobs in September alone. RESULTS OF DOWNSIZING IN AMERICA  ·Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Fewer than half the companies that downsized between 1990 and 2000 had short or long-term profit increases.  ·Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Fewer than a quarter reported increases in employee productivity, product and service quality, and shareholder value.  ·Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Three years after downsizing, the market share prices of downsized companies were an average of 26 percent below the share prices of their competitors.  ·Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Among companies that downsized, those that laid off the fewest workers exhibited the largest return on assets.  ·Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Almost all organizations that downsized—in the public sector and the private sector—experienced an emergence of the â€Å"dirty dozen† as a result of downsizing. THE DIRTY DOZEN Universal Consequences of Downsizing, Trauma, Crisis  ·Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Centralization  ·Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The Threat-Rigidity Response  ·Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Loss of Innovativeness  ·Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Decreasing Morale  ·Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Politicized Environment  ·Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Loss of Trust  ·Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Increased Conflict  ·Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Restricted Communication  ·Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Lack of Teamwork  ·Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Loss of Loyalty  ·Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Scapegoating Leaders – Leadership Anemia  ·Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Short-term Perspective – Resistance to Change THE ABUNDANCE HYPOTHESIS A decade of downsizing research led to the supposition that organizations characterized by virtuous behavior would predict superior performance after downsizing. Impressionistic data led to the presumption that indicators of performance such as employee satisfaction, productivity, quality, organizational innovation, and shareholder value would increase over time—and the dirty dozen would decrease—in organizations that fostered and facilitated the demonstration of organizational virtues. In fact, a few firms were observed that displayed â€Å"positive deviance,† that is, an affirmative exception to usual organizational behavior. They possessed characteristics that seemed to foster extraordinary value, remarkable performance, and high levels of excellence. Especially on the human dimension, they engendered virtuousness in relationships and in treatment of people. When they downsized they did so with caring and compassion.

Thursday, January 16, 2020

Compromises That Lead to the Constitution

In the period between the drafting of the Constitution and the start of the Civil War, compromise was a main part in the governing of the United States. The Constitution itself is often referred to as a â€Å"bundle of compromises† and because of the effectiveness of these compromises it has been able to withstand time and continue to be the main source of our government. Conflict arose even after the Constitution and compromises were made to try to keep the Union together and decrease tensions between the North and South.In this paper, I will discuss the compromises that made up the Constitution as well as the compromises that were implemented leading up until the Civil War. The drafting of the Constitution is compiled of great compromises that are the reason why our great government is still working today. James Madison created one of these compromises called the Virginia Plan. His plan called for a strong central government, one that had control to legislate, levy taxes, ve to state laws, and authorize military force against states.His plan also called for a bicameral legislature and fixed representation in both houses of Congress proportionally to each state’s population. The people would select the lower house and those in that house would elect the delegates in the upper house who in turn would select the president and judges. This plan didn’t work because those smaller states felt they wouldn’t have equal representation in this house due to their population being smaller than the larger states. They feared that the large states would control the legislatures and the small states wouldn’t be able to get what they wanted done.After the Virginia Plan didn’t work, William Paterson of New Jersey offered another proposal called the New Jersey Plan. This plan stated that there should be a single chamber congress in which each state had an equal vote, just like the Articles. This plan also did not work because it gave too much power to the smaller states who only compiled about 25% of the Americans. And so, the Great Compromise was proposed. This compromise was passed on July 17, 1787 and stated that the upper house would have equal representation, satisfying the small states, and the lower house would be based on population, satisfying the large states.The fear of the people was that the central government would become too powerful and that the states wouldn’t be able to do anything about it. Through debate and in attempt to solve this from happening, the framers of the Constitution came up with two things: separation of powers and the system of checks and balances. These two systems have kept our central government from getting too powerful as well as keeping our states from getting too powerful. Separation of powers meant that the three distinct branches in the national government all had different powers and one branch couldn’t try to do the job of the others.These three branches a re the executive, judicial, and legislative branch. The executive branch is composed of the President of the United States and his cabinet, the legislative branch is composed of the Senate and House of Representatives, and the judicial branch is the Supreme Court. The system of checks and balances was meant to prevent any one branch from dominating the other two. Examples of the checks and balances include the power of the President to veto acts of Congress, but to insure that the president doesn’t overuse this power Congress can override a president’s veto with a two-thirds majority in each house.The framers also made it so the Constitution could be amended if needed by a two-thirds vote in both houses of Congress and then the amendment has to be ratified by three-fourths of the states. This amendment process is the reason why the Constitution has lasted as long as it has and why all the compromises the make of the Constitution still hold true today. The framers made it so the Constitution can be changed if and when our country changed views and ideas on all sorts of issues.The admittance of Missouri as a state threatened the balance of the union in 1819, which at the time had eleven free states and eleven slave states. Since Missouri’s population was composed of 16 percent slaves, it would be admitted as a slave state therefore upsetting the balance in favor of the south. Northerners didn’t like this because Missouri was at the same latitude as the free states of Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois, and because of this they feared that it would set a precedent for slave states coming more north.The north and south continued to argue and argue over the issue of slavery. The north accused the south of trying to extend the institution of slavery and the south said that the north was conspiring to destroy the Union and end slavery. To resolve this crisis, congress passed a series of agreements that became known as the Missouri Compromise, whi ch smoothed over the crisis. In 1820, Congress admitted Maine as a free state and Missouri as a slave state in order to balance the number of free and slave states and to keep order between the north and south.Also, it prohibited slavery in the remainder of the Louisiana Purchase north of the southern boundary of Missouri. This compromise soon fell apart after it was passed. Missouri drafted its own Constitution saying that free blacks were prohibited from entering their territory. Because of this provision, which was against the federal Constitution stating that citizens of one state were entitled to the same rights as citizens of other states, antislavery northerners didn’t allow Missouri to be admitted into the Union until 1821.In 1821, Henry Clay came up with a second Missouri Compromise, which didn’t allow Missouri from discriminating against citizens of other states. This compromise didn’t really calm the conflict between the north and south in terms of sl avery. In fact, the conflicts that resulted in the Missouri compromise were the reasons that the Union fell apart 40 years later. The north still feared the spread of slavery into the north and the south feared that the north would try and take away a key part of their way of life, slavery, and the compromise did nothing to calm these fears.By the end of the Mexican-American War, the United States contained thirty states in the union, fifteen of which were slave states and fifteen that were free states. Due to the huge amount of territory that was gained at the end of the war in 1848, the balance of free and slave states was threatened. Southern, or slave states, feared that because of the doctrine of free soil, which meant that Congress prohibited slavery in the territories. So the southerners came up with the idea of extending the Missouri Compromise.Slavery again was the main issue when determining the admittance of states into the Union. In early 1850, Henry Clay again forged a set of compromises to resolve the issues between the north and south. He proposed the admission of California as a free state; the division of the remainder of Mexican cession into two territories, New Mexico and Utah without federal restrictions on slavery; the settlement of Texas-New Mexico boundary dispute on terms of favorable to New Mexico; an agreement that the federal would assume the considerable public debt of Texas; the continuance of slavery in Washington D.C but the abolition of slave trade there; and a more effective fugitive slave law. By summer, Congress passed each part of the component of Clay’s set of compromises. Although it passed, it still didn’t solve the differences between the north and south. The only reason it passed was because the minority in the north and the minority in the south who favored it combined to be more than those who opposed it in the north and south. This compromise favored more so the north than the south.The north had many o bvious â€Å"wins† in this compromise such as California as a free state, the potential of New Mexico and Utah being free states, and the abolition of slave trade in D. C. The compromise still left open the question of whether Congress had the power to prohibit slavery in territories outside of the Mexican cession. A big issue the north had with this compromise was the acceptance of the Fugitive Slave Law. In 1793, the Fugitive Slave Law was passed. This law required judges to award possession of an escaped slave upon any formal request by a master or his representative.Runaways, as slaves who fled their masters were called, were denied a jury trial and sometimes even refused permission to present evidence of their freedom. This law denied free slaves the same rights that were given to whites under the Bill of Rights. Although this law was upheld, it did not mean that Northerners followed it. This upset the south very much and was a main reason the compromise didn’t la st. They wanted the north to follow the provisions of the compromise since they had to as well.In 1854, Stephen A. Douglas of Illinois proposed the Kansas-Nebraska Act. This act created the territories of Kansas and Nebraska, which opened new lands for settlement and farming. It repealed the Missouri Compromise by allowing settlers in those states to determine through popular sovereignty whether they were slave states or free states. The result of popular sovereignty was the flooding of northerners and southerners into these territories trying to either vote them into being free states or slave states.This act just set fuel to the fire between north and south in terms of slavery and cause great conflict in these territories. The conflicts between the North and South were never truly resolved with the compromises after the ratification of the Constitution. The compromises worked temporarily to smooth over the tensions between them but they never lasted. The reason for this was the le gislations never fixed the real issue, the question of whether blacks were considered equal to whites under the law and until the government made it clear, conflict was inevitable and compromise wouldn’t work.

Wednesday, January 8, 2020

Women And Women s Rights - 2013 Words

Throughout history, the role of women, what rights women should have, and the how women how women should equate to men has always been a popular topic and several majors events have occurred in regards to women s equality, role, and rights. Over the course of civilization, the rights and views of women have drastically improved, but there are still a few areas in which women are not treated as equals to their male counterparts. One popular social issue that is currently in debate is wage equality between men and women. Several early philosophers have voiced their opinions on the inferiority of women, but both some early and modern philosophers actions and arguments illustrate men and women as equals. The role and equality of women was a topic that a few philosophers have spoken about and their ideas can be used to help argue for wage equality in the workplace. The theme that men and women are equal that is present in several philosophers works and theses ideas can be used to cre ate an argument that illustrates women’s right to equal pay. There is a large amount of valid concrete evidence to prove the existence of the drastic wage gap between men and women in the workplace. A recent study completed by the Center for American progress concluded that â€Å"women [are] still earning 78 percent of what men make. This means that though women are the primary, sole, or co-breadwinners in nearly two-thirds of families, they continue to earn, on average, 22 percent less thanShow MoreRelatedWomen s Rights Of Women Essay1455 Words   |  6 Pagesa myriad of women have expressed through outlets such as public assemblies, literature, and speeches. There have been three waves of the women’s movement, each targeting a variety of issues within each era. The third wave was in 1995, where Hillary Clinton spoke in Beijing, China, claiming that women’s rights were the same as human rights, that every aspiring girl deserved the civil liberties that e very man was given around the world. Moreover, the movement had shifted towards women in developingRead MoreWomen s Rights Of Women1265 Words   |  6 Pagesstands in the way of women being equal to men? Journalist Carlin Flora suggests the following, â€Å"While not all claims to humanity are universal and no one context, culture or continent can truly represent all peoples, the following three examples from very different contexts, cultures and continents show that some violations of women’s human rights are universal. 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The women that fought for their rights in the 1920s completely changed how women live their livesRead MoreWomen s Rights Of Women1230 Words   |  5 PagesWomen’s suffrage has stretched from the 1800’s to present day, as women have struggled to have the same civil and constitutional rights as men in politics and be appreciated as equals in the workforce. Groups of women known as suffragists questioned the customary views of women’s roles. Eventually our nation has evolved and realized that male-controlled societies suppress women’s rights. From the beginning steps taken in 1850 to 2013 with women earning combat roles in the military, women’s rolesR ead MoreWomen s Rights Of Women1206 Words   |  5 Pagesto speak of women and the role of women in this election, the subject of women is tiresome but necessary in a world where gender is still existent as an obstacle for most. I cannot identify what woman is. I am basing my definition from our modern understanding of woman, our general view, and the popular experience. People are using younger women voting for Bernie Sanders as proof of gender’s irrelevant in this election, that women have achieved their rights. Even if women ‘have rights now’ it doesRead MoreWomen s Rights Of Women1393 Words   |  6 Pages Women all over the world are being treated different than men. Iran is one of the places that women are being treated the worst. From restrictions to punishments, women in Iran are being treated with no respect, and that is not okay. Women’s rights activists have tried to get it to change, and have traveled to many places to try and get more people to join their movement. There are many issues with women not having the same rights as men. One of the main problems is that they are treated lessRead MoreWomen s Rights Of Women1272 Words   |  6 PagesThroughout history, women have fought a strenuous battle for equal rights. 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