Reflection On Formative Assessment Education Essay

Reflection On Formative Assessment Education Essay For my reflection on learning I am going to discuss writing assignment 01. I feel that I did a pretty good job with writing assignment 01, however, theres always room for improvement. The easiest part of the assignment was ofcause the multiple choice questions which I answered using mostly the general knowledge that I have gathered over past few years of studying Business Management; the second part of the assignment was to write a literature review which was a more challenging task to accomplish. Academic writing is not an easy task and often takes years to master fully. So at this stage, I wanted to be well on my way to becoming a better writer and a researcher. I believe that I have improved on both my academic writing and organizational skills. After going through week 4s content, I had set goals for myself to become better at organizing information, such as sourcing literature and writing about the information. I had hoped to have a better understanding of what a literature review is in order to incorporate this knowledge into my paper, as well as improve on my own ideas, and I feel like I have done that. According to Badenhorst (2010, p. 16) Writing is currency in academia. It doesnt matter how many ideas we have. If we cant transform those ideas into something material, we have nothing worth trading. Therefore, I had also wanted to be clearer when coming up with ideas in a concise, logical and integrated manner so that the person reading could easily follow my argument and understand what I am trying to say. And once again, I feel that I have done just that too. The general feedback that I got on my first assignment was positive. Some of suggestions that I had received from you were, Very good review. Evidence that the literature was studied and integrated in to the review. You should review the APA style referencing. As you cited some of the references wrong in the text. Always cite correctly. So I went back to revise the document that was given to us in the beginning of this module, namely, An Abridged Guide to the APA Referencing Style. I have learned that when citing a paraphrase within the text of an assignment, the surname of the author followed by a comma and the year of publication should be given wholly or partly in round brackets. If referencing a direct quote a comma and page number after the year should be added. I am now more comfortable with using the APA style referencing and hopefully wont be repeating the same silly mistakes I made in this assignment. References: Badenhorst, C. (2010). Productive writing becoming a prolific academic writer. Pretoria: Van Schaik Publishers. Reflection on learning in Assignment 02 I believe assignment 02 was a real chance for me to test my knowledge and ability to reach the outcomes of the module. I say this because of the nature of this assignment. In general I used to perceive multiple choice types of questions as an opportunity to gain easy extra marks. However, few questions in, I soon realized that assignment 02 was one of the most challenging assignments that I had to complete this year. That is why I was relieved and pleasantly surprised upon the release of the final marks. According to the results, I have gotten 42 correct and 8 incorrect answers. Looking back on the assignment 02, I feel as though I was well-equipped in the majority of the questions in the assignment, especially on answering the questions relating to quantitative and qualitative designs, due to thoroughly going through the work in Week 6, 7, 8, 9 and 10. I feel like my weak point in the multiple choice assignment was that I may have fallen for the distracters. The reason why I have gotten some of the questions wrong is because I struggled in interpreting the idea of the text and choosing one correct answer. Also, most of the questions that I got incorrect had to do with either sampling or data collection. After this assignment I have learned the importance to have a good understanding of measurement process, like levels of measurement, reliability and validity. Researchers need to understand the values they attach to the information they collect. I believe that the tools I learned in this module have made me develop as a researcher and better prepared me for the future. 2.2 Weekly self-evaluations Include the two qualitative questions as self-reflections here for any three weeks of your choice. In addition to including the content that you provided during the specific weeks, also add a further reflection on how you feel about your answers at this point in time, now that you look back at these reflections: Nr Week Self-reflections 1A 2 Describe how you are finding this section of the module and the way in which it was presented. What did you like and what helped you to understand the material? On the other hand were there things that you did not understand properly in the way they were presented. How do you think we can improve our presentation and activities around this part of the work for this module? 1B 2 2A 4 Based on this weeks chapter, which content did you find easy to understand? What helped you to understand the material? What sections did you not understand properly? How do you think we can improve our presentation and activities around this part of the work for this module? In one or two paragraphs, explain the extent to which you are comfortable with your knowledge and understanding of the content of this introductory chapter 2B 4 3A 7 In one or two paragraphs, tell us how challenging you found the content of this weeks work? Are you coping with the workload each week? What are you doing to help reach the targeted learning goals each week? 3B 7 2.3 Reflection on the value of research As an honours student, an employee or employer in an organization, or a citizen of a country, you must make many decisions every day. Good, informed decisions require knowledge. What are the sources of our knowledge? Some of it is acquired through formal education in honours and masters programs in social work, or from attending on-going education programs. It may come from reading articles in professional journals, textbooks, or through online searches. It may also come from senior level experts who have been successful social workers for many years. Factually, much of the knowledge derived from these sources has one characteristic in common it is all derived from doing good research (Bryman Bell 2007, p.4). Conducting research is the most reliable method of acquiring new knowledge about business and learning. Alternative ways of knowing such as common sense, intuition, authority and tradition, have proven less useful for advancing our understanding of the complex process of learning (Mallick 1999, p.5). In the last 40 to 50 years, the value of research has attained a great deal of respectability amongst educators, politicians, business people, and other who often turn to researchers in the quest for reliable and valid information for making decisions (Mallick 1999, p.3). By teaching students the best ways to conduct research, they will be equipped to acquire the knowledge needed for making good, informed decisions in whatever social system level they may become employees or even potential employers. However, understanding how research should be conducted has a second benefit as it allows social workers or citizens of the country to critically and knowledgeably evaluate the research methods of others (e.g. leaders, politicians) and, thus, assess the credibility of the findings and recommendations that they generate. References: Bryman, A., Bell, E. (2007). Business Research Methods, Oxford University Press, New York Mallick, K. (1999). Researching Education: Perspectives and Techniques, Routledge, London 1.0 Introduction Nowadays, almost all curricula in the social studies contain at least one course in statistics. So given the importance of this discipline as a basic knowledge to understand the modern world, it is necessary to do some form of a research on the students attitude to statistics, as this could be an obstacle or an advantage in their learning process. From school, to home, to the workplace, statistics have become a part of our everyday life. In many circles, computer knowledge and competence in statistics is perceived as essential skills. In the beginning of their studies, many of the students are still not fully aware that they are required to study research methodology and statistics as an entire module in order to complete their degree. The emphasis placed on statistics and research related skills without a doubt virtually always surprise them. Some of the students even develop a phobia or an anxiety towards this academic subject that they tend to feel nervous and uncomfortable when they are required to deal with statistics and research related problems. In order to get a thorough understanding about Unisas students attitude towards research methods and statistics, this research will aim at investigating the factors influencing their attitude, by looking at anxiety, self-efficacy they put into studying statistics as well as their academic achievement. 2.0 Literature review In order to understand the implications of this research, an explanation of the key variables found in the literature review must first be discussed. 2.1 Students attitudes toward statistics The readiness of students to start courses in statistics can, apart from mathematical and intellectual ability, also be viewed in terms of emotional and attitudinal factors (Coetzee 2010, p.1). Attitude toward statistics can be defined as a combination of a students attitude toward the use of statistics in their field of study and the students attitudes towards the statistics course (Coetzee 2010, p.1). Although some students show a positive attitude toward statistics, evidence reveals that unfavourable responses far outweigh any favourable responses (Coetzee 2011, p1). Perepiczka et al. (2011) has reported that students often enter statistics courses with negative views or later develop negative feelings regarding the subject matter of statistics (p.100). According to Perepiczka et al. (2011), statistics courses are regarded by most students as an obstacle to obtaining their degree. These same students often delay taking their statistic courses until they cannot postpone it further. Researchers also found that students negative attitudes toward statistics is an influencing factor in low student performance in statistics courses (Perepiczka et al., 2011, p.101). 2.2 Statistics Anxiety In this study statistics anxiety is one of the three factors that influence students attitude towards statistics. Researchers documented a large amount of information on statistics anxiety over the years. For example, there are multiple definitions of statistics anxiety available in the literature. Elliot and Dweck (2005) defined statistics anxiety as the feeling of anxiety encountered when taking a statistics course or doing statistical analysis (p.243). According to Onwuegbuzie, DaRos, and Ryan (1997) statistics anxiety refers to the apprehension that occurs as a result of encountering statistics in any form at any level (p.28). The existing literature also identifies situation specific nature of statistics anxiety, ranging in intensity from mild to severe. While the mild form of statistics anxiety may induce only minor discomfort, severe forms can result in nervousness, panic and worry (Alauddin Butler, 2004, p.202). According to Onwuegbuzie (2000), majority of graduate students in the social sciences appeared to experience high levels of statistics anxiety, and it was found to be higher among female graduate students in comparison to their male colleagues. Statistics anxiety may be a critical factor in influencing and attaining a students academic and professional goals. Baloglu (2003) identified three categories of variables, situational, dispositional, and environmental, that are related to statistics anxiety (p.856). Situational experiences are factors that surround the student, which includes previous statistics experiences. Dispositional experiences are intrapersonal factors that include psychological and emotional characteristics made up of issues such as perfectionism and perception of abilities at developmental stages in life (Baloglu, 2003, p.856). Environmental experiences are interpersonal factors related to the classroom experience (Onwuegbuzie Daly, 1999), which can include the students experiences with the professor. 2.3 Self-Efficacy to Learn Statistics Perepiczka et al. (2011) defines general self-efficacy as ones judgments of his or her capabilities to organize and carry out courses of action required to attain specific types of performances. In other words self-efficacy to learn statistics is a persons confidence in his or her ability to successfully learn statistical skills necessary in a statistics course. Perepiczka stated that self-efficacy beliefs are manifested from four primary sources, which include the following: personal accomplishments, vicarious learning experiences, verbal persuasion, and emotional arousal. These primary sources lay the foundation for building the concept of self-efficacy to learn statistics. There is a lot of information available on self-ability or self-efficacy related to academic achievement (Balogu, 2003, p.858). However, little is known specifically about self-efficacy to learn statistics. Perepiczka (2011) investigated whether self-efficacy to learn statistics is related to performance in a statistics course and whether self-efficacy to learn statistics increased during a 12-week introductory statistics course. One hundred and three students from a large university partook in the survey. Perepiczka (2011) stated that there was a positive relationship between statistics self-efficacy and academic achievement as well as an increase in self-efficacy to learn statistics over the duration of the course. 2.4 Relationship between Attitude and Academic Achievement There are indeed numerous researches conducted on testing the relationship between attitude and academic achievement. Based on the previous literature, there is a general agreement that attitude could be regarded as a significant determinant of ones academic achievement. Most of these researches illustrated the more positive ones attitude towards an academic subject, the higher the possibility for him/her to perform well academically (Lilian, 2012, p. 156). The same applies vice-versa, students that previously have been performing well in mathematics field, generally have a more positive attitude towards statistics. In a research conducted in the U.S, the academics studied the relationship between students attitudes and academic achievement in college mathematics by inviting 218 freshmen to complete a set of questionnaire. The result indicated that students attitudes were highly correlated with their achievement in college calculus (Lilian, 2012, p. 156). In another longitudinal study also conducted in the U.S., the researchers assessed the relationship between attitude towards mathematics and achievement in mathematics. It was found that attitude had a powerful influence on students academic achievement (Lilian, 2012, p. 156). 3.0 Problem statement Statistics at a tertiary level is often a daunting task facing students undertaking these courses. This attitude amongst students have been shown to directly influence their motivation to study, achievement in statistic modules, and overall enrolment in statistics courses that are not compulsory, especially in the final year of undergraduate degrees and postgraduate years of study. Students attitude towards statistics is essentially either positive or negative, but remains a multifactorial issue. The most common factors that are assessed are preconceptions about statistics, environmental factors (e.g. age, gender, etc.), previous mathematical experience, mathematical aptitude, beliefs, interests, the number of years elapsed since students last statistics course etc. Students with a negative attitude tend to focus only on the method of assessment which only serves to increase their test anxiety. Since students attitudes toward examinations and other non-cognitive factors can affect their performance levels in statistics courses (Onwuegbuzie, 2000), Students also view some forms of assessment as more anxiety inducing than others, thus affecting their performance in the assessments. A programme of assessment also should include means for determining students impressions of the relevance and fairness of the assessment process (Onwuegbuzie, 2000) to determine what can be done to reduce assessment anxiety. Students with positive attitudes towards statistics tend to have a higher performance in statistics courses than students with negative attitudes. With this in mind, it would be an excellent idea for lecturers teaching statistical courses to promote a positive attitude towards statistics, not only as a professional tool, but also a something that can be used every day as a central skill. It might also be plausible that the first goal in teaching statistics should be to reduce the fear of statistics before introducing the course work (Coetzee 2010, p.2). 4.0 Objectives of the research This study primarily has two main objectives. First, the current research intends to test whether attitude is significantly related to anxiety and self-efficacy. Second, the study aims to test whether attitude serves as a mediated factor between anxiety, self-efficacy and academic achievement. From the specified research objectives, the following research questions are derived: What is the graduate student attitude toward statistics? What is the graduate student self-efficacy level? What is the graduate student statistics anxiety? What is the graduate student level of academic achievement? Does attitude play a role in affecting students academic effort? Does self-efficacy play a role in affecting students academic attitude? Does students academic attitude play a role in affecting their academic achievement? Does attitude play a mediating role between anxiety, self-efficacy and academic achievement? What is the extent of the relationship, if any, between graduate students self-efficacy to learn statistics and statistics anxiety and the attitude towards statistics? 5.0 Method of investigation 5.1 Research design In the current research, quantitative research method will be implemented. Concerning the primary data collection method, self-completed questionnaire will be used because it is comparatively timesaving and has the benefit of collecting responses from a large group of subjects with a relatively low cost. 5.2 Sampling Students of both the genders will constitute the population of this study. The study population will consist of all honours students registered for a course in research methodology at a distance education institution in 2012 (N = 2340). The primary reason for targeting students registered for this subject is due to the fact that all of them have almost completed the research methods and statistics course; hence it will be easier for them to answer the survey questions. Concerning the sampling method, convenience sampling and snowball sampling will be used in the process of selecting samples from the target population. Regarding convenience sampling, it is a sampling method in which samples are selected on the basis of easy availability. Since I as the researcher am also an honours student at a distance education institution I can easily approach students studying the same course via online forums, email, etc. After distributing the questionnaires to those students that i personally will come in touch with, I will then invite the respondents to further recruit or encourage the subjects from among their acquaintances to fill out the questionnaire to boost participation, and this is known as the snowball sampling. 5.3 Data collection Ethical considerations An introductory letter explaining the purpose of the study will go with each questionnaire. The participants will also be assured in the letter about the confidentiality and the non-disclosure of information that they will provide. Additionally, respondents will not be required to provide sensitive or detailed personal information, like their full name. Instead, respondents will only need to indicate their gender, race, major and year of study. In order to further guarantee anonymity, and so there is no way for a researcher to identify which questionnaire belongs to which respondent, further measures will be implemented. Participants will not be required to hand in the questionnaire to the researcher directly but to put the completed questionnaires in a collection pile. The questionnaires will be made up of some open and closed questions as well as some multiple choice questions. Also, a meeting with the respondents will be arranged at the selected Unisa venue. At this session the objective of the study will briefly be explained and any questions that the respondents might have will be answered. The respondents will then be encouraged to complete the questionnaire during the meeting. If a participant requests a removal from the study at any time, he or she will be removed immediately. 5.4 Data analysis As one of the main aims of this research is to establish weather a relationship exists between students attitude towards statistics with respect to statistics anxiety, self-efficacy as well as academic performance, correlational analyses will be conducted. Correlational studies are those in which an attempt is made to relate two or more variables to each other. However, there is a caution by researchers that a correlation between variables does not necessarily allow us to claim that the values of one variable cause changes in the values of another variable (Linden, 1982, p.17). A simple linear regression analysis will be computed in order to determine which variables predicted students attitudes towards statistics. In this analysis, a single variable depends on or is influenced by one or more variables (Linden, 1982, p.17). In analysing the relationship between the variables, reliability test will be conducted to estimate the reliability of the scales adopted in the current study. Descriptive statistics will be used to show the demographic characteristics of the respondents. And finally, the multiple regression analyses will be used to estimate the prediction power of statistics anxiety and self-efficacy on attitude; and the prediction power of attitude, self-efficacy, and statistics anxiety on academic achievement. 6.0 Conclusion The present research further supports that there is a direct relationship between attitude, anxiety, and self-efficacy and academic achievement as suggested in past literature. It is detected that attitude has a direct effect on academic achievement while self-efficacy also has a direct effect on academic achievement. Researching predictors of graduate students statistical self-efficacy beliefs is important to identifying possible barriers to professional growth and development. Exploring how statistical self-efficacy beliefs relate to predicting future academic expectations, performance, effort, persistence, and course selection also is important to explore as a means of promoting professional development (Perepiczka et al., 2011, p.106). Teaching graduate students how to reduce their anxiety and improve their attitude will likely enhance their value of statistics and further encourage their professional development in the profession that requires work with statistics.

Organizational Development †Executing Change in a Hostile Environment Essay

Introduction If we analyzed then we come to know that the pace and degree of change in the modern working environment over the past decade have been enormously high, and they show no signs of slowing down. Every year, latest challenges and threats to America’s national safety appear from all corners of the earth. In response to these changes, many organizations leadership unveiled the company’s Vision by the Transformation Campaign Plan. Today, the organization’s transformation attempt has produced a number of temporary successes. It has also conventional a good deal of censure, both from inside and exterior the force (Dennis L. Johnson, 2004). Transformation, by it’s extremely nature, is a multifaceted procedure. Simply defining the phrase presents a challenge. What, precisely, have to change for â€Å"transformation† to take place? How much transform is â€Å"enough† to meet the criteria? Does the change have to be long long-lasting and, if, so, how long is long sufficient? And how can these deliberations are clearly converse to members of the organization to create a common understanding of what transformation â€Å"is?† While each of those questions lends itself to supplementary research and thought, for the purposes of this paper â€Å"transformation† is defined as a set of lasting main changes inside an organization implemented by organizational leaders in order to modify not only the way the organization does business, but the way people inside the organization believe and act in carrying out their roles as a member of the organization (Pollitt 1993). Reorganizations are magnificent for creating the delusion of growth as ensuring that nothing essentially changes. It is an effort to get something for nothing a feeling of the enjoyment of growth with no having to go through any of the pain connected with real change. Reorganizations are so intimately connected by means of organizational change that those charged with such changes are tempted to achieve for the organization chart first thing. In fact, reorganization is almost certainly the last step in any change procedure, a step taken to harden changes previously in place It is far more effectual to eschew aggressive the organization chart and instead begin by formative what needs to be done to expand real change in organizations. Moreover, you can get any change procedure off to a good create by assembling a group of people who desire to change, having them reveal how the change is good for the organization, and then working to have this change adopted during the organization. We call this the â€Å"Quaker† approach to organizational change. The victorious movement to expand project offices will ultimately lead to essential change in organization practices. As with any essential change procedure, those in the precursor the people implementing the offices will frequently feel like missionaries introducing new practices into a hostile environment. Early missionaries found it hard to get further people to change their ways, and a few of them suffered tremendously from the wrath of people they were trying to change. Legends tell us how quiet, no t hreatening Quakers originate an improved way. Work teams symbolize a leap forward in joint potential for numerous organizations. The problem is that mainly teams fail mainly since they survive in neither what can be termed a hostile environment an environment that neither demands nor authorize association. Literature Review Throughout the past twenty-five years, organizational change both inside the military and in private industry has been the subject of countless speeches, articles, and books. Given the technological, economic, military threat and additional changes impacting on organizations today, transformation will certainly be a much-studied topic for years to come. This research sought to decide the significance of an exact business alter model to the transformation of the United States Army. In determining this significance, literature was collected and grouped into three general areas: organizational transform and leadership theory, historical case studies of past Army transform efforts, and present Army transformation challenges. This literature review deals by means of sources in each of these three areas in order to set up a common baseline for further discussion on the research questions and analysis of the resulting information. Organizational Change and Leadership Theory No doubt, organizational change, transformation, leadership, and management have become tremendously popular subjects of study inside the business community as business executives, scholars, and theorists attempt to come to terms with the ever-increasing and challenging demands of today’s profitable world. Many experts work, Leadership, dealt chiefly by means of leadership at the political-strategic level, but is pertinent to transformation in the sense that experts sought to show that â€Å"leadership is not anything if not associated to collective purpose . . . leaders must be judged . . . by actual social change . . .† (MacGregor 1978, 3). The 1990s saw the publication of innumerable works on managerial change, transformation, leadership, and management in response to changing technologies and the worldwide economy, and their impact on businesses. The enormous bulk of these writings, though, were eventually seen inside business and academic circles as â€Å"flavor o f the month† solutions, stressing new but unverified management techniques that unsuccessful to last. Perhaps as a result of both this focus on â€Å"management† (rather than â€Å"leadership†) and various educational differences flanked by the business world and the military, much less has been written concerning the actual procedure of transformation and organizational transform inside the United States Army. This lack of literature on applying transform theory to Army transformation is to some extent surprising, given the fact that this organization has undergone, and continues to experience, as much or more modify as its counterparts in the business world. At the same time, though, it is precisely this lack of published literature that highlights the need for more. It may also have been this lack of literature that led retired General Gordon R. Sullivan in 1996 to publish his book Hope is Not a Method. No doubt, having just retired as CSA, Sullivan touched upon precedent Army transformations all through his book, but focused first and foremost on the period among 1991 and 1995, and wrote from the viewpoint of what modern business leaders could learn from the Army’s transform initiatives. That similar year, famous Harvard Business School professor John P. Kotter published Leading Change. Writing from knowledge, having individually observed and studied dozens of main corporations over a twenty-year period, Kotter’s work was right away highly praised in both the educational and business communities, staying close to the peak of Business Week’s smash hit for months. Since its periodical, Kotter’s labor has also entered the Army organization as recommended reading for leaders, and is now incorporated as part of the set of courses at the Service’s premier enlightening institutions the Command. Kotter’s Leading Change Kotter opens Leading Change by means of the now-common declaration that the amount of important change faced by organizations grew extremely throughout the previous two decades, and that this upward trend would only increase in the predictable future. As acknowledging that a hardly any businesses had undertaken changes and materialize improved prepared for the future, far too lots of others had failed to attain success in their transformation efforts. Kotter lists eight ordinary errors that time after time helped derail change initiatives, then turns those mistakes approximately and provides an eight-stage procedure for leading organizations during winning transformations. Kotter defines his eight stages as: Establishing a logic of importance identifying and removing (or at least minimizing) sources of satisfaction inside the organization, taking advantage of (or even creating) a disaster to catch people’s notice, and providing enough independence for those mid- and lower-level managers who are so significant to the change procedure. Creating the guiding coalition building an excellence team of people who trust every other and who, focused on the similar objective, can expand enhanced ideas and make improved decisions more professionally and rapidly than a single person. Developing a visualization and policy labeling vision as a â€Å"central part of all great leadership,† Kotter states that a high-quality vision provides an conceivable picture of the prospect and has three significant purposes: clarifying the universal way for change, motivating people to take deed in that right course, and helping organize the actions of dissimilar people, aligning them in the right direction. Associated plan provides the â€Å"logic and a first level of detail to show how a vision can be accomplished† (Kotter 1996, 75). Communicating the transform vision generate and incessantly stating, using a diversity of forums and media, a without fail clear change message in order to offer personnel with an ordinary understanding of the transformation’s goals and way. Kotter believes this phase is between the hardest to â€Å"get right† because of the sheer scale of related rational questions that must be answered and the moving ties to the status quo that must be severed mutually by the guiding coalition and those personnel the coalition is working to convince. Particularly throughout this stage, excellence listening and leading by instance are just as significant as actually talking concerning the message. Empowering employees for broad-based deed removing barriers (Kotter focuses on four: structures, skills, systems, and supervisors) to put into practice the alter vision so that a wide base of people inside the organization can take action toward the transformation objective. Generating short-term wins providing extremely noticeable, unmistakable proof that sacrifices involved by the transformation are value it, in order to build impetus, undermine cynics, keep bosses on board, and repayment change agents early. Consolidating gains and produce more change maintaining the impetus and gains made throughout the first six stages, sustaining the intelligence of importance regarding transformation, and using augmented leader reliability to alter every system, process, and policy that fails to fit together with others inside the overall transformation vision. Anchoring original approaches in the civilization â€Å"grafting new practices onto the old cultural roots of the organization while killing off the inconsistent pieces† (Kotter 1996, 151). Contrary to the usually conventional model of â€Å"change norms and values first; everything else will follow,† Kotter believes that altering an organizational civilization really comes last not first in the procedure, and is only possible after a lot of talk and hard work, as well as optimistic results which show people that the transformation approaches really labor and are better than â€Å"the old way.† Fundamental these eight-stage models are two key basics: first, that the series of stages is relatively significant and unchanging; second, that â€Å"leadership† (as opposed to â€Å"management†) is the most dangerous feature of the modify effort. Additional Organizational Change Theory Any transformation or main organizational transform usually begins by means of a leader’s understanding that there is in reality a need for alter. This understanding may be outwardly driven, as in period of war, or it may be the consequence of the leader’s appraisal of the organization and the environment in which it operates. Many experts describe this feature of change theory as a key part of the first of what she sees as five states in which businesses operate throughout a alter movement: stagnation, preparation, completion, determination, and completion. These realizations concerning the need for change have to come from someone in a position of authority, and must lead to a powerful demand for alter in order to set the procedure in motion. Organizational Transformation and Hostile Environment Let’s take a quick tour of hostile environment in organization. No doubt. From our early twenty-first-century vantage point, there is abundant proof that women in the military face a hostile office environment. The military or any organization is both a place of work and a literary institution. As many men and women work helpfully in military settings, the institutional culture of the military has been beached in supporting maleness and in defining women as the feminine â€Å"other,† in affirming men as the Protectors and women as the secluded.   Linda Bird Francke defines military culture as â€Å"driven by collection dynamic centered approximately male perceptions and sensibilities, male psychology and power, male anxieties and the confirmation of masculinity.† (Michael H. Schuster, 2006, PP. 45) Historically, as Cynthia Enloe be reminiscent us, â€Å"Military strategists have tried to use women for military purposes only in those ways that will not unsettle the military’s masculinized status.† (Druckman, D., 1997) Moreover, as womanly workers in the typically male military, women have frequently met a hostile workplace environment. No doubt, feminist legal philosopher Vicki Schultz suggests that such workplace favoritism based on sex â€Å"has the form and function of denigrating women’s competence for the purpose of keeping them away from male-dominated jobs or incorporating them as inferior, less capable workers.† (Patricia A. Mclagan, 2002, PP. 26) Over the route of this campaign for rank, military nurses themselves added a latest measurement to the discussion. A lot of them saw military rank as a tool to stop the hostile working environments they knowledgeable in period of war nursing. Nurses were in the midst of the lots of women workers who experienced surplus sexual advances and a hostile environment from male coworkers and manager before the war and military service in remote units far from hold up networks and with only some constraints on the power of male officers meant that nurses practiced a heightened susceptibility to methodical workplace hostility throughout wartime. The answer, for lots of nurses, was the attainment of military rank as a way to make sure a safe place of work for women nurses in wartime and beyond. To some extent, the sexual desire-dominance example represented growth. It was significant for courts to be familiar with that gender favoritism can take the form of sexual proposal. But the example also foreshadows problems. By highlight sexual abuse, the paradigm endangered to eclipse other, evenly damaging forms of gender-based antagonism. Disaggregation incomprehensible a full view of the conditions of the place of work and makes together the hostile work environment and dissimilar treatment claims look trivial. When detached from a larger pattern of biased conduct, sexual advances or mockery can appear inadequately severe or all-encompassing to be actionable. By the similar token, when detached from sexual overtures, companionable forms of harassment may come into view to be gender-neutral hazing that has nothing to do by the victims’ womanhood. Certainly, when women are deprived of the training or hold up to do well on the job, they can easily be made to come into view (or even become) less than fully capable at their jobs. This lack of ability then becomes the good reason for the very maltreatment that has destabilized their performance (Vicki Schultz, 1998, PP. 1683-1805). The courts’ customary breakdown to understand the scale of women’s masculinity troubles at work, in fact, has only been make worse by the prevailing paradigm’s importance on sexual forms of harassment. Singling out sexual advances as the spirit of workplace harassment has allowable courts to feel enlightened concerning protecting women from sexual infringement, as at the similar time relieving judges of the blame to redress other, broader gender-based evils in the workplace. It is not sufficient to focus on the damage to women as sexual beings; the law has to also address women’s systematic difficulty and make easy women’s equal empowerment as original, committed workers. We need an account of hostile work environment pestering that highlights its lively relationship to better forms of gender pecking order at work. Moreover, in England, individual capitalism slowly gave way to decision-making capitalism. One indication of this development was the shift to a multidivisional organizational form. Here, decision-making power was comprehensive to company divisions, which even although they were controlled and synchronized by headquarters were distinct on product or local lines. Such a system made business governance by a person or a family virtually not possible. Let’s take an example of the American consult firm McKinsey & Company played an important role in this organizational transformation. As a scientific matter, it may be probable to square the Tenth Circuit’s psychoanalysis in Ramsey with its previous acceptance of the McKinney rule in Hicks. No doubt, the Ramsey view suggests that the plaintiff may have failed to plead the companionable incidents as part of her pestering claim. Thus, the court did not specifically rule, opposing to Hicks and McKinney those incidents could not count toward set up a hostile work environment. However, there is nothing that would have banned the court of appeals from bearing in mind the nonsexual conduct for purposes of assess the hostile work environment claim on appeal or at least straight the trial court to do as a result on remand. At a smallest amount, it seems clear that the director’s biased comments should have been careful proof of a hostile work environment. More lately, a number of additional courts of appeals have begun to weaken McKinney as purporting to follow it from side to side a new way. These courts of petition (and district courts in these routes) cite McKinney positively for the proposal that nonsexual behavior may be incorporated in a hostile work environment claim. Casually, though, these courts carry on to single out sexual go forward and other sexually open actions as the â€Å"real† harassment, concluding that the companionable pestering did not occur because of the plaintiff’s sex. Thus, in adding up to the harshness or occurrence element, causation has become a key constituent on which plaintiffs lose hostile labor environment claims. Also, some cases apply a sharp causation standard: Rather than requiring plaintiffs to show easy but for causation that the pestering happens because of sex–some courts demand a presentation that the pestering was motivated by â€Å"gender animus.† (Franco Amatori, 1999, PP 78) Though proof of nonsexual bad behavior sometimes meets the causation hurdle–particularly, behavior that on its face reveals a disparaging approach toward women on the job–other nonsexual conduct of the kind that is so usually directed at women by their male coworkers fails to list as gender-based. Motivation for Change in Development Strategies If you asked this executive to name the single most important factor in change, he would undoubtedly give you the same answer as most managers: people. Business books, seminars, and workshops all reinforce the same message today. Whether you’re rightsizing, restructuring, reengineering, or retooling, you must focus on the people side of change. Without the support and participation of a highly motivated workforce, organizational change is simply much too difficult to carry out successfully. Yet despite the widespread acceptance of this management precept, people problems still abound whenever organizations undertake change. Studies show conclusively, for example, that any time a restructuring is announced, turnover increases, on-the-job accidents rise, mistakes and errors multiply, and absenteeism skyrockets. No matter how well managers explain the business imperatives behind change, or how much effort they invest in formulating a new vision and communicating new corporate objectives, people react to change in negative ways and often resist it. Even when organizations are able to effectively mobilize their people in the early stages of a change effort, it’s not uncommon for people problems to surface somewhere down the road. In a recent guide to reengineering, for example, the consultants who authored the book describe a common syndrome that they call the â€Å"Terrible Twos.† After an initial period of improvement that may last up to two years, they say, performance indicators in organizations that reengineer often show movement in the opposite direction: morale slumps, turnover goes up, and productivity and quality gains disappear. In some cases, these organizations actually end up worse off than they started because they lose many of the people in whose retraining they invested so much. If the managers who lead change are really focusing on their people, why does this happen? Why do people problems consistently undermine the effectiveness of change efforts? There are two possible explanations. One is that managers pay lip service to the people side of change but in reality ignores it. This may be the case in organizations where managers lack the skills or inclination to deal with difficult people problems. In these companies, managers concentrate on the aspects of change that they feel most competent to handle namely; structural, technical, or strategic change issues while sidestepping people problems or delegating them downward, thereby forever establishing them as a lower management priority. Though the number of these managers may be considerable, there are also plenty of managers who do focus on the people side of change and still experience motivation and performance problems. What are they doing wrong? Though many of them work proactively to prevent people problems during change, what they do in most cases is insufficient to deal with the motivation and performance problems that change can cause (Daniel Denison, 2001, PP 37). Additional training, increased communication, and greater participation are a few of the standard approaches that are used to manage the people side of change. But while these strategies may be beneficial in helping people adjust to new work environments (and may even send the welcome message that managers are concerned about their people), they fail to address the one aspect of change that is consistently overlooked: how people react to change emotionally. And it is the emotions of change that are the key to motivation and performance whenever organizations attempt to change. How Emotions Impact Change Organizational change is not just about work processes, information systems, corporate structures, or business strategies. It’s also about what people feel and believe: their fears and anxieties, their dreams and ambitions, their hopes and expectations. And these feelings and beliefs are so strong that they can make or break a change effort. All too often, however, managers remain unaware of what their people really feel during organizational change. And it’s not because they’re bad managers. Even in the best companies, where managers are expected to demonstrate strong interpersonal skills and understand what makes their people tick, it’s difficult for managers to accurately gauge the new emotional climate that change creates. Why are the emotions of change so difficult to read? Part of the reason is that change makes people react in complex, unpredictable, and sometimes contradictory ways. To please their managers, for example, employees will often demonstrate enthusiasm and excitement when a change is announced and may even feel those emotions. But what they fail to disclose are the negative feelings they experience at exactly the same time: skepticism about the need for change, sadness over the loss of established work relationships, anger at the way the change is handled, or self-doubts so severe that they interfere with the ability to work. When one of the best account representatives in BCS later recalled his initial reaction to the change, he surprised us with this frank admission: â€Å"When they announced the change, my basic feeling was, Can I really pull this off? Even though I’m a high achiever and it looked like a great opportunity, I felt insecure and wasn’t sure I could do it.† In another interview conducted during the same period, a manager remembered having similar emotions: â€Å"I felt a lot of anxiety about not having enough structure in my new job,† he confessed. â€Å"My greatest fear was that I wouldn’t succeed, that I wouldn’t reach quota, or that I’d fall to the bottom 25 percent of the pile.† (Daniel Denison, 2001. PP. 37) The Emotional Climate of Change †¢ Anger †¢ Fear †¢ Anxiety †¢ Hope †¢ Confusion †¢ Insecurity †¢ Disappointment †¢ Sadness †¢ Discomfort †¢ Self-doubt †¢ Excitement †¢ Skepticism Another characteristic response, we found, is that employees will approach a change attempt by a positive state of mind but then expand negative feelings as time goes on, experience an moving transformation that their managers stay unaware of. A year into the BCS reorganization, for instance, one sales manager made this comment throughout an interview: â€Å"The announcement of a new organization created a lot of excitement around here, and there was enthusiasm about starting†. Managing this â€Å"soft† side of change may be the hardest part of it and the area where managers most often fail. Though most managers are trained to deal with the â€Å"hard† stuff that change involves, few of them have the background, skills, or experience to manage the emotions of their people during times of change. As consultants Robert Shaw and A. Elise Walton state in the book Discontinuous Change, â€Å"Changing the soft part of organizational life requires a different set of change management techniques and greater sophistication on the part of change agents.† (Ashford, S.J., 1984, PP.370-398) Competitive Advantage The majority leading strategic management example in new years is known as the competitive strategies model. Moreover, demonstrate by Porter’s work, this approach addresses the subject of how firms fight inside their product markets. Porter recognized two competitive advantages that give a firm with a justifiable position: lower cost and separation. The lower cost advantage is distinct as the aptitude to more professionally design, manufacture, and deal out a similar product than the competition. Products by unique and superior value in terms of quality, features, and after-sales service are examples of the separation competitive advantage. Furthermore, pursuing one of these advantages will make a firm’s product or service sole, and is powerfully not compulsory so the firm is not â€Å"stuck in the middle† (Porter, 1991: 40), where, by pursuing together competitive advantages, neither is attain. Thus, there is an obvious disagreement among WCM and the competitive strategies example. The competitive strategies approach recognizes two competitive advantages, either of which can be winning, but only independently. Attempting to pursue concurrent competitive advantages will consequence in â€Å"strategic mediocrity,† except for firms in strange industry niches (Porter, 1991: 40). This appears to disagree with WCM’s intentional goal of at the same time achieving fineness on more than a few product attributes, or potential competitive advantages, to make a position that is especially hard to challenge. There is diverse theoretical, empirical, and anecdotal support in both the operations management and strategic management literatures that it is possible to simultaneously achieve lower cost and differentiation competitive advantages. However, these literatures have not acknowledged the contributions of each other. For example, the strategic management critics of Porter who have described simultaneous competitive advantages have not incorporated the contributions from the WCM approach. Also, the proponents of WCM have focused on operations issues and seldom described their advantages in a directly competitive context. Combined, these literature streams integrate knowledge of firm skills and practices with how the product competes, making a compelling argument for combining them in theory, teaching, and practice. The Relationship between Diversity and Organizational Change Given this association flanked by diversity and organizational change, the following assumptions direct the authors’ task of initiating a alter effort directed at enhancing variety at TRANWAY: The conceptualization of a alter effort, and even the meeting of data to expand a change procedure, does not guarantee a winning change result. Change is both perceptual and behavioral. It is a compass reading to a new way of thinking and the performance of a set of behaviors matching with that way of thinking. Organizational alter affects the manifold roles people assume: for instance, that of an individual by personal interests and goals; that of a member of a labor group with task obligations to complete; and that of a stakeholder of the community who is exaggerated by organizational decisions. Consequently, sensing an ensuing loss of control over their jobs, their routines, and their lives, the majority humans tend to react unenthusiastically to organizational change. This may be particularly true of non-minority individuals who regard labor force diversification as a form of change that is a threat to their power and/or progression in an organization. A change effort urbanized to get better an organization, including an effort heading for toward fostering variety, should focus on the person, not the group. It should give the individual with challenges, support, and credit in short, individualized thought. No doubt, any kind of organization, as one link in a network, is linked to additional organizational entities and subject to outside influences. Hence, studying endogenous organizational alter requires an attendant look at exogenous ecological forces. Communication is the procedure on which the start and preservation of an organizational change depends. Successful strategies are those that draw out cooperative communication between people as individuals, work group members, and community stakeholders. Such strategies endorse mutual and united change efforts all through all levels of the organization. Eventually, the achievement of any change attempt depends on how efficiently the strategy for and matter of the change is communicated to those who are the targets of change. The Role of Framing in Organizational Change Efforts No doubt, in organization development the change agents use words and actions to generate images and meanings that will center notice on the need for alter, to establish an environment receptive to the change attempt, and to encourage contribution in the strategies designed to attain it. As such, formative how a change attempt will be framed, or the symbolic acts used to communicate the change, becomes vital to the process of organizational change. Framing is basically a communication procedure a series of rhetorical strategies from side to side which interpretive schemes or frames of reference internal to individuals or organizations are obvious outwardly. Organizational members understand messages based on the organizational realism in which those messages are communicated. Organizations, though, consist of multiple, and frequently conflicting, frames of reference. Consequently, the framing or meanings of the mainly influential organizational actors become institutionalized as the organization’s reality during metaphors, structures, stories, rituals, policies, and other symbolic acts (Hamza Ates, 2004. PP. 33). However, organizational change is probable since new meanings can emerge during the development of communication strategies designed to give option frames or meanings. A focus on the use of communication to manage meaning becomes chiefly significant when attempting to conquer dissimilar frames of reference, dissimilar life experiences, and dissimilar personal and professional backgrounds, such as those found amongst individuals in an more and more diverse workforce. Framing organizational alter, then, is a communication process needy on the effectual use of language and actions. A General Aspect of Coercive Modes to Force Evolution A changing view of change Change is intrinsic in life and nature. Yet, we have only lately begun to study modify in our institutions with the intention of influencing its crash. Organization development, the regulation of focusing on organizational change, is still an up-and-coming science regardless of how long the term has been around. Fads and trial-and-error seem to control our labors to deal with the significant and enveloping phenomenon of OD (Frohman, A., 2002). We’re almost certainly more conscious of organizational change now than in the past since many of our benchmarks show a go faster rate of change. Take organizational long life. An organization listed by Srandard&Poor’s in 1920 could wait for to still be listed 65 years later. Nowadays, a company will be on the list a usual of 10 years. A young person inflowing the workforce today can anticipate to have an average of 12 dissimilar jobs by the time he or she is 40 years old (Raymond T. Butkus, 2001. PP. 68). Organization Transformation today an Assessment For many years into the present transformation campaign the Army or any organization has made extraordinary development toward realizing expert’s vision. This growth is due in great part to the information that campaign leaders have usually followed the stages laid out in the Leading Change model. Mechanisms of Kotter’s first six stages are obviously noticeable in the words and deeds of additional senior leaders. The Army Vision is extensively available for review; these leaders communicate its main message in nearly each talk they give or article they write. News releases frequently explain the latest advances and achievement by the SBCT and inside additional areas of the Transformation procedure. And yet, Transformation has not been with no its share of critics, challenges, and setbacks. Just as the optimistic results can be traced to devotion to the model, the reasons for these criticisms and setbacks can also be traced to failures to adhere intimately sufficient to Kotter’s principles (Frohman, A., 2002). As other senior leaders have effort hard to establish a sense of importance regarding Transformation all through the Force, they have not been totally effectual at removing sources of satisfaction. Certain senior leaders, both inside the Army or any organization and elsewhere inside the Department of Defense, agree in principle with the need for â€Å"transformation,† but not the exact â€Å"Army Transformation† at present underway. Meanwhile, too many mid-grade officers (Major through Colonel) continue to question the real necessity for such change in the first place. In both cases, people appear to be waiting only for Shinseki’s departure for the Transformation wheels to start coming off (Raymond T. Butkus, 2001. PP. 68). Recommendations for Further Research Throughout the behavior of this research, a number of extra areas commendable of additional study emerged. Detailed reading concerning the attitudes of field-grade officers in the direction of the existing Transformation campaign would likely shed extra light on existing cynicism in the middle of this population and offer improved recommendations for how to most excellent communicate the Transformation dream to this audience. Historical study regarding the impact of â€Å"crisis† on main change proposal might permit a more detailed appraisal of beginning this Transformation in a time of relative harmony and calm, rather than crisis and chaos. Do winning transformations need a constituent of crisis? (Collins, 2000) A further area of study would engage analyzing the leadership training offer to SBCT leaders and determining how to best be relevant that training to leaders all through the field, as well as how to further improve the existing training in order to meet extra requirements expected of purpose Force leaders(Morris, J., 2001). Conclusion This research try attempted to border Army or any organization transformation in terms of an conventional business transform model by using historical case study instance from previous Army modify efforts to show how Kotter’s model can be practical. After rising a series of relevant research questions and demeanor an widespread literature review into the areas of organizational change and leadership, historical Army transformation labors, and today’s Army transformation proposal, the researcher contrast past and current practices to the hypothetical model in order to review significance and applicability. The final section of the thesis outlines conclusions based on this contrast and offers suggestion regarding how the transform model can be applied to additional improve the Army’s organizational change attempt. In attempting to decide the merits of applying a precise organizational transform model to the Army’s continuing Transformation movement, the researcher required to comprehend that change model both in its original business organization background and against the backdrop of manifold military case studies. Having experiential frequent parallels among the Kotter model and winning military transformations in the past, the researcher then effort to assess the present Transformation proposal in light of Kotter’s model and present recommendations for how to further get better Army Transformation. Noting an additional resemblance among certain elements of the model and the doctrinal idea of â€Å"Mission Command,† the researcher tinted the importance of continued and expanded education regarding Transformation, along with a require to review, purify, and re-emphasize the existing vision and sense of importance associated with it. The researcher also noted the existing challenges inherent in Transformation given that the essential guiding and supporting coalitions are still not completely in place. Conceptualizing, preparation, and acting in ways that mainly parallel Kotter’s model for Leading Change has certainly add to the important success of the Transformation movement so far. The true test of achievement, though, has not yet occurred; nor will it be fully assess for years to come. With its own history and a pertinent theoretical model as guides, though, and excellence leaders and people to interpret concepts into realism, the Service has all the right tools to pass that test. Can the Army get better on its Transformation movement and finally anchor long-term transform in its culture, in the middle of its people? The answer, certainly, is yes by adopting an attuned version of the Kotter model and ongoing to focus on preparing its leaders of all levels for the hard but in the end satisfying work that is â€Å"Leading Change.†   (Whittington, R., 2004).    References Articles Joseph A. Kinney, Dennis L. Johnson, John B. Kiehlbauch, 2004, Break the Cycle of Violence. Magazine Title: Security Management. Volume: 38. Issue: 2. Publication Date: February 2004. Page Number: 24. Michael H. Schuster, Steve Weidman, 2006, Organizational Change in Union Settings: Labor-Management Partnerships the Past and the Future. Journal Title: Human Resource Planning. Volume: 29. Issue: 1. Page Number: 45. Patricia A. Mclagan, 2002, Change Leadership Today: Challenges Abound, but You Have the Power to Make Change Work for You and Your Organization. Magazine Title: T&D. Volume: 56. Issue: 11. Page Number: 26. Vicki Schultz, 1998, Reconceptualizing Sexual Harassment. Journal Title: Yale Law Journal. Volume: 107. Issue: 6. Page Number: 1683-1805. Franco Amatori, 1999, European Business: New Strategies, Old Structures. Magazine Title: Foreign Policy. Issue: 115. Page Number: 78. Barbara B. Flynn, E. James Flynn, 2001, Achieving Simultaneous Cost and Differentiation Competitive Advantages through Continuous Improvement: World Class Manufacturing as a Competitive Strategy. Journal Title: Journal of Managerial Issues. Volume: 8. Issue: 3. Page Number: 360. Kimberly Jensen, 2005, a Base Hospital Is Not a Coney Island Dance Hall: American Women Nurses, Hostile Work Environment, and Military Rank in the First World War. Journal Title: Frontiers – A Journal of Women’s Studies. Volume: 26. Issue: 2. Page Number: 206. Hamza Ates, 2004, Management as an Agent of Cultural Change in the Turkish Public Sector. Journal Title: Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory. Volume: 14. Issue: 1. Page Number: 33. Books Daniel Denison, 2001, Managing Organizational Change in Transition Economies. Contributors: Publisher: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. Place of Publication: Mahwah, NJ. Publication Year: 2001. Page Number: 37. Daniel Denison, 2001, Managing Organizational Change in Transition Economies. Contributors: Publisher: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. Place of Publication: Mahwah, NJ. Publication Year: 2001. Page Number: 37. Raymond T. Butkus, Thad B. Green, Motivation, 2001, Beliefs and Organizational Transformation. Publisher: Quorum Books. Place of Publication: Westport, CT. Publication Year: 2001. Page Number: 68. Journals Ashford, S.J., and L. L. Cummings. 1984. â€Å"FeedbaCk as an Individual Resource: Personal Strategies of Creating Information.† Organizational Behavior and Human Performance 32: 370-398. Barney, J. B. 2001. â€Å"Firm Resources and Sustained Competitive Advantage.† Journal of Management 17:99-120. Druckman, D., Singer, J., and Van Cott, H. (eds.), Enhancing Organizational Performance, 1997 Collins, P., G. Hage, and F. Hull. 2000. â€Å"Organizational and Technological Predictors of Change in Automaticity.† Academy of Management Journal 31: 512545. Frohman, A., â€Å"Igniting Organizational Change From Below: The Power of Personal Initiative,† Organizational Dynamics, 2002. Kotter, John P. 1996. Leading Change. Boston: Harvard Business School Press. Morris, J., Cascio, W., and Young, C., â€Å"Downsizing after All These Years: Questions and Answers about Who Did It, How Many Did It, and Who Benefited From It,† Organizational Dynamics, 2001 Passmore, W., and Woodman, R. (eds.), Research in Organizational Change and Development, 2001 Pettigrew, A., Massini, S., and Numagami, T., â€Å"Innovative Forms of Organizing in Europe and Japan,† European Management Journal, 2000 Walston, S., Bogue, R., and Schwartz, M., â€Å"The Effects of Reengineering: Fad or Competitive Factor,† Journal of Healthcare Management, 1999 Whittington, R., Pettigrew, A., Peck, S., Fenton, E., and Conyon, M., â€Å"Change and Complementarities in the New Competitive Landscape: A European Panel Study, 1992-1996,† Organization Science, 2004.

Erik Erikson Psychosocial Stages Essay

To summarize this article is basically showing the identity development from a lifespan perspective. This article discusses the different developmental stages from childhood stages until the adulthood stages. In order to better investigate or research these stages they make use of Erik Erikson’s psychological theory to do so. After researchers did the studies they found different patterns of psychosocial balance which were found for each identity style with largely consistent findings. Included in this article are the research findings from empirical studies. It seemed for many individuals identity development is a lifelong process that ranges well past the years of adolescence. Summary of the Theory The person identified with this theory is Erik Erikson. Erikson’s psychosocial theory is composed of eight developmental stages which span throughout the course of life. Each stage presents the individual with a natural task or conflict that they must successfully resolve to proceed with development. He placed a great emphasis on sociocultural factors because he believed these strongly influenced developments. Erikson believed that childhood identification is the foundation for identity formation in adolescence. One of the main elements of Erikson’s psychosocial stage theory is the development of ego identity, (ego identity develop through social interaction). The concept of this theory emphasizes that humans continue to change and develop throughout their lives and that personality is not exclusively formed during the early childhood years. This idea is helpful and optimistic and many believe it is too realistic. According to Erikson our ego identity is constantly changing due to new experiences and our daily interactions with others. This concept was very powerful for self-awareness and improvement, and for teaching and helping others. Erikson’s model of psychosocial development is a very significant, highly regarded and meaningful concept. Life is a series of lessons and challenges which helps us to grow. Erikson’s wonderful theory helps to tell us why. This theory is very helpful for child development and adults too. Erikson believed that his psychosocial principle is genetically inevitable in shaping (mind) and social (relationships). HE also referred to his theory as â€Å"epigenesist† and the â€Å"epigenetic principle,† which signified the concepts relevance to  evolution (past and future) and genetics. Erikson explained his use of the word â€Å"epigenesist† thus â€Å"epi† can mean above in space as before in time, and in connection with genesis can well represent the space- time nature of all development. Like other seminal concepts, Erikson’s model is simple yet very sophisticated. The theory is a basis for broad or complex discussion and the analysis of personality and behavior, and also for understanding and for facilitating personal development- of self and others. Although Erikson’s theory provides useful information, there is some limitations with his theory. For instance his theory does not suit when explaining different types of personality differences that exist among individuals. Such personality differences are listed in the 5 factor model of personality: extraversion, neuroticism, agreeableness, conscientiousness, and openness. Personality differences can affect the outcome solving psychosocial crisis. Critical Analysis of the Articles Use of the Theory The theory was used to explain the life span of human beings life over the course of childhood to adulthood. The theory was very suitable for this article because it helps to explain human behavior. Those eight stages of the psychosocial theory explain how identity is formed. The theory also clarify that the ego as well as internal and external motives determine individual’s behavior. The theory also helps to explain that role confusion can lead to a very different human experience and it causes the individual to question one’s personality. In the article the theory was used to help individuals understand that identity is a major part of one’s self. However, if an individual does not master in these psychosocial phases, then there is a conflict with one’s identity and interferes with the development of the person. Research shows that identity development continues to be an ongoing process throughout adulthood. The process of forming an identity involves creating a logical sense of self. The theory also helps to understand that childhood experiences are the most intellectual, articulate, and prominent times of a person’s life. I think there’s a relationship between our theory and article because the theory we were assigned focuses on Cycle social. This theory argues that events and stages of society and history are generally repeating themselves in cycles. In our article it discussed Erikson’s Developmental stages and how they were effective from childhood to  adulthood. After reading our article and better understanding Erikson’s theory it all makes sense. Each developmental stage is used in order to allow one to grow with each age. Erikson was keen on improving the way children and young people are taught and nurtured, and it would be appropriate for his ideas to be more widely known and used in day-to-day life, beyond the clinical and counseling professions. I evaluated that this theory ties into my article perfectly because the cycle social theory is basically about the cycle we go through in order to change and grow as humans. The article discussed each psychosocial stage that Erikson came up with while doing his research.

Literary Analysis of the Tragedy of Julius Caesar - 773 Words

Literary Analysis of The Tragedy of Julius Caesar William Shakespeare wrote his play The Tragedy of Julius Caesar, so that his readers could have an idea of the lives, wars, and conflicts during the roman times. Shakespeare may have written the play because of his interest in history. He studied the writings of the historian Plutarch, who was alive at the same time as Caesar and wrote about his life. He also needed a job and money, and he had a fear of Queen Elizabeth dying. Shakespeare loved her and he feared that when she died the arts would flourish, so he wrote stories for her. When a reader reads the play, they will learn about Caesars life, how he died, and also about the civil strife that followed. They may or may not want to†¦show more content†¦If they dont care about superstition and they just want to read about his life and such, then they will probably continue to enjoy the subject of Caesar. Shakespeare uses the writing style of iambic pentameter, which means that there are five iambs, or units of rhythm, in each line. The style does not affect the message all that much because a reader probably will not pay attention to the rhythm, but more of the story. There are threeShow MoreRelatedJulius Caesar Character Analysis Essay1017 Words   |  5 Pages The author of Julius Caesar is William Shakespeare, an English poet, playwright, and actor, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language. He was born on July 13 in 1564 and died in 1616. It was written to be a tragedy and was one of the seventh plays written off true events that happened in Roman time. Also includes Coriolanus, Antony, and Cleopatra. Drama of the play focuses on Brutus’ struggle between the conflicting demands of honor, patriotism, and friendship. 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