This paper examines the phenomena, which results in managers behaving in a docile and unimaginative manner when creativity and individualized decision-making is required.
675 words (approx. 2.7 pages), 3 sources, 2005, $ 26.95
Abstract This paper explores three social phenomena of the docile manager and then offers some possible suggestions for coping with these problems in the group decision-making context. The author points out actions that can be used to avoid "de-individuation". The paper relates the methodology used to arrive at these conclusions for this case study.
From the Paper "There is little question that professional 'yes men' do great harm to any organization. In the absence of imaginative solutions to pressing problems - and in the absence of intellectual flexibility and adaptability - an organization eventually becomes powerless to address rapid change or fluid consumer demands. As a result, the organization dies because thought has ossified. This paper explores the most plausible explanations for a pliant and docile management team that expectantly waits for orders from above and makes no effort to think creatively or individualistically. This paper then explains what people can do to avoid "de-individuation" and propose three changes that can be made within the organization to improve matters."
This paper discusses civil disobedience, the active refusal to follow or obey certain laws or demands of a government or ruling power without using physical force or violence.
Abstract This paper explains that, although civil disobedience is ancient, as old as the Hebrew midwives' defiance of Pharaoh, most of its moral and legal theory and form were shaped by Henry David Thoreau, Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King, Jr.. The author points out that some historians are skeptical about civil disobedience and doubt its effectiveness or reasonableness, but others see it as a highly effective strategy in educating individuals and in bringing about a particular and desired change. The paper concludes that, while Thoreau and others argue that individuals are morally justified in disobeying certain laws, the observation is that few people will actually disobey; these leaders view this docility in the majority as the greater threat to democracy than anarchy.
Table of Contents
Introduction
Examples of Civil Disobedience
An Analysis of Civil Disobedience
Conclusion
From the Paper "Taking after the original example of Henry David Thoreau in secluding himself from the cloak of the law and into the woods in Walden Pond, protesters expressed the same outcry all over the world and in different times. Civil disobedience was used widely in India's nonviolent resistance movements against British colonialism, in South Africa in its fight against apartheid, in civil rights movements in the USA and in Europe and in the resistance movement in Scandinavia against the Nazi occupation. It was also a major strategy adopted by national movements in the former colonies in Africa and Asia before they obtained independence."
This paper reviews Jean Anyon's essay "Social Class and the Hidden Curriculum of Work" that discusses the varying teaching techniques based on a community's social class.
Abstract This paper explains that social classification in the classroom is a biased system of education which trains the children of lower social classes to be docile and obedient in order to prepare them for a career of following orders; whereas, the children of well-to-do Americans are taught assertiveness, resourcefulness and creativity to prepare them not only to lead a career but also how to be proper global citizens. The author points out that differences in education across the social spectrum are observed in the styles of teaching, the ways in which a school tests and grades its students and the ways the faculty treats the students. The paper recommends that a better method of educational classification is used in Germany in which students are grouped based on their academic achievement, potential and personal characteristics to attend schools that prepare them for careers best suited for the individual rather than on their social classification.
From the Paper "Before investigating how the students in different social classes are taught, Anyon defines each type of school on the basis of the social class of its student's parents. She labels the first type studied as "working class schools" because most of the parents of the students hold blue-collar jobs such as pipe welders, auto mechanics, and security guards earning yearly incomes of $12,000 or less. The author describes the next school as a "middle class school" consisting of children of skilled blue-collar workers, working and middle-class white-collar employees, and middle managers earning between $13,000 and $25,000. Moving up the social ladder, Anyon defines the "affluent professional school" as one that "has a parent population that is at the upper income level of the upper middle class and is predominantly professional" building careers as doctors, lawyers, and engineers earning between $40,000 and $80,000. The final type of school Anyon discusses is the "affluent professional school" in which the students' parents serve as top executives in major corporations earning over $100,000."
Abstract This paper explains that "Cinderella" is so much a part of our collective conscious that just the word Cinderella conjures up a life magically transformed. The author points out that certain values, built into Perrault's version, have been carried forward through the centuries: (1) For "proper" young women, who aspire to the nobility by attracting "The Man", the proper thing to do is to be "nice", docile and servile to those with power regardless of their treatment of you and (2) there is nothing Cinderella can do to change her unpleasant situation, to get a fair deal within her newly expanded family. The paper relates that, today, psychologist use the term Cinderella complex to describe the assumption that if a person puts up with great difficulties and abuse at the hands of those "who know what is best for her or him", she or he ultimately will be 'discovered', 'rewarded' or 'rescued' by the film industry, heaven or a prince or princess.
From the Paper "Cinderella, in its western form, has consistently been rewritten and analyzed since Perrault first published "Cendrillon" in France in 1697. Robert Samber first translated it into English in 1729. Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm included it in "Kinder- und Hausmarchen", the first edition of which was published in 1812, the last in 1857. The composer Gioachino Rossini turned it into the opera "La Cenerentola" in 1817, Rodgers and Hammerstein into a musical theater production, and it has been the subject of many films, most notably the 1950 Disney animated film "Cinderella", a 1955 film "The Glass Slipper" starring Leslie Caron, and a 1960 gender change in "Cinderfella", starring Jerry Lewis. "
Abstract This paper describes the stereotypes surrounding the characters in Bret Harte's story, "The Luck of Roaring Camp" and looks at how these stereotypes still resonate today.
From the Paper "The author incorporates elements from one of the most familiar and beloved stories in Western culture: the birth of Christ. This is merely a starting point, however, and the story then describes the effect of the introduction of a child into an all-male community. The tale is a wonderful and beautiful illustration of how the uncouth frontier characters raise this child, the son of an Indian prostitute and an unknown father."
Abstract In this article, the writer discusses gender roles within the play 'The Taming of the Shrew'. It is the position of this paper that Shakespeare was indeed making a commentary on gender roles when he wrote 'The Taming of the Shrew'. The writer maintains that the comment he was making was that the established system in which men were lords and masters over women and basically owned them and women were expected to be docile and obedient at all times, was ridiculous. The writer concludes that William Shakespeare, in writing this play, showed his audiences in exaggerated terms the ridiculousness of the system of male domination, while also demonstrating to women that attempting to completely overthrow societal norms is not the way to a more equal relationship with men. Instead, he demonstrated a revolutionary concept for his time and showed how men and women can ultimately get along as partners by compromise.
From the Paper "It is a play intended to make the audience laugh. In order to provoke laughter, a play must have something familiar in it, something that everyday people can recognize and relate to. In the late 16th century, when this particular play was written, European society and in fact most societies in the world, were heavily patriarchal in nature. The man was expected to be the lord and ruler of the household and men ruled the world in general. Women had few, if any, rights, and were considered the property of first their fathers and then their husbands, and were appointed a male guardian if they had neither. Women were expected to be obedient to their husbands, quiet, docile, and to keep an orderly home. While this was no doubt not always the system that went on behind closed doors, it was the "official" system, and the one that everyone was expected to appear to be adhering to in public. Shakespeare picked this system to poke fun at in writing The Taming of the Shrew because it was familiar to the audience, being something that affected them all in their daily lives."
