Downsizing Strategy Is Being Used Management Essay

Downsizing Strategy Is Being Used Management Essay Given the issues relating to this research field are introduced and research objectives are also be proposed carefully in Chapter 1. In Chapter 2, the researcher would like to continuous introduces the concepts, definitions and theories relevant to the issues that already mentioned in Chapter 1, through that, Chapter 2 will provide and build research hypothesis for research. Basically, Chapter 2 includes the main parts as follows (1) The definition of downsizing, (2) The definition of Survivors Syndrome, (3) The research hypothesis (4) Chapter summary. Definition of Downsizing In the economic context of continuos competitive, developing, changing and unpredictable, organizations suffering severe downturns in their business or facing difficulties, downsizing strategy is being used by many organizations in every industries and sectors with different goals and visions, their perception regarding the implementation of the downsizing policy within their organization also be different. There is not a single downsizing definition accepted by all researchers (Davis, Savage, Steward Chapman, 2003). There are many different definitions or understanding about downsizing, for example Cameron, (1994:194) defines downsizing as a positive and purposive strategy for organizations: a set of organizational activities undertaken on the part of management of an organization and designed to improve organizational efficiency, productivity, and/or competitiveness. Businesses for a long time that no longer considered downsizing as a situation solution in the hard time period, but they considered downsizing as an effective strategy to reduce costs, human focus, create job opportunites, increased job challenge and promotion. The right sizing contributes to better decision-making and the control of human resource so that the cost of expenditure can be cut short effectively. It develops a value system of proactive work culture where the members in the organisation get opportunity for better participation and involvement in the decision making process. It develops an ownership mentality among members and they shoulder forward an organization with more collaboration, fidelity, and accuracy. According to Mishra and Spreitzer (1998) defines downsizing has become the strategy favored by many organizations attempting to cope with fundamental, structural changes in the world economy. Or Freeman and Cameron (1993) defined downsizing as a set of activities, undertaken on the part of the management of an organization, designed to improve operational efficiency, productiv ity, and/or competitiveness. Downsizing as a deliberate reduction in size or complexity of a firms activities intended to improve the profitability, productivity, and/or competitiveness of the firms continuing operations(Legatski II, 1998). But in conclusion, most researches have defined downsizing as any reduction in the size of the organization (e.g. Budros, 1999; Cascio, 1993; Freeman Cameron, 1993; Kozlowski, Chao, Smith Hedlund, 1993). Downsizing, in general, refers to the reduction of work for certain organization. For employees, downsizing is considered as a management weapon to enforce greater control over the workforce. To management, it is a strategic measure to bring optimized operation efficiency and productivity in organization. Cameron and colleagues (e.g Cameron et all., 1991, 1993; Cameron, 1994b) have identified three organizational strategies to achieve downsizing: workforce reduction strategy, work redesign and systematic change. The first strategy is workfo rce reduction is typically a short-term strategy, which simply focuses on reducing organizations headcount. In a confirmatory study, Mishra and Mishra (1994) found that such strategy might lead to loss in valued organizational competency or negative outcome of those who remains. Human resource is essential and is a factor that makes the decision for the development of organizations. Lack of human resource will increase workload, anxiety about losing their jobs at any time, and these feeling leads to insecurity psychological, these are reasons that cause labor productivity reduced. Work reduction is applied by organizations through some programs such as attrition, early retirement or voluntary severance packages, layoffs and terminations. The second and third strategies are work redesign and systematic change strategies. While work reductions resulted is lead to reduction, rather than improvement, the work redesign and systematic change are positively related to organizational perfor mance in term of both cost reduction and quality improvement (Cameron et all.,1993; Mishra and Mishra, 1994) and to survivors (people who remains) of downsizing having a positive learning orientation (Farrell and Mavando, 2004). Many previous researches indicated that the use of workforce reduction is increasing and become popular despite the harmful impacts may arise for organization. Workforce reduction or simply called workforce downsizing is becoming the most popular strategy and a plethora of workforce reduction strategies for downsizing of employees has been proposed (e.g. Greenhalgh et al., 1988; Gutchess, 1985; Leana Feldman, 1992; Price, 1990). Whenever reduce equipments, machinesà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ organizations can find out the outcome and its impact through simple calculations, but in workforce downsizing, the emotions, loyalty, and human effort can not simply calculate. In an organizational context, employees not only contribute their individual skills and knowledge, they also collaborate and integrate their separate skills toward creating firm capabilities. As such, both human and social capital-and therefore the commitment and the loyalty of employees-play an important role in dictating a firms c apacity to create competitive advantage. Reducing headcount may lead to immediate labor cost savings, but it can also seriously erode employee commitment and loyalty, with negative consequences for firm competitiveness and performance. So the questions are what the impacts of workforce downsizing to organizations are, how it effects, and what the advantage and disadvantage of the impact are? Some researches indicated the opinion that organizational downsizing produce better result in performance and productivity, while, others indicate downsizing as a threat to the human resources and existing organizational culture. Downsizing has been defined as an attempt to increase organizational effectiveness(Kozlowsky, et. al. 1993). Freeman Cameron (1993) and Tomasco (1990) indicate from their findings that the presumed benefits of downsizing include faster decision making, greater flexibility, and improvements in quality and increased efficiency and productivity. Cascio (1993:97) suggested that proponents of downsizing generally expect the following benefits: lower overheads, less bureaucracy, faster decision making, smoother communications, greater entrepreneurship and increases in productivity. Downsizing can suggest to financial markets or government funding agencies that an organization is cutting costs and reducing waste, which may increase availability of capital for subsequent activities (Cascio, 1993; Dial Murphy, 1995; Palmon, Sun Tang, 1997). Downsizing has been defined as an attempt to increase organizational effectiveness (Kozlowsky, et. al. 1993). It develops a value system of proactive work culture where the members in the organization get opportunity for better participation and involvement in the decision making process. It develops an ownership mentality among members and they shoulder forward an organization with more collaboration, fidelity, and accuracy. However, many others strongly disagree with those arguments and indicate that it has devastating effect on human morale, motivation, and productivity. Downsizing may provide a decrease in operating expenses in the near term, but the long term impacts may not be so positive (Difrances, 2002). Downsizing can lead to a loss of knowledge and experience base because of some laid off will be the people who worked for a long time with organization, old people, who may not have a fast and efficient action in work like young people, but they have extensive knowledge, experiences that young people learn in short time, loss available mentors for existing and new employees, loss of corporate culture, and downsizing can have direct impaction to the customers such as loss of established customer service and contacts. Therefore, whenever workforce downsizing is chosen by organizations in hard time or peaceful time, there is definite and obvious impact good or bad on organizations. But in all the affected elements, the human factor is probably the most affected element. They are staffs of organization, they dedicated their soul to the development of organization, they are people who be laid off or people who lucky enough to keep their job. The individuals who lose their jobs (called victims) are obviously the most affected by downsizing. Numerous researchers have focused on the impact of downsizing on workers whose employment is terminated due to reasons independent of job competence (Cappelli, 1992). These individuals are often known as the victims of downsizing due to research that documents the devastation of job loss, focusing on negative consequences in terms of psychological and physical well-heing (e.g., Bennett, Martin, Bies, Brockner, 1995; Cappeili, 1992; Fallick, 1996; Leana Feldman, 1 992). The real pains of downsizing cannot be minimized. Careers change, families struggle, and downsized victims suffer loss of prestige, income and security. While a few downsized individuals may be victims of their own past inefficiency, the vast number are those who have performed well and played by the rules but have become the victims of a changing economic environment. However, several researchers have analyzed those who remain in the downsized organization called survivors (e.g., Allen, Freeman, Russell, Reizenstein, Rentz, 2001; Appelbaum Donia, 2001; Brockner, 1988a; 1992; 1995; Brockner, Grover, OMalley, Reed, Glynn, 1993; Cascio, 1993; Mollica Gray, 2001; Noer, 1993; ONeill Lenn, 1995; Shah, 2000). The survivors of downsizing are not the happy campers, grateful to have their jobs, but rather that surviving is so difficult that continuing employees experience higher levels of stress than displaced employees (Collins-Nakai, Devine, Stainton Reay, 2003). The downsizing has more effect on the psychological contract that exists in between management and workers within the organization. Many researches reported that it would develop stagnation, deterioration, low morale, low trust and productivity. The fear and anxiety of the retainers of the organization is more, as there is more uncertainty and insecurity feeling among them. This is called a s survivors syndrome. Definition of survivor syndrome The literature suggests a condition referred to as survivor syndrome, or a set of attitudes, feelings and perceptions that occur in employees who remain in organizational systems following involuntary employee reductions (Collins-Nakai, Devine, Stainton Reay, 2003 p.109-110). Survivor syndrome is defined by some human resource professionals as being the mixed bag of behaviors and emotions often exhibited by remaining employees following an organizational downsizing (Appelbaum, Close Klasa, 1999 p.424-436). Survivor syndrome has become known as the emotional and attitudinal characteristics of those who have survived from a downsizing (Mossholder et al., 2000; Iverson and Pullman, 2000; Allen et al., 2001). The emotional responses of each survivor are different. There are not many previous researches confirmed the positive response for survivor when downsizing occurs, some note that concentrating on core operational competencies can reduce unnecessary management layers and increase the speed of decision-making (DeWitt, 1993; Tomasko, 1989), somes even suggest that fear of termination may increase individual effort among employees who wish to retain their jobs (Kraft, 1991). A few active survivors feel themselves so lucky because they still have their job, survivors may work more hours without compensation to help the organization through the transition. They believe that they quite understand the difficulties as well as the main reasons why organizations choose to apply downsizing strategy, they are willing to stick with organization for a long time and continue add their efforts to the development of organizations. Contrary to a few positive responses, a stream of research, both laboratory and field, has provided a lot of evidences of the h armful effects downsizing can have on survivors, these effects have been described in terms of lower morale (e.g., Armstrong-Stassen, 1993), high stress (e.g., Leana and Feldman, 1992), and anger, envy, and guilt (e.g., Noer, 1993). According to Collins-Nakai, Devine, Stainton Reay (2003) consistent with the terminology of a syndrome, this collection of symptoms includes anger, depression, fear, distrust, and guilt, or Baruch and Hind (2000) indicates that survivors exhibit a plethora of problems, such as de motivation, cynicism, insecurity, demoralization and a significant decline in organizational commitment. Termination of co-workers may lead to perceptions of organizational injustice and distrust of top management (e.g. Brockner Greenberg, 1990; Mishra Spreitzer, 1998; Noer, 1998). A lot of research shows that in case of downsizing, the organization breaks the implicit psychological contract between employer and employee-a contract that implies lifetime employment in return for hard work and loyalty. As a result, the feeling of dependency that may have evolved into entitlement is transformed into a sense of betrayal. Downsizing survivors often curious about management and spend their times to observe the intention of management after downsizing occurs; they have greater concern on their future with the organization. It leads to stress and strain among members in the organization; it affects their next attempt and the willing to stay with the organizations. With survivors, organization may thinks they are lucky, but in the reality of many people, their emotions are anger, loneliness, feel lost in broken team work because of missing their colleages, they do not feel confident enough for work due to their wondering about their job. Downsizing occurs that means org anization is left with fewer employees who are expected to put in their best effort in a manner that enhances organizational productivity (Kets de Vries Balazs 1997). They are the ones who organization put their faith in; expect long term commitment, but with fews people, it may lead to workload, role conflict, and role ambiguity tend to be high among the remaining staff after downsizing (Hellgren et al. 2005; Parker et al. 1997; Tombaugh White 1990). Workload reflects the perception of having too much work to do in the time available (Beehr, Walsh Taber 1976). Workgroup membership changes also may be associated with the loss of important organizational knowledge (Fisher White, 2000). Role conflict concerns the experience of having to deal with conflicting terms, instructions, and demands in the work environment (Rizzo, House Lirtzman 1970). Role ambiguity relates to the individuals experience of not knowing what is expected of her at work (Caplan 1971). Beside that, survivors may view downsizing as a threat to their job security, an indication of poor organizational performance, or a symptom of unfair management behavior. Survivors may also develop negative feelings toward the organization, as well as perceiving that organizational goals are difficult to achieve. According to Isabella (1989) has noted that while organizations are usually prepared to meet the needs of those being laid off, they are often unprepared for the strong emotions, lengthy adjustment periods, diminished morale and lower productivity often experienced and expressed by survivors. Managers may expect survivors not only to be grateful they were spared and to forgive what happened to their friends, but also to put their feelings aside and work harder. But the reality is not that, a bag of survivor behaviors or called survivors syndrome has always existed, it is like a contract between employees and organizations, the contract gives survivors psychological control over their work enviro nment, which lets them freely invest themselves in caring for customers. Trust Granovetter (1985) and Lewis and Weigert (1985) define trust as a willingness to be vulnerable to others, based on the prior belief that those others are trustworthy. Another definition of trust is offered by Mayer, Davis and Schoorman (1995), who proposed that trust is the willingness of a party to be vulnerable to the actions of another party based on the expectation that the other will perform a particular action important to the trustor, irrespective of the ability to monitor or control that other party. Or according to Mishra Spreitzer (1998) trust is related to psychological contracts since trust is the expectation of a future action based on the action in the past by observing the rules of behaviors in relationships. If these expectations are not met, the expecter becomes hopeless, frustrated and will lose confidence, distrust will appear instead of trust (Robinson, Kraatz Rousseau, 1994). The trust is an essential part of managing people and building a high performance, pro ductivity organization. Trust is the foundation of all relationship from top to bottom in the organization. If employees believe in their manager, their organization, this relationship will always help to create good working conditions, employees are willing to stand up for their organization at any situations, they will naturally want to do a good things, contribute their best effort for the success of their organization. Conversely, if there is no trust between employees and managers, employees will have negative actions, will not devote their energy to the development of their organization, the relationship is broken. Downsizing organizations appear to suffer a deterioration of trust (Buch Aldridge, 1991; Cascio, 1993) and an increase in fear (Buch et al., 1991). The occuring of downsizing makes employees feel uncertain about organization, stress à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ the responses tends to score lower in problem solving, creativity and the ability to learn new skills, uncertainty and anxiety reduces the focus of work. Trust between employees and organization also reduced because downsizing is usually a headful though of managers, they need along time for making the decision, but with employees, downsizing is just a sudden result, sometimes they do not have a chance to prepare or may not believe that they will be the one who be laid off. According to ONeill Lenn (1995), survivors who believe that management is competent and reliable, may view downsizing as less threatening because they believe that the managers will keep their promise, be honest và   open và ¡Ã‚ »Ã¢â‚¬ ºi what is going on with their employees. Trust is instrumental in overcoming resistance to change, for it shapes how individuals interpret the implementation process (Kotter Schlesinger, 1979). If they have trust, survivors are willing think that all the things that organization do, have a reason, it is a good thing for them, for organization, downsizing just helps organization stand in difficult time as well as creating opportunities for employees in the future. In other words, trust in top management minimizes the categorization of threat by helping survivors to understand and believe in managements intentions and expected behavior. If they do not have trust, survivors wil have negative thinking such as the decision of manager is wrong, or managers put their personal interests above the interests of employees. Without trust, employees are likely to feel threatened by downsizing, leading to resistance and retaliation, rather than the constructive cooperation that is necessary to facilitate deep change (Quinn, 1996). Commitment There are a lot of definitions about employee commitment such as A force that stabilizes individual behavior under circumstances where the individual would otherwise be tempted to change that behavior (Brickman, 1987), or The relative strength of an individuals identification with and involvement in a particular organization (Mowday et al, 1979) or simply A psychological state that binds the individual to the organization (Allen Meyer, 1990). Commitment is loyalty to the organization. A loyal employee identifies with an organization and is involved in being an employee of that organization (Price Mueller, 1986). Committed employees feel that there is a tight string between them and the organization, which, in the positive form, makes them more willing to perform their job. Organizational commitment is the driving force behind an organizations performance (Suliman and Iles, 2000, p. 408). The multidimensional approach poses that organization commitment is influenced by three constru cts: emotional attachment (affective commitment), perceived costs (continuance commitment) and moral obligation (normative commitment) (Allen and Meyer, 1990). Affective commitment is mean that employees stay with organization because they want to, they believes in organization and feel it like their home. Normative commitment is mean that employees stay with organization because they feel obligated to continuew to work for many different reasons and purposes. Continuance commitment is mean that employees stay with the organization because cost of giving up the job is too high for them. (European Motivation-Index.com). It has also been proposed that different types of commitment can have different effects on behaviors and attitudes (Iles et al., 1990). For example, continuance commitment can have detrimental effects on job satisfaction compared to the beneficial effects of affective commitment (Suliman and Iles, 2000). Affective commitment has been shown to be the best predictor of intention to leave (Stallworth, 2004) and found to be more important than job satisfaction in determining service quality of customer-contact employees (Malhotra and Mukherjee, 2004). It can be seen that in human resource management process, organizations should pay attention to the affect commitment group because these people will add value, increase productivity and quality to the organization, but they also be the most affected by downsizing, or in other word maintaining a high level of employees affective commitment to the organization is assumed to be a critical factor for successful downsizing, but downsizing tends to reduce employees affective commitment to the organization (Lee Jaewon, 2002). According to many research about employee commitment, in downsizing context, employees commitment to an organization is challenged. Moreover, commitment has been shown to positively influence other variables related to survivor syndrome, such as job satisfaction (Liou, 1995; Fletcher and Williams, 1996; Mowday et al., 1974; Wong et al., 1995; Vandenberg and Lance, 1992), performance (Hartmann and Bambacas, 2000) and perceived organizational support (Eisenberger et al. , 2001). A negative relationship has been shown for absenteeism (Iverson and Deery, 2001; Metcalfe and Dick, 2000) and turnover intention (Schnake and Dumler, 2000) Stress According to Casico Wynn (2004) stated that the downsizing create a breach of an unwritten rules that constitute the psychological contract between employer and employee leads to a rise in stress and a decrease in satisfaction, commitment, intention to stay and perceptions of an organizations trustworthiness, honesty, and caring about its employees. Stress has been defined as a stimulus, a response, or the result of an interaction between the two, with the interaction described in terms of some imbalance between the person and the environment (Cooper, Dewe ODriscoll, 2001). When downsizing occurs, like the victims, the survivors often lose control over their employment status and work situation. Survivors often feel angry and overwhelmed by the sudden disruption of the workplace, similar to people who be laid off, survivors also have feelings of betrayal and fury when downsizing occurs. Research also indicates that other stressful characteristics tend to emerge when work has to be carried out by fewer employees (Hellgren Sverke 2001; Hopkins Weathington 2006; Pfeffer 1998). The lack of people to work become overwhelmed, constant anxiety because of imbalance as well as job lossed can be happened anytime that creates stress to survivors. Employee stress can take many forms and significant impact on both employees and organizations; it can manifest as anxiety, irritability, dependency, depression and it results in reduced productivity, employee burnout, absenteeism (Valueoption.com). It has been suggested that layoff survivors experience stress that is as great, or even greater than, the stress felt by those who have been laid off (Kaufman 1982). Job insecurity Job insecurity is the exact opposite of job security, is defined as the perceived powerlessness to maintain desired continuity in a threatened job situation by Greenhalgh and Rosenblatt (1984). Job insecurity represents one of the most frequently investigated stressors in the context of organizational change and downsizing (e.g., De Witte 1999; Sverke/Hellgren 2002). The string sticks employees with organizion is job, in other word, any organization keeps their employees by proper job with many opportunities to learn, to develop, and above all of them, the job has to be durable and security. When downsizing occurs, survivors feel like the promise of organization has broken down, they see their colleagues lose their job and they fear of losing their jobs at anytime, fear of instability of income, loss of status or self esteem. They believe that their work will no longer be safe, if the organization was willing to let the employees go in the past, they would be willing to do it again i n the future. Job insecurity leads to dissatisfaction, people intent to leave the organization and come to a safer place; it also leads to greater absenteeism, higher turnovers and disability claims (Boroson and Burgess, 1992; Koco. 1996; Mishra and Spreitzer. 1998; Tombaugh and White. 1990). Previous studies such as Moore, Grunberg Greenberg (2006); Ashford, Lee Bobko (1989); Brockner et al. (1992) or Hellgren Sverke (2003) have concluded that job insecurity are related with organizational downsizing both in short and long term perspective and the worried about future job loss is associated with impaired work attitudes and well-being. Theorists have emphasized that job insecurity is a multidimensional phenomenon (Ashford, Lee Bobko, 1989; Greenhalgh Rosenblatt, 1984; Jacobson, 1991). The first dimension, called severity of threat, consists of the range of work features at risk, the valence of these features, probabilities of losing each feature, and the number of sources of threat. The second dimension is perceived powerlessness, or ones ability to respond to risks. Job insecurity can also be thought of in terms of expectancy (i.e. probability of loss) and valence (i.e. value of job features) from expectancy theory (Jacobson, 1991). Job insecurity is a broad concept , including threats to any desired work features including opportunities for career development or wages. perceptions of job insecurity also can be considered as stress inducing, so reports of worry and stress are sometimes used as proxies for perception of job insecurity. Results showed that perceived job insecurity increased over time as layoffs unfolded but no new information arrived. Job insecurity was lowest among those employees who had no contact with workforce downsizing, with higher insecurity among those who had friends or co-workers laid off, and the highest insecurity among those who had been warned that they would be laid off or who had been laid off and then rehired. Hypothesis Many organization managers apply workforce downsizing strategy for their organization, often focus their attention and effort for those employees who be laid off and pay little attention to those who remain with organization As the large bank in Vietnam, VietinBank is also applying workforce downsizing like many other organizations to overcome the current difficulties. Get to know the survivors syndrome is very important not only for VietinBank but also for many other organizations. The future of the organization can be at stake if these warning signs take hold and start to have a long-term effect. Organizations that understand and combat the causes of survivor syndrome at an early stage have a far better chance of weathering the storm and moving forward after the period of unsettling change. Based on the previous studies, in the scope of this research, researcher would like to find out the impact of workforce downsizing to the behavior such as trust, commitment, and stress and job insecurity of Vietinbanks staffs to see how they were affected by downsizing and which elements of fours will be the most impacted by downsizing. Through this research, researcher hopes to put some help for VietinBank managers in order to have a better understanding about their employees so that they can looking for an appropriate direction as well as specific plan to minimize the harmful impacted may arises from downsizing. Based on the above theory discussion, the Hypothesis is formulated as following: (H1) There is a significant relationship between downsizing and VietinBank survivors trust. (H2) There is a significant relationship between downsizing and VietinBank survivors stress. (H3) There is a significant relationship between downsizing and VietinBank survivors commitment. (H4) There is a significant relationship between downsizing and VietinBank survivors job insecurity. (H5) There is a survivors symptom that be strongest impacted by downsizing in VietinBank Chapter Summary Through out the chapter, researcher give a deeped review of previous research on downsizing and its impacted on survivors. There are many different opinions about the effects of downsizing on organizations, somes indicated that downsizing is an effective stratefy for organization, which may lead to increase innovation, human resource focusing. However, numerous previous studies have concluded that there are adverse effects of downsizing on organizations, especially for survivors, who is considered to be lucky one for remaining their job. Previous researchs have come up with a term survivors syndrome to describe the behaviors or attitudes of survivors during and after the workforce downsizing occurs. And by understanding the attitudes, emotions and viewpoints of the survivors, a clear perspective on the true short and long term benefits, gains or losses of downsizing for corporations can be derived. Even in early survivor syndrome literature there was some evidence that effective mana gement of downsizing can control for negative effects on the survivors (Brockner, 1990; Brockner et al., 1992) The next section of the research studied further the impact of downsizing on trust, stress, commitment and job insecurity of VietinBanks survivors. This research enables better understanding about the perspective and behavior of VietinBanks survivor when downsizing situation occurs.

So long a letter :: essays research papers

Daniel Overmyer’s, Religions of China, discusses the historical developments of the different religions of China. It also addresses the impact religion has on the daily life of the Chinese in the past and present. Overmyer introduces the Chinese living system with his knowledge of Feng-shui, and how everything is connected by shared rhythms. â€Å"These rhythms are discussed as the cold, dark forces of yin and the hot, bright forces of yang; together with the five powers of metal, plant, life, water, fire and earth; these forces are modes of qi, â€Å"vital substance†. Their interaction produces all things† (12). The author does an excellent job in his approach to teaching Chinese religions and culture. He explains its concept and upbringings then tries to relate them to the reader’s daily life. This book serves as an introduction to Chinese History, in terms of religions and practices, which paved the way for China today. In order to help introduce the major cultural and religious features of the book, the author places a chronological list of events in the beginning of the text; from the Prehistoric time (6000 B.C.) to the Peoples Republic of China (1949-present). Its geographical limits are all of China, which extends from the Pacific Ocean to India to Afghanistan, and from Burma in the south to Siberia in the north. Overmyer gives a brief historical view of the country’s’ political and social climb, one example was with the decline of the Hans dynasty to the uprising of the Yellow Turbans then to Way of the Celestial Masters. â€Å"These two popular movements were also forerunners of Daoism, which became the most important religious tradition founded in China† (37). The presentation of the text is thematic and it provides the reader with a step by step analysis to religions and practices. The author presents the concept in a very organized fashion. The first chapter introduces the beliefs and values of China’s living system, with the concept of Feng-shui and qi. The next chapter gives a brief overview of the historical developments of the different religions; Daoism, Buddhism, Confucianism, Popular Religion, and Foreign Religion. The proceeding chapters include the traditions and practices in their religious life and also the community’s intervention with the spiritual life; i.e. The Spring Festival, Exorcism and the Buddhist Enlightenment. The last chapter, Chinese Religions Today, emphasizes on present day religion in Taiwan and China mainland. Overmyer is very knowledgeable in the subject matter, he was taught by his mother during his first 5 years living in China.

Emily Dickinson’s Poem Review

I applaud Emily Dickinson’s choice of art over â€Å"real† life although I don’t think the two are mutually exclusive. While I cannot presume to know whether she had doubts about this herself or whether she had other problems that prevented her from living â€Å"real† life, I can clearly see that her life inside her mind was very rich. By choosing art, Emily Dickinson has left us with a wealth of succinct poems with very important themes. Particularly stunning is â€Å"Much Madness is Divinest Sense. † In that poem, she perfectly recaps the idea of majority rule.If one agrees with the majority, one is sane. If not, one is dangerous and wrong. This is such a short and simple poem that covers so many times in our lives and current events. There are so many examples of the majority doing the wrong thing, like slavery. Another important theme is contained in â€Å"If You Were Coming in the Fall. † This poem discusses the difficulty or utter tortu re of waiting for some uncertain future. One can wait much more easily if there is some kind of certainty or date at the end. â€Å"But now, all ignorant of the lengthOf time's uncertain wing, It goads me, like the goblin bee, That will not state its sting. â€Å" (Dickinson) The longer one waits, the more painful it becomes. It stings as Dickinson says. However, Dickinson says that waiting without that certainty is nothing but torture. This theme is universal. And yet, another important theme is contained in â€Å"Hope is the Thing with Feathers. † Dickinson gives herself and everyone else the claim that hope is always present in life. Hope is always with us; it â€Å"perches† in our souls.It never asks anything of the reader just remains in our hearts to keep us warm. â€Å"Yet, never, in extremity, It asked a crumb of me† (Dickinson). Again this is a very profound lesson contained in a brief poem. Who knows what the effect would have been if Dickinson had c hosen to have a husband and family or an active social life? The point is that the choice was hers, and she made it. Personally, I relish her choice as I think she gives us so many words to live by. For those who don’t like poetry all that much, she is simple and straightforward and yet, very profound.

Teenage Pregnancy More And More Teenagers Are Becoming...

Annamarie Harrell English II Honors Ms. Vandeusen April 13, 2013 Teenage Pregnancy More and more teenagers are becoming pregnant nowadays. Could it be because of the multiple television shows they could be watching about Teenage Pregnancy glamorizing the idea? Is the media suggesting to young adults that it is okay to be pregnant at a young age? Throughout the years, teenage pregnancy rates have increased due to the influence of mass media and the peer pressure teenagers are faced with every day; however, it is one hundred percent preventable. There are multiple television shows involving teenage pregnancy. On ABC Family, there is a show called â€Å"The Secret Life of the American Teenager. On Music Television (MTV), there are three reality shows based off of teenage pregnancy. One of them is the show called â€Å"16 and Pregnant,† showing the lives and hardships of girls while they are pregnant. 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Teen pregnancy is associated with negative consequences for adolescents for three reasons: lack of education, medical complication, uncertainty about the future, and financial difficulties. First, the main causes of teenage pregnancy are the lack of educationRead MoreThe Issue Of Teen Pregnancy1722 Words   |  7 Pagesteen pregnancy which is still an enormous problem that needs to be addressed. The rates are still higher than they were only a decade ago. Becoming a parent permanently and profoundly alters a teenager s life. Most of the girls forget about their dreams of happy marriage, and become mothers at very early age. College is almost always out of the question, graduating High School becomes a goal most teenage moms don t achieve. Young girls having babies isn t new, as a matter of fact, teenage parenthoodRead MorePregnancy in Our Youth: What Gives?755 Words   |  4 PagesThroughout the past fifty years, the rate of teenagers and adolescents becoming pregnant has increased dramatically. It was believed during the time of previous generations that if you were to become pregnant, you were not fit to finish school to take care of the child. If it was even attem pted to finish school, most girls would drop out anyway due to the shame set upon their peers. Now, in 2013, it is not uncommon to see a fourteen or fifteen year old who is expecting a child. We have televisionRead MoreHow Can Society Prevent and Avoid Unwanted Teenage Pregnancy?3437 Words   |  14 Pagesunwanted teenage pregnancy? Outline Topic: Teenage Pregnancy Can Be Overstepped. I. Introduction Due to increased number of teenage pregnancy today’s society should take serious steps to prevent it and improve the situation by supplying a better sexual education at home and at school by both their parents and teachers. II. Background Teenage pregnancy is a large and growing problem over the world especially now when people have more rights and freedom of choice. The main causes of teenage pregnanciesRead MoreTeen Pregnancy and Ways to Prevent It1710 Words   |  7 PagesAbstract: Teen pregnancy is an important issue all over the country. This is an ongoing problem that must be dealt with. Teenage pregnancy can ruin a teen’s life and also the life of an infant. In this paper I will discuss the many aspects of teenage pregnancy and how it affects the life of a teenager. Each year in the US almost 1 million teens become pregnant. While the facts are clear, the issues of teenage pregnancy are complicated. Talk of sex is everywhere in our society and young girlsRead MoreTeenage Pregnancy1814 Words   |  8 PagesIntroduction Is it the new trend for teenager to have sex and get pregnant? What is the point? There are so many things we as teenagers have to gain during our teenage life especially our maturity. So how can we do that and also take responsibility for another child? Teenage pregnancy is complicated by our conflicting attitudes and behaviors. Yet we are shocked at the increasing numbers of teens who are sexually active. As we all know, teenage pregnancy is on the rampage in St. Kitts and we areRead MoreEarly Pregnancy4925 Words   |  20 PagesEARLY PREGNANCY: ITS RISKS AND HARM ________________________________________________________________ In Partial Fullment Of The Requirements In English IV F.Bangoy National Highschool Sasa, Davao City ________________________________________________________________ A Research Paper Presented To: Arvin Maturan Genovate English IV Teacher ________________________________________________________________ By: Rhea Lyca Suarez, Angelo Jadloc, May Ann Ganas Jon Boni Podador, Analyn NaquilaRead MoreTeen Parent Institutions: Proposed Method for Solving the Teenage Pregnancy Problem1271 Words   |  6 Pagesthat occur in the life of an average American teenager. However, now more than ever, another event has been added to many teenagers’ lists: becoming a parent. Teen pregnancy is not a new issue; in fact, it has been a rising concern in the United States for decades. Voluntary efforts have been made by organizations such as Healthy Teen Network, The National Campaign, and Advocates for Youth to help reduce the overwhelming existence of teen pregnancy. Though health care clinics, teen parentingRead MoreTeenage Pregnancy in the Philippines4412 Words   |  18 PagesThis addresses unplanned teenage pregnancy from a human-rights-based perspective. Many programs focus only on the negative aspects of young peoples sexual and reproductive health; putting rights at the centre of teenage sexual health avoids treating adolescents as a homogeneous collection of discrete problems. Taking a rights-based approach to adolescent sexual and reproductive health encompasses the inter-relationships and complexity of factors influencing choices and decisions. In this, weRead MoreThe Importance of Birth Control Essay1035 Words   |  5 Pagesyou actually become pregnant. So if you don’t want to put your life on hold then I suggest you think of methods to avoid becoming pregnant. I’m not saying it’s bad to be pregnant but it all comes at its own time and you don’t want to be surprised one day and find out you’re going to be a young or single parent. Birth control has its benefits and you should explore your options before it’s too late. Birth control, also called contraceptives, is a method of preventing pregnancy. They work in different