Nature versus Nurture: The debate

Nature versus Nurture: The debate A View of Two Fields of Thought: Nature versus Nurture A debate has been brewing in the field of education and philosophy for hundreds of years. Many intellectuals have pondered over this subject and have taken one side or the other, but to this day no definite answer exists. The battle of nature versus nurture, or rationalism versus empiricism, has so long been debated and has been addressed in so much literature that one would be hard pressed to find an educator who hasnt thought about this topic and considered the merits of each school of thought. This debate affects how educators view their students as well as how they believe children can be taught, so it is important to explore the history of each side and investigate the evidence so educators as well as parents can understand how to access their childs potential. In 380 B.C.E. Plato wrote a play titled Meno. In this work, he discussed through his characters how intelligence was based on recollection. This concept was derived from the idea that once a human being dies, his soul is reincarnated into another human being and that newly born person has all of the knowledge that his former life possessed. Therefore, Plato believed in the idea that knowledge was innate (Allen 165-174). He believed that people were divided into social or intellectual classes by the type of metal that supposedly ran through their souls. These metals were gold, silver, brass and iron and they were used to keep the social hierarchy in check. If someone were believed to have gold in their soul, they would theoretically govern the state and be of superior intelligence. Someone who had silver in their soul was seen as a warrior of the state and if someone was believed to have brass or iron in their soul, they were never meant for a high ranking position in the social spher e but to dwell on the earth as members of the lower class (Voegelin 230). The next great mind to enter the nature versus nurture debate came around in the mid 1600s. Rene Descartes created an entire school that is known today as the Cartesian school of thought. Descartes and his followers adopted the idea of dualism, meaning that the soul is separate from the body and that the soul does not have a physical manifestation (Gardner 33). This idea goes along well with the previously mentioned theories of Plato. In a dedicatory letter to the Sorbonne, Descartes attempted to prompt his literary work, Mediations on First Philosophy. This letter outlined Descartes key ideas concerning knowledge and dualism. He emphasized that all that is known about God is manifested in people, and to figure out those manifestations one must use reasoning, which takes place in the brain. Also throughout the letter Descartes made it a point to mention how people have certain aptitudes for different vocations, such as metaphysical studies or geometry; he also explored the idea that people can be intellectually gifted, as to say they were granted their intelligence from birth. Descartes had little evidence to support this reasoning beyond his heavy reliance on philosophy and his strong religious beliefs. Like Plato, he believed that the soul lived on after the body had expired (Descartes 3-11). As time moved on, the nature argument started to move away from the religious vantage point and more toward scientific research. Francis Galton would be among the first men who conducted such experiments. In Galtons book Hereditary Genius he stated the argument that the high reputation of a man could be used as an accurate assessment of high ability. He studied eminent men such as the Judges of England from 1660 to 1868 and also the Statesmen during the reign of George III. Along with these men, Galton also studied men of a wide variety of professions since he believed it was important to study many different grades of ability (Galton 2). He studied nearly 300 families and concluded that eminent men do tend produce eminent sons (307). From this conclusion, Galton set out to continue his research, only this time he wouldnt focus his attention on the biographies of successful men; he would continue his research with the study of twins. Through the process of sending out surveys to people who either were twins or those who were close relatives of twins, Galton found further support for his rationalist theories. At first he addressed a number of twins who were very similar from birth, and then he addressed those sets of twins who were dissimilar from the very beginning, which he considered more relevant to his cause. He presented several testimonies from parents of twins stating that even though the twins were nurtured the exact same way from the moment they were born, they showed great difference. A specific case stated that two male twins acted as compliments to one another. One boy would possess a certain set of qualities and attributes where as the other would be the polar opposite of his twin brother who had received the same nurture. Galton states that through all of his correspondences, he could not find one case where the twins started out different and were assimilated through nurture (Galton 391-406). Galton continued to study the issue of hereditary intelligence in many other books and journals, but one his most famous proposals was his ideas on eugenics. Because Galton believed that knowledge was inherited, he thought that it would benefit humanity if only intelligent people were allowed to reproduce. In â€Å"Eugenics: Its Definition, Scope, and Aims†, Galton laid out his plan for how this process would go about happening. He went as far as to call this way of living a â€Å"new religion† that should be fully pushed upon people so they whole heartedly accept it (Galton ). We now know that for a period in history, Galtons ideas were successful and many people around the world were sterilized against their will as a way to attempt to breed the perfect human race (Dikotter). In Galtons later research he discovered â€Å"regression to the mean†, which is the idea that human beings tend to move toward the average no matter how above or below average their parent s are. This discovery disappointed his hopes of breeding the perfect human race (Galton â€Å"Regression†). Another interesting contributor to the nature argument was Cesare Lombroso. In his book, â€Å"Crime, its causes and remedies†, Lombroso attempted to lie out the naturally occurring tendencies of a criminal. He studied groups of people in Europe and came to the conclusion that features such as hair color, skull size and facial structure were indicators that a person was innately criminal. He also determined that race was a factor in finding naturally born criminals as well. He used the Jewish people as an example for his race theory. He said that Jews were much less likely to commit crimes compared to the gypsies, who he believed where in the same socioeconomic class. Lombroso wrote about schooling as well. He believed that if a student in elementary school displayed the characteristics that he had categorized as criminal then the student should be taken away from the other children and be caught in a way to discourage the innate criminality from surfacing (Lombroso). Much more recently, Charles Murray has addressed this debate and has strongly lobbied for inherited intelligence. In the book â€Å"The Bell Curve† written by Richard Herrnstein and Charles Murray, these men aimed to prove that Americas growing inequality was due to the fact that skilled labor was much more valuable today than unskilled labor. Because both Herrnstein and Murray believed that IQ directly correlated with skill, they believed that the gap between people in society will only continue to grow as unskilled jobs fade away (Murray bell curve). In an article written by Murray published in the Wall Street Journal, he claimed that a persons IQ is directly connected to their intelligence and that that number cannot possibly change no matter what kind of education is given to that student. Through his investigation, he found that when someone tried to raise their IQ, it only went up an average of about 8 points as after time progressed, the number returned back to what it had originally been. Considering the national assessment of educational progress scores, 36% of all fourth graders were below the standards of basic achievement in reading; Murray stated that this number should be considered acceptable since 36% of fourth graders, according to the normal distribution, have IQs lower than 95. He even made the bold claim that if you argue that an IQ test doesnt determine intelligence, then G, someones natural intellectual ability, does (Murray Newspaper). The other side of the nature versus nurture debate lies with those who believe nurture is the predominate cause of intelligence and personality. A few years after Descartes died, John Locke came forward with his views on rationalism verses empiricism. He thought it was wrong to believe a small child had any innate ideas, and he is well known for his theory that a mind is like a blank, white piece of paper that parents and teachers can write on as they see fit to shape and mold the child into adulthood. Locke believed that ideas came from two places: first from sensory information and second from reflections (115spiral). In Lockes â€Å"Essay Concerning Human Understanding† he attacked the theory of innate knowledge by assuming that if there were innate principles in the human mind, everyone would agree on these principles. Because not all people agreed, it proved to Locke that there were in fact no innate principals at all. Also, in what seems like a direct attack at Descartes , Locke argued the innateness of God to be fictional because there are cultures all around the world that do not recognize any god at all (Locke). Around the same time as Locke, George Berkeley achieved recognition for his theories on empiricism as well. Berkeley believed that the mind was what everything in existence revolved around and that matter did not actually exist, thinking that all things in the world were composed of ideas (Flage). He thought that all things were either sensations or perceptions and one can only know what one sees. Berkeley believed that when a person looks at something, they only see the appearance of the object and not the real qualities which arent perceivable to anyone. Human senses are the only way people can understand the things in the world (Berkeley 193-215). The third well know empiricist of the time was David Hume. Hume believed that what was in the mind could be broken down into basic sensations. He theorized that thinking was just a byproduct of disconnected sensations and ideas were like vague copies of distinct perceptions or impressions and everything past those ideas and perceptions were unnecessary to explore (D. Murray 11-12). Years later in the late 1800s, John Watson published a book called Behaviorism. He presented a thesis about human instincts and discussed what human beings are born being able to do. He claims that those functions are in fact not instincts as instincts were defined at the time. He claimed that everything that people had initially thought were instincts were actually learned behaviors that came about as a result of training. On this evidence, he stated â€Å"that there is no such thing as an inheritance of capacity, talent, temperament, mental constitution and characteristics† (Watson 75). He believed that if a child has a father that is a good swordsman, the child will only become a good swordsman if the father nurtures him to be so, not just because he has his fathers genes. He supported this idea by referencing all the different customs and tendencies of people all across the world and how they all differ due to their culture and environment (74-75). One relevantly recent phenomenon is the Flynn Effect, which is describes as significant increases in IQ over time. This effect has been attributed to a variety of factors such as â€Å"improved nutrition; increased environmental complexity; and family, parental, school and methodological factors† (Daley 215). All of these components of the Flynn affect were at first criticized for focusing on only industrialized and urban areas, but a group of people from the University of California went to Kenya to help strengthen the Flynn Effects environmental explanations (215). The study took place in the Embu District of Kenya. The first research was done in 1984 and then again in 1998 with two different groups of children. The researches administered three tests to the group of children they were studying. The tests were: the Ravens Progressive Matrices, the verbal meaning test, and the digit span test. It was determined that the second group of children in 1998 scored higher than those in 1984, proving that the Flynn Effect was definitely present. To explain these increases the researchers looked to see if the environmental factors had changed during the 14 years. Nutrition became better, which is represented by the increase in kilocalories and protein from 1984 to 1998 as well as a decrease in children who had an insufficient caloric intake. The environment also became more complex, with the addition of a few televisions as well as a majority of parents reporting to have read a newspaper or magazines at least once a week. Both of these factors had not existed in the community during the 1984 study. In addition, family size decreased in Kenya, which allowed the households to spend more on the individual children and the family structure shifted from nuclear families to single parent households run by the mother. Parental education and literacy also increased during the 14 years, going from 26% of mothers reporting no schooling in 1984 to only 8.7% in 1998. Schooling didnt change much during the time period, but there was an increase in the number of children who attended Sunday school, so this could be seen as an extra day of schooling. The health of the children didnt improve and the hemoglobin counts actually worsened over the time period, but the most severe causes of anemia decreased from 1984 to 1989 (217-219). The main impacts on the children according to this study were parental literacy, family stature and health. All of the children in the study belonged to the same tribe so the researchers believed this to be proof that the environment a child is raised in has much affect on his or her intelligence (219). One of the most recent empiricists is Geoffrey Canada. Canada grew up in inner city New York but moved to Long Island with his grandparents in his early teens. He graduated from high school and went to college and then attended graduate school at Harvard University. Canada eventually became the CEO and president of Harlem Childrens Zone. Currently, the program spans 97 blocks in New York City and caters to nearly 8000 students. He whole heartedly believes that with the right amount of guidance and direction, the struggling students in inner cities can learn to appreciate learning and to increase their intelligence through their environment in the classroom (Moore). In Paul Toughs book â€Å"Whatever it takes: Geoffrey Canadas quest to change Harlem and America† the program is described in great detail and it shows how the lives of the children have been adjusted to foster learning (Tough). The programs success became evident in 2009 â€Å"when its charter school, the Promise Academy, eliminated the achievement gap for math between average black students and white students in New York City† (Moore). The debate over nature versus nurture spans back to when philosophy was predominantly the way of explaining the acquisition of knowledge and continues in more recent times with scientific evidence consisting of facts and numbers giving support to one side or the other. Both the recent and historical back and forth between great scholars helps each individual, be they parent or educator, come to their own personal conclusions of whether nature or nurture is the more dominant factor contributing to a persons knowledge and IQ. Works Cited Allen, R.E.. Anamnesis in Platos Meno and Phaedo.The Review of Metaphysics13 (1959):165-174.JSTOR. Flage. 29 Mar. 2010. Berkeley, George. A Treatise Concerning the Principles of Human Knowledge. sax: Indypublish.Com, 2003. 193-215. Print. Daley, Tamara, Shannon Whaley, Marian Sigman, Michael Espinosa, and Charlotte Neumann. IQ on the Rise: The Flynn Effect in Rural Kenyan Children . Psychological Science 14 (2003): 215-219. JSTOR. Flage. 30 Mar. 2010. Descartes, Rene. Meditations on First Philosophy. The Philosophical Writings of Descartes (Volume II). New York: Cambridge University Press, 1985. 3. Print. Dikotter, Frank. Race Culture: Recent Perspectives on the History of Eugenics. The American Historical Review 103 (1998): n. pag. JSTOR. Flage. 29 Mar. 2010. Flage, Daniel. George Berkeley (1685-1753). Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy . James Madison University, 4 Apr. 2004. Flage. 28 Mar. 2010. . Galton, Francis . Regression Towards Mediocrity in Hereditary Stature. The Journal of the Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland 15 (1886): n. pag. Jstor. Flage. 2 Apr. 2010. Galton, Francis. The History of Twins, as a Criterion of the Relative Powers of Nature and Nurture. The Journal of the Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland 5 (1876): 391-406. JSTOR. Flage. 29 Mar. 2010. Galton, Francis. Eugenics: Its Definition, Scope, and Aims. The American Journal of Sociology 10 (1904): n. pag. JSTOR. Flage. 28 Mar. 2010. Galton, Sir Francis. Hereditary Genius: An Inquiry Into Its Laws and Consequences (Classic Reprint). asdbjsadjkas: Forgotten Books, 2009. Print. Gardner, Howard, Mindy Kornhaber, and Warren K. Wake. Intelligence: Multiple Perspectives. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Publishing, 1995. 33-36. Print. Herrnstein, Richard J., and Charles Murray. Bell Curve: Intelligence and Class Structure in American Life (A Free Press Paperbacks Book). 1st Free Press Pbk. Ed ed. New York City: Free Press, 1996. Print. Lombroso, Cesare. Crime: Its Causes and Remedies. 1918: Legal Classics Library, A Division Of Gryphon Editions, 1994. Print. Moore, Jina. Empathy is his superpower / The Christian Science Monitor CSMonitor.com. The Christian Science Monitor CSMonitor.com. N.p., 7 Sept. 2009. Flage. 4 Apr. 2010. . Murray, Charles. Intelligence in the Classroom Half of all children are below average, and teachers can do only so much for them. . Wall Street Journal n/a (2007): 1-3. Print. Murray, D.W.. What is the Western Concept of the Self? on Forgetting David Hume. Ethos 21 (1993): 11-12. JSTOR. Flage. 30 Mar. 2010. Tough, Paul. Whatever It Takes: Geoffrey Canadas Quest to Change Harlem and America. New York: Mariner Books, 2009. Print. Voegelin, Eric. The La. Plato. 1 ed. Columbia, MO: University of Missouri Press, 2000. 230. Print. Watson, John. B.. Are There Any Human Instincts?. Behaviorism. San Diego: West Press, 2008. 74-75. Print. Theories of Crime and Gender: Research Study Theories of Crime and Gender: Research Study Crime Gender __________________________________ Contents (Jump to) Introduction    Why Gender? Why Crime? Ground Rules – Laying the Foundation for a Thorough Discussion: Feminism Sociological Motivation Offenders – Women who Violate the â€Å"Norm† Victims –   In their â€Å"natural† place†¦ In the System – The Influence of Dominant Social Structures Paradigms Field Perspective – A Short Experimental Inquiry into Current Perceptions about Women Violent Crime The Verdict – Moving Forward with Facts†¦ and assumptions References __________________________________ Appendix A Research Surveys Appendix B Annotated SPPS Output Appendix C Raw Data Introduction Why Gender? Why Crime? The answer to the question posed above could be any one of the following: In the tradition of Sir Edmund Hillary in referring to why he climbed Mt. Everst, simply, â€Å"Because it is there†. In the modern tradition of rhetoric, â€Å"Why not?† In ‘typical’ answer one might expect, because both are compelling, engaging topics in which virtually everyone has a vested interest in and both are issues fundamental to the social and political fabric of modern life. The truth is simply â€Å"all of the above† with a heavy emphasis on #3. These topics have the fortune of being both broad and â€Å"loaded†. It is broad in the sense that both subjects, in and of themselves, is the subject of the life’s work of numerous notable academians as well as that of many law enforcement, social service and legal professionals. Without question, the subjects, especially gender, is loaded with emotion. While many might believe that feminism is a wasted effort to redirect attention and funds, others pursue the topic with all the righteous vigor of that associated with the abolition of slavery. The topics of gender and crime would be much easier to cover if, like a traditional Venn diagram, there were but a small area of overlap. In contrast, the two subjects seem to only grow when combined. With this in mind, a logical treatise on the subject is yet possible by presentation with a logical stepwise progression through fundamental theoretical perspectives followed by the systematic treatment of each key stakeholder. Following this, original research will be reviewed and discussed in light of the foundations laid. Based on these findings, additional lines of inquiry to tease out further salient differences and issues will be proposed. Ground Rules Laying the Foundation for a Thorough Discussion: Feminism Sociological Motivation Feminism It becomes quite apparent with on a cursory review of literature that crime is a man’s arena. Unanimously, researchers agree that the overwhelming majority of crime is committed by men and that gender is the strongest predictor of criminality (Messerschmidt 1997, p. 1; Belknap 2001, pp. xii, 5-6; Heidensohn 1997, p. 491). In itself, this begs the question of why this is the case. Though any answer to this question falls short of the answer to the ‘whole’ question, it is enough to pique interest and to begin a line of inquiry into the simple matter, given the roughly 50/50 gender distribution, why must is be the case that men commit more than ten times the crimes that women do (or are they just not caught?). The simple fact that most crimes are committed by men and not by women creates questions as to the reasoning behind this. Though seemingly far from what might be considered a typical feminist agenda, the issue of crime and gender is indeed a fundamental issue of gender and, therefore central to the thoughts of feminism. In assigning a feminism interest to the issue of gender and crime, additional complications arise due to the multiple perspectives of feminism within its own ranks. While the uninitiated might label all feminists alike, this is not the case as there are five major division within the overall perspective of â€Å"a woman-centered description and explanation of human experience and the social world† (Belknap 2001, p. 16). Below is a table listing each major faction and the outlook regarding key issues: Label Perspective Liberal feminism Believe that women’s access to equality in education, employment and â€Å"public† things in general are blocked by generally accepted (but wrong) principles, policies and laws. Marxist feminism Disciples of this division are most concerned with class and economic inequalities. Socialist feminists Take issue with Marxist’s in that they insist that it is not class alone but also instilled systems and that perpetuate inequalities. Radical feminists Another reaction against Marxist feminism that again goes beyond it in that they emphasize patriarchal systems as sources of inequality and, of all the factions, this one is the most likely to â€Å"hold individual men, rather than society, responsible†. Post-modern feminists Advocates of a multiple perspective view in that the issues that any woman faces are different based upon class, race, age, etc. (Belknap 2001, pp. 16-17) Though feminism is a diverse and sometimes, even divisive, arena, each ‘faction’ has a belief that men and women should receive equal treatment under the law and in society in general. Criminology, with its overwhelming use of masculine models, theories and subjects has largely attempted to impose these models upon female crime, crime victims and system-issues in an effort to explain how and why female crime occurs. Though these models are insightful and useful, they do not fully explain male or female criminology. Consequently, the utilization of the feminist perspective may be quite useful in not only generating models for female offenders but able to shed light on what went wrong with male criminals. This feminist viewpoint is different from other perspectives in the following ways: Gender is not a natural fact but a complex social, historical and cultural product related to but limited to any biological basis for sex. Gender and gender relation create and sustain fundamental order in social life and institutions. Gender relations are based upon masculine and feminine constructs in which men are viewed are socially, politically, and economically dominant over women. The production of knowledge is gendered in that men produce it from their point of view. Women and women’s issues should be at the center of attention and inquiry. (Belknap 2001, p. 13) With the realization that half of the planet’s population is female, the duration of the dominance ‘typical’ perspectives becomes even more curious. Thus, in consideration of crime and gender, the feminist perspective can be enlightening both for the perspective on the majority as well as to provide novel insight into female-committed crime as well as how it is possible that approximately 93% of the [female] populate are ‘crime-free’. Were we able to find this mystery female ‘ingredient’ (is it butterflies?) and, were it able to be instilled, socialized, taught, administered or cultivated in any way in the other half of the population, the world would be virtually crime-free. An example of how the feminist perspective has already fundamentally changed the view of society at large is in regards to rape. Clearly a violent crime, [male] researchers had, prior to the emergence of the feminist perspective, simply gathered data on this crime in the same way that did not fully capture the reality of situation. Specifically, the number of rapes committed each year was reported based upon statistics gathered from police records, a source that is contingent upon a crime being reported and how a crime is defined. As it would turn out, many â€Å"rapes† are not reported and further, the legal definition of â€Å"rape† may not exactly fit the reality of a victim who may have been forced to have sex (Belknap 2001, p. 20). Sociological Motication: Why People Commit Crime There are a number theories as to why crimes are committed. Clearly, there are crimes of passion and as many other reasons as there are unfulfilled desires of the heart. Despite the overwhelming possibilities, there emerge a few predictable bases as well as other â€Å"systematic† rationale for deviant behavior. Without engaging in the broadest of philosophical arguments as to what constitutes â€Å"right† and what separates this from â€Å"wrong†, a key tenet to lawbreaking that we should accepts is that of â€Å"mens rea† or, â€Å"guilty mind†. This Latin phrase is central in that we excerpt from our discussion those who commit a crime â€Å"by mistake, under duress or while insane† (Hampton 1990, pp.1). Consequently, of the millions of crimes committed, it becomes imperative to study the matter to determine to cause and ultimately to prevent their commission in the first place as those who commit such acts do so willfully, with at least s ome idea of the potential penalties and with the knowledge that harm is likely or, depending on the crime, is certain to occur to persons or property though this will be presented not from a individual psychological perspective but rather that of a large scale sociological perspective. Early criminologists believed primarily believed that crime was a ‘class’ problem, an issue that was confined for the most part to lower socio-economic strata (Lynch 1996, pp. 4, 8-9). This view point is still widely held and, as regression goes, still has significant explanatory power though there are other variables in the equation. As criminologist evolved in their thinking, questions of gender and race began to be considered. Messerschmidt, in Crimes as Structured Action (1997), indicates that each of these variables is more than a simple binary-type factor that someone either has or does not. In the same way that feminists recognize different feminist experiences, Messerschmidt puts for a theory of structured action. Similarly, in this model, each factor is contextual and has a relational aspect with regards to the other factors. For example, in some circumstances, one may be a â€Å"male†, in others, and â€Å"African-American† while yet in others â⠂¬Å"working class†. These identities are constructed through social interaction and existing social structures such as church, home, work, etc. Defined in broader terms, social structures are those â€Å"regular and patterned forms of interaction over time that constrain and channel behavior in specific ways† (Messerschmidt 1997, p. 5). These social structures are created by culpable people and perpetuated by the same. In essence the perspectives that one accepts and endorses, even if implicitly, one also perpetuates, even in cases in which one ‘just goes along with it’ as ultimately, there is an accountability that people take on themselves when they choose to construe themselves as a certain way in a specific situation (Messerschmidt 1997, pp. 4-6). Though it is something of the ‘American way’ and reminiscent of some versions of Arthurian legend that a person who is ‘good’ or works ‘hard enough’ is not limited in their ability to achieve success as the world sees its, there seems to be a great correlation between one’s race, class, neighborhood, gender and other key factors as to how one’s life choices play out. This view is specifically termed the â€Å"structured life course† and indicates that ones choices about any given matter are often not so much a function of a true individual choice but are frequently arise of a function of nearly inevitable consequences caused by political, social or economic forces that serve to either increase of decrease the likelihood of any particular act (Lynch 1996, pp. 6-7,15; Messerschmidt 1997, p. 7). In support of this, consider the following facts: 34% of all families living under the poverty line are headed by single female workers. 65% of all females in the work force are either single, widowed, divorced, separated or married to men earning less that $15,000/year. African Americans earn, on average, 64% of what whites earn.  ½ Of African American children grow up in poverty. The wealthiest 1% possess 42% of the wealth in America. Most millionaires are born, not made. Class affects where you grow up, how you grow up, the quality of schools you attend (from elementary through college), occupational choices, career path, whom you marry and the cycle begins again with your children. (Lynch 1997, p.11, 12, 16) An additional explanation for the problem of crime that has the potentiality to build upon the precept of the structured action theory is the theory proposed by Hirschi and Gottfredson in A General Theory of Crime (1990) in which they posit that the critical variable in an individual choosing to commit a crime is that of â€Å"self control†. With the exception of a very few acts, the overwhelming majority of crimes are â€Å"trivial and mundane affairs that result in little loss and less gain† (Brannigan 1997, p. 405). Further, the authors suggest that crimes, though usually unplanned, are the result of deliberate (though poor) choices and incur a degree of recklessness or offensiveness that is variable to the extent of the â€Å"underlying criminality† of the individual. The degree of â€Å"criminality† is closely related to this extent to which they are impulsive and, according, have low self-control. In terms of their character or behavior, this has a number of outcomes which contribute to the ‘downward spiral’: a need for immediate gratification, the â€Å"utilization of simple means†, i.e., pay without performance, sex without marriage or commitment, justice or revenge without court costs or delays, etc., biases towards risky and exciting activities, little interest in â€Å"skilful or sophisticated criminal planning† and, insensitivity to the pain of others (Brannigan 1997, p. 406). From these behaviors, additional consequences follow such as tendencies to: smoke, drink, use drugs, gamble, have children out of marriage and engage in risky, illicit sex, be impulsive and insensitive, physical (i.e., not ‘intellectual’), short-sighted, and nonverbal (Brannigan 1997, p. 406; Storvall, E., L. Wichstrom, H. Pape Nova. 2003, p. 194) The character trait that produces this string of products is produced (or not) in the first six to eight years of childhood (Brannigan 1997, p. 410). During this period, the institution of the family is particularly important as a person is socialized and receives the psychological grounding that produces good impulse- and self-control. Without discounting either the structured action theory, life course theory or the general theory of crime (low self-control), a discussion of criminal behavior would not be complete without a discussion of life cycle theory of Sampson Laub. In the life cycle theory, the idea of internal and external factors in the commission of crime is viewed within the perspective that criminality is a function of age. In this theory, it is noted that, â€Å"the patterns of offending over [an individual’s] life cycle commonly follow an age curve – a peak†¦ which rises throughout the late adolescence and which declines into early adulthood†. Interestingly, the level of the crest of criminality varies with the race and gender of the offender as well as, accordingly, with those that can be labeled â€Å"high- or low-frequency† offenders (Brannigan 1997, p. 409). With this in mind, Brannigan points out, many programs that are aimed at curbing crime or rehabilitating o ffenders will commit grievous errors if the assumption is made that a certain regimen is effective that fails to account for this â€Å"invariant† feature (Brannigan 1997, p. 410). Another model, social capital or social bond theory, names the additional external factor of positive or negative social pressures in the form of relationships and so-called â€Å"social capital† that exists in the form of a steady job, a good marriage and other stabilizing (or not) relational bonds that influence criminality (Brannigan 1997, p. 411; Belknap 2001, p. 47, Batton 2004, p. 430; Giordano, Cernkovich Rudolph 2002, p. 990). The fundamental approach of this theory is on what induces most people and nearly all females to obey the law. Because of this, it is a distinctly feminist approach in light of the overwhelming data indicating that crime is, in nearly all cases a male issue. In all, there are a number of approaches that one can justifiably take to explain why people commit crimes. Though each one can be viewed as a separate proposition, it does not seem to be a crime to simply use each for what it is, that is, a partial representation of a broad and complex topic. In light of this, it seems to be a reasonable approach to posit a de facto theory by which race, class and gender, in combination with internal self-control and external relational factors work together to create real and virtually real structures and courses that interact over the course of a person’s life span to create a seemingly complete, reasonable and accurate explanation for most criminal acts. Viewed contextually, combinations of such risk factors as being male, having a corrupted network of friends could be overcome by being raised in a caring family environment with other ‘insulating’ factors. Similarly, a moment of poor impulse control could begin a process that quickly spirals out of control. Offenders Women who Violate the â€Å"Norm† In summary of women as principal agents in the commission of a crime, a few general trends become obvious: women commit a very small portion of all crimes, about 4-7% in the US and UK, the crimes they do commit are, on average, fewer, less severe and less likely to be â€Å"professional† or repeat offenders, women form a very small portion of prison populations. (Heidensohn 1997, pp. 491-492) Further, in all crimes except rape, the factor of gender becomes even more disparate as men are not only far more likely to commit a crime, they are even more likely to be a victim (Batton 2004, p. 423). According to 2000 statistics, men accounted for 89.6% of murder arrests and commit suicide at approximately 4x the rate of females (Batton 2004, p. 425). Though women commit far fewer crimes, some authors note that the rate of growth of female offenders is growing at a faster rate than that of males (Heidensohn 1997, pp. 494-496). Despite this, it is important to keep in perspective comparatively diminutive population of female offenders and that a large increase in the relative rate may yet still be quite a small number in absolute value. In regards to our ‘wholly unified’ theory as a composite of ‘all with predictive power’, a review of homicide data from 1960 – 2000 indicates that as female work for participation increased, the rate of murders committed by females has decreased. This suggests that as women gain greater power through increased penetration of established social structures, this has reduced the stress and frustration and subsequent ‘out-of-control’ feeling that can lead to lethal consequences. This finding is in contrast to male homicide rates that, during the same period, either stayed the same or increased, while workforce participation also remained constant (Batton 2004, p. 452). One theme that seems to emerge across studies of deviant behavior in females and males is the tendency of females to reports higher internal sources of problems than males (Storvall, E., L. Wichstrom, H. Pape Nova. 2003, p. 200; Batton 2004, pp. 428-429). Examples of this would be depression, stress from â€Å"success† in breaking through social structures or stress in being frustrated by them. This suggests the possibility that the specific motivations behind the commission behind criminal acts may be more internally driven for females and more external for males. In support of social bond theory are findings from research on female juveniles who socialize in three predominantly different setting with regards to support structures in the form of relationships and friendship networks. In this research, the greater the extent of the female-dominated friendship bonds, the less the extent of property crimes. This effect was greatest in â€Å"school females† and progressively weaker with â€Å"school males† and â€Å"street females† and virtually nonexistent for â€Å"homeless males† (McCarthy, Felmlee, Hagan 2004, p. 805). In regards to women who do commit crimes, particularly violent crimes such as domestic abuse or murder, they do so very much as men seem to do. For example in the case of domestic violence, both women and men were â€Å"equally likely to have used severe violence and inflicted severe injuries†¦, to have previously committed violence against nonintimates, and to have been using drugs or alcohol at the time of their arrest† (Busch Rosenberg 2004, p. 49). Victims In their â€Å"natural† place†¦ Despite males being victims of crimes more than females, no discussion of gender and crime would be complete with out a discussion of women as victims of crimes. Indeed, this fact may even be surprising to many that would think that ‘female’ is synonymous with being weaker and more vulnerable. Though women may not be, on average, physically as strong as men, the image is clearly more powerful than reality and this may propogate the well-documented fact that women, despite being a victim less, fear being a victim more (Belknap 2001, p. 206). There are however, certain crimes that are notably perpetrated almost exclusively against women. The most heinous of these is rape and no legitimate discussion of gender and crime would be complete with its omission. Rape is a crime typically committed against women and, in all likelihood, is committed far more than it is reported. While it is the case that it does disproportionately affect women with figures of 34% of Native American women, 18 % of white women, and 19% for African American indicating that they have been victimized (Belknap 2001, p. 218). An additional study surveyed 930 women randomly who gave responses indicating that 44% had been â€Å"victims of a completed or attempted rape† with 24% indicating a rape did definitively occur. Yet another study indicates that up to 53% of women experiencing some form of sexual assault (Belknap 2001, p. 231). TO put this into perspective, if you are a man, chances are 50/50 that your mother, your wife and your daughter has or will be sexually assaulted. If this was a female issue, it seems that the widespread dissemination of information such as this might affect matters. Though the incidence of any rape is too high, reporting and data gathering on this is itself a confounding issue, due in largely to the twin factors of social pressures to not report a shameful experience and the often uncertain definition of what actually constitutes â€Å"rape† or â€Å"sexual assault†. Also, there is likely the disproportionate reporting of certain types of rape such as the stereotypical â€Å"stranger assault† in which it is more socially acceptable to be a ‘victim’ (Belknap 2001, p. 233). The experience of being violated in the way of a rape is often difficult for women to admit, knowing that they may likely bring negative attention to themselves in the form of â€Å"victim blame† or potentially even with the threat of additional violence. Until comparatively recent times and not until the advent of the feminist influence was there much sympathy in the ‘system’ for rape victims (Belknap 2001, p. 215). Additionally, many of rapes are not the stereotypical ‘man in the bushes’ crime but are committed in situations that are â€Å"fuzzy†. Circumstances involving former consensual partners such as ex-boyfriends or ex-husbands or in scenarios where consent might have been given to point or scenarios that escalate out-of-hand but involved consent for some degree of sexual activity cloud the judgment not only police, prosecutors, and juries but the minds of victims as well. Regardless of the relationships of the victim to the offender who is convicted, Scully, indicates that none of them felt â€Å"guilt† regarding their proven actions. This finding corroborates the findings and predictions of the self-control theory as postulated by Hirschi and Gottfredson in which perpetrators are insensitive to others (Belknap 2001, p. 234). An additional crime that is typically thought of as one in which females are victims is that of domestic violence in which up to 23% of women reporting an incident with this over their lifetimes (Heidensohn 1997, p. 495). This is yet another situation in which there are social structure pressure as well as the familiar problem of definition. In regards to the degree of activity needed to constitute a â€Å"crime†, one study indicates that none of the men that completed a survey on the matter defined a number of listed incidents as a â€Å"crime† while 39% of the surveyed women identified them as such (Heidensohn 1997, p. 495). Clearly, a difference of opinion exists. This difference of opinion, though not justified, is nicely illustrated by research that indicated victims of domestic violence â€Å"justify† it and that the perpetrators â€Å"excuse† it. Specifically, regardless of the degree, women, who comprise 95% of the victims of this crime, either underreport the incidents or the severity of the incidents and men use excuses such as frustration, anger or intoxication to avoid or deny responsibility and justifications to deny â€Å"wrongness† (Belknap 2001, p. 268). In the System The Influence of Dominant Social Structures Paradigms The criminal justice system can be seen as part of the contextual framework that provides for the perpetuation of existing social structures. It can also and has been the cause of much positive change. In this irony of a duality of roles lie specific examples of how these can occur. An example of this occurs in the recently discussed situation of domestic violence. Following an incident, any incident, the police are typically the ones called to address the situation which, according to some view domestic disturbance calls frustrating because they feel they are â€Å"fighting crime†. Additionally, these types of calls can be among the most dangerous due to the unknown risks and the possibility to the police becoming involved with a very emotional perpetrator who may have the perspective that the police are ‘invading the sanctity of his home’ (Belknap 2001, p. 292). On arrival, police may find a situation for which they are untrained to deal in the case that skills such as mediation may be required. Additionally, many calls for assistance are made to prevent or in anticipation of a ‘situation’. If the police defuse the situation by their presence, the situation still exists when they leave†¦ it has only been deferred (Belknap 2001, p. 293). If the police are potentially unprepared to deal with a situation, the courts represent an additional layer of structure that imposes constraints on behaviors. For example, there is a good chance that a matter may not even go to judgment due to either plea bargaining or the defendants refusal to prosecute, sometimes to fear of retribution, sometime with false hopes but always in denial of the sequence of events that has begun (Belknap 2001, p. 294). Another component is the ‘system’ of the courts that merits identification is that of sentencing in cases in which women are offenders rather than being the victims. Though part of the reason the women’s prison population is far smaller than that of men is that far fewer women commit crimes. Despite this, with regards to sentencing for similar crimes, 20% of men convicted go to prison whereas only 5% of women do (Heidensohn 1997, p. 503). One reason for this is postulated to be that of â€Å"chivalry†. This phenomena is marked by the application of stereotypical, broadly-held and socially reinforced belief that one should ‘be nice’ to women (Heidensohn 1997, pp. 503-504). Of final note with regards to the idea of factors within the system that affect the issue of crime and gender are the patterns of employment of women within the ‘system’. In terms of women who are employed either in law enforcement or in the prison system, there are firstly comparatively few with women occupying 9% of police positions, 11.5% of corrections facilities and 20% of attorneys (Belknap 2001, pp. 357-358). This is again reflective a social system that reflects male dominance and a continuing male perspective that is, slowly, adapting to the influence of feminism. Field Perspective A Short Experimental Inquiry into Current Perceptions about Women Violent Crime To test for statistically significant variances with regards to perception of crime, a short survey (Appendix A) was administered to a group of 44 students comprised on 22 males and 22 females. Respondents were asked to read two brief crime scenarios and then recommend a sentence for the perpetrator. The two scenarios were identical with the exception that one involved bodily harm. The results of this survey indicated virtually indistinguishable responses with regards to gender with either case. Despite this, both male and female responders were significantly more likely to sentence more harshly the perpetrator who involved the use of bodily harm by an average of approximately 4.5 months. Utilizing a 2-tailed test, this was significant at the plonger sentence (H0 = sentenceA B) and not just simply a different sentence. With this in mind, the results were significant at the weaker p,0.10 level, a result that would likely change were the sample size larger. The Verdict Moving Forward with Facts†¦ and assumptions While the above experiment did not clearly showing gender differences that might have been expected, it is important to keep in mind that the crime involved property, a likely neutral proposition for which shared social

Effects of Technology on the Hr Function Essay

Critically analyse the ways in which the increasing application of technology at work have an effect upon the HR function. The use of technology within HRM has grown considerably within recent years with the majority of large organisations now using technology of some form within their HR function (CIPD, 2005). As HR becomes increasingly reliant on technology it is important to assess its effect upon the HR function. Firstly, consideration will be given to definition of terms along with a description of the uses of technology within the HR function. Next the change in the structure of the HR profession that has developed alongside the emerging and growing use of technology will be addressed. The goals of the use of technology which have been afforded a significant amount of attention within the literature will then be outlined along with consideration of the realisation of these goals. In addition, the effect of shared service centres, which make significant use of technology, upon t he role of HR practitioners will be addressed in conjunction with the views of HR practitioners themselves. Whilst little attention has been given to the situating of the use of technology in HR within a wider sociological perspective in the academic literature, an attempt will be made to consider the effect of technology upon HR within such a debate. Finally, conclusions will be drawn as to the impact of the use of technology upon the HR function. It is firstly important to consider what is meant by the use of technology within the HR function. The term e-HRM is frequently used to refer to the use of technology within the HR function. The use of e-HRM varies enormously within organisations and may be used for different purposes (Parry et al. 2007). The term Human Resource Information System (HRIS) is also used to refer to any system that helps an organisation to â€Å"acquire, store, manipulate, analyse, retrieve and distribute information about an organisation’s human resources† (Tannenbaum, 1990, p.28). However, the use of technology within HR is broader than the use of HRIS and may encompass manager and employee self-service, the use of staff intranets and e-enabled processes such and recruitment and performance management amongst others (Reilly, 2012). It is acknowledged that some current research focuses on the more recent developments in web-based technology, collectively referred to as social media technologies or Web 2.0 (see Reddington, 2012). However, the use of Web 2.0 is outwith the focus of this discussion. HRIS was originally used for standardising the gathering of information about and for employees (Kovach et al. 2002). However, the use of HRIS has subsequently developed and is now used more broadly for purposes such as recruitment and selection, learning and development, administration of flexible benefits and performance appraisal (Grensing-Pophal, 2001) or to manage HR and employee information across the whole employment cycle (Parry et al. 2007). Technology has also been increasingly associated with supporting integrated call centres, shared service centres and the use of manager and employee self-service (CIPD, 2007). There is a great emphasis in the literature about the potential goals of e-HRM (Marler, 2009; Ruel, Bondarouk and Looise, 2004). However, there has been less emphasis on whether these goals have been realised in reality (Parry and Tyson, 2011; Strohmeier, 2007). Alongside the development and increasing use of technology is the development and changing role of the HR function itself. Traditionally the HR function has been seen as being a largely administrative function, focussed on administrative processes such as the maintenance of employee and payroll records (CIPD, 2007). It would appear that in its search for identity and the resulting proposed need for transformation of the function (Ulrich, 1997), HR has made use of technology to attempt to facilitate this transformation (Shirvastava and Shaw, 2003). Ulrich (1997) has argued that HRM should become a strategic business partner, in addition to performing roles as administrative expert, change agent and employee champion. It has been suggested that the use of technology within the HR function may create the opportunity for HR to become more strategic by freeing up time through the automation of many administrative tasks (Parry et al. 2007). The provision of accurate and detailed information available through the use of HRIS could also enable HR practitioners to engage in a more strategic role as such data could be used to inform managerial decisions. The move to new service delivery models of HR and the development of technology can be seen as interdependent as without increasingly sophisticated technology the various elements of HR service delivery may not be as effective (Reddington, 2012). Drivers for introduction of technology can be described as being operational, relational or transformational (Kettley and O’ Reilly, 2003; Snell, Stueber and Lepak, 2002) Operational goals can be described as having a focus on reducing the administrative burden of HR and cost effectiveness, whilst enhancing the accuracy of data; relational goals relate to improving services for internal customers due to reported low levels of satisfaction with the HR function (Kyprianou, 2008) and transformational goals address the strategic aims of the business (Lepak and Snell, 1998; Martin et al. 2008). These drivers of e-HRM can be seen as addressing either transactional or transformational goals (Martin et al. 2008). Transactional goals relate to operational efficiencies or improved service delivery. There is talk of liberating HR through technology (Shirvastava and Shaw 2003) although this strong statement is qualified by the requirement that it informates as opposed to automates HR proc esses. The distinction between automating and informating is made by Zuboff (1988) whereby automating relates to increasing efficiency through computerising work processes and procedures with decreasing dependence on human skills. In contrast, informating refers to increasing effectiveness through acquiring information by using information technology and using that information to create new knowledge. Automating could be seen as relating to addressing operational goals whereas informating could potentially address the relational and transformational goals through provision of information to inform decisions and strategy. Despite the attention to the promise of technology in transforming the HR function, much less attention has been given to the impact of technology on the HR function and whether or not the highly prized strategic orientation of HR has been achieved (Lepak and Snell, 1998, Shrivastava and Shaw, 2003). Studies that relate to whether e-HRM is achieving its operational goals provide some mixed results (Strohmeier, 2007). In practice it would appear that HRIS is having a slightly better (but not statistically significant) impact in areas of information processing, for example improving the speed that information is available and the quality of the information available than in economic terms, such as reducing headcount, lowering operational costs and improving productivity and profitability (CIPD, 2005). However, within this survey, in a third of cases the reduction in administrative burden was less than was to be expected. Stronger support for the operational impact of e-HRM comes from analysis of 10 case studies by Parry et al. (2007) which showed that technology can lead to faster and more efficient processes, greater accuracy and consistency as well as a reduction in costs. A number of other studies also provide some evidence of the impact of technology on operational efficiency ( Marler, 2009; Ruel, Bondarouk and Looise, 2004; Ruta, 2005). However, it may be that some caution needs to be exercised in drawing conclusions on the impact of e-HRM in this area as it may be that the efficiencies achieved within the HR function are simply moved elsewhere within the organisation as the responsibility for some tasks is moved from HR to line managers or employees (Ruel, Bondarouk and Looise, 2004). There is some positive evidence for the relational impact of e-HRM, notably improvements in HR service delivery achieved through the increased accuracy of data or by simplification of processes (Gardener, Lepak and Bartol, 2003). However, the relational impact of e-HRM appears to have been granted little attention in the literature (Strohmeir, 2007). Whether technology has led to a transformational impact on the HR function appears even less clear than the impact it has had on transactional processes. Despite the identification by many organisations of transformational drivers being important in the adoption of e-HR (Watson Wyatt, 2002; Yeung and Brockbank, 1995) it would seem that the issue of whether e-HRM supports a transformation of the HR function into a strategic business partner is only â€Å"parenthetically addressed† (Strohmeir, 2007, p.28). Indeed, Bondarouk and Ruel (2009, p.508) state â€Å"organisations are definitely silent about whether their HR departments become more strategic with e-HRM†. Where evidence is presented it is contradictory in nature. It would seem that in some cases technology has not led to a more strategic orientation of the HR function and has been used mainly for automating operational processes (Burbach and Dundon, 2005; Dery, Grant and Wiblen, 2009; Kinnie and Arthurs, 1993; Tansley et al. 2001). Indeed, Broderick and Boudreau (1992) found that most organisations have only used technology to support a narrow range of administrativ e decisions, resulting in efficiencies in managing information but that the potential competitive advantage of technology has not been exploited. In contrast, other studies have offered some evidence that e-HRM has supported the strategic integration of HR with business strategy (Olivas-Lujan, Ramirez and Zapata-Cantu, 2007; Ruel, Bondarouk and Looise, 2004; Teo, Soon and Fedric, 2001) More recent research has provided some anecdotal evidence for a move towards a more strategic role (Parry and Tyson, 2011) although the evidence supporting the transformational impact compared with the operational and relational appeared to be the weakest. It would appear that there is far greater attention in the literature to the potential for e-HRM to have an impact in the three areas outlined above than there is accorded to the actual outcomes (Shrivastava and Shaw, 2003; Strohmeir, 2007). The reorganisation of the HR function and the introduction of shared service centres appears to have had an impact on numbers of on-site HR staff and a reduction in the number of HR staff to employees (Francis and Keegan, 2006). The operation of such shared service centres relies on technology that is characterised by formalisation, routinisation and centralisation resulting in an impact on staffing of such centres, which require specialised but generally low level HR administrators (Martin and Reddington, 2009). Research that addresses the issue of how HR practitioners have viewed the increasing use of technology appears to be limited to date. There is evidence that some practitioners may view the use of technology and an associated increase in the use of shared service centres cautiously because it has resulted in a reduction of face-to-face relationships, which is often the reason individuals cite for choosing a career in HR (Francis and Keegan, 2006). Martin and Reddington (2009) suggest that the significant role of technology within shared service centres will lead to a lowering of the status of those employed in such environments especially when compared to the status of HR business partners. It is arg ued that there is a risk of deskilling within the administrative function of HR and that staff may be confined to more routine tasks where they had previously had a wider role (Reilly, 2000). It is also suggested that within shared service centres different skills may be required and staff may be employed who have customer service skills but who do not necessarily have a background in HR as technical knowledge can be learned whereas the right attitudes may be harder to learn (Parry et al. 2007; Reilly, 2000). In addition to this, there is evidence that suggests that there a perception amongst HR practitioners of an increasing distance between those at the top and bottom of the career ladder and that people from outwith the HR function are â€Å"parachuting† into the top jobs (Francis and Keegan, 2006). This effect could possibly be explained by the requirement of new areas of expertise, such as technical, consultancy and project management skills (Parry and Tyson, 2011), which may require developing within HR practitioners and could possibly result in recruiting from outside the profession. Indeed a number of reports emphasise the skills of HR staff as a significant barrier to transformation of the HR function (see Reilly, 2012). The debate on the use of technology within HRM can also be situated within a wider sociological perspective. Whilst the sociological literature appears to focus mainly on the use of technology within manufacturing environments or of computerisation in general as opposed to within the HR function an attempt to situate the effect of technology upon HR could be made in terms of attempting to assess the effect upon the organisation of the function and the impact on the level of skills required. The attempts to understand the impact of technology upon the organisation of work have resulted in divergent views. The debate focuses mainly on two opposing views. The managerialist and essentially optimistic perspective associated with writers such as Blauner (1964) argues that the application of technology will render obsolete routine and more manual jobs and create more skilled and complex opportunities resulting in an overall effect of â€Å"upskilling†, along with organisations characterised by decentralised structures, reduction in hierarchy, increased worker autonomy and a prevalence of knowledge workers (for example, Attewell, 1992; Piore and Sabel, 1984) Such analysis suggests that in the earlier phases of industrialisation advances in technology tended to reduce skills and devalue work but that more recent technological developments have had the opposite effect. Examination of the increasing use of technology and its impact on skills levels has provided some evidence for a raising of skills levels (Daniel, 1987, Gaillie, 1991) In contrast, labour process theorists have argued that technological changes have a degrading effect on work and result in â€Å"deskilling† of the labour process and reduced worker autonomy, with a centralised, neo-Taylorist form of organisation, with separation of conception from execution (for example, Braverman, 1974; Zimbalist, 1979). The issues of the expansion of non-manual work and the apparent rising skills levels as suggested by formal skills gradings are not inconsistent with the labour process perspective (Gaillie, 1991) who argues that non-manual work has undergone a major transformation, r esulting in work that is increasingly routinized and mechanised (supported by the increase in office automation). From such a perspective non-manual workers are no longer accorded their relatively privileged position and are now accorded a similar level of skills as manual workers. Support for the process of deskilling can be found in many analyses of the effects of computerised technology (Meiksins, 1994) Analysis of the experience of employees within the call centre environment emphasises the process of deskilling (Desai, 2010) which is described by Taylor and Bain (1999, p.109) as a situation of â€Å"an assembly-line in the head†. The impacts of such call centre roles are often high turnover rates and high levels of absence (Ackroyd, Gordon-Dseagu and Fairhurst, 2006) and the effect on employees is outlined by Rose and Wright (2005, pp.156-157): â€Å"low skilled call centre jobs allied with high levels of technological and management controls do not contribute towards employee well-being and satisfaction† This account of the impact of technology resonates with the description above of shared service centres whose result has been the deskilling of the administrative function of HR and the recruitment of those who do not have a background in HR (Martin and Reddington, 2009; Reilly, 2000). However, whilst it could be argued that a labour process perspective accounts for the effects of technology on some aspects of the HR function, it does not address the effect on the function as a whole as it does not appear to account for the strategic end of the spectrum, where it seems that business partner roles are accorded status and prestige along with substantially increased salaries (Francis and Reddington, 2006). The role of business partners cannot easily be reconciled with the notion of deskilling. There has been a tendency to view the classification of either upskilling or deskilling as too simplistic and some writers have moved away from this conceptualisation of work by postulating that instead there is an increasing polarisation of the workforce in terms of skill level with at one end, highly skilled workers with high levels of autonomy and at the other end a lower skilled sector characterised by an intensification of work through deskilling and management control (Edw ards, 1979), who can be dispensed if surplus to requirements (Berger and Piore, 1981). This polarisation of the workplace appears to be a better reflection of the changing HR function with the autonomous business partner role, with the accompanying perception of a high level of skill and status at one end of the spectrum and at the opposite end, the shared service centre roles characterised by routine and deskilling. In relation to professional work, there is some argument that professionals have not been adversely affected by computerisation and continue to be accorded high status and prestige (Friedson, 1984, 1986). In contrast, it is argued that technology may have differing effects on professionals, depending on the relative status of the profession and on the status of individuals within the profession (Burris, 1998). It is argued that alongside polarisation of the workplace, there tends to be poorer career prospects for non-expert workers (Baran, 1987; Hodson, 1988) with higher level posts being filled from outwith the organisation (Hodson, 1988; Burris 1983,a,b) This issue within HR is highlighted by Reilly (2000) who suggests that there may be less opportunity for career development if lower level staff do not build the experience that they would gain in more generalist roles in traditional HR functions. As stated earlier, there also appears to be a perception that the higher status business partner roles are at least sometimes being filled not just from outwith the organisation but from outwith the HR profession (Francis and Reddington, 2006). Whilst the issue of the impact of technology upon the HR function appears to have been given little attention within research (Lepak and Snell, 1998; Shrivastava and Shaw, 2003) it would seem that what discussion there has been relates mainly to the promise of technology in transforming the HR function and facilitating a more strategic orientation. The reality of the impact of technology in achieving an impact in operational, relational and transformational areas is much less clear although evidence would suggest that the greatest impact is in achieving operational efficiencies. Alongside the development of the use of technology has been the reorganisation of the HR function. Although there has been little attempt to consider the impact of technology from a sociological perspective, it can be argued that the increasing use of technology, which has been used to support the shared service centre model may be resulting in a deskilling of an element of the HR profession and reducing career development paths for some practitioners. In addition, there appears to be a change in skills viewed as necessary within this function, with a focus on customer service skills as opposed to specialist HR knowledge. In contrast, although the evidence for a transformational impact of technology upon HR is weaker and more contradictory, there would appear to be a perception of a higher status role in the business partner, with accordingly higher remuneration, thus demonstrating a polarisation of the HR function in terms of both skills and status. However, this reorganisation of the HR function and the development of a more strategic orientation, which it is argued can be facilitated by the increasing use of technology, although being seen as having an upskilling effect on those in a more strategic role could be argued as achieving the opposite effect if the result is recruiting from outwith the profession. This could leave HR professionals in a precarious position in terms of career and skill development, which could at least in part be attributed to the effect of technology as without increasingly sophisticated technology the new models of service delivery may not be possible or at least may not be as effective. Whilst, a lack of academic attention to the actual impact of technology on the HR function requires that caution is exercised in drawing conclusions, the tendency to focus on the potential impact of technology could be followed in suggesting that the potential of technology in facilitating the move to a transformation of the HR function may be to tend towards a degradation of the HR profession, with low skilled staff employed in shared service centres and more highly skilled and valued business partners being recruited from outwith the HR profession. However, without significant further research in the area, in particular on the impact of technology and the accompanying change in service delivery models upon the career paths and development opportunities for HR practitioners, this conclusion remains just a potential. References Ackroyd, K., Gordon-Dseagu, V. and Fairhurst, P. (2006) â€Å"Well-being and call centres†, Institute of Employment Studies, Brighton [online]. Available at: http://www.employment-studies.co.uk/pdflibrary/mp69.pdf (Accessed 21st November 2012) Attewell, P. (1992) â€Å"Skill and occupational changes in U.S. manufacturing† in Technology and the future of work, P.S. Adler, New York, Oxford University Press. Baran, B. (1987) â€Å"The technological transformation of white collar work†, in Computer chips and paper clips, vol 2, H. Hartmaan, ed., Washington DC, National Academy Press. Berger, S. and Piore, M. (1981) Dualism and discontinuity in industrial societies, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press. Blauner, R. (1964) Alienation and freedom, Chicago, IL, University Chicago Press Bondarouk, T.V. and Ruel, H.J.M. (2009) â€Å"Electronic human resource management: challenges in the digital era†, The International Journal of Human Resource Management, 20 (3), pp. 505-514. [online]. Available at: http://ezproxy.napier.ac.uk:2343/doi/pdf/10.1080/09585190802707235 (Accessed 10th November 2012) Braverman, H. (1974) Labor and Monopoly Capital, New York, Monthly Review Press Broderick, R. and Boudreau, J.W. (1992) â€Å"Human resource management, information technology and the competitive edge†, Academy of Management Perspectives, 6 (2), pp. 7-17. [online]. Available at: http://ezproxy.napier.ac.uk:2334/docview/210521060/fulltext PDF/13A99A5CA0029773271/6?accountid=16607 (Accessed 21st November 2012) Burbach, R. and Dundon, T. (2005) â€Å"The strategic potential of human resource information systems: Evidence from the Republic of Ireland†, International Employment Relations Review, 11 (1/2), pp. 97-117. [online]. Available at: http://search.informit.com.au/documentSummary;dn=164472644509297;res=IELBUS (Accessed 21st November 2012) Burris, B.H. (1983a) No room at the top, New York, Praeger Burris, B.H. (1998) â€Å"Computerisation of the workplace†, Annual Review of Sociology, 24, pp. 141-157. [online]. Available at: http://ezproxy.napier.ac.uk:2334/docview/199730349/fulltextPDF/13A94B0278177DBCD7E/8?accountid=16607 (Accessed 10th November 2012) CIPD (2005) People management and technology: progress and potential, London, CIPD. CIPD (2007) HR and Technology: beyond delivery, London, CIPD Daniel, W.W. (1987) Workplace industrial relations and technological change, London, Frances Pinter. Dery, K., Grant, D. and Wiblen, S. (2009) Human resource information systems (HRIS): replacing or enhancing HRM, Paper presented at the 15th World Congress of the International Industrial Relations Association. [online] Available at:http://sydney.edu.au/business/__data/assets/pdf_file/0003/72273/IIRA_Dery_et_al_HRIS_Replacing_or_enhancing_HRM_final.pdf (accessed 10th November 2012)

Internal and External Factors Essay

External Factors Laura Smalt XMGT/230 May 12, 2013 Dr. B Internal and External Factors The organization I chose to write about is Subway restaurants. I have worked in management in two different locations, and have had a firsthand look at what goes into the four functions of management and how they interlock with each other. If I were to consider the planning aspect of this organization it is amazing the amount of work, projecting, forecasting, and implementation that it entails. Factors such as globalization play a huge role simply because this organization has over twenty thousand locations in seventy-eighty countries. The economy, trends, cultures, and habits in each region are taken into consideration in the planning function. When planning, corporate must consider the economy in each region, which is why one region may have a different monthly special than another. Organizing all of this also falls into the planning phase, because everything needs planned with individual marketing material, and training materials. Other factors have effects on all this as well. Keeping up with the current technology for instance, helps to keep their locations running smoothly and efficiently. Being one of the world’s largest sandwich franchises requires planning and organizing to keep up with changing innovations, and to create new menu options that keep them competitive with others. When you look at the four functions of management as a whole, it is easy to notice that not only does each function interlock, but also the organizing function interlocks with both planning and leading. In order to maintain uniform locations that are all kept up to franchise standards systems must be put in place. This is also an excellent chance to provide front line support on location where it is needed most. I think in this function factors such as diversity and ethnics have a tremendous impact. Because these require so much interaction, these factors must be considered. For example, if the regional representative shows up for the monthly sales and promotions meeting or for the inspection to all-Spanish speaking location there would be major communication issues. To address this all regional representatives are custom chosen for the areas they cover. These are the locations linked to corporate, and their leaders to keep in compliance. Because diversity and ethnics can encompass so much it is essential for management to know how to work with both. For example, management can assign a task to any employee, but if that employee does not have that skill to complete the task in the end, the results are less than desirable. Because of this management must need to know how to assign tasks and work with the diversity they have in the employees. Ethnics on the other hand should be uniform and level throughout the organization, because it aligns management and all personnel within the company in behaviors, and values. Ethnics also play a major role in public relations, because the organization’s ethnics reflect the image the public has of them. This is all brought together with the controlling function of management. Monitoring the entire organization, developing new ideas, and applying changes happen here. This includes monitoring sales, controlling costs, and adjusting as needed. If a promotion in a certain region is performing badly, then marketing may be tasked with analyzing that market again to see if a different promotion or strategy would work better there. Cost control would be monitored with the control function, things such as logistics, internal communications, purchasing, and human resources all need to be overseen and adjusted as market and profits allow or demand. To summarize internal and external factors such as globalization, technology, innovation, diversity, and ethnics affect almost every aspect of any organization. From the top of CEO of the organization down to the front line managers, these factors affect both on a daily basis. When making decisions all these things must be considered and applied to the specific market or situation. Just as the point of sale manager must consider diversity when making decisions about assignments, and day-to-day operations so must the upper level executive when dealing with the diversity place upon him when dealing with shareholders, or other organizational officers. Globalization affects just about any organization in existence as well. With digital age comes the need to compete not only with the local influences and factors, but with global as well. Technology and innovation I do not think can be ignored or escaped in any organization today. Again, with the digital age so many people rely on social applications and similar venues for marketing and development that to ignore this be a serious error. Depending on the organization, these functions are necessary for some. The world has become too competitive to not monitor these and keep up with one’s competition.

The Importance Of The Ancient Egyptian Pyramids In Giza

There is much debate on how the Ancient Egyptian Pyramids in Giza were built. King Khufu’s pyramid, from the Old Kingdom, stands at 146 meters high, has a base of 230 meters, while using 2.4 million stone blocks; each block averaging between 2.5 to 15 tons (Van Der Mieroop). These extreme numbers force researchers to try and create hypotheses on how the Ancient Egyptians were able to construct such colossal monuments. Although we have an idea of where and how the Egyptians obtained the materials used for their creation, it is still unclear how they were able to take stone blocks that weighted several tons so high up, have such precision that not even a credit card could slip through the blocks, and was capable of pointing the pyramids†¦show more content†¦Bethany Simpson (Ask Rose how to Cite), it was said that through the examination of the workers living area, it is known that the workers were fed quite well. They were fed large quantities of high-end meats like cat tle. But more importantly, the pyramid was constructed to be a cosmic engine for the pharaoh. The creation of a pyramid represented the rule of universal order, which included the changing of days and seasons, as we as the flooding of the Nile. The mechanics of the pyramid as a cosmic engine depend largely on a term called â€Å"Kheperu†. This concept is used in relation to a person and their distinct phases of life and death (cite Lehner). In death, the pharaoh will experience transformations that include the Ka, the Ba, and the body interacting. This leads to the final step in the transformation in which the pharaoh becomes Akh, the spiritual state of an Egyptian. The pyramid was an essential instrument that allowed these transformations to occur, and are better understood as the meeting point in life and light with the darkness and death (cite Lehner). Along with being a vessel for the transformation and revival of pharaohs into the afterlife with the Gods, it was also an Icon. 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