Kotter and lewins change and positive models

Kotter and lewins change and positive models Change management deals with adapting and controlling change. For an organization, change management is defining and implementing procedures and/or technologies to deal with changes in the business environment and to profit from changing opportunities. (searchcio-midmarket.techtarget.com/definition) There is always a need for the change to happen as the world is changing. Therefore, some models can help an organization to implement change successfully. Kotters Change Model John Kotter is a change expert who is a professor at Harvard Business School. Kotter introduced a famous change process that consists of eight steps in his 1995 book, Leading Change. Step One: Create Urgency For an organization to let the change happen, this step is a primary motivation for the things to happen. Therefore, the first task is to develop a sense of urgency. (mindtools.com/pages/article/newPPM) Step Two: Form a Guiding Coalition For the change to happen, the change needs to be managed as well as led. Hence, there is a requirement for strong leadership as well as the support from important employees of the organization. (Strategies-for-managing-change.com/john-kotter) Step Three: Developing a Change Vision Developing a clear vision will help out to simplify the decisions, motivates employees to go for the change even it is hard for them, and helps to organize the actions in a hasty and well-organized way. (kotterinternational.com/KotterPrinciples/Change Steps/Step3) Step Four: Communicating the Vision for Buy-in It is not about developing a clear vision, but the vision has to reach all the employees of the organization. For this to happen, the vision should be communicated in hour-by-hour activities. Communication can also be done through meetings, emails, and presentations. It should be communicated anywhere and everywhere in order to let the employee have a clear idea about the change to happen. While communicating the change be honest and concentrate on the emotional dimension of the peoples fears and concerns. (kotterinternational.com/KotterPrinciples/ChangeSteps/Step5, strategies-for-managing-change.com/john-kotter) Step Five: Empowering People and Removing Barriers Removing barriers will help the people to do their best work and empowers them to execute vision. This will result in change to happen. (mindtools.com/pages/article/newPPM, kotterinternational.com/KotterPrinciples/ChangeSteps/Step5) Step Six: Generating Short-term wins Generating short-term wins will definitely encourage the employees. The employee confidence will increase and will adapt to the change as well as will be satisfied with his work. Organizing a change without looking at short-term performance is always risky. One cannot know where they stand and how far is the destination. (kotterinternational.com/KotterPrinciples/ChangeSteps/Step6) Step Seven: Dont Let Up! There is always a chance for the resistance to occur even success occurs in the early stages. There is fear of change with everyone. Letting up will create problems and the momentum can be lost. Therefore, the organization has to consolidate gains and produce more change. (kotterinternational.com/KotterPrinciples/ChangeSteps/Step7) Step Eight: Make it stick Culture is deeply rooted in an organization and is the hardest thing to change. Every associate of the organization indoctrinates into the culture of the organization without realizing it. Therefore, new approaches have to be anchored and should be deeply rooted in order to stay strongly in the culture. (kotterinternational.com/KotterPrinciples/ChangeSteps/Step8) Strengths and Weaknesses The strength of this model is that it concentrates on all aspects for the change to happen in an organization. Therefore, by concentrating on all aspects such as communicating the vision, creating a guiding coalition, generating short-term wins, and not letting up will definitely makes the change to happen. Culture is the hardest thing to change in any organization and with the help of this model, the cultural change can happen. On the other side, the first step speaks about the urgency but it does not concentrate on the purpose for change. Purpose with urgency can only play an effective role together for the change to happen. To implement this model the leaders should be experienced and associates of the organization should support the change. Lewins 3-Stage Model Kurt Lewin is a psychologist who recognized three stages of change. They are Unfreeze, Change, and Refreeze. Stage 1: Unfreeze This stage is an important one that involves reaching to a position of knowing that change is essential. In this stage, creating ideal environment is an important thing for the change to take place. Generally, people get used to the way they are working and they try to resist the change even the change is beneficial one, as it will initially cause discomfort. Therefore, the main theme of this stage is to shift people from this frozen state to an unfrozen state. (Change-management-coach.com/kurt_lewin, London Management Centre, 2008) Stage 2: Change or Transition This stage is central to Lewins model and is a confusion period at the psychological level. In the transition stage, the changes are made that are essential. Employees will be unfrozen and will be heading in the direction of new way of being. Therefore, people are not clear about new ways that are going to replace the older ways. This clearly shows that this is the hardest stage as employees are not sure or fearful. The main goal of this transition stage is to move employees to the unfrozen state and keep them there. (change-management-coach.com/kurt_lewin, London Management Centre, 2008) Stage 3: Refreeze This phase concentrates on elevating the comfort levels and bringing back the stability. It brings people to a stable and productive state from a low productive state. Refreeze is to establish stability after the changes occur. Finally people form new relations start to become comfortable with new changes. (Change-management-coach.com/kurt_lewin, London Management Centre, 2008) Strengths and Weaknesses The strength of Lewins model is that it is simple and easy to understand. This model concentrates on the fear of employees who oppose the change to happen. This is the main factor, which should be worked out by every organization to bring out change. However, on the other side, this model does not concentrate on each aspect. For the change to happen all the aspects should be considered such like the aspects covered in Kotters change model. The Positive Model The Positive model involves five phases. They are: Phase 1: Initiate the Inquiry Initiate the inquiry is to know the subject of change. It points up the associate participation to recognize the organizational issue they have the most energy to address. (Cummings Worley, 2009) Phase 2: Inquire into best practices Inquire into best practises is assembling data that is the best in the organization. If the subject is organizational innovation, then associates of the organization helps to build up an interview protocol which contains the information about the new ideas that were developed and carried out in the organization. The members of the organization conduct the interviews: they interview each other and let them know the information or stories about the innovations in which the members are personally involved. These stories are gathered to form a group of information, which describes the organization as an innovative system. (Cummings Worley, 2009) Phase 3: Discover the themes Discovering themes is about the members of the organization who look at the stories that are gathered previously which may include both small and large, to recognize a set of themes which are demonstrating the common scope of peoples experiences. For instance, the stories of innovation that are collected may contain themes about how much freedom each individual gets from the managers in exploring a new idea, how much support the coworkers provided to the organization members, or how to exposure to customers sparked ingenious ideas. No theme is small in case of representation; it is very important to describe all the core mechanisms that help to generate and support the themes. The themes symbolises the basis for moving from what is to what could be. (Cummings Worley, 2009) Phase 4: Envision a preferred future Members that scan the identified themes, challenge the status quo, and describe a compelling future. Based on the organizations successful past, members collectively picture the organizations future and develop possibility proportions- statements that bridge the organizations current best practices with ideal possibilities for future organizing. These proportions should present a truly exciting, provocative, and possible picture of the future. Based on these possibilities, members discover the relevant stakeholders and critical organization processes that must be aligned to support emergences of the envisioned future. The vision becomes a statement of what should be. (Cummings Worley, 2009) Phase 5: Design and Deliver Ways to Create the Future This phase illustrates the activities and the plans necessary to bring vision. It progresses to both action and assessment phase comparable to action research described earlier. Members of the organization make modifications, weigh up the results and make necessary adjustments, to move the organization towards the vision and nourish what will be. The course of action is continued by restoring the discussion about what the best is. (Cummings Worley, 2009) Strengths and Weaknesses The strength of this model is that it concentrates on the main issue and tries to solve the problem by using the best practises of the organization. The weakness of this model is that there is no urgency, which is essential for the change as sometimes the organizations might run out of time. If the change does not happen before the time passes away then the work made by the organization goes in vain. Conclusion The three change models Kotters change model, Lewins 3-stage model, and the positive model are different from each other. These three models can be used by any organization for the change to happen. Kotters change model is a brief model that concentrates on every small aspect. The only problem with the Kotters change model is that it focuses on urgency but not on purpose. Without knowing purpose of change, the urgency will have no reason and everyone will be doing things quickly without purpose. By considering the purpose, this model can be most preferable for an organization to implement change. This model makes sure that the change need to occur is communicated to everyone and concentrates on building the momentum with short-term wins. The culture of the organization can be changed that is deeply rooted. Lewis 3-stage model is a simple model it concentrates on moving people from their old style of working. People always have a fear of change, which is the biggest opposition of the change to happen. This model concentrates on moving people from a stage of freezing to refreeze stage. This model does not concentrate on all the small aspects. The positive model is different from Kotters and Lewins model. It enquires about the problem and uses the best practices of the organization to solve the problem. This helps the change to happen. However, there is no sense of urgency that is a major problem. When compared to Kotters model it is not as detailed as that model. Every model has some strength. Therefore, it is always better to go for the three models, opt for the best things from the models, and implement them for the change to happen. Speaking about best of the three models, my choice is Kotters change model as it concentrates on all the aspects for the change to happen.

New Labours Traditional Family Values in Policy

New Labours Traditional Family Values in Policy In Comparison to the Thatcher Government, in what ways does New Labour try to bring back traditional family values through policy and legislation? Abstract The objective of this dissertation is to evaluate and compare the way in New Labour is trying to bring back traditional family values through policy and legislation with the ways in which the Thatcher government had tried to do so. As will be explained and analysed there are some similarities and indeed some profound differences between the objectives and the methods of New Labour and the Thatcher governments. As will be analysed in great depth both the Thatcher government and New Labour government came to power with wide-ranging visions of how they wished to transform the politics, the economy, and the society of Britain. The Thatcher government’s attempts to bring back traditional family values through policy and via legislation will be evaluated first, in order to examine the extent to which its objectives succeeded or if those objectives failed. Arguably, the Thatcher government had a massive impact upon the social, economic, and the political make up or infrastructure of Britain, even if not always in the ways that it had intended, or had hoped for. The Thatcher government also discovered that the consequences of their policy decisions could be contradictory, rather than complimentary to the primary objectives of the legislation that they passed. The latter parts of the dissertation will concentrate upon the transition of the Labour party away from its traditional economic and social policies into New Labour and how, that transition affected its policies and objectives. New Labour was a reinvention of the Labour party designed to regain power after 18 years in the political wilderness. Traditionally, the Labour party had regarded the promotion of social ownership of the means of production (the infamous clause four of its constitution); and the provision of generous benefits by the welfare state for those in need as sacrosanct policy areas. Labour governments had used progressive taxation and high public sector borrowing to pay for high social policy expenditure if that was needed. Those were the policies mainly used to maintain or bring back traditional family values by all previous Labour governments. New Labour, as will be demonstrated, turned away from the concepts of increasing levels of social ownership, and set limits for the use of progressive taxation and increasing public sector borrowing, whilst promising to reform the welfare state. The combination of these measures was intended to focus help on to those people that needed help the most. It also arguably, gives cause to debate whether New Labour is driven by its ideological principles; or if it is driven by the more selfish desire to obtain and subsequently retain governmental office. After all, as any self-respecting politician will tell anybody willing to hear them, it is no good having a vision of transforming society if there is no political office or power to do anything about enacting that vision. Certainly before winning the general election of 1997 New Labour emphasised its intention to bring back traditional family values through policy and where it was considered to be necessary through legislation. As a party New Labour committed itself to improving public services, fighting crime, and a host of other measures to make Britain a better place to live in. Also to be discussed is New Labour’s policies and legislation upon human rights and equality for all, that in many respects goes beyond bringing back traditional family values. Whilst politicians are generally in agreement over the need for traditional family values, they differ as to the best policies and if needs be the best legislation to restore, promote, or protect traditional family values. Differences over the best ways to achieve traditional family values are influenced by differing ideological approaches, as well as different understandings of human nature. Governments do not only rely on policy and legislat ion to achieve or at least aim to achieve their objectives. Governments try to influence the public through official statements, press and television articles, as well as presenting its objectives to the public as frequently as possible. The public of course does not have to be persuaded by the influence, policy, and legislation of any government. Indeed the public can affect the policy and legislation that governments adopt by voting those governments in and out of office at every general election. The media has a great deal of influence in its own right when it comes to the moral attitudes and acceptable standards of behaviour that the British public hold. All are issues and influences upon the restoration or promotion of traditional family values will be evaluated. Introduction Before evaluating and analysing the ways in which New Labour and the Thatcher governments aimed to bring back bring traditional family values, it would be best to define what is meant by traditional family values. Usually traditional family values are considered to be the promotion of long lasting marriages, bringing up children to be well behaved and law abiding, and educating everybody to respect law and order. Traditional family values are also linked with a religious or moral upbringing, yet it can also encompass people being responsible for providing for their own financial and social welfare through working hard and saving, as well as taking responsibility for their own actions. Traditional family values were linked in public perceptions to Victorian times, the majority of people may now be materially better off yet their sense of morality, and the willingness to accept traditional family values has declined noticeably (Coxall, Robbins, Leach, 2003, p.42). In the British conte xt the religious influences upon traditional family values had been predominately Christian in their origins. The dominant family values in Britain have been altered by different factors since the 1960s. The belief in Christian values has declined due to the processes of secularisation and liberalisation, changing social attitudes arguably helped by changes in fashion and media coverage. Family values are also different due to the immigration of people into Britain with different religious faiths such as Islam, and Hinduism (Modood, 2005, p.192). Different religious beliefs mean that although non-Christians often have a strong sense of morality and an understanding of how to behave, those moral values are similar yet not necessarily the same as traditional family values as they are perceived (Forman Baldwin, 1999, pp. 10-11). British governments, assuming that they have a sufficient Parliamentary majority are generally able to carry out policy objectives and pass legislation as they feel necessary, or, to keep to the pledges they made in their party manifestos during the previous general election campaigns. The power and the authority held by British governments to carry out their policies is great, and the vast majority of the population accepts the legislation passed through Parliament. However, it is under the assumption that the government can be voted out at the next general election if the majority of voters are unhappy with its performance, or achievements. Much harder to define or evaluate can be the influence that governments have upon people’s beliefs and behaviour. Parties win general elections sometimes because they are the least unpopular party, rather than because they are the most popular. Voters can be as pragmatic or as cynical as the politicians that they vote for or against, they vote for the party that makes them better off, as much as the party that wants to influence or potentially change their beliefs and behaviour (Coxall, Robbins, Leach, 2003, pp 4 –5). Now attention is turned to the discussion of how differing ideological, or political beliefs have influenced the Thatcher and New Labour governments into making policy and legislation that affects social policy in Britain. The classical liberal approach to traditional family values was that governments should not intervene in social matters just as they should keep economic interventions down to an absolute minimum. The classical liberal approach regarded the role of governments as being strictly limited to providing legislation when required, and limited educational, law and order, and national defence facilities or services. The moral, religious, and social values may have been Christian yet that was just by historical chance. Classical liberal thinkers such as John Locke argued that the government should tolerate diversity and allow its people to act in anyway they wanted that did not contravene national laws (Lacey, 2006, p.7). For classical liberals, governments should have gone no further than regulating workplace safety and regulating the Poor Law administration. The teaching of traditional family values was down to churches (or other religious institutions), schools, and individual family groups themselves (Eatwell Wright, 2003 p. 36). The ideas of classical liberalism would re-emerge from the 1960s in the guise of neo-liberalism and would have the most influence in Britain upon the government that was led by Margaret Thatcher between May 1979 and her removal from office in November 1990. The Major government that held office from 1990 through to 1997 was regarded as being less dogmatic and more pragmatic than its immediate predecessor was, though conversely placing a greater emphasis on individual morality and standards of behaviour (Eatwell Wright, 2003, p. 287). Another strand of liberal political ideology emerged at the beginning of the 20th century that favoured a higher level of government intervention in social and economic matters. This ‘new’ liberalism was responsible for the first moves towards establishing the welfare state in Britain. The new Liberals regarded poverty as being the largest single threat to traditional family values, as well as being socially divisive. Poverty often led families into the dreaded workhouses that separated parents from their children, and then parents from each other. Poverty in other words could stop people from caring for each other, it stopped relatives being cared for, and prevented people looking after themselves. The workhouse was, according to the new liberal ideological perspective, the biggest breaker of families, something that grinding poverty did not always achieve (Moran, 2005, p. 28). The introduction of Labour Exchanges, national insurance, which paid small amounts of unemplo yment benefit, and limited old age pensions may have done little to reverse poverty, yet it heralded greater levels of government intervention in social and economic affairs, especially after Labour’s landslide election victory in 1945. All those new Liberal reforms were intended to preserve family units, as unemployment, underemployment, and old age were all factors that made people poor, and put them in the workhouse, or drove them towards committing crimes to make money. Had the British economy been stronger during the inter-period then the limited welfare state of the Liberals might have been extended earlier. There were limited extensions such as the development of council houses and some free health care for the poorest families (Eatwell Wright, 2003 p.38). The Liberal party itself appeared to be in a virtually terminal decline after the First World War with its former supporters either switching their votes to the Conservatives or the Labour party. Conversely it would be variations of liberal ideology that have arguably had the most political, social, and economic influence upon post-war Britain and the values that British government aimed to promote through policy and legislation. New Liberalism had a pronounced influence upon the welfare state and Keynesian economic policies pursued from 1945 through to the late 1970s, particularly under the auspices of the Beveridge Report and the wish to avoid mass unemployment on the scale of the 1930s. New Liberalism also influenced the decision of British governments to accept changing social attitudes by changing policy and passing legislation to recognise the slackening hold of traditional family values. The use of Keynesian economics was lessened during the Callaghan government as it was forc ed into accepting a loan from the International Monetary Fund, and had to reduce public spending before that loan was made available. Of course, it was the revival of neo-liberal ideology that strongly influenced the Thatcher government and meant that the New Labour government had to take power in radically different social and economic circumstances than the Labour governments of the 1970s had faced (Coxall, Robbins, Leach, 2003, p. 54). In contrast, the Conservative ideological perspective often placed a greater emphasis upon the promotion and the respecting of traditional family values, either to protect property or to maintain social stability. Conservative politicians in Britain regarded themselves as being the party that maintained law and order better than any other political party, to protect social stability, and strengthen national unity (Eatwell Wright, 2003, p. 51). The Conservative party was the party that usually claimed to be the guardian of traditional family values. The Conservative party had strong links with the Church of England. Indeed, sometimes people referred to the Church of England as being the Conservative party at prayer. As such the Conservative party took a negative view about human nature that helps to explain its tougher stance on law and order issues (Jones et al, 2004, p. 155). Unlike the classical Liberals, the Conservatives were prepared and remain prepared to actively change gover nment policy, and enact legislation if that was needed to protect traditional family values. Previous Conservative governments in Britain have passed both restrictive and liberalising legislation when they have considered such actions to be justified by present circumstances. Conservatives have been repressive, regressive, or liberal in character at different times (Eatwell Wright, 2003, p. 54). There was a strong paternalistic streak in the British Conservative party, which has sometimes dominated the party, and at other times has had very little influence over the party’s policies when in government. The paternalistic streak has not always gone well with other ideological influences within the party that have been opposed to intervening in society or the economy. For instance, compare the ideological beliefs of Harold MacMillan, or Anthony Eden with Margaret Thatcher. Thatcher did not like the paternalistic ‘One Nation Tories’, and instead attempted to transfo rm British society (Moran, 2005, p. 28). The Labour party was created specifically to further the interests of the working classes, as such the only traditional family values it wished to protect, promote, or bring back were those that it believed would benefit the working classes. The Labour party was committed to the social ownership of the means of production, and the introduction of extensive welfare, and social security provision. Not only would these measures improve social equality, they would reduce poverty, and make British society better by making it fairer for all. The Labour party was also a political party that was moderate and gradualist in its approach to achieving social, economic, and political reforms. The decline of the Liberal party allowed Labour to become the second main political party in Britain and even form a government in 1924. The first Labour government was only a minority administration, and was therefore unable to achieve much (Wilson, 2005, p. 252). The second Labour government elected in 192 9 had a parliamentary majority, yet its time in office was blighted by the onset of the Great Depression. The party was divided by Ramsey Mac Donald’s decision to cut unemployment benefits, and the introduction of other austerity measures that made the affects of unemployment worse for many of the people that Labour was supposed to help (Wilson, 2005, p. 285). Labour got its big chance to profoundly alter British social and economic policies as a result of the wartime feeling that something should be done to make Britain a fairer and less poverty stricken place to live in. Labour fully backed the proposals of the Beveridge Report and introduced a comprehensive welfare state and reaped its sensational electoral benefits in 1945 (Lacey, 2006, p. 260). The Labour party managed to achieve its social and economic aims during the Atlee governments of 1945 through to 1951. Its objectives were achieved with the introduction of a comprehensive welfare state, the National Health Service (NHS), and increased educational opportunities. To banish the possibility of mass unemployment on the scale of the 1930s, industries were nationalised and Keynesian demand side economic policies were pursued. From the Labour party’s perspective Britain’s traditional family values should have been protected or even promoted by declining levels of poverty, better health care provision, and higher levels of educational achievement. The welfare state and the NHS seemed to be safe as the Conservatives accepted the vast majority of Labour’s reforms (Fisher, Denver, Benyon, 2003, p. 11). In fact, the Conservative Party enjoyed considerable success in the 1950s as the British electorate trusted them to leave the welfare state and public servi ces untouched, whilst successfully managing Keynesian economics to make people financially better off (Sandbrook, 2005 p. 51). Until the late 1960s it seemed that British governments had managed to achieve strong economic growth, an effective welfare system, and a high degree of social harmony. The period also introduced legislation that liberalised British society, for instance the legalisation of homosexuality, abortion, and the abolition of the death penalty. Legislation was also passed that made it easier to get divorced. However, there were to be social, economic, and political developments that loosened the post-war political consensus. The loosening of that post-war consensus began with deteriorating economic growth and social changes, developments that would eventually lead to the emergence of Margaret Thatcher as a politician that was determined to radically alter the political, social, and economic fabric of Britain (Forman Baldwin, 1999, p. 11). It was not just Britain’s relatively poor economic performance that Margaret Thatcher wished to tackle; she wanted to tackle the political, social , and economic decline of Britain. Margaret Thatcher wished to reverse what she considered to be the harmful social and economic consequences of decline fostered by the liberalisation of moral values caused by the legislation of the 1960s and the changes in social attitudes that occurred during the same period (Coxall, Robbins, Leach, 2003, p. 42). On the other hand, New Labour wished to regain power by gaining the votes of people that had previously voted for the Thatcher and Major governments, whilst retaining the support of their loyal Labour supporters. Traditional Labour party supporters had not supported the party because it claimed to protect or restore traditional family values; instead they believed that a Labour government would make them better off, and British society fairer. However, traditional Labour voters had been reduced in numbers by the reduction in the size of heavy industries and the Thatcher government’s economic policies such as the sell off of council housing and privatisation (Fisher, Denver, Benyon, 2003 p. 12). The combination of changing social and economic trends, the privatisation policies of the Thatcher government, as well as party in-fighting had condemned the Labour party to four consecutive general election defeats. The Labour Party had expected to win the 1992 general election, altho ugh the Major government managed to get re-elected by scrapping the poll tax (Jones, 1999 p.1). New Labour might not have emerged at all if John Smith had not died leading to Tony Blair becoming the party leader, and going on to reorganise the Labour Party, reshaping its policies, and its image in order to gain power (Seldon Kavanagh, 2005 p. 5). Whilst New Labour emphasised that it would no longer pursue traditional Labour party economic policies, it would stress that it was keen to make British society fairer than it had been during the Thatcher and the Major governments. New Labour stressed that it stood for fairer social values, for instance actively trying to encourage the acceptance of cultural diversity, or promoting gay and lesbian rights (Coxall, Robbins, Leach, 2003, p. 397). New Labour shifted its economic policies to the right first, then moved its social policies in a similar direction (Moran, 2005, p. 28). Tony Blair and New Labour stressed that once in power it would help to bring back traditional family values by being tough on crime by tackling its social and economic causes (Seldon Kavanagh, 2005, p. 6). New Labour has also pledged to reform welfare provision, the NHS, and the education system to improve performance and reduce social exclusion. New Labour wanted to restore what it considered to be traditio nal family values through policy and legislation, yet with the emphasis being different from the emphasis of the Thatcher government in rhetoric if not in substance (Jones, 1999, p. 2). All governments have to be aware of the public scrutiny that they may have to endure, through Parliament, through media coverage and speculation, as well as been observed by the general public. The government of the day can have its policy and legislation objectives overturned and jeopardised by adverse publicity or media revelations. The media is very useful for the government to sell its policies and pieces of legislation to the electorate yet no government can expect favourable media coverage all of the time and sensible governments will try to manage media coverage to get the best results. The Thatcher and New Labour governments took media management techniques seriously for their periods in office although that has not guaranteed that they will succeed in making all their policy and legislation succeed, whether or not it was meant to restore traditional family values (Jones, 1999, p. 52). Chapter One – The Thatcher government and returning back to traditional family values This chapter will deal with the subject of the Thatcher government and its attempts of returning to traditional family values through policy and legislation. Margaret Thatcher broke the mould of the average Conservative party leader, and it was not simply because she was the first woman to gain that position. Although the Conservatives had been stung by the size of their election defeat in 1945, they had soon recovered to regain power by 1951 (Wilson, 2005, p.484). Successive Conservative leaders from Winston Churchill, Anthony Eden, Harold MacMillan, and Alec Douglas Hume had accepted the post-war political, economic and social consensus established after 1945 (Sandbrook, 2005, p.51). It had been Margaret Thatcher’s immediate predecessor as Conservative leader, Edward Heath that had first attempted to overturn the post-war consensus through the adoption of the Selsdon programme. As Education secretary, Margaret Thatcher was part of the Heath government that eventually returne d to Keynesian economic policies, due to trade union opposition, and the desire to increase economic growth to prevent unemployment levels going past one million (Fisher, Denver Benyon, 2003, p.11). The Heath government would fall victim to increasing trade union opposition that led to the three day week, whilst Heath’s defeat in both general elections of 1974 meant that leading Conservatives were looking for alternative policies and a new leader with a different approach to the discredited Heath. Margaret Thatcher decided to stand for the party leadership and succeeded in displacing Heath. After she became Conservative leader, her differing ideological outlook from her post-war predecessors started to emerge. Thatcher’s right wing rhetoric, no nonsense leadership style, her forthright messages, and obvious sense of nationalism struck the right chords with the British electorate during the late 1970s (Eatwell Wright, 2003, p. 160). Margaret Thatcher was determined to restore the electoral fortunes of the Conservative and then went on to revive the ailing British economy by fundamentally altering social, economic, and political attitudes within the country. Thatcher believed that Britain needed to radically overhaul its social and economic policies to reverse economic decline and social decadence. The medicine that Thatcher prescribed to cure Britain of its social and economic woes was the adoption of neo-liberal economic policies and a return to traditional family values. According to neo-liberal economists such as Hayek and Friedman, Keynesian economics and extensive welfare states like Britain’s after 1945 were socially and economically detrimental. Thatcher had been introduced to these concepts by one of her closest advisors, Sir Keith Joseph, and she saw them as the solution to Britain economic decline and social degradation (Coxall, Robbins, Leach, 2003, p. 54). The welfare state removed the incent ive to work, or the incentives to reduce the size of families, whilst providing adequate standards of living for those that were work shy or content to have children outside of marriage and long term relationships. The pursuit of Keynesian economic policies had increased the power of trade unions whilst restricting the efficiency of both public and private sector enterprises. Thatcher argued that excessively high rates of taxation reduced the incentives for people to work harder and meant that some people were financially better off by being unemployed. Thatcher’s solution to these problems was to end Keynesian economic policies, lower taxes, sell off public assets, and attempt to reduce the size of the welfare state. The inability of the Callaghan government to solve Britain’s economic ills and the Winter of Discontent of industrial action and public sector strikes allowed Thatcher to take power after winning the general election of May 1979 (Fisher, Denver, Benyon, 2003, p.11). Once in office the Thatcher government undertook a radical reshaping of economic policy that had a major impact upon British society and influenced the success of policy and legislation to bring back traditional family values. The pursuit of economic liberalisation was the government’s policy given priority over all other policies and initiatives. Thatcher believed that economic liberalisation would be the catalyst that would modernise and revive Britain’s economic performance, with the anticipated consequence that it would revive at least some of the traditional family values. That was the underlying belief that people should work to make their lives better rather than relying upon the welfare state to give them handouts. The problem with adopting monetarist economic policies was that it resulted in the highest levels of unemployment witnessed in Britain since the Great Depression of the 1930s. With more than three million people unemployed, expenditure on the social s ecurity budget increased rather than decreased. Economic policy in this instance actually made the return to traditional family values less likely to be achieved. High unemployment levels instead meant a return to inter-period levels of poverty, and the closure of unprofitable coal mines and steel mills devastated whole communities (Coxall, Robbins, Leach, 2003, p. 54). High unemployment levels also helped the Thatcher government to break the power of the trade unions more effectively than legislation on its own. That legislation was restrictive of trade union powers in its own right, more so than the failed efforts of the Heath government a decade earlier. The Thatcher government regarded employment legislation as vital in making its efforts to erode trade union power effective. The Employment Act of 1980 took away the rights of trade unions to operate closed shops (allowing workers the right not to join trade unions), take secondary industrial action, or, use flying pickets to force employers to give into their demands. The Employment Act also laid down certain conditions that trade unions had to follow exactly before they could take industrial action. For instance, trade unions had to hold postal ballots to vote for or against strike action. Any trade union that did not hold official ballots was going on strike illegally, and therefore faced lega l action from employers. For the Thatcher government the Employment Act of 1980 proved invaluable with its conflicts with the militant trade unions, especially the coal miners (Forman, Baldwin, 1999, p.450). For the Thatcher government its conflict with the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) led by Arthur Scargil proved the ultimate test of whether it could change the social and economic structure of Britain to fit in with its ideological outlook. The NUM had been regarded as being largely responsible for the defeat of the Heath government during the 1970s, so the Thatcher government wanted to defeat it as a symbol of Britain being transformed economically, socially, and politically. Although the Thatcher government did give way over pay disputes in 1981 as it did not believe it could defeat the NUM, it was biding its time. However, by 1984 the Thatcher government was certain that the situation had changed in its favour through its new legislation that reduced secondary strike action, and because coal had been stockpiled at power stations to prevent the NUM from forcing the government to give in. The bitter miners strike of 1984-85 effectively broke the power of the NUM forever, and sho wed that the trade unions could no longer bring down any government that they wanted to (Forman Baldwin, 1999, p. 196). As part of its policy objectives to bring back traditional family values the Thatcher government tried to improve the law and order situation without much apparent success. Once again the economic policies of the Thatcher government had consequences for the successful conduct of its social policies. The chief consequence of Thatcherite economic policies was as already mentioned high unemployment. High unemployment made it harder to reduce the level of crime; in fact crime rates rose as sharply as unemployment rates did throughout much of the 1980s (Fisher, Denver, Benyon, 2003, p. 12). Unemployment increased peoples’ sense of desperation as well as putting many of them into poverty. Crime increased as people tried to make ends meet, and it also increased as a result of a rise in the number of people taking illegal drugs. High unemployment and the illegal drug trade meant that respect for law and order was reduced in the majority of inner city areas rather than improved. A com bination of high unemployment, heavy handed policing, and increased levels of racial tension lead to the outbreak of inner city riots in 1981 that alarmed the Thatcher government (Jones et al, 2004, p. 628). To prevent a repeat of those riots the Thatcher government introduced urban redevelopment areas, and attempted to change the policing methods used in areas that contained ethnic minority communities. The Thatcher government tried to reduce crime by allowing courts to set tougher sentences and the introduction of youth detention centres, yet nothing seemed to work (Jones et al, 2004, p. 628). The failure of the Thatcher government to reverse the rising crime figures is a clear demonstration that the social policy, and legislation of governments can have little or virtually no influence over people’s behaviour if they did not want that behaviour to be altered. Although there was a strong link between rising crime and rising unemployment during the Thatcher government the le vels of crime have not decreased, despite unemployment falling since its peak in the late 1980s (Jones et al, 2004, p. 629). Other areas of the That

Biography of Augustus DeMorgan :: essays research papers

Augustus DeMorgan was an English mathematician, logician, and bibliographer. He was born in June 1806 at Madura, Madras presidency, India and educated at Trinity College, Cambridge in 1823. Augustus DeMorgan had passed away on March 18, 1871, in London.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Augustus was recognized as far superior in mathematical ability to any other person there, but his refusal to commit to studying resulted in his finishing only in fourth place in his class.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  In 1828 he became professor of mathematics at the newly established University College in London. He taught there until 1806, except for a break of five years from 1831 to 1836. DeMorgan was the first president of London Mathematical Society, which was founded in 1866.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  DeMorgan’s aim as a mathematician was to place the subject on a more rigorous foundation. As a teacher he was unrivaled, and no topic was too insignificant to receive his careful attention. In 1838 he introduced the term “ mathematical induction'; to differentiate between the hypothetical induction of empirical science and the rigorous method. Often used in mathematical proof, for advancing from n to n+I.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  DeMorgan made his greatest contributions to knowledge. The renaissance of logical studies, which began in the first half of the 19th century, was due almost entirely to the writings of the two British mathematicians, DeMorgan and G. Boole. He always laid much stress upon the importance of logical training. His importance in the history of logic’s, however, primarily due to his realization that the subject as it had come down from Aristole was unnecessarily restricted scope. By reflecting on the processes of mathematics, he was led like Boole, to the conviction that a far larger number of valid inference were possible that had hitherto been recognized.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  His most notable achievements were to lay the foundation for the theory of relations to prepare the way to rise of modern symbolic, or mathematical, logic. His name is commemorated in DeMorgan’s Law, which is usually presented in the concise alternative forms ~( pvq ) = ~p & ~q; and ~( p&q ) = `~p v ~q. These read not ( p or q ) equals not p or not q ; and not ( p and q ) equals not p or not q.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  These statements assert that the negative ( or contradictory) of an alternative proposition is a conjunction which the conjuncts are the contradictions of the corresponding alternants. That the negative of a conjunctive is an alternative proposition in which the alternants are the contradictories of the corresponding conjuncts.

The Odyssey :: essays research papers

During the night Odysseus tosses and turns, worrying about the outcome of his encounter with the suitor. Athena appears to himin a dream and promises that he will aid in the struggle. Penelope also unable to sleep and prays to Artemis, begging that she be rescued from marriage to another man, even if it means her death. In the morning Odysseus appeals to Zeus for a sign of his favor and is answered by the rumbling of thunder and lightning. Others notice the sign and a general mood of imminant danger sets in. Odysseus observes the behavior of his servants to identify the faithful. Melanthius arrives with the goats for the banquet and persists in harasses Odysseus. Eumaeus comes to the place, driving the hogs for the slaughter, demonstrating his goodness. Another loyal servant, Philoetius, the chief cowherd, arrives from the mainland. The suitors, again plotting to assassinate Telemachus, eventually return to the place. As they lunch, Ctesippus insults Odysseus and throws a bone at him. Telemachus is outraged and gives a scolding to the suitors in which he lists all the bad stuff they have done.. His unexpected boldness shocks the group, but they are drunk and laugh at his warnings. , Theclymenus cautions them that a catastrophe is impending in which they will suffer for their evil ways, but they mock the him until he leaves the palace in a rage. The suitors continue to drink, and dont heed the warning. New Charters: Philoitios - the cattle foreman Vocabulary banter v. - to speak to or address in a witty and teasing manner. lustrous adj. - radiant in character or reputation. dregs n. - the most undesirable part stint n. - a definite quantity of work assigned coverlets n. - bedspread saunter v. - to walk about in an idle or leisurely manner hulking adj. - massive sardonic adj. - disdainfully or skeptically humorous : derisively mocking jeered v. - to speak or cry out with derision or mockery braying v. - to crush or grind fine Epic Conventions Epic Similies p. 411 - line 14 â€Å"as a bitch mounting over her weak, defenseless puppies growls, facing a stranger, bristling for a showdown- so he growled from his depths, hackles rising at their outrage.† p.411 - 28 â€Å"as a cook before some white-hot blazing fire who rolls his sizzling saussage back and fourth, packed with fatand blood- keen to broil it quickly, tossing, turning it, this was, that way- so he cast about† Supernatural Involvment In this book the gods are constantly involved. Once, when Athena visits Odyssues in a dream to tell him that she favors him. A second time, when they pray to Zeus

Booker T. Washingtons Up from Slavery Essay -- Up from Slavery

The book, Up From Slavery, written by Booker Taliaferro Washington, profoundly touched me when I read it. Washington overcame many obstacles throughout his life. He became perhaps the most prominent black leader of his time. Booker T. Washington belived that African Americans could gain equality by improving their economic situation through education rather than by demanding equal rights. Washington’s life story was told during the mid to late 1800’s into the early 1900’s, in the time when the Emancipation Proclamation had gone into effect. The Emancipation Proclamation was one major event in history that forever changed our country. All slaves were free and had to go find a new place to live and a new place to work. When the slaves were first freed there was alot ofhostile feelings from the whites towards the newly freed slaves. To blacks living within post- Reconstruction South, Washington offered industrial education as the means of escape from sharecropping and allowed blacks to become self-employed, while owning their own land, or small business. Booker over came the obstacles of the free black man by educating himself and other blacks to become â€Å"equal† to whites. Until the start of World War I African Americans had a difficult time. His speaking tours and private persuasion tried to equalize public educational opportunities and to reduce racial violence. There were many gains earned after the Civil War seemed lost by the time of World War I because racial violence and lynching reached an all time high. However, both the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and the National Urban League (NUL) were founded by blacks and whites during this time. Both of these major civil rights organizations make efforts on the part of blacks and their white allies to insure that the United States provides "freedom and justice to all". The year of Washington's death marked the beginning of the Great Migration from the rural South to the urban North. He is known as one of the best civil rights leaders for the African American people in the late 1800’s and early 1900’s. Booker began his life as a slave for the Burroughs family. He was born in Franklin Co., Virginia around the year 1858 or 1859, he was not sure exactly when he was born because there was never any paper work kept on slaves. His mo... ...to be equally educated. His speeches not only attracted the black people but also, northern and southern white people. Booker worked hard for all that he achieved during his life time. People all over were followers of Booker T. Washington. One example of how much these followers appreciated Washington is through raising money for a trip to Europe. Not just anyone went to Europe in those days. The trip showed how much the people appreciated Booker’s efforts for civil rights and education of blacks. They sent him and his wife away for three months of strictly relaxation. I believe that this is a very inspirational book giving the message â€Å"you can do anything if you put your mind to it†. Booker shows his reader this through all the things he does in his life time. This book was a very enjoyable book to read. I would highly recommend all people to read Up From Slavery to see the impact Booker T. Washington had on the African American civil rights that are present in the United States today. I believe that Up From Slavery showed how blacks improved their economic situation through gaining education. Bibliography: Up From Slavery by Booker T. Washington

Intelligence and Wisdom Essay

Intelligence is an abstract term whose definition depends upon current social values and scientific ideas. Intelligence is the ability to understand and learn from experience or in other words, it is the ability to retain and acquire knowledge known as mental ability. An intelligent person has the capacity for adequate reasoning, problem solving, learning, communication and planning (Gillespie Diane, 1992. Intelligence is the ability to learn from, understand and interact with the surrounding environment. In the modern society, intelligence refers to a variety of mental capabilities such the ability to solve problems, reason, learn quickly, learn from experience or comprehend complex ideas. The concept of intelligence is related to thinking capacity of an individual and ability to apply wisdom in solving certain problems. An individual’s intelligence is measured or obtained through intelligence quotient tests. The tests aim at measuring the capacity of an individual to solve problems and reason. A good example in real world situation of an intelligent person is Bill Gates who developed Microsoft. Ranked as one of the world’s wealthiest people, Bill Gates came up with a software company that is in use today. He used his intelligence and today Gates is a known entrepreneur and promoter of computer revolution. Bill Gates used knowledge a reflection of how wise he is to come up with software widely used by computer operators. This leads to a close link between intelligence and wisdom as is applicable in an individual’s life. There are certain aspects of individual’s intelligence that do not measure up to the expected standards of life and these needs improvement. Some individual’s use their brain or knowledge to violate laws and other ethical aspects which is illegal. For instance, hackers use their intelligence in information technology to access other people’s information, which is unethical. Wisdom is a common term applied in real life situations and it is a Biblical term that was given to David. Wisdom means accumulated knowledge that reflects a test of time and it means the ability to discern information for truth. Wisdom is gained through personal triumphs or traits and both positive and negative experiences in life (Wagman Morton, 1993) Exposure of an individual to life experience is very important as a means of measuring intelligence. Wisdom is a reflection of values and criteria applied to an individual’s knowledge and helps individuals to differentiate between wrong and right. Wisdom relates to the ideas of intelligence in which wisdom is the practical concept of successful intelligence. This means that for an individual to be intelligently successful, he or she should apply traits of wisdom (Barsalou Lawrence, 1992) Knowledge is of essence because an intelligent person has thorough knowledge and experience in many life experiences. Intelligence encompasses the application of various wisdom traits such as perceptions and insight to produce desired results. Wisdom can be measured through observation of an individual’s action which is supposed to be consistent with his or her ethical considerations. Self-knowledge is another measure of a wise person which reflects intelligence in an individual. In this aspect, King David is a good example of a person who used intelligent when he killed Goliath with a sling but does not show wisdom because he just aimed at the forefront which was not protected. It is a Biblical teaching that relates to psychology of mind and application of natural intelligent to overcome certain problems.

Pro Capital Punishment Essay

According to my research there are some people who believe the death penalty is right just because it is safer to end one condemned life than to risk the lives of other innocent people. The death penalty is most commonly legal only for the most extreme cases, such as premeditated murder. Even in the event of murder, out of the 15,000 committed each year, we are only now reaching the 1,000 execution mark after thirty years! This plainly shows that those who may be pro capital punishment still use it sparingly. Also backing up the belief for using capital punishment are numerous stories of murderers who, after being released from prison, simply killed again. One such account reads, â€Å"In 1985, 13-year-old Karen Patterson was shot to death in her bed in North Charleston, S.C. Her killer was a neighbor who had already served 10 years of a life sentence for murdering his half-brother Charles in 1970. The murderer, Joe Atkins, cut the Pattersons’ phone lines, then entered bearin g a machete, a sawed-off shotgun, and a pistol. Karen’s parents were chased out of their home by Atkins. Karen’s mom ran to the Atkins home nearby, where Joe then murdered his adopted father, Benjamin Atkins, 75, who had worked to persuade parole authorities to release Joe from the life sentence.† Other accounts show that a life sentence simply is not always enough to stop a person from repeating their crimes. â€Å"In 1965, Robert Massie murdered mother of two Mildred Weiss in San Gabriel, Calif., during a follow-home robbery. Hours before execution, a stay was issued so Massie could testify against his accomplice. Massie’s sentence was commuted to life when the Supreme Court halted executions in 1972. Receiving an undeserved second chance, Massie was paroled, but eight months later robbed and murdered businessman Boris Naumoff in San Francisco.† From a religious standpoint a religion that does endorse capital punishment under certain circumstances is Islam. According to the Qu’ran in Al’ Ma’idah 5:33 â€Å"The punishment of those who wage war against Allah and His messenger and strive to make corruption (Fasad) in the land is only this, that they should be murdered or crucified or their hands and their feet should be cut off on opposite sides or they should be banished from the land; this shall be as a disgrace for them in this world, and in the hereafter they shall have a grievous chastisement† This shows that they believe in the death penalty for those who simply cause corruption or bring disgrace upon Islam, especially if the perpetrator is a former Muslim. The other justification for the death penalty, according to Islam, is murder. â€Å"†¦If anyone kills a person – unless it be for murder or for spreading mischief in the land – it would be as if he killed all people. And if anyone saves a life, it would be as if he saved the life of all people† (Qur’an 5:32). This obviou sly states that murderers should undergo the same penalty as the crime they commited. My personal beliefs about capital punishment are fairly in the middle of the road. On the one hand I do not believe it is sinful for criminals to be put to death, as the Bible clearly endorsed the idea in the Old Testament In Genesis 9:6 it says â€Å" Whoso sheddeth man’s blood, by man shall his blood be shed: for in the image of God made he man.† The New Testament of course contains more of the â€Å"grace† approach and therefore I tend to lean more that way. Although even in the New Testament the Bible states in Romans 13: 4 â€Å" For he ( the police, judges, etc.) is the minister of God to thee for good. But if thou do that which is evil, be afraid; for he beareth not the sword in vain, a revenger to execute wrath upon him that doeth evil.† Clearly this endorses capital punishment for evildoers. On the other hand, people in America are judged as guilty by a group of people who do their best but can hardly be 100% sure on their verdict. Human error may cause and no doubt has caused some innocent people to be condemned to death while some of the guilty roam free among us. That makes me uneasy, and is very disturbing. But is that a legitimate reason to do away with the death penalty? That is a hard question to answer, but I believe the answer is no. I believe there are certain cases where capital punishment is absolutely necessary, but I have to say that I would not want to be the one who makes that decision. How do you judge which life is more valuable than another? The other question has to do with whether or not capital punishment is truly a deterrent to others from committing crimes. There are strong arguments on both sides of that question but it is hard to judge when because of the appeals process and other delays and red tape, only a small percentage of those sentenced ever get put to death. I refer back to the fact that only about 1000 people have been executed during the last 30 years when there have been nearly half a million murders in America! So the argument that capital punishment is not a deterrent to crime carries no weight to me. Therefore, it is still my personal belief that capital punishment should be used, with discretion, after a fair trial, and in certain cases, but I also believe that once the decision has been made, it should be executed with much greater speed. Death row shouldn’t be a mile long. I believe that once the judge has given the sentence, there should be a much faster process to the day of execution. I hate the thought of an innocent person being executed, but even worse are the hundreds of thousands of victims who are left without feeling that justice was done for their loved ones and the millions who are at risk because of the leniency of our justice system. My partner and I got along quite well. We had an easy time discussing our material and he was not difficult to deal with. He spent the time given researching, and kept in touch with me to review our presentations. When we met the next day, he was there at the time agreed upon and +wasn’t full of complaints, which I appr eciate. Brandon is a good partner and I would work with him again.