Far from the madding crowd’ is set in the late 1860s to the early 1870s :: Free Essay Writer

Far from the madding crowd’ is set in the late 1860s to the early 1870s in Wessex, a fictional county based heavily on Dorset. Far From The Madding Crowd Thomas hardy was born in 1840 in Dorset which is located near Dorchester. Hardy's first important novel was Far from the Madding Crowd in which he successfully adapted to a traditional form to his own purposes, slightly changing it in the process. His novel states the importance of man's connection to, and understanding of, the natural world. The story is set in an agricultural rural community. He viewed the industrial revolution as a major threat to the communities he loved. The main character in this novel is a shepherd who is called Gabriel, this gives off a very pastoral mood in the novel. The plot develops complications when Bathsheba has love for three different men. Gabriel Oak who is the shepphard embodies Hardy's ideal of a life in harmony with the forces of the natural world. Throughout the entire novel there are unusual twists and turns and in the end Bathsheba ultimately marries Gabriel, whom she had turned away so long ago. In the story of all Thomas Hardy’s novels, both love and fate play major roles. In the first chapter we are introduced to Gabriel oak. He is a young sheppard. The main incident starts when Gabriel is walking in the countryside and he sees a wagon travelling down the road, and sees this young attractive woman is sitting on top if it. The Waggoner comes to a halt when they reached the gatekeeper and they had to pay a fee of three pence but the woman refused and only offered two pence. Gabriel stepped forward and paid the gatekeeper the rest of the fee and he insisted to let the women pass. ‘Far from the madding crowd’ is set in the late 1860s to the early 1870s in Wessex, a fictional county based heavily on Dorset. The village where Gabriel oak lives is in a small rural community. Many people such as Oak liked to hold onto their traditional views and values. Nowadays many of these views would be considered conservative and possibly outdated. Oak being a Shepard is very significant because it links back to the bible, so there are a lot of religious and biblical references in this novel. Most people went to church on Sunday. Church was very important. We learn that Gabriel Oak goes to church but doesn’t take it seriously. Hardy uses rural dialect to bring the minor characters to life, this gives them some personality. ‘Higgling matter’. Even though it is a winter’s day it is described as

Should Teens Be Tried as Adults

As more minors are committing violent crimes, the question of whether they should be tried as adults is on the rise. Children as young as 13 or 14 are committing violent crimes such as murder, rape, and armed robbery. Some of these children are being tried as adults while others are being tried as juveniles and receiving milder punishments. A juvenile offender may receive a few years in a juvenile detention facility and possibly probation following his release at age eighteen.An adult committing the same violent crime will receive a much harsher penalty, often years in jail, possibly a life sentence, with little or no chance of parole. The only difference between the two offenders is the age at which they committed the crime. Juveniles over the age of fourteen should be tried as adults when accused of violent crimes. Forty-one states currently have laws that make it easier to try a juvenile that has committed a violent crime and is over the age of 14 as an adult.At age fourteen the a verage person is mentally mature enough to understand the consequences associated with committing a crime. A juvenile offender should be tried according to his crime. If they have committed a juvenile crime, then juvenile punishment is fitting. However, if they have committed an adult crime, or violent crime, a harsher punishment is needed. A teenager will not be taught anything or learn to take responsibility for their actions, if they are treated with special care and consideration when acting as an adult.A fourteen year old has the mental capacity to determine right from wrong, even when it comes to committing violent crimes. In my opinion an adult crime deserves an adult punishment, even when the offender is a juvenile. The Juvenile system is very similar to New York’s Family Court. The New York Family Court was originally sought to protect children who were getting in trouble with the law that still considered them infants, because of their young age. A teenager that is a criminal would not be tried or treated as an adult because of the teenagers’ young age.The present juvenile court system encourages the young delinquent to continue criminal behavior by showing them that they can get away with a crime. It was designed to function as helping parents of juveniles. By protecting those kids who were younger from the age of 18 juveniles always used the system as a game and said, â€Å"I ain’t sixteen yet,† and â€Å"they can’t do anything to me†. If the government protects them and the juveniles receive no punishment, it means the government is giving them a second chance to repeat crimes.In the 1950’s juvenile delinquents who were caught doing something illegal were not treated like an adult, because the delinquent was â€Å"not criminally responsible†¦ by reason of infancy. † A hearing would be held in private to protect the child’s identity. In the 1960’s the juvenile court system c hanged and gave juveniles referred to as â€Å"respondents† instead criminals, the rights to have a lawyer represent them. On top of the juvenile court system changing it also gave protection, like the criminal court system gave adults who were responsible to serious penalties if guilty.The current juvenile system has made it the defendant’s lawyer’s job to protect the young client from any possibility of rehabilitation. That means that the courts now are also protecting rights of juveniles, which makes it even more impossible for prosecutors to convict the defendant. This offers the child to get away with no punishment and now thinks that he/she have the right to keep on acting in a misbehaving or unlawful way which had brought him or her into juvenile court, knowing that there was no big consequence that would happen to them.If there was any consequence it would be something small like being put in a facility that contains a TV, basketball courts, probably bet ter food and medical service than what was provided at home. If the courts send juveniles to facilities like these, juveniles would keep doing crimes to stay in these facilities. If juveniles have a better life at the facilities than what they have at home, who wouldn’t want to go to these facilities. That is where the court is wrong because the court bases the judgment on the person’s age not on their crimes, and that does not help the juvenile to be disciplined.In the early 70’s the majority of cases in family courts were misdemeanors by children. Through 1987-91 possession of a loaded gun by a juvenile was growing and schools started to install metal detectors in their school halls. Because juveniles have worsened in their act of crime rates have increased. The juvenile system defines juveniles as children rather than as criminals. Although Family Courts turn the most delinquent offenders over to the adult system for trial, they are sentenced as juveniles and only serve the maximum sentence in a juvenile detention and are free to go.There was a sudden increase of twenty-six percent over the past twenty five years on violent crimes by juveniles in the years of 1989-1990. This was to show how many juveniles have been getting involved in crimes such as homicides, robbery, rape, and assault. On top of that eighty percent of constant juvenile offenders of five or more arrests are more likely to go on to adult criminal life styles because of the habits they contained throughout their life.The only possible way to change the lives of juveniles is to make a legislation making the juvenile court hearings open to the public and the press, because juveniles should not be given the right to be protected by the government for destroying the lives of others. The government shouldn’t put teenagers in places like a juvenile center for committing a crime. It gives them way too much freedom. If any punishment is given is should be set up as first time offenders should do community service or do something good for the victims’ family.For second time offenders they should be responsible for the victims family, and will be well trained under the supervision of a probation officer. For those who are required to live out of the home it will provide intense schoolwork and job relating skills. Upon also being arrested there should also be a court appearance immediately, and the offender should be sentenced and incarcerated. These trainings would help these juveniles get their life straight in order to live a justful life.Teens today don't fear the law because they don't think they will get caught. And if they do, they know they have a good chance of getting off because they are tried as teens and not adults. We have to get tougher on crime. There should be a law that everyone over eleven years old will be tried as adults. That way more teens would be discouraged from committing crimes. They would know that murder would get them a very long sentence instead of staying in juvenile hall until they are eighteen. If we want to cut down on teen crime, we have to have tougher laws.

Hardy Neutral Tones †Pathetic Fallacy Essay

Throughout Neutral Tones, Hardy effectively communicates his feelings about love using the natural world and its (neutral) colours and characteristics. His use of rich imagery of the natural world produces a melancholic note about love, which resounds through the whole poem portraying the end of an affair between Hardy and his former lover. The backdrop of the poem is set in the first stanza as a ‘winter day’. Hardy uses the time of year to convey a sense of melancholia as winter often has a negative connotation and is associated with colder feelings and emotions. In this way, ‘winter’ could be representing the frosty nature of the relationship and how Hardy’s former lover was cold towards him. The descriptions in the first stanza are all colourless (neutral tones) which suggests that Hardy feels as if he has no colour in his life, no love. His negative feelings about love are conveyed especially effectively here because they are expressed right at the beginning of the poem – this sets an unhappy tone for the first stanza, which deepens further into the poem. In the second line of the first stanza, Hardy describes the sun as ‘white’ and ‘chidden of God’. His use of the colour ‘white’ suggests that his feelings about love are blank (or neutral), lifeless, and even depressing. It contrasts with the typical colour of the sun – yellow – a symbol for vibrancy and happiness, both emotions that Hardy does not feel about or achieve from loving the woman. In addition, the sun and pond are circular and non-angular in shape; this portrays that Hardy feels as if there is no escape from the negativity that he finds to be attached to his love and that it is never ending, in a loop. Hardy also may have meant for the sun to symbolise his relationship – God could have made it shine with yellow positivity, but instead He has made it a drab white tone; perhaps Hardy feels as if his relationship and love have been condemned by God. Hardy’s miserable feelings are further emphasised by the alliteration of the letter ‘L’ in ‘a few leaves lay’ – when read aloud, the sound of the letter creates a kind of idle yet unsettled tone which relates to Hardy’s feelings towards love. He feels idle yet unsettled in the sense that whilst he cannot do anything to stop his affair from falling apart, he does not wish for it to do so. The ‘L’ sound contrasts with the ‘S’ sound later in the line, which is a harsher, more acute sound, perhaps representing the attitude of the lover towards Hardy at the end of their affair. The image created by the ‘few leaves’ symbolises Hardy’s feeling that the love between him and his lover is disintegrating; the leaves are related to natural life dying, but in this instance Hardy uses a metaphor to relate the leaves instead to love dying. The ‘starving sod’ suggests that Hardy feels that his relationship is ‘starving’, as if it were not being ‘fed’ enough love to keep it strong and happy and it has therefore been reduced to ‘sod’ – treaded on and not special. The leaves that ‘had fallen from an ash, and were gray’ symbolise the way that Hardy and his lover have also ‘fallen’ out of love. ‘Ash’ could mean ashes as well as the type of tree, carrying on the theme of death that was introduced earlier in the stanza. Also, the colour of ashes as well as the leaves is ‘gray’, a neutral colour, suggesting that Hardy has quite reserved feelings about love. In addition, the description of the fallen leaves from the ash is quite gentle – that is, that the language is relatively reserved. This conveys the lack of passion that Hardy and the woman share within their relationship. At the end of the third stanza, Hardy’s lover’s bitter grin is described as sweeping ‘thereby/Like an ominous bird a-wing†¦Ã¢â‚¬â„¢ This suggests that Hardy feels a sense of impending doom about love and his relationship with the woman as if he knows that something harmful is bound to happen in the future and that the relationship is going down a dangerously steep downhill slope, destined for a crushing ending. The ‘bird a-wing’ kind of represents how his love and passion for the woman is flying away, like a bird. Another interpretation is that Hardy feels that the ‘ominous bird’ mocks him, circling over him like a bird of prey – he is stuck in a cycle of love and pain in his relationship whilst the he imagines the bird soaring free. In the last stanza, Hardy refers to the sun as â€Å"God-curst†. This depicts a change in Hardy’s feelings about love from the beginning of the poem – his language starts to show anger, rather than sadness. The reader or listener may interpret this as a religious reference from Hardy – perhaps he feels that his failing love is inevitable because it has been predefined by God (this introduces the idea of fate coming into the equation). The poem starts and ends with the same location and memory – the pond. This suggests that Hardy feels like he cannot escape from the constant cycle of love and pained grief that he has been experiencing, and that his memory of the pond scene and his feelings about love keep on repeating in his head; perhaps Hardy feels somewhat trapped within his own mind with no escape. Hardy’s description of the natural world at the end of the poem, ‘Your face, and the God curst sun, and a tree,/And a pond edged with grayish leaves.’ is very blunt and mostly monosyballic symbolising blankness, as if Hardy’s feelings are numb. This contrasts greatly with the much more emotive and descriptive language he used at the beginning to depict the same objects. This change suggests that Hardy has changed his view about love to a more cynical one, feeling as if love ‘deceives’ and tricks him. Hardy uses this paradox to combine the feeling of melancholia and the notion of a passionless relationship, emphasising the point that what passion there once was between Hardy and his lover is there no longer.

bonk essays

bonk essays Medieval Weapons were (are) very dangerous. They can kill, puncture, wound, hurt, or anything else. All weapons from the Middle Ages were looked upon as frightening and crucial tools to kill. From a small dagger to a large cannon; all weapons A lot, in fact most of the weapons were used for siege and defense against castles. Castles were the most integral part of the Middle Ages. They held the king, the servants and anyone else important. If you wanted land or money, a castle was the perfect Movable Towers were just one thing used to lay siege on these castles. Not necessarily a weapon itself, it held Knights and (or) peasants carried many weapons depending on what specialty they had. Some carried bows-and-arrows, others maces, some swords, some knifes, etc. A mace was a metal ball with metal spikes welded on the ball. A chain was attached to a wood stick onto the ball. The Other siege weapons included the ballista, a HUGE crossbow- like slingshot that could send a huge tree trunk 3 football fields long. The ballista was manly for breaking down castle walls, or for scattering The most commonly used weapon was the sword. It was a long metal object that was very sharp on both sides. The sword could actually cut the sheet metal on modern day cars. Imagine this power through your neck! Next to the sword, the soldiers held a small dagger in a pouch on their belt. This was used to finish people off, as a last resort, or sometimes Trebuchet, the name strikes fear in peoples eyes, a HUMONGOUS slingshot that could send a big monkey boulder 2 football fields. This weapon could be used to demolish castle walls, or could even be used to kill hundreds of people on the battlefield. Anyway used, it was a big dangero ...

Definition of the Disengagement Theory of Aging

Definition of the Disengagement Theory of Aging Disengagement theory outlines a process of disengagement from social life that people experience as they age and become elderly. The theory states that, over time, elderly people withdraw, or disengage from, the social roles and relationships that were central to their life in adulthood. As a functionalist theory, this framework casts the process of disengagement as necessary and beneficial to society, as it allows the social system to remain stable and ordered. Overview of Disengagement in Sociology Disengagement theory was created by social scientists  Elaine Cumming and William Earle Henry, and presented in the book  Growing Old, published in 1961. It is notable for being the first social science theory of aging, and in part, because it was controversially received, sparked further development of social science research, and theories about the elderly, their social relationships, and their roles in society. This theory presents a social systemic discussion of the aging process and the evolution of the social lives of elderly  and was inspired by functionalist theory. In fact, famed sociologist Talcott Parsons, who is regarded as a leading functionalist, wrote the foreword to the Cummings and Henrys book. With the theory, Cummings and Henry situate aging within the social system and offer a set of steps that outline how the process of disengagement occurs as one ages  and why this is important and beneficial to the social system as a whole. They based their theory on  data from the Kansas City Study of Adult Life, a  longitudinal study that tracked several hundred adults from middle to old age,  conducted by researchers at the University of Chicago. Postulates of the Theory of Disengagement Based on this data Cummings and Henry created the following nine postulates that comprise the theory of disengagement. People lose social ties to those around them because they expect death, and their abilities to engage with others deteriorate over time.As a person begins to disengage, they are increasingly freed from social norms which guide interaction. Losing touch with norms reinforces and fuels the process of disengagement.The disengagement process for men and women differs due to their different social roles.The process of disengaging is spurred by an individuals desire to not have their reputation damaged by losing skills and abilities while they are still fully engaged in their social roles. Simultaneously younger adults are trained to develop the knowledge and skills necessary to take over the roles played by those who disengage.Complete disengagement happens when both the individual and society are ready for this to occur. A disjunction between the two will occur when one is ready but not the other.People who have disengaged adopt new social roles so as not to suffer a crisis of identity o r become demoralized. A person is ready to disengage when they are aware of the short time remaining in their life and they no longer wish to fulfill their current social roles; and society allows for disengagement in order to provide jobs for those coming of age, to satisfy the social needs of a nuclear family, and because people die.Once disengaged, remaining relationships shift, rewards of them may change, and hierarchies may also shift.Disengagement occurs across all cultures but is shaped by the culture in which it occurs. Based on these postulates, Cummings and Henry suggested that the elderly are happiest when they accept and willingly go along with the process of disengagement. Critiques of the Theory of Disengagement The theory of disengagement caused controversy as soon as it was published. Some critics pointed out that this was a flawed social science theory because Cummings and Henry assume that the process is natural, innate, and inevitable, as well as universal. Evoking a fundamental conflict within sociology between functionalist and other theoretical perspectives, some pointed out that the theory completely  ignores the role of class in shaping the experience of aging, while others critiqued the assumption that the elderly have seemingly no agency in this process, but rather are compliant tools of the social system. Further, based on subsequent research, others asserted that the  theory of disengagement fails to capture the complex and rich social lives of the elderly, and the many forms of engagement that follow retirement (see The Social Connectedness of Older Adults: A National Profile by Cornwall et al., published in  American Sociological Review  in 2008). Noted contemporary sociologist Arlie Hochschild also published critiques of this theory. From her view, the theory is flawed because it has  an escape clause, wherein those who do not disengage are considered troubled outliers. She also critiqued Cummings and Henry for failing to provide evidence that disengagement is willingly done. While Cummings stuck to her theoretical position, Henry subsequently disavowed it in later publications and aligned himself with alternative theories that followed, including  activity theory and continuity theory. Recommended Reading Growing Old, by Cumming and Henry, 1961.Lives Through the Years: Styles of Life and Successful Aging, by Wiliams and Wirths, 1965.Disengagement Theory: A Critical Evaluation, by George L. Maddox, Jr.,  The Gerontologist,  1964.Disengagement Theory: A Critique and Proposal, by Arlie Hochschild,  American Sociological Review  40, no. 5 (1975): 553–569.Disengagement Theory: A Logical, Empirical, and Phenomenological Critique, by Arlie Hochshchild, in  Time, Roles, and Self in Old Age, 1976.Revisiting the Kansas City study of adult life: roots of the disengagement model in social gerontology, by J. Hendricks,  Getontologist, 1994. ​​Updated  by Nicki Lisa Cole, Ph.D.

Association between departmental stewardship, role stressors and distress among executives

Association between departmental stewardship, role stressors and distress among executives In the past few decades, major evolutions in globalization, technology and social collaboration have transformed the nature of work in all sectors. As work becomes increasingly complex and interdependent, employees are expected to take on many new roles and responsibilities. According to Kahn et al. (1964) it is quite common for employees in complex organizations to experience stress regarding their role, which can lead to negative individual and organizational outcomes. Recently, the field of occupational health has recognized that psychosocial factors inherent in the work environment can have considerable influence on the physical and mental well-being of employees, and studies have begun to model contextual moderators in the process of organizational stress. In this article we introduce organizational stewardship as a contextual factor that may build employee resilience to role demands and protect against adverse symptoms of mental health. Stewardship is defined here as an organizational approach in which communication, collaboration and adaptability between organizational actors and stakeholders is used to generate trust, a shared understanding and a sense of purpose. Using multi-level analysis, this study investigates whether departmental stewardship moderates the relationship between role stressors and psychological distress among public service executives. Role Stress and Mental Health The shift to a more knowledge-based society has resulted in many changes to the design, organization and management of factors within the work environment. As workplaces become more complex and multifaceted, employees are expected to take on multiple roles and responsibilities, and thus, it has become more important than ever to examine the impact of role stressors on employee well-being. Role conflict refers to the occurrence of divergent expectations or when role requirements are incompatible with an employee’s value system, making it difficult to perform their work. Role ambiguity refers to a lack of information or unclear information regarding employee’s roles, such that they are unsure as to what is expected of them. According to Cavanaugh, Boswell, Roehling and Boudreau (2000) role demands are considered hindrance stressors, meaning they are viewed as obstacles to personal growth or demands that can hinder an employee’s ability to achieve work goals. As a result, the presence of these stressors can prompt negative emotions (e.g., anxiety or fear) and a passive or emotional coping method (e.g., withdrawing from the work). Because role demands are perceived as uncontrollable and threatening to one’s work they are unlikely to be met with increased effort, instead employees may emotionally and cognitively withdraw from their work. While the process of organizational stress has been implicated in a wide range of physical health ailments, mental health disorders are considered to be the most common outcomes. Stress-related mental health disorders like anxiety and depression place a heavy financial burden on organizations. According to the Mental Health Commission of Canada (MHCC), about 30% of short- and long-term disability claims in Canada are attributed to mental health problems. Moreover, mental health problems and illnesses among Canadian employees cost organizations more than $6 billion in lost productivity (MHCC, n.d). A recent meta-analysis by Schmidt et al., (2014) documented the link between role stressors and depression across a variety of work settings. These authors acknowledged that it is important to examine mental health as a continuous construct since even minor symptoms can lead to impaired health and organizational outcomes. In light of this, psychological distress is an important concept to measure in the context of employee well-being, since it can capture a lower threshold of mental health problems and may be a crucial to reducing illness or disability caused by work stress. Distress refers to â€Å"a set of psychophysiological and behavioral symptoms that are not specific to a given pathology† (e.g., anxious or depressive responses, irritability, trouble sleeping, absenteeism) that can cause impairment in day-to-day functions and one’s ability to carry out normal tasks. From Leadership to Stewardship Worldwide societal and economic changes have challenged organizational scholars to question deeply rooted assumptions about leadership strategies and to re-examine organizational approaches that can more adequately respond to the demands faced by present-day organizations. As a result, scholars have begun to recognize that interdependent and global work can counteract the potential power of leadership, making it challenging for those in positions of authority to have an impact on the work environment regardless of their leadership style or the fit between the leader and situation. Recently, scholars have proposed the notion of stewardship as an organizational approach to guide the collective process in organizations. While leadership has been traditionally examined with a focus on interpersonal exchanges, stewardship can be viewed as a meta-phenomenon, reflected in organizational structures and collaborative processes. In this study, organizational stewardship is positioned as a pote ntial moderator in the relationship between role stressors and psychological distress. Stewardship Historically, stewardship came from the notion of managing or taking care of something that was entrusted to you. This concept is finding renewed resonance in current organizational literature and has been described as an alternative approach to governance models of mandate and force (Block, 1993). Stewardship has also been defined as an organizational approach that emphasizes a sense of purpose through the sharing of power, resources and information across networks to serve the public interest. According to Hubbard and Paquet (2016) stewardship is believed to foster a sense of community through building partnerships and networks, and generate the trust and dialogue necessary to work through complex issues. Furthermore, they argue that stewardship practices connect employees to the larger purpose of their work, fostering their sense of meaning. Based on these conceptualizations, an empirical study by Simpkins and Lemyre (2018) has reframed organizational stewardship as a system featu re through the application of a socio-ecological framework. An Ecological Model of Stewardship Taking a systemic approach inspired by Brofenbrenner’s (1979, 1999) systems theory framework, the Socio-Ecological Model, the social environment is subdivided into various systems and takes into account the cumulative effect of multiple factors of the physical and social environment, as well as situational and personal factors, on employee well-being (Stokols, 1996). Beyond the individual, the microsystem includes close interpersonal relations. Then, the mesosystem is composed of various organizations or services. The most overarching concept in this framework is the macrosystem, which includes the overall patterns of the social context such as economy, laws and political events. While the idea that stewardship can contribute to positive organizational outcomes has been implied, empirical evidence supporting this relationship remains quite limited. A qualitative case study of the Edmonton Public School system by Segal (2012) asked employees to describe organizational processes inherent in the control and reward systems. This study concluded that an organizational culture associated with stewardship theory helped to instil integrity among employees, contributing to organizational efficiency. According to Simpkins Lemyre (2018), the examination of stewardship within a workplace stress framework broadens our understanding of the work environment and has important implications for individuals, organizations and society. This role can be operationalized as an organization level resource contributing to employee well-being examined through the Job-Demands-Resources (JD-R) model. The Job Demands-Resources Model As outlined in the JD-R model, employee health and well-being can result from a balance between psychosocial work factors categorized as either demands or resources. Physical, social or organizational job characteristics that require sustained effort are labeled as job demands. Job characteristics that contribute to meeting organizational objectives, reduce job demands and their accompanying physiological and psychological costs, or that stimulate employee growth and learning are labeled as job resources. Demands and resources are linked to health and well-being outcomes through two underlying psychological processes. An excess in job demands coupled with a lack of resources can deplete an employee’s energy resources in the health impairment process, while job resources can contribute to positive organizational outcomes through the motivational process. Likewise, the JD-R model assumes that job resources can buffer the impact of various demands on stress outcomes. While individual-level resources have been valuable components in the study of stress, Demerouti Bakker (2011) have suggested an expansion of the JD-R model to include multi-level constructs in order to capture the different structural, functional or hierarchical levels of organizational research. Taking a Multi-Level Approach When direct indicators of environmental context are not available, contextual variables can be measured using group averages of individuals’ perceptions, at a cluster level. This is believed to reliably account for non-independence among employees exposed to similar environmental factors, which can influence how they perceive or respond to stress in the workplace. As a result, researchers can more accurately examine how organizational level processes affect individual-level processes and outcomes. Moreover, modeling group-level moderators of stress is particularly important, given its implications for prevention. From a practical perspective, a multi-level approach to stress may result in more effective interventions, as organizations may wish to employ different strategies at each level. Moreover, stress interventions based on group-level moderators can be much easier to implement over individual-based interventions. Thus, identifying contextual factors that can mitigate the stress process, and understanding how they influence this relationship, can contribute to more systemic approach to organizational stress research. Stewardship as a Moderator of Work Stressors As reviewed above, job resources can buffer the negative effects of work demands on perceived job strain through different mechanisms. While stewardship is not anticipated to reduce work demands themselves, the work conditions provided through a context of stewardship may alter employee perceptions and cognitions evoked by work stressors, and moderate the responses that follow. This can potentially reduce the health-damaging consequences of stress. A mission-focused stewardship approach is believed to help employees put their work in a larger context, providing them with a sense of purpose. The alignment between employee demands and the organizational mission may contribute to a sense of coherence among employees, where they perceive their demands as understandable, manageable and meaningful, a strong determinant of successful coping. Moreover, the sharing of information, power and resources can help to develop a common frame of reference, facilitating communication and reducing misunderstandings with regard to work tasks. In this way, stewardship organizations, through the collaboration and the instrumental support of other organizations, may be more resilient to increasingly complex work demands. Thus, a context of stewardship may temper the negative influence of work stressors by repositioning work demands as challenges that can be accomplished collectively, and task completion may seem more achievable in this setting. Stewardship in the Canadian Public Service Canada’s public service is the non-partisan, executive branch of the Canadian government composed of various units, which include departments, agencies, commissions, Crown corporations and other federal organizations. In a typical governmental department there are several levels of leadership at the Executive level (EX position classification). Stewardship as an organizational approach may be especially important in the context of public service work, where many different levels of hierarchy must operate collaboratively and rely on the combined efforts of various departments, agencies, commissions, crown corporations and other federal organizations to deliver quality service to citizens. In summary, there is strong theoretical and empirical basis to consider and formally test organizational stewardship as a potential moderator in the relationship between role stressors and psychological distress among executives. To our knowledge, stewardship has never been tested as a contextual variable using multi-level analysis. This raises the research question: Does a context of stewardship moderate the relationship between role stressors and psychological distress among public service executives? Study Model This study proposes that a context of stewardship reflects the degree to which a department engages in effective collaboration across networks, generating trust, a sense of purpose, and a shared sense of responsibility. We posit that a context of stewardship can help executives manage their perceived role stressors such that when a high degree of stewardship is perceived within one’s department, executives are more likely to experience their work as meaningful, interesting and something to which they wish to devote effort, regardless of stressful demands. In this way, departmental stewardship may help to alleviate the effects of stressors before they become damaging (i.e., psychological distress). Thus, we propose that department-level stewardship moderates the relationship between role stressors (i.e., role conflict and role ambiguity) and distress symptoms. Goal and Objectives The aim in the present study is to investigate the association between departmental stewardship, role stressors and distress among executives. The research goal is to test that there is variance in these relationships that relates to the organizational level above and beyond the idiosyncratic individual perspective. To test the moderation effect, there are two pre-conditions: Condition 1: Executives who report higher role stressors will also report higher distress; and Condition 2 (ecological multi-level effect): Departments with high levels of aggregated stewardship will have a negative relationship with reported distress. Main Hypothesis (Cross-Level Interaction) Moderation effect of the multi-level construct: The relationship between role stressors and distress is moderated by departmental stewardship such that the relationship between role stressors and distress is stronger for departments with low aggregated stewardship, and this relationship is buffered in departments with high aggregated stewardship. Participants and Procedure Data used for this study comes from the pan-Canadian national survey on Work and Health conducted in 2012 in partnership with the Association of Professional Executives of the Public Service of Canada (APEX). This survey represents the fourth cycle of a multi-phase research project examining the health status of executives, from Director (EX-1) to Deputy Minister (EX-5), in the federal Public Service of Canada. A total of 6688 self-administered anonymous questionnaires were distributed via e-mail to senior-management executives in the Canadian federal public service. Over two thousand respondents returned the questionnaires (N=2314), representing a response rate of 35%. After removing missing data and performing data screening for multi-level analysis the final data set included responses from 1996 executives nested within 59 departments/agencies. Departments, on average, had 34 respondents (range, 2 to 177). The sample comprised 51% male and 49% female executives and maintained fully proportional representation of the actual distribution of executives by gender, executive level, region and age. The average age of participants was 50.2 years. The majority of participants had either a post-grad education (52%) or university education (39%). Participants had been working at the executive level for 7.3 years, on average. While just over half (56%) of executives in this sample worked at the EX-1 level, 24% worked at the EX-2 level, and 20% at the EX-3, EX-4 or EX-5 level.

Handling the Different Creative Thinking Obstacles in Life Personal Statement

Handling the Different Creative Thinking Obstacles in Life Successfully - Personal Statement Example I realized this particular matter when I joined several group activities that required me to utilize creative thinking as a major skill that would display the fact that I am indeed learning from all the lessons that I receive from school. Being in an educational group, the author of this paper particularly felt the need to be a major contributor to the progress of the major discussions of the class as well as to the success of every activity that is being managed by the educator. It could be observed that through this grouping, the author learns how to improve the way that he listens, how he observes and how he interacts as well as participate within the group discussions. It could be noted that it is through this that the author learns how to establish camaraderie with his group mates and thus be able to be of good use and contributor to the progress of the entire class. Learning has been a great part of this particular progress on the part of the author. It is undeniable that being a part of this group made the author a more reliable individual in terms of group project implementations. Aside from this, it is undeniable that the author too has understood the importance of team work. Humans are significantly made with personal and innate characteristics in them that are completely different and apart from the others. This idea is mainly because of the certain fact that human beings have their own characteristics of uniqueness and individuality. Thus, human beings become existent in their own personal sense with their own identity differing them from others at some point in their innate qualities. In same manner, cultures and social values are also created and develop with likeness to the concept of individuality and uniqueness since they are created by human beings themselves. Social groups of relative similarities functioned and develop them own system of values and accordance making them united in their own concept and apart from the other social groups. Thus with this concept, cultural diversity has predominantly existed as how society themselves strive and develop to the point of their current state. However, this innate and basically natural concept in the society has been always a massive hindrance for the establishment of social unity and uniformity especially on the principal level of a team. Since the team-building concept's main agenda is the establishment of a uniting factor and bond among its members, their own personal and cultural diversity has always been a challenge for the said aim. Common problems and challenges such as uniqueness in the dominant language, dissimilarities with social norms and acceptable principles, differences concerning perception and opinions, and others often become a problem in the team-building aspect. In general, diversity produces stratification and division thus unification is being hindered. Indeed, cultural diversity in the aspect of team building is one of its main weaknesses. However, cultural diversity in a certain team can also serves as its potential strength producing advantages apart from its common