To What Extent was Self-Preservation the Prime Motive of the Catholic Churchs subservience to the Nazi Regime Essay Example

To What Extent was Self-Preservation the Prime Motive of the Catholic Churchs subservience to the Nazi Regime Essay The Catholic Church (referenced as simply The Church from here on) was a fairly unique resistance group during the Nazi period 1933 1945. It was unique for two main reasons; firstly it was the only counter-authority1 to the Nazi Regime permitted under Nazi Law, and secondly, it was the only institution that radically changed the interpretations of its core principles through the introduction of new personalities.The question above deals with three major areas of debate. The first, and most crucial, is whether the Church used resistance to ensure its own survival and whether it was central to their controversial role during the above period. The second area of debate is contrary to the first; it deals with the other motives that the Church may have had for collaborating or assisting the regime, specifically whether or not Anti-Semitism, played a significant part of the Churches actions during the Nazi Period. However, the third area of debate, the extent to which the Catholic Church was strictly subservient to the Nazi Regime is so substantial, there is just not enough space in this project to cover it adequately. Therefore, my investigation will not concern itself it detail with the actions of the Catholic Church, but rather its motives for undertaking those actions.In writing this, I will reference many sources from a number of political and religious backgrounds. There are a number of sources of varying utility, which help to develop an argument. For example, Primary sources such, as the Encyclical Humani Generis Unitas are invaluable when discussing the dissimilarities between Pope Pious XI, and Pope Pious XII. As a direct Issue of the Church it can be seen as a genuine attempt by the Church to clarify its position on the persecution of the Jews, rather than a piece of apologetic historical commentary after the event and is therefore able to described as politically untainted. On the other hand however, a quote from Daniel Goldhagens book A Moral Reckoning has a clear motive behind it. As a radical Jewish historian he has tried to throw open the debate on the Nazi period by referencing heavily the Anti-Semitism of the Church and the German People thus creating a Judo-centric view of Nazi activities. He may therefore exaggerate the truth slightly to make his points seem more convincing. Consequently, when evaluating his work we must keep this motive in mind. Generally however all historians work have some value, due, in part, to the extensive research involved in forming their compositions. Thus we can never therefore simply discard a source because it is biased or extreme since sometimes it is these extreme opinions, which can create the most useful suppositions.The Church has, throughout modern history, been arguably the biggest obstacle to dictatorship. Whether it was Kulturkampf in Bismarcks Germany, War Communism in Lenins Russia, or The Papal Land Seizures in Mussolinis Italy, the Catholic Church has proved to be an institution t hat has needed to be dealt with specifically, in order to successfully create a truly Totalitarianist state. The Catholic Church before the Nazi period represented around 32% of the population in Germany (22 Million members) with a wide range of powerful institutions such as Youth Organisations, Political Parties and Schools. Hence when Hitler rose to power in 1933 the Church plausibly saw another threat to their position emerging and thus there was an urgent need to re-affirm their status and position within this new Germany.The consequence of this anxiety was the agreement of the Church to enter into a Concordat agreement with the new Nazi leader. The Concordat, which was signed on 20th July 1933, by Cardinal Eugenio Pacelli (later to become Pope Pious XII), which ensured the basic freedom and co-existence of the Church within the Nazi regime. It offered the Church partial anonymity from the state, by allowing them to retain their own schools, and their religious social clubs. How ever, it did recognise that the Church would be subservient in Law to the state, disband its political wing, The Catholic Centre Party, and, made the Nazi Curriculum mandatory in Catholic Schools.The signing of this Concordat I believe shows the willingness of the Catholic Church to agree to restrict their political progression in favour of a guaranteed existence. The purpose was self-defence, not a wider political opposition2As Jonathan Wright comments, the Church was far more interested in preserving its status as a religious institution, rather than trying to promote a political agenda, thus they were prepared to concede political activism, if they could carry on practising their religion freely. J R C Wright himself is a Political Historian and a practising Anglican3 and therefore the quote above can be coloured by his religious background. As such there is a possibility that he could be anti-Catholic, but because the source doesnt seem to be unfairly critical of the Church, it is likely this is not the case. This article was however written in the 1970s, when the Vatican had not opened any of their archives from after 1922,4 and as such J R C Wright would not have had access to the detailed information they have revealed when writing his article. Thus there is a possibility that his article is not as qualified as that of a later historian who would have had access to the Vatican Archives. Later historian Beth Greich-Polelle puts forward another argument; she believes it was previous experiences with a nationalist Germany that rationalises the actions the Church undertook.The fear of another state-sponsored attack on Catholicism (much like the one waged under Bismarck in the 1870s) was a serious factor in the minds of many German clergymen5The state-sponsored attack that Greich-Polelle refers to is the Kulturkampf. Roughly translated, the Culture Wars were a direct attack by Bismarck on the Catholic Church in Prussia, during the 1870s. Even though the sup pression was eventually overturned, the violence that ensued against the Catholics coupled with the vulnerability the Catholic Churchs authority represented outside the Papal States became clear, the Clergy could not allow the Nazis to create another Kulturkampf.Beth Greich-Polelle believes Kulturkampf is key to understanding why the Church allowed itself to have its power removed, and in her book Bishop von Galen: German Catholicism and National Socialism she tries to relay the importance of the psychological impact that this piece of recent history would have on the Clergy. She attempts to justify the acceptance of the new regime as a move to preserve the position of Catholicism in the modern state and by creating a Concordat (something Pacelli had been trying to do all over Europe for roughly a decade); he would make this a reality.As an accredited historian working as a Professor of Modern History in the USA, Greich-Polelle uses a vast amount of primary sources from the diaries of Bishop von Galen, a German nationalist who initially welcomed Hitler before becoming an outspoken critic of the Nazi Anti-Semitism after 1934, roughly the same time as Niemà ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½ller and Bonhà ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½ffer broke away to form the Confessional Church for the same reasons. With this in mind the source above seems very useful when deciding what motives were really behind Pacellis signing of the Concordat since von Galens view as a fellow nationalist would have been somewhat in line with Pacellis.In addition to J R C Wright and Beth Greich-Polelle, Martyn Housden also agrees that the Church wanted to preserve its own position, rather than ratifying the Nazi establishment. He comments:The Churches and their followers generally were more interested in defending their religious space rather than rooted in a politically active anti-Nazi morality.6As with Wright and Greich-Polelle, Housden agrees that the Church was attempting to distance itself from the political aspects of Nazi sm in order to preserve its religious position. However while reviewing his work, Richard Steigmann-Gall of the University of Toronto, points out that by overlooking [the] admittedly more disturbing acts of ideological commission, he leaves the reader with a flawed analysis7. He does this by ignoring the works of Wolfgang Gerlach, Hermann Grieve, Richard Gutteridge, and Markje Smid, authors who have all directly tackled the issue of the Catholic Church in Germany and whose works includes anti-Semitism. Steigmann-Gall goes on to point out that when reading his chapter entitled opposition born of belief; Housden again does not discuss Christian Anti-Semitism. Steigmann-Gall in a sense therefore is making the claim that there must have been some tacit-support of Anti-Semitism in the church and that the actions of the Church cannot be solely for self-preservation. This of course is a crucial feature of Goldhagens thesis and backs up his claim that anti-Semitism, in some form, did exist within the Catholic Church. Housdens failure to include anti-Semitism could be for two reason, either Housden has failed to address the critical debate of Anti-Semitism by mistake, or he may be trying to distance his own personal beliefs in Christianity, from that of the atrocities synonymous with the Anti-Semitism within the Nazi concentration camps. As a result, his work becomes questionable, compared with Wrights and Greich-Polelles.On the other extreme of the overall debate, Daniel Jonah Goldhagen, and John Cornwell, both believe that the Church as an institution was anti-Semitic and that racism played a massive part in what they believe, was the Churches acceptance and collaboration with the Nazi Regime. They both publicly denounce Pope Pious XII as Hitlers Pope and criticise the Church as ignoring the atrocities performed by the Nazis, even though it posed a complete antithesis to their moral code of ethics.In Daniel Goldhagens book A Moral Reckoning, he condemns the Church as wholly racist against the Jews and attacks particularly Pacelli as a nationalist. He cites the suppression of the encyclical Humani Generis Unitas as a clear example of Pacellis true anti-Semitism and his abandonment of decent Catholic morals and ethics. This encyclical was written by Pius XI in which he condemns the actions of the Nazis and those who are involved in the racial segregation of the Jews.The practise of evasion and denial began as early as 1939 when Pope Pious XII suppressed Humani Generis Unitas, the antiracism encyclical of his predecessor It would finally have the Church defend the hounded Jews8Goldhagen rightly points out the importance of this encyclical because it would clarify, officially, the position of the Church on genocide in Nazi Germany, specifically condemning it, such persecutory methods are totally at variance with the true spirit of the Catholic Church9.Goldhagen goes on to make clear the distinction between Pope Pious XI and Pious XII, citing Pio us XI as an ideologue who was set to uphold the Catholic moral of denouncing the Nazi Regime through the hidden encyclical. Goldhagen then presents Pious XII as a nationalist in his own right and hints that this suppression was part of a deal between Hitler and Pious XII. He paints a picture of Pacelli as an ambitious anti-Semitic who wanted to pursue his doctrine due to his belief in the Jews unshakable guilt over the death of Jesus.He then goes on to claim that only German Catholics were capable of being united behind anti-Semitism thus being able to create the circumstances for genocide. He claims, rightly or wrongly, that the German mindset was the only one capable of rallying so quickly to nationalism and that the German way of thinking does play a significant part in understanding the Catholic Churchs role during the Nazi period. So powerful was the racial cognitive in Germany that the Catholic Church by and large accepted and disseminated it in its own teaching.Goldhagen be lieves that this does not just include Catholics, but Lutheran Protestant Christians, as well as non-believers. Goldhagen makes this point in his first book (Hitlers Willing Executioners) but touches only briefly on it in A Moral Reckoning, a book devoted to the Churches involvement during the Nazi Period. He concentrates much more on the individual Catholic mental struggle with the past. He claims that the Church still blamed contemporary Jews for the death of Jesus. Goldhagen cites Archbishop Konrad Grobers published pastoral letter10 of 1941 as evidence of this: -[Archbishop Grober] placed the blame upon the Jews for the death of Jesus, which he implied justifies what Germans were then doing to the Jews8This clearly attempts to justify the persecution of Jews as retribution for the murder of Jesus. However, this may not however a fair appraisal of the contents of the letter as we are only provided with a limited extract in the book. Goldhagen, as mentioned before is a radical Zi onist historian and is likely to overemphasize evidence in order to discredit the Church, this selective use of the Grà ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½ber letter can be evidence of this.Norman Finklestein, a Jewish Political historian cites numerous examples of Goldhagens exaggeration in his book The Goldhagen Thesis and Historical Truth. He cites the example of the 12 Ritual Murder trails (1867-1914), where Goldhagen reverses the findings11 of Pulzer (whom he quotes in Hitlers Willing Executioners) by exemplifying the single guilty case when the meaning of the findings was to show how eleven of the cases came to other conclusions, conclusions Finkelstein suggests, may have proved his point flawed. Finklestein also points out a number of Diary entries, and covertly placed texts, like that of crucial evidence referring to the anti-Semitic petition in 19th Century Bavaria, as being buried in the back pages9. As a result, Goldhagens work can never be taken at face value, due, in part, to his selective use of sources, which Finklestein suggests, tries to undermine the Churches authority in the eyes of the readerJohn Cornwell also attacks the Church for its anti-Semitism during the Nazi period. He places a greater emphasis than Goldhagen does on the actions of Pious XII but is still critical of the Catholic Church in general for its involvement with the Nazi regime. Cornwell references, like Goldhagen, the importance of the encyclical Humani Generis Unitas and condemns Pacelli for sitting on it10, as well as including information about the true extent to which Pius XII had detailed knowledge of the final solution.Cornwell believes that Pious XIIs anti-Semitism had a lot to do with the links between Russian Communists and world Jewry. This is qualified by the fact that most of the top KDP members in Weimar Germany were infact Jewish. One of the main reasons why the Church was so afraid of Communism was because of the atrocities in the Soviet Union during the periods of War Communism wit h Churches being shut down and outlawed. It is for this reason that Cornwell believes that Pacelli is not willing to stand up for the Jews, moving away from the traditional anti-Semitic argument, to a more Communist influenced anti-Semitism.Pacelli and the office for which he was responsible betrayed an antagonistic policy towards the Jews [based on] a link between Judaism and the Bolshevik plot to destroy Christendom.12It is clear that Cornwell seeks to link Pious XII to this misconception and does make a very convincing line of argument. It could be possible for the link between Judaism and that of Communism to be forged so closely and that, what Goldhagen describes as the German mindset, could have pushed Pacelli to the extent of anti-Semitism. Cornwell then goes on to heavily criticise Pacelli for not condemning those members of his clergy engaged in the unmasking of Jews and the stopping of conversions in very strongly Catholic areas. This unmasking of Jews by Catholics and Ca tholic Bishops is well documented in the Gestapo reports of the period. Catholicism never accepts racism or any attempt to assist racism under any circumstances.Nor did he [Pacelli] attempt to intervene in the process by which Catholic Clergy collaborated in racial certification to identify the Jews13This collaboration Cornwell goes on to say, aided the persecution of the Jews and contributed heavily in the rural communities assistance during the Final Solution. He then moves on to make the accusation that the Church was not as unaware of the Final Solution, as it historically has claimed. With the opening of the Vatican archives, letters and diaries14 from prominent members of Pacellis Privy Council display that Pacelli was infact one of the first in the world to know of the Nazi plans and took no action whatsoever, even waiting months before accepting that he had even received the letter. This can be interpreted as self-preservation, but Cornwell is convinced by Pacellis actions d uring the 1930s that anti-Semitism was the main factor in Pacellis decision not to act upon this information. The Vatican archives prove this by showing Pacellis registered disagreement with Pius XI over condemning anti-Semitism in the mid 30s, which adds weight to the accusation that his actions werent just for self-preservation. Through the mid to late 1930s, Pacelli failed to sanction protests by the German Catholic episcopate against anti-Semitism it is clear that Pacelli believed that the Jews had brought misfortune on their own head11When discussing the merits of Cornwells work, Dr Peter Gumpel S.J15, a leading expert on the Catholic Church during the period, cites a number of clear mistakes in Cornwells work. His work mainly concerns itself with a lack of proper research, referring to the list of archives, which Cornwell claims to have consulted. Gumpel claims that a book, which makes such pretentious claims, should have consulted such archives as the German, Italian and mos t notably the Acts of the Nuremberg Trials which would, Gumpel claims, have shown Pacellis work to save the Jews, which Ralph McInerny estimates is around 860,00016. He goes on to question the value of the content describing the first section of the book as wishy-washy, while describing his criticisms of the Concordat as wholly unfair as at no point does he ever discuss the primary papal importance of the Concordat. He even shows a massive translation error, which completely changes the whole context with which a Chapter of his book refers to. The Encyclical letter with burning preoccupation and not with great appreciation as Cornwell mistranslatesAs a result, the value of Cornwells work has come under massive strain. Although Dr Gumpel also has been criticised for his attacks on Cornwell, the evidence that Cornwell has misrepresented Pacelli as a character is considerable and as a result, his work is less useful that it at first appears to be.In Conclusion, the evidence supportin g the claim that the Churches actions during the Nazi period were purely in self-defence, in other words, for self-preservation, I believe outweigh the accusations of anti-Semitism within the Church. There is strong evidence that the Church as an institution is anti-Semitic, and there can be no doubt that there are sections of the Catholic Church that do believe that the Jews still posses an unshakeable guilt over the death of Jesus. There is also a chance that Pacelli (Pope Pious XII) could have been one of those people who believed in this guilt, but when critically appraising the merits of the historians that have claimed this, I have found myself more convinced by Bette Greich-Polelles explanation of events. In reference to her work, it is my belief that the Church during the Nazi period was self-interested and was set on trying to avoid another Kulturkampf, thus by accepting restrictions on their political freedoms it would ensure the spiritual dimension of Catholicism would li ve on throughout and beyond Nazi Germany.

Cold War Brinksmanship essays

Cold War Brinksmanship essays In the Cold War, many leaders and conflicts that occurred in the war played the Game of international brinkmanship. The main purpose was to get the opponent intimidated because one wanted to dominant between Industrial Capitalism and Communism, which the Americans wanted to band. Threats with nuclear weapons and riots by millions were put into play. Many good examples of this were the leaders of the period throughout the Cold War. Brinksmanship between Gorbachev and Reagan was a good example. The Soviet Union was stages of collapse and Gorbachev knew it, he worked to come to better terms with America and President Reagan has acknowledge that even though he saw no good of Gorbachev. Gorbachevs regime was primarily to decompose the oppressive Soviet Union. With his to initiatives, the glasnost and perestroika, he gave more freedom to the Russians and permitted Capitalism. Glasnost meant the dismantling of many of the repressive mechanisms that had been among the most conspicuous features of Soviets life, and perestroika was reform in the Soviets lives. Gorbachev decreased his foreign powers in East Europe as well. Gorbachev met with Reagan to lessen nuclear arms; however the result was a treaty that would take out all nuclear weapons. Gorbachev other decision was the cease of Afghanistan assaults. Their brinksmanship movement had took things from one point and created a better situation. The brinksmanship between Kennedy and Khrushchev was the worsening and bettering of the situation. The Berlin Wall was built by the Soviet Union to stop the exodus that desired to move to the West of German. Tension had risen and culminated in the most dangerous and dramatic crisis of the Cold War. America intelligence agencies became aware of Soviet construction of nuclear weapons site with the help of aerial reconnaissance photos. That was an inexpensive way to counter the presence of American missiles in Turkey and to better ...

Two Articles Review - Early Childhood Education Article

Two Articles Review - Early Childhood Education - Article Example Having the tests done also helps improve the learning of the child and give accountability by the various stakeholders. Critical analysis The article seeks to provide required information on how to determine school readiness in different children. It features various assessments tests and how they are conducted. Maxwell and Clifford state in the journal of young children on the web, children may or may not be ready for school. Maxwell and Clifford state that a child’s development skills are mostly influenced by families and interaction with other people in the environment (5). Additionally, the authors state that children’s skills can be enhanced once in school if the teacher is well prepared. The authors are also quick to note that despite the numerous advantages gained from conducting readiness assessments, few limitations also exist. Each assessment tool is usually designed for key purposes; hence it is difficult for it to be used for other purposes (Maxwell, and Cli fford 6). The themes outlined by the authors in this article are easily applicable in early childhood education. The information given can be used to determine whether a child requires special attention from an early stage. Application of the Key Theme a) Determines the skills required in teaching: The teacher should embark on lessons that are based on teaching numerical. He or she should have the numbers displayed on classroom walls throughout the week. Each child should be given the chance to learn how to write and read the number in the correct order. The teacher should use colorful blocks to display the numbers. At the end of the week each child can arrange the numbers using the blocks. The ability of children to do this correctly will determine the efficiency of using the method to teach them. b) Determines Motor development: The person conducting the test should select children of a specific age. In this test choose children who want to join elementary school. All children sho uld have the same level of motor development at a certain age. They should be provided with a piece of paper and crayons and should be told to make use of them. At this stage, children should be able to hold the crayon and make scribbles on the piece of paper. c) Promoting social and emotional development: The information in the article can be used to give specific attention to each child in the class. Teachers can have a friendly session with each child. They should explain why they think what they say about themselves. The response of each child should be gauged along the set standards. The teacher can observe the child’s behavior while in class. The teacher or parent can check if they obey what the teacher says and their eagerness to learn. These two tests will also tell a lot about the child’s social and emotional development. Article 2: Beyond Outcomes Summary The pressure on today’s early childhood programs to give positive results has increased. Today, te achers and parents are more aware of the advantages obtained when children attend such programs from an early stage, particularly if they need special care. In these programs, there are curriculums that are obligatory to follow. For the school program to work, teachers should be in a position to know what is in the curriculum and build a learning environment that is engaging for children (Dodge, Heroll1an, Charles, and Maiorca 20). The curriculum is there as a guide for promoting the programs. A

Leadership issues Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Leadership issues - Essay Example Today, the business world has become more competitive because of which basic leadership skills are important (Storey, 2013). A leader links the business stakeholders to one another as they play the major role in communication. This is why ineffective leadership can create many issues and problems for the organization; internally and externally. It is important to understand that leadership and management can be two entirely different concepts. Managers are the ones that authorize tasks to the employees who are in a lower position. Managers are usually at a higher position than leaders. Leaders are people among the employees who are appointed to lead a certain activity or event. In this competitive world, the skill required for a manager has to be inborn, while skills for leadership can be learnt with experience and practice. Leadership comes to play where management is not sufficient enough. Leadership without any issues can build, encourage and promote efficient organizational cultu re and success. Managers may not be leaders, but leaders are always managers as well (Hackman & Johnson, 2009). At many occasions, leadership can be problematic for the business. Leaders have responsibilities that have to be fulfilled if the business has to grow and prosper. Leadership issues may affect the employees, the stakeholders, the business activities and the customers directly or indirectly. Leadership is given to those people who are experienced and who can carry out the responsibilities efficiently without risking the business name and growth. Leadership issues can be many which will be assessed in this paper but it is important to know why leadership needs to be flawless. Efficient leadership leads to many consequences for the business. Effective leadership builds confident in the employees and subordinates. It is the leader’s job to motivate the employees and encourage them to work in teams and achieve their objectives. When the leaders support the employees, the y tend to be more productive and efficient. Leaders contribute in creating willingness among the employees to work hard and be productive. Efficient leaders also provide job satisfaction to the employees and team members. Leaders work in teams and their behavior and style effects the job satisfaction of the workers. A friendly and understanding leader would b able to manage the problems and employees efficiently. Activities can be organized if the leader understands his responsibilities and duties, employee morale will be increased at work, and coordination will bind the employees together towards one objective (Hackman & Johnson, 2009). Communication is seen as the most common problem among leaders and their subordinates in businesses. Efficient leaders ensure that they are carrying out effective communication to avoid issues. Ineffective communication can create many issues for the business internally and externally. Communication allows the employees to know and understand their jobs, the business strategies, goals and policies. Regular communication must take place through various modern methods of communication (Storey, 2013). Some businesses still use the traditional communication methods which can create issues and misunderstandings. Modern communication techniques include meetings, video calls, social networks, pagers, etc. Through communication, leaders can give prompt instructions and feedbacks to the employees. When leaders fail to communicate and respond to employee performances, issues tend to rise. Another issue is when

Individual And Situational Factors On Workplace Deviance Psychology Essay

Individual And Situational Factors On Workplace Deviance Psychology Essay Workplace deviance has emerged as a major area of attention among human resource management and organizational behavior researchers (Bennett Robinson, 2000, 2003; Griffin, OLeary-Kelly Collins). It is regularly performed in the workplace by a spectrum of employees ranging from blue collar employees, in both profit and non-profit organisation to white collar employees (Giacalone and Greenberg, 1997). In the perspective of Bennett and Robinsons (2003), organizational deviance research contends a broader conceptualization of deviance which has occurred over the last ten years and an agreement on a definition has been difficult (Kidwell et al, 2005). It has spawned a variety of concepts and related definitions. For example, in Robinson and Bennett (1995), they defined workplace deviance as voluntary behavior of organizational members that violates significant organizational norms, and in so doing, threatens the well-being of the organization and/or its members (p. 556), and this definition has been adopted by other organizational research too such as Lee Allen, 2002; Martinko, Gundlach and Douglas, 2002; and Sackett, 2002; Mount, Ilies and Johnson, 2006). Other researchers studied workplace deviance also use different distinct terminology such as retaliation (Skarlicki and Foldger, 1997), aggression (Douglas and Martinko, 2001; Fox Spector, 1999; Neuman Baron, 1997; OLeary-Kelly, Griffin, Glew, 1996), revenge (Bies, Tripp, Kramer, 1997), counterproductive behavior (Spector et al, 2005 and Sackett, 2002), antisocial behaviour (Giacolone Greenberg 1997), dysfunctional behaviour and organizational misbehaviour (Vardi Weitz, 2003). Conceptually, workplace deviance is generally used to describe specific incidences of deviant behaviour in the workplace; therefore, the actions of individual employees serve as the basic unit of analysis (Robinson Greenberg, 1998). For this research the term workplace deviance by Robinson and Bennet (1995) will be use because it appears as one of the popular terms among researchers nowadays in this area. This includes local researcher for example Faridahwati (2003), Samsuddin and Rahman (2006) and Abdul Rahman (2008) who used this terminology. Behaviors labeled deviant include unsafe work practices, drug abuse, stealing, dishonesty, volitional absenteeism, alcohol abuse, destruction of an organizations property (Griffin OLeary-Kelly, 2004), employee theft, withholding effort, violence, insubordination, sabotage, whistle-blowing, poor attendance, misuse of information, alcohol use and abuse, gambling, inappropriate internet use, littering (Mount, Ilies and Johnson, 2006) and harassment (Jixia Yang, 2008). In addition, with technology advancement and internet in the workplaces, browsing the web and checking personal emails are some of the diversity of workplace deviance acts (Nguyen, 2008). Scholars have estimated that up to 75 percent (Harper, 1990), 85 percent (Harris and Ogbonna, 2002), and 95 percent (Slora, 1991) of employee routinely behave in a manner that can be described as deviance (cited in Harris and Ogbonna, 2006). Over the past decade, there has been an increase in attention to workplace deviance including violence, stealing, dishonesty, volitional absenteeism, drug and alcohol abuse many of which have been addressed in this special issue. In Malaysia, the evidence of workplace deviance had begin to soar. KPMG Fraud Survey 2004 (Ngui, 2005) shows 83% of Malaysian public and private limited companies have experienced fraud which is also a form of workplace deviance. This is an increase of 33% from 2002 survey. Another survey by Pricewaterhouse Coopers Global Economic Crime Survey 2005 (Pricewaterhouse Coopers, 2006) reveals that 23% out of 100 Malaysian large companies surveyed have been subjected to fraud, and 70% of the cases reported was committed by employees (Zauwiyah and Mariati, 2008). Other evidence in Malaysia from the public media involve dishonesty and poor work attitude cases (New Strait Times, 2005), fraudulence, (Utusan Malaysia, 2004), underperformed and lazy (Star, October 2009) and the issue of fake medical certificate which these behaviors are labeled under forms of workplace deviance (Utusan Malaysia, 2003 cited from Abdul Rahman and Aizat, 2008). Other forms of deviance including corruption (New Stra its Times, 2009) which is also a growing problem in Malaysia that highly involves employees in the public sector. For example base on a research done by Global Corruption Barometer which was announced by the Transparency International indicates that corruption percentage is high among employees in the public sectors (Berita Harian, June 2009). Deviance act was also reported to the police and 27 disciplinary cases involving the public sector were reported by the Public Service Department (Abdul Rahman, 2008). In the Malaysian Current Law journal from 2000 until 2005 also reported a review of dismissal cases from the Malaysian Industrial Relations Department (Abdul Rahman, 2008). Samsuddin and Rahman (2006) also had highlighted the presence of workplace deviance in Malaysia. Substance abuse for example also becomes a significant problem among public and private organizations in Malaysia. The National Drug Agency under the Malaysian Ministry of Internal Affairs registered a total of 250,045 drug addicts in government and private sectors between January 1995 and February 2005 (Abdul Rahman, 2008). Other forms of deviance behavior including sabotage, threatening a pay cut, antagonising and showing disrespect of an employees religious belief was also reported to the Labour Deparment (Faridahwati, 2004). Whether the deviance is explicit or subconscious, it has negative consequences for the entity and affiliates. It affect organizational performance, safety and health of the employees (Kidwell and Kochanowski, 2005) and enormous costs associated with such behavior (Peterson, 2002). For example, nearly 95 percent of all companies in United States reported some deviance-related experience within their respective organizations (Henle et al., 2005) and the estimated impact of widespread workplace deviance has also been reported to be $50 billion annually on the United States economy (Henle et al., 2005b). It is continue to soar out of control with nearly 95 percent of all companies reporting some deviance-related experience within their respective organizations (Case, 2000; Henle et al., 2005). Infact, employee theft and fraud is the fastest growing type of crime in the United States (Coffin, 2003) Researchers have addressed the consequences of deviant behaviours in some detail. It is reported that workplace deviance gives a financial impact on the organizations and victims of workplace deviance are more likely to suffer from stress-related problems and show a relatively decreased productivity, lost work time and a relatively high turnover rate (Henle et al., 2005). The impact of workplace deviance can also be translated into turnover, lower productivity, employee morale, higher rates of absenteeism and turnover (Hoel, Einarsen, and Cooper, 2003; Keashly and Jagatic, 2003). Therefore, given the growing prevalence of detrimental behaviors and the associated costs, it is beneficial to organizations and researchers to determine which variables contribute to such behavior, or identify potential factors that can predict the occurrence of various types of workplace deviance. Thus, there is great incentive, financial and otherwise, for organizations to prevent and discourage any negative workplace deviance within their walls. For these reasons, it is a great interest in understanding the antecedents of workplace deviance (Hogan and Hogan, 1989; Robinson and Greenberg, 1998; Henle, 2005; Mount 2006). Base on the findings of past empirical research it shows that certain factors are vulnerable to deviant behaviors by employees such as job stressors (e.g.. Fox et al, 2001), organizational frustration, (e.g., Spector, 1975), lack of control, over the work environment (e.g., Bennett, 1998), weak sanctions for rule violations (e.g., Hollinger and Cjiark, 1983), and organizational changes such as downsizing (e.g.Baron and Neuman, 1996). Some researchers had suggested that situational or organizational factors might be responsible for workplace deviance. Appelbaum et al. (2005) suggested that operational environment rather than individual personality characteristics is a good predictor of employees engaging in negative deviant workplace behavior. This is opined by Henle (2005) that employees will commit deviant behavior in the organization depending on the situational environment in workplace regardless of their individual characteristics. However, Martinko (2002) suggested that individu al difference variables is an important antecedent to workplace deviance because of the influence these individual differences are likely to have on attribution process. Previous research also has demonstrated that there are meaningful linkages between employees individual characteristics and deviant behavior at work (e.g., BennettRobinson, 2003; Dalal, 2005; Douglas Martinko, 2001; Salgado, 2002). However, Robinson and Greenberg (1998) point out that no clear picture emerges of a deviant personality type and that personality traits seem to only account for a small percentage of the variance in predicting deviant behaviour (Browing, 2008). Previous empirical research however did demonstrated that certain organizational factors also make companies more vulnerable to deviant behaviors by employees such as joh stressors (e.g.. Fox et al, 2001), organizational frustration (e.g., Spector, 1975), lack of control over the work environment (e.g., Bennett, 1998), weak sanctions for rule violations (e.g., Hollinger and C;iark, 1983), and organizational chauges such as downsizing (e.g.Baron and Neuman, 1996). Thus, base on this perspective, only indicates that deviant acts at work depending on the work environment regardless of their individual characteristics. Base on various researchers perspective, there has been a controversial either individual characteristics or situational environment of the organization contributes to workplace deviance. In fact, there are also other researchers that suggested that various antecedents of workplace deviance from situational and individual difference. There are findings indicated that there are meaningful linkage between personality characteristics and workplace deviance (e.g., Bennett and Robinson, 2003; Dalal, 2005; Douglas and Martinko, 2001; Salgado, 2002). This issue had been continue to be controversial and there had been little disagreement on the antecedent correlated to workplace deviance and consensus regarding which situational and individual differences correlated to workplace deviance. However, Colbert et al. (2004); Henle (2005) suggested that future research should identify both situation and person-based explanations of workplace deviance so that organizations could predict and ultimately, minimize the occurrence of workplace deviance. Even, more than a decade, apparently still very few studies have assessed both personal and organizational correlates (actual or self-reported) workplace deviance (Lefkowitz, 2009). In Malaysia itself, studies on workplace deviance had been done previously by Shamsudin (2003), Faridahwati (2004), Razali (2005), Radzi and Din (2005), Sien (2006) and Abdul Rahman (2008). Various studies had been done using various units of analysis, for example, studies on workplace deviance done by Faridahwati (2004), Samsuddin (2003) and Sien use hotel employees as sample, Radzi and Din (2005) in a high technology multinational companies in the northern region, Razali (2005) focus on production workers in Penang and Abdul Rahman (2008) use production employees in manufacturing companies in various states in Malaysia. Base on this comparison, the existing local studies however fall short using public sector employees as unit of analysis. 2.0 Problem Statement There is a growing problem of workplace deviance in the workplace that should not be ignored. Evidence from newspapers and other public media indicates various forms of workplace deviance exists in Malaysia such cases of dishonesty, poor work attitudes, fraudulence, and the issue of fake medical certificate (Abdul Rahman, 2008). A number of regional Labour Department in Malaysia also had indicated that at least twenty to 30 cases in a month have been reported by employees and employers. Findings from Faridahwati (2003) revealed that saying hurtful things and making fun of someone at work stands out to be common forms of deviance act in workplace. In addition, the acts of deviance behavior at workplace had been documented increase in the number of reported incidents in workplace (Faridahwati, 2004). For example, corruption (Utusan online, October, 2009), theft, sabotage, harassment, cursed someone at work and publicly being embarrassed at workplace (Kosmo, October 2009), putting little effort at work (Utusan, August 2009), taking breaks during office hours which had become a culture among public sector employees (Arkib, 2008). All these behaviors are various forms of deviant behavior that had been reported by published media in public sectors. Apparently, there are proofs of problems rooted in the poor performance among the public sector employees (Johari et al., 2009). This is supported by Siddique (2006), who claimed that public service agencies in Malaysia has long been criticized for its inflexibility, ineffective accountability, and poor performance among the officials. The bleak picture is evident when the Malaysian Public Service has recorded 58 percent increase in formal complaints from the public (Siddique, 2006). In 2005, a total of 2,707 complaints were received with regard to the public service poor performance, such as delays in service provision, unfair actions/decisions of the administrators, abuse of power, misconduct of the officials, and failure to enforce rules which all these are forms of deviant behaviors.. Added to this, the chief secretary of the Malaysian government, Tan Sri Mohd Sidek Hassan (2009) mentioned that the number of disciplinary cases against civil servants is on the rise. For example, there were 3,383 such cases last year compared with 2,159 in year 2007. Such form of deviant cases being reported are absenteeism, tardiness and sexual harassment. This is also opined by Abdul Rahman (2008) that disciplinary cases involving employees in the public sector had been highly reported. Absenteeism which also a form of workplace deviance had become a significant issue where there are cases of employees in public sectors did not turn up for work for almost three months without the knowledge of their supervisors and employers (Ministry of Human Resource, 2009). A report from January till September 2009 indicated that 129 public employees in Selangor were absent without reason or permission and 49% of the 129 public sector employees are from the support staff level (Bernama, 13 Septe mber, 2009). This was also supported by Cuepecs Secretary, Ahmad Shah (2009) that most of them are in the category of supporting staff and is station outside the office. It also had been reported that absenteeism had been the four highest principal of offense cases which 7,688 cases or 55 percent, followed by code of conduct and prohibition case, court cases and abuse or dangerous drug ownership (Utusan, June 2007). Apart from the above, there has been an increase of 36.2% offense cases from public sector employees at various levels in year 2009 and 3,383 offense cases are committed compared to 2,159 cases in year 2007 (Tan Sri Mohd Sidek Hassan, Utusan dated October, 2009). Added to this, rules violation cases involve officers from the public service were reported to be increasing each year and as many as 2,955 in year 2006 compared to 1,943 at 2002 (Utusan, June 2008). Vardi and Weitz (2004) stated that there are two major costs that come with workplace deviance , financial costs (e.g., destruction of organizational property, violation of laws, codes and regulations, etc.) and social costs (e.g., destructive political behaviors, harassment, and sustained suboptimal performance) (Griffin OLeary-Kelly, 2004). Thus, the pervasiveness of workplace deviance in public sector made it an important area to study. Apart from the above, despite the increasing forms of workplace deviance reported in the public sector, there had been little studies or no attention to investigate workplace deviance in the perspective of public sector employees. In fact, workplace deviance had been received less attention among organizational scholars (Vardi and Weist, 2004; Abdul Rahim and Abdul Rahman, 2008). 3.0 Research Objectives The purpose of this study is to contributed to the workplace deviance literature by adopting an interaction approach to empirically examine how both person- and situation-based variables interact to explain workplace deviance. The research objectives are as follows: i) To identify typical forms of workplace deviance that exists in the public sector. ii) To investigate the determinants of workplace deviance that exists in the public sector. iii) To measure workplace deviance behavior in the public sector. iv) To determine whether individual variables (gender, negative affectivity, trait anger) influence workplace deviance in the public sector. v) To determine whether situational variables (job sastisfaction, work group norms and organizational justice) influence workplace deviance in the public sectors. 4.0 Significance contribution This research makes contributions to both the theory and practice of management. Although scholars have recognized that deviance can be socially constructed, there has been a death of research that has specifically addressed this issue especially in the perspective of public sector employees. Further to this, the purpose of this study is to contribute to the workplace deviance literature by adopting an interactional approach to empirically examine how both individual-and situation-based variables interact to explain workplace deviance. On the implication, it benefits the superiors and managers. This study will contribute to a better understanding on deviant behaviors in the workplace and contributed to the literature examining complex antecedents of workplace deviance. Furthermore, there is paucity for empirical study of workplace deviance especially in the context of public sector in Malaysia. Also, looking at the perspective of academic level, the result of this study will give more insight in the contribution and development of knowledge in the areas of human resource management and public administration concerning workplace deviance. It is also expected that the result from this proposed study will assist policy makers and practitioners to reduce the occurrences of workplace deviance issues related to organizational and individual factors. By understanding, the factors that influence workplace deviance, the government would also in a better position to plan and implement complementary and an integrated of publi c administration policies and practices to enhance the effectiveness of the employees in the public sector thus reduce the existence of workplace deviance. The result of the study is also expected to assist government sectors to use the information from the study to implement training and development related to this issue. It will also contribute to all fields which in turn enhance the theoretical and academic integration of several branches (organization behavior and human resource management) and their mother field of public administration. Finally, the most ultimate objective is to reduce workplace deviance which contributes tangible and intangible costs to the victims and organization. 5.0 Scope of study This study is an explanatory in nature and adopts a cross-sectional design. This study will targeted the support staff as sample. Support staff was chosen as it had been reported in the media that 10,438 civil servants had been given disciplinary action from year 2003 till 2006 and 92 percent are from the support staff (Utusan, June 2007). Moreover, it has been suggested that those who have the lower status may be the most prone to exhibiting deviant behavior (e.g., Gilligan, 1996; Wicklund Gollwitzer, 1982). Employees from the Royal Malaysian Custom department will be chosen as sample as this department interact and liaise widely with various customers. The study will fill the gap in terms of providing research findings that integrate the respondents perception on situation variables (job satisfaction, workgroup norms and organizational justice) and individual variables (Gender, trait anger and negative affectivity) which all were conceptualize as independent variables. The focus of this study is to determine the individual and situational factors of workplace deviance in a public organization. 6.0 Operational Definition: Workplace Deviance: Voluntary behavior that violates significant organizational norms and in so doing threatens the well-being of an organization, its members, or both. This definition includes non serious (e.g. tardiness) as well as more serious types of workpalce deviance (e.g. theft of cash and harassment) (Robinson and Bennet, 1995). Trait Anger: Trait anger is described as a disposition to experience state anger overtime and context overtime (Speilberger, 1996). Negative affectivity: Negative affectivity reflects the extent to which individuals experience distressing emotions such as hostility, fear, and anxiety (Watson Clark, 1984). Job satisfaction: Job satisfaction reveals the degree to which an employee is content with their job as a whole and encompasses multiple aspects of ones job ranging from the work itself, the quality of interpersonal relationships, compensation and career advancement opportunities (Bruck, Allen Spector, 2002). Work Group Norms: Group Norms are informal rules that group adopts to regulate and regularize group members behavior (Fieldman, 1984). Organizational injustice: Three types of fairness perceptions: distributive, procedural, and interactional injustice. Judgements concerning distributive revolve around the employees evaluations of outcome fairness, that is, whether the individual has received a fair share of rewards given his or her relative contribution to a societal exchange (Adam, 1965). Distributive injustice typically refers to fairness evaluations regarding work outcomes such as pay, benefits, promotions, and so on. Procedural injustice includes judgments about the processes and procedures used to make decisions and to determine ones outcome (Greenberg, 1990, Lind Tyler, 1988). Chapter 2 Review of Literature 2.0 Introduction A large body of literature on the topics of workplace deviance and its antecedents provides will be reviewed in this chapter. An extensive search process was conducted by utilizing numerous database. This chapter will provide contemporary literature regarding workplace deviance as discussed in the previous chapter. 2.1 Workplace deviance Researchers have given these behaviors many different names including workplace deviance (Bennett and Robinson, 2003), counterproductive behavior (Mangione and Quinn, 1975), and antisocial behavior (Giacolone and Greenberg, 1997). In essence, behavior is deemed deviant when an organizations customs, policies, or internal regulations are violated by an individual or a group that may jeopardize the well-being of the organization or its citizens (Robinson and Bennett, 1995). This proposed study will used the definition of workplace deviance by Robinson and Bennett (1995) as voluntary behavior that violates significant organizational norms and in so doing threatens the well-being of an organization, its members, or both. Organizational norms in this definition assume a managerial orientation about expectations of employee behaviors without excluding adoption of this perspective by other employees. This definition also focuses on violations of norms that apply across a broad spectrum of employees, rather than violations of norms around specific duties. Employee deviance, then, consists of acts that violate norms encouraging respect for organizational property and norms that encourage respect for other individuals. Workplace deviance ranges from a milder forms, such as rudeness and tardiness, to more extreme forms, such as theft, workplace deviance is considered part of the performance domain (Rotundo Sackett, 2002; Sackett, 2002; Viswesvaran Ones, 2000). .Behaviors that have been identified as deviant in previous research include subtle expressions of rebellion (e.g., gossiping, taking unapproved breaks), as well as more aggressive actions (e.g., theft, verbal abuse; Robinson Bennett, 1995). Keashly, Trott, and MacLean (1994), in their study of abusive behavior in the workplace which is also a form of workplace deviance found that, found that all participants had experienced at least one incident of nonsexual, nonphysical abusive behavior. Relatedly, 32% of participants in Bjorkqvist, Osterman, and Hjelt-Backs (1994) study of harassment (also one of the forms of deviance) at work reported that they had observed others being mistreated. Workplace deviance can be divided further into two subcategories (Bennett Robinson, 2000; Robinson Bennett, 1995). The first category, referred to as interpersonal deviance, consists of acts that inflict harm upon individuals (e.g., verbal harassment, assault, spreading rumors). Organizational deviance is defined as acts directed against the company or its systems (e.g., sabotaging equipment, theft, wasting resources). The prevalence and costs of deviance in the workplace make its study imperative (Robinson and Lawrence, 2007). Psychological reactions to workplace deviance include feelings of depression and anxiety (Bjorkvist et al., 1994). Psychosocial problems (Kaukiainen, Salmivalli, Bjorkqvist, Osterman, Lahtinen, Kostamo, Lagerspetz, 2001); emotional exhaustion (OBrien Vandello, 2005; Tepper, 2000); life dissatisfaction (Tepper, 2000); and decrements in emotional well-being (LeBlanc Kelloway, 2002; Schat Kelloway, 2000), self-esteem, and self-confidence (Price Spratlen, 1995) are other psychological strains. Work-related psychological reactions are job dissatisfaction, work-to-family conflict, family-to-work conflict (Tepper, 2000), and decrements. in job-related affect (Schat Kelloway, 2003), normative commitment, and affective commitment (Tepper, 2000). Physical reactions include physical symptoms (Kaukiainen et al., 2001) and decrements in psychosomatic well-being (LeBlanc Kelloway, 2 002; Schat Kelloway, 2003). Due to the impact, workplace deviance has increasingly received researchers attention, in part because of the alarming statistics indicating its pervasiveness in the workplace. The financial and non financial costs associated with workplace deviance warrant attention from both researchers and practitioners. Much research attention has been given to the damaging effects of workplace deviance within organizations. However, as yet, little research has been conducted to try to understand whether and how the presence of workplace deviance is associated with a deterioration in public administration. Research regarding workplace deviance often investigates personality (e.g., Douglas and Martinko, 2001; Salgado, 2002) or situational (e.g. Greenhcrg, 1990; Skarlicki and Folger, 1997) predictors while neglecting the interaction between the personality and situational variables. Consistent with other research areas and calls to examine the joint influences of situational and individual variables on deviant workplace behavior (Sackett DeVore, 2001), some researchers have begun to empirically investigate interactionist hypotheses in the deviance literature (e.g., Colbert, Mount, Harter, Witt, Barrick; 2004, Henle, 2005). Colbert et al. (2004) noted that future research should examine the joint relationship of perceptions of the work situation and personality with both organizational and interpersonal deviance. As suggested by Mickaulay (2001) that understanding the independent effects of situational and individual variables may lead to more effective control of workplace deviance. Th erefore, this proposed research will look into the situation and personality as well as the interaction between the two as empirical research on this dynamic between the individual and situation has been limited (Mickaulay, 2001). 2.2 Individual and situational factors of workplace deviance Workplace deviance is influenced by situational as well as individual factors (Colbert et al., 2004; Douglas Martinko, 2001; Marcus Schuler, 2004). Individual factors may have a direct effect on workplace deviance. For example, Douglas and Martinko found that a combination of individual difference measures (e.g., trait anger, attribution style, and self-control) accounted for 62% of variance in self-reported workplace aggression which is also a form of workplace deviance (Tang et al., 2008). Other individual characteristics are related to workplace deviance (e.g., conscientiousness, agreeableness, and emotional stability; Colbert et al., 2004). Workplace deviance is also influenced by situational as well as individual factors (Colbert et al., 2004; Douglas Martinko, 2001; Marcus Schuler, 2004). Individual factors may have a direct effect on workplace deviance. .For example, Skarlicki et al. (1999) found that negative affectivity interacted with perceptions of distributive and interactional justice in the prediction of retaliatory behaviors. When situational factors investigate deviant behaviors, individual factors may amplify this effect (as in the case of trait anger; Hepworth Towler, 2004) (as in the case of self-control; Brown et al., 2005). Base on the above perspective on individual and situational variables towards workplace deviance, this study contributed to the workplace deviance literature by examining the importance of situation- and person-based explanations in addition to their interactions. Although many have advocated for an interactional approach to studying deviant work behaviors, few studies have done so (Henle, 2005). The organizational and social psychology literature demonstrate that individual differences constitute an important explanation for workplace deviance. However, it appears that workplace deviance cannot be attributed to individual traits alone. Langton et al. (2006) also assert that no single factor or theory that can account for each and every occurrence. For example, even an employee working in the same company and having the same demographic characteristics, are not both necessarily going to commit workplace deviants act. As such, Langton (2006) opined that there must be internal traits that predispose a worker to workplace deviance. It is also more likely that deviant behavior may be best predicted based on a combination of individual variables and the situational nature of the workplace situation (Peterson, 2002). For this research, individual variables (gender, trait anger and self control) and situational variables (job satisfaction, stress (work stress and general life stress ), work group norms and perceive justice) will be used as independent variables for this study. 2.3 Individual variables 2.3.1 Gender Various researchers had indicated that male tend to be more deviant behavior at work (Baron et al., 1999), absenteeism (Johns, 1997), theft (Hollinger and Clark, 1983), substance abuse (Hollinger, 1988), and vandalism (DeMore et al., 1988). Researchers also

Creativity in Adulthood :: Creative Creativity Essays

Creativity in Adulthood Creativity is a concept surrounded by a number of beliefs and misconceptions. People believe it is limited to only a few; it declines seriously with age; and it is associated primarily with uniqueness or innovation or "artists" (Adams-Price 1998; McCormick and Plugge 1997; Runco 1996). However, research shows that creative thinking is a universal ability that can help adults manage satisfying lives and that is increasingly in demand in the workplace. This Digest reviews some of this research in order to identify ways to help adults discover and fulfill their creative potential. Nature or Nurture? What is creativity? Torrance's definition is often cited: sensitivity to problems, deficiencies, and gaps in information; making guesses, formulating hypotheses; evaluating and testing; and communicating results (McCracken 1998). Creativity is a complex of traits, skills, and capacities, including the ability to work autonomously, curiosity, unconventional thinking, openness to experience, and tolerance of ambiguity (Adams-Price 1998; Albert 1996). Highly creative adults exhibit deep knowledge of and a strong bond with their subject matter, as well as intrinsic motivation (Amabile 1996; Keegan 1996). Creativity research has focused on personality traits of creative individuals (Amabile 1996). This emphasis has led to the assumptions that creativity is largely innate or immutable and creative people are distinct from noncreative people. Recently, more attention is being paid to social and environmental factors that influence creativity. Newer definitions describe creativity as the confluence of cognitive processes, knowledge, thinking style, personality, motivation, and environment over the life span (Adams-Price 1998; Sasser-Coen 1993). It is also associated with the creation of meaning and the drive for psychic wholeness ("Creativity in Later Life" 1991), a way to address and resolve dissatisfactions and improve the quality of life (Adams-Price 1998), and a "profound response to the limits and uncertainties of existence" ("Creativity in Later Life" 1991, p. 9). For some people, creativity is an adaptive, innovative response to environmental sources of distress such as early deat h of a parent or other family problems, misfortunes, or conflicts (Adams-Price 1998; Albert 1996), whereas in other people the coping mechanisms might be substance abuse, depression, or withdrawal (McCormick and Plugge 1997). A growing body of research is examining how environmental factors affect the creativity of men and women in different ways. For many women, creative expression is limited by their education and training, cultural standards, lack of social support, and traditional gender expectations. Pohlman (1996) finds that, for men, creative identity is balanced by the experience of parenthood; for women, the two roles conflict.

Do We Pay Athletes Too Much?

Do professional athletes get paid too much? In my personal opinion: No In this modern era this is an ethical issue that comes up more and more often. This has been brought up especially in times of economic hardship and the recession whereby families are really struggling to make ends meet with unemployment, delay of retirement and general reductions in disposable income. During this paper it shall be discussed how the ethical issue of high wages came about, why it is an issue, who is affected and what actions can be taken. Why is there this ethical problem?To put it simply, it is a matter of personal opinion and knowledge on whether you believe professional athletes in the United States should get paid the level of wages that they do. Below is a chart produced by Canbridge University which gives an introductory represenation of the salaries professional athletes earn annually. From June 2008 to June 2009, the highest paid professional athlete, Tiger Woods, made $110 million accordin g to Forbes. Also on their list, at number two, was Kobe Bryant making $45 million, and Michael Jordan with the same amount (and Michael Jordan hasn’t played in quite a while! . According to Forbes Magazine, the highest paying â€Å"regular† job in the U. S. during 2009 was that of a surgeon. The average annual pay of a surgeon last year was $206,770 (also out of Forbes). While the average pay for classroom teachers in the United States is $38,000 per year. At that rate, a teacher would need a little more than 27 years to make $1 million — less than half what a basketball player makes, on average, in just one year. The average pay for fire-fighters in the United States is around $40,000. The starting salary for police officers in the United States is around $29,000.Do athletes deserve more money than fire-fighters or teachers — people who hold what many consider being more valuable jobs? This is the basis of where this ethical problem comes about. Some pe ople work their entire life trying to make a living to support the families they have and have a very hard time trying to live near the poverty line. Some of the jobs they have to take to support their families are hard, manual labor jobs that they have to work at for 12 hours at a time. For example, adults that work in fast food estaurants usually work long days so they can make enough money to support a family, because minimum wage doesn’t go far in today’s world. Single parents usually work even harder than families that have two incomes helping to support them. The average professional football player gets paid almost $2 million and they’re not even the highest paid professional sport. Basketball players make the most out of all pro sports with the average salary being $5 million and the only thing they have to do is practice and play in games (FreeMoneyFinance).However it is rarely considered how much tax and good these athletes do in helping our economy. I n the banking business it is known as the ‘jock tax’ and when understood, people will not be so judgmental. For federal purposes, professional athletes are taxed in the same manner as other taxpayers: gross income less deductions equals taxable income. Federal tax is computed without regard to your state of residency (home state), or where the employer/team is located (team state). The current top federal tax rate is 35%, starting at taxable income of $319,101 (2004, single filing status) (ZZLR. om). Now to tax that level for an athlete that earns millions of dollars a year is creating some useful revenue for states and the government that no one can argue with. Another reason why athletes do not get overpaid is the wrong attitude that some people posses. For example people say, â€Å"Oh, I would hit a baseball for millions of dollars a year. † Well, I’m sorry you can’t. These athletes are unbelievably blessed with talent. All of these players have such immense and extraordinary ability that they make the game look effortless.In fact, good luck hitting a 96 MPH fastball moving down and in on your hands with a wood bat. If you were to put one of these players with a cluster of amateurs, they would stand out to such a degree, it would be astonishing. So, is nine months out of the year devoid of a vacation easy for you? Is travelling to different cities approximately every three days across the nation undemanding for you? Is being away from your family for most of the year trouble-free for you? Is hitting a 96 MPH fastball effortless for you? You are starting to deserve that pay check.People say it is just a game and athletes shouldn’t be paid so much. It is not just a game. Billions and billions of dollars get dumped into professional sports. In fact, professional sports are the 11th most lucrative business in the entire world (UPENN. EDU). It is a form of entertainment and people are willing to pay the big bucks to watch these athletes perform. If nobody came to watch, they wouldn’t get paid what they do. The fans pay the wages after all. In economical terms demand for high performing sports stars is high while there are a few numbers of them.This makes their wages high. Direct affect this issue applies to, of course, is professional athletes†¦ along with their respected affiliated clubs/teams who pay their salaries. In certain examples such as that of soccer team Manchester City, which runs with a loss, is kept afloat by a Middle Eastern royal family so in that case they pay player’s wages. Indirectly effected parties include those who contribute to the funding of high wages. Examples of these include supporters going to games, television networks paying licence fees, the public paying for cable to watch the games.One of the options discussed would be to cut player’s salaries. Now this could have profound consequences for many directly and indirectly involved. Firstly, th e quality of sportsman would diminish. This is a general mental happening that when you reduce a person’s reward for something, more often than not, they will reduce their work ethic consequently. The knock on affect of this would be that people would then find sports less entertaining which is a social consequence as people need entertainment.After this it would probably be assumed that this industry that employs millions of people, the 11th largest industry in business, could start to struggle with the consequential fall in demand†¦ due to a fall in quality. People would indirectly be affected as the level of taxation that these athletes would drop and consequently affect the economy negatively not to mention the reduced spending the economy would see as they would have less disposable income. This would affect other people through job s and welfare.For example, if a professional footballer does not buy a boat in Florida then the company who makes the boat would lose o ut. Welfare wise, the federal governments would have less money to put towards benefits to help those less fortunate. Similar to this charities would find themselves losing out also as the athletes would probably donate less as they would have less wealth to offer. This would, again, influence people negatively. To partly reduce this ethical dilemma however it can be seen that wage caps could be introduced.These have been introduced in major competitions including: NFL, NHL, English Rugby Union and NBA. However there are pros and cons to the idea. For example, the  NBA salary cap  is the limit to the total amount of money that  National Basketball Association  teams are allowed to pay their players. It is defined by the  league's collective bargaining agreement  (CBA). The actual amount of the  salary cap  varies on a year-to-year basis, and is calculated as a percentage of the league's revenue from the previous season; for instance, in  2007–08, the NBA's s alary cap was approximately US$55.   million per team, and for the  2008–09  season it was $58. 68  million (NBA. com). Now, before it is discussed how the cap could be deemed pointless, it must be considered that if this system is done properly then wages would not go above and beyond relative figures when considering a leagues income. If a league sees more demand (television rights, franchise, etc) and therefore gains more revenue then it should be passed onto the players, surely. The issue here is that the actual problem of high wages is not stopped†¦ only in certain situations capped.To put across this point, in all but one season the revenue of NBA has been reduced. The reaction to this is that wages have also, in respect, gone up in a positive correlation. In conclusion, it is well documented that NBA stars are one of the best paid sports people in the business, even with a salary cap. The cap itself only stops certain individuals received ludicrous deals r elative to the rest of the industry and does not mean the average wage would not still be high. Again, there is the demand to watch these athletes and the result of this is the money that is made from that demand sustains high wages.It is basic economics. In terms of punishment for breaking of the salary caps, at the moment, only include fines. Examples of this include in 2012 where the Cowboys will be penalized $10 million, paying $5 million a year for two years. The Redskins penalty is much harsher at $36 million ($18 million a year for two years). While the Cowboys are unlikely to feel that much of a pinch, the penalty puts the Redskins in a world of hurt. That $18 million a year is significant money. The Redskins have a decent amount of young talent. Those not already signed to deals may be lost.Tight end Fred Davis, a burgeoning star, is on a one-year contract. And Kory Lichtensteiger, a left guard, may not be a Pro Bowler, but he’s worth keeping around. He is also on a one-year  deal (forbes. com). Personally, if I was a leader of an organization who had power over such an ethical issue such as a governing body or the government itself I do not believe I would enforce or change anything at present. In fact, the idea of a salary cap is off putting. I believe strongly that if an individual is worth a sum of money to a team that is natural in a market situation, i. . he can generate that revenue back for the team and the demand for him/her is there then why shouldn’t they get paid that money. Regardless of whether they save lives or not the quality of their labor is just as important. Perhaps not on a life-saving level however in terms of entertaining millions of people after thousands of hours of practise I believe to pay high wages is natural in the business environment professional athletes find themselves. Citations Badenhausen, Kurt. Top 100 paid athletes. N. p. : Forbes, 2012. Web. 27 Nov. 2012. ;http://www. forbes. om/sites/kurtbadenh ausen/2012/06/18/mayweather-tops-list-of-the-worlds-100-highest-paid-athletes/;. NBA. NBA salary cap. N. p. : NBA. com, 2008. N. pag. Web. 27 Nov. 2012. ;http://www. nba. com/news/salarycap_070710. html;. â€Å"Salaries of Professional Athletes. †Ã‚  FreeMoneyFinance. N. p. , 2006. Web. 10 Jan 2012. ;http://www. freemoneyfinance. com/2006/09/salaries_of_ave. html;. Cambridge University. Pros paid too much? Cambridge: Cambridge University, 2011. N. pag. Web. 27 Nov. 2012. ;http://www. cambridge. org/other_files/downloads/esl/strageticreading/6843_SRL1_U04_P09. 1_sport. pdf;. UPENN. Where's the business in sport? Philladelphia: University of Pennsylvania, n. d. Web. 27 Nov. 2012. . Zeisler, Zeisler, Rawson & Johnson LLP. Taxes: Cost of being a professional athlete. N. p. : ZZLRJ. com, 2011. N. pag. Web. 27 Nov. 2012. . Salary Cap Penalties. N. p. : Forbes, 2012. Web. 27 Nov. 2012. .