Sociology

The main goal of this paper is to contemplate the issue of gender differences in communication connected with and resulting from poor organizational communication at different levels at companies. The examination of specific scholarly works will allow a deeper understanding of the problem and at least theoretical backgrounds for its possible solutions. It is fair to admit that this question is a very serious one and statistics state that nowadays more and more people suffer from burnout at their workplace. They may tend to strive for showing their worth and setting at stake their time and life. So, it is evident that burnout is a very serious problem for many employed people – almost for all of them. And insofar as burnout is the topic for our discussion, it is necessary to define it. It is characterized by a lack of motivation and emotional exhaustion. Previously scholars tended to believe that burnout is the condition from which only suffer those employees work with people. But lately, it has been proved that any employee working in any field may become the victim of this stressful condition. Understandably, any job may become stressful at some point, and it is known that work may make people happy if they enjoy it, and otherwise may make them ill if they are not satisfied with something at their workplace.

To understand the reasons for burnout it is necessary to contemplate the factors which contribute to this stressful condition. These factors are not surprisingly related to the job. They include unclear or impossible requirements demanded of employees, stressful times (without any downtime) when people are required to work in more strict or difficult conditions, serious consequences of failure (if it happens an employee may for instance stand trial) (West and Turner 2006). Also, there may be a lack of personal control (and thus inability to operate at least a little independently) or lack of recognition (in cases of successful projects) as well as a poor compensation for achievements (which influences motivation negatively) and, finally, poor leadership (when employees feel underappreciated). All these factors can easily be assembled into a single group entitled organizational communication. All these types of factors involve two participants and their co-operation (or lack of it) in the process of work, and thus the co-operation implies communication (Gamble and Gamble 2002).

And while everything in organizations can be entitled ‘exchange’ – an exchange of time and efforts (on the part of employees) for salaries and different benefits (on the part of the organizations), employees often devote more time than required or stated in their contracts to their organizations. And what is striking, is the fact that these employees do not always receive decent compensation for their work. Hence burnout develops. Thus, it is necessary for the employers to pay more attention to their employees and to grant them more compensation and praise if their input in the success of their organization is significant (Severin and Tankard 2000). On the other hand, lack of recognition and rewards may influence employees’ attitude towards work negatively, productive work will fall away in employees’ interest, and burnout will develop. And while supportive communication may benefit employees’ psychological condition as well as their job performance, unsupportive communication can cause burnout the same as lack of recognition. This opinion has been developed and proved when researchers discovered that defensive communication as a low-quality relationship between employers and employees may easily contribute to the development of burnout (Ivy and Backlund 2007).

Non-verbal communication influence the unique personal image of the speaker, his cultural and social differences. Eye contact and facial expression help me to establish contact with another person and express my emotions. I use direct eye contact which reflects honesty and credibility. Eye contact and smile express an open and honest approach. Smiling people are perceived as more intelligent than those who do not smile. In contrast to men, women do not use vigorous hand gestures and greater movement. My gestures and body posture reflect that I am a calm and restrained person (Littlejohn and Foss 2007).

In the workplace, women pay special attention to dress and furnishing. Clothing is highly symbolic, which is why many organizations are so concerned with it. Modesty is an expectation in my organization and the unwritten dress codes set the standards. Women follow the dress code and avoid bright colors and high heels. In the workplace, the chairs are arranged so the desks become a barrier between the employees. Open spaces do leave people vulnerable to numerous distractions because of competing stimuli. In my workplace, I pay special attention to the disposal of files and other instrumentations on my desk. I suppose it shows that I am an accurate and responsible person able to manage my workplace. In contrast to some employees, Women do have personal photographs or other personal things on my desk. Women do not talk loud but try to speak clearly and accurately to avoid ambiguity and mispronunciation of words (Ivy and Backlund 2007).

The vocal tone makes people more likely to listen to us. Usually, I use a conversational voice which is more attractive for listeners and allows me to establish contact with a listener at once. Many men prefer to keep silent while another person is speaking and use gestures or eye contact to express their approval or disapproval of his/her words. People are seen as more attractive by listeners if the sender speaks at a more rapid rate. Thus, non-verbal communication depends on context, situations, and conversation topics. Space, colors, decorative style, and furniture reflect the personality of the owner and his unique vision of the world (Ivy and Backlund 2007).

As the goal of this paper is to consider the issue of organizational communication ad employees’ satisfaction and their burnout with the help of scholar journal articles, the following articles are to be viewed hereinafter. Before discussing the issues covered in this article, it would be good to distinguish the following. It is known that burnout may be caused by any type of job, but psychologically it is always more difficult to work with people than with papers or machines. Each client or care recipient has his or her own character, opinions and attitudes, which may not correspond with accepted rules. In this case work causes a lot of stress for there is a necessity to get on the right side of every person an employee works with. The same may be said about school counselors whose burnout at work may result in poor services, psychological exhaustion and even depression. School counselors have to manage a lot during their work days, their duties are multiple and they cannot make mistakes – their decisions are to be right. Thus, the authors, Ivy and Backlund (207) devoted their study to contemplating the factors which may cause stress and burnout in school counselors in order to help people of this occupation deal with their problems and perform better even in stressful situations. In their research the authors contemplated three factors, to which burnout was correlated in school counselor job. Among them were demographic variables (setting, gender, division level), intrapersonal variables (relationship between the personality of a school counselor and his or her job satisfaction, as well as ego development to name a few), and organizational variables (role conflict and role ambiguity). While we are interested in organizational factors, they can be viewed in more detail. According to Miller (2004) questioned administrators stated that their confusion concerning what is expected from them in their job. Consequently, this is the sign of poor communication of counselors’ duties of the office. And it is known that when duties are not well-defined, this problem is entitled to unclear demands, and may cause serious stress for an employee who is unable to perform well because of a lack of knowledge as for what is required. But the most significant influence was a result of emotional work – when counselors deal with problems on the basis and with the help of their feelings – in such cases, the level of stress is higher, and burnout is almost inevitable (Ivy and Backlund 2007).

Many factors may cause stress and burnout at the workplace, poor communication of duties and a lot of tasks to be accomplished among them. But it is an emotional state and attitude of counselors which may result in higher levels of burnout in their job. Thus (and this conclusion may apply to other professions as well), coping with their stress and emotions may help counselors avoid burnout. But this requires special training. They contemplate employees’ performance and their attitudes towards their work from the angle of different ways of communication in their organizations. According to the authors, there exist three communication-related outcomes which influence employees’ performance and results of their operation: these are communication load, interdepartmental communication, and job satisfaction. All these three factors were discussed with employees and associated with their experiences at work in distinct periods (Miller, 2004).

Among other factors, time management has to be paid serious attention to, and it is evident that strict time frames for performing certain tasks as well as possessing enough time for each task (without time pressures). And it is necessary to mention as well, that delay in performing the duties may be a result of communication load – too much information for one person to process and make use of (Miller, 2004). Consequently, managers are supposed to pay more attention to the tasks they give and to the formulation of the duties for the employees to understand well what is required, to manage their duties well, and progress in their performance but not lag behind the schedule and feel stressed because of it (Littlejohn and Foss 2007).

People are ready to work better and to respond to the supervisors’ requirements in a more productive way if they understand that the attitudes towards them are positive and that managers are open for communication (Littlejohn and Foss 2007). The study on gender differences may be useful for our study because we may understand and conclude that communication plays an important role in employees’ satisfaction, while poor communication and the inability of managers to communicate with employees may cause stress and burnout. Thus, the conclusion can be made from everything said above that communication is a very important factor for employees’ to be satisfied with their jobs. Communication can have different manifestations – from directions as for the duties to relational communication between employees or employees and leaders, as well as defensive communication, and employers and managers have to do their best not only to communicate well with employees but to offer them proper training to be ready for stressful situations to be able to cope with them and avoid burnout (Miller, 2004).

An additional distinction is worth making here, between what women may say about themselves, and what women’s use of language may reveal about themselves. An example of the first is the speaker who tells an audience that she has thoroughly examined the issues and has weighed matters carefully. Editing for conciseness is thus sensibly done before turning to word choice because it will help to avoid changing words that would only be deleted later. Once this is completed, the writer can turn full attention to selecting the best words to convey a particular message to a particular reader. How difficult this can be is well expressed by the New Yorker cartoon in which a writer sitting at a table has to his left a thesaurus and to his right a loaded revolver. Although word choice is not as dangerous as the cartoon would suggest, it is still not easy. Particularly in business, where increasing diversity and multiple readers simply increase the chances that one will be misunderstood, word choice is a matter that must be managed with great care. However, these changes can be reduced if writers become familiar with four kinds of problems that are prevalent in the writing of working professionals: jargon, cliché, abstraction, and euphemism (Wood, 2003).

Usually described as the specialized or technical language of a specific profession or group, jargon becomes problematic when it is used outside of its particular community of writers or speakers. Because jargon is the language of the specialist, it can usually be identified by its source, particularly when it is imported from easily recognized professions or fields. For example, the word “interface” qualifies as jargon since it can be easily traced to a particular field of specialization: computing. Used outside this field, “interface” can cause considerable confusion because it has no agreed-upon meaning. Here is a good example of not very good usage: abstract words are overused, but unlike clichés, abstract words are always nonspecific. The best way to understand the problems abstraction produces is by understanding abstract language. The ladder of abstraction is wonderful device linguists use to describe and explain abstract language, or language that refers to more things than the writer intends. Writers will do well to avoid euphemisms at all other times. The four problem areas — jargon, cliché, abstraction, and euphemism — present mistakes made in ineffectiveness. In addition to these are mistakes of correctness. Mistakes of correctness are misapplications of information contained in “good” dictionaries and “authoritative” usage manuals. Because of this, a few words about dictionaries and usage manuals should help in understanding the misapplications that will follow.

In sum, gender differences in communication are evident in the verbal and non-verbal processes. The current study in gender differences in communication is devoted to contemplation and connection between leadership and employees’ job satisfaction. If we view the study in more detail we will see that the author has proved that leaders’ communication competence tends to influence employees’ job and communication satisfaction positively. Thus, as a result of a study, the conclusions were made, that proper relational and task-oriented behaviors of leaders in organizations resulted in more satisfaction on the part of employees.

Introduction

Every time the word ‘violence’ is mentioned, a number of things might come into one’s mind. Some might picture an individual being murdered, some might picture one being beaten up by either an individual or a gang while others might picture a woman being raped or children being sexually abused by adults (Adler & Denmark, 1995). In most cases, they are not wrong. Violence does come in different forms and it is the degree of it which creates the difference. Almost 30% of families all around the world have experienced and are still experiencing violence in the family in the last 15 years (Ibid, 1995).

Unfortunately, the most commonly affected parties to family violence are women and children. This has manifested itself in form of either verbal abuse, sexual abuse, financial abuse or psychological abuse (Gunby, 2007). The society in general tends to ignore this fact and turns a blind eye to the rapidly increasing cases of violence in the family. It has also come to view the incident as the norm of the day, concluding that nothing can be done to improve the issue or curb the dangerous problem.

Present society has forgotten that those affected, many of whom are children and young adults, are the future of tomorrow, hence what happens to them today will definitely affect the future (Jaffe, et al., 1992). The children who should be nurtured in love and care are the same ones who are witnessing their mothers being abused by their fathers and they themselves falling victims to violence in the family (Gunby, 2007). Family violence has taken a deep root in present day society and no one is to blame apart from the community itself.

Essay Discussion

People often always confuse family violence with domestic violence. Though both of them occur in the matrimonial home and have the same effect on children, they are also slightly different (Jaffe, et al., 1992).

Domestic violence is whereby the resulting effect is injury to the person involved, that is, it is often physical for instance assault (Adler & Denmark, 1995). This is mostly common between spouses, though more often than not, children are in the end caught in between. Since majority of individuals rarely report cases of domestic abuse, it is difficult to establish just how common domestic violence is. But the fact is that it does affect individuals of all levels of education and income, regardless of their age (Ibid, 1995). There is no distinctive victim in domestic violence.

More often than not domestic violence tends to be ignored or denied by the community especially when the damages are more psychological than physical. Even though emotional abuse is on the minimum, long term and deep scars are often left with the victim (Lund & Miller, 1985). The main reason why domestic violence occurs is for the sole purpose of gaining control over the intended victim. Use of shame, fear, intimidation and also guilt is present to ensure maintenance of total control over the victim (Adler & Denmark, 1995). There is no discrimination in domestic violence and the abuser might go to an extent of abusing those close to the intended victim. Despite women and children being commonly victimised in domestic violence, men also fall prey to it by either being verbally, financially or emotionally abused (Gunby, 2007).

On the other hand, family violence does not always result to physical injury but is mostly verbal, emotional as well as psychological. In this case, woman abuse is often a sing of child abuse (Jaffe, et al., 1992). Family violence is mostly spousal and unfortunately children also fall victim directly or indirectly.

In most societies around the world there is a common myth believed by individuals that children are not usually aware that their mother is being abused, so they are not affected. The truth of the matter is that even though the society tends to turn their backs on the matter, children are the most affected in cases of family violence (Lund & Miller, 1985). Violence is more a learned behaviour than an inborn one hence those children who have experienced or witnessed violence in the family may learn to repeat the patterns as adults (Gunby, 2007). Male children who have witnessed their mothers being assaulted have a higher chance of battering or abusing their female partners once they become adults.

Institutions as well as schools have also bore the brunt of family violence in that those children hailing from such families more often than not engage in violent acts, are enraged and act out their frustrations on their fellow schoolmates and workmates (Adler & Denmark, 1995). This sometimes is also extended to animals and authority figures.

Being the foundation for a number of community’s social problems, family violence is the main drain on domestic economy and as long as people do not ask, those being victimised will not and cannot speak out on what is going on at home (Lund & Miller, 1985). Those children who have either witnessed or experiences family violence in the end suffer stress disorders, low self esteem as well as develop feelings of being totally powerless. On the other hand, those women who are abused may turn to alcohol and other drugs for relief and in the process become alcoholics and drug addicts (Jaffe, et al., 1992). The abused women might also develop mental or emotional illness thus rendering them incapable of fulfilling their parental responsibilities. Children of battered mothers are at a higher risk of sexually acting out, becoming alcoholics, isolating themselves from the world, running away from home as well as committing suicide or having suicidal thoughts (Ibid, 1992).

There are a number of behaviours normally associated with children who have either witnessed or experienced violence in the family. They include insomnia (being tired often and finding it difficult to fall asleep), nail biting, bed wetting or ulcers, hair pulling, nightmares, anxiety, temper tantrums, depression, low self esteem, suicidal ideation as well as fear of being touched (Gunby, 2007). Children brought up in violent settings usually take up adult responsibility that more often than not delay their emotional and physical development. They also develop poor definitions of values and self whereas emotional abuse results to fostering of powerlessness and confusion (Ibid, 2007). Children are therefore very much aware that their mothers are being abused and often become a part of it hence are greatly affected.

Those children living under chaotic environments normally try to protect the victim in this case their mothers and as a result are used by both parents against each other (Jaffe, et al., 1992). They then tend to feel ashamed and guilty thus isolating themselves from other family members as well as their peers. They fail to understand the reason as to why the two people they love the most are hurting (Ibid, 1992). The effects of children from violent families often extend to school in that they have incredible difficulty in studying. They are unable to fully concentrate in class or complete assignments thus performing poorly academically (Gunby, 2007). In other cases those children may try to compensate for their unfavourable home environments by becoming over achievers or by solely concentrating on one main activity for instance sports or academics (Ibid, 2007).

With the current family situation of parents being too busy as well as too involved in violence towards each other to pay proper attention to their children, grandparents in some cases find themselves charged with the responsibility of bringing up their children’s children (Lund & Miller, 1985). In homes with family violence, children might be sent to live with their uncles, aunts or grandparents until their own parents try and resolve their family issues. This leads to the children becoming more isolated and depressed.

Recent studies have revealed that among the 50% to 70% of cases of family violence, the children are also abused physically by their parents (Adler & Denmark, 1995). Chances of repeated violent behavioural patterns by the children once they become adults are also very high. An example is given of an abuser who had threatened to go to a shelter in North Florida and not only to kill his intended victim but also anyone else who would stand in his way (Jaffe, et al., 1992). Upon investigation and questioning the abuser, it was revealed that the reason why he had known the location of the shelter was because as a child he lived there after his mother ran away from home.

In refugee camps almost 90% of the children are said to have witnessed family violence while 50% have been physically abused (Gunby, 2007). Despite the common myth that children are not aware of family violence and are thus not affected, they are intimately involved with it. They usually witness or hear it. The beatings received by their mothers occur to punctuation of their cries as well as screams from being frightened (Lund & Miller, 1985). In cases where both caregivers are involved, conflicts often arise between the child’s loyalty towards the victim (mother) and the assailant (father). These children normally grow up knowing that violence is part and parcel of a close sexual relationship between adults hence carry this belief into their own marriages (Adler & Denmark, 1995). They also tend to accept violence from their partners as well as friends. Those children who only hear violence in the family are affected as much as those who witness it.

Just like domestic violence, family violence originated from one spouse wanting to gain or have total control over the other (Jaffe, et al., 1992). This is often demonstrated through verbal abuse, psychological and emotional abuse. On very rare incidences does it result to physical injury (Adler & Denmark, 1995).

Unfortunately due to the society’s ignorance and neglect of the issue a common myth has emerged to try and cover up family violence. The community has come to believe that children in violent families are often not aware hence are not affected. This has in turn led to a number of repercussions in terms of community response and practise. Debunking is whereby pretence and falseness concerning a certain issue is exposed (Adler & Denmark, 1995). Debunking of this common myth has tried to be implemented in the society but since those who fall victim to it rarely report it, the community fails to respond to family violence as required (Lund & Miller, 1985). The community is also not well educated on the dangers of family violence towards children and what it can result in presently as well as in the future.

Family violence dates back as far as the early 1970s where during that time the very first shelter for battered women was established, followed shortly by many others (Jaffe, et al., 1992). It is important and should be considered as a priority for the community to give out a clear message to individuals who commit family violence that their behaviour is not and cannot be tolerated. Those affected by family and domestic violence may be hesitant in reporting cases of violence to the police (Gunby, 2007). This in turn makes it difficult for both the law enforcers and community to respond appropriately and curb the rising menace.

Another repercussion resulting from family violence is the increase of violent crimes for instance murder. This occurs when the battered woman decides to act out in an attempt to end the abuse (Adler & Denmark, 1995). Not all forms of family violence are a violation of the law and in such cases the community fails to practise its neighbourly duties of being a brother’s keeper as it were. The rise in family violence is as a result of negligence on the community’s part (Lund & Miller, 1985).

In the recent past, many theories have been raised in trying to establish how family violence really occurs. They include social theories which emphasises mostly on external factors for instance stress and family structure and psychological theories which mainly consider personality traits as well as mental status of the abuser (Jaffe, et al., 1992). The social theory indicates that family violence occurs in instances where one of the spouses develops a desire for control as well as power in the relationship (Ibid, 1992). The spouse thus resorts to assault as a way of acquiring what he desires. He does this through threats, intimidations and battery, often extending it to the children. The social theory also suggests that family violence is as a result of the abuser feeling inferior and powerless thus projecting it externally through abuse (Gunby, 2007).

If family violence was not debunked, it would seem that we as a community would still remain ignorant of the issue. More and more women and children would fall victim to family violence with each passing day and the rate of crime such as murder would rapidly escalate (Adler & Denmark, 1995). No effort would be made by local government in trying to educate as well as provide adequate information on the issue of family violence to help the community control the menace (Jaffe, et al., 1992).

Conclusion

In order to curb the family violence menace, the community needs to introduce crisis intervention as well as counselling centres. This will help in showing the spouses ways of coping with stress or feelings of inferiority in a way that would not result in any abuse or violence. Local government should also offer its services to help with legal issues as concerns family violence.

In this way, women and children will be protected and thus the myth that children are unaware of occurrence of family violence, hence are not affected will be a thing of the past.

References

Adler, L. L. & Denmark, F. L., (Eds.) (1995) Violence and the Prevention of Violence. Westport. Ct: Praeger Publishers.

Gunby, P. (2007) The Abused Youngster in Twilight Years. Medical News; Vol. 241 (1). pp. 18 – 19.

Jaffe, P. G., Sudermann, M., and Reitzel, D. (1992) Child Witnesses of Marital Violence. In Assessment of Family Violence: Clinical and Legal Courtbook, Eds.: Ammernand, R. T. & Hersen. M. Wiley. New York.

Lund, D., Feinhauer, L., and Miller, J. (1985) Living Together: Grandparents and Children tell their Problems. Journal of Gerontological Nursing; Vol. 11 (11). pp. 29 – 33.

Introduction

Most women experience some form of sexual violence as part of their daily reality. Even if this does not take the extreme form of rape, beatings, and murder, there is the ever-present threat of assault implicit in the sexual comments and gestures in the streets and at work. The media, advertising, and the widespread circulation of sexist literature and pornography create a climate that encourages sexual violence and harassment by objectifying women.

Forms of violence

Violence against women can assume many forms, physical and sexual, financial, verbal, and psychological/emotional. Physical violence includes not only actual assaults but also the threat of violence that limits women’s actions and behavior. Sexual abuse can include humiliating or degrading comments or jokes, unwanted touching or fondling, through to demands for sex, rape, and causing injury during sex. Financial abuse can involve male breadwinners not giving their female partners enough money for food, health, and housing or the threat of financial insecurity which is used to keep women trapped in violent situations. Women who have been full-time carers and out of the workforce for a long period may face unemployment or employment with low pay, it is uncommon for women to maintain their material standard of living after leaving a marriage or de facto relationship. Verbal abuse includes ‘put-downs, derogatory comments, persistent claims that a woman is incompetent, unattractive, inferior, etc. Verbal abuse also consists of actual threats of assault. (Berry, 175-90) Psychological/emotional abuse often comes from prolonged verbal abuse that destroys women’s self-esteem but can also include the prolonged threat of violence and social isolation. Violence against women is not just carried out by individual males against individual women. The State not only condones violations against the rights of women it perpetuates them. In the past, it did this directly by legalizing wife-beating and by placing the responsibility for rape onto the victim. Indirectly the state aids in the powerlessness of women by not providing adequate, affordable child-care, allocating insufficient welfare payments to single mothers, and under-valuing work that is traditionally female. These particular manifestations of violence against women are situated on a larger continuum of socially inflicted violence, which includes concerted, systematic violations of women’s economic and political rights.

Wood generally considers feminine problems she also, on the other hand, includes issues facing men as well. Even if men are not considered as the “ultimate” exploited gender in some fields of life they are subjugated. (Wood, 113) Wood is exact about the thought that gender prospects are principally predisposed by culture. Julia Wood takes every probability she can to affront and disparage men. The only men she will recognize constructively are those who have markedly “feminine” traits. (Wood, 54) Many feminists may discover this inspirational and validating, but it does little to promote better interaction or communiqué with members of the opposite sex. Wood is culpable of the same unpleasant attacks on men that she depicts as an occurrence to women.

Dominant pornographic imagery

Although pornography may not be responsible for creating violence against women it should take some blame for encouraging it by creating such disparate images of men and women and by the objectification of women’s bodies. (Cuklanz, 12-15) Dominant pornographic imagery is a problem not because it creates instant rapists but rather because it is one aspect of the continuous social construction of polarized images of women and men, pornography inevitably does play a part in constructing a dominant form of masculinity that fears and abuses women, and a dominant form of femininity which expects mastery from men.

Pornography depicts women as a vagina and breasts surrounded by an insignificant body, as waiting for receptacles for semen. Pornography does typically encapsulate all that is most distressing and depressing in the portrayal of women’s bodies in our own culture: women become sexual commodities, usable, disposable, and endlessly available for the titillation of men. Today’s feminist activism to male violence against women revolves around keeping steadily defunded services like refuges, health centers, and rape crisis centers functioning. Reclaim the Night marches continue to attract large numbers of women around the country and keep the violence experienced by women on the agenda and in people’s consciousness.

Conclusion

Like the battering of women in the home, rape is primarily a social problem, rooted in centuries of male predominance and in the links our society has fostered between property, sex, and violence. (Renzetti, 234-40) The problem cannot be tackled effectively unless changes are made in the social conditions that encourage violence and keep women in an inferior position. Sexual violence against women is about power, not sex. Until the power imbalance between men and women has been eradicated all women will experience violence or the constant reminder of it.

References

Berry, Dawn Bradley. Domestic Violence Sourcebook: Everything You Need to Know. Los Angeles: Lowell House, 1998.

Cuklanz, Lisa M. Rape on Prime Time: Television, Masculinity, and Sexual Violence. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania, 2000.

Renzetti, Claire M. Sourcebook on Violence Against Women. Thousand Oaks: Sage Publications, 2001.

Wood, Julia T. Gendered Lives: Wadsworth Publishing; 7th edition (2006).

Thesis Statement: Under certain circumstances, physician-assisted suicide can be both morally and ethically acceptable.

Introduction

The debate about physician-assisted death thus far has been clouded by imprecise, sometimes inflammatory use of language. The descriptive term “physician-assisted death” includes both physician-assisted suicide and voluntary active euthanasia. It emphasizes the physician’s role as an assistant to an action initiated by the patient. Doctors “killing” patients are technically correct, but it incorrectly suggests a physician-driven act and brings out uneasy visions of the Holocaust, in which a vicious abuse of physician power was used to systematically exterminate those who were deemed to be socially unworthy. (Ondrey, 2006) Nothing could be further from the intent of those who favor a limited reconsideration of public policy in the areas of assisted suicide and voluntary active euthanasia. Physicians are reluctant partners in assisted dying, motivated by the compassion they feel toward suffering patients who request their help and have no good alternatives.

The different kinds of suicide

Suicide is defined as the intentional taking of one’s own life, but its multilayered meaning emerges in a second definition which includes the self-destruction of one’s interests. In the medical literature, suicide is almost always viewed as an act of despair and self-destructiveness, the outgrowth of untreated depression and impaired rational thought. (Derek, 2007) Suicide in that context is something to be prevented, and physicians’ appropriate role is to use all their resources, including enforced hospitalization if necessary, to help patients regain their will to live. (Dowbiggin, 2002)

Suicide in the context of end-stage medical illness associated with irreversible suffering that can only end in death can have a different meaning. Many believe that suicide under such circumstances can be rational—it is hard to judge the wish for an end to intolerable suffering that can only end in death as irrational. Under such tragic circumstances, death can sometimes provide the only relief. The only question is, how much more one must endure until it comes. Yet, because patients with such severe medical conditions are usually sad if not clinically depressed, it can at times be difficult to determine whether emotional responses to their illnesses are distorting their decision-making. (Mcdougall, 2007) If there is any question that depression or other mental illness is coloring the patient’s judgment, then consultation by an experienced psychiatrist or psychologist is necessary to understand the full implications of an incurably ill patient’s request for assisted death.

In “assisted suicide,” a patient is still carrying out his act, but he is indirectly helped by an “assistant.” When the assistant is motivated by compassion for an incurably ill patient who clearly and repeatedly requests help, the act can be ethical and moral, if not legal. If the assistant is motivated by greed, or if there is uncertainty about the rationality or motivation behind the patient’s request, then the act of assistance becomes immoral, unethical, as well as illegal. (Ondrey, 2006) There is the little case-based legal definition for what kind of compassionate “assistance” might be considered illegal. For example, a physician might prescribe a potentially lethal supply of medication, along with information about what dose would be lethal and what dose would be medicinal. There the physician’s intention could be explicitly to give the patient the option of taking her own life, or it might be more ambiguous. (“Don’t take all of them or it could kill you.”) Do we want dying patients to have such information and choice, or should we perhaps protect them from themselves by depriving them of potent medication that might be used to take their own lives? It is very difficult to prosecute doctors successfully in the face of such ambiguity, especially if they are motivated by compassion for their terminally ill patients rather than self-interest. (Derek, 2007)

Many dying patients often have potentially lethal doses of medication at home that are being used to treat their symptoms. To withhold such medicine because of an abstract fear of suicide would be immoral and in violation of fundamental principles of comfort care. Unfortunately, some physicians continue to under-medicate potentially treatable symptoms of dying patients, in part out of vague fears about patient suicide, but probably as significantly by their fear of legal or professional investigation should their patient take an overdose. If the patient is suffering from a reversible depression that is distorting her judgment, then caution and conservatism must be exercised until the distortion is resolved. Yet undertreating a dying patient’s symptoms because of unsubstantiated fears about liability is unfortunately quite legal, though unethical and immoral.

Assisted suicide and the law

No physician or a family member has ever been convicted of assisting in the suicide of a severely ill patient with intractable suffering. Such acts appear to be looked upon by juries as acts of compassion not intended to be covered by the law. Yet the laws exist, and the threat of professional or legal repercussions is severe enough to prohibit many doctors from assisting their patients even when they consider the patients’ requests rational and compelling. These laws perpetuate and exaggerate the power differences between vulnerable patients and their physicians, and put patients’ fates more than ever at the discretion of their physicians.

In physician-assisted suicide, the patient commits the final act herself. The physician’s participation is indirect, and there can always be a reasonable doubt about the intention as long as the prescribed drug has other medicinal uses. Laws that indirectly promote loneliness and abandonment at death should be carefully reconsidered to ensure that they don’t have the unintended effect of further isolating and disempowering rather than protecting the dying person (Mcdougall, 2007).

Euthanasia is defined as the act of painlessly putting to death a person who is suffering from an incurable, painful disease or condition. Its definition suggests a quiet and easy death—a “good death.” Euthanasia is equated by some with “mercy killing,” and its mention raises worries about involuntary killing and progressive disregard for human life. (Dowbiggin, 2002) For others, the images of a painless escape from extreme suffering into death offer the promise of more compassionate and humane options for the dying. Unlike assisted suicide, where the legal implications have yet to be fully clarified, euthanasia is illegal in all states in the United States and likely to be vigorously prosecuted. It is also illegal in all other countries, though in the Netherlands it is explicitly left unprosecuted provided that specific guidelines are met.

“Voluntary” And “Involuntary” Euthanasia

Several distinctions are of critical importance in a serious discussion about euthanasia. The first is “voluntary” versus “involuntary,” and the second is “active” versus “passive.” “Voluntary” euthanasia means that the act of putting the person to death is the result of the person’s own free will. Consideration of voluntary euthanasia as an option, and the request for its use, must emanate from the patient and no one else. The patient’s rational thought processes must not be distorted by depression or other sources of cognitive impairment. Unlike assisted suicide, where the physician provides the means for the patient to subsequently use, in euthanasia the physician is the direct agent of death. (Gorsuch, 2006) Although voluntary euthanasia can potentially be as humane and morally justifiable as assisted suicide, it puts the physician in a very powerful position. Many physicians and policymakers feel great trepidation because of the potential for abuse (e.g., physician-initiated euthanasia on incompetent patients or in ambiguous situations) or error (e.g., the patient changing her mind at the last minute).

“Involuntary” euthanasia means that the person is put to death without explicitly requesting it. Although this could be an act motivated by compassion for a severely suffering, incompetent patient, there is too much subjectivity and personal variation in the definition of “suffering” to condone such “acts of mercy.” Involuntary euthanasia could also be used for completely immoral purposes (Dowbiggin, 2007) for example, on incompetent or even competent persons as an act of eugenics and social manipulation. Such abuses were witnessed in Nazi Germany, as we should never forget.

Involuntary euthanasia, even when compassionately motivated, should remain criminal and should be vigorously prosecuted and prohibited. Involuntary euthanasia is a fundamentally different act both morally and ethically from responding to a voluntary request for euthanasia by a competent patient who has no escape from his suffering other than death. Voluntary euthanasia is an area worthy of our serious consideration since it would allow patients who have exhausted all other reasonable options to choose death rather than continue suffering. Involuntary euthanasia, even when compassionately motivated, is extremely dangerous ground because of the inevitable subjectivity and personal variation of human suffering, and because of the potential for social abuse when one starts making such profound decisions on behalf of other persons who cannot express their wishes. (Mcdougall, 2007) Perhaps fully competent suffering persons should be given the possibility of making such decisions for themselves; but under no circumstances should we allow such decisions to be made on behalf of those who are incompetent.

“Active” And “Passive” Euthanasia

The distinction between “active” and “passive” euthanasia rests upon the assumption that it is ethically permissible for physicians to withhold or withdraw life-sustaining medical treatment at the patient’s request, and let the patient die passively of “natural causes.” Such “passive” euthanasia is based on the fundamental ethical principle that informed, autonomous patients have the right to refuse any medical treatments, no matter what the consequences. (Gorsuch, 2006) Yet, under circumstances of identical or even greater suffering where no life-sustaining treatment is being used, current law forbids the physician to take direct action designed to achieve the same end—even if it is rationally requested by the patient and would result in a more humane death. Passive euthanasia, along with the double effect of narcotic pain medicine, probably accounts for the vast majority of the estimated six thousand planned deaths in United States hospitals each day. How many times lines are secretly crossed and distinctions blurred in the care of these dying patients is simply not known.

An Important Distinction

Some ethicists believe that there is a fundamentally important distinction between active and passive euthanasia. Death is the intended outcome in both circumstances, but the physicians’ actions are directly causal in active euthanasia, whereas it is the physicians’ “inaction” in passive euthanasia that allows the patient to die of “natural causes.” (Gorsuch, 2006) By maintaining this distinction, the medical profession allegedly remains untainted by becoming an agent of death. Yet, in the cloudy world of patient care, these distinctions can become more illusory than real, and our attempts to remain ethically pure sometimes extract a considerable price from dying persons who have little left to give. Both active and passive euthanasia intends to finally allows the patient with no other good options to die in the most humane way possible (Dowbiggin, 2002).

One does not need to have a great deal of medical experience to find an example of passive euthanasia resulting in a very difficult death from “natural causes.” Take for example a patient with end-stage, metastatic lung cancer who is near death from respiratory failure. He has tried to prolong his life through chemotherapy and radiation, but is now losing weight, extremely short of breath, and nearing the end of the road. He has elected to forgo cardiopulmonary resuscitation and mechanical ventilation (breathing machine) and knows that his death is inevitable. He has even begun to look forward to death as an escape from his life, which now feels empty, devoid of future or hope (Dowbiggin, 2007). So far, most physicians and ethicists would be comfortable with this example of passive euthanasia, allowing the person to die “naturally” of respiratory failure rather than prolonging his death by putting him on a mechanical ventilator.

Yet suppose that this patient has an overwhelming fear of suffocation, and wants to go to sleep quickly and not wake up, rather than continuing the agony of gradual suffocation for days or even weeks before his inevitable death. His request is confirmed to be rational, and his family agrees that he should be spared this final struggle if at all possible. Since there is no life-sustaining treatment to discontinue, passive euthanasia does not provide help or guidance at this point. According to comfort care principles, his shortness of breath can be treated with narcotics in doses intended to limit the feelings of discomfort, but not to intentionally produce death. His shortness of breath and feelings of extreme anxiety is therefore treated with an infusion of morphine until he falls asleep and appears relaxed (Toledano, 2005). Yet periodically he awakens, thrashing and screaming from a terrifying feeling of suffocation. His morphine dose is appropriately increased to the point that he is relaxed enough to again lose consciousness, and no further. Unfortunately, a primitive drive to continue breathing sustains him whenever he drifts off into sleep. He alternates between periods of extreme agitation and a medicated sleep on the edge of death, where he lingers for over a week on gradually increasing doses of morphine before finally succumbing. Anyone who has witnessed such “natural deaths” cannot help but be troubled by their nightmarish quality.

Conclusion

The option of physician-assisted death, whether by assisted suicide or active voluntary euthanasia, would allow patients such as this an escape from meaningless torment before death. When death is the only way to relieve suffering, and inevitable regardless, why not allow it to come in the most humane and dignified way possible? Why is it considered ethical to die of “natural causes” after a long heroic fight against illness filled with “unnatural” life-prolonging medical interventions, and unethical to allow patients to take charge at the end of a long illness and choose to die painlessly and quickly? Most of us hope to be fortunate enough to experience a “good death” when we have to die and to be spared an agonizing ordeal at the very end. Many of us hope that if we do end up in such unfortunate circumstances, we can find a physician who will help us creatively explore all possibilities, including facilitating a relatively quick and painless death. Hopefully, we will never need it, but the possibility would be very reassuring.

References

1. Ondrey James H. (2006) Physician-assisted Suicide (At Issue Series). Greenhaven Press.
2. Dowbiggin Ian. (2002) A Merciful End: The Euthanasia Movement in Modern America. Oxford University Press, USA; 1 edition.
3. Mcdougall Jennifer Fecio, Gorman Martha. (2007) Euthanasia: A Reference Handbook. ABC-Clio; 2 Edition.
4. Dowbiggin Ian. (2007) A Concise History of Euthanasia: Life, Death, God, and Medicine (Critical Issues in History). Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc.
5. Toledano Henry. (2005) Euthanasia – Choice and Death (Contemporary Ethical Debates). Edinburgh University Press.
6. Derek Humphry. (2007) The Good Euthanasia Guide: Where, What & Who in Choices in Dying. Norris Lane Press; 3 edition.
7. Gorsuch Neil M. (2006) The Future of Assisted Suicide and Euthanasia (New Forum Books). Princeton University Press.

Introduction

Poverty is a complex fact. One of the majority serious troubles faced by the rising countries and transitory economies is to determine and put into live out the reforms which reduce the poverty and go faster the development. It is commonly conventional that more liberalization and globalization within the background of Orthodox financial policies do not reduce the poverty in the mounting world (Brinkerhoff, Goldsmith, 2003: 685). One of the main wellbeings of the mounting economics is poverty and to struggle next to it. The most significant institutional manager in the international height is the World Bank. It is actually seen that the World Bank and another front sprinter multinational institution create analysis concerning the poverty and attempt to develop new worldwide strategies and policies to move violently next to it.

The normal development formulas obtainable by the front sprinter institutions like IMF and the World Bank did not demonstrate significant activities and even in some seats the situations got worse, consequently, the hope to reach the strong-minded targets damaged. In this respect, the studies connecting to poverty gradually get better and in this association, there is an interest add to on the subjects like the reasons cause the poverty and how to move violently next to the poverty.

The Basic Poverty Descriptions and Poverty Measurement

Poverty is merely a fact to cover the simplest unpreserved commodities similar to food, clothing, and somewhere to live in order that the civilization and its exact parts can uphold their minimum living standards. This is also called absolute scarcity. The quantity of these persons is intended by the number of the populace living under an exact income speed. This rate is determined as the figures of people who have an everyday income rate of less than one buck freely from the nationwide income rate. It is obvious that complete poverty exists all in excess of the world, but its amount over the general inhabitants causes significant dissimilarity. The global poverty threshold is used to guess the inhabitants under complete poverty and is usually specified as the U.S.A. dollar. For example, the World Bank conventional 370 $ as the poverty threshold in 1985. According to this figure, the figure of people beneath the poverty doorsill in the planet was 1, 2 billion in 1987 and enclosed %30, 1 of the world inhabitants. The quantity in 1993 decreased to %29, 4. In a similar year, %80 of total poverty inhabitants were in twelve countries in the globe (Todaro, 2000: 165-66).

World Bank Analysis

The World Bank more often than not describes poverty in terms of financial income. In this container, the ‘poor’ word is old for those under a specific profits level. The well-known development economist Amartya Sen describes poverty as not life form clever to uphold a specific smallest amount aptitude (Gafar, 1998: 592).

The main financial interest in the rising countries is more listening cautiously on the development than the profits allocation. Only the enlargement does not provide the asked targets in terms of development targets, consequently, its distribution be supposed to be absolutely considered for stress against poverty. In new date, the life principle of millions of populace in African, Asian and Latin American countries remained similar or even got not as good as in some regions next to their countries’ growth, above state of affairs affirms this opinion. Thus, complete poverty causes ordinary poverty, which is the biggest obstruction next to development affords, to turn out to be permanent. (Todaro, 2000: 151-52). Consequently, the ordinary poverty and profits inequality are the basics for the development affords, consequently the supposed targets should be known importance in the development strategies.

Poverty and Inequality

Poverty and dissimilarity should be considered jointly. The mutual relationship stuck between poverty and disparity is generally overlooked in the deliberations about addition and globalization. Since it is stated that the deprived countries which in progress in the speedy development period after the 1950s should accept the imbalance of profits distribution, the disparity was not seen as a serious difficulty. In other words, the foremost economics in person’s dates like Nicholas Kaldor, Simon Kuznets and Arthur Lewis particular that the disparity caused development or was a have to for it (Stiglitz, 2000: 15). According to this estimation; as the enlargement speeds up, the poverty troubles can be examined. By making employ of the education acquired by the East-Asian development knowledge in the 1990s, the researches concerning the importance of enlargement and social capital deeply exaggerated this conservative viewpoint and its family member neo-classic continuations. Most social scientists now think that more profits equality is a condition of earlier development.

In this case, bigger income parity will encourage and not hold up the financial growth. Economics has not totally revealed this family member yet. But, it can be said that the appropriate preferences of the condition policies, social and following actors can potentially obtain a fraction in it. Conventional approaches are used to offer reasonably passive state strategies and see financial development as a result of physical assets formation, labor-power development, technologic attainment as an outside factor that makes the resources and labor more creative, so the policies to reduce inequality are very important. A democratic improvement roof can discuss macro-economic equilibrium and create the strategies and strategies in order to make investments in the projects which will make available comparatively fast outcome to make stronger poor populace and also get better the equal opportunity.

Poor populaces have to spend their incomes on social and personal assets (similar to literacy and health) formation additional than the center and high classes. Poor populaces also assign most of their source to their children, feed them better, and creation them better and their school operating cost.

Therefore, the investments in the machines and factories are additional significant in order to reduce inequality, add to productivity by creation bigger assets in social and personal capital, and arrive at a more dynamic financial structure. The democracy types, which facilitate the state to shape and put into practice a development approach for the purpose of lessening profits disparity and also struggling next to the poverty and in which the condition will undertake additional important planned roles in more complete and humanistic development, should be thinking again (Smith, 1998: 17-18).

Globalization as a reason%10 of the globe inhabitants manufactures %70 of products and services and wraps %70 of total income accuses in the world. Approximately semi of the world’s inhabitants lives less than USD 2 on an everyday basis (annually USD 700 by the purchasing parity). These 3 billion populace covering %50 of the world’s inhabitants only have %6 scopes on the manufacture.

Although populace and countries slowly get near to each other as a consequence of the liberalization and technologic developments recognized as globalization, profits inequalities are one of the majority remarkable facts in the globe. According to some populace, globalization causes disparity. Modern technology and financial liberalization have completely poor people not as good as but helped rich populace become better-off.

1,2 billion populace covering 1/5 of the world’s inhabitants has income speed less than 1 USD on an everyday basis. According to the World Bank, not merely half of the world’s inhabitants live less than USD 2 on an everyday basis, but also in the region of 1,2 billion populace cover, 1/5 of the world inhabitants have a smaller amount than USD 1. Although the figure of the subsequent group is almost the same with 1987’s data, its amount on the world inhabitants tapering to %20 from %24. The excessive poverty amount in East Asia suddenly decreased beginning %27 to %15. The amount in South America tapering from %45 to %40, but in Sub-Saharan Africa it became stable flanked by % 46 and %47.

Table 1: The Population Living With Less Than 1 Dollar (Million) 1987 1990 1998

In addition to on top of that, the proportion of the richest 20 countries’ average income on the poorest 20 countries’ standard income was 20 forty years ago; this amount at in attendance time has increased to 40. The information specified by the financial analysts demonstrates that these extents were near 5 in 1900 and about 2 in 1820. The proportion of the averages profits of the successful countries on smaller amount winning ones has shown add to for two centuries.

According to the earth development report, income disparity approximately the world remarkably greater than before and remained approximately stable in the primary half of the 20th century. It is greater than before but not too quick in the subsequent half of the 20th century.

Basic Determiner of Global Income Inequality

The basic determiner of global profits inequality and standard profits differences between rich and deprived counties is the proportional financial growth. Economic enlargement is the basic determiner of the standard income differences flanked by rich and Poor County. The global yearly average takings at the commencement of the 19th century were USD 650 per capita by bearing in mind today’s purchasing power. To put one additional way, it is guessed that 2/3 of 1 billion population was livelihood with about USD 1 on a daily foundation. After that, the enlargement which in progress in Europe and North America got approximately the world, counting Russia, Latin-America, and East-Asia, and standard income augmented, thus poor populace livelihood in these continents got out of the extreme poverty. The weakest regions in this enlargement epoch were South-Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa. This is the genuine cause of the extreme poverty in these regions. Also, in the psychoanalysis performed by the World Bank concerning the fresh meeting, it was shown that slowly reduction in extreme poverty in the 1990s took root from the information that the enlargement in the poorest countries was besides low down.

The income per capita in a number of countries like Ethiopia is similar to two centuries ago.

Likewise, the inequality in the lasting development increases the difference flanked by the rich and poor populace. Apart from a pair of exceptions, the countries which have in progress to expand in the 19th century have sustained their mounting periods. The purchasing authority equivalence and real-average profits per capita in these countries are 20 times additional than 1820’s information. But, the income per capita in some countries is similar by means of two centuries ago. Ethiopia is a good instance of it. The difference flanked by these countries and the states which original realized the development and sustained it has inescapably augmented.

Differences in the Proportional Growth

The accurate strategy and globalization in institutional conditions hold up the enlargement. If single determiner for the poverty and inequality is conventional to be the enlargement, the question ‘what is the significance of globalization?’ becomes well-known. The answer to this problem is that the precise strategy and globalization in institutional circumstances support the expansion. It is not an accident that the periods in which the worldwide disparity greater than before fastest were the subsequent partially of 19th and 20th centuries. The cause for the increased worldwide disparity in the subsequent half of 20th century is that the front sprinter economies against addition largely made big diplomatic mistakes causing the worldwide gloominess.

Table 2: Average Growth Rates (%)1960’s 1970’s 1980’s 1990’s

Actually; there is a association between the globalization, dissimilarity and poverty, but this not a new obsession and also as criticized. The globalization does not create countries deprived; on opposing it helps them turn out to be poor. But, the globalization does not create all countries on the same airplane. Income imbalance has greater than before as a consequence of the globalization and the poverty carry on in the countries whose developments are not understand. The reason for the uneven spread of rapid financial growth in more than a few nations is insufficient policies, politicians and institutions. Rich countries might not create deprived countries rich since they stay poor. The way to disapprove of these countries is that they are ineffective for providing aids and opportunities that deprived countries are very much in require of.

The proportion of the mounting countries which have attended in the globalization go fasters as of 1970’s and this state of affairs also sustained in 1980’ and 90’s.

While the growth charge of rich countries contain slowed down inside the last 20-30 years, the enlargement rates of the rising countries have opposite propensity as of 1970’s and also sustained in 1980’ and 90’s. The enlargement rates of the rising countries which did not be present at in the globalization slowed downward as of 1970’s similar to rich countries and this propensity also sustained in 1980’ and 90’s. GSYIH per capita in the mounting nations which participated in the globalization in 1990’s was %5 and %2,2 in wealthy countries and merely %1,4 in the mounting countries which did not donate in the globalization. Thus, the states which were beneath the globalization reached to rich countries, those not beneath it got at the back too a great deal.

In fact, the countries which were ineffective for the steady development are the ones which turn themselves reverse on the global integration and are frequently in Sub-Saharan Africa and do not have the necessary preconditions to create use of the opportunities obtainable by the globalization. The way to decrease the poverty and wrap the income differences is to take away these obstacles. If the enlargement rates and profits levels of deprived countries can be greater than before by means of the worldwide integration, plummeting income differences of these countries in judgment with the developed country might be probable.

Inequality

The profits distribution injustice particularly lived stuck between the urbanized and underdeveloped countries in the globalization procedure, is the most significant threat for the countries and also the collections towards the globalization. According to humanistic development account in 2000, the richest %20 profits groups cover %86 of the world profits, % 60 center groups cover %13 of the world profits, %20 bottom groups wrap %1 of the world profits. The amount of the richest %20 in the product and repair sell abroad is %82, but the amount of underneath %20 is %1 (HDR,2000).

Economic Globalization Dramatically

The financial globalization radically increases income disparity locally and also in the middle of countries. The profits difference between % 20 high-income lessons of rich countries and % 20 low-income lessons of deprived countries is 30 multiples in 1960 and this speed reached to 74 in 1997. Annual net increase of the richest 200 populace in the earth got more than 1 trillion dollar flanked by 1994 and 1998. Total possessions of the richest three billionaires are additional than GDP of immature countries where additional than 600 million populace are living. The uppermost %1 households in America greater than previous to their proportions from the nationwide income two times as of 1970. The uppermost %1 part is motionless better-off than underneath % 95 parts.

Conclusion

The globalization process, global troubles incurred in this procedure and the future solutions for these troubles will be one of the most imperative issues discussed by academics and also politicians. Structuring of the worldwide management structure obtainable by a lot of academics and concerning the answer of global troubles by leaders, the issue prices in the middle of countries of a worldwide decision-taking procedure participated by institutions and survival of the authorize power in thought of development levels all seem to be not possible in the near future. The social discomforts caused by the present problems and reactions next to the globalization procedure gradually augment in especially immature and developing country. But in particular, the doubt of global marketplace rules, non-formation of worldwide institutions and the exist short of the present institutions and countrywide governments in the solutions of universal problems will go earlier the searches for the input of worldwide troubles in the shut to view.

The urbanized states have got information skill and infrastructures which give advantage in the globalization procedure and this situation increase development dissimilarity in stuck between. The reactions in rising and underdeveloped countries next to the globalization procedure add to and voices appear for centralization. The go up of nationalist parties and chauvinistic movements is experiential in this era. The increase in aids in a straight line or not directly from urbanized countries to immature or developing countries is a method to reduce global uneasiness and examples of it are frequently seen in recent era. However, an African or third-world state which gets at the back to much in terms of assets, technology and manpower seems to be in a negative state of affairs.

It is known that the social strategy cautions are not measured in specifically rising and immature countries as a way to take benefit in competition and the result of international companies in the globalization procedure. Serious policies connecting to the configuration of joint labor standards in the global degree are pursued and decisions are in use. But the inequity of factor prices in the middle of countries and high being without a job rates in immature and rising countries and millions of populace in hunger threshold do not allow these joint work principles.

The imbalance of issue prices among countries and far above the ground being without a work rates in immature and developing countries and millions of populace in hunger doorsill do not allow these joint employment standards. Developing countries reject employment principles compulsory to themselves by bearing in intelligence them as the obstacles next to their development. Due to the large imbalance in the middle of factor prices in the worldwide degree, the formation of worldwide institutions, which strength have global principles pursued in conditions of social strategy and grave sanctions implemented, seems to be not possible. Conversions of service and extinction of lifelong jobs will cause the permanence of unemployment difficulty in the subsequent period and new job chance to happen.

Constant knowledge will be the key in the spirited advantage for countries, relations and institutions. Unions will have to take on new functions dissimilar from the ones in the history Information workers and the go up of new technologies will reason unions to carry on losing power. Unions similar to supra-national assets in order to maintain their survival have to go after worldwide developments and create co-operations in the worldwide degree.

Work Cited

Bauman, Zgymunt(1999); Globalization (interpreter ;lmaz,Abdullah), Ayrnt; Publishing.

Büyükuslu, Ali,Rza(1998); Can unions resist against the globalization?, Economics magazine, 1998.

Drucker, Peter(1996); Management for future,(interpreter.Fikret Üçcan), Turkey Is Bank Kültür publications.

Hirst,Paul-Thompson Grahame (1998); Globalization is examined,(interpreter. Çağla Erdem, Elif Yücel), Dost Bookstore.

Hürriyet Newspaper, 1999,

Selamo, Ahmet(2000); Globalization with its intensified social problems, Humanity side of globalization(eclectic :Bozkurt, Veysel), Alfa Bookstore.

Brinkerhoff, D.W, Goldsmith, A.A., (2003). “How Citizens Participate in Macroeconomic Policy: International Experience and Implications for Poverty Reduction”, World Development, Vol.31, No.4, s.685-701.

Kibrige, Joachim, (1997). “Population Growth, Powerty and Health”, Social Science Medicine, Vol. 45, No. 2, s. 247-259.

Yunus Muhammed, (2003). Towards a world where the poverty is un-findable (Interpreter. Gülden) Do an Kitap A, stanbul.

This is one of the many sociological problems that the united states is currently facing and it’s of much significance as it touches on many aspects of the life of not only citizens of the united states but also the lives of the immigrants and their families(Hanson,2005).

Illegal immigration is such an important issue as it forces the members of the society to face their beliefs on how the society should be organized (Oja, 2002). This issue brings the sociological perspective of the members of the society to the fore; as such it should be given the attention it deserves. To begin with, illegal immigration must be clearly understood to ensure that there is no misunderstanding as a result of ambiguity or just the general lack of clarity. So what exactly is illegal immigration?

As Frank Duvell puts it, illegal immigration is the movement of people from one country to another with the view of settling and working in their chosen location in a manner that is contrary to the laws of the country they are heading to (Duvell 2006).

For many people in the world, the United States of America has been a dream destination, a land of opportunity.

Illegal immigration has been a serious problem for many years. Many people have crossed the borders of the United States without proper documentation in violation of the immigration laws of the land. Other people who have entered the United States with legally acceptable documents, upon reaching the country violate the terms and conditions on the documents they hold.

As we try to find a solution to illegal, immigration, this problem has to be considered from various perspectives. In this way with a greater understanding of the problem perhaps a good and acceptable solution can be found. An attempt to understand the problem of illegal immigration may be made by the application of the various sociological theories.

One of such theories is functionalism.

This relatively old and very much dominant perspective is based upon two emphases. The first is that this theory, emphasizes applying the scientific method to understand the objective social world. The scientific method is used to search for the social laws that govern the behavior of individuals in social systems. With this emphasis, it is asserted that in the same manner as the physical world is studied, the social world can also be. As such proponents of this theory believe that the world can be objectively viewed using such observation methods as the use of interviews and surveys. The proponents also believe that the values held by the individual investigating the social world will by no means interfere with or influence the investigation being carried out (McClelland, 2000b).

The second of these two emphases is that it stresses the use of an analogy between society and an organism. According to this theory, society can be viewed as an organism with various parts which function together for the betterment of the whole. The function of a part is viewed as its contribution to the whole. In this theory an analogy is drawn between society and a living organism. This theory suggests that society has needs and social institutions coexist to meet these needs. Once the society determines its needs, an effort is made by the organ which can meet this need to do the same. The assumption here is that the organ with the capability to meet these needs already exists. However in a case where one is nonexistent, a new social institution develops as a result (McClelland, 2000b).

By use of the analogy of an organism, a state of equilibrium is maintained by the social systems. this is compared to having for example a balance of ions within and without a cell. Much like in an organism should the equilibrium shift, institutions work to bring it back to a stable state. The method by which stability is achieved according to this theory is through socialization of members. Through this means the society reaches a consensus. This theory also has a provision for a case in which consensus does not work for whatever reason. In such a scenario, social control mechanisms try to bring about conformity. The control mechanisms which include such things as informally imposed sanctions may also segregate the individuals who do not conform to the rest of society (McClelland, 2000b). An example of segregation as a result of nonconformity to the norms is being locked up in a mental institution or a prison.

In functionalism, then a view of the Society as a system consisting of parts that are interrelated is presented. Because of the close connection between the parts, a change in any one part affects the rest of the system. As stated above, when a change occurs in the society the organs work to bring it back to a state of equilibrium. According to functionalists, most changes that occur in society are a result of either natural growth or evolutionary processes. There is also the possibility of the causes of change being external to the system (McClelland, 2000b).

This theory focuses on how the society influences the behavior of the individual. it attempts to explain how external forces influence the decisions made by individuals.

A criticism of the theory is that it treats the individual as a predictable puppet, a conformer unable to initiate action out of their own free will without any influence from the society. The theory presents an individual who has no control of his destiny. The theory has also been criticized as being one that does not recognize rapid change, one that assumes the presence of social order (Holmwood, 2005).

When the problem of illegal immigration is viewed from a functionalist perspective, its role in the American society becomes quite clear. Illegal immigration could be seen as a part of the American society which has a distinctive role to play in ensuring that the whole is better off. By carrying out functions such as carrying out certain jobs like construction work it improves the whole. Looking at it in this manner would make the immigrants an integral part of the American society.

In his writing, Circles of Influence and Chains of Command, Anthony M. Orum suggests that there is a possibility that the immigrant community may transform the host community. He takes into account a scenario where instead of adapting to the host community, the incoming community brings about change (Orum, 2005). This writing negates my theory as an organ would not bring such radical change to a body of which it is part. In fact Orum approaches the immigrants from a stand point of a foreign body.

Another way of possibly viewing this problem is by using the conflict theory.

The conflict theory puts emphasis on the ability of a person or a group to influence and control other persons or groups. By way of this influence and control, the individuals attempt to maximize benefits and as a result bring about change which may not necessarily be their desire. The conflict according to this theory is the constant struggle between opposing forces such as different social classes and contrasting ideological differences (McClelland, 2000a).

The theory shows that political oppression comes as a result of economic exploitation.

One illustration of the continuous conflict between different aspects of society is the class difference whereby elite tends to dictate on the larger population.

The systems in the society are created in such a manner as to maintain the status quo. The system has institutions and laws to keep the ‘superior classes as such. This class of people controls most of the resources of the land. The ‘inferior’ people are exploited by the system for the benefit of the superior. Laws are put in place as a means to control the masses and any challenge to the status quo is either made illegal or where suitable labeled as deviant behavior. Institutions such as those which are religious are used to pacify the masses. The masses are fed with utopian ideas of a better after-life to blind them from the present suffering and exploitation that they are undergoing. Through stratification, the upper class maintains social inequality. The upper class creates positions such as “king” and make it difficult for the members of the lower class to qualify for such positions. The positions are also made permanent using laws (McClelland, 2000a).

Education is also used to ensure that things remain the same. The elite learn how to control while the masses do not have access to education that can change the system. Even employment requirements are tailored to ensure that things do not change. Other conflicts involve race and ethnicity, gender and religion among others (McClelland, 2000a).

If the problem of illegal immigration is seen from this point of view, it can be seen as yet another form of exploitation. Laws are used to deny the immigrants rights to better pay and proper working conditions. At the same time, the benefits of their labor such as tax and company profits go into the pockets of the rich and powerful. These poor people continue to lead the United States to greater economic growth while they are continually being exploited and subjected to inhumane treatment and condition. Is it not hypocritical to label one an illegal immigrant and still continue to collect revenue from that individual (Brokaw, 2006)?

Dwight Whitaker agrees with this point of view and explicitly expresses the above sentiments albeit in different words (Murray, 2007).

A final view point is the interactionist perspective which focuses on the ability of the individual to determine his own needs and strive to satisfy them. The individual aims at interacting with others and may even conform to society to avert the threat of ending the interaction. Illegal immigration could be viewed as a result of the individuals involved trying to promote interactions between themselves and the people of the United States (McClelland, 2000c).

In his book, Host Entorf agrees with this perspective when he writes on the incentives that drive individuals to engage in illegal immigration. He elaborates on the personal reasons for engaging in illegal immigration (Entorf, 2002).

It is clear that illegal immigration presents a serious sociological problem in the United States. A possible solution to this problem would be to accord the immigrants legal status in order to ensure that they are not exploited any further. This will also be recognition of their being an important part of the American society.

Bibliography

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Duvell, Franck, Illegal Immigration Europe: Patterns causes and consequence: University of Oxford: 2006, Web.

Entorf, Horst Rational Migration Policy Should Tolerate Non-zero Illegal Migration Flows: Lessons from Modeling the Market for Illegal Migration: Oxford: Blackwell Publishers Ltd, 2002, Web.

Functionalism: 2000, Web.

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Hanson, Gordon H. Why Does Immigration Divide America? Public Finance and Political Opposition to Open Borders (Institute for International Economics, 2005).

Holmwood, J., (2005) “Functionalism and its Critics” in Harrington, A., (ed) Modern Social Theory: an introduction, Oxford University Press, Oxford.

McClelland, Kent Conflict Theory: 2000, Web.

Murray, Mark, Senate begins work on immigration: 2007. Web.

Oja, Melinda S. Illegal immigration and Human Smuggling: Central America and Mexico: 2002, Web.

Orum, Anthony M. Circles of Influence and Chains of Command: The Social Processes Whereby Ethnic Communities Influence Host Societies: 2005 University of Illinois at Chicago. Web.

Symbolic Interactionism: 2000, Web.

Work-life balance has become an important social issue. Work-life balance can be defined as ‘the relationship between the institutional and cultural times and spaces of work and non-work in societies where income is predominantly generated and distributed through labor markets’ work balance are therefore those that intentionally or otherwise increase the flexibility and autonomy of the worker in negotiating attention and presence in workplaces (Gregory &Milner 2009).

Gregory &Milner (2009) states that Work-life balance has come to the forefront of policy discourse in developed countries in recent years, against a backdrop of globalization and rapid technological change, an aging population, and concerns over labor market participation rates. Within the European Union, the reconciliation of work and family has become a core concern for policy and encouraged debate and policy intervention at national levels.

Work-life balance implies the extent to which one is involved in their work and satisfied with their work role and family role. With work-life balance, individuals can balance their work and personal lives to manage commitments like family responsibilities, study, sport, and community involvement. Where there is no balance between work and life the employees experience stress and they are not able to be productive to the maximum.

Employees with work conflicts are more likely to miss more workdays are less committed to their jobs and are more likely to leave their jobs. Work-life unbalance causes conflicts between the employees and their children and their spouses hence their relationships are strained. Unmet demand for work-life balance is on the increase. It is therefore very important that other stakeholders join hands in ensuring that there is a work-life balance for the employees (Kersely et al 2006).

The women, in particular, find it hard to achieve a work-life balance due to their many responsibilities. This is especially so for women with children and married ones. They find themselves in a dilemma as to whether to put their careers on hold and take care of their young children or to continue working and hire domestic workers. They also have to have to keep competing with their male counterparts and they also risk losing their jobs.

This is because most employers discriminate against them when it comes to employment. They do so because they do not want the extra cost they come with especially when they go on maternity leave and this has to be paid for. These women with child care have a lot of stress-related to work as they try to balance between the two roles. A lack of flexibility in workplaces weighs heavily on women who have caring responsibilities. Women are more involved in work related to domestic and caring than men (Kirton et al 2005).

How Do the Governments Play A Role in Promoting Work-Life Balance?

The government promotes work-life balance in various ways. One is by introducing policies that ensure the balance is struck. For instance, they have maternity and paternity leaves. This is supposed to ensure that the parents get time to spend with their newborn babies and get time to bond with them. The government needs to maintain and reinforce this policy.

In many countries, flexible working arrangements are advocated for to ensure that the employees are not stressed and they can choose the time that is flexible with them. For instance, they can choose to work at home or even part-time.

The governments are increasingly becoming committed to reducing the social, health and business costs of work-life conflict. Some countries have launched policies that enhance work-life balance. They have started campaigns that promote voluntary compliance of employers to develop and implement work-life balance practices in their organizations. Some have countries such as New Zealand, UK, and Australia that has developed websites on work-life balance that avail things like newsletters publications and links to other relevant information on the legislation. Australia and New Zealand offer award programs to highlight those organizations that practice best policies. (Strachan &Burgess 1998). The UK legislation gives parents the right to request flexible working hours.

The campaigns include a variety of resources to support employers. They help the employers to evaluate whether work-life balance policies are well integrated into the organization’s plan. They also check whether the policies are being used by the employees. The governments help the employers to see that work-related stress costs the business more due to absenteeism and high turnover of employees thus reducing the conflict between work and life. This in turn ensures that the organizations get maximum benefits because money is saved through reduced sickness absence, stress, recruitment and training costs, and productivity is raised due to better morale.

Governments also support work-life balance through the implementation of an individual policy or isolated piece of legislation. France seeks to reduce working time and Belgium has a system of time credits. Ireland has introduced a “Work-Life Balance Day” and the U.S. resolution to proclaim “National Work and Family Month.” These efforts show governments’ efforts to put a work-life balance on their agenda (Andrews 2006).

In some countries, women are dismissed during pregnancy and maternity leaves. Some when they return to work, they go to lower grades. There is action across Europe against this and EU laws prohibit dismissals during pregnancy and maternity leaves. The woman must be able to return to her job without loss of pay or status. The law also protects the health and safety of pregnant women (Kirton et al 2005).

The government also introduced a paternity leave policy. This allows men to take leave when they have newborn babies. However, few men take this leave due to the cost involved as they may have to forfeit their pay. The government can promote work-life balance for the men by making it mandatory for the leave to be a paid one. In this way, the women get a helping hand with their newborn babies. This also will allow the fathers to fulfill their responsibility towards their newborn babies (Andrew 2006).

How do trade unions promote work-life balance?

Trade unions promote work-life balance through collective bargaining. They promote work-life balance by supporting provisions that promote work-life balance. The trade unions bargain for better terms for the employees through their space for action is constricted (Gregory & Milner 2009). The trade unions try to fight for gender equality in workplaces. This is because women are disadvantaged in the workplace through unlawful discrimination. They fight for the increased employability of women by spearheading campaigns towards the same. The trade unions also fight for the working time structure in their countries, especially in the UK and France. If they achieve this then more employees can work at hours that do not conflict with their schedules. This will ensure more productivity and satisfaction.

They also bargain for working time reduction as it is noted that working long hours reduces productivity. The trade unions can do this if they are in a good relationship with the management.

However, most trade unions are unable to fight for work-life balance especially for women because most of them are headed by males (Dickens et al 1998). This is because women who mostly work on a part-time basis are not given leadership positions as they are seen as less committed than their male counterparts who work full time. This makes it very hard for them to voice their concerns.

The role of trade unions in work-life balance is relatively marginal in most countries as they tend to be relatively weak when it comes to articulating issues concerning employees. More needs to be done to strengthen the trade unions to be in a better position to bargaining for employees.

How do businesses promote work-life balance?

Businesses promote work-life balance in many ways. To begin with, businesses promote work-life balance in many ways. They have initiatives that help to bring about work lie balance. They include flexible working hours, working from home, job sharing. Leave arrangements: parental leaves, career leave, cultural or religious leaves, and study leave. Health programs such as stress management workshops or resources, employee advisory services, and general advice on work-life balance (Ellen et al 2008).

Businesses have realized that they need to tackle this challenge of work-life balance. In so doing they have made their working environments more conducive to workers and hence attractive to employees. When businesses offer work-life balance programs they can recruit people from diverse backgrounds because they have moved away from standard working arrangements. They recruited employees who consider the organization their employer of choice and hence stay in their jobs for long. This helps the businesses to reduce their training costs due to reduced turnover. By encouraging work-life balance the businesses.

The organizations by developing programs to fit their employees they increase the ability of their staff to attend training courses and this enables them to increase their productivity. The diverse range of employees can take advantage of development and promotional opportunities (Erman 2004).

Businesses deal with the problem of absenteeism by having flexible work hours for example job sharing, returns from leaves, assisting employees to address stress issued through individual or group training programs and counseling services, discussing flexible working practices. The businesses have also recognized the role played or rather the challenges faced by their women employees. Women are disadvantaged in workplaces and especially when they are pregnant. Some have come up with attractive packages for these women like allowing them to work from home. Some are given flexible working hours.

The businesses also give them paid maternity leaves. They also consider their health and safety during this time. This helps to reduce stress for these pregnant women and they can work better. (Strachan & Burgess 1998)

The business promotes work-life balance by incorporating sensitive practices in their organizations by having; workplace vision and value statements reflecting family and personal life responsibilities, family activities at the workplace, and incentives like telephone available for contact with family members during work hours and management training in family-friendly related work-life policies.

Finally, work-life balance ensures that the work environment is free of unlawful discrimination and harassment and people are valued for their diverse experiences, knowledge and abilities. Work-life balance issue is important and all the stakeholders should join hands in making the workplace conducive for the employers and the employees. This will go a long way in ensuring that conflicts between work roles and personal roles are minimized or eliminated.

References

Andrews K (2006) Minister’s report on Work and Family: The Importance of workplace flexibility in promoting balance between work and family, AGPS Canberra. Pocock B and Mast.

Dickens, L. Townley, B. and Winchester, D. (1998) Tackling Sex Discrimination through Collective Bargaining. London: HMSO.

Ellen, E. K. Leslie, B.H. Suzan, L (2008). Work-life initiatives and organizational change. Web.

Erman Smith H (2004) Work choices and women, Journal of Australian Political Economy 56: 126-144.

Gregory, A and Milner, SE 2009, ‘Trade unions and work-life balance: changing times in France and the UK?’, British Journal of Industrial Relations, 47 (1) , pp. 122-146.

Fleetwood, S. (2007) why work-life balance now. International Journal of human Resource Management. Vol 18 3 387-400.

Kersely, B. Alpin, C. Bryson, A. and Forth, J (2006). Inside the Workplace. Findings from the 2004 Workplace employment Relations Survey. London and New York: Rout ledge.

Kirton, G. and Greene, A. (2005) Gender, equality and industrial relations in new Europe; an Introduction. European Journal of Industrial Relations, vol 11 2: pp 141-149.

Taylor, R. (2009) The Future of Work-life Balance. Web.

Strachan G and Burgess J 1998 ‘The “family friendly” workplace: Origins, meaning and application at Australian workplaces’, International Journal of Manpower, vol. 19, no. 4, Pp.250-265.