Margaret Atwood s The Handsmaid s Tale - 1763 Words

Margaret Atwood’s dystopian novel, The Handsmaid’s Tale is a powerful piece of composition that surfaces the political ideals and social movements during Atwood’s period of life. Though an important primary focus of the tale is the oppressing consequence of patriarchal control of women in Gilead’s society, Atwood, through extensive detailing of Gilead’s power structure, reveal that a deeper and problematic expression of the novel is the disunion that exist amongst the female characters. Such disunity ultimately prevented the females from empowering their own kind and successfully rising against the powers that subjugated them. Atwood’s piece, though perhaps a criticism of her perceived failed feminist movements that occurred during her time is also a prognosticating urging for women in any liberating movements to form soliditary ties among one another. Foremost, the Caste System in Gilead and the ascribed roles of women coerced them to form not allegiance with other women, but to the dominant male figures in their society. Atwood would agree with sociologist Sivella Labrador that â€Å"when women themselves strongly believe that their place is at home, they become household-centered. The needs of their husbands assume a greater psychological importance than their own needs. In fact, a woman becomes defined in her domestic role† (31). Labrador’s explanation of women’s allegiance to their societal roles is reflected in the story as the women in the novel are ascribed with

Are Women Destructive Forces - 1674 Words

Joy Bell once said that the quality of a lady is not calculated through the sufferings her adversities in life had given her, but through the degree of her refusal to permit those adversities to direct her and decide who she ends up to be. Nathaniel Hawthorne wrote The Scarlet Letter in the early 1800’s about a disgraced woman who emerged from the shadows to alter the precise definition of the disgraceful letter â€Å"A† on her chest. Later, John Steinbeck composed Of Mice and Men in the 1930’s that depicted Curleys spouse as determined but also immensely egotistic, ultimately prompting his wife to turn into a destructive power which end up ruining the dreams of the men working in the farm. In F. Scott Fitzgeralds book The Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald utilized Daisy Buchanan, an ignorant, materialistic and intolerant lady, to portray the materialistic and lost era of the 1920s. When comparing the female figures in the three books, the authors depict the diminishing self-confidence and role of the ladies as the American culture advanced. These classical American works record the shifting role of a woman from when they were an able feminist to when they turned into a materialistic disastrous force. Nathaniel Hawthorne illustrates Hester as a feminist Hero in The Scarlet Letter. Hester was a gradualist moral model of feminism rather than a loud and announced feminist. Hester never openly affirmed her feminist perspectives, she remained quiet about them and kept her thoughts toShow MoreRelatedA Dolls House And Goblin Market And A Dolls House930 Words   |  4 PagesHenrik Ibsen’s play ‘A Doll’s House’, written in 1879, and Christina Rossetti’s poem ‘Goblin Market’, written in 1862, both demonstrate that an appetite for power, knowledge, sex, and money have an ultimately destructive affect upon their characters. 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Five Cultural Dimensions of Hofstede-Free-Samples-Myassignmenthelp

Questions: 1.Describe how Hofstedes five Cultural dimensions could be used to explain the situation at Lees Company. 2.Discuss what, if anything, Lee could do to remain at the Company but continue to work in a manner with which he felt comfortable. Explain your reasons. 3.How can the Korean Manager deal with more Individualistic Employees without losing the Competitive advantage of the talented workforce? Answers: The cultural differences in very much evident in the Lees company. The cultural differences are bound to exist as Hofstede has supported a varying nature of workplace culture at different places across the globe (Obeidat et al. 2012). According to Hofstede, there are huge differences in the cultures of Australian and Korean workplace. This has probably created problem for Lee at his Korean Company from the very first day of his inception. Figure 1: Hofstedes Cultural Dimension of South Korea (Source: Ting and Ying 2013) Figure 2: Hofstedes Cultural Dimension of Australia (Source: Wiewiora et al. 2013) The Hofstedes Cultural Dimension for both the countries Australia and Korea do transparently reveal a huge difference, which is why Lee has his life difficult at his office in Korea. According to Hofstede, power distance in Korea is comparatively bigger than it is in Australia. This is why Lee has found himself loosely connected with the companys leaders. The manger of the company has enormous reasons with him to support his disconnection with Lee. Surprisingly, Koreans are fewer individualists, which according to Hofstede mean that they believe more in teamwork. However, something has prevented Lees colleagues for being disconnected from him. It is surprising again, that Koreans are more feminine, which means that companies would have high cares for its employees. However, Lee has been treated differently that it should be. The uncertainty avoidance according to Hofstede is higher in Korea than it is in Australia. This indicates that Koreans are straight to the matter. Precisely, it means that management are very open and straight with their thoughts and desires. This is indeed evident in the case study, as the manager of the Lees company has explained all the issues, which the manager has with Lee. This only had ended a long uncertainty of two months for Lee. According to Hofstede, long-term orientation is a key point that has detached the manager from Lee. Moreover, it has probably detached other colleagues from Lee as well. Koreans respect such employees who eyes for long participation with organisation by respecting the short-term values such as respecting the tradition culture at the workplace. According to Hofstede, Lee has disrespected his manager, as this is evident in the case study where his manager explains Lee the reason for his detachment from him. The manager has explained that leaving office before the supervisors is nothing but disrespecting the supervisors. According to Hofstede, Australians have relatively high indulgence, which means they h ave less control on their desire and willingness. This is widely evident in the Lees character, as Lee cannot keep himself separated from his desire to wear the Australia attire and designing the hair accordingly. This has eventually started to cause problem for Lee from his very first day in his Korean Company (Dartey-Baah 2013). 2.Lee can stay at his company in Korea; however, it needs some sacrifices from Lee as well. This might be very difficult but according to Hofstede, there does not look any better option than to accept some considerations for change. This is indeed illogical for the mentioned Korean Company to change their culture just for one employee. This is why it is better that Lee considers a change for himself if he wishes to stay at this company (Giacalone and Jurkiewicz 2015). The first change would be the removal of hair dying habit, which has kept other employees detached from Lee from very first day of him in the office. It is practically easier to make hair black; however, it is indeed difficult to be separated from a culture, which has remained in the blood for approximately 15 years. The second change would be to wear formal attires at the workplace. Lee has been in Australia for approximately 15 years, which is why it is unpractical for Lee to keep himself away from casual wears. Lee h as already mentioned that he does not want to consider any change with his lifestyle; however, the existing situation is demanding the unexpected from Lee. This is perhaps the most difficult task for Lee to change his wearing style. However, it is indeed very much required for Lee to be into the company. The third change would be to be in the office as long as there are supervisors. Lee should never leave the office before his supervisors do as his manager has already mentioned that this is according to him is disrespectful. However, Lee has some different thoughts, which is evident in the case study. Lee on the other hand wants to finish off the task within a very short span of time so that he could impress his supervisors. Since, after finishing off the task Lee is not left with any task, he thinks it wiser to leave the office. Nonetheless, Lee should be in the office even if he is done with his task. This would help him win the attention of his supervisors, which Lee is presently not enjoying (Alvesson and Sveningsson 2015). This is indeed challenging for Lee according to the Hofstedes Cultural Dimension, as there are huge cultural differences in between the workplace of Australia and Korea (Chhokar, Brodbeck and House 2013). 3.Lee according to the case study and the Hofstedes Cultural Dimension is more individualist. This is because Lee has spent 15 years of his career in Australia. Nevertheless, Australians are highly individualist. They care more for their skill development. On contrary to this, Koreans have high passion for teamwork. They love to work in collaboration. It is indeed a challenge for the manager to overcome the individualist in him (Ogihara and Uchida 2014). However, mangers in the Lees company can act smartly to take benefits of him. Lee is highly skilled and has very high dedication to his work. The manager should encourage Lee on his work. This would encourage an attachment with the manager, which is highly missing ever since Lees tenure in the company. The manager should also motivate Lee for sharing his skills with his other team members. It is indeed difficult as Lee is more individualist. However, it can happen if the manager explains to Lee the importance of participation in the recommended work. Managers can explain the importance of knowledge sharing in the productivity of the company (Wang and Wang 2012). This might certainly work and change the mind of Lee, which is very necessary for Lee to be in the company. Additionally, managers should also adopt few changes in their mindset as well. They should ignore the few cultural differences such as dressing attires and fashioning. This is something, which Lee has maintained for 15 long years in Australia. Managers should also encourage its other employees to be connected to Lee despite the differences, which Lee has in its culture. Managers should arrange an introductory session where every employee would be required to participate. In the session, every employee would get equal chance to interact with Lee. It should be a free to talk like session. This would help remove the cultural related issues, which the other employees have with Lee. Managers need to present their views as well. This would communicate the feeling of equines among the employees (Kissi, Dainty and Tuuli 2013). References Alvesson, M. and Sveningsson, S., 2015.Changing organizational culture: Cultural change work in progress. Routledge. Chhokar, J.S., Brodbeck, F.C. and House, R.J. eds., 2013.Culture and leadership across the world: The GLOBE book of in-depth studies of 25 societies. Routledge. Dartey-Baah, K., 2013. The cultural approach to the management of the international human resource: An analysis of Hofstedes cultural dimensions.International Journal of Business Administration,4(2), p.39. Giacalone, R.A. and Jurkiewicz, C.L., 2015.Handbook of workplace spirituality. ME Sharpe. Kissi, J., Dainty, A. and Tuuli, M., 2013. Examining the role of transformational leadership of portfolio managers in project performance.International Journal of project management,31(4), pp.485-497. Obeidat, B., Shannak, R., Masadeh, R.E.M.D.T. and Al-Jarrah, I., 2012. Toward better understanding for Arabian culture: Implications based on Hofstedes cultural model.European Journal of Social Sciences,28(4), pp.512-522. Ogihara, Y. and Uchida, Y., 2014. Does individualism bring happiness? Negative effects of individualism on interpersonal relationships and happiness.Frontiers in psychology,5. Ting, S.K.T. and Ying, C.Y., 2013. Culture dimensions comparison: A study of Malaysia and South Korea.Review of Integrative Business and Economics Research,2(1), p.535. Wang, Z. and Wang, N., 2012. Knowledge sharing, innovation and firm performance.Expert systems with applications,39(10), pp.8899-8908. Wiewiora, A., Trigunarsyah, B., Murphy, G. and Coffey, V., 2013. Organizational culture and willingness to share knowledge: A competing values perspective in Australian context.International Journal of Project Management,31(8), pp.1163-1174.