riane eisler :: essays research papers

Riane Eisler Riane Eisler lives a lifestyle based on eco-feminism. She believes that we all live in a sexual and social equality and harmony in nature. In her book The Chalice and the Blade, she states ‘that for a millennia...prehistoric societies worshipped the goddess of nature and spirituality, our Great Mother, the giver of life and creator of all.' The societies that believed in this one creator were structured and peaceful, much like the societies we are trying to create in today's world. The ancient cultures did not treat earth as an object for ‘exploitation and domination' and believed in gender equality and respected women for their feminie values and life-giving gifts. Approximately 3,500 years ago, there were many different groups of civilization around the world. Within these different groups women held important positions such as priestesses and craftspeople. They were not male dominant and tended to be quite peaceful. Eisler mentions the Gaia hypothesis in her article stating that ‘in essence it is a scientific update of the belief system of Goddess-worshipping prehistoric societies'. Gaia is the Greek name for Earth and this hypothesis belief is that the Great Mother gives us all life and life's necessities. When Archaeology was just beginning scholars found evidence of societies where men were not superior to women, therefor they assumed that men had been inferior to the woman. This opinion was not based on evidence, but what Eisler called ‘the dominator society world view'. These Goddess worshipping societies believed that spirituality and nature were one. In Minoan, Egyptian, Sumerian and various other ancient cultures, women became priestesses and served the Goddess. These cultures all gave their Goddesses

Research Study on Organizational Commitment Essay

IntroductionOrganizational commitment is an organizational member’s psychological connection or feeling of belongingness to the organization CITATION Edu15 l 1033 (Educational Portal). This commitment to an organization creates a feeling of passionate affection within a stakeholder of an organization, creating a desire for that / those individual(s) to do anything necessary for the organization to succeed. Organizational commitment is an indispensably huge role that determines whether a stakeholder will remain at the organization willingly, if given a choice. This is a determinant as to whether this individual will produce at the top of his skill index to ensure that the organization moves much closer, or in the direction of its goals. According to the three- component model (TCM), the organizational commitment is made up of three unique components. These are affective commitment, continuance commitment and normative commitment. Affective commitment encompasses the love for your career or job. This happens when one has a strong feeling of emotional attachment to their organization or company, and zealously works to promote the interests of that organization. These people have internalized the organization’s values, vision and goals, and have a sincere feeling of wanting to work for the organization for a longer period CITATION Min151 l 1033 (Mind Tools). This happens when the employee is happy at their workplace. There are factors that will normally contribute to this affection. Some of the reasons include freedom of thought and innovation, appreciably good salary, better employee terms among other things that could make employees feel that they are important and are valued by their employer. Whatever these reasons are, this affection is imperative to the organizational success. Hypothesis: Employees who are treated in a respectful manner in an ethics based organization are more likely to be happier than employees that belong to a profit oriented organization. Continuous commitment is an express fear of loss. This kind of commitment comes by when employees measures up the advantages and disadvantages of being at the organization compared to their exit CITATION Min151 l 1033 (Mind Tools). This comes as a result of a realization that staying at your current position in your company has better terms or benefits than leaving the company. For instance, if one wanted to move from one company or organization, they will not only consider monetary benefits, but a number of other parameters. These parameters include employee terms of welfare, available position of responsibility within the new organization, among other benefits one stands to lose or gain. Another reason could be completely unrelated to profession; one could be attached to their friends at the organization, that moving from the organization is a risk of breaking these bonds. The relentlessness of the continuance commitment increases with advancement of age and professional responsibi lity. Those who are so advanced in both of these factors will feel a certain kind of inertial force that hardly allows them to leave. Hypothesis: People who have successively progressed up the ladder within an organization, and / or age feel the severity of continuance commitment the most. Normative Commitment is the sense of obligation that one feels for an organization. Some people feel that it is the right thing to do, for them to belong to the organization they do belong to. This sense of belongingness occurs even when one is not happy with their position. They are often held back from pursuing even better opportunities CITATION Min151 l 1033 (Mind Tools). This feeling could arise from an array of reasons. A great example is a son working at their father’s firm, He will get a kind of virtual family pressure to weigh the burdens of the organization in order to make it successful. Even if there existed better opportunities, this son will turn them down for the sake of keeping their parents happy. Another scenario that could occur is when a wife works for an organization within a region. The job she does could only be offered by only her current company within the whole region or even country. Due to her domestic responsibilities, she cannot leave to pursue her career interests in another region of the country. This sense of obligation could drain the company of energy because normally, there is no zeal to work, but one will only perform at an average. Hypothesis: more married people will tend to work for a certain firm on a normative commitment basis than the single professionals. All the above forms of commitment are segments of organizational employee response due to certain organizational behaviors. The underlying fact is that employees have their personal needs, and will tend to place these interests first. When these interests are well provided for, the employees will automatically feel appreciated and will tend to happily offer service to the organization. As it has been stressed before, happy employees make more productive and successful companies CITATION And14 l 1033 (Oswald, Proto, & Sgroi, 2014). On a practical scale, companies like Google have benefited from employee first approach. The company has invested a lot in employee support and satisfaction while allowing for imagination, creativity and innovation CITATION Kel14 l 1033 (Parkes-Harrison-Warwick, 2014). Some companies have got it right while others are yet to get it right. We carried a research into the various aspects that contribute to this phenomenon of organizational commitment. We use different techniques to measure or research into different Organizational behavior, including self-reporting scales, behavioral observation and organizational records analysis such as performance appraisal forms, time card data, absenteeism rates, productivity indices In this research, we use the self-reporting scales. Self-report study involves use of questionnaires, surveys or polls that let respondents respond to questions in a manner the respondents choose. This kind of survey is focused on extracting information from participants about their attitudes, feelings and beliefs on certain topics. It could be a form of interview, provision of answers to open and closed questions, rating scales, fixed choice questions among others. Reliability on these methods is dependent upon their consistence in providing similar results if used repeatedly in similar circumstances. Validity of the response is also a matter of concern. Especially for questionnaires, respondents may or may not give accurate or sincere answers to certain questions depending on the parameters provided. For example, Anonymous questionnaires or response forms are more likely to produce valid answers. In this survey, we carried a survey in which we asked various questions related to the hypotheses stated in within this document. We adopted the anonymous response questionnaire system to enhance validity of our research. We asked them to rate different departments, work conditions and parameters. The respondents were to respond to questions regarding the hypotheses. They were requested to rate the questions on four guided answers: Strongly agree, Agree, strongly disagree, and agree. Our respondents were 30 employees of different organizations. Results             We set ourselves to find out the validity of three hypotheses regarding the tenets of organizational commitment. These hypotheses stated as follow: Hypothesis 1: Employees who feel appreciated are happy and are more likely to be affectively committed to an organization Hypothesis 2: older employees and those who get promoted are likely to stay within an organization out of continuance commitment Hypothesis 3: most married people are normatively committed to organizations. The validity of our hypotheses had some concurrence with our respondents. However, what the survey disqualified is the sense of promotion as a determining factor to employee continuance commitment. Instead, the people who got promoted in organizations were the productive cream of the organization. This means that they felt a conviction to work for the organization. Such people were comfortably placed within the category of affective commitment. Conclusion             The survey conducted was successfully concluded and in our finding, hypothesis 1 was completely valid as most people agreed with it. Hypothesis 2 produced mixed reactions. Most agreed that older people were committed to the organization due to continuance commitment. Hypothesis 3 was completely valid as most people agreed with this hypothesis. All respondents had their reasons, as evident on their additional comments, including fear of family strain and divorce for the third hypothesis. References BIBLIOGRAPHY l 1033 Educational Portal. (n.d.). Organizational Commitment: Definition, Theory & Types. Retrieved January 28, 2015, from Educational Portal: http://education-portal.com/academy/lesson/organizational-commitment-definition-theory-types.html Mind Tools. (n.d.). The Three Component Model of Commitment. Retrieved January 28, 2015, from Mind Tools: http://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/three-component-model-commitment.htm Oswald, A. J., Proto, E., & Sgroi, a. D. (2014, february 10). Happiness and Productivity. Retrieved January 28, 2015, from http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/soc/economics/staff/eproto/workingpapers/happinessproductivity.pdf Parkes-Harrison-Warwick, K. (2014, March 21). Google is right: We work better when we’re happy. Retrieved jaanuary 28, 2015, from futurity.org: http://www.futurity.org/work-better-happy/ Source document

Count Raymond of Toulouse - Crusader

Raymond of Toulouse was also known as: Raymond of Saint-Gilles, Raimond de Saint-Gilles, Raymond IV, Count of Toulouse, Raymond I of Tripoli, marquis of Provence; also spelled Raymund Raymond of Toulouse was known for: Being the first nobleman to take the cross and lead an army in the First Crusade. Raymond was an important leader of the Crusades armies, and participated in the capture of Antioch and Jerusalem. Occupations: CrusaderMilitary Leader Places of Residence and Influence: FranceThe Latin East Important Dates: Born: c. 1041Antioch captured: June 3, 1098Jerusalem captured: July 15, 1099Died: Feb. 28, 1105 About Raymond of Toulouse: Raymond was born in Toulouse, France, in 1041 or 1042. Upon taking the countship, he began to reassemble his ancestral lands, which had been lost to other families. After 30 years he built up a significant power base in southern France, where he controlled 13 counties. This made him more powerful than the king. A devout Christian, Raymond was a staunch supporter of the papal reform that Pope Gregory VII had initiated and that Urban II continued. He is believed to have fought in the Reconquista in Spain, and may have gone on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem. When Pope Urban made his call for Crusade in 1095, Raymond was the first leader to take up the cross. Already past 50 and considered elderly, the count left the lands hed so carefully consolidated in the hands of his son and committed to go on a perilous journey to the Holy Land along with his wife. In the Holy Land, Raymond proved to be one of the most effective leaders of the First Crusade. He helped capture Antioch, then led the troops onward to Jerusalem, where he participated in a successful siege yet refused to become king of the vanquished city. Later, Raymond captured Tripoli and built near the city the castle of Mons Peregrinus (Mont-Pà ¨lerin). He died there in February, 1105. Raymond was missing an eye; how he lost it remains a matter of conjecture. More Raymond of Toulouse Resources: Portrait of Raymond of Toulouse Raymond of Toulouse in Print The link below will take you to an online bookstore, where you can find more information about the book to help you get it from your local library. This is provided as a convenience to you; neither Melissa Snell nor About is responsible for any purchases you make through these links.   Raymond IV Count of Toulouseby John Hugh Hill and Laurita Lyttleton Hill Raymond of Toulouse on the Web Raymond IV, of Saint-GillesBrief bio at the Catholic EncyclopediaThe First CrusadeMedieval FranceChronological Index Geographical Index Index by Profession, Achievement, or Role in Society The text of this document is copyright  ©2011-2016 Melissa Snell. You may download or print this document for personal or school use, as long as the URL below is included. Permission is   not  granted to reproduce this document on another website. For publication permission,  please   contact  Melissa Snell. The URL for this document is:http://historymedren.about.com/od/rwho/p/who-raymond-of-toulouse.htm