Are you ready

If my 21 year old child or my 18 year old best friend were to ask me how they know they are married for marriage, I would not know what to say. I would probably talk about having the â€Å"right age† which to some can be early, but to others it can be a long time. I would explain the consequences of marrying early such as divorce. I would explain that marriage is not a game and that it should be taken seriously as it is a lifelong commitment, sure there are times where people go through divorce but you eve to live with that person every day.That gets me into my next point: the right spouse. If you are to marry, it should be with the person you are most comfortable with. This person should make you feel good when you are together. They should entertain you and put a smile on your face when you most need it. The person should make you feel like you are around your best friend whom you can confess your secrets and lend you a helping. The other person should help build you up and help you reach your personal goals.You should not feel like you are tied down to someone and that they are baggage. Another thing you should consider is If you want to settle down. To my child I would agree with their decision on getting married because they are older and have somewhat of a plan for their future, and are wiser in making their decision. As for my 18 year old friend, I would give her the advice to maybe wait a little longer. They are young and should go out into the world and explore all the different things you can do as a single person.I would also tell my best friend that they are younger and so their decisions are not set In stone. I would give them both this statement: â€Å"Are you ready to settle down†. Marriage will become your priority and you will not have time for many things Like going out with friends especially if you plan to bring children Into your home. My last advice for them would be to sit down and think If they see themselves settles with a family and giving up their life of leisure that they have now.

Immigration Research Paper

Limits on Immigration Is Reform on Immigration somewhere in the near Future? Research Paper What is the first thing that comes to mind when one might think of Immigration? Possibly what is the United States current Immigration Policy? Would you even think that it is considered to be one of the most debatable topics constantly? There are two sides to every debate; I have been assigned to the pro side for immigration stating that I feel that there should be limits placed on immigration to our country and also more regulation of illegal aliens. The controversy over Immigration first started when migration reached a peak in the early 1900’s when between the years of 1900 and 1910 over 1 million immigrants entered the United States each year. (Hsu, 2009) Ever since then, immigration has constantly been in debate. Immigration is the powerful strength behind U. S. population increase, right now accounting for half of total net population boost. Our countries population growth, which at three million per year right now is the maximum in the developed world, is a main cause of many of the United States problems and presents a severe risk to our limited natural resources such as topsoil, forests, clean air and water, and healthy ecosystems. Statistics are saying that the population of the United States in the year 2050 should be around 500 million. The population is not just growing, but it is rapidly increasing. Some states are becoming so overpopulated with this rapid growth that people are comparing them to be growing more immensely than that of some third world countries. This extremely rapid growth is beginning to put a vast strain on our countries natural resources, cities and environmental health. There is beginning to be many conflicts connected with massive population growth, such as heavy traffic, air pollution, water and energy shortages, extremely overcrowded schools, declines in purchasing authority and quality of living, tax increases, and soil erosion. †(WHY A 100,000 LIMIT ON IMMIGRATION IS REALISTIC AND NECESSARY) However, the average American citizen's birthrate is at substitution level. What most of the American population doesn’t realize is that â€Å"over 70% of the United States expansion is due to mass- immigration of people generated into the population growth. †(Immigration) A supreme restraint on legal immigration would considerably decrease on both existing and future chain migration. This restriction would give the United States time to even out the current population, address the problems created by over-stressed city infrastructures and poverty, and to form an environmental policy to protect strained natural resources. A halt would then give time for new immigrants and poor citizens alike to achieve better opportunities through higher salary and improved learning opportunities. â€Å"The Untied states currently takes in over one million legal immigrants each year, which is more than all other developed nations in the world, combined. †(Immigration Regulation) The absolute number of immigrants has basically affected our country's ability to continue to contribute for newcomers and natives equally, and to put it simply has only added to America's problems. Immigration reform has been recently been brought to attention by the Obama administration â€Å"pushing amnesty for illegal immigrants. The Administration has also reversed a number of policies that had improved enforcement. These changes have included ending work place raids and a shift toward â€Å"catch and release† of illegal immigrants, instead of detaining them and deporting them. Rather than chase comprehensive immigration reform, the Administration and Congress should ensure that the existing policies on border security, interior enforcement, and non-immigrant visas are working. (McNeill, 2010). What the Obama Administration should be doing is not pushing so much emphasis towards amnesty, but instead focuses on fixing the problems happening along the border, in the cities, and in the U. S. visa system. An incremental approach should be used to solve these problems, focusing foremost on the security of the border and following through with enforcing immigration laws w ithin the United States, while making visa services more successful and bringing them up to date with the realistic demands of the U. S. economy. The Three-Legged Stool of Immigration Policy During a speech given by Janet Napolitano, U. S. Secretary of Homeland security, she referred to the â€Å"three-legged stool† of immigration reform, where she described the legs as â€Å"serious and effective enforcement, improved legal movement for families and workers, and a firm but fair way to deal with those who are already here. The stool is considered to be initially unstable. The three-legged stool of immigration policy would be more stable if it used the following three legs: Border ecurity, Effective interior enforcement, and an efficient and dynamic visa and naturalization system. Leg #1: Border Security. The U. S. has made some advancement on border security, but a large amount work still needs to be done. Secretary Napolitano’s three-legged stool assumes that this piece has already been accomplished. In addition, the U. S. cannot be convinced how much of this development is the product of improved U. S. border security and how much is the product of the recession, which has reduced economic incentives to cross into the U. S. illegally. Leg #2: Interior Enforcement. Instead of building on past progress, over the past year the Obama Administration has overturned a number of successful core enforcement efforts that began under the Bush Administration. Secretary Napolitano has argued, â€Å"We have replaced old policies that merely looked tough with policies that are designed to actually be effective. †(McNeill, 2010) Leg #3: The Naturalization System. U. S. isa and naturalization programs remain unproductive and the country still lacks a stimulating part-time worker curriculum that legal immigrants can use to come to work in the United States. Advocates with both pro-immigrant and restriction views on immigration have convincing points that could be lead in the direction of reform. â€Å"Those that are in favor of the need for improved enforcement argues that reform is needed to both strengthen border security and to put together a dependable interior worksite system to prevent employers from hir ing those not certified to work in the United States. (Tessada, 2010) And those in favor of legalization would like a program that allows immigrants who have lived in the United States for a certain number of years and who are suitable to apply for legal status and the right for occupation to work. In conclusion, when it comes down to immigration, people need to be able to trust the system. Americans need to know that their government is fully dedicated to enforcing the law and securing the border—and that this responsibility is being taken care of very seriously. Law enforcement needs to be better equipped with the legal tools and the required funds to deal with border-related and immigration-related crime. †(White, 2010) Immigrants need to be able to plan ahead for the future —they need to know everything that is included in the laws once they have been reformed, there is going to have a system that actually works, and that the general nature of our immigration laws will last, and they need to know that they will have as many responsibilities as they do human rights. Works Cited

Altruistic Surrogacy Arrangements Essay Example for Free

Altruistic Surrogacy Arrangements Essay Couples around the world find out that they’re unable to conceive children. This is a very heart breaking and detrimental situation in anyones life who is trying to have a child. Infertility affects more than 7 million people in the United States, and about 12 percent of women of childbearing age are considered infertile. Most infertility cases are treated with drug or hormone therapies or surgery. However, about 3 percent of cases require more advanced techniques, such as surrogacy. A surrogate is a woman who carries a child for an individual or a couple. Stories of surrogacy reach back to the Bible with the story of Abraham, his wife, Sarah, and her handmaiden, Hagar. In this story, Sarah finds she is unable to conceive and arranges for Abraham to impregnate Hagar, who goes on to conceive Ishmael. There are two types of surrogacy options, one is traditional surrogacy and the other is gestational surrogacy. A traditional surrogate is a woman who donates her own egg and then carries the pregnancy. The surrogate’s egg is fertilized through artificial insemination with the sperm of the father or a sperm donor. Traditional surrogates are genetically related to the child because their own eggs are used in the process. A gestational surrogate or also known as a gestational carrier, are not biologically or genetically related to the child she carries. Gestational carriers become pregnant through the process of in vitro fertilization, where an embryo or embryos created from the eggs and sperm of the intended parents. Donor eggs and donor sperm are selected by the intended parents are implanted in the uterus for the gestational period of 40 weeks. Intended parents and surrogates have to consider what type of surrogacy arrangement they feel like they are comfortable with. There are two common types of arrangements pertaining to surrogacy, which are commercial and altruistic. In commercial surrogacy the surrogate is paid for her time and effort, any travel involved and related medical expenses not covered by insurance. The chosen surrogate and the intended parents usually don’t know each other before the arrangement. In altruistic surrogacy arrangements, the carrier sees no financial gain, and the arrangements are commonly made with relatives or friends of the intended parents. Surrogacy is against the Church’s teaching, they teach that techniques that entail the dissociation of husband and wife, by the intrusion of a person other than the couple (donation of sperm or ovum, surrogate uterus), are gravely immoral. These techniques (heterologous artificial insemination and fertilization) infringe the child’s right to be born of a father and mother known to him and bound to each other by marriage. They betray the spouses’ â€Å"right to become a father and a mother only through each other (Catechism). † The use of a surrogate mother is a process that is thousands of years old. This is proven in the writings of the Bible in the story of Abraham and his wife Sarah, she was infertile. At this time in the earth’s history, a woman who was childless was often at times shamed by her family and friends. These women would offer their servants to act as a surrogate. The Bible does not specifically forbid the process of surrogacy. The question that you must ask is, whether it is considered to be moral or ethical with keeping children conceived out of love, born from a married couple. The Bible has also been interpreted as stating that children are a gift, not a right. Therefore, God will bless some people with children and others not. Personally I believe surrogacy is an â€Å"okay† practice. Surrogacy ultimately brings joy to the couple and why would god not want us to seek happiness. Surrogacy may seem to be defying God’s will but I think it’s a way of making a precious life out of a bad situation. Being told you will not be able to have your own children is a heart breaking situation. You would never know how it felt until you experience yourself. What gives us the right to judge someone else for wanting a child from their own DNA. If Surrogacy can use one embryo and not kill of the others I think it should be allowed in the church. Altruistic Surrogacy Arrangements. (2018, Nov 07).

Horse and groom Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Horse and groom - Essay Example The groom’s attire and the horse’s saddle have a huge segment of yellow contents. The Yellow color that corresponds with earth is Chinese most beautiful and very prestigious color. The picture hence communicates elevated prestige for the both horse and the groom. It is a high class living from Chinese society. The color yellow is linked Chinese adage which says, Yellow creates Yin and Yan. The adage implies that implies that yellow is the hub of everything. The color was ranked above brown, and it signifies the neutrality or good luck (Hearn, 39). The essence of Yellow highly linked close to gold for when it is paired with red in place of gold color. In Chinese culture, Yellow color was the emperor’s main and is held as the figurative color of the five past legendary emperors of olden China. Yellow frequently adorned royal palaces, temples and altars and the color was applied in the robes and clothing of the emperors. From value and worth of yellow color in the past days of china it application in the art reveals extreme passion augment prestige. The Yellow color also represents liberty and freedom from worldly cares or secular attachments and is thus highly esteemed in Buddhism religion. Monks’ garments are mostly yellow, as are also elements of most Buddhist temples. The message communicated by the use of yellow color also symbolizes heroism. The horse is majorly Black, apart from segments of the head, tail and loin. The meaning of black color and entailed message related to unity. According to Taiji symbol, application of black and white to signify the unity and harmony of Yin and Yang but antique Chinese, indicates black as the chief of colors and the culture honored black more constantly than any other comparable color. The essence of the significance of black color reveals of Lao Zi’s which admits that five colors cause people to be blind; thus Dao School selected black as the main color of the Dao. Furthermore, Black color which corresponds

What is your assessment of the progressives What contradictions do you Essay

What is your assessment of the progressives What contradictions do you see in the progressive movement. Had you lived between 1900 and 1920, would you have s - Essay Example These changes have to be done to civilize the cities without attracting America’s economy. This was the main aim of progressive movement. Another class of the society that was affected by the progressive movement was the working class. The working class women and the middle were brought together under one organization to solve social problems in legislative way. The progressive movement was started from the local government and then moved to the upper level government. The work efficiency was also boosted up during this era. A young expert named Fredrick W Taylor introduced new ideas of efficiency at working place which improved the productivity by speeding up the labor activity. In this progressive era, a young man with great political experience became the president of United States named Theodore Roosevelt. At the age of forty he became the youngest president of United States. The main cause that made him popular was his policies that reflected his personality as an activist and moralist. His main concern was railroad regulation which ended up with a compromise between the two positions. His greatest achievement was to conserve America’s natural resource. He won a noble peace prize for negotiating an end to Russo-Japanese war and preserving open door policy in China. Woodrow Wilson was the governor of New Jersey and became the president of United States in 1912. He started the Federal Reserve Act in 1913. This act provided the control of government over banking. He also introduced Federal Trade Commission Act that regulated the trade by taking commission from these trade corporations. He appointed commissioner to

Macro3B Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Macro3B - Essay Example The expenditure multiplier is a constant that gives the value (a ratio) to what you will put in the economy and what you will get out of it as a result. It is an increased (multiplied) value because once money comes into the economy; it changes many hands and gradually multiplies. We first need to know the value of the multiplier before determining the amount by which we ought to increase government spending. Multiplier = 1 / MPS We know what the MPC is because MPC + MPS = 1 We can find out the value of MPS that is: 0.8 + MPS = 1 MPS = 1 – 0-.8 MPS = 0.2 Since MPS = 0.2, Multiplier = 1 / MPS Multiplier = 1 / 0.2 Multiplier = 5 At present, the economy lacks behind full employment by $2000 as the full employment level is $10,000 and we are currently at $8,000 (10,000 – 80000), to fulfill this gap, we will not increase government spending by 2000 as that would increase the total output to a large extent owing to the presence of the Expenditure multiplier, therefore we woul d increase it by: 2000 / Multiplier 2000 / 5 = $400 A $400 increase in Government spending would automatically trigger an increase of $2000 in the economy owing to the presence of the multiplier (i.e. 400 * 5 = $2000) Question 2: The other aspect of Fiscal tool that the government has on its disposal is the â€Å"taxes† which it can alter depending on the state of the economy. Since the President has asked me to work on the fiscal measure owing to popular public demand, we can work with it as well. First of all, it is important to understand that taxes are not a direct component of the GDP unlike government expenditure; they influence consumption. Also, tax cuts are feared to be saved to an extent depending on the public’s expectations (example, if there is more employment in the economy, GDP is likely to rise greatly, however, decreases in tax rates might even be saved by the households), therefore, the value of the tax multiplier is less than that of the expenditure multiplier; which means I would have to reduce taxes to a greater extent as compared to government expenditure to get the $2000 increase in GDP. Tax Multiplier: MPC / MPC Since MPC = 0.8 and MPS = 0.2 Tax Multiplier = 0.8 / 0.2 Tax Multiplier = 4 (Which is one less than the expenditure multiplier that was â€Å"5†) For the economy to boost to full employment, tax cuts would have to be given in accordance with the multiplier: 2000 / Tax Multiplier 2000/4 = $500 Therefore, it is evident, for the economy to go to the full employment level of $10,000, tax cuts worth 500 have to be given (which are 100 more than the expenditure if the government were to use that). This makes the government spending policy more attractive as compared to giving tax incentives to people. Question 3: If the president were to match increases in federal government expenditures with the offsetting increases in taxation, it would never give out a balanced budget. It is important to note that because of a leakage i.e. saving, a tax cut never gives out its full multiplier effect; tax cuts affect consumption and are not a direct part of the GDP. On the other hand, government expenditure is direct component of GDP as shown: Taking closer looks at the formula of tax multiplier (i.e. MPC/MPS) and comparing it to the expenditure multiplier, one would realize that the tax multiplier would always be â€Å"1† less than the government expenditure multiplier; therefore equal increases or decreases in both would not give out a balanc

Men representation in mass media Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Men representation in mass media - Essay Example They are characterized as competitive, aiming to be on top and never opting to be second-best. They are courageous in their endeavors, enduring difficulties because they possess a much higher threshold as contrasted to their female counterparts. Further, the media depict men as aggressive who stop at nothing in order to eliminate emotional or physical challenge even if it calls putting their safety and reputation at stake. In addition, men are portrayed as ambitious and lead individuals ready go furthest in life to be higher achievers (Luther, Catherine, Carolyn and Naeemah 67). Men are further characterized as individuals who do not convey their emotions especially in the presence of other people. Therefore, across the 20th century and to a great portion the present world, media representations of gender reflected and caused the hegemonic reality of patriarchy. Media stereotyping about men is an upsetting phenomenon as it increases negative assumptions about males who face difficult ies in meeting the standards set by the media. Films, magazines and other media often set a standard about how men should look, act and even think not only to satisfy themselves but also to please other people. The act of stereotyping men is a worsening situation as it demands great expectation from males in general. This puts a lot of pressure on them as they try to achieve the male stereotype portrayed by the media. For instance, a man who is sickly and unable to be physically active so as to develop a muscular body can have a negative image of himself which makes him unable to socialize well. In addition, it may lead to a perpetuation of such images amongst the young children who grow imitating such unbecoming representation (Dines, Gail, and Jean 43). The worst thing is when men are unable to live up to such standards; they can be depressed and

Organisational transformation in practice Essay

Organisational transformation in practice - Essay Example The behavior of organisational leadership identifies how successful leaders will be at attaining the values, objectives and goals of the organisation (Tsai, 2011). It is worth mentioning that in order to remain competitive it is quite significant for an organisation to continuously assess its values and practices to ensure that they are aligned with the developed corporate strategies. With this concern, a culture audit permits an organisation to map and to assess its organisational values and current practices. It can also be utilised to evaluate the gap existing between the benchmark and the organisation’s actual behaviour in relation to its desired values emphasising on the fact that whether executives and employees practice the way they state (Cha & Edmondson, n.d.). According to Kets de Vries (2011), most of the organisational changes arise as a result of a stream of interaction between the numerous stakeholders in the systems, each of which is considered to be complex in its own way. In the contemporary times, one of the significant challenges that the leaders might face can be identified as related with managing their organisational culture in order to impede mounting happenings of corporate wrong doings. In this regards, they are supposed to assemble the market needs by making sure that internal environment of the organisation is aligned with the external forces (De Vries, 2011). In my organisation, cultural change took place because of the change in the organisational structure. I have experienced such changes numerous times in my recent past performances. However, most of the colleagues were not ready for such change in the organisational culture. With my personal experience upon change, I was aware of the fact that change in the workplace is inevitable. Such changes will have an influence upon all parties who tend to be involved with the organisational process. Yet, if the change in not managed properly, it might lead to several difficulties fo r the organisation. From my past experiences, it came to my understanding that when change takes place in an organisation, the most significant way of coping up with such changes is the ability of leadership to lead the organisation properly. In other words, it can be stated that during the time of change taking place in the organisation, leaders have a significant role to play (Bell, 2006). When the employees have complete faith on the capabilities of the formal leaders, they tend to expect high from the leaders for numerous aspects. For instance, when drastic changes take place, employees will expect that the leaders are going to demonstrate effective and sensible planning, proper decision making and complete communication in a timely way. I also noted the fact that when change takes place, employees will perceive leadership as sympathetic, concerned and devoted towards their welfare. It can be stated that playing the role of a leader is not at all easy. The leaders not only have the responsibility to lead; rather, as an employee themselves, they are supposed to deal with their own reactions to change and their role in the process (Ledez, 2008). From my past experiences, I further understood that communication also has a significant role to play in resolving most of the issues at the organisation. It is highly crucial for the leaders of the organisation to communicate regarding the mission, vision, goals and objectives of

Financial Statement on Netflix Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Financial Statement on Netflix - Essay Example Looking at the cash flow statement of the year, certain major components stand out. During this year, they bought back $90 million worth of their own stock. The buying of this stock was made possible due to the large increase in price (Houston and Brigham, p. 248). In the year 2013 and 2014, the company spent over half of the total revenues on subscription. Expenses on subscription were 57.2% of the total revenue in 2013 and 55.1% of the total revenue in 2014. It therefore means that subscription expenses increased by 14.1%. These subscription expenses are as a result of shipping off DVDs to customers. They also result from buying of content from distributors. Shipping costs include package, postage and labels. In 2013, more DVDs were shipped since there were more subscribers. The operating expenses for Netflix include expenses incurred on technology and development, marketing and administration. There was an increase of 26.3% for expenses on technology and development between 2013 and 2014. The increase in these expenses was because of need for more personnel to stream content on the internet. In terms of total revenue, these expenses were 6.2% in 2013 compared to 5.7% in 2014. Expenses incurred on marketing reduced by 8.5% from 2013 to 2014 and comprised 15.6% of total revenues in 2014 compared to 16.8% in 2013. The reduction in marketing expenses is a reflection of Netflix’s resolution to decrease its advertisements to potential customers. In terms of assets, cash and cash equivalents accounted for 94% of current assets owned by Netflix in the year 2013. In 2014, cash represented 47% of Netflix’s current assets. This reduction in cash is attributed to the company’s use of cash for short term-term investments. The company invested in corporate debt securities, asset and mortgage backed securities and agency securities (Houston

Research Paper Essay Example for Free

Research Paper Essay Review of related literature and studies After the computer became popular to the people, the developers of schools website are taking years after. Only Derrick Meador quoted the â€Å"More and more homes across the country have internet access and having a school website that is up-to-date and well-organized is a great way to reach the school community.† He is also the author of â€Å"The Importance of School Website† sourced (www.teaching.about.com). In past years the proposal of school sites are limited to. Because it’s not affordable to have it only few can make. But now, lots of schools want to be part in the market. Related Reading Base on My reading, school site, is now important to this generation because more students are in advance when it came to studies. And more students want to study in online, because they don’t have time to go to school when it comes to the school class schedule. Related Literature Related Studies In conducting a school webpage, it helps the school to be part of school official site. Today  ¾ of universities and colleges has already webpage, they make their school more demand to the market i.e. the Far Eastern University (FEU), University of the Philippines (UP), De Lassalle State University (DLSU), Anteneo de Manila University (AdMU) they have their school website. It is easy for them that they can have more enrolee’s next semester. Today, the webpage of school is very important and it is the demand to the market even in abroad, the foreign nation schools is more focus in making school website. There is an advantage having an official webpage and today the Schools they have their proposal to make school sites. The people will inquire or visit through online and it is easy for them that they can inquire through online.

Analysis of Privacy Perception Among Open Plan Office Users

Analysis of Privacy Perception Among Open Plan Office Users CHAPTER 1INTRODUCTION What is an Office? Offices are workspaces designed for regular use to achieve personal, group or organizational goals through the accomplishment of tasks. Sanders and McCormick, (2002) go on to state that these tasks can be grouped into cognitive, physical, social or procedural tasks. The office provides a location for contact and could also be a repository for tools, information and other resources required to meet business objectives. It is also a business resource, this a point most people fail to understand thus, the failure to properly design and evaluate work spaces. The work place or office is one of the places the modern man spends the bulk of his waking hours. Sanders and McCormick, (2002) say almost half of ones waking hours are spent in and around the office. This would provide explanation for research efforts into the design and utilization of offices. According to Myerson and Ross (2003) the office grew out of the factory and then followed the trend of bureaucratization of industry. Thus, offices have been viewed differently by users and companies. Some view it as an address, others as a necessary evil but to others it is considered to be an asset. Bjerrum and Bà ¸dker (2003) noted that the design of an office was mostly considered as a cost and done to support quiet work and also show peoples status. While the purpose of the â€Å"New office† is to be that of attracting and retaining staff as well as to revolutionalize corporate culture. Work places or offices have been described variously as; conventional, traditional, and closed or open plan offices. Some, group them as large or small, landscaped etc. (Sanders and McCormick, 2002). The general descriptions of workspaces fall under the categories of open plan and cellular offices and this is based on the architectural and functional features of the work spaces (Duffy, Laing and Crisp, 1992). Other descriptions and categorization of offices include the hive; which is suited to individual processes. The den; suited to group processes. The cell; designed for concentrated study while the club supports transactional knowledge (Sailer, Budgen, Lonsdale, Turner and Penn, 2009). There are other descriptions of office types for example, Myerson and Ross (2003) from an architectural point of view, showed that views of property and space as related to the office environment have been evolving and as such, they identify four thematic categories of offices namely: narrative which presents the â€Å"office as a brand experience.† Nodal where the â€Å"office as knowledge connector.† The neighborly theme sees the â€Å"office as a social landscape† and lastly nomadic â€Å"office as distributed work space† these grouping reflect more of necessity and corporate culture not necessarily a collection of generally practically replicable models. In another categorization of offices by Myerson and Ross (2006) is based on the fact that the offices evolved to suit knowledge workers, as such, the categories match each of the four â€Å"realms† of knowledge work namely: the academy â€Å"is likened to the corporate realm which is a more collegiate and collaborative approach to work†, guild â€Å"the professional realm in essence a professional cluster of peers sharing a skill or specialization†, agora â€Å"the public realm where the corporation is open to the city or the market place† and the lodge â€Å" the domestic or private realm more of the live and work setting†. In the general scheme of things offices are still broadly classified into open plan and private or cellular offices all other forms are variations of the two. Cellular Offices Also called closed offices, this type of offices are the traditional or conventional offices which are usually closed and private workspaces (Maher and von Hippel, 2005) i.e. they are designed with floor to ceiling walls, a door and dimensioned for a single user. This type of office is also called a cell-office and can be a shared room office, used by 2-3 persons (Danielsson, 2008). This has been the generally accepted, traditional or popular understanding of the place called an office. Open Plan Offices These are found to be a common workspace shared by a group of employees. The original concept of the open plan office has continued to evolve, but it is the absence of floor-to-ceiling walls that is said to be the primary characteristic of open-plan offices. The arrangements of office furniture, partitions, screens, office equipment, or plants mark out individual and functional work areas (Valesny and Farace, 1987). One of the strengths of the open plan office according to Bjerrum and Bà ¸dker (2003) is the openness and flexibility allowing one to move to where things are happening and allowing for â€Å"overhearing and over-seeing† (p. 207) thus enhancing peripheral participation. Other types of the open plan office include the bull pen office, action offices, landscaped offices (Sanders and McCormick, 2002). In the bull pen offices, the work desks are arranged in neat row as far as the eyes can see. In reality, most firms have a mix of office typologies ranging from cellular units designed for a single user to a small room office shared by a few people then the spaces shared with a large group with or without specifically assigned work places and with varying measures of visual and audio privacy. Recent Developments in Open Plan Offices It is safe to argue that, the open plan office has become increasingly popular (de Korte, Kuijt-Evers and Vink, 2007; Ding, 2008; Oldham and Brass, 1979; Pejtersen, Allermann, Kristensen and Poulsen, 2006 etc.) and several reasons could be advanced to explain the widespread adoption and use of the open plan offices and its variations. There is also a move to wards a reduction in open plan office workspaces especially in the United States of America due to the understanding that smaller workstations are cheaper to maintain (Dykes, 2011) this according to Veitch, Charles, Farley and Newsham (2007) is because there is a failure in understanding the full value of the physical office environment and related issues in open plan offices in particular. Advantages of open plan offices Searches through literature (Danielsson, 2008; Oldham and Brass, 1979; Pan and Micheal, 2007; Roper and Juneja, 2008; Valesny and Farace, 1987 etc.) present the following as reasons for the adoption of open plan offices. They include; Reduction in office space and cost decline: The price of real estate is predicated on the area rented and utilized. With organizations using rental spaces, it is cheaper to use the rented floor or floors as open plan offices. In most cases, the cost of partitioning is saved if an open plan set up is deployed fully or partly. Flexibility for organizational changes: The open plan office lends itself to easy restructuring of work areas. In most cases, it is easier to fit in one more members of staff (Sanders and McCormick, 2002). More efficient work flow and communication: Some jobs require continuous team work, face to face interaction and a relatively high level of routine procedures. For such work groups, the open plan office or variations thereof are usually recommended and deployed. The enhancement of some level of peripheral participation is one of the strengths of the open plan office. Possible enhancement of social facilitation: The enhancement of collaboration i.e. the fostering of a team spirit, where, work teams or task forces are close to one another and can quickly form a huddle to sort out problems without resorting to information technology provisions like the intercom, emails, phones, video conferencing or even the walk up to another office. Oldham and Brass, (1979) specifically examined interpersonal issues that included; intradepartmental and interdepartmental interaction, friendship opportunities, noting that supervisor and co worker feed back could be improved. Ease of supervision: There is an ease of supervision, in that, a look over the landscape of the office can give an idea as to who is present and what each member of staff is doing. Limitations of open plan offices. Regarding the limitations of open-plan office designs, Maher and von Hippel (2005) rightly point out the fact that in open plan office layouts â€Å"distractions and overstimulation are intrinsically linked to the design.† These issues have consistently been themain down sides of open plan offices and some of them include: Increased workplace noise (Pan and Michael, 2007). Increased disturbances and distractions. Increased feelings of crowding and loss of privacy. There is a reduction in autonomy and task identity and a reduction in supervisor and co worker feedback in certain cases (Oldham and Brass, 1979). One point of agreement in open plan office research is that there is a generally low level of perceived privacy in open plan offices, as interruptions and distractions of the visual and acoustic kind occur frequently in open plan offices. (Pejtersen et al. 2006; Roper and Juneja, 2008) Furthermore, researchers have observed that these negative outcomes resulting from the adoption of the open plan office design tends to result in dissatisfaction with work and the workplace thus, reducing functional efficiency, decreasing performance, especially, for non routine tasks and also, reduced feedback from supervisors due to some complexity with the freedom of communication (de Korte et al. 2007; Pejtersen et al. 2006; Sundstrom et al. 1982; Vischer, 2007 ). This understanding has led some organizations to begin returning to the traditional private offices i.e. with floor to ceiling partitions assigned to an individual (Roper and Juneja 2008). Evolving nature of office work Also worthy of note, is the evolution of work patterns. An increasingly large number of persons work mainly at or from home and visit the office sparingly. This has given rise to the several types of offices one of which is the flex-office, which is dimensioned for less than 70% of the total company staff to be in at the same time. Another design is the combi-office; where a member of staff is not assigned to a specific desk but sharing of common facilities provides the spatial definition of such an individuals work space i.e. the task and personnel at hand may determine the sitting arrangement of persons in the office (Danielsson, 2008). Thesis Overview The thesis is organized in to 5 chapters; Chapter one provides an introduction the concept of an office, its major types and variations. It then focuses on the open plan office and then highlights the strengths and limitations of the open plan office. Chapter two provides a literature review of the concept of privacy perception; it reviews the perceived benefits of privacy and then traces the expectation that privacy perception could be influenced by culture. Significant studies related to dissatisfaction with open plan offices are examined for possible links to culture. The discussion then moves to culture, its definition and then the attempts made in the classification of culture. The Hofstede paradigm is then discussed and some studies employing the paradigm are reviewed. The research motivation and hypotheses are presented. Chapter three discusses the methodology of the study, the survey method, issues noted and the challenge expected. The source and design of the questionnaire was presented and the analysis methods proposed. The statistical analysis tool was briefly introduced. Chapter four shows the procedure of the survey, documents the responses received, analyzed the data collected from the general information part of the questionnaire and then chronicles the statistical analysis of the second part of the questionnaire designed to elicit privacy perception in open plan office environments. Chapter five provides a discussion of the results obtained in chapter five and then presents the limitations of the current study while providing directions for further work. CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW This part of the thesis discusses the links between privacy perceptions and culture. It also includes definitions and explanations of some related terms. Lastly, it includes a presentation of some ideas relevant to the work and results of related studies. The chapter concludes with the research question, research hypothesis and the motivation for the study. Privacy Perception In order to facilitate a better understanding, the term â€Å"privacy† is defined firstly then the concept called â€Å"perception. According to the Merriam-Webster online dictionary (2011), privacy is said to be â€Å"the quality or state of being apart from company or observation†. Wikipedia defines perception as â€Å"the process of attaining awareness or understanding of sensory information.† It goes on to say â€Å"what one perceives is a result of interplays between past experiences, including one’s culture, and the interpretation of the perceived.† Privacy is a very difficult concept or construct to define not to talk of evaluating, it has commanded interest from the fields of anthropology, architecture, cultural geography, environmental design, ethology, history, law, philosophy, and sociology, as well as branches psychology such as; clinical, counseling, developmental, educational, environmental and social psychology (Newell, 1995; 1998). Newell (1995) in her extensive review of the concept of privacy divided the perspectives of privacy into, people centered, place centered and the person-environment or the person-place interaction with the primary interest on the place, people or equally on the person and place and or with the interaction itself. Leino-Kilpi et al. (2001 p. 664) in another review of literature on privacy noted that perspectives applied to the analysis of the concepts of privacy to be: The units experiencing privacy. They go on to note â€Å"the unit experiencing privacy can be either an individual or a group, or both.† Desired – Achieved privacy. This is explained by the understanding that the concept of privacy is either seen as a subjective state or studied as an achieved state (Newell, 1998). Reactive – Proactive privacy. This is to say the control of communication and also the control of knowledge. Furthermore, they describe the dimensions of privacy to include: physical, psychological, social and informational thus, suggesting privacy dimensions to be made up of four quadrants of the diagram as shown in figure 2.1 below.. Source: Leino-Kilpi et al. (2001) It would be seen that in an open plan office all the dimensions of privacy as enumerated Figure 2.1 above are impinged upon; First, physical accessibility to the person is unrestricted. Secondly, the cognitive intrusions abound due to audio and visual distractions. Thirdly, it is more difficult to control social contacts for example, the choice of participants for interaction, the interaction frequency, length and content of the said interaction. Then finally, the ease with which certain private pieces of information about the person is easily accessible is a problem in open plan offices, after all, most open plan offices do not have a single route of access or a door to the work space. So, it is difficult to mark and protect ones territory and as such protect some form of private information from would be trespassers (Anjum, Paul and Ashcroft, 2004). In the light of these perspectives, one of the definitions of privacy suggested is that â€Å"privacy is a voluntary and temporary condition of separation from the public domain† (Newell, 1998, p. 357). Oldham, Kulick and Stepina (1991) highlighted the fact that individuals reacted negatively to environments characterized by few enclosures, closeness and high density because such environments exposed individuals to too many unwanted or uncontrolled intrusions. It is also agreed that, the perception of the work environment leads to satisfaction or dissatisfaction with the work and the work environment. Fischer, Tarquinio and Vischer (2004, p.132 ) posit that the there are three major categories of mediating influences on workplace satisfaction and these are, â€Å"individual differences like culture, age, professional or status, organizational context and environmental features.† All these issues could be further grouped into two; internal and external factors as relates to the individual. These two descriptions could be mapped to the two ingredients required for a need for privacy to exist i.e. a person or persons and a place. Sanders and McCormick (2002, p. 485) also point out that apart from the physical features of the built environment, â€Å"people are influenced by nonphysical features like social, cultural, technological, economic and political factors characteristic of the environment.† External Factors These are the place factors, usually described as the environmental or design issues which can lead to noise distractions, visual distractions, interruptions, crowding and accessibility issues (Ding, S. 2008). Due to the absence of internal walls, the low height of walls or partitions in open plan offices influences privacy; the more enclosures, the lower the people per given space and the higher the partitions, the higher the privacy perceived (Danielsson 2008; Oldham, G. R et al. 1991; Sundstrom, Herbert and Brown, 1982 etc.). Organizational context is also considered to be an external factor. This involves the type of industry involved by the organization. For example doctors consulting rooms should provide more audio privacy compared to an architectural firms offices or design studios. Internal Factors This grouping is based on the person factors or what goes on within the person, the suggestion that individual differences related to but not restricted to personality traits, gender, individual experience etc. affect ones perception of, and hence the evaluation of the work environment (external or place factors). Some studies have found that variations exist across gender in perception of privacy in the open plan office (Yildirim, Akalin-Baskaya and Celebi, 2007). Also, in a different cross cultural study of privacy, Newell (1998) found that privacy was more a condition of the person thus, the duration of the experience and the change on the person as a result of the experience leads to its suspected therapeutic effect. In general perceptions and attitudes to privacy, she found that gender also played a part especially within cultures. Maher and von Hippel (2005) and others before them showed that individual differences in the ability to handle overstimulation by the application stimulus screening and inhibitory abilities influenced the perceptions of the work environment. These inhibitory skills are cognitive in nature and such inhibitory skills are found to vary between individuals and even especially across cultures. For example, Hall (1966) points out that the Japanese are said to be content with paper walls as acoustic screens while the Dutch and Germans require thick walls and double doors to serve as acoustic screens. Benefits of Privacy in the work Environment Newell (1998, p. 359) relates the need for privacy to help in â€Å"maintaining healthy internal physiological and cognitive functioning subjectively described as ‘wellbeing’†. The study concluded that achieving the perceived privacy had some therapeutic effects. On the area of performance, especially for knowledge workers like engineers, accountants, software designers, decision makers etc., auditory and visual distraction have been found to be a cause of stress and even performance impairment (Roper and Juneja, 2008). Furthermore, Oommen, Knowles and Zhao (2008) point to the likelihood of aggression and increased instances of eye, nose and throat irritations while working in open plan environments. This in turn affects productivity. Culture Culture is said to be the way of life of a group of people. This, among other things covers their beliefs, values, norms and rituals. Specifically, Hofstede (2009 p. 1) points out that â€Å"culture is the collective programming of the mind that distinguishes the members of one group or category of people from the others and it manifests itself in the form of symbols, heroes, rituals and values.† Earlier, an American anthropologist Edward T. Hall in his books, talked about language and especially modes of communication as a point of differentiating cultures (Hall E.T 1966; 1976). He even considered language to be the core of culture while, Geert Hofstede considers language as a part of the rituals of a particular culture (Hofstede, 2010). This goes to point out some of the existing disagreements about what culture is and even how it comes about. Culture is thus, studied as a means of understanding or shedding light into the behavior or reactions of individuals or people groups. Edward Hall in his book; the hidden dimension writes that â€Å"people from different cultures inhabit different sensory worlds, so that experience, as it is perceived through one set of culturally patterned sensory screens is quite different from experience perceived through another.† (1966, p. 2). This highlights and explains the link between culture and perception generally and in spatial terms especially. Classifying Cultures There have been several descriptions and models of culture (Matsumoto and Yoo, 2006; Hall, 1966; 1970), for example, Hall (1966) alludes to contact and non-contact groups or cultures in relation to spatial meanings and preferences within people groups . This is related to the social dimension of privacy (Leino-Kilpi et al. 2001), but he especially specifies high and low context cultures according to their ways of communicating. For the high context (HC) culture or communication for that matter, much of the information is implicit while, in the low context (LC) culture, nearly everything is explicit. He also wrote about the concept of time among cultures (Hall, 1976). Where there are polychronic (P-time) and monochronic (M-Time) cultures; the M-time society or culture would prefer to do only one thing at a time when serious i.e. for such persons, time is linear and segmented with each activity scheduled while, the individuals in a P-time culture can juggle several activities, they emphasize the involvement of people and the completion of tasks rather than schedules. Edward T. Hall coined the term â€Å"Proxemics† which he describes as â€Å"interrelated observations and theories of mans use of space as a specialized elaboration of culture† Hall (1966 p. 1). In explaining his observations in proxemic behavior (Hall, 1963 p. 1003) he notes that â€Å"what is close to an American may be distant to an Arab.† Many other researchers and individuals apart from Edward Hall had worked on other frameworks and dimensions of culture. Matsumoto and Yoo, (2006) lists some of these frameworks which are interestingly identified by the names of the researchers that discovered them and this list which is not exhaustive, includes; Hofstedes (1980) with subsequent revisions and dimensions added; Schwartz (2004) who presented seven universal value orientations, Smith, Dugan and Trompenaars (1996) had two universal value orientations; House, Hanges, Javidan, Dorfman and Gupta (2003) came up with nine value orientations related to leadership; Inglehart (1997) had two attitude-belief-value orientations, Bond et al. (2004) is said to have reported two social axioms. All cited in Matsumoto and Yoo, (2006 p. 239). The listing above does not mention each of the dimensions. The dimensions of each framework listed are found in Table 2.1 below. Table 2.1 Six Theoretical Frameworks for Universal Dimensions of Cultural Variability Framework Dimensions Hofstede’s (2001) dimensions of  work-related values Individualism vs. collectivism Power distance Uncertainty avoidance Masculinity vs. femininity Long- vs. short-term orientation Schwartz’s (2004) dimensions of  values Embeddedness Hierarchy Intellectual autonomy Affective autonomy Egalitarianism Mastery Harmony Smith, Dugan, and Trompenaars’s  (1996) dimensions of values Egalitarian commitment vs. conservatism Utilitarian involvement vs. loyal involvement House, Hanges, Javidan, Dorfman, and  Gupta’s (2003) dimensions of  leadership values Performance orientation Assertiveness orientation Future orientation Human orientation Institutional collectivism Family collectivism Gender egalitarianism Power distance Uncertainty avoidance Inglehart’s (1997) dimensions of  attitudes, values, and beliefs Traditional vs. secular-rational orientation Survival vs. self-expression values Bond et al.’s (2004) dimensions  of social axioms (beliefs) Dynamic externality Societal cynicism Source: (Matsumoto, D and Yoo, S. H, 2006 p. 240) National versus Organizational culture As a society has a culture, so do organizations and such organizations employ staff who come from a particular culture(s). The organizations then require these individuals to work in offices. Apart from the culture description related to national boundaries, there is a culture that seems to characterize workplaces or organizations and this is called organizational or corporate culture. Barney (1986) notes that like culture itself, organizational culture has many competing definitions and then goes on to suggest that a generally acceptable definition of organizational culture to be â€Å"as a complex set of values, beliefs, assumptions, and symbols that define the way in which a firm conducts its business.† (p. 657). He goes on to point the pervasive nature of organizational culture in that, it helps to define the relationship of the firm to parties it comes in contact with through its business. This simply shows that culture within the work place especially geared towards profitability or the conferment of advantages could be termed organizational or corporate culture. Generally it will be assumed that the national culture will also play a part. Guidroz, Kotrba, and Denison (2009) from results of a study of multinational companies, claim that their study seems to point to organizational culture superseding national culture in diversity management practices. The issue in question in this thesis is not exactly a management matter but the individual perception of privacy in the open plan office environments and would suggest that both national and organizational cultures playing a part because according to (Brand, 2009) the design of the workspace or workplace communicates the corporate culture of the organization meaning, the adoption of the open plan environment can be tied to the organizations corporate culture. Hofstedes’ Cultural Dimensions This is a hugely popular cross-cultural model (Gerhart and Fang, 2005; Hofstede et al, 2010; Sivakumar, Nakata, 2001) currently in use, with its roots in industrial psychology (Meeuwesen, van den Brink-Muinen and Hofstede, 2009) is called the Hofstedes model of culture named after Geert Hofstede a Dutch emeritus Professor of organizational anthropology and international management in the Netherlands. Hofstedes work highlighted the fact that culture is manifested through symbols, heroes, rituals and values. But, Hofstede argues that values form the core of culture as represented by the Hofstede culture â€Å"Onion† in Figure 2.2. Figure 2.2 shows the onion structure graphically illustrating the manifestation of culture at different levels and even the interactions therein. As seen from Figure 2.2 above symbols, heroes and rituals are by themselves visible to all observers. It is the cultural meanings of the practices that are open to interpretation by the observer while, values are unseen or embedded within the person but they still subtly determine choices and much more (Hofstede et al., 2010). Hofstedes research studied value survey responses of similar respondents from different countries as to their approach, as related to four basic problems prevalent in most societies (Meeuwesen et. al, 2009) these included; Handling social inequalities in the society. The approach to dealing with uncertainty in general. The structure of the relationship between an individual and the group. The emotional role division between the male and females in a society. The initial data for Hofstedes culture study came about through an analysis of International Business Machine Company (IBM) staff surveys at a time, the company was called Hermes. He utilized the responses from routine staff surveys about values and related matters to provide ratings for countries on each of what he then called the four dimensions of culture. This was achieved by examining correlations between mean scores of questionnaire items at the level of countries. Other approaches, like analysis at the individual level did not provide much useful information (Hofstede, 2009). Later, certain studies showed the need for another dimension and this lead to the inclusion of a fifth dimension called, long term orientation. Each dimension of culture score for a country is calculated using a scale of roughly 0 to 100 for each dimension. A dimension of culture is an aspect of culture that can be measured relative to other cultures (Hofstede, 2009 p. 6) and the higher the score of a dimension, the more that dimension is exhibited in the society or nation in question while for lower scores the opposite pole of the dimension is more pronounced. Thus, the scores are therefore bipolar (Jones, 2007) In a 2010 book, Greet Hofstede, his son Gert Jan Hofstede and a research collaborator Micheal Minkov reviewed earlier works, alongside their recent studies and added a sixth dimension called indulgence versus restraint (IVR) to the previously known Hofstedes five dimensions of culture. The sixth dimension was largely as a result of the work of Micheal Minkov (Hofstede et al., 2010). The six dimensions of Hofstedes cultural model now include power distance (PDI), individualism (IDV), masculinity (MAS), uncertainty avoidance index (UAI), long term orientation (LTO), and the recently added indulgence (IVR). Power distance (PDI). This indicates the degree of inequality that exists and is accepted among the persons with and without power i.e. the leadership versus the followership respectively as normal and legitimate in any given society. If the power distance scores are high, it indicates a pyramidal or hierarchical system where the power is resident at the top while, lower scores indicate greater equality suggesting power is shared and spread within the group. Individualism (IDV). This is related to the se Analysis of Privacy Perception Among Open Plan Office Users Analysis of Privacy Perception Among Open Plan Office Users CHAPTER 1INTRODUCTION What is an Office? Offices are workspaces designed for regular use to achieve personal, group or organizational goals through the accomplishment of tasks. Sanders and McCormick, (2002) go on to state that these tasks can be grouped into cognitive, physical, social or procedural tasks. The office provides a location for contact and could also be a repository for tools, information and other resources required to meet business objectives. It is also a business resource, this a point most people fail to understand thus, the failure to properly design and evaluate work spaces. The work place or office is one of the places the modern man spends the bulk of his waking hours. Sanders and McCormick, (2002) say almost half of ones waking hours are spent in and around the office. This would provide explanation for research efforts into the design and utilization of offices. According to Myerson and Ross (2003) the office grew out of the factory and then followed the trend of bureaucratization of industry. Thus, offices have been viewed differently by users and companies. Some view it as an address, others as a necessary evil but to others it is considered to be an asset. Bjerrum and Bà ¸dker (2003) noted that the design of an office was mostly considered as a cost and done to support quiet work and also show peoples status. While the purpose of the â€Å"New office† is to be that of attracting and retaining staff as well as to revolutionalize corporate culture. Work places or offices have been described variously as; conventional, traditional, and closed or open plan offices. Some, group them as large or small, landscaped etc. (Sanders and McCormick, 2002). The general descriptions of workspaces fall under the categories of open plan and cellular offices and this is based on the architectural and functional features of the work spaces (Duffy, Laing and Crisp, 1992). Other descriptions and categorization of offices include the hive; which is suited to individual processes. The den; suited to group processes. The cell; designed for concentrated study while the club supports transactional knowledge (Sailer, Budgen, Lonsdale, Turner and Penn, 2009). There are other descriptions of office types for example, Myerson and Ross (2003) from an architectural point of view, showed that views of property and space as related to the office environment have been evolving and as such, they identify four thematic categories of offices namely: narrative which presents the â€Å"office as a brand experience.† Nodal where the â€Å"office as knowledge connector.† The neighborly theme sees the â€Å"office as a social landscape† and lastly nomadic â€Å"office as distributed work space† these grouping reflect more of necessity and corporate culture not necessarily a collection of generally practically replicable models. In another categorization of offices by Myerson and Ross (2006) is based on the fact that the offices evolved to suit knowledge workers, as such, the categories match each of the four â€Å"realms† of knowledge work namely: the academy â€Å"is likened to the corporate realm which is a more collegiate and collaborative approach to work†, guild â€Å"the professional realm in essence a professional cluster of peers sharing a skill or specialization†, agora â€Å"the public realm where the corporation is open to the city or the market place† and the lodge â€Å" the domestic or private realm more of the live and work setting†. In the general scheme of things offices are still broadly classified into open plan and private or cellular offices all other forms are variations of the two. Cellular Offices Also called closed offices, this type of offices are the traditional or conventional offices which are usually closed and private workspaces (Maher and von Hippel, 2005) i.e. they are designed with floor to ceiling walls, a door and dimensioned for a single user. This type of office is also called a cell-office and can be a shared room office, used by 2-3 persons (Danielsson, 2008). This has been the generally accepted, traditional or popular understanding of the place called an office. Open Plan Offices These are found to be a common workspace shared by a group of employees. The original concept of the open plan office has continued to evolve, but it is the absence of floor-to-ceiling walls that is said to be the primary characteristic of open-plan offices. The arrangements of office furniture, partitions, screens, office equipment, or plants mark out individual and functional work areas (Valesny and Farace, 1987). One of the strengths of the open plan office according to Bjerrum and Bà ¸dker (2003) is the openness and flexibility allowing one to move to where things are happening and allowing for â€Å"overhearing and over-seeing† (p. 207) thus enhancing peripheral participation. Other types of the open plan office include the bull pen office, action offices, landscaped offices (Sanders and McCormick, 2002). In the bull pen offices, the work desks are arranged in neat row as far as the eyes can see. In reality, most firms have a mix of office typologies ranging from cellular units designed for a single user to a small room office shared by a few people then the spaces shared with a large group with or without specifically assigned work places and with varying measures of visual and audio privacy. Recent Developments in Open Plan Offices It is safe to argue that, the open plan office has become increasingly popular (de Korte, Kuijt-Evers and Vink, 2007; Ding, 2008; Oldham and Brass, 1979; Pejtersen, Allermann, Kristensen and Poulsen, 2006 etc.) and several reasons could be advanced to explain the widespread adoption and use of the open plan offices and its variations. There is also a move to wards a reduction in open plan office workspaces especially in the United States of America due to the understanding that smaller workstations are cheaper to maintain (Dykes, 2011) this according to Veitch, Charles, Farley and Newsham (2007) is because there is a failure in understanding the full value of the physical office environment and related issues in open plan offices in particular. Advantages of open plan offices Searches through literature (Danielsson, 2008; Oldham and Brass, 1979; Pan and Micheal, 2007; Roper and Juneja, 2008; Valesny and Farace, 1987 etc.) present the following as reasons for the adoption of open plan offices. They include; Reduction in office space and cost decline: The price of real estate is predicated on the area rented and utilized. With organizations using rental spaces, it is cheaper to use the rented floor or floors as open plan offices. In most cases, the cost of partitioning is saved if an open plan set up is deployed fully or partly. Flexibility for organizational changes: The open plan office lends itself to easy restructuring of work areas. In most cases, it is easier to fit in one more members of staff (Sanders and McCormick, 2002). More efficient work flow and communication: Some jobs require continuous team work, face to face interaction and a relatively high level of routine procedures. For such work groups, the open plan office or variations thereof are usually recommended and deployed. The enhancement of some level of peripheral participation is one of the strengths of the open plan office. Possible enhancement of social facilitation: The enhancement of collaboration i.e. the fostering of a team spirit, where, work teams or task forces are close to one another and can quickly form a huddle to sort out problems without resorting to information technology provisions like the intercom, emails, phones, video conferencing or even the walk up to another office. Oldham and Brass, (1979) specifically examined interpersonal issues that included; intradepartmental and interdepartmental interaction, friendship opportunities, noting that supervisor and co worker feed back could be improved. Ease of supervision: There is an ease of supervision, in that, a look over the landscape of the office can give an idea as to who is present and what each member of staff is doing. Limitations of open plan offices. Regarding the limitations of open-plan office designs, Maher and von Hippel (2005) rightly point out the fact that in open plan office layouts â€Å"distractions and overstimulation are intrinsically linked to the design.† These issues have consistently been themain down sides of open plan offices and some of them include: Increased workplace noise (Pan and Michael, 2007). Increased disturbances and distractions. Increased feelings of crowding and loss of privacy. There is a reduction in autonomy and task identity and a reduction in supervisor and co worker feedback in certain cases (Oldham and Brass, 1979). One point of agreement in open plan office research is that there is a generally low level of perceived privacy in open plan offices, as interruptions and distractions of the visual and acoustic kind occur frequently in open plan offices. (Pejtersen et al. 2006; Roper and Juneja, 2008) Furthermore, researchers have observed that these negative outcomes resulting from the adoption of the open plan office design tends to result in dissatisfaction with work and the workplace thus, reducing functional efficiency, decreasing performance, especially, for non routine tasks and also, reduced feedback from supervisors due to some complexity with the freedom of communication (de Korte et al. 2007; Pejtersen et al. 2006; Sundstrom et al. 1982; Vischer, 2007 ). This understanding has led some organizations to begin returning to the traditional private offices i.e. with floor to ceiling partitions assigned to an individual (Roper and Juneja 2008). Evolving nature of office work Also worthy of note, is the evolution of work patterns. An increasingly large number of persons work mainly at or from home and visit the office sparingly. This has given rise to the several types of offices one of which is the flex-office, which is dimensioned for less than 70% of the total company staff to be in at the same time. Another design is the combi-office; where a member of staff is not assigned to a specific desk but sharing of common facilities provides the spatial definition of such an individuals work space i.e. the task and personnel at hand may determine the sitting arrangement of persons in the office (Danielsson, 2008). Thesis Overview The thesis is organized in to 5 chapters; Chapter one provides an introduction the concept of an office, its major types and variations. It then focuses on the open plan office and then highlights the strengths and limitations of the open plan office. Chapter two provides a literature review of the concept of privacy perception; it reviews the perceived benefits of privacy and then traces the expectation that privacy perception could be influenced by culture. Significant studies related to dissatisfaction with open plan offices are examined for possible links to culture. The discussion then moves to culture, its definition and then the attempts made in the classification of culture. The Hofstede paradigm is then discussed and some studies employing the paradigm are reviewed. The research motivation and hypotheses are presented. Chapter three discusses the methodology of the study, the survey method, issues noted and the challenge expected. The source and design of the questionnaire was presented and the analysis methods proposed. The statistical analysis tool was briefly introduced. Chapter four shows the procedure of the survey, documents the responses received, analyzed the data collected from the general information part of the questionnaire and then chronicles the statistical analysis of the second part of the questionnaire designed to elicit privacy perception in open plan office environments. Chapter five provides a discussion of the results obtained in chapter five and then presents the limitations of the current study while providing directions for further work. CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW This part of the thesis discusses the links between privacy perceptions and culture. It also includes definitions and explanations of some related terms. Lastly, it includes a presentation of some ideas relevant to the work and results of related studies. The chapter concludes with the research question, research hypothesis and the motivation for the study. Privacy Perception In order to facilitate a better understanding, the term â€Å"privacy† is defined firstly then the concept called â€Å"perception. According to the Merriam-Webster online dictionary (2011), privacy is said to be â€Å"the quality or state of being apart from company or observation†. Wikipedia defines perception as â€Å"the process of attaining awareness or understanding of sensory information.† It goes on to say â€Å"what one perceives is a result of interplays between past experiences, including one’s culture, and the interpretation of the perceived.† Privacy is a very difficult concept or construct to define not to talk of evaluating, it has commanded interest from the fields of anthropology, architecture, cultural geography, environmental design, ethology, history, law, philosophy, and sociology, as well as branches psychology such as; clinical, counseling, developmental, educational, environmental and social psychology (Newell, 1995; 1998). Newell (1995) in her extensive review of the concept of privacy divided the perspectives of privacy into, people centered, place centered and the person-environment or the person-place interaction with the primary interest on the place, people or equally on the person and place and or with the interaction itself. Leino-Kilpi et al. (2001 p. 664) in another review of literature on privacy noted that perspectives applied to the analysis of the concepts of privacy to be: The units experiencing privacy. They go on to note â€Å"the unit experiencing privacy can be either an individual or a group, or both.† Desired – Achieved privacy. This is explained by the understanding that the concept of privacy is either seen as a subjective state or studied as an achieved state (Newell, 1998). Reactive – Proactive privacy. This is to say the control of communication and also the control of knowledge. Furthermore, they describe the dimensions of privacy to include: physical, psychological, social and informational thus, suggesting privacy dimensions to be made up of four quadrants of the diagram as shown in figure 2.1 below.. Source: Leino-Kilpi et al. (2001) It would be seen that in an open plan office all the dimensions of privacy as enumerated Figure 2.1 above are impinged upon; First, physical accessibility to the person is unrestricted. Secondly, the cognitive intrusions abound due to audio and visual distractions. Thirdly, it is more difficult to control social contacts for example, the choice of participants for interaction, the interaction frequency, length and content of the said interaction. Then finally, the ease with which certain private pieces of information about the person is easily accessible is a problem in open plan offices, after all, most open plan offices do not have a single route of access or a door to the work space. So, it is difficult to mark and protect ones territory and as such protect some form of private information from would be trespassers (Anjum, Paul and Ashcroft, 2004). In the light of these perspectives, one of the definitions of privacy suggested is that â€Å"privacy is a voluntary and temporary condition of separation from the public domain† (Newell, 1998, p. 357). Oldham, Kulick and Stepina (1991) highlighted the fact that individuals reacted negatively to environments characterized by few enclosures, closeness and high density because such environments exposed individuals to too many unwanted or uncontrolled intrusions. It is also agreed that, the perception of the work environment leads to satisfaction or dissatisfaction with the work and the work environment. Fischer, Tarquinio and Vischer (2004, p.132 ) posit that the there are three major categories of mediating influences on workplace satisfaction and these are, â€Å"individual differences like culture, age, professional or status, organizational context and environmental features.† All these issues could be further grouped into two; internal and external factors as relates to the individual. These two descriptions could be mapped to the two ingredients required for a need for privacy to exist i.e. a person or persons and a place. Sanders and McCormick (2002, p. 485) also point out that apart from the physical features of the built environment, â€Å"people are influenced by nonphysical features like social, cultural, technological, economic and political factors characteristic of the environment.† External Factors These are the place factors, usually described as the environmental or design issues which can lead to noise distractions, visual distractions, interruptions, crowding and accessibility issues (Ding, S. 2008). Due to the absence of internal walls, the low height of walls or partitions in open plan offices influences privacy; the more enclosures, the lower the people per given space and the higher the partitions, the higher the privacy perceived (Danielsson 2008; Oldham, G. R et al. 1991; Sundstrom, Herbert and Brown, 1982 etc.). Organizational context is also considered to be an external factor. This involves the type of industry involved by the organization. For example doctors consulting rooms should provide more audio privacy compared to an architectural firms offices or design studios. Internal Factors This grouping is based on the person factors or what goes on within the person, the suggestion that individual differences related to but not restricted to personality traits, gender, individual experience etc. affect ones perception of, and hence the evaluation of the work environment (external or place factors). Some studies have found that variations exist across gender in perception of privacy in the open plan office (Yildirim, Akalin-Baskaya and Celebi, 2007). Also, in a different cross cultural study of privacy, Newell (1998) found that privacy was more a condition of the person thus, the duration of the experience and the change on the person as a result of the experience leads to its suspected therapeutic effect. In general perceptions and attitudes to privacy, she found that gender also played a part especially within cultures. Maher and von Hippel (2005) and others before them showed that individual differences in the ability to handle overstimulation by the application stimulus screening and inhibitory abilities influenced the perceptions of the work environment. These inhibitory skills are cognitive in nature and such inhibitory skills are found to vary between individuals and even especially across cultures. For example, Hall (1966) points out that the Japanese are said to be content with paper walls as acoustic screens while the Dutch and Germans require thick walls and double doors to serve as acoustic screens. Benefits of Privacy in the work Environment Newell (1998, p. 359) relates the need for privacy to help in â€Å"maintaining healthy internal physiological and cognitive functioning subjectively described as ‘wellbeing’†. The study concluded that achieving the perceived privacy had some therapeutic effects. On the area of performance, especially for knowledge workers like engineers, accountants, software designers, decision makers etc., auditory and visual distraction have been found to be a cause of stress and even performance impairment (Roper and Juneja, 2008). Furthermore, Oommen, Knowles and Zhao (2008) point to the likelihood of aggression and increased instances of eye, nose and throat irritations while working in open plan environments. This in turn affects productivity. Culture Culture is said to be the way of life of a group of people. This, among other things covers their beliefs, values, norms and rituals. Specifically, Hofstede (2009 p. 1) points out that â€Å"culture is the collective programming of the mind that distinguishes the members of one group or category of people from the others and it manifests itself in the form of symbols, heroes, rituals and values.† Earlier, an American anthropologist Edward T. Hall in his books, talked about language and especially modes of communication as a point of differentiating cultures (Hall E.T 1966; 1976). He even considered language to be the core of culture while, Geert Hofstede considers language as a part of the rituals of a particular culture (Hofstede, 2010). This goes to point out some of the existing disagreements about what culture is and even how it comes about. Culture is thus, studied as a means of understanding or shedding light into the behavior or reactions of individuals or people groups. Edward Hall in his book; the hidden dimension writes that â€Å"people from different cultures inhabit different sensory worlds, so that experience, as it is perceived through one set of culturally patterned sensory screens is quite different from experience perceived through another.† (1966, p. 2). This highlights and explains the link between culture and perception generally and in spatial terms especially. Classifying Cultures There have been several descriptions and models of culture (Matsumoto and Yoo, 2006; Hall, 1966; 1970), for example, Hall (1966) alludes to contact and non-contact groups or cultures in relation to spatial meanings and preferences within people groups . This is related to the social dimension of privacy (Leino-Kilpi et al. 2001), but he especially specifies high and low context cultures according to their ways of communicating. For the high context (HC) culture or communication for that matter, much of the information is implicit while, in the low context (LC) culture, nearly everything is explicit. He also wrote about the concept of time among cultures (Hall, 1976). Where there are polychronic (P-time) and monochronic (M-Time) cultures; the M-time society or culture would prefer to do only one thing at a time when serious i.e. for such persons, time is linear and segmented with each activity scheduled while, the individuals in a P-time culture can juggle several activities, they emphasize the involvement of people and the completion of tasks rather than schedules. Edward T. Hall coined the term â€Å"Proxemics† which he describes as â€Å"interrelated observations and theories of mans use of space as a specialized elaboration of culture† Hall (1966 p. 1). In explaining his observations in proxemic behavior (Hall, 1963 p. 1003) he notes that â€Å"what is close to an American may be distant to an Arab.† Many other researchers and individuals apart from Edward Hall had worked on other frameworks and dimensions of culture. Matsumoto and Yoo, (2006) lists some of these frameworks which are interestingly identified by the names of the researchers that discovered them and this list which is not exhaustive, includes; Hofstedes (1980) with subsequent revisions and dimensions added; Schwartz (2004) who presented seven universal value orientations, Smith, Dugan and Trompenaars (1996) had two universal value orientations; House, Hanges, Javidan, Dorfman and Gupta (2003) came up with nine value orientations related to leadership; Inglehart (1997) had two attitude-belief-value orientations, Bond et al. (2004) is said to have reported two social axioms. All cited in Matsumoto and Yoo, (2006 p. 239). The listing above does not mention each of the dimensions. The dimensions of each framework listed are found in Table 2.1 below. Table 2.1 Six Theoretical Frameworks for Universal Dimensions of Cultural Variability Framework Dimensions Hofstede’s (2001) dimensions of  work-related values Individualism vs. collectivism Power distance Uncertainty avoidance Masculinity vs. femininity Long- vs. short-term orientation Schwartz’s (2004) dimensions of  values Embeddedness Hierarchy Intellectual autonomy Affective autonomy Egalitarianism Mastery Harmony Smith, Dugan, and Trompenaars’s  (1996) dimensions of values Egalitarian commitment vs. conservatism Utilitarian involvement vs. loyal involvement House, Hanges, Javidan, Dorfman, and  Gupta’s (2003) dimensions of  leadership values Performance orientation Assertiveness orientation Future orientation Human orientation Institutional collectivism Family collectivism Gender egalitarianism Power distance Uncertainty avoidance Inglehart’s (1997) dimensions of  attitudes, values, and beliefs Traditional vs. secular-rational orientation Survival vs. self-expression values Bond et al.’s (2004) dimensions  of social axioms (beliefs) Dynamic externality Societal cynicism Source: (Matsumoto, D and Yoo, S. H, 2006 p. 240) National versus Organizational culture As a society has a culture, so do organizations and such organizations employ staff who come from a particular culture(s). The organizations then require these individuals to work in offices. Apart from the culture description related to national boundaries, there is a culture that seems to characterize workplaces or organizations and this is called organizational or corporate culture. Barney (1986) notes that like culture itself, organizational culture has many competing definitions and then goes on to suggest that a generally acceptable definition of organizational culture to be â€Å"as a complex set of values, beliefs, assumptions, and symbols that define the way in which a firm conducts its business.† (p. 657). He goes on to point the pervasive nature of organizational culture in that, it helps to define the relationship of the firm to parties it comes in contact with through its business. This simply shows that culture within the work place especially geared towards profitability or the conferment of advantages could be termed organizational or corporate culture. Generally it will be assumed that the national culture will also play a part. Guidroz, Kotrba, and Denison (2009) from results of a study of multinational companies, claim that their study seems to point to organizational culture superseding national culture in diversity management practices. The issue in question in this thesis is not exactly a management matter but the individual perception of privacy in the open plan office environments and would suggest that both national and organizational cultures playing a part because according to (Brand, 2009) the design of the workspace or workplace communicates the corporate culture of the organization meaning, the adoption of the open plan environment can be tied to the organizations corporate culture. Hofstedes’ Cultural Dimensions This is a hugely popular cross-cultural model (Gerhart and Fang, 2005; Hofstede et al, 2010; Sivakumar, Nakata, 2001) currently in use, with its roots in industrial psychology (Meeuwesen, van den Brink-Muinen and Hofstede, 2009) is called the Hofstedes model of culture named after Geert Hofstede a Dutch emeritus Professor of organizational anthropology and international management in the Netherlands. Hofstedes work highlighted the fact that culture is manifested through symbols, heroes, rituals and values. But, Hofstede argues that values form the core of culture as represented by the Hofstede culture â€Å"Onion† in Figure 2.2. Figure 2.2 shows the onion structure graphically illustrating the manifestation of culture at different levels and even the interactions therein. As seen from Figure 2.2 above symbols, heroes and rituals are by themselves visible to all observers. It is the cultural meanings of the practices that are open to interpretation by the observer while, values are unseen or embedded within the person but they still subtly determine choices and much more (Hofstede et al., 2010). Hofstedes research studied value survey responses of similar respondents from different countries as to their approach, as related to four basic problems prevalent in most societies (Meeuwesen et. al, 2009) these included; Handling social inequalities in the society. The approach to dealing with uncertainty in general. The structure of the relationship between an individual and the group. The emotional role division between the male and females in a society. The initial data for Hofstedes culture study came about through an analysis of International Business Machine Company (IBM) staff surveys at a time, the company was called Hermes. He utilized the responses from routine staff surveys about values and related matters to provide ratings for countries on each of what he then called the four dimensions of culture. This was achieved by examining correlations between mean scores of questionnaire items at the level of countries. Other approaches, like analysis at the individual level did not provide much useful information (Hofstede, 2009). Later, certain studies showed the need for another dimension and this lead to the inclusion of a fifth dimension called, long term orientation. Each dimension of culture score for a country is calculated using a scale of roughly 0 to 100 for each dimension. A dimension of culture is an aspect of culture that can be measured relative to other cultures (Hofstede, 2009 p. 6) and the higher the score of a dimension, the more that dimension is exhibited in the society or nation in question while for lower scores the opposite pole of the dimension is more pronounced. Thus, the scores are therefore bipolar (Jones, 2007) In a 2010 book, Greet Hofstede, his son Gert Jan Hofstede and a research collaborator Micheal Minkov reviewed earlier works, alongside their recent studies and added a sixth dimension called indulgence versus restraint (IVR) to the previously known Hofstedes five dimensions of culture. The sixth dimension was largely as a result of the work of Micheal Minkov (Hofstede et al., 2010). The six dimensions of Hofstedes cultural model now include power distance (PDI), individualism (IDV), masculinity (MAS), uncertainty avoidance index (UAI), long term orientation (LTO), and the recently added indulgence (IVR). Power distance (PDI). This indicates the degree of inequality that exists and is accepted among the persons with and without power i.e. the leadership versus the followership respectively as normal and legitimate in any given society. If the power distance scores are high, it indicates a pyramidal or hierarchical system where the power is resident at the top while, lower scores indicate greater equality suggesting power is shared and spread within the group. Individualism (IDV). This is related to the se

Comparing the Role of Women in Taming of the Shrew and Twelfth Night :: comparison compare contrast essays

The Role of Women in Taming of the Shrew and Twelfth Night      Ã‚   Many critics have lambasted the female characters in Shakespeare's plays as two-dimensional and unrealistic portrayals of subservient women.   Others have asserted that the roles of women in his plays were prominent for the time and culture that he lived in.   Two works, Taming of the Shrew, and Twelfth Night, stand out particularly well in regards to Shakespeare's use of female characters.   After examining these two plays, one will see that Shakespeare, though conforming to contemporary attitudes of women, circumvented them by creating resolute female characters with a strong sense of self.        Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   The Taming of the Shrew is one of Shakespeare's most famous plays, and has weathered well into our modern era with adaptations into popular television series such as Moonlighting.   For all the praises it has garnered throughout the centuries, it is curious to note that many have considered it to be one of his most controversial in his treatment of women.     The "taming" of Katherine has been contended as being excessively cruel by many writers and critics of the modern era.   George Bernard Shaw himself pressed for its banning during the 19th century (Peralta).   The subservience of Katherine has been labeled as barbaric, antiquated, and generally demeaning.  Ã‚   The play centers on her and her lack of suitors.   It establishes in the first act her shrewish demeanor and its repercussions on her family.   It is only with the introduction of the witty Petruchio as her suitor, that one begins to see an evolution in her char acter.  Ã‚   Through an elaborate charade of humiliating behavior, Petruchio humbles her and by the end of the play, she will instruct other women on the nature of being a good and dutiful wife.      Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   In direct contrast to Shrew, is Twelfth Night, whose main female protagonist is by far the strongest character in the play.   The main character Viola, has been stranded in a foreign land and adopts the identity of her brother so that she might live independently without a husband or guardian.   She serves as a courtier to a young, lovesick nobleman named Orsino.   Throughout the play she plays as a go-between for him to the woman he loves.   In the course of her service, she falls in love with him.   Only at the end, does she renounce her male identity and declares her love for him.

Vertigo Essay -- essays papers

Vertigo The Alfred Hitchcock film; Vertigo is a narrative film that is a perfect example of a Hollywood Classical Film. I will be examining the following characteristics of the film Vertigo: 1)individual characters who act as casual agents, the main characters in Vertigo, 2)desire to reach to goals, 3)conflicts, 4)appointments, 5)deadlines, 6)James Stewart’s focus shifts and 7)Kim Novak’s characters drives the action in the film. Most of the film is viewed in the 3rd person, except for the reaction shots (point of view shot) which are seen through the eyes of the main character.(1st person) The film has a strong closure and uses continuity editing(180 degree rule). The stylistic (technical) film form of Vertigo makes the film much more enjoyable. The stylistic film form includes camera movements, editing, sound, mise-en-scene and props. Vertigo is an Alfred Hitchcock film that was made in 1958. It stars James Stewart as Detective John Ferguson and Kim Novak as Madeleine Ellester and Judy Barden. In Vertigo, John Ferguson has a fear of heights that results in the death of his partner. Due to this situation, he leaves the police force and became a Private Investigator. Ferguson is contact by Gavin Ellester an old college buddy. Gavin asks Ferguson to follow his wife who he believes has gone mad. Gavin believes his wife Madeleine is being possessed by her great grandmother Corlata Valdez. He explains why he has come to this conclusion and fills John Ferguson in on all the details of the case. Mr. Ferguson questions the integrity of the story, but still accepts the case. When he starts to spy on Madeleine, he begins to notice changes in her personality and similarities to Corlata Valdez's past. One day when John Ferguson was following Madeleine, he saw her jump into San Francisco Bay. After he rescued her, he brought her back to his house and cared for her. Afterwards he and Madeleine started to spend time together. They began to fall in love and Madeleine became more insane. She started to see images from Corlata's past. Madeleine started to live the life of Corlata Valdez and had visions from her life. One day John and Madeleine went to an old Spanish missionary outside San Francisco, which Madeleine had seen in one of her images. When they arrived at their destination Madeleine began to remember things from Corlata's early life and became hyster... ... the mise-en-scene are the from the beginning of the film. Throughout the film I was aware of the locations. The San Francisco setting was presented to the viewer in the beginning and that made the audience more aware of the film's environment. The monastery and other locations of Corlata's past gave me a better understanding of Madeleine’s problem. The make-up and costume play an important part in the recreation scenes, while the props assisted the audience and John Ferguson in piecing the puzzle together and figuring out Gain’s plan. The lighting enhanced many scenes in the film. The parts that impressed me were the following: the recreation of Madeleine scene, John's dream sequence, the monastery scenes, Judy's guilt trip and the scenes involving John's fear of heights. In conclusion, all these factors made Vertigo a great film and made it much more enjoyable for the audience. All the Hollywood Classical Film characteristics that are used in the film enhance the power of Vertigo. Everyone should see Vertigo, since it is a perfect example of a Hollywood Classical Film. In my opinion Alfred Hitchcock was a genius and Vertigo is one of the greatest Hollywood films ever created.

The Road to Abolishing HUAC Essay -- ACLU American Civil Liberties Uni

The Road to Abolishing HUAC: A Comparison of the American Civil Liberties Union and the Emergency Civil Liberties Committee The history of the United States in the twentieth century was significantly influenced by the actions of civil liberties organizations. However, during the reign of the House of Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) in the 1950s, civil liberties organizations compromised their principles and did not protest HUAC’s repression of civil liberties. The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) purged its Communist members and sympathizers, condoned congressional investigating committees, and failed to defend individuals whose civil liberties had been abridged. Although the ACLU sought to censure McCarthy and called for the abolition of HUAC, its policies had shifted to the right and it rarely took direct action against HUAC. As a result, several former members of the ACLU created the Emergency Civil Liberties Committee (ECLC) in 1951 to pick up the initiative dropped by the ACLU. Corliss Lamont, a fervent defender of civil liberties who left the ACLU for the ECLC, cla ims that he â€Å"remained on the Board [of the ALCU] and fought for fundamental civil liberties principles as long as [he] was able to†¦[but] was fighting a losing battle† (Freedom 278). By 1957, the ECLC dedicated its resources to abolishing HUAC but could not engage the ACLU in its campaign. One questions why the ECLC was active in the condemnation of HUAC in the 1950s, but the ACLU was not. Historians have cited anti-Communism within the Union, a desire to preserve its reputation, and the Union’s lack of resources as reasons why it was not involved in an abolition campaign. Research best supports the claim that the ACLU did not joi... ...LU. Carbondale: Southern Illinois UP, 1999. Samuel Walker is a Professor of Criminal Justice at the University of Nebraska at Omaha. He earned a Ph.D. in American History and is the author of books on civil liberties, policing, and criminal justice. He is also a member of the ACLU and this book is recommended in Ellen Shrecker’s Age of McCarthyism. He claims the ACLU was inactive during the Cold War because of weak leadership, poor judgement, an effort to keep the ACLU free of communism, and the belief that cooperation with the government was the best way to defend civil liberties. That he is a member of the ACLU lends questions to the objectivity of his analysis; William Donohue notes that the book â€Å"demonstrates as much independence of thought as would a tract written by a senior member of the Pentagon on the history of the Department of Defense†.