Leader-Member Exchange theory of leadership Essay Example for Free

Leader-Member Exchange theory of leadership Essay The Leader-Member Exchange theory of leadership (Also known as LMX, LMET or Vertical Dyad Linkage Theory) is a type of leadership theory that focuses on the dyadic relationship between leader and follower where the leader treats individual followers differently, resulting in two groups of followers—an in-group and an out-group. The in-group consists of a small number of trusted followers with whom the leader usually establishes a special higher quality exchange relationship. The out-group includes the followers with whom the relationship of the leader remains more formal. It focuses on increasing organizational success by creating positive relations between the leader and subordinate (follower). The theory asserts that leaders do not interact with subordinates uniformly. ‘In-group’ followers perform their jobs in accordance with the employment contracts and can be counted on by the supervisor to perform unstructured tasks, to volunteer for extra work, and to take on additional responsibilities. Supervisors exchange personal and positional resources (inside information, influence in decision making, task assignment, job latitude, support, and attention) in return for subordinates’ performance on unstructured tasks. High LMX relationship achieves increased mutual trust, confidence, job satisfaction, organizational commitment, common bonds, open communication, independence respect, rewards recognition and hence benefits both the organisation and the employee. Recognizing the existence of the in-group and out-group, could be discriminating against the out-group thus affecting employee turnover based on bad-quality LMX and job dissatisfaction. This is because members of ‘out-group’ Example of an organization that has successfully used this theory is ‘E-Myth Worldwide’

Analysing the Indian airline Jet airways and its management

Analysing the Indian airline Jet airways and its management Jet Airways is owned by London based billionaire Mr. Naresh Goyal and is a major Indian airline based in Mumbai, Maharashtra. It is Indias largest airline and the market leader in the domestic sector having market share around 27%. It operates over 400 flights daily to 71 destinations worldwide including 47 domestic destinations and 24 international destinations in 19 countries across southern Africa, Asia, Europe and North America. The fleet includes Boeing 737, ATR 72-500s, Airbus A330-200, and Boeing 777-300ER. Jet airways has been repeated adjudged Indias best airlines and won many national and international awards. Company took over Air Sahara in the year 2007 and renamed it as Jetlite. Deal was valued around US$ 500 millions and was largest in the history of Indian aviation. Jetlite is marketed between low cost airlines and full service airlines. Jet Airways is one of the youngest aircraft fleet in the world. Average age of the fleet is only 4.82 years only. The airline industry  exists in an  intensely competitive market. In recent years, there has been an industry-wide shakedown, which will have far-reaching effects on the industrys trend towards expanding domestic and international services. The major development in airline industry is the rapid expansion of global alliance. Such alliances led to provide extended services to customers and sharing cost like airport lounges. Jet airways products Major Products:- Tourist travellers to exotic destination Business travellers to all corner of the world Offering through Tie up with resorts and hotels (Packaged deal) Tie ups with local transportations (like with Hertz for local taxis) On Board shopping Associated Products: Currency exchange windows on major airports Cargo services to domestic and international destinations Jet airways customers The customers are segmented into business travellers and tourist travellers. The business travellers are mainly service driven and loyalty depends upon on-time flight schedule, convenience, privileged treatment and loyalty bonus. Customers of this segment are regular and do not shift very easily. The Tourist travellers are price sensitive and sometimes one time customers. They chose flight of destination to destination. Facilities like wide network through alliance partners, on- board services, lounges will always keep stay ahead in completion. Service management: What Company has decided to provide quality and premium and world class airline service at competitive price to passengers. Business travellers who have a priority to maintain timeline, looking for a comfort and convenience and willing to pay premium price. Also for leisure travelers and economy class passengers, they have a no frill segment with convenient in flight paid services. How Offering in time service in new age aircraft with better in-flight service during the traveling and taking care of passenger from booking ticket to ensure safe and comfort travel to reach at final destination. Where: In National and International travel sector When: Already in existence, however it is an evolving process and can be modified depending on the customer expectation. Why: To remain a preferred choice of Airline, which will benefitted for a growth prospects and enhance market share. Jet airways services: Service process design at JET AIRWAYS are designed after taking due consideration of customer segment and requirements to enhance customer satisfaction level. While delivering the service, an emphasized to keeping low cost and always striving to improve efficiency. On Ground Services >>> Check in Options Airport lounges Coach Bus services Immigration services In flight services >>> Entertainment Magazines Cuisines Convenience and safety Assistance >>> Medical assistance Assistance to unaccompanied minors Assistance for infants Assistance for elderly / disabled people Other services >>> Mobile updates Boarding card freebies Customer friendly services like mobile services Customer Delight approach in Jet airways Jet airways moving beyond customer satisfaction and endeavouring for customer delight. The entire organisation is working for creating customer loyalty and relationships which drives business growth and profitability. Service manager believes that customer satisfaction levels can be enhanced through effective customer complaint redressal system and delivering the promise, providing a personal touch, going the extra mile and resolving problems well. The customer feedback or listening customer voices through customer satisfaction index, customer feedback, market research, listening to frontline personnel and strategic activities involving customers. Each flight ensures customer feedbacks and service managers ensure feedback from different segment of customers. Customer complaints / feedback are helpful in providing opportunities for continuous improvements in product offerings, quality and customer services. Effective complaint management creates more customer retention than consistent satisfaction. When customer dissatisfaction addressed, such customers become more loyal to the organization and also provides more opportunities and challenges. Customer complaints can help in learn about meeting their expectations and needs, and enable to build a customer-oriented organization. Good customer feedback system will help in institutionalize learning and continuous improvement. Design and implement fully integrated feedback system followed by focused approach towards gathering customer feedback and integrating it with the companys approach and business strategies ensure improvised services for customers. Organization needs to know what customers are saying. Human Resource Management and Culture in Jet airways The concept of HRM includes recruitment, training, compensation and performance appraisal. Human resource management defines relationship between employees and organization through processes, practices and guidelines. The role of the HR department in Jet airways to create effectiveness in service system Increase effectiveness through job security, training and rewards lead to job satisfaction and motivation. Monitor and evaluate job performance, enhance job role to maintain excitement and reward the employees for their excellence Reward for long-term commitment Employees need to be treated in main stream of organisation Jet Airways gives high priority on HRM to provide essential services to the customer satisfaction and enhance shareholders value. Operates within adopted code of conduct and ethics, abide by law, rules and regulations of the stock exchange. Every employee including directors required to become familiar with code of conduct. Proper training to front end and back end staff Ensuring the basic skills and competencies to handle customer while check in and on board Each employee should avoid using his/her private interest while performing the duty objectively and effectively. Ambiguity and conflict resolution with fair and justifiable manner Reward and recognition as per the aviation industry practice Qualified and skilled crew members The HR practices like job design, employee empowerment, training, remuneration and careful selection processes lead to satisfied employees who deliver high levels of service quality. The employee motivation is critical to the results of the service delivered. The cycles of success and failure are based on the intertwined roles of employees and customers. The employees attitudes and behaviours are affected by human resource (HR) practices which further led to influence customers attitudes and ultimately impact the profitability. Higher employees satisfaction and motivation enhance service deliverance of individual and achieve higher service quality as well as lower employee turnover. It improves the customers perception and makes them more satisfied which further turn to loyal customer. Hence Jet airways became preferred choice of travellers and contribute to profitability. The HR practices like job design, employee empowerment, training, salary and careful selection processes lead to satisfied employees who deliver high levels of service quality. The Effective HR involvement in Jet Airways is the key to having a competent and committed workforce. The recruitment, training and competency development, performance monitoring and rewards and recognition are the key areas where Jet Airways implement effective HR policies to achieve a high quality workforce and high quality service experience for the Customer. The role of HR practices in airlines industry is competency development, employee empowerment, and collaboration. The service delivery gap is the performance gap when employees are unable and/or unwilling to perform the service at the desired level. The major factors which contributes to the performance gap are teamwork, employee-job fit, technology-job fit, perceived control, supervisory control systems, role conflict and role ambiguity The competent employee in Jet airways means first need to understand the importance of technical skills, behaviours and employee attitudes for specific roles and then hiring the right people and identifying strategies to develop them into excellent service providers. The greatest challenges for services managers in Jet airways are to develop employees to manage the complexity and conflicting demands of their roles. Frontline employees have to simultaneously meet customers expectations and organizational priorities. Sometimes demand of difficult customers can lead to feelings of stress, conflict and Frustration. The role stress has a negative impact on performance in terms of employees commitment, satisfaction, productivity and ability to deliver service quality to customers. Factors Contributing to Work Stress are role conflict, role ambiguity and role overload. The role stress can be reduced through leadership, empowerment and formalization. Collaboration among employees within organisation enables them to find solutions for critical and unforeseen problems. Sharing of experience and war stories enables people to learn. Collaborative team approach among employees in Jet airways is more important due to many services deliverance exhibit variability. The variables depend upon customers wants / needs, the frontline employees abilities/ attitudes and organizational support. Managers are unable to develop routines, procedures and manuals to deal with every contingency. Employees help and learn from one another through their experience. Employee Empowerment is a HR practice that gives the employees the authority to use decision making when confronted with diverse customer requests. One of service management principle is Decision-making authority as close as possible to the customer interface. It empowers employees for making decision, give employees the authority to use judgment and make prompt decisions when confronted with diverse customer requests. It leads to higher levels of job satisfaction and employee commitment. Employee Empowerment helps in customer satisfaction and employee motivation. Performance management system Performance measurement systems in Jet airways include various aspects on performance like financial, non financial and are customer-driven. A performance measure has to be integrated and balanced. The Balanced Scorecard comprises of financials, internal business, Innovation Learning and Customer. The Balance Score Card helps managers to stay focused on their strategy and objectives in line of organizations goals. Financial: Year on Year increase in companys revenue and profitability. Increase in market share Increase/ decrease in Customer segment Value creation for shareholders Lost baggage claim Any Accident/ technical faults Non Financial: Geography expansion Addition in number of flights, size of carriers Perceived value and image Corporate social responsibility (CSR) Employee attrition rate Customer Satisfaction Levels: Customer satisfaction survey Average Passenger per flight (Increase/decrease) Word of mouth service experience Code sharing with another carrier Round trip package for business and economy travelers Complimentary solution for hotels, taxi and site trip Steps for an integrated and balanced performance measurement system Work out vision and strategic performance measure Communicate performance measure Set out objectives sync with performance measures Integration in system and evaluation Strategic learning Value creation for customers and Service Innovation in service industry like Jet airways is driven by customer feedback. Efficient delivery of services, quality of delivery followed by performance put service organizations ahead in competition. Customer feedback gives an opportunity to understand customer need, formulate improved differentiated services and deliver effectively. Integration of cross functional thinking in process of creating value added services for customer gives opportunity to involve people is mission of the organisation. Jet airways made tie ups with various services like rent a car, hotels, shopping, dining in restaurant. Boarding pass of flight extends discounts from various premier outlets ranges 15% to 50%. Innovation gives competitive advantages to the organizations and also helps in sustain the desired performance. Innovation described as continually renewing offering (Products services). Diversity in work force that always willing to accepts new age technology and implement in deliverance resulted in scaling performance of the organization. A competitive advantage means distinctive competencies or capabilities and perceived differently by customers and stake holders. The competitive advantages can be offered through cost leadership, create differentiation and focus on specific product / market / customer segment. The sources of competitive advantages of Jet airways are superior skills, distinctive capabilities and outstanding resources .These sources of competitive advantage enable to offer superior customer value and leads to customer loyalty and profits. Competitive forces challenge the quality and delivery of products by imitation and substitutes. The competitive advantages are sustainable through ability to deliver high levels of service quality, manage higher productivity and efficiency and having a large base of loyal customers. Jet airways is commanding leadership position in Business traveller segment due to On time flight schedules and widest network. Tie ups with resorts hotels of exotic destination gives edge to jet airways in tourist travellers segment. This segment prefers product basket offerings which includes air travel, Resort / hotel arrangement and local conveyance. The sustainability of competitive advantages are challenged by technology, human resource skill, and capacity capability to deliver services The increasing participation of customers, the role of IT and the diminishing evidence for the traditional characteristics of services such as inseparability and heterogeneity are important in maintaining a sustained competitive advantage. Setting the highest standards ever seen in Indian skies, Jet Airways introduces delicious new menus, Jet airways become Indias first airline to offer In-flight entertainment and Jet mobile services, web check- in, self check in services at airport are few exceptional services offered. Jet Konnect flights offered low fares to the price sensitive customer segment. Excellent deliverance of comfort, entertainment and cuisine made jet airways one of the finest airlines in Indian skies. Productivity and efficiency is another aspect which makes customer delighted. The various factors affecting efficiency are: Individuals mood at work, health and well-being. Enhance relationships with customers colleagues Streamline work design and work processes Improve the physical environment Increase perceived organizational support The productivity and efficiency can be increased while identifying and reducing waste in processes, and in gaining the most from peoples skills, increasing job control and encouraging inter-personal, collaborative relationships. Challenges ahead. Some of challenges in airline industry are service quality, customer value, changes in information technology, eliminating waste, managing productivity, combating competitive forces, and measuring and monitoring performance in different ways. As an organization has to identify profitable segment of customers and need to extend knowledge of customers so that invest in the groups that are likely to bring the most consistent returns. The growth and sustainability of organization is driven by the profitability of the customers and not their numbers alone and profitability changes with changes in the customer acquisition and retention strategies. Frontline service work is complex which involves interactions with others, using ever-advancing technology, conveying intangibles such as information and solutions to problems, managing processes and dealing with role stress. Future customer service professionals will need enhanced cognitive capabilities (technical process skills) and affective competencies (emotional interaction skills). Technology is facilitating in increased customer self-service and reducing human interaction. Customers are performing tasks themselves and routine, repetitive work is being replaced by technology. Employees are becoming more specialized, work will be more demanding, and they will need to be better equipped to manage complexity and relationships. E-services and advance technology impacts the way businesses interact with their customers. Inclusion of new technology is fast replacing the front desk executive and bringing the company-customer interface right on the customers desktop. Service industry is having challenge of delivering consistently high quality service and service manager are focusing on Realign strategy to accommodate shortened information chains, and changing customer demands and preferences. Redesign processes and reassemble operations taking account of what can and should be back-office and front-office. Restructure to accommodate new work, new technological interfaces.

Terrorism and the Fight for Freedom Essay -- Exploratory Essays Resear

The Fight for Freedom      Ã‚   Most of the time, when thinking back to the sixties, people remember hearing about things such as sex, drugs, and racism. However, what they often tend to overlook is the large emphasis "freedoms" had on the era. This does not just refer to the freedoms already possessed by every American of the time. This focuses on the youth's fight to gain freedom or break away from the values and ideas left behind by the older generation. While some authors when writing about the sixties give serious accounts of the youths' fights to obtain these freedoms, others tend to take a different and more dramatic approach to showing the struggles involved in these fights. Yet, all of the authors have the same basic values and messages in mind.   They all, more or less, aim to show the many freedoms which their generation was fighting for. These fights were used to help push for freedoms from areas such as society's rules and values, competition, living for others first, and the older generation's beliefs as a whole including the freedom to use drugs. The younger generation just wanted a chance to express their own views rather than having to constantly succumb to the values and rules left behind by the older generation.      Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   The two different approaches used by authors to express these views are often representative of the two main systems used by youths to help gain their freedoms. The first approach, taken by the Port Huron Statement and authors such as Gerzon, Reich, Revel and Gitlin, follows the ideals of the New Left. The New Left represents youths striving for political change through cultural means.   People are encouraged to work for their ideal... ...   The freedoms may not be fully there, but many of the beliefs and values behind the struggle to acquire those freedoms are still there.      Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   WORKS CITED          "The Port Huron Statement."   The New Left: A Documentary   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   History.   Ed. Massimo Teodori.   New York: The Bobbs-   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Merrill Co, 1969.    Reich, Charles A.   "The New Generation."   American Values in   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Transition.   Ed.   Robert C. Bannister.   New York:   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, Inc., 1972.    Rubin Jerry.   "Our Leaders Are Seven- Year Olds."   American   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Values in Transition.   Ed. Robert C. Bannister.   New   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, Inc., 1972.    Rubin, Jerry.   "We Are All Human Be-ins."   American Values in   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Transition.   Ed. Robert C. Bannister. New York: Harcourt   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Brace Jovanovich, Inc., 1972. Terrorism and the Fight for Freedom Essay -- Exploratory Essays Resear The Fight for Freedom      Ã‚   Most of the time, when thinking back to the sixties, people remember hearing about things such as sex, drugs, and racism. However, what they often tend to overlook is the large emphasis "freedoms" had on the era. This does not just refer to the freedoms already possessed by every American of the time. This focuses on the youth's fight to gain freedom or break away from the values and ideas left behind by the older generation. While some authors when writing about the sixties give serious accounts of the youths' fights to obtain these freedoms, others tend to take a different and more dramatic approach to showing the struggles involved in these fights. Yet, all of the authors have the same basic values and messages in mind.   They all, more or less, aim to show the many freedoms which their generation was fighting for. These fights were used to help push for freedoms from areas such as society's rules and values, competition, living for others first, and the older generation's beliefs as a whole including the freedom to use drugs. The younger generation just wanted a chance to express their own views rather than having to constantly succumb to the values and rules left behind by the older generation.      Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   The two different approaches used by authors to express these views are often representative of the two main systems used by youths to help gain their freedoms. The first approach, taken by the Port Huron Statement and authors such as Gerzon, Reich, Revel and Gitlin, follows the ideals of the New Left. The New Left represents youths striving for political change through cultural means.   People are encouraged to work for their ideal... ...   The freedoms may not be fully there, but many of the beliefs and values behind the struggle to acquire those freedoms are still there.      Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   WORKS CITED          "The Port Huron Statement."   The New Left: A Documentary   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   History.   Ed. Massimo Teodori.   New York: The Bobbs-   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Merrill Co, 1969.    Reich, Charles A.   "The New Generation."   American Values in   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Transition.   Ed.   Robert C. Bannister.   New York:   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, Inc., 1972.    Rubin Jerry.   "Our Leaders Are Seven- Year Olds."   American   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Values in Transition.   Ed. Robert C. Bannister.   New   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, Inc., 1972.    Rubin, Jerry.   "We Are All Human Be-ins."   American Values in   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Transition.   Ed. Robert C. Bannister. New York: Harcourt   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Brace Jovanovich, Inc., 1972.

A Judgment in Stone, by Ruth Rendell Essay -- Literary Analysis, Ruth

As human beings, our personalities determine our actions. In the novel, â€Å"A Judgment in Stone† by Ruth Rendell, Eunice Parchman and Joan Smith both possess two distinct personalities that fuel their hatred of the Coverdale family. Because of Eunice’s illiteracy and Joan’s insanity, they develop a mutual friendship that proves to be fatal for the Coverdale family. Eunice Parchman’s illiteracy drives her to kill the Coverdale family and leads to the discovery of her crime. Eunice is accused by Rendell of killing the Coverdale family because she cannot read or write (1). Because of the war, Eunice never learned to read, and as a result, she has shut herself out of the world. Rendell states at the opening of the novel, â€Å"Literacy is one of the cornerstones of civilization. To be illiterate is to be deformed. And the derision that was once directed at the physical freak may, perhaps more justly, descend upon the illiterate† (1). Eunice’s feeling of embarrassment in regards to her illiteracy causes her to misjudge the Coverdale famil. She insensitively prejudges their gestures of friendliness towards her as mockery of her illiteracy. Not only does her inability to read cause her to misjudge her victims’ sociability, but it also causes her to have a very limited imagination and little regard for others. Rendell states , â€Å"Illiteracy had dried up her sympathy and atrophied her imagination. That, along with what psychologists call affect, the ability to care about the feelings of others, had no place in her make-up† (42), in reference to Eunice’s heartlessness. Eunice’s hatred for literacy intensifies throughout the novel as she is faced with several tasks that require literacy, the ability that she does not possess. Rendell describes suc... ...ed of the upper class society and by extension the Coverdale family causes them to form a mutual bond which they both benefit from. Rendell describes their relationship, â€Å"Without letting on Eunice thought Joan brilliantly clever, to be relied on for help whenever she might be confronted by reading matter†¦ Without letting on, Joan saw Eunice eminently respectable, a possible bodyguard too if Norman (her husband) should ever attempt to carry out his feeble threat of beating her up†¦Ã¢â‚¬  (87). Fate is what brings Eunice and Joan together, and fate is what ultimately brings about the deaths of the Coverdale family. Works Cited Rendell, Ruth. A Judgement in Stone. Vintage; January 4, 2000

Undoing Stereotypes in the Movie, Dances With Wolves Essay examples --

Undoing Stereotypes in the Movie, Dances With Wolves Hollywood has helped create and perpetuate many different stereotypical images of the different races in the world. Those stereotypes still continue to affect the way we think about each other today and many of those stereotypes have been proven to be historically inaccurate. The movie Dances With Wolves, directed by actor Kevin Costner, does an excellent job in attempting to promote a greater acceptance, understanding, and sympathy towards Native American culture, instead of supporting the typical stereotype of Native Americans being nothing but brutal, blood thirsty savages. The film Dances With Wolves focuses mainly on one man named Jon Dunbar and his growing relationship with the Lakota Sioux Indian tribe. The Lakota Sioux Indian tribe migrated in the 1700's to different areas in South Dakota. For over one hundred and sixty years, the Lakota tribe held a massive piece of land in the plains to support their numerous herds of bison, which they also hunted in order to survive. They lived in the typical teepees and were exceptional horsemen, hunters, and warriors. They culture contained no written language and their heritage was trusted upon storytellers and drawings made on the bison hides. One bison hide could represent over fifty years of Lakota history. The film, Dances With Wolves, was very cleverly written in my opinion. For most of the introduction, before John Dunbar begins to get friendly with the Sioux Indians, you are given an emotional expression of hatred and dislike towards the Native American Indians as they are slowly introduced into the script. There were a few scenes of brutality and savagery that triggered these emotions. For example, there was a... ...ed along with many soldiers of the U.S. 7th cavalry at Wounded Knee, South Dakota, on December 29, 1890. As the years went on, many of the Indian tribes began to die away due to the lack of food, and the harsh winter conditions. I believe that Dances With Wolves did an excellent job of undoing the stereotypes that have been given to the Indians. Through this movie we realize that they did what they had to do in order to survive and provide for their family. They did what any other person would have done if they were put into the same situations. This movie did help us to understand, accept, and sympathize with the Indians. I hope that we as a people truly learn to observe a culture or a race before they actually start to criticize or stamp stereotypes on them. Works Cited: www.cabrillo.com.cc.ca.us www.wsws.org/arts/1998/jun1998/afi-j18.shtml      

Learning Organization Essay

The evolution of â€Å"Organizational Learning† has started in 1938 when John Dewey, in his book â€Å"Experience and Education†, publicized the concept of experiential learning as an ongoing cycle of activity. But, how did this concept emerge? Or, what does it really mean for the businesses? In order to understand this, we have to analyze the problems and needs. The core idea behind â€Å"learning organization† is that organizations of all kinds will not survive, let alone thrive, if they do not acquire an ability to adapt continuously to an increasingly unpredictable future. Or in other words, in order to survive and succeed for businesses, it is essential to establish or build stronger relationships with customers, where there are rapidly changing, turbulent and/or highly competitive market. Through learning, organizations may be better equipped to meet the challenges caused by continuous environmental turbulence. In addition, where products and processes can rapidly be copied, according to Arie de Geus, head of strategic planning department of Royal/Dutch Shell, the only real source of competitive advantage is to stimulate learning by employees. This may allow these individuals to identify new ways of working more closely with customers, which in turn permits the organization to differentiate itself from competition. However, the style of learning has to reflect the operational needs of the organization. For instance, a manufacturer which has adopted a transactional marketing style would probably choose to operate in a relatively stable market, produce standard components and focus primarily on offering adequate quality goods at a competitive price. In such circumstances, assuming that the organizational systems are based around repetition of routine procedures, the firm would probably be well advised to focus upon creating a single-loop learning environment as the most appropriate way fur sustaining employee development aimed at organizational efficiency. 2 On the other hand, in market situations where firms face periods of significant, discontinuous change and/or there is a desire to differentiate  the firm from competition through the adoption of a relationship marketing style, then possibly an incremental, more adaptive learning style, which is called double-loop learning may be more appropriate, so to involve the exploitation of new knowledge to evolve new practices, perspectives and operational frameworks. Figure 1: Single- vs. double-loop learning. II. DEFINITION OF LEARNING ORGANIZATIONS Keeping in mind what we have so far discussed, now let us check some definitions of the Learning Organizations. Peter M. Senge, who is also named as the father of this concept, describes learning organizations as organizations where people can continuously expand their capacity to create results which they truly desire. In such organizations, new and expansive patterns of thinking are nurtured, and collective aspiration is set free. Individuals learn to learn together. He declares â€Å"Deep down, we are all learners. It is not only our nature to learn, but we love to learn. â€Å" Chris Argyris and Donald Schon defined the concept of learning organizations through the help of the definition of organizational learning: where the process of â€Å"detection and correction of errors† rules. 3 Moreover, how de Geus defined learning organizations is very remarkable: â€Å"Forget your tired old ideas about leadership. The most successful corporation of the 1990s will be something called a learning organization? The ability to learn faster than your competitors, may be the only sustainable competitive advantage. â€Å" One last definition might be the one of Kim, D., â€Å"a learning organization is one that consciously manages its learning process through an inquiry-driven orientation among all its members†. III. FIVE DISCIPLINES OF SENGE I have already mentioned that Senge was called as the father of the concept of â€Å"Learning Organizations†. When he first published his book The Fifth Discipline: The Art & Practice of The Learning Organization in 1990, he caught a significant attention from academics and the business world. Peter M. Senge (1947- ) was named a ? Strategist of the Century’ by the Journal of Business Strategy, one of 24 men and women who have ? had the greatest impact on the way we conduct business today’. Moreover, Senge has founded the Center for Organizational Learning at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in 1991 while he is also the founding chairperson of the â€Å"Society for Organizational Learning† (SoL) and a senior lecturer at MIT. Being maybe the most important, namely the person having the most influence in Learning Organizations I will study his so called five disciplines in my project. 4 3. 1 PERSONAL MASTERY 3. 1. 1 Introduction to Personal Mastery  Senge says, â€Å"Organizations learn only through individuals who learn. Individual learning does not guarantee organizational learning. But without it no organizational learning occurs. † The people are the main active force in every aspect of the business. Since, people have their own will and mind, and their own way of thinking; it is essential that they be sufficiently motivated to challenge the goals of growth and complexity. In today’s practices, the manager should not be willing to dominate controlling, planning and organizing the workers activities. Instead they should be enabling the people in the business have their own enriching lives through establishing and maintaining the conditions needed. One should be living his own life from a creative viewpoint, so as to turn the life into a creative work. Personal Mastery is the phrase Senge and his colleagues use for the discipline of personal growth and learning. People with high levels of personal mastery are continually expanding their ability to create the results in life they truly seek. From their quest for continual learning comes the spirit of the learning organization. 3. 1. 1. 1 Mastery and Proficiency. There are two main underlying movements when personal mastery becomes a discipline, one of which is always continually making clear what is important for oneself, whereas the other movement is to continually learn how to see the current reality more clearly. It is vital to know where you are now in moving toward a desired destination. People with a high level of personal mastery share several basic characteristics, one of which is that they have a special sense of purpose that lies behind their visions and goals. 5 For such a person, a vision is an aspiration rather than simply a good idea. One other characteristic is that they live in a continual learning mode, where they never â€Å"arrive†. They know that personal mastery is not something one possesses, but is a process, a lifelong discipline. Those with a high level of personal mastery are acutely aware of their ignorance, their incompetence; and they know, or better to say truly believe that the journey itself is the reward. 3. 1. 1. 2 Why We Want It We want it because people with high levels of personal mastery are more committed, take more initiative, have a broader and deeper sense of responsibility in their work, and learn faster. Kazou Inamori, founder and chairman emeritus of Kyocera Corporation and president of the Inamori Foundation, who holds a bachelor of sciences in applied chemistry, says that â€Å"Our employees agreed to live in a community in which they would not exploit each other, but rather help each other so that we may each live our life fully. † 3. 1. 1. 3 Resistance One of the issues against the personal mastery is the resistance, which in turn is a valid fear for companies in which the managers couldn’t build a shared vision along with shared mental models. It is useless to have personal mastery as solely without other disciplines of the organizational learning. That’s why we always have to keep in mind that personal mastery must go together with a shared vision and the other disciplines. 6 3. 1. 2 The Discipline of Personal Mastery 3. 1. 2. 1 Personal Vision Most adults have goals and objectives, but these are not visions. Thus, we can say that most have little sense of real vision. When asked what they want, many adults will say what they want to get rid of, as if they delineate themselves as given-ups, rather than grown-ups. Senge points that â€Å"The ability to focus on ultimate intrinsic desires, not only on secondary goals, is a cornerstone of personal mastery. † Vision is different from purpose, since purpose is similar to a direction, a general heading, whereas vision is a specific destination, a picture of a desired future. Vision is the image of your desired future. It shouldn’t be confused with competition; it shouldn’t be isolated from the idea of one’s purpose. It is something which has personal aspects along with material aspects, such as where we want to live and how much of savings we want, or issues like health or freedom contribute, relatively. 3. 1. 2. 2 Holding Creative Tension One testimony of Senge says that there is something called the creative tension which is the source of energy derived from the gap between one’s vision and where it stands in reality. This gap can push someone forward to get closer to the vision; however it might also discourage some other people, so as to leading to feelings and emotions associated with anxiety. Imagine a rubber band, stretched between your vision and the current reality. When stretched, the rubber band creates tension, representing the tension between vision and current reality. What does tension seek? Resolution or release. There 7 are two possible ways for the tension to resolve itself: pull reality toward the vision or pull the vision toward reality. Which occurs will depend on whether we hold steady to the vision. Figure 3: Creative Tension Negative emotions caused by anxiety of the creative tension, shouldn’t be realized as the creative tension itself. What Senge argues, is that after some time what we call emotional tension will arise due to the negative emotions. In such cases, we feel deeply discouraged about a vision that is not happening and tend to lower the vision as an immediate so called remedy. It is clear that escaping emotional tension is easy; but what we really pay against is giving up something what we profoundly want, our vision. In the context of organizations we can say that goals are slowly lowered because of low tolerance for emotional tension. What we have to do is to understand thoroughly what the creative tension is and allow it to operate without lowering our vision; only then the vision becomes an active force in personal mastery. The gap in between should be used to generate energy for change. 8 Mastery of creative tension transforms the way we judge failure. It is simply an opportunity for learning. 3. 1. 2. 3 â€Å"Structural Conflict†: The Power of your Powerlessness A research done by Robert Fritz has shown that practically all of us have a â€Å"dominant belief that we are not able to fulfill our desires†. This in turn, is an obstacle one should get rid off. These beliefs, which are mandatory as a child to survive, were taught us so that we learnt our limitations. Most of us hold one of two contradictory beliefs that intrinsically limit our ability to create what so called we really want. The more common belief is in our powerlessness, namely our inability to bring into being all the things we really care about, whereas the other belief focuses on unworthiness, that we do not deserve to have what we truly desire. Fritz uses a metaphor to describe how contradictory underlying beliefs work as a system, which he calls the â€Å"structural conflict†, the metaphor counter to achieving our goals, through symbolizing the concept by another rubber band example. Figure 4: Effect of â€Å"structural conflict† to the creative tension. Later on, he identifies three generic so called strategies to cope with the forces of structural conflict, each of which has its own limitations. Accordingly, one is letting 9 our vision to erode. This strategy will lead to the sacrifice of what we truly want as discussed earlier. The second strategy is to â€Å"conflict manipulation† which is actually the strategy of people who mostly worry about failure. What they do is to focus on avoiding what they do not want to happen. This strategy makes one to spend his/her life in worry and fear. For those following this strategy, which is also called the â€Å"negative vision†, there is little joy in their life, even when they achieve their goals because this time they immediately tend to begin worrying about losing what they have gained. The last and most favorable strategy is defined as the willpower, where we simply â€Å"psyche ourselves up† to overpower all forms of resistance to achieving our goals. Simply saying, motivating through heightened will. In the next section, we will discuss Senge’s strategy for dealing with structural conflict: telling the truth. 3. 1. 2. 4 Commitment to the Truth People often want a technique that they can apply to solve the problem of structural conflict. But, in fact, being committed to the truth is far more powerful than any technique. So, what does it actually mean? It means a relentless willingness to root out the ways we limit or deceive ourselves from seeing what is, and to continually challenge our theories of why things are the way they are. The first critical task in dealing with structural conflicts is to recognize them, and the resulting behavior, when they are operating. This helps us to develop so called internal 10  warning signals, such as when we find ourselves blaming something or someone for our problems. What Senge suggests in this context is that we have to work on developing skills to discuss such situations with the people involved without producing defensiveness. We shouldn’t always act in a manner where we always think of what others have done in the situation, rather we have to concentrate on what we can do. This in other words, relates to the fact that we have to understand, or better to say, realize the situation, the current reality in which we are, so to use this as a generative force. This has even been concluded in religions like Hinduism, Christianity, Islam, Jewish, Buddhism. One example might be the statement of â€Å"The truth shall set you free. † 3. 1. 2. 5 Using the Subconscious One of the most fascinating aspects of people with high levels of personal mastery is their ability to accomplish extraordinarily complex tasks with grace and ease. But, how does this come to happen? It is through the subconscious that all of us deal with complexity. What distinguishes people with high levels of personal mastery is they have developed a higher level of understanding between their normal awareness and their subconscious. Even the daily activities of us like walking, talking, eating or putting on your shoes are enormously complex tasks, for which we have learned the required skills of the tasks, which in turn led that the whole activity gradually shifts from conscious attention to subconscious control. People with high levels of personal mastery focus on the desired result itself, not the process or the means they assume necessary to achieve that result. This allows the person in focusing on the artistry of the result as well. 11 In other words, we can say that we must work at learning how to differentiate what we truly want, from what we think we need to do in order to achieve it. In order to develop a subconscious understanding it is also important to commit to the truth, because when not telling the truth, most people create some level of internal stress. The principle of creative tension recognizes that the subconscious operates most effectively when it is focused clearly on our vision and our current reality. One effective way to focus the subconscious is through imagery and visualization. For instance, world-class swimmers have found that by imagining their hands to be twice their actual size and their feet to be webbed, they actually swim faster. Mental practicing of complex tasks has become a routine psychological training for professional performers from different areas of interest. A strict reliance on only conscious learning could never have achieved this level of artistry, even if there was all the willpower in the world present. Contradictorily, it had to depend on a high level of subconscious understanding. 3. 2 MENTAL MODELS 3. 2. 1 Introduction to Mental Models  Mental models can be described as the views and assumptions we hold in our minds about how things are and how things work. A mental model is like one’s way of looking at what’s happening in the world. In other words, it determines how we think and act. Mental models depend on the past experiences, and the perception as a result of those experiences, and observations. In the introduction I had introduced the experiential learning, which was the style of learning through past experience and some other elements 12 like concrete experience, observation and reflection, and forming abstract concepts. Accordingly, a child without knowing that it might cut his hand might take a knife in his hand and try to push it in his hand. This in fact, will hurt him a lot. However, grown ups already know how to deal with a knife, so they won’t do the same mistake as the child does. All the experiences learnt are added up so to form or build up the mental models. 3. 2. 1. 1 Why the Best Ideas Fail? From the business point of view, one thing which is known by all managers is that many of the best ideas never get put into practice. Even brilliant strategies fail to get translated into action. New insights fail to get put into practice because they conflict with deeply held internal images of how the world works, images that limit us to familiar ways of thinking and acting. That is why the discipline of managing mental models ? surfacing, testing, and improving our internal pictures of how the world works- promises to be a major breakthrough for building learning organizations. Our mental models determine not only how we make sense of the world, but how we take action, namely they shape how we act which puts them into an active sense. But, why are mental models so powerful in affecting what we do? In part, because they affect what we see. As psychologists say, human beings observe selectively. Mental models also exist in the organizations, and also in management. Mental models could cause big losses in the business world as it can also prevent us from seeing the current situation. Loosing America’s car market share to German and Japanese countries was a result of the mental models of the management, where they are prevented to see the situation because of their models in mind, and perceptions. 13 The problems with mental models lie not in whether they are right or wrong-by definition, all models are simplifications. The problems with mental models arise when the models are tacit-when they exist below the level of awareness. 3. 2. 1. 2. Overcoming â€Å"The Basic Diseases of the Hierarchy† In the traditional authoritarian organization, the dogma was managing, organizing, and controlling, whereas in the learning organization, the new dogma will be vision, values, and mental models. In addition, in traditional organizations, merit means doing what the boss wants, openness means telling the boss what he wants to hear, and localness means doing the dirty stuff that the boss doesn’t want to do. However, in learning organizations these concepts will get new understandings. 3. 2. 2. The Discipline of Mental Models Developing an organization’s capacity to work with mental models involves both learning new skills and implementing institutional innovations that help bring these skills into regular practice. 3. 2. 2. 1 Managing Mental Models Throughout An Organization A concept of scenarios should be adapted in pursuit of mental models, so to force managers to consider how they would manage under different alternative paths into the future. This offsets the tendency for managers to implicitly assume a single future. When groups of managers share a range of alternative futures in their mental models, they become more responsive to those changes. 14 Mental modeling should be implemented as a philosophy. It is important to note that the goal in mental modeling is not agreement or congruency. Many mental models can exist at once. What is important is that we have to consider all of them and test against situations that we confront. Only after the process works it leads to congruency. 3. 2. 2. 2 Managing Mental Models At Personal and Interpersonal Levels The learning skills of â€Å"action science† practitioners such as Chris Argyris fall into two broad classes: skills of reflection and skills of inquiry. Where skills of reflection concern slowing down our own thinking process so that we can become more aware of how we form our mental models and the ways they influence our actions, inquiry skills concern how we operate in face-to-face interactions with others, especially in dealing with complex and conflictual issues. Reflection skills start with recognizing â€Å"leaps of abstraction†, which mean that our minds move at lightning speeds. Ironically, this often slows our learning, because we immediately â€Å"leap† to generalizations so quickly that we never think to test them. Namely, leaps of abstraction occur when we move from direct observations to generalization without testing. Here it is important to distinguish direct observation from generalizations inferred from the observation itself. To distinguish it, explicitly separate it from the data which led to it. A second technique from action science is the left-hand column, which in turn is a powerful tool for beginning to see how our mental models operate in particular situations. It reveals ways that we manipulate situations to avoid dealing with how we actually think and feel, and thereby prevent a counterproductive situation from improving. The most important lesson that comes from seeing â€Å"our left-hand columns† is how we undermine opportunities for learning in conflictual situations. Here, a process called â€Å"balancing inquiry and advocacy† comes into action. 15 Managers are mostly trained to be advocates. In many companies, being a competent manager means, being able to solve problems, figuring out what needs to be done, and enlisting whatever support is needed to get it done. In such organizations, employees are rewarded according to their ability to debate forcefully, and influence others, where the inquiry skills are unrecognized. Those rewards unfortunately can bring the employees to managerial positions, where they suddenly face the fact that they do not learn while they should learn. Advocacy without inquiry between two people can end up in vicious circle. The more vehemently one argues, the more it creates a threat to the other’s position, so that the latter argues vehemently, which causes a threat to the first one’s position, therefore, the first one argues even more vehemently. This reinforcing advocacy can be stopped by inquiring. Then it gives a chance for the both parts to understand each other’s conflicts, and reasoning. When in pure advocacy, people do not want to show the weak parts of their reasoning, and discard them. Definitely it does not bring any learning to us. Instead it brings polarization within the group. When operating in pure advocacy, the goal is to win the argument; however, when inquiry and advocacy are combined the goal is no longer â€Å"to win the argument† but to find the best argument out of all. This combination allows us to discover completely new views. What we have to keep in mind is that practicing inquiry and advocacy means being willing to expose the limitations in your own thinking, namely the willingness to be wrong. 16 3. 3 SHARED VISION 3. 3. 1 Introduction to Shared Vision 3. 3. 1. 1 A Common Caring A shared vision is not an idea, it is rather a force in people’s hearts, a force of impressive power. It may be inspired by an idea, but once it goes further ? if it is compelling enough to acquire support of more than one person? then it is no longer an abstraction. It is tangible. People begin to see it as if it exists. Few forces in human affairs are as powerful as shared visions. At its simplest level, a shared vision is the answer to the question, â€Å"What do we want to create? † Just as personal visions are pictures or images people carry in their heads and hearts, so too are shared visions pictures that people throughout an organization carry. When people truly share a vision they are connected, bound together by a common aspiration. Shared vision is one of the vital fundamentals of learning organizations, because it provides energy and also focus for learning. People should have something that really matters to them, something that makes them excited. A shared vision is not one dictated by that top management; it only exists when people are personally committed, since it is their personal vision. 3. 3. 1. 2 Why Shared Visions Matter? In an organization, a shared vision changes people’s relationship with the company. What they so far called as â€Å"their company†, becomes â€Å"our company†. It helps to create a common identity. Only this way, a learning organization can really succeed. You cannot have a learning organization without shared vision. 17 How can a commitment to the long term be fostered is the key question in efforts to develop systems thinking in management. People do not focus on the long term because they have to, but only because they want to. 3. 3. 2 The Discipline of Building Shared Vision Shared visions emerge from personal visions. This is how they derive their energy and how they foster commitment. The management should encourage individuals so as to let them create their own visions, as was told earlier in this project. However, these visions are not the shared vision itself. This is needed so that it will be easier for the individuals to accept visions of others and work in the same manner. In this way, the synergy which will be established is needed for the organization indeed. The shared vision shouldn’t be written and taught to employees because this will establish a fear. Instead, everyone should adopt this vision and commit itself to the whole vision of the organization. 3. 3. 2. 1 From Personal Visions to Shared Visions To make it clearer, let’s imagine a picture of a landscape. When you cut this picture into smaller parts, you will not be able to see the whole sight. However, if you have a picture of an ocean in which all the organisms, like fish, plants, etc. live, and you cut it into pieces, you will still be able to see the whole sight because the vision of the ocean is the same in that part. It’s like the shared vision. When you take the shared vision person by person into consideration you’ll see that they match each other and reflect the whole image. 18 So, it is the fact that when more people come to share a common vision, the vision may not change fundamentally. But it becomes more alive, more real in the sense of a mental reality that people can truly imagine achieving. Writing a vision statement, which is often a one-shot vision, can be a first step in building shared vision but, alone, it rarely makes a vision come alive within an organization. Another problem with the so called one-shot vision that was prepared by the top management is that the resulting vision does not build on people’s personal visions. Contrarily, it only reflects the personal vision of one or two people at the top. The last problem might be explained in the manner as the vision is not a solution to a problem. Building a shared vision must be seen as a central element of the daily work of leaders. It is ongoing and never-ending. It is not truly a shared vision until it connects with the personal visions of people throughout the organization. Moreover, visions that are truly shared take time to emerge. They grow as a by-product of interactions of individual visions. Experience suggests that visions that are genuinely shared require ongoing conversation where individuals not only feel free to express their dreams, but also learn how to listen to each others’ dreams. 3. 3. 2. 2 Spreading Visions: Enrollment, Commitment, and Compliance There is a big difference between compliance and commitment. The committed person brings energy, passion and excitement, which in turn brings the synergy; he does not play by the rules of the game, instead feels responsible for the game, and will not hesitate to change the rules of the game if they stand in the way of achieving vision. On the other hand compliant followers only accept the vision, but do not have a personal desire. They may want it in order to keep their job, or to get a promotion etc. , but they know that it’s not their vision at all. For an organization to survive, it must ensure that a shared vision with the commitment of the individuals is established. 19 However, there are the types of genuine compliant followers, which may often be mistaken for enrollment or commitment. What then is the difference between being genuinely compliant and enrolled and committed? The answer is deceptively simple. People who are enrolled or committed truly want the vision, where genuinely compliant people accept the vision. They may want it in order to keep their job, or to get a promotion etc. , but they know that it’s not their vision at all. 3. 4 TEAM LEARNING 3. 4. 1 Introduction to Team Learning 3. 4. 1. 1 The Potential Wisdom Teams In order to understand team learning, it is important to understand what teams are. The word â€Å"team† can be traced back to the Indo-European word â€Å"deuk† (to pull); it has always included a meaning of â€Å"pulling together†. (The modern sense of team, â€Å"a group of people acting together†, emerged in the sixteenth century) We define â€Å"teams† as any group of people who need each other to accomplish a result. This definition is derived from a statement made by former Royal Dutch/Shell Group Planning coordinator, Arie de Geus: â€Å"The only relevant learning in a company is the learning done by those people who have the power to take action†. Team learning is a process of aligning and developing the capacity of a team to create the results its members truly desire. It builds on the discipline of developing shared vision. It also builds on developing personal mastery, for talented teams are made up of talented individuals. But shared vision and talent are not enough. The world is full of teams of talented individuals who share a vision for a while, yet fail to learn. 20 Here we can discuss the terms unaligned and aligned teams. The fundamental characteristic of the relatively unaligned team is wasted energy. Individuals may work extraordinarily hard, but their efforts do not efficiently translate to team effort. By contrast, when a team becomes more aligned, a commonality of direction emerges, and individuals’ energies harmonize. There is less wasted energy. In fact, a resonance or synergy develops, like the coherent light of a laser rather than the incoherent and scattered light of a light bulb. There is commonality of purpose, a shared vision, and understanding of how to complement one another’s efforts. Individuals do not sacrifice their personal interests to the larger team vision; rather, the shared vision becomes an extension of their personal visions. In fact, alignment is the necessary condition before empowering the individual will empower the whole team. Team learning is possible in every area, sports, business, performing arts, science, etc. It can even have extra ordinary results where the teams can be coordinated and even intelligence of the team can exceed the intelligence of its members totaling. In such an environment, team members can also show a rapid growth, than they could gain individually, namely constructing the synergy. With the changes in the organizations, team learning has never been that important. No matter if it’s a product development team, management team or cross-functional task forces. As they are teams, they are the people who need one another to act. The three critical dimensions of Team Learning can be described as; 1. Insightful thinking is necessary for complex issues. Teams must learn to end up with one more intelligent solution when compared to each of the participants’ solutions. 2. Innovative and coordinated action is vital.

Gender Inequality in The Quiet American Essay

The book The Quiet American focuses on a poor, war-struck, and undeveloped country – Vietnam. In this type of environment, many social problems are accepted, particularly gender inequality. Throughout The Quiet American gender inequality is mostly practiced by men, however it carried out by women as well. Proving that women are unequal to men and woman. Phuong, Fowler’s lover is a specific example of gender inequality. Firstly, Fowler treats her as if she is the stereotypical housewife and servant. Phuong acts as the stereotypical housewife in three ways. She stays home most of the time, waiting for Fowler to return. When she is out of the house then she is out â€Å"haggling for he price of fish over in third street† (pg. 26) because she’s obliged to cook for Fowler. Whenever Fowler comes home every night he has Phuong â€Å"Make me another pipe† (pg. 73) or â€Å"make me a brandy-and-soda† (pg. 117). He treats her as his servant and she accepts the inequality â€Å"she did at once what I asked†¦just so she would have made love if I asked her too, straight away, peeling off her trousers without question† (pg. 116). Secondly, Fowler uses her more as an object for sex and avoiding loneliness than (â€Å"my biggest fear† pg. 57) his lover or girlfriend. Throughout the story they are never seen together doing things that couples would normally do together such as going for walks together and going to the movies. Pyle at one point asked him if he could â€Å"live without her† (pg. 77). He replies â€Å"That’s too emotional, not quite true either† (pg. 77). He only uses her to fulfill his sexual desires. He does not â€Å"care that for her interests. You can have her interests. I only want her body. I want her in bed with me.† (pg. 59) He would much â€Å"rather ruin her and sleep† (pg. 59) than â€Å"look after her damned interests† (pg. 59). Altogether, he treats her as his sex slave â€Å"she did not change; she cooked for me, she made my pipes, she gently and sweetly laid out her body for my pleasure† (pg. 140). Finally, the way Fowler speaks to her is as if he is more superior to her – he speaks down to her. In the quote above (pg. 140), the manner of how he describes how he used the words â€Å"laid out† and â€Å"for my pleasure† has this greedy superior style. The way he has spoken them sounds as if he is the man in charge and is commanding her. When he asks her to do things it is not a question, it is an order. â€Å"Kiss me Phuong† (pg. 116), â€Å"You had better stay here tonight† (pg. 22), â€Å"Wait in the street† (pg. 21). However, Phuong and Fowler are just one example of gender inequality. Phuong is not the only female victim of gender inequality. Throughout the book women continue to suffer from gender inequality. Firstly, there is this motif of men referring women to different objects. In the beginning of the story Granger seems to refer to women as if they are animals. When he saw Phuong for the first time he asked, â€Å"Where did you find her? Didn’t know you had a whistle in you† (pg. 34) as if she was found off the street like stray dog. He continues to refer to women’s animal characteristics â€Å"let’s go find a girl. You’ve got a piece of tail. I want a piece of tail too†(pg. 35). By objectifying women as animals he is saying that they possess the same low standards and competency as a stray animal. Towards the end of the story, Fowler went dive-bombing with a French pilot name Tourin. Tourin’s squadron fly B.26 bombers. They refer to them as â€Å"French Prostitutes† because they have a â€Å"short wing-span† and â€Å"no visible means of support† (pg. 148). This is another example of how men objectify women using different things. Secondly, women are targeted for certain stereotypical gender roles. When Fowler was explaining to Miss Hei (Phuong’s sister) what Pyle does for a living â€Å"He belongs to the American Economic Mission, you know the kind of thing – electrical sewing machines for starving seamstresses† (pg. 41). When Miss Hei asks â€Å"are there any?† he replies â€Å"I don’t know† (pg. 41). When he is describing a charity example he automatically uses women as an example, inferring that they are the ones who are weak. He also associates the women with sewing machines and working as seamstresses. Both are stereotypical jobs for women. Finally, the House of Five Hundred Girls was treated as a detested place. Many of them labeled it as the derogatory word â€Å"Whorehouse† (150). As the women desperately swarmed Granger, Fowler treated these women’s desperation as a game, â€Å"I had learnt a technique – divide and conquer†. He used a woman more as a shield than a real person as he plowed through the â€Å"scrimmage† (pg. 39). Granger seemed to be proud of what he was. He took â€Å"this demonstration as a tribute to his manhood† (pg. 38). He took pleasure out of these women begging all around him. The way Graham Greene describes him as â€Å"flushed and triumphant† shows that he thinks he is superior to these women, as if he is a god. In spite of how people think men treat women unequal there is evidence that women treat women with gender inequality as well. Through the duration of the book it has seemed that it’s the men that act towards inequality of women. However in the case of Miss Hei and Phuong, it is different. It provides a contrast to the customariness of inequality. Firstly, Miss Hei seems to be always trying to setup Pyle and Phuong together. Miss Hei has assumed the role of the â€Å"father† in the family, trying to sell off his (in this case her) daughter to the wealthiest man â€Å"she loves children†¦how olds your father†¦old people love children†. Even though it is now a women in the position of the mans job she is still enforcing gender inequality. It isn’t gender inequality from Miss Hei’s position, but from Phuong’s. She is selling Phuong off to forced marriage like a product. Phuong is not given the right to choose for herself she â€Å"must do the right thing† (pg. 156). In the beginning, She was asking a lot of questions about his wealth â€Å"he looks like a reliable man†, â€Å"What does he do?†, â€Å"Is your father a business man?†. After she finished she started to boast about her sister â€Å"She is the most beautiful girl in Saigon†. Not only men can practice inequality but women can too. The Quiet American is a concise example of how men practice gender inequality. By using the male characters such as Granger and Fowler from the story, Graham Greene shows how they practice inequality towards Phuong and the Vietnamese women. However, The Quiet American is also a rare example of how gender inequality is practiced by women. Miss Hei enforces gender inequality on Phuong by trying to sell her off to marriage, proving that The Quiet American gender inequality is mostly practiced by men, however it is carried out by women as well.