Interpretivism Approach In The Study Of Workers Behaviour Psychology Essay

Interpretivism Approach In The Study Of Workers Behaviour Psychology Essay The study of workers behaviour is a very complex phenomenon as it involves peoples attitudes, feelings and behaviours, which characterise life in an organisation. The field of human behavior is solidly grounded by researcher such as Taylor, Maslow, Herzberg and Elton Mayo. With the pace of industrial revolution, studies are now more focused on areas such as job satisfaction and analysis, performance evaluation, employee motivation and the human factor at workplace. Hence, the interpretivism approach has gained momentum in the study of human behaviour. This literature review will introduce the different research philosophies which have been used in the field of human behaviour, firstly, providing a descriptive analysis of the Positivist approach, which focuses on quantitative methods as opposed to the Interpretivist approach, which focuses on qualitative methods and secondly how the early approach to research in human behaviour has shifted towards qualitative methods as it enhances understanding of workers behaviours in organisations and hence facilitate management decisions. For decades, the way in which research is conducted has produced arguments relating to which research philosophies, approaches and strategies are best to follow.   A research philosophy is a belief about the way in which data can be gathered, analysed and used. Galliers (1991) identified two major school of thoughts as Positivist (also called scientific) and interpretivist (also known as anti-positivist). Positivism is a belief that it is possible to obtain objective knowledge through observation and that such knowledge is verified by statements about the circumstances in which such knowledge is true. Smith (1998) provides a useful insight into positivist thinking within social sciences with this description: Positivist approaches to the social sciences . . . assume things can be studied as hard facts and the relationship between these facts can be established as scientific laws. For positivists, such laws have the status of truth and social objects can be studied in much the same way as natural objects. In other words, Positivism views the social world as the natural world in terms of how it can be studied, because human behaviour is determined by rules and developed with social groups. Positivism is considered to be an empirical testing of theories by means of experimentations before reaching a general principle. Positivism adopts a clear quantitative approach to investigating phenomena by using data that are objective, discernible and measurable. According to House (1983) evaluation of information is considered to be scientifically objective in the sense that they can be verified by logical inspection regardless of who uses the techniques. Hence, the positivist approach to research is favoured due its exactness and impartiality. (e-International Relations, 2010).   Positivist research is usually conducted with a large number of participants. The research design tend to be comparative, hence the use of surveys or experimental designs is usually preferred. The methods used are more likely to produce quantifiable and testable data such as official statistics, structured interviews and observation.   Typically, they are rigid, unchanging and free from social constraints. However, the use of these methods can sometimes be very expensive and time consuming. Thus, critics argue that the positivist approach yields useful, but limited data, which only provide a superficial view of the phenomenon under investigation (Bond, 1993; Moccia, 1988; Payle, 1995) Early positivist theorist in the field or organisational and human behaviour searched for underlying principles of what happens in organisational settings. They were concerned with efficiency, or how to economically maximise workers productivity (Denhardt, 2008; Simon, 1947a). However, Dahl (1947) rejects the idea that the study of human behaviour could be classified as a positivist approach and could be designed as true experiments that produce uniform, reliable and verifiable data. A major criticism of the positivist approach is that it does not allow a comprehensive study and examination of human beings and their behaviours. Hence, the increasing importance of the human factor in the workplace leads to the emergent to a shift towards the interpretivist paradigm. Interpretivism approach focuses on methods that examine people and their social behaviour (Gill and Johnson, 1997). This approach considers human beings as part of the social world, which exists due to the interaction and actions of human beings. It emphasises a search for meaning, understanding and social interaction as the basis for knowledge. According to Cantrell (1993, p84), the aims of interpretivist approach research are to understand phenomena, to interpret meaning within particular social and cultural contexts, and to uncover beliefs and elicit meaning from action and intention through dialogical interaction between researchers and participants. According to the interpretivist view, the social world is open and changing by ways people go about their lives. Research methods therefore, must be capable of capturing the quality of peoples interpretations and understanding the meanings to people course of actions. Hence, the utility of qualitative data is preferred as it is more acquiescent to the study of organisation and human behavior. Qualitative research is a class of research methods in which the researcher actively interacting with the participants of the particular study (Muchinsky, 2003).   In other words, the researcher gets involved with the phenomena being researched. Thus, qualitative research produces narrative descriptions of events as opposed to quantitative research which produces results in numerical data (Landy Conte, 2004; Strauss Corbin, 1990) The interpretivist approach makes use of flexible and multiple methods, the most desirable way of studying a small sample in depth over time. The favoured common methods used include interviews, observational research and focus groups.   The characteristics of these methods are extremes to those used in quantitative research as they are exploratory rather than explanatory and focus on meanings than establishing facts. The interpretivist paradigm disagrees with the notion that human beings and its behaviour can be studied with scientific methods. Interpretivist theorists are more concerned with the study of organisation from inside as they assumed that a better understanding of how the company functions can only be achieved from the perspective of the workers. The favoured research design in Ethnography with the use of qualitative method such as observation is useful in answering questions on why employees behave the way they do in organisations and what happens in the organisation (Ehigie, R.I Ehigie B.O, 2005:621-638). Ethnography study is by means of which you assess people in their day to day activities, their behaviour and culture in a natural setting. Fetterman (1998) describes it as the art and science of describing a group or a culture. The group can be categorised as work group, organisations or team of individuals where as culture can be the prevailing culture in an organisation. Ethnography can be used to gain understanding of the real world context, social as well as work settings (Hughes et al, 1995; Blomberg et al, 1993). Bret et al (2003) argues that since organisations are presently turning towards the use of work teams, ethnography studies have become an important research method in understanding the complex interactions with work teams. Hence, the use of ethnographic methods help in gathering information by mainly watching and talking with people, and by scrutinising documented reports and records (Riemer, 2008:205). Observation is one of the ethnographic methods used by researchers to observe the population of the phenomena to be studied to develop an understanding of their behaviour and culture. The personnel of an organisation who usually make use of this method are supervisors, human resource experts as by nature of their job responsibilities they are expected to observe workers behaviour on the job (Krumm, 2001). Frederick Taylor, one of the early contributors in the study of motivation and performance at work carried out series of experiments at the Bethlehem Steel Company which included non-participant observation of workers. As the workers were constantly aware that they were being observed, there was a drastic change in their work pattern and consequently resulted to improvement in work performance, organisation productivity and earnings. Taylor (1856-1915) advocated that monetary rewards were the main cause of motivation, therefore observational studies on workers did not affect their p erformance, as they were drive by the financial rewards they would achieve by their course of actions. A very good example of participant observation can be related to the Hawthorne experiments allegedly conducted by Elton Mayo. The researchers involved in the Hawthorne Experiments did not understand the impact of human values and interaction until they personally interacted with the workers (Denhardt, 2009:3). Thus, through this interaction they had a better understanding of the workers actions in relations to the working environment. However, observational studies are also criticised as only small samples can be investigated such as in the case of Taylors research which was only conducted on manual workers. It is believed that if the research was conducted on white collar workers the findings would have been different. Another criticism by (Muchinsky, 2003; Sackett Larsen, 1990), observation is not frequently used in the study of human behaviour as it relies extensively on time and energy. One criticism of Mayos research is that the population involved knew that they were being studies. The critics argued that to capture a clearer picture of the research, the participants should not be made aware that they are being studied. Despite these criticisms, it is believed that Taylors observational studies have immensely contributed to present day management and gave birth to the concept of performance related pay system. To summarise, it can be argued that qualitative methods found its way in the study of both organisational and human behaviour. However, as a researcher to understand the phenomenon being studied, the use of converging information from different sources, regardless of its form is more advisable. Although Spector (2005) argued that qualitative methods of research offer an alternative to the highly quantitative methods, it is opined that both quantitative and qualitative research methods can help researchers understand issues better than either of the two separately. The use of qualitative methods is growing in the study of organisational and human behaviour (Lee, 1999) as human element are substantially emphasised in an organisation. Although the qualitative methods have significantly contributed to our understanding of human behaviour in the organisations, many avenues for future research are still open and new ones continue to emerge.

Chemical Reactions Essay

Introduction In this paper you learn about the reactions that occur between backing soda and lemon juice. We will also describe what is occurring with the molecules on a molecular level. Lastly we will explain what chemical bonds are formed and or broken when lemon juice and backing soda. Observations of the Reactants When most people hear baking soda they think of the bright orange box sitting in their pantry or refrigerator soaking up the foul odors that have come about from the onions or fish. Some may think of pancakes or baking a cake. Baking powder is a fine white substance with the consistency of powdered sugar. Baking soda is a chemical base. Another substance most people do not recognize as a chemical in their household is Lemon Juice. This is a liquid mixture of water and citric acid. Its color is mildly foggy and a pale yellow. Lemon juice is a chemical acid and when mixed with a base like baking soda creates a reaction. Reactions that occur Mixing lemon juice with baking soda gives you a chemical reaction. The lemon juice contains citric acid. The citric acid from the lemon juice will donate a hydrogen ion (H+) to the bicarbonate or baking soda (NaHCO3). When the bicarbonate is mixed into solution, the bicarbonate acts as a base and takes the H+ ion from the citric acid to form carbonic acid (H2CO3) and carbon dioxide (CO2). Whenever a chemical reaction produces gas, it will be highly favored due to its large increase in entropy associated with the gas formation. In this reaction, you will notice the solution bubbling and foaming due to the CO2 production. The reaction of lemon juice and baking soda is as follows: C6H8O7 + 3NaHCO3 Na3C6H5O7 + 3H2CO Essentially, one molecule of citric acid will react with three molecules of sodium bicarbonate. This will form one molecule of sodium citrate and three molecules of carbonic acid. It is a very exothermic chemical reaction. Molecular Level Baking soda or sodium bicarbonate is a salt while lemon juice is a citric acid. When combined, on a molecular basis, the acid in the lemon juice is able to lose a hydrogen (H+) ion while the sodium bicarbonate (NaHCO3) of the baking soda is able to gain an ion. Mixed in a solution, the NaHCO3 dissociates into a sodium (Na+) and bicarbonate (HCO3-) ion. The HCO3- then takes the H+ ion to form H2CO3 (carbonic acid). Bonds that formed and broken The bonds that are forming between the lemon juices and backing soda are polar covalent bonds. The bonds have an uneven electron share which is known as a dipole moment that makes them insoluble. Each the backing soda and the lemon juice have bonds that are broken. The bonds that are broken in the citric acid are when the H+ ions are taken away to form the H2CO3 and CO2. While this is happening the two molecules are sharing there atoms which is making then fight one another. So in return the baking soda does not naturalize the lemon juice like most acids and bases do. This is the violent bubbling reaction you see occur when the two are mixed. Conclusion Backing soda and lemon juice are two very few reactants that react the way they do. Normally a base and an acid turn neutral. This is not the case between these two chemicals. The molecules fight on another casing them to react violently resulting in the bubbling situation that is observer. As you have learned these two chemicals react in a way to form a gas called carbon dioxide. The color changed mildly to form a fogy white color. When it is compared on a pH level it is stronger than stomach acid. This experience has showed us that different reactants react in many different ways and that is why it is important to observe them many different items before make an assumption. Reference Swindells, J. (n.d.). What does lemon juice and baking soda do?. Retrieved from http://www.blurtit.com/q7839108.html Tro, N. J. (2009). Introductory chemistry. (3rd ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson/Prentice Hall. What is the chemical equation for lemon juice and baking soda. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_is_the_chemial_equation_for_lemon_juice_and_baking_soda

Educational Psychology and Special Education

What is the definition of a learning disability and who should qualify to be special education? What assessments should be made to be able to know what child belongs where? This is what we are going to explore in this paper. We want to see exactly who qualifies and how to go about assessing what needs can be met by choosing to place a child in special education or leaving in general education and making some modifications. The main point to remember for any child is doing the best we can for their success.Learning disabilities are a bit tough to diagnose, the reason for this is because learning disabilities affects everyone differently. While one person may have difficulty with reading or writing another person may have trouble with math or following through with directions. â€Å"Researchers think that learning disabilities are caused by differences in how a person’s brain works and how it processes information† (Medicinenet, 2013) Usually the people with learning disa bilities, such as Aspbergers, are highly intelligent and only have problems with how the brain sends the information, not being non-intelligent.IDEA states that â€Å"A learning disorder in one or more of the basic psychological processes involved in understanding or in using language, spoken or written that may manifest itself in an imperfect ability to listen, think, speak, read, write, spell, or do mathematical calculations, including conditions such as perceptual disabilities, brain injury, minimal brain dysfunction, dyslexia, and developmental aphasia†.This encompasses a wide range of children and we have to figure out how to best assess whether these children should be put into special education, or if they could function better with modifications to the general education classroom. Because learning disabilities are so multidimensional the assessments must also be in order to properly diagnose what steps to take. One of the most important parts of assessment is to alway s keep everyone involved in the child’s life in the loop.Keeping open communication and checking often to see what is working and what is not is a vital key to the assessment process. Checking first who needs to be involved within the team and then going from there with making the plan and seeing if it works or what needs to be changed. It is important to find out first if the child truly has a learning disability, second the nature, specificity, and the severity of the learning disability to know how to proceed with it. If you do not know the extent you cannot do very well at teaching for their abilities when you do not know what is lacking.â€Å"Schools are required to implement a system of interventions before evaluating a child for a disability† (Logsdon, 2013) This is important because we do not want to put any child into a special education classroom without reason, this would not benefit that child at all. It is so important to know exactly what needs the child has and modify to try to benefit them before you place them. We must not simply send children to special education because the teacher does not want to deal with them.People tend to want to box people into certain categories and this just cannot happen with learning disabilities. A child who may have difficulty reading may be dyslexic, or they may simply not be being read to and worked with enough. They also may have moved into the country fairly recently and may be lacking because of a language barrier. There are 9 ways that are great for adapting instruction to be more easily understood by children with learning disabilities as stated by Teachers First. The first is adapting the size of what they are to read or do, then adapt the time for assignments and testing.Next, increase personal assistance by peer teaching, pairing students who are less adept with more advanced students. Fourth, is input, allow for more hands on types of teaching. Fifth, Adapt the skill level or the amount of problems that they must accomplish and change the output, how they respond to what was taught, such as drawing pictures, writing a story, or working with a computer program related to the lesson. Allow the child to participate in the lesson either mentally or physically to keep them on task.Alternate is the next one, adapt the goals and outcomes with the same  materials, tailor the lesson to the child’s needs and what they can handle, and lastly change curriculum if necessary. If the lesson is on the Vietnam war, you might be able to have them interview a person from the Vietnam war instead of having a discussion about it as they might get more out of that. It is all about our children and making the lessons understandable to them. An example of making adaptations to a lesson would be a child with vision impairment. For this child it is very difficult towards the end of the day to be able to read because her eyes are fatigued and cannot take much more strain.For this rea son her parent is allowed to read to her and she can write her answers to questions because the child simply cannot do that for herself at the end of the day like the other children. She also has adaptations in her regular education classroom with magnifiers, a monitor by her desk to blow up what is on the board, all her books and papers are blown up, and she always sits in the front of the classroom. These are modifications for a visually impaired person who is very bright, but lacks some because of her vision impairment which creates the learning disability.â€Å"The world is full of examples of accommodations that permit people with disabilities to perform specific tasks they might not otherwise be able to. Drivers with poor vision wear glasses or contacts, elevators mark the buttons in Braille, and voters with disabilities may be given assistance by the person of their choice . † (Luke, Schwartz. 2010) We must do the same with our children. We need to take them and assess where their issues lie and do the best we can to create a successful learning environment for them!

The Slavery Of The United States - 1715 Words

In order to begin speaking of slavery in the United States, I must give you an introduction prior to the topic of slavery in history. Slavery has been concurrent since pre-historic times. It has been used in many empires like the Roman Empire, Ancient China, Mesopotamia and the Indus River-Valley. Many of these slaves, men women, were products of indebt people who sold themselves for money or became prisoners of war who were forced into servitude. Earliest records of slavery date back to 1760 B.C. with the Code of Hammurabi which stated many laws regarding slaves being lost or stolen. Time elapsed as slavery evolved where many Europeans noticed African natives were really durable and had a lot of knowledge regarding raising crop. A†¦show more content†¦God meant the spread of Christianity, gold meant the gain of riches, and glory meant fame. Spanish inquisition, as well as French, Portuguese English inquisition for those three Gs became the new race for power and dominance . Columbus’ efforts at turning the natives into slaves ultimately failed due to their bodies being exposed to illnesses without immunity and harsh labor they could not withstand. Columbus then sought a new solution for this problem which resulted in the importation of African slaves under permission of the Spanish Crown. This would result in the infamous Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade. As Africans already knew how to farm, were easier to tame and ridiculously cheap, it was a huge win for not just for him but to many men in the future of the Americas to become rich for themselves. England would settle in what is now known as the East Coast of the United States with the exception of Florida, which was a Spanish territory at the time. The first English settlement was Jamestown, Virginia back in 1607. Then many more colonies began spawning as more people emigrated from their motherlands to join the British Colonies. Fast forward to around 1619 in the colony of Virginia in the city of Fort Monroe, an important event occurred which would lead to centuries of mistreatment of not just the