Euthanasia or Physician-Assisted Suicides Essay Example for Free

Euthanasia or Physician-Assisted Suicides Essay Proponents of euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide argue that terminally ill people should have the right to end their suffering with a quick, dignified, and compassionate death. Opponents of euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide argue that doctors have a moral responsibility to keep their patients alive as reflected by the Hippocratic Oath. Euthanasia or physician-assisted suicide should be legal because terminally ill people should have the right to end their suffering with a quick, dignified, and compassionate death. On October 1, 1976, California Governor Edmund G. Brown Jr. signed the California Natural Death Act into law and California became the first state in the nation to grant terminally ill persons the right to authorize withdrawal of life-sustaining medical treatment when death is believed to be imminent. By 1977, eight states California, New Mexico, Arkansas, Nevada, Idaho, Oregon, North Carolina, and Texas had signed right- to-die bills into law. The World Federation of Right to Die Societies was founded in 1980. Margaret P. Battin, PhD, Distinguished Professor of Philosophy and Adjunct Professor of Internal Medicine at the University of Utah, and Timothy E. Quill, MD, Professor of Medicine, Psychiatry, and Medical Humanities at the University of Rochester, stated the following in their 2004 book Physician-Assisted Dying: The Case for Palliative Care Patient Choice: We firmly believe that physician-assisted death should be onenot the only one, but oneof the last-resort options available to a patient facing a hard death. We agree that these options should include high dose pain medication if needed, cessation of life-sustaining therapy, voluntary cessation of eating and drinking, and terminal sedation. We also believe, however, that physician-assisted dying, whether it is called physician-assisted death or physician aid in dying or physician-assisted suicide, should be among the options available to patients at the end of life. Terminally ill patients feel like life is no longer worth living. Physicians indicated that patient requests for lethal medications stemmed from multiple concerns, with eight in ten patients having at least three concerns. The most frequently mentioned end-of-life concerns during 2005 were: a decreasing ability to participate in activities that made life enjoyable, loss of dignity, and loss of autonomy. The United States 9th Circuit Court of Appeals stated in its 1996 Opinion from Compassion in Dying v. Washington: While some people refer to the liberty interest implicated in right-to-die cases as a liberty interest in committing suicide, we do not describe it that way. We use the broader and more accurate terms, the right to die, determining the time and manner of ones death, and hastening ones death for an important reason. The liberty interest we examine encompasses a whole range of acts that are generally not considered to constitute suicide. Included within the liberty interest we examine, is for example, the act of refusing or terminating unwanted medical treatment Casey and Cruzan provide persuasive evidence that the Constitution encompasses a due process liberty interest in controlling the time and manner of ones death that there is, in short, a constitutionally recognized right to die.' Legalizing euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide would save money for the American healthcare system. The International Task Force on Euthanasia and Assisted Suicide wrote: Savings to governments could become a consideration. Drugs for assisted suicide cost about $35 to $45, making them far less expensive than providing medical care. This could fill the void from cutbacks for treatment and care with the treatment of death. Euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide should be made legal. To do this, all states must follow in California’s footsteps and put right-to-die bills into effect. And anyone with terminally ill loved ones will agree, unless they’re comfortable with loved ones losing their dignity, autonomy, and ability to enjoy life. Works Cited Is There a Legal Right to Die? Euthanasia ProCon.org. Web. 13 Dec. 2011. Should Euthanasia or Physician-assisted Suicide Be Legal? Euthanasia ProCon.org. Web. 12 Dec. 2012. Why Do Patients Request Physician-assisted Death (a.k.a. Physician-assisted Suicide)? Euthanasia ProCon.org. Web. 05 Jan. 2012. Would Legalizing Euthanasia and Physician-assisted Suicide save Money for the American Healthcare System? Euthanasia ProCon.org. Web. 13 Dec. 2011.

ben franklin Essay -- essays research papers

Ben Franklin Ben Franklin became famous for being a scientist, an inventor, a statesman, a printer, a philosopher, and a librarian. Today, we honor Ben Franklin as one of the men who founded America and as one of America's greatest citizens. Benjamin Franklin was born in Boston on January 17, 1706. He was the tenth son of soap maker, Josiah Franklin. Though Ben only had one year of schooling he was educated and loved to read and write. He worked as an apprentice to his brother, James, who was a printer, when he was fifteen years old. At the age of seventeen, Ben ran away and started a new life in Philadelphia as a result of arguments with James. Franklin found work as an apprentice printer and did so well the provincial governor of Pennsylvania promised to set him up a business if he traveled to England to buy supplies. The governor never followed up on his promise and Benjamin was forced to spend several months in England doing print work. On returning home, he opened up his own printing business. Around this period of time, in 1728, Ben fathered a child, William, of whom the mother is not known. Two years later he married his childhood sweetheart, Deborah Read. Not only did the Franklins own a print shop, they also opened a store selling almost everything and a bookstore. Ben Franklin had many accomplishments and was very successful in life. His newspaper, The Pennsylvania Gazette, was one of the most successful papers in the colonies. He first published Poor Richard’s...

Dissertation Conclusion Example

How to write a conclusion for dissertationDissertation ConclusionTo write a good conclusion you need to go back to your dissertation title and your Introduction. What you do in this section is to summarize what can now be stated about the title. This should be a brief paragraph, or simply a sentence or two. You have to join the beginning with the conclusion as you do in an essay. You can almost breathe a sigh of relief as the dissertation is nearly finished. However you may need to add a â€Å"Recommendations† section in your conclusion if there isn’t one. If you recall all the other research articles you have read, they usually end in a call for more research. You have to state how your research has filled a gap in the body of research that has come before it and state what unanswered questions there are which arise from your research. These might form the basis for further research on your part in a PhD programme, or they might inspire other post-graduate students to take up where your research has left off. Perhaps your research leads you to ask new questions which deserve to be answered by researchers in the future. You pose those questions here for others to try to answer in their research. Just because your dissertation is at an end does not mean that it has fulfilled its purpose or that there is nothing new to research in the field. Be imaginative as well as objective. What further research could be done in this areaThis is not to cast doubt on your research, but rather to show yourself as an objective expert, who can ask pertinent questions which are still left to be answered in your field. The end may be just the beginning for your career as an academic researcher. You may want to follow up on your research or you may feel proud that you have paved the way for others to follow. Summary Reviewer John – our site Admin Review Date 2017-08-18 Reviewed Item Dissertation Conclusion Example Author Rating 5

What dreams are made of - 2819 Words

What Dreams are Made of Since the beginning of time, dreams have been a mysterious wonder amongst humans. Everyone has dreams, and people who say they do not in fact do, but just don’t remember their dreams or recall the information that was in them. A person spends somewhere around six years of their life dreaming, which is about 2,100 days in a dream world (dreamfacts). A lot of people often have weird and unexplained dreams that they usually just overlook, or don’t remember, but research is showing that there is meaning behind dreams. In the Ancient time, the Greeks and Romans would visit dream temples to search their dreams as messages from the Gods (Gackenbach and Bosveld, 1989). Nowadays, through studies and research,†¦show more content†¦He thought that the dreams served to satisfy unconscious sexual and aggressive desires, because such things as those were not accepted to the dreamer and had to be hidden. Therefore, they appeared in a figurative form in a dream. Dreams have b een viewed as a test run by activating dangerous and threatening things to help increase a person’s chance of survival. However, researcher J. Allan Hobson (1988) shot down this notion and made up the theory of Activation-Synthesis Hypothesis of Dreaming which presents that the dreams are only the brain’s attempt to try to figure the random firing of neurons during the REM sleep phase (Wood, Wood and Boyd, 2004). Other Studies have found that dreamer’s brain waves are the most active when they are dreaming. Even more than during the day (dreamfacts). Hobson also thought that dreams have a psychological meaning because the meaning that the dreamer sees of their dreams goes with their own personal memories, experiences, associations, and fears (Wood, Wood and Boyd, 2004). Some therapists think that dreamers should remember their dreams because they have thoughts that they aren’t typically aware of, that could help people better see themselves and problem solve thing in their lives. Even if dreams are not reality, they can help important information about how that person sees reality. Some people say that having a dream journal to understand and learn fromShow MoreRelatedAspirations And Greatness : F. Scott Fitzgerald s The Great Gatsby 1436 Words   |  6 Pagesgoals and dreams. Through his work The Great Gatsby, F.Scott Fitzgerald used the protagonist, Jay Gatsby, to demonstrate the American Dream and greatness. Gatsby was a mysterious character, commonly mistaken as a mere criminal; but actually, he was a victim of his perseverance and the American Dream. Despite his criminal activities, the book portrayed Gatsby as much more than a thug, an individual stopping at nothing to obtain his dream. While Jay Gatsby never fully achieved the Americ an Dream, his markedRead MoreThe American Dream Worth Dreaming During The Great Depression1568 Words   |  7 PagesWas the American Dream Worth Dreaming During the Great Depression? The American Dream can be defined as the ideal that every US citizen should have an equal opportunity to achieve success and prosperity through hard work, determination, and initiative. Lots of people during the Great Depression had an American Dream. The problem was, was that the American Dream was never attained because of the somber time period that these poor people were going through. Back then and still today, people say toRead MoreDreams and Sleep Cycle Essay1545 Words   |  7 Pagesaway into a fantasy world that is not based in their own reality. There is a great deal of research on the topic of dreams being fantasy versus a subconscious reality. Do we only dream what we know we could never do with our conscious mind or is it all just outlandish fantasies that will never come to life? First, to fully understand where we are going when we are talking about dreams we first need to understand fully the meaning of consciousness and the varying levels that exists in the human brainRead MoreLiterary Analysis : The Shadow Archetype 885 Words   |  4 Pagesappearing in dreams† (p.145). This was the purpose of interpreting dreams according to Jung’s theory. The ultimate goal was self-realization. In order to reach this goal, one had to pay attention to his or her dreams, especially the archetypes that readily appeared in them. For Jung, archetypes are â€Å"the psychic structural components of the collective unconscious that parallel the physical components of our common human bodily structure† (p. 147). Using the archetypal imagery present in ones dream, one canRead MoreThe American Dream Essay755 Words   |  4 PagesA great dream, The American Dream. Or is it? Is my American Dream the same as your American Dream? Does it help? Or is it harmful? Do you know? â€Å"To achieve wealth, status, business, family, house, and (a) car(s).† That is the modern american dream. That’s is quite different compared to the original American Dream, â€Å"Every person has the opportunity to achieve their own idea of happiness.† Which version is your version? Or maybe your version is different. Have you thought about what different versionsRead MoreCinderella Man American Dream1175 Words   |  5 Pageswork and believe the one reason that it will.† Unknown. This quote from an unknown author perfectly addresses what I believe a critical step for attaining the American Dream is. To focus on the reasons someone cannot achieve something will only lead to disaster, but when someone takes the one reason why they can succeed, they do. There is no better representation of this and the American Dream than the movie Cinderella Man. It shows that no matter how bad things are, no matter how many reasons thereRead MoreThe American Dream Is Still Achievable773 Words   |  4 PagesWhat is the American Dream and is it still achievable? If it is still achievable, then how can the American Dream be achieved? The American Dream is the idea that every United States citizen should have an equal opportunity to achieve success and prosperity through hard work. The American Dream provides uneq ually for the modern-day society of the United States by limiting the types of people can achieve this dream and an example of which would be that someone that is a homosexual would have a lesserRead MoreThe Power and Purpose of Dreams1144 Words   |  5 Pagescan’t fully and clearly explain what that the definition of dreaming is, observing, testing, and performing different practices, has given experts and scientists enough information to have a general idea of what is going on in the human brain while in this dream state. It is a way to travel into time or into a place that could never exist. Dreams can be a gateway to see your future, to what lies ahead or a way to look back on memories. But not all dreams are made of absolutely perfect worlds, toRead MoreThe American Dream By Dan Kadlec1344 Words   |  6 PagesThe American Dream is steadily changing as time goes on and some say this is a bad thing. As different generations come about the dream changes with the people. As stated by Dan Kadlec in the article â€Å"Millennials Put Their Surprising Stamp on the American Dream† the American dream is now seen as having control over your daily life. Today s generation has seen some of the main aspects of the original American Dream fail greatly so they have made up a new dream. With the things Millennials have seenRead More The Great Gatsby As A Tragedy Essay902 Words   |  4 PagesGatsby and Daisys romance can be viewed as tragic. However, a deeper analysis of the book reveals a much deeper tragedy. The relentless struggles of Gatsby himself parallel Fitzgeralds apparent ideas of the struggles of all Americans. The American dream romanticized by the majority of the population is really unattainable because it is, in fact, nonexistent. Every character has an unfortunate role and could be called a tragic character. However, the main tragedy is that of the title character

Is Gerontology A Multidisciplinary Study - 975 Words

Gerontology is a multidisciplinary study. We cannot study aging based on a few simple factors. There are many different variables that go into how a person ages. Everyone comes from a different background, different genetics, and goes through different life experiences. This is why no one person can be aged using the same method. The most common way people measure age is through chronological age. Chronological age is simply counting the amount of literal years a person has been alive for. This method of measuring aging is not effective in comparing peoples’ ages. More effective processes to measure aging are â€Å"biological (functional capacity), psychological (sensory, mental, personality), and social age (society’s roles and expectations)† [1]. By combining these methods, we can more accurately study the effects of aging on people. It is difficult to pinpoint when aging begins due to the different methods and complexity of measuring age. If we apply the chron ological and biological processes, then perhaps aging starts at conception. However, others may argue that aging begins when a baby is born. Nonetheless, we still cannot apply the physiological and social ages too accurately so early on in one’s life. For these reasons, there is no one definitive answer to when aging begins. Furthermore, there are no set primary life stages when looking at the aforementioned aging continuums. As the lecture constantly explains, everyone ages in such different ways that we cannot applyShow MoreRelatedInterview . Interviewee Expertise. M.Lang Has Worked With1079 Words   |  5 Pageshuman development and family studies education directly connects with the career choice. I would find fulfillment in designing creative activities, performing administrative responsibilities, personal fulfillment in relationships with older adults, as well as professional satisfaction in witnessing how life development theory influences the individual. Field Question Set Endless Possibilities The field of aging by its nature is diverse (Association for Gerontology in Higher Education; The GerontologicalRead MoreKabola Theory1399 Words   |  6 Pagesspecialty in gerontology. During her years of work as a head nurse, she began to see comfort in a theorical context. She advanced her education and in 1997 obtained a PhD in nursing from Case Western University. Dr. Kolcaba is an associate professor at the University of Akron, Ohio, where she teaches an undergraduate course titled Nursing Care of Older Adults and graduate courses in research, theory, professional roles, and domains of nursing knowledge. Her areas of expertise include gerontology, end-Read Moreold age home1753 Words   |  8 Pages Introduction of gerontology Gerontology is an introduction to the field of human aging. Gerontology is multidisciplinary in nature as all aspects of human aging are viewed in this subject. This means that the study of aging combines information from several separate areas of study. Biology, sociology, and psychology are the core or basic areas, along with content from many other areas of study such as public policy, humanities, and economics. Gerontology includes the study of physical, mentalRead MoreHuman Development Is The Roots Of Work Essay2284 Words   |  10 PagesThis paper will present research from a peer-reviewed articles to explain human development in the context of current trends within the selected topic LIFE SPAN and subtopics of infant care, childhood, adolescence, adult and gerontology. Research is important in psychology as it can provide professionals like psychology professionals, guidance counselors, and marketing executives with a baseline of typical and atypical in human behavior . Und erstanding the aging process is important to a PsychologistRead MoreEssay about Coping With The Aging Body1205 Words   |  5 PagesCoping with ageing and failing health: A qualitative study among elderly living alone. International Journal of Nursing Practice , 257–264. ChrysN. (n.d.). Instructables. Retrieved April 13, 2011, from http://www.instructables.com/id/How-to-Cope-with-Aging/ Encyclo online encylopedia. (2011, April 14). Retrieved April 14, 2011, from http://www.encyclo.co.uk/define/Health Hooyman, N. R., Kiyak, H. A. (2005). Social Gerontology A multidisciplinary Perspective. Pearson Education, Inc. Lau, B. W. (1994)Read MoreHuman Behavior and the Social Environment: A Look at Three Theories1301 Words   |  6 Pagesrelationship between the behavior of an individual and the environment in which the individual interacts (Hutchison, 2008). Human behavior theories offer a framework to organize, interpret and understand this relationship (Hutchison, 2008). For this case study, the following three theories will be examined for relevancy: Life cycle theory, role theory and resiliency theory. Life Cycle Theory Psychosocial development throughout the Life Cycle theory (sometimes known as individual development theory) proposesRead MoreActivity Theory of Aging Essay4128 Words   |  17 Pagesdo contribute towards the eventual satisfaction of a need. Participation in an activity is performing conscious actions that have an immediate and defined goal. Actions turn into operations when they become routine and unconscious. According to a study done by Lee and Markides, it was hypothesized that all three types of activity would be associated with a person’s life satisfaction. A test of this hypothesis was done using data collected in a retirement community. It was found that there was anRead MoreAdvance Practice Nurse1896 Words   |  8 PagesAPN/CNP, Diane John Diane John, APN/CNP is a nurse practitioner at Health land, a Hawaii center for the public. She has devoted 30 years to her nursing career. She has worked as a nurse in a medical intensive care unit and as a research nurse in the study in the intensive care unit. She has been a Female Nurse Practitioner for the past 20 years where she started out as a midwife at wife care center, where she provided midwife services to women. Rationale for an engaged interview process The reasonRead MoreHuman Development Is A Product Of Conditioning, Learning And Reinforcement Essay1943 Words   |  8 Pagesdevelopment has primarily been the province of psychologists. Most commonly the ï ¬ eld is called developmental psychology or, if it is focused primarily on children, child development or child psychology. Psychology itself is often deï ¬ ned as the scientiï ¬ c study of behavior and mental processes.   Developmental psychology is a scientific approach which aims to explain how children and adults change over time. A significant proportion of theories within this discipline focus upon development during childhoodRead MoreThe Social Work Profession And Career Interests1946 Words   |  8 Pagesenable me to apply my knowledge to culturally competent practice. It was my career in teaching that directed me through the years of my professional experience toward social work. Currently, my areas of interest are in school social work and gerontology. I ca n also envision myself having an active role within a hospital or clinic working with people to address their needs. Advanced Methods: Groups Group membership is natural to human life because being a member of the society means belonging

The Impact of Nazi Rule on the People of Germany between...

The Impact of Nazi Rule on the People of Germany between 1933 and 1939 Whether the Nazis made a negative or positive impact on the people of Germany, they most defiantly made one. In making a decision on what this was I will look at all of the aspects of their aeon, and examine them. The bad parts of Nazi sovereignty are obvious: there abominable policies concerning minority groups, their way suppressing the people by removing their rights, using violence and threats and so forth, however it must also be pointed out that there were good parts of their reign which included increased quality of peoples leisure time and improvements in the economy. One particular group of people who found themselves†¦show more content†¦However it would appear to me that it was not entirely impossible for workers to rebel, but factors that made them better off ie money deterred them from it - they were getting a little in return for their loss. The attack on unemployment also changed a number of things for German men. It can be said that Nazis greatly reduced problems of unemployment as from when they gained power in 1933 to 1939 unemployment dropped from 6014000 right down to 302000. This looks good on the surface but underneath shows up a number of faults. Numbers of unemployment were most certainly improved upon but this was mostly due to rearmament, compulsory military service (this took 1300000 off unemployment registers), people making weapons equipments and scientist developing food and material substitutes. This was not essentially a long term solution to Germanys problems but the impact it had was to give men money and food, which at that time was what they needed. Equally it was mens partners/partners to be which were affected. Women found themselves influenced in numerous ways, one of which was marriage. In 1933 the law for the encouragement of marriage was introduced - newly weds were given a 1000 mark government loan, encouraging them to have children. Not long after in 1934 the ten commandments for choice of partner was established. This meant that ideal Aryans were encouraged to marryShow MoreRelatedNazi Germany Positive And Negative Effects On The World War I1731 Words   |  7 PagesLife in Nazi Germany had many positive and negative effects on the people that were living there between 1933-1939. The treaty of Versailles was when Germany was in great despair. The Germans had to pay back repatriations for losing the war, they lost territory, accepted the blame for causing World War I and there was also the near elimination of the Germany army. This all lead Germany into suffering badly through the Great Depression. The Nazi party and their leader Adolf Hitler brought the TotalitarianRead MoreHitler s Impact On Germany1489 Words   |  6 PagesLife in Germany was worse after Hitler had joined the Nazi Party between the years of 1933 and 1939 because he had his own ideas on how he wanted Germany to be that went against the democracy. Before the Nazis came about, Germany was controlled by the Weimar Republic, the newly formed Government system that had taken over from the monarchy. Adolf Hitler helped improve Germany by giving full employment and economic growth, regaining territory that they had previously lost, increasing their pride,Read MoreAdolf Hitler As A Leader Of Nazi Germany1677 Words   |  7 Pageseverything in the nation in which he/she rules. Adolf Hitler was born on April 20, 1889 in Braunau am Inn. Hitler also known as Fà ¼hrer; he was chancellor of Germany from 1933 to 1945, and served as dictator from 1934 to 1945. Adolf Hitler was the leader of Nazi Germany, he was one of the initial causes w hich triggered World War II and brought about a great many deaths (â€Å"Adolf Hitler Biography.†). Adolf Hitler came into power due to the Great Depression in Germany, which provided a political opportunityRead MoreTaking a Look at the Weimar Republic955 Words   |  4 PagesThe Weimar Republic existed in Germany between 1918 and 1933 (The Weimar Republic). The new Weimar Constitution of 1919 gave German women suffrage as well as access to educational initiatives like sexual hygiene and birth control (Pine, 199). Women got the chance to join political parties, trade unions, and immerse themselves in political life (Frevert, 175). The Weimar Republic wanted to give German women a chance at political success so they created the Ausschuss fà ¼r die Vorbereitung von FrauenRead MoreHitlers Domestic Policies2976 Words   |  12 PagesEvaluate the impact on Germany of Hitler’s domestic policies between 1933 and 1945. Hitler aimed to affect key areas of German societal structure through the design and implementation of a range of domestic policies. These included policies which affected the political structure of the nation, women’s role in society and their aspirations, the development of future generations and fundamental belief systems such as those concerning religion and racial attitudes. However, it is simplistic to assumeRead MoreThe Holocaust Was An Extremely Traumatic Event1690 Words   |  7 Pagesextremely traumatic event that opened the eyes of many people about how brutal and malicious people can truly be. There is no single answer as to why this event occurred, there are many complex and inter-related causes for the Holocaust including; the economy of Germany, the ideology of the Nazis, Hitler’s personal racism, and outright fear. Now the Holocaust was the period from January 30, 1933 - when Adolf Hitler became the chancellor of Germany - to May 8, 1945, when the war i n Europe finally endedRead MoreThe World War II And Nazi Concentration Camps1935 Words   |  8 Pagesunstable Germany, Adolf Hitler and his National Socialist (Nazi Party) rearmed the nation and signed strategic treaties with Italy and Japan to further his ambitions of world domination. Hitler’s invasion of Poland in September 1939 drove Great Britain and France to declare war on Germany, and World War II had begun. Over the next six years, the conflict would take more lives and destroy more land and property around the globe than any previous war. Among the estimated 45-60 million people killed wereRead MoreThe Nazi Regime Of The Weimar Republic And The Creation Of A Terror State2236 Words   |  9 PagesOn 30th January 1933, through ruthless determination, Adolf Hitler became Germany s 24th Chancellor, bringing the totalitarian Nazi party into power and creating a fascist Nazi State. Ultimately this led to the collapse of the Weimar Republic and the creation of a terror state, in which the German society was forced to conform to the regime due to the excessive use of violence, fear, and intimidation. The Nazi regime created various economic benefits, which served to disguise the detrimental effectsRead MoreHow Did The Second World War Influenced The Economy Of Germany?3235 Words   |  13 PagesHow did the Second World War Influenced the Economy of Germany? Introduction: As war impacts all aspects of the country involved, economy is one of the most heavily hit, as seen in Germany through WWII. Before the Second World War Germany was deeply separated due to the Treaty of Versailles which cut Germany s industrial west from it populous east. However Hitler through his political acts wished to unify these halves of the same whole. As an act of unifying the country Hitler placed the Jews andRead MoreThe Impact of Nazism on the Women in the Years 1918-19452405 Words   |  10 PagesThe Impact of Nazism on the Women in the Years 1918-1945 Socio-economic factors and the demands of wartime had a greater impact on women in Germany than the Nazi regime. Furthermore, women’s experiences were vicariously influenced through Nazi race or eugenic policy rather than through women’s policy per se. Traditional analysis of German women has concluded that the impacts of Nazism were an increase in birth rate, a return to the domestic sphere and the total suspension

Supervisor Attitudes About Employee Work/Life Issues free essay sample

Supervisor Attitudes about Employee Work/Life Issues Basic Concepts Definitions Supervisor attitudes about employee work/life issues are critical to the success of any work-family initiative and play an integral part of two of the four components of family-friendly workplaces: workplace culture and climate and workplace relationships (see Sloan Work and Family Encyclopedia entries Family-Friendly Workplace and Work-Family Culture). In fact, one might say that supervisor attitudes are hurdles that must be cleared in order for an organization to achieve any level of family-friendly. Supervisor Attitudes: AJzen and Fishbein (2000) state that attitude is best considered to be a persons degree of favorableness or unfavorableness with respect to a psychological object (p. 2). Other studies define attitudes with other variables of interest including (1) organizational commitment, Job satisfaction, and organization-based self-esteem (p. 439, Van Dyne Pierce, 2004) and (2) personal ethical commitment and employees commitment to organizational values (Adam Rachman-Moore, 2004). Attitude is hard to conceptualize, but in the context of this aper on supervisor attitudes about employee work/life issues, we define supervisor attitudes as those patterns of behaviors that demonstrate positive or negative regard towards employee work/life issues. Workplace Culture and Climate: The linkage between supervisor attitudes and workplace culture and climate is explicit—workplace attitudes affect every facet of work-family policies and initiatives. Workplace culture and climate refers to those shared values and beliefs, which are relatively stable, that help a group make meaning. For more information, see the Sloan Work and Family Encyclopedia entries Family-Friendly Workplace, Perceived Usability of Work/Family Policies, and Work-Family Culture. Workplace Relationships: These relationships refer to the social support employees find at work in their relationships with one another, supervisors, etc. The linkage between supervisor attitudes and workplace relationships is subtle and very complex as those attitudes may be hidden or masked by other relational and support issues. For more information, see the Sloan Work and Family Encyclopedia entry Family-Friendly Workplace. Importance of Topic to Work-Family Studies Supervisors play a critical role in the provision and utilization of work/life programs, and their attitudes towards employee work/life issues are inextricably linked to the organization and the employee. An organization may decide to decrease or minimize work/life programs based on supervisor input, and an employee may not feel comfortable taking advantage of a work/life program because of a supervisor. Thus, it is important for us to better understand supervisor attitudes about employee work/life issues and how those attitudes impact work/life programs. The purpose of this paper is to broadly explore the ways in which supervisor attitudes are already being studied in the work-family studies literature and to identify how supervisor attitudes about employee work/life issues impact employees and programs. State of the Body of Knowledge Supervisor and manager attitudes towards a variety of objects or populations are commonly studied. Attitudes toward women in the workplace, particularly women in management, are prevalent in the literature (Cordano, Scherer, Owen, 2002; Liff, Worrall, Cooper, 1997; Tomkiewicz, Frankel, Adeyemi-Bello, Sagan, 2004). Liff, Worrall, and Cooper (1997) found that 30% of males in senior management agreed or strongly agreed that women managers should not combine career and motherhood and almost 25% of males said they did or would have a problem working for a woman. Further, organizations managed by males with negative views towards women managers were least likely to employ them. The population was the industrial area of the West Midlands in Great Britain, which is considered to be male dominated. Several concepts already common to work-family studies were found to have similarities or overlap with supervisor attitudes. Table 1 summarizes those findings. Table 1. Summary of Research Concepts in Related to Supervisor Attitudes ConceptExplanation/DefinitionAuthors Intangible supportâ€Å"†¦employees seem to distinguish between tangible support (e. g. work–family practices) and intangible support (i. e. he culture of support, the belief that an organization is understanding of and flexible about conflicts that may arise)† p. 138. Jahn, Thompson, Kopelman (2003) Managerial interpretationâ€Å"†¦the role of managers in determining how to respond to institutional or resource pressures† (p. 580). Milliken, Martin, Morgan (1998) Employer, managerial, and supervisor support†¢Dimension of work-family culture †¢Influences emplo yee usability of work-family benefit (utilization). Allen (2001) Erdwins, Buffardi, Casper, O’Brien (2001) Friedman Greenhaus (2000) Thompson, Beauvais, Lyness (1999) Work climate for sharing concernsâ€Å"†¦a work climate for sharing concerns is one where employees can discuss family concerns with supervisors and peers† (p. 32). Kossek, Colquitt, Noe (2001) Implications for Practice and Research The supervisor is a key player in whether or not work-family programs are made available to employees and whether or not employees use the benefits. Organizations should be interested in the impact supervisors are having on these aspects of work-family programs for the same reasons that work-family programs are beneficial—job satisfaction, loyalty, commitment, etc. The return-on-investment of the work-family programs is also at stake when supervisors can single-handedly jeopardize the utility of such programs. Organizations should be assessing supervisor attitudes and their impact on work-family programs and subsequently holding supervisors accountable for their attitudes. Research on the implications of supervisor attitudes on employee work/life issues needs to be expanded. The relationships between supervisor attitudes and intangible support, managerial interpretation, employer/managerial/supervisor support, and work climate for sharing oncerns are opportunities for additional research, and undoubtedly there are other connections to be made among topics already research in work-family studies. Also, the drivers of supervisor attitudes need to be explored because that is where the potential for change lies in the cases where supervisors have negative and unproductive attitudes about employee work/life issues. References Adam, A. M