Saturday, January 25, 2020

The Dredd Scott Case Essay -- Supreme Court American History Slavery E

The Dredd Scott Case The Dredd Scott case involved a landmark decision in the history of the Supreme Court, in the history of the United States the decision in this case was one of the most damaging statements in the history of the Supreme Court, involving the citizenship of a black person in the United States, and the constitutionality of the Missouri Compromise in 1820. The history of a black man named Dredd Scott states that he was a slave originally owed by a family by the name of Blow, which ended up selling him in 1833 to an army surgeon by the name of Dr. John Emerson of St. Luis. Due to his involvement as an army surgeon, Emerson was transferred to numerous places such as Rock Island, Illinois, Fort Snelling in the Wisconsin Territory then back to St. Louis in the end of 1838. Scott had accompanied Emerson throughout this period. Emerson had taken Scott to places that forbidden slavery according to the Missouri Compromise of 1820 and Scott was even allowed to marry during this! time period on fre e territory, his companion being a woman who was also a slave owned by Emerson. As Emerson and Scott had returned to St. Louis, a territory where slavery was legal, Emerson died and Scott was left to his widow, who eventually gave Scott back to his original owners, the Blows. Henry Blow, Scott’s original master, was opposed to the extension of slavery into the Western territories, and Blow lent Scott’s residence on free soil in Illinois and Wisconsin Territory had made him a free man. In 1846, Dredd Scott brought suit in the state court on the grounds that residence in a free territory released him from slavery. A lower state court had found to be in favor of Scott, but in 1852, the Supreme Court of Missouri ruled that upon his return to territory where slavery was legal, the status of slavery was reattached to him and therefore he had no standing before the court. The case was brought before the federal circuit court, which took jurisdiction, but held against Scott. The case was taken on appeal to the Supreme Court, where it was argued at length in 1855 and 1856 and finally decided in 1857. The decision handed down by a majority of the vote of the court was that there was no power in the in the existing form of government to make citizens slave or free, ! and at the time of the formation of the US Constitution they were not and could not be citi... ...than presiding over a session of the circuit court), Taney on the 28th of May, 1861, declared Merryman entitled to his freedom on the grounds that he was illegally detained. In an unusual move, he filed and opinion condemning Merryman’s arrest as an arbitrary and illegal denial of civil liberty. Taney stated that military detention of civilians like Merryman was unconstitutional because only congress had authority to suspend the writ of Habeas Corpus. Taney described the president as a mere administrative officer charged with faithful enforcement of the laws. according to the Chief Justice this amounted to a constitutional duty not to execute the laws "as they are expanded and adjudged by the co-ordinate branch of the government, to which that duty is assigned by the constitution." Taney sent a copy of his opinion to Lincoln. President Lincoln justified his action in a message to Congress in July 1861. He reasoned further that the framers did not intend that in an emergency no action should be taken to protect the public safety by suspending Habeas Corpus until Congress should be assembled. More importantly he ignored Taney’s opinion. Merryman, however, was later released.

Friday, January 17, 2020

Management theory and practice

IntroductionMary Parker Follett (1868-1933), was an early political scientist and is considered to be one of the most prominent American management theorists in the earlier half of the 20th century (Montana & Chimov 2000, p.17). She is considered to be one of the founders of the field of Public Administration and organization studies. Labeled by many famous management writers, as the ‘Prophet of Management’ and the ‘Mother of Scientific Management’, she was a critical and independent thinker who has a powerful impact on the management theory in the 1920s and 1930s (Orlikowski 1996, p.427).Though an American by birth her work was better known in other countries like Britain and Japan. Some theorists attribute this to her being a woman with ideas that were far beyond her time. Another reason why her work did not have as much impact as other management theorists may also be because she worked as a social worker rather than in exalted business circles.Her approa ch for a social responsibility and working together was also in direct contrast to the use of power and authority, which was prevalent in the times when she was writing and lecturing (Tosi, Mero & Rizzo 2001, p.11). The multinational and multicultural expansion of businesses has led to a different nature of roles and responsibilities among the management group. Today many companies are struggling towards corporate social responsibility and the ideas which Ms Follett had introduced years ago are being brought back into the light.The works of Mary Parker became obscure for a long time due to the disinterest among the companies at the time to look for a social responsibility and team work based organization. During her earlier studies, she met Dr. H Metcalf who later published many of her lectures. Dr. Metcalf together with Colonel L. Urwick together in the year 1941 assembled her lectures in a book called Dynamic Administration, which forms the basis for many researches looking for Fo llett’s work (Orlikowski 2003, p. 426)The Ideas of Mary Parker FollettMary Parker Follett challenged the ideas of scientific management prevalent at the time, and helped in laying foundations to the human relations school of management (Witzel 2003 p. 102). Her idea was to control people by working with them. The industry at that time was completely hierarchical and authority and power were exerted in a military style. Follett however rooted for an entirely different style of management. She advocated for flatter hierarchies, teamwork and participative management leadership based on ability, cooperative conflict resolution and a shared corporate vision (Bloom & Reichert 1998, p.258).This may be one of the reasons why her ideas were not immediately accepted in the US, where power games were the mainstay for any type of business. The companies were inherently family businesses and the leadership was the next successor to the family whether worthy or not. Teamwork was an unheard of concept, as the management scoffed at it and the subordinates worked solely at the directions of their superiors.Follett’s research and writings pointed to a collaborative approach to problem solving which advocated compromise. In fact one of her favorite admonitions to the management was ‘don’t over-manage your employees’, calling over-managing of employees as bossism. Now days, this process is known as micromanaging by many of the corporate houses.According to her workers could recognize the logic of a situation present in any management request and would comply accordingly (Montana & Chamov 2000, p. 17). Hence, the management task was to formulate their requests in a logical way but to resist giving too many orders. Her work in modern times constitutes the basis of problem solving and hence is receiving renewed interest.For avoiding over-management situations in organizations, Mary Parker developed the law of situation in 1928. According to her, lea ders would be more successful if they would adjust their style of leadership to the needs of their subordinates and to the requirements of the situation(Covell, Walker, Siciliano & Hess 2007, p.37) .This approach is reflected in today’s scenario as contingency view, and can be seen in almost every aspect of management. Organizations usually have contingency plans, which are basically options for every situation which is likely to be encountered. A further offshoot of this plan is the Risk Management, which is the current buzzword in management of organizations.Mary Follett thought that use of authority may have negative effects. Contrary to the popular belief it does not flow downward on principle, but the interactions of various process and most importantly people with intelligent thought influence its progress throughout the channels (Tosi, Mero & Rizzo, 2000, p. 11). Also in case of conflicts, she thought that a collaborative solution would tend to be productive as it woul d lead to integrative problem solving, rather than just exerting authority over the subordinates to impose a solution. In a sense differences would have a positive effect as they would lead to an analysis of the entire boundary of the solution.Mary Follett considered the process of management to be participative instead of one-sided. It hence follows that the job of the management is to channel both group activity and group conflicts and use them constructively to find solutions. She understood the complex social situations and focused on the working groups, which in her view should be managed efficiently instead of order to get the best results (Collins 2000, p. 54). This holds true in today’s world with many companies being too large and hence being de-centralized without losing their identity or corporate culture. Hence, management should focus on getting things done by their employees instead of controlling them at every level.The theories proposed by Mary Follett were no t just related to organizations. Some of them also concerned the professional working within these organizations. The popular term used by employees in recent times is professionalism. The word was defined by Mary Parker in a way that holds true in recent terms. According to Follett, â€Å"A professional is a person who maintains loyalty to a code of ethics that transcends to a loyalty to the rest of the organization.† (Shell 2003, p.2) Hence, the term is usually used by freelance or consultants who do not bend their ethics for loyalty towards a company.Applications of Follett’s principles to organizationsMary Follett was one of the pioneers of the profession of Management Consultant in Britain. She worked for global giants like Unilever as wells as progressive Quaker firms (Murphy 2005 p. 80). In both these organizations she held major influence in bringing the human relations principles to managements.Her thoughts however were forgotten for a long time before the glo balization of organizations and the consequent increase in difficulty in managing organizations by a single party. This prompted a structure of globalization where the organization looked into becoming better managed rather than more controlled. The principle of human relations can be seen in many of the organizations whether they explicitly follow the principles or notAs an example Samsung is one of the giant corporations which had to be decentralized due to the political conditions prevalent in Korea at the time. The company went in for a complete decentralization where each of the industries are governed by an independent body.However, each of the companies follows single corporate vision which joins the company under one head. Samsung prepares its own chips for the end products, and is a world leader in both the mobile and chip segments. The effective delegation of work is one of the chief elements of Mary Follett’s lecturesOne of the major ironies is that while the work of Mary Parker was not very much in vogue in United States, countries like Britain and especially Japan embraced her philosophy. The Japanese have always been appreciative of her work because it has been in tune with the consensual, thoughtful, careful and above all respectful approach which is the characteristic of Japanese people.This is probably the reason why many of the Japanese companies follow the approach for joining huge corporations –Sony is an example of a huge company conglomerate which is entirely decentralized. In addition it is collaboration with many companies for future research (Mant 1999, p. 99)ReferencesBooksBloom SL, Reichert M, 1998, Bearing Witness: Violence and Collective responsibility, Haworth Press, NewYork Collins DV, 2000, Management Fads and Buzzwords: Critical Practical Perspectives, Roultedge, NewYork Covell D, Walker S, Siciliano J, Hess PW, 2007, Managing Sports Organizations: Responsibility for Performance†, Elsevier, Oxford Mant A, 19 99, Intelligent Leadership, Allan & Unwin, New South Wales Montana PJ, Chamov BH, 2000, Management, Barron’s Educational Series, NewYork Murphy CN, 2005, Global Institutions: Marginalization and Development, Roultedge, NewYork Orlikowski WJ, 2003, Information Technology and Changes in Organizational Work, Springer, London Shell RL, 2003, Management of Professionals, CRC Press, NewYork Tosi HL, Mero NP, Rizzo JR, 2000, Managing Organizational Behavior, Blackwell Publishing, OxfordWitzel M, 2003, Fifty Key Figures in Management, Roultedge, NewyorkInternet Articleshttp://www.1000ventures.com/business_guide/mgmt_decentralzation_delegation.html

Wednesday, January 8, 2020

Social Medi A Great Way For Someone With Share Information...

Social Media is a great way for someone to share information with people from different cultures and backgrounds. It is also a great way to stay connected to family and friends from all over the world. Also, a great way to get to know more about someone that you may have recently met. Social media has become a very important part of everyone’s life but this new activity has its advantages and disadvantages, especially in the workplace. At the UCF Community Care Center, we do have a social media page on Facebook. Our Facebook page was established for a number of reasons. UCF Community Care Center Facebook page â€Å"facilitates open communication, leading to enhanced information discovery and delivery; allows employees to discuss ideas, post†¦show more content†¦Now, after seeing this post, I regretted accepting this ‘friend request† and immediately â€Å"unfriend† this employee. Some people tend to use social media, especially Facebook as an outlet and would often rant and rave about certain things, and this is exactly what my employee did. She ranted on Facebook instead of coming to me directly. As the new Practice Manager, I had made some changes and implemented some rules that have to be followed by everyone but I was not aware that this was creating a discomfort to some employees. I felt that I should have the type of relationship with my employees where if something is bothering them then they should be able to talk to me directly. As a Practice Manager, I am not in a co-worker relationship with my employees but rather in a supervisor-subordinate relationship. My primary responsibility is to build and maintain a good working bond with each of my employees. It is also my responsibility to establish guidelines and avoid mixing business with pleasure. Interaction between my employees and myself should be an acceptable one. As their manager, I will clearly outline what is expected from employees. My job is to ensure that eve ryone remains productive throughout the day. My job is not to be everyone’s friend but instead I will maintain a take-charge attitude to avoid being taken advantage of by my subordinates. I will always be professional and continue to practice good customer service, avoid foul