RUNNING HEAD; Review of public personnel administration strategy. 24(1), 41-69.

Emmanuel A. Turuka

WESTERN MICHIGAN UNIVERSITY

Mani B.G. (2004) The employer’s advantages in sexual harassment case: How the courts have discouraged the victims of sexual harassment. Review of public personnel administration strategy. 24(1), 41-69.

Key words: Do employers have a great chance in sexual harassment cases?

Summary:

EEOC defines sexual harassment as a form of unlawful sex discrimination that creates an intimidating, hostile or offensive working environment. EEOC guidelines state clear that the organization needs to prevent sexual harassment in the workplace. The role of the organization therefore to establish effective policies, policy implementation procedure training program and complaint processes, these will help and only give advantages for organizing to win the sexual harassment cases against employees. The court may side with the employee the company did not have an effective process for dealing with complaints. The courts have said that an employer may designate a specific person within the organization to receive, investigate and resolve complaints. The outcome of these cases suggests that the effective complaint process protects employers from liability and may discourage future incident of sexual harassment. Victims who fail to use the employers’ complaints process are unlikely to receive favorable decisions in the courts and they undermine one important strategy for ending this unprofessional behavior, e.g. Kimberly Ellerth did not formally report her harassment because of she feared retaliation. The courts rejected fear of retaliation as a reason for failing to use an organization’s complaint process.

Sexual harassment training is one of preventive measure e.g. The City of Boca Raton believed that sending employees a memorandum that includes the City’s policy was adequate training, however Faragher never saw the memorandum. In this case the employer was held to liable. The person who is responsible for handling complaints of sexual harassment should be impartial and should not be someone who generally serves as management’s advocates within the organization.

However few women serve on the bench and this seems to be disadvantageous for women judges in 15 of all the 18 cases 83.3% were male decision favored employers 75% of the cases two cases decided by female judges.

Methodology:

According to EEOC 15,475 charges of sexual harassment were filed in 2001, men failed only13. 7% charge. The number of cases resolved was 16,475. In almost 71% of cases resolved in 2001 case were closed because EEOC found reasonable cause in less to believe that discrimination occurred.

Reaction       

I agree with the author recommendation that employer’s have a great advantage in sexual cases if they fulfill all the requirements as outlines by the EEOC and Title VII of the Civil Rights as mentioned above. BUT I disagreed with the author ‘s statement that ‘ women have a disadvantage in the courts because few women serves on the bench’ I think it is not necessarily true, courts are ruled by established laws, rules and procedures, and never gender of a judge will change anything. The important thing is for employees to follow the procedure of filing the complaints as outlined by the EEOC without fear of retaliation. Courts are the only place where justice is justifiable, no matter of personality. 

Reference:

Berman, E.M., Bowman, J.S., West, J., Wan Wart, M. (2006). Human resources management in public service (2^nd ed.).Thousand Oaks, CA: sage.

RUNNING HEAD: THE ROLE OF CEOs

EMMANUEL A. TURUKA

WESTERN MICHIGAN UNIVERSITY

 “Does leaders matters to a company’s success” Discuss whether or not CEOs really make a difference to their companies’ level of profitability and productivity.

 Issue: 

The company’s main objective is to generate a profit. And the role of the CEO is to make sure that the company makes a profit. With the amount of money that is paid to a CEO, it is important to see a high ROI from the leader. Does the CEO actually make the company more profitable? And does it have any impact on the company?

CEO is a business Chief Executive Officer, with leadership skills and experience necessary to understand and manage a company and has the ability to handle all key business disciplines including sales, marketing, and finance, operational and administrative functions.

Impact of CEO on Profitability: 

· Vision:  The ability to influence change in the organizations toward future goals. In this respect CEO runs the strategy making system in the company; and has unique authority and information, and no other members of the company can take responsibility for these decisions. Decisions related to crises, problems and major opportunities must be overseen and integrated by the CEO.

· Control of Resources:  CEO is the one who controls the resources and make sure that he/she has control of what to produce with these resources.  CEO’s have control of the direction of the firm. This means that the CEO designs the organization, in effect deciding who will do what, and authorizes all important decisions. No major action can be taken without CEO approval; CEO’s influence over resource allocation and utilization may have a great impact on the outcome-which could be negative if misallocated or positive if well allocated. 

·   Inspire Risk: Risk is always there; it can come from both known and unknown factors. It is impossible to bring the risk to zero because of the unknown factors, by definition, can never all be known, i.e. You can never prove that risk does not exist just like you cannot prove any negative. It is the responsibility of the CEO’s to influence the types of operations and jobs that it will peruse regardless of risk. The CEO has the ability to look the possibilities of making some difficult decision about unprogramed decision where others they cannot. This can be done by using problem solving skills and confidence about risk taking so as to continue re-inventing for the company. In doing so CEO also builds the capability of maintaining an innovative culture that drives the company’s growth.

·  Morale:  CEO’s can influence the motivational level and create a high job loyalty.  This will influence efficiencies in production levels.

· Academia: Weiner, N., Mahoney, T.A (1981)  “ A study of 193 companies across 19 years showed that leadership accounted for about 44% of the variance in profits and 47% in stock price.” 

· Reputation: Cooperate reputation is a more important measure of success, but the CEO’s behavior can affect the image of the company and profitability. It plays a significant role in determining how potential customers respond to the company and likewise it maintains confidence in the company because it focuses on good financial performance. Worst CEO’s reputation can result in a series of cooperating scandals like what happened to Enron and Tyco. The CEO must be a positive role model

·  Soft Skills:  The ability to interact and communicate ideas.  Can influence the ability to raise capital for growth and other activities that are detrimental to the company.

· Power:  The ability to influence other people around him (not just employees) to buy into his concept. What the CEO does is to create a climate where power and responsibilities are entrusted to intelligent and more enthusiastic people yet still keeps a close eye on the financial detail.

Substitutes and Neutralizers:  Identifies contingencies that either limits the leader’s ability to influence subordinate or make that leadership style unnecessary and make it impossible for leader behavior to make any difference to follower outcome.

• Economy:  The effect that the economy can have neutralized that with the cooperation. For instance, the risk of collapse of the dollar, raising interest rate, increases the energy prices (gas) etc. These may have a negative impact in the organization despite the fact that the CEO has laid good strategies for company growth but since he/she has no control over them it makes impossible for CEO credibility to have a positive impact in profitability.

·  Motivation:  High motivation of employees by rewards can make leadership functionally unnecessary. This is more applicable on task oriented or people oriented leadership when performance based reward systems keep employees towards organizational goals, therefore reduce the need of leadership or when employees are skilled and experienced leadership is unnecessary.

· Adverse Events:  Unexpected disasters that CEO’s have no control of events in the environment, such as terrorism (September, 11), hurricanes, earthquakes (natural disaster)

Recommendation:

CEO’s do have an impact on the firm’s profitability and productivity.  It leads back to the vision of the CEO and the people that he/she surrounds.  The type of direction, the power that the CEO has and implement can affect the direction of the firm whether it makes a profit or loss. As we can see in several cases for example Enron that the actions of the CEO lead the company to become corrupt and destroyed the company reputation. 

Most factors that have an impact on profitability can be traced back to the CEO and the leadership of the company, because: CEO’s needed to have integrity, vision and act as a positive role model. They must also understand that returns need to exceed their cost of capital. Successful CEO’s identify trends in demand well ahead of their competitors,

The vision that the leaders have impacted the way that business is performed.  They also influence the type of change that can take place in the organization.  The CEO has the control of the resources and makes the decisions on what to manufacture.  This can have devastating effects on a company especially if the CEO is still clinging to core rigidity. For example, the typewriter CEO did not have the vision of the changing environment and has to make a decision of producing or finding a new inventive product.

The decision has to be made by one person.  When you have a group of people you may not be making the best decision for the company because it is an agreed upon decision. There needs to be someone to point a finger at when things go wrong or when things go right.  No one ever wants to take the blame if something goes wrong.  The one point of contact and directions has to come from the CEO. 

Reference:

Weiner, N., Mahoney, T.A (1981). A model of corporate performance as a function of environmental, and leadership influence. Academic of Management Journal 24 (3) 453-470 

RUNNING HEAD; Review of public personnel administration strategy. 24(1), 41-69.

Emmanuel A. Turuka

WESTERN MICHIGAN UNIVERSITY

AUTHOR Mani B.G. (2004)

 THE TOPIC:

The employer’s advantages in sexual harassment case: 

How the courts have discouraged the victims of sexual harassment?. 

SOURCE: 

Review of public personnel administration strategy. 24(1), 41-69.

Key words: Do employers have a great chance in sexual harassment cases?

Summary:

EEOC defines sexual harassment as a form of unlawful sex discrimination that creates an intimidating, hostile or offensive working environment. EEOC guidelines state clear that the organization needs to prevent sexual harassment in the workplace. The role of the organization therefore to establish effective policies, policy implementation procedure training program and complaint processes, these will help and only give advantages for organizing to win the sexual harassment cases against employees. The court may side with the employee the company did not have an effective process for dealing with complaints. The courts have said that an employer may designate a specific person within the organization to receive, investigate and resolve complaints. The outcome of these cases suggests that the effective complaint process protects employers from liability and may discourage future incident of sexual harassment. Victims who fail to use the employers’ complaints process are unlikely to receive favorable decisions in the courts and they undermine one important strategy for ending this unprofessional behavior, e.g. Kimberly Ellerth did not formally report her harassment because of she feared retaliation. The courts rejected fear of retaliation as a reason for failing to use an organization’s complaint process.

Sexual harassment training is one of preventive measure e.g. The City of Boca Raton believed that sending employees a memorandum that includes the City’s policy was adequate training, however Faragher never saw the memorandum. In this case the employer was held to liable. The person who is responsible for handling complaints of sexual harassment should be impartial and should not be someone who generally serves as management’s advocates within the organization.

However few women serve on the bench and this seems to be disadvantageous for women judges in 15 of all the 18 cases 83.3% were male decision favored employers 75% of the cases two cases decided by female judges.

Methodology:

According to EEOC 15,475 charges of sexual harassment were filed in 2001, men failed only13. 7% charge. The number of cases resolved was 16,475. In almost 71% of cases resolved in 2001 case were closed because EEOC found reasonable cause in less to believe that discrimination occurred.

Reaction

I agree with the author recommendation that employer’s have a great advantage in sexual cases if they fulfill all the requirements as outlines by the EEOC and Title VII of the Civil Rights as mentioned above. BUT I disagreed with the author ‘s statement that ‘ women have a disadvantage in the courts because few women serves on the bench’ I think it is not necessarily true, courts are ruled by established laws, rules and procedures, and never gender of a judge will change anything. The important thing is for employees to follow the procedure of filing the complaints as outlined by the EEOC without fear of retaliation. Courts are the only place where justice is justifiable, no matter of personality. 

Reference:

Berman, E.M., Bowman, J.S., West, J., Wan Wart, M. (2006). Human resources management in public service (2^nd ed.).Thousand Oaks, CA: sage.

RUNNING HEAD: Ethics and Professionalism as Preventive Mechanisms of Rampant Corruption in Tanzania.

                                                EMMANUEL ALOIS TURUKA

              WESTERN MICHIGAN UNIVERSITY

Definition and rationale

 Tanzania like most African countries is faced with corruption in its public and private sectors. According to 2005 Transparency International Corruption Perception Index Tanzania stood at 88 positions with a score of 2.9 among 158 countries in the world. The measurements used to determine is that CPI scores relates to perceptions of the degree of corruption ranging between 10 (highly Clean) to 0 (highly corrupt)

Definition of corruption differs depending on discipline and mechanisms used to explain the phenomenon. Corruption is behavior which deviates from the formal duties of a public role and violates the rules. Scott (1969), Oliver (1999), Szeftel (2000) and Nassir (2002), define corruption as the misuse of public or private office for personal gain. What is a lesson from this simple definition is the existence of a gap between country law and personal behavior.  Heidenheimer, Johnston, and Levine (1990). Clarify about the gap by defining corruption as an act of an official or fiduciary person who unlawfully and wrongfully uses his station or character to procure some benefit for him, while the act is unlawfully and wrongfully.

Ethics and professionalism can be defined as a service based on rules and standards that spell out what is right and wrong (that is moral) in official work the public will judge a public servant by the way he or she behaves in terms of those ethics; while professionalism resides in how skillfully and how well a public servant performs his /her factions and duties, includes integrity, courtesy, honesty and willing compliance with the highest ethical standards. It fosters respect and trust and efficient that demands people be treated with dignity and respect.

This study therefore explores the relationship between promoting ethics and professionalism and the perception of corruption among the civil servants in Tanzania. The theory tested to hold that emphasis on the practice of good standards of ethics and professionalism among civil servants can more easily respond to the effort of reducing corruption or corrupt behaviors among curators and would help civil servants to abide by law.

Literature Review

Theoretical research on corruption Tanzania dates back at least to the 1970 with Scott (1969) and Oliver (1999), among others making pioneering contributions to understanding the phenomenon of corruption and rent-seeking behavior. In recent years Heilman and Ndumbaro (2002) has modeled corruption as a gamble for civil servants at every level and finds, among other things that the probability of punishment diminishes with the general level of corruption. Shleifer and vishny (1993) have shown that the structure of government institutions of political process affects corruption levels and the illegality and secrecy associated with corruption exacerbate its distortion effects. Szeftel (2000) and Nassir (2002) discuss how efficiency wages may be ineffective in combating corruption among tax collectors under certain circumstances. Rijckeghem and Weder (1997) find a negative correlation between civil service wage level and the level of corruption. Leite and Weidmann (1999) find support for their hypothesis that natural resources abundance promotes rent-seeking behavior.

Mbaku (1996). It is argued that in Africa, bureaucrats attempt to increase their level of compensation by lobbying lawmakers and politicians and by engaging in other activities that maximize benefits accruing to them. Many civil servants also illegally increase their compensation by providing service to interest groups that seek favor from the government. (Heidenheimer, Johnston, and Levine 1990). They have studied corruption in post Independence Africa but there has been insufficient attention paid to the problem of corruption cleanup in Africa.   

Two previous researches which are associated with this study is from Heilman and Ndumbaro (2002) Traced the evolution of corruption in Tanzania. Corruption in conceptualizing as embedded in societal economic and power relations. Many parts of liberal reforms that are based on the assumption that corruption is an individual actor personal misuse of public office for private gain. The researchers posed a question why ethics and professionalism is important, the answer they provided is that corruption takes place in modern rational Weberian bureaucratic system, where there is a clear division between public and private life. Societal norms support bureaucratic procedures that emphasize equal treatment based on unbiased application on laws. While corrupt behavior violets bureaucratic procedures organizational norms, laws and societal expectations

Why this study is necessary? Heilman and Ndumbaro (2002)  observe corruption in Tanzania has become part and parcel of  daily life and is tolerated, accepted and institutionalized to the extent that both people who give and receive bribes have internationalized that behavior. There is a need to enact or revise the leadership code and enforce laws against the corrupting. Like in 1995 corruption was the central issue in Tanzania, the country reeked of corruption

The second previous research article is about Corruption politics and societal values in Tanzania by Heilman, Kamata and Ndumbaro (2000). It was noted from the article that although corruption is found in all societies, arguably its impact is most severe in developing countries where political institutions have weak foundations and resources are scarce. This article examines corruption in Tanzania an impoverished East African country has been among the top finishers in transparency international’s annual rankings of the most corrupt countries in the world. Despite widespread attempts by the Mkapa (the former president of Tanzania) administration to fight it citizens remain bombarded with images of high level corruption in when dealings with public officials.

            According to this study Heilman, Kamata and Ndumbaro (2000), one of the major characteristics of Max Weber rational legal administration is the separation of official activity from the sphere of private life. According to Weber, public officials neither own part of the organization for which they work nor are allowed to use their position for private gain. When there is little separation of public from private the national legal model set new ethical standards for public administration. The breaking of the organic link between the state and society is a key to understanding corruption in Africa. During the socialist transformation year from 1967 to 1985 abstract corruption grew roots. Despite the leadership code and other socialist norms, public officials, at the managerial level of parastatal organizations continue to use their office for private gain. Smuggling was rampant, as was public officials accepting bribes and favors in return for allocating scarce resources; officials' salaries fell to below the incentives to look for side incomes. From 1985 to 1995 corruption seemed to spiral out of control, because corruption became increasingly sophisticated as the relationship between the state and the private sector grew in complex.

Key Hypothesis

This study is going to examine the why corruption is growing in Tanzania. In analyzing this situation the study is hypnotizing that “ignoring the code of ethics and professionalism create an opportunity for corruption among civil servants”

This temptation can be reduced by creating an environment where corruption is difficult to be practiced and when one tries it does not pay. Ethics and professionalism are an ideal attempt in fighting against it therefore corruption is an activity initiated, organized and adopted by people for their own profit and their own purpose, while ethics and professionalism look at the following:

q  The aim to control behavior of individuals who hold office not to take bribes

q  Create more moral trustworthiness of its citizens and leaders.

q  Transform officials by molding their attitude behavior and perception by acting with fairness, justice honesty accountability and with respect.

q  Application of check and balance regarding their knowledge they possess.

q  Therefore to be sound administrator it is essential to perform with high ethical and to promote efficiency and effectiveness

q  Is a form of self discipline and inner check on the conduct of public servants?

q  The analysis of this problem is that corruption has not yet been bound by ethical and professional standards, may be by promoting it can help to solve the problem

. 

Research design

This study is using descriptive design to answer descriptive research questions: What is happening? How is something happening? Why is something happening? The aim of this proposal is to analyze why ignoring the code of ethics and professionalism create an opportunity for rampant corruption among civil servants in Tanzania and whether the promotion of ethics and professionalism strategies is the right way to stop the spread of corruption in Tanzania.

Limitations

This study can face the problem when we look at the basic rule that all individuals must have an equal chance of being selected. Sampling error can be reduced by increasing the sample size or minimizing the random errors in the data collection process. Large enough number of population to minimize the variable sampling error in the estimate. Most costly modes of administration, longer data collection period and the problem of Interviewer concerns and that the use generalizable to the total population of interest should be taken carefully.

Possible intervening variables

The aim of every research study is to manipulate all variables, despite the fact that there are some intervening variable which sometimes are not measurable and can also have an impact on the study. In this study the intervening variable is a culture of the organization is very crucial in monitoring the spread of corruption in the organization. Culture is the foundation stone for good practice because it's more than ethics and professionalism because it is guided by the concept do no harm. Unethical practice arises when corporations fail to pay explicit attention to the ethical risks that are created by their own system and practices. In such system the culture is so structured that management finds. When a culture of corruption is allowed in organization and little lies grow bigger ones and such stretches of truth eventually get out of hand turn into big problems, and people just think that it is right to lie and start manipulating issues in order to enrich themselves.

Variables

This research paper explores the relationship between promoting ethics and professionalism and the perception of corruption among the civil servants in Tanzania.

An insecurity public civil servant of being paid with counterfeit money brings insecurity and creates the environment for them to deter from asking for bribes in the future. When state lost its ability to pay public servants a living wage official salary when fell below subsistence needs creating incentives to look for side incomes. The harsh realities of scarcity and poverty overwhelmed the deduction to good service and corruption grew strong societal roots.

In this study there is one Independent variable that is: Ethics and professionalism, and one Dependent variable that is: Corruption

Analysis of the study

Ethics and professionalism are operations as honest implies both truth telling and responsible behavior that seeks to abide by the rules. While corruption for this study is defined as  dishonest behavior that violates the trust placed in public officials, It involves the use of a public position for private gain when officials in public sector civil servants improperly and unlawfully enrich themselves or those close to them by the misuse of the public power entrusted to them such kind of behavior included illicit payments, the sale of official posts, positions or promotions which undermine the creation of a professional career extortion and abuse of public office

A crucial role to safeguard of a high standard of public ethics and professionalism has to fall on the ability citizens and people’s organizations and associations to hold public officials accountable for their acts and also to ensure that public institutions fulfill their functions properly and responsibly. The roots of corruption a combination of economic social and administrative factors creates favorable conditions for corruption low salaries for civil servants

In this situation when the window civil servants put aside the ethics and professionalism aspects and see a window of opportunity to enrich is open because of the loopholes in laws, this makes them unaffordable and inaccessible to the ordinary citizens who need these services most. How to solve the problem is here when the plea of promoting comes in by establishing a public service integrity system that is characterized by openness transparency and accountability and all public servants be the custodians of the high standard of executing their responsibilities accordingly.

Measures to enhance ethics and professionalism against corruption have been the major plea of ordinary citizens who are most affected by corruption. The increase in incidence of unethical and unprofessional has contributed to the following:

q  Contributing to economic difficulties in Tanzania.

q  Greasing rampant corruption in all major sectors like police judicial educational and health services

q  Patronage nepotism embezzlement self enrichment bestowing of favors on relatives and friends and absenteeism

Majority of Tanzania argues that corruption is rampant because of low salaries and other benefits provided to civil servants: There are four main reasons to believe that low salaries foster corruption or corrupt behavior:

1. If the wages of public officials were the similar to their private sector counterparts they would not risk accepting bribes. The potential gain from corruption would therefore be too low.
2.  When civil servants are remunerated poorly then the opportunities for corruption may become the motivation for aspiring a job in the public sector. This means the flow of many incompetent and dishonest applicants for the public sector. It might be that when a government believes that civil servants earn sufficient income from the corruption they may reduce or at least won’t raise their salary. The easiest solution would be the replacement of unethical official by an ethically sound person. But if the system is corrupt what do you expect?
3. When civil servants are paid fair wages they might feel more guilty when acting corruptly and therefore they would be more likely to resist bribery. It is sometimes assumed that if workers were compensated accordingly for the performance they would be less interested in acting corruptly.
4. When income is low then even the smallest supplement to the income can have an important impact on a family’s living conditions. The combination of monopoly power in granting permits and low wages for officials creates incentives for corruption.

Some citizens believe that even if ethics and professionalism might be promoted there will be no major changes until the fundamental problem surrounding corruption is solved. This group observed that weak legal system can be the main source when you look at ineffective legal system may encourage the elite to use it for personal gain and consequently reduce the effectiveness of the laws and their enforcers through corruption activities.

A minority of Tanzanians they don’t know what is going on around the country to them corruption is part and parcel of their life given that corruption grease the social life and economy and they deny such phrase as rampant corruption in Tanzania. To them the problem of this country is not corruption but weak economy. Their slogan “Never ask me about my views on this issue again”

From this analysis the majority of Tanzanians believes that there is a need to develop strategies ways and punishment to fight corruption in public organizations. And to them promoting ethics and professionalism is the best approach. A crucial role of government should be to safeguard a higher standard of public ethics and professionalism to all government employees where corruption is rampant and hold public officials accountable for their wrong acts.

Conclusion

The conclusion which can be drawn from this study is that when one deals with corruption, it is not a good idea to come to a conclusion looking at one aspect. In this study one can hypothesize that higher salaries for officials induce lower level of corruption. Low salaries in public services attract only incompetent or even dishonest applicant which results in an inefficient and unethical behavior. In this case the empirical results, has shown that brings together effort on promoting ethical and professionalism as a positive way to stop rampant corruption. Generalized trust in the rules and duties in attitudes and behavior are still important

Reference:

Clark A.F. (2003). African Political Economy: Contemporary issues in development/corruption. Journal of Third World Studies. 20 (1) 259-267.

Heilman B., Ndumbaro L. (2002). Corruption and societal values in Tanzania: An evaluation of the mkapa administration’s anti-corruption efforts. African Journal of Political Science 7(1) 1-19

Heilman B., Kamata N., Ndumbaro L (2000). Corruption, politics and societal values in Tanzania. Journal of Social Philosophy. 31(4), 497-507

Husted B.W.(1999). Wealth, culture, and corruption. Journal of International Business Studies. 30(2) 339-359.

Jos.P.H (1993), Empirical corruption research: Besides the (moral) point?.

Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory. 3(3) 359 -375.

Koulibaly M. (2000). The cost of corruption. African Business. 250 22-26

Mbaku J.M. (1996).Bureaucratic corruption in africa: The future of cleanups.

Cato Journal. 16 (1) 99-118

Nasir A., Oskooee M.B. (2002). Corruption, law and order, bureaucracy, and real exchange rate. Economic Development and Cultural Change. 50(4) 1021-1028

Oliver de Sardan J. P. (1999).A moral economy of corruption in Africa. The Journal of Modern Africa Studies. 37(1) 25-52.

Scott J.C. (1969). The analysis of corruption in developing Nations. Comparative Studies in Society and History. 11(3) 315-341.

Szeftel M. (2000). Clientelism, corruption and catastrophe. Review of Africa Political economy. 27(85) 427-437

Vishny R.W., Shleifefer A. ( 1993). Corruption. The Quarterly Journal of Economics. 108 (3) 599-617.

IS IT POSSIBLE TO END PREJUDICE?

EMMANUEL A TURUKA

WESTERN MICHIGAN UNIVERSITY

Prejudice is a major problem in human relations. Almost anything in social and personal life which we now deplore was somewhere, and at some time, acceptable. Times and things are changing.

Prejudice means "pre-judging" something. In general, it implies coming to a judgment on the subject based on false beliefs or before knowing where the preponderance of the evidence actually lies. Prejudice may involve discriminatory attitudes of individuals toward people or things or impairment of the rights of a party in a legal dispute.

The article emphasizes on the critical role of counselors, educators, and parents must play in the fight against prejudice and racism. Different models have been explained as a bridge that can be used by parents, teachers, and counselors in working to reduce prejudice across the lifespan. The article reviews an extensive body of empirical research on the link between identity development, prejudice, and mental health.

A prejudice which is a part and parcel of racism poisons the atmosphere of trust we need in order to live in peace and harmony. In this article whites because of their privileged status in society have not been led or forced to examine their own roles in race relations in this country. In contrast, a greater acceptance of our social diversity contributes to social harmony and economic well-being.

The analysis which we learn through the article is that people are not born with prejudice. You can tell by watching a group of young children at play. As they grow older as indicated in the article between 4-5 years, children come to realize that discrimination exists in their families, schools, communities, and almost every sector of their lives. Many conform to the discriminating patterns of their groups, not because they themselves are prejudiced but because it is easier to discriminate than to resist the groups’ demands for conformity.  The article insisted that white children do not feel hostile, fearful, or superior to blacks, but they may experience some discomfort in interracial situation.

How can we solve this problem the society needs knowledge, to see things from the smallest detail to the broader perspective? Certainly we don't like the idea of being judged ourselves according to some stereotype of a group that we may belong to. It is then easy to say that people should always be judged as individuals and never as members of a group. Walk a mile in another person’s shoes. 

Therefore Prejudice and racism continue to be pervasive in United States society, what is needed is critical thinking to be able to take stand and present a position that is supported by the evidence