The Joys of Mediocrity
"Why do I look fat?"
"Why is the shape of my face not proportional to my body?"
"Why do I have so many pimples?"
"Why is my nose that big?"
You and I have, at some point, grumbled like this -- it could have happened last month, last week, or even just five minutes ago! We never forgave ourselves for those flaws in our physical structure called imperfections.
Most of us strive to become the person of what fashion magazines, movies, or pop culture in general proclaim as the "ideal physique of man." The beau ideal meant good looks, prominence of height, well-toned bodies, and the like. Lacking in one or more of these qualities suggests that you aren't qualified to be with the elite who dominate the world because 'the world' considers them elegant and glamorous -- simply, they are 'perfect.' So we do what we can to prove them wrong. It's easy to see because it's everywhere around us. Ladies copy the latest fashion trend, while men attempt to look and act what they think is the 'in' thing. And there's always the beauty products and modern technology to work everything else out. No, nothing wrong with doing these -- every person has the right to do so. The question is "For what real purpose is it about?" Has society been so judgmental, so vainglorious that it casts its eyes down to anyone who doesn't meet their expectations? Do we have to punish ourselves-by not valuing time, money, and self-worth-for something only temporary?
Imperfection is normal. No one escapes it-not even the most well-bred. We are only human. Or in a more philosophical sense perhaps we were meant to be created this way, to counterbalance what we have and what we don't have.
When you closely look at it, imperfection is not such a big deal. It's what that's in you that truly counts. Does perfection even exist? Most of the greatest people that ever lived were recognized for their remarkable achievements, not for how they look like. And besides, if all in this world were perfect, nothing will be regarded with appreciation anymore. A flaw actually makes an object look more appealing and precious, because you see the finer features beneath.
Companies say they empower their employees and communities to do more or be better. What does that truly mean? According to The World Bank (2015), “Empowerment is the process of increasing the capacity of individuals or groups to make choices and to transform those choices into desired actions and outcomes” (para 1). Lowe’s introduced a program in 2014 to develop its women leaders, pairing vice presidents with women store managers to develop and expand Lowe’s leadership team. In 2015, the company will leverage the program with a new group of store managers and launch a new mentoring program to pair women and minority store managers with market directors
Robbins, Chatterjee, and Canda (2012) describes empowerment as the process of gaining power by accessing resources that will permit people to control the situations in their life (p.
...second prevalent motivational strategy present in American Express is empowerment. Empowerment is the process of enabling workers to set their own work goals, make decisions, and solve problems within their sphere of responsibility and authority (Griffin, 461). After many years of running a disputed work atmosphere, managers at American Express realized that allowing employees to talk with customers on a more open and personal level, rather than being constantly supervised, made for a much more fruitful outcome.
Empowerment is commonly confused with incentivizing employees. In many cases, there are no consequences for employee empowerment gone wrong, but some actually have severe consequences for the business. A recent example of this phenomenon is the Wells Fargo fiasco. Wells Fargo employees were incentivized in a way that made them behave unethically to meet standards and gain rewards. This skill application, will discuss Wells Fargo could have used other methods of empowering and engaging employees, which probably would have had a less harmful effect on their business and how they should act in the future.
...”there is also a profoundly negative force which has driven the empowerment initiatives. In the 1980s and 1990s rationalisation and downsizing were very much the order of the day. In this context, empowerment became a business necessity as the destaffed and delayered organisation could no longer function as before. In this set of circumstances, empowerment was inevitable as tasks had to be allocated to the survivors in the new organisation” (CLMS 2006 M2:U4:43-44).
“Empowerment is the process of enabling or authorizing an individual to think, behave, take action, and control work and decision making in autonomous ways. It is the state of feeling self-empowered to take control of one 's own destiny” (Heathfield, 2015). An organization can empower its employees by removing barriers, listening and respecting to an employee’s contributions and concerns, and giving them a say in certain decisions. An employer can create an environment that encourages employees to become empowered but ultimately it’s up to the employee to take control of their own destiny. An employee who is empowered will desire to use their strengths to benefit the organization and be more inclined to offer creative, innovative ideas on how
“follower empowerment in servant leadership occurs at the point which leaders subdue or eliminate their ego and embrace the notion of primus inter pares, first among equals, followers become collaborators.” (Buchan, 1998). Empowering followers has become necessary in the global environment, as Spreitzer puts it; “interest in empowerment comes at a time when global competition and organizational change have stimulated a need for employees who can take initiative, embrace risk, stimulate innovation, and cope with high uncertainty.” As quoted by (pg. 3). He went further to categorize empowerment into two, namely;
The definition of empowerment is closely related to the idea of taking measures which increase one’s autonomy and control over her life and decisions, enabling the person to take initiative and shape her life in a way that is consistent with her will and determination. Empowerment refers to granting power to the oppressed and opposing to the appropriation of power by a single, dominant group. In case of an individual empowerment, however, a single person distinguishes herself from the rest of the members of the subordinated group to the extent that she exercises more power and authority then the oppressed group. Therefore, individual empowerment carries the danger of leaving the
Discrimination in the workforce has plagued the United States of America for countless years. The United States government has taken many steps and passed laws to ensure each employee is treated equally regardless of person’s race, gender, sex, religion, disability, age, national origin, physical disability. The Fifth and the fourteen amendment of the United States constitution was intended to prevent discrimination in the workforce, however, these acts continue in today’s society. Employee discrimination comes in many different forms; it can be intentionally or accidently either way it hinders qualified employees from being hired or promoted. Discrimination has evolved in several ways in today society, the lack of knowledge cause people to
Negative body image is something I’ve been battling constantly for many years of my life. We all have our quirks and imperfections, our freckles and our scars. Instead of being taught to cover up and change ourselves, we should be taught to embrace these so-called flaws. I love people because of their uniqueness.
The solution to this problem is to clearly define what empowerment is and how a worker can use it. In the introductory training of an employee or in a shift wide meeting explain that empowerment is the willingness of an employee to take on responsibility or even added responsibility to the team and to the plant as a whole. Explain that empowerment does not give the employee complete autonomy to do whatever they feel like doing or not doing because the same work must be completed during a shift that is normally completed. During the training or the meeting, instill in the employees that all ideas to improve operations such as quality control and safety issues are welcome and wanted because the employee is or will be the expert in the area and we need their
Empowerment is about decision-making and autonomy, personal and professionally. Nancy should have empowered her staff’s nurses with the opportunity to be involved in the organization decision-making process. When nurses can influence and control their nursing practice, their autonomy, confidence, and commitment to the organization increase (Manojlovich, 2007). Organizations that empowered nurses to act and guide their everyday challenges using their professional skills, knowledge, and own judgment, shows positives patient outcomes, and less nurse turnover, burnout, dissatisfaction, stress, and powerlessness among their staff (Rao,
Empowerment is another feature of post bureaucracy. It represents organizations awarding power and authority to those lower in the organizational hierarchy (Knights & Willmott, 2007). To some extent empowerment could be beneficial to a organization because empowerment would allow the workers to work...
The advertisements, the movies, the television and the music industry should also take the blame for this. Wherever you go you’ll find advertisements, whether it’s commercials or print ads. In these advertisements, they advertise their products and the promises never stops. These products will “apparently” make you appear like a perfect model with “perfect” long hair, smooth skin, white teeth, “delightful” lips and a “wonderful” face. Similarly to the media, advertisements spreads false hope that makes the people think that if they buy the same makeup as Megan Fox or Jessica Alba they will be as “beautiful”. From what I know of advertisements, that can’t be true when it’s publicly known that the most of the advertisement images are photoshopped or edited. Women but also men will never be good enough in the eyes of the media and the advertisements. Have you ever seen a woman who has some “excess weight” in an underwear commercial? Just think about it for a moment. My answer is no, and probably yours too. The same goes for
Beauty is defined as “the quality or aggregate of qualities in a person or thing that gives pleasure to the senses or pleasurably exalts the mind or spirit.” The secret of beauty has been a quest of humans for centuries. It has been determined that women and some men spend up to one-third of their income on products and procedures that enhance their looks. We spend way too much time looking in the mirror, scrutinizing, worrying, fretting, and wishing we could change something about ourselves. We dream of looking like the girl at work because she has great hair, or the girl we met at a party because she was skinny, with the perfect nose. This happens because we are constantly being bombarded with messages from social media. We look at magazines that show us airbrushed models and TV shows that consist of actors that spend hours in hair and makeup. Daily we see ad campaigns for stores that feature women whose looks are unattainable. Do we put ourselves through the torture because we think outer ...