Essay on Woman Leader
Machiavelli and Castiglione both present the epitome of perfection in their topics of leadership and the way a women should be, respectively. In the case of Castiglione's work, it is stated by signor Gaspare that "...in the way people sometimes hanker after things that are impossible and miraculous, rather then explain them you (Magnifico) have wished them into existence." This quote is true of both excerpts. Both have created idealisms that are of perfection; however, both do also allow for imperfection. Again in the excerpt from Castiglione's work where Magnifico states "...because man is more robust, more quickly agile and more able to endure toil..." shows the obvious imperfections of the female gender. Machiavelli, on the topic of leadership, also talks of imperfections: "The new prince - above all other princes - cannot escape being called cruel, since new governments about in dangers." Leaders therefore are left to the mercy of their own imperfections and the imperfections of the human spirit. Perfection, even mixed in with a few imperfections, is very hard to meet. One would have to be of the offspring of God to meet some of the qualities mentioned. However, far from the offspring of God, there is another that comes close to many of the generalizations stated. She is a leader behind a leader and is probably one of the strongest women of her time. First, Mrs. Clinton as a leader possesses many of the qualities mentioned by Machiavelli; such as her toughness and appearance of good morals. In Castiglione's realm, she matches the qualities of dignity and strong virtues. Hillary Clinton clearly shows qualities mentioned in both excerpts regarding her position as a leader and as a woman.
First, Hillary Clinton as a leader possesses a great number of qualities mentioned by Machiavelli, one of which is represented in her handling of the Whitewater scandal. Machiavelli gives and example of how it is important to, "in order to keep his position, act contrary to the truth." Mrs. Clinton most likely lied about her involvement in the scandal in order to "keep her position" as a leader. Mrs. Clinton also fits true to what Machiavelli says about appearance: "...it is not necessary actually to have all the above-mentioned qualities, but it is very necessary to appear to have them"; the qualities being: merciful, trustworthy, humane, blameless, and religious. The first lady appears to be trustworthy, in that she holds true to her contract of marriage although her husband has made and abomination of the sacred agreement.
Boston, MA: Pearson Sivarethinamohan, R. R., & Aranganathan, P. P. (2011). Determinants of employee engagement
The goal of Hillary’s speech is to persuade her audience that her ideas are valid, by using ethos, pathos, and logos. Hillary is the First Lady and Senator, she shows credibility as an influential activist for woman rights. “Over the past 25 years, I have worked persistently on issues relating to women, children, and families. Over the past two and a half years, I’ve had the opportunity to learn more about the challenges facing women in my country and around the world” (Clinton 2).
Academic instruments exist to measure discrete sub-dimensions of employee engagement, such as the Utrecht Work Engagement Scale (Schaufeli and Bakker, 2003) that measures the vigor, absorption and dedication dimensions of work engagement, but no uniform tool exists to measure the construct when conceptualized beyond work engagement (Macey and Schneider, 2008; Kamposo and Sridevi, 2010). Practitioners utilize a variety of tools to measure their conceptualizations of employee engagement, including the Gallup 12-item Worker Engagement Index (Gallup, 2013), and a variety of proprietary instruments from management and human resource consulting
A broad definition of an engaged employee means that the employee is satisfaction with their job. Job satisfaction is hard to measure because it is based on feelings, beliefs or knowledge. It is a psychological aspect which influences every employee. When people are satisfied they feel fulfilled and happy. An average adult spends most of their life at work, because of this they want that portion of their life be somewhat satisfying and pleasant (Kumar, 2013). An employee’s job performance and job satisfaction are almost synonymous. You cannot be happy in your job and be unsatisfied. There are various definitions of an engaged employee, but the main points that define what an engaged employee are: feel satisfied with their work, take pride in their organization, enjoy and believe in their work, understand the link between their job and the organization’s mission, feel valued by their employer, are fully committed to their employer and their role in the company, and exert extra effort to contribute to the business success. (SHRM,...
The reading from “the prince” made one understand the many instances that most Princes do acquire principalities either through virtue or an attribution to fortune or by wickedness. Hence, Machiavelli made us understand that there were many instances that these princes with their own virtue had to go through trials and struggles to rise from a private station to attain their principality. Many excellent examples Machiavelli made mentioned were Moses, Cyrus, Romulus, Theseus, and such like “ by their own ability and not through fortune, have risen to be princes.” (chap. VI)
Machiavelli’s supposed government manual title The Prince, written 1513, though not published until 1532 a few years later, after his death, created controversies for an ideal leader to conduct its reign. It has been debated that perhaps The Prince may have been a satire on the ruthless and selfish behaviour of political leaders. Nonetheless, it did make a change for political thoughts. Medieval political ideas were that the standards of all governments should be judged as derived from moral principles established by God. Machiavelli argued that governments should be secular and be judged by how well they provided security, order, and safety to their people.
It has been accepted that the term employee engagement was introduced by the Gallup Research group (Beverly Little 2006). Gallup Organization introduced the term after conducting interviews and surveys of employees for more than 25 years. The group was hoping to create a measurement of a workplace that can be used to compare other work places. The research that was conducted was published in their book ‘break all the rules’ . The findings of the Gallup group was named as Gallup Workplace Audit (GWA) and it is used to measure the relationship between employee engagement on retention, profitability and productivity. Those who score high in GWA is considered as highly engaged
In recent history, the last fifty years or so, modern businessmen and politicians have given Machiavelli a Renaissance of his own. Professional politicians have written novels they claim to be on the same philosophical level of Machiavelli’s The Prince. Gary Hart, in his book The Patriot: An Exhortation to Liberate America From the Barbarians attempts to update Niccolo to the modern age with his own political philosophies, and attempts to credit Machiavelli by quoting him frequently. “Hart makes an effort to mimic the form, if not the spirit, of the most famous work by his Florentine ‘mentor.’…There is a dedicatory le...
Employee engagement is based on the relationship between people and organizations. People and organizations need each other. Organizations need ideas, energy, and talent; people need careers, salaries, and opportunities (Bolman & Deal, 2013, p. 117). The facts are that employee engagement is based on employee needs. As an example Apple’s offshore employees that make their products suffer in bad conditions with long hours, low pay, and intense pressure to mass produce more product. This company is an example of not having very good employee engagement. Employee engagement is about taking care of the people in your organization to allow them to grow and prosper. Employees gain motivation and interest in the success of the
In the sixteenth century, there were three sets of socioeconomic statuses that one could acquire or be a part of, the clergy, the nobility, and the peasantry. The divide between these three generalized classes was far more complicated in reality that it seems, as socioeconomic classes consist of multiple branches. Nonetheless, it all essentially came down to two undeniable factions, the oppressors and the oppressed. Niccolo Machiavelli, being a mixture of the two due to his living situation while writing the book, gained a middle-ground which allowed him to achieve omnipotent intelligence that so many rulers normally lack, first hand experience of what it like to live both lives, one as a peasant and the other as a nobleman. This omnipotent
Mishra, K., Boynton, L. & Mishra, A. (2014). Driving employee engagement: the expanded role of internal communications. Journal of Business Communication 51(2), 199.
There are many factors which could contribute to the success of an organisation. However, there is one which in my opinion, is very near the top and that is employee engagement. There are three levels of employee engagement – engaged, not engaged and actively disengaged employees. Engaged employees work harder and are more loyal and is a key driver for the success of any organisation. Employee engagement is influenced by several factors including the workplace culture, communication, management and leadership styles, trust, respect, health and safety of their work environment, the reputation of the organisation, professional development and potential career opportunities within the organisation. And of these factors several are a priority.
While most people agree that employee engagement is a real, definable concept, there is a lack of uniformity on exactly how to define it. Yet, most definitions encompass two key facets: the degree to which employees fully occupy themselves in their work and apply discretionary effort, as well as the strength of their commitment to the employer and role. Stated another way, employee engagement is the extent to which employees commit to something or someone in their organization and how hard they work and how long they stay as a result of that commitment.
Although ‘engagement' can be seen as a buzz word it has also been identified that for such a well-used term there is little associated research in the field of engagement (Robinson et al, 2004). Several of the key concepts of employee engagement derive from social psychology, drawing upon theories that are concerned with motivation, organisational behaviours and attitudes. Some academics argue that employee engagement is basically old wine in new bottles because key concepts by theorists such as Hertzberg, Maslow and Alderfer underpin the notion of employee engagement (Rob...
Employee Motivation also known as employee engagement is one of the fastest growing business topics these days around the globe. There are millions of dollars of revenue and countless man hours lost each year due low or no motivation of the workforce. Motivation is defined within the text as “the forces within a person that affect the direction, intensity, and persistence of voluntary behavior” (McShane & Von Glinow, 2014, p. 124). Employee performance and determination are led by their motivation towards completing the task assigned. Keeping employees motivated not only saves the company time, but money as well. The average company loses approximately $1 million with every 10 managerial and professional employees who leave the organization