Archive for May 30th, 2009
Posted on May 30, 2009 - by Vic Desotelle
Societal Marketing: Mcdonald’s
Andrew Sandon asked:
Societal marketing: McDonald’s
Business executives are often perplexed by the continuous expansion of society’s expectations of corporations. For example, in the corporate world, numerous laws and extensive government regulation affect virtually every aspect of business activities. They touch “almost every business decision ranging from the production of goods and services to their packaging, distribution, marketing, and service” (Carroll, 1979, p. 98). Thus, not only are companies held responsible for maximizing profits for the owners and shareholders and for operating within the legal framework, they are also expected to support their employees’ quality of work life, to demonstrate their concern for the communities within which their businesses operate, to minimize the impact of various hazards on the global environment, and to engage in purely social or philanthropic endeavors.
Among researchers, this issue has provoked an especially rich and diverse literature investigating the role of business in society. Research in this area has followed two major streams. The most popular of these studies have focused on the relationship between a firm’s social responsibility and its financial performance (McGuire, J., Sundgren, A., & Scheeweis, T., 1988, p. 858). The other stream of studies has examined the effect of board members’ demographic and non-demographic characteristics on their individual corporate social responsiveness orientation (Wood, 1991, p. 389).
Since the societal marketing involves some kind of corporate response to social demands, the first step is to identify and classify the numerous social needs. There are three categories of such needs. First, survival needs consist of the various needs that are necessary for individual members of the social segment to survive, such as food, shelter, and the preservation or restoration of one’s health.
A second category is concerned with safety needs. These are the needs that are necessary to protect the members of the social segment from external and internal threats. Not only do nations have defense establishments for protection from external threats, but they also enact and enforce laws to protect individuals and groups from others in society. Such laws cover numerous areas ranging from environmental protection to safeguarding individual liberties.
The third category is composed of various growth needs which, in turn, can be broken down into material needs and spiritual needs. The former are concerned with the enrichment of the social segment through economics (the allocation of limited resources) and technology (the use of tools and techniques to generate wealth). Spiritual needs are related to the spiritual growth of the social segment; they include metaphysics, education, science, arts, and entertainment.
Social segments expect different agents to fulfill these needs. These agents can be an individual (e.g., a parent who supports a family), a group (e.g., political parties and interest groups who represent their members), a business organization (e.g., a corporation which supports inner city revitalization), a not-for-profit organization (e.g., a hospital that provides services to the community), and government (e.g., for protection from external threats). Both the type and extent of the needs to be fulfilled and the agent who is expected to satisfy these needs will depend upon the social segment’s culture and ethics, the legal environment, and the degree to which the members of the social segment perceive that such needs are not fulfilled.
As a key member of society, a corporation should take into account the societal needs that are expected to be met by business. These needs constitute a social demand. Thus, social demand incorporates not only demand for a firm’s products and services, but also extends to the fulfillment of other societal needs. With this framework in mind, it can be stated that the scope of a business organization, i.e., what products and services it provides, is determined both by the organization itself and by society’s expectations. In other words, it can be said that a given firm operating in two different social segments has, in effect, two different scopes. Failure on the part of an organization to understand and satisfy the various demands of the social segments within which it operates will lead to its rejection by society and its eventual demise. Consequently, a firm’s mission and objectives should not only address traditional organizational concerns such as profitability and markets served, but should also be concerned with determining and meeting various societal expectations.
One of the aspects of the societal marketing includes alliances that have arisen between environmentalist groups and businesses in the last decade. The new relationships have been described as path breaking and innovative (e.g., Long & Arnold, 1995; Wasik, 1996). Typically, they are distinguishable from the prior charitable (e.g., donations to or sponsorships of environmental causes) and commercial relationships (e.g., calendars, T-shirts produced for environmental groups) because they engage the expert knowledge of the environmental group and involve it, to varying degrees, in joint problem solving or strategic decision making with the corporate partner (Clair, Milliman, & Mitroff, 1995, p. 188). In this category are green product endorsements, audits by environmental groups of business programs or practices, and joint projects of the type engaged in by green alliance between McDonald’s and Environmental Defense Fund, where the corporate partner’s business practices are evaluated and improved according to ecological criteria.
Green alliances also function rhetorically in a more complex way than traditional business-environmentalist relationships. Here I follow Levy who has pointed out that environmental management – that is, corporate practices to reduce the ecological harm of economic processes – serves symbolic and political purposes by helping to construct business as green and thus to legitimate its role as manager of the natural environment (1997, p. 127). Green alliances, a strategy within corporate environmental management, also have symbolic and political value – for both partners. The corporation borrows not only the environmental expertise, but also the credibility, of the ecology group, which by its allegiance implicitly or explicitly endorses company actions – e.g., producing earth-friendly products and services or operating in pollution-free ways (Ottman, 1994, p. 86). The partnership also brings corporate actors into the group of those to be entrusted with the work of saving the earth.
McDonald’s is the leader of the fast-food industry, with worldwide operations employing approximately 500,000 people in 11,000 restaurants and serving 22 million customers a day. At the time Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) approached McDonald’s, its entanglement in controversy over its packaging frustrated the company. From EDF’s perspective, McDonald’s leadership position, its problematic history of waste management, and the iconic value of waste management as an environmental issue made the company an attractive candidate for partnership. EDF saw significant opportunity for both environmental action and a major, high visibility, opportunity to test its innovative approach to environmental problem-solving through corporate partnerships.
With environmentalism on the rise among the general public in the 1980s, consumer-driven businesses were particularly subject to and sensitive about public pressure (Livesey, 1993, pp. 2-4). Plastic had been demonized by several environmentalist organizations including the grassroots groups Greenpeace and CCHW. The use-and-dispose philosophy at the core of McDonald’s business and its distinctive plastic clamshell sandwich boxes, which helped to make the company one of the largest single users of polystyrene in the United States, had made McDonald’s a continuing target of ecology groups (Livesey, 1993, p. 4).
Throughout the late 1980s, McDonald’s instituted and publicized a number of environmentally positive steps in its domestic operations. It reduced consumption, for instance, by using lighter weight paper in straws, paper bags and other items and recycled paper and cardboard packaging. In 1987, it switched from polystyrene (used for the clamshells) blown with CFCs, the family of chemicals which destroy the ozone layer, to plastic foam that used hydrocarbon blowing agents (Annual Report, 1989, pp. 10-15). In 1989, the company instituted a pilot program in 450 New England stores to recycle its plastic clamshells (Livesey, 1993, pp. 12-14). In April, 1990, it committed $100 million, or one quarter of the company’s annual building and remodeling budget, to buy recycled materials for restaurant construction, remodeling, and operations under a program called “McRecycle” (Livesey, 1993, pp. 13-14).
In 1989 and 1990, McDonald’s bolstered its environmental management practices with a proactive public relations campaign. The centerpiece was the 1989 Annual Report, which highlighted the issue of the natural environment. McDonald’s also offered in-store flyers to educate customers about the company’s environmental management practices, policies, philosophies, and positions on particular issues such as rainforest beef and the ozone problem. Brochures on environmental topics, including packaging, were available from its public relations department. In addition, McDonald’s worked with several different environmental and nonprofit groups (e.g., the World Wildlife Fund and the Smithsonian Institution) to coproduce elementary school materials on the environment.
McDonald’s 1989 annual report represents an aggressive attempt by the company to manage the public discourse around the company’s role as an environmentally responsible corporate citizen and construct itself as green. The report belongs to the category of epideictic advocacy, the discourse of praise and blame that is commonly used to establish or consolidate value premises, especially in corporate issue management campaigns; such discourse often serves as a basis for later persuasive efforts (Cheney & Vibbert, 1987, p. 183). Epideictic rhetoric works by building on shared premises and borrowing from values and beliefs embedded in the common culture. In this case, given the new ecological awareness of the public, McDonald’s positions itself as having concerns ecological and practical, social as well as economic.
As described by the media, the 1989 Annual Report looks “more like an Audubon Society brochure than a financial statement” (Horovitz, 1991, p. D2). Nature pictures, poetry, and quotations from national and international figures prominent in the environmental movement (e.g., Gro Brundtland) are interspersed throughout the report, along with product and financial information. The cover contains a four-page foldout picture of the Northwest American forest with a quotation from Chief Seattle about man’s proper relationship to the earth. The report itself is “dedicated” to a “discussion of the [environmental] challenges which lie ahead” (McDonald’s Annual Report, 1989, p. 2). The discussion is contained in a 10-page supplement.
The themes of dialogue, rational discourse, pragmatic solutions, the value of individual effort, and stewardship or shared social responsibility for the earth that are played out in the supplement are initially articulated in the shareholders’ letter. This letter is as notable for what it omits as for what it says. It at once implicates the reader, inviting dialogue, and yet leaves the situation ambiguous, particularly vis-a-vis the company’s responsibility and intentions.
The supplement contains several distinct parts: an answer to a letter from Dan Getty, an 11-year-old boy who calls for responsible action from McDonald’s (Annual Report, 1989, pp. 7-8); a general outline of McDonald’s philosophy and historical commitment to “responsible [environmental] conduct,” including company founder Ray Kroc’s mandate to crews to clean up litter near McDonald’s restaurants (p. 9); three sections addressing facts and expert opinions about solid waste management, resource conservation, and recycling (pp. 10-15); and a collective call “to Help [sic]” in solving the challenge of the environment (p. 16).
The letter of response to 11-year-old Dan Getty illustrates several of the rhetorical strategies McDonald’s uses to achieve a symbolic identification with its customers and the general public. First, McDonald’s constructs itself as a naive, non-expert, and innocent individual actor. Like Dan Getty and “people of all ages,” McDonald’s is “asking questions about our environment” and learning that the answers to environmental issues are “complex” (Annual Report, 1989, p. 7). It eschews inaction in the face of complexity: “It’s easy for each of us to claim we’re not responsible for these complex forces. But then we have to ask, ‘Who is?’ “(p. 8). At the same time, it sounds a cautionary note: It is important “to do what is environmentally sound, when the responsible course of action becomes clear” (p. 7). Who or what will provide clarity leading to action is left ambiguous.
Second, McDonald’s positions itself as one of a community of stewards of the earth: “Each of us, knowing what we have at stake, must make a commitment to a course of action that will preserve and enhance the environment we hold in trust for future generations. . . . You can count us in” (p. 8). Through appeal to the words of Gala theory originator James Lovelock – “It’s personal action that counts” (quoted in McDonald’s, 1989, p.
– and founder Ray Kroc’s dictum – “None of us is as good as all of us” (quoted in Annual Report, 1989, p. – the boy’s call for help from McDonald’s is transformed into a call for everyone to act. The actions and identification that it invites are personal. Identifying with its customers, McDonald’s asks that they identify with it. McDonald’s puts itself on a level with the 11-year-old. Thus, through rhetorical sleight, of-hand – in Cheney’s (1992) words “the sheer juxtaposition of images . . . as a substitute for reasoned discourse, for argument” (p. 174) – McDonald’s equates natural persons with the corporate persona, and power differences – the differences between producer and consumer, corporate giant and small child – are made to disappear: The people at McDonald’s, no different from people everywhere, must act to save the earth. Of course, at one level, McDonald’s people are like people everywhere and, like them, probably hold a range of opinions about the problem of the natural environment. However, at another level and at the same time, McDonald’s people constitute a corporate body.
McDonald’s defends its environmental record by listing specific actions that it has taken to manage waste and conserve resources by reducing, reusing and recycling materials. It cites experts who support its position on plastic packaging and who point out the small contribution of the entire quick-service restaurant industry to America’s waste. It also criticizes “the ‘Not In My Back Yard’ syndrome – or NIMBY” (for instance, people in McDonald’s communities who opposed company incinerators in their neighborhoods) as posing barriers to responsible waste solutions (Annual Report, 1989, p. 11).
Also, McDonald’s emphasizes individual personal action: Plant a tree, switch off a light, recycle a clamshell. Yet, it also describes itself as a proactive corporate actor looking for opportunities to work with individuals, public officials, and other companies, as well as with the communities we serve.
The more McDonald’s constituted itself as “green,” the more it was required to accommodate environmental issues affected by its business practices. McDonald’s attempts at recycling, resource reduction, incineration, and the like were not simply symbolic. The company was both the subject and the object of its own eco-discourse. The emerging storyline it constructed had positive environmental effects at the material level, in addition to opening the company to potential dialogue with EDF.
In April 1991, the McDonald’s-EDF joint task force released its final product, a corporate waste reduction policy and a comprehensive waste reduction action plan with 42 initiatives. Many real environmental improvements were generated by the task force. For instance, environmental criteria were integrated into corporate packaging decisions which before had been driven by quality and cost criteria (see McDonald’s Final Report, 1991). The media mostly praised the results of the alliance (Reinhardt, 1992, p. 14), and the story was recycled over several years (e.g. Gutfeld, 1992). Ultimately, the partnership entered the green business literature as a milestone marking a change in the relationships between business and environmental groups (Long, F. J., & Arnold, M. B., 1995, p. 80).
Thus, McDonald’s steps in managing environmental issues are the examples of societal marketing. People become increasingly aware of the damage that can be caused to the environment by products, packaging, by-products and production processes. They may gradually learn to adopt more environmentally friendly products and, in particular, reject throwaway products. Green issues are increasingly seen as important by consumers and this is being reflected in the types of products consumers want to use. Organizations have to change the nature of their products to meet these requirements. Many companies appear to possess a social conscience or see the benefits of meeting the demands of green issues; this is the case with McDonald’s.
The belief that environmental responsibility is now a corporate function is based on research indicating that consumers want such changes and will theoretically repay industry investments by accepting higher prices. In a survey by Dagnoli (1990), 82% of the respondents claimed to have changed their purchasing decisions because of environmental concerns. Seventy-seven percent of those surveyed also reported that a company’s environmental reputation influenced their choice of brands. Environmentalism is enough of a concern that 78% of the respondents said they would switch to an environmental container if it were priced 5% higher than a less-environmentally friendly container. Another 47% said they would pay as much as 15% more for environmental packaging.
Businesses currently involved with the environmental movement have noticed the increasing number of markets influenced by environmentally concerned consumers, and naturally are hoping this trend can boost their companies’ long run profits. Proactive companies like McDonald’s are attempting to take leadership roles in the area of environmentally friendly products in order to gain a competitive advantage (Smyth, 1991, p. 70).
For McDonald’s, environmental marketing has become one of the primary societal marketing tools. Although much confusion still exists concerning the specifics of green marketing, one thing that has been learned is that consumers will not always pay more for green products (Winski, 1991, p. 3). Despite consumer claims to the contrary, the initial sales of environmentally friendly products and packaging have been slow (Reitman, 1992, B1). Recent trends indicate a lack of willingness to actually pay premium prices for such products (Wasik, 1992, p. 17).
Thus, today’s market for environmentally-friendly goods is greater than ever. To capitalize on this movement, managers and marketers, as McDonald’s case shows, must promote the environmental benefits of their products and maintain prices in a range near that of their competitors that do not emphasize environmental concerns. Promoting the environmental friendliness of products will be most attractive to some customers, while attributes aimed at convenience will be attractive to others. Although these aspects of the product mix are important, competitive pricing of environmentally-friendly goods may be the key to capturing a significant market share. Once high market shares are reached, cost reduction programs should allow producers to increase profit margins from green products.
Website content
Societal marketing: McDonald’s
Business executives are often perplexed by the continuous expansion of society’s expectations of corporations. For example, in the corporate world, numerous laws and extensive government regulation affect virtually every aspect of business activities. They touch “almost every business decision ranging from the production of goods and services to their packaging, distribution, marketing, and service” (Carroll, 1979, p. 98). Thus, not only are companies held responsible for maximizing profits for the owners and shareholders and for operating within the legal framework, they are also expected to support their employees’ quality of work life, to demonstrate their concern for the communities within which their businesses operate, to minimize the impact of various hazards on the global environment, and to engage in purely social or philanthropic endeavors.
Among researchers, this issue has provoked an especially rich and diverse literature investigating the role of business in society. Research in this area has followed two major streams. The most popular of these studies have focused on the relationship between a firm’s social responsibility and its financial performance (McGuire, J., Sundgren, A., & Scheeweis, T., 1988, p. 858). The other stream of studies has examined the effect of board members’ demographic and non-demographic characteristics on their individual corporate social responsiveness orientation (Wood, 1991, p. 389).
Since the societal marketing involves some kind of corporate response to social demands, the first step is to identify and classify the numerous social needs. There are three categories of such needs. First, survival needs consist of the various needs that are necessary for individual members of the social segment to survive, such as food, shelter, and the preservation or restoration of one’s health.
A second category is concerned with safety needs. These are the needs that are necessary to protect the members of the social segment from external and internal threats. Not only do nations have defense establishments for protection from external threats, but they also enact and enforce laws to protect individuals and groups from others in society. Such laws cover numerous areas ranging from environmental protection to safeguarding individual liberties.
The third category is composed of various growth needs which, in turn, can be broken down into material needs and spiritual needs. The former are concerned with the enrichment of the social segment through economics (the allocation of limited resources) and technology (the use of tools and techniques to generate wealth). Spiritual needs are related to the spiritual growth of the social segment; they include metaphysics, education, science, arts, and entertainment.
Social segments expect different agents to fulfill these needs. These agents can be an individual (e.g., a parent who supports a family), a group (e.g., political parties and interest groups who represent their members), a business organization (e.g., a corporation which supports inner city revitalization), a not-for-profit organization (e.g., a hospital that provides services to the community), and government (e.g., for protection from external threats). Both the type and extent of the needs to be fulfilled and the agent who is expected to satisfy these needs will depend upon the social segment’s culture and ethics, the legal environment, and the degree to which the members of the social segment perceive that such needs are not fulfilled.
As a key member of society, a corporation should take into account the societal needs that are expected to be met by business. These needs constitute a social demand. Thus, social demand incorporates not only demand for a firm’s products and services, but also extends to the fulfillment of other societal needs. With this framework in mind, it can be stated that the scope of a business organization, i.e., what products and services it provides, is determined both by the organization itself and by society’s expectations. In other words, it can be said that a given firm operating in two different social segments has, in effect, two different scopes. Failure on the part of an organization to understand and satisfy the various demands of the social segments within which it operates will lead to its rejection by society and its eventual demise. Consequently, a firm’s mission and objectives should not only address traditional organizational concerns such as profitability and markets served, but should also be concerned with determining and meeting various societal expectations.
One of the aspects of the societal marketing includes alliances that have arisen between environmentalist groups and businesses in the last decade. The new relationships have been described as path breaking and innovative (e.g., Long & Arnold, 1995; Wasik, 1996). Typically, they are distinguishable from the prior charitable (e.g., donations to or sponsorships of environmental causes) and commercial relationships (e.g., calendars, T-shirts produced for environmental groups) because they engage the expert knowledge of the environmental group and involve it, to varying degrees, in joint problem solving or strategic decision making with the corporate partner (Clair, Milliman, & Mitroff, 1995, p. 188). In this category are green product endorsements, audits by environmental groups of business programs or practices, and joint projects of the type engaged in by green alliance between McDonald’s and Environmental Defense Fund, where the corporate partner’s business practices are evaluated and improved according to ecological criteria.
Green alliances also function rhetorically in a more complex way than traditional business-environmentalist relationships. Here I follow Levy who has pointed out that environmental management – that is, corporate practices to reduce the ecological harm of economic processes – serves symbolic and political purposes by helping to construct business as green and thus to legitimate its role as manager of the natural environment (1997, p. 127). Green alliances, a strategy within corporate environmental management, also have symbolic and political value – for both partners. The corporation borrows not only the environmental expertise, but also the credibility, of the ecology group, which by its allegiance implicitly or explicitly endorses company actions – e.g., producing earth-friendly products and services or operating in pollution-free ways (Ottman, 1994, p. 86). The partnership also brings corporate actors into the group of those to be entrusted with the work of saving the earth.
McDonald’s is the leader of the fast-food industry, with worldwide operations employing approximately 500,000 people in 11,000 restaurants and serving 22 million customers a day. At the time Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) approached McDonald’s, its entanglement in controversy over its packaging frustrated the company. From EDF’s perspective, McDonald’s leadership position, its problematic history of waste management, and the iconic value of waste management as an environmental issue made the company an attractive candidate for partnership. EDF saw significant opportunity for both environmental action and a major, high visibility, opportunity to test its innovative approach to environmental problem-solving through corporate partnerships.
With environmentalism on the rise among the general public in the 1980s, consumer-driven businesses were particularly subject to and sensitive about public pressure (Livesey, 1993, pp. 2-4). Plastic had been demonized by several environmentalist organizations including the grassroots groups Greenpeace and CCHW. The use-and-dispose philosophy at the core of McDonald’s business and its distinctive plastic clamshell sandwich boxes, which helped to make the company one of the largest single users of polystyrene in the United States, had made McDonald’s a continuing target of ecology groups (Livesey, 1993, p. 4).
Throughout the late 1980s, McDonald’s instituted and publicized a number of environmentally positive steps in its domestic operations. It reduced consumption, for instance, by using lighter weight paper in straws, paper bags and other items and recycled paper and cardboard packaging. In 1987, it switched from polystyrene (used for the clamshells) blown with CFCs, the family of chemicals which destroy the ozone layer, to plastic foam that used hydrocarbon blowing agents (Annual Report, 1989, pp. 10-15). In 1989, the company instituted a pilot program in 450 New England stores to recycle its plastic clamshells (Livesey, 1993, pp. 12-14). In April, 1990, it committed $100 million, or one quarter of the company’s annual building and remodeling budget, to buy recycled materials for restaurant construction, remodeling, and operations under a program called “McRecycle” (Livesey, 1993, pp. 13-14).
In 1989 and 1990, McDonald’s bolstered its environmental management practices with a proactive public relations campaign. The centerpiece was the 1989 Annual Report, which highlighted the issue of the natural environment. McDonald’s also offered in-store flyers to educate customers about the company’s environmental management practices, policies, philosophies, and positions on particular issues such as rainforest beef and the ozone problem. Brochures on environmental topics, including packaging, were available from its public relations department. In addition, McDonald’s worked with several different environmental and nonprofit groups (e.g., the World Wildlife Fund and the Smithsonian Institution) to coproduce elementary school materials on the environment.
McDonald’s 1989 annual report represents an aggressive attempt by the company to manage the public discourse around the company’s role as an environmentally responsible corporate citizen and construct itself as green. The report belongs to the category of epideictic advocacy, the discourse of praise and blame that is commonly used to establish or consolidate value premises, especially in corporate issue management campaigns; such discourse often serves as a basis for later persuasive efforts (Cheney & Vibbert, 1987, p. 183). Epideictic rhetoric works by building on shared premises and borrowing from values and beliefs embedded in the common culture. In this case, given the new ecological awareness of the public, McDonald’s positions itself as having concerns ecological and practical, social as well as economic.
As described by the media, the 1989 Annual Report looks “more like an Audubon Society brochure than a financial statement” (Horovitz, 1991, p. D2). Nature pictures, poetry, and quotations from national and international figures prominent in the environmental movement (e.g., Gro Brundtland) are interspersed throughout the report, along with product and financial information. The cover contains a four-page foldout picture of the Northwest American forest with a quotation from Chief Seattle about man’s proper relationship to the earth. The report itself is “dedicated” to a “discussion of the [environmental] challenges which lie ahead” (McDonald’s Annual Report, 1989, p. 2). The discussion is contained in a 10-page supplement.
The themes of dialogue, rational discourse, pragmatic solutions, the value of individual effort, and stewardship or shared social responsibility for the earth that are played out in the supplement are initially articulated in the shareholders’ letter. This letter is as notable for what it omits as for what it says. It at once implicates the reader, inviting dialogue, and yet leaves the situation ambiguous, particularly vis-a-vis the company’s responsibility and intentions.
The supplement contains several distinct parts: an answer to a letter from Dan Getty, an 11-year-old boy who calls for responsible action from McDonald’s (Annual Report, 1989, pp. 7-8); a general outline of McDonald’s philosophy and historical commitment to “responsible [environmental] conduct,” including company founder Ray Kroc’s mandate to crews to clean up litter near McDonald’s restaurants (p. 9); three sections addressing facts and expert opinions about solid waste management, resource conservation, and recycling (pp. 10-15); and a collective call “to Help [sic]” in solving the challenge of the environment (p. 16).
The letter of response to 11-year-old Dan Getty illustrates several of the rhetorical strategies McDonald’s uses to achieve a symbolic identification with its customers and the general public. First, McDonald’s constructs itself as a naive, non-expert, and innocent individual actor. Like Dan Getty and “people of all ages,” McDonald’s is “asking questions about our environment” and learning that the answers to environmental issues are “complex” (Annual Report, 1989, p. 7). It eschews inaction in the face of complexity: “It’s easy for each of us to claim we’re not responsible for these complex forces. But then we have to ask, ‘Who is?’ “(p. 8). At the same time, it sounds a cautionary note: It is important “to do what is environmentally sound, when the responsible course of action becomes clear” (p. 7). Who or what will provide clarity leading to action is left ambiguous.
Second, McDonald’s positions itself as one of a community of stewards of the earth: “Each of us, knowing what we have at stake, must make a commitment to a course of action that will preserve and enhance the environment we hold in trust for future generations. . . . You can count us in” (p. 8). Through appeal to the words of Gala theory originator James Lovelock – “It’s personal action that counts” (quoted in McDonald’s, 1989, p.
– and founder Ray Kroc’s dictum – “None of us is as good as all of us” (quoted in Annual Report, 1989, p. – the boy’s call for help from McDonald’s is transformed into a call for everyone to act. The actions and identification that it invites are personal. Identifying with its customers, McDonald’s asks that they identify with it. McDonald’s puts itself on a level with the 11-year-old. Thus, through rhetorical sleight, of-hand – in Cheney’s (1992) words “the sheer juxtaposition of images . . . as a substitute for reasoned discourse, for argument” (p. 174) – McDonald’s equates natural persons with the corporate persona, and power differences – the differences between producer and consumer, corporate giant and small child – are made to disappear: The people at McDonald’s, no different from people everywhere, must act to save the earth. Of course, at one level, McDonald’s people are like people everywhere and, like them, probably hold a range of opinions about the problem of the natural environment. However, at another level and at the same time, McDonald’s people constitute a corporate body.McDonald’s defends its environmental record by listing specific actions that it has taken to manage waste and conserve resources by reducing, reusing and recycling materials. It cites experts who support its position on plastic packaging and who point out the small contribution of the entire quick-service restaurant industry to America’s waste. It also criticizes “the ‘Not In My Back Yard’ syndrome – or NIMBY” (for instance, people in McDonald’s communities who opposed company incinerators in their neighborhoods) as posing barriers to responsible waste solutions (Annual Report, 1989, p. 11).
Also, McDonald’s emphasizes individual personal action: Plant a tree, switch off a light, recycle a clamshell. Yet, it also describes itself as a proactive corporate actor looking for opportunities to work with individuals, public officials, and other companies, as well as with the communities we serve.
The more McDonald’s constituted itself as “green,” the more it was required to accommodate environmental issues affected by its business practices. McDonald’s attempts at recycling, resource reduction, incineration, and the like were not simply symbolic. The company was both the subject and the object of its own eco-discourse. The emerging storyline it constructed had positive environmental effects at the material level, in addition to opening the company to potential dialogue with EDF.
In April 1991, the McDonald’s-EDF joint task force released its final product, a corporate waste reduction policy and a comprehensive waste reduction action plan with 42 initiatives. Many real environmental improvements were generated by the task force. For instance, environmental criteria were integrated into corporate packaging decisions which before had been driven by quality and cost criteria (see McDonald’s Final Report, 1991). The media mostly praised the results of the alliance (Reinhardt, 1992, p. 14), and the story was recycled over several years (e.g. Gutfeld, 1992). Ultimately, the partnership entered the green business literature as a milestone marking a change in the relationships between business and environmental groups (Long, F. J., & Arnold, M. B., 1995, p. 80).
Thus, McDonald’s steps in managing environmental issues are the examples of societal marketing. People become increasingly aware of the damage that can be caused to the environment by products, packaging, by-products and production processes. They may gradually learn to adopt more environmentally friendly products and, in particular, reject throwaway products. Green issues are increasingly seen as important by consumers and this is being reflected in the types of products consumers want to use. Organizations have to change the nature of their products to meet these requirements. Many companies appear to possess a social conscience or see the benefits of meeting the demands of green issues; this is the case with McDonald’s.
The belief that environmental responsibility is now a corporate function is based on research indicating that consumers want such changes and will theoretically repay industry investments by accepting higher prices. In a survey by Dagnoli (1990), 82% of the respondents claimed to have changed their purchasing decisions because of environmental concerns. Seventy-seven percent of those surveyed also reported that a company’s environmental reputation influenced their choice of brands. Environmentalism is enough of a concern that 78% of the respondents said they would switch to an environmental container if it were priced 5% higher than a less-environmentally friendly container. Another 47% said they would pay as much as 15% more for environmental packaging.
Businesses currently involved with the environmental movement have noticed the increasing number of markets influenced by environmentally concerned consumers, and naturally are hoping this trend can boost their companies’ long run profits. Proactive companies like McDonald’s are attempting to take leadership roles in the area of environmentally friendly products in order to gain a competitive advantage (Smyth, 1991, p. 70).
For McDonald’s, environmental marketing has become one of the primary societal marketing tools. Although much confusion still exists concerning the specifics of green marketing, one thing that has been learned is that consumers will not always pay more for green products (Winski, 1991, p. 3). Despite consumer claims to the contrary, the initial sales of environmentally friendly products and packaging have been slow (Reitman, 1992, B1). Recent trends indicate a lack of willingness to actually pay premium prices for such products (Wasik, 1992, p. 17).
Thus, today’s market for environmentally-friendly goods is greater than ever. To capitalize on this movement, managers and marketers, as McDonald’s case shows, must promote the environmental benefits of their products and maintain prices in a range near that of their competitors that do not emphasize environmental concerns. Promoting the environmental friendliness of products will be most attractive to some customers, while attributes aimed at convenience will be attractive to others. Although these aspects of the product mix are important, competitive pricing of environmentally-friendly goods may be the key to capturing a significant market share. Once high market shares are reached, cost reduction programs should allow producers to increase profit margins from green products.
Website content
Posted on May 30, 2009 - by Vic Desotelle
Holistic Theology Programs
Steven Parbach asked:
When you’re ready to discover an in-depth and philosophical view of spirituality, metaphysics, and God, then participating in one of a number of holistic theology programs might be the educational path to pursue.
Become a spiritual counselor, life coach or holistic theology educator when you enroll in holistic theology programs that teach the fundamentals of meditation, guided imagery, prayer, spiritual and emotional healing, as well as mind/body/spirit medicine.
Students learn how to achieve and maintain emotional and spiritual balance by applying many of the theories and practices that are offered through holistic theology programs. Some of the greater prospects achieved through these studies are self discipline and individual empowerment. Being able to find acceptance and understanding to some of the many unexplained questions in life, holistic theology defines the importance of self awareness and higher consciousness; and its important relationship to the Universe and beyond.
Graduates of holistic theology programs may elect to work in youth leadership programs, as holistic ministers, spiritual counselors and mentors, or as spiritual healers, among other associated professions. As a supplementary education, natural health practitioners may benefit from these studies as they also learn effective communication skills, as well as critical listening skills.
If you (or someone you know) are interested in learning more about these or other healing arts programs, let professional training within fast-growing industries like massage therapy, naturopathy, acupuncture, Chinese medicine, Reiki, and others get you started! Explore holistic theology programs near you.
Holistic Theology Programs
© Copyright 2008
The CollegeBound Network
All Rights Reserved
NOTICE: Article(s) may be republished free of charge to relevant websites, as long as Copyright and Author Resource Box are included; and ALL Hyperlinks REMAIN intact and active.
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When you’re ready to discover an in-depth and philosophical view of spirituality, metaphysics, and God, then participating in one of a number of holistic theology programs might be the educational path to pursue.
Become a spiritual counselor, life coach or holistic theology educator when you enroll in holistic theology programs that teach the fundamentals of meditation, guided imagery, prayer, spiritual and emotional healing, as well as mind/body/spirit medicine.
Students learn how to achieve and maintain emotional and spiritual balance by applying many of the theories and practices that are offered through holistic theology programs. Some of the greater prospects achieved through these studies are self discipline and individual empowerment. Being able to find acceptance and understanding to some of the many unexplained questions in life, holistic theology defines the importance of self awareness and higher consciousness; and its important relationship to the Universe and beyond.
Graduates of holistic theology programs may elect to work in youth leadership programs, as holistic ministers, spiritual counselors and mentors, or as spiritual healers, among other associated professions. As a supplementary education, natural health practitioners may benefit from these studies as they also learn effective communication skills, as well as critical listening skills.
If you (or someone you know) are interested in learning more about these or other healing arts programs, let professional training within fast-growing industries like massage therapy, naturopathy, acupuncture, Chinese medicine, Reiki, and others get you started! Explore holistic theology programs near you.
Holistic Theology Programs
© Copyright 2008
The CollegeBound Network
All Rights Reserved
NOTICE: Article(s) may be republished free of charge to relevant websites, as long as Copyright and Author Resource Box are included; and ALL Hyperlinks REMAIN intact and active.
Caffeinated Content for WordPress
Posted on May 30, 2009 - by Vic Desotelle
Holistic Management: Solution For Rampant Problems
Darwin Gillett asked:
Are you facing seemingly unsolvable problems or insurmountable obstacles? Are the conventional management methods not delivering the results that you need, when you need them?
If so, you may want to consider managing with a more holistic and integrative management approach. No, this approach is not some New Age fluffy stuff. It’s powerful, grounded in science, immensely practical – and being used by some of the most effective CEOs and business owners out there.
Conventional Management
Traditionally, most business management has been based on two overriding assumptions:
Assumption #1. Business can be thought of-and managed-as a collection of parts: products, people, departments, customers, processes. Success results (so the thinking goes) when these parts are designed optimally and executed flawlessly. We achieve this success by compartmentalizing the company, by having different people responsible for different functions, and by creating and executing Best Practices.
Assumption #2: Superior performance results when there are no problems, glitches or errors in our company. If our organization is not performing well, the assumption is that what we need to do is to find the problem and fix it. Once we identify a problem, we mentally isolate it from the rest of the operation or company (which we assume is okay), analyze it, come up with a solution for what’s wrong, and implement it. Presto, the problem is solved – and overall performance (so the thinking goes) leaps up to where it should be.
We’re always in the process of rooting out problems and inefficiencies or introducing new and improved methods. Maybe we think we have an IT problem, a customer retention problem, or a morale problem. We look for experts in those issues, either within the company or outside, and ask them to solve the problems. All so that our operation can get back to normal.
These compartmentalized and problem-oriented management methods work well when we’re dealing with a machine. When it’s not performing well, we can usually trace the problem to a particular part of the machine. We fix the part, and the machine runs well again.
But a company is not a machine. There are no sacred rules written in the sky that say, “Once each department or unit is operating optimally, great overall business performance follows” or “Once you have fixed all the problems, your company will soar.”
Our conventional approach to management makes it easier to deal with the complexity of a company and to organize how the work gets done, but it leaves out one of the most important dimensions of a company: the overall purpose of the company – and how all of the parts fit together to serve that purpose. The recognition of this gap gave rise to the concept of systems thinking some two generations ago.
Holistic Management – to Revitalize Stagnant Companies
Consider the experience of a CEO who led two back-to-back corporate turnarounds. Observed from the outside, it may have looked like all he was doing was solving the companies’ problems and optimizing the performance of each part. But there was something more going on. He had adopted a holistic approach to management.
In the first turnaround, instead of just attacking the myriad problems of a company losing money, customers, employees, and managers, the new CEO started from scratch by having its nearly 3,000 people focus on what the company would look and feel like when it was successful. In other words, he began with a powerful vision. He then created a compelling mission and, with employees’ input, a strong set of values for everyone to rally around. By first engaging and inspiring employees, the CEO prepared the company for making big strides in product quality, customer service, market share, and profitability. In just three years, the company quintupled its shareholder value, and employee morale soared.
When hired to revitalize the second company of 5,000 people, the CEO was told, “Feel free to clean out the deadwood,” an expression of the assumption that a company’s stagnant performance reflects the presence of underperforming people. Get rid of them, and the way will be clear for the good performers to lift the company to higher performance. The CEO, a self-proclaimed contrarian, instead kept every person in the organization, and together they brought about a turnaround that added more than $3 billion to shareholder value in a stagnant stock market.
The traditional approach of looking for a company’s flaws in order to fix them can be counterproductive. It sends the message to employees that they are flawed and poor performers, hardly the attitude needed to lift performance. This is one reason our CEO did not do that. When he called on people throughout both companies to work with him to restore the company to the vitality and success it once enjoyed, people became energized and then enthusiastically pitched in to help make the company succeed.
In both examples, a weak management system kept people from being focused, collaborative, decisive, and innovative – and became a contributing cause of inadequate performance. The conventional management system, often called the “silo approach” concentrates on each of the major functions or operations of the company. The CEO manages down through each silo; the functional heads report up to the CEO, and the CEO is largely left to deal on his/her own with conflicts between the silos. This becomes cumbersome in a fast-paced economy and often slows implementation of major changes in business strategy.
By contrast, our CEO created an integrated strategic management system that facilitated outcomes far more successful than the traditional, silo approach – and faster. It consisted of the key senior executives:
* Setting business strategy with all key senior executives providing input. This is in contrast to the CEO or VP of Strategy announcing a new strategy that doesn’t incorporate the thinking of those who will implement it or allow them time to plan what they will have to do differently in order to help the strategy work.
* Addressing the major drivers of business performance-for example, revenue growth, operational quality and costs, employee morale and development-together. As a result, the top management team had the same picture of priorities and challenges and could help one another to devise strategies and support for each functional leader.
* Looking at the key financial performance measures together so that everyone understood the company’s performance and its causes and would help to set priorities based on their financial performance – and its causes
The Holistic Manager
Holistic management represents a shift in perspective that opens up a new world of opportunity and possibility. The holistic manager…
……sees (and manages) the company as a whole, as an assemblage of interdependent parts, and as a set of human relationships through which great human energies flow.
……puts energy into defining and continually referring to the overarching features of the company that align everyone in a common endeavor. A company’s mission is one example, not just because every company “needs” a mission to put on its website, but because the mission will be a beacon to inspire and guide employees. Why we are in business can become a rallying cry, a motivator, and a source of strategic advantage.
…… pays as much attention to how the company and its people operate as to what the company and its people do. Both aspects are equally important in achieving success, but most companies spend the vast majority of their efforts on the doing aspect. A company’s values provide a guide to how we operate; for example, how we treat each other, how we treat our customers, and what decisions we make.
…… recognizes the benefits generated by providing opportunities for employee growth. When people are encouraged to learn and develop their skills, they appreciate their employer and seek to contribute more.
…… provides employees with room to breathe and to contribute by honoring and encouraging a freedom to work on their own to achieve specific goals or to solve problems. In the process, unexpected greatness can emerge.
…… has a unity mindset, stressing the “we” in how we operate and how we achieve success. People, often from different functions and different parts of the company, work collaboratively as a normal way of operating.
Make the Transition
In times when problems are coming at you fast and furious, use Holistic Management to transform your company into a high performing organization. Put all those problems into one “pot” and ask yourself and the others on your team:
1. What do all of these problems have in common? Are they signs of deeper or systemic problems?
2. What changes in overall aspects of our company-its purpose, values, strategy, customer relationships, and the like-would remove the problems or diminish their impact?
3. What new strategies for carrying out our mission or expressing our values might help alleviate those problems in the process?
4. What can we do to get everyone on board and eager to help make our organization successful?
Holistic management changes your perspective of how a company functions. It also helps you to engage people in helping to define and envision success, to shape the strategies and projects to get there, and to collaborate to make that vision a reality. The result is rapid change and a revitalized company.
Caffeinated Content
Are you facing seemingly unsolvable problems or insurmountable obstacles? Are the conventional management methods not delivering the results that you need, when you need them?
If so, you may want to consider managing with a more holistic and integrative management approach. No, this approach is not some New Age fluffy stuff. It’s powerful, grounded in science, immensely practical – and being used by some of the most effective CEOs and business owners out there.
Conventional Management
Traditionally, most business management has been based on two overriding assumptions:
Assumption #1. Business can be thought of-and managed-as a collection of parts: products, people, departments, customers, processes. Success results (so the thinking goes) when these parts are designed optimally and executed flawlessly. We achieve this success by compartmentalizing the company, by having different people responsible for different functions, and by creating and executing Best Practices.
Assumption #2: Superior performance results when there are no problems, glitches or errors in our company. If our organization is not performing well, the assumption is that what we need to do is to find the problem and fix it. Once we identify a problem, we mentally isolate it from the rest of the operation or company (which we assume is okay), analyze it, come up with a solution for what’s wrong, and implement it. Presto, the problem is solved – and overall performance (so the thinking goes) leaps up to where it should be.
We’re always in the process of rooting out problems and inefficiencies or introducing new and improved methods. Maybe we think we have an IT problem, a customer retention problem, or a morale problem. We look for experts in those issues, either within the company or outside, and ask them to solve the problems. All so that our operation can get back to normal.
These compartmentalized and problem-oriented management methods work well when we’re dealing with a machine. When it’s not performing well, we can usually trace the problem to a particular part of the machine. We fix the part, and the machine runs well again.
But a company is not a machine. There are no sacred rules written in the sky that say, “Once each department or unit is operating optimally, great overall business performance follows” or “Once you have fixed all the problems, your company will soar.”
Our conventional approach to management makes it easier to deal with the complexity of a company and to organize how the work gets done, but it leaves out one of the most important dimensions of a company: the overall purpose of the company – and how all of the parts fit together to serve that purpose. The recognition of this gap gave rise to the concept of systems thinking some two generations ago.
Holistic Management – to Revitalize Stagnant Companies
Consider the experience of a CEO who led two back-to-back corporate turnarounds. Observed from the outside, it may have looked like all he was doing was solving the companies’ problems and optimizing the performance of each part. But there was something more going on. He had adopted a holistic approach to management.
In the first turnaround, instead of just attacking the myriad problems of a company losing money, customers, employees, and managers, the new CEO started from scratch by having its nearly 3,000 people focus on what the company would look and feel like when it was successful. In other words, he began with a powerful vision. He then created a compelling mission and, with employees’ input, a strong set of values for everyone to rally around. By first engaging and inspiring employees, the CEO prepared the company for making big strides in product quality, customer service, market share, and profitability. In just three years, the company quintupled its shareholder value, and employee morale soared.
When hired to revitalize the second company of 5,000 people, the CEO was told, “Feel free to clean out the deadwood,” an expression of the assumption that a company’s stagnant performance reflects the presence of underperforming people. Get rid of them, and the way will be clear for the good performers to lift the company to higher performance. The CEO, a self-proclaimed contrarian, instead kept every person in the organization, and together they brought about a turnaround that added more than $3 billion to shareholder value in a stagnant stock market.
The traditional approach of looking for a company’s flaws in order to fix them can be counterproductive. It sends the message to employees that they are flawed and poor performers, hardly the attitude needed to lift performance. This is one reason our CEO did not do that. When he called on people throughout both companies to work with him to restore the company to the vitality and success it once enjoyed, people became energized and then enthusiastically pitched in to help make the company succeed.
In both examples, a weak management system kept people from being focused, collaborative, decisive, and innovative – and became a contributing cause of inadequate performance. The conventional management system, often called the “silo approach” concentrates on each of the major functions or operations of the company. The CEO manages down through each silo; the functional heads report up to the CEO, and the CEO is largely left to deal on his/her own with conflicts between the silos. This becomes cumbersome in a fast-paced economy and often slows implementation of major changes in business strategy.
By contrast, our CEO created an integrated strategic management system that facilitated outcomes far more successful than the traditional, silo approach – and faster. It consisted of the key senior executives:
* Setting business strategy with all key senior executives providing input. This is in contrast to the CEO or VP of Strategy announcing a new strategy that doesn’t incorporate the thinking of those who will implement it or allow them time to plan what they will have to do differently in order to help the strategy work.
* Addressing the major drivers of business performance-for example, revenue growth, operational quality and costs, employee morale and development-together. As a result, the top management team had the same picture of priorities and challenges and could help one another to devise strategies and support for each functional leader.
* Looking at the key financial performance measures together so that everyone understood the company’s performance and its causes and would help to set priorities based on their financial performance – and its causes
The Holistic Manager
Holistic management represents a shift in perspective that opens up a new world of opportunity and possibility. The holistic manager…
……sees (and manages) the company as a whole, as an assemblage of interdependent parts, and as a set of human relationships through which great human energies flow.
……puts energy into defining and continually referring to the overarching features of the company that align everyone in a common endeavor. A company’s mission is one example, not just because every company “needs” a mission to put on its website, but because the mission will be a beacon to inspire and guide employees. Why we are in business can become a rallying cry, a motivator, and a source of strategic advantage.
…… pays as much attention to how the company and its people operate as to what the company and its people do. Both aspects are equally important in achieving success, but most companies spend the vast majority of their efforts on the doing aspect. A company’s values provide a guide to how we operate; for example, how we treat each other, how we treat our customers, and what decisions we make.
…… recognizes the benefits generated by providing opportunities for employee growth. When people are encouraged to learn and develop their skills, they appreciate their employer and seek to contribute more.
…… provides employees with room to breathe and to contribute by honoring and encouraging a freedom to work on their own to achieve specific goals or to solve problems. In the process, unexpected greatness can emerge.
…… has a unity mindset, stressing the “we” in how we operate and how we achieve success. People, often from different functions and different parts of the company, work collaboratively as a normal way of operating.
Make the Transition
In times when problems are coming at you fast and furious, use Holistic Management to transform your company into a high performing organization. Put all those problems into one “pot” and ask yourself and the others on your team:
1. What do all of these problems have in common? Are they signs of deeper or systemic problems?
2. What changes in overall aspects of our company-its purpose, values, strategy, customer relationships, and the like-would remove the problems or diminish their impact?
3. What new strategies for carrying out our mission or expressing our values might help alleviate those problems in the process?
4. What can we do to get everyone on board and eager to help make our organization successful?
Holistic management changes your perspective of how a company functions. It also helps you to engage people in helping to define and envision success, to shape the strategies and projects to get there, and to collaborate to make that vision a reality. The result is rapid change and a revitalized company.
Caffeinated Content
Posted on May 30, 2009 - by Vic Desotelle
Green Homes: No Longer Just A Real Estate Fad
Real Estate Advisor asked:
Green homes are eco-friendly homes that are energy efficient and use ecological design and sustainable resources. There has been a tremendous increase in awareness of the benefits of green building in America among builders and home owners alike. With home builders finding it easier to construct green homes, the number of green homes constructed throughout the country has gone up remarkably.
Ecological concerns and the increasing awareness of the advantages of green homes have led to an upsurge in green homes in the country. Concerns about the impact their homes have on the environment have prompted some homebuyers to opt for green homes.
Building green homes is no longer a remote concept these days. Over disturbing facts about global warming and indoor air pollution, today, the top priority of the National Home Builders Association and the American Institute of Architects is constructing green buildings.
There is sufficient data around that indicate that the building of green homes is on the rise. According to the figures provided by the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) (who developed the LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) green building rating system), the number of buildings with LEED status in America has increased from 38 in 2002 to 669 now. Green buildings are progressively entering the mainstream with more and more buildings getting LEED certification.
Given that green buildings do not cost very much more than traditional buildings, and that they actually reduce energy bills, the building of green homes is on the rise. A green building is not only less expensive to live in but also spikes in value by 7.5 percent on average and improves return on investment by 6.6 percent on average.
Green building concepts begin to rise everywhere as the number of individuals who want to remodel, build or buy green homes are rapidly increasing. Architects and developers are responding to satisfy this growing demand. Green buildings have been found to appreciate faster than traditional buildings.
What was once a patchwork of green buildings in several cities has now increased to encompass whole communities and neighborhoods. According to a McGraw-Hill Construction survey in 2006, about two-thirds of builders would be building green homes in America this year. Green buildings are firmly mainstream now with federal government and 15 states requiring new public buildings to meet the LEED standards. In fact, four U.S. states and 17 cities offer incentives for private buildings built to LEED standards.
With rising government initiatives, consumer interest and the number of green developers and builders, the green building revolution is all set to go to a new level.
Create a video blog…instantly.
Green homes are eco-friendly homes that are energy efficient and use ecological design and sustainable resources. There has been a tremendous increase in awareness of the benefits of green building in America among builders and home owners alike. With home builders finding it easier to construct green homes, the number of green homes constructed throughout the country has gone up remarkably.
Ecological concerns and the increasing awareness of the advantages of green homes have led to an upsurge in green homes in the country. Concerns about the impact their homes have on the environment have prompted some homebuyers to opt for green homes.
Building green homes is no longer a remote concept these days. Over disturbing facts about global warming and indoor air pollution, today, the top priority of the National Home Builders Association and the American Institute of Architects is constructing green buildings.
There is sufficient data around that indicate that the building of green homes is on the rise. According to the figures provided by the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) (who developed the LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) green building rating system), the number of buildings with LEED status in America has increased from 38 in 2002 to 669 now. Green buildings are progressively entering the mainstream with more and more buildings getting LEED certification.
Given that green buildings do not cost very much more than traditional buildings, and that they actually reduce energy bills, the building of green homes is on the rise. A green building is not only less expensive to live in but also spikes in value by 7.5 percent on average and improves return on investment by 6.6 percent on average.
Green building concepts begin to rise everywhere as the number of individuals who want to remodel, build or buy green homes are rapidly increasing. Architects and developers are responding to satisfy this growing demand. Green buildings have been found to appreciate faster than traditional buildings.
What was once a patchwork of green buildings in several cities has now increased to encompass whole communities and neighborhoods. According to a McGraw-Hill Construction survey in 2006, about two-thirds of builders would be building green homes in America this year. Green buildings are firmly mainstream now with federal government and 15 states requiring new public buildings to meet the LEED standards. In fact, four U.S. states and 17 cities offer incentives for private buildings built to LEED standards.
With rising government initiatives, consumer interest and the number of green developers and builders, the green building revolution is all set to go to a new level.
Create a video blog…instantly.
Posted on May 30, 2009 - by Vic Desotelle
Endangered World Citizenship ?
HIT KISHORE GOSWAMI asked:
ENDANGERED WORLD – CITIZENSHIP ?
By HIT KISHORE GOSWAMI
Retired Professor of Genetics , Barkatullah University,
24, kaushalnagar, Via Misrod, Bhopal (MP)
( Res: Phone: 91-755-2417156 )
We the world citizens are breathing in a very much insecure society with the increasing dimensions of newer techniques of creating nuisance, terror and ever increasing distrust among citizens world over. Bombs in the bus, train, cinema theatre, open market areas, aero planes and also lying on the garbage tins are only few exhibits of a few peoples’ hatred towards the progressive nations; innocent lives are becoming items of rampage. These inhuman acts are the outcome of free breeding corruption of excessively selfish, narrowly greedy and anti social persons widely distributed throughout the globe. Our irresponsible political leadership has fathered and faithfully nurtured these values for quite sometime, well above four decades. Even In India, we are now only preachers of peace but have always supported criminals and masked their inhuman acts as part and parcel of democracy. We were theoretically known as symbols of tolerance but as a national character now, we display complaints and dissatisfaction on every issue; we are said to believe in “forget and forgive”, but our instinct of taking revenge never calms down. This dualism of Indian practices has been most vividly viable for more than Fifty years; though said to be prevalent in all periods of human civilization. And this dualism or even pluralism of split personalities is rampant world over among all politicians, everywhere thus a common man is becoming an easy victim. This is principally on account of ever increasing economy at any and every cost and this global feature is the motive dogma of modern progress. To be honest in approach, economic progress is friendly to ethical values only in the beginning but soon becomes a bookish conjecture.
The new format of the society is non palatable to millions of simple, honest and humble citizens who believe in brotherhood, love to all human beings and duty as the foremost human religion: those who believe in second religion is an option of thoughts and way of life !!. I have counted heart beats of such people spread world over by way of personal talk, involving and sharing mutual respect.
Exhibition of hatred in the form of terrorism is the latest edition of quelling human values, feelings and ambitions of being a human being. Variable techniques of generating terror are continuously questioning our technological progress dependent-perversions. And the bitter truth is that we can never achieve perfect, clean and honest society. Not because such a society never existed anywhere but because, biologically, this is improbable, impossible and definitely imaginative. Perverts are always born, socially transformed /made, nurtured, and have always been “domesticated” by power.
I intend to enlighten on all these points on the basis of my own studies accumulated as by products of my principal focus in areas of Genetics, focusing principally on reproduction, survival strategies and adaptive behavior in plants and animals including humans dispersed in many countries. Studies conducted during last fifty years suggest that humans are more amenable, susceptible and also most adaptive.
First of all, I concentrate on impact of social turmoil on biological aspects of human behaviour and reproductive performance.
( 1 ) Prevalence of Excessive Social stress
There are many problems existing in our society which have become synonym with the region; the one I had known about was, or rather has been, the “Dacoit problem”. A dacoit word was first heard on All India Radio in 1955 which we remember “ Daku Mansingh mara gaya”; I was a student of 10th class and my father was then posted at Nowgong ( Chhatarpur ) as a Magistrate. During teen age we came across many instances and the drama popularly played on stages about “Sultana Daku” was an item of festive recreation in Northern India for several decades. Stories of both terrorizing and social services were commonly heard and people had labeled “ Good Daku” and bad/ cruel Daku” ( outlaws ) in the Bundelkhand region mostly in the belt extending around Chambal river and further going ahead to the villages around Jaulon in Uttar Pradesh. Dacoits have laid an inbuilt terror among masses and I remember that whenever I visited my relatives in Jaulon area during 1950s-1960s every one cautioned that I must return home by sun set and at any rate, I must never be alone. I always have had desire to go to natural forests, river beds and explore unseen places but was often loaded by a very unnatural tension. Further to this, we always heard some or the other news of killings, kidnappings in a nearby area thus giving enough support to my temporary care takers. The worst was that a gun man went with me in early morning for a walk . The story does not stop here , there are several pouring instances coming to mind but a relevant one is more important.
You need Police Protection for your normal duty:
Even as a lecturer in Botany at Government science college Gwalior, I use to request for a police guard to accompany our M.Sc.boys and girls and the guard were lifted in our hired government bus to the forest area around Tigrha dam , sometime on Shivpuri road ( 1967-1973) and we also took help of Ghatigaon Police station. In every walk of life we have people who live with joy and enjoy their duties, crack jokes, make people laugh and keep a congenial environ. I remember a few policemen who went many times with me and one of them once remarked “Goswami saab you have been self centred in your studies but never cared for us; you have collected dozens of plants but we could not collect a single daku in this area, help us in collection.” I gave him an advice, go in civil dress like a student, collect plants, learn few technical things and be of course armed by pistols etc in a botanical tool box , you never know it may work !.
One may not believe, I showed them signs of their (? dakus’) earlier presence. They “always” leave signs by unnatural placement of twigs, branches which no shepherd
would do that way, nor even a villager and by these non monitored code the dacoits send cautions/ messages to their colleagues. This was my conjecture !!
An Hypothesis:
These are some of the instances which installed a “faith” in my approaches of the problem that a society under permanent stress must have, in greater majority of people, an instinct of insecurity. Insecurity, suspicion under stress cause the pituitary gland excitement thereby secreting more hormones than needed. We talk of bravery but the moment we see a snake in the vicinity, eyes alarm message to the brain which is translated and within a small fraction of second pituitary functions, we have involuntary rise in blood pressure, fear becomes operative and voice becomes shaky. Human physiological responses are so interdependent on neurological responses and are so sensitive that fraction of a second can change the whole personality. In our old Indian Vedic literature we rate control of Anger, Fear, and Greed as testaments of a noble soul.
So, obviously, the society with percolated insecurity causing behavioural tension must be having visible impacts on human reproductive performances at the population levels; this hypothesis was tested on the hospital data collected from the records of maternity centers, primary health centers and hospitals in Gwalior region. The birth statistics from 1950-to1995 gave very alarming results. Also, we conducted family surveys mainly with the help of female students studying post graduate courses at our and many other University centers who offered help for this, apparently secretive but, otherwise very important work. This is worth mentioning here that these investigations were compared with very many kinds of population samples ( In biological context, we call a population sample constituting a breeding group, which in India varies with the caste system, sometimes also differing in languages; non tribals, tribals, communities living at high altitudes, sea shore area dwellers in south and also on moving chariots of Rajasthan) A very patient personalized project accumulated data, generated from MP ( with Cgarh ) Bihar( old), Himachal, Punjab, Srinagar, Andhra Pradesh and some sporadic samples has turned out to be a very genuine consolidated information, some of which have already been published in national and International Journals.
Twinning is influenced
A mother gives birth to more than one child with a difference of a few minutes to few hours. The phenomenon is known is “ Twinning’’ which ordinarily includes birth of triplets, quadruplets and more. Every population has a range of say 8 to 15 per thousand twin frequency ( means that out of 1000 births there are 8 or more twin births which also includes multiple births ). Scientifically, we want to know how many triplets and multiple births have taken place in a population, and these are very well recorded in each village. Twinning never goes unrecorded because this is, as ever, a matter of social curiosity, worry and tension of the mother and attending persons on the health of both, the new born and the mother. Taken as a whole proportion of twin births in one year in one area, and comparing another population in the same way, doing this for many years makes a difference. Biologically, we derive many inferences and offer very valuable comments on the intra and inter population differences and impact of environmental hazards. My studies published during 1970 and thereafter opined for the first time the role of age of mothers, their genetic background, which was upheld by Scandanavian workers. Twinning by and large is dependent on heredity, mother’s predisposition to environmental factors as well as her higher age ( mothers conceiving at 35 and more have great chances for a twin maternity ).This was intriguing that frequency of triplets in particular, showed rise in Morena-Gwalior belt during 1960- 1975 which alarmingly declined during 1975-1980. Our total data based on about 6 million births suggested that average frequency of triplets was 1 in 880 births ( only triplet frequency ) which had declined in 1975-1980 to be 1 in 1700 births. Presenting this work in Rome Conference in 1989 on Twins, I had presented this data causing dismay to many and curiosity to hundreds. As a possible explanation, I had expressed hormonal imbalance influenced by fear, anxiety, socially prevalent long term tension to be responsible for increased tendency of ovulation among women inhabiting this area. A very strong support to this hypothesis was cited from the published results of twinning in Europe during and after the first world war and more extensive data during and after the Second World war. The German and central European territory revealed maximum twinning rates during war-period decade which declined in late fifties. What a grand biological phenomenon to compensate the loss of human lives !!
( 3 ) Over medication is the pseudo outlet of insecurity
A species under great biological stress reproduces faster than, under reluctance.
Twinning is also known to be influenced by drug abuse, extra dosage of oral contraceptives and too much alcohol or other addictions. These all are under a
physiological monitoring principle of three ranges, minimum, optimum and maximum. Not all individuals respond exactly in the same way, even twins are like “two peas in a pod”, so we can never assign any one causative factor for any biological phenomenon.
This is a dogmatic truth that there is nothing which can be taken “final” in biology. But still we try to offer explanation and on matters such as the present one, collecting population data ( epidemiological study ) and using statistical comparisons with many relevant studies are very reliably applications.
A very unfortunate biological problem is regarding congenital malformations which are directly correlated with over medication, drug abuse and newer addictions ( not all congenital malformations are hereditary in nature ) The most famous example is the thalidomide tragedy in Germany. During 1940s the women used extra dosage of sleeping drugs which included this organic compound, thalidomide.
Based on chromosome studies on plant cells under the influence of the chemical thalidomide, then, extending it to epidemiological studies and also subjecting it to tissue culture observations, biologists came out with recommendations to ban thalidomide dependent drugs. This also revealed for the first time that drugs in molecular forms are not detained by placental barriers and can harm the developing embryo. Pregnant women are very much prone to such hazards !!
Scientifically also, as we pronounce ethically, motherhood is the greatest virtue of being a woman and a mother.
Lack of Sociability
We have made extensive studies on twins and twinning from different parts of the country ( now, more than 14 million births ) during 1964-2004, keeping in view the ecological variables and marriage patterns ( because, marrying with in the family, as in practice in many communities in India, brings common genes among their children ). There are many instances that I intervened in some marriages of muslim families in Bhopal and tried to convince both parties of possible dangers of genic combinations. I did so because they had asked my advice as a scientist, so how can I be unfair to them. Duty as a biologist always demands truthful discussion with any one, and oily tongue can please the persons but not serve the science.
These all honest approaches in a society can sustain longevity only when there is a mutual trust; now in modern progress we face the greatest scarcity of mutual faith.
The great Shakspeare wrote “ who is to be trusted in this world when one’s own right hand is opposite to the bossom”. We are experiencing every where only distrust because we feel insecure. What for??
(
In my book on “BIOLOGY OF HUMAN BEHAVIOUR” ( unpublished) I have mentioned “violence” to be a natural, original and universal instinct in biological systems. Insecure-society facilitates expression of violence, non-violence is suppression of egos, which has a minimal occupancy in a perturbed atmosphere. No one likes suppression of desires; even, no one wants to take heed of precautions.
This is a very surprising fact in behavioural biology that the factors which enhance distress can be associated with twinning as well as result in increment of abortion rates in human population. There are more than dozen biological and non biological factors for causing recurrent abortions and too early termination of pregnancies ( just in 4-6 weeks of gestation; before noticing pregnancy) but among environmental factors, induced long term social unrest is one of the well known parameters. Natural disasters and calamities have their own way of destruction. Struggle for survival as a species always goes on in the biological scenario.
What we ought to do is to make our demands having some end, egos need to be fenced by our sense of duties. Very honestly, our country shall never be able to get back to real Indian values of tolerance, acceptability of knowledge and mutual faith with respect. This is now impossible rather than difficult to revert back !!
Is this pessimism ? no, not at all. The time lost can never be regained, gone – age can be replayed on a stage or drama not in real life, damage on humanity goes in the space of time ! Best examples are from Indian history dating back to 3000B.C.
Lord Rama, could never live happily after Sita’s “uncalled for” exile. The great Karm Yogi, Krishna ultimately tells the true strength of “Time” Arjuna was convinced to do his job, Duryodhan did his job and above all Bhisma and Dhrithrastra were understood to continue to their jobs despite the fact that everyone was becoming aware of drastic consequences. I often feel amazed at the deeper extent of hatred in Dhrithrastra’s mind that he wanted to crush and mutilate Bhimsen even when he had lost each and every son, his empire and the total purpose of his life. Frustration or “hatred in finite” or both, inseparable ! The lust of power and hunger of revenge are immortal, these never die, they breed truly in masses for several social generations.
Hurt remnants of hatred transform their beliefs in ethos of their isolated religion. Human mind is the most evil mind in the biological world. So we will always have wars, man made disasters and self aimed destructions.
Hit Kishore Goswami
Bhopal, India
ENDANGERED WORLD – CITIZENSHIP
By
HIT KISHORE GOSWAMI
Retired Professor of Genetics , Barkatullah University,
24, kaushalnagar, Via Misrod, Bhopal (MP)
( Res: Phone: 91-755-2417156 )
We the world citizens are breathing in a very much insecure society with the increasing dimensions of newer techniques of creating nuisance, terror and ever increasing distrust among citizens world over. Bombs in the bus, train, cinema theatre, open market areas, aero planes and also lying on the garbage tins are only few exhibits of a few peoples’ hatred towards the progressive nations; innocent lives are becoming items of rampage. These inhuman acts are the outcome of free breeding corruption of excessively selfish, narrowly greedy and anti social persons widely distributed throughout the globe. Our irresponsible political leadership has fathered and faithfully nurtured these values for quite sometime, well above four decades. Even In India, we are now only preachers of peace but have always supported criminals and masked their inhuman acts as part and parcel of democracy. We were theoretically known as symbols of tolerance but as a national character now, we display complaints and dissatisfaction on every issue; we are said to believe in “forget and forgive”, but our instinct of taking revenge never calms down. This dualism of Indian practices has been most vividly viable for more than Fifty years; though said to be prevalent in all periods of human civilization. And this dualism or even pluralism of split personalities is rampant world over among all politicians, everywhere thus a common man is becoming an easy victim. This is principally on account of ever increasing economy at any and every cost and this global feature is the motive dogma of modern progress. To be honest in approach, economic progress is friendly to ethical values only in the beginning but soon becomes a bookish conjecture.
The new format of the society is non palatable to millions of simple, honest and humble citizens who believe in brotherhood, love to all human beings and duty as the foremost human religion: those who believe in second religion is an option of thoughts and way of life !!. I have counted heart beats of such people spread world over by way of personal talk, involving and sharing mutual respect.
Exhibition of hatred in the form of terrorism is the latest edition of quelling human values, feelings and ambitions of being a human being. Variable techniques of generating terror are continuously questioning our technological progress dependent-perversions. And the bitter truth is that we can never achieve perfect, clean and honest society. Not because such a society never existed anywhere but because, biologically, this is improbable, impossible and definitely imaginative. Perverts are always born, socially transformed /made, nurtured, and have always been “domesticated” by power.
I intend to enlighten on all these points on the basis of my own studies accumulated as by products of my principal focus in areas of Genetics, focusing principally on reproduction, survival strategies and adaptive behavior in plants and animals including humans dispersed in many countries. Studies conducted during last fifty years suggest that humans are more amenable, susceptible and also most adaptive.
First of all, I concentrate on impact of social turmoil on biological aspects of human behaviour and reproductive performance.
( 1 ) Prevalence of Excessive Social stress
There are many problems existing in our society which have become synonym with the region; the one I had known about was, or rather has been, the “Dacoit problem”. A dacoit word was first heard on All India Radio in 1955 which we remember “ Daku Mansingh mara gaya”; I was a student of 10th class and my father was then posted at Nowgong ( Chhatarpur ) as a Magistrate. During teen age we came across many instances and the drama popularly played on stages about “Sultana Daku” was an item of festive recreation in Northern India for several decades. Stories of both terrorizing and social services were commonly heard and people had labeled “ Good Daku” and bad/ cruel Daku” ( outlaws ) in the Bundelkhand region mostly in the belt extending around Chambal river and further going ahead to the villages around Jaulon in Uttar Pradesh. Dacoits have laid an inbuilt terror among masses and I remember that whenever I visited my relatives in Jaulon area during 1950s-1960s every one cautioned that I must return home by sun set and at any rate, I must never be alone. I always have had desire to go to natural forests, river beds and explore unseen places but was often loaded by a very unnatural tension. Further to this, we always heard some or the other news of killings, kidnappings in a nearby area thus giving enough support to my temporary care takers. The worst was that a gun man went with me in early morning for a walk . The story does not stop here , there are several pouring instances coming to mind but a relevant one is more important.
You need Police Protection for your normal duty:
Even as a lecturer in Botany at Government science college Gwalior, I use to request for a police guard to accompany our M.Sc.boys and girls and the guard were lifted in our hired government bus to the forest area around Tigrha dam , sometime on Shivpuri road ( 1967-1973) and we also took help of Ghatigaon Police station. In every walk of life we have people who live with joy and enjoy their duties, crack jokes, make people laugh and keep a congenial environ. I remember a few policemen who went many times with me and one of them once remarked “Goswami saab you have been self centred in your studies but never cared for us; you have collected dozens of plants but we could not collect a single daku in this area, help us in collection.” I gave him an advice, go in civil dress like a student, collect plants, learn few technical things and be of course armed by pistols etc in a botanical tool box , you never know it may work !.
One may not believe, I showed them signs of their (? dakus’) earlier presence. They “always” leave signs by unnatural placement of twigs, branches which no shepherd
would do that way, nor even a villager and by these non monitored code the dacoits send cautions/ messages to their colleagues. This was my conjecture !!
An Hypothesis:
These are some of the instances which installed a “faith” in my approaches of the problem that a society under permanent stress must have, in greater majority of people, an instinct of insecurity. Insecurity, suspicion under stress cause the pituitary gland excitement thereby secreting more hormones than needed. We talk of bravery but the moment we see a snake in the vicinity, eyes alarm message to the brain which is translated and within a small fraction of second pituitary functions, we have involuntary rise in blood pressure, fear becomes operative and voice becomes shaky. Human physiological responses are so interdependent on neurological responses and are so sensitive that fraction of a second can change the whole personality. In our old Indian Vedic literature we rate control of Anger, Fear, and Greed as testaments of a noble soul.
So, obviously, the society with percolated insecurity causing behavioural tension must be having visible impacts on human reproductive performances at the population levels; this hypothesis was tested on the hospital data collected from the records of maternity centers, primary health centers and hospitals in Gwalior region. The birth statistics from 1950-to1995 gave very alarming results. Also, we conducted family surveys mainly with the help of female students studying post graduate courses at our and many other University centers who offered help for this, apparently secretive but, otherwise very important work. This is worth mentioning here that these investigations were compared with very many kinds of population samples ( In biological context, we call a population sample constituting a breeding group, which in India varies with the caste system, sometimes also differing in languages; non tribals, tribals, communities living at high altitudes, sea shore area dwellers in south and also on moving chariots of Rajasthan) A very patient personalized project accumulated data, generated from MP ( with Cgarh ) Bihar( old), Himachal, Punjab, Srinagar, Andhra Pradesh and some sporadic samples has turned out to be a very genuine consolidated information, some of which have already been published in national and International Journals.
Twinning is influenced
A mother gives birth to more than one child with a difference of a few minutes to few hours. The phenomenon is known is “ Twinning’’ which ordinarily includes birth of triplets, quadruplets and more. Every population has a range of say 8 to 15 per thousand twin frequency ( means that out of 1000 births there are 8 or more twin births which also includes multiple births ). Scientifically, we want to know how many triplets and multiple births have taken place in a population, and these are very well recorded in each village. Twinning never goes unrecorded because this is, as ever, a matter of social curiosity, worry and tension of the mother and attending persons on the health of both, the new born and the mother. Taken as a whole proportion of twin births in one year in one area, and comparing another population in the same way, doing this for many years makes a difference. Biologically, we derive many inferences and offer very valuable comments on the intra and inter population differences and impact of environmental hazards. My studies published during 1970 and thereafter opined for the first time the role of age of mothers, their genetic background, which was upheld by Scandanavian workers. Twinning by and large is dependent on heredity, mother’s predisposition to environmental factors as well as her higher age ( mothers conceiving at 35 and more have great chances for a twin maternity ).This was intriguing that frequency of triplets in particular, showed rise in Morena-Gwalior belt during 1960- 1975 which alarmingly declined during 1975-1980. Our total data based on about 6 million births suggested that average frequency of triplets was 1 in 880 births ( only triplet frequency ) which had declined in 1975-1980 to be 1 in 1700 births. Presenting this work in Rome Conference in 1989 on Twins, I had presented this data causing dismay to many and curiosity to hundreds. As a possible explanation, I had expressed hormonal imbalance influenced by fear, anxiety, socially prevalent long term tension to be responsible for increased tendency of ovulation among women inhabiting this area. A very strong support to this hypothesis was cited from the published results of twinning in Europe during and after the first world war and more extensive data during and after the Second World war. The German and central European territory revealed maximum twinning rates during war-period decade which declined in late fifties. What a grand biological phenomenon to compensate the loss of human lives !!
( 3 ) Over medication is the pseudo outlet of insecurity
A species under great biological stress reproduces faster than, under reluctance.
Twinning is also known to be influenced by drug abuse, extra dosage of oral contraceptives and too much alcohol or other addictions. These all are under a
physiological monitoring principle of three ranges, minimum, optimum and maximum. Not all individuals respond exactly in the same way, even twins are like “two peas in a pod”, so we can never assign any one causative factor for any biological phenomenon.
This is a dogmatic truth that there is nothing which can be taken “final” in biology. But still we try to offer explanation and on matters such as the present one, collecting population data ( epidemiological study ) and using statistical comparisons with many relevant studies are very reliably applications.
A very unfortunate biological problem is regarding congenital malformations which are directly correlated with over medication, drug abuse and newer addictions ( not all congenital malformations are hereditary in nature ) The most famous example is the thalidomide tragedy in Germany. During 1940s the women used extra dosage of sleeping drugs which included this organic compound, thalidomide.
Based on chromosome studies on plant cells under the influence of the chemical thalidomide, then, extending it to epidemiological studies and also subjecting it to tissue culture observations, biologists came out with recommendations to ban thalidomide dependent drugs. This also revealed for the first time that drugs in molecular forms are not detained by placental barriers and can harm the developing embryo. Pregnant women are very much prone to such hazards !!
Scientifically also, as we pronounce ethically, motherhood is the greatest virtue of being a woman and a mother.
Lack of Sociability
We have made extensive studies on twins and twinning from different parts of the country ( now, more than 14 million births ) during 1964-2004, keeping in view the ecological variables and marriage patterns ( because, marrying with in the family, as in practice in many communities in India, brings common genes among their children ). There are many instances that I intervened in some marriages of muslim families in Bhopal and tried to convince both parties of possible dangers of genic combinations. I did so because they had asked my advice as a scientist, so how can I be unfair to them. Duty as a biologist always demands truthful discussion with any one, and oily tongue can please the persons but not serve the science.
These all honest approaches in a society can sustain longevity only when there is a mutual trust; now in modern progress we face the greatest scarcity of mutual faith.
The great Shakspeare wrote “ who is to be trusted in this world when one’s own right hand is opposite to the bossom”. We are experiencing every where only distrust because we feel insecure. What for??
(
In my book on “BIOLOGY OF HUMAN BEHAVIOUR” ( unpublished) I have mentioned “violence” to be a natural, original and universal instinct in biological systems. Insecure-society facilitates expression of violence, non-violence is suppression of egos, which has a minimal occupancy in a perturbed atmosphere. No one likes suppression of desires; even, no one wants to take heed of precautions.
This is a very surprising fact in behavioural biology that the factors which enhance distress can be associated with twinning as well as result in increment of abortion rates in human population. There are more than dozen biological and non biological factors for causing recurrent abortions and too early termination of pregnancies ( just in 4-6 weeks of gestation; before noticing pregnancy) but among environmental factors, induced long term social unrest is one of the well known parameters. Natural disasters and calamities have their own way of destruction. Struggle for survival as a species always goes on in the biological scenario.
What we ought to do is to make our demands having some end, egos need to be fenced by our sense of duties. Very honestly, our country shall never be able to get back to real Indian values of tolerance, acceptability of knowledge and mutual faith with respect. This is now impossible rather than difficult to revert back !!
Is this pessimism ? no, not at all. The time lost can never be regained, gone – age can be replayed on a stage or drama not in real life, damage on humanity goes in the space of time ! Best examples are from Indian history dating back to 3000B.C.
Lord Rama, could never live happily after Sita’s “uncalled for” exile. The great Karm Yogi, Krishna ultimately tells the true strength of “Time” Arjuna was convinced to do his job, Duryodhan did his job and above all Bhisma and Dhrithrastra were understood to continue to their jobs despite the fact that everyone was becoming aware of drastic consequences. I often feel amazed at the deeper extent of hatred in Dhrithrastra’s mind that he wanted to crush and mutilate Bhimsen even when he had lost each and every son, his empire and the total purpose of his life. Frustration or “hatred in finite” or both, inseparable ! The lust of power and hunger of revenge are immortal, these never die, they breed truly in masses for several social generations.
Hurt remnants of hatred transform their beliefs in ethos of their isolated religion. Human mind is the most evil mind in the biological world. So we will always have wars, man made disasters and self aimed destructions.
Hit Kishore Goswami
Bhopal, India
ENDANGERED WORLD – CITIZENSHIP
By
HIT KISHORE GOSWAMI
Retired Professor of Genetics , Barkatullah University,
24, kaushalnagar, Via Misrod, Bhopal (MP)
( Res: Phone: 91-755-2417156 )
We the world citizens are breathing in a very much insecure society with the increasing dimensions of newer techniques of creating nuisance, terror and ever increasing distrust among citizens world over. Bombs in the bus, train, cinema theatre, open market areas, aero planes and also lying on the garbage tins are only few exhibits of a few peoples’ hatred towards the progressive nations; innocent lives are becoming items of rampage. These inhuman acts are the outcome of free breeding corruption of excessively selfish, narrowly greedy and anti social persons widely distributed throughout the globe. Our irresponsible political leadership has fathered and faithfully nurtured these values for quite sometime, well above four decades. Even In India, we are now only preachers of peace but have always supported criminals and masked their inhuman acts as part and parcel of democracy. We were theoretically known as symbols of tolerance but as a national character now, we display complaints and dissatisfaction on every issue; we are said to believe in “forget and forgive”, but our instinct of taking revenge never calms down. This dualism of Indian practices has been most vividly viable for more than Fifty years; though said to be prevalent in all periods of human civilization. And this dualism or even pluralism of split personalities is rampant world over among all politicians, everywhere thus a common man is becoming an easy victim. This is principally on account of ever increasing economy at any and every cost and this global feature is the motive dogma of modern progress. To be honest in approach, economic progress is friendly to ethical values only in the beginning but soon becomes a bookish conjecture.
The new format of the society is non palatable to millions of simple, honest and humble citizens who believe in brotherhood, love to all human beings and duty as the foremost human religion: those who believe in second religion is an option of thoughts and way of life !!. I have counted heart beats of such people spread world over by way of personal talk, involving and sharing mutual respect.
Exhibition of hatred in the form of terrorism is the latest edition of quelling human values, feelings and ambitions of being a human being. Variable techniques of generating terror are continuously questioning our technological progress dependent-perversions. And the bitter truth is that we can never achieve perfect, clean and honest society. Not because such a society never existed anywhere but because, biologically, this is improbable, impossible and definitely imaginative. Perverts are always born, socially transformed /made, nurtured, and have always been “domesticated” by power.
I intend to enlighten on all these points on the basis of my own studies accumulated as by products of my principal focus in areas of Genetics, focusing principally on reproduction, survival strategies and adaptive behavior in plants and animals including humans dispersed in many countries. Studies conducted during last fifty years suggest that humans are more amenable, susceptible and also most adaptive.
First of all, I concentrate on impact of social turmoil on biological aspects of human behaviour and reproductive performance.
( 1 ) Prevalence of Excessive Social stress
There are many problems existing in our society which have become synonym with the region; the one I had known about was, or rather has been, the “Dacoit problem”. A dacoit word was first heard on All India Radio in 1955 which we remember “ Daku Mansingh mara gaya”; I was a student of 10th class and my father was then posted at Nowgong ( Chhatarpur ) as a Magistrate. During teen age we came across many instances and the drama popularly played on stages about “Sultana Daku” was an item of festive recreation in Northern India for several decades. Stories of both terrorizing and social services were commonly heard and people had labeled “ Good Daku” and bad/ cruel Daku” ( outlaws ) in the Bundelkhand region mostly in the belt extending around Chambal river and further going ahead to the villages around Jaulon in Uttar Pradesh. Dacoits have laid an inbuilt terror among masses and I remember that whenever I visited my relatives in Jaulon area during 1950s-1960s every one cautioned that I must return home by sun set and at any rate, I must never be alone. I always have had desire to go to natural forests, river beds and explore unseen places but was often loaded by a very unnatural tension. Further to this, we always heard some or the other news of killings, kidnappings in a nearby area thus giving enough support to my temporary care takers. The worst was that a gun man went with me in early morning for a walk . The story does not stop here , there are several pouring instances coming to mind but a relevant one is more important.
You need Police Protection for your normal duty:
Even as a lecturer in Botany at Government science college Gwalior, I use to request for a police guard to accompany our M.Sc.boys and girls and the guard were lifted in our hired government bus to the forest area around Tigrha dam , sometime on Shivpuri road ( 1967-1973) and we also took help of Ghatigaon Police station. In every walk of life we have people who live with joy and enjoy their duties, crack jokes, make people laugh and keep a congenial environ. I remember a few policemen who went many times with me and one of them once remarked “Goswami saab you have been self centred in your studies but never cared for us; you have collected dozens of plants but we could not collect a single daku in this area, help us in collection.” I gave him an advice, go in civil dress like a student, collect plants, learn few technical things and be of course armed by pistols etc in a botanical tool box , you never know it may work !.
One may not believe, I showed them signs of their (? dakus’) earlier presence. They “always” leave signs by unnatural placement of twigs, branches which no shepherd
would do that way, nor even a villager and by these non monitored code the dacoits send cautions/ messages to their colleagues. This was my conjecture !!
An Hypothesis:
These are some of the instances which installed a “faith” in my approaches of the problem that a society under permanent stress must have, in greater majority of people, an instinct of insecurity. Insecurity, suspicion under stress cause the pituitary gland excitement thereby secreting more hormones than needed. We talk of bravery but the moment we see a snake in the vicinity, eyes alarm message to the brain which is translated and within a small fraction of second pituitary functions, we have involuntary rise in blood pressure, fear becomes operative and voice becomes shaky. Human physiological responses are so interdependent on neurological responses and are so sensitive that fraction of a second can change the whole personality. In our old Indian Vedic literature we rate control of Anger, Fear, and Greed as testaments of a noble soul.
So, obviously, the society with percolated insecurity causing behavioural tension must be having visible impacts on human reproductive performances at the population levels; this hypothesis was tested on the hospital data collected from the records of maternity centers, primary health centers and hospitals in Gwalior region. The birth statistics from 1950-to1995 gave very alarming results. Also, we conducted family surveys mainly with the help of female students studying post graduate courses at our and many other University centers who offered help for this, apparently secretive but, otherwise very important work. This is worth mentioning here that these investigations were compared with very many kinds of population samples ( In biological context, we call a population sample constituting a breeding group, which in India varies with the caste system, sometimes also differing in languages; non tribals, tribals, communities living at high altitudes, sea shore area dwellers in south and also on moving chariots of Rajasthan) A very patient personalized project accumulated data, generated from MP ( with Cgarh ) Bihar( old), Himachal, Punjab, Srinagar, Andhra Pradesh and some sporadic samples has turned out to be a very genuine consolidated information, some of which have already been published in national and International Journals.
Twinning is influenced
A mother gives birth to more than one child with a difference of a few minutes to few hours. The phenomenon is known is “ Twinning’’ which ordinarily includes birth of triplets, quadruplets and more. Every population has a range of say 8 to 15 per thousand twin frequency ( means that out of 1000 births there are 8 or more twin births which also includes multiple births ). Scientifically, we want to know how many triplets and multiple births have taken place in a population, and these are very well recorded in each village. Twinning never goes unrecorded because this is, as ever, a matter of social curiosity, worry and tension of the mother and attending persons on the health of both, the new born and the mother. Taken as a whole proportion of twin births in one year in one area, and comparing another population in the same way, doing this for many years makes a difference. Biologically, we derive many inferences and offer very valuable comments on the intra and inter population differences and impact of environmental hazards. My studies published during 1970 and thereafter opined for the first time the role of age of mothers, their genetic background, which was upheld by Scandanavian workers. Twinning by and large is dependent on heredity, mother’s predisposition to environmental factors as well as her higher age ( mothers conceiving at 35 and more have great chances for a twin maternity ).This was intriguing that frequency of triplets in particular, showed rise in Morena-Gwalior belt during 1960- 1975 which alarmingly declined during 1975-1980. Our total data based on about 6 million births suggested that average frequency of triplets was 1 in 880 births ( only triplet frequency ) which had declined in 1975-1980 to be 1 in 1700 births. Presenting this work in Rome Conference in 1989 on Twins, I had presented this data causing dismay to many and curiosity to hundreds. As a possible explanation, I had expressed hormonal imbalance influenced by fear, anxiety, socially prevalent long term tension to be responsible for increased tendency of ovulation among women inhabiting this area. A very strong support to this hypothesis was cited from the published results of twinning in Europe during and after the first world war and more extensive data during and after the Second World war. The German and central European territory revealed maximum twinning rates during war-period decade which declined in late fifties. What a grand biological phenomenon to compensate the loss of human lives !!
( 3 ) Over medication is the pseudo outlet of insecurity
A species under great biological stress reproduces faster than, under reluctance.
Twinning is also known to be influenced by drug abuse, extra dosage of oral contraceptives and too much alcohol or other addictions. These all are under a
physiological monitoring principle of three ranges, minimum, optimum and maximum. Not all individuals respond exactly in the same way, even twins are like “two peas in a pod”, so we can never assign any one causative factor for any biological phenomenon.
This is a dogmatic truth that there is nothing which can be taken “final” in biology. But still we try to offer explanation and on matters such as the present one, collecting population data ( epidemiological study ) and using statistical comparisons with many relevant studies are very reliably applications.
A very unfortunate biological problem is regarding congenital malformations which are directly correlated with over medication, drug abuse and newer addictions ( not all congenital malformations are hereditary in nature ) The most famous example is the thalidomide tragedy in Germany. During 1940s the women used extra dosage of sleeping drugs which included this organic compound, thalidomide.
Based on chromosome studies on plant cells under the influence of the chemical thalidomide, then, extending it to epidemiological studies and also subjecting it to tissue culture observations, biologists came out with recommendations to ban thalidomide dependent drugs. This also revealed for the first time that drugs in molecular forms are not detained by placental barriers and can harm the developing embryo. Pregnant women are very much prone to such hazards !!
Scientifically also, as we pronounce ethically, motherhood is the greatest virtue of being a woman and a mother.
Lack of Sociability
We have made extensive studies on twins and twinning from different parts of the country ( now, more than 14 million births ) during 1964-2004, keeping in view the ecological variables and marriage patterns ( because, marrying with in the family, as in practice in many communities in India, brings common genes among their children ). There are many instances that I intervened in some marriages of muslim families in Bhopal and tried to convince both parties of possible dangers of genic combinations. I did so because they had asked my advice as a scientist, so how can I be unfair to them. Duty as a biologist always demands truthful discussion with any one, and oily tongue can please the persons but not serve the science.
These all honest approaches in a society can sustain longevity only when there is a mutual trust; now in modern progress we face the greatest scarcity of mutual faith.
The great Shakspeare wrote “ who is to be trusted in this world when one’s own right hand is opposite to the bossom”. We are experiencing every where only distrust because we feel insecure. What for??
(
In my book on “BIOLOGY OF HUMAN BEHAVIOUR” ( unpublished) I have mentioned “violence” to be a natural, original and universal instinct in biological systems. Insecure-society facilitates expression of violence, non-violence is suppression of egos, which has a minimal occupancy in a perturbed atmosphere. No one likes suppression of desires; even, no one wants to take heed of precautions.
This is a very surprising fact in behavioural biology that the factors which enhance distress can be associated with twinning as well as result in increment of abortion rates in human population. There are more than dozen biological and non biological factors for causing recurrent abortions and too early termination of pregnancies ( just in 4-6 weeks of gestation; before noticing pregnancy) but among environmental factors, induced long term social unrest is one of the well known parameters. Natural disasters and calamities have their own way of destruction. Struggle for survival as a species always goes on in the biological scenario.
What we ought to do is to make our demands having some end, egos need to be fenced by our sense of duties. Very honestly, our country shall never be able to get back to real Indian values of tolerance, acceptability of knowledge and mutual faith with respect. This is now impossible rather than difficult to revert back !!
Is this pessimism ? no, not at all. The time lost can never be regained, gone – age can be replayed on a stage or drama not in real life, damage on humanity goes in the space of time ! Best examples are from Indian history dating back to 3000B.C.
Lord Rama, could never live happily after Sita’s “uncalled for” exile. The great Karm Yogi, Krishna ultimately tells the true strength of “Time” Arjuna was convinced to do his job, Duryodhan did his job and above all Bhisma and Dhrithrastra were understood to continue to their jobs despite the fact that everyone was becoming aware of drastic consequences. I often feel amazed at the deeper extent of hatred in Dhrithrastra’s mind that he wanted to crush and mutilate Bhimsen even when he had lost each and every son, his empire and the total purpose of his life. Frustration or “hatred in finite” or both, inseparable ! The lust of power and hunger of revenge are immortal, these never die, they breed truly in masses for several social generations.
Hurt remnants of hatred transform their beliefs in ethos of their isolated religion. Human mind is the most evil mind in the biological world. So we will always have wars, man made disasters and self aimed destructions.
Hit Kishore Goswami
Bhopal, India
Kansieo.com
ENDANGERED WORLD – CITIZENSHIP ?
By HIT KISHORE GOSWAMI
Retired Professor of Genetics , Barkatullah University,
24, kaushalnagar, Via Misrod, Bhopal (MP)
( Res: Phone: 91-755-2417156 )
We the world citizens are breathing in a very much insecure society with the increasing dimensions of newer techniques of creating nuisance, terror and ever increasing distrust among citizens world over. Bombs in the bus, train, cinema theatre, open market areas, aero planes and also lying on the garbage tins are only few exhibits of a few peoples’ hatred towards the progressive nations; innocent lives are becoming items of rampage. These inhuman acts are the outcome of free breeding corruption of excessively selfish, narrowly greedy and anti social persons widely distributed throughout the globe. Our irresponsible political leadership has fathered and faithfully nurtured these values for quite sometime, well above four decades. Even In India, we are now only preachers of peace but have always supported criminals and masked their inhuman acts as part and parcel of democracy. We were theoretically known as symbols of tolerance but as a national character now, we display complaints and dissatisfaction on every issue; we are said to believe in “forget and forgive”, but our instinct of taking revenge never calms down. This dualism of Indian practices has been most vividly viable for more than Fifty years; though said to be prevalent in all periods of human civilization. And this dualism or even pluralism of split personalities is rampant world over among all politicians, everywhere thus a common man is becoming an easy victim. This is principally on account of ever increasing economy at any and every cost and this global feature is the motive dogma of modern progress. To be honest in approach, economic progress is friendly to ethical values only in the beginning but soon becomes a bookish conjecture.
The new format of the society is non palatable to millions of simple, honest and humble citizens who believe in brotherhood, love to all human beings and duty as the foremost human religion: those who believe in second religion is an option of thoughts and way of life !!. I have counted heart beats of such people spread world over by way of personal talk, involving and sharing mutual respect.
Exhibition of hatred in the form of terrorism is the latest edition of quelling human values, feelings and ambitions of being a human being. Variable techniques of generating terror are continuously questioning our technological progress dependent-perversions. And the bitter truth is that we can never achieve perfect, clean and honest society. Not because such a society never existed anywhere but because, biologically, this is improbable, impossible and definitely imaginative. Perverts are always born, socially transformed /made, nurtured, and have always been “domesticated” by power.
I intend to enlighten on all these points on the basis of my own studies accumulated as by products of my principal focus in areas of Genetics, focusing principally on reproduction, survival strategies and adaptive behavior in plants and animals including humans dispersed in many countries. Studies conducted during last fifty years suggest that humans are more amenable, susceptible and also most adaptive.
First of all, I concentrate on impact of social turmoil on biological aspects of human behaviour and reproductive performance.
( 1 ) Prevalence of Excessive Social stress
There are many problems existing in our society which have become synonym with the region; the one I had known about was, or rather has been, the “Dacoit problem”. A dacoit word was first heard on All India Radio in 1955 which we remember “ Daku Mansingh mara gaya”; I was a student of 10th class and my father was then posted at Nowgong ( Chhatarpur ) as a Magistrate. During teen age we came across many instances and the drama popularly played on stages about “Sultana Daku” was an item of festive recreation in Northern India for several decades. Stories of both terrorizing and social services were commonly heard and people had labeled “ Good Daku” and bad/ cruel Daku” ( outlaws ) in the Bundelkhand region mostly in the belt extending around Chambal river and further going ahead to the villages around Jaulon in Uttar Pradesh. Dacoits have laid an inbuilt terror among masses and I remember that whenever I visited my relatives in Jaulon area during 1950s-1960s every one cautioned that I must return home by sun set and at any rate, I must never be alone. I always have had desire to go to natural forests, river beds and explore unseen places but was often loaded by a very unnatural tension. Further to this, we always heard some or the other news of killings, kidnappings in a nearby area thus giving enough support to my temporary care takers. The worst was that a gun man went with me in early morning for a walk . The story does not stop here , there are several pouring instances coming to mind but a relevant one is more important.
You need Police Protection for your normal duty:
Even as a lecturer in Botany at Government science college Gwalior, I use to request for a police guard to accompany our M.Sc.boys and girls and the guard were lifted in our hired government bus to the forest area around Tigrha dam , sometime on Shivpuri road ( 1967-1973) and we also took help of Ghatigaon Police station. In every walk of life we have people who live with joy and enjoy their duties, crack jokes, make people laugh and keep a congenial environ. I remember a few policemen who went many times with me and one of them once remarked “Goswami saab you have been self centred in your studies but never cared for us; you have collected dozens of plants but we could not collect a single daku in this area, help us in collection.” I gave him an advice, go in civil dress like a student, collect plants, learn few technical things and be of course armed by pistols etc in a botanical tool box , you never know it may work !.
One may not believe, I showed them signs of their (? dakus’) earlier presence. They “always” leave signs by unnatural placement of twigs, branches which no shepherd
would do that way, nor even a villager and by these non monitored code the dacoits send cautions/ messages to their colleagues. This was my conjecture !!
An Hypothesis:
These are some of the instances which installed a “faith” in my approaches of the problem that a society under permanent stress must have, in greater majority of people, an instinct of insecurity. Insecurity, suspicion under stress cause the pituitary gland excitement thereby secreting more hormones than needed. We talk of bravery but the moment we see a snake in the vicinity, eyes alarm message to the brain which is translated and within a small fraction of second pituitary functions, we have involuntary rise in blood pressure, fear becomes operative and voice becomes shaky. Human physiological responses are so interdependent on neurological responses and are so sensitive that fraction of a second can change the whole personality. In our old Indian Vedic literature we rate control of Anger, Fear, and Greed as testaments of a noble soul.
So, obviously, the society with percolated insecurity causing behavioural tension must be having visible impacts on human reproductive performances at the population levels; this hypothesis was tested on the hospital data collected from the records of maternity centers, primary health centers and hospitals in Gwalior region. The birth statistics from 1950-to1995 gave very alarming results. Also, we conducted family surveys mainly with the help of female students studying post graduate courses at our and many other University centers who offered help for this, apparently secretive but, otherwise very important work. This is worth mentioning here that these investigations were compared with very many kinds of population samples ( In biological context, we call a population sample constituting a breeding group, which in India varies with the caste system, sometimes also differing in languages; non tribals, tribals, communities living at high altitudes, sea shore area dwellers in south and also on moving chariots of Rajasthan) A very patient personalized project accumulated data, generated from MP ( with Cgarh ) Bihar( old), Himachal, Punjab, Srinagar, Andhra Pradesh and some sporadic samples has turned out to be a very genuine consolidated information, some of which have already been published in national and International Journals.
Twinning is influenced
A mother gives birth to more than one child with a difference of a few minutes to few hours. The phenomenon is known is “ Twinning’’ which ordinarily includes birth of triplets, quadruplets and more. Every population has a range of say 8 to 15 per thousand twin frequency ( means that out of 1000 births there are 8 or more twin births which also includes multiple births ). Scientifically, we want to know how many triplets and multiple births have taken place in a population, and these are very well recorded in each village. Twinning never goes unrecorded because this is, as ever, a matter of social curiosity, worry and tension of the mother and attending persons on the health of both, the new born and the mother. Taken as a whole proportion of twin births in one year in one area, and comparing another population in the same way, doing this for many years makes a difference. Biologically, we derive many inferences and offer very valuable comments on the intra and inter population differences and impact of environmental hazards. My studies published during 1970 and thereafter opined for the first time the role of age of mothers, their genetic background, which was upheld by Scandanavian workers. Twinning by and large is dependent on heredity, mother’s predisposition to environmental factors as well as her higher age ( mothers conceiving at 35 and more have great chances for a twin maternity ).This was intriguing that frequency of triplets in particular, showed rise in Morena-Gwalior belt during 1960- 1975 which alarmingly declined during 1975-1980. Our total data based on about 6 million births suggested that average frequency of triplets was 1 in 880 births ( only triplet frequency ) which had declined in 1975-1980 to be 1 in 1700 births. Presenting this work in Rome Conference in 1989 on Twins, I had presented this data causing dismay to many and curiosity to hundreds. As a possible explanation, I had expressed hormonal imbalance influenced by fear, anxiety, socially prevalent long term tension to be responsible for increased tendency of ovulation among women inhabiting this area. A very strong support to this hypothesis was cited from the published results of twinning in Europe during and after the first world war and more extensive data during and after the Second World war. The German and central European territory revealed maximum twinning rates during war-period decade which declined in late fifties. What a grand biological phenomenon to compensate the loss of human lives !!
( 3 ) Over medication is the pseudo outlet of insecurity
A species under great biological stress reproduces faster than, under reluctance.
Twinning is also known to be influenced by drug abuse, extra dosage of oral contraceptives and too much alcohol or other addictions. These all are under a
physiological monitoring principle of three ranges, minimum, optimum and maximum. Not all individuals respond exactly in the same way, even twins are like “two peas in a pod”, so we can never assign any one causative factor for any biological phenomenon.
This is a dogmatic truth that there is nothing which can be taken “final” in biology. But still we try to offer explanation and on matters such as the present one, collecting population data ( epidemiological study ) and using statistical comparisons with many relevant studies are very reliably applications.
A very unfortunate biological problem is regarding congenital malformations which are directly correlated with over medication, drug abuse and newer addictions ( not all congenital malformations are hereditary in nature ) The most famous example is the thalidomide tragedy in Germany. During 1940s the women used extra dosage of sleeping drugs which included this organic compound, thalidomide.
Based on chromosome studies on plant cells under the influence of the chemical thalidomide, then, extending it to epidemiological studies and also subjecting it to tissue culture observations, biologists came out with recommendations to ban thalidomide dependent drugs. This also revealed for the first time that drugs in molecular forms are not detained by placental barriers and can harm the developing embryo. Pregnant women are very much prone to such hazards !!
Scientifically also, as we pronounce ethically, motherhood is the greatest virtue of being a woman and a mother.
Lack of Sociability
We have made extensive studies on twins and twinning from different parts of the country ( now, more than 14 million births ) during 1964-2004, keeping in view the ecological variables and marriage patterns ( because, marrying with in the family, as in practice in many communities in India, brings common genes among their children ). There are many instances that I intervened in some marriages of muslim families in Bhopal and tried to convince both parties of possible dangers of genic combinations. I did so because they had asked my advice as a scientist, so how can I be unfair to them. Duty as a biologist always demands truthful discussion with any one, and oily tongue can please the persons but not serve the science.
These all honest approaches in a society can sustain longevity only when there is a mutual trust; now in modern progress we face the greatest scarcity of mutual faith.
The great Shakspeare wrote “ who is to be trusted in this world when one’s own right hand is opposite to the bossom”. We are experiencing every where only distrust because we feel insecure. What for??
(
In my book on “BIOLOGY OF HUMAN BEHAVIOUR” ( unpublished) I have mentioned “violence” to be a natural, original and universal instinct in biological systems. Insecure-society facilitates expression of violence, non-violence is suppression of egos, which has a minimal occupancy in a perturbed atmosphere. No one likes suppression of desires; even, no one wants to take heed of precautions.
This is a very surprising fact in behavioural biology that the factors which enhance distress can be associated with twinning as well as result in increment of abortion rates in human population. There are more than dozen biological and non biological factors for causing recurrent abortions and too early termination of pregnancies ( just in 4-6 weeks of gestation; before noticing pregnancy) but among environmental factors, induced long term social unrest is one of the well known parameters. Natural disasters and calamities have their own way of destruction. Struggle for survival as a species always goes on in the biological scenario.
What we ought to do is to make our demands having some end, egos need to be fenced by our sense of duties. Very honestly, our country shall never be able to get back to real Indian values of tolerance, acceptability of knowledge and mutual faith with respect. This is now impossible rather than difficult to revert back !!
Is this pessimism ? no, not at all. The time lost can never be regained, gone – age can be replayed on a stage or drama not in real life, damage on humanity goes in the space of time ! Best examples are from Indian history dating back to 3000B.C.
Lord Rama, could never live happily after Sita’s “uncalled for” exile. The great Karm Yogi, Krishna ultimately tells the true strength of “Time” Arjuna was convinced to do his job, Duryodhan did his job and above all Bhisma and Dhrithrastra were understood to continue to their jobs despite the fact that everyone was becoming aware of drastic consequences. I often feel amazed at the deeper extent of hatred in Dhrithrastra’s mind that he wanted to crush and mutilate Bhimsen even when he had lost each and every son, his empire and the total purpose of his life. Frustration or “hatred in finite” or both, inseparable ! The lust of power and hunger of revenge are immortal, these never die, they breed truly in masses for several social generations.
Hurt remnants of hatred transform their beliefs in ethos of their isolated religion. Human mind is the most evil mind in the biological world. So we will always have wars, man made disasters and self aimed destructions.
Hit Kishore Goswami
Bhopal, India
ENDANGERED WORLD – CITIZENSHIP
By
HIT KISHORE GOSWAMI
Retired Professor of Genetics , Barkatullah University,
24, kaushalnagar, Via Misrod, Bhopal (MP)
( Res: Phone: 91-755-2417156 )
We the world citizens are breathing in a very much insecure society with the increasing dimensions of newer techniques of creating nuisance, terror and ever increasing distrust among citizens world over. Bombs in the bus, train, cinema theatre, open market areas, aero planes and also lying on the garbage tins are only few exhibits of a few peoples’ hatred towards the progressive nations; innocent lives are becoming items of rampage. These inhuman acts are the outcome of free breeding corruption of excessively selfish, narrowly greedy and anti social persons widely distributed throughout the globe. Our irresponsible political leadership has fathered and faithfully nurtured these values for quite sometime, well above four decades. Even In India, we are now only preachers of peace but have always supported criminals and masked their inhuman acts as part and parcel of democracy. We were theoretically known as symbols of tolerance but as a national character now, we display complaints and dissatisfaction on every issue; we are said to believe in “forget and forgive”, but our instinct of taking revenge never calms down. This dualism of Indian practices has been most vividly viable for more than Fifty years; though said to be prevalent in all periods of human civilization. And this dualism or even pluralism of split personalities is rampant world over among all politicians, everywhere thus a common man is becoming an easy victim. This is principally on account of ever increasing economy at any and every cost and this global feature is the motive dogma of modern progress. To be honest in approach, economic progress is friendly to ethical values only in the beginning but soon becomes a bookish conjecture.
The new format of the society is non palatable to millions of simple, honest and humble citizens who believe in brotherhood, love to all human beings and duty as the foremost human religion: those who believe in second religion is an option of thoughts and way of life !!. I have counted heart beats of such people spread world over by way of personal talk, involving and sharing mutual respect.
Exhibition of hatred in the form of terrorism is the latest edition of quelling human values, feelings and ambitions of being a human being. Variable techniques of generating terror are continuously questioning our technological progress dependent-perversions. And the bitter truth is that we can never achieve perfect, clean and honest society. Not because such a society never existed anywhere but because, biologically, this is improbable, impossible and definitely imaginative. Perverts are always born, socially transformed /made, nurtured, and have always been “domesticated” by power.
I intend to enlighten on all these points on the basis of my own studies accumulated as by products of my principal focus in areas of Genetics, focusing principally on reproduction, survival strategies and adaptive behavior in plants and animals including humans dispersed in many countries. Studies conducted during last fifty years suggest that humans are more amenable, susceptible and also most adaptive.
First of all, I concentrate on impact of social turmoil on biological aspects of human behaviour and reproductive performance.
( 1 ) Prevalence of Excessive Social stress
There are many problems existing in our society which have become synonym with the region; the one I had known about was, or rather has been, the “Dacoit problem”. A dacoit word was first heard on All India Radio in 1955 which we remember “ Daku Mansingh mara gaya”; I was a student of 10th class and my father was then posted at Nowgong ( Chhatarpur ) as a Magistrate. During teen age we came across many instances and the drama popularly played on stages about “Sultana Daku” was an item of festive recreation in Northern India for several decades. Stories of both terrorizing and social services were commonly heard and people had labeled “ Good Daku” and bad/ cruel Daku” ( outlaws ) in the Bundelkhand region mostly in the belt extending around Chambal river and further going ahead to the villages around Jaulon in Uttar Pradesh. Dacoits have laid an inbuilt terror among masses and I remember that whenever I visited my relatives in Jaulon area during 1950s-1960s every one cautioned that I must return home by sun set and at any rate, I must never be alone. I always have had desire to go to natural forests, river beds and explore unseen places but was often loaded by a very unnatural tension. Further to this, we always heard some or the other news of killings, kidnappings in a nearby area thus giving enough support to my temporary care takers. The worst was that a gun man went with me in early morning for a walk . The story does not stop here , there are several pouring instances coming to mind but a relevant one is more important.
You need Police Protection for your normal duty:
Even as a lecturer in Botany at Government science college Gwalior, I use to request for a police guard to accompany our M.Sc.boys and girls and the guard were lifted in our hired government bus to the forest area around Tigrha dam , sometime on Shivpuri road ( 1967-1973) and we also took help of Ghatigaon Police station. In every walk of life we have people who live with joy and enjoy their duties, crack jokes, make people laugh and keep a congenial environ. I remember a few policemen who went many times with me and one of them once remarked “Goswami saab you have been self centred in your studies but never cared for us; you have collected dozens of plants but we could not collect a single daku in this area, help us in collection.” I gave him an advice, go in civil dress like a student, collect plants, learn few technical things and be of course armed by pistols etc in a botanical tool box , you never know it may work !.
One may not believe, I showed them signs of their (? dakus’) earlier presence. They “always” leave signs by unnatural placement of twigs, branches which no shepherd
would do that way, nor even a villager and by these non monitored code the dacoits send cautions/ messages to their colleagues. This was my conjecture !!
An Hypothesis:
These are some of the instances which installed a “faith” in my approaches of the problem that a society under permanent stress must have, in greater majority of people, an instinct of insecurity. Insecurity, suspicion under stress cause the pituitary gland excitement thereby secreting more hormones than needed. We talk of bravery but the moment we see a snake in the vicinity, eyes alarm message to the brain which is translated and within a small fraction of second pituitary functions, we have involuntary rise in blood pressure, fear becomes operative and voice becomes shaky. Human physiological responses are so interdependent on neurological responses and are so sensitive that fraction of a second can change the whole personality. In our old Indian Vedic literature we rate control of Anger, Fear, and Greed as testaments of a noble soul.
So, obviously, the society with percolated insecurity causing behavioural tension must be having visible impacts on human reproductive performances at the population levels; this hypothesis was tested on the hospital data collected from the records of maternity centers, primary health centers and hospitals in Gwalior region. The birth statistics from 1950-to1995 gave very alarming results. Also, we conducted family surveys mainly with the help of female students studying post graduate courses at our and many other University centers who offered help for this, apparently secretive but, otherwise very important work. This is worth mentioning here that these investigations were compared with very many kinds of population samples ( In biological context, we call a population sample constituting a breeding group, which in India varies with the caste system, sometimes also differing in languages; non tribals, tribals, communities living at high altitudes, sea shore area dwellers in south and also on moving chariots of Rajasthan) A very patient personalized project accumulated data, generated from MP ( with Cgarh ) Bihar( old), Himachal, Punjab, Srinagar, Andhra Pradesh and some sporadic samples has turned out to be a very genuine consolidated information, some of which have already been published in national and International Journals.
Twinning is influenced
A mother gives birth to more than one child with a difference of a few minutes to few hours. The phenomenon is known is “ Twinning’’ which ordinarily includes birth of triplets, quadruplets and more. Every population has a range of say 8 to 15 per thousand twin frequency ( means that out of 1000 births there are 8 or more twin births which also includes multiple births ). Scientifically, we want to know how many triplets and multiple births have taken place in a population, and these are very well recorded in each village. Twinning never goes unrecorded because this is, as ever, a matter of social curiosity, worry and tension of the mother and attending persons on the health of both, the new born and the mother. Taken as a whole proportion of twin births in one year in one area, and comparing another population in the same way, doing this for many years makes a difference. Biologically, we derive many inferences and offer very valuable comments on the intra and inter population differences and impact of environmental hazards. My studies published during 1970 and thereafter opined for the first time the role of age of mothers, their genetic background, which was upheld by Scandanavian workers. Twinning by and large is dependent on heredity, mother’s predisposition to environmental factors as well as her higher age ( mothers conceiving at 35 and more have great chances for a twin maternity ).This was intriguing that frequency of triplets in particular, showed rise in Morena-Gwalior belt during 1960- 1975 which alarmingly declined during 1975-1980. Our total data based on about 6 million births suggested that average frequency of triplets was 1 in 880 births ( only triplet frequency ) which had declined in 1975-1980 to be 1 in 1700 births. Presenting this work in Rome Conference in 1989 on Twins, I had presented this data causing dismay to many and curiosity to hundreds. As a possible explanation, I had expressed hormonal imbalance influenced by fear, anxiety, socially prevalent long term tension to be responsible for increased tendency of ovulation among women inhabiting this area. A very strong support to this hypothesis was cited from the published results of twinning in Europe during and after the first world war and more extensive data during and after the Second World war. The German and central European territory revealed maximum twinning rates during war-period decade which declined in late fifties. What a grand biological phenomenon to compensate the loss of human lives !!
( 3 ) Over medication is the pseudo outlet of insecurity
A species under great biological stress reproduces faster than, under reluctance.
Twinning is also known to be influenced by drug abuse, extra dosage of oral contraceptives and too much alcohol or other addictions. These all are under a
physiological monitoring principle of three ranges, minimum, optimum and maximum. Not all individuals respond exactly in the same way, even twins are like “two peas in a pod”, so we can never assign any one causative factor for any biological phenomenon.
This is a dogmatic truth that there is nothing which can be taken “final” in biology. But still we try to offer explanation and on matters such as the present one, collecting population data ( epidemiological study ) and using statistical comparisons with many relevant studies are very reliably applications.
A very unfortunate biological problem is regarding congenital malformations which are directly correlated with over medication, drug abuse and newer addictions ( not all congenital malformations are hereditary in nature ) The most famous example is the thalidomide tragedy in Germany. During 1940s the women used extra dosage of sleeping drugs which included this organic compound, thalidomide.
Based on chromosome studies on plant cells under the influence of the chemical thalidomide, then, extending it to epidemiological studies and also subjecting it to tissue culture observations, biologists came out with recommendations to ban thalidomide dependent drugs. This also revealed for the first time that drugs in molecular forms are not detained by placental barriers and can harm the developing embryo. Pregnant women are very much prone to such hazards !!
Scientifically also, as we pronounce ethically, motherhood is the greatest virtue of being a woman and a mother.
Lack of Sociability
We have made extensive studies on twins and twinning from different parts of the country ( now, more than 14 million births ) during 1964-2004, keeping in view the ecological variables and marriage patterns ( because, marrying with in the family, as in practice in many communities in India, brings common genes among their children ). There are many instances that I intervened in some marriages of muslim families in Bhopal and tried to convince both parties of possible dangers of genic combinations. I did so because they had asked my advice as a scientist, so how can I be unfair to them. Duty as a biologist always demands truthful discussion with any one, and oily tongue can please the persons but not serve the science.
These all honest approaches in a society can sustain longevity only when there is a mutual trust; now in modern progress we face the greatest scarcity of mutual faith.
The great Shakspeare wrote “ who is to be trusted in this world when one’s own right hand is opposite to the bossom”. We are experiencing every where only distrust because we feel insecure. What for??
(
In my book on “BIOLOGY OF HUMAN BEHAVIOUR” ( unpublished) I have mentioned “violence” to be a natural, original and universal instinct in biological systems. Insecure-society facilitates expression of violence, non-violence is suppression of egos, which has a minimal occupancy in a perturbed atmosphere. No one likes suppression of desires; even, no one wants to take heed of precautions.
This is a very surprising fact in behavioural biology that the factors which enhance distress can be associated with twinning as well as result in increment of abortion rates in human population. There are more than dozen biological and non biological factors for causing recurrent abortions and too early termination of pregnancies ( just in 4-6 weeks of gestation; before noticing pregnancy) but among environmental factors, induced long term social unrest is one of the well known parameters. Natural disasters and calamities have their own way of destruction. Struggle for survival as a species always goes on in the biological scenario.
What we ought to do is to make our demands having some end, egos need to be fenced by our sense of duties. Very honestly, our country shall never be able to get back to real Indian values of tolerance, acceptability of knowledge and mutual faith with respect. This is now impossible rather than difficult to revert back !!
Is this pessimism ? no, not at all. The time lost can never be regained, gone – age can be replayed on a stage or drama not in real life, damage on humanity goes in the space of time ! Best examples are from Indian history dating back to 3000B.C.
Lord Rama, could never live happily after Sita’s “uncalled for” exile. The great Karm Yogi, Krishna ultimately tells the true strength of “Time” Arjuna was convinced to do his job, Duryodhan did his job and above all Bhisma and Dhrithrastra were understood to continue to their jobs despite the fact that everyone was becoming aware of drastic consequences. I often feel amazed at the deeper extent of hatred in Dhrithrastra’s mind that he wanted to crush and mutilate Bhimsen even when he had lost each and every son, his empire and the total purpose of his life. Frustration or “hatred in finite” or both, inseparable ! The lust of power and hunger of revenge are immortal, these never die, they breed truly in masses for several social generations.
Hurt remnants of hatred transform their beliefs in ethos of their isolated religion. Human mind is the most evil mind in the biological world. So we will always have wars, man made disasters and self aimed destructions.
Hit Kishore Goswami
Bhopal, India
ENDANGERED WORLD – CITIZENSHIP
By
HIT KISHORE GOSWAMI
Retired Professor of Genetics , Barkatullah University,
24, kaushalnagar, Via Misrod, Bhopal (MP)
( Res: Phone: 91-755-2417156 )
We the world citizens are breathing in a very much insecure society with the increasing dimensions of newer techniques of creating nuisance, terror and ever increasing distrust among citizens world over. Bombs in the bus, train, cinema theatre, open market areas, aero planes and also lying on the garbage tins are only few exhibits of a few peoples’ hatred towards the progressive nations; innocent lives are becoming items of rampage. These inhuman acts are the outcome of free breeding corruption of excessively selfish, narrowly greedy and anti social persons widely distributed throughout the globe. Our irresponsible political leadership has fathered and faithfully nurtured these values for quite sometime, well above four decades. Even In India, we are now only preachers of peace but have always supported criminals and masked their inhuman acts as part and parcel of democracy. We were theoretically known as symbols of tolerance but as a national character now, we display complaints and dissatisfaction on every issue; we are said to believe in “forget and forgive”, but our instinct of taking revenge never calms down. This dualism of Indian practices has been most vividly viable for more than Fifty years; though said to be prevalent in all periods of human civilization. And this dualism or even pluralism of split personalities is rampant world over among all politicians, everywhere thus a common man is becoming an easy victim. This is principally on account of ever increasing economy at any and every cost and this global feature is the motive dogma of modern progress. To be honest in approach, economic progress is friendly to ethical values only in the beginning but soon becomes a bookish conjecture.
The new format of the society is non palatable to millions of simple, honest and humble citizens who believe in brotherhood, love to all human beings and duty as the foremost human religion: those who believe in second religion is an option of thoughts and way of life !!. I have counted heart beats of such people spread world over by way of personal talk, involving and sharing mutual respect.
Exhibition of hatred in the form of terrorism is the latest edition of quelling human values, feelings and ambitions of being a human being. Variable techniques of generating terror are continuously questioning our technological progress dependent-perversions. And the bitter truth is that we can never achieve perfect, clean and honest society. Not because such a society never existed anywhere but because, biologically, this is improbable, impossible and definitely imaginative. Perverts are always born, socially transformed /made, nurtured, and have always been “domesticated” by power.
I intend to enlighten on all these points on the basis of my own studies accumulated as by products of my principal focus in areas of Genetics, focusing principally on reproduction, survival strategies and adaptive behavior in plants and animals including humans dispersed in many countries. Studies conducted during last fifty years suggest that humans are more amenable, susceptible and also most adaptive.
First of all, I concentrate on impact of social turmoil on biological aspects of human behaviour and reproductive performance.
( 1 ) Prevalence of Excessive Social stress
There are many problems existing in our society which have become synonym with the region; the one I had known about was, or rather has been, the “Dacoit problem”. A dacoit word was first heard on All India Radio in 1955 which we remember “ Daku Mansingh mara gaya”; I was a student of 10th class and my father was then posted at Nowgong ( Chhatarpur ) as a Magistrate. During teen age we came across many instances and the drama popularly played on stages about “Sultana Daku” was an item of festive recreation in Northern India for several decades. Stories of both terrorizing and social services were commonly heard and people had labeled “ Good Daku” and bad/ cruel Daku” ( outlaws ) in the Bundelkhand region mostly in the belt extending around Chambal river and further going ahead to the villages around Jaulon in Uttar Pradesh. Dacoits have laid an inbuilt terror among masses and I remember that whenever I visited my relatives in Jaulon area during 1950s-1960s every one cautioned that I must return home by sun set and at any rate, I must never be alone. I always have had desire to go to natural forests, river beds and explore unseen places but was often loaded by a very unnatural tension. Further to this, we always heard some or the other news of killings, kidnappings in a nearby area thus giving enough support to my temporary care takers. The worst was that a gun man went with me in early morning for a walk . The story does not stop here , there are several pouring instances coming to mind but a relevant one is more important.
You need Police Protection for your normal duty:
Even as a lecturer in Botany at Government science college Gwalior, I use to request for a police guard to accompany our M.Sc.boys and girls and the guard were lifted in our hired government bus to the forest area around Tigrha dam , sometime on Shivpuri road ( 1967-1973) and we also took help of Ghatigaon Police station. In every walk of life we have people who live with joy and enjoy their duties, crack jokes, make people laugh and keep a congenial environ. I remember a few policemen who went many times with me and one of them once remarked “Goswami saab you have been self centred in your studies but never cared for us; you have collected dozens of plants but we could not collect a single daku in this area, help us in collection.” I gave him an advice, go in civil dress like a student, collect plants, learn few technical things and be of course armed by pistols etc in a botanical tool box , you never know it may work !.
One may not believe, I showed them signs of their (? dakus’) earlier presence. They “always” leave signs by unnatural placement of twigs, branches which no shepherd
would do that way, nor even a villager and by these non monitored code the dacoits send cautions/ messages to their colleagues. This was my conjecture !!
An Hypothesis:
These are some of the instances which installed a “faith” in my approaches of the problem that a society under permanent stress must have, in greater majority of people, an instinct of insecurity. Insecurity, suspicion under stress cause the pituitary gland excitement thereby secreting more hormones than needed. We talk of bravery but the moment we see a snake in the vicinity, eyes alarm message to the brain which is translated and within a small fraction of second pituitary functions, we have involuntary rise in blood pressure, fear becomes operative and voice becomes shaky. Human physiological responses are so interdependent on neurological responses and are so sensitive that fraction of a second can change the whole personality. In our old Indian Vedic literature we rate control of Anger, Fear, and Greed as testaments of a noble soul.
So, obviously, the society with percolated insecurity causing behavioural tension must be having visible impacts on human reproductive performances at the population levels; this hypothesis was tested on the hospital data collected from the records of maternity centers, primary health centers and hospitals in Gwalior region. The birth statistics from 1950-to1995 gave very alarming results. Also, we conducted family surveys mainly with the help of female students studying post graduate courses at our and many other University centers who offered help for this, apparently secretive but, otherwise very important work. This is worth mentioning here that these investigations were compared with very many kinds of population samples ( In biological context, we call a population sample constituting a breeding group, which in India varies with the caste system, sometimes also differing in languages; non tribals, tribals, communities living at high altitudes, sea shore area dwellers in south and also on moving chariots of Rajasthan) A very patient personalized project accumulated data, generated from MP ( with Cgarh ) Bihar( old), Himachal, Punjab, Srinagar, Andhra Pradesh and some sporadic samples has turned out to be a very genuine consolidated information, some of which have already been published in national and International Journals.
Twinning is influenced
A mother gives birth to more than one child with a difference of a few minutes to few hours. The phenomenon is known is “ Twinning’’ which ordinarily includes birth of triplets, quadruplets and more. Every population has a range of say 8 to 15 per thousand twin frequency ( means that out of 1000 births there are 8 or more twin births which also includes multiple births ). Scientifically, we want to know how many triplets and multiple births have taken place in a population, and these are very well recorded in each village. Twinning never goes unrecorded because this is, as ever, a matter of social curiosity, worry and tension of the mother and attending persons on the health of both, the new born and the mother. Taken as a whole proportion of twin births in one year in one area, and comparing another population in the same way, doing this for many years makes a difference. Biologically, we derive many inferences and offer very valuable comments on the intra and inter population differences and impact of environmental hazards. My studies published during 1970 and thereafter opined for the first time the role of age of mothers, their genetic background, which was upheld by Scandanavian workers. Twinning by and large is dependent on heredity, mother’s predisposition to environmental factors as well as her higher age ( mothers conceiving at 35 and more have great chances for a twin maternity ).This was intriguing that frequency of triplets in particular, showed rise in Morena-Gwalior belt during 1960- 1975 which alarmingly declined during 1975-1980. Our total data based on about 6 million births suggested that average frequency of triplets was 1 in 880 births ( only triplet frequency ) which had declined in 1975-1980 to be 1 in 1700 births. Presenting this work in Rome Conference in 1989 on Twins, I had presented this data causing dismay to many and curiosity to hundreds. As a possible explanation, I had expressed hormonal imbalance influenced by fear, anxiety, socially prevalent long term tension to be responsible for increased tendency of ovulation among women inhabiting this area. A very strong support to this hypothesis was cited from the published results of twinning in Europe during and after the first world war and more extensive data during and after the Second World war. The German and central European territory revealed maximum twinning rates during war-period decade which declined in late fifties. What a grand biological phenomenon to compensate the loss of human lives !!
( 3 ) Over medication is the pseudo outlet of insecurity
A species under great biological stress reproduces faster than, under reluctance.
Twinning is also known to be influenced by drug abuse, extra dosage of oral contraceptives and too much alcohol or other addictions. These all are under a
physiological monitoring principle of three ranges, minimum, optimum and maximum. Not all individuals respond exactly in the same way, even twins are like “two peas in a pod”, so we can never assign any one causative factor for any biological phenomenon.
This is a dogmatic truth that there is nothing which can be taken “final” in biology. But still we try to offer explanation and on matters such as the present one, collecting population data ( epidemiological study ) and using statistical comparisons with many relevant studies are very reliably applications.
A very unfortunate biological problem is regarding congenital malformations which are directly correlated with over medication, drug abuse and newer addictions ( not all congenital malformations are hereditary in nature ) The most famous example is the thalidomide tragedy in Germany. During 1940s the women used extra dosage of sleeping drugs which included this organic compound, thalidomide.
Based on chromosome studies on plant cells under the influence of the chemical thalidomide, then, extending it to epidemiological studies and also subjecting it to tissue culture observations, biologists came out with recommendations to ban thalidomide dependent drugs. This also revealed for the first time that drugs in molecular forms are not detained by placental barriers and can harm the developing embryo. Pregnant women are very much prone to such hazards !!
Scientifically also, as we pronounce ethically, motherhood is the greatest virtue of being a woman and a mother.
Lack of Sociability
We have made extensive studies on twins and twinning from different parts of the country ( now, more than 14 million births ) during 1964-2004, keeping in view the ecological variables and marriage patterns ( because, marrying with in the family, as in practice in many communities in India, brings common genes among their children ). There are many instances that I intervened in some marriages of muslim families in Bhopal and tried to convince both parties of possible dangers of genic combinations. I did so because they had asked my advice as a scientist, so how can I be unfair to them. Duty as a biologist always demands truthful discussion with any one, and oily tongue can please the persons but not serve the science.
These all honest approaches in a society can sustain longevity only when there is a mutual trust; now in modern progress we face the greatest scarcity of mutual faith.
The great Shakspeare wrote “ who is to be trusted in this world when one’s own right hand is opposite to the bossom”. We are experiencing every where only distrust because we feel insecure. What for??
(
In my book on “BIOLOGY OF HUMAN BEHAVIOUR” ( unpublished) I have mentioned “violence” to be a natural, original and universal instinct in biological systems. Insecure-society facilitates expression of violence, non-violence is suppression of egos, which has a minimal occupancy in a perturbed atmosphere. No one likes suppression of desires; even, no one wants to take heed of precautions.
This is a very surprising fact in behavioural biology that the factors which enhance distress can be associated with twinning as well as result in increment of abortion rates in human population. There are more than dozen biological and non biological factors for causing recurrent abortions and too early termination of pregnancies ( just in 4-6 weeks of gestation; before noticing pregnancy) but among environmental factors, induced long term social unrest is one of the well known parameters. Natural disasters and calamities have their own way of destruction. Struggle for survival as a species always goes on in the biological scenario.
What we ought to do is to make our demands having some end, egos need to be fenced by our sense of duties. Very honestly, our country shall never be able to get back to real Indian values of tolerance, acceptability of knowledge and mutual faith with respect. This is now impossible rather than difficult to revert back !!
Is this pessimism ? no, not at all. The time lost can never be regained, gone – age can be replayed on a stage or drama not in real life, damage on humanity goes in the space of time ! Best examples are from Indian history dating back to 3000B.C.
Lord Rama, could never live happily after Sita’s “uncalled for” exile. The great Karm Yogi, Krishna ultimately tells the true strength of “Time” Arjuna was convinced to do his job, Duryodhan did his job and above all Bhisma and Dhrithrastra were understood to continue to their jobs despite the fact that everyone was becoming aware of drastic consequences. I often feel amazed at the deeper extent of hatred in Dhrithrastra’s mind that he wanted to crush and mutilate Bhimsen even when he had lost each and every son, his empire and the total purpose of his life. Frustration or “hatred in finite” or both, inseparable ! The lust of power and hunger of revenge are immortal, these never die, they breed truly in masses for several social generations.
Hurt remnants of hatred transform their beliefs in ethos of their isolated religion. Human mind is the most evil mind in the biological world. So we will always have wars, man made disasters and self aimed destructions.
Hit Kishore Goswami
Bhopal, India
Kansieo.com
Posted on May 30, 2009 - by Vic Desotelle
How to Organize Courses on Social Bioethics – an Artur Victoria Proposal
Artur Victoria asked:
By way of introduction, for an organization to come to grips with the task of strategically implementing reform in integrity and ethics, its people need to be knowledgeable about a whole range of issues to enable them to clearly understand the motivations, requirements, their various roles in implementation and how to work together for the larger purpose.
So the topics identified as important to date, in roughly the right order I think, are as
follows:
1.
2. Introduction to Organizational Ethics and Integrity
3. Organizational Analysis
4. Awareness Raising, Education & Training
5. Codes of Ethics (Conduct, Practice, Behaviour)
6. Ethical Decision Making
7. Mechanisms for Ethics Advice and Support.
8. Risk Assessment Strategies
9. Information, Data Collection & Records
10. Professional Ethics:
II. Leading with Integrity
12. Corporate Social Responsibility:
13. Future Perspectives
Assumptions:
An organization has had little or no prior exposure to institutionalizing ethics and integrity into its culture or operations. Obviously, in most cases that many would have some limited exposure, while possibly not having any actual systems in place, and might therefore at least be aware of some of the issues.
If so, it might be reasonable to expect that these issues are possibly already being dealt with in some ways by a set of entrenched values (“good” or “bad”, written or unwritten) within their
organizations.
Approach:
This particular segment of any course(s) that is developed would be of assistance in any organization. This would be by way of enabling and empowering its people to appreciate the complexities and the wide range of possible sub-strategies involved in implementing an integrity regime (ethics strategy. It includes the main things that I can think ofthat would be part ofthe process and assumes that nothing at all has been done previously. In practice one hopes that there may be a somewhat better basis than that, in some places anyway.
Topics and Content
A proposed logical order of progression, which could be dealt with at different levels of complexity and details, depending upon the need and the audience. For example, if one had only a few hours available on this in a course, a broad-brush look at important issues in strategic implementation would be feasible, although probably not terribly useful to my mind, by covering all of the topics in an overview presentation/workshop. More likely the approach would be to break these topics down, to the extent possible given time constraints with any training course etc. also allows the various “modules” to be flexible, such that users could choose to select all of the topics or could cherry-pick only those which they specifically needed at any point in time.
Users may then come back for more later.
The content under each topic has the better web-based information sources.
That includes: Organizational Ethics, Corporate Governance and Business Ethics, Leadership and Team/Self Development and to a lesser extent Public Sector Management and various courses in Human Resource Management.
Readings & References
At this point I have only given a broad general reference list. This is because many, if not most, of the good books now available cover a number of the topics. Neither list supports to be complete, but they do cover many good general sources. At the later stage of final design and delivery, specific chapters and or journal articles and/or professional articles would be recommended on sub-topics, depending upon the specific needs and/or interests of
the course participants.
This might perhaps be in the form of a prepared book of readings appropriate for the specific audience. In places I have shown sources of some ideas, but most are not from single sources but an amalgam of content from wide ranging sources.
Introduction to Organizational Bioethics and Integrity
This would present a broad introduction to the challenges and the need to build a proper implementation strategy. It would present the meaning and focus of Organisational Ethics and Integrity in respect of the organisations themselves, the individuals who work in them and the societies in which they operate.
Some mention of theories would be included, such as the philosophical and moral foundations of ethics and integrity, values, organisational corporate responsibility, personal morality etc., to provide a foundation of knowledge. However, this would be kept to the minimum possible, consistent with providing an effective enough grounding upon which to build. The emphasis on Strategic Implementation would always be based upon a “best practice approach” – what actually works in practice.
Likely content would include:
Broad terminology and concepts:
How people focus on morally challenging dilemmas and make ethical decisions about their Actions Ethical theories: Consequentialist (teleology, egoism, utilitarianism etc.), ethical relativism, virtue ethics, moral development (Kohlberg et al).
Values and ethics
Ethical decision-making: EDM models, normative judgements, distributive justice, excusing conditions, mitigating circumstances etc.
Essential Issues in Organizational Bioethics
Establishing the fundamental values of the organisation
Defining broad principles which emanate from these values
Developing standards which will guide employees in upholding these values and principles
Establishing specific guidelines for employee behaviour
Ensuring compliance: through rewards and sanctions
Reasons for the increasing global interest in Organisational Ethics
Increased concern over corporate violations and scepticism about corporate rhetoric
Growing public demand for corporate accountability
Strengthened roles of various watchdog organisations
Numerous Public Enquiries, Royal Commissions, Senate Enquiries etc……
Leadership under fire in most sectors
Global competition “win at all costs” mentality
Diminishing organizational loyalty
Increasingly complex decisions
Competing demands from multiple stakeholders
More sophisticated workforce
Movement to “empower” employees
Emphasis on: excellence, quality, continuous improvement
Less teaching of values: in schools, families, churches etc……
Growing diversity in the workplace, differing value systems
Emphasis in society or “rights”
Legislation: equity, environmental protection, OH&S etc.
Demand for information on how control is being managed
What “best practice” organizations can do and are doing
Going back to basics, revisiting mission statements, vision, values, principles (the “Why
are we here ?!” questions)
Developing or enhancing Codes of Ethics I Practice I Conduct
Public and private sectors are addressing awareness raising, education and training
strategies for employees (eg: orientation, management programs, special purpose training)
Revisiting control mechanisms such as auditing, checks and balances
Reinforcing fraud and corruption prevention controls
Governments are passing laws and more closely addressing public sector management
Educationalists and academics are exploring and revisiting theories, concepts, actions,
outcomes etc., in ethics
Universities and Business Schools are including Business Ethics in their study programs
Some current and emerging issues in Organizational Bioethics & Integrity
(Some of these are arguably outside our loop. but they are contextual to understanding the
complexities and inter-relatedness of global issues)
International Corruption: strategies for dealing with this, in particular at the organizational
level.
Conflicts of Interest in all its form as a major challenge in almost every quarter
Integrity in international business and dealing with cross-cultural issues.
National and international litigation; individual and class actions.
Care Ethics: Caring for employees in difficult times – responsibilities towards employees,
customers, society at large and between employees.
Global markets and globalization and the need for greater international and inter-cultural
awareness and sensitivity.
Ethics and the Media: Reactions to the major transgressions: invasions of privacy, libel,
excessive investigatory actions, political influence.
Bioethics: Issues such as euthanasia, birth control, fertility drugs, steroids in sport, genetic
engineering, and the demise of public health systems.
Integrity in International Business: reactions to damaging corporate and political scandals,
to world political changes generally and combating global corruption.
Environmental Ethics: Greater realization of the enormous damage being done in the nameof “progress”.
Ecommerce, EGoverment: The dramatic changes, currently underway and accelerating,
brought about by the “Information Highway”. These changes are rendering our familiar
notions of national and international commerce, trade, the marketplace etc. completely outmoded and many traditional governance arrangements totally ineffective.
Whistle blowing: how to facilitate it where necessary and how to protect the whistleblowers
The protection of the environmental and the many organizational challenges emanating from this requirement.
Sources of the future broad societal challenges likely to affect organizations
Changing economic conditions
People or Profit
Rapid technological change
The end of privacy
Changing social values
Multicultural Societies
Endemic unemployment I underemployment
Development of an underclass
The end of organizational loyalty
Increasing ecological I environmental pressures
Bioethics (genetics, pandemics, survival etc.)
Population growth and massive shifts
Workforce diversity
Dominant corporate power and wealth
Demise of the public sector
Politics: national and international – demands for better leaders, with integrity
“Global Ethics” (a better world)
The message her is how the individual organisation can take action to stay ahead of the game
as these impacts emerge.
What organizations and their leaders need to do
Regularly revisit your “Credo”
Instill Credo and values in every employee – reject employees who cannot comply
Provide strong ethical leadership, especially CEO
Stay ahead of community standards
Strive for diversity in the makeup of your organization
Clearly state your “Vision” and gain employee ownership of it
Develop a Code of Ethics based on your Credo, Vision and Shared Values
Establish an Ethics Committee which pre- considers new ventures, examines cases and
activities, to guide future actions
Establish an Ethics “Hotline” to take suggestions and enquiries from stakeholders
Balance concern for people and profit – based on wider social issues
Educate before the need arises, not as a response to dilemmas
Create a video blog
By way of introduction, for an organization to come to grips with the task of strategically implementing reform in integrity and ethics, its people need to be knowledgeable about a whole range of issues to enable them to clearly understand the motivations, requirements, their various roles in implementation and how to work together for the larger purpose.
So the topics identified as important to date, in roughly the right order I think, are as
follows:
1.
2. Introduction to Organizational Ethics and Integrity
3. Organizational Analysis
4. Awareness Raising, Education & Training
5. Codes of Ethics (Conduct, Practice, Behaviour)
6. Ethical Decision Making
7. Mechanisms for Ethics Advice and Support.
8. Risk Assessment Strategies
9. Information, Data Collection & Records
10. Professional Ethics:
II. Leading with Integrity
12. Corporate Social Responsibility:
13. Future Perspectives
Assumptions:
An organization has had little or no prior exposure to institutionalizing ethics and integrity into its culture or operations. Obviously, in most cases that many would have some limited exposure, while possibly not having any actual systems in place, and might therefore at least be aware of some of the issues.
If so, it might be reasonable to expect that these issues are possibly already being dealt with in some ways by a set of entrenched values (“good” or “bad”, written or unwritten) within their
organizations.
Approach:
This particular segment of any course(s) that is developed would be of assistance in any organization. This would be by way of enabling and empowering its people to appreciate the complexities and the wide range of possible sub-strategies involved in implementing an integrity regime (ethics strategy. It includes the main things that I can think ofthat would be part ofthe process and assumes that nothing at all has been done previously. In practice one hopes that there may be a somewhat better basis than that, in some places anyway.
Topics and Content
A proposed logical order of progression, which could be dealt with at different levels of complexity and details, depending upon the need and the audience. For example, if one had only a few hours available on this in a course, a broad-brush look at important issues in strategic implementation would be feasible, although probably not terribly useful to my mind, by covering all of the topics in an overview presentation/workshop. More likely the approach would be to break these topics down, to the extent possible given time constraints with any training course etc. also allows the various “modules” to be flexible, such that users could choose to select all of the topics or could cherry-pick only those which they specifically needed at any point in time.
Users may then come back for more later.
The content under each topic has the better web-based information sources.
That includes: Organizational Ethics, Corporate Governance and Business Ethics, Leadership and Team/Self Development and to a lesser extent Public Sector Management and various courses in Human Resource Management.
Readings & References
At this point I have only given a broad general reference list. This is because many, if not most, of the good books now available cover a number of the topics. Neither list supports to be complete, but they do cover many good general sources. At the later stage of final design and delivery, specific chapters and or journal articles and/or professional articles would be recommended on sub-topics, depending upon the specific needs and/or interests of
the course participants.
This might perhaps be in the form of a prepared book of readings appropriate for the specific audience. In places I have shown sources of some ideas, but most are not from single sources but an amalgam of content from wide ranging sources.
Introduction to Organizational Bioethics and Integrity
This would present a broad introduction to the challenges and the need to build a proper implementation strategy. It would present the meaning and focus of Organisational Ethics and Integrity in respect of the organisations themselves, the individuals who work in them and the societies in which they operate.
Some mention of theories would be included, such as the philosophical and moral foundations of ethics and integrity, values, organisational corporate responsibility, personal morality etc., to provide a foundation of knowledge. However, this would be kept to the minimum possible, consistent with providing an effective enough grounding upon which to build. The emphasis on Strategic Implementation would always be based upon a “best practice approach” – what actually works in practice.
Likely content would include:
Broad terminology and concepts:
How people focus on morally challenging dilemmas and make ethical decisions about their Actions Ethical theories: Consequentialist (teleology, egoism, utilitarianism etc.), ethical relativism, virtue ethics, moral development (Kohlberg et al).
Values and ethics
Ethical decision-making: EDM models, normative judgements, distributive justice, excusing conditions, mitigating circumstances etc.
Essential Issues in Organizational Bioethics
Establishing the fundamental values of the organisation
Defining broad principles which emanate from these values
Developing standards which will guide employees in upholding these values and principles
Establishing specific guidelines for employee behaviour
Ensuring compliance: through rewards and sanctions
Reasons for the increasing global interest in Organisational Ethics
Increased concern over corporate violations and scepticism about corporate rhetoric
Growing public demand for corporate accountability
Strengthened roles of various watchdog organisations
Numerous Public Enquiries, Royal Commissions, Senate Enquiries etc……
Leadership under fire in most sectors
Global competition “win at all costs” mentality
Diminishing organizational loyalty
Increasingly complex decisions
Competing demands from multiple stakeholders
More sophisticated workforce
Movement to “empower” employees
Emphasis on: excellence, quality, continuous improvement
Less teaching of values: in schools, families, churches etc……
Growing diversity in the workplace, differing value systems
Emphasis in society or “rights”
Legislation: equity, environmental protection, OH&S etc.
Demand for information on how control is being managed
What “best practice” organizations can do and are doing
Going back to basics, revisiting mission statements, vision, values, principles (the “Why
are we here ?!” questions)
Developing or enhancing Codes of Ethics I Practice I Conduct
Public and private sectors are addressing awareness raising, education and training
strategies for employees (eg: orientation, management programs, special purpose training)
Revisiting control mechanisms such as auditing, checks and balances
Reinforcing fraud and corruption prevention controls
Governments are passing laws and more closely addressing public sector management
Educationalists and academics are exploring and revisiting theories, concepts, actions,
outcomes etc., in ethics
Universities and Business Schools are including Business Ethics in their study programs
Some current and emerging issues in Organizational Bioethics & Integrity
(Some of these are arguably outside our loop. but they are contextual to understanding the
complexities and inter-relatedness of global issues)
International Corruption: strategies for dealing with this, in particular at the organizational
level.
Conflicts of Interest in all its form as a major challenge in almost every quarter
Integrity in international business and dealing with cross-cultural issues.
National and international litigation; individual and class actions.
Care Ethics: Caring for employees in difficult times – responsibilities towards employees,
customers, society at large and between employees.
Global markets and globalization and the need for greater international and inter-cultural
awareness and sensitivity.
Ethics and the Media: Reactions to the major transgressions: invasions of privacy, libel,
excessive investigatory actions, political influence.
Bioethics: Issues such as euthanasia, birth control, fertility drugs, steroids in sport, genetic
engineering, and the demise of public health systems.
Integrity in International Business: reactions to damaging corporate and political scandals,
to world political changes generally and combating global corruption.
Environmental Ethics: Greater realization of the enormous damage being done in the nameof “progress”.
Ecommerce, EGoverment: The dramatic changes, currently underway and accelerating,
brought about by the “Information Highway”. These changes are rendering our familiar
notions of national and international commerce, trade, the marketplace etc. completely outmoded and many traditional governance arrangements totally ineffective.
Whistle blowing: how to facilitate it where necessary and how to protect the whistleblowers
The protection of the environmental and the many organizational challenges emanating from this requirement.
Sources of the future broad societal challenges likely to affect organizations
Changing economic conditions
People or Profit
Rapid technological change
The end of privacy
Changing social values
Multicultural Societies
Endemic unemployment I underemployment
Development of an underclass
The end of organizational loyalty
Increasing ecological I environmental pressures
Bioethics (genetics, pandemics, survival etc.)
Population growth and massive shifts
Workforce diversity
Dominant corporate power and wealth
Demise of the public sector
Politics: national and international – demands for better leaders, with integrity
“Global Ethics” (a better world)
The message her is how the individual organisation can take action to stay ahead of the game
as these impacts emerge.
What organizations and their leaders need to do
Regularly revisit your “Credo”
Instill Credo and values in every employee – reject employees who cannot comply
Provide strong ethical leadership, especially CEO
Stay ahead of community standards
Strive for diversity in the makeup of your organization
Clearly state your “Vision” and gain employee ownership of it
Develop a Code of Ethics based on your Credo, Vision and Shared Values
Establish an Ethics Committee which pre- considers new ventures, examines cases and
activities, to guide future actions
Establish an Ethics “Hotline” to take suggestions and enquiries from stakeholders
Balance concern for people and profit – based on wider social issues
Educate before the need arises, not as a response to dilemmas
Create a video blog
Posted on May 30, 2009 - by Vic Desotelle
Leaders vs Managers: Adaptive Leaders Pursue Change; Old Style Managers Cling To The Past
Stan Truskie, Ph.D. asked:
Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates recently criticized the US military for not doing enough to support soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan, singling out the Air Force for adapting too slowly to the new enemies on those battlefields. He blamed military leaders who are “stuck in old ways of doing business”. That may sound strange to hear coming from a senior government official who knows full well that the military is steeped in the tradition of command and control leadership that creates a top-down management style and fosters orderliness and predictability, rather than innovation and adaptability.
But in a world of chaos and ever changing conditions, Mr. Gates realizes that the ability to change and adapt is key to military success: What worked well in the past may now be an outmoded and ineffective approach.
Mr. Gates is pointing out a truism that US business organizations of all types and sizes have witnessed and/or experienced during the past 75 plus years: Unadaptive organizations underperform and/or fail in the long run. Companies like Sears & Roebuck, K-Mart, Pam Am, Howard Johnsons, Armour & Company, Westinghouse Electric are examples of businesses which were once at the top of their industrial sectors only to be toppled by competitors who looked into the future, adapted and out performed them. And the way their competitors did it was with adaptive leaders, not top-down managers.
So what’s the difference between the two?
Consider top-down managers first. These managers, for the most part, are predominantly linear thinkers. Linear thinkers are rational, logical and analytical. They are mainly concerned with the present, not the future. They tend to stick with things that have worked well in the past as opposed to experimenting with the unfamiliar.
They are very organized individuals who value orderliness and predictability. They favor rules and procedures to ensure that orders from the top are followed through to the lowest level. Their mentality is that managers think, workers do (as they are told)….an idea generated by the father of management science, Frederick W. Taylor during the early 20th century. This approach worked fine back then, during the early US industrial economy. But today, things are quite different. We are now living and working in a knowledge economy.
If you have ever worked for one of these authoritative managers, you know first hand how autocratic and controlling they can be. Gather a group of these linear thinkers and place them at the top, running the organization, and guess what you get? A very rigid top-down organization that does everything by the rules, creating a bureaucracy that stifles innovation and creativity making it short-sighted, inflexible and unadaptive.
Enlightened, adaptive leaders are much different from top-down managers. They tend to be more non-linear in their thinking. These leaders are more intuitive, have greater insight, and are more creative. Being more conceptual, the see the “big picture”, are futuristic oriented, possess holistic insight and emotional intelligence.
They have greater spontaneity and flexibility-a balanced integration of rational analytical and unconventional imaginative processes. They have the ability to take a new perspective to an old complex problem and reassemble interrelated parts of the problem in novel and unusual ways leading to a viable solution. They are much better at coping with the non linear complex nature of the competitive context of our global business environment.
One would think that most of these adaptive leaders head up the newer hi-tech companies like Apple, Google, Nintendo, Microsoft and Amazon.com. But if you look at the recent list of the top 25 innovative companies recently compiled by BusinessWeek (4/28/2008), you may be surprised to find more traditional companies such as General Electric, Toyota Motor, Hewlett Packard, Wal-Mart, and Proctor & Gamble included on the list with the newer hi-tech companies. These more traditional companies have adaptive leaders who are building cultures that value creative people in good times and bad.
The good news is that managers can change and become more adaptive leaders just as traditional companies can become more innovative. As a corporate executive leadership coach, I have worked with hundreds of managers and executives for the past 20 years and I have witnessed a transformation of many individuals who have changed from top-down managers to adaptive leaders. All thinking and behavior can be changed…it is called learning. Through assessment, self awareness, action learning, and coaching, managers can become more effective and adaptive leaders.
In essence, my experience, research and observations have led me to conclude that the assertion, “Leaders are born, not made,” is a myth.
Kansieo.com
Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates recently criticized the US military for not doing enough to support soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan, singling out the Air Force for adapting too slowly to the new enemies on those battlefields. He blamed military leaders who are “stuck in old ways of doing business”. That may sound strange to hear coming from a senior government official who knows full well that the military is steeped in the tradition of command and control leadership that creates a top-down management style and fosters orderliness and predictability, rather than innovation and adaptability.
But in a world of chaos and ever changing conditions, Mr. Gates realizes that the ability to change and adapt is key to military success: What worked well in the past may now be an outmoded and ineffective approach.
Mr. Gates is pointing out a truism that US business organizations of all types and sizes have witnessed and/or experienced during the past 75 plus years: Unadaptive organizations underperform and/or fail in the long run. Companies like Sears & Roebuck, K-Mart, Pam Am, Howard Johnsons, Armour & Company, Westinghouse Electric are examples of businesses which were once at the top of their industrial sectors only to be toppled by competitors who looked into the future, adapted and out performed them. And the way their competitors did it was with adaptive leaders, not top-down managers.
So what’s the difference between the two?
Consider top-down managers first. These managers, for the most part, are predominantly linear thinkers. Linear thinkers are rational, logical and analytical. They are mainly concerned with the present, not the future. They tend to stick with things that have worked well in the past as opposed to experimenting with the unfamiliar.
They are very organized individuals who value orderliness and predictability. They favor rules and procedures to ensure that orders from the top are followed through to the lowest level. Their mentality is that managers think, workers do (as they are told)….an idea generated by the father of management science, Frederick W. Taylor during the early 20th century. This approach worked fine back then, during the early US industrial economy. But today, things are quite different. We are now living and working in a knowledge economy.
If you have ever worked for one of these authoritative managers, you know first hand how autocratic and controlling they can be. Gather a group of these linear thinkers and place them at the top, running the organization, and guess what you get? A very rigid top-down organization that does everything by the rules, creating a bureaucracy that stifles innovation and creativity making it short-sighted, inflexible and unadaptive.
Enlightened, adaptive leaders are much different from top-down managers. They tend to be more non-linear in their thinking. These leaders are more intuitive, have greater insight, and are more creative. Being more conceptual, the see the “big picture”, are futuristic oriented, possess holistic insight and emotional intelligence.
They have greater spontaneity and flexibility-a balanced integration of rational analytical and unconventional imaginative processes. They have the ability to take a new perspective to an old complex problem and reassemble interrelated parts of the problem in novel and unusual ways leading to a viable solution. They are much better at coping with the non linear complex nature of the competitive context of our global business environment.
One would think that most of these adaptive leaders head up the newer hi-tech companies like Apple, Google, Nintendo, Microsoft and Amazon.com. But if you look at the recent list of the top 25 innovative companies recently compiled by BusinessWeek (4/28/2008), you may be surprised to find more traditional companies such as General Electric, Toyota Motor, Hewlett Packard, Wal-Mart, and Proctor & Gamble included on the list with the newer hi-tech companies. These more traditional companies have adaptive leaders who are building cultures that value creative people in good times and bad.
The good news is that managers can change and become more adaptive leaders just as traditional companies can become more innovative. As a corporate executive leadership coach, I have worked with hundreds of managers and executives for the past 20 years and I have witnessed a transformation of many individuals who have changed from top-down managers to adaptive leaders. All thinking and behavior can be changed…it is called learning. Through assessment, self awareness, action learning, and coaching, managers can become more effective and adaptive leaders.
In essence, my experience, research and observations have led me to conclude that the assertion, “Leaders are born, not made,” is a myth.
Kansieo.com
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Based on a work at VicDesotelle.com.
