Charles Darwin, Social Darwinism, and Imperialism Essay

England went through dramatic changes in the 19th century. English culture, socio-economic structure and politics where largely influenced by the principles of science. Many social expressions occurred due to these changes. Transformations which categorized this time period could be observed in social institutions; for instance: the switch from popular Evangelicalism to atheism, emergence of feminism and the creation of new political ideologies (Liberalism, Conservatism and Radicalism). These are just a few of the changes that took place. All of this social alteration can be attributed to the importance of science. The English people began to trust more in empiricism and logical thought than in faith and glory of the empire .†¦show more content†¦. . the grade of civilisation seems to be a most important element in success in competing nations.quot;(Darwin, Decent of Man, p. 297). In this observation, Darwin connotated superiority to civilized nations. In this same work, he referred to the indigenous people as quot;savages, barbarians and tribal menquot;. This immediately transfers a condescending attitude toward the quot;uncivilised peoplequot;. Darwin classified them as tribes while the English and other Aryan cultures were a race. These claims of basic inequality gave the English the quot;jurisdictionquot; philosophically, to exploit the colonies to a greater level than previously attained. The drive to quot;Christianizequot; the colonies was abandoned, politically. The view shifted from quot;owing the primitive worldquot; education and Christianity, to a more self-interested quot;we English are naturally betterquot;. Therefore, the we should be exploiting you, because, that is why you are here. Charles Darwin had a tremendous amount of influence on the scientific community and the English population. It can be seen that Darwinism played a large part in justifying the imperial behavior of England. Darwins studies on nature and the behavior of animals had unlocked quot;Pandoras Boxquot; in a manner of speaking. He studies reveal how close to nature humanity really is. The English empire quickly saw themselves as a dominant predatorial species ofShow MoreRelatedCharles Darwin, The Most Influential Nineteenth Century Evolutionary Thinker1176 Words   |  5 PagesIn the 19th century, scientific research progressed rapidly outside the world of industry and technology (McKay 744). British scientist, Charles Darwin, was the most influential nineteenth-century evolutionary thinker. Darwin spent his early career, amassing enormous amounts of biological and geological data from his voyage to South America (Fiero 3). In 1859, he published his classic work, The Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, where he summarizes his theory of evolution with the thoughtRead MoreDarwin’s Theory of Natural Selection and Social Darwinism Essay examples569 Words   |  3 Pag esBeagle, a man named Charles Darwin viewed the relationship of plants and animals all over the world. He observed organisms on islands off the coast of South America and those on the mainland. His observations showed that these organisms were related, but not identical. This led Darwin into believing that over time, organisms must adapt to suit their environment. He explained his theories thoroughly in his book, On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection. Darwin decided it was possibleRead MoreCauses Of Social Darwinism1412 Words   |  6 Pages Social Darwinism is a set of ideologies introduced by Herbert Spencer in the nineteenth century. These principles were used by imperialists as a means of justification and proof of their right to colonize land overseas. Social Darwinism is an immoral evil that cannot be ethically justified. To further understand the immorality behind using Social Darwinism and the even greater immorality behind using it as an excuse for overseas expansion, we must understand the origins and foundations of whichRead MoreImperialism of India by Britain Essay571 Words   |  3 PagesImperialism is the domination of one country of the political, economic, or cultural life of another country. Imperialism is more often than not fueled by two major schools of thought known as nationalism and Social Darwinism. Nationalism is a feeling of pride and devotion to one’s country. This can drive a person to think th at their country is the most powerful, and in essence drives that person mad with power and a hunger to conquer, which not ironically is exactly what many countries did. SocialRead MoreCritical Analysis of the Descent of Man by Charles Darwin2552 Words   |  11 PagesIn the essay The Descent Of Man by Charles Darwin excerpted from his book The Origin Of Species (1871), he tries to describe evolution through the natural selection of accumulated favorable variations in an organism that in time form new species within which the fact that man is descended from a lower-organized life form is prescribed to, by giving evidence of similarities of the characters of man which determine embryonic development, bodily structure, sexual selection, cerebral system with thoseRead MoreThe Theory Of Biological Evolution1192 Words   |  5 PagesSocial Darwinism is defined as the application of the theory of biological evolution to human affairs. It was used to justify and clarify many notions of nationalism and imperialism. Science played a huge role in the coming about of this new discovery but in reality, the society shaped the science of what it was about. Charles Darwin was the root of new era and was profound to come up with the theory of evolution. His theory had become one the fundamental unifying principles of modern biology andRead MoreDarwin’s Theory of Natural Selection and Social Darwinism Essay1179 Words   |  5 Pages In 1859, a biologist named Charles Darwin postulated a scientific theory, which stated that all living organisms evolved through a process of natural selection. According to Stephen Hawking, Charles Darwin claimed that the offspring of a particular species gradually evolved themselves genetically to resist the changes in the environment (573). The theory contended that the organisms could adapt to the changes in the environment through the survival of the fittest. Though this theory is regardedRead MoreThe Age Of New Imperialism1944 Words   |  8 PagesThe ‘Age of New Imperialism’ in Britain was a time of prosperity and total domination. Compared to previous years of imperialism, this period was focused primarily on benefitting the colonial power, Britain, instead of establishing new settlements. Even though the British imperialism of the late 19th century/early 20th century brought great wealth, knowledge, and technological advancements to the country, it was at the expense of many ‘other’ people in the empire. Britain, and Europe as a wholeRead MoreThe United States : An Age Of Imperialism1875 Words   |  8 PagesBy late the nineteenth century the world was in an Age of Imperialism. The foremost European powers were all competing and swiftly increasing their territorial claims. Americans have always felt the desire to grow and expand the United States, they ultimately proved that with Manifest Destiny, when they settled from the east to the west coast. The idea of expansion overseas was something not new to the United States. The war against Mexico had allowed the United States to be carried into the PacificRead MoreOn the Origin of Species1846 Words   |  8 PagesIn his On the Origin of Species, written in 1859, Charles Darwin clearly explained the gradual progression toward the speciation of organisms with his five main principles: variation, inheritance, competition, selection, and propagation. Darwin hesitated to pub lish his findings because he understood that his findings were based on the animal kingdom and on an evolutionary process that had to have spanned millennia. He specifically did not think that his discoveries were applicable to the evolution

AAT Organization Functionality and Ambiguous Chain

Question: What are the challenges facing AAT and how should the Administrative Manager resolve these using key management concepts? Answer: The challenges that are facing AAT organization have been fostered by a number of factors. More often than not, when an organization is drowning the people blame the management because it is the driving force of the organization. The case study depicts a number of factors that is making the AAT to exhibit improper functionality and ambiguous chain of command. The first challenge is the organization retention of old employee is very common. Keeping in mind the dynamism that is existing in this error, dealing with old or rather same staff is a challenge. This is as a result of changing and re-designing of the business process which uses intergrated technology that the old staff have little knowledge or skills about. The implication of this is, the employee will not accept the change or will be reluctant to welcome the changes of operation to protect their status quo as depicted in the case study. Besides, the employees will not stoop too low to accept any changes or new administrative roles because they believe they will be embarrassed for being unable to deliver or deal with the current situation. Just to mention, the staff uses outdated means of communication like using Cheques to remit payment and using outdated manual bookkeeping techniques which are apparently things of the past. Probably this is making the staff reluctant to accept the changes being introduced by the new administrative manager. Notably, there is poor job design and distribution of roles. The CEO and the management team are reluctant to draw policies and guidelines that should give direction to AAT staff. The chain of command in AAT is very poor. Such that, the subordinate staff never listens to what the seniors are saying. And this aside, the top management and other managers and team leaders seem to have issues. That is why whenever the top management makes suggestions the departmental managers and team leaders take the ideas for granted but instead they come up with policies which they believe are okay for them from the departmental perspective. This seems to be a great challenge because there is collision of command, there is no specific channel of communication. As a result, there is not coordination between the various staff members. In this case, management has failed to control and exercise power to their capacity. Essentially, the management should handle information, people, giving directions, coor dinating activities, and creating a favorable environment to tame the best out of the employees. Pupion (2012, p.3) emphasizes that it is the role of a manager to be in charge of all these activities; controlling, planning, coordinating, and directing affairs within an organization, business, institution or an urgency Another key challenge is the organization lacks a centralized channel of communication. By this is I mean, the passing of information is a challenge because the organization have not adopted to an integrated system that could enable easy communication within an organization from a centralized database. The outcome for this is that, decision making is slow and there is a lot of time spent collecting information manually or calling meeting instead of adopting system software which could analyze and interpret data for the decision making. It is tiresome to coordinate the activities of a large organization like AAT and this calls for the implementation of a system that can simplify the task. Also, organization is operating with outdated rules and policies which were implemented during the conception of the organization. The organization wants to maintain the old culture and values that can never work in the current business environment. No wonder, the management is reluctant and unwilling to retrench lazy staff members, unskilled, and old employees. The organization culture of AAT has paralyzed many activities in the organization. The beliefs and norms of AAT has derived the organization into a ditch. There is poor interpersonal relationship because people are kind of working independently hence there is no centralized decisions made. Some of the staff are rude and emotional whenever they are corrected because they lack exposure and have not been properly trained to cope and work with different people. The concept of organization behavior has not sunk to their minds. Therefore, such people work sluggishly and they don`t embrace best practice at the work place. ("Organizational Learning and the Learning Organization," n.d., p.35) depicts, organizational learning is explicitly knowing things in the right manner to help us to pursue new challenges in an organization. The idea of system re-engineering and paradigm shift must come to play. Re-engineering entails identifying the points of weakness and closing the loopholes which are causing problems. From the case study, the staff should be willing to accept the change- adopting the new system of integration like a centralized database and offering employees the right training. Paradigm shift comes to play to eliminate those process or employees or are an expensive to an organization. For instance, retrenching or organizing retirements for those people who just sit in office and they are unskilled to handle new machines is the best criteria. Either way, training can be offered to those employees on how to handle the machines to avoid erroneous activities. As such, decision making would be simplified hence efficacy and efficiency will be realized. The human resource department should be up for the task of ensuring proper selection of employee keeping to pick people where they are best suited and meet the selection criteria without bias. The new staff will add ingredient or come up with new skills and ideas which could foster change in the organization hence the AAT would rise up again. Also, the administrative manager should apply the managerial techniques to solve problems within the organization. (Episode 142: Mintzberg's Managerial Roles, n.d.) argue administrative managers are the facilitators of the activities taking place in the organization. Therefore, the managers coach, a coordinator, controller, a referee, conductor, jailor, the final resort or team leader among other metaphors. The CEO of AAT is supposed to get acquainted with the various forms of rules so as to avoid communication blunder in his actions. Introduction. (n.d.) highlights, manager should distinctly classify formal rules, professional rules, standards, informal social rules and legal rules so that he comes out clear whenever making judgement or a decision. Actually, it is not only the manager who should understand these rules but also the stakeholders the whole fraternity of an organization. It is essential because if an organization is a social unit the everybody is required to understand the norms and culture of the organization. References Episode 142: Mintzberg's Managerial Roles [Video file]. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NgkQYRqxKTs Introduction. (n.d.). Making Sense of Management: A Critical Introduction Making sense of management: A critical introduction, 1-8. doi:10.4135/9781446222102.n1 Mintzberg's Management Roles - Management Skills From MindTools.com. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/management-roles.htm Organizational Learning and the Learning Organization. (n.d.). Organizational Knowledge Dynamics: Managing Knowledge Creation, Acquisition, Sharing, and Transformation, 286-312. doi:10.4018/978-1-4666-8318-1.ch012 Pupion,P. (2012). Introduction. Management Avenir, 55(5), 208. doi:10.3917/mav.055.0208