Elie Wiesels Night Essay -- Elie Wiesel Night

Elie Wiesels NightElie Wiesels Night is about what the Holocaust did, not just to the Jews, but, by extension, to humanity. The disturbing snub for human beings, or the human body itself, still to this day, exacerbates fear in the hearts of men and women. The animalistic acts by the Nazis has scarred mankind eternally with iniquity and discrimination.It seems impossible that the examination of ones health, by a doctor, can result in the death of a human being if he appears unhealthy. Elie, his father, and millions of former(a) Jews go through this formidable selection. Its a process that is dreaded and feared by all Jews. Nobody knows who will be selected, and how he will die, as they all line up and wait to see who lives and who doesnt. In a similar fashion, ma...

Government Intervention On The Internet Essay -- essays research paper

Government Intervention on the meshwork     During the last decade, our society has become based on the sole abilityto move large amounts of information across salient distances quickly.Computerization has influenced everyones life in numerous ways. The naturalevolution of computer engineering and this need for ultra-fast communications hascause a global network of interconnected computers to develop. This globalnetwork allows a person to send E-mail across the world in mere fractions of asecond, and allows a common person to access wealths of information worldwide.This newfound global network, originally called Arconet, was developed andfunded solely by and for the U.S. government. It was to be used in the event ofa nuclear attack in order to keep communications lines open across the countryby rerouting information with different servers across the country. Doesthis mean that the government owns the Internet, or is it no longer a toollimited by the powers tha t govern. Generalities such as these have sparkedgreat debates within our nations government. This paper will attempt to focuson two high profile ethical aspects concerning the Internet and its usage.These subjects are Internet privacy and Internet censorship.     At the moment, the Internet is epitome of our first amendment, freespeech. It is a place where a person can speak their mind without beingreprimanded for what they say or how they choose to say it. But also containedon the Internet, are a huge collection of obscene graphics, Anarchistscookbooks, and countless other things that offend many people. at that place are over30 million Internet surfers in the U.S. alone, and much is to be said about whatoffends whom and how.     As with many new technologies, todays laws dont apply rise when itcomes to the Internet. Is the Internet like a bookstore, where servers can notbe expected to review every title? Is it like a phone company who mol diness ignorewhat it carries because of privacy or is it like a broadcast medium, where thegovernment monitors what is broadcast? The problem we are facing today is thatthe Internet can be all or none of the above depending on how it is used.     Internet censorship, what does it mean? Is it possible to censora... ...m for ourminds thoughts will fade away. We must regulate ourselves as not to force thegovernment to regulate us. If encryption is allowed to catch on, there will nolonger be a need for the government to intervene on the Internet, and thebiggest problem may work itself out. As a whole, we all need to rethink ourapproach to censorship and encryption and allow the Internet to continue to recrudesceand mature.Works CitedCompiled Texts. University of Miami. Miami, Florida.http//www.law.miami.edu/c6.html.Lehrer, Dan. "The Secret Shares Clipper Chips and Cyberpunks." The Nation.     Oct. 10, 1994, 376-379.Messmer, Ellen. "F ighting for Justice on the New Frontier." Network World.     CD-ROM database. Jan. 11, 1993.Messmer, Ellen "Policing Cyberspace." U.S. News & World Report.     Jan. 23, 1995, 55-60.Webcrawler Search Results. Webcrawler. Query Internet, censorship, andethics. expose 12, 1997.Zimmerman, Phil. Pretty Good Privacy v2.62, Online. Ftp//net-dist.mit.edu     Directory /pub/pgp/dist/pgp262dc.zip.

College Admissions Essay: Its Time to Make Children a Priority :: College Admissions Essays

Its Time to Make Children a Priority   Much of society judges the relational importance of an occupation by the size of the income or the associated fame. In fact many people judge themselves in the same personal manner. To me, this is a male way of seeing the gentleman. Its all roughly status and mating rights when you get down to it. I am prepared to concede that at some point in humanitys past this was a fair measure of a jobs importance. But in a world that is clearly overpopulated it no longer makes sense to judge solo based upon the propogation of the species.   Our focus should now move to the quality of the next generation rather than its quantity. It is in that locationfore my opinion that the most important job in the world is child raising. Those people that contribute to the healthy mental and physical development of children into adults, are performing a vital service to society. Imagine what the world would be like if children were truly our top priority, as some politicians so glibly pronounce. We are so far from that point that my imagination struggles with this concept.   Why are teachers amongst the worst paid people in western society? Why is it next to impossible to find a good creche? Why are there more laws to protect the rights of criminals than to protect those of us that choose to give up career to tend to home and family? Why is it that the educational standard of high give lessons graduates is dropping faster than gravity should allow?   Now some people will be nodding their heads at this point and saying, Yes, the government should be doing something about this. Well I say, what are YOU doing about it. Take back responsibility for the upbringing of your own children.

Race And Law In Philadelphia :: essays research papers

RACE AND THE LAW IN PHILADELPHIAIf youre ever driving down I-95 through Philadelphia, you will notice an lead for Allegheny Avenue. Allegheny Ave is one of the most dangerous parts of Philly you can drive through. Predominantly black with some Puerto Ricans and a handful of whites, Allegheny is situated between the Delawargon River and abandoned industrial complexes. Windows are kept closed and doors are locked as you drive past bums, drug dealers, scorched abandoned cars, sleazy strip bars, cops and crack heads. You can cloud cocaine and marijuana on almost every side street just by driving down with your window rolled down. Corners with lots of habilitate hanging from a single telephone poll advertise heroin and crack. Once you drive under the L-train, you can amuse yourself by playing the spot-the-prostitute-game. paddy wagons are never parked to far away and cops patrol by, ignoring the misdemeanors around them and just trying to make worthwhile arrests. If you go no more th an 20 minutes west, youll end up in Manyunk, which is directly on the border of Philadelphia, and to residents, is considered part of it. Unlike Allegheny Ave, the main street is littered with import stores, hip chocolate houses, yuppie bars and colorful banners that welcome you to the town. Its a perfect place for happy couples and families to go for shopping, dinning, and entertainment. The surrounding neighborhoods mainly consist of white people who defend grown up in Philadelphia. There are plenty of barking dogs, swing sets and kids who play street hockey with give away a worry besides being position by dinner. The families are mainly blue-collar workers that are able to send their kids to parochial schools. Everyone knows everyone else in the neighborhood and you get the sense that people watch out for each other. Occasionally a cop will patrol by but nothing ever really goes on besides the occasional breakage of the noise curfew. All in all, there isnt a lot of law enforc ement there because there doesnt need to be. Youre probably enquire why these two neighborhoods are different. A lot of different factors come into play but I will attempt to explain it anyway. First, environment emphatically seems to be a big factor in the direction a community will take. Allegheny Ave is pretty much detached from a lot of the city. The schools are seriously over-crowded and are known to be dangerous.

Booker T. Washington and W.E.B. DuBois Common Goal of Equality for Afr

Booker T. capital letter and W.E.B. DuBois Common Goal of Equality for African AmericansThe United States societal system during the nineteenth century was saturated with a legacy of discrimination based upon race. Cultivating a humanitarian approach, progressive intellectuals ushered in an era of societal reconstruction with the intention to sanction primary equalities on the pervasive argument of human race. The experiment poised the United States for rebellion and lasting ramifications. The instantaneous repercussions for both races evolving from the emancipation of African-Americans were plainly state by the daughter of a Georgia planter in the summer of 1865 There are sad changes in store for both races (Nash 469). The long-term ramifications are still in progress. The combination and division of commerce and virtue, north and south, white and black, violence and empathy, and personal and political agendas, created the birth and death of the era of Reconstruction that began during the well-bred War and ended in 1877. However, the period of Reconstruction provided the entry for two African-American men, Booker T Washington and W.E.B. DuBois, to rise to leadership positions while propelling radically opposing ideologies. The two differing ideologies served as anchors in a society adrift. Both races, being tossed about by the storm Reconstruction had unleashed upon society, were compelled to reach-out for the anchors that symbolized the prospect of stability. Washington and DuBois anchors were thrust in different bodies of water, but both mens proclamations existed in currents that surged toward a collective body of water. Washington and DuBoiss positions on the collaboration amongst the races had extreme variations overdue to their... ...re dropped in different bodies of water, the two mens concepts continue today to flow and intertwine into one body of water. The historical era of Reconstruction had a head start and end, but it did open the floodgat e to prosperity for the United States by unleashing the enormous voice and wisdom of two extraordinary men voices that forever changed our societys way of life. plant life Cited* Washington, Booker T. Up From Slavery. The Norton Anthology of American Literature. Nina Baym, General Editor. 6th ed. New York W.W. Norton & Company, 2003. 761. * W.E.B. DuBois. The Norton Anthology of American Literature. Nina Baym, General Editor. 6th ed. New York W.W. Norton & Company, 2003. 876-877 * W.E.B. DuBois. The American People Creating a Nation and a Society. Gary B. Nash And Julie Roy Jeffrey. 4th ed. Brief. New York Longman, 2003. 469,481-82,517.

Booker T. Washington and W.E.B. DuBois Common Goal of Equality for Afr

booking agent T. Washington and W.E.B. DuBois Common Goal of Equality for African AmericansThe United States societal system during the 19th deoxycytidine monophosphate was saturated with a legacy of discrimination based upon race. Cultivating a humanitarian approach, progressive intellectuals ushered in an era of societal reconstruction with the intention to establish primordial equalities on the pervasive argument of human race. The experiment poised the United States for rebellion and lasting ramifications. The instantaneous repercussions for both races evolving from the emancipation of African-Americans were plainly stated by the daughter of a Georgia planter in the summer of 1865 There are sad changes in store for both races (Nash 469). The long-term ramifications are stable in progress. The combination and division of commerce and virtue, north and south, white and black, violence and empathy, and personal and political agendas, created the birth and death of the era of Reco nstruction that began during the Civil state of war and ended in 1877. However, the period of Reconstruction provided the entry for two African-American men, Booker T Washington and W.E.B. DuBois, to rise to leadership positions while propelling radically opposing ideologies. The two differing ideologies served as anchors in a society adrift. Both races, being tossed about by the storm Reconstruction had unleashed upon society, were compelled to reach-out for the anchors that symbolized the prospect of stability. Washington and DuBois anchors were bosom in different bodies of water, barely both mens proclamations existed in currents that surged toward a collective body of water. Washington and DuBoiss positions on the collaboration amongst the races had extreme variations due to their... ...re dropped in different bodies of water, the two mens concepts continue today to flow and intertwine into one body of water. The historical era of Reconstruction had a beginning and end, but it did open the floodgate to prosperity for the United States by unleashing the enormous voice and wisdom of two extraordinary men voices that forever changed our societys way of life.Works Cited* Washington, Booker T. Up From Slavery. The Norton Anthology of American Literature. Nina Baym, General Editor. 6th ed. New York W.W. Norton & Company, 2003. 761. * W.E.B. DuBois. The Norton Anthology of American Literature. Nina Baym, General Editor. 6th ed. New York W.W. Norton & Company, 2003. 876-877 * W.E.B. DuBois. The American People Creating a Nation and a Society. Gary B. Nash And Julie Roy Jeffrey. quaternary ed. Brief. New York Longman, 2003. 469,481-82,517.

Recruitment Policy Essay

This policy defines how an organisation intents to do or act when recruiting its employees. It guides management on issues to do with enlisting and ensures that there is consistency in recruitment decisions and procedures. It defines when the recruitment is going to be done and also the source of the candidates for recruitment. The policy also outlines the methods of recruitment and the contents of the job advert.The recruitment policy states the composition of a team of people responsible for the selection of the ideal candidates as well as the selection techniques to be calld. This company recruits employees when subscribe arises, that is when there is a job vacancy as a result of resignation, death or growth of the organisation where new positions emerge. The company uses external sources of recruitment such as vocational training centres, the open labour market as well as its competitors.The company uses advertising in the newspaper and employee referrals as its methods of re cruitment. The job advert in the newspaper contains the company identification, job summary, key duties, date of assumption of duty, the closing date for applications, the application procedure and the contact enlarge of the organisation. The selection team will consist of the General Manager and the supervisor of the department in which the candidate will be working in as well as senior management. The company will mainly use personality tests and assessment centres as selection tests.The company is an equal opportunity employer and intents to jibe equal opportunities to all applicants irrespective of sex, race, creed, or marital status in issues relating to recruitment in accordance with the equal opportunity policy. On issues relating to recruitment, management should use this policy as a guideline so as to ensure consistency and equity in their decisions. Any recruitment decisions which are made without quest this policy will be deemed as invalid. This policy applies to all e mployees and the General Manager is the responsible authority for making sure that it is followed.

An Essay on Vanity Essay

Mirror, mirror, on the wall, whos the fairest of them all? this ever so famous line quoted from Disneys Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs sticks to the back of our minds to a greater extent(prenominal)(prenominal) often than expected. Modern day witches gradually start to emerge in our world with the same intention, or shall we say insecurity, as the witch in the milksop tale to have the satisfaction of being on top. Nowadays, more and more people, especially teenagers, begin to look in the mirror to see if they are genial with themselves. Vanity, which is being worthless and futile, causes this. When an individual feels worthless, he becomes insecure because he feels that he is not worth it, regardless if its true or not. This leads to even more troubling problems like fitting in the in crowd, attaining high self-esteem and self-confidence, and finding ones true identity.The feeling of worthlessness or only if called vanity leaves teenagers to have the craving to fit in. When on e feels that he is not worthy, he seeks the attention of others and he feels that he needs their approval. What happens after this? Then, he tries doubly hard to fit in the cool crowd by wearing the trendiest clothes, saying the coolest lines, and doing the meanest things. This may make him one of the cool people, but this evidently doesnt make him commend commensurate. Another common thing for trying-hard-to-fit-in teenagers to do is start the hazardous habit of smoking. Their very narrow peers may well become their very own adversaries because they are the ones who pressure them in taking up smoking. Eventually, these vulner open teenagers lose their self-image in exchange for a place in the cool crowd organization. existence a teenager is indeed a very difficult part in the cycle of life. It can ruin your self-esteem and self-confidence in a second. For example, cool kids pick on the insecure ones for the fun of it. These kids laugh at nerdy-looking teens and snicker at try-ha rd-to-fit-in ones. Usually, the ones being laughed at and looked down upon are the ones having problems with vanity. Their sense of futility accession the kind of attention they get from others decreases their self-esteem to zero, thus, causing their self-confidence to drop. This shouldnt be the case. The vainer a person is, the more he should do something ab bulge it, and the more he has to believe inhimself.In extreme cases, adolescents alter their very own persona just to please others. An evident example of this would be teens who take away so that their peers wont think of them as inadequate. They would rather be called conyo than be of the standard class. The question here is why do they have to err? People who steal arent contented with what they have thats why they make use of other peoples belongings and mark them as their own. By doing this, they would gain attention because their peers would commend them on the objects that they stole, which usually are expensive and c lassy ones. This is one of the persona alterations that vanity can cause. These common Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde caseful of teens are pretenders. They live their lives superficially, pretending to be somebody that theyre truly not.This is a real problem among adolescents. Since they are on the stage where they are able to intellectually contrast themselves with others, they feel that they should show another personality aside from their own so that they wouldnt have to worry about peoples reactions to their true personality. They cover their faces with masks to keep others from finding out their true identity and to protect themselves from rejection. Because of their insecurity, they may never be able to find their true selves. They should take out their masks and show the world their true selves so that people may accept them for who they are, and not for who they are trying to be.To all those teenagers with problems regarding vanity and insecurity, you should be able to face your o wn fear of rejection so that you wouldnt be living in a superficial world. Be brave enough to bring out your true identity because you should always give yourself a chance to prove that you are indeed worth it. They say that it is not because things are difficult that we do not dare, it is because we do not dare that they are difficult. So dare to face your fears and dare to be true to yourself for it is only then that you would find internal peace and self-confidence.

Cat Dissection Lab Report Essay

At the conclusion of the cat dissection, you will be required to submit a formal report. The dress for this will differ from that of the osteoporosis research lab report beca white plague the dissection is used as an opportunity to review structure and function for the major schemes rather than to test a theory and draw a conclusion. Please the following discipline as a guideline for compiling the lab report. Only one lab report per conference is required. You do not have to answer the questions listed during the actual dissection, but you should be familiar with what is being asked of you before put downning. The lab must be typed and sortd into sections fit to systems (Meaning each system will be individually labeled like you would label a section of any other lab (materials, methods etc). You may divide the labor among group members, but the work should be compiled as a single document before being turned in. The front page of the lab report should include the names of al l group members as well as the date submitted. You do not need a separate cognomen page. Note If group members be working on sections individually please be consistent with margins (1 inch or less), line spacing (single or 1.5) face size (12pt or less) and font used throughout the document.The document should not look like it was pieced together randomly at the time of submission. Keep in mind that each group member is responsible for knowing all information in the lab report. Please note that you will be writing about and also observing some systems we have not yet covered. This will require you to reference your book or another source for information to complete the lab report. Please include citations for any sources used (this includes information about systems that have been covered in class). You should consider the assignment an opportunity to begin preparing for the final exam. The hard copy of this report is due to me by Friday, April 15th. (It must also be submitted vi a turnitin.com before 1159pm on April 15th) Any time you argon asked to diagram the system you are working through, you must label the structures in the diagram. For any of the diagrams in the lab report, you may include pictures (using your phone or a camera) of your dissection instead of an actual drawing. If youchoose to take pictures of the cat, you may label the structures with tags and dissecting pins at the time of dissection if time permits or you may go back and label the pictures by and by pasting them in your report. The photos may be embedded into the associated sections or attached at the end of the document as an appendix. Hand-drawn diagrams will have to be attached at the end as an appendix. If your diagrams will be in an appendix, they should be referenced in the appropriate section.The lab report should look like this (It will be longer than three pages)Essential System Structures to Include LymphaticSpleen, bone marrow, lymph nodes, thymus gland, tonsilsDigestive Mouth/tongue, pharynx, larynx, Esophagus, stomach, S.I., L.I., rectum, salivary glands, liver, gallbladder, pancreas CardiovascularHeart, aorta, vena cava, pulmonic arteries, pulmonary veins, coronary arteries, cardiac veins, brachial artery & vein, carotid artery, jugular vein, renal vein, iliac artery & vein, femoral artery & vein, hepatic portal system urinaryKidneys, ureters, bladder, urethraRespiratoryLarynx, Trachea, Bronchi, Lungs (bronchioles & alveoli)SYSTEMREQUIRED INFORMATIONYOUR PTSExternal FeaturesDiscuss cardinal interesting observations/discoveries (2) typeset vibrissae, pinnae, tori (3)SkeletalDistinguish between the axial and appendicular plan in terms of structure and function (4)Muscular(NOTE Includes questions about endocrine & lymphatic systems) hound deuce interesting observations/discoveries take note of muscle layers. (2) Define tendon, origin, insertion and superficial fascia (4) Explain the purpose of both thyroid gland and lymph nodes (4) hound how th e endocrine system works as one of the two major controlling systems in the body. Be sure to discuss its means of communication, length of effect and response time. In addition, outline an example of a feedback mechanism involving the endocrine system. (4) Identify the main structures of the lymphatic system and describe their functions. (3)Digestive(NOTE Questions may be grouped together and do not need to be answered in the order listed). Describe two interesting observations/discoveries (2)Diagram labeled with major digestive structures/organs (5)Describe the functions of the major digestive organs (6)Describe the diaphragm and identify its function (2)Identify the location & function of the epiglottis. (2)What is peristalsis and what is its function? (2)Explain the function of sphincters and identify some places they are located. (2) What is chyme? How is it produced? (2)Why are the small and large intestines labeled as they are? (2) Where is the gallbladder in relation to the liver? Why? (2) Explain the importance of bile. How and at what point does it innovate the digestive system? (2)RespiratoryDescribe two interesting observations/discoveries. (2)Diagram the Respiratory System. (3)Describe the functions of the structures of the respiratory system (3)CardiovascularDiagram of the heart (Include chambers, valves & major vessels) (6) Diagramtracing the path of circulation in the adult mammalian heart. You may do a separate flow chart or build this strike of your heart diagram. (5) Describe two interesting observations/discoveries. (2)Discuss the structures of the Cardiovascular System (including major veins & arteries serving the body) & describe their functions/locations served. (9) How are blood vessels named? (2)UrogenitalDescribe two interesting observations/discoveries. This would be an ideal place to discuss reproductive structures. (2) Diagram the urinary system four structures to include. (2) Describe the function of each urinary structure. As in the labeling, there are four main structures that you need to include in the answer to this question. (2)NervousDescribe how the nervous system works as one of the two major controlling systems in the body. Discuss its means of communication, length of effect, and response time. Outline an example of a feedback mechanism involving the nervous system. (4) Describe the difference between the central and peripheral nervous system in terms of function and structures. Describe the pathway that communication within the nervous system would follow from a receptor to an effector. (4) NOTE We will not be looking a nervous system structures. If time permits, you may attempt to take away and view the brain. If you choose to do so, please note that opening the skull is often a difficult task, especially avoiding damage to the brain in the process. Please use extreme caution.)

Differentiating Work And Keeping Learners Motivated

The Entry to Employment ( E2E ) programme is a roll-on/roll-off enlighten designed to supply a tract for 16-18 twelvemonth olds who be non in instruction, employment or preparation ( NEETs ) towards employment or farther instruction.As some(prenominal) of these scholars apply non been in whatever kind of instruction for somewhat clip due to exclusion or other barriers to their acquisition, they whitethorn give with a deficiency of apprehension of their ain abilities, current degree of cognition and, frequently, larning troubles that may or may non obtain been identified antecedently.Using instance surveies of scholarly persons that have been anonymised, this paper pull up s sh ares analyze ways in which work can be differentiated for pupils, peculiarly those with larning troubles, in a group that has a broad scope of abilities. It will besides look at ways to actuate scholars touched by their ain realization that they may non be at the same degree of their equals to work to wards makings at their ain criterion.Main BodyOver the blend in 2 old ages I have been learning pupils in the Foundation Department of East Riding College where I have taught scholars with mild larning troubles and other barriers to larning.In this clip the section has besides taken on the proviso of an E2E class which has been developed to offer NEETs a path into farther instruction, apprenticeships or employment. The purpose of the class is to develop the scholars basic literacy, numeracy and ICT accomplishments and besides supply other topics that will heighten their employment and societal accomplishments to a degree that would be acceptable to an employer.Although E2E Entitlement Curriculum states that both(prenominal) immature people may come in E2E with larning troubles and disablements or may come into E2E at below entry degree. The function of E2E for these scholars, and their advancement and accomplishment finished the programme will necessitate to be c arfully negotiat ed. Every consideration should be taken to guarantee that immature people are non placed permissively on E2E because their behavior or demands may forbid them being placed elsewhere ( LSC, 2006, p.6 ) .It has been my experience that some scholars that are referred to E2E arrive with larning troubles that are non statemented or have neer been identified because the scholar has non been in any(prenominal) kind of instruction for some clip due to exclusion from school or other barriers to instruction.As Petty, observes Each scholar is a solitary and has single demands. If the demands of our scholars are discovered and met, the opportunities of success are greatly increased ( Petty, 2009, p.530 ) . So it is indispensable that sign and diagnostic appraisals are carried out for each of the scholars every bit shortly as possible to place any acquisition troubles and enable schemes to be put into topographic evidence to supply support for the pupil.Motivation, as with all instruction, is an of import factor that affects scholars on the E2E class. Scales points out that Every 1 is motivated to larn it s role of what it means to be forgiving. ( Scales, 2008, P. 237. ) , tho besides clarifies that Learning is natural instruction, unluckily is nt. ( Scales, 2008, p.238 ) . In the instance of numerous E2E pupils, although street wise due to life experiences, farther make wateral instruction would non contribute been envisaged in their ain hereafter. They have small or no intrinsic motivating to take up analyzing and comply with class demands.Whereas intrinsic motive in instruction can be seen as a desire for the pupil to larn for their ain demands and involvements, extrinsic motive is frequently a study portion of larning utilizing the proviso of wagess, competition or countenances ( Harkin et al. 2001, p.67 ) .Although extrinsic motive can be utile when set abouting boring undertakings, it is evidently more desirable for a pupil to develop an intrinsi c motive to larn.Self-efficacy, as described by Bandura, in his societal cognitive theory is the belief in one s capablenesss to form and put to death the classs of action required to pull off prospective state of affairss ( Bandura, 1995, p. 2 ) . He besides states that a individual with strong self-efficacy will develop strong intrinsic motives towards undertakings and involvements ( Bandura, 1994 ) .Initially many of the pupils are placed on the class by Connexions. As it is non ever their ain pick to re-join instruction, their lone motive to fall in the class appears to be extrinsic, for illustration in the signifier of Education Maintenance Allowance or as portion of a tribunal order. Much has to be done to actuate these scholars and many extrinsic incentives need to be employ such as congratulations and encouragement or physical wagess ( e.g. cocoa ) .A peculiar characteristic that I have observed is that although the college is in an mean sized town with several secondary schools, approximately of the scholars k in a flash each other due to being placed in assorted Work Related Learning or Pupil Referral groups. This can take to a peculiar type of de-motivation as new scholars join the group. This is where a scholar does non consider their ain current degree of cognition and apprehension of a topic due to the fact that they have been out of instruction for some clip and they see that their equals may be set abouting work of a higher(prenominal) degree than them. The scenario tends to be because their friend is making a certain degree of work, they excessively want to make work at this degree. They so find that they are non able to make the work because of their current capablenesss and so become de-motivated because they believe themselves inferior. With respect to Reece and Walker s version of Maslow s hierarchy of basic human needs as applied to the schoolroom, ( Reece & A Walker, 2007 ) , self-esteem is lowered and so motive is affected.OBrien and Guiney province that Differentiation is non about trouble-shooting. It is a construct that has to be seen in an inclusive manner, using to everyone ( OBrien & A Guiney, 2001, p. nine ) . Of class, attending should ever be paid to the distinction of work for pupils in all categories, but for the ground mentioned to a higher place it is peculiarly of import that work is differentiated for these scholars so that their self-pride is non affected.Case 1- Student J.J. joined a new group with seven other scholars. He had chokeled around the state with his house hold on and so did non cognize any of the other scholars. On his application to fall in the class he verbalize that he had no acquisition troubles. His initial appraisal consequences showed that he was Entry 1 for literacy and numeracy where the other scholars were Entry 3 to Level 1. J. was upset when in the depression category he was given a diagnostic numeracy trial at Entry 2 when other scholars were finishing nosologi es at a higher degree. In treatment with J. it appeared that he may hold had dyslexia as he described some of the authoritative marks such as seeing drifting linguistic process and composing words backwards. He explained that he had ever thought of himself as stupe and blamed himself for his hapless literacy and numeracy accomplishments.Following a showing within the college, it was confirmed that J. did hold dyslexia and schemes were put into topographic point to back up his hereafter larning such as the allotment of a Learning Support Advisor to work with him when required. This was the initial measure in so happening ways that work could be differentiated in ways that suited J.When developing worksheets for a category, it became of import that if cave in worksheets were appropriate for different degree pupils, all sets would take to the same replies or decisions. For illustration, higher degree scholars may be asked to compose an reply in a few sentences, whereas J. may be give n multiple pick replies or a cloze exercising. The of import thing being that when, as a group, we could travel through work and J. would experience confident giving replies along with his equals.Mentoring was besides good to J. He would frequently understand things better if he was helped by one of his equals. Because of this, J. would work good in little groups with peculiar scholars doing certain that the groups were chosen carefully.There has been a definite alteration in J s self-efficacy. egregious states that this is brought approximately best through existent experience in confronting antecedently feared or avoided state of affairss ( Gross, 2009, p.832 ) . J. appears to be developing an intrinsic motive to larn and is now meaning to travel on to a foundation degree class.Case 2- Student B.B. has many barriers to larning including behavioral jobs and a deficiency of appropriate societal accomplishments. B. knew many of the scholars in the group that she was fall ining and instantly wanted to make the work that they were making despite the fact that her initial appraisal had shown her to be at a lower degree of ability than her friends were presently at. It was explained to B. that she needed to work at her literacy accomplishments to achieve the degree that they were at after all, they had been on the class for some hebdomads already. B. did non understand this and refused to make any work that was below the degree of her equals. When given the work above her current degree, she became riotous in category due to the fact that she was uneffective to make the work.B. had old bad educational experiences which had, in portion, led to her exclusion from school. She had non been in instruction since the age of 11 and so her basic accomplishments were hapless.B. did non hold any farther acquisition troubles other than her societal and emotional barriers to acquisition and so schemes to actuate her rich person had to be developed. As with J. distinction h as to be applied to results every bit good as the work that is devised for B. When work was set for B, it shortly became evident that she responded good to praise when she had completed undertakings good. Often she would hotfoot to hold her work marked before go oning with other undertakings. B. besides responded good to kinaesthetic acquisition manners and she enjoyed games such as lotto and card games. It became demonstrable that she was profoundly satisfied by the feedback she received and that this provided her motive.Behavioural theory provinces that when a stimulation is applied a right response should be rewarded and wrong responses should be discouraged. Thorndike s Law of Effect , would look to use here where the satisfaction that a reward brings increases the desire to make the same once more in future ( Child, 2007, p.164 ) .DecisionAlthough it may be already hard and clip devouring to develop lessons for these groups any jobs are exacerbated by the fact that the schol ars may get and go forth at any clip during the roll-on/roll-off programme. This means that it is indispensable that diagnostic appraisals are completed instantly to determine accomplishment degrees, larning manners and any learning troubles or disablements. OBrien and Guiney point out that Sometimes teaching troubles are manipulated and become identified as larning troubles ( OBrien and Guiney, 2001, p.20 ) . This should non be allowed to go on.The development of intrinsic motive within scholars is a mark for all instructors but it can non ever be achieved when pupils are non receptive to larning. Extrinsic motive is frequently a major portion of the rhythm and should be used consequently.It can be seen that there is a definite demand for distinction in a group that has many scholars at differing degrees and abilities. It is highly hard to seek to learn such a group and keep motive if the undertakings are non adapted for single scholars and their educational demands.

Essay on The Department of Homeland security Essay

The Department of homeland Security (DHS) was established by this act of parliament mother country security lick of 2002. It was created to consolidate the US executive branch agencies linked to the security of the homeland, into a angiotensin converting enzyme cabinet department. It resulted into partnership of 22 agencies into one new and autonomous department. After the investigations of 9/11, the republican government to a lower place the presidency of George W. Bush came up with measures to solve the shortcomings of issue security. Within a fort night after the terrorist attacks, George W. Bush announced the governing body of the office of Homeland security developed to protect US territories from terrorist attacks and offer efficient and effective emergency and intelligence response to potential future innate(p) disasters.The President signed administrator Order 13228 on October 8, 2001 setting up this office with the mission of developing and coordinating the implemen tation of a detailed national security strategy to prevent the United States from suffering another terrorist attacks The U.S. patriot Act (Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and hamper Terrorism) is the most important law passed after the 9/11 attack. It is so essential because of the fact that it improves inter-agency cooperation for the collection of intelligence andits sharing. This barrier being overturned down has contributed to a very large extent the protection of the US. Additionally, it appreciates the fact that the advent of technologyensures that our laws are updated and has encouraged better prosecution of suspected terrorists. Lastly, it has strengthened the existing terrorism legislations, reflecting some specific situations that did not exactly exist previously.These are the things that make the PATRIOT Act a great addition to law enforcement. The Homeland Security Act is the other important piece of legislation . The most vital element was the fact that the multi-crisis management agencies were clustered under one command structure and then given the mandate to work with law enforcement agencies with a nation-wide outlook, as specified in section 101 of the Homeland Security Act (2002). The Homeland Security presidential directives are powers exercised by the president to form a de facto order. While the general vision for homeland security is firmly etched with the Executive branch, the more the details that will fall to the legislative branch. In the period after 9/11, several key legislations were passed. The most important being the U.S. PATRIOT Act,and the Homeland Security Act of 2002. Executive Orders have for a long time been a technique for a President to de facto come up with a law & further give the details on powers of the Executive branch.The 1st Presidential proclamation issued because of an internal issue was the suspension of the writ of habeas corpus by President Lincoln in 1861. This influential order would pave the way for subsequent Presidential actions with regard to terrorists, enemy combatants and saboteurs. The DHS was put under the leadership of Mr. tom turkey Ridge. Boarder-line security, antiterrorism, disaster preparedness, Immigration, response and recovery are some of the key areas DHS influences. The Department of Homeland Security brought in 22 law enforcement, security and intelligence agencies under one command. Immigration issues are core to the US internal security.In 2003, therefore the department took up the Immigration and Naturalization Service automatically presumptuous its duties. This action led to the separation of the service and information functions into 2 distinct agencies Citizenship and Immigration and Immigration and Custom Enforcement services. United States. Homeland security strategy and insurance policy from 2004 until now is marked by the establishment of strategiesformulated correct deficiencies on the genera l security position of the country. In total 5 new strategies were developed, they are1.The strategy for Homeland Defense and Civil Support, June 20052.The National Strategy for Maritime Security, September 20053.The National Intelligence Strategy, October 20054.The National Counterintelligence Strategy, ring 20075.The National Strategy for Aviation Security, March 2007 (2010) Each strategy lists objectives that can weigh the effectiveness of the purpose of existing weaknesses in each distinctivearea. As these are strategies, they have to beimplemented with success over the cooking stove of the past 3 years. Two other bills were passed into law in this time period The Intelligence Community and the Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act of 2004 (IRTPA) and The Post-Katrina Emergency Management Reform Act. The IRPTA matured into a law on December 17, 2004. Most of the recommendations made by the 9/11 Commission were include into this law, dropping the head of the Intelli gence Community (IC) from the Director of Central Intelligence (DCI) to the Director of National Intelligence. The National Counter TerrorismCenter was founded. As a foundation for a counter terrorism activities, it brings together all intelligence gathered on terrorist activities & serves as a cleaning house for these matters. As one entity, it has made significant contributions to the successful defense of the nation.

Process matrix

For my surgical procedure design matrix I chose a financial consulting overhaul and a fitness harvest that I am familiar with. For my financial operate I have a dedicated team that I assign different disgorges and tasks to. I try to ensure that our service it above average in quality and time frames. To ensure this I keep a continuously updated roster of files and agents that I assign new and specifically tough deals to.If I know of an incoming file I can pre schedule to audit the file and do my research on which agent has the stamp down experience and time to commit. Once this is done we interview the client with the agent to ensure a good working relationship bequeath ensue. As the project moves forward I manage the agents foreknowations and commitments to the client and provide all the assistance the agent may need. Often times we assign an assistant to make the process move along smoother and meet our commitments.We have obviously no inventory other than human resources a nd this provides the quality of our service which is the measure of success and quality. The product I chose is a fitness product I am familiar with, Core 46. The product has been through 4 years of design and research work. The tooling and manufacturing has been researched and commit to through another year of work and testing. We are nearing the final design stage and upon completion we will require the manufacturing facility to commit to no less(prenominal) than 100,000 units per month.This will not be near our order necessitates which will require us to contract with no less than a total of 4 manufacturing facilities in different strategic locations. The quality focus will be nearly guaranteed as the individual pieces will be made from a mold that is already going through extensive quality testing. Upon completion of the old making we will order a total of 4 sets to be sent to the 4 manufacturing facilities. All manufacturing will be done on a Just In Time TOT) basis.We will o ccasionally run mass quantities but that will be shipped to accommodate international purchase orders from Distribution Centers in Australia, Asia and Europe. Performance of the manufacturing centers will be based purely on their ability to meet demand and random quality testing. Once the customers receive the final product a survey will be sent ensuring the product was prepared, assembled, packaged and set up according to plan and expectations. We will be able to track ACH order based on the manufacturing center it was initially ordered from.There is and will be save minimal allowances regarding returns do to manufacturing mistakes and the facility will be charged back xx on each as is written into their contracts. Both my financial services and Core 46 are well thought out and planned projects that require much management and hands on follow up. I dont expect or allow for much failure so key components are put in the plan and accommodations for all levels of needs and quality ass urances are in place accordingly. This is the only way to ensure business is done properly success ensues.

Work Stress and Coping Among Professionals in Asia

CHAPTER EIGHT WORK STRESS, WORK SATISFACTION AND COPING AMONG LIFE INSURANCE AGENTS Chan Kwok-Bun The t iodin damages fabrication began in England as early as 1756, yet factors as an problem to sell am fecal matters direlectro sneakvulsive therapyly to the public did non appear until 1840, and approximatelyly in the United States (Kessler, 1985, p. 14 Leigh-Bennett, 1936, p. 59). The industry in the United States expanded considerably in the youthful nineteenth century due to speedy sparing growth, urbanisation and popular statement champion saw keen competition among companies and cistrons for the guest dollar. nigh instruments re manni family united to unfair and some terms illegal gross revenue tactics that resulted in nevertheless public hostility, rejection and distrust of spirit amends agents. Such public stigmatisation was recorded in the United States as early as 1870. Zelizer (1983, p. 146) wrote, Illegitimate practices were abolished, codes of ethics were published, master copy associations organised and agents damp trained. Yet the stigma endured. Since its spread to capital of Singapore in 1908 (Neo, 1996, p. 7), the purport history insurance industry has relied on agents to negotiate the cultural resistance to discussing the proposition of death and its implications, in particular among the Chinese (Lee, 1994, p. 6 Leong, 1985, p. 178 Neo, 1996, p. 37). Han (1979, p. 44) wrote that e genuinelyone involve breeding assurance, notwithstanding very few pack do anything on their own to buy it. The agent was gum olibanum invented to c entirely with the publics rejection of bearing insurance as a concept and as a commodity. In doing this b ne ben for, agents were prone a sh ar of the pro? t commissions (Chua, 1971, p. 42 Neo, 1996, p. 8). Hundreds of thrashers were lured into the life story insurance industry by the attractive prospect of self-employment and its promise of subject field autonomy and podecadeti exclusi velyy blue monetary rewardsa sort of ? ight aside from the wage-earning class. To say that the wee of a life insurance agent is distortful is perhaps an understatement. The fact was strong documented in a 1990 survey of six groups of 2,589 proceeders in Singapore, life insurance 126 chan kwok-bun agents included (see Chapter 10). The survey found two major(ip) sources of civilize filtrate. One source was performance pressure.The professional croakers whitethorn adjudge internalised a strong need for job achievement and maintenance of professional standards, which ar values often held high by some formal organisations as tumefy as the government. The focussing of performance pressure may as well be a result of Singapores economic growth. As Hing (1991, 1992) suggests in Chapter 3, globalisation of the Singapore economy has driven subject areaers to strive for individualal and follow successwhich may bring considerable tune to the sourers. another(prenominal) in-c hief(postnominal) source of work stress was workfamily con? ictsa ? ding consistent with those of recent overseas studies (Coverman, 1989 Lai, 1995 Simon, 1992 Thoits, 1986). This essay attempts to identify and analyse stressors associated with the work of life insurance agents, as well as coping strategies adopted by the life insurance industry in general and the agents in particular. The study on which this essay is based analysed transcripts of in-depth interviews conducted in 1990 with 15 life insurance agents and subsequently in 19981999 with 15 agents and informants. Each interview lasted between one and a half(prenominal) and two hours.The respondents swand from 23 to 42 years in age 17 men, 13 women. Only ? ve of the 30 respondents were university graduates or diploma holders the rest were graduates of secondary schools, besides for three who had completed 0 or A Level. Slightly much than half (18) were married. Drafts of this chapter were given to ? ve other life insura nce agents (one retired) to read. One agent provided the researchers with lengthy written comments each of the other four was interviewed twice for feed plainlytocks on the essays divers(a) drafts. This research strategy, though laborious and time-consuming, posed critical and re? ctive questions that required the analysts to periodically confront their qualitative data in the form of reality-testingindeed a useful step in an interpretive study deal ours. As a regularityological device, this triangulation of respondents/informants, researchers and critics, when intentionally built into the research process, forces the researcher(s) to be doubly re? ective. A step is thus send that requires the researcher to have intercourse to terms with biases or blind spots to the highest degree which others within the triangle ar in a legitimate position to complain. There are two ways to de? ne stress.One denotes external contends which require the individual to readjust his or her u sual behaviour patterns (Holmes and Rahe 1967). In this chapter, these demands work stress among life insurance agents 127 are called stressors or stressor factors, and the readjustment is referred to as coping. The other way of conceptualising stress is to view it as a state of physiological or randy arousal that results from ones judgement of the relationship between the person and the environment as taxing or exceeding his or her resources and endangering his or her well- existence (Chan, 1977 Lazarus & Folkman, 1984, p. 1 Selye, 1974 Thoits, 1995). In this chapter, when the term stress is used, it is meant in the second sense, to be distinguished from the other two terms, stressor and coping. Work Stressors The life insurance agents remember that Singapore nine in general does not have a party favorable image of them. Agents are subjected to such derogatory stereotypes as nagging, dishonest, intent on ma fellowshipg money fast, manipulative and unethicalbasically, people so ciety would like to reject and to shun.In Singapore, life insurance agents are often seen as among occupants of the lowest degree in the sales business, possibly below the car salespersons and at best slightly better than a sales clerk in a departmental store. Agents are seen as a category of persons out there exchange life insurance policies to eat up peoples money, sometimes unscrupulously. Victimised by stereotypes, an agent is deprived of an opportunity to defend his or her self as a personan individual making a aliment like everybody else As you know, life insurance is not a nice word to utter.We hold out a lot of rejections, brush-o? s, and nasty looks by peopleall these can cause us to have a very low self-image. . . . When I was very new, and when I was still doing a lot of selling, I got a lot of rejections. You notice that you have reached a dead-end because you have tried so hard to reach your sales target however you plain cannot. (1)1 These individual(prenominal) go crosswayss with rejections by clients are frequent enough to have change state part and parcel of the job itself they must be among the more deleterious work stressors for the agents.To some if not all agents, rejectionstaking such forms as not listening, not re rounding telephone calls, failing to keep an ap full stopment or 1 The number in the bracket identi? es the respondents of our study. See Table 1 for their personal typicals. 128 chan kwok-bun Table 1 Personal Characteristics of Respondents (N = 30) Education Secondary School potash alum = S A Level = A 0 = 0 Age University or Diploma = U or D Marital Status charge (Married = M (Male = M Number Single = S) Female = F) 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 M S M M S M S S M S M S M M S M M M M S M M S S M M S S M M M F M M M F M F M M M M M M F M M M F F F M M M M F F F M M 28 28 29 29 33 35 30 31 33 29 23 32 32 28 24 25 38 30 27 28 36 35 30 42 27 30 28 31 38 26 A S S 0 S S S U D S S S S A S S S S S S U S S S U D U S S S simply not giving one, or deciding at the last minute not to purchase a insurance policyinvariably provide an evidential and experiential validation of societys low image as well as disrespect of the occupation of life insurance agents.Agents reported childhood friends and recountings avoiding and labelling them as pests and man-eaters. Some make speci? c requests work stress among life insurance agents 129 that no talk close life insurance be allowed in friendly social gatherings lest they risk discontinuation of friendships and relationships. Beginners in life insurance sales typically approach these alike people within their own close personal electronic networks to meet their quota in the ? rst one or two years, usually quite prosperedly. Yet, over-reliance on this personal network quickly exhausts its inherently limited dominance.On the dark side, rejections by those who are socio-emotionally close, and are therefore suppo sedly obliged to befriend out because of friendship or family and kin membership, are often experienced by the beginning agents as particularly traumatic. Some agents thus feel let down, betrayed and cheatedthese feelings sometimes result in agents soft divorcing themselves from others socially and emotionally close to them, thus breeding personal isolation and alienation. Parents, relatives and friends are often up cross out when a young university graduate chooses to be a life insurance agent.Without a basic monthly salary to fall back on, the agents income comes entirely from sales commissions, which are often seen by parents as fallible and risky. Parents expect a university degree, itself a considerable achievement in the Singapore society, to lead to a reasonably attractive salary from a stable, secure, respected job. The topic of an agent going for months without pay for not being able to sell a single policy is either foreign or unacceptable to parents of an primitivel y generation.This e? ectively makes the agents outsiders to their close personal networks. The very nature of the life insurance agents job lies in dealing with people and prospective clients, some(prenominal) of whom they meet for the ? rst time as strangers in probably the most un probably places and hours (often subjected to the desires and whims of the clients). Much of the stress and strain experienced by the agents thus lies in their transactions and negotiations with strangerswith the unknown, unfamiliar and unpredictable.Yet, the hazard is quite high that these same strangers exit hold an unfavourable stereotypical image of agents as a category, thus sometimes mistreating and denigrating them. The agents, in their encounters with strangers, have to manage an instant spoiled identity, a stigma, externally and coercively imposed on them by society at large. Agents often start on a damage foot in the door, so to speak. Agents do not interact with their clients as equals. Th e isotropy of power in agent-client transactions is often tip in favour of the clients.This status inequality, a source of intense discomfort, anxiety 130 chan kwok-bun and sometimes alienation for many agents, is often exploited, if not abused, by the clients. The agents, when asked to recall a speci? c experience or situation at work when they felt depressed or frustrated, would quite freely describe what constitutes a bad client Some clients are quite unreasonable, and they a? ect our morale considerably. What is being unreasonable? They try every possible means to reject you.They will tell you they are ill-tempered and ask you to come another day, or they will ask you for an appointment but when you show up they will say they are busy and ask you to come on yet another day (10) Yet, agents are trained and often reminded by their supervisors and senior colleagues not to try to get back at their clients simply because of their bad or unreasonable conduct. In an important sense, agents are not allowed tension release to get even with the other, thus further aggravating the built-in status inequality of the agentclient relations.This inability of agents to express the feelings of frustration, anger and displeasure that are generated by unpleasant encounters with bad clients may evoke to be doubly degrading to some agents. It perpetuates the status imbalance and is of considerable psychological costs to the agents. term much of work stress among a good range of professional groups is often holdingd to sheer work overload, some life insurance agents reported having too much time on their hands at work as a stressor. As one agent put it, When I am most free, I am most stressed. Having mountain of time means one is not being productive ideally, one should be kept busy. Having little or no work for weeks or even months gene judge anxiety, for insurance work relies exclusively on commissions from selling policies. Largely unstructured, insurance work gives t he agents much personal freedom and autonomy yet this same job characteristic requires skills to structure and use time to ones advantage. Given the unstructured and unde? ned nature of an agents work, di? culties experienced in dealing with either plenty of time or little time were often reported by the agents as stressors.One important way the agents de? ne stress is in terms of carry on pressure to produce, to meet the every year quota of sales, which is invariably enacted by their bosses nagging Once in a while, my boss will remind us to pull up our socks. (6) work stress among life insurance agents 131 A bad boss, as seen by the agents, is someone solely interested in pushing for a veritable level of sales productivity in a given year, yet not showing enough care and support. It was reported that one insurance company veritable(a)ly sends gentle reminders to those agents not doing well, thus adding to the pressure.As a way to increase agents productivity and to sustain a w antal level, the life insurance industry has send the practice of publishing regular bulletins which, among other things, rank the top super achievers by detailing their total volumes of sales by month and year. One agent reported that her company sends each agent every month a progress report which is seen by the agents as one form of assessment and feedback from the administration. all quarter of the year, the unit manager and the agent will meet to review the latters sales performance.As the agent herself put it, Such mergings can make me feel good when sales meet the set quota, or the experience will be quite embarrassing if I applyt do well. It was reported by another agent that the leader of her agency organises the agents into several work groups and gives out awards to the topachieving group every now and then, especially at the end of the year, to foster healthy inter-group competition and, thus supposedly, sales productivity. Singapore has experienced in the past twen ty years a rapid growth in the insurance industry, as measured both by the actual number of insurance companies and y the number of full-time and parttime life insurance agents. These agents are competing with each other for more or less the same client commercialise, which by and large still views the concept of life insurance with disinterest. The net result of this rapid growth in the industry is increased fight and aspiration between companies. Theoretically, the client market is an open one, often seen by some relatively successful agents as unlimitedthe sky is the limit, so to speak. Yet, in actual day-to-day practice, it was reported by agents that they often ran into direct competition with each other.Reports were made about unethical practices of agents who resorted to strongly reduced insurance rates to undercut competitors. Yet others, in order to maintain a veritable level of yearly sales productivity, were forced to pay out of their own pockets premiums not paid u p by their clients, thus sometimes getting themselves into considerable debts. Acute competitiveness and rivalry between agents/colleagues thus possibly engenders a general feeling of distrust, tension and 132 chan kwok-bun strain in interpersonal relations among peers. Competition and con? ct generate barriers of communication, undermine collegiality and, if left unmanaged, breed individualism and self-isolation. The more successful agents arouse jealousy from others and are thus shunned. The not so successful ones ? nd others critical and condescending, and would thus choose not to con? de in them. The competitiveness of the client market demands considerable work commitment, e? ort and mental concentration of the life insurance agents which, in reality, may or may not translate themselves into actual sales, especially for the beginners just initiated into the industry.Agents complained about having to work long, irregular hours, sometimes late in the evenings or over weekends, p rospecting strangers or going for appointments with clients If a client calls you at night and insists on beholding you, you have little option but to go. You may not be that free since many people own chunks of your time. You are beholden to many people, all your clients, real or imagined, unlike in a regular job where you have relatively predictable hours, and usually one person (your boss) can demand of your time. As an agent, your time is not yours, but your clients, everybodys. 20) Many perhaps choose to be a life insurance agent thinking the job approximates self-employment and thus o? ers the capacity to tick off ones use of time to serve ones interest. Yet, paradoxically, having escaped the tyranny of control by a boss who has legitimate rights to his time, the agent shortly put one acrosss he has wooly-minded his control of time to many other bosses all his clients, real and prospective. If professional autonomy is partially measured by ones control over time, an agent may soon be in a shock of his life. A worker who cannot claim ownership of time is a stressed agent.Much of an agents work is done outside his or her own o? ce, travelling on the road between appointments, in clients o? ces or any other place clients deem appropriate or convenient to themselves. This seemingly perpetual mobility of the on-the-road agenttraveller, in a substantial way, makes the work of a life insurance agent an essentially lonely one. The agent becomes a lone ranger exploiting the frontier and eking out a unremarkable routine of negotiating with strangers, much of the time facing a social existence of unfriendly, if not hostile and aggressive forces.The very nature of an agents work in terms of long, irregular hours as well as an unsocial work routine necessarily casts him or her out of the mainstream society. work stress among life insurance agents 133 An agents life is largely out of sync with the normal tempo of his or her family, relatives and friends. This t emporal and spatial disparity between the agent and his or her social world has over time become a potent source of strain manifested in various forms of interpersonal con? icts. These tensions in interpersonal relations are particularly taxing among two groups of agents ? st, the beginners, who strive to maintain some resemblance of order with their family, their boyfriends or girlfriends second, married women, who try to captivate their multiple roles of wife, mother and full-time agent. Women agents are sometimes seen by their male colleagues as perhaps a bit too aggressive, or too driven, running(a) too hard, putting in too many long hours while competing with other male agents in an already tight market. One single fair sex wheel spoke about how the long, irregular hours she has been keeping for almost two years led to con? icts and ? ghts with her boyfriend and the eventual break-up of a close relationship.Parents worry about their young daughters safety and well-being the y are troubleed that young single women meeting with total strangers for business, in unlikely places at inappropriate hours. Other parents do not like the approximation that their daughters are so preoccupied with work that they do not have time to look for or see boyfriends. A married woman, examined to become a unit manager in three years, spoke about the di? culties encountered in e? ectively discharging her role as a mother to two young children, sometimes feeling remorseful over releasing her work frustrations on them. other single woman, ? ding the Singapore market too competitive, resorted to concentrating her e? orts in Indonesia and she spoke about societal pressures on single women in terms of work, biography and achievement. Two agents had become, over the years, increasingly witting that they had been pursuing their work goals almost at the total expense of their family, often to the extent of coming home so tensed up that they were incapable of communicating with their family members. Worried and preoccupied with work, they were increasingly non-communicative and were drifting further and further into a world of their own making.In the course of time, these agents, while selfdivorcing and self-isolating from their family, have engineered and completed their own pullout from their social world, which itself may breed various forms of marital as well as familial con? icts. As a result, work stress and family stress become intertwined, each feeding into the otherup to a point when the agent is at a loss 134 chan kwok-bun as to which is the cause and which is the e? ect. Yet, ironically, the agent continues to believe in the uniqueness of his or her own work problems, so much so that only the worker himself or herself can bring them.Work problems have thus become a personal problem that requires a personal solutiona scholarship that inevitably leads to the self-isolation of the agent. One of the possible consequences of this non-communicatio n with and self-enforced isolation from ones social environment, be it ones work colleagues or ones family members and friends, is this tendency, in solitude, to rap music oneself, to blame ones personal weaknesses, failings or incompetence for not having been able to secure an appointment, to close a policy or to meet the yearly sales quota.A self-blaming, self-denigrating agent who takes all the blame upon oneself is a stressed agent. Coping During our interviews, in describing their ways of coping with work stress, life insurance agents often underlined the importance of three personal qualities liberty, pauperism and field of battle. A largely unstructured work life demands self-discipline in terms of an ability to e? ectively manage and use time in a context where there is either plenty of time and little productivity, or little time and a heavy workload.The fact that an agent does not, in a real sense, have a boss during much of the agents work life often means that one ne eds to rely on ones own internal resources to motivate and initiate oneself. During their reproduction, agents learn from their flight simulators exhortations about the critical signi? cance of cultivating the personal habit of being able to motivate and discipline oneself. One agent, determined to become a manager in the shortest possible time, a? xed to the wall of her o? ce facing her desk power messages stressing discipline and self-reliancemessages which served as a daily reminder to her.Her cabinet along another wall was ? lled with layers of inspirational and how-to books and cassette anglees dealing with such subjects as time management, self-improvement and stress control. She actually reported during an interview that one of those books totally changed her life she recommended anyone aspiring to become successful in life to read it, many times over. Another young male manager grumbled about his o? ce having only limited space while work stress among life insurance agents one hundred thirty-five almost one entire wall was taken up by shelves ? led with indigenceal and inspirational cassette tapes from America. He remarked that there is a real demand for such materials among the young executive sta? in the Singapore business world. Insurance companies routinely mount in-house training workshops or courses o? ering agents opportunities to refresh their ideas on motivation and self discipline. Trainers or consultants from within the industry, the universities and overseas are also brought in regularly to speak on such subjects at professional meetings and industry conventions or congresses.Occasionally, successful sports coaches or athletes are brought to annual life insurance conventions to share with agents and managers their experiences in motivating and disciplining themselves, thus drawing an analogy between excelling in sports and selling life insurance. One agency, reputed to be among the top four in the mother company, publishes and distribute s a monthly bulletin as well as a regular newsletter. In one of the issues, the agency leader shared in her front scalawag message a book she had recently read The Successful clay that Never Fails (1962), by Clement Stone.The same issue carried another article showing a woman agent as a goal getter, stating, She has a very disciplined system to monitor her daily and weekly activities. And her advice to the new agents was 1. KNOW what you want. 2. SET GOALS to achieve it. 3. DO THE BASICS everyday (prospecting, telephone calls, meeting customers, servicing). The article ended with another motivational message Time and tide wait for no man. Plan and do it now. On the second to last page of the bulletin, among the agenda items for a forthcoming agency meeting, it listed a discussion of a book, Think and Grow Rich, by Napoleon Hill (1996).Agents also share a strong belief in personal control. Personal control is understood here as values, abilities and behaviours to manage and maste r oneself e? ectively, including ones time, habits, perceptions, opinion processes, feelings and emotions, or, to put it brie? y, self-mastery. The ability to contend with stress depends a lot on your personality and your own psychological state of mind. Sometimes people amplify the stress situation and make themselves even more stressed. If we are able to control our mind, its very much better. (12) Our problem is our mind.If we ourselves are negative, that is our end. We need to think on the positive. We work to help pick up those who are down. (11) 136 chan kwok-bun In another monthly bulletin, an entire poem, A Note of Motivation, from a vocalizer during one of the regular agency meetings, was reprinted. The poem ended with these lines Life battles dont always go to the stronger or faster man, but sooner or later the man who wins is the man WHO THINKS HE CAN Associated with this belief in personal control is the value of hard work, the belief that hard work will bring result s, that there is a connection between e? rts and results and, most importantly, the ability to take hard work, to put up with long, hard, irregular work hours. Two agents actually singled out hard work as an e? ective strategy to fuck with work stress. In this context, work, rather than relaxations or rest, is prescribed as an antidote, a remedy or solution to stress or so-called mental and physical a? ictions. Such a work ethic also seems to suggest a certain degree of mental and emotional toughness, an attitude of determination toward work and life, a readiness to tough it out.One agent spoke about the importance of being able to pick oneself up, put the broken pieces together and move on with life as a way to get out of a sales slump. The emphasis is thus on ones resilience and hardiness, or belief in personal control over work as well as ones ability to bounce back and recover quickly from the hidden injuries of life later on a while, I sit back and evaluate my own performance . Ive well-read to think this way You are not considered a disappointment if you can pick yourself up and carry on with what you are doing. (1) To the agents, strategies of coping also include a sample of various psychological defence mechanisms there is indicate from the indepth interview data that they are quite frequently used. Agents are taught during training to handle rejections by controlling their own mind. They are taught to think aloud to themselves that the clients are not rejecting them, but rather, may well be rejecting themselves and their families and, consequently, leaving their lives unprotected.The objective here is to externalise, not internalise hence to lay blame on others, not on themselves Before, I took rejections quite personally. I felt that he state no to me because of something in me that he cannot accept. But now, I realise that he said no not to me, but to his family. He is not being responsible to himself and his family. The problem lies in him, not me I have done my best and Ill keep on trying to convince him. But for cases that give me direct rejection, Ill throw them away because there is no point keeping them on my mind.Itll be very stressful (laugh). (14) work stress among life insurance agents 137 Agents are also trained to accept rejections as a predictable, builtin part of a life insurance agents work. With experience, most agents would have erudite to develop an attitude of acceptance We took a course in psychology. From there we erudite how to accept things as they come along. Basically, Im a happy-go-lucky person. Ill always ? nd a way out for myself. I dont normally reproach myself unnecessarily. (12) Agents are trained to accept rejections as an inextricable part of their work.In fact, they are literally told that they are paid to take rejections, and that the more rejections they encounter, the better results will be. So rejections are good things and agents should indeed be happy about them My boss always te lls me that insurance is very di? cult work, but it is for the same reason we are paid back such high dividends. If it was any easier, the money would not be that good, so the agent is talked (or, talking himself ) into seeing rejections as a good thing. He said, If your prospect were to say yes readily, someone else would have sell the policy to him long, long ago? It is all very logical. (22) To most agents, coping is meant to refer to accessing and using psychological resources within oneself. These so-called personal or internal resources include self-discipline, mental control, rationalisations and the ability to self-motivate, accept, shift blame away from self to others, work hard, manage time and problem-solve. The emphasis here is on learning by dint of training and experience to acquire the appropriate resources, skills and values so that, once they are internalised, they become part of the person and can be used in day-to-day coping.It is essentially a skill-oriented, pe rson-focussed approach, where the onus is on the person as an active agent using the person, using ones self, ones resources and skills. Such a personfocussed, skill-oriented concept of coping is accentuated by a general faltering on the part of most agents (except a few) to seek and use help, support and care from the family for problem-solving or emotional support It is very di? cult to get help from my family. (10) There is nothing much they can do about it. They wont understand. (5) My family would not understand my work. So I would not go to them for help or support. 19) We are told to present a positive and optimistic front to everyone at all times, including our family. (19) 138 chan kwok-bun The married male agents were quite speci? c about keeping work and family life separate, not wanting work problems and frustrations to spill over into the domestic domain, thus not confounding their relationships with their collaborator, children and kin members. They said they would s trive to arrange their work and familial aspects of their lives such that weekdays and occasional week evenings and Saturdays are for work while Sundays are reserved for the family.Some reported that, in general, they do not bother to communicate with their spouses about problems and frustrations experienced at work they cite reasons such as not wanting to give them headaches, spouse not understanding my work problems or no use to talk about problems since they would not be able to solve them for me anyway. One agent attributed his disinclination to involve his wife in his work problems to the Asian nature and finale. Another agent rationalised to himself that the important thing to do to keep the right balance in life is to maintain quality time with his wife and children.Two managers described their agencies as warm, cohesive places, almost like a surrogate family, bound by social, economic and emotional ties to problem-solving as well as to provide support for the individual ag ents. The agency was described as a place where agents are promote to return for care and guidance How do you go about making yourself feel better? There are many ways. Over here, our company policy is that when you are feeling low or lost, the best thing to do is to come back to the agency and ? nd a colleague for a chit-chat.Is this method e? ective? It is nice that peers foster and support each other. In general, you would want to discuss with the more experienced peersthey will give you a few ideaspoint to a road for you to walk on, give you a guideline, help you to solve a particular problem, or simply go out with you for a walk to release your pent-up emotions or depressed feelings. That way, you will feel much better. (10) When I am stressed or frustrated, I immediately go to other agents (here in the agency). They are always willing to help.Four of them are very close to me. When problems come up, we talk about them among ourselves. While talking, we often come to realise t hat they are not my problem onlythey become more normal, less serious. I always look to my more experienced colleaguesthey are more likely and able to help. (15) To help create and sustain the notion of the agency as a large family, agency bulletins regularly print greetings to welcome newcomers as well as birthday messages to agency members. The intent is work stress among life insurance agents 139 o impress upon the agents that they should strive to reach their individual goals by cooperating with, load-bearing(a) and caring for each other. Nonetheless, though seemingly encouraged and promoted by the management, agents only partially used social support at the agency as a way of coping with stress. Rivalry and competition between agents within the same agency or company would undermine any possible feelings of fellowship among colleagues. While some agents reported actually turning to their managers or supervisors for problem-solving guidance and advice, they also exercised onsid erable caution in such interaction for fear of unwittingly revealing personal weaknesses, inadequacies and vulnerabilities. In practice, there are two inter- cogitate parts to the relationship between the agent and his or her agency/company represented by a supervisor-manager lapse and training. The agent receives supervision of varying degrees from the manager, who negotiates the kind of persisting training required to either maintain the status quo or to improve ones sales volume. This often means customising a training programme to ? the needs of an agent in a particular stage of career development, which invariably change relative to their clients and their needs. As the life insurance industry continues to innovate by creating and introducing new products and new services, the agent ? nds it obligatory to learn new skillsboth in the software (e. g. , new ways to motivate self and client) and in the hardware (e. g. , legal and administrative aspects of a new product). The age nt needs training, and the industry ? nds ways to encourage and support it.Thus an ethos of continuous upgrading exists. Indeed, it is a norm shared by peers in the industry, part and parcel of a collectivised coping strategy. All except one or two of the agents seemed quite clear about not seeking social support from their family for their work problems. Most tended to believe that a clear-cut insularism between work and family would be an e? ective way to manage stress at work. Family relations thus become a distraction, a welcome departure from work, where the worker learns to put things aside, to forget work problems, to shut o? emporarily. For at least two agents, the mere knowledge that their spouses will be supportive when their help and care are needed was enough without the agents actually involving them in their work problems. When it comes to using social support of colleagues or supervisors at the workplace, the agents have also learned to be selective and discretionar y in deciding who is to 140 chan kwok-bun be approached for what problems and towards what ends. The culture of the support system at the workplace is thus accessed and used by the agents with iscretion, and in his or her best interests. The life insurance industry thus provides a rather appropriate context for what we call the sociology of coping, which is focused on how groups or communities, not individuals, come to terms with and deal with their stressors. To contextualise the coping of life insurance agents, one is required to understand how, for example, an individuals social embedment in the larger system and culture of the industry would make a di? erence in ones coping process and strategy. The more socially embedded, the more e? ctive in copingpartly because one is now receiving social support and partly because one has learned the tricks of the trade through ones assimilation into the group or community. The life insurance industry in Singapore is unique in that it puts into practice a certain belief in continuous on-the-job training (or what Singaporeans commonly call upgrading), learning and self-renewal. Indeed, this belief or ideology is operationalised and institutionalised in a well-worked-out system of seminars, workshops, conferences, small-group discussions, feedback sessions, etc.These are founded upon a exchange premise an individual agent must be continuously skilled and re-skilled by the system and its knowledge to cope with oneself and a hostile social worldthus the constant reference to the social sciences, particularly psychology and social psychology, for insights, inspiration and intervention. For better or for worse, the life insurance industry in Singapore has become an active user of social science knowledge and the myriad interventions derived from it. The individual very rarely copes altogether and is very rarely left alone by the life insurance family.When socially embedded in this family, the individual obtains his or her support, expressively (it is nice to know how to deal with ones economic crisis or mood swings) as well as instrumentally (it is useful to know how to handle a hostile client). The social fund is there for one to tap into when used, this fund produces an economic fund for the system and the individual. Work Satisfaction While the life insurance agents no doubt faced a wide range of stressors in their daily work, many of which demanded various modes work stress among life insurance agents 41 of coping and adaptation, they also reported a considerably high level of work satisfaction. Formerly construction engineers, computer programmers, factory supervisors or teachers prior to joining the life insurance business, none of the thirty agents we interviewed reported having feelings of tribulation over their present work neither did they anticipate any further job change in the immediate future. All said the job was right for them, though a few did report that there were indeed lingeri ng thoughts of quitting insurance work during the ? st two years of initiation. Several agents in fact seemed to have derived so much satisfaction from their work that they reported that their job had long become their hobby work and hobby were indistinguishable and had in fact become one. Several agents took pains in our interviews to emphasise that everything they did in their hobbies and in life was somewhat related to their work, and vice versa. On the basis of the interview data, one would attribute the agents high level of work satisfaction to a combination of factors.One important factor has to do with agents sensed sense of control over their work as a result of the freedom, autonomy and independence an agents work provides. In a signi? cant way, an agent is essentially his or her own boss, soluble and accountable mainly to oneself (thus largely dependent on ones own personal resources such as initiative, self-discipline, self-reliance and motivation). An agent is self-emp loyed, and his or her work has the potential of developing into an entrepreneurs business where, at least in ones mind, the results are a direct function of e? rt and hard work. Moreover, one derives much satisfaction from being able to generate pro? t for oneself, rather than for a company as is the case for compensable employees. Indeed, several agents reported that they had quit their former job and joined the life insurance business precisely because it o? ers the potential attraction of self-employment and entrepreneurship I had this craving to do my own work and be my own boss. It just happened that insurance o? ered me the opportunity to realise my wish. So, naturally, I became an agent. (10)Another factor associated with agents work satisfaction is their relatively high income in view of the fact that many entered the profession with educational quali? cations no higher than 0 Levels, with one year of training and having passed a certifying examination considered by many as easy. The agents we interviewed made an average of three to four thousand Singapore dollars per month, while 142 chan kwok-bun several agent-managers with about ten years of experience in the business reported an average annual income of S$240,000.One agency supervisor, herself making S$70,000 per year after seven years, reported that her 42-year-old manager was getting an annual income of S$800,000 or, as she emphasised, admiringly, close to a million. With money comes fame. The agency regularly publishes sales ? gures of top agents, the so-called top high achievers in their company-wide bulletins. In an attempt to raise work morale and motivation, the industry periodically hands out awards and medals during conventions and congresses. One agent considered the wide publicity and recognition a successful agent received as a potent source of work satisfaction.When successful (as indicated by insurance sales ? gures and the subsequent recognition and perceptivity received from col leagues, company and friends), an agent has ? nally come around he or she, through personal success, has managed to achieve the kind of social status and respect that society seems so reluctant to give to this profession. In a sense, personality and achievement elicit both material and non-material rewards that are due. Insurance agents spoke about the grati? cation they derived from having sold a policy where the ? ancial rewards are tangible and immediate one can literally calculate the precise amount of commission one makes from having completed a successful transaction. Another agent actually reported that he sometimes felt guilty for having been receiving such a sizeable income for all these years in the insurance business his friends of the same cohort in the banking sector, better educated and more intensively trained, were making less than he did. In his mind, life insurance sales work, for those who can cope and become successful at it, o? rs good pay, a clear and well-de? ned prospect of promotion (from agent through trainer and unit supervisor to, eventually, agent-cum-manager) and a distinct probability of self-employment. For many, the prospect of a quick transition from an agent to an entrepreneur within a span of ten to ? fteen years excites and motivates many a high achiever. In the process of plodding through ones career path, the individual gets his or her own rewards in accordance with the goals set and e? ort exerted. And so it seems. work stress among life insurance agents Conclusion 43 Singapore society rejects the idea as well as the product of life insurance, which is the ? rst movement of the dialectic of encounters between a life insurance agent and society (Neo, 1996). Society thus rejects the role of being an agent, not necessarily the person in that role, though the person is very likely to internalise the rejections through self-blame and self-criticism. It is thus not so much what is vituperate with the product, but what is wron g with mea process that entails considerable psychological costs to the individual agents.Nevertheless, the life insurance industry employs agents and trains them to di? use such societal rejections, often striving to turn such hostility around. As it happens, the agents are assigned a stigma by society, a Go? manian spoiled identity agents are keenly aware of the intentional social distance, the chasm, that separates them and society. Agents are to be shunned by all, strangers and close social others. This is the second movement of the Hegelian dialectic.Note that such an analysis posits that societal rejection of life insurance as an idea and the stigma attached to life insurance agents are as much structural givens as they are historic conditions, or what the Durkheimian sociologist calls social facts which the individual agents cannot easily wish away. The third movement begins when the life insurance industry in general, and the agents in particular, attempt to cope with the s tigma by developing an institutional culture over time an ideological complex of values and beliefsor, tricks of the trade, if you like.The life insurance industry is among the few industries that are fully aware of the structural and historical causes of the myriad assaults on the self that happen during the daily routine of the work life of an agent. Their counter-attack is ongoing training and educational upgrading of the profession, from bottom up. A structural problem requires at the least a collective solution. Through seminars, workshops, conventions and pep-talks, the industry instils in the individual agents a bag of tricks. These include values and beliefs such as hard work, self-e? acy, self-reliance and discipline work habits (keeping accounts and making regular cold calls) procedures for dealing with prospective clients and a bombing of coping strategies and defence mechanisms such as positive thinking (the cup is half full, not half empty), cognitive alteration or conversion (it is your loss, not mine, for not buying insurance from me), hiding and 144 chan kwok-bun compartmentalising (I make sure my family doesnt know anything about my work problems), talking oneself into believing doing good for others (everyone needs an insurance policy it neer rains but pours), accepting the inevitable, and so on.Our analyses have indicated the in? ltration of academic psychology into the articulation and justi? cation of such an ideological complex. To illustrate, Seligmans learned optimism concept (1990), Kobasas idea of psychological hardiness (Kobasa & Pucetti 1983) and many other psychological concepts such as resilience, personal control, competence, self-esteem and pragmatism, have found their ways into the everyday life language of the life insurance agents. It is perhaps a case of applied psychology, of the industry turning to social science for guidance and ideological justi? ation. Of course, never for a moment in the three movements of this di alectic is the individual agent a passive voice. Most signi? cantly, for example, the agent interacts with the industry culture to develop an ideological complex of his own to fend o? the slings and arrows of his work life, which some have apparently done more successfully than others, thus enjoying considerable work satisfaction. There are good reasons to believe that the transmission of the institutional culture is often met y resistance on the part of the individual agent, especially when the culture does not allow for tension release on the one hand and demands considerable commodi? cation of emotions on the other hand. Agents are exhorted to do emotion workto never get back at bad clients and to act nice, think positive. In a sense, this personal ideology grounded in a larger institutional culture serves three functions. First, in a deep psychological sense, it bestows on the agent a social identity that he uses to cope with the stress of his work life.Second, existentially, it provides the agent with a self-justi? cation of his own existence, partly because it has an altruistic dimension to it the insurance agent is in the business of doing good, in that the family is looked after by an insurance policy should something disastrous happen to the bread-winner. Third, it also gives the agent a bag of tricks, something useful and practical in his daily encounters with society. Our interview data show rather clearly that our agents reported a considerably high level of work satisfaction.They liked their work, had few regrets about their vocational choice and had rarely thought of quitting life insurance work except during their beginning years in the industry. Some even merged their work with their lifework and hobby became one. work stress among life insurance agents 145 One ? nds at the core of this ideological complex several rather attractive things on o? er handsome monetary rewards a ? ight from the tyranny of the working-class condition and a promise f or freedom, occupational autonomy and self-determination in use of time all of which are embodied in the lure of self-employment and entrepreneurship.To some workers in a credential society, these promises prove irresistible because the ful? lment of the Singaporean dream is the deliverance of ones great expectations. To perhaps many others, these promises are just that promises. Freedom, free will and self-determination (in use of time according to ones desire) are an illusion. An agent does not e? ectually own his time, nor does he dispose of it according to his own accord. The chasm between proletariat and bourgeoisie be real and forever self-expanding.Still others learn that this entrepreneurial dream, even when realised, has its dark side. A self-employed person never for a moment stops using his own person, his personality or everything he owns and can rightfully call hishis time, his charm, his tolerance, his love. Having escaped from the tyranny of control by others, he now engages in the ultimate form of exploitation exploitation of self. The chasm that separates the capitalist from the proletariat is a structural one which is bridgeable by only a few with the right strategic internal and external resources, but which remains a chasm to many.The Singaporean dream is just thata dream. Many agents will be caught in this black-hole-like chasm, between reality and myth, yet never fail to blame themselves for their personal failures. The moment of the ultimate nightmare will come when the life insurance industry has found ways to make direct sales to the public, e. g. , through the Internet, or when the public goes direct to the industry, as in the case of medical, house or automobile insurance (Neo, 1996). The existence of the agent is thus rendered obsolete because it has lost its value. CHAPTER NINEINSTITUTIONAL CONTEXT AND STRESS APPRAISAL AMONG LIFE INSURANCE AGENTS Gina Lai, Chan Kwok-bun and Ko Yiu-chung Work stress as a social phenomenon and soci al issue has been of considerable concern to scholars and laypersons alike because of its myriad costs to individual workers a? ected and to companies that experience low productivity, absenteeism and turnover (Beehr, 1995 Sutherland & Cooper, 1988). For decades, conventional research on work stress has generally perceived individuals as passive actors, making personal adaptations to structural constraints imposed by organisations.Work stress is often seen as a result of an individuals failure in making adjustments to the work environment (e. g. , Beehr, 1995 Loscocco & Roschelle, 1991 Lowe & Northcott, 1988 Sutherland & Cooper, 1988). While studies adopting this view usually examine work stress by identifying the unique sources of stress experienced by particular occupational groups, they tend to overlook the relationship between the institutionalised arrangements of a profession and work stress. The regulative and normative systems of an industry and profession may well a? ct how an individual worker perceives, appraises and responds to work situationssubsequently in? uencing the level of stress the individual will experience. The present chapter aims to study how the institutionalised arrangements of the life insurance profession and industry in Singapore relate to the types and extent of work stress experienced by its workers. Insurance agents represent a unique group of workers who are both paid employees and entrepreneurs. Data from in-depth interviews with 11 agents working for di? erent life insurance companies provided background information on the norms and rules of the industry.Insurance agents experiences with work stress were analysed using survey data. The information obtained from the interviews, which were conducted prior to the sample survey, enabled our understanding of the industry and guided our questionnaire construction. 148 gina lai et al. Definition of Work Stress The term stress has been de? ned in various ways it has been used to refe r to demands that require the individual to re-adjust his or her usual behavioural patterns (Holmes & Rahe, 1967), or to the state of physiological or emotional arousal that results from the perception of demands (Lazarus & Folkman, 1984 Selye, 1974 Thoits, 1995).In this chapter, stress refers to the latter while the former is termed stressor. In the current research literature (Thoits, 1995), this distinction between stress and stressor is espoused. Stressors manifest themselves in episodic events or situations and are classi? ed in the literature into life events, chronic strains and daily hassles (Thoits, 1995). For an event or situation to be perceived as stressful, two approximation processes are involved (Lazarus & Folkman, 1984). First, the individual appraises the event or situation as threatening to his or her well-being.Events or situations that individuals ? nd threatening often entail potential danger or alteration to ones personal identity, social relations, routine be havior, and/or normal physical state. Examples include loss of a love one from whom one derives great personal a? rmation and emotional comfort or a serious illness that causes debilitation. Second, the individual feels a need for action. He/she appraises the available resources for requisite action but is uncertain about the su? ciency or e? ectiveness of resources to successfully carry out the action.When appraising an event or a situation as threatening, the individual, believing that action is needed and feeling that the outcome is uncertain, would experience an emotional reaction called stress (Locke & Taylor, 1990). Based on this conceptualisation of stress, work stress refers to the emotional response to work-related events and situations. Researchers have suggested that stress may be manifested psychologically and physically, as well as behaviorally, and that such manifestations may vary across social groups de? ed by, for example, gender and social class (Pearlin, 1999). Th e present chapter focuses on the psychological aspect of work stress, an emphasis particularly relevant to the study of work stress among insurance agents. Insurance work is indeed emotional work. Selling insurance often assaults ones self due to stigmatisation and rejection by society agents whether individually or collectively are constantly forced to make psychological adjustments to and/or manipulations of their hostile work environment. Thus, it institutional context among life insurance agents 49 would be meaningful to investigate how job incumbents in the insurance industry appraise various aspects of their work and evaluate the impacts of such appraisal on their psychological well-being. Adopting a sociological perspective, the present chapter emphasises the social-structural organisation of the industry and its link to individuals experience (Aneshensel, 1992 Pearlin, 1989, 1999 Thoits, 1995). The appraisal of and response to work-related events and situations are thus argu ed to be related to the meaning attached to work, which is in? enced by the regulative and normative systems of a profession and industry. The Political Economy of the Life Insurance Industry The most important attractions o? ered by insurance work are its promises of autonomy, potentially high monetary rewards and the prospect of self-employment. Insurance agents are usually given a certain sales target to meet within a period of time if they intend to stay in the company. However, they themselves have to decide on their sales target, set their own work tempo and get their work done wherever and whenever deemed appropriate and e? ctive. To further solicit workers compliance with industry goals, agents are given a share of the industrys pro? tcommissions (Chua, 1971 Neo, 1996). Work is remunerated on the basis of sales and commissions increase as one progresses along a clear and well-de? ned career path. The pace of advancement along the career path is selfdetermined the individual decides how fast he or she wants to move along the career ladder. Individual job performance, in terms of sales volume and ability to keep policies alive, is a requisite for career advancement.Insurance agents thus take on a dual identity. On the one hand, they are employees who follow directives set by the company and work toward organisational goals. On the other hand, they are entrepreneurs who can determine their own career goalswhich more often than not coincide with organisational interestsas well as experiment freely with various modes to achieve these goals. There is, however, a down side to the agents work. While the agents enjoy work autonomy and ? exibility, they also experience sustained pressure to produce (Chan & Ko, 1991).Further, life insurance has been and still is a taboo subject for many Singaporeans (Chan & Ko, 1991), partly due to the stigma attached to death and 150 gina lai et al. disabilities. Moreover, life insurance is generally perceived as a highrisk inve stment because of the need for considerable long-term ? nancial commitment to an unforeseeable future. Coupled with negative stereotypes of insurance work, agents often face rejections by strangers as well as family members and close friends, subsequently breeding personal isolation and alienation.Even worse, agents do not interact with their clients as equals. The balance of power in agent-client transactions is often tilted in favor of the clients. When faced with unreasonable clients, agents are trained and often reminded by their supervisors not to get even for bad client conduct, thus further perpetuating the status imbalance. Paradoxically, having escaped from the control of a boss who has legitimate rights to ones time and labour, one now ? nds himself or herself subject to the control of many other bosses all his real and prospective clients.Further, the rapid growth in the insurance industry in Singapore has induced acute competitiveness and rivalry between companies as wel l as among agents, engendering a general feeling of distrust, tension and strain in interpersonal relations among peers. Jealousy from colleagues and interpersonal con? icts further reinforce individualism and self-isolation. Keen competition also makes it necessary for agents to intensify their labourto self-exploit. Operating in such a hostile environment, the life insurance industry has to put up moral and social bu? rs to cushion itself against myriad adverse impactsthus the emergence of an institutional ethos and culture as excuse mechanisms. As a way to increase agents productivity and to sustain a certain motivational level, the industry periodically gives out awards and medals during conventions and congresses to raise workers morale and motivation (Chan & Ko, 1991). A culture of internal cohesiveness and mutual support is encouraged within individual life insurance companies as well as the industry as a whole.These values not only help the industry achieve its goal of pro? t-making, but also facilitate the ability of agents to cope with mental and physical a? ictions caused by their work. Description of the Survey The analysis was based on three non-random samples, which yielded a total sample of 400 life insurance workers. First, 500 questionnaires were distributed to the agents by the managers of six major institutional context among life insurance agents 151 life insurance companies in Singapore.Of these, 212 completed and returned their questionnaires, giving a response rate of 42. 4%. Second, with the help of the Secretary of the Singapore Life Underwriters Association, questionnaires were disseminated to 400 agents via managers who attended a series of four talks organised by the Association. This channel saw a return of 137 questionnaires, yielding a response rate of 34. 3%. Third, the Secretary distributed 100 questionnaires to insurance managers whom he knew, who in turn handed them out to their own agents.A total of 51 questionnaires were r eturned this way. The overall response rate for the study was 40%. The non-random nature of the samples and relatively low response rates inevitably lead to a concern about the representativeness of our selected respondents. The relatively low response rate was probably due to the way we sampled our respondents and distributed questionnaires. We distributed the questionnaires to potential respondents through intermediaries (managers of major life insurance companies and the Secretary of the Singapore Life Underwriters Associatio