The study of Jeffrey Weeks Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

The study of Jeffrey Weeks - Essay Example Jeffrey Weeks has been a well known man for quite some time, and the beginning of this notoriety truly began once his literary works began to come out, as they were more open and more revealing than most others had ever been. His work discusses primarily the issues of homosexuality, however at the same time it discusses much more than that, as he is able to discuss such matters as homosexual identity, finding homosexual identity, the history of homosexual identity, homosexuality in politics, homosexuality and its influence on the world, and much more. He has been both praised and criticized for his work, but overall his work is taken on a most positive note, as it has not only explained and universalized many of the most important issues that are evident in the present day world, but as well it has led to the onset of not only present but future forms of research and contemplation in the areas of his work. In order to better understand Weeks, and in particular that of his contributio ns and his significance to the world overall, we must do several things. First, we must discuss more about Weeks and his life in general, and as well we must then discuss his relevance and how his approach and his contribution to theory building have been influential in general. ... This is what will be dissertated in the following. Jeffery Weeks was born in Rhondda, Wales in 1945, and he was educated at both the University College in London and the University of Kent at Canterbury. In regards to his work he actually basically began as a lecturer in sociology at the University of Kent, and in the year 1980 he became the Simon Senior Fellow at the University of Manchester. He was also professor of social relations at Bristol Polytechnic, continuing his work on throughout this time. Weeks is considered as being "among the academics in the early period of gay men's studies in Britain emerging from the Gay Liberation Front (GLF) which he joined in 1970 and the Gay Left Collective of which he was a founder member. He began by chronicling the development of homosexual politics from the late nineteenth century to the gay liberation movement in Coming Out, (1977)" (The Knitting Circle, 2002). Following his work as a professor at Bristol Polytechnic, he then became Professor of Sociology at South Bank University in the year 1994, and the he was Head of School of Education, Politics and Social Science from 1995-1998, and finally he became Dean of Humanities and Social Science in August, 1998. He spent most of the beginning of his education at select places, as he would stay in one location and then concentrate his work there, and move on once he felt the time was right. Thus he did not scatter from place to place, but rather, as he worked, and as his work became more and more accepted and noted, he basically made his way up the ladder, until he reached where he is today, which he has been at for several years now. Weeks is a man who is incredibly

Organisational Change and Leadership Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3750 words

Organisational Change and Leadership - Essay Example Using the example of Property Services Agency privatisation already embarked upon in the United Kingdom, the report will review the issue of organisational change and leadership, while giving a thorough analysis of the agency, conducting empirical research of the problem within the limits of current time period, and in accordance to established legislation. The end of the report will identify the ultimate conclusions on the effectiveness of the privatisation processes for both, the government that has taken the object to its privacy, and for the object of privatisation itself that has either started to perform more successfully, or experienced to meet the downfall in its operational activity. When speaking of organisational change - n important tool in management that is aimed to provide sustainable development and constant growth, - it is worth to mention leadership which is vital quality of manager who is eager to come with the best solution and outcome for the planned change or innovation. Being a private organisation, PSA aims to provide, manage, maintain, and furnish the property used by the government, including defence establishments, offices, courts, research laboratories, training centres and land until restructure and organisational change have come into play and imposed PSA to government's privacy. Within the leadership literature, researchers have sought to identify and describe effective leadership from various perspectives. Universal theories proposed that the same leader traits (e.g., for a review, see Bass, 1990) or behaviors (e.g., Bowers & Seashore) create favorable results in all situations. An inability to consistently predict effectiveness (for a review, see Yukl, 1989) led to the development of situation-contingent theories. Researchers postulated that a leader's effectiveness would be moderated by situational variables that either intensified or decreased the effects of a leader's traits (e.g., Fiedler, 1967) and behaviors (e.g., House, 1971; Vroom & Yetton, 1973). Research testing the utility and predictive value of this real-trait, real-behavior research has produced mixed results ( Yuki, 1989). More recently, an alternative, cognitive-attribution approach has been developed to explain the link between leader performance and perceptual processes ( Lord & Maher, 1990). Research suggests that leadership perceptions, indeed, may often be based on both traits ( Lord, De Vader, & Alliger, 1986) and behaviors and events ( Calder, 1977; Meindl & Ehrlich, 1987; Meindl, Ehrlich, & Dukerich, 1985). Rather than attempting to understand a leader's effectiveness in terms of real traits and behaviors, however, this interpretation is based on observers' subjective realities, as described by more general accounts of person perception and information processing ( Lord, 1985) or attribution theory ( Calder, 1977). In other words, leadership is in the eye of the beholder. A leader may assert influence stemming from several different bases of power (e.g., French & Raven, 1959). The success or failure of an influence attempt depends, however, on whether the influence target actually accords such power to the leader. Without follower responsiveness, leader power is meaningless. The specific relationship between