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The Lives and Assassination of Abram Lincoln and Julius Caesar
The Lives and Assassination of Abram Lincoln and Julius Caesar
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There are several men all over the world who are considered great due to the immense contributions they made towards making the world a better place or to improve the lives of their fellow countrymen. There some who gained fame and popularity in fighting for the rights of their people whom they felt were being oppressed by fellow countrymen. There are some who are considered great due to the style of leadership. There are some who are considered great for fighting for the independence of their countries regardless of the methods they used to fight for the freedom whether civil or armed combats.
Research Methods and design
Two of such people who have gained places as one of the great men in the world are Abram Lincoln and Julius Caesar. Even though the two great men came from two different countries and continents, they did share a lot in common from their style of leadership, how they interacted with the people, and even sadly the way and the reasons behind their deaths can be compared. This paper will look at the different aspects of their leadership of the two great leaders. To aid in the research I had to look for books with the history of the two great leaders so as to be able to ascertain their difference and similarity of character style of leadership, reasons for assassination and death of the two great leaders.
Julius Caesar and Abram Lincoln were born in different periods and countries thus their lives were a little different. According to some researchers Julius Caesar was born in the 100 BC in the city of Rome, at the time when Caesar was born Rome was an independent republic. The life of Julius Caesar was not smooth as he lost one parent at a very young age. Julius grew up and enlisted in the army he soon rose through the ranks and became a commander of his own troops. With the assistance of his great army Julius was able to conquer territories; the reason that pushed Julius to conquer more territories was the fact that he knew his name would be remembered forever. Within a few years the power that Julius wielded grew and by the 62 BC he had found his way to finally join the Praetor ship even though many of the senators did not like him as they considered him over ambitious and extremely dangerous (Jeffrey, 2005).
Just as Lincoln, the more Julius gained more power the more enemies he made even though the reasons might not have been the same. The senators saw Julius as a threat to them because of the changes that Julius was making in the country; Julius had the desire to control as much land as possible. He even introduced a very unique law that gave him power to have command of Gaul and Illyricum for a period of five years; on the other hand Lincoln was not power hungry as Julius was. Julius made much of his policies to favor him and not the country this can be proven from some of his quotes “It is more important for Rome than for myself that I should survive. I have long been sated with power and glory; but should anything happen to me, Rome will enjoy no peace. A new civil war will break out under far worse conditions then the last (Jeffrey, 2005).”
Julius death finally came and more surprising is that Julius was murdered by the senators and another similarity of the death of Julius and Lincoln was that both were murdered in a theatre. Due to his method of rule and his power hungry nature, about 60 senators finally conspired to murder Julius which they finally did by stabbing him in the back while he was at the theatre known as the Theatre of Pompey (Jeffrey, 2005).
Abram Lincoln was born on the 12th of February in the year 1809 in Kentucky, just like Julius Abram also lost a parent at a very tender age. Lincoln enlisted in the army just as Julius and rose through the ranks. Lincoln was elected as captain of his company who had enlisted to fight in the Black Hawk War. Unlike Julius who ascended to power by the use of the army, Lincoln had to fight it out in a debate with Stephen Douglas. In the seven consecutive debates both Douglas and Lincoln were able to agree on much of the issue but the issue they disagreed with being the morality of slavery. Lincoln was against slavery while Douglas was in support of slavery (Henderson, 2008).
Findings
Just like Julius, Lincoln also made enemies when he rose to power. Reasons for having enemies were because of some decisions that Lincoln made such as the release of all slaves that were in all the southern states. Most of Lincoln enemies were some people from the south who did not want to let go of the slaves. Just like Julius the people of America looked up to Lincoln to make vital decisions and for leadership. Lincoln finally died on the 15th of April 1865 this was after being shot a day earlier by John Wilkes Booth who was an actor while watching a play at the Ford’s Theater in Washington, D.C. Unlike Julius who was stabbed severally by a many people Lincoln was killed by a single shot fired by one person. Both Lincoln and Julius had a child each at the time of their death (Henderson, 2008).
Conclusion
Even though both Lincoln lived at different times their policies were almost the same, even though the mode of application might have been different. The two leaders wanted change in their country but the changes they wanted might have been different and caused discomfort to a particular group of people. Some of the changes the two leaders wanted might have been responsible for their deaths but their legacy still lives on depending on some of the positive changes that they were able to bring.
Reference
Henderson, H. (2008). The Abraham Lincoln companion: a celebration of his life and times through a selection of remembrances, poems, songs, and tributes by relatives, friends, colleagues, and citizens, including important speeches and writings by Lincoln, along with a chronolo. New York: Omnigraphics.
Jeffrey, G., Petty, K., & Hadley, S. (2005). Julius Caesar: the life of a Roman general. New York: Rosen Central.
The Little Prisoner A Memoir
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The Little Prisoner: A Memoir
Stories of child abuse and neglect are usually heartbreaking, and ‘The Little Prisoner: A Memoir’ by Jane Elliott is no exception. So many children suffer horrific abuse at the hands of adults trusted to take care of them. Unfortunately, many of these children are too scared to come out and tell their stories due to threats and intimidation. Young children often do not know who to turn to, and adults take advantage of this innocence and naivety to abuse and neglect minors in their care. From the tender age of four, Jane Elliot was abused and neglected by her parents for seventeen years of her life until she managed to escape and build a life of her own. The most tragic part of the story is that Jane’s whole family knew of the abuse, but they never stood up for her. In fact, they sided with her abusive stepfather, claiming that he was family and therefore she should overlook everything he did to her.
Jane’s parents got divorced at an early age, and she went into foster care. However, she went back to her mother, who got married to a new man. Trouble soon started for Jane when her stepfather asked her to play ‘games’ with him, which were, in fact, acts of sexual abuse. This would go on for the next seventeen years, escalating as time passed. Jane was sexually abused, beaten up, threatened, controlled, and emotionally abused by her stepfather, while the rest of her family did nothing. Granted, they too experienced physical abuse in the hands of this man, but Jane had it so much worse. For seventeen years, the poor child endured horrific abuse, which is too much to bear for anyone, let alone a child. Eventually, at seventeen, Jane escaped her situation, encouraged by her boyfriend Steven and concerns for her daughter. Five years later, she gathered enough courage to report the abuse to the authorities. Unfortunately, her brave actions were met with hostility, and she received death threats and even a severe beating from her cousin. The story ends with Jane’s stepfather getting fifteen years in jail. Although the sentence represents some justice for Jane, it does not make up for the terrible things that happened to her.
Reading Jane’s book was gut-wrenching, and I had to stop several times to wipe away tears. The knowledge that the book is based on a real-life story made it even harder. The graphic nature of the abuse made me nauseous, and I could not believe that any human would treat a child like Richard treated Jane. The truth is that so many children suffer the same fate, and some never get justice for the horrific things done to them. Children are supposed to enjoy their innocent years happily, protected by their family and community. Jane never had this luxury; she was robbed of her innocence at four years. She was severely abused for almost two decades.
I cannot imagine the fear, pain, and loneliness that Jane felt growing up. Her own mother completely abandoned her and let her stepfather abuse her. The rest of her siblings also never spoke up for her. As a child, she expected her mother to protect her, but she had no one. It is a miracle that she survived as long as she did in the toxic environment. Jane suffered a lifetime of scars, and I am awed by her bravery in standing up for herself despite the threats she faced from her family. The stepfather eventually got a fifteen-year jail term, validating Jane’s efforts to get justice for her abuse. The justice system and other child protection agencies should do better to protect the lives of innocent children.
The Likely Convergence of HRM Practices in China and the US
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Module Code: HRMG3203
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Word Count: 767
Title of the Assignment: The Likely Convergence of HRM Practices in China and the US
As one of the most advanced Western Nations, the US exhibits the Variety of Capitalism strategy with regards to management of human resources. Precisely, the US is a liberal market economy (LME) that operates in various parts of the globe especially through its MNCs (Wheelahan and Moodie, 2017). On the other hand, China tends to adopt the Variety of Capitalism theory despite being one of the Eastern nations that operates under restrictive conditions and the rule of collectivism. Specifically, China has undergone significant developments on matters about human resource management (HRM), probably due to certain reasons such as its rapidly growing economy that has prompted an improved focus on MNCs as it (China) strives to determine and embrace the most suitable HRM practices to support its growing presence in the international market place (Liu, Burridge and Sinclair 2002). Therefore, HRM practices in China and the US are increasingly becoming similar owing to the rising pressure from MNCs and global pressure.
China and the US conduct performance appraisals each year to determine productivity of their employees and facilitate relevant processes such as job promotions, rewards and celebrations of overall employee achievements. Even so, workers in the US enjoy a highly-decentralized rewarding system that is based mainly on an individual’s qualification and performance levels (Gooderham, Nordhaug and Ringdal, 2006). Accordingly, big margins exist with regards to benefits between employees handling different positions. Fortunately, such significant variances act as motivators for better performance among employees. On the other hand, China evaluates productivity of its employees on a continuous basis at a personal level. Specifically, job descriptions serve as the main baseline for appraising workers in China. Even so, such type of performance appraisal in China resulted from the significant economic reforms that have transpired over the past couple of decades (Lamond and Zheng, 2010). Initially, China was concerned with performance of teams due to its focus on collectivism, but economic reforms have triggered the need for individual focus. Hence, appraisal systems in China and the US tend to converge.
Employees in both the US and China enjoy significant opportunities for learning and developing their careers owing to the high presence of necessary resources and facilities including substantial government funding and learning institutions such as universities and colleges. Accordingly, workers undergo rigorous vocational training and education sessions that attract more knowledge and skills needed for handling varied types of jobs. As a result, employees in the US and China experience low levels of uncertainty avoidance, thus most workers are not concerned with permanent jobs (Carraher, Buchanan and Puia, 2010). Instead, job mobility is common in the US and China because the workforces are well-equipped with vital skills and knowledge for handling different types of work. Even so, China has dramatically increased resources that are aimed at training and developing its employees (Akhtar, Ding and Ge, 2008: Cooke, 2009). Earlier on, China used to allocate limited resources on training and developing its employees. Therefore, a considerate degree of convergence exists with regards to employee development and training in China and the US.
However, a significant difference in power distance between China and the US greatly influence the degree of employee participations (Shi and Wang, 2011). Power distance in the US is low, hence, encouraging better engagement of all workers in generation of feedback for decision-making activities and improved understanding of their firms. On the other hand, traditional Chinese values tend to discourage employee participations while encouraging maintenance of harmony thorough the Confucian doctrine (Taormina and Gao, 2009). Accordingly, many employees in China may not have adequate understanding of their firms since they are primarily concerned with their jobs. Luckily, the increasing training and development programs as well as globalization and rise in MNCs continue to unravel the importance of engaging employees in developing their organizations (Habib, Zahra and Mushtaq, 2015). Hence, the otherwise initial high power distance would probably change to moderate and low power distance to encourage more lateral communications for better decision-making processes and comprehension of organizations by workers. Thus, China could be heading to a workplace environment where workers are encouraged to understand their firms well and contribute to their (organizations) development like in the US.
In conclusion, a significant degree of convergence exists with regards to HRM practices in the US and China. China is an Eastern country that has been facing significant influence from restrictive traditional values such as the Confucian doctrine and the focus on collectivism rather than individual employee. Luckily, it (China) has embraced considerate reforms that encourage appraisals and rewards at personal levels, allocation of more resources for training and development of employees and a shift toward better engagement of workers. The rising pressure from globalization and the growth of MNCs seem to facilitate the change in China’s HRM operations. Hence, China tends to work towards the institutional approach of Varieties of Capitalism concept like the US.
Reference List
Akhtar, S., Ding, D.Z. and Ge, G.L., 2008. Strategic HRM practices and their impact on company performance in Chinese enterprises. Human Resource Management: Published in Cooperation with the School of Business Administration, The University of Michigan and in alliance with the Society of Human Resources Management, 47(1), pp.15-32.
Carraher, S.M., Buchanan, J.K. and Puia, G., 2010. Entrepreneurial need for achievement in China, Latvia, and the USA. Baltic Journal of Management, 5(3), pp.378-396.Cooke, F.L., 2009. A decade of transformation of HRM in China: A review of literature and suggestions for future studies. Asia Pacific Journal of human resources, 47(1), pp.6-40.Gooderham, P., Nordhaug, O. and Ringdal, K., 2006. National embeddedness and calculative human resource management in US subsidiaries in Europe and Australia. Human Relations, 59(11), pp.1491-1513.Habib, S., Zahra, F. and Mushtaq, H., 2015. Impact of training and development on employees’ performance and productivity: A case study of Pakistan. European Journal of Business and Social Sciences, 4(08), pp.326-330.Lamond, D. and Zheng, C., 2010. HRM research in China: looking back and looking forward. Journal of Chinese Human Resource Management, 1(1), pp.6-16.Liu, X., Burridge, P. and Sinclair, P.J., 2002. Relationships between economic growth, foreign direct investment and trade: evidence from China. Applied economics, 34(11), pp.1433-1440.Shi, X. and Wang, J., 2011. Cultural distance between China and US across GLOBE model and Hofstede model. International Business and Management, 2(1), pp.11-17.Taormina, R.J. and Gao, J.H., 2009. Identifying acceptable performance appraisal criteria: An international perspective. Asia Pacific Journal of Human Resources, 47(1), pp.102-125.Wheelahan, L. and Moodie, G., 2017. Vocational education qualifications’ roles in pathways to work in liberal market economies. Journal of Vocational Education & Training, 69(1), pp.10-27.