Jong & Hartog - article review Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Jong & Hartog - article review - Essay Example The importance of innovation is further seen in the amount of research geared towards understanding how it can be encouraged and cultivated among organizational people. Some of these researches have looked at innovation in terms of a personality characteristic, while others examine it as a behavioral characteristic. The article under review has adopted the latter view. It looks at innovation as a behavioral aspect that can suffer or benefit from the manager’s involvement. In this case, the study looks at the positive aspect where interest is on what the managers can do to influence individual innovation. The study considers this as an extension of existent studies which have demonstrated that employees’ innovative behavior is largely reliant on employee interaction in the workplace (Jong & Hartog .p.42). The future of organizations lie in the ability of leaders to coordinate and integrate their employees differing styles via a process of applied creativity that comprise s defining novel problems, coming up with solutions to these problems and employing these solutions. This demonstrates the importance of leaders in prompting individual innovation, however, irrespective of this acknowledgment little research exists on the role of leadership in spurring employee innovation. It is the void resulting from this inadequacy that the present article seeks to address. The aim is to provide insight into the role of leaders in individual innovation. To create an objective study the article thoroughly examines the two main concepts, innovation and leadership. The researchers look at innovation as a process made up of two main phases, initiation and implementation. As a two staged process, the first step concludes with the production of an idea and the second stage concludes as soon as the idea is implemented (Jong & Hartog .p.43). This approach contributes to the adopted definition which considers innovative behavior as a multi-faceted, overriding construct th at represents all behaviors through which employees can contribute to the innovation process. The concern of the paper is idea generation and application behavior. In regard to leadership, the article considers leadership as the process of influencing others towards achieving some kind of desired outcome. The article mainly relies on the behavioral perspective of leadership as this will help in addressing how leader behavior influences employees’ idea generation and application behavior (Jong & Hartog .p.43). The next step is establishing a connection between leadership and individual innovation. This is enabled by looking at theory-based leadership styles. The theory-based leadership styles were originally developed for variant purposes such as the assessment of leaders’ impact on performance or effectiveness as opposed to innovation-related outcomes. Looking at the adopted approach it is possible to identify that the study dwells on the subject of leadership in relat ion to innovation. In this case, innovation is the dependent factor as it is influenced by the leadership approach. What is the paradigm? A research paradigm is a perspective about research held by a community of researchers that is based on a set of shared assumptions, concepts, values, and practices (Johnson and Christensen, 2012.p.31). More simply, it is an

Can there be peace in the Middle East based on the history of the area Research Paper

Can there be peace in the Middle East based on the history of the area - Research Paper Example Can peace ever be established there? There are initiatives under way, but the history of the region has shown that peace is elusive and fragile. There is always hope for a lasting agreement, and the world watches and waits for that moment to arrive. This paper discusses the events of the past, the problems, the initiatives, and the hope. Peace Plan for the Middle East Hot Bed of History The Middle East encompasses Western Asia and North Africa. It is arid and hot. Sometimes called the Near East, it has many rivers and irrigation channels to feed its agriculture. Its Persian Gulf contains one of the world’s most important assets: crude oil deposits. It has historically been a hot bed of political and religious turmoil. The origins of that turmoil include a crowded geography, differing political philosophies, economic pressures, and perhaps most importantly, division over religious claims to an area which has provided the historical origins of three leading world religions: Isla m, Judaism and Christianity. All three claim Jerusalem and surrounding â€Å"Holy Land† (modern Palestine) as home to their religious heritage. Culture of Combat The primary combatants for the Holy Land today are the Arabs and Israelis. But it wasn’t always that way. ... A century later, the Islamic leader, Saladin, who had Egypt under his control, led Islam in a holy war (â€Å"jihad)† against Christians, recapturing Jerusalem in 1187. So the area is known for its years of strife. But it was the Israel community which became the latter day opposition for the Arabs, and today’s conflict has become the focal point of Middle East politics and mutual aggression. Modern Day Conflict Today, the Jews and Arabs recognize that they are both losing this battle which has recently escalated between them. As Goldschmidt pointed out, things got hot during World War I. He said, â€Å"The duration and intensity of what we now call the Arab-Israeli conflict were due to the rise of nationalism in modern times" (Goldschmidt, 1999, p.231). Strangely enough, there is evidence that these two long-time adversaries have plans to try once again for peace in the region. That is a first step toward stability in an area that has rarely experienced it throughout all of history. Plan for improvement in relations Krause and Van Evera (2009) suggest several actions which could improve relations between the U.S. and the Middle East. Two-way dialogue with respect for the traditions of the Muslim world should replace one-way oratory. The use of facts over hyperbole and propaganda will better guide discussion. The dialogue should be conducted in an air of peace and desire for mutual understanding, without the background of conflict generated primarily by al-Qaeda around the world. The United States should confront and contest al-Qaeda at every opportunity and perhaps seek the assistance of nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) which could apply pressure to combative governments. Initiatives begun Conflict in the Middle East in recent years has focused on the