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Contemporary Business 16th Edition

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Boone & Kurtz / Contemporary Business, 16th edition Instructor’s Guide

CHAPTER 8
HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT:
FROM RECRUITMENT TO LABOR RELATIONS
Chapter Overview

The importance of employees to the success of any organization is the very basis of
management. In this chapter, we explore the issues of human resource management and
motivation. We begin with a discussion of the ways organizations attract, develop, and
retain employees. Then, we describe the concepts behind motivation and the way human
resource managers apply them to increase employee satisfaction and organizational
effectiveness.
We also discuss the reasons why labor unions exist and focus on legislation that
affects labor–management relations. The process of collective bargaining then is
discussed, along with tools used by unions and management in seeking their objectives.

Glossary of Key Terms

Collective bargaining: process of negotiation between management and union representatives


Compensation: amount employees are paid in money and benefits
Downsizing: process of reducing the number of employees within a firm by eliminating jobs
Employee benefits: additional compensation such as vacation, retirement plans, profit-sharing,
health insurance, gym memberships, child and elder care, and tuition reimbursement, paid
entirely or in part by the company
Employee separation: broad term covering the loss of an employee for any reason, voluntary or
involuntary
Equity theory: an individual’s perception of fair and equitable treatment
Expectancy theory: the process people use to evaluate the likelihood that their efforts will yield
the results they want, along with the degree to which they want those results
Goal-setting theory: says that people will be motivated to the extent to which they accept
specific, challenging goals and receive feedback that indicates their progress toward goal
achievement
Human resource management: function of attracting, developing, and retaining employees who
can perform the activities necessary to accomplish organizational objectives
Labor union: group of workers who have banded together to achieve common goals in the areas
of wages, hours, and working conditions
Management by objectives: systematic approach that allows managers to focus on attainable
goals and to achieve the best results based on the organization’s resources
Maslow’s hierarchy of needs: theory of motivation proposed by Abraham Maslow. According

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to the theory, people have five levels of needs that they seek to satisfy: physiological, safety,
social, esteem, and self-actualization.
Outsourcing: transferring jobs from inside a firm to outside the firm
Performance appraisal: evaluation of and feedback on an employee’s job performance
Salary: pay calculated on a periodic basis, such as weekly or monthly
Wage: pay based on an hourly rate or the amount of work accomplished

Annotated Lecture Outline

Learning Objective 1:
Explain the role of human resources: the people behind the people.
Human resource managers are responsible for attracting, developing, and retaining the
employees who can perform the activities necessary to accomplish organizational
objectives. They plan for staffing needs, recruit and hire workers, provide for training,
evaluate performance, determine compensation and benefits, and oversee employee
separation.

Opening Vignette: Glassdoor Helps Job Seekers and


Employers
Technology and the use of online data have helped change
the job search for the better, and Glassdoor is leading the
way. Glassdoor is an online job site that assists people
seeking work to find the right fit with the right employer.
The company provides employer information,
compensation data, and reviews by current employees –
specifics that come in handy when applicants are looking
for potential employers. Less than a decade old, Glassdoor
has more than 5 million reviews, salary reports, and
interview reviews for 300,000 companies – all used by job
seekers as part of their search. Glassdoor’s community
includes 23 million members across 190 countries.
Companies large and small use the site to support
recruiting and branding efforts.
HUMAN RESOURCES: THE PEOPLE BEHIND THE PowerPoint Slide 3
PEOPLE
a. Human resource management is the Lecture Enhancer: What is
function of attracting, developing, and the definition of job
retaining employees who can perform the satisfaction?
activities necessary to accomplish Lecture Enhancer: A few of

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organizational objectives. the factors driving employee


loss include: changing labor
markets, wage inflation due to
competition for specific
skills, lack of employee
engagement, and retirement.
b. Five core responsibilities of human PowerPoint Slide 4
resource managers: Figure 8.1 Human Resource
Management Responsibilities
i. plan for staffing needs Lecture Enhancer: The role of
human resource manager has
become increasingly
important in today’s
environment.
ii. recruit and hire workers
iii. provide training and evaluate Class Activity: The industry
employee performance website for human resource
professionals, www.shrm.org,
has many resources for
today’s HR professionals.
iv. determine compensation and
benefits
v. oversee employee separation.
c. Three main objectives of human resource PowerPoint Slide 5
managers:
i. providing qualified, well-trained Lecture Enhancer: Discuss
employees for the organization the challenge of finding
qualified employees and
keeping them satisfied.
ii. maximizing employee effectiveness Class Activity: Provide
in the organization examples of what
“maximizing employee
effectiveness in the
organization” means.
iii. satisfying individual employee
needs through monetary
compensation, benefits,
opportunities to advance, and job
satisfaction.
d. Human resource plans must be based on an

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organization’s overall competitive


strategies.

Assessment Check Answers

1.1 What are the five main tasks of a human resource manager?
The five main tasks are planning for staffing needs, recruiting and hiring workers,
providing for training and performance evaluation, determining compensation and
benefits, and overseeing employee separation.

1.2 What are the three overall objectives of a human resource manager?
They are providing qualified, well-trained employees for the organization, maximizing
employee effectiveness, and satisfying individual employee needs through monetary
compensation, benefits, opportunities to advance, and job satisfaction.

Learning Objective 2:
Describe recruitment and selection.
Human resource managers use internal and external methods to recruit qualified
employees. They may use college job fairs, personal referrals, want ads, and other
resources. Internet recruiting is now the fastest, most efficient, and inexpensive way to
reach a large pool of job seekers. Firms must abide by employment laws during selection
in order to avoid lawsuits. Before hiring candidates, human resource managers may
require employment tests that evaluate certain skills or aptitudes. When all of this is
complete, there is a better chance that the right person will be hired for the job.

RECRUITMENT AND SELECTION PowerPoint Slide 6


PowerPoint Slide 7
Steps in the Recruitment and Selection Process: Figure 8.2 Steps in the
Recruitment and Selection
Process
Lecture Enhancer: Which
steps seem most important
in this process?
1. Finding Qualified Candidates
a. Companies often have trouble finding the right Class Activity: Ask
person for each position. students how they found
the last job they had.

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b. In addition to traditional methods of recruiting, Hit and Miss


most companies now rely on their Web sites. Accenture’s Mobile
Recruitment Strategy
c. The vast majority of companies currently use the Lecture Enhancer:
Internet to fill job openings. Recruiters are
increasingly relying on
social media, and even
Twitter, to find qualified
employees.
d. Recruiting techniques continue to evolve as
technology advances.
2. Selecting and Hiring Employees PowerPoint Slide 8

a. The human resource manager selects and hires Lecture Enhancer: What
employees, often in conjunction with department are the consequences of
managers or supervisors. hiring when it is done in a
rushed or panic mode?
b. Every firm must follow state and federal
employment laws.
i. Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 Class Activity: Discuss
prohibits employers from discriminating recent public employer
against applicants based on their race, lawsuits resulting from the
religion, color, sex, or national origin. violation of the laws
listed.
ii. The Americans with Disabilities Act of
1990 prohibits employers from
discriminating against disabled applicants.
iii. The Civil Rights Act created the Equal
Employment Opportunity Commission
(EEOC) to investigate discrimination
complaints, ensure that employees will be
hired and managed without discrimination,
and to help set up affirmative action
programs to increase job opportunities for
protected groups.
iv. The Civil Rights Act of 1991 allows for a
jury trial, punitive damages, and damages
for emotional distress in cases of
employment discrimination.
v. Opponents to such laws have launched

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initiatives to restrict affirmative action


standards and protect employers against
unnecessary litigation.
vi. Failure to comply with legislation can result
in legal fees, fines, bad publicity, and poor
employee morale.
vii. Human resource managers must understand
the laws in order to prevent unintended
violations.
c. Recruitment and selection are expensive.
i. One formula estimates that the total cost of Lecture Enhancer: What
mis-hiring top-level managers amounts to are some specific
24 times the candidate’s annual pay. examples of these costs?

ii. To avoid these mistakes, many employers


require applicants to complete employment
tests.

Hit & Miss:


Accenture’s Mobile Recruitment Strategy
How would you like to use a mobile app to shop for a new career in much the same way
that you shop online for shoes? With more job seekers using mobile devices to search for
positions, Chicago-based Accenture, a global management consulting firm, uses mobile
career pages and social platforms to compete for workforce talent. Accenture’s career app
allows mobile users to receive notifications, read job descriptions, ask questions, sign up
for alerts, and search for jobs by location. The app provides public podcasts, insights, and
company information for job seekers. Accenture’s mobile-friendly approach is a good
branding strategy, and it increases the chance that candidates will engage with the
company directly. Candidates can even record answers to written interview questions
from their mobile devices, which allows Accenture recruiters to watch the videos anytime
and anywhere.
Questions for Critical Thinking
1. In the competitive world of recruitment, what are the benefits to Accenture
to using a mobile approach?
Close to 20 percent of job candidates are using mobile devices to search for jobs,
so it is Accenture’s best interest to have a mobile-optimized website. A mobile
approach allows candidates to search for and apply for jobs while traveling,
commuting, on the go, or away from a traditional desktop computer. While many
companies already use social media to interact, attract, and recruit candidates
from their target audiences, Accenture’s mobile recruitment strategy allows

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reaching an even greater number of qualified candidates.


2. Do you believe that mobile recruiting increases hiring success rates and
choosing the right candidate for the job? Discuss its pros and cons.
This answer will vary.
Pros: Growing use of mobile devices for job search, a good branding strategy,
better engagement (public podcasts, insights, company information), increased
targeting by location, faster and more intuitive personalized messaging.
Cons: When applicants are allowed to sign up for job vacancy text alerts, this
may create a crowded applicant pool, including many unqualified, the
“maximum” candidate experience cannot be replaced with a mobile recruitment
app, to be effective, a company must have a mobile recruitment strategy in place.

Assessment Check Answers

2.1 Describe several recruiting techniques used by human resource managers.


Techniques include college job fairs, personal referrals, want ads, company Web sites,
online job sites, and social networking sites.

2.2 What is the function of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission


(EEOC)?
The EEOC investigates discrimination complaints and helps employers set up affirmative
action programs.

Learning Objective 3:
Discuss orientation, training, and evaluation.
New employees often participate in an orientation where they learn about company
policies and practices. Training programs provide opportunities for employees to build
their skills and knowledge and prepare them for new job opportunities within the
company. They also give employers a better chance of retaining employees. Performance
appraisals give employees feedback about their strengths and weaknesses and how they
can improve.

ORIENTATION, TRAINING, AND EVALUATION PowerPoint Slide 9


a. Employees need to know what is expected of them
and how well they are performing.
b. During orientation, employees learn about company
policies regarding their rights and benefits.
1. Training Programs
a. Training is a good investment for both employees

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and employers.
b. Training provides employers with a better chance at
retaining long-term, loyal, high-performing
workers.
c. On-the-Job Training
i. On-the-job training prepares employees for
job duties by allowing them to perform
tasks under the guidance of experienced
employees.
ii. A variation of on-the-job training is Lecture Enhancer: Discuss
apprenticeship training, in which an the pros and cons of
employee learns a job by serving for a time implementing
as an assistant to a trained worker. apprenticeship training
within a professional
business environment.
iii. In Europe, many new entrants to white-
collar professions complete apprenticeships.
d. Classroom and Computer-Based Training
i. Many firms offer some form of classroom
instruction, such as lectures, conferences,
and workshops or seminars.
ii. Many are replacing classroom training with
computer-based training programs.
iii. Computer-based training is cheaper and Lecture Enhancer: Discuss
offers consistent presentations along with the pros and cons of
videos that can simulate the work computer-based training
environment. versus classroom training.
e. Management Development
i. A management development program
provides training to improve the skills and
broaden the knowledge of current or future
managers and executives.
ii. Many companies are searching for new Lecture Enhancer: Procter
hires to fill gaps in their executive ranks & Gamble managers are
because they failed to develop future considered the Navy
managers. SEALS of management –
due mainly to the
company’s top
management training
program.

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iii. Firms must identify individuals with the desire


to advance and develop their skills to keep
them.
2. Performance Appraisals PowerPoint Slide 10
a. Feedback about performance is the best way for a Lecture Enhancer: The
company and its employees to improve. purpose of a performance
review is to shed light on
what an employee should
be doing better, or how
they can improve. Is this
always the outcome?
b. A performance appraisal is the evaluation of and CareerKickstart:
feedback on an employee’s job performance. How to Prepare for a
Performance Review
c. A performance appraisal can include everything
from attendance to goals met.
d. Some experts argue that a performance review is
skewed in favor of a single manager’s subjective
opinion.
e. If a performance review is to be at all effective, it Class Activity:
should meet the following criteria: Do performance appraisals
accomplish that for which
they were designed --
coaching, feedback, setting
pay, determining
promotions, and
documentation?
i.takes place several times a year
ii.is linked to organizational goals
iii.is based on objective criteria
iv. takes place in the form of a two-way
conversation.
f. The 360-degree performance review is a process
that gathers feedback from a review panel of 8 to
12 people, including coworkers, supervisors, team
members, subordinates, and sometimes even
customers.
i. A 360-degree performance review tries to
get feedback from as many perspectives as
possible.

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ii. This process requires a lot of work, but


employees benefit from it to a greater
degree.
iii. Managers benefit because they get feedback
from all parts of the organization.

CareerKickstart:
How to Prepare for a Performance Review
Performance reviews can bring about feelings of anxiety and uncertainty for both
employees and supervisors. Tips to prepare for a performance review include: knowing
yourself and evaluating your performance, thinking about your future, provide details and
evidence of how you met or exceeded performance goals, and stay professional when
receiving constructive criticism.

Assessment Check Answers

3.1 What are the benefits of computer-based training?


Computer-based training offers consistent presentations, interactive learning, and
employees can learn at their own pace. It also is less expensive than other types of
training.

3.2 What is a management development program?


A management development program provides training designed to improve the skills
and broaden the knowledge of current or future managers and executives.

3.3 What are the three criteria of an effective performance appraisal?


A performance appraisal should take place several times a year, be linked to
organizational goals, be based on objective criteria, and be a two-way conversation.

Learning Objective 4:
Describe compensation.
Firms compensate employees with wages, salaries, incentive pay systems, and benefits.
Benefit programs vary among firms, but most companies offer healthcare programs,
insurance, retirement plans, paid time off, and sick leave. A growing number of
companies are offering flexible benefit plans and flexible work plans, such as flextime,
compressed workweeks, job sharing, and home-based work.

COMPENSATION PowerPoint Slide 11

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a. Compensation is the amount employees are paid in


money and benefits.
b. Balancing compensation for employees at all job Class Activity: Lead a
levels can be a challenge for human resource discussion on whether
managers. students think there should
be a limit or ceiling on
compensation for
executives, and the pros
and cons of such a limit.
c. The compensation of top executives has become a Hit & Miss:
major issue among employees and shareholders. Boost Employees’ Morale
– and They’ll be
Motivated
d. A wage is pay based on an hourly rate or the amount
of work accomplished.
e. A salary is pay calculated on a periodic basis, such as
weekly or monthly.
f. An effective compensation system should attract
well-qualified workers, keep them satisfied in their
jobs, and inspire them to succeed.
g. Certain laws, including minimum wage, must be
taken into account.
h. Most firms base their compensation policies on the Lecture Enhancer:
following factors: What other factors should
be considered when
making compensation
decisions?
i. what competing companies are paying
ii. government regulation
iii. the cost of living
iv. company profits
v. the employee’s productivity.
i. Firms may offer some type of incentive PowerPoint Slide 12
compensation in addition to salaries or wages: Lecture Enhancer: What
are the pros and cons of
each type of incentive
compensation?
i. profit sharing bonuses based on company Figure 8.3 Four Forms of
profits Incentive Compensation
ii. gain sharing by distributing the financial Lecture Enhancer:

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value of productivity gains, cost savings, or Research conducted in


quality improvements with workers laboratories suggest that
incentives can limit
performance, particularly
in situations requiring
creativity and
innovation. Do you agree?
iii. lump-sum bonuses and stock options—one-
time cash payments or the right to buy
stock—based on performance
iv. pay for knowledge, with wage or salary
increases as employees learn new job tasks.
1. Employee Benefits PowerPoint Slide 13
a. Employee benefits are additional compensation such Lecture Enhancer: What
as vacation, retirement plans, profit-sharing, health are the pros and cons of
insurance, gym memberships, child and elder care, each type of
and tuition reimbursement, paid entirely or in part by compensation?
the company.
b. Benefits account for approximately 30 percent of PowerPoint Slide 14
total employee compensation. Table 8.1 Average Costs
for Employee
Compensation
c. Some benefits are required by law:
i. Social Security, Medicare, unemployment Lecture Enhancer:
insurance, and worker’s compensation In a recent year, it is
contributions projected that companies
will pay close to $13,000
per employee, on average,
to provide health care
benefits. Does this seem
high, low or about
average?
ii. The Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993
requires covered employers to offer up to 12
weeks of unpaid, job-protected leave to
eligible employees.
iii. Some advocates are pressing lawmakers to
require businesses to provide paid sick leave.

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d. With costs soaring nearly 15 percent each year,


employers are passing along healthcare costs to
employees.
e. Pensions and retirement plans also are benefits. Class Activity: Discuss the
benefits of a 401k plan and
why it makes sense for
employees to maximize
their contributions.
2. Flexible Benefits PowerPoint Slide 15
a. In response to increasing diversity in the workplace, Class Activity: With a
firms are developing creative ways to tailor their multi-generational
benefit plans to the needs of employees. workforce, flexible benefits
have become increasingly
popular.
b. Flexible benefit plans, also called cafeteria plans,
offer employees a choice of benefits, including
different types of medical insurance, dental and
vision plans, and life and disability insurance.
i. This flexibility allows one working spouse to
choose medical coverage for the entire family,
while the other spouse chooses other types of
coverage.
ii. Cafeteria plans also offer tax benefits to both
employees and employers.
c. Instead of set numbers of holidays, vacation days, Lecture Enhancer:
and sick days, some employers offer paid time off Discuss the pros and cons
(PTO). of an unlimited vacation
policy.
i. Employees use days from their PTO accounts
without having to explain why they need the
time.
ii. The greatest disadvantage is that it is an
expensive benefit for employers.
3. Flexible Work PowerPoint Slide 16

a. Flexible work plans allow employees to adjust their


working hours or places of work according to their
needs.
i. Flexible work plan options include flextime,
compressed workweeks, job sharing, and

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home-based work (telecommuting).


ii. These benefit programs have reduced
employee turnover and absenteeism, and
boosted productivity and job satisfaction.
iii. Flexible work has become critical in Lecture Enhancer: With
attracting and keeping talented human dual-income households, a
resources. multi-generational
workforce, diverse family
structures, and increased
time and job pressures,
employers who do not
provide flexibility to their
employees may not remain
competitive.
b. Flextime allows employees to set their own work
hours within certain constraints rather than
scheduling everyone to work between 8:00 a.m. and
5:00 p.m.
i. Companies set core hours when all employees
are expected to be present.
ii. Employees then can choose whether to work
early or late outside the core hours.
iii. Flextime works well with jobs that are Class Activity: Some
independent but not so well when teams or companies have shifted
direct customer service are involved. their policies -- previously
remote workers are now
required to spend their
days in the office. Discuss
the pros and cons of such a
policy shift.
iv. Specialized software helps employers manage
flextime scheduling.
c. A compressed workweek allows employees to work Lecture Enhancer: Discuss
longer hours on fewer days. the impact of flexible work
on communication and
collaboration within the
workplace.
i. can reduce the number of hours employees
spend commuting each week
ii. can expand the company’s overall workday,

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providing more availability to customers in


other time zones.
d. A job-sharing program allows two or more
employees to divide the tasks of one job.
i. This plan appeals to older workers, students,
working parents, and people of all ages who
want to devote time to personal interests.
ii. Requires a lot of cooperation and
communication between the partners.
iii. Some economists believe that a federal job-
sharing program would help prevent layoffs
during times when unemployment is high.
e. Home-based work programs allow employees, or Lecture Enhancer: What
telecommuters, to perform their jobs from home are some specific
instead of at the workplace. drawbacks to
telecommuting?
i. Telecommuters are connected to their
employers via the Internet, cell phone, and the
like.
ii. Working from home generally appeals to
employees with disabilities, older workers,
and parents.
iii. Companies benefit because they can expand
their pool of talent and increase productivity
without increasing costs.
iv. Telecommuters need to be self-disciplined
and reliable employees.
v. Managers need to be comfortable with setting
goals and managing from afar.

Hit & Miss:


Boost Employees’ Morale —And They’ll Be Motivated
According to experts, the secret to nurturing high performing employees lies not in
motivating, but in stopping their demotivation. After six months, there is a decline in the
motivation of most new employees. Managers need to figure out what reduces
employees’ morale and motivation and then work on eliminating those factors. One of the
best places to start in this effort is for managers to really listen to employees. The next
step is to involve employees in decisions that directly affect them, and provide
reinforcement and recognition for top performance.
Questions for Critical Thinking

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1. How do employees lose their motivation to perform on the job?


Studies indicate that several employees lose enthusiasm as early as six months into a new
job because they feel like they’re lacking a connection with their company. For example,
the longer many employees stay with a company, the more they feel neglected through
recognition in the form of simple “thank yous” or “good job” messages from their
employers.
2. What is the cost to a business when it loses a valued employee?
A business can lose a lot when a value employee leaves. They could have production
drop, and the value employee could’ve helped motivate and train other employees if she
or he had stayed on the job.

Assessment Check Answers

4.1 Explain the difference between wage and salary.


Wages are based on an hourly pay rate or the amount of work accomplished. Salaries are
paid periodically, such as weekly or monthly. Salaries do not fluctuate with hours
worked.

4.2 What are flexible benefit plans? How do they work?


Flexible benefit plans offer employees a choice of benefits, including different types of
medical insurance, dental and vision plans, and life and disability insurance. Typically,
each employee receives a set allowance to pay for these benefits depending on his or her
needs.

Learning Objective 5:
Discuss employee separation.
Employee separation occurs when a worker leaves his or her job, voluntarily or
involuntarily. Sometimes an employee is terminated because of poor job performance or
unethical behavior. Downsizing is the process of reducing the number of employees
within a firm in order to cut costs and achieve a leaner organization. However, some
negative effects include anxiety and lost productivity among remaining workers;
expensive severance packages; and a domino effect in the local economy. Outsourcing
involves transferring jobs from inside a firm to outside the firm. While some expenses
may be cut, a firm may experience a backlash in performance and public image.

EMPLOYEE SEPARATION PowerPoint Slide 17


Employee separation is a broad term covering the loss of an
employee for any reason, voluntary or involuntary.
a. Voluntary separation includes workers who

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resign to take a job at another firm or start a


business.
b. Involuntary separation includes downsizing and Lecture Enhancer: An at-
outsourcing. will employer is one who
reserves the right to
terminate employees
without cause - generally
does not need to worry
about wrongful discharge
claims.
1. Voluntary and Involuntary Turnover Class Activity: Ask students
about some of the issues
that might result from
extremely low employee
turnover.
a. Voluntary turnover occurs when the employee
resigns to take another job, starts a new
business, or retires.
i. Some firms ask employees to participate
in exit interviews to find out why they
decided to leave.
b. Involuntary turnover occurs when employees
are terminated because of poor job performance
or unethical behavior in business practices or in
the workplace, or when firms are forced to
eliminate jobs as a cost-cutting measure.
i. It is never easy for either the human resource
manager or the employee.
ii. Human resource managers should remain calm Lecture Enhancer: What are
and professional, and must be educated in some potential legal pitfalls
employment laws. that an HR manager must
avoid during an involuntary
separation?
2. Downsizing and Outsourcing PowerPoint Slide 18
a. Downsizing is the process of reducing the
number of employees within a firm by
eliminating jobs.
b. Downsizing can be accomplished through early
retirement plans or voluntary severance
programs.

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c. Research is beginning to show that downsizing


does not guarantee improvements in profits.
d. Downsizing can have the following negative
effects:
i. anxiety, health problems, and lost productivity
among remaining workers

ii. severance packages paid to laid-off workers

iii. domino effect on the local economy.


3. Outsourcing Class Activity: Discuss jobs
that are least likely to be
outsourced.
a. Outsourcing involves transferring jobs from Lecture Enhancer: While
inside a firm to outside the firm. outsourcing saves
significant labor costs, what
are some of its drawbacks?
b. Jobs that can be outsourced include office
maintenance, deliveries, food service, security,
manufacturing, design, information technology
(IT), and accounting.
c. Companies try to outsource functions that are
not part of their core business.

Assessment Check Answers

5.1 What is the difference between voluntary and involuntary turnover?


Voluntary turnover occurs when employees resign and leave firms to start their own
businesses, take jobs with other firms, move to another community, or retire. Involuntary
turnover occurs when employees are terminated because of poor job performance or
unethical behavior. It can also occur when a company is forced to eliminate jobs.

5.2 What is downsizing? How is it different from outsourcing?


Downsizing is the process of reducing the number of employees within a firm by
eliminating jobs. Downsizing is done to cut overhead costs and streamline the
organizational structure. With outsourcing, companies contract with other firms to
perform noncore jobs or business functions, such as maintenance or accounting. This
allows companies to focus on what they do best and can result in a downsized workforce.

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Learning Objective 6:
Explain the different methods for motivating employees.
Employee motivation starts with high employee morale. According to Maslow’s
hierarchy of needs, people satisfy lower-order needs (such as food and safety) before
moving to higher-order needs (such as esteem and fulfillment). Herzberg’s two-factor
model of motivation is based on the fulfillment of hygiene factors and motivation factors.
Expectancy theory suggests that people use these factors to determine whether to put
forth the effort to complete a task. Equity theory refers to a person’s perception of fair
and equitable treatment. Goal-setting theory says that people will be motivated to the
extent to which they accept specific, challenging goals. Job design also is used by
managers for motivation.

MOTIVATING EMPLOYEES PowerPoint Slide 19


a. Smart employers are constantly looking for
ways to motivate workers.
b. Motivation starts with high employee morale –
a positive attitude towards the job.
i. High employee morale generally results
from an understanding of human needs
and an effort to satisfy those needs.
ii. Low employee morale signals a poor
relationship between managers and
employees and often results in
absenteeism, voluntary turnover, and a
lack of motivation.
c. Managers use rewards and punishments to Lecture Enhancer: Discuss
motivate employees. examples of common
rewards and punishments in
the workplace.
i. Extrinsic rewards are external to the work
itself, such as pay.
ii. Intrinsic rewards are feelings related to Class Activity: Ask students
performing the job. to compare and contrast
extrinsic vs. intrinsic
rewards, and how each is
important.
iii. Punishment involves a negative consequence Solving an Ethical
for a particular behavior. Controversy: Monitoring
Employees ’ Social Media
Activities

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d. All theories of motivation relate to need. Figure 8.4 The Process of


Motivation
1. Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs Theory PowerPoint Slide 20
a. Maslow’s hierarchy of needs theory is a theory Lecture Enhancer: Basic
of motivation proposed by Abraham Maslow. needs are said to motivate
people when they remain
unmet.
b. The theory is based on these assumptions:

i. Peoples’ needs depend on what they


already possess.
ii. A satisfied need is not a motivator; only
needs that remain unsatisfied can
influence behavior.
iii. Needs are arranged in a hierarchy of
importance; once one need is satisfied,
at least partially, another emerges and
demands satisfaction.
c. There are five types of human needs: Class Activity: What
techniques might a manager
use to appeal to an employee
with a primary need in each
of the model’s five
categories?
i. Physiological needs—food, shelter,
clothing (pay and work environment)
ii. Safety needs—physical and economic
protection (retirement plans, job
security, safe environment)
iii. Social (belongingness) needs—
acceptance by others (good relationships
with coworkers, opportunities for group
activities)
iv. Esteem needs—feeling valued and
recognized by others (rewards and
respect for a job well done)
v. Self-actualization needs—fulfillment of
dreams and capabilities (challenging
work, chance for advancement)
d. The basic needs must be satisfied before the

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higher-order needs can emerge.


2. Herzberg’s Two-Factor Model of Motivation PowerPoint Slide 21
a. Hygiene factors refer to aspects of work that are not Lecture Enhancer: When
directly related to a task itself but related to the might a hygiene factor be a
job environment. major motivator?
b. Motivator factors relate directly to the specific
aspects of a job, including job responsibilities,
achievement and recognition, and opportunities
for growth.

c. Hygiene factors can result in job satisfaction, but Class Activity: Have students
motivator factors produce high levels of think of additional hygiene
motivation. factors that do not give
positive satisfaction, though
dissatisfaction results from
their absence.
3. Expectancy Theory and Equity Theory PowerPoint Slide 22 Figure
8.5 Vroom’s Expectancy
Theory
a. Expectancy theory describes the process people
use to evaluate the likelihood that their efforts
will yield the results they want, along with the
degree to which they want those results.

b. People use three factors to determine how much


effort to put forth:
i. the person’s subjective prediction that a
certain effort will lead to the desired
result (can-do approach)
ii. the value of the outcome (reward) to the
person
iii. the person’s assessment of how likely a
successful performance will lead to a
desirable reward.
c. Equity theory is concerned with an individual’s Lecture Enhancer: Do you
perception of fair and equitable treatment. think the principles of equity
theory hold true for all
personality types? Why or
why not?

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i. Employees first consider their effort and


then their rewards.
ii. Next, employees compare their results
against those of their coworkers.
iii. If employees feel they are Figure 8.6 Equity Theory
underrewarded for their effort in
comparison with others doing similar
work, they will decrease their effort.
iv. If employees feel they are Class Activity: Employees
overrewarded, they will feel guilty and seek to maintain equity
put more effort into their job to reduce between the inputs that they
guilt. bring to a job and the
outcomes that they receive
from it against the perceived
inputs and outcomes of
others. Does this theory
apply to the environment in
your classroom, or at
school?
4. Goal-Setting Theory and Management by Objectives PowerPoint Slide 23
Figure 8.7 Components of
Goal-Setting Theory
a. Needs motivate people to direct their behavior Lecture Enhancer:
toward something—a goal—to satisfy those Goals create tension between
needs. the current state of affairs
and the desired state of
affairs. Describe this
tension.
b. Goal-setting theory says that people will be
motivated to the extent to which they accept
specific, challenging goals and receive feedback
that indicates their progress toward goal
achievement. The components of goal-setting
theory are:
i. Goal specificity is the extent to which Class Activity: Ask students
goals are clear and concrete. to apply the components of
goal setting theory to a goal
they have set for themselves.
ii. Goal difficulty outlines how hard the
goal is to reach.

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iii. Goal acceptance is the extent to which


people understand and agree to the goal.
iv. Performance feedback is information
about performance and how well the
goal has been met.
c. Goals help focus workers’ attention on the
important parts of their jobs, and they energize
and motivate people.
d. Management by objectives (MBO) is a PowerPoint Slide 24
systematic approach that allows managers to
focus on attainable goals and to achieve the best
results based on the organization’s resources.
i. MBO motivates individuals by aligning
their objectives with the goals of the
organization, increasing overall
organizational performance.
ii. MBO clearly outlines people’s tasks, Lecture Enhancer:
goals, and contributions to the company. Why might MBO focus on the
“contributions” an employee
makes to the company rather
than his or her job
“responsibilities”?
iii. MBO principles include: 1) related Class Activity: MBO is a
organizational goals and objectives, 2) collaborative process
objectives for each person, 3) between managers and
participative decision making, 4) a set employees. Discuss the
time period, and 5) performance benefits of this type of
evaluation and feedback. collaboration.
5. Job Design and Motivation PowerPoint Slide 25
a. Job enlargement is a job design that expands Lecture Enhancer: Which of
responsibilities by increasing the number and these methods of job design
variety of tasks. would be the most motivating
to you? Why?
b. Job enrichment involves an expansion of job
duties that empowers an employee to make
decisions and learn new skills leading toward
career growth.
c. Job rotation involves systematically moving Class Activity: Discuss the
employees from one job to another to increase benefits of job rotation from

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work interest and motivation. the employer’s perspective.


6. Managers’ Attitudes and Motivation PowerPoint Slide 26
a. A manager’s attitude toward his or her Lecture Enhancer: Discuss
employees greatly influences their motivation. the fact that Theory X and
Theory Y have more to do
with perceptions managers
have about employees, rather
than the way they generally
behave.
b. Two theories regarding assumptions managers Student Activity: Have
make about employees, according to Douglas students compare and
McGregor: contrast particular jobs
where Theory X might be
applicable, and those where
Theory Y might be more
applicable.
i. Theory X assumes that employees
dislike work and try to avoid it
whenever possible, so management
must coerce them to do their jobs.
ii. Theory Y assumes that the typical person
actually likes work and will seek and
accept greater responsibility.
c. Theory Z, by William Ouchi, views worker
involvement as the key to increased
productivity for the company and improved
quality of work life for employees.

Solving an Ethical Controversy:


Monitoring Employees ’ Social Media Activities
A study by the Society for Human Resource Managers (SHRM) reveals that more than
half of hiring managers report using social media sites to screen and research job
applicants. But what happens when companies check out their employees’ presence and
comments on social media and use this information in the work setting? Social media
issues continue to blur the lines between a candidate’s private and work life. Employees
need to be mindful that their social media behavior can be viewed by anyone – including
their employer.

Assessment Check Answers

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6.1 What are the four steps in the process of motivation?


The four steps are need, motivation, goal-directed behavior, and need satisfaction.

6.2 Explain goal-setting theory.


People will be motivated to the extent to which they accept specific, challenging goals
and receive feedback that indicates their progress toward goal achievement.

6.3 Describe the three ways that managers re-structure jobs to increase employee
motivation.
Three ways that employers apply motivational theories to restructure jobs are job
enlargement, job enrichment, and job rotation. Job enlargement is a job design that
expands an employee’s responsibilities by increasing the number and variety of tasks
they entail. Job enrichment is an expansion of job duties that empowers employees to
make decisions to make decisions and learn new skills leading toward career growth. Job
rotation involves systematically moving employees from one job to another.

Learning Objective 7:
Discuss labor–management relations.
Labor unions have resulted in the improvement of wages and working conditions for
many workers over the past century, along with the passage of significant labor laws.
Unions achieve these improvements through the collective bargaining process, resulting
in an agreement. Most labor–management disputes are settled through the grievance
process, in which sometimes mediation or arbitration is necessary.

LABOR–MANAGEMENT RELATIONS PowerPoint Slide 27


1. Development of Labor Unions Lecture Enhancer: The largest
union in the United States,
representing public school
teachers, is the 3 million-
member National Education
Association (NEA).
a. A labor union is a group of workers who have
banded together to achieve common goals in
the areas of wages, hours, and working
conditions.
b. Labor unions are found at local, national, and
international levels.
i. A local union represents union
members in a specific area, such as a

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single community.
ii. A national union is a labor
organization consisting of numerous
local chapters.
iii. An international union is a national
union with membership outside the
United States, usually in Canada.
c. More than 15 million U.S. workers—about 12 Student Activity: Discuss the fact
percent of the nation’s full-time workforce— that some jobs typically are union
belong to labor unions. jobs, whereas others usually
aren’t. Why might this be?
i. Only about 8 percent of workers in the Lecture Enhancer: Why might
private sector are unionized. unionization be more common in
the public sector?
ii. More than one-third of government
workers belong to unions.
2. Labor Legislation PowerPoint Slide 28
i. The National Labor Relations Act of Lecture Enhancer: The NLRB
1935 (Wagner Act) legalized is an independent federal
collective bargaining and required agency vested with the power
employers to negotiate with elected to safeguard employees' rights
representatives of their employees. to organize and to determine
whether to have unions as their
bargaining representative.
ii. The Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 Student Activity: Discuss
set the first federal minimum wage the minimum wage issues
and maximum basic workweek for in the local or national
certain industries. It also outlawed news as it relates to fast
child labor. food companies.
iii. The Taft-Hartley Act of 1947 (Labor–
Management Relations Act) limited
unions’ power by banning: 1) coercion
of employees to join, 2) discrimination
of nonunion employees, 3) picketing
or conducting secondary boycotts or
strikes for illegal purposes, and 4)
excessive initiation fees.
iv. The Landrum-Griffin Act of 1959
(Labor–Management Reporting and
Disclosure Act) promoted honesty and

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democracy in running unions’ internal


affairs.
3. The Collective Bargaining Process PowerPoint Slide 29
a. Collective bargaining is the process of
negotiation between management and union
representatives.
b. Union contracts often are the result of weeks Lecture Enhancer: What are
or months of discussion, disagreement, some potential benefits and
compromise, and eventual agreement. drawbacks to working under
a union contract?
c. Once agreement is reached, union members
must vote to accept or reject the contract.
d. If the contract is rejected, union Class Activity: Companies
representatives may resume the bargaining such as airplane maker,
process with management representatives, or Boeing Co. has both union and
union members may strike to obtain their non-union operations. A
demands. longer version of the
Dreamliner, scheduled for
delivery in 2018, will be the
first Boeing jetliner model built
solely in a nonunion factory.
4. Settling Labor–Management Disputes PowerPoint Slide 30

a. Most labor–management negotiations result


in a signed contract.
b. A dispute is usually settled through a
grievance procedure, mediation, or
arbitration.
c. The union contract serves as a guide to
relations between the firm’s management and
its employees.
i. A grievance is a complaint that Figure 8.8 Steps in the
management is violating some portion Grievance Procedure
of the contract.
ii. Mediation is the process of settling
labor–management disputes through
an impartial third party.
iii. Arbitration occurs when the grievance Lecture Enhancer:
is not solved through mediation, and Discuss how an
an outside arbitrator renders a legally arbitrator might be

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binding decision. agreed upon by both the


union and management.
5. Competitive Tactics of Unions and Management PowerPoint Slide 31
a. Union Tactics Lecture Enhancer: Discuss the
pros and cons of each tactic.
i. A strike, or walkout, involves a Case 8.2
temporary work stoppage by workers Strikes: Who Wins, Who
until a dispute has been settled or a Loses?
contract signed.
ii. Picketing involves workers marching
in a public protest against their
employer.
iii. A boycott is an organized attempt to Class Activity: Ask students if
keep the public from purchasing the they have ever boycotted a
goods or services of a firm. firm’s products or services,
and why they did so.
b. Management Tactics
i. Companies commonly try to recruit
strikebreakers.
ii. Some transfer supervisors and other
nonunion employees to continue
operations during strikes.
6. The Future of Labor Unions PowerPoint Slide 32
a. Many economies have shifted from Class Activity: Discuss why
manufacturing to information and service, so labor unions have been
union membership and influence has described as “the death of a
declined. movement unable to cope with
technological change.”
b. Labor unions can maintain relevance by:
i. being more flexible and adapting to a
global economy and diverse
workforce
ii. responding to the growing need for Going Green: Labor Unions
environmentally responsible business and Green Construction
and manufacturing processes
iii. establishing collaborative
relationships with human resource
managers and other management
officials.

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Going Green:
Labor Unions and Green Construction
The Operative Plasterers and Cement Masons International Association (OPCMIA) is
training its members in the use of new green technologies and processes. As the
construction industry begins implementing these new technologies, particularly to
achieve LEED status, workers need to know how to use them. The OPCMIA training
program is called Green Five. The Green Five program includes Green Awareness
Training, which deals with energy-efficient building construction, energy assessment, and
retrofitting existing buildings, and provides an overview of environmentally sustainable
products and manufacturing processes. Leadership training and “train-the-trainer”
courses are offered as well.
Questions for Critical Thinking
1. How does a progressive stance toward “green” training help secure an important
industry role for OPCMIA going forward?
By adopting a progressive stance toward green training, OPCMIA ensures that union
employees are the most highly and relevantly trained employees in the industry, thus
solidifying the importance of the union’s existence among both workers and employers.
2. Besides construction, what other industries might benefit from unions taking a
leadership role in sustainability training? How might these steps benefit workers,
unions, and management?
Industries that might benefit from unions providing sustainability training to its
employees include manufacturing, retail, food preparation, and nearly every other
industry. Workers in any industry would benefit because the training would make them
more sought-after by potential employers. Unions would benefit because their existence
would be increasingly important within their industries as providers of ongoing job
training. Management would benefit because employees would be better trained in
implementing sustainability practices.

Assessment Check Answers

7.1 What is a labor union? What is collective bargaining?


A labor union is a group of workers who have banded together to achieve common goals
in the areas of wages, hours, and working conditions. Collective bargaining is the
process of negotiation between management and union representatives.

7.2 What are the three main tactics used by unions to win support for their
demands?
Unions use strikes (walkouts), picketing, and boycotts.

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Answers to Review Questions

1. Why has Internet recruiting become such an important tool for human resource
managers?
Internet recruiting has become an important tool for human resource managers because
it significantly saves costs regarding the announcement of and recruitment for open
positions within the company and because it enables recruiters to reach a much larger
pool of candidates than ever before.

2. Recruitment and selection are expensive. So, what precautions do human


resource managers take to make sure they are hiring the right person for each job?
Human resource managers often use screening procedures in order to eliminate any
candidates who clearly do not match their needs. Some companies might use cognitive
testing, others might use personality tests. Many use drug testing to ensure candidates
are drug-free. In addition, a human resource manager must ensure that there are no
violations of labor laws and regulations during the recruiting and selection process.

3. Give an example of a type of job that would be appropriate for on-the-job


training. Then describe specifically how you think this type of training would work
for your selected job, including types of tasks a new hire might learn this way.
Answers will vary.
One example of a job that would be appropriate for on-the-job training might be
customer service representative. A new hire would receive better training regarding the
specific expectations of this job (such as company-approved responses to frequently
asked questions or common customer complaints) by sitting next to a mentor and
observing his or her methods of handling the job’s demands than he or she would by
attending a course or reading a manual.

4. On what five factors are compensation policies usually based? Name at least three
employee benefits that are required by law and three more that are provided
voluntarily by many firms.
Compensation policies usually are based on these five factors: salaries and wages paid
by other firms competing for the same people, government legislation including
minimum-wage laws, the cost of living, the firm’s ability to pay, and worker productivity.
Four benefits required by law are Social Security, Medicare, family leave, and
unemployment contributions. Students should be able to create a long list of voluntary
benefits, including pension plans, 401(k) plans, medical and dental benefits, tuition
reimbursement, PTO, flex hours, and added amenities such as daycare or fitness
programs.

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5. Describe four types of flexible work plans. Identify an industry that would be
well-suited to each type of plan, and explain why.
Types of flexible work plans and industries suited to each plan:
• Flextime: Consulting, design, architectural, advertising, or engineering
industries, as they allow for individual work (although shared meeting times still
would be mandatory).
• Compressed work week: Manufacturing, printing, paper, steel, and other
production industries, because those working in factories, plants, or on assembly
lines often show higher production and morale, and lower absenteeism and
termination, when working longer shifts over fewer days.
• Job sharing: Publishing, legal, or accounting industries (as well as those
mentioned for flextime), provided that the individuals involved can work out
complementary schedules that overlap at some point, and they can cooperate,
communicate, and trust one another.
• Home-based work schedules: Real estate, sales, consulting, some online retail
and marketing, and professional industries (although the list is expanding to
include many industries due to Internet access, email, and shared networks),
because the location is not a big concern and face-to-face contact can be
arranged as needed.

6. Why do companies downsize? What are some of the drawbacks to downsizing?


Why do companies outsource? What are some of the drawbacks to outsourcing?
Two main reasons for downsizing include cutting overhead costs and streamlining
operations and structure.
Downsizing can have a devastating effect on employee morale, leading to
insecurity, anger, and an unstable workforce as more leave for secure jobs. It can affect a
firm’s reputation, public image, and ability to attract and hold quality employees.
Ultimately, downsizing can actually hurt productivity and cut profits.
Companies try to outsource functions that are not part of their core business in
order to reduce operating costs. Some drawbacks to outsourcing include language and
cultural differences among employees and between employees and customers; differences
in employees’ training backgrounds; and difficulties in maintaining open communication
among employees and managers due to time zone differences or geographical distance.

7. Select three different theories of motivation, and explain how each can be used by
managers to motivate employees.
• Maslow’s hierarchy of needs theory is based on three assumptions: that
individuals’ needs depend on what they already possess, that satisfied needs do
not motivate a person—only unsatisfied needs influence their behavior, and that

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needs are seen in a hierarchy of importance, so when one is satisfied, focus on


another one develops. Managers can provide wages, benefits, and challenging job
assignments to meet employees’ needs.
• Theory Z views worker involvement as the key to increased productivity for the
company and improved quality of work life for employees. Managers can give
employees challenging assignments plus benefits that improve their quality of life.
• Expectancy theory and equity theory stress the importance of employee
expectations and perceptions of fairness in determining how much effort they will
put forth. Managers can offer equal pay for equal effort and train employees so
that they feel confident in their job performance.

8. Suppose a manager of a popular sandwich shop maintains a Theory X


assumption about employees. At the beginning of each workweek, what types of
things might the manager tell his or her employees? Now suppose the manager has a
Theory Y assumption; then Theory Z. Describe what he or she might say to
employees.
Theory X assumes that employees dislike work and try to avoid it whenever possible, so
management must coerce them to do their jobs. A manager who espouses this theory
might tell his employees that if they miss a day of work or are more than five minutes
late, they will be fired.
Theory Y assumes that the typical person actually likes work and will seek and
accept greater responsibility. A manager who embraces this theory might encourage his
employees’ natural motivation to accept greater responsibility by proposing an assistant-
manager training program.
Theory Z views worker involvement as the key to increased productivity for the
company and improved quality of work life for employees. A manager who believes in
Theory Z might hold weekly brainstorming meetings in which employees are encouraged
to share their ideas for improving customer service at the shop.

9. In what major ways has labor legislation changed the workplace during the past
century? How might the workplace be different today without this legislation?
The major ways in which labor legislation has changed the workplace during the past
century is by setting a federal minimum wage and maximum workweek length and by
outlawing child labor. In addition, labor legislation has worked to reduce discrimination
in the workplace and in hiring practices and has regulated unions.

10. What are mediation and arbitration? Describe a situation that you think might
result in arbitration.
Mediation is the process of settling labor–management disputes through an impartial
third party. Arbitration occurs when the grievance is not solved through mediation, and

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an outside arbitrator renders a legally binding decision. Contract negotiations between a


local teachers’ union and the school board in which the parties cannot agree upon
compensation levels might result in arbitration if they cannot be resolved through the
mediation process.

Projects and Teamwork Applications

1. What attributes distinguish the consulting firm you have identified and researched?
What makes the firm different or unique from others? Based on your research, what
type of persons would be attracted to working with this firm?

2. Based on your research, how would you describe the company you selected to others?
What benefits are most appealing to you? What benefits seem the weakest or are
missing altogether?

3. What kind of conflicts can you see occurring based on your division of tasks? Do you
think the workload within each job portion is equal? Can you think of any examples
of people who have felt their job-sharing experience was unfair?

4. Can you identify someone whom you think has his or her “dream job”? Who and
why?

5. Were there any “undesirable consequences” resulting from the law? What impact has
the law had upon labor practices so far?

Web Assignments

Note: Internet Web addresses change frequently. If you do not find the exact sites listed,
you may need to access the organization’s home page and search from there or use a
search engine such as Bing or Google.

1. Human resources (HR) as a profession. Go to the Web site below and review
the data about HR managers.
a. What do HR managers do?
b. What is the job outlook for HR managers?
c. Review and discuss “How to become a Human Resource Manager” link
on the website.
http://www.bls.gov/ooh/management/human-resources-managers.htm

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2. Society for Human Resource Management. If you are interested in the industry,
or working in human resources, you might want to learn about the Society for
Human Resource Management (SHRM). An industrywide organization, SHRM
supports its members with advocacy, education, seminars, career search, and
more. Go to the websites listed below to find out more about the organization.
How would becoming a student member help you decide if HR management is a
field for you?
www.shrm.org/Communities/SHRMChapters/ProfessionalChapters/Pages/default
.aspx#search
www.shrm.org/Communities/SHRMChapters/StudentChapters/Pages/default.aspx

3. Teamsters. The Teamsters is one of the nation’s largest and oldest labor unions.
Go to the union’s Web site and review the material. When was the union
founded? Originally, the union represented workers in what industry? How many
members do the Teamsters currently have? Other than the United States, in what
other country does the union represent workers?
http://www.teamster.org

Case 8.1

Evernote’s Message to Employees: Go on Vacation


Evernote, a California-based maker of note-taking and archiving technology apps, lets its
300 or so employees know that taking vacation is part of the job requirement. The
company has made an effort to go beyond the typical two weeks of vacation offered by
most companies. At Evernote, there is no limit on the number of vacation days an
employee can take. Initially, Evernote’s CEO worried that workers would take fewer
days off, so as to not abuse the unlimited vacation policy, but overall, they have
responded favorably to the policy, and there has been very little reported abuse.
Evernote’s CEO believes that treating employees as adults and measuring them on what
they’ve accomplished in the workplace is essential.

Answers to Questions for Critical Thinking

1. Discuss the impact of an unlimited vacation policy on employees who have to


cover for their colleagues taking several weeks off at a time. What strategies need to
be implemented to avoid burnout for those covering others’ projects?
Covering for another employee during vacation can cause temporary overload, so in
order to avoid burnout for those covering projects for others, companies with mandatory
vacation policies must be watchful of vacation scheduling, particular for smaller

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departmental units.

2. In this ever-connected world, how can employers encourage their workers to


“turn off” the workweek?
Some employers require workers to leave by a certain evening hour, while others, like
Evernote, require vacations. Some employers have a culture which suggests an equal
balance between work and home life. Many times, this includes on-site well-being and
health programs.

Case 8.2

Winning HR Practices at the Cheesecake Factory


The Cheesecake Factory was voted consumer’s favorite casual restaurant two years in a
row, a lot of which is owed to the company’s dedication to employee satisfaction.
Managers at the 170-store chain work on building strengths and skills that employees
already possess. Rather than waiting to find out what employees liked and disliked about
their experience until they take exit interviews, the Cheesecake Factory conducts what
they refer to as “stay interviews” to ask employees while they’re working there what they
like about the company and what the company could improve to benefit employees.

Answers to Questions for Critical Thinking

1. How can the Cheesecake Factory’s “stay interviews” affect its bottom line?
The Cheesecake Factory’s “stay interviews” shows their employees that they are
committed to keeping them on board and ensuring their satisfaction so that they stay.
This makes more sense than finding out what the company can improve upon after
employees choose to leave.

2. Do you see any downside to managers’ ability to tailor jobs to employees’


strengths? Explain.
Although management’s ability to tailor jobs to employees’ strengths can give the
employees a sense of accomplishment, they could become too comfortable staying in
specific job roles. This could cause difficulties if management wanted to cross-train
employees or if they needed particular employees to fill in for other employees who have
different skill sets and who are absent or leave the company.

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Case 8.3

Timberland’s Culture Rooted in Community Building


Timberland’s employees agree that what makes the firm unique is the way its culture is
brought to life every day, supported by company values of humanity, humility, integrity,
and excellence. The role of the human resources department, closely aligned with the
company’s social responsibility team, is to ensure all events and programs reinforce and
support the company’s culture of giving, which is at the very foundation of this New
Hampshire-based global lifestyle company. The connection between corporate social
responsibility and human resources is at the core of Timberland’s values. Community
involvement not only enhances a community outside of Timberland but also creates one
within. As a result of the company’s community involvement, workplace collaboration is
enhanced, and associates have a unique opportunity to build relationships with leaders
and managers throughout the organization, regardless of rank. Its human resource
department has spent decades reinforcing the company’s unique culture through events
and programs that connect associates in a meaningful way. At Timberland, the
company’s corporate culture has proved to be as durable as its iconic yellow work boot.

Answers to Questions for Critical Thinking

1. Volunteerism and service are key components of Timberland’s corporate


values. For each of the human resource functions outlined in the chapter,
provide examples of the skills employees gain through the company’s culture
of volunteerism and community service.
- Plan for staffing needs – volunteer projects require assembling groups of
volunteers with specific skills (similar to staffing)
- Recruit and hire workers – volunteerism requires recruiting and reaching out
for volunteers
- Provide for training and evaluate performance – once volunteers sign up, there
is training and development which needs to take place. Performance may be
evaluated on a far less formal basis, though feedback is given to improve
outcomes.
- Determine compensation and benefits – compensation, though non-monetary,
is provided on more an intrinsic basis. Teamwork and camaraderie are forms of
compensation which result from volunteerism. Similarly, giving back to one’s
community can be a form of compensation.
- Oversee employee separation – while not necessarily applicable, a situation
may present itself when a volunteer is unable to complete his/her volunteer duties.
Reasons can range from work obligations and commitments to lack of follow
through.

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2. Provide specific examples of how Timberland’s values of humanity, humility,


integrity, and excellence come to life within the organization.
Timberland’s values come to life within the organization through:
a. Humanity: the company’s Path of Service program, which has logged
over 1 million service hours by its employees
b. Humanity: the company’s commitment to volunteerism
c. the company’s commitment to protecting the environment
d. Humanity and Integrity: its Sustainable Living Environment (SLE)
program, our supplier sustainability team (SST) spends time with factory
workers and managers to understand if they are able to meet basic needs
and if factory employment is helping to improve their lives.
e. Excellence and humanity: Use of organic, renewable, or recycled material
in its high quality footwear.
f. Excellence: leading by example.
g. Integrity: A strict code of ethics is in place with manufacturers and
suppliers.
h. Humanity: In a Timberland factory in India, there is a daycare center
onsite for the children of factory workers.
i. Humility: Timberland is transparent in its communication.
j. Excellence: Timberland is constantly searching for new ways to improve
– whether it be profitability or sustainability.

3. Discuss Timberland’s flexible schedule options and the benefits to employees.


Does the company support telecommuting and flexible scheduling options?
What impact, if any, does this have on company results?
Timberland is genuinely concerned about the well being of their employees. The
company offers flexible schedule options, which includes telecommuting and
flexible work schedules. There is a daycare center and an on-site gym.
Timberland believes that providing flexible work options to employees allows for
a work-life balance. The impact on company results is positive. When employees
are happy, less stressed and more productive, the company benefits. Work
schedules are discussed with managers so that associates have an opportunity to
create schedules which are mutually beneficial. Having said that, Timberland
knows when face-to-face meetings make sense, and the company certainly
exercises that option.

4. Discuss the various ways Timberland keeps its employees motivated. Discuss
the ways employees are encouraged to seek out opportunities on their own
and to pursue their own path for career development.

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Part of Timberland’s talent acquisition strategy includes recruiting associates


who are self-starters, self-driven and self-motivated. The company searches for
candidates who possess “fire in the belly,” according to one human resource
professional. The question then becomes how to keep employees motivated, and
Timberland likes to think that the essence of its culture and fantastic work
environment does just that. Opportunities for professional growth are abundant.
On an annual basis, 25% of the company’s open jobs are filled by internal
applicants.
Employees are encouraged to seek out opportunities through

Collaborative Learning Exercises

1 – Job Recruitment

Learning Objective: 2

Purpose: To explore the trade-offs between internal and external recruiting.

Background: Clearly, both internal and external recruiting offer significant benefits and
drawbacks, although many students approach this topic with strong, preconceived notions
about which is better. This short, discussion-based exercise is designed to help them
develop a more well-rounded perspective on each method of recruiting workers.

Relationship to Text: Finding Qualified Candidates – Learning Objective 2

Estimated Class Time: Less than 10 minutes

Preparation/Materials: Paper and pen/pencil

Exercise: Ask your students to jot down whether they believe internal or external
recruiting makes more sense for most companies. Request a show of hands, and record
the results on the board.
Then, as a class, brainstorm the strengths and weakness of each approach. As you
write their responses on the board, they will begin to see that both approaches have major
benefits and drawbacks.
When you have fleshed out your list—it should take about five minutes—ask for
a new tally of which approach is better. You probably will notice a significant change in
the numbers. Help your students understand that most successful companies use a mix of
the two, with an emphasis on promotion from within.

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2 – Training Programs and Management Development

Learning Objective: 3

Purpose: To help your students develop a better understanding of how some companies
conduct and execute management development and training programs.

Background: Jack Welch, an author, businessman, and one of the greatest leaders of all
time, was the CEO of General Electric for two decades until 2001. During his tenure, the
company’s value rose 4000%. He is well known for leadership and management
philosophies implemented at General Electric. Though he has been gone from GE for
quite some time, an analysis of some of his training methods will provide excellent
insight.
General Electric held an annual executive development course (EDC), during
which Welch spoke to approximately 30 employees. What follows below are some of
Welch’s comments and required questions.*
Welch provided a few questions for executives to contemplate (on an individual
basis) prior to the course. They included:
• Please be prepared to describe a leadership dilemma that you have faced in
the past 12 months, i.e., plant closing, work transfer, HR, buy or sell a
business, etc.
• Think about what you would recommend to accelerate the Quality drive
across the company.
• I’ll be talking about “A, B & C” players. What are your thoughts on just
what makes up such a player?
• I’ll also be talking about energy/energizing/edge as key characteristics of
today’s leaders. Do you agree? Would you broaden this? How?

Relationship to Text: Orientation, Training, and Evaluation – Learning Objective 3

Estimated Class Time: Approximately 15 minutes

Preparation/Materials: Paper and pen/pencil

Exercise: Even though students may not be overly familiar with Jack Welch and General
Electric, prepare answers based upon their own personal experience(s).
Before you share the answers with the class, ask your students whether the
questions provided introspective thought to develop leaders.

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Would students add additional questions to the list?


If so, what would those questions be?

*Source: The Leadership Engine. http://wenku.baidu.com/view/948c41f34693daef5ef73d23.html

3 – CEO Pay

Learning Objective: 4

Purpose: To highlight the growing issue of CEO pay.

Background: Exorbitant CEO pay has made the business news again and again in the last
few years. As the text points out, there is a growing, and highly visible, wage gap
between the average CEO and his or her average worker. Does the average CEO really
deserve that much more money than the average worker? This exercise is designed to
familiarize students with both sides of the issue and to help them develop a thoughtful
point of view.

Relationship to Text: Compensation – Learning Objective 4

Estimated Class Time: Approximately 15 minutes

Preparation/Materials: You may want to look up the pay of your college or university
president as a point of comparison when you talk about CEO pay.

Exercise: Here is Business Insider’s list of the top ten highest paid CEOs for 2013,* listed
by total direct compensation, which includes salary, annual incentives, and long-term
incentives.
1. Lawrence J. Ellison, Oracle
2013 Compensation: $76.9M / One-Year Change: -18.7%
2. Leslie Moonves, CBS
2013 Compensation: $65.4M / One-Year Change: 11.1%
3. Michael T. Fries, Liberty Global
2013 Compensation: $45.4M / One-Year Change: 248.2%
4. Richard C. Adkerson, Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold
2013 Compensation: $38.9M / One-Year Change: 125.1%
5. Philippe P. Dauman, Viacom
2013 Compensation: $36.8M / One-Year Change: 11.0%
6. Robert A. Iger, Disney
2013 Compensation: $33.4M / One-Year Change: -8.1%

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7. Jeffrey L. Bewkes, Time Warner


2013 Compensation: 32.4% / One-Year Change: 26.9%
8. Mark T. Bertolini, Aetna
2013 Compensation: $31.2M / One-Year Change: 174.9%
9. Fabrizio Freda, Estee Lauder
2013 Compensation: $30.9M / One-Year Change: 140.1%
10. Jeffrey R. Immelt, General Electric
2013 Compensation: $28.2M / One-Year Change: 262.1%
Before you share the list, ask your students to guess which companies are on it
and how much the CEOs are paid. (You may be surprised by some of the answers!) Do
they think CEOs deserve that level of pay? If yes, why? If no, should the government step
in to regulate CEO pay?
Some students may believe that CEOs do indeed earn their pay because—in a
somewhat circular argument—if they are being paid so much they must be doing an
excellent job leading their companies.
However, recent events where CEOs have been highly compensated in spite of
poor or negligent performance suggest that this may not always be the case.
Ask your students if they have any ideas about a better way to handle CEO pay.
Typically, they offer very interesting ideas for how to tie CEO pay to performance.

*Source: Business Insider, May 28, 2014, “The 20 Highest Paid CEOs in America,”
http://www.businessinsider.com/highest-paid-ceos-in-america-2014-5

4 – Motivation

Learning Objective: 6

Purpose: To introduce students to the wide range of motivational factors.

Background: Jack Welch, former CEO of General Electric, had his pre-defined ways of
motivating his top performers. He is quoted as saying “constantly refine your gene pool
by promoting your best performers and weeding out your worst.” Called “rank and
yank,” management at GE assessed employees annually by placing them into three
distinct buckets: the top 20 percent, the middle 70 percent, and the bottom 10 percent.
Welch believed that the only top 20 percent should be given praise, generous
financial rewards, and appreciation.
Some companies lose sight of their top performers, instead spending an inordinate
amount of time developing the middle 70 percent, or for that matter, the bottom 10
percent. Welch believed in improving the middle 70 percent and getting rid of the
bottom 10 percent.

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Relationship to Text: Motivating Employees – Learning Objective 6

Estimated Class Time: Less than 10 minutes

Preparation: None needed

Exercise: Brainstorm with your class about whether this type of development philosophy
makes sense in today’s organizations. Do you believe that it is important to stay focused
on top performers? Is the focus on middle level performers at the expense of top
performers? Is forgetting top performers a mistake? What might be the consequences if
top performers are left to their own volition?
As a manager, do you agree with Jack Welch’s philosophy? List the ways you
might you motivate top performers so that they continue at peak performance. Similarly,
list the strategies that you might employ to make middle-level performers top performers.
Do you agree that the bottom performers should go?

5 – Negotiation

Learning Objective: 7

Purpose: To give students experience in creating win–win negotiating scenarios.

Background: Interestingly, many students do not yet seem to realize that getting what
they want is much easier through collaboration rather than conflict. Although most
students will not handle formal union negotiations, virtually all of them will experience
the continual negotiations of the daily workplace. This exercise is designed to help them
handle both formal and informal negotiations through practice creating win–win
scenarios.

Relationship to Text: Settling Union–Management Disputes – Learning Objective 7

Estimated Class Time: Approximately 20–25 minutes

Preparation/Materials: You may want to develop some negotiating scenarios that are
particularly relevant for your students, in addition to the scenarios outlined below. Also,
it helps to make copies of the negotiating scenarios for each student (see the Appendix
for a copy-friendly version).

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Exercise: Divide your class into groups of three to five students to plan negotiating each
of the scenarios below. (This exercise is most effective when more than one group has
each scenario so that they can compare and contrast strategies.)
• Goal: Get the teacher to reschedule a business exam for a student who is
absent due to a business meeting, when the teacher’s syllabus clearly
states that if a student misses an exam, he or she simply will score zero.
• Goal: Secure a 5 percent pay raise after six months on the job, when
company policy states that raises are given only after one year of service.
• Goal: Gain management agreement to work from home two days a week,
when there is no existing policy for telecommuting at your company.
Announce that after 10 minutes of strategizing, each group will need to appoint a
spokesperson to role-play their side of the negotiation, with you, in front of the class.
Before they begin, remind them to seek common ground—what values and goals
do they share with the other party? Encourage them to use those assumptions—plus
creativity and open-mindedness—to help both sides “win.” Also, remind them to
anticipate objections and plan responses.
When the groups present, you may want to concede to those that do well, and
jokingly deny (e.g., “You’re fired!”) those that do poorly. Follow-up discussion is usually
rich: What worked? What did not? How did different groups approach the same issues?

Copyright ©2015 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 8-43


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XI
Briefly, then, there are two ways of regarding the Classical—the
materialistic and the ideological. By the former, it is asserted that the
sinking of one scale-pan has its cause in the rising of the other, and
it is shown that this occurs invariably (truly a striking theorem); and in
this juxtaposing of cause and effect we naturally find the social and
sexual, at all events the purely political, facts classed as causes and
the religious, intellectual and (so far as the materialist tolerates them
as facts at all) the artistic as effects. On the other hand, the
ideologues show that the rising of one scale-pan follows from the
sinking of the other, which they are able to prove of course with
equal exactitude; this done, they lose themselves in cults, mysteries,
customs, in the secrets of the strophe and the line, throwing scarcely
a side-glance at the commonplace daily life—for them an unpleasant
consequence of earthly imperfection. Each side, with its gaze fixed
on causality, demonstrates that the other side either cannot or will
not understand the true linkages of things and each ends by calling
the other blind, superficial, stupid, absurd or frivolous, oddities or
Philistines. It shocks the ideologue if anyone deals with Hellenic
finance-problems and instead of, for example, telling us the deep
meanings of the Delphic oracle, describes the far-reaching money
operations which the Oracle priests undertook with their
accumulated treasures. The politician, on the other hand, has a
superior smile for those who waste their enthusiasm on ritual
formulæ and the dress of Attic youths, instead of writing a book
adorned with up-to-date catchwords about antique class-struggles.
The one type is foreshadowed from the very outset in Petrarch; it
created Florence and Weimar and the Western classicism. The other
type appears in the middle of the 18th Century, along with the rise of
civilized,[21] economic-megalopolitan[22] politics, and England is
therefore its birthplace (Grote). At bottom, the opposition is between
the conceptions of culture-man and those of civilization-man, and it
is too deep, too essentially human, to allow the weaknesses of both
standpoints alike to be seen or overcome.
The materialist himself is on this point an idealist. He too, without
wishing or desiring it, has made his views dependent upon his
wishes. In fact all our finest minds without exception have bowed
down reverently before the picture of the Classical, abdicating in this
one instance alone their function of unrestricted criticism. The
freedom and power of Classical research are always hindered, and
its data obscured, by a certain almost religious awe. In all history
there is no analogous case of one Culture making a passionate cult
of the memory of another. Our devotion is evidenced yet again in the
fact that since the Renaissance, a thousand years of history have
been undervalued so that an ideal “Middle” Age may serve as a link
between ourselves and antiquity. We Westerners have sacrificed on
the Classical altar the purity and independence of our art, for we
have not dared to create without a side-glance at the “sublime
exemplar.” We have projected our own deepest spiritual needs and
feelings on to the Classical picture. Some day a gifted psychologist
will deal with this most fateful illusion and tell us the story of the
“Classical” that we have so consistently reverenced since the days of
Gothic. Few theses would be more helpful for the understanding of
the Western soul from Otto III, the first victim of the South, to
Nietzsche, the last.
Goethe on his Italian tour speaks with enthusiasm of the buildings
of Palladio, whose frigid and academic work we to-day regard very
sceptically: but when he goes on to Pompeii he does not conceal his
dissatisfaction in experiencing “a strange, half-unpleasant
impression,” and what he has to say on the temples of Pæstum and
Segesta—masterpieces of Hellenic art—is embarrassed and trivial.
Palpably, when Classical antiquity in its full force met him face to
face, he did not recognize it. It is the same with all others. Much that
was Classical they chose not to see, and so they saved their inward
image of the Classical—which was in reality the background of a life-
ideal that they themselves had created and nourished with their
heart’s blood, a vessel filled with their own world-feeling, a phantom,
an idol. The audacious descriptions of Aristophanes, Juvenal or
Petronius of life in the Classical cities—the southern dirt and riff-raff,
terrors and brutalities, pleasure-boys and Phrynes, phallus worship
and imperial orgies—excite the enthusiasm of the student and the
dilettante, who find the same realities in the world-cities of to-day too
lamentable and repulsive to face. “In the cities life is bad; there are
too many of the lustful.”—also sprach Zarathustra. They commend
the state-sense of the Romans, but despise the man of to-day who
permits himself any contact with public affairs. There is a type of
scholar whose clarity of vision comes under some irresistible spell
when it turns from a frock-coat to a toga, from a British football-
ground to a Byzantine circus, from a transcontinental railway to a
Roman road in the Alps, from a thirty-knot destroyer to a trireme,
from Prussian bayonets to Roman spears—nowadays, even, from a
modern engineer’s Suez Canal to that of a Pharaoh. He would admit
a steam-engine as a symbol of human passion and an expression of
intellectual force if it were Hero of Alexandria who invented it, not
otherwise. To such it seems blasphemous to talk of Roman central-
heating or book-keeping in preference to the worship of the Great
Mother of the Gods.
But the other school sees nothing but these things. It thinks it
exhausts the essence of this Culture, alien as it is to ours, by treating
the Greeks as simply equivalent, and it obtains its conclusions by
means of simple factual substitutions, ignoring altogether the
Classical soul. That there is not the slightest inward correlation
between the things meant by “Republic,” “freedom,” “property” and
the like then and there and the things meant by such words here and
now, it has no notion whatever. It makes fun of the historians of the
age of Goethe, who honestly expressed their own political ideals in
classical history forms and revealed their own personal enthusiasms
in vindications or condemnations of lay-figures named Lycurgus,
Brutus, Cato, Cicero, Augustus—but it cannot itself write a chapter
without reflecting the party opinion of its morning paper.
It is, however, much the same whether the past is treated in the
spirit of Don Quixote or in that of Sancho Panza. Neither way leads
to the end. In sum, each school permits itself to bring into high relief
that part of the Classical which best expresses its own views—
Nietzsche the pre-Socratic Athens, the economists the Hellenistic
period, the politicians Republican Rome, poets the Imperial Age.
Not that religious and artistic phenomena are more primitive than
social and economic, any more than the reverse. For the man who in
these things has won his unconditional freedom of outlook, beyond
all personal interests whatsoever, there is no dependence, no
priority, no relation of cause and effect, no differentiation of value or
importance. That which assigns relative ranks amongst the individual
detail-facts is simply the greater or less purity and force of their form-
language, their symbolism, beyond all questions of good and evil,
high and low, useful and ideal.
XII
Looked at in this way, the “Decline of the West” comprises nothing
less than the problem of Civilization. We have before us one of the
fundamental questions of all higher history. What is Civilization,
understood as the organic-logical sequel, fulfilment and finale of a
culture?
For every Culture has its own Civilization. In this work, for the first
time the two words, hitherto used to express an indefinite, more or
less ethical, distinction, are used in a periodic sense, to express a
strict and necessary organic succession. The Civilization is the
inevitable destiny of the Culture, and in this principle we obtain the
viewpoint from which the deepest and gravest problems of historical
morphology become capable of solution. Civilizations are the most
external and artificial states of which a species of developed
humanity is capable. They are a conclusion, the thing-become
succeeding the thing-becoming, death following life, rigidity following
expansion, intellectual age and the stone-built, petrifying world-city
following mother-earth and the spiritual childhood of Doric and
Gothic. They are an end, irrevocable, yet by inward necessity
reached again and again.
So, for the first time, we are enabled to understand the Romans as
the successors of the Greeks, and light is projected into the deepest
secrets of the late-Classical period. What, but this, can be the
meaning of the fact—which can only be disputed by vain phrases—
that the Romans were barbarians who did not precede but closed a
great development? Unspiritual, unphilosophical, devoid of art,
clannish to the point of brutality, aiming relentlessly at tangible
successes, they stand between the Hellenic Culture and
nothingness. An imagination directed purely to practical objects—
they had religious laws governing godward relations as they had
other laws governing human relations, but there was no specifically
Roman saga of gods—was something which is not found at all in
Athens. In a word, Greek soul—Roman intellect; and this antithesis
is the differentia between Culture and Civilization. Nor is it only to the
Classical that it applies. Again and again there appears this type of
strong-minded, completely non-metaphysical man, and in the hands
of this type lies the intellectual and material destiny of each and
every “late” period. Such are the men who carried through the
Babylonian, the Egyptian, the Indian, the Chinese, the Roman
Civilizations, and in such periods do Buddhism, Stoicism, Socialism
ripen into definitive world-conceptions which enable a moribund
humanity to be attacked and re-formed in its intimate structure. Pure
Civilization, as a historical process, consists in a progressive taking-
down of forms that have become inorganic or dead.
The transition from Culture to Civilization was accomplished for
the Classical world in the 4th, for the Western in the 19th Century.
From these periods onward the great intellectual decisions take
place, not as in the days of the Orpheus-movement or the
Reformation in the “whole world” where not a hamlet is too small to
be unimportant, but in three or four world-cities that have absorbed
into themselves the whole content of History, while the old wide
landscape of the Culture, become merely provincial, serves only to
feed the cities with what remains of its higher mankind.
World-city and province[23]—the two basic ideas of every
civilization—bring up a wholly new form-problem of History, the very
problem that we are living through to-day with hardly the remotest
conception of its immensity. In place of a world, there is a city, a
point, in which the whole life of broad regions is collecting while the
rest dries up. In place of a type-true people, born of and grown on
the soil, there is a new sort of nomad, cohering unstably in fluid
masses, the parasitical city dweller, traditionless, utterly matter-of-
fact, religionless, clever, unfruitful, deeply contemptuous of the
countryman and especially that highest form of countryman, the
country gentleman. This is a very great stride towards the inorganic,
towards the end—what does it signify? France and England have
already taken the step and Germany is beginning to do so. After
Syracuse, Athens, and Alexandria comes Rome. After Madrid, Paris,
London come Berlin and New York. It is the destiny of whole regions
that lie outside the radiation-circle of one of these cities—of old Crete
and Macedon and to-day the Scandinavian North[24]—to become
“provinces.”
Of old, the field on which the opposed conception of an epoch
came to battle was some world-problem of a metaphysical, religious
or dogmatic kind, and the battle was between the soil-genius of the
countryman (noble, priest) and the “worldly” patrician genius of the
famous old small towns of Doric or Gothic springtime. Of such a
character were the conflicts over the Dionysus religion—as in the
tyranny of Kleisthenes of Sikyon[25]—and those of the Reformation in
the German free cities and the Huguenot wars. But just as these
cities overcame the country-side (already it is a purely civic world-
outlook that appears in even Parmenides and Descartes), so in turn
the world-city overcame them. It is the common intellectual process
of later periods such as the Ionic and the Baroque, and to-day—as in
the Hellenistic age which at its outset saw the foundation of artificial,
land-alien Alexandria—Culture-cities like Florence, Nürnberg,
Salamanca, Bruges and Prag, have become provincial towns and
fight inwardly a lost battle against the world-cities. The world-city
means cosmopolitanism in place of “home,”[26] cold matter-of-fact in
place of reverence for tradition and age, scientific irreligion as a
fossil representative of the older religion of the heart, “society” in
place of the state, natural instead of hard-earned rights. It was in the
conception of money as an inorganic and abstract magnitude,
entirely disconnected from the notion of the fruitful earth and the
primitive values, that the Romans had the advantage of the Greeks.
Thenceforward any high ideal of life becomes largely a question of
money. Unlike the Greek stoicism of Chrysippus, the Roman
stoicism of Cato and Seneca presupposes a private income;[27] and,
unlike that of the 18th Century, the social-ethical sentiment of the
20th, if it is to be realized at a higher level than that of professional
(and lucrative) agitation, is a matter for millionaires. To the world-city
belongs not a folk but a mass. Its uncomprehending hostility to all
the traditions representative of the Culture (nobility, church,
privileges, dynasties, convention in art and limits of knowledge in
science), the keen and cold intelligence that confounds the wisdom
of the peasant, the new-fashioned naturalism that in relation to all
matters of sex and society goes back far beyond Rousseau and
Socrates to quite primitive instincts and conditions, the reappearance
of the panem et circenses in the form of wage-disputes and football-
grounds—all these things betoken the definite closing-down of the
Culture and the opening of a quite new phase of human existence—
anti-provincial, late, futureless, but quite inevitable.
This is what has to be viewed, and viewed not with the eyes of the
partisan, the ideologue, the up-to-date novelist, not from this or that
“standpoint,” but in a high, time-free perspective embracing whole
millenniums of historical world-forms, if we are really to comprehend
the great crisis of the present.
To me it is a symbol of the first importance that in the Rome of
Crassus—triumvir and all-powerful building-site speculator—the
Roman people with its proud inscriptions, the people before whom
Gauls, Greeks, Parthians, Syrians afar trembled, lived in appalling
misery in the many-storied lodging-houses of dark suburbs,[28]
accepting with indifference or even with a sort of sporting interest the
consequences of the military expansion: that many famous old-noble
families, descendants of the men who defeated the Celts and the
Samnites, lost their ancestral homes through standing apart from the
wild rush of speculation and were reduced to renting wretched
apartments; that, while along the Appian Way there arose the
splendid and still wonderful tombs of the financial magnates, the
corpses of the people were thrown along with animal carcases and
town refuse into a monstrous common grave—till in Augustus’s time
it was banked over for the avoidance of pestilence and so became
the site of Mæcenas’s renowned park; that in depopulated Athens,
which lived on visitors and on the bounty of rich foreigners, the mob
of parvenu tourists from Rome gaped at the works of the Periclean
age with as little understanding as the American globe-trotter in the
Sistine Chapel at those of Michelangelo, every removable art-piece
having ere this been taken away or bought at fancy prices to be
replaced by the Roman buildings which grew up, colossal and
arrogant, by the side of the low and modest structures of the old
time. In such things—which it is the historian’s business not to praise
or to blame but to consider morphologically—there lies, plain and
immediate enough for one who has learnt to see, an idea.
For it will become manifest that, from this moment on, all great
conflicts of world-outlook, of politics, of art, of science, of feeling will
be under the influence of this one opposition. What is the hall-mark
of a politic of Civilization to-day, in contrast to a politic of Culture
yesterday? It is, for the Classical rhetoric, and for the Western
journalism, both serving that abstract which represents the power of
Civilization—money.[29] It is the money-spirit which penetrates
unremarked the historical forms of the people’s existence, often
without destroying or even in the least disturbing these forms—the
form of the Roman state, for instance, underwent very much less
alteration between the elder Scipio and Augustus than is usually
imagined. Though forms subsist, the great political parties
nevertheless cease to be more than reputed centres of decision. The
decisions in fact lie elsewhere. A small number of superior heads,
whose names are very likely not the best-known, settle everything,
while below them are the great mass of second-rate politicians—
rhetors, tribunes, deputies, journalists—selected through a
provincially-conceived franchise to keep alive the illusion of popular
self-determination. And art? Philosophy? The ideals of a Platonic or
those of a Kantian age had for the higher mankind concerned a
general validity. But those of a Hellenistic age, or those of our own,
are valid exclusively for the brain of the Megalopolitan. For the
villager’s or, generally, the nature-man’s world-feeling our Socialism
—like its near relation Darwinism (how utterly un-Goethian are the
formulæ of “struggle for existence” and “natural selection”!), like its
other relative the woman-and-marriage problem of Ibsen, Strindberg,
and Shaw, like the impressionistic tendencies of anarchic
sensuousness and the whole bundle of modern longings,
temptations and pains expressed in Baudelaire’s verse and
Wagner’s music—are simply non-existent. The smaller the town, the
more unmeaning it becomes to busy oneself with painting or with
music of these kinds. To the Culture belong gymnastics, the
tournament, the agon, and to the Civilization belongs Sport. This is
the true distinction between the Hellenic palæstra and the Roman
circus.[30] Art itself becomes a sport (hence the phrase “art for art’s
sake”) to be played before a highly-intelligent audience of
connoisseurs and buyers, whether the feat consist in mastering
absurd instrumental tone-masses and taking harmonic fences, or in
some tour de force of colouring. Then a new fact-philosophy
appears, which can only spare a smile for metaphysical speculation,
and a new literature that is a necessity of life for the megalopolitan
palate and nerves and both unintelligible and ugly to the provincials.
Neither Alexandrine poetry nor plein-air painting is anything to the
“people.” And, then as now, the phase of transition is marked by a
series of scandals only to be found at such moments. The anger
evoked in the Athenian populace by Euripides and by the
“Revolutionary” painting of Apollodorus, for example, is repeated in
the opposition to Wagner, Manet, Ibsen, and Nietzsche.
It is possible to understand the Greeks without mentioning their
economic relations; the Romans, on the other hand, can only be
understood through these. Chæronea and Leipzig were the last
battles fought about an idea. In the First Punic War and in 1870
economic motives are no longer to be overlooked. Not till the
Romans came with their practical energy was slave-holding given
that big collective character which many students regard as the die-
stamp of Classical economics, legislation and way of life, and which
in any event vastly lowered both the value and the inner worthiness
of such free labour as continued to exist side by side with gang-
labour. And it was not the Latin, but the Germanic peoples of the
West and America who developed out of the steam-engine a big
industry that transformed the face of the land. The relation of these
phenomena to Stoicism and to Socialism is unmistakable. Not till the
Roman Cæsarism—foreshadowed by C. Flaminius, shaped first by
Marius, handled by strong-minded, large-scale men of fact—did the
Classical World learn the pre-eminence of money. Without this fact
neither Cæsar, nor “Rome” generally, is understandable. In every
Greek is a Don Quixote, in every Roman a Sancho Panza factor, and
these factors are dominants.
XIII
Considered in itself, the Roman world-dominion was a negative
phenomenon, being the result not of a surplus of energy on the one
side—that the Romans had never had since Zama—but of a
deficiency of resistance on the other. That the Romans did not
conquer the world is certain;[31] they merely took possession of a
booty that lay open to everyone. The Imperium Romanum came into
existence not as the result of such an extremity of military and
financial effort as had characterized the Punic Wars, but because the
old East forwent all external self-determinations. We must not be
deluded by the appearance of brilliant military successes. With a few
ill-trained, ill-led, and sullen legions, Lucullus and Pompey
conquered whole realms—a phenomenon that in the period of the
battle of Ipsus would have been unthinkable. The Mithradatic danger,
serious enough for a system of material force which had never been
put to any real test, would have been nothing to the conquerors of
Hannibal. After Zama, the Romans never again either waged or were
capable of waging a war against a great military Power.[32] Their
classic wars were those against the Samnites, Pyrrhus and
Carthage. Their grand hour was Cannæ. To maintain the heroic
posture for centuries on end is beyond the power of any people. The
Prussian-German people have had three great moments (1813,
1870 and 1914), and that is more than others have had.
Here, then, I lay it down that Imperialism, of which petrifacts such
as the Egyptian empire, the Roman, the Chinese, the Indian may
continue to exist for hundreds or thousands of years—dead bodies,
amorphous and dispirited masses of men, scrap-material from a
great history—is to be taken as the typical symbol of the passing
away. Imperialism is Civilization unadulterated. In this phenomenal
form the destiny of the West is now irrevocably set. The energy of
culture-man is directed inwards, that of civilization-man outwards.
And thus I see in Cecil Rhodes the first man of a new age. He stands
for the political style of a far-ranging, Western, Teutonic and
especially German future, and his phrase “expansion is everything”
is the Napoleonic reassertion of the indwelling tendency of every
Civilization that has fully ripened—Roman, Arab or Chinese. It is not
a matter of choice—it is not the conscious will of individuals, or even
that of whole classes or peoples that decides. The expansive
tendency is a doom, something daemonic and immense, which
grips, forces into service, and uses up the late mankind of the world-
city stage, willy-nilly, aware or unaware.[33] Life is the process of
effecting possibilities, and for the brain-man there are only extensive
possibilities.[34] Hard as the half-developed Socialism of to-day is
fighting against expansion, one day it will become arch-expansionist
with all the vehemence of destiny. Here the form-language of politics,
as the direct intellectual expression of a certain type of humanity,
touches on a deep metaphysical problem—on the fact, affirmed in
the grant of unconditional validity to the causality-principle, that the
soul is the complement of its extension.
When, between 480 and 230,[35] the Chinese group of states was
tending towards imperialism, it was entirely futile to combat the
principle of Imperialism (Lien-heng), practised in particular by the
“Roman” state of Tsin[36] and theoretically represented by the
philosopher Dschang Yi, by ideas of a League of Nations (Hoh-
tsung) largely derived from Wang Hü, a profound sceptic who had no
illusions as to the men or the political possibilities of this “late”
period. Both sides opposed the anti-political idealism of Lao-tse, but
as between themselves it was Lien-heng and not Hoh-tsung which
swam with the natural current of expansive Civilization.[37]
Rhodes is to be regarded as the first precursor of a Western type
of Cæsars, whose day is to come though yet distant. He stands
midway between Napoleon and the force-men of the next centuries,
just as Flaminius, who from 232 B.C. onward pressed the Romans to
undertake the subjugation of Cisalpine Gaul and so initiated the
policy of colonial expansion, stands between Alexander and Cæsar.
Strictly speaking, Flaminius was a private person—for his real power
was of a kind not embodied in any constitutional office—who
exercised a dominant influence in the state at a time when the state-
idea was giving way to the pressure of economic factors. So far as
Rome is concerned, he was the archetype of opposition Cæsarism;
with him there came to an end the idea of state-service and there
began the “will to power” which ignored traditions and reckoned only
with forces. Alexander and Napoleon were romantics; though they
stood on the threshold of Civilization and in its cold clear air, the one
fancied himself an Achilles and the other read Werther. Cæsar, on
the contrary, was a pure man of fact gifted with immense
understanding.
But even for Rhodes political success means territorial and
financial success, and only that. Of this Roman-ness within himself
he was fully aware. But Western Civilization has not yet taken shape
in such strength and purity as this. It was only before his maps that
he could fall into a sort of poetic trance, this son of the parsonage
who, sent out to South Africa without means, made a gigantic fortune
and employed it as the engine of political aims. His idea of a trans-
African railway from the Cape to Cairo, his project of a South African
empire, his intellectual hold on the hard metal souls of the mining
magnates whose wealth he forced into the service of his schemes,
his capital Bulawayo, royally planned as a future Residence by a
statesman who was all-powerful yet stood in no definite relation to
the State, his wars, his diplomatic deals, his road-systems, his
syndicates, his armies, his conception of the “great duty to
civilization” of the man of brain—all this, broad and imposing, is the
prelude of a future which is still in store for us and with which the
history of West-European mankind will be definitely closed.
He who does not understand that this outcome is obligatory and
insusceptible of modification, that our choice is between willing this
and willing nothing at all, between cleaving to this destiny or
despairing of the future and of life itself; he who cannot feel that
there is grandeur also in the realizations of powerful intelligences, in
the energy and discipline of metal-hard natures, in battles fought with
the coldest and most abstract means; he who is obsessed with the
idealism of a provincial and would pursue the ways of life of past
ages—must forgo all desire to comprehend history, to live through
history or to make history.
Thus regarded, the Imperium Romanum appears no longer as an
isolated phenomenon, but as the normal product of a strict and
energetic, megalopolitan, predominantly practical spirituality, as
typical of a final and irreversible condition which has occurred often
enough though it has only been identified as such in this instance.
Let it be realized, then:
That the secret of historical form does not lie on the surface, that it
cannot be grasped by means of similarities of costume and setting,
and that in the history of men as in that of animals and plants there
occur phenomena showing deceptive similarity but inwardly without
any connexion—e.g., Charlemagne and Haroun-al-Raschid,
Alexander and Cæsar, the German wars upon Rome and the Mongol
onslaughts upon West Europe—and other phenomena of extreme
outward dissimilarity but of identical import—e.g., Trajan and
Rameses II, the Bourbons and the Attic Demos, Mohammed and
Pythagoras.
That the 19th and 20th centuries, hitherto looked on as the highest
point of an ascending straight line of world-history, are in reality a
stage of life which may be observed in every Culture that has
ripened to its limit—a stage of life characterized not by Socialists,
Impressionists, electric railways, torpedoes and differential equations
(for these are only body-constituents of the time), but by a civilized
spirituality which possesses not only these but also quite other
creative possibilities.
That, as our own time represents a transitional phase which
occurs with certainty under particular conditions, there are perfectly
well-defined states (such as have occurred more than once in the
history of the past) later than the present-day state of West Europe,
and therefore that
The future of the West is not a limitless tending upwards and
onwards for all time towards our present ideals, but a single
phenomenon of history, strictly limited and defined as to form and
duration, which covers a few centuries and can be viewed and, in
essentials, calculated from available precedents.
XIV
This high plane of contemplation once attained, the rest is easy. To
this single idea one can refer, and by it one can solve, without
straining or forcing, all those separate problems of religion, art-
history, epistemology, ethics, politics, economics with which the
modern intellect has so passionately—and so vainly—busied itself
for decades.
This idea is one of those truths that have only to be expressed
with full clarity to become indisputable. It is one of the inward
necessities of the Western Culture and of its world-feeling. It is
capable of entirely transforming the world-outlook of one who fully
understands it, i.e., makes it intimately his own. It immensely
deepens the world-picture natural and necessary to us in that,
already trained to regard world-historical evolution as an organic unit
seen backwards from our standpoint in the present, we are enabled
by its aid to follow the broad lines into the future—a privilege of
dream-calculation till now permitted only to the physicist. It is, I
repeat, in effect the substitution of a Copernican for a Ptolemaic
aspect of history, that is, an immeasurable widening of horizon.
Up to now everyone has been at liberty to hope what he pleased
about the future. Where there are no facts, sentiment rules. But
henceforward it will be every man’s business to inform himself of
what can happen and therefore of what with the unalterable
necessity of destiny and irrespective of personal ideals, hopes or
desires, will happen. When we use the risky word “freedom” we shall
mean freedom to do, not this or that, but the necessary or nothing.
The feeling that this is “just as it should be” is the hall-mark of the
man of fact. To lament it and blame it is not to alter it. To birth
belongs death, to youth age, to life generally its form and its allotted
span. The present is a civilized, emphatically not a cultured time, and
ipso facto a great number of life-capacities fall out as impossible.
This may be deplorable, and may be and will be deplored in
pessimist philosophy and poetry, but it is not in our power to make
otherwise. It will not be—already it is not—permissible to defy clear
historical experience and to expect, merely because we hope, that
this will spring or that will flourish.
It will no doubt be objected that such a world-outlook, which in
giving this certainty as to the outlines and tendency of the future cuts
off all far-reaching hopes, would be unhealthy for all and fatal for
many, once it ceased to be a mere theory and was adopted as a
practical scheme of life by the group of personalities effectively
moulding the future.
Such is not my opinion. We are civilized, not Gothic or Rococo,
people; we have to reckon with the hard cold facts of a late life, to
which the parallel is to be found not in Pericles’s Athens but in
Cæsar’s Rome. Of great painting or great music there can no longer
be, for Western people, any question. Their architectural possibilities
have been exhausted these hundred years. Only extensive
possibilities are left to them. Yet, for a sound and vigorous
generation that is filled with unlimited hopes, I fail to see that it is any
disadvantage to discover betimes that some of these hopes must
come to nothing. And if the hopes thus doomed should be those
most dear, well, a man who is worth anything will not be dismayed. It
is true that the issue may be a tragic one for some individuals who in
their decisive years are overpowered by the conviction that in the
spheres of architecture, drama, painting, there is nothing left for
them to conquer. What matter if they do go under! It has been the
convention hitherto to admit no limits of any sort in these matters,
and to believe that each period had its own task to do in each
sphere. Tasks therefore were found by hook or by crook, leaving it to
be settled posthumously whether or not the artist’s faith was justified
and his life-work necessary. Now, nobody but a pure romantic would
take this way out. Such a pride is not the pride of a Roman. What are
we to think of the individual who, standing before an exhausted
quarry, would rather be told that a new vein will be struck to-morrow
—the bait offered by the radically false and mannerized art of the
moment—than be shown a rich and virgin clay-bed near by? The
lesson, I think, would be of benefit to the coming generations, as
showing them what is possible—and therefore necessary—and what
is excluded from the inward potentialities of their time. Hitherto an
incredible total of intellect and power has been squandered in false
directions. The West-European, however historically he may think
and feel, is at a certain stage of life invariably uncertain of his own
direction; he gropes and feels his way and, if unlucky in environment,
he loses it. But now at last the work of centuries enables him to view
the disposition of his own life in relation to the general culture-
scheme and to test his own powers and purposes. And I can only
hope that men of the new generation may be moved by this book to
devote themselves to technics instead of lyrics, the sea instead of
the paint-brush, and politics instead of epistemology. Better they
could not do.
XV
It still remains to consider the relation of a morphology of world-
history to Philosophy. All genuine historical work is philosophy,
unless it is mere ant-industry. But the operations of the systematic
philosopher are subject to constant and serious error through his
assuming the permanence of his results. He overlooks the fact that
every thought lives in a historical world and is therefore involved in
the common destiny of mortality. He supposes that higher thought
possesses an everlasting and unalterable objectiveness
(Gegenstand), that the great questions of all epochs are identical,
and that therefore they are capable in the last analysis of unique
answers.
But question and answer are here one, and the great questions
are made great by the very fact that unequivocal answers to them
are so passionately demanded, so that it is as life-symbols only that
they possess significance. There are no eternal truths. Every
philosophy is the expression of its own and only its own time, and—if
by philosophy we mean effective philosophy and not academic
triflings about judgment-forms, sense-categories and the like—no
two ages possess the same philosophic intentions. The difference is
not between perishable and imperishable doctrines but between
doctrines which live their day and doctrines which never live at all.
The immortality of thoughts-become is an illusion—the essential is,
what kind of man comes to expression in them. The greater the man,
the truer the philosophy, with the inward truth that in a great work of
art transcends all proof of its several elements or even of their
compatibility with one another. At highest, the philosophy may
absorb the entire content of an epoch, realize it within itself and then,
embodying it in some grand form or personality, pass it on to be
developed further and further. The scientific dress or the mark of
learning adopted by a philosophy is here unimportant. Nothing is
simpler than to make good poverty of ideas by founding a system,
and even a good idea has little value when enunciated by a solemn
ass. Only its necessity to life decides the eminence of a doctrine.
For me, therefore, the test of value to be applied to a thinker is his
eye for the great facts of his own time. Only this can settle whether
he is merely a clever architect of systems and principles, versed in
definitions and analyses, or whether it is the very soul of his time that
speaks in his works and his intuitions. A philosopher who cannot
grasp and command actuality as well will never be of the first rank.
The Pre-Socratics were merchants and politicians en grand. The
desire to put his political ideas into practice in Syracuse nearly cost
Plato his life, and it was the same Plato who discovered the set of
geometrical theorems that enabled Euclid to build up the Classical
system of mathematics. Pascal—whom Nietzsche knows only as the
“broken Christian”—Descartes, Leibniz were the first mathematicians
and technicians of their time.
The great “Pre-Socratics” of China from Kwan-tsi (about 670) to
Confucius (550-478) were statesmen, regents, lawgivers like
Pythagoras and Parmenides, like Hobbes and Leibniz. With Lao-tsze
—the opponent of all state authority and high politics and the
enthusiast of small peaceful communities—unworldliness and deed-
shyness first appear, heralds of lecture-room and study philosophy.
But Lao-tsze was in his time, the ancien régime of China, an
exception in the midst of sturdy philosophers for whom epistemology
meant the knowledge of the important relations of actual life.
And herein, I think, all the philosophers of the newest age are
open to a serious criticism. What they do not possess is real
standing in actual life. Not one of them has intervened effectively,
either in higher politics, in the development of modern technics, in
matters of communication, in economics, or in any other big
actuality, with a single act or a single compelling idea. Not one of
them counts in mathematics, in physics, in the science of
government, even to the extent that Kant counted. Let us glance at
other times. Confucius was several times a minister. Pythagoras was
the organizer of an important political movement[38] akin to the
Cromwellian, the significance of which is even now far
underestimated by Classical researchers. Goethe, besides being a
model executive minister—though lacking, alas! the operative sphere
of a great state—was interested in the Suez and Panama canals (the
dates of which he foresaw with accuracy) and their effects on the
economy of the world, and he busied himself again and again with
the question of American economic life and its reactions on the Old
World, and with that of the dawning era of machine-industry. Hobbes
was one of the originators of the great plan of winning South
America for England, and although in execution the plan went no
further than the occupation of Jamaica, he has the glory of being one
of the founders of the British Colonial Empire. Leibniz, without doubt
the greatest intellect in Western philosophy, the founder of the
differential calculus and the analysis situs, conceived or co-operated
in a number of major political schemes, one of which was to relieve
Germany by drawing the attention of Louis XIV to the importance of
Egypt as a factor in French world-policy. The ideas of the
memorandum on this subject that he drew up for the Grand Monarch
were so far in advance of their time (1672) that it has been thought
that Napoleon made use of them for his Eastern venture. Even thus
early, Leibniz laid down the principle that Napoleon grasped more
and more clearly after Wagram, viz., that acquisitions on the Rhine
and in Belgium would not permanently better the position of France
and that the neck of Suez would one day be the key of world-
dominance. Doubtless the King was not equal to these deep political
and strategic conceptions of the Philosopher.
Turning from men of this mould to the “philosophers” of to-day, one
is dismayed and shamed. How poor their personalities, how
commonplace their political and practical outlook! Why is it that the
mere idea of calling upon one of them to prove his intellectual
eminence in government, diplomacy, large-scale organization, or
direction of any big colonial, commercial or transport concern is
enough to evoke our pity? And this insufficiency indicates, not that
they possess inwardness, but simply that they lack weight. I look
round in vain for an instance in which a modern “philosopher” has
made a name by even one deep or far-seeing pronouncement on an
important question of the day. I see nothing but provincial opinions of
the same kind as anyone else’s. Whenever I take up a work by a
modern thinker, I find myself asking: has he any idea whatever of the
actualities of world-politics, world-city problems, capitalism, the

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