Making Sense of a Change Management

Making Sense of a Change Management Change management is a systematic approach to dealing with change, both from the perspective of an organization and on the individual level. A somewhat ambiguous term, change management has at least three different aspects, including: adapting to change, controlling change, and effecting change. A proactive approach to dealing with change is at the core of all three aspects. For an organization, change management means defining and implementing procedures and/or technologies to deal with changes in the business environment and to profit from changing opportunities. Successful adaptation to change is as crucial within an organization as it is in the natural world. Just like plants and animals, organizations and the individuals in them inevitably encounter changing conditions that they are powerless to control. The more effectively you deal with change, the more likely you are to thrive. Adaptation might involve establishing a structured methodology for responding to changes in the business environment (such as a fluctuation in the economy, or a threat from a competitor) or establishing coping mechanisms for responding to changes in the workplace (such as new policies, or technologies). This book review is an attempt to understand the theoretical background for the changes that occur on individual as well as on organizational basis. The book Making Sense of Change Management: A complete Guide to the Models, Tools Techniques of Organizational Change written by Esther Cameron and Mike Green, highlights and explain different theories presented by the renowned businessmen, economists and educationists regarding different changing phenomenon appearing on the horizon of business world. Cameron and Greens objective for writing this book is to help their reader understand why change happens, how change happens, and what needs to be done to make change a more welcoming concept by carefully reviewing a wealth of resources that provide models, tools, and techniques of organizational change. Their purpose is not to explain how to plan and then implement a change initiative program. Rather the material presented in this book assist the readers to comprehend the change, its natu re, how it can be assessed and related to a particular situation and what type of outcomes can be carved out of the responses received on individual and organizational basis. Introduction of the Book The book Making Sense of Change Management: A complete Guide to the Models, Tools Techniques of Organizational Change is written by Esther Cameron and Mike Green. This book is about making sense of change management. The world we live in is continuously undergoing rapid changes at an intense rate. Each day dawns with a new invention, with an important discovery emerging from almost every field of life. The rate of change and discovery outpaces our potentials to keep up with them. The organization we work in or rely on to meet our needs and demands are also changing dramatically in terms of their strategies, their structures, their systems cultures, their boundaries and of course their expectations and responses to their stakeholders. This book and its writers Cameron and Green seems to hold the objective of helping their readers understand why change happens, how change happens, and what needs to be done to make change a more welcoming concept by carefully reviewing a wealth of resources that provide models, tools, and techniques of organizational change. Their purpose is not to explain how to plan and then implement a change initiative program instead of this their focus is on developing an understanding among their readers. The material in this volume is carefully organized within two parts. Part one, of this book is named as The Underpinning Theory and is comprised of first four chapters. Individual change is at the heart of everything that is achieved in organizations. Once individuals have the motivation to do something different, the whole world can begin to change[Individuals] are to some extent governed by the norms of the groups they belong to, and groups are bound together in a whole system of groups of people that interconnect in various habitual ways. So the story is not always that simple. Individuals, teams, and organizations all play a part in the process of change, and leaders have a particularly onerous responsibility: that is, making all this happen. Part Two The Applications is comprised of last four chapters (Chapters 5-8): In this Part, having looked at change and change management from three different perspectives (i.e. individual, team, and organization) and the roles, styles, and skills needed to become a successful leader of change, Cameron and Green apply this learning to specific types of change. They claim: We have identified four generic change scenarios, and we look at the particular management challenges involved in initiating and implementing each type of change. These change scenarios are structural, mergers and acquisitions, cultural, and IT-based process. Summary of the Book The very first chapter of the book draws together the key theories of how individuals go through change, using various models to explore the phenomenon. This chapter aims at providing managers and policy makers an insight and understanding of the change process and how it affects individuals and what strategies can be used to help the people to go through transition or transformation process without bearing a stress. Many of the change scenarios that you find yourself in require you to learn something new, or to adjust to a new way of operating, or to unlearn something. Buchanan and Huczynski (1985) define learning as the process of acquiring Knowledge through experience which leads to a change in behavior. Learning is not just an acquisition of knowledge, but the application of it through doing something different in the world. But learning to do something new usually involves a temporary dip (downfall) in the performance. When learning something new we tend to be more focus on that and become conscious of that change in our learning resulting in a change of our behavior. But once we have learnt that skill or has become habitual of that change our attention to that factor decreases and we are less conscious of it in other words we are unconsciously competent on that skill. There are four key schools of thought when considering individual change: The behaviorist approach is about changing the behaviors of others through reward and punishment. This leads to behavioral analysis and use of reward strategies. The cognitive approach states that the desired results can be achieved through positive reframing or the reinforcement of some desired attitudes. The writers believe that by setting goals and providing guidance and coaching to the employees or the people who are being affected by the change can ease the process of implementation of change. This approach link goal to motivation. The psychodynamic approach is about understanding and relating to the inner world of change. This is especially significant when people are going through highly affecting change. This approach treats people as individuals and understand their emotional states. The humanistic psychology approach in the personal development and growth of the employees by providing them a healthy atmosphere and fair chances to improve their skills to adapt to changing environment. The individuals history, the organizations history, the type of change and the consequence of the change are also key factors in an individuals response to change. Schein identified two competing anxieties in individual change: survival anxiety versus learning anxiety. Survival anxiety has to be greater than learning anxiety if a change is to happen. He advocated the need for managers to reduce peoples learning anxiety rather than their survival anxiety. The individuals in an organization work together sometimes in the form of groups or sometimes in the form of a team. Teams and groups have been differentiated in this book on the basis of their different characteristics and reasons for existence. Teams are considered more important for the organizations for accomplishing large or complex tasks. There are many types of organizational team, each with their significant benefits and downsides. Teams can be more effective by addressing five elements: Team mission, planning and goal setting; Team roles and responsibilities; Team operating processes; Team interpersonal relationships; Inter-team relationships; Teams relationships with the management. Teams are not built overnight. It takes time to develop as a team and have goal oriented affiliation among the team members. Tuckmans forming, storming, norming and performing model is useful for understanding the process. The team development process involves different leadership challenges at each stage. This book has made use of Bions work that highlights four possible pitfalls that need to be worked through. These are as follow: dependency fight or flight pairing cosiness The composition of a team is an important factor in determining how it can be successful. According to Belbin well-rounded teams work best. The Myers Briggs profile allows mutual of team members preferences for initiating or adapting to change whereas Belbins team types offer a way of analyzing a teams fitness for purpose and encouraging team members to do something about any significant gaps. The writers insist that the leaders should be aware of the type of team that can best suit the change process and how to manage that for effective and efficient achievement of the desired goals. Organizational behavior and assumptions how things really work are really important in determining the organizational response to change. This book deeply reviews the range of models and approaches developed by the significant authors in the field of business and socio-dynamics. The writers state that it is very important for the leaders and the individuals to understand their own assumptions about managing change, in order to challenge them and examine the possibilities offered by different assumptions. Comparisons of assumptions held by the employers and employees are very useful and increased understanding of each others perspective help to reduce frustration. Gareth Morgans work on organizational metaphors provides a useful way of looking at the range of assumptions that exist about how organizations work. The four most commonly used organizational metaphors are: The machine metaphor The machine metaphor is deeply ingrained in our ideas about how organizations run. According to it the project management and planning oriented approaches can be used to tackle the change. The political metaphor The political map of organizational life is recognized as vital key factor to organizational change. The organism metaphor This model is very prevalent in the human resource world, as it underpins much of the thinking that drove the creation of the HR function in organizations. The organism metaphor views change as a process of adapting to changes in the environment. The focus is on designing interventions to decrease resistance to change, and increase the forces for change. The metaphor of flux and transformation The metaphor for flux and transformation appears to model the true complexity of how change really happens. If we use this lens to view the organizational life it does not lead to a neat formulae or concise how to approaches. To be an effective manager we need to be flexible and select appropriate models and approaches for particular situations. Some of these models suggested in this book are as follow: Kurt Lewin three step model Bullock and Battens planned change approach Philip Kotters eight steps to change Beckhard and Harris change formula Nadler and Tushman Congruence model William Bridges model for managing the transition Carnalls change management model Senge systemic model Stacey and Shaw complex responsive processes. Different metaphors of change lead to different assumptions about what good leaders do. The writers of this book believe that the most effective ideas about change combine a number of metaphors, bringing the maximum benefits and avoiding the pitfalls of blinkered thinking. A popular notion of leadership is of the hero leader who leads from the front with determination, great vision and independence of mind. Bennis distinguished leadership from management and placed visionary leadership high on the agenda. Heifetz and Laurie and Jean Lipman-Blumen all argue against the need for visionary leadership. They advocate adaptive leadership which is about taking people out of their comfort zones, letting people feel external pressure and exposing conflict. Jean Lipman-Blumen instead emphasizes the need for leaders to ensure connectivity. Different metaphors of the change process imply different leadership roles. Senge advocates dispersed leadership, identifying three key types of leaders in an organizational system. If these three roles are in place and are well connected then change will happen naturally. Mary Beth ONeil names four key roles. Thoughts and actions i.e inner and outer leadership are both important for achieving organizational change. According to Kotter the hard work in the earlier stages of change process are vital for the success whereas Rosabeth Moss Kanter suggests that the harder part comes in the middle and the perseverance is necessary for success. Covey lists a set of principles and guidelines to help leaders to develop positive thinking pattern. The writers believe that the leader of change has to be courageous and self aware. He has to choose the right action at the right time and to keep a steady eye on the ball. However the leader cannot make the change happen alone. A team needs to be in place wit well thought out roles, and committed people. In this book the writers have identified four generic change scenarios and has looked at the particular management challenges involved in initiating and implementing each type of change. These change scenarios are: Structural change Mergers and acquisitions Cultural change IT- based change. Restructuring is an ever present phenomenon in todays organizations, though it could be highly unrewarding for those who initiates and those who experience it. But the leader needs to define the new changes with a clear vision and describe the objectives and goals of new structure, roles, and responsibilities, work processes for the individuals, interpersonal relationships in and out of the organization and new organizational and departmental strategies for the successful achievement of goals of organizational change. Mergers and acquisitions are another modern trend iof combating emerging environmental and technical changes. There are usually five main reasons for undertaking a merger or acquyisition: Growth Synergy Diversification Integration Deal doing Writer have suggested five golden rules for leaders to follow for effective mergers and acquisitions , which are as follow: communicate constantly get the structure right tackle the cultural issues keep customers on board use a clear overall process Culture is not just about induction programmes, it is everywhere in organizational life. Culture is vitally important for the organization because of its impact on performance. If the culture has to be changed we need to first develop an understanding about how it evolves. Schein (1999) suggests that there are six ways in which culture evolves. Some of these can be influenced by the leader and some cannot. A general evolution in which the organization adapt to its environment. A specific evolution of teams and sub-groups within the organization to their different environments. A guided evolution resulting from cultural insights on the part of leaders. A guided evolution through encouraging teams to learn from each other A planned and managed culture change through creation of parallel systems of project oriented task forces. A partial or total cultural destruction through new leadership. The writers suggest guidelines for achieving successful cultural change which is as follow: Always link to organizational vision, mission and objectives Create a sense of urgency and continually reinforce the need to change Attend to stake holder issues Build on the old and step into the new Generate enabling mechanisms create a community of focused and flexible leaders Insist on the collective ownership of the change. For having an IT-based change the organization needs to align organizational strategy with IT strategy other wise such changes will cause some major problems for the organization. My opinion about the book The book Making Sense of Change Management: A complete Guide to the Models, Tools Techniques of Organizational Change written by Esther Cameron and Mike Green, is about making sense of change management. The world we live in is continuously undergoing rapid changes at an intense rate. Each day dawns with a new invention, with an important discovery emerging from almost every field of life. The rate of change and discovery outpaces our potentials to keep up with them. The organization we work in or rely on to meet our needs and demands are also changing dramatically in terms of their strategies, their structures, their systems cultures, their boundaries and of course their expectations and responses to their stakeholders. This book and its writers Cameron and Green seems to hold the objective of helping their readers understand why change happens, how change happens, and what needs to be done to make change a more welcoming concept by carefully reviewing a wealth of resources that provide models, tools, and techniques of organizational change. Their purpose is not to explain how to plan and then implement a change initiative program instead of this their focus is on developing an understanding among their readers. The material in this volume is carefully organized within two parts. This book is a great resource for managers thrown into the midst of change, who need to gain understanding of what happens when you try to make significant changes in a business, and how best to manage people through it. This book is really helpful for leaders and managers in organizations to make sense of change management, providing insights into different frameworks and describing ways of approaching change at an individual, team, and organizational level. This book can be a guideline for any organization that needs to understand why change happens, how it happens and what needs to be done to make a change a welcome, rather than an unwelcome, visitor. It offers considered insights into the many frameworks, models and ways of approaching change and helps the reader to apply the right approach to each unique situation. This is a book that lives up to its titleit really does provide a toolkit to make sense of change. Every theory or main concept is accompanied by Stop and Think section where questions are listed to help the reader to reflect about what they have read in that section of the book. They also provide a chance to apply their theoretical knowledge to the real world situation and in this manner; way for cognitive and constructive learning is paved. The only thing which seems to be missing from this book is the case study. If each section or chapter is supplemented with a real world case study, this toolkit will become more effective and sharpen problem solving skills of the readers at one hand and an instant application of their learned skills on the other. Overall its an impressive practical book that will help managers who are looking for ideas rather than instruction. This is theoretically underpinned book on change which recognizes a multiplicity of perspectives.

Czech Cultural Analysis

Cultural Analysis – Czech Republic Missouri University of Science and Technology ` table of contents table of contentsii 1. 0Czech vs u. s. Culture – hofstede’s model3 2. 0Czech business culture – trompenaaris classificaion7 3. 0U. S. Business culture change needed7 4. 0bibliography9 1. 0Czech vs u. s. Culture – hofstede’s model The Czech Republic has its roots as a former communist state known as Czechoslovakia. The fall of communism and the transformation to a democratic government has seasoned this country’s history. From the â€Å"Velvet Revolution† in 1989 to the charismatic leadership of the poet Vaclav Havel, the Czech Republic has developed well in the European cultures (Katz 2008). The Czech Republic had an estimated GDP of $288. 6 billion in 2011, which is ranked 45th against other world countries. Auto exports are the main economic driver with Germany being a large consumer of their export goods (The cia world, 2012). Context The classification of high-context or low-context gives us very useful cultural distinctions. A high-context culture relies heavily on unspoken cues in conversation. They tend to want to establish trust first in business negotiations, value a personal relations and goodwill, agree by general trust, and negotiate in a slow ritualistic manner. A low-context culture generally gets straight to the point and does not bother with ritualistic negotiations or getting to know one another personally before business deals. A low-context culture usually values expertise and performance, likes to make agreements with legalistic types of contracts, and negotiates as effective as possible (Kreitner, 2012). People in the Czech Republic tend to use body language sparingly with little physical contact. However, when communicating with them, silence could mean a problem, especially if they lower their eyes. The Czech people value punctuality and are a schedule oriented people. They like to schedule meetings in advance and require notification if one is going to be late. The Czech do like to get down to business, but the pace of business could be slow at first until you build relationship. The Czechs also prefer written terms and conditions when making business transactions (Katz 2008). All of these characteristics describe a low-context culture. The U. S. s a low-context culture as well (Kreitner, 2012), so doing business with Czech people will not seem too foreign to our U. S. company. Hofstede’s Model The Hofstede’s Model can be used to help classify the national culture of the Czech Republic and can give us insight into how the U. S. compares. With this information, we can determine if our company culture is a good fit for doing business in the Czech Republic. The 5 cultural dimensions of Hofstede’s model will be used: power distance, individualism, uncertainty avoidance, and long-term orientation and will be compared to our U. S. results. Power distance is defined as a dimension that deals with the fact that not all individuals in society are equal. This dimension captures the attitude of a culture toward this reality. A low score would mean that the culture has an attitude that people should be equal in society, and a high score would represent an attitude of acceptance of these large inequalities in society. The U. S. scores low on this dimension (Hofstede & Hofstede, 2005). We subscribe to the mentality of â€Å"liberty and justice for all,† which can explain the low score. The Czech Republic has a slightly higher score than the U. S. hich means that they have an attitude more acceptable of societal inequalities (Hofstede & Hofstede, 2005). This can probably be traced back to their roots as a communist country, where societal members had to get used to the one party government that was highly hierarchal. The individualism dimension captures the degree of interdependence a society maintains among its members (Kreitner, 2012). The U. S. scores very high on the individualism dimension. We are accustomed to the idea that we need to take care of ourselves and our families. â€Å"Rugged individualism† is a characteristic of many Americans and politicians. The Czech Republic, on the other hand, score much lower score on individualism, and tend to value the mentality that â€Å"we are in this together. † This can be seen in their different types of advertising in their country. Their advertising constantly appeals to family happiness, togetherness, and friendship focusing on groups of people enjoying life together (Taylor, 2002). Masculinity is a dimension that characterizes a culture’s tendency toward valuing competition and success defined by winning at whatever the challenge, or the culture’s value of caring of others and quality of life. A high masculinity score would be the former and a lower masculinity score would be the latter. The Czech Republic and the U. S. have a very similar score here (Hofstede & Hofstede, 2005). They are both right in the middle of the scale and can be categorized as having a good balance between competition and striving to be on top as the winner, and caring for others along the way. Uncertainty avoidance is a dimension that captures a society’s way that they deal with ambiguity. The anxiety of an unknown future can lead to a societal out pour that creates beliefs or institutions to try to avoid this anxiety (Hofstede & Hofstede, 2005). In the Czech Republic, the older generations tend to want to avoid uncertainty and are reluctant to take risks. This can most likely be traced back to when the country was communist. The younger generations are, however, more open due to more international exposure, but the Czech Republic scores relatively high in this dimension (Katz 2008). The U. S. has a significantly lower score when it comes to uncertainty avoidance (Hofstede & Hofstede, 2005). The U. S. is willing to take risks and accepts risk as part of life and business. The U. S. culture is more open to new ideas and is willing to try something new or different. The U. S. subscribes to the value of â€Å"freedom of expression. † Long-term orientation is the measure of where a society is focused. It can be defined as â€Å"the extent to which a society shows a pragmatic future-oriented perspective rather than a conventional historical short-term point of view† (Hofstede & Hofstede, 2005). Both the Czech Republic and the U. S. score low on this dimension. This means that business measure their performance on a short-term basis. They are focused on what they can earn right now, and can be seen in the fact that profits are calculated on a quarterly reporting basis. This drives people to struggle for quick results in the work place. The Czech Republic can be said to be competitive, but know the value of a long-term relationship (Katz 2008). Even with this said, the Czech Republic scores a lower score than the U. S. These five cultural dimensions described above can be seen graphically in the figures below (Hofstede & Hofstede, 2005). Figure 1: Hofstede dimensions of Czech Republic and U. S. 2. 0Czech business culture – trompenaaris classificaion The Czech Republic could be classified as having a Guided Missile corporate culture. Czechs highly value formal education and expertise. They recognize and value the power of knowledge (Katz 2008). The Czech people like the win-win negotiations and strive for this in business transactions. They place this mentality on business with a focus on task oriented business success (Katz 2008). Negotiations are competitive, but business men in the Czech Republic tend to hold their cards close to their chest and do not lie often (Katz 2008). Czech management is seen as a team leader with the organization predominantly a continuous process of solving problems successfully. This is in somewhat contrast as to the U. S. company. The U. S. Company is described as an Incubator. This company is person-oriented and values giving power to the individual (Trompenaars, 2003). This is in contrast to the more structured corporate structure of the Guided Missile. The Incubator has the main characteristics that value commitment of oneself and professional recognition, where the Guided Missile’s characteristics are more of paying for performance and management by objectives (Trompenaars, 2003). 3. 0U. S. Business culture change needed A culture change may or may not be needed for the U. S. Company to thrive in the Czech Republic. There will be some corporate cultural tension, however, which can be the catalyst or driving force for change according to Fons Trompenaars (Trompenaars, 2003). One way to manage corporate culture change when going from U. S. to the Czech Republics would be to restructure authority to managers who have show innovation and learning as their main objectives in their goals. Another way to foster change would be to make learning and improvement a part of day to day task descriptions. Finally it would be beneficial to the U. S. Company to describe rewards in terms of clearly stated innovation outputs. These techniques described above will help foster culture change in the U. S. Company to move toward a more ideal corporate culture from an Incubator to a Guided Missile (Trompenaars, 2003). 4. 0bibliography Katz, L. (2008). Negotiating international business – the negotiator’s reference guide. (2nd ed. , pp. 1-5). Retrieved from http://www. globalnegotiationresources. com/cou/CzechRepublic. pdf (2012). The cia world factbook. Washington D. C. : The U. S. Central Intelligence Agency. Retrieved from https://www. ia. gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/ez. html Kreitner, R. (2012). Organizational behavior. (10 ed. ). Arizona: McGraw- Hill. Hofstede, G. , & Hofstede, G. J. (2005). Cultures and organizations: Software of the mind, by hofstede, 2nd revised and expanded edition. New York: McGraw Hill. Taylor, Charles (2002). Advertising in the Czech Republic: Czech perceptions of effective advertising and advertising clutter. Vol. Iss: 12, pp. 137 – 149. Trompenaars, F. (2003). A new framework for managing change across cultures. Journal of change management, 3(4), 361-375.

Essay on Biochemical Correlates of Anorexia and Bulimia

Biochemical Correlates of Anorexia and Bulimia Millions of people in the United States suffer from anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa. Anorexia nervosa is a dangerous eating disorder characterized by distorted body image, obsession with food and weight, drastic reduction in food intake often to the point of starvation, and extreme weight loss (1). Bulimia nervosa is a somewhat similar eating disorder more specifically characterized by recurring episodes of uncontrollable binge eating followed by self-induced vomiting or abuse of laxatives or diuretics (2). The vast majority - more than 90 percent - of those afflicted with eating disorders are adolescent and young adult women (1). This has led to the popular belief that eating†¦show more content†¦In fact, drugs which act on serotonin pathways in the brain are commonly used for the short-term management of obesity. Fenfluramine, one of the two drugs which make up the controversial diet pill Fen-Phen, is an example of one such drug. Fenfluramine, along with dexfenfluramine (a similar, purified version of fenfluramine), acts by increasing serotonin activity in the brain, thus suppressing appetite and facilitating weight loss (5). It has been suggested that food restriction and several other behaviors which are characteristic of anorexia may be associated with increased serotonin activity (4). Conversely, it has been shown that decreased serotonin activity in the brain is associated with enhanced appetite, and thus may be related to bulimia (4). Researchers working in conjunction with Harvard Medical School have demonstrated a link between bulimia and impaired serotonergic responsiveness in the brain. The study compared serotonergic activity and the presence of several behavioral symptoms of bulimia among bulimic and healthy women. Serotonergic responsiveness was assessed by measuring the activity of the pathway following administration of a serotonin agonist. It was found that the women with bulimia showed significantly less serotonergic activity following administration of the agonist than did the healthy women. In other words, the agonist did not have as great an effect on serotonin activity in bulimicShow MoreRelatedOvercoming Anorexia Nervosa2103 Words   |  9 Pagesdiscuss the etiology, effects, and criteria needed for the diagnosis of anorexia nervosa from a biops ychosocial approach. In addition, this paper will discuss the treatments, approaches and multicultural issues associated with this multifaceted disorder. It will conclude with a discussion surrounding my research and understanding of anorexia nervosa in the field of abnormal psychology. Overview of Anorexia Nervosa Anorexia nervosa is a complex psychiatric illness characterized by distorted eatingRead MoreCan Medication Cure Kleptomania?3293 Words   |  14 Pagesstored away or thrown out. The real, painful reasons of Kleptomania are usually hidden deep in subconsciousness, and are often formed early on in childhood. Hereditary predisposition plays an important role. Kleptomania correlates with disorders such as depression, anorexia, bulimia, social phobias, and anxiety. Kleptomania was first recognized as a mental disorder in the 1960’s in the United States during the judicial proceedings in the matter of California vs. Douglas Jones, in which Jones proved

The Color Purple Gender Roles - Free Essay Example

Sample details Pages: 4 Words: 1216 Downloads: 1 Date added: 2019/04/26 Category Sociology Essay Level High school Tags: Gender Roles Essay Did you like this example? The Color Purple follows the traumatic life experience of Celie, the main character in the movie, a young African-American woman. She was raised in the rural parts in Georgia and grew up thinking that someone had to have power over her because of the position of her father. Her father was a man that thought that women had to do whatever ever to please him and satisfy all of his needs. Don’t waste time! Our writers will create an original "The Color Purple Gender Roles" essay for you Create order This left no exception to his daughter, Celie, who was repeatedly raped by her father, and ends up giving birth to two kids at a very young age because of it. Her father takes the kids away because he doesnt want anyone to know what was going on and because if someone knew his daughter had been pregnant, he wouldnt be able to marry her off. Celie has a sister named Nettie who the father seems to protect and care for more because when a man comes to marry her, the father urges him to take Celie instead. This situation was no better for Celie because if it wasnt the same it was worse than her being abused by her father. exploitation. Celie writes letter to God and explains to him all the details of her life because she feels like nobody else is listening. Her father always told her to tell nobody but God and that stuck with her through all of her tragedies and triumphs because she was able to get through it that way. But throughout the movie Celie meets women who all have very different personalities and ways that they deal with the men in their life. By building these relationships with other black women, Celie gets strength and is able to develop insight from all of their point of views. In the end she gets to develop a sense of her own right knowing who she is and what it means to be a woman. She is able to grow her own values and understand what her experiences have done for her and how they shaped who she was able to be. It allowed her to see that she was independent and didnt need a man to take care of her or provide for her. In the film, the gender roles are shown very clearly. The males in this film are shown as having the most power and being the leader of the household and controlling everything. They dont do work, are very dominant and show no affection of care. They have the most control over the women in the film because they show them as bowing down to the men as a sign of respect. The women in the film are seen as obedient and submissive and someone without a voice. We see this with Celie because she is given away as a piece of property to her husband Albert, who is referred to as Mr., without any consent or choice in the matter. She becomes a slave to her husband and has to stay in line with his views or else she would be severely beaten and punished. Celie has lost all of her freedom through this and we see this because when Mr. wants to have sex, even if Celie does not, she is forced to do so. Celie is talked down to and seen as small by all the men in her life. She is supposed to do everythin g from the cooking, cleaning, tending to children, working in the fields, and is still seen as less to a man. There are other characters in this movie that challenge their gender roles. The first one that we notice is between Harpo and Sofias relationship. We get to see a big difference in this relationship the what we see in Celie and Albert. Sophia is not the norm when it comes to marrying Harpo and he begins to clearly see this after they are married. She shows that women can be powerful and dominant in a relationship and that there should be a balance. Sophia is not one that can be bossed around and states how she will always make her own decisions. She will not be the wife that listens and does whatever Harpo has to say. She wanted to feel respected by her husband and she wants Harpo to talk and share ideas with her. Sophia and Harpo get into a fight and Sophia actually wins the fight. This is different because he is he man, and his wife is fighting him back and now he feels like less of a man and we can see that Sophia is very clear that she wont back down to bow down. In the end, Har po is the one that changes and is he is doing all of the things which are normally left for the woman to do and he is accepting of this. He came around and understood that it was okay to not have that dominant power but to be equals and that he doesnt need to conform to the general standards of their society. Because of the disruption of traditional gender roles in the film The Color Purple, we see a lot of growth in the women that are presented throughout the movie. We get an understanding on how they are being oppressed and how they can overcome it. It shows a lot of female solidarity because a lot of the women lean on each other in the movie for advice and companionship and through their experiences they are able to grow and unify as women. These women are looked as lesser than their male counters, but we see just how strong they are. They fight for their freedom and I think that is the best thing about the movie because they do it together with each others guidance and support. In the end, the movie came full circle with the women being strong and independent. The women were able to celebrate what it meant to be a female. It showed how their experiences developed and guided their emotional strength and how they were able to take control of their life. The movie challenged the traditional female and male roles and it showed how women can be the provider and men can let their female partner show masculine characteristics and it not be something that isnt accepted by society. This movie showed the parallels between the third wave of feminism. It was able to show how African American women were rooted in their culture, religion, and history. It showed how there was growth in the movement but that there is still working to be done so that women arent seen as objects that are weak, but very strong. I think The Color Purple showed many different parallels to gender roles that are traditional today and some that arent. It also suggested many ideas that gave the viewer insight on what it means to be a male and what it means to be a female. It gave clear views on what society views as what is acceptable and is normal, but it also showed what we might need to think twice about and what we should change. As a viewer, I enjoyed this film becau se it showed no matter what gender you are, you deserve equality.