The academic fraternity may be compared with a deck of playing cards. Since the academics are engaged in the shaping of 'men of tomorrow today', they remain at the top of the pack, the 'Aces'. There can never be a perceptible difference in strategies employed between selling of merchandise and imparting of knowledge. Before the actual 'sale' of ideas or knowledge, a teacher has to go through the whole gamut of preparation or 'Spade' work so as to ensure that the 'cognitive' domain is well taken care of. In every approach, it should be his constant endeavour to hit his students in the 'Heart', which represents the 'affective' domain. As the teacher starts realising that each one of his students has a mind and a mouth, he should allow them to use both. As he starts giving importance to class room 'interaction' backed by frequent feedback, he will come to realize that he is dealing in 'Diamonds' precious enough for the posterity. The teacher tries to cushion his lectures with a 'Club', linking the unknown with the known. Teaching is a human experience and since all encounters within the class room centre around the 'Joker', the teacher has to prepare himself well in order to see that he has all the 'ingredients' to fit into any teacher-student learning situation.
In the midst of such situations prevailing, for academicians, productivity is a function of their eagerness to increase their personal status, and their intellectual pilgrimage, if we may say so, is dictated by external conditions. The credit goes to Mao Tse-tung (1967) who said 'external causes are the conditions of change and internal causes are the basis of change. In a suitable temperature an egg changes into a chicken, but no temperature can change a stone into a chicken because each has a different basis'. Achievement and recognition are both considered as intrinsic. However achievement is determined by performance, while recognition may have something to do with job satisfaction. It is to be recognised that job satisfaction levels can vary performance.
An examination of the problems of job satisfaction is called for since it is a question of the incumbent's satisfaction that is considered as essential to checkmate the diminishing returns of productivity. Merton (1949) makes a distinction between ' locals' and ' cosmopolitans' and sharing a parochial nature of the 'locals' and ecumenical nature of the 'cosmopolitans' , Gouldner (1957) goes on to add that while the 'locals' loyalty to employing organisation is ' high', they are 'low' on commitment to specialised role skills and are likely to use an inner reference group orientation. The 'cosmopolitans' on the other hand are those 'low' on loyalty to employing organisation, 'high' on commitment to specialised role skills and are likely to use outer reference group orientation.
It needs to be seen whether academicians can have access to rewards far beyond the levels of job satisfaction. In other words, independent of levels of satisfaction, productivity is their life breath and without it their survival will be in jeopardy. For them ‘contended mind is not a continual feast'. Unless academicians who are comparable to 'cosmopolitans' have an 'urge' to be seen as men of eminence, mere presence of 'high' level of job satisfaction will be of no avail. Viewed against the background of a condition in which 'high satisfaction' is prevalent with 'urge' conspicuous by its absence, it is discernable that there exists a 'paternalistic relationship' between the academicians and the management with their eyes not focused on productivity. Increased productivity with an 'urge' for 'outer group reference' contributes to the eminence of academicians.
The heads of the academicians, though small, need to carry all the news in order to stay put in their professional pursuits and thereby make a mark. Such of those who lag behind and fail to make a mark are sure to go 'unwept, unhonoured and unsung to the vile dust whence they sprung'.
Relevant Links:
http://drpadmalatha.blogspot.com
Bibliography
Job Satisfaction Among Academicians by Dr.C.S.RANGARAJAN
Sunday, May 17, 2009
KNOWLEDGE:ITS ROOTS AND FRUITS
Authors : Dr. HORNELL HART; Dr.C.S.RANGARAJAN
Published: May 17, 2009
Daniel Bell, known for his work on 'The Coming of Post Industrial Society'
makes a distinction between information and knowledge, since knowledge is equated with information. Knowledge is also equated with instruction, enlightenment, learning, practical skill and so on and it includes expertise. According to Daniel Bell, knowledge is an organised set of statement of facts or ideas presenting a reasoned judgment or an experimental result which is transmitted to others through some communication medium in ome systematic form. On the otherhand, information is 'data processing' in the broadest sense. Both knowledge and information are terms used interchangeably. If we take learning as equivalent to knowledge, such learning can take place when individuals interact with others and with their environment.
Individuals increase their understanding of reality by observing others and also by examining their results of their acts. If you observe others' acts and thereby learn on your own, or if you are made to observe others and thereby learn (i.e what is called as Contagion, seen as a positive means of social control). You also learn by 'trial and error'. It is others experience or your own experience that helps you to learn.
The following saying assumes relevancy:
Wise men learn by fools experience and
Fools, by their own experience.
As held by Hornell Hart (1964) mankind seeks knowledge by a variety of ways. The quest for reliable knowledge is the essence of 'scientific research'. Seeking knowledge both by scientific and non-scientific methods dates back to periods earlier than the dawn of history. In his book entitled
'Laboratory Manual for Introductory Sociology', Hornell Hart (1964) idetifies five rungs which represent five basic methods of knowledge seeking. The five rungs are (1) Intuition (2) Logic (3) Authority tradition
4) Introspection and (5) Empiricism. Empiricism which lies at the bottom of the rung help the seekers of knowledge to use eyes, ears, fingers and other sensory organs. What one gets through his senses proides the basis for test of turth. The following proverbs lend credence to the above:
"The proof of the pudding is in the eating of it";
" Seeing is believing".
Introspection, which is in the second rung from the bottom, involves observation of of one's own private experience. It includes such acts as recalling memory, feeling a liking or dislike for something, and noticing how one's own mind works. It also includes observing what happens in one's own dreams and using one's own imagination. The immediate test of truth under this method is what one observes inwardly.
Authority-Tradition, in the third rung of the ladder may also be called 'rung of transmitting information. Under this method, the test for acceptance of a given item is that some one on whom we repose confidence confides that it is true. Tradition includes the vast bulk of social heritage of knowledge and belief. On the otherhand, authority consists of transmitted information backed up by sanctions and pressures. It is the basis for the whole structure of civil and criminal law, founded upon the Constitutions, statutes and judicial precedents. Transmission of information begins at home and both the primary and secondary groups an individual comes in contact with are involved in this process.
Logic is the fourth rung in the ladder. Philosophers, lawyers, mathematicians and other theorists place emphasis on this method of finding and testing truth.
In the fifth rung lies Intuition. Intuition includes every sudden flash of insight. The immediate test of truth is merely one's own inner conviction.
If these are the ' roots' of knowledge, what are its ' fruits'?
August Comte, 'the father of sociology', said that the purpose of science is to understand, so as to predict, in order to control. Manuel Castells in his
work on 'The Rise of the Network Society, Volume I, Page 159) writes to say that the interaction between 'tacit knowledge' and 'explicit knowledge' serves as a source of innovation.
Finally, is may be said
'Action without knowledge is rootless ;
Knowledge without action is fruitless'.
Published: May 17, 2009
Daniel Bell, known for his work on 'The Coming of Post Industrial Society'
makes a distinction between information and knowledge, since knowledge is equated with information. Knowledge is also equated with instruction, enlightenment, learning, practical skill and so on and it includes expertise. According to Daniel Bell, knowledge is an organised set of statement of facts or ideas presenting a reasoned judgment or an experimental result which is transmitted to others through some communication medium in ome systematic form. On the otherhand, information is 'data processing' in the broadest sense. Both knowledge and information are terms used interchangeably. If we take learning as equivalent to knowledge, such learning can take place when individuals interact with others and with their environment.
Individuals increase their understanding of reality by observing others and also by examining their results of their acts. If you observe others' acts and thereby learn on your own, or if you are made to observe others and thereby learn (i.e what is called as Contagion, seen as a positive means of social control). You also learn by 'trial and error'. It is others experience or your own experience that helps you to learn.
The following saying assumes relevancy:
Wise men learn by fools experience and
Fools, by their own experience.
As held by Hornell Hart (1964) mankind seeks knowledge by a variety of ways. The quest for reliable knowledge is the essence of 'scientific research'. Seeking knowledge both by scientific and non-scientific methods dates back to periods earlier than the dawn of history. In his book entitled
'Laboratory Manual for Introductory Sociology', Hornell Hart (1964) idetifies five rungs which represent five basic methods of knowledge seeking. The five rungs are (1) Intuition (2) Logic (3) Authority tradition
4) Introspection and (5) Empiricism. Empiricism which lies at the bottom of the rung help the seekers of knowledge to use eyes, ears, fingers and other sensory organs. What one gets through his senses proides the basis for test of turth. The following proverbs lend credence to the above:
"The proof of the pudding is in the eating of it";
" Seeing is believing".
Introspection, which is in the second rung from the bottom, involves observation of of one's own private experience. It includes such acts as recalling memory, feeling a liking or dislike for something, and noticing how one's own mind works. It also includes observing what happens in one's own dreams and using one's own imagination. The immediate test of truth under this method is what one observes inwardly.
Authority-Tradition, in the third rung of the ladder may also be called 'rung of transmitting information. Under this method, the test for acceptance of a given item is that some one on whom we repose confidence confides that it is true. Tradition includes the vast bulk of social heritage of knowledge and belief. On the otherhand, authority consists of transmitted information backed up by sanctions and pressures. It is the basis for the whole structure of civil and criminal law, founded upon the Constitutions, statutes and judicial precedents. Transmission of information begins at home and both the primary and secondary groups an individual comes in contact with are involved in this process.
Logic is the fourth rung in the ladder. Philosophers, lawyers, mathematicians and other theorists place emphasis on this method of finding and testing truth.
In the fifth rung lies Intuition. Intuition includes every sudden flash of insight. The immediate test of truth is merely one's own inner conviction.
If these are the ' roots' of knowledge, what are its ' fruits'?
August Comte, 'the father of sociology', said that the purpose of science is to understand, so as to predict, in order to control. Manuel Castells in his
work on 'The Rise of the Network Society, Volume I, Page 159) writes to say that the interaction between 'tacit knowledge' and 'explicit knowledge' serves as a source of innovation.
Finally, is may be said
'Action without knowledge is rootless ;
Knowledge without action is fruitless'.
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