Resilience

Resilience can often be defined in terms of resistance to illness (something that has definitely been tested this year due to freshers flu) or alternatively resistance to adaptation and change. However, personally, resilience means the ability to bounce back. Throughout this year I believe I have demonstrated a sound resilience in terms of academic stress.

“Persistence and resilience only come from having been given the chance to work through difficult problems.” – Gever Tulley

In an article on Building Resilience, Martin E.P. Seligman (known as the father of positive psychology) explains how he discovered “learned helplessness”. In an experiment (1975) he, alongside Donald Hiroto, divided subjects into 3 groups. The first group were exposed to a loud noise that could be stopped by the push of a button. The second heard the same noise but were unable to turn it off. The third (the control group) hear nothing. The next day all three groups hear the loud noise, to turn it off they have to move their hands 12inches. The first and third group figure this out, but those in the second group do nothing; in phase 1 they failed and realised they had no control and became passive, meaning they expect failure in phase 2. In essence they have learned helplessness. After years of study they discovered that a third of people who experience shocks never become helpless, the answer behind this being optimism.

I have always believed myself to be a very optimistic person, and in reflection of the past year, I believe I have shown resilience in many forms. Firstly, when starting uni you are faced with many changes and challenges. I believe I handled these very well; initial homesickness and the feeling of being overwhelmed were easily over come and I was able to bounce back. Secondly, having not obtained the grade I was hoping for in the first assignment I was disheartened, but having read my feedback I was able to put forward SMART objectives to ensure I improved for the second essay I handed in.

In reflection, I think resilience amounts to more than just optimism. I think other attributes that may contribute to resilience are as follows:

• Altruism – talking to others relieves stress and boosts self-efficacy
• Sense of humour- the ability to laugh at unfortunate situations
• Sense of purpose and vision – helps you to see that some bad situations are only temporary.

In conclusion, resilience is necessary not only in my academic career or future career for that matter, but also in life. The ability to bounce back in any situation and also learn and produce goals because of them, is something I think is very important. Furthermore, it is something that I plan to be more aware of in the future.

Image credited to edX

How has Feminism affected marketing?

Over the years Dove has created some really inspiring ‘body confidence-boosting’ campaigns advertising women’s natural beauty. However, I have only recently discovered that Unilever (which owns Dove) also owns Axe. Axe is a company that in my opinion (and many others’) creates very sexist adverts portraying and using women for sexual appeals. I find it disgraceful that the same company that is promoting natural confident happy women, is also degrading women at the same time. This spurred me to to reflect how advertising has changed over time as a result of the feminist movement- since there is still a fair way to go.

‘Where once sexualised representation of women in the media presented themselves as passive, mute objects of an assumed gaze, today women are presented as active, desiring sexual objects who choose to present themselves in an objectified manner because it suits their “liberated” interests to do so.’ (Gill, 2007)

1960s advert

2016 advert

 

It is evident that there has been a significant transformation in advertising from the 1960s to today and it did not come about by itself. It was the feminist movement that played an instrumental role by taking an active role in politics that influenced advertising.

However, women are still being objectified in the media. It seems that feminism has come such a long way and women are finally having a voice, yet marketers are slow to catch up.

The conversation about gender stereotypes has been everywhere for the last couple of years. In a survey of 18-34 year olds in the western world 50% said they believed gender exists on a spectrum- yet marketing (in general) still appeals to traditional gender stereotypes. It raises the question- Is the next step to stop advertising to genders? and instead appeal to individuals regardless of genders?

Image credited to Markathon

The Gender Pay Gap

Since yesterday was International Women’s Day, I thought I would discuss this topic and what it means for women in business. There’s been a lot of noise in the news recently since it has been announced that all UK companies with more than 250 employees (roughly 9,000 firms) have to calculate their pay gap and publish it by 4th April 2018.

International women day was started nearly 100 years ago, yet today there are still headlines highlighting inequality across the world based on gender. In a study with all workers, full time and part time included the pay gap was calculated at 18.4%.

TUC have stated that “This means that women effectively work for free for the first 67 days of the year.”

Many companies have already published their figures on the pay gap in their firm and Finance was the most shocking to me. It’s been revealed that women in some of the country’s most prestigious, leading financial companies are being paid half as much as their male colleagues.

• Barclays has a mean average gender pay gap of 48%. In terms of bonuses their pay gap figure is 79%.
• Deloitte has an average pay gap of 43.2% (up from 18.2% that was reported last year)

A common misconception

There is a difference between ‘equal pay’ and a ‘pay gap’. Equal pay is a legal requirement and has been for 47years. It means that men and women doing the same job should be paid the same. This applies to all employers, no matter the size of the company. The ‘gender pay gap’ implies that the majority of the top jobs in the company are taken by men and therefore, the average wage for men in the company is higher than that of women.

There are many arguments as to why the gender pay gap is such a major issue. One argument is that, since they are often the ones to care for children, women are often forced to work part time, meaning that they have access to fewer progressional opportunities. In addition to this, women are still more likely to be working in lower paid and lower skilled jobs. According to statistics 62% of those earning below the minimum wage are female.

The government have admitted there will be no punishment for those companies with large gender pay gaps. However, they are planning on publishing sector specific league tables highlighting the worse offenders. My hope is that these companies with suffer lots of scrutiny from not only the media and competitors but also their own employees and as a result change will be made.

 

Photo credited to Robert Neubecker

Hofstede

Geert Hofstede researched the different categories of culture that distinguish how business is operated in different countries. Using his model we are able to identify the driving forces of the culture in different nations.

I am planning to travel around Thailand this summer, and I thought it would be interesting to directly compare their culture with that of the UK.

This graph shows the contrast of culture in Thailand and the UK in terms of these 6 dimensions.

 Blue = Thailand                         Purple = UK

1) Power Distance

This is defined as ‘The extent to which the less powerful members of institutions and organisations within a country expect and accept that power is distributed unequally.’

As you can see from the graph there is a noticeable difference in scores for Thailand and the UK. Thailand scores slightly lower than the average Asian countries (71) yet significantly higher than that of the UK (35). This implies that Thailand has a society in which inequalities are accepted. This lends itself to paternalistic management and more hierarchical structures within businesses.

The UK, has a much lower ranking, implying that society believes that inequalities should be minimised. I certainly think that there is a sense of fair treatment and a belief that where you are born should not limit you in any way. This leads to a more democratic style of leadership being more popular and common.

2) Individualism

This refers to ‘The degree of interdependence a society maintains among its members’ In other words it describes whether the society is one of individualism (people look after themselves and close family only) or a Collectivist society (where people belong to groups and look after them accordingly)

There is obviously a stark difference in this dimension between the two nations. Thailand scores only 20, making it a collectivist country. It could be inferred that Thailand has a very social and loyalty based society. Personal relationships are a key aspect of operating business in their country and this requires time and patience.

The UK scores 89 for individualism. Therefore their culture has a more private and individualist nature, promoting personal fulfilment as something to strive for.

3) Masculinity

This targets ‘what motivates people, wanting to be the best (Masculine) or liking what you do (Feminine).’

Thailand is considered a Feminine society with a score of 34, this reflects a nation with low levels of competition. It also reinforces more traditional roles for men and women.

With a score of 66, the UK is a Masculine society. I was surprised, I had expected a higher ranking, as I perceive the UK as highly ambitious and success- orientated nation.

4) Uncertainty Avoidance

‘The extend to which the members of a culture feel threatened by ambiguous or unknown situations and have created beliefs and institutions that try to avoid these.’

At 64, you can infer that Thailand has a preference for avoiding uncertainty and is therefore risk adverse. The society does not easily accept change and has to be seen for the greater good of the group.

Similarly, in this dimension there is a contrast in societies. The UK has a low score meaning they are more open to ambiguous situations and change. (Brexit is an interesting example- one situation many are not open to however!) This culture drives creativity, innovation and arguably entrepreneurship.

5) Long Term Orientation

This measures ‘how every society has to maintain some links with its own past while dealing with the challenges of the present and future.’

Thailand has a score of 32, which shows they hold great respect for their traditions. In addition, their culture is more normative than pragmatic. The UK has a score of 51 in this dimension meaning it doesn’t lean either way and holds a neutral position in this dimension.

6) Indulgence

‘The extent to which people try to control their desires and impulses.’

Thailand has a ranking of 45, meaning it is neutral in this dimension. The UK is classified as Indulgent with a score of 69. As a society there is more emphasis on the importance of leisure time and spending money as you wish. It could be argued that this is linked to their higher living costs.

In conclusion, it is really eye-opening studying the stark contrasts in cultures. This will be helpful to keep in mind (and worth continuing research) when I travel to Thailand this summer. Furthermore, it is beneficial to see the importance of culture for my future studies and career in business.

 

Definitions and statistics taken from Hofstede Insights

Image credited to AZ Quotes