The root causes of the Turmoil in the Middle East Research Paper

The root causes of the Turmoil in the Middle East - Research Paper Example 4). It is generally conceded, however, that the countries that comprise the Middle East include Algeria, Bahrain, Egypt, Israel, Lebanon, Iran, Iraq, Syria, Kuwait, Morocco, Oman, Palestine, Qatar, Libya, Sudan, Syria, Tunisia, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates, Yemen, and Saudi Arabia (Middle East Information Network, 2010). From as far back as history records, the Middle East region has been beset by armed unrest and turmoil, of every possible kind – between the Arabs and Israelis on territory, between two or more Arab nations on borders, between Arab nations based on alliances in the Cold War, and even within Arab nations in the form of interracial or ethnic conflicts. More recently, civil social unrest against autocratic regimes, similar to those in eighteenth century Europe, ushered in a different type of turmoil that expressed the popular desire for democratic reforms. This study shall briefly discuss the principal causes of turmoil in the Middle East, namely: (1) the int erests vested by the Western superpowers in the region; (2) the contest for territorial control and misspecification of boundaries, and (3) the clamour for democratic governance and the end of kleptocracy and autocracy. Interest of superpowers in trade access and oil reserves The geographical location of the Middle East played an important role in the origin and progress of turmoil in the region. ... Even in contemporary times, its strategic location has sparked occasional military offensives, such as that mounted by Israel against Egypt when the latter denied access to Israeli shipping through the Suez Canal (Milton-Edwards & Hinchcliffe, 2008). Besides being the trade gateway to three continents, the region is also situated over the world’s largest oil reserves, representing roughly two-thirds of all the oil supply internationally. Over 60% of the proven oil reserves in the world is to be found in the Persian Gulf, for which stakes the world’s superpowers had played for. This has been the principal interest of the U.S. and the USSR in the region during the Cold War. Other factors such as the U.S.-Israeli alliance precipitated the USSR-Afghanistan tie-up in the post-World War II power alignment, which served to establish their bid for control of the region’s oil (Heini, 1970). One may argue that the world’s superpowers have interests around the globe at one time or another, but despite interventions from the major developed countries, this fact does not necessarily lead to the continuous state of turmoil or unrest that is evident in the Middle East. Thus while it is an important external cause, it is one that impacts most those countries that are weak or unstable. Contestation of territorial control and illogical boundaries Many point to the Israeli-Arab war as a religious war; in truth, it is more a territorial war. The seeds of conflict were sown in 1947, when Britain withdrew from Palestine and a U.N. resolution called for the partition of Palestine into two, a Jewish state and an Arab state. Resistance to this partition erupted into hostilities between

Improving Staff Morale Coursework Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2750 words

Improving Staff Morale - Coursework Example On the other hand, low staff morale leads to increased costs, decreased efficiency, low motivation and interest (1, p.339).This is because of reduced motivation, wastage of time and low productivity. Consequently, keeping and improving employee morale is one of the most important things that the management of organizations must always do in order to achieve and maintain productive workplaces. The leading cause of low staff morale is poor leadership (2).It is associated with poor interpersonal relations between administrators and employees and inflexible working conditions (3). However, improving the staff morale remains of the greatest challenges to many contemporary organizational management and business leaders. Achieving it well requires a critical analysis of the analysis of the reasons behind low employee morale and addressing the root cause as opposed to the symptoms Currently, many organizations are facing stiff competition in the market and are increasingly being required to reduce their operation costs. Staff sizes are constantly being reduced and this creates more responsibilities for the remaining staff. Increased stress levels results leading to reduced organizational morale. The achievement of improved staff morale particularly lies in the management approach adopted by the company as well as the relationship between the management and the workers. This paper critically reviews literature on staff morale and attempts to give recommendations on how supermarket R’Us can increase and maintain staff morale and job satisfaction within its employees. Analysis of the ways of improving staff morale Numerous researchers concur that the level of confidence and satisfaction among employees is critically important to the productivity of any business organization. Morale indicates the happiness exhibited by the employees in the organizational surroundings. It is the key to job satisfaction by the employers towards their employees. In most cases, the succ ess of business organizations such as Supermarket R’Us closely depends on the cheerfulness, confidence, discipline, satisfaction and willingness of the staff workers to perform their assigned tasks. Although there is no single known factor that can satisfactorily be used to explain the occurrence of high or low morale, it is widely believed that morale of the staff workers in any organizations is often a top down issue than a bottom up issue (4, p.46). The existence of low morale among the staff workers in a business organization has a number of negative implications for the productivity of its workplace environment. This is particularly because morale is one of the key drivers of performance and lack of it often comes with a high price tag. For example, disengaged and unmotivated staff workers may contribute to reduced productivity through increased cases of employee dissident, illnesses, unscheduled absenteeism and general poor performance. On the other hand, Organizations that maintain high staff morale have, employees that arrive to work on time, have low employee turnover, communicate better and are more committed to the organizational goals. As a result, failure to address low morale issues in the workplaces may not only lead to lower productivity but also to increased loss of revenues, workplace conflicts, dissatisfied consumers or customer