The US defence secretary has asked the country's commander in Afghanistan to step down, saying the battle against the Taleban needs "new thinking".
Robert Gates confirmed Gen David McKiernan would effectively be sacked less than a year after taking command.
He will be replaced by Gen Stanley McChrystal, who is seen as having a better understanding of the conflict.
The change comes as the US boosts troops numbers in Afghanistan and prepares for a change in strategy.
Gen McKiernan's time as US commander in Afghanistan has coincided with a surge in violence.
His successor currently serves as the director of US Joint Chiefs of Staff, and was previously a director of special operations forces.
Announcing the removal of Gen McKiernan from his role, Mr Gates said new military leadership was needed to go along with a new strategy and a new ambassador.
"This is the right time to make the change," he said.
"Our mission there requires new thinking and new approaches from our military leaders."
He said the decision was in the best interest of US national security and the success of the Afghanistan mission.
It was made after consulting the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Admiral Mike Mullen, and the commander of the US Central Command, Gen David Petraeus.
The change also had the approval of President Barack Obama.
Correspondents say Gen McChrystal is a specialist in the kind of counter-insurgency strategy the Obama administration plans to implement in Afghanistan.
Strategic goals
The change comes as President Obama's administration prepares to send thousands of extra troops to Afghanistan, and amid pressure on international forces to reduce the numbers of civilians killed by coalition air strikes.
With plans announced for a phased pullout of US troops from Iraq, Afghanistan was recently confirmed as the primary focus of US military operations.
The US is sending 21,000 additional troops to the country, to join an existing force of 38,000.
However, the new strategy is expected to pair non-military methods and reconstruction with a stronger armed force on the ground.
But relations with President Hamid Karzai's Afghan government have been strained by a recent air strike which some Afghan officials say killed as many as 150 people.
On Sunday, Gen Petraeus said "tactical actions" should not undermine strategic goals.
Gen McKiernan, who will also lose his role as head of the Nato-led International Security Assistance Force (Isaf), recently described the situation in the country as a "stalemate
Monday, May 11, 2009
Sunday, May 10, 2009
India Inc’s Q4 profits suggest faster recovery
Corporate profits are down, but not out.
Against negative expectations of analysts in the previous quarter, the corporate profit growth for most leading companies has come out in the positive zone, strengthening the belief that a recovery could be faster than expected.
A look into the results of BSE 500 index companies reveals that the average net profit growth for the 210 companies that have disclosed their results for the last quarter stands at 0.8 per cent. While this is significantly lower than the 21 per cent that they witnessed in the same quarter a year ago, it is better than what was expected.
“The results are much better than expected and the trend is positive. We expected a quarter on quarter growth of 0.8 per cent for a set of companies but it has actually come out to be 4.8 per cent,” said Amitabh Chakraborty, president, equity, at Religare Enterprises.
“Better than expected results have also been one of the reasons that have held the markets together over the past one month,” said Chakraborty. A mood of recovery across the globe is fanning further optimism. Revenue growth for the same companies was 4 per cent against 24.2 per cent a year ago.
“We were all expecting a substantially low numbers or in fact negative growth numbers but that has not happened. We have positive numbers for majority of the companies,” said Alex Mathew, head of research at Geojit BNP Paribas Financial Services. “We expect a better result in one or two quarters down the line and a faster recovery.”
The pressure on the interest expenditure front for the companies softened during the quarter from 40 per cent in Q4 2007-08 but still stood at a high of 26 per cent in the latest quarter.
But margins are under stress. The same set of companies witnessed a growth of 2.3 per cent in net profit in the full year 2008-09 against 29.3 per cent for 2007-08. Average revenue growth was 19.3 per cent for the fiscal 2009 against 26.4 per cent in the previous year.
courtsey ...the hindusthan times
Against negative expectations of analysts in the previous quarter, the corporate profit growth for most leading companies has come out in the positive zone, strengthening the belief that a recovery could be faster than expected.
A look into the results of BSE 500 index companies reveals that the average net profit growth for the 210 companies that have disclosed their results for the last quarter stands at 0.8 per cent. While this is significantly lower than the 21 per cent that they witnessed in the same quarter a year ago, it is better than what was expected.
“The results are much better than expected and the trend is positive. We expected a quarter on quarter growth of 0.8 per cent for a set of companies but it has actually come out to be 4.8 per cent,” said Amitabh Chakraborty, president, equity, at Religare Enterprises.
“Better than expected results have also been one of the reasons that have held the markets together over the past one month,” said Chakraborty. A mood of recovery across the globe is fanning further optimism. Revenue growth for the same companies was 4 per cent against 24.2 per cent a year ago.
“We were all expecting a substantially low numbers or in fact negative growth numbers but that has not happened. We have positive numbers for majority of the companies,” said Alex Mathew, head of research at Geojit BNP Paribas Financial Services. “We expect a better result in one or two quarters down the line and a faster recovery.”
The pressure on the interest expenditure front for the companies softened during the quarter from 40 per cent in Q4 2007-08 but still stood at a high of 26 per cent in the latest quarter.
But margins are under stress. The same set of companies witnessed a growth of 2.3 per cent in net profit in the full year 2008-09 against 29.3 per cent for 2007-08. Average revenue growth was 19.3 per cent for the fiscal 2009 against 26.4 per cent in the previous year.
courtsey ...the hindusthan times
Chew on this, RTI brings lost cow home
Unhappy with the police for failing to act on your complaint? Well, the Right to Information (RTI) Act can come to your rescue.
Gobind Dubey, a resident of north Delhi’s Metro Vihar, was recently surprised to find a couple of policemen at his door. They had Dubey’s stolen cow with them.
All they wanted was for him to withdraw his RTI application.
A few months ago, Dubey had complained to the police that the cow, his only source of income, had been taken away by one Raju Tyagi, a dairy owner.
The police refused to register a case, saying Tyagi had bought the animal and had the documents to prove it.
On a friend’s advice, Dubey filed an RTI application, seeking details of the action taken on his complaint.
“About a week after I filed the application, policemen came to my house with Tyagi and returned my cow,” he said. “Tyagi apologised to me and the police requested me not to pursue the case further.”
About 50 km away in Ghaziabad in UP, Mukesh Kumar, too, has reason to thank the RTI Act.
Kumar, an electrician, had complained to the police that a man had duped him. A cheque for Rs 70,000 — that was owed to Kumar — had bounced.
When no action was taken, he filed an RTI application. Within days, the police asked Kumar to come to Ghaziabad and collect his money. “They just wanted me to give in writing that the issue had been settled,” he said.
Magsaysay award-winner Arvind Kejriwal said these two were true examples of people’s empowerment through the RTI Act. About 75 lakh RTI applications were filed last year. “The law was framed to make public servants accountable to people and it is happening to some extent,” said Kejriwal.
Gobind Dubey, a resident of north Delhi’s Metro Vihar, was recently surprised to find a couple of policemen at his door. They had Dubey’s stolen cow with them.
All they wanted was for him to withdraw his RTI application.
A few months ago, Dubey had complained to the police that the cow, his only source of income, had been taken away by one Raju Tyagi, a dairy owner.
The police refused to register a case, saying Tyagi had bought the animal and had the documents to prove it.
On a friend’s advice, Dubey filed an RTI application, seeking details of the action taken on his complaint.
“About a week after I filed the application, policemen came to my house with Tyagi and returned my cow,” he said. “Tyagi apologised to me and the police requested me not to pursue the case further.”
About 50 km away in Ghaziabad in UP, Mukesh Kumar, too, has reason to thank the RTI Act.
Kumar, an electrician, had complained to the police that a man had duped him. A cheque for Rs 70,000 — that was owed to Kumar — had bounced.
When no action was taken, he filed an RTI application. Within days, the police asked Kumar to come to Ghaziabad and collect his money. “They just wanted me to give in writing that the issue had been settled,” he said.
Magsaysay award-winner Arvind Kejriwal said these two were true examples of people’s empowerment through the RTI Act. About 75 lakh RTI applications were filed last year. “The law was framed to make public servants accountable to people and it is happening to some extent,” said Kejriwal.
Jayalalithaa's demand for Eelam 'strange': Karunanidhi
Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M Karunanidhi on Sunday attacked AIADMK chief Jayalalithaa for raking up the issue of a separate Eelam and described it as "strange".
"In 2007, when I penned an eulogy condoling the death of slain LTTE spokesperson S P Tamilselvan, she demanded dismissal of my government, saying the LTTE was a banned organisation in India and its chief Prabhakaran a proclaimed offender," he said.
In fact, AIADMK government had even declined to allow Chennai to be used for some tentative dialogue between the LTTE and the Sri Lankan government, the DMK chief said at a joint election rally with Congress President Sonia Gandhi.
"But it is strange that she is now promising separate Eelam," Karunanidhi, who had himself raised the demand for separate homeland for Tamils, said.
"I do not want to reply to her charges. Will anybody bite a snake, if bitten by it," he said.
The ailing 85-year-old leader, who was discharged from hospital on Saturday, said Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Congress General Secretary Rahul Gandhi had assured the support of Congress for bringing peace in Sri Lanka
"In 2007, when I penned an eulogy condoling the death of slain LTTE spokesperson S P Tamilselvan, she demanded dismissal of my government, saying the LTTE was a banned organisation in India and its chief Prabhakaran a proclaimed offender," he said.
In fact, AIADMK government had even declined to allow Chennai to be used for some tentative dialogue between the LTTE and the Sri Lankan government, the DMK chief said at a joint election rally with Congress President Sonia Gandhi.
"But it is strange that she is now promising separate Eelam," Karunanidhi, who had himself raised the demand for separate homeland for Tamils, said.
"I do not want to reply to her charges. Will anybody bite a snake, if bitten by it," he said.
The ailing 85-year-old leader, who was discharged from hospital on Saturday, said Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Congress General Secretary Rahul Gandhi had assured the support of Congress for bringing peace in Sri Lanka
'Star Trek' boldly beams up $72.5 million in opening weekend
Star Trek" has successfully warped into the mainstream, generating $72.5 million in U.S. ticket sales on its opening weekend.
Paramount's relaunch of the sci-fi franchise, which in the past decade has appealed to declining numbers of core fans on TV and the big screen, came in at the high end of survey-based estimates and right in the heart of a solid summer event movie opening.
The J.J. Abrams-directed film sold an extra $4 million worth of tickets at Thursday evening shows, bringing its total to $76.5 million.
Paramount's relaunch of the sci-fi franchise, which in the past decade has appealed to declining numbers of core fans on TV and the big screen, came in at the high end of survey-based estimates and right in the heart of a solid summer event movie opening.
The J.J. Abrams-directed film sold an extra $4 million worth of tickets at Thursday evening shows, bringing its total to $76.5 million.
Sri Lankan army, Tamil Tigers trade blame over deadly attack
The Sri Lankan military and rebels traded blame today for an artillery attack that reportedly killed hundreds of civilians, with the army accusing the encircled Tamil Tigers of launching the assault to pressure authorities for a truce and the guerrillas saying the deaths were further evidence of government atrocities.
The attack took place late Saturday and early today when artillery shells were reportedly lobbed into a densely packed area of northern Sri Lanka, resulting in at least 378 civilian deaths, according to the rebels.
Foreign governments and U.N. agencies have repeatedly asked the government to halt the hostilities so that noncombatants can reach safety. But the army argues that any halt would allow the rebels, known formally as the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, or LTTE, to escape or regroup.
"The LTTE fired mortars indiscriminately into this place," army spokesman Brig. Udaya Nanayakkara said today. "They fire indiscriminately at civilians because it's the only weapon left them. And they may be forcing doctors to give these kinds of statements."
TamilNet.com, a pro-Tamil website, in turn accused the government forces of carrying out the artillery barrage, which it said killed at least 378 people and wounded 814, quoting unidentified medical sources.
"More than 2,000 innocent civilians have been killed in the last 24 hours," it said, quoting Selvarajah Pathmanathan, the Tigers' foreign relations intermediary and longtime weapons smuggler wanted by Interpol. This, it said, amounts to "state terrorism and a war crime."
Bitter accusations, propaganda and a lack of credible information have been longstanding features of this conflict.
The army has severely restricted access into the area by media or humanitarian groups -- both of which it has at times accused of being Tamil Tiger sympathizers -- citing safety concerns.
The Tigers, accused of numerous human rights violations, have rarely allowed media access to areas they've controlled. The U.S. and European Union have labeled them terrorists, while the U.N. has accused it of using civilians as human shields.
Today, the government deported three journalists from Britain's Channel 4 on charges their stories were "tarnishing the image of the country."
Channel 4 broadcast a report last week quoting what it said were Tamil aid workers inside one of the humanitarian camps for war-displaced people saying they were underfed, mistreated and that some women were sexually abused.
The government called the report Tiger propaganda, adding that the camps were considered largely up to international standards by U.N. and foreign officials.
The civil war has raged since 1983. The Tigers seek an independent homeland for ethnic Tamils marginalized in Sinhalese-majority Sri Lanka.
After years of relative stalemate, the army recently made dramatic advances and now has the Tigers trapped in a 2-square-mile area on the island's northern coast surrounded by 50,000 troops.
As the military end-game nears, a man who worked closely with Tamil Tigers' leader Velupillai Prabhakaran said the Tiger guerrilla will never surrender and will soon be "eliminated."
Col. Karuna, whose real name is Vinayagamoorthi Muralitharan, joined the Tigers when he was 19. He led forces in eastern Sri Lanka until 2004 when he defected to the government side, paving the way for the latest military advances.
"The LTTE is nearly finished," Karuna said during an interview at his heavily fortified headquarters in Colombo, the capital, where visitors are frisked. "I am No. 1 on the LTTE's hit list," he said. "Prabhakaran hates me."
Once Prabhakaran is killed or dies -- the Tigers carry cyanide capsules with them in case they are captured, he said -- the rebels won't appoint another leader, he predicted. "There are no new leaders waiting in the LTTE," Karuna said. "They are finished."
Thileepan Parthipan, a spokesman for the LTTE, who spoke by telephone from what he said was a bunker, agreed that Prabhakaran would never give himself up alive.
"He's fighting for his people and is still with us," he said. Reports that the guerrilla leader had fled the conflict zone were army disinformation, he said, adding that people in the area were starving and the international community needed to intervene to prevent a humanitarian disaster.
Parthipan denied the Tigers were using civilians as human shields. "You should realize, these are our own mothers, brothers, wives," he said. "It's the army that is using our people as human shields."
In the interview, meanwhile, Karuna sought to paint Prabhakaran as a leader who kept himself out of danger while demanding great sacrifices from his cadres, and someone who failed to read the political situation correctly.
"Prabhakaran made many mistakes" by not seriously pursuing peace negotiations, the burly, mustached former fighter said. "I spent 22 years with him and he never came to the battlefield."
Karuna, appointed the new minister for national integration and reconciliation in March, said it is unsafe for him to travel around the country.
Some analysts and regional diplomats fear Sri Lanka could win the war but lose the peace if its postwar policies prove prejudicial to the marginalized Tamil community, thereby providing fertile ground for a new LTTE-like group.
Karuna, himself accused of appalling acts of barbarism both as a Tiger fighter and a government supporter, said Prabhakaran must die, not because he holds any remaining sway over the Tamil populace but as punishment for the things he has done.
"He's a very horrible man," Karuna said. "He has to be eliminated
The attack took place late Saturday and early today when artillery shells were reportedly lobbed into a densely packed area of northern Sri Lanka, resulting in at least 378 civilian deaths, according to the rebels.
Foreign governments and U.N. agencies have repeatedly asked the government to halt the hostilities so that noncombatants can reach safety. But the army argues that any halt would allow the rebels, known formally as the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, or LTTE, to escape or regroup.
"The LTTE fired mortars indiscriminately into this place," army spokesman Brig. Udaya Nanayakkara said today. "They fire indiscriminately at civilians because it's the only weapon left them. And they may be forcing doctors to give these kinds of statements."
TamilNet.com, a pro-Tamil website, in turn accused the government forces of carrying out the artillery barrage, which it said killed at least 378 people and wounded 814, quoting unidentified medical sources.
"More than 2,000 innocent civilians have been killed in the last 24 hours," it said, quoting Selvarajah Pathmanathan, the Tigers' foreign relations intermediary and longtime weapons smuggler wanted by Interpol. This, it said, amounts to "state terrorism and a war crime."
Bitter accusations, propaganda and a lack of credible information have been longstanding features of this conflict.
The army has severely restricted access into the area by media or humanitarian groups -- both of which it has at times accused of being Tamil Tiger sympathizers -- citing safety concerns.
The Tigers, accused of numerous human rights violations, have rarely allowed media access to areas they've controlled. The U.S. and European Union have labeled them terrorists, while the U.N. has accused it of using civilians as human shields.
Today, the government deported three journalists from Britain's Channel 4 on charges their stories were "tarnishing the image of the country."
Channel 4 broadcast a report last week quoting what it said were Tamil aid workers inside one of the humanitarian camps for war-displaced people saying they were underfed, mistreated and that some women were sexually abused.
The government called the report Tiger propaganda, adding that the camps were considered largely up to international standards by U.N. and foreign officials.
The civil war has raged since 1983. The Tigers seek an independent homeland for ethnic Tamils marginalized in Sinhalese-majority Sri Lanka.
After years of relative stalemate, the army recently made dramatic advances and now has the Tigers trapped in a 2-square-mile area on the island's northern coast surrounded by 50,000 troops.
As the military end-game nears, a man who worked closely with Tamil Tigers' leader Velupillai Prabhakaran said the Tiger guerrilla will never surrender and will soon be "eliminated."
Col. Karuna, whose real name is Vinayagamoorthi Muralitharan, joined the Tigers when he was 19. He led forces in eastern Sri Lanka until 2004 when he defected to the government side, paving the way for the latest military advances.
"The LTTE is nearly finished," Karuna said during an interview at his heavily fortified headquarters in Colombo, the capital, where visitors are frisked. "I am No. 1 on the LTTE's hit list," he said. "Prabhakaran hates me."
Once Prabhakaran is killed or dies -- the Tigers carry cyanide capsules with them in case they are captured, he said -- the rebels won't appoint another leader, he predicted. "There are no new leaders waiting in the LTTE," Karuna said. "They are finished."
Thileepan Parthipan, a spokesman for the LTTE, who spoke by telephone from what he said was a bunker, agreed that Prabhakaran would never give himself up alive.
"He's fighting for his people and is still with us," he said. Reports that the guerrilla leader had fled the conflict zone were army disinformation, he said, adding that people in the area were starving and the international community needed to intervene to prevent a humanitarian disaster.
Parthipan denied the Tigers were using civilians as human shields. "You should realize, these are our own mothers, brothers, wives," he said. "It's the army that is using our people as human shields."
In the interview, meanwhile, Karuna sought to paint Prabhakaran as a leader who kept himself out of danger while demanding great sacrifices from his cadres, and someone who failed to read the political situation correctly.
"Prabhakaran made many mistakes" by not seriously pursuing peace negotiations, the burly, mustached former fighter said. "I spent 22 years with him and he never came to the battlefield."
Karuna, appointed the new minister for national integration and reconciliation in March, said it is unsafe for him to travel around the country.
Some analysts and regional diplomats fear Sri Lanka could win the war but lose the peace if its postwar policies prove prejudicial to the marginalized Tamil community, thereby providing fertile ground for a new LTTE-like group.
Karuna, himself accused of appalling acts of barbarism both as a Tiger fighter and a government supporter, said Prabhakaran must die, not because he holds any remaining sway over the Tamil populace but as punishment for the things he has done.
"He's a very horrible man," Karuna said. "He has to be eliminated
Backlash: Women Bullying Women at Wo
YELLING, scheming and sabotaging: all are tell-tale signs that a bully is at work, laying traps for employees at every pass.
During this downturn, as stress levels rise, workplace researchers say, bullies are likely to sharpen their elbows and ratchet up their attacks.
It’s probably no surprise that most of these bullies are men, as a survey by the Workplace Bullying Institute, an advocacy group, makes clear. But a good 40 percent of bullies are women. And at least the male bullies take an egalitarian approach, mowing down men and women pretty much in equal measure. The women appear to prefer their own kind, choosing other women as targets more than 70 percent of the time.
In the name of Betty Friedan and Gloria Steinem, what is going on here?
Just the mention of women treating other women badly on the job seemingly shakes the women’s movement to its core. It is what Peggy Klaus, an executive coach in Berkeley, Calif., has called “the pink elephant” in the room. How can women break through the glass ceiling if they are ducking verbal blows from other women in cubicles, hallways and conference rooms?
Women don’t like to talk about it because it is “so antithetical to the way that we are supposed to behave to other women,” Ms. Klaus said. “We are supposed to be the nurturers and the supporters.”
Ask women about run-ins with other women at work and some will point out that people of both sexes can misbehave. Others will nod in instant recognition and recount examples of how women — more so than men — have mistreated them.
“I’ve been sabotaged so many times in the workplace by other women, I finally left the corporate world and started my own business,” said Roxy Westphal, who runs the promotional products company Roxy Ventures Inc. in Scottsdale, Ariz. She still recalls the sting of an interview she had with a woman 30 years ago that “turned into a one-person firing squad” and led her to leave the building in tears.
Jean Kondek, who recently retired after a 30-year career in advertising, recalled her anger when an administrator in a small agency called a meeting to dress her down in front of co-workers for not following agency procedure in a client emergency.
But Ms. Kondek said she had the last word. “I said, ‘Would everyone please leave?’ ” She added, “and then I told her, ‘This is not how you handle that.’ ”
Many women who are still in the work force were hesitant to speak out publicly for fear of making matters worse or of jeopardizing their careers. A private accountant in California said she recently joined a company and was immediately frozen out by two women working there. One even pushed her in the cafeteria during an argument, the accountant said. “It’s as if we’re back in high school,” she said.
A senior executive said she had “finally broken the glass ceiling” only to have another woman gun for her job by telling management, “I can’t work for her, she’s passive-aggressive.”
The strategy worked: The executive said she soon lost the job to her accuser.
ONE reason women choose other women as targets “is probably some idea that they can find a less confrontative person or someone less likely to respond to aggression with aggression,” said Gary Namie, research director for the Workplace Bullying Institute, which ordered the study in 2007.
But another dynamic may be at work. After five decades of striving for equality, women make up more than 50 percent of management, professional and related occupations, says Catalyst, the nonprofit research group. And yet, its 2008 census found, only 15.7 percent of Fortune 500 officers and 15.2 percent of directors were women.
Leadership specialists wonder, are women being “overly aggressive” because there are too few opportunities for advancement? Or is it stereotyping and women are only perceived as being overly aggressive? Is there a double standard at work?
Research on gender stereotyping from Catalyst suggests that no matter how women choose to lead, they are perceived as “never just right.” What’s more, the group found, women must work twice as hard as men to achieve the same level of recognition and prove they can lead.
If women business leaders act consistent with gender stereotypes, they are considered too soft,” the group found in a 2007 study. “If they go against gender stereotypes, they are considered too tough.”“Women are trying to figure out the magical keys to the kingdom,” said Laura Steck, president of the Growth and Leadership Center in Sunnyvale, Calif., and an executive leadership coach.
Women feel they have to be aggressive to be promoted, she said, and then they keep it up. Then, suddenly, they see the need to be collegial and collaborative instead of competitive.
Cleo Lepori-Costello, a vice president at a Silicon Valley software company, came to the center for training. She got off to a bumpy start when she stormed into her new role “like a bull in a china shop,” Ms. Steck said.
In gathering feedback about Ms. Lepori-Costello, Ms. Steck heard comments like: “Cleo is good at getting things done but may have come on too strong in the beginning. She didn’t read the different cultural unspoken rules like she could have.”
So Ms. Steck and Kent Kaufman, another coach at the center, began a one-year, once-a-week individual coaching program. It included role-playing and monthly group discussions with other female executives who acknowledged that they also had major blind spots about being politic at work. (The group was once nicknamed the Bully Broads.)
When she came to the center, Ms. Lepori-Costello said, she thought her colleagues were not initially open to her ideas. Through coaching and conflict role-playing, she came to realize that her behavior was perhaps “too much overkill” and that she was not always attending to all the people around her.
Joel H. Neuman, a researcher at the State University of New York at New Paltz, says most aggressive behavior at work is influenced by a number of factors associated with the bullies, victims and the situations in which they work. “This would include issues related to frustration, personality traits, perceptions of unfair treatment, and an assortment of stresses and strains associated with today’s leaner and ‘meaner’ work settings,” he said.
Mr. Neuman and his colleague Loraleigh Keashly of Wayne State University have developed a questionnaire to identify the full range of behaviors that can constitute bullying, which could help companies uncover problems that largely go unreported.
Bullying involves verbal or psychological forms of aggressive (hostile) behavior that persists for six months or longer. Their 29 questions include: Over the last 12 months, have you regularly: been glared at in a hostile manner, been given the silent treatment, been treated in a rude or disrespectful manner, or had others fail to deny false rumors about you?
The Workplace Bullying Institute says that 37 percent of workers have been bullied. Yet many employers ignore the problem, which hits the bottom line in turnover, health care and productivity costs, the institute says. Litigation is rare, the institute says, because there is no directly applicable law to cite and the costs are high.
Two Canadian researchers recently set out to examine the bullying that pits women against women. They found that some women may sabotage one another because they feel that helping their female co-workers could jeopardize their own careers.
One of the researchers, Grace Lau, a Ph.D. candidate at the University of Waterloo, said the goal was to encourage women to help one another. She said: “How? One way we predicted would be to remind women that they are members of the same group.”
“We believe that a sense of pride in women’s accomplishments is important in getting women to help one another,” Ms. Lau said. “To have this sense of pride, women need to be aware of their shared identity as women.”
In the workplace, however, it is unlikely that women will constantly think of themselves as members of one group, she said. They will more likely see themselves as individuals, as they are judged by their performance.
“As a result, women may not feel a need to help one another,” she said. “They may even feel that in order to get ahead, they need to bully their co-workers by withholding information like promotion opportunities, and that women are easier to bully than men because women are supposedly less tough than men.”
WHAT better place to be a bully than in a prison? Even so, that is exactly where Televerde, a company in Phoenix that specializes in generating sales leads and market insight for high-tech companies, set up shop. About 13 years ago, the company created four call centers in the Arizona state prison in Perryville, employing 250 inmates (out of 3,000).
Through immersion training, mentoring and working with real-world clients, these women can overcome their difficult circumstances, said Donna Kent, senior vice president at Televerde. “Often, they will win over bullies and we see the whole thing transform. That’s what gives us inspiration and our clients inspiration.”
TODAY, about half of Televerde’s corporate office is made up of “graduates” from Perryville, including Michelle Cirocco, the director of sales operations. She has seen how women treat one another in other settings and she thinks the root cause is that women are taught to fight with one another for attention at an early age.
“We’re competing with our sisters for dad’s attention, or for our brother’s attention,” Ms. Cirocco said. “And then we go on in school and we’re competing for our teachers’ attention. We’re competing to be on the sports team or the cheer squad.”
To be sure, the Televerde experience is not for every inmate, and those who are in it still must work hard to maintain a highly competitive position.
“As we get into the corporate world,” Ms. Cirocco added, “we’re taught or we’re led to believe that we don’t get ahead because of men. But, we really don’t get ahead because of ourselves. Instead of building each other up and showcasing each other, we’re constantly tearing each other down.”
Televerde reversed that attitude in Perryville, Ms. Cirocco said, by encouraging women to work for a common cause, much like the environment envisioned by the Canadian researchers.
“It becomes a very nurturing environment,” Ms. Cirocco said. “You have all these women who become your friends, and you are personally invested in their success. Everyone wants everyone to get out, to go on to have a good healthy life.”
If the level of support found at Televerde were found elsewhere, Ms. Klaus said, it would solve a lot of problems.
“The time has come,” she said, “for us to really deal with this relationship that women have to women, because it truly is preventing us from being as successful in the workplace as we want to be and should be.
“We’ve got enough obstacles; we don’t need to pile on any more.”
During this downturn, as stress levels rise, workplace researchers say, bullies are likely to sharpen their elbows and ratchet up their attacks.
It’s probably no surprise that most of these bullies are men, as a survey by the Workplace Bullying Institute, an advocacy group, makes clear. But a good 40 percent of bullies are women. And at least the male bullies take an egalitarian approach, mowing down men and women pretty much in equal measure. The women appear to prefer their own kind, choosing other women as targets more than 70 percent of the time.
In the name of Betty Friedan and Gloria Steinem, what is going on here?
Just the mention of women treating other women badly on the job seemingly shakes the women’s movement to its core. It is what Peggy Klaus, an executive coach in Berkeley, Calif., has called “the pink elephant” in the room. How can women break through the glass ceiling if they are ducking verbal blows from other women in cubicles, hallways and conference rooms?
Women don’t like to talk about it because it is “so antithetical to the way that we are supposed to behave to other women,” Ms. Klaus said. “We are supposed to be the nurturers and the supporters.”
Ask women about run-ins with other women at work and some will point out that people of both sexes can misbehave. Others will nod in instant recognition and recount examples of how women — more so than men — have mistreated them.
“I’ve been sabotaged so many times in the workplace by other women, I finally left the corporate world and started my own business,” said Roxy Westphal, who runs the promotional products company Roxy Ventures Inc. in Scottsdale, Ariz. She still recalls the sting of an interview she had with a woman 30 years ago that “turned into a one-person firing squad” and led her to leave the building in tears.
Jean Kondek, who recently retired after a 30-year career in advertising, recalled her anger when an administrator in a small agency called a meeting to dress her down in front of co-workers for not following agency procedure in a client emergency.
But Ms. Kondek said she had the last word. “I said, ‘Would everyone please leave?’ ” She added, “and then I told her, ‘This is not how you handle that.’ ”
Many women who are still in the work force were hesitant to speak out publicly for fear of making matters worse or of jeopardizing their careers. A private accountant in California said she recently joined a company and was immediately frozen out by two women working there. One even pushed her in the cafeteria during an argument, the accountant said. “It’s as if we’re back in high school,” she said.
A senior executive said she had “finally broken the glass ceiling” only to have another woman gun for her job by telling management, “I can’t work for her, she’s passive-aggressive.”
The strategy worked: The executive said she soon lost the job to her accuser.
ONE reason women choose other women as targets “is probably some idea that they can find a less confrontative person or someone less likely to respond to aggression with aggression,” said Gary Namie, research director for the Workplace Bullying Institute, which ordered the study in 2007.
But another dynamic may be at work. After five decades of striving for equality, women make up more than 50 percent of management, professional and related occupations, says Catalyst, the nonprofit research group. And yet, its 2008 census found, only 15.7 percent of Fortune 500 officers and 15.2 percent of directors were women.
Leadership specialists wonder, are women being “overly aggressive” because there are too few opportunities for advancement? Or is it stereotyping and women are only perceived as being overly aggressive? Is there a double standard at work?
Research on gender stereotyping from Catalyst suggests that no matter how women choose to lead, they are perceived as “never just right.” What’s more, the group found, women must work twice as hard as men to achieve the same level of recognition and prove they can lead.
If women business leaders act consistent with gender stereotypes, they are considered too soft,” the group found in a 2007 study. “If they go against gender stereotypes, they are considered too tough.”“Women are trying to figure out the magical keys to the kingdom,” said Laura Steck, president of the Growth and Leadership Center in Sunnyvale, Calif., and an executive leadership coach.
Women feel they have to be aggressive to be promoted, she said, and then they keep it up. Then, suddenly, they see the need to be collegial and collaborative instead of competitive.
Cleo Lepori-Costello, a vice president at a Silicon Valley software company, came to the center for training. She got off to a bumpy start when she stormed into her new role “like a bull in a china shop,” Ms. Steck said.
In gathering feedback about Ms. Lepori-Costello, Ms. Steck heard comments like: “Cleo is good at getting things done but may have come on too strong in the beginning. She didn’t read the different cultural unspoken rules like she could have.”
So Ms. Steck and Kent Kaufman, another coach at the center, began a one-year, once-a-week individual coaching program. It included role-playing and monthly group discussions with other female executives who acknowledged that they also had major blind spots about being politic at work. (The group was once nicknamed the Bully Broads.)
When she came to the center, Ms. Lepori-Costello said, she thought her colleagues were not initially open to her ideas. Through coaching and conflict role-playing, she came to realize that her behavior was perhaps “too much overkill” and that she was not always attending to all the people around her.
Joel H. Neuman, a researcher at the State University of New York at New Paltz, says most aggressive behavior at work is influenced by a number of factors associated with the bullies, victims and the situations in which they work. “This would include issues related to frustration, personality traits, perceptions of unfair treatment, and an assortment of stresses and strains associated with today’s leaner and ‘meaner’ work settings,” he said.
Mr. Neuman and his colleague Loraleigh Keashly of Wayne State University have developed a questionnaire to identify the full range of behaviors that can constitute bullying, which could help companies uncover problems that largely go unreported.
Bullying involves verbal or psychological forms of aggressive (hostile) behavior that persists for six months or longer. Their 29 questions include: Over the last 12 months, have you regularly: been glared at in a hostile manner, been given the silent treatment, been treated in a rude or disrespectful manner, or had others fail to deny false rumors about you?
The Workplace Bullying Institute says that 37 percent of workers have been bullied. Yet many employers ignore the problem, which hits the bottom line in turnover, health care and productivity costs, the institute says. Litigation is rare, the institute says, because there is no directly applicable law to cite and the costs are high.
Two Canadian researchers recently set out to examine the bullying that pits women against women. They found that some women may sabotage one another because they feel that helping their female co-workers could jeopardize their own careers.
One of the researchers, Grace Lau, a Ph.D. candidate at the University of Waterloo, said the goal was to encourage women to help one another. She said: “How? One way we predicted would be to remind women that they are members of the same group.”
“We believe that a sense of pride in women’s accomplishments is important in getting women to help one another,” Ms. Lau said. “To have this sense of pride, women need to be aware of their shared identity as women.”
In the workplace, however, it is unlikely that women will constantly think of themselves as members of one group, she said. They will more likely see themselves as individuals, as they are judged by their performance.
“As a result, women may not feel a need to help one another,” she said. “They may even feel that in order to get ahead, they need to bully their co-workers by withholding information like promotion opportunities, and that women are easier to bully than men because women are supposedly less tough than men.”
WHAT better place to be a bully than in a prison? Even so, that is exactly where Televerde, a company in Phoenix that specializes in generating sales leads and market insight for high-tech companies, set up shop. About 13 years ago, the company created four call centers in the Arizona state prison in Perryville, employing 250 inmates (out of 3,000).
Through immersion training, mentoring and working with real-world clients, these women can overcome their difficult circumstances, said Donna Kent, senior vice president at Televerde. “Often, they will win over bullies and we see the whole thing transform. That’s what gives us inspiration and our clients inspiration.”
TODAY, about half of Televerde’s corporate office is made up of “graduates” from Perryville, including Michelle Cirocco, the director of sales operations. She has seen how women treat one another in other settings and she thinks the root cause is that women are taught to fight with one another for attention at an early age.
“We’re competing with our sisters for dad’s attention, or for our brother’s attention,” Ms. Cirocco said. “And then we go on in school and we’re competing for our teachers’ attention. We’re competing to be on the sports team or the cheer squad.”
To be sure, the Televerde experience is not for every inmate, and those who are in it still must work hard to maintain a highly competitive position.
“As we get into the corporate world,” Ms. Cirocco added, “we’re taught or we’re led to believe that we don’t get ahead because of men. But, we really don’t get ahead because of ourselves. Instead of building each other up and showcasing each other, we’re constantly tearing each other down.”
Televerde reversed that attitude in Perryville, Ms. Cirocco said, by encouraging women to work for a common cause, much like the environment envisioned by the Canadian researchers.
“It becomes a very nurturing environment,” Ms. Cirocco said. “You have all these women who become your friends, and you are personally invested in their success. Everyone wants everyone to get out, to go on to have a good healthy life.”
If the level of support found at Televerde were found elsewhere, Ms. Klaus said, it would solve a lot of problems.
“The time has come,” she said, “for us to really deal with this relationship that women have to women, because it truly is preventing us from being as successful in the workplace as we want to be and should be.
“We’ve got enough obstacles; we don’t need to pile on any more.”
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