Why should Piggy get his glasses back?
What determines our perceptions of equity? Holding a perception that your employer is fair, and that your efforts will produce a desirable result is not just an aspect of motivation, but a determiner if you actually stay at an employer.
We know from the text, and probably our personal experience, that personality and culture has some effect on perceptions of equity. The text discusses that German and America workers expect more input into business decisions than other cultures to feel motivated and equitably treated. The Japanese expect more equal rewards than other cultures. On an individual level, people have different levels of sensitivity toward equality. Benevolents will tolerate higher levels of inequity, Sensitives have strict codes of equity and Entitleds have no tolerance for inequity, at least for themselves!
Is the need to have our inputs actually deserving of appropriate outcomes innate or socialized? Our perceptions of self-esteem and justice appear socialized. We observe them selectively, processing them into our belief systems, then store them for a time when we are faced with a situation that requires them. But are we all just an imprint of our personality and culture? Would someone raised in a “Lord of Flies” like world still perceive that their inputs should deserve a requisite output, or would they simply be the socialized to their unbalanced world? In the book “A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier” Ishmael Beah chronicles his life as a boy soldier in Africa. What struck me about the book was how fundamentally unfair his life was, and how unfair it was to anyone who could have been in his referent group for perceiving equity.
The ancient Greeks believed that the gods would play trick on humans. This made life unfair, but putting a mythological reasoning for it made it tolerable. To put it in a motivational sense, inputs could not be expected to produce a fair output, because life was not fair. This was true for the entire cultural (referent) group. Yet thankfully the Greeks maintained an inner sense of what could be fair, and from this I think much of Western philosophy springs. The character “Piggy” in “Lord of the Flies” was victimized as much by the value of his glasses being useful to start fires (which were eventually stolen and his attempt to retrieve them caused his demise) as by his internal sense that things could be better than they were.
So I will ask the question, and hopefully someone will respond, are we capable of achieving a higher understanding of what is fair, or are we just a product of our environment and disposition? Do we have a soul, or are we just the nuts and bolt of our bodies and society? Did Piggy have the right to ask for his glasses back?
Christian Hunt
I think your culture and personality does have an upper hand in determining your perception of equity unless and until you yourself don't take an effort in making a change as per the calling of the situation. In case of say a collectivist culture like Japan where team rewards are perceived as more equitable rather than individual contributions/rewards, it would be difficult to change this mentality of the Japanese employee when he or she is working in a different country like the US which is an individualistic culture. The employee might find it difficult to grasp the perception of equity based on individual rewards and not team effort or rewards. A culture that has been developed through the years starting right from childhood will be difficult to change drastically and this forms a major part of your personality and how you perceive things around you. This can of course be modified if one wishes to adjust or change their perception most suitable according to their individual ethical standards.
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Sonu Soney Joseph
Is law made and followed because the environment we live in, or is there some deeper meaning behind the laws we follow? Ultimately, if we base our law in short term, self serving interests, these laws are less likely to last and less likely to be followed and will be seen as unfair. I believe most traditions of law try to appeal to man's deeper sense of tradition,culture, history, and religion. If laws don't reflect the culture of the time they will always be seen as unfair.
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Brodie M.