Leadership Styles And Their Role As A Strategic Manager Business Essay

Leadership Styles And Their Role As A Strategic Manager Business Essay INTRODUCTION:- This study is based on leadership styles and their role as a strategic manager and impact of these leadership styles on the overall performance of the organization. Through this study, we will also come to know that how different kinds of leadership style are adopted by strategic managers to attain their organizational goals and prospective. LINK BETWEEN STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT AND LEADERSHIP:- Leaders are the persons who actually made strategies for the company. They set objective, goals and future prospectus of the company. They are dealing as a strategic manager and leader at the same time. In other words they are the major stakeholders due to heavy investment in business. After making strategies, leaders forward their decision to their subordinate team members and they make strategies how to achieve those goals. LITERATURE REVIEW:- a leader is someone who exercises influence over other people. (Huczynski and Buchanan,1933) Leadership is a lifting of people vision to a higher sight, the raising of their performance toa higher standard, the building of their personality beyond its normal limitations (P.F.Drucker,2001) the leader must have infective optimism. The final test of a leader is the feeling you have when you leave presence after a conference. Have you a feeling of uplift and confidence? (Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery, 1956) In 1986 Peters and Austin highlighted the characteristics of leaders and also compared it with managers (Non-Leaders). LEADERS MANAGERS Provide necessities to people Provide consultancy/solutions to everyone. Flexible to adjust among people Dont put their selves into formalities Provide solution at doorstep Work more than others Keep in contact with everyone Listen everyone Easily access by common people Fair dealing with all Make good decisions Dont make any discrimination Happy to deal with tough problems of people Persistent to outcome Provide simplify directions Tolerance in attitude Make close relations with people Strong faith He trusts people Ambassador of people for critical issues Dont waste time on unproductive works Dont like to praise himself by others Takes blame for any mistake Happy to give credit/reward to others Provide effective feedback to improve efficiency Good command on business and getting work by employees Dont get into formal discussion Happy to work under pressure One face person Open minded Try to reduce paperwork environment Encourage own staff to be promoted Make promises and honour these Dont have luxury office Priority is companys success Dont shy to learn from mistakes Supervise more people Give instructions to employees about work Dont happy to live among people Put himself into formalities Staff cannot access him easily Work less than others Dont like to get involve with inferior groups Good communication skills Biased among employees Seek support by groups Overconfident Good command to dodge people Hesitate to take decisions Mostly confused Having less patience Does not create close relations with people More flexible for seniors Create paper environment Holds decisions and information Waste time on un-related works and sources Prominent Keen to find culprits Always find ways to take credit Always search information Biased while assigning work Hatred to all staff members Evaluate business for his/her benefit only Try to find out new ways to handle employees Write lengthy formal letters equivocates hold tactics to handle situation have mysterious life style involve more paperwork find better alternatives in other organizations lack of making promising seeking for luxury office give priority to him/her self scare to find and learn from mistakes Leadership and management are key players of an organization. Both play a tremendous role in the progression of the company. The below are some key features of leadership and management working together to achieve strategic objectives. Vision Strategy:- Leaders define vision and make strategy for future goals and prospective. But on the hand, it is the responsibility of manager to make strategy to attain vision set by leaders. He has to look after all the operational activities of the organization and make staff more productive and efficient. Change and stability:- Whenever leaders feel, they bring changes in organizations and managers arrange stability in changing environment of organization and make tasks more smooth and optimistic. Energizing and monitoring:- Leadership boost up employees to improve their performance and the manager keep an eye on employees performance and utilize human resources in best possible way. To be a successful company, it involves managers and leaders at the same time. But manager should be leader and leaders dont have to inevitably be manager. National council for education in Management leadership published a research project under the title of leadership development: best practice guide for organizations (2001). in this publication, they highlighted nine principles of best practices under three heading. STRATEGIC IMPERATIVES:- Leadership development, to be effective, must be driven from the top with specialist support. It should be designed to support and drive the business, cultural differences and different approaches to development. STRATEGIC CHOICES:- An articulated framework for career development. Variable amounts of formal and informal development. Grow your own senior people or hire them in. The value of competency frameworks and performance management. Retention and reward strategies. EVALUATION:- An explicit and shared evaluation process:- Now a days, organization we find different people withholding different kind of powers. They perform their duties but they act of behalf of leaders of the company. They use power to be more productive and result oriented. There are five kind of powers we find in most of the organisation. Legitimate power:- The person who holds this kind of power is because of his/her position in organization. Coercive power:- This type of power mostly production managers hold because they use it to control people and produce result according to set schedule. Reward power:- Leader has the ability to give benefits and rewards to result oriented employees. Expert power:- These people enjoy power because of their skills, expertise and knowledge. They also treated in organization as benchmark. Referent power:- There are some people who have desirable resources and qualities. ANALYSE THE IMPACT OF MANAGEMENT AND LEADERSHIP STYLES ON STRATEGIC DECISIONS SABRI GROUP OF COMPANIES Sabri group of companies was established in 1960 and now it has largest distribution networks in signage media all over Pakistan. It is one of the most diversified businesses in Pakistan. This is also the first company in Pakistan who fixed manufacturing flex substrate plant. Organizational chart http://sabrigroup.pk/ LEADERSHIP AND MANAGERIAL STYLE IN SGC:- It is very settled organizational structure. Although it is a family business and the most eldest person is assumed to be the main decision maker of the organization especially when heavy amount of funds are required. If we analyse the structure of Sabri Group of Companies (SGC), then we realized that it fits in one of the structural form of Henry Mintzberg which is Simple Structure. Small companies operate like this structure and SGC is one of them. Owner his self makes most of the main decisions but he also gets consent of his team managers. By having this simple structure, management can respond quickly to any problem. Although it is not very big organization but it has established its decision making structure. Their decision making structure is involved the following principles; Extent of control Centralization Dissect ion of labour Departmentalization By having extent of control, the total number of people will be determined according to the size of the work so they can be effectively managed. All subordinates have been assigned their tasks and they perform their daily tasks according to given format. This activity leads to little interaction between employees and supervisor and supervisor can supervise more employees in same time. All the staff members have been assigned their tasks and jobs very clearly and they perform their work more effectively and well organized way. As management needed, it assigned some departmentalization tasks and people having same kind of skills in one department work together. They also share their experiences and learn from others. TASK 2 A VISION OF LEADERSHIP TEAM WORK AUTOCRATIC LEADERSHIP:- Management observed that market is going to very diversified and versatile then it decided to go for diversification. It took very bold decision and decided to launch new brands and it also rebranded all its existing products. By analysing future growth, company took this step and company put pressure to team members to product positive results. THE PERSUASIVE:- As company has taken the decision at its own; now it felt that it has to motivate its team members to produce good results. It put a lot of efforts to share its vision and future prospective with employees. Without having a clear picture of companys objectives, team members cannot produce as per desired level. THE CONSULTATIVE:- Although leader has to authority to take final decision. But it seems to be looking better to get consent from other team members. By this exercise, the morale of the whole team gets high and everyone feels proud to be a part of new strategic decision. These activities also result in to develop nurturing self-esteem, developing mutual trust, inviting participating. DEMOCRATIC LEADERSHIP:- This organizations leadership strategies are very much close to democratic leadership. While launching new or revise existing policies or deciding to go for diversification, it discusses with its group/ team members and get their consent. All the team members play a very vital role to attain the future prospective of the company because all know the importance and worth of these prospective. Through this company cant only come out with effective decision and policies but also it know the implementation of the decision? All members have already taken precautions and threats to attain this target. All the group members become very much enthusiastic and perform in positive ways. Everyone feels that his act is very important to company thats why his sense of responsibility increases and perform for the betterment of the company. SITUATIONAL LEADERSHIP:- According to situation and importance of the task, leaders appointed other persons as a leader for a specific task. By doing this, not only they handle situation with very positive way but also they set examples for other that they can also lead other people if they have the ability to do so. MIAN MUHAMMAD MANSHA YAHA FROM PAKISTAN He has established 40 companies. He owns the Muslim Commercial Bank is also setting up a $ 17m paper mill. He is one of the richest Pakistanis around. NISHAT GROUP It is a group which established and developed by Mian Mansha. Nishat group is a leading organization which is serving in Textiles, Cement and Financial Services. It has assets of over Rs.300 billion (US$ 5 billion), it is also one of the top five leading companies of Pakistan. It has the privilege to be largest and trend setter player in each sector stated above. Common goal:- Nishat group has established group of people who work for them. They clearly shared their vision and goals with team members. They prepared them so well to accomplish task collectively. Broad knowledge and prospective:- All team members of this company are very skilled persons. They use their skills to make task easier and also share ideas for future tasks. All persons are very supportive to each other. Improved return on change investment:- They are very innovative persons and in true sense they are the key players for implementing strategies. They always in search of finding ways and means to make positive change in organization. They also seek ways to reduce companys investment and use current resources in better ways. Better use of facts and data:- Team members effectively use available facts and data in very efficient manners and make realistic policies. They try to reduce hypothecation environment. They use data as reference and make future strategies accordingly. Faster response to challenge and opportunities:- They are very flexible to modify themselves according to situation. They are happier to face new challenges and enjoy opportunities. In their opinion it is a way to enhance and utilize our interpersonal skills. Not only they work for productivity of company but also at the same time they grow themselves. Bring solution:- They are the actual representatives of leaders. They always bring solutions rather than contacting leaders and seeking for solution. It is their duty to handle situation without wastage of time. The progress of company is very much dependant on their turns. Behavioural approach:- The leadership of this company is very much close to behavioural approach because most of the decisions are based on real time situations and leaders are keen to solve problems by interacting others. Leadership is also interested to understand other people behaviour and convert it for productive purpose. It may be related to interpersonal skills by directing and providing them proper training. Leaders proof themselves as roll model and motivate employees to be like them. Management grid:- Task orientation:- Management is very much concerned about its tasks completion and productivity. They have zero tolerance in this regard. People orientation:- This organization knows the importance of teams members and it tries to establish very good relation with its co-workers / managers. Sometimes it get involved with its staff members by creating emotional environment and giving them thought that they are the main key players for the organization and people work as its their own company. This organization is the mix of different kind of leadership styles. Top management changes its leadership style according to the need of the company. KEY TASKS OF CORPORATE LEADERS:- Sharing vision and objectives:- Mian Mansha has developed a team who works according to his vision and action plan. Although his prospective is very broad but he shared and explained it with his team members to make it more effective and realistic. Determining and overseeing the courses of action:- He does no let people free to do all the tasks at their own. He also evaluate all the tasks and give opinion on them. He also help subordinates to make their action plan more effective and efficient. Leading a continuous organization process:- Being the leader of the organization, he gets involve themselves in all the processes of the organization. He is a keen researcher to dig out methods to improve procedures. Promote and Manage valuable knowledge:- He is very much concern about managing employees. He encourages and promotes efficient employees. He has made retention policies for productive employees. Achieving a quality of life in the organisation:- He tries to develop quality culture in his organization. He believes that quality culture leads to produce quality employees. Although it is not easy to establish quality environment within organization but he still treat it at priority. Partridge observed (1989, p205) that Managerial work across all levelsà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ is characterised by pace, brevity, variety, and fragmentationà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦it is hectic and fragmented, requiring the ability to shift continuously from relationship to relationship, from topic to topic, from problem to problem. THE FUNCTIONS OF MANAGEMENT:- Every management has 5 main functions to establish. If he/she successfully develop these areas then they are on right track towards their goals. Planning Organising Commanding Co-ordinating Controlling MANAGEMENT BY OBJECTIVES (MBO):- This idea developed by Peter Drucker (1940s and 1950s) and he stated this in his book the practice of management (1955). Setting objective for the organisation Organizing the work Motivating the employee Job measurement Developing people Set out their clean objectives Make plans to enable objectives Implement those plans Monitor and evaluate WHY DO LEADERS ADOPT DIFFERENT STYLES? In 1976, F.Fielder argued that it is easier to change someones role or power, or to modify the job he has to do, than to change his leadership style. P. Hersey and K.H. Blanchard argued that A leaders strategy should not only take account of the situation, but also thee maturity of those who are led. The leaders have TASK BEHAVIOUR OR RELATIIONSHIP BEHAVIOUR. On the following grounds, leaders decided that which leadership sytle they have to use. Delegating Participating Selling Telling Wright and Taylor in 1984, developed a checklist to help leaders to improve employee performance. What is the problem? It is the responsibility of leaders to take necessary action to find out the problem. It should be considered the know the background of problems then get some solution. Is it serious enough to spend time on? Management evaluate problems then take actions accordingly. If management find out to solve this problem is useful for company and it is not wastage of time then they treat it as most important task and solve it as early as possible. Because employee performance is directly related to production. What reasons may there be for the problem? How can it be solved? They also highlighted some alternatives for the problems solving and implement one best to fit it. Evaluating of the leaders performance:- There is also a need to evaluate leaders performance. Because they also have to assess their selves with the passage of time. They develop strategies to grow and establish themselves. They are the persons who create directions for whole organization. Emotional intelligence:- Companies conduct 360 degree of employees before sending him/her on any training. As companies know their employees better ways then they motivate their values, and goals. Their goals should be settled in encouraging environment and there should be supportive policies to attain personal goals and objectives. There is also a need to provide models to employees to enhance their interpersonal skills and increase morale. According to Daniel Goleman, emotional intelligence is The capacity or recognising our own feelings and those of others, for motivating ourselves, for managing emotions well in ourselves and in our relationships. The ability to perceive, to integrate, to understand and reflectively manage ones own and other peoples feelings. (John D.Mayer, quoted in people Management (28 october 1999):49) BOOKS REFERENCE Business studies as level, third edition, by Dave Hall, Rob Jones, Carlo Raffo, edited by Lan Chambers and Dave Gray 2004,2005 Build your own rainbow, by Barrie Hopson and Mike Scally,3rd edition, 1984 Business studies now for GCSE, second edition, by Karen Borrington and Peter Stimpson, 2002 Cultivate a cool career, by Ken Langdon, 2004 Business the ultimate resource, A Bloomsbury reference book, created from the Bloomsbury business database, 2002 Business studies, by Peter Stimpson, 2002 Introduction to management by Tony Dawson, 1998 Learning and development, by Rosemary Harrison, fourth edition, 2005 Leadership coaching by Graham lee, 2003 Managing for results, 2nd edition by Gillian Watson and Kevin Gallagher, 2005 Managing your time by Julie-Ann Amos, 1998 Management skills by Patricia Buhler, 2001 Management by Stephen P. Robbins Mary Coulter, 7th edition, 2001 Management and organisational behaviour by Laurie J Mullins, sixth edition, 2002 Management development strategies and action by Alan Mumford and Jeff Gold, 4th edition, 2004 Modern business administration by Robert C Appleby, 6th edition, 1994 Managing activities by Tina Stephens and Richard Pettinger, 2005 Operations and quality management by hodder and Stoughton, 1999 Putting the one minute manager to work by Kenneth Blanchard Robert Lorber, 1994 Personal effectiveness, by Diana Winstanley, 2005 Time management by Polly Bird, 2008 Time management and personal development by John Adair and Melanie Allen, 1999 The six sigma leader, by Peter S.Pande, 2007 ONLINE REFERENCES http://www.nishatpak.com/history-and-development.html (24-03-2011,16:41) http://www.buzzvines.com/pakistans-super-rich-people (24-03-2011,16:39) http://sabrigroup.pk/(24-03-2011:15:47) http://worldwork.biz/legacy/www/downloads/Personal_Development_Plan.pdf (08-03-2011:13:01) https://online.businesslink.gov.uk/Horizontal_Services_files/PDPSample.pdf (08-03-2011, 13:00) http://www.diycommitteeguide.org/article/monitoring-and-evaluation (26-03-2011; 11:48) http://www.umanitoba.ca/student/u1/lac/media/Learning-Styles-06.pdf (26-03-2011; 13:26)

The Dark Knight Rises

Jaime Sulkowski 3-14-2013 Ms. Schmidt Copa 251 Dark Knight Rises Essay The Dark Knight Rises was one of the top movies in the year 2012. It is all about action and thrilling scenes throughout the movie. The main stars in this movie are Christian Bale as Batman, Tom Hardy as Bane, Anne Hathaway as cat woman, Gary Oldham as the police commissioner of Gotham, and Joseph Gordon Levitt as Blake. The hero in this movie is obvious Bruce Wayne who is also the Batman and the villain is Bane. The Dark Knight Rises is a narrative film.This movie is telling a fictional story using a series of events and other storylines throughout the film. The Cat Woman is introduced in this movie and it added another side story to the film. Bane the villain of this movie is trying to take over the city of Gotham. Batman must come back and help the city out from potential disaster. The Batman decides that the city of Gotham needs him to stop Bane from destroying the city. A quick summary of the main parts of th e movie are that there were several events during the movie that gave Bane more power and control and eventually was able to take control over the city of Gotham.The Cat Woman fools Batman into a trap with Bane and there was no way out for the Batman to go. He tries to fight Bane, but he was too strong for him. Bane takes Batman to where he once lived at during his childhood years. This place was referred to as â€Å"Hell on Earth† The Batman was able to gather his strength back from the help of two prisoners and he was able to escape from the prison by climbing up a steep wall out of the pit. He makes his return to the city of Gotham just in the nick of time. This is when the overall climax of the movie happens with a big battle between the Gotham police and Bane’s army of men.Batman gets to Bane at the city council building and they have another showdown between each other and this time it looks like that the Batman comes out on top, but Miranda Tate stabs the Batman in the stomach. Bane was then about to finish off the Batman, until the Cat Woman comes out of nowhere and shoots Bane to his death. She saves the Batman, which wasn’t a big surprise at all. Then they are able to chase down Miranda Tate and got the bomb, but there was no time to defuse it completely, so the Batman had o make a snap decision and flies the bomb away from Gotham and it explodes in the water miles away from the city. Everyone thought the Batman was dead. There is definitely some foreshadowing going on in this movie. In the previous batman movies there was some foreshadowing being done as well. In The Dark Knight Rises Morgan Freeman’s character mentions about the clean water project, but this is a project that is all about the bomb. It is an underground secret project that has been going on for quite some time.If the bomb got into the wrong hands there was a way that they could flood the underground area where the reactor is holding the bomb to prevent a disaster from happening. Also during the movie Bruce Wayne’s butler Alfred mentions to him that he will not bury him if he ended up dying somehow. That is foreshadowing that the Batman is not going to die in this movie. It is also foreshadowing when Alfred tells Bruce Wayne that he will see him one day at a place in another part of the world with a wife and will not speak to him and go about his business.This scene actually comes at the end of the movie. The hero of the movie is Batman also known as Bruce Wayne. He has a few flaws and weaknesses that are shown throughout the movie. One weakness that he has is that he can’t find another true love after his loss of Rachel when she died in The Dark Knight. Another weakness is that he has a lot of emotions. He can’t stop thinking about his loved ones that he has lost and can’t put them aside and they are always on his mind. He will not allow anyone to know about the clear water project he is afraid that it wi ll leak out to the public.It is hard for him to trust certain people. On the human side of things he needs to knee brace to not limp around anymore. At the beginning scenes of the movie it would show Bruce Wayne using a walking cane to get around the house and other places as well. There are a lot of transitions going on in this movie and they make it occur all at the same time throughout the movie. I think it that the producers and writers of the movie did a great job with all of the transitions. There are many different storylines going on, but they all have some sort of link to one another.It made the movie more thrilling to watch though. It also made the plot of the movie more interesting. This film is told in a linear story with some flashbacks, which help the audience understand what is going on better. The trilogy of Batman though is one long movie if you think about it. It was done episodically. Christopher Nolan decided to break it down into three different movies. He did a fantastic job of leaving the suspense of what is going to happen in the next movie after each one had ended.The movie mainly shot on location, but some of it was also shot in studio. The movie was shot in the United States in the cities of Pittsburgh and New York. The movie was also shot in the city of London, which is in Europe and the city of Hong Kong in China. For the bonus part, I was able to notice the Point Park book store sign; it was near Lawrence Hall on the corner of Third Avenue and Wood Street. The camera was shooting up Wood Street. The football field scene was shot at Heinz Field home of the Pittsburgh Steelers, which is located in the North Shore of Pittsburgh.I am pretty sure the dessert scene was shot in Hong Kong and the opening scene of the movie was shot somewhere in Europe. Towards the end of the movie when the Batman was taking the bomb to blow up away from the city, he was going over the Hudson Bay in New York towards the Atlantic Ocean. There are a few sub stories throughout this movie. They are the introduction of the Cat Woman, she starts out as an enemy towards Bruce Wayne/Batman, but in the end she becomes an ally.The next sub story is with Fox. He makes all of the Batman’s weapons and vehicles. He also helps run Wayne Enterprises. He has helped the Batman is all of the movies. Another sub story is Alfred who is Bruce Wayne’s butler. He does a lot for Bruce, but just can’t take it anymore and leaves Bruce fearing that he is going to finally fail and die. He does not think that Gotham needs him anymore and will just turn on him. A more important sub story would be the involving the officer Blake.He does not give up on believing in the Batman and towards the end of the movie it sets everything up for next movie, because Officer Blake is actually Robin, who will probably be Batman’s sidekick according to the Batman Trilogy. So it sets up an exciting way to looking forward to the next Batman movie. The last sub story that was in this movie was about Bane and Miranda Tate and how they knew each other from the prison at Hell on Earth. Bane turned out to be Miranda’s protector in jail and helped her escape from the prison.His mouth got destroyed during the struggle of her escape. So that is why Bane wears a mask to be able to control the pain. Bane is trained under the league of shadows. He ended up using Daggit to get into the tunnels and then turning on him. They try to destroy Gotham, but we all know what eventually happened to stop them from doing so. Christopher Nolan did another great job with this latest Batman film. There obvious has to be a sequel to the movie before this one which was called The Dark Knight, probably a good reason why this latest movie was called The Dark Knight Rises.He also did not want to leave the Batman as a villain and wanted to turn things for him and make him into more of a superhero. He also tried to show that evil can be taken down by the effor ts of people coming together and forgetting about the past. This is a heavy action/adventure movie, but still a powerful message can come from it though. The message he was trying to show is that evil can be taken down and forgiveness can be made for someone who may seem evil, but can actually turn out to be a true super hero if given the opportunity.

Comparing and contrasting two characters from The Handmaids Tale

Sexual slavery and feminism are two of the main themes in Atwood’s dystopian book The Handmaid’s Tale (1986), in which she portrays a society called Gilead in which women are deprived of their civil liberties. In Atwood’s dystopian society most women have become infertile and the few ones who can still bear children are turned into handmaids, i. e. sexual servants who are brainwashed for the mere purpose of breeding healthy children for the elite. This novel is an account of Offred’s musings and her fragmented perception of reality. It is Offred who introduces two antithetical characters: rebellious Moira and submissive Janine. Although these characters employ different strategies to either escape or accommodate respectively, they end up being subdued by Gilead’s regime, metaphorically losing control over their own body. I will outline both characters’ personalities, their subjugation to Gilead and the loss of connection with their own bodies. Moira is a rebellious lesbian who is admired by the Handmaids, but as the story unfolds, she subdues to Gilead. Moira’s boisterous behavior is displayed by her actions and speech, which is highly colloquial, as when she states, â€Å"I’m borrowing five bucks off you, okay? † (Atwood, THT, p. 32) and when she refers to the Red Center[1] as a â€Å"Loony Bin† (THT, p. 61). She constantly defies the Gilead system and even tries to escape twice succeeding on her second attempt and as a result of this Moira never becomes a proper handmaid. Even when Moira has disappeared from the scene, she makes a dramatic impact on the Handmaids, who admire her: â€Å"Moira was our fantasy (†¦) she was with us in secret, a giggle† (THT p. 17). But her power over Offred seems to cease when Moira appears in scene at Jezebel’s, a place in which improper Handmaids such as Moira are forced into prostitution: â€Å"I am shocked by them (the women in Jezebel’s) I recognize them as truant. The official creed denies them, denies their very existence, yet they are here † (THT p. 213). There, Moira lets herself be used by men once and again in order to accommodate to this new reality, even minimizing the gravity of the situation: â€Å"it’s not so bad, there’s lots of women around. Butch paradise, you might call it† (THT p. 28). Thus, her once rebellious identity fades as she loses control of her body. In this way, it can be deduced that even the most rebellious personality subdues to Gilead. Unlike Moira, Janine is seen as a straight-laced, submissive character who is constantly trying to accommodate to Gilead, but in the end, she gets subdued as well. Her submissive behaviour is clearly displayed when, at the Red Center, she blames herself for having been gang-raped in the pre-Gilead society, as a strategy for accommodation: â€Å"It was my fault, she says. It was my own fault. I led them on. I deserved the pain† (THT p. 62). Soon, the aunts consider Janine an â€Å"example† (THT p. 62) for the rest of the Handmaids. But whereas Moira is admired for her courage, Janine is depicted by the handmaids in a derogatory sense, calling her a â€Å"whiny bitch† (THT p. 98), and even â€Å"sucky† (THT p. 98). Their hatred for Janine grows when she becomes a spy for the Aunts: â€Å"We (the handmaids) avoided her when we could (†¦) She was a danger to us†. Similar to Moira, Janine ends up working for Gilead, although Janine does it legally. She is able to bear a child for her Commander’s wife, but soon after the birth the baby dies: â€Å"(The baby) was a shredded after all (†¦) My God, (†¦) to go through all that, for nothing. Worse than nothing† (THT p. 192). As a result, Janine becomes insane as she cannot tolerate the loss: â€Å"she’s (Janine) let go, totally now, she’s in free fall, she’s in withdrawal† (THT p. 252). But her insanity is also due to the loss of connection with her body she gets â€Å"legally† raped, which comes as a revival of her pre-Gilead’s traumatic experience. For her, losing the relationship with her body implies losing her mind as well. In conclusion, Janine had done everything to accommodate to this society: she pleased the Aunts, she became a spy, and she even bore a child; but she never accomplished her purpose of becoming accepted and, as compared to Moira, she is subjugated to Gilead, metaphorically losing both mind and body. As I have already stated, Moira and Janine present both differences and similarities. The boldest differences between them are their personalities and their strategies to either escape or accommodate to Gilead. But even these antithetical characters have a similar destiny: their subjugation to the society and the metaphorical loss of connection with their own bodies. The implication that arises from this comparison is that were a society like this be established, women would not only be morally affected, but they would also lose their own identity. Another line of research worth pursuing further is to study the effect that a society like this could have on today’s world.

Canada Historical Land and Tax Records Online