Change Management at British Airways (BA)

Change Management at British Airways (BA) This report identifies the Leadership Theory and The Change Management with its impact on British Airways. It clearly outlines the external and internal factors which the new Chief Executive, Willie Walsh, has to consider in order to successfully drive the company forward. In this report different change models are explained as well as the reasons for the change. Leadership Theory: Leadership is actually a process of social influence for the accomplishment of a common task in which one person enlist the aid and support of others. Alan Keith of Genentech states that, Leadership is ultimately about creating a way for people to contribute to making something extraordinary happen. According to Ken SKC Ogbonnia, effective leadership is the ability to successfully integrate and maximize available resources within the internal and external environment for the attainment of organizational or societal goals. All above leadership definition and scholars views about leadership interpret that leadership is a unique quality which works in uniting different people on the same point and plate form to win the certain goals and objects. Different theories including power, vision and values, behaviour traits, charisma and situational interaction, intelligence were evolved by the students of leadership. For centuries the search for the characteristics of leaders has been in progress. The early detection of significance of the leadership was the basis of this search and the theory that leadership is embedded in the characteristics that few individual seize. This thought that leadership is based on individual characteristics is called Trait Theory of Leadership This view subjugated experimental and theoretical work in leadership for centuries. Between 1940-1950 reviews of these studies provoked researchers to consider different view for the definition of leadership. There are various models for the theories of leadership. MODEL 1: This model comprises of three effective styles of leadership: Authoritarian leadership style: This style gives the criteria of leadership style in which the working environment is managed by the leader using the strong directives, instructions and controlling actions by enforcing the rules. Democratic leadership style: It is very important style through which leaders take such actions which are collective, interactive and responsive. Laissez-faire leadership style: Let the things and tasks be done by the followers as they want is the essence of this style. The leaders give liberties but no guidance and framework to the followers to perform actions and accomplish the task themselves. MODEL 2: This model bears the great characteristics, the task versus interpersonal. INTEPERSONAL -ORIENTED STYLE OF LEADERSHIP: According to Clark, Donald, 2005, there are certain characteristics of this style of leadership. It offers the style of leadership that gives the opportunity to the leaders to ask the followers for opinions and suggestions and motivate the followers. The leaders give much priority to the thoughts, ideas, and the feelings of the followers. In this style the leaders give liberties of free communications. They have good listening skills and not much oral communication TASK- ORIENTED STYLE OF LEADERSHIP: According to YUKL.G, 2002, the task oriented style of leadership has certain characteristics: In this style, the leaders distribute information. The leaders do not pay attention to the ideas, thoughts and the feelings of others. The rigid sort of communication is exercised. Related to performance, the demands are made by the leaders. In this style written communication works. Model 3: There are four important theories of leadership in this model that are acted upon by any organization to update the business and for extensive management decisions. Michigan leadership studies. Ohio state leadership. McGregors theory X Y Blake and Macaneses leadership study. Importance of leadership skills in 21st Century The leaders of the 21st century are finding it hard to manage the progressively more multi faceted and constantly fast paced nature of the businesses. Engrossed in the unpredictable markets, leadership failures continue to rise even among highly eminent CEOs. Leaders have always developed their skills through, training courses, seminars and coaching-and attaining 21st century leadership skills are no different. In business management, leadership plays a successful role in identifying strengths and weaknesses of an organization and utilize them efficiently to accomplish the goals and objectives set by the organization. Other than decision making, leader has to encourage and lead his team on the road to success. 21st century leaders have many roles to perform due to changing trends in markets, cajole organizations, numerous stakeholders and splited job where they persistently face tradeoffs in focus, energy and time. With a new set of leadership qualities a blended 21st century leadership style is rising: Their leadership style matching to a complex, fast-moving technology based business Skilled in oral communication is a key element of good customer service Articulating a convincing future vision Guiding different groups of people to deliver business goals Cutting unnecessary overheads today while building for tomorrow. Bringing new perspectives and confronts threats without being overloaded Searching for new solutions outside conventional areas Open-minded and inquisitive about their environment To take advantage of new market opportunities organizes the company Works across boundaries and view business as a networks for communities To maximise sustainable growth uses partnerships and collaboration Have the ability to identify and define problems, invent and implement solutions, and trail and assess results. Another key to success is good personal management, self motivation, and career development skills are critical. Irrespective of whether a company is running with ten people or with ten departments the importance of leadership is obligatory. These leadership skills play a vital role in increasing the competence of the available resources and achieving the set goals of an organization. Organizational Change Management: Change management is defined as, to prepare, commence, recognize, organize, and stabilize change processes on both, corporate and personal level There are two types of changes: 1. Organizational Change: It is more steady and evolutionary approach and is based on the hypothesis that it is possible to ally company objectives with the individual employees objectives. This is rarely possible in actual practice 2. Reengineering Change: Known as business transformation or corporate transformation. It is the more fundamental form of change management, since it challenges all elements of processes or structures that have evolved over time. CHANGE MODEL: Bechard and Lewin introduced the most famous and important change model in 1951 and 1969. In 1980 Quinn and Lewian further explained this task. LEWIN: According to Lewin 1951, the introductory methods to manage the change are as follows: Unfreezing, existing attitudes are supported by the change in the present equilibrium. New responses can be developed according to new information. Refreezing, by introducing new responses in the personality concerns, can stabilize the change. THE FIELD FORCE ANALYSIS is the only methodology observes change suggested by Lewin that involves: The transition to the future state is affected analysing the driving forces. The differentiation between driving and restraining forces is necessary. Measures should be taken to give rise to critical driving forces and diminish critical restraining force (Martin, 2006). In order to conclude the need and capability of Organizational change management should begin with the identification of the current circumstances, deep understanding about leadership skills, group dynamics, and creative marketing. RESISTANCE TO CHANGE: May be external or internal. EXTERNAL: External resistance defiantly affects the process of change. The cultural, social and political environment all resist to change. Effective Communications with various stakeholders explaining them the reasons for the change (why?), the benefits of successful implementation (what is in it for us, and you) as well as the details of the change (when? where? who is involved? how much will it cost? etc). INTERNAL: At the time of implementation of change, organization can face some resistances to change internally from the workers like: Lack of knowledge Deficiencies in training Fears to lose something. Absence of trust. Communication problems. Normally, people perceive change processes in seven typical stages. Introduction: This report reviews the understanding of the concept of Organizational Change and its long term effect on the organization with regard to changes brought in British Airways British Airways is the fourth largest and one of the fastest growing airlines in the world. Leadership qualities and its unique culture helped in the growth of the company. Chief executive Bob Ayling, brought changes in the company without its employees support. At the time when BA was making record profit he thought change was necessary as some long term decision were to be made. He brought the change by outsourcing departments like engineering, information technology and maintenance to developing countries and by raising the morale of the staff by introducing training programmes and establishing hotel for the staff at Heathrow airport. Our aim is to be benefiting the customers, employees and shareholders, and to fulfil our commitments to the society. (http://www.guardian.co.uk). Background of British Airways British Airways aims in bringing people together by taking them wherever they want to go. This apply not only to the 36 million passengers that travel with them but also to their employees.Inspite of having challenges over the past few years the company is very competitive travel industry. They believe that they have firm strategy which keeps them moving forward. Based in London at Heathrow Airport British Airways PLC is the leading intercontinental airline in the world. Being UKs sole network carrier globally it serves 95 million people a year approximately to 550 destinations in 97 countries using about 1000 planes and 441 airports. British Airways feels proud in providing full range of services to their customers whether they are in air or on ground. British Airways A Snap shot 1916: Establishment of Predecessor Aircraft Transport Travel Ltd. 1919: Worlds first scheduled international air service was inaugurated 1933: Establishment of service to India and Singapore. 1935: The merger of three smaller airline companies forms the basis of British Airways. 1939: British Overseas Airways Corporation (BOAC) was formed by the union of British Airways and Imperial Airways and also nationalized. 1949: BOAC imbibe British South American Airways (BSAA) 1958: Successful completion of first jet trans-Atlantic service. 1962: Supersonic transport (SST) is build by BOAC and Air France agreement to commit funds. 1967: Second around-the-world route is established by BOAC. 1974:Company is restructured under the British Airways name 1976: The first SST Concordes service was inaugurated simultaneously by British Airways and Air France. 1987: Privatization of British Airways. 1987: British Airways buys British Caledonian (BCal). 1988: Marketing alliance of British Airways with United Airlines that two years later collapses. 1992: 44 % of USAir Inc is purchases by British Airways. 1998: Between British Airways, Cathay Pacific, Canadian Airlines, Qantas and American Airlines One world global alliance is launched -a group that grows to eight members. 2000: Opening of British Airways London Eye observation wheel; in its first year of operation 3 million people ride the wheel. 2006 and 2007 award of the year for SKYTRAX and OAG airline. 2007 award of best airline based in Western Europe. 2007 best trans-Atlantic airline award. 14-03-2008 at a cost of 403 billion pound Heathrow terminal 5 was opened to be used exclusively by BA. Additional Details Public Company Frequent Flyer Programme: Executive Club Premier (Invitation) Key People: Willie Walsh (CEO) Tense Relationships :Virgin Atlantic, Formed 1984 Employees: 65,157 Sales: Â £9.278 billion (US $13.151 billion) (2001) Stock Exchanges: London New York Frankfurt Munich Ticker Symbol: BAY (London); BAB (New York) NAIC: 481111 Scheduled Passenger Air Transportation; 481112 Scheduled Freight Air Transportation; 56152 Tour Operators Changes in British Airways: To improve the future of the organization and reputation against the competitors British Airways chairman and board of directors decided to downsize the organization. The changes were totally revolutionary and dominantly strategic. Vast resistance was faced by British airways from department of labour and development, local and environmental NGO and unions both internally and externally against these changes. As BA marketing value changed at 15% due to fierce competition with other international airlines they had huge pressure to bring this change. The change started in 2005 by changing its top management and appointing Willie Wash as CEO. The main focus to change is followed: Reduction in cabin crew Internal and external change. Financial losses. Drop in profit. Increased Competition. Loss of Market Share. Technological Development. Cultural change. Vision of change The vision of British Airways is One Destination seeks to ensure our customers fly confident that, together, we are acting responsibly to take care of the world we live in. Mission to change In its words: British Airways is aiming to set new industry standards in customer service and innovation, deliver the best financial performance and evolve from being an airline to a world travel business with the flexibility to stretch its brand in new business areas. (http://www.britishairways.com) Objectives of change To face the global economic and market environment give new ideas and innovation to the individuals so that they are competitive. Changing internal and external culture of the organization Offer good services to the passengers Introduction of the continental food. According to market conditions introduction of new technology and packaging. To have profound effect on the character and personality of the BA individuals give them comprehensive knowledge of managerial and technological skills. To increase the productivity of the units fabricate leadership qualities in individuals. Creating a positive and dynamic learning environment to bring a paradigm shift. The hub for the introduction of MBA programme by BA was that the knowledge and training should be thoroughly applied within the organization and future growth and development of the employees should be related to this training. Strengths of Change in British Airways: Before change a clear and set objectives are there. Specific issues and problems were focused in planning and involvement. Before introduction of new technology collection of data and marketing survey was done. Every employee got incentive in the shape of Golden handshake and transfer in other units by downsizing strategy. According to market demand introduction of new technology. Weaknesses of Change in British Airways Identification of the problems that were surfacing in the organization. In some areas lack of policy direction. Need of cross functional communication Long distance between communication chain like the decision-making unit and the primary sources of information. Senior executives were over worked Power structure was weak. Top management was difficult to reach. Decentralized structure Lack of sufficient training. SWOT Analysis of BA: (S)trengths: Well-established brand name British Airways gained loyalty and trust from the customers. With strong international alliances BA has a global geographic exposure with excellent communication. BA took full advantage of technological development through innovative culture e.g. online sales, drive thru check in. Purchase of the new fleet and the appropriate aircrafts to make travelling comfortable for the passengers gave BA advantage over their competitors. (W)eaknesses: Soaring debts are still BA main concern. Events like 2001 Iraq war and 2005 terrorist attacks had negative effect on BA due to its reliance on the international air travel and this threat still persists. Job cuts may have negative effect on the BA as previous experience with the cost -cutting exercise resulted in understaffing and 2004-2005 industrial actions. Exposure of the rule that adult male passenger cannot sit next to the child led to sex discrimination allegation against BA. Unions threatening to go on strike against downsizing. BA was declared by AEA as the worst airline for lost and delayed baggage due to clogging of belt carrying bags and malfunction of baggage handling system. Worst airline for the arrival and departures of the short and medium haul flights. In 2007 Heathrow as voted worlds least favourable airport as it being overcrowded and subject to delay. Shortage of the staff car park space due to non availability of space Delays in getting to work due to long queues for security check up. (O)pportunities BAs online customer base expanded further by the growth of internet worldwide. As customers expectations are raising value added and innovative flight services will attract more customers. Opening in 2020 of a third short runway and sixth terminal will benefit BA and make Heathrow a global gateway. (T)hreats BA market share is under threat from the low cost airlines which continuously enjoy strong growth and power in the market. Fluctuations and continuing growth of the fuel prices pose another threat to BA. Customers are still vigilant of the threat of repeated terrorist attacks. More companies are focusing on high quality in their strategy plan which increases competition in low cost airline market. Conclusion: Organizations decision making both informing and enabling strategic direction should be fully incorporated in the Change management approach. Organizations history, readiness, and capacity to change forms the realistic review for the management change. British Airways is one of the leading international airlines in the world. The organizational Change brought by the British Airways were effective not only in introducing modern technology but also improved the performance of the airline. To defeat the competitors BA introduced different options for its customers and tried to stabilize its position in the airline market. By encouraging its employees through different incentives tried to improve their skills and knowledge which is beneficial not only for them but also for the organization.

Japanese Comfort Women Essay

It is estimated that between one and two hundred thousand female sex slaves were forced to deliver sexual services to Japanese soldiers, both before and during World War II. These women were known as comfort women and the Imperial Conference, which was composed of the emperor, representatives from the armed forces and the main Cabinet ministers, approved their use by Japanese soldiers. Walkom) The term â€Å"comfort women† refers to the victims of a â€Å"premeditated systematic plan originated and implemented by the government of Japan to enslave women considered inferior and subject them to repeated mass rapes,† said Michael D. Hausefeld, one of over 35 lawyers in his firm representing the former sexual prisoners in a class action lawsuit currently pending against the Japanese government. (Eddy) Since ancient times, prostitutes in Japan chose to sell their bodies either for family, poverty, or for saving her husband and her children. More or less, their sacrifices were seen as positive. But, being forced to become comfort woman by Japanese is seen as negative. The difference between the Japanese prostitutes and comfort women is that the comfort women did not choose to be trapped as a sex slave and they were not paid for what they did. In 1931, when the Japanese army invaded Manchuria, â€Å"comfort houses† made their first appearances. These comfort houses were created to provide the Japanese soldiers with outlets for their sexual needs. In the beginning, there were only a few comfort houses but after the Nanjin Massacre occurred in 1937, many more were added, basically to every place that the Japanese were stationed. (Walkom) After the Japanese soldiers slaughtered thousands of Chinese people in the Nanjin Massacre, they barbarically raped an insurmountable number of women. As a result, anti-Japanese sentiments grew and it became harder to fully occupy these lands. The government set up comfort houses to decrease disorder and give the approximately two million soldiers a place to satisfy their sexual needs. The Japanese did not have enough prostitutes to supply the needs of the soldiers so they commissioned civilians to develop comfort houses. At the time, only a small percentage of Japanese women were mobilized to â€Å"work† in comfort houses and they were all prostitutes to begin with. The majority of the comfort women were actually Korean women, who were forcibly taken from Korea to service the needs of the Japanese soldiers. After the war, the Japanese government destroyed all evidence of their involvement in Japanese comfort houses, enforcing that commercial businessmen were responsible for the movement of women. Many of the comfort women were kidnapped or deceived into voluntarily working in comfort houses. Once they were there, they were trapped and forced into prostitution. Some women reported that Japanese agents offered them good jobs or education. Others were told that each family in the village had to donate a daughter to the war effort. Many others were offered food, shelter and factory jobs. The Japanese also kidnapped young, unmarried girls when they had a shortage of comfort women. The ages of the girls in the comfort houses ranged from 15 to 19, with the minority exception of some younger girls and some older, married women. The girls were transported between military bases like cargo, under heavy guard in army trucks, trains, ship and bus. They were forced to lose their virginity before arriving at the bases to prepare them for having sexual intercourse with tens of soldiers every day. Many women contemplated death after this, as they believed their virginity to be more precious than life. (Henson) When living in the comfort houses, the comfort women lived in fear and desperation. They were unable to leave, as they were heavily guarded. Each day, they were penetrated by as many as 50 soldiers, until they were sore and bloated to the point of not being able to open their legs. If they were infected with a sexually transmitted disease, they received injections known as Injection 606. If infected enough times, they lost their fertility. In Japan, infected women were killed. Their food was mixed with cyanide, their bodies taken to a cave and finally, the cave was blown up with a grenade. The comfort houses made money off these women and it is believed that the Japanese government paid them, as most of the soldiers paid by coupons. As soon as the war was finished, the Japanese Imperialist guards disappeared without trace. Most comfort women describe the experience this way, † Suddenly, the soldiers came no more, and upon asking we found that the war had ended. † In other regions, as the Japanese committed â€Å"harikari†, the women were forced to do the same. In extreme cases, the women were put in a cave and blown up. After the war, many of the comfort women were too sick to be moved and were taken under the care of the American army. Most of the women were left with no place to go, as they were in a strange country with no money, and were too humiliated to go home. According to one comfort woman, † my body’s wasted, therefore I do not dare go home in fear of being ignored and looked down upon. † Even after the war ended, the comfort women were not free. Their guilty minds and inferiority complexes kept them from returning home and they stayed in foreign countries. The small amount that married, were often forced to separate after the fact that they were comfort women was known, or they were divorced because they could not have children. The victims are still suffering the pain physically and psychologically. More than half of them could not get pregnant, and most of them have chronicle diseases. Furthermore, the psychological impact on these women made them felt themselves dirty, ashamed that they disgraced themselves and isolated themselves from others. They are either afraid of getting married, or unable to ask for any commitment from their lovers. For those who got married, their marriage was unstable and unhappy due to their past. Some thought that they must have done something evil in their previous life that they have to be punished in this life. (Hicks) They go to tempos to chant sutras, to confess, to pursue liberation, and they even commit suicide. Although the period of time they spent at the Japanese military base was a small part of their life, what they had experienced caused an incurable impact on their health, marriage, mind, and social adaptation. Although the Japanese government continues to deny or minimize their involvement with comfort women, their defense is unraveling. A conference on â€Å"Japanese Crimes Against Humanity: Sexual Slavery and Forced Labor† was held last year, in which Japanese researchers delivered papers which claimed that the Japanese military, the rest of the government, and Japanese industry were all involved in the decision to provide sex slaves for the country’s soldiers. (Chunghee) Japanese historian Hirofumi Hayashi said: â€Å"The establishment and development of the military ‘comfort women’ system†¦ as not only carried out by the total involvement of every section of the military but also by administrative machinery at every level of the Japanese state†¦ In addition, we should not overlook that Japanese companies were their accomplices. † (Chunghee) Researchers from the Center for Research and Documentation of Japan’s War Responsibilities in Yo kohama showed that Japanese rubber companies were under government contract to supply 20 million condoms a year to armed forces once the decision had been made to provide sex slaves to the soldiers. Rumiko Nishino wrote that â€Å"high-ranking adjutants† commissioned by Cabinet and sub-Cabinet-level government officials implemented the distribution of the condoms. The availability of condoms to the general population became â€Å"almost nil. † (Chunghee) Last year, the Japanese appeals court overturned an earlier ruling that orders the government to compensate women who were forced to serve as sex slaves during World War II. Both sides had appealed that ruling. The plaintiffs because they thought the compensation was too small, and the government because they refused to pay. Duke) In deciding in favor of the government, the Hiroshima High Court said abducting women to use them as forced laborers and sex slaves was not a serious constitutional violation. Tokyo has admitted that its wartime army had set up brothels, and forced thousands of Koreans, Filipinos, Dutch and Chinese to serve as prostitutes, but it has refused to compensate these victims. Historians say as many as 200,000 women were forced into sexual slavery during World War II.

Realism Of Film And Film Of The 1950s And 40s Through The...

Realism’s relationship with cinema and film form is one which has been debated since the beginnings of film theory. There are many different arguments on how best to capture realism on film. It came to the forefront of film theory in the 1930s and 40s through the Italian neorealism movement. Andre Bazin was a french film critic and theorist who is best known for his writing on realism in film. He argued that cinema is fundamentally realistic and that filmmakers should not alter what an audience views, with exception. He favours the long deep focus shot such as those used in Orson Well’s Citizen Kane. Sergei Eisenstein, a soviet director and theorist, favoured the opposite approach to achieving realism in film. Basing his theory around early work by Kuleshov and Pudovkin, Eisenstein championed montage as the only way to capture realism in film. His theory is based around the idea that reality is dialectical, with much of his work stemming from the politics of Karl Marx a nd Friedrich Engels. He argues that as reality is dialectical, then the filmmaking that seeks to capture this reality must also be dialectical. On the face of it these methods are polar opposites however they both attempt to solve the question of how best to capture realism in the cinema. Through this shared goal there is similarity in the two different theorists approaches that hint at neither method necessarily being more effective in capturing reality. Despite the debate on how best to capture realism,Show MoreRelatedMetz Film Language a Semiotics of the Cinema PDF100902 Words   |  316 PagesFILM LANGUAGE FILM LANGUAGE A Semiotics of the Cinema Christian Metz Translated by Michael Taylor The University of Chicago Press Published by arrangement with Oxford University Press, Inc. The University of Chicago Press, Chicago 60637  © 1974 by Oxford University Press, Inc. All rights reserved. English translation. Originally published 1974 Note on Translation  © 1991 by the University of Chicago University of Chicago Press edition 1991 Printed in the United States of America 09 08 07 6

Antonymy - Definition and Examples in English

The semantic qualities or sense relations that exist between words (lexemes) with opposite meanings in certain contexts (i.e., antonyms). Plural antonymies. Contrast with synonymy. The term antonymy was introduced by C.J. Smith in his book Synonyms and Antonyms (1867). Pronunciation:Â  an-TON-eh-me Observations Antonymy is a key feature of everyday life. Should further evidence be required, try visiting a public lavatory without checking which is the gents and which is the ladies. On your way out, ignore the instructions which tell you whether to push or pull the door. And once outside, pay no attention to whether traffic lights are telling you to stop or go. At best, you will end up looking very foolish; at worst, you will end up dead. Antonymy holds a place in society which other sense relations simply do not occupy. Whether or not there exists a general human tendency to categorize experience in terms of dichotomous contrast ([John] Lyons 1977: 277) is not easily gauged, but, either way, our exposure to antonymy is immeasurable: we memorise opposites in childhood, encounter them throughout our daily lives, and possibly even use antonymy as a cognitive device to organise human experience. (Steven Jones, Antonymy: A Corpus-Based Perspective. Routledge, 2002) Antonymy and Synonymy For the better-known European languages at least, there are a number of dictionaries of synonyms and antonyms available, which are frequently used by writers and students to extend their vocabulary and achieve a greater variety of style. The fact that such special dictionaries are found useful in practice is an indication that words can be more or less satisfactorily grouped into sets of synonyms and antonyms. There are two points that should be stressed, however, in this connexion. First, synonymy and antonymy are semantic relations of a very different logical nature: oppositeness of meaning (love:hate, hot:cold, etc.) is not simply the extreme case of difference of meaning. Second, a number of distinctions have to be drawn within the traditional concept of antonymy: dictionaries of antonyms are only successful in practice to the degree that their users draw these distinctions (for the most part unreflectingly). (John Lyons, Introduction to Theoretical Linguistics. Cambridge Univers ity Press, 1968) Antonymy and Word Classes Oppositeness . . . has an important role in structuring the vocabulary of English. This is especially so in the adjective word class, where a good many words occur in antonymous pairs: e.g. long-short, wide-narrow, new-old, rough-smooth, light-dark, straight-crooked, deep-shallow, fast-slow. While antonymy is typically found among adjectives it is not restricted to this word class: bring-take (verbs), death-life (nouns), noisily-quietly (adverbs), above-below (prepositions), after-before (conjunctions or prepositions). . . . English can also derive antonyms by means of prefixes and suffixes. Negative prefixes such as dis-, un- or in- may derive an antonym from the positive root, e.g. dishonest, unsympathetic, infertile. Compare also: encourage-discourage but entangle-disentangle, increase-decrease, include-exclude. (Howard Jackson and Etienne ZÃ © Amvela, Words, Meaning and Vocabulary: An Introduction to Modern English Lexicology. Continuum, 2000) Canonical Opposites [W]hile antonymy is variable (i.e., context dependent), particular antonym pairs are often canonical in that they are known without reference to context. . . . For example, the color senses of black and white are opposed and so are their racial senses and their good/evil senses as in white magic and black magic. Canonicity of antonym relations also plays a role in context-specific antonymy. As Lehrer (2002) notes, if a frequent or basic sense of a word is in a semantic relation with another word, that relation can be extended to other senses of the word. For example, the basic temperature sense of hot contrasts with cold. While cold does not usually mean legally acquired, it can have that meaning when contrasted (with enough context) with hot in its stolen sense, as in (9). He traded in his hot car for a cold one. (Lehrer 2002) For readers to understand the intended sense of cold in (9), they must know that cold is the usual antonym of hot. Next they must deduce that if cold is the antonym of hot, then no matter what hot is used to mean in this context, cold means the opposite thing. The stability of some such antonym pairs across senses and contexts is evidence that those antonymic pairings are canonical. (M. Lynne Murphy, Semantic Relations and the Lexicon. Cambridge University Press, 2003) Antonymy and Word-Association Testing If a stimulus has a common opposite (an antonym), it will always elicit that opposite more often than anything else. These responses are the most frequent found anywhere in word association. (H.H. Clark, Word Associations and Linguistic Theory. New Horizons in Linguistics, ed. by J. Lyons. Penguin, 1970) See Also AntithesisVocabulary Builder #1: AntonymsWriters on Writing: Ten Tips for Finding the Right Words