Javanese Culture Ewuh Pakewuh Among Educators

 

Mega Putri Wijayanti

Master of Science Psychology, Faculty of Psychology, Universitas Surabaya, Indonesia

Email: [email protected]

 

 

ABSTRACT

In modern times, there is still a situation where people are reluctant to express opinions or reprimand friends whose behavior is not good. This situation has become a habit called ewuh pakewuh in Javanese culture. This culture influences the professionalism of individual and organizational work among educators. Ewuh pakewuh has a psychological aspect that is closely related to the principles of harmony and respect related to aspects of masculinity organizational culture, namely assertiveness. The positive impact of the Ewuh Pakewuh Culture is the respectful and polite behavior of junior educators to seniors as an effort to learn to be good and professional educators, able to express opinions, be firm and assertive, on the other hand the negative impact of the Ewuh Pakewuh Culture is respectful and polite behavior which is defined as obedience. which requires junior educators not to be assertive, afraid to refuse seniors' requests. This article was created to find out the positive and negative impacts of Ewuh Pakewuh culture among educators.

 

Keywords: Javanese Culture Ewuh Pekewuh, Educators


 

 

INTRODUCTION

In modern times like this, situations often occur where people are embarrassed or uncomfortable when they want to express their opinions or reprimand fellow friends whose behavior is not good. This situation often occurs in people's lives and has become a daily habit and is often called ewuh pakewuh in Javanese culture. Apart from social life, this habit also occurs among co-workers, one of which is at school. Educators who should be able to provide good examples for their students and colleagues are also trapped in this culture because it occurs in everyday work. Especially when asked to express an opinion or reprimand friends who are older or older at school.

In the world of education, there is a habit where educators, especially new educators, feel embarrassed if they do not carry out tasks given by more senior educators, or there is an attitude where younger educators get a larger share of work compared to more senior educators. for example, if there is a school activity that requires all educators to work together in a team, the more senior educators tend to hand over responsibility to younger educators who are new members, and here the younger educators cannot refuse the request because they feel embarrassed and impolite if refuse assignments from more senior educators. Apart from that, younger educators act like they are obedient because they feel they are still new and are afraid of not having friends in the community, so they tend to be reluctant to reprimand more senior educators if there is something they feel is not appropriate to the work they are doing. This ewuh pakewuh culture is still very embedded in society and is still entrenched today and there have been no significant changes that affect the work professionalism of each individual and organization.

According to (Tobing, 2010), someone will feel worried that their words and behavior will offend someone, so that this culture creates respect for superiors, older people and co-workers. Geertz (1961) stated that ewuh pakewuh is related to someone's polite behavior and an indicator of Javanese politeness is not refusing, such as saying "no" to someone's order or request. (Soeharjono, 2011) defines ewuh pakewuh as an attitude of shyness or reluctance and upholding respect for other people.

Each organization has its own cultural characteristics, this is what differentiates between organizations. There are cultures in an organization that are appropriate and that are not in accordance with the wishes of each individual. So new members need to adapt to the organization. (Robbins, n.d.), stated that organizational culture refers to a system of sharing meaning carried out by members of an organization that differentiates the organization from other organizations. Organizational culture provides special characteristics to an organization that differentiate it from others. Organizational culture is the basic philosophy of an organization which contains shared beliefs, norms and values ​​which are the core characteristics of how things are done in an organization (Wibowo, 2011).

According to (Tobing, 2010), ewuh pakewuh, which is a value in Javanese society, consists of several principles that are very closely related to aspects of ewuh pakewuh, namely the principle of harmony and the principle of respect. Meanwhile, (Soeharjono, 2011) explains that the bureaucratic culture of ewuh pakewuh is a pattern of polite behavior in a bureaucratic environment carried out by employees or officials as subordinates who are reluctant to express opinions that may be contradictory, in order to avoid conflict and maintain good relationships with superiors or seniors. whose position is higher.

In the world of education, an educator must be able to set a good example for students and fellow workers. However, in this increasingly advanced era, there is still a situation where feelings of shyness trump professionalism among educators. Feeling reluctant to reprimand or refuse requests that are not in accordance with the student's portion of work often becomes an obstacle in carrying out daily tasks and work. This feeling of hesitation is often called the Javanese culture of ewuh pekewuh. Someone will feel worried that their words and behavior will offend someone, so this culture creates respect for superiors, older people and co-workers (Tobing, 2010).

Geertz (1961) suggested that ewuh pakewuh is related to a person's polite behavior. An indicator of Javanese politeness is not refusing, such as saying "no" to someone's order or request. (Soeharjono, 2011) defines ewuh pakewuh as an attitude of shyness or reluctance and upholding respect. According to (Tobing, 2010), ewuh pakewuh, which is a value in Javanese society, consists of several principles that are very closely related to aspects of ewuh pakewuh, namely the principle of harmony and the principle of respect.

Organizational culture in the world of education also influences the performance of educators. Each organization has its own cultural characteristics, this is what differentiates one organization from another. There are some organizational cultures that are suitable for individuals or new members, and there are also those that are not suitable. So new members must be able to adapt to the organization. According to (Robbins, n.d.), organizational culture refers to a system of sharing meaning carried out by members of an organization that differentiates the organization from other organizations. Organizational culture provides special characteristics to an organization that differentiate it from other organizations. Organizational culture is the basic philosophy of an organization which contains shared beliefs, norms and values ​​which are the core characteristics of how things are done in an organization (Wibowo, 2011).

Organizational culture provides guidance on how a person should behave within the organization. In the context of educational institutions, the surrounding situation is also influenced by the policies implemented by the government. However, on the other hand, problems arise when there is an organizational culture that cannot support the organization because of the influence of the Javanese Ewuh Pekewuh culture, where this culture is still very attached to people's lives and including among educators, so what happens is that the organization does not run well and does not run according to with developments over time, in other words the organizational culture cannot adapt to its environment and still maintain the existence of the Ewuh Pekewuh culture regardless of developments over time.

The aim of writing this article is to find out the Ewuh Pekewuh culture among educators and the impact of its problems. Apart from that, there are benefits in this study, namely, theoretically, this literature review is expected to expand discourse in the field of cultural psychology, especially in understanding the organizational culture of Ewuh Pakewuh among educators and the impact of its problems andfor educational institutions as information and study material to be able to know and understand the influence of the Ewuh Pekewuh organizational culture among educators so that educational institutions are able to implement a healthy and professional organizational culture. It is hoped that educators can increase educators' knowledge and insight regarding cultureEwuh Pekewuh organization, so that educators are able to understand the positive and negative benefits of the Ewuh Pekewuh organizational culture and can implement a healthy and professional organizational culture.

 

RESEARCH METHODS

Literature review is a search and research of the literature by reading various books, journals and other publications related to the research topic, in order to produce research regarding a particular topic. In the library, literature review writers will explore studies that people have done on a particular topic. Literature studies for the purpose of producing scientific research, such as theses, theses and dissertations, the author explores literature related to the topic and problem of his research, about society and the research area, about theories that have been used and produced by people related to our research topic, about the research methods used in the study, and so on (Lawrence Neuman, 2014).

Literature reviews are carried out with the awareness that knowledge will continue to increase and that our research topics, communities and research areas have already been researched by people before, and we can learn from what people have researched before. So, we are not the first to research this topic, society and area (Lawrence Neuman, 2014).

 

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

Ewuh pakewuhcan be defined as an attitude of reluctance or embarrassment and prioritizing respect for superiors or seniors (Soeharjono, 2011). (Tobing, 2010) believes that ewuh pakewuh is a value adhered to by Javanese society which contains the principles of respect and harmony. The ewuh pakewuh culture does not only apply to superiors, but can also occur when someone has known or received kindness from other people, so that someone will not find it easy to refuse or ignore that person's opinions and requests. The age difference factor is also one of the causes of the emergence of this culture. This feeling of embarrassment usually tends to be experienced by younger people towards older people.

According to (Tobing, 2010), ewuh pakewuh, which is a value in Javanese society, consists of several principles that are very closely related to aspects of ewuh pakewuh, namely the principle of harmony and the principle of respect. (Robbins, n.d.), explained that organizational culture refers to a system of sharing meaning carried out by members of an organization that differentiates the organization from other organizations. Organizational culture provides special characteristics to an organization that differentiate it from other organizations. Organizational culture is the basic philosophy of an organization which contains shared beliefs, norms and values ​​which are the core characteristics of how things are done in an organization (Wibowo, 2011).

(Hofstede, 1984) has outlined 4 (four) dimensions of social preferences to measure the basic values ​​of individuals and measure behavior in a society. Based on Hofstede's cultural dimension indicators, these basic values ​​are applied to the ewuh pakewuh cultural values ​​adhered to by Javanese society, which then produces a society with low individuality, high range of power, high uncertainty avoidance and low masculinity. (Hofstede, 1984) cultural dimensions are:

a.    Individualism/IDV(individuality), namely a social preference in a community or agency to establish loose social relationships in which individuals only pay attention to themselves and their families.

b.    Power Distance/PD(range of power), namely a social preference in a community or agency where power or authority in a community or agency is distributed in stages (hierarchy). This dimension has a value or parameter: the community in an agency can accept the inequality that occurs between them.

c.     Uncertainty Avoidance/UA (uncertainty avoidance), namely a social preference in a community or agency to avoid uncertainty or ambiguity with values ​​or parameters: not willing to tolerate conditions of uncertainty or conditions of ambiguity (ambiguity).

d.    Masculinity/MAS (masculinity), namely a social preference in a community or agency to highlight an attitude of openness or honesty with values ​​or parameters: making achievements, pumping up heroic spirits, being assertive, and material success.

 

Psychological Aspects of Ewuh Pekewuh

According to (Tobing, 2010), ewuh pakewuh, which is a value in Javanese society, consists of several principles that are very closely related to aspects of ewuh pakewuh, namely the principle of harmony and the principle of respect. In this case, the principles of harmony and respect are related to the organizational culture aspect of masculinity, namely assertiveness.

Assertive behavior comes from English, namely "to assert" which means positive, namely stating something frankly or firmly and having a positive attitude (Fensterheim & Baer, 1975). According to Mallot, et al (Narula, 1999), "to assert" means a way of stating something politely about things that are pleasant or that are felt to be annoying or unpleasant. Assertive behavior is a translation of assertive behavior which means an action or behavior that is expressed politely and intends to ask someone to do something in order to do what is desired, asking someone for something accompanied by a polite attitude, in accordance with norms, calm, mature, and makes sense. According to Davis (1981), assertive behavior is behavior that leads directly to goals, is honest, open, full of self-confidence and is firm in its stance.

(Tobing, 2010) explains that ewuh pekewuh is a form of feeling of discomfort that almost resembles embarrassment. If this feeling exists, a person will feel worried that their behavior or words will offend or make someone offended. Pakewuh is related to social strata. Pakewuh generally occurs between juniors and seniors, subordinates to superiors, servants to bosses, servants (people) to gusti (rulers), children to parents, and so on (Soehadha, 2014).

In the world of education, the Ewuh Pekewuh culture still occurs very closely within organizations. Feelings of embarrassment towards seniors make juniors unable to refuse every request from seniors in terms of carrying out assignments and work, but on the other hand, organizational culture has 4 dimensions that need to be considered. Hofstede (1984) describes 4 dimensions of social preferences to measure the basic values ​​of individuals and measure behavior in a society, including, Individualism/IDV (individuality), power distance, Uncertainty Avoidance/UA (avoidance of uncertainty), Masculinity.

Based on Hofstede's cultural dimension indicators, these basic values ​​are applied to the ewuh pakewuh cultural values ​​adhered to by Javanese society, which then produces a society with low individuality behavior, high range of power, high uncertainty avoidance and low masculinity Hofstede (1984). Of these four dimensions, the Masculinity dimension is a social preference in a community or agency to emphasize an openness or openness attitude with values ​​or parameters: making achievements, pumping up a heroic spirit, being assertive, and material success, are dimensions that can be used to reduce the ewuh pakewuh attitude of educators in the organization. One aspect of masculinity is assertive behavior. According to Davis (1981), assertive behavior is behavior that leads directly to goals, is honest, open, full of self-confidence and is firm in its stance.

From the explanation above, it is clear that organizational culture requires an assertive attitude so that it does not hinder creativity or work assignments between colleagues. However, due to the influence of the Javanese Ewuh Pakewuh culture, there are still many educators who are not assertive, meaning they are still unable to implement organizational culture optimally because they still feel embarrassed towards their more senior colleagues. The ewuh pekewuh culture in modern times still often occurs among society, including within organizations, thus forming a culture that we often call the ewuh pakewuh organizational culture. This ewuh pakewuh organizational culture still exists today and educators who should be able to work professionally and set a good example are also trapped in this culture.

 

CONCLUSION

The ewuh pekewuh culture in modern times still often occurs among society, including within organizations, thus forming a culture that we often call the ewuh pakewuh organizational culture. This ewuh pakewuh organizational culture still exists today and educators who should be able to work professionally and set a good example are also trapped in this culture. Ewuh pakewuh itself has a psychological aspect which consists of several very closely related principles, namely the principle of harmony and the principle of respect. In this case, the principles of harmony and respect are related to the organizational culture aspect of masculinity, namely assertiveness. The impact of ewuh pakewuh in organizations among educators has both positive and negative influences. The positive influences include the respectful and polite behavior of junior educators towards seniors as an effort to learn to be good and professional educators and being able to state things frankly or firmly and have a positive attitude, while the negative influence of the ewuh pakewuh culture is respectful and polite attitudes. is defined as an attitude of obedience from junior educators to senior educators in the organization, so that junior educators tend to have a larger share of work compared to senior educators. If in an organization an educator does not obey seniors then an ewuh pakewuh attitude arises, namely hesitancy to refuse requests from higher educators. senior. This research is the result of a review of several literatures. Authors and future researchers who wish to focus on researching the topic in this article are advised to conduct further field studies regarding the organizational culture of Ewuh Pakewuh as an effort to confirm the findings of this article.

 

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Copyright holder:

Mega Putri Wijayanti (2024)

 

First publication rights:

Journal of Social Science

 

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