DEPENDING upon the state of his mind a person in anger is capable of committing any act or even a crime which may later jeopardise his own life or peaceful existence.

However, ordinarily people vent their anger through verbal onslaught on another person, who may be their friend or foe or even a subordinate in the office.

Anger disarrays one’s mind and the person loses his rationality, making him prone to saying things which are illogical and may cause adverse repercussions for him.

Having a sense of authority and superiority, bosses have the habit of bulldozing the opinion of their subordinates even without listening, thus making the latter feel small and embarrassed.

Any attempt by the subordinate to defend himself will make the boss more angry and expose him to greater trouble.

Thus during negotiations between two parties on any matter, the one which maintains its cool has a better chance of having a good deal.

Another behaviour which is close to anger is aggression.

If anger indicates a strong feeling of displeasure and hostility, aggression describes hostile feeling or behaviour of a person towards another. Feelings of anger may be low, moderate or high, they are generally not acceptable.

Showing controlled aggression is an effective tool in counselling of subordinates.

People in the business world say that a salesman must be aggressive if he wants to succeed.

It does not mean that the salesman has to fight or be rude with his customers but he has to be assertive and persuasive while selling his product.

Aristotle said about anger: “Anybody can become angry — that is easy; but to be angry with the right person, and to the right degree, and at the right time, and for the right purpose, and in the right way — that is not within everybody’s power and is not easy.”

Probably what Aristotle said about anger now applies to aggression.

PARVEZ RAHIM Karachi