Monday, September 30, 2019
Commission in the European Union
As a staff member of the Directorate-General of the European Commission I have been appointed to describe to you the composition and the powers of the Commission in the European Union. In the following paragraph I will describe the body of the Commission divided in three pillars: First you have the College of the Commissioners, then the Directorate-General (DGs) and lastly the cabinets. In the Third paragraph I will briefly describe the powers of the Commission and in the last paragraph I will conclude with an opinion on the question, as to how far I consider the European Commission to have â€Å"a vocation to further the interests of the community as a whole†. The Commission consists of twenty-seven Commissioners, one for each Member State including the President of the Commission and the High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security. The Commissioners are responsible for the work of the commission stated in Art. 17 of the TEU, and are therefore not allowed to have any other duties during their period of office that could bring about any conflict of interest. If a Commissioner fails to do so, the Court of Justice may retire the member concerned on application of the Commission or the Council acting on a simple majority. The exception to this rule is, the High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy who is a member of the Commission responsible for the conduct of the EU Common Foreign and Security Policy and its security and defense policy but also takes part in the work of the EC, presides over the Foreign affairs Council and carries out mandates of the Council. The High representative is appointed by QMV with agreement of the President of the Commission, and may be dismissed the same way. The president of the Commission is proposed to the European Parliament by the European Council acting by a qualified majority, and is elected in the European Parliament. The president is the most powerful Commissioner and has several important roles: he/she adopts the list of the persons whom it proposes to appoint as members of the Commission, lays the guidelines in which the Commission is to work, decides the internal organization of the commission making sure it works as a body, appoints the Vice-Presidents from among the members of the Commission (other than the High Representative), he can resign Commissioners since they are individually responsible to him. Finally the President has an important role as representative. He represents the Commission at meetings involving the heads of Government and must account to other institutions when there is questioning of the general conduct of the institution or a particular issue raises broader questions. In the current Commission, there are forty Directorates-General (DGs) divided into four groups: policies, external relations, general services and internal services. The majority of the Commission employees work for the DGs. DGs in the Commission are compared to Ministers in a national government. Even though DGs’ work for Commissioners their responsibilities are to the Commission. The work inside the DG focuses on the development of programmes, administration of Community funding and bringing different public and private actors together. You can see the Cabinet as being between the College of Commissioners, representing the political part of the Commission, and the DGs representing the administrative part of the Commission. A Cabinet is composed of seven to eight officials and is appointed by the President. Each Cabinet is the office of a Commissioner and is a line between Commissioners and DGs allowing cooperation between them and helping Commissioner with formulating priorities and policies. They keep Commissioners informed of other happenings in the Commission and help prepare weekly meetings for the College of Commissioners in combination with other Cabinets The powers of the Commission can be broadly explained and interpreted, but the main points can be narrowed down to four specific points: legislative powers, agenda and budget planning, executive powers and supervisory powers. Legislative power as to making sure that the rules in Treaties are being complied with and determining how EU nationals may stay in other States after they have worked there. The Commission is also responsible the budget planning for each year and the making of the agenda. The Commission has executive powers responsible for collecting the revenue for the EU, coordinating the spending of the EU and administering the EU aid to third countries. The Commission has supervisory powers to monitor the compliance of the Member States to the rules of the Union. Does the Commission have â€Å"a vocation to further the interest of the Community as a whole? †I believe it does, by looking at its responsibilities in the Union itself proves this. And if you look at the statement made by the Court of Justice where it says that â€Å"Commissioners are required to ensure that the general interest of the European Union precedes at all times over national and personal interest†. In which I understand that a Commissions’ work should be emphasized on the whole Community (EU) instead of just one State Member.
Sunday, September 29, 2019
Cultural Geography of the Beatles: Representing Landscapes As Musical Texts Essay
Beatles song analysis Introduction            Penny Lane is track number fifteen in Beatles’ album. It was released in 1967. It is a song of the rock genres. It was primarily written by Paul McCartney. He credited the song to Lennon-McCartney. The song was recorded during the sessions of Sergeant Pepper. The song was released because the company wanted a new something from Beatles after a long stay without a new release. The song was ranked number 456 in Rolling Stone list out of 500 in 2004 ( Lennon et al, 1993, p.7).            The title of the song is said to have been derived from the name of a street where Lennon lived in his early childhood life in Liverpool, England. It is significant in that McCartney and Lennon would meet in the street’s bus stop to board a bus to the city center. The street was a famous place that had been chosen by Beatles fans that came to tour Liverpool. This street was apparently named after a famous slave trader in England. It was significant because of the famous stealing of the signs put in place bearing the name of the street (Campbell et al, 1980, p. 12).            The song â€Å"penny lane†has a beautiful coordination of vocals and instrumental sounds. This coordination is even made more attractive by a solo piccolo trumpet that has a clear and clean sound which penetrates amicably throughout a heavy mid-range texture. The song is dominated by well coordinated piano notes, percussion effects and a Vox guitar amplifier sound which has added re-verbs. The resultant effect is awesome. The song beats the time it was produced. Well played and performed by all the personnel involved during its production, the song was completed with a lot of precision. It was the best selling song in the album at the time of its release (Lennon et al, 1993, p.11).            The song possesses a double-tonic structure and a chorus each with a similar starting statement but different lyrics after the introducing statement. This is a unique feature of the song which brings about an element of repetition. Could it be that the street was so important to the writer of the song? This might be the case or may be it is because the street was one of the significant streets of Liverpool (Lennon et al, 1993, p.13).            In the opening of the song, after the mention of â€Å"in Penny Lane†, the writer uses a three cord interval melody note. It then changes to BM key which involves flat third notes. This is a unique innovation putting the time of its production into consideration. To navigate from the verse â€Å"In the pouring rain†to â€Å"very strange†, McCartney used an E chord as a pivot and takes the listeners back to the chorus (Robert et al, 2005, p. 15).            At the middle length of the song, the lyrics stops and there is a bridge where a solo piccolo trumpet is played. The period the trumpet is played perfectly matches the song. It is done with precision to get the listeners fascinated. This period carries the listeners’ emotions to another totally different world. It is keenly done almost to lender the player breathless and having the whole attention of the emotional being of the listener (Campbell et al, 1980, p. 25).            Though the song is nice, there seems to be some features in it that are contradicting. The song was written and recorded during summer time yet, there is rain. One would wonder about the significance of the contrasting chorus against the verses. May be the purpose of the contrast was to show the difference is different professionals and jobs such as fireworks, banking and hair trimming and nursing. There also seems to be another contradiction that the barber does not wear a mack yet he is waiting to be trimmed. It is very unlikely that a person can be shaved with wet hair. This is also a contradiction present in the song. Its significance is not known. Probably the significance is to show how possible the impossible things are (Campbell et al, 1980, p. 27).            There is still another unclear verse in the song. The verse points out that the nurse feels to be in play and yet she is playing. How can one feel to be in play and yet he/she is in play? He or she must feel to be in play because they already are in play. The poppies sold by the nurse are a sign of beauty. They are beautiful and very fragile and thus needs to be handled with a lot of care. The significance of the verse is to bring about the element of beauty that dominates Penny Lane Street yet it is very fragile and needs to be taken care of more so from the prevailing condition of theft (Robert et al, 2005, p. 17).            The verse â€Å"four of fish and finger pies†is a British slang. â€Å"Finger pie†is a sexual slang of the time whereas â€Å"four of fish†denotes fish and chips worth four penny. Putting into consideration that the song was written during a time when Penny Lane was a significant destination of tourists, the slang â€Å"finger pie†may denote the highest probability of prostitution in the area. Similarly, the significance of the slang â€Å"four of fish†may denote the most popular food enjoyed by the people in Penny Lane during the time (Robert et al, 2005, p. 23).            The repetition of â€Å"Penny Lane is in my ears†is a significant feature in the song. It is meant to emphasis on how important the place is to the writer. It seems that the place is the best ever the writer had lived in during his life time. The place meant a lot to the writer. It is like he holds a nostalgic feeling of his childhood with the area. In deed the area was nice due to its attractive nature and a known destination of many tourists. This would have been another reason for writing a song dominated with the name Penny Lane. Similarly, the singers of the song â€Å"The Beatles†were very famous in Penny Lane. They had great performances in the area which had a lot of fans. This could also be another reason why the name is mentioned a number of times. Although the mention is significant, the writer tends to overdo it by making more unnecessary mentions even in the verses (Campbell et al, 1980, p. 16).            The lyrics are lucid for the listener to understand but to know the real motivation of the song or the meaning and the intention of the writer is very hard. The writer creates a significant imagery using the appearance of a one day activities on the street. But the actual meaning of the song is only known to the writer of the song. Not unless the writer is interviewed and he frankly opens up and air his motivation, it would be totally different from what it seems to be (Campbell et al, 1980, p. 19).            McCartney seems to appreciate all the people in the street who contributes to the economy of the country. He also seems to appreciate what they will give him in return after attending the show and buying albums. At the same time, the listeners are entertained. A mention of different kind of people who are all over the area is also significant. Nurses selling poppies, a banker, a fireman, and a barber are all significant (Campbell et al, 1980, p. 26).            When they are mentioned, they all will feel appreciated and will in turn buy the album and attend more shows facilitated by The Beatles. This is of advantage to the writer, the singers and the producer because the album will sell more. It also seems that Penny Lane was a place for all people. Different persons from different professions meet in the barber shop for a shave (Lennon et al, 1993, p.26).            The song is accompanied by a nice slide show of the lyrics. This makes it easier for the recipient to internalize the lyrics. If the recipient can understand the lyrics, they definitely will love the song. It is expected that if the lyrics are lucid for the recipient consumption, then the goal of the song is achieved. Apart from selling more, any given song should have an emotional response from the recipients. If it doesn’t, then the goal is not achieved (Campbell et al, 1980, p. 29).            At the end of the song, the pitch note changes and the chorus is repeated two times. This is may be intended to get the attention of the listeners and to emphasis on the importance of the information in the chorus. The raising of the song note makes it excellent to the listeners. It elevates the emotional level of the listeners. This keeps them at their top most affinity of the song. At this time, their souls are more into the song than ever in the lyrics. This part could be the most attractive point of the song (Lennon et al, 1993, p. 25).            Although the song is generally written and performed to precision, with instruments perfectly fitting the lyrics, there are several instances that if changed, the song would be more attractive. First, the voice of the singer is not so clear from the instrumentals. This is to mean, the instrumentals are overwhelming the voice of the singer. It could have been better if the instrumental sound intensity had been reduced during the singing of the lyrics (Lennon et al, 1993, p.31).            By so doing, the lyrics would have been clearer and it would have not been overwhelmed by the instrumental sound. The overall musical combination would intertwine perfectly with the singer’s voice. This would have a deeper emotional feeling to the listener than it did. It should have also facilitated the understanding of the overall message of the song (Lennon et al, 1993, p.34).            In conclusion, the song was a hit during the time. It was allegedly the first song of the pop type to have a piccolo trumpet played in the song. With different remedies to be done, the song can be a legend of the time and of today. The remedies are needed on the areas pointed above. References Campbell, Colin, Allan Murphy, John Lennon, John Lennon, John Lennon, John Lennon, John Lennon, John Lennon, John Lennon, Paul McCartney, Paul McCartney, and Paul McCartney. Things We Said Today: The Complete Lyrics and a Concordance to the Beatles’ Songs, 1962-1970. Ann Arbor, MI: Pierian Press, 1980. Print. Kruse, Robert J. A Cultural Geography of the Beatles: Representing Landscapes As Musical Texts (strawberry Fields, Abbey Road, and Penny Lane). Lewiston, N.Y: E. Mellen Press, 2005. Print. Lennon, John, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, Ringo Starr, George Harrison, George Martin, Paul McCartney, and John Lennon. The Beatles, 1967-1970. New York: Apple, 1993. Sound recording. Source document
Saturday, September 28, 2019
Motivation and Organisational Behavior
What is motivation? Motivation is define as the stimulus that drives, direct and maintaining the human behavior to reach goals (Wood et al. , 2006). In the context of workplace, motivation will be the one that drive the employee to perform and give more effort to contribute in the company or organization growth. Hence, it is crucial that manager keeps their employee or workers motivated. In this essay, one out of four content theories and one out of two process theory will be defined out and compared out. There are 2 types of motivation theory: Content and process theory. While content theory looks to factors within the individual and attempt to answer most of the â€Å"what†question in the context of motivation, process theory emphasize more on â€Å"how†does someone gets motivated. (Vincent Gabriel, 2003). A few theorists that have contributed to the few famous theories are Maslow, Herzberg, Atkinson, and McClelland (Vincent Gabriel, 2003). In theory, there is a continuous relationship between need (drive), tension, action and satisfaction (Reduction of drive). But in reality, it might be more complex than just those 4 actions. These are because: People’s needs are changing over time, and how people react to failure plays a part too. For example a failure to someone will demoralize him, and yet it might push another person to strive for to be better. Hence, their varying needs translated into varying actions of each individual. (Vincent Gabriel, 2003). One of the famous theories in terms of motivation is Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs theory. In this theory, Abraham Maslow defined out human needs in 5 steps, with each lower step must be satisfied or fulfilled before advancing to the further steps. He identify higher order needs, such as self esteem and self actualization and lower order needs such as social, safety and physiological needs (wood et al, 2006). Maslow rank these needs up by assuming which needs are more important, hence the need to satisfy it before other needs can serve as motivators. (Wood et all, 2006). According to Maslow himself, once the lower needs have been satisfied, it will not serve as the motivator anymore (Udechukwu, 2009). For example, for a normal human, the most basic needs include food, water and a place to live. Once this eeds have been fulfilled, he will then move on to the next hierarchy: safety. To put it in rough term, he will then want to be able to continue to eat and drink, hence he will find a job and a source of income to do so. Once that is satisfied too, and then he will be able to move on to the next level, so on and so forth. Hence, as you can see, a person will continue to climb the â€Å"pyramid†until he reaches the top of the scale: self actualization. From here onward, he then will think on how to expand himself further, and start fulfilling other aspect of needs. As what have written previously, while content theory like Maslow’s hierarchy of needs explains out on what are the factors that motivate people, there’s process theory that explain on how does the motivator motivate people, or even, whether is the motivator effective or rather counter-productive instead? In this essay, for the process theory, we are going to look at Adam’s equity theory. Equity theory suggests that employee must develop a sense of fairness after comparing themselves against their peer or others. Huseman et al suggest that there are three types of individuals (Shore, 2004). They are: ‘Benevolents’, who are described as â€Å"giver†, who prefer to have given more input than output. There’s also ‘Entitleds’, who are the â€Å"getter†, who on the contrary to the â€Å"giver†, will feel discontent and unfair when their input is larger than their output, and finally, the third type of individual is the one that what Huseman called Equity Sensitives, who will adhere to the old equity theory and will just stick with the balance of input and output (Shore, 2004). With all the individuals defined, Equity theorist starts to predict that benevolent, entitled, and equity sensitives will respond differently to fairness in workplace. For example, benevolent (giver) will feel more satisfied when they feel that they are under-rewarded than when they were over-rewarded. On the contrary, Entitleds (taker), will feel unsatisfied when they were under-rewarded. On a field study done by Huseman, what have been found out about these 3 individuals is that, indeed that both entitleds and equity sensitives are behaving like what was predicted, but on the contrary of the expectation, enevolents do get more satisfied when they were over-reward (Shore, 2004). This strange phenomenon happened too on other studies by King et al (1993), Alien and White(2002), and also Sauley and Bedeian(2000). Even though all those studies have their own limitation, we can safely conclude that the benevolents are the most tolerant to the under-reward and also more satisfied than the other 2 types of individuals (Shore, 2004). To compare and contrast both the content and process theory mentioned above, we can rather say that they both must be practiced in the workplace instead of only choosing either one. As what have been mentioned earlier on, the content theory is only explain out the â€Å"what†factor of a human motivator. For this, Maslow basically theorized based on what does one needs that haven’t been fulfilled and arranging them up in a hierarchy order (Harris et al, 1993). Whereas process theory will be dwelling on the nature on how or what problem does human see and perceived and whether it will motivate them. To put it simply, what have been explained above about equity theory is that even with a reward, it may affect different individuals differently. Before we look into how a job design actually helps in motivating an employee in a company, let’s take a look on what actually is a job design and what are some of the characteristic first. A job design is basically a planning and specification of a job task so that the job are done like how we want it to be (Wood et al, 2006). Under the job design itself, there are four major areas that we will want to cover later on. Those four are: job simplification, job enlargement, job rotation, and job enrichment. To explain these four aspects better, let us examine a short and simple case of a pirate ship (Rao, 2010). In a pirate ship, there are a lot of jobs involved. It can be as small as normal pirate crew, to the extent until the captain of the ships. Different job have different scopes that need to be fulfilled. Now if we were to design a job in this ship, how will we be able to design it up then? A group of people in MBA have actually grouped them up into two categories: the star tasks and the guardian tasks. The star tasks job scope include target identification, command in the battle until the negotiation for alliance between fleet. Whereas, the guardian task job is rather more operational, such as allocating crews, solving conflicts, executing punishment, distributing loot evenly until the role of medic (Rao, 2010). The question is, is it really efficient then, to lump all those tasks into two groups only? Well, the answer is most probably quite obvious: No. In such setting of the pirate ship, it will be rather hard for one individuals to be able to have the skills to be the Great Star or Great guardian, since both of them require a totally different set of skills. What will happen is that with this kind of job design, it will discourage a crew member to apply for the position of the star or guardian position. In this case, we will want to use job simplification to analyze and solve this issue. Job simplification is meant to make someone excel in a job(wood et al, 2006), for example, a crew member of the ship will be task to do a specific job only (eg. Negotiating with other fleet). In the long term, the crew member will get better and better in that area of job. The strength of this job design approach, however, is its biggest weakness also. This is because, since that the job have been simplified, the crew member will get bored doing it again and again for so many years already. This is when we will want to other approach such as job enlargement, job enrichment and job rotation. Job enlargement involves combining two or more skills that were assigned to separate workers previously (Wood et al, 2006). The only difference between this and the job simplification is that now the worker are responsible over different areas and also have more jobs to do (eg. Negotiator can also be tasked to manage the navigation). The other approach that involves equipping the crew or worker with more skills is job rotation. This approach can be defined as working different tasks or in different position for a set of time (Kaymaz, 2010). This approach focus more on the flexibility of the worker, decreasing the monotony, supporting career development, enabling high level of adaptation, and also to decrease stress (Kaymaz, 2010). With all those advantage, the most obvious disadvantage will most probably that the crew or worker will spend too much time to adapt and learn different sets of skills. Last but not least is the job enrichment approach. This involves in adding responsibility to the worker, making their job is more in depth. (wood et al, 2006). With all those job design approach been defined out, it will then enable us to combine and come up with a set of approach that we can use so that our employee are motivated. An appropriate job design can always motivate the employee up if we identify out, each and every single needs of an employee. A new employee that recently joined the company will most probably want to fulfill his physiological needs; hence he will want to have the appropriate salary. If his performance is good most of the time, and the company wants to retain him, the company must takes in the account on whether he is â€Å"benevolents†type or the â€Å"entitleds†type to measure the tolerance level on deciding his pay. Once all of those approach has been made, company must also keep close look on the employee, so that they can react fast to apply other approach such as job enlargement or even to the extent of job enrichment and empowerment if the employees begun to show signals that they are not motivated anymore. And now, we have covered the content theory of Maslow, the Adam’s Equity theory for the process theory in the context of motivation theory, and we also have covered job design approach and how to apply it in the company and organization. Hence it will be pretty obvious, that to motivate people, we will want to know what’s the key motivator is the person, whether he will be motivated with the changes that have been made and also how can the company change to motivate him better.
Friday, September 27, 2019
Theory of representation Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words
Theory of representation - Case Study Example The most symbolic event of this political transformation is the recent election of Barack Obama to the office of President. The rest of this essay will critically assess Anne Phillips' "politics of presence" theory of representation, by contrasting it to alternative theories and interpretations forwarded by other scholars. In the introduction to her book 'The Politics of Presence', Anne Phillips states that "most voters know too little about the candidates to make their talents or virtues the basis for political choice. Most voters, indeed, would query whether these should be a central concern. We might all wish to be represented by people we regard as wiser or more able than ourselves, but, faced with a choice between someone more competent and someone whose views we can share, we usually feel safer in giving our support to the latter. The political party provides us with the necessary shorthand for making our political choice: we look at the label rather than the person, and hope we will not be let down." (Phillips, 1998, p.15) The above passage captures the essential dilemma confronting a voter, who is often unsure of which candidate truly represents his/her interests, opinions and beliefs and in turn will help create matching policy measures. Typically, there are no concrete ways in which one can ascertain if a candidate really represents the aspirations of the voter. To this extent the democratic system is said to operate on "the politics of ideas". Anne Phillips' model of representation based on "politics of presence" aims to provide an alternative framework for analyzing representation. At the centre of political representation based on presence is the demand for equality based on gender, race, class and other parameters of a particular democratic society. The well-entrenched politics of ideas, which is the dominant model in the twentieth century, suggests "a broadly secular understanding of politics as a matter of judgement and debate, and expects political loyalties to develop around policies rather than people" (Phillips, 1998, p.16). But either due to the apparent failure of this model of representation or due to the compulsions of modern times, political scientists and public intellectuals are looking at alternative models of representation, based on avenues of "'typical' or 'mirror' or 'random' representation, which they have seen as a better approximation to the old dream of being ruler and ruled in turn, or as a more satisfactory way of ensuring that all interests are adequately addressed" (Phillips, 1998, p.16). Although Anne Phillips does not endorse these radical alternatives to traditional models of democratic representation, the theory based on 'politics of presence' is an effort toward the broader search for alternatives. The politics of presence theory of representation tries to address the sense of political exclusion felt by communities defined by their race, gender or ethnicity. More specifically, the politics of presence "demands for the equal representation of women with men; demands for a more even-handed balance between the different ethnic groups that make up each society; demands for the political inclusion of groups that have come to see themselves as marginalized or
Thursday, September 26, 2019
Strategic Workforce Measures Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words
Strategic Workforce Measures - Essay Example Differentiating workforce strategy refers to the company’s management investing disproportionally in a few or a group of employees depending on their strategic contribution to the company’s outcome. For instance Memorata is a shoe company that deals with manufacturing and distributing ladies footwear. In order for this company to be successful, the human resource professionals should identify the employees that place the company at a competitive advantage (Beatty, Becker, & Huselid, 2005). They should identify the team that produces the best shoes that are favored in the market. The human resource professionals should then guide the managers into investing more in this employees so as to be at an advantaged position over their competitors (Becker, Huselid , & Beatty, 2009). Differentiating the workforce has been found to be crucial as it helps to identify the best employees that will drive the company towards achieving their set strategic goals. This entails allocating more resources on these employees for the good of the company (Beatty, Becker, & Huselid, 2005). Memorata deals with both flat and heeled shoe wear. However based on the sales reports, flat shoes are preferred to their counterpart in the market. This is because they are cheaper and are affordable. More resources should therefore be geared towards this line of production as it puts them at a better position to compete favorably with the other companies dealing with ladies shoes. The Human resource professionals at Memorata should not forget to invest in the supporting employees. For instance it is not only the sales persons that are making the sale of flat shoes successful. Those behind the production of those shoes are contributing to its success as well. Therefore the HR professionals should put in mind that the supporting elements of those individuals who are considered crucial should not be left out (Becker, Huselid , & Beatty, 2009).
The Economy and it's Effect on Politics Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words
The Economy and it's Effect on Politics - Essay Example The existence of the EU is the result of desire to create a European common market, where trade barriers are removed and hence promote economic activities between political member states whilst becoming a united political entity on the world stage. Five economic tests were set out to determine whether the UK's economy was ready for such a change, 1) Convergence with the Euro zone; 2) Flexibility to adapt; 3) Impact on jobs and economic growth; 4) Impact on the financial services sector; and 5) Impact on investment (BBC, 2003). Two of these tests will be discussed in this essay. The Bank of England currently sets the interest rate for the UK but convergence means that power will be transferred to the European Central Bank (ECB). The UK's economy would have to be in sync with the rest of the Euro zone to avoid stresses on the domestic economy, for example The UK's mortgages are unlike the majority of Euro mortgages as they are in general variable rate mortgages, the UK has the highest property owner occupation than any other European country so is sensitive to interest rate changes. There are political and economic consequences to this sensitivity for example mortgage borrowers show unenthusiastic attitude to their political pee rs concerning joining the Euro zone precisely because of this and convergence would bear consequence on the economy as there would be a reduced spending power of these borrowers. Joining a single
Wednesday, September 25, 2019
Debate over English Only Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words
Debate over English Only - Essay Example ThecaseofJoseph Vento, owner of Geno's Steaks in Philadelphia,willbediscussedinthisregard. InDecember,2007,thecaseofPhiladelphiaCheesesteakShopOwner,JosephVento,whohaddisplayedthesign'ThisisAMERICA:WHENORDERINGPLEASE'SPEAKENGLISH'hadbecomehighlycontroversial(foxnews.com).Tothis,Ventoreiteratedthathewasnotindulgentinmakingdiscriminatoryremarksoractivities.HesaidthathewasofItalianoriginandevenhisparentsandhe,hadtolearntheEnglishlanguage.Thiswasbecause,EnglishwastheunifyinglanguageinacountryliketheUS,wherethepopulationisdiverse.Onecannotpossiblyconverseinalllanguagesthatthepopulationwouldcomefrom. Hence,hefelt,thattheEnglishlanguagebeingtheinternationallanguage,wouldbeidealforunifiedcommunicationandavoidinganybreachincomprehension.Healsosaidthatsincethecountryhadimmigrantsfromdifferentcountriescomingin,theywouldspeakintheirownlanguage.Thiscouldnotbeunderstoodbyoneandall.Hence,hehadtoputuptheboard,tobeabletopassonthemessagethatcustomersatisfactionforabusinessisindeedimportant,forwhichservingtherightitemswasimperative.Onlyaunifyinglanguagecouldhelpincommunicatingwhatthecustomerneeds,inabetterway.Fullyconvincedbyhisreply,Vento'sattorneyShannon.L.Goessingsaid,"Thecaseshould,withoutquestion,bedismissed.Thereisalegitimatebusinesspurposeforthissign." Inspiteofthedecision,anumberofpartiesareforandagainsttheissueofputt... he'Whitesonly"postingsoftheJimCrowera.'Thesignsgiveafeelingofbeingunwelcomeandbeingexcluded, Charlessaid."(Philadelphia Cheesesteak Shop Owner Defends 'Order in English' Policy Saturday,December 15, 2007,Associated Press http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,316939,00.html) ENGLISH AS THE OFFICIAL LANGUAGE OF THE US Many people in the US debate that English should be made the official language of the country. This would bring about a common ground for unhindered communication and minimize comprehension errors, misunderstandings and misinterpretations. By making the English language the official language, even immigrants can converse without really having a problem. However, the challenge here lies in getting the immigrant force to understand and comprehend English. This largely depends on their backgrounds and it translates into meaning that if they do not know English, it would be very difficult for them, to live at ease in the US and converse. On the other hand, this would help all and sundry in gaining a common understanding and linguistic identity. This would work towards promoting unity in diversity. It would go a long way in unifying the masses under one common umbrella of linguistic unity, irrespective of subjective linguistic orientations and origins. ENGLISH AS THE ONLY LANGUAGE If English is made the only language in US that is officially recognized, it would spell doom to the huge number of citizenry that come from other linguistic backgrounds. Ever since globalization has impacted the world, US has gained immensely from the steady influx of immigrants
Tuesday, September 24, 2019
What do UEL students think about the future of university education Essay
What do UEL students think about the future of university education and why - Essay Example Another theme uncovered in the research was growing sentiment that university classroom sizes should be reduced in order to provide better learning and relationship development. Further, there were also beliefs that teacher education would need to be improved in order to build more competent teaching to keep up with the dynamic changes in tomorrow’s business environment. However, these identified themes had very radically-different attitudes about the future of education that conflicted with using them as a foundation for primary research. The most common theme, both in psychology text and general research articles was the impact of debt and financing for tomorrow’s university experience. Due to the commonalities associated with costs and future debt, this study developed its methodology based on this common theme. Review of literature There are many different governmental policy-makers that continue to debate the nature of public financing for education and are current ly working on proposals to change the government involvement in providing tuition and living costs to students with low- and mid-range incomes. One proposal for the future of university education is to create a system whereby student loan debt payments actually decrease based on income changes for the post-graduate (Browne 2010). Why is this important for this study? According to Callender (2002) students who take on considerable student loan debt have very high instances of pathological depression and anxiety about how this will impact their lifestyles. Pathological depression, according to Morris and Maisto (2005) is defined as a mood disorder that includes overwhelming feelings of sadness, social isolation and excessive guilt. Further, those struggling with anxiety have prolonged periods of intense fears that can lead to panic or even social isolation (Morris and Maisto). University educators not only attempt to promote standardized learning, but also to assist students in becomi ng active contributors to the social order. Students who have earned their degrees from the university tend to be more participatory in volunteerism, experience much more social inclusion, and tend to be more involved in community affairs (Greenaway and Haynes 2003). Universities will be limiting their ability to provide more effective contributors to society if lessons on community and sociology are lost to situations of anxiety and depression due to concerns over debt load. Why is this a concern for the future of university education? According to Vasagar (2011), universities are losing revenues today and therefore are planning to charge the ?9000 pounds for tuition that is allowable by current laws related to university enrolment. Concurrently, university costs continue to increase annually by approximately 10 percent, thus the future of funding for education looks to greatly exceed the current ?9000 cap due to inflation and higher operational costs of the university (i.e. facili ty management, payroll and supply chain). Research also identified that complaints about the student loan process have greatly increased from 2006 to 2011. A major supplier of student loans, The Student Loans Company, logged an increase in grievances from students that rose from 1,411 in 2006 to 5,648 in 2011 (Cook
Monday, September 23, 2019
Self-Evaluation of Life Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words
Self-Evaluation of Life - Essay Example The society that I come from places a lot of importance on religion, honour and obedience to the teachings of religion. I live in a society that is characterized by diversity in all aspects of life from religion to cultural and traditional practices. This created a conflict of interest on my part because I wanted to maintain the integrity of my beliefs, and at the same time adapt and thrive in this dynamic new world (Casino, 58). There were significant forces that had an influence on my life, and in retrospect, there were some that were positive while others were negative. It is during this initial transitional period that I was faced with the possibility of losing direction in life when I met a fellow fellow citizen. He had experienced the same predicament I was presently facing, and when he identified with my situation, he endeavoured to help me cope with the situation. He introduced me to other people who had gone through the same experience of identity conflict. Through sharing a bout our experiences in the past and present with each other, I was able to feel better about myself and better equipped to deal with cultural shock. I am eternally thankful to this person for helping me preserve my sense of identity and beliefs of my heritage. There are things in one’s life that hold meaning, in the sense that they represent, to them core elements that are part of self and their identity. I come from a society that has excellent pride in the breed of horses that are bred and reared, by the people.
Sunday, September 22, 2019
Website Review and Summary Essay Example for Free
Website Review and Summary Essay Infant Mortality Infant mortality is a serious matter when it concerns the life of an infant. Many individuals and families have had to face the death of a child in one way or another. Infant mortality can cause devastating implications for all those involved. The awareness of assistance offered from local, state and national government agencies are available for those who have experience the death of an infant. One way to provide information would be to understand what public and community health is all about. Public and Community health is important and researching related websites can benefit those who are interested. This paper will address and compare how local, state and national government websites address specific information regarding infant mortality. In addition, information will be explored specifically related to whether or not the information found in the websites overlap, what type of structure is identified between the levels of government, what functions are seen at each level of government, and how the levels of government work together specifically regarding infant mortality. Defining Public and Community Health. First of all, public health deals with promoting health through the communication and organizational efforts to assist health care providers, the public, the communities and individuals. (Kleinfelder, 2013). To be honest, for the most part, people refer to public health simply as â€Å"free†, meaning a place to go when they need state and federally funded vaccinations, influenza and pneumonia shots, wellness prevention, and tuberculine screening for health care workers to mention a few. As far as community health, this addresses issues through education, research on diseases, injury prevention and the promotion of healthy lifestyles. How does the information overlap? When researching for the sole purpose of obtaining information specifically related to infant mortality, many websites are reviewed. The information identified did at times overlap such as the percentages of infant deaths at the local and state levels as opposed to the United States percentage of infant deaths, meaning the percentages were typically the same. In addition, the top rated causes of infant deaths from one website to the next were similar such as sudden infant death syndrome, premature births, very low birth weights and birth defects. Types of structure and function identified between levels of government. Each level of the government whether local, state or national, has their own processes and procedures to handle concerns affecting the people. The structure at the state level governs over the city, or local counties. When an issue arises that local and state levels cannot handle, national levels will assist to resolve those issues. The purpose of understanding the structures among the government levels is not only to figure out how to identify, analyze, plan and implement resolutions to health concerns, such as infant mortality, it is also important understand the funding for health care and other needs of the people. In the eyes of the people it must prove its legitimacy to remain in office. According to Beitsch LM, Brooks, Grigg Menachemi, (2006), â€Å"A strong infrastructure is required to perform public health services and to protect the public from environmental toxins, influenza, chronic diseases, and unacceptable rates of infant mortality. State health agencies must be able to provide the core functions of public health, assessment, policy development, and assurance across the domains of health protection and health promotion activities.†The local and state agency’s focus on decreasing infant death. To accomplish this, the government provides funding to enable state-based programs the ability to perform surveillance to gather information that would enable a decline in maternal and infant mortality. The purpose of the information gathered is used to develop the health programs associated with infant mortality or other health related issues. In addition, the ability to identify infant mortality risks rests on the shoulders of local and state agencies. These agencies use of pregnancy risk assessment monitoring systems data to complete this task. On a national level, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services will work with state agencies to develop a national strategy for addressing all health related issues. (Riegelman, 2010). How do the levels of government work together? All agencies work in a collaborative effort to improve women’s health prior to pregnancy, promote quality prenatal care, strengthening surveillance and research, including prevention and overall health promotion. According to Beitsch, Brooks, Grigg Menachemi, (2006). â€Å"The goals of these agencies communicate with the main objective to improve access to quality pre-conception, peri-conception, and prenatal health care across racial/ethnic and geographical divides, and to provide the best available care to mothers and infants.†Conclusion In all reality, despite the efforts of all levels of government health agencies, the probability of the concerns surrounding infant mortality will continue simply due to the ignorance and negligence of the American public to simple choose not to do the right thing. All levels of government, whether local, state or national, infant mortality is a health concern to be reckoned with. We, as a community, have an obligation to understand that educating ourselves through research and reviewing websites for knowledge is key to resolve all public and community health concerns on all levels. The paper did explore information related to websites address the type of structure between the levels of government, what functions are seen at each level of government, and how the levels of government work together specifically regarding infant mortality. The ability to promote educational programs to prevent a death of an infant is a necessity to ensure lifelong happiness. References Beitsch LM, Brooks RG, Grigg M, Menachemi N. Structure and Functions of State Public Health Agencies. American Journal of Public Health. 2006; 96(1):167-172. Doi:10.2105/AJPH.2004.053439. Kleinfelder, J., (2013). What is the difference between community health and public health? Retrieved from http://wwwresearchgate./post/What_is_the_diffe†¦ Riegelman, R. K. (2010). Public health 101: Healthy peopleâ€â€healthy populations. Sudbury, MA: Jones and Bartlett.
Saturday, September 21, 2019
Motivation in Human Resource Management
Motivation in Human Resource Management In the fierce era of competition, organizations nowadays are more emphasizing on the management of Human Resources (Robert. L, 2008). Motivation; a key strategy in Human Resource Management has helped practitioners largely enough to subject the term Motivation for a discussion. Steers, Mowday and Shapiro (2004), asserted that employee motivation plays a vital role in the management field; both theoretically and practically. It is said that one of the important functions of human resource manager is to ensure job commitment at the workplace, which can only be achieved through motivation (Petcharak, 2002). According to Mishra and Gupta (2009) the world of work has changed significantly due to globalization over the past few years and organizations are being assessed against international standards and best practices. Consequently the emphasis upon people has increased. Conferring to the authors, since organization has to produce its outcomes through its employees, there is emphasis on motivation and concern for people through assessment, regular feedback, ongoing support and experience based initiatives. Motivation is important because of its significance as a determinant of performance and its intangible nature (Mishra and Gupta 2009). Generally if workers are demotivated, organizations are unlikely to operate affectively in achieving their goals and success; supported by Khan (2010), who points out that workplace dissatisfaction, usually leads to poor performance of employees and hence affect the performance of the organization as well. Therefore the concept of motivation is very important as motivated employees can help make an organization competitively more value added, hence profitable and highly motivated employees serve as the competitive advantage for any company because their performance allow an organization to well accomplish its goals (Danish and Usman, 2010). Based on these reasoning, this paper shall include analytical and empirical studies to reveal the discrepancies and feasibility aspect of the domain, as Rai (2004) put forward; motivation is crucial for good performance and therefore it is increasingly important to study what motivates employees for better performance. This section offers a review of literature, which explores the concepts, types and theories of motivation. Motivation Motivation is defined as a human psychological characteristic that add to a persons degree of commitment. It is the management process of in ¬Ã¢â‚¬Å¡uencing employees behavior. (Badu, 2005, p.38) Conversely, Bartol and Martin (1998) relate motivation to the force that stimulates behavior, provide direction to behavior, and underlies the tendency to prevail. In other words individuals must be sufficiently stimulated and energetic, must have a clear focus on what is to be achieved, and must be willing to commit their energy for a long period of time to realize their aim in order to achieve goals. However, other than motivation being a force that stimulates behavior, Vroom (1964) emphasized on the voluntary actions. Supported by Steers et al. (2004), Vroom (1964) defined motivation as a process governing choice made by personsamong alternative forms of voluntary activity. Similarly Kreitner and Kinicki (2004) assumed that motivation incorporate those psychological processes that create the arousal, direction and persistence of voluntary actions that are goal oriented. Quite differently from the other definitions, Locke and Latham (2004) identified that motivation influence peoples acquisition of skills and the extent to which they use their ability. According to the authors the concept of motivation refers to internal factors that impel action and to external factors that can act as inducements to action. The three aspects of action that motivation can affect are direction (choice), intensity (effort), and duration (persistence). Motivation can affect both the acquisition of peoples skills and abilities; and also the extent to which they utilize their skills and abilities (Locke and Latham 2004, p.388). In a nut shell, different authors have put forward the concept of motivation differently. Nonetheless, these definitions have three common aspects, that is, they are all principally related with factors or events that stimulate, channel, and prolong human behavior over time (Steers, Mowday and Shapiro, 2004). Intrinsic and Extrinsic motivation Following Lakhani and Wolf (2005), Lakhani and Von Hippel (2003) and Lemer and Tirole (2004), the current scholarly thinking favors a framework that considers two components of motivation given by intrinsic and extrinsic components. Accordingly, Lawler (1969) has defined intrinsic motivation as the degree to which feelings of esteem, growth, and competence are expected to result from successful task performance. This view bounds intrinsic motivation to an expectancy approach and expectancy theory which clearly indicates that intrinsic and extrinsic motivations summate (Porter Lawler, 1968). Moreover, according to Amabile et al. (1993) Individuals are said to be intrinsically motivated when they seek, interest, satisfaction of curiosity, self expression, or personal challenge in the work. On the other hand individuals are said to be extrinsically motivated when they engaged in the work to gain some goal that is part of the work itself. As per to the author this definition of intrinsic and extrinsic motivation is based on the individual perception of the individual perception of task and his or her reasons for engaging in it. Moreover, Amabile et al. further argued that intrinsic motivators arise from an individuals feelings with regards to the activity and they are necessary to adhere to the work itself. Conversely, extrinsic motivators although they may be dependent on the work, they are not logically an inherent part of the work. Extrinsic motivators refer to anything, coming from an outside source that designate to control work performance and include examples such as promised reward, critical feedback, deadlines, surveillance or specifications on how to do the work. Furthermore, in line with the concept of intrinsic and extrinsic motivation, De Charms (1968) suggest that external rewards might undermine intrinsic motivation. He further proposed that mans primary motivation is to be effective in developing changes in his environment and individuals seek for personal causation. According to the author because of the desire to be the origin of his behavior, man keeps struggling against the constraint of external forces. Thus, De Charms hypothesized that when a man perceives his behavior as originating from his own choice, he will value that behavior and its results but when he perceives his behavior as originating from external forces, that behavior and its results, even though identical in other respects to behavior of his own choosing, will be devalued. De Charms (1968) further argued that intrinsic and extrinsic motivation may interact, rather than summate that is the introduction of extrinsic rewards for the behaviors that was intrinsically rew arding may decrease rather than enhance the overall motivation. The introduction of an extrinsic reward put the individual in a dependent position relative to the source of the reward. The locus of causality for his behavior changes from self to the external reward and thus the individuals perception of self-control, free choice, and commitment deteriorate and hence do his motivation. De Charms (1968) also anticipated an interaction between the intrinsic and extrinsic dimensions given if rewards are withheld. The motivation to perform a task undertaken originally in order to obtain an extrinsic reward may increase if the reward is subsequently withdrawn. This inexplicable effect develops because of the liberation of the individuals intrinsic motivation following the reduction of extrinsic controls over his behavior. In addition Frey (1997) note that high intrinsic work motivation evolving from work which is interesting involves the trust and loyalty of personal relationships and is participatory. However, under certain circumstances, intrinsic motivation can be diminished, or crowded-out by external interventions like monitoring or pay-for-performance incentive schemes. This was also supported by Frey and Jegen (2001) who reviewed the literature on intrinsic motivations and found that the evidence does suggest that incentives sometimes do crowd-out intrinsic motivations. Besides, Frey (1997) suggests that the important matter is whether the external intervention is in the form of a command or a reward. Commands are most controlling in the sense that they seize self-determination from the agent, while rewards might still allow autonomy of action. The maximization of employees motivation to attain the organizations goals can only be obtained through a complete understanding of motivation theories (Reid 2002). There is a wide variety of theoretical frameworks that have been developed in the attempts to explain the issues related to motivation. Stoner, Edward and Daniel (1995) has described two different views on motivation theory, given by the earliest views and the contemporary approach which can further be subdivided into content and process theories. Theories of Motivation The earliest views of motivation One of the earliest views of motivation is Frederick W Taylor et al. (1911) scientific management theory. Taylor (1911) with regards to employee motivation proposed a paternalistic approach to managing employees which is based on a combination of job training, performance related pay system, improved employee selection techniques, and job redesign, including the introduction of ergonomics. According to Taylor (1911), workers are economic men and in order to motivate them, workers should be paid higher wages. The author also argued that the higher is the wage rate, the higher will be the level motivation and productivity. Furthermore, Taylor points out that many payment methods were ineffective, as they did not reward efficiency and he believed that a differential piece-work incentive system should be replaced with a piece rate incentive system (Wren, 2005). In other words workers should be paid according to the number of units produced in order to motivate them to work. On the other hand in line with building on the concept of motivation Elton Mayo (1953) came up with the Human Relations approach whereby the emphasis is laid on non-economic motivators. According to Elton Mayo (1953), if objectives of organizations are to be met, it must attempt to understand, respect and consider the emotions, sense of recognition and satisfaction that is the non-monetary needs of workers. He believed that employees are not just concern with money but also they need to have their social needs to be met in order to be motivated to work. He is of view that workers enjoy interactions and managers should treat them as people who have worthwhile opinions. Furthermore, McGregor (1960) postulates Theory X and Theory Y which is based on assumptions about people and work. According to this theory, there are two types of assumption made with regards to employees whereby theory X assumes that employees are lazy and therefore theory X suggests that in order to motivate employees a more autocratic style of management is required. On the other hand theory Y assumes that workers enjoy work, committed to objectives of the organization and will apply self control and self directed in the pursuit of organizational objectives and therefore does not require external control. Content theories of motivation Content theories tend to focus on individual needs and attempt to explain the factors within a person that stimulate and stop behavior, in other words they focus on identifying factors that motivate people (Reid, 2002). According to Bassett-Jones and Lloyd (2005), content theory assume a more complex interaction between both internal and external factors, and explored the circumstances in which individuals react to different types of internal and external stimuli. The most well known content theory of motivation is the hierarchy of needs which has been put forward by Abraham Maslow (1943). According to Maslow, people are motivated by five types of needs and in order to motivate people to work more productively there is a need to offer them opportunity to satisfy those needs. He proposed that basic needs are organized in a hierarchy of prepotency and probability of appearance (Wahba and Bridwell, 1973). These needs include physiological needs, safety needs, social needs, self-esteem and self-actualization. Maslow argued that once a lower order need is fulfilled, the next level of needs in the hierarchy comes into play that is once employees satisfy the lower order needs they will next consider the next level of needs. The author further argued that unfulfilled lower needs dominate ones thinking and behavior until they are satisfied (Berl et al. 1984). However this theory has also been criticized to a large extent, for example Wahba and Bridwell (1973) argued that based on the ten factor analytic studies that have attempted to test Malows theory; there is no clear evidence that human needs are classified into five different categories, or that these categories are organized in a special hierarchy. The authors contradict Malows proposition and points out that, none of the studies has shown all of Maslows five need categories as independent factors (p. 516), for example some studies have showed that the self-actualization needs may emerge as an independent category. They also argued that studies have also proved the issue of need deprivation and the domination of behavior to be different from that suggested by Maslow. Moreover results have also proved that either self-actualization or security are the least satisfied needs and social needs are the most satisfied. Therefore the degree of satisfaction of other needs varies greatly that is it is difficult to determine their general pattern and these trends are not the same as proposed by Maslow (Wahba and Bridwell, 1973). Conversely, Alderfer (1972) in the attempt to address the short comings of Malows theory proposed an alternative to Maslows theory which he termed as the ERG theory and postulate a three level hierarchy. Alderfer grouped Maslows five categories of needs into three categories given by Existence, Relatedness and Growth. According to the author, people are motivated by these three groups of core needs and he asserted that as one level of need is satisfied another takes over but if a need is not satisfied on a continuous basis, the individual may decide to give such a need a low priority. Nonetheless, while Maslow and Alderfer presented the concept of motivation in a hierarchy, McClelland (1961, 1971), ignored the concept of hierarchy and put forward a theory known as the acquired need theory that emphasize on three types of needs namely, need for affiliation, need for achievement and need for power. McClelland is of view that individuals experiences are acquired through life experiences that is they are learned. According to this theory individuals possess several needs, and when these needs are activated they serve to motivate behavior and this is to the contrary of Maslows proposition of a continuous progression throughout the hierarchy of needs (Steers et al. 2004). Moreover, also put differently Herzberg et al. (1959) sought to understand how work activities and the nature of an employees job influence motivation and performance. They proposed a theory that involves what they termed as motivators and hygiene factors and argued that motivation factors tend to increase job satisfaction while hygiene factors tend to decrease job satisfaction. According to Herzberg the most crucial difference between the motivators and the hygiene factors is that the motivator factors involve psychological growth while the hygiene factors involve physical and psychological pain avoidance. The authors examined motivators and hygiene factors in the workplace and proposed that where job satisfaction was high there would be corresponding high motivation. Herzberg (1959) further argued that work motivation is influenced to a large extent by the degree to which a job is intrinsically challenging and provides opportunities for recognition and reinforcement. However despite that Herbergs theory has been widely accepted by managers (e.g Latham 2007, Miner 2005, Steers and Porter 1983), this theory has been criticized by many authors. For example Reid (2002) argued that the work of Herzberg is an examination of job satisfaction rather than motivation of employees. Reid also argued that no matter how much emphasis is laid on factors that are intrinsically rewarding, if hygiene factors such as low pay is not addressed, their full effect cannot be felt. Moreover, also Brenner et al. (1971) contradict Herzberg proposition that motivation factors increase job satisfaction and hygiene factors leads to job dissatisfaction and points out that his study and others indicated that the employees received job satisfaction and job dissatisfaction from both the motivating and the hygiene factors. Similarly Locke (1976) assessed Herzberg two factor theory and argued that job satisfaction and dissatisfaction result from different causes. Locke also argued that the two-factor theory is inconsistent in classifying factors of satisfaction. Process theories of motivation Along with the content theories, there are also different process theories. According to Viorel et al. (2009) the content theories emphasize on specific factors that motivate workers with regards to certain necessities and aspirations, while the process theories emphasize on the processes and the psychological forces that have an impact on motivation. They start from the premise that motivation starts with the desire to do something. The process or cognitive theories are more useful to the managers compared to the content theories because they provide more realistic principles with regards to the motivation techniques (Viorel et al. 2009). Vroom (1964), in the interest to study motivation developed an alternative to the content theories which is known as the expectancy theory. Vroom suggest that there are three mental components that are considered as instigating and directing behavior and these are referred to as Valence, Instrumentality, and Expectancy. He argued that employees rationally analyze different on-the-job work behaviors and then choose those behaviors which they believe will lead to their most valued work-related rewards and outcomes for example promotion. Moreover, Porter and Lawler (1968) expanded Vrooms work to identify the role of individual differences for example employee abilities and skills and the role clarity in relating job effort to actual job performance. Porter and Lawler also explained the relationship between performance and satisfaction. They argued that this relationship is mediated by the extent and quality of the rewards that employees receive in return for their job performance. In addition to expectancy theory Adams (1963), developed the equity theory to clarify how employees respond cognitively and behaviorally with regards to unfairness in the workplace. Adams suggested that employees develop beliefs about what constitutes a fair and equitable return for their job performance and contributions therefore employees always compare their efforts and the associated rewards with that of other employees and in case there is a situation whereby there is an element of injustice or unfairness there is an imbalance that is a perception of inequity will result. The author is therefore of view that when perception of inequity occurs the employee will get engaged in activities in order to reduce the inequity that is the negative feelings of dissatisfaction will motivate the individual to do effort to redress the inequity. On the other hand, quite differently Latham and Locke (1979) came up with the goal setting theory. According to Latham (2004), the underlying premise of the goal setting theory is that ones conscious goals affect what one achieves (p. 126). The author argued that this is because a goal is said to be the objective or aim of an action and having a specific goal result to improved performance. Employees with specific hard goals tend to perform better compared to those with vague goals and that a goal is a standard for assessing an individuals performance. Moreover, Latham also suggested that to the extent that the goal is met or exceeded, satisfaction increases; and conversely, to the extent that performance falls short of the goal, ones satisfaction decreases (p. 126). While content theories have tended to focus on needs of people and process theories have focused on factors motivating people, Adair (2006) have brought some new issues in the field of employee motivation and developed a new theory of motivation known as the Fifty-Fifty rule. Unlike the authors of content and process theories, Adair is of view that motivation lies both within an individual as well as external to the individual. According to the author, 50 percent of motivation lies within a person and fifty percent lies outside the person however Adair points out that this theory does not assert for the exactly fifty-fifty proportion in the equation but it only emphasized on the idea that a considerable part of motivation lies within a person while a considerable part lies outside and beyond its control. Through these theories, it can be said that work motivation has been characterized by dimensions such as interesting job, ability to perform, recognition, adequate pay, and feedback on performance (Dwivedula and Bredillet, 2010). However according to Meyer et al. (2004) it is also very important to consider differences in the psychological states, or mindsets that can accompany motivation. Therefore, Meyer et al. (2004) argued that motivation theories developed in other areas of psychology render a convincing case that motivation is multidimensional. Opponent-Process Theory and Adaptation-Level Theory The opponent process theory, proposed by Solomon and Corbit (1973, 1974), explain that there are pairs of emotions that play in opposing pairs and when one of these emotions is experienced, the other is temporarily suppressed, however when one emotion is activated the opposite one is also activated. The author argued that the theory accounts for the existence of psychological mechanisms for the automatic or autonomic control of affect, such that repeated pleasures lose a lot of their pleasantness and make one potentially capable of new sources of suffering; in the same vein, repeated aversive events lose a lot of their unpleasantness and make one potentially capable of new sources of pleasure (Solomon 1980, p.709). According to Bowling et al. (2005) proponents for this theory provide for a specific way in which job satisfaction is influenced by both the person and the environment. This theory is said to be a complementary explanation for job satisfaction stability that can be integra ted with the argument of dispositional and with adaptation-level theory (Bowling et al. 2005). Bowling et al. (2005) argued that the adaptation-level theory (Helson, 1948, 1964a, 1964b), offers one potential explanation for the temporal stability of job satisfaction (p. 1046). Bowling explained that the theory postulates that someones evaluation of an outcome is said to be a function of previous experiences outcomes. For example, an employee who has worked for years without a pay raise would be expected to respond positively to even a small pay increase because this change in pay would be different from that individuals adaptation level, however the positive response would be temporary as the persons adaptation level would eventually change as the experience of the pay increase is integrated into the employees adaptation level (Bowling et al. 2005). Self-Regulatory Theory Moreover quite differently, Higgins (1997, 1998) proposed the regulatory focus theory that draw important differences in the processes through which individuals approach pleasure and avoid pain. Huggins proposed that individuals have two types of motivational systems given by a system that regulates rewards (promotion focus) and one that regulates punishments (prevention focus). According to the author people who operate primarily within the promotion focus are concerned with accomplishments, are sensible towards the existence or absence of rewards, adopt a goal attainment strategy, are more creative and are more willing to take risks. However, people who operate within the prevention focus tend to be more concerned with duties and responsibilities and are more sensitive to the existence or absence of punishments. Moreover the regulatory focus is ascertained both by situational and chronic factors (Higgins, 1997, 1998). Job Characteristic Model (JCM) On the other hand Hackman and Oldhams (1976) proposed the Job Characteristic Model (JCM) and identified five core job characteristics namely: skill variety, task identity, task significance, autonomy, and feedback. According to the authors the core job characteristics are three determinants of the critical psychological states namely skill variety, task identity and task significance which contribute to experienced meaningfulness; autonomy to experienced responsibility; and feedback to knowledge of results. The critical psychological states in turn are projected collectively as promoting job satisfaction, internal work motivation, performance and reduced absence and labor turnover. The model assumes that autonomy and feedback are more important than the other work characteristics and people with higher growth need strength will respond more positively to enriched jobs than others (Parker et al. 2001). Activation theory Besides, quite similar to the JCM, Anderson (1976, 1983) came up with the activation theory whereby he argued that the strongest motivating factor is the work itself however over time as the worker get used with the environment and learns the responses required in the repetitive task there may be a fall in the activation level or job stimulation. It is important to highlight that over time all work tends to become repetitive after the job has been practiced and therefore a wide range of dysfunctional and non-task activities must be pursued to offset the fall in the job stimulation level (Milbourn 1984). Moreover according to Milbourn (1984), if dysfunctional activities are addressed, managers can consider enriching jobs through job redesign to reduce monotony at work in order to maintain job stimulation. Motivational practices in Organizational environment According to Islam and Ismail (2008) the theories mentioned continue to offer the foundation for organization and managerial development practices to a large extent. Along with the above theories, during the last decade, based on employees motivation many empirical studies have been carried out (Islam and Ismail, 2008). For example, Milliken (1996) has accounted for way the Eastman Chemical Company motivate and retain its employees and according to the author the ways or incentives adopted were job security, performance-based appraisal system, extrinsic recognition through employee suggestion system, providing performance feedback and the provision of training in problem solving, etc. In addition Kovach (1995) has described the ranking of ten motivational factors made by the employees and their immediate supervisors and Kovach has found that to a large extent the rankings made by the supervisors differed to those made by the employees. He pointed out that managers make mistakes by th inking that what will motivate them will also be the same for the employees. On the other hand Bent et al. (1999) carried out research in small food manufacturing businesses whereby respondents were asked to complete, using a five-point Likert scale about how they felt motivated and then how satisfied they were with their jobs and the authors found that the degree of positive motivation was high. According to Bent et al. (1999) the employees were either very or moderately motivated with their jobs, however it was important to note that no respondents stated that they were either very motivated or very dissatisfied with their job. The authors also argued that issues which are associated with individual management style include lack of appreciation from management to feel for the work of employees and that there was also poor communication contributing to low job satisfaction and this contrasts with the identification by employees, of the motivating or satisfying qualities of a good management style. Moreover, another issue raised by the employees was that of t raining and this was both in terms of effective training contributing positively to job motivation and in terms of poor or lack of training which caused demotivation (Bent et al. 1999). Furthermore VAITKUVIENÄ- (2010) conducted research in two Swedish manufacturing companies given by, the company Frilight AB which manufactures yachts, boats and lightning equipment for camps, and the company Enitor Plast AB which manufactures different types of plastic parts. The author reported that the workers were found satisfied with the working conditions, training of staffs and career opportunities. The author argued that the Swedish employees were motivated and that the employees do not avoid responsibilities and follow directions. VAITKUVIENÄ- (2010) also found that almost all employees are stimulated with the organizing of recreational tours, holidays and events. According to the author more than half of employees in the Sweden manufacturing companies are stimulated through gifts on various occasions (birthdays, holidays), free meals at work, health insurance coverage, work, clothes, equipment, travels for the company employees, days off, recognition and good working conditions and therefore the author pointed out that the employees of the manufacturing companies consider non-financial motivation tools to be more important. Eventually, Dwivedula and Bredillet (2010), in line with the authors Cummings and Blumberg (1987) pointed out that studies from the manufacturing sector emphasize on the importance of providing autonomy, and skill variety to the employees which are otherwise absent. On the other hand Adler (1991) observed and concluded that manufacturing firms rely on job rotation, and voluntary job switching to motivate the employees. Moreover, Galia (2008) supported by Dwivedula and Bredillet (2010) reported that more recently it has been observed that, in a survey of 5000 manufacturing  ¬Ã‚ rms by SESSI (Industrial Statistics Department of the French Ministry of Economics, Finance, and Industry), practices such as autonomy at work, incentives to promote creativity have been widely adopted in order to motivate the workers.
Friday, September 20, 2019
The Language of Eudora Weltys Losing Battles :: Eudora Welty Losing Battles
The Language of Eudora Welty's Losing Battles In his essay, "The Languages of Losing Battles", Mr. Bass contends that the form of language used by two major characters in Eudora Welty's Losing Battles, Julia Mortimer and Granny Vaughn, serves as a challenge to the "male-authored decrees" (Bass) found throughout the book. Julia's idioms are "teaching, writing, and books," (Bass)while Granny Vaughn, on the other hand, uses oral language to transmit family history. While Julia's province is one of ideas and abstraction in the written word, Granny Vaughn's stories are concrete, empirical, and rooted in actual events and real people. How these two methods of questioning male authority are used by the two characters is discussed at length by Mr. Bass, and this discussion comprises much of the bulk of this article. The "male-authored decrees" challenged by the two women throughout the book are numerous, and Mr. Bass makes use of only a few of these to make his point. In truth, although his thesis is strong and well composed, most this article consists of a rather opaque discussion of biblical symbolism, and how its various applications in the novel relate to Granny Vaughn's "spoken folk myth." In Losing Battles,Julia has "written her own apocrypha" (Bass) on leaves torn from her bible. This is used by Bass as a prototype of written challenge to male authority. In some way, Bass contends, the written word of Julia is a counterweight to Granny's dominance of the family, although Julia's words must be taken for what they are, since she is not alive to interpret them. While the written word "moves outward toward the abstract or conceptual and away from the concrete center," the spoken language of Granny Vaughn and others "draws in close to make the emblematic concrete, familial." (Bass) What exactly this balance does for the furthering of the women's influence in the book is a question that seems to have been left for the reader to answer. Included in the piece is an interesting discussion of "banners and battles," and the way that these images "mark the main conflict of the novel between local and absolute."Bass uses the emblem of "Jack's 'torn sleeve that flowed free from his shoulder like some old flag carried home from far-off battle.' " to represent a convergence of a "banner" with a "battle". Mr. Bass has taken a risk with his attempt to convince his readers that
Thursday, September 19, 2019
Should Women Have the Right to make the Decision? Essay -- social issu
Should Women Have the Right to make the Decision? Abortion: Should women have the right to make that decision? According to Planned Parenthood, â€Å"Abortion is a way to end pregnancy. Sometimes, an embryo or fetus stops developing and the body expels it. This is called spontaneous abortion or "miscarriage." A woman can also choose to end a pregnancy. This is called induced abortion. There are three ways it can be done  with medicine, vacuum aspiration, or surgery†(Parenthood). Abortion has been a part of our country for many years, but it has only been a hot topic for debate for the last twenty-five years. As far as how long abortion has been around for that is an interesting question. According to some historians, abortion has been around in some form for thousands of years. It is believed that some â€Å"ancient tribes who were sometimes forced to move quickly would perform abortions on the pregnant women because these women would slow down the entire tribe†(Lewis). According to an article on a women’s history web site abortion laws started developing in the 1820’s â€Å"forbidding abortion after the forth month of pregnancy†(Lewis, 2004). It also states that â€Å"most abortions had been all but outlawed by 1900†(Lewis, 2004). In 1965, all fifty states banned abortion. Of course there is always an exception to the rules a loophole if you will, you can still have an abortion if it would â€Å"save the life of the mother, in case of rape or incest, or if the fetus was deformed†(Lewis). It was not until 1973 that the Supreme Court ruled most existing state abortion laws unconstitutional via the case of Roe vs. Wade. â€Å"This decision ruled out any legislative interference in the first trimester of pregnancy and put limits on what restrictions could be passed on abortions in later stages of pregnancy†(Lewis). Since these, decision made by the Supreme Court there has been many different groups protesting the rulings of 1973. Some of these groups protested in ways that were non-violent, while other groups went as far as bombing abortion clinics. Currently the latest issue facing the anti-abortion movement is the termination of late term pregnancies also called â€Å"partial birth abortions†. When discussing the abortion topic you should know about the two main players. The first ones are against abortion and believe that it is immoral and unconstitutional f... ...ghts of the mother and give them to a child that is not yet even developed enough to sustain life on its own. Women have been fighting for their rights for many years, and to allow somebody to take even one of those right away is unthinkable to me, and I am a guy what do you think women would say about this. I think that it is put best in a statement from Planned Parenthood â€Å"Abortion is never an easy decision, but women have been making that choice for thousands of years, for many good reasons†(parenthood). Works cited Kirkeby, Kelsey. "Should Abortion be legal." Should Abortion be legal. 18 Feb. 2005. 23 Feb. 2005 Lewis, Jone Johnson. "A history of the abortion controversy in the United States." Women's History. 2004. 23 Feb. 2005 Parenthood, Planned . "Nine reasons why abortions are legal." mar. 1989. Planned Parenthood Federation of America. 23 Feb. 2005 Parenthood, Planned . "what is abortion?." Choosing Abortion-Questions and Answers. Mar. 2003. Planned Parenthood. 24 Feb. 2005 "The History of Abortion." What is abortion. Abortion Info. 23 Feb. 2005 WCLA,. Legal Abortion: Arguments Pro & Con. Westchester Coalition for Legal Abortion, Inc.. 23 Feb. 2005
Wednesday, September 18, 2019
Old Man and the Sea Concludes with Santiagos Death Essay examples -- e
Old Man and the Sea Essay It is believable that Santiago is dead at the end of The Old Man and the Sea. This conclusion can be deduced from the various hints Hemingway used throughout the novel. The foreshadowing of Santiago’s death, his comparison to Christ, and his bad luck helps one decipher that the death of the old man took place at the end of the book. First, something that leads the reader to believe that Santiago is dead at the end of the book is foreshadowing. One event that foreshadowed Santiago’s death was the death of the marlin. The fish and the old man displayed similar qualities of strength, bravery and determination. For instance, the old man surpassed his natural limits by staying far out at sea, while the fish exceeded its own boundaries by leading Santiago out for eighty-seven days. Besides these similar characteristics, Santiago felt that the marlin and he had a close relationship, as shown in the following quote: â€Å"Then he was sorry for the great fish †¦It is enough to live on the sea and kill our true brothers (75)†. Santiago’s similarity to the fish a...
Tuesday, September 17, 2019
Team and Small Group Experience
There have a few experiences that I have had, where I have been a member of both a team and a group. There are many similarities as well as differences among a team and a group. One of the biggest and most common similarity is that both of them want to be able to reach a particular goal. The team that I am currently a member of is a women’s basketball team. I am also part of a small group. I met a few local girls through Facebook that have been wanting to loose weight just like me. My team was started up by some friends that wanted to form a league to play for the city. They put some ads on Craigslist and Facebook to see if anyone wanted to try out for the team. After doing the try outs and deciding who was actually going to be on the team, we got together twice per week for a period of one month for practice basketball games. Currently, we are in the â€Å"tournament period†and we play every Tuesday at 7:00 pm with other teams that are also playing with the city. We have three games left before we know how we placed and if we go to finals. After every game we get together for a few minutes and discuss how we did and what we can do to do things better and to strategize. Communication among the team has really made us improved the way that we play and make us better in every game. The group I belong is made up of six girls including myself. We all chat online and make plans, we state our goals and what we want to achieve with them. Each week one of us will make an exercising plan for the entire week and then at the end of the week we meet up somewhere to talk about how we did with our exercise plan. It is not all about work, we also get together to have some fun, like go to the movies, eat dinner or take out our kids to the park. Most of us have lost at least 10 lbs since we started our little group. We just support each other when we are lacking motivation. There are some differences that I noticed between the team and the group. For example, we had to try out for the basketball team. Then we were chosen and assigned to a position by the organizers of the team. We have all been working together to make our team better and become a good and strong team. The group that I am currently was actually made up by a group of friends that just wanted to have a support system to lose weight. We have made sure to always have something going on to help us stay fit or keep helping us lose weight. The team used practice basketball games twice a week and a little get together that we had at the beginning of the season to motivate us and help us to get to know each other. This helped us feel more relaxed at the actual games and to know how each team player was used to playing in the court. The coach and the assistant coach wanted to do these two things to ensure that there was a healthy relationship among the players because in the past not knowing each other had cause much tension in the games, causing many looses. Getting the basketball team together virtually would have not been a good idea. Practices needed to get done and there was no possible way that it could have been done over a computer, The best method of communication for the basketball team was in person, by phone or by text messaging. This methods were used to communicate with each and to be updated on times and location for basketball practices or actual games. My group of fitness pals, is able to interact virtually. We were able to chat via skype, email and use sites such as Facebook to stay in touch with each other. We were also able to interact with each other virtually to make actual plans to meet with each other on a weekly basis in person. Whenever the teams or groups meet exclusive using virtual communications, there is no physical contact, for that reason, the relationship would be more impersonal rather than personal. This is not the case with either the team that I am involved with or the group that I am involved in, since in both cases we do see each other face to face. The team and the group work well the way that they have been communicating and meeting, exclusive virtual communication would not be an option for either of them. Each player on the times played on assigned position, depending on the tryouts and what the coaches thought they would be best at. In the group, every week, a different person would take leadership and make a fitness plan for all of us, she would also plan a day during the week where we could all meet, talk or just hang out in person. It worked out better that way because that way we would not run in to reoccurring exercises or activities. Everyone in the basketball team did the same thing. We all showed up for our practice games and we would also show up 30 minutes before an actual game, just to make sure that we had a complete team. We got sponsored by my husband’s place of employment, so with the sponsorship they also gave us red uniforms for all the girls. Every week our coach assigned one of the team members to bring bottled water for all of the team players. Most of the time all of the players play fairly but in some instances things would get out of hand and the team member would either get benched or even suspended for a game. For the fitness group, there were not many rules. The only thing is that everyone had to participate in some way. Everyone had to take initiative at least once every two months two make plans and set goals on how to lose weight. That same person also had to plan something fun for us to do so that we could meet in person. Status and differences for the team was each individual team player, they had different positions and they each were in charge of covering it on the games. The coach and the assistant coach decided who would start in each position after they held the tryouts and saw us play. In rare occasions the players were change from positions, but mostly we always held our own position. In our fitness group, every week we had someone doing all the planning for our fitness goals and weight loss progress. A certain person would plan and then all of us would follow the plan and at the end of the week meet somewhere and discuss our progress. So basically the only thing that would change is that every week we had a different leader and different fitness plans and weight loss goals. According to the Maslow theory, the team’s belongingness depended on the power of the team players in that position that they were given by the coach and assistant coach to play in. Good self esteem was built because the team players feel that they are doing a good job with their position and in their own way feel that they are helping the team win the games. Safety in the basketball team was very important. All of team players needed to feel protected by one another when playing the game. The small group worked very close and well together. According to Maslow’s belongingness theory, the group worked well because they worked together to achieve a goal that they all had. Esteem was built by the group because we would talk to a daily basis and get together with each other once a week making us have some sort of bond. Each member of the group felt safe with each other because we were all working for the same urpose and we didn’t feel the need to hide anything from each other. In conclusion, I think that the main purpose of working with a team and having specific roles in it is to accomplish a goal. In this case the one goal that the basketball has is to win as many games possible. Working with a does not have many differences from a team, but in my group in particular we all have the same goal, which is too lose weight and get fit. A small difference is that on the group we are all working for ourselves instead of for a victory that belongs to everyone else.
Monday, September 16, 2019
The Evolving Finance Function
The finance department provided a wide range of financial services to them. * The forecasting & analytics department was merged with the finance department. * Recruitment in the finance department were higher than the other departments, which consisted of Mamba's from good B- schools in USA. * There was no rigidity ; the finance department was constantly re-structured. Pre-conditions that enabled Mercer's finance group to develop its capabilities: * The company was constantly rated amongst the best in the U. S. A. They had a vision to grow, which was evident from their financial figures.Exhibit 1} * To cater to the growth they formed several alliances, in the form of Joint Ventures, which led to an increase in their market capitalization. In order to maintain and increase their market capitalization in the future they felt the need to come up with a model which can help them to effectively analyses the returns on their investments in future. * They faced immense competition from the local players in generic drugs and to maintain an edge over them they came up with this model. * As they focused on Innovation, they had huge R&D expenditure which kept Increasing year after year.They did not have a suitable model to classify the expenditure as capital or revenue, nor could they ascertain the profitability from a given product or venture. * Owing to the currency fluctuations and to manage their foreign exchange hedging castles, they came up with a suitable long term revenue hedging model. * They came up a long way under the effective leadership of Ms. Judy Lent, who kept taking Annihilative In carrying out various tasks outside her domain. Her Job Included 25% assignments and 75% Initiative. * Her effective decision making also played an Important role In eloping Merck develop its capabilities.Can other companies develop similar capabilities? * Merck had a highly effective but complex model and improper execution of which could lead to a total chaos. * Their strengt h was Research and Development, which was ten earlier AT tenet pronto TTY. I en same need not De ten case wilt toner companies. * Therefore, if Merck did, other companies too can come up with a similar model. All it needs is being systematic and have efficient leadership. However, organizations can come up with their own models capitalizing on their own strengths and catering to their own needs.
Sunday, September 15, 2019
Insanity of War Essay
Joseph Heller and Kurt Vonnegut were two of the most influential anti-war authors of the twentieth century. Heller and Vonnegut served in Second World War; Heller flew sixty missions as a bombardier and Vonnegut was awarded the Purple Heart as an infantry scout. Throughout the Vietnam War, these two authors were idolized for the heroic anti-war masterpieces that they wrote. College students throughout the country carried the novels Heller and Vonnegut wrote everywhere they went. Heller first published his book in 1961, right in the midst of Civil Rights Movement, a perfect time for a book that challenges the power of bureaucracy. Vonnegut published his novel eight years later in 1969, during the Vietnam War, a controversial period for American citizens. One student was quoted saying, â€Å"Kurt Vonnegut and Joseph Heller were part of a vanguard of writers my friends and I idolized†(Golly). Through the use of complex structures, highly effective literary styles, and character portrayal, Heller and Vonnegut helped to reveal the insanity of war. Heller and Vonnegut both use a complex structure when writing their satirical anti-war novels. When writing Catch-22, Heller intentionally created a narrative that is hard to follow. While Heller admits that Catch-22 was meticulously structured in order to seem chaotic, he disagrees with the readers that claim Catch-22 is formless (Merrill 34). Merrill also claims that Heller says the real structure is artfully camouflaged (34). He speaks the ideas of multiple characters and tells the story in an unconventional manner. While the majority of the novel is written from the ideas, actions, and feelings of John Yossarian, the protagonist, Heller uses other characters to tell the story from a different perspective. An example of this comes in Chapter 6, aptly named â€Å"Hungry Joe†, where Heller writes the ideas and feelings of Hungry Joe (Heller 51). Another comes in the twentieth chapter, where the narrative comes from Corporal Whitcomb (Heller 198). Heller also uses an unorthodox chronology while writing Catch-22. Multiple times during the text Heller makes obvious jumps in time, be it forward or back. Heller uses the number of missions to help the reader follow the chronology of this insane structure. On the twenty-first page, Doc Daneeka declares that the colonel want fifty missions (Heller). He then declares that the Twenty-seventh Air Force only requires forty missions and later on the same page they are required fifty-five missions (Heller 58). Vonnegut also uses a complex structure when writing his book, Slaughterhouse-five, but rather than switching from character to character, he changes between past, present, future. Vonnegut uses a chronological scheme that is difficult to follow as well; he actually starts the narrative during the second chapter. He starts the novel, on page twenty-three, by talking about the past and tells us that the protagonist, Billy Pilgrim, was born in 1922 (Vonnegut). Seven pages later, he jumps to 1944 describing his position of assistant chaplain and his first time being â€Å"unstuck in time†(Vonnegut 30). Then, during the fifth chapter, starting on page eighty-eight, he talks about the past again. When he was twelve years old, he went on vacation to the Grand Canyon that he hated (Vonnegut). In addition to using a complex structure, Vonnegut uses the phrase â€Å"So it goes†over one hundred times (Slaughterhouse-Five). These writing structures both work to expose the insanity of war. Heller creates a chaotic atmosphere by writing through numerous characters and through a chronology that is anything but in a logical order. While Vonnegut employs the death of over a hundred people within Slaughterhouse-Five and uses an intensely paced, chronological mess (Vonnegut). They both write chapters and paragraphs that follow the same disorganized style. With the structures that Heller and Vonnegut use, they both create a chaotic atmosphere for their readers, similar to that of war. They attempt to place the readers in a situation that makes them feel similar to the authors, when they were in the military. Heller and Vonnegut’s literary style is to create tension in the mind of the reader by shifting the narrative around from character to character and to and from different time periods. They do this in order to draw the readers closer to the soldiers and bombardiers of the Second World War. By doing so, they cause the readers to begin to wonder what will be happening next in the story; much like the way the soldiers of Catch-22 do on the fictional island of Pianosa and the Slaughterhouse-Five soldiers in the German city of Dresden (Heller, Vonnegut). The overall pace of Catch-22 is slow; Heller is very descriptive and builds the setting and atmosphere. There is, however, parts of Catch-22 that are intense and fast paced. Heller uses this slow pace to build tension before the novel climaxes. Catch-22 becomes faster as it approaches the climax and the end of the novel. This change of pace ties directly to war; at first everything is slow, then suddenly, the characters are in the middle of a firefight or bombing mission, then it quickly ceases. Slaughterhouse-Five uses a slightly faster pace throughout the novel; Vonnegut’s narrative is much shorter and does not go into as much depth as Heller’s story does. However, this is the same feeling that many soldiers of the Second World War felt. The soldiers and bombardiers do not always know what is happening next or, in regard to the current Iraqi war, which is the enemy and which is not. Heller employs another literary device, called a motif, a recurring theme or device in literature, and in the novel written by Heller, the motif was catch-22. Heller incorporates many forms of the catch-22 throughout the novel. The main catch occurs when Yossarian must continue flying missions. Obviously anyone willing to risk their lives by flying these missions is crazy. The only way to be granted permission to stop flying the missions is to ask the commanding officer, but he cannot grant permission to be grounded unless it is asked of him. However, anyone sane enough to ask a commanding officer to be grounded is clearly not insane because they have regard for their lives. Therefore, they must continue flying missions. In short, any circular argument that always works in favor of the bureaucratic system that puts it in place is a catch-22. These circular arguments trap soldiers within the chaos of war; they have no way to escape it because of the system that placed it. There is several other catch-22’s in the novel Catch-22, such as the open and close case against Clevenger in which all they need is something to charge him with and how they can only meet up with Major Major Major Major in his office when he is not in his office. Vonnegut also employs the literary device motif, within his novel. He uses the phrase â€Å"So it goes†over one hundred times in Slaughterhouse-Five (Slaughterhouse-Five). He first uses the phrase â€Å"So it goes†when talking about Gerhard Muller’s, a cab driver, mother, who was incinerated in the Dresden fire-storm (Vonnegut 2). During chapter nine, Vonnegut writes about how Billy’s wife, Valencia, dies of carbon monoxide poisoning after an accident she caused while driving to the hospital Billy was taken to after a plane accident he was involved in (Vonnegut). In the prior situation, Vonnegut ended to text with â€Å"So it goes,†this shows how the insanity of war causes death to mean so little to some people. The last use is on the second to last page, two hundred fourteen; he uses it after the death of Edgar Derby, an old, poor English teacher, who was arrested, tried, and shot for stealing a teapot (Vonnegut). Vonnegut uses the phrase â€Å"So it goes†to equalize all death. Through equalizing all death, Vonnegut brings forward how some bureaucratic systems feel about war and their effects on life. Vonnegut writes to point out the insanity of war; he shows his readers what war can cause and how his characters and their lives are affected. Heller’s characters display insanity throughout Catch-22. An example of this occurs on page seventy-five, when the following conversation takes place: â€Å"In sixty days you’ll be fighting Billy Petrolle,†the colonel with the big fat mustache roared. â€Å"And you think it’s a big fat joke.†â€Å"I don’t think it’s a joke, sir,†Clevenger replied. â€Å"Don’t interrupt†â€Å"Yes, sir†â€Å"And say ‘sir’ when you do,†ordered Major Metcalf. â€Å"Yes, sir.†â€Å"Weren’t you just ordered not to interrupt? †Major Metcalf inquired coldly. â€Å"But I didn’t interrupt, sir,†Clevenger protested. â€Å"No, and you didn’t say ‘sir,’ either. Add that to the charges against him,†Major Metcalf directed the corporal who could take shorthand, â€Å"Failure to say ‘sir’ to superior officers when not interrupting them.†(Heller) This conversation shows just how crazy some of Heller’s characters are. Through his dialogue, Heller shows the insanity of his characters and the absurdity of war. Conversations similar to this occur a dozens of times throughout Catch-22. Another example of Heller portraying insanity occurs when the IBM machine in control of the military ranking system gains a sense of humor. After only four days of enlistment, Private Major Major Major, one of Heller’s more awkward characters, becomes Major Major Major Major (Heller). This mistake portrays another chaotic situation that war created. The bureaucratic system causes confusion and people lose control of their responsibilities. The actions of war depicted in Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse-five, caused a large amount of death. The center of the book, the German city of Dresden, is approximated to have had at least thirty-five thousand and some sources say up to one hundred thousand casualties in the infamous firebombing of Dresden during the Second World War (Bombing of Dresden). A few characters from Slaughterhouse-five share the same insanity of those from Catch-22, such as Roland Weary, who is intent on glorifying himself and uses the fact that he saved Billy multiple times to do it (Vonnegut). Although the characters from Slaughterhouse-five don’t carry on crazy dialogues, they still portray madness through their actions, like when Wild Bob inquires if Billy is part of the regiment that he is colonel of, even though all his men are dead (Vonnegut). Heller and Vonnegut use their characters in a way that proves that war does really take a toll of a person’s mental situation. Through their motifs, Catch-22 and â€Å"So it goes†, Heller and Vonnegut show that bureaucratic systems and death do not mix well. Systems like this shouldn’t have control over such a life altering things, especially since they carry the attitude â€Å"So it goes†throughout the war. It really is insane for a system to be in place in which someone has absolute control over another’s life. And the ability of these people to have a â€Å"So it goes†attitude is as pure madness. The structure in Slaughterhouse-five and Catch-22 are very similar in that the both follow a chronology that is nowhere near in order. This is significant because it puts the reader into the insanity of war. The have the same confusion that soldier does until they realize what is really going on. Through the use of characters, motifs, and confusing chronologies; these brilliant antiwar authors capture the insanity of war.
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