The Foreshadowing of Tragedy in the First Five Chapters

A reader who is skimming through the novel ?The Great Gatsby' by F. Scott Fitzgerald might consider a happy ending by the end of the fifth chapter, however at a slightly more detailed look there are clear signs that indicate that a tragic and miserable ending is the only possible one. This essay will be looking at how Fitzgerald foreshadows tragedy, and how he presents tragedy in the lives of the novel's characters.One of the indicators for Gatsby failure is the unstableness of the harassers he is depending on. This begins with the woman he loves, Daisy Buchannan. Daisy's life is a tragedy in its own, because she married the wrong man, who is cheating on her, as she was too weak to follow her conscience and wait for Gatsby to return from the war. Nick, the narrator of the novel and her second cousin once removed, expects her to â€Å"rush out, child in arms† (chapter 1), but she stays in her unhappy marriage.Thus it is clear that Daisy is rather shallow, and without enough con fidence to contravene social conventions. Having this in mind, one cannot e sure if she would resolve to go with Gatsby, once it comes to a conflict with her husband Tom. This conflict is easily predictable with the knowledge about Tom Buchannan character. He is an aggressive, â€Å"unrest† (chapter 1) man, bursting with potency and confidence, but already behind his zenith, as his best years were those in college. He would never tolerate a rival, even though he has an affair himself.The way he and his wife are living contains signs of tragedy as well: they both are eternally restless, chasing after pleasure and trying to fulfill themselves with enormous spending of money. Fitzgerald criticizes the high-society vulgar pursuit of material happiness of his time with these characters. He uses zephyr, blowing wind, to symbolism the Buchannan chaotic lifestyle. Already in his first appearance, Jay Gatsby carries indications of a tragic character. In this Nick sees him staring at t he water: â€Å"He stretched out his arms toward the dark water in a curious way, as far as I was from him I could have sworn he was trembling.Involuntarily I glanced seaward – and distinguished nothing except a single green light C†¦ † (chapter 1). Later it becomes clear that the green light comes from Daisy Buchannan dock, it is a symbol of Gatsby desire to win her back. His unquestioning love for Daisy made him follow her for five years and buy a huge mansion next to her. It is the contrast between the two that indicates a tragedy: whereas Gatsby would do anything to fulfill his dream, Daisy is more likely to stay in the safe live she is – and it is clear that Gatsby would not be able to live without her.Besides, Nick describes him being â€Å"pale as death† (chapter 5) when he waits for Daisy to arrive. This foreshadows the bad influence Daisy will have on him. In chapter four Nick describes Gatsby party guests. Although he does not say it, it is clear that he sees them as superficial, materialistic and immoral: â€Å"they were never quite the same ones in physical person, been there before†. These people always use the situation for their profit and they gossip about Gatsby history at his own party. None of them can be regarded as a friend who would support Gatsby in case of a conflict.In Fitzgerald view, America's white high-society is tragic, because it postulates morality, but is false and superficial. Fitzgerald ironically uses a line of the song â€Å"Mint we got fun† to emphasize his criticism: â€Å"One things sure and nothings surer/ The rich get richer and the poor get – children† (chapter 5). In the Greek belief, tragedy is always caused by chaos. Regarding the flighty, erratic lifestyle of most of the characters in the novel, there must appear a conflict, a tragic moment at some point.The catastrophe is foreshadowed by the car breaking a wheel n the ditch after an excessive and chaoti c night. And although Gatsby doesn't want to â€Å"do anything out of the way' (chapter 5), he is involved in illegal activities (shown by his connection to the known criminal Wolfishly and his calls to Chicago). His lax handling of legality is a form of chaos that is likely to become his undoing. Thus, in conclusion, chaos is an important key to the tragedy in the end because it has been obvious that the more unstable and unreliable the characters and their actions are, the easier an event ends into a catastrophe.

The Power of the Follower: the Arab Spring and Social Media

THE POWER OF THE FOLLOWER SAND011A MBL 921-S Leadership Assignment II Group Member Student Number Contribution Addison, B. 7078-516-3 100% Bheamadu, A 3285-589-3 100% Deonarain, N 7288-417-7 100% Deshmukh, A 7136-472-2 100% Jooste, D L 7276-682-4 100% Mahura, S 7300-632-7 100% Mavimbela, R 7294-314-9 100% Mnube, M 3326-099-0 100% Singh, Yashin 3667-383-8 100% Nkosi, N 7308-888-9100% Singh, Yeshvir 7308-490-5 100% Thuntsane, E 7294-747-0 100% Mulder, R7303-318-9100% Mkwanazi, S7288-373-1100%EXECUTIVE SUMMARY This assignment delves into the changing socio-dynamic landscape given the growing rate of mobile and IT connectivity as well as the growing number of users on social media platforms, such as Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Flickr and the like. The recent political uprisings on the African continent have hinted towards the use of social media tools to bring about socio-political change and either directly or indirectly challenge the leadership status quo.Many have refuted the claims o f the impact of social media during the uprisings, such as Malcolm Gladwell who dismisses the relevant importance the media, academics and thought leaders have placed on its ability to influence leader behaviour or bring about any meaningful change (www. newyorker. com, 2010). However, the contrary views outweigh Gladwell’s views and, in our opinion, bare consideration. According to Fleishman (2003) â€Å"leadership is an attempt at influencing the activities of followers to willingly cooperate through the communication process toward the attainment of some goals. The traditional view of leadership is its ability to influence follower behaviour. Thus, this assignment aims to explore the role of neo-social dynamics (social media) to influence leader behaviour, i. e. follower upward management of leaders. The assignment begins with a case study to determine social media’s impact in Africa, contextualized but not limited to the Egyptian uprisings. It then proceeds to pro pose an alternative mind-map developed in assignment 1 and concludes with the development of an HR value proposition to generalize a leadership model for use by organizations. TABLE OF CONTENTS 1. The Case Study| 4| | 1. 1 The Purpose of the Study| 4| | 1. 2 Background of the Study| 5| | 1. 3 Significance of the Study| 5| | 1. 4 Research Methodology| 6| | 1. 4. 1 Theoretical Framework| 6| | 1. 4. 2 Data Collection| 7| | 1. 4. 3 Research Hypothesis| 7| | 1. 4. 4 Key Research Questions| 7| | 1. 5 Conclusion| 10| | 1. 6 References| 11| 2. | Integration of the Case study Findings| 12| | 2. 1 Introduction| 12| | 2. 2 Assignment 1: Overview of the Leadership Model| 12| | 2. 3 Leadership Mind Map Recommendation| 14| | 2. 4 Conclusion| 18| 3. | The HR Value Proposition| 19| | 3. 1 Definition| 19| | 3. HR Value Proposition Objectives| 20| | 3. 3 A Systemic HR Mental Model| 20| | 3. 4 Organisation Challenges Proposed| 21| | 3. 5 Business Implications| 22| | 3. 6 The HR Value Proposition- Appl ication| 22| | 3. 7 Conclusion| 25| | 3. 8 References ( section 2 and 3)| 26| I. THE CASE STUDY 1. 1Purpose of the Study Social media is a popular term to describe a variety of media tools that is suggested to have played an important role in recent political revolutions. In the recent events in North Africa, the role of social media has been best characterized as an enabler, facilitating rallies and galvanizing participants.Despite limited access to the Internet and limited freedom of expression and information, social media penetration is on the increase in Africa. Social networks are spoken of in villages, schools, and fast-growing cities where the middle classes are now demanding access to quick information (Marieme Jamme, 2011). In the mid-1990s, as the use of mobile phones spread in much of the developed world, few thought of Africa as a potential market. Now, with more than 400 million subscribers, its market is larger than North America's and is growing faster than in any ot her region.The most common social media tools are Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and relatively new social media sites like Diggs and Foursquare. The communication is in the form of status updates and ad hoc statements. While discussion may be limited, the dissemination of information has been seen as the most influential component of the upheavals in the Middle East and Northern Africa (MENA) region (uicifd. blogspot. com, 2011). The case study intends to explain the impact of neo-social dynamics on leadership within the context of the recent political uprisings. In doing so we propose three hypotheses: i.Social media creates the leaderless revolution in the digital age. ii. Social Media creates Citizen Journalism – freedom of speech for the oppressed. iii. Social Media accelerates the rate of revolutions. 1. 2 Background of the Study The rate of technological and online communication advances suggest that organizations and governments can no longer suppress the spread of an ide a, message, or of news occurring globally. The implication is that if one is able to connect to the Internet and express a view about a situation, then the information will be broadcasted.The recent events in North Africa may signal a way forward for the rest of the continent as technology becomes more easily accessible to more Africans. Calls for socio-political transformation heard on the streets of Tunisia and Cairo were echoed globally, rousing sympathetic support internationally. The revolutions in Tunisia and Egypt are extensively seen as being mobilized, organized, supported and driven through the use of social media tools such as Facebook, Twitter and mobile phone technology which allowed for extensive political expression and rallying against government corruption online and off the ground. . 3Significance of the Study Traditionally, the greatest power that governments have held over their people has been that of information/freedom of speech. The promise that Internet conn ectivity brings to Africa is that people are now using the abundance of information for oversight of government and more interaction with administrations (J. Gossier, 2008). New communication technologies, especially social media via the Internet, have become important resources for the mobilization of collective action and the subsequent creation, organization and implementation of social movements around the world.Therefore, the impact of social media on current leadership dynamics requires exploration as the recent public demonstrations of rebellion have been underpinned by suggestions that social media has changed the status quo on how Africans engage and share their views and are no longer being silenced by oppressive leadership with these (social media) tools in hand. 1. 4RESEARCH METHODOLOGY The qualitative case study method is an effective tool for developing an understanding about a particular case, its features, and its impact.According to Stake (1994), â€Å"case study i s defined by individual cases, not by the methods of inquiry used. † As such, the goal of case study research is to understand the complexity of a case in the most complete way possible. The richness of data gathered through this method complements the article’s theoretical framework and is required to answer the research questions. This case study will be an exploratory case study which is an attempt to understand what happened within cases by looking beyond descriptive features and studying the surrounding context. (www. capam. com)We categorize the â€Å"Egyptian revolution† in this study as the activities and conditions that led to and defined the anti-government protests that occurred between 25 January and 11 February 2011, ultimately leading to the resignation of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak. Case researchers examine both common and unique features of a case, with an emphasis on its defining features (Stake, 2005). 2. 4. 1 Theoretical Framework Researc hers may study a single case or multiple cases. In multiple case studies, researchers  study cases  in depth individually as well as look across cases for similarities and differences. (RWJF, 2008)Selected Cases a. Social Media in the Arab World (Ghannam, J. , 2011) b. Reasons Social Media contributed to the 2011 Egyptian Revolution (Chebib, N. & Sohail, R. 2011) 2. 4. 2 Data Collection The above literature was selected because of its relevance to social media, leadership, information technology and the considerations made regarding the plausible causes of changes in the socio-political landscape. Other secondary sources originating from published online news reports were also analysed. Such secondary data were appropriate for this study because of both the nature of our analysis and the wealth of information available.The qualitative researcher often must use her or his judgment, based on a set of criteria, to decide how much and how long a case should be studied to aid in unde rstanding (Creswell, 1998; Stake, 2005). 2. 4. 3 Research Hypothesis This case study explores the impact of neo-socio (social media) dynamics on leadership in Africa in order to understand contemporary social movements. In pursuit of this goal, the analysis specifically seeks to establish support for the following hypotheses, which will be verified through the case study: I. Social media: creates the leaderless revolution in the digital age.II. Social media: creates Citizen Journalism – freedom of speech for the oppressed. III. Social media accelerates the rate of revolutions. 2. 4. 4 Key Research Questions Three questions have been identified to guide the approach in solving the hypotheses: i. Who led the protests in Egypt? ii. How was information regarding the revolt obtained and circulated? iii. What was the rate of protestor-mobilization and the speed of the outcome? i. Who led the protests in Egypt? To succeed, one of the essential characteristics of the revolution was t hat there were no leaders.Had there been leaders, it would have been far easier for the existing powers to target them for arrest or worse and thus decapitate the revolution. The absence of leaders made such a response impossible. Instead of a revolutionary leadership – a Che, or a Lenin, or even a Walesa (who was imprisoned many times) – there was no one. The only way to have contained the revolts was bloody crackdown on everyone on the streets – a path that Syria's Bachir al Asad seems to be following, perhaps imitating the grotesque example of his father, who had the town of Hama flattened after a rebellion there, killing perhaps 20,000. carneross. com) ii. How was information pertaining to the revolt obtained and shared both locally and internationally? The concept of citizen journalism (also known as â€Å"public†, â€Å"participatory†, â€Å"democratic†,†guerrilla†or â€Å"street† journalism) is based upon public cit izens playing an active role in the process of collecting, reporting, analysing, and disseminating news and information (www. wikipedia. com). New Media technologies such as social networking and media-sharing websites in addition to the increasing prevalence of mobile phones have made citizen journalism more accessible to people worldwide.Due to the availability of technology, citizens can often report breaking news more quickly than traditional media reporters. Notable examples of citizen journalism reporting from major world events are the Arab Spring. Hundreds of Arab activists, writers, and journalists have faced repercussions because of their online activities. (Gannum, 2011) In Egypt, blogger Abdel Kareem Nabil Soliman, known as Kareem Amer, was released in November 2010 after more than four years in prison and alleged torture for his writings that authorities said insulted Islam and defamed Mubarak. Soliman returned to writing his blog shortly after his release.In Syria, 19- year-old Tal al-Mallouhi was said to be the youngest Internet prisoner of conscience in the region and in December 2010 marked her first year in prison, mostly incommunicado, for blogging through poetry about her yearning for freedom of expression. (Gannum, 2011) In Bahrain, a social networking campaign has called for the release of blogger Ali Abdulemam who was imprisoned for allegedly posting â€Å"false news† on his popular site BahrainOnline. org. These are merely three of the scores of Arab Internet users across the region that have faced arrest and incarceration and other repercussions stemming from their online writings.Government challenges and other impediments, notably low broadband high-speed Internet penetration rates as a percentage of population, stand in the way of wider and faster Internet access. According to the Arab Advisors Group, the top three countries in broadband adoption in the region as a percentage of population are the United Arab Emirates at 14 pe rcent, followed by Bahrain at 12 percent, and Qatar at eight percent as of late 2009. (Gannum, 2011) In 2009, the Arab region had 35,000 active blogs and 40,000 by late 2010.Although Egypt’s interior ministry maintains a department of 45 people to monitor Facebook, nearly 5 million Egyptians use the social networking site among 17 million people in the region, including journalists, political leaders, political opposition figures, human rights activists, social activists, entertainers, and royalty who are engaging online in Arabic, English and French. (Gannum, 2011) 111. Rate of protestor mobilization and the speed of the outcome The Egyptian Revolution began on 25 January 2011 and ended on 11February 2011 lasting a total of 18 days, overthrowing the 30 year old rule of Mubarak.The Jasmine Revolution in Tunisia, which ousted president Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, lasted 28 days. The Egyptian revolution succeeded in overthrowing the present regime in the shortest time period. (Che bbib and Sohail, 2011) As shown in figure 1 below, the Egyptian revolution is the second shortest revolution in terms of both the number of days it lasted and deaths. FIGURE 1: Days of Revolutions and Deaths that occurred during those Revolutions 1. 3 Conclusion Hypothesis 1: Creates a Leaderless Rebellion The analysis above clearly indicates the lack of emergence of significant leaders in any of the revolutions.Revolutions ignited by passionate people having sufficient common ground and cause can mobilize a revolution which can be steered and sustained(without a leader) towards the achievement of the common goal. Hypothesis 2: Creates Citizen Journalism – freedom of speech for the oppressed There is a symbiotic relationship between social media and citizen journalism on the one hand and traditional media on the other hand, in that they play off each other. Traditional media remains an essential vehicle for reaching a domestic and international audience. n that while social m edia played a tremendous role, especially in empowering freedom of speech, the impact of citizen journalism was limited and interest in the cause was catapulted only through traditional media coverage. Hypothesis 3: Results in Rapid Mobilization and Swift Results Revolutions can be short and bloody, or slow and peaceful. Each is different. The Egyptian revolution was one of the quickest and swiftest revolutions in history. The facts and figures have indicated that it was also a revolution with one of the lowest death tolls.The deaths and number of days for revolutions historically were far in excess of the Egyptian revolution; were deaths ranged in the 3000’s, the death toll in Egypt was documented at 300. III. REFERENCES 1. Ghannam, J (2011): Social Media in the Arab World 2. Chebib, N. and Sohail, R. (2011): The Reasons Social Media contributed to the 2011 Egyptian Revolution 3. Cogburn, D. and Espinoza-Vasquez F. (2011): From Networked Nominee to Networked Nation. 4. Abrom s, L. and Lefebvre, R. (2009): Obama’s Wired Campaign: Lessons for public health communication 5. http://www. carneross. com/blog/2011/04/23/necessity-leaderless-revolutions) 6.Yin, Robert K. , Applications of Case Study Research, Sage, Thousand Oaks, CA, 2003a, 2nd 7. edition. 8. Yin, Robert K. , Case Study Research: Design and Methods, Sage, Thousand Oaks, CA, 2003b,3rd edition. 9. Yin, Robert K. , â€Å"The Abridged Version of Case Study Research,† in Leonard Bickman and Debra J. 10. Rog (eds. ), Handbook of Applied Social Research, Sage, Thousand Oaks, CA, 1998, pp. 229-259. 11. Stake, R. E. (2005). Qualitative case studies. In N. K. Denzin & Y. S. Lincoln (Eds. ), The Sage handbook of qualitative research (pp. 443–466). Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE. 12. Glesne, C. (2006) Becoming Qualitative Researchers (3rd ed. . Boston: Allyn and Bacon. 13. Gladwell M. 2010 http://www. newyorker. com/reporting/2010/10/04/101004fa_fact_gladwell(date accessed: 08/07/2012) 14. Bo hler-Muller N. and van der Merwe, C. 2011 The potential of social media to influence socio-political change on the African Continent. Africa Institute of South Africa 15. Toni Ahlqvist, Asta Back, Sirkka Heinonen, Minna Halonen, (2010),†Road-mapping the societal transformation potential of social media†, foresight, Vol. 12 Iss: 5 pp. 3 16. Andre-Michel Essoungou, 2010 A social media boom begins in Africa, www. un. org/en/africarenewal/vol24no4/socialmediabom. tml (date accessed 17 July 2012) 17. Gossier, J. 2008 Social Media in Africa, Part 3: Democracy 18. carneross. com/blog/2011/04/23/necessity-leaderless-revolution section 2 2. integration of case study findings – Recommendations for Leaders Assessed in Assignment 1 2. 1 Introduction Emerging from an exploration of the likely impacts of social medial in the context of the political uprisings explored in question 1 above is the indirect threat neo-socio dynamics pose to autocratic governance, as was the case wi th Hosni Mubarak resigning from presidential office, a mere 18 days after the start of the Egyptian protests (bbc. o. uk 2011). This is in stark contrast to the rise of US President Barrack Obama, whose 2008 election campaign has been heralded as a win for social media, after a landslide victory which sought to â€Å"convert everyday people into engaged and empowered volunteers, donors and advocates through social media† (Edelman, 2009). Comparing these two leaders on the basis of their style of governance suggests polar opposite styles from democratic to autocratic leadership. Autocratic leaders are those who make unilateral decisions and issue instructions.It is often criticized because it negates relationships between followers that allow decisions to be made by leaders and followers (Ehow. com), whereas democracy advocates inclusive and engaging governance. Following on from the mind map developed in assignment 1, we recommend an alternative leadership approach for the bu siness leaders surveyed. 2. 2Assignment 1: Overview of the Leadership Model In the first leadership assignment, three leaders were surveyed and a leadership mind map was developed. The mind map sought to establish which leadership theory these three leaders subscribed to.As per table 1 (below), all three leaders subscribe to the power and influence theory of leadership, path-goal theory, leader-member exchange theory (LMX), ethical leadership, transformational leadership, servant leadership, spiritual leadership and authentic leadership. A fundamental leadership trait amongst these surveyed leaders was found to be building and maintaining ‘trust’. THEORY| MS. MABUNDA| MS. GOVIND| MR. SIBEKO| 1. Power & Influence| Legitimate (Positional)Expert (Personal)| Reward (Positional)Referent + Expert (Personal)| Reward (Positional)Expert (Personal)| 2.Path-goal| Supportive| Directive| Directive | 3. LMX| High LMX| High LMX| High LMX| 4. Transformational| Yes| Yes| Yes| 5. Ethical | Yes| Yes| Yes| 6. Servant | Yes| No| No| 7. Spiritual| Yes| Yes| Yes| 8. Authentic| Yes| Yes| No| Table 1 Leader Theory Summation of Surveyed Leaders (SAND011A, 2012) Image 1, below, provides a graphic of the leadership mind map that was developed in assignment one. The leaders used a combination of both positional and personal power. The mind map also showcased adaptations to this power and influence model, with various modes of leadership also complementing their primary leadership model.Image [ 1 ] Assignment 1 Leadership Mind Map (SAND011A, 2012) Trust formed the core of their leadership character, without which these leaders believe that their effectiveness to lead would have been severely impeded. We believe this to be true as followers are more inclined to trust people when they understand their leader’s values and observe that their actions are congruent with those values because they can reliably predict how their leaders will act. As such, leaders of high characte r instil trust.However, given their reliance on positional and personal power, an alternative leadership model is proposed below. 2. 3 Leadership mind-map Recommendation The demands of neo-socio dynamics on leadership is such that leaders must develop a broad range of personal and professional competencies in order to meet the challenges they will inevitably face. Tomorrow’s leaders must stay abreast of the impact of the social media curve. Primary and secondary stakeholders now have access through social media applications to mobilize and either do great harm to an organisation or support its efforts.This was recently illustrated by the Woolworths vs. Frankies dispute. According to Frankies, Woolworths, had sabotaged its attempts to sell its product and claim ownership, by selling an imitation of its drink. Supporters of Frankies mobilized and retaliated on social media spaces such as Facebook and Twitter. The response by Woolworths was plagued by its inability to understand the social media playing field. Instead of engaging followers, Woolworth’s executives chose to release press statements that appeared to only exacerbate the situation.The Advertising Standards Authority ruled in favour of Frankies, and Woolworths was ordered to remove its ‘copy-cat’ version of the soft drink. (Moneyweb, 2012) In a recent Sunday Times Article (Aug, 2012) Woolworths CEO, Ian Moir notes that the company was surprised at how quickly outrage was spread in the Frankie’s soft drink saga. In response to his own leadership displayed during the communication crisis, he stated that it (the social media outrage) was a problem within an hour which made it difficult to manage(C. Barron, 2012).It is safe to conclude that had Woolworth’s leadership endorsed a different response, strengthened its stakeholder engagement and understood the immediate impact of social networking, they would have adopted an alternative approach to engaging their stakeho lders. i. Authentic-Transformational Leadership The case study (in section 1) and the preceding Woolworths example highlights the need for ‘open leadership’. According to Charlene li (2011) â€Å"By embracing social media, leaders can transform their organizations to become more effective, decisive, and ultimately more profitable in this new era of openness in the marketplace. Whilst no model and no list of leadership behaviours or competencies can fully capture all the critical components of stakeholder management; our group has selected the prescriptive, authentic-transformational leadership model, for leaders to align themselves to. Transformational leadership describes a leader who motivates followers to performance beyond expectations, but has often been attacked for its potential to be abused. Bass and Steidlmeier (1999) point out that the ethics of transformational leadership have been challenged.For example, transformational leaders: (1) can use impression mana gement behaviours that pave the way to immoral behaviour (Snyder,1987) and (2) manipulate followers into losing more than they gain (White & Wooten, 1986). To mitigate these shortcomings, an additional form of leadership has been proposed to complement transformational leadership i. e. authentic leadership (Nichols, Thomas W. , 2008). Authentic leadership is an over-arching concept that aims to include transformational leadership and all positive forms of leadership (Avolio and Gardner 2005). At the heart of authentic leadership is the concept of ethicality.The concept of authenticity may contribute to the transformational leadership paradigm, producing an ideal form of leadership. Whilst many pseudo-transformational leaders are able to exert control over their followers, their lack of character and ethical behaviour ultimately bring harm to their followers. By acting on a core set of benevolent values, authentic transformational leaders, bring out the best in their followers and sp ur them on to do great things for society. ii. Behaviour of Authentic-Transformational Leaders Ethics are a basic component of authentic transformational leadership.Image 2 (below), demonstrates that these kinds of leaders engage in: * Idealized influence:   Serving as examples of excellence and character; creating a climate of high standards for task performance and ethical choices. * Inspirational motivation:   Developing and communicating an ambitious, exciting and morally good vision for the group to achieve; involving followers, empowering them and encouraging their development. * Intellectual stimulation:   Fostering open discussion of the vision, its implementation and encouraging new ideas from their followers without criticizing them publicly for their mistakes. Individualized consideration:   Demonstrating genuine concern for followers' development; provide coaching and mentoring and rewarding followers for creativity and innovation. Image 2 Transformational Leader ship Model (Management Study Guide, 2009) iii. Advantages of Authentic Transformational Leaders The advantages become apparent when demonstrating ethical behaviour and personal character while performing the four types of leadership behaviours in Image 1. Many researchers have proposed outcomes relating to authentic, transformational, ethical, and charismatic behaviours.These include trust (Robinson, 1996), organizational commitment (Conger, 1999), satisfaction (George & Jones, 1997), performance (Howell & Avolio, 1993) and organizational citizenship behaviour (Gardner & Schermerhorn, 2004). Additionally, the above authors suggest that: * These leaders develop higher levels of self-awareness. * They lead followers through personal development and organizational change. * They are able to persuade them to step out of their comfort zones, take a leap of faith and follow their leaders into the unknown.These also support a recent HBR discussion amongst Harvard’s leadership academ ia, who advocate the need for an increased level of self-awareness amongst business leaders, effective diversity management and forging greater partnerships with ALL stakeholders, both consumers and suppliers alike in the age of a more connected and socially (pro) active business environment. 2. 4Conclusion Authentic-transformational leaders are those leaders who are able to intellectually stimulate, inspirationally motivate and ideally influence their followers in an ethical manner.They are transparent in their dealings and ethical in their actions and it is their authenticity that removes the potential for them to abuse this leadership style. (Bass and Steidlmeier(1999). section 3 THE HR VALUE PROPOSITION-recommendations to mitigate the implications of the case study findings through the use of hr value propositions 3. HR Value Proposition 3. 1 Definition Human Resource, â€Å"HR†, professionals add value when their work aids an organization to achieve its goals. It is not the design of a program or declaration of policy that matters the most, but what recipients gain from these actions (Success360degree. com).In a world of increasingly scarce resources, activities that fail to add value are not worth pursuing. The HR value proposition means that HR practices, departments and professionals produce positive outcomes for key stakeholders – employees, line managers, customers, and investors. (Amerin, 2005) According to David Ulrich (2005) HR needs to be able to show how their activities create value for key stakeholders. He asserts that HR must have a direct line of sight to the market place such as the customers who buy products and services and to the shareholders who provide capital and that HR must be framed as a source of competitive advantage.He states that ultimately HR professionals need to be able to spell out how they provide a unique and powerful perspective of the linkages between employee commitment, customer attitudes and investor re turns. (Harvard Business School Working Knowledge, 2005) The role of a leader in an organisation is to lead change, lead transformation, lead teams and lead engagement. This process is often a learning on the part of the leader. For this reason, leadership branding is often part of the HR value proposition due to the fact that HR is the custodian of learning and development within an organisation. . 2HR Value Proposition Objectives * HR needs to be able to show how their activities create value for key stakeholders (i. e. the business, customers, employees, investors) * HR must have a direct line of sight to the market place such as the customers who buy products and services and to the shareholders who provide capital (a suggestion of a strong market orientation). * HR professionals must align practices with the requirements of internal and external stakeholders (operating in a silo is no longer suitable). HR professionals must acquire the personal knowledge and skills necessary to link HR activity to stakeholder value. * HR professionals need to be able to spell out how they provide a unique and powerful perspective of the linkages between employee commitment, customer attitudes and investor returns. 3. 3 A Systemic HR Mental Model HR needs to frame a new mental model that will make others take notice of and acknowledge the profound and sustainable benefits HR brings to organisations in the new economy.Such a mental model must form the strategic framework that provides HR professionals with the evidence that HR is truly adding value to key stakeholders. Once developed, a systemic HR mental model will provide the strategic framework that enables HR professionals to make significant and tangible contributions to business performance. For instance, HR professionals will be able to use these models to economically justify their initiatives, advise where the business is at risk, highlight opportunities to continually improve performance and most importantly, show how they add to stakeholder value.This conclave will provide a platform where eminent HR professionals will discuss the issues that organizations need to handle in order to transform the role of HR and aid organizations to gain and sustain competitive advantage. (www. ksom. ac. in) The HR Value Proposition, which was developed by Dave Ulrich in 2005,expressesfivekey elements for the value creation activities of HR, namely: 1. Knowing external business realities 2. Serving Internal and External Stakeholders 3. Creating HR Best Practices . Building HR Resources 5. Ensuring HR Professionalism Figure 1 HR Value Proposition Template (D. Ulrich 2005) 3. 4ORGANIZATIONAL CHALLENGES PROPOSED The HR Value proposition mind map (Table 1) speaks to challenges organisations may be facing. Social media connectivity and activism can impact business relations both internally (employee relations) and externally (customer relations). We therefore propose two examples of this for a generic Company X: 1. Employees who are dissatisfied with utocratic, heavy-handed leadership within an organisation; and 2. customer online queries or complaints are being sluggishly attended to, resulting in poor customer service levels. 3. 5Business Implications 1. Employees could take to social media and discuss amongst themselves their dissatisfaction with their leaders resulting in lower levels of staff morale, productivity and insubordination (borne out of frustration and on-going discussions in and amongst disgruntled employees).The recent Marikana Mining tragedy, although still under investigation, could potentially point toward employee mobilization (which may have been aided by social media interaction such as Blackberry messenger â€Å"BBM†, or possibly Facebook engagement) and possibly suggest how three thousand employees mobilized to the exclusion of their own union leaders, who purport not to have known about the impending strike action. . Customers who sense that company X is not engaging speedily and effectively to their queries or complaints may view the company’s indifference as a sign of it not being customer oriented and they may retaliate on social media platforms. The online conversation could inform new customers and other existing customers of the company’s level of degree of engagement as such impacting business performance. . 6 The Value Proposition- Application The HR Value Proposition will address the issues in the two examples cited above that will result in improvement or a turnaround strategy. The systemic mind map model will seek to address the first two of the elements of Ulrich’s HR value proposition namely, 1. Knowing external business realities; and 2. Serving Internal and External Stakeholders.The reason for choosing the above two elements is because neo-socio dynamics (social media) suggests (1) a new and evolving external business reality in the form of online and mobile phone technology, its connectivity, user a ctivity, and continued global growth in online social engagement and (2) ‘serving internal and external stakeholders’, who are now seemingly more connected and willing to voice their dissatisfaction, implies that HR needs to re-orientate its value proposition in light of how and where internal and xternal stakeholders are now having their conversations, which is online, in real time, sporadic, and transparent. As such the Value Proposition should aim to: * Create market value for investors by increasing intangibles. * Increases customer share by connecting with target customers. * Help line managers deliver strategy by building organisation capabilities. * Clarify and establish an employee value proposition and enhance individual abilities. * Improve the line manager’s ability to understand external business realities.HR Value Proposition Element| HR Transformation Criteria| HR Intervention| HR Value Proposition| Knowing the external businessRealities Article I. AND Article II. Serving externaland internal stakeholders| Create market value for investors by increasing intangibles. Increases customer share by connecting with target customers. Helps line managers deliver strategy by building organisation capabilities. Clarifies and establishes an employee value proposition and enhances individual abilities.Improve the line managers ability to understand external business realties| * The experience, level, function, previous management education, current challenges faced and demographic background of the potential participants needs to be considered when setting the objectives so that the programme is made relevant to the participant as well as the organisation. Leadership development needs may be carried out at this time which are linked to the strategic objectives and competencies needed for organisational success. * Based on the results of assessments they will be nominated to go on courses to close the competency gap. A suitable audience wi ll be selected * An evaluation system and corresponding actions to reward success and improve on deficiencies preferably the Kirkpatrick Model in which to gauge self-development of leaders; their ability to contribute to the teams they lead; and which help them contribute to the business and strategic change. The basket of offerings from a development perspective and leadership programme will be: 1. Emotional Intelligence 2. Resilience 3. Customer Orientation 4. Problem solving 5. Analytical Skills 6. Communication 7. Networking 8. Coaching 9.MentoringAnalytical skills. 10. Communication 11. Networking| 1. Clear focus on customer satisfaction and meeting the needs of the customer. 2. Improved staff retention 3. Lowered staff turnover 4. Increased productivity 5. Display of effective leadership and managerial skills 6. Effective problem solving and decision-making. 7. Analyse and integrate information and facts and demonstrate performance and change in behaviour 8. Make decisive and proactive decisions 9. Clear and detailed written communication skills. 10. Clear focus on networking with all key stakeholders. Table 1: HR Value Proposition Mind Map – Generic Organization X 3. 7 Conclusion The business world shapes leaders, pushing them to adapt and change in the face of social technology’s revolutionizing impact. Social media has connected, networked and empowered employees, customers, partners and investors and all stakeholders of the company globally. The change has been so rapid that leaders are increasingly caught unprepared(Barry Libert and Sally Ourieff 2012). To succeed, and even just to survive, leaders must evolve as today’s technologies are changing.Social, mobile and cloud technologies force savvy businesses to become open, transparent, and inclusive organizations with stakeholders. Leaders must create new frameworks to integrate their understanding of social and mobile technologies into their leadership skills and management team s must recruit candidates equipped with these new capabilities. â€Å"Be Open, Be Transparent, Be Authentic† are the current leadership mantras, yet companies often push back according to Charlene Li (2011). Traditionally business is premised on the concept of control, yet the new world order (neo-socio dynamics) demands ‘openness’. ______________________________________________________ 3. 8 REFERENCES – SECTION 2 AND 3 1. Aughton P. 2005, Mapping the HR Value Proposition 2. Augie Ray May 11, 2010; (http://blogs. forrester. com/augie_ray/10-05-11-seven_things_your_organization_must_do_because_social_media) 3. Barron, C. 2012: A social media shock for Woollies, Sunday Times Business Times Aug 19th 2012 pg6. 4. Barry Libert and Sally Ourieff 2012, Recruiting and Developing Great Teams in the Facebook Age , https://www. bluesteps. com/blog/Recruiting-and-Developing-Great-Teams-in-the-Facebook-Age. aspx (date accessed: July 28 2012) 5. Bass, B.M. & Steidlmeier , P. (1999). Ethics, character, and authentic transformational leadership behaviour. Leadership Quarterly, 10(2): 181-217. 6. http://dssresources. com/faq/index. php? action=artikel=225 7. http://www. ccl. org/leadership/pdf/research/creatingGovernmentLeaders. pdf 8. http://www. ccl. org/leadership/pdf/research/futureTrends. pdf 9. http://www. ehow. com/list_6713655_effects-autocratic-leadership. html 10. http://www. highwayafrica. com/media/Citizen_Journalism_and_Democracy_Book. pdf 11. Li, C (2011) Open Leadership: How Social Technology Can Transform How You Leadhttp://www. charleneli. om/open-leadership/ date accessed July 16th, 2012 12. Nichols, Thomas W.. Authentic transformational leadership and implicit leadership theories.. Denton, Texas. UNT Digital Library. http://digital. library. unt. edu/ark:/67531/metadc9056/. Accessed July 16, 2012. 13. Transformational Leadership theory http://managementstudyguide. com/transformational-leadership. htm date accessed 16th July 2012 14. Ulrich D, 2005, HR’s New Mandate: Be a strategic player, http://hbswk. hbs. edu/archive/4861. html (date accessed: 30/07/2012) Images:  © 2012 (Twitter) Twitter Inc. , (Facebook) Facebook Corp, (YouTube) Google Inc.

Company valuation is an art not a science Essay

Company valuation is an art not a science - Essay Example There are several rationales for mergers. Companies undertake M/A because of (a) synergy created by operating and financial economies, differential efficiency, or increased market power; (b) tax considerations; (c) purchase of assets below their replacement cost; and (d) diversification, not to mention possible managers’ personal incentives. For any of the four economic reasons mentioned, the M/A is successfully undertaken only if the resultant post-M/A firm attains a value greater than sum of the two separate firms (Brigham and House, 2004, p.796-798). A M/A is necessarily a sale or exchange, which means that the determination of company values is a requisite. There are various methods of valuation that may be undertaking for the purpose of M/A. These include assessing the target or merging companies’ book value, economic value, replacement value, and break-up value. The book value is the accounting value, that is, the net amount of the company’s total assets less total liabilities; the per-share value is arrived at by dividing this net amount by the number of common shares. As conveyed by its definition, the book value of a company is a straightforward valuation method based on historical transaction costs. The dividend-discount model, the most popular equity valuation method to determine the worth of the firm to the shareholders, is equal to the present value of all future cash dividends. This would prove useful to a company contemplating a financial merger that did not involve unifying operations. The target company is expected to conduct its business in the same way it has before the merger or acquisition, and the acquiring company expects to benefit in the nature of a majority stockholder (Helfert, 2003, pp. 390). The replacement or reproduction value is the amount that would be required to replace an existing fixed asset in kind. Replacement value is one

Rite of Passage from Childhood to Adulthood Assignment

Rite of Passage from Childhood to Adulthood - Assignment Example As the paper stresses  the Americans’ rite of passage from childhood to adulthood varies significantly from that of the Pygmies. Unlike the Americans, the Pygmies’ initiation was associated with children mimicking what adults do. The mimicking was one way of preparing the children for adult roles. After this, both boys and girls were taught about their respective roles in the society. Boys were taught how to hunt whereas girls were educated about herbs and edible fauna. Unlike the Americans, The Pygmies also circumcised their boys as a way of passage from childhood to adulthood. The last stage of transition from childhood to adulthood for the Pygmies is marriageThis study declares that the Pygmies rites of passage are very significant in life. For instance, the mimicking of adults enabled children many things pertaining adult life. The adult behaviors taught young people on how to observe societal norms. The Pygmies also regarded the teachings they taught different ge nders essential since they prepared boys and girls for their future roles in their families. The most respected rite of passage by the Pygmies is circumcision. The Pygmies believed the blood shed through circumcision enhanced blood-brotherhood. In addition to this, they believed that the circumcised men were fully prepared for the caring roles. According to Turnbull, â€Å"circumcised men are mutually obligated to help and care for each other for the rest of their lives.†

English Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words - 14

English - Essay Example The tone and the use of words are not very scholarly. This can be attributed to how the essay is grounded on inference and not on facts. To illustrate, a students adapts a more confident tone if he knows he has studied for a report and is prepared with evidence if indeed a panelist asks questions. On the other hand, a students who is unprepared lacks confidence in what he has to say, and in turn resorts to using colorful and flowery words with the hope that it can influence the panelists to believe in his statements no matter how empty and trivial they are. The 2 students are much like the 2 articles compared side by side. A good article is the former, but this essay proves to be no different from the latter. The essay is built on a frail foundation not strong enough to withstand scrutiny, if analogy should be used. Even the title itself is inappropriate for the content for it talks about the special treatment, perks and privileges accorded to what society labels as â€Å"physically attractive†; it doesn’t talk about the importance, but the implications of being beautiful.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   As aforementioned, the points emphasized are supported by implausible data. The major assumptions cover a range, from children to the elderly. The essay presents assumptions that children who are considered beautiful are seen as more behaved and it is also assumed that men and women who are physically attractive climb the corporate ladder faster than their counterparts who are not gifted with good looks or admirable physique. Another assumption is that older patients are given more time and attention if they are viewed as possessing good looks. This results take root from the comment of a certain consultant,† Because the doctor feels that beautiful patients are more likely to respond to treatment, he’ll give them more time and

Marketing Planning Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3250 words - 1

Marketing Planning - Essay Example 1.1 Product Introduction Mount Franklin is pure spring water without adding any flavour into the water, which is taken from beneath the ground, travelling through layers of the rock of three natural sources in Australia. In addition to competing with bottled water, Mount Franklin also competes with other non-alcoholic beverages. Despite the presence of competition and substitute products, the market remains attractive due to strong growth in demand, barrier to entry, lack of bargaining power of suppliers, favorable customers’ preference of bottled water over other types of beverages and CCA’s competitive advantage in distribution (Coca-Cola Amatil Ltd., 2003). The objectives of this marketing plan is to improve the market position of Mount Franklin by growing the demand for bottled water and improving Mount Franklin’s image over its competitors. However, there are issues which need to be addressed e.g. cannibalisation of other products produced by CCA and negativ e publicity from overseas. To achieve the stated objective, both offensive and defensive strategies will be discussed. Offensive strategies will be used to grow market share, customer purchase and market demand while defensive strategies will be used to protect current market position. 2. ... These beverages are bottled in plastic, glass or else canned in aluminium for sale to wholesalers and retailers. Mount Franklin spring water is available in many stores such as convenience stores, food court, take away outlets, supermarkets and vending machines. The major players involved in this industry are Coca-Cola Amatil Limited (CCA), Cadbury Schweppes Australia Limited, Berri Limited and Golden Circle Limited (CCA, 2004). In Australia, soft drink industry is a large industry with over $3 billion annual turnover and employs a substantial number of workers as shown in table 1. The major group of consumers who drink the bottled water are young people, singles, and couples especially female aged between 14 to 35 years (Australasian Bottled Water Institute, 2004 a ). In bottled water category, the CCA share has increased from 15% to 35% in the previous 18 months. Per capita consumption of its brands, ‘Mount Franklin’, the market leader, ‘pump’ and ‘N everfail’ has been growing (Australasian Bottled Water Institute, 2004 a ). 2.2 External: Market Analyses Porter’s Five Forces Analysis Rivalry among existing firms The industry could be considered as oligopoly. There are five major companies which account for more than 80% of the market share. Each of the major companies holds more than 1% of the market share and seeks to improve the share position. In addition, there are numerous companies which are local and international companies that compete in this industry. Thus, there is intense rivalry within the industry. Barrier to entry Although there is no regulation that prevents a company from entering soft drink industry, barrier to entry remains significant. Brand awareness is crucial

Market Research on Radiation Therapy system Paper

Market on Radiation Therapy system - Research Paper Example Accuray’s commercial release of installed base systems has increased from zero to approximately 600 systems in a decade. These sales have been recorded mainly in the United States and internationally. The high release is as a result of the growing demand for efficient and effective radiation therapy in the market. The development of clinical evidence that support the merits of IMRT and image-guided radiotherapy is also a boost to this technology (Faiz 140). Manufacturers of Radiation Therapy systems Accuray in the third quarter of fiscal 2013 recorded an increase in new orders. The corporation has also installed TomoTherapy H series and the new Cyber-knife M6 series systems. These installations have led to an increase in the gross profit and an improvement in service revenue. A gross total of $53.8 million of new product orders have been recorded in the third quarter of fiscal 2013. The second quarter of fiscal 2013 had a gross product orders totaling to $39.8 million. The net product orders in the third quarter of fiscal 2013 amounted to $44.1 million as compared to the previous quarter with $17.9 million. The company has also recorded ending product backlog of $279.9 million marking a 7% increase from the previous quarter. ... Varian company attained net orders worth $3,122 million and recorded a total of $2,807 million revenue last year. These records show an increase in net orders from $2,933 and an increase in revenue from $2,597 in the previous year. The operating earnings of the company in the fiscal 2011 totaled $588 million which increased to $594 million in fiscal 2012. Net earnings in fiscal 2012 were $427 million from $409 million in the previous year. Elekta Oncology Systems Inc. manufactures integrated x-ray systems, linear accelerators with multileaf collimators and offers clinical solutions for patient fixation and positioning (Arno and Roeske 100). It supplies its products to cancer centers, universities and hospitals. The corporation is famous for introducing critical technological advances in the radiotherapy field. The company focuses on evidence-based medicine with the aim of saving and prolonging life. Some of the techniques used by Elekta are Stereotactic radiation therapy, Image Guide d Radiotherapy, beam shaping and motion management (David et al 730). The company expects the net sales of the fiscal year 2012/1013 to increase by 15% in local currency. It expects an increase of operating profit by over 15% despite effects of exchange rates volatility. The company recorded a total of$1.46 billion and a net income of $0.16 billion. Costs Radiation Therapy systems X-ray radiation therapy system costs about $10 million and requires less space as compared to particle beam therapies whose facility cost up to $100 million. Varian Inc. holds approximately 60% of the international market share of radiation oncology equipment. A brand new system costs $2-3

Cis333 week 6 case study 2 Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Cis333 week 6 2 - Case Study Example The increase in information related crimes is responsible for presence of enhanced information security in organizations today (Lindsey, 2014). Technically, motivations for information related crimes are attributed to the economic importance of private information in technology platforms. For example, cyber attackers seek secret and valuable information either for economic benefits or for terrorism related causes. Whatever the motivating factors, organizations handling private information have a duty to protect and prevent valuable information from ending up into wrong hands. Consequently, organizations typically utilize information security systems like Microsoft Server Active Directory domains, and Public Key Infrastructure to foster information security. Undeniably, some information security systems are better than others. As the Information Security Director for a software company, I would prefer the use of Public Key Infrastructure to Microsoft Server domain in safeguarding vital information inside the organization. Technically, Public Key Infrastructure, commonly abbreviated as PKI, is a system of standardized policies and sequenced procedures meant to secure the sharing of information (Kim & Michael, 2014). In the past, hackers have successfully penetrated network infrastructures by employing tactics like sniffing, man-in-the-middle attack, and denial-of-service among others. These hacking tactics are usually easy to apply when attacking non encrypted networks. In this context, information security developers have learned the benefits of encryption, and distribution of authentication components through independent digital certificates. In essence, Public Key Infrastructure combines the concepts of digital certificates and key en cryption in maintaining network security (Carlisle & Lloyd, 2013). Digital certificates are essentially digitized signatures of the certificate’s holder. In conventional platforms, digital certificates would be

Evaluate the policies that could be used in the UK to meet inflation Essay

Evaluate the policies that could be used in the UK to meet inflation targets - Essay Example The UK, just like the US and Germany, has a growing workforce, and its wages has also been increasing. The Europe’s unemployment rate was 9.8Â  % in March this year while it was 10.4Â  % last year the same time. In Europe, the lowest unemployment rates in March 2015 were Germany (4.7Â  %) while the highest was Greece (25.7Â  %) (Trending Economics 2015). Demand side Inflation happens when there is a surplus of demand for goods and services over the supply; the supply remains constant. Demand pull inflation involves the rise of inflation as gross domestic product increases. At the same time, the unemployment levels will be expected to fall as witnessed in UK (Thirlwall & Barton 2014). The situation is contributed by the increase in the government expenditure and no change in the tax structure. The rise in income of households is a major contributor of demand for goods and services. The increase in the supply of the money in the country leaves more non-reusable income with the people causing the demand for products and services (Miles 2014). A loose monetary policy can cause the increase in money supply. In addition, inflows from other nations because of export will enhance the money supply. In UK, demand-pull inflation may be attributed to increasing disposable of the citizens. As the levels of income of people go up, the demand to buy things also go up (Willett & Laney 2014). When demand goes up, and supply remains stagnant, prices of goods will go up leading to demand pull inflation. The government must make every effort to ensure that there is a balance between demand and supply to eliminate any case of inflation. When there is a surplus in demand, there should be strategies to ensure that the demand is met expeditiously. Inflation is not good for any country hence the need to maintain it at a low level. Cost push inflation emanates from supply side; the rise in the cost of production and a constant demand causes

Tech Article Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words - 1

Tech Article - Essay Example The current market price for RFID tags is between 20 and 40 cents. A company that is currently utilizing RFID tags to improve its supply chain is Wal-Mart Inc. Wal-Mart is the world largest retailer and biggest employer. The use of RFID has allowed Wal-Mart to improve its warehouse logistics. For example Wal-Mart is using RFID technology to scan tags on products as pallets are moved through a dock or scanning cases on high shelves in a warehouse (Rfidjournal). Companies can also use the technology to track the movement of merchandise as it is moved by trucking companies. The auto-id system developed for use in RFID tags must be open source so that there won’t be any compatibility issues. A good system will use the internet to connect users to the information in real time. As the cost of RFID continues to decrease its application will become the new standard in the packaging industry. Work Cited Page Rfidjournal.com. 2011. â€Å"What is RFID?’’ RFID Journal. 1 Ma rch 2011. Wordiq.com. 2010. â€Å"RFID- Definition.† 1 March 2011.

Spirituality and Leadership Essay Example for Free

Spirituality and Leadership Essay Leaders and organizations are uncomfortable talking about spirituality or any subject that can be interpreted as religious. There could be several reasons why, the separation of church and state, the organizations non-discriminatory policies, or the need to conform and not be seen as weird. Therefore, we find in the literature and in mainstream words such as: Synchronicity, Zen, Spirit at work, inner work, vision, intuition, enlightened leadership, 6th sense, meditation, visualization, awareness, mystic, and many more. All of these words are synonymous with spirituality. Leaders practice spirituality†¦ as long as they just dont call it spirituality. A more appropriate term could be Holistic Leadership. The purpose of this paper is to look at elements of spirituality and leadership and their relationship to each other. Spirituality, Religion, and Leadership Spirituality and leadership are two concepts that have broad meanings and interpretations. According to Conger spirituality like leadership are two very hard concepts to describe (1994, 27). So an exploration of these two words individually or in combination could be an exercise in frustration, especially for those who seek absolute answers. (Conger 1994, 63) There are many descriptions for leadership, spirituality, and religion. For the purpose of this paper I chose the ones that I felt were the most appropriate to the topic. Spirituality So how does the literature define Spirituality? Janet Dalton Honek in her article Spirituality in My Workplace?! Not that God talk! states that Spirituality in the Workplace is an emerging field of management. It encourages you to bring your whole being into your work. It offers you the place and opportunity to use your gifts and talents to their full potential in fulfilling your job responsibilities. It encompasses a variety of elements that can be expressed in a multitude of ways. For many people, it is a sense of personal satisfaction. Kathy Szaj, a writer living in New York City, in her article Sounds like Spirit defined Spirituality as: Spirituality is†¦wonderbuilt frame of reverence. Spirituality is the habit of heading for the innerness of people, places and things, and after visiting, leaving some small token of gratitude there. Spirituality is the vision that remembers that several billion earth creatures originate from and unite at one center; the practice of purposefully acting as if all thinking/feeling/being matters. And so it does†¦in-deed. Spirituality is consciously tending to all of the above so often that it becomes as natural and necessary as breathing. In a description of the book Capturing the Heart of Leadership. Spirituality and Community in the New American Workplace. by the Greenwood Publishing Group; Spiritual leadership is described as a dynamic, interactive process that is dependent on a recognition that leadership is a rela tionship. Leaders are leaders only as far as they develop relationships with their followers, relationships that help all concerned to achieve their spiritual, as well as economic and social, fulfillment. John-Brian Paprock in his article The Spiritual Part. Employment and Spirituality states: Spirituality does not really take time, rather it is being who one is. If a person has engaged a spiritual life, then it is personal integrity that brings spirituality wherever the person is. Whether through prayer or a prayerful consciousness or through meditation or a meditative consciousness or through cultural practices, work stations and offices can become personal sacred space. Obstacles and problems become opportunities of spirit. All of life becomes an integrated adventure. Spirituality becomes the whole of life, not an extra-curricular hobby reserved for the weekend. (1997, 2). John Buck in his article Leadership and spirituality connected states that the soul of leadership is spirituality, that spirituality grounds leadership, that it is impossible to separate leadership from the spiritual essence of a leader. It is spirituality that provides substance and solidarity to a person, not leadership. It grounds the leadership style and practice of a leader. (2000,2) In a recent study on spirituality, Wade Clark Roof, a religion professor at the University of California, found an interpretation of spirituality among middle-aged Americans: In its truest sense, spirituality gives expression to the being that is in us; it has to do with feelings, with the power that comes from within, with knowing our deepest selves and what is sacred to us, with, as Matthew Fox says, heart-knowledge.' (Conger, 1994,9). Religion The Encarta World English Dictionary has the following definitions of religion: 1. Peoples beliefs and opinions concerning the existence, nature, and worship of a deity or deities, and divine involvement in the universe and human life. 2. A particular institutionalized or personal system of beliefs and practices relating to the divine. 3. A set of strongly held beliefs, values, and attitudes that somebody lives by. Religion is not the same as spirituality. But when we discuss spiritual values, highly charged issues arise. Because of religious freedom and the freedom to practice and chose your own religion and beliefs, this area has been considered sacred ground. People are afraid that if the subject of religion or spirituality is approached, someone is going to influence a persons private and individual beliefs. Rutte is more direct by saying that some individuals would try to shove a particular point of view down their throats, and this approach will take away the individuals freedom to choose and the opportunity to search for his/her own truth. (Rutte, 1991, 3). Some of the issues why we do not discuss religion in the workplace include the fear of people being dogmatic and the conflicts that could arise, taboos, the separation of church and state, freedom of religion, separation of private and business life, and unreflected notions of the Divine. (Rutte,1991,1) Leadership Leadership is a process of working with people to get things done. Joseph Jaworski in his book Synchronicity. The Inner Path of Leadership states that leadership is about learning how to shape the future. Leadership is about creating a domain in which human beings continually deepen their understanding of reality and become more capable of participating in the unfolding of the world. Ultimately, leadership is about creating new realities. (1998, 3) Roger Fulton in his book Common Sense Leadership defines leadership as: †¦the art of influencing and directing people in such a way as to obtain their willing obedience, confidence, respect and cooperation. Leadership is not a mysterious phenomenon. It is a combination of skills and observable behaviors that can be learned. (Fulton, 1995, viii). Todays Leaders The Baby Boomers We, the so-called Sixties generation, the baby boomers, now the leaders, CEOs, managers, and parents, are leading the quest for the understanding of life issues. We have more and deeper questions about life. We are once again interested in the nobler ideals of world peace, economic equality, egalitarian civil rights, human potential, and spiritual enlightenment. (Green, 2000) All we have to do is to take a look at some of the best sellers books in the market. Small inspirational books such as: The One Minute Manager, The Greatest Salesman in the World, The Chicken Soup collection, Who Moved My Cheese, Fish, The Corporate Mystic, books on stress reduction, angels, prayer, visualization, vision quests, Feng Shui, and the long list of books published by Nightingale Conant. Books and materials that are nurturing the self, the soul, the leaders, and the organizations; materials that are giving permission to the executives, leaders, business people, and CEOs to be more open and to admit that spirituality is a part of their leadership style. Think about how many doctors, CEOs, leaders, and ourselves , in a moment of need, have taken a moment to pray, to ask for help from God, the Creator, the Force, the Universe? How many business leaders write their short and long term goals and then meditate and visualize them? How many people are joining study groups, meditation groups, spiritual study groups? There is a group in the Pentagon that meets weekly for meditation and prayer for world peace. Barrett in his articles on Spirituality and the World Bank addressed the creation of The World Bank Spiritual Unfoldment Society (SUS). The mission statement of SUS is: The Spiritual Unfoldment Society promotes personal transformation through self-knowledge, understanding, and awakening higher consciousness. SUS provides a safe forum for the exchange of beliefs and ideas that promote spiritual awareness. SUS seeks to create within the World Bank a consciousness of love and understanding that contributes toward transforming the way we interact with one another (and the way the organization interacts with the world). The SUS instituted monthly meditation sessions, created special interest groups, held two retreats, an international conference, and publishes two newsletters. Barrett states: The real significance of the conference and of the Spiritual Unfoldment Society was that the Bank staff now have permission to talk about spiritual values in development, and to bring their hearts and souls to work. (1998, 2) Spirituality is for some a taboo word, for others a way of life. The driving force of the Spirituality movement is the middle class, educated vanguard of the Baby Boom generation. (Lauerman, 2000, 2). Ancient religious traditions often combined work with spiritual practice and rituals. We are now coming full circle. In her article The Missing Link Anne Colby states that We spend more and more time at work, people have less time to spend outside social groups. Theyre interested in making spirituality practical and applied, rather than just something you do on the weekend. In the same article Colby quotes Judith Neal, and states As idealistic as it sounds, Neal said she sees many signs of renaissance in workplace spirituality. She estimates [Neal] that about 10% of the management consultants working with corporations today have a spiritual focus in the work. And spirituality in the workplace has become an open topic in the personnel trade journals. Elements, characteristics, and tools The challenge of leadership is to be strong, but not rude. Be kind, but not weak. Be bold but not a bully. Be thoughtful, but not lazy. Be humble, but not timid. Be proud, but not arrogant. Have humor, but without folly. Jim Rohn Spirituality is not religion but a way of being. There is not just one definition of spirituality, but several key words appeared several times throughout the literature, words like: synchronicity, miracles, vision, from within, whole being, full potential, relationships, personal integrity, substance, feelings, meaning of life, and way of being. In attempting to explore spirituality in leadership several common areas, elements or characteristics were discussed in the literature. The table on Appendix A highlights those common areas encountered in several books and articles. The elements and characteristics of leadership and spirituality were concepts such as integrity, trust, creativity, communication, relationships, energy, vision, fun, creativity, change, and passion. Each column in the table of appendix A shows the characteristics, elements, or areas covered in each article or book. These are books such as Fish, Who moved my cheese, Jesus CEO, and the Corporate Mystic. The tools to achieve some of the characteristics and elements of spirituality and leadership are objects such as crystals, water fountains, and aromatherapy oils. Leaders are attending workshops that teach meditation, visualization, relaxation techniques, stress reduction techniques, vision quests, inner work, self-awareness and prayer groups. Retreats that are designed to balance body, mind, and spirit. There is a lot of information on energy, feng shui, tai chi, and Qi Gong. Organizations are becoming more aware of the trends in society. Spirituality in the workplace promotes an expression of talent, brilliance and genius. Baby boomers are seeking more meaning in their lives, including the place where they spend a lot of their time, work. The nature and meaning of work is undergoing an evolution. We are yearning for work to be a place in which we can experience and express our spirit. Companies are beginning to recognize employees as whole human beings and are exploring a full range of their needs and desires. Conversations are emerging around spirituality and how to nurture its potential in both the individual and the company. (Rutte, 1996, 1) McLaughlin in his article Seeking Spirituality†¦at work discusses the trends and indicates that the trend extends beyond individuals, that organizations and hundreds of companies are defining or clarifying their organizational values, universal ideas such as respect, honesty, and integrity. (1998, 2) Judy Neal, an associate professor of management at the University of New Haven, Connecticut, publishes a newsletter, Spirit at Work. In less than two years her base subscription grew to more than 1,000 professionals. When I received her bibliography on Spirit at Work it contained a list of 447 citations on Spirituality, a list that gets updated every three months. Ms. Neal fully understands the willingness of professionals to look beyond conventional sources for inspiration, insight, and imaginative ideas. She states: Developing ones own spiritual side offers a source of strength both on the job and off. Helping other employees develop theirs can make the workplace a stronger, safer and much saner, place to do business. (Brandt, 1996, 4) Holistic Leadership Your vision will become clear only when you look into your heart. Who looks outside, dreams: who looks inside, awakens. Carl Jung. I see Leadership and Spirituality as interrelated and yet distinct elements of the same issue. I related the issues of Leadership and Spirituality to the symbol of Yin and Yang. According to Chinese beliefs, every single thing that exists in the universe has two aspects, a yin and a yang. Everything has a front and a back, a top and a bottom, a left and a right, a beginning and an end. Night exists only in relation to day and cold exists in relation to heat. When I looked at spirituality in leadership I found a similar pattern. Spirituality is an internal process of looking in, self-awareness, being, and meaning. Leadership is an external process of doing things, actions, and accomplishing goals. Conger described as: †¦ the objective definitions lead us in different directions: spirit evokes images of an intangible and internal world, while leadership focuses on the visible and the external reality. Spirit is a matter of being and becoming, of creation and re-creation, while leadership is doing, acting, performing. The definition of spirit invites contemplation, analysis, and insight, while that of leadership directs our attention to visible results. (1994, 65) I believe that we are all spiritual beings that believe in something, be it God, the Universe, Money, Power, or Atheism. As human beings we are trying to find ways to be happy, respected, and loved. We live in a society that is attempting to balance life, family, work, while attempting to understand the meaning of life, and to find who we are. We find ourselves spending a lot of time at work, in traffic, and wishing we had more time to be with our families and friends. We are also finding that there is more to life and more to who we really are than just a description of the kind of work we do, the car we drive, the house we live in, or the amount of money we make every month. There is a part of us, inside ourselves that matter. It makes us who we are; unique individuals with needs and wants. When we go within, we find the beings that we are, our own Spirit, and our Spirituality. As I discussed with my husband, the fact that for a variety of reasons leaders do not like to identify with the word spirituality, we came up with a more appropriate term: holistic leadership. The Random House Websters dictionary defines holism as: the theory that whole entities have an existence other than as the mere sum of their parts. and holistic as: incorporating or identifying with the principles of holism. I looked at the leader as a whole person, with leadership and spiritual qualities. (See Appendix B). My own drawing resembled the Yin and Yang figure at the beginning of this paper. The circle represents the individual or leader with two distinct, separate, and identifiable parts, the leadership and the spiritual. The leadership moving the energy one way, while the spirituality is moving the energy in the opposite direction, yet both are a part of the same whole individual or circle. Buck expressed well when he wrote: It is impossible to separate leadership from the spiritual essence of a leader. It is spirituality that provides substance and solidarity to a person, not leadership. It grounds the leadership style and practice of a leader. Conclusion Spirituality and Leadership are becoming an important part of our culture and our organizational culture. The great spiritual search is in the mainstream. (Bird, 1994). Rutte states that new approaches in modern management theory such as productivity and quality improvement, human motivation, teamwork, and systems perspectives have markedly enhanced effectiveness. Yet there is another dimension that needs to be taken into consideration, and that is the one that relates management to fundamental matters of the spirit, which lie at the heart of all beings. If one of the trends in the workplace is to include and involve the whole person, not just the work role, then spiritual values can be included. Imagine working in an environment that includes and encourages respect, appreciates peoples discovery and living of their spiritual values, and that allows for a diversity of expression of individual life purposes. Rutte believes that within this spiritual frame the bottom line would be profitable, because productivity would be at once high, deeply satisfying, and responsive to world problems; and personal and corporate leadership would guide inspired by an appreciation of both the temporal as well as the infinite. Management in the survival mode has been based on command and control. The way you get people to produce is by telling them what to do and making sure it gets done. But in a spiritual workplace, productivity is achieved through nurturing the expression of the self and the spirit. Our job, as leaders, is to facilitate the discovery of spirit, to esteem it, to celebrate it, and to hold others accountable for their expression of it. Imagine what would happen if you had a company in which all the people were doing their lifes work. You would have more loyalty, more resilience, more creativity, more innovation, and a deeper sense of self-reliance, self-renewal and self-generation. (1991, 1-2) Todays leaders are using the tools needed to become more spiritual. The tools can help individuals look inward and start on their own path of self-discovery, self-fulfillment, and enlightenment. The research finds a great deal of evidence for the existence of Spirituality in Leadership. However, there is still resistance to calling it Spirituality. Instead, call it Holistic Leadership. Given the opportunity one evening, an average person with average aspirations asked a wise and spiritual person, What is the spiritual part of life. The wise and spiritual person responded in the expected peaceful and soothing voice, I am afraid you are mistaken. There is no spiritual part of life. After a stunned silence, I have paid attention to spiritual people all my life, I have read the sacred scriptures of my faith. How can it be that there is no spiritual part of life? The wise and spiritual person said, with the expected knowing grin, It is all spiritual.

Athen vs Rome Essay Example for Free

Athen vs Rome Essay â€Å"Human behavior flows from three main sources: desire, emotion, and knowledge† (Plato). Such a great philosopher like Plato, he strives to educate the people of Athens on behalf of Socrates. With the passion of various ideas on philosophy and political science, Plato pushes through his learning to teach our people. The former philosopher Socrates, Plato had gained the knowledge of the various meanings and the strive after Socrates was sentenced to death which the Athenian Council had given him for what he believed in. Plato’s ideas of teaching weren’t so complicated for us to bestow our knowledge to further extent. Later the teaching will not stop at the cost of false individual in the democracy. Aristotle will continue to prevail in the teaching of philosophy and other subjects that will lead to be a better person with great judgment in the political system in Athens. The â€Å"Academy† was a gift from Plato to expand our knowledge of learning philosophy, mathematics, and theoretical astronomy. It will show that written dialogues are far easy to comprehend because they are in play style form instead of textbooks. The challenges in learning are tend to be hurdles yet they are not to be giving up on. Towards the Athenian council, I truly demand that politics should be controlled by well educated individuals. Our former Athenian, Socrates, had to pay the consequences on his belief because he believe that people should devote themselves to individual excellence and justice for achievements above any other concern meant that they should abandon commitment towards the moral code. Socrates had his own principle to stand by on what he believed and to speak to us Athenians to examine our unexamined assumption about individual virtue. With this in mind he was labeled as a traitor and a false philosopher to corrupt the young minds of Athenians. Is this the way we have to go with ourselves in believing that there are gods out there who help us in fights, fights in which we have fought with our own sweat, blood, and tear to acknowledge that we are getting assistant from the gods. I truly state within the teaching of the Academy it shows people to make understandable judgment before the execution on one of our own. The Athenian Council before you, even confessed they had made a terrible mistake in giving Socrates a death sentence. We as a great nation made a huge mistake and informed this tragic situation with creating this horrific democracy. Plato, a great philosopher that was once under Socrates first created this Academy for the teaching of philosophy, mathematics, and theoretical astronomy to us Athens. Creating this Academy Plato shows us that he wanted to make readers reflect thoughtfully on difficult philosophical questions. It was a challenge for us to inherit the aspect of learning and understanding the key elements towards metaphysics. As all teachers their views are critically changed over time where Plato presents a consistent set of doctrines. Plato maintained one essential idea â€Å"Moral virtues are universal and absolute, not relative. † Our people of Athens need to believe the proper goal for humans is to seek order and purity in our own souls by using reason to control their irrational desires. We have far yet to prove that we live for ourselves we don’t live under someone, not until the soul is taken away after death from our bodies. With the system of democracy justice wont prevail it will need hierarchy. Leading back to Socrates death the citizens of Athens are incapable of rising above ignorant self-interest. With the ideal society that Plato showed that high ranked men and women should live together and create healthy babies. This might not lead to become true, but the sought of teaching the people into thinking this way it leads to live justly. Within this Academy that was created by Plato it won’t stop for the future philosopher and more Academies to assemble. The prodigy of a young gifted soul that was under the famous Plato came to be recognized as Aristotle. His teaching was soon to be more advance and hence for us as Athenians. He showed much more morals to ourselves then we could imagine. Aristotle achievement towards the system showed that logic argument and scientific investigation of the natural world we stand by. Unlike Plato, Aristotle insisted on explanations based on common sense rather than metaphysics. Aristotle showed us that observing an object or a human being is best to acknowledge on how they tend to act. With patience we tend to realize slowly that we develop behaviors and not just good intentions. â€Å"Self-control did not mean denying human desires and appetites; rather, it meant striking a balance between suppressing and heedlessly indulging physical yearnings, of finding the mean† (Aristotle). The Council of Athens, we tend to realize some of our moral code is sacred, but do tend to open your horizons on us as individuals for achieving goals and valuing self-control. As we come to an end, I hope you have the same output as I have explained the teachings and most importantly the Academy that was first formed by our own, Plato. The aspect of growing is not to just have beliefs, but to believe in ourselves as Athenians that we can strive to pursue anything whether it is war, learning, teaching, or creating. The future of our children needs to be well educated to know the difference between right or wrong with some aspect towards our moral code. Our people deserves better, for which they are messengers to expand the knowledge, power, and desire for Athens. They will not have any of those values what so ever if they are not well educated through the Academy that Plato and further more Aristotle has provided. May we have hope for the future as you, the Athenian Council to accept and recognize the great Academy was a best gift that the gods have given to Athens.

Analysis of Freedom in Exile by the Dalai Lama

Analysis of Freedom in Exile by the Dalai Lama Assignment 03 Part 1 The Dalai Lama Read the following extracts from the Dalai Lamas autobiography Freedom in Exile. How does the way the Dalai Lama presents himself here relate to his reputation as discussed in AA 100 Book 1, Chapter 7? Dalai Lama describes himself as a simple monk from Tibet. I am no one special (Reading 7.2 in Waterhouse, 2008, p.224). No one had any idea that I might be anything other than an ordinary baby and certainly my family had no idea that I would be proclaimed Dalai Lama. We will be looking at the connection between the present-day Dalai Lama and his predecessors, as well as the reason why Tibetans regard him as a living Buddha. The most important Lama for the Tibetan is the Dalai Lama who has the highest religious status of its kind, and as politics and religion is combined in the Tibetan society, the Dalai Lama is also head of state. According to Tibetan tradition, it is believed the Dalai Lamas has the ability to choose their next incarnation, and even leave symbols and directions for the Panchen Lama, who is responsible for leading the search party to find the successor. Around the time when the present Dalai Lama was around three years old, the Government sent out a search party to look for the next incarnation of the previous Thirteenth Dalai Lama. One of the signs after the Thirteenth Dalai Lama had died, was that the head of his embalmed body had turned from facing south to north-east. Another sign was when Tibets Regent, a senior lama, went to Lhamoi Lhatso, a small oracle lake to seek visions to assist in the search and where he received clear visions of Tibetan letters and images. The method for identifying a reincarnated Lama is not specific. Different combination of divination is being used like interpreting dreams and omens, and consulting the Council of oracles. In the DVD-Video, (Searching for a Reincarnated Lama), we can see the Nechung Oracles medium be in a trance. This Buddhist ritual might in the western world be seen as both frightening and superstitious. However, this process is normal within Buddhist tradition and the way they con sult the Chief Oracle on important matters and finding the Dalai Lamas. The Tibetans believe Dalai Lama is a living Buddha as well as the religious figure of Bodhisattwas of compassion, whose qualities are wisdom, generosity and compassion. Free from anger, hatred and greed. Being a monk and teacher together with the combination of having the political role as the head of the Tibetan state, he has got the reputation as a god-king. (Waterhouse, 2008, p. 211) Dalai Lama won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1989 and has become a symbol for freedom. His gentle and charismatic way which have won him a large number of followers in the West. Among the Tibetans however, Dalai Lamas words still remains law, and he can be both severe and strict about behaviour and beliefs. The reputation of Dalai Lama in China is somehow very different. The Dalai Lama fled into exile in 1959 during a failed uprising against Chinese rule. He was granted asylum in Dharamsala in northern India which has become home to the Tibetan Government-in-exile. The Chinese embassy (in Reading 7.5), points out that the local government of Tibet headed by the Dalai representing feudal serfdom under theocracy and has long since been replaced by the democratic administration by the Tibetan people themselves and the destiny and future can no longer be decided by the Dalai Lama and his clique. (Reading 7.5 in Waterhouse, 2008, p. 228). Tibet is still under Chinese rule and the majority of people in Lhasa are Chinese, ruled by a Chinese selected Panchen Lama which of whom the Dalai Lama does not recognize as it is by tradition the Dalai Lama who is responsible for the search of the new Panchen Lama and vice versa. This fact has great implications when it comes to searching for the successor of a particular person, and if I die before Tibetans regain their freedom, they might not have use for a Dalai Lama anymore, the Dalai Lama points out. (words 658) Bibliography Dalai Lama-Searching for a reincarnated Lama, (2008) AA100 DVD Video Waterhouse, H. (2008) The Dalai Lama in Moohan, E. (ed.), Reputations (AA100 Book 1), Milton Keynes, The Open University, pp. 197-229. Part 2 the Faber Book of Beasts Compare the following poems: The Mouses Nest by John Clare and To a Mouse, On Turning her up in her Nest, With the plough, November, 1785 by Robert Burns, from The Faber Book of Beasts. In no more than 600 words compare and contrast how these poems depict mice. In John Clares poem we are having the speaker describing in detail an incident on a farm, probably a childhood memory. The speaker finds a ball of grass among the hay and wishfully hopes to find a bird, but instead of a bird, a mouse comes out with all her babies hanging at her teats. Shocked and disgusted by the look of something so odd and so grotesque (line 7) he runs away. In Burnss poem on the other hand the speaker is clearly a man, a farmer, who accidently destroys a mouses nest when ploughing the field. Feeling guilty, he assures the mouse that he will not try to kill it. The whole poem is written as a speech, as the farmer is speaking to the mouse, whilst John Clares, is more of a written observation from a memory. John Clare has written his poem in a non-conventional sonnet form. There are 14 lines within this single stanza poem and grouped into 7 rhyming couplets. The lines in this single stanza are of similar length, and with an end rhyme scheme of AABBCCDDEEFFGG, which gives the effect of strong sense of order and regularity. The rhythm is influenced hugely by the use of iambic pentameter with the combination of stressed and unstressed syllables. Although there is no formal punctuation it feels easy to read, as the phrases finish at the end of the line. Robert Burnss is a vernacular poem, and in contrast to Clares single stanza, contains 8 stanzas. Each stanza has 6 lines, of which line 4 and 6 are deliberately shorter. The rhyme scheme is AAABAB, and mainly iambic pentameter. The rhythm remains the same throughout the poem. Burns has used a combination of exclamation marks, commas, periods, colons and semicolon. The language in Clares poem is largely simple and colloquial with the use of some dialect words like proged, agen and oer. The imagery is simple and familiar, described merely as an observation. After the mouse has returned to her nest, everything goes back to normal, describing the surroundings and finishing off with; And broad old cesspools glittered in the sun (line 14). In contrast to Clare, Burns has used lots of different literary devices when writing his poem. o, what a panics in thy breastie! (line 1-2), the sentence finishes with an apostrophe, a common device used in poetry when a poet addresses something that is not able to respond. The repeated B sound in bickering brattle (line 4) is an example of alliteration to describe the angry mouses chattering. Burn does not only personify the mouse, he also personifies the pattle as a murdring pattle (line 6), though we know, the speaker would be the one to murder the mouse, not the pattle. The speaker draws a connection between himself and the mouse through analogy when he says; At me, thy poor, earth-born companion, An fellow-mortal! (line 11-12) Meaning that they both were born on earth, and are both mortal, so they should get along. The farmer speaks to the mouse as if it were a human and compares his troubles to those of the mouses. But Mousie, thou art no thy-lane (line 37, stanza 8) Pointing out that; the mouse is not alone of wanting to plan for the future, but sometimes things do not go according to plan, whether you are a mouse or man. Still, thou art blest, compard wi me! (line 43, stanza 8) Saying the mouse is better off, because the mouse lives in the present moment, whilst himself, is looking back at the past with regret, and into the future with fear. In short, both poems are depicting farm life and mice, however, Burns decided to romanticise his encounter with the mouse, whilst Clare on the other hand, wanted to show that nature is what it is, and nothing more, subsequently he saw no reason to humanise his mouse like Burns has done with his mousie. (words 659)

American Beauty, directed by Sam Mendes and The Virgin Suicides, direct

Reality. Merriam Webster’s Online Dictionary defines reality as â€Å"something that is neither derivative nor dependent but exists necessarily.† But what is real by today’s standards? Does what appears to be normal equal reality? By looking at two different films it seems that the old cliche stands correct. Things aren’t as they appear. American Beauty and The Virgin Suicides give classic examples of how â€Å"normal† and â€Å"happy† suburban life is anything but. American Beauty, directed by Sam Mendes (1999) and The Virgin Suicides, directed by Sofia Coppola (2000), share many of the same themes even though the plots are contrasted. Underneath the layers of white picket fences, beautiful houses, and safe neighborhoods, lies a truth. A truth so dark that it leads to the destruction of many characters in both of these movies. The first element that must be looked at is the imprisonment of the characters in both films. The main character of American Beauty, Lester Burnham, is the man whom feels the burden of imprisonment the most. He is in an ongoing marriage that should be coming up to the red light. He is also stuck in a job where he feels under appreciated and not well respected. He has been at this job for fourteen years. That is fourteen years of being in jail. It is quite evident that he is not happy. Who would be when you know that your wife and you daughter think that you are a â€Å"gigantic loser† (American Beauty)? Lester is not the only character who suffers from this. His wife Carolyn and daughter Jane both know what it is like to feel trapped in an unhappy life. Carolyn is imprisoned by image. She has the notion that she cannot be happy unless everything appears as perfect. And Jane, feeling the weight of her parents, wants to break off from her prison, her home life. She like most teens views her parents as weird and wants out of that life. In The Virgin Suicides the characters that are the most imprisoned are the five Lisbon sisters. After the youngest sister plunged to her death during the first party they were allowed to have, and Lux came home late after the homecoming dance, their parents literally turned their home into a prison. â€Å"For most children, mothers and fathers set boundaries; for the Lisbon’s, it’s iron bars† (Berardinelli). They were not allowed out, had the tree cut down that was near their window, and even had actual bars put on the window... ... ‘You’re not even old enough to know how hard life gets,’ he tells her. ‘Obviously, doctor,’ she says, ‘you’ve never been a 13-year-old girl.’ No, but his profession and every adult life is to some degree a search for the happiness she does not even know she has.† (Ebert). Bibliography Berardinelli, James, Review: American Beauty, http://movie-reviews.colossus.net/movies/a/american_beauty.html, 1999 Berardinelli, James, Review: The Virgin Suicides, http://movie-reviews.colossus.net/movies/v/sirgin_sucides.html, 2000 Bowman, James, Suffering Poses, American Spectator, Jun 2000, Vol 33, Issue 5, p. 66 Ebert, Roger, American Beauty, Chicago Sun-Times, http://www.suntimes.com/cgi-bin/print.cgi Ebert, Roger, The Virgin Suicides, Chicago Sun-Times, http://www.suntimes.com/cgi-bin/print.cgi , May 5, 2000 McKittrick, Casey, Shaping Pedophilic Discourse around American Beauty Happiness. Velvet Light Trap, Spring 2001, Issue 47, p 3-12. Scott, A.O., Film Review; Evanescent Trees and Sisters In an Enchanted 1970’s Suburb, The New York Times, http://movies2.nytimes.com/gst/movies/review.html Viner, Russel, The Virgin Suicides, Student BMJ, Jul 2000, Vol. 8, p 254

Treatment of Change and Expansion in Lotos-Eaters and Rip Van Winkle :: Lotos Winkle

Treatment of Change and Expansion in Lotos-Eaters and Rip Van Winkle      Ã‚   During the Victorian Era, great accomplishments lead to prosperity for the British Empire. Accomplishments include owning nearly a quarter of the world’s land and its people. As a result, trade and commerce expanded, and Great Britain reached the height of its power. Furthermore, science rapidly made progress during this time. These rapid strides in economic and technological advances gave the British people a feeling of pessimism about whether they were progressing for the good. As a result, people began to question man’s place, or duty, on earth. Also occurring within the time of the Victorian Era is the American Renaissance. During this period, Americans were expanding their territory according to the belief in Manifest Destiny, or the idea that God or Nature intended for the United States to spread its civilization from coast to coast. Like the British, Americans questioned their moral responsibility concerning change and expansion. Consequently, the concer ns of the people were echoed in the literature written during these time periods. For example, the Victorian poet, Alfred Tennyson, voiced his concerns about constant change and expansion in "The Lotos-Eaters," while the American writer, Washington Irving, also expressed his concerns in "Rip Van Winkle." An examination of the poem, "The Lotos-Eaters," and the short story, "Rip Van Winkle," reveal that Tennyson and Irving romanticized the concept of stasis while also questioning the duty of change and expansion.    In "The Lotos-Eaters," Tennyson romanticizes nature in order to emphasize the virtues of a land that remains in stasis as opposed to a land that is in constant change. When the mariners land on the island, its is described as a "land where all things always seemà ¢d the same" (Tennyson 24). Tennyson is saying that the beauty of the island has been preserved because no one has attempted to change it. Tennyson is also saying that colonization and expansion lead to industry, which strips nature of its beauty. Furthermore, the atmosphere of the island is romanticized in that "there is neither sharp sunlight nor clear moon, only the haze of a seemingly perpetual afternoon; the air itself is languid and the stream, not full and rushing but slender and slow, seems to pause in its fall from the cliff" (Ryals 97). The idea of an island that remains constantly at the most pleasant time of day and a stream that is barely moving romanticizes the idea of being at rest with no worries.