Leading High Performance Groups

Leading High Performance Groups Introduction The importance of group work has become relevant in the current competitive business environment. Organizations have come to realize that the best way of achieving success is by breaking down tasks, and assigning small groups of employees’ different tasks as a way of achieving the overall objectives of an organization.Advertising We will write a custom report sample on Leading High Performance Groups specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More According to Partridge (1999), although firms still appreciates that the performance of individual employees would always determine success of the entire firm, the need for these individual employees to work as small groups has increasingly become evident. In such small groups, a firm is able to define ways in which a strategic objective can be achieved in a more coordinated manner. It becomes easier for the top management to monitor activities of groups other than that of individuals.à ‚  When assigned the role of leading such teams, it is always important to find ways of achieving maximum output using the assigned members. This means that such a leader will have the responsibility of motivating the team in order to make it a high performer. Leading high performing groups requires leadership skills that would enable the project leader to maintain motivation among project members. It involves making them understand the vision, and constantly reminding them that they have the capacity to achieve this vision. It involves being creative enough to make team members understand the various environmental forces that may affect the team’s performance and defining the best ways of managing these forces. It also involves maintaining a positive communication with all the members, always trying to make an effort to understand uniqueness of every team member. This research paper seeks to analyze how a team leader can lead a high performance groups. Objective of the study In every research, it is always important to understand objectives that will guide the research, especially in the process of collecting relevant data. Leadership is a field that has received massive attention from scholars around the world. It is important to define specific area of focus when conducting a research that is related to leadership. The following are some of the specific objectives that the researcher seeks to achieve through this study. To determine the meaning of high performance groups from the perspective of various scholars To identify some of the underpinning theories relevant in leading high performance group. To develop an understanding of the appropriate method that should be taken in developing teams within an organization. To determine how new leaders can understand their team members and devise the most appropriate method of making them achieve the desired result. To create an understanding of how team conflicts can be resolved in order to eliminate negat ive effects of such conflicts. The research seeks to respond to the above objectives in order to enable new managers understand what is expected of them when developing new teams.Advertising Looking for report on business economics? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More Discussion According to Kliem (2004), before one can purport to offer leadership, it is always important to understand why teams are important in the first place. This scholar notes that a leader should always appreciate the importance of having teams within the organization. This way, it becomes possible to develop a vision that will be shared by all team members. In the current dynamic business environment, firms have come to realize that the best way of achieving success with employees is by organizing them into groups. This is important because of several reasons. Creativity and innovation has become core to success of organization. Creativity is best achieved when employees are allowed to work as a team. Through such teams, employees get to share talents and skills in a group setting. This way, it becomes possible for one to share his or her unique skills with others and determine how the unique skill or talent can be nurtured into something of benefit to the firm. Groups also offer a unique environment for learning. When employees are assigned various groups, they are able to learn some of the skills they were lacking by observing the way other team members are undertaking their activities. Teams also offers the management unit a unique opportunity to offer in-service training to its workforce in a practical environment in order to enhance their performance. Partridge (1999) notes that trying to achieve strategic objectives of a firm without breaking them into tactic and operational objectives may yield poor results. For this reason, it is always important for the management to break the overall objectives into tactic and oper ational objectives. Teams would be assigned these tactic objectives based on their areas of specialization. The management would then make the team members understand the overall objective of the firm, and the relevance of their assigned tasks in achieving the overall objectives. As Harris (2013) says, groups also offers employees opportunity to interact and understand each other better. Human being is social by nature, and it is important to create an environment where they can share their views and job experiences. This reduces the level of stress among employees. It acts as a motivation to achieve more. As a new manager who is expected to lead small teams, it is important to understand these fact in order to appreciate the need to have teams within an organization.Advertising We will write a custom report sample on Leading High Performance Groups specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More Defining High Performance Groups Nemiro (2008) defin es high performance groups as teams who level of output per given unit time is above normal. He states that high performance groups are teams that are always motivated and determined to achieve higher success in every task they are assigned. These are individuals who are always focused on what lies ahead, and understand ways in which they can coordinate themselves in order to deliver the best results within the shortest time possible. In such groups, every member if the team understands what is needed of him or her, and will always commit self towards delivering goods results on their assigned tasks. Kliem (2004) observes that team leaders are not special people with unique skills put together to perform a given task. Rather, this is a group of employees who are always positive in their work, are willing to learn, and able to try new approaches in undertaking tasks assigned to them. This means that high performance groups are always defined by the kind of leadership they have. It is through leadership that employees will remain constantly motivated. As Harris (2013) observes, leaders are always the driving force of any organization. Depending on the way they get to influence junior employees, a firm can achieve success or failure in its operations. This means that high performance groups would rely on the leader who has been assigned to these groups. Such a leader must understand individual employees capacity and needs, determine how these needs can be met, and develop strategies that would make every member of the team feel that his or her views are respected by the leader. To be a successful leader, it is always important to understand people that are led and be sensitive of their concerns. This would make them feel motivated. It is this motivation that would make them willing to go an extra mile in undertaking various duties within the firm, making the entire team successful. Understanding team theory may be important in appreciating the role of a leader in achieving success within the organization. Understanding the Team Theory It is clear from the discussion above that high performance groups is defined by the kind of leaders who are assigned to such groups. As a leader therefore, it is important to appreciate that the performance of the group would depend on the leadership competency. To do this, Partridge (1999) says that it is important to understand the theory behind team. Team Theory seeks to explain stages that is always taken in forming a team, and the needs of team members at these stages. As a leader, understanding these stages makes it possible to develop strategies that would enable the leader meet the changing expectations of the team members. This theory specifies the following stages of growth of a team.Advertising Looking for report on business economics? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More Forming stage This is the first stage of a team where different people come together with the view of working as a unit to achieve a common goal. As this stage, Nemiro (2008) notes that employees are always polite and positive. Members also experience mixed reactions as they try to visualize what lies ahead for them in these groups. High performance group would always be defined at this stage. A leader needs to tap on the positivity of the employees and their high expectations to make them high performance. Their anxiety should be turned into desire to achieve better results. It is also at this stage that a leader should provide a clear vision of the group, and a communication system that enables every member of the team to be heard. Any form of disillusionment should be eliminated. The focus at this stage would always be to set the right tempo that would be desired in achieving both short-term and long-term goals. Storming stage This is the stage where reality downs on the team mem bers. Every team member gets to understand his or her tasks, and the overall objectives that should be achieved within team. Tasks become clearly defined, and the exact vision becomes clear. This stage is always very challenging for a leader if the first stage was not handled appropriately. This is because at this stage, some members may realize that things are not as easy as they could have anticipated. However, if they were well prepared at the first stage, this second stage is always easily accomplished. The leader must understand that this stage involves assigning specific duties to individuals in the group in order to achieve overall objective of the firm. A leader of high performance team would always use this opportunity to make team members define their own individual path in achieving their specific tasks in the best way possible. The leader should offer members assistance when they are defining their operational strategies. The leader must ensure that their tactical strate gies are in line with the vision of the group. Norming stage At this third stage, team members get to understand their real working environment. They get to appreciate what the overall vision of the team seeks to achieve. Team members also get to understand one another, and define how they can relate in order to support and be supported in various activities. This stage provides a leader with the best opportunity of making employees feel more comfortable with their tasks, and the need to involve others in their actions. As Nemiro (2008) notes, employees at this stage may try to be independent in their actions because they get to understand their environment. This independence is not bad, but it should not be a reason that makes members ignore team spirit that was the real reason why such teams were forme (Kliem, 2004). Performing stage When a leader guides his team through the first three stages successfully, the fourth stage will be a true reflection of a high performance team. Whe n the leader guided his or her members through the first three stages successfully, the fourth face would involve high levels of collaboration among members. Every member of the group will understand that the overall success of the firm depends on the success of their individual performance. They would therefore try to achieve perfection in their duties, while still willing to help other team members be successful in their various tasks. In such groups, members will appreciate the dynamism in their working environment, and accept the need to be dynamic to the changing environmental factors. Understanding these four stages is very important for a new leader who is intending to guide a given group of employees into becoming high performance groups. Leading Virtual Teams Technology has created an environment where people can work from different geographic locations across the world. There are cases where a leader is assigned a virtual team, with members spread in various regions around the world. It is important for such a leader to understand that in order to create a high performance group out of them, the four stages defined above must be clearly followed despite lack of physical presence. Kliem (2004) warns that to lead a virtual high performance group, there is need for a high degree of discipline for all members. This is because when it is decided upon that there would be a videoconference at a particular time, all members should be seated at their respective offices ready for the conference. Any delay by any member or the leader may paralyze operations of the group. This may be worse in case it is the leader who fails to avail himself at the conference within the right time.  Leading virtual teams also need sophisticated communication tools that would keep all members in contact with one another. The leader must be able to communicate with any member of the team at any time of the day without getting affected by geographic barrier. Individual members mus t also be able to communicate among themselves in order to enhance creativity in their various tasks. Harris (2013) also advises that when leading such teams, traditional leadership approaches that emphasizes on exerting one’s authority over other as a show of supremacy may not yield the desired fruits. Resolving Conflicts in High Performance Groups Teams always bring together people with different skills, ideas, knowledge and talents. It also brings together individuals with different attitudes, values, and other demographical factors (Kliem (2004). Although it would be expected that in high performance teams the levels of understanding would always be high, it is important to appreciate the fact that conflicts would arise due to a number of reasons. It is important to address these conflicts as soon as they arise in order to avoid negative consequences they might have on the performance of the group. As a leader of high performance group, it is necessary to develop systems that would capture conflicts among the group members as soon as they arise. In order to manage conflict in such groups, a leader should consider the following. A leader should not ignore any form of conflict among the employees because when it is not addressed at its early stage, then it may give rise to other negative consequences that may affect the operations of the firm. A leader must have a clear proactive system that is able to identify conflicts within the group and offer clear guidelines on how to resolve it. A leader should encourage communication amongst conflicting groups as a way understanding each other. A leader should instil the spirit of tolerance amongst its employees as a way of creating an environment where conflicts can be resolved easily. Measuring the Performance of the Group It is always important to determine the performance of a group, especially if it has reached the fourth stage. High performance groups are always unique from other groups in the characte ristics they exhibit. The following are some of the characteristics that are always common among high performance groups Respect and trust among team members. High performance groups are always characterized by a high level of trust among group members. This helps in creating an environment where team members feel free to share their views, skills, talent, and knowledge with others. Clear communication system that enhances clarity and honesty among employees. In these groups, it is team members always have an understanding of what has been achieved, and what needs to be achieved (Harris, 2013). Positive results in the performance of the firm towards achieving success. The ultimate measure of performance would be the actual determination of the output posted by the team over a given period. High performance groups would always post good results, and their activities would always be seen to be in line with its vision. Conclusion Leading high performance groups can be a very challeng ing task. It requires a deep understanding of people within the group in order to develop strategies that would be acceptable to them. High performance groups are always defined by its leadership structure. It is clear from the above discussion that leaders have a great responsibilities of leading team members towards achieving the vision of a firm. To do this, leaders should understand various stages of leadership, and how they can influence team members at these stages in order to achieve success. References Harris, P. (2013). Developing High Performance Leaders: A Behavioral Science Guide for the Knowledge of Work Culture. New York: Routledge. Kliem, R. L. (2004). Leading high performance projects. Boca Raton: Ross Publishers. Nemiro, J. E. (2008). The handbook of high-performance virtual teams: A toolkit for collaborating across boundaries. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. Partridge, L. (1999). Leading high performance. London: Financial Times Management.

50 Synonyms for Leader

50 Synonyms for Leader 50 Synonyms for â€Å"Leader† 50 Synonyms for â€Å"Leader† By Mark Nichol Here’s a list of words that can take the place of leader. 1. Administrator: a person with short-term or long-term responsibility in the latter sense, usually a generic term; also, one given responsibility over an estate 2. Archon: one who presides (informal), or a chief magistrate in Athens in classical times 3. Autocrat: one with absolute power 4. Boss: someone in authority or control, as a manager or supervisor or a politician who does not have official status as leader of a political entity but has the actual power 5. Captain: a commander of certain military, law-enforcement, or firefighting units with the official rank of captain, or one who commands a vessel regardless of actual rank, or, by analogy, one who is an acknowledged leader (as in the metaphorical phrase â€Å"captain of industry†) 6. Coach: one who helps others acquire knowledge or develop skills, especially in athletics, either in groups or, as a tutor, individually; also, one of various types of vehicles 7. Chair (or chairman, chairwoman, or chairperson): one who leads a board of directors or trustees, a committee, or an academic department or presides over a meeting 8. Chief: the leader of an organization or department (informal except in such titles as â€Å"chief of police† and â€Å"chief information officer,† or in reference to the leader of a band or tribe of Native Americans) 9. Chieftain: the leader of a band, clan, or tribe 10. Commandant: a leader of some military units 11. Commander: a leader of a certain military, law-enforcement, or firefighting units with the official rank of commander, or one in command of such a unit regardless of actual rank, or the leader of some organizations or societies 12. Commanding officer: the senior officer of a military unit 13. Commissioner: the leader of a bureau or department in the public sector, a leader with responsibility for some subordinate geopolitical entities, or the administrative leader of a professional body of athletic teams; also, a member of a commission 14. Conductor: one who coordinates the performance of an orchestra or other large music ensemble; also, someone who collects fares on public transit, or a material that permits the flow of energy, heat, or sound 15. Dean: a member of the clergy or a school administrator in charge of part of a church jurisdiction or part of a learning institution, or responsible for counseling and monitoring students, or, informally, someone recognized as preeminent in his or her field 16. Demagogue: one who leads a political party or movement and maintains influence through emotional appeals 17. Director: the leader of an administrative unit, or one of a group of people responsible for the governance of a corporation or a nonprofit organization, or the person in charge of a theatrical production or an orchestra or another music ensemble 18. Dictator: an authoritarian head of state, especially one who obtained leadership by force 19. Doyen (or the feminine form doyenne): a person distinguished in a certain endeavor, or a senior member of a group 20. Executive: one with administrative or managerial authority 21. Figurehead: one who has the appearance of authority but has only a nominal leadership role; this term is inappropriate for referring to someone who is actually in authority or has significant power 22. General: a commander of a military unit with the official rank of general, or one who leads with the character of a general 23. Generalissimo: the commander in chief of an army, or one who conducts himself or herself with an authoritarian attitude stereotypical of a military dictator 24. Governor: the chief official of a state, a colony, or another subordinate political entity 25. Guide: one who literally or figuratively leads others toward a goal; also, a handbook or other informational resource 26. Head: a leader of a department or operation (generic) 27. Headman: a leader of a tribe 28. Manager: a leader of a department, or someone with responsibility for all or part of a business or operation (sometimes generic); also, one who directs or advises an athlete or a performer or assists with a sports operation 29. Master: the leader of some institutions or societies, a person in command of a merchant vessel, or synonymous with governor or ruler; also, one with power or responsibility over another 30. Mentor: one who counsels or guides, especially in the pursuit of knowledge or skill 31. Minister: a high-ranking government official; also, a diplomatic representative or, in some religious organizations, a member of the clergy with administrative responsibilities 32. Moderator: one who presides over an assembly, discussion, or meeting to monitor adherence to procedures and rules 33. Officer: one who holds a position of responsibility in a company or organization or in a military unit 34. Point person: someone who is the focus of an operation or project 35. Potentate: a powerful sovereign 36. Power broker: an influential person 37. President: one who leads a political entity, a company, or an organization for a fixed term or temporarily presides over an assembly or a meeting 38. Presider: synonymous with chair, moderator, and president 39. Principal: a person in authority, especially one in charge of a school or other institution; also, a leading performer, one who delegates to an agent, or a perpetrator of a crime 40. Prolocutor: one who presides or serves as a spokesperson 41. Rector: a member of the clergy in charge of a parish or another jurisdiction, a leader of some schools or universities, or one who directs 42. Ringleader: a leader of a group engaged in illicit activities or an informal group of compatriots 43. Ruler: a sovereign leader 44. Shepherd: one who leads and protects a flock of livestock or, by extension, a group of people, especially a congregation of worshippers 45. Skipper: the commander, master, or senior officer on a vessel or, by extension, any leader (informal) 46. Spearhead: the leader of an activity, project, or movement 47. Standard-bearer: a charismatic leader of a movement 48. Superintendent: the leader of a school district or another entity; also, the caretaker of a building 49. Supervisor: a leader of an administrative unit 50. Tyrant: an oppressive leader (This post features offbeat, informal words for â€Å"leader.†) Want to improve your English in five minutes a day? Get a subscription and start receiving our writing tips and exercises daily! Keep learning! Browse the Vocabulary category, check our popular posts, or choose a related post below:Arrive To vs. Arrive AtLatin Plural Endings25 Idioms About Bread and Dessert

The Persuaders Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

The Persuaders - Essay Example One of the more obvious messages in the show was the attitude of competition. This was not just friendly competition, this was dog-eat-dog market warfare. The host talks of "preparing a guerrilla operation" as if going into battle. One of the advertising agents talks about the "fear in the agency business" and the players being "weakened and vulnerable". The tone is set and the message is that business is dead serious. They are not just selling soap; they are marketing high stakes business. In pursuing customers, they have discarded any pretense of the niceties of the fair deal. As one executive put it, "I am much more interested in how you feel than how you think". They are desperately trying to compete for your mind. Getting to the consumer's feelings means portraying a relationship with their culture and becoming more acceptable. This was done in one case by changing the words "estate tax" to the emotionally unacceptable "death tax". Understanding the culture, and what makes it act, prompted one ad executive to "Find out why people join cults and apply that knowledge to brands". Frank Luntz, political ad guru, says nothing in his ads are about political substance. He says, "Everything in here has a relationship to pop culture". Getting to the culture, without mentioning the product, is the advertiser's vehicle to branding. Getting the branding correct and ne

Lakota Woman Is About Mary Crow Dog Coming Into a Sense of Identity as Essay

Lakota Woman Is About Mary Crow Dog Coming Into a Sense of Identity as a Lakota Woman - Essay Example This being the case, she is undergoing a crisis of identifying with each of the cultures, but the crisis is deepened even more by the fact that the whites do not readily accept and appreciated the Indian Lakota culture, since they have isolated and rejected Mary Crow Dog’s mother (Brave and Erdoes, 21). Her mother has persistently tried to fit into the new white culture, but the whites do not seem ready to accept her within their community. In fact, Mary puts it thus, "the life of an Indian is not held in great value in the State of South Dakota† (Brave and Erdoes, 25). It is this struggles that Mary’s mother is undergoing that has made her out to look for her elderly relatives and connect with the Lakota culture and tradition, where she would be readily accepted. The major impediment to Mary Crow Dog adapting the white culture is the fact that she is also doubtful whether she will be accepted, considering the fact that the white community had already rejected her mother. The journey in search for identity as a Lakota woman is neither smooth even in the Sioux nation where she embarks on building her identity (Brave and Erdoes, 77). Mary Crow Dog also faces hate, rejection and resistance in that community. She starts by joining an American Indian youth group, where she is initiated into the membership of the American Indian Movement. During her tenure in the movement, struggles are many and abuses are also present, thus Mary Crow Dog does not come out of it free, because she ends up becoming pregnant by one of the members of the movement. Even though the man by whom she got pregnant was one of the Indian Americans whom Mary wanted to identify with, she is rejected and abandoned, and thus has to bear and take care of his son on her own. Therefore, rejection and abuse serves as the two major factors that challenge Mary’s journey to establish an identity and instead leaves her with a â€Å"split personality† (Brave and Erdoes, 251). She had initially thought that she could be readily accepted and appreciated in her mother’s homeland as opposed to being in her father’s homeland, but the reality turned out to be different.  

Highly active DNA cells Essay Example for Free

Highly active DNA cells Essay Some people are born with some highly active DNA cells in their body. In my case, that highly active DNA gene was the Fashion gene. I recall having a highly developed fashion sense at a very early age. It all started when I learned to hold a crayon and got my first coloring book. I remember that it was a Barbie Fashions coloring book and my mother taught me how to color within the lines using only the 8 basic colors that was in the crayon box. I became addicted to the Barbie Fashion coloring books and my mother noticed that I was also getting frustrated by my 8 color crayon set. That is why my crayon coloring set kept growing in number until I finally maxed out at 72 colors. Eventually, I learned the rudiments of drawing in school and I began to hone my drawing talent by copying the Barbie designs from my coloring book collection. As I grew out of the Barbie era of my childhood, I came to be influenced by the young teen fashion magazines like Seventeen and Teen Vogue. Magazines that I got to know about because my relatives who knew of my passion for fashion would often gift me with fashion magazine subscriptions for my birthday and other holidays. I began to replicate the dress style in those magazines while throwing in my personal touch in order to come up with my own highly distinct and memorable fashion style which was often copied by my friends and schoolmates. Indeed, she who has the keen fashion sense will always start the trends. Don’t get me wrong. I did not grow up as a fashion obsessed teen. I had a well rounded youth that included school, social, sports, and other extra curricular activities. My parents made sure that even though I spent most of my time poring over fashion related activities, I would still have a wide view of the world around me and learn how to deal with other people in various settings. That is the reason why they sent me to soccer camp over four summers. For a few weeks in every year, my attention was turned from my budding talent for fashion towards learning the necessary disciplines of drive, determination, and the importance of being a team player. Those are things that I would never learn from fashion magazines but would need in order to succeed in the highly competitive fashion industry. While at school, I was often assigned to the decorations committee for various school functions and it was with great pride that I often helped my friends design their dance and prom gowns. My designs really turned heads every time my friends and I walked into the gym. But, when I was not busy with such activities, I could almost always be found at band practice after classes. I was a member of the school band since I was nine years old and I was assigned to play the drums. Knowing that I had spent practically all my life following the daily goings on in the fashion world, my parents were not surprised when I told them that I waned to major in Advertising, as well as marketing and communications. I had always talked of becoming a member of the writing or design staff of a fashion magazine and they knew that I was never one to let go of my ambitions. The one thing that always amazes my family and friends is that I am a person who can be so multi-tasking that it almost seems like I no longer sleep at night. Time seems to be my friend which is why I get to enjoy other activities like writing fictional stories and poetry, aside from my constant doodling of my fashion ideas on a sketch pad. When my parents asked me, â€Å"Where do you see yourself five years from college graduation? † after I graduated from high school, my reply was almost instantaneous, that is the same answer that I wish to share with you now. I am a very passionate person when it comes to fashion. So, it is pretty obvious that I see myself working in the creative or advertising department of a leading fashion magazine. I know that will not be hard to achieve. After all, I have spend all my time constantly preparing for that career. I know that is what I want and I know that I can make it happen for me. There is nothing that I cannot accomplish provided my mind and heart are set upon achieving it.

The Morality of Lying in Contrast to the Philosophies of Kant Essay

The young girl gazes at you helplessly from within the tangled wreckage. You witnessed the crash – a massive truck careened into a minivan as it passed on the highway, killing the driver on impact, and virtually tearing the girl in half. Now she hangs from the car, held together by the seatbelt. Her nervous system critically damaged, she can’t feel much pain, but she knows that her situation is not optimal, to say the least. She is six years old – she probably doesn’t understand the concept of death. As you stare equally helplessly into her fear stricken eyes, the only words that you can muster are: â€Å"Don’t worry, everything will be okay.† This is obviously a lie – there is absolutely no chance that the dying girl will indeed survive and have no cause for worry – but this lie contains ideas to sooth her fear, allowing a comparatively peaceful passage out of this life. Surely few would argue that the little girl did not deserve to be comforted, as the alternative seems somewhat heartless – â€Å"Why should I help you? You’re not worth my time, you’ll be dead in a minute.† Indeed, telling the truth, in this case, appears even less moral than the lie. There is, however, at least one who would disagree with this scenario: a certain Immanuel Kant, whose philosophy insists that lying is wrong in every circumstance. But despite Kant’s fervent belief, it is not hard to see how lying can be a beneficial, mutually advantageous, and in fact moral act that still consistently complies with Kant’s own moral imperatives. Because Kant’s philosophy does not specifically define what a â€Å"lie† is, we are led to believe that speaking an untruth, no matter what the context, is strictly immoral. But speaking untruth does not necessitate the negative conno... ...lf to a degree, allowing room for leniency. Lies can be perfectly acceptable, selfless, and moral in the face of a greater evil, or when no harm is being done on any side. Bibliography Gass, R. H., & Seiter, J. S. (1999). Persuasion, Social Influence, and Compliance Gaining. Needham Heights, MA: Allyn & Bacon. Henningsen, D. D., Cruz, M. G., & Morr, M. C. (2000). â€Å"Pattern Violations and Perception of Deception.† Communication Reports. Vol. 13, No. 1, pp. 1-9. http://www.allwords.com/word-white%20lie.html Kant, Immanuel. "The Foundations of Ethics." Moral Philosophy: a Reader. Ed. Louis P. Pojman. Indianapolis, IN: Hackett Company, 1993. 194-213. Pruss, Alexander R. "Lying, Deception and Kant." Alexander R. Pruss Ethics Blog. 30 Aug. 2001. Baylor U. 8 Mar. 2008 .

Comedic element in the Importance of Being Earnest Essay

Throughout the play, Oscar Wilde portrays several binary opposites using the characters and themes of the play, such as the town and country, class, age, gender and morals. However I don’t think that the binary opposites are the main source of comedy in the play. The reason I find it comical is from the fact that the play is a comedy of manners as well as Wilde’s satirising of the Victorian morals. Wilde’s depiction of Victorian caricatures also creates amusement for the audience. In the play, trivial things are regarded so seriously and the serious things in life are treated with sincere and studied triviality. This philosophy allows for a very comic scene at the end of Act II, as it ends with Jack and Algernon eating and arguing over muffins instead of chasing after their beloved ones who have found out the truth about them and seems like the marriage is off. So even though the binary oppositions in the Importance of Being Earnest provide comedy, I don’t believe that they are the key comedic element in the play. A binary opposition is portrayed with the theme of gender and the contrast between male and female. The play is set during the Victorian era where men have greater influence than women. Usually men would make all the political decisions for the household and the women would be the mother and housewife. However, Wilde reverses gender roles by placing Lady Bracknell in a position of authority and power in the house. And to add to this, he makes the male characters such as Jack and Algernon quite irresponsible. When Gwendolen is talking to Cecily about who she is, she talks about her father. â€Å"Outside the family circle, papa, I am glad to say, is entirely unknown. I think that is quite as it should be. The home seems to me to be the proper sphere for the man.†(Act II.266) Wilde uses Gwendolen to go against the traditional roles of men and women of the time by implying women can also be business people and work for the family instead of being just a housewife. Oscar Wilde also reverses the typical characteristic of women in relationships of the Victorian times by having Gwen dolen and Cecily the controlling person in their relationship. The man would usually court the woman but once again, this has been reversed by Wilde as the women (Gwendolen and Cecily) both chase after their loves. Gwendolen goes all the way to the country in secret which would be very surprising for a lady of high social class and technically speaking, Cecily created her own relationship with Ernest and Algernon just played along with it because it worked in his favour. You couldn’t help but laugh at the fact she even cancelled the engagement at one point simply to make it more exciting. But there are situations where the women act accordingly to traditional roles so that the play doesn’t change the Victorian ideals and also that the play works out to follow the traditional happy ending with weddings after overcoming the obstacles that was set out by all the circumstances and other characters. Another binary opposite is shown through class and society. The contrast is between the upper class and lower class. Many of the play’s characters are from the high social class and are aristocrats like Algernon. Then there’s the lower class characters like Jack and the people of the manor and Lane who is Algernon’s servant. Nearly all the characters in the play lie to or deceit another character but they rarely show any regret about doing so. In fact, there is more regret when telling the truth after lying. When Jack is forced to explain everything after Gwendolen and Cecily become suspicious about Ernest existing, he answers; â€Å"Gwendolen – Cecily – it is very painful for me to be forced to speak the truth. It is the first time in my life that I have ever been reduced to such a painful position, and I am really quite inexperienced in doing anything of the kind.†(Act II.348) This shows that Jack doesn’t consider honesty to be very important as lying about things makes it easier for him to live his life. The lower classes in Earnest are less pretentious and more humble in comparison to the upper class. A major contrast in class is shown through Gwendolen and Cecily when they sit down for tea. After some heated words, they believe the other is trying to steal their love and they show some hostility towards each other. This exchange takes place in Act II. (308-314) â€Å"Cecily: May I offer you some tea, Miss Fairfax? Gwendolen: (With elaborate politeness) Thank you. (Aside) Detestable girl! But I require tea! Cecily: (Sweetly) Sugar? Gwendolen: (Superciliously) No, thank you. Sugar is not fashionable any more. (Cecily looks angrily at her, takes up the tongs and puts four lumps of sugar into the cup.) Cecily: (Severely) Cake or bread and butter? Gwendolen: (In a bored manner) Bread and butter, please. Cake is rarely seen at the best houses nowadays. Cecily: (Cuts a very large slice of cake, and puts it on the tray.) Hand that to Miss Fairfax.† Cecily takes advantage of Gwendolen’s obsession with fashion and appearance to others. To Gwendolen, these choices are important statements on one’s stylishness and reputation amongst peers and to people in society. Here, Cecily takes advantage of her lower birth to insult Gwendolen. Gwendolen is of a high social class and a luxurious upbringing compared to Cecily who lives in the country with Jack as her guardian and under the care of Miss Prism. When talking about Gwendolen and Cecily, these two characters are used for another binary opposite of the town and the country. â€Å"When one is in town, one amuses oneself. When one is in the country, one amuses others. It is excessively boring.† Firstly there’s Jack who is trying to get away from the borin g life in the country and into the town to spend time with Gwendolen even though he is using Ernest Worthing as his name and living a double life unbeknownst to the people in the country as well as in town. Then there’s Algernon who is trying to get away from the life in town as it has become routine and boring and he wants something different so he goes into the country. He uses the excuse that he has a sick friend called Bunbury on the verge of death. He himself calls this ‘bunburying’ and believes that Jack is doing the same thing. However, after finding out that Jack has a beautiful, young ward in the country, he goes out in to the country to try and get her to fall in love with him. This relates to the morals of the men of the Victorian times, which if was accurate according to the play, was wrong and deceit was used to get out and have some fun implying the hedonistic lifestyle people had back then. Although all these can cause humour and several comedic situations, in my opinion, binary opposites aren’t the key comedic element in the play. The main reason the play is funny is because the play is a comedy of manners. The utilisation of stock characters, such as Algernon representing the schemer, as he secretly notes down Jack’s country house address and visits Cecily. By imitating and trying to marry into the aristocracy, Jack is a traitor to his own class, and is the hypocritical stock character. And Lady Blacknell as the interfering old parent who will not allow the marriage of Jack and Gwendolen because Jack has no parentage and Lady Bracknell ultimately becomes the obstacle that the two must overcome. All these provide lots of comic exchanges throughout the play allowing for a traditional rom-com finale. The structure of the play is also vital as it contributes to comedy as the plot consists of rapid twists in events, often precipitated by miscommunications. Ernest is really Jack. He lives two lives. He can’t marry without parents. Algy chases Cecily. Gwendolen chases Jack. There is no Ernest. The marriages are off and then back on. Lady Bracknell comes and marriages are off again. Truth about Jack is revealed and he is actually Ernest. Everybody gets together with their love and marriages take place. Throughout all this, a lot of misunderstandings take place and lies come out in the open at the expense of the honour of others. Another counter argument that is a key reason to the success of comedy in Importance of Being Earnest is Wilde’s use of satire on the Victorian morals and his depiction of Victorian caricatures which creates amusement for the audience. The obvious example of this is Lady Bracknell even though she is the opposite of how a Victorian woman was. Summing everything up, Wilde’s use of binary oppositions contribute to quite a bit of the humour from the play but after considering everything, I conclude that it’s not the key comedic element in the play. The fact it is a comedy of manners and the satire of the upper class and Victorian morals, is the reason I found it funny. Bibliography http://www.shmoop.com/importance-of-being-earnest/gender-theme.html http://www.shmoop.com/importance-of-being-earnest/society-class-theme.html Wordsworth Classics, the Plays of Oscar Wilde, Oscar Wilde. The Importance of Being Earnest. (Text) The Importance of Being Earnest (2002) Directed by Oliver Parker. Written by Oscar Wilde (DVD)

Wilfred Owen ‘Dulce et Decorum est’

The poem ‘Dulce et Decorum est' is a poem which shows us the horrors of war. It shows us how innocent lives are being wasted on a war. The poem tells us about how the poet feels about war. The first stanza tells us about the condition of the soldiers. It shows us that the soldiers are sick, tired and are not aware of themselves. It also tells us that the soldiers were in bad condition. They did not care about the shells that dropped behind them. In the first line the soldiers are compared in a simile to old beggars. This implies that they look shabby, which is not the image of soldiers in bright shiny uniforms, which would be in keeping with the glorious image of war. The line has a slow pace with no sound described, which is also a contrast to the image of war, as people at home might expect the soldiers to be marching along at a brisk pace. The second line continues this them as it compares the soldiers to hags, which are very like beggars. It tells you that the soldiers are knock kneeded and coughing, which implies a very low morale. In the second stanza, the poet has written about a gas attack that he has witnessed. This stanza tells us about the confusion and panic, which arises when the soldiers' lives are in immediate danger. The pace of this verse is a lot quicker in order to demonstrate this, and also provides a contrast to the previous verses as it is written in the present tense to make it seem more real, whereas the first verse is written in the perfect tense, which makes it seem more distant. During the gas attack, many soldiers managed to get their gas helmets on time. But one soldier could not make it. He was yelling and stumbling as the gas overcare him. The poet has seen the unfortunate man die a slow and painful death. The third stanza is short. It expresses the poet's fears and nightmares he has because of the dying man reaching his hand out for help. But Wilfred Owen was helpless. The poet tells us that the dying man was guttering, choking and drowning as the gas made its way through his lungs. The fourth stanza is telling us a little bit about what the soldiers did to the dead soldier. They flung him in the back of a wagon. His condition was still bad. There was blood coming out from his mouth and his face was hanging in bad shape. The poet then tells his ‘friend' that it is not right to tell keen and young soldiers eager for glory that ‘ It is a good and noble thing to die for your country' as it is a lie. Moreover, the last verse is a plea to the reader to renounce their opinion that dying for your country is sew and honourable. Wilfred Owen is saying that if the reader was there, and saw this man dying in the back of the wagon then they would not tell the old Lie. Owen, by his graphic description of the man's death, is intending to shock the reader into believing they have been tricked by the Old Lie i.e. it is good to die for your country, and make them think more deeply about the values of war and how they can become heroes. Wilfred Owen is creating a horrific picture of how bad war is. He has done this by making use of similes. In the first stanza, Owen describes the exhaustion of the soldiers by saying: â€Å"Bent double, like old beggars under sacks† In this quote we can see that Owen is telling us that the soldiers are too tired to walk properly and that they can hardly stand up. He re-enforces his words by saying: â€Å"Men marched asleep. Many had lost their boots† This is giving us a vivid image of how tired and ill the soldiers are from war. To add to the atmosphere of depression, the ‘haunting flares' imply that the scene is taking place at night, as flares are not visible in the daytime. The fact that the flares are ‘haunting' adds to the misery of the soldiers, as it could be that they are remembering past horrific incidents involving the flares that haunt them. The ‘distant rest' in line four could mean that the soldiers are going to sleep for the night, but they will not be able to sleep because of the poor conditions. The word' trudge' implies that they are walking with difficulty, and slows down the line, which indicates the slowness of the soldiers' walk. The alliteration in the fifth line emphasises what Wilfred Owen is saying. It makes the metaphor ‘men marched asleep' seem more real and holds the line together over the full stop. ‘Men limping blood shod' emphasises their predicament and how different i t is to the glorious battle they had expected. The two lines in this verse create the impression that the soldiers are somehow in a daze and do not hear sounds fully. It is as if they have become isolated within themselves. Their illness is further emphasized when the poet says: â€Å"†¦ coughing like hags†¦Ã¢â‚¬  From these sentences in the first stanza, we can imagine how tired and worn-out the soldiers must have been due to the war they are forced to fight. Wilfred Owen is also making use of metaphors to strengthen the lines of his poem. In the second stanza, Owen tells us about a dying man when he inhaled the gas. â€Å"But someone was yelling out and stumbling And floundering like a man in fire or lime† From this quote, we get a picture of how the dying man felt just as he had inhaled the smoke. Wilfred Owen has made use of other literary techniques such as Direct speech, Alliteration and Onomatopoeia. In the second stanza, Owen has made use of direct speech to give the reader a realistic feeling about what is happening in the poem. â€Å"Gas! Gas! Quick, boys!† The poet has also made use of Alliteration. In the third stanza, the poet says: â€Å"Behind the wagon we flung him in, And watch the white eyes writhing in his face† Here the poet is telling us about the state in which the dying man was. The poet has also made use of two special features, enjambement and caesura. Wilfred Owen has made use of enjambement very often from the second stanza. This increases the pace of the poem which gives the reader an inside look into how fast people had to work at war. On the other hand, Owen has also made use of caesura. This slows down the pace of the poem and allows the reader to think about what the poet is saying. In the third stanza, Owen says: â€Å"His hanging face, like a devils sick of sin† Here the poet is letting the reader to know how the dying man looked like after he inhaled the gas. In the poem ‘Dulce et Decorum est', there are four verses with 28 lines. Each verse has a number of lines that vary in every verse. The poem does not have a definite rhyme but mostly it goes like a, b, a, b, c, d, c, d and so on but this pattern is disrupted a little bit in the later part of the poem. Stanza 3 is short as it sums up the nightmares Wilfred Owen is going through. Since the two lines are in the middle of much longer verses, the reader's eyes get attracted to those lines. The poem ‘Dulce et Decorum est' was written by Wilfred Owen during the First World War. In 1914 the First World War broke out on a largely innocent world, a world that still associated warfare with glorious cavalry charges and the noble pursuit of heroic ideals. This was the world's first experience of modern mechanised warfare. As the months and years passed, each bringing increasing slaughter and misery, the soldiers became increasingly disillusioned. Many of the strongest protests made against the war were made through the medium of poetry by young men horrified by what they saw. One of these poets was Wilfred Owen. World War I, military conflict, from 1914 to 1918, that began as a local European war between Austria-Hungary and Serbia on July 28, 1914; was transformed into a general European struggle by Germany's declaration of war against Russia on August 1, 1914; and eventually became a global war involving 32 nations. The immediate cause of the war between Austria-Hungary and Serbia was the assassination on June 28, 1914, at Sarajevo in Bosnia (then part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire; now in Bosnia and Herzegovina), of Archduke Francis Ferdinand, heir-presumptive to the Austrian and Hungarian thrones, by Gavrilo Princip, a Serb nationalist. The fundamental causes of the conflict, however, were rooted deeply in the European history of the previous century, particularly in the political and economic policies that prevailed on the Continent after 1871, the year that marked the emergence of Germany as a great world power. The living conditions for the soldiers were terrible during the First World War. Many died due to diseases, epidemics and injuries caused through battle. Sometimes, the soldiers had no ammunition to fight with at all and hence were left helpless. Living conditions were as bad. Many had no proper shelter, or clothing. Wilfred Owen had made these conditions a reality in his poem. The vividness of the poem gives us an impression of how bad the conditions must've been for the soldiers during the war. Moreover he is saying this because he feels the soldiers are giving their life for nothing. Therefore he is stressing on the terrible conditions the soldier were living and fighting in. Wilfred Owen has written negative account of his feelings for war. He has written about the tiredness of the soldiers when he says: â€Å"Men marched asleep. Many had lost their boots, But limped on, blood-shod. All went lame, all blind; Drunk with fatigue; drunk even to the hoots† In this quote we can see that Wilfred Owen is trying to tell us that the soldiers were very tired. This tells us that Wilfred Owen is giving us a negative impression of war This poem was written by Wilfred Owen, who was a soldier in the First World War. He therefore gives a very vivid account of what it was like to be there, as he has had first- hand experience. The title of the poem means ‘it is sweet and honourable', and the phrase is continued at the end of the poem†¦'to die for your country.' Just before this is stated at the end of the poem, Wilfred Owen chooses to write' The Old Lie.' This tells us he does not believe this statement to be true. The poem is filled with horrible stories about what really happened, and so Wilfred Owen is saying how can all of this suffering be sweet and proper? In my opinion, I do not like the poem very much. It gives a very horrific image of war. Although Wilfred Owen is right about ‘Dulce et Decorum est Pro Patria Mori' I still think that the poem is written quite harshly. The language used by the poet is not bad but the content is. The examples that Wilfred Owen has given us of warfare are very horrific. A man drowning in a gas of poisonous gas, a group of soldiers in ill condition etc, all this reflects upon the horrific accounts of warfare. If the poet were trying to stress his point through non-horrific examples, then the poem would've been a lot more enjoyable. But that doesn't mean I am criticizing the poet. Needless to say the poem is very well written. Its what the poet feels about warfare, which obviously I wouldn't criticize that at all as it is the poet's opinion.

Creating a Fog Chamber essays

Creating a Fog Chamber essays Meteorology classically defined as the science that deals with the phenomena of the atmosphere, especially weather and weather conditions, is a fairly new science that is practiced by Meteorologists. They are people who interpret weather information from local weather observers, balloons, satellites, and weather stations around the world. In more common vernacular, a Meteorologist reads weather maps, predicts and records weather from atmospheric occurrence. The part of Meteorology that will be discussed throughout this paper are: water vapor, precipitation types, cloud types, and fog types. It is important to understand these topics in order to understand how our project, building a fog machine, works and for us to efficiently understand the principles behind building one. Water vapor is a common term that one probably understands as evaporated water. Essentially this is a correct assumption but this evaporated water makes up our atmosphere and is the most essential element to meteorology. The water vapor is evaporated from the earths surface from lakes, oceans, rivers, streams, etc. In areas of large amounts of water, it is often noticed that there is a greater occurrence of water vapor. The amount of water vapor in the air is measured in two different methods, relative humidity and dew point. The relative humidity, RH, is a percentage which incorporates the ratio of water vapor which is included in a certain amount of air/space. It is a measure of how close air is to saturation. Air gets saturated like anything else, i.e. salt and water eventually you cant dissolve any more salt into a give amount of water. One percent relative humidity would be almost completely unsaturated, versus 100 percent saturated would be completely saturated. The es stands the saturation limit, the most water that the air could hold, and the e stands for the environmental pressure in the following formula. The formula for relati...

Alas, Poor Heroine

Alas, Poor Heroine Alas, Poor Heroine Alas, Poor Heroine By Maeve Maddox Anyone who has ever taught knows The Look. It is the eye-rolling look students throw at one another when the behind-the-times teacher uses what she thinks is a perfectly ordinary word, unaware that the word has taken on a new meaning. I can remember the first time I got The Look. Id read a poem which contained the word gay in the sense of full of joy or mirth. Again, I was rewarded with The Look when explaining to seventh graders that Madonna is a term for the Blessed Virgin Mary. That was in the early 80s and I was unaware of the latest singing sensation. Related to the adolescent Look is the reluctance among speakers of any age to use words that sound like something else. One such word is the feminine form of hero. Admittedly, theres a tendency for nouns with feminine endings to be abandoned in the face of modern feminism. Actress, for example, has mostly fallen out of use with members of the acting profession, except as an Academy Award category. Likewise poetess and authoress are felt to be abominations by women who write. The word heroine presents a different problem. It is too common in the discussion of literature to be abandoned. In ordinary conversation, and on television, however, people seem to prefer to use the word hero for both male and female persons of prowess. The word heroine is being driven out of ordinary speech because of its pronunciation. Ive seen a cousin to The Look on the faces of people who hesitate before calling a woman a heroine. Often they opt instead for female hero rather than say a word that sounds the same as an evil drug. Personally, I see nothing wrong with using the word hero as a unisex word. A word of caution is in order, however, when the writing context calls for the word heroine. The following appears in a brochure distributed by the Malco theatre chain: She [Dakota Blue Richards] saw the National Theatre production and announced that she wanted to be Lyra, the high-spirited heroin of The Golden Compass. TIP: Joan of Arc is a heroine. Nelson Algrens The Man with the Golden Arm is about a heroin addict. Want to improve your English in five minutes a day? Get a subscription and start receiving our writing tips and exercises daily! Keep learning! Browse the Spelling category, check our popular posts, or choose a related post below:7 English Grammar Rules You Should KnowHow to Punctuate Descriptions of Colors48 Writing Prompts for Middle School Kids

Local visual art event Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Local visual art event - Essay Example The painting exhibits the use of simple colours and gentle contrasts only. On the other hand, Allemann has chosen to depict a number of elderly people in a park who are playing a game. Some people are shown playing while others are resting to the right side of the painting. The use of colours by Allemann is highly differentiated from that by Keefe. Allemann’s colours present stark contrasts and there are few areas where the colours merge into each other seamlessly (Herberger Theater). Keefe’s The Apple has been created on canvas using oil paints. In contrast, Allemann has composed her work using water colours on a canvas. While there are gentle transitions of colour in Keefe’s work, the transitions in Allemann’s work are far more articulate due to the use of water colours. The composition of Keefe’s painting reveals a choropleth of white and greys that surround an apple in the middle of the painting. The apple has been composed of various shades of red, yellow and green that tends to blend magnificently into each other indicating the artist’s inclination for detailed strokes. Another notable aspect is the use of gentle colours only that tend to blend into each other swiftly. There are no sharp contrasts available throughout the painting anywhere at all. Allemann’s approach to portrayal is markedly different from that of Keefe. The Finals depicts a number of elderly playing, standing and sitting in various areas of the painting. The people throughout the painting are dressed in white such that most people’s hair and skin have colours that have gentle transitions from white. Most people in the painting are painted as dressed in white with white hair while the few black hair produce sharp contrasts in colour. The background of Allemann’s painting has been created in dark greens and certain blacks that present a