Paper 2 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words - 12

Paper 2 - Essay Example Therefore Ii is apparent that the difference between compatibilism and hard determinism is that in hard determinism, the unexpected chains are made up wholly of mechanistic cause, blind, non-rational and effect but in compatibilism there is a rational element to the unexpected chain which includes a person’s own motives, dispositions, goals and desires. Harry Frankfurt the author to the book â€Å"freedom of will and concept of a person† tries to show how we can still be free even though we do not have the ability to choose or do otherwise (Lemos 13-5). As a philosopher he thinks that a person is not made up by just a specific species with a genetic code but rather by a complex system of desires and wills. Men for instance, are capable of wanting to be different in their desires and purposes from they are, by wanting and choosing from this or that. He brought up the concept by giving out examples that came out philosophically. According to him, there are two types of motives and desires. The ‘first order’ desires and the ‘second order’ desires. The first order desires are the ones that both persons and non-persons may use. An example would be a Cat wanting to eat food from a dish. This desire for the food is not challenged by the cat so the decision is proceeded on instantly. If there was an applica tion of the second order desire, the cat might have been reading an article and observed other skinner cats getting all the handsome cats to mate with her forcing this cat to question its eating habits. The questioning of a desire is what is referred to as the second order desire which is classified as ‘self-selection’. According to Frankfurt, only man has this capability but it has been discovered that some animals have this capability as well. From his own theory concept, he says that being free is a matter of doing what one is desired to do which is not an adequate condition of having

The Leadership Style Of Yvon Chouinard

The Leadership Style Of Yvon Chouinard At the centre stage of Patagonia Company stands its most valuable pillar and founder, Yvon Chouinard. Yvon saves is a man believed to be saving the world, one fleece jacket at a go. Being a climber, surfer, am entrepreneur, an environmentalists and a known philanthropist, he certainly stands out as one of the few business men who attained success based on his own terms of doing business. Based on his tender age experience as a climber, Yvon realized that he was capable of making more environmentally safe, cheap and effective climbing equipment than what was available in the market. Patagonia, the company that he formed makes exceptional gear as a market leader in the same with worldwide sales soaring above 240 million US dollars annually! Chouinard leadership at Patagonia has basically been a fearless one which has enabled the company to uphold innovation in its corporate practice as well as embracing new changes like when it switched to the use of organically grown cotton as well as other forms of recycled materials alone in its production process. His fearless qualities have also ensured that the company can manage to give away a small percentage of its annual gross sales to the other small scale works that are not profit oriented and maintain the profitability of the company. In Let my people go surfing, Yvon shows how by keeping the determined spirit of an explorer, one can blend work, play and social duty and remain successful. Through his easy leadership, Yvon has managed to curve a reputation of unsurpassed quality, long term environmental strategies and a maverick innovation plan in the company. Even the face of the challenging business world, Yvon is still into surfing and generally adventure but surprisingly maintains record success in his business. One of Yvons philosophies is that You have to be true to yourself; you have to know your strengths and limitations and live within your means (Chouinard, 2005). Yvon says that though he tried to look at herself just like a climber, surfer and blacksmith, he had to accept that he was also a businessman and was going to remain one for a long time probably. He however decided that if he was to stay in business, he was going to operate not by the normal rules of business but by his own terms, be serious but make his work enjoyable on a daily basis. He also realized that the terms under which he was going to operate were suppose to allow him and his employees climb one stair of their progress one at a time, allow enough freedom for their employees to dress the way they want, even bare foot if it would make them happy! And create some spare time for him to surf the waves, sky the powder or take care of issues at home. In other words he cultivated a culture in Patagonia where there was dist inction between the family, the work someone did and play. Even though the company profits grew from 20 million dollars to 100 million dollars between the 1980s and 1990, he and his wife Melinda kept all the money in the business (Chouinard, 2005). The growth in the company just excited everybody and they never failed to do what they could to maintain that level of growth. Upward vertical mobility was very real since even new employees in lower paying jobs like in the warehouse or retail stores had the opportunity and indeed rose to better paying positions in the company. Yvon established a fast-growing organization which in turn helped with outsourcing of the skilled labor that they needed. Despite the growth, Patagonia staff members still managed to keep their own cultural practices. People surfed at lunch hour; they played volleyball on the sand behind the building. When it came to the realization of Yvon, that Patagonia was likely to make a billion dollars in profits if the market mix remained as it was for some time, he decided that 10 percent of their pre-tax profit or 1 percent of their profits would go towards environmental rehabilitation and rejuvenation projects annually. His passion for environmental safety and sanity made him to decide that the Patagonia was going to start using recycled papers, an action which saved the company 6 million gallons of water, 3.5 million kilowatt of electricity and also helped keep off 52, 000 pounds of pollutants from the air. This measure which took place in 1990 also helped the company to help save about 14,500 trees from being used as fuel (Chouinard, 2005). Under his leadership, Patagonia worked together with other entities like Wellman and Malden mills to come up with recycled polyester which the company used to come up with its PCR Synchella fleece. Later, the world financial recession came and hit hard at the company to an extent that they had to cut down on their spending to stay afloat. This is the time; Yvon realized that the company had exceeded its resources as well as its limitations. He realized that the company was dependent on a growth that it could not sustain. Re-thinking the company priorities and instituting new practices became a priority. The recession called on the company to break its rules and make use of the very resources it had deemed unsafe for the environment, a scenario that forced Yvon to organize several employee seminars in different places where they could observe the environment, ask themselves capital questions why they were in business, what they needed to do as a company to reduce environmental degradation and global warming, the culture that everybody at Patagonia was brought up in and the values they both shared as individuals. While the company managers were concerned about the interventions t hat would take care of the cash-flow crisis, Yvon brought to their attention slowly and bit by bit, the businesss environmental ethics and even values. With this he taught his entire staff the values he had leant as a surfer and climber that You have to be true to yourself, acknowledging their strengths and weaknesses while trying to live within their means because if the company tries to be what they are no, there was likely to be a mentality of Having it all which could be the final nail on the coffin and the business is dead! Yvon Chouinard was in all aspects a very inspirational leader because he had followers! All his employees followed his lead without complaints. By allocating some time for play and adventure even for him, he showed one aspect of his weakness He cannot work without playing/having fun! This made him approachable. He used his intuition to appropriately gauge the right time to instill in his employees the values he had leant as a climber, when the financial crunch was threatening the companys existence. He tried to capitalize on what made them unique as a company, him as the manager, owner and leader of the rest of the employees. They all had been brought up in a culture of environmental ethics. He influenced them into surfing every lunch time. Finally, his inspirational leadership skills come in because he showed tough empathy to his employees in the sense that he cared passionately about the work they did but had to be realistic with them that without operating within their limits and exploiting their strengths and weaknesses, they were headed for a hard day in office as a business. He cultivated excellence as well as innovation by adopting the environmentally safe modes of production, was a source of optimism and enthusiasm in his free style method of management. Finally he encouraged his employees to have high inspirations by putting in place structures that allowed even junior clerical workers to rise to higher ranks with more pay. He was therefore very inspirational in all means. Yvon was a leader who was driven by ethics hence an ethical leader at the same time. He encouraged his employees to involve themselves in environmental restoration programs and even take responsibility by committing a percentage of the companys profits to the same. Striving for a balance between work, the family and play was also at the center stage of his influence as a leader. He was therefore very ethical and inspirational in his approach to issues. His leadership also has an elem ent of contextual init because he managed to build a team identity at Patagonia. Their production method, the games they played and the central values to which all the employees subscribed to made them an outstanding lining in a fabric of similar companies in the US. When the company faced an adoptive challenge due to the financial crisis which was calling on it to ignore its values and embrace the use of environmentally unfriendly resources, he mobilized his employees in different teams let them pick out the values that put them together and to identify the adaptive changes in that case. Through his guidance, they realized it was necessary to live within their means. He Got on the balcony and studied the pattern of change which was imminent, Identified the adaptive change by looking at the risks which the current pattern of doing business posed if they were to persist with it and he regulated the distress that came with the new change by taking the employees to far off places sometimes even next to mountains or under trees to reduce stress and help them absorb the realities of the new change before making informed decisions. His contextual leadership skills pushed him to seek a bigger picture of the implications of the financial crunch on Patago nia and he maintained a disciplined attention seeking the suggestions and discussions of his team and through this, gave the work back to the people so that they can own it and protected the voice of the people from below by creating a forum where people could exchange and discuss freely without suppression of any kind. There was no blame game and he believed that because they had succeeded together, no fingers were supposed to be pointed at anyone but all needed to build a consensus and realize that operating within their means was the most convincing way out. Sustainable Development in Businesses Organizations the world over are faced with a challenging issue of creating a balance between the need to make a profit and the need to preserve the very same resources from which they get their profits. However it has become paramount and critical for organizations to have policy approach geared towards the use of resources without compromising their future availability. Sustainable development is that policy approach and it broadly touches on three things: a broad view of social, environmental and economic outcomes, a long term perspective concerned with the rights of future generations and an inclusive call to action that requires everyone to take charge of their actions. Some organization CEOs have been reluctant to embrace this. This paper is an argument in favor of sustainable development and the need for organization CEOs to make it a part of their policy needs. Human Resources An organization is structured basically from its human resource. An active and productive human resource in an organization is also the desire of every CEO. Sustainable development requires people in an organization to be competitive in order to drive success and create innovation. This gives an edge to the company even in the market share and general welfare of the company including profitability. When employees think of the future and ways to improve and optimally give back to the environment, they come up with highly innovative ways to tackle challenges within the organizations (Casper, 2009). A company that has innovative human resources is always likely to drive success according to Casper and this can be noted when a effort is put into encouraging people within the organization to embrace environmental challenges of the day. A progressive CEO also considers the health and wellbeing of his employees. There is no better way to do that than to embrace sustainable development as it broadly tackles the needs of a workers health and wellbeing. It is very important to have a clean environment in the workplace for everyone in the organization and can only be effectively tackled when there is a sense of optimal resource usage in a business. Therefore, once a company takes that issue to their most valued human resource, the benefits are great because a certain culture is instilled inside the company. Energy Conservation Energy is a highly scarce commodity. Every company strives to get energy very cheaply so as to reduce overhead and drive profits. This may compromise the importance of an organization to put into consideration the need to conserve the sources of that energy. Even though it is a critical commodity it does not warrant the CEOS to use unorthodox and harmful ways to get it. This positions the organization as greedy and may be harmful to the image it portrays to the general public and to its customers (Malone Pasternack, 2002). This brings the importance of sustainable development to the minds of CEOs and the policy developers in an organization. Energy projects are very capital intensive and have a long gestation period. They therefore have a direct bearing on the environment and ecology at large. A lack of sufficient energy impacts badly on the economy and on the lives of people. Hence it is of paramount importance that the sources of energy are used in a wise and sustainable manner to fairly impact the people and to drive the economy of a country. Pollution of energy sources, especially the non-renewable ones, is a threat even to the national security of a country. The sectors that offer jobs that are energy affiliated are significantly affected and an employment situation may present itself and this is a threat to the security and national wellbeing of a country. It is imperative therefore that those ceos sustainably use the energy resources if they are patriotic nationalists. The economic growth realized will only serve as a plus to the organization as this means more business and hence profits and the overhead costs are greatly reduced. Architecture Organizations expand and have growth targets for the future that should impact the lives of future generations. A future-oriented ceo is the one who has the capacity to embrace sustainable architecture. This is a bit costly when considering the capital required. But when viewed from an angle of the need to conserve the environment and the futures positive impact on the lives of future generations, it is worth putting in maximum effort. The design for architecture should put into consideration energy consumption, employees health and well being, plus maximum utilization of available resources. For example, instead of using electricity for lighting and heating, the organization may employ the use of solar energy for the same utilities. In addition, the material for construction that is recycled, such as reclaimed lumber, and low volatile organic compounds, may play a big role in the reduction of harmful emissions in the environment. An organization can also incorporate waste management that is progressive and places into consideration the issue of environment. The current trends show that governments the world over are going to enact legislation barring people from using certain materials for the construction of buildings and this may be a step ahead of the rest. Obviously this will be profitable then since the price of materials required will have shot up due to inflation and demand as the others try to grapple with the government requirement. It is therefore prudent for a ceo to use environmentally sustainable construction since it is likely to drive profits in the future (Casper, 2009). Health Human health and sustainable development are inexplicably linked and go hand in hand. It is the desire of every organization to have healthy and able employees. This reduces medical bills due to insurance, reduces interruptions during work and positions the company for future growth and development. However the threat to the health of people is very real when viewed from the angle of the manner in which big companies and corporations are either inadvertently or knowingly engaging in activities that are harmful (Malone Pasternack, 2002). Productive CEOs must come up with ways of stemming this and there is no better way than to embrace sustainability of the sectors that massively affect health. There is a notable change in demographics, consumption and behavior in people. Most of them are moving towards towns where companies are situated and this poses a threat to their health if the issue of waste management and harmful gaseous emissions by companies is not properly checked. As a companys broader task to embrace corporate social responsibility, a progressive and future oriented ceo should press for policies geared towards ensuring that the heath of people is a priority. This positions the organization to have a good image when viewed by people and it enhances its customer base through that (Casper, 2009). Legal Aspect The governments of today and the international community at large, in its last gasp to enhance sustainable development, are coming up with laws to govern the use of resources. This has made it necessary for companies to try and make policies fit into the legalities or face strict penalties. In a country where these laws exist, there is more pressure from human rights organizations to make them stricter than they are. Some have gone to the extent of inserting in the constitution the basic right of a clean healthy environment so as to stress the importance (International Law Commission, 2003). Due to this pressure across the board, it is imperative that an organization embraces the need for sustainable development. This will reduce friction with the law and greatly reduce any legal costs that the organization may have. This is also beneficial to a countrys development because it enables compliance with environmental treaties that it has signed and also ratifications of the United Nations (International Law Commission, 2003). Social Aspect In most countries where use of resources is not closely watched, the less privileged in society are most affected. This includes the youth and the women and children. This group forms the foundation for a countrys growth and if not consistently checked can be a disadvantage to the economy of the country (Malone Pasternack, 2002). This group of people is paramount to the security situation in every country. The youth are known to create chaos in a country where unemployment levels are huge. This is a future problem being propagated today and it threatens the future of organizations. In light of this problem, organizations should therefore embrace sustainable development to position themselves for future markets. The available resources should be used carefully to realize this goal. The organization stands to benefit security-wise and the country is likely to realize economic growth hence benefitting the organization further. Also people once faced by such problems resort to mass action and this is dangerous to organizations reputations especially if it deals in sensitive products such as food (Malone Pasternack, 2002). To sum up, sustainable development is an aspect of current time and any ceo who seeks to position his organization for future growth and development should embrace the task of environmental conservation. The many aspects of the business are invariably touched in one way or the other by the issue and any business leader who ignores these risks could well be considered retrogressive or insensitive in his quest to grow business wise. Also through sustainable development, three important issues are affected positively: the environment, finances and social welfare. These three issues are interrelated and form the pillar of growth in any organization. Therefore business leaders should welcome sustainability (IANS, 2008). Ethics and Business In this post Enron era, managers are still struggling to find a fit between ethical codes of behavior in the workplace. They also are identifying practices that are not only ethical but consistent with organizational productivity and sustainability, both in the short run and the long run. Ethics, a word derived from the Greek word, ethos, meaning a way of living, can be termed as an accepted code of behavior in the workplace. Ethics are mainly informed by society values whereas a business operates in terms of their economic, social, cultural and political diversity. Despite the lack of generally accepted workplace ethics worldwide, managers should develop strategic plans in their organizations that would promote basic human rights, while at the same time, improve organizational teamwork and productivity. Strategic planning refers to the systematic identification of an organizations short, medium and long term goals, followed by the development of action blueprints on how to achieve them (Gray, Larson, 2006). The first approach that I would take on ethics in the workplace is to ensure the observance of basic human rights of all stakeholders involved in the business. This is based on the premise that managers of organizations would interact with stakeholders such as employees, suppliers, debtors, creditors, financiers, customers, government and society in general. Impact of ethics on various stakeholders of the business It is universal knowledge in psychology that human beings tend to build relationships and develop confidence in people who treat them fairly. Paying suppliers at the right time after delivery of goods or services creates supplier confidence regarding the organization. To maintain and safeguard this relationship, a supplier will strive to honor his delivery contracts to the corporation. This will ensure a continuous production of goods in the organization. This has the capacity to reduce any loss that can emanate from unsatisfied demand due to internal inefficiencies. A manager, who is ethical in terms of the way he or she sources for finances for the organization, is likely to develop a good credit rating. This ensures that the company can access finances when the need arises on short notice as a result of the managers reputation for having excellent collateral. Communicating to a customer in the right way, offering the right service at the right price and being open to a client about a product is likely to develop the confidence of such a customer towards the company and its brands. It is a well known fact in the field of marketing and psychology that a satisfied customer acts as a voluntary promoter of the company and its products to other people. Such a customer recommends the product to family and friends. This action increases the organizations client base leading to growth of sales and profitability. To achieve this, managers must come up with a clear customer focused strategy on how employees are supposed to talk to customers and how they are supposed to serve them (Sison, 2008). The public forms the market base on which a business thrives and managers should ensure that the organization is not engaged in unethical practices that may negatively affect society. It should carry out activities that promote growth and the development of society. This is a long term investment by the company since a well developed society provides the organization with a wider customer base for its goods while at the same time ensuring sustainability of the organization in the long run. This understanding has in the recent past culminated to a move by a number of organizations to achieve brand positioning on corporate social responsibility. The shareholders of the organization are affected by both ethical and unethical actions of any of the stakeholders of the business. The managers are only custodians employed by the shareholders to take care of their investment. Consequently, when they engage in unethical practices within the organization, such as embezzlement of funds, managers lose the shareholders confidence in them since such unethical behavior can lead to the collapse of an organization. Finally, when many people refer to ethics in the workplace, they have employees behavior in mind. Observance of basic human rights in organizations ensures that employees feel secure in carrying out their duties. This peace of mind influences them to be more productive. Once managers treat their employees fairly, such employees are likely to remain motivated. It would also ensure that employees have negligible, if any, work related stress. Many people can attest to the fact that when working in an organization where a person feels valued and respected, an employee executes his duties in an enhanced manner leading to higher productivity and profitability. To achieve this, managers should come up with ways and means of creating a good work environment where there is no abuse of employees by the employer and where basic human rights are respected and observed. How to promote ethics in the workplace Implementing strategic plans on ethics requires accommodation of diverse behaviors from individuals. Some organizations thrive in utilizing employees diversity to generate unique products and services instead of trying to standardize their behavior. In the post Enron era, organizations are paying more attention to the issue of ethics in the work place when developing their strategic plans. To do this, they start by collecting views among their employees and other stakeholders. This helps in understanding the social and cultural diversity of an organizations stakeholders. For instance, bowing slightly before shaking hands with senior individuals is treated as a sign of respect in some cultures. In other cultures, it is seen as a symbol of slavery and abuse. Consequently, it is only after understanding individuals cultural orientation that managers can develop a fit in workplace ethics which is not only inclusive but also consistent with the organizations strategic mission. Ethics in the workplace can be promoted by strategically developing an organizations culture that supports ethical behavior. This is based on the principle of the need for association by human beings. This helps employees in developing a sense of belonging to the company and to its culture. To fit in the work environment where they spend many of their waking hours, employees are likely to take up the code of behavior portrayed by senior managers. As a result of this, if the top managers are corrupt, disrespectful or posses any other vice, employees are likely to follow suit. A healthy corporate culture such as one that promotes quality in their employees ways of delivering services and interaction with all business stakeholders is likely to increase profitability in the long run. A good and ethical corporate culture ensures that senior members of the company act as role models for junior employees who will most likely strive to maintain ethics in such a workplace. Workplace ethics can be promoted by ensuring that an organization has satisfied employees. The satisfaction may be as a result of proper remuneration. Consequently, managers should not only view an employees salary as a cost, but they should also view it as an investment in ensuring that the organization retains highly skilled employees in the long term. Hard working employees who contribute a lot to the company feel cheated when the salary they receive is too small. This makes them feel justified in their corrupt activities (Swartz, Watkins, 2003). The organization should also have a good work environment. Another factor that managers should consider is proper orientation of employees. This may demand the use of a professional alongside reliable managers in the orientation process of new employees. Such a set up ensures that the right ethics code is clearly communicated. When carrying out their duties, new employees compare their actions with what they were taught on the first day rather than what their colleagues are doing (Wiggins, 2006). This ensures that unethical individuals in the organization do not pass the vice to new employees. What is ethical is interpreted differently by different people. Managers should come up with a set of ethical behaviors in the workplace in collaboration with employees. Efforts should be directed at sensitizing employees on what is termed unethical in such organizations. The organization should develop benchmarks on progress of the employees in terms of ethical behavior in the workplace. This is because, like any other strategy, a strategic plan in promotion of ethical behavior should be monitored and controlled after implementation. Those who follow the ethics code should be consistently recognized and rewarded in order to motivate them to maintain ethical behavior in and outside the organization. In conclusion, it is worth noting that ethical behavior as indicated above affects the productivity of the organization. It affects the interest of all the stakeholders of the business. Despite the lack of specific attributes to good ethics, it is worth noting that good ethics should promote the achievement of an organizations goals and objectives. They should be entrenched in the organization by the management in collaboration with their employees. Continuous control and the monitoring of strategic plan implementation progress are both vital as they help in keeping employees and other stakeholders on course.

jfk assassination Essay -- essays research papers fc

The John F. Kennedy Assassination On November 22,1963,President Kennedy was in attendance at a Dallas parade.One of the biggest tragic moments happened in U.S. history before the naked eye.President John F. Kennedy was assassinated around 12:34 p.m.as he celebrated with the Dallas crowd to show admiration towards them and their city(Mintaglio 60).The suspected assassin Robert L. Oswald,a former U.S. marine,was afterward caught not long following the assassination in a near by theatre(Newman 56).Later to discover he himself was assassinated by Jack Ruby while he was being escorted publicly to the court room.A study of the John F.Kennedy assassination would include the conspiracy theories, the plans of the assassination ,and the alleged suspects‘ connections. First of all, the Kennedy assassination dealt with numerous conspiracies in diverse ways. President Kennedy’s Excoriation of the parade still raises questions because of the sluggish speed of the President’s car when he was parting the parade to the Dallas freeway. Furthermore,the driver of the Kennedy’s car decided to amend the route he was supposed to take(Marcus 187). The alleged assassin Robert L. Oswald was also a assassinated in his uncommon public excoriation to his testimony.Despite the heavy security of 63 officers around Oswald before he was shot.Ruby was able to get through reporters in the environs of Oswald and get a point blank shot at Oswald’s gut critically wounding him and later died because of the wounds(Sneed 339).Oswald had told officials he fired the Italian rifle three times and hit the President twice at an unfeasible range for the inaccurate rifle.To add a bigger twist to the investigations,witnesses near the shooting of the President told officials that as many as six shots where heard shot.Even more arcane Cody Kennedy’s number was found in Oswald’s address book officials had obtained(Minutaglio 159). The killing of Oswald by Jack Ruby made the mafia get in the picture with alleged connections to the Kennedy assassination(Bryce 69). Secondly, the planning of the assassination of President Kennedy was exceptionally one of the most well-planned killings ever witnessed.Every thing had to be in the right place at the right time and almost impossible for one person to pull it off all alone.Oswald decided to keep cover in the Texas School of Book Depository on the sixt... ...y assassination would include the conspiracy theories,plans of the assassination,and connections with the alleged suspects. 1.Consiracy of the Assassinations A.unusual escort of president B.Osawald’s public escortation 2.Well-planned Assassination A.clear shots B.suspects killed 3.Suspects connections A.Mexico meetings B.C.I.A. photographs C.Mob rumors Works Cited JFK Assassination Homepage.Online.Internet.13 Jan.2003. Available HTTP:mcadams.posc.edu/home.html. Bryce,Warren.†The Assassination of President Kennedy.†The New York Times.28 Sept.1964. Marcus,Stanley.The Day JFK Died.Kansas City:A universal Press Syndicate Company,1993. Mcmillan,George.The Making of an Assassin.Canada:Little ,Brown and Company,1976. Minutaglio,Bill,Barry Boesch,and Bill Deener.The Day Remembered.:Taylor Publishing Company,1990. Newman,John.Osawald and the C.I.A.New York:Caroll and Graf Publishers,Inc,1995. JFK The Kennedy Assassination Homepage.Online.Internet. 13.Jan.2003.Available HTTP:JFK-info.com/index2.html. Sneed,Larry.No More Silence.Denton:University of North Texas Press,1998.

Discuss the Narrative Method of Kurt

Discuss the Narrative method of Kurt Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse Five Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse Five is a that in no way can be treated as one-dimensional one. It deals with the historical events like the bombing of Dresden, socio-cultural reality of America in the 1960s and the alternative world of Tralfamadorians. Although three different realms are combined, the novel does not present anything that could be perceived as unseen. Its exceptionality comes from a less explored perspective – the novel’s unique narrative structure.It seems obvious that the text could not have been interpreted with the use of traditional interpretational tools therefore Vonnegut introduced a new method of narration. The main focus of the analysis are several devices Vonnegut uses to create his narration. First of all the story has in fact two narrators not one. In this way the reader sees more clearly that he narration technique is in a way turned upside down. The narrator not nec essarily loses his traditional role and still influences the way readers perceive the plot but a slight difference can be noticed.What is more, contrary to the potential assumptions of the reader, Slaughterhouse-Five not entirely breaks out with the convention of an anti-war book. The second issue that needs to be looked upon are the stylistic devices use by the author. Those are: the collage technique, the foreshadowing of some of the events and multitude of repetitions. These tools can be traced in every chapter of the novel. Moreover both of them connect different levels in the plot. The third aspect of the novel is Vonnegut’s attempt to explore the subconscious of the protagonist with the use of Tralfamadorian reality.It might be argued whether the author’s intention was to make the reader believe in alternative world or to present the main character as schizophrenic. By the matter of fact such question is legitimate as the topic of schizophrenia can be easily asso ciated with Billy Pilgrim’s travels in time and space. From the first sentence in the novel the reader becomes aware that it is impossible to state whether the story is true or fictitious. â€Å"All this happened, more or less. † (p. 5) Throughout those words the reader is confronted with is the question of truth.In this way Vonnegut gives the reader a thrill and achieves the effect of reality. On the one hand the reader feels that the story is a fiction on the other however some parts of the story seem to be far too realistic to be artificial. Moreover Vonnegut calls his novel â€Å"a failure. † (p. 14) With this expression he again brings it into question the truthfulness of the reported facts. The question whether the novel tells a real story or is only a successful mystification is left to the reader to answer by himself. The story begins in chapter II.The author introduces the protagonist named Billy Pilgrim who describes his time travels. As the story unfo lds the reader gets more details about the alternative world of the Tralfamadorians. The idea of time traveling as well as the utopian life on another planet is, by the matter of fact, just a renewed and transferred to the modern versions of topics introduced to literature centuries earlier by Thomas More or Jonathan Swift. There is however one aspect, which is worth a particular amount of attention – the way the story is presented.Taking into consideration the fact that it is Billy who describes what happened it is odd that every expression, Billy utters, is commented on with the words â€Å"he says†. (p. 20) At first sight this may not seem important but it points to the question of truth. Does Billy travel to remote areas, or does he only say so? Vonnegut asks this question every time he repeats those words. Another device used by the narrator is the foreshadowing of important events. As an example one may look at the following expression: â€Å"Billy sat down in t he waiting room. He wasn't a widower yet. † (p. 4) By foreshadowing some of the important events in the story the author breaks with the concept of time. He deliberately upsets the chronology in the novel. It is visible especially when Vonnegut places the first and the last sentences of the novel next to each other. That procedure forces the reader more focused while reading the novel, more careful in search of full understanding. What is more not only the concept of chronology but also tension is rejected in the novel. Vonnegut avoids tension by anticipating some of the events which are connected with a given character, for example: â€Å"His name was Howard W.Campbell, Jr. He would later hang himself while awaiting trial as a war criminal. † (p. 63); Next technique used by Vonnegut repetition of some phrases. The repetitions appear throughout the novel in different contexts. â€Å"I drive my wife away with a breath like mustard gas and roses. † (p. 6) This quot ation occurs in the first chapter which describes the genesis of his novel. It is used again in chapter four, when Billy imagines that he can smell somebody’s breath and once again in the war episode when the protagonist describes the bodies: â€Å"rotted and liquefied† and the smell was â€Å"like roses and mustard gas. (p. 105) The smell is a kind of a sign which links the past with the present. The repetitions also join several episodes of the novel in order to make it less chaotic and incoherent and introduce a kind of structure. That in turn makes the novel more coherent and easier to follow. Apart from stylistic devices which Vonnegut, with all his mastery, uses to create the unique atmosphere Slaughterhouse Five turns out to be also a in-depth study of human psyche. The psychological aspect of the book is, however, deftly disguised with the use of alien society of the Tralfamadorians.The symbolic meaning of this alternative reality is in fact more than a symbol , as it becomes true to some extent at some of the points of the novel. What is more Billy’s stay also make the reader raises more questions than it would be possible to provide answers to. Who or what are Tralfamadorians? Are they a symbol of an ideal society that is a far cry from the one known and used on Earth? A morality which just like many which preceded it should show us the way?Or maybe the planet exists only in Billy's imagination and is nothing more than a plaint of a mind tormented by regret, a world existing in Billy's reality only? It is difficult to state whether Vonnegut wants to impose the expression that Billy is schizophrenic or whether he tries to convince the reader that the Tralfamadorians really exist. It is essential to notice that Vonnegut does use the word schizophrenia from the very beginning of the novel. â€Å"This is a novel somewhat in the telegraphic schizophrenic manner of tales of the planet Tralfamadore, where the flying saucers come from. † (p. ) Ambiguous as it is this statement still points out to the fact that the author’s intention was to mislead the reader a make him believe that schizophrenia might be the key issue, an element that should not be omitted. What is schizophrenia? According to R. D. Laing schizophrenia can be described as: â€Å"a special strategy that a person invents in order to live an unlivable situation. † This definition contrary to the strictly medical, that is traditional view seems to focus less on the fact that schizophrenia is a serious mental illness and more on the opportunities a split personality provides.According to this definition the fact that one’s personality can be torn apart because of the negative environment is a understandable defensive reaction. Might it be then a coincidence that the Tralfamadorians themselves might be treated as schizophrenic as they all the time neglect any negative implications in life and exclusively focus on the positive m oments. Taking into consideration all the troubles Billy experiences during his lifetime, it seems obvious that Slaughterhouse Five tells a story of a man who can perceive his life as a failure.The protagonist has a negative childhood, marries a woman whom he pities but not love, so he is relieved when he loses her. He experiences much during the war, almost dies in a plane-crash and his children are hard to raise and difficult to love. For those reasons Billy’s life might be described as unlivable. Can one find a better reason to break the identity in half and try to find shelter in the depths of one’s mind? It seems to be a logical consequence for the protagonist. Mental illness perceived as a kind of barrier is also referred to several times in the novel.As an example Rosewater, one of the characters in the novel utters an assumption that life is too heavy a burden to be bearable for some eg. â€Å"Another time Billy heard Rosewater say to the psychiatrist, ‘ I think you guys are going to have to come up with a lot of wonderful new lies, or people just aren't going to want to go on living. ‘† (p. 50) Also one of the descriptions given refers to one of the characteristic feature of schizophrenia – hallucinations – by stating: â€Å" Billy Pilgrim was having a delightful hallucination. He was wearing dry, warm, white sweatsocks, and he was skating on a ballroom floor.Thousands cheered. This wasn't time-travel. It had never happened, never would happen. It was the craziness of a dying young man with his shoes full of snow. † (p. 26) Again the author uses those expressions not without a reason. With a few sentences he reveals the delicate inside of his character, makes him more approachable as if he felt obliged to provide an explanation to his visions of a better life on another planet. Vonnegut makes even a step further by deriving Billy’s illness from the physical consequences of the plane-crash.Apa rt from the fact that Billy was the only person which managed to survive still he suffered from severe brain damages. This might have created the perfect mental environment for creating Tralfamadorians. Another device the author uses in narrating is placing information about novels written by Billy’s favorite author Kilgore Trout. The plot of those novels also influenced Billy’s â€Å"time travels† as one of them, entitled The Big Board (p. 105) tells the story of a couple which have being abducted by aliens and shown in a zoo.It is than possible that Billy might have taken this story as a real one and projected the idea on himself. Vonnegut confirms this belief in chapter nine writing: â€Å"So they were trying to reinvent themselves and their universe. Science fiction was a big help. † (p. 50) Nevertheless the mental state of the main character is in no way clear for some parts of the chapter are narrated as if the protagonist experienced the travel: â €Å"Billy was unconscious for two days after that, and he dreamed of millions of things, some of them true. The true things were time-travel. † (p. 7) It seems obvious that the author deliberately makes the reader confused. This assumption can be proved as the narrator makes a clear distinction between time-travel and plain fantasy. However one can also say that â€Å"Vonnegut seems to supply internal evidence for a psychological explanation of Tralfamadore while at the same time denying that evidence with a contradictory narrative statement. † (Harris 235) It can only imply that reading Slaughterhouse-Five, one can suspect that Vonnegut’s intention is far from being interested in accuracy as far as the subdivision between reality and fiction is concerned.Only by such narration technique Vonnegut was able to allow the protagonist to solve the conflicts which thorn him apart, even if the only way to do it was to split his identity by introducing schizophrenia. Sl aughterhouse-Five is obviously one of the novels that could not be forgotten for it differs to a large extent from other works from this genre. The author, on purpose, neglects all values and norms. What is more no principles of logic can be applied to the plot. Therefore just like the novel is narrated in a completely new way, it needs also to be read differently in order to fully understand it’s unique utterance.BIBLIOGRAPHY: (1)Kurt Vonnegut. Slaughterhouse-Five. Great Britain, Jonathan Cape Ltd 1970 available in PDF version on: http://chomikuj. pl/Angouleme/e-booki/Kurt+Vonnegut+-+Slaughterhouse-Five,58449367. pdf (2)A quote by R. D. Laing found on: http://www. quoteland. com/topic/Madness-Quotes/538/ (3)Charles B. Harris, â€Å"Time, Uncertainty, and Kurt Vonnegut Jr. : A Reading of Slaughterhouse Five,'† Farmington Hills: Gale Group. October, 2001 Can be viewed at: http://infotrac. galegroup. com/galenet? cause=http%3A%2F%2Fgalenet. galegroup. com%2Fservlet%2FDC% 2F%3FfinalAuth%3Dtrue&cont=&sev=temp&type=session&sserv=no

The Assessment for Nursing Potential: Nursing Quality Scale

The study integrated the qualities of nursing students (N=227) with their aptitude and academic achievement in a tripartite model. A battery of tests called in the Assessment for Nursing Potential (ANP) composed of the (a) Nursing Quality Scale (NQS) with factors on caring, compassion, commitment and connectedness; (b) Achievement test; and (c) Aptitude test was used in the study. Using a three-wave longitudinal design, the NQS was first administered followed by the aptitude, then the achievement tests.The effects of the nursing qualities on achievement and aptitude were analyzed using Structural Equation Modeling (SEM). The first model indicates that nursing quality as a latent factor has no significant effects on both achievement and aptitude, obtaining a moderate goodness of fit (RMSEA=. 09). However, when the same model was tested including the effect of aptitude on achievement, it resulted to a better fit (RMSEA=. 06). In the second model, aptitude has a significant effect on ac hievement, p