The Contemporary Hospitality Industry Assignment - 2

The Contemporary Hospitality Industry - Assignment Example When assessing the scale of the hospitality industry, it can be observed that the sector has accomplished a momentous growth of strengthening its capital market over the past few decades. Owing to its consistent and rapid growth, the hospitality industry is also known as a major contributor for Gross National Products (GNP) today where it has been observed to play a pivotal role in encouraging regional developments along with employment opportunities. As per the recent economic performance of the industry, it has been observed that the core hospitality market has been estimated to earn an annual turnover of GBP 90 billion on an average, employing almost more than 2.4 millions of employers in its different business practices all over the world (British Hospitality Association, 2010). In relation to diversity, it can further be recognised that the hospitality industry of the present business world, has been inclined towards delivering increasingly heterogeneous services being influence d by the changing needs of people, globalisation effects and also due to the relocation or migration among different cultures. According to the present scenario, the increasing diversity within the hospitality workforce has been considered as one of its major strengths to satisfy the diverse needs of its customers (National College of Business Administration, 2009). According to the recent transformation of the hospitality industry, it has been recognised that the structure of hospitality industry involves a range of commercial, public and voluntary organisations that principally involves food and catering services along with other housekeeping and maintenance facilities.

Leadership Styles in Knowledge Management

Leadership Styles in Knowledge Management This research paper aims to study the three basic leadership styles widely practiced in the organizations as well as the emerging concept of knowledge management and examine individually the relationship of these leadership roles on the knowledge management. The three leadership styles under focus are: transformational, transactional and laissez-faire. The purpose of this research is to identify which leadership style is more effective in relation with the knowledge management. Hence, to help organizations make the best use of this phenomenon and increase their knowledge sharing among different hierarchical levels to exercise maximum levels of learning and innovation in their work environment. It will also enable corporations to gain the competitive advantage with respect to their human capital and. When it is discovered that which managerial style has the positive impact on the knowledge management, it will result into employee empowerment and motivation. Among the important finding s are that effective knowledge management or knowledge sharing processes lead to a competent work environment and the employees get more involved with their jobs as they feel that their ideas are valued. Moreover, they tend to get more creative and challenging, but these behaviors are majorly dependent upon the managers attitude and whether he or she encourages such contributions or interferences from the subordinates and is flexible and open to change and innovation. In the outcomes, transformational leadership has proved to positive relationship with knowledge management and that of the laissez-faire has a negative effect on it. This paper has derived findings through extensive study of literature reviews on these main concepts which is based on theoretical researches. Keywords: Knowledge management, Transformational leadership, Transactional leadership, laissez-faire, Communication. Introduction: Background of study: In this research we are going to study the various factors affecting the issue of Knowledge Management among employees and how can it become most useful for the growth of an organization. The concept of Knowledge Management basically is about the knowledge an individual possesses about anything and this particular kind is referred to as tacit knowledge which is usually gained through personal observation, experience, values and beliefs. Such form of knowledge is usually exhibited in informal settings and could not be formally written or documented into a proposal to the manager. As it is something that can cross an employees mind instantaneously but he or she might not feel confident to share their idea openly in the given atmosphere, where they might think it would sound insignificant or absurd to others. To sum up, the purpose of knowledge management is to provide strategies, processes and technology to amplify the overall organizations learning (Satyadas et al., 2001). Moreover, s ystem oriented view is highly being emphasized and companies are installing technology applications ranging from traditional data-processing areas to expert networks enabling expert-to-expert communication. These systems are designed to store and make profit from the existing explicit, implicit as well as tacit knowledge of organizations. Hence, they facilitate the flow of knowledge in the processes and also record the information that which employee has put in the knowledge and how its implementation could help the organization, so that the right person should get the reward fairly and it is done as an act of encouragement for others. In todays world of immense market competition and rivalry among brands, there is an increasing need of formulating progressive organizational strategies constantly for a companys survival. There organizations are now paying most attention to the notion of innovation, which is majorly generated from the employees. Hence, it is highly important for an o rganization to have a culture that is flexible, open to new ideas, adaptive to change and appreciative of contribution of knowledge. Hence if the sharing of knowledge from individuals is encouraged and valued, it can enable a company to be competitive and help in achieving its goals, provided it is in relevance with the problem. (Birasnav, Rangnekar, Dalpati, 2011) Moreover, if that knowledge is used and followed through, it gives a sense of recognition, achievement and personal satisfaction as well as a sense of belonging. It matters most especially to the senior employees who do not much care about the other lower components of the Maslows motivation theory of hierarchy, as those needs are already fulfilled at this stage. Leadership Styles are at the center of Knowledge Management importance and approaches that have caught the attention of researchers and scholars for long periods. Overly technical view of Knowledge Management seems to downplay the importance of soft factors that impact the Knowledge Management phenomena. Significance of study: Managing knowledge and intellectual capital has become the key drivers of new knowledge and new ideas to the innovation process, to new innovative products, services and solutions. It helps in better achieving and even exceeding the objectives. (Knowledge Management in Health Science Libraries, 2007) The purpose of knowledge management should not be to become just knowledgeable but to be able to create, transfer and apply knowledge with aim of better achieving the objectives. Problem Statement: The current competitive setting of organizations and the changing management paradigm has highlighted the importance of Leadership Styles on Knowledge Management. Identifying Leadership Styles that promote concept and practice of Knowledge Management is crucial as the growth and competitiveness of organizations in new-age economy. Research Question: What are the different leadership styles that affect knowledge management in organization? What are the ways in which different leadership styles affect knowledge management? Purpose of study: The purpose of this study is to examine the different roles of leadership in the knowledge management and how this has an impact on the overall organization. Research objectives: To identify and evaluate different roles of leadership To examine the impact of these different roles of leadership on knowledge management Delimitation: Only few educational institutes are surveyed for the primary research from Rawalpindi and Islamabad only. Literature Review: Knowledge management has been identified as one of the most important resources that contribute to the competitive advantage of an organization. Behavioral and interpersonal skills are most often known as the essentials for successful knowledge management. Knowledge can be within individuals or within the relationships between the individuals groups or sub groups. Without verbal or even the non verbal communication the only way to organize knowledge transfer would be to move around people holding the relevant knowledge. (Ferenc, 2003) For many years it had not been studied despite its importance in this information age; only recently leadership theories and researches have addressed the role of leadership in knowledge management. Researchers (Beron et al. 2006), (Viitala, 2004) suggested that the design and building management information system is one way in which leaders at the top of a corporate have an impact on organizational performance. Recent development in the organizational knowledge literature stresses the importance of knowledge management to building a sustainable competitive advantage. (Bogner and Bansal, 2007) and to the importance of leadership for the success of knowledge management. Recently the growing information systems and knowledge management have continuously stressed the lack of leadership support for the failure of many knowledge management projects. (Davenport et al. 1998), (Chandrashekhar, 2009). It has been found that 42 percent of an organizations knowledge resides in the minds of the employees (Clark and Rollo, 2001); therefore it is dependent upon the leaders how to make the best use of it. Furthermore, as discovered by Doppelt (2003) that in order to achieve sustainability in a corporation, leadership is the key, because a competent and committed leader encourages dialogue which as a result leads to change and so barriers such as sticking to old ideas and cultural frameworks, past practices, tunnel vision and such approaches tha t come in the way to draw new progressive visions for the future. According to the researchers Jong and Hartog (2007) and Aragon-Correa (2007) every leadership style has its own pros and cons; but transformational leadership is more attentive and engaging with the sub-ordinates and encourages them to be creative and focuses on the firms learning and innovation. Whereas, Bass (1985) presented that transactional leaders are not much involved with the subordinates work unless there is a need when a problem arises. On the other hand, he also stated that transformational leaders motivate their workforce, rouses their intellectual skills and acts as role models for them. Moreover, they also have the quality of inspiring the employees into acquiring goal accomplishing skills and improve their performance in achieving the corporate vision (Nemanich and Kellar, 2007). Also, they train, encourage and support their subordinates keenly and optimistically and promote individual and team spirit a mong them. Consequently, it is paid back in the form of boosting employees performance in their tasks and bringing high returns from them (Yulk, 2006; Boerner et al, 2007). Information management: Information as now a day includes both physical and electronic information. Now its the organizations and its structures that must be capable of managing that information throughout the information lifecycle regardless of its sources and formats. Thus the focus on information management is the ability of organization to capture, manage, preserve, store and deliver the right information to right people at right time. Information management becomes the corporate responsibility that needs to be addressed and followed from the senior level management to the front line management. Information is the key asset for an organization and thus should be treated as corporate asset. (Information Management) And it must be made available to everyone and must be shared. People management: Knowledge is the main driver for organizations performance. It affects performance by making it possible for people to perform well. So the instrument by which knowledge affects the performance is through people. So knowledge management must be people focused (Wiig, 2004) (Corral, 1999) Cindy Johnson, Director of Collaboration and Knowledge Sharing at Texas Instruments states: Knowledge management is really about recognizing that regardless of what business you are in, you are competing based on the knowledge of your employees. They way of making knowledge available has evolved over time. It started with family clans where knowledge was passed from father to son by the process of learning. With the new ideas of working in teams, groups, and as institutions, people work closer to benefit from the knowledge of each other. Process Management: Knowledge management is considered as an approach where the employees of the companies would leverage from the buried knowledge that was held closely to them. This enabled the evolution of the term learning organizations where knowledge is always evolving and is being made assessable to all the employees who are eager to attain it and apply it. The focus on improving, re-engineering and managing business process is considered as corporate assets. The companies are taking charge of how they will deliver value to their customers by focusing on process effectiveness and efficiency. While KM and process engineering was evolving at the same time, there were no efforts to combine them in the same architecture. KM has always been focusing on the best practices and proven practices but it had failed to understand how valuable the fusion of process and knowledge can be. So process management gives the ability to view, manage, evaluate, and adapt the business activities, applications, and peop le in organizations to achieve goals. And to achieve these goals there is a need for the management of knowledge where people get an easy access to share and create knowledge (Records, September 2005). Leadership and knowledge management: There is no doubt about it that leaders are the ones who set the standards for others in the organizations and they are one of the biggest driving forces who inspire and motivate them to achieve what they meant to achieve so leaders have direct impact on how organizations should see and deal with knowledge management but if knowledge management is not being conducted on all levels in the organization starting from the top then it would not be as effective as expected (Singh S. K., 2008) Leaders have vital role to play on every level to manage the knowledge but particularly CEO should take part in this process because if he would take it seriously and feel that there is really a need of managing this thing like other practices in the organization then the rest of the people also take it seriously. Organizations with strong cultures and promising compensation programs will not succeed without committed and responsible managers. According to Singh it is the major responsibility of top executives of the organizations to make such strategies and create such values in the organizations which encourage employees to share, create and value knowledge and leaders should provide them with the opportunities to do so and then afterwards measures should be taken to evaluate employees behaviors, attitudes and productivity that are required for effective knowledge management (Singh S. K., 2008) Four broad approaches were studied to understand the leaders and leadership through the trait approach, the contingency approach, the behavior approach and the transformational approach and some of the approaches does have a role in knowledge management but they are not enough to understand knowledge management systematically. The trait approach does have impact on knowledge management and considers it important thing for leaders, contingency and behavior approach also considers knowledge management vital for effective leaders. The transformational approach also support this phenomena that information creation, keeping and sharing facilitates in obtaining shared vision and values in the organization (Lakshman, 2007). Leaders self realization of importance of knowledge management really matters in the effectiveness of knowledge managements practices in the organization and realization is needed in two dimensions, one internal other external. Internally it is achieved by establishing technological and socio-cognitive ways of managing knowledge and externally it is by realization of valuing customer focused knowledge management (lakshman, 2009). Information revolution changes way of doing things in the corporate context, it enhanced the value of time and customers need quick Reponses with relevant and useful knowledge of the products and services so that transformed the process of leadership too by speeding up the inputs, requirement of quick and customized information regarding product and its functions which further builds competition in the business environment. Likewise he emphasizes the need for knowledge managers to achieve and maintain equilibrium between motivating team members with urgency and providing them with time and space to reflect. To become the knowledge sharing and managing organization, leaders have to take the responsibility and have to choose the appropriate leadership style to lead the organization effectively. (Viitala, 2004) Transformational leadership: A framework was established to implement quality management within an organization actually a system of profound knowledge .While implementing it leadership and knowledge management were measured and it was found that in order to implement such system leaders required should be participative, collaborative and inspiring (Gapp, 2002) Transformational leadership have potential to effect employees perceptions through the returns that organization get in the form of human capital benefits and these leaders also have potential to make those benefits greater by adding them in the knowledge management processes, encouraging inter personal communication among employees and creating organizational culture. (Birasnav, Rangnekar, Dalpati, 2011) It is possible for transformational leadership to enhance organizational innovation through creating a participative environment or culture and it can do so directly or indirectly by changing organizations culture which encourages knowledge sharing and management in the organization. It is in the control of transformational leadership to promote such culture so the employees have autonomy to speak about their experiences and knowledge. (Nguyen Mohamed, 2011) There is relation between magnitude of knowledge acquisitions and transformational leadership. In todays challenging world organizational culture should be more empowered and that is achieved by transformational leadership which encourage people to be open about their choices and decisions. (D.Politis, 2001) He encouraged the role of participative leadership, it is this leadership style which relies heavily on the leader functioning as a facilitator rather than simply a leader who orders and wants his assignments done in time. Employee would not be comfortable in sharing knowledge unless employee knows that he/she would be supported by their leaders. Finally, (C.B.Crawford, 2005) argued that there is a clear relationship between transformational leadership and knowledge management in organizations. Crawfords research is pre empirical and made the point very clearly that empirical testing is needed to understand the relationship of transformational leadership and organizational knowledge constructs. Crawfords research provides some basis from which to speculate that transformational leadership might be a causative factor influencing greater knowledge management skills. Transformational leadership and personal innovation are linked. It was found that transformational leaders are more innovative than transactional and laisse-faire leaders. Innovation is considered to be the key factor for knowledge leaders; innovation is the name of managing and creating information and knowledge through different ways. Transactional Leadership: The second variable we are studying in this research, affecting the knowledge management in organizations is the transactional leadership style. This style of leadership is influenced by the concept of reward and punishment; such leaders believe that the employees performance is mainly dependent upon these two factors. That means that when there is an incentive the workers put in their best effort and the reward is in monetary terms in most of the cases; while when they fail to achieve the set target they ought to be punished. (Oshagbemi Ocholi, 2006) Similarly, transactional leaders impose their authority on their followers to take work from them and clearly state what they want and also give employees the opportunity to get detailed information and guidance before they accept an assignment. Such leaders emphasize on present issues; they do not get involved with the employees tasks unless a need arises and in the beginning of a project they provide the workers with all the resource s needed for its completion and after that the task becomes totally the responsibility of the workers (Bass, Cacioppe, Gronn, Hughes.et.al, Popper, Zakkai, 2002).Transactional leadership has two major components, contingent reward and management by exception (MBE). Here, contingent reward means the reward that an employee is promised by the manager, to be acquired if the required target is achieved by him or her and the MBE approach is used to make sure that one should never fail to achieve the desired result due to the resource constraint. Leaders must be clear in explaining what they actually expect and the organizational goal is achieved they must give the recognition. It was also extracted from that manual that MBE is of two types, passive and active. In MBE active, the leader clarifies the standards to be followed and also defines the unacceptable standards of work and are likely to punish if they are not followed. In this strategy, mistakes and errors are identified and steps are taken to correct them. While, in MBE passive, the leader plays a passive role who does not clarify the standards or the requirements to be met by the employees, but only gets involved when there is an obvious issue. Hence, in this case passive style is not considered to be un systematic in correcting the negative issues. (Ogunlana, 2008) Transactional leaders pay more attention to physical and security needs of the employees. The relationship between the leader and the subordinates mainly revolves around the attraction of reward system as a return for their efforts. It is also said that in transactional leadership one person takes the initiative to make a contact with others in order to make a contract of exchanging functions for the benefit of the organization (Birasnav, Rangnekar, Dalpati, 2011). Laissez-faire: Whereas, the third variable in this study is the laissez-faire leadership style, in which the leader gives complete freedom to the employees to make decisions regarding the completion of a task while answering their questions wherever they find problems and the workers are provided with all the necessary resources and tools for that by the leader. Apart from that only little guidance is provided by the leaders and the followers are expected to solve problems on their own (C.B. Crawford, 2005). This strategy is successful in case the workforce is highly experienced, skilled and capable of their jobs, otherwise if the labor lacks these expertise, the researchers recommend it to be an ineffective and the weakest form of leadership which yields poor productivity for the organization, as there are some workers which are unable to solve problems and meet deadlines on their own. Although, in such situations the work environment is quite relaxed, free of work pressure and without interferenc e from the manager, but still it brings frustration and demonization among the teams when they are unable to produce the desired results, without the required feedback and assistance from the manager. But laissez-faire strategy contributes to the employee empowerment and it gives a visionary worker the opportunity to perform according to his or her own will. Lassiz- faire is a leader who always runs away when there is a need to make an important decision or when there is a serious problem (Ogunlana, 2008). The phenomenon of knowledge management is applicable on the whole organizational structure, taking into all the levels of hierarchy. While studied empirically it was discovered that the relationship between the different components of knowledge management and transformational leadership, transactional leadership and self-management have a link with the accomplishment of knowledge forms. Moreover the leaders should be able to give an empowering environment to the employees. Although according to the empirical findings, which are quite limited in this aspect, as well as the theoretical assumptions of a number of authors, there is a need for participative collaborative leadership style in order to facilitate the flow of knowledge. Hence it was pointed out that empirical testing of the knowledge attributes in an organization should be carried out, to find out the relationship between the management of knowledge and transactional leadership in a firm. (C.B. Crawford, 2005) The researcher selected a sample of 1,046 males and females enrolled in liberal classes who were side by side employed in different economic sectors. In the first round they were asked to answer the questions based on the behavioral aspects of knowledge management in which the questions taken from the Barth (2003) typology of personal knowledge management categories. In the round they were asked to fill in the Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire 5-S (MLQ) derived from Bass (1985) which comprised of scales measuring the attributes of the three leadership styles: transformational, transactional and laissez-faire. The scales ranged from strongly agree to strongly disagree and as a measure for superior performance or as a self-report measure. But he used the MLQ as a self-report of transformational, transactional and laissez-faire leadership characteristics. Finally, in the last round, the respondents were asked about their demographics considered important for the research including se x, age, years of employment, education, career type, position at work and use of technology. While conducting the analysis, only the position variable was used that described the respondents as senior managers or executive, supervisors and at entry level. Though the basic purpose of this study was to determine the relationship between the knowledge management attributes and the transformational leadership style. In the end various correlations were found that determined the degree of the relationship between the knowledge management behaviors and transformational, transactional and laissez-faire leadership. Eventually, the outcome of the investigation concluded that the variables leadership and knowledge management are significantly related, both in the organizational setting as well as in theoretical context. The most important results included that there exists a strong relationship between knowledge management and transformational leadership. Moreover, transactional leadership, i t was discovered that as knowledge management is technical in nature, the more effective management style would be transactional. Furthermore, transactional leaders are more goal oriented and not much concerned about the personal development of the sub-ordinates. In addition, another finding was that transactional leadership had strong correlations with knowledge management and contingent reward and it had considerable negative correlation with management by exception. On the other hand, it was analyzed that laissez-faire came out to have a negative effect on knowledge management, which indicates that a leaders role is very essential in managing knowledge behaviors in corporate. Consequently, the negative correlation between the two components indicated an inverse relationship, which means that when knowledge management behavior increases, the extent of laissez-faire decreases (C.B. Crawford, 2005) Additionally that investigation also showed that the hierarchical position an employee has in a company also has a link with the knowledge management, as people handing more information are expected to possess more skill and grip on building knowledge management capabilities. Likewise, leadership attributes are practiced and exerted most according to the position an individual holds; the more the responsibility, the greater the actions of a leader exhibited, to succeed in following an aim or achieving a goal. As a result, there were higher levels of transformational leadership witnessed as the position in a corporate increased, whereas transactional and laissez faire got less. Hence, the position in the hierarchy is also crucial in examining the relationship between knowledge management and leadership attributes; and that variable proved to be predictive of knowledge management, just like transformational leadership. Only transformational leadership style, not transactional or laisse z-faire was related to the impact of position on knowledge management. In that investigation, it was concluded that transformational strategies worked best even where the most technical skills were required, in modern corporate environments as compared to transactional or laissez-faire and are more successful in other organizational constructs too because of their person-centered approach. Whereas, transactional strategies did not enhance knowledge management behavior and laissez-faire leadership slowed it to a significant extent. Furthermore, the higher the positions got in a corporate for individuals; they dealt with knowledge more effectively, because they then adopted more of transformational strategies. But in the significance, leadership is of much greater value than the position variable, effecting knowledge management. (C.B. Crawford, 2005) Laissez-faire as leadership style exhibits ineffectiveness, unproductiveness and dissatisfaction. These leaders avoid interfering in the followers jobs and stay away from taking the responsibility their position demands and also avoid developing a relationship with the subordinates. (Ogunlana, 2008) Proposed Methodology: The sampling method that we will use is purposive sampling which is a non-probability sampling technique. Subjects would be selected because of we will be able to select people of interest and exclude who do not suit the purpose of research. The sector chosen for this study is educational sector, coordinators and head of departments would be researchers respondents. Total sample will be 100 individuals.

Essay --

Joshua Coatsworth Dr. Renshaw IL 2928 February 14, 2014 Forest Grove School District vs. T.A. (2009) Background T.A. (protected as a minor) attended Forest Grove School District in Oregon, from kindergarten through his junior year in high school. During his junior year he was removed by his family and was enrolled at Mount Bachelor Academy. The family believed that the majority of his problems involved learning deficits and an inability to focus. They helped him complete the majority of his schoolwork due to difficulty with work and the inability to focus in class. During his public schooling he was only evaluated for a learning disability even though the school suspected that he had ADHD. The district concluded that T.A. was not eligible for services because he did not have a learning disability under IDEA. Although they suspected he had ADHD and may have qualified for services under Section 504, they never pursued it. T.A’s mother contacted school officials many times insisting that her son was having difficulties in school. They said that further testing would be useless as they felt it would not reveal anything that he was not already evaluated for. The district proceeded by offering no additional assistance. He soon fell further behind and experimented with drug use. T.A’s parents hired a private psychologist who later diagnosed T.A. with depression, ADHD, drug abuse, and a learning disability in mathematics. At this point, his parents removed him from Forest Grove School District and enrolled him at Mount Bachelor Academy, which focused on students with disabilities. T.A’s parents obtained legal representation, which under IDEA requested a hearing to demand that, the school district follow-up with an evaluatio... ...e school district. The support for reimbursement was present but differential review barred them from receiving reimbursement. Works Cited "Forest Grove School District vs. TA." The Oyez Project at IIT Chicago-Kent College of Law. N.p.. Web. 2 Mar 2014. . "Forest Grove School District vs. TA." Cornell University of Law. N.p.. Web. 2 Mar 2014. . Wrights, Peter. "Supreme Court Issues Pro-Child Decision in Forest Grove School District v. T.A. by Peter Wright, Esq. and Pamela Wright, MA, MSW ." Wrightslaw. N.p., 02 06 2011. Web. 2 Mar 2014. . Zirkel, Perry. "Tuition Reimbursement for Special Education Students." Future of Children. N.p.. Web. 2 Mar 2014. .

How does Hare convey the changes in Gerard McKinnon ‘s state of mind during the course of the play?

Gerard McKinnon is the protagonist of Hare’s play. He is at the principal point of the action. He is the character, which draws together various strands of the action in the plot, for example, the barrister, the police, the prison officers and the prisoners. Ultimately, he is the victim of the policing system, which â€Å"fitted him up†, the unwilling legal representatives who let him down, the bench, which sentenced him, and the prison service, which fails to protect him. Hare’s exposition starts dramatically with stage directions. â€Å" Then suddenly from nowhere they’re all there- the judge, the jury, the battery of lawyers. Hare’s powerfully dramatic opening is used to emphasise the visual impact of the â€Å"power† of the court. Gerard is juxtaposed with the legal system. Hare portrays him as being vulnerable as he is set apart from the other suspect’s Travis and Fielding through the use of lighting. â€Å" But the emphasis is on McKinnon. † The whole company is lit to show the power of the law, and then changing it to concentrate on Gerard in the midst of it all, is delicately done by Hare to represent him as the victim. Hare uses the dramatic device of a stream of conciseness in order for the audience to gauge his innermost thoughts. The repetition of the phrase â€Å" Its coming, It’s coming†, shows Gerard’s anticipation for outcome. The long sentences with many caesuras and hyphens breaking them up suggest that his fear is overwhelming him; it also indicates his panic stricken mind. Thus, encouraging the audience to view the bar in a less favourable light. The word â€Å"slowly† indicates that Gerard is experiencing disbelief that the verdict is imminent. He contrasts this feeling with the slowness of the court case building up to his moment. When Gerard’s soliloquy resumes and he is found to be guilty. He tries to not take responsibility for his actions. Hare illustrates Gerard’s detachment from his crime, with the line, â€Å"part of me thought, this is really stupid, I mean I’m not really doing this†. He remarks of the clear distinctiveness of the lawyers and the judiciary, who after the sentencing will go â€Å"home to their wives, to wine in fine glasses and the gossip of the bar†¦Ã¢â‚¬  while he, who is â€Å"the stuff of their profession† will be locked away in gaol. There is a finality and submissiveness in Gerard ending his stream of conciseness using the word â€Å"gaol†, indicating that Gerard feels hopeless and trapped. Here, Hare through the use of juxtaposition, illustrates Gerard’s discontent towards the judiciary. Moreover, Hare draws a divided society comparison of â€Å"us versus them†. The lawyers and the judiciary represent the wealth and elite, whilst Gerard represents the lowest of the social heap. Hare, uses the character Irina to give the audiences glimpses of Gerard in jail, the audience witness Gerard’s decline and despair. When Irina first visits him, Gerard, is wary of receiving a lawyers help, given that he has been let down by the legal profession before, as Sir Peter his solicitor never came back to visit him. He bluntly states that he wishes he gave him a pen for his help with, â€Å" Don’t jerk me off I’ve already come,† written on it. The crude lexical choice of the word Gerard uses, shows his complete lack of faith of lawyers and the judiciary system. However, as the conversation progresses, Gerard begins to trust Irina. He starts to view her as a friend, as there is an unconscious solidarity between them, as the are both potential victims of marginalisation. She’s a black female lawyer working in a man’s world and he faces discrimination on the basis that he is Irish. They both identify with each other’s victim status. Gerard opens up to Irina, and expresses intense fear â€Å"cos im scared. Scared, so I have to use the lavatory. † Hare uses the repetition of the word â€Å"scared† to further point out Gerard’s vulnerability in the fact that he has no one to depend on. Their conversation becomes more private with a sudden intimacy between them, which Gerard enjoys. In the last part of the scene, Gerard believes he has a friend who he can dependent upon to help him in appealing his verdict. He becomes more optimistic when Irina says that she’ll come back to see him. Yes. Yes, I’d like that. † The repetition of the word â€Å"yes† indicates that Gerard suddenly realises how much he would like to see Irina again. In Act two scene one, Hare again uses the literary device of Stream of conciseness to revel Gerard’s innermost thoughts. The audience realise that Gerard is losing hope very rapid ly and the thought of winning the appeal looks very bleak. This is illustrated when Gerard says, â€Å"Calm down, Gerard. Don’t get excited. † This shows that Gerard does not want to give into false hope. His glimmer of hope that he had with Irina seems to have faded. When Irina Visits Gerard for the last time, the audience see the decline of Gerard’s character. This scene is after the violent assault that Gerard has just experienced. Irina states that his sentence has been reduced, however, Gerard seems indifferent to the news she brings him, this reduction is not enough to save him from the brutality and crime that happens in jail. Their conversation lacks the intimacy of their earlier encounter; Gerard uses abrupt short dismissive sentences, â€Å"Thank you then. Thank very much. † To indicate that there is no need to carry on with the conversation, as all hope is gone. Towards the later part of the scene, Gerard expresses interest in read Irish books now. â€Å"When I was brought up, it was always a background. But I laughed it off†¦I’m not laughing now. † Hare leaves us with an impression that Gerard’s newly aroused interest in Irish history indicates a spark of defiance, an increased awareness that in this world it is a case of â€Å"them and us. † There is finality to the words â€Å"Goodbye, Irina. † Which Gerard uses to end the scene ,he acknowledges that Irina will probably not see him again as the court case is adjourned and that he must face his life in isolation as a victim of marginalisation.

Plug-in Hybrid vs. Pure Electric Cars Research Essay Essay

This world has prospered with gasoline cars since the late eighteen hundreds and nineteen hundreds. In fact, the world we live in today cannot stand without the benefits of gasoline-powered vehicular travel. Since the modernization of travel, the public can drive cars anywhere, including other countries, cities, streets, houses, or even backyards. The mass want of private automobiles has led to more drivers, then a huge amount of pollution, and then that familiar phrase: Global Warming. This is why we need a new alternative to the combustion engine, and there are very many ways to achieve this including plug-in cars and pure electric cars. But, to fully prevent Global Warming, our economy must run on pure clean energy. Plug-in hybrid cars have their benefits, including the ability to revert to an internal combustion engine when the battery dies, but pure-electric cars are the way to go because the battery has a much larger store of electricity and electric cars do not run on harmful gasoline; they run on clean energy. The pros of hybrid plug-in cars do not match the pros that the pure-electric car boasts. Although, there are some so-called experts who disprove this theory, and say that hybrid cars are the best way to go. A pro in the mind of Philip Dunn, a hybrid car advocate, is that â€Å"at higher speeds – above forty miles per hour – the gas motor kicks in and gives that peppy feel so many car owners look for when driving on the highway. † Another pro is that the hybrid car can â€Å"already get one-hundred mpg on fifty-five-mile trips using cobbled-together PHEVs,† (Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicle) says Ben Hewitt, another advocate of hybrid cars. The hybrid vehicle also does not produce any Carbon-Dioxide from a stop, and does not produce any Carbon-Dioxide moving at less than under forty miles per hour. These pros, nonetheless, are better than a pure-gas engine, which compares with an average 21 mpg (estimation courtesy of EPA), and produces Carbon-Dioxide all of the time that it is running. But, these pros do not scratch the surface of the pure-electric car and its wonders. The cons of the plug-in car are various. The plug-in car costs â€Å"anywhere from three-thousand dollars to eight-thousand dollars more than conventional automobiles† (Watson), but these prices will go down as manufacturers start developing more hybrids and create more competition. Until there is more research, hybrids also use up the electric engine in under five-hundred uses, which leads to more money spent replacing the un-chargeable battery. Adding onto the list is the fact that hybrid cars will still use gasoline. In order to clean up Earth, hybrid plug-in cars and their problems shall not be created. Hybrid cars are also weighed down by both engines. The two engines also instigate the problem of maintaining two engines instead of one, which will make repair cost more than gas-powered cars in certain circumstances such as a car crash that damages both engines. Both pros and cons of the hybrid plug-in do not reach the level of pure electric cars. Few cons are tacked onto the pure electric car, but those few are important. Pure-electric cars cannot drive long distance road trips without being recharged. This can take up to three-and-a-half hours in some electric cars, which isn’t good for being late to work or a party. â€Å"The beneficial trend toward more environmentally friendly vehicles has had the unintended effect of placing the blind and other pedestrians in danger,† said Rep. Edolphus Towns (D-New York, 10th) in introducing The Pedestrian Safety Act of 2008 that would protect the blind from electric cars, which are silent. These cars are also pricy, with the Tesla Roadster reaching over one-hundred thousand dollars. These cons come with a reward, though. The pros of having a pure-electric vehicle are heavier than that of its cons. With an average of 220 mpc (miles per charge [based on EPA combined city/highway cycle]), the pure-electric car can cover the average daily driver’s commute and then some. The pure-electric Tesla Roadster can reach up to â€Å"125 mph and has a 0mph-60mph in less than 4 seconds† (Tesla Motors – Tesla Roadster). Also, whenever the brakes are used to stop, you charge the engine. Another thing is that, when stopped, the car does not consume any energy. All of this and zero-emissions boost the pure-electric car to the top of the list of daily drivers and high performance gas-guzzlers. Both types of car oust that of the gas-guzzlers on the road today. Although, to provide a cleaner and more-efficient future for Earth, humans must set aside fossil fuels and use clean electric energy, which a pure-electric car uses. The public cannot make a huge change into hybrid plug-ins and then switch to full electric power; just look at the Digital Television switch that has been postponed twice because people are too lazy to go out and get a free digital cable box. The people are slow to change, which means that in order to switch before humans destroy the world, humans must first change to pure-electric energy. If humans are ready to start the massive change to clean up Earth, those humans must first stop making a new mess. Works Cited Dunn, Philip. â€Å"Hybrid Cars – Pros and Cons. † (2006) 4 Apr 2009 . Hewitt, Ben. â€Å"Plug-in Hybrid Electric Cars: How They’ll Solve the Fuel Crunch. † May 2007 4 Apr 2009 . Watson, Jerry. â€Å"Hybrids – pros and cons. † (2005-2009) 4 Apr 2009 . http://www. teslamotors. com/performance/perf_specs. php Towns, Edolphus. Introduction of Pedestrian Safety Act of 2008, April 9th, 2008.