English Research Paper Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words - 1

English Research Paper - Essay Example In each chapter of the book Gardner illustrates a different philosophical theory. In an interview John Gardner (1974) said that the purpose of writing this book was â€Å"to go through the main ideas of Western Civilization ... and go through them in the voice of the monster, with the story already taken care of, with the various philosophical attitudes (though with Sartre in particular), and see what I could do." Grendel is based on Beowulf, a Danish epic, which tells the story of King Hrothgar who is subjected to repeated attacks from the monster Grendel. For 12 years Grendel wages a guerilla-style war with Hrothgar. The king is unable to ward him off. Finally Beowulf, a stranger comes from the land of the Geats and kills Grendel, as well as Grendels mother and the dragon. Gardner begins his tale from the twelfth year of Grendels battle with the Danes. Grendel in the novel narrates the story of his life as he looks back and reflects on his life. He is drawn by the poetry and beauty of the world of humans, but is unable to escape the monstrousness in him. As Steven Wu says (2002), â€Å"he is both beast and human and despises both his bestiality and humanity with equal bitterness†. When Shaper, a poet whose evocative poetry and music shape the Dane’s views first joins Hrothgars men, Grendel is inspired by his heroic ode to hope. He is inspired to join the human race but he is m isunderstood and turned out by the humans. This makes Grendel revert to his belief in nihilism which to him means there is no purpose to existence. He becomes vengeful but continues to be haunted by the Shapers words of hope. Grendel then meets the dragon and his hopes are dashed further. Grendel again becomes the destroyer. In his journey of life he constantly confronts â€Å"meaning†. He sees Hrothgar age and as Grendel repeatedly attacks him, he sees him becoming humble and noble instead of being bitter. Wealtheow, the beautiful young queen withstands with grace her

Change models Essay Example for Free

Change models Essay Scenario Planning: Supplementing Traditional Strategic Planning It is clear the rate of change in todays work environments has been aggravating with more emphasis nowadays on smaller teams, incremental and rapid delivery, faster payback, and frequent project status reporting. This acceleration has instigated uncertainty that forced organisations to start supporting their strategic planning with a longer term perspective of planning called scenario planning or scenario thinking/analysis. Scenario Read More A Simple Method to Split a WordPress Post into Multiple Pages One of the most effective ways to increase the number of page views and decrease the bounce rate of your site is by splitting your long posts into several pages. In the first part of the article, you will learn in 2 steps how to split a post in WordPress using the codex function wp_link_pages() and the tag. In the second Read More Boosting Your WordPress Sites Performance By Enabling GZIP Compression Ever heard of GZIP? It is a simple software application that compresses/decompresses files based on an algorithm named DEFLATE. It works by finding similar strings in a text file and replacing them temporarily to make the overall file size smaller which would drastically improve the performance of your website. The algorithm perfectly works with CSS and HTML filetypes which typically Read More Improving Quality of Project Estimation It is clear that estimating a project is important for the project manager to determine how long the project would take, to figure out how much the project would cost, to decide whether the project is worth doing, to measure variances against the baseline plan, and to take corrective actions. However some project managers nowadays tend to put minimum effort Read More Avoiding Common Pitfalls of High Performance Project Teams Previously in one of my earlier articles, I discussed the key qualities required for a project manager to be effective in building a high performance project team. Believe it or not, though high performance project teams can produce incredible outcomes, there still remain some serious pitfalls that project managers need to be aware of in order not to fall victims Read More Contract Management Must-Knows For Project Managers Contract management constitutes a major component of a project procurement system. Most work done nowadays on projects involves dealing with contracts or has a contractual nature. Although some companies have purchasing departments that specialize in procurement, one of the basic knowledge and skills of a project manager is to be able to read and manage contracts. This post basically discusses Read More Understanding And Managing Your Boss The idea of â€Å"managing your boss† may sound quite unusual for some managers, considering the widespread adoption of the traditional top down management  approach in most organizations. Even though talented and aggressive managers nowadays carefully control and administer their subordinates, services, and products, they might reveal, on the other hand, a passive stand with their bosses (Gabarro and Kotter 1993). Read More Changes in Project Management Processes Between PMBOK 4 And PMBOK 5 This post presents a tabulated summary of diff erences in the names, inputs, tools, and outputs of project management processes between PMBOK 4 and PMBOK 5. Note that terms in Red which exist in PMBOK 4 have been removed or replaced in PMBOK 5, terms in Blue have been newly added into PMBOK 5, and terms in Black have not Read More Critical Analysis of Porters Five Forces Model Information Technology (IT) Industry In order to appropriately formulate their corporate strategies and distinctively compete in the market, organizations are in a need for a framework that would help them in understanding industry structure and in overcoming rivalry. This essay aims at discussing, analyzing, and criticizing Porter’s Five Forces model using a wide variety of academic literature. The first part introduces the model, discusses Read More Key Qualities For An Effective Project Manager This post describes key qualities needed for an effective project manager. It discusses the differences between leading and managing a project, explains the importance of managing stakeholders, describes how to gain influence by reciprocity, stresses on the significance of leading by example and managing by wandering around (MBWA), explores how to deal with the contradictory nature of work, and finally Read More 12345678910 Home ; Change Management ; Change Management Diagnostic Models – Case Study â€Å"Jamie’s Food Revolution† Change Management Diagnostic Models – Case Study â€Å"Jamie’s Food Revolution† April 14th, 2012 Leave a comment Go to comments This essay presents three different diagnostic models that serve as a change management guidance for organizations by helping them in considering what factors are important for this change and how these factors are interrelated together (Nadler and Tushman 1980). The main purpose of these models is to help in reducing the complexity of the change situation by identifying what change variables require attention by the organization, what sequence of activities to adopt in dealing with the change situation, and how the various organizational properties are interconnected (Ian Palmer 2009). The essay compares and contrasts Burke-Litwin, Six-Box Weisbord, and Congruence models, pinpoints their strengths and weaknesses, and then applies one of these models to the case study â€Å"Jamie’s Food Revolution†. The first organizational and causal model to be discussed is the Burke-Litwin model. The strength of this model lies on the fact that it consists of twelve key variables, at three different organizational levels (external environment, leadership, strategy, and culture at the total system level; structure, management practices, systems and climate at the group or work unit level; and tasks, motivation, needs, and values at the individual level)(Burke and Litwin 1992). The variables on the top have a stronger influence on systems than the bottom variables (Leadersphere 2008). The model is based on an open systems principle whereby it considers the external environment as an input and the organization performance as output with a bidirectional feedback between them (Jackie Alexander Di 2002). What makes this model unique is that it houses almost all of the variables considered in the 7-S, Six-Box Weisbord and Congruence models (Burke and Litwin 1992) and it also stresses on the point that changes can lead to transformational organization-wide (leadership, strategy, and mission) as well as internal transactional (management, structure, system, individual needs, tasks) dynamics which altogether affect individual and organization performance (Jackie Alexander Di 2002). Burke and Jackson (1991) demonstrated the scenario of a successful merge between two companies, SmithKline and Beecham, which concentrated on establishing a unique culture with a loose-tight behavioral leadership, and on adopting a customized Burke-Litwin model to increase its performance. This model however may impose some complexity in its usage. Dana (2004), in her study to apply this model to a quality management system, has limited her research to specific variables for this model because of the big amount of information required to be gathered on each variable. Also, a quantitative study done by Jackie Alexander Di (2002) on the model’s variables failed to reveal the hidden communication variable, which shows that this model may not foresee all organizational problems. The second model to be discussed is the one developed by David Nadler and Michael Tushman, the Congruence model. Like the Burke-Litwin model, the pragmatic Congruence model is based on the open system’s principle (input environment, transformation, output)(Nadler 1982) and deals with the organization as a whole dynamic and social system where the purpose lies in realizing the state of congruence among the various subparts or components of the organization (Nadler and Tushman 1980). The measure of organizational effectiveness depends on the total degree of congruence as a normative approach to ensure fit among these components (Hatton and Raymond 1994). Nevertheless adopting this model is dynamic (should be changed with time) and poses a lot of challenges including the management of political dynamics, the anxiety created by the change, and the control of the transition state (Nadler and Tushman 1989). Additionally, it requires special care to ensure appropriate fit between strategy and environmental conditions, as well as among the four organizational components (work, people, formal structures and process, and informal structures and processes). Burke ; Litwin (1992) state that the number of items to be matched for congruence is great and the Congruence model fails to provide a mechanism for determining which of these items are important and what level of congruence yields desirable results. For further help, several studies have presented major efforts to discuss strategies to attain the maximum congruence. Hatton and Raymond (1994) concluded with several postulates that describe how congruence can be achieved by interrelating together specific dimensions of these key variables (environment, strategy, technology, task, structure, and individual). Also, Nadler and Tushman (1989), in their view of organizations as political systems, posit that there is no general way for dealing with change. They stressed that managers should understand these political dynamics of change by diagnosing the organization’s strengths and weaknesses, developing a clear vision, creating energy within teams, and possessing active leadership, thus achieving the congruence between strategy and environmental conditions, as well as among the four organizational components.

Foundations and Earthworks Problems

Foundations and Earthworks Problems a) There are four types of foundation loads as follow: Firstly, live loads. Live loads is produced by the users of a home. Example, people, furniture, storage items. The affects of the load is exert force on almost all of a house’s. To design floor systems that limit deflection vibration. Secondly, dead load. That means, forces incurred due to the weight of all the materials used in construction of a home. For examples, roof, ceiling, floor, wall partition. The affects of the this load is a constant over the life of the structure. Big impacts on the long-term deflection/creep of framing members. Thirdly, wind load. Positives or negatives pressures exerted on a house when it obstructs the flow of moving air. The affects of wind load is depends on : location, height, and roof pitch. Fourthly, seismic load. Seismic load that means the inertial forces acting on a house due to earthquake-induced ground motions. The affects of seismic load all components of a frame and shear-resis ting elements are most affected. b) The two types of foundation are as follows: i) Pad foundation Pad foundation is normally used as foundation to building or residential building not exceeding four storeys on stiff soil such as gravel. Most of the said buildings are framed structure. The pad foundation is built if the load supported by the column is small. A pad foundation is the base of a column. The size of pad foundation depends on the size of load to be carried and load bearing capacity of the soil. The pad foundation is not suitable for large and high-rise building because it needs to carry high load, which is not practical and uneconomical. Pad foundation ii) Raft foundation Raft foundation are used to spread the load of the superstructure over a large base to reduce the load per unit one being imposed on ground and this is particularly useful where low bearing capacity soil are encountered and where individual column load are heavy. This types of slab is known as the foundation. Raft foundation can be constructed as follows: a) solid slab raft foundation Solid slab raft foundation is constructed at the entire base of the planned building. The thickness of slab depends on applied load and strength of soil at the site. b) beam and slab raft foundation Beam and slab raft foundation is required when thickness of the designed solid slab raft foundation exceeds 300 mm. The reinforced concrete slab is constructed on the ground whereas the beams are constructed on the slab at specific locations. c) cellular in raft foundation Cellular raft foundation is establishment is built on detached soil and on soil that operation to settle uncalled for case in point unmoving mining site. In such condition, the thickness of the constructed slab may exceed 1 meter, therefore the construction of cellular raft foundation is preferable. Task 2 a) The effect of water and chemicals in the soils are there is either too much water, causing the soil to swell, or not enough, or not enough, causing the soil to shrink. If all soil beneath a foundation swells uniformly or shrinks uniformly it is unlikely to cause cracks and other damage. Most differential movement is caused by differences in soil moisture. After construction, soil moisture. After construction, soil beneath part of foundation becomes wetter or drier than the rest of the soil. The chemical can seep is contaminated with toxic materials. These toxic materials can seep into ground and eventually contaminated the water. Therefore, it is important to conserve the ground water resource so that surfaces it can be used as an alternative resource in the event that surface water is contaminated or dried during dry seasons. The treatment can be done to avoid foundation failure is the treatment process depends on properties of raw water and this properties of water can be divide d into three categories; physical, chemical and biological properties. The properties of raw water depend on impurities in it. Impurities in water can be categorized into macro and micro impurities. Macro impurities are debris such as garbage, twigs, leaves and others. Micro impurities are very fine and cannot be seen by eyes. b) The effect of subsoil movement there are different constrains that cause the development of soil and rock. Furthermore that, gravity is a significant drives that draw rock parts down inclines in occasions called mass developments. Likewise, mass developments fluctuate in their rate, force, and section size. Besides, when mass developments happens quickly, they have a tendency to be the most ruinous and emotional. In this manner, rock falls happen when rock parts tumble from soak precipices. This is the speediest kind of mass developments. Along these lines, the pieces may be as small as stones or as enormous as titan rocks. Avalanches happen when a lot of detached rock joined with soil fall abruptly down an incline. Finally, The steepness of the slant may influences the sum and the span of the rock material in the avalanches. Bigger avalanches have a tendency to happen on steeper inclines and include bigger squares of bedrock. Task 3 a) The importance of underpinning work are to transfer the load carried by an existing foundation from its presents bearing level to a new level at a lower depth. Beside that, to replace an existing weak foundation. In construction, underpinning is the process of strengthening and stabilizing the foundation of an existing building or other structure. The reason for underpinning are as follows: the original foundation is simply not strong or stable enough. The usage of the structure has changed. The properties of soil supporting the foundation may have changed (possibly through subsidence) or were mischaracterized during design. The construction of nearby structures necessitates the excavation of soil supporting existing foundations. It is more economical, due to land price or otherwise, to work on the present structure’s foundation than to build a new one. b) The precaution steps before underpinning works are as follow before impleting suitable underpinning measures the accompanying vital focuses ought to be precisely went to : Firstly, the existing structure ought to be completely inspected painstakingly and proper underpinning strategy ought to be embraced. Besides, all poor stone work, for example, joints, breaks, putting ought to be amended in the recent past. Thirdly, fundamental shoring and struting ought to be carried out such that current structure is sheltered. Forward, Urgent repair like grouting of splits, insertion of pole between dividers. Other than, ought to be completed before beginning underpinning. Fifth, satisfactory consideration ought to be taken to guarantee that there ought to be no development of structure for which levels ought to be stamped. Sixth, underpinning procedure is not a science yet a symbolization ought to be practiced relying upon the circumstances. Underpinning works Task 4 a) i) Trench excavation Trench excavation in development industry is something that specialists ought to be prepared on keeping in mind the end goal to avoid disaster. So as to work securely in the region of trenches or unearthings managements and workers need to character perils connected with trenching and unearthing work, evaluate hazard and dispose of or minimize those danger in the recent past, throughout and after the execution of work. Trenches and unearthings  greatest danger is the likelihood of breakdown because of precariousness. Before starting work in a trench, unearthing or limited space on a development site laborers ought to perform an audit to figure out if it is completely important to work in the trench/exhuming, bound space. Trench excavation ii) Basement excavation A basement excavation is a development burrow performed for the mean of unpredictable out a cellar. There are a few settings in which storm cellar uncovering may be performed. This procedure is usually supervised by an experienced contractor or a basement excavation company, because it can be complicated in addition to labor intensive. While it is possible to excavate by hand, there are some serious risks which must be carefully evaluated before taking the plunge. Besides that, the best time to do a basement excavation is when a home site is being prepared. In this case, the site is already being excavated in preparation for laying the foundations. Therefore, if people want a basement, the depth of the excavation can be deepened to rough out the basement so that the basement and foundations can be form at the same time. Thus, this can be a way to add room to a structure without adding height, and some people leave the basement unfinished to cut costs while protect that they will have that space accessible at a later time if they need it. This basement was built to the same footprint as the house above, which in turn was the footprint of the pair of semis that had been there before, plus a room at the back. The planning permission limited the basement to a railway carriage-shape down the middle so the client said he would block off what he didnt have permission for to put it out of use. (No talking in the ranks, the cynical amongst you should believe that he did so). The area at this endwas for a stairwell. The area at the far end for a window well.

Madness and Insanity in Shakespeares Hamlet Essay example -- GCSE Eng

Hamlet and Insanity      Ã‚  Ã‚   William Shakespeare’s creation of the character of Hamlet within the tragedy of that name left open the question of whether the madness of the protagonist is entirely feigned or not. This essay will treat this aspect of the drama.    George Lyman Kittredge in the Introduction to The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, explains the lack of success with Hamlet’s pretended insanity, and in so doing he implies that the madness is entirely feigned and not real:    The necessity for some device like the play within the play is due to the failure of Hamlet’s assumed madness to achieve its purpose. [. . .] In Shakespeare’s drama, however, Hamlet’s motive for acting the madman is obvious. We speak unguardedly in the presence of children and madmen, for we take it for granted that they will not listen or will not understand; and so the King or the Queen (for Hamlet does not know that his mother is ignorant of her husband’s crime) may say something that will afford the evidence needed to confirm the testimony of the Ghost. The device is adopted on the spur of the moment (i.5, 169ff.), and, once adopted, it must be maintained. But it is unsuccessful. The King is always on his guard, and the Queen is not an accomplice. (xii)    The question arises: Is it truly possible to have a noble tragic hero who is indeed bereft of the proper use of his mental faculties? Doesn’t this â€Å"lack† compromise the very essence of a â€Å"noble† protagonist who is worthy of the tragic ending? A.C. Bradley in Shakespearean Tragedy staunchly adheres to the belief that Hamlet would cease to be a tragic character if he were really mad at any time in the play (30). On the other hand, W. Thomas MacCary in Hamlet: A Guide ... ....: Cambridge Univ. P., 1956.    Kittredge, George Lyman. Introduction. The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark. In Five Plays of Shakespeare. Ed. George Lyman Kittredge. New York: Ginn and Company, 1941.    MacCary, W. Thomas. Hamlet: A Guide to the Play. Westport, CN: Greenwood Press, 1998.    Mack, Maynard. â€Å"The World of Hamlet.† Twentieth Century Interpretations of Hamlet. Ed. David Bevington. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1968.    Rosenberg, Marvin. â€Å"Laertes: An Impulsive but Earnest Young Aristocrat.† Readings on Hamlet. Ed. Don Nardo. San Diego: Greenhaven Press, 1999. Rpt. from The Masks of Hamlet. Newark, NJ: Univ. of Delaware P., 1992.    Shakespeare, William. The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark. Massachusetts Institute of Technology. 1995. http://www.chemicool.com/Shakespeare/hamlet/full.html No line nos.

Bureaucracy and the Church of God Essay -- Religion

Max Weber, German sociologist, social theorist, and economist, explicated the theory of bureaucracy in which he details the monocratic bureaucracy â€Å"as an ideal form that maximized rationality† (Bolman & Deal, 2008, p. 48). He provided his most complete exposition of theory in his 1922 tome Economy and Society (Casey, 2004). This classic form of bureaucracy is characterized by the following (a) well-defined official functions; (b) specialization of function; (c) clearly defined hierarchy of offices; (d) rules governing performance, which require training to administer; (e) impersonal treatment of clients, in that all are treated equally; (f) merit as the basis of promotion or appointment; (g) compensation based on rank; (h) separation of personal and company assets and interests; (i) discipline and control of daily work; (j) files and record keeping for decisions, acts, and rules (Bolman & Deal, 2008; O’Connor, 2011). There are numerous shorthand versions of We ber’s theory including Harmon and Mayer (1986) in Organization Theory for Public Administration and Heady (2001) in Public Administration: A Comparative Perspective (O’Connor, 2011). The prime directive and raison d’à ªtre of the bureaucracy is to act as a bulwark against the forces of chaos, irrationality, and disorganization that constantly jeopardize an organization (Casey, 2004). In this sense, bureaucracy can be seen as necessary to the survival of groups. It is, however, a term that is vilified in popular culture, used pejoratively even by some researchers, and reviled as nearly blasphemous and certainly anti-democratic by many reform-minded persons. To the Weberian observer, in contrast, bureaucracy is not only as equal to all other organizational forms, but is ... ...e. Bolman, L. G., & Deal, T. E. (2008). Reframing organizations: Artistry, choice, and leadership (4th ed.). San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass. Casey, C. (2004). Bureaucracy re-enchanted? Spirit, experts and authority in organizations. Organization, 11, 59-79. doi:10.1177/1350508404039658 Nelson, R. E. (1993). Authority, organization, and societal context in multinational churches. Administrative Science Quarterly, 38(4), 653-682. Retrieved from http://web.edbscohost.com.proxy1.ncu.edu/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?sid-fd218266-afad-43b7-bfbb-5c53002cd06d%40sessionmgr14&vid=8&hid=19 O’Connor, T. (2011). Theories of bureaucracies. Retrieved from http://drtomoconnor.com/4090/40901lect02.htm Yeakley, R. (2011, February 15). Growth stalls, falls for largest U. S. churches. USA Today. Retrieved from http://www.usatoday.com/news/religion/2011-02-16-church_growth_15_ST_N.htm

Modern Political Theory

Freedom, one of our most common and powerful concepts, is used (and misused) with extraordinarily little appreciation of its significance. Not only is freedom poorly understood, but we are falsely confident that we do understand it (Dudley 24). One of my main goals in this paper, therefore, is to explain it. In order to do so, freedom ought to be understood or conceived by comparison.In preparation for these interpretations, the paper will consider very briefly the two most important conceptions of freedom on which Mill and Nietzsche build. The first and less comprehensive of these two is that of liberalism. The second, which is more comprehensive than that of liberalism, is that of Nietzsche. The purpose of this paper is to consider the relationships between the conceptions of freedom developed by Mill and Nietzsche. These conceptions, while undeniably different, are complementary.Nietzsche believed that freedom is one of the fundamental problems. But not freedom understood in conve ntional or political terms. Freedom for Nietzsche depends upon both moral virtue and intellectual virtue, yet it is neither exercised in or nor achieved through political life. That does not mean that Nietzsche's account of freedom is devoid of political implications. To the contrary, his peculiar identification of freedom with philosophy and mastery reflects a rank order of values in which political liberty and legal slavery are essentially indistinguishable—both, from the perspective afforded by the commanding heights above political life where the free spirit dwells, are equally forms of unfreedom.Addressing a â€Å"serious word† to â€Å"the most serious,† Nietzsche connects freedom to devotion to the truth (BGE 25). While he warns â€Å"philosophers and friends of knowledge† about the temptation to martyrdom involved in â€Å"suffering ‘for the truth's sake'!† (BGE 25), he nevertheless indicates that the truth is worth seeking for those fit for freedom and solitude. Whereas scientific knowledge serves life by fostering ignorance, philosophical knowledge seems to undermine life by estranging the knower from society.Whereas the scientist, a lover of ignorance from Nietzsche's perspective, is destined to a pleasant unfreedom, the philosopher, in Nietzsche's sense of the term a lover of truth, achieves an excruciating freedom through fidelity to his vocation. This fidelity consists in a measured skepticism directed toward all doctrines, accompanied by a prudent withdrawal from political life.The free spirit's knowledge and freedom are not the highest of which human beings are capable. The highest awaits the advent of a â€Å"new species of philosophers† (BGE 42-44). These future philosophers are especially characterized by the risky experiments they undertake. They probably will be â€Å"friends of ‘truth†Ã¢â‚¬Ëœ and very likely will love â€Å"their truths,† but, Nietzsche insists, they â₠¬Å"will certainly not be dogmatists† (BGE 43).By this he does not mean that the new philosophers will lack beliefs they hold to be true, but rather that they will refrain from insisting that what is true for them must be â€Å"a truth for everyman.† Yet so far from reflecting a leveling doctrine that celebrates the equality or dignity of all opinions, Nietzsche's understanding of dogmatism is rooted in the deeply aristocratic view that only the â€Å"higher type of man† is fit to hear, and to live in accordance with, the highest insights (BGE 30).While the free spirit remains the new philosopher's herald and precursor (BGE 44), there is a chasm on the opposite side between the freedom of the free spirit (der Freie Geist) and the freedom of the â€Å"falsely so-called ‘free spirits,†Ã¢â‚¬Ëœ that is, the freethinkers (Freidenker), the democrats, all the â€Å"goodly advocates of ‘modern ideas†Ã¢â‚¬Ëœ (BGE 44). Free thinkers reveal their un freedom in their â€Å"basic inclination† to see aristocratic political life as the root of all suffering and misfortune.Nietzsche discovers in the democratic interpretation of political life the same offense against truth that he claims Plato perpetrated, for it is â€Å"a way of standing truth happily up on her head† (BGE 44). Democratic freethinkers, wishing to spread material prosperity, guarantee comfort and security, establish universal equality, and most characteristically abolish suffering, are blind to the rank order of human types and hence enslaved to ignorance.What is so terrible from Nietzsche's point of view in the promotion of democratic, bourgeois notions of the good is not simply that the democratic interpretation of man is false but rather that, like Socrates' theoretical interpretation of reality and Christianity's religious interpretation of the world, the democratic interpretation cripples those of high rank by poisoning the air that free spirits b reathe.The free spirit is educated and elevated not by material prosperity but by deprivation, not by comfort and security but by fear and isolation, not by equality but by slavery, not by the abolition of suffering but by the release of â€Å"everything evil, terrible, tyrannical in man,† and not by happiness but by â€Å"malice against the lures of dependence that lie hidden in honors, or money, or offices, or enthusiasms of the senses† (BGE 44). Nietzsche knows of no interest that supersedes, recognizes no right that limits, and sees no good beside that of the higher type. This is not a matter of calculation but of principle.Embracing as his own the struggle to return truth to her feet and restore her dignity, Nietzsche defends truth's honor by challenging not only Plato but Christianity, the form in which Platonism has conquered Europe. The struggle against Christianity has opened up tremendous new possibilities; it â€Å"has created in Europe a magnificent tensio n of the spirit, the like of which has never yet existed on earth.†Note that Nietzsche not only makes philosophy, and its political reflection in Christianity, responsible for the worst, most durable, and most dangerous of all errors, but, in proclaiming that â€Å"with so tense a bow we can now shoot for the most distant goals,† he also finds in philosophy the source of his highest hope (Dudley 31). That most distant goal, which he speculates is only now coming into view for â€Å"good Europeans, and free, very free spirits,† among whom he classes himself, is a philosophy of the future.Platonism and Christianity granted human beings a sense of security as individuals. Christianity did this by promising a beatific afterlife as a reward for the proper conduct of this life. Platonism gave the individual the hope that individual limitations could be transcended by rational insight which, when fully developed, could transport the soul to an experience of the ultimate , atemporal reality. Christianity and Platonism offered the individual a sense that the activities of this life were meaningful by referring them to unchanging realities outside life.The Platonic-Christian interpretation of individual existence is, in a sense, already dead, according to Nietzsche. The members of the modern world do not really experience their lives as meaningful as a consequence of these traditions' extraworldly visions. But modern human beings who have come to believe that this world is the only world, this life the only life the individual will ever experience, are likely to be disturbed by this insight. Our Platonic and Christian background has given us the sense that our activities have meaning, yet the ground of that meaning no longer seems available.Nietzsche's version of this critique of liberalism is implicit in his discussions of decadence. For the decadent subject, it turns out, is precisely one whose will fails to be self-determining. Free willing is rese rved for, and is the determining characteristic of, the noble subject, with whom Nietzsche contrasts the decadent. Nietzsche's discussions of decadence and nobility can thus fruitfully be understood as addressing the question of the necessary requirements of a free will.Nietzsche also recognizes, like Mill, that even the most freely willing subject remains incompletely free, and that an adequate account of freedom must therefore discuss the activities that provide a liberation that willing cannot. Nietzsche's account of the limitations of willing is implicit in his critique of nobility. The noble subject manages to will freely, but nonetheless remains externally determined and so incompletely free.This incomplete freedom of nobility is overcome only by those individuals and communities able to develop the stance that Nietzsche characterizes as tragic. Nietzsche understands the development of the tragic stance required by freedom to depend upon philosophy. He thus agrees with Mill th at freedom is not only treated in philosophical works, but also produced through philosophical practice.Mill’s discussion of liberty focuses on when society may impose constraints on individuals, rather than on the nature of constraint. Accordingly, his discussion generally refers to intentional, rather than unintentional, constraints on individuals. Nevertheless, Mill believes that customs and traditions are constraining. To the extent that these are the unintentional results of human life, he is committed to the view that some constraint is unintentional.Mill has argued that the social tyranny of others which takes place in moral coercion, custom, and tradition is one of the most important constraints that people face today (Mill 1956: 7). For instance, if people express their views that homosexuality or polygamy ought to be allowed, but their neighbors and employers strongly disagree (even though the government does not), they may be constrained in their actions and lifest yles. Finding work may be more difficult; access to housing may be blocked. They may feel themselves compelled to move to other cities or countries to live. Thus, though early liberalism placed great emphasis on the limitation of freedom by physical constraint, it is false to maintain that it has only done this.Mill is simply much more sensitive than Nietzsche in recognizing that social pressure may be â€Å"more formidable than many kinds of political oppression, since, though not usually upheld by such extreme penalties, it leaves fewer means of escape, penetrating much more deeply into the details of life, and enslaving the soul itself† (Mill 1956: 7). Further, Mill’s view has been dominant amongst liberals. Morality, custom, tradition, and the law are viewed as constraints on people’s freedom. One is less free to the extent that he or she is constrained by any of these institutions.The implication of the preceding expanded concept of constraint is that any n arrow or restricted model of liberal freedom can no longer be defended. Once the Pandora’s box of constraints is opened, the thrust and momentum of this view is not to be detoured. The burden will always be placed on the person who claims not to see an obstacle by those who claim to see the obstacle and claim that their activity is hindered, retarded, or impeded by that obstacle.Some liberals have tried to stem this tide, but they fight an overwhelming flood. The thrust of liberalism is such that if an obstacle can be humanly removed, then it will be seen as inhibiting someone’s freedom if it is not removed. The upshot is an enormous extension in the number and kinds of constraints to which people are thought to be subject. The implications of this are of the first importance.There remains one essential aspect of the liberal determination of when constraints may be imposed on other individuals. How directly or indirectly may individuals impose injuries on themselves or others without being legitimately subject to restraint in the name of freedom? To decide this issue is part and parcel of the liberal attempt to define a sphere of privacy as opposed to publicity – a private realm of freedom, in which people may act, think, and relate to consenting others without constraints imposed by others. In this private realm, and only in this private realm, may that ideal of complete freedom be most fully realized.Mill refers to such a sphere of personal, private life, where society may not legitimately interfere as â€Å"the appropriate region of human liberty† (Mill 1956: 16). In this realm, Mill says, â€Å"in the part which merely concerns himself, his independence is, of right, absolute. Over himself, over his body and mind, the individual is sovereign† (Mill 1956: 13).Nietzsche's philosophical practice, however, is quite obviously not the same as Mill's. Mill’s philosophy is always systematic philosophy. Nietzschean philosop hy is resolutely unsystematic. And thus, although Mill and Nietzsche agree that philosophy has a role to play in our liberation, the liberating roles that they envision for philosophy, and consequently their conceptions of freedom itself, are significantly different.Works CitedBeyond Good and Evil, trans. Walter Kaufmann, New York: Vintage, 1966.Dudley, Will. Hegel, Nietzsche, and Philosophy: Thinking Freedom. Cambridge University Press: Cambridge, 2002.Mill, J. S. On Liberty, Indianapolis: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, Inc, 1956.

Managing Knowledge and Learning Essay

Managing Knowledge and Learning at NASA and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory Summary National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) was established by Congress on October 1, 1958, in order for the United States to keep up with the technological advancements achieved from former Soviet Union’s successful launch of the Sputnik (1957). The Apollo Era-Mission had risen from the support of John F. Kennedy’s goal, which was â€Å"landing a man on the Moon and returning him safely to Earth. † Prioritization at NASA evolved into the center’s motto of â€Å"Faster, Better, Cheaper† (FBC), which was mandated in the Goldin Era beginning in 1992. NASA shifted priorities from: 1) performance, 2) schedule and 3) cost to 1) increase mission performance, 2) cut cost and 3) work force reduction. However, this reform was not as successful as planned. From 1992 and 2000, six of 16 FBC missions failed. To address concern of the impact of failed missions and impending retirements of many of the most experienced NASA employees, Congress enforced that the agency search for the solution to Knowledge Management (KM) and promoting learning initiatives at NASA-JPL. NASA’s KM tools were mainly IT systems of Internet-based databases and portals for ease of lessons. The NASA KM crisis was attributed to the organization’s inability to document experiences of failures and successes of missions or projects; ultimately incapable of capturing the â€Å"experiential knowledge† from expert engineers and scientists. In addition, this lack in KM was due to â€Å"privatizing knowledge† and promoting creativity, that stemmed from NASA’s culture where competition among centers for projects and funding was the norm. Several KM Initiatives were developed including project libraries for document and data management, developing standards, establishing databases to find experts, ask technical questions, and to capture history and legacy reviews. 1) What were the pros and cons of the â€Å"Faster, Better, Cheaper† model? How might outcomes (both positive and negative) of projects executed with this model impact NASA’s stakeholders, i. e. Congress and the general public? The â€Å"Faster, Better, and Cheaper (FBC)† objectives were to cut cost and maximize mission performance. There were several advantages of the FBC reform. FBC allowed compressed development and launch schedules that lead to an increase in the number of missions. Mission time could be reduced from decades to a few years. The number of NASA projects increased from four to 40 under the FBC model. An increase in mission projects was thought to lead to additional discoveries so that NASA could gain further wisdom and space knowledge. FBC missions were changed from one big project to multiple smaller projects. Dividing the program into smaller projects helped to minimize the pressure and stress on the team if a mission failed. Furthermore, one mission failure did not consequently lead to the failure of the entire program. FBC practice allowed senior managers more freedom to implement FBC the way they found fit which promoted creativity and autonomy among senior managers. FBC also reduced the cost of each mission and NASA’s overall budget. For example, the Mars program budget was reduced from one billion dollars to $260 million. There are numerous disadvantages of the FBC reform. Applying the FBC model could lead to more mission failures. During the FBC era, there were 6 failed missions out of 16 FBC missions. Cost and schedule constraints, insufficient risk assessment, planning, and testing, underestimation of complexity and technology maturity, inattention of quality and safety, inadequate review processes, engineering, under-trained staff, poor team communication, and design errors all attributed to NASA’s mission failures. Projects conducted â€Å"faster† does not allow for adequate documentation, time for redlining the project, and recording lessons learned from one mission to the next. This could result in repeated mistakes that could be avoided by future missions. Missions carried out faster do not allow time for mentorship and sharing of knowledge. Also, the term â€Å"better† was not properly defined and was open to interpretation, which may negatively impact maintaining standard procedures and processes. The results of the FBC vision could impact NASA’s stakeholders in several ways. The increase in smaller successful missions would alleviate the risk of one large failure, although any failures will have a negative impact on stakeholders. Congress could be discouraged to provide support and funding for major space programs if they fail but might be more likely to fund smaller missions. The public could either lose or gain confidence, support, and belief in the space program depending on the magnitude of success or failure. FBC mission are less expensive which would decrease NASA’s budget and help satisfy both Congress and the general public by reducing the need for extra taxation by Congress and collection of taxes from the general public. 2) Why was the Mars Pathfinder project so successful? Explain how Anthony Spears management style impacted future missions. Project management was the key to success of the Mars Pathfinder project. It began as an experiment to test the validity of the FBC reform mandated in 1992 when Daniel Goldin was assigned as the new administrator of NASA. A clear and specific plan for the Pathfinder mission was laid out in the beginning and followed through until the end. Analogous to the success of Cisco’s ERP implementation, Anthony Spears, an excellent manager and thought leader with years of experience at NASA, gained the support of top management and the JPL institution (Spears, 1999). Spears developed a unique balance of an advisory committee of experts to support and guide the difficult project, while he recruited talented, yet naive, energetic youngster’s to do what some more experienced people thought impossible. As Spears writes in his lessons learned report it was â€Å"†¦a blend of bright, ambitious youth and scarred old timers, each challenged and empowered, all working each issue together†¦ † (1999). Together, they created a team that bonded and worked together successfully. Spears’ goal was not only the success of the Pathfinder project, but of the FBC program success, unlike the vision of future project managers. The success of Pathfinder did not translate well in future FBC missions. Risk management and testing were important to the Mars Pathfinder success. While the Mars Pathfinder team worked together successfully, the younger players went on to think they were great project managers themselves, but still hadn’t learned enough to manage their next missions successfully. In future FBC projects, some reasons for failure were poor team communication, inadequate or under-trained staff or insufficient testing in 70% of missions and insufficient risk assessment and planning on 86% of missions (exhibit 4). 3) One of the major issues in this case is the retirements of experts. Why is this a problem for NASA? Would it be less of a problem in a different type of organization? Suggest immediate steps that NASA could take to mitigate the problem. Explain your choices. By 2006 half of NASA’s workforce was eligible for retirement which could lead to a major loss of knowledge, especially tacit information, diminishing the collective wisdom of the organization. A senior manager at NASA states, â€Å"we have no formal process for transferring knowledge† from thought leaders to new managers and IT systems had not yet been sufficient in transferring â€Å"experiential knowledge† to the younger generation. Unfortunately, this would be true in many organizations unless they had sufficient knowledge management systems in place and a culture where sharing knowledge was valued and encouraged. In order to mitigate the problem of losing their knowledge base, NASA not only needs to continue to implement their KM strategy, but truly change the culture. Experienced project leaders and Subject Matter Experts (SMEs), such as design engineers, should openly share their knowledge and not just when asked for it. I support several of the planned KM initiatives such as the capture of information by improving documentation, development of an enterprise web-based portal, and the Knowledge Sharing Initiative (KSI) aimed at changing the companies’ culture. In addition to these activities, an exit strategy could be developed for retiring employees where they must follow standard procedures for employing case-based reasoning in an online database employing a searchable classification system. Additional knowledge could be disseminated by those eligible through training sessions. A reward system should be coupled to these exit requirements and could be increased if the employee decides to be available in the Expert Connections directory of SME’s that could be contacted for support after they leave. New positions might need to be created for dedicated knowledge managers such as Chief knowledge officers. It’s also possible that NASA could obtain some replacement of lost experts by collaborating with space programs in other countries. Collecting the information from experts must be coupled with management support of a corporate wide schema to store the data, methods of dissemination, and apply the information to ultimately make better decisions on projects that involve risking people’s lives. 4) Jean Holm had two options she could choose from: 1) upgrade the IT systems or, 2) change the culture. Which would you choose and why? Is there a third option? Explain your answer. In order for Holm’s to truly have a successful knowledge management system in place, implementation of a hybrid system should be in place; enforcing both upgrade to IT systems occurring simultaneously with changing the private culture into a shared one. Integration of both, changing the culture and IT upgrades will be a lengthy process so it would be critical to first strategically plan for cultivating and managing formal processes for knowledge transfers. Implementing formal processes such as required protocols, reports, standard operating procedures (SOPs) and work instructions for each mission or project should be enforced from every high-level management as it might help with the KM transfer crisis. Once every item has been completed by the high-level management it would be placed into the appropriate IT systems database in conjunction with the integration of the required knowledge management video synopsis from experienced engineers and scientist who exit the centers. Curriculums would be in place with learning modules with specific need encapsulating these protocols, reports, SOPs, work instructions and video synopsis would then be posted on the intranet, ready for the potential novice engineers and scientists entering the NASA work force; making the system more enriched and meaningful. 5) President Obama is implementing changes to NASA’s charter, which will create new ways of funding/executing projects than NASA is used to. Do a little online research. Do you agree or disagree in this change of direction? Explain. Caution; this is not to be addressed as a political issue) The Obama administration’s new NASA charter includes a couple of key parts: A) In February 2010, the Obama administration canceled the Constellation Program, which was started by former President George W. Bush’s administration in 2004. This program aimed to put US astronauts back on the moon by 2020, for the first time since the final Apollo mission. B) In April 2010, Obama proposed increasing NASA’s overall budget by about $6 billion over five years and shifting NASA’s aim for manned space program to Mars (from the moon). By the mid 2030s, â€Å"I believe we can send humans to orbit Mars and return them safely to Earth. And landing on Mars will follow,† he said. C) He also challenged the commercial space industry to take up the routine tasks that NASA would abandon – such as ferrying astronauts to and from the space station. I do not agree with him on the part A and Part B of the new charter. The Constellation Program is already 5 year old, and has spent $9. 1 billion. It has already made significant progress and will help America maintaining its space leadership position over Russia and China. On the other hand, I think that it will set a foundation for manned space mission to Mars. Obama’s vision of manned mission to Mars by mid-2030 does not seem realistic to me as he has not talked about its technology feasibility. However, I do agree with his plan’s Part C. I think that it will significantly reduce the cost for transporting people and cargo to and from low-Earth orbit, and might induce the rise of a true space economy.