How people are managed and how they lead Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 4000 words

How people are managed and how they lead - Essay Example Four of the eight principles are: Congruence not Incongruence, Descriptive not Evaluative, Problem not Person Oriented and Specific not Global. Explain the meaning of the concepts and using ideas from your own experience give examples of their meaning. 3 3. Read the case study and discuss the issues, in terms of supportive communication which it raises. 4 Portfolio Assignment 2 1. House, R.J. in his ‘Path Goal Theory of Leadership’ and Hersey, P. and Blanchard, K.H. in their ‘Situational Leadership Theory’ offer two contingency models of leadership. Discuss, with reference to these two models of leadership the basis upon how leaders engage with their staff to help them improve their performance and gain commitment. 6 2. Discuss the nature and components of transformational leadership. How does transformational leadership differ from the behavioural models of leadership, such as Tannenbaum, R. and Schmidt’s, ‘Continuum Model’ and Contingen cy models of leadership such as the ‘House’ and ‘Hersey-Blanchard’ models discussed above. 7 Portfolio Assignment 3 1. Analysis of the case study 9 2. Research suggests that adults do not follow a well developed set of principles when they make decisions. Discuss how leaders might reflect on  the appropriateness of a decision  in terms of ethical considerations. Give examples to support your answer. 10 Portfolio Assignment 4 1. Resistance to organisational change, particularly when the change is ‘soft’ in nature, can stem from the individual or from the organisation. Discuss the nature of, and explore the reasons why, change is often resisted. 12 2. From a management perspective how can this resistance be overcome? 13 References 14 Bibliography 17 Portfolio Assignment 1 Whetten and Cameron (2011, p261) citing Bowman (1964) write that, â€Å"Surveys have consistently shown that the ability to effectively communicate face to face is the char acteristic judged by managers to be the most critical in determining promotability†. 1. One way to improve communication is through ‘Supportive Communication†. Discuss what Whetten and Cameron mean when they define this concept of communication. Why do they consider it so important? The term ‘supportive communication’ as used in the book of Whetten and Cameron aims to highlight two characteristics of communication: the potentials of communication to help towards the achievement of the goal set and the freedom provided to both parties in order to state their views (Whetten and Cameron 2011). Supportive communication is a mode of communication that can be quite important in certain organizational events, such as interviews (Whetten and Cameron 2011). Indeed, an interview between a candidate and the employer would have more chances to lead to the development of a successful cooperation if both parties were allowed to show their concerns and their percepti ons in regard to the issues discussed during the interview (Whetten and Cameron 2011). In other words, for Whetten and Cameron supportive communication can be used for enhancing cooperation and trust in the workplace. No other mode of communication, apart from supportive communication, offers to both parties the chance to feel equal, a condition that can be quite crucial in certain cases; for example, using supportive communication an interviewer can identify the actual willingness of the interviewee to work as a member of a group (Whetten and Came

Evaluation of Rosenbergs self-esteem scale

Evaluation of Rosenbergs self-esteem scale Psychological tests are tools used to measure differences between individuals or between the same individual under different circumstances. A psychological test is an objective and standardized measure of a sample of behavior. Before a test is released, researchers have to check its reliability and validity. By the term reliability it is meant consistency of scores obtained by the same person on different occasions. Validity of a test means that it actually measures what is meant to measure. Validity of a test tells the researcher what the test is measuring. In this study, Rosenbergs Self esteem scale is examined thoroughly by first looking at what self esteem is and how it is measured. The conceptualization of self esteem as a phenomenological construct seems to be linked with its measurement. There is plethora of research on the measurement of self esteem and some studies have shown that Rosenbergs scale is valid and reliable for some samples but others find that because self esteem is an unstable characteristic its measurement cannot be reliable. Difficulties in defining self esteem are also linked to its methodological issues as some researchers define self esteem as evaluative and others as descriptive. Problems of measuring a construct like self esteem are identified in this study as well as research on what population Rosenbergs self esteem scale is found to be valid and reliable is encountered. Self esteem promotes behaviors, goals and gives individuals a sense of worth. Some theories suggest that self esteem is a basic human need or motivation. Maslows theory of hierarchy of needs included self esteem by describing two different types of esteem; the need for respect from others and the need for self respect. Without fulfillment of self esteem individuals, according to Maslow could not obtain self actualization. Robson (1989) defined self esteem as the sense of contentment and acceptance that results from a persons appraisal of ones own worth, attractiveness, competence and ability to satisfy ones aspirations. (Columbus, 2006) Rosenberg and social learning theorists defined self esteem in terms of a stable sense of personal worth. These definitions have been applied to global and specific self esteem, meaning that global is an individuals overall evaluation of himself and specific on a facet of the self such as academic competence. This is one of the problems of self report measurements. It looks at what the individual perceives of himself. If an individual perceives himself as competent then the test will result that the person has high self esteem regardless of how competent he really is. Rosenbergs self esteem scale is an attempt to achieve a measure of global self esteem. There is research evidence that this scale is useful for getting a global sense of how a person feels about himself and is a good predictor of other measures of mental health such as depression and anxiety. Unfortunately research shows that it is not such a good predictor for specific domains like academic ability. Self report is one of the most used methods for gathering information on children and adults and its consistent with theoretical concepts of how to obtain information about oneself. Of course, its not without its drawbacks. There are issues on how accessible this information is in the memory, the situations or contexts a person is when they are answering and other factors that might influence how one answers questions about himself. As mentioned earlier cognitive and affective processes are involved in how information is processed through the memory and how its retrieved at a particular moment. A method for finding reliability is based on the consistency of responses to all items in the test. Due to the cognitive and affective processes, there are biases such as self-deception that occur when accessing information. The context and the emotional state where someone is asked to answer self report questionnaire on self esteem involves the situational factors that might influence responds about the self. If for example, someone is asked to answer about his self esteem after getting a promotion it will elicit his response to feel better with himself thus with more self esteem. Self presentation also impedes a persons belief about himself as he might want to be perceived by the researchers as someone with self esteem. It is important to know if individuals are responding honestly as social desirability is a factor tha t alters feelings. These factors may be biasing the responses they are giving. Rosenbergs self esteem scale is a ten item scale that asks individuals to rate themselves using four categories (strongly agree to strongly disagree) on statements regarding their sense of self worth or confidence. The scale is perhaps the most famous and widely used measure of self esteem. It is used with children and adults and is considered to be reliable and valid measure of self esteem. The SES has been validated for use with substance abusers and other clinical groups, and is regularly used in treatment outcome studies. The scale has been validated for use with both male and female adolescent, adult and elderly populations. It has been used with francophone populations but studies about other cultural groups are debateful. That might be the case because of the fact that the concept of self is highly dependent on verbal behavior and social norms in each society. The complexity of the concept as well as the lack of theoretical agreement and empirical data has resulted in acceptin g a general definition of self esteem, which is mirrored in the broad use of Rosenbergs self esteem scale. (Columbus, 2006) Although Rosenbergs self esteem scale has excellent psychometric properties it constitutes a unidimensional scale that does not capture the complexity of self esteem. Unidimensional scales are useful for gathering information on general mental health of individuals. There are a lot of scales that measure aspects of self esteem. Researchers should use measures that are specific to the issue they are investigating whether it is a global sense of self worth or specific evaluation of competencies across a wide spectrum of behaviors. There are allot of studies examining Rosenbergs self esteem scale and their results vary. An important condition influencing the size of a reliability coefficient is the nature of the group on which reliability is measured. A study that examined further support for multidimensionality within the Rosenberg self-esteem scale suggested that Tafarodi and Swann (1995) had another perspective on the relationship of Rosenbergs self esteem scale and the concept of global esteem. They thought that global self esteem is comprised by two separate and different concepts; self competence and self liking. A study examining the psychometric properties of the Rosenberg Self esteem scale in Chinese acute coronary syndrome patients (2006) suggest that the RSES has been found associated with depression. The RSES has also been widely used to gain insight into a diverse range of areas of substantive psychological interest including aspects of gender (Huyck, 1991), aggression and family dynamics (Haj-Yahia, 2001), perfectionism (Stumpf Parker, 2000) and neuroticism (Pullman Allik, 2000). Self esteem is found to be related to basic dimensions of personality as individuals with high self esteem tend to score high on extraversion, agreeableness and openness to experience. A more complex issue is the relation of self esteem and narcissism, as they have been found to correlate. The RSES has been found to correlate well with tests of self concept (Beck, Steer, Epstein, Brown, 1990) thus supporting the construct validity of the instrument. Rosenbergs self esteem scale has been translated into a l ot of languages and is used in diverse populations. One such example is the translation and validation of the Rosenberg self esteem scale in Spanish. The study consisted of the translation, adaption and analysis of the psychometric properties of the scale in a sample of university students. The results showed that the scale presents a unifactorial structure with good levels of internal consistency and stability. Test- retest correlation was good, supporting the reliability of the scale. A recent study (2009) examining the Psychometric Properties of the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale in African American Single Mothers shows that the scale can be released to other cultural groups. The purpose of this study was because self-esteem has been identified as an important factor in the mental health of African American women. African American women unfortunately experience multiple oppressions related to both racism and sexism, which has an impact on the formation and maintenance of self-esteem. Women with this kind of background, and especially single mothers with low income are correlated with poor self-esteem (Jackson, 2003) The RSE Scale showed adequate internal consistency with an alpha coefficient of .83. Two factors that accounted for a total of 54.7% of the variance were extracted. Self-esteem showed a strong negative relationship with both depressive symptoms and negative thinking. This study provides support for the internal consistency of the RSE Scale and partial su pport for its construct validity in this population. The RSE appears to represent a bidimensional construct of self-esteem for African American women, with the cultural influences of racial esteem and the rejection of negative stereotypes forming a separate and distinct aspect of this concept. As seen above, there is empirical evidence that shows that socioeconomic status plays role in self esteem scores. It is very weakly correlated to self esteem but it seems that wealthy individuals have a bit more self esteem than working class individuals. Researchers who study self esteem generally assume that its a stable trait that predicts future behavior. Research indicates that although self esteem levels can be temporarily elevated or depressed in everyday life studies show the stability of self esteem across years. Test retest is a method for finding the reliability of test scores by repeating the identical test on a second occasion. Test retest correlation of self esteem is comparable to those found for more basic dimensions of personality such as extraversion or neuroticism. There has been research on the stability of self esteem and it seems that it is high in childhood, falls in adolescence and increases during adulthood. A study made in 2006 by Quilty Oakman Risko suggest that although Rosenbergs self esteem scale was developed as a global self esteem factor, there is mixed support for its unifactorial structure. Many investigation of the structure of the scale used factor analysis. Factor analysis was developed as a mean of identifying psychological traits and is used for analyzing the interrelationships of behavior data. Hensley and Roberts (1976) found that an exploratory factor analysis of the scale results in two factors, consisting of the positively and negatively worded items which reflected an underlying response set. A study looking at the norms and construct validity of RSES in Canada suggests that Kaplan and Pokomey (1976) found that while there was a strong unitary factor in the scale, research showed a two factor solution with positively worded items and negatively worded items. These factors were called defense of individual self worth and self derogation accordingly. In 1990 another s tudy looked into the two factor structure of Rosenbergs self esteem scale and studied 1,700 adults in the USA and found the same results. They also argued that the scale can be regarded psychometrically coherent with a unitary structure. These findings indicate that the RSES is a reliable and potentially valid scale for use with Canadian high school students of all ages (Bagley Bolitho Bertrand ,1997) Another study compared Rosenbergs self esteem scale with Coppersmiths self esteem inventory with people with eating disorders. Researchers wanted to see which test would fit best in measuring self esteem so they measured the validity of both tests. The study found that Rosenbergs self esteem scale had better construct and convergence validity than the Coppersmith self esteem inventory at the particular sample. It is obvious that reliability and validity in some samples might not be granted. Reliability is the consistency of scored obtained by the same sample when they are reexamined with the same test on different occasions. Test reliability indicates the extent to which individual differences in test scores are attributable to true differences in the characteristics under consideration and the extent to which they are attributable to chance errors. When the differences are not true they are called error variance and this is a possibility when measuring self esteem. The researcher would have to test the correlation coefficient of two sets of scores. As we can see from studies mentioned when researching the self, the methodological issues are difficult. The researchers should examine each tests reliability and validity before releasing it to the public. The problems of measuring a construct like self-esteem apply on nearly all of the studies that measure elements of the personality. Some researchers assume that phenomena that occur at the cognitive level will be manifested by behaviors that can be observed and measured. Other researchers suggest that behaviors should not be used to measure personality traits because we are unable to determine what cognitive processes might be affecting that trait. They argue that constructs like self-esteem should not be studied because there is no clear way to measure them or even know if you are measuring the right thing. As the majority of the theories suggest, individuals develop their self and self-concept through social interaction. There may be some innate cognitive process that is modified by social interaction or just social interaction, but either way people display behaviors and express opinions about who they are, from a very young age. For this reason it is important that psychologists be able to study and measure this phenomenon. Future work needs to address the issues of theory, definition, and methodology that have remained unresolved across the centuries. A consensus on these issues will lead to better measurement and a better understanding of how self-esteem influences the mental health and behavior of individuals.

Pakistans Relationship with IMF and World Bank Essay -- Pakistan Econ

Pakistan's Relationship with IMF and World Bank My topic deals with Pakistan, its relationship with the IMF and World Bank, and its internal problems that are causing unemployment, poverty, economic crisis and hunger. I shall be analyzing the situation using the neo-classical theory, as it is what the economists of the Pakistan government and the IMF are using to alleviate the economic instability of the country. Situated in the sub-continent, Pakistan is a low-income country, with great promise for growth. Unfortunately, it is held back from reaching middle-income status by chronic problems like a rapidly growing population, sizable government deficits, a heavy dependence on foreign aid, recurrent governmental instability and large military expenditures. It is to address these fundamental faults in Pakistan’s economy that the IMF has initiated the Structural Adjustment Programs (SAPs) in the country. This is discussed in further detail later in the paper. Like all developing countries, Pakistan’s population is largely employed in the agricultural sector, which accounts for about 48 percent of the labor force. In today’s world the Industrial and Service sectors are the largest growing areas of a developed county’s economy. Yet Pakistan only employs 39 percent of its population in Service, and a minute 13 percent in Industry. This is a paltry figure, compared to the employment statistics of a developed country. Pakistan is also heavily dependent on a single export crop, cotton. Hence the country’s fortunes rise and fall with the cotton market. It is no wonder that there are so many poverty stricken people in Pakistan. When almost half the population is involved in a very volatile market, a lot of the time, a lot of people will be burnt by price fluctuations. The country is also subject to the mercy of the weather. Focussing on a major cash crop means very little diversification. This translates to mass hunger and hard times for the agricultural sector whenever the agrarian lands are ravaged by floods, or conversely, by droughts. Even more importantly, Pakistan’s agricultural sector is marked by large landowners, controlling most of the production. Hence, only a minimal amount of the profit from exports goes to the poor people working for the large farmers. It is these people who constitute a large portion of P... ... what appears to be an inevitable crash of its economy. The situation of the poor and under privileged could also be alleviated eventually as long as the government decides to start spending money on developing an infrastructure that can help feed the hungry by providing them with jobs. Nevertheless, there are no easy options left. Only the painful ones remain. It is, however, important that the pain of reform be distributed equitably, and not born largely by the poorer classes, as is very often the case. There are tough times ahead. Unfortunately, there is little evidence that the Pakistani ruling elite is aware of the gravity of the situation; or that it has what it will take to steer the country out of its mess. Bibliography: Bibliography: Andleeb Abbas, ‘Pakistan: A Puppet on the IMF Chain’ M Sharif, ‘IMF tranche $280 mn: Prof. M Rashid, ‘Fracturing Social Change’ IMF online resources World Bank online resources Pakistan Budget Report, 98-99 Dialogue between IMF and Pakistan, ’99 Lappe, Collins, Rosset, Esparza, ‘World Hunger’ Prof. Dr. M.A. Hussein Mullick, ‘Pulling the country out of its present financial crisis: the challenge for the present regime’

Paper on ICD-9-CM, Essay

The International Classification of Diseases, Clinical Modification (ICD-9-CM), is used in assigning codes to diagnoses associated with inpatient, outpatient, and physician office utilization in the U.S. Volume 1: The numeric listing of diseases, classified by etiology and anatomical system, as well as a classification of other reasons for encounters and causes of injury. This is called the tabular section of ICD-9-CM. Volume 1 is used by all health care providers and facilities. Volume 2: The alphabetic index used to locate the codes in Volume 1. Volume 2 is used by all health care providers and facilities Volume 3: A procedural classification with a tabular section and an index. This set of procedure codes is used only by hospitals to report services. Category I: Procedures that are consistent with contemporary medical practice and are widely performed. Category II: Supplementary tracking codes that can be used for performance measures. Category III: Temporary codes for emerging technology, services and procedures. It is important to become familiar with each category and how the codes will be used. It is also important to know when codes from another system, such as HCPCS Level II, are required. Category I codes are the five-digit numeric codes included in the main body of CPT. Category I is the section that coders usually identify with when talking about CPT. These codes represent procedures that are consistent with contemporary medical practice and are widely performed. Category I codes are updated annually and are broken down into six sections. 1. Evaluation and Management 2. Anesthesiology 3. Surgery 4. Radiology 5. Pathology and Laboratory 6. Medicine Evaluation and management codes are the most commonly billed codes in medicine. These are the codes for every office visit/encounter a physician has with a patient. V codes are used to describe encounters with circumstances other than disease or injury. V codes are used either as a first listed or contributing code depending on the situation. E codes are supplemental codes that capture the external cause of injury or poisoning, the intent and the place where the event occurred. E codes are intended to provide data for injury research and prevention strategies. E codes are never to be used as a primary diagnosis code. The HCPCS level II is a comprehensive and standardized coding system that describes classifications of like products that are medical in nature by category for the purpose of efficient claims processing. For each HCPCS code, there is a descriptive terminology that identifies a category of like items. These codes are used primarily for billing purposes. Level I, are based on and identical to CPT codes, the codes developed by the American Medical Association. Reference http://www.medicalbillingandcodingu.org/icd-9-cm-coding-overview/ http://www.cms.gov/Medicare/Coding/MedHCPCSGenInfo/index.html?redirect=/MedHCPCSGeninfo/

Beyond the Ordinary Bloody Hell Drama Essay

Beyond all human endeavors to attain their highest human potential; be it during grief, war, abundance, injustice, among others, is the rule that no matter what, â€Å" always do the right thing. † In this particular paper, I have chosen William Shakespeare’s work â€Å"Hamlet, Prince of Denmark† as well as Oscar Wilde’s â€Å"The Importance of Being Earnest† as the two main plays for my essay. I have a particular interest in these two plays by two different authors, because the two radiates social and moral themes, which I think is more interesting. â€Å"Hamlet† for example, conveys the message of revenge as evil and could result to unintended consequences. â€Å"The Importance of Being Earnest† posits an emphasis on the importance of being Earnest (since this was paramount during the Victorian era), which I would later on mention in my succeeding discussions. However, I have chosen the two plays because of its contrasting theme-satire vs. tragedy. I was particularly interested in the way the two plays (in different themes) could stir up moral-social values and messages. ‘Hamlet† is a story of oozing portrayal for vengeance (Shakespeare as cited in The Literature Network, 2000). Hamlet accidentally killed Polonius, after he thought that it was Claudius (the new King of Denmark). Look more:  satire in the importance of being earnest essay He intended to avenge the death of his father on Claudius. However, after the accidental killing of Polonius, Ophelia (the daughter of the latter who loved Hamlet despite the hatred she felt for him) and Laertes (son of Polonius, brother of Ophelia), were especially furious on him and planned to kill him to avenge the death of their father. It was the latter who carried on the plan since Ophelia was prevented by her love for Hamlet. On the course of their pursuit for revenge, all Hamlet and Laertes gain was the unintended consequence of their actions. The first accidentally killed Polonius instead of the king, as cited by Shakespeare (n. d): Hamlet: â€Å"How now? A rat? [draws] â€Å"Dead for a ducat, dead†! Polonius: [Behind the Arras] â€Å"O, I am slain†! [Fall and Dies]. (Shakespeare p. 150) Laertes, on the other hand, instead of killing Hamlet, was killed by his own sword as mentioned by Shakespeare (n. d): Laertes Why, as a woodcock to mine own springe, Osric; I am justly kill’d with mine own treachery. (Shakespeare p. 246) The message however of the play conveys that, revenge is not always the right thing to do, no matter how badly you’ve been hurt by someone. This is conveyed in the play of Shakespeare (n. d), when Laertes spoke to Hamlet: It is here, Hamlet: Hamlet, thou art slain; No medicine in the world can do thee good; (Shakespeare p. 247) On the other hand â€Å"The Importance of Being Earnest† portrayed the story of two characters (Jack and Algernon) that had employ deception for their convenience; Jack using the name Ernest and Algernon having an imaginary friend named Bunburry. The two employed deception to attain their ends (for Jack to be engaged to Gwendolyn and Algernon used Bunburry as an excuse to leave the country). Later on, Algernon also made-up a story that he was Ernest, to propose to Cecily. It was found out later on in the story that smoke has its way of escaping; the deception did not last long, it was soon discovered by the girls including Lady Bracknell (Gwendolen’s mother) that Ernest was just an imaginary person whose name was used by two persons (The Importance of Being Earnest, 2000). To cover all these mistakes, the two men were told to do the right thing to redeem themselves from the wrath of their fiancees. The two plays had some common grounds. Firstly, both plays were guilty of committing the â€Å"law of unintended consequence† of their actions. Hamlet is a story about revenge, but people who seek revenge for the death of their loved ones (Hamlet and Laertes), were not prepared for the unintended consequence of their actions. As the tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark it says: â€Å"A villain killed my father†¦I his sole son, would do the same villain†¦Ã¢â‚¬  (Shakespeare as cited in etext. library, n. d). However, it was not anticipated by Hamlet that the man he killed was not the King. Clearly, Hamlet had mistaken Polonius as King Claudius. Moreover, when Laertes avenges the death of his father, he was killed by his own sword. The result of their plans was different since they were not familiar with the possible consequences of their actions, because experience wise, they’re not raised to slay somebody out of hatred and vengeance. As was mentioned previously, Jack and Algernon also did not expect the law of unintended consequences of their deception. It had evoked a lot of fantasies from the women, and led to conflict when both women assumed that they were both engaged to the same man named Ernest. One of the lines in The Importance of Being Ernest (2000) showed this conflict: Gwendolen. [Quite politely, rising. ] My darling Cecily, I think there must be some slight error. Mr. Ernest Worthing is engaged to me. The announcement will appear in the Morning Post on Saturday at the latest. Cecily. [Very politely, rising. ] I am afraid you must be under some misconception. Ernest proposed to me exactly ten minutes ago. [Shows diary. ] (p. 43) A â€Å"civilized war† in which flaring emotions were dealt not through aggression, but tensions over words and manners exist between Cecily and Gwendolen when they unmistakably thought that they were engaged to the same man named Earnest. The next comparative point for the play is the emphasis on doing the â€Å"right thing. † If King Claudius respected the life of the former King, Hamlet would not have thought of revenge, same as Polonius. However, they neglect to pay respect to the lives of these people, hence, one mistake leads to another. Vengeance could not be the right thing to do; since social laws are present (this is the function of law in every society-to ensure harmony and control towards equilibrium). The other play (†¦Being Earnest) was in fact clear about choosing the â€Å"right thing† to do. First, being morally right is the â€Å"right thing† to do. Take for example the line of Algernon after his conversation with Lane. The first stated that, what use the lower class would be if they don’t set good example; when they are in fact a class to have no sense of moral responsibility. Gwendolen believes that style, not sincerity is more important (The Importance of Being Earnest, 2000). This was depicted in the story when the Gwendolen and Cecily, instead of pouring out their hatred and contempt to each other, chose to have a â€Å"civilized war† because it is the â€Å"right† thing to do-impression management is more important than sincerity. Respect was also of significance in Hamlet. The play conveyed that whatever wrong a person has caused on you, it is still wrong for you to wish for his death, much more kill him. Killing someone had never been right, much more, seeking vengeance and putting the role of law on your own hands as what Hamlet and Laertes did. The third point of comparison for the two plays is their similarity in portraying conflict. Conflict usually occurs over the competition of highly valuable scarce resources. While Hamlet was a tragic play, it evoked conflicting interest between King Claudius and Hamlet’s father. Shakespeare (n. d) illustrated this scene through the following lines: Ghost: A serpent stung me; so the whole ear of Denmark Is by a forged process of my death Rankly abused: but know, thou noble youth, The serpent that did sting thy father’s life Now wears his crown (Shakespeare p. 14) The two were in conflict over the reign of the thrown in Denmark. It should be noted that conflict would either result to a positive or a negative consequence. Take for instance the case of King Claudius and Hamlet’s father; their conflicting interests enable King Claudius to kill his brother to take over to his thrown as the King of Denmark. On the other hand, The Importance of Being Earnest posits a deeper conflict between classes. In the way upper classes looked at marriage, wealth and the importance of superficial personalities to retain their pleasant status. Despite any wrong done, upper classes have their ways of doing the â€Å"right† thing, which they themselves have imposed. Lady Bracknell touches on the issue when she states, that: â€Å"pleasant or not, an engagement should be given to a girl through a surprise† (The Importance of Being Earnest, 2000: p. 43). Upper class has a standard way of looking at marriage-in fact they looked at it as a business transaction. Hence, marriage for the upper class is a way of showing social position, character and â€Å"taste† for marriage. This was however seen in the words of Gwendolen when she said sugar is being out of fashion and cake is not in best houses where it used to be seen (The Importance of Being Earnest, 2000). Cecily put sugar and cake on Gwendolen’s plate as otherwise requested by the latter. The two girls were actually insulting each other, but chose to do it in a more subtle and superficial way; that nobody could hint they were relatively furious with each other. Always doing the right thing is the best way to deal with hatred, happiness, and conflict, and extreme emotions. I have proved this right when Hamlet chose to revenge the death of his father instead of trusting the law of society to punish King Claudius. His revenge leads one way to another when other person was being killed, living the latter’s family in grief and the son to be also planning for revenge. On the other hand, I had also proved that doing the right thing is the best way to settle misunderstandings and feud. In Being Earnest, deception was used at first, and it was soon found out that it could create great complication; not only, people doing the deception gets into trouble but also the people in whom they had applied their deception as in the case of Gwendolen, Cecily and Lady Bracknell. Also, doing the right thing could be the best way to avoid negative consequences of conflict (e. g following the rule of transition to the throne in the case of Hamlet). Above all things, the two plays were great, since, errors were recognized and even if the right thing to do was not done immediately, the characters came into their senses and recognized that what they have done might be corrected. With the right attitude towards things as well as with the values that guide human character, one might not go wrong if s/he just lived with these and chose to always do what is â€Å"right† for everybody. â€Å"Hamlet† is indeed a great play, depicting many facets of the test of character amid hatred and betrayal. In the Importance of being Earnest, it was personal volition to use deception, but in the end, the choice to be â€Å"right† for the sake of harmony prevailed. References Hamlet. (2004). TeachWithMovies. com, Retrieved, January 20, 2008, from http://www. teachwithmovies. org/samples/hamlet. html The Importance of Being Earnest. (2000). CliffsNotes. com. Retrieved, January 20, 2008, from http://www. cliffsnotes. com/WileyCDA/LitNote/The-Importance-of-Being-Earnest. id-29,pageNum-31. html (IMPORTANT)