Satirical Elements in “Slaughterhouse-Five”

Kurt Vonnegut uses a variety of elements including satire which he was credited with being a master of, in â€Å"Slaughterhouse-Five† where he tells the story of Billy Pilgrim. The book is loosely based on Vonnegut’s experiences during the firebombing of Dresden in World War II. The literary element in â€Å"Slaughterhouse-Five† that I will focus on is this paper is his element of satire. Even the plot of this novel can be found to have satire in it. This main character Billy Pilgrim becomes unstuck in time after being abducted by aliens from the planet Tralfamadore where he is mated with a porn star. I even found satire in that Billy Pilgrim, was a bumbling and unlikely hero character. The fictional alter ego Billy Pilgrim was born in 1922, which if you happen to know about Vonnegut’s life, he too was born in 1922. I find satire in his Vonnegut’s fictional author, Kilgore Trout. It is rumored that this â€Å"Kilgore† could have been anyone from author Theodore Sturgeon, science fiction author Philip K. Dick or even Vonnegut’s own alter ego. Readers could find satire in the circumstances of the death of character Edgar Derby. Edgar was among the survivors of the war of Dresden and was engaged in the clean-up activities. The imprisoned soldiers were instructed to use flame-throwers to burn the bodies and the ruins of the war left in Dresden. Derby then gets shot by a guard for simply taking a teapot from the ruins after Derby had survived the fire-bombing of Dresden during World War II. In one part of â€Å"Slaughterhouse-Five,† we find an inebriated Billy Pilgrim entering his car while desperately trying to locate the missing steering wheel to the car and the readers are then clued in that he has entered the back seat area of the car. In another part of â€Å"Slaughterhouse-Five† Billy Pilgrim becomes unstuck in time while watching television. We read as Billy then watches a war film backwards and then he watches it forwards. During the wedding night to his wife Valencia, he first travels from the zoo on Tralfamadore. Billy wakes up only to find himself in a German prison camp. Upon returning from the bathroom, he finds himself back with his wife. Billy goes to sleep again only to wake up on a train to his father’s funeral. The story used satire and dark humor somewhat interchangeably at points. A kind of ironic satire perhaps could be found when Billy’s American compatriot Roland continues to hit Billy because he feels Billy is moving too slowly. The German soldiers or â€Å"the enemies† then arrive and rescue Billy from further mistreatment from his American compatriot. Billy’s fear of being displayed naked in the zoo could be satire or associated with Billy (or Vonnegut) not yet feeling comfortable in revealing his personal thought processes at this time. He could have been aware enough that he realized he didn’t want to be exposed for who he really was at that point in his life or that point in his mind. One could count it political satire when Vonnegut includes bits denegrading U. S. foreign policy and the U. S. Army in general. Vonnegut also satires egocentricity. I suppose some of the satire can be seen in how Billy Pilgrim criticizes those who are not assertive, those who are not in control of their lives. However, throughout the novel, even when Billy knew the plane was going to crash he said nothing and did nothing. He just let the flow of events happen. At this point he still felt as if the moment is structured and one cannot alter the moment. It wasn’t until the end when Billy has brain surgery he changes from being indifferent towards life to being proactive. It wasn’t until the brain surgery that Billy showed initiative and actively helped others. One could see satire in that in his normal state without surgery Billy was a passive member of society. It wasn’t until brain surgery, the positive changes or proactive changes begin to occur in Billy’s life.

Mastectomy for Ductal Carcinoma insitu, impact on patient Essay

Mastectomy for Ductal Carcinoma insitu, impact on patient - Essay Example In fact, DCIS accounts for approximately 20% of all new breast cancer and precancerous condition diagnoses (Clause Stowe & Carter 2001). With or without treatment, DCIS patients have a very high survival rate; and, for most women diagnosed with DCIS, it is not considered to be a life-threatening condition. Mastectomy is the preferred, and most effective, treatment option for DCIS patients (Katz et al. 2010). However, there is currently very little research regarding how patients are actually affected by choosing mastectomy to treat DCIS; and, since the number of new DCIS diagnoses is continuing to increase, much more research is needed. DCIS, also called intraductal carcinoma, is a condition whereby the cancer cells develop in the milk ducts of the breast and have not moved out of the duct into any of the surrounding tissue (National Institute of Health 2009). As mentioned above, there is disagreement as to whether or not DCIS should be called cancer; and, some experts often refer to it as "stage zero breast cancer" ( Harris & Morrow 2009). Even though DCIS itself is not considered to be harmful, it is a known risk factor for invasive breast cancer (Zuckerman 2009). While most DCIS patients do not develop invasive breast cancer, approximately two percent (2%) of DCIS cases show evidence of metastases and an even smaller percentage of cases do actually develop into invasive breast cancer (Cornfield et al. 2004). Certain biomarkers may help to identify whether DCIS patients are at high or low risk of developing invasive breast cancer; however, more research is necessary to make more accurate risk predictions (Welch et al. 2008). Currently, however, there is no way to determine or predict which DCIS cases will in fact develop into invasive breast cancer. This paper will try to determine the available information on the rationale for selecting this modality; explore literature regarding the physiological/biological basis of the treatment or how the treatment manage s the disease, critic the impact this treatment had on the individual and the nurses’ role in addressing this, and consider how the patients’ experience could have been improved. Discussion Overview: Even without treatment, most women diagnosed with DCIS do not go on to develop invasive breast cancer. DCIS patients that do opt for treatment have surgical options, the most common being lumpectomy (with or without radiation therapy) and mastectomy. Lumpectomy followed by radiation therapy and mastectomy have the same high survival rate of 96% and above; however, mastectomy does have a slightly lower recurrence rate than lumpectomy with radiation which has a lower recurrence rate than lumpectomy alone (Holmberg et al. 2008; Hughes et al. 2009). Other factors have been found to affect DCIS recurrence rates

How the World Crises Happened and What are the Causes Essay

How the World Crises Happened and What are the Causes - Essay Example The resultant was a steep fall in both personal and corporate credit. This multiplied with the fast recession that occurred in the housing and the construction markets. The financial institutions especially the investment banks have been lending to each other at lower rates. The reason is that the banks have been well aware of the solvency of other institution and don’t want to take the high risk rather they want to keep the cash reserve for themselves. As lending by the bank lowered due to the economic instability, the bank increased the borrowing cost to increase the operational revenue. This strategy was taken by the banks in order to maintain a sustainable business operation in the financial market. The company undertaken for discussion is Barclays PLC. The company is a multinational bank of Britain. It operates in the financial sector and is headquartered in London. The operations of the organization spread over 50 countries and territories. The company emerged as the fou rth largest in terms of total assets in the year 2010. The organization has got two business clusters namely retail and Business Banking as well as Corporate and Investment Banking. The company is listed in the London Stock Exchange. How the crises happened and what are the causes The collapse of the U.S. housing market regarded as the housing bubble is characterized as one of the prime reason for the situation to occur. The collapse resulted in a surge of default of mortgage loans (World Health Organization, 2009). The collapse of the real estate market and the subprime mortgage market of the U.S. can be held responsible to spread the severe effects of the crisis. Uncertainties accrued in the financial system. The creditors became inclined to pull out their funds and cashed out the securities issued by the financial institutions. The situation thus caused led to shutting down of many institutions while others just managed to survive. The loan and credit facilities available from th e banks dried up. The investors began to dump their holdings and the obvious situation was a downturn in the share market. In order to create securitization, the banks started to borrow more money. The dependency of the banks on the savers can only be felt when the banks are not able to pull out by selling loans on the basis of securities. Some of the banks launched to buy securities which increased the exposure of the banks towards risk. When the problem got realized, the process of lending got slowed. Some of the banks were on the verge of the riskiest loans which was beyond the intention of the investors. The lenders fell upon to take back their loans. The investment banks fell drastically as they had no or little deposits. The problem got intensified and even the banks with large capital reserves began to feel the pressure. They turned to the government for support. The banks began to feel nervous to loan out the injected money and the shrinking banks sucked money out of the eco nomy. In spite of the fact that the global financial crisis has shown its effects a year ago, yet the prime banks of UK were able to accrue a profit in the second quarter of the financial year 2009 in the area of non-recurring items. The retail business of Barclay got affected along with the top three banks of UK. In the middle periods of the year 2009, Barclays reported that profit has  decreased far more than what it was in mid-2008.  

Thinking like a economist the basic vocabulary of the field Case Study

Thinking like a economist the basic vocabulary of the field - Case Study Example The position on the supply side is that college education instills the knowledge and ability the individual requires in attaining the desired quality of human capital. Additionally the demand side of college education on human capital provides that college education establishes an environment for research and development, and as such, the practicality of the human capital develops. These research and development activities require human capital and, therefore, the human capital available in colleges employed to accomplish this (Frank, New York Times). However, in order to produce an economy requires a combination of other factors such as land and labor. Although this may be true, and given the limited resources a production possibility curve becomes essential in order to identify maximum productivity. A production possibility curve is the maximum output level attainable from the combination of existing resources. This implies the efficient and wholesome use of the available resources . A variation in the factors of production leads to the inward or outward shifts in the production possibility curve depending on the effect of the variation. An inward shift in the production possibility curve implies a reduction in the factors of production, therefore, limiting the output. ... Another instance where the curve can shift inwards is during times of war where the resources aimed at production become rechanneled to facilitate the war and, therefore, reducing factors used in production leading to reduction of production. Conversely, an outward shift in the production possibility curve depicts economic growth. According to Bouman (Principles of Macroeconomics) economic growth results in the attainment of greater economic levels as a result of an increase in resources employed in production. An increase in land, capital labor or raw materials supports economic growth. Similarly, improvement in the utilization of resources for production such as technological advancement or training can also result in economic growth. On the other hand, devoting more resources to investment than to consumption increases the capital factors of production, therefore, resulting in an economic growth and an outward shift in the production possibility curve. Granted that the production process efficiently utilizes the available capital in order to operate on the production possibility curve, it is imperative that economic growth requires an increase in capital. Devoting more resources to investment, therefore, produces this effect. Although preference to consumables increases utility and provides happiness, it does not result in significant shifts, in the production possibility curve as an investment would do. An outward shift in the production possibility curve is desirable in any economy as it increases the potential of the economy to increase its production. Although the shift does not necessarily imply actual production, it depicts a potential increase in production but due to inefficiencies and unemployment in the economy the growth

Education - Diversity and Inclusion Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Education - Diversity and Inclusion - Essay Example It will also influence how different stakeholders – parents, teachers, students, administrators, and central office personnel – act and are held accountable. Culture describes the things people create to help them live effectively in their world: language, gestures, tools, rituals, ceremonies, and music are good examples. So are art, music, and fashion. By developing these things in unique ways, people and groups create cultures and cultural identity (Queensland Government, 2008). Multicultural education seeks to reconcile the good things about cultural identity (unity, history, protocol, mutuality of goals) with the sometimes bad things about cultural identity (fear of different groups, resultant hostility, violence, and other poor treatment). Banks and Banks (1995) explain that multicultural education wants to provide a level field of opportunity for all students, from all racial, ethnic, social, and cultural backgrounds. It recognizes and embraces a pluralistic society, and teaches students skills they need to operate effectively in such a society. It recognizes groups that have been marginalized in the past, and challenges established ideas, theories, and content from traditional disciplines. Multicultural education can help address cultural differences and biases in our schools. This is because of its far scope: Gomez (1991) calls multicultural education â€Å"a perspective rather than a curriculum.† He implores teachers to consider students’ cultural backgrounds and to explore and refine their own thinking about cultural groups. Gomez suggests helping school members learn to identify when someone from a cultural group is being victimized because of their membership there. Enhancing the self-concept of members of cultural groups is important. Members of these groups must believe that cultural differences do not make them less valuable as members of the school community (Gomez, 1991). Also, attempts must be

Qualifications of arbitrator 1 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 5000 words

Qualifications of arbitrator 1 - Essay Example But the case may be different in the laws of other countries. The English Arbitration Act 1996 (EAA 1996) is distinctive from most other national arbitration laws, say, in comparison with its predecessor, the former Act 1950. The law does not provide for any general qualifications for an arbitrator. In Saudi Arabia, there is a quite detailed set of qualifications for the arbitrator taking into consideration the elements of the Saudi Arbitration Law 2012 (SAL 2012) and also the Islamic Sharia (Sharia). Under Sharia, the scholars’ views may vary due to the absence of such provision either in Quran or Sunnah (the two main sources of Sharia). Whilst it is seen by some scholars that it is necessary for strict requirements to be stipulated for whom is selected as an arbitrator, all of these requirements are not mandatory according to the view of some contemporary scholars. The essential aim for this section is to analyse and discuss two aspects. First, the qualifications of arbitrat or stipulated by law. Second, the freedom of parties to determine additional qualifications. This will be carried out in the context of the EAA 1996, Sharia, and the SAL 2012. 1. Qualifications of Arbitrator as Stipulated by Law The English Arbitration Act 1996, like many Western arbitration laws, provides a high degree of freedom for arbitration parties3. This is the case as long as the impartiality of the arbitrator is established. Under this Act, the only restriction is if the chosen arbitrator is a judge of the Commercial Court or Technology and Construction Court of England and Wales. In this instance, an additional approval from the Lord Chief Justice is required.4 The prescribed qualifications, hence, are simple and straightforward, which is markedly different from Sharia or the SAL 2012. Sharia prescribes several qualifications that should be met in the chosen arbitrator. This provides for a system that are bound to have different interpretations. Scholars, for instance, hav e different opinions regarding the qualifications that should be met in an arbitrator based on whether the requirements of an arbitrator are those for the judge or not. Most scholars of the four schools (Maliki, Shafi', Hanafi and Hanbali) see that the qualifications for the arbitrator are those required for a judge.5 This view is dominant on account of the fact that the arbitrator carries out the same function as that of a judge, which includes hearing the litigants and issuing the Judgement. 6 78 In the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, due to the dominance of Sharia on its laws as it is the constitution of the Kingdom,9 many writers believe that the Saudi courts require the arbitrator to meet the qualifications of a judge as it is the view of the majority doctrine in Sharia.10 This is in addition to the qualifications stated by the SAL 2012.11 On the other hand, some scholars as Ibn Taimiyah12 and Ibn Hazm Aldhaheri 13 maintain the position that the qualifications of a judge are not neces sarily required for an arbitrator. Therefore, they believe any Muslim can be an arbitrator. The differences, hence, becomes problematic especially in the event of a challenge to an arbitration decision or its implementation. The Sharia law in this paper will refer to the Saudi Law for purposes of clarification. As what has

Employee Rewards Essay Example for Free

Employee Rewards Essay Introduction The purpose of this essay is to critically examine the processes used by Scotia Learning and identify if their rewards are appropriate to those of the market. The report will begin by discussing the background of Scotia Learning and follow on to define reward management highlighting the objective and constraints within the reward strategy. We will then consider the legal framework and examine why there are variations in pay and how job evaluation can ensure equity and fairness is achieved. Finally we will discuss the concept of motivation and the implications of pay for performance within the reward strategy. The report ends with an analysis of the key issues of the topic. Scotia Learning is the case study for this essay and is one of a network of university-based study centres offering preparation for students wishing to study undergraduate and postgraduate degrees for progression into university degree courses. The company has joint venture partnerships with top universities throughout the United Kingdom, Ireland and United States of America. â€Å"Reward management is concerned with the formulation and implementation of strategies and policies that aim to reward people fairly, equitably and consistently in accordance with their value to the organisation† (Armstrong Murlis, 2007, p3). Research by Redman Wilkinson (2009) indicates that reward is an enormously complex issue and has to take account of three fundamental principles in determining systems and structures: internal equity, external equity and business strategy. In addition Thorpe Homan (2000) state that the organisation should identify what objectives and behaviours the payment system should have for example, labour market competitiveness and management skills whilst Perkins White (2009) highlight the importance of legal regulations that can put constraints on organisations, for example minimum wage (legal), collective bargaining (trade unions), and the external labour markets. Scotia Learning does not recognise a trade union however it does recognise that collective bargaining has been influential in discussing and setting pay arrangement due to internal and external rates of pay not being equal. Within the employment legislation pay has always been an area of controversy especially when one considers employee’s collective concerns (Brown et al., 2003). The introduction of The Equal Pay Act 1970 outlawing unequal pay for men and women having since evolved into equal pay for equal work and the Equal Pay (Amendment) Regulations 1983 after the UK joined the EU in 1973 (Perkins White, 2009), now gives employees a certain degree of protection in their employment relationship. To strengthen current legislation The Equality Act 2010 was introduced highlighting human rights and discriminatory factors, such as equal pay, sex discrimination, race, disability and equality (religion, sexual orientation, and age) (Equality and Human Rights Commission, 2012). In response to this Scotia Learning are aware that they have a ‘duty of care’ to all employees and comply with the Equal Opportunities Policy by ensuring the relevant training is undertaken by managers and employees ensuring everyone understands the importance of and their responsibilities under this Policy. This is also promoted in all recruitment documents, ensuring that wording of job advertisements does not discriminate against any potential applicants. As part of this legislation, employers are legally required to ensure their pay structures are not discriminatory against men and women in terms of valuing work between them in their employment and in order to defend themselves against equal pay claims, organisations must be able to prove that the jobs within their grading system are valued according to the job rather than the gender of the person doing the job. Failure to adhere to these regulations can result in a tribunal claim and if proven the organisation will have to pay all money accrued which can be backdated six years in England and five years in Scotland. In the case of (Birmingham City Council v Abdulla and others [2012] UKSC 47), the Supreme Court ruled that equal pay claims brought in the High Court more than six months after the end of the claimants employment, which would have been out of time in an employment tribunal, should not be struck out under section 2(3) of the Equal Pay Act 1970. The reasons for a claimants failure to bring a timely claim in a tribunal are not relevant in any way to the notion of convenience under section 2(3). (PLC Employment Law Weekly email). Within Scotia Learning pay and benefits are provided on the basis of objective criteria, free from discrimination taking into account the principle of equal pay for equivalent work or work of equal value. In addition we ensure transparency within the reward system is clear to all employees in that they understand how their pay is worked out and what is required from them to achieve this. Job profiles and person specifications for each new vacancy are drawn up in keeping with other jobs of a similar size and responsibility which focus on the skills, experience and qualifications that are directly relevant to the job. Armstrong Murlis (2007, p115) state that â€Å"the payment system is important as it not only conveys a signal to the employees what the organisational priorities are but also acts as a catalyst for wider organisational change† a view reiterated by Armstrong (1996) in which he proposes that the foundations of reward management are to achieve the individual and organisational behaviour that a company needs if the business goals are to be met. Therefore the term ‘employees are the key to enhanced organisational performance’ becomes relevant with links to Kessler and Purcell (1994) where they emphasise that payment systems are related to recruitment, retention and motivation of staff and that the determination of pay is not only the interaction of market forces but also employers. It is also acknowledged that variations in pay can occur for a variety of reasons and from a legal perspective it is important to understand why (Redman Wilkinson, 2009). Firstly the power scenario, in that if labour is scarce, employees will have more power and hence may be able to demand higher pay, in contrast with an over-supply of labour employers have the power and hence may be able to hold pay at lower rates (Redman Wilkinson, 2009). Secondly, it has been acknowledged that ‘the rate for the job’ should be the same for employees doing the same job but considering organisational performance is reliant on the employ ee’s effort, skills and competencies, it is not logical to assume that effort should be rewarded and pay should vary accordingly. A view shared by Redman Wilkinson (2009, p161) who advocate that â€Å"variable pay schemes (VPS) are said to hold out the promise towards the creation of internal labour market that is fairer in rewarding people as it is only ‘fair’ that rewards should have a direct link with effort†. The argument with this theory is that ‘risk adverse’ workers will be less willing to ‘gamble’ on pay related performance than a set amount of pay. Thirdly, we should also take into consideration the external market rate of pay and uneven market pressures such as differing regional or occupational rates of pay as Kessler (2007, p167) states â€Å"external equity is an organisational imperative as failure to respond the labour market changes will leave organisations at a disadvantage competitively†. Scotia Learning responds to these challenges by regularly benchmarking and studying the market rate of pay within the educational sector. Data collected i s beneficial in determining pay to ensure pay scales are in line with and competitive with similar jobs. For example, when recruiting teaching staff, the use of organisations such as SATEFL and other educational websites are particularly useful, for administration staff we would use S1jobs.com and jobseeker.gov.uk website and with management we would use agencies. However, although the aforesaid strategy is very useful, Scotia Learning is a relatively large organisation with Centres worldwide and other factors have to be taken into consideration, such as location and cost of living. In determining the value of jobs within our organisation, although we consider the external market pay rates, decisions concerning pay are done through a coherent wage and career structure internal to our organisation which ensures consistency and fairness in our reward systems. It has been reported that issues with this reward system have arisen within the banking sector resulting in Government intervention to deal with inequalities of pay setting at senior management/director level and low pay via the nati onal minimum wage. This is not an area of concern for Scotia Learning as the annual salary increase is a % rate consistent throughout the organisation and our pay structure process involves a job evaluation â€Å"a systematic process for establishing the relative worth of jobs within an organisation† Redman Wilkinson (2009, p141). In addition Scotia Learning is accredited to the British Council and British Accreditation Council and all HR policies and personnel files are properly documented and filed. Our job evaluation comprises of an analytical (i.e., jobs are broken down into individual components) broad-band pay structure with a range of factors such as knowledge and skills, problem solving, decision making and then allocating points to them. It is interesting to note that research by IRS (2007) showed that an average of 86% of organisations use this form of job evaluation. Within this broad-band pay structure we have 6 wide overlapping salary bands made up of management, HR, teaching staff , finance, student services and cleaning staff with a salary range for each bank of at least 75%. Progression up the bands will be by skills and qualifications, performance and competence enhanced through individual career development thus supplying the motivation for continuous learning. To support this, the annual performance review takes place, however it is not linked to pay or rewards and is based on the objectives of skills and competence which are linked to organisational performance. In terms of equity and fairness the rate of pay for full-time and part-time teaching staff is calculated on the same hourly rate therefore ensuring consistency and fairness within the system. It is interesting to note that research by Redman Wilkinson (2009, p139) argues that by paying an hourly rate â€Å"employers control over pace and performance is reliant on either direct supervision or the willingness of employees to engage with the task† synonymous with the argument surrounding ‘risk adverse’ workers. This point of view may be viable in organisations such as ‘call centres’ where technology enables the monitoring and regulating of work by measuring output and input and within the customer service industry where we have the ‘secret shopper’, but within the education sector autonomy is part of the job as is their professional code of ethics which includes commitment, motivation and discretionary behaviour which is contradictory to the argument by Thorpe Homan (2000) who suggest that non-financial aspects are secondary and rarely given the same prominence in the design of payment systems. Managing rewards is largely about managing employee expectations linking to their psychological contract which is concerned with pay, performance and the development of skills (Armstrong Murlis, 2007). The argument then becomes, if reactions to rewards depend on the psychological makeup, values and needs of individual, one cannot wholly rely on performance related pay schemes to enhance all employees’ performance as not everyone is motivated by money. Motivation only takes place if rewards are worthwhile to the individual and if the process is seen to be fair, therefore, it would require to be customised for every individual in the organisation (Armstrong Murlis, 2007). For example, an employee nearing the end of their career may be more interested in job satisfaction (intrinsic reward), whereas a graduate beginning their career may be more interested in training and development (extrinsic reward). For that reason it can be argued that both intrinsic rewards such as respect, recognition, job satisfaction and responsibility are just as important as extrinsic rewards such as pay rises, bonuses, training and development opportunities and benefits such as annual holidays, company sick pay and company pension. This highlights the importance of implementing an equitable and fair reward strategy in that by incorporating financial and non-financial rewards is that they can be used as a tool to enhance employee motivation resulting in improved organisational performance. Finally the importance of management skills cannot be undermined as they are a fundamental element of human resource management. The management strategy within Scotia Learning is based on autonomy, communication and high levels of trust between management and employees. Evidence to support this is the turnover rate of staff with one employee resigning over the past two years and the annual absence levels within Scotia L earning for all staff inclusive stands at 0.1% of working hours, which is the lowest in the entire organisation. Conclusion This objective of the report was to establish the processes that ensure equity and fairness in the reward systems. We have covered the legal aspects, strategies, market awareness, motivation, job evaluation and performance appraisal and it has become evident that Scotia Learning complies with all legal legislation, and displays equity and fairness within the reward systems. However there was an air of negativity surrounding performance and reward as within Scotia Learning the annual appraisal is not yet connected to pay for performance. It is possible that issues could arise if this was implemented, namely, it could seriously affect the dynamics of the office environment between a very closely-nit team of employees, managers and directors in that, how does the manager justify their decision in the event of a low reward without affecting the equilibrium of the office environment and within a unionised organisation all trade unions argue against performance linked to pay. Schemes relating pay to performance, although generating a tremendous amount of interest have very little in the way of conclusive evidence concerning their effects on performance (Redman Wilkinson, (2009). This echoes Thompson (1992) findings in which he states, â€Å"research fails to provide convincing evidence of a link between individual performance-related pay schemes and improvements in productivity†. The evidence supports that other approaches should be considered in rewarding employees, for example a one-off bonus payment which would not affect the employees’ annual salary. References Armstrong, M. (1996) Employee Reward, London: Kogan Page/IPD Armstrong, M., and Murlis, H. (2007) Reward Management. 5thedn. London: Hay Group Brown, W., Marginson, P., and Walsh, J. (2003) The management of pay as the influence of collective bargaining diminishes. In: P.K. Edwards, Industrial Relations: Theory and Practice, Oxford: Blackwell IRS (2007) Job evaluation is thriving, survey finds: Employment Review, 667 Kessler, I. (2007) Reward Choices: strategy and equity. In: Storey, J. HRM: a critical text 3rd edition, London: Thomson Learning Kessler, I., and Purcell, J. (1994) Performance Related Pay: Objectives and application, Human Resource Management Journal, Vol.2, No.3 Perkins, S. J., and White, G. (2009) Employee Reward: Alternatives, consequences and contexts, 2nd edn. London: Chartered Institute Of Personnel and Development, Redman, T., and Wilkinson, A. (2009) Contemporary Human Resource Management: Text Cases, 3rd edn. London: Prentice Hall, Thompson, M. (1992) Pay for Performance: The employers experience, Brighton, Institute of Manpower Studies Thorpe, R., and Homan, G (2000) Strategic Reward Systems, Harlow: Financial Times Williams, S., and Adam-Smith, D. (2006) Contemporary Employment Relations: A critical introduction, Oxford: University Press Equality of Human Rights Commission, available from: http://www.equalityhumanrights.com/human-rights/ date accessed 23/10/12 PLC Employment Law, available from: [emailprotected] – date accessed 26/10/12