Work and the Workplace in the context of Contemporary Human Resource Management The WritePass Journal

Work and the Workplace in the context of Contemporary Human Resource Management Introduction and Aims Work and the Workplace in the context of Contemporary Human Resource Management , a meeting was held with the assistant manager to look at my placement programme. During this meeting, it became apparent that changing my working hours and hours a week to 25 had actually changed my ability to be effective within the team. Although I am still considered to be part-time my presence for 25 hours a week allowed the management team to become much more aware of what I am capable of, as well as the managers being able to rely on me to perform certain tasks consistently and on almost a daily basis. As a result of this change, I have become more engaged with activities that would essentially enable me to obtain promotion, in the future; for example, I have spent time in the cash office, as well as performing other management tasks, such as opening and closing the store. In particular, I feel that the management team has changed its attitude towards me, now seeing me more as an integral member of the team, rather than as an individual who simply covers a few hours on the sh op floor, on a weekly basis. It is therefore suggested that the engagement of employees is more closely linked to their number of hours of employment, on a weekly basis, rather than based on whether or not the individual is an on-call employee or not. This could be seen in the fact that some students would work full-time hours during the holiday period and would often be given substantially more responsibility than staff members working every day of the week, but for more limited hours. This theory was supported further still when, in November 2012, when my working hours were again increased, this time from 25 hours per week to 38 hours a week. Motivation – Career Progression   The rapid career progression was largely influenced by external factors, namely my direct line manager obtaining a role elsewhere, thus creating a vacancy within the chain of command for me to step into. My motivational level, as a result of the potential career progression, increased dramatically and raised questions about whether or not having a clear and realistic progression plan in place was a suitable motivator, regardless of the level of the individual within the organisation. Cheng et al., 2001 suggested that when an organisation introduces an employee development scheme with an obvious promotion path, motivation among staff members at all levels would become considerably higher. This is something which is certainly supported in my case, once it became apparent to me that the management team was looking to promote me to duty manager. I actively took on board several new aspects of my work and felt particularly enthused to learn new skills (Beardwell Claydon, 2007). However, opening up the opportunity to progress towards my goal of duty manager, also raised several issues which took place over the coming months and which potentially reduced my confidence to undertake the role and the period of adjustment, in terms of what was expected of me on a day-to-day basis, and making the progression considerably harder than first anticipated. For instance, it soon became apparent that whilst having a clear career progression in place offers substantial motivation, this needs to be supported with the appropriate training and planning. In this particular case, promotion happened as a result of a few staff members leaving the store and a requirement opening up for me. Whilst this was a golden opportunity and one which I have on balance fully embraced, being promoted simply because there was a need within the team has resulted in certain areas of difficulty, most notably when the area manager visited the store during my first time as a duty manager. This firs t visit did not go particularly well and I was offered the opportunity to recover the situation in a later, second visit. This did, however, raise questions about how motivation can potentially be reduced, if the process of career progression is not managed or an individual feels out of their depth (Engellandt, 2005). When looking more generally and the theories of motivation, it can be seen that an individuals performance is likely to be a factor of two issues; namely ability and their motivation to perform to this ability. This makes sense, as a capable individual who is highly motivated is still likely to perform to the required level, whereas a very capable individual who has no motivation is equally likely to fall short. In my case, the management team appeared to recognise that I have both the ability and the motivation and, as such, was the obvious choice to be promoted and fast-tracked when the vacancies became available. One particular issue which arises with this type of placement is how motivation can be maintained where an individual is on a short-term or temporary contract (Latham, Pinder, 2005). Many of the staff within the store either working reduced hours, doing so as students on vacation, or covering a particularly busy period of time; therefore, motivating these individuals through the use of potential career progression is unlikely to be as successful as it was with myself who viewed this role as a long-term career. As a manager, therefore, I now need to consider that the staff members with whom I work are not all going to have the same motivational factors as myself. For example, students who return during the Christmas period are likely to be motivated almost exclusively by financial reward and this is going to be different from other individuals who may value the flexibility of the role, over the years, as a means of allowing them to achieve the required work life balance (Lawler, 2005) . Applying these underlying theories relating to motivation (applied both in relation to my own motivation and my requirement to motivate others as a new manager), several themes have arisen. My own motivation provided me with an interesting understanding of how I could potentially motivate other employees within my team. Although this was just a one-year placement, I viewed my opportunities within the Co-operative store as being long-term and this was supported by the fact that in my final month, the manager made it clear that they would look to recruit me as an assistant manager, in the future (Manning and Petrongolo, 2005). My own willingness to take on board additional responsibilities gave me an understanding that all team members need to have progression opportunities in place, regardless of the level at which they are currently working and regardless of whether or not they are part-time or full-time employees. Certain concerns have arisen in relation to the use of temporary staff during busy periods, particularly where there is a concern that these temporary staff are taking hours that regular part-time staff would welcome. Consideration should, therefore, be given to ensuring greater care in the allocation of these additional hours and to ensure that the underlying career progression for part-time staff is not overlooked, simply because they are part-time. It was not until I moved from 10 hours a week to 25 and then later to 38 hours that I felt that I was able to fully achieve my potential. My ability was not any different; however, I was able to become much more involved in the day-to-day working of the store and able to gain considerably more experience than was ever going to be possible working part-time (Connelly Gallagher, 2004). Conclusions During my one-year placement period which proved to be a rapid climb-up the career ladder within the retail store, several underlying human resource issues and policies were highlighted. Most notably were those associated with the difficulties faced by part-time employees and atypical workers, as well as motivational issues and managing progression in such a way that motivation is retained and that individuals have a clear idea of what their future holds, thus encouraging each individual to continue to perform in a way that supports the overall business strategy (Steers et al., 2004). In my own placement, I felt that I was given ample opportunity to progress and this motivated me to continue to perform strongly, despite the fact that at times the progression happened because of an internal need within the store, rather than because I had undergone suitable training. This resulted in me being out of my depth, on occasions, and consequently my skills needed to be reviewed. On the whole, however, this made me more motivated to learn, but care needs to be taken with other individuals who may have lost their confidence in a similar situation. More specifically, care needs to be taken to ensure that part-time employees are not overlooked purely due to their reduced hours, as these individuals can be as able and motivated as full-time employees. References Beardwell, J., Claydon, T. (2007). Human Resource Management: A contemporary Approach 5th ed. . Harlow, UK: Pearson Education Limited Cheng, E.W.L. and Ho, D.C.K., (2001), The influence of job and career attitudes on learning motivation and transfer. Career Development International. 6 (1), 20-27. Connelly, C. E., Gallagher, D. G. (2004). Emerging trends in contingent work research. Journal of Management , 30 (6), 959-983. Engellandt, A. (2005). Temporary contract and employee effort. Labour Economic , 12, 281-299. Gallagher, D. G. (2002). Contingent work contracts: Practices and theory. In C. Cooper, R. Burke, The new world of work: Challenges and opportunities (pp. 115-136). Oxford: Blackwell Publishers. Latham, G. Pinder, C. (2005). Work motivation theory and research at the dawn of the twenty-first century. Annual Review of Psychology, 56, 485–516. Lawler, E. E. (2005). Creating high performance organisation. Asia Pasific Journal of Human Resources , 43 (`1), 10-17. Manning, A and Petrongolo, B. (2005) ‘The Part-time Pay Penalty’, CEP Discussion Paper No. 679 (http://cep.lse.ac.uk/pubs/download/dp0679.pdf). Steers, R. M., Mowday, R. T., Shapiro, D. L. (2004). The future of work motivation theory.

The United Kingdoms Ageing Population

The United Kingdom's Ageing Population Like many countries across Europe, the United Kingdoms population is ageing. Although the number of elderly people is not rising as quickly as some countries such as Italy or Japan, the UK’s 2001 census showed that for the first time, there were more people aged 65 and older than under 16 living in the country. Between 1984 and 2009, the percentage of the population aged 65 rose from 15% to 16% which is an increase of 1.7 million people. Over same period, the proportion of those under 16 fell from 21% to 19%. By 2040, it is estimated that there will be 15 million people aged 65 or over, compared to 8.7 million under 16.Within this older age cohort, the most rapid rise has been made by the ‘oldest old’ who are aged 85. Their numbers have increased from 660,000 in 1984 to 1.4 million in 2009.By 2034, it is predicted that there will be 3.5 million people in the elderly age range, accounting for 5% of the UK population. Nearly 90,000 of these will be over 100 years old – seven times the 2009 figure. Why is the Population Ageing? These are the reasons for an ageing population: increased life expectancy and Increased fertility rate, Life Expectancy As medicine advances and older populations are healthier, they will live longer and thus the population as a whole will age. Fertility Rate In the UK, the fertility rate has been below replacement levels since the early 1970s. The average fertility is presently 1.94 but there are regional differences within this, with Scotland’s fertility rate currently 1.77 compared with 2.04 in Northern Ireland. There is also a shift to higher mean pregnancy ages – women giving birth in 2009 were on average one year older (29.4) than those in 1999 (28.4). There a lot of factors that have contributed to this change. These include improved availability and effectiveness of contraception; the rising costs of living; increasing female participation in the labour market; changing social attitudes; and the rise of individualism. Impacts on Society Work and Pensions Longer retirement periods may lead to an increased level of pensioner poverty, especially amongst those who have not been able to pay into occupational schemes. Women are particularly vulnerable to this. They have a higher life expectancy than men and can lose their husband’s pension support if he dies first. They are also more likely to have taken time out of the labor market to raise children or care for others, meaning they may not have saved enough for their retirement. In response to this, the UK government recently announced plans to remove the fixed retirement age meaning that employers can no longer force people to retire once they reach 65. They have also announced plans to increase the retirement age for women from 60 to 65 by 2018. It will then be raised to 66 for both men women by 2020. Employers are also being encouraged to employ older workers and specialist initiatives are being put in place to support older people in returning to work. Healthcare Positive Impacts It is also noted that healthy retirees are able to provide care to their grandchildren and more likely to be involved in community activities. They are more inclined to support the arts by attending concerts, theatres and galleries and some studies show that as we get older, our satisfaction with life increases. In addition, communities are likely to become safer as older people are statistically less likely to commit crimes.

Exit Zero Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Exit Zero - Essay Example only means for most people to achieve social mobility and overcome the traditional class divides that characterized America after the downfall of the steel mills in South East Chicago where it did not only transformed the affected families of the steel mills, but also the socio-economic society of America in general. America is no longer a socially mobile society it once pride itself to be but rather a socially stratified society where the economically deprived people can only aspire to better their lot but could no longer break the social and economic barrier. Moreso in 21st century economy where it is knowledge based and more and more jobs now requires a college education. The new glass ceiling in work are the educational certifications which now solwoly becoming exclusive to those who can afford it making it more difficult for people to transcend class barriers. The situation is now aggravated by the fact that college education is becoming economically prohibitive due to its high cost. It is no longer accessible nor affordable to those families whose source of income are based on factories and mills such as depicted in Christine J. Walley’s â€Å"Exit Zero: Family and Class in Postindustrial Chicago†. Along with the closure of those mills is also the figurative closure of opportunity to those people whose source of income comes from blue collar jobs such as those in the factories of South Eastern Chicago. They are unable to go to college and as a result, the only jobs available to them are those menial jobs that do not pay well. So they are stuck in the lower economic strata without any hope for social mobility and thus, the vicious cycle begun. The poor remains poor because they no longer have access to means that would improve their economic and social status. Nice paying jobs are shut to them because they do not have colleg e education. College education is inaccessible to them because of its high cost. So the 21st century economy became

Case Study( Paramedics assessment) Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Case Study( Paramedics assessment) - Essay Example However, it should be realized that this is not the sole cause of chest pain, and that it may be due to â€Å"classical angina† (Devonshire Lodge Practice, 2011) whose symptoms generally appear during, or immediately after exercise and subside after resting. However, it must also be said that where someone complains of â€Å"discomfort across the center of the chest coming on during exercise that stops on rest and then GTN [glycerine trinitride] tablets relieve the pain within 5 minutes he/she is going to have ischemic heart disease almost without doubt† (Devonshire Lodge Practice, 2011). ... It is hoped that the task will be made easier by paramedic assessment, which should be thorough enough to eliminate many uncertainiies. That is why a systematic stepwise series of protocols such as those advocated by Domanovits et al. (2002) and Anderson (2002) is essential. 2. Case History of paramedic’s assessment of ischemic chest pain Complete History & Assessment of Patient Presenting Complaint Chest Pain Allergies None Communicable Diseases None PHx- Past History O/A – On Arrival O/E – On Examination Med’n- Medication Patient’s Name: William Templeton: Age 57 Address: 12 Andover Terrace, STAINES Bucks. SL4 3TR O/A - Emergency services called by patient’s family at 0956 hrs, arrived at patient’s home 1015 hrs..William, a white male, complained of severe chest pain, breathlessness, nausea and dizziness. He also appeared pale and slightly sweaty. PHx – Patient was normally in good health, a non-smoker, moderate drinker and at e healthy meals at home. He also took regular exercise. His grandfather had been gassed in WWI and his grandmother had suffered intermittent asthma attacks in her later years. As to childhood illnesses, William reported German measles, two bouts of chicken pox, and tuberculosis at the age of 6, which had affected stomach and neck glands and also the lungs. Chicken pox and TB raised alarm signals since the former could have returned as shingles (pain comes some time before the rash, and lung damage may have contributed to ischemic heart disease. O/E – The assessment procedures followed the guidelines established by the York Region Base Hospital Program (Anderson, 2002). For clarity and consistency during patient questioning the following mnemonic

Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde and Lord of the Flies both deal with mans struggle to control his inner evil Essay Example for Free

Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde and Lord of the Flies both deal with mans struggle to control his inner evil Essay How do the authorss show this struggle? In the strange case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, Robert Louis Stevenson presents mans struggle to control his inner evil through Jekyll but the evil comes out in Hyde. Dr Jekyll is a fine upstanding member of the community and Mr Hyde is still Jekyll but he has no conscience and no sense of responsibility and so goes on wild evil rampages, I am going to explore how Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde show their evils. Dr Jekyll is a moral and religious man and has a conscience but he is attracted to the violence and freedom of Hyde and for him turning into Hyde is like a drug, he is addicted. Dr Jekyll is in a constant struggle with Hyde for control if I am the chief of sinners I am the chief of sufferers also, which shows the constant torment he is in yet he still drinks the drug. Before the smile was struck out of his face and succeeded by an expression of abject terror and despair, as froze the blood of the two gentleman below, this shows that Jekyll is scared of turning into Hyde and it also gives a picture of the ferocity of Hyde. Jekyll becomes weak from Hyde and eventually Hyde takes over completely Dr Jekyll, looking deadly sick. He did not rise to meet his visitor, but held out a cold hand and bade him welcome in a changed voice, this shows that Hyde is slowly trying to kill Jekyll. Jekyll decided to kill Hyde Utterson, I swear to god Utterson I am done with him in this world,I cannot say that I care what becomes of Hyde I am quite done with him, Utterson says to Jekyll he meant to murder you, which shows that Jekyll is good to have got rid of Hyde but Jekyll still takes the potion and Hyde continues his torments and Eventually kills Jekyll. God knows I am careless this is my true hour of death and what is to follow concerns another than myself, that was Jekylls final transformation before his death. Edward Hyde is the beast that takes Henry Jekyll over he is a small deformed man the man seems hardly human troglodytic shall we say, I read Satans signature upon a face, like a monkey, these all describe Hyde it is like Hyde is a step back in evolution. Hyde is also very fast it went so quick, with extraordinary quickness, these both show the speed oh Hyde so we now that he is animal like and very quick, he is also very savage as he has no conscience for the man trampled calmly over the childs body and left her screaming on the ground, really like Satan, these both show his ferocity, there are also a lot of satanic references to Hyde which suggests that he is the work of the devil. Other people perceive Hyde as being a juggernaut, without the bowels of mercy, a spirit of enduring hatred, which shows that he disgusts them. Hyde hates Jekyll because he thinks he is weak and pathetic but he still fears Jekyll because he knows that Jekyll has the power to cut him off by suicide how he fears my power to cut him off by suicide, blasphemies on the pages of my books, burning letters and destroying the portrait of my father, by doing these things Hyde is trying to demoralise Jekyll because it seems that the weaker Jekyll gets the stronger Hyde gets. As Jekyll gets ill Hyde feeds off his weakness making himself stronger the powers of Hyde have grown stronger with the sickliness of Jekyll, this shows that Hyde is very powerful and can force Jekyll to do anything. I think at first Jekyll finds Hyde exciting and adventurous and he loves the feeling of having no conscience. Jekyll and Hyde are like polar twins, being the same yet very opposite. Jekyll also has biblical references because the thrill of Hyde tempts him like the tree in the bible tempts Adam and Eve. This story shows that man has always been evil it is just hidden behind a mask and Hyde pulled this mask from Jekyll revealing the evil inside after all they are the same person. Lord of the Flies is much the same as Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde because they both deal with mans struggle to control his inner evil, but however in Lord of the Flies it is children who are evil and not adults like in Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, so does this show that you are born evil? It certainly challenges the idea that you are born free from sin, as some of the children in Lord of the Flies are from private schools and you would think to be better brought up and you could say somewhat shielded from the world, but the children who were from a public education system behaved better and tried to overthrow to the evil that lay on the island. Lord of the flies shows emotions through its characters, Piggy who represents conscience and logic, Simon who represents Jesus and Jack and Ralph who are the leaders of the two gangs (good and evil). At the beginning of the novel it is hard to differentiate between the good and bad people because they have all just met each other and are all trying to out do each other in a bid to be popular but does this in itself show that maybe they are all evil? When the two gangs split up and start living separately its like Jekyll and Hyde because its like one gang is Jekyll and the other gang Hyde and as the story goes on the Hyde gang tries to kill the Jekyll gang. Also the Hyde gang use masks when hunting for food body held up a mask that drew their eyes and appalled them. He began to dance and his laughter became a bloodthirsty snarling, this shows that by putting masks on they are acting like Hyde transforming them from laughter to being snarling and bloodthirsty. Jack hid liberated from shame and self consciousness, this is exactly How Jekyll feels When he transforms in to Hyde because he is liberated from all consciousness and feels free to do whatever he wants. When Jacks gang are wearing these masks they launch attacks on Ralphs gang, the results of which end up in the death of Piggy, so all conscience and logic is removed and then as all they are removed we see the breakdown of their community and the good gang becomes equally as vicious as the bad gang showing that evil is like a disease that cant be healed and just keeps spreading. Simon also dies of an epileptic shock and this signifies that as he is the Jesus figure surely all hope and good is lost now, this is like when Jekyll becomes so ill he lets Hyde take over he was so frail he only raised a hand to bade him a welcome, and shows that there is no going back now evil has taken a strong hold on the island and can only get worse, good can no longer triumph over evil. When the navy finally rescues the boys nobody knows what has happened the island and they can only assume that the missing boys were killed in the plane crash. This shows mans naivety and arrogance to think that young innocent boys couldnt have brutally murdered one boy and left another to die, this reflects Jekyll and Hyde by the way in which nobody realises that a fine upstanding member of the community could possibly be a murderer although it is without his knowing but the boys on the island are young and you could say that without their parents and rules, they cant differentiate between right and wrong. Jekyll and Hyde was written in the Victorian times and it does challenge the idea of inner evil but good eventually wins because in the Victorian times people were moral and blind to the evil lurking before them and so sin was eventually killed in Jekyll and Hyde. In Lord of the Flies however you could say the evil triumphs which is the case in todays modern society, but the children are rescued from the evil they have created which you could argue that maybe good triumphs over evil after all. Both authors say that evil is in us and not around us and that without rules evil will show itself more fully. Evil is a tempting attractive power that gives you freedom but if you are truly evil can you be truly happy? We all see evil but can we see our own? Maybe these novels are trying to show us that maybe we should look inside ourselves and see if we are truly evil or is evil just something we use as an excuse to hurt people?

Emotional Branding :: essays research papers

This article explaining emotional branding was an interesting read. The beginning of the story really grabbed my attention. I have always found it a comfort to realize that even truly intelligent people cannot understand everything and do sometimes have to ask for explanations. Although we have all been told that there is no such thing as a stupid question, except a question that is not asked, it is difficult in the business world to ask for help or an explanation, without feeling inferior, or worrying if your business colleagues will think you are incompetent. The author actually wrote in this article that, â€Å"after years of helping companies build their brands, I’m still baffled by the reality that so many smart business people still don’t understand the power of a brand.† At first I was irritated with this statement and worried that the rest of the article would just be egotistical praise on the author and his vast knowledge. I was glad that he recovered and redeemed himself in the next sentence by stating that, â€Å"it was the first time [he] realized that the one thing that has the most dramatic impact on the success or failure of a modern-day business is also the least understood. I completely agree with the fact that a brand is not a part of a business; it is actually the business. If a company does something to ruin its brand in the eyes of consumers, it has damaged its business and may go bankrupt. It is very important that a company is consistent with its brand. If it is not consistent with its brand, then consumers may find it hard to view that company as trustworthy. This is a rather difficult task, because branding is not something that is typically taught in business school. Trying to find a successful brand is basically trial-and-error, because there is not a definite formula that businesses can use to develop a brand.

Pablo Picasso’s Life, Works and Contributions to Art Essay

Art allows us to look at the world from a different and unique perspective; all of us interpret artwork differently. It is a great way for people to express feelings, ideas, concepts and ideologies, and for some, it helps us express whatever cannot simply be defined by words. Art gives you freedom to explore things in a different way, and preserve your thoughts on the canvas for everyone else to see. When we look at artwork that portrays a universal idea, we feel a sense of unity with others who perceive the artwork in the same way because it tells us we are not alone in the way we think. Great pieces of artwork are so brilliant that they can bring us to a new world, change our way of looking at things and distance us from the commonalities of everyday life. It makes us feel rejuvenated and you can even lose yourself in its beauty! Studying and admiring artwork also develops our critical thinking skills. One of the greatest artists who ever lived is Pablo Picasso. He had contributed so much in the name of art. He had demonstrated extraordinary artistic talent in his early years while painting in a realistic manner through his childhood and adolescence. During the first decade of the 20th century, his style changed as he experimented with different theories, techniques, and ideas. His revolutionary artistic accomplishments brought him universal renowned and immense fortune, making him one of the best figures in 20th century art. Let us then venture into the astonishing life, works and contributions to arts of Pablo Picasso. Biography, Works, and Art Contributions of Pablo Picasso Picasso was born in October 25, 1881 in the city of Mà ¡laga, Spain. He was baptized Pablo Diego Josà © Francisco de Paula Juan Nepomuceno Marà ­a de los Remedios Crispiniano de la Santà ­sima Trinidad by his parents, Don Josà © Ruiz y Blasco and Marà ­a Picasso y Là ³pez. Picasso showed a passion and a skill for drawing from an early age. From the age of seven, Picasso received formal artistic training from his father in figure drawing and oil painting. Even Picasso’s earliest drawings executed when he was about 10 years old, showed an exceptional technical facility. When the family moved to Barcelona in October 1895, Picasso attended La Lonja, the school of fine hearts there and the Royal Academy of Fine Arts of San Fernando in Madrid. In October 1900 he made the first of three visits to Paris, where he established himself finally in April 1904. During the intensely creative years 1899-1901, Picasso’s style varied considerably. At the start, he used strong colors in a Postimpressionist manner. Then he painted predominantly in blue, his so called Blue Period of late 1901-1904. Until Mid 1901 his principal subjects were lively scenes of popular and bourgeois life (cabarets, racecourses, dance halls, etc.) Toward the end of 1901, however, Picasso’s world became that of the suffering victims of society: prostitutes, beggars, drunkards, etc. In 1904, his gloom lifted and he looked freshly at humanity with tenderness and admiration and adopted warmer colors and a more harmonious, classical style of draftsmanship. During this Rose Period, his favorite subjects were dancers and acrobats. Between the end of 1906 and the spring of 1907, while influenced by the painting of Paul Cezanne, Picasso produced a painting called â€Å"Les Demoiselles d’Avignon† that constitutes a violent break with tradition. This painting pointed the way toward Cubism, a new pictorial style that Picasso and his friend Braque began to develop side by side and in close friendship. They disregarded the conventional means used for creating illusions of reality such as one point perspective, chiaroscuro, and the definition of form and color by light, aiming instead to represent objects more conceptually by breaking them into geometrical units, or small cubes, and by depicting a single object on the same canvass from a multiplicity of angles. Picasso was to continue elaborating and perfecting this style until about 1925. Simultaneously, from about 1915 onward, he began to work in the opposite direction, depicting figures of a subtly detached classicism- linear, sculptural, and monument al. After 1925 Picasso began to depict emotionally-charged bodies and heads whose dislocations give rice to double images and pictorial metaphors. A private Surrealist vocabulary of powerful symbols (e.g., the Minotaur) Emerged in the 1930’s to express his personal dilemmas and stress. Picasso’s interest in the sculpture, dormant since 1905, revived at this time. The outbreak of the Spanish Civil War in 1936 inspired the great and harrowing mural painting â€Å"Guernica† (1937), the first reference of his work to political events. In 1944 Picasso joined the Communist Party, and in 1949 his â€Å"Dove† lithograph was adopted as the symbol of the World Peace Congress. In the pos-war years much of Picasso’s work centered on the themes of wars of peace and man’s right to leisure and peaceful relaxation. After 1955, the theme of the artist and his magic powers assumed great importance in his work. Picasso’s powerful inventive gifts led him to work in many fields. He produced (1917-1924) some famous decors for Sergey Diaghilev’s Russian ballet company. He also made significant technical innovations in lithography and linocutting and produced a great quantity of painted pottery. Pablo Picasso died on April 8, 1973 at age 91in Mougins, France, while he and his wife Jacqueline entertained friends for dinner. Cubism Cubism is modern art made up mostly of paintings. The paintings are not supposed to look real The artist uses geometric shapes to show what he is trying to paint. Early cubists used mainly grays, browns, greens, and yellows. After 1914, Cubists started to use brighter colors. Cubism was the beginning of the Abstract and Non-objective art styles. Expressionism In Expressionist Art, the artist tries to express certain feelings about something. The artists that painted in this style were more concerned with having their paintings express a feeling than in making the painting look exactly like what they were painting. Surrealism Surrealist paintings were generally based on dreams. Their paintings were filled with familiar objects which were painted to look strange or mysterious. They hoped their odd paintings would make people look at things in a different way and change the way they felt about things. They thought that their paintings might stir up feelings in the back of people’s minds. Naturalism Naturalism is a type of art that shows things exactly as they appear in life. It began in the 18th century, but the greatest Naturalist era was in the mid-19th century. Most Realists were from France, but there were some famous American painters who were Realists also. The Old Guitarist The Old Guitarist is an oil painting by Pablo Picasso created in 1903. It depicts an old, blind, haggard man with threadbare clothing weakly hunched over his guitar, playing in the streets of Barcelona, Spain. It is currently on display in the Art Institute of Chicago. Three Musicians Three Musicians is the title of two similar collage and oil paintings by Spanish artist Pablo Picasso. They were both completed in 1921 in Fontainebleau near Paris, France, and exemplify the Synthetic Cubist style. Each painting features a Harlequin, a Pierrot, and a monk, who are generally believed to represent Picasso, Guillaume Apollinaire, and Max Jacob, respectively. Guernica It was created in response to the bombing of Guernica, Basque Country, by German and Italian warplanes at the behest of the Spanish Nationalist forces, on 26 April 1937, during the Spanish Civil War. Guernica shows the tragedies of war and the suffering it inflicts upon individuals, particularly innocent civilians. This work has gained a monumental status, becoming a perpetual reminder of the tragedies of war, an anti-war symbol, and an embodiment of peace. On completion Guernica was displayed around the world in a brief tour, becoming famous and widely acclaimed. This tour helped bring the Spanish Civil War to the world’s attention. CONCLUSION Pablo Picasso who’s considered to be the most famous artist in the 20th century inspires many people through his paintings in which he express his feelings, affections and ideals. He is widely known for co-founding the Cubist movement, the invention of constructed sculpture, the co-invention of collage, and for the wide variety of styles that he helped develop and explore. Picasso’s work was inspired by what was happening around him from his gloomy Blue Period to the uplifting Rose Period. He interprets art in his own way, adding his own unique flavor to his interpretation. Picasso was exceptionally prolific throughout his long lifetime. The total number of artworks he produced has been estimated at 50,000, comprising 1,885 paintings; 1,228 sculptures; 2,880 ceramics, roughly 12,000 drawings, many thousands of prints, and numerous tapestries and rugs. Picasso tells us that art itself requires no explanation, â€Å"Everyone wants to understand art. Why don’t we try to understand the song of a bird? Why do we love the night, the flowers, everything around us, without trying to understand them? But in the case of painting, people think they have to understand. If only they would realize above all that an artist works of necessity, that he himself is only an insignificant part of the world, and that no more importance should be attached to him than to plenty of other things which please us in the world though we can’t explain them; people who try to explain pictures are usually barking up the wrong tree.† We admire art, yet we may never know why. It is captivating because of its mysterious allure. Like a little girl playing hide and seek with her boisterous brothers, art refuses to give in to definition, to reason, to restraint or to direction. Art gives us the roads, yet not the map. As the bewitching seductress toys with us, her subjects, we follow her blindly and blissfully into the unknown. BIBLIOGRAPHY Nill, R.M. (1987). A Visual Guide to Pablo Picasso’s Works. New York: B&H Publishers. FitzGerald, M. C. (1996). Making modernism: Picasso and the creation of the market for twentieth-century art. Berkeley: University of California Press. Goetz, P.W. (2007) Pablo Picasso. In The new encyclopedia Britannica 15th ed. (vol. 9, p. 421). USA: Encyclopedia Britannica, Inc. Naturalism. (2012). In Encyclopà ¦dia Britannica. Retrieved July 7, 2012 from Britannica Website: http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/406427/naturalism Amber, S. (2009). Three nude paintings. Journal of Art History, 4(6), 23-26. Caniete, R.R. (2012, February 20). Cubist master Sym Mendoza masters the heart’s desire. Philippine Daily Inquirer. pC3