The Systematic Study of Organizational Behavior

A country's culture is the conventional behavior of a society that constitutes beliefs, customs, knowledge, and practices. Evidently, it influences human behavior, even though it is rare that it enters into their conscious thought. People depend on culture as it gives them stability, security, understanding, and the ability to respond to a given situation. Culture complements their well-being. This is why people fear change. They fear the system will become unstable, their security will be lost, they will not understand the new process, and they will not know how to respond to the new situations (Knoster, Villa ; Thousand, 2000). The organization's base depends on a company' philosophy, values, vision and goals. A company's mission and vision are its very core. This, in turn, drives the organizational culture, which is composed of the formal organization, informal organization, and the social environment. A country's culture determines the type of leadership, communication, and group dynamics within the organization. The workers perceive this as the quality of work life, which directs their degree of motivation. The final outcomes are performance, individual satisfaction, and personal growth and development. All these elements combine to build the archetype or framework that the organization operates from. A social system is a complex set of human relationships interacting in many ways. Within an organization, the social system includes all the people in it and their relationships to each other and to the outside world. The behaviors that come about within organizations are of utmost concern and importance. Studying these behaviors may help the consumers to comprehend why some sales agents or employees are able to introduce and sell their products and services with efficiency and effectiveness (cited in Johns, 1988). Also, the social system does not have boundaries. It exchanges goods, ideas, culture, etc. with the environment around it (cited in Knoster, Villa ; Thousand, 2000). A matter like this could become quite a balancing act. Individualism favors individual rights, loosely knit social networks, self-respect, and personal rewards and careers. One aspect begets another aspect, which is why it is integrated in nature.   Socialization or collectivism favors the group, harmony, and asks â€Å"What is best for the organization?† Organizations need people to challenge, question, and experiment while still maintaining the culture that binds them into a social system (Knoster, Villa ; Thousand, 2000). Autocratic – The basis of this model is power with a managerial orientation of authority. The employees in turn are oriented towards obedience and dependence on the boss. The employee need that is met is subsistence. The performance result is minimal. Custodial – The basis of this model is economic resources with a managerial orientation of money. The employees in turn are oriented towards security and benefits and dependence on the organization. The employee need that is met is security. The performance result is passive cooperation. Supportive – The basis of this model is leadership with a managerial orientation of support. The employees in turn are oriented towards job performance and participation. The employee need that is met is status and recognition. The performance result is awakened drives. Collegial – The basis of this model is partnership with a managerial orientation of teamwork. The employees in turn are oriented towards responsible behavior and self-discipline. The employee need that is met is self-actualization. The performance result is moderate enthusiasm. Individualization is when employees successfully exert influence on the social system by challenging the culture: Less socialization and too little individualization create isolation. More socialization and too little individualization create conformity. Less socialization and too high individualization creates rebellion. While the match that organizations want to create is high socialization and high individualization for a creative environment. This is what it takes to survive in a very competitive environment having people grow with the organization, but doing the right thing when others want to follow the easy path (Knoster, Villa ; Thousand, 2000). Compensation as a motivational factor Many companies mistakenly assume that what works for one organization will work well for all organizations. Companies often attempt to create incentive programs without thinking in detail about how each program feature will best suit their targeted audience. Providing pie and ice-cream when employees desire flexible work hours, paid time off, training, or the ability to work from home is an example of a negative incentive. To facilitate the creation of a profitable program, every feature must be tailored to the participants’ interests. A successful incentive program requires clearly defined rules, suitable rewards, efficient communication strategies, and measurable success metrics. By adapting each element of the program to fit the target audience, companies are better able to engage program participants and enhance the overall program effectiveness (â€Å"Incentive†). An incentive program represents a substantial investment to most organizations. Receiving a sufficient return on that investment requires the full participation of the program participants. Incentive programs are based upon the concept that effort increases as people perceive themselves progressing towards their goal. In â€Å"The Art of Motivation: An Incentive Industry Primer,† the Incentive Marketing Association ties incentive programs to the psychological equation: Ability x Motivation = Performance. In order to properly motivate, programs must be designed to offer a variation of products and services to program participants based on their unique interests and diverse needs. Successful programs need to carefully develop their reward methods to keep participants eager to approach a new goal once they have achieved a reward (â€Å"Incentive†). In order to create an effective program, organizations must keep the overall objective in mind when considering program design and implementation. Objectives should be formed based on the organizations overall goals and should be straightforward and specific so participants clearly understand the expectations. Program objectives can vary depending on the needs of each individual organization. They must be challenging, yet achievable. If objectives are viewed as unattainable, the program will be destined for failure. Management By Objectives is crucial for a company to achieve progress and success in order to manage the company in an objective manner. With this in mind, Companies have set various standard order procedures for employees. Managers are always at the forefront of this matter. Objectives may include motivating employees, recognizing performance, persuading customers to make a purchase, or even reinforcing a marketing message. Once the program's goals have been determined, every aspect of the program must be measured against this goal in order to ensure the programs success in goal achievement. Whenever successful, objectives should provide measurable results allowing the organization to monitor performance and measure the overall success of the program. References Borne, P.A. (February 21, 2007). Organizational Behavior. Retrieved December 12, 2007 from http://www.wincustomize.com/articles.aspx?aid=144899&c=1. Incentive Marketing Association. The Art of Motivation: An Incentive Industry Primer. Retrieved December 12, 2007, from   http://incentivemarketing.org/displaycommon.cfm?an=1&subarticlenbr=51. Knoster, T., Villa, K.T., & Thousand, J. (2000). Restructuring for Caring and Effective Education: Piecing the Puzzle Together. A Framework For Thinking About Systems Change. Baltimore: Paul H. Brookes Publishing Co. Johns, G. (2004). Organizational Behavior: Understanding and Managing Life at Work 6th Edition. Upper Saddle River, N.J.: Prentice Hall.   

Therapeutic Recreation

Therapeutic Recreation is the purposeful utilization or enhancement of leisure as a way to maximize a person’s overall health, well being, or quality of life. Therapeutic Recreation programs for mental illness may have seasonal classes in many areas that may include exercise, swim, adapted karate and crafts. Therapeutic recreation programs are specifically designed for individuals with disabilities. Groups are usually small and the participant to staff ratio is appropriate to the needs of the group.The activities are planned to meet the interest of the participants and can be individualized. In different communities there are different things for people with mental illness to do. In some community they even have jobs people can do to get them back in the community and working. Lamar Missouri has lots of programs that put people that have mental illness in jobs. I have even talked to the manager for Mc Donald and he has put to work people with mental illness and he said to me t hey are the best dam workers I think I have.Even in Pittsburg Kansas they have programs to put clients into the work place and let them make some money. Some people see working in society are jobs but the clients see it as a way to get out of the house and they enjoy it to an extent I would say it is recreation. Some general recreation programs may be adapted to include a person with a disability using auxiliary aids and services, but the structure of the activity, group size and staff remains the same.Making it a little harder on the staff and the staff are not able to provide one to one assistance or specialized support to an extent. Some places there are programs and activities that can suit all ages, interests, and skill levels. Activities include swimming classes, craft classes, trips, camps, children’s programs, special events, and varied offerings every season. One program I was reading about was dancing. It is for ages 15 and up with mental illness. You dance to a wor ld of rhythm and engage in playful rhythmic movement for fitness and coordination.Includes line dances, circle dances, folk dances. Designed especially for teens, and adults with developmental disabilities, that one was for a person with higher function. There are programs a person with lower functioning can dance to as well. You can take that program and modify a little and make it for any one or any age very easily. The program I was reading made people pay for the programs but with some more modifications and some sponsors it could be all free. Some places they have ides facilitate the individuals with mental illness into programs at their neighborhood recreation centers, assuring that cities and parks and recreation programs are accessible and usable by all citizens. Inclusion aides conduct assessments, develop goals for participation, and provide necessary support, including increased supervision levels, adapting games and activities and training of recreation center staff, to ensure that the needs of the person with disabilities are being met.Volunteers are a very important part of the therapeutic recreation services program. In many areas there are a variety of volunteer opportunities are available for those ages thirteen and up including students needing service hours. I don’t know if the program is in this area yet but there is a program Specialized Recreational Program Parenting with love and logic. This program is for parents, and teachers it is a user friendly and often highly successful program that is heavily wrapped in empathy but soles not shield children from consequences of their actions.It empowers children to solve their problems and help parents change their behaviors to relieve stress and pressure. Of course nothing works all the time, but this anecdotal program and the expertise of your presenter will, in a safe and nonthreatening environment, invite you to change the only person you can change, yourself. I think that program woul d be great for parent that don’t really know how to deal with their children or even the ones that think they do even if it don’t work it still gave them a little more knowledge. It will give them another outlook on how to teach their child. Therapeutic Recreation Therapeutic recreation is a treatment service designed to restore, remediate and rehabilitate a person’s level of functioning and independence in life. According to WHO- The world health organisation, health promotion is the process of enabling people to increase control over, and to improve their health. Health promotion represents a comprehensive social and political process, it not only embraces actions directed at strengthening the skills and capabilities of individuals but also the action directed towards changing the social, environmental and economic conditions. The Ottawa Charter identifies three basic strategies for health promotion. These advocacy’s for health to create the essential conditions for health indicated above enabling all people to achieve their full potential, and mediating between the different interests in society in the pursuit of health. In order to promote healthy lifestyles in a population or an individual a number of models have been created. For this study both the Leisure Ability Model and the Health Protection/Health Promotion Model are being looked at and compared. The first of these models being looked at is the Health Protection/Health Promotion Model. This model, created by Austin 1991, sees the purpose of therapeutic recreation as facilitating the client to recover following a threat to health such as drug addiction, alcohol addiction, psychiatric disorder etc, also known as health protection, and to achieve optimal health through health promotion. Hence for this reason this models chief aim is â€Å"to use activity, recreation or leisure to help people to deal with problems that serve as barriers to health and assist them to strive for their highest levels of wellness†, (Austin, 1997). There are four major concepts that underlie the Health Protection/ Health Promotion Model (HPHPM). These are the Humanistic Perspective, High-level Wellness, The Stabilisation and Actualisation Tendencies and Health. Humanistic Perspective- Those who embrace the humanistic perspective believe that each of us has the responsibility for his/her own health and the capacity for making self-directed wise choices about our own individual health status. Because an individual is responsible for their own health it is important to encourage individuals to become involved in decision making and to gather maximum knowledge to improve their health. Austin encourages that the population are â€Å"active participants in the world, rather than passive puppets controlled by the environment†. The humanistic perspective focuses on the positive image of what it means to be human. Human nature is viewed as basically good, and humanistic theorists focus on methods that allow fulfilment of an individual’s potential. High-Level Wellness- The term high level wellness was first coined by Dr. Halbert Dunn in his book in 1961, he defined it as â€Å"†¦an integrated method of functioning which is oriented toward maximizing the potential of which the individual is capable†. Dunn’s concept of high level wellness is, like the humanistic perspective is a holistic approach that goes beyond the absence of physical illness to include both psychological and environmental wellness. For this reason Austin surmises that high level wellness goes beyond traditional medicine and toward helping people to achieve as high a level of wellness as they are capable of achieving. Austin further goes on to compare the similarities between high level wellness and therapeutic recreation as both have been heavily influenced by the humanistic perspective. Stabilisation and Actualisation Tendencies- These are two motivational forces which the Health Protection/ Health Promotion Model are based on. Stabilising tendencies helps to maintain a steady state of an individual. It looks at keeping the stress levels of an individual’s life at a maintainable level and not to let the stressors in a person’s life to spiral out of control leading to health risk behaviour (HRB), hence for this reason stabilisation tendencies is the driving force behind Health Protection. The actualisation tendency drives a person towards health promotion which focuses on achieving an individual’s high level of wellness. Health- health is the final underlying concept of The Health Protection/Health Promotion Model. The ultimate goal of this concept is to help a client to strive toward health promotion. Pender’s (1996) definition of health incorporates stabilisation and actualisation tendencies, therefore interlinking health with the previous underlying concept of the model. For this reason healthy people can cope with life’s stressors and encourages clients to optimise their own health rather than improving their health just to recover form illness. Austin (1997) believes that those who enjoy health have the opportunity to pursue the highest levels of personal growth and development. Having looked at the underlying concepts of the model there are three broad areas of a continuum to be understood in order to design a therapeutic recreation program for any client. These are: i. Prescriptive activities: When clients initially encounter illnesses or disorders, often they become self-absorbed. The therapeutic recreation personnel, at this stage of the continuum must provide direction and structure to the client as means of an intervention due to a feeling of helplessness that can ultimately produce severe depression. ii. Recreation: Through recreation, clients begin to regain their equilibrium disrupted by stressors so that they may once again resume their quest for actualization. They take part in intrinsically motivated recreation experiences that produce a sense of mastery and accomplishment within a supportive and nonthreatening atmosphere. Mutual participation on behalf of the client and the TRP occurs and the client begins to have fun and find new ways to interact with others. iii. Leisure: This is a means to self-actualization because it allows people to have self-determined opportunities to expand themselves by successfully using their abilities to meet challenges. This stage is based on The Leisure Ability Model whereby they look at leisure alone as a means of therapeutic recreation. At this stage of the continuum, clients assume primary responsibility for their own health. So from looking this model ultimately it can be said that health and actualization are intimately intertwined. The attainment of high level wellness permits actualization. Those who enjoy peak health are free of barriers to actualization so that they may actively pursue personal growth and development. When clients are initially taking part in a program based on this model they have a learned helplessness and take a lack of responsibility but as they move down the continuum they assume primary responsibility for themselves. The Leisure Ability Model. The second model being discussed is The Leisure Ability Model. The Leisure Ability Model (LAM) which was draw up by Peterson and Gunne in 1984 focuses on leisure as a prevention of illness rather than the use of medication. This model can be used hand in hand with The HPHPM or can be used alone when designing a therapeutic recreation program to demote a health risk behaviour. Peterson and Gunne, when designing this model thought that recreation and leisure are necessary experiences that all people should enjoy and take part in, including those with â€Å"limitations† or disabilities both physical and mental. The purpose of the model is therefore to â€Å"facilitate the development, maintenance and expression of an appropriate leisure lifestyle† for individuals or groups with physical, emotional, mental or social limitations. The LAM offers an alternative to more traditional medical models for those with special needs. The Leisure Ability Model was constructed with the belief that the end product of therapeutic recreation services for clients was improved independent and satisfying leisure functioning, also referred to as a â€Å"leisure lifestyle† (Peterson, 1981, 1989; Peterson & Gunn, 1984). Similar to the HPHPM, the Leisure ability model also has a number of underlying concepts, these include Learned Helplessness, Intrinsic motivation, internal locus of control, and causal attribution, Choice and finally Flow. Learned Helplessness- Many individuals with disabilities and/ or illnesses experience learned helplessness. This could be learned during childhood when others did things â€Å"for† the individual, or through repeated exposure to settings where one learned to become a passive patient upon whom procedures were performed according to a routine. Learned helplessness robs the individual of a sense of mastery and self-determination but is also beyond that individual’s control. After having experienced life so far as helplessness in one leisure activity, a person may firmly believe that he or she is abnormal, inadequate, and lacks basic skills in that activity. As a consequence, the person believes that they are handicapped to participate in this activity and this belief may then generalize to personal performance in other areas of leisure behaviour. Iso-Ahola (1980) reports that there are three consequences of learned helplessness, these are: i. A lack of internal motivation to escape the conditions which lead to the state of helplessness. ii. A lack of cognitive understanding of personal effectiveness, iii. A heightened state of emotionality. Intrinsic motivation, internal locus of control and causal attribution- The three concepts of intrinsic motivation, locus of control and personal attribution are intricately linked, and help to explain the basis for the provision of therapeutic recreation services. All individuals are intrinsically motivated towards behaviour in which they can experience competence and self-determination. This process is continual and through skill acquisition and mastery, produces feelings of satisfaction, competence, and control. An internal locus of control implies that the individual takes responsible for the behaviour and consequences which may occur from the behaviour. The opposite of this is external locus of behaviour i. e. leaving others take the blame for your own mistakes. Personal attribution implies that the individual accepts that they can affect the outcome of a situation, they can make a decision that matters somehow to something. Without a sense of personal causation, the likelihood of the individual developing learned helplessness (the feeling that external others are in control) increases greatly. Choice- The Leisure Ability Model also relies heavily on the concept of choice. Choice implies that the individual has the knowledge, skills and attitudes which facilitate choice and the desire to choose. This suggests freedom, freedom from constraints and freedom to exercise an option to an individual that initially felt restricted. The Leisure Ability Model emphasizes content areas that help clients build skills in a variety of areas which, in turn, should allow them options for future independent leisure functioning. Flow- A fourth, closely related concept is that of â€Å"flow† (Csikszentmihalyi 1990). Flow suggests a state of balance between skill level and activity challenge which leads to a level of concentration and energy expenditure which is absorbing or consummating in form. When skill level is high and activity challenge is low, the individual is quite likely to be bored. When the skill level is low and the activity challenge is high, the individual is most likely to be anxious leading to an uneven flow. A therapeutic recreation personnel must attempt to balance both to keep flow. These areas of understanding are important for the therapeutic recreation personnel to be able to design a series of coherent, organized programs that meet client needs and move the client further toward an independent and satisfactory leisure lifestyle. The Leisure Ability Model contains three major categories of service: treatment or rehabilitation which is directed towards therapy and/or rehabilitation, leisure education revolves around the development of activity skills and social interaction skills as well as issues for leisure counselling, and special recreation which involves the provision of recreation programs for members of special groups such as autism or down syndrome. Each of these three service areas is based on distinct client needs and has specific purposes, expected behaviour of clients, roles of the specialist, and targeted client outcomes. As with The Health Protection/Health Promotion Model these service areas operate along a continuum. The client's role in special recreation programs includes greater decision making and increased self-regulated behaviour. As with the HPHPM the client has increased freedom of choice and his or her motivation is largely intrinsic without the dictatorship of a TRP. In conclusion, from having looked at and critically compared and evaluated both The Health Protection/Health Promotion Models and The Leisure Ability, The Health Protection/Health Promotion Model appears to be an extension of The Leisure Ability Model. The Leisure Ability Models ultimate goal is leisure compared to The Health Protection/Health Promotion Model uses leisure as the final means towards its ultimate goal of optimal health. When designing a therapeutic recreation program, the therapeutic recreation personnel may go back and forth between the models in order for the program to be client specific.

Interactional View Theory Essay

This theory states that within family relationships there can often be misconceptions between each family member and the problem can only be transformed when addressed by outside members of the family (or situation), or simply stepping outside the situation yourselves and looking at all possible aspects that way, or reframing. Watzlawick claims that through the repetitive actions of a family system, a self- ­regulating, inter- ­depending network of feedback loops guided by member’s rules, we tend to stick to a status quo, or a family homeostasis, when dealing with issues within our families. In doing that, we often automatically assume, or put a label on, a situation to be how we see it from our personal views rather than looking at the whole picture and everyone’s views who are involved. Once we take that outside- ­looking- ­in approach we have to take into consideration both sides of the communication in the situation: the content of the situation, the report part of a message (verbally), and the relationship between members communicating, the command part of a message (nonverbally). In doing this as well as analyzing all aspects of the situation we can eventually come to an agreement on how to approach and solve the actual issue. Growing up with a health practitioner as a parent, getting sick is never anyone elses fault but your own and sympathy is almost never present in those situations. I recently had an extreme food- ­ poisoning incident which caused much havoc in my family, but the process of analyzing and solving this issue is a perfect example of Watzlawick’s theory. A few years ago my mom decided to go back to school and study healthy living, diet, and the ways of an organic, raw vegan. This changed her whole life, my whole pantry, and the way she approached almost any situation. Anytime something does not go the way it should having to do with my body, energy, moods, etc. if I go to my mom for advice the answer is always about diet, sleep patterns, or other healthy living styles. Which is accurate and understandable to a certain extent but, in mine and my stepdad’s minds, it does not apply to every situation. I do eat very healthy compared to the average person and I try to not eat a lot of meats, and especially not red meats, but on occassion I do enjoy treating myself to, what I call, a â€Å"cheat meal.† A few months back when visiting friends out of town, I decided to go all out and try this â€Å"world- ­famous† burger at a local burger joint. Might I say, it was quite the burger, but the aftermath was seven days of pure distaste, pain, and regret. Of course when coming to my mom for advice on the situation she immediately put all blame on me for not choosing â€Å"wisely† on my food decisions. My stepdad, on the other hand, eats a good amount of red meats and had actually been to this particular restaurant many times before, having no issues. He said i probably just got a bug from touching the â€Å"world famous† burger joint door handles and putting my hand to my face, or something of that sort. My take on the situation was different from both of theirs. I thought it was all in my mind because I am typically against eating red meats and i violated my self morals therefore causing me to feel guilty to an extent where I caused myself to actually be sick. Hearing each member’s take on the situation caused havoc and an unnecessary issue that drove away from the actual problem. Until we all sat down and open- ­mindedly listened to each person’s reasoning did we all realize how ridiculous the whole situation was, and how no one actually knew the official cause of my illness but arguing about what might be because of our personal stances was just silly and almost irrelevant. When approaching the situation, as Watzlawick predicted in his theory, my mom, stepdad, and I, originally, all took our individual opinions and pushed them on one another assuming that they were the only way. My mom saying the my stepdad was an enabler, one whose non- ­assertive behavior allows others to continue in an addiction or other wrong- ­doing, and in defending himself, my stepdad saying she was biased because of her personal beliefs on eating habits. Once we agreed to sit down and talk about each person’s perspective on things using metacommunication, communication about communication, and taking into consideration why each of us acted a certain way and how it might have affected the others, we could finally come to agreement and be at peace. We decided that if we all would have approached each other in a more open- ­minded, understanding manner using one- ­across communication, conversational moves used to neutralize or level control within the exchange, rather than trying to one- ­up communicate, place conversational moves on each other to gain control of the exchange, with each other, it would have been a symmetrical interchange, an interaction based on equal power, and the conflict might not have happened at all. I find the Interactional View Theory to be quite on point, and though Griffin found much to critique I might have to disagree and say, while the theory may not be absolutely perfect and one- ­hundred percent accurate in every situation, it does apply to most of, at least, my family controversies, for example, this particular incident. From this theory I was made aware of how often I am to quickly ignore my parents’ responses as initial reactions to them being repetitive and almost biased in their advice, and how I can be more open- ­minded in those situations. I was also made aware of how to think and approach my parents in certain situations, such as food poisoning, to trigger a more calm and open- ­minded response from them. I enjoyed reading, comparing, and analyzing this theory and will begin to consciously apply it to my future conversations with my family members as I did in the food poisoning example, but this time before the incident can happen or get worse.

Intercultural Speaker Summary Leymah Gbowee Essay

Intercultural Speaker Summary Leymah Gbowee - Essay Example st recognized women in the Africa, Liberia in particular for her noble efforts in mobilizing women across the religious divide for the sole intention of fostering peace among the people of Liberia. Her efforts were mainly women-centered as she used pro-women movements to agitate for an end to the long civil war that had jeopardized the republic of Liberia for more than a decade (Gbowee & Mithers, 2011). This earned her great recognition both within and the world at large thus, enabling her to garner a number of international awards most notably the Nobel Peace Prize, which she won in the year 2011 for her active role in empowering women to fight for their rights and end of war. Over the years, she has always worked closely with Ellen Johnson and their efforts bore fruits when Liberia held its first free elections and, which were won by a female candidate the first one in the history of black Africa (Gbowee & Mithers, 2011). Despite the long strife of civil war that was witnessed in Liberia for close to fifteen years, the efforts of Leymah and her colleagues ensured the plight of women was checked and most importantly, their fundamental rights were safeguarded. In her presentation â€Å"Mighty be our Powers† she mainly concentrates on elaborating to the world, what the power of united women can achieve in the world, which is largely dominated by men. The main points that she vividly brings out include mobilization of women across borders regardless of their ethnicity or religion, women empowerment, most importantly the need to protect the fundamental rights of women and finally the plight of women in the event of unrest such as prolonged civil wars (Gbowee & Mithers 2011). The presentation is meant for the public given the kind of knowledge that it presents. However, after critical analysis it can be deduced that the main audience of this particular presentation can be categorized into two major groups namely; women and the rest of the people. Women formed a

Life Ambition Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Life Ambition - Essay Example And in the beginning I found being a scout very tough. It wasn't easy, trying to remember so many knots or then trying to figure out whether the star in the horizon was the North Star or some other star. Eventually, I started getting used to it and very soon started enjoying it. But scouting wasn't only about fun and games though; I learnt a lot of new and interesting things. I also leant many things that are not thought in books. I learnt about duty, about honor and how to serve others. It also taught us how to model our lives according to great people, people like Nelson Mandela who overcame the odds and made a difference. I didn't have to look far for such a role model; I just had to look at my family. For me one of the best role models I have is my dad. In some ways I always wanted to be like my dad. He was one of the first people in our family to get a college degree. No one thought he could, and most of them said what's the point of studying so much But he didn't listen, he still went, studied a lot and finally got a college degree. Now whenever they meet him, they look up to him. Here was someone who had overcome all the odds and did something. This is why dad would always tell me how important education was. Right from the first day I joined school he always told me how important it was is in life. How it wasn't just about how to learn to read and write, everyone could do that he said.

Company Law and Virtue Ethics Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words

Company Law and Virtue Ethics - Essay Example A promoter main duty is to offer sufficient funding or capital for the company and to ensure that all the formalities required by the statute of incorporation are met. The promoters have a fiduciary duty to the company and its shareholders. The promoters cannot use secret corporate information for their personal gain or advantage. Becky and Asif can sue Candy to reclaim the gift of Rex 2010 for breach of fiduciary duties. Promoters normally owe fiduciary duties to the company that they are forming. They should thus disclose any profit they are making from the promotion either to the company shareholders or to an independent board. The company may sue a promoter for disgorgement of the profit and for rescission in case there is a breach of duty. Becky and Asif can also replace Candy as a shareholder because the gift of Rex 2010 created a conflict of interest between Candy and the company. When shareholders have a conflict with the decision taken by one of the employees, he or she can be changed or replaced in accordance with its articles or the pertinent law provisions. Furthermore, a company enjoys an independent existence and is used by shareholders to achieve the shareholder's economic purposes. The company can thus be used as a means of replacing or seeking compensation from Candy because she created a risk of loss of compensation for the company. The gift was a business courtesy- it was a gift from a client. Before accepting the gift, Candy should have informed the other partners and not kept the gift for personal use, instead, she created a conflict of interest by having a business relationship with Yienshiu. The most imperative character of Candy’s job was not to acquire a secret gain at the expense of the company. Candy-a promoter- had a legal obligation not to make secret proceeds from promoting the company without the consent of the other promoters (Tengku Abdullah v Mohd Latiff bin Shah Mohd,[1996] 2 MLJ 265). She also had the legal duty of dis closing to the Company about the gift by Yienshiu. She was not transparent in her dealings with the other shareholders and thus did not remain true to her fiduciary duties (Fairview Schools Sdn. Bhd v Indrani a/p Rajaratnam (No1)[1998] 1 MLJ 110). The rights of the two shareholders-Becky & Asif- were harmed by an act done to the company, it is to the company that they should look to institute appropriate action because though the company and shareholders suffered the same wrong, it is only the two shareholders right that was infringed. Candy was seen by Becky and Asif as a fiduciary of the company because her relationship with the other shareholders was supposed to be one of confidence and trust. Candy owed legal and ethical duties to the company as well as to Becky & Asif which she did not honor. She did not exercise due care while carrying out her duty and did not subordinate her personal interests to the organization of the company. Candy abused her position of reliance at the co mpany in spite of the fact that Becky & Asif expected her to devote her full working efforts and time to the interests of the company and to stay away from any doings that would conflict or distract the company interests.

The Bagman's Father Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

The Bagman's Father - Essay Example The task of killing Master Smythe was assigned to the Bagman, while instruction to Smyth was given to pour that extra vengeance within the Bagman. According to the underworld tenet, murdering a target does not end the task. The boss must ensure that he does not get into trouble in near future. For this reason, the hired assassins are murdered after they finish a couple of assignments. This is also done to ensure that they are not double crossing their respective underworld agencies or getting too much access to information and business associates. Ordo Ramachandran is one the characters who is introduced in the very beginning of the story. Though most of the story revolves around the letter or parcel that is to be delivered to him, he exists just as a name most of the time. It is only in the climax that he is introduced to the readers. He appears as a flat character without any special attribute or features. He remains as a minor character along with Bertie, ratha, Verigible Smythe a nd other associates of Ramachandran. Avila Schond is the lady with command. Though she is the only female character in men’s world, she makes it a point to get respect from each one of them. Her character is never revealed fully, and all the time she appears to be shrouded in mystery. However she is woman with feminine qualities and this is evident from the way she treats the Bagman at the very end by wishing for his wellbeing. Bagman’s father after whom the story is named, never but twice comes into limelight. However, both the times, he marks his presence. The readers find in him an affectionate guardian and apparently a gentleman with great appetite associated with Religious Matters. At the closing of the story he becomes a doting father ready to accept his bustard son. However it is the character of Bagman himself which appears to be most convincing. He is a man highly dedicated to his task or duty. Though it seems that morality or conscience has entirely dried up in him, he displays association for people- for instance, with his father whom he affectionately calls ‘Dad’. He has an inner voice which often connects to him in form of ‘crab fish’ or ‘Died happy’. He feels for his father more than himself while confronting Master Smythe. Bagman is the protagonist who narrates the story in first person to the readers. He is a character who cannot be predicted but a man of manners who knows how to present himself in front of his Father and women. Both he and Avila might change after they set for Feris or Americia. At no point the character of Bagman seems unreal. The actions and the stream of consciousness within the Bagman makes the readers aware that he is but an ordinary man whose profession makes him seem unreal. The plot is finely formed and the actions are tightly knit. In the very beginning, the readers get an apprehension that something is going to happen by the drab and somber setting of the restauran t. The story takes place in an unreal land of Feris but mention of ‘Madras’, ‘Ghee’- rolls, implies that the place exists. One might find the details and settings a little exaggerated when the story begins. A crowd of uncouth people signify that the action of the story is not a bright one. However, the actions are not set in regular pattern. Once the action starts, it does not cease. Scenes of being summoned by Avila, killing a man, secretly opening messages, searching for Ramachandran, escaping from being shot and

Reflection & Application Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Reflection & Application - Essay Example For a given effective conflict there are two kinds of communication that enhance it. This includes unproductive communication and constructive conflict communications. Unproductive conflict communication is seen to be negative; this can hurt individuals, destroy relationship and also can undermine the possibility of resolution. Unproductive conflict communication is well understood in three stages. The early stage, here is the foundation of conflict and it is seen that there is disconfirm between the individuals who are in conflict. At this phase individuals tend to listen poorly as others will be selective as they will be keen on the points they want and ignore the rest. There is a negative climate and both parties assume that their partners are sorry. If Husband say, â€Å"I want us to move into a bigger house this is congested.† The wife reply, â€Å"that’s trash.† This shows that the wife disconfirms his husband view by giving a negative answer. Also we have the middle stage, it’s where the negative climate is already set and it has a lot of interruptions which disrupt the flow of the chat most frequently. The parties start to flashback the past events which they encounter. In this case the Husband may say that the wife is irresponsible she fears more duties and that’s why he found house dusty yet the wife was there not to clean .She also mean in that she fear to spent more in case they move in a bigger house. Lastly we have the later stage there is counterproposals as individuals are seeking to find solutions to the problems and due to limited time and energy each person pushes to have his or her view taken. None wants to accept the others proposal. The Husband proposes, â€Å"May we can get enough accommodation for any visitors who come by,† The wife proposes, â€Å"may the visitors could be accommodated in the servant’s quarters. The constructive conflict communications on the other hand creates supportive,

Economic Development in the Persian Gulf (Saudi and Iran) Essay

Economic Development in the Persian Gulf (Saudi and Iran) - Essay Example It also proposes strategies that should be adopted by both the countries so as to pave way for economic growth. Saudi Arabia and Iran are the two remarkable producers of oil in the region but have failed to utilize this wealth of natural resources towards economic development of the country. It is a tragedy of oil-based economies that they fail to reap the benefits of this rich and valuable resource. There may be several reasons behind this fact viz. extreme reliance on oil export for revenue generation and political instability etc. Regional instability is also one of the major phenomena that strike the oil rich countries in the Persian Gulf region. The fear of neighboring rivalries and potential threats keep these countries engrossed in spending thriftlessly on defense and military buildup, which has been on an ever increasing trend in the Persian Gulf region. Billion and Khatib also say that "the economy and politics of oil-dependent states are also affected by their propensity to spend more on defense" (113). Ever since the Iranian revolution, Saudi Arabia has considered Iran as a severe threat to its political structure. Consequently, both the countries, in particular Saudi Arabian government allocates heavy budget to arms accumulation and military buildup rather than on economic development. Saudi Arabia happens to ... er producer, a fourth of the world's known reserves lie beneath its soil; the reserves of Russia, Nigeria, and Alaska together do not match the desert kingdom's" (23). Despite that, the country's economic growth and stability seems to be deteriorating in the recent times. Like most of the oil-based economies, the country's economic condition is bound to improve with a rise in oil price and decline with a fall in oil price. The economy of Saudi Arabia has moved drastically over the past two decades with the movements in oil price. The rich Arab country is now falling short of enough funds to finance its major public and welfare expenditures mostly because of the events that took place over the last few decades. Saudi government had to bear extraordinary expenses during the Gulf War at officially disclosed $55 billion and then due to provision of financial support to Iraq during the Iran invasion amounting to $26 billion. Furthermore, the fluctuations in price of oil over the last 20 years from $40 per barrel in 1981 to below $20 per barrel until the late 90s have affected the cash flowing in the country. Saudi government has also failed to stabilize its expenditures based on oil prices despite its ever increasing reliance on oil to finance these expenses. Because of this reliance on oil, the oil price crisis in 1998 profoundly affected the Saudi economy and increased the level of domestic and internati onal debt leading to a financial crisis (Gause 82-83) The Saudi economy is under the serious threat of unemployment due to inability of the government to provide employment to an increasing number of educated youth. Public sector of the economy is already confronting with high salaries burdening the fiscal budget whereas the private sector is more willing to employ

Impact of the Media on the Development of a Child Research Paper

Impact of the Media on the Development of a Child - Research Paper Example The teens have invaded the media in droves and according to the recent research, they constitutes almost seventy percentages of the users especially in internet and broadcast media, the big question is whether the media is contributing positively in the development of this cadre of population. Certainly, the answer is no, it is now apparent that the media particularly the internet has made the moral turpitude of the teens to be put to doubts and ascertained that this is the avenue through which they explore and practice illicit behaviors. Media’s Contribution in development of the Teens It is not accurate to state that media does not have any meaningful contribution in the lives of teens. It is true that it does influence many things with positive outcomes, an example of the case in the US where adolescent obesity has been mitigated through the media (Ford 11). Notwithstanding, when critically assessed it will be found that media has also contributed negatively in the lives of the teens by exposing them to issues related to sex, an example is the phonographic videos in the internet. Teens have also fallen into the trap of engaging in the illicit activities following the kind of advertisement they are accorded in the media. The media is thus an area where both positives and negatives conducts are drawn by the teens. Positive Attributes of the Media on teens Development The media has significantly contributed to the positive development of the teens in several ways helping them to achieve their life objectives. These positive impacts of media to the teens include academic improvements, growth of a reading a culture and networking. Academic Improvement According to research, it has been proven that the teens with computer and laptops in their room demonstrate remarkable improvement in their performance in academic work. This is attributed to the fact that by having computers, they not only have the ease to reach information through the internet but also get motivated and spend more hours reading information in the internet. Television show are also rated to have the best educational session on several issues that even the parent might not be having good grasp of knowledge about. In a close supervision then, television can prove to be one of the best informative media on relevant issues to the teens; an example is the show by Dr Oz and Oprah (Ford 17). Inculcation of the Reading Culture and Networking It is certain that our reading culture is threatened with the technological advancement today, as most of the teens demonstrate a very poor reading culture that needs to be reinforced. The print media that details several issues that takes place around the world is rejuvenating this culture. Through the magazines, journals that discuss the topical issues, the teens are fond of extracting the information in them through reading and this is helping in realizing the culture of reading. The internet on the other hand, provides the teens with a faster and safe way of interaction and can have the opportunity to share on some of the issues that interest them with whomsoever they choose around the world (Ford 20). Therefore, parents should then ensure that their children do not fall a prey to the other sides of the media that bears contrary impact. This precautionary measure ensures that the teens do not succumb to the disturbances, obsessions, depressions, and mental deterioration characterized with dwindling academic performance. Negative Attributes of the Media to the Teens Several studies have indicated that teens who demonstrate

Catcher in the Rye Essay Example for Free

Catcher in the Rye Essay Holden, the main character of the book Catcher in the Rye by J.D Salinger, had to face many conflicts during the story. These conflicts connect to him either by secondary character or by himself. Not only do this conflicts affect Holden, but if affects the people around him as well. Holden’s attitude became negative because of all the conflicts he faced. â€Å"The first thing you’ll probably ask is where I was born and how my lousy childhood was like†. During his childhood, he was alone with no close friends or family. This affected him because he felt excluded from the society. It also made him feel like he didn’t have any support so that made him go to the city by himself and get into trouble. He didn’t get any support from anyone so he wasn’t told what was wrong and what was right, that was why he smoked and drank. Also since he didn’t have a family who supported him so he never took the school seriously. He was kicked out of four schools because of his bad grades. (Evidence found in Pg. 1) â€Å"I slept in the garage the night he died, and I broke all the goddam windows with my fist, just for the hell of it†. Allies death affected him mentally. It made him very sad at the moment but after a time it made him aggressive and anti-social. (Evidence found in Chapter 5) He criticized everyone. He calls everyone a phony. Thinks other people are followers and are only tricking themselves. So he wants to rebel against the society because they’re making everyone a phony. This attitude made him see everyone in a bad way which made it very difficult for him to make friends. (Evidence found all over the book) He has a Self vs. Self battle throughout the whole book. He wants to be the same person but he doesn’t realize he’s changing. He likes the museum because it never changes. One part of him wants to be an adult (he drinks and smokes and always thinks of sex) while to other part of him rejects it rejects it as a phony. So as you can see, all these conflicts led to his bad, negative attitude. He became aggressive, rebel, and excluded. It also made him problematic and hard to understand. The conflicts implemented some psychological problems on Holden by making him increase his interest in alcohol and drugs.

Childhood Obesity Solutions Essay Example for Free

Childhood Obesity Solutions Essay Prevalence of childhood obesity has increased greatly in the recent years, so much so that the number of children considered overweight by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has nearly quadrupled among children aged 6-11 years old (Cawley, Meyerhoefer, and Newhouse, 2007, p.506). Many members of the public, media, and congress have declared childhood obesity as a major public health concern, considering it to be an â€Å"important cause and consequence of wider disparities in health† (Freudenberg, Libman, and O’Keefe, 2010). Director of the division of nutrition, physical activity and obesity at the CDC, Dr. William H. Dietz, went as far as to say â€Å"This may be the first generation of children that has a lower life span than their parents† (Roberts Wilson, 2012). Though it is evident steps are needed to be taken to help protect the health and futures of our youth, those with the most power to actually make a visible, long lasting environmental change are the most reluctant to do so. Policymakers have alternate interests in finances that water down their attempts to take charge. Sadly, often times playing the social problems game takes precedence over the more genuine social problems work. As a Washington Post article so boldly states â€Å"In the political arena, one side is winning the war on child obesity. The side with the fattest wallets.† (Roberts Wilson, 2012) Proposals that frame childhood obesity as being an inevitable result of increasing environmental surroundings by unhealthful foods are too often neglected by government officials more willing to frame childhood obesity as an individual problem. Indeed it is more convenient to claim providing freedom of choice to individuals who are capable of making their own decisions, emphasizing self regulation, and freeing themselves of responsibility to their nation to lead in financially beefy actions. This essay seeks to demonstrate that childhood obesity should no longer be considered an individual cause stemming from lifestyle choices which can be changed through minor solutions such as education in physical activity and nutrition. Unfortunately, this social problems ownership has become the taken-for-granted frame for this problem (Loseke, 2003, p.69). Childhood obesity really is a social problem which is a direct result from our environment, social structures emphasizing fast, unhealthy, frankly JUNK food which is readily available in any given neighbourhood and continuously marketed through all mediums to increase profits to some select wealthy individuals. I will stress that the only solutions met by this pressing issue have been solely symbolic solutions which have been prematurely praised as they are false attempts to appear loyal to the public, communities, and school systems, while truly remaining loyal to the corporations, who some may very well be held entirely accountable. Within this paper the exploration of three chosen symbolic solutions to date will include: American Government’s distribution of the Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans Midcourse Report: Strategies for Increasing Physical Activity Among Youth, the national law passing of requiring restaurants with 20 or more chains to provide calorie information on menus and menu boards, and lastly, the enhancement of PE requirements for school aged children. The distribution of said guidelines is reported to be important by reviewing â€Å"the evidence on strategies to increase youth physical activity and make recommendations and to communicate findings to the public.† (Rodgers, 2012, p.10) This report focuses on five settings, but in reality only offers strategies for 3 of them. Two settings (Home and Family, and Primary Care settings) received no proposed strategies to increase physical activity among youth, and focused only on areas requiring further research (p.7). Those settings which did receive proposed strategies were quite obvious suggestions which doubtfully would have any significant impact on physical activity among youth. One such suggestion is to â€Å"provide teachers with appropriate training† (p.5). Although it must be noted that this is not a report distributed solely to decrease obesity among youth, it is distributed to increase physical activity among youth, which is not the same, though admittedly similar. On the webpage this guide is provided, a number of other arbitrary tools can also be found. Webinars on online nutrition information, fact sheets, blogs, access to printable posters, and more. Educating the public, educating the parents of youth, and the youth themselves of course is important. At what point however will it be supplemented by restrictions on marketing of food and beverages to youth, which this guideline reports is estimated at a whopping $10 billion per year, but shows no indication of wanting to reduce or restrict this, and can only suggest counterbalancing with media campaigns directed to offset these unhealthy images (Rodgers, 2012, p. 3). One article is more forward in summarizing â€Å"Despite this widespread recognition of negative impact of marketing unhealthy foods, the practice continues unabated.† (Harvard School of Public Health, 2012) Mandated menu labelling of calories in some American jurisdictions was passed in 2008, requiring restaurant chains with 20 or more facilities to post calorie information next to each item on their menus and menu board (Kuo, Jarosz, Simon and Fielding, 2009, p.1680). This new law was backed by evidence that â€Å"eating fast food has been shown to increase caloric intake and the risk of becoming obese† (Harvard School of Public Health, 2012). As an alternative to restricting what is sold in these fast food chains, restricting advertising of these products, or perhaps even zoning restrictions on how many fast food restaurants were permitted to be within a certain range of schools, this new law appears to be the most liberal of solutions, and the most beneficial for the companies selling these high calorie foods. Findings from a health impact assessment are as follows: â€Å"mandated menu labelling at fast food and other large chain restaurants could reduce population weight gain, even with only modest changes in consumer behaviour.† (Kuo, Jarosz, Simon and Fielding, 2009, p.1683) As promising as this is, it is followed by a stronger and more realistic assessment stating â€Å" if nonobese restaurant patrons were more likely to order reduced calorie meals than were obese patrons, the impact on the obesity rate could be less than what we reported†. Because there was no study conducted on the weight of those opting for calorie reduced items, it is difficult to say if this solution is beneficial to the target audience, obese people in these jurisdictions. If changes are being made that is great, but there is no evidence to date to support this influencing the rising issue of obesity. It is just another means of essentially saying that the government is willing to educate on the food being provided and it is the choice of the individual, to consume or not consume. One solution offered by government recognizes that with the majority of youth enrolled in schools, school is an ideal place to provide much needed physical activity to students (Rodgers, 2012). In implementation, many state policies require schools to â€Å"have a PE unit requirement that constrains students to spend a minimum amount of time in PE class† (Cawley, Meyerhoefer, and Newhouse, 2007, p. 508). A study evaluating the effectiveness of such policies revealed that, naturally, a required PE unit is correlated with a higher probability that the student participates in PE (Cawley, Meyerhoefer, and Newhouse, 2007, p. 511). Although this is clearly a positive outcome of enforcing requirements among youth to enroll in PE classes, this same study goes on to say that â€Å"a requirement is correlated with students reporting fewer minutes spent active in PE†(p.511). Yes, you read that correctly, specifically 15.1 fewer minutes active in PE for boys, and 3.1 fewer in PE for girls (p.511-512). In conclusion, this report sums up the opposing information by stating that â€Å"curriculum development is not significantly associated with the amount of time spent active in PE†. As such, the implementation of these programs sounds a lot more effective in theory then it is in practice. All three of these solutions offered by government are certainly steps in recognizing that childhood obesity is in fact prevalent in our society. These solutions also claim that something can be done to reduce the level of harm to children’s health, and that actions should be implemented in correcting this epidemic. Essentially childhood obesity is a recognized social problem in our society. Unfortunately because the victims, (obese children), are politically powerless individuals, proposals to decrease the harm attributed to them have been, and will continue to be symbolic. Sadly, effort from interest groups with good intentions can be overshadowed by the social problems game of politics. This concept is not lost in an article posted in The New York Academy of Medicine which reads as follows: â€Å"private interests generally have more resources and skills than public health reformers to achieve their policy goals, and are more successful in resisting changes than advocates are in implementing them. These structural barriers are a powerful deterrent to reducing childhood obesity. Creating cities where health rather than business concerns take precedence will require new approaches to governance and democracy.† (Freudenberg, Libman, and O’Keefe, 2010, p.761) It appears as though, for now, the social problems game of proposing symbolic solutions for childhood obesity is being accepted by audiences. Since Loseke claims that â€Å"the goal of social problems game is persuading audience members† (p.51), government officials, the players, are succeeding. References Cawley, J., Meyerhoefer, C. and Newhouse, D. (2007), The correlation of youth physical activity with state policies. Contemporary Economic Policy, 25: 506–517. doi: 10.1111/j.1465-7287.2007.00070.x Fredenberg, N., Libman, K., O’Keefe, E. (2010), A tale of two obescities: The role of municipal governance in reducing childhood obesity in New York city and London. Journal of Urban Health: Bulletin of the New York Academy of Medicine, 87:5 doi:10.1007/s11524-101-943-x Harvard School of Public Health, (2012), The obesity prevention source toxic food environment. Retrieved from: http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/ Kuo, T., Jarosz, C., Simon,P., Fielding, J. (2009), Menu labelling as a potential strategy for combating obesity epidemic: A health impact assessment. American Journal of Public Health, 99:9 doi: 10.2105/AJPH.2008.153023 Loseke, D. (2003), Thinking about social problems. New York: Walter de Gruyter, Inc. Robert, J., Wilson, D., (2012, April 27), Special report: How Washington went soft on childhood obesity. Reuters. Retrieved from: http://www.reuters.com/ Rodgers, A., (2012), Physical activity guidelines for Americans mid-course report: strategies to increase physical activities among youth. US Department of Health and Human Services. Retrieved from: http://health.gov/paguidelines/default.aspx

Management of Multinational Companies

Management of Multinational Companies Abstract Staffing management of multinational companies is a complex but crucial issue to the international human resource management (IHRM) research. Based on literature review, this article is to investigate the staffing management in the multinational companies. Firstly, the author will summarize the conceptual introduction, general challenges, culture distance, and new alternative in the expatriate assignments. Secondly, the author will discuss how to retain subsidiary staff retention in the whole HRM of multinationals. Thirdly, in order to complete the research successfully, the author will utilize the qualitative research method through literature study and one-to-one interview to figure out the puzzle about the staffing management in multinational and draw the conclusion. Introduction The topic of this paper is the staffing management in the multinational companies by using qualitative research method. In this report, what kind of information is valued for this research? How to collect information? What kind of technology will be used and how to organize this research? All these questions will be described in the following parts. First at all, the clear understanding about qualitative research is necessary and helpful. Qualitative research is a field of inquiry that crosscuts disciplines and subject matters. It involves an in-depth understanding of human behavior and the reasons that govern human behavior. Unlike quantitative research, qualitative research relies on reasons behind various aspects of behavior. Objective The objective of this article is to investigate the staffing management in the multinational companies. In the last decades, an extensive amount of articles on this topic have been published. Obviously, the staffing management is a critical issue in the human resource management for the multinational companies. How to balance the PCNs, HCNs, and TCNs? How to reconcile the individual career plan to the corporation scope? How to manage the multicultural team? All of these topics have been explored in conceptual theory and empirical analyses. At the same time, with the development of the world economic and political, some new trends have appeared in international business, for example, global virtual team, the e-business, etc. These new challenges bring new patterns for the staffing management. Thus, in this article, the author focuses on new changes, such as alternative for the conventional expatriate assignments and the retaining of the local staff retention. Literature Review In order to get the general knowledge about the staffing management in the multinational companies, six books have been chosen as the literature related to the topic. In those books, the authors claimed that people are the foundation in a multinationals; most of the attention of human resource management in multinationals is concerned with the staffing management, while the staffing management is the most difficult task for them. How to effectively manage people in various countries and cultures is a big issue in the staffing management in the multinational companies. At the same time, in order to get the recent research topic in the multinational staffing management, some articles which were published in the academic journals have been chosen as well. 1. Conceptual Introduction Staffing management deals with a comprehensive term for all operative functions namely recruiting, placing, appraisal, rewarding, assessing, developing performed in HR management. According to International HRM model created by Patrick V. Morgan and Peter J. Bottrall, three dimensions are involved : Human resource functions Procurement Allocation Utilization National or country functions The host country where a subsidiary may be located The home country where an international company is headquartered And â€Å"others† countries that may be the source of labor or finance Employees functions Local/ host-country nationals (HCNS ¼Ã¢â‚¬ ° Expatriates/parent-country nationals (PCNS) Third-country nationals (TCNS) Face to those options and wide resource, the managers in global enterprises have particular concern about the employees ability to disseminate knowledge and innovation throughout their global operations . The use of expatriates has seemed to be a logical choice for staffing, while the use of parent-country nations seems to be most appropriate in some specific situation. Some other global enterprises also prefer integrate the expatriates and local human resource. Nevertheless, each procedure has both advantage and disadvantage. With regard to executive nationality staffing policies, â€Å"There are major four categories on the HRM within Multinational corporations : the ethnocentric approach, the polycentric approach, the regioncentric approach, and the geocentric approach. In summary, those four approaches are useful for multinationals, and the MNC can choice one of four approaches to manage its international staffing. However, there are no restricting rules for staffing management. The following questions for the multinationals must to face: Predictors of expatriate success, expatriate failure rate, repatriation, equal employment opportunity issues, and recruitment and selection of HCNs and TCNs. 2. Challenges in multinationals The nature of international business is undergoing a sea change. The rapid expansion of global trade, business consolidation and geographical diversification are pushing companies for changes in their management structure and style. Multinationals now need to consider regional market conditions and develop strategies to cater to each of the regional markets. Another factor driving the need for change is the global mergers and acquisitions. Companies acquire other companies abroad need to change their HR policies as it is not applicable on the acquired company. It is beneficial to invite top executives of the acquired firm to join the parents top management. 2.1 Career blockage Lots of employees will be exciting to have the opportunity to work abroad. In fact, for host-country manager who always have limited opportunities to gain experience outside their own country and can not progress beyond the senior positions in their own subsidiary. While, the parent-country manager have limited too, and they will feel frustrate when they come back home to see their colleagues are promoted and their career have been sidetracked. 2.2 Culture shock Culture shock is the big challenge for multinationals, the difference brings the different thinking ways and working ways, and it needs time to adjust it. In most cases the expatriate manager prefer to emphasize and require the home office or home country values on the host countrys employees instead of accepting and learning within the new culture. 2.3 Lack of cross cultural training In fact, most multinationals ignore this training program during the staffing management. However, the better understanding about culture block can help managers to improve the effectiveness of staffing management. For example, The managers at Bell Canada were totally asked be training about Muslim laws of drinking and the treating of women there before he or she assigned a project for Saudi Arabia such like constructing the telephone system in there. 2.4 Family problems Family problem for PNC manager is another challenge. The oversea employees always think of their family. Sometime, such emotion will effect the concentrations in their work. These difficulties are usually underestimated. What the organization should do is to assist expatriates family to adapt their new environment. 3. Managing multicultural team Team members of multinational companies come from different countries with the different culture, economic, religions and habits. All of these differences bring the different thinking and working methods, thus, how to manage the multicultural team is a big challenge for the HRM in the multinationals. In the article â€Å"Managing multicultural team†, the author states that â€Å"Communication in Western cultures is typically direct and explicit. In many other cultures, meaning is embedded in the way the message is presented. The differences can cause serious damage to team relationships† (Jeanne Breeet , Kristin Behfar, and Mary C. Kern, 2007) . At the same time, the accent and the lack of fluent communication will affect the understanding and the integration between team numbers. The direct effect of misunderstanding can also be the barrier to constrain the team achieving the project common goal. Therefore, the scholar indicates the four strategies as following to mana ge the multicultural team (Jeanne Breeet, Kristin Behfar, and Mary C. Kern, 2007) : Adaptation: acknowledging cultural gaps openly and working around team Structural intervention: changing the shape of the team Managerial intervention: setting norms early or bringing in a higher-level manager Exit: removing a team member when other options have failed Although those four strategies can be used to deal with some challenges in the multicultural team, the first step to manage the multicultural team for team manager is to identify what kind of challenge the team would face. Sometimes, we can advocate the post-modern thinking as a popular but unofficial thinking which can be used among the team numbers. We try to understand and think about questions from the other side without prejudice. However, the official team management needs some norms and rules to keep the right orientation. In my opinion, when facing the team troubles, we should see the troubles from the culture angle, through the social thinking ways instead of from the personality. 4. New alternative in the expatriate assignments According to Edstorm and Galbraith(1977), there are three motives why MNCs use expatriates. As position fillers when suitably qualified host country nationals (HCNs) were not available. As a means of management development, aimed at developing the competence of the individual manager. As a means of organizational development, aimed at increasing knowledge transfer within the MNC and modifying and sustaining organizational structure and decision processes. However, the high cost and the family problems are the evident shortcomings of the conventional expatriate assignments. Recently, more and more research begins to question the utility and viability of the conventional expatriate assignments. According to the â€Å"Changing patterns of global staffing in the multinational enterprise: challenges to the conventional expatriate assignment and emerging alternatives† (David G. Collings, Hugh Scullion and Michael J. Morley, 2007) , there are five aspects related to the debates: supply side issues, demand side issues, expatriate performance and expatriate â€Å"failure†, performance evaluation, cost and finally career dynamics. By reviewing the reasons of those challenges, the authors explore some alternative forms in the international assignments now: Short –term international assignments Frequent flyer assignments Commuter and rotational assignments Global virtual team The HR implications of managing alternative forms of international assignments Although those new patters appeared in the international staging assignments, each alternative has both positive and negative influences. For example, as scholars mentioned that the short-term assignments are the most popular form of non-standard assignment. At the same time, they also identify the following situations in which short-term assignments are used in MNCs: (1) Problem solving or skills transfer; (2) for control purposes and; (3) for managerial development reasons. And the disadvantages: (1) taxation issues ¸ particularly for assignments over six months duration, (2) the potential for side-effects such as alcoholism and marital problems (3) failure to build effective relationships with local colleagues and customers and (4) work visas and permits (Tahvanainen et al., 2005) . Eventually, the challenge for IHRM practitioners is to ensure that each international assignment has clearly defined goals and in this context to continue the advancement of techniques aimed at measu ring the return of investment on international assignments. 5. Retaining subsidiary staffs retention It can be argued that the retention of staffing in the multinationals subsidiary conducts huge influence. The transfers between the PCNs, HCNs and the TCNs are the big issues in the staffing management strategy. Scolders identify that the HCNs and TCNs who are sent to the corporate headquarters (HQ) called inpatriates. As this article mentioned before, the ethnocentric approach, the polycentric approach, the regioncentric approach, and the geocentric approach are the four major nationality staffing policies in the international staffing, by analyzing the complex and the new situation appear in the relationships between the HQ and subsidiary, B. Sebastian Reiche (2007) explores the international stiffing-related retention strategies . Firstly, he claims that a pluralistic and consensus-driven approach to international staffing enhances the retention capacity of international staffing practices through increased responsiveness to and involvement of the respective local unit. He states that the knowledge and skill from the local staff can help multinationals to reduce the risk and culture-bound in the local market. He also believes that this approach can improve the loyalty of local staffs, and the local staff can achieve individual career plan to cohere the institutional development plan. At the same time, he states that the PCNs still act as the vital role for informal controlling and coordination in the multinational companies. Secondly, he indicates that expatriation of local staff can help to retain the MNCss retention. In this approach, he states that the â€Å"inpatriates can share their social and contextual knowledge of the subsidiary environment with managers at the HQ. And also inpatriates tend to be accepted by HCNs more willingly than foreign personnel.† According to the literature review, we can see that the staffing management is the big and critical issue in the multinational human resource management. Although some models and some rules can be used in the staffing management in multinationals, there is no magic formula which we can follow, and there is no silver bullet that gives the kill. Simultaneity, I also find some challenges and some new patters of the staffing management in multinationals, in order to get the better understanding about the staffing management strategy in multinationals, and to prove some confused questions in my minds, like why are there so few women on international assignments? The designed qualitative research which addresses the staffing management in multinational companies will be presented as the following: Methodology A successful qualitative research should have the clear introduction about the research methods, the detailed and scientific research, and the justice and related data analysis. In this part, how to develop and execute this qualitative research will be described: 1. Research methods Research methods are the tools to be used in this qualitative research. It is the basic elements to do the research, and the better and clear understanding is helpful and necessary for the success of the research. In the following part, I will introduce some research methods which will be used in this qualitative research. In-depth interview: are typically used in survey development. One-to-one interviews are conducted (with people meeting the criteria for completing a particular survey) when individuals complete the instrument. This method helps investigators understand how people perceive and interpret language and their own experiences as they refine the survey instruments. Five persons (individual profiles as the following table) will be interviewed to talk about this project. The questions sheet was designed for the interview. The purpose of the interviews is to figure out the strategic about the staffing management in the multinational companies, especially the challenges in the multinational is the major issues in the interview. Interviewees Age Gender Background Working experience 36 Male PHD Electric Engineer 7 years Engineer 33 Male Master engineer MPM 5 years HR manager 32 Male Master MPM 4 years marketing manager 29 Female Master MBA 2 year HR 25 Female Master MBA 1 year HR 2. Research Procedure In this research, the five persons who have the background with working in the multinational companies or who have the academic ideas about the human management will be involved in this research. This research have two parts, the first part will discuss about the important position for staffing management in one multinational company. The second part is about the challenges, and tries to find the solutions for those challenges. 3. Data collection and analyzing In this stage, the enough and useful data is necessary for qualitative research. Collecting data is the key step to achieve the research goal after in-depth interview and case study. Based on the four challenges about the human resource management in the multinational companies, through the in-depth interview with five persons and the case studies, the result about this research is to find the way how to solve those challenges. 4. Research Schedule All the research development will follow the deliverables on the course outline. Proposal: Deadline is February 20 Interview protocol: Deadline is March 12 Interview: Deadline is April 10 Oral presentation: Deadline is April 16 Research report: Deadline is April 28 5. Interview 5.1 Interview plan Traditionally, the detailed plan is the first step for a success interview. For me, the major thing should be described is about the interview tools. The in-depth interviews are typically used in the interview. One-to-one interviews are conducted as the individuals complete the instrument being tested. This method helps investigators understand how people perceive and interpret language and their own experiences as they refine the survey instruments. At the same time, based on the topic which is staffing management in the multinational companies, I will choice the telephone interview too. Five persons will be interviewed to talk about this topic. The purpose of the interviews is to figure out the strategic about the staffing management in the multinational companies, especially the challenges in the multinational is the major issues in the interview. Three persons are chosen from the classmates who had or have the working experience in the multinational companies, the forth person is my friend who works in a multinational company in Toronto, and I will meet him in the weekend to do the interview. The last person works in Montreal, and I will take a telephone interview. 5.2 Level of Language The effective communication is the critical issues for the success of the interview. The better understanding is helpful to achieve the purpose of the interview. 5.3 Interview questions Do you think the staffing management is a critical issue for multinational companies? Do you think staffing issues are different and complex in the multinational companies? Should there different strategic between the employees in local/ host-country nationals (HCNS), expatriates/parent-country nationals (PCNS), and third-country nationals (TCNS)? How to motives the expatriate employees? How to make the justice between local and expatriate employees? How to implement the performance management for the host-country nationals? How to manage the diversity management? Why are there so few women on international assignments? What kinds training are necessary for the international assignees? What are the challenges about staffing management in the multinational companies? 5.4 Analyses about the interview questions As I mentioned before, five persons were be interviewed to talk about this topic. Three persons are chosen from the classmates who had or have the working experience in the multinational companies, one person who works in the AMD in Toronto, I was meeting him last weekend. And another person who works in Montreal, I already called him to do the telephone interview. Those entire people have the common thinking which is staffing management is very importance and diversity in multinationals. The detailed analysis about the interview questions as following. 1. Do you think the staffing management is a critical issue for multinational companies? The same answers from five interviewees. All of them given yes to this question. Analysis: People are one of the most important parts in the multinational companies. The staffs are from different countries, they have diverse cultures, religions, and working styles. Therefore, the working environment can be very complex. Finding skilled and talented personnel and motivating them then become more and more important. How to resolve problems and conflicts, and integrate the diverse human resource and management is going to be a critical issue. 2. Do you think staffing issues are different and complex in the multinational companies? All of five interviewees answered yes in this question. Analysis: Compared to the national company, the multinational companys target market may be numerous country or while world. According this situation, the employees of multinational companies have different culture, religion and life habit. The employees diversiform culture background can help the multinational company understand the local market environment; however, it increases the cost of staffing management. The multinational companies should pay more an attention on the HR management. The enormous human resource data and complex work environment is a trouble for the multinational companies. At the same time, communication problem is also critical when people speak different languages. 3. Should there different strategic between the employees in local/ host-country nationals (HCNS), expatriates/parent-country nationals (PCNS), and third-country nationals (TCNS)? The answer is yes. Analysis: Based on the countries different conditions like economic, living standard, market, etc. The local, expatriates and third-country nationals employees are in the different positions. The HCNS are familiar with the culture, environment, and the communication habit. Therefore, the management strategy can be very simple and easy. However, for the PCNS and TCNS, they are unacquainted with the country, and it is harder to accommodate themselves with the new living and working environment. So the communication process will be more complex. Consequently, the companies should use different strategies between the different nationals employees. 4. How to motives the expatriate employees? In this question, building own company culture which is not only local culture but also expatriate and recognizing the and respecting the different culture and habits has been mentioned in all five interviewees. As interviewees C states that familiarizes the new employee to the companys culture, business values, people, organization and processes in an efficient manner. Then, helping the person fit into their new environment, lowers feeling of isolation and anxiety, and increases feelings of comfort, security and belonging. Also, creates a favorable impression and attitude. At the same time, interviewee D thought that Special benefits and holidays are the necessary and important rules to motives the expatriate employees. 5. How to make the justice between local and expatriate employees? The answers about this question related to the understanding about culture and habits and the performance evaluation. Firstly, a series of regulations and rules should be created, Then, try to avoid bias, think objectively, and stand by different positions to see the view. At the same time, the performance evaluation should have the same standard. 6. How to implement the performance management for the host-country nationals? The performance management should be made based on the appraisals which provide legal and formal organizational justification for employment decisions. Also, the appraisals are used as criteria in test validation and provide feedback to employees. Meanwhile, the appraisals can help establish objectives for training programs and determine organizational problems 7. How to manage the diversity management? In this question, there are many answers: A, create chance to know each other B, Equal opportunities is just one part of diversity, detailed policies and procedures should be user-friendly. C, establish a heterogeneous workforce performing to its potential in a fair work environment where no member has an advantage or disadvantage for any reason other than merit. E, Establish training system to reduce fail and conflicts. Establish effective communication to exchange information in time. 8. Why are there so few women on international assignments? In this question, there have the different answers between the male and female interviewees; two male interviewees state that this situation based on the history, culture, like working capability of women cant be accepted by everyone. One male interviewee claims that he did not find this situation because one of the groups in his department is all women who are in charge of both local and international assignments. The two female interviewees said that Women have more family and emotional burden, and women always lack of career progress (glass ceiling). 9. What kinds training are necessary for the international assignees? In this question, most interviewees mentioned that the international assignees should be trained of the knowledge of culture, religion, value and working style. Interviewee B still talked about the training should be connected with Sexual Harassment, Legal Issues and Global Corporate Finance. 10. What are the challenges about staffing management in the multinational companies? Touch different thinking approach and culture How to Improve Expatriate-Local Relations How to respect the diverse values, and establish the same corporation values is most challenge Conflicts between cultures, communication problems, performance standard. Unions want to cooperate but compete with each other for jobs Finding and Results The interviews proved my viewpoint that the staffing management is critical and complex to a multinational. Therefore, to successfully achieve its goal, the multinational not only insist its successful experience and culture but also should adjust the strategy due to the diversity and complexity of human resource management which includes the staffing management strategy. In my research, I focus on two aspects: first is about the importance of staffing management in multinational, which even should be considered as the most crucial part in multinationals life. My interview has proven my standpoint, all interviewers agree on the importance of staffing management. A mistake the multinationals may make is they believe the successful experience in the home country will work well in other parts of the world. But the fact usually says no. Therefore, the multinationals need to learn how to face the â€Å"difference† in different thinking ways, policy, culture and peoples desires. Thu s, the second aspect is how to make and implement the proper staffing management due to de complexity and difference of country situation. Base on this understanding, I listed my questions like â€Å"How to motives the expatriate employees†, â€Å"How to manage the diversity management?† and â€Å"What kinds training are necessary for the international assignees†. Most of these questions relate to the people. Undoubtedly, people are the most important factor in all aspects. No matter how correct a decision or strategy has been made, it depends on how people implement it. My interviewees answered the questions through different aspects which base on their experience. Clearly, all of the answers based on one common point that the staffing strategy has to meet peoples basic demands, culture, and inspire them properly. Above all, the interviews supported my original viewpoint and extended my visions in several aspects which I learned from the literatures. I will giv e the conclusion in next part. Conclusion In the past ten years many business cases proved that human resource management especially the staffing management is the critical factor for the business successful. Based on the analysis about the interviews, I got some conclusion. Firstly, the staffing management is the critical issue for the multinational has been proved. People are one of the most important parts within the company. People with different culture will cause a lot of problems because of culture differences for multinational companies. Because of globalization, business are not just addressed within a Country, and it becomes global as well. So how to find, select and train skilled and talented personnel and motivating employees then become more and more important. Secondly, the staffing management issues are different and complex in the multinational. These issues still related to the culture understanding. Different people have the different thinking ways based on the individual background, and different nations h ave the different habits by the history, religion, policy, etc. So, employees in a multinational have the different thinking ways for the same thing. Those results result to the complex and different staffing strategies. Thirdly the culture shock is another bid issue for the staffing management in the multinationals. All of the five interviewees talked about the better understanding of the different culture and habits, it indicates that diverse culture, religions thinking ways and working style become more and more important in the multinationals, and taking the justice between local and expatriate employees is very important too. In fact, as we all known, staffing for a multinational company is complicated by the more diverse environment , such as business, economic, political, legal, cultural implications and the Parent companys need for control. At the same time, as I mentioned before, there is no magic formula which we can follow, and there are even more challenges that Human Resource has to face when the organization goes international. In a multinational corporation, one of the most difficult tasks is to effectively manage people in various countries and cultures. As we discussed before in this article, the employees are the base for the company, and human resource management is the critical factor for the business successful. According to the situation of human resource management in one organization, the HRM managers take special responsibilities. In fact, there is also no denying that the status of the HRM in the enterprise will be higher than before throughout the next decade. At the same time, with the development of global economy, the multinationals acted the more and more important roles in the global trade. This fact enforce the enterprise have to developmen

The Plant Guilty of Countless Tribulations :: Essays Papers

The Plant Guilty of Countless Tribulations Once upon a time, there was a boy who was waiting at the bus stop. The boy was a cigarette user. The boy asked the man next to him for a cigarette, and the man replied, â€Å"I don’t smoke that crap, I smoke the 'doobie.' † The boy asked, â€Å"What’s the â€Å"doobie†?† The man then handed the boy a joint and told him to hit it. The boy hit the joint 5 straight times. He was feeling great! He then hopped on the bus and all of a sudden he realized he was not feeling right. He seemed to be moving in slow motion. He tried reading a book but he couldn’t concentrate on the words. He eventually arrived to school, walked into his first period class, and had to take a big history test. By the time the class ended, time was up for the test, and the boy had to turn in the test incomplete. He had only answered nine of twenty-five questions. The moral of the story is people need to become more educated about marijuana. Marijuana has many different effects on its users, most of which are negative. The majority of the negative effects are directed to the brain. In the book, Cannabis and Cognitive Functioning, Nadia Solowij said, â€Å"The subjective effects of cannabis (marijuana) might be expected to decrease performance in situations where both perceptual accuracy and attention are important† (31). This decreased performance is a result of poor decision making. Marijuana not only has bad effects on the brain, but it also affects the mouth and the lungs. According to Alison Mack and Janet Joy, several reports have suggested that marijuana smokers are at greater risk than nonsmokers of developing cancers in tissue that come into contact with smoke, such as the lungs, mouth, larynx, pharynx, and esophagus (42). It is obvious that the effects of marijuana are lethal, and are not to be ignored. Marijuana can be deadly, and it is essential for the public to know that it is deadly, in order to prevent people from using the drug. Marijuana has both short-term effects and long-term effects; however, there are many more short-term effects than long-term effects. The primary short term effect marijuana has on the brain is memory loss. The Plant Guilty of Countless Tribulations :: Essays Papers The Plant Guilty of Countless Tribulations Once upon a time, there was a boy who was waiting at the bus stop. The boy was a cigarette user. The boy asked the man next to him for a cigarette, and the man replied, â€Å"I don’t smoke that crap, I smoke the 'doobie.' † The boy asked, â€Å"What’s the â€Å"doobie†?† The man then handed the boy a joint and told him to hit it. The boy hit the joint 5 straight times. He was feeling great! He then hopped on the bus and all of a sudden he realized he was not feeling right. He seemed to be moving in slow motion. He tried reading a book but he couldn’t concentrate on the words. He eventually arrived to school, walked into his first period class, and had to take a big history test. By the time the class ended, time was up for the test, and the boy had to turn in the test incomplete. He had only answered nine of twenty-five questions. The moral of the story is people need to become more educated about marijuana. Marijuana has many different effects on its users, most of which are negative. The majority of the negative effects are directed to the brain. In the book, Cannabis and Cognitive Functioning, Nadia Solowij said, â€Å"The subjective effects of cannabis (marijuana) might be expected to decrease performance in situations where both perceptual accuracy and attention are important† (31). This decreased performance is a result of poor decision making. Marijuana not only has bad effects on the brain, but it also affects the mouth and the lungs. According to Alison Mack and Janet Joy, several reports have suggested that marijuana smokers are at greater risk than nonsmokers of developing cancers in tissue that come into contact with smoke, such as the lungs, mouth, larynx, pharynx, and esophagus (42). It is obvious that the effects of marijuana are lethal, and are not to be ignored. Marijuana can be deadly, and it is essential for the public to know that it is deadly, in order to prevent people from using the drug. Marijuana has both short-term effects and long-term effects; however, there are many more short-term effects than long-term effects. The primary short term effect marijuana has on the brain is memory loss.