Saturday, August 31, 2019

Assignment: Negotiation Plan Daily Dairy Company Essay

The Dairy Company is proud to be one of the most successful companies in the country that provide milk-based products to Australian customers as well as oversea. As we look at the future of the company, it is necessary to restructure the company body frame, strengthen employer-employee relation, the main endowment factor of our company. It is important to come to the satisfactory agreement that could benefit both parties. Dairy Company Goals: 1. The agreement upon the appreciation in salary is to be indicated during the life of the agreement. 2. Training module to be provided to employees 3. Develop an efficient hours roster 4. Maximize the duration of the agreement 5. Consultative Committee structure and confidential information Dairy Company Strategies Daily Dairy is very well aware of the important of employees, the undeniable part which largely contribute to company’s benefit. The company feels that it must develop a solid agreement to benefit every single contributor, but it also wishes to remain flexible and open to new changes and to the variation of demanding market. An integrative agreement is much needed. †Most negotiators would prefer to be involved in the more integrative approach to bargaining, which is a good choice as the research generally suggests that the integrative approach yields better results† (Walton and McKersies’s 1965) 1. The agreement upon the appreciation in salary is to be indicated during the life of the agreement. As the recession coming up, the prediction of 10 to 20% of employees will be cut down to reduce expenses and raise a significant amount to capital. A part of the surplus amount e contributed to the capital will be added to the current salary. The purpose of this appreciation is to enhance the life standard of each individual, furthermore  improve the productivity of employees and production line of Daily Dairy in general. The appreciated proportion will be determined by the proved contribution towards improved productivity of each individual performance. The total amount increase benefiting employees is predicted to be 5% rising from 65%-35% between company and workers to 60%-40%. As the disappointing productivity in recently month, employment diminishing is inevitable but to encourage these employees by adding more shared benefit, we believe it could improve the general production line. We believe that the agreeable rates can be determined by reasonable flexibility from both sides and are prepared to offer several concessions of our own. Fell stated in his Clear-cut compromise strategy that â€Å"the split different between what you and other party want, so both get something, and neither of you gets all that you wanted†. (Fells,R.E 2012). 2. Training module to be provided to employees Training opportunities are already given for potential employees. The quantity can go up or down depend on the availability of vacancies. However, we agree to give more training opportunities to employees for contingency problems, and upcoming expansion. As we have stated above, the salary appreciation is counted based on individual performance. Workers will be paid upon the contribution of their work, not for the skills they hold. 3. Develop an efficient hour’s roster We believe that in order to achieve productivity, efficiency rosters are much needed for each individual. A pattern has been build up to achieve efficiency from both company and employees. In this pattern, both parties specify their requirements, limitations and thus come to an agreeable terms. For this instance, Daily Dairy required each employee to fulfill 38 hours per week with an optional of working overtime. Alternatively, employees can state their preferred working time, number of overtime hours. Agree to these terms, Daily Dairy will make sure providing the best possible roster to each individual, and employees are obligate to fulfill what has been agreed upon. In return, we need employee to be flexible to new roster in the time of increased demand; seven day notice will be given to any changes in roster. By optimal the employee rosters in ordinary business day, we satisfied their needs thus we can expected improved in productivity. Furthermore, in the time of need, we also can expect the same productivity from employee regarding the changes in roster. It’s the win-win situation that Daily Dairy wants to achieve. â€Å"the win-win situations exist where some value are created that did not exist, or seem to exist when the parties first started negotiating†.(Fells,R.E 2012). 4. The duration of the agreement The longer the duration of the agreement the better off for our company. At first, Daily Dairy can avoid dissipating both human and money resources on these repeatable problems and focus on more pressing matter. Secondly, with a predictable fixed in labor cost, we can achieve more stability and further benefit toward company, money in general. In short-run, wages could not reflect the price-level change (inflation rate), so worker are actually work under wages. In short, while the labor expenses are fixed, our profit is variant, the different will benefit us in the long run. We want to achieves 4 years agreement. Thus we should make the initial offer and it should be higher than 4 years. â€Å"A first offer tends to become an anchor for the negotiations, so going first has aan advantage ( Galinsky & Mussweiler 2001; Magee, Galinsky & Gruendeld 2007) 5. Committee structure and confidential information Employees are the main skeleton which structures the appearance of company. With this in mind, we want to build a most effective joint workplace committee that enables the possibility to have a mutual understanding between company and workers. With a consultative role, committees can provide management with worker viewpoint before decisions about the workplace are made. Recognizing that the current industry is very competitive and maintaining secrecy about Daily Dairy’s strategic information is the most important, confidentiality information must be kept safe from outside world which includes committee. â€Å"The trust required in these specific situations is separate from whether the other negotiators are inherently trust worthy† (Fells,R.E 2012). The benefit returns is not worth the risk. Conclusion We have showed our reciprocity in some matter and also in some we stand a firm ground but after all, we believe that these concessions show our good faith and will enhance a mutually beneficial relationship between our company and employees. We hope this agreement would result in a significant amount of productivity growth, and would also serve to strengthen our infrastructure and our mutual benefit as a whole. References Fell,R.E. (2012), ‘Trust: Situation-Specific’ , Effective Negotiation (2), pp.29 Fell,R.E. (2012),’What , exactly, do we mean by a win-win negotiation?’, Effective Negotiation (2), pp.40 Fell,R.E. (2012), ‘Stategic choice :A negotiator’s choice of issue strategy’, Effective Negotiation (2), pp.46 Galinsky, A.D. & Mussweiler, T. (2001), ‘First offer as anchors: the role of perspective-taking and negotiator focus’, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 81(4),pp.657-69 Walton, R.E., & McKersie, R.B. (1965), A Behaviour Theory of Labour Negotiations, McGraw-Hill, NewYork

Friday, August 30, 2019

Organizational Culture and Strategic Human Resource Management Essay

Organizational Culture and Strategic Human Resource Management Introduction   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Different scholars have given the term culture different meanings according to the context in which it is applied. People have different cultures from their area of origin, but organizations tend to have almost similar cultures governing the relationship between the employer and employees or among the employees themselves. Carla defined culture as interactions, behavior patterns affective understanding and cognitive constructs which are acquired through the socialization process. These patterns are used in distinguishing members of different cultures through the way they behave. Lederach (1985) stated that culture refers to shared schemes and knowledge obtained from a set of people through interpreting, perceiving, responding and expressing social realities.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Consequently, Organizational culture refers to how people from a given organization are required to behave concerning their employment and their code of behavior concerning the operations and activities carried out in any given organization. These codes give employees a sense of belonging or identity, appointing and aligning a common view which enables them to act according to such cultures (Bates, Amundson, Schroeder, & Morris, 2010: p. 1565). Different organizations have different ways of maintaining organizational cultures. Most of the companies adopt an impressive rate of retaining employees with a high level of satisfaction as a way of maintaining strong cultures in the workplace. These are important towards the success of the business as well behaved and motivated employees are more productive compared to those who are non-motivated in a given organization. These strong organizational cultures can be maintained through the following ways:   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Responsive to the needs of an employee; despite the company catering for the pension schemes and the salary of the employees, it is also required to respond to other interests of the employees such as; lifestyle benefits, healthy, working conditions, leisure and the study days. This motivates the employee to maintain good standards of behavior and in turn increases their output.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Ongoing development; this comprises of the developments that are carried out in the business organization such having talents day mentoring schemes, which offers training to employees on how they can improve their services. This makes the employees feel that their future is being invested in and that the company is supporting their professional and personal growth.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Social calendar; this involves a well balanced social interaction regarding business activities, which creates a good morale. It involves social healthy and social events, which are carried outside the office setting, which creates an inter-team bonding and a buoyant atmosphere which is a form of motivation to the employees.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Honest feedback and openness; employers are required to create an environment that brings an open culture which makes employees in every stage share their suggestions, ideas and concerns. When strategies of a well structured feedback are put in place, business owners can as well monitor the levels of employees’ satisfaction and be able to alleviate any arising issue.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Innovative approach; this comprises of the ways a business conducts its activities and the ways it relates with the members of staff. The company should strive to portray good examples and allow its employees to attend industrial events. This makes sure that they become updated with the c trends and advance in their area of work.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Committed leadership; leadership is a very essential component in any given organization; this should involve all team members especially those in the management sector. Company culture can only be maintained through having committed, clear and inclusive leadership where all members are represented. Importance of Maintaining Organizational Culture   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   The recent past, there has developed a high concern on how businesses have chosen to carry out their daily operations. The culture of an organization in the leadership concept has become a major component used by leaders to come up with a dynamic organization. Leaders do ignite the process of culture formation through imposing expectations and assumptions on their subjects or followers. Schein (2011: p. 370) stated that as companies stabilize due to their success of completing its primary tasks, assumptions of leaders becomes shared which facilitates the socialization process of new members. This result to the success of the organizational leaders’ consistency, giving clear signals regarding their priorities, believes and values.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   When ethical cultures are promoted through leadership, leaders become successful which facilitates organizational growth, maintains good services that the society demands, ability to solve issues before they end up becoming serious disasters and become competitive against their rivals. Schein (2011: p.374) also discovered that corporate cultures are very important on matters concerning decision making in the organization. He stated that if decisions are made without considering the forces of the operative culture, it may result to undesirable and unanticipated consequences. This is due to complex issues confronting leaders when deciding on the best method of generating the achievements of the organization when faced with complex environments. Their success will depend on the understanding, and the knowledge leaders have concerned the organizational culture. This makes them predict the results of their decisions by preventing anticipated re percussions. Arguably, an organization that maintains such strong culture can also realize the following benefits. Enhanced corporation and mutual trust Development of an informal control system within the organization   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Assisting workers in modifying their behaviors through providing behaviors, which are justified Schein (2011: p.373) also characterized the culture of an organization in three levels. The first level consisted of artifacts and behavior levels which are most visible as they are always around us. Such an observable cultural level consist of an outward manifestations behavior patterns of culture which can be seen in the physical layout of dress codes, work environments, levels of technology, behaviors and attitudes of people. The second level comprised of the organizational values that determine behavior and are unobservable which are different from the artifacts and physical behaviors. They give the difference between operating values and the stated values such valuing customers and qualities. Operating value refers to actual manifestation of true values in force. Schein (2011: p.373) emphasized that for better understanding of culture one h as to get the deeper level of beliefs and assumptions. The relevance of culture is the learned beliefs, values and assumptions which are taken for granted and shared as the company becomes successful.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   The most challenging issue concerning the organizational culture is whether they can be changed. Some of these cultures are maintained, created and transformed by leaders or the people. Hartman (2006) stated that culture comprises of laws, history, language as well as systems and rules, informal and formal practices, rituals and beliefs. However, ethics of an organization operates on the whole moral culture of the business organization. Schein (2009: p.109) recommended the following five embedding primary mechanism which can be used by leaders as major tools to teach the organizations they lead on how to think, perceive, behave and feel from their own unconscious and conscious convictions.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Leaders’ attention on a regular basis control and measures: organizational leaders and founders communicate their beliefs, values and priorities based on where they are paying their attention. Their overtime measure and emphasizes can lead to a greater effect on the culture of the organization. Schein (2009: p.110) stated that such a process ends up becoming a powerful way of delivering a message especially when the leaders portray a total consistent to their behavior. These leaders consistency is the one that sends a message showing their priorities, beliefs and values which is high importance rather than the actions’ intensity. Northouse (2008: p.370) argued that every leader should have an agenda, proposals, a series of beliefs; values issues and ideas which they desire to discuss which has significant effects on the values the organization exhibits. Schein (2009: p.112) stated that leaders can apply both negative and posi tive signals as tools of capturing the subordinates’ attention on important issues concerning the organization.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Leaders’ reactions towards organizational crises and critical incidents: all organizations are bound to experience crises which are known to draw every ones attention in such an incidence. The way leaders react to such crises; it gives more information concerning the values, culture and norms of the organization (Pacanowsky & Trujillo, 2013: p.130)   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Schein ((2009: p.113) quoted that if an organization is confronted with crises, the way leaders and other shareholders deals with such a situation, it creates values, new norms, working procedures and reveals underlying assumptions, which are important. Crises generate emotional involvement and attention to those related to the organization mostly if such crises threaten the existence of the organization. When the organizations assumptions are exposed in such an incidence, the potential is increased to either reinforce the current culture or make a change on such current culture. In such situations, leaders may influence the culture of the organization so as to support ethical behaviors and strong morals which reinforces creation of new values in the organization. Such situations give the leaders an opportunity to coach, teach and mentor their followers.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   How resources are allocated by leaders, status and rewards: organizations are required to prepare a budget which is a basic tool used in resource allocation of the company, this allocation reveals the leaders beliefs and assumptions. If the allocation of resources is balanced, it improves the efficiency of the operations, creates consumer satisfaction and increases the values of the company.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Deliberate teaching, role modeling and coaching: when a leader becomes a good role model by showing personal examples, it sends a very beneficial and a powerful message to the organizational members mostly for consistent and ethical actions. Schein (2011: p.272) stated that a subordinate derives their personal ethics from what they perceive or observe as ethical standards practiced by the leaders.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   How leaders select, recruit, excommunicate and promote: this gives a significant way through which leaders can transform the culture of the organization and their assumptions through selecting, promoting and retaining people business organization. Schein (2009: p.115) stated that leaders and organizational founders establish unconscious culture in the organization through advancing and hiring anyone, whom they thought has such values they desire and eliminate the undesirable ones. If the corporate culture of the business organization is corrupt, people in the organization tend to ignore the right things and engage in activities which are unethical along their ways of operations.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   SHRM on the other hand refers to the intentions and plans of the organization on how it should achieve its goals through people. It is a process which comprises of three propositions: the first one indicates that competitive advantage has a major source which is human capital; secondly, it indicates that the organization strategic plan is implemented by people. Finally, is that the organization should adopt a systematic approach that defines where the company wants to go, and the ways it should do to get there. These strategies of HRM define the plans and intentions associated to organizational overall considerations such as its effectiveness and more precise aspects related to people management, which involves resourcing, employee relations and rewards, learning and development. It addresses organizational issues in a broader perspective which are associated to changes in culture and structure, organizational performance and its effective ness, matching resources concerning future requirement, and management of change. Its main aim is to develop capability processes, which ensures things, are done effectively. Aims of adopting SHRM   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   The rationale of SHRM is to bring an agreement and understanding based on developing an approach of people management in the long-term. Boswell (2010: p. 1489) suggested that SHRM is meant to achieve competitive advantage using HRM.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   It provides a perspective on how to address success factors or critical issues related to people, strategic decisions made which have a long term and a major impact on the organizational success and behavior. Its fundamental aim is to come up with strategic capability by making sure that the business has a skilled, well motivated and committed employee which brings competitive advantage.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   The objective of SHRM is providing a sense of direction always in a tabulated environment in order to ensure the company needs and the employees collective needs are met through implementation and development of coherent and practical programs and policies of human resource. Holder and Dyer (2008: p.66) stated that the aims of SHRM should be to provide a unifying framework which is integrative, broad and based on contingency. Storey, Wright, & Ulrich, 2009: p. 108) termed the aims of SHRM that they should emphasize on aspects of human relations of people management, communication, emphasizing continuous development, involvement, working life quality, security of employment and balance of work-life.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   It should attempt to have an achievement of balancing both the soft and hard elements. Almost every organization strives to achieve its objectives and must ensure that the required resources needed to achieve such objectives they are used efficiently. Quinn (2013: p. 96) stated that when the management is taking an extensive planning, they should consider the people in mind, take an account of the aspirations and the needs of all the organizational members in the soft concept of SHRM. Importance of having SHRM in an organization   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   In most cases, the importance of SHRM in a business organization becomes hard to overemphasize them because human beings act as the driving forces in any business organization. This calls for the organization to have strategies of implementing a well-thought out and well planned SHR ideas (Kang & Kim, 2011: p. 390). This will facilitate coordination and having a proper channel of human capital to ensure increased productivity (Kane, 2006: p. 190). Better strategies on human resources, which are solid, allow the business organization to develop a good relationship with the organizational workers, and have peaceful coexistence and mutual benefits from the host community.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   A well and properly implemented a plan on SHRM helps the organization to attain its goals through the employees performing their necessary duties which are geared towards achieving such goals. In such a situation, the benefits of SHRM are seen since departments of human resources identify key areas in the organization which requires manpower (Sarros, Cooper & Santora, 2008: p.150)   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   These departments are also required to carry out key steps on matters of recruiting ideal candidates who can fill vacancies and helps the organization to achieve its short-term, long-term goals and its vision. Strategic approaches to HRM   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Approach based on resources: Barney (2011: p.46) indicated that aims of based resource approach are developing the capability of achieving the fit between opportunities, resources and obtaining value addition from well deployment of resources.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Strategic fit: strategies of human resource should have an integral part that contains strategies of the business which contributes in the planning processes of the business as they are carried out. Integration is a necessary concept in a business as it gives the congruence between strategies of human resource and the business itself when done vertically (Barney, 2011: p.48). The aim of carrying out both horizontal and vertical integration in a business is to ensure a coherent approach is achieved as far as management of people is concerned.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Management at high-performance: this management aims at making an effect on the firm’s performance through its people in areas such as quality, productivity, levels of consumer services, profits, growth and delivery of improved shareholders value. This management carries out practices such as selection procedures and vigorous recruitment, relevant training and extensive management, development activities and process of management performance.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Few years ago, researchers and professionals have been focusing on whether corporate culture has any effect on the company performance and its effectiveness. Kanter (2013: p.22) in his book Managing Knowledge Workers Unleashing Innovation and Productivity demonstrated that companies with better SHRM outperformed those with less progressive practices. In illustrating the link between organizational culture and its effectiveness, the proposition focuses on four major traits of culture which needs to be examined in order to get the clear link between the two. Such traits are; involvement, adaptability, consistency and mission.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Consistency and involvement are mainly focused on the internal composition of the organization and its mission. Mission and adaptability on the other hand focuses on how external factors of the environment and the organization are collated. Research has proposed that the culture of an organization has to be strong, and give strategic competitive benefits and its values and believes have to be firmly held and widely shared (Koch & McGrath, 2010: p.340). This proposal is only meant if the purpose of the corporate culture is to improve its effectiveness and the overall performance.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Although previous reviews and studies show that SHRM has become general probably with respect to performance and HRM, it has been mainly limited to the relationship between organizational performance and HR practices (Vijayasiri, 2010: p.48). Strategic HRM accepts functions of HR as a strategic important partner when formulating the strategies of the company and their implementation through practices of HR. Deley (2009: p.38) adopted a perspective view based on resources which emphasized on acquiring competitive benefits through the means of utilizing organizational resources through employees. Through the research for SHRM of organizational effectiveness, the following areas were used to determine whether such strategies are successful:   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Outcomes on human resource, which made an evaluation concerning the behaviors of the workforce/ employees;   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Outcomes of the organization which are based on quality, productivity and services;Outcomes on financial accounting related to profitability and investment returns;Outcomes on capital market for public organizations that are, shareholders returns and stock value.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Finally, strategic HRM is a very important factor to be mentioned despite whether there is a significant research done or not. There is supportive evidence which shows that there is a strong link between effectiveness and culture. SHRM fully depends on the organizational culture for its successful implementation (Denison, & Mishra, 2013: p. 214). Valuation of styles and viewpoints and development of ways which are concrete facilitates learning in the organization from differences which shows high benefits obtained when organizational structure, processes and procedures are maximized.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Conclusively, research has been done which shows how national cultures are diversified and how they influence the behaviors of the employees, this inspires optimism on the emerging perspectives related to SHRM practices and culture (Siddique, 2013: p.230). Globally, there is a lot of research that is carried out on how organizations allocate resources, make decisions, manage, negotiate and motivate employees, develop and train their employees (Linn, 2008: p. 90). These researches reveal that culture is one of the most important determinants of the organizational behavior. Consequently, a culture plays a great role in the field of HRM which takes heed of methodological and the existing theoretical pitfalls. This shows that, for the SHRM to be implemented successfully, organizational culture has to be maintained at high standards by both the employer and the employees. References Barney, N. J. (2011). Competence, governance, and entrepreneurship: advances in economic strategy research. Oxford: Oxford University Press. (Original work published 2000) Bates, K. A., Amundson, S. D., Schroeder, R. G., & Morris, W. T. (2010). The Crucial Interrelationship Between Manufacturing Strategy And Organizational Culture. Management Science, 41(10), 1565-1580. Boswell, W. (2010). Aligning Employees With The Organization’s Strategic Objectives: Out Of à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‹Å"line Of Sightà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢, Out Of Mind. International Journal of Human Resource Management, 17(9), 1489-1511. Deley, A. (2009). Best human resource management practices in Latin America. London: Routledge. Denison, D. R., & Mishra, A. K. (2013). Toward A Theory Of Organizational Culture And Effectiveness. Organization Science, 6(2), 204-223. Holder, J., & Dyer, G. (2008). Strategic human resource development. London: Sage Publications. (Original work published 2003) Kane-Urrabazo, C. (2006). Management’s Role In Shaping Organizational Culture. Journal of Nursing Management, 14(3), 188-194. Kang, M., & Kim, H. (2011). Influence Of Strategic Human Resource Management Of On Organizational Culture And Organizational Citizenship Behavior Of Private Facility Security Guards. The Journal of the Korea Contents Association, 11(4), 389-403. Kanter, A. D. (2013). Managing knowledge workers unleashing innovation and productivity. Westport, Conn.: Quorum Books. Koch, M. J., & McGRATH, R. G. (2010). Improving Labor Productivity: Human Resource Management Policies Do Matter. Strategic Management Journal, 17(5), 335-354. Linn, M. (2008). Organizational Culture: An Important Factor To Consider. The Bottom Line: Managing Library Finances, 21(3), 88-93. Northouse, C. (2008). A Model To Explore The Mystery Between Organizations’ Downsizing Strategies And Firm Performance: Integrating The Perspectives Of Organizational Change, Strategy And Strategic Human Resource Management. Journal of Organizational Change Management, 21(3), 367-384. Pacanowsky, M. E., & O’Donnellà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ Trujillo, N. (2013). Organizational Communication As Cultural Performance. Communication Monographs, 50(2), 126-147. Quin, C. (2013). The effectiveness of a paid parental leave policy on return rates of new mothers: [a research report submitted to the Victoria University of Wellington in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the] Diploma in Human Resource Management. Hoboken: Springer. Sarros, J. C., Cooper, B. K., & Santora, J. C. (2008). Building A Climate For Innovation Through Transformational Leadership And Organizational Culture. Journal of Leadership & Organizational Studies , 15(2), 145-158. Schein, E. H. (2009). Organizational Culture.. American Psychologist, 45(2), 109-119. Schein, E. H. (2011). Organizational Culture And Leadership: A Dynamic View, By Edgar H. Schein. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass, 2010. Human Resource Management, 24(3), 370-375. Siddique, C. (2013). Job Analysis: A Strategic Human Resource Management Practice. The International Journal of Human Resource Management, 15(1), 219-244. Storey, J., Wright, P. M., & Ulrich, D. (2009). The Routledge companion to strategic human resource management. London: Routledge. Vijayasiri, G. (2010). Reporting Sexual Harassment: The Importance Of Organizational Culture And Trust. Gender Issues, 25(1), 43-61. Source document

Thursday, August 29, 2019

Organizational Analysis Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Organizational Analysis - Case Study Example This study aims at analyzing the organization of Tesco through analyzing Tesco’s structure, internal and external environment, and Tesco culture and competitive advantage. Organization structure involves the manner in which an organization relates with the employees, the production lines, processes and functions, and decision-making process in the organization (DuBrin, 2000). Tesco has a hierarchical structure as evidenced many levels and accountability to more than one person by the employees at Tesco, who have to make decisions before the information is handed over to the CEO for final decision-making. A hierarchical organization structure involves a large amount of workers answering t supervising officers who answer to another upper level and this continues to the CEO, at the highest level, Terry Leary at Tesco (DuBrin, 2000).. The hierarchical structure at Tesco allows the employees to have an understanding of their expected duties and carry them without having to be over supervised. The hierarchical structure at Tesco also clearly defines authority and responsibility for every employee ensuring everyone is aware of the costs that occur when the t asks are not fulfilled within the required timeframe. Employees at Tesco are divided into various departments aimed at augmenting efficiency and better performance. The departments at Tesco include administration, finance, distribution, ICT, human resource, marketing, customer service, sales, research and development, and production. Each of the departments is responsible for different actions at Tesco to deliver growth and profitability aspirations of the organization. On products, Tesco has different product divisions determined on prices, packaging, and quality. These product divisions include Tesco Finest, Tesco, Tesco kids, Tesco Organic, Tesco Healthy living, and Tesco Value. Test Finest are products of the highest price and quality while Tesco Organic includes

Wednesday, August 28, 2019

Blood Knot by Athol Fugard Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Blood Knot by Athol Fugard - Essay Example When Zach begins to write a letter to his pen pal, they both realize she is white, and blacks cannot speak with whites. Zach’s pen pal, Ethel, had written that she wanted to meet him. Zach buys a suit, with their savings, and asks Morris to go meet Ethel, in his stead. Zach decides to ask this of Morris because his complexion is light enough to pass as white. Â  Prior to Morris coming to live with Zach, Morris in fact had lived the life of a White African. Â  More change occurs when Ethel decides to get married. Zach and Morris spent their savings on a suit they will never use. The live performance of the play, Blood Knot, enriched the text in many ways, such as through the stage setting, movement of characters, and the use of stage props. When I first looked at the stage, what grabbed my attention was the stage setting and how it so economically portrayed the living condition of both characters. When the play began, the movement of the characters was exactly the same as I had imagined, while reading the text but, as the story unfolded, I was no longer able to see the movement of each character in the same way I had imagined when I read it. Some of the props grabbed my attention because I was unfamiliar with them, even though I could identify them. The performance of Blood Knot did enhance the storyline and content of this play. Performance enriched the story by bringing the relationship of Zach and Morris to life. Watching their interaction directly gave a better their understanding of how they treated one another and cared for one another. I gained another view of the story when Zach began to talk about women. I saw the changes in Morris’ attitude. By watching his expression, I came to know that either he had a terrible experience with women, or that women in general were not his goal. I could see that Morris felt sorry about Minnie not coming over. after he had begun living with Zach. Zach feels as if his freedom has disappeared, since women and Minnie

Tuesday, August 27, 2019

Paul Delvauxs Paintings Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words

Paul Delvauxs Paintings - Essay Example He quickly distinguished himself as an aspiring musician and took his music classes avidly. Like many aspiring artists, Delvaux entry into the world of art was met with determined criticism from his parents, who wished him to pursue a separate career (Carels & Deun, 2004). It was partly due to this parental pressure that the young man occasionally ventured into other subjects but remained a good reader all the while. The books and subjects he read would later influence the kind of art he chose at an early age. Jule Verne’s fictional writings and Homer were his favorite publications at that young age (Carels & Deun, 2004). His parent’s opposition to an artistic career saw him study architecture at an academy in Brussels. At a much older age, he changed his academic course and switched to art under the tutelage of Constant Montald and another artist; Jean Delville (Carels & Deun, 2004). During the inaugural years of his artistic career, the young artist concentrated large ly on naturalistic art. His penchant at the time was painting of landscapes as he saw them within his geographical surroundings. Later on, his art would change from pure surrealism to pick up aspects of expressionists after he encountered the influences of Constant Permeke and another artist by the name Gustave De Smet (Carels & Deun, 2004). These two artists introduced him into the art of surrealism. An artistic encounter with the figure of Venus would later offer him a new motif that dominated his art for much of his later artistic career. From these influences, he developed a strong taste of nudist art. The artist is well known for his remarkable capacity for juxtaposition. In his art, the most ordinary of things would be rendered in peculiarly different forms. The capacity to engage the aspects of naturalism, surrealism, metaphysics, and expressionism brought him out as one of the most accomplished artists of his time. His art continue to influence critical reviews and appraisal s in Belgium especially, and much of Europe and America generally. One of Delvaux’s most famous paintings is â€Å"The Great Sirens.† It is generally considered as the best landmark of his nudist art as compared to others. â€Å"The Great Sirens† also shows the most telling effects of the influences Delvaux received from Rene Magritte and Giorgio de Chirico. Magritte infused into the artistic substance of Delvaux the elements of surrealism. This influence elevated the Belgian’s art to some higher representations that captured multiple influences in ways that appeared to operate above the normal expectations. On the other hand, deChirico’s art influenced Delvaux into the representations of metaphysical and proto-surrealistic paintings. The art of incongruous juxtaposition that expresses itself in the art of Delvaux borrows heavily from the art of Magritte. In the â€Å"The Great Sirens,† these influences are evident from the dramatic way in w hich the pictures are rendered and in the juxtaposition that follows. It is appropriate to determine some of the influences that contribute to the artistic shock that presents them in this painting. The women are brought about as erotic, shameless, and threatening to the male ego and power (Delvaux, 1947). They are no longer presented as weak and conquered, as they are ready to use their feminine qualities and physique to conquer the domineering power of the men in the society in which they leave. By presenting these pictures as uniquely feminine, the painter brings out the fact that he is an essential feminist. He goes against the dominant tradition where patriarchal artists seek to use the physical attributes of women to display their power. In a way, therefore â€Å"The Great Sirens† might be interpreted as an allegory of feminine redemption,

Monday, August 26, 2019

Dq3-Terence Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Dq3-Terence - Essay Example This study aims at analyzing components, procedures, and challenges of phenomenology study and case study and provides the most appropriate method research design and method for researching n the 2010 shooting murder of a student at Northern Illinois University. Phenomenological study components include shared experience that entails knowing the experience that all the participants in the study went through at a certain time in their lives (Ho at al., June 01, 2011). Location of the universality of the experience is the second component that entails knowing the shard experience identified is of a universal nature (Englander, May 14, 2012). Elimination of assumption is one of the main requirements in conducting phenomenological study. The other component of the phenomenological study is attempting to identify shared experiences among the individuals identified as having shared the same experience (Miner-Romanof, 2012). Bracketing also forms the other concept that is mainly utilized in the conduct of phenomenological study. The last element is the accounting of the experience by the individuals detailing the facts of the experience and nature of the experience (Kogovsek & Petric, January 01, 2013). An example of phenomenological study can be the impact of changing a lecturer for a given class with the experience being that the students were taught by the new lecturer. The main challenge of phenomenological research is bracketing complication in data collection and analysis. Phenomenological research does not have a non-personalized discovery process for data collection and analysis. Bracketing is an important concept in phenomenological research to ensure data reliability allowing for outlining of research findings and analysis (DiÃŒ az, January 01, 2013). Another challenge with phenomenological study is that the phenomenological study deals with consciousness

Sunday, August 25, 2019

New Health Medical Systems Memo Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

New Health Medical Systems Memo - Research Paper Example Staffing should incorporate specified basic rules which play a part in managing the human resources of an organization. New Health Medical Systems should have a durable staffing strategy which will be significant in attaining its objectives.The strategic decision of placing advertisements in the local newspapers and contacting staffing agencies that specialize in placing technicians into healthcare facilities is extremely significant for New Health Medical Systems. This will help in creating awareness among the qualified technicians. Organizing a job fair for local professionals to attend will also be essential for New Health Medical Systems. The job fair will enable the organization to analyze technicians who are qualified from the ordinary ones. New Health Medical Systems will receive numerous applications from technicians coming from different regions due to the job fair and visiting professionals. The final strategy of offering a $1,000 signing bonus to anyone who joins the organ ization and stays for at least 180 days is novel but ineffective as it will enhance the expenditure of the organization.The management of New Health Medical Systems should provide training for its current employees and put forward an offer for them. Also, any member of staff who recommends a qualified technician should get monetary rewards. This will help in developing and acquiring qualified technicians. The organization should employ all forms of media so as to adequately advertise the vacant positions.... There is need for appropriate forecasts regarding possible employee transfers, retirements, and turnover outside the zone. Training employees in the organization is a basic step for filling positions which are not required instantly. Staffing should incorporate specified basic rules which play a part in managing the human resources of an organization. New Health Medical Systems should have a durable staffing strategy which will be significant in attaining its objectives (Conaty & Charan, 2011). The strategic decision of placing advertisements in the local newspapers and contacting staffing agencies that specialize in placing technicians into health care facilities is extremely significant for New Health Medical Systems. This will help in creating awareness among the qualified technicians. Organizing a job fair for local professionals to attend will also be essential for New Health Medical Systems. The job fair will enable the organization to analyze technicians who are qualified from the ordinary ones. New Health Medical Systems will receive numerous applications from technicians coming from different regions due to the job fair and visiting professionals. The final strategy of offering a $1,000 signing bonus to anyone who joins the organization and stays for at least 180 days is novel but ineffective as it will enhance the expenditure of the organization. Recommendations The management of New Health Medical Systems should provide training for its current employees and put forward an offer for them. Also, any member of staff who recommends a qualified technician should get monetary rewards. This will help in developing and acquiring qualified technicians (Boudreau & Ramstad, 2007). The organization should employ all forms of media so as to adequately

Saturday, August 24, 2019

Management Styles Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Management Styles - Essay Example Penalties such as fines are imposed in the negative style of management. These negative style managers dominate their subordinates by putting emphasis on the imposition of penalties and fines for substandard performance such as being fired or suspended from their present's jobs without pay, reprimand and even, in rare occasions, insults in front of their fellow workers. This style of management is very proper for some employees but may not be recommended for other employee types. The employee turnover will be higher than other management styles because the employees. This domineering management style results to lower job satisfaction because the some employees will prefer to resign than to be insulted or reprimanded in front of their workers. This is the autocratic management style. On the opposite end, some managers use the positive style of management. The managers will give better education benefits and offer rewards and even promotions for excellent and above par performances. This is the custodial management style. A third management power style occurs when there is a mixture of both the negative and positive style of management. ... imanding can be used and there is other situation, at work, when the positive style of giving rewards and bonuses will increase worker production outputs.Management's use of power to change organisational realities by getting others to do what they want done is further strengthened by the Protestant ethics during the Protestant Reformation that it is a MORAL obligation to work in order to have salvation. This ethic was one of the sparks that kindled the factory working procedures in the 18th century. Therefore, man felt that is a normal for a superior to order the workers to perform certain assigned tasks that will contribute to the accomplishment of over-all company goals and objectives Frederic W. Taylor (Waring, 1991) studied human behaviour ( Grandjean & Kroener, 1997) at work in his management science. He equates the organization as a cheap machine where the human workers, managers and supervisors are likened to its many parts or subdivisions. Each must coordinate and cooperate with each other for the smooth accomplishment of company goals. The human workers are treated just like cheap machine spare parts that can be replaced, transferred, mended and strengthened.Management has the power for the company to implement Frederic Taylor's work procedures such that each task can be broken down into its smallest unit and the best person to do a specific job should be selected so that there will more products manufactured in lesser time at a better quality standard for Frederic Taylor saw that the interaction of human characteristics, social environment, task and physical environment, capacity, speed, durability and cost contributes much to the speedy and quality accom plishment of company goals and objectives. Taylor's method has increased

Web pages content Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Web pages content - Essay Example Simply put, we do not merely provide web content writing for people to read as we excel in providing online content that do not merely offer information or serve as fillers and cache to your web template. While our products are designed primarily to be informative but on top of this they function as web tools that would get our clients increased web traffic and returning visitors. An example of this is our integrated SEO services which you could learn more in this page. We believe in the efficacy of getting our clients involved in their web pages content and cache development. There is an existing digital networked medium in place – the internet – which allows for fast, cheap and real time communication over long distances. We take advantage of this tool in order to have our online content writing projects become products of collaborative activity.We want to know how we may be able to help your needs. We have specific content solutions available for you and you may requ est a price quote or order this service in this link. We offer a full money-back guarantee policy to ensure that your project get the attention and quality assurance it deserves. Remember that with us, you get more than just web pages content.Article Writingof interactive media which entails article writing as an integral part of an audio and visual experience alongside the various tools and applications found in the web and other media which empowers the users or the readers in terms of interactivity that has never existed before.

Friday, August 23, 2019

Management Research Methods Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words - 1

Management Research Methods - Assignment Example Qualitative research on the other hand does not involve use of numbers or statistical tools but an in depth analysis of the observations conducted during the study. Qualitative research differs from quantitative research in the aspect of the fact that the former is used to gain a deeper insight and generate triangulation in findings that is quite contrary to the quantitative research methods that normally involve statistical analysis of the data collected that helps in generating forecasts and other definitive trends in business (Chrusciel & Field, 2006, p.511). A qualitative research methodology is normally used by researchers during researches that involve greater complexity; persona and contextual analects involve multiple factors. In addition to this qualitative research methodology involves analyzing relationships including a cause and effect analysis. Quantitative research although considered to be more advanced and favoured by a large percentage of scholars and academicians fa ils in these aspects as they fail to answer these deeper insights in a particular research question (Gummesson, 2006, p.167). Philosophically there can be certain differences in the qualitative as well as quantitative research frameworks. In a philosophical underpinning point of view a qualitative research involves a position based on phenomenon i.e., the analysis is largely based on the aspects of analyzing individual’s actions, faiths and beliefs thereby interpreting the psychological aspects of the respondents. Qualitative research involves interpreting the actual experiences and views of the respondents by using feelings and other visible gestures. Quantitative research methodology on the other hand, is based on a position of positivism. This form of research analysis involves conversion of the individual discreet units into smaller sub units and comparing these smaller sub units with other sub units using various statistical tools (Maykut, Maykut,

Thursday, August 22, 2019

Concentration Camp Sourcework Essay Example for Free

Concentration Camp Sourcework Essay In Source 5 Reitlinger says that more than a hundred thousand people must have known. If this is correct then why did no-one take the blame for it at the end of the war? Or even do anything to help the Jews? How well supported this claim is depends on the other sources. Source two agrees with Reitlingers claim as it says All the same rumours did circulate about dreadful deeds in the East this concurs with had not heard the same story in Reitlingers source. Also in Source 2 it says Because of the Nazis much publicised resettlement plans this again agrees with Jews had disappeared in Reitlingers source. In conclusion Reitlinger is supported, by Source 2, about rumours being spread and that people had seen Jews disappear. Source three is a very neutral source to the credibility of Reitlingers as it says Workers at an extermination centre in Austria were told Keep quiet about this or face the death penalty' this almost contradicts what Reitlinger says about people knowing about the camps. If the workers in the camps were threatened with their lives then would the hardly gossip to neighbours? Also in source three is says that when the crematoria were turned on it caused a power- outage outside Dachau, the people would obviously notice if their power was turned off so this supports Reitlingers claims. Source 6 contains much information and it supports Reitlingers claims as it contains information concerning an SS man declaring on a train that 2000 Jews were being murdered every week at Auschwitz if this SS man was concerned about secrecy would he have said it on a busy train? Source 6 also goes into some detail about the BBC laughing a broadcast campaign on the extermination of the Jews which provided information for any Germans that held a radio and it also says that The leaflets dropped by Allied planes also relayed information on the annihilation policy I think that the German people would have had enough information to confirm the rumours they might have heard. Source 8 contradicts Reitlinger as it says All swore that during the past few years they had no idea what had been going on in the camp outside their town this is important to note as the people themselves are saying they hadnt heart anything. There is a possibility that they could have been lying or faking their knowledge of the situation as evidence shows the general knowledge of people living around the camps. Source 10 supports Reitlinger as the author says The Jews are disappearing in throngs this matches with Source 5s not know most of the Jews had disappeared I would have to conclude that Reitlinger was probably correct in his estimate of German knowledge of the concentration camps as a good portion of the evidence in the sources tells us that it is plausible to estimate figures as grand as a hundred thousand people. I think many of the Germans did in fact know about the camps either by the rumours or by radio or by information pamphlets and therefore it begs the question as to why they didnt do anything to help the suffering Jews. Were they afraid of the strict penalties? Some had put their lives on the line by telling people about the camps why didnt they do anything? The answer to this is that although the people may have known there was nothing that they could have done to stop it completely and therefore could not be really held responsible for not helping.

Wednesday, August 21, 2019

The Four Horsemen Of The Apocalypse English Language Essay

The Four Horsemen Of The Apocalypse English Language Essay George Barna, who directed a divorce study, noted that Americans have grown comfortable with divorce as a natural part of life. There no longer seems to be much of a stigma attached to divorce; it is now seen as an unavoidable rite of passage, the researcher indicated. Interviews with young adults suggest that they want their initial marriage to last, but are not particularly optimistic about that possibility. There is also evidence that many young people are moving toward embracing the idea of serial marriage, in which a person gets married two or three times, seeking a different partner for each phase of their adult life. People marry today with an exit strategy in place. Consider the following statistics concerning prenuptial agreements: 73% of divorce attorneys cited an increase in prenuptial agreements during the past five years 52% have noted an increase in women initiating the requests, while 36% of those surveyed cited a rise in pension and retirement benefits being included under prenuptial agreements. People are quickly losing confidence in the marital covenant and making preparation for the failure of the relationship with an exit strategy. Some people have actually considered the same sex as an alternative to heterosexual relationship. But not only are heterosexual relationship complex, people who are choosing the gay and lesbian lifestyles have challenges of their own. Consider the following: Homosexual Relationships Homosexual activists often argue that high divorce rates demonstrate traditional marriages fare no better than same-sex relationships in duration. The research, however, indicates that male homosexual relationships last only a fraction of the length of most marriages. A Canadian study of homosexual men, who had been in committed relationships lasting longer than one year, found that only 25 percent of those interviewed reported being monogamous. In one study of 156 males in homosexual relationships lasting from one to 37 years, only seven couples had a totally exclusive sexual relationship, and these men all had been together for less than five years. In their classic 1978 study, published as Homosexuality: A Study of Diversity Among Men and Women, researchers Bell and Weinberg found that 43% percent of white male homosexuals had sex with 500 or more partners, with 28% percent having one thousand or more sex partners. In 1991, the Journal of Social Service Research published a survey of 1,099 lesbians in which slightly more than half of the lesbians said they had been abused by a female lover/partner. A survey sponsored by the National Institute of Justice found that same-sex couples reported significantly more violence from their partners than did traditional couples. Noted the report, Thirty-nine percent of the same-sex cohabitants reported being raped, physically assaulted, and/or stalked by a marital/cohabitating partner at some time in their lifetimes. Not only are people considering same sex relationships as an alternative to traditional marriages and its problems, they are now entering into test drive marriages. This was traditionally called shacking and was negative, but many today believe that if they can enter into this type of arrangement as a trial, then they can see if they can make it as a couple. Lets consider these statistics: Living Together before Marriage Statistics Statistically speaking, living together is not a trial of marriage, but rather a training for divorce (from Michael McManus, author of the book Marriage Savers). The number of unmarried couples living together soared 12-fold from 430,000 in 1960 to 5.4 million in 2005. More than eight out of ten couples, who live together, will break up either before the wedding or afterwards in divorce. About 45 percent, of those who begin cohabiting, do not marry. Another 5-10 percent continue living together and do not marry. Couples, who do marry after living together, are 50% more likely to divorce than those who did not. Only 12% of couples, who have begun their relationship with cohabitation, end up with a marriage lasting 10 years or more. A Penn State study reports that even a months cohabitation decreases the quality of the couples relationship. The reality is divorce is inevitable if we dont make some drastic changes in how we approach relationships from a healthy perspective! Even after we have experienced what marriage is all about and re-enter into a marital relationship, the statistics get worse. Consider the following research: Divorce Among Adults Who Have Been Married (Base: 3792 adults) Population Segment Have Been Divorced No. of Interviews All adults 33% 3792 Evangelical Christians 26% 339 Non-evangelical born again Christians 33% 1373 Notional Christians 33% 1488 Associated with non-Christian faith 38% 197 Atheist or agnostic 30% 269 All born again Christians 32% 1712 All who were not born again Christians 33% 2080 Protestant 34% 1997 Catholic 28% 875 Upscale 22% 450 Downscale 39% 367 White 32% 2641 African-American 36% 464 Hispanic 31% 458 Asian 20% 128 Conservative 28% 1343 Moderate 33% 1720 Liberal 37% 474 (Source: The Barna Group, Ventura, CA) Reflections on Marriage and Divorce As you can tell, marriage is having a very difficult time, and people are opting out at alarming rates. Forgiveness, humility, conflict resolution, and communication are fundamental factors in making relationships work. The emotions of anger, violence, and fear kill all relationships. However, people are leaning towards the lower level emotions and ultimately divorcing. How is this happening? How is there such a thin line between love and hate? Of course, I could state the obvious that we have discussed in previous chapters from the impact of intoxicating dating to the lack of understanding of gender issues. The attitudinal king in an unhealthy relationship is pride, not humility; thus, forgiveness is impossible. And we cannot forget the absence of a marital skill set for conflict resolution and communication skills. These things are not as apparent and as obvious as they may seem. Divorce takes place over time, and most times unconsciously, and the lack of the above-mentioned factor s simply accent the complexities of one of the most difficult relationships on the planet. The following is some data that provides some additional factors that increase the probabilities of divorce. 6 Factors That Characterize Couples Who Are Prone to Divorce Backgrounds of the two partners are too different. Family of at least one member of the couple has divorce in their history. Couple was acquainted a short period before they were married. Couple has always had opposing views of the roles of men and women in relationships. Family and friends disapprove of the marriage. Couple has no formal membership in a religious group. Exercise: Are you closely familiar with any couples who have divorced recently or who are considering divorce (or if you have considered divorce, use your own relational situation)? If so, which of the above characteristics are present in their relationship? How do you feel their relationship has been adversely affected by these characteristics? How does a couple goes through the process of being in love to being in hate, or strong dislike? This is not a one-day decision, but is the result of a progression of negative behavior and practices over time. According to John Gottman, the four attitudes that most predict the dissolution of a relationship, especially in combination, are criticism, defensiveness, contempt, and stonewalling. Dr. John Gottman, is a psychologist at the University of Washington conducted a study with more than 2,000 married couples over two decades. Prior to this study, the school of behavioral science had a void concerning marriage data. He discovered patterns about how partners relate to each other, which can be used to predict with 94% accuracy which marriages will succeed and which will fail. Gottman refers to these four damaging attitudes as the four horseman of the apocalypse, and states that each horseman paves the way for the next. The four horsemen of the apocalypse are destructive relational conflict patterns. The four stages are listed in order of progression that will work its way up to the apex of marital conflict and divorce. The first horseman is Criticism. You become critical of one another. There is a difference between a criticism and a complaint. A complaint is an expression of dissatisfaction (I feel hurt). A criticism is an attack on the other persons personality, character ,or motivation (You hurt me) with the intent of making someone right or wrong. In this stage of the relationship negative generalizations are made, like You always You neverà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ You are the kind of person whoà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ Why are you soà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦? The second horseman is Contempt. Disrespect rules. Name-calling begins, and you begin to categorize each other negatively. This is the attack of your spouses sense of self with the intention of causing emotional pain. This stage is marked by derogatory name-calling, like ugly, fat, stupid, etc. Also, it is marked by hostile humor and sarcasm or mockery. Negative body language is common in this stage of conflict. The third horseman is Defensiveness. Every time you talk, you are defensive. Every time something is said, each partner is trying to find the others angle. This stage is marked by seeing yourself as the victim, trying to protect yourself from perceived attacks. This stage is marked by excuses for behavior, claiming that external factors caused you to have to react that way. This stage is a cross-complaining stage, where a partners complaint is met with a complaint of your own while ignoring your partners complaint. Thus conflict is characterized by: disagreeing and then cross-complaining Thats not true, youre the one who; yes-butting, starting off in agreement but then disagreement; repeating yourself without paying attention to what the other person is saying. It is the nadir of a lack of communication. The fourth horseman is Stonewalling. You begin to cast the persons identity and behavior in stone and are unable to see the person outside of this identity. As a result, the person develops a need to enter into autonomy (feels the need to get away and distance him/herself from the relationship), which leads to an unfulfilled marriage, which in turn, leads to divorce. This stage involves withdrawing from the relationship to avoid conflict. Partners may think that they are attempting to be neutral, but stonewalling conveys disapproval and rejection. Stonewalling produces a coldness, distance, disconnection, and smugness. People tend to be callously silent, muttering, changing the subject, and removing themselves physically. Exercise: Describe which horseman has entered the following situation? Comment on this interaction between husband and wife. Adrienne: I need you to understand me. I feel that all we do is argue and fight, and we never work anything out. I love you, and I just want to be happy and to live in peace. Vernell: Understand you? You dont really feel that way! Youre just saying that trying to get some sympathy out of me. You think that using those flowery words is going to get me to change my mind? Theyre not! Adrian: Im not just saying things Im speaking from my heart. I love you and everything about you. You eyes, your mouth, your hairà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ Vernell: My hair? Now I know that youre just trying to get something out of me. I cant believe a word that you say! Just come out and say what you want, because I know that you want something! You must go on the attack against these four horsemen before your marriage reaches the point of no return and dies a natural death. Now is the time to access the many tools and methods that you have learned in this book. Ask yourself, Do I really want this marriage? Is it worth fighting for? You must be intentional about taking immediate steps to counter the carnage being wrought by the four horsemen. For example, make specific complaints and requests (when X happened, I felt Y, I want Z) and avoid criticism at all cost. Make a decision to listen generously. Listen for accuracy, for the core emotions your partner is expressing and for what your partner really wants. Listen to the voice behind the words; there lays the sincere truth. In addition, you must heed and practice the following: Validate your partner (let your partner know what makes sense to you about what they are saying; let them know you understand what they are feeling, and what they want; see through their eyes) Shift to appreciation (five positive interactions are necessary to compensate for one negative interaction) Be very intentional about creating good feelings and experiences. Be responsible: What can I learn from this? and What can I do about it? and How do I not allow this to happen again? Rewrite your inner script (notice when you are thinking critical, contemptuous or defensive thoughts; replace thoughts of righteous indignation or innocent victimization with thoughts of appreciation and responsibility that are soothing and validating). Practice getting vulnerable again (allow your partners utterances to be what they really are: just thoughts and puffs of air) and let go of the stories that you are making up. In essence, you must stop interpreting and hearing in offense. Watch all name-calling, use words that edify, not denigrate. If you have found your marriage has allowed the four horsemen to invade it, you must reverse it before they prevail. Start where you are whether it be defensiveness, stonewalling, criticism, or contempt. Begin reversing the horsemen and put them out of the relationship. You can turn it around! Begin by studying the behavior of each stage; since they are progressive stages, start practicing opposite behavior in each stage. Read this segment with your spouse and discuss each stage and the behavior and ask for forgiveness for the improper behavior and asked them to pray with you as you attempt to reverse this behavior. Start creating good feelings and do things that make each other smile.

Tuesday, August 20, 2019

Black Panthers: The Struggle

Black Panthers: The Struggle In one word, the Black Panthers would be described as radical. They took the civil rights movement to a whole new level. The Black Panther Party also took the meaning of self- defense to new heights. The Black panthers stood for freedom, equal rights, better health care, decent housing and education, but most of all putting an end to police brutality. According to the article History of the black panthers the panthers are know for being the most powerful for social change since the Revolution of 1776 and the Civil War. The Black Panther Party (BPP) knew it would be a tough road to travel, but they knew they had to fight for what was right. The panthers endured countless attacks from their own community law enforcement, and higher power attacks From FBI leader, J. Edgar Hoover. Some of the Panthers even put their lives on the line for the movement. Some say that the Black Panthers failed as a group, but they did succeed, they succeeded in giving the black community hope and letting th em know that you have to stand up for what you believe in. Two Law students by the names of Bobby Seale and Huey Newton decided to start a civil rights group with a little more aggressive in your face style. This Group would be called The Black Panther Party. Their original goal and vision was to stop police brutality in the black community, and serve the needs of black oppressed people (Baggins). The group was Established in Oakland California in 1966(Baggins). According to the article History of the black Panthers The panthers put in place The Ten Point Program. The Ten Point program emphasized what the panthers were wanted to change and what they where fighting for. It consisted of these demands, We Want freedom. We want the power to determine, We want full Employment for our people, We want an end to the robbery by the capitalists of our black community, We want decent housing fit for the shelter of human beings, we want education for our people that exposes the true nature of this decadent American society, we want all black men to be exempt from military service, we want an immediate end to police brutality, and murder of black people, we want freedom for all black men held in federal, state, county and city prisons and jails, we want all black people when brought to trial to be tried in court by a jury of their peers or people from their black communities, as defined by the constitution of the United States, and finally we want land, bread, housing, education, clothing , justice ,and peace. Unlike Dr. King and his influence Mahatma Gandhi which choose a non-violent approach, the panthers went in a totally different direction. Influenced by the late Malcolm X the panthers took a very aggressive and radical approach (May Pg.1 Interview). The Panthers brought an entirely new tempo to the civil rights movement in the 60s and early 70s. They made it known early that they were very serious and wouldnt take no for and answer. On April 25, 1967 the first issue of The Black Panthers the partys official news organ goes into distribution. (Baggins) The growth of the Panther Party really grew during the 60s. When Huey Newton went to jail in the late 60s there was an enormous growth in the party. The Black Panther party eventually spread to 25 major U.S. cities Nationwide. Through the existence of the Panthers were known for getting in their share of trouble. In 19 67 Leader Huey Newton was charged for killing a policeman, which started the Free Huey Movement which gave the party a lot of attention. (Black panther party) Also in 1970, in New York 21 Panthers were charged with plotting to assassinate police officers. (The Shadow of the Panther) Later another leader of the Panther Party would once again get in trouble. Elgridge Cleaver was charged with a murder and Fled to Cuba with his wife. (Black Panther Party) During the time that the Black Panthers were prominent in the Black Power Movement FBI leader J.Edgar Hoover kept a very close eye on them. J. Edgar Hoover stated that the black panthers were the greatest threat to the internal security of the country. (Baggins) Soon Hoover would begin a program called (Cointelpro) Counter Intelligence program to break up spreading unity of revolutionary groups that begun solidifying through the work and example of the Panthers. (The Shadow of the Panthers) In November 68 Hoover ordered FBI offices to exploit all avenues of greating Dissension within the Black Panther Party. (Baggins) In secret The FBI eventually spent millions of dollars trying to destroy the Panthers. (Black Panther Party) The media would also go against the BPP by labeling them anti-white, for many white U.S. citizens the Panthers Symbolized terror. (Black Panther Party) During the movement everyone wanted to stop the Panthers, but they knew if they gave up they were giving up the ir right to freedom. From the beginning of the BPP the FBI and Law enforcement wanted to put an end to it, but the Black Panthers wont give up without a fight. In the late 60s the Panthers became violent and became involved in a series of violent confrontations with the police, resulting with deaths on both sides. (Black Panther Party) The series of killings started with young 17 year-old Bobby Hutton who was shot 12 times after surrendering to the police. This was just a taste of what the BPP would encounter in 1969. On December 4th, 1969 at 4:00AM in the morning, thanks to FBI informant Chicago Police raided the Panthers Chicago apartment murdering Fred Hampton. Who was apparently sleep in the bed and Mark Clark who was sleep in the living room chair was also executed. Also murdered was Hamptons wife carrying their eight month year-old child. Hampton was shot twice in the head and once in the shoulder and arm. Four Panthers escaped wounded and were charged with attempted murder of police officers and aggravated assault. Not one single cop spent a moment in jail for the executions. (Black Panther Party) After the series of executions in the early 70s the Panthers started to steadily decline due to legal problems and internal conflicts, the Panther party began to loose their edge. (Black Panther Party) In early 1972 Newton and Seale announced their attention of abandoning violent methods. (Black Panther Party) Later in 1972 police and FBI harassment took a toll on the Panthers and they collapsed. (Black Panther Party) Finally In 1974 Newton and Seale left the Black Panthers for good. After Life with the Black Panthers the leaders went on totally different journeys. Bobby Seale ran for mayor of Oakland, California in 1973 and got second. (War against the Panthers). Unfortunately Huey Newton fell victim to drugs and became very dependent. He called it reactionary suicide. (Black Panther Party) After the Panther end in 1977 the movement nearly expired. The Panthers will always be known for being the most powerful group for social change in America since the Revolution of 1776 and the Civil War. (What was the Black Party?) The Black Panther Party was also the first organization in the United States history to militantly struggle for ethnic minority. (What was The Black Panther Party?) Most of all The Black Panthers brought the aggression that fueled the Black Power Movement. They brought a very radical attitude to the movement that no one had every seen or expected. These days Bobby Seale has become a public speaker and community liaison on behalf of Temple University.(Black Panther Party) After a murder charge Eldrige Cleaver Fled to Cuba where he continued to argue African Americans on revolution until his death in 1998. (Black Panther Party) Founder Huey Newton was fatally shot three times in the face over a drug dispute, on August 22, 1989. His Last words were You can kill my body but you can never kill my soul, my soul will live forever! (Black Panther Party) In 1993 The Dr. Huey P. Newton Foundation was founded in honor of Newton.(What is the black Panther party) The Black Panther Party gave the black communities in the 60s and 70s hope. They made the black community realize that they were somebody and that they did count. The BPP was rock of the Black Power Movement and will always be remembered for their efforts. Sometimes to get rid of the gun, you have to pick up the gun- Huey Newton. Work Cited. Black Panthers The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition. 2008. Retrieved November 11, 2010 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1E1-BlackPan.html web. Baggins, Brian. History of the Black Panther Party. Marxists Internet Archive (marx.org), 2002. Retrieved on (todays date). URL: http://www.marxists.org/history/usa/workers/black-panthers/ web. Overview of the panthers Black Panther Party.www.Lawbrain.com/wiki/Black_Panther_Party web. Histoty of the panther. Interview: Travis May Persona Grandfather. What is The black Panther Party? www.BlackPanther.org/Legacynew. web. Legacy of the panthers. War against the Pantherswww.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/USApantherB.htm web. The Panthers struggle.

Monday, August 19, 2019

Remembering Vietnam :: Vietnam War Essays

Remembering Vietnam "Facing It," by Yusef Komunyakaa talks about a war which most, if not all Americans are familiar with. The ever so controversial Vietnam Conflict, also known as the Vietnam War. This poem was very well written, and I respect all that was said in the context of the poem. "Facing It," discusses his visit to the Vietnam Memorial in Washington D.C., and his emotions that he experienced while he was at the memorial. I can not imagine what the feelings would be like to see one of my friend's name etched in this wall, although Tomas Van Putten can. I had a personal phone interview with him on October 30th, 2002. Tom Van Putten served nine years in the U.S. Army, two of which were spent in Vietnam. In a phone interview with Tom, I asked him if he had ever visited the monument. In fact, he did and he discussed with me how hard it was to see a dozen names of men he knew that were put on that wall. "It's really an awesome monument; it is hard remembering what it was like coming home. I was definitely changed for life " (Van Putten). Most of the content Mr. Van Putten and I spoke about, alluded back to "Facing It." Komunyakaa really shows me that he is emotional about the monument by his visions that he sees when he is at the wall. "My black face fades / hiding inside the black granite" (1-2). Here I believe he is realizing he should be on that wall. I feel as if he may be remembering a point in time in Vietnam that he was involved in an incident that should have cost him his life. Also, these are all names. His fading face makes me think that he realizes that there were no separate races in that war. When I told Mr. Van Putten about this part of the poem, he said "Yea, you are right. We all looked the same. We were all Americans." "I said I wouldn't, dammit: no tears" (3-4). How could you not cry at this scene. Hundreds, if not thousands of fellow Americans that Komunkyaa had interacted with at one point in time, or another, were just names etched on a wall. I asked Mr. Van Putten what the overall environment was like once he arrived in Vietnam. Mr. Van Putten described the environment of Vietnam as a "pretty country, really nice. Remembering Vietnam :: Vietnam War Essays Remembering Vietnam "Facing It," by Yusef Komunyakaa talks about a war which most, if not all Americans are familiar with. The ever so controversial Vietnam Conflict, also known as the Vietnam War. This poem was very well written, and I respect all that was said in the context of the poem. "Facing It," discusses his visit to the Vietnam Memorial in Washington D.C., and his emotions that he experienced while he was at the memorial. I can not imagine what the feelings would be like to see one of my friend's name etched in this wall, although Tomas Van Putten can. I had a personal phone interview with him on October 30th, 2002. Tom Van Putten served nine years in the U.S. Army, two of which were spent in Vietnam. In a phone interview with Tom, I asked him if he had ever visited the monument. In fact, he did and he discussed with me how hard it was to see a dozen names of men he knew that were put on that wall. "It's really an awesome monument; it is hard remembering what it was like coming home. I was definitely changed for life " (Van Putten). Most of the content Mr. Van Putten and I spoke about, alluded back to "Facing It." Komunyakaa really shows me that he is emotional about the monument by his visions that he sees when he is at the wall. "My black face fades / hiding inside the black granite" (1-2). Here I believe he is realizing he should be on that wall. I feel as if he may be remembering a point in time in Vietnam that he was involved in an incident that should have cost him his life. Also, these are all names. His fading face makes me think that he realizes that there were no separate races in that war. When I told Mr. Van Putten about this part of the poem, he said "Yea, you are right. We all looked the same. We were all Americans." "I said I wouldn't, dammit: no tears" (3-4). How could you not cry at this scene. Hundreds, if not thousands of fellow Americans that Komunkyaa had interacted with at one point in time, or another, were just names etched on a wall. I asked Mr. Van Putten what the overall environment was like once he arrived in Vietnam. Mr. Van Putten described the environment of Vietnam as a "pretty country, really nice.

Sunday, August 18, 2019

the russian americans :: essays research papers fc

The Russian-Americans As of the last released comprehensive United States Census listing all nationalities, in 1990, there were over two million people claiming Russian ancestry living in America. Not included in this number was over one million people who were born in Russia. Sixty-six thousand entered the U.S. between 1980 and 1990 over 120,000 entered before 1980, slightly over 123,000 were naturalized citizens, and over 71,000 were not considered citizens of the United States. When it comes to income and occupation the Russian-American ranks higher on the socio-economic ladder then many minorities. When it comes to occupations over half of the Russian population is in the managerial or professional field, while another third of the population works in sales. The rest of the population works in the service or labor field with the smallest bit of the population being farmers, .6 percent. In correlation the median income of a Russian-American is over 45,000 dollars, only 3.6 percent of the population lives in poverty. This can be a direct correlation to the educational attainment of the Russian-Americans 90 percent graduate high school, 49 percent have a bachelors degree, and 24 percent have a graduate degree. This is one of the highest percentages of any group that has come to the United States, except some of the Asian countries. The Russians started to look for the American dream in the seventeenth century when Semen Dezhnev set out to find a route through the Bering Straight, although he never made it anywhere close to the United States, he did find the Northern-most point of Siberia, which is named after him. The next expedition was launched by Vitus Bering, and although he died while searching for America some of his crewmates did find the Aleutian islands and started the fur rush of 1973. In two years many fur industries were set up and people started to establish small communities in Alaska. In 1794 eight monks arrived to one of those small towns, Kodiak and started a Russian Orthodox mission. In seventy years when Alaska was sold to the U.S. the Orthodox religion was so ingrained into the people that it was, and still is the predominant religion in the area. After the sale of Alaska, the immigration of Russians slowed until the beginning of the twentieth century and the beginning of Communism is Russia. In the beginning it was mostly laborers and farmers and then came the former Russian army and naval officers, highly qualified engineers and scientists, actors and composers, musicians and painters, and a number of world-famous singers and ballet dancers.

American Careers in the Terkels Working Essay -- Studs Terkel

America: The People behind the Professions A little girl dreams of a white wedding with white doves flying over the ceremony and the fairy-tale honeymoon. Only then to come home to the yellow house in the country, with the white picket fence included. Everyone has daydreamed about their future and having the â€Å"perfect† house, with the â€Å"perfect† car and the â€Å"perfect† marriage- everyone wants to live the â€Å"American Dream†. There are many people that believe that the â€Å"American Dream† is a concept that they are entitled to and expected to live. Then, there are those who believe that you should use the opportunities that America offers as a stepping stone to earn and create your own â€Å"American dream†. However, as time goes on the mainstream idea of â€Å"living the American Dream† has changed. This change is mostly due to the ever-changing economy, professions, and expectations of the American people. Throughout the book Working, by Studs Terkel, we meet many diverse groups of people to discover the people behind the jobs that allows American society to operate and how their choice of a career path has changed their lives. Here is "Mike Lefervre" , a 37-year-old steel worker. Lefervre talks down on intellectuals, and complains that they degrade people who actually work. A moment later, however, he contradicts and degrades himself: "A mule, an old mule, that's the way I feel." He is hurt and irritated that his son "lacks respect† but yet, "I want my kid to be a America: The People behind the Professions 3 snob... I want him to tell me he's not gonna be like me." Lefervre wants his son to have the life he never had and was unable to provide for him. This is a common thought for many parents in America. He talks about the anger... ...eer, musician, carpenter, street cleaner, farmer, office clerk, mechanic, housewife, stenographer, union organizer, bartender, truck driver... All of 'em! I'm the 'et cetera' and the 'And-so-forth' who do the work... I am... America." America: The People behind the Professions 5 We all know that most people hate their jobs. Work is seen as something we have to do, and very lucky few seem to find a job that we enjoy. How we feel about work, and what we do for a living, in many ways helps to define who we are and who we are going to become. Having seen actual people share their perspectives and view points on â€Å"working for a living† helps us see ourselves and rethink our future. Overall, Studs Terkel helps flash- back into America's history and see the changes that America ans it’s people have gone through.

Saturday, August 17, 2019

Economics Commentary †Russian Quota on US Pork and Indian Government Tax on cars Essay

A quota is a physical limit on the number or value of goods that can be imported into a country. This is one of the few protectionist measures that countries in order to protect their own domestic industries and is a measure that has been taken up by Russia, as seen in the article. Russia has reduced its quota for American pork from 750,000 tonnes to 600,000 tonnes. This is because Russia wishes to become more self-sufficient in producing pork and thus improve their pork industry. As said in the article, this will be a big blow to the American producers of pork who already trying to recover from poor demand and prices, as well as high input costs. The effect of this reduced quota can be seen in Fig.1 below. As can be seen, the quota has been decreased from QD2-QS2 at a value of 750,000 tonnes to QD3-QS3 at a value of 600,000 tonnes. The deadweight loss (represented by the shaded area) has, as a result, increased from ABC to EBD and this is partly where the problem of quotas lies. The shaded area represents the inefficiency of the domestic producers and by decreasing the number of US exports coming in, they are increasing the reliance on domestic producers who may be more inefficient in comparison to the American producers. What could be potentially seen is an increased loss of world efficiency as the domestic producers would produce pork for higher minimum revenue than the American producers. Furthermore, QD3-QD2 tonnes of pork are not now consumed (150,000 tonnes) and this is a reduction in the consumer surplus, which is the extra utility gained by consumers from paying a price that is lower than that which they are prepared to pay. However, there are advantages to the quota for domestic producers. The initial quota allowed domestic producers to supply 0-QS1 and QS2-QD2 tonnes of pork at a price of WP+Quota. This quota meant that their revenue had increased but they will see their revenue increased further with the implementation of the lower quota. This is because they will be able to supply 0-QS1, QS2-QD2 and QS3-QD3 at a price of WP+ Decreased Quota. Foreign producers will now supply their quota of QS1-QS2 and receive a price of WP+ Decreased Quota. This should usually result in a fall in income, which would be detrimental to the American producers who are already suffering economic difficulties, but in theory this does not have to be. An alternative option that could be used by the Russian government is a tariff. This is a tax that is charged on imported goods would cause the world supply curve to shift upwards because it would be placed on the American producers as opposed to the Russia producers. The effect of a tariff can be seen below. The advantage of a tariff is that whilst the deadweight loss (shaded in red) of caused by the tariff would be the same as the one caused by a quota, the Russian government would receive a revenue equal to C. Furthermore, the revenue of domestic, Russian producers would increase by A+B+C, though the revenue of foreign, American producers will fall by C. However, there will be a fall in consumer surplus by D, due to the extra pork that will not be purchased resulting in a deadweight loss of welfare. However, as stated before, this would be the same if a quota is used. Furthermore, the implementation of a tariff is less likely to lead to the creation of a black market. This is because with an import quota there is a chance that there will be massive shortages of pork. Therefore, criminal organisations would see smuggling pork as a lucrative business opportunity. However, with a tariff such shortages are unlikely as it does not set a limit on the number of products imported. That being said, if a tariff is set at an unreasonably high rate then there is still a chance that a black market will open up. Nevertheless either form of protectionism has its disadvantages. Firstly, it leads to less choice for consumers and the lowered competition will see domestic firms become inefficient without any incentive to minimise costs. Moreover, protectionism distorts comparative advantage and this leads to the inefficient use of resources thus leading to reduced specialisation and a reduced potential level of the world’s output. Indeed protectionism could potentially damage economic growth. INDIAN CAR TAX Externalities occur when the consumption or production of a good or service has a spill over effect on a third party. If an externality is negative, then this spill over effect is in some way harmful. Therefore there has to be an external cost i.e. one that is borne by a third party, to add to the private costs of the producer or consumer in order to calculate the full cost to society. In the article, the negative externalities which are occurring in New Delhi, India stem from traffic congestion and air pollution. Fig.1 below shows the external costs of using cars. As seen in Fig.1, consumers will enjoy some of the private benefits of car travel but there will be external costs in the form of air pollution and traffic congestion. Consumers maximise their private utility and consume at the level where MPC=MSC=MPB thus leading to over-consumption of vehicle travel by driving Q25, 000 vehicles at a price of 25,000 rupees. As can be seen in Fig.1, the socially efficient output, i.e. when the full opportunity cost of an extra unit is equal to the value placed by society on its consumption or production, is Q*, as a result there is over-consumption of Q25, 000 to Q*. Furthermore, as a result of MSC being greater than MSB, there is a welfare loss to society. This is an example of market failure. In order to combat the effects of the vehicle use, the Indian government is charging citizens in New Delhi who own more than one car and are implementing a congestion fee. Two-wheelers that cost above 25,000 rupees will be taxed at a rate of four per cent whilst cars priced up to 6 lakh (600,000 rupees) will be increased to the same rate. Those costing between 6 and 10 lakh will be charged seven per cent tax. The effect that the increased tax should have on the use of two-wheeled vehicles is seen in Fig.2. As seen in Fig.2, the implementation of a tax will see the MPC curve move upwards to MPC + tax = MSC + tax. This will reduce consumption to the socially efficient output of Q* but the price will increase to 25,000 rupees plus tax. Therefore the government should receive more revenue which could be then used to further tackle the externalities. However, a problem that the Indian government will face is the fact that the demand for vehicle travel may be price inelastic. Therefore, the amount of people who will forgo vehicle travel will be insignificant and the quantity demanded will not fall to the socially efficient level. There are alternatives to congestion fees and taxes, with advertising being an example. The Indian government could fund positive advertising for substitute goods such as public transport or bicycles thus decreasing the consumption of vehicle travel. One of the problems with this solution is that the costs may be high and so taxes would have to be in place. Moreover, people may not care about the effects of vehicle travel and will therefore continue with their current mode of travel. Another solution could be for the government to restrict the number of driving licences. This is effectively a quota that would essentially see a decrease in the number of cars on the road. However, the problem of who to allocate these licences to arise and this could prove unpopular. Another alternative solution could be to heavily advertise public transport. This may reduce the number of cars on the road and would therefore see a reduction in the negative externalities created. However, for this to work, people would have to heed the advertisements advice and as it would not be compulsory, people may neither listen nor care to change their method of transportation. Overall, it looks like the Indian government’s decision to implement a car tax and congestion fee is the most viable solution because it is less likely to alienate the citizens of New Delhi when compared to curfews and is also more likely to see a decrease in consumption when compared to advertising.

Friday, August 16, 2019

Case Study: Performance Management at Intermountain Healthcare

Kuan-Chung (Bill) Wu HPM540: Professor Kamke HPM540: Case Study 3: Performance Management at Intermountain Healthcare 1. What is your assessment of the Performance Management system developed at Intermountain Healthcare? – The Performance Management (PM) system developed by Intermountain has become a model for many healthcare organizations. Intermountain’s PM system includes the following elements: 1) Identifying six most important performance criteria, 2) Developing goals for different groups within the organization, and 3) implementing the goals by creating an incentive compensation scheme.This PM system design has proven to be effective in many perspective, ranging from individual staff to administration and to the organization as a whole. First and most importantly, this PM system aligns Intermoutain’s mission and values/commitments to its employees and their performances. Their employees and administration do not just talk about their values, they live those values – committing to best practice with quality and accountability.Secondly, this PM system is effective in regards of beneficial and useful as development tool and administrative tool. The system not only allows administration to accountably designed, implemented, reached, and evaluated the goals for different groups in the organization, but also allows employees to engaged and contribute organizational goals by developing their career and earning incentives. As a result, different groups in the organization were able to remain focused on accomplishing all the goals as a whole team.Lastly, most employees in Intermountain had positive and fair views for the PM system. For example, employees in Intermountain expressed embarrassment, rather than complaints of not getting incentives, when they did not reach a certain objective, even it was missed by less than 1%. Lastly, this PM system allowed administration and management team at Intermountain to effectively and accurately m easure employee performance, such as using balanced scorecard and data shown in Exhibit 8 and 12, as well as the cost of providing services.The PM system created by Intermountain has served to be a model for healthcare organizations to face future challenges due to the Affordable Care Act as well as other changes in the nature of running a healthcare business. Lastly, they were able to realize the goal of recruiting and retaining the best employees. 2. In what ways could it enhance or detract from the organization's strategic objectives? – There were many ways this method could enhance the organization’s strategic objectives.First, the important performance dimensions were identified – these constituted the big picture of the organization strategy and allowed the big picture to flow all the way down to every individual staff. Everyone in the organization could all know about organization’s objectives and commit to achieving them. Moreover, as described in a the section of Clinical Goals, this system allowed the goals of five dimensions of performances to flow in a topdown fashion, the goals for the Clinical Goals were developed in a bottom-up fashion.This enabled the organization to have a continuous circle of performance management loop similar to Figure 10-1 in the textbook, which shows a linkage from organizational strategies to feedbacks collected from organizational results. The ways that this system would detract from organization’s strategic objective is the finance for implementing these strategies, as mentioned in last section of the article. The clinical performance improvement initiative had resulted in revenue losses.If Intermountain did not have enough cash on hand, this performance management system would not work so efficiently. The other way that could detract the strategic objective is that data could be manipulated to make the performances 1|Page Kuan-Chung (Bill) Wu HPM540: Professor Kamke looked well on th e graph/table/figures. This is because the incentives is generated by good data, and it is very easy for these data to be manipulated. 3. How are physician incentives at Intermountain unique? Why did they take a ifferent approach to physician performance as compared to other employees? – Physician incentives at Intermountain are unique because physicians are divided into two groups (employed and non-employed aligned) and incentive plans designed for each group have different programs. For employed physicians, three approaches were implemented for incentives: 1) Peer pressure, in which open discussion where held to examine physicians’ performance, 2) Public Recognition, in which best practice was recognized at the corporate level, and 3) monetary incentives for meeting clinical standards.For non-employed, aligned physicians, who accounts for 2/3 all physicians using Intermountain, the organization has adopted the strategy to engage these physicians through peer-to-peer competition and a reliance on academic literature and internal data in a given clinical area. Here we can see that there are a lot of physician communication and engagement for supporting physicians to receive incentives, which are different approaches than other employees such as managers and staffs who earns incentives through achieving individual and corporate level goals.In my opinion, physicians have their incentives different than just monetary incentives is because health care is a service business and physicians are the centers for providing different kinds of services to patients. In many cases, physicians are the decision makers who may influence the outcome of these services. Therefore, it is essential for physicians to know what each other is doing with transparent and evidence-based communications so the effective services can be learned and implemented by different physicians.Moreover, the increased communication would enhance the aspect of coordinated care which would help both the physician and organizations to reduce the cost of their services. The other reason that different approaches were implemented for physicians might be because they have already been earning high levels of compensation and need something different than monetary incentives, in contrast with those who are in healthcare administration. 4. How might this system also improve the performance appraisal process? –Performance appraisals are used to assess an employee’s performance and provide a platform for feedback about past, current, and future performance expectations. In Intermountain’s performance management system, there is a continuous goal development and implementation, as well as feedbacks to the senior management. The senior management team then provides recommendations for the group that develops the organization’s goal to make sure what the organization expects for everyone. In other words, the expectations, whether they are past, curren t, or future, are transparent to all employees.Another aspect that I believe this system helps to improve the performance appraisal process in its uses. The textbook states that organizations generally use performance appraisal process in two conflicting ways – administrative and developmental. However, Intermountain’s performance management system seemed to resolve this conflicting issue by its incentive compensation scheme. As described by Dan Zuhlke, the Vice President of Intermountain HR, the potential bonus or incentive is based on the fulfillment of the combination of individual level goals and corporate level goals.This helps to solve the conflict of uses because both administrative and developmental actions can be accomplished simultaneously under this system. Lastly, under the physician incentive system, open discussions and peer-to-peer competition allowed physicians to gain constructive feedback or improvement ideas from others. The physician incentive syste m essentially served as a virtual platform for care givers to learn what the expectations are. 2|Page