Essay on Moving Image Analysis

In this work, we aim at analyzing the selected Scene below from â€Å"The Dark Knight† This is a very clear image with different elements properly arranged, and the general combination gives a very clear meaning: conflict. The creator of this image has employed all the necessary techniques so as to develop a very clear image with a quite definite meaning. Just at a glance, anybody can tell what this image is all about: a captured man who has gone through pains and torture and is strictly monitored by another individual whose identity remains unrevealed. Critical analysis A critical analysis of an image involves an active watching or observation of the image (whether moving or still), decoding, it and finally stating the clear meaning in a language that anybody can understand, suggesting the necessary adjustments that are deemed necessary. This is what is done in this essay. This image can be divided into two different grounds, the foreground and the back ground. In the foreground, the main objects are: two different men, one man is the victim of torture while the other man is the source of the torture. The background of this image indicates a building, as the wall of this building is easily seen. Various elements in these objects, in their combined form, both in the background and foreground, give the meanings indicated above. The analysis of these elements is their respective meanings are done hare-under. Let us consider the foreground. The first object is the seated man. We can confidently say that this man has undergone a series of torture. This is revealed by the elements which include the blood, his position, his appearance, and his costumes. The blood, which is mainly found on his facial area, around the mouth, clearly reveals that he has gone through serious beatings. This object is seated in a closed room and behind him is a man revealed to be monitoring him. His appearance, especially the look on his face, depicts the sufferings he is going through. He looks weak and quite subjective, without resistance to any action from the oppressor. He desperately needs help. His outfit, compared to that of the man behind him, tells that he is indeed the victim. These costumes reveal that he was actually not prepared for any form of body injury or attack. The theme and mood of this image can clearly be read here. The second object in the foreground is the man standing. A critical analysis of this man reveals that he is the actual source of the torture. He is the one responsible for the sufferings that the seated man goes through. Within this man, several elements together reveal the aforementioned. These elements include the clothing, the head mask, and his general outlook. Starting with the outfit, a non-disputed role and characteristics of this object are easily seen. The head mask reveals that the identification of this man must remain secrete. The type of body clothes tells the kind of body protection that he actually needs. Here, we can comfortably say that this object is subjected to various forms of activities which necessitate proper body protection. The activities may result in body injuries and that is why a proper body protection is needed. Without any doubt, we can comfortably say that this man is responsible for the torture and oppressions indicated by the first man. In the background of this frame, there are some other effects that together form the Mise-en-scà ¨ne. The background wall and the lighting show that this is a closed room. The background helps in bringing realism. The lighting of the room indicates the level of the conflict in this image. We can openly see that the conflict is intensified by the lighting of this closed room. In the foreground the light is more intensified as compared to the background with deem light. The two light variations show that the seated man is facing the source of light, probably the door. The background indicates the plot of the image. Also there is something like a table in the foreground, where the seated man has stretched his hands. A keen analysis of this seated man reveal that he is facing some object, maybe a panel of interrogators or judges. Combining all the stated elements, objects and their corresponding meanings, one general meaning of this image can be drawn: this image is about a captured man under very tight security and has been seriously tortured by the hostage takers. The captured man faces a team of interrogators who are interested in extracting some vital information from him. Other than the above discussed features, other styles that have been used in this image include the shot. In this frame, there is an objective point-of-view shot which makes the observers view the image secretly as a third party. The scene is not actually from the character’s perspective but from an observer’s perspective; the viewer. The viewer does not feel as part of the action. The camera angle gives an eye-line match. The image has not been zoomed and this makes it appear as a real image. Reality has been brought by this non-zooming effect. It has also improved the quality of the image as the zoomed objects normally appear blurred. The lighting in this image also creates some other meaning other than the above discussed. It creates the mood and the atmosphere. This image has been created as real and not fiction. This greatly oversimplifies the reality and makes the image more real and believable.

Police Officer Training Curriculum Essay - 1333 Words

POLICE OFFICER TRAINING CURRICULUM The curriculum that is devised for a police officer is very important to the police officer and his or her success in their chosen career path. An officers training is also very important to the community in which they serve and the department in which they work. An officer must receive training in a variety of fields to help them be a well-rounded police officer. Officers receive training in such areas as: law, community relations, firearms, vehicle driving, search and seizure, and cultural awareness. The basic curriculum that is offered to a new recruit is focused on giving the recruit the best overall training that will give him or her the tools necessary to become the best police officer they†¦show more content†¦Recruits need to know the basics of firearms safety, weapon care, the use of force and the possibilities and consequences of criminal and civil liability. Once out in the field officer need to know how to handle situation that may require use of force and to conduct themselves within the departments use of force policy. Police officers need a good understanding of the law. Recruits need training in criminal law and civil law. Within the law training blocks, recruits would be introduced to criminal procedure and rules of evidence. Training must also include how to handle incidents with juveniles and the mentally ill and domestic violence situations. The majority of a patrol officers work involves traffic stops. Recruits need to be trained in all aspects of the vehicle code and highway safety. Recruits need to understand vehicle licensing, title and registration. Many officers who know the vehicle code that conduct traffic stops for minor vehicular infractions often encounter much larger criminal activity, such as finding drugs or a wanted felon. A major area of training for the recruits is patrol procedures and operation. First, recruits would be trained in the history and importance of patrol. Next, would be orientation int o pre-patrol and routine patrol procedures. Once the recruits have a good understanding of the patrol basics, then they would be introduced to patrol activities and incidents. Recruits would have practical applicationShow MoreRelatedEssay on POLICE OFFICER TRAINING CURRICULUM1320 Words   |  6 Pages POLICE OFFICER TRAINING CURRICULUM nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;The curriculum that is devised for a police officer is very important to the police officer and his or her success in their chosen career path. An officer’s training is also very important to the community in which they serve and the department in which they work. An officer must receive training in a variety of fields to help them be a well-rounded police officer. 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Managing of Groups in an Organization

Question: Discuss about theManaging of Groups in an Organization. Answer: Introduction This case study is based on Google and the problems that the organization was facing. Managers adopt the skills that are covered in class set up and apply them in real life situations. In applying these skills there is a link between the experience in class and the real life situation. Julia tends to compare and apply skills that were used in school when working on class assignments and comparing them to how they can be applied in real leadership situations. The organization felt the need to determine how personal productivity of every employee can be improved and how the organization can mentor its employees to grow and work as a team. The nature of the organization and the industry that the organization operates has led to the need to have different projects and different teams within the projects. The teams assigned to particular projects are set with the responsibility of seeing the project to the end. Background Managers in such like organization face the challenge of managing different groups due to the lack of consistency in uniform team membership. Managers are forced to manage teams that are specifically in charge of a particular project and then the team is disbanded after the project (Orla Richard 2008, p11). Managers that deal with such teams face the challenge of integrating the team together, Leveraging the potential of the team and at the same time becoming the team leader so as to establish an environment of innovation, creativity and adaptability. The manager is charged with the responsibility of ensuring the success of the team and at the same time the organization. In managing teams that run different projects within goggle, the manager has the role of giving direction and determining the nature of the group that the team will operate. By this, the manager sets ground rules that guide the team. Identification of Issues and Problems Google organization from the case study seems to have several problems that are affecting the organization. The organization seems to be based on a lot of specialization and bureaucracy that makes most operations of the group too formal. This makes the teams to focus so much on tasks rather relations. The relationships are primary based and only relate to the task at hand. Due to this the members have less personal contact to each other which limits new ideas since group members being forced to wear a formal code that is controlled by the team leader who limits the group to the agenda. The organization also lacks a clear organizational culture that guides the conduct and relationship between members within the organization and in groups. Organization culture is a system of beliefs, values and assumptions that are shared among members by guiding how the organization is governed. These influences dictate how they conduct themselves at work and perform their duties. By the fact that the organization has embarked on project Aristotle to determine the reason why employees perform differently and the results that were found by Matt after the research show that the organization was lacking a clear organizational structure. According to Schein (2011, p9-13; Intagliata, Ulrich Smallwood 2000, P21), organizational culture has three forms that shape the behaviour of employees in an organization. Structural functionalists suggest that organizations are embedded in values of the society that lead to the achievement gals and activities. Further institutional functionalists argu e that the history of an organization and its past leadership shapes an institutional culture that binds the employees. The organizational groups are not based on fusing of formal, informal, secondary and primary aspects of group characteristics. The groups are based on the task at hand and not building relations for the future (Miller, Mabel Koncha, 2014, 25-26). Management styles that are adopted by managers determine the effectiveness of a group. Team A within the organization operates on less structure norms within the organization, with the team leader taking the leading role. However the group lacks clear structure and team rules with members changing from one discussion to the other. On the hand team B consists of clearly defined roles with each member sticking to the role that they play within the team. Formal codes within the team hinder group dynamics since members have to stick to the rules of the discussion. Fee discussions within the team open up group dynamics making members to freely express themselves and show their inner qualities that may hinder or improve progress. Management theorists argue that there is no best management style and thus the most preferred style will depend on the situation and the people. The best leaders have in the world have been born out of situations since charisma is limited. Therefore competency in management only defines the traditional way of doing things. Matt manages technicians and engineers who carry out tasks that he personally doesnt understand. This is because he has mastered the art of managing people and supplemented it with the traditional and modern management styles. Contingency theorists argue that management decisions are based on the situation and routine decisions that fit the whole firm (Manoj Shilpa 2013, p312).The management style adopted will depend on the group being managed and the task at hand. For example when dealing with senior level managers, the moderation style may be different from when dealing with lower level employees. Possible Solutions From the problems identified above, Bureaucracy and specialization seems to be hindering the performance of employees during team tasks. Reducing the bottlenecks by having middle level managers and group leaders who can make decisions directly can improve efficiency. The higher layers of management within the organization affect and delay decision making (Northouse 2007, p27). The best teams that have managed to overcome group dynamics are teams that are less informal and have no set norms. The group members relate casually so long as the objective of the team is met. Organizational culture proponents argue that the organization needs to have a set of values that determine and shape the business processes within the organization. It has been argued by scholars that leadership in organizations starts with the formation of an organizational culture that binds all the employees and integrates them to one concept of meeting the business strategy of the organization. Through organizational culture the leader is able to promote ethical culture that is important in organizational growth. This culture differentiates the organization from other organizations. Therefore Google needs to define an organizational culture that represents the business strategy of the organization and connects the employees as a team. This enables the leaders within the organization to grow a dynamic organization. The need to adopt different types of group leadership styles is a key element in ensuring that the members of different groups are able to perform as a team. Schein (2004) argues that informal management styles bring the manager closer to the employee through coaching and teaching mechanisms. The manager needs to combine both formal and informal management styles in forming of groups in relation to a particular task. According to Thompson, Strickland, Gamble (2005) organizations that have employees bonding beyond the work place form the best teams when team work is needed. As suggested by Julia in her previous groups, socialising outside the normal workplace and running a team on a less formal mode makes the employees comfortable and attached to the group. This is a way of exploring the potential of the lesser members of the team since it makes them comfortable and able to relate well within the group. More formal structures exhibit power and hierarchy elations in group set ups which hinder participation of subordinates. Thus means that the group need to operate on informal basis but have clear structure and team rules. This is important in final decision making and Proposed Solution The best leaders in the world have been situational leaders and not managers (Orla Boyle, 2008). Greenberg Baron (2003, p 125) situational leadership can best be applied within the organization. This will mean that teams or groups within a task do not have specified team leaders but rather leaders are chosen within the members themselves. This gives room to the team to judge the best person to lead the task at hand. However the rules of operation within teams need to be clearly set to enable the teams operate within the requirements of the organization. Matt as an example has mastered situational leadership and known how to manage different teams that are more technical than he understands. This will mean mixing management style to have a hybrid style that meets the needs of the team and the task at hand (Orensen 2002, p 81; Thompson, Strickland Gambler (2005, p34). Recommendations Leadership in groups depends on the situation that exists. Some situations may call for certain leadership traits that a team leader may lack. Open team leadership where the teams choose leaders depending on the task can be the best strategy in fostering team work and exploring the potential of teams. This means that Google has to develop an open leadership where each employee or member of a team has a chance of participating in group leadership. This gives room for all personality traits to be utilised within the team which is an advantage to the organization. McNaron (2009, p859) further adds that team building strategies can be used to bring together employees in a forum where they are free to interact and propose ideas that may improve the organization. The organization will benefit by having an organizational culture that can be used as a competitive advantage and part of the business strategy. References Greenberg J Baron A.R, 2003. Behaviour in Organizations. Strategic management Journal, Vol. 8. P121-127. Intagliata, J., Ulrich, D. Smallwood, N., 2000. Leveraging Leadership Competencies to Produce Leadership Brand: Creating Distinctiveness by Focusing on Strategy and Results. Human Resource Planning, 23(3). Manoj Kumar Sharma . Shilpa, 2013. Leadership Management: Principles, Models and Theories. Global Journal of Management and Business Studies. Volume 3, Number 3, pp. 309-318. McNaron M, 2009, Using transformational learning principles to change behaviour in the operating theatre. Aron Journal, vol.89, no. 5, pp.859-860. Miller, Rex, Mabel Casey, and Mark Konchar, 2014. Change Your Space, Change Your Culture: How Engaging Workspaces Lead to Transformation and Growth. New Jersey: John Wiley Sons, Inc. Northouse, G., 2007. Leadership theory and practice. (3rd ed.) Thousand Oak, London, New Delhe, Sage Publications, Inc. Orla ODonnell Richard Boyle, 2008. Understanding and Managing Organisational Culture. Dublin Colour Books Ltd. Orensen, J.B., 2002. The strength of corporate culture and the reliability of firm performance. Administrative Science Quarterly, Vol 47, 70-91. Schein, E. M., 2004. Organizational culture and leadership. (3rd. ed.). Jossy-Bass. Schein, E. H., 2011. Leadership and organizational culture. New York, NY: Wiley. Thompson, A. A., Strickland, A. J., Gamble, J. E., 2005. Crafting and executing strategy: The quest for competitive advantage: Concepts and cases (4thed.). McGraw Hill, Irwin Watson, T.J., 2006. Organising and Managing Work, UK: Pearson Education Limited.

Factors Affecting Sustainability Development

Question: Discuss about the Factors Affecting Sustainability Development. Answer: Introduction According to recent studies, research on renewable energies is at an all-time high, a factor that has caused production costs to reduce tremendously over the past ten years. Its because of such trends that a study was commissioned by Ecomagination of General Electric to identify the trends in renewable energies, particularly in renewable electricity (Stark, Pless, Logan, Zhou Arent, 2015). This study was commissioned to identify the cost expenditures experienced when investing in renewable energy technologies. The Joint Institute for Strategic Energy Analysis was responsible for the study which was done in combination with the works of scientists from the NREL department (National Renewable Energy Laboratory) in late 2014. As stated above, this case study focused on renewable energies, more so the wind and solar power that at the time accounted for more than half of all power productions in the past ten years (NREL 2015). Moreover, the study focused on the general assessment of the technologies and the costs experienced when generating the power. Similarly, this report will focus on the general analysis of renewable energies, especially those that offer a safe substitute for traditional power options. Furthermore, this report will highlight the cost implications at the generation level of power production, it will not consider the complexity of market distribution and transmission. Instead, its goal will be to offer solutions to existing power problems in a sustainable manner. Objective To offer viable options for power generation through renewable technologies in order to meet the planets sustainability requirements. NREL case study highlights some of the trends in renewable technologies where it provides factual information to support the claims of the industry including the critical cost investments. Current and future investment are critical to sustainability as they determine the capacity to deliver power requirements while meeting the needs of the planet, these are the key factors in sustainability options (Baiorunos 2011). Sustainability Factors Sustainability arouses great attention in the modern society where capitalism seems to influence all decisions. At its core, sustainability is the need to meet current requirements without compromising those of the future. Technology through engineering has tried to offers solutions to current power requirements while meeting the needs of the future, however, most of these solutions are still at a development stage. Most ideas and developments loss focus at a development phase where business leaders prefer or opt to sustain their businesses rather than sustain the society and the planet as a whole (Law 2009). However, the trends in renewable energies provide a balance between these factors in a manner that sustains the environment. Renewable electricity (RE) is now readily available to the masses through wind and solar power. Moreover, the cost of RE generation is now reasonable to offer competition to existing power options such as those developed through fossils fuels (Chisholm 2003). These trends in the field are also set to rise because of favourable characteristics they pose and the support they have received from business stakeholders. However, the recent growths in natural gas supply and the collapse of oil prices threatens this trend. Moreover, fossil fuels seem to have a minimal impact on power generation which means that even when RE technologies are fully incorporated they will still be used in other sectors (NREL 2015). So, how do the currents trend in RE generation costs compare to those of fossil fuels and what practices are in place to address future sustainability challenges? RE cost trends (Current and Future) Technological advancement has led to cost reductions and improved performance of RE technologies. Today, photovoltaic cells and wind turbines are more efficient as compared to ten years ago. These advancements have drastically reduced the cost of power production and have expanded the market share of these technologies. Moreover, these trends have influenced innovative finance practices that offer investors high returns based on the existing energy policies. In addition to this, organisations are now structuring their plans to fit the sustainability requirements which has led to more RE producers who cater to a much bigger audience (Ren21 2016). However, consider the progress that would have been seen by now if enforceable laws had been enacted in the past to deal with the implementation of renewable energies. According to NREL (2015), RE costs of production have fallen by 80 percent, this drastic reduction is only because of the improvements in the field. Moreover, due to the market expansion and the levelled cost of electricity, solar power has also seen a drop in costs of production of 50 percent. These values place RE technologies within the range of fossil fuel and power production which signifies the importance of cost of production in sustainability requirements (Randall 2016). However, according to Liebreich, the foreseeable future is likely to be characterised by low-cost fuels and oil production. These views by a keynote speaker in the recent BNEF (Bloomberg New Energy Finance) summit threaten the trend seen in RE technologies. So, what can technology and the society do to meet the competition imposed by fossil fue ls? Beating the competition (RE Future Trends) Sustainability goals should drive the agendas set in power production where all stakeholders involved should develop plans that compromise on cost and the success of renewable energies. Consider the case study of Amsterdam clean energy policies, Amsterdam has embarked on a mission to sustain its environment. Through its win-win procedure, it has developed procedures that will reduce greenhouse emissions thus propelling the city to a sustainable environment. Through the help of the business sector and the civil society, they have implemented procedures that favour the environment while meeting the energy needs of the city (Berger 2016). At the forefront of this master plan are renewable energies, where the wind and solar power are to be used to power the city. Furthermore, their plan envisions an integrated futuristic society that has both social and economic aims to meet the needs of the environment. Through their plan sustainability is and will be easily achieved, more so, when you consider their overall plan to have a clean and renewable economy. Similarly, the world at large should adopt a similar policy where all decisions both civic and business are made to serve the RE requirements. Policies that reward those who invest in renewable energies should be implemented, these policies should be based on the financial sector where most people seem to focus. For instance, develop special tax clause that waivers the tax requirements for solar panels and wind turbines. In addition to this, incorporate all stakeholders just like Amsterdam did, where business representatives are consulted and so are the civic representatives. Furthermore, technology should embrace those who are disadvantaged by developing cheap RE options that meet the competition set by cheap inadequate energy sources. Again, these requirements need investment, the overall key to sustainability (Yonavjak, Norford Ballesteros 2013). Financial Inefficiencies According to the NREL case study, the developments seen in renewable electricity (wind and solar) are because of the benefits they offer particularly to sustainability which assures the survival of the planet. However, future developments depend on the energy plans made by decisions that analyse the short and long-term risks. Most of these risks are financial affecting economies, projects, and energy prices. Nevertheless, developing and maintaining these technologies is the critical component of meeting the sustainability requirements (Reeep 2007). Technologies that facilitate renewable energy have different risks than those experienced by other regular energy sources, for instance, wind and solar power is available at different times of the day. However, unlike fossil fuels, they have a lower operation cost and are immune to fluctuations in fuel price. Moreover, most RE technologies have different risks that complement each other thus can bridge the gaps experienced by each individual technology. Now, regardless of these benefits the sector still lacks the necessary financial backing to meet the current environmental demands which affect its development trends. In the previous chapter, we highlight incentives that influence financial decision makers to promote RE technologies. However, does this outlook really help expand the industry? Subsidising policies (e.g. tax laws) does not necessary guarantee success, this because many organisations could invest in dubious projects to get the favours of these laws. As a future trend, these policies should go to depths of focusing on innovative market designs, operational costs and most importantly focus on the integration of RE technologies in the present financial systems. This outlook engages capitalism in promoting sustainability by meeting the financial needs of the world. A start to this trends could be solutions to the current energy crisis. Present statistics show finite reserves of fossils fuels more so those of oil, this creates an opportunity to acquire investments from oil proponents in order to maintain their future financial status (Reeep 2007). These investments could be made as an ans wer to an alternative capital source which coincidentally serves as an alternative to the energy problem, therefore, meeting the sustainability requirements. RE technology integration to meet sustainability requirements Globally, RE technologies have had a steady growth since 2004 where power production in 2014 (both wind and solar) was estimated to be more than 400GW. Individually, wind power capacity has grown from 48 GW to 318 GW from 2004 to 2013, on the other hand, solar power capacity has grown from 2.6GW to 139GW within the same period (REN21 2014). This steady rise is attributed to the advances in the technology where improved techniques have been used. In wind power engineers have been able to develop systems in high towers, having bigger blades and most importantly having efficient transmission systems. Similarly, solar power has seen advancements in photovoltaic materials that generate and conserve energy more efficiently than previous material. However, it is the enhancements in intelligent communication systems that engineers have been able to generate more power/energy per the investment rate (Voorlichting-EWI 2016). Sustainability can only be met if these technologies are fully integrated into the national grids and become the primary source of energy. Today, integrating these technologies into power systems forms the biggest challenges to grid workers and engineer who have to maintain a consistent power output. However, newer methods of forecasting supply, controlling RE transmission and generation are slowly helping meet these challenges. Moreover, research suggests that over 30 percent of all solar and wind electricity requirements are easily met by the existing system but, the other limit (70%) still depends on the market designs and other operational demands (NREL 2015). Again, this limit still depends on financial investment proving the importance of cost analysis in sustainability engagements (Hui 1997). At an individual level, it may fall to us all to influence the society in a manner that encourages a sustainable lifestyle. At a production level little can be done by individuals because energy production is system oriented rather than product oriented. Maybe, we could invest in the field by reducing our consumption of inefficient energy sources such as fossil fuels and also by participating in the development of RE technologies through donations among other minor roles. These simple activities may help the sustainability initiative which is a more complex than dealing with the energy production crisis (Connors 1998). Renewable energies have a vital role in meeting the future demands of energy and achieving global sustainability. Recent trends show tremendous growth in the field especially in electricity production where solar and wind power has been used efficiently across the globe. Our focus case study highlights these trends more so the cost implications of the RE technologies and how financial factors affect sustainability. Financial aspects of RE production stand out as the major challenge for meeting the short and long-term objectives of sustainability. Although investments have been made into the industry, experts in the field still lack adequate resources to meet the needs of today and tomorrow. Moreover, recent trends in fossil fuel prices threaten the achieved progress by creating barriers in the energy market. Therefore, rigorous techniques are needed to facilitate faster developments of renewable energies especially in the integration of RE technologies in the existing energy infrastructure. At the heart of this techniques should be economic opportunities which could entice business stakeholders to invest in these technologies. Moreover, the current energy crisis should also serve as a warning to future times when fossil sources will be depleted. Investing in renewable energies should no longer be an option but a necessity for survival. New sources other than solar and wind should also be invested in to create more options for the current energy demands that must be met in a sustainable way. This approach will secure a safer environment for the future generations who technology may advance the existing technological systems. References Baiorunos. R, 2011, 5 factors of sustainability: this isnt your grandmothers sustainability framework, Community wealth partners, Available from: https://communitywealth.com/5-factors-of-sustainability/ [27 January 2017] Berger. J. J, 2016, Sustainable Amsterdam: A Win-Win Post-Fossil Fuel Strategy, Renewable energy world, Available from: https://www.renewableenergyworld.com/articles/2016/10/sustainable-amsterdam-a-win-win-post-fossil-fuel-strategy.html [27 January 2017] Camila. S, Pless. J, Logan. J, Zhou. E Arent. J, 2015, Renewable Electricity: Insights for the Coming Decade, Joint Institute for strategic energy analysis, Available from: https://www.nrel.gov/docs/fy15osti/63604.pdf [27 January 2017] Chisholm. C. U, 2003, Critical Factors Relating to the Future Sustainability of Engineering Education, global journal of engineering education, 7(1), Available from: https://www.wiete.com.au/journals/GJEE/Publish/vol7no1/Chisholm.pdf [27 January 2017] Connors. S. R, 1998, Issues in energy and sustainable development, Fourth International Programme on the Management of Sustainability, Available from: https://web.mit.edu/connorsr/www/docs/Connors_SustDevel_Jun98.pdf [27 January 2017] Hui. S. C, 1997, From Renewable Energy to Sustainability: The Challenge for Hong Kong, In Proc. Of the POLMET 97 Conference, Available from: https://web.hku.hk/~cmhui/polmet97.pdf [27 January 2017] Law. K. M, 2009, Factors Affecting Sustainability Development: High-Tech Manufacturing Firms in Taiwan, Asia Pacific Management Review, 15(4), Available from: https://apmr.management.ncku.edu.tw/comm/updown/DW1012213796.pdf [27 January 2017] Randall. T, 2016, Wind and Solar Are Crushing Fossil Fuels, Bloomberg, Available from: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-04-06/wind-and-solar-are-crushing-fossil-fuels [27 January 2017] Reeep, 2007, How to implement renewable energy and energy efficiency options, support for South African local government, Available from: https://www.energycommunity.org/documents/SEA1.Success%20through%20sustainability%20.pdf [27 January 2017] REN21, 2016, Renewables 2016 global status report, Available from: https://www.ren21.net/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/GSR_2016_Full_Report.pdf [27 January 2017] Voorlichting EWI, 2016, Master of Science Sustainable Energy Technology, Available from: https://set.msc.tudelft.nl/ [27 January 2017] Yonavjak. L, Norford. E Ballesteros. A, 2013, Implementation Strategies for Renewable Energy Services in Low-Income, Rural Areas, World resource institute, Available from: https://www.wri.org/publication/implementation-strategies-renewable-energy-services-low-income-rural-areas [27 January 2017]

What Its Like Being a Finance Student Essay Sample free essay sample

Bing a Finance pupil is like a journey you can go you don’t cognize where you could convey. it’s like a route that sometimes can be unsmooth or slippy nevertheless every challenge I took is a lesson learned for me. In my three old ages of being finance pupil is possibly a challenging yet demanding twelvemonth in my life by so I learned a batch of things that brought me to be a better life shortly in the concern universe. Every route has its ain bounds and it’s called finish line. now I am eventually in my last trip traveling to success that likely a toughest portion in my journey being a pupil. Possibly. clip passes really rapidly though there’s an case that really bears in my head every lesson I learned from this university. Sometimes I ask myself what I could lend in my subdivision being a out of use subdivision. We will write a custom essay sample on What Its Like Being a Finance Student? Essay Sample or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page We shared of friendly relationship and battles in four old ages in malice of this we still acquiring closer and stronger. However. when I reach this far I wonder why things are really meaningful when you exerted attempt for it. They say â€Å"if You Crave for something does a Strive† . As BBF 1-3. 2-3. 3-3. 4-3. I learned how interaction with person is meantso much. how others care for you even in the times of down.When we reach our last chapter here in 2nd floor west flying. we molded by doggedness and squad work to get the better of those undertaking assigned by our distinguish professor s particularly Mrs. Aranza.Our Outreach plan which held at Marikina Catholic School is something I could state a really productive undertaking for our subdivision.By now. the Department required a seminar for every 4th twelvemonth pupils. and our subdivision selected a subject which is FOREX 101 therefore it is a exciting yet a hard portion in our subdivision to carry on a seminar for every pupils peculiarly the readying we had made to do it more successful and a hallmark for every 3rd twelvemonth and 4th twelvemonth pupils. I believe that my journey will non stop by the lesson I learned in PUP but the experient I acquired in different people I talk to. Business universe we will run into shortly. â€Å"Commit to the Godhead whatever you do and your programs will Succeed†- Proverbs 16:3 PIRA CAMPUS TOUR 2012Speaker: Mr. Michael Rellosa. Mr. Dick Cabusao etc.Date: September 6. 2012 PIRA is the institutional leader of a strong. unified. influential and cohesive non-life insurance industry in the Philippines that ensures the industry’s long-run growing and sustainability.

6 Ways to Cope with Tax Season at Work

6 Ways to Cope with Tax Season at Work Nobody likes the anxieties of tax season (is a dog considered a dependent or what?), but as Mark Twain’s ghost reminds us from beyond the grave, the only thing more certain than taxes is death. Bottom line: we’re stuck with it. That doesn’t mean you can’t make it a more fun season around the office. See if anyone else shares your pain and denial.Decorate the W-2 you get from Accounting.Flirt with a coworker in the hopes that you’ll be able to file as â€Å"married† next year.Make it rain in the break room when you finally get your refund.Make sure everyone knows you’ve done your civic duty.

Competitors and Competitive Rivalry Research Paper

Competitors and Competitive Rivalry - Research Paper Example It sells its products in physical store format along with online stores (Goldberg, â€Å"Why the toy industry isn’t having any fun†). The first company to start a television campaigning. The shop owners provide excellent customers service by catering to individual customer’s needs for all festive occasions. The brand is established since the year 1920 Weakness The company targets pet owners because it specializes in making customized stuff toys for the pet owners (Goldberg, â€Å"Why the toy industry isn’t having any fun†). The company lays emphasis on the manufacturing of core products like greeting cards and other gifting products. Opportunity The threat of substitutes is low for the company because there are few companies who manufacture customized stuff toys for pet owners. ... The company lays special emphasis on the manufacturing of greeting cards and has lost its exclusivity of producing stuff toys. The company has slowly lost its reputation as a leading stuff toymaker. The competition in the toy industry is very intense and the profitability of the company is decided by certain factors like quality of the stuff toys, price and play value. Among the top stuff toy companies Build a Bear and Pillow Pets are expected to maintain its market position and also yield a decent amount of profits even in the current situation (â€Å"Build-A-Bear Workshop, Inc. Competition†). Pillow Pets has not been able to manufacture stuff toys on a large base but Hallmark has been an established stuff toy maker and greeting card manufacture since 1910 (Linders, â€Å"Competitiveness Proofing Toy Related Industry †). Emerging Trends & Future Competition in Stuff Toy Industry The current scenario in the stuff toy industry is weak and the industry has been witnessing decreasing trend in the purchase of the stuff toys and pillows. The US stuff toy industry has been witnessing weak sales and it has currently generated profits of $ 17 billion (â€Å"Annual Sales Data†). The worldwide sales of the stuffed toy have also decreased since 2010; the profits amounted to $83.4 billion in the year 2012 (â€Å"Annual Sales Data†). However, certain series of toys imitated from the popular movies like Skyline series have remained popular among the children and teenagers. The Disney series has also been popular and has gained worldwide popularity. By observing the current trend it has been noticed that the stuff toy industry has been witnessing declining sale and only certain series have been generating huge amount of revenue amidst this economic slowdown. The

Transport Techniques and Management Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words

Transport Techniques and Management - Essay Example Fossil fuels are considered as non renewable sources of energy (Lawson, 2001, p.38). The reserves are getting depleted away at a much faster rate in comparison to its formation. However the production process and its use increase the chances of environmental pollution. Therefore a global footstep towards the formation of non-renewable resources is under process in order to meet the needs. However there are also environmental effects which take place for its usage. USA only holds 5 % of the world’s total population, but due to its high usage of private cars, it consumes a lot of petroleum products. USA uses more than 25% of the total fossil flues of the world. Moreover 90% emission of green house gasses is mainly due to the process of fossil fuel combustion. Combustion of fossil fuels also gives rise to the different air pollutants the pollutants include nitrogen oxide, volatile organic compounds and sulphur oxide (Chowdhury, 2007, p.2). Coal, natural gasses and oil are made fr om fossil fuels (U.S department of energy, n.d.). Oil is also considered as the primary source of transportation. Petroleum products include diesel, petrol and other natural gasses. Due to the heavy increase of transportation there is a huge increase in the use of petrol and diesel. Also the products are non renewable sources thus usage should be controlled. Therefore it is necessary to find an alternate source by which the non renewable sources can be consumed for future uses. Also if the non renewable sources are used to a certain level the future generation capability may also get highly weakened. Hence the alternative means of flues or any other technology must be renewable. In other words there should be use of alternatives which can be further generated and also remain economically friendly. Therefore in the context of the project the three alternative means of technology or fuel in underlined below:- Alternative 1- The first alternative is about using solar energy for the pro cess of transportation: The use of solar panel in car can hugely save energy and is also an eco friendly medium. Solar panels are mainly made up of different individual components such as Photo voltaic cells. These cells are capable of generating high amount of amount of energy in order to run a carriage. Solar panels can be attached to the roof tops of the cars, the solar panels are mainly used for running the peripheral devices within the engine and not rolling the wheels. The only difference between the other cars and a solar car is the fuel that is used for running the car. The energy from sun also known as solar energy is used to charge the cells. The power that has been generated from the solar panels is used to charge the 11 Nickel Metal-Hydride batteries, which makes it capable to run even a bus. For example a bus named ‘Tin-do’ is capable of carrying passengers up 27 numbers. The car is also capable to run at a speed of 76 km / hr. The biggest advantages of usi ng solar panels are that it gets recharged very quickly. The quicker recharge system allows the battery to get recharged 1km capacity, which makes the technology to be very competitive. The advantages of Solar energy cars are as follows:- The energy is practically inexhaustible. The energy is derived from sun light and hence there are no concerns over its existence (Chauhan,

WW1 AND WWII Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

WW1 AND WWII - Research Paper Example One can see that loss of life, economic burden, and underdevelopment are the basic elements of tragedy related to the World Wars. Murray Polner states that, â€Å"World War I led to 30 million people killed or wounded and disastrous epidemics of disease, plus a multibillion-dollar debt that was never repaid to U.S. creditors and, ultimately, fed into the collapse of the international financial system in 1929.†1 For instance, during WWI (1914-18), the Central Powers and the Allies lost millions of civilians and soldiers. Besides, economic burden crushed the European nations and new taxes were implemented to overcome the same. As most of the resources were used to gain supremacy in the warfront, the participant nations were forced to face underdevelopment. On the other side, the death toll of WWII (1939-45) was comparatively high due to the usage of innovative nuclear weapons, and the same resulted in high death toll. Still, the economic burden of the WWII was limited to the Axi s alliance. At the same time, most of the nations within Allies lost their supremacy over colonies and this resulted in underdevelopment in Europe to an extent. The controversial issues related to the World Wars are linked with the violation of agreements, usage of deadly weapons, and cruelty towards prisoners. During WWI, the Central Powers continuously violated agreements with other nations in Europe. Besides, deadly weapons were used against civilians, including elderly people and children. The prisoners were ill treated and the same resulted in serious emotional problems among them. During WWII, the Axis powers tried to follow international agreements, but the Allies, especially Germany and Japan, continuously violated the same. Besides, the usage of deadly weapons like nuclear weapons during WWII attracted international criticism. The Jew population in Central Europe, especially in Germany, was forced to face genocide. At the same time, the prisoners of WWII were

The Origin Of Human Resource Management Management Essay

The Origin Of Human Resource Management Management Essay Introduction: A single universally acceptable definition of HRM could hardly be found in this universe. Definition varies according to the author and probably they altogether refer organizational management activities in wider sense or in relations to employees welfare , or a strategic approach to people management (1). Human Resource Management provides an international forum for discussion and debate to promote the understanding of the importance of human resource management and people management to business strategy. Human resource management (HRM), as defined by Bratton, J. Gold, J. (2003), is A strategic approach to managing employment relations which emphasizes that leveraging peoples capabilities is critical to achieving sustainable competitive advantage, this being achieved through a distinctive set of integrated employment policies, programmes and practices. According to this definition, we can see that human resource management should not merely handle recruitment, pay, and discharging, but also should maximize the use of an organizations human resources in a more strategic level. To describe what the HRM does in the organization, Ulrich, D. Brocklebank, W. (2005) have outlined some of the HRM roles such as employee advocate, human capital developer, functional expert, strategic partner and HR leader etc. New challenges arise even now for the organization, and it is certain that new challenges will never cease to emerge. Therefore, the use of proper Human Resources techniques is a really powerful way for organizations to overcome these challenges, and to improve not only their quantitative goals but also their organizational culture, and their qualitative, cognitive aspects. Take our 20 best people away, and I will tell you that Microsoft would become an unimportant company (Bill Gates, CEO of Microsoft in Fortune, November 25th, 1996). This clarifies that how important is HRM for the development of business. In the global recession period HRM could play an important role in reducing the recession. organizations do not owe their success solely to market realities and sustainable competitive advantages, rather successful companies are those that consider their human capital as their most important asset. HRM and Personnel management: People however often get confused with the term personal management as a HRM. Though they possess similar characteristics they are indifferent to each other. People should be aware that HRM is strategic in nature that is, being concerned with directly assisting an organization to gain sustained competitive advantage. Whereas personnel management is about the maintenance of personnel and administrative systems. HRM is more proactive than Personnel Management. Furthermore, a valuable contribution of HRM is to direct the attention to regarding people as the key resource of organisations and lending the management of personnel increased importance. Personnel management refers to a set of functions, for example, recruitment and selection, often performed effectively but with little relationship between the various activities, or with overall organizational objectives. HRM, in contrast, assumes that all personnel activities are integrated with each other and strategically with organizational objectives (Nankervis, Compton and McCarthy, 1999, pp.4-5). Main differences between Personnel management and HRM: Personnel management is workforce centered, directed mainly at the organizations employees; such as finding and training them, arranging for them to be paid, explaining managements expectations, justifying managements actions etc. While on the other hand, HRM is resource -centered, directed mainly at management, in terms of devolving the responsibility of HRM to line management, management development etc. Personnel Management is basically an operational function, concerned primarily with carrying out the day-today people management activities. While on the other hand, HRM is strategic in nature, that is, being concerned with directly assisting an organization to gain sustained competitive advantage. HRM is more proactive than Personnel Management. Whereas personnel management is about the maintenance of personnel and administrative systems, HRM is about the value of organizational needs, the continual monitoring and adjustment of personnel systems to meet current and future requirements, and the management of change. Strategic HRM: Strategic HRM, as it has come to be known, is concerned with the development and implementation of people; strategies which are integrated with corporate strategies and ensure that the culture, values, structure of the organization, quality, motivation and commitment of its members; contribute fully to the achievement of its goals (Armstrong, 1991; cited in Armstrong and Long, 1994). More and more companies are proactively involving HR in the earliest stages of generating the business plan, rather than just letting HR reacts to it (Dessler, 1997; p. 19). One of the central themes of strategic HRM is its use of the term strategic, which incorporates planning, a congruous approach to the management of HR systems, and seeing employees as a source of competitive advantage (Hendry and Pettigrew, 1986). Strategic HRM seeks to ensure that all business planning processes realize that the ultimate source of value is people, and that the firms distinctive competencies and the types of people who are needed to build and maintain them are identified (Stone, 1995; p. 9-10). Such a view makes HRM an equal partner in the strategic planning process (Dessler, 1997; p. 22). The management of people is not a distinct function but the means by which all business strategies are implemented. (Armstrong and Long, 1994; p. 44). Strategic HRM is a response to change (Ezzamel, 1996: p. 76). By managing this change well, a competitive advantage can be gained through the matching of HRM to business strategy (Kamoche, 1991:p. 3). Effective HR strategies have now become the distinguishing factor among successful organizations and economies (Stone, 1995:p. 10). However, it must be realized that strategic HRM will not guarantee success it is not an instant pudding (Armstrong, 1994: p.54) Hard and Soft Models of HRM: HRM has been frequently described as a concept having two diametrically opposite, though not necessarily irreconcilable, languages: soft and hard. Soft HRM emphasizes communication, motivation and leadership (Storey, 1989: p. 8; Boxall, 1996: p. 59). It is associated with the human relations movement and McGregors Theory Y view of individuals (Truss et al, 1997: p. 54), and it assumes that employees will work most effectively if they are fully committed to the organization (Lundy, 1994; cited in Truss et al, 1997: p. 56). This model emphasizes on the varieties of stakeholders as shareholders,different group of employers, the government and the community. HR strategeis should reflect on all these groups and fuse them into the Human resource strategy and ultimately the business strategy (1). In contrast to this, Hard HRM or the matching model emphasizes the quantitative, calculative and business-strategic aspects of managing the headcounts resource in as rational a way as for any other economic factor (Storey, 1989: p. 8). This form of HRM focuses on the importance of the HR policies being closely linked to the strategic objectives of the organization, resulting in a competitive advantage (Storey and Sisson, 1993; cited in Truss et al, 1997: p. 55). In contrary this model is the process of deployment of human resources to meet business objectives. These two forms grew from roots developed within the infancy stage of HRM. The excellence movement influenced the development of soft HRM, while hard HRM was the result of strategic concern (Kamoche, 1991: p. 4). Critics of Hard and Soft Models of HRM: Ultimately, there is a conflict between elements of self-expression within the soft model, and organizational direction in the hard model. Although both versions have been taken from quite distinct intellectual traditions, they have been amalgamated into one general model that is HRM. The results from a study by Truss et al (1997) found that no single organization adopted either a pure soft or hard approach to human resource management. Though the rhetoric may be the soft version, with its foundation in communication and employee commitment, the reality of organizational goals almost always brings HRM back to the hard model (Truss, ET AL, 1997: p. 70). As a result of such inconsistency between hard and soft HRM, the credibility of HRM will continue to remain a problem (Vaughan, 1994: p. 28). In every approach, there are advantages and disadvantages. The hard approach would mean that rules, regulations and goals are clearly defined and adhered to, however, it would mean that employees will not be involved in decision-making and that may result in a decrease in motivation and commitment. The soft approach, on the other hand, although may increase motivation and commitment since employees are involved in the organization, it may prove to be chaotic if clear-cut rules and goals are not made clear as this may affect the firms profits and goals. HRM and Performance: The different roles exercised by HR managers and employees has resulted positive performance. The involvement of hrm not only increases employers skills,relation but also help in organizational performance ,productivity and growth. The given fig illustrates the relation between hr activities/roles, hrm outcomes and business performance(1). Definition: HR Manager: Human Resource manager is the person who responsible for total management of the same department optimizing the human capital to the greatest possible limit. HR manager practices HRM functions within an organization. In other words he or she is the heart of the organization who keeps the whole system alive by a list of rational activities. A good manager is the intimate friend of all employees with whom all can share business and even individual related matters that affect the performance of the organization in the short or long run. The traditional role: The traditional HR role was mainly recruitment,training and retention based where it is very much narrow and limit the potentials of both HR and employees. The repetition of the same working cycle made them unenthusiastic to a great extent but the matters concerning the employees affecting the productivity have increased the responsibility of HR.A number of study has changed the conventional roles of HR. Nowadays a HR even has to think about psychology of current employees which is the most interesting apart from influencing strategic decisions in broader perspective. High power distance: This is one of the crucial characters of traditional HR functions. In the organizational framework there were huge gaps between employees and HR. Ultimately miscommunication easily happens due to poor understanding between employees and higher officials. Low efficiency: In early days HR used to be less efficient but in coming days new sets of standards are set frequently to be an efficient HR. For example it was unimaginable to think that a manager would consider psychological aspects as well. Administrative confinement: In past days HR used to confine themselves in only administrative works but today they are more strategic and he is responsible for important decisions taken by the organization. He has to think about not only present but also future needs of the employees besides in early days there was much less motivation practice among the HR. New hr/Modern HR practices: The major contributions of HR comes from two sources: Service Delivery Facilitation roles The first one deals with recruitment and retention of staffs and confirm that they have required skills where as the second one concerns about motivation to get the best output from employees. But both these inputs can be at the operational and strategic levels depending upon business objectives. In the protection of organizational values HR has a leading role. One of the major features in new HR managers is adaptability. The role of the HR manager must match the needs of his or her shifting organization. Successful organizations are becoming more adaptable, flexible, quick to change direction, and customer-centered. Within this environment, the HR professional, who is considered necessary by line managers, is a strategic partner, an employee sponsor or advocate and a change mentor. At the same time, especially the HR, still has responsibility for employee benefits administration, often payroll, and employee paperwork, especially in the absence of any other employees .So it suggests that HR must be multi skilled. He should have strong capacity building power having other official skills. Depending on the size of the organization, the HR manager has responsibility for all of the functions that deal with the needs and activities of the organizations people including these areas of responsibility. Recruiting Hiring Training Organization development Understanding cultural diversity Work- life balance communication performance Management/Rewards and recognition Coaching Policy recommendation Salary and benefits Team building Employee relation Leadership Psycho analyst and contract By the start of twenty first century HR need to be aware of risks linked with cost cutting. The British National Health Service has long been criticized for inefficient use of resources, so large numbers of managers and administrators have been recruited to make things more efficient. Many of these new-recruits are HR people who may be perceived by health professionals as creating inefficient and costly controls at the expense of employing more health professionals. We are not suggesting that these criticisms are necessarily justified, but there are undoubtedly situations in which the criticisms are justified.( Dereck Torrington ET AL. 2006, Human resource management, Prentice Hall.) The scope of human resource planning covers not only numbers of people and skills, but also structure, culture, systems and behavior.( Dereck Torrington ET AL. 2006, Human resource management, Prentice Hall.) HR is responsible for making code of conducts or any other disciplinary issues relating to employees and organization being aware of the safety and others needs of the Employees. (With all of this in mind, in Human Resource Management Dave Ulrich, one of the best thinkers and writers in the HR field today, and a professor at the University of Michigan, recommends three additional roles for the HR manager.) HR Role: Business and Strategic Partner In todays organizations, to guarantee their viability and ability to contribute, HR managers need to think of themselves as strategic partners. In this role, the HR person contributes to the development of and the accomplishment of the organization-wide business plan and objectives. The HR business objectives are established to support the attainment of the overall strategic business plan and objectives. The tactical HR representative is deeply knowledgeable about the design of work systems in which people succeed and contribute. This strategic partnership impacts HR services such as the design of work positions; hiring; reward, recognition and strategic pay; performance development and appraisal systems; career and succession planning; and employee development. To be successful business partners, the HR staff members have to think like business people, know finance and accounting, and be accountable and responsible for cost reductions and the measurement of all HR programs and processes. Its not enough to ask for a seat in executive table.HR people will have to prove they are the business minded necessary to sit there. HR Role: Employee Mentoring As an employee sponsor or advocate, the HR manager plays an integral role in organizational success via his knowledge about and advocacy of people. This advocacy includes expertise in how to create a work environment in which people will choose to be motivated, contributing, and happy. Fostering effective methods of goal setting, communication and empowerment through responsibility, builds employee ownership of the organization. The HR professional helps establish the organizational culture and climate in which people have the competency, concern and commitment to serve customers well. In this role, the HR manager provides employee development opportunities, employee assistance programs, gain sharing and profit-sharing strategies, organization development interventions, due process approaches to problem solving and regularly scheduled communication opportunities. HR Role: Change Champion The steady assessment of the effectiveness of the organization results in the need for the HR professional to frequently champion change. Both facts about and the ability to perform successful change strategies make the HR professional exceptionally valued. The HR professional contributes to the organization by constantly assessing the effectiveness of the HR function. Knowing how to link change to the strategic needs of the organization will minimize employee dissatisfaction and resistance to change. He also sponsors change in other departments and in work practices. To promote the overall success of his organization, he champions the identification of the organizational mission, vision, values, goals and action plans. Finally, he helps determine the measures that will tell his organization how well it is succeeding in all of this. Evolution of HR function: The following fig explains the developing stage of Hr functions. Hr when introduced just include the personnel benefits of employees as payrolls,benefits,etc. With the changing environment and changing technology the hr functions get stretched and now Hr not only look about employee security and rights it practices Top level management corresponding to organizational strategy which is termed as Strategic HRM roles. Source:( http://empxtrack.com/blog/wp-content/evolution-of-hr-function.jpg) The benefits of Human Resource Management: There is correlation between the HRM strategy and the overall corporate strategy so ,the Human resource management has its significance in a planning the activities of Management and the activities of resources which involves the implementation of Human resource management in primary activities such as acquisition, development, compensation and maintenance. Where, Acquisition entails the hiring of workers most likely to help an organization achieve its goals. The development function encompasses the training of workers to perform their tasks in accordance with organization strategy. This activity also involves organization efforts to control and change employee behavior via reviews, appraisals, incentives, and discipline. Compensation covers the payment of employees for their services. Maintenance requires structuring labor relations-the interaction between a companys management and its unionized employees-and ensuring compliance with federal and state employment laws. Finally, the evaluation function includes the assessment of a companys HRM policies to determine whether they are effective. Managing the Human resource benefits the organization in a huge way, Such as : Sustaining stable workforce levels during ups and downs in output, which can reduce unnecessary employment costs and liabilities and increase employee morale that would otherwise suffer in the event of lay-offs? Preventing a high turnover rate among younger recruits. Safe Work Environments Reducing problems associated with replacing key decision makers in the event of an unexpected absence. Making it possible for financial resource managers to efficiently plan departmental budgets. Training and development activities benefit the overall organization as well as the individual as more productive. Human resource maintenance activities related to safety and health usually entail compliance with federal laws that protect employees from hazards in the workplace. Helps to simulate, analyze and experiment with proposed organizational changes and previous organizational models. It helps to attract, retain, and motivate the best people. Managing HRM find the best people and then manage and track candidates throughout the entire recruiting process. Sustaining High-Performing Employees Practices of HRM: HR has many roles to be implemented within an organization. Organization smaller or bigger atleast entertain some hr practices. The early records shows there were less practices of hr. The 1998 Workplace Employee Relations Survey(WERS98)(Cully ET all,1999) investigated 16 hr practices which resulted the practices were well observed in British workplaces, where 3 practices (formal disciplinary and grievance procedures, team briefing and performance appraisal) were widely observed. However job security ,participation in problem solving groups etc were in minority. The result showed only one out of five workplaces more than 16 hr practices. On the other hand only 2 percent of workplace didnt practice at all(Guest ET AL,2000). HRM in multinational companies are in a debate. The countrys business policy, political environment etc hinder the practices of HR. different border sets different rules and policy. For ex A us based company doesnt impinge on Canadian firms, similarly UK firm doesnt impinge on the Irish business system(1). The MNS should implement more centralized strategy which is beneficial to their employee. An adoptable employment strategy should exists regardless of institutional character of national business systems where they locate subsidiary operations. Investment in Human capital Due to globalization the world has become a small village and a new economy emerges where it necessitates investment in human capital, knowledge, commitment, enthusiasm of the employees. So the focus has shifted from physical assets to intellectual capital. The emerging new economy has several features: Consists of global work forces with increasing optimization of skills Higher speed of technology and innovation Creation of abundant business opportunities It decentralizes the power It rewards openness People becoming greatest capital. Practical case of HR roles in Finland and abroad: Finland applies a wide variety of hr practices. For ex MC Donald has been using different practices as reward through base pay. Employee holiday travel, pension,training,bonuses,etc are other roles widely practiced in Finland. For example recently an it firm in Finland was offering an programming specialist job, where they were training selected candidates for the first 9 month. This is a training based pay practices of HR functions which is vigorously applied from a simple cleaning job to an highly skilled job. Similarly Yahoo initiates performance related pay (PRP) during recession only among the 5% officials who were in top levels as well to reduce the dependency upon the lower employees and thus it cut the cost though unfortunately many had to leave the job. Nokia is also practising Hr in a wider sense. The development of human resources is a business proposition, which endeavors to delight its costumers, motivates its employees and increase the agility and flexibility of the management to address specific HR needs. Furthermore, The HR manager is challenged with the task of providing skills,cultures,atmosphere and processes necessary fore- knowledge and capabilities. Nokia beleieves in the importance of individual either its an individual,employer or an stakeholders. Critiques: The HR functions have been changing with the time. Some author argues is it really necessary for the changes in Hr function. What else matter in organizations rather than employees performance. If an employee is faithful to organization , he or she devotes fully to organization well being. However bonus or certain rewards are acceptable but does an employee really needs to be motivated by HR specialist if organization is treating well? Has the new changes benefited to the employers,stakeholders and ultimately the organizations? The answer is surely yes. Even though the organizations are practicing HR roles why the state/firm faces strikes of workers and globally increasing trade unions which interfere in employee and employer relations. There are many unanswered questions and a debate too. On the other hand many consider steps like performance related pay PRP is a capitalist approach which may breaking the unions and inter personal relationship though there is no doubt the whole tasks of HR has become more challenging with the pace of globalization. Summary: Organizations today recognize that human resource (HR) is their key asset to gain an edge over competition and achieving organizational success and effectiveness. Thus, human resource management (HRM) has now become an emerging field in the business world and a key ingredient for staying abreast of competition. Within most large organizations, HRM has taken on much the same role as Personnel Management, but with some additions, particularly in regard to business strategy. However, HRM essentially involves the policies and practices one need to carry out the human resource aspects of a management position, including recruiting, screening, training, rewarding, and appraising (Dessler, 1997; p. 2). This issue of integration with the general management is an important one for HRM. There is already some evidence to indicate that when senior management manages HR issues they are taken more seriously. A properly functioning HRM system is an invisible asset that creates value and involves the acquisition, development, reward and motivation, maintenance and departure of an organizations human capital. On the contrary, if hr managers should try to implement a strategy which is fruitful and acceptable to both top level management and employers working for it. HR managers should frequently deal with the company strategy, progress and its treatment to the workers. Hr managers should play as a driver who conquers both passengers(employee) and employers(bus) to have a smooth drive.

Grammatical Style in Lumpkin’s The Making of a Southerner :: Lumpkin Making Southerner

Effective Use of Grammatical Style in Lumpkin’s The Making of a Southerner Katharine Du Pre Lumpkin has many effective uses of grammatical style. In the first full paragraph on page 86 of The Making of a Southerner this is evidenced. She begins the sentence with an adverbial which ties this paragraph to the previous one. Lumpkin uses the quotation â€Å"’stir up the Negroes’† to cause the reader to feel like he/she is present during this time period. The quotation draws the reader into the paragraph because of its status as a first-hand account, which lends credibility to the argument being presented. Later in the first sentence Lumpkin uses a dash as a sentence interrupter. This pause places much emphasis on the phrase after the dash, causing the reader to give it more weight. Indeed, this phrase is the focus of the entire paragraph, and Lumpkin has adroitly set it apart. Following the first sentence, Lumpkin uses questions to enhance the feeling of ‘there-ness.’ In other words, Lumpkin presents the material in an argumentative fashion in order to draw the reader further into the mind-set of the white male of whom she speaks. Lumpkin uses her position as narrator to step back and give someone else a voice. She argues as though she herself were a white male in the late 1800s to early 1900s. This The quotes continue to support her argumentative style by giving examples of the names and rumors floating during this time now past. On and on Lumpkin extorts the reader to feel what it is like to be a scared white male after the Civil War. Question after question repetitively persuade the reader to vividly imagine the â€Å"drunken Negroes [. . .] burning down plantation homes† as well as the â€Å"armed recruits, former slaves [roaming] the countryside demanding of white men to get their vehicles off the road to make room for these unifo rmed freedmen† (86). The imagery skillfully hidden in the questionnaire is astounding. Then, of a sudden, a dash appears to bring the reader full circle. We are now aware again that the narrator is asserting a voice of her own with the small apposition â€Å"the rumor said so† (86). This phrase gives the reader the sense that Lumpkin now disagrees with this attitude once held by her father. It belies the view that Lumpkin is apparently trying to hide for an unbiased second-hand account of the period.

Fashion Blogging †the Impact on Sales Essay

Thus, we first investigate whether blogging activity leads to (differential) market outcomes. We then examine whether managerial communication (magazines advertising) and blogging are synergistic. We assemble a unique data set from fashion containing market outcomes (sales), new media (blogs) and traditional media (magazines advertising) for a brand of clothing, and a brand of shoes. Each category has at least one product launch during the duration of our sample periods. We specify a simultaneous equation log-linear system for market outcomes and the volume of blogs. Our results suggest that blogs are predictive of market outcomes, new and traditional media act synergistically, pre-launch magazines advertising spurs blogging activity but become less effective post-launch and that market outcomes have some effect on blogging. We find detailed support for some of these findings via a unique and novel text mining analysis. We discuss the managerial implications of our findings. I-Introduction Consumer generated media (CGM) such as blogs (a contraction of the term â€Å"Web logs†) have witnessed explosive growth in the last few years. For example, the number of blogs worldwide is estimated to be 184 millions with a readership of 346 million (March 2010). In contrast, in March 2003, the number of blogs was essentially zero. Other types of CGM have also seen similar growth patterns, e. g. , Facebook, which started in February 2004, now has about 400 million members worldwide (February 2011). There are also indications that blogs are now being seen as similar to mainstream media sites – the number of blog sites in the top 100 most popular sites (blogs and mainstream media) worldwide was twenty-two in 2008 and blogs were being viewed by consumers as â€Å"sites for news, information, gossip etc. † (2008). In 2010, four of the top ten entertainment sites were blogs (March 2010). It is clear from these statistics that there is considerable activity (multi- media posting, blogging, visits, traffic etc. ) on the part of consumers. However, an important question, from a managerial perspective, is whether this activity leads to (differential) business outcomes such as sales or profits. In addition, little is known about the relationship between traditional or old media (where the company creates content and delivers it to consumers) and consumer generated, or new, media (where consumers create content and there in an exchange of this content between other consumers and potentially, the company). That is, are there any synergies between new media and old media? In this research, we take the first step towards answering these questions. Blogging is perhaps the most established and largest form of consumer generated media at this point in time. The total worldwide viewership of blogs is estimated to be about 346 million (March 2010). Wikipedia defines as a blog as â€Å"a Web site, usually maintained by an individual with regular entries of commentary, descriptions of events, or other material such as graphics or video. Entries are commonly displayed in reverse-chronological order. Blogging is a worldwide phenomenon with the two biggest blogging markets being the United States and Japan. The number of blogs in the United States is about 23 million (about 12% of all US Internet users) and about 8 million in Japan (about 5% of all Japanese Internet users) in 2009. However, if one examines the total number of posts by language, Japanese language posts account for 37% of all posts worldwide followed closely by English language posts at 36%. Fina lly, readership of blogs in these two markets is ery high – about half of all Internet users in the US and about one-fifth of all Japanese Internet users have read a blog in the past year. While there are many informal opinions on the effectiveness of CGM in general (and blogs in particular) vis-a-vis market outcomes, there is limited empirical research that sheds light on this issue, especially for the launch of new products. The majority of the existing research has focused on online chatter (newsgroup postings, reviews and ratings) and its effect on market outcomes. There is some evidence that volume of online user ratings is positively correlated to sales. Blogging, on the other hand, has been seen as a unique type of user generated content as being a highly personal, non-directed communication tool. As Kumar (2005) note, blogs are unique for sociological reasons – they comprise a â€Å"highly dynamic, temporal community structure† that â€Å"focuses heavily on local community interactions† – and for technical reasons – blogs â€Å"offer us a ready-made view of evolution (of content) in continuous time. † In addition, blogging activity was probably the most pervasive CGM activity on the web during the time of our data. Given these unique characteristics of blogs as opposed to reviews, it is not obvious that bloggers’ activity should affect market outcomes. Surprisingly, there is very little research that has tried to quantify the effect of blogs on market outcomes, especially in the presence of traditional media and/or an examination of pre- and post-launch changes in the role of old and new media. Two recent empirical papers have focused on blogs and market outcomes. Dhar and Chang (2009) explore the relationship between music album sales (imputed via sales ranks on Amazon. om) and online chatter (as seen in blogs and on social networks). Using 108 music albums in early 2007 (before four weeks and after four weeks of their release), they find a positive correlation between both the number of blogs and Myspace member intensity with future music sales. Gruhl (2005) propose a new methodology to automatically generate a query of blog keywords to detect spikes in Amazon. com’s book sales rank. They conclude that their new algorithm could adequately predict the changes and spikes of future sales ranks. Thus, while these two studies suggest that there may be a correlation between blogging activity and market outcomes, they do not use actual sales data but only sales ranks from Amazon. com. To the best of our knowledge, the second issue that we outline above – the positive relationship between traditional media and new media – has not been investigated in the literature. Our expectation is that there will be a positive correlation between the quantity of traditional media and new media as traditional media is likely to provide discussion materials for bloggers. From a managerial perspective this issue is crucial, as managers have no direct control over CGM (blogs in our case). However, if there is indeed a synergistic relationship between traditional media, which are under managerial control, and new media, which are outside managerial control, then managers can leverage this relationship. Specifically, they can carry out â€Å"better† resource allocation and media planning (to traditional media) as they can take the spillover effect (from traditional to new media) into consideration. We examine the role of new media with respect to market outcomes as well as the relationship between new media and traditional media using data of two different clothing and shoes brand that are both promoted in fashion blogs. We consider the number of units sold, customers or subscribers (all a proxy for demand) as market outcomes, blogs as representations of consumer generated media and magazines advertising as traditional media. We specify a simultaneous equation model that links sales to advertising and blogs as well as a model that links blogs to advertising. Our results, after controlling for many temporal and cross-sectional factors, suggest that first, the volume of Blogstock (cumulative sum of past blog posts) is positively correlated with market outcomes (volume of clothing sold, and the volume of shoes sold) post launch. Second, the interaction between blogs and magazines advertising has a positive effect on market outcomes. Third, we also find that traditional media (magazines advertising) positively affects new media (the volume of blogs) pre launch. In other words, bloggers consume advertising, independent of the product, and this ncreases their blogging activity. Finally, we find that the effect of blogs varies between pre and post launch. In general, the positive relationship between magazines advertising and the volume of blogs pre-launch becomes weaker after launch. This result suggests that while magazines advertising can independently increase blogging pre-launch via the provision of information and content, post-launch (i. e. , once the product is available), consumers may rely less on traditional media, leading to a much weaker relationship between new and old media at that point. These last three sets of results shed light on the possibility that, broadly speaking, advertising and blogs act synergistically (with the relationship changing somewhat post-launch). The process explanations for our findings is not obvious. We take the first step in eliciting process explanations by carrying out a novel text mining analysis of the blog posts for the two markets (shoes and clothing) for which we have access to the textual content data. The findings from the text mining analysis suggest that blogs may affect market outcomes as they represent a rich source of product information and consumer opinion for other consumers. Also, bloggers do use advertising as a subject for blogging pre-launch but turn their attention to product attributes post-launch. II-Data Our data come from fashion market. We consider data from two brands – clothing and shoes. We first describe the market outcome data for each product market and then we describe the measurement of traditional and new media. III-Market Outcomes The daily sales of clothings were made available for the total fashion market based on a nationally representative consumer panel. The data include daily sales of two new pieces of clothing introduced in the period from January 2013 to March 2013. For shoes, the outcome variable we use is based on the same principle. We have data of two new models that were released (launched) in the period from January 2013 to March 2013. IV-Traditional Media The traditional marketing variable we use is magazines advertising. This was measured in units of daily or monthly Gross Rating Points (GRPs). There are some differences in the patterns of magazines advertising pre and post launch across the two brands. For clothing, most of the advertising is post launch. Typically, commercial ads in this market begin to air about five days pre launch and then the heavier advertising kicks in post launch. In contrast, for shoes, pre-release magazines GRPs are larger (on average) than the post-release magazines GRPs. Specifically, peak advertising for shoes was, not surprisingly, a week before its launch date in order to generate high demand at the time of the opening. V-New Media We obtain blogging data from blog 1 (www. leblogdebetty. com) for clothing data and blog 2 (www. sorayabakhtiar. com) for the shoes data. Both the brands scan and index the two blogging sites on a daily basis using keywords with coverage of about 64% of all blog articles. They then aggregate the data and provide the count of the daily number of blogs that mention a particular keyword on a specific temporal period such as day or month (multiple mentions in the same temporal unit are counted as one). As is typical for most blogs, its contents appear in a reversal chronological order and also include the blogger’s profile, â€Å"trackbacks† (links showing other websites, typically other blogs, that a blog is linked to), and comments. Buzz Research archives the contents of all blog posts. It also carries out lexical analysis of the contents of each tracked blog by using a proprietary text- mining method and classifies each blog as positive, negative and/or neutral with respect to a given keyword. We therefore have access to the actual content of all posts as well as the daily percentage of positive, negative and neutral blogs for the movies and cellular phone service markets. There is big increase in the average number of blogs per period post launch in all two brands. Interestingly, for the two brands markets where we have valence data, the biggest growth is in the percentage of neutral blogs post launch. To illustrate the relationship between marketing outcomes and both traditional and new media, we pick a product across our two brand markets. The figure suggests that magazines advertising, blog volume and shoes buyer are temporally correlated. Dividing the data temporally at the date of release we see that magazines GRPs and the number of blogs exhibit an increasing trend pre-release, but a decreasing one post-release. While we illustrate a typical data pattern through this example, the pattern is not identical for all brands across product markets. In conclusion, these data are novel in the sense that they combine marketing data for both traditional and new media along with market outcomes from a market where new media have proven to be important (at least in terms of activity). Our data are also novel in the sense that they enable us to focus on new product launches. In addition, the fact that we have data from two different brand markets (frequently purchased consumer goods) with varying characteristics (e. . , more versus fewer new product launches) will help us determine if the relationship between market outcomes and new media as well as the relationship between new media and traditional media generalizes across product markets. Finally, the availability of the actual blog post text (for two categories) opens up the possibility to conduct a deeper text-mining analysis. VI-Managerial Implicati ons So far, we have discussed the findings purely from a statistical point of view. However, it may be useful to translate these findings in a manner that uantifies the effect sizes from a managerial point of view. We therefore ran two experiments – the first to get a sense of how managers could change resource allocation and the second to see how managers could use blog data to improve sales forecasts. In the first experiment, we use the estimates from the clothing market data. To illustrate short-term effects, in the experiment, we assumed there were only three periods, two in the pre-release and one in the post-release. Recall that blogging is outside the control of managers. We therefore used the marketing instrument under managerial control in our data set – traditional magazines advertising. In the experiment, we increased the Adstock by one percent in the first pre-release period. The output we measured was the percentage increase in the size of the daily volume sold in the post-release period. A ten percent increase in the Adstock results in a 3. 3 percent increase in the number of blogs at the second pre-release period. As a result of this increase in the Adstock, we find that the net increase in the sales volume is 2. 1 percent. A decomposition of this overall increase due to traditional media versus new media suggested that the increase in the Adstock directly enhances the sales by 0. 13 percent while the interaction between blogging and advertising increases the sales by 0. 1 percent. Furthermore, the largest and most significant increase in the sales volume at post-launch is led by the indirect impact from advertising via blogging activity, which accounts for 1. 9 percent. Similar experiment for the other product markets also support these findings with the overall effect being slightly smaller for shoes (0. 4%). In addition to simulating the short-term effects of advertising, we use a simulation setting similar to the above experiments and expand the time horizon from one period to ten periods. The largest indirect effect of the ten percent increase in Adstock decays slower than do the other two effects across two product categories. The peaks of the indirect effects are located at the third period for t he clothing and at the second period for the shoes. These are resulted from the larger estimates of the carry-over constants of Adstock and Blogstock at post-launch in the blog equations. In the second experiment, we hold out the last observation from each brand and re-estimated the model. We then use the model estimates for prediction and computed the difference in the predicted value and the actual data across all the held out observations. We do this for the full model and a restricted version of the full model where the response coefficients for the number of blogs and the cumulative number of blogs were set to zero. Thus, the difference in prediction (based on the Root Mean Square Deviation) between these two models shows the extent to which the use of blog data can improve sales forecasts. The improvement in RMSD is very high for shoes, and modest for clothing. VII-Conclusion, Limitations and Directions for Future Research This paper adds to the very limited, but rapidly growing field of research into the effectiveness of new media, especially in the case of new product launches. Using a unique dataset from two product markets (a major new media market), we are able to combine into a single source, data on market outcomes, traditional media (magazines advertising) and new media (volume and content of blogs). We used a simultaneous equation model to capture the effect of new media on market outcomes and the effect of market outcomes on new media. While this in itself is somewhat novel, we were also able to include the major marketing activity (mgazines advertising) in both equations, both directly and via interactions. Thus this allows us to investigate two open questions in this domain – (a) whether new media (blogging activity in our case) leads to (differential) market outcomes and (b) whether traditional marketing actions (i. e. , magazines advertising) and new media act synergistically. We also make a first attempt, to the best of our knowledge, to use the content of the blog posts to shed â€Å"process† light on our econometric findings via a careful and methodical text mining analysis. Using data from clothing, and shoes brands, we find that patterns across the two categories showing clear linkages between traditional media, new media and market outcomes. In general, we find that cumulative blogs (Blogstock) are predictive of market outcomes, blogs and magazines advertising act synergistically, pre-launch advertising spurs blogging activity (that is predictive of marketing activity) but becomes less effective in inducing blogging activity post- launch and market outcomes also do have some effect on blogging activity. Our text mining results provide additional support for some of these findings. From a managerial point of view, in the experiment using clothing estimation results, we find that a one percent increase in the traditional marketing instrument (magazines advertising) leads to a median increase in market outcomes of 0. 2%, with a majority of the increase coming from the increase in blogging activity generated by the advertising pre-launch. Our analyses do also have a few limitations (driven mostly by the nature of the data). First, as noted earlier, the aggregate nature of our data makes it very hard to offer micro-level causal explanations of the effectiveness of new media and the synergistic relationship between new and traditional media. While our text mining analyses shed some light on our findings, it would be very beneficial to obtain datasets that link individual activity to market outcomes for a larger variety of new media. Second, our measures of new media are at present limited to blog content – volume – and in two product markets, keywords and valence. ). Third, our model could be improved with the potential use of non-parametric models to model the effects of both old and new media and the associated interactions. Finally, our data do not contain information on all marketing instruments and hence we use proxies (such as lagged sales in the case of distribution). We hope that with better data, future research will be able to address these limitations.