NATIONAL RESPONSE FRAMEWORK Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

NATIONAL RESPONSE FRAMEWORK - Essay Example The organizational structure of the agencies which function during disasters is one main issue; those with much disciplined personnel and structure are likely to function properly than those which are not as disciplined. Exchange of information between agencies is another issue. It is essential that information is relayed in a proper manner, since overloading a particular agency with information is likely to cripple the agency in functional terms. Additionally, inter and intra-agency flow of information should be tightly controlled, as false information may misdirect the relief efforts and in some cases may become a cause of panic during working for relief during disasters. Coordination between agencies is not only important in post-disaster scenarios, but also in situations where a disaster is expected to hit a community. In scenarios where a disaster e.g. a hurricane is expected to strike a city, coordination between different agencies is extremely important. In situations like this, it is extremely important that the agency which determines the magnitude of an expected disaster provides the correct information to allow the other agencies react accordingly. Misinformation in this context is likely to result in over or under-preparation by the other involved agencies, which may ultimate result in loss of lives or a wastage of resources. Perry, M. (2007). Natural disaster management planning: a study of logistics managers responding to the tsunami.  International Journal of Physical Distribution & Logistics Management,  37(5),

E-Logistics and International Supply Chain Management Essay

E-Logistics and International Supply Chain Management - Essay Example This report stresses that the service management activities of a company aptly use the internet and other information and communication technologies. This is because it is the only source of information for the customers of the business. The use of internet is done to provide real time data to the customers, especially related to the interfaces with the functions of the operations and logistics departments. The internet has major impacts ion these processes in both the downstream activities and the internal parts of the supply chain. The internet is used for the recognition of events and understanding the opinion of the customers and is also used to communicate effectively with the customers regarding their needs and the responses of the company. This paper makes a conclusion that the impact of the internet is a major area of focus in the supply chain management process. The development of e-SCM is only a step forward to integrate internet effectively in the supply chain and logistic processes. The main impact of internet is that it allows the sharing of real time data which is very useful for the smooth functioning of the supply chain management system. The use of internet can lead to several benefits like there reduction in the costs, maintenance of optimal inventory levels, proper allocation of stocks, advanced planning and proper forecasting of the demands and quick response to the anticipated market demands.

Peers paper on Health Care Provider and Faith Diversity Essay Example for Free

Peers paper on Health Care Provider and Faith Diversity Essay Please find attached Rimas paper. Here are the assignment instructions for the peer review: Your instructor will assign and send you a peers paper on Health Care Provider and Faith Diversity. Your job is to critically read the assignment and make corrections/comments using track changes and comments in Microsoft Word. Be sure to assess the paper using the following criteria: 1. Does the paper provide sufficient evidence for its hypothesis or claim? 2. Does the flow of the paper and sentence structure make sense? 3. Should it be organized in a different manner? 4. Are all the items listed in the assignment guidelines and rubric covered and in sufficient depth? This assignment uses a grading rubric. Instructors will be using the rubric to grade the assignment; therefore, students should review the rubric prior to beginning the assignment to become familiar with the assignment criteria and expectations for successful completion of the assignment. Please submit your completed peer review assignment similar to your submission of previous essays, rather than replying here in the Individual Forum. â€Æ' The purpose of this paper is to identify and elaborate the characteristics of a healing environment, challenges and barriers associated in instituting the atmosphere for effective patient outcomes that will not only treat the patient illness but to help the patients to heal as a whole and biblical passage that support the concept of healing hospital from a nursing perspective. According to Florence Nightingale nurse’s role is to provide external environment and fosters internal environment necessary to heal the patients. We as nurses can manage the health and wellbeing of our patients and their families by providing them high quality, kindhearted care that will collaborate with care of the body, mind and spirit which in turn results in effective patient healing. Benefits  acquired from creating a healing environment has led many hospitals to integrate features that will help lessen stress associated with the illness and promote healing for patient and the family. Healing is not curing an illness by treating the symptoms, eradicating disease or following treatment plan as, a lot of time you are cured but not healed. An example that describe this concept is a person with a chronic illness such as cancer, is peaceful despite of her illness, loss of function rather than grieving for her illness and angry as she has healed from cancer. Healthy healing environment is meant to promote harmony of mind, body and spirit by providing a patient centered care that fulfills the spiritual, social and physical needs of patients. This idea of healing hospital will lower the cost of healthcare, by focusing on specific needs of the patients and create a better healing environment by reducing stressors in the hospitals which be later described in the paper. We as nurses play an important role in addressing the spiritual needs of our patients and incorporating this spiritual needs in plan of care will help facilitates the coping mechanism in our patients. Here in this Paper we are going to discuss about Mercy Gilbert Medical centre which is one of the famous healing hospital which has three key components that facilitates healing that is related to spirituality. Three key parts of this healing atmosphere are as follows: 1) A healing physical environment which includes implementing measures to keep the environment quiet to promote peaceful sleep that help in faster recovery by reducing the sources of noise such as eliminating over head paging or only in time of emergencies by carrying wireless for direct connection, soundproofing with sound absorbing ceiling, avoiding loud cleaning machines rolling down long hallways or replacing patient care areas with carpets and installing silencer to cleaning machine prevent noise created by it (Ebers t, 2008). Prevention of stressors such as noise, glare and poor air quality are shown to have increases patient blood pressure, heart rate and reduce oxygen levels due to environmental concerns. 2) The Integration of appropriate work design and technology plays an important part in enhancing the process of healing such as thoughtful layout that makes easier for frail patients to move around independently, Private patient rooms with larger space for storage of supplies, computer for charting, sink for hand washing, amenities that make it easier for family member to stay overnight. Also it  could reduce risk of infections, provides patient privacy and prevents any disturbances, promote peaceful sleep and caregivers can discuss private matters more freely without hesitating and maintains patient dignity which for some patients may be very stressful (Eberst, 2008). It allows portable equipments to easily move in and out from these rooms and patient does not needs to be transferred to any other room for x rays or procedures while maintaining privacy etc. use of colors, images and appropriate signs to help patient and family find their destination. Separate elevators were designed for patient transfers providing privacy and safety. Patients at this hospital were getting the benefits of most recent digital technology in specialty testing areas which help to get quick results rather than waiting for long hours and creating a stressful situation for patient and family. Primary care providers were able to access results from their personal device at any place which make it easier and convenient to make decision and planning treatment. Hospital designs and interior should be planned in the way that it allows natural light through large windows from where they can get more sunlight which can be helpful to lessen depression; fresh air by helping them to get engage with scenery can extensively reduce their tension, irritation and promote enjoyable thoughts. Skylight system provides in room entertainment such as comedy channel, healing music which promotes laughter therapy and healing. Patients were provided with education specific to their needs as well as patient satisfaction survey which helps staff to improve the patient care. Instituting advance technology with caring environment that delivers highly qualified, loving and patient centered compassionate care has helped this hospital to achieve effective patient healing (Eberst, 2008). 3) A culture of Radical Loving Care at Mercy Gilbert medical centre offers kindhearted care that enhance faster recovery of patients through a holistic approach that not only meets patients bodily needs but also their emotional and religious needs. They hire their employees not only on the basis of the skills but they look for those that consider the work as their passion, rather than just a profession, always willing to help people and go an extra mile for fulfilling their needs. They make sure that every encounter with the patients and families by the staff members is a sacred encounter. Touch Pads outside each patient room encourage the person entering patient rooms to reflect on their role that  can help patient in healing. All this efforts in providing compassionate care helped the patients, families, caregivers and the staff to make the stressful time into a peaceful situation (Eberst, 2008). Some of the barriers that prevent nurses or healthcare team to provide healing environment are as follows: As we all might be familiar with the fact that due to crisis in the health care field, many of the health care organization are working short staffed which means higher nurse patient ratio that results in burnouts and less attention and time spent with patients that they deserve to talk to their nurses regarding their health and concerns, physicians are encouraged to see more patients per day that can shorter interaction between physician and patient and it changes the way they were served (Dunn, 2010). Addressing the spiritual needs of the patient is very difficult especially when you are running out of time due to heavy workload and making sure that every patient is medicated and every task that needs to be fulfilled for the assigned patients is completed can be a barrier in creating a healthy and healing environment. Other possible barriers could be noisy environment due to loud intercoms, overhead pagers, disturbances from transferring patients from one place to another, cleaning machines can interrupt patient sleep which is important for early healing, Medical errors due to stress from all day noise and distractions, failing to address cultural, and spiritual needs due to language barriers can prevent from creating optimal healing environment (Dunn, 2010). The biblical passage that supports the concepts of healing hospital is â€Å"Behold, I will bring it health and cure, and I will cure them, and will reveal unto them the abundance of peace and truth† by Jeremiah 33:6 of King James Version which is describing the aim of a therapeutic hospital that is not only to cure the disease process or the symptoms but along with curing they are encouraging their staff members to address and fulfill the patients emotional and spiritual needs to heal them with compassionate, loving care, as we are aw are of the fact that a lot of times patients are cured but not healed due to lack of addressing their spiritual wellbeing. Healing hospital focuses on treating the patients physically, emotionally and spiritually to provide them peace, comfort and security. Positive experiences among all the members of health care team in providing holistic patient care will result in harmonious work environment, patient satisfaction, improved patient outcomes as well as help  caregivers in identifying the importance of their hard work and dedication towards saving peoples life and help them regain peace, comfort and happiness which is a necessary concept in creating healing environment. References: Dunn, L. (2010). CREATING HEALING ENVIRONMENTS: A CHALLENGE FOR NURSING. Online Journal Of Rural Nursing Health Care, 10(2), 3-4. Eberst, L. (2008). Arizona medical center shows how to be a healing hospital. Health Progress, 89(2), 77-79. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/274635012?accountid=7374 40.0 %Comprehension of concepts of a Healing Hospital Reveals inaccurate comprehension of material and lacks the ability to apply information. Displays a lack of comprehension but attempts to apply information. Presentation of material does not meet minimal requirements of the assignment. Demonstrates no critical thinking aspects. Exhibits comprehension of the material and attempts to integrate it with outside material. Information represents basic thought and formulation of Healing Hospital concepts, values, and practices. Demonstrates integrative comprehension. Student exhibits thorough and thoughtful processing of material. Evidentiary support is creatively interwoven and presented in a  manner that supports the writer?s position and perspective on Healing Hospital concepts and patterns. Demonstrates integrative comprehension and thoughtful application of concepts surrounding the Healing Hospital and circumstances involving application in real world situations. Presentation of material and components include expanded and unique perspective relative to Healing Hospital patterns and value.48.00/48 30.0 %Coverage of subject matter. Subject matter is absent, inappropriate, and/or irrelevant. There is weak, marginal coverage of subject matter with large gaps in presentation. All subject matter is covered in minimal quantity and quality. Comprehensive coverage of subject matter is evident. Coverage extends beyond what is needed to support subject matter.30.60/36 20.0 % Organization and Effectiveness 7.0 %Thesis Development and Purpose Paper lacks any discernible overall purpose or organizing thesis and/or main claim. Thesis and/or main claim are insufficiently developed and/or vague; purpose is not clear. Thesis and/or main claim are apparent and appropriate to purpose. Thesis and/or main claim are clear and forecast the development of the paper. It is descriptive and reflective of the arguments and appropriate to the purpose. Thesis and/or main claim are comprehensive. The essence of the paper is contained within the thesis. Thesis statement makes the purpose of the paper clear.7.14/8.4 8.0 %Argument Logic and Construction Statement of purpose is not justified by the conclusion. The conclusion does not support the thesis and/or main claim made. Argument is incoherent and uses noncredible sources. Sufficient justification of thesis and/or main claims is lacking. Argument lacks consistent unity. There are obvious flaws in the logic. Some sources have questionable credibility. Argument is orderly, but may have a few inconsistencies. The argument presents minimal justification of thesis and/or main claims. Argument logically, but not thoroughly, supports the purpose. Sources used are credible. Introduction and conclusion bracket the thesis. Argument shows logical progression. Techniques of argumentation are evident. There is a smooth progression of thesis and/or main claims from introduction to conclusion. Most sources are authoritative. Clear and convincing argument presents a persuasive thesis and/or main claim in a distinctive and compelling manner. All sources are authoritative.8.16/9.6  5.0 %Mechanics of Writing (includes spelling, punctuation, grammar, language use) Surface errors are pervasive enough that they impede communication of the meaning. Inappropriate word choice and/or sentence construction are used. Frequent and repetitive mechanical errors distract the reader. Inconsistencies in language choice (register); sentence structure, and/or word choice are present. Some mechanical errors or typos are present, but are not overly distracting to the reader. Correct sentence structure and audience-appropriate language are used. Prose is largely free of mechanical errors, although a few may be present. A variety of sentence structures and effective figures of speech are used. Writer is clearly in command of standard, written, academic English.5.10/6 10.0 %Format 5.0 %Paper Format (Use of appropriate style for the major and assignment) Template is not used appropriately, or documentation format is rarely followed correctly. Appropriate template is used, but some elements are missing or mistaken. A lack of control with formatting is apparent. Appropriate template is used. Formatting is correct, although some minor errors may be present. Appropriate template is fully used. There are virtually no errors in formatting style. All format elements are correct.5.10/6 5.0 %Research Citations (In-text citations for paraphrasing and direct quotes, and reference page listing and formatting, as appropriate to assignment and style) No reference page is included. No citations are used. Reference page is present. Citations are inconsistently used. Reference page is included and lists sources used in the paper. Sources are appropriately documented, although some errors may be present. Reference page is present and fully inclusive of all cited sources. Documentation is appropriate and citation style is usually correct. In-text citations and a reference page are complete and correct. The documentation of cited sources is free of error.5.10/6 100 %Total Weightage 109.20/120

The Industrialisation And Globalisation Of The World Economy

The Industrialisation And Globalisation Of The World Economy Due to the industrialisation and globalisation the worlds economy became as a single market where the business can be done across the world this made edge to edge competition among the organisations. Due to the huge competition and necessity to expand globally made the organisations to make them self strong and specialised by concentrating on external and internal aspects like recruiting highly skilled employees, giving advanced training to employees, introducing advanced technologies etc. and changing their dimensions according to the changes of the worlds markets. Employees are very important to an organisation. The success of an organisation depends on the skills and ability its human resources. Human resources are the major/ important determinant of the company performance over the long term (Ronald R.Sims, 2002, p.1). My company value is zero (0) from 6 pm to 9 am because there will be no employee (Narayana murthy, CEO ). According to Budhwar and Debrah(1984) in an organisation human resource is the easiest resource which can manage easily and same way human resources are the toughest resources to manage. According to Grandhi Malikarujna rao (2008) if u manage, utilize and control the human resources of an organisation then 90% of the organisation is succeed. About company: Vodafone is the first UKs mobile company which made call at past midnight on 1st January 1985. 1/3 of the new customers are connecting to Vodafone. In 1982 the Recal Telecomms (Division of Recal Electronics group) renamed as Vodafone having less than 50 employees in one building. Now it is operating in 27 countries across 5 Continents, 186.8 million customers and 33 partner networks. Sir John Bond is Chairman and Vittorio Colao is Chief Executive of Vodafone. (Home page, History, Meet the Board) Vision: The long term goal of the company is to be a leader in mobile communication by enriching customers lives, helping people, business and communities across the globe to get connected. Team Building: This is a fairly general term that is used in a number of different ways. It can cover either what you are trying to achieve or how you are trying to achieve it or both! The following cover most of the options: Team building is developing working relationships. Team building is improving the performance of the team. Team building is outdoor activities that challenge the individuals within the team. Team building is about improving motivation, communication, support and trust within a team. A Team-wise team building event will be is great fun however they have been developed with several aims in mind: Working relationships will be developed People have to work together and by doing so colleagues will develop more effective working relationships with team members who are new to the team and with team members who have been part of the team for some time. Shared positive experience The whole day is very memorable, team members will be talking about it for the rest of the year. As such colleagues will share a positive and memorable experience which further develops bonds. Strengths and talents Everyone gets fully involved in the day and their are lots of different roles so team workers will see their colleagues in a whole new light and will have a greater understanding of their strengths and talents. Teamwork Everything during the team building day clearly requires teamwork and as such team members will leave with a greater awareness of how teams work and how to make them work better. Reward Staff enjoy the day and feel that the company cares about them. According to Brill (1976, p.10) that work which is done by a group of people who possess individual expertise, who are responsible for making individual decisions, who hold a common purpose and who meet together to communicate, share and consolidate knowledge from which plans are made, future decisions are influenced, and actions determined. According to Cannon-bowers A team is set of two or more individuals who interact interdependently and adoptively toward a common goal or objective. In addition, team members have specific roles or functions and the span of memberships is limited Vodafone employees spread in different locations has to interact in a multicultural environment with employees from diverse cultural and geographical backgrounds employee training from the core part of facilitating process of living the employees to a common organisational culture. Stages of Team Building: Forming: When a new team forms, the team members are new they dont know with each, they dont know the tasks what to do, what are punishments and rewards if the tasks are performed and not performed so the team leader should arrange the meeting (group meeting) and make clear about the goal of forming team, individual tasks, rules and regulations, rewards and punishments. Storming: If any problems arise in the team, the leader should bring all the members together by dialogues and make them to work towards the goal and objectives of the group forming. This the crucial part which effects the team performance if the team members does not have proper co-operation then the team leader should arrange meeting(group meeting) as early as possible and make the team perform well. Norming: In this stage team leader reduces his tasks himself and encourages the team members to take over load ( more tasks). He spends more time individually with each member and reviews their performances and motivates them to achieve the goals. Performing: Team leader should make the team members to perform well in order to achieve goal. Team leader should encourage the team members to complete their individual tasks within the time. Adjourning: This is the lost stage where the performance of the team and individual is analyzed, rewarding for the best performers in team and splitting/ separating the team officially. Learning and development in Vodafone: Learning and development is centred on quality excellence and efficiency. The main focus area is to develop the existing human capital (human resources) in line with the ever changing face of the industry and make the employees a more stable and most motivated work force with more opportunities for growth and development within the company using the latest development in learning technology. The company recognises the importance of on the job learning obtain through different assignments which are Taylor made to suit interest and provide an opportunity to develop the skills for preparing them for new roles with in Vodafone. Interaction with group in Vodafone: The annual people survey where the employees interact formally through performance dialogues with line managers from the bases employee engagement programs in Vodafone. The relationship between employee feedback and informal performance is co-related .the focus is on improving situations where employees are performing poorly. One of the main concerns is to use feedback strategies that improve the areas of poor performance and to evaluate negative feedback received by the company. This involves processing the feedback between the employee and the supervisor and identifies areas of improvement .From the employee perspective the process is motivated to maintain a positive self esteem for the supervisor and rooted in the reluctance to give any negative feedback (James .R. Larson, JR 1969). The various initiatives are targeted at improving informal and formal communication in the company. As part of working in the group people Work as a group through team meetings and interaction with group managers. All employees interact with others using the internet site using it for formal engagements and through online discussions and engagements as well as through blogs and wikis .online team rooms facilitate information transfer with subsidiaries with email news bulletin and Internal TV Channel. Conflict management Organizational managers do not view management conflict as strategic as managing information ,but this is changing gradually and the current view is to manage information and human resource and align it with financial systems .normally the conflict management is dealt with on two fronts ,one is emotional and one is strategic were it is aligned with the total business goals of the company .relationship conflict is concerned with the idea of addressing interpersonal incompatibilities and involves reducing tension within the group and solving personal issues and settling annoyance and frustration which can act as negative factors in a company s growth. A company like Vodafone with several subsidiaries should have a centralises system in conflict management and should be treated as a strategic issue rather than one which is solved emotionally and out of the book. This can go a long way in creating a congenial environment for emotional and intellectual growth. Internal communication within the group Every organization looks out for effective means to communicate within the group and the key to success lies in effective communication within the organization. A change in management can distort communication channels within the organization. The example of this can be seen in the takeover of Hutchison Essar in March 2007. The sudden change in management has displaced communication channels in its Indian subsidiary. The solution was not to distort the existing in the newly acquired company. The model the company adopted has similarities to the research paper published by (Tony Proctor 2003) Leadership within Vodafone Organizational culture has to age and has progressed to be critical in defining the work culture in the company .unbiased approach and fairness has to be key aspects that govern the policy in an organization. Large organizations like Vodafone face coordination problems in different levels in the organization. The three core areas were management in contemporary organizations face problems are the issues related to transformational management .the leadership has to facilitate the performance of collective tasking in the organization. Some research like (Garry Yuki 2002) suggests that managing and leadership should be treated separately .in publically listed companies there is an increased influence to satisfy the expectations of stakeholders. The contemporary roles of leaders have change, long gone are the notions of military leaders who use to win battles .the current role of leaders have changed and the ability of managers is there ability to turnaround failing organizations into successfully managed profitable ventures. The contemporary example can be the turnaround of automobile Giant Chrysler Corporation under the charismatic leadership of Lee Iacocca (Fried .E.Feidler 1996). For an organization like Vodafone there has to be synergy of various styles of leadership like: Emergent leadership The behavior of persons within the group and their ability to perform as a group is crucial in defining successful process of building leaders in the organization. Knowledge acquisition by first line managers is equally important and much research has successfully established it helps to lever ones core competencies and achieve competitive advantages. There is another factor which surrounds this which says about the co-relation of leadership and job satisfaction. (John .D.Politics 2001). An emergent leader is mostly situational and does not possess any serious traits of a leader. The ability to accomplish goals within a specified time defines the Emergent leaders. There are mostly selected out of intuitions rather than any pre planned strategy. The other theory is centred on effectiveness where effective is measures by conducted assessment of previous work and similarities between suitable traits and the leader is analyzed. The assessment even though is formally assessed is not fully standardized and uniform, which therefore can have variations is implementation. The core centre of this theory is that it is centred around the concept that those who are socially adept and bright are more set to be prospective leaders in the future. Succession management policy Vodafone a global company were succession planning has to be carried out at different levels. And it has to be relevant and engineered to suit. The most important aspect is to cater to the gap between the is planned and what is achieved. The focus should be on how leaders can be relevant and reengineered to remain relevant and make it suitable to suit the organization. The changing expectations of the society and accelerated changes in business leadership .the workplace is becoming increasingly diverse and every effort has to made to see that women ,minorities ,ethnicities has to be taken care of in the Global context. Coclusion:   Books Naomi I. Brill (1976). Teamwork: working together in the Human Services. Toronto: Lippincott. P5-11. Ronald R. Sims (2002)Organizational success through effective human resources management. p1-5. Pawan S.Budhwar and Yaw.Debrah (1984). Human Resource Management in Developing Countries. 3rd ed. Londan: Routledge. Articles Janis A. Cannon-Bowers and Eduardo Salas . (1998). Team Performance and Training in Complex Environments: Recent Findings from Applied Research. à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Current Directions in Psychological Science. 7 (3), 83-87. Osama Abudayyeh. (1994). Partnering: A Team Building Approach to Quality Construction Management. Journal of Management in Engineering. 10 (6), p26-29. (Source: http://cedb.asce.org/cgi/WWWdisplay.cgi?9404719) News Papers Interview with Narayanamurthy (Founder of Infosys)by eenadu Business Desk. http://www.eenadu.net/newarchive.asp Interview with Grandhi Malikarjuna Rao (Chairman of GMR Group)by eenadu Business Desk. http://www.eenadu.net/archives/archive-24-1-2010/buisnesshead.asp?myqry=9HYPERLINK http://www.eenadu.net/archives/archive-24-1-2010/buisnesshead.asp?myqry=9reccount=11HYPERLINK http://www.eenadu.net/archives/archive-24-1-2010/buisnesshead.asp?myqry=9reccount=11reccount=11 websites http://www.team-wise.co.uk/defintion_of_team_building.htm accessed on 4/3/2010

Simpleton Kindness :: Values Virtues Kindness Essays, movies

Simpleton Kindness When people go to extremes in the name of selfless kindness, or in the case of Lloyd and Harry from Dumb and Dumber, when people who are motivated by attraction, desperation and kindness, go to extremes, more often then not something good happens in the end. Hollywood has a long standing tradition of lauding the bumbling hero who, though misguided, saves the day with little more than a kind heart and a strong will. Two examples of goodness conquering all are Tommy Boy and Dumb and Dumber. Both movies are highly comical, and play to the worst case scenario in the name of laughs, but underneath the comical exterior, the moral of both stories says, when people attempt to serve others or causes greater than themselves, goodness usually triumphs. After seven years in college, Tommy Callahan, who isn’t exactly the sharpest tool in the shed, finally graduates with a BA. He moves back to Ohio, where his dad owns an Auto Parts company. Despite his ineptitude, because his father owns the company, Tommy gets shot straight to the top of his father’s company. Not long after returning home, Tommy finds out his father is getting remarried. The excitement of having a new family is cut short when Tommy’s father dies of a stroke on his wedding day. Though the death of his Dad is troubling, there is little time to mourn. The family Auto Parts company relied heavily on the salesmanship of Tommy’s father, and without his drive and guidance, the company is in danger of getting bought out by a bigger corporation. With no experience to back him, and an academic past that does more to damage his credibility that establish it, Tommy volunteers to fill his father shoes, â€Å" I know I’m probably not the ans wer you guys are looking for but I feel like I oughta do something.† (Tommy Boy). The board has little confidence in Tommy, but they don’t have a better alternative, so Tommy sets out with the best of intentions, to save his fathers legacy, and the livelihood of his home town. Eventually Tommy succeeds in saving the business, exposing corruption in the process. Unlike Tommy Boy, in Dumb and Dumber, the motives of the main characters are highly mixed. The plot centers around Lloyd and his friend, and trusty side kick named Harry.

The End to Slavery in the Caribbean Essay -- Slavery Slave Racial Essa

The End to Slavery in the Caribbean The Haitian Revolution (1791-1804) was the first successful slave revolt in the Caribbean, and it was one of the most important events in the history of the Americas. Along with the obvious human rights benefits that the Haitian Revolution achieved, there were some serious setbacks for the nation as well. Between 1783 and 1789, Saint Domingue was the foremost sugar producer in the region, but by the end of the war the economy was completely destroyed, and to this day Haiti has not come anywhere close to reattaining its once prominent economic status in the Caribbean. The results of the revolution sent fear through the European consciousness as well as strengthened the growing idea that slavery may be an immoral practice. In the United Kingdom, slavery lost popularity quickly and an antislavery movement was initiated. After May 1807, no British ship was permitted to leave with a cargo of slaves, and by March 1808, it was made illegal for a slave to be landed in any British colony. The law became even stricter in 1811 when the trafficking of slaves was made into a felony. Despite the attempts to end the slave trade, plantation slavery continued in the British Caribbean. Slavery was not officially abolished in the Caribbean until 1834. The termination bill which abolished it called for twelve years of apprenticeship for the â€Å"ex-slaves†, which was not very different from slavery. This system was abolished in 1838. During and after all of this vacillating lawmaking, a serious labor problem developed in the Caribbean. The key to the production of the Caribbean’s produce, mainly sugar, was the system of slavery. Slavery practically eliminated labor costs, and all... ...s felt as though they were being undercut by this new type of cheap labor. The blacks resented that their slavery had come to an end, but in order to compete with the new labor force, slave-like conditions were once again the only option. The "coolies† in Jamaica, as well as the Asians on the other islands began their journeys as outsiders living in terrible conditions. Today, a sort of blend has taken place in these cultures. A good example of the blending that has taken place can be seen in the music of the region. In rural Trinidad there is a popular form of music that mixes classical Indian singing with a soca beat. Soca is a music that combines the insistent tempos of calypso with the energy of hip hop and the quatrain-like structures of traditional north Indian folk songs. Tinker, Hugh. A New System of Slavery. Oxford University Press, 1974.

The Emerging Popularity of Human Resource Management

What were the socioeconomic changes in the 1980’s which contributed to the emerging popularity of Human Resource Management? Does the concept of Human Resource Management present a radical novelty or is it a mere repackaging of personnel management? Introduction During the 1980’s, a new management concept referred to as ‘Human Resource Management’ (HRM) became very fashionable. At that time, many academics questioned whether HMR was simply a renaming of the previously known personnel management (PM) tool, or whether it was, as some claimed, ‘a radically different philosophy and approach to management of people at work’ (1). Firstly, it seems appropriate to define HRM. However, the definition of HRM this has been widely debated, and so for our purposes, we will use Stephen Bach’s view that it ‘can be viewed as the involvement of particular strategies and approaches towards management of considerable labour’. We must also consider what we mean by â€Å"socioeconomic†, which we can state as the relationship between economic activity and social life. In this essay, the similarities and differences between HRM and PM are analysed in an attempt to see whether there is more to HRM than novel rhetoric. Socioeconomic Changes Towards the end of the 1970’s and the early part of the 1980’s, both the US and UK economies experienced recessions of relative magnitude. Both governments sought new economic solutions, and adopted policies known as â€Å"Thatcherism and Reaganomics†, that contained monetarism and free market economics. One of the consequences of this radical period was the reforming and reshaping of what many described as the ‘conventional model of industrial relations’ (2). These new policies inevitably led to the empowerment of employers, and resulted in substantive destruction of trade union power at that time and eventually became the turning point of the era of trade unionism. There were a number of consequences as a result of this reshaping of the economy; probably the largest of note was that there was a considerable decline in a number of the mature Basic industries, such as Steel and Coal, which was balanced by the increase in the Service sector (this is still apparent today as 70% of UK GDP comes from the service sector (3)). This period of decline in many Basic industries coincidently ushered in a time for new technologies based on hi-tech products, further assisting the aim of both governments to deregulate and intensify market competition through free market economics. With anti-union legislations and privatisation at the core of the Conservative party philosophy, as Thatcher pushed to remove the power of the â€Å"Socialist / Communist† trades unions, the result of which led to the encouragement of ‘firms to introduce new labour practices and re-order their collective bargaining arrangements’ (4). This gave companies the opportunity to develop direct relationships with employees, and hence reduce further the power of trade unions. These ‘direct relationships’ are what some people to consider as one of the fundamentals of HRM. On a more global scale, this was an important period in the development of globalization that saw competition intensify from overseas. Japan rapidly became one of the major exporters of very competitively priced manufactured goods to the US undercutting many domestic suppliers. This development, unsurprisingly, forced US companies to consider their cost structure in an attempt to see off this foreign competition. Companies quickly began to investigate the productivity of its workforce. One of the outcomes of this, which is judged to be one of the cornerstones of HRM, was to try to develop harmonious relations between employers and employees. The belief was already there that synergy could be created from the employee/employers relationship. Furthermore, it became apparent that an environment free of conflict could help unite an organisation so that individual employees could commit themselves to organisational success. This Unitarianism perspective became one of the antecedents of the development of HRM. Toward the end of the 1980’s as more and more academics continued to produce a wealth of literature on the subject of HRM, it became clear that there was a recurring theme for those companies that appeared to perform extremely well in these market conditions. It became obvious in these increasingly dynamic markets that companies that were proactive to market change were able to do so as a result of motivated workforce. The question that was begging to be asked was ‘how they were able to this so well’? The answer was through involved management styles that were instilling a culture in the workforce that was proactive rather than reactive. This is one of the key differences that will be referred back to later. It was suggested that these had been brought on by the intense competition and pressure, which eant a competent PM was more necessary than ever. There were several other socioeconomic changes that all acted as antecedents to the development and reshaping of PM that became known as HRM. These included increasingly strident demands of shareholders, changing work force (flexibility, part time largely through the employment of women), a changing age structure of the workforce, the young moving in the direction of private and service sectors, hence less prone to unionisation and finally increasingly mechanised manufacturing processes through new technologies. Differences between HRM and PM The second part of this essay looks at whether HRM was in actual fact a novel idea or whether in reality it was a re-labelling of PM. Looking through a variety of literature on the subject, it immediately becomes clear that it is extremely hard to find a definitive line to draw between HRM and PM. Legge for example mentioned he felt their wasn’t a huge difference between the two and in fact drew on some very clear similarities. However he does manage to point out some diverging aspects. While Torrington saw the development of HRM as only adding ‘a further dimension to the multi faceted role’ (5) therefore seeing HRM as an ongoing process in the evolution of PM. As a result he finds it hard to label HRM as a revolutionary model. There are those experts that do agree in the novelty of HRM. It’s these authors that remind us not to play down the effects of HRM, mentioning that while many of the techniques in HRM are similar to those in PM, it is the philosophical context of HRM that makes these techniques so much more effective. The model of HRM unfortunately is not uniform and is made up of several different theoretical approaches therefore it becomes even harder to define clearly. This is perhaps what has muddied water so much in the debate of HRM and PM. Perhaps the easiest was to try and find an answer to this question is to compare the differences versus the similarities. Firstly the differences: Storey puts particular emphasis on the ‘strategic character’ (1) and continuously mentioned how HRM decision and formulations of policies should take place on ‘strategic level within an organisation’. Meanwhile PM can be condemned for its limited consideration of business objectives during decision making. Another major concept that is fundamental to HRM (particularly in ‘Soft’ HRM) which cannot be identified in PM is the creation culture and values on an organisation level. The intention of this aspect is to drive towards employee commitment towards achieving organisational goals. This ‘commitment’ can be seen as a precursor of motivation and performance (6). Furthermore we can consider the aspects of communication within HRM, whereby it rejects collective bargaining and attempts to set up direct channels of communication with individuals. By operating in this manor, HRM attempts to meet the individual needs of the employee so that they can then go on to contribute to the organisation. Consideration of the ‘proactive versus reactive’ argument can also identify differences (with HRM viewed as proactive and PM viewed as reactive). Proactive workforces enable organisations to pre-empt changes in markets. However they can only be implemented if the workforce is sufficiently motivated. The final major difference that can be identified is the emphasis that HRM places on training and development, that PM does not seem to identify with in the same way (5). When we contemplate the similarities of the PM and HRM we can consider Legge’s work (he viewed the clearest change from PM to HRM to be the ‘re-labelling process’). He established three main aspects than run through both forms of management. He stated that ‘both emphasised the importance of integration. Both sought to deliver the right people to the right jobs’ (he saw this as the principal role of the management of people in an organisation). Both PM and HRM gave people- management to â€Å"line† managers. Guest also discusses personnel development and functioning on a strategic level. However the above theses partially contradict what many other authors thought (6). In conclusion, we can accept that while HRM and PM contain significant similarities, we have to acknowledge that they differ in terms of their meaning and emphasis. Perhaps cultural aspects and strategic considerations would be the most important alteration, when converting from one theory to the other. Perhaps it would be wrong to say that HRM was a completely novel idea, especially when so many of the procedures and techniques overlap. However it is correct to say that HRM took many of the principles of PM and applied them to a different philosophy and way of thinking, and in doing so, inherently took the continuous evolution of PM to what we today call HRM.