Strategies for Promoting Democracy in Iraq Term Paper

Strategies for Promoting Democracy in Iraq - Term Paper Example This is usually entrenched in the laws of the land. It involves social, cultural and economic conditions that provide free and fair practice of self-determination politically. It hails from a Greek word demokratia whose meaning is â€Å"rule of the people†. This word can be divided into two. Demos meaning â€Å"people† and Kratos meaning â€Å"power†. Democracy contrasts other forms of government like monarchy and aristocracy /oligarchy. Monarchy is where power is held by one individual while aristocracy is where power is held by a group of people. Contemporary governments tend to have a mixture of all these elements. There are several types of democracy (Lijphart 150-250). The two basic forms of democracy are a direct democracy and representative or indirect democracy. In direct democracies, citizens have direct participation in the decision-making process within the government. In indirect  democracies, citizens elect representatives (Lijphart 200-250). He ex plains that in modern democracies, the sovereign power is retained by the people while the political power is exercised through the representatives (200-250). He further explains that an electoral democracy government is determined by popular sovereignty (200-300). People in the country determine who will govern them. They do this by voting. Liberal democracy is one in which both sovereignty and liberties are manifested. The civil society is very active and restraints the government from misusing power. A substantive democracy is a working democracy. Under the representative democracy, we have a parliamentary, presidential and constitutional democracy. Parliamentary democracy is a democracy where the government is chosen by elected representatives (Lijphart 200-250). The government in this case is checked by the legislative parliament elected by people. The legislature can dismiss the prime minister under this system of government. This happens by passing a vote of no confidence. Th e presidential system of democracy is where the public elects the president through general elections (Lijphart 200-250).

Managing Change in Organisations - Improved HR onboarding process Essay Example for Free

Managing Change in Organisations Improved HR onboarding process Essay The main goal of this change initiative is to improve the financial results of the company by improving the engagement and performance of the new HR employees at Mars, Inc. It’s aimed to be achieved by introducing a new, globally aligned, best-in-class 1-year-long induction process with supporting tools and learning events. The target group of new HR associates1 includes those who joined HR at Mars less than 12 month ago, either from externally (from other company) or internally (from other department). As Mars,Inc. is a large family-owned business with over 100 years of history and globally well known brands. It has unique and mature company culture which is driven by its 5 principles: Quality, Responsibility, Mutuality, Effectiveness and Freedom. These principles drive the behaviour of the employees at all level of the hierarchy and have been shaping the characteristics of the organisation. Mars, Inc. fits well to ‘elaboration of structure phase’ (Granier 1972) of the organisational life-cycle: the company is led by a team of professional managers and is very much decentralised with a small headquarter. The business units of the countries therefore enjoy a lot of freedom and responsibility to drive the local business effectively. This approach reflects also in the way they shape the processes within the company: the global process standards are mainly just broadly defined with limited (if any) written documentation about them, which lets the local teams shape it and use it as best fits to their needs. As it has the advantage to allow tailor-made solutions to best assist local business objectives, it also has disadvantages. It is not uncommon that extra local resources are needed to shape the process, and when the process has changed too much, it becomes difficult to compare the practices and results of different units. It also often happens that local units come up with very similar best practices after investing significant resources locally in process development, which resources could have been reduced if globally – or at least regionally – someone would have co-ordinated these development initiatives. As part of the company culture, Mars, Inc. refers to employees as associates, therefore in my paper I will use both terms to reflect the same concept. Realising the potential of this kind of centralisation led the business leaders to setting up global functional centres of expertise, like the Mars University (Mars U) is for learning and development within Mars, Inc. The Mars U is responsible for designing and deploying world-class learning programs, which enable the competency building of employees, so they can achieve their full potential in contributing to the business to achieve its goals. It has matrix structure and its smaller teams are set up by functions (named â€Å"Colleges† of HR, finance, supply, etc.), regions (they coordinate the deployment of functional development programs in a region) and special learning and development related areas (like learning technology). Mars U therefore faces the challenge of balancing between centralisation and decentralisation by providing centrally defined and globally aligned learning solutions in a matrix organisation with decentralised leadership. That is the same challenge in case of the new induction process initiative. In the near past an introductory training program existed for new HR employees, which was similar in all the regions, but inconsistent in content, so it gave a lot of space for local solutions to flower. Moving from this decentralised approach to a more centralised one may cause push backs from the associates in these local units, thus careful change management is essential. Nature of change By assessing the nature of change based on the description above, this change can be categorised with the terms of Ackerman (1997) as ‘transitional’ as the intention is to â€Å"achieve () a desired state† by setting up a globally aligned world-class induction process for new HR associates, which is a significant difference from the current decentralised approach. One can argue whether it is not defined as ‘transformational change’ as it can result a difference in an organisational process and change in the culture, but as it won’t change fundamentally neither areas, the definition of ‘transitional change’ fits better in this case. To give a full picture about the nature of change, it need to be emphasised that after finishing this particular change project, the change itself will not stop, it will continue as ‘developmental change’ by continuously improving the set up induction process. From another perspective, using the categories of Mintzberg and Waters (1985) this change initiative can be identified as ‘determined’ or planned change as the goal, that need to be achieved, is clearly set, as well as the process how to get there. It does not mean though, that ‘emergent’ changes will not come up during the project, as it may happen that a locally designed induction process which works well will have an improving effect on the globally designed process and tools to ensure the implementation of the best possible practices. Drivers of the change This change initiative has mainly internal triggers. First and foremost, improve the productivity of every new HR associates by providing them all the essential knowledge, competencies and network they need in their new role. Improving their engagement level is also an important trigger, as engaged associates have usually better performance and they less likely to leave the business (Buckingham and Coffman, 2005). In case of HR department, better performance of associates, among other things, could lead to better internal and external customer satisfaction or decrease of costs by effective ways of working, while improved retention cut the costs and time invested in recruitment and training of a new employee. Although the internal triggers are more relevant in this case, the external drivers also need to be mentioned. Mars, Inc. had several acquisitions in the last few years which led to an incoherent culture in the different business segments. To enable exchangeability of human resources and best practices, setting up centrally aligned processes is a key. Also, considering that Mars, Inc. operates in a quickly changing market (FMCG), being innovative and best-in-class in its processes could ensure competitive advantage and retention of employees. Nonetheless, the change needs to be done in a global environment fitting to the expectations of different cultures in different regions. Key Stakeholders As in case of most major changes in an organisation, winning the support of top level management is essential. In this case the management means the Global HR Leadership Team of Mars, Inc. who also plays the role of sponsor of the project and expected to play a key role by being role model in using the new induction process. Their influence is very high as they could stop or change this initiative any time. Their attitude toward the change to be expected very positive, still, contracting with them is critical as many priority projects are currently going on in the business so need to ensure proper focus. Driving the change process requires change agents to ensure smooth implementation: the Mars U associates in the regions and other (local) learning or talent development specialists. As the project aligns well with their general purpose of their roles – to improve associates capabilities, – their attitude is expected to be positive. As they will play the role of connecting the project leaders with associates in their regions or units, their influence is also very high, but mainly only in their area of responsibility. The communication and deployment of the change will focus mainly on the HR managers as they will be the most affected by the change, as they need to change their ways of working the most. Thus, 5 their attitude can be either positive or negative depending how valuable the new process seems to them. Their influence can be high in the area of their responsibility – so the more senior the manager is the higher is the influence. Also important stakeholders, but less influential, are the new HR associates. The new process is all about them, but from change management perspective they play a smaller role, as their attitude to be expected very positive. In any case, careful communication toward them needs to be planned to ensure their full involvement in the process and gain feedback from them to identify potential areas for improvements. There are also some other key stakeholders, like the trainers of the courses, whose contribution to the success can be very important, but as they are interchangeable in the roles, their influence on the process can be categorised as moderate. Furthermore, there are some other subject matter experts (e.g. learning technology or global communication specialists), who will be involved during the design and communication phases, but their influence is rather small and their attitude is expected to be supportive. Management objectives To summarise the main objective, the goal is to implement in all business segments and units of Mars, Inc. a newly designed, globally aligned, efficient and engaging functional induction process with its supporting tools (guides and learning modules) for every new HR employees, which supports their development in the first 12 months after joining in their new role and covers the essential Mars specific knowledge and provides network needed for achieving high performance. The new process and tools should be used by mid of 2013 in all business units. Task 2 For a successful change project it’s not only important to see where we would like to go, but to be able to define how we will get there, we need a careful and detailed analysis on where we are at the moment. Besides a general process overview in the organisation (e.g. by the support of models like ‘McKinsey 7S’ (Waterman et al. 1980) or ‘Burke-Litwin Causal model’ (Burke Litwin, 1992)), we also need to understand why do we have the problem in our organisation. For this we may use problem analysis models, like the ‘Fishbone diagram’ or the ‘5 Whys?’ (Taiichi 1988) model. Input-Transformation-Output model To better understand the functional induction process, by the ‘Input-Transformation-Output model’ (RDI, 2012a) the main elements can be summarised visually: This model can support the planning process in several ways. It is easier for the change leaders to identify the key stakeholders (see the detailed stakeholder analysis above), to keep objectives always in mind and focus on the processes which need to be changed in order to be able to achieve the desired output. Furthermore, it gives a great overview about who shall be involved in reviewing and developing the process by providing feedback before, during and after the change. Nonetheless, it is essential to be clear on both the transformed and transforming resources required for the whole process to avoid disturbance due to the lack of them. Cause-and-Effect Analysis After having a broader overview of the issue, before taking any actions, a thorough problem analysis is a must. Even though having an initial idea about what can improve the current situation, in a complex organisation with a huge overall impact of the topic, the change leader need to ensure addressing the right issues and providing the right solutions based on that. In defining all the relevant causes of a problem can help the Cause-and-Effect Analysis (Ishikawa, 1968) or Fishbone diagram. In case of our described example, the model looks like this: After defining the list of important causes, the major ones to be selected by the analysing team then the potential actions can be planned. When it’s presented to the management team, their duty is then to decide on which topics to focus on the actions. In this example case, a globally aligned process with supporting tools and metrics are very much missing. When it’s designed and ready to be deployed, then these should be available to all HR managers to be able to drive the induction processes locally and measure their own efficiency. Plan the change After the green light of the management team concerning the project initiative, can start the proper, detailed planning: the development of the change strategy, in which the desired outcome, key actions, milestones, action owners and resources needs are defined. Winning the commitment of the key stakeholders also need to be carefully planned with a supporting communication plan. As unexpected situations are likely to disturb the planned flow of actions, to minimise the potential disturbance, a risk analysis in advance of doing actions can help the project management team to prepare for these scenarios or totally avoid them. Also, a continuous review of the change project is highly recommended to ensure the project execution is on track to achieve the project goal (see the 8 potential feedback sources in the Input-Output model) – this also can be part of the change strategy plan. The next step is then to execute the plan. When unexpected situations happen, continuous adjustments of the plan may be required to ensure proper improvement and keep the progress to achieve the final goal. After all planned actions are executed, the project leader should control that the project goal has been achieved as defined. If no, the project still continues. If yes, the project shall be formally closed with the involvement of the project sponsors and the success should be feed back to the key stakeholders. Task 3 Business Process Transformation Although Mars, Inc. in this situation chose to go on with a change project concentrating on only one function (HR) to improve its induction process, using the Business Process Transformation (BPT), i.e. Business Process Re-engineering model could have led to better results. By talking generally about the BPT model, one can say that improving the customer engagement and cutting the operational costs by improving and simplifying processes (cross-functional) within the company, is in the heart of this approach (Hammer 1990). Let use the definition of re-engineering by Hammer and Champy (1993) to show the key characteristics of this model: the fundamental rethinking and radical redesign of business processes to achieve dramatic improvements in critical contemporary modern measures of performance, such as cost, quality, service, and speed. This approach is one of the favourites currently in change management, as it promises â€Å"dramatic improvements† in business performance and customer satisfaction, even though it has its own challenges. The most important is that it requires a holistic view from the business leaders to face the issues within an organisation. It needs broad perspective to be able to come out of functional silos and to view the process as a whole, from the very beginning till the very end. If the change project happens only within a single function, there is high probability of missing some important opportunities of improvement. By using the example of Mars, a cross-functional approach could lead to a different, although very thorough solution – like implementing a standardised, world-class induction experience in every part of the company, during which the new employees can learn the most important functional and business knowledge to best support the customer focused processes. Based on its holistic view, the BPT approach requires more complexity from change management perspective as well as total alignment and drive from the top management team. The process improvement strategy should be aligned with the vision, mission and business strategy of the company, while the desired behaviours and key performance indicators should be also clearly defined and communicated to support the process and the measure of success (RDI 2012b). The process improvement initiative should start with a company-wide analysis of the current situation, keeping in mind not only how the processes can be simplified, but also what could be the benefits for the customers by the change initiative. The analysis then will be followed by the definition of the detailed plan: to where and how the company would like to get. To achieve great improvement in company results, increasing the amount of invested efforts and resources and high risk taking is unavoidable – although most probably in mid- and long-term the investment of these extra resources will pay. All these mentioned characteristics of the model lead to the fact that this model can’t be used without a heavy top down and centralised approach due to its holistic nature and complexity. Starting a process improvement initiative from any other level of the organisation without the full support and involvement of the company top leaders can lead to only a temporary and restricted (to a region or function) solution. Managing the implementation of the change at Mars, Inc. Although the change project defined by Mars also intends to improve the measures mentioned in the re-engineering definition, the main difference lies in the adjectives used by the authors: dramatic, fundamental and radical. So in this case we can’t really talk about BPT approach, as it would rather mean taking the whole on-boarding and induction process in all functions of the company and use that to work on, even though it could be very beneficial for the company. Also, without winning the top management support for a holistic change approach, the project leader of this initiative better use a general Change management (RDI 2012c), or preferably, the Total Quality Management (TQM) 2 methodology with using some holistic OD models – like the ‘Burke-Litwin model’ (Burke Litwin 1992) or the ‘McKinsey 7S model’ (Waterman et al. 1980) – for analysing the potential areas of change interventions. Definition of TQM by Kanji (1990): â€Å"TQM is the way of life of an organization committed to customer satisfaction through continuous improvement. This way of life varies from organisation to organisation and from one country to another but has certain principles which can be implemented to secure market share, increase profits and reduce costs.† The principles of the TQM approach fits well to the culture of Mars, Inc. by focusing on continuous improvement opportunities, on customer needs and motivating employees at all level of the organisation to take part of this and drive innovations. It also reflects in all of the 5 principles of the company3. The management style also resonates well with the principles of TQM, as it engages the collaborative company culture with empowering and motivating the employees to drive continuous improvement for achieving better quality in everything within the business. Although a lot of things fit well to use this model for the change case at Mars, to fully benefit of the TQM methodology, the project leader and the participants shall be skilled to use all its principles to achieve the best possible result, which is currently not yet the case. Task 4 Measure of Success – Processes There are certain elements of the change process, which we can check and measure during and after the project to evaluate the success. Firstly, it is inevitable to set with involvement and communicate to the key stakeholders a clear vision, a well defined ‘S.M.A.R.T. objective’ (Doran, 1981) and some key performance indicators regarding the desired end result of the change initiative. Additionally, it is also important element of the second success factor, which is the level of commitment to the change of the key stakeholders. During the implementation phase, the success of the process can be measured at the key milestones: whether they were achieved on time by providing good quality results within the allocated resource limits. In this phase, the ability of flexible to any disturbance and opportunities through the process is also essential, to keep or even improve the result quality of the change, or to use less resources to achieve the original goal. It may be measured by reaction the quickness of the response or the amount of extra resources needed to keep the good progress. In connection to this, reviewing the key challenges and capturing the lessons learnt for the future also shows the efficiency of the process. Last, but not least, a clear project closure can also indicate how well the project went. Measure of Success – Outcomes If we have a closer look on the change initiative of Mars, Inc., the desired outcome which we wish to measure lies in the main objective4. The company’s main goal is to improve the efficiency and Quality, Mutuality, Responsibility, Effectiveness and Freedom For details see the Management Objective paragraph performance of the new HR employees. As HR is a support department with less direct impact on financial results and the quality of end products than other areas in the business, measuring these goals may be difficult, especially if we need to focus on only the new employee. So it’s advised to define other measures, like the individual performance or future career potential of the new employee, which can be measured by the company globally standardized performance evaluation system. Although the improved employee performance is difficult to be described with exact figures, we can also use historical data to compare the past and the present, and measure factors which can influence performance (e.g. the Line Manager’s evaluation of the performance or the engagement level of the new associate). Besides the employee performance, the efficiency of the new process shall be measured as well (e.g. could we involve everybody we intended to use the new process). Furthermore, as in case of all change projects, defining the return on investment can show the level of success. For example the cost of resource investment of the change project may be compared with the amount of money were saved by better retention of the new associates. By measuring the outcome of a new process we also need to investigate the resource needs of sustaining the process efficiently on long term. 1References: Ackerman, L., 1997, Development, transition or transformation: the question of change in organisations. In: Van Eynde, D., Hoy, J and Van Eynde, D (eds) Organisation Development Classics. San Francisco, Jossey Bass. Buckingham, M. and Coffman, C., 2005. First, Break All The Rules: What the Worlds Great Managers Do Differently. Simon Schuster. Burke, W. W. and Litwin, G. H., 1992. A causal model of organizational performance and change. Journal of Management, 18 (3), 523-545. Doran, G. T., 1981. Theres a S.M.A.R.T. way to write managements goals and objectives. Management Review, Volume 70, Issue 11, pp. 35-36.

The Health Safety And Welfare Construction Essay

The Health Safety And Welfare Construction Essay Employer should provide necessary information, proper instruction, appropriate training and supervision to make sure employees gain ability to be safe and take necessary action to maintain their health and safety. Employer should take all the necessary action to arrange for the safe use, handling, storage and transport of goods and substances. Employer should provide and maintain systems of work that are safe and healthy to the people who are at work. Employer should provide and maintain a safe work place with safe entrance and exit places and also a safe working environment without risk to health and individual safety. It should be noted that it is impossible to remove all risks and hazards from any working place. The law recognizes this. So, duties mentioned above qualified using the term so far as is reasonably practicable. Therefore level of risk involved always can be balanced against the time, difficulty of taking measures to remove the risk as well as trouble and cost. Employees duties are to: Employees should always concern about care of the health and safety of themselves and of others who may be affected by what they do and people who are working around. Employees should follow instructions from the employer on health and safety matters and attend relevant health and safety training conducted by particular organization. Employees should not misuse any equipment that is provided and always use proper instructions given to use those equipment (eg fire extinguishers or safety goggles) Employees should always cooperate with the employer on health and safety matters and be sensitive if their safety and health rights when working are violated. Employer should always take action to report hazards and defects observed in the workplace which might threat to the employees safety. Q 1.4 Welfare facilities for employees The law states that employers must offer suitable and sufficient welfare facilities for the comfort of their workforces though at work. Health accommodations cover many areas. Toilets Coating Wherever clean to eat and drink during opportunities Changing facilities ex: Changing rooms and lockers Good facilities can positively benefit health and well-being of the employees and can help to prevent dermatitis. Well being of them increase efficiency of the work they are on and by making them happy with the facilities this will definitely helpful in conflict management and psychological wellbeing of the employees. Question no 02 Q 2.1 Health and safety policy particular company a safe and healthy environment. Its commitment will be to protect the company, its employees and their clients. It is the policy of the company to perform work of the highest capacity and in the safest manner possible while maintaining agreement with the Occupational Health and Safety Act. Protecting the health and safety of the employees will be a permanent objective. Every employee will be held responsible . Desecrations will be recorded and addressed. Q 2.2 How to assess training requirements There have use process which call training need analysis to training staff. The way of training mainly depends on the nature of the organization, capacity of the organization, the technology available, and the nature of the staff. But for any kind of organization the fundamental elements of a training needs analysis are the same. It is a three-step process: 1. Identify the training needs 2. Deliver training that meets the needs 3. Assess the effectiveness of the training. Why is health and safety training important? Find out how you could manage health and safety better; Meet your legal duty to protect the health and safety of your employees. Those will contribute towards making your employees competent in health and safety; Q 2.3 The Methods of recording health and safety inspections and its importance In addition to keeping administrative records, an occupational health service normally maintain another two type of records, these are: Personal Health Records.- Environmental Health Records. This set of records concern the health status of each aspects of the workplace rather than the individual employee . Result of physical investigations. Occupational and Medical history. Serious treatment entries and progress. Workers compensation and insurance medical records. Site visit reports. Hazard monitoring result. Worksite health and safety committee reports. Accident investigation files. First Aid reports CSC Inspection reports Investigation reports MSDS (Material Safety Data Sheets) WSIB (Workplace Safety Insurance Board) claims. Incident reports Question no 03 Q 3.1 Hazards In a construction sites Electrical Hazards while trenching and excavating. Falls Falling from scaffolding, ladders, stairways Heavy Construction Equipment Fire And Emergency Hazardous Substances Noise Q 3.2 Identifying the hazards Poorly designed workplace. Hazardous tasks being performed in the workplace; Introducing poorly designed plant and machineries. Incorrect installation, poor maintenance, no repair or alteration of plant in the workplace when necessary. There are a number of ways hazards can be identified in the workplace. These include: Health and environment monitoring Recording complaints Observation Monitoring injury and illness records Consultation between employees and employers Workplace inspections Q 3.4 Risk assessment There are generally. Identify the hazards and the place occurring it Decide who might be affected and how Record the findings and implement them Review assessment and update if necessary For simple example for the risk assessment, we can take Construction Company. Here five steps to risk assignment were followed. To identify the hazards, first it should walk around all the areas and places in the construction site to find out where are the places can be potential threat to the health and safety to the employees. And for the next step it should talked through the issues with the health and safety representative, other members of the staff and sometimes with supervisors to learn more about particular places and jobs and with the use of accident book more knowledge about hazards could be gathered. Then it should write down the findings and the people who are affecting or could be harmed. For each hazard, the fitter should write those hazards. And after that it should be noted down what else Then with those finding and prepared report it is good to discuss with the safety representative, supervisors and with the managing director of the company. and Then those should. it should ticked if off and recorded the date which completed each tasks. If decided t least once a when changes occurred to the workplace. Question no: 04 Q 4.1 Consequences of workplace hazards Slipping, tripping and falls Slipping, falling and falls can cause serious injuries such as head injuries. back injuries, Paralysis. Broken bones. Sprains and strains to muscles and even death.   Radiation Sunburn Skin cancer Heart failure by damage small blood vessels. Radiation kills nerve cells and small blood vessels, and can cause seizures Vibration Lower bearing life unexpected plant shutdowns. Energy wastage due to kinetic energy required for vibration. Operator fatigue and nuisance. Annoyance. Heat Heat stroke. heat cramps heat exhaustion, heat rash Cold hypothermia, Frostbite. Question no: 05 Q 5.1 Importance of review and update assessment procedures Monitoring and review involves ongoing monitoring of the hazards identified by risk assessment process, risk assessment and risk control processes and reviewing them to make sure they are working effectively. Hazard identification, risk assessment and control are continuous processes. Therefore, regularly review the effectiveness of hazard assessment and control measures make sure that the employer undertake a hazard and risk assessment when there is a change to the workplace including when work systems, labor force tools, machinery, technology or equipment change.it also Provide additional supervision when new employees with poor skill levels or knowledge are introduced to the industry. Q 5.2 We have to suggest implementing changes to a health and safety policy When Particular companys health and safety policy too old:- An old policy becomes not suitable. Because Company employees can be changed. Company output (type of output/amount of output) can be changed. Ex-in construction industry some time doing building construction, some time do road construction, and also some time water project, then cant use same health and safety policy. Policy create by company responsible person (Ex:-Managing Director),if new Managing Director come in to company and that person need to change. When not capable to protect the health and safety of all person in work place:- The main objective of health and safety policy is to protect the health and safety of all people in work place. When any company unable to realize this objective,(Thats mean in other words if hazard increases, if there problem with company workers health and safety)then need to change health and safety policy to ensure workers health and safety. When government implements arises. Government implement also can made changes in health and safety policy. If government introduce new rule for every organization, that rule can say every organization have to ensure these, these things which related with health and safety to every employee. Then organizations have to change health and safety policy. When introduce new technologies. New technologies mean introducing new machines/plants. In this case new harms can happen in different way because of no better knowledge about new machines. Q 5.3 Monitoring implemented changes Nominate some responsible persons to ensure health and safety policy. Provide sheet which call weekly safety check sheet. (That include every safety methods) to the responsible person in the work place. Order to that responsible person to fill that sheet at work place and submit it to health and safety department in a company. Call meeting once a month to discuss about health and safety in company

Gender Roles :: Informative

As boys grow into men, many struggle with what makes real men. This struggle often dramatically changes the young person. This struggle is greatly exacerbated by the media’s portrayal of men. Gretel Ehrlich’s â€Å"About Men† deals with the stereotypical image of men and what real men are like. Richard Wright’s â€Å"The Man Who Was Almost a Man† shows a young man who feels so derided by everyone thinking of him as a boy that he buys a gun to make himself more powerful. Tim O’Brien’s â€Å"The Things They Carried† is about a group of soldiers who all have different methods of coping with their own emotions at the death of a comrade. The media, Hollywood being one of the main culprits, often depicts true men as being tall, dark, and physically strong. They don’t feel pain and are able to fight, either with their hands or weapons. They are often emotionally hardened, not showing tenderness. The media presents men as â€Å"macho, [and] trigger happy.† (Ehrlich 127). This presents serious problems for young boys who are starting to mature into men. Young men are often told to be tough and to man up. Many boys are taught that crying is for girls and are called cry-babies if they do cry. This is incredibly hard on young guys who compare themselves to men like Sylvester Stallone or Arnold Schwarzenegger and see absolutely no resemblance. These boys are often troubled by a growing insecurity from contrasting themselves to the unrealistic image of men. The insecurity spawned by this idolatry of the machismo can lead young guys to resort to drastic measures in order to be recognized as men. In â€Å"The Man Who was Almost a Man,† Dave Sunders, a seventeen-year-old African-American in the years after the Civil War, says that â€Å"he was going to get a gun and practice shooting, then they couldn’t talk to him as though he were a little boy† (Wright 144). He later reasons that â€Å"He could kill a man with a gun like this†¦ A nd if he were holding his gun in his hand, nobody could run over him; they would have to respect him.†(Wright 148). Dave finally shoots a donkey that will take him two years to pay for, so he runs away from his home and his responsibility (Wright 154). For him, as for many youth today, the desire to be deemed manly leads to many poor choices.

Against Animal Testing :: essays research papers

For decades humans have taken defenseless and innocent wild animals to foully abuse and test their experiments upon. They test powerful drugs and lotions upon the animals and record and write down the at times fatal side effects only to repeat the experiment again and again- regardless of the creatures' pain or suffering. In one experiment by the Proctor and Gamble company, scientists got hold of a batch of newly born baby mice and cut their toes off to test their theories upon. They were later help up in court for this matter- though disgustingly were let off. You may think that the pure terror on the faces of these animals alone would be enough to change peoples mind of whether it is right or wrong to test upon animals less fortunate they we. Is not the innocent look of fear upon the victims face enough to sicken and revolt you? But no, always it is 'for the good of us and the development of the modern world' have you ever heard- ' for the good of the animal kingdom'? I thought not. But that is all we are and ever will be. Animals. Whatever you may think our ancestors were primates, which climbed the trees and still do today. Agreed our IQ and brain is much more developed as is our features but without, we are same as those we lock up in wire cages to be stared and prodded at in Zoo's- the same as those creatures which we test our medicines and cosmetics upon- the same as the wretched creature above- bewildered and hurt wondering why its life is being tortured so and for what. Helpless creatures in our hands and instead or calming and loving them- we crush and break them. It is not as if we have need of the results gained by animal testing. Are there not enough types of shampoo already and body lotions to satisfy the world's needful demands? Or are the shampoos not good enough for our precious whims- are they not conditioned enough for our delicate hair? Is the washing up liquid not making the crystal glasses shiny enough? Now we have moved on to this subject, did I tell you how they check if their washing up liquid is poisonous or not? No- well you can bet your new classic clean Head and Shoulders on the fact that it wasn't humans they tested it on. Oh no. To check to see whether their new washing up liquid is safe enough and good enough for human use, the caring doting and loving scientists place fish into quantities of the mixture and record what happens to

Dramatic Devices in An Inspector Calls :: J.B. Priestly

An inspector calls Dramatic Devices An Inspector Calls is a play written by J.B Priestly in 1945 however it is set in 1912. An Inspector calls is a thriller set in England. This was a very difficult time for several reasons. In 1912 it was a time where people were just greedy and selfish. Priestly wrote this play because he was concerned that the world that he and others was living in was a place of disgust and that people could do better. To tender all these wounds in the world Priestly wrote this to show that there is enough time to repair these problems and be as bright as possible for the future. The play makes us question ourselves and what sort of a character we would prefer to be. In 1912 it was a time of inequality. In fact there was a really big gap between the rich and poor, in the time if you were really rich, you were stated as really lucky, but for the poor it was a really different story. They had low wages and had difficulty on surviving on the money they were given. One of the most important themes in An Inspector Calls responsibility for other people’s welfare, and that wealthy people have obligations to look after those less fortunate than themselves. J. B. Priestley uses the inspector to express his views to people. One more of Priestley’s reasons for writing this play was to show how people were behaving at the time. He wrote this play to reflect what people were really like and what they thought. The Birling family are rich and they look down on the lower-class as less than human make no difference to society. Mr. Birling believes he just needs to look after for himself, but Priestley doesn’t agree with this. All of the characters that are sitting down to dinner are responsible for the death of one girl Eva Smith, but not all of them think about their responsibilities, Birling feels that everyone has to look after themselves. Priestley partly shows what he is trying to say by showing Mr. Birling a proud man to be in so much error about so many things, such as the unsinkable Titanic ship and the two world wars not going to happen the audience would know that he is wrong. This is a device which Priestley uses called dramatic irony which is essential to the play because it’s based on the world wars and the titanic sinking.

Role and Functions of Hr Managers

Role and functions of HR Managers Introduction The Human Resource Department deals with management of people within the organisation. There are a number of responsibilities that come with this title. First of all, the Department is responsible for hiring members of staff; this will involve attracting employees, keeping them in their positions and ensuring that they perform to expectation. Besides, the Human Resource Department also clarifies and sets day to day goals for the organisation. It is responsible for organisation of people in the entire Company and plans for future ventures and objectives involving people in the Company. Handy, 1999) Research has shown that the human aspect of resources within an organisation contributes approximately eighty percent of the organisation’s value. This implies that if people are not managed properly, the organisation faces a serious chance of falling apart. The Human Resource Department’s main objective is to bring out the best i n their employees and thus contribute to the success of the Company. These roles come with certain positive and negative aspects. However, the negative aspects can be minimised by improvements to their roles and functions. These issues shall be examined in detail in the subsequent sections of the essay with reference to case examples of businesses in current operation. Positive aspects of Roles and Functions of the Human Resource Department Recruitment of Employees This is one of the most fundamental roles of the HR department. This is because this function ensures that the Company under consideration selects the most skilful and competent person from a sea of applicants at that time. This function involves evaluation of ability and competency of potential employees in relation to what the Company needs. This role falls under the Staffing role of management. If this function is performed well, then the organisation will increase value consequently being on the right pathway to achieve its organisational and departmental goals and objectives. (Hyde, 2004) Effective recruitment can be done through a number of ways. First of all the Company can conduct educational and psychological measurements. This task will involve assessment of abilities, skills and character evaluation of applicants. Through psychometric evaluation, the Company can ensure that employees have the right attitude necessary to fit into the organisation. Another method Companies use to recruit members of staff is through interviews. Here, the Human Resource Department can ask applicants questions that evaluate their decision making abilities and how they would deal with certain situations if presented with them. The Department can also employ the use of written interviews where applicants answer questions addressing key issues in the organisation. Through these channels, the Department contributes towards organisational performance. An example of a Company that performs this role well is Tesco Ireland. The Company notifies the public about vacancies. It then posts a questionnaire online and interested parties fill it at that time. This is then evaluated and those who fall within their minimum requirements are invited for an interview. In the interview, applicants are asked a number of questions and those who did extremely well are further analysed and retained. Those who did moderately well are not immediately eliminated; instead, their interview questions are kept on file then these are reviewed after six months. By so doing, the Tesco Ireland makes sure that its employees are highly capable and that they will enrich the organisation. (Hyde, 2004) Improvement of Compensation Packages One of the major functions of the HR department is to motivate employees. This can be done through rewards especially for those who have done well. The HR department needs to evaluate performance of employees and those who have exceeded expectations should be compensated for their actions. Research has shown that rewarding employees for good performance is the number one incentive for keeping up this trend. These compensation packages can come in the following ways; – Holiday Offers – End of Year Bonuses – Equities – Awards – Salary Increments – Provision of Flexible Working Hours – Straight forward Promotion Schemes and Career Developments If the HR department includes these incentives, then it will ensure that employees are satisfied with the Company. It will also contribute towards good staff retention rates. This is especially crucial in increasing stability within the organisation. It also makes employees identify with the firm and instils a sense of loyalty. Handy, 1999) Planning in the Organisation The Human Resource Department is placed with the responsibility of ensuring that it plans adequately for all the organisation’s future engagements that will involve people. One important aspect of this is planning for employees in the organisation. It is important that the organisation ensures that all the employees under its wing are just enough to increase value to the organisation. The Department must ensure that staff members are not too many because if they exceed this amount, then the organisation stands too lose. It must plan adequately to ensure that staff members are not too few either, otherwise they will be overworking those who are already in place. Consequently, there will be poor motivation resulting from fatigue. The HR department is also bestowed with the responsibility of planning future organisational goal in relation to people or clarifying these same goals to staff members. This function of the department ensures that people in the organisation have a general direction which they are working towards. Organisations that have a clear direction are always more effective; those members of staff will be more result oriented rather than just working for the sake of it. The Department is also responsible for setting day to day objectives necessary for streamlining activities within the organisation and thus ensuring that work is not just done haphazardly. (Hyde, 2004) Negative Aspects of Functions and Roles of the Human Resource Department There are a number of problems that arise as the department goes about its activities Problems in Recruitment The department may sometimes be unable to adequately coordinate and incorporate all the employees needed in the Company’s operations. One such example is the NHS. In the year 2004, the organisation was found to be wanting in its human resource department’s functions. The Company was recruiting a large proportion of its employees; 40% from Asian and African countries. This means that the organisation was draining medical personnel from those needy countries and using them for themselves. (Katherine, 2002) Such a practice showed that the HR department had exercised bad judgement in ts staffing function. Instead, it could have used these foreign nurses as temporary measure and put in place a strategy to train local nurses such that it could stop depending on those poor countries for supply of nurses. Problems in Remuneration In the process of trying to motivate members of staff to perform better, the Human Resource may make deals that eventually cause problems. A case in p oint is the Home Depot. This Company has an employee Compensation policy that requires that one should be rewarded for the time they have served the Company. The Home Depot Company offers an end of year bonus, basic salary and grant on stock shares as an incentive for some of its employees The CEO of the Company Robert Nardelli lost his job in the year 2007. This was because the company has experienced a lot of losses under his leadership; its shares fell by eight percent in the stock exchange and he deserved to leave the Company. However, because the Human Resource Department had put in place a policy that requires all members of staff to be given the incentive mentioned above, he left with a lot of money. It was reported that he had with him about two hundred and ten million dollars. The Company had no way out of this payment because HR had already passed that policy and they were bound by the law. This goes to show that sometimes policies made by the HR department do not benefit the Company especially if the parties involved are considered as losses to the Company. (Michael, 2007) Problems in Planning Sometimes the HR Department can employ people who may not contribute towards organisational principles. A classic example is the Arthur Andersen Company that fell apart in the year 2002. This was an American Company that dealt with audits. It was initially very successful in its operations prior to that fateful year. But in the latter years of its operations, the Company was involved in two accounting scandals that tarnished its name and subsequently caused failure. The Company failed to plan well for the kind of employees it recruited. This was witnessed when one of its employees in the Legal Department called Nancy Temple was fined in the Court of law for non adherence to accounting laws. This problem could have been prevented if the HR department had evaluated this employee before hiring her and also evaluation should have been done during her performance. If HR had been extremely critical, then they would have realised that the employee did not adhere to Company principles and would therefore have terminated her employment. Beside this, the Arthur Andersen Human Resource department also failed in its communication function to employees. The department should have ensured that they constantly communicate to members of staff about the goals and objectives of the Company on a day to day basis. This would have made them very clear in the minds of employees and would have prevented the downfall of the Company. Strategies to Improve Human Resource Department’s  Ã‚   Value to the Organisation Training and Internships It is not necessarily a guarantee that a candidate who did well in the recruitment exercise is the best in performing an organisation’s functions. New employees need orientation into the Company’s functions and can also improve some inefficiency that these new employees may have in relation to their skills. This is the purpose of placing them on internships. (Norbert, 1967) Training is also essential for members of staff who have been working for the organisation for a long time. This is especially so in the wake of technological advancements, legal changes and changes in service delivery. It is important for an Organisation to keep up with industry trends otherwise it faces the danger of becoming obsolete; especially in the background of increasing competition. Training need not be restricted to improvement of skills; it can also involve improvement of attitudes. This is normally characterised by attendance of workshops and other forms of talks. Training also increases motivation of employees and gives them that extra boost of energy needed to get them through tough times in their jobs. All the above tasks are placed under the Department of Human Resource because it is the one that will asses when training is needed, who needs the training, where and by whom. This aspect is a sure to improve value of the HR Department in the organisation. An example of a company that adheres to this principle is Marks and Spencer retail chain outlet. The Company offers training for twelve moths. Here new employees are taught all that is necessary to meet organisational goals and objectives then they can start work when they are ready to do so. (Norbert, 1967) Making Better Use of Time The Human Resource is conferred with the responsibility of ensuring that all members of staff perform to their best ability. It could improve this area by facilitating better use of time in all departments within the organisation. Time is one of the most crucial yet intangible assets of the Company. The proper use of this resource could maximise production and achievement of organisational goals. (Harold, 2003) The Department can do this by planning activities to be carried out in the organisation. It can make schedules for the various activities that have to be done in the organisation and thus facilitate better flow of information. In addition to this, the Company can also ensure that all members of staff are held accountable for not performing a certain task. This is especially in regard to maintenance of the schedules. In so doing, human the Human Resource Department will be ensuring that employees do not simply report to work and that the time spent at work is directly proportional to output. Improving Organisational Culture The Human Resource Department can try to improve organisational culture through a three step procedure. The first step of the process is observation. In this step HR finds out what makes ups or what the company’s culture is like. HR should also be very intense on the organisational needs. Here, HR should realise that personal fulfilment works better and therefore should try to ensure that the change is relevant to every staff member. In this stage, HR should try to explain to all staff members or stakeholder the advantage of transforming the culture in the organisation. This should be made clear so that all can see the advantages at the individual level and not simply at the organizational level. Erica, 2006) Then HR should try to eliminate all inhibitions in staff member’s minds. It is possible that some may claim that they tried one or two strategies before and it did not succeed. This are what are called ‘cries of despair’ and HR should try its best to explain to staff members the need of changing the culture of the organisation. The next step is the analysis of various aspects. Here, there is collect ion of data needed in making certain that culture changes. This stage involves checking out the success features or the factors that can facilitate its success. There should be calibration of data collected. Staff members should be made to understand that there are no perfect situations for implementation of changes. The analysis should involve assessing whether the information is sensible or not. Whether data gathered will be helpful or not and if it is too little or too much. Staff members should be requested for data that will help change the culture. Of course when trying to bring in change HR Department should have perceived benefits, a deadline for execution and also the realised gains in relation to the change in culture. In this step, there should be reality checks which should be done often. There should also be continuous integration. Through this scheme HR Department should be able to change the culture in the organisation and add value to it. (Harold, 2003) Conclusion The Human Resource Management team’s main function is to manage people. There are positive and negative aspects of this function; first of all, the HR department enriches the organisation through recruitment procedures and an example an effective HR team in this area is Tesco Ireland. HR department also ensures that members of staff follow a general direction by frequently clarifying and reminding them of the organisation’s goals. Besides this, they are also responsible for organising incentives or compensation packages to motivate employees. All these functions contribute towards organisational effectiveness. However, there are some negative aspects of HR; it has to bear the burden of blame if an employee performs poorly like the Arthur Andersen Company. Besides this, some policies made by the department may be detrimental to the Company like in the Home Depot Company’s case. Improvements to their role can be done by arranging training for staff members, organising activities for the organisation and changing organisational culture. (Erica, 2006)