The Importance of respect in the military

Influential Person essays

Influential Person essays Everyone is affected by certain events or individuals. At times a drastic change can occur due to their presence and opinions. Someone might consider the influence one has and how the environment impacts his or her personality. Many people have influenced me during my life. The most influential person Ive come across has been my sister. Ever since I was a little boy I would look up to her. She was always there for me, and has set a positive example, my allowing my talents to grow. Growing up with such a strong role model, I developed many of her enthusiasms. My sister faced many challenges when she first arrived to this country. It was harder for her to become accustomed to a new language and society. She faced all the barriers that were placed in her way. When I arrived from school she would always tell me how much she missed Bolivia and how she wanted to go back. Even though her guidance counselor always gave her a hard time about her lack of academic potential, she strived to prove him and all other doubters wrong. Her actions influenced me to take the next step. This year during the summer I was suppose to attend STEP a program required for all students receiving EOF. I didnt want to come and waste my summer at school, but I saw that it would help me academically. I followed my sisters enthusiasm for learning and I am glad that I attended STEP, because it prepared me for my first semester at college. My sister has been blessed with traits some people would die for. She possesses patience and the willingness to help others. There are people that would not assist others because of their lack of patience. She made a big impact in my life by always being there when I needed her. Whenever I needed help she was there whether it was for homework or for a talk. I remember one day when I was furious about an occurrence in school. When I came home I had a negative response to ...

Rite of Passage from Childhood to Adulthood Assignment

Rite of Passage from Childhood to Adulthood - Assignment Example As the paper stresses  the Americans’ rite of passage from childhood to adulthood varies significantly from that of the Pygmies. Unlike the Americans, the Pygmies’ initiation was associated with children mimicking what adults do. The mimicking was one way of preparing the children for adult roles. After this, both boys and girls were taught about their respective roles in the society. Boys were taught how to hunt whereas girls were educated about herbs and edible fauna. Unlike the Americans, The Pygmies also circumcised their boys as a way of passage from childhood to adulthood. The last stage of transition from childhood to adulthood for the Pygmies is marriageThis study declares that the Pygmies rites of passage are very significant in life. For instance, the mimicking of adults enabled children many things pertaining adult life. The adult behaviors taught young people on how to observe societal norms. The Pygmies also regarded the teachings they taught different ge nders essential since they prepared boys and girls for their future roles in their families. The most respected rite of passage by the Pygmies is circumcision. The Pygmies believed the blood shed through circumcision enhanced blood-brotherhood. In addition to this, they believed that the circumcised men were fully prepared for the caring roles. According to Turnbull, â€Å"circumcised men are mutually obligated to help and care for each other for the rest of their lives.†

Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 4500 words

Essay Example Further, turnaround firms, in order to achieve their objectives do not entirely rely on uninterrupted, fast response time, information technology in order to achieve their objectives. Rather, their future applications play a great role in ensuring that they achieve their strategic objectives. On the other hand, factory firms heavily depend on reliable, -efficient, information technology support. It is only through highly reliable system that such firms can survive the danger of failing. However, although development applications in a factory are important in their own right, they are not entirely responsible for the success and profitability of the organization. Support firms however, do not associate performance with information technology; it has low strategic impact in their operations. Such firms rely on support systems in order to support their operations. Although they could survive for a long time without these applications, they require them to leverage their productivity. Organizations currently operate under high competitive environments. Porter argued that for an organization to survive high levels of competition, it must strategically place itself within these competitive factors (Karagiannopoulos, et al., 2005). In porter’s competitive model, he proposed five factors that would give a firm competitive advantage over other firms operating in the same industry. As porter argued, the five forces bring about industry rivalry of the existing firms. Threat of new entrants according to porter determines the ease with which customers can switch to products offered by competitors (p. 129). All industries have numerous substitute products available, and as such, factors such as price and quality contributes significantly to customers switching their products to their competitors. The ease of customers in finding a product offered by one company at a cheaper price, or higher quality goods increases the threat of

Assignment2 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Assignment2 - Essay Example Similarly, bonus banking is introduced as the latest and most powerful weapon of long-term incentives. The first part of this paper will critically scrutinise the merits and demerits of the long-term incentives system in building long-lasting relationships with customers in banking industry. The second part will deal with different issues that a sales manager would face when managing and incentivising an effective team of sales people. I Why a new Incentive system? The weakness and deficiencies of old executive compensation system led to the origin of long-term incentive system. In the old scheme, the executives were compensated regardless their performance even after banks received bailout money. Retaining them in the organization was important as they were the skippers who would lead the day to day activities. The AP review reported that banks’ top executives earned an average of $2.6 million in ‘salary, bonuses and benefits’ (The Washington Times). Majority ban ks feared about the resignation of their top executives if they were paid in accordance with business fluctuations. It is suggested that banks must give more priority to their survival than to their top executives’ retention. ... Scholars have recommended that provision of bonuses as a percentage of bank’s profit would enhance banking operations as it ensured financial flexibility of banks. Melissa Murray, a spokeswoman for Wells Fargo suggested that it was good to adopt â€Å"pay-for-performance† culture where executives are treated on the basis of their performance (Freifeld, 2009). As a response to all critics, long-term incentives system has been established. Long-term incentives Under this system, the total compensation of employees includes base pay, short-term incentives, and long-term incentives. Base pay constitutes the fixed salary given to an employee for the specified job. Similarly, short-term incentives include all types of annual incentives and ordinary commissions those earned by an employee. Coleman and Fortier (2002) opine that unlike the base pay and short-term incentives methods, the long-term incentives aim the â€Å"improvement of overall performance of the organization by linking employees’ long-term rewards to the organization’s long-term results†. It mainly includes stock options, performance units, and restricted stock. Advantages of long-term incentives The appropriate selection of long-term incentive programs assists organisation to meet its long-term objectives. In addition, the introduction of suitable long-term incentives system in banking industries will add value to the shareholders as well as banks’ customers. The major advantages of long-term incentives are described below. 1. Employee participation Berger and Berger (324) suggest that this programme facilitates the banks to share the success with its executives; and it would

Personnel management and human resource management

Personnel management and human resource management Topic â€Å"Personnel Management Human Resource Management the same wine, only different bottle†. Explain clearly, what is meant by the term human resource management, noting the differences and similarities to personnel management. Argue in favor of one approach to managing employees. Introduction In this document we plan to assess how human resource management is different from personnel management, why companies switched from personnel management system to the well known human resource management system, how is HR Management different from Personnel management, and why we chose the HR approach to employees. Human Resource Management Definition There are many definitions of what human resource management is, many people think that there is no difference between the old personnel management practices and the new human resource practices expect the new â€Å"label†, one definition that we think reflects the human resource management of today is : â€Å"Human Resource Management is a distinctive approach to employment management which seeks to achieve competitive advantage through the strategic deployment of a highly committed and capable workforce, using an integrated array of cultural, structural and personnel techniques.† Background All organisations, from small firms to giant corporations, from service companies to hi-tech organisations, engage in human resource management activities. They needs to utilise their resources effectively in order to achieve their objectives and targets. Human Resource Management is an issue of vital concern to all managers, and is the most important resource which employs all other resources to produce the desired outcome of the organisation. Thus the effective deploying of employees is a key element that adds to the competitive advantage of the firm (Molander, 1989). However, as globalisation and growing economic interdependence among nations emerged, along with rapid socio-economic changes and intensifying of the competition between organisations, the management of people increasingly became a critical issue for businesses. Therefore Personnel Management has to ensure that personnel policies and practices are geared to the objectives and strategy of the organisation in order to cope with the turbulent environment and respond to the new business needs and the external threats from the competitors. Consequently, this resulted in perpetual development and change of personnel management. In this respect the language of Human Resource Management has emerged to translate a new term for the management of employees in this active and changing world. However, the literature demonstrates a debate about the ambiguity of differentiating personnel from human resource management. Hendry (1995:55) states that: â€Å"Human Resource Management has gained rapid and widespread acceptance as a new term for managing employment. It remains, however; an ambiguous concept. People question whether it is any different from the traditional personnel management, nor it is clear what it consists in practice†. Some scholars however argue that HRM is an evolution of the process of personnel management (PM) and not a new theory of management employees, for example according to Torrington and Hall (1993:3): â€Å" personnel management is experiencing the biggest change in its history. Many commentators believed that the arrival of human resource management was to be the greatest change in emphasis, but that was no more than re-thinking the process inside the organisation..†. Similarly Guest (1987) also supports this notion by saying that label has changed whilst the content continues to be the same. On the other hand, other writers attempt to make a distinction between HRM and PM. Hendry and Pettigrew (1990:25) state that â€Å"HRM is then a perspective on personnel management, not personnel management itself†. Additionally, they argue that the strategic character of HRM is distinctive. Underpinning this distinction, Legge (1995) identifies three features differentiating HRM from PM where the former is concerned with managerial staff and promotes integrated line management activities, with more focus on senior management being involved in the management of culture. The developing countries are characterised by weak economic, legal and political institutions that lead to corruption, insecurity, conflict and lack of competitiveness in labour, technology and skills. The introduction of trade liberalisation and increased international competition in such conditions can have serious consequences for the infant industries in the developing countries (Stiglitz, 2000). However it is generally claimed that opening to the global markets increases the flow of foreign direct investment into the developing countries, allows them to catch up with the latest technology without need for considerable investment or research, bring capital into the country, build expertise, induce innovation, and thus contribute to the general economic growth. Francois and Schuknecht (2000) provide some empirical evidence that openness to global markets leads to GDP growth. These findings are of course challenged by others. The Term â€Å"Human Resource† comes from 2 different fields, in political economy and economics it is known as labor and it is one of the four factors of production for any establishment. Nowadays â€Å"human resource† is one of the most important departments in any organization, compared to the old days where human resource was seen as a marginal department, where improvement and strategic planning wasnt needed. The Human Resource System started back in the 19th, where two important movements occurred that changed the way companies and industries would treat their workforce, the first two companies in the 19th to do so were Cadbury and Bournville that recognized the importance of looking after their employees, and their families by offering them benefits or services that would help them in their daily work. After the second world war, major companies in the USA that just emerged in the market, started hiring personnel from the military and thus where able to apply new, selections, training, leadership and management development. The role of Human Resource Management shifted throughout the middle of the 20th century, when critics started saying that two different HR systems where created, the â€Å"soft† and â€Å"hard† systems, where the soft HR system focused on areas such as leadership, cohesion, and loyalty which was seen as an important role in the organization, and the â€Å"hard† side which was the old system of the human resource where organizations still viewed human resource as a marginal department that didnt need improvement and strategic planning, and that employees would be used as commodities. Purpose and Role The purpose and role of human resource management is to maximize the return on investment of the organization from the human capital and to minimize its financial risk, Human resource seeks to achieve the organizations goals and objective by hiring skilled and qualified individuals and by aligning the capabilities of the current workforce, the human resource department must support and respect the workforce and take into account legal and ethical practices. Key Functions The key functions of human resource are to set strategic planning and develop policies and systems to be implemented in a whole range of areas in the organization, such as the following: Recruitment and Selection Organizational design and development Performance, conduct and behavior management Industrial and employee relations Management of workforce personnel data Compensation, rewards and benefits management Training and development Trends and Influences In order for the Human Resource function to know the business environment in which the organization operates, it needs to take into calculation three major trends. Demographics The characteristics of a workforce or population such as gender, age or social status need to taken into consideration, the result of this trend may have an effect on the organization and its policies toward the workforce/employees, such as pension offerings, insurance packages and so on. Diversity The diversity within a workforce or population might also affect the organization and its policies, by diversity we mean race, gender, sexual orientation and so on. As an example organizations of today might notice that the majority of the workforce is made up of â€Å"baby-boomers† or older employees, so the focus of their benefits and policies might also change. Skills and qualifications As todays organizations and industries go from a manual to a more managerial focus, so does the need of organizations to hire highly skilled graduates, in a tight market, meaning that there arent many employees or workforce, organizations and companies might compete for employees by offering them different benefits or rewards. Structure Human resource development is the main structure of this function, where employees are viewed by organizations as assets rather than commodities, where developing the workforce will benefit greatly the organization, and allows its workforce for individual development, where the employee, organization and nation will benefit from this. â€Å"Human resources primary focus is in the growth and employee developmentit emphasizes developing individual potential and skills†. (Elwood, Olton and Trott 1996) Ethical Management This new Human resource practices and function is seen today as a more ethical approach to employee management, where the organization is trying to grow its employees skills and knowledge, rather than using its workforce as commodities, that can be replaced anytime. Differences and Similarities to Personnel Management There have been many debates about whether Personnel Management and Human Resource management is the same thing, just with a different name, but after some research into this matter people came up with some differences between the two functions. Human resource management is focused more on long-term planning, where organizations develop and train their employees for the future benefit of the company, where Personnel management is focused on the short-term planning where employees are treated just as commodities and arent given any or slim training in their respective field, In the planning process human resource management focuses on a proactive and integrated strategic planning, where the department plans for the future of employees and its organization, where personnel management has a more reactive and marginal approach to planning, meaning that organizations that plan to use personnel management see this department as a marginal, not so important and doesnt accord any strategic planning to it. The psychological contract of human resources is focused on commitment, where employees will become committed to their work, throw development of skills or career, thus increasing productivity within the organization, in the other hand, personnel management focuses on compliance, where employees are seen as commodities and are required to do their job and tasks as they are given by the manager without room for personal development. The employee relation in this two workforce management systems are totally different, in human resource management the relation between the employer and the employees is seen as one of the most important in the organization, where employees are the asset of the company, there is high trust between the employer and the employees and they are treated in a unitarist and individual way; where in personnel management, employee relation is focused on a pluralist and collective system, where the organization or personnel management has low trust toward his employees, treating them in a collective perspective. The structure and system of the two functions are different too, where human resources structure is more organic, where teamwork is the focus for the workforce, meaning that the organization takes into consideration the needs of their employees, where the main focus for the organization is the workforce and not the product or service, where in personnel management the spotlights are on the product or service and the its structure is more Bureaucratic, meaning the needs and wants of employees are not taken into consideration by the organization, with pre-defined roles for each employee, and its system is centralized, compared to the human resources individual system and its flexible roles offered to their employees. These two functions are evaluated in different ways too, where in human resource management evaluation is done throw maximum utilization, where organization try to maximize their employee potential rather than cost minimization like in personnel management. Our Point of View For those who recognize a difference between personnel management and human resources, the difference can be described as philosophical. Personnel management is more administrative in nature, dealing with payroll, complying with employment law, and handling related tasks. Human resources, on the other hand, are responsible for managing a workforce as one of the primary resources that contributes to the success of an organization. Our point of view regarding which of these two approaches to employee management is better, is that human resource management is better in the long-run, where personnel management would have an advantage in the short-term and in some industries like manufacturing where people posses no or low skills and knowledge; after reading both meaning and seeing their differences and similarities in their practices we can say that human resources has a more ethical approach to employees and that productivity and performance can be increased throw this function rather than by using personnel management. We chose human resource management because more and more employee are looking for a workplace where their work and family can be related, where he feels needed and where the organization will help him develop his skills and knowledge, throw training and coaching. To some people it might sound like there is no difference between the two functions, as it was said â€Å"the same wine, only different bottle†, but we dont agree with this statement since it can be seen clearly that its a â€Å"new wine, in the same bottle† where the â€Å"wine† defines how the function is structured and what it focuses on and the â€Å"bottle† meaning the organizations goals and objective, as we can see from many big companies like McDonalds or Burger King, human resource management is the way to go. Personnel management can be simply explained as â€Å"Play by rules†. There would be some pre-determined laws, rules and regulations which are supposed to be followed by the workers. If not followed reprimands and punishments would follow. This type of management is best suited for manufacturing industries where the employee education level is low and they are in need of personnel to manage them. On the other hand, human resource management is a type of management where the employees are considered as one of the assets of the company. They are not just considered as means of producing something but they are considered as the key role in the organizations operation. More importance is given to the people than to the rules and regulations here. This set up works well in service based industries where creativity, customer service, knowledge, ideas are employed. When a difference between personnel management and human resources is recognized, human resources are described as much broader in scope than personnel management. Human resources is said to incorporate and develop personnel management tasks, while seeking to create and develop teams of workers for the benefit of the organization. A primary goal of human resources is to enable employees to work to a maximum level of efficiency. Personnel management is often considered an independent function of an organization. Human resource management, on the other hand, tends to be an integral part of overall company function. Personnel management is typically the sole responsibility of an organizations personnel department. With human resources, all of an organizations managers are often involved in some manner, and a chief goal may be to have managers of various departments develop the skills necessary to handle personnel-related tasks. References Cornelius, N. (2001). Human Resource Management. Cornwall: Thomson Learning. G.N, M. (2006). Human Resource Development. New York: John Wiley and Sons. Raffle, J. (2004). Advances in Developing Human Resources Vol 6. Boston: HR Learning. SHRM. (2008, August 23). Society for Human Resource Management. Retrieved March 14, 2010, from SHRM: http://www.shrm.org

Mother Jones :: essays research papers

Mary Harris Jones Mary Harris was born on May 1, 1830. She was born near Cork, Ireland. Her father got into some political trouble and had to move the family to Canada when she was eight years old. After high school Mary decided she wanted to be a schoolteacher and later moved to Tennessee in 1861. That is when she met George Jones and they got married. He was an Iron Molder like her father. In 1868, Marry Harris Jones’ lost her entire family to yellow fever. She was 37 years old and it killed her four children and her husband. It had swept Memphis where they lived. After this happened to her, Mary moved to Chicago to become a seamstress. Before she could get her little shop going a fire burnt down her business and her house with all of her belongings in 1871. Mary was having an awful time but managed to keep on trying. She finally got a job working with people who wanted to get decent wages and have their working environment improved. She also tried to stop child labor. Her work involved making speeches, recruiting members and organizing soup kitchens and women's auxiliary groups during strikes. Mary Jones later became an official for the United Mine Worker’s Union. She was in her sixties at this time and everyone knew her as Mother Jones. She was also known as a hell raiser and called the Most Dangerous Women in the World. The establishment types she battled had less flattering things to say about her. On the floor of the House of Representatives she was branded a ''notorious and troublesome woman.† Mary became a member of the Industrial Workers World. This is also known as the Wobblies. Mary Jones traveled the country helping workers to form themselves into unions. In 1908 Jones played a leading role in the mine strike in Paint Creek, West Virginia. During the strike, men employed by the mine-owners machine-gunned the strikers and their families. Mary was accused of being involved in this act and when one of the guards was murdered she was thrown in jail with a twenty-year sentence.