National Security Strategy Comparison

Mid-Term Essay – Compare/Contrast European Security Strategy (ESS) with US National Security Strategy (NSS) By James E. McDonald Regional/Cultural Studies Lesson 03 24 Mar 2013 Instructor: Col (ret) Frank Belote Air Command and Staff College Distance Learning Maxwell AFB, AL The Security Strategy of the United States has marked similarities and differences to the Security Strategy of Europe. This can be effectively traced to the similarities and differences between the two cultures themselves, particularly in the cultural factors of religion, modernization, ethnicity/nationalism, and geography.The US and Europe have different responses to the modernization of warfare from traditional (ships, armies, tanks, aircraft) to â€Å"asymmetrical† (terrorism, cyber-warfare), largely from differences in geography: With the notable exceptions of Pearl Harbor and the World Trade Center, our enemy threat has been thousands of miles away, while Europe has seen two bloody â€Å"world wars† and acts of terror committed right on home soil.However, for the purposes of this paper, I will focus on religion and ethnicity/nationalism, and how these two factors affect strategic culture. Culture is important. It defines what’s important to a group, or nation. It emerges in stated doctrine, laws, strategy. It defines who we ARE. There are common views, interests, priorities, and verbiage in both Security Strategic documents. Major powers are at peace. The world economy has grown; globalism is increasingly important. We must reduce dependency on foreign energy.We have a commitment to alliance with each other (US and Europe) via NATO (Obama, 2010, 1-9) (European Security Strategy, 2003, 2-14). NATO has made a strong tie between the US and Europe since it was created to contain the Soviets, integrating Europe and the United States politically and militarily (Friedman, 2011, 1). In fact, â€Å"For any kind of military planning and operations with regard to Russ ia, the Europeans will prefer to act through NATO rather than the EU. † (Valesek, 2008, 1)In contrast to the above commonalities, the United States document, while acknowledging that â€Å"no one nation—no matter how powerful—can meet global challenges alone†, repeatedly shows glimpses of â€Å"Nationalist† overtones with statements such as, â€Å"Our country possesses the attributes that have supported our leadership for decades—sturdy alliances, an unmatched military, the world’s largest economy, a strong and evolving democracy, and a dynamic citizenry. † (Obama, 2010, 1-9). The European document, on the other hand, openly and repeatedly calls for â€Å"Unification† and â€Å"Cooperation† (European Security Strategy, 2003, 1-8).The United States can draw from European religious history and ethnic origin, which gives it some cultural similarities. At the same time, the birth of our nation was so much more recent, and so dramatically different from the beginning of European history, that it’s no wonder there are fundamental differences in culture. Even before the Declaration of Independence (â€Å"God† and â€Å"truth† referenced) or the US Constitution were drafted (â€Å"freedom of religion†), early America was rooted in Christianity. The first Pilgrims fled religious persecution in Europe.Christian doctrine has been quoted in speeches given by American leaders from the beginning (Governor John Walthrop, Massachusetts Governor, 1630), to recent/present-day Presidents (Reagan, GW Bush, Obama), The United States has been referred to as something â€Å"different†, a shining example all the world to see and emulate, a â€Å"city on a hill†. (Walthrop, 1630, 1). America, from its beginnings to today, while welcoming diversity, continues to be a predominately Christian culture, allowing for religious overtones in national documents (mostly visible through reference to â€Å"values†, and â€Å"truth†).Europe on the other hand, in its challenge to unify the 27 countries that form the European Union (Rosenberg, 2011, 1), must tread lightly so as not to alienate or anger any portion of the contemporary combination of Christian, Muslim, and â€Å"Secular† cultures (Rubenstein, 2011, 1). Both the US and Europe are ethnically and racially diverse. Many marvel at the ability to retain direction and focus in the face of such diversity. Early America molded immigrants into a â€Å"melting pot†, mixing historical roots into a soup that became distinctly â€Å"American†.Nowadays, the preference is to hold on to ethnic differences and describe the result as a â€Å"mosaic† or â€Å"salad bowl† – separate pieces that, when viewed as a whole, create a larger picture (Branigin, 1998). In spite of this recent shift to retain ethnic individuality, America seems to successfully categorize this in to its frontiersman â€Å"rugged individualist† mentality, yet in shunning division along racial lines, manages to successfully embrace all groups into a sense of singular â€Å"nationalism†.Europe on the other hand, struggles to balance 27 nations, each with their own sense of nationalism, without giving significant preference to any one culture. The ultimate impact of these religious and ethnic/nationalistic differences is that, yes, the US National Security Strategy reads differently than the European Security Strategy. The variance in background results in different wording and stance, different reasons for why we do what we do, and the desired result. This can cause misunderstanding, and even distrust between these two great entities.However, it’s important to conclude that overall, we BOTH have the same ultimate intent: a continued commitment to trans-atlantic relationship, globalized economy, reduced dependency on foreign energy, and, most importantly, pe ace and security to our world (Obama, 2010, 1-9) (European Security Strategy, 2003, 2-14). In conclusion, many world researchers (including Samuel P Huntington in his map of â€Å"The World of Civilizations†), when identifying cultural categories in the world, group the US, Canada, Greenland, Western Europe, Australia and New Zealand as â€Å"the West† (Huntington, 1997, 26).Due to the emphasis on strong religious roots, belief in right, manifest destiny, and ethnic diversity in the United States, our stated objectives and self-identified role in the world is unique. However, overall, European – US strategy and culture are not so remarkably different. BIBLIOGRAPHY Branigin, William, â€Å"The Myth of the Melting Pot: America’s Racial and Ethnic Divides. Immigrants Shunning Idea of Assimilation† (Washington, DC: Washington Post, 25 May 1998), http://www. washingtonpost. com/wp-srv/national/longterm/meltingpot/melt0525a. htmEuropean Security Strategy , A Secure Europe in a Better World, (Brussels, 12 December 2003), 2-14 Friedman, George, â€Å"The Crisis of Europe and European Nationalism† (Austin, TX: StratFor Global Intelligence, 13 September 2011), 1, http://www. stratfor. com/weekly/20110912-crisis-europe-and-european-nationalism Huntington, Samuel P. , â€Å"The World of Civilizations† The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order (New York, NY: Touchstone, 1997), 26-27 Obama, Barack, National Security Strategy (Washington, DC: Whitehouse Archives, 2010), 1-9Rosenberg, Matt, â€Å"European Union Countries† (About. com, 09 December 2011), 1, http://geography. about. com/od/lists/a/eumembers. htm Rubenstein, Richard L. , â€Å"Islam and Christianity: The Roots of Europe’s Religious Identity† (New English Review, December 2011), 1, http://www. newenglishreview. org/custpage. cfm/frm/102790/sec_id/102790 Valesek, Tomas, â€Å"Europe’s Defence and its New Security Strategy † (Center for European Reform Bulletin: London, England, Dec 2007-Jan 2008), 1, http://gees. org/documentos/Documen-02705. pdf Walthrop, John, â€Å"Modell of Christian Charity† (Massachusetts, 1630), 1,

Modern Day Cinderella Story

My Modern-Day Cinderella Story P3 Language Arts It was pouring outside. Not just pouring, that word doesn’t suffice how much water was aimlessly falling from the sky and crashing to the ground with every footstep that Ella Kess took on her way home. Today was the day that seven years ago her parents died in a plane crash over the Atlantic Ocean. It was strange, how she had to live on after the death, but she pulled through with the help of her best friend Kylee Lainer. She would have been okay this year too but they were not friends anymore.They had grown up together, friends since age three but when they reached high school Kylee became a different person, got new friends, and left Ella alone. After their breakup as BFFLs, Ella’s so called friends dropped like flies. She figured it was because they liked Kylee not her, but this didn’t bother Ella, she never liked them anyway. She reached her uncles condo right before the thunder started to roar. She dashed in th e building and walked right over to the elevator without bothering to say hello to the front desk manager, Gary, who had been her mentor since her parent’s death.He was an older guy, probably in his 70’s, but he knew a lot and told her stories of when he was a child and these things kept her calm. She knew he would understand that she didn’t want to talk. Ella pushed the up button and the elevator doors opened. She walked in and saw Drew Hawthorne. Drew just wasn’t ANY guy, she had liked him ever since he stole her crayons in kindergarten. He threw a lopsided smile in her way and said â€Å"hey†. â€Å"Hi† was the best she could muster. Conversation wasn’t her thing, especially right here, right now. The trip from the lobby up to the penthouse level seemed like it would go on forever.Drew had lived in the other penthouse since about the time her parents died. Ella was convinced that one day they would get married and have three childr en, two girls and one boy. She had already named them anyway. Her fairytale ended right when the Kylee, knowing that Ella and Drew we’re in the pre-dating stage (in other words, neither of them we’re planning on asking the other out), asked Drew out herself. Kylee and Drew are still going out. The elevator finally made it to the top level of the high end condos and made a stop. â€Å"See you around. , Ella,† Drew said. â€Å"Um, yeah.Have a nice weekend,† Ella replied trying to sound cheerful and happy. Tonight was the fairy queen parade. She never bothered to enter the contest, she just enjoyed watching the catty girls bring each other’s confidence down and argue over what color lipstick looks best on who. This year was going to be even more interesting because her two step-cousins, Regina and Carly, we’re entering. She would have too, but they made it clear that that wasn’t happening anytime soon. She walked past the kitchen and gra bbed an apple on the way to her room. Her room was her sanctuary, her favorite place in the whole entire world.It had amazing views of the city, Seattle, and from here she could pretend that she was on top of the world. â€Å"Can you like stop being so depressed, Ella. I swear to god if you ruin this weekend for Regina and me, you will suffer,† Carly hissed at her on the way to her own room. â€Å"Carly, don’t be so mean to her! † Regina snapped. Regina is probably the closest thing to a sister Ella never had. She can be mean, but hey, at least she tries to be her friend. â€Å"Carly, chill. I’m not even entering and even if I was I doubt I would win,† Ella yelled to Carly down the hall. Regina came in and sat on her bed. Ella, I know that you just want to feel like you belong†¦ and you do,† Regina said trying to cover up any of the pain she sees on Ella’s face. â€Å"Yeah, whatever. † She shot back, knowing that sheâ€℠¢ll get the signal. Ella didn’t want to talk. As she sat and thought about how much she wanted to enter, the desire got greater. Only one problem†¦ she didn’t have a thing. She decided to go down to the lobby and ask Gary for advice. He would surely know what to do in a situation like this. â€Å"Hey Gary,† she said while trying to decided how to ask about all this without sounding needy. I need†¦ a favor. † â€Å"Hello there dear! Finally decided to enter the contest, eh? I knew you would and that is exactly why old Gary made a couple of calls and got you everything you needed, And remember kid, you go out there and win that thing and Drew will be yours. † It’s like he read her mind. He knew exactly what she needed and why. This is why she liked Gary so much. But how’d he know about Drew? â€Å"Gary, thank you so much. But, how’d you know about Drew? † â€Å"It’s extremely obvious. Now run along! † and with that he handed her a large box.She got back up to her room and with excitement bubbling in her blood she threw open the lid. Her mouth dropped. She reached in and pulled out the most beautiful blue dress her emerald eyes had ever seen. It wasn’t just any dress; it fit her body like a glove. The dark blue satin shined as she walked over to her mirror. The dress was elegant from head to toe. She walked back over to her bed and looked inside the box, discovering the silver heels, diamond necklace, and blue hair pin. This must have been Gary’s wife’s clothing. She died of cancer awhile back†¦Ella guessed he never really got over it. â€Å"I look like a princess,† Ella thought aloud. She knew it was time to go now or she would miss the whole thing so she grabbed her mom’s silver shawl and headed out. Once she got to the parade, any bit of confidence she might have had, vanished. She didn’t know a thing about being pretty and she s ure as heck wasn’t going to start learning now. â€Å"No. I’m not doing this,† Ella said to herself. But it was too late. From across the street she saw Carly and the other girls looking straight at her, the envy clear in their eyes. â€Å"GET OUT OF HERE!!! † screamed Carly.Gasps and awes escaped the mouths of the jealous contestants and Ella knew she needed to leave right then. She turned on her heels and ran, tears streaming down her face. She got so flustered and so panicked that to prevent her from being there any longer, took down her hair and threw her heels and blue hair pen on the sidewalk. She didn’t care who found them. And then she heard a voice. â€Å"Ella! Wait, stop running! † the voice yelled. She immediately recognized it as Drew’s. Her Drew. She looked back, tears now streaming down her face and gave him the best smile she could. And then she was gone.The next morning, Ella woke up to the sound of Carly’s voic e drifting in from the kitchen. â€Å"I can’t believe she showed up AND ACTUALLY LOOKED PRETTY! † Carly yelled â€Å"Well, you know it was bound to happen. I saw Drew looking the whole time. I went over there this morning and he said that he found a blue pin and silver shoes. He’s confident they belong to her, after all he went psycho on Facebook messaging almost every girl. † Regina said. â€Å"He was looking for me† Ella thought. The next morning Ella decided to go down to Starbucks. She headed out into the hallway and pushed the down button.And there he was, Drew, leaning calmly against the elevator railing. â€Å"Great,† Ella said under her breath. â€Å"You looked beautiful, Ella. I don’t know why you left,† And with that he pulled out the silver shoes and blue pin from behind his back. â€Å"I believe these are yours, are they not? † Drew said flashing his lopsided smile. â€Å"Uh, yeah thank you† Ella stamm ered. â€Å"I broke up with Kylee† Drew choked out. And in that moment when they were both staring at each other intently, Drew realized she was his Cinderella and he was her Prince Charming. â€Å"I’ll buy you that drink if you be my girlfriend,† Drew teased. The End

Performance Appraisal – Running Over Town-Terry Popple, A Little Time- Beautiful South, and Sweet Georgia Brown- B.Bernie/M. Pinkard/K. Casey

The three pieces I have studied are: 1. Running Over Town-Terry Popple 2. A Little Time- Beautiful South 3. Sweet Georgia Brown- B.Bernie/M. Pinkard/K. Casey I have decided to perform Running Over Town for my performance piece. This song is a country- rock. The main feature of this piece is the changing mood of the song. The drum kit makes an impact with the well- placed fills and the different beats used. The fills used paradidles and double strokes. The song has a good ABAC structure. The use of a rim click and the bell of the cymbal adds to the feel of the piece and makes it stand out. When I performed this I added three stroke ruffs in the fills and adapted them to how I thought would sound best. This is what the composer tells you to do in the piece Using a drum kit, bass guitar, lead guitar and a keyboard gives the song a fairly thick texture and a range of instruments. The dynamics used on the drum kit emphasise the main parts of the song, where the theme changes and where the song is developed. In this piece I think that the range of my instrument is fully explored because a variety of fills are used. Also, more than one voice is played. These voices are: * the cymbal – as well as hitting it normally the bell of the cymbal is used * the snare drum – it is hit with the snare on and a rim click is also played * the hi-hat – it is played closed and open. Therefore the drum kit has been explored and various different sounds are produced. Three special performing techniques are used in this piece. The first is the opening of the hi-hat which produces a splash sound which cannot be made anywhere else on the kit. The second is the playing of the bell of the cymbal which adds to the different sounds coming from the cymbals. Lastly the rim click is used which helps convey the mood and theme of the piece. This piece is originally composed for the drum kit and has not been arranged for it. My instrument relates to the others in the ensemble by playing the rhythm and keeping the time. It adds to the texture of the piece and influences the whole sound when all the instruments play as one. It is vital to the piece as it would not sound right with out it because someone needs to play the rhythm. The links between my performance piece and the others that I have studied is that they all use rim clicks throughout the song to enhance the sound of the piece. This is also a performing technique that is required to give the desired effect while playing the piece. In my performance piece I also had to splash the hi-hat, use varied fills, play on the bell of a cymbal and add dynamics. All these are performance techniques that the composer has decided to use. The first two pieces use regular eighth note grooves with a backbeat on 1 and 3. This is common of rock music. But the third piece is a jazz piece which uses an advanced jazz groove which involves triplets, as all jazz grooves do. The expectation of the pieces affects the way they are composed. If the audience was expecting a slow piece performed by an orchestra then the composer would have to change his or her ideas and add more instruments. For example, the composer might slow the piece down and replace the drum kit or guitar with a string section of the orchestra. The pieces would also be performed differently in that the performers may feel like playing the piece faster because the audience prefers energetic music. All of my chosen pieces are notated in the same way but not composed in the same way as they are all different styles of music. The first piece is a country- rock piece so is played with a jerky guitar and has quite a fast tempo (allegro). Also it has a piano playing the main melody. The second piece is rock and sounds a lot like the first but it uses string instruments instead of the guitar and it also uses a keyboard to play the melody. Unlike the others the song has two singers. At the beginning it sounds like the first piece as it uses a keyboard, a rim click and a groove similar to the drummer in the first piece. The third piece is a lot different as it is a different style of music. It is a jazz piece so the drummer uses a jazz groove which is played using triplets unlike the two other drummers. A keyboard is used in this piece but is used in a different way to the others, and it doesn't play the melody all the way through. There is a double bass in this and a saxophone along with a keyboard and a drum kit. My Performance When I performed my piece under exam conditions in front of the two music teachers I think that it went well, because when I played the grooves in the piece I played them smoothly and correctly. Also, when I performed I played confidently and made few mistakes although, to keep the rhythm perfect I thought that I would have played better with the backing track so I could hear when the rhythm changed by listening to the other instruments. I also think that I added the dynamics well and played at the right tempo. The fills that I added also fitted the piece and added extra to the overall sound of the piece. I think my performance was played as the composer intended it to be played as I had played along with a backing track while practicing and this helped me to play the right sort of style. I also think that this was played in the same style and theme as the composer had intended. There were a few special features in my performance piece. There was a rim click which was used in a certain groove which enhanced the piece as it suited the country style. Along with this I played the bell of the ride cymbal. Another technique I used was splashing the hi-hat. This is when you take your foot off the hi-hat and play it with your hand as the hi-hat is being released. I think that I handled the difficult bars with ease as I decided to play a piece that I could handle instead of one that I would make mistakes in because it was too hard. I might have improved the piece by playing it with headphones to help me keep in time as I didn't have the backing track on and therefore I could have enhanced the sound because I would be playing with a better rhythm and style. Overall, I think I performed my piece well and gave a memorable and convincing performance, but there is room for improvement. Composition Brief My composition brief is to compose a piece that shows the different uses of a rim click in three or more genres of music. I also hope to show that the drum kit has been explored in my composition and that it has been used to its full potential. I am going to use rim clicks in: basic quarter, eighth and sixteenth note rock grooves; shuffles; Latin and jazz grooves. Along with the grooves I am going to add some fills. I am also hoping to add dynamics and texture to the piece as at the beginning it will start with only one hand playing the kit and then increase to using all my limbs. I am going to use techniques that I have studied and liked. This brief relates to the pieces that I have studied as it uses a rim click which is what my three chosen pieces have in common. I am going to expand, develop and explore this technique in my composition. This is in all the three pieces I have studied but I particularly liked it in the first piece (Running Over Town). I am going to use this technique in jazz and shuffle grooves which both revolve around triplet feels. I have used the jazz grooves from the third piece but have made them simpler and added my own style to them. The rock grooves are played straight and do not need as much care as the other grooves. These I have taken from the second piece I have studied as I think that they are very affective. Also, the Latin bossa nova groove does the same thing. This is just something I want to add because I think that it will give the composition a wide range of genres. I intend to use a few special techniques in my composition which include using ghost notes (which is when you play a note quieter than the others), a rim click, splashing the hi-hat and hitting the bell of the cymbal. Using these techniques would help me fulfil my composition brief as it would show how the drum kit is being used at its full potential.

Eleven by Sandra Cisneros Essay

The message that the short story Eleven by Sandra Cisneros tells is that even though you get older you’re still all the same ages you were before. Rather you be five and have to sit on you’re moms lap because you’re scared or when you’re 10 and you might say something stupid. Sandra uses the element imagery quite a bit in her short story. â€Å"†¦When I put one arm through one sleeve of the sweater that smells like cottage cheese, and then the other arm through the other and stand there with my arms apart like if the sweater hurts me and it does, all itchy and full of germs that aren’t even mine.   This particular sentence really describes how awful the sweater must be, she says that one arm of the sleeve smells like cottage cheese and the other is itchy and full of germs that aren’t even hers. The mental image I got from that was a sweater that was a big, ugly, and smelly heap of a very itchy red sweater. Another element of voice Sandra uses is diction. â€Å"Only today I wish I didn’t have only eleven years rattling inside me like pennies in a tin Band-Aid box.   This example of diction was one that would stick out the rest of the story. Instead of saying I wish I were older than 11, Sandra uses diction to emphasize how much she would love to be older than 11. All in all Sandra does an incredible job throughout the book in using elements of voice to portray Rachel, not only did she uses imagery and diction but she used detail, syntax, and tone. She very nicely described how all people will revert back to past ages. Overall, she uses many elements of voice to depict the message of this story.

Information about the KU Writing and Math Centers Essay

Thank you for your letter asking me about studying at Kaplan University. This is very nice place and students feel here very comfortable and confident as they have plenty of possibilities to learn as many new skills as they may want and have time for. To make life of its students a little simpler, the University has established two Centers, which offer a large variety of services. That is why I am writing to you to give all necessary information about the system of student assistance at Kaplan University. The University two Centers are always ready to provide the students with any relevant assistance. There is the Kaplan University Writing Center and the Kaplan University Math Center which are both very helpful during the study. For example, you are working on any writing task like research, survey or just essay you may find it useful to attend Writing Center. This Center purpose is to help students develop their writing skills and technique. The Center staff has developed particular guidance sections outlining basic steps of working on writing task. There are four sections for those who are looking for grammar help or advice on more advanced level of idea generation. The section with the APA writing style guidance is there to help students make their work have a decent scientific style and be free of plagiarism. All these guidance sections are in PDF file format and can be downloaded or printed as often as you need. Writing Center may also give a feedback to your written work. For that you will have to submit your paper by clicking a yellow notepad icon. Once your paper is reviewed, which usually takes about 2 days, you receive an e-mail message and may get the reviewed paper by downloading it from the submission page. In case you are toiling at some math problems and need somebody to give you essential hints or just want to train your knowledge University Math Center is there to help you. As well as Writing Center, Math Center provides with the wide range of information starting from elementary math operations to the complicated equations solving. You can get not only information on certain math problems but also train you solving skills and check your progress either in a particular area or on the whole module. There are specific mathematics modules dealing with particular math operations, so you can work on them one by one or choose any in which you prefer to improve you knowledge. It has to be pointed out that the Centers have the option of communication with a tutor. Thus, Writing Center has a live-chat option where you can meet your tutor and ask him/her any questions related to your written work. However, you won’t have to ask about spelling or grammar issues, while the purpose of such instruction session is to give you more essential help and make your writing skills more advanced and efficient so that you can use them in your further study. Such live sessions are available for 15 hours per week from Monday to Wednesday in the evenings (6 pm -11 pm ET). Math Center Tutor is available also in the evenings from 8 pm to 11 pm on the same days plus Thursday. Just same as writing instructors math tutor will not solve or check your problems or equations; he/she will try to make you comprehend modules concepts and acquire necessary solving skills. I must admit that both University Centers are extremely helpful for those who want to be a better student. The principle of their assistance service is not to do the work for you but to teach you essential techniques and fundamental skills, basing on which one can make progress in study and achieve successful results. Their aim is your clear understanding of the learning material and ability of self-sufficient work. Unfortunately, I have not been for a long time here, and I have not had a chance to use any of these centers yet. However, the time when I’ll have to write my research is approaching and I plan to visit Writing Center soon. What I hope to get there is the information of what are the effective ways of collecting information, thesis formulation, arguments development and other essential points to write an outstanding paper. I am sure center instructors will be of indispensable assistance to me as I am a freshman and I’d advice this service to all my mates. I hope you will find this information useful and in case you need more information, please feel free to contact me. Sincerely, Full Name (insert your full name here) Class and Section Number (insert your class and section number here)

Marginal Analysis Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 1

Marginal Analysis - Essay Example Please revise with a more specific explanation. Please revise to include a clear and direct relationship between marginal revenue and total revenue. B.1. The submission does not provide an adequate explanation of the relationship between marginal cost and total cost. Please revise to include a clear and direct relationship between marginal cost and total cost. F.1. The essay does not clearly explain what a firm would do with respect to output decisions if marginal revenue is less than marginal cost. Please revise to address whether the firm should increase or decrease production. Definition. Marginal revenue is defined as the additional revenue obtained from selling one more unit of the good that he produces (William Boyes and Melvin, Michael, 2002, p. 202-205). To better understand it, let us present it in the form of a graph.(see graph l) We have here a demand graph showing the quantity of a certain item the consumers are willing to buy at a certain price. At price of $10, people are willing to buy 100 pcs. Total revenue $1000 It is blue area under the demand curve. People will not buy more if the price is increased, and in order to sell more, price must be dropped. It is important to be aware of the demand curve to understand the marginal revenue because it will show how much the producer needs to lower the price in order to sell another item. Demand curve is the slope going down (D) The relationship that exists between the two is the additional revenue that is given by producing another unit of production. It can further be related as the unit revenue the last item has sold , or how much is the contribution to revenue of the last item sold The causaL relationship that exist is for each item sold, marginal profit = marginal revenue – marginal cost. And if MR IS greater than MC at a certain point of output, then profit is positive; and the same relationship exists when MR is less than MC result is

Managing people and organisations - Strategic human resource Essay

Managing people and organisations - Strategic human resource management - Essay Example On the other hand, outsourcing persists in the 21st century because it ensures that non-core functions of an organisation are carried out by external parties and this allows a business to focus on its core commitments (Morgan, 2008 p26). This means that in the conflict between human resource challenges and the role outsourcing will exist into the foreseeable future. This paper examines the elements, features and components of outsourcing in the context of human resource management. It analyses the unexpected costs and competitions that arises from outsourcing. It does examine the failures of outsourcing, challenges of outsourcing in relation to human resource strategy alignments as well as the tangible and intangible consequences of outsourcing. The paper will also touch on other aspects of human capital that is affected by outsourcing like the learning and development of employees in relation to innovation, job security matters as well as contractual issues and matters. 2.0 Alignmen t of HR Strategies and Patterns in Outsourcing Outsourcing intervenes in the overall strategy of an organisation as well as specific departments of organisations. Firms choose to outsource components of their operations because of some cost advantages and/or strategic benefits. The advantages that outsourcing brings to an organisation include; allowing staff to focus on their core areas, attainment of key strategic objectives, lowering and stabilising costs, responsiveness to market conditions and reductions in costs (Kleim, 1999: Quinn, 1999). In spite of these advantages, outsourcing comes with some inherent costs and obvious disadvantages which can affect the overall strategy of an organisation. This include over-dependence on outsiders, hidden costs and contract issues, loss of control and motivational/commitment issues on the part of employees from the external firm (Currie & Willcocks, 1997). The costs and benefits of outsourcing are quite enormous. Although some of them are o bvious, others are hidden. These dynamics have a strong and significant effect on the human resource strategy of an organisation. 2.1 Elements of HR Strategy Human Resource strategy is a component of corporate strategy. It involves three main elements: 1. Long term plans 2. It affects the whole organisation and 3. It involves top level managers (Tribus, 1987). This implies that human resource strategy is determined by senior management of an organisation like directors and other senior HR executives in the organisation. In the practical sense, HR strategy is the concern of the Human Resource Manager and it is determined by the wider views and strategies of the CEO and the Board of Directors. Additionally, the activities of some of the committees of the board of directors affect the components and operation of the human resource unit of a business. Secondly, HR strategy has long term implications. In other words it involves plans and policies that are created for a period of over 7 y ears. This include blueprints on how employee concerns must be identified and resolved. Furthermore, HR strategy affects the entire organisation. The strategic plans and objectives of the HR department are meant to determine the actions of different parts of the organisation including the various employees and management. Human resource management intervenes with organisational strategy,

Energy Resource Plan Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 1

Energy Resource Plan - Essay Example This fact makes public discourse on the subject all the more important. As a rule, renewable energy sources have many advantages over non-renewable ones. For example, a very widely used energy resources is petroleum. Given the scarcity of this resource, not only is it economically unviable in the long term, but highly malefic to environmental health. The carbon monoxide emissions from automobiles that run on refined petroleum pose serious health consequents to life on earth. On the other hand, tapping energy inherent in natural phenomena is a more prudent way of energy consumption. For example, hydro-electric power generation, wind-mill based energy creation, energy derived from bio-mass, etc. are not only less harsh on the environment, but are sustainable in the long term too. There are many ways in which each of us can help conserve energy. A simple example would be car-pooling and using public transportation for most commuting purposes. This would cut down on the amount of energy consumed by the community. Secondly, significant reduction in energy consumption could be achieved by adopting scientific approaches to building houses, especially in regard to heating and cooling systems. Also, all energy run appliances in the house like the air-conditioners, washing machines, refrigerators, etc., can all be made more energy efficient by applying a few basic conservation principles. In light of growing concerns regarding depletion of energy resources and their negative impact on environment and health, the government’s role has become a very important one. Unless strict regulations are imposed on industries and other commercial enterprises, this trend cannot be stopped let alone reversed. Governments can set up dedicated agencies to study industry trends so that regulations can be imposed at an early stage. Government can fund independent/industry research units to come

The Shiite Resistance against the Pro-Taliban Sunni-deoband Terrorists Research Paper

The Shiite Resistance against the Pro-Taliban Sunni-deoband Terrorists in Pakistan - Research Paper Example The researcher states that since all humans, who are non-Sunni-Deoband by faith, according to the extremist sect, are perverts and deviants, killing of whom is necessary for the projection, promotion and spread of the nefarious designs of the Sunni-Deoband sect. Since this sect contains terrorists in its parties working with different names and under various platforms, it has become very hard for the Government of Pakistan to detect their criminal activities and arrest them in order to announce punishments to them so that no one in the future could gather the courage to repeat the same. Somehow, the above-described terrorist sect has developed its roots in the national press, as well as in the judiciary and military sectors of the country, along with other public and private organizations; as a result, the sect has set its foot by establishing the evil network in the name of the religion. It is, therefore, the Shiites of Pakistan have to make very hard efforts for protecting the memb ers of their community on the one hand, and unveiling the terrorist designs of the extremists on the other. The Shiites have established different organizations including Tehreek-e-Jafria (i.e. Jafria Movement), Islamic Tehreek, (i.e. Islamic Movement) Sipah-e-Muhammad (the soldiers of the Prophet Muhammad) and others, which always adopt peaceful ways of protests against the terrorist attacks on their religious processions and gatherings on one hand, and target killings of their youth and scholars on the other. As a result, the Shiite Muslins never took law in their hand, and just abide by rules in order to stop the advancements of terrorism in the country. Brief Overview: By critically analyzing the history of the globe at large, it becomes crystal clear that an overwhelming majority of the people coming of every class, creed, community, ethnicity, race and socioeconomic status maintain belief in some supernatural or metaphysical power(s), to which they seek help and beg support in the eve of finding them helpless while facing difficulties and problems of various kinds, which has given birth to the idea of God and religion subsequently. Thousands of the faiths exist in the world, which divides the people into groups and factions, because of the divergences in belief systems, a way of worship and others. Among all major religions existing in the world, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam are regarded to be the Abrahamic faiths, which share several things in their mythologies and basic traits. One of the most fundamental commonalities among the three includes their further sub-division into sects, where Jews, Christians, and Muslims display great displeasure and hatred towards the members belonging to the rival sects of their faith and do not appear to get ready to tolerate these opponents at any cost.

Shipping Management Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Shipping Management - Essay Example It has been proved, that old management techniques in shipping have been working fir short-term profits only; it has also become evident that socially 'responsible' shipping business causes higher revenues and better positive results for both the stock markets and the general company performance. New management framework has also been formed with the additional pressure of environmental issues, which always carried a tint of social knowledge. All these factors have challenged shipping management to re-negotiate their position in the social environment and in the society as a whole. CSR is essentially about companies moving beyond a base of legal compliance to integrating socially responsible behaviour into their core values, in recognition of the sound business benefits in doing so. Since businesses and the challenges they face differ widely, government interventions need to be carefully considered, well-designed and targeted to achieve their objective. (___) The PD Ports Company located in Hartlepool (UK) is the company which can be seen as the bright example of the organization having actively applied the principles of the CSR through changing legislation and environments. It is noted in the striving for further strengthening and promoting its CSR activities. It has been engaged into many CSR activities, and it should be said that CSR in the UK has become one of the principal governmental priorities. It is stated, that 'we recognize that there is no 'one size fits all' approach to CSR, and that companies need to consider the nature of their business and its key impacts in developing their CSR practice'. (http://www.csr.gov.uk/raisingawareness.shtml) This is why for the shipping companies the implementation of CSR carries certain peculiarities. Government works for the for making the companies aware of the available CSR practices and encourages businesses to improve their performance; this may be considered to be one of the essential ch anges in the general implementation of the CSR principles through the shipping companies. As for PD Ports, the company also takes active part in the promotion and support of the CSR principles through the following activities: the philosophy 'safety first' is the top priority for the company management; the company is prepared to invest into both Capital and people; the company has its main focus on the customers, and looks for additional profitability through this customer focus; the company shows full commitment to the equal opportunities for employees; what is essential, is that the company actively works for the promotion of the environmental interests, as well as for their protection. (http://www.thpal.co.uk/corporate/core_values.asp) 'While various conventions and regulations imposed minimum standards for the operation of shipping companies, the control mechanisms were not always efficient in their mission. However, quality in shipping is not a matter of the shipowners only. Quality has a price and, as with all other goods and services, this price is determined by demand and supply. Neither shipowners nor regulation alone can force or command this price if quality is not demanded by the users of the shipping service by the manufacturers, traders, freight forwarders

Glaucoma research Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Glaucoma research - Essay Example 24 consecutive patients presenting, over seven years, to the emergency department of a tertiary eye hospital in Melbourne, Australia, to identify incident cases of DSCH following glaucoma surgery. Clinical parameters of interest included: indication for glaucoma surgery, clinical risk and prognostic factors, and clinical outcomes. Once cases were identified, controls were selected randomly and matched for type of surgery, age, sex, and interval of time since the initial surgery. Pearson’s chi-square analysis was used to compare cases and controls. Results: There were 24 cases, for a seven-year incidence of DSCH of 1% in patients after glaucoma surgery. The average duration of time from glaucoma surgery to DSCH was 2.88 days. DSCH was most common with glaucoma drainage implants (15.4% 7-year incidence). Significant risk factors included systemic hypertension (OR 5; 95 CI 1.41-17.7; p-value 0.02), diabetes mellitus (4.23; 1.08-16.6; 0.03), ischemic heart disease (5.92; 1.35-26.1; 0.008), chronic obstructive airways disease (8.33; 2.09-33.2; 0.01) and anticoagulant use (13.8; 1.51-125.8; 0.002). Preoperative intraocular pressure (p=0.56), myopia (3.22; 0.88-11.8; 0.09) and hyperlipidemia (1.9; 0.50-7.16; 0.29) were not significant risk factors for DSCH. Visual outcomes of DSCH patients were poorer than controls, with 17 of 24 cases (71%), but only 8 of 24 controls (33%) worse, relative to pre-operative VA, when reassessed at follow-up (p = 0.004). Conclusions: DSCH is a relatively common and potentially serious complication of glaucoma surgery. Patients with known clinical risk factors should be warned of risk of DSCH and should be handled with care. Surgery is the main stay of treatment for those cases of open angle glaucoma uncontrolled by medical treatment. The most widely practiced operation is a trabeculectomy. In recent years a number of alternative non-penetrating glaucoma drainage operations have been developed such as deep sclerectomy and

Essentials of business in 2012 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Essentials of business in 2012 - Essay Example Our reputation for quality products, unique baked products, eclectic atmosphere, and excellent, friendly service will be the basis for continued growth. Long-term vision (beyond next year): Building on a foundation of community presence, referral business, quality and excellence, we will continue to expand our market and become the preferred choice in the Salthill area for consumers seeking a quiet place to visit while enjoying a hot beverage and freshly baked cakes. While we will offer high quality and a variety of coffee blends, along with other hot and cold beverages, our unique selling point will be our fresh baked cakes and other baked goods. We will offer a large variety and unique flavors to highlight local taste favorites and respond to customer demand. Since we are not a chain, we will have the freedom to experiment with flavors and adjust to accommodate customer needs quickly and efficiently. Our success will rely on our flexibility to changing customer needs, our service excellence, and our fantastic products. These elements, packaged in an inviting environment, with careful attention to costs and profit, will create a sustainable business model. To market the shop we will periodically place advertisements in The Galway City Tribune, create a website, and launch a Facebook page. The costs incurred will be predominately with the newspaper articles, though depending on the service selected, there may be a minimal on-going web hosting fee that we will need to maintain to keep the website live. We will rely on samples, hand-bills, and word-of-mouth for a portion of our marketing strategy. These options offer a low-cost option that will help us create a presence in the community and quickly install The Caked Bean as an everyday destination for the local clientele. While the shop will offer cake slices and single serving baked goods, we will also take orders for whole cakes for special occasions to supplement the normal

What Is Federalism Examples How Federalism Has Evolved From Its Essay

What Is Federalism Examples How Federalism Has Evolved From Its Origins To The American Political System - Essay Example This period marked a significant development from the older structure since, unlike dual federalism, cooperative federalism had been capable of promoting a kind of federalism that could nurture accomplishments brought about by the presence of harmonious relationship and communication between the governing bodies. Former attempts to restrict allocation of powers were replaced by political attitudes that exhibited willingness to complete a fair share of tasks or duties and to recognize each other’s rights within the federal system. Through this phase, federalism managed to have remedied in part socio-economic problems through the authorization of the national income tax which further addressed the need to sustain the grant-in-aid system (Greene). Out of the cooperative federalism evolved yet another form called ‘contemporary federalism’ which took effect from 1970 until 1997. This phase was found to bear unpleasant inconsistencies in the federal governance due to is sues on federal regulations, increasing lack of funds for federal mandates, and especially worsening disputes over matters that involved determination of the nature and substance of federalism. Apparently, as exemplified in the phases that depict the manner by which federalism evolved, no one form or structure seemed to have stabilized the American federal system which to this day remains a controversial open-ended subject of arguments. (2) Examine three to five (3-5) factors that have allowed the concept of federalism to shape American political behavior. I -- The desire for the process of unification to respond to the unsettled concerns of those who had been declared free by virtue of independence from the British rule: Even after the Declaration of Independence, the American citizenry...The nation, however, observed and felt a great deal of inadequacies in the Articles of Confederation that it sought to nullify the latter and instead, draft a new Constitution that would make poss ible the existence of a federal government whose set of formal authorities ought to be shared within a setting that consists of a national government and a state government. While this system of governance is well identified with the principle of federalism, the governmental structure at the time was not bound to be the same over the course of U.S. history. Eventually, such federalism would be subject to undergo phases of development that had led to the current political weather of the American society and economy as a whole. As one instance of evolution, back in the span between 1789 and 1901, the original state of federalism turned into what had become known as ‘dual federalism’ whereby the states and their people fervently agreed on granting the central government a limited range of explicitly enumerated powers. For one, the complexities of grounds or situations occurring in either state or national affairs upon which policies are made and regulated account for a factor which determines how the interaction between the states and the U.S. federal government must proceed.

Migration Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Migration - Essay Example gree, the following analysis will engage the reader with a discussion of how the 19th century came to serve as the first representation of change that human migration had experienced in many hundreds of years. Further, as this topic is explored and related to source documentation that has been reviewed during the course of this semester, it is the further hope of this student that the reader will come to a more informed realization for how the changes that took place during the 19th century, with respect to migration and the impact that this continues to have with respect to the way in which the current world is defined and exhibited. Migration was also fundamentally impacted by the availability of resources that came to be present within places such as the United States, Canada, and South America. As markets began to open and the rate of international trade developed, the availability of individuals to move from one part of the globe to another was maximized alongside this dynamic. As such, recognizing that they might be able to drastically improve their lives by relocating to one of the previously mentioned areas of the globe, tens of thousands of people took it upon themselves to sell their possessions and travel the glove looking for better opportunities (Henderson, 2013). Further, the emancipation of the serfs within Russia and the relaxed political climates elsewhere encouraged something of a new dynamic with respect to the way in which people understood their own opportunities, the importance of native geography, and the potential for gain that movement could afford to them (Gevorkyan, 2013). As the lectur es noted, the broad majority of all of this migration took place between the Old World and the New. As such, 65% of all migration during the 19th century could be accounted for just within the United States and Canada. Benefitting wildly from this influx of labor and expertise, these economies grew by exponentially and allowed for the industrial

Ratio and Financial Statement Analysis Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words - 1

Ratio and Financial Statement Analysis - Essay Example Concepts that have been used include annuity which is a series of constant cash flows that occurs at the end of each period called a term, perpetuity which is a financial asset that does not have a maturity period but keep making payments indefinitely, compounding which is finding the future value of one or more cash flows, discounting which is determining the present value of one or more future cash flows. Financial decisions are made based on future value or present value. Future value is what one or more cash flows are worth at the end of the period while the present value measures the worth of one or more cash flows to be received in the future are worth today. The effective annual interest rate which is the annual growth rate that takes into account compounding. These concepts are fully covered in the paper while handing the questions. Financial management ratios are an area of expertise that every manager in any financial position should get acquainted with. They are useful in helping him to make sound financial decisions on the source of funds, the investment option to undertake and the financial prudence needed in the running of a business entity. What the time value of money is and why it is so important in the field of finance: The question that comes to mind is what the value of a future cash flow is today. The time value of money is the value of the stream of future cash flows today. Money has a time value since a dollar held today is worth more than a dollar to be received in the future. If you had the money today, you would have probably invested it and earned interest thus time value of money is the opportunity cost of foregoing todays consumption. Time value of money is important in the field of fiancà © because before investment decisions are made there is required that a comparison be made between the value funds invested today and the value of expected future cash inflows. The

Equity and trusts Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Equity and trusts - Essay Example If Leonard and Nancy demonstrate to the court that they took all the necessary precautions consistent with the actions of an ordinary prudent man when exercising the trust fund, then their breaches will be discharged as exemplified in Speight v Gaunt (Kurt, Peter, Donald and Cecily 2011, p. 202-2012). In this case scenario, it is unlikely that an ordinary person with skills like those of Leonard would have managed the trust in the way he did by proposing the selling of some shares and retain the case. Section 3 (1) of the Trustee Act 2000 provides that trustee make investment decisions which he would have himself done if he was entitled absolutely to the trust assets of the trust. We could therefore say that Leonard would have made the same decisions had he been absolutely entitled to his trust assets and thus his suggestion can be considered to be reasonable. Despite this, his decision does not satisfy the set out standards like shown in the case of Cowan v Scargill where it was asc ertained that any decisions made should be wholly to the benefit of the beneficiaries and not the trustees (Sameera and Jill 2009, p. 202-210) And since this not the case in the study, then we can postulate that a breach of trust is evident. As for the case of Nancy, by the virtue of being a trustee under the trust, she will be also liable for the breaches of Leonard if it can be proved that he acted in a careless manner. From the demonstrations in case of Re Vickey, it was ascertained that a trustee can be found liable for recklessness if it is proved he did not give much regard as whether his act or omission amounted to a breach of trust. Since Nancy omitted in her duties by not raising objections to Leonard’s suggestions, we can say that he is careless and therefore he may be found to have breached his fiduciary duties. Additionally, just like it has been expressed by Abbas and Clements, the trustee is personally obliged to run the trust with part of the duty being to keen ly observe what other trustees are doing and raise objections if something wrong is being done (Antony 1999). Therefore, since Nancy did nothing to ensure that Leonard was exercising the instruments of trust as required, she is thus liable to a breach of trust. Consequently, as spelt out in Bahin v Hughes, there are sufficient reasons not to allow a trustee to escape liability by placing blame on another trustee or other trustees for anything that goes wrong (Bruce, Florin 2009). Nevertheless, if it can be approved that there was an exemption clause to that regard freeing her from the liability, then she shall not be in breach. Therefore, since in this case the trust instrument contains the clause, Nancy cannot be held liable for the breach of trust and should therefore not be sued. The beneficiaries are in a position to seek proprietary claim from Orlando’s property as it falls in the awarding against a specific asset which in this case is the swimming pool. Orlando clearly still is in possession of the swimming pool and thus the beneficiary can clearly assert proprietary claim to the swimming pool. We cannot determine if Orlando had the knowledge that the money she received from her mother was from the trust, but if Orlando had the knowledge then he clearly suffers from the liability to account to trust for value of property received, and

Cell proliferation experiment, Immunoprecipitation and western blot Essay

Cell proliferation experiment, Immunoprecipitation and western blot experiment, cell imaging experiment - Essay Example The aim of this work was to elucidate the mechanism by which cp250 causes tumors and identify which signaling pathways were activated by its binding to the cell. The first experiment looked at the effect of cp250 on cell proliferation and compared it to the effect of the growth factor PDGFA and the second and third experiments looked at which pathways were triggered by the binding of cp250 to hepatocytes. The aim of this experiment was to determine whether cp250 caused cell proliferation in hepatocytes and also to establish whether it was recognized by the same receptor that bound the growth factor PDGFA. As shown in Table 1, cp250 and PDGFA clearly have similar effects on cell proliferation. Hepatocytes that were treated with either cp250 or PDGFA both showed an increase in proliferation as compared to cells that were not given either. Moreover cp250 and PDGFA appear to bind to the same receptor, PDGFR. There does not appear to be any synergism when both are used together. Hepatocytes that were treated with antisense RNA to the receptor prior to incubation with the ligands did not show a significant increase in proliferation. In addition, scrambled siRNA that does not target any cellular mRNA does not affect the binding of either cp250 or PDGFA to the receptor. This indicates that the binding of cp250 is specific to PDGFR. The next step was to identify which downstream elements in the signaling process were activated on binding to the receptor. In order to do this, hepatocytes that were treated with cp250 and PDGFA were lysed and complexes that were formed were pulled down with an antibody to the receptor. Western blots with antibodies raised against different downstream signaling molecules were performed to identify which components were complexed with the receptor after activation. Controls were performed with cells treated with water. As can be seen in Fig.1A, cp250 and PDGFA both bind to the receptor PDGFR, confirming the first experiment. From Fig.1B, it can be seen that Phospholipase gamma 1 (PLC1) is recruited to the receptor after treatment with either cp250 or PDGFA. From Fig.1C, it can be inferred that autophosphorylation of PDGFR and phosphorylation of PLC1 take place, indicating the activation of PLC1 takes place once it is recruited to the activated receptor. Confocal Microscopy The aim of this experiment was to confirm the activation of the inositol phospholipids pathway and further characterize the downstream signaling pathway set off by the binding of cp250 to PDGFR. The confocal images show that when rat hepatocytes transfected with EGFP-tagged PLC1 are treated with either cp250 or PDGFA, the PLC1 is localized to the cell membrane, indicating their recruitment. This localization is markedly absent in cells treated with water alone. On addition of the red fluorescent Ca2+ sensing dye X-rhod-1, there is an increase in red fluorescence in the cytoplasm of hepatocytes treated with cp250 or PDGFA but not with water. This indicates that the IP3 signalling pathway has been activated upon binding of the viral protein. DISCUSSION The present work was intended to try and deduce the probable mechanism by which cp250 acts upon the hepatocyte and causes tumorigenesis. Given its similarity to the growth factor PDGFA, it seemed reasonable to postulate that it bound to the same

Managing Professional Intellect Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3250 words

Managing Professional Intellect - Case Study Example The case study "Managing Professional Intellect" discusses what is the professional intellect and how can the organization develop and in what ways can we leverage this professional intellect since a number of leaders and managers in most organizations have created systematic answers to questions concerning professional intellect. Accor group of hotels (China) is one of the major hotel groups in the world. It commands an economy which is constantly growing in most parts of the country. Ibis Hangzhou in Shanghai China is one of the leading hotels of the group. This hotel group offered a good environment for the study of the manner in which information is exchanged between the workers, administration and their customers. It also provides a good opportunity for one to learn the nature of questions asked as well as the kind of knowledge which is shared around. The major reason for selecting this hotel is because it is in the service industry where there is a lot of exchange of information exchanged between customers and stuff workers because of the nature of the services offered. The stuff has to communicate and handle the customers who choose to use their services thus there is need of using information and employ the necessary knowledge to deal with every situation. The hotel was also selected because of the hos pitality it offered for one who is willing to conduct any study there. It offered a good environment for one to make enough direct observations of the required information. 1.20 Study of the Knowledge shared and information exchanged in the Hotel. The Study would cover observation the manner in which the stuff workers of the hotel interact with each other and their customers, the way they approach the customers and the manner in which they approach and respond to each other and the administration. It would also study the manner in which Ibis Hangzhou hotel as an organization share and manage the knowledge they have and the kind of questions asked by the workers to clients as well as the questions asked by the administration to the workers. The aim of this would be to investigate the kind of knowledge and information employed in the hotel environment, how this information and knowledge is managed and how it assists the organization generally. The study would be carried out by participating in the hotels daily operation for a whole day. This would involve interacting directly with the customers and the employees while making direct observation and recording of their behavioral reactions to different individuals. There would also be interview of certain customers and workers within the organization to find their perception of the kind of services hence information provided within the organization. The way every information or question was asked and responded was keenly noted as well as the manner in which the customers were treated was also noted. This was necessary it would enable the researcher in evaluating the kind of information and knowledge is available within the organi

Pablo Picasso Essay Example for Free

Pablo Picasso Essay Every artist demonstrates their thoughts and point of view of nature and of the Earth. Their masterpieces portray their artistic identity, mastery, skills and techniques. Some of them have been the founder(s) of a particular art movement, which greatly affects other artists of the world. Pablo Picasso, one of the most renowned modern artists in history, is one of the pioneers of Cubism, along with Georges Braque, who strongly exemplifies and reveals the mentioned art movement and style in his Les Demoiselles D’Avignon, The Guernica and the Three Musician, each of which would be formally evaluated and analyzed. The artistic intelligence of Pablo Picasso (1881-1973) created a great impact in the development of modern and contemporary art. His masterpieces include over 20,000 works including paintings, drawings, sculptures, theater sets, prints, ceramics and costumes that delineate a number of intellectual, social, political, and ardent messages. His styles has gone beyond and transcended realism and abstraction, Cubism, Expressionism, Surrealism and Neoclassicism. Pablo Picasso was born at Malaga Spain in October 25, 1881 to Jose Ruiz Blasco and Maria Picasso Y Lopez. At the age of eight, he started to paint but his drawings were very much different from the children of his age. Even when he was young, Picasso already had a highly systematic approach to art. At the end of 1897, he studied in Madrid but later on, he dropped out of school because his teachers could not help him solve the technical problems he had. Furthermore, he endeavored to become a Classical painter similar to Rembrandt or Velasquez; however, no matter how good he was at the age of 16, still he could not contest the old masters. In the year 1899 and 1900, his style was altered radically. His works showed a more romantic manner. Since then, he began to flourish, absorbing all the dominant styles of his epoch. Nevertheless, it was in between 1907 and 1914 in Paris when he discovered a new style by which the French art critic Louis Vauxcelles referred as â€Å"Cubism. † His masterpiece entitled Les Demoiselles D’Avignon divulged that style in 1907. Picasso’s Les Demoiselles D’Avignon expresses and exhibits his ground-breaking style and distortion which is anchored from African Art. In the painting, the figures are arranged similar to Cezanne’s composition of bathers but it reveals an influence of primitivism. It manifests through the angular planes and well-defined outlines that create the entire solidity of the images. Moreover, it is composed of five females, all of which are depicted with angular body. The color of the figures are not confined to flesh rather there are red, blue and orange. The title of the painting, which is given by Picasso’s friend, pertains to the cabaret or maison publique on the Avignon Street, Barcelona. It showcases an expression of violence and barbaric intensity of the five women. On the other hand, his Guernica articulates the same form but it is more meaningful and more caricature in style. The themes signify death, bullfight and crucifixion. The figures are more complex as well as the content of the painting, which is illustrated by diverse and mixing images. The painting itself is a representation of the tragic events that occurred in Spain during the year 1937. It is full of political message and thus, summons the very idea of warfare as a heroic incident and renders it as a cruel and atrocious act of self-destruction. However, Picasso’s art possesses a trademark that any symbol can portray many and frequently contradicting meanings. According to Picasso when asked to explain the symbols, â€Å"It isn’t up to the painter to define the symbols. Otherwise it would be better if he wrote them out in so many words. The public who look at the picture must interpret the symbols as they understand them. † Another painting that depicts Cubism is the Three Musicians. It is a large painting with three figures made up of geometric shapes. The central figure is a Harlequin playing a guitar while on his sides are two musicians. On the left part, is a visible figure of a dog. The work delineates a lively appearance due to its color, orange dominates the plane. The images are figuratively rendered but it can be pulled that they are people with musical instruments with them. They are painted in a way similar to a group performing on stage. Pablo Picasso’s style known as Cubism, as well as his masterpieces, has contributed much to the depiction and understanding of abstract art and modernism. His works portray figurative images wherein every art objects is dominated by symbols that carry a myriad of interpretations and meanings. Because of his discovery of Cubism, paintings have appeared to be a three-dimensional picture plane. His works exhibit harmonious colors and biomorphic sensuality which is exemplified in his Les Demoiselles D’Avignon. Moreover, Picasso paints in such a way that is very much different from other well-known artists of his time because he does not employ in his works landscapes or well-depicted everyday scenes. He upholds in his artistic career his identity of not copying nature and not utilizing traditional techniques, and perspectives. He learns to emphasize his viewpoints of the world through geometry, lively utilization of colors, and somehow calculated perspectives. He demonstrates his activism and political comprehension through symbols too and it is evident in his Guernica. Furthermore, because of his artistic career, identity and discovered style (Cubism), he had been renowned in the world of art. Bibliography â€Å"Guernica: Testimony of War.† (2008). Public Broadcasting Service. Database online. Available from http://www. pbs. org/treasuresoftheworld/guernica/gmain. html. [06 April 2009] Harris, Mark. â€Å"Guernica. † (1996). Web. org. uk. Database online. Available from http://web. org. uk/picasso/guernica. html. [06 April 2009] â€Å"Pablo Picasso, Life and Work,† (n. d). Pablo Picasso Cubism. Database online. Available from http://pablo-picasso. paintings. name/biography/. [06 April 2009] â€Å"Pablo Picasso Painting. † (n. d). Artquotes. net. Database online. Available from http://www. artquotes. net/masters/picasso/pablo_musicians1921. htm. [06 April 2009] Rewald, Sabine. â€Å"Cubism. † (2004). Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History. New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art. Database online. Available from http://www. metmuseum. org/toah/hd/cube/hd_cube. htm. [06 April 2009] Voorhies, James. â€Å"Pablo Picasso (1881-1973). † (2004). Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History. New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art. Database online. Available from http://www. metmuseum. org/toah/hd/pica/hd_pica. htm [06 April 2009]

Grade Retention for Struggling Students Essay Example for Free

Grade Retention for Struggling Students Essay The use of ABA principles and techniques to treat people with Autism live happy and productive lives has grown quickly in recent years. According to information provided by the Autism Organization, ABA is used all over the world and is recognized as a safe and effective treatment. http://www.autismspeaks.org/whatisit/index.php There have been many studies done in a variety of settings all examining effects of ABA methods on social behaviors. Donald Baer completed the first published study on ABA in 1968 and there was another study by O. Ivar Lovaas done in 1987. These studies both took a look at using behavior modification interventions on Autistic children. The idea was to use early intervention to teach alternate, socially appropriate behaviors. In the study by Lovaas, subjects were assigned to one of two control groups, one that received 40 hours per week of one-to-one treatment, and the other 10 hours or less. Both treatment groups received treatment for at least two years. The follow up indicated the groups that received the additional treatment did much better in achieving normal intellectual and educational functioning (Lovaas, 1987). Much of the data I reviewed revealed great success in implementing applied behavior analysis in treating Autistic children in replacing or reducing inappropriate behaviors. According to many reports, ABA is considered by many researchers to be the most effective therapeutic approach in treating children with Autism, but in order for the program to be effective, both parents, educators, and other care providers need to be trained (http://autism.healingthresholds.com/therapy/applied-behavior-analysis-aba). How effective is ABA in reducing aggressive behaviors in Autistic students? There’s actually quite a bit of interest in ABA, an increase in demand for the service, and several universities across the United States are involved in studies on the use of ABA. In a THE FIVE W’S OF CULTURAL DIVERSITY 4 paper published just a decade ago, Tris Smith carefully studied outcome investigations of ABA programs and found convincing evidence that ABA treatment programs have increased adaptive behavior and reduced inappropriate behavior. He also mentioned that this program may raise IQ and other standardized scores, and even reducing the need for special services. Mr. Smith suggest research is needed to confirm results on IQ and test scores (Smith, 1999). The organization, Autism Speaks, has grown into the nations largest autism science and advocacy organization, dedicated to funding research into the causes, prevention, treatments and a cure for autism; increasing awareness of autism spectrum disorders. With several medical professionals with field experience in Autism and behavior intervention programs, they support the use of ABA with children of all ages, with and without disabilities, in many different settings (Green G, Brennan L., and Fein, D. 2002) Several studies have been done on the effectiveness of ABA. My particular interest is will ABA work with aggressive behavior in Autistic students and I found no study that targeted aggression specifically but targeted social behaviors in general. There is a gap in the literature because I found no study that focused specifically on aggressive behavior and provided the data to support that. I will use the data from the student records at my school to fill in the gap. Reviewing the Literature ABA is using what we know about behavior to bring about change; to increase or decrease a particular behavior, to improve the quality of a behavior, to stop an old behavior, or teach a new. The number of children being diagnosed with Autism Disorder each year has increased significantly over the past decade. These students’ social behaviors are affected in various THE FIVE W’S OF CULTURAL DIVERSITY 5 degrees from mild social awkwardness to extreme physical aggression towards themselves and others. It’s extremely important to find successful interventions which can help autistic students improve these socially significant behaviors which include Reading, Academics, Social skills, communication, and adaptive living skills. Keep in mind that adaptive living skills include things like fine and gross motor skills, eating and food preparation, toileting, dressing, personal self care, money and value, and the list goes on but these skills are detrimental to these students future success, not only in school, but in life. I will be using pre-existing data on students who have attended the school where I work. These student s have moved on but their records are still assessable. I will have to use fictitious names and delete personal information due to privacy. My plan is to use the correlational research method. I will gather the data from my students as well as looking at studies recorded at the Cambridge Center for Behavior Studies, The New Jersey Education Association, and a study published by McEachin S.J., Smith, T., and Lovaas, O.I. in the American Journal of Mental Retardation. Theory The theory behind ABA is that you can teach children with autism, as well as others, appropriate social behaviors with simplified instructional steps and consistent reinforcement. There are actually a number of techniques that follow the ABA principal. I suggest that we can use the same approach to reduce aggressive behaviors. Studies directly related I did find studies related to my question of what effect ABA has on aggressive behavior in Autistic students, even though aggression was not the focus of the study. These studies both used the same ABA principles but with some differences in technique. O. Ivar Lovaas was THE FIVE W’S OF CULTURAL DIVERSITY 6 interested in ABA and wanted to see if it was effective in treating children with Autism. Many autistic children show minimal emotional attachment, absent or abnormal speech, retarded 1Q, ritualistic behaviors, aggression, and self-injury. The prognosis is very poor, and medical therapies have not proven effective. (Lovaas, 1987) He wrote a detailed article about a study and provided a close look at how the study was conducted. In this study, intensive ABA treatment was provided to one control group of autistic children under the age of 4, but minimal treatment was provided to the other control group. A variety of ABA techniques were used to try and reduce self stimulatory and aggressive behaviors, building compliance to verbal requests, teaching imitation, and to begin teaching appropriate toy play in the first year. The study continued to address significant behaviors over a period of time. When the study was completed, a follow up assessment was conducted and the control group that received the intense treatment had better scores on their IQ tests had higher educational placement, with 47% of them completing normal first grade in a public first grade. Ann M. Baer, Trudylee Rowbury, Donald M. Baer did a similar study that uses a variation of an ABA. The subjects used in this study were not just Autistic but all students had behavior problems. These students were between the ages of 4 and 6. The study examined the possibility of instructional control over extremely non-compliant children. In this study, a token reward system was used to reinforce appropriate behaviors. The classroom was divided into two sections, one for pre-academic tasks where tokens can be earned, and the other section was a play area where students could exchange their tokens for free time. The students were allowed to choose the task they complete but earned more points or tokens for completing a task the teacher suggest. As a students’ compliance increases, time outs were introduced. When THE FIVE W’S OF CULTURAL DIVERSITY 7 this happened, compliance increased significantly. This study demonstrated two procedures that can be effective in increasing childrens compliance but keep in mind there are many variables that come into play. (Baer, Rowbury, Baer) Studies tangentially related All the studies I found were relevant to my question and were also based on the question of whether or not ABA methods were effective in improving behavior. Method The subjects in this study were students at my school. There were 9 total, 8 males and 1 female. Each of these students had been diagnosed with Autism. None of these students had received any type of behavior intervention prior to this study. The students were tracked for three months prior to receiving treatment (the first 3 months of school). We were measuring the number of aggressive behavior episodes each school day. After recording incidents in the students for 3 months, ABA treatment on all 9 students began. The treatment was provided at school by a teacher who was also a certified behavior specialist. The treatment began the 1st of December and we began measuring the behavior incidents two weeks after treatment started. Aggressive behavior was described as behavior that causes, or is intended to cause pain, harm, or damage to oneself, to another person, or to property. Aggressive behavior can be described as mental, verbal, or physical. Inappropriate behavior is when the student is not following rules, is loud or unruly, disruptive, offensive, refusing to complete work, not listening, not cooperating with authority figures, etc. Results The design I used was a One-Group Pretest-Posttest. I used a single group and measured THE FIVE W’S OF CULTURAL DIVERSITY 8 them before and after they received applied behavior analysis treatment. I used the T test and paired two samples for means and the results indicated a â€Å"t† statistic of 5.199 and a p value of .0004 which is less than 0.05. There is a significant difference between the two means. So what does all this mean to me and my research? It appears as though applying applied behavior analysis techniques may have a positive effect on reducing aggressive behaviors in students with Autism. Of course, there are many factors that can also affect the results such as whether or not students care providers receive in home training, what kind of training have the teachers had, and how many hours of treatment is each student receiving? The research I’ve done so far did suggest that by providing intense treatment over long periods of time, by ensuring that all care providers and teachers working with the students are highly trained, and these techniques are used consistently and appropriately, the number of behavior incidents will decrease significantly. As I was reading all the literature about ABA and how important it is for individuals implementing these techniques to receive specialized training, and how intense the training should be in order to achieve the optimal results, I became more interested. As I was recording the results after the treatment and in some students I saw really big changes, but in other students the changes were minimal. I also knew that some students care providers had received in-home training while others had not so I was not really surprised by the results. My data analysis findings are pretty much what I expected in some ways but surprising in others. Discussion Both studies done by Lovaas, and several others related to using ABA techniques for behavior intervention therapy, had more control over the variables. In the study done at my school, we did THE FIVE W’S OF CULTURAL DIVERSITY 9 not get to select our subjects based on any specific criteria other than their diagnosis of Autism and no previously recorded ABA treatments were received by the subject prior to our study. Many experts believe that parents and other care providers should receive intense training on ABA techniques in order for the treatment to help. Lovaas devoted an entire study on the importance of parental factors in the success of treatment. He noted that the role parents play is crucial in determining how much progress a child makes. I noticed in our study, the students who had a more significant change in the number of behavior incidents after treatment, also received in home training/treatment. Our district offered in home training to parents as well as treatment . Most of the parents refused the training. I’ve been working with the Autistic students this year and I noticed that at the beginning of the school year, they all have a lot of difficulty, and many have several behavior incidents. Autistic students need lots of structure and routine. As the students get settled into the routine of being in school, they get used to their new environment, and transitioning around campus, the incidents for most students decrease, even without a certified behavior therapist on site. It’s the more severe students who continue to show the least amount of progress. In Lovaas’s study, he began treatment very early in the child’s life. Even with the child find program, many times, we don’t get to start any type of behavior intervention until 5 or 6 years of age. Many behaviors are already in place by then. Most of my students came from single parent homes, and more than one child with a disability in the home. Most of our parents had little education and even less training on how to help a child with Autism. There are new studies being done every day in this area. I look forward to finding â€Å"easier ways† to teach these students. It is very challenging, frustrating, and extremely exhausting, but since the number of people being diagnosed in the Autism spectrum is growing THE FIVE W’S OF CULTURAL DIVERSITY 10 Baer, D.M., and Wolf, M.W., Some still current dimensions of Applied Behavior Analysis. Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, 1987, 209, 313-327 Baer, A. M., Rowbury, T., and Baer, D. M. The development of instructional control over classroom activities of deviant preschool children. Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, 1973, 61, 289-298 Green, G., Brennan, L., and Fein, D. Intensive behavioral treatment for a toddler at high risk for autism. Behavior Modification, Vol. 26 No. 1, January 2002, 69-102 Koegel, R. L., Russo D. C., and Rincover A., Assessing and Training Teachers in the Generalized use of Behavior Modification with Autistic Children. Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, 1977, 10, 197-205 Lovaas, O. I., Behavioral treatment and normal educational and intellectual functioning in young autistic children. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 1987, Vol 55, No. 1, 3-9 Lovaas, O. I., Koegel, R. L., Simmons, J. Q., and Stevens, J. Some generalization and follow up measures on autistic children in behavior therapy. Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, (in press) Smith T. (1999). Outcome of early intervention for children with autism. Clinical Psychology: Research and practice, 6, 33-49

Strategic Human Resource Management

Strategic Human Resource Management INTRODUCTION: Strategic Human Resource Management (SHRM) is a subject that is in continues phase of transition, from its first emergence in the mid-1980s. In past two decades many authors, theorists and consultants suggested variety of theories and models which can be practically applied in the organization to manage people more effectively. However, according to Legge (1995) and Grantton et al (1999) cited by (Michael Armstrong 2004: 1) there is often a gap between rhetoric of SHRM and reality. Therefore, the main emphasis of this assignment is on the practical execution of these theories and models with the particular reference to Telenor Pakistan (Subsidiary of Telenor ASA, Norway). For the better understanding of the Strategic HRM it is essential to know the basic concept of HRM: it can be defined as strategic and coherent approach to the management of an organizations most valuable assets the people working there who collectively and individually contributes to the achievement of its objectives. (Armstrong and Baron 2003: 3). Development of SHRM: In the last 15 years SHRM has grown considerably. According to Schuler et al. (2001) the development of SHRM is two phased transformation: from personnel management to traditional human resource management (THRM), and then from THRM to SHRM. To survive in the cut-throat competition, organization HR must focus on a new set of priorities, which are more business and strategic oriented such as flexible workforces, quality improvement, team-based job designs, employee empowerment and incentive compensation. Definition of SHRM: Strategy is derived from the Greek word strategia, which means Generalship. The term strategic has been borrowed from the military and modified for the use in business. In business, as in the military, strategy bridges the gap between policy and tactics. Together, strategy and tactics bridge the gap between ends and means. (http://home.att.net/~nickols/strategy_definition.htm) In spite of high focus paid by different scholars the term SHRM still remains unclear. Some theorists have suggested SHRM as an outcome, others have suggested it as a process, and other scholars have recommended it as a combination of both: outcome and process. As an outcome, (Wright and McMahan 1992) cited by (Armstrong 2004: 41) defined SHRM as the pattern of planned HR deployments and activities intended to enable a firm to achieve its goals. Likewise, (Snell et al 1996: 62) described SHRM to be organizational systems designed to achieve sustainable competitive advantages through people. As a process, (Ulrich and Lake 1991) defined SHRM a process of linking HR practices to business strategy. Furthermore, (Bamberger and Meshoulam 2000) suggest that SHRM is a competency-based approach to personnel management that focuses on the development of durable, imperfectly imitable, and non-tradable people resources. Cited by (Chang and Huang 2005: 436) Truss and Gratton (1994) Considered SHRM both: process and outcome, and defined SHRM as the linkage of HR functions with strategic goals and organizational objectives to improve business performance and cultivate an organizational culture that fosters innovation and flexibility. Cited by (Chang and Huang 2005: 436) Michael Armstrong ultimately defines strategic HRM as an approach to making decisions on the intentions and plans of the organisation in the shape of the policies, programmes and practices concerning the employment relationship, resourcing, learning and development, performance management, reward and employee relations. (Armstrong, 2006: 115). In the absence of a common definition, broadly theorists and Authors have been reached to an agreement on its basic function of SHRM, which encompasses designing and implementing a set of internally consistent policies and practices that ensure the human capital of a firm contributes to the achievement of its business objectives (Schuler MacMillan 1984, Baird Meshoulam 1988, Jackson Schuler 1995) cited by (Wei, L. 2006: 49). APPLICATION OF MODELS AND THEORIES: The chosen organisation is Telenor Pakistan (100% owned subsidiary of Telenor ASA, Norway). The Human Resource department is known as Human Capital Division at Telenor; Company regards employees as human capital from which a return can be attained by investing prudently in their development. This concept of managing people is also supported by authors like Fomburn at el 1984 and Guest 1999 cited by (Armstrong 2004: 7) Background of Telenor Pakistan: Telenor Pakistan is one of the leading mobile networks in the country, 100% owned by Telenor ASA-(Norway) and adds on to its operations in Asia together with Thailand, Malaysia and Bangladesh. Telenor launched its operations in March 2005 headed by the CEO Tore Johnson as the single largest direct European investment in Pakistan. Telenor spread across Pakistan, creating 2,200 direct and 20,000-plus indirect employment opportunities. (www.telenor.com.pk) Key facts about Telenor-ASA Group: Employs more than 34,000 people worldwide. Ranked as 7th largest mobile operators in the world. Ranked 5th in Business Weeks 2007 global ranking of the top 100 performers in the technology industry, beating Microsoft, Apple and Nokia Recorded revenues of NOK 91.1 billion (USD 15.9 billion) at the end of 2006 a 37% increase compared to 2005 (www.telenor.com) Telenor PK has been consistently profitable with highest customer satisfaction. This success is reflected in the Revenues increased by 31% and estimated market share increased by 4%. In the year 2007 Telenor has won many prestigious awards like PSHRM (Pakistan Society of Human Resources Management) Preferred Graduate Employer Award 2007, the best brand award, and the most Innovative Mobile Operator at the 6th SAARC Communication Industry Conference 2007, The above landmarks are the true reflection of motivated and well developed human recourse. This can be associated with the dedication and professional excellence of Telenor employees towards the ultimate goal customer delight! (www.telenor.com.pk) Practical Application of Valuing HR: To get the insight of how Telenor Pakistan practices Strategic HRM, first it would be appropriate to know the meaning of SHRM. In 1986 Hendry and Pettigrew suggested that strategic HRM has four meanings: The use of planning; A coherent approach to the design and management of personnel systems based on an employee policy and manpower strategy with underlying philosophy; Matching HRM activities and policies to some explicit business strategy; and Seeing the employees as a strategic resource for the achievement of competitive advantage (Cited by Armstrong, 2006: 114). As the test of fire can only produce the fine steel the application of Hendry and Pettigrew can be reflected by the real example when implementation of planning, good management of human resource brought the Telenor back on track: right after the cartoon controversy of Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) in Jan-06, things got worse for Telenor Pakistan. This incident caused outrage in the Islamic world resulting in consumer boycott for weeks, numerous demonstrations and other protests. In Pakistan due to the western image of Telenor, it became one of the earliest victims of this incidence, resulting drastic slump in sales, and complete abandon of all marketing campaigns. The situation was so critical that Telenor has to make some important decisions as the company had to announce annual salary increments and yearly bonus due after the performance appraisal of past year. Due to the heavy losses and limited funds, it was tough for thee management to pay out the annual bonus to staff. However, analysing the situation closely company decided to pay it out, since it was the right of employee who worked hard in past year. This action of Telenor really standout as other companies has decided otherwise. This made the employee more faithful and loyal towards the company. Furthermore, company was in big dilemma to go for downsizing or not. Lay off would be the common way for other but Telenor decided to retain all the employees; this was even against the employees expectation, as most of the sales people has nothing to do at that time. Yet again to encourage the employees moral and develop their faith in the organization took this bold step. These practical examples can be seen as true picture of how Human capital division regard the people as the most valuable assets for the organisation. Creating Conducive Environment: McGregor in 1960 at the MIT Sloan School of Management came up with two sets of assumptions about human nature (see the Table below). McGregor called these two contrary sets Theory X and Theory Y: with the assumptions underlying that people at work are negative for theory X and people at work are positive and progressive for theory Y. Table of Assumptions Theory X and Theory Y Outdated (Theory X) Modern ( Theory y) Assumptions about people are: Assumptions about people at work: Most people dislike work; they do avoid it when they can. Work is natural activity, like play or rest. Most people must be coerced and threatened with punishment before they will work. People require close direction when they are working. People are capable of self-direction and self-control if they are committed to objectives. Most people actually prefer to be directed. They tend to avoid responsibility and exhibit little ambition. They are interested only in security. People generally become committed to organisational objectives if they are rewarded for doing so. The typical employee can learn to accept and seek responsibility. The typical member of the general population has imagination, ingenuity and creativity . Source: http://www.netmba.com/mgmt/ob/motivation/mcgregor/ Being one of the modern organizations Telenor PK human capital division operates with the norms of theory Y. In one of the interviews, CEO Telenor Pakistan Tore Johnsen said: At Telenor Pakistan our philosophy is to unlock the hidden human potential by building expertise and by providing an energizing environment. Telenor is a young organization with an average employee age of 27 years which means that we are interested in finding young talent and equipping it with the competencies that the fastest growing network requires in one of the fastest growing mobile markets in the world. (http://www.telenor.com.pk/pressCenter/pressrelease.php?release=97lang=en) Telenor HR managers always put high emphasis on incessant customer-centred and employee-driven expansion; such kind of encouraging atmosphere makes employees more confident and allowed them to work freely, whereby they can take their own initiatives to set future direction for the organization which attains competitive advantage. Benefiting Employees to Create Competitive Edge: SRHM is developed in three important phases. All of them hold vital importance to understand the subject and these three phases were: the human relations movement, the total quality management movement, and the contingency approach to management. Theories forwarded by Elton Mayo, Douglas McGregor and Mary Parker Follett were most influential in the human relations movement. Mayo suggested managers to look deep into the emotional side of the employees. On the other hand Follett argued that managers should inspire and stimulate job performance instead of simply demanding it. She also emphasised on quality circles employee empowerment. (http://books.google.com/books?id=AiIPAAAACAAJdq=Mary+Parker+Follettei=2U0qSMj6GJXEyQTUyYmnCg) These viewpoints instigate new way of thinking about human nature behaviour. HR managers in Telenor Pakistan hold tight to these views by providing flexible working environment to staff and hiring only those employees who can understand the companys strategy. Staffs are benefited by profit sharing and incentive schemes which can keep them focused to work more efficiently. Taking the high care of emotional side of employees, one of the benefits that company provides is the free medical treatment policy which is exactly the same for all the staff e.g. from president to junior officer all are entitled for same health benefits. Talking to the local press Nayab Baig (VP HCD) said: we believe in continuous improvement of employees and taking the standards of service to the utmost levels of excellence. (www.telenor.com.pk) Management skills: According to (Kreitner and Kinicki 2004: 6) there are 11 skills exhibited by effective managers, as shown below: In Telenor above mentioned skills are often displayed by the HR managers to deal with the employees in order to induce high performance and employee morale. Moreover these skills also play a vital role in building the climate of trust and motivation among the team members. Lower turnover rate from all the departments of the company as compared with other telecom operators and consistency with higher employees satisfaction, are the factors that exhibit the high involvement and administrative expertise of HR managers in Telenor. To set every staff member in the same direction Human capital Division uses the technique known as Hochin which means compass to check the direction. To enhance the communication level Telenor operates Open environment in offices, whereby there are no cabin for senior staff and every employee from president to junior officer need to work on the same floor. This also inculcates fun and informal culture in the company. With the help of clear communication managers make sure that companys vision and mission, as well as job description are clear to the employees. To provide the feedback on employees performance there is automated IT-system known as TDP (Telenor Development process). This helps company to use performance relationships that can achieve the purpose SHRM to create competitive advantage. Employee Motivation: Terence Mitchell in 1972 proposed a model that provides the basis for how motivation among staffs influences job behaviours and performance. Following is the model which combines the elements from different motivational theories to explain the relationship between motivation and job performance. As mentioned in the below diagram, employees bring set of unique characteristics to the work place, such as their ability, emotions, moods, job knowledge, traits and values, these individual set of skills are then enhanced by the motivational process and transformed into the job performance. Individual inputs Ability, job knowledge Dispositions and traits Emotions, moods, and affect beliefs n value Skills Motivated behaviour Focus: direction, what we do. Intensity: effort, how hard we try Quality: task strategies, the way we do it. Duration: persistence, how long we stick to it. Performance Motivational Process Arousal Attention Intensity and Direction persistence Job context Physical environment Task design Rewards and reinforcement Supervisory support ancoaching Social norms and organisation culture Enable, limit Source: TR Mitchell, Matching Motivational Strategies with Organisational Contexts, in Research in Organisational Behaviour, Vol19, ends LL Cummings and BM Staw (Greenwich, CT: JAI Press, 1997) P 63. To motivate the employees at all levels Telenor offers competitive pay, excellent benefits and exceptional advancement opportunities. With the caring atmosphere Telenor provides relaxed and enriching working environment. Furthermore, training and further education programs ensure a high professional standard amongst all staffs. Such motivational tools create bunch of talented and loyal workforce which plays a crucial role in the organizations ongoing business success. Moreover, to get the 100% commitment from the employees Telenor uses following management criteria for all managers for annual evaluations. They are; (a) Passion for business (b) Change and constant renewal (c) Operational excellence (d) Empower people (e) Integrity. Source: http://www.telenor.com.pk/careers/whyTelenor.php Task 2: Role of the HR Function: According to (Armstrong 2003: 38) The role of HR function is to enable the organization to achieve its objectives by taking initiatives and providing guidance and support on all matters relating to its employees. Moving one step further Michael Armstrong emphases on basic aim of HR function which is to deal effectively with everything concerning the employment and development of people and the relationship that exist between management and workforce. As the personnel standards (Lead Body 1993) cited by (Armstrong 2003: 39) suggested that Personnel management is exercised as a part of full management process and cannot be viewed in isolation. Although a support activity it must be proactive. It must promote business solutions that take advantage of opportunities stemming from business issues just as it must find solutions to apparent constraints. Activities of HR functions: According to (Mithis and jackson 2006: 6) the HR function becoming transactional as organizations compete globally. Furthermore they have suggested seven key HR activities which ideally the every FR function should perform in the organization, those activities are as follows: Strategic HR management Equal employment opportunity Staffing HR development Compensation benefits Health, safety and security Employee and labour relations By combining the HRM function with business strategy, SHRM creates more efficient and effective arrangement and utilization of human resources to attain the organizational goals, and which helps organization to gain a competitive advantage. Telenor Pakistan has developed strong relationships among teams, which helps in creating high levels of coordination and therefore instigating high levels of quality and performance efficacy. This is only possible because of HR function is performing the required tasks within the organization. All the HR activities mentioned above are critical for the success of Telenor and theses activities are often displayed by the Telenor leadership at the top and the frontline managers, to create an environment in which employees can achieve the level of excellence, by not only performing their jobs effectively but also developing their skills and capabilities to the ever changing demands of contemporary organization. The main focus of SHRM is to develop the firms capability in order to deal with changes in an external environment through a better utilization of human resources. Telenor Pakistan has embedded this strategy in their core business, so the company can respond quickly to external changes. HR Function Models: There have been many attempts to categorize the work of the HR function in order to analyze its verity, diversity and complexity. One of the oldest and perhaps one of the best models was proposed by Karen Legge in 1978 cited by (Marchington and Wilkinson 2005: 131). In 1986 Tyson and Fell came up with their own building Site analogy in which they have identified three roles for the personal function. However, Tyson and Fell (1986, p24) rejected the assumption that HR assumes great maturity as it develops along the continuum. Storey (1992) forwarded another model which was updated by Caldwell (2003). This model proposes fourfold map based on two dimensions: the degree to which HR is strategic or operational, and the extent to which it intervenes and has a high profile. (Marchington and Wilkinson 2005: 131-132) Author (date) Categories for the HR roles Reasons for differentiation Legge (1978) Conformist innovator Deviant innovator Problem-solver Relating the work of HR to the values and norms of the organisation Looks for new innovation often based on social values not economic ones Identifying and resolving problems Ways to gain power and influence Tyson Fell (1986) Clerk of the works Contracts manager Architect Predominately administrative serving the needs of line managers Often where systems and procedures and heavily formalised involving industrial relations Greater integration into corporate strategy HR planning and development are important Time-span for decision-making Degree of discretion Involvement of HR Story (1992) Caldwell (2003) Handmaiden Regulator Adviser Change-market Provide a service to meet the demands of the line managers Mainly concerned with managing problems and discontent Operate at strategic level, provide support for line-managers and work to help shape policies and practices Internal consultant leaving much of HR practice to line managers Level-strategic or tactical Degree of interventionism Ulrich (1998) Administrative support Employee champion Change agent Business partner Improving efficiency within function and organisation Improving contribution commitment and engagement of workforce Improving the organizations ability to transform and change Implementing and developing the strategic plans of the organisation Level, focus and time-frame Managing processes for people (Armstrong, 2006, pp. 76-81) Ulrich in 1998 pointed out that there is sort of disconfirmation between the activities that HR perform and the real work of organization. He believes that HR should not be defined by what it does but by what it delivers. Furthermore he proposed that HR can deliver excellence in for in four different ways: (a) Business partner (b) Administrative support (c) Employee champion (d) change agent. Ulrich model for the HR function: Source: (Marchington and Wilkinson 2005: 135) Application of Models: All of the above stated models hold great value in present world, but the model that fits the Telenor Pakistan HR function is combination of these; Proposed Paradigm: Deviant Innovator Architect Regulator Change agent Employee champion Deviant innovator: Here the HR looks for new innovation driven from social values rather than economic ones. Telenor Human Capital Division plays this role by providing equal opportunities to all employees and providing flexibility in working hours where the staffs is studying or doing some other courses. Empowerment is the key in this role of HR, in Telenor Pakistan line managers are encouraged to delegate authority to their lower level, where by encouraging junior staff to gain confidence and develop their capabilities to cope the future demands. Architect: According to Tyson and Fell this is the most sophisticated role of Hr function it is concerned with grand designs at a senior level and the integration of HR into the broader business plans. Telenor HR managers display the quality of architect by creating the right culture in the organization e.g. open environment to promote speedy work and higher level of communication. Secondly operating as business managers rather than personnel professionals, those can proactively work to analyse the present and future needs of employees. Regulator: Telenor HR work as regulator by managing and resolving departmental conflicts, for example, different incentive plans for Sales and Customer services department can create discontentment among the employees, such issues are regulated by HR to compensate the staff equally. Moreover, HR develops policies practices, and level of hierarchy at which decisions are taken. Change Agent: This role of HR seeks to develop new processes culture and providing new vision to the company. Human Capital Division in HR work as change agent in a manner that it develops the organizations ability to sustain the change forces and transform vision into reality. For instance the service centres operations timings were increased from 9:00am to 9:00 pm to cater the changing demand of customers. However, to facilitate employees company has provided conveyance allowance with higher rate of pay to keep the workforce motivated. Employee Champion: HR in Telenor performs this role by working as a representative of employees by conveying the concerns of the employees to the higher management. Furthermore, as suggested by Ulrich, HR department keep regard of things by which employees are kept motivated and will to work beyond contract when needed. For example in Telenor there is IT regulated system know as service desk, if any employee has any issue he/she can log that complaint on the system and HR will take care of that issue. Source: (Marchington and Wilkinson 2005, pp 132-135) Horizontal vertical Integration: HRM Align: Alignment of Human resources simply means integrating people management decisions with a core business strategy of the organization. By align or integrating human resources management into the organisations planning process develops and promotes strong relationship between HR and management. By this action of management it ensures that the management of human resources contributes towards the achievement of desired goals of company and for any shortcomings managers are held answerable for their HRM decisions. In contemporary organization like Telenor Pakistan, in routine the work requires high level of coordination and most of the work is interdependent among the employee groups. To facilitate high level of coordination and to generate quick response all the Telenor employees are trained for multitasking with very little job description, which clearly mentions one thing at the end: Working for Telenor is better than working for department. This kind of HR structure prevents its not my job attitude and the absence of rigid work roles develops strong partnerships between different departments and create efficacy. Why to align? Study of (Miles Snow 1984, Baird Meshoulam 1988, Wright McMahan 1992) related to SHRM put high emphasis on creating fit between HR practice and business strategy. Implementation and execution of effective HR policies and the design of a HR system align with the firms overall strategy, are vital for the successful implementation of business strategies which can gain competitive advantage.(Lengnick-Hall Lengnick-Hall 1988). HR alignment increases the firm capabilities to better serve and anticipate its customers needs, aggrandizes the organisations strength to implement strategic business goals, and provides decision-makers with vital information for resource provisioning. Finally, it is important for the firms accountability. By regularly defining, maintaining, assessing and communicating HR goals throughout the organisation ensures that the management of human resources contributes towards the mission accomplishment. For any shortcomings managers will be liable for their HR decisions. There are the other areas as well where HR office contributes to align with mission accomplishment, such as HR function working as a consultant, for instance Telenor Pakistans HR office provide consultation to the manager rather than telling manager what he/she can or cannot do. (Wei, L. 2006) Horizontal Integration: One of the vital roles of Strategic HRM is create horizontal integration which aims to ensure that the different elements of the HR strategy fit together and are mutually supportive. (Hendry C and Pettigrew A, 1986: 2), also cited by (Michael Armstrong, 2006, p156). (Walker, J. W. 1992), described strategic HRM as the means of aligning the management of human resources with the strategic content of the business. Vertical integration: Vertical integration focuses on developing a reciprocity or two-way communication between strategic planners and human resource planners in organisations (Milkovich et al., 1983). Walker, J. W. 1992 in his book Human resource strategy suggested that vertical integration is necessary to provide congruence between business and human resource strategy so that it supports the accomplishment of the business. Such two-way methods of communication results in meaningful information regarding human resource being fed into the strategic planning process. Following is the graphical presentation of how the Horizontal and vertical integration creates an overall fit for the organization. Determinants of Both Types of Fit: In Telenor Pakistan Integrative strategies are executed by involving the coordination of human resource planning and the personal functions such as recruitment, training, and career management. These strategies are also practiced to minimize the cost and to instigate efficient coordination of resources to obtain their maximum output. Telenor horizontal and vertical integration goes a long way in building a team that is vibrant and well coordinated for achieving the corporate objectives and long-term goals. Moreover, Telenor practice Vertical integration, to emphasise the congruence of a HR measures with the strategy the firm is pursuing. This in long term can gain a competitive advantage for the organization. Telenor HR exercise vertical and horizontal integration by the help of following Hr tools: Clarifies goals and objectives Encourages participation Planning and organises Facilitates work Provides feedback Empowering and delegates Recognises good performance In practice Telenor HR in many ways influence the achievement of horizontal fit and vertical fit, as achieving both kinds of fits are necessary for company to performance efficiently. More importantly the vision of Telenor is HR and customer oriented which embraces the theories and models discussed above: Our vision is simple: Were here to help. We exist to help our customers get the full benefit of communications services in their daily lives. The key to achieving this vision is a mindset where every one of us works together: Making it easy to buy and use our services. Delivering on our promises. Being respectful of differences. Inspiring people to find new ways. Source: www.telenor.com.pk. Recommendations: Follow are the recommendations to improve the vertical and horizontal integration: (a) There is nothing permanent except change; likewise the top management role in Telenor Strategic Human Resource Management Strategic Human Resource Management Introduction This point of time when globalization become a natural phenomenon, bring human resource in a lime light. A large number of organizations viewed human resource as a source of competitive advantage. There is greater acceptance that distinctive competencies are obtained through highly developed employee skills, distinctive organizational cultures, management processes and systems. However, it is necessary to invest the concept with clear meaning. In todays highly competitive business environment, organizations cannot sustain excellent performance unless they develop a competence for rapid, continuous strategic change. According to Edward E. Lawler (2008) the source of competitive advantage has shifted in many organizations from reliability to innovation and flexibility. Further argue that it is a combination of the right structure and the right people that provides the foundation and tools for creating competitive and innovative organizations. Traditionally, human resource has been considered a factor only after the strategic business decisions are made. Human resource issues were not even discussed during the decision to purchase the business. One human resource executive put it succinctly when he said â€Å"the line job is to tell us where the business is going and then it is up to us to find the people to develop.† Companies like GM and AIG are some of the example when they sour large number of their stake because they had not considered the human resource implication of their purchase. However, companies such as IBM, GE, and Intel use of human resource management as an integral part of strategy formulation. Indeed, many companies have begun to require the human resource component in their strategic plan. Where they begun a great deal of experimentation and problem solving to decide what data are required, what issue should be considered, and how they can relate to the various aspect of the business. The major emphasis in strategic planning has doubtless been on formulation. This led to a conclusion up until 1980 that much time and thought had gone into analyzing and planning strategy yet very little into implementation. But after 1980 it changes to the effective implementation of the strategy. i.e getting people to do the right things to make strategies happen. In this respect, the human resource tools become central and focus. Strategic Human Resource Management Strategic human resource management is a multipart process which is frequently developing and being studied and discussed by academics and commentators. Its characterization and associations with other aspects of business setting up and strategy is not complete and estimation varies involving writers. It has been defined as: * All those activities affecting the actions of individuals in their efforts to put together and put into action the strategic needs of business. (Schuler, 1992) * The prototype of planned human resource deployments and activities anticipated to facilitate the forms to attain its goals (Wright, Macmahan, 1992) In general, Strategic human resources management is defined as the linking of HRM with strategic goals and objectives in order to improve business performance and develop organizational cultures that foster innovation and flexibility. Boxall and Purcell (2003) argue that strategic HRM is apprehensive with explaining how HRM influences organizational performance. They also point out that strategy is not the identical as strategic plans. Strategic planning is the formal procedure that takes place, generally in larger organizations, defining how things will be done. However strategy exists in all organizations even though it may not be in black and white and expressed. It defines the organizations behavior and how it tries to cope with its environment. Strategic HRM is based on HRM philosophy incorporating the concept of strategy. So if HRM is a logical approach to the management of people, strategic HRM now implies that that is done on a planned way that integrates organizational goals with policies and action sequences. Coppers Lybrand (CL) consider HRM and its development as their top priority. The administration is determined in hiring and retaining skilled and competent workers. Each worker should meet the demands of the highly competitive and growing business industry worldwide. Chairman and CEO says that the attraction and retention of people, which they consider as the highest intellectual capital is the critical objectives of CL. The Basic Architecture of HR Source: Brian Becker et al. 2001 Implementing Strategy There are four generic human resource activities of all the organization 1. Selection/ promotion/ placement process Example of Chase Manhattan bank During the period between 1975and 1980 the bank underwent major managerial changes key to the bank s successful turnaround from a troubled bank in the mid -70s was a careful strategic level selection and placement of executive. Historically in banking in general and specifically at chase senior level positions were based on historical precedent with old-boy net works playing a major role. Also the tradition incident based on historical precedent with old-boy net works playing a major role. Also the tradition in banking was reward those with banker skills not those with managerial skills which were implicitly considered to be less importance .Under the stress of serious performance problems chase manhattan when the trust manager retired corporate management decide that the department whose operation had been essentially stable should focus on a more aggressive growth strategy instead of seeking a veteran banker chase hired a man whose experience had been with IBM because it was felt h e brought a strong marketing orientation to the trust department which the new strategy required. Similarly, when chase reorganized it retail banking business from a low margin operation in which the stress was keeping down costs of to a more expansionary business offering broader consumer financial services it hired because of his entrepreneurial skills an executive who had been a division chief of a small industrial firm and had a track record of entrepreneurial management experience. 2. Reward processes Good selection is the sine qua non of performance. Once people are in job and perform however they should also be rewarded for good performance. These incumbents should also be developed to improve performance and prepare them for a new position. The linkage to reward outcomes reduces or eliminates the developmental value of appraisals. Rather than an opportunity for constructive review and encouragement, the reward-linked process is perceived as judgmental, punitive and harrowing. For example, how many people would gladly admit their work problems if, at the same time, they knew that their next pay rise or a much-wanted promotion was riding on an appraisal result? Very likely, in that situation, many people would deny or downplay their weaknesses. Nor is the desire to distort or deny the truth confined to the person being appraised. Many appraisers feel uncomfortable with the combined role of judge and executioner. 3. Development process Ensuring that organization has an adequate supply of human resource talent at all levels is no easy task especially when organization is going to a rapid strategic changes. The key is to have a human resource planning system that make accurate forecast. In order to plan for the future, an accurate inventory of current human resource stock is important. This should include both the current individual performance and the future potential of an individual. 4. Appraisal process A basic human tendency to make judgments about those one is working with, as well as about oneself. The human inclination to judge can create serious motivational, ethical and legal problems in the workplace. Without a structured appraisal system, there is little chance of ensuring that the judgments made will be lawful, fair, defensible and accurate. Appraisal systems began as simple methods of income justification. That is, appraisal was used to decide whether or not the salary or wage of an individual employee was justified. In many organizations but not all appraisal results are used, either directly or indirectly, to help determine reward outcomes. That is, the appraisal results are used to identify the better performing employees who should get the majority of available merit pay increases, bonuses, and promotions. Sue Peattie It has been seen that Food market continuous to grow rapidly since 1990 in UK. (Sue Peattie). In order to full fill the demand of the market, markets had to use all available marketing tools. Promotion is one of the major adapted tools to maintain or increase the sales. However, more focus remains on price base promotion. As more and more competition is coming into market. This tool needs more attention. Business tends to use different kinds of promotions to attract more and more sales. Buy one get free one free, buy three in price of one, bundle deal are good attraction for promotion. Example: â€Å"During 1972-82, US per capita consumption of variety meats (offal) reached a high of 5.66 lb in 1977 and then declined to 4.21 lb in 1982. The objective of this market test was to measure the effects of promotional and merchandising strategies on food store sales of selected beef/pigment variety meats. Promotion took place in 8 test stores of one food chain in three test markets (Salina, Topeka, and Wichita, Kansas) during three eight-week test periods (TP). Promotional and merchandising strategies tried were: (1) a special clearly designated display section for variety meats; (2) point of purchase (POP) price signs; (3) colored wall posters; (4) POP nutritional information and recipes; (5) newspaper advertising at two conventional supermarkets; (6) in-store advertising at all stores; (7) price specials; (8) personal salesmanship; and (9) product taste samples. Average weekly sales (lbs) of total variety meats increased in every test store from TP-1 to TP-2. Sales of 5 beef it ems (heart, liver, sweetbreads, tripe and oxtail) increased significantly. Retail sales increased 9.6% in the test stores compared to a 6.0% seasonal increase in purchases by all stores associated with a wholesale supplier (AWG). A seasonal decline in lbs of variety meats sold of 19.6% in test stores from TP-2 to TP-3 was matched by a 19.1% drop in wholesale purchases by all stores. Promotion in TP-2 increased retail sales over those of TP-1, but continued promotion in TP-3 did not lead to further sales increases.† (Source: http://www.cababstractsplus.org/abstracts/Abstract.aspx?AcNo=19901880256) Strategic HRM and human capital management Many writers have argued that strategic HRM and human capital management (HCM) is one and the same thing, and certainly the concept of strategic HRM matches that of the broader explanation of HCM relatively well as the following definition of the main features of strategic HRM by Dyer and Holder (1998) shows: * Organizational level because strategies involve decisions about key goals, major policies and the distribution of resources they be inclined to be formulated at the top. * Focus strategies are business-driven and focus on organizational effectiveness; thus in this perspective people are viewed first and foremost as capital to be managed in the direction of the achievement of strategic business goals. * Framework strategies by their extraordinarily nature provide unifying frameworks which are at once broad, contingency-based and integrative. They incorporate a full accompaniment of HR goals and activities planned specifically to fit extant environments and to be commonly reinforcing or synergistic. This argument has been based on the information that both HRM in its appropriate sense and HCM rest on the supposition that people are treated as assets rather than costs and both focus on the importance of adopting an integrated and strategic move toward to managing people which is the concern of all the stakeholders in an organization not just the people management role. However, the perception of human capital management complements and strengthens the idea of strategic HRM relatively replaces it. (Armstrong and Baron, 2002) Strategic HRM could consequently be viewed as the essential framework within which these estimation, reporting and management course of action take place and make sure that they are iterative and communally reinforcing. Human capital consequently informs and in turn is shaped by strategic HRM but it does not substitute it. Strategic HRM and business performance Since the mid 1990s, CIPD and others have been generating evidence for the impact of people management practices on business performance. Much emphasis has been put on the importance of ‘fit. In other words it is argued that HR strategies much fit both with each other and with other organizational strategies for maximum impact. The main areas of practice which all the researchers agreed have an impact on performance are around job design and skills development. However, CIPD work found that practices alone do not create business performance. They can create ‘human capital or a set of individuals who are highly skilled, highly motivated and have the opportunity to participate in organizational life by being given jobs to do. However, this will only feed through into higher levels of business performance if these individuals have positive management relationships with their superiors in a supportive environment with strong values. All these factors will promote ‘discretionary behavior, the willingness of the individual to perform above the minimum or give extra effort. It is this discretionary behavior that makes the difference to organizational performance. Conclusion The SHRM idea is a influential idea if function properly within an organization. HR groups are able to plan for potential growth and react to any changes that may take place. In addition, SHRM allows companies to completely make the most of their human assets to make real improvement over their competitors. This advantage comes from having the HR policies and strategies perfectly aligned with the corporate goals so that the organization has the right human capital, right remuneration packages and training methodologies to allow the employees to efficiently do their jobs. There may also be an remarkable view of HRM as an implicit part of the major strategic change Initiative, relatively as a critical stand alone component of reform. This view may now be Changing as more and more people realize the need to reform human resources management as an equal and necessary component of overall Government-wide reform and reinvention. In short, SHRM allows an organization to create a competitive advantage with their human capital by aligning their strategic goals with their HRM systems. Author Ronald Sims states it clearly when he writes: â€Å"Successful organizations in the prospect must strongly make parallel their HRM strategies and programs with the external opportunities, competitive strategies, and their only one of its characteristics and core capability. Organizations that fail to clearly define HRM strategy or competitive strategy that explicitly incorporates human resources will not be successful† (Sims, 2002, p. 30). Bibliography # ARMSTRONG, M and BARON, A. (2002) Strategic HRM: the key to improved business performance. Developing practice. London: Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development. # SCHULER, R.S. (1992) Strategic human resource management: linking people with the needs of the business. Organizational Dynamics. Vol 21, No 1. pp18-32. # WRIGHT, P.M. and MCMAHAN, G.C. (1992) Theoretical perspectives for SHRM. Journal of Management. March. pp215-247. # BOXALL, P. and PURCELL, J. (2003) Strategy and human resource management. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan. # DYER, L. and HOLDER, G. Strategic human resource management and planning. In: DYER, L. (ed) (1998) Human resource management: evolving roles and responsibilities. Washington DC: Bureau of National Affairs. Cavusgil, T.S. and Zou, S. (1994), â€Å"Marketing strategy-Performance relationship: an investigation of the empirical link in export market Ventures†, Journal of Marketing Research, Vol. 58, January, pp. 1-21 Sims, R. R. (2002). Organizational success through effective human resources management (1st ed.). Westport, CT: Quorum Books. Truss, C., Gratton, L. (1994, September 1994). Strategic human resource management: A conceptual approach. The International Journal of Human Resource Management, 5(3), p. 663.