The Environmental And Sustainable Policy Of Abb Environmental Sciences Essay

ABB has been committed to the betterment of the production public presentation for both public public-service corporation and industry clients every bit good as lower negative effects to the environment. While cut down the ingestion of energy and natural resorts utilizing, the nucleus operation for ABB is to supply higher efficient systems, merchandises and services. That is why environmental direction is one of the most anterior concern. The environmental policy is considered to be summed up to several facets: Constructing up the environmental direction system ( ISO14001 ) , ABB carries out the environmental rule, and keeps promises to go on with invention, observant and the instruction of staffs, supports environmental friendly manner in their concern. Promoting their clients and providers to utilize international environmental criterions, ABB now has put environmental elements into the hazard appraisal of large clients. As a nucleus operation, the efficiency of energy and resources is assisting to the betterment of industry engineering. Innovation and publicity of the production which can better utilize the clean energy and raise the efficiency are the focal point of ABB The environmental public presentation of ABB mills is examined and verified in a certain period. It is to be published that the environmental declaration of the production and the environmental public presentation of the nucleus production. Sustainability study is supposed to be made every twelvemonth. The independent bureau will look into to maintain the transparency of the study. High eco efficient engineerings will be sold to the developing states. By and large talking, ABB now is utilizing 4 methods to increase the its sustainability: increasing the economic benefit, spread outing the environmental direction system, transporting out societal policies and advancing electrization undertakings. While accomplishing the end of economic growing, It is seeking to minimise the negative impacts to environment. However if we look into the environmental policy, it is non difficult to happen that after probe, the duty, that if the environmental direction system of ABB does non run into the demand of international criterions, is non distinguishable. The missing of duty committedness causes an unexplainable behavior in the environmental direction. The energy losingss in 2008 is much higher than that in 2007 or 2006. Fossil fuel, as the chief type of energy, is still widely used in the productive procedure. As the taking company in the field of high efficient production, evidently ABB does non pay much attending to the higher per centum of energy losingss, compared with 2007 and 2006, in the production procedure. The declaration of the public presentation merely focuses on nucleus merchandises. As a affair of fact, if we check from the GRI indexs of ABB in 2008, It is shown that the risky substances are much more used than earlier. The ignore of the accessory merchandises hinder the betterment of sustainability scheme. The sensible border-crossing development scheme is non even mentioned in the sustainable policies. Transportation system of the merchandises now caused a immense emanation of C dioxide. The location of the subdivision companies and the energy supply scheme for the mills are supposed to follow the rule that can minimise the transit distance.Environmental policy of ABB related ISO14001 guidelinesISO14001 is a international criterions for Environmental Management Systems ( EMS ) , so the demands of ISO have incorporated with the different involvements of companies. Since ABB is a immense international group, it is difficult to acquire a incorporate criterion for the whole company. The guidelines we are speaking about now bases on the simple demands of the EMS. The committedness and environmental policy The committedness of an organisation should include two chief parts: the ground why the organisation wants to go green and what is the general thought of the how to command the environmental impacts. The environmental policy is supposed to see all the stakeholders in the system. Initial environmental reappraisal In this portion, organisation should do a deep research of the environmental state of affairs, and have a better apprehension of the challenges that they are confronting. The advantages and disadvantages of former environmental direction system need to be considered. Planing the environmental policy For shaving a comprehensive environmental policy, the impact made by the organisation ‘s activities must do certain every bit good as the feedback from environment. Not merely legal demands need to be met, besides some higher demanding 1s. Environmental direction plans are made to accomplish the environmental aims and marks. The duties and clip tabular array for the plan are besides of import. Implementing the environmental policy The transporting out of the environmental policy requires most of the attempt. The environmental undertaking is assign to everybody, the resources to back up the environmental plans are transmitted to forces. The duties of forces are affirmed, tested by a particular authorization which has the rights to describe to the top of the organisation. Eduction to the forces that makes sure of every organic structure understanding their undertakings and moving as the environmental public presentation requiring, need to be ensured by the organisation. Daily concern integrates the environmental plans The direction plan demand to be documented for the external hearers, so that the activities of the organisation are wholly known by the populace. Information about environmental direction is updated on clip. Productive procedures and activities which have a important impact to envronment are supposed to be examined by the organisation, besides with the goods and services. Potential environmental hazards and accidents should be identified. Methods of bar and security are tested and carried out. Measurement and rating All the equipments utilizing a proctor look intoing the productive activities need to be ensured about their truth. The duties to cover with the actions which has a negative impacts to the environment demand to be defined. Audited accounts and reappraisal The reappraisal of the EMS purposes to look into the efficiency of the system and besides find the topographic points need to be evaluated. External environmental communicating The environmental study are supposed to be made for the external stakeholders, from which the environmental public presentation of the organisation are established. Then communicating with the stakeholders about the effects and impacts provides an overall public thought of the EMS. Now if we relate the ABB environmental policy to ISO14001, several jobs showed up. Duties and clip frame The duties of the environmental public presentation for forces are non clear and definite. First of wholly, the undertaking and attempt for forces are non mentioned in the environmental policy, in which instance the from the policy we can non acquire information about the mark and disposal on the employee degree. Second there is no scheme with a clip bound. The missing of timetable causes an unsure orientation in the audits and reexamine portion. This eventually leads to a lower dependable The high ecoefficiency engineering reassigning to developing states The measurement and rating in ABB ‘s subdivision companies does non turn out to be trumps. More than 5,000 employees are traveling to be advertised in China, but the energy efficiency becomes lower. Carbon dioxide emanations which come from energy utilizing takes up a higher per centum of the whole C dioxide emanations. The lower ecoefficiency gives a fact that while be aftering the environmental policy, ABB dainty different part otherwise. As to the environmental direction system, non a higher degree than legal one, ABB is utilizing in their production procedure. Interaction with the environment and communicating with stakeholders The interaction with the environment is worth more attending. The merchandises and services of ABB have a important impact to the environment, while the scheme of cut downing the negative impacts are non given a deep look. The overall thought of the environmental consequence to the productive procedure are non in a to the full reading, which causes an unconvinced thought of the ABB environmental mark. Communication with the stakeholders helps to maintain a comprehensive and rational thought of the environmental system. However this is non included in ABB environmental policy.Environmental policy related to specific merchandise and service profile of the companyABB is the taking company in the universe bring forthing energy merchandises. The solar power works in Spain now is supplying clean electricity for 50,000 Spanish households, which is the largest solar power works in the Europe. However the clean clean electricity used in ABB ‘ productive advancement is less than 6.3 % . Besides the electricity grids made by ABB can minimise the electricity loss in the transmittal. The high-potential current transmittal grids now being used in Three Gorges Dam in China, have a high energy efficiency. The electricity it saves in one twelvemonth can run into the demand of 500,000 Chinese households ‘ electricity demands. The control system and high efficient equipment in DuBai cut the energy loss by 46 % in aluminium industry. But if we check in the GRI study in 2008, it is non difficult to happen that the energy loss for ABB in 2008 is much more than 2007 and 2006. The universe largest submerged power line linking Norway and Netherland saves 1.7million dozenss of C dioxide emanations. While the C dioxide from ABB are increasing, which means the chief energy ingestion is still fossil fuel. ABB put much investing and attempt on the research on new merchandises which have high energy efficiency and lower energy loss, but the production advancement of ABB is non to the full following the energy and environmental scheme. The implementing of environmental direction system need more attempt and the initial reappraisal of the EMS has non put focal point on the energy efficiency.ABB long term programWith the fast turning demand of electricity, the accent is still electricity product.s. The corporation with authorities will be enhanced. Governments all over the universe now are confronting a higher force per unit area with the energy deficit. So high energy efficiency equipment and system will derive more benefit for ABB. The merchandise which improves the productiveness and uses less energy is still the development way. Renewable energy is another tendency for ABB. Since the development of the clean energy expands a new energy market, ABB will lodge to its consistent energy sc heme and do great attempt on the contraption of renewable energy merchandises.

Coloplast company Essay

Executive Summary Coloplast, an international company that specializes in developing, manufacturing, and marketing medical devices, implemented an off-shoring strategy in order to stay viable, competitive and keep in focus the dynamic market needs. Implementing this strategy has brought some issues that were unexpected for Coloplast. One of the issues was with the organizational structure. Coloplast’s off shoring involved moving operations to Hungary. They would be operating with Danish and Hungarian production plants, where production processes were not the same. Misunderstandings and miscommunication arose amongst employees and created managerial and operational challenges. Another issue that arose was knowledge management and this became a problem since there was very limited documentation on inconsistencies in equipment operation as well as no proper standardization of systems in place. The solution to these problems is to implement company wide processes that help standardize both Hungarian and Danish plants. Employee motivation and communication is another issue and this is attributable to the resistance to change which many employees face. Coloplast didn’t look at these issues with offshoring as their costs were rising locally and they needed to mitigate that cost. Coloplast should expand to China where labour is even cheaper than Hungary. It is an offshoring move that must be looked at in order for Coloplast to maintain their economies of scale. The further reduction of costs with their experience from offshoring in Hungary allow Coloplast to enter the offshoring process to China with a greater understanding in all that it entails, and the possible pitfalls that can arise. Issue Identification One of the issues faced was that of the interdependent relationship between the Danish and the Hungarians. There were operational assumptions and activities. Nobody factored in how significant the language barrier would be. It proved to be a significant enough factor that it warranted unexpected time and money to rectify the problems Coloplast faced. There was a lack of knowledge transfer from the Danish operators to the Hungarian  operators and this resulted in operational inefficiencies. The other issue involved the human resource aspects such as limiting attrition rates, limiting social hardship, and transferring knowledge effectively. Environmental and Root Cause Analysis Certain trends shifted power towards the consumer in Coloplast’s industry. Although Coloplast saw the need to offshore or outsource, their decision was based on them trying to focus on their core business and to increase efficiency, the prime motive was to cut costs. They chose to offshore as this entailed lower cost and availability of skilling workers. They did not want to rely on third parties, and third parties lack the in house knowledge needed for Coloplast’s operation. Coloplast was seriously considering relocating to a low cost location for some time. They were in danger of certain factors such as reimbursement, policy changes, price pressures due to wholesaler concentration, and powerful insurance companies. They felt there were distinct advantages to off shoring as opposed to outsourcing as the competitive advantage of offshoring to Hungary as they developed a much better ecosystem for Coloplast’s business. This means there is better availability of ski lled human resources in that region for specific types of tasks. Their establishment in Hungary was due to the significant savings in production costs, which were 20 percent less than Danish levels. After they had factored in wage increases, Coloplast was convinced this offshore move would be financially advantageous in the long run. Building costs were 50% less in Hungary than Denmark. Cost considerations were an issue, but logistical considerations were weighed to be more important. The root cause factors lay in the rollout of the offshoring project. Large regional differences existed within Hungary in terms of wage and infrastructure. Coloplast was located on the attractive side of Hungary and other major companies were close by, which played a part in their decision to off shore. Although the relocation of operations involved mature product lines, the decentralized structure still made documenting planning and production systems difficult. The operations at the Danish site were not standardized, thus making it harder to offshore to Hungary, who had their own operations. The Danish factories felt that their organized production was unique to each  of them and couldn’t be replicated. There were no product manuals and they had to be created proper production techniques and equipment operation. This would then have to be translated to Hungarian, and this processes impact was not properly assessed. The transfer of knowledge and training that required human interaction was not properly addressed beforehand either. Alternatives or Options Expand in Europe. Many locations were scouted before Hungary was implemented, and there are several Eastern Bloc countries with low wage, and production costs. However, there is more risk in operating in one of these countries as the geopolitical implications in these countries can cause cost savings to be eroded. They can also see the feasibility in many countries such as Poland, Ireland, and the Czech Republic. They have already offshored and Coloplast felt that it could further improve incentives to strengthen transfer of knowledge in their next venture. The regional attraction was there with Hungary, and the cost savings did occur for Coloplast, thus making offshoring to another European country a feasible option. Europe has already lowered its offshoring walls following a global trend, and this could be attractive for Coloplast if the geographical distance to China were a concern. Recommendation and Implementation Relocate to China. Now that Coloplast has realized its deficiencies in their process with the offshoring to Hungary, they can mitigate these for the future in their relocation to China. The whole initial decision to offshore in the first place was to reduce cost. Hungary was less costly than Denmark, and China is less costly than Hungary. It makes business sense to relocate to China production wise, as the wages are significantly lower than the Danish and Hungarians. There are organizational challenges in this implementation in that the geographical distance between Denmark and China can amplify many of the scenarios that arose from their offshoring to Hungary. Their knowledge transfer must be coordinated well in advance with  any offshore implementation. They must establish well-set corporate guidelines on how to relocate and manage production sites in advance of any physical offshoring move. Maintain a high level of information and communicate in a direct manner. Leave no interpr etation, and build relationships. They must learn from the mistakes identified with their previous project. They must also apply the best practices from Hungary and include the idiosyncrasies of the Chinese business environment. The environment is drastically different from the environment they operated in Denmark and Hungary. These differences must be identified, and transitioned, as to make the offshoring smooth and sufficient. They will need to start with having Danish representatives make a presence in China in their facilities. It is important in business relations in China to have a level of trust with their employers, and customers. Establish substantial resources while further fine-tuning internal decision making processes and procedures in order to integrate their production unit with headquarters and production in Denmark. Monitor and Control Representatives from Coloplast in Denmark can have all their operational efficiencies set and can ease the process of off shoring by starting out with some local Danish representatives ease in the process with their physical presence in China. Work in conjunction with the Chinese workers in order to have them gain their trust, and a more direct line of knowledge transfer. Having set guidelines and policies in procedures will leave out any room for misinterpretation, such as what occurred in Hungary. Key KPI’s can be set for the offshoring project such as Total Cost vs. Total Cost Savings. Monitoring the metrics of expenses and comparing those expenses to their current operations will be a good indicator of any cost savings. Human capital must be monitored, as human resources were an issue that was already identified in Hungary. Turnover, and training costs must be monitored, recorded and reported.

Childhood experiences Essay

The quality and type of relationships differ between individuals:some are happy with long term-relationships, others prefer more temporary, less passionate relationships. Some individuals seem ‘lucky in love’, while others seem to struggle to maintain a long term stable relationship. Bowlby (1951) believed that the type of quality of relationship that individuals have with their primary caregivers provides the foundation for adult relationships by forming an internal working model hat acts as a template for all future relationships. This is the Continuity Hypothesis, the belief that similar relationships will occur as an adult. One theory that is thought to affect someones future relationships is the attachment styles a child can develop. These Attachment styles are determined by Mary Ainsworth’s strange situation experiment, where a child is either Secure attachment, Insecure-resistant attachment or Insecure-avoidant attachment type. It is believed attachment style provides children with a set of beliefs about themselves and others and the nature of relationships. The Continuity Hypothesis sees attachment as a main factor as predicting the nature of adult relationships. Therefore, someone who is securely attached as an infant will have similar relationships throughout life. This is Theory is supported by the study of HAZAN & SHAVER (1987). The experiment consisted of a ‘love quiz’ questionnaire that was published in a newspaper. The questions were designed to classify and individual as one of Ainsworth’s attachment type. The questionnaire also included q’s which aimed to assess the pps childhood relationships with their caregivers, and their romantic experiences in their life. Results showed that attachment type that individual had shown as a child was related to how they felt about adult relationships. Showed secure attachment types in childhood were more likely to enjoy secure relationships as an adult. Those with insecure-avoidant found it more hard to trust people in an adult relationship. Those with  insecure-resistant were more likely to feel anxious in adult relationships and find it hard to get as close to them as they wanted. As a result they concluded that relationships formed with parents during childhood affect relationships in adulthood. However this study does have issues with reliability as it is based on self-report data which is subjective. Furthermore the data is also retrospective further reducing reliability of the study. Also because the study relied on volunteer sampling, so the sample they have may not be truly representative of the population. However there are contradicting results in experiments done on the effect of attachment type on adult relationships as STEELE et al. (1998) found a small correlation of 0.17 between having a secure attachment type in childhood and early adulthood. This is also true for the study of RUTTER et al. (1999) who reported that individuals without secure attachments to their parents went on to secure stable relationships contradicting the findings of HAZAN & SHAVER. It is also believed that interaction with peers during childhood also influences later adult relationships. Peers become more influential as children progress into adulthood, playing a significant role in individuals becoming independent adults, helping develop social skills including those needed for adult relationships. GARNETT(2007) suggests that friendships during childhood give opportunities to develop skills needed to form successful adult relationships including: how to resolve conflict and how to take on different roles needed in relationships. COLLINS VAN DULMAN (2006) supports this theory and also suggests that relationships with peers give individuals the opportunity to learn behaviours and expectations involved in adult relationships. Supporting the idea that experiences during childhood and adolescence influence the quality of adult relationships. However some believed that it is difficult to measure the impact of a childs peer relationships on adult relationships, as there is a need to differentiate between having friends, who the friends are and the quality of each of the relationships, making it hard to identify the direct influence each of these factors has on quality of adult relationships. Furthermore it is thought that children who have witnessed unstable relationships between their parents and others around them will be influenced by this and thus influences their adult relationships. Studies have shown that people who experienced parental divorce during childhood have more negative attitudes towards relationships than those who didn’t experience parental divorce. These negative attitudes include being less optimistic about having a successful relationship, feeling less trustful of partners, having more favourable attitudes towards divorce and more negative attitude towards marriage. SILVESTRI (1991) supports this notion as he found that having divorced parents significantly increased an individuals own chances of getting divorced. JOHNSTON and THOMAS provide an explanation for this suggesting that this could be because individuals model their behaviour on their parents behaviours. Linking back to bowlbys theory that children form an internal working model as to how relationships should be whilst not only being in a dysfunctional relationship themselves but observing these dysfunctional relationships too. However this theory cannot be generalised to the entire population as there are a large amount of people who experience divorce during childhood but still go on to have successful adult relationships. Thus proving that their must be many other factors that can influence the long term effects. Also research into this area of how divorce effects a child’s adult relationships can be used to minimise the effect of divorce on children. To conclude it seems that there is sufficient evidence to support bowlbys theory that early childhood experiences both being involved in relationships and observations of parents to does to some extent play a role in affecting their adult relationships. However due to the causal nature of much of the studies related to this area means that it can be difficult to establish what the true cause and effects are of early childhood experiences or whether it is other factors that are contributing to this, supported by the contradicting results of many studies in this area. Furthermore attachment theories are somewhat deterministic, perceiving childhood/peer attachments as causing later adult relationships. However it is likely that other factors are influential such as the different attachment types other people  bring to the relationship. e.g if a insecurely attached person can have a secure relationship if they are in a relationship with a securely attached person.

The Comparison of Xerxes and Attossa's Relationship in Persians Essay

The Comparison of Xerxes and Attossa's Relationship in Persians against Achilles and Thethis in the Iliad focusing on their role - Essay Example The rage between Achilles, the bravest of all, and Agamemnon, the powerful king among the Achaean allies prompted the Achilles to persuade her mother, Thetis, to intervene. She was an influential figure with the Zeus to bequeath the king of gods to inflict defeat and suffering on the Achaeans, so as to ruin Agamemnon. In this context, the comparison of the two is a reflection of the Persian wars, a time of incredible upheavals for the Greece (McDonald 90). The strife and standoff in between is a correspondence of city-states who fought against disheartening odds to preserve their autonomy and mortality. In affirming their mortality, the wars expose the expected tragedy as set along with striking lines. The quest of the two mothers (Attosa and Thetis) to grand their sons (Xerxes and Achilles) their rightful ego in the tumultuous year of the Persian invasion illustrates the evaluation. The events of Thetis to make Achilles immortal by holding him close to fire as an infant every night was to burn away the mortal parts as well as to rub him with ambrosia at the time (Philostrate et al 103). The acts of Attosa depict the return of bedraggled Xerxes to his royal court. This is the replica of Thetis. She inclines into consulting even gods for the sake of his son, Achilles. The mothers present dramatic acts in laying down a final coup to safe their status’ destiny. ... The fact that each of these royal sons could only turn to their mothers to secure their political status beats the logic. Does it mean they could not reclaim their statuses? For example, the image of Persians as cowards is seen through the cowardly acting and melodramatic personality of Xerxes. An instance when he wails loud and tears his clothes is certain. There is also an indicative sign of the social and opinionated realities of the time. Much of the decision made by royal has less to do with what consequences will befall their people and this is what exactly the two sides extent to the immediate society they live. They present to one the certainties of the unknown knowledge of the Persians culture and customers. How these royal families operate is what has gone through many theatres of the time as highlighting a residual sense of fear that required some public exorcism of ridicule (McDonald 65). For example, there is an attempt to incorporate the Persian gods and customs. The de piction in the action of the mothers in deciding the destiny of their sons is that the gods were part of their reality. The standing fact is that Greeks did not know quite enough about the Persians rather than the grossly distorted caricatures of the time. This prompted unending discord to save each other’s autonomy and mortality (Philostrate et al 64). As history would reveal, the historical context stands to share that Persians, Greece had only met through war, and the danger of the strife is how it could not provide the basis for cultural exchange. This explains why the Persian nobles like Attosa and Thetis have to cry to Zeus. For example, Attosa offers libations to the dead ones and proprietary gifts to the gods in impression of Greek customs. At

Southern Turkey city of Bodrum and Cradle of Ancient Civilization, Essay

Southern Turkey city of Bodrum and Cradle of Ancient Civilization, Egypt - Essay Example Bodrum was much more than a tourist spot for me – it was where I spent most of my childhood, a place that reminds me of many nostalgic experiences, feelings, and emotions. Egypt, even after my visit, didn’t create much lasting impression in me, as it was an alien land with monotonous desert; but I could see a common strain of traditional Islamic culture in both countries. It was a wonderful, thrilling experience to sail down to the city of Bodrum, as we used to visit there by car, bus or plane before. The other two were Berk, my best friend, and Erdem, another good friend of mine. Besides, we were childhood friends who knew each other for quite a long period. Our destination was not the Marina of the Bodrum but the bay where our houses were. We decided so because we wanted to go to our favorite restaurant there and eat the traditional Turkish food ‘Manli’. The restaurant meant a lot to us, as the delicious taste of the ‘Manli’ always fascinated us. It was really refreshing to sail through the Aegean Sea that looked endless blue. The soothing cold breeze, the murmuring sound of the water movement and the mild sound of the engine all provided us something to cherish for our future. Both of them were good at sailing and operating boats whereas I did not have any experience of sailing even though I had a certificate of yachting. The Boat we traveled belonged to Beck’s family and it had three cabins, a kitchen, and a sitting place. We scheduled our voyage in early May. After summer, the weather got colder and we had to resort to our sweaters for protection. Whenever there were light winds, we turned our engine down which helped us to see the happy curious dolphins come nearby. At night, we reached the small bayside city called Ayvalik and for dinner, we cooked fish that we brought with us from Istanbul.

Failed business innovation Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Failed business innovation - Essay Example However, not all innovations are successful. Some of the innovations after their launch fail due to a number of reasons that are inherent to their development. When an innovation fails, the companies may quit innovating or revise its strategies. For most innovators, failure acts as a trigger to innovate further. These innovators get better ideas from their failed experiments and in most cases, the innovations come out successful (Dalal, n.d.). Failure and success occurs to both big and small businesses. How a business whether big or small deals with the outcome, determines how successful it can be in its innovation. An example of a failed business innovation is the COMET jet passenger liner. COMET jet passenger liner known as the de Havilland Comet 1 was the first jet airliner in the history of air transport. The jet airliner entered into service in the year 1952 on May 2. The jet airliner served the routes between London and Johannesburg. The launch and commercialization of de Havilland Comet was done in 1952. Before its launch, the Comet was put under extensive series of flight tests that included tropical operations, overseas flights and high altitude takeoffs. The test flights amounted to 500 hours of proving flights and flight crew training. Having satisfactorily completed the tests, the Comet jet airliner was given a go ahead to start its operations. The inauguration of the de Havilland Comet jet airliner commercial services between London and Johannesburg, and Singapore and Tokyo was done by the British Overseas Airways Corporation. The start of the commercial services was successful utilizing only 23.5 hours for the trip between London and Johannesburg instead of the normal 40 hours that a normal aircraft utilizes. The hours used were inclusive of the refueling stops in Rome, Beirut, Khartoum, Entebbe and Livingstone. This was the start of the jet airline evolution and the

Conference week 5 Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 1

Conference week 5 - Assignment Example However, the type of organizational chart illustrated for Walt Disney is a chart based on a process, for instance, all the staff positions are responsible for the support of the Company’s workflow. The Functional Organizational Structure of the Walt Disney Company has some likable characteristics. For instance, it does not have too many management levels. This indicates that its organizational structure is effective. In addition, another likable characteristic is that the modeling of chart in such a way that all the staff positions have the responsibility of ensuring a smooth workflow. Certainly, the organizational chart adopted by Walt Disney Company depicts some form of creativity and is very effective. It is therefore, the best chart that suits the company. In the business world, one of the greatest arguments has been on whether projected financial statement analysis can be considered to be both a formulation of strategy and implementation tool of a strategy. Generally, financial statement analysis can be considered as a vital tool in implementation technique of a strategy. This is because it gives an organization the opportunity of examining the anticipated results of a variety of approaches and activities. This type of financial analysis can also be used in the prediction of a range of implementation decisions made. For instance, in the cases where an organization desires to ensure a 50% elevation of promotion expenditures purposely to ensure the support to the strategy of market development. Additionally, this it is also applicable in the case where an organization desires to ensure a 25% salary increase so that it can support its market-penetration strategy. Moreover, this analysis can also be beneficial to an organization that des ires to elevate the expenditures on research and development by 70% so as to

Body Language Article Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Body Language - Article Example Gestures and body language are therefore often second nature; something that we follow based on instinct and the need for survival. Therefore, when an individual is speaking or listening to another, he or she often reveals unconscious feelings or reactions through gestures and body language. Since our bodies speak the truth and our words often do not, it is important for people to learn to observe body language as well as listening to the speech of others. Body language often has an unconscious affect on the speaker or listener. If somebody speaks and demonstrates very confident body language, people are more likely to take that individual seriously, and/or believe in what that individual has to say. If another individual speaks the same speech but shows a lack of confidence with gestures and body language, people are less likely to respect or care about the information presented. Thus, whether or not an individual successfully gets a point across has a lot to do with how that individual presents his or her body language. How does the Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis fit in with all of this' According to Amy Stafford, Sapir "believed that language and the thoughts that we have are somehow interwoven, and that all people are equally being effected by the confines of their language. In short, he made all people out to be mental prisoners; unable to think freely because of the restrictions of their vocabularies" (para 1). If our vocabularies are restricted, it is therefore important for individuals to have another way of expressing themselves, or of getting their main points across. This is where body language comes into play (Henslin 45). Since body language is often an initial instinctual reaction, it allows individuals to communicate on an unconscious level and get their concepts across when they lack the words to express those concepts. Stafford further states: "Whorf fully believed in linguistic determinism; that what one thinks is fully determined by their language. He also supported linguistic relativity, which states that the differences in language reflect the different views of different people" (para 3). Language is therefore important to demonstrating what an individual is thinking, and what that individual's limitations are. However, language is often relativistic from person to person, as is language ability, and therefore Whorf felt that we can get a strong feel for an individual by understanding these limitations. Stafford's article can be found at: http://www.mnsu.edu/emuseum/cultural/language/whorf.html. Her link is very helpful and describes body language as well as the Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis. The presentation on this website helped the researcher to grasp and better understand these concepts and why they are important. Therefore, this link is very helpful when it comes to understanding body language and the issues surrounding body language. Works Cited Henslin, James. Essentials of Sociology: A Down to Earth Approach. New Jersey:Allyn and Bacon 2006. Stafford, Amy. "The Sapir-Whorf Hyp

SPORTS LAW RESEARCH PAPER (LANCE ARMSTRONG'S TERMINATION FOR DOPING IN

SPORTS LAW (LANCE ARMSTRONG'S TERMINATION FOR DOPING IN CYCLING SPORT) - Research Paper Example The document submitted by USADA to the authorities internationally meets the requirements of the â€Å"reasoned decision† which is the transparency of the document. The investigation was triggered after a dismissal of United States cyclist Mr Kyle Leogrande for two years in November 2008 under the Anti-doping code. In January 2009, USADA was notified from a number of sources about the mass doping by the Mr Armstrong’s cycling team and his influence and control over his teammates. After a constant effort to gather more evidence, Mr Paul Scott a resident from southern California directed USADA to contact Mr Floyd Landis a former cyclist as he would have a substantial amount of information, which could prove helpful to USADA. On April 12, 2010, communication with Mr Scott about Mr Landis changed the pace of this investigation. On April 20, 2010, the CEO of USADA Travis Tygart discussed Armstrong’s anti-doping violations with Mr Landis. Further investigations made upon fellow cyclists in Mr Armstrong’s team lead USADA discovering a chain of individuals working together in the doping swindle. These individuals include the teamma tes of Mr Armstrong and cyclists from the USPS team. Following the meeting between Mr Tygart and Mr Landis, Mr Landis sent an e-mail to the president of USA cycling, confronting and disclosing other names in the sport who had breached the anti-doping code. USADA sent a letter on June 12, 2012 to Mr Armstrong and other cyclists and team members stating that they are accused of have doped since 1998 to current and were told to appear for a hearing before neutral arbitrators. In response, Mr Armstrong filed a federal lawsuit against USADA for false accusations, which was dismissed by the judge twice over consecutive attempts due to the perception that Mr Armstrong’s mere purpose was to gain publicity. In addition, the USADA’s arbitration rules meets the criteria for the process of this conduct. The evidence

Identifying a Problem and Developing a question Assignment

Identifying a Problem and Developing a question - Assignment Example Once a patient has a catheter placed in his or her system, the level of risk rises significantly to a daily incidence of 3-10% of bacteriuria. As such, nearly 10% to 30% of the patients that undergo short-term catheterization, between two to four days, develop bacteriuria, and similarly become asymptomatic. According to Friedman and Rhinehart (1999), nearly 90% to 100% of the patients who undergo long-term catheterization equally develop bacteriuria. Nearly 80% of nosocomial urinary tract infections relate to catheterization. Currently there is little knowledge about CA-UTIs judging with its vast prevalence, especially among the women. Urinary tract infection comes up through a number of complications, such as sexual intercourse, poor personal care, diabetes, bowel incontinence, pregnancy, problems emptying the bladder completely, and the blocked flow of urine, having a urinary catheter, as well as kidney stones. This problem is diverse across numerous places because of the lack of knowledge of the disease (Gould, 2014). Most health practitioners are usually unaware of the risks that may arise due to the patient’s long-term or short-term catheter usage. Consequently, this lack of information may promote the development and prevalence of the disease within the community. This possibility of an education deficit brings about more challenges to the treatment and management of the problem. The scope and impact of the problem is far worse than it projected because most of the cases are not always recorded. Elphern (2009) argues that the urinary tract infections (UTIs) are some of the most common nosocomial infections. In fact, CA-UTI accounts for nearly forty percent of the reported infections especially for patients under acute care hospitals (Elphern, 2009). In addition, nearly 80 percent of the UTIs are more associated with the presence of an indwelling urinary catheter. In most cases, a catheter associated UTI increases the

Marketing Strategies Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Marketing Strategies - Essay Example This strategy implies that business is likely to be faced by five major influences, which must be economically and comprehensively addressed for the prosperity of the business. The company handles the threat of new entrants by providing quality services to its customers at a friendly cost to disadvantage new comers in the same business (medium to high pressure). The threat of substitute goods is handled by the company providing unique tastes and flavors of its food products to its clients; however, there is no much difference between the company’s food and Sedoxe hence, medium to high pressure. The company has a low pressure threat of bargaining power of customers. This is because the company deals with reputable companies like IBM, Microsoft and Caterpillar among others. It has a low pressure of supplier bargaining due to its vast chain of suppliers. Finally, the company has a high pressure of rivalry among existing firms like coca-cola and Pepsi among other fast beverage com panies. Marketing mix analysis uses the 4p’s principle to ascertain the viability of the business. Compass Group Company has recommended quality food products at affordable price. It has good distribution channel since their products can be found in almost all corners of the country. It has a working and economic promotion strategy through free samples, gifts and advertisements. Compass group is foodservice industry whose headquarter is in Charlotte, North Carolina. The company has the advantage of serving economically stable clients like United Technologies Corp, Microsoft, IBM, Caterpillar and SAP among others. Furthermore, it also serves customers from neighboring learning institutions like Louisiana State University, public schools in Chicago and the University...Although they seem to be of no value, they really attract and maintain clients. Compass Company provides food nutrition lessons or advertises to their esteem customers. This is like a bonus but it really helps to attract and maintain clients with nutrition problems like the obese and diabetics among others. Sedoxe provides business solutions to the online communities as a bonus to their services. This compels majority of people or companies to regularly visit Sedoxe company’s blogs or websites and in the process they learn about the company. Inseparability is the fact that a certain demand can never do with a specific product or services. Both the companies supply food which forms basic needs of human. This keep the companies running on a daily basis since people require food to live. Variability is the essence of providing more than one service or products to the clients. The companies offer catering and business consultancy services to clients, regionally and globally through internet among other platforms. Perish ability is the ability of the companies to maintain their daily delivery schedule of products with short life span. They have inbuilt cooling systems in their delivery tr acks to keep the food fresh till it reach the clients’ destinations (Brown, 2010). Finally, the companies have no specific ownership of the business, what they do is to attract several associates to operate under the common brand name.

Career Research Essay Essay Example for Free

Career Research Essay Essay Psychology is the study of the human brain, its functions and its behavioral affects to us as humans. This field or specific job always has fascinated me as a child and now as a teenager it still does. Being a psychologist would suit me because it’s an overall interesting field and career path. It is a time consuming, intense and impacted course but as a professional job it meets my standards and requirement. It has good pay, comfortable job place and it is a steady career that is more than useful in just that field with that you are also able to create your own business and grow off your own knowledge and expand as an entrepreneur. Being a professional job and with its extensive education it has a good pay. To be a psychologist you have to obtain a PhD or a doctor of psychology Pys.D. Working for both is a bit costly and may increase student loan debt and other debts one may have. Now to be qualified and licensed you must have either of the degrees, pass the national exam and then sign up to be licensure in state you want to begin practicing. That’s when the whole career changes. Cause now you are able to do what you love and a bonus: paycheck. â€Å"According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics . . . earned between $48,700 and $82,800. . .† (Cherry) that would be the estimated earning of a classified psychologist. With job sometimes paycheck may be unstable and pay may either go down or up but usually after the 5-10 years in the field the income pay may increase. It is also up to put in extra hours or to do part-time if psychologist is willing to give in extra time for patients and clients. I belie ve in the first years it may be difficult because now the debt and loans are being paid off with the first pay checks but later on it will pay off to give a good retirement plan. Also psychologists don’t depend on the government unless you plan on being an industrial organizational psychologist. But if in case a situation so terrible would occur and it would cause instability within field it wouldn’t be hard to find another job that requires the same knowledge because with a PhD you can pretty much move onto other fields, that may or may not pay as well as the actual psychologist get paid but it may pay enough to be considered livable and be classified as middle class. Psychologist career isn’t a government either so you can’t be considered to be a civil servant but some near qualifying jobs that may involve the government may be collaborations with FBI or criminal justice. To become a psychologist it is easy to get a job and establish one but if planning to move out of the state and still want to be practicing the career licensing might be problem. Every state has different requirements and qualifications for the job so you might need to take the national exam a couple of times you plan on moving constantly. Working conditions for a psychologist is a really comfortable and accommodating. Most psychologist are usually self-employed mainly the offices are suited to personal desire and also fit to de-stress patients, mainly a neutral-toned environment to help relieve stress but it all depends on psychologist tastes and practices. Other workplaces may include â€Å"clinics, hospitals, rehabilitation facilities, community and mental health centers† (Bureau of Labor†¦). Or if you want to be a research psychologist working place would mainly be at universities or colleges. As well the working schedule is mainly accommodated around patients and cli ents. It is mainly really flexible depending if you are self-employed or if you work with an employer. Usually the hours are business hours. Since job depends if you are self-employed or employed a day or years may differ. Some days may be short and fast because some patients may be busy on day session or can’t see you on the appointment given. Or you may have a patient who just passed though something on an unexpected day and they may want to set up an unplanned appointment. Also, taking in consideration dates of vacations, holidays and weekends. It all depends on dedication and loyalty psychologist is willing to give for a patients and clients. Something I am willing to give time to help clients at time of need. Psychology is a growing study within colleges today and has been growing for the last few years. Now it is a competitive and impacted field and it is a bit harder to enter the field. To become a psychologist you need to aim for a doctorate (Ph.D.) or a doctor in psychology (Psy.D.). To get proper certification you need to take; year-long internships, pre-doctorate or post-doctorate supervised experience to have what it takes to become certified and licensed. Mainly in this field you don’t have promotions or you don’t have supervisors because once you are fully certified you are your own boss. With this you don’t have to gain other knowledge other than knowledge obtained. You may be able to conduct studies and researches to gain more knowledge to study in depth clients and patients situations more in depth. Some important qualities to have in mind while entering career are â€Å"analytical skills, observational skills, communication skills, patience, people skill s, problem-solving skills and trustworthiness† (Bureau of Labor†¦) skills I have making psychology a perfect, suitable career for me to embrace and consider. With psychology being an extensive career that takes time and dedication and of course the most intense classes in my opinion the study is really interesting. Psychologists mainly study the mental process and the human behaviors by observing, interpreting, and recording how people and humans react to one another in an environment. With patients and clients they want to understand and explain: emotions, feelings, thoughts and behaviors in which they seem to be troubled. In this career a lot of paper work is dealt with. You have to gather information, analyze, and take notes of patients or clients. They have to also make treatment plans and diagnose them with disorders, establish them in asylums or mental institutes or may also refer you to family therapists and/or personalized therapists and counselors. Mainly a psychologist â€Å"they help mentally and emotionally distressed clients adjust to life. . .† (Health Care Salary. . .) something I am willing to do. Even though the job is fun and exciting it also has its own emotional factors into the role played as psychologist. This career may â€Å"depress your emotions for the most part because you are mainly dealing with people who have been through a lot† (Gomez). You may also have to deal with people of all ages so it all may be emotional draining and it may depress your spirits but as a professional one must remain calm and try not to show emotions because you have to be the strongest to help your patient out of whatever mental state they may be in. A regular session may either take place in your own office or in a special room where your patient feels comfortable to unwind and de-stress. It may also take place if your patient is in a clinical institute or under supervision. So all situations are taken into consideration. With this so more reasons psychology and being a psychologist really interests me is the fact if I already have acquired knowledge and this no longer entertains me I am able to move on to another job with the knowledge I have obtained. This field is so diverse with the knowledge obtains mean while or on the pursuit to getting a doctorate. Also if I decided to stay in the job I don’t have to be employed I can also be self-employed and expand my career from there too. The jobs that branch off of the same psychological field are; anthropologist, mental health counselors, market research analysis and these are just a few of the different jobs that branch of it and it is very diverse and something new is obviously in store with this great career if you barely drift off for a bit. With this field you are able to win a lot of rewarding positions. Also it is said that this field is one of the ten to be growing and it’s expected to be a impacted intense career later on in the future. â€Å"Employment of psychologists is expected to grow about as fast as the average† (Psychology Ph.D. . .). This is what’s expected for a few years to come. Career is not at all vigorous nor does it include health so anyone is capable of pursuing this job and career because all that is asked of career is the ability to use reasoning and analyze. Technology also won’t be a problem with in job because a computer or a smart-phone won’t be able to replace this career since technology isn’t so advanced to accurately treat, diagnose and observe an individual. As well all qualities and skills learned in this career can also be recycled to be used in other jobs and positions. This leads to many different job opportunities. If you are an entrepreneur that has soaring high ambitions this road would be perfect to take advantage of the many and multiple opportunities given. With a Pys.D. at hand you are also capable of getting jobs maybe at a higher government position like in government facilities or at a U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs and some of Federal Agencies which may be swung by the economy but as governments job it may have some good civil servant and benefits. But it is mainly possible and more likely to be self-employed. Also jobs as a self-employed employee provide more flexible hours around your own schedule. I believe the psychologist job would suit me well because it is a very broad career that can help me grow as an individual and also help me develop a more successful career. It is also a very interesting study to partake in. even though it may be becoming more than impacted, intensive and competitive it has so many opportunities to offer. The pay for the job is splendid. It is an honest pay for such a fun, interesting career. All the qualities necessary for the job I already have. I just need the education and the proper training and I’m pretty sure I’d be a good psychologist. Within the job you can potentially grow with colleagues that want to pursue the same career and you can be potentially business owners and make a company. This job would also be the perfect fit because I enjoy helping others with their life and emotional health. Also doing research to get to the bottom of whatever is the problem. If I am able to help and save them from themselves then why not. If I am able capable of making them feel better then why not? Since this career is mainly focused around research, analysis, and observation the career is almost to perfect. As well the fact that I am able to recycle my own knowledge to create and start my own business. With this job there are incredible amounts of opportunities that cannot be put down.

Motivation Theories for Becoming a Teacher

Motivation Theories for Becoming a Teacher ABSTRACT This paper identifies some the motivating factors of selecting teaching as a career. An emailed questionnaire was conducted to identify the key motivating factors they chose to become teachers. A total of 100 questionnaires were sent out asking Why did you choose teaching as a career choice? Sixty-Three men and women that are either current elementary education majors or current elementary school teachers participated. The survey result concludes that the motivating factors included a variety of what individuals valued in a job and what they needed in their life at that particular time. Surprisingly, factors such as financial incentives, vacation, and holidays off were not high on my survey results as being the reason they choose teaching as a career. This study proves that there are individuals that choose to go into elementary school teaching to inform, to guide, to enlighten, and to inspire students. My survey participants made comments in their responses that teaching has many re wards but the most valuable one is that they directly affect the lives of the student they teach. INTRODUCTION The aim of this paper is for me to understand why so many chosen teaching as a profession when the appeal for teaching seems to decline year after year. My study involved undergraduates, postgraduates, and current elementary school teachers in the public and catholic school sector. To choice education as a career you must have some type of striving force behind it, such as motivation. Motivation in spending their day with other peoples children shaping their young minds for tomorrow and shaping a young mind is a challenging task and has always been a challenging task throughout the years. And the truth of the matter is the challenge goes beyond just the student, but the challenge also lies with dealing with parents, the other faculty, and all the problems that go along with student problems at home; such as abuse. Exploring how motivation plays a factor when choosing teaching as a career lead to three main areas from those who decided to make teaching a career. (1) Altruistic reason: a desire to help children succeed, (2) Intrinsic reason: having a special interest or expertise in a subject matter that you want to share or cover, and (3) Extrinsic reason: a person only is interested in the holidays off and summer vacations. My questionnaire results touches on all three reasons. MOTIVATION You must have motivation when choosing teaching in elementary schools as a career. Recto (2005) stated what motivates individuals to go into teaching is very crucial. Motivation is a vital force that drives ones behavior toward initiating and carrying out the tasks that go along with being a teacher. Peoples reason for joining the teaching profession can be explained through their motives to do so. Motivation and understanding the reasons why people enter the teaching profession and what makes them stay or leave is essential, particularly, if we want success in maintaining a stable teaching force that contributes to teacher education quality and excellence. (Soh, 2008). Motivation is the process that gives ones behavior and choice purpose and direction. With such direction, the attention of the individual is focused on a particular goal, which is persistently worked on until it is fulfilled. Real teaching requires having motivation because teachers are constantly asking students to take big risks or to try a new way of thinking. UNDERGRADUATES VIEWS OF TEACHING AS A CAREER OPTION An individual decision to go into teaching or not is believed to be influenced by what they value in a job. (Kyriacou and Newson, 2008). If we are able to identify those factors which individuals consider important in their choice of career, and highlight the factors in teaching which match these, then we might hope to persuade better qualified students to consider teaching. (Johnson and Birkeland, 2003). To help student make the choice of being a teacher should start in elementary school, high school, and in college; teachers should inspire their students so that the students want more than anything else to become a teacher. Teachers need to express to the students frequently that they love teaching. Teachers should also encourage students to become teachers themselves. Overall, teachers must encourage with example, and that example is showing that they love their jobs. Teachers should also encourage directly, suggesting that everyone at least consider teaching as a profession. Thes e were some of the components missing in my own educational career as I prepared as an undergraduate student to become a teacher. In my studies I came across several classmates that appeared to be natural leaders but they opt out of becoming a teacher because they didnt see any personal satisfaction. Its unfortunate that the teacher didnt work more with those individuals to put their talent to work in the classroom, rather than let them slip off and use those talents in a boardroom. Undergrads who start their studies to become teachers made the decision to train as teachers, and the image of teaching as a career has had some influence in their decision. In other words, the view undergraduate student have of what they want from a career and how they view teaching as a career may well differ from the views of those who choose not to enter teaching. If we are to get a clearer understanding of what attracts and motives certain people into teaching, we may find an answer to making the educational program a more successful one in recruiting student to take up teaching as career. If more well-qualified graduates are to be encouraged to decide to teach, we need to identify those factors which are important to them in choosing a career and then be able to persuade them that teaching offers what they are looking for. In general, understanding undergraduates views of teaching as a career option can useful when coming up with teacher recruitment campaigns to target the now shrinking world of teaching. Arellano (2004), stated that public dissatisfaction with schools included dissatisfaction with teacher education. In fact, education schools have been criticized as ineffective in preparing for their work and not responsive to new demands. This observation agreed with McCreights (2000) pointing out that one reason why teachers leave the teaching profession is their discovery that their teacher education program had not actually prepared them for the realities of teaching. I can relate to that statement by McCreight, 2000. At the Western Illinois University graduation in Macomb, Illinois speaker Dr. Marcus Dewitt, an educator for NASA, said Teaching is a way of shaping the young minds of today for tomorrow. Its a challenging task that you the graduation class of 1994 have chosen to make a career. I believe the challenge Dr. Dewitt was referring to was teaching the unteachable. As a 20 year old female coming out of college the challenge I was experiencing within was motivation on how t o get through to the young minds of today. The truth is, teaching was demanding back in 1994 and it still is today. No doubt the choice to become a teacher is a decision to make a significant impact on the future and no career is simply easy or has no problems. But in 1994 I lacked the energy and the conviction that was needed to make a difference in the classrooms. INTERVIEW RESULTS: INTRINSIC, ALTRUISTIC, EXTRINSIC REWARDS A total of 102 questionnaires of the 200 distributed were returned completed. After reviewing the 102 questionnaires: 15 of the sample were male teachers, and 75 were female teachers. Twelve were students at both University of Illinois in Chicago and DePaul University in Chicago. Five are studying Curriculum Arts subjects (such as English and History majors), and 7 are studying Curriculum Science subjects (such as Biology, Chemistry, and Mathematics majors). My results from that questionnaire will be classified into three categories, namely: (1) intrinsic, (2) extrinsic, and (3) altruistic. Intrinsic reasons dwells on the enjoyment of teaching and the school environment. Extrinsic reasons include the motivation behind ones liking teaching such as long summer breaks and holidays. Altruistic reasons include being concerned with opportunities for making a difference in the lives of young people. The result of my questionnaire overwhelming agrees that most people motivations for pursuing a career in teaching was due to the altruistic reward. On the contrary, only 7 were motivated by extrinsic rewards. Other important factors about my questionnaire was the fact that most participates commented that teaching as a career choice is something that they were told would be enjoyable. Interestingly a good starting base salary was said by all the undergraduate students I questioned. Particularly noteworthy in my study there were a number of individuals mentioned they have a desire to work with children, a job where I will contribute to society and a job which gives me responsibility. In my research, Harms, and Knobloch (2005), states that recruitment effort for future teachers should be based on intrinsic motivation. Teachers who chose formal education as a career had intrinsic motives, while those who planned to pursue non-formal education careers had extrinsic motives. Here are some of the other responses to my questionnaire that stood out and is worth noting: Altruistic answers included: 1) The ability to contribute to the development of every child that seeks my help. 2) Promote the value of education to not only kids but to the parents as well. 3) Touch the lives of a child and become part of their success. 4) To make our world knowledgeable. 5) The kids help me keep myself learning and abreast of what is happening in the world. 6) Give direction to our lost generation. 7) Be able to leave a lasting legacy in the world is my desire. 8) Be a role model to a nation of kids. Intrinsic answers included: 1) Enhance my communication skill in and outside the classroom. 2) Develop my self-confidence that I lack. 3) Develop my decision making skills for career advancement. 3) Improve problem-solving skills for my own kids. 4) Enhance my own personal thinking skills. 5) Give myself more leadership skills. 6) Practice my creativity. Extrinsic answers included: 1) Take advantage of an educational scholarship grant. 2) To become popular in the community. 3) To take long summer vacation trips. 4) Enjoy the 2 weeks vacation Christmas break for traveling. 5) Get employed immediately. 6) Being in a union. 7) Being able to enjoy the government and non-government perks of being a teacher. On final note that is worth mentioning in this study results is that none of my participates gave mention about the governments commitment towards education or the dealings with disruptive pupils or even the media images of teachers as a factor in their choice to teach. CONCLUSION Teachers overwhelmingly say they love what they do. They say it allows them to contribute to society and help others. And they would choose teaching again as a career, if they had the choice. If a person has a genuine interest in helping children realize their dreams, and want to play a part in improving our society, then those are enough motivating factors I realize in doing my study to teach. On a personal note just because I have been taught by many teachers does not mean I knew what it would take to be a teacher. The best thing for me was to learn more about the teaching profession, by asking a teacher I knew and admire about how he or she became a teacher and why.

How Virgil Integrates Myth and History in The Aeneid

How Virgil Integrates Myth and History in The Aeneid How does Virgil integrate myth and history in The Aeneid? Discuss with reference to specific passages. Written as Rome faced a new era, and as its politics and society rapidly evolved, The Aeneid is essentially Virgil’s own reflection on these transformations. The narrative, interwoven with numerous historical and mythological elements, highlights his political and moral concerns regarding the new empire, his blurring of boundaries, between past and present, and myth and reality, bookmarking this exploration. As these worlds collide and blend throughout the narrative, our reading of Aeneas’ journey is expanded; this epic foundation myth can be read as Virgil questioning the new empire, how it would affect the Roman identity and its traditional values, whether Rome was truly free from the violence and corruption of the Civil Wars, and his hope for peace under Augustus’ rule. By analysing the text we may infer the extent to which he integrates myth and history in his political commentary. This interweaving of reality and fiction for such effect is seen instantly in Jupiter’s prophecy in Book 1 where the very real figure of Augustus is linked to the mythological figure of Aeneas. This link, as mapped out by Jupiter, passes from Aeneas, the first founder of Rome, through the legendary twins Romulus and Remus, central characters in Rome’s foundation legend, and onto ‘a Trojan Caesar’(1.287), Augustus’ own uncle and adopted father, Julius Caesar. Commonly seen in Julian propaganda of the 1st century BC, this association highlights the link between the ‘gens Iulia’ and the ‘eponymous figure of Iulus-Ascanius’[1], Aeneas’ son, and explicitly places Augustus in the line of ‘noble stock’ ‘the rulers of the world’ (1.282-286) originated from. Decreed to be a direct descendent of these two legendary characters by the father of the gods, Augustus is instantly cemented as the rightful rul er and depicted as the next piece in Rome’s foundation myth; that he too is a legendary figure. Furthermore, these characters themselves embody the blurring between myth and reality. For example each is of both divine and mortal descent: Aeneas is the son of Venus and Anchises, Romulus the son of Mars and Ilia the priestess queen and Augustus too, according to Jupiter’s prophecy, can trace his lineage to both these legendary figures, and a ‘Caesar’, Rome’s first imperial figure. This not only gives Augustus further gravitas and legitimacy as a ruler, but also suggests that he is re-establishing the Rome as it was prophesised, and the Roman identity as it should be. Also it suggests that Rome’s foundations are equally legendary, born from the combination of myth and reality, and equally endorsed by the gods. While Aeneas’ overall journey in The Aeneid also sees this close relationship between myth and reality, we may also see it as mirroring Rome’s own growth as a nation.[2] For example, Aeneas’ time in Carthage, between Books 1 and 4, represents the Punic Wars, a series of wars fought between Rome and Carthage between 264 BC and 146 BC which saw more than a century of conflict, thousands of deaths, and Rome succeeding Carthage as the most powerful state in the Western Mediterranean. This section is steeped in historical allegory: Dido’s suicide and Carthage seemingly burning with ‘the flames of poor Dido’s pyre’ (5.3-4) represents Carthage’s own defeat at the hands of Rome, and its decline as Rome’s power grew. Following this Aeneas’ progress encapsulates the narrative and in Books 5 to 8 we see him get gradually closer to Italy. This part of his journey however also sees many allusions to the Odysseus myth and is litt ered with Homeric motifs as Aeneas encounters a number of supernatural creatures, such as journeying to the Underworld, contact with the Harpies and Cyclops, close encounters with the sea monsters Scylla and Charybdis and with the lands of the Sirens and Circe. By translating a Homeric and mythological world onto the well-charted, and well-traversed, Mediterranean, Virgil continues to interweave reality and fiction, and, in doing so, blurs what is true and what is false. This also creates tension between the two as contemporary readers, recognising the places Aeneas visits and passes, sees these familiar lands as the homes of legendary creatures. While on one hand this section can be seen as portraying Aeneas as an equal hero to Odysseus, it can also be seen as reflecting Rome’s journey and growth, from Trojan foundations to an identity of its own. Virgil continues this tension in Books 9 to 12 as Aeneas’ battles with the Latins closely reflect the recent Civil Wars, a nd Aeneas and Turnus’ one-to-one combat represents the Battle of Actium where Augustus defeated his last rival, Mark Antony. While gradually reflecting Rome’s past with Aeneas’ journey, Virgil strives to remind Rome of the destruction it has faced, externally such as in Carthage, and internally such as during the civil wars, and in doing so he attempts to show Romans that they must learn from their past. Like many other historical epics, both Greek and Roman, The Aeneid is used to define a national identity in opposition to an ‘other’, as evidenced by the vast historical skeleton the narrative is built upon.As J. D. Reed suggests, it aims to present Rome as distinct to all other nations: from ‘the Trojans with whom it originated, the Greeks whom the Trojans had fought and [who] the Romans were to conquer’ by distancing Aeneas from the Homeric and Greek world; ‘the Carthaginians who threaten Roman ascendancy’ with the death of Dido; and ‘the Italian peoples among whom Rome arose’ with Aeneas’ war with the Latins.[3] Virgil continues to merge the past and present in Book 8 and, in Aeneas’ visit to Pallanteum, images of Virgil’s contemporary Rome bleed into the descriptions of Evander’s archaic settlement. For example, as Evander guides Aeneas, we see ‘cattle†¦ lowing in the Roman forum’, and the ‘Capitol, now all gold’ now ‘bristling with rough scrub’ (8.349-362). Also, throughout the description, many landmarks recognisable to Virgil’s contemporary readers, such the ‘Alter of Carmentis and the Carmental Gate’ (8.338) are seen. These images appear to transcend time itself, and by warping the familiar with the historical, Virgil’s narrative continues to run on underlying tension. However these images are also accompanied by those of a bucolic paradise: the site is described as the ‘haunt of native fauns and nymphs ’and Saturn’s first ‘Golden Age’ (8.315-325). Hence, with thi s blurring of past and present, and by translating images of contemporary Rome onto those of pastoral peace, Virgil is linking Aeneas’ coming, and therefore Augustus’, with Saturn’s; he hopes that Augustus is bringing the second Golden Age of ‘peace and serenity’ (8.326). However, Evander’s account is also greatly pessimistic, detailing a ‘worser age of base material’ as the time of peace disintegrated and the ‘madness of war’ and ‘the lust for possessions’ (8.327-328) consumed all. While this is clearly representing the recent civil wars that tore apart Rome, it also reveals Virgil’s own hopelessness for the future of Rome; like Evander he views the Golden Age, and the empire, as ‘only an intermission from continuous fighting and invasions’.[4] This hopelessness for the future appears to stem from Virgil’s own cynical view of human nature, as can be seen in the myth of Hercule s and Cacus. In essence a tale of a hero and a monster, and of archetypal good and bad, Virgil’s description casts an unnerving similarity between the two as both are described as incredibly violent and rabid with furor. This, therefore, causes us to question whether Virgil truly endorses Aeneas, who is also seen as incredibly violent in battle, and the new emperor he represents. Supporting this is the description of Aeneas and Mezentius’ battle in Book 10 where the tale of Hercules and Cacus is literally mirrored as ‘Mezentius rode around [Aeneas] three times’ (10.886), recalling Hercules’ three trips around Mount Aventine in anger (8.231-232). This similarity disturbingly places Aeneas, our supposed hero, in the place of the monster Cacus and contradicts the many positive descriptions of Aeneas, causing us to believe that Virgil had mixed opinions about Augustus and the new empire: this use of myth shows he had hopes for the peace one ruler could bring, yet was cynical of the destruction human nature could cause. Book 8 also sees the pinnacle of Virgil’s use of myth and history in the description of Aeneas’ resplendent shield. Crafted by the fire god Vulcan it is a clear echo of Achilles’ own shield from The Iliad and another allusion to Homer. However, on one hand, while Homer chooses to depict the entire world, including the earth, oceans, heavens, stars, and human life; Hephaestus engraves Achilles’ shield with the pleasures of peace as Homer strives to remind his hero of what he is fighting for. Virgil, on the other hand, chooses to engrave Aeneas’ shield with a memorialization of Rome’s military victory, and her success in conflict as well as peace, as he prophesises Rome’s history.[5] This is due to the context of The Aeneid. Written soon after the Battle of Actium where Augustus put an end to the strife of civil war in Rome, becoming the first emperor, The Aeneid reflects this recent shift in power; the description of Aeneas’ shie ld in particular. Primarily, Virgil’s language choice, namely in characterisation, is important in establishing this Homeric relation and political undercurrent. For example, his description of Augustus sees the new emperor’s association with the divine increasingly emphasised; the gods themselves are listed in the description of his followers, indicating that he has the divine right to rule, and his recent success at Actium as determined by the gods. Also, Augustus is physically elevated in this image, and is therefore physically closer to Olympus. Similarly he is described as wearing a ‘double flame’ and ‘his father’s star’ (8.682). On one hand this associates him with Ascanius who, in Book 2, is blessed by the gods with a halo of holy fire, this portent followed by a second: a star sent by the gods. This similarity, while supporting Jupiter’s prophecy in Book 1 that Ascanius will establish the seeds of a power that, eventually , will become Rome, further emphasises Augustus’ right to rule. Also, the inclusion of ‘his father’s star’ alludes to his adoption of Julius Caesar’s name, and emphasises his legitimacy. Essentially, the description of Augustus is steeped in social and political context with the intention of establishing his sovereignty, suggesting that there was possible unrest in his early years of power. This description, notably Augustus’ relationship to the gods, sees Virgil’s focussing on highlighting Augustus’ power, and the legitimacy of that power. Similarly, Virgil’s description of Antony informs us of the social and political background of The Aeneid. Introduced as ‘in triumph from the shores of the Red Sea’ (8.688-689), Antony is portrayed positively, which, as Augustus’ rival, is peculiar. Also, he describes their conflict as ‘mountains were colliding with mountains’ (8.694), associating both with the seemingly-immortal strength of Homeric heroes, and indicating that they are equals in power. Also, contextually, there was no honour in fighting a fellow Roman, and Virgil avoids this in his glorification of Augustus by undermining Antony’s involvement. Virgil achieves this by using active verbs to describe Cleopatra, and while she is described as ‘summon[ing] her warships’ and ‘calling for winds’ (8.698-708), her role in the battle eclipses Antony’s. This has the effect of giving Rome a common enemy: the woman and the foreigner. This in itself ass ociates Cleopatra with Dido, also a foreign queen, who, throughout her relationship with Aeneas, is portrayed as deterring his progress, and therefore, deterring the progress of Rome. Furthermore, Cleopatra’s description echoes that of Dido. Called ‘his Egyptian wife’ or the ‘queen’ (8.689-698), she is denied a name, and the autonomy of self, just as Dido, who is defined by her relationship with Aeneas so much so as to take her own life when he leaves. By giving the Romans a common enemy, the civil war is instead turned into that with a foreign power, and creates a sense of Roman unity, unity that perhaps was not as assured in reality, and notably, unity brought by Augustus’ success. The gods too are purposely characterised for effect. While on one hand, the Roman gods are named and recognisable, the Egyptian gods are described as ‘monstrous’, Virgil even highlights the dog form of Anubis who ‘barked†¦ at Neptune and Ve nus’ (8.699-700). This emphasis on the animalistic qualities of the Egyptian gods serves the purpose of establishing a divine hierarchy; the Roman gods, as human in shape, naturally come before the ‘dog god’, an animal typically obedient to man. This hierarchy serves to assert Roman superiority, culturally and spiritually, as well as militarily. Virgil’s description of the shield in itself is important too; throughout the passage, there is fluidity between narrative and object. This is achieved by the subtle blurring of the mythical world, as depicted on the shield, and the ‘real’: Aeneas’ story. For example, as the passage flows through the narrative, certain words and phrases alluding to the material of the shield, how it’s made and the maker, such as ‘the God of Fire’ who had ‘fashioned the Nile†¦ with every fold of drapery beckoning’ (8.709-714), disrupt the flow and pull the reader sharply to reality. Also, there is a prevalent dichotomy of senses; we are told that Anubis ‘barked’ while the Roman gods ‘swooped’ and ‘strode’ (8.699-703). This sense of motion and sound brings a still image and object alive, and reflects the power of well-crafted art; just as Aeneas’ shield seems to come to life in his hands, the poem does in the reader’s mind. Ultimately, through his integration of myth and history, Virgil is able to blur truth and fiction, transforming The Aeneid into accepted fact. This not only establishes his account into the foundation myth of the Roman identity, but also establishes Augustus into the pantheon of Rome’s mythological founders. On a deeper level though it also allows him to explore complex issues such as the effect the civil wars had on the Roman identity, his hopes for Augustus’ rule, and his fears that human nature, greed and violence will plague the new empire. Essentially, through the merging of the two worlds, whether this be between the mythological and realistic, classical allusion and historical context, or narrative and material object, he achieves the ultimate contrast; between a piece of literature, and a political message. Bibliography Bell, K. K. 2008. ‘â€Å"Translatio† and the Constructs of a Roman Nation in Virgils â€Å"Aeneid†Ã¢â‚¬â„¢, Rocky Mountain Review 62: 11-24. J. D. Reed, ‘Vergil’s Roman’, in J. Farrell and M. C. J. Putnam (ed.), A Companion to Vergil’s Aeneid and its Tradition. Oxford 2010: 66-79. J. E. G. Zetzel, ‘Rome and its Traditions’, in C. Martindale (ed.), The Cambridge Companion to Virgil. Cambridge 1997: 188-203. Johnson, W. R. 2005. ‘Introduction’, in S. Lombardo (Trans.), Aeneid, Indianapolis. lxi-lxxi. R. D. Williams, ‘The Purpose of The Aeneid’, in S. J. Harrison (ed.), Oxford Readings in Vergil’s Aeneid. Oxford 1990: 21-36. S. Casali, ‘The Development of the Aeneas Legend’, in J. Farrell and M. C. J. Putnam (ed.), A Companion to Vergil’s Aeneid and its Tradition. Oxford 2010: 37-51. Virgil, The Aeneid, trans. D. West [Penguin Classics] (London: Penguin Books, 2003) Williams, R. D. 1965. ‘The Mythology of the â€Å"Aeneid†Ã¢â‚¬â„¢, Vergilius 11, 11-15. ID number: 1335307Words: 2,426 [1]Casali 2010: 49. [2]Zetzel 1997: 189. [3]Reed 2010: 66 -76. [4]Zetzel 1997: 191. [5]Johnson, W. R. 2005. ‘Introduction’, in S. Lombardo (Trans.), Aeneid, Indianapolis. lxi-lxxi.

Helping Phantom Limb Pain Essay examples -- Phantom Limb Pain Medical

Helping Phantom Limb Pain Over the years scientists have noted many complaints of a strange form of pain called phantom limb pain. This pain is strange because it is located in an appendage that no longer exists. By many of the amputees the pain is described as totally unbearable. Phantom limb pain has even driven some victims crazy. For the amputee population this is a very real problem that definitely needs to be solved. After James Peacock had his right arm amputated last December, he expected some difficulties. With those difficulties came pain so unbearable it could not be controlled with all the medicine in his cabinet. Derek Steen, otherwise known as "The one-armed pool player," lost a limb in a motorcycle accident at the age of 18. Although he lost the limb, he still plays a great game of pool. Nine years after the accident Steen continues to have pain in the missing arm. Deborah Finnegan-Ling, a graduate student in neuroscience, is writing her dissertation on phantom limb pain. Finnegan-Ling should know a lot about this phenomenon because three years ago, after a farming accident, her left leg was amputated. She has experienced much pain from this phantom limb especially in her personal life. The area of the brain for the foot is adjacent to the area for genitalia. Because of this connection Finnegan-Lingà ­s missing limb aches when she makes love."I consider myself tough," she says."But the pain is so acute that Ià ­ll cry." Some amputees experience the opposite of phantom pain - phantom pleasure. One man tells about feeling an orgasmic sensation in his lost foot during sex. Finnegan-Ling sighs."I wish," she says. Many scientists have studied amputees to determine the cause of this mysterious pain. Sussman (199... ...981). Persistent phantom limb pain. Journal of Perceptual and Motor Skills, 53(1), 135-138. Flor, H., Elbert, T., Knecht, S. & Wienbruch, C. (1995). Phantom limb pain as a perceptual correlate of cortical reorganization following arm amputation. Journal of Nature, 375(6531), 482-484. McKechnie, R. (1975). Relief from phantom limb pain by relaxation exercises. Journal of Behavior Therapy and Experimental Psychiatry, 6(3), 262-263. Morris, D. (1992). The place of pain. Journal of Advances, 8(2), 3-24. Tsushima, W. (1982). Treatment of phantom limb pain with EMG and temperature biofeedback. American Journal of Clinical Biofeedback, 5(2), 150-153. Wain, H. (1986). Pain control with hypnosis in consultation and liaison psychiatry. Psychiatric Annuals, 16(2), 106-109. Sussman, V. (October 1995). The route of phantom pain. U.S. News & World Report, 76-78.

The Good Earth Style :: Pearl Buck Good Earth Essays

The Good Earth Style Pearl Buck's style in The Good Earth has been compared to old Chinese novels. Actually, it is a simple, direct narrative style. There are no complicated techniques such as cut-back or stream of consciousness. The narrative moves along smoothly towards its conclusion. By the same token there are no complicated subplots or subthemes. Wang Lung is the central character; the actions of all the other characters relate directly to him. No one in the story performs any action which is independent of the main action. Perhaps the greatest strength of the style of Pearl Buck in The Good Earth is the manner in which her characters perform. No matter what any one of them does, it is always in keeping with his personality. Nevertheless, none of them can be described as stereotypes; their motivations are too complex. In O-lan, the reader sees a person who is fundamentally good. Yet she does some seemingly wicked things. She steals the jewels from the rich man's house. Worse than this, she kills her own child. But both of these actions are consistent with her character and the context of the situations she is involved in. Much has been written about Pearl Buck's style of writing in The Good Earth. One critic calls it "almost Biblical," while others compare it to ancient folk epics. Another critic describes it as a mixture of the King James Version of the Bible and a traditional Chinese epic. A writer's style can't always be traced to the influences of his or her childhood reading, but in Pearl Buck's case the two influences mentioned above did exist. As the daughter of Presbyterian missionaries, Buck was brought up on the Bible. And although she read widely in English literature, she also read Chinese novels. As Buck herself explained, Chinese novels were written for a wide popular audience. They developed from the tales that professional storytellers once told to a crowd of people sitting on the ground around them, at a time when most Chinese--like most people everywhere--could neither read nor write. Buck translated one of these Chinese novels into English, and she lectured and wrote on the popular art of the Chinese novel. Buck wrote The Good Earth at great speed, finishing it in three months.

The Relative Impact of Recruitment/Selection, Training, and Development for Organizational Effectiveness

This paper discusses the relative impact of recruitment/selection, training, and development for organizational effectiveness. First, recruitment and selection is discussed. Job analysis is very important in the selection process because it provides a realistic job preview and it identifies relevant traits and abilities needed for the job. Furthermore, predictive validity of several selection methods are discussed from which work samples, GMA, tests, and structured interviews are appeared to be the best predictors of future job performance. Second, the impact of training on organizational effectiveness is discussed.Training design issues are discussed, and it is argued that training can increase organizational effectiveness although the effects of training are hard to assess. In addition, training is linked to recruitment and selection in which it is argued that the two HR practices are interdependent. Third, the concept development is discussed in which a distinction has been made b etween team and organizational development. The success of development is highly dependent upon employees’ support. Moreover, the concept strategic human resource management is introduced.This concept entails linking HR practices to the strategic management processes and emphasizing coordination or congruence among different HR practices in order to increase the effectiveness of HR policies. Finally, three different theoretical perspectives on SHRM are discussed; the contingency, the configurational, and the universalistic approach. Introduction Competition, globalization, and continuous change in markets and technology have caused a transformation in the role of human resources (HR) from a traditional administrative to a more strategic role (Beer, 1997).Human resource management (HRM) has become a part of the firm’s strategy and has to be minimized as a cost and maximized as value-adding component (Rogers & Wright, 1998). However, the added value of HRM has been subje ct of debate. Although latest empirical research showed that HRM has an positive effect on performance, the relationships are often weak and the results remain ambiguous (Paauwe & Boselie, 2008). So, there seem to be some indistinctness on what impact human resource practices actually have on organizational performance and effectiveness.This paper will go into this  issue and discuss the relative impact of recruitment and selection, training, and development for organizational effectiveness. First, the concerning concepts will be defined and discussed. Furthermore, the impact of the three separate HR practice on organizational effectiveness will be discussed. Finally an attempt will be made to integrate these HR practices and their effect on organizational effectiveness. Organizational effectiveness In order to discuss the impact of the three HR practices, the concept organizational effectiveness needs to be defined which is a very broad, vague concept and therefore hard to define .Effectiveness refers to the output while taking into account the preset objectives, it is clearly a goal oriented measure (Rogers & Wright, 1998). This definition of effectiveness remains very broad since there are multiple ways to assess or measure outcomes. In this paper the typology of Dyer and Reeves (1995) will be used, who distinguish between four measures of organization outcomes; human resource outcomes (turnover, absenteeism, job satisfaction), organizational outcomes (productivity, quality, service), financial accounting outcomes (return on assets, profits), and capital market outcomes (stock price, growth, returns).Logically, they argue that HR strategies were most likely to have an impact on HR outcomes, followed by organizational outcomes whereas the other two outcomes are more indirectly related. Recruitment and Selection Job analysis and recruitment The first HR practice that will be discussed is recruitment and selection, which is quite essential for organizations s ince it all starts with recruiting and selecting the right employees. An appropriate selection system starts with a job analysis in which the duties a job requires and what skills are needed to perform these duties is being analyzed (Fisher, Schoenfeldt & Shaw, 2003, chapter 4).Job analysis can provide a realistic job preview about what the job will be and therefore reduces early employee dissatisfaction and turnover (Fisher et al. , 2003). Job analysis is also important for the assessment of job performance in for example 360 degree feedback since a job analysis can set performance criteria. In this feedback subjective measures are used which are vulnerable to measurement rating errors like halo-effects (Viswesvaran, Schmidt & Ones, 2005).Nevertheless, subjective measures might be very useful to assess organizational effectiveness, especially in relation to HR practices since subjective measures are mainly used to assess HR or organizational outcomes which are more directly related to HR practices (Dyer & Reeves, 1995). Objective measures involve actual percentage figures for sales growth or profitability which measure financial and capital market outcomes and these are more distal and indirectly related outcomes (Dyer & Reeves, 1995).Once applicants with realistic job expectations are recruited the actual selection process starts. Selection is the process of choosing from a group of applicants the individual best suited for a particular position and organization (Mony, Noe & Premeaux, 2002, p. 175). The recruitment process is very important for this because recruiting the right employees with realistic job expectations has a significant impact on the quality of the selection decision (Mony et al. 2002, chapter 7).Making right hiring decisions is one of the best ways to improve productivity. Therefore, majority of managers recognize employee selection as one of their most difficult and most important business decisions (Mony et al. , 2002). The selection proc ess starts with choosing the right selection instrument. Job analysis is also highly relevant for this since job analysis can identify relevant and specific traits and abilities needed for the job which saves time by not measuring irrelevant traits or abilities (Voskuijl, 2005).The goal of the selection process is to select those applicants who are likely to perform the best on the future job. Therefore, the selection methods used in the selection process need to be valid, especially high predictive validity and/or incremental validity are relevant. Predictive validity refers to observing employee performance over a period of time to determine whether the selection method has differentiate the successful and less successful employees (Mony et al. , 2002).Incremental validity refers to whether the instrument can explain anything additional beyond other instruments. Selection methods Schmidt and Hunter (1998) performed a meta-analysis of 85 years of research in personnel selection pre senting the validity of 19 different selection procedures for predicting job and training performance. They also assessed the incremental validity of selection procedures beyond the predictive validity of general mental ability in order to assess which combinations of methods show the highest validity for job performance.Their results revealed that work sample tests (0,54), GMA tests (0,51), and structured interviews (0,51) show the highest predictive validity for job performance. Schmidt and Hunter (1998) state that GMA can considered to be the primary personnel measure for hiring decisions. More recent findings of Schmidt and Hunter (2004) confirmed this and state that GMA is of critical importance. Salgado et al. (2003) found similar results and argue that there is validity generalization and large operational validities in different occupational groups for predicting job performance and training success with GMA measures.Salgado et al. (2003) found job complexity to be a moderat or; the more complex the job is, the more GMA matters. Regarding the incremental validity above GMA tests, Schmidt and Hunter (1998) conclude that the best combination of selection methods would be the GMA test plus a work sample test (0,63), or plus integrity test (0,65), or plus a structured interview (0,63). Unstructured interviews show a lower predictive validity as well as lower incremental validity above GMA tests compared to structured interviews.According to a meta-analysis of Huffcutt, Conway, Roth and Stone (2001) the most frequently rated construct in interviews in general are basic personality and applied social skills. They also distinguish between unstructured interview and structured interview and found that structured interviews focus more on constructs that have a stronger relationship with job performance like job knowledge and skills, whereas unstructured interviews focus more on general intelligence and education (Huffcutt et al., 2001).So, it seems that unstruct ured interviews mainly measure general mental ability; intelligent people tend to do better on unstructured interviews. Nevertheless, many organizations in the United States rely solely on unstructured interviews (Schmidt & Hunter, 1998) since they have a high face validity; they are transparent and people feel like they have some influence over the results. Although the results of Schmidt and Hunter (1998) show that there are more valid methods available.Since people, as  well as the applicant as the recruiting organization, seem to have a preference for unstructured interviews, they should be used at the end of a selection process where their potential harm is minimalized since only suitable candidates are left. Another selection method which employers often use and believe to be a useful predictor whereas academics believe that they have little predictive validity, is grade point average (Roth, BeVier, Schippmann & Switzer, 1996). The meta-analysis of Roth et al. (1996) however , shows that GPA could be a more valid predictor of job performance than many academics thought.Taking a look at personality inventories as selection tools, Dudley, Orvis, Lebiecki and Cortina (2006) conclude that they are becoming increasingly popular and most researchers agree personality is important for predicting job performance. The five-factor model is the most used method to assess personality, the most important factor for predicting job performance is conscientiousness (Dudley et al, 2006). Schmidt and Hunter (1998) found a predictive validity of 0,31 for conscientiousness tests.Conscientiousness is also a construct that is often measured in interviews, as Huffcutt et al.  (2001) have found that conscientiousness is the single most rated construct in structured interviews and is a good predictor of job performance. Schmidt and Rader (1999) argue that different approaches of structured interviews all measure facets of conscientiousness and GMA which have a known generaliz able validity. There is some dissent whether facets of a broad trait like conscientiousness are also relevant to consider in the prediction of job performance. Research shows that narrow traits or facets show incremental validity above and beyond global conscientiousness (Dudley et al., 2006).Moreover, Schmidt and Rader (1999), and Huffcutt et al. (2001) argue that facets of conscientiousness like responsibility, dependability, initiative, and achievement orientation are important in predicting job performance. So, recruitment and selection have quite some impact on organizational effectiveness provided that the selection system first recruits the right employees and then, in turn the right and relevant selection methods are used to select the best suited applicants for the position.Job analysis is important in this process because it both enables providing a realistic job preview as it identifies the traits and abilities needed for the job, selection methods can be chosen based on that. The selection methods with the highest predictive validity are work samples, GMA tests, and structured interviews in which conscientiousness is a frequently rated construct. However, the predictive validity of these selection methods refers to job performance of that particular job on individual level rather than organizational performance or effectiveness.Nevertheless, choosing the right selection methods and selecting the best employees will probably also increase organizational effectiveness. Training Training design Training and employee development can be defined as ‘a systematic approach to learning and development to improve individual, teams, and organizational effectiveness’ (Kraiger & Ford, 2007, p. 281). Thus, the goal of training is to improve organizational defectiveness. The effectiveness of training programs is often hard to assess, especially at the organizational level where many other factors might interfere and influence the outcomes.Therefore, the training should be designed in such a way to make evaluating effectiveness possible. First, training criteria should be set, without these you cannot determine if the goals were met. Training criteria are classified into two levels: training level and performance level, the latter is most important for assessing the impact of training on organizational effectiveness because performance-level criteria are concerned with the person’s performance on the job rather than in the training setting (Spector, 2006, p. 181).Spector (2006, chapter 7) however, states that one should include criteria at both levels to thoroughly evaluate effectiveness, although some studies show that training is effective at the training level but not at the performance level. In order to assess the criteria a proper design should be chosen. The two most popular designs are: pretest-posttest and control group (Spector, 2006). Pretest-posttest design is intended to evaluate how much participants gained from the training by testing the performance criteria before, and after the training (Spector, 2006).In the control group design, participants are tested only once after the training and are compared with equivalent employees who have not been trained (Spector, 2006). In practice however, the most used design is the post-test with only self-report measures, which is obviously not sufficient for evaluating effectiveness because there is not comparison possible. Besides, self-report measure might not be a valid predictor of performance, as Dysvik and Martinsen (2008) show in their study that student’s subjective reactions to teaching and their consequent performance were not correlated.On the other hand, assessing training effectiveness at organizational-level is also very hard when the control group or pretest-posttest design are used. For the control group design is it hardly impossible to find an equivalent organization in order to make comparison possible. When using the pr etest-posttest design another problem might occur; other factors might emerge during the training process causing increased organizational effectiveness. In an ideal situation the trained entity should be isolated in order to exclude spurious effects, obviously this is hardly impossible too.Furthermore, Spector (2006) points out some factors that should be taken into consideration when designing a training program in order to maximize the transfer of training. Ignoring these factors might result in an training program that does not affect behavior on the job (Spector, 2006). These factors are for example; feedback, training should be as identical to real job situations as possible, and overlearning which refers to giving the trainee practice beyond what is necessary to reach the criteria (Spector, 2006). Effectiveness of training programsAccording to the previous paragraph training can have quite a big impact on organizational effectiveness, provided that the right criteria, design, and design factors are formulated. There are however, different views on the effectiveness of training programs. On the one hand there is the ‘best practice’ view that states that firms that investigate in training and development efforts outperform those who do not. On the other hand, Wright and Geroy (2001) state that ‘the belief that training leads to improved employee and firm performance is myth that equates training with goodness’ (p.586).Campbell and Kuncel (2001) support the best practice view by stating that ‘training is a critical component of effective human resource management’ and that its importance for both individuals as organizations can probably not be overstated. A point of critique to the best practice view is the issue of reverse causality, since already successful organizations tend to invest more in training and development (Tharenou, Saks & Moore, 2007).Moreover, there are studies that argue that the effectiveness of tr aining is dependent on several individual, contextual, and situational factors that might mediate or moderate the relationship between training and organizational effectiveness. Colquitt, LePine, and Noe (2000) attempt to develop an integrative theory of training motivation using a meta-analytical approach. They summarized literature on training motivation including its antecedents, situational and personality variables, and its relationship with training outcomes like declarative knowledge, skill acquisition, and transfer.They argue that more proximal variables, like motivation to learn and transfer of training, mediate between the more distal variables (in this case individual and situational characteristics) and job performance (Colquitt et al. , 2000). Findings of this study indicate that individual characteristics like locus of control, conscientiousness, anxiety, cognitive ability, job involvement, and self-efficacy are significant predictors of training motivation.Also the si tuational factor climate, which refers to trainee’s perceptions about characteristics of the work environment that influence the use of training content on the job, was a significant predictor of training motivation (Colquitt et al. , 2000). Blume. Ford, Baldwin and Huang (2010) performed a similar meta-analysis in exploring the impact of predictive factors on the transfer to training, though they examined these effects in different tasks and contexts.They found that predictor variables like motivation and work environment had stronger relationships to transfer when the focus of training was on open as opposed to closed skills (specific skills) (Blume et al. , 2010). Furthermore, their results confirmed the meta-analysis of Colquitt et al. (2000) by finding positive relationships between training transfer and cognitive ability, conscientiousness, motivation, and a supportive work environment (e. g. climate). Especially cognitive ability is a valid predictor of training succes s (Schmidt & Hunter, 1998; Salgado et al., 2003; Colquitt et al. , 2000).The main difference between these two meta-analysis is that Colquitt et al. (2000) focus on the difference between distal and proximal variables in which training motivation is a more proximal variable, and therefore indicated as a mediating variable. Whereas Blume et al. (2010) do not distinguish between distal and proximal variables, and consider individual characteristics and training motivation to be both predictors of transfer of training. What these two meta-analyses do not show it the eventual impact of training on organizational outcomes.Tharenou, Sasks and Moore (2007) examined this in a meta-analysis from 67 studies. They distinguish between human resource (employee attitude, behavior, and human capital), organizational performance (performance and productivity) and financial outcomes (profit and financial indicators). The results of their review suggest that training is positively related to HR outco mes and organizational performance outcomes, though the effect is small caused by other variables that influence employees attitudes (Tharenou et al. , 2007). In addition, training was only very weak related to financial outcomes (Tharenou et al., 2007).This partly confirms the previous mentioned research of Dyer and Reeves (1995) since Tharanou et al. (2007) suggest that the outcomes more proximally related to training show the strongest correlations. Training and Recruitment & Selection So, one can conclude that training has quite some impact on organizational effectiveness although but this effectiveness is dependent on several variables. Tharenou et al. (2007) for example suggest that the relationship between training and firm performance is mediated by employee attitudes and human capital.Employee attitude is something that can be influenced at the workplace, by for instance creating a supporting work environment, whereas human capital is much harder to directly influence. Huma n capital refers to workforce knowledge, skills, and abilities (KSAs). Some of these KSAs however, can be indirectly influenced by adapting the recruitment and selection process to select employees with characteristics that predict training success. Conscientiousness and general mental ability are the most mentioned individual characteristics that have shown to be good predictors of training success (Salgado et al., 2003; Blume et al. , 2010; Schmidt & Hunter, 1998; Colquitt et al. , 2000).Schmidt and Hunter (1998) argue that when employers are using GMA test to select employees, that employee will have a high level of performance as well as he or she will learn the most from job training programs and will acquire job knowledge faster from experience. This also works the other way around, Connerley (1997) suggests that one of the strategies to attract better employees is to improve the quality of recruiters by training them.This, and the earlier mentioned issue of adapting recruitme nt to select employees that are more likely to benefit from training, shows the interdependency between recruitment and selection, and training in relation to organizational effectiveness. Development The last HR practice discussed in this paper is development which is highly connected to training. Employee development has already been discussed in the previous section about training, therefore this section will mainly focus on team and organizational development.Team developmentThe changing nature of work has led to an increasing shift towards the use of teams which has implications for how teams should be designed to enhance both individual and team performance (DeShon, Kozlowski, Schmidt, Milnerz & Weichmann, 2004). Kozlowski and Ilgen (2006) define team development as ‘an informal process by which group members attempt to create effective social structures and work processes on their own’ (p. 105). They conceptualize team effectiveness as performance evaluated by ot hers, member satisfaction and viability (Kozlowky & Ilgen, 2006).Furthermore, several factors that enhance team effectiveness are pointed out; unit and team climate, team mental models and transactive memory, collective learning, team cohesion, team efficacy and potency, and team regulation skills (competencies, functions, and dynamic adaption) (Kozlowky & Ilgen, 2006). Adair, Hideg and Spence (2013) support the view that team climate, cohesion, and collective learning are important by pointing out the importance of developing shared values in teams. Furthermore, DeShon et al. (2004) examined the role of feedback towards individual and team goals and how this affects resource allocation decisions.They found that teams receiving individual and team feedback were most committed to the team goal (DeShon et al. , 2004). So, these studies mainly point out the importance of team development for team effectiveness. Castka, Sharp and Bamber (2003) go even further by stating that the use of teams is an important means in organizational change and continuous improvement (innovation activities) and that the organizational ability to mobilize their employees in teams for problem solution matters not only to managers, but also to investors (p.29).Investors attach great importance to use of teams and might base their decision to invest based on this (Castka et al. , 2003). Castka et al. (2003) introduce two arguments why organizations can gain from teamwork development. First, organizational teams can improve organizational performance through involvement, learning, and increased communication. Second, as pointed out before, organizations that develop their teamwork and improve their performance due to this increases its value for investors (Castka et al. , 2003).Thus, according to these authors, team development might also have effects on the organizational level and might even affect financial outcomes by referring to investors. Organizational development Weick and Quin ( 1999) argue that ‘from the perspective of organizational development, change is a set of behavioral science-based theories, values, strategies, and techniques aimed at the planned change of the organizational work setting for the purpose of enhancing individual development and improving organizational performance, through the alteration of organizational members. on-the-job behaviors’ (p. 363).So, according to them organizational change and development can enhance individual development as well as improving organizational performance by altering organizational members on the job behaviors. As argued before, these behaviors might be enhanced by training or by recruiting and selecting the employees that are most likely to behave in a way that enhances organizational development and performance. Other ways to alter employees’ on-the-job-behavior is using interventions like job rotation, job enrichment, and teambuilding which lead to better organizational outcomes (B uchanan & Huczynski, 2010) and it motivates employees.Piderit (2000) argues that successful organizational change is highly dependent on generating support and enthusiasm from employees for the purposed change. Grant (2011) proposes that end users can imspire and motivate employees by deliviring convincing testimonials of their experiences with the organization, whereas when leaders are the sole source of inspiring messages, they are considered as being uncredible. Organizational development is thus aimed at improving organizational performance, the effectiveness of this aim is to a large extent dependent on employees’ acceptance and support for the development.However, there is some critique on organizational development that it mainly focus on soft attitudes and values, rather than on the hard operational and financial results (Buchanan & Hyczynski, 2010). In addition, the difficulties in assessing and measuring the effectiveness that applied to training programs might also aply to organizatioanl development. Strategic Human Resource Management Although there are some conditional factors that need to be taken into account, the three HR practices discussed in this paper can have quite some impact on organizational effectiveness.The problem often is that it is very hard to assess the sheer effectiveness of these practices on organizational effectiveness. Nevertheless one can conclude that the HR practices mainly have their effect on proximal human resource and organizational outcomes like turnover, job satisfaction, and productivity which in their turn might have effects on financial outcomes. This is seen from a micro or tradition HRM perspective, which covers the sub functions of HR policy and practice.The growing importance of HR for organizational success however, has led to an increasing interest in making HRM a more integral, strategy-driven activity in organizations (Perry, 1993, p. 59). This is called strategic human resource management which ca n be defined as ‘an interdependent bundle of planned or emergent human resource activities that are intended to achieve positive organizational outcomes’ (Maler & Fisher, 2013, p. 23 ). These interdependent bundles of HR practices should be aligned in such a way to complement and strengthen each other (Gruman & Saks, 2011).This is a macro-orientated view of HRM, it differs from traditional HRM on two dimensions, as argued by Wright and McMahan (1992). The first is the vertical dimension which entails the linking of HR practices to the strategic management process of the organization. The second dimension is horizontal, which emphasis the coordination or congruence among the different practices (Wright & McMahan, 1992). An example of this, is the congruence of selection and training as earlier discussed in this paper.So,  an internal fit between the HR practices of an organization can lead to a higher added value than when the HR practices are considered as separate. T heoretical perspectives Behavioral perspective focuses on employee behavior as a mediator between HR practices and firm performances (Wright & MCMahan, 1992). So, this perspective can explain that although some HR practices might not have a direct impact on organizational effectiveness, they do enhance employees’ behavior (e. i. motivation and commitment) which on its turn affects firm performance.The bahavioral perspective has its roots in contingency theory. Contingency theory entails that an organization’s HR practices must be consistent with other aspects of the organization in order to be effective (Delery & Doty, 1996). Two other theories that are distinguished, are the configurational and universalistic theory. Configurational theories are concerned with how the pattern of multiple independent variables is related to a dependent variable rather than with how individual independent variables are related to the dependent variable (Delery & Doty, 1996, p.804).The S HRM perspective is a form of configurational theory because it is an integrative perspective which argues that patterns of HR activities, as opposed to single activities, are necessary to achieve organizational outcomes (Gruman & Saks, 2011). SHRM is also a form of the contingency perspective, because the vertical dimension of Wright and McMahan (1992) entails the linking of HR practices to the strategic management process of the organization.On the other hand, there is the universalistic approach, which is the earlier mentioned best-practice view which states that some single HR activites are always the best choice to achieve organizational outcomes. The earlier mentioned meta-analysis of Thanerou et al. (2007) found support for both the contingency and universalistic perspective. On the one hand, they found that training appeared to be stronger related to outcomes when it was matched with organizational capital intensity and business strategy (contingency), whereas on the other ha nd, they found training to be related independently to organizational outcomes (Tharenou et al., 2007).Also other studies discussed in this essay show support for both perspectives, GMA for example is found by Schmidt and Rader (1999) to be a generalizable factor , since it is always a good predictor of job performance and training succes. Salgado et al. (2003) however, found job complexity to be a moderator. Finally, Delery and Doty (1996) assessed the theoretical foundation of the SHRM literature, and concluded that each of the three perspectives can be used to structure theoretical arguments in order to explain significant levels of variation in financial performance.