Human Resource Management Models Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Human Resource Management Models - Essay Example The soft approach appears to be the better option considering the human ability to change and adapt, but as we will see, it cannot be used alone to manage human resources. We need to integrate approaches and find a multidisciplinary approach to dealing with people. How much of people management depends on theory and how much cannot be measured "In theory, practice and in the workplace experience, though people appear to be of central concern, the rich, warm, unpredictable face of humanity are all too clearly absent." Perhaps the most difficult question to answer is whether people are better lead or managed. Do people respond better when encouraged by a leader or when they are managed To begin with, it is necessary to understand what human resource management is and how it works. Every business runs on resources and the one resource that it cannot function without, is its staff. Human resource management is therefore about getting the most out of staff members (Human Resource Management Guide). Human resource management also, however, includes deciding which individuals are better suited to which position as well as conducting sufficient research to determine the best placement of individuals (McNamara 2008). We can now determine what has to be done with regards to human resource management, but there are two ways of going about this: we can either look at the humanistic approach or at the objective 'hard' approach. ... Two schools of thought were developed with hard and soft theories in mind: Harvard and Michigan. Harvard follows the soft model more closely while Michigan is based on the soft model. The normative model seeks to consolidate both the strategic management of the business as well as the interpretive model which is considered soft (Gill: 3). The problem here is that according to Gill (1999) "there are problems in the integration of HRM policy with business strategy and evidence indicates that HRM is more ad hoc than strategic."(Gill 1999: 3). In this case, one cannot assume that what is good for he business is necessarily good for the employee (Gill 1999: 3). The hard model would therefore focus on the employee as a resource, assuming that whatever causes the business to soar, will automatically uplift the employee (Gill 1999: 4). The intuitive problem is that humans are not controllable and they are not constant. Human's cannot be 'paid off' or compensated with more pay without regarding emotions or feelings even though this is a simple solution to a complex issue. In Gill and Meyer (2007) it was ascertained that outsourcing of certain business portions yielded dramatic results (Gill and Meyer 2007: 4). These results were not necessarily good ones, in the sense that businesses no longer had to employ people to do the jobs they could outsource, leading to job-losses and retrenchment. Despite this, there has to be an increase in individual 'soft' model relationships with employees if the employee numbers are smaller (Gill and Meyer 2007: 4-5). According to Gill and Meyer too, human resource management has to "manage the simultaneous pursu it of soft and

Lefeveres Concept of Translation Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 4000 words

Lefeveres Concept of Translation - Essay Example The work of Andrà © Lefevere in translation studies is based on some very strongly held views about the nature of writing and rewriting as these activities have been conceived throughout all of human history. The quotation mentioned above summarizes one particular key theory of his, which is concerned with the relationship which exists between translation and power. This paper will examine Lefevere’s concept of translation by breaking the statement quoted above into four distinct segments, each of which will be discussed in turn: The first of the four segments of Lefevere’s quotation is quite straightforward and seems simple enough at first reading. Lefevre classifies translation as â€Å"a rewriting of an original text.† It is true that translations are â€Å"rewritings† or re-formulations of other texts, but it is questionable whether translations are always rewritings of an original text. Many post-structuralists would maintain that no text is ever truly original since every text stands in some relation to texts which have gone before. The concept of â€Å"intertextuality† indeed assumes a long chain of connections reaching back in time and across cultures so that every text that exists could be said to be a â€Å"rewriting†, or a decoding and re-encoding of other texts. Other scholars would argue that the very concept of â€Å"text† is fraught with problems because that â€Å"text† changes its nature every single time it is read by another person. What a r eader puts into a text is, therefore, from this point of view, just as important as what the writer puts in, what the translator puts in, and what the text gathers to itself through multiple other unintended connections. Looking back over world literature it is very striking that stories which authors have written over the centuries have depended on other stories, legends and â€Å"texts† that have come before.

Managing Cultural Diversity Management Essay

Managing Cultural Diversity Management Essay Davis (2003, p. 45) argues that cultural differences are usually created by race-ethnicity, gender, function, and tenure among the organization factors. Difference in culture may result to the rise of conflicts among team members. This usually results to disrupted communication within the organization and eventually negative outcomes. Therefore, it is the role of every organization and entire management to come up with various ways of managing and reducing negative effects of cultural differences. Management in various organizations should ensure that they are able to detect and avoid such cases from arising. Political backgrounds and experience are other major factors that contribute to cultural differences. Multicultural teams and differences in most occasions generate dilemmas in the organization management. Cultural differences usually create considerable obstacles to efficient teamwork. Recognizing various underlying cultural causes of conflicts is the main challenge in managing multicultural teams by organizations management. It is also a great challenge for management to get teams back into the track as well as empowering members to manage and deal with the challenges of cultural differences in future. Work-group diversity has become one of the most challenging issues that are facing various organizations currently. Various factors like demographic, cultural and legal factors have greatly changed the composition of organizations work forces. Demographic factors include multi-culturalism, equality initiatives, globalization, and declining birth rates. Therefore, this requires managers, employers, and employees to be sensitive to both intra- and intergroup differences. They are also required to adopt practices and policies which are effective in coping with such changes. Managing cultural diversification Ely Thomas, (2001, p. 230) maintains that managers and team members can manage cultural differences. This is only possible if they adopt and chose the right strategies within their organizations. Cultural difference poses various challenges which include hindering success within the organization. They pose as a barrier to effective communication which is a key element in any organization. Cultural difference creates differing attitudes towards authority and hierarchy hence difference in the ways people are treated. It also leads to conflicts especially when making decisions. These challenges are a great hindrance towards success and development of any organization. Therefore, managers need to come up with various strategies and policies in ensuring cultural differences and challenges are eliminated. According to Nankervis, Compton Baird, (2002, p. 120), they are four main strategies of dealing with cultural challenges for managers and various teams in organizations. They include adaption, structural intervention, managerial intervention and exit. Adaption mainly involves acknowledgement of cultural gaps frankly and even working around them. Managerial intervention involves early setting of norms and even bringing in of high-level management. Structural intervention is changing of the teams shape. Exit involves removing a team member in case the options have failed. They are several steps that any organizations management can adopt in dealing and eliminating cultural differences. Identification of the challenge is the key and first step in dealing with multicultural differences. Assessing the circumstances under which the differences are occurring is another crucial step towards dealing with multicultural differences. Adaption is a great strategy that organizations encourage in dealing with cultural diversity. This involves teams finding various ways of working with and around the challenge that they encounter. It also involves adapting practices and attitudes without necessarily making changes to the assignment of the group. Adaption works well when members of the team or organization acknowledge and even name their differences in culture as well as assuming their responsibilities. It also involves figuring on various ways to live with the cultural differences. Adaption has been seen as the best way of dealing with cultural diversity difference as it does not demand a lot of time as compared to other strategies. This is mainly because members of the team take part in problem solving while learning from the process. This kind of mind set plays a great role in ensuring there are creative in protecting their cultural differences within the organization. Organization taking this type of initiative en sures that cultural diversity does not affect its performance and operations among its teams. Various organizations managements have found adaption as an ideal strategy towards solving cultural diversity. This is mainly because it is effective and solves its own problem with little input from management. Team members must be aware of this strategy in order for it to be successful in solving the intended problems or differences. However, negotiating a common understanding may take sometime among the team members. Structural intervention is another way that organizations are utilizing in ensuring they manage the cultural diversity. It is an intentional reorganization or reassignment that is designed to reduce or eliminate source of conflict between people or teams. It is also intended to reduce interpersonal frictions that largely contribute to cultural diversity. The strategy works effectively when obvious subgroups separate the team. This is mainly if team members are clinging to negative stereotypes of one another or feel threatened. Structural intervention also involves creating smaller working groups of diversified cultures. This enables team members to know and even respect every team member. Various organizations utilize or use this strategy as it encourages reduction of cultural diversity within the organization. Structural intervention as a strategy for managing cultural diversity shields people who are not working well in a team. Managerial intervention also plays a vital role in solving organizations cultural diversity effects. Although the failure to involve team in decision making may result to a stalemate, it is important for managers to intervene when cultural diversity blocks the success of decision making. Managerial intervention has been used in many occasions by various organizations to solve sort out its problems effectively. Setting norms early in a team through managerial intervention assists the team towards starting out effectively. Managers encourage team members to encourage each other towards ensuring everybody is appreciated and encouraged to work with each other despite cultural diversity. Managers address the issues like language barrier and ethnic diversity directly. They encourage them on various ways to solve cultural diversity within the team and entire organization. Exit is another strategy that is utilized towards reducing the problems of cultural diversity. This is usually the last and infrequent strategy towards managing cultural differences. It is important for those members who are not happy with their teams to move out of the team to another team. This will ensure there is continued delivery of efficient services. Exit of one or several members is used by organizations as a last resort. One or several members of the team or organization may be kindly requested formally by management to exit. They may also exit voluntarily from the team. According to Bhatia Chaudary (2003, p. 25), managing diverse culture within an organization is not an easy task. Realizing and managing cultural diversity within an organization has been on the increase. This is assisting greatly in facilitating organizational progress and success. On a broad perspective, organizations can manage cultural diversity through communication. This is creating awareness among the employees and various teams on the importance of diverse values of peers. Another way is through cultivating; this is facilitating encouragement, support, and appreciation of any employee achievement by all other colleagues. Diverse culture can also be managed through capitalizing strategies. This involves linking diversity to every process of business and strategy such as employee development, re-engineering, succession planning, performance review and management. Organizations also adopt various innovative ways towards management of cultural diversity. This includes incorporating various people from different cultural backgrounds as well as acknowledging the importance of their cultural. Appreciating people cultural background usually leads to reduced background differences. This ensures there is a common organizational diversity that does not affect the performance of various teams. Organizations have also started empowerment to all members regardless of race or gender. Empowerment is crucial towards making of an effective decision making. Towards reducing culture diversity difference, organizations are encouraging free contribution towards decision making processes. Utilization of empowerment in diverse organizations results to more trust among the team members as well as higher productivity. Empowerment in an organization with diverse culture has been seen to make team members feel their contribution in a manner that is more worthwhile and meaningful. This assists greatly towards improvement of diversity climate hence accomplishment of organization objectives. It is also crucial for various organizations to initiate diversity training programs as illustrated by Perkins, (2006, p. 60). Leaders and managers in organizations should be trained on how to manage and understand culturally diversified employees. Employees as well should be provided with adequate training on the importance of understanding people with different cultures. This will greatly assist in improving the differences that arise when people of different cultures work together. Training is crucial towards the breakdown of stereotypes as well as reducing prejudicial attitudes among the team members. Mentoring and networks are other effective ways towards improvement of the diversity climate. Mentors usually provide recognition, support, and challenge in order to assist in shaping the future for those individuals they are assisting. Mentors are in most occasions beneficial mainly because it assists in keeping minorities on the track. It also assists in keeping them focused withi n any culturally diversified organization. Networking is also another crucial process that assists organizations in managing the cultural diversity within the teams. Networking acts as a source of encouragement and support to various employees with diversified cultural differences. It is also crucial for organizations to strength top-management commitment towards creating a positive diversity climate within the organization. This commitment should be distributed even to the lowest management levels. All managers at every level within an organization should openly and strongly support all policies, strategies, and practices that support the management of culture diversity. This will greatly assist towards reducing culture diversification related challenges within an organization. It will assist in improving and increasing the benefits associated with culture diversity. Conclusion Cultural differences that face multicultural teams may not necessary attribute to diversity challenges. However, these differences underlay the problems that require to be addressed in various teams in organizations. Cultural diversity may not only have negative effects on the working of a team, but they may result to problems in management as well. If any organizations management intervenes early in any cultural challenge within the organization, this may lead to good resolution of the problem. Organizations management should set up norms; structure social interaction as well as engaging all people within the team in solving problems arising due to cultural difference. Managing cultural diversity well has various benefits that are associated with it. Effective management of cultural diversity usually results to organizational benefits or success. Organizations with an effective managed multi-culture have a cost effective competitive edge. It also results to the promotion of minority friendly reputation among prospective employees. Organization with good management of cultural diversity usually results to an increased flexibility and adaptability in case of any environmental changes. Effective management of culture diversity will assist in improving and increasing the benefits associated with culture diversity.

Civil Engineering Essay -- essays papers

Civil Engineering Throughout my lifetime, I have never had to think very much about the working world and everything that went with it. All through high school I took classes I liked or thought would be interesting to me, but never thought that all of those classes were preparing me for what was to come. Before I knew it, it was time to go to college. The four years of high school had flown by and now it was time to choose a major for college. I had never given much thought as to what I wanted to do for the rest of my life. The only real occupations that I had really gotten to experience were teaching, the jobs that my parents had, and others such as doctors, dentist, most of the occupations that everyone sees while they are growing up. When I finally decided on my major, I chose engineering, but I didn’t know if I would like it or not. The only prior knowledge I had about it was the fact that my grandfather was an electrical and chemical engineer, and that my parents and teachers said that I would be good at engineering. Recently I have been interested in civil engineering, but what does one do with such a degree? What opportunities are available to a person with a degree in civil engineering on the job market? The broad curriculum that covers many different fields of engineering make civil engineering a major that allows a person to work in nearly any field they wish. So what could a person do with a degree in civil engineering? Civil engineering is one of the most general fields in engineering, and is often considered the â€Å"liberal arts of engineering.† Civil engineering is also referred to as the â€Å"People† engineering, because wherever there is a civilization, there is a need for civil engineers. A person that possesses a degree in this field shows an understanding of mathematics, chemistry, and physics. Thus there are many different applications of jobs that a person can perform with this degree. As Jeff Olsen, a former graduate in civil engineering at the University of Cincinnati says, Fortunately for an engineer, there always seems to be room for advancement, both inside and outside of engineering. If you want to stay "engineer" your whole career, there are typically two paths an engineer takes during their career. One is to remain technical your whole career. This type of person is someone that likes sitting behind a desk doing desi... ... do. I am the type of person that becomes bored very quickly with the same thing day in and day out, so this fast paced, always-changing work atmosphere is perfect for my personality. As a civil engineer I will choose to work outside with a hands-on approach to the projects I take on. This will be a very rewarding career for me, since I will get to see a specific design all the way through to the finished project, and I will get to observe how this finished project helps the public. I also like the fact that my work would benefit more people in one day than almost any other profession. Since I am good at solving problems and designing and constructing things, I should have no problems as a civil engineer. Because civil engineering has all the qualities I am looking for in a job, I feel that it is the perfect career for me. Bibliography: Olsen, Jeff. Personal Interview. 18 Feb. 2000. Rost, Bob. Personal Interview. 22 Feb. 2000. Chua, Ian Y. H. Civil and Structural Engineering Resource Web. 29 Jan. 2000. 2 Mar. 2000. http://web.singnet.com.sg/~icyh1955/civil.html. Telford, Thomas. â€Å"Re: Civil Engineers Handbook.† E-mail to the author. 29 Feb. 2000.

Pest

Name: Kimberly Hodge 1. Using APA citations to support your statements, explain what a PEST table is and why it is important to an organization (1-2 paragraphs). Pest Analysis is a frame work that strategy consultants uses to scan the mirco environment in which the firm operates. (Value Based 2013) PEST is Political, Ecomonic, Social factor and Techonolgies factors. Companies will use this in workshops and it will make the managmenets brainstorm techniques using PEST for strategic plannings, marketing planning or development in the business or the production. (Value Based 2013) 2.Include an explanation of the organization and environment you are focusing on in the PEST table (3-5 sentences): I answer #4 before I answer this one. It is combine of both questions. The organization would be my bike shop. I would use this table to think how this would affct my employees and the consumers. Political section, with the Furlough going on and unemployment numbers are going up.. I need to be aw are that I will have good days and bad days with sales. The next couple months were be good month because income refunds are coming in and people want to buy and spend but then at the same time consumers may be saving as well.International trades will be affecting my bike shop because some of the bikes are shipped from France, Switzerland and other countries. I need to be aware this could affect my business as well.. Social is a huge impact for any business. And I think economic influences social a lot. Then Technologies, there are always new gadgets that are being added to the bikes or can be purchased to add to the bike. As a management, I have to be aware that when I promote new technology, I need to let them know what is new and how does it work. 3. 4. Identify 3-5 items in each category and post them in the PEST table below.Provide enough detail to explain your thoughts for each item. One or two lines will suffice for each item; please avoid using one-word, generic items within the table. Political1. Tax policies2. political stability3. safety regluations4. international trade regulations and restricitions5. contract enforcement law consumer protection| economic1. stage of the business cycle2. consumer confidence3. exchange rates/inflaction rates4. Interest rates and montery policies5. unemployment policy| SOCIAL1. income distriubiton2. labor/social mobility3. lifestyle changes4. health consciousness and welfare, feelings on saftey5. iving conditions| TECHOLOGY1. government research spending2. new inventions and development3. energy use and costs4. rate of technology transfer5. life cycle and speed of technological obsolescence| 5. If you were the leader of the organization used here, how would you utilize the information in the PEST graph, and what changes would you make based on your results? How would those changes affect the success of the business? (1-2 paragraphs) When I am leader of the organization, I will need to look each catergory and determine what are affecting our people in our country.People may be looking for changes or having trouble adapting to changes. Why are the changes happening like the example in the book talking about when the records were going out and the CD were coming in and it happened almost over night. This means people who had record players did not have CD players.. The customers had to buy CD players before they could buy the CD. This is what I need to look, what will happen if I change something, does this mean the consumers will have to spend money to make something adapt to something such as CD player. With the government changes laws, it affects our people.Like recent event, the Furlough, I know some people are losing two days of work per payperiod, this will affect their paychecks which will affect the social. So as a leader, we have to look how each category will affect the next. 6. References (please use proper APA set up as you construct the reference list): Valued Based Management. Net (Ja nuary 2, 2013) http://www. valuebasedmanagement. net/methods_PEST_analysis. html GRADING RUBRIC Item| Point Value| Assignment Content| | In depth responses to all questions| 40| General Writing and APA compliance| 10| Total| 50|

The Power of Social Media and Its Impact on the Current Business Environment

The number of internet users has increased over the last decade due to the development of new technologies, internet availability and improved connectivity. Various online communications platforms have been invented and are widely used for both personal and business purposes world wide and social networking is the latest communication platform helping people connect to each other across different places. Its introduction has changed the way groups of people are connecting and communicating in business via online communities and professional networks. In business, many multi-national companies are currently moving beyond traditional media channels and using social network sites as a medium to reach their targets consumers instead. There is no argument that social networking is the key player driving new media communications in the digital era and its benefits and functions are impacting business considerably. There are hundreds of social networking platforms that have been introduced to the market but currently there are only two major sites recognised as the world's most powerful platforms attracting millions of users to participate. Firstly there is Facebook, a social network service that allows users to create their own profile, status, interest and preferences and also share information with friends and contacts. According to Trimpe (2011), reported that Facebook's active user base is 519 million which equates approximately to 1 in 13 of every person on earth. In the Facebook world millions of pieces of content, links and event invitations are shared every 20 minutes indicating the enormous power of Facebook as a social media tool. Secondly there is Twitter, a social network platform that allows users to generate and share messages, or â€Å"Tweets†, up to a maximum of 140 characters. According to Chiang (2011), claimed that there are nearly 200 million Twitter's users worldwide. The most common use is to promote business information about products and services or sometimes to educate industry on a business products or services. Due to the fact that these two social networking services possess millions of people's profiles, demographics and personal interests, thousands of multinational companies have turned their focus on new social media strategy to reach their target online. The term ‘social media’ has become the most recent area focused on by marketers, advertisers and public relations professionals in various business sectors and many experts have studied and tried to understand the benefits and functions of the term social media. According to Turner (2011), the Chief Content Officer of the 60 Second marketer reported that social media is about creating and having conversations among networks in online forums, blogs, and social networking sites. The key fundamental function is to use them as a medium for contacting, sharing and promoting data and contents. But when it comes to business, the main objective of operating social media is far beyond that. In business, social media is currently claimed to be the best tool in helping a company gain larger numbers of their target consumers just by providing a digital experience related to their products and services. Social media is also playing an important role in driving consumers brand engagement. According to Schmitt (2009), studied about digital brand experience and the result indicated that consumers who have a chance to engage with a brand in social networking sites can evolve from passive reactors to support the brand almost instantaneously. Creating a brand presence in social media can create not only opportunities for a company to gain more customers but also help marketers to understand more deeply what their potential target customers think towards their products and services thanks, for example, to Facebook that first invented the â€Å"Like† application that allows users to express their interest towards other websites, links or even competitors brands and share across networks. Thanks considerably to the advantages of social media, and its large numbers of potential target consumers, it is no surprise that many global companies have selected social networking as a key medium to start launching their campaign. According to Parsons (2011), reported that recently, Kellogg’s, the cereal manufacturer, launched a new range of Krave cereal and used Facebook as a medium to communicate and offer free sample packs to around 80,000 consumers on their Facebook fan page. The brand also developed video content to engage their 16-24 year old target age group to create interaction in Facebook. Additional examples show that Dell also gained a major success generating $3 million in sales after it launched its online outlet through Twitter and Starbucks has achieved the top ranking of Facebook brand pages, with nearly 4 million friends, by just offering fans coupons for free pastries and ice cream. Additionally, Whole Foods has topped Twitter with 1. million followers by broadcasting weekly specials and shopping tips (Schmitt 2009, p. 26). Companies in the FMCG industry are not the only sector that is involved in social media. Currently Honda, the Japanese automotive manufacture, is implementing their new marketing initiative from budget-led to customer-led by moving beyond traditional advertising and using social media as a tool to understand, manage and encourage open communication and conversation among their customers (Fisher 2011). In this point, the decision to buy a durable good like a car is a lengthy process, so to ensure that their brand will be in front of mind of consumers, Honda then focuses through a combination of data analytics using, and social influence methodologies, to engage and change consumer perception and increase brand awareness at the same time. In other words the role of social media, in this case, is to help maximise the goodwill and favourable mentions of company and brands. Moreover, not only can a platform of social networking provide a benefit to communicate with customers but it also enhances the capability of internal communications amongst staff as it has benefits of real-time discussion, response and speed to spread out information or opinions internally and reduce the time spent in meetings and it is enormously useful for companies with teams/staff members who working in different locations or time zones. For instance, according to Willson (2011) reported that AT&T, a US telecommunications company, launched a new tool aimed at providing their staff the opportunity to have discussions, brainstorm and refine ideas through its own internal social media platform. Employees have opportunities to be involved by voting their opinion on the company's ideas and strategies. As a result of this implementation, and in just 6 months, there are more than 200 topics that have been discussed with great outcomes and many fresh ideas generated without wasting time in meetings. Undoubtedly, social media platforms help a company communicate to both customers and staff faster and easier, however, the easy access of shared data can be a risk to a company’s confidential products and information. Many companies to date have suffered from the secret leaking of their products before its launch to market and it is not only bloggers or online journalists who cannot keep the information secret but also staff who are caught, sometimes by mistake, sharing confidential information. As recent examples, Coggan (2011), reported that Renault has suspended three senior executives allegedly for passing on blueprints for electric cars, Facebook’s corporate privacy settings went wrong when some of the social network’s finances were published and a strategy document from AOL came to light revealing that the internet and media firm’s journalists were expected to write five to ten articles a day. As a result of this type of leak information many companies, especially in the USA, do not allow employees to use their own computers or use memory sticks for certain online services. Accordingly Robert Half Technology also found in 2009 that more than half of chief information officers in America blocked the use of networking sites such as Facebook at work to prevent leaking of information. In the digital era, today's business is borderless with mobile devices, smartphone and computers helping the world connect with the internet. Social networking is a new communications platform that enhances this borderless world providing users with an ability to contact one another and spread information. Many companies use these social networks as a key strategic media to reach their target consumers or adapt its platforms for internal communications purposes to enhance the productivity of its members. However, with its easy access and ability to disperse information rapidly, social networking is becoming a big challenge for todays businesses on how to control data leaking and to protect information assets whilst, at the same time, sharing data without affecting the company's competitiveness. Ultimately, the challenge of gaining benefit from social media is to operate it in a balanced way and in the same way a company has always managed its confidential information. A company must know what it wants to achieve from spreading information about its products and services and also what information it needs to protect . A businesses staff who are involved in the management, operation and control of these platforms should be trained to know how to add accurate data in an online social context and be able to understand what information is acceptable to share.