Trends and Issues in Education

Future Needs Change Current Issues and Trends in Education Historically education has changed over the years to meet the needs of children, and their ever changing mold. Society and governance has changed over history to save children from abuse, starvation, and provide educational opportunities but has not completely succeeded in these areas within minority classes. The educational gap between whites, blacks, and Hispanics is astoundingly large. This gap extends to healthcare, gun violence, criminal activity, and poverty. Since 1979, gun violence has ended the lives of 110,645 children and teens in America† (â€Å"State of america's,† 2011). Gun violence is not a new issue to the United States. It can be dated back to the first presidential assassinations and the â€Å"old west†. Gun violence has escalated into religious and political assassinations up to school massacres starting with the Columbine shootings. The United States’ is not successfully helping our youth with gun prevention. In 1994 the federal government passed The Youth Handgun Safety Act which prevents juveniles from possessing firearms or ammunition.That same year they passed The Gun-Free Schools Act which prevents firearms on school campuses and requires LEA’s to a referral service of those students caught with a firearm (1996). Although the government has enacted these laws gun violence has escalated. According to The State of Americas Children â€Å"3,042 deaths of children and teens from gunfire in 2007 alone nearly equaled the total number of U. S. combat deaths in Iraq through July 2011 (3,480)† (â€Å"State of america's,† 2011 ). Their data also shows that 11 children or teens die daily from gun related problems.It also states that even though there are fewer black boys in America they are more likely to come into a fatal blow with a firearm. African American males are more likely to die from a gunshot blow than any natural cause of death ( 1996). The sad issue here is that most of these minorities are the product of poor communities. The need to feel important can be a huge determining factor for these young males, and their need to be accepted into a group. Intervention programs need to be more readily available for these poverty areas. Every 34 seconds a child is born into poverty† (â€Å"State of america's,† 2011). America has made significant advancements in technology, civility, and postmodernism but is still stuck in a time warp from the ‘70s when it comes to poverty. Today’s youth still face the poverty epidemic they faced 40 years ago. The demographic of poverty has changed due to the changing face of America, but the epidemic remains the same. Poverty affects a child’s educational performance and opportunities as well. The schools funds are rooted in property taxes.Most students of poverty live in areas with low property taxes and therefore school funding is low. Instead of th e government making sufficient shifts in funding to give intervention opportunities and professional development, the time warp remains. Teachers come into education unaware of the issues poverty throws on its children. The government has â€Å"tried† to solve the educational poverty issue with No Child Left Behind. This act hides behind the blanket of all children are equal, but the truth is they are not.If they were then all children would have the same opportunities. There would be programs in place for summer enrichment to help stop the loss of information they experience during the summer. Poverty also shows itself in the minority groups and their graduation success rate. In 2006–07, 7. 7 million students attended poverty schools 33 percent African American and 35 percent Latino (â€Å"Child poverty in,† 2006). Only half of the African American male population actually graduates high school. Poverty is the root that bears down to hold on to generation after generation.If society does not change its ways of informing families and students then our society is going to keep falling behind. In order to make minority groups more successful in education, we are going to have to inform them on the statics of graduation, what is needed to graduate, be able to identify at-risk students, and show them the next step, college. If students have a vision of what is next, they can envision themselves on that path. My personal experiences help me and inhibit me in my understanding of the future of our youth. The fact that I grew up in poverty helps me see the need for intervention.If I was not exposed to the interventions that my school had in place then I would not have had the visions for what I needed to be successful. The downfalls to the interventions were that they were only for those A students. I was exposed to the next step because I did well in school. My mother and father were not high school graduates but pushed and showed that education was important. Though I grew up in poverty, I lived in the suburbs. This inhibits me with gun violence to a certain sense. The only gun violence I was exposed to was the untimely death of a classmate because he was playing with a handgun.I am not familiar with street gun violence, the need to be in a gang or the readily available hand guns. This kept me from seeing the issue of inequality until I reached the classroom as a teacher. I became a teacher in ’07 in an inner city school. My familiarity with growing up in poverty helped me connect with my all black classes. I knew when they first saw this â€Å"white lady† they would feel no connection but that quickly changed. They figured out that we had more in common than they thought. I used my experiences of the unknown to keep them from having the same unknowns.I may have no idea of the fear they live in with constant gunfire in their streets at night, I do understand the long, dark path that they see in front of them with no light to guide them through the goals they have rooted in them. I try to provide a spark in the beginning that will eventually lead to an ever burning light that shows them there is no dark place, that success is theirs. They can do and be anything they strive to be. Diligence and will are the keys to success. As an educator I have to stay educated on the adverse society we live in and the proven strategies that will help me be successful to keep my students successful.Our future needs a change in education, in poverty, and in thought. Technology is a beautiful tool, but our country has its hands in the wrong pocket. Taking from education is only hindering our future economic success by filling our prisons and emptying our school desks. Gun violence is being used by our youth as a tool for change but this change is a life altering change in the wrong the direction. Having politicians without educational background guiding our educational realm will continue to lead it into a hurricane of destruction.References (2009). African americans and education. Retrieved from http://naacp. 3cdn. net/e5524b7d7cf40a3578_2rm6bn7vr. pdf Aldridge, J. , & Goldman, R. (2007). Current issues and trends in education. (2nd ed). Boston: Pearson Education. (2006). Child poverty in america. Retrieved from http://www. fightpoverty. mmbrico. com/facts/america. html (1996). Reducing Youth Gun Violence:, Retrieved from https://www. ncjrs. gov/pdffiles/redyouth. pdf (2011). State of america's children. Retrieved from www. childrensdefense. org

Resembling peace Essay

In the novel Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad the author condemns the colonization of the Europeans on the African islands of Congo, eminently focusing on the barbarous and inhumane treatment of the natives. In this passage though, the central character Marlow narrates to the other men on his ship about his perspective of the experience he had when he went up the river Congo passing through the wild jungle in order to reach the inner station. The tone throughout the passage suggests a negative connotation of the wilderness of Congo because of the choice of words Marlow uses to describe the jungle. Phrases such as â€Å"unrestful† and the â€Å"noisy world of plants† portraits the jungle as being quite sinister instead of peaceful and quiet as the readers would expect it to be. This passage is a composition of similes, allegory, symbolism, dark and light contrast and hyperbole which Marlow uses abundantly to describe his journey. Marlow compares going up the river as being â€Å"like traveling back to the earliest beginning of the world. â€Å"(1) He uses a simile to describe the jungle as being how the world was earlier before the technology and civilization was born, when the world was pure as it was when it was created by nature. But then he continues the remark by saying â€Å"when vegetation rioted on the earth and the big trees were kings. † Marlow paints this picture as the wilderness having the ability to fight against each other and when there was power between the trees. He uses the word â€Å"king† to describe the variation of power between the trees much like how the Europeans were being superior by trying to civilize the natives through brutal means. Marlow adds to the description of the jungle as having â€Å"a great silence. â€Å"(2) The phrase â€Å"silence† is inserted in his description to give a contrast of what’s happening inside the jungle. Inside the jungle, in the inner station, it has been said that Kurtz uses unconventional â€Å"methods† to obtain the ivory he makes. This suggests that Kurtz is probably using violence or manipulations which are contrasts of â€Å"silence. † More ever, as Marlow’s journey proceeds further and further into the jungle and closer to the inner station, Marlow’s streamer gets attacked by the natives. Moments before they are being attacked, Marlow describes to have heard â€Å"voices† crying wildly coming from the jungle. The diction â€Å"silence† not only is a contrast of what is happening inside the jungle, it is also a contrast of a future scene where they are being attacked. Marlow further describes the river as being facile to get lost in â€Å"as you would in a desert. † This phrase shows that Marlow is confused as to his purpose in this voyage, why he wanted to come on this journey and what he was expecting to find. This phrase also indicates that Marlow perceives the river to be mysterious and that is one of the qualities of the river that urge him to continue his journey because of his curiousness. Later in the passage, Marlow indicates that the river as â€Å"this stillness of life which did not in the least resemble peace. â€Å"(9) This description of the river as not â€Å"resembling peace† connects directly to the journey that Marlow has been traveling in. Ever since Marlow decided to come on this voyage, he has been uncertain as to whom he really is and what he wants to do or what need to be done. Marlow has strong opinions about the Europeans as being â€Å"fools,† â€Å"devils,† and â€Å"folly,† for not knowing what they are doing. Not for being racists or discrimination of the natives as they are being tied up and worked to death. Marlow considers him self as being â€Å"not especially tender† towards the Africans which contradicts to what he has been saying all along through out the novel as African’s as not being our â€Å"enemies. † This passage describes the wildness and the sinister appeal of the river and the wilderness which is a comparison to the mind of Marlow. Inside his head, Marlow is confused, â€Å"unrestful,† and â€Å"not in the least resembling peace. † This journey takes Marlow to the places he has never been before in order to find himself inside.

Analysis of Trust and Equity in Law Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words - 1

Analysis of Trust and Equity in Law - Case Study Example In order to understand the term trust well, one has to understand some technical terms such as resulting trusts, an express trust, fiduciary, fixed trust, beneficiary, charitable trust, personal remedies, and constructive trusts. Trust is always a unique creation of the common law. When a trustee is transferring property to a beneficiary he may be bound by numerous duties which may be either imposed by general principles of equity, by statute or by the trust instrument and there are always serious impacts to the trustee who may either neglect his duties or breach the terms contained in the contract. When establishing a trust, there must be certainty and clarity. It is very necessary to be clear as to who the property is transferred to. There should also be the establishment of the rights of the beneficiary with certainty so that in case the trustee fails to carry his duties, the trust should be enforced. There must be different types and levels of formality when dealing with differen t and various types of property. It is very important for the trustee to be invested properly with the title to the trust property that he wishes to transfer. This is because he is the owner of the property. Unless the trustee does so, the trust is considered as incomplete and the beneficiaries may have no claim over the property. This fact is well illustrated in case Milroy v Lord (1862). In special instances where the property has to be transferred to the beneficiary, the trustee needs to closely examine the particular type of trust that he wants and wishes to transfer so that he can determine what needs to be done in order to transfer the property effectively. If the trustee of the property has a title, there is no need of any formality in the transfer. For an effective declaration to take place is only some clear evidence of irrevocable and present declaration of trust. This evidence may take any form. It is a condition that for a declaration of a trust to be effective, there mu st not be a failed attempt by the owner of the property to create the trust by transferring the property to the beneficiary. In the case, Paul v Constance [1977] 1 WLR 527, Mr. Constance who was deceased was operating a bank account in his own name. In many instances, he heard as saying to his de facto partner Mrs. Paul that the money he had was his as well as hers. By that time, Mr. Constance was still legally married to Mrs. Constance, who was the defendant in this case. Constance later died intestate and all his assets including the bank account passed to his wife. With this statement, it was not sufficient enough that there was a trust which had been created.  Ã‚  

Could the United States continue as one nation What values resided at Essay

Could the United States continue as one nation What values resided at the core of the nations identity And What did they believe it meant to be an American - Essay Example The first example of this is when the colonists moved the Native Americans off their own land. This caused a lot of fighting such as the Battle of Fallen Timbers in 1794, where 3,000 U.S. soldiers fought and beat 2,000 Native Americans. Other Indians were forced to move from their land and live on reservations. Another terrible event with the Native Americans was the Trail of Tears in 1838. About 15,000 Cherokees were forced to leave their possessions and homes in Georgia and go to Oklahoma. About 4,000 of the Indians died on the trail. Another race that was discriminated by Americans was the Africans. Americans thought they were superior and they enslaved the Africans. They thought that Africans were racially inferior. Africans were taken from their homes, crammed on to ships, and then sold as slaves. They were treated bad and did not have rights. Finally after the Civil War, slavery was abolished. Even though there was still racism, this was viewed as a good change. Change is generally thought of as a good thing to Americans. Change is thought of as improvement, progress, and advancement in the American society. Nevertheless, in older and more traditional cultures, change is thought to be disparaging and troublesome. New technology is always being introduced and welcomed in the U.S. This could be because many inventors lived in America and introduced these new inventions. One of the first great inventors in America was Benjamin Franklin. In the mid 1700s, Franklin did many activities to help the technology in the U.S. get better, including experiments with lightning. Thomas Edison invented many things to fuel this characteristic of Americans, such as the incandescent light bulb. Between 1867 and 1931, Edison had patented over 1,000 inventions. Another great inventor was Alexander Graham Bell who invented the telephone in 1876. Before 1860, the U.S. Patent Office had only issued 36,000 patents, but

Interactive Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Interactive - Essay Example InfoBest is a comprehensive business model that includes general ledger, accounts payable, accounts receivable, financial reporting, and operational reporting and analysis. In addition, InfoBest has a fixed asset management function, budget management function, and related business functions required for financial reporting. It is the first information system to incorporate all these functions in to one system thereby offering a wholesome solution to all your operational needs. It combines the functions of a general ledger, sales and purchase ledger. Because of the unified ledger system, any posting affects the other systems accordingly giving the company a clear view into their business. One unique feature with Sun Systems is that it allows multiple, parallel accounting methods that allow four transactional currency dimensions. This is very important to a company like yours that has branches in multiple currency states. Our software has been tested and used in automotive industries, banking industries, healthcare, hospitality, government, oil, and gas, transportation, and insurance industries. In adopting this system, it will unify the company’s general ledger, sales, purchase ledger, and cashbook and enable the management of the company to get timely information for decision-making. This way the company will work toward keeping at par with competition and take advantage of emerging opportunities. In addition, the company will have a harmonised reporting base due to its multicurrency

Career Development in HRD Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words - 2

Career Development in HRD - Research Paper Example Below is my career development plan since my present position to three years to come. It will consist of my career coach or career counsellor as a guide. Finally, it will show how I would be successful in my first job. I am a second semester at Indiana state university and I major on business in human resource development. In this, I am aiming at achieving a nonprofits leadership certification and a minor in business administration. Naturally, I am interested at peoples’ elements in business functions, change interventions, thrives and their improvements through their daily works and thus I made a decision to pursue the human resource development. I feel like taking some training and development in my career path though I am not sure of the source for the training. I enjoy doing charity work and thus am becoming a CNP. In this case, I enjoy my work daily because it is helpful to some people and through it I tend to change ones life for the better. In addition, my work seems to help peoples journey. Due to my interests in that, I plan to continue to volunteer in nonprofits though I am not sure of pursuing a career in such organization after my graduation (Rothwell, Wang, & Payne, 2005). In my career development, I have been attending some HR internship. I have attended the ISU career centre. The human resource development at this ISU career centre requires me to complete the internship before my graduation. In that career centre I met many wonderfully staffed career counsellors who provided me with the help that will make me attain their ability. One of my counsellors in this department was mike Williamson. Through my counsellor and mentor, mike William; I have achieved some skills on how to work hard to completing a well developed resume. He has also helped me set up some practice interviews that aim at gaining better communication skills and have many ways of answering possible interview questions

Literature Review on effective listening in the work place Research Paper

Literature Review on effective listening in the work place - Research Paper Example On the other hand, effective listening help a person to understand the whole things properly and he may not have any doubts over the things which he has listened. An effective listener will clarify his doubt at the time of listening in order to avoid future confusions. This paper analyses three articles on effective listening to understand the importance of effective listening at the workplace to avoid conflicts. The first article reviewed in this paper is the article Listening Effectively published by the Raj Soin College of Business, Wright State University. This article explains Why Effective Listening Matters, What Effective Listening Is, How the Most Skilled Communicators Respond When Listening, Typical Objections to These Effective Listening Techniques, etc. The second article reviewed in this paper is the article 10 Roadblocks to Effective Workplace Listening, on December 18, 2008 by David Wolf, PhD. Advice, Warning, Logical argument, Praise, Reassurance, Philosophizing, Psychoanalyzing, Diverting, Criticizing and Name calling are the ten characteristics required for effective workplace listening according to this article. The third article reviewed in this paper is Better Listening for a Better Workplace written by Julie Sturgeon. This article gives us some tips for improving our listening skills through some real life examples.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Research has found that by listening effectively, you will get more information from the people you manage, you will increase others trust in you, you will reduce conflict, you will better understand how to motivate others, and you will inspire a higher level of commitment in the people you manage (Listening Effectively, n. d). An effective listener always command respect from others. People always keep a strong relationship and build trust with others who listen their problems, worries or opinions carefully. An effective listener always persuades the orator to

Avon Products Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Avon Products - Case Study Example The company faced a challenge of flattening revenues and even declining operating income. There were many factors that led to this decline, one of the issues was that the company had grown at a faster proportion than the infrastructure and talent could hold. This called for an immediate intervention to save the company from collapsing. The current CEO who was known as Jung and the executive team launched a basic restructuring of the organization in starting of 2006 (Effron, 2009). Question two Leaning and transparency model was one that was targeted to bring change in the organization. For an organization to bring in change, one of the ways to ensure that change does not impact negatively to the organization is through training of employees. By doing so, employees are able to learn new tactics to use in order to integrate with the new change. In addition, employees are able to acquire skills to enable them to cope with the new requirements of the change. The company investment in exe cutive talent is one way of implementing learning model. The company planned to refurnish new talents as a way of ensuring that the company keeps up with the latest growth of the company. The employee’s new knowledge was also to be used as a model of ensuring that they are able to sustain the current growth of the company. ... The company aim to transform the organization through establishing bodies that would oversee transparency process is another example that assisted me to identify the model. The company aim of changing the top management behavior through teaching them on how to maintain a good image of the company is an aspect that is in learning and transformation model. The company also went ahead to recognize every personnel behavior as critical to the overall success of the business. These transformations were supported by performance reviews that were aimed at keeping an eye on the individual performance (Harris, & Hartman 2001). Question three One of the evaluation information that was obtained is that there is a need to create an efficient communication channel which will ensure that organizations processes are carried out in an efficient manner (Zofi, (2011). Communication plays a great role in tackling problems that might affect the organization. Efficient communication also ensures that ther e is a good relationship between leaders and their subordinates. In addition, communication plays a great role in enabling the organization to solve any issue that might affect the organization performance. This evaluation problem was to ensure that poor communication was eradicated and leaders implement policies that would enable the top management and low ranked employees to communicate frequently an aspect that would positively impact on the performance of the employees. Lastly communication would enable leaders to assess the talent of their employees. This is an important move in ensuring that categorization of talents in the organization is done appropriately (Harris, & Hartman 2001).

Operations Management Topics Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words

Operations Management Topics - Essay Example Each function of the company then derives their separate strategy to support the firm's values and vision and the operations that are needed to support that strategy help develop the operational strategy. Making it easy, the operations strategy helps to specify how a particular firm will employ its operational activities to support the business strategy. Customers are the most valuable aspect in the supply chain. They are the one through which we are able to generate revenues from. They are the one who are needed to be pleased by the products and services that companies put forward in order for those companies to prosper in the long run. Therefore, it is one of the core values to satisfy the needs and wants of the customers in order to fulfill the main purpose of the organization. If a customer views your product being one of those on which he or she does not have to spend much money or there is a substitute present in the market, it becomes necessary for the organization to improve on cost-effectiveness and reduce the price of the product in order to lure in the customer to your product. Price/cost strategy is usually used in this case however; this strategy can only be employed if the firm is able to mass produce or is ready to accept a lower profit margin in order to grasp the market share. In the operations strategy framework, fulfillment of customer needs top the chart. All the new and existing products are manufactured keeping in mind the needs of the customers. One tremendous example is of Wal-Mart. Wal-Mart has a reputation in the eyes of the customer as being the best retailer chain as they are able to supply the products with the lowest prices by accepting a smaller profit margin. Their tremendous volume helps them make up even more than before. Another very important factor that plays an important role is the competitiveness of a firm. They are based on the elements of the operations on which they need to excel in order to gain competitiveness in the environment over a certain aspect. b) Competitors: Competitors are a part of the general macro environment for any firm and their decisions and strategies have a major impact on the different strategies that are being followed in the particular firm. Competitors are one of the major threats to a business and by knowing valuable information about how your competitors are functioning in the market, you might be able to compete with them on fair basis. in order to provide your product or service at a much better price, one needs to examine how the competitors are working, focus on their positives and try not to copy their negatives and develop a strategy in such a way that is counteracts their competitors strategy and helps you to achieve competitiveness. When it comes to developing an operational strategy, price or cost effectiveness comes into place. A firm

Any warrant officer or enlisted member who Essay Example for Free

Any warrant officer or enlisted member who Essay Article 91 -â€Å"Any warrant officer or enlisted member who— (1) strikes or assaults a warrant officer, non-commissioned officer, or petty officer, while that officer is in the execution of his office; (2) willfully disobeys the lawful order of a warrant officer, noncommissioned officer, or petty officer; or (3) treats with contempt or is disrespectful in language or deportment toward a warrant officer, noncommissioned officer, or petty officer while that officer is in the execution of his office; shall be punished as a court-martial may direct. † Article 91 of the Uniform code of justice (UCMJ) is insubordinate conduct toward warrant officer, Noncommissioned Officer (NCO), or Petty Officer. Article 91 of the UCMJ defines insubordination and failure to obey order and regulation. Military discipline and effectiveness is built on the foundation of obedience to orders given by senior leadership or grades appointed over you. It’s not insubordinate conduct if the order given is unethical or illegal; neither is refusing to perform an order that is within the power of the person giving the order. Many superiors feel that the line of verbal contempt can be broken on many different levels. One can only assume that foul language, and language that may impose threat, violence or outright disobedience will ultimately fall in to the category of verbal contempt and disorderly language. A simple verbal disagreement with no foul language or violent intent can be considered as verbal contempt and or disorderly language to the NCO. An enlisted member can be subject to being punished by this article just on the superior’s thoughts on whether or not the accused was in verbal contempt. So in the case of a disagreement between two individuals, where one Marine says something and the next Marine another, it is what is perceived as the truth that becomes the truth. This can be troubling to some service members due to the fact if they have nothing to back their story; it can be assumed they are lying. Even if this is the case, until proven otherwise it will be assumed you have lied and will face punishment accordingly. In conclusion the purpose of Article 91 is to establish a set of rules and respect for all service members to adhere to. This creates a better work atmosphere and helps create the needed separation between superiors and subordinates. Without the separation between the service members the system could never function accordingly.

HRM Effectiveness In Improving Performance

HRM Effectiveness In Improving Performance This article examines the strategic role of HR and its main practices, describes the outcomes of the respective category of HR practices, explains the critical reasons for measuring HRs efforts, and proposes a framework for assessing HR. Ultimately, organizations would be able to utilize the information to determine how particular HR practices correlate with better business results; determine potential areas for investments, expansions, and reductions; justify budget allocations; and be more accountable for each dollar spent within the organization. The framework proposed does not merely explain the cost for each of the major HR activity, but demonstrates the value of the activity and hence, the opportunity to determine if it is a worthwhile investment and strategy for creating a competitive advantage. What value does the human resources (HR) function contribute to the bottom line of the organization? Over the years, there has been tremendous emphasis placed on HR practitioners becoming strategic business partners and being a value-added source within organizations. Traditionally, HR professionals could talk generally and conceptually about employee morale, turnover, and employee commitment being outcomes of HR efforts. Furthermore, the HR function is often viewed as an expense-generator and an administrative function and not as a value-added partner. Ulrich (1997b) reiterated that to fulfill the business partner role of HR, concepts need to be replaced with evidence, ideas with results, and perceptions with assessments. This article examines the strategic role of HR and its main practices, describes the outcomes of the respective category of HR practices, explains the critical reasons for measuring HRs efforts, and proposes a framework for assessing HR. Ultimately, organizations would be able to utilize the information to determine how particular HR practices correlate with better business results; determine potential areas for investments, expansions, and reductions; justify budget allocations; and be more accountable for each dollar spent within the organization. The framework proposed does not merely explain the cost for each of the major HR activity, but demonstrates the value of the activity and hence, the opportunity to determine if it is a worthwhile investment and strategy for creating a competitive advantage. The framework has proven its effectiveness at many companies showing how HR creates value, utilized the information collected to increase investments in specific HR strategies and eliminating ineffective investments, and used as a critical resource in the strategic business planning and budget allocation. The companies include Fortune 500 and smaller companies from retail, transportation, and financial industries. Understanding the Strategic Role of HR In todays business environment, organizations need to be constantly evaluating their internal and external environment for challenges and opportunities to remain competitive and to sustain growth. Political, economic, social, and even psychological changes within our societies create significant impact on organizations. Given any significant change or event, how ready are we as an organization to react in order to remain competitive? Many factors are driving changes in organizations today including the use of technology, globalization, changes in workforce demographics, eliminating the bureaucracies in organizational structures, and balancing work-family issues. Understanding the potential of an organizations resources and optimizing the output of such resources given the changes, provides the impetus for HR being the key source of creating the competitive advantage for the organization. Insert figure 1 about here To create value and deliver results, HR professionals must begin not by focusing on the work activities or work of HR but by defining the deliverables of that work. HRs roles in building a competitive organization include management of strategic human resources, management of transformation and change, management of firm infrastructure and management of employee contribution (Ulrich, 1997a). Although these roles are valid and have proven to be value-added in recent years, there is now the critical need to move beyond the strategic business partner role to players in the business (Ulrich Beatty, 2001). Players, according to Ulrich Beatty, contribute to the profitability of the organization, they deliver results and they do things to make a difference. The roles of players are to a) coach b) design, c) construct, d) change the organization, e) creating followers, and f) playing by the rules. Another perspective on the role of HRM suggests that in leading-edge companies, HR profession als play four key roles: a) strategic business partners, b) innovators, c) collaborators, and d) facilitators (Schueler Jackson, 2000). As a strategic business partner, HR professionals should understand the nature of the business from a strategic, operational, financial, and other aspects necessary to be part of an effective team managing an organization. Functioning as an innovator, HR professionals are challenged to continuously search for strategies that will create value for the organization and not merely function in a reactionary mode. Furthermore, HR professionals will also serve as collaborators with senior leaders and all employees to implement business strategies forming the strategic link throughout the organization. As facilitators, HR professionals function as the change agent providing rationale, support, and readiness for planned changes designed to support the business strategies. The fundamental role of HRM is essentially to maximize profitability, quality of work life and profits through effective management of people (Cascio, 2003). Given this premise, it can be easily inferred that HRs role is to help create value to the organization. Figure 1 illustrates some of the external challenges and changes facing organizations, their impact on the organization, and how HR is impacted. The Importance of Measuring HRs Activities Even though HR professionals are convinced that their efforts add value to the organizations bottom-line, there is frequently little evidence to demonstrate such belief. A recent survey of 54 companies in the Midwest, USA conducted by the author revealed that 51 of the 54 companies conducted little or no assessment of their HR departments efforts and therefore could not have provided any quantitative measures of HRs value to the organization. In addition, a study conducted by Becker, Huselid, and Ulrich (2001) indicated that less than 10% of the 968 firms that participated in their study had a formal estimation procedure to measure HRM. Measurement in most HR departments is usually restricted to processes measuring costs and not showing value added (HRPS, 1993). There is now the imperative need to justify each dollar invested, compare strategies to determine maximum worth, and to decide on where to invest especially as companies scramble to survive after the September 11 tragedy. Pepitone (1997) reiterated that HR leaders should know how to prove the value-added of their services because management is increasingly requiring departments to give evidence of their worth. In addition, Sorensen (1995) stated that the best way for HR to gain credibility so that it can make meaningful changes is for practitioners to measure the cost and effectiveness of what they do. And they must put that into language that senior executives understand: financial results. HR managers need to measure the cost and effectiveness of their activities far more closely than they have in the past. Many organizations have been forced and are conti nuing to determine ways of being more cost-effective. Many of the other functions including finance, accounting, and marketing are able to show a return on investment for their respective efforts, so given the increased emphasis on HR practices, it is imperative for HR to be able to show its effectiveness in creating value for the organization. The new HR is a transformed role comparing itself to any other function, not only through espoused value creation strategies, but through outcomes, qualitative and quantitative measurements, and direct relationships to profitability. The simple option of showing HRs value or becoming extinct as a department presents itself to HR professionals and given the strong belief of HR as a source of added value in organizations, there is no choice than for HR professionals to be able to quantitatively and qualitatively explain its strategic role in the organization. There has been substantial evidence over the years to show the relationship between HR and organizational performance as summarized by (Yeung Berman, 1997). Some of the studies include MacDuffie and Krafcic (1992), US Department of Labor (1993), Pfeffer (1994), Arthur (1994), Huselid (1995), and Ostroff (1995). Even though these studies exist, there still lacks a framework that is grounded in theory, yet practical enough for practitioners to use that shows the major HR activities, outcomes of the respective activities, and how they can be measured. The framework describes clusters within the HR function and encompasses: a) strategic planning, b) selection, c) training and development, d) organization development and change, e) performance management, f) rewards system, and g) organizational behavior theory. HRs Activities Outcomes Even though there are several classifications or groupings of HR activities, the author uses seven groups of activities seen as being most strategic and influential in realizing the strategic business objectives of the organization. Todays economy dictates that organizations continually assess the external and internal environment and make relevant changes in order to remain competitive. The author examines each of the clusters and provides a description of each, its importance in achieving the business strategy, and how it can be measured to determine its effectiveness. Insert figure 2.0 about here Strategic Planning The role of the HR function has changed tremendously over the past 10 years where HR functions have previously been viewed as not being an integral core of the business and merely viewed as an administrative function to todays economy where HR practitioners are more frequently considered business partners. Being a business partner, the ideal situation would be the inclusion of the HR leader in the strategic business planning (SBP). In the most fundamental sense, SBP involves choosing how an organization will compete (Rothwell, 1994). The questions of what product to produce, where should the product be sold, how many to make available, how the products and services differ from the competition are included as part of the business planning process. Business strategy can also be defined as the process by which the basic mission and objectives of the organization are set and the process by which the organization uses its resources to achieve the objectives(Tichy, Fombrum, Devanna, 1982) . Why is it important for HR to be involved in the strategic planning process? In developing strategies in todays complex and dynamic business environment, there is the critical need for business leaders to continually assess their talent pool to determine if the appropriate expertise needed to accomplish the business strategies are available within the organization. If not, where and how can the organization acquire the necessary skills? Another critical area is to identify what skills are needed to be developed internally for current employees to perform at the level necessary for the organization to be competitive. Does the organization need to change any of its current policies and practices in order to derive the intended behaviors of employees? How should performance be measured and what types of rewards should be given for the intended behaviors? These are all fundamental areas of effectively managing an organization and imperative to be addressed at the strategic planning stage . Typically, the HR function has the most experience and knowledge in addressing these critical issues. Strategic planning seeks to identify those organizational decisions and actions, which yield the greatest advantage under various assumptions about the organization and its environment. The integration of human resource function into the organizational strategy provides the basis to enable the human resource function to support and implement the strategic plan to achieve a competitive advantage (Wofford, 2002). This strategy provides for the maximization of human capital, reduction of wasted and inefficient labor and other financial investment, and eventually maximizing profitability. By addressing these issues at the strategic planning stage with HR included, there is the higher likelihood of more efficiently reaching the business outcomes and avoiding chaos, massive layoffs, crises resulting from not having skilled employees to carry out particular tasks and not having the right fit among employees, corporate strategies, and business environments. C.K Prahalad (Prahalad, 1990) in describing the roots of competitive advantage, stated that the real sources of competitive advantage are to be found in managements ability to consolidate corporate wide technologies and production skills into competencies that empower individual businesses to adapt quickly to changing opportunities. Moreover, Tichy et al., (Tichy et al., 1982) reiterated that there are three core elements for organizations to function effectively and include mission and strategy, organization structure, and human resource management. Clearly, the HR function plays a pivotal role in determining the busi ness strategy through the assessment of the organizations capabilities to successfully compete through a particular strategy, determining the appropriate rewards system, determining appropriate organization structures, and developing strategies to increase employees performance. Given the definition of strategic planning as how an organization will compete, the question arises as to how would an organization be able to assess the effectiveness of its strategic plan. Indicators of a successfully crafted strategic plan include creating advantages that are sustainable over a long period of time. Has the planning resulted in a) the attainment of the organizations goals and objectives, b) financial profitability, b) positioning to create advantages for the short-term and long-term, and d) created a sense of social responsibility? In essence, this process determines the decisions and actions an organization will undertake to create and sustain competitive advantages. Acquisition of Employees In the era of increasing globalization and the struggle to create sustainable competitive advantages, organizations are continuously evaluating their strategies to ensure that they have the expertise needed to help achieve the mission of the organization. The economic challenges due to the consequences of the 9/11 terrorists attacks on the United States also continue to affect organizations financial position and subsequently on recruitment and selection strategies. Gatewood Feild (2001) define selection as a process of collecting and evaluating information about an individual in order to extend an offer of employment. Fitz-enz (2002) described ways of measuring the cost per hire, source cost per hire, and interviewing cost. Indeed, these are critical metrics in deciding the cost in acquiring employees. Nevertheless, to fully understand the value and effectiveness of the selection process, one has to analyze the impact of the employees contribution to the organization not only from a cost factor, but the performance in the short-term and long-term. Has the employee been able to contribute to the successful implementation of the business strategy? In examining the efforts that are part of the acquisition, one has to examine the effectiveness of the planning process, advertising and recruitment sources, effectiveness of the interviewers in selecting the right candidate, change in the pool of qualified candidates, and performance of the incumbent on the job. HR Planning involves the process that specifies the activities that a firm must use in order to develop its human resources to improve its overall practices (Gatewood Feild, 2001). The process entails determining how many employees the organizations needs to be performing at its optimum and where the employees should be working in the organization given the external and internal challenges and opportunities. With the economy still struggling to improve after 9/11 terrorists attacks, organizations have been forced to layoff even thousands of employees in some cases in order to survive. The real challenge for HR in the upcoming months and even years would be to predict the demand for their products and services and then to determine the need for labor. Nevertheless, one still has to be able to reasonably predict labor demands and determine if employees have to be laid off or how many employees have to be recruited within a specific period. In addition, HR Planning should involve the s kills and competencies currently available within the organization and what other intellectual capital would be needed in the future to adequately meet the needs of the stakeholders. Another aspect of the acquisition process involves the advertising and recruitment sources. Given the high costs of advertising in newspapers, internet websites, journals, employment agencies, and direct and indirect costs associated with advertising, there is a definite need for HR professionals and other senior leaders to be aware of the effectiveness of the respective sources being used to advertise and recruit their candidates. In assessing the effectiveness of recruitment and advertisement sources an organization uses to recruit its employees, it is imperative to relate the actual performance of the incumbent to the advertising and recruitment. Some of the factors that should be included in this evaluation are historical employee turnover data, absenteeism, actual performance on the job, and ability to advance in ones career. There may also be a high level of correlation with specific school, number of years of work experience, education major, GPA, and other such factors with o nes performance. Given the collection and analysis of this data, HR is much more likely to invest their advertising and recruitment budget to where real value is created for the organization. Fitz-enz (2002) described the need to ensure that the recruitment function to be efficient and further stated that it is better to measure recruiters as a team than as individuals whenever applicable. In determining their efficiency as a team, Fitz-enz stated that the measurements should focus on the productivity of their interviewing techniques, the average length of interviews for the respective job groups, number of interviews needed to make a quality hire. Another means of determining the effectiveness of the recruitment function is a measure to show the change in the number of qualified candidates that is available for selection. This could be a significant cost reduction strategy given that advertising costs can re reduced if there are qualified candidates available for future openings and other jobs currently available. Training and Development The American Society for Training Development estimates that US organizations are spending more than $60 billion annually on employee training and development. Given this significant investment, it is reasonable for one to ask about the benefits of such investments, especially since more companies are seeing a need for lifelong learning and are integrating technology in their strategies. Swanson (1995) defined employee training and development as the process of systematically developing expertise in individuals for the purpose of improving performance. The argument as to whether T D helps to create a competitive advantage has shown that conceptually, it can be a source of competitive advantage. Nevertheless, there still is a critical need to develop frameworks and strengthen the argument for being aware of the actual benefits provided by this intervention. Developing a framework for assessing the financial benefits of T D, Swanson (2001) listed three questions that provide the vari ations on the assessment of HRD, of which T D is a major category. What is the forecasted financial benefit resulting from the HRD intervention? What is the actual financial benefit resulting from the HRD intervention? What is the approximate financial benefit resulting from the HRD intervention? (Approximate financial benefit is used whenever there is some level of uncertainty of the exact value created by the intervention). The framework describes three perspectives to assess the benefits including positive benefits, relative benefits, and return on investment. The positive benefits are those indicators that show the benefits exceeding the costs. The key issue in this perspective is to determine that the benefits at least equal the costs. It may also mean the inability of the measurement to show a financial benefit, but demonstrates the benefit of for example, strengthening the culture and maintaining the tradition of the organization. Return on investment (ROI) is a ratio that expresses the relationship of every dollar of performance value to every dollar expended to achieve that value. In understanding the impact of the training, it is imperative to determine what difference, if any, the investment made in supporting the business strategy of the organization. The assessment of the training should focus on the difference of the performance of the employee, the department, the process, and the overall performance of the organization. Furthermore, were there adequate opportunities for the employee to practice what they learned in the classroom, were they rewarded for improvements made as a result of attending the training, and can a relationship be demonstrated with the training and the organizations performance? Fitz-enz (2002) suggested that in addressing the results of the training process, the following questions be answered: How well did the employee learn? How effectively did the employee apply the learning from a business standpoint? What difference did it make to the business perspectives? In sum, measuring the impact of a training initiative regardless of the scope, size of investment, and number of employees involved, there is the imperative need to determine the purpose of doing the training and if the goals have been met at various intervals after the intervention had been completed. To determine the benefit, ROI, or whatever terminologies we choose to describe the outcome, one has to consider the direct costs of developing and implementing the intervention, in addition to the indirect and opportunity costs. This total cost would then have to be compared with the intended benefits and actual benefits immediately after the training and at different intervals after the intervention based on its nature. It is therefore imperative to address the following questions given the critical need to understand the impact of the intervention: Has the employees attitude changed since the training? Did the employee acquire knowledge and expertise in an area that would enable him/her to perform more effectively on the job? Has the employees performance changed after the training? How has the change in the employees performance affected the business strategy and performance of the organization? These are all areas to be integrated in assessing the impact of training and development in todays economy. With answers to these questions, it is relatively simple to determine if the training investment was worthwhile and to articulate how training and development supports the business strategy and contributes to the bottom-line of the organization. Organization Change and Development Given the continuing changes in the global economy, demands of customers, preferences and values of employees, it is a necessary component of the HR strategy to ensure that the organization is adapting to the external and internal variables it current faces and would likely face in the future in order to meet its stakeholders expectations. The pace of global, economic, and technological development makes change an inevitable feature of organizational life (Cummings Worley, 2002). A growing importance and competency expected from the HR professional, therefore, is his or her ability to plan and implement the necessary changes for the purpose of improving performance. Swanson (1995) defined organization development (OD) as the process of developing and implementing planned changes in organizations for the purpose of improving performance. The opportunity for HR through its organization development interventions is to create organizational effectiveness at the individual, department, f unction, process, and organizational levels. Many OD practitioners may argue that OD is not a measurable effort, at least quantitatively. The challenge arises again as to what value do the change efforts really have on the bottom-line of the organization. Should OD be excluded from quantitative measurement? Given a downturn in the economy and the need to reduce labor cost, are OD practitioners able to justify their worth to the organization? In answering these questions, it is necessary to examine the outputs of OD. In many instances, the outputs should be an improvement in performance at the individual, process, and organizational levels. Fitz-enz (2002) suggested that OD can be measured through productivity, quality, service, responsiveness, development, and survival. How efficiently are products and services delivered to the customer? These factors are indeed critical in assessing the effectiveness of ODs efforts and therefore, should be part of the process of making changes in organizations. Some of the key measurements can be derived from the following questions: What is the quality of the output and does it meet the customers expectations? Does the service offered by the organization provide a competitive advantage as compared to its competitors? How effectively does the system respond to changes in the external environment? Does the organization allow for maximum sharing of information, leveraging each employee and work unit, and resolving any internal or external challenges? Are the values and ethics of each employee and work unit representative of the overall culture of the organization and supportive of the business strategy? The responses to these questions based on the respective organization provide the basic measurements in assessing the readiness and effectiveness of the organization to function effectively in its current and anticipated internal and external environments. Should the responses indicate less than optimal performance at the individual, process, and organization levels, the opportunity exists for HR to conduct an analysis and develop, and implement planned changes to improve performance at all levels. As pointed out by (Becker et al., 2001), HR professionals too often want to measure their success by their activity rather than the actual business results. By having concrete answers to these questions, there will be appropriate responses in answering the role of OD in achieving the business strategy of the organization. Performance Management Performance management systems make clear to employees what is expected of them and assure line managers and strategic planners that employee behaviors will be in line with the companys goals (Noe, Hollenbeck, Gerhart, Wright, 2003). Many organizations still rely on the performance appraisal viewed as an annual ritual and primarily the responsibility of the HR function. In todays economy and the utmost of managing performance to create a competitive advantage Noe, et al (2003) grouped performance management into three categories of defining performance, measuring performance, and the feedback aspect of performance. Performance management systems are geared to ensure that each employee within the organization, based on previously conducted job analyses, is performing the tasks intended at the expected level to support the strategic business objectives of the organization. The thinking of HR practitioners and other business leaders that an annual performance appraisal is performance management must become obsolete. Effective performance management entails a process where each employee is fully aware of his or her role in the organization, what type of output is expected, and how the output will be measured. How would one determine the effectiveness of the performance management system in creating competitive advantages for the organization? In answering this key question, the following areas should be addressed: Ensuring that job descriptions are developed through timely and effective job analyses. Job descriptions are updated on a regular basis to reflect to changing business environment. Feedback is shared continuously among all stakeholders. Every employee is fully aware of his or her role in the organization, which can easily be accomplished in the performance planning phase of the process. There are measurable outcomes assigned to every task reflecting the role of the position and incumbent in achieving the goals and objectives of the organization. There must be congruency and consistency in performance measures across the entire organization and performance standards should always be measured consistently. The process and the system must be viewed as credible, fair, valid, and reliable. A survey with numerical ratings can be used by employees and supervisors to assess if ones role and responsibilities are fully aligned with the goals of the organization, satisfaction with the actual process and satisfaction with the supervisors management of the performance management process. An aggregate of the responses produces an assessment of the performance management system and its effectiveness in improving individual and organizational performance. One of the critical strategies in performance management is to understand the fundamental role of each employee in achieving the mission of the organization. By mapping a process through the identification of the purpose and role of each incumbent, one is easily able to identify where the deficiencies may exist and to develop corrective actions, identify the strengths of each individual and to maximize each employees potential and hence their contribution to the financial contribution to the bottom-line of the organization. Rewards System The starting point for any reward system design process needs to be the strategic agenda of the organization (Lawler, 1990). By understanding where the organization is positioning itself for various intervals in the future, an organization could design the reward system to provide incentives specifically designed to foster behaviors, attitudes, and outcomes among the workforce that directly correlate with the strategic agenda of the organization. As indicated by Lawler (1990), numerous studies including (Vroom, 1964, Lawler, 1971, and Kerr, 1975) have shown that effective rewards systems can significantly increase the motivation of individuals to increase their performance. As inferred from these studies, the fundamental intent of rewards in organizations is to provide incenti

The American Constitution Essay -- United States Constitution

The American Constitution The basis of all law in the United States is the Constitution. This Constitution is a document written by "outcasts" of England. The Constitution of the United States sets forth the nation's fundamental laws. It establishes the form of the national government and defines the rights and liberties of the American people. It also lists the aims of the government and the methods of achieving them. The Constitution was written to organize a strong national government for the American states. Previously, the nation's leaders had established a national government under the Articles of Confederation. But the Articles granted independence to each state. They lacked the authority to make the states work together to solve national problems. After the states won independence in the Revolutionary War (1775-1783), they faced the problems of peacetime government. The states had to enforce law and order, collect taxes, pay a large public debt, and regulate trade among themselves. They also had to deal with Indian tribes and negotiate with other governments. Leading statesmen, such as George Washington and Alexander Hamilton, began to discuss the creation of a strong national government under a new constitution. The United States is a republic that operates under a federalist system. The national government had specific enumerated powers, and the fifty states retain substantial endowment over their citizens and their residents. Both the national government and the state government are divided into three different branches, executive, legislative, and judicial. Written constitutions, both federal and state, form a system of separated powers. Amendment, in legislation, is a change in a law, or in a bill before it becomes a law. Bills often have amendments attached before a legislature votes on them. Amendments to the Constitution of the United States may be proposed in two ways: (1) If two-thirds of both houses approve, Congress may propose an amendment. The amendment becomes a law when ratified either by legislatures or by conventions in three-fourths of the states. (2) If the legislatures of two-thirds of the states ask for an amendment, Congress must call a convention to propose it. The amendment becomes a law when ratified either by the legisl... ... juries in some states may have as few as 6 members. The jury or judge hears the evidence for and against the defendant and then reaches a verdict. If the individual is found guilty, the judge pronounces sentence. If the defendant is found not guilty, he or she is released. In most cases, the judge determines the sentence for a defendant convicted of a crime. The judge imposes punishment that he or she feels will best serve both the offender and society. Laws may provide a maximum and a minimum sentence according to the crime involved. In some cases, the recommendation of the jury determines the sentence that may be given to the offender. The judge may put a convicted offender on probation to protect the individual from the harmful effects of being imprisoned with experienced criminals. A lawbreaker who is on probation remains free but must follow certain rules. A probation officer assigned by the court supervises the individual's conduct. A probationer who violates any of the rules of his or her probation may be sent to prison. Some judges require offenders to repay their victims, either with money or by working for them without pay.

Types of Work-Based Learning Activities :: Education School Educational Papers

Types of Work-Based Learning Activities Work-based learning programs come in many forms and sizes. They may be designed exclusively for students at the secondary or postsecondary level or for students at both levels. Work-based learning programs may be schoolwide, districtwide, regional, or statewide, or they may be based on a combination of local and statewide implementation and oversight. Michigan's school-to-work system, for example, is designed and implemented by state and local personnel who work collaboratively to establish partnerships of employers, schools, labor organizations, parents, students, and community members to meet their local community needs by offering one or more occupational learning and career exposure activities (Ingham Intermediate School District [ISD] 1995a). The following forms of work-based learning are part of the occupational learning component of Michigan's work-based learning system (Ingham ISD 1995a, 1995b): - Contracted Instruction--career and technical education instruction and support services provided to students by a business, industry, or private educational agency through formal written agreements with public education agencies - Cooperative Education--programs combining classroom instruction with employment (part- time jobs during the school year or periods of study and employment alternating on a full-year, semester, or parallel basis) - School-to-Apprenticeship--work-based programs in which employers, employer associations, or employers and unions establish programs allowing high school students to participate in registered apprenticeships while completing their high school graduation requirements - Registered Apprenticeship--conventional apprenticeship programs registered with the Bureau of Apprenticeship and Training - Career Exploration--programs involving job shadowing and/or worksite mentors); - Service Learning--programs combining meaningful community service with academic learning, personal growth, and civic responsibility - Career Internships--programs in which students spend time in a business, industry, or other organization to gain insight and direct experience - Career Academies--schools typically organized around a single employer or consortium of employers in an industry, and designed to increase awareness of career opportunities within particular occupational areas and teach the basic, life, and employment skills required for jobs or further training - School-Based Enterprises--programs in which groups of students produce goods or services for sale Another possible form of work-based education is work-based tech prep, which Bragg (1995) distinguishes from traditional tech prep programs on the basis of the higher visibility of employers. In work-based tech prep models, employers help develop formal plans linking students' school-based and work-based learning directly to their career goals, they provide formal work-based experiences, and they sponsor mentors and coaches.

The Cultural Identity Within Asian Writing Systems Essay -- Cultural Id

The Cultural Identity Within Asian Writing Systems The style of Asian writing seems to be completely different from that of the western writing systems. For starters, many western languages are phonetic: words are spelled out with symbols that represent sounds. The way that a word looks has nothing to do with the meaning of the word. On the other hand, the most recognized form of Asian writing, Chinese characters, are completely pictographic. A single character is correlated to one sound or meaning. To convey more complicated meanings, pictographs are either combined into new pictographs, or multiple characters are simply used in succession. The meaning of words is depicted through pictographs, but for the most part, there is no information about their pronunciations. Asian and western languages appear so different because they had evolved in isolation from each other for hundreds of years. However, the evolution of each group of languages is similar. Whether Asian or western, languages borrow from each other and evolve toge ther when they are in close quarters. Chinese, Japanese, and Korean are perfect examples of languages that have evolved together because they are spoken in countries that are so close together. Their cultures are also arguably similar when compared to western cultures. All three have used Chinese characters exclusively as their writing system for a period of time and parts of the Korean and Japanese vocabularies are actually derived from Chinese. Up until a few hundred years ago, the three written languages have developed quite closely. But in the present day, the three systems appear to have taken very different evolutionary paths. The Korean language has developed a phonetic alphabet syste... ...se Writing System. 20 July 2001. Kanji Dictionary Publishing Society. 20 Apr. 2004 <http://www.kanji.org/kanji/japanese/writing/outline.htm>. Katsiavriades, Kryss. KryssTal:Language Page. Amazon, Britannica. 20 Apr. 2004 <http://www.krysstal.com/language.html>. Laugk. "Chinese hostages to their writing system: A case for simplification and reform." China Daily 7 Feb. 2004. 20 Apr. 2004 <http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/english/doc/2004-02/07/content_304083.htm>. Noll, Paul. History of the Chinese Language. 25 Mar. 2004. 20 Apr. 2004 <http://www.paulnoll.com/China/Culture/language-history.html>. Ohak-Yonku. "Formation of Korean Alphabet." Language-Research Sept. 1987: 527-537. "Types of Writing Systems." AncientScripts.com. 20 Apr. 2004 <http://www.ancientscripts.com/ws_types.html>. Usaburo, Shimizu. "Hiragana." Meiroku Zasshi 1800s.

How important was Martin Luther King?

Martin Luther King was the main figure in the Civil Rights Movement; he was the civil right activist leader and had an influence of the American society. King believed in non-violent protest and used it to overcome justice, king’s idea of non-violent protest came from Ghandi’s idea, and he thought Ghandi was the great man of all times. King also believed that all man and woman are equal; he was the most important voice of the civil rights movement.King was brave to stand up and give up segregation laws and tried to get rid of segregation laws, Martin Luther King was proud of his race, in 1958 after King was stabbed in Harlem he had said ‘my cause, my race, is worth dying for’, this source is useful for proving that he will do anything for his race and do whatever it takes to bring freedom across black Americans. King wasn’t afraid and he still carried on fighting for more freedom after he was stabbed and survived.Martin Luther King was important of b ringing improvements in the African- American Civil Rights because he brought equality to America and progress to the civil rights movement. In 1957 he helped setting up the (SCLC) and believed that non-violent protest should be used in the struggle for equality. King helped places like Birmingham to reduce the amount of racism. There had been lots of racism in Birmingham, King described Birmingham as America’s ‘worst big city’ for racism.He wanted to improve the amount of racism in Birmingham, the SCLC arranged a march, and king was leading rather than led. The confrontation used tactics like sit- in and marches so that they can gain more publicity across the USA. King became more popular and people liked him, but those who disagreed with the equal right movement hated king. King gained goverment support, Kings effort led to the march on washington in 1963, where King delivered his speech ‘I have a dream’. In 1965, King led a campaign to resgister b lack people to vote.

Current and Non-Current Assets Essay

Current assets are items on a balance sheet. According to Investorwords, current assets equal â€Å"†¦the sum of cash and cash equivalents, accounts receivable, inventory, marketable securities, prepaid expenses, and other assets that could be converted to cash in less than one year,† (2008). If a company goes bankrupt, current assets are easily liquidated. Additionally, current assets are a source of funds for most companies. The importance of current assets to businesses is that these assets fund daily operations and expenses. Not only are current assets expected to be turned into cash, they many be sold, or consumed within a year. By contrast, non-current assets are not â€Å"†¦easily convertible to cash or not expected to become cash within the next year,† (Investorwords, 2008). Examples of non-current assets include fixed assets, leasehold improvements, andintangible assets, (Investorwords, 2008). The differences between current and non-current assets include time and form. Current assets are intended for use within one year, while non-current assets are not. If a company owns land and a building as the center of its business, that company is not going to convert the land and building,  non-current assets, to cash within a year. The company keeps both the land and building for longer time-periods. Another example of the difference between the two types of assets is equipment, or machinery. The company uses the equipment for its daily operations, and will not be done with the equipment within a year. The equipment is a non-current asset. Equipment and machinery belonging to a company depreciates over time. This is another characteristic of many non-current assets. Current assets do not depreciate within a year. Dividing assets and liabilities into current and non-current allows for the calculation of working capital. This is the amount of current assets minus current liabilities. Working capital is the relatively liquid part of the company’s financial position. The Order of Liquidity Assets are listed on the balance sheet in order of liquidity. Current assets come first. This order begins with cash and cash equivalents, including temporary investments maturing within 90 days, but excluding cash restricted for purposes other than meeting current obligations. Next in the order are short-term investments. Debt security investments are classified as trading, available-for-sale, or held-to-maturity securities. Investments in equity securities are classified as either trading or available-for-sale securities. Trading and available-for-sale securities are reported at fair value, while held-to-maturity securities are reported at amortized cost, (NACUBO, 2005). The order of liquidity on the balance sheet continues with receivables, which discloses the amounts of expected uncollectibles, nontrade receivables, and accounts pledged or discounted. Inventories are the next part of current assets, in which a company discloses the basis of valuation, pricing method, and completion stage of manufactured inventories. Last in the order of current assets are prepaid expenses, although expenses prepaid past the current operating cycle are reported as deferred charges in the â€Å"other asset† section of the balance sheet, (NACUBO, 2008). The order of liquidity on the balance sheet moves toward non-current assets. Long-term investments are the next item on the balance sheet. These include investments in securities, tangible fixed assets not currently used in operations, special funds, and investments in affiliated companies or nonconsolidated subsidiaries. Long-term investments are those that management intends holding for an extended period. Property, plant, and equipment are non-current assets next listed on the balance sheet in order of liquidity. Most of these assets are depreciable or consumable. The basis of valuation, any liens against the property, and accumulated depreciation or depletion is disclosed. Usually, a detailed classification of property, plant, and equipment is disclosed in a supplementary schedule, not the face of the balance sheet, (NACUBO, 2008). Intangible assets are next in the order of liquidity. Intangible assets are resources without physical substance providing economic rights and advantages. Limited-life intangible assets are amortized over their useful lives and reported net of the accumulated amortization. Indefinite-life intangible assets are not amortized; instead, they are assessed periodically for impairment. Some intangible assets expenditures are not capitalized, but expensed as incurred, (NACUBO, 2008). Last in the order of liquidity are â€Å"other assets†. This is a special classification for unusual items that cannot be included in one of the other asset categories. Examples include deferred charges, non-current receivables, and advances to subsidiaries. The classification of assets depends on the nature and the use of the item. Reference Business Accounting. (2003). Retrieved April 13, 2008 from URL http://home.millsaps.edu/ Investorwords. (2008). Retrieved April 12, 2008 from URL http://www.investorwords.com NACUBO. (2008). Balance sheet classification. Retrieved April 13, 2008 from URL http://www.nacubo.org

Introduction of Kfc

Harland David Sanders was a founder of Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC), who was born September 9, 1890 in Indiana, USA. He is the man popularly known as the face and logo of KFC. The spectacled Colonel Sanders could easily be recognized by his walking cane, black string tie, crispy white suite, and clean. In past, there were many travellers stopped at his service station wanting snacks and food. The Colonel saw this as a business opportunity and decided to offer food to these customers.The Colonel enjoyed making his customers happy – he loved about entertaining them with excellent food and outstanding service. Harland David Sanders was testing for many years to find the right combination of ingredients, Kentucky Fried Chicken recipe blends of 11 herbs and spices, he was truly satisfied that he had created the best chicken he had ever tasted – he wanted to share it with the world! The Colonel decided that his Original Recipe needed to be introduced to people further from hi s home and from his state.At the age of 66, he started selling his idea of Kentucky Fried Chicken by travelling from town to town, preparing his famous chicken recipe for restaurants and their employees. By the early 70's, that special recipe reached Malaysia. Today, KFC Malaysia continues to serve finger lickin' good, juicy pieces of chicken. The flavourful blends of 11 herbs and spices give KFC's delicious aroma. With the chicken's natural juices sealed-in, leaving a unique mouth watering taste that cannot be replaced.Today there are more than 500 KFC Restaurants nationally and still counting. It is one of the largest fast food corporations in the world. Great tasting chicken has become identical with KFC and Malaysian has enjoyed from the time when. The Original Recipe of 11 Herbs and Spices is one of the biggest secrets in the world until now – â€Å"the Finger Lickin Taste† like a mark for KFC. We are going to find out the problems of customer service of KFC which is getting worse and we have given some suggestions and solutions to solve the customer service problems.

Literary Analysis of Hanging Fire Essay

The poem, â€Å"Hanging Fire† written by Audre Lorde, causes readers to enter into the mind of a random person. It’s left up to the readers to determine whose thoughts have been recorded. It’s clear that Lorde believes readers can gain historical insight based on thoughts written in â€Å"Hanging Fire.† The poem’s language and order mimic human thought. It starts with someone revealing their age and a number of social dilemmas they are worried about. From the information, readers should assume that it is teenage black girl’s thoughts that have been written. Based on other factors readers can safely assume that the narrator is likely living in a Pre-Civil Rights Movement era. Assumptions are the best tool for readers to understand â€Å"Hanging Fire† because the audience is only left with vague thoughts. This makes the poem ambiguous enough to be interpreted in a number of ways. How the poem is interpreted depends on whether or no one can identify with the narrator. It would make sense that the great majority of readers interpret that the narrator is a black teenage girl struggling with issues of racism, sexism, and along with social issues that occur in the average teenage life. This theory is further supported if one notes that the author, Audre Lorde is a black female, who wrote the poem during times of racial tension. Lines like ‘and my skin betrays me’ with ‘suppose I dies before graduation’, point to this racial tension. If this assumption is true then the narrator would have had tremendous amounts of social strain simply because of her race. It’s likely that sexism would have been common in the setting of the poem, as demonstrated by the lines ‘I should have been on the Math Team my marks were better than his.’ Audre Lorde, overall, has a love for civil rights and women’s rights, something that was not very common when she wrote â€Å"Hanging Fire.† Lorde uses human thought rather than dialog to convey her message. â€Å"Hanging Fire† isn’t merely the random thought of a naive teenage girl, but a look into life during a time less favorable than our own.

Project proposal Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Project proposal - Assignment Example So, considering the changes in the needs and demands of the consumers, the retailer has planned to expand its market. This strategy is basically a market expansion strategy that has developed to increase its market size or market share among all the competitors. PROJECT OBJECTIVES: A project is defined as a onetime process rather than an ongoing process (Pinto, 2010). Setting up the website for online buying will be a onetime process. One of the objectives of the project is that the company wants to create an online buying environment that caters to the needs of the target market of online buyers in Australia. In the period of first six months after implementation of this project of online buying facility the company would target to achieve an increase in the revenue of the retail store by 20%. JUSTIFICATION AND MOTIVATION: With the concept of globalization a large number of logical and virtual organizations have come into existence and these online firms have achieved great success in a very short time period. Thousands of new service organizations have been developed and are operating through their websites in the international market and are using their website to target consumers (Reuben, 2012). By analyzing the feasibility of the new explored market many big or medium firms have developed their online stores or websites to capture the new market with the existing product and services. One more important reason for developing an online store is the cheapest and easiest way to enter in the international market. The changing environment and consumer buying behavior have forced many retailers to have their online stores (Nielsen, 2010) and therefore Mensland has also decided to build its online existence through website development along with the physical existence in the Australia market. This is actually for those customers who do not want to visit the retail stores for buying the goods and prefer the buying from any place and goods can be delivered at their door step. This project aims to provide an easy shopping environment to the customers. The project would be helpful in expanding the market and it would be a great chance to increase the market share along with the market growth and get the competitive advantage. PROJECT SCOPE: The project started with the objective of targeting the online buyers of the Australia as the consumer buying behavior is changing with the passage of time and there has been an increase in the online buying trend (The Telegraph, 2012). For this project, the retailer would design the idea and concept of the website and then find any particular and expert team or individual that can translate the idea into an online store. Once the online store is ready and the retailer would start its online marketing to engage consumers from different parts of the world. The retailer will be looking to increase its revenue by 10% in the period of first six months after the website has been launched. IDENTIFICATION AND MANAG EMENT OF RISK: Risk is an important aspect of every project that needs to be considered (Hamilton, 2004). These risks are to be managed properly to ensure the success of the project (Morris, 2008). Major risks of the project are as follows: 1- The cost of the website development can exceed from the budget. Therefore it is important to have sufficient budget and ensure that the website has important features available at that budget. 2- Competitor can enter in the online consumer

The deficiencies of using dashboards Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

The deficiencies of using dashboards - Essay Example The answer given by the employees of both the organizations are more or less same for this question. Majority of the people who have participated in this survey believes that the dashboard are mostly used for the analytical percusses. The percentage is as high as 42% and 40% respectively for SAP and Oracle. Among Sap employees, 32% believes that the second most important use of dashboard in any organization is for Strategic decision making whereas among Oracle employees, 39% believes that Dashboard next best used in the operational purposes for any company. The pattern for this answer is same for both the companies and it is also at par with the response given by the people of IBM. 50% of SAP employees believe that dashboard is mostly used by the IT department whereas for Oracle, the percentage is as high as 58%. The second most popular section according to SAP is production and strategic department(31%) whereas according to Oracle the second most important section is the production and operation, where in their opinion the importance of dashboard is almost 25%. Unlike the people of IBM, both these companies believes that in marketing and sales department, the use of dashboard it not so much as in that department this can be helpful only to record the data and to understand the trend based on which decision are taken by the top authorities. While making any dashboard application it is important for the IT companies to remember what are the needs of the client. Like IBM, SAP and Oracle both believes that grouping of relevant data accurately is the key behind the successful implementation of dashboard in any organization. According to the people of SAP, this point is the main (51%) where as people of Oracle believes that like this point, developing an proper type of dashboard also plays an important role. In their opinion both data grouping and effective type have equal importance (35%

Ethical issue in Marketing related to Advertising Essay

Ethical issue in Marketing related to Advertising - Essay Example According to the research findings there are numerous advertising media including the traditional television, radio, newspapers, mail and billboards, and the postmodern computer based internet advertisement channels including email, blogs, websites, programs and search engines among others. The increased number of advertising channels and methods of collecting data for advertising have pushed advertising ethics even further, and an advertiser has to be keen not to cross the line between ethical and unethical. In addition, personalised advertising that exploits various approaches to data mining is so effective that the persuasive and exploitative aspects of advertising have become a matter of serious concern to various stakeholders. This has been linked to the ethical aspects of consumer privacy that has resulted in the enactment of policies that provide guidelines on online data collection and use. However, these policies aim at forcing advertisers to do no harm, and advertisers have to decide if they just want to avoid harming consumers, or they would want to do some public good too. The Advertising Standards Authority controls the content of advertisements in the United Kingdom, and the town and county planning system controls the content of outdoor advertisements. However, enforcement of advertising ethics goes beyond these bodies and extends to numerous independent consumer protection groups, and before advertising, a business entity has to predict the response that the advertisement is likely to elicit from these regulators. However, the regulators’ definitions of ethics are too broad, and the advertiser is largely responsible for the contents of advertisements (Hunt and Vitell, 2006: 150). Advertisement ethics is determined by the effects of the advertisement on the human, cultural, social, economic and political consequences of an advertisement on society. The aim of this term paper is to discuss the concept of marketing ethics as it relates to ad vertising. Background Information Common Advertising Media Advertising is the first communication between a firm and its prospective customers; therefore, the firm must do a decent job of it in order to have an impact and increase the likelihood of adverts translating to increased sales. Therefore, an advertisement must be designed create awareness, knowledge, liking, preference and conviction in a potential customer in order for him or her to make a purchase. Advertisers have always exploited the available media to the greatest extent, such that advertising accounts for a big portion of a firm’s expenditure. Traditional advertisements like radio are still in use today, though their use is reducing due to the emergence of more effective technologies that combine both the audio and visual components of advertisements (Kelley et al., 2011). Compared to other senses, visual reception causes the most impact on a person’

Divine Chocolate; Marketing and Communications Plan Essay

Divine Chocolate; Marketing and Communications Plan - Essay Example They create barriers in the distribution channel by offering attractive bonuses to retailers who surpass their preset targets. Divine also lacks the international economies of scale that the dominators enjoy. In a research conducted in 2007 divine held 0.3% of the total chocolate sales in the UK as compared to 83% market shared by the three dominates. The use of fair-trade certification has contributed significantly to the marketing communications of divine chocolates to the consumers. A research conducted in 2007n proved that most consumers had left other chocolate brands in favor of Divine due to the mark of quality and its splendid taste. It therefore, has been suggested that Divine should develop a marketing plan focused on communicating it product to retailers and final consumers on the basis of fair pricing, product differentiation and emphasis on quality. In conclusion, it has been established that though divine is a small organization it has a high potential of the top of the value chain. It all the features required to get their only solution is adopting a communication plan focusing on the retailers and attaining economies of scale. Divine chocolate company, is a manufacture fair-trade chocolates in UK and United States, marking its first establishment in the UK in 1996. It partners with Kuapa Kokoo cocoa growers from Ghana, comic relief and Christian aid. It has a unique trading system; the farmers are the main shareholders in the company. Its first product, Divine milk chocolate, has been launched in late 1998. Another range of its products include dark chocolate and drinking chocolate; it launched another product in 2000 called dubble, in collaboration with comic relief. The brand was later on launch in the US in early 2007. Currently three main organizations own divine chocolate company. These organizations include Kuapa Kokoo; a group of cocoa producers from Ghana own 45% of the shares, Twin trading

Electronic Engineer Technician Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Electronic Engineer Technician - Essay Example Introduction Electronic and Electrical Engineering is a dynamic and exciting field where electronic and electrical engineering technicians have a vast space to explore this field, enriching with them a wide body of knowledge and experience (Facts On File Inc, 2009). Today, more students are enrolled in electrical and electronic engineering colleges to get higher degree or certificate. This shows that this study has increased importance and pays valuable contribution to US economy directly and indirectly. Basically, the technicians of electronic and electrical engineering helps other engineers to develop and design communications equipment, computer, navigational equipment, medical monitoring machines, and other electronic and electrical. Besides this, they also work in evaluation of product and its testing, using diagnostic and measuring devices or machines to test, adjust, and repair equipments (Garner, 2002). Moreover, electronic and electrical engineering technician works electric al engineers. The nature of work environment consists of mostly manufacturing settings, development and research laboratories, organizations and utilities. Education and training In order to be and electronic and electrical engineering technician, an associate degree, post secondary certificate or a bachelor’s degree is required to be completed. ... Therefore, they can be hired for different jobs. For example they can be Chief R&D Engineering Technologist, Chief Controls Engineer, Senior Project Engineer, Electrical Engineer, Broadcast Maintenance Technician, Electrical Maintenance Apprentice, Educational and Professional Trainer etc (Facts On File Inc, 2004). Each job position consist or many duties and responsibilities performed by electronic and engineering technicians which gives them a mean of learning experience which nurture’s their professional career (Facts On File Inc, 2009). Salaries and benefits Electronic and electrical engineering technicians are offered good salaries and other benefits (Peterson's, 2009). In the past few years, as the job demand of engineers has increased, this has also increased their wages and other benefits. Depending upon the nature of job, some electronic and electrical engineering technicians are paid in wages which ranges between $20 and $40 per hour (Garner, 2002). If median wages a re compared, table 1 show that in 2010 median hourly wage was $26.94 which has increased to $27.36 in 2011. Thus overall increase in wages during 2010-2011 is by 2% (Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2011). Table 1: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics Median wages    hourly annual 2011 $ 27.36 $ 56,900.00 2010 $ 26.94 $ 56,040.00 Career advancement and future employment Electrical and electronic engineering technicians have wide scope of career advancement. They move to more senior and executive positions as they advance in their career (Peterson's, 2009). Although, the economy has slowed down due to recession faced by US economy, but the projected employment graph (1) shows that electrical and electronic engineering technicians has future employment opportunities. Graph 1 (Bureau of Labor Statistics,

Scoping and Scanning an Organization Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Scoping and Scanning an Organization - Assignment Example This can mainly be done through ceremonies and events which aim at bringing Christians together like the Easter Celebrations and Christmas Celebrations. The church is under obligation to perform its duties which go beyond preaching and praying and for this reason other tools like SWOT analysis and business logic will be necessary (Roger Kaufman, 2003). The church must establish a culture of supporting the community by nourishing them physically, spiritually, materially, and mentally. The cultural screen will also require a good organization culture to ensure that there is no conflict of interest and brushing of shoulders which can easily bring down Christian institutions. This will further ensure good communication processes which are necessary since a church also acts as a guidance and counseling center within the society. In addition to this, the leaders are supposed to serve as an example and lead in the core competencies by presenting spiritual ideas to the community and the loca l government as well. By engaging the political leaders, it is possible to influence government policies that will in turn favor Christian institutions and hence provide them with smooth running of their spiritual

Choose one topic from list Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Choose one topic from list - Essay Example In particular, small businesses in the European Union are characterised with a headcount of only 10-49 employees. Their earnings or balance sheet ranges from â‚ ¬10 million to â‚ ¬49 million. (Europa 2003) On the other hand, in the United States (US), the standards for small businesses set by the Small Business Administration Size Standards Office are rendered more specific. In terms of employment size, small businesses in the mining and manufacturing industries employ less than 500 workers, while those in the wholesale trade industry hire not more than 100 employees. Small enterprises for most retail and services industries in the US post annual receipt of about $6 million. (Small Business Administration 2002) Given the above characteristics, it can be seen that similarities of small businesses generally lie in the small employment size and low volume of sales per year. Small businesses also have limited amount of assets. As such, their capitalisation requirements are not as great and demanding as the financing required by large businesses. Financing for all types of businesses come in several forms. However, sources of funding are classified as either debt or equity. Utilisation of these primary funding sources depends upon the amount of capital required, nature of proposed investment and other terms that materially impact the financial position of businesses. Companies often used debt and equity in combination that would result in the maximisation of the value of the businesses. In order to raise the immediate financing need, owners of small businesses may opt to borrow funds from various sources. The main sources for debt financing include banks and other financial institutions (Lister & Harnish 1995). To defray the day-to-day expenses of their business, small business owners may consider availing of demand loan or utilising lines of credit. Demand loans usually have floating interest rate and are repaid within the year