Strategic human resource management and human resource management Essay

Strategic human resource management and human resource management - Essay Example In essence, structure of the workforce in any organisation should be well-thought of because it virtually determines the duration for goal achievement. The major objective of most organizations is to achieve the laid goals within the shortest period possible. Therefore, it is important for human resource department in an organisation to ensure that it applies the best strategies that will facilitate high-quality performance and promote employee motivation. Essentially, globalization trends and the continued technological changes have escalated the need to manage human resources. Research has showed that there are promising financial outcomes for organizations whose human resource management structures have attained operational excellence and in compliance with organisational goals. Human resource is a set of people who form the workforce of an organisation and is sometimes referred to as human capital. For human resource to work in line with the organization’s goals and objectives, it has to be managed. The supervision of workforce in an organisation is termed as human resource management. Human resource management is concerned with maximizing employee performance in pursuit for the organization’s goals (Deb, 2006). Strategic human resource management is a proactive mechanism to the management of an organization’s workforce tailored to lay tactical framework in support of long-term goals. Human resource management entails a number functions which include training and development, recruitment and retention of workforce, performance appraisal and employee remuneration. There are various strategic human resource aspects which can be used to judge an organization and they include; acquisition of skilled employees, satisfaction, managing risk, managing change and corporate culture, innovation, developing leaders and many others (Nankervis, Compton &

Analysis Report of Benetton Company Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Analysis Report of Benetton Company - Essay Example These are multinational companies that have been able to segment the market, position themselves strategically in the market, and attract the loyalty of the customers towards their products. In addition, these firms have outsourced their operations to different parts of the world. As a result, they are able to produce products at very low prices, an aspect that has been inserting pressure on Benetton Company to come up with an effective pricing strategy in order to retain its competitive advantage in the market (Maguire 2007). The companies are considered a threat to the future of the business. This is because they target the same market segment. In addition, they have a huge financial base which enables them to afford the rising advertising costs by the traditional media houses. In addition, they have diversified their operations to different markets across the world, an aspect that makes them to be financially stable (Maguire 2007). Benetton mainly sells women’s and men’s apparel, accessories, fragrances, and shoes. These are clients that are fashion-oriented and have a disposable income which can be used to purchase high-quality products by the firm. The major target market by the company is the young people. This generation accounts for the largest market segment in the whole population. The firm targets the young people who are at the age of twenty to thirty five. Through its internationalization program, the business has a customer base which emanates from different parts of the world. As a result, it publishes its magazines Colors in three editions and four languages. This is in an attempt to reach all customers irrespective of their race, gender, religion, and cultural background (Kapoor & Kulshretha 2012). This aspect has played a significant role in enabling the business to remain competitive despite various economic challenges in the world. Over the years, the Benetton Group has always

MGT 511 session long project MODULE 4 Employee and Industrial Essay

MGT 511 session long project MODULE 4 Employee and Industrial Relations (walmart) - Essay Example This can clearly be said as the company focuses on selecting individuals based on their performance as well as on the induction period performance. Here the company focuses on completion of computer based learning and also on the job training for the employees. However, based on several reviews of present as well as past employees and keeping in mind the several law suits that the company has faced, the employee relations clearly are not very healthy. The company has over the years stepped over numerous employees and workers to come to their current position (Cram). In order to overcome these issues and to improve the overall employee relations it is crucial that WalMart focuses on improving the relations with the employees. Here in order to achieve this, it is important to increase and improvise on the current policies of the company. Also, action needs to be taken against managers who have been accused of any form of discrimination (Friedman). The only way that the company can effe ctively ensure that the employees are given the rightful respect and attention is by ensuring the management follows the policies. The policies of the company need to be revamped in every aspect, including the pay and the discrimination against women.

Superman and Me Essay Example for Free

Superman and Me Essay Hopes can change a person’s ability to make choice. Society determines the role that every individual must adapt to according to age, gender, race and so on. In Sherman Alexie’s article, Superman and Me, he expressed his unsatisfied to discrimination of the society by showing his passion of obtaining knowledge from books. The author wanted the audience to understand his view of equality by telling his life story. He’s a Indian who grew up on the Spokane Indian Reservation in eastern Washington State to a middle-class family that consisted of a mother, father, older brother and three sisters. He organizes his essay in a chronological structure. His father was trying to make the family live better. He love his father and he love books. Alexie’s argument against the discriminative eyes of the population begins to become stronger to detect in the middle of his piece of writing. By reading the different kind of books, he learnt to think deeply and which made him smart and wise. He could totally understand what was happening around him which race and ethnicity can change views and victimize by labeling. He supposed to fail but he refused to. He recognizes that reading is non-discriminative. Everything contains words that can form ideas, sentences, opinions, and etc. It was a relief from understanding that words can be a source of pleasure and an escape from hatred. He determines that the love of literature had a purpose on his life, to try to save his life. He paints a picture of himself speaking to kids who remind him of the struggle to be Indian in the non-Indian environment. He points out the different peers of that class that strive for distinction or fade into the shadows that culture created for them. Finally, my conclusion to reading this piece of work is that now I will treat diversity in a new way. I will no longer judge due to differences. Yet, I still wonder, why did he reveal the fact that his father went to a Catholic school on purpose but not explain the purpose itself?

Acid rain

Acid rain An introduction to the Acid rain Acid rain is a major problem for our health and even our existence. Human started poisoning the atmosphere with acid gases since 1730, at the height of the Industrial Revolution. Although, it was first recognized in 1872, approximately one hundred years after the beginning of the Industrial Revolution, when an English scientist, Robert Angus Smith (1817-1884), pointed out the problem. In 1962, the Swedish scientist Svante Oden brought the acid rain quandary to the attention of the press, instead of the less popular scientific journals. He compiled records from the 1950s indicating that acid rain came from air masses moving out of central and western Europe into Scandinavia. In 1984 it was reported that almost half of the trees in the famous black forest in Germany had been damaged by acid rain. In 1988 United nations agreed to reduce the emissions of these acids into the atmosphere. In 1990 changes to the Clean Air Act set rules to cut down the release of sulfur dioxide from power pl ants down to 10 million tonnes by January 1, 2000 The Meaning and Creation of Acid Rain Acid rain is a term that describes the fall of the quantity of acids, staying in the atmosphere. We can use the term â€Å"Acid deposition to be more specific. Acid deposition separates in two parts: wet and dry. Wet deposition refers to the acidic rain, fog, and snow. As the high-acidized water flows over and through the ground, affects badly most of the earths flora and fauna. The danger of this effect depends on many factors like the acidity of water, the capacity of the soil and the types of flora and fauna that depend on water. Dry deposition refers to the acidic gases and their particles. It is known, that most of these acidic gases falls from the atmosphere to the earth through this procession (dry deposition). After that, the wind blows these dangerous particles on trees, cars, buildings etc. Trees are also infected due to the rainstorms, because they absorb the water from the storm. When this fact happens the high-acidized water adds these acids to the acid rain, which makes it more acidic than the rain that already falls. Prevailing winds blow these chemical compounds, which cause both wet and dry deposition, across the lands (hundreds of miles). The most important and harmful compounds are sulfur dioxide (SO2) and nitrogen oxides (NOx) which are created mostly from electric power generation made through the burning of fossil fuels like coal. The acidity of acid rain is made through the following reactions of sulfur and nitrogen oxides with the oxygen from the atmosphere and the water from the rains S + O 2 → SO 2 SO 2 + O 3 → SO 3 + O 2 SO 3 + H 2 O → H 2 SO 4 SO 2 + H 2 O → H 2 SO 3 2NO 2 + H 2 O → 2HNO 3 + NO2 NO + O 2 → 2NO2 Natural effects Nature also harms herself. Acid gases, produced by emissions from fires, volcanic eruptions, bacterial decomposition and lightening, are released in the atmosphere, increasing the amounts of nitrogen oxide. The major biological source of sulfur containing compounds is Dimethyl sulfide. Gas Phase chemistry Sulfur Sulfur dioxide reacts with the hydroxyl radical. Then the product reacts with the oxygen from the atmosphere and creates sulphur trioxide. Sulfur trioxide, when water is present, reacts and produces sulphuric acid. (See reaction table No1) Now, sulphur dioxide, like carbon dioxide, reacts with water, when clouds are present, through the procession of Hydrolysis. It dissolves in water in a series of equilibrium reactions (See reaction table No2) SO2 + OH · → HOSO2 HOSO2 · + O2 → HO2 · + SO3 SO3 (g) + H2O (l) → H2SO4 (l) NO2 + OH · → HNO3 SO2 (g) + H2O SO2 ·H2O SO2 ·H2O H+ + HSO3− HSO3− H+ + SO32− Nitrogen Oxide Nitrogen oxide reacts with OH to form nitric acid NO2 + OH · → HNO3 Oxidation There is a large amount of reactions where sulfur is oxidized from S(IV) to S(VI) that leads to the formation of sulphuric acid. The most important oxidation reactions are with ozone, hydrogen peroxide and oxygen (reactions with oxygen are catalyzed by iron and manganese in the cloud droplets). Measure and effects To measure the acidity of acid rain, we use the pH scale. Pure water has a pH of 7.0. Normal rain has a pH of 5.5 due to the dissolve of carbon oxide into it. The most acidic rain was fell in USA in the year 2000. It had a ph of 4.3 This acidity affects every living thing on the planet. The following tasks explain exactly this affection: 1st Effect: On Plant life Roots of flowers and trees are destroyed, such as nutricients, which are very important for their lives. Useful microorganisms, which release nutrients from decaying organic material, are killed. Acid rain also damages the waxy layer of the plants, which makes the plant vulnerable to diseases. Plants that survive are weak and without the ability to survive through tough conditions such as a short dry period, a heavy rainfall or a strong wind. The reproduction is also affected. 2nd Effect: On soil The decrease of pH damages or kills some microbes, which produce important enzymes. These enzymes, after the damage of microbes, change shape and lose the ability to function. Also cation exchange creates a serious problem. The ions of some metals (magnesium, potassium, and other metals) are attached to the clay and humus particles in the soil. The attractive forces of positive metal ions to the negatively charged clay particles are strong enough to hold the metal ions in the soil despite the passage of water through the soil. Hydronium ions from acid rain mobilize toxins like aluminium and leach away nutrients like magnesium. 3rd Effect: On animals, humans, and aquatic life Humans depend on food (animals, fishes). Fishes on the lakes and the seas are poisoned or infected by aluminium and mercury, that is leached from soil and rocks. Soil and water have the ability to neutralize the acidity of the rain water. But as the acidity becomes stronger, the pH goes lower. pH 5.5- Plankton population begins to die pH 5.0 Fish population begins to die pH lower than 5.0- All the fishes have died This effect is called ‘Acid Shock† and prevents also the reproduction of the population. Animals, like all the living organisms, interdependent on each other. The habitants that depend on plants and fishes begin to extinct. Other animals that depend on the animals, who depend on fishes and plants, begin to extinct. The food chain is affected dangerously. 4th Effect: Corrosion of buildings and sculptures. The sulfur dioxide reacts with limestone and marble. This reaction creates a black crust on buildings and sculptures, composed by gypsum. Gypsum is composed by the reactance of calcite, water and sulfuric acid. It may be white, but in the crystals of the network of its composition, dirt and pollutant are trapped, so it looks black CaCO3 (s) + H2SO4 (aq) CaSO4 (aq) + CO2 (g) + H2O Acid rain also increases the oxidation rate of metals, especially copper and bronze One good result Researches have resulted that Acid rain restricts global warming by reducing methane emissions from wetland areas. This study also showed that sulfur in the acid deposition limits global warming by counteracting the natural production of methane gases by microbes in wetland areas. Heating these microbes increases the speed of producing more methane, which is mitigating by the sulphur pollution from the industries. This fact is happening because of the sulphur-eating bacteria, which are living in wetlands, and compete the methane-eating microbes. Experiments have shown, that releasing the sulphur deposits causes decrease of methane by 30%, due to the activation of sulphur-eating bacteria Acid rain: Problems and solutions An important solution is the remove of sulphur from the stack gases, made from coal-burning power plants of the industries. This will be able to be done with the use of FGD (flue gas desulfurization). This plan is commonly uses in the U.S.A and many other countries. An example of FGD is the wet scrambler. Wet scrambler is a reaction tower equipped with a fan that extracts hot smoke stack gases from a power plant into the tower. Lime or limestone in slurry form is also injected into the tower to mix with the stack gases and combine with the sulfur dioxide present. The calcium carbonate of the limestone produces pH-neutral calcium sulfate that is physically removed from the scrubber. That is, the scrubber turns sulfur pollution into industrial sulfates. In some areas, where he purity of calcium sulphate is high, the sulfates are sold to chemical companies as a gypsum. In other areas they are placed in landfill. However, the effets of acid rain can last for generations, due to the change of the pH level. Chemicals continue leaching in water, killing off all the living organisms and blocking the restore of life. Another solution refers to the trading of emissions. Industries can then install pollution control equipment, and sell portions of their emissions allowances they no longer need for their own operations. This plan saves the economy and decreases the capital cost for these equipments. The intention is to give operators economic incentives to install pollution controls. Prevention Step 1 · Reduce emissions from mining, smelting and generating electrical power. Consumers can help by using fewer mined resources and reducing electrical power usage, as well as campaigning for government regulation of emissions in their area. Step 2 · Reduce emissions produced by oil operations and oil-fueled transportation. Consumers can help reduce emissions produced by oil operations by buying less oil, buying from companies with higher emissions regulations and driving cars with lower emission rates. Step 3 · Reduce the amount of carbon dioxide and nitrogen oxides produced by reducing use of coal and wood burning as well as natural gas. Step 4 · Cut back on your use of products that produce chlorofluorocarbons, or CFCs. Air conditioning, refrigeration and many aerosol products use or contain CFCs. Reduce the use of air conditioning by using fans and use a single, energy efficient refrigerator per household. Conserve cooled air by not leaving doors open when the air conditioning is on and by not leaving the refrigerator open for extended periods of time. Step 5 · Reduce production of sulfur dioxide by conserving paper. Sulfur dioxide is produced in paper production, so read newspapers online rather than buying a newspaper everyday, use the front and back of paper and use recycled paper. Step 6 · Reduce the emissions produced by your car by car pooling, planning ahead to combine long trips, biking or walking for short trips and keeping your car well maintained to be sure nothing is leaking. Step 7 · Increase energy efficiency in your home by using fluorescent lights, turning lights off when not in use, shutting down utilities when youre on vacation, closing off vents to rooms that are not in use and operating large appliances like dishwashers, washers and driers only when full. Step 8 · Reduce your use of manufactured materials such as packaging and other disposable products and recycle as much as you can. Producing new materials and disposing of waste materials are responsible for a large number of the pollutants that cause acid rain.

The Duchess of Malfi Essay examples -- Duchess of Malfi Webster Papers

The principal characters and their roles We follow after bubbles, blown in th'air. Pleasure of life, what is't? Only the good hours of an ague The Jacobean age was one of questioning and uncertainty about many issues, such as religion, politics and law. At the same time it was rediscovering the potency of Classical texts of Rome and Greece, and reinterpreting tragic form to suit its own ends. The Duchess of Malfi is a revenge tragedy, but Webster has used the form for much more than just its entertainment value; he has used it as a vehicle for the exploration of some themes relevant to the society of his time. Webster based his plot on a true story set in Italy, and kept the Italian setting because like Shakespeare and other playwrights of his day, he had to use politically-acceptable foreign settings in which to explore ideas such as those presented in The Duchess of Malfi, (which were really commentaries on the England of their own era), to do with inequality, injustice, and corruption, without causing outrage in response to his work. Antonio and The Duchess The fact that Antonio can never have an equal relationship with the Duchess has prompted some readers to feel that his importance as a character in the play is limited, while others suggest that his main role is as a mouthpiece for Webster's own judgements and opinions. To assess the importance of his role we need to consider it relation to the Duchess, and in the context of the play as a whole. Inequalities of power associated with gender and social status are highlighted in the relationship between The Duchess and Antonio, and the reactions of others towards their relationship. In Antonio's self-deprecating dying speech, Antonio: We follow afte... ... been pointed out that The Duchess of Malfi is a flawed play. For example Ferdinand reveals to Bosola a possible motive for wanting his sister to be murdered: Ferdinand: To have gain'd an infinite mass of treasure by her death. [Act 5, Scene ii] But this sounds unconvincing, as Malfi is little more than a poor fishing village. Moments such as these in the play have led it to be criticised for its plot, and it has other flaws. For example is it plausible that the Duchess could marry Antonio and have children in secret? Webster tends to neglect the importance of The Duchess' sons, and in Act 5 we see Delio apparently with a false heir. But in spite of these flaws The Duchess of Malfi has lasted and remained popular, not just for its potent entertainment value and Webster's masterful use of language, but also for the insights it gives us into Jacobean society.

International Case : Reengineering the Business Process at Procter & Gamble

1) The reengineering efforts of P&G focused on the business process system. Do you think other processes, such as the human system, or other managerial policies need to be considered in a process redesign?2) What do you think was the reaction of the brand managers, who may have worked under the old system for many years, when the category management structure was installed?3) As a consultant, would you have recommended a top-down or a bottom-up approach, or both, to process redesign and organizational change?4) What are the advantages and disadvantages of each approach.How should Mr. Durant assess the opportunities in various countries around the world? Mr. Durant, the new CEO since 2005, embarked on the new strategy by offering 15percent new products in its hypermarkets and 10 percent in its supermarkets. Moreover, he wants to employ more staff, extend the operating hours in certain hypermarkets, cutting prices, trying small stores, and pushing down decision making. Mr. Durant aims to stay only in countries where Carrefour is among the top retailers.2. Should Carrefour adopt Wal-Mart's strategy of â€Å"low prices everyday†? What would be the advantage or disadvantage of such a strategy? Yes certainly they have to adopt the strategy of low pricing every day, In France, where Carrefour is well established, the company made the big mistake in its pricing policy. Itprobably started with the 1999 merger with Promodes, the French discount chain.Carrefour confused the French clientele by losing its low-cost image. The new strategy which they want to implement discounts and cutting prices, trying small stores certainly will help Carrefour to keep their competition in all over the world. 3. How could Carrefour differentiate itself from Wal-Mart?Wal-Mart is more than just the world's largest retailer. It is an economic force, a cultural phenomenon and a lightning rod for controversy. It all started with a simple philosophy from founder Sam Walton: Offer shoppers lower prices than they get anywhere else. That basic strategy has shaped Wal-Mart's culture and driven the company's growth.Now that Wal-Mart is so huge, it has unprecedented power to shape labour markets globally and change the way entire industries operate.