Composite case Memo(The Final Installment) Study

Composite Memo(The Final Installment) - Case Study Example The purpose of this memorandum is to correct errors and help Composite Manufacturing Company see the benefits of having an accountant. All figures discussed are in the thousands. Composite Manufacturing Company’s net sales were adjusted from $9,750 to $7,954. The reason for this discrepancy is mainly the mislabeling of revenue. Mr. Little used volume discounts, settlements, grants, and reverse revenue recognition as sales. These items are not sales. The costs of goods sold went from $6,121 to $5,812. The reasons were to reverse the sale to Anjinu, reverse the entry of unsalvageable inventory as COGS, and to reverse the entry that recorded a sale to affiliate. Operating expenses were not changed. Other expenses were changed due to impairment loss regarding unsalvageable RM, losses on leasehold improvements that are no longer useful, switching net sales recognition to recognition of a gain, a loss in the proper period in which it was incurred. This made the amount balance negative. Liabilities and stockholders’ equity were adjusted as well. The adjustments made for Composite Manufacturing Company’s financial statement made the company’s net income of $554 to a negative balance of $592. This was due to the improper classifying of revenue. While the $1,146 does not seem like a significant amount to mislabel, to stockholders the negative balance might cause worries. The corrections give the stockholders a better idea of the position the company is in, financially speaking. If the unadjusted financial report had been given to stockholders, the Composite Manufacturing Company could be sued later on for fraud. Since the company has had a lawsuit over their product, more time might be given to the design. The idea is ingenious and green. However, all of the problems must be dealt with in order for this company to go

The anti-Federalists Essay Example for Free

The anti-Federalists Essay Republicans. These were people who were strongly opposed to the United States Constitution. They wanted a strong state government instead of a strong central government. To them if the central government was too strong then it would threaten the peoples liberties and right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. The anti-Federalists were made up of anyone who was poor and not a big landowner, anyone tired of being controlled, anyone who wanted the peoples votes to directly count and anyone who wanted to protect their rights. The anti-Federalists were made up of all different types of people, while the Federalists were mainly upper class. The anti-Federalists represented the United States population as a whole better than the Federalists. When it came to the way the government was run the anti-Federalists wanted the complete opposite of the Federalists. The anti-Federalists wanted their power in the legislature, mainly the lower house where every state has one vote. They wanted the terms of office to be shorter, with limits on how many terms you could serve. These officials were not to be elected by representatives but directly by the people of the United States. The only way the anti-Federalists would ever even consider helping to ratify the Constitution was if it contained a Bill of Rights, which they thought was essential for preserving the individual liberties (www.consitutioncenter.org) of the people. Without this document the government could control every one like a tyranny. To them the Constitution without the Bill of Rights was just a weapon of the upper class against the poor. The figurehead of the anti-Federalists was Thomas Jefferson who later became President of The United States. The funny thing about Jefferson was for a long time he would not choose sides between the Federalists and the anti-Federalists, he was totally against political parties. He was for a strong central government, which was more of a Federalists view. What made Jefferson come to his senses was Alexander Hamilton and his implied powers Implied powers were powers which were not stated directly in the  Constitution (http://www.constitutionfacts.com/gbody.shtml), in other words powers that were assumed by the government. Jefferson was totally against this, he believed that the Constitution could do the things which the Constitution states it can and nothing should be assumed. This was the start of a great feud between Hamilton and Jefferson, the first real battle of political parties for election in office. In the fight between Federalists and anti-Federalists propaganda played a large role on both sides. It first started in speeches and local newspapers when three Federalists wrote in to share their opinions. The anti-Federalists followed suit and read their own speeche

Voluntary Childlessness Essay -- essays research papers

â€Å"There has been an unprecedented decline in childbearing in the Untied States over the last decade and a half. This change has been attributed to a number of factors, such as later marriage, fewer marriages, higher levels of female employment and education, and most remarkably, an apparent increase in voluntary childlessness† (Silka and Kiesler: 1). â€Å"The voluntary childless are those who do not have children, expect none, and have no known biological impediment to childbearing, or have been sterilized for contraceptive reasons† (Abma and Peterson 1995). These individuals have many personal, economic, and monetary reasons for a childless marriage and the majority of these women fit into one of four categories; practical, hedonists, idealistic, and emotional. Although, these couples vary in their reasons for not wanting children they have carefully examined the pros and cons of a childless family and made their choices accordingly.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Couples today are less sure about the rationale for having children. In former times (and in many non-western cultures today), children were seen as playing an important role in the continuance of family. Children may have been needed for kinship ties, to work on the family business, to look after parents in their old age, or to safeguard an inheritance. Presently, in Western society, the economy and the interests of industry have generally taken precedence over parenting and the interests of family (http:/wwwcfi.ie/feb2001/crisis.htm 3). There are two categories of women who wish to remain childless, as identified by Baum, which fit into this particular scenario. The first group of women falls under the heading of â€Å"practical†. They have a practical reason for being childless, such as a desire to pursue their career without the interference of a family life, or the fear of passing on a genetic defect. The second group of women who share this viewpoint are â€Å"hedonists†. These women choose to remain childless through a desire to preserve their standard of living and who are unwilling to invest either time or money into raising children (Baum 1994). Working parents with children are faced with limited daycare options, lack of quality time with their children, and less influence over their child’s developing values. These difficulties alone may be enough in order to discourage many couples from having chil... ... in their old age (http://femrhet.cla.umn.edu/proposals/gillespir_rosemary.htm).   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚     Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The prominent view of children as a status symbol and a social identity still lives on to a certain extent. Married couples are still â€Å"expected† to have children. Although, voluntary childlessness became more acceptable in the 1980’s, couples still feel the social pressure to have children (especially from family members). When deciding whether to bear children or to remain childless, couples must sort through many variables in order to make a unanimous choice on the issue. Having children brings with it large opportunity costs for working mothers. In most cases, they must choose between putting their careers on hold for at least six years or placing their child in the hands of a full time caregiver. Children also bring additional expenses, responsibility, and consumption of free time to the family environment. For some couples, this choice is simple because they may not have the desire to bring a child into this already overpopulated world or t hey may not have any interest in becoming a parent, but for others this choice is a difficult one.

Review of Hr Policies and Practices

64 A STUDY OF HRM PRACTICES AND ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE IN SELECTED PRIVATE SECTOR ORGANIZATIONS IN INDIA 1. Executive summary The new economic environment is primarily marked by the freeing of shackles for entrepreneurship and economic growth. The â€Å"license system† has been replaced, to a great extent, by a â€Å"market system†. The challenge of Human Resource Management (HRM) practices would be to create an environment of resilience, which can accommodate and assimilate successfully changes in systems, structures, technologies, methods, etc. People would have to ascribe the right meaning to the change process.India is well-equipped to succeed on global markets. It has a pool of highly educated people, a well-developed judicial system, democratic governance, an established banking industry, and fairly sophisticated and inter-linked fi nancial markets. Knowledge industries will be at the vanguard of economic opportunity, and India will be poised to take advantage of this trend with its corpus of highly skilled people. The changes on the market scene have necessitated the Indian industry to look inward for the development of human resources (HR).People develop themselves in a globalized scenario with new directions along with new problems and issues arising to develop new competencies to meet the changing requirements, aspirations, and problems. There are, however, some universal goods towards which all human resource management efforts should be aimed at. The emergence of Japanese human resource management has led to the concept of culture in a big way. At the organizational level, the goal of HRM is normally to have competent and motivated employees to ensure managerial effectiveness and growth of the organization.Organizations normally direct their HRM efforts towards the development of competencies and organizational culture. Organizations use mechanisms to achieve HRM goals with competent and committed employees. Organizations can achieve v ery little even if they have excellent technological and other resources at their command. Such an assertion gains better credibility in the context of developing countries like India, that is, typically in early growth stages in terms of economic development, and growing more rapidly than the ‚traditional‘ developed economies of Japan,North America and Europe. The countries with higher rates of growth are mostly in South East Asia, South Asia and some Latin American countries. Research evidence shows that HR practices along with culture do affect effi ciency in the organization. There are hardly any or very few studies which show a link between HRM practices and organizational culture in India. The review of literature has identifi ed that the major chunk of research in India emanates from descriptive data and experience sharing, which does not serve certain practice-oriented concerns.There is very little systematic, empirical research in the scientifi c paradigm that h as been carried out in the Indian HR lexicon. HR research is inspired by western models, and lacks an indigenous perspective. The review of literature on HRM practices has revealed that the most of the work done is in relation to organizational strategy. The methodology employed a sample of 95 respondents from two private sector organizations. The questionnaire consists of 90 items, of which (1) 69 items concern HRM practices of the organization, and (2) 21 items concern organization culture.The correlation analysis has been used to infer the relationship between variables of HRM practices and organizational culture. A healthy culture is required for utilizing and enhancing employee competencies and to develop people. This study focuses on the positive signifi cant relationship between HRM practices and organizational culture in private sector organizations. There is a positive signifi cant relationship between HRM practices and variables of organizational culture operationalised in terms of self-realization, status enhancement, inventive values and socio economic support.The pressures are most likely to be felt by those who have led and managed the change process in such a volatile economic environment. HRM would have the ability to attract and retain people and this would be the key to manage this macro change—in terms of both pace and rate. Change leaders would be confronted with the need to reorient culture, thinking and paradigms. HRM as a function and as a prime mover would need to focus on this changing and emerging role with the help of organizational culture. 2. Introduction The global turmoil has witnessed the growing importance of Human Resources Management (HRM) in both business and public life.The turbulent business climate brought in the wake of liberalization, globalization, changing technologies, growth in knowledge and advances in information technology is offering managers a complex and challenging situation (Davis, 1995). Indian organ izations are tending to become competitive to meet globally relevant standards. The growing emphasis on privatization has warranted a new focus in terms of result orientation, long-term strategies, consumer focus, initiative and different mindsets for internal and external communication.The Indian business scenario is characterized by the historical rigidities arising largely out of centralized planning. Our decision-making is infl uenced, among other factors, by posing more a constraint rather than a facilitator. The practice of protecting Indian industries through protective tariffs and quotas for over four decades has led to a lack of global competitiveness in terms of quality of products, services and prices. Indians are more accustomed to thinking in terms of narrow identities like our own selves, caste, and community, regional and linguistic groups.A failing and defi cient infrastructure and frustrating bureaucracy at operating levels, and the cultural and indigenous barriers added fuel to fi re. Hamel and Prahalad (1991) contend that a competitive advantage is obtained if a fi rm can obtain and develop human resources, which enable it to learn faster and apply its learning more effectively than its rivals. The HRM has emerged and evolved as one of the most important areas of organizational science and practice. It has not been developed in isolation, but rather in the context of industrial change and economic development.The uniqueness of the Human Resources (HR) approach requires a totally different type of attention from managers. The HR has characteristics that provide the greatest challenge as well as opportunity. A company‘s HR is fragile with delicate relationships, along with unpredictable contributions, and permanency is uncertain (Guest, 1991). Wright, Smart, and McMahan, (1995) mention that the crucial inputs, among others, to an organization are its human resources. People bring to their jobs diversity of skills, needs, goals, and expec tations. They are ocialized into the organization through their hiring to begin with, and their continuous functioning in the organization. According to Bulla and Scott (1994), we need to ensure that the human resource requirements of an organization are identifi ed and plans are made for satisfying those requirements. Guest, Conway, Briner and Dickman (1996) are of the opinion that the interface between the individual and the organization is critical to full utilization of human resources. The individual and the organization establish a „psychological contractâ€Å".Individual members expect to make contributions to the organization and receive certain rewards in return. The organization provides certain rewards and expects in return certain contributions from the individual. It is at this interface between the individual and the organization that issues such as HR planning, work analysis, career development, leadership, job motivation, the appraisal-reward process, and the organizational culture become important. The patterns of work relationships at work refl ect the HRM philosophy.The practices and philosophy of HRM are perpetuated by managers who are encouraged to follow the role model of their seniors. In the process of organization socialization they internalize the values and attitudes of their leaders. The entire process is thus institutionalized (Snell, Youndt, and Wright, 1996). In general, HRM has been described as: broad and strategic; involving all managerial personnel; regarding employees as the single most important organizational asset; being proactive in its responsibilities; and having the objective of enhancing organizational performance and meeting employee needs (Poole, 1990). . Organizational culture The idea that organizations have culture has been acknowledged since Lewin, Lippitt and White’s (1939) research on creating social climate. Culture and climate are integral parts of an organization. Organizational culture refer s to a system of shared meanings held by members that distinguishes one organization from other organizations (Schien, 1985). Organizational culture provides employees with a clear understanding of the way things are done in that organization. Organizational culture is the perceived, subjective infl uence of the formal system, the informal ‚style‘ of managers and other ignifi cant environmental factors on the attitudes, beliefs, values and motivation of the people in a particular organization (Litwin and Stringer, 1968). The concept of culture is seen as a kind of bridge between the individual and the organization. Culture performs a number of functions within an organization. It creates a distinction between one organization and another, it conveys a sense of identity for role incumbents, it facilitates the generation of commitment, and it enhances social system stability. Finally, culture sells as a sense-making and control mechanism that guides and shapes the attitude s and behaviour of employees.Hofstede (1980) felt that cultures which are high on the long-term orientation focus on the future and hold values in the present that will not necessarily provide an immediate benefi t (e. g. , Japan, China), while cultures with short-term orientation (e. g. , USA, Russia) are oriented toward the past and present and promote respect for tradition and for fulfi lling social obligations. The fi ve dimensions discussed by Hofstede (1980), help us understand the potential problems of managing employees from different cultures.One interesting fi nding of his research was the impact of culture on a country’s economic health. He found that countries with individualistic cultures were wealthier. Collectivistic cultures with high power distance were all poor. Cultures seem to affect a country’s economy through their promotion of individual work ethics and incentives for individuals to increase their human capital. Research into the link between org anizational culture and effectiveness is also limited by lack of agreement about the appropriate measures of effectiveness. The current literature has its roots in the early 1980s.Deal and Kennedy (1982) and Peters and Waterman (1982) focused their attention on the strategic importance of organizational culture and stimulated interest in the topic. Kotter and Heskett (1992) expanded on this by exploring the importance of adaptability and the fi t between an organization and its environment. Peters and Waterman (1982) argued that companies with strong culture are highly successful. They argued that superior fi rm performance is achieved if a company moves away from a purely technical, rationalistic approach towards a more adaptive and humanistic approach.Carroll (1983), Reynolds (1986), and Hitt and Ireland (1987) questioned the approach taken by Peters and Waterman. Owing to such results, the causal link between strong culture and performance was seriously questioned by the end of t he 1980s. Most of the studies lack a clear theoretical conception of the nature of the cultureperformance link. Siehl and Martin (1990) elaborate on this view and also suggest that culture may serve as a fi lter for factors that infl uence the effectiveness of the organization.These factors may differ between organizations. A more thorough understanding of the mechanisms at play is essential for research on the culture-performance link. Wilderom and Van den Berg (1998) found no direct signifi cant zero-order relationship between culture and performance. Taking the perceived performance and managerial leadership along with HRM practices into account, Wilderom and Van den Berg (1998) did discover that a signifi cant relationship exists between culture and performance.This fi nding illustrates the importance of the development of more elaborative theories on the direction and contingencies in the relation between culture and performance. Without such theories, we may draw overly simple or even misleading conclusions. In light of the above fi ndings, it is necessary to understand the relationship between HRM practices and organizational culture. The presumption is that more effective systems of HRM practices, which simultaneously exploit the potential for complementariness or synergies with organizational culture, lead to better performance and enhanced effectiveness.Indian organizations are embedded in Indian culture, which infl uences and is infl uenced by the economic, political and social factors, and is also subjected to global business infl uences. Sinha and Sinha (1994), found self-realization and inventive values as the highest form of work values in Indian culture. Organizations appreciate corporate core values of self-realization and inventive values as they encourage and recognize innovation, creativity and achievement. 4. Review of literature Schuler (1992) suggests that Strategic Human Resource Management (SHRM) has many different components, includin g policies, culture, values and practices.Strategic business needs of an organization are infl uenced by its internal (which mainly consist of factors such as organizational culture and nature of business) and external characteristics (consisting of the nature and state of economy in which the organization is existing and critical success factors, i. e. , opportunities and threats provided by the industry), which are infl uenced by HR activities. Thornhill, Lewis, Millmore, and Saunders (2000) found a potential role for HR-centred strategies to be used to change or realign the culture of an organization.An organization can change its culture through its recruitment strategy of replacing managers with those from outside, restructuring the organization, downsizing the workforce, training programmes, new reward strategies and performance management to alter employee behaviours or reinforce emergent ones. After the economic liberalization, Indian organizations were under pressure to cha nge from low-cost, indigenous, less effi cient and outdated technology to high-cost modern technology and prepare people to use it. This was done to develop and maintain their competitive edge in the larger business environment (Khan, 1999).The potential value of the employees is to be increased by collectively enhancing and linking their skills and capabilities in tune with the contemporary requirements of the market, and to be faster than the competitors. The success of the HRM will be determined by its ability to harness the intelligence and spirit of people by creating a learning climate. Indian organizations normally direct their HRM efforts towards the development of competencies, culture and effectiveness among employees individually or in groups 69AOP 18(4), 2010, ISSN 0572-3043 (Singh, 2003). Organizations may use many mechanisms to achieve their HRM goals as without competent and committed employees, an organization can achieve very little even it has excellent technologic al and other resources at its command. Such an assertion gains better credibility in the context of developing countries like India, that is, typically in early growth stages in terms of economic development and growing more rapidly than the ‚traditional‘ developed economies of Japan, North America and Europe.This also includes most South East Asian, South Asian and some Latin American countries. Selection in organizations is based on non-job related criteria like attractiveness, goal orientation, and interpersonal skills: a general lack of concern for value congruence (Prakash, 1994). The dominant emphasis has been on the universal practice of identifying and improving on existing performance strategies. This practice would require a complete reversal where congruencies of values should fi nd a place in selection and training.Only then would it possible to achieve linkages with the values of the wider socio-cultural context in India. In order to make an organization eff ective, the values of the society and the cultural milieu should be synthesised with those of the organization and its functioning. Fombrun, Tichy, and Devanna (1984) expanded these premises and developed the model of SHRM, which emphasises a ‘tight fi t’ between the organizational strategy, organizational structure and HR system. Political, economic and cultural forces are responsible for an organization’s mission and strategy.This explains these causal relations, which form the ‘tight fi t’ between strategy, organization structure and HR polices and practices. On the basis of mission and strategy, the shape of organization is structured, i. e. , people are organized to carry out different tasks to achieve the organization’s mission. Hendry and Pettigrew (1992) propose that a number of internal factors such as the organizational culture, structure (positioning of HR), leadership, level of technology employed and business output directly contr ibute to forming he contents of HRM. HRM could be seen as a menu of strategic choices to be made by human resource executives in order to promote the most effective ‘role behaviours’ that are consistent with the organization’s strategy and aligned with each other (Sparrow and Hilltrop, 1994). The present study The present study is to examine the relationship between HRM practices and organizational culture. To this end, HRM practices are viewed in terms of planning, recruitment, selection, training and development, performance evaluation, career management and rewards.Organizational culture is viewed in terms of self-realization, status enhancement, inventive values and socio-economic support. Self-realization consists of values such as achievement, ability utilization, advancement, aesthetics, personal development, and peace of mind. Status enhancement, one of the variables of organizational culture, consists of values of altruism, authority, physical activity, and prestige. Inventive values, another variable of organizational culture, consists of values of autonomy, creativity, lifestyles, risk-taking, and variety.Socio-economic support consists of work values of social relationship and interaction, comforts, dependency, good working condition and economic gains. The self-realization and inventive values give inner satisfaction to a person while performing a job in an organization. The variables of status enhancement and socio-economic support are extrinsic values, which are required in the Indian environment. Indian society and developing societies are ridden with insecurities and lack of resources and people generally have a history of failures.Fear of failure leads to giving importance to socio-economic support and lack of resources lends too much importance to status enhancement (Sinha, 1990). The idea that individuals are capable of development rests on the conviction that people are important and their involvement is necessary for a n organization to be effective. This conviction is translated into practice through a variety of programs that facilitate individual development and lead to better adjustment with the environment. In a growing economy, the emergence of the new organization and shift in the HRM paradigm have ecessitated a review of the skills, roles and competencies of the ‘new’ HR managers (Ulrich, 1997); in this new era, HRM has evolved in the context of the globalized economic environment. As such, it represents a response to the dramatic and continuous change that globalization has had on society and the world of work. Those who will man the HRM will undergo a change in roles. It will be necessary to inculcate in employees the required new skills, competencies and motivation (Dyer jr. , 1999). The understanding of HRM practices would require a comparative study of practices in the organizations.The relationship between HRM practices and organizational culture among private sector org anizations is studied. This paper also studies similarities and differences in HRM practices and organizational culture between two different organizations in the private sector. 5. Objectives of the study 1. To investigate the various HRM practices, i. e. , planning, recruitment, selection, performance evaluation, training and development, career management and rewards at the managerial levels in private sector organizations. 2. To study and examine the relationships between various aspects of HRM practices and organizational culture. . To fi nd whether there is any difference in the organizational cultures of the two organizations under study. This study was conducted at a time when Indian organizations were facing a very different competitive scenario compared to the past. They were facing competition from MNCs in the new liberal and global economy on the domestic markets. The competition was in terms of reduced cost, improved quality of products and better services. These enviro nmental constraints placed more pressure on managers. More often than not, these concerns were looming large on the horizons of Indian organizations.The fi ndings have bearing in this context. Managers across organizations in the private sector strongly endorsed self-realization (one of the variables of culture), which was signifi cantly correlated to almost all HRM practices. These are planning, recruitment, selection, performance evaluation, training and development, career management, and rewards. While organizations fi nd themselves in worldwide competition, most of the individuals are striving for achievement, ability utilization, advancement, aesthetics, personal development, and peace of mind.Realization or anticipation of realization of the values has resulted in better performance. Self-realization encourages people to satisfy their achievement needs in the work situation (Super and Nevill, 1986; Sinha, 1990). Self-realization in India came quite close to self-actualization in Spain. Status enhancement was strongly related to HR practices in private sector organizations. The values loaded on this factor are authority, altruism, prestige and physical activities. The desire for authority, altruism, prestige and physical activity has a positive impact on the performance of managers.Managers developed a positive attitude towards their work and contributed signifi cantly to self-realization and status enhancement, which were the most valued factors in India. Recruitment, selection, and performance evaluation, training and development, career management, and rewards turned out to be strongly correlated to status enhancement in the private sector. Selection based on planning along with proper recruitment leads to status enhancement. Rewards (fi nancial and non-fi nancial) were strongly related to status enhancement. Performance evaluation (one of the HRM practices) was strong related to status enhancement.Performance evaluation served as a key input for admi nistering formal organizational rewards, career growth and a tool of punishment (Cummings, 1973). Managers working in the organizations were in an excellent position to analyze newcomers’ skills and abilities and to provide feedback (House, 1995). As a purveyor of organizational expectations, performance evaluation was critical. Through the evaluation process, those working in the organization were aware of how well they were meeting their task and role demands (Asford and Cummings, 1983; Nelson, 1990).Clear rewards are the hallmark of an organization that effectively socializes newcomers. In addition to their readily apparent value, the rewards provide 75 AOP 18(4), 2010, ISSN 0572-3043 challenging assignments, promotions and salary increases, etc. , which give encouragement that provide status enhancement for managers (Chatman, 1991). Rewards were also found to be strongly related to inventive values in private sector organizations. Those working in the organizations with d esired values of risk-taking, variety, autonomy, lifestyle and creativity were rewarded.Rewards encourage people to be more creative, have variety and autonomy in their work life along with risk-taking and help to chalk out one’s own lifestyle in the organization. Similarly, training and development in private sector organizations were strongly correlated to inventive values. So, rewards and training and development in the private sector affect both individual esteem and lifestyle signifi cantly. Managers have developed to take on a variety of tasks in order to perform at an optimum level.Managers in the organization have developed to be autonomous and chalk out their own lifestyles to be more effective in the job. This also means employees will expect organizations to offer them opportunities to develop a portfolio of skills that enhances their marketability. Thus, organizations will have to provide work assignments and learning opportunities that allow for challenge and gro wth and self-development (Maurer and Tarulli, 1994). Socio-economic support consists of social relationships and interaction, comforts, dependency, good working conditions and economic gains.Managers were indifferent and did not care much for social interactions and relationships, whereas Indian managers held signifi cant value expectations concerning economic gains, good working conditions and comforts. HR practices were signifi cantly related to socio-economic support in the private sector. Through planning, recruitment and selection practices, newcomers with stronger systems of support report fewer adverse psychological outcomes related to job performance than do those with less support. Quality relationships with organizational insiders can even help newcomers to overcome the negative effects of unmet expectations (Major,Kozlowski, Chao, and Gardner, 1995). Interacting with enthusiastic newcomers may be good for insiders’ attitude and morale. The study also found a relati onship between career management and socio-economic support. People working in the organizations look for career management that will give them the breadth of experience that seems to be needed now, and start looking down on the in-depth expertise of the command-centred manager. So, a shift in culture happens, not because people have changed, but because their beliefs about what they have to do to get ahead have changed (Gunz, Hung, 2000).Rewards were strongly related to socio-economic support in private sector organizations. Litwin, Bray and Brooke (1996) felt that the nature of rewards is the key determinant of how effective they are. Managers who emphasized recognition and encouragement were more effective in shaping the culture of the organization or targeted results. The reason could be that managers working in the private organizations are experiencing a tremendous amount of change around them, thereby realizing that socioeconomic well-being will provide them with stability in a fast changing environment.Furthermore, evidence from literature found the contention that similar work experiences result in uniformity of culture characteristics (Schein, 1987). 76 ACTA OECONOMICA PRAGENSIA 4/2010 Rewards (one of the HRM practices) were strongly related to all the variables of culture in private sector organizations. There is hardly any difference between the two organizations when it comes to practicing rewards and training and development. People within the organizations are either rewarded or trained for acting in accordance with the dominant values of the organizations in India.Although this sample is not large enough to generalize the results, still rewards send clear and consistent signals about desired values and norms expected from people working in the organizations (Sethia and Van Galinow, 1985). The perception of the respondents from both private sector organizations were compared and it was found that there was a statistically signifi cant difference in the variable of socio-economic support between the two organizations, as shown in the table. This means employees in organization A perceived it in a better manner in comparison to their counterparts in organization B.Prakash (1994) felt that Indian organizations are congruent with their cultural surroundings (which is marked by diversities and paradoxes). There is a need to use multiple perspectives at different levels of analysis such as society, organization, management and the individual. It is important that organizations continue to grow and evolve newer perspectives in terms of their values and redefi ne their linkages with the society. Such fi ndings provide support that market economies have the inevitable consequences of rendering organizations competitive.Newman (1972) predicted that the Western work relationships are likely to appear to a great extent in Indian organizations as well. That is, employees in the organizations are likely to become achievement- oriented. There is a struggle for survival, where no one can afford to ignore an opportunity to get optimum results. As one moves higher on the hierarchical ladder of an organization, the individualistic orientation becomes stronger. The correlation analysis between dimensions of HRM practices and dimensions of culture shows that HRM practices do affect the culture of the organization.Ulrich and Lafasto (1995) felt that HRM practices provide information and shape behaviour and experiences of employees. Thus hypotheses H1a, H1b, H1c, H1 d, H1 e, H1 f and H1 g are validated. 11. Conclusions This paper has shown a signifi cant, positive and meaningful relationship between HRM practices and organizational culture. HRM practices become the means whereby organizational culture is created and sustained. Designing new culture requires that HRM professionals are ahead of the cultural change curve with innovative and exciting HRM practices.HRM has been proposed by others to be a potentially powerful le ver for shaping and changing the culture of an organization to make the organization more effective (Schien, 1983; Ulrich, 1997). This is a study of HRM practices in two large private sector organizations in India. HRM practices differ between the private sector organizations. This variation provides support to the fact that the adoption of HRM practices is contingent on the specifi c requirements of each organization (Schuler and Jackson, 1981).There is a signifi cant difference between the socio-economic support variable in organizations A and B. One fi nds no signifi cant difference in the other three variables of organizational culture in private sector organizations, i. e. , self-realization, status enhancement and inventive values. The results developed through inferential analysis to measure differences among the variables of HRM practices and organizational culture in private sector organizations are as follows: 1. The two private sector organizations showed that the perceiv ed mean of organization A was higher for all HRM practices. . The comparison of the dimension of organizational culture in the two private sector organizations showed that employees of organization A perceived the socio-economic support more than those in organization B. 3. It is evident that organization A showed relatively better perception of planning, recruitment processes, selection, performance evaluation and career management aspects of HRM practices in comparison to organization B. 4. There is no signifi cant difference between organization A and organization B in training and development and rewards as per the response of the respondents. 5.Planning, recruitment, selection, training and development, performance evaluation, career management and rewards are signifi cantly correlated with all the dimensions of organizational culture. Human Resource Management Practices – Literature review Human resource management (HRM) practices are being increasingly treated as depen dent rather than independent variables. Whereas in the past researchers focused almost exclusively on how changes in HRM practices affect employee performance or satisfaction, researchers now are beginning to ask how organizational conditions shape HRM practices.Examples of organizational conditions hypothesized to impact HRM practices include strategy (Hambrick and Snow 1987; Snow and Hrebiniak 1980; Olian and Rynes 1984; Lawler 1984; Hambrick and Mason 1984; Gupta and Govindarajan 1984a, b; and Miller, Kets de Vries and Toulouse 1982), organizational life cycle stage (Kochan and Chalykoff 1987; Kerr 1982, 1985), technological change, union presence, internal labor markets and even whether or not an organization has a personnel department (Osterman 1984; Pfeffer and Cohen 1984; Cohen and Pfeffer 1986).Until recently almost all HRM research was dominated by the technical perspective. The technical perspective presumes that organizations wish to plan, staff, appraise, compensate, tra in and develop their employees in order to ensure that the right people (skill-wise) are in the right place (job) at the right time (Collins 1979). The technical perspective leads to research designed to develop techniques for maximizing the match between employees' knowledge, skills and abilities on the one hand and the demands of the jobs on the other (Schneider 1985).The presumed result of good matching is organizational effectiveness, from which individual employees and the organization as a whole both benefit. The control perspective views HRM practices as a means for organizations to ensure the predictability and reliability of social interactions. The goal is to ensure that employees behave as solid citizens, living according to organizationally approved norms and values (Noland and Bakke 1949; Hollingshead 1949; Bowles and Gintish 1976; Edwards 1976; Collins 1979).This perspective recognizes that organizations attempt to govern social performances in addition to job performa nce. Desirable social behaviors presumably include getting along well with others and acting as a good citizen who shows concern for the organization's functioning. The institutional perspective posits two major explanations as to why organizations use particular HRM practices: organizations copy the practices they see being used by others, and/or they adopt practices to gain legitimacy and acceptance (Meyer and Rowan 1977; Zucker 1977; Meyer 1980).The institutional perspective assumes that legitimacy and acceptance are important objectives for most organizations because constituencies have the power to offer and withhold resources which, in the long run, may determine the firm's economic performance. 180 The political perspective holds that HRM practices reflect the distribution of power in an organization. For example, having an extensive set of HRM practices implies a powerful personnel department upon which others must depend when making personnel-related decisions (Osterman 198 4; Pfeffer and Cohen 1984).But existence of other powerful groups-such as unions or competitors who minimize their labor costs-may act to countervail or suppress the expression of the personnel department's wishes (Doeringer and Piore 1971). As suggested by Kochan and Chalykoff (1987) the economic perspective can also explain variations in HRM practices. Relatively affluent conditions in an organization permit it to pay higher wages. This in turn enables an organization to attract more job applicants and be more selective. Higher selectivity (lower selection ratios) diminishes the need to train employees.Furthermore, the attraction of more highly qualified individuals may lead to conditions that give more power and discretion to the employees, thus reducing the attractiveness to them of collective bargaining. The reverse scenario holds under less affluent economic conditions (Osterman 1984). Based on the five perspectives previously presented which help explain some of the variation and similarity in HRM practices across organizations, we aim to diagnose two private organizations from human resource management practices perspective.Our hypothesis is: HRM practices differ based on the company’s size and activity length. Conclusions Based on the analysis, we can conclude that both companies are efficient from HRM point of view. Both organizations are continually developing, having a market in expansion, the difference between them, which may influence the HRM practices, are the size and the activity length: organization 2 is large and relatively old compared to organization 1. The differences recorded are elated to prospecting, selection methods, training needs evaluation, working conditions, and social protection area where organization 2 is more developed. From the five perspectives presented, only three are representative for the analyzed organizations. The technical perspective presumes that organizations wish to plan, staff, appraise, compensate, tra in and develop their employees in order to ensure that the right people (skill-wise) are in the right place (job) at the right time. That is why both organizations are carrying out trainings for their employees and the trained people usually got promoted.The political perspective holds that HRM practices reflect the distribution of power in an organization, having an extensive set of HRM practices implies a powerful personnel department upon which others must depend when making personnel-related decisions. The results of the analysis point out that human resource department of the two companies are relatively strong and well organized. There are no conflicts, which can mean that either the employee are satisfied with their work and rewards or the labor unions are not very strong compared to the management and HR departments of the companies.The economic perspective can also explain variations in HRM practices. It is well illustrated by the analyzed organizations as they have a conti nually growing activity volume which means that they can give higher salaries. In the case of organization 2, which is larger and relatively old compared to organization 1, the management offers, besides rather good salaries, non-financial benefits. Also, the social protection is more developed in the case of organization 2. Based on all these results, we can conclude that our hypothesis is confirmed, HRM practices differ based on the companies’ size and activity length.In an early review of the HRM – performance literature, Dyer and Reeves (1995) posited 4 levels of outcomes of HRM practices—employee, organizational, financial, and market— suggesting that the impact of HRM is likely to work outward through these levels. Employee outcomes consist of affective reactions such as satisfaction and commitment as well as behavioral reactions such as absenteeism and turnover. Organizational outcomes focus primarily on operational performance measures such as qua lity, productivity, and customer satisfaction.Financial outcomes, such as accounting profits, represent the next step in their causal chain. Finally, market outcomes consist of measures of the market value of firms based on stock price. Becker et al. (1997) similarly argued that HRM practices operate most directly through employee skills, motivation, and work design, resulting in behavioral outcomes such as creativity, productivity, and discretionary effort, which are expected to work through operational and eventually through financial market outcomes.

The Marketing Environment

1. The changing and uncertain marketing environment deeply affects the organization’. Discuss this statement,explaining what is meant by the’marketing environment’ and explaining how it might affect marketing plans and activities with an example. The Marketing Environment The marketing environment refers to all of the internal and external forces that affect a marketer’s ability to create, communicate, deliver and exchange offerings of value. The factors and forces within the marketing environment can be classified as belonging to the internal environment, the micro-environment, and the macro-environment.The internal environment refers to the organization itself and the factors that are directly controllable by the organization. The micro-environment comprises the forces and factors at play inside the industry in which the marketer operates. Micro-environmental factors affect all parties in the industry, including suppliers, distributors, customers and com petitors. The macro-environment comprises the larger-scale forces that influence not only the industry in which the marketer operates, but all industries. Macro-environmental factors include political forces, economic forces, sociocultural forces, technological forces and legal forces.This macro-environmental framework has been called the PESTL framework. Micro-environmental and macro-environmental forces are outside of the organization and, while they can be influenced, they cannot be directly controlled. The internal environment refers to its parts, people and processes. An organization is able to directly control the factors in its internal environment. A thorough understanding of the internal environment ensures that marketers understand the organisation’s strengths and weaknesses, which positively and negatively affect the organisation’s ability to compete in the marketplace.The micro-environment consists of customers, clients, partners, competitors and other part ies that make up the organisation’s industry. The organization cannot directly control its micro-environment and respond to the current and future needs and wants of their target market. They must understand how each of their partners’ processes work and how their partnerships benefit each party. They must also understand the risks involved in working with partners and the relative power balance between the organization and each partner.Suppliers are a particularly crucial partner. Marketers must identify, assess, monitor and manage risks to supplies and risks to the price of supplies. To succeed, marketers must ensure their offerings provide their target market with greater value than their competitors’ offerings. Thus, marketers seek to understand their competitors’ marketing mix, sales volumes, sales trends, market share, staffing, sales per employee and employment trends. Marketers should analyse total budget competition, generic competition, product competition and brand competition.The macro-environment encompasses uncontrollable factors outside of the industry: political, economic, sociocultural, technological and legal forces. Political forces describe the influence of politics on marketing decisions. Economic forces affect how much money people and organizations can spend and how they choose to spend it. Sociocultural forces affect people’s attitudes, beliefs, behaviors, preferences, customs and lifestyles. Technological forces are those arising from the search for a better way to do things.Technology changes the expectations and behaviors of customers and clients as well as how organisations work with their partners and within society. Laws and regulations are closely tied to politics and establish the rules under which organizations must conduct their activities. The most significant laws and regulations for marketers are related to privacy, fair trading, consumer safety, prices, contract terms and intellectual pro perty. Marketing metrics are used to measure current performance and the outcomes of past activities. A SWOT analysis is used to identify strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats.The example: Wenzhou Shoes 2004? 9? 17? ,â€Å" † —— ,? 400 , , 800 September 17, 2004, â€Å"European shoes† – the eastern town of Elche, Spain, China Shoes City, about 400 Spaniards gathered unidentified street, destroyed a bus carrying Wenzhou shoe container truck and a Wenzhou shoe warehouse, causing about 800 million yuan of economic losses. This is the first ever Spanish Chinese business interests of serious violations of the violence. , ,? 2001 , ,In fact, data show that since 2001, Wenzhou shoes incident overseas every year by resistance occurred, and there is an upward trend: 2001? 8 2002? 1? , , August 2001 to January 2002, Russia had seized the incident occurred once, Wenzhou shoes involved. , 3 , The longest that the goods seized, the whole Zhejiang loss of about 3 billion yuan loss of individual enterprises million yuan or more. 2003 ,20 , The winter of 2003, more than 20 products of Wenzhou footwear shoe was burned in Rome, Italy, the specific loss is unknown. 004? 1? 8? , â€Å" †, January 8, 2004, the Nigerian Government issued â€Å"list of banned imports,† Wenzhou shoes one of them. 2004? 2? 12? , â€Å" † , 3000 †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦February 12, 2004, the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs sent a large number of police raids in Moscow, â€Å"Aimila† big market goods, Chinese businessmen, including China, Wenzhou shoe manufacturers, including business loss of about $ 30,000,000 this †¦ †¦ , 2001 40%, 30%, 4. 6Relevant data and background information, Wenzhou shoe production for export as early as in 2001, jumped 40%, close to 30% of total output, only from Wenzhou Customs exit of shoes to the value of $ 460,000,000. 10 ,? â€Å" †? â€Å" †? , â€Å" † , Wenzhou top 10 in several shoe factories to produce shoes for export oriented, such as the â€Å"East Art†, â€Å"Tema†, etc. , including â€Å"Tema†, including several of Wenzhou shoe factory, and also Wal-Mart signed production agreement for the global retail industry hegemony of mass production for supermarkets sell cheap shoes. , , , 10 ~30 , 10 From the product level , at present, most of China's export of footwear is still the middle and low variety, low prices, generally 10 dollars to 30 dollars, many even less than 10 dollars. 9 â€Å" † 5 ? Took place in September this year, Spain's â€Å"burning shoes† incident was burned average unit price of the shoes only 5 euros. , ( OEM ) Exports of high-end shoes and own-brand share are very small, and exports more products to OEM manner. ? , , â€Å" † , , , For example, most of the production of footwear sales in the U. S. low-end shoe store, while in the United States, the high-end shoe store also can procure the â€Å"Chinese shoes† of the shadow, but the price was lower than Italy, Spain, Brazil and other countries products, and all Chinese-made shoes are not their own brands, trademarks and brands are using overseas. ,Some of the same grade shoe prices in foreign markets and products to be lower than the country of origin, and some even lower than Vietnam, and Thailand's exports. , ; , , ; , 10 2200? , View from the export enterprises, private enterprises accounted for most; see from the export area, mainly in Wenzhou, Zhejiang, Fujian Jinjiang, Quanzhou, Guangdong, Shandong, Sichuan and other regions, and has established a number of shoe manufacturing base; from the export scale , the current export value of 10 million U.S. dollars more than 2,200 enterprises, accounting for nearly half of the total number of export enterprises. â€Å" † , â€Å" † , â€Å" †? â€Å" , , † â€Å"The Spanish case, we need to think about the brand. We do not have world-renowned brand, which is the international competition of Chinese shoes in the greatest difficulty. † Executive vice president of Cornell, said Zhou Jinmiao interview.Members of Light Industry Import and Export Corporation Wenzhou Foreign Trade Wai seems to know China better than anyone in the international market brand shoes difficult. â€Å" BATA , , 100 , † â€Å"Well-known supermarket chains in Europe BATA , there are a lot of shoes from around the world, but I never found more than 100 euros over Chinese shoes. Chinese shoe brands in the world, not only to low-end shoes to compete. Spain burning low-end shoes is the result of competition. 2. Describe in detail the five marketing management orientation. Discuss the marketer’s argument for why an organization should embrace the market orientation. Marketing Management Orientation The Marketing Orientation and the Marketing Concept. An organization with a market orientation focuses its eff orts on 1)continuously collecting information about customers' needs and competitors' capabilities, 2) sharing this information across departments, and 3) using the information to create customer value.The market orientation simply defines an organization that understands the importance of customer needs, makes an effort to provide products of high value to its customers, and markets its products and services in a coordinated holistic program across all departments. In what we call the â€Å"Marketing Concept,† the company embraces a philosophy that the â€Å"Customer is King. † The Marketing Concept is an attitude. It's a philosophy that is driven down throughout the organization from the very top of the management structure. The Marketing Concept communicates that â€Å"the customer is king. Everything that the company does focuses on the customer. Via the Marketing Concept, a company makes every effort to best understand the wants and needs of its target market and to create want-satisfying goods that best fulfill the needs of that target market and to do this better than the competition. It wasn't always that way. There were other orientations that companies embraced over the years. The Production Concept has been around for years. That concept simply suggests that customers prefer inexpensive products that are readily available. In effect, â€Å"if we make it, they will come. The Product Concept suggests that companies that build the â€Å"better mousetrap† will gain favor. The thinking here is that customers want products that have higher quality, that offer better performance or do something unique. The Selling Concept proceeded the Marketing Concept. From the 1920's until the 1950's, most firms had a sales orientation. Competition had grown, and there was a need to pursue the scarce customer. Sales could mean everything from sales people to advertising to public relations, but little effort was made to coordinate any overall mark eting function.What we often saw in the Selling Concept was the â€Å"hard sell† and the belief that consumers wouldn't purchase unless they were sold. The Holistic Marketing Concept that is embraced in the 21st century results in companies looking at their overall marketing efforts. This includes how their marketing affects society, as a whole. Marketing is also done internally within the company. Without customers, a company will quickly flounder — thus the importance of the relationship. Holistic marketing looks at the connectivity of the company, its people, its customers, and the society in which it operates.The Societal Marketing Concept focuses on. Market positioning in the 70s of last century by the American Marketing experts Iris and Jack Trout's, its meaning is an enterprise based on existing products on the market competitors, the location of the products for a customer These characteristics or attributes of the emphasis, create unique products for the enter prise, giving the impression of a distinctive image, and to pass such a vivid image to the customer, so that the products in the market to determine the appropriate location. Market positioning of a product itself is not what you do, but you do the eyes of potential consumers.The essence of market orientation to the enterprise and other enterprises strictly separated, so that customers clearly feel and recognize the difference, which the customer occupies a special place in mind. Another argument is the product positioning, target market positioning, competitive positioning. Market positioning is the key enterprises should try to find their products more competitive than the competition's features. Competitive advantage is generally two basic types: one is price competitive, that is, under the same conditions set lower prices than the competition. This requires companies to take all efforts to reduce unit costs.Second, competitive preference, which can provide certain features to me et customer specific preferences. This requires companies to take every effort to work on the product features. Therefore, the whole process of the enterprise market positioning can be accomplished through three steps: 1) Analysis of the status of the target market to confirm the potential of this business a competitive advantage 2) The exact choice of competitive advantage, the initial positioning of the target market Competitive advantage that the ability of companies to outperform its competitors.This capability can be either existing, may also be potential. Select a competitive advantage is actually a business and competitor strength compared to all aspects of the process. Indicators should be a relatively complete system, the only way to accurately select the relative competitive advantage. The usual method is to analyze, compare companies and competitors in business management, technology development, procurement, production, marketing, finance, and what kinds of products is t he strength of seven areas, which are weak.To select the most suitable for the business advantages of the project, initially set to target enterprise market position. 3) Shows a distinct competitive advantage and re-positioning The main task of this step is the enterprise through a series of publicity and promotion activities, the competitive advantage of its unique and accurate communication to potential customers and impress in the minds of customers. To this end, companies should first understand the target customer, know, know, identity, love and preference of the company's market position, established in the minds of customers is consistent with the positioning of the image.Second, companies target customers through a variety of efforts to strengthen the image and maintain understanding of target customers, target customers attitude stability and deepening the feelings of the target customers to consolidate in line with the market's image. Finally, enterprises should pay attent ion to the target customers understand their market position or because of deviations propaganda enterprise market positioning errors caused by target customers fuzzy, chaos and misunderstanding, and promptly correct the inconsistencies in the image and market positioning.Company's products in the market positioning even if it is appropriate, but in the following circumstances, should consider re-positioning: (1) Introduction of new competitors, product positioning in the vicinity of the enterprise products, enterprise products occupied part of the market, so that the decline in market share of enterprise products. 2) Consumer needs or preferences change, so that the enterprise product sales plummeted. To avoid the strong positioning strategy: trying to avoid is the most powerful business or other enterprise directly place a strong competition, while positioning their products in another market area, to make their products with certain characteristics or attributes the strongest or strong opponents are more significant differences.Head-positioning strategy: is an enterprise based on its own strength, to occupy a better market position, at the market on the dominant, most powerful or compete head-strong competitors, leaving their own and rival products into the the same market position. Looking for new but not yet occupied the position of the potential market demand to fill vacancies on the market, production market, not, with some characteristics of products. Such as Japan's Sony Corporation Sony Walkman and a number of new

The Best Resources for Landing Your Retail Job

The Best Resources for Landing Your Retail Job If you’ve worked in retail before, you know that it’s not a job for the faint of heart. It can mean long hours of doing physical tasks, keeping a smile on your face when you’d rather be rolling your eyes, and- perhaps the most daunting piece of all- dealing with the public. If you haven’t worked in retail before, spoiler alert: it’s not going to be sunshine and roses every day. But if you have great customer service skills, need flexible hours, or want to gain experience as you work toward other goals, it can be a great fit for the short- or long-term. If you’re up to this challenge, we’ve got what you need to get started- or get to the next level. Step 1: Revamp Your ResumeIf you’re familiar with how we roll here at The Job Network, this one should not come as a surprise. A badass resume is the starting point for every job search in every field. Even if you’re referred for the job by someone you know, you still need to m ake a great first impression on anyone who hasn’t met you before, at a minimum. And your resume gives your friend some quick talking points that act as ammo when they’re advocating for you to get the gig. An updated resume is essential.How to Write a Perfect Retail Resume (Examples Included)How to Write a Perfect Cashier Resume (Examples Included)How to Write a Perfect Sales Associate Resume (Examples Included)How to Create a Perfect Retail ResumeThe Ultimate 6 Step Guide to Resume WritingResume Headlines to Use for Different Jobs6 Ways to Make ATS Work in Your FavorResume Format Guide: What Your Resume Should Look Like in 2017Top Resume Trends for 20176 Job Skills You Need to Be a Sales AssociateDownload Resume TemplatesIt’s best to revamp your resume before you even start thinking about applying for jobs. This can keep you from making easy mistakes due to rushing, and lets you get a good baseline resume that you can use to adapt easily for each job application or opportunity.Step 2: Target Your Job SearchIf you want to start with a general geographic area or any type of stores, then a general search can be a great first step. It’s important to know what you’re looking for, to help focus your job hunt. If you need a starting point, we have plenty of recommendations that can help you find the type of retail job that works best for you.10 Summer Jobs- and How to Get ThemBest Jobs in Retail- and How to Get ThemTop 5 Less Crowded Sites to Look For Retail Jobs10 of the Best Jobs in Retail NationwideA Comprehensive Guide to Getting Different Types of Retail Jobs7 Places to Look for Part-Time JobsStep 3: Get Ready for the InterviewIn the retail world, hiring can move fast, so to paraphrase Ferris Bueller, if you aren’t ready for it, it can pass you by. You can start prepping for interviews before you even have one on the books.5 Questions to Expect in a Retail InterviewThe Most Popular Macy’s Interview QuestionsHow to Survive Your Upcoming Panel InterviewHow to Look Like a Star in Any Job InterviewHow to Answer the â€Å"What’s Your Biggest Weakness?† Question10 Things You Should Not Say in an Interview7 Real Life Interview Mistakes You Can Learn FromImpress Your Interviewer in 5 Simple Steps to Get the JobStep 4: Think About Your Career GoalsA job in retail might be your calling, or it might be just one step along your long career path. Whatever the case may be, it’s important to think about how you can a) be prepared for this job, and b) make it work for your future.How to Move Up the Retail Career Ladder Without CollegeWhat You Need to Know to Succeed in the Retail Industry5 Great Career Paths You Can Take If You’re Working in RetailWhether it’s your dream job or your right-now job, getting a job in retail is a challenge to be faced with as much ammo as you have at your disposal. If you’re ready to get started in this field, good luck!

Latino essays

Latino essays The first inhabitants to occupy the Americas were Europeans who came from Spain and England. Theses settlers had the greatest deal of diversity that was spread through cultures and over the land. Each in it self created its own powerful empire and ruled and governed its people. These two groups also fought for what they thought was right in their independence that redid their political systems. The large and sometimes unruly groups spread across the country forming small towns and sometimes much larger cities in and around where everyone migrated. What many scholars though to believe at the time was a native population of close to 110 million people, (Gonzalez P.4). The Spaniards and English with both awestruck and the inhabitants that currently resided in the Americas, many tried to build their cities in much the same format as these groups. But, with the new comers to the Americas so did disease, and sickness, and the onslaught of new religions and customs on the current inhabit ants. The church also played a key role in this. It tried to spread the word, and convert as many of the natives to their form of Catholicism. The natives were spread throughout the land, and the new arrivals were migrating into their territory. Seeing as how the natives were scared of these new people, many were forced into slavery due to the face that they new immigrants saw them as a lower class. On the other side of the boarder, in Latin America, things where happening at a different pace. Annexation of the Spanish-speaking borderlands evolved in three distinct phases: Florida and the Southeast by the 1820s; Texas, California, and the Southwest by 1855; and finally Central America and the Caribbean during the second half of 1898 (Gonzalez P. 28). Even those much of this land was already inhabited by local tribes like the Aztec, Mayas, and Incas. Even though these civilizations lived by their own rule and authority, as s ...

The Assassination of Malcolm X

The Assassination of Malcolm X After spending a year as a hunted man, Malcolm X was shot and killed during a meeting of the Organization of Afro-American Unity (OAAU) at the Audubon Ballroom in Harlem, New York, on February 21, 1965. The assailants, at least three in number, were members of the black Muslim group the Nation of Islam, the group with which Malcolm X had been a prominent minister for ten years before he split with them in March 1964. Exactly who shot Malcolm X has been hotly debated over the decades. One man, Talmage Hayer, was arrested at the scene and was definitely a shooter. Two other men were arrested and sentenced but were most likely wrongly accused. The confusion over the identity of the shooters compounds the question of why Malcolm X was assassinated and has led to a wide range of conspiracy theories. Becoming Malcolm X Malcolm X was born Malcolm Little in 1925. After his father was brutally murdered, his home life unraveled and he was soon selling drugs and involved in petty crimes. In 1946, 20-year-old Malcolm X was arrested and sentenced to ten years in prison. It was in prison that Malcolm X learned about the Nation of Islam (NOI) and began writing daily letters to the NOI’s leader, Elijah Muhammad, known as the â€Å"Messenger of Allah.† Malcolm X, the name he acquired from the NOI, was released from prison in 1952. He quickly rose up the ranks of the NOI, becoming the minister of the large Temple Number Seven in Harlem. For ten years, Malcolm X remained a prominent, outspoken member of the NOI, creating controversy across the nation with his rhetoric. However, the close ties between Malcolm X and Muhammad began to whither in 1963. Breaking With the NOI Tensions quickly escalated between Malcolm X and Muhammad, with the final rift occurring on December 4, 1963. The entire nation was mourning the recent death of President John F. Kennedy when Malcolm X publicly made the uncouth remark that JFK’s death was as â€Å"chickens coming home to roost.† In response, Muhammad ordered Malcolm X to be suspended from the NOI for 90 days. After the end of the suspension, on March 8, 1964, Malcolm X formally left the NOI. Malcolm X had become disillusioned with the NOI and so after he left, he created his own black Muslim group, the Organization of Afro-American Unity (OAAU). Muhammad and the rest of the NOI brothers were not pleased that Malcolm X had created what they viewed as a competing organization- an organization that could potentially pull a large group of members away from the NOI. Malcolm X also had been a trusted member of the inner circle of the NOI and knew many secrets that could potentially destroy the NOI if revealed to the public. All of this made Malcolm X a dangerous man. To discredit Malcolm X, Muhammad and the NOI began a smear campaign against Malcolm X, calling him the â€Å"chief hypocrite.† To defend himself, Malcolm X revealed information about Muhammad’s infidelities with six of his secretaries, with whom he had illegitimate children. Malcolm X had hoped this revelation would make the NOI back off; instead, it just made him seem even more dangerous. A Hunted Man Articles in the NOI’s newspaper, Muhammad Speaks, became increasingly vicious. In December 1964, one article got very close to calling for Malcolm X’s assassination, Only those who wish to be led to hell, or to their doom, will follow Malcolm. The die is set, and Malcolm shall not escape, especially after such evil, foolish talk about his benefactor [Elijah Muhammad] in trying to rob him of the divine glory which Allah has bestowed upon him. Such a man as Malcolm is worthy of death, and would have met with death if it had not been for Muhammad’s confidence in Allah for victory over the enemies. Many members of the NOI believed the message was clear: Malcolm X had to be killed. During the year after Malcolm X had left the NOI, there had been several assassination attempts on his life, in New York, Boston, Chicago, and Los Angeles. On February 14, 1965, just a week before his assassination, unknown assailants firebombed Malcolm X’s house while he and his family were asleep inside. Luckily, all were able to escape unharmed. These attacks made it obvious- Malcolm X was a hunted man. It was wearing him down. As he told Alex Haley just days before his assassination, â€Å"Haley, my nerves are shot, my brain’s tired.† The Assassination On the morning of Sunday, February 21, 1965, Malcolm X woke up in his 12th-floor hotel room at the Hilton Hotel in New York. Around 1 p.m., he checked out of the hotel and headed for the Audubon Ballroom, where he was to speak at a meeting of his OAAU. He parked his blue Oldsmobile nearly 20 blocks away, which seems surprising for someone who was being hunted. When he arrived at the Audubon Ballroom, he headed backstage. He was stressed and it was beginning to show. He lashed out at several people, shouting angrily. This was very out of character for him. When the OAAU meeting was to start, Benjamin Goodman went out on stage to speak first. He was to speak for about a half an hour, warming up the crowd of about 400 before Malcolm X was to speak. Then it was Malcolm X’s turn. He stepped up to the stage and stood behind a wooden podium. After he gave the traditional Muslim welcome, â€Å"As-salaam alaikum,† and got the response, a ruckus began in the middle of the crowd. A man had stood up, shouting that a man next to him had tried to pick-pocket him. Malcolm X’s bodyguards left the stage area to go deal with the situation. This left Malcolm unprotected on the stage. Malcolm X sidestepped away from the podium, saying â€Å"Let’s be cool, brothers.† It was then that a man stood up near the front of the crowd, pulled out a sawed-off shotgun from beneath his trench-coat and shot at Malcolm X. The blast from the shotgun made Malcolm X fall backward, over some chairs. The man with the shotgun fired again. Then, two other men rushed the stage, firing a Luger and a .45 automatic pistol at Malcolm X, hitting mostly his legs. The noise from the shots, the violence that had just been committed, and a smoke bomb that had been set off in the back, all added to the chaos. En masse, the audience tried to escape. The assassins used this confusion to their advantage as they blended into the crowd- all but one escaped. The one who did not escape was Talmage â€Å"Tommy† Hayer (sometimes called Hagan). Hayer had been shot in the leg by one of Malcolm X’s bodyguards as he was trying to escape. Once outside, the crowd realized that Hayer was one of the men who had just murdered Malcolm X and the mob started to attack Hayer. Luckily, a policeman happened to be walking by, saved Hayer, and managed to get him into the back of a police car. During the pandemonium, several of Malcolm X’s friends rushed to the stage to try to help him. Despite their efforts, Malcolm X was too far gone. Malcolm X’s wife, Betty Shabazz, had been in the room with their four daughters that day. She ran up to her husband, shouting, â€Å"They are killing my husband!† Malcolm X was put on a stretcher and carried across the street to the Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center. Doctors tried to revive Malcolm X by opening up his chest and massaging his heart, but their attempt was unsuccessful. The Funeral Malcolm X’s body was cleaned, made presentable, and dressed in a suit so that the public could view his remains at the Unity Funeral Home in Harlem. From Monday through Friday (February 22 to 26), long lines of people waited to get a last glimpse of the fallen leader. Despite the numerous bomb threats that frequently closed down the viewing, approximately 30,000 people made it through. When the viewing was over, Malcolm X’s clothes were changed into the traditional, Islamic, white shroud. The funeral was held on Saturday, February 27 at the Faith Temple Church of God, where Malcolm X’s friend, actor Ossie Davis, gave the eulogy. Then Malcolm X’s body was taken to the Ferncliff Cemetery, where he was buried under his Islamic name, El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz. The Trial The public wanted Malcolm X’s assassins caught and the police delivered. Tommy Hayer was obviously the first one arrested and there was strong evidence against him. He had been taken into custody at the scene, a .45 cartridge was found in his pocket, and his fingerprint was found on the smoke bomb. The police found two other suspects by arresting men who had been connected to another shooting of an NOI ex-member. The problem was that there was no physical evidence tying these two men, Thomas 15X Johnson and Norman 3X Butler, to the assassination. The police had only eye-witnesses that vaguely remembered them being there. Despite the weak evidence against Johnson and Butler, the trial of all three defendants began on January 25, 1966. With the evidence mounting against him, Hayer took the stand on February 28 and stated that Johnson and Butler were innocent. This revelation shocked everyone in the courtroom and it was unclear at the time whether the two really were innocent or whether Hayer was just trying to get his co-conspirators off the hook. With Hayer unwilling to reveal the names of the real assassins, the jury ultimately believed the latter theory. All three men were found guilty of first-degree murder on March 10, ​1966, and were sentenced to life in prison. Who Really Killed Malcolm X? The trial did little to elucidate what really happened in the Audubon Ballroom that day. Nor did it reveal who was behind the assassination. As in many other such cases, this void of information led to widespread speculation and conspiracy theories. These theories placed the blame for Malcolm X’s assassination on a wide number of people and groups, including the CIA, FBI, and drug cartels. The more likely truth comes from Hayer himself. After the death of Elijah Muhammad in 1975, Hayer felt overwhelmed with the burden of having contributed to the imprisonment of two innocent men and now felt less obligated to protect the changing NOI. In 1977, after 12 years in jail, Hayer handwrote a three-page affidavit, describing his version of really happened that fateful day in 1965. In the affidavit, Hayer again insisted that Johnson and Butler were innocent. Instead, it was Hayer and four other men who had planned and committed the murder of Malcolm X. He also explained why he killed Malcolm X: I thought it was very bad for anyone to go against the teachings of the Hon. Elijah, then known as the last Messenger of God. I was told that Muslims should more or less be willing to fight against hypocrites and I agreed w/ that. There was no money payed [sic] to me for my part in this. I thought I was fighting for truth and right. A few months later, on February 28, 1978, Hayer wrote another affidavit, this one longer and more detailed and included the names of those really involved. In this affidavit, Hayer described how he was recruited by two Newark NOI members, Ben and Leon. Then later Willie and Wilber joined the crew. It was Hayer who had the .45 pistol and Leon who used the Luger. Willie sat a row or two behind them with the sawed-off shotgun. And it was Wilbur who started the commotion and set off the smoke bomb. Despite Hayer’s detailed confession, the case was not reopened and the three convicted men- Hayer, Johnson, and Butler- served out their sentences, Butler was the first to be paroled in June 1985, after having served 20 years in prison. Johnson was released shortly thereafter. Hayer, on the other hand, was not paroled until 2010, after spending 45 years in prison. Source Friedly, Michael. Malcolm X: The Assassination. Carrol Graf Publishers, New York, NY, 1992, pages 10, 17, 18, 19, 22, 85, 152.

The Blockbuster as the Defining Characteristic of Post-Classical Essay

The Blockbuster as the Defining Characteristic of Post-Classical Hollywood - Essay Example Bordwell (2006) explains that blockbuster is often used not to denote a genre of film per se but to describe the performance of a movie on the market. In simple terms, blockbuster is often associated with hit or good movies that generate a lot of revenue for filmmakers. One would then ask whether in the pre-blockbuster era there were no good movies. The answer is no. there were good and hit movies but after movies like Jaws started showing the possibility of amassing so many profits from the box office, the focus of filmmakers now shifted to finding the trick of making huge box offices in each and every movie they made and that started the blockbuster era. So in general terms, the writer agrees that blockbuster came to take off as the defining characteristic of post-classical Hollywood. However, the writer refuses to agree to the often negative connotation given to blockbuster as the defining characteristic of post-classical Hollywood. In the opinion of the writer, therefore, blockbu sters came as a good and positive phenomenon and continue to remain so. One of the first reasons why the writer disagrees with the argument that the blockbuster is a negative defining characteristic of post-classical Hollywood is that blockbuster actually came in to serve a dying situation. This is to say that the trend of the blockbuster was very important in saving the Hollywood film industry from absolute and total collapse. Clearly, bankruptcy was taking over the film industry and so there was every justification for a process that would salvage the situation. Two clear examples can be given in the cases of Heaven’s Gate, which was produced in 1980 by Michael Cimino and One from the Heart, which was produced in 1982 by Francis Ford Coppola. Heaven’s Gate actually made a loss of 40.5million USD after earning $3.5 million in box-office as against a $44 million production cost. One from the heart earned merely $636,000 out of $26 million. The said now that such giant players behind the film industry actually run into bankruptcy since those losses. Without any doubt, the industry would have been seriously affected if the pursuit for profit-making through the production of ‘hit’ films was not followed as what was earned in 1975 with the making of Jaws. On the grounds that blockbuster was necessary to rejuvenating the efforts of filmmakers to seek ways of producing films that were good enough to make them stay in the industry is thus a positive rather than a negative phenomenon of the blockbuster as the defining characteristic of post-classical Hollywood. It is even interesting to note that blockbusters do not necessarily have to be of good quality to make profits but there have been newer introductions such as technology backed publicity by the use of social and popular media to ensure that blockbusters sell. The second point that makes the writer take a stand against the idea that blockbuster is a negative defining characteristic of post-classical Hollywood is that not much has changed in terms of concept.  

Report on the NHS Cardiology Provision Assignment

Report on the NHS Cardiology Provision - Assignment Example Increased in health care cost 8 4.0 Recommendations 8 5.0 Conclusion 8 6.0 References List 10 1. Introduction The National Health Service (NHS) ensures accessibility of care regardless of wealth. Its core principles involve care that meets the needs of everyone, care that is free at point of delivery and care based on clinical need (NHS, 2011, n.p.). NHS cardiology provision offers cardiac care and rehabilitation that is accessible, affordable, and disease-focused among patients suffering from cardiac diseases or disorders such as congenital heart disease, acute myocardial infarction, unstable angina, dysrhythmias, and even heart failure. NHS also entails seven (7) key principles that will guide patient rights to health services offered, which include: provision of a comprehensive service irrespective all biases, access based on clinical need and not on the ability to pay, aspiration of the highest standards of excellence and professionalism, reflection of patients, families and care takers needs, partnership and collaboration with other organisations to promote the best interest of patients and greater population, provision of effective, fair, and sustainable resources using taxpayers’ money, and accountability to the patient, public and community (NHS, 2011, n.p.). ... This report aims to identify the present status of NHS cardiology provision in UK and its impact on the population and health care sector. Focus will be given on the good aspects of cardiology provision such as decline of CHD, growth of cardiology workforce, as well as advancement in cardiology research and interventions. The bad aspects would likewise be determined and recommendations to address and improve the system would be proffered. 2. Positive Aspects of Cardiology Provision Despite variations in the cardiology provision of the National Health Service (NHS), a number of positive aspects had been noted, to wit: decline of age-adjusted congenital heart disease (CHD) mortality, growth of United Kingdom (UK) cardiology workforce, and advancement in scientific research involving cardiology treatments, devices, and interventions (Boon et al. 2006, p. 873-877). 2.1. Decline of age-adjusted CHD mortality. Survey report from Mindell et al. (2003)found out that the NHS-funded age-standa rdised revascularisation rates varied from 95.2 to 193.9 per 100, 000 (NHS standard is 131.9); thus, cardiology provision reflected no significant difference in terms of age distribution (p. 2). In England, Wales, and Northern Ireland, approximately 299, 000 patients were diagnosed with acute myocardial infarction, unstable angina, revascularisation, and other cardiac diseases (Beswick et al. 2004, p. 2). It can be gleaned from the data presented that cardiology provision was an emerging need; regardless of age or UK nation. With the establishment of the NHS system, the rates of mortality from CHD declined. Data from the 1999-2003 survey of the British Heart Foundation

Evaluation of a Current Child Health Issue Essay

Evaluation of a Current Child Health Issue - Essay Example Depression, another emotional disorder, is also on the rise with young people with at least 2 per cent of children under 12 and 5 per cent of teenagers suffering from depression (op.cit.). Depression is associated with â€Å"feelings of extreme sadness† (NHS, 2010, para.6) which not only last for long periods of time, but is also recurrent and may further develop into suicidal tendencies (ibid). Brent and Birmaher (2002) noted that depression in both children and adolescents is not always demonstrated by sadness, but can take the form of irritability, boredom and the inability to find pleasure. Younger adolescents may show more anxiety-related symptoms, clinging behaviours, unexplained fears and physical symptoms, while older adolescents may experience a greater loss of interest and pleasure and also have more morbid thinking (Kalb & Raymond, 2003; Mondimore, 2002). Lewinsohn et al. (1998) found that nearly 89% of depressed adolescents reported disturbances in sleep. With youn ger children in the early childhood stage, depression is manifested by â€Å"masked† symptoms such as a complaint of stomach ache or aggression (Carlson & Cantwell, 1980; Hazel, 2002; Luby et al., 2003). These symptoms are fairly common in children, so it is not usually identified as a depressive symptom. However, when young children have these symptoms and are also seen to be irritable, bored or not finding pleasure, especially in play which is inherently fun, then they may present symptoms of early childhood depression (Brent and Birmaher, 2002). The difficulty with reaching a clear diagnosis of depression at this stage is that young children are perceived to be developmentally too immature to experience the effects of such a heavy emotion (Stalets & Luby, 2006). On the other hand, studies have shown that in fact children at this stage are far more emotionally sophisticated than they are given credit for (Denham et al., 2002; Denham et al., 2003; Saarni, 2000; Lewis et al., 1992; Lewis et al., 1989). Depression in very young children results in experiencing complicated emotions such as guilt and shame (Luby et al., 2009) and as younger children â€Å"mask† their depression it can be harder to identify a need early on. Some children who are depressed may actually avidly participate in activities with others such as singing and dancing and even exaggerate their actions. This makes diagnosis even harder and early intervention difficult. Depression can develop from a combination of different factors (risk factors) such as genetics, physiological, environmental and socio-economic factors such as parent’s unemployment , sickness and large families in small houses, bullying of peers or abuse from adults (Northen, 2004). If these risk factors are already present in the child’s life then significant life changes such as a death of a significant other, parental divorce and other tragedies will greatly increase the likelihood of childhood de pression. One particularly important factor that affects a child’s likelihood of developing depression is the quality of their relationship with their family. Brofenbrenner’s Ecological model (1979) explains that family is part of the child’s microsystem and the primary providers of the child’

Reaction essay Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Reaction essay - Assignment Example The Holocaust Memorial is therefore symbolic of the murdered Jews that is why it was aptly named â€Å"Memorial for the Murdered Jews of Europe† (Michael Blackwood Productions, Inc., n.d., par. 2). I think that the ‘ort’ was a good idea to provide visitors and guests with the crucial information relating to the museum. This is necessary especially for people in future generations who could not have been appropriately informed of the historical events that transpired during this time. I still believe that the title is the most appropriate one given that even those who died of old age or disease in concentration camps also fall within this category; since they would not have been forced to be in these camps in the first place if the intention were not to murder them. Their dying of old age or of disease were just a matter of consequence. affirmation that people of the United States detest what had happened during the holocaust. Likewise, there is a need to commemorate the Jews who died and might have relatives who died during this time to manifest unity in remembering them. No national monument for the victims of slavery and genocide were erected in this country because it would not befit to show to the world that these discriminatory events and violations of human rights were actually perpetuated by people from this country. From the documentary video of Emmaly Reed, the viewers are given the prerogative to either believe what she is narrating or to dismiss this as virtually unsubstantiated (Cantrell, n.d. ). One could believe her given that there were other victims who relayed similar incidences and stories of harm that were apparently inflicted. On the contrary, given that she must have been two or three years old at that time, the events could not have been possibly remembered. Likewise, with the narration that she could have been subjected to various torture (hammering of nail on her skull or hanging and poisoning), given

Using Ownership Incentives in China Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Using Ownership Incentives in China - Case Study Example On the other hand, the method has also been seen to reduce employee turnovers in the organizations where it is practiced. The outcome of the study are of great significance to Ben Freed and his partners in their quest to export this management culture to China with the aim of expanding their business and market globally. Analysis of the various aspects that would impact on the company’s incentive ownership culture would significantly inform the choice of practice to be adopted by the company, hence acting proactively to avert potential risks on the same. On the other hand, the findings of the study are of significant importance to employees, especially the experts based in the US, who are expected to move into a different country to introduce the new management system. The knowledge gained is important in preparing them on what to expect from the new geographical and cultural setup. The local culture of ownership as practiced in the Silicon Valley could be exported to China in various ways. For instance, the mode of payment for the China-based employees, together with all other employee motivational practices done in the US, could be introduced for the Chinese employees. This would thus mean that the payment for these employees be inclusive of their normal salaries together with the stock ownership percentages as determined by their respective positions in the company (Dong, Bowles and Ho 826). With the use of employee ownership approach, the CEO is well placed in motivating the workers to be responsible and work hard considering that their own success is determined by the company’s success. Additionally, the use of this approach is important in demonstrating to the employees that the company values all stakeholders in it equally, and gives similar treatment to all its employees. As observed in the historical practices in China, however, there could be n umerous challenges in

The Colorado Healthy Communities Initiative Lab Report

The Colorado Healthy Communities Initiative - Lab Report Example This uniqueness of this program that differentiates it from others is that it focused on the community based definition of health that means it gave a personal touch to it. The second important thing that was introduced was collaboration between those different individuals of the society to work for a common purpose. It helped an individual to build its own individual capacity. The involvement of different kinds of communities prevailing in that state was evident too. This study was conducted over a period of 8 years and extensive exploration took place in these years that have validated the research as being fruitful and a true representative of the thoughts of the common man living in Colorado about his health. It involved extensive evaluation of all the processes and steps that were involved in the process to understand the diversity of the individuals and implementing the health conscious techniques according to the individual's diverse background and value system. Four evaluatio n reports were produced through this program. These reports were the highlights of the program and the article is based on the important findings of those four reports only. The findings of this study were worth mentioning. The less participation on the part of the Coloradoan citizens in the decision making process that determines their future was reported. The citizens felt they weren't being given enough opportunities to foster participation. Another factor that was revealed through this study was the Coloradoan citizen's love, affection and sense of belonging with the state and the people of that state, the neighborhood and the government. A further astonishing finding was that they considered the local government more powerful and important than the overall government. They gave more weight to the local government as to solving their problems. Another thing that they believed strongly in was that the adult participation and prevention as being the two most effective ways of solving problems. The CHCI model was adapted from the National Civil League's approach to healthy community. It consisted of two phases; the first one was of 18 months of extensive strategic planning, the second phase consisted of 2 to 3 years of action-oriented implementation activities. The final step in the planning process was by the stakeholders to develop activities and plans to address to the issue. The stakeholder's could then apply for implementation grants and use those grants accordingly to the benefit of their respective communities. In addition to all this, a community indicators project was also initiated in the middle stages. The Colorado trust made additional funds to be made available to 15 other communities and this act turned out to be pretty fruitful. Evaluation The major outcomes from this initiative were that there was a lot of commitment shown on the part of the citizens of that state. They were a diverse group of people varying from the business to the education sector. The commitment and collaboration yielded from issue-focused outcomes to the creation of a new family based nonprofit resource