History of Nationalist Ideologies

Free Essays on Profile of Frederick Douglass

Frederick Douglass, one of history’s most successful black abolitionist, changed America’s views of slavery through his writings and actions. Frederick Douglass had many achievements throughout his life. His great oratory skills left the largest impact on Civil War time period literature. Douglass was born a slave in 1817, in Maryland. He educated himself and became determined to escape the horror of slavery. He attempted to escape slavery once, but failed. He later made a successful escape in 1838. Frederick’s life as a slave had the greatest impact on his writings. Through slavery, he was able to develop the necessary emotion and experiences for him to become a successful abolitionist writer. He grew up as a slave, experiencing all of the hardships that are included, such as whippings, scarce meals, and other harsh treatment. His thirst for freedom , and his burning hatred of slavery caused him to write Narrative Of The Life Of Frederick Douglass, and other sim ilar biographies. In his Narrative, he wrote the complete story of his miserable life as a slave and his strife to obtain freedom. The main motivational force behind his character (himself) was to make it through another day so that someday he might see freedom. The well written books that he produced were all based on his life. They all started with Douglass coping with slavery. He had a reason to write these works. As a die-hard abolitionist, He wanted to show the world how bad slavery really was. "He did this really well, because he made people understand the unknown, and made abolitionists out of many people. This man had a cause, as well as a story to tell" (Schomp, 25). Douglass, as a former slave, single-handedly redefined American Civil War literature, simply by redefining how antislavery writings were viewed. Frederick Douglass is well known for many of his literary achievements. He is best known, now, as a writer. "As a writer, Frederick Douglass shined. As a spe... Free Essays on Profile of Frederick Douglass Free Essays on Profile of Frederick Douglass Frederick Douglass, one of history’s most successful black abolitionist, changed America’s views of slavery through his writings and actions. Frederick Douglass had many achievements throughout his life. His great oratory skills left the largest impact on Civil War time period literature. Douglass was born a slave in 1817, in Maryland. He educated himself and became determined to escape the horror of slavery. He attempted to escape slavery once, but failed. He later made a successful escape in 1838. Frederick’s life as a slave had the greatest impact on his writings. Through slavery, he was able to develop the necessary emotion and experiences for him to become a successful abolitionist writer. He grew up as a slave, experiencing all of the hardships that are included, such as whippings, scarce meals, and other harsh treatment. His thirst for freedom , and his burning hatred of slavery caused him to write Narrative Of The Life Of Frederick Douglass, and other sim ilar biographies. In his Narrative, he wrote the complete story of his miserable life as a slave and his strife to obtain freedom. The main motivational force behind his character (himself) was to make it through another day so that someday he might see freedom. The well written books that he produced were all based on his life. They all started with Douglass coping with slavery. He had a reason to write these works. As a die-hard abolitionist, He wanted to show the world how bad slavery really was. "He did this really well, because he made people understand the unknown, and made abolitionists out of many people. This man had a cause, as well as a story to tell" (Schomp, 25). Douglass, as a former slave, single-handedly redefined American Civil War literature, simply by redefining how antislavery writings were viewed. Frederick Douglass is well known for many of his literary achievements. He is best known, now, as a writer. "As a writer, Frederick Douglass shined. As a spe...

Increasing Of The Self-medication Level And Its Dangerous Essay - 1

Increasing Of The Self-medication Level And Its Dangerous - Essay Example The country has witnessed a situation in which people buy and consume drugs without a prescription from medical practitioners. The danger with this culture is that parents are adopting the culture oblivious of the future behavior that their children will adopt following the use of drugs over the counter. Gup highlights the dangerous approach that parents adopt and indicates that the system â€Å"devalues talking therapy† and consequently results into other approaches of treatment, which he calls self-medication and indicates that the society has made this approach â€Å"perfectly acceptable.† Based on Gup’s statement, the society engages in self-medication without assessing the dangers involved in their actions. In effect, children will adopt this practice as conventional or standard practice since their parents make it deeply rooted in a family setting. To highlight the dangers posed by this practice, drug dealing can be said to be a practice that originates fro m the self-medication that the American social practices. In this regard, the fact that drugs are sold without a prescription can make drug dealing become normal since self-medication is the order of the day. In effect, I agree with Gup when he indicates that his son’s behavior mirrored the society that the young people grow in whereby â€Å"Big Pharma itself prospers from the off-label uses of drugs, often not tested in children and not approved for the many uses to which they are put† (Gup). In this regard, it is evident that large pharmaceutical companies rake in billions of profits each year by selling drugs without proper regulatory measures in place. From this practice, youths who peddle drugs to society behave in a similar way to these pharmaceutical companies since they sell drugs that are illegal and are harmful to society. It is common knowledge that most behavior that humans adopt is learned from various settings.

Major 8-1 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Major 8-1 - Essay Example icated in causing liver cancers, aggressive behavior, gynaecomastia, and testicular atrophy (Josefson, 1996, 702).† Adolescence use performance enhancing drugs due to the pressure to achieve difficult goals, which paves the way for future substance abuse and health problems. Athletic students with goals to play collage or professional sports feel pressured to be the very best. Above all, professional sports roll models are often accused of using performance-enhancing drugs (Garzon et. al., 2006, 159). Professional athletes including baseball players Mark McGuire and Sammy Sosa, football player Emmit Smith, and wrestler Hulk Hogan used over the counter performance-enhancing drugs. â€Å"Mark McGuire and Sammy Sosa admitted consuming creatine, an energy boosting protein, Mark McGuire also admitted to taking androstendione, a testosterone producer (Josefson, 1996, 702).† Creatine and androstendione are both available over-the-counter. Hulk Hogan used over-the-counter steroids to build muscle mass to gain weight class in his wrestling career. As a result, student athletes turn to performance-enhancing drugs with the idea that their athletic performance will enhance; however, these drugs do not improve athletes’ skill level or make them stronge r. â€Å"High school and even middle school students are using these supplements because they are misled into thinking that supplements will enhance their athletic skills resulting in an improvement in their performance (Garzon et. al., 2006, 159).† Students with high expectations and low self-esteem â€Å"are at the risk of following the shoes of their role models as they seek performance enhancing drugs (Garzon et. al., 2006, 159).† Athletic organizations like â€Å"the International Olympic committee, National College Athletic Association, and National football league, have banned the use of androstenedione [but the ban is difficult to enforce], as the steroid is not tested for in standard drug test (Josefson, 1996, 702).†

Media and communication Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words

Media and communication - Essay Example The Harry Potter Fan Community is built around the series of seven fantasy novels that are written by J. K. Rowling going by the name of Harry Porter, and the series has attracted so much fanatical interest, that every release of a new series of the book has posed security threats in major cities of the world (Pyne, 2010:126). Thus, starting with interest built around the series of the fantasy novel, the Harry Potter Fan Community has metamorphosed over time into creating different other affiliates of the fan community, which then focuses on different other cultural, social and political issues within the society. This way, the once simply fanatical and craze interests in the novel series have turned into a fully-fledged socio-political activism, which is now driving major campaigns towards achieving socio-political changes. To achieve this transformation and buildup more fanatical following, the Harry Potter Fan Community has created a participatory culture, which is enlisting members’ cultural connections towards realizing more civic and political outcomes (Bennett, 2008:18). In this respect, various cultural practices of textual production and circulation in the digital world have been adopted. This discussion seeks to analyze the different cultural practices of textual production and circulation applied by the Harry Potter Fan Community, while also analyzing the transformative work they engage in, the cultural context of the group’s work and thus enhance the understanding of their culture and work. The digital world has completely changed the way textual production and circulation is done. While traditionally, the face-to-face methods were applied towards textual production and circulation by the fan communities, it has become exceedingly difficult to classify the textual production and circulation activities of the fans into specified categories, considering that the digital development has collapsed the initial

Employee Involvement and Participation in Service Industry

Employee Involvement and Participation in Service Industry INTRODUCTION The paper will discuss employee involvement and participation in the service industry with reference to Canary Wharf GBK. The paper starts with the objective of the research and ends with the conclusion and recommendation of the research. Employee involvement is a very important programme to utilize the tacit knowledge of the employees to increase commitment and performance with a limited cost. This paper will discuss different types and models of employees involvement and their benefit and limitations. The research start with the secondary research through collected theories to write the literature reviews to build the base of the research. In the literature reviews, it has explained views of different writer on employees involvement. The literature reviews includes types of involvement, models of employees involvement and management support for employees involvement Further, this research includes a methodology where the research strategy, approach, data collection and sample of the research are outline. Research methodology is crucial, as it is giving the researcher ways to conduct the primary research. The research is base on a case study and the data collection methods are interviews and a survey. In the third section the researcher, outline the finding of interviews and survey. In this research, there are three interviews and one survey conducted by the researcher. The participants in the interviews are the managers and the respondent in the survey are the employees of the organisation. Finally, in the last section the researcher presented analysis and conclusion of the research. In the analysis, the data collected from the research has been tested with the theories of literature. The research concludes with a brief conclusion where the result of the research has discussed. In the end, the researcher gives recommendation and discusses the scope, limitation, and interesting issue of the research. Research objectives are Critically analyse the importance of employee involvement as outlined in the literature review that includes its importance in recession. Evaluate Gourmet Burger Kitchen employee involvement strategy in the light of the research finding and theoretical literature. Discuss the benefits and limitations of Employee involvement. Benchmark the GBK canary wharf case study with other restaurant. Reason for choosing this topic The purpose of this study is to investigate the methods of effective involvement of the employees in a company where the researcher is working. Employees are the most valuable assets of a company. Employee involvement is important as it can result in empowerment and democracy in the organisation. This may result in increased motivation to take more responsibility (Judge and Gennard (2005). In this current economic situationwhen the confidence of the employees is low, EIP can motivate the employees to deliver good customer services, which can eventually result in improved profitability. The researcher aims to explore the role of employee involvement in the hospitality industry where the employees turn over is highest. The researcher is presently working at GBK and has accessto conduct interviews and surveys. Furthermore, the researcher is interested in opening a business in India that is why the researcher has chosen this topic. PART ONE LITRETURE REVIEW Definition of employee involvement Employees, the strongest pillar of the organization are the most valuable asset that contributes significantly to its success and prosperity. According to Price (2004), the involvement of employees in the organizational operation not only motivates them but also enables them to contribute more effectively and efficiently. Further, he explains employee involvement as a process involving participation, communication, decision making which leads to industrial democracy and employee motivation. Further CIPD (2009) explain employee involvement as a commitment of the employees towards the values of the organisation and willingness to help each other to achieve the organisational goal. The results are not only to increase job satisfaction, or motivation but the increasing performance of that organisation. In short, employee involvement is creating an environment where people have a continuous impact on decisions and actions that affect their jobs. Employee involvement Vs participation Understanding and defining the concept Employee involvement and employee participation are like two sides of a coin. Both are supplementary to each other and existence of one depends on the other. There is not any significant difference between the two terms. Participation is an act of sharing information and the meaning of involvement is the day-to-day activity of the organization. Many writers have contributed towards the development of this thought of employee involvement or participation. For example Delaney (1996) had used the term participation as a voice of the employee in the decision making process and to describe different types of involvement of employee in the organizations affair. But very few writers tried to find the difference between the two concepts. Kale (1999) argues that participation is any organizational arrangement under which employees have some sort of share in some aspect of the business which is not specific types of employee involvement. Furthermore Ang (2002) has contributed towards the development of the difference between the two terms and concluded that, Employee involvement calls for participation which is all about sharing information, training, mutual decision making process whereas traditional participative managementviews participation as a part of other organizational process. Marching ton et al. (1993) have used employee participation in a different context and as an umbrella term covering all forms of employee influence in the organization. Employee involvement is used to describe managerially inspired initiatives aimed at winning employee commitment, as part of the practices of industrial democracy, whose aim is to increase the rights of employees to participate in management decisions. This not only results in enhanced employee morale but also retaining the potential manpower resulting in lower attrition rate. Many writers have contributed differently and each one of them has different approach to the concept and the context. Employee involvement was and is still known and referred to by different writers under such headings as participative management, employee participation, and worker involvement. Employee involvement and empowerment The concept of employee involvement is incomplete without it being associated with employee empowerment. According to Cunningham and Hyman (1999) there cannot be a single or simple definition of empowerment as some writers see empowerment as a recent development after increase employee involvement. Further Apostolouain (2000) explains that empowerment is the next step of employee involvement means where the employees have the power to take decisions. Blanchard et al. (1999) has defined its scope referring it as a means for involving team members as business partners in determining company success or failure. The real essence of which comes from releasing the knowledge, experience, and motivational power that is already in people but is being severely underutilized. In short it can be said that employee involvement leads to empowerment of the employees in different management decision process. Importance of Employee involvement The increasing competition and technological changes in the last 20 years have demanded higher skills and flexibility from the employees for the organisation. Walton (1985) stated that the highly competitive environment needs a different strategic approach to manage the employees. He further stated that in order to achieve that the jobs needs to be broader. The jobs structure should be made with proper planning and implementation to improve the performance unless just to maintain it. This situation leads to formation of teams, which are accountable for the performance. Employee involvement not only maintained the standard of the operation process but gives emphasis on continuous improvement and it is reflecting the requirement of the market place. Further Marchington (2001) argues that the employee involvement come into focus in the early 90s when the employer looking for a participative way to manage the work force. Judge and Gennard (2005) further outline the other important aspect of employee involvement is the increases job security of the employees by offering them priority in training and retraining. The training equipped them with the skill and knowledge that the job demands. Greater employee commitment leads a growing expectancy to better job satisfaction and performance. It is difficult for the organisation in current business scenario to improve the performance without employee commitment towards the organizations mission and objective. Employee involvement allows the employee to input their views and ideas on performance and the quality of the service. This will lead the development where the employees want to be part of successful organisation, which provides them a good income and opportunity to enhance their skills for a secure employment. Grates (2009) stated that the engaged employees significantly contributes to the success of the organisation to achieve the goal and objective. H e further said that employee involvement could give competitive advantage in the market. It can help to reduce turnover and increase the productivity. An industrial services survey conducted in 1999 on 49 organisations experiences on employee involvement over the period of 1991-1999 has reported that more then 33% people believe that it enhanced employee commitment and motivation. The same number of people believes that it is really help to improve the relationship between the employee and the employer. Approximately 60% people said that the quality of the product and the services has improved. More then 50% believe that their job satisfaction had increased and the organisational profit has increased. Importance of employee involvement in recession The world has seen its worst recession since 1930s and most of the world economies are fighting against it. The economic crisis forces the employers to introduce cost-cutting measure and one of them is redundancies. According to an article HR focus (2009) most of companies in the world complete the lay offs of employees. Now the big question is how this organisation can use the most of the remaining employees. The other important question is how the company survive and can increase their performance in this difficult time. One of the measures that the organisation uses to give confidence to their employees is greater emphasis on employee involvement and participation scheme. According to Frauenheim (2009) the importance of employee involvement is more crucial in this difficult environment of economic trouble. As it is revels by many experts that worker commitment is more important then before as the confidence of the employees are badly hit by the lay offs. Haters stated that its the employees help that improving the situation during this economic turmoil as employee involvement can give the sense of value to the employees and can increase the job security. Juile Gebauer managing director of Towers Perrin believe that the company must give more attention to employee involvement to survive and performing good in recession as his organization found there is direct link between performance and involvement. Low employee satisfaction or confidence may results poor customer services and in recession where customers are very reluctant to spend, companies can not afford bad customer service. In this difficult time companies have to be more efficient to attract more customers to surviveand customer service isof the tool to do that. It is found that EIP can increase employee satisfaction which can lead better performance Types of employee involvement Employee involvement practices/ approaches According to Ang (2002) the idea of employee involvement is still developing although there is large amount of research done in the last decade still there is not any developed ways to use employee involvement as a management approach. The management approach depends how the employer wants to involve their employee in different operation. According to Lawler et al (1998) the most important factor of employee involvement approaches is how it can represent comprehensively in the process of problem solving, sharing information, rewards for performance and developing knowledge and ideas. He further says that in order to implement these practices the organization needs a particular employee involvement program. Traditional versus current perspective There is a significant difference between the current and the traditional way of employee involvement and participation. According to Gary and Sisson (1994) the traditional way is mostly indirect participation and limited direct participation. Further indirect participation includes trade union and work council and direct participation was limited to improve the quality of the work to counter turnover and absenteeism. He further explains that current employee participation is more direct as it concern with improve the performance of the organization that can be linked with the objective of the organization like customer satisfaction. The types of jobs in the current environment is changing as more and more company recruiting part time employees and they need to adopt different strategy to involve them in the process. Representative participation According to Apostolou (2000) one of the main ways to achieve representative participation is joint consultation where employees elected representative to discuss with the management on various issues which concern them. These processes give the employees an opportunity to influence the proposal before it is finally made. Further Judge and Generd (2004) explain that, joint consolation involves seeking acceptable solutions to problem through a genuine exchange of views and information .Employee communication is concerned with the interchange of information and ideas within an organization. Direct, indirect and financial participation In 1999 Oosthuizen and du Toit classify the employee involvement and participation practice as direct, indirect and financial. Direct participation is the communication between the management and the employees regarding different function of the organization like decision making process to problem solving. Whereas in indirect participation the employees are involve through their representatives who are elected leaders. Financial participation is the economic participation of the employees in the success or failure of the organization through share ownership, profit sharing scheme. Marchington et al (1992) talk of direct and indirect employee participation practices the direct participation consist of downward communication from management to employees which includes team briefing, workplace wide meeting ,staff newsletters and cascading of information down via the management chain. Downward Communication from Managers to Employees According to Marchington et al (1992) the downward involvement technique is used to inform employees of management plans. The management can use different ways to do that. Regular and continuous distribution of the company reports, journal, company publication and videos are the effective way to inform employees about the development of the company. Team briefing and regular team meeting is another ways for the top management to aware the employees about the organization news and development. Upward involvement Marchington et al (1992) explain the other way of direct communication which are upward problem solving communication practices and that includes suggestion schemes, employee attitude surveys, and employee groups established to solve specific problems or discuss aspect of performance or quality and suggestion scheme. Further Taily et al (2003) outline the importance of employees attitude survey and it can be done through questionnaire to a sample of employees to find out their views about different factors of the work. He further explain that formal processes like suggestion scheme can be put forward to find out employees thinking on different issues like quality improvement to enhance performance. Financial participation Financial participation is one of the best direct and tangible forms of employee involvement. The financial participation allows the employee to be a part of the financial success and failure of the organization. This will encourage the employees to show greater commitment and encourage them to take extra responsibility.Further, it is argued that a financial stake gives employees increased enthusiasm for the success of the organization. In its most developed form employee share ownership means that employees become significant shareholders in the business or even their own employer (Judge and Gennard, 2005). Financial employee involvement scheme can be carried out in three ways and that is profit sharing, profit related pay and share ownership. Profit sharing According to Judge al (2004) profit sharing methods can help to build a motivated and committed workforce. Further Taily et al (2004) explains that these schemes encourage employees to work as a team rather then individual as the rewards for working together is more then working individually. Profit sharing scheme ensure that employees benefit from an organization that makes profits. Profit related pay Taily et al (2003) explains that profit related pay scheme where employer rewards the employees for their contribution to the business. Further he outlines that it works where a group of people get pay to the profit of the business for their work. This kind of scheme generally found in the sales business where there is bonus for achieving the target. This scheme can increase the motivation and commitment of the employees. Share ownership Judge et al (2004) stated that latest way of financial participation of the employees is share ownership where the employees are owner of some part of the company through share. It means that they have shareholders right. Further Apostolou (2000) stated that it produces interest among the employees about the company matters. In UK one of 5 employees have share ownership in their company .This kind of schemes seeks long term commitment from the employees and its take the employee involvement in a new stage where employees are promoting to some part of the ownership of the company. Owing share makes the employees more motivated and committed as the loss or the profit directly have an impact on them. Task based participation Task based participation is mainly to the job and an integral part of day-to-day life. It is all about perform the task in the same level or higher level, which can be managers or supervisor. Team working and self management Teamwork one of the important ways of employee involvement described by Pfeiffers (1998) as it is one of the seven key HRM practise. It allows employees to take extra responsibility for the task, without direct supervision, to have discretion over work method and time, to multi skill and to recruit team members. Managerial control is at it most subversive and effective when employees take on responsibility for peer surveillance (Marchington and Wilkinson (1998 Benefit of Team working Team meeting benefit both the employer and the employees. Through introducing team working the employer can improve productivity, customer service, cost cutting. In addition the employers can spread the ideas and be competitive in the market by improving the performance. Further its increase the employees motivation to extra responsibility and care for the organization. Team working is benefited for the employees as well as the outcome of team working are greater job satisfaction and motivation. Service industry characteristics and customer driven attitude or orientation is suits team working (Wilkinson et al 1998).Cully et al (1999) claim that team working participation is used in two third of the British industries. In order to introduce team working the organization needs skillful management and resources. Employee Involvement Model Psychological contracts First used in 1960s the psychological contract became very popular following the development in the world economy like globalization and economic crisis in 1990s.It is described as mutual obligations without any written contract between the employee and the employer. As it is not a written contract these obligations are informal and imprecise and are made in the requirement process or in the performance appraisal. Some obligation is seen as a promise whereas others are term as an expectation. The important part of that is the belief by the employees to be part of good relationship with the employer (CIPD, 2009). The difference between the legal contract and psychological contract can be easily distinguished. Legal contract is a paper sign contract between the employee and the employer which represent the limited reality of the employment. The nature and importance of that can be found in an employment tribunal. On the other hand Psychological contract is more influential than the formal contract as it is affecting the employee behavior. This contract helps the employee to understand the requirement to represent their side and bargain and what they can expect from the job. The contract is based on mutual trust and understanding and cant be enforceable as it is not a legal one (CIPD2009). Professor David Guest (2002) of Kings College London outlines the importance of psychological contracts and what it can offer to the employee and the employer. The model suggests that the importance of employer to adopt people management as it is directly influence the psychological contract .The contract is based on mutual trust and fairness of the employee and the belief that the employer is respecting the deal between them. Further he explains that positive psychological contract increase employee commitment and satisfaction which results increase performance. Limitation of psychological contract The main problem with Psychological contract arises when it is broken by management by not delivering the promises. This can leads to low job satisfaction, low morale and dispute between the employee and management. The employees are feeling cheated if the promise like rewards, training is not fulfilled or negative feedback from the managers about the work. Another limitation could be emerging when the company merges or restructure and the employees concerns are not listened to, this can raise dissatisfaction among the employees. What Psychological contract is important? The nature of the jobs changed dramatically in the last 20 years and there are more temporary and part time jobs available and the people do not have a permanent future in that company, they need to build a relationship with the management to secure their future. The cost of labor is increasing and most of the organization wants to work more with less employees makes the jobs more hectic stressful. Human resources are becoming more critical to get competitive advantage by their tacit and explicit knowledge. Team work culture is increasing. Finally positive psychological can result in high efficiency. Black box model People, Performance link In order to understand the importance or significance of employee involvement and participation it is really important to understand the people and performance link. A research team lead by Professor John Purcell (2003) at Bath University carried out an investigation on people and performance link called as black box model. In that they have carried out interviews in 18 organizations which lasted over three years. In the interview with the managers the aim is to collect the information regarding their attitudes, level commitment, views about the job, team and reporting relationship. There information had been investigating in depth the relationships between practice and performance to develop understanding of the nature and mechanics of the relationship. After analyzing the data the team develops the people and performance model famously called as black box model. These models found that the people management creates the building blocks of performance and that are ability, motivation and opportunity. As in the figure shows Purcell make four pillars to describe the people performance link. The first pillar is the human resources; the second is the AMO factors which is with the help of the line management in pillar three can result in employee commitment, job satisfaction and motivation which can finally lead to discretionary behavior. Further he explains that ability is the willing to learn new skill and apply and recognized, motivation assume that the use of ability in an effective way and finally opportunity assume the involvement of the employees in different operation like problem solving and the decision making process. These factors like ability, motivation and opportunity are very important as they are directly related to job satisfaction and commitment of the employees. It will encourage the employee to exhibit discretionary behavior which means the way doing the job like in speed, care and innovation. These activities are the heart of the employment relationship as it is very difficult for the employer to monitor all the activities in an organization. This behavior makes the performance of the organization to a next level with greater job satisfaction and better performance. (CIPD, 2009). Role of line managers According to Judge and Gennard (2005) the main reason of the failure of employees involvement is the attitude of the middle and lower management. The middle and lower management fail to support the scheme as they think they will lose power to control employees Further a research done by CIPD the role of line managers are the most important to implement the employee involvement and practice. Line managers are constantly in the communication with the employees. The line managers are the best person in explaining the variation in both job satisfaction and discretionary behavior as it one of the most important factors in order to developing commitment in the organization .The managers can encages employees towards their jobs and make them responsible for their jobs. The line managers can evaluate the performance through performance appraisal and motivates them by introducing more bonuses for better performance (CIPD, 2009). Organization culture According to CIPD (2009) it is found that the practice and performance is highly influenced by the organization environment. The practice performance link depends on the origination goal mission statement which must influence by the values the organizations stands for. And want to achieve in the future. The goal or the mission is very important for employee commitment. The goals or the mission should be spread throughout the organization to embed that in the policies of the organization. These values encourage employees to achieve new height in their jobs. This will motivate them as they are feeling valued and that eventually result in better performance. Comparison between Psychological contract and black box model Black box model is a medium for creating the atmosphere that reinforces psychological contract through the power of line managers. While psychological contract is a state of mind that already exists between the management and the employees. Implementation of employee involvement schemes Different organization operates differently so it is very important to understand that the schemes good for one organization may be not appropriate for the other one. There are few factors that are really important in order to successfully implement the schemes. The factors are good employee relations, the organization culture and the top management support, monitoring and reviewing and resources. Good employee relation Judge and Gennard (2005) explains that good employee relation is the basic need in order to implement employee involvement scheme as it is very important to motivate the employees and the management to take part in the process. The management and the employees must be open in their attitude and behavior. The scheme cant be successful in a case of dispute between them. Employee involvement can gain and develop in the background of trust and motivation among the management and the employees. Commitment by the top management The most importance factor regarding the success of employee involvement is the support of the top management. It is the top management who can encourage employee involvement and participation. According to Lawler et al (1995) it is essential, as employee involvement needs the management support to develop and smooth implementation without any obstacle. It is the management responsibility to introduce EI through suggestion programs and problem solving teams. The management can give more training to the employees to increase their skills and when they believe that the employees are knowledgeable and more skilled they can involve them in different organization function through EIP. This can leads to introduce reward and recognition for better performance to encourage employee involvement. Further Judge et al (2005) explain that the management must be keeping the momentum after the introduction of the scheme. This will develop trust and motivation among the employees and the employees feel the seriousness of the management about the scheme. Any inconstant management behavior in the workforce involvement can put the scheme in trouble as the employees will de motivates and questioning the management commitment about the scheme. According to Apostolou(2000) there are four important actions the management needs to take to run the scheme successfully and those are trust the employees and give them more responsibility, always updating the training programme to train the employees about the recent change in the business and technology the third action is effective communication and regular feedback of the work. This is the most crucial one as its shows the management seriousness about the scheme and that can motivate the workforce. Finally introducing of rewards and recognition for good work really helps to increase the commitment of the employees. Free flow of information is another important aspect of employee involvement. The management must provide information about the company through different sources to their employees .But the management should be careful to provide too much or too little information as it may create confusion among the employees. The role of leader is even more crucial in the time of recession and economic turmoil where the environment is not conducive for employee involvement because of lay offs. According to Day(2009) the roles of leader is more important then before as it is not possible for them to maintain the same employee involvement scheme if the company is not getting profit. The leadership should be aware the workforce the reason behind the lay off and must use the most remaining talent. The leadership must regain the confidence of the employee by regular informing about the company progress and make them understand about the difficult time. By giving more seriousness on employee involvement the management can help the organizat Employee Involvement and Participation in Service Industry Employee Involvement and Participation in Service Industry INTRODUCTION The paper will discuss employee involvement and participation in the service industry with reference to Canary Wharf GBK. The paper starts with the objective of the research and ends with the conclusion and recommendation of the research. Employee involvement is a very important programme to utilize the tacit knowledge of the employees to increase commitment and performance with a limited cost. This paper will discuss different types and models of employees involvement and their benefit and limitations. The research start with the secondary research through collected theories to write the literature reviews to build the base of the research. In the literature reviews, it has explained views of different writer on employees involvement. The literature reviews includes types of involvement, models of employees involvement and management support for employees involvement Further, this research includes a methodology where the research strategy, approach, data collection and sample of the research are outline. Research methodology is crucial, as it is giving the researcher ways to conduct the primary research. The research is base on a case study and the data collection methods are interviews and a survey. In the third section the researcher, outline the finding of interviews and survey. In this research, there are three interviews and one survey conducted by the researcher. The participants in the interviews are the managers and the respondent in the survey are the employees of the organisation. Finally, in the last section the researcher presented analysis and conclusion of the research. In the analysis, the data collected from the research has been tested with the theories of literature. The research concludes with a brief conclusion where the result of the research has discussed. In the end, the researcher gives recommendation and discusses the scope, limitation, and interesting issue of the research. Research objectives are Critically analyse the importance of employee involvement as outlined in the literature review that includes its importance in recession. Evaluate Gourmet Burger Kitchen employee involvement strategy in the light of the research finding and theoretical literature. Discuss the benefits and limitations of Employee involvement. Benchmark the GBK canary wharf case study with other restaurant. Reason for choosing this topic The purpose of this study is to investigate the methods of effective involvement of the employees in a company where the researcher is working. Employees are the most valuable assets of a company. Employee involvement is important as it can result in empowerment and democracy in the organisation. This may result in increased motivation to take more responsibility (Judge and Gennard (2005). In this current economic situationwhen the confidence of the employees is low, EIP can motivate the employees to deliver good customer services, which can eventually result in improved profitability. The researcher aims to explore the role of employee involvement in the hospitality industry where the employees turn over is highest. The researcher is presently working at GBK and has accessto conduct interviews and surveys. Furthermore, the researcher is interested in opening a business in India that is why the researcher has chosen this topic. PART ONE LITRETURE REVIEW Definition of employee involvement Employees, the strongest pillar of the organization are the most valuable asset that contributes significantly to its success and prosperity. According to Price (2004), the involvement of employees in the organizational operation not only motivates them but also enables them to contribute more effectively and efficiently. Further, he explains employee involvement as a process involving participation, communication, decision making which leads to industrial democracy and employee motivation. Further CIPD (2009) explain employee involvement as a commitment of the employees towards the values of the organisation and willingness to help each other to achieve the organisational goal. The results are not only to increase job satisfaction, or motivation but the increasing performance of that organisation. In short, employee involvement is creating an environment where people have a continuous impact on decisions and actions that affect their jobs. Employee involvement Vs participation Understanding and defining the concept Employee involvement and employee participation are like two sides of a coin. Both are supplementary to each other and existence of one depends on the other. There is not any significant difference between the two terms. Participation is an act of sharing information and the meaning of involvement is the day-to-day activity of the organization. Many writers have contributed towards the development of this thought of employee involvement or participation. For example Delaney (1996) had used the term participation as a voice of the employee in the decision making process and to describe different types of involvement of employee in the organizations affair. But very few writers tried to find the difference between the two concepts. Kale (1999) argues that participation is any organizational arrangement under which employees have some sort of share in some aspect of the business which is not specific types of employee involvement. Furthermore Ang (2002) has contributed towards the development of the difference between the two terms and concluded that, Employee involvement calls for participation which is all about sharing information, training, mutual decision making process whereas traditional participative managementviews participation as a part of other organizational process. Marching ton et al. (1993) have used employee participation in a different context and as an umbrella term covering all forms of employee influence in the organization. Employee involvement is used to describe managerially inspired initiatives aimed at winning employee commitment, as part of the practices of industrial democracy, whose aim is to increase the rights of employees to participate in management decisions. This not only results in enhanced employee morale but also retaining the potential manpower resulting in lower attrition rate. Many writers have contributed differently and each one of them has different approach to the concept and the context. Employee involvement was and is still known and referred to by different writers under such headings as participative management, employee participation, and worker involvement. Employee involvement and empowerment The concept of employee involvement is incomplete without it being associated with employee empowerment. According to Cunningham and Hyman (1999) there cannot be a single or simple definition of empowerment as some writers see empowerment as a recent development after increase employee involvement. Further Apostolouain (2000) explains that empowerment is the next step of employee involvement means where the employees have the power to take decisions. Blanchard et al. (1999) has defined its scope referring it as a means for involving team members as business partners in determining company success or failure. The real essence of which comes from releasing the knowledge, experience, and motivational power that is already in people but is being severely underutilized. In short it can be said that employee involvement leads to empowerment of the employees in different management decision process. Importance of Employee involvement The increasing competition and technological changes in the last 20 years have demanded higher skills and flexibility from the employees for the organisation. Walton (1985) stated that the highly competitive environment needs a different strategic approach to manage the employees. He further stated that in order to achieve that the jobs needs to be broader. The jobs structure should be made with proper planning and implementation to improve the performance unless just to maintain it. This situation leads to formation of teams, which are accountable for the performance. Employee involvement not only maintained the standard of the operation process but gives emphasis on continuous improvement and it is reflecting the requirement of the market place. Further Marchington (2001) argues that the employee involvement come into focus in the early 90s when the employer looking for a participative way to manage the work force. Judge and Gennard (2005) further outline the other important aspect of employee involvement is the increases job security of the employees by offering them priority in training and retraining. The training equipped them with the skill and knowledge that the job demands. Greater employee commitment leads a growing expectancy to better job satisfaction and performance. It is difficult for the organisation in current business scenario to improve the performance without employee commitment towards the organizations mission and objective. Employee involvement allows the employee to input their views and ideas on performance and the quality of the service. This will lead the development where the employees want to be part of successful organisation, which provides them a good income and opportunity to enhance their skills for a secure employment. Grates (2009) stated that the engaged employees significantly contributes to the success of the organisation to achieve the goal and objective. H e further said that employee involvement could give competitive advantage in the market. It can help to reduce turnover and increase the productivity. An industrial services survey conducted in 1999 on 49 organisations experiences on employee involvement over the period of 1991-1999 has reported that more then 33% people believe that it enhanced employee commitment and motivation. The same number of people believes that it is really help to improve the relationship between the employee and the employer. Approximately 60% people said that the quality of the product and the services has improved. More then 50% believe that their job satisfaction had increased and the organisational profit has increased. Importance of employee involvement in recession The world has seen its worst recession since 1930s and most of the world economies are fighting against it. The economic crisis forces the employers to introduce cost-cutting measure and one of them is redundancies. According to an article HR focus (2009) most of companies in the world complete the lay offs of employees. Now the big question is how this organisation can use the most of the remaining employees. The other important question is how the company survive and can increase their performance in this difficult time. One of the measures that the organisation uses to give confidence to their employees is greater emphasis on employee involvement and participation scheme. According to Frauenheim (2009) the importance of employee involvement is more crucial in this difficult environment of economic trouble. As it is revels by many experts that worker commitment is more important then before as the confidence of the employees are badly hit by the lay offs. Haters stated that its the employees help that improving the situation during this economic turmoil as employee involvement can give the sense of value to the employees and can increase the job security. Juile Gebauer managing director of Towers Perrin believe that the company must give more attention to employee involvement to survive and performing good in recession as his organization found there is direct link between performance and involvement. Low employee satisfaction or confidence may results poor customer services and in recession where customers are very reluctant to spend, companies can not afford bad customer service. In this difficult time companies have to be more efficient to attract more customers to surviveand customer service isof the tool to do that. It is found that EIP can increase employee satisfaction which can lead better performance Types of employee involvement Employee involvement practices/ approaches According to Ang (2002) the idea of employee involvement is still developing although there is large amount of research done in the last decade still there is not any developed ways to use employee involvement as a management approach. The management approach depends how the employer wants to involve their employee in different operation. According to Lawler et al (1998) the most important factor of employee involvement approaches is how it can represent comprehensively in the process of problem solving, sharing information, rewards for performance and developing knowledge and ideas. He further says that in order to implement these practices the organization needs a particular employee involvement program. Traditional versus current perspective There is a significant difference between the current and the traditional way of employee involvement and participation. According to Gary and Sisson (1994) the traditional way is mostly indirect participation and limited direct participation. Further indirect participation includes trade union and work council and direct participation was limited to improve the quality of the work to counter turnover and absenteeism. He further explains that current employee participation is more direct as it concern with improve the performance of the organization that can be linked with the objective of the organization like customer satisfaction. The types of jobs in the current environment is changing as more and more company recruiting part time employees and they need to adopt different strategy to involve them in the process. Representative participation According to Apostolou (2000) one of the main ways to achieve representative participation is joint consultation where employees elected representative to discuss with the management on various issues which concern them. These processes give the employees an opportunity to influence the proposal before it is finally made. Further Judge and Generd (2004) explain that, joint consolation involves seeking acceptable solutions to problem through a genuine exchange of views and information .Employee communication is concerned with the interchange of information and ideas within an organization. Direct, indirect and financial participation In 1999 Oosthuizen and du Toit classify the employee involvement and participation practice as direct, indirect and financial. Direct participation is the communication between the management and the employees regarding different function of the organization like decision making process to problem solving. Whereas in indirect participation the employees are involve through their representatives who are elected leaders. Financial participation is the economic participation of the employees in the success or failure of the organization through share ownership, profit sharing scheme. Marchington et al (1992) talk of direct and indirect employee participation practices the direct participation consist of downward communication from management to employees which includes team briefing, workplace wide meeting ,staff newsletters and cascading of information down via the management chain. Downward Communication from Managers to Employees According to Marchington et al (1992) the downward involvement technique is used to inform employees of management plans. The management can use different ways to do that. Regular and continuous distribution of the company reports, journal, company publication and videos are the effective way to inform employees about the development of the company. Team briefing and regular team meeting is another ways for the top management to aware the employees about the organization news and development. Upward involvement Marchington et al (1992) explain the other way of direct communication which are upward problem solving communication practices and that includes suggestion schemes, employee attitude surveys, and employee groups established to solve specific problems or discuss aspect of performance or quality and suggestion scheme. Further Taily et al (2003) outline the importance of employees attitude survey and it can be done through questionnaire to a sample of employees to find out their views about different factors of the work. He further explain that formal processes like suggestion scheme can be put forward to find out employees thinking on different issues like quality improvement to enhance performance. Financial participation Financial participation is one of the best direct and tangible forms of employee involvement. The financial participation allows the employee to be a part of the financial success and failure of the organization. This will encourage the employees to show greater commitment and encourage them to take extra responsibility.Further, it is argued that a financial stake gives employees increased enthusiasm for the success of the organization. In its most developed form employee share ownership means that employees become significant shareholders in the business or even their own employer (Judge and Gennard, 2005). Financial employee involvement scheme can be carried out in three ways and that is profit sharing, profit related pay and share ownership. Profit sharing According to Judge al (2004) profit sharing methods can help to build a motivated and committed workforce. Further Taily et al (2004) explains that these schemes encourage employees to work as a team rather then individual as the rewards for working together is more then working individually. Profit sharing scheme ensure that employees benefit from an organization that makes profits. Profit related pay Taily et al (2003) explains that profit related pay scheme where employer rewards the employees for their contribution to the business. Further he outlines that it works where a group of people get pay to the profit of the business for their work. This kind of scheme generally found in the sales business where there is bonus for achieving the target. This scheme can increase the motivation and commitment of the employees. Share ownership Judge et al (2004) stated that latest way of financial participation of the employees is share ownership where the employees are owner of some part of the company through share. It means that they have shareholders right. Further Apostolou (2000) stated that it produces interest among the employees about the company matters. In UK one of 5 employees have share ownership in their company .This kind of schemes seeks long term commitment from the employees and its take the employee involvement in a new stage where employees are promoting to some part of the ownership of the company. Owing share makes the employees more motivated and committed as the loss or the profit directly have an impact on them. Task based participation Task based participation is mainly to the job and an integral part of day-to-day life. It is all about perform the task in the same level or higher level, which can be managers or supervisor. Team working and self management Teamwork one of the important ways of employee involvement described by Pfeiffers (1998) as it is one of the seven key HRM practise. It allows employees to take extra responsibility for the task, without direct supervision, to have discretion over work method and time, to multi skill and to recruit team members. Managerial control is at it most subversive and effective when employees take on responsibility for peer surveillance (Marchington and Wilkinson (1998 Benefit of Team working Team meeting benefit both the employer and the employees. Through introducing team working the employer can improve productivity, customer service, cost cutting. In addition the employers can spread the ideas and be competitive in the market by improving the performance. Further its increase the employees motivation to extra responsibility and care for the organization. Team working is benefited for the employees as well as the outcome of team working are greater job satisfaction and motivation. Service industry characteristics and customer driven attitude or orientation is suits team working (Wilkinson et al 1998).Cully et al (1999) claim that team working participation is used in two third of the British industries. In order to introduce team working the organization needs skillful management and resources. Employee Involvement Model Psychological contracts First used in 1960s the psychological contract became very popular following the development in the world economy like globalization and economic crisis in 1990s.It is described as mutual obligations without any written contract between the employee and the employer. As it is not a written contract these obligations are informal and imprecise and are made in the requirement process or in the performance appraisal. Some obligation is seen as a promise whereas others are term as an expectation. The important part of that is the belief by the employees to be part of good relationship with the employer (CIPD, 2009). The difference between the legal contract and psychological contract can be easily distinguished. Legal contract is a paper sign contract between the employee and the employer which represent the limited reality of the employment. The nature and importance of that can be found in an employment tribunal. On the other hand Psychological contract is more influential than the formal contract as it is affecting the employee behavior. This contract helps the employee to understand the requirement to represent their side and bargain and what they can expect from the job. The contract is based on mutual trust and understanding and cant be enforceable as it is not a legal one (CIPD2009). Professor David Guest (2002) of Kings College London outlines the importance of psychological contracts and what it can offer to the employee and the employer. The model suggests that the importance of employer to adopt people management as it is directly influence the psychological contract .The contract is based on mutual trust and fairness of the employee and the belief that the employer is respecting the deal between them. Further he explains that positive psychological contract increase employee commitment and satisfaction which results increase performance. Limitation of psychological contract The main problem with Psychological contract arises when it is broken by management by not delivering the promises. This can leads to low job satisfaction, low morale and dispute between the employee and management. The employees are feeling cheated if the promise like rewards, training is not fulfilled or negative feedback from the managers about the work. Another limitation could be emerging when the company merges or restructure and the employees concerns are not listened to, this can raise dissatisfaction among the employees. What Psychological contract is important? The nature of the jobs changed dramatically in the last 20 years and there are more temporary and part time jobs available and the people do not have a permanent future in that company, they need to build a relationship with the management to secure their future. The cost of labor is increasing and most of the organization wants to work more with less employees makes the jobs more hectic stressful. Human resources are becoming more critical to get competitive advantage by their tacit and explicit knowledge. Team work culture is increasing. Finally positive psychological can result in high efficiency. Black box model People, Performance link In order to understand the importance or significance of employee involvement and participation it is really important to understand the people and performance link. A research team lead by Professor John Purcell (2003) at Bath University carried out an investigation on people and performance link called as black box model. In that they have carried out interviews in 18 organizations which lasted over three years. In the interview with the managers the aim is to collect the information regarding their attitudes, level commitment, views about the job, team and reporting relationship. There information had been investigating in depth the relationships between practice and performance to develop understanding of the nature and mechanics of the relationship. After analyzing the data the team develops the people and performance model famously called as black box model. These models found that the people management creates the building blocks of performance and that are ability, motivation and opportunity. As in the figure shows Purcell make four pillars to describe the people performance link. The first pillar is the human resources; the second is the AMO factors which is with the help of the line management in pillar three can result in employee commitment, job satisfaction and motivation which can finally lead to discretionary behavior. Further he explains that ability is the willing to learn new skill and apply and recognized, motivation assume that the use of ability in an effective way and finally opportunity assume the involvement of the employees in different operation like problem solving and the decision making process. These factors like ability, motivation and opportunity are very important as they are directly related to job satisfaction and commitment of the employees. It will encourage the employee to exhibit discretionary behavior which means the way doing the job like in speed, care and innovation. These activities are the heart of the employment relationship as it is very difficult for the employer to monitor all the activities in an organization. This behavior makes the performance of the organization to a next level with greater job satisfaction and better performance. (CIPD, 2009). Role of line managers According to Judge and Gennard (2005) the main reason of the failure of employees involvement is the attitude of the middle and lower management. The middle and lower management fail to support the scheme as they think they will lose power to control employees Further a research done by CIPD the role of line managers are the most important to implement the employee involvement and practice. Line managers are constantly in the communication with the employees. The line managers are the best person in explaining the variation in both job satisfaction and discretionary behavior as it one of the most important factors in order to developing commitment in the organization .The managers can encages employees towards their jobs and make them responsible for their jobs. The line managers can evaluate the performance through performance appraisal and motivates them by introducing more bonuses for better performance (CIPD, 2009). Organization culture According to CIPD (2009) it is found that the practice and performance is highly influenced by the organization environment. The practice performance link depends on the origination goal mission statement which must influence by the values the organizations stands for. And want to achieve in the future. The goal or the mission is very important for employee commitment. The goals or the mission should be spread throughout the organization to embed that in the policies of the organization. These values encourage employees to achieve new height in their jobs. This will motivate them as they are feeling valued and that eventually result in better performance. Comparison between Psychological contract and black box model Black box model is a medium for creating the atmosphere that reinforces psychological contract through the power of line managers. While psychological contract is a state of mind that already exists between the management and the employees. Implementation of employee involvement schemes Different organization operates differently so it is very important to understand that the schemes good for one organization may be not appropriate for the other one. There are few factors that are really important in order to successfully implement the schemes. The factors are good employee relations, the organization culture and the top management support, monitoring and reviewing and resources. Good employee relation Judge and Gennard (2005) explains that good employee relation is the basic need in order to implement employee involvement scheme as it is very important to motivate the employees and the management to take part in the process. The management and the employees must be open in their attitude and behavior. The scheme cant be successful in a case of dispute between them. Employee involvement can gain and develop in the background of trust and motivation among the management and the employees. Commitment by the top management The most importance factor regarding the success of employee involvement is the support of the top management. It is the top management who can encourage employee involvement and participation. According to Lawler et al (1995) it is essential, as employee involvement needs the management support to develop and smooth implementation without any obstacle. It is the management responsibility to introduce EI through suggestion programs and problem solving teams. The management can give more training to the employees to increase their skills and when they believe that the employees are knowledgeable and more skilled they can involve them in different organization function through EIP. This can leads to introduce reward and recognition for better performance to encourage employee involvement. Further Judge et al (2005) explain that the management must be keeping the momentum after the introduction of the scheme. This will develop trust and motivation among the employees and the employees feel the seriousness of the management about the scheme. Any inconstant management behavior in the workforce involvement can put the scheme in trouble as the employees will de motivates and questioning the management commitment about the scheme. According to Apostolou(2000) there are four important actions the management needs to take to run the scheme successfully and those are trust the employees and give them more responsibility, always updating the training programme to train the employees about the recent change in the business and technology the third action is effective communication and regular feedback of the work. This is the most crucial one as its shows the management seriousness about the scheme and that can motivate the workforce. Finally introducing of rewards and recognition for good work really helps to increase the commitment of the employees. Free flow of information is another important aspect of employee involvement. The management must provide information about the company through different sources to their employees .But the management should be careful to provide too much or too little information as it may create confusion among the employees. The role of leader is even more crucial in the time of recession and economic turmoil where the environment is not conducive for employee involvement because of lay offs. According to Day(2009) the roles of leader is more important then before as it is not possible for them to maintain the same employee involvement scheme if the company is not getting profit. The leadership should be aware the workforce the reason behind the lay off and must use the most remaining talent. The leadership must regain the confidence of the employee by regular informing about the company progress and make them understand about the difficult time. By giving more seriousness on employee involvement the management can help the organizat

Why is it important to know what you believe?

What do you believe about God, the Bible, and Jesus Christ BY abbey0883 It is important to know what you believe so you can make the correct decisions in life based on your personal values, and Judge the best way to solve problems in your life. It is also important to know what you believe so if questioned you can intelligently address the concern. If you KNOW you can present the inquisitor with facts so they can evaluate them for themselves. My Beliefs 1 . ) I believe in God.He is the creator of all things Including me. The world and everything in it is so intricate It could not have happened by chance or evolved over billions of years. 2. ) I believe the Bible Is the word of God. I believe this because the Bible meets the needs of all mankind. If you need comfort, love, forgiveness, or faith you can find some verse or chapter to address the need. I also believe the Bible because I have accepted Jesus Into my life and have faith that that the Bible Is true. 3. ) I believe In Jesus C hrist.I believe In him also because of faith. Jesus died In order to forgive us of our sins. Just because I cannot see him It does not mean he Is not real. No matter what I am going through I know he's there. If I need healing I pray and believe In him. If I need guidance In making a decision I ask and trust he will gulled me. The hard part Is to remain patient while waiting for him to show me the answers I seek. While waiting I keep praying to stay close to him. This way I do not stray and follow my own path.

English Essay

Stepping into Mrs. Kinney’s room was like walking into through the perfume section at Walmart. The smell of plenty of different fragrances was enough to make a persons nose burn. It was the first day of classes, and it being only the second period of the day, which meant that peoples scents were still going strong. The room was bright, though the fluorescent bulbs lined up perfectly along the ceiling had a major part in that, the sun was shinning through the windows on the left side of the room. The chalk boards located at the front of the classroom were as clean as could be and almost looked brand new, if it were not for the scratches. The right and back walls were filled with posters and pictures of previous graduates. The shelves around the room stacked with everything an English room would need from dictionaries and thesauruses to loose-leaf and pencils. The room seemed to have a particular place for everything, right down to the 6 rows of desks that were place in straight lines facing the front of the room. As I was worried about being late, I rushed myself to class forgetting we had an eight minute break. So of course I was one of the first ones in the room. One of the first things I noticed when I came into that room was that there was no seating plan or assigned seats. Now I am the type of person who does not really care where I sit or where anyone else sits for that matter. However, I love seating plans, it gives you a chance to interact with people that you probably never would otherwise talk to. Plus it keeps the talking in the room to a minimum. Which really comes in handy when we are doing individual class work. So I guess this is my way of asking for a seating plan. Also I would like to state that asking a peer a question about an assignment might be helpful but it is a distraction. Now I wasn’t sure if Mrs. Kinney was a â€Å"spitter† like Mr. McIsaac, or a big â€Å"yeller† like some of the other teachers, so I settled into a seat in the third row from the front. The minutes that followed until the bell seemed to drag, but very quickly showed me who my classmates were. When the bell rang to finally begin class, I was ready and pretty excited because I knew almost everyone in the class. From previous encounters with Mrs. Kinney, I knew that we would be able to get along and that she actually knew what she was teaching. Now I had an expectation set that this year was not going to be a sit back and listen to the teacher read year, and that I would have to try hard if I wanted to pass. With marks, they are usually pretty steady and consistent. I try my best to keep the, above 80, kind of sports and kind of my mother being obsessive about them. As far as group work goes, I always say a few is good but anymore than five or six to group can become a problem. I say this because I have come to realize that when the groups are small, the work load can be divided easily. Now in larger groups, I find that people tend to slack off and push all the work onto one person and then split the mark. I do not like this because I am usually the one stuck doing the work. Now I am positive everyone has their own opinions when it comes to homework. Personally though, I do not mind it. To be completely honest, I enjoy doing homework. To me it is kind of a way of double checking or showing myself that I know what I am doing. So please feel free to assign any amount of homework at any time. When it comes to learning, i know that it is hard for you to teach everyone in the way they want to be taught. I also know that you can not please everyone, but you try to switch it up and do different styles of teaching too. My favourite teach style would have to be Mr. McIsaac’s. By that i mean how easy it is to follow and understand because he relates it all to everyday situations and everyday things. With English however, it is different. I find hearing something that is being taught along with taking notes and discussing examples is the best way for me to learn. I do my best work when lots of notice is given on an assignment. Otherwise, i feel rushed and then it is very poorly written. The best thing that a teacher could do for me to learn would have to bed when they give and assignment or task, to explain it thoroughly. I say this because I would much rather lose a few points than to raise my hand and ask a question. I am very shy when it comes to speaking in front of people. I freeze up, my face goes red and i start to stutter and fumble my words. My thoughts on English 112 thus far, are that I probably will not make it out alive. I would legit be surprised if I passed this essay. I say this all because i was terrified when I got our first graded assignment back. The reason I think I did so poorly on that was because you were not able to be there and when I would ask the substitute a question, she just seemed to be answering it with another question, and it confused me greatly. So I suppose one could say I was very close to switching to 113 English. Except after some time to think, I thought it through, and I remembered that i need this course to go on and have a secondary education. This all made me realize that i need to, so to say, â€Å"pull up my socks†, and stop being a procrastinator. I now see that slacking off, going just for a passing mark and just making a sixty wont cut it anymore. What I do now, will determine my life out for me. I feel like if I do not try my hardest now, that I will regret it in the long haul. By saying that I mean, if I keep slacking off, and waiting until the last minute to do everything that later in life, I will be the same way. Only problem in slacking off with a job is, you probably wont have that job much longer. I think that 112 English is a big step for me. I mean that figuratively, because I am not literally taking a step in 112, but I am figuratively taking a step in life. I consider it to be a big step because it is pushing me ahead in life and i feel as if I was not to take it then I really would not have much of a future at all. Unless i wanted to work at McDonald’s or McCain’s for the rest of my life. So for now, I think I would like to try my luck in English 112, at the end of the hall, with Mes. Kinney.

3 Ways to Prepare for Layoffs (Just in Case)

3 Ways to Prepare for Layoffs (Just in Case) Your company is in upheaval. Rumors are flying. The big merger is just a few weeks away and the word of the day is restructuring. While it’s always best to keep your head in uncertain situations, even if you think your job is safe, it never hurts to be prepared.Here are three things you can do now to keep yourself from being blindsided when lay-off time comes around.1. Reach out to your networkAccept the worst in advance and do something about it. Get in touch with former bosses and colleagues. Put the phone tree into action. Explain what’s happening and what you might be looking for, and ask for help. Chances are, someone you’ve impressed in the past will be willing to put your name forward in the right situation. Or, if you’re uncomfortable asking for help, ask for advice. People will be happy to give it, and will still be made aware of your situation; should anything come up, you’d come to mind. Friends and family are also a valuable support syst em, and can often come through in a pinch.2. Plan how youll present your situationAt this point, a lay-off could be part of your career narrative, whether you’d like it to or not. Start figuring out how to work it into your elevator pitch. Come out swinging. Explain the situation clearly and with confidence, and then find a way to make lemonade. Demonstrate that you know your value, in spite of the difficult situation, and that you’re already working constructively to overcome it. That kind of pluck can go a long way with a hiring manager.3. Give yourself a makeoverMake sure your cover letter, LinkedIn profile, and portfolio are all fully updated and in perfect order. Make sure these valuable networking tools are doing exactly what you want them to, and telling the story you want them to tell. Consider making yourself a new set of business cards if you think you’ll soon be on the market.The point is to prepare for the worst, but remain optimistic that it will al l turn out for the best.3 Steps to Prepare for a Potential Layoff

Problem Solving Strategies

Problem Solving Strategies The type of problem solving strategy you use depends, in part, on the type of situation you are facing. For instance, finding the answer to a mathematical equation requires different skills than writing an essay on the differences between two philosophers views on religion. Problem solving is considered to be the process of finding solutions to difficult issues.  The type of  problem solving  strategy you use depends, in part, on the type of situation you are facing. For instance, finding the answer to a mathematical equation requires different skills than writing an essay on the differences between two philosophers views on religion. One has a fixed, set answer; the other is subject to interpretation. THE ART OF PROBLEM SOLVING Problem Solving Strategies Below are a few problem-solving strategies, how each works and when they are appropriate: ALGORITHMS. These types of problem-solving techniques rely on a set formula that allows you to arrive at one fixed answer. Good examples of algorithms are mathematical formula and computer programs. HEURISTIC. Heuristic problem-solving tactics are commonly referred to as rule of thumb strategies. These tactics are based on past experience and dont usually arrive at a single, fixed answer. Such problem-solving techniques are used when an exact answer isnt necessary when a range or an approximation is good enough. An example of using a heuristic problem-solving technique is estimating how long it will take you to drive home from campus. If, on previous trips, it has taken between 30 and 35 minutes, its likely that the next trip will take the same amount of time. However, unusually heavy traffic or construction could change this answer. CONSTRUCTIVE CONTROVERSY. This problem-solving technique, developed in the late 1970s, involves presenting your proposed solution to a group of other people, defending your idea, listening to their input and modifying your idea based on their feedback. This approach works well for team projects. INSIGHT. This technique is less structured, but often very effective. This is the let me sleep on it way of solving problems, such as when you awake with an answer to a problem or the answer comes to you in the shower or on the way to class. This technique relies on the subconscious using our past experiences to formulate an answer to a similar problem to those weve dealt with in the past. Since you have no way of knowing if youll arrive at an answer this way, this is obviously a poor technique to use for projects with a deadline. BRAINSTORMING. Brainstorming unleashes the talents of multiple team members on a single project. This technique involves throwing out tentative ideas, discussing each ideas merits and challenges and using the best of these possible solutions to solve the problem. DIVIDE AND CONQUER. Some projects, such as reading an entire text or writing a 5,000-word paper, can seem overwhelming. Dividing those huge projects into smaller, more manageable segments, such as reading a chapter a night or writing 500 words a week, often makes them easy to handle. RESEARCH. This problem-solving tactic makes use of other peoples past experience with similar problems to solve a current problem. As the name implies, this technique involves studying past performances and applying this acquired knowledge to the task at hand. Problem-solving strategies are a necessary part of college, the work environment, and everyday life. The better you become at the different types of strategies and at determining which type to use in which situation, the easier you will find not only your college studies but navigating the world at large. PROBLEM SOLVING SKILLS In case you are working on a problem solving assignment, and are having difficulties with it, would be happy to assist. Feel free to contact our writers and they will help you to work through the assignment. Our staff will assign writers with suitable backgrounds and adequate experience. This will result in a paper that is properly written and formatted, with thorough background research and a solid literature base. Feel free to contact us anytime  or place an order and we will gladly help you.

Convection Currents Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Convection Currents - Essay Example This is known as a thermal. Figure 1 cloud formation, which may produce a thunderstorm. A cumulonimbus cloud, or "thunderhead," is a particularly dramatic example of a convection cell. Eventually the heated cell is cooled by the surrounding air, begins to fall, and the cycle is repeated. Whereas the Sun's electromagnetic energy is the energy source for atmospheric convection, asthenospheric convection is fueled by radioactive decay in the earth's core. The convective cells form in the asthenosphere, a region of extremely high pressure at a depth of about 60-200 miles where rocks are deformed and become molten by enormous pressures. In the asthenosphere, the molten material rises in a convection current until it hits the bottom of the upper layer of Earth's interior consisting of the crust and the mantle. Here, it can not rise any farther and begins to move horizontally. Figure 2 depicts the movement of the convection cells in the asthenosphere. The red areas are the heated molten material rising from the earth's center and moving toward the surface. As the material reaches the surface it Figure 2 Eventually the material cools and as it does it becomes denser. This material then slowly sinks through the lighter material until it is again heated by the earth's core. It forms a new convection cell and repeats this same process. In both the atmosphere and the asthenosphere material is moved from one region to another. Lower air levels rise to become the upper air, and as the cooler upper air cells fall they become ground level air. Within the Earth, irregular convection cells within the mantle transfer heat from the core to the surface of the planet. This process is the driving force behind both heat transfer and plate tectonics ("The Restless Earth"). The effect of the rising material also forms mountain ranges. This process also transfers energy from one area to another. This transfer of energy can result in violent activity if the transfer happens abruptly. In the atmosphere we see it form high winds and thunderstorms. In the asthenosphere, energy is usually transferred by heating the earth's crust. In other cases, it may result in a volcano or an earthquake. The hydrosphere is also an active medium that is powered by convection. The movement of convection cells is the force behind the ocean currents. Circulation patterns in the oceans are driven by density differences between warmer and colder hydrospheric cells. As the water circulates, material and energy are transferred. The ocean's water is heated by the sun as well as undersea hot air vents. It is cooled by the polar ice caps. Convection is also responsible for the action of the water cycle. As the sun heats the surface water on the earth, it evaporates and becomes water vapor. This warmed vapor rises until it encounters the cooler air at higher altitudes. Here it condenses back into water and returns to earth as precipitation ("The Water Cycle"). Convection takes place anytime there is a mass of gas or liquid on the earth. It causes our weather, winds, and ocean currents. Convection heats our air and creates our mountain ranges. It results

Materials Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Materials - Essay Example 3D printers are efficient and simplifies most processes during manufacturing; they can easily build things compared to old machines. Consequently, introduction of automatic machines will increase the cost of production. Automated milling machines have rendered factories efficient in their manufacturing processes. Most modern products cannot be manufactured using old machineries (Markillie 1). There is a corresponding change in the materials used in making modern products such as carbon-fiber composites. Software use in factories is increasingly gaining precedence in modern societies. Social manufacturing is equally ginning prominence in the modern world. The third industrial revolution will benefit developed countries, according to Markillie. Application of 3D printers renders most industrial processes simple and easy to undertake. 3D printing functions through progressive processes of layers based on information provided by computer programs. Different designs supported by software applied in 3D printers work by piling materials in successive layers. In other situations, 3D printers may use powder as the materials applied in manufacturing. The process involves spreading powder on thin layers of build trays and an additional squirt of semi-liquid or liquid binders. The process may also involve laser sintering; melting into the required shape. Other additional materials or unfused powder is applicable to strengthen complicated structured built using 3D printers. Diverse materials can be printed using 3D technology including ceramics, metals and plastics. 3D printers can also combine materials to enhance their strength and rigidity. 3D printers are also applicable in the production of living tissues. It is possible to prin t food, as well, using 3D technology. Based on research, it will be possible to make other large body organs in the future using 3D printers. Additive manufacturing