Human resource management Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words - 1

Human resource management - Assignment Example The HR manager might view flexible working schedules to maximize productivity throughout an 18 hour cycle. Thus, scheduling labour to meet goals sees the exploitation of talent in the same way that tangible resources are exploited. The soft model of HRM is more people-centred and deals with creating motivational strategies, coaching, or mentoring to achieve high levels of employee commitment and trust. Soft HRM policies consider employees emotional capacity and psycho-social needs and then integrates policy formation objectives with these principles in mind. In soft thinking, the employee is a method to achieve competitive advantage through commitment-building (Armstrong 2008). IR is primarily concerned with the relationship between union bargaining and employees (Elvander 1998). Storey (1992) recognises fundamental shifts from IR to HRM based on key dimensions of practice, policy and specific business goals. Whilst HRM often includes strategies that are people-centred, IR is more tr ansactional in nature, delivering rewards that are highly contingent on performance. The HR school of thought is more unitarist in nature, whilst IR is more pluralist. Storey (1992) sees negotiation as a primary aspect of line management activity in IR with HRM more of a facilitating role. Specific norms demand compliance in IR theory whilst HRM focuses on building policies and practices around vision and mission. In personal experience, the strategic role of line management is to recognize contingencies where the organisation must have practices aligned with needs for organisational performance. Strategic HRM for line management is to identify a best practice model and continue to create strategies aligned with efficiency. Strategic HRM views all organisational divisions and practices to be an amalgamation to achieve best practice, productivity and profit. The implications to employees are diverse training to recognise inter-dependencies and higher demands for performance to achiev e long-term goals related to business strategy. Flexibility in the workplace Personal experience describes a flexible model that involves changing contracted hours and periodic placement to perform job responsibilities in order to provide childcare. Under this model, the employee required 30 weeks of employment and must have had no negative assessments associated with periodic performance reviews. This model provided opportunities to replace the traditional Monday-Friday schedule with Saturday working in exchange for a weekly day off and also implementing telecommuting resources for those in service roles. Flexible models provide opportunities for building employee satisfaction and can be implemented according to business needs, such as customer service output expectations or when the business intends to expand its service to include weekend consultation for clients. Thus, it has competitive advantage capabilities and also the ability to create a more productive workforce. Armstrong (2008) identifies that flexible working concepts provide the ability to create a better skilled employee population, such as what occurs in job sharing. When employees are able to experience other divisional roles, they become more fluent in practices and procedures that can, in the long-term give the business more competitive advantage. A disadvantage to flexible working is the ability to determine whether pay is competitive to the labour

Shoplifting is a crime born of poverty Essay Example for Free

Shoplifting is a crime born of poverty Essay Shoplifting means someone involve stealing from the shop during business hour. Shoplifting is an old problem for merchants. There are lots of reasons to shoplift, range from very poverty and satisfy the desires or mental illness. Although there are lots of anti-shoplifting devices in place and the increase in police patrols and offers the retailers guidance on preventive measures, the rate of shoplifting in the world is still increasing. According to the Home Office crime statistics, there was a 10 percent increase in shoplifting in United Kingdom in the year of 2009. According to the Global Retail Theft Barometer research (2009), total global shoplifting in 41 participating countries costs economic lost for around $114,823 billion. Therefore, shoplifting is a serious problem not just in the United Kingdom. The statistics from the Home Office and the research form the Centre for Retail Research showed that the shoplifting is being a serious problem in contemporary society, and this essay is going to discuss, is shoplifting is a crime born of poverty. If not, then what is the reason for people to shoplift? For the issue of shoplifting is a crime born of poverty, there are several factors that may related to the increase of shoplifting and the argument of shoplifting is a crime born of poverty, such as high unemployment rate, Maslow’s Hierarchy of needs theory, underclass and the relationship between capitalism and crime. Against the issue of shoplifting is a crime born of poverty, there are several factors against the argument, such as peer pressure in adolescent, drug addict, psychological elements or other adolescent psychological factors. The rest of the essay is going to analysis all the factors either for or against. According to Maslow’s Hierarchy of needs theory, this is a theory in psychology and proposed by Abraham Maslow in his 1943 paper A Theory of Human Motivation. Figure1: Maslows Hierarchy of Needs His theories parallel many other theories of human development psychology and focuses on describing the stages growth in humans. He presented his theory in a pyramid and defined the stages with Physiological, Safety, Love/belonging, Esteem and Self-actualization needs to explain the pattern that human motivations pass through. The base floor of the hierarchy  represented basic human need, which are breathing, food, water, sex, sleep, homeostasis and excretion. These are necessary for human to survive in order to achieve the upper level of human wants. Moving on to the next part, which is safety needs and it included security of body, employment, resources, morality, the family, health and property. This part represents a civilization of human beings, which they are chasing for a better living standard. Then next part is Love or belonging needs, which are friendship, family and sexual intimacy. After that, Esteem needs included self-esteem confidence, achievement, respect of others and respect by others. The last part is self-actualization needs, which included morality, creativity, spontaneity, problem solving, lack of prejudice and acceptance of facts. This is the ethical and spiritual level that Maslow believed. Taking Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs as an accurate portrayal of individual evolution, we could apply that to the evolution of human society, which included economically, socially and politically. Therefore the argument of this essay can be clearly explained. If a person lives without food, water and homeostasis, he may not be able to reach the upper levels of the pyramid, which included morality, safety and self-actualization. Therefore, he will commit crime like shoplifting or theft to get what he needs to survive. Most of the humans’ lacks of physiological needs are in poverty. Thus shoplifting can be said as a crime born of poverty in Maslow’s Hierarchy of needs theory. Secondly, the relationship between capitalism and crime is a factor that makes shoplifting a crime born of poverty. Capitalism is an economic system that favours private ownership. In other words, capitalism is a system of economics under which ownership of and investment in the means of exchange, distribution and production. Therefore, most capitalism countries have the problem of inequality, which mean the gap between the rich and the poor. According to urban dictionary, capitalism is an imbalanced mechanism for distributing power where the rich and powerful get richer and more powerful, the poor get poorer. According to BBC News (2009), United Kingdom is a capitalism country, the gap between the rich and poor is very serious in UK, and the richest fifth of the population had an income 16 times greater than the poorest fifth. According to the National Equality Panel (NEP) report (2008), United States and United Kingdom are in the top 10 of inequality countries, which mean the gap between rich and poor  is very big. The rate of shoplifting in United State and United Kingdom are increasing, which means inequality will make poor people committed crime. In capitalism countries, when the gap between rich and poor become wider, the rate of crime will increase. Because capitalism is an idea that rich peoples use money to buy goods then sell to gain money but poor people don’t have money to buy goods in order to sell to gain money, so they committed shoplifting and sell the things that they stole in order to survive. Thirdly, Murray (1990) explained that there are three main characteris tics of underclass, which are illegitimacy, violent crime and economic inactivity. Shoplifting is an activity, which is economic inactive. Murray (1990) has also explained that the morally weak underclass that is unemployed is usually involved in crime and drug addiction. By analysis, the Murray research, the crime committed in shoplifting which is unemployed. According to The New York Times (2012), a single mother committed shoplifting and sells the goods in order to survive because the government had passed the 1996 welfare reform law. This case showed that there are people shoplifting because of poverty. Then, some people committed shoplifting because lack of clear purpose in life. These kinds of people often under unemployment, therefore, they live below poverty level. According to the research done by Mcshane, Lawless and Noonan (1991), 70 apprehended shoplifter aged between 18 and 88 compared to 70 undergraduate non-shoplifters, they found that shoplifters were most likely to live in poverty, to be socially isolated and not to aware psychological stressors th an those who do not shoplift. This research showed that people who live long-term under the poverty level lacks the purpose in life. Therefore, the research done by Mcshane, Lawless and Noonan (1991) proven shoplifting is a crime born of poverty. Finally, according to the UK Office For National Statistics (2012), the unemployment rate in United Kingdom was last reported at 8.3 per cent and it rose steadily. The unemployment rate has explained that the reason people shoplift is because of economic. Although the government have unemployment benefit, there are lots of people who are unemployed but do not meet the requirement to get the unemployment benefit. Therefore, shoplifting in United Kingdom still increases. The study of Ray and Briar (1988) included 200 court records and 382 self-reports and showed that shoplifters were more likely to have lower family income, be unemployed  believe that economic need causes shoplifting. However, there are lots of people who shoplift to satisfy their desires and some of them might pursue excitiement by shoplifting. Shoplifting is a psychological issue for a group of people. According to the articles National Association for Shoplifting Prevention (2006), the single largest psychological factors in around one-third of shoplifters are experiencing depression. Geyer (2001) also explained that most of the shoplifting offender is due to psychological factions. Therefore, most of the shoplifters committed shoplifting because of psychological issues more than because they are poor. Besides, according to Tonglet (2002), the decision to shoplift is influenced by social factors, pro-shoplifting attitudes, opportunities for shoplifting and perceptions of low risks in being caught. He described that shoplifting is consumer misbehaviour. BBC News Magazine (2012) also described that there is a new wave of middle-class shoplifter is targeting some high-end delicacies from stores and supermarket to have a lifestyle that they could no longer afford. The society believed that this development is caused by the ec onomic recession. On the other hand, teen’s problem is also a very important factor of shoplifting. According to the National Crime Prevention Council (2006), there are 25% of people committed shoplifting between the ages of thirteen and seventeen. The following essay is going to analysis and explain the reason that people shoplifting apart from poverty. Adolescent shoplifting is a nationwide rising problem. According to Moschis, Dena and Anthony (1990) experiment, they have surveyed 1692 teenagers from age 10 to 17 investigating shoplifting behaviour, family occupational status, rule breaking behaviour and perceived reasons for adolescent shoplifting. The result showed that shoplifting rate between the age 10 and 15 rose steadily and declined between the age 15 and 17. Moschis, Dena and Anthony (1990) concluded that there are few reasons explained that why teens shoplifting, such as chasing for excitement, peer pressure and attracting attention. For the reason of chasing for excitement, most of the teens got lots of time when they were bored and didn’t have anything better to do, they will pretend shoplifting to gain excitement. For the reason of peer pressure, it is playing a very important role on adolescent shoplifting. When their peers get a pair of expensive name brands shoes or clothes, the others will try to keep up with their peers and wear the latest. Other than that, electronics  also very popular, such as mp3 player, console, phone and other small expensive items. Most teens want to get the best and the latest leisure fashion and electronics to compete with their peers so they are faced with the lack of money to satisfy their desires, they may turn to shoplifting. Steven Gerrard said, â€Å"Being a young lad it’s hard not to give into peer pressure. I stole to fit in. I grabbed a few pens paper from Woolworths made a dash for the door but the security guy grabbed me.† Steven Gerrard is an England soccer hero, he confessed that he stole pens and nabbed by cops when he was in his early teens. This case strongly influenced that shoplifting isn’t a crime born of poverty. At last, the parent attention, many parents were very busy in their work in contemporary society so they will lack of care of their children. The child will do something in order to attract their parents’ attention. The second component that people committed shoplifting is drug users. According a study of Arrestees (2005), the study confirmed that shoplifting was the most frequent crime amongst drug users. This group of people shoplifting showed that they need to shoplift in order to fund their drug habit. Drug users usually resell the things that they steal or attempt a cash refund. The study also showed that alcohol is also a main component in shoplifting. According to BBC News (2012), most cases of shoplifting by what psychologists describe as â€Å" non-professional shoplifter â€Å", and most of them shoplifting to feed their alcohol addiction. Both drug addict and alcoholic people committed shoplifting in order to feed their drug and alcohol addiction not because of they are poverty. Thirdly, Kleptomania is an impulse control disorder, major depression, obsessive-compulsive disorder or bipolar disorder. Although there are very few of shoplifters fall into this category, this type of shoplifters has a psychological compulsion to shoplifting to satisfy their desires. They will commit shoplifting whenever the urge hits. According to Tasman (2011), he explained that people with Kleptomania often report the shoplifting act and they feel of pleasure after committed shoplifting. This kind of people shoplifting is because of mental illness, most of them did not think themselves as a crime after committed shoplifting. But in contemporary society, the law enforcement agencies treated them as normal crime. As a conclusion, to discuss whether or not shoplifting is a crime born of poverty, as it has countless factors causing  people to shoplift and lots of factor proved that shoplifting is born of poverty. Almost all of the reasons that support the argument are around economic and policy, such as the unemployment rate, the unemployment welfare, capitalism and the economic depression. In another word, if the government are to carry out well policy, the shoplifting rate will decrease. Therefore, the government plays a very important role in decreasing the rate of shoplifting. On the other hand, most of the shoplifters committed shoplifting not because of poverty, there are several factors that makes people shoplift, such as Kleptomania, psychological factors, peer pressure, teens’ problem and drug users. All of the academic researches and government reports showed that most shoplifting cases are influenced by the shoplifter’s psychological factors more than poverty, such as the Steven Gerrard’s case, the reason for him committing shoplift was not due to poverty. This is why it may seem fair to say, shoplifting is not a crime born of poverty, it is a crime born of psychological factors and government policy. After all, the study of crime has been the core subject matter in criminology. There are no definite answers as to why people commit certain crimes neither has the causation been found for criminal activities. Different schools of criminology proves that there are no definite answers in the understanding of crime. References Appelbaum, A. and Klemmer, H. (2012) Shoplifting. Menninger Perspective, 5 (3), p.16-19. Bbc.co.uk (2012) BBC News Why do well-off people shoplift?. [online] Available at: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-16469928 [Accessed: 1 May 2012]. Bbc.co.uk (2010) BBC Mark Eastons UK: Is inequality iniquitous?. [online] Available at: http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/thereporters/markeaston/2010/01/is_inequality_iniquitous.html [Accessed: 1 May 2012]. City-journal.org (2008) The New York Timess Welfare Myopia by Heather Mac Donald City Journal. [online] Available at: http://www.city-journal.org/2012/eon0416hm.html [Accessed: 1 May 2012]. Cox, D. et al. (1990) When Consumer Behavior Goes Bad: An Investigation of Adolescent Shoplifting.. Journal of Consumer Research, 17

St. Valentines Day Massacre :: American History

The 1920's was a decade marked with lawlessness. There was plenty of money to be made, and after the National Prohibition Act, everyone wanted a piece of the action. Two gangs went head to head for control of the lucrative illegal alcohol business. One group was led by George "Bugs" Moran, and the other, by Al "Scarface" Capone. Both sought to rule this business at the cost of the other. This confrontation climaxed on a chilly February morning in 1929. In an empty warehouse in Chicago, seven men were executed by a firing squad. This event became known as the Saint Valentine's Day Massacre. Control of the profitable liquor trade sparked the gang wars that littered the late 1920's with bodies. Chicago was their battleground. The opposing forces were the North Side Gang, led by Dion O'Banion, and the West Side Gang who had John Torrio as its frontrunner ("Seven Chicago Gangsters"). Torrio had ambitious plans. He sought to unite the gangs of Chicago into one powerful association in which he would have full control. However, Dion O'Banion did not fall into place as one of Torrio's pawns. In 1924, O'Banion betrayed the powerful Torrio. Shortly after, O'Banion was gunned down at his flower shop, which he used as a front for his operation. Believing Torrio was behind the assassination, the North Side gang struck back (Wilker 36-37). This was the beginning of the gang wars that lasted for five years. Even though Torrio initiated this conflict, it became too much for him. The increasing level of corruption and bloodshed came back to him. After being wounded buy a North Side gunman, Torrio handed over his operation to his successor. His replacement's name is synonymous with the words ruthless and bloodthirsty. Taking Torrio's place was the infamous Al Capone. With Torrio out of the picture, The North Side Gang began to focus their attention on Capone. He became their chief target (Wilker 37). The two gangs continued to fight throughout the 1920's. In 1929, "Bugs" Moran was in control of the North Side Gang. Every move Capone made for advancement Moran reacted with a counter strike. The North Side gang repeatedly hijacked liquor going to Capone and even bombed six saloons that Capone was supplying (Kobler 238).

The Boondocks :: essays research papers

Aaron McGruder is an African American cartoonist. At only twenty-six years of age, he is best known as the creator of Boondocks, the popular comic strip that is currently featured in over two hundred and fifty newspapers throughout the United States. Boondocks, which â€Å"stars two amusingly surly African American kids who live with their grandfather in a white middle-class suburb† is known for mocking issues that range from entertainment news (such as Whitney Houston), to political news (like the Bush administration). His most recent subject, however, may prove to be too controversial even for this strip, which is famous for it’s satirical attitude.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Within two weeks of the September 11th attacks, McGruder had addressed the national crisis addressing Americans’ â€Å"blind, unquestioning faith in our almost elected leaders.† This particular plot cost McGruder Boondocks’ place in New York’s Daily News and caused The Dallas Morning News to move the strip to another section of the paper. McGruder, however, remains unaffected. He states that he will continue to address these issues because as he says, â€Å"†¦you can’t remove the impact of this incident from any aspect of life.† Apparently, this includes the funny pages. Aaron McGruder is an African American cartoonist. At only twenty-six years of age, he is best known as the creator of Boondocks, the popular comic strip that is currently featured in over two hundred and fifty newspapers throughout the United States. Boondocks, which â€Å"stars two amusingly surly African American kids who live with their grandfather in a white middle-class suburb† is known for mocking issues that range from entertainment news (such as Whitney Houston), to political news (like the Bush administration). His most recent subject, however, may prove to be too controversial even for this strip, which is famous for it’s satirical attitude.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Within two weeks of the September 11th attacks, McGruder had addressed the national crisis addressing Americans’ â€Å"blind, unquestioning faith in our almost elected leaders.† This particular plot cost McGruder Boondocks’ place in New York’s Daily News and caused The Dallas Morning News to move the strip to another section of the paper. McGruder, however, remains unaffected. He states that he will continue to address these issues because as he says, â€Å"†¦you can’t remove the impact of this incident from any aspect of life.† Apparently, this includes the funny pages. Aaron McGruder is an African American cartoonist. At only twenty-six years of age, he is best known as the creator of Boondocks, the popular comic strip that is currently featured in over two hundred and fifty newspapers throughout the United States.

An Employee Perspective Essay

This error communication situation confuses employees’ performance and motivation. Moreover, let the job feedback become useless and destroy the employee relationship. Therefore, this assignment is to find out the problem of H&M’s Job Feedback by using employee perspective. Moreover, enables employees to become more loyal to the company while they also work toward achieving their long-term career goals. Keywords: Performance & motivation, Brainstorm, Job Feedback, EPAC Introduction & Background Feedback is an anomaly. People have a general sense that feedback is good to give and receive. Therefore, Immediate feedback is critical when we are learning, especially when we do not know what we do not know. Equally important are the attitude of the sender and recipient and the individual providing the critique (London, 2003). A good feedback will provide positive encouragement because they want to convey their genuine interest. When employees feel leadership has their best interest at heart, they are inclined to make corrections and more likely to modify their behavior. Most people want to perform well and they want to know when they are doing something incorrectly. They want constructive a positive feedback by the leader, and they appreciate criticism when it is present in a positive manner. Therefore, feedback is an essential ingredient of an employee development program because people use information about themselves to formulate their career goals, get better performance and motivation. H&M believe in being straightforward and apply the open door principle, which gives employee the right and opportunity to discuss work-related issues directly with management. However, in H&M Hong Kong, employee cannot search any good feedback to provide positive encouragement for their job, this situation shows very critical in the area of Part-time sales Advisor in Hong Kong. Managers are using less time to being seriously to the employee of Part-time sales Advisor. It is because the manager thinks they will not work as a long-term staff (less loyalty) and the role of Part-time staff is less important than the full-time staff. Manager tends to give less time to encourage them by using constructive feedback but Destructive feedback. Destructive feedback is abusive. Although the word â€Å"abusive† may seem extreme as a description of workplace behavior, it occurs, and can be destructive to employees’ performance, careers and self-esteem (Bassman 1992). Therefore, H&M Part-time employees are less receive any comment by their managers. Nonsensically, according to the HR Data of H&M at 2009, there are over a half (55%) of employees are Part-time in H&M around the world. mainly work as Part-time Sales- Advisor. Therefore, if the managers in Hong Kong keep ignore and use less time to encourage them by using constructive feedback.

Greenland Essays - Geography Of Greenland, Greenland, Free Essays

Greenland Essays - Geography Of Greenland, Greenland, Free Essays Greenland Greenland The geography of Greenland is quite ironic considering its name. Greenland is Located in the northern part of North America. It is between the Arctic Ocean and the North Atlantic Ocean, northeast of Canada. Greenlands area is approximately 2,715,600 square kilometers. Its area is slightly more than 3 times the size of Texas. It is the largest island in the world. It is also primarily by the Davis Strait and Baffin Bay and from Iceland on the east, by the Denmark Strait. Greenlands terrain is flat to a gradually sloping icecap. It covers everything but a narrow, mountainous, rocky coast. Its climate has cool summers and very cold winters! During the summertime in the southern part of Greenland, the average Temperature is 48 Fahrenheit. The climate of Greenland is generally dry. People have lived on Greenland for about 5, 000 years, the earliest belonging to what are called the Independence I, Saqqaq, and Independence II cultures. Greenland is the source of many weather changes in the Northern Hemisphere. Their natural

Halloween essays

Halloween essays Trick or treat, scream children on October 31. Trick or treat, what is does that mean? Halloween has not always been about handing out candy and playing jokes on people. In fact, Halloween has changed in numerous ways over the years. Halloween first originated from a Celtic fire festival called Samhain, or summers end, that represented the New Year beginning on November 1. The Celts believed that when a person died they went to Tirnan Og, the land of eternal youth and happiness. The Celts believed that turning points, such as the turning of one year into the next, were magical events. The Celts believed that time and space came to a halt, during Samhain, thus allowing the dead to mix with the living. With this belief, the still-living, not wanting to be possessed, put out fires in their homes. This would make their house undesirable to the spirit. The extinguishing of the hearth fires symbolized the dark half of the year. The re-kindling from the Druidic fire was symbolic of the returning life that was hoped for in the spring. (Rupert, 2004) There are many inaccurate Christian teachings about Halloween and the Celts. For instance, Christian literature teaches us that Samhain was the Celtic God of the dead that was worshipped by the Druids with dreadful bloody sacrifices at Halloween. When in fact, Samhain was not a god and is defined in McBains Etymological Dictionary of the Gaelic Language says that Samhain means summers end. Many Christian organizations teach that Halloween originated as a satanic festival, which has yet to be backed up with evidence. There is also no evidence that the Celts ever dressed in costumes on Halloween. There were many significant changes in the middle ages that made Halloween that way it is now. When the Romans conquered Celtic lands in the first century A.D., there were drastic changes to fire festival. ...