Declaration of Independence Evaluation Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words - 2

Declaration of Independence Evaluation - Essay Example It has several similarities with the work of John Locke’s second treatise of government. The first cause of the document that states that all men are created equal with inalienable rights of liberty, life and the pursuit of happiness is in conjunction with the Locke philosophy. Locke point of view was that all the power and jurisdiction is reciprocal with no one having more than the other does. The document further proceeds to emphasize that government is established through the consent of the citizens to protect their rights. Finally, it states that in case the government fails to address and protect the rights of the people then it will be the right of the people to abolish or alter the government. The Locke’s philosophy is well enshrined in the declaration of independence. Hobbes counter declaration mimics the ideologies of declaration of independence and the Hobbes ideas was to justify the kings action in England as perfectly legitimate. Hobbes perception and beliefs allowed the people to elect sovereign once and after that, the people should be obedient to the government without questioning. The sovereign as called by Hobbes decides the successor and the rules. The perspective was seen the United States founding fathers that this method will leave the government vulnerable to corruption. With the idea they opted to apply Locke’s’ philosophy. Hobbesian counter declaration saw the need for the people to dissolve any political bond that have connected them and take the power of the earth. He further expounded that opinion of the humankind necessity declaring the cause that impel them to the separation. His ideologies were evident that all men are created equal and endowed with life by the creator and securing these rights the governments were to be instituted among men. Hobessian perspective on the declaration of independence could have stated that

Comparing and Contrasting Literary Forms Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Comparing and Contrasting Literary Forms - Essay Example Drama is driven by action and plot, just as short stories are, which can be seen in many fairytales or children’s fables, like Cinderella (Perrault); poetry, on the other hand, is more driven by expression. Poetry and short stories rely on imagery and point of view to display their messages, but drama depends more on the story itself. Yet another greatest difference between these three literary forms is their length: drama is often the longest, followed by the short story. Poetry, though, compresses its ideas and tends to follow specific rhythmic patterns to convey the message or the detail in fewer lines, like She dwelt among the untrodden ways (Wordsworth 71) by William Wordsworth; many poems, with some exceptions, such as Beowulf, do not exceed a page. Due to the length of poems, the poet has to reveal as much as they can while they are able to. Drama and short stories leave room for other elements to be displayed, such as theme and setting. Two other vast differences betwe en these literary elements can be seen in their settings and in their genres. Drama is capable of taking place where the author decides, even in a location that does not exist or is based off of a real place. A short story has a real setting that allows people to be able to picture the location.

Literature Review of the Impact of Human Resource Management on Organisational performance

Literature Review of the Impact of Human Resource Management on Organisational performance Organisations worldwide are under pressure today to continually improve their performance. The major trends behind these competitive pressures are globalisation, advances in information technology, and increasing deregulation of global markets (Becker Gerhart, 1996; Dany, Guedri, and Hatt, 2008). These changes have a strong impact on a countrys ability to maintain its competitiveness (Laprade, 2005). Without an efficient workforce organisations lose their ability to compete, both locally and internationally, eventually leading to poor organisational performance and thus ending up with little or no economic success (Tomaka, 2001). Unlike in the past when natural resources, technology, and capital used to be the key factors to determine the competitive advantage of the firms of one nation over the other nations, human resources today in modern times have become the most important resource for the firms to obtain strategic advantage over the other firms (Dany et al, 2008). This is beca use managers in both the public and private sector organisations regard the human resources of their organisation as its major source of sustaining competitive advantage by having the best of the best Human resource systems in place for recruiting, selecting, motivating, and efficiently managing their people (Mesch, 2010). As a result of these changes in the global economic environment business strategy, the field of human resource management is rapidly changing more than ever today (Becker Gerhart, 1996). Furthermore, among all the organisation factors which contribute to organisational performance, the human resources are now regarded as the most fundamental factor (Mesch, 2010). Recent researches on HRM show strong and positive relationship between HRM practices and organisational performance (Carlson, Upton, and Seaman, 2006; Collins Smith, 2006). Therefore, it is vital for managers to have a better understanding of the role of HRM in order to create successful organisational performance. Accordingly this chapter presents a review of the literature, relevant to this research study, on the relationship between HRM practices and organisational performance. HRM and Organisational Performance Human Resource Management Armstrong (2006, p3) defines Human Resource Management as, a strategic and coherent approach to the management of an organizations most valued assets the people working there whom individually and collectively contribute to the achievement of its objectives. Human Resource Management is, the policies, practices and systems that influence employees behaviour, attitudes and performance (De Cieri, Kramar, Noe, Hollenbeck, Gerhart, and Wright, 2008, p5). Delery and Doty (1996) assert that the HRM best practices, once identified and implemented would always produce improved organisational performance. Fox and McLeay (1992) found from their landmark empirical study of forty-nine companies, composed of companies mainly from the UK engineering and electronics sectors, strong supportive influence between six critical HRM practices in achieving successful above average sector performance relationship, over a 10 year period. These HRM practices are (ibid): Recruitment and Selection, Management Education, Training and Development, Performance Appraisal, Remuneration and Rewards, and Company-wide Career Planning. Organisational Performance A recent definition of Organisational Performance is given by Antony and Bhattacharyya (2010, p43). They define Organisational Performance as, a measure of how well organizations are managed and the value they deliver to customers and other stakeholders. According to Daft (2000) Organisational Performance is the organisations ability to achieve its objectives efficiently and effectively. Organisational Performance represents the value of the organisation in terms of the total contribution made by the efficient and effective management of its human resources (Neumann Segev, 1978). Chien (2004) strongly posits that organisational performance is composed of five major critical components. And these are (ibid, p290): Motivation Models, The Leadership, The Organizational Culture and Environment, The Work Design, and The Human Resource Management Policy. Relationship between HRM and Organisational Performance The traditional role of HRM in organisations was mainly to support the operations through managing people to win the employees organisational commitment to the goals of the organisation (McGunnigle Jameson, 2000). In consequence, HR managers had to strictly comply with the detailed procedures of personnel administration which drove the ways in which the organisations handled their human resource activities (Huselid, Jackson, and Schuler, 1997). The key HRM activities included in this regard are: recruitment, selection, performance measurement, training and development, and administration of compensation and rewards (Dany et al, 2008). In addition to performing these HRM activities HR managers have to create value for the organisations in which they work (Huselid et al, 1997). However, todays HRM focuses heavily on the organisations successful outcomes through the integration of the various HR functions (Dany et al, 2008). Ulrich (1996, p2) strongly suggests that human resources determine an organisations success in overcoming major challenges facing executives today: globalisation, value chain for business competitiveness and HR services, change, attracting and retaining intellectual capital. Together these major challenges require that HR practices create and add value that can be measured reliably (ibid). Todays top performing companies pay extraordinary attention to managing effectively the HR dimensions which affect employee behaviours: morale, motivation, attitude, commitment, etc (Cadle Yeates, 2008, p28). Each of these HR dimensions plays powerful part in determining organisational success (ibid). Modern HRM global best practices include Lawlers (1986) High-Involvement Work Systems (HIWS), Appelbaum and Batts (1994) High Performance Work Systems (HPWS), and Wood and Albaneses (1995) High Commitment Management. Research shows that these modern HRM practices have a strong and positive influence on organisational performance (Ramsay, Scholarios, and Harley, 2000). More and more researches strongly indicate that that there are positive links between HRM practices and organisational performance (Carlson et al, 2006; Collins Smith, 2006). For instance, Delery (1998, p289) asserts that, the methods used by an organization to manage its human resources can have a substantial impact on many organizationally relevant outcomes. Gerhart and Milkovich (1992) conducted studies to measure the impacts of compensation and rewards systems on the successful accomplishment of organisational goals and objectives. Likewise research study conducted by Terpstra and Rozell (1993) shows that five key HRM selection practices are linked to business profit. In his review of the key empirical studies on the relationship between HRM and organisational performance Ulrich (1997) writes that these studies investigated the impact of specific HR practices on specific successful organisational outcomes; for example, effective HR practices in training and compensation were related to business turnover, labour productivity, and organisational performance. Ulrichs (1997) review summarised that the empirical studies were based on the assumption that efficient use of human resources through best HR practices would lead to successful organisational performance. Empirical studies conducted by Huselid (1995, p635) to assess the relationship between a set of HRM practices (referred by Huselid as HPWS High Performance Work Systems, which included: extensive recruitment, selection, training procedures, formal information sharing, attitude assessment, and job design) and organisational performance of 968 large companies have shown that there is a positive relationship between HRM and successful organisational performance. The key organisational performance measures used to evaluate the high performance HRM practices in the empirical studies included: labour productivity, financial performance, and turnover (ibid). Delaney and Huselid (1996) investigated the effects of recruitment and selection, compensation, training and development, decision making, complaints and grievance procedures, promotion practices, and the combined synergetic impact of these HRM practices in 590 for-profit and not-for-profit companies. Overall, their study concluded that these progressive of HRM practices were positively associated with firm performance. Harel and Tzafrir (1999, p186), based on their extensive theoretical and empirical research as well as from the prior studies conducted by other researchers in the HR field, have identified six core components of strategic and universalistic HRM best practices that are strongly related to organisational performance. These 6 core components of HR best practices are (ibid): Recruitment; Selection; Compensation; Employee Participation; Internal Labor Market; and Training. Likewise Becker and Huselid (1999) strongly agree with the seven high performance HRM best practices put forward by Pfeffer (1998) as having strong links to organisational performance. These 7 high performance HR best practices are (Pfeffer, 1998, cited in Huselid Becker, 1999, p297): Employment Security Selective Hiring Teams and Decentralized Decision-making High Pay Extensive Training Reduced Status Distinctions Extensive Information Sharing. Each of these seven high performance HRM best practices offer options for the HR professionals to choose the appropriate ones for enhancing the organisational performance and at the same time one should remember that each of these HRM best practices form an integrated high performance HRM system (Huselid Becker, 1999, p298). Approaches to Examine HRM and Organisational Performance Relationship There are two major fundamental approaches to study the relationship between HRM and organisational performance. These are termed as: Best-Practice approach, and Best-Fit approach. Best-Practice Approach The best-practice approach claims that HRM practices are universalistic and thus any organisation can obtain enhanced organisational performance by adopting the HRM best practices for managing people in any organisational context (Boxall Purcell, 2000). Best-Fit Approach On the other hand the best-fit approach argues for a vertical fit whereby the HRM systems are integrated with the corporate strategy of the organisation for obtaining improved organisational performance within a specific organisational context (Boselie, Paauwe, and Richardson, 2003). Between these two approaches, the best-practice approach is considered to be superior by HRM professionals and researchers for examining the impact of HRM practices on organisational performance ((Hoque, 1999, p422). Cautions in Examining the HRM and Organisational Performance Relationship Although there is wide support to the idea that HRM practices lead to improved organisational performance yet there are some cautions that have to be observed. Huselid (1995), states that successful organisational performance has been obtained by high-performance firms since they were able to afford expensive HRM systems and practices and this may not be affordable to most other firms. Furthermore, leadership style could have a stronger impact over the deployment of HRM practices due to the different types of influences which the leaders can exert on their people (Becker Huselid, 2006). Organisational Performance in Public Sector Organisations The power and water sector in Oman is a not-for-profit sector. As stated earlier (in chapter 1) the power and water sector in Oman is striving for reducing its operating costs. Only those not-for-profit organisations which possess human capital resources that operate with increased professionalism and more advanced multi-tasking skills through enhanced productivity (and thus ensuring and effecting control over operating costs) can accomplish their mission successfully (Mesch, 2010). Furthermore, in the times to come, the not-for-profit sector has to inevitably pursue more efficiency and with more economies of scale in order to provide cost-effective services to their stakeholders and prove organisational effectiveness (ibid). Evaluating organisational performance in the public sector organisations is not easy and this is further compounded by the fact that measurement of organisational performance in the public sector has not been developed in the organisation theory literature (Waheed, Mansor, and Ismail, 2010). This primarily because of the following factors that are unique to public sector organisations (ibid, p330): Lack of well-defined objectives and large number of multiple objectives; Central administration; Absence of generally accepted performance indicators for measuring organisational performance; Diffused and largely fragmented responsibility because of the interdependency of the performance of the public sector organisations. As a result of which accountability is difficult to extract. Evidence from their review of the limited literature available on organisational performance in the public sector organisations show that the three most common major indicators (the other not common indicators are: relevance, and efficacy) of organisational performance used in the frameworks provided by the various researchers are (ibid, pp331-336): Efficiency, Effectiveness, and Innovation. Katou and Budhwar (2006) studied 178 manufacturing organisations in Greece to investigate the relationship between the HRM systems and policies and organisational performance. Their study used the following indicators of organisational performance from their literature review (ibid, p1226) which can also be applied to service organisations as well: Efficiency: usage of fewer resources to achieve organisational objectives; Effectiveness: achieving the organisational objectives successfully; Development: developing and building the capacity of the organisation for meeting the future challenges and opportunities; Satisfaction: satisfying all the key participants customers, stakeholders, and employees; Innovation: of products and the related processes; and Quality: enhanced higher quality of products (services). Summary This chapter reviewed the available literature relevant to this study on HRM practices that can improve organisational performance. The above review of HRM literature shows that HRM best practices is distinctly composed of recruitment and selection, training and development, compensation and rewards system, information sharing, and employee participation. Organisational performance can be measured through the successful organisational outcomes in the form of efficiency and effectiveness, customer satisfaction, service quality, and labour productivity.

Problem Television Programs :: essays research papers

  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Problem Programs Robert MacNeil began his article the, â€Å"The Trouble With Television,† with the overwhelming statistic that the average television viewer squanders one thousand hours per year watching television programming (MacNeil). One thousand hours is a tremendous amount of time squandered watching programs with unchallenging content, this time could be better spent earning a college degree or perhaps earning various languages (MacNeil). I concur with MacNeil that television does â€Å"discourage concentration and applied effort† for the reason that viewers spend an excessive amount of time watching unsophisticated and undemanding programming rather then engaging in activities that will further develop the viewer’s critical thinking. In MacNeil’s article he asserts that viewers waste an excessive amount of tome watching television that is brief and unchallenging. He also adds that programmers deliberately create brief and rousing programs in hopes of achieving the goal of exposing viewers to their advertisements so that a profitable outcome can be reached. MacNeil informs his readers that approximately thirty million adults are functionally illiterate in America, meaning that thirty million adults are unable to read past the fifth grade level. He does not go as far as to say that television is to blame for this outcome, but he does   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Cascarano 2 believe that television contributes significantly to the misfortune. MacNeil also insinuates that viewers are attracted to simple and quick resolutions for many of today’s complex problems in these one half hour shows. Complex problems and quick, easy solutions are often found in these ine half hour comedy sitcoms such as Home Improvement. In a recent episode eighteen year old Brad (the eldest son) confronted his parents about his plans to marry his girlfriend of two months. Brad was convinced that he and his girlfriend wer in live and that was all that they needed to survive. Jill (Brad’s mother) turned to Wilson (their neighbor) for advice. He gives a simple resolution to a complicated problem: reverse psychology. Within a matter of four minutes the problem had vanquished, the young couple would wait until they had both completed four-year at a commendable university. Although quite witty, this simplistic one half hour comical sitcom is not challenging and it does not develop the viewer’s critical thinking because it does not break down the problem and explain a sophisticated and real resolution. Real resolutions are not given in these types of short sitcoms because real resolutions are lengthy and do not keep viewers watching.

Strength of Mice and Men

In this story, although some people have great strengths, they may have greater weaknesses, and sometimes the strong don’t always survive. Strength in something can greatly benefit a person. For example: 1. Lennie is physically strong and large. He is able to work very hard because of his strength, and he uses this to his advantage. Slim said, â€Å" By the way, what did you said about Lennie was absolutely right. Perhaps he isn’t intelligent, but I’ve never seen such a good worker as him.He worked much harder than the other men this afternoon, loading barley on to the waggon. Nobody can work as fast as him† ( it’s in chapter 6). Lennie also uses his strength to his advantage when he fights Curley. With his immense power he was able to crush Curley’s hand. 2. George’s intelligence. George is a very quick thinker. He is there to get Lennie out of trouble when he causes it. An example would be what happened in Weed. Lennie felt a girlâ⠂¬â„¢s dress and didn’t let go, so she accused him of raping her, and sent men to lynch him.George, thinking quickly, told Lennie to hide in a marsh so that the men wouldn’t find and kill him. 3. Curley, as a symbol of authority on the ranch and a champion boxer, makes this clear immediately by using his brutish strength and violent temper to intimidate the men and his wife. 4. Curley’s wife. Curley’s wife is beautiful. Beautifulness is the strength in herself to flirts with all the men she met especially all the men in the ranch.5. Slim. Slim is the senior worker in ranch. So everyone respected him and his opinions. For example when Slim said â€Å" Carlson’s right. Your dog’s no good to himself. I’d be glad if someone shot me when I was so old that I could hardly move† . this ipinion makes Candy felt helpless and then he mau accept his dog will be shoted by the Carlson. (it’s in chapter 7) 6. Carson. He has the strengt h to shoted the Candy’s dog because he has a gun and Slim suporrted him. ( it’s in chapter 7)

English Distincive Voice Essay

Distinctive voices are used create meaning and change which explores aspects of human experiences. The texts examined are Severn Cullis Suzuki, 9th Earl Spencers Eulogy for Princess Diana and Pink, Dear Mr President. The voices in these text include and environmental activist, voice of the innocent, grieving brother, everyman, lobbyist and remonstrator. All these voices have the ability to change societies view on an issue. The composers of these texts have had human experiences of grief, concern of the environment and concern for social equality. The distinctive voice of an environmental activist, innocence and remonstrator is expressed in Severn Cullis Suzuki Earth Summit. These voices portray the human experiences of having a concern of the environment, being part of a lobby group and seeing the destruction of the earth and wanted an end to poverty. Introduction and purpose, ‘I’m Servern Cullis speaking for ECO- The Environmental Children’s Organisation’ shows the distinctive voice of an activist exploring Suzuki’s human experience as the founder of ECO. Comparison, ‘In Canada, we live the privileged life†¦ Two days ago here in Brazil, we were shocked when we spent time with kids living on the streets’, clearly shows the difference between countries and seeing this, Suzuki has developed the voice of innocence exploring the human experience of Suzuki wanting a world without poverty. The voice of a remonstrator is developed, through the pleading tone, ‘If you don’t know how to fix it, please stop breaking it! ’. Severn Cullis blames the adults for this destruction of the earth that she has experienced. She wants the adults to change their ways. This remonstrating voice explores the human experience of being a part of a lobby. Exclusive language gives the adults a goal through the use of the cliche, ‘I challenge you please make your actions reflect your words’, which demands the adults to change their ways portraying the remonstrator. The voices throughout this text effectively represent the human experiences, demanding the audience to change their actions towards the environment for which Suzuki has seen the destruction of. Similarly, the voice of the remonstrator is evident in 9th Earl Spencer, Eulogy for Princess Diana. Both texts have the voice of a remonstrator as they plea to an issue both composers have experienced. The voice of a grieving brother, everyman and remonstrator explores aspects of human experiences for 9th Earl Spencer. These voices explore the human experience of grief. The voice of a grieving brother is portrayed through the use of emotive language, ‘I stand before you today, the representative of a family in grief’, showing the human experience of Earl Spencer as the young brother of Princess Diana. Earl Spencer, acknowledges the great life of Princess Diana which creates a sense of sadness for the audience as they listen in silence, through the allusion, metaphor and allusion, ‘ Today is our chance to say ‘thank you’ for the way your brightened our lives, even though God granted you but a half a life’. The voice of an everyman speaks for the entire world. Inclusive language and metaphor, ‘We are all chewed up with sadness at loss of a woman who wasn’t even our mother’, shows the importance of Princess Diana, that the whole world is deeply saddened by her death. This explores the aspect of a human experience, of the entire world that are in grief and shock after Diana’s death. The voice of a remonstrator explores the human experience of Princess Diana being chased by the media. Earl Spencer speaks of the media as being the cause if her death. ‘She never understood why her genuinely good intentions were sneered at by the media’, creates the voice of the remonstrator which explores Earls experience of Diana and how she felt towards the media. The voice of the remonstrator is also conveyed in Severn Cullis Suzuki’s speech which demand a change and creates emotion. The voice of citizen, the voice of society and remonstrator explore aspects of human experiences in Dear President. These voices which are present in the song represent human experience of seeing the president not doing his job and the rights of people being taken away. ‘Rebuilding your house after the bombs took them away’, creates imagery of the bombs and house expressing the voice of a citizen that effectively explores the human experience of a concerned citizen as Pink see’s the struggle that American citizens endured in their life. The American citizen voice effectively represents the human experiences, as the responder is able to emphasize on societies hardships that Pink has seen. ‘What do you feel when you see all the homeless on the street? ’, creates the voice of society through rhetorical question and imagery, portraying the negative human experience of Pink, as she has seen many citizens living on the streets. Pink questions the president which emotively appeals to the audience as they reflect on the President’s job. Formal register, ‘Come take a walk with me’ is an invitation for the president to listen to Pink’s opinions creating the oice of a remonstrator. ‘Let’s pretend were just two people and you’re not better than me’, shows the human experience of Pink and how she feels inequality as the President sees himself as better than society. Pink pleads her opinions to the President through rhetorical questions creating a remonstrating voice. This voice asks the audience to consider the President and what he has done. Dear Mr President, Severn Cullis Suzuki Earth Summit and 9th Earl Spencer Eulogy for Princess Diana have the voice of a remonstrator, which appeals to the audience emotively as it changes their view on an issue. These texts reveal the human experiences of grief, concern of the environment and concern for society through the voices of an environmental activist, the innocent, grieving brother, everyman, citizen, society and remonstrator. The composers have effectively used language to create distinctive voices including emotive language which explores human experiences of the composer and creates meaning for the responder. Distinctive voices are important in representing human experiences as the voice has the ability to demand change and a view on an issue.