Human Resource Management (case study) Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Human Resource Management (case study) - Essay Example Moreover, the furniture will be standardized and customer’s requirements will not be met because it can probably increase the cost. However, the company is not in a position to cope up with any unplanned change because it can’t afford any changes in the production process and the design of product due to the excessive cost of implementing the changes. Question 2: Based on your evaluation of the strategy approached by each organization what would be the most likely HR strategy? Answer: The working conditions and job descriptions will be fixed and rigid. The job descriptions will cover clearly defined tasks and responsibilities with no room for flexibility. The job duties will give little or no room for career progression to the employees because the tasks will require specialization in one specific area and the employees will not be able to learn new skills and abilities. The chances for training and development are extremely limited because the furniture is manufactured on basic standards which don’t require updating the skills. As a result, the performance appraisal will be done on efficiency and effectiveness of the employees. In other words, the employees will be evaluated on the quantity of items produced irrespective of quality. The wages of front line employees will be based on number of items produced each hour and bonus/rewards can be expected on overproduction. The salary structure of the employees will be competitive and company will pay at/below the industry standards. Efforts will be made to recruit cheap labors and the jobs of highly paid workers will be unsecured so that cost can be minimized and the supervisors will ensure that labor productivity is enhanced and employees don’t sit idle. Overall, a short term profit making approach is adopted. Question 3: Is this approach of linking Porter’s competitive strategy to HR strategy has its limitations? Evaluate what you consider these limitations can be. Answer: the porter’s competitive strategy is very generic and its approach is very limited and narrow. Porter says that the company should follow only one strategy at a time so that it doesn’t lose focus. On one hand, Benchill & Sons uses tight cost control to reduce prices but on the other hand, it needs to change its policies with the changing trends in the market and the economy. For e.g. the company can go for technological advancement or may be it can purchase raw materials form cheap countries like china or India, in order to reduce cost. However, this approach is very practical for non-profit organizations because their sources are limited but for benevolent owners this approach is not good for the reputation of the company. On the other hand, for profit making companies, the background of entrepreneur, the nature of industry, competitors, buying patterns of customers, technology and minimum standards set by ISO are important factors to consider before adopting any competit ive strategy. The best employment practice is to ensure better utilization of resources while not exploiting the workers, maintaining a fair quality standard and using relationship marketing approach to ensure repeat sales in order to beat the competitors. SPEKE FURNISHINGS Question 1: evaluate which of the Porter’

The American City Business Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

The American City Business - Assignment Example Among the states, each has a unique legal system implemented except Louisiana that is based on English Common Law. The American population is approximately 307 million people. The population comprises of major ethnic groups coming all over the world (Chicago Business Journal 98). The foreign policy implemented in the United States in ways the country interacts with other foreign nations. Standard of interaction is set in organizations, corporations, and citizens as an individual. The United States has set goals regarding foreign policy. Such is stated in the Agenda on the Foreign policy of the US Department of State. The goals ascertain building a sustainable democracy. The prosperous life to benefit the people of America, as well as the international community. From the Foreign affairs House committee, export controls are some of the jurisdictions. Such mention the proper use of nuclear technology and measures are taken to safeguard business associated with America abroad. Agreement s on international commodity, education, and protection offered to American citizens abroad are stated on the policy. Moreover, the foreign policy faced lots of criticism both domestically and abroad as well praise in other regions. The said policy gets consent and advice of US Senate. The president has a role to negotiate treaties regarding foreign nations. Treaties are implemented upon ratification from two-thirds of the Senate. The president is the commander in chief of the United States Armed forces. He/she have authority over armed forces. However, the Congress only has the power to declare war. The foreign affairs docket is headed by United States Secretary as foreign minister. He /She has a role in conducting diplomacy. The president appoints both Secretary of the state as well as Ambassadors upon advice and consent from the Senate. Moreover, the Congress has the authority of regulating commerce with foreign countries (Chicago Business Journal 98).

International competiveness and innovation Essay

International competiveness and innovation - Essay Example Globalisation is considered to be one of the most important events of the modern civilisation. It has brought major developments in the human activities as well in the thought process. This has made their thought process more liberal and innovative. People are using their innovative mind as a tool for economic and social enhancement. Innovation is a common trait among scientists and entrepreneurs who use this trait to bring social, technological and economic developments. Innovation refers to the creation of new ideas, concepts, thoughts that can be further be used for growth and developments. Primarily, innovation is categorized into two major types i.e. radical and incremental. Radical innovation involves the performance improvements of product or services and incremental innovation results in bringing improvements in production process like efficiency, cost-effectiveness etc (Urabe, Child and Kagono, 1998, p.4). Innovation is one of the core features of modern society and technolo gical improvement is a major outcome of this feature that boosts the growth of an economy. The changing technological system has influenced the entire structure of an economy. Modern technological system has led to upgradating international trade and business causing enhancement of economic parameters. Moreover, with the technological developments, many new industries have been evolving to meet the latest of population. On the other hand, the existing organisations also aim to implement latest technologies for shaping their performance for gaining an upper hand and sustainable competitive advantage in the market. Constant technological innovation has become an important criterion for social and economic development and due to this, proper awareness among the entire population is inevitable. People have to realize the importance of basic sciences as it develops a foundation for being innovative, creative and productive. R&D programs are initiated by the organisations seeking technolo gical developments and performance enhancements. 2. Collaborations and Alliances The business environment of the modern world is characterised by highly turbulent phases. With the advent of globalisation firms are increasingly trying to reach out to new consumer markets. Collaboration and alliances are largely used as a tool by business organizations to enter new markets. This strategy has largely been used by the airlines industries to form mega consortiums so as to gain strategic advantage. An example in this regard is the airline industry which has used collaborations and alliances for research and development activities. The major players in the American and European airline market which are dominating the global aerospace industry have used collaborations to enhance the level of research and development activities. In spite of the advantages of a strategy of collaboration and alliances, ‘spillover’ effects are also associated with this strategy. The ‘spillove r’ effect has largely been observed in technology intensive industry segments like biotechnology. However, the analysis of literature reveals considerable difference in the nature of ‘spillover’ in the aerospace industry with patents and licensing being the most prominent difference between the two sets of industries. Difference in demand and supply dynamics also generates considerable differences. The main sources of ‘spillovers’

A Gambling Addict Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

A Gambling Addict - Essay Example Ultimately, it invades, undermines and often destroys everything that is meaningful id a person’s life. This paper will seek to address the social concern that gambling addicts present to their livelihood and to those close to him as well as the steps that most often result to one being a compulsive gambler. Moreover, this paper will endeavour to correct popular myths and misconceptions which have been associated with gambling. In pursuance of this, it trails the life of Harry, a responsible family man who at first was an occasional gambler and together with his wife engaged in gambling for fun. however, after a couple of wins and exposure to several predisposing factors ended being a compulsive gambler and in the process causing a lot of pain to his family but subsequently being able to overcome the ugly addiction that gambling can turn out into being. Harry was a normal plain John, newly wed to his longtime girlfriend a few months now passed. He worked with behaviorally impa ired adolescent boys. In this field, the support staff was dominated by males who usually had a background that included at some level, participation in competitive sports. Such men were supposedly more equipped to deal with the rough nature of clients involved. It was in this world that he was first introduced to the world of sports gambling. The circumstances were that a colleague would pick up a bookie sheet (a form containing a list of all the available games that could be bet on during a particular day) and bring it to work. Initially, he only looked at college and professional football that were played on the weekends. This, however, did not produce the winnings he imagined. His gambling eventually became a daily, if not a twice daily habit. A Popular belief is that gambling is a choice and therefore a result of a lack of willpower, on the contrary, gambling is a disease like any other and it can affect anyone, even those with strong moral character. In the beginning, Harry pa rticipated with his wife in the ‘fun’ of gambling. The very occasional wins were encouraging and euphoric. As he began to delve deeper into the gambling and more loses, however, as an occasional gambler would do, she got bored of the loses and began to see less pleasure in the hobby and ceased gambling all the same. In fact, she encouraged Harry to get out of the practice. But then the compulsion was too great for him, while she quit, Harry’s compulsion could not allow him. He was growing into a compulsive gambler, no longer being the one making the decision but the impulse of gambling. He began to spend a large portion of his salary on gambling, and this created a strain on the marriage. His wife was a certified teacher and made a considerable amount of money working with students who were emotionally and behaviorally impaired in a private educational setting. In one year, according to their tax returns, they earned nearly $60,000, nevertheless, they had to file for bankruptcy on several occasions. The bank account could not keep up with the mounting losses. This caused a strain in their financial lives and affected their relationship more and more. This was against the widely believed perception that addiction was a victimless activity, as on the contrary, the negative effects of the gambling problem trickle down to the immediate family of the addict and to those dear to him. Harry’s ambition in life became the same as other compulsive gamblers, to get his money back. He always believed that he was going to win big. Be persistent- that was his thought pattern. He was now in the second step in the evolution of gambling addiction, that’s the, losing phase. Harry was losing money and he was trying to recoup his loses by

Housing Pre and Post Recession Lab Report Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Housing Pre and Post Recession - Lab Report Example From figure 1, we see that the data starts off from the middle of a recession in 1982. It lasted only till the 4th quarter of the year. The percentage of GDP growth since then rose sharply until the 2nd quarter of 1982 and then started gradually moderating. The ensuing period was characterized by some volatility until the 1st quarter of 1991 from where the GDP growth dipped sharply and the second recession initiated. This recession also lasted only for two quarters. The decade of the 1990s marked a steady climb in the GDP growth rate and signs of the next recession were observed only in the first quarter of 2000 since when it started decreasing rapidly. This third recession lasted from the 1st quarter of 2001 to the last quarter of the same year. There was a small climb in terms of GDP growth since then until 2007. From the last quarter of 2007 the recent recession set in and it lasted for seven quarters making it the longest recession in the time horizon under consideration. Figure 1 Housing Starts Turning to the Housing markets, we start by looking at housing starts in Figure 2. Interestingly, apart from a steady dip a few quarters ahead of the current recession, inter-temporal movements in housing starts have been moderately stable. The recessions do not seem to have affected housing starts to any considerable extents and we find only small dips in the first two recessions. Strangely during the third recession, we find that housing starts actually increased. However, it can also be seen from the graph that housing starts exhibit a marked decline from around the 3rd quarter of 2005 onwards well into the recent recession. Figure 2 Average real housing prices The next housing market indicator considered is the real average housing price. As can be seen from figure 3, housing prices exhibit smooth but evident cyclical movements. Comparing these movements with figure 1 reveals that in terms of trends the housing price movements particularly in the latter half of the time horizon match those of the real GDP growth although real GDP volatility is considerably higher. The peaks and the troughs in the average housing price time plots are clearly distinguishable and there are substantially lesser reversals making the series a lot smoother. Although resemblances in trend are not so clear in the quarters before 2000, since then the GDP growth and housing prices seem to follow very similar patterns. Figure 3 Months’ supply Finally, in figure 4 below, we look at movements in months’ supply of housing across the duration considered. In between the first two recessions here, the series seems to have been substantially volatile though stably so, around a mean of 2. Thereon, the movements of the series have been relatively less volatile. Figure 4 We see from the figure that months’ supply has declined in periods subsequent to the 1st, 2nd and 4th recessions. After the 1982 recession, housing supply exhibits a small decline in the ge neral trend although it as mentioned earlier fluctuated around an average. A more pronounced decline in the series occurred following the 2nd recession in 1991. The strong declining trend during this phase continued on through the onset of the third recession. There was a surge in early 2005 reflecting what we know now as the gradually forming housing bubble. The series attained its maximum halfway into the fourth recession. The housing supply series seems to reflect a lagged

I want to buy health insurance by myself Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

I want to buy health insurance by myself - Essay Example Thus, this factor underlines the case importance of medical cover, which comes in a variety of programs for an individual to make a choice. As students, we also need to plan for any misfortune, since we cannot tell of future occurrences. However, what happens when you cannot rely on a program meant to help you in case of a misfortune? Does such a program guarantee you a safe future? While acknowledging the Oklahoma Christian University Administration’s noble intentions in their medical cover program, this expose posit that the cover does not meet its intended purpose and hence the administration should allow students to arrange for their own cover. The initial purpose of any health insurance, or a medical cover, is to ensure that there was proper care of an individual’s body and health. In this regard, a medical cover should be a permanent arrangement that we can all rely on and avail at the appropriate time in case of a serious health disorder. In this regard, an individual’s health is at risk once the medical cover is not dependable. Case in point, our University’s medical cover is not one of the reliable. For instance, a colleague became sick, while in school, and we had to dig deep into our pockets and arrange for an ambulance, which took him to the hospital. This is despite the fact the colleague had paid for medical cover in the University. Thus, the failure of the University to meet such basic costs underlines the undependable nature of the medical cover. At this instance, we pause and ask the question of what would have been the consequence of us not raising money for the ambulance. This can only m ean that the investable would have happened. While medical cover should keep you insured against serious illnesses, our University cover does not cover even the most of basic illnesses like vision and teeth. We all know that

Pennsylvania Drunk Driving Laws Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Pennsylvania Drunk Driving Laws - Essay Example With the passage of Senate Bill 8 and the signature of the governor, Title 18 (Crimes and Offenses) 75 Pa. CS [3802] became the new law for Driving under the Influence of Alcohol or Drugs in Pennsylvania. The new law made sweeping changes to many aspects of this statute. Most notably, the limit for conviction for DUI was lowered from .10 to .08 percent blood alcohol content (BAC) which brought Pennsylvania in line with the guidelines established by the federal government. Another sweeping reform to the new law is found in its three tier system. For the first time there are variant levels enforcement based on the drivers BAC. These tiers are: .08 to less than .10; .10 to less than .16; and .16 and above (Madigan et al., 2003, screen 1). The varying tiers have increasing penalties for both repeat and first time offenders. All people arrested now with a BAC of .16 or greater regardless of whether a first offender or a repeat offend will be required to undergo a full drug and alcohol abuse assessment with no exceptions. If they are found to be dependent, in addition to other sanctions imposed, the court can order them to undergo an approved drug and/or alcohol treatment program. Additionally, as BAC level rise and/or the person are a repeat offender, the fines imposed are increased dramatically. Another change with the new legislation is the requirement for repeat offenders to have an ignition interlock system installed in their vehicle when they are eligible for a return of their license. The cost of installation rests with the offender. This type of system requires the driver to breathe into a tube which is, in effect, a breathalyzer, if alcohol is detected the system will not allow the car ignition to engage. This ignition interlock system is required to be maintained within the vehicle for one year upon receipt of their provisional driving privilege reinstatement. If a defendant is eligible for reinstatement of his driving privileges but does not have the locking system installed his driving suspension then remains in affect for an additional year (the period of time required to have the interlock system) (Madigan et al., 2003, screen 1). A brief synopsis of the various tiers and penalties is provided. A tier one offense for a first time offender where there was no personal injury or property damage. The penalties are: $300 fine, no license suspension, up to six months probation and attend