Business Studies Motivation Report Essay

1.1- The following report is selected to discover and explain the motivational theory know as Theory Z. Theory Z is a motivation theory which was discovered and created by Dr. William Ouchi and is known as the so-called ‘Japanese Management’ style. Dr. William Ouchi’s theory Z was based on Dr. W. Edwards Deming’s famous â€Å"14 points†. Deming was an American scholar whose management and motivation theories were rejected in the United States, he then went on to help lay the foundation of Japanese organizational development during their expansion in the world economy in the 1980s, from there on this is where Dr William Ouchi created the motivational theory ‘Theory Z’ 1.2Here I have created a timeline of the motivational theories to show how they have evolved. 1943 – Abraham Maslow – A theory of Human Motivation. This is Maslow’s hierarchy of needs where there is a pyramid, at the bottom of the pyramid there is the physiological things required such as breathing, food, water. At the top there is the self-actualization, such as morality, creativity, problem solving. 1960 – Douglas McGregor – Theory X and Theory Y. Theory X and Theory Y consist of two very different types of management. Theory X believes that no one enjoys work and employees are lazy and require force so their work it complete. Theory Y believes that people enjoy work and has a friendlier atmosphere. McGregor also combined his theory with Maslow’s in saying the bottom half of the triangle was Theory X needs and the top half was Theory Y needs. 1980 – Dr. William Ouchi – Theory Z. This theory is fairly recent and has developed from all of the theories. Dr. William Ouchi has combined all the motivational theories and crea ted the theory Z, this theory is what I will be doing my report on. In the 1970s and 1980s, many United States industries lost market share to international competitors, particularly Japanese companies. Concerns about the competitiveness of U. S. companies led some to examine Japanese management practices for clues to the success enjoyed by many of their industries. This led to many articles and books purporting to explain the success of Japanese companies. It was in this atmosphere that Theory Z was introduced into the management lexicon. 1.3Theory Z’s main attributes consist of combined motivational theories. This theory makes assumptions that the workers tend to want to build happy and intimate working relationships. Theory Z also states that theory Z workers need to be supported by the company and they highly value a working environment. These workers have a very well developed sense of order, discipline and an obligation to work hard. Unlike McGregor’s Theory X workers, Theory Z employees can be trusted and to work hard so long as their managers can be trusted to support them according to Ouchi’s Theory Z. I will be focusing on applying this theory to the workforce in the Holiday centre as the organisation’s communication is not of a good standard as well as the company being unorganised. 1.4This Theory fits the organisation I have chosen as the within this workplace there needs to be good working relationships as well as trust, yet there still needs to be discipline and an obligation to work hard. The organisation that I am fitting this theory to is a Holiday Park’s swimming pool located in a rural town. Application 2.1Within the workplace of the Holiday Park’s Swimming pool sector, there are issues between the pool managers and the staff (lifeguards) on poolside. The pool managers have adopted Douglas McGregor’s Theory Y motivation theory. The pool managers have built strong relationships with the staff so therefore making it difficult for the pool managers to come across as strict. William Ouchi’s theory Z motivation theory is suitable for this situation as it combines strong relationships between staff, like a ‘clan culture’ but the theory still retains some elements of bureaucratic hierarchies, such as formal authority relationships, performance evaluation, and some work specialization. Therefore the pool managers would still be able to have their relationship but still keep their authority over the lifeguards. 2.1.1 Pros – This theory would apply well to this organisation because it keeps the respect of the hierarchies within the business as well as keeping the relationships that have been built throughout work 2.1.2 Cons – The cons of this theory is that having this relationship between the pool manager and lifeguards existing at all could cause some problems to their relationship outside of work due to the lifeguards disapproving of being told what to do by their friend or by being jealous of their friend having a higher paid, more responsibilities job. Douglas McGregor’s theory X would be more suitable for the pool managers. 2.2The lifeguards within this company are unmotivated and have low morale, this then results in the lifeguards being upset and strict, stopping people from enjoying themselves. This is a big issue for the company because with unhappy staff comes unhappy customers. The lifeguards require motivation and need to feel more like a ‘clan culture’, they need job satisfaction; this is where Theory Z would be suitable. The theory would suit to this situation because Theory Z encourages and emphasizes individual contribution and responsibility. Theory Z also emphasizes communication, collaboration, and consensus in decision making. If the lifeguards had theory Z applied to them, they would feel more inclined to work. 2.2.1 Pros – The pros of this is that with the lifeguards having their own responsibility and contributions, they will feel more satisfaction and recognised by the company, it will give the employees self-confidence therefore resulting in a stronger workforce. 2.2.2 Cons – The cons of this theory applying to this situation is that the staff could get too much on their hands and take on to responsibilities and result in making a decision before consulting anyone else, the individual contribution and responsibilities could be taken advantage of. Conclusion The theory fits the situations well due to the theory applying relationships to the workforce yet still retaining the job authority so the respect is not lost from a lower staff member to a member of a higher job. The theory also applies individual contribution and creates a self of value towards the company by the staff as they feel their opinion is wanted, as well as their confidence within the workforce and company increases.

The Impact of Personal and Organisational Variables

The impact of personal and organisational variables on the leadership styles of managers Summary This study has attempted to collect and analyse data on a number of personal as well as organisational variables that are considered as potentially useful in explaining the leadership styles of managers. Such data include the gender, age, length of service in present organisation, length of service in an organisation, hierarchy, size and type of organisation, whether a manufacturing or a financial services entity, for example.The objective of the study is to examine the impact of these variables, if any, on the leadership style practices of managers. In the modern management of human resources it is useful to investigate whether, for example, there is less use of directive form of leadership in preference to consultative, participative and delegative leadership practices. If so, such practices will be in line with the expected liberalisation in today’s world as different from yeste rday’s more authoritarian styles of organisational management.It would be useful to know what personal characteristics, such as age, have on leadership practices which is supposedly based on some suggested principles. For example, how do older and younger top-level and lower-level organisational leaders differ in their leadership activities? Knowledge of the answers to these and similar questions can be used to improve the management of human resources. Respondents to this study identified a number of personal variables during the data collection phase.This included their age, gender, and length of service either in the present organisation or in all organisations in which they have worked. Although a number of variables were thus involved and consequently used in the exploratory data analysis, some of them, like gender and length of service, were not significant, on their own, in the analysis. However, age shows up most significantly in their effects on the leadership styles of the managers. On leadership styles and behaviour, ompared with older workers, the researchers found that younger workers feel more comfortable in fast changing environments and are more willing to take risks and consider new approaches. They also operate with more energy and intensity, and have a greater capacity to energise others. In addition, they are more likely to seek out opportunities to take charge and push vigorously and competitively to achieve a high level of results. When compared to older workers, younger workers also tend to work to develop and promote themselves.Similarly, on leadership styles and behaviour, compared with younger workers, the researchers found that older workers study problems in light of past practices in order to ensure predictability, and minimise risk. They tend to maintain a calmer and more understated (though not detached) demeanour. Older workers tend to maintain an in-depth knowledge of their field and use this knowledge to approach proble ms. They cooperate and delegate more, in addition to showing a greater degree of empathy and concern for other workers. Contrary to the practices of younger workers, the authors suggest that older workers work to develop and promote others.Respondents were asked to indicate their overall satisfaction levels with their boss’s leadership styles. Given the hierarchical nature of most organisations, subordinates rated bosses who, in turn, rated their own bosses and so on so that a full picture of the situation with this consideration was obtained. A further examination of the data suggests that managers at higher organisational hierarchy, obviously, tend to use some but not all of the four leadership styles – directive, consultative, participative and delegative.The impression seems to be that before they get to the higher organisational position they would have tried each of the leadership style dimensions and decided to concentrate on only one, two or three of them but n ot all four leadership styles. Experience would have assisted them in selecting and concentrating on the style or styles of leadership that they considered most appropriate during the performance of each of their organisational activities.A corollary of this finding is that lower level managers tend to use significantly more of the overall leadership styles in comparison with the higher-level managers. This finding is as expected since lower-level managers need time and experience to decide which of the styles would work best for them in different situations. Thus in their learning processes, they might decide to use each and all of the leadership styles during their learning period. This study set out to examine the leadership styles of managers from the perspectives of their ages and the levels they occupy in their organisational hierarchies.Using survey data from over 400 UK employees and managers, the authors found that managers at higher organisational hierarchies tend to use l ess of the overall leadership style in preference to one or the other of the directive, consultative, participative or delegative leadership styles. It was felt that their experiences enable them to more easily select an appropriate style of leadership in performing their organisational activities rather than relying on a composite leadership style. However, it was also found that older managers tend to use less of the individual leadership styles in preference to the overall leadership style.This situation leaves us with the conclusion that the higher level managers in our study may not be the oldest ones and that, today, younger managers are rising to the top positions in organisational management. One reason for this, of course, is the increasing use of technology in managerial duties and that younger managers tend to be more adept at this than their older colleagues. One of the implications of our finding is that organisations today must increasingly recognise the complementary roles and skills of younger and older employees in achieving their goals. Age does not necessarily have to be an asset or a barrier.THE DOWNSIDE OF SELF-MANAGEMENT: A LONGITUDINAL STUDY OF THE EFFECTS OF CONFLICT ON TRUST, AUTONOMY, AND TASK INTERDEPENDENCE IN SELF-MANAGING TEAMS Summary Over the past few decades, interest in self-managing teams has increased, particularly interest in understanding their design, structure, and performance. Little is known about how self-managing teams design and adapt themselves, and how these actions affect performance. A recent review of teams in organizations that specifically discussed adaptation did not reference any research exploring structural change as an adaptive mechanism.The author illustrated an example of teams with high trust suffering performance losses when they adopted a design with high individual autonomy. Thus, selfmanaging teams’ ability to choose and adapt their structures has important implications for their performanc e. In general, flexibility and adaptability are beneficial and are often what allow teams to avoid trouble and manage problems successfully. However, the author suggest this flexibility can sometimes be a liability, specifically when a self-managing team unintentionally adopts a potentially dysfunctional design.The authors focus is on how task and relationship conflict in self-managing teams can cause them to restructure themselves in response. The author defines task conflict here as disagreement among group members about decisions, viewpoints, ideas, and opinions and as potentially including controversy over the best way to achieve a group goal or objective. In the context of self-managing teams, the issue of structure and process becomes more complex than it is for â€Å"traditional† work teams.Normally, structural, or design, variables are considered exogenous inputs in a classic input-process-output (IPO) model, but in the case of self-managing teams they can clearly be outputs as well. This characteristic raises two thorny issues, one conceptual and one methodological. First, it suggests that the study of self-managing teams should address not just the immediate effect of structure on outcomes such as performance, but also the effects on structure itself of various processes, such as conflict, and the effects of emergent states like trust.Conflict has long been known to have the potential to harm group processes, such as coordination and cooperation, as well as performance outcomes, such as goal accomplishment, and much is known about the causes and effects of conflict in teams. Although the benefits of sharing divergent viewpoints and discussion are clear, especially in terms of team decision-making quality, the overall effect of both task and relationship conflict on performance appears to be negative. Despite voluminous research, the effects of onflict on team structure have remained largely unexplored, representing a significant shortcoming in academic understanding of teams, particularly selfmanaging ones. The author believes that the links between conflict and structure may not only be direct, but also indirect—through intervening variables such as intrateam trust, which has been found to be important to self-managing team performance. Hypothesis 1. Higher conflict, whether task or relationship, is associated with lower trust.The author expects that the reductions in trust associated with increased conflict will in turn influence team structure, resulting in lowered autonomy and task interdependence. Autonomy and task interdependence both consistently stand out in the team design literature as the two primary structural factors of teams. Hypothesis 2. Lower trust is associated with lower levels of individual autonomy in a team. It is also likely that trust influences task interdependence. By a logic similar to that presented above, perceptions of risk may also lead team members to limit task interdependence and coordination requirements.Task interdependence is often considered the extent to which an individual’s task performance depends on the efforts and skills of others. Hypothesis 3. Lower trust is associated with lower levels of task interdependence in a team. In addition to the indirect effects discussed above, it is also possible for conflict to have direct effects on team structure. In terms of autonomy, such effects might result from a desire for revenge or retribution in response to task or relationship conflict; a team member might essentially withhold autonomy from another as a punitive act.Hypothesis 4. Higher conflict, whether task or relationship, is associated with lower levels of individual autonomy in a team. A direct effect of conflict on task interdependence is also possible, as team members may redesign their team to avoid interacting with one another. If relationship conflict is high, members can reduce task interdependencies to minimize their contact with team members they do not like, thus avoiding conflict. Hypothesis 5. Higher conflict, whether task or relationship, is associated with lower task interdependence.Hypotheses 1, 2, and 3 thus suggest that trust serves as an indirect intervening variable by which trust is affected by conflict and, in turn, affects team structure. Hypothesis 6. Higher conflict, whether task or relationship, is associated with teams characterized by a combination of lower task interdependence and lower individual autonomy. Finally, it is worth noting that such a design— low interdependence combined with low autonomy—is potentially dysfunctional.Thus, moving slightly outside the main focus of the present study, the author would also expect to find such an interactive effect of autonomy and task interdependence on team performance. In other words, design changes that are either directly or indirectly associated with conflict in a self-managing team are likely to have dysfunctional effects on perfo rmance. The authors basic contention is that self-managing teams can be particularly susceptible to detrimental effects of conflict as a result of their ability to alter their own structures and designs.The results have largely supported that contention. He has shown that higher levels of conflict (especially relationship conflict) in teams are associated with lower task interdependence and individual autonomy, partly because of direct effects, and partly because of indirect effects of lower trust. He also demonstrated that high conflict in teams is associated with the combination of lower autonomy and interdependence, which is a potentially dysfunctional design for a self-managing team, with lower performance than other configurations. Leadership in the Service of Hospitality SummaryThe definition of leadership has changed considerably in the past one hundred years, beginning with the â€Å"great man† concept and, more recently, focusing on â€Å"transformational leadership . † The next step in leadership evolution is servant leadership, in which the leader seeks to support and empower followers. The implications are considerable for the hospitality industry, since it is based on the concept of leadership through service. Hospitality educators could take steps to instill servant leadership principles in students to equip them for this increasingly relevant leadership style.This paper looks back on half a century of publications, the changes it has recorded in leadership theory and practice illustrate the evolution of approaches to understanding the relationship between leaders and followers in hospitality organizations. In the current business climate, there is a greater need for leaders who can guide with integrity and courage instead of autocratic leaders. Therefore it seems logical to research several philosophies on employee care and environmental stewardship. These philosophies promote a culture of trust and respect.This emerging approach to leadership is examined in light of the pressing issues businesses are confronting as we move into the second decade of the twenty-first century—leaders whose motives are often questionable and a workforce that has become increasingly stressed, disillusioned, and disengaged. Early theories focused almost exclusively on personal characteristics of the leader and attempted to better understand the reason for his or her impact on organizational performance. In fact, one of the first perspectives was called the â€Å"great man† theory under the premise that leaders (at that time, almost exclusively male) were born, not made.During the 1950s and 1960s, behavioural theories emerged with increasing frequency. Theorists proposed that individuals could learn to be leaders through skill development and deliberate action. While the earliest theories focused on the leader’s characteristics and competencies in search of the key to greater effectiveness, thinking during the p ast twenty-five years has generally taken a broader view that considers both the dynamics created between the leader and his or her followers as well as the context and features of the particular environment.Servant leadership captures and reimagines elements from earlier thinking on the requirements of both the individual as leader and his or her relationship with followers. Servant leaders demonstrate the flexibility required for effectiveness in a culturally diverse workplace, incorporating the positive and appropriate aspects of other leadership models. Behaviors Associated with Servant Leaders 1. Listening intently to others combined with personal reflection on what is heard 2. Empathy: assuming the good intentions of colleagues 3. Awareness: understanding issues involving ethics and values . Persuasion, rather than relying on authority or coercion 5. Conceptualization: servant leaders dream great dreams and are also operationally skilled 6. Foresight: the ability to foresee th e likely outcome of a situation 7. Stewardship: holding institutions in trust for the greater good of society 8. Commitment to the personal and professional growth of all employees 9. Building community within the organization As definitions of customer service turn to customer care, servant leadership becomes increasingly relevant. Servant leaders appreciate, encourage, and care for their followers.Employees, inspired by the example their leader sets, in turn provide generous and genuine care to guests. When employees take personal responsibility for addressing each guest’s needs, when they serve out of a personal commitment to provide value and assistance, service becomes authentic and quality increases. This customization of service translates into high customer satisfaction and subsequent organizational effectiveness. When employees perceive their leader as trustworthy—when they keep their promises and act on espoused values—employee commitment, effort, and efficiency increase.While both servant and transformational leaders seek to empower employees, servant leadership adds an ethical emphasis beyond what is generally found in transformational leadership theory. Arguments have been posed that transformational leaders, highly motivated to accomplish their organizational goals, may be tempted to use their charisma and misrepresent aspects of the situation to their followers. The path to servant leadership is not always direct, and students must be encouraged to cultivate a long-term view of the journey.Educators can help each student to see the value in doing what is right, even if it is not immediately recognized or rewarded. While focus is on facilitating these outcomes in student learners, faculty may find that modelling servant leader attitudes and practices can help them to facilitate personal responsibility and high standards of ethical behaviour. When faculty demonstrate empowerment and build trust, they can raise students’ expectations regarding the requirements of their future hospitality leadership role. Job-Related Barriers and Coping Behaviors n the Career Development of Hospitality Undergraduates Summary The main reason why this research is done is to understand the reason for the extremely high turnover in the hospitality industry. The purpose of most of the hospitality education programs is to prepare students for future management positions. However, many of these students drop out after 3-5 years. The first step of the survey, in the direction of solving the problem is to understand students' career planning. Studies from the student perspective are scarce, so this study will focus mainly on these students, hree main objectives guiding the study. 1. To explore and compare hospitality students' perception of work-related barriers 2. The relationships between the role of the barriers students investigate in their career decision processes. 3. To evaluate the effectiveness of career counseling to improve and suggest directions for future studies focusing on barriers for hospitality students Job-related barriers are defined as â€Å"events or circumstances, either within the person or in his or her environment, which are part of a career progress difficult†.Several studies focus on further classification of these career difficulties. Factors, including race, age, education and background are examined during the years. In addition to the quantitative studies that have focused on the effects of barriers for student career development processes a few researchers found that qualitative methods have the advantage of improving the exploration of the students' perceived barriers. Nowadays hospitality researchers have developed a new and different approach to the career development of students in the hospitality industry.Acquiring useful skills is viewed helpful in promoting hospitality graduates compatibility with advances in the industry. Along with the before mentioned a pproach, the view and the perception of the students in the hospitality is considered more and more important. The lack of opportunities for growth was the main reason reported by alumni of hotel and restaurant programs for changing employers or leaving the industry. Unsuitable working hours and poor financial compensation be mentioned as another important reason for the change businesses, changing careers, or leave the industry altogether.Career decision-making self-efficacy (CdSe) refers to the degree of confidence people have in their expertise or ability to informational, educational and professional goal-planning activities to be carried out. In addition to these CdSe states that â€Å"the students' perceptions of barriers can be based on several considerations: chance barriers arise, the degree of disruptiveness as it occurs, and an individual is able to overcome barriers† . A total of 430 surveys were distributed to hospitality students at two universities through the stratified sampling method (program enrollment ratio: 7:3).School 1 is located in a small suburban university city with a population of 27,906 and a number of medium-sized cities in the area. School 2 is located in a medium sized city known for commercial and medical institutions with a population of 217,326 and the proximity of nearby small towns. Selection of these two samples, the investigator in order to determine whether location has significant influence on the selected variables. One of the outcomes of this research is what kind of factors are considered as the main barriers.The factors, difficulty finding a job because of a tight labor market and not knowing the â€Å"right people† to get a job came in first and second. The findings of this study suggest that students perceived barriers differently, because the same item are grouped into different factors within the subscales. Thus, the inability to move away from friends / family seen as affecting â€Å"getting a jo b they desire† (finding the job factor), but the move was also seen as their â€Å"performance on the job† to influence (performing the work factor).When both quantitative and quantitative measures were used to students' perceptions of career barriers to explore other results have emerged from these two reviews. When students had a choice to predetermined list of wide assessments given, they rated the tight labor market as the top concern, followed by lack of connection. The findings of this study showed that students often use problem-oriented methods to deal with barriers.Again, although the qualitative method may have limited students from considering all possible coping strategies, students turned on internal (hard to improve themselves, work) over external assistance (eg professional help) to find solutions. This result showed a consistency in the qualitative data, because internal barriers (lack of experience, motivation, self-confidence) more than external ones ( tight labor) were cited. Finally, the moderate relationship found in this study showed that although students were able to career decision in the hospitality industry , they do not have the confidence in this field to conquer the barriers.By studying the career development processes of hospitality students, hospitality teachers will benefit from understanding how to help students cope with barriers and hospitality situated in a better position to help students with their career goals. Decreasing barriers in students' career planning will improve hospitality students control over their career behavior. A conscious choice of career, a meaningful career goal and career preparation will facilitate hospitality students commitment to their career choices and retention in the hospitality industry. Career Decision Making and Intention: a Study of Hospitality Undergraduate StudentsSummary This study focused on a sample of hospitality undergraduate students and had three main objectives: Firs t, to determine factors that affect their career-related decisions; second, to explore motivations for pursuing a hospitality career; and third, to examine whether the probability of hospitality students’ career intentions can be predicted by selected variables Self-Efficacy. This concept dominates career development theories and may be best described as â€Å"Can I do this? †. Self-efficacy serves as a mediator to motivate people to achieve a special goal, such as pursuing a career in the hospitality industry.Self-efficacy is about individuals’ belief in their ability to carry out the following five tasks: self-appraisal, vocational information gathering, plans for the future, problem solving, and goal selection. Performing these five tasks is essential to achieve career maturity. Outcome Expectations. This factor is an important determinant of â€Å"career interests and choice goals† and may be best described as â€Å"If I do this, what will happen? â € . Outcome expectations are both the intrinsic and extrinsic rewards that career choices and goals are based on. Vocational Exploration.This factor refers to a process that an individual engages when choosing a career. This process begins with exposure to various sources of information (about one’s self, the vocational world, and alternative options) and involves activities such as (a) testing occupational preferences and interests, (b) evaluating suitability and obtaining feedback, (c) establishing career goals and overcoming barriers and obstacles, and (d) engaging in and committing to a career choice. Career Intentions. This factor is defined as â€Å"the degree to which a person has formulated conscious plans to perform or not perform some specified future behavior†.Both self-efficacy and outcome expectations are predictors of â€Å"career intentions and persistence behavior†. Three methods of data analysis were performed in this study. First, a series o f bivariate correlation analyses was conducted to test the relationships among career-related variables. Second, logistic regression analysis was performed to test the hypothesis and identify background and career-related variables that significantly predicted the probability of students’ intention to work in the hospitality industry after graduation.Third, students’ responses to one open-ended question were thematically analyzed. This question encouraged students to express their own views and opinions about pursuing careers in the hospitality industry. The authors results hold three main implications for both hospitality educators and industry. First of all, hospitality students in this study identified themselves as the most influential factor in making career decisions and also reported intrinsic rewards as more valuable outcomes or motivators for pursuing careers than extrinsic.Implications of this finding suggest that hospitality firms continue to create industry positions that promote â€Å"self-reliance,† â€Å"autonomy,† â€Å"advancement,† â€Å"opportunities for personal and professional development,† and â€Å"sense of achievement†. These researchers concluded that â€Å"money alone does not motivate a young manager† â€Å"the strongest driver of commitment is the intrinsic nature of the job,† and â€Å"one of the most important job features focuses on challenging job that offers growth opportunities†. Industry may also find our qualitative data on students’ motivations for pursuing a hospitality career valuable.Their responses matched with industry professionals’ views regarding qualifications for hospitality graduates in the 21st century, and included service attitude, flexibility, enjoy serving people, enjoy what you do, dedication, and commitment. Second, hospitality educators may find our regression analysis on factors affecting undergraduate students’ c areer intentions worthwhile when planning curriculum. For example, female students were found to show stronger intentions to work in the hospitality industry than male students. How does the material/information in the articles relate to the career development programme hat you followed at IHM? The IHM career development programme is created to prepare the student for his/her professional life after graduating IHM. By the use of several obliged tests and assignments, the student and his/her study career coach try to find out what the weaknesses and more important, strengths of the student are. Along with the before mentioned activities, the students tries to acquire skills that might help him/he in the future. Because the author of this assignment is currently a second year student, the first two years of the career development programme are examined.According to (Kuang Chuang, 2011) most of the career development programmes are designed to fit the student in a profile that companie s expect. However the turnover rate in the hospitality industry is extremely high, most of the universities do not change their programmes to decrease this high turnover rate. As mentioned before, students are bounded to several tests in order to increase their chance to receive a suitable job after graduation. The examples given in the article of the before mentioned authors, are the so called job-barriers.These barriers are events of circumstances that are part of career development difficulties of the ex-student. Examples of barriers are; inflexible working hours, poor financial compensation and the lack of growth. Students mentioned these three barriers as most important factors to leave the industry. Nowadays the industry, together with the universities, realize more and more that the students' point of view is important as well. Only fitting into a profile is not applicable anymore in the current market. Personal opinions, from students in this case, are becoming the new stand ard.The link with the IHM career development programme is that IHM tries to learn the student a range of skills that might turn out useful in any industry and not only the hospitality industry. Improving the lack of experience and motivation are also an important part of the programme. Of course fitting into a certain profile is also part of the programme, e. g. company visitations in the first year, and the expectations that derive from these visitations. Overall the article concludes that hospitality teachers will benefit from understanding how to help students with their barriers and how to give them a better position on the future market.A well chosen choice of career, a well structured goal and preparation will improve the chance of reaching the goals of students. The second article (Ning-Kuang Chuang and Mary Dellmann-Jenkins, 2010), tries to understand the factors that are involved in choosing a future career for students. Further objectives were if the career intentions of s tudents can be predicted by researching several variables. In accordance with the IHM programme, the articles explains the importance of self efficiency. It can be best described as; Can I do this?Part of the self efficiency are also individuals’ belief in their ability to carry out the following five tasks: self-appraisal, vocational information gathering, plans for the future, problem solving, and goal selection. Especially in the practical modules, students are constantly challenged to improve their performance and look critically towards themselves and to others. These factors are essential in achieving a mature and professional student. The focus in this part lies on the last two factors, problem solving and goal selection because these to factors can be best related to the career development programme of IHM.One of the boundaries that lies in the main question in this part of the assignment is the fact that all the articles should relate to the career development progra mme. However, the entire educational programme of IHM focuses on the before mentioned factors, and therefore this part will also include information about the rest of the IHM programme. The most obvious factors in the IHM programme related to problem solving is Problem Based Learning. In short, PBL. During these sessions students are trained in solving real life problems, that might also occur in the careers of the students contributing in a session.But PBL is in the authors opinion not only about solving problems but also about setting goals. What does a group want to achieve, will that challenge them, and why do the students want to know it? All these aspects of the IHM programme relate to this article in such a way that IHM also tries to find out why a student wants to achieve something. In the article, the students stated that money was not the only motivator in a job, but the intrinsic value that was found in a job gave the decisive. Especially these intrinsic values are also m entioned in the industry as most important in hiring people.Therefore the IHM educational programme is an extension of the article or the other way around. Describe in your own words how a manager of a hospitality company can use the information derived from the articles and the career development programme. What is a leader? Is a leader someone born to lead, or someone learned to lead? In earlier times especially men were considered leader that were born. There gender and background gave them the status that was expected and necessary to lead. In those days, most of the leaders were autocratic leaders, not much or little attention was given to the human aspects of leading.According to (Judi Brownell, 2010), the ‘great man' concept was the way to look at leaders. Nowadays leaders are considered transformational, they change according to what is needed to lead successful. The next step is the servant leadership style in which the leader seeks to support and empower followers. T he implications are considerable for the hospitality industry, since it is based on the concept of leadership through service. In the current market there is a need for trustworthy leaders who lead with integrity. Care about employees and the environment are considered more and more important.Keywords are trust and respect, however motives of leaders are, or are becoming questionable, and more often employees are stressed, disillusioned and disengaged. Is the personality of the leader the key factor in success? Or can a leader be trained to be a leader as mentioned before? Servant leadership might be the new success, but I have my doubts about the ‘new' element in this case. The hospitality industry has always been an industry were not the employees, but the guests and their expectations were considered most important.Employees in this industry have always been servants of guests. In my opinion is a good leader in a hospitality company, a trustworthy, respectable and integer p erson. One that has feeling with his company and his employees in order to let the guest feel at home and treated as such. Quality increases when employees feel respected and valued. While both servant and transformational leaders seek to empower employees, servant leadership adds an personal aspect to the business beyond what is normally found in transformational leadership.According to (Titus Oshagbemi, 2008), t would be useful to know what personal characteristics, such as age, and gender have on leadership which is based on some suggested principles. For example, how do older and younger top-level and lower-level organisational leaders differ in their leadership activities? Older workers are considered more calm and understated, they tend to cooperate and delegate more work compared to their younger employees. Also these older workers show a greater degree of empathy and care for their colleagues, they work to develop and promote others instead of themselves.According to my opin ion all this theory is important but not essential. Of course a leader can be trained in more or less disciplines of the hospitality business. But overall a leader is born, a leader has a natural feeling of what he/she has to do in order to make his employees do what he/she wants without being questioned. In addition to this most important factors a good leader, let his/her employees feel valued and respected. I think a hospitality leader is a leader that can deal with all sorts of problems. The most important information in these two articles is the information about the servant leadership.This kind of leadership should, in my opinion, almost be natural in a hospitality company. It doesn't maybe give direct rewards or benefits, but it would increase the quality of a lot of companies. A leader is in every way a role model, not only business wise but also personal wise. When answering the main question, for a hospitality manager without the natural leadership ability, I would recomme nd to turn the entire process around. Try to find out what you would like to experience when visiting your own company. How should the staff treat you, how should the overall feeling be?Explore what being a leader is about? According to these articles there are different ways to achieve a successful company. In addition to these articles, a manager should learn how to develop him/herself, the career development programme gives lot of opportunities to do so. By the hand of e. g. a Belbin Teamroletest or a Core Quality Quadrant, a manager might come up with ways to improve his leadership capabilities. But in my opinion, a manager hopefully already owns this kind of knowledge about him/herself, and should not have to rely on a university programme.Describe in your own words the importance of self management, personal leadership and career development for your personal professional development as a manager. Self management is the ability to lead a group without being constantly supervis ed or controlled. Little is actually known about the pro's and con's of self management, on the one hand it is a positive factor that individual peers can form an autonomous group, with self control. A group that makes it own decisions and is responsible for its performance. Skills like: leadership, cooperation and team-building can be learned.On the other hand, one might say that conflicts easily occur within a group, these conflicts might decrease the overall performance in this group. Conflicts are caused by a bad designed group, a group without clear agreements and without a clear structure. In this case the self management in my own personal professional development as a manager is the main issue. E. g. is the experience I gained at IHM with self managed groups. Especially in module assignments, teamwork is at the essence. Placed most of the time in a random group, it is just luck whether you are placed in a productive group, or not.Of course there are the workshops about cultu ral differences, effective teamwork and communication skills, but these workshops do not contribute to the basic of these groups. A group consists out of 4 peers, 2 peers are contributing and obviously 1 or 2 are not. This is the problem that, in my opinion, comes forward in any group. Answering the before mentioned main subject, self management is extremely important, if carried out correctly. Students at IHM, might get the feeling that there are always negative aspects in a group process. This is a negative aspect in the self managing atmosphere of IHM.However I believe that if carried out correctly and if just slightly supervised, the before mentioned, negative peers get the feeling that they also have to work in order to reach the set objectives. So concluded I would say that self management is important when becoming a future manager but it should be learned correctly in order to succeed. Secondly I will explain my vision on personal leadership in my personal professional devel opment as a manager. As mentioned earlier in this assignment, I think leaders are born instead of taught. I realize that in the current, international market, this vision is to black and white.I understand the importance of knowing the theory behind leading and the ability to perform according to the theory. In addition I will specify the †manager† part in the earlier mentioned statement. At IHM we are becoming future hospitality managers. In my opinion hospitality managers should have a common feeling of what a guest actually wants. The basic should be right in order to successfully create a future manager. Besides all the business, marketing and HRM knowledge, the basic should be right. Therefore I think that just a percentage of all the IHM graduates will become successful future hospitality managers.This might also be a reason for the high turnover in the industry, however this will not be examined further in this assignment. Self management will however remain one o f the most important factors in our future jobs, because of the increasing globalization and the changing nature of the hospitality industry. Finally this part of the assignment will focus on the career development part in becoming a manager. In my opinion standing still is †¦ Especially in the current modern business market, every single individual has to keep improving whenever the possibilities are present.Improving does not only relate to performing better, but also on the before mentioned fact of dealing with problems, the so called barriers. These barriers will not only come up when being a manager, but will cross the paths of current IHM students as well. Therefore I would like to explain the importance of career development by using the example of the students, becoming managers. I think one of the most important factors in career development is to turn the barriers into something positive. Learn from the difficulties that will sooner or later arise. Together with this barrier dealing issue, the performing part is the other main aspect.I think it is wise for managers in any industry to improve their overall performance constantly. Not only from learning theory, but from learning the industry as well. Explore what, related to the hospitality industry, your guests want and how their needs change. What are the trends and how will you use these in your advantage? Write a reflection of what you have learned from this replacement assignment, and how this can help you to make the right career decisions for you. At first, I have to be honest, I thought of this assignment as just the next of many others.The same aspects of the career development programme highlighted again. Until the moment that I started searching for articles. I realized that there was a lot to learn about these kind of programmes. Information that I had never seen before. Useful research that had been done concerning real life students' †problems†. In the last part of this r eplacement assignment I will focus on the 3 factors mentioned in the part above. Self management As mentioned earlier in this assignment I consider the luck factor in a designated module assignment group as a negative aspect. But maybe I should consider this barrier as a positive factor.I will help my fellow peers to gain a feeling with a project, try to guide them trough the available theory and set up clear rules and agreements. This might be a positive influence in a group. These steps will improve the group process and eventually the overall performance. Therefore I consider this a right decision in my upcoming career. Personal leadership I always have, and still do, consider myself as a leader type of person. This comes forward out of my personal experiences. E. g. I have been the chairman of several commissions, part of the largest student hockey club in the Netherlands.And I used to be the captain of my team. One of my strong points is that I can understand the position of ot her people in situations, I always try to listen carefully, not only to what people are telling me, but also what they don't. During my first two years at IHM, especially my practical module points and PBL points, underline this personal skill. Positive feedback from PBL coordinators and fellow peers also prove this. Currently my objective is to get a internship at the famous Amstel Hotel in Amsterdam. During my third year at IHM I will focus more on what is expected from me if I want to get the internship.Together with the Industrial Placement Office, I will try to make the right decisions in this step of my career as well. Career development After making this assignment I think I will consider the career development programme of IHM as a useful part of the education, instead of a less interesting way to receive credits. I think it would be good to make these kind of assignments part of the career development programme, because it offers a lot of information to students that they o therwise wouldn't have seen at all. It also gives students the opportunity to broaden their horizon bout career development, further than the basic assignments, in my opinion, for the portfolio do. The assignments given in the first 2 years of the education give not really a in depth view of the benefits the programme has. Conclusion Finally I want to conclude that however I didn't like the assignment at first, I realize that it will contribute to my career development programme in a positive way. After reading all the information in the articles, my look on the programme changed. It became clear to me that it is a way of preparing you for your upcoming professional life, however at first I might not seem that way.I read more about self management, career development and personal leadership in one week than in the rest of the two years together, and learned a lot. Literature list 1. Ning-Kuang Chuang. (2011). Job-Related Barriers and Coping Behaviors in the Career Development of Hos pitality Undergraduates . Journal of Human Resources in Hospitality & Tourism. 14-32. DOI: 10. 1080/15332845. 2010. 500183 2. Ning-Kuang Chuang and Mary Dellmann-Jenkins. (2011). Career Decision Making and Intention: a Study of Hospitality Undergraduate Students. Journal of Hospitality & Tourism Research 2010 34: 512 originally published online 19-05-2010.DOI: 10. 1177/1096348010370867 3. Judi Brownell. (2011). Leadership in the Service of Hospitality. AUGUST 2010 Cornell Hospitality Quarterly 363. Volume 51, Issue 3 363-378. DOI: 10. 1177/1938965510368651 4. George W. Langfred. (2007). THE DOWNSIDE OF SELF-MANAGEMENT. Academy of Management Journal 2007, Vol. 50, No. 4, 885–900. 5. Titus Oshagbemi. (2008). The impact of personal and organisational variables on the leadership styles of managers. The International Journal of Human Resource Management, Vol. 19, No. 10, October 2008, 1896–1910.

Affirmative Action Essay Example for Free (#8)

Affirmative Action Essay ? Affirmative Action has remained one of the most controversial social issues of our time. Aggressive non-discrimination was the original intention, but it soon became clear that merely promising not to discriminate would have little effect on the racial bias in our society. My own opinion was first formed by my father and influenced by the conservative environment in which I lived. Since then, I have experienced a much broader view of American society. I have heard many different opinions on affirmative action from all aspects of our culture and I have changed my mind. The roots of affirmative action can be traced back to the passage of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, where legislation redefined public and private behavior. The act states that to discriminate in private is legal, but anything regarding business or public discrimination is illegal (Affirmative† 13). There are two instances when opposing affirmative action might seem the wrong thing to do. First, the nobility of the cause to help others. Second, affirmative action was a great starter for equality in the work place. The case against affirmative action ests heavily on myth and misunderstanding, and following illustrates that an absence of affirmative action in today’s society will only reinforce racial injustice. Myth 1: The only way to create a color-blind society is to adopt color-blind policies. Although this statement sounds unthinkingly possible, the reality is that colorblind policies often put racial minorities at a disadvantage. For instance, color-blind seniority system tends to protect white workers against job layoffs, because senior employees are usually white (Ezorsky, 1991). Myth 2: Affirmative action has not succeeded in increasing female and minority representation. Several studies have documented important gains in racial and gender equality as a direct result of affirmative action (Bowen & Bok, 1998; Murrell & Jones, 1996). For example, affirmative action has helped five million minorities and six million whites and minority women to be promoted in the workplace. The effect of the affirmative action program previously documented show important gains in racial and gender equality according to, Roger Clegg of the Academic Search Premier. America is known as the land of opportunity. However, it became evident that â€Å"opportunity† was only available to white men. Later, laws were passed to ensure equal opportunity regardless of race, sex, and religion. These affirmative action laws were set in place by our government with the intent of correcting the social evil known as prejudice; but in doing so, they created a monster. Affirmative action has become an ineffective, outdated, and socially harmful policy that is weakening our great nation. Should Affirmative Action be mended or ended? Affirmative action is an attempt to correct unequal distribution of benefits (status, income and wealth, power and authority,) and burdens associated with ethnic and gender differences. When we become citizens of this nation, at birth or otherwise, we get a warranty. That warranty is supposed to be honored by every government franchise in every village and hamlet of this nation. It is non transferable, and it is good for the life of the vehicle. We are guaranteed the right to vote, the right to due process; the right to be free, not to be enslaved, as long as we conduct ourselves in accordance with the laws of our nation; and the right to equal treatment under the law, regardless of our race, color, sex, religion national origin. These are rights which attach to us as individuals, not as members of a group. Affirmative action has its roots in that passion for fairness. When President Lyndon Johnson explained affirmative action to the nation, it is significant that he said,’ You can’t bring a man to the starting line who has been hobbled by chains and expect him to run the race competitively. ‘ Fairness dictated that the nation pursue affirmative action to compensate black Americans for the wrong that had been done. Affirmative action was a technique for jump-starting the process of integrating black Americans into the fabric of American society, for changing the culture of America from an exclusive society into an inclusive one. I will never abandon my faith that America can become Ronald Reagan’s â€Å"shining city on the hill,† a society in which a person’s gender or race or ethnic background are irrelevant in the transactions of their government. Let us not mourn the death of affirmative action. Instead, let us proclaim our belief that the spirit of equal opportunity, which affirmative action engendered, has become a permanent fixture of America’s social, economic, and political landscape. Let us have faith in our own sense of fair play and keep affirmative action alive. Efficiency is important to the success of any machine, including economic machines. Affirmative action increases diversity, but it does so at a cost. The cost is that it promotes racism indirectly by focusing on differences. I have a better idea. The main goal behind affirmative action is to promote unity and efficiency. So the question is what is the best way to do that? One way, is to simply provide unity incentives. Instead of punishing qualified white males, we should instead provide incentives to white males to promote diversity and unity. The best way to do this is to use the tax system. Greater unity should mean lower taxes, meaning tax incentives to anyone who promotes unity. The more women you hire, the lower your taxes. The more minorities you hire, the lower your taxes. If your business is diverse according to guidelines, you should actually be able to earn money for promoting diversity and unity. Affirmative action is wrong; you should not punish qualified employees. You should instead reward shareholders, CEO’s, and the corporation itself for doing what is rational, and in the best interest of the bottom line. So one replacement for affirmative action could be unity tax deductions. Another replacement for affirmative action could be unity credits, where individuals who choose to run their business or give to charities which promote unity, can actually receive credits for doing so and abolish affirmative action. That great American pastime—baseball—is a reminder of the intensity of our passion for fairness as we encourage the crowd to ‘kill the umpire’ if he makes what we consider an unfair call. As we drive home at the end of the day, our hands gripping the steering wheel, our bumper kissing the one ahead, when to our right a vehicle speeds along the curb and merges ahead of us at the moment when an opening appears, our passion for fairness surfaces. The protrusion of one of our fingers signals our belief that one of the rules of fairness has been violated. In every sport I can think of—baseball, basketball, football, tennis—one is expected to play between the white lines. To do otherwise is unfair and carries a penalty. The problem with affirmative action is that it singles out a particular ethnic subsection of the lower class, while leaving many deserving people behind solely because of their heritage. Instead, this society should focus on raising the bar for all members of the lower and middle class who wish to educate themselves and better their economic, intellectual and cultural positions in life. We should do this by providing more lower class young adults of all colors and creeds with inexpensive higher education. I strongly believe that only when affirmative action is unnecessary and outmoded should we abolish it. We should not destroy our current solution without creating a newer, better one. In conclusion, affirmative action policies, as they exist right now, are ineffective, outdated, hypocritical, and harmful. On the other hand, affirmative action is the best thing since peanut butter, where all people of all race can enjoy a good sandwich. Though all of these may be argued well by both sides, this last point is indisputable. Affirmative Action, no matter how it is explained, rationalized, justified, or disguised, will still be the center of social issues in our time and the time to come. Affirmative Action. (2017, Jan 15).

Operating Systems and Networking Coursework Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Operating Systems and Networking - Coursework Example the following fields: opcode: 8 bits ra: 6 bits rb: 6 bits rc: 6 bits rd: 6 bits where ra, rb, rc, specify three input registers and rd specifies one destination register. If there is a single register file to store the identifications of all registers, how many registers could there be in that register file? 1.3. A processor has 24 registers, uses 8-bit immediate, and has 36 different instructions (corresponding to 36 operation codes) in its instruction set. These 36 instructions are classified into 4 types as listed below: Assume that the ISA requires that all instructions be multiple of 8 bits (1 byte) in length, and the operation codes (opcodes) are fixed length. Answer the following questions and write down the calculation steps involved. Type C: 6 bits of the operation code, 5 bits for the source register, 8 bits of the immediate, and 5 bits of the destination register. This totals to 19 bits. These are rounded up again to 24 bits. 24 bits are equivalent to 3 bytes. Therefore 3 bytes are required to encode type c instruction. The pipelining diagram is used to show the execution of a series or a sequence of instructions of processes of a computer. In the diagram, the sequence of instructions is shown vertically; that is from the top to the bottom. As for the clock cycles, they are often shown in the horizontal; that is from the left to the right. Each and every instruction is divided into its component stages. There are 3 instructions. Suppose a non-pipelining processor took 50 Nano seconds to process one instruction, and then it would take 3 * 50 = 150 Nano seconds to complete all the instructions. However when pipelining is used, we instead have 4 segment pipeline with a clock cycle that takes at least 10 Nano seconds approximately. 2.2. Suppose we have a slightly more complex program with data dependency and branches. Assume that in the case of branching, the instruction following a branch is always executed. Note that a conditional branch

Week Two Discussion Questions Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Week Two Discussion Questions - Essay Example A company with a higher debt to equity ratio is generally preferred by lenders because it indicates that the company has low degree of debt and thus, it may be able to return the borrowed funds as compared to a company with higher level of debts. However, other factors are considered as well before the final decision is made regarding whether to lend money or not. A dividend is paid to shareholders as a reward of their investments in the company’s assets. However, if the company is not doing well financially, has earned losses, or there is a big capital expenditure planned in the next year; there may be a point of not paying dividends. Shareholders would certainly prefer to receive dividends as it increases their wealth. 3. Discuss- I think I have mentioned previously that most financial statement frauds are perpetrated by what we refer to as the "C-Suite," i.e., the CFO, CEO, CIO, COO, and other senior executives who work in collusion. I completely agree to the article’s contents. CEOs know their companies inside out and are in best positions to commit a fraud. In recent times, we saw that the CEO of Satyam, an Indian IT outsourcing company, was arrested for conducting similar frauds. He inflated his balance sheets by way of recording fictitious receivables. The receivables were recorded by selling to fictitious companies. According to one of his interviews, he was under pressure to show better performance and in order to conceal the modest performance of the company; he had to do something ‘out of the box’. Unfortunately, the only thing he was successful to do was against the law. Yes, I agree. Travel related frauds are some of the most common fraud cases. Although, these are not very huge in magnitude (in terms of amounts involved) yet the volume and frequency of occurrence is quite high. Most of the times, it is very difficult to detect these as

How do international financial institutions manage the change needed Essay

How do international financial institutions manage the change needed after the 2008 financial crisis - Essay Example The main aim of regulation is making the reporting system transparent so that the market participants can have a better idea about the risk that they are undertaking. The above mentioned financial crisis was mainly attributed to insufficient regulation therefore a change in the regulatory framework is needed to avoid this in the future. An important official of the IMF has attributed regulatory failure to guard against excessive risk as the reason of the 2008 financial crisis. However excessive regulation is also one of the reasons that contribute to the financial crisis. As per the Basel II norms the banks have to increase their capital whenever there is an increase in the risk. This adds to the crisis, as the banks reduce their lending for meeting the capital requirements. When the Fed announced the hike in the interest rates the installments were re-set which resulted in widespread delinquencies. Faced by the rising foreclosures the banks had to sell off their assets for maintaini ng the capital requirements. This led to a steep fall in the housing prices. For preventing this crisis in the future various international bodies like IMF demanded strict disclosure and regulatory norms. This procedure requires changing the existing accounting standards and making the disclosure of off-balance sheet risk more effective. The international financial institutions have to play a major role in managing this change. Initially the changes of regulations and disclosures may not be acceptable. Here the international bodies have to play the key role in explaining the significance of the change. This will help in removing the restraining forces and will facilitate in reaching the equilibrium stage. When a change is implemented there are two contrary forces that act simultaneously- driving forces that support and restraining forces that oppose a change. To make the change successful it is important to explain its significance to the people in

Individual Report Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Individual Report - Essay Example Money management is the process of being a custodian of one’s finances by knowing where today’s finances are being spent, and drawing a well thought out plan showing where one wants this money to go. Therefore, it calls for one to be well organized; have set goals, which would gear this investment to success; have a track of one’s spending by putting in place a realistic budget, and above all have a well thought-out savings strategy (Ryan and Deci 2004). Before this course, I was particularly naive and could not have understood how to effectively make an investment decision or understand the significance of making various investment considerations that I have learnt so far. Having known how to make various considerations that affect performance of an investment portfolio, I can now comfortably put up an investment plan (Milevsky 2001). One of the most important principles of investment I have learnt is how to diversify and manage risks. I have become conscious of the essence of the old adage goes â€Å"do not put all your eggs in the same basket†, I have realized how risky it can be to concentrate on a single or a few investments especially those whose rate of return is very high in the short-term but very risky. For example, in my individual investment, I combined risky high return stocks with low return but less risky stocks such that it becomes hard to loss substantially when some of the investments perform poorly in the future (Little 2012). In my portfolio, even though Microsoft generated negative returns, I was still able to realize a positive annualized return of 11.52%, primarily because Berkshire Hathaway performed well and watered down that loss (Kapur and Orszag 1999). The idea here is, since investment involves risk, one way of managing this risk is by spreading one’s portfolio across an array of stocks, with different characteristics. The preliminary portfolio that I had selected included a number of companies tha t operate in different industries, markets and regions as well as dealing with different products; such that each company possessed a distinctive level and nature of risk. Selecting of portfolio from such a diversified field is a way of ensuring the investment plan is well-balanced. In the same measure, I found it important to define the amount of each stock one should buy and hold depending on the company’s current performance, the level of risk and future expectations (Smith 2009). Ideally, in the analysis that I did as well as the one we did as groups, some stocks were clearly generating negative returns. Examples include Microsoft and Kazakhmy among many others. At first, I thought it is completely useless to hold stocks that have negative returns currently, but I have come to change this view because I have learnt to put my eye on the long-term cash flows. Short-term mindset coupled with a lot of trading and market timing is a strategy I would not like to undertake in th e future. I have come to realize that I can make profits progressively by focusing on many years to come and by sticking on my stock investment goals. More long-term financial strategies, along proper diversification can be a surprise to an investor because I have come to realize that, even though a certain stock could be generating losses in the short-term, things may change in future hence leading to huge returns. I have actually become more focused on forecasting a company’

The Use of Historical Method Term Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

The Use of Historical Method - Term Paper Example Some historians are also interested in asking how and so what. Various questions in history are hard to answer because: 1) sources do not fully describe what happened, or do not honestly explain why they did something; 2) sources sometimes use â€Å"couched† or â€Å"diplomatic† words to express themselves; 3) history is a complex combination of numerous factors, such as culture, morality, beliefs, et al., that affect language and ways of communicating and understanding each other; 4) definitions are not universally agreed upon; and 5) subjects change throughout time. Proper historical writing seeks out facts. In reality, however, facts can be presented with biases, because historians themselves have different viewpoints on what happened and why/how they happened. Proper historical writing should also differentiate facts from assertions. If historians want to talk about interpretations or arguments, they must be clear about this intention in their writings. History shou ld not be about what they think happened, but what truly happened. In the absence of facts, historians offer conjectures and theories about history. Some fields of science accuse social science as a â€Å"phony science,† because it is open to researcher bias and methodological weaknesses. Social science research, however, can respond to these weaknesses and reduce writer bias and methodological flaws, thereby improving the validity of their methods, findings, and conclusions. The problems of social science research are: researcher bias, bad data set, logical fallacies, relativism and normative definitions, level of certainty and variations, credibility of sources, misleading statistics, misinterpretation of facts, conspiracy theories, and other research problems that concern language. Like other research, their analysis and conclusions can also be prone to fallacies in reasoning. Some of the common problems with writing are: 1) not knowing who your audience is, and so the lan guage and writing style do not fit their level of knowledge and expectations, 2) using biased language that alienate or discriminate other groups, 3) not using the right punctuation marks, and 4) not proofreading. Proofreading is essential because it catches and corrects typographical, grammatical, spelling, and usage errors. Student should maximize existing writing centers. These centers can help them make their thesis, outline, and first draft. The advantages of primary source are that writers can interpret the primary sources for themselves, instead of relying on the interpretations of others, and primary sources gather data firsthand, thereby reducing bias from having someone interpret it. Secondary sources are helpful in gathering background or historical information about a topic, and in expanding understanding on events or subjects, by exposing the readers to different perspectives, interpretations, and conclusions. Secondary sources also already synthesize or combine studies and facts, thereby reducing time needed to read them all. What historians add or not add to â€Å"history† impact their narration of â€Å"facts.† It is interesting how world history books, for instance, include or do not include certain events, people, and conjectures. This may be due to the need of condensing material, but this can also be linked to what the writers and publishers think as important and unimportant. Sometimes, I read history and ask, how about the women? What

Econometrics Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words - 1

Econometrics - Assignment Example Q.2.Suppose the impact of institutions on growth differed between African countries and the rest of the world. First, comment on why the model in equation (1) cannot capture this effect. Second, write out a model which can allow for this differential African effect. Third, develop a test that would allow you to statistically discern if this effect is actually supported by the data. Yi is the impact of institution growth in a country i, Ri the protection against expropriation, Lati is the latitude country I (measured as the distance from the equator, and scaled to lie between 0 and 1), D Africa is a dummy for country i is in Africa and D Other i is a dummy capturing if country I is in any other and continent ÃŽ ² as the observations made. From table 1, the dummy for Asia is –0.62 and the dummy for Africa is -1.00. This indicates that African countries have little protection against expropriation. The values are natural logarithms of the stated values over a given base sample. Inverses of the natural logs give 0.5379 for Asia and 0.3679 for Africa. The difference is thus 0.1700. This is also equal to 32.1% growth difference. By measuring latitude as a raw number, the effect of climate on performance would not be as precise as it is when measured from the equator, which is the central latitude and the correlation between distance from the equator and economic performance would be known, but with extremes. This changes the coefficient of the index of institutions growth. The estimates would increase, errors would increase as well and the regression, now based on raw numbers for latitudes would significantly reduce. The ordinary least squares are used in testing the heteroskedasticity. The first step is to make OLS estimates, and the residuals saved in exponents squared. Then the squared exponents are regressed on all the variables and their squares. Then obtain R2. If nR2 is too large, the null hypothesis Ho is rejected. The auxiliary model can be seen as

Supervision Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Supervision - Assignment Example Training supervision is meant to gauge and evaluate the candidate’s ability to transfer theory learnt in class to practice in applied setting. General work supervision seeks to ensure professional standards are met with focus on client interest and level of supervisee competency for further certification. In training supervision is done by trained teaching personnel and marks awarded while general work supervision is done by senior supervisors in the applied setting through routine quality checks on performance. An individual must possess an associate degree or a comparable experience in the field of human service work .However; the candidate must have attained a GPA which meets the minimum standard of the Board. Persons with not less than 60 college units and not less than 4 courses which are relevant with counseling or social work is eligible for license as long as they secure a job in counseling social work. However, if one does not possess college certificate, they must work for a whole year under the supervision of Bachelor’s Social Workers or Master Social Workers. Supervision ensures that standards of professionalism in service delivery are met. This help in promoting a candidates competency and experience while at the same time protecting the interest of the client. It offers an opportunity to discover one’s potential and enhance competitiveness and compliance to the set down rules and regulations. Some of the ethical dilemma includes reconciling professional requirements with the need to form an informal relationship with the clients. Besides, supervisors are expected to be strict on academic requirements sometimes against the possibility of better practical ability that one may

Piagets stages of development Essay Example for Free

Piagets stages of development Essay Sensory Motor Stage Piaget’s first stage of development is the sensory motor stage. This stage occurs between the birth of the child and the age of two. During this stage, understanding comes from touching, sucking, chewing, and manipulating objects. About nine months after birth, the child develops what is called ‘object permanence’. Object permanence is the awareness that objects and people continue to exist even if they are out of sight. The infants have the ability to build up mental pictures of objects around them, from the knowledge that they have developed on what can be done with the object. Through manipulation, babies accumulate information on themselves and the world that lead to the slight understanding of how one thing can cause or affect another, and begins to develop simple ideas about time and space. An example of this would be that a baby can realize that if they cry when they are hungry, the mother will attend to them (Fleck, 1975, p. 3). Preoperational Stage Piaget’s second stage of development was the preoperational stage. The preoperational stage of development occurs between the ages of two to seven years. During this stage, children’s though processes are developing. There is a development of language and use of symbols. Children still use egocentric thought, meaning that they view the world entirely from his or her own perspective. ‘Animism’ is also a characteristic of the preoperational stage. This is when a person has the belief that everything that exists has some kind of consciousness. An example of this would be that a child would believe the sink isn’t turning on because it is sick or that the water will be hot because it’s angry. A child at this stage of development appears to view his social relationships and the physical reality egocentrically. This means that they view the world with a marked tendency to evaluate interaction with others in terms of its contribution to their own experience of satisfaction. So moral realism is an aspect of this stage because children think that their thoughts on the difference between right and wrong are shared by everyone else around them. (Appel, 1977, p. 4). Concrete Operational Stage Piaget’s third stage of development is the concrete operational stage. The  concrete operational stage of development occurs in children between the ages of seven and twelve. Before the beginning of this stage, children’s ideas about different objects are formed and dominated by their appearance. An example of this is that they believe there are less toys when they are all piled up rather than spread out across the floor because it takes up more space on the ground. During this stage, the thought process becomes more rational, mature, adult-like, and operational. Children in this stage of development lose their egocentric frame of thought and begin to think logically. This especially is true for the child’s ability to develop logical thought about an object that they are able to physically manipulate. These children have difficulty understanding abstract, hypothetical questions. Children at the concrete-operational level would be expected to draw on the experie nces of others in evaluating their environment, giving more realistic and natural. (Koocher, 1973, p. 2). Formal Operations Stage Piaget’s last stage of development is the formal operational stage. The formal operational stage of development begins at the age of around eleven or twelve and is fully achieved by the age of fifteen and taken throughout the rest of adulthood. The structures of development become the more abstract, logically organized system of adult intelligence. There are two major characteristics of formal operational thought including ‘hypothetic-deductive reasoning’ and ‘propositional reasoning’. Hypothetic-deductive reasoning means that when faced with a problem, the person is able to come up with a general summary of all the possible factors that might affect the outcome, and the different outcomes possible. Propositional reasoning means that adolescents can focus on verbal assertions and evaluate their logical validity without making reference to real-world circumstances. In concrete operational development, children can only evaluate the logic of statements based off of concrete evidence. Formal operational development brings critical, theoretical, and problem-solving types of thought that gives them much more thought and understanding than they had in the past. (Koocher, 1973, p. 8). â€Å"Are we forming children who are only capable of learning what is already known? Or should we try to develop creative and innovative minds, capable of  discovery from the preschool age on, throughout life?† –Jean Piaget On August 9, 1896, developmental psychologist and philosopher Jean Piaget was born. Jean was the first psychologist to make a systematic study of cognitive development. His contributions include a theory of cognitive child development, detailed observational studies of cognition in children, and a series of simple but ingenious tests to reveal different cognitive abilities. Before Piaget’s work, the common assumption in psychology was that children are merely less competent thinkers than adults which he disproved showing the strikingly different ways children think in comparison to adults. Piaget’s theories of child development continue to be studied in the field of education. His theory differs from others in several ways. For one, it is concerned with children, rather than all learners. It also focuses on development rather than learning so it does not address learning of information or specific behaviors. It proposes discrete stages of development marked by qualitative differences, rather than a gradual increase in number and complexity of behaviors, concepts, and ideas.

The Disadvantages of Full Day Schools Essay Example for Free

The Disadvantages of Full Day Schools Essay Full day schooling refers to a longer day at preschool where they not only learn but are also given time for play. (Lamphere, 2009) Full day preschools run for five hours or longer for five days a week. Half day preschools run for approximately 3 hours for five days a week. (Rosamilia, 2008) Researchers have constantly compared these two types of schooling and most studies came to a conclusion that full day schools are better than half day schools. There are a few example of studies conducted to show this. Some examples include: A study conducted by Cryan et al.in 1992 in two phases on the effects of half-day and all-day kindergarten programs on childrens academic and behavioral success in school and another study by Hough and Bryde in 1996 which looked at the student achievement data of children enrolled in half day and full day schools. Both studies showed that full day kindergartens benefit children in terms of academic successes, attendance and there are also fewer cases of retention for them. (Clark, 2013) Even though full day schools has its benefits, it also has its disadvantages. This literature review would be focusing on the disadvantages of full day school, be it long term or short term and it would also look into the benefits of other schooling programmes such as half day programs. This review is important it would give a better idea to parents and teacher as to why they should carefully consider other options other than just focusing on full day schools. Due to the limited resources on full day schools and case studies on full day schools, the countries this literature review would be focusing on would be US and Canada. Disadvantages of Full Day Kindergarten According to research, there are a number of disadvantages for Full Day kindergarten. Firstly, there is a lack of spaces for children. According to an article, in Canada, there is a lack of space to accommodate the rising number of children if they change their program to full-day kindergartens. In Calgary, Canada, it is believed that 50 out of 137 elementary schools would not be able to accommodate more than their current half-day school and the implementation of full-day programs would force some grades to be reshuffled to other schools. (Cuthbertson Herald, 2012) In some other articles, in United States, there has been lack of space to set up full-day kindergarten. (Martinez, Stuber, and Snider, 2006; Haglund, n. d. ) Thus, there have been talks going on as to whether they should set up full-day kindergartens in that district. (Placek, 2012) Another disadvantage would be the high cost for full-day programs. This includes the expenses for equipment, staff and space. In the article regarding the changing to the full day program in Canada, they mentioned that the cost of funding it for a year would be around $200 million. Another article stated that it would cost $2 million annually after an initial startup cost of $505,600. And, it would have required another $7 million from the districts reserves to pay for construction of additional classrooms and multipurpose rooms. (Placek, 2012) Another article by a graduate from East Stroudsburg University also states that the amount of money spent on the teachers’ salaries are also high because they now have to hire more teachers for full-day kindergartens. An average teacher in the US would earn about $33,000 a year. Thus, in the case that the kindergarten hires more teachers, they would have to spend about $132,000 to $165,000 per annum just on salaries. This would increase the burden on the taxpayers. (Morse, 2008) This point is also further supported by research conducted previously. (Martinez, Stuber, and Snider, 2006; Hugland, N. A. ; Guilderland Central School District Early Childhood Advisory Committee, 2008) The third disadvantage of full-day kindergarten is that it requires more staff and staff aides. Many articles stating the disadvantages of full day support this point. For example, in one article, it states that when there are half day sessions, one teacher can teach two sessions: one in the morning and one in the afternoon. However, if it is a full-day session, it requires more teachers to teach. They would also need more teacher aides. In the case where the kindergarten does not want to hire more teachers, they would expand each class and add in more teacher aides to balance the teacher-child ratio. In a study conducted at the Guilderland central school district, it also states that they would require more teachers to teach and balance the teacher-child ratio. (Early Childhood Advisory Committee, 2008). Besides these, there are a few more disadvantages to full day kindergartens. They include having more time at school and less time for ‘kids to be kids’. (Circele, 2009; Brower, 2013). It also includes teaching children academic and skills before they are ready for it. (Haglund, N. A. ; Morse, 2008) One of the articles found went on to explain that the kindergarten may teach too advanced skills for children instead of teaching them minor skills which are important. In summary, even though full-day seems like a good option for everyone, it does have its disadvantages. Benefits of Half Day Kindergartens Likewise, half-day school has its benefits. Firstly, half day kindergarten programs are less stressful. According to Walsh (2013), children would feel relaxed while trying to adjust to the structured classroom environment. Furthermore, they are able to make good transitions from kindergarten to first grade. Another source states that half-day programs are viewed as providing continuity and systematic experience with less probability of stress than full-day programs. (Rothenberg, 2009) Secondly, the children also receive the same quality of education as those in full day preschools or kindergartens. (Ast, 2010;Rothernberg, 2009) The children go through similar experiences but just that one is longer and the other is shorter. These show that there are other programs besides full day kindergartens which young chidren can benefit from. Conclusion In the context of Singapore, there isn’t much of an issue about half day versus full day kindergarten. This is because Singapore has mainly focused on half day kindergartens. Some of the reasons as to why that might be the case is similar to the disadvantages stated above. Just like in some parts of Canada and US, Singapore has limited space to set up full-day kindergarten and it requires more sources, equipment and etc. Singapore’s space is already limited in space and it requires more space for other more important things thus, it can’t be used just for kindergartens. Statistics have shown that 15% of Singapore’s land has been located for housing, 17% for recreational and community needs. The rest of the land is used for commerce, industry, infrastructure, utilities and transport and reservoirs, defense facilities and cemetery and undeveloped land. (Yearbook of Statistics Singapore, department of Statistics Singapore[online], 2012) This shows that there isn’t sufficient space to build more kindergartens or expand it. If Singapore was to expand or make kindergartens full day, it would require more teachers or teacher aides. There is also a lack in kindergarten teachers now. Recently, along the roads, many jobs offers for preschool teachers were noticed. This is also supported by a Strait Times article on 20 July 2012. It stated that there is already a shortage of teachers. (Vadaketh, 2012)Thus, if full day kindergartens were established, there would not be enough teachers. Depending on these reasons, I believe that full day kindergarten programs are not applicable really in Singapore. However, if you look at Singapore’s context carefully, full day kindergarten programs are somewhat similar to childcare programmes in Singapore. In this context, Singaporeans can choose what kind of schooling programs they want to send their child to. The kindergarten programmes are standardized by the Ministry of Education (MOE) to be 3 hours per session. (MOE,2013) As for Childcare, it is a full day program and is also available for half day on Saturdays. The two main factors determining which programme they would send their child to would be whether they are working and the cost of the programme. Parents of children these days are usually working adults. They do not have time to take care of their children because they are working. Thus, they would rather send them to childcares because it is more convenient and safe. If they were working and they send their child to half day kindergartens, they have to make other arrangements for their child so that the child would not be left alone. While full day kindergartens may be more convenient for working adults, half day schools (kindergartens) are cheaper. According to the list of kindergartens found on the Investmentfriend. com forum, the pricing ranges from as low as $80 to $500. However, the costs of childcare centres are about $700 and above, depending on the childcare. Thus, some parents might not be able to afford childcare and would send their child to half day kindergartens. Thus, all in all I believe that the choice of schooling depends on each family and individual if childcare was seen as an full day kindergarten program. References Clark, P. (2013). Recent research on all-day kindergarten | education. com. Retrieved from http://www. education. com/reference/article/Ref_Recent_Research_All/? Lamphere, M. (2009). Full day kindergarten. Retrieved from http://www. slideshare. net/lamph1ml/full-day-kindergarten Haglund, J. (n. d. ). Full-day kindergarten advantages disadvantages | early childhood. Retrieved from http://ec. dpi. wi. gov/ec_ecadflpg Morse, J. (2008). The disadvantages of all-day kindergarten yahoo! voices voice. yahoo. com. Retrieved from http://voices. yahoo. com/the-disadvantages-all-day-kindergarten-1337569. html? cat=25 Placek,C. (2012). No full daykindergarten for all in dist. 203 dailyherald. com. Retrieved from http://www. dailyherald. com/article/20121105/news/711059666/ Cuthbertson , R. , Herald, C. (2012). School promise under threat. Retrieved from http://www2. canada. com/calgaryherald/news/story. html? id=c1b76975-1366-45e4-9bc2d33d7a3ab1b6p=1 Brower, C. (2013). The cons of full-day kindergarten | ehow. com. Retrieved from http://www. ehow. com/info_8660784_cons-full-day-kindergarten-programs. html Guilderland Central School District Early Childhood Advisory Committee. (2009). Report on full-day kindergarten. Retrieved from http://www. guilderlandschools. org/district/boe/PDFs/reports/FDKPPT110508. pdf Ast, A. (2010). Half day vs full day kindergarten: Is there really a difference? yahoo! voices voices. yahoo. com. Retrieved from http://voices. yahoo. com/half-day-vs-full-day-kindergarten-there-really-6839874. html? cat=25 Walsh, K. (2013). Pros cons of half day kindergarten | ehow. com. Retrieved from http://www. ehow. com/info_8502607_pros-cons-halfday-kindergarten. html Kindergarten fees list. (2011). Retrieved from http://investmentfriend. com/forum/showthread. php/25-Kindergarten-Fees-List Vadaketh, S. T. (2012). Tackling preschool challenges in Singapore. The StraitTimes. Retrieved from http://ifonlysingaporeans. blogspot. sg/2012/07/tackling-preschool-challenges-in. html MOE. (2013). Ministry of education, Singapore education system: Pre-school Education. Retrieved from http://www. moe. gov. sg/education/preschool/.

Understanding Key Components Of Performance Management

Understanding Key Components Of Performance Management An effective performance management system integrates organisational, business and individual planning and performance. Performance management systems components include: Development of clear job descriptions The selection of right people with an appropriate selection process Provide effective orientation, training and development. Clarify performance objectives and linking these with organisational business plans. Conduct regular performance appraisal of individuals against the achievement of these objectives. On-going coaching and feedback Recognition or compensation that reward people for their performance Provide career development opportunities Actions to deal with poor performing employees. Evaluate the involvement of individual, team and organisational performance. One of the main issues mentioned in the case study was regarding recognition regarding pay and performance. Research on high performing companies has consistently shown that they have at least one common characteristic: their people understand the strategy of the business and believe that if they perform well, they will be recognized and rewarded by the organization. (Wilson Group, 2010) If Colbran Institute is able to develop a appraisal system where recognition is documented and rewards Colbran Institute will be in a better situation when it comes to employee morale and motivation and be able to achieve company goals. Performance Appraisals Performance appraisals are one of the most important components of performance management and are designed to measure and improve employee performance. Edwin B. Flippo wrote in his book titled Personnel Management that performance appraisal is the systematic, periodic and an impartial rating of an employees excellence in the matters pertaining to his present job and his potential for a better job. (Flippo, Edwin B. 1979) The performance appraisal process articulates the standards of work expected of employees and the values and behaviours employees are expected to uphold in meeting their job requirements, communicating and working with others. The information that performance appraisals provide, provides foundations for recruiting and engaging new employees, development and training of existing employees, and maintaining a quality team by adequately and properly rewarding their performance. If a reliable performance appraisal system is not put in place, a human resource management system will fail, resulting in the total waste of the valuable human assets an organisation has. The key objective of appraisal is to provide employees with feedback on their performance provided by the line manager. (Caruth, Donald. 2008). The main objectives of performance appraisals are to: Assess the performance of employees over a period of time Help manage the gap between actual and desired performance Indentify strengths and weaknesses of employees, which in turn will identify training and development needs. Provide feedback on past performance Give clarity of the responsibilities and expectations of the employee in the upcoming appraisal period. Therefore, Performance management leads to higher performance that is more closely directed to the strategic objectives of the organization whereas Performance appraisal and feedback assist employees to understand what work they do well and how they can improve their performance. Issues Identified From reading the case study provided by Colbran Institute there seems to be a number of issues regarding the use of the graphical rating scale performance appraisal system. The graphical rating scale is one of the most popular methods of performance appraisal, it is easy to understand and cost effective to setup and manage. It involves listing subjective traits that the organization considers important for effectiveness on the job for example integrity, reliability, initiative and objective factors such as quality of work. The employee then gets a rating against each trait; these scores are then added up and produce an overall performance score for the employee. As seen with Colbran Institute the graphic rating scale does have a number of disadvantages; issues that have been brought forward include: Rater Errors Generalization of traits No real measurement achieved Issues from pass work history are not reflected. This form of performance appraisal is subject to rating errors mainly due to rater bias which result in incorrect appraisals. Rating errors include central tendency, leniency, severity and the halo effect. In Colbran Institutes situation the rating errors consist of leniency and the halo effect. Leniency is demonstrated when the evaluator rates most employees very highly across performance dimensions rather then spread them throughout the performance scale, in Isabels case she has rated most employees as either good or excellent. Generalisation of traits is another issue that occurs when using the graphical rating system as it might have traits such as creativity which is assessed the same on all employees appraisal. This could become an issue if the employee is working in a position where creativity isnt something that relates to their work. They could be a data entry clerk for example which doesnt involve any creativity; therefore they might get marks down for this because it is unable to be shown; whereas someone that works in marketing would be the completely different. Another issue Colbarn Institute has is the generalities of the documentation produced from the appraisal. Allan suggests to Isabel What is good quality to you might be average to me or someone else and vice versa. This is something that needs to be considered with maybe a review by a second and third level manager. But you will still have the issue so of employees not understanding what is expected from them, for instance an employee is given the rating of 2 on motivation, the question is how is he able to improve this? Another common error in performance appraisal is the halo effect. This occurs when a managers general impression of an employee, after observing one aspect of performance, influences his/her judgment on other aspects of the employees overall performance for the assessment period. This is demonstrated in the case study when Allan asks Isabel about past performance of her employees and she replies with Well in the odd case, a couple of them have let things go a bit. This is not reflected anywhere in the appraisal. Task 2: (500 WORDS) Recommendation An effective performance appraisal system provides guidance so employees understand what is expected of them in their position. It provides flexibility so that employee creativity is encouraged and strengths are utilized. It provides enough control so that employees understand what the organization is trying to achieve. This is why I have put forward Management By Objectives appraisal system as the recommended system that Colbran Institute should take on board. Management by Objectives Management by Objectives was first introduced in 1954 by Peter Drucker in his book The Practice of Management. MBO is an appraisal method where the manager and the subordinate define common objectives and major areas of responsibility, then compare and direct their performance against these objectives. It aims to increase organizational performance by aligning organizational and individual goals throughout the organization. George Odiorne in his thesis describes Management by objectives as a process whereby the superior and subordinate managers of an organization jointly identify its common goals, define each individuals major areas of responsibility in terms of results expected of him and use these measures as guides for operating the unit and assessing the contributions of each of its members.(Odiorne, George S. 1965) In Management by Objectives appraisal system, objectives are written down for each level of the organization, and individuals are given specific aims and targets. The principle behind this is to ensure that people know what the organization is trying to achieve, what their part of the organization must do to meet those aims, and how, as individuals, they are expected to help. This presupposes that organizations programs and methods have been fully considered. If they have not, start by constructing team objectives and ask team members to share in the process. (Heller, Robert 1998) Advantages and Disadvantages MBO overcomes some of the issues that arise from the Graphical Rate Scale as a result of assuming that the employee traits needed for their job success are the same for the whole organization and can be reliably identified and measured. The MBO method concentrates on actual outcomes, instead of assuming traits. An employee has demonstrated an acceptable level of job performance if the employee meets or exceeds the set objectives. Employees are not judged on their potential for success or on their supervisors subjective opinion of their abilities by on real outcomes. The main principle of the MBO appraisal system is that direct results can be observed, where as the traits (which might not even relate to an employees position) and attributes of employees must be guessed. Management by objectives also has its disadvantages like any appraisal method. The main issue with this appraisal technique is the initial development of objectives can be time consuming, which takes employees and managers away from there actual work. When writing objectives for a performance appraisal it must be realize that in this day and age priorities and goals are constantly changing. This is something organizations have to be able to deal with to keep ahead of the game. The Performance Management scheme The new appraisal system will fit into the overall performance management scheme by aiming to increase organizational performance by aligning goals and management objectives throughout the organization. All managers and staff will participate in the strategic planning process, in order to improve the implement ability of the plan and implement a range of performance systems, designed to help the organization stay on track. Colbran Institute employees will get more input into identifying their objectives, milestones and timelines for completion and have a clear understanding of how their roles and responsibilities contribute to the aims of the organization as well as its strategic goals. Management by objectives also includes ongoing tracking and feedback in the process to reach objectives. MBO would be appropriate for Colbran Institute to take on board because it is a knowledge-based organization where the employees are competent in their jobs. It is appropriate in this situation as we wont to build employees management and self-leadership skills and utilize their creativity and knowledge. Conclusion: This report has analyzed the role of performance management at Colbran Institute. It has taken a look at the current performance appraisal method and put forward a new structure which involves Management by objectives. Management of objectives is an efficient and balanced technique that will allow management to receive maximum results form their current employees by focusing on achievable goals.