International Human Resource Management Essay

The practise of Human Resources is moving from the traditional forms of managing people to a more strategic form whereby the Human Resources function is closely linked with organisational performance and success. This strategic form of human resources has increased the need for the Human Resource professional to understand the linkages between Corporate Strategy, Human Resource Strategy and Employee Integration. Our firm has set out to Internationalise its operations by opening to different facilities One in China Assembling and Maintaining Aircraft Engines and the other in Europe fabricating turbine blades for Aircraft engines. We have shown in the case of China the key strategies required for Organisational success and we have identified that success in China is assured if the Firm can get its strategy of Recruitment and Retention right. We have also identified that expatriate managers which are core to the operations of the facility must have a fit with the Chinese environment and as Internationally mobile employees must have an indepth understanding of the cultural and societal norms of the Chinese people thus be enabled to  manage employees to achieve success. In locating our facility in China, we chose to locate it the Shanghai area as this area is key to the aviation industry of China and has an abundance of Key Skilled and Competent people even though these people are in short supply. We have articulated a strategy for ensuring commitment and loyalty from our staff. Our Europe facility is located in the UK. We have identified the UK as a suitable location because of the abundance of the required technical skills as well as the flexible and business friendly labour laws. Even though the cost of labour is higher than some Eastern European countries, we believe that this is overshadowed by the quality of the work we would get, access to the global markets as well as the stability of the UK which is essential to the aircraft industry as delays on orders leads to very losses for all concerned in the Industry. The UK’s tax structure for business is also less stringent than comparable European economies and Airbus Industries with its main factories in France is much closer to the UK than most Eastern European countries. The issues we identified with Human Resourcing in the UK is mostly in the area of ensuring Equal Opportunities and Union/Labour Relations. The UK has very strong Unions and the laws allow the formation of Unions for willing employees thus managing this strong Unions will be one key task for HR Managers in the UK facility. We have shown in the two facilities that HR is an integral part of the organisation structure as its strategic inputs are required to guide organisational direction, visions and strategy. AEROPLANE ENGINE ASSEMBLY AND MAINTENANCE FACILITY INTRODUCTION The Peoples Republic of China is a one party state with Power centralised in the Chinese Communist Party. Though a Communist state their have been significant capitalist models applied in the certain areas of National development mainly the Economic, Industrial and Financial sectors. This liberalization of certain sectors has led to substantial growth in the Chinese economy with average â€Å"Real GDP growth rates of 10% between 2001 and 2006† (Source: Global Insight, 2007). The â€Å"Open Door Policy† adopted by China in 1979 has brought about enormous growth in the industrial output as well as the economy as a whole. As the country moved away from its â€Å"iron rice bowl† system consisting of state-owned enterprises and â€Å"lifetime† workers, various types of employment contractual agreements have begun. The past two decades have witnessed the rapid growth of Chinese and foreign owned multinational enterprises which are set to play an increasingly important role in the future of the global economy. The opening up of the vast market has created many opportunities and, at the same time, many problems to foreign enterprises. Because of the unique political, economic and cultural environment in China, it is difficult for foreign joint ventures and wholly owned foreign subsidiaries to introduce their preferred approach in managing the employees and the organisation in China. This has highlighted a crucial issue for international companies to be aware of the cross-cultural implications in the conception, design and implementation of the various market entry strategies for the Chinese markets, especially when considering the Human Resources Management strategies since Corporate Strategy will in turn determine the Human Resource (HR) strategy to be deployed. China graduates about 1.5 million students from institutions of higher learning each year. This large pool of graduates are of varying quality and those with scientific and technical degrees are very much in demand thus there is a shortage of Skilled and graduate engineers in the Chinese market.  This has led to intense competition amongst firms trying to secure these persons employment loyalties. Potential employees, having more choice in the labour markets need to be assured of the value of working for the various firms and thus Compensation and Benefit models need to be well structured. As a Wholly Owned Foreign subsidiary in the Chinese market Our Aero Engine Assembly and Maintenance firm will encounter significant challenges as a Greenfield start up within the Chinese markets and our Human Resource Strategy will be key to competitive advantage. To achieve this objective of basing our Competitive advantage on our Human Resources, there is a need for us to answer the following questions: What are the key employment issues likely to be encountered in the Chinese market? Based on the identified employment issues, what key principles of HR strategy would we suggest? What strategy are we going to deploy to manage our key skills within the firm? What other HR related issues should be considered within the Chinese market? EMPLOYMENT ISSUES IN CHINA The principle statute that governs employment and labour issues in China is the 1994 Labour Law. The Ministry of Labour and Social Security occasionally promulgates rules and regulations that supplement the law. Apart from National legislation, foreign enterprises in China are subject to Labour regulations of the area in which they operate. In June 2007, China’s parliament passed a new labour contract law requiring employers to, among other things; provide written employment contracts to their workers. To be implemented on January 1 2008, the law will require employment contracts to stipulate minimum wage and safety regulations. They  must also be drawn up within a month of starting work. The new ruling will apply to both domestic and foreign firms, except for foreign representative offices in China. These new labour laws though good for the Chinese worker do not necessarily guarantee success for a Foreign Investment Entreprise (FIE) in China. There were roughly 460,000 approved foreign companies in China at the end of 2003 (Zhou, Lu and Jiang, 2005). Many of these 460,000 firms discovered that human resources management is different in China (Zhu and Dowling, Summer 2000). CENTRAL GOVERNMENT INFLUENCE Some reasons adduced for the difference in HRM practise in China are though the country has significantly embraced market led business practises, central planning still exists in certain areas i.e. a government run mandatory personnel file system, a single labour union for the whole country and restrictions on city migration (Dessler, 2006). CULTURAL ISSUES Secondly the issue of culture and cross cultural sensitivities are critical to success of an FIE in China. Many HR practices commonly used in western countries being introduced through the operation of foreign invested enterprise in China, do not take cognizance of the cultural and social backgrounds in China. These cultural norms include: Preserving â€Å"Face† in Public (Chen in 1995 refers to face as a combination of dignity, self respect and prestige, one’s social standing and position as perceived by others). Another norm is the concept of guanxi. This concept is defined as â€Å"relationships that imply a continued exchange of favours which need not be founded on friendship† (Chen, 1995). The concept of time for the western manager is sequential, in short supply and strictly limits the amount of time he can afford to give to others while Chinese culturally view time as synchronic, in abundant supply and subordinate to person relationships (Trompenaars, 1993, Chapter 9). The above norms as regards Chinese culture have been ascribed to â€Å"Confucian work dynamism† as studied by Bond and his colleagues (Brewster et al, 2007). The Confucian work dynamism basically shows that countries with high Confucian work dynamism are generally long term oriented with a focus on the future, thrift and persistence. There is evidence that these cultural issues are gradually being better managed in the workplace with the adoption of training and career development programmes, and a closer linkage between personnel strategy and business strategy. EXPATRIATE STAFF MANAGEMENT The issues associated with expatriate staffing include inadequate selection methods and the lack of attention to cultural adaptability of the expatriate staff and family. Research has shown that a number of FIEs in the Chinese markets send out expatriate managers without any prior cross cultural training. The other issues encountered include the management of repatriation after the overseas assignment with issues ranging from limited continuity in International assignments, and difficulties of adjusting to more specialized and less autonomous positions at home, lack of career prospects and under valuation of the International experience. Management succession in the case of sudden expatriate manager departure and balancing the local and expatriate staff at Chinese FIEs can also be a problem. Finding local managers with strong managerial skills in the areas such as  problem solving, decision making and management of human resources could also be difficult as more foreign multinationals seek local management after expanding into China (Gamble, 2000; Melvin and Sylvester, 1997). RECRUITMENT AND SELECTION The market for skilled and graduate engineers in the Chinese market is tight resulting in rapid wage increases and high turnover rates. Poaching of employees is a common thread. Nepotism and over hiring can be a problem where there is a heavy influence of _guanxi_ and arranging for the transfer of staff from one firm to another maybe difficult due to the influence of the state and the need for staff to gain approval from former work units. The poaching of an employee could lead to liability for economic loss payable to the former employers of the FIEs new recruit. EMPLOYEE RETENTION The retention of well trained local staff has been a big challenge for FIEs in China due to the tight labour supply against overwhelming demand. To address the situation of retention most foreign owned firms in China have taken advantage of the labour laws in setting Compensation and benefits that are very competitive and also providing the other career building services into labour contracts e.g. over attachments, thus making themselves more attractive than the competition. OUR HUMAN RESOURCES STRATEGY IN CHINA Our firm is an aero engine assembly and maintenance in Shanghai, China. This firm is a Wholly owned Foreign subsidiary or Foreign Investment Enterprise (FIE). This strategy of market entry is as a result of a need to keep complete control over the entire Aero Engine Assembly and Maintenance process by applying World class Business and Quality Management tools. The firm has entered into partnership with Key Chinese Aero Engine parts suppliers for certain parts. These partners are recognised world wide for the quality of their products and have been supplying other aero engine  firms globally. We have recognised as fundamental to our success in China the need to employ and integrate the highest quality of staff including Home Country Nationals, Home Country Expatriates and Foreign Expatriates. Home Country Nationals are Chinese nationals based in China and recruited in China, Home Country Expatriates are Chinese Nationals who we have recruited overseas and have worked in our company with the end goal being they would be a spearhead in our move into the Chinese market while Foreign Expatriates are Nationals of other countries using their skills in China to optimise business potentials and ensure quality. Our aim is to deploy an all engaging Human Resource Strategy and our strategy is to develop the firm as a Learning Organisation. RECRUITMENT AND SELECTION Recruitment and Selection in our Chinese operations is going to be conducted on a localised basis with the local HR Managers being responsible for the Process of recruiting staff at the graduate level and middle management level for Home Country Nationals. The selections and recruitment of Expatriates either Home Country or Foreign would be conducted by the Head Office and the same applies for the Recruitment and Selection of senior management and executive Management staff. Where the senior or executive management staff is Chinese the local HR Managers would have an input into the process as they would have been involved in the process from the onset. Our recruitment process would differ according to the type of staff we are seeking to recruit. We would divide this process into three parts mainly Graduate Engineers and Skilled Technicians Middle Management Senior and Executive Management Expatriate Staff GRADUATE AND SKILLED TECHNICIANS The process for recruitment and selecting graduate engineers and skilled technicians would be carried out with a low cost model in mind. This is as a result of the expected high number of applications. In ensuring that we recruit the best Graduate Engineers, we would be seeking to develop relationships with Universities thereby targeting these engineers as they are leaving the Colleges and thus moulding them from the start to fit with our organisation style and culture. We would also use the mass media to reach out for applications mainly newspapers and the internet. We would deploy a web based filter system, so even though we have placed adverts in newspapers we still expect that all applications will be filled out online. The application forms would all be in Chinese but we expect any prospective applicant to be ready to learn English. Our selection process is going to be based on Testing and Interviews, we would not encourage the use of psychometric tests as we cannot assure of the validity in this environment (Chow, 2004) MIDDLE MANAGEMENT The recruiting of staff at this level would be carried out by placing adverts in newspapers, head hunting and poaching. The shortage of skilled labour in China has made employees highly mobile and thus headhunting and poaching are socially acceptable means of recruiting. Though poaching is allowed, an employer can be sued for economic damages by the former employer if the employee’s termination was not properly done. In other to ensure our indemnity any prospective employee that has been poached needs to provide evidence that his past employer has released him without any liabilities. Selection for Graduate Engineers, Skilled Technicians and Middle Management staff would be conducted via interviews. These interviews would be structured interview, job oriented questions with pre determined answers that tuned around the prospective job descriptions. These interviews will be conducted by a panel which ensures that an all round assessment is performed. SENIOR AND EXECUTIVE MANAGEMENT The recruitment of this class of persons would be carried out with the assistance of an executive management recruitment agency though we expect to have difficulty in finding such agencies (Chang, 2004). We also plan to head hunt and seek the opinion of other businesses within the Chinese markets. The process of identifying, Interviewing and selection would involve the Head Office from start to contract signing. Interviews for these positions would be conducted at the head office, this is to ensure that key members of staff at the head office have the opportunity to evaluate the potential staff. EXPATRIATE STAFF The recruitment of expatriate staff would be the sole responsibility of the head office while the local HR Managers would be responsible for managing the expatriates when they are in country. The head office must ensure that the clear objectives are set for Expatriate staffs and that these persons have been selected to fit the job and the culture. The success of this class of staff will ultimately lead to organisational success as they would drive the process of instilling, Corporate culture and values, Quality Management targets and process and they would also facilitate Knowledge Transfer in the work place. It is intrinsic to success that these persons understand the values and fundamentals of local cultures as highlighted above in the section under employment issues. A thorough culture immersion programme and pre-departure visits may also be ideal. The local HR Managers must also develop programmes geared at ensuring  cultural and in country integration for expatriates both foreign and Home Country (because a national who has not lived in country for a number of years would most certainly need some form of integration back into the society). It would also be expedient for the home office HR Managers when recruiting married expatriate staff to consider the fit of the spouse to the new environment as poor spousal fit has been attributed to some expatriate failures. All offers made after selection must be written in clearly constructed contracts stating the Job description and responsibilities, remuneration, working conditions, conditions of termination and liabilities for breach of contract. Agreed clauses based on benefits structure include: terms of probation, training, confidentiality, holiday days and paid leave (www.hr.com). All labour contracts must be in Chinese and copies kept in both Chinese and English. The local HR managers must also ensure that personnel files have been received from the labour bureau before any prospective employee signs a labour contract. It has be noticed that this process could delay employment (China Staff, 2003) so it is expedient to start making the request immediately the employment process starts. RETENTION STRATEGY TRAINING AND DEVELOPMENT Training in China is more focused on improving current performance deficiencies than on career development. The absence of career development plans plus a heavy emphasis on material incentives have contributed to the problems of high turnover and disloyalty observed in many enterprises, including foreign invested enterprise (Tomlinson, 1997). We consider training and development an integral part of our retention  strategy. As a study carried out showed that even in state owned enterprise â€Å"the level of ambition and commitment to learning and self improvement among the young employees was quite remarkable† (Lewis, 2003). The HR department intends to use ongoing training, well mapped out and articulated career development plans, and out placement services as a tool for employee loyalty and retention. All graduate engineers employed would have the opportunity to undergo a 24 month out placement in our UK based Aero Engine plant. This out placement is contingent on the employee returning to China after the outplacement period. The outplacement period also gives the employee the opportunity to attend several career developing programmes instituted between the firm and certain engineering universities in our own internal continuing education programmes. This use of outplacement is not limited to Graduate engineers alone as Middle Management and Senior Management staff would also undergo outplacement albeit to a much shorter duration and to meet certain function specific requirements. The use of in house sessions and on the job training would also be encouraged and all expatriates have a Performance related objective of ensuring Knowledge Transfer in the work place. COMPENSATION, BENEFITS AND REWARDS The compensation strategy of the firm would be based on a combination of salaries and wages, Performance based remuneration for collective efforts and individual performance bonuses. The salaries and wages would be determined by level and grade within any specific levels these salaries and wages would be constantly reviewed to be competitive with what obtains in the Engineering Industry but these reviews would also be tied to organisational performance. Workgroups meeting certain set targets would be eligible to collective  bonuses and staff performing excellently in the Graduate and Middle management would be compensated via promotions and awards while senior management and executive management staff both Home Country Nationals and Expatriates would be eligible to promotions and individual performance bonuses as set out in their contracts of employment. We have to be careful in Compensation structure because of Chinas cultural and traditional values of collectivist approach to work but at the same time we need to reward those who are contributing to organisational performance. Benefits would be determined by the contractual agreements and the stated benefits for individual positions. To foster more employee loyalties we would tie certain benefits to length of stay with the firm e.g. Leave days increase the longer you are in our employ, our contribution to social security on behalf of employee increases above that required by government increases the longer you are with the firm but this would be tied to employee performance, and we will introduce end of year profit sharing formulas for all staff which we believe is key to fostering employee commitment and loyalty. STRATEGY FOR MANAGING KEY SKILLS In developing a strategy for managing our organisations key skills we would need a model that considers how the human resources function will manage the key skills of the firms employees and at the same time create value for the stakeholders of the organisation. The Balance Scorecard model of strategic management developed by Kaplan and Norton can be adapted for this purpose. Figure 1. overleaf shows a model Human Resources Strategy Map for an organisation it has been developed based on the concept of the Balance Scorecard and does well to link all the processes from which value is added. We hope to use a similar model in managing the Key skills of our employees and one very key thing about this model it recognises that culture is an essential ingredient in ensuring organisational success. Figure 1. Human Resources Strategy Map (Source: www.hr.civilservice.gov.uk) OTHER HUMAN RESOURCES ISSUES IN CHINA UNION AND LABOUR RELATIONS Threatened by the All China Federation of Trade Unions (ACFTU), the notably anti-union Wal-Mart recently agreed to let its Chinese workers unionize if they asked (MMR, 2004). The above statement shows that though the unions in China are normally passive, there is a growing movement in China and its beginning to make itself felt in the Business environment. The ACFTU is the only Union permitted to operate in China but this Union has about 906,000 affiliates, with 123 million members. About 40% of the two million private companies have trade unions, representing about 67% of private sector employees. Of the approximately 460,000 foreign companies in China, 20% have trade unions (Hewitt, Nov. 2004). The trade union law of China as amended stipulates amongst other things, that employees form Unions on a voluntary basis but those unions â€Å"should be established† in enterprises with more than 25 employees. The above law has been met with some confusion e.g. must firms with 25 or more employees have a union, or only if employees request one (Hewitt, Nov. 2004). This law also does not stipulate whether it’s the unions, employees or employers that are responsible for setting up this union. It has also been noticed that after years of non adversarial relationships between unions and managements, unions in China are growing more aggressive e.g. the ACFTU has also threatened to blacklist any firms refusing to allow  its workers unionize and has also been active in identifying multinationals as non compliant and ensuring wages are agreed and paid (Hewitt, Nov. 2004). UK AERO PARTS FABRICATION PLANT INTRODUCTION In the 1980’s there was a vigorous and academic debate about the nature of the American models of HRM and their relevance to UK situation. The US value system which is not truly reflected in the UK, and is certainly not reflected in continental Europe. There were a number of similarities in 1980’s between the UK and the US. Despite its cultural distance from many European countries, the nature of HRM in the UK is significantly different from the rest of Europe. As a member of European Union and a significant target for Foreign Direct Investment practisers in the UK are undergoing as much change as are those in continental Europe. As a wholly-owned large fabrication plant based in the Filton, United Kingdom, we would be producing core components (turbine blades) for a broad range of aero and related engines. In order to gain a competitive advantage over our competitors, it is very important for us to develop and encounter key human resource issues and strategies. After a long series of researches, United Kingdom was an easy choice as the ideal location to set up our plant due to the various reasons. Firstly, in the United Kingdom, the government laws relating to setting up a new plant are quite flexible, compared to most other countries in the European Union. Also, the infrastructure, as in, the technology, communication and transport systems are highly developed. Thus setting up a new plant would be easier and faster as compared to other under-developed countries. Secondly, the trade unions in the United Kingdom are not as strong as they are in a few other European Union countries (For example, Germany). So, it is easier to deal and negotiate with trade unions. Thirdly, there is easy availability of skilled labour. With the European Union working for close integration between countries, it is also easy to  acquire labour and staff from all over the European Union. Fourthly, language is not going to be a barrier in United Kingdom, as English is widely spoken all over the country. Cost of production is obviously, one of the most important issues when considering setting up a new unit. We believe that cost is going to be an issue in the United Kingdom, but the corporate strategy model we have implemented is a low cost model because we do not have a large requirement for skilled labour, expatriate staff and senior level executives. We would employ more fresh graduate engineers and managers. This is due to the fact that our assembly and maintenance plant is based in Shanghai, China, where we require more skilled labour and senior executives. As the level of education in the United Kingdom is extremely sound, it would be easier for us to employ fresh and talented graduate engineers and managers, thus reducing cost. We would now like to elaborate on the key employment issues in the UK and discuss the strategy we have adopted to combat the various human resource issues we would be facing. KEY EMPLOYMENT ISSUES IN THE U.K. The trends in the UK human resource management (HRM) are shaped by its cost-driven and competitiveness-enhancing nature. The development and implementation of HR policies is crucial to obtaining and retaining a high performing workforce. The policies need to reflect the strategic objectives of organizations together with recognizing the impact of wider demographic, sociological and technological trends and consider the medium and longer-term implications of these. The intro of new labour government since 1997 there has been signs of more protective values towards employees. However, it is the influence of EU membership that has become a greater source of initiatives aimed at employee welfare and involvement. This scene must be placed in context, with an ageing population and an uneven distribution of employment, to gain some understanding of the challenges facing HRM in the UK. The drive for leaner organizations has led to increased use of labour flexibility, downsizing and outsourcing, whilst rewards have become more performance related and benchmarking is seen as a tool for HRM  practitioners. Such trends have received strong government support. The workforce requirements need to be considered strategically and help deliver national priorities as set out in local delivery or business plans. It is essential that there is a clear ‘line of sight’ between HR practices and the delivery of high quality services. Of central importance is creating the ‘right’ culture and developing ‘customer’ focused values. This section outlines the thinking behind these goals and explains the various strategies that are helping to achieve them. KEY HRM ISSUES RECRUITMENT AND SELECTION PROCESS: The Company ‘s greatest assets are the staff force hence the right recruitment and induction processes are vital in ensuring that the new employee becomes effective in the shortest time. The success of the Company depends on having the precise number of staff, with the precise skills and abilities. The best Human resource practice which can be adopted by and aero engine unit: Defining the job process of each individual skill required to ensure it meets our business desires. If a member of staff is leaving the company analysis over a short period of time if there is a real need to replace the role, if required will do it immediately or compensate within the current work force. Before recruiting company draws up a job description and the candidates are judged based on whether he/she will possess the key skills to meet key tasks. This process helps opportunities to outline the key tasks and responsibilities. The process of recruitment involves key steps: Advertising using the right medium to attract the right person. Using recruitment agency, describing them the job profile of the vacancy to  match the requirement with the apt candidate. Internet can serve as good tool for recruitment. Fresh talent recruitments (graduates). Campaigns, road shows, job fairs, etc†¦.. LEGISLATION Company’s responsibility to ensure current legislation is covered when applying any employment process and failure to do so could mean that the organization is breaking the law. The law prohibits for company to take into account a person’s gender, marriage, colour, race, nationality, ethnic or national origin or disability in employment decisions. Taking these legislations into consideration, company adopts an important strategy when developing a job description and person specification that it must be undertaken thoroughly and objectively as the first step to ensure compliance with legislation Key areas, if legislation to be considered is: Disability Discrimination Act 1995 Sex Discrimination Act 1975 & 1986 Race Relations Act 1976 Working Time Regulations 1998 HEALTH AND SAFETY AT WORK: The health and safety at work is majorly concerned in U.K. Each and every company needs to adopt the health and safety. The company which fails to will be fined a huge amount. At manufacturing unit it is regularly monitored and nearly recruited employed are briefed with health and safety. The employee who fails to follow the procedure will be dismissed from work  according to the health and safety regulation law. TRADE UNIONS A trade union is an organized group of employers or labours. Its main goal is to protect and advance the interests of its employee .A union often negotiates agreements with employers on pay and conditions. It may also provide legal and financial advice, sickness benefits and education facilities to its members. If a union is recognized by an employer, it can negotiate with the employer over terms and conditions known as ‘collective bargaining’. For it to work, unions and employers need to agree on how the arrangement is to operate. For example, they might make agreements providing for the deduction of union subscriptions from employers wages, which is to represent workers in negotiations and how often meetings will take place. Both these agreements on procedure and agreements between employers and unions changes the terms applying to workers are called ‘collective agreements’. EMPLOYMENT CONTRACTS AND CONDITIONS: A contract of employment is an agreement between an employer and an employee. Type of Contracts: Fixed-term contract: Fixed-term workers have the same minimum rights as permanent workers. There are special regulations which protect fixed-term employees. The fixed-term employees are issued contract for certain period of time. Additional staff recruited for six months during a peak period A specialist employee taken on for the duration of a project. Someone employed to cover during another employee’s maternity leave/absence. The fixed-term employees have the right as the permanent staff: The same pay and conditions as permanent workers. The same or equivalent benefits package as permanent workers The right to be informed about permanent employment opportunities in the organization Part-time: Working part time can be a good way of balancing the work and personal commitments. Part-time, workers will be having the same right and be treated fairly in comparison to full-time colleagues. OUR HUMAN RESOURCES STRATEGY IN UK RECRUITMENT AND SELECTION: Recruitment is the process of generating a pool of candidates from which to select the appropriate person to fill a job vacancy. Vacancies may also be created when additional or new work has to be undertaken or significant changes occur in technology, procedures, or circumstances. Recruitment and selection are the processes by which organizations solicit, contact and engender interest in potential new appointees to vacant positions in the organization, and then in some way establish their suitability for appointment. The traditional or normal view regarding recruitment and selection is to assert that it is perhaps the most basic of personnel activities- if we get the wrong people in the organization, there will be problems. The problems that we might face are high labour turnover, absenteeism, disciplinary problem, disputes and low productivity. Therefore, having the right people in the organization is very crucial. A key feature of our recruitment and selection strategy would be to follow the traditional approach of interviews, application forms and references and at times, more sophisticated techniques like psychometric tests and assessment centres. Internal candidates may be sort by searching the records, asking managers or supervisors for recommendations, or internal advertisement on notice boards and in-house journals. Besides, we would also be selecting candidates with the help of recruitment agencies and consultancies, advertisements in newspapers, Internet recruitment will also play a major part in our recruitment strategy, for example, vacancy pages on our company website, providing vacancies on commercial job websites, websites of educational institutions, etc. We would also be recruiting fresh talented graduates directly from universities in UK. This is very important to us as we would require a large number of fresh graduates for our plant. Recruiting fresh graduates directly from un iversities would save us both time and money. GRADUATE ENGINEERS AND SKILLED TECHNICIANS: As mentioned above our main focus would be to recruit fresh graduates directly from universities in UK and Europe. As our plant in UK would only be a fabrication plant and does not involve assembly or maintenance, there would not be a very high requirement of skilled technicians. We would use recruitment agencies, advertisements, and references to recruit our skilled technicians from UK and Europe. MIDDLE MANAGEMENT There is a considerable requirement of middle managers for our concern and thus internet recruitment, word of mouth, application forms and interviews will be used for recruiting such managers. SENIOR AND EXECUTIVE MANAGERS The need for senior and executive managers in our UK fabrication plant is limited and so we would only be following the process of applications and one-on-one interviews to assess senior managers.

Is Lady Macbeth the Real Driving Force Behind Duncan’s Murder?

Macbeth â€Å"Lady Macbeth is the real driving force behind the murder of King Duncan† Discuss this statement and decide whether or not you agree. Known as one of the most influential writers in history, Shakespeare was born in 1564 in Stratford upon Avon. During the 17th century Shakespeare rose to more fame and became one of the popular playwright writers across the globe. Altogether his collection of master pieces is 154 heart-wrenching sonnets and 37 compelling plays. ‘Macbeth’ delivers a powerful message about a tale of greed and a hunger for power which leads to tragic consequences. Macbeth is a naive character who is the protagonist of the play. He is one of the noble men for the king and this highlight to the reader of the loyal and trusted position he carries. Subsequently, we find that Macbeth is from an honourable family. ‘By Sinel’s death I know I am thane of Glamis’ This also shows that he is of a high class, strengthening his character as being trustworthy and of an honourable status. Macbeth as a sincere character which does not last for long once the three witches ‘plant the seed’ in Macbeth’s mind. During the play, Macbeth has issues with his desires and loyalty towards the king. The three witches appear in front of Macbeth and Banquo. They portray their prophecies which have an impulsive influence on Macbeth making him ‘thunderstruck’ at the thought of ever being admired enough to become king. This consumes Macbeth with disturbing thoughts when they refer to him as the ‘thane of Cawdor’ and the ‘future king’. These make Macbeth compelled in the witches predictions. He may react in this spontaneous manner becoming ‘speechless’ because he has a desire to gain a higher status and may have had thoughts of murdering Duncan previously. Macbeth becomes eager and impatient, ‘stay’, ‘I charge you’ shows that he is commanding the witches because he is desperate to hear his future. This introduces a completely different side to Macbeth as being, he has been given the title of ‘thane of Cawdor’ yet he still wants more. His curiosity and frustrated behaviour shows that he already had a hidden desire of ambition. The witches have an obvious impact on Macbeth, as he starts to talk to himself and a horrid image of ‘murdering king Duncan’ is placed in his mind. This is a huge contrast to the Macbeth we were shown earlier who was a ‘noble’ and ‘loyal’ person we are shown this so that we can observe how he changes from being ‘faithful’ to disloyal. We see that Macbeth finds murdering Duncan unnecessary and decides to leave it up to fate; â€Å"If chance will have me king, why chance may even crown me without stir†¦ This shows that Macbeth doubts that murder is required in order to fulfil the prophecy and become king. It also shows that Macbeth is an indecisive character as he has still not made his mind on what approach to take, the reader is unsure of what Macbeth will decide. Macbeth instantly writes a letter to his wife Lady Macbeth, displaying his eagerness to spread his new found news, this shows that he felt that there was some truth in the witches’ prophecy. Lady Macbeth is a striking character, who is introduced as Macbeth’s wife and long term companion. Shakespeare contrasts the role of Macbeth to women of the 17th century who would have been at home and submissive towards their husbands. Lady Macbeth seems like the more dominating person in the relationship â€Å"You shall put this night’s great business into my dispatch, which shall to all our nights and days to come† This shows that even though she is not actually going to perform the murderous act, she has decided to take control of the situation by handling the preparations as she believes that he husband is not competent enough to do it himself. The fact that Lady Macbeth only takes part in the planning and not the crime illustrates that she does not need to worry about the consequences of their vengeful scheme, there might not be any consequences for her as she did not commit the vicious act of murder. Lady Macbeth is a sly woman who desires for more control, this is reflected upon the advice she gives to Macbeth. Look like th’ innocent flower, but be the serpent under’t† Lady Macbeth encourages her husband to be like a snake which symbolises wickedness, portraying that she is not a good influence on Macbeth, this could confirm Lady Macbeth’s real character that even if she may appear to be innocent she really is an immoral and cunning character. She decides to take the matter into her own hands by planning Duncan’s murder her plan involves getting the servants drunk. â€Å"†¦. is two chamberlains will I with wine and wassail so convince that memory, the warder of the brain, shall be convince a fume, and the receipt of reason† She is very intelligent and has thought ahead so that the plot does not fail. She has decided to make the plan herself because maybe she does not trust Macbeth enough. Macbeth himself is not too keen on committing the murder without Lady Macbeth aggravating him, this also shows that she is the one with the desire and the plans; she wants to be the Queen of Scotland. This makes the reader aware of Lady Macbeth’s negative characteristics, which she possesses, also making the reader feel angry towards her for consuming Macbeth with evil thoughts. Lady Macbeth tries to force Macbeth into making a decision through manipulation, but Macbeth does his best to try and put off this decision about whether or not to murder Duncan; â€Å"we will speak further†, this shows that Macbeth is reluctant to end the conversation about murdering Duncan, at this point Macbeth has still not made up his mind. This makes the reader aware of Macbeth’s state of mind , it also portrays his human qualities that although he is plotting a murder he is feeling guilty at his wicked thoughts this makes the reader sympathetic towards him that he is in this situation and is confused on which path to follow and whether or not he should listen to Lady Macbeth. Lady Macbeth somehow manages to be manipulative towards Macbeth this is portrayed through her approach to Macbeth’s refusal to continue in the plot with the use of phrases like â€Å"live like a coward† this shows Lady Macbeths manipulative qualities and the way she has manipulated the situation to get an outcome which benefits her and Macbeth. As she knows what to say to infuriate him she decides to challenge his manhood; â€Å"When you durst do it, then you were a man; And to be more the man†¦ † She decides to challenge this because she knows he feels very strongly towards it. This shows the reader that Lady Macbeth will take all sorts of steps as well as having a corrupting approach of bullying Macbeth into murdering Duncan. Throughout the play Macbeth is uncertain on what he should; â€Å"If we should fail? † this shows Macbeth’s fickle behaviour, his questioning his wife as if she has all the answers and knows the future, it makes the reader aware of his low confidence and more sympathetic towards his state of mind he is not the one making the decisions he is leaving them for Lady Macbeth to make. Macbeth is eventually persuaded by his wife into murdering Duncan, â€Å"I am settled, and bend up each corporal agent to this terrible feat. Away, and mock the time with fairest show. † He is reluctant and has now come to the conclusion that he wants to do all in his power to achieve his aim, and make his ambition come true. He is fearful â€Å"I’ll go no more I am afraid to think what I have done; Look o’t again I dare not. † This shows that Macbeth is frightened: he does not want to take a chance in going back to the scene where Duncan’s murder took place, because he may get discovered even though it is in order to perfect the crime scene. He is even afraid of his own thoughts, which shows that Duncan’s death has had an impacted on his vulnerable mental state. The individual to blame for the murder of Duncan is debatable as there are several characters that have a hand in his death. Could it be the witches who planted the seed of becoming King into Macbeth’s head? Macbeth himself who committed the murderous act, or is it Lady Macbeth who cunningly drove Macbeth into committing the murder? Although this is true, Lady Macbeth is the real driving force behind the murder of King Duncan. She is a stronger and more ruthless, who is determined to get what she desires; she is more influential in her decisions than Macbeth. She is fully aware of Macbeth’s boundaries and to what extent she has to push him in order to make him kill Duncan. At one point so furious at Macbeth for being a ‘coward’ that she wanted to become a man herself. The three witches, Macbeth and Lady Macbeth are all responsible for Duncan’s death. From this we can draw a conclusion that although all these characters played a role in Duncan’s murder Lady Macbeth has a stronger pressure as she kept giving Macbeth sly comments she drove Macbeth into Murdering King Duncan.

My Ophidiophobia Essay

I don’t think that I’ve never had a time in my life when I was not afraid of snakes. To me there is nothing more freighting than this crawling, scaly, unblinking reptile that man has abhorred since the beginning of time. The subfield that is primarily connected with phobia is psychoanalytical psychology, behavioral psychology and neuropsychology. According to our text, Psychoanalysis is a method of therapy based on Freud’s theory of personality, in which the therapist attempts to bring repressed unconscious material into consciousness (Baron& Kalsher, 2008). Behavioral psychology is a school of psychology that clarifies all mental and bodily activity in terms of reaction by glands and muscles to external factors (stimuli). Neuropsychology studies the structure and purpose of the brain as they transmit to fixed emotional processes and behaviors. It is seen as a clinical and experimental field of psychology that aims to study, assess, understand and treat behaviors directly related to brain functioning. The purpose of this paper is to discuss how biological bases of behavior have contributed to this fear. I also will analyze my reactions when I came into contact with the physical presence of a fake reptile. And, finally, discuss the role that learning has had on the fact that I fear and hate snakes. Our text states that anxiety is an increased arousal accompanied by generalized feeling of fear or apprehension. When this fear becomes excessive or debilitating, this is known as a phobia. Findings by Ohman and Mineska have suggested that we may possess a biologically determined module in our brains for fear of snakes because this fear is beneficial for our survival (Ohman & Mineska, 2001). The question has been asked, what are the origins of phobias? One possibility involves the process of classical conditioning. A stimulus is introduced that was not supposed to elicit strong emotional reactions, in my case came to do so. I will discuss this in my physical reaction section. It could be surmised that humans learned to fear snakes early in their evolution and the ones who distinguished the existence of snakes very rapidly would have been more likely to pass on their genes. It is painful to analyze my reactions to snakes because, even thing about them make it very difficult to type. I really have a deep fear of them. The most frightening experience that I remember is a very cruel joke that my cousin played on me. He knew I was afraid of snakes but one day I was over his house and he called me into his room because he was hearing sounds. I walked in his room and he had a rattling devise hidden in his room and I heard it but did not associate it to a rattlesnake because there was no reason for one of them to be in the room. He reached under his bed a pulled out a realistic replica of a diamondback rattler and I immediately urinated all over myself while frozen in fear. When he saw what I had done, He profusely apologized he help me clean up the mess that I had made. Since this incident I feel that I have post-traumatic stress disorder because sometimes a dream about snakes for no reason. I refused to watch the move Anaconda and never have been in the snake house at the public zoo. The impact of foundational learning about my fear of snakes helps to give me an understanding of some of the reasons why I hate snakes so much without never really coming in contact with any deadly one in my whole existence. I have learned the origins of my phobia may come from some deeply rooted repressions deep in my brain and that snakes may represent something other than the physical creature that I detest and utterly dread. According to this theory, my phobia may be based in anxiety reactions of the id that have been repressed by the ego. The currently feared object is not the original subject of the fear. Also, according to learning theories, phobias develop when fear responses are reinforced or punished. My experience with my cousin reinforced the idea that snakes are to be terrified of. The medical models of psychology states that mental disorders are caused by physiological factors Neuropsychologists have acknowledged that certain genetic factors that may play a role in the advance of phobias. Although the investigation is still in its early stages, it is recognized that certain medicines that affect the brain’s interaction are helpful in treating phobias (Ohman, Flykt, & Estevez, 2001). In conclusion, there seems to be numerous options available for me to seek help if I decide to address my ophidiophobia. If one takes the psychoanalytical approach, if may take years of psychoanalysis to delve deep into the recesses of my brain and pull out repressed memories that were the foundation of my fear of snakes. Next, from a learned behavior approach, I may be re-programmed not to experience the triggers that lead to the debilitating feeling that I have when I come in close proximity of snakes. Finally, if neuropsychology holds the answer to my problem, I may take the route of taking experimental medication to determine it helps my fear. I think that I am more afraid of experimental drugs than I am of snakes, so, if I had the resources, I would probably choose the first two alternatives.

Liberty Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words

Liberty - Essay Example So, doubtlessly, the concepts of positive liberty and negative liberty are inexorably linked; yet it is difficult to truly contend that positive liberty is a comprehensive critique of negative liberty, or, more pointedly, that they are incompatible at all. Broadly, positive liberty and negative liberty are simply different sides of the same coin. Liberty - as a pure concept or an ideal - can come in many forms or varieties. And even if we choose to only accept the notion of individualistic freedom as the foundation of our political philosophies, we still must admit that defining it in terms of either all that an individual is capable of or all that an individual is permitted to do comprise merely opposite ends of a wide range of controls upon an individual's ability to act freely. In the real world, for example, we find a hybrid of these two extreme views - and this is true regardless of which nation or society in which a person lives. A person in the United Kingdom who lives in poverty, for example, has his freedoms limited by laws, by the extension of other people's freedoms, and by his own internal inclinations. He may be prevented from killing his neighbor's barking dog simply because it is illegal to do so; meanwhile, he may be prevented from traveling to New York City simply because the distribution of wealth is such that others can do this while he cannot; and, at the same time, he may be prevented from reading Kant because he is unable to read. Ultimately, the reason why the concept of positive liberty is not a comprehensive critique of negative liberty is that while one is concerned with the limitations on individual freedom imposed by an abstract governing force, the other subject to the limitations on individual freedom imposed an individual's mental circumstances, which are often external as well. This makes it troublesome to argue that the two theories are fundamentally incompatible; they may be virtua lly impossible to reconcile in a coherent political theory, but they actually exist, in practice, on a daily basis in the real world. In other words, to say that positive liberty does not exist is to deny the innate inequalities and limitations of human beings - which will be assumed to exist in this paper - but on the other hand, to deny the existence of negative liberty is to deny the existence of social or political controls. So while it may be impossible to ground a political philosophy in some combination of these ideas - the importance of which Berlin convincingly points out - it is certainly possible that both ideas can be used as lenses through which to perceive the actual functioning of any society that exists or could ever be expected to exist. Berlin describes positive freedom in the following manner: "The 'positive' sense of the word 'liberty' derives from the wish on the part of the individual to be his own master. I wish my life and decisions to depend on myself, not on external forces of whatever kind."1 This way of characterizing

The Career of Elvis Presley and Other Musicians of His Time Essay

The Career of Elvis Presley and Other Musicians of His Time - Essay Example The career of Elvis is an example of a striking success: he had 18 singles which took the first places in charts, and his contribution is significant to â€Å"†¦several musical genres, most notably rock, country, and gospel. It is also different from the careers of the musicians who will be discussed below in such terms that he devoted much time to participate in the filmmaking industry, and his life was almost twice longer than those of the Holly and Cochran and almost as long as that one of Vincent.  Gene Vincent, one of the biggest rockabilly and rock-n-roll stars, also made a significant contribution to the music in general and to the mentioned music genres in particular, and his career had several differences from the above mentioned Elvis’ one. First, he took part in filmmaking activity not as intensively as Elvis, and second, his popularity to a significant extent depended on the airplay of his tracks by the radio stations. Nevertheless, he was a rather popular musician and deserves being mentioned in one row with Elvis Presley.  Eddie Cochran’s phenomenon is that even though his life lasted for 21 years only, he managed to reach the top of the music Olympus and to leave tracks that are still very popular, such as â€Å"Summertime Blues†. In such a narrow period of time he managed to significantly influence the development of rock-n-roll and rockabilly and was positively referred to because of his outstanding guitar playing skills.  

Cycles of Failure, Mediocrity and Success and the Role of Staff Essay

Cycles of Failure, Mediocrity and Success and the Role of Staff Empowerment on Breaking the Cycle - Essay Example The paper tells that the role of employee motivation in generating customer satisfaction has been traditionally studied in the context of employees within the service sector. This is because from the company’s perspective frontline interactions with customers are a significant way of attaining competitive advantage and differentiating oneself. Hence, employees dealing in frontline work are expected to anticipate the needs of customers, deliver the service based on customized needs and build long term, personalized relationships with the customers. Thus, staff empowerment is a crucial aspect of maintaining employee motivation and customer loyalty. From the above it follows that poor working environment can translate into poor customer service with employees dealing with their customers the way their managers treat them. Furthermore, employee turnover is attributed to what is known as the â€Å"cycle of failure†. In other cases, some degree of job security is present but there is little room for practicing one’s own initiatives. This situation arises from the lack of empowerment and is termed as the â€Å"cycle of mediocrity†. However, by employing the right tools of empowerment, the management of any company can develop a positive attitude in service employees which is known as â€Å"cycle of success†. The â€Å"cycle of failure† is attributed to the delegation of monotonous, mundane tasks to cheaply hired and untrained employees by employing the division of labor philosophy. This cycle is split into two cycles that work simultaneously. The first one involves failure with workers and the second one involves failure with customers. The cycle of failure pertaining to employees involves working on tasks requiring little or no skills and little scope for personal control. The output is strictly controlled by technology and emphasis is on following the rules as opposed to focusing on the quality of customer service. It is a c ommonplace to hear management attributing this failure to shortage of skilled labor, dearth of motivated employees in the labor market and the fact that high costs of skilled labor would have to be borne by customers in the form of high prices (Lovelock, Wirtz, & Chatterjee, 2007). Mostly companies consider training as a cost (and not an investment) and fear that it will result in wastage of funds if the employee walks away after acquiring the training (Lovelock, Wirtz, & Chatterjee, 2007). Failure with customers is associated with the lack of a consistent and clear image of the company to the customers which occurs because of changing faces due to high employee turnover. Also companies focus too much on the attraction of new customers as opposed to the retention of

History of united states Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

History of united states - Essay Example History is at times denoted as the art of finding, and accounting on the past events. The study revolves around the social lives, cultural systems, and political systems of the target community of research problem. Data sources differ in accordance to the method of research and the target source of information. For instance, primary data sources involve the originality of researching on a particular subject for the first time, with little or no reliance to the available information. On the contrary, secondary sources serve researchers with already processed information, which calls for editing to fit the desired purpose. Therefore, the two different resource approaches imply on originality of information and borrowed data respectively (Mulhall 38). The data sources used in the study are mainly secondary data sources. The factor stimulating the use of secondary data sources is the availability of past information in a readily presented source. Examples of the secondary data sources include American historical society, and History matters. The research further involved the use of questionnaires to collect data from a sample population, instrumental to the research expedition (GrzesÃŒ kowiak-Krwawicz 64). In the 17th century, America was turning out to the most suitable continent for agriculture, and to accommodate excess population from the English countries. However, acceptability into the newly formed white society in the American territories turned to be a tricky affair (Rasor 34). Considerations revolved around the gender, ethnicity, social class, and skill of every individual. Therefore, freedom remained a disguise as the respected group of the society benefited from it at the expense of the inferior groups. Royal and American merchants turned to Africa in the zeal to obtain slaves, with a target of subsidizing labor in the settler farms. According to the governing