HRM Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words - 3

HRM - Essay Example At this point comes in the HR Audit, that refers to â€Å"the systematic verification of job analysis and design, recruitment and selection, orientation and placement, training and development, performance appraisal and job evaluation, employee and executive remuneration† and the other HR functions such as â€Å"motivation and morale, participative management, communication, welfare and social security, safety and health, industrial relations, trade unionism, and disputes and their resolution.† (citehr.com) In simpler terms, HR Audit, similar to a financial and accounting audit is the review of the employees of the organization that helps to review and assess the relationship between the employees and the organization in terms of their best contribution to achieve the goals, of both, the organization and each individual employee. HR Function in GS Plumbing To date, GS Plumbing hasn’t conducted an HR Audit for their employees. They have 18 plumbers working for the m, and the four members of the senior management – Greg Smith, Alan Arrowsmith, Jane Brown and Gail White. It would be recommended to the management of GS Plumbing to conduct an HR Audit of not just the plumbers but all the members of the management as well. An HR Audit will be beneficial to the organization in the following ways: The management will be able to identify the contribution of every employee to the organization and vice versa. It will help to identify problems that may be arising and nip them in the bud. Employees will feel motivated as the management is taking a personal interest in each of them. Also, the employees will get a chance to personally speak out any sort of concerns they have. An HR audit will give the management confidence about their employees. They will know where there are gaps and will be able to device systems to close them. (humanresources.hrvinet.com) In the case of GS Plumbing, everyone should be involved in the HR Audit, from Greg Smith and the rest of the management, right to the plumbers working on part time and job sharing basis. It will show the rest of the employees that they are all on the same ground and all of them are equally responsible and accountable to GS Plumbing as an organization. Also, everyone is not perfect and an HR Audit will find out mistakes that people might be making and will help them by giving them solutions to fix it. Unplanned Employee Absence Massive absenteeism and illnesses could impact negatively on many lost working hours and medical insurance expense (Charles and Kell 2006). Employees of GS Plumbing are calling in sick regularly and not planning their absence. This creates a lot of problems for GS Plumbing, such as: It affects the daily allocation of duties. It disrupts the work routine of the organization. It could lead to the employees feeling pressurizes and over worked when they have to cover for their absent colleagues. It could disrupt team based and training activities that ma y have been planned for the employees’ benefit. (Lingham 2007) Also, repeatedly taking unplanned leaves is not a very ethical practice. An employee may be genuinely sick but it is hard for the management not to have a little doubt about the employees’ real reason for having taken a leave of absence at the last minute. There are various reasons an employee might have to take leave from work at the last

Risk Management for Finance Sector Enterprises Essay

Risk Management for Finance Sector Enterprises - Essay Example These risks affected the Bank after the merging of banking and securities business. The failure to manage these risks appropriately lasted to the collapse of the bank. â€Å"The failure of Barnings in early 1995 and the circumstances surrounding the discovery of large trading losses at Daiwa in New York in that year, as well as the more recent experiences of losses at Sumitomo, show that risk management must be made   to work in practice as well as theory†. The circumstances that led to the collapse of Barings bank are mainly the failure in managing the market risks. The power to manage the activities of the bank in Singapore has remained concentrated in the hands of Nick Leeson, who worked in the Singapore stock market and was able to deal from both sides. Leeson appointed only few staffs in his office at Singapore due to the fact that it will offer him the leeway for making the forgery. With this motive in mind, he projected a false impression of the market situation by th e use of cross-trade technique and created a profit of 50% during 1994. He started the forgery by creating to a false account and by the end of 1994 the actual state of affairs came into notice and the bank authorities realized that they have sustained a loss of â€Å"$296 million†.... financial sector enterprises may arise from variations in market prices, consisting of alternative volatilities, change in interest rates, product costs and foreign exchange rates. Generally, the higher the cost volatility in any marketplace the greater the possible markets risk. According to Richard J. Herring in his article called BCCI & Barings: Bank Resolutions Complicated by Fraud and Global Corporate Structure, talks about the Leeson’s intention of defrauding the bank. He says that his intention (Herring n.d.) has become successful mainly due to the lack of monitoring of the daily internal activities. The bank over relied on its staffs and gave them freedom which enabled Leeson to misappropriate the money. An internal assessment of the Bank would have prevented the possibility of manipulation and the subsequent collapse. Inadequate allocation of funds was another failure in managing the market risk and this encouraged Leeson to continue his corruption. Adequate hedging t he position was another market risk faced by the bank and it utterly failed in managing this risk. The position of Barings Bank in the stock market was also manipulated in the beginning of 1994, which prevented the bank from taking necessary action. The final market risk faced by the bank was the checking of the closing position and trading limits. The management of the dealings in stock market and of the dealing limits is an important function of a bank. However, the bank failed to manage this risk as Leeson controlled the activities of the bank in the stock market and the bank relied blindly on him. Thus, Barings Bank finally bore the brunt in terms of its eventual collapse. Due to the unsuccessful management of risks relating to internal controls, an employee of the bank was able to tamper

Key learning point Essay Example for Free

Key learning point Essay Power refers to the extent to which one can satisfy their target goals, needs or desires. Power can be used either to dominate or control the other, or can be used to work together with the other party involved. Whichever way power is used it gives one an edge over the other party in negotiations. Information provides an important source and a means of acquiring power. Reason for Selection: Informational power comes from a person’s ability to assemble data to support his positions, arguments, or desired outcomes. This resource provides an important tool in challenging the other party’s position, or undermine their arguments or propositions during negotiations. Application to a business or personal situation: A year ago, I was talking to a doctor who was new at one of the centers I am marketing my pharmaceutical products. The doctor openly rubbished my product saying he had absolutely no scope for it in his medical practice basing his argument on the position of a respected doctor in the area of medicine in which my product is applied. What this doctor did not know is that from my market survey on my product and competitor brands momentum in the market, the doctor he claimed was the top prescriber of my product in that town . I provided the evidence and within a month I received a call from my manager that the doctor had placed an LPO for my product. Action or steps taken to improve: I read widely and extensively on new trends in my area of work; undertake market survey on different issues; seek the opinion of experts; attend seminars and conferences on various topics; and in general try to keep an open mind, maintain my curiosity about life and watch informative programs. References Squidoo (2010). A goldmine of journal Writing Prompts. Retrieved on 30th July, 2010, from http://www. squidoo. com/journalwritingprompts

Jørn Utzons House in Hellebæk

Jà ¸rn Utzons House in Hellebà ¦k The Architects house in Hellebà ¦k, Denmark, fifty kilometres north of Copenhagen, was built in 1953 on the designs of the great architect, Jà ¸rn Utzon, aimed to be his own home in one of his most loved areas of his country. Small, yet spacious, this dwelling is hidden in the green Danish forests not far away from the place he grew up and loved so much. This house was built at the commencement of Utzons career with limited funds: The story goes that Utzon could only afford a regular suburban lot but bought one at the end of a street, cancelled the driveway and persuaded the local forester to let him enter trough the forest instead. (Anon., May 2008) In this essay I intend to look at how this house functions, both aesthetically as well as ergonomically. I will analyze its style, layout and both its external and internal structure with references to the time and location it was built in. I will also examine the practical functions it provides. Subsequently, I am going to compare it to two other houses which either have been an inspiration for the architect or have been themselves influenced by Utzons Hellebà ¦k house. The House at Hellebà ¦k is not just another paradigm of a typical modern mid-century house but one of the very first structures to feature the trend of single-storey, flat-roofed residences with long glass walls. The whole faà §ade of the house is made up of yellow brick and large glass panels which create long uninterrupted, parallel walls. The north brick wall is completely blank in the sense that the architect punctured no windows in it at all except for the front door. As for the interior, the kitchen and the living room are situated in the core of the house while the bedrooms are at the sides and are only illuminated by roof openings due to Utzons desire to keep the bareness of the north wall. His determination to avoiding openings lead that the internal walls have no doors but mere gaps between them as passageways, and he achieved that by arranging them in such a way that the doors were ceiling high. The walls extend from ceiling to floor with black-painted wooden strips so the walls can be moved, the rooms re-arranged according to the need later on. (Jorn Utzon) By designing this house, the architects aim, was to make a modern and attractive residence that accommodated his wants and needs. At that time, he was married with children and needed a family house that would please him both aesthetically and emotionally by allowing him to enjoy the beauty of the Danish woods on his slightly elevated porch. On the other hand, he needed it to have enough room for a family while keeping the construction on a low budget. What is interesting about this residence is the fact that if you inspect it from the south, you will see a lightweight structure with thin timber framing and glass plates. On the other hand, if you stand on the north side, you will observe a heavy, stone building with no openings for the building to breathe. The south lighter side which stands on a solid brick wall, is said to be inspired by eastern, Chinese architecture. (20th century houses) With the construction of this house, Jà ¸rn Utzon was the first to bring the open-plan movement to the then conservative Denmark as it features a large open space and minimizes the use of small, enclosed rooms. This is in strong contrast with the traditional Danish houses with strictly defined rooms (Denmark, Unofficial Handbook, Royal Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, 622-644). This house is yet an even more contradictory structure to that area due to the architects choice not to provide north-facing openings since the conventional housing of the 50s used to have large windows on every side. Yet, the south side and the use of brick balance everything up. One of the things that catches my eye on this house is the precise geometry in which the yellow bricks are placed. The entire building seems like it has been very carefully constructed, taking into consideration every little detail. The geometry is emphasised by the two very long parallel walls on either side. The structure of the house, resembles that of a traditional Japanese house that was designed according to the ancient Kiwari modular system. This was a very simple method of building based on standard dimensions and spacing between columns which was measured in 6 to 6.5 Shaku (1818mm to 1969.5mm)(Davies book 2). Utzon borrows this scheme and converts it into his own culture, the traditional Danish brick. In the Utzon house it is the humble brick that sets the module both externally and internally.(Davies). All the proportions are planned on an 120mm grid which is devised by Danish brick and cement joints, timber panels, floor tiles and brick paving. The Japanese influence is not only apparent in the structural elements of the house but in the interiors and decoration as well. The materials used outside are the same as inside: yellow brick, Oregon pine, aluminium and black-painted skirting boards and ceiling strips. The whole plainness of it all is what reminds me of Japanese quality. Photos of the interiors which are geometric, with straight edges, a grid-like placement of furniture, ample wide, open space and a very generous usage of long timber planks bring to my mind the simple lines that traditional Japanese architecture followed. The architect himself recalls all the different sorts of materials used in this project; walls and doors are framed with Oregon pine boards, the kitchen, grill niche, shower and bathroom are all adorned with the same yellow brick but glazed white and shiny like porcelain. The flooring in the entrance hall, kitchen and round the fireplace consists of yellow-brown oblong tiles made of clay. Utzons main inspiration for creating the Hellebà ¦k house, were Frank Lloyd Wrights Usonian houses (1936) and especially Jacobs House which was the first out of this series of small ranches in West America. The windows, the single-storey and open plan structure as well as the flat roof and the use of brick and timber were obvious elements which Utzon mimicked after Wrights work. After the Second World War, Utzon decided to travel to the United States where he stayed with Frank Lloyd Wright for several months. He closely observed the great architect who was at the peak of his career as he worked. This is very noticeable in Utzons work following that journey. Jacobs House is located in Madison, Wisconsin and was created by Wright during a major pause of his career in the 30s due to being affected by the times depression. The architects main intention was to create a large collection of such houses that were both economical and environmentally friendly. The materials used in this project were timber, stone, glass and bricks made out of baked clay, a series of resources that state a clear relation to the areas vernacular(www.usonia1.com). This is exactly what Utzon did for his own house. Wrights concept included an L-shaped floor plan with a two by two grid as a guideline. Utzon consequently used a certain pattern as well by making everything a multiple of 120mm. The living and dining areas as well as the kitchen are all in a single open area in contrast to the two bedrooms and the study which are enclosed in their own rooms. He, as well as Utzon, make the same clear distinction between the private and public areas of the house, the serving and served. The whole house is characterized by the simplicity of the materials and space. Floor heating, Chinese method. Both houses. A house in which was undoubtedly influenced by Utzons creation is Richard Hordens residence in Poole Dorset. Utzon is a great mind in the history of architecture and his Hellebà ¦k house still remains as an example of how well he could implement modern structures of the mid-century. The yellow brick is still standing symmetrically and geometrically inside the deep Danish woods.

Foreshadowing in Kate Chopins The Storm Essay -- Chopin Storm Essays

Foreshadowing in The Storm Effectively using foreshadowing in a piece of literature enhances the reader's curiosity. One clear example of such usage is seen in Kate Chopin's writing. Her use of foreshadowing in the short story "The Storm" adds an element of intrigue, holding the reader's interest throughout. In this story a father and son, Bobinôt and Bibi, are forced to remain in the store where they were shopping, waiting for an approaching storm to pass. Meanwhile, the wife and mother, Calixta, remaining at home, receives an unexpected visit from a former lover of hers, Alcée. The two lovers ultimately consummate their relationship. Alcée then departs once the storm subsides, at which time the father and son return home. No repercussions of the extramarital affair take place within the story. Perhaps the clearest examples of foreshadowing in "The Storm" are the made when Chopin introduces the storm, writes that Calixta and Alcée had never been alone together since her marriage, calls attention to Calixta unbuttoning her garment because of the heat, mentions the distance separating Calixta from her husband and son and describes Calixta's physical appearance. These areas of foreshadowing maintain the reader's interest in the story and prepare the readers for the turn of events. The first such signal given to the reader is found in the opening paragraph of the story. The atmosphere and the approaching storm are described and contrasted. The opening atmosphere's tranquility is apparent because "[t]he leaves were so still that even Bibi thought it was going to rain" (665). This stillness prior to the storm ... ...anate seed. Her white neck and a glimpse of her full, firm bosom disturbed him powerfully" (667). This passion leads to physical touching, congering up past passionate feelings towards one another, ultimately leading to their intercourse. As seen in "The Storm," Chopin makes good use of foreshadowing throughout the short story. Had Chopin omitted her foreshadowing, the story would have lost much of its believability. It also would create an irrational storyline in which the extramarital affair occurs without any explanation or rationale. This would more than likely cause the reader to discount the story as unrealistic. Therefore, it is crucial that one notices the vital role foreshadowing plays in literature. Chopin did an excellent job in convincingly describing the turn of events in "The Storm" by using foreshadowing to do so.

An Analysis of William Carlos Williams Poem, The Young Housewife Essay

An Analysis of William Carlos Williams' Poem, The Young Housewife In this poem, Williams uses a series of images to capture a fleeting moment in time, an emotion of admiration and desire. The poem consists of three stanzas of varying length, and each share in a similar method in portraying the woman and the narrator's relationship with her. Each stanza starts out with somewhat broad statements about the scene, and as they each progress, they become more specific until the image is pinned down to a specific moment in time. After reading the poem the reader is left with three separate images, which describe the emotion/admiration felt by the narrator for the woman. Williams in the first stanza gives the reader a glimpse of the woman in "her husband's house". His description is somewhat voyeuristic, as the woman is in her negligee behind walls, and yet the reader is still able to see her. The poet also tells us the exact time, ten A.M.. This suggests that the woman while still in her negligee, is in no rush to prepare herself for the day. This is import...

Citizenship Birthright Under Fire

Citizenship Birthright Under Fire Summary During one morning in Washington, DC, Senator Mitch McConnell who is the Senate minority leader, argued with Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina about the 14th Amendment to the Constitution. The 14th Amendment grants citizenship to anymore born in the United States. Graham spoke out saying the Amendment was a mistake because children of illegal immigrants could become citizens if they were born in the United States automatically.He also stated as well as granting legal status to millions of illegal immigrants, he would also amend the 14th Amendment in order to nullify future unauthorized immigration. Republican and Democratic lawmakers were surprised with Graham’s proposal since he was basically the only Republican to negotiate with Democrats to create an immigration overhaul bill. This debate has been centered on the citizenship clause â€Å"All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction th ereof, are citizens of the United States and of the state wherein they reside. People against this amendment have argued that illegal immigrants are not under U. S. jurisdiction and therefore America-born children should not be automatically become citizens. The amendment has been practiced since the 1860’s and if the law were changed it would make babies born from Mexican mothers illegally they would become immigrants at birth. Opponents against the amendment say that Mexican mothers would have the babies here in the U. S. so that hopefully the mothers would receive citizenship. The only thing is by law American citizen children must wait until they are 21 years old to apply for legal residency for their parents.About 4 million citizen children have at least one parent who is an illegal immigrant. Even though Graham is pushing to reconstruct the amendment it would be huge political proposition. Opinion I woke up this morning, proud to be an American. I do not usually think w ould if I was born somewhere else or would if my relatives never came over to America? Or even would if the 14th Amendment was never thought of or brought up? I just go about my day as usual. If I really look into it and think about it, if my relatives never came to America, I would not be sitting here in this comfortable chair, typing this paper for my government class.As a matter of fact I, as a human being, would not be here. My grandfather’s roots are from Mexico and my grandmother’s are from Germany. If it was not for the 14th Amendment, they would have not met or have been able to be in this country. People come to America for a better life and opportunity. The U. S. is very diverse with different cultures, religions, and races and yet some people whose ancestors came over here are arguing that it is not fair for other people to have an opportunity to succeed. Yet I sort of see why they are complaining because America gets bigger every year due to people coming o ver