Free Essays on Deaf Culture

Deaf Culture: Is it all Peaceful? Deafness is not a disability but a different way of being. â€Å"So the members of the American deaf community are not characteristically isolated, or uncommunicative, or unintelligent or childlike, or needy, or any of these things we imagine them to be,† stated Harlan Lane (269). The deaf produce their own culture and way of living. Knowing that, what is a culture, what are factors in their culture, and why is there negativity associated with the deaf community producing their own culture? Culture is what individuals learn in life. Cultures are taught. Individuals learn their culture from people within their society. They learn language, acceptable behavior, beliefs, customs, and values to help them throughout life. Cultures can also be viewed as a standard of living and be used as a sense of belonging. There are many cultures in this world. They range from cultures of a particular country to cultures of a certain group. There are even cultures within a culture. The deaf community for example has more than one culture. The main culture they learn is the culture they are raised in, basically, what their countries’ cultures are, but they are also part of their own culture. Deaf individuals have their own language, needs, and customs along with the mainstream culture they live in. In the deaf community, they have their own opportunities for their group of people. They have schools, social activities, jobs, and forms of communication to say the least. Deaf grade schools and colleges are all over the country. One of the better-known colleges is Gallaudet University. According to Oliver Sacks, â€Å"Gallaudet is the only liberal arts college for the deaf in the world and is, moreover, the core of the world’s deaf community† as of 1988 (236). Gallaudet is also known for a riot that took place in March of 1988. The riot was to protest against selection of a hearing president for ... Free Essays on Deaf Culture Free Essays on Deaf Culture Deaf Culture: Is it all Peaceful? Deafness is not a disability but a different way of being. â€Å"So the members of the American deaf community are not characteristically isolated, or uncommunicative, or unintelligent or childlike, or needy, or any of these things we imagine them to be,† stated Harlan Lane (269). The deaf produce their own culture and way of living. Knowing that, what is a culture, what are factors in their culture, and why is there negativity associated with the deaf community producing their own culture? Culture is what individuals learn in life. Cultures are taught. Individuals learn their culture from people within their society. They learn language, acceptable behavior, beliefs, customs, and values to help them throughout life. Cultures can also be viewed as a standard of living and be used as a sense of belonging. There are many cultures in this world. They range from cultures of a particular country to cultures of a certain group. There are even cultures within a culture. The deaf community for example has more than one culture. The main culture they learn is the culture they are raised in, basically, what their countries’ cultures are, but they are also part of their own culture. Deaf individuals have their own language, needs, and customs along with the mainstream culture they live in. In the deaf community, they have their own opportunities for their group of people. They have schools, social activities, jobs, and forms of communication to say the least. Deaf grade schools and colleges are all over the country. One of the better-known colleges is Gallaudet University. According to Oliver Sacks, â€Å"Gallaudet is the only liberal arts college for the deaf in the world and is, moreover, the core of the world’s deaf community† as of 1988 (236). Gallaudet is also known for a riot that took place in March of 1988. The riot was to protest against selection of a hearing president for ...

The Satsuma Rebellion

The Satsuma Rebellion The Meiji Restoration of 1868 signaled the beginning of the end for Japans samurai warriors.   After centuries of samurai rule, however, many members of the warrior class were understandably reluctant to give up their status and power.   They also believed that only the samurai had the courage and training to defend Japan from its enemies, internal and external.   Surely no conscript army of peasants could fight like the samurai!   In 1877, the samurai of the Satsuma Province rose up in the Satsuma Rebellion or Seinan Senso (Southwestern War), challenging the authority of the Restoration Government in Tokyo, and testing the new imperial army. Background to the Rebellion: Located on the southern tip of Kyushu Island, more than 800 miles south of Tokyo, the Satsuma domain had existed and governed itself for centuries with very little interference from the central government.   During the latter years of the Tokugawa shogunate, just prior to the Meiji Restoration, the Satsuma clan began to invest heavily in armaments, building a new shipyard at Kagoshima, two weapons factories, and three ammunition depots.   Officially, the Meiji Emperors government had authority over those facilities after 1871, but Satsuma officials actually retained control of them. On January 30, 1877, the central government launched a raid on the arms and ammunition storage areas in Kagoshima, without any prior warning to the Satsuma authorities.   Tokyo intended to confiscate the weapons and take them to an imperial arsenal in Osaka.   When an Imperial Navy landing party reached the arsenal at Somuta under cover of night, locals raised the alarm.   Soon, more than 1,000 Satsuma samurai appeared and drove off the intruding sailors.   The samurai then attacked imperial facilities around the province, seizing weapons and parading them through the streets of Kagoshima.   The influential Satsuma samurai, Saigo Takamori, was away at the time and had no knowledge of these events, but hurried home when he heard the news.   Initially he was furious about the junior samurais actions; however, he soon learned that 50 Tokyo police officers who were Satsuma natives had returned home with instructions to assassinate him in the case of an uprising.   With that, Saigo threw his support behind those organizing for a rebellion. On February 13-14, the Satsuma domains army of 12,900 organized itself into units.   Each man was armed with a small firearm - either a rifle, a carbine, or a pistol - as well as 100 rounds of ammunition and, of course, his katana.   Satsuma had no reserve of extra weapons, and insufficient ammunition for an extended war.   Its artillery consisted of 28 5-pounders, two 16-pounders, and 30 mortars. The Satsuma advance guard, 4,000 strong, set out on February 15, marching north.   They were followed two days later by the rear guard and artillery unit, who left in the midst of a freak snowstorm.   Satsuma daimyo Shimazu Hisamitsu did not acknowledge the departing army when the men stopped to bow at the gates of his castle.   Few of them would ever return. Satsuma Rebels: The imperial government in Tokyo expected Saigo either to come to the capital by sea or to dig in and defend Satsuma.   Saigo, however, had no regard for the conscripted farm boys who made up the imperial army, so he led his samurai army straight up the middle of Kyushu, planning to cross the straits and march on Tokyo.   He hoped to raise the samurai of other domains along the way. However, a government garrison at Kumamoto Castle stood in the Satsuma rebels path, manned by about 3,800 soldiers and 600 police under Major General Tani Tateki.   With a smaller force, and unsure about the loyalty of his Kyushu-native troops, Tani decided to stay inside the castle rather than venturing out to face Saigos army.   Early on February 22, the Satsuma attack began, with samurai scaling the walls again and again, only to be cut down by small arms fire.   These attacks on the ramparts continued for two days, until Saigo decided to settle in for a siege.   The Siege of Kumamoto Castle lasted until April 12, 1877.   Many former samurai from the area joined Saigos army, increasing his force to 20,000.   The Satsuma samurai fought on with fierce determination; meanwhile, the defenders ran out of artillery shells, and resorted to digging up unexploded Satsuma ordinance and refiring it.   However, the imperial government gradually sent more than 45,000 reinforcements to relieve Kumamoto, finally driving the Satsuma army away with heavy casualties.   This costly defeat put Saigo on the defensive for the remainder of the rebellion. Rebels in Retreat: Saigo and his army made a seven-day march south to Hitoyoshi, where they dug trenches and prepared for the imperial army to attack.   When the attack finally came, the Satsuma forces withdrew, leaving small pockets of samurai to hit the larger army in guerrilla-style strikes.   In July, the Emperors army encircled Saigos men, but the Satsuma army fought its way free with heavy casualties. Down to about 3,000 men, the Satsuma force made a stand on Mount Enodake.   Faced with 21,000 imperial army troops, the majority of the rebels ended up committing seppuku or surrendering.   The survivors were out of ammunition, so had to rely on their swords.   Just about 400 or 500 of the Satsuma samurai escaped the mountain slope on August 19, including Saigo Takamori.   They retreated once more to Mount Shiroyama, which stands above the city of Kagoshima, where the rebellion began seven months earlier. In the final battle, the Battle of Shiroyama, 30,000 imperial troops bore down upon Saigo and his few hundreds of surviving rebel samurai.   Despite the overwhelming odds, the Imperial Army did not attack immediately upon arrival on September 8, but instead spent more than two weeks carefully preparing for its final assault.   In the wee hours of the morning on September 24, the emperors troops launched a three hour long artillery barrage, followed by a massed infantry assault that began at 6 am.   Saigo Takamori likely was killed in the initial barrage, although tradition holds that he was just gravely injured and committed seppuku.   In either case, his retainer, Beppu Shinsuke, cut off his head to ensure that Saigos death was honorable.   The few surviving samurai launched a suicide charge into the teeth of the imperial armys Gatling guns, and were shot down.   By 7:00 that morning, all of the Satsuma samurai lay dead. Aftermath: The end of the Satsuma Rebellion also marked the end of the samurai era in Japan.   Already a popular figure, after his death, Saigo Takamori was lionized by the Japanese people.   He is popularly known as The Last Samurai, and proved so beloved that the Emperor Meiji felt compelled to issue him a posthumous pardon in 1889. The Satsuma Rebellion proved that a conscript army of commoners could out-fight even a very determined band of samurai - provided they had overwhelming numbers, at any rate.   It signaled the beginning of the Japanese Imperial Armys rise to domination in eastern Asia, which would end only with Japans eventual defeat in World War II almost seven decades later. Sources: Buck, James H. The Satsuma Rebellion of 1877 from Kagoshima through the Siege of Kumamoto Castle, Monumenta Nipponica, Vol. 28, No. 4 (Winter, 1973), pp. 427-446. Ravina, Mark. The Last Samurai: The Life and Battles of Saigo Takamori, New York: Wiley Sons, 2011. Yates, Charles L. Saigo Takamori in the Emergence of Meiji Japan, Modern Asian Studies, Vol. 28, No. 3 (July, 1994), pp. 449-474.

2 Page assignment - Answer questions - training and development paper Essay

2 Page assignment - Answer questions - training and development paper - Essay Example 2-The author states that ACE has never been targeted to achieve equity, and the user-pay system merely worsens the problem. Wealthier, urban areas are able to provide the classes through ACE which people want to take because there are more people who are able to pay. Poorer, rural regions are not able to provide this primarily because there are far fewer people in rural areas in general and because a small portion of the population would actually be able to afford to pay. This creates a lack of equity. 4-â€Å"these clients are concentrated in areas of high socio-economic status† (pg 4), â€Å"there are pronounced differences between city and country in income levels, reflecting the higher costs of rural providers and a reduced capacity to raise income† (pg 3), â€Å"under user-pays, ACE users seek to maximise their incomes by targeting clienteles with the greatest needs for education and training† (pg 4). 5-â€Å"The stronger arguments turn on the role of community-based organisations in achieving equity objectives by meeting the needs of less-advantaged clienteles† (pg 5), â€Å"The cruel irony is that equity is the first casualty in ‘user-pays’ in ACE† (pg 5), â€Å"It is time for public funds supporting equity programs to be made available to community providers on the ‘level playing field’† (pg 5). 6-The pictures of the counties need to be identical in order to more easily compare them. As it is, it is difficult to look at one side of the diagram and compare it to the other side of the diagram. Furthermore, the information on the diagrams would have been easier to discern if they had all been combined into one single graph. Transportation in urban areas can be easy than in rural, which often forces people to drive longer distances between locations. The increased difficulty in transportation might be one factor in lower ACE participation. With more people in urban areas, there would be more varieties of classes to take, so people in rural

Determining Training needs at Summit Credit Union Case Study

Determining Training needs at Summit Credit Union - Case Study Example Summit credit union noted that newly employed lenders did not have the needed skills and information to take up the job and the problem attribute to the way the training curriculum was organized. The problem identification will be through conducting a needs assessment. A needs assessment is the process of identifying and analyzing a company’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats with an aim of improving to achieve the company goals and initiatives. The first step in a needs assessment would be an organizational analysis to determine the skill and abilities the organization needs. The analysis establishes whether the training would benefit the company and whether the required resources are available. The analysis also identifies the merits and opportunities of the company and helps to focus on the demerits and threats. The second step is to do a personal analysis to establish who will receive the training and who will conduct the training (Boyer Management Group, 2014). This analysis establishes the level of the existing competency and the areas that require more training. Thirdly, this will involve analyzing the job and the requirements. This analysis will identify the main duties, experience, skills, and competency required to take the job and perform well. The forth step would be to perform an analysis on the performance of the specific task and establish whether it is below the expectations and whether the training will help bridge the gap between the actual performance and the expected performance. Next would be to do an analysis on the content of the training to identify the appropriate content that is in line with the requirements of the specific job. This will help in delivering the appropriate training to the employees. The next step is to establish whether training will solve the employment or there are other underlying reasons of not performing well (Employee Opinion Survey, 2014). Lastly, a cost benefit analysis

Marketing Channels Essay Example for Free

Marketing Channels Essay Suppliers should not deal with intermediaries who are more powerful than they are. Debate this statement. If a supplier deals with strong intermediaries, they will probably exercise power over him. As they are able to provide him with more utilities (value, benefits and satisfaction). However, if there are many strong distributors in the market offering similar packages of benefits and utilities. Then there will be no harm for a supplier to deal with a more powerful distributor or intermediary as they will no longer be so special and powerful since they know the supplier can switch to a any other intermediary anytime (they are easily replaced). Therefore, the level of dependence of the supplier on the intermediaries will be lower. Another way is to excel in logistics when dealing with downstream channel members. Therefore increasing their rewards for doing business with the supplier and becoming difficult to imitate. In turn, channel members make markets and are the faces of their producer to those markets. Question 4: We should not deal with powerful suppliers. They are sure to abuse us, after they use us. Debate this statement, often heard in the meeting rooms of distributors and sales agents. As the usual channel conflict is a zero sum game where the gains of one party are the loss of the other. Many problems may arise between channel members till they actually reach a compromise where each party is satisfied and is able to see where he benefits from the relationship and cooperation.

Caring for Older People Essay -- Health Care, Diseases, Dementia

Caring for older people highlights many special and difficult issues for nurses and carers, such as separation, illness, loneliness, death and how to provide continued care (Morrissey et al, 1997). This essay discusses the strategies of care delivered for an older person with dementia during my recent clinical placement. Discussions will focus on normal ageing process taking into account the relevant biological, sociological and physiological perspectives and the impact this had on this individual’s life experience. Ropers’ model is used as a frame work in which cae is delivered. Other related issues to be considered include the role of informal carers and the impact this had on him. Confidentiality is maintained in conjunction with NMC 2010 code of conduct. Thus a pseudonym (Scot) is adopted where the client’s name is mentioned. Scot is a 70 year old man with a long term history of psychosis. Recently he had been diagnosed with dementia. He had been well managed on quiatiapin until he had stopped taking the medication and his psychosis had worsened. And due to his decline in his mental state, he has also been refusing access to his carer (his wife) and was at risk of self neglect. Dementia is a disorder manifested by multiple cognitive defects, such as impaired memory, aphasia, apraxia and a disturbance in occupational or social functioning, Howcroft (2004). Disturbances in executive functioning are also seen in the loss of the ability to think abstractly, having difficulty performing tasks and the avoidance of situations, which involves processing information. Scot suffers from Alzheimer’s disease, a type of dementia, which affects the brain cells and brain nerve transmitters, which carry instructions around the brain. The b... ...is condition and how she can reduce the feelings of anxiety, tension and loss of control that has resulted from the impact of Scots deterioration. By the end of my placement, evaluations showed that although there have not been significant changes in Scots mental and physical state, it is also imperative to note that he has been supported and maintained well to carry some of the daily activities of living. Whilst Scots care plan continued to be reviewed, there is also an ongoing support and educational programmes for his wife, which will enable her to effectively care for Scot. Having gained experience working with older people, I have understood that whenever you care for a person especially the older person, one must take a holistic view of the person’s physiological and psychological and social circumstance in order to provide effective and continuous care.

Paret the Boxer

â€Å"Paret died on his feet. As he took those eighteen punches something happened to everyone who was in psychic range of the event. Some part of his death reached out to us.† The passage has a sympathetic effect. The writer is sad that Paret the Boxer is dead, and in the passage the writer uses diction, imagery, and similes to show the sympathetic effect. The writer uses diction to show that he thought the fight was animalistic. â€Å"But in the last two years, over fifteen round fights, he had started to take some bad maulings.† The writer's use of the word maulings suggest that his attack was like an animal attack. â€Å"Griffith making a pent-up whimpering sound all the while he attacked.† The writer's use of the words â€Å"whimpering† and â€Å"attacked† make Griffith sound like an animal attacking his prey. The writer has sympathy for Paret because he is the prey. â€Å"He hit him eighteen times in a row, an act which took perhaps three or four seconds†¦Over the referee's face came a look of woe as if some spasm had passed its way through him.† The writer also uses imagery to produce the sympathetic effect. The way the writer paints a picture of thw punches and the look on tje ref's face show that the punches were very painful, and it was not an easy thing to watch. The writer's use of imagery also produces a sympathetic effect. â€Å"The right hand whipping like a piston rod which has broken through the crankcase, or like a baseball bat demolishing a pumpkin.† The similes that the writer uses to show how bad the punches make it very hard not to sympathize with Paret. Even when Paret died the writer uses similes to show that everyone was. Everyone was not ready for Paret to die, and neither was Paret. â€Å"As he went down, the sound of Griffith's punches echoed in the mind like a heavy ax in the distance chopping into a wet log. In conclusion, the sympathetic effect that the passage has is due to the writer’s use of animalistic imagery, diction, and similes. â€Å"And Paret? Paret died on his feet.†The death of Paret was devastating to the spectators and the writer.

Functional Benchmarking: Learning from best practices to improve service quality in medium and small hotels

Despite the prevalent debate of organizational education, there is modest learned contribution on promoting learning through the realistic purpose of management apparatus. This is particularly correct in a complex domestic supply series milieu of an institute. Benchmarking is documented as a vital means for constant enhancement of quality. A large amount of publications by a variety of authors reveal the significance of this practice. Reviews of literature on benchmarking have been prepared in the past by a small number of authors. However, bearing in mind the contributions in the recent times, a more complete examination is attempted here.In this essay, the authors have reviewed benchmarking literature in a manner that would help researchers, academicians and practitioners to take a deeper look at the expansion, development and applicability of this method. The authors have examined a range of papers and have anticipated a diverse plan of categorization. In addition, certain gaps th at would present clues for extra study in benchmarking have been recognized. Study Questions A study of small hospitality businesses was undertaken in order to address the following research questions:1) How extensive is the formal and informal practice of benchmarking in small hospitality businesses? 2) What kinds of practices and approaches are more or less likely to be benchmarked in small hospitality businesses? 3) How is the corporate culture of firms in the small hospitality industry associated with their interest in benchmarking best practices? Principal Findings Comparing performance figures is the procedure in the benchmarking processes that seem to be accepted and applied by tourism managers rather than more complex procedures like analyzing or optimizing.However, there is a growing body of researchers assuming that benchmarking is not exclusively a comparison practice. Studying the business feat of a number of hospitality sectors (attractions, restaurants and caterings, m otels); Bergin et al. (2000) found that benchmarking is frequently confused with the practice of viable assessment studies. Terms such as benchmarking, interfirm comparisons and competitive comparison analysis are inaccurately interchanged. Benchmarking is thought to be a more potent tool than competitive comparison. Key WordsBenchmarking, competitive comparison, comparison analysis, interfirm comparisons, hospitality sectors. Introduction Benchmarking is concerned with obtaining information through relative study and applying it to develop internal procedures or practices (Smith, 1997). Whilst Business Week has described benchmarking as â€Å"a euphemism for legally ripping off someone else’s idea† (McGonagle and Fleming, 1998), meaningful analysis and successful implementation is shown to be a complex task. As McNary (1994) observes â€Å"what often gets copied in benchmarking are only the symptoms of success instead of the causes of success†.This review check s existing literature on benchmarking, particularly with respect to context, procedure, needs and benefits. The applicability to higher education is examined and results drawn. Decision makers are continuously on the look out for methods to make possible quality upgrading. Benchmarking is one such technique that has developed into a popular process in the recently. Benchmarking is one of many total quality management tools, which comprise problem solving, procedure reengineering and process improvement. According to DeToro (1995), benchmarking needs to be positioned within this larger context.From the strategic perspective, â€Å"benchmarking could only be a piece of the jigsaw of initiatives needed to achieve substantial improvements† (Smith, 1997). The challenge is to match the process with the optimal tool or technique (Keehley, 1997). Though benchmarking is not up-to-the-minute, it has now found more users, and takes up a major place, helping quality development. Quite re gularly, the benchmarking notion is understood to be an act of imitating or replicating. But in actuality this proves to be an idea that aids in originality rather than imitation, as stated by Thompson and Cox (1997).Many authors have contributed to the literature on benchmarking ensuing in more than 350 publications as of June 2002. Taking in the growth of publications, some efforts have been made in the past to review the literature. Despite the widespread discussion of both organizational learning and the learning organization (Yeo, 2005), there are few practical tools to promote learning within a supply chain context that also give implementation advice for practitioners (Garvin, 1993; Shipton, 2004). This paper, aside from providing a review of literature on benchmarking, envelops the following objectives:(1) Assembling the publications in a methodical way to allow easy and quick search; (2) Classification of literature; (3) Analysis of result of publications; and (4) Discover gaps plus presenting hints for further research. As benchmarking relevance is rising considerably in large organizations, they have, as yet, had restricted application among small hospitality businesses. Much interest has been paid to small businesses in current tourism and hospitality literature, but this has centered on savings, finance and the use of technology (e. g. Buhalis, 1993; Kwansa, 1994; Ozer, 1996).There has been little research to quantify performance points of small hospitality businesses either as singular organizations or as workings of tourist destinations. This paper argues that benchmarking offers benefits for small hospitality businesses and for the destinations where they are situated. This is mainly true of grading schemes, where most of the fee is sustained by grading organizations, not by the small business themselves. Awards or grades give customers self-assurance and at the same time present a yardstick of competitiveness within the location area.Literatur e review The literature review focuses on exploring the potential of benchmarking to facilitate learning. It signifies the critical performance areas in classification and grading schemes in small to medium hotels. In the following part it specifies how people benefit from the stated grading schemes and how benchmarking is a useful grading scheme for hotel managers. Tourist destinations: components of attractiveness Mill and Morrison (1992) make a note that tourist destinations are made of attractions, facilities, infrastructure, transportation and hospitality.Laws (1995) spots chief essentials contributing to the attractiveness of a tourist destination as being climate, ecology, culture and traditional architecture and less important rudiments specifically for tourist groups, e. g. hotels, catering, transport and entertainment. Goodall and Bergsma (1990) consider total cost a fifth constituent, in addition to attractions, facilities/services, accessibility and image. Destination ch oice, image and pleasure have all been the center of extensive tourism research(McLellan and Fousher, 1983; Pyo et al. , 1989;Selby and Morgan, 1996; Sirakaya et al. , 1996).The subsequent inventory demonstrates components of tourist destination attractiveness, amassed from these sources, which were literature reviews concerning tourist destination choice, image and tourist satisfaction. Attractions †¢ Scenery/natural resources; †¢ Climate; †¢ Culture; †¢ Food; †¢ History; †¢ Ethnicity; and †¢ Accessibility. Facilities and services †¢ Accommodation; †¢ Airports; †¢ bus/train stations; †¢ Sport facilities; †¢ Entertainment; †¢ Shopping centers; and †¢ Food and beverage facilities. Infrastructure †¢ Water systems; †¢ Communication networks; †¢ Health care; †¢ Power sources; †¢ Sewage/drainage areas;†¢ Streets/highways; and †¢ Security systems. Hospitality †¢ Friendliness; â₠¬ ¢ Helpfulness; and †¢ Responsiveness to complaints. Cost †¢ Value for money; †¢ Accommodation prices; †¢ Food and beverage prices; †¢ Transportation prices; and †¢ Shopping prices Directly or indirectly, small businesses participate in an dynamic role in granting roughly all the physical and intangible components of attractiveness acknowledged in the lists shown above. Thus, they contribute significantly to visitor satisfaction/dissatisfaction and to tourist opinion and images of destinations. Small hospitality businessesHotel firms provide products which include tangible and intangible elements that combine into an exclusive combination of production and service. While room provision is a pure service activity, food and beverage functions involve processing and retailing processes. This might signify that the actual delivery of hospitality services may diverge widely and that the benefits derived are associated with feelings or emotions. The repercus sions are that consumers use biased and contradictory frames of reference to judge the quality of services, presenting difficulties for the hotel operative in satisfying the customer.Customer prejudice is emphasized in Day and Peters comments that â€Å"Quality is rather like pornography in this respect. We may not be able to describe it easily, but we know it when we see it†. Its ambiguity is amplified because high quality service is often delivered by impulsive and since reacts by hotel staff which cannot simply be practiced or scripted, but are even so an important means of client satisfaction. In order to endure and be successful, a business has to make sure that it is producing the goods or services that the customer wants, that it gets its quality right, and that it brings on time.There is a growing body of evidence which suggests that are straight links with the satisfaction of the server and customer, repeat sales and profits. Heskettet al. implies that quality, repea t usage, profits and investment form a self-reinforcing rotation. As a result, despite the apparently indefinable nature of the hotel product, service improvement can represent an important source of competitive advantage because quality in service delivery can lead to more repeat custom and greater sales revenue.Augmented presentation may also benefit managers and staff whose tangible and intangible benefits include job satisfaction, profit sharing and esteem. Small businesses are imperative to the financial health of both developed and developing countries. Gavron et al. (1998) makes a note of the vitality of the hospitality and tourism sector in this regard, in which low barrier to access generally ensure a steady supply of new businesses; at the same time as unproductive or inefficient ones are going through difficulty. Quinn et al. (1992) remarks on the somewhat low capital investment required to start new small tourist businesses.Entry costs can be abridged even for relatively asset-intensive businesses such as hotels, through leasing or through mortgage/loan agreements. Welshand White (1981) describe as resource poverty the inclination of small hospitality businesses to be short of financial backing and management skill and Gavron et al. (1998) refer to this as the reason why 64 per cent of UK small businesses fall short within four years. In Germany, where an inspection is required before an industrialist can start up in business, the rate is 32 per cent.Specific tourism-related statistics are limited, but, for example, Chelland Pittaway (1997) report that almost 50 percent of restaurants did not endure the first two years in their study. The British Venture Capital Association (1996) makes a note that many small business managers are provoked by life style rather than economic and success issues. While this does not automatically mean that they function to insufficient professional standards, it does simply that they may not be motivated to endeavor f urther improvement in a business which already produces adequate profits.Eggers et al. (1994) note that businesses either look for stabilization or have an expansion orientation. They categorize a series of central business stages and comment that a business which is thriving at one stage may not have the knowledge crucial to uphold success in others. Thus, although small businesses have a vital part in creating tourist satisfaction, they are neither a homogeneous group, nor able to give constantly high service delivery.

Developing Managerial Strategy in Recruitment and Selection Process The WritePass Journal

Developing Managerial Strategy in Recruitment and Selection Process Chapter 1  Ã‚   INTRODUCTION Developing Managerial Strategy in Recruitment and Selection Process McDonald’s aims to: â€Å"optimize and evolve their menu, modernize the customer experience and broad accessibility to their Brand† (McDonald’s Corporation, 2012). In particular, the following study will focus on McDonald’s in the United Kingdom. Currently McDonald’s has more than 1250 restaurants across the country. McDonald’s Company owns approximately 63% of them while the rest is franchised. McDonald’s hires over 67.000 people in the UK, including hours-paid employees, management team and office staff. Steve Easterbrook, Chief Executive and President of McDonald’s, postulates that Human Resources is a key priority at McDonald’s. He believes that â€Å"If you get the people part right, the rest will follow† (Fuller, 2006). McDonald’s, similarly as other global giants, aims to recruit employees that will be willing to develop and to become managers in the future. Hence, recruitment and selection process seems to be an interesting topic to examine. 1.1 PROBLEM STATEMENT The hospitality sector has a bad reputation amongst the jobseekers. A number of businesses within a sector do not have an employment agreement or employment policy. The jobs within a sector are mostly part-time or temporary. Additionally they are low-paid. The managers often lack people skills, as they have no solid experience in management. Hence, the hospitality sector has been characterized by a high turnover of staff (Lye, 2007). McDonald’s reputation as an employer has changed over the past decades. In 1991, Canadian novelist Douglas Coupland postulated that McDonald’s jobs were â€Å"low-prestige, low-dignity, low-benefit, no-job in the service sector† (Fuller, 2006). In 2011, McDonald’s has been awarded HR Excellence Award for its Employment Engagement Strategy. Currently, McDonald’s is a significant employer in the United Kingdom, having 67.000 staff. In 2012 McDonald’s announced its plan of creating additional 2.500 jobs in the United Kingdom. As a reasonable actor, McDonald’s aims to recruit further right people that will support management team and contribute to the company’s growth in the future. Therefore, the dissertation aims to answer the following research question: â€Å"What steps have been taken by McDonald’s to select the best types of employees?† The research question indicates that the dissertation will consider recruitment process as a determinant of a successful selection of employees. Further, the dissertation will also analyze an employment policy at McDonald’s as a guarantor of low turnover of staff. Chapter 2 LITERATURE REVIEW Human Resource Management is one of key functions within a company. It includes attraction and recruitment of new employees as well as training, assessment and rewarding system within a company. The employees are perceived as a backbone of the organization, as they jointly contribute to the company’s success (Beach, 1980). As the business environment becomes highly competitive, the companies need to attract potential employees and to make sure that the employees will be willing to develop within a company and to contribute to its growth. While small businesses delegate HR issues to their senior officials or management team, large companies have a staff specializing in Human Resource Management or hand over a part of this job to the external bodies, recruitment agencies. In both cases, recruiters have to be very selective in order to prevent long-term negative consequences of hiring wrong staff such as poor performance, high turnover and failure to achieve company’s goal s (Evans, 2007). Not only do recruitment processes and employment policies become of keen interest to people working in HR departments, but they are also a subject of an ongoing debate in an existing literature. Considering first Human Resources Management in general, there is a number of scholars who analyzed the relationship between working incentives and worker’s productivity. Three scholars who gave solid theoretical basics to HR discipline should be mentioned. These are Maslow, Herzberg and McGregor. Maslow is a founder of a hierarchy of needs. Employment is regarded as a safety need, a next level after bottom basic needs. However, self-actualizations (i.e. climbing the career ladder) is at the top of the hierarchy of needs. It indicates that people need to be encouraged to climb the career ladder at the expense of other needs such as family or leisure (Wahba and Bridwell, 1976).   Herzberg, in turn, specifies two sets of factors that increase people’s productivity at work in his Two Factor Theory. The first group are motivator factors such as achievement, responsibility, growth, promotion, while the second group – hygiene factors such as pay and benefits, supervision, company policy and administration (Feder, 2000). Lack of hygiene factors leads to the dissatisfaction of employees. Good organizational hygiene, in turn, constitutes a good foundation for the development of the motivator factors. The following theory has two important implications. First, the employers should focus on the worker’s attitudes to the performed job rather than on their interest in the job.   Second, salary has been often wrongly perceived as a motivator while it has been a hygiene factor (Feder, 2000). McGregor developed Theory X and Theory Y. These theories divide employees into two groups, based on their job attitude and then, shape two different management styles. Theory X assumes that people are lazy and avoid responsibilities. Hence, managers should tightly c ontrol their workers. As the employees are not ambitious, a strong incentive program needs to be implemented in order to increase their productivity.   Contrary, Theory Y postulates that the employees are self-motivated and self-controlled. Managers should create the right conditions for self-development of their employees.   According to McGregor, Theory Y managers are more successful than Theory X managers in building mutual trust with their employees and hence, in HR development. As HR is a key function of the organizations, Theory Y managers are also more effective in achieving company’s goals (Steward, 2009). Considering the recruitment process, there is a little discussion in the literature on the selection criteria, as the companies have been recruiting on various positions and hence, selection criteria are entirely dependent on the vacancies. Instead, the scholars (i.e. Richardson) focus on the recruitment strategies that can generally be divided on internal and external recruitment strategies. Internal recruitment refers to the recruitment within a company (a promotion of existing personnel or hiring through a recommendation of friend or family member by existing staff). The main advantage of internal recruitment is that the insiders know company’s strengths and limitations, its employees and culture. The internal promotion also strengthens the employees’ commitment to the company. On the other hand, sometimes it might be hard to find a right candidate on a particular vacancy and hence, the position might be offered to the person that does not have possibly best qualific ations. Similarly, the company might not have a sufficient number of qualified staff to take newly created positions. Hence, it might lead to the promotion of people that did not get a full training and do not have a solid knowledge. External recruitment, in turn, includes informal and formal methods. Formal methods concern wide searches at the labour market for the candidates with no previous connection to the company. Informal methods regard searching company’s database for the retained resumes (i.e. rehiring former employees, hiring students who took internship programme within a company). The later method is faster and inexpensive compared to external methods (Richardson, 2000). Chapter 3  Ã‚   METHODOLOGY The following section will discuss the methodology used in the following research work. First, it will focus on the research design (research objectives, philosophy, strategy and approach) and then, it will consider methodology and its limitations. 3.1   RESEARCH DESIGN Research objectives The dissertation displays two main objectives. First, it aims to analyze the recruitment strategy developed by McDonald’s in order to demonstrate how McDonald’s attracts people to apply for a job as well as to reveal what employees McDonald’s is looking for. Second, it intends to examine an employment policy of McDonald’s in order to discuss the working incentives used by McDonald’s to ensure low turnover of staff. Research philosophy The research philosophy is based on research question, objectives and methodology. The following research considers recruitment strategy and employment policy as key elements of successful HR management. Hence, interpretivism is considered to be the most accurate research philosophy, as it focuses on social actions and their influence on people. Research approach The following research work will use both inductive and deductive research approaches. The deductive approach will be reflected in the review of existing literature on human resources management as well as in the discussion on the relevance of various recruitment strategies to McDonald’s recruitment concept. The inductive approach, in turn, will be reflected in the interview with McDonald’s Vice President. The interview will demonstrate the main values and principles of HR policy at McDonald’s in order to deliver a detailed understanding of the research context. Research strategy (methodology) As the recruitment strategies and recruitment processes are deeply researched elements of HR sector, the most accurate methodology seems to be the case study. It will focus on an in-depth analysis of the research topic on an example of a single company, McDonald’s. The following case study will have an explanatory character as it examines relationships between organization and its employees (In general, an explanatory research concerns relationships between variables i.e. the causes and the results). 3.2 DATA COLLECTION METHODS Both qualitative and quantitative methods will be used in the following dissertation in order to collect data. First, the research will include the semi-structural interview (qualitative method) with David Fairhust, McDonald’s vice-president responsible for HR department. This interview will be based on the list of 15 questions on recruitment strategy and employment policy at McDonalds and will provide a reliable data from the company’s side. Further, the interview will create an opportunity to gain the additional information due to the open-ended questions and the new questions brought up while interviewing. Second, the questionnaire will be conducted amongst the McDonald’s employees (quantitative methodology). The questionnaire aims to demonstrate how employees perceive the recruitment process within McDonald’s (How easy was a recruitment process? How did they like the questions they have been asked? Did any questions concern their growth within the company and potential career in management?) as well as to present how willing they are to work for McDonald’s within next five years. In order to present reliable and objective information, the research target is to survey a group of 100 employees from five McDonald’s restaurants in London. The designed questionnaire will include twenty multiple choice, closed-ended questions, as it intends to provide comparable data. Nonetheless, it will also leave some space for comments so that the employee will have an opportunity to present any additional issues (concerns). 3.5   LIMITATION OF THE DATA COLLECTION’S METHODOLOGY The validity and reliability of gained information are crucial for the research purposes. Hence, the researcher is aware of the limitations of the methodology and aims to minimize them. Considering the interview first, the researcher is aware that too sensitive topic, inexplicit questions as well as behaviour of the interviewer can affect interviewee’s response. Prior to the interview, the researcher will guarantee that all information will be used exclusively for the research purpose. Further, the interviewee will be given a copy of his answers in order to confirm that the interview does not offend the company and that the interviewee agrees to use the information in the following research work. Considering the questionnaire, the questions might be imprecise or inaccurate and hence, the respondents might understand the questions differently than the researcher did.   Hence, the pilot study will be conducted first. They will include a group of 5 employees and they will check the level of difficulty and feedback by the respondents. The pilot study also helps researcher to obtain some assessment about the reliability of the questionnaire which will be very helpful in detecting the weaknesses and grey areas. This will also provide help about some ambiguous and vague queries so that they will be amended prior to final presentation. Further, the uncomfortable environment can also have an impact on the questionnaire’s results. Hence, the researcher intends to ensure that the questionnaire will be anonymous and it will not have an impact on the working conditions of the employees who agreed to participate. The management teams in the McDonald’s restaurants are expect ed to help in achieving this goal. TIMETABLE Prepare Proposal  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   MM:DD:2012 Literature Review  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   MM:DD:2012 Final Literature Review  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   MM:DD:2012 Pilot Questionnaire  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   MM:DD:2012 Final Questionnaire  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   MM:DD:2012 Results And Analysis  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   MM:DD:2012 First Draft  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   MM:DD:2012 Final Draft  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   MM:DD:2012 Presentation  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   MM:DD:2012 Final Report  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   MM:DD:2012 REFERENCES Andrews, Y., (1988). The personnel function. Pretoria: Educational Publishers. Armstrong, M., (1996). A hand book of personnel management practice. 5th ed. London: Kogan Page. Ary, D. Jacobs, C.L. Razavich, A., (1996). Introduction to research in education. California: Thompson Learning. Beach, D.S., (1980). The management of people at work. 5th ed. New York: Macmillan. Beatty, R.H., (1994). Interviewing and selecting high performers. New York: Wiley. Berman, D.R., (1997). State of local politics, 8th ed. New York: Armonk. Booi, S. , (2005). An assessment of the recruitment and selection strategies used in the sales department of Old Mutual Group Schemes in the Eastern Cape. Port Elizabeth: Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University. Brounstein, M. and Visconti, R., (1992). Effective recruitment strategies. Menlo Park: Crisp. Cascio, W.F., (1998). Managing human resources. 5th ed., New York: Irwin/McGraw-Hill. Collins, J. and Hussey, R., (2003). Business research. 2nd ed. New York: Palgrave Macmillan. Cooper, D.R. and Emory, C.W., (2001). Business research method. 4th ed. Massachusetts: Irwin. Decenzo, A. and Robbins, S.P., (2002). Human resource management. 7th ed. New York : John Wiley Sons. Freder, B.J., (2000). F.I.Herzberg, 76, Professor and Management Consultant. New York Times. 1, p.26. Fuller, G., (2006). The burger meister: McDonald’s CEO Steve Easterbrook’s view from the top [online] Available from: personneltoday.com/articles/2006/10/10/37557/the-burger-meister-mcdonalds-ceo-steve-easterbrooks-view-from-the-top.html (Accessed on 19.04.2012). Lye, P., (2007). Human Resources issues in the hospitality industry [online] Available from: 4hoteliers.com/4hots_fshw.php?mwi=2205 (Accessed on 19.04.2012). McDonald’s Corporation, (2012). McDonald’s momentum delivers another year of strong results for 2011 [online] Available from: mcdonalds.co.uk/ukhome/Aboutus/Newsroom/news_pages/mcdonalds-results.html (Accessed on 19.04.2012). O’Neill, B., (1990). The manager as an assessor. London: The Industrial Society. Personnel Today. Richardson, M., (2000). Recruitment strategies. Managing/ effecting the recruitment process. Trinidad: Government of Trinidad and Tobago. Saunders, M.N.K. Lewis, P. and Thornhill, A., (1997). Research methods for business students. London: Pitman. Saunders, M.N.K. Lewis, P. and Thornhill, A., (2000). Research methods for business students. 2nd ed. Harlow: Financial Times. Schultz, H.B., (2001). Recruitment and selection, [In:] Nel, J., (ed). Human resources management. 5th ed., Cape Town: Oxford. Steward, M., (2010). Theories X and Y revised. Oxford Leadership Journal, 1(3), p.1-5. Wahba, M.A. and Bridwell, L.G., (1976). Maslow reconsidered: A review of research on the Need Hierarchy Theory. Organizational Behaviour and Human Performance. 15, 212-240.

The Cenozoic Era Continues Today

The Cenozoic Era Continues Today Following the Precambrian Time, Paleozoic Era, and Mesozoic Era on the geologic time scale is the Cenozoic Era, which began 65 million years ago and continues to the present. After the Cretaceous-Tertiary, or,  K-T, Extinction at the end of the Cretaceous Period of the Mesozoic Era, which eliminated 80 percent of all  species  of  animals, the Earth found itself needing to rebuild. Now that all dinosaurs besides birds were extinct, mammals had the opportunity to flourish. Without competition for resources from dinosaurs, mammals had the opportunity to grow. The Cenozoic was the first era that saw humans evolve. Much of what is commonly thought of as evolution has happened in the Cenozoic Era. The Cenozoic Era Begins The first period of the Cenozoic Era called the Tertiary Period has been divided into the Paleogene and Neogene periods. Most of the Paleogene Period saw birds and small mammals become more diverse and grow greatly in numbers. Primates started to live in trees, and some mammals adapted to live part-time in the water. Marine animals didnt have such luck during this period when massive global changes resulted in many deep-sea animals going extinct. The climate had cooled significantly from tropical and humid during the Mesozoic Era, which changed the types of plants that did well on land. Lush, tropical plants were replaced by deciduous plants, including the first grass. The Neogene Period saw continuing cooling trends. The climate resembled what it is today and would be considered seasonal. Toward the end of the period, however, the Earth was plunged into an ice age. Sea levels fell, and the continents came to roughly the positions they hold today. Many ancient forests were replaced with expansive grasslands as the climate continued to dry out, leading to the rise of grazing animals such as horses, antelope, and bison. Mammals and birds continued to diversify and dominate. The Neogene Period is also considered the start of human evolution. During this time the first human-like ancestors, the hominids, appeared in Africa and moved into Europe and Asia. Humans Start to Dominate The final period in the Cenozoic Era, the current period, is the Quaternary Period. It began in an ice age where glaciers advanced and retreated over parts of the Earth that are now considered temperate climates, such as North America, Europe, Australia, and the southern part of South America. The Quaternary Period is marked by the rise of human dominance. Neanderthals came into existence and then went extinct. The modern human evolved and became the dominant species on Earth. Other mammals continued to diversify and branch off into various species. The same happened with marine species. There were a few extinctions over this period due to the changing climate, but plants adapted to the various climates that emerged after the glaciers retreated. Tropical areas never had glaciers, so lush, warm-weather plants thrived all during the Quaternary Period. Areas that became temperate had many grasses and deciduous plants, while slightly colder climates saw the re-emergence of conifers and small shrubs. No End in Sight for the Cenozoic Era The Quaternary Period and Cenozoic Era continue today and likely will remain until the next mass extinction event. Humans remain dominant, and new species are discovered daily. While in the early 21st-century climate is changing once again and some species are going extinct, no one knows when the Cenozoic Era will end.

Impact of big data on data management functions Essay

Impact of big data on data management functions - Essay Example Distinguishing characteristics of Big Data are its capabilities of circumnavigating data utilization and limitation issues. It deploys highly cohesive methods for data nomenclature and architecture. It also deploys dedicated and powerful processors just for data storage and retrieval functions. While normal range of handling data sets varies from megabytes to gigabytes, Big Data can handle data sets varying in the range of terabytes and pentabytes (Magoulas and Lorica 2009). However, functioning of Big Data at such an enormous scale of database management may have some unwanted impact. It often becomes highly difficult to detect privacy violations or flaws in data capturing methods while operating Big Data (Snijders, Matzat, and Reips 2012). The general paradigm of data management deals with traditionally manageable sizes of mostly similar datasets. For example, DAMA’s Data Management Body of Knowledge or DAMA-DMBOK framework serves as a popular functional paradigm for general data management. There are 10 primary functions in DAMA-DMBOK. According to the DAMA-DMBOK Guide (2010), these 10 functions are: Data Governance serves as the core function, which must be accomplished with the help of the other functions. The framework also explicitly defines all the stakeholders involved in database management and related utilities. (Earley 2011) Big Data has certain positive impacts on a standard database management framework like DAMA-DMBOK. Firstly, it helps in modifying the framework suitably for handling larger datasets. Secondly, it helps in developing a stakeholder-independent database management framework. Thirdly, it helps in generating and storing enormous amounts of data for both storage and processing. (Magoulas and Lorica 2009) However, Big Data is likely to have a negative impact on certain DAMA-DMBOK functions such as Data Security Management and Data Quality Management. The

Medical Marijuana and the impact on hiring and drug testing Essay

Medical Marijuana and the impact on hiring and drug testing - Essay Example During the hiring process, the applications are reviewed, right candidates selected for interview, candidates are tested, the hiring decision is made by choosing between the candidates, and carrying out various pre-employment tests and checks including drug tests. The employment may be dependent upon a negative drug test. However, they are people who have been prescribed to use drugs, especially marijuana for medical purposes at the workplace. Therefore, drawing on a variety of sources the paper will discuss the impact of medical marijuana on the hiring process after contacting four human resources via computer-assisted interviews. Recruitment and selection is a very important human resource task. Elearn (15) defines recruitment as the process of establishing that the firm requires employing qualified people through competitive application. On the other hand, selection entails the processes of selecting applicant (s) who is/are suitable candidate(s) to fill a post. Four human resource managers (HR) were interviewed, two were in the automobile sector and two were in the beverage industry. They were contacted via computer-assisted interviews because face-to-face interviews required numerous authorizations and travelling. Therefore, the computer assisted interviews were convenient. The interviewees consisted of: Arnnon Geshuri sof Tesla Motors, 3500 Deer Creek Road, Palo Alto, CA 94304, 650-681-500; James Williams of Polaris Industries Inc. who joined the firm in 2011. Contacts Marlys Knutson, 763-542-0533; Rebecca Alminiana of Monster Beverage Corporation. Contacts, 951-270-0660, Corona CA; finally, Elsa Monterr oso-Burgos who is the director of human resources at Tampico Beverages company. Contacts 3106 North Campbell Ave, Chicago, IL. 60618, (773) 296-0190. Based on the interview responses I got from the four HR managers in the automobile industry as well as beverage