Spirituality in the Workplace

Spirituality in the Workplace Introduction General Overview The interest in organizational spirituality partially derives from the necessity to balance organizational performance and to improve the codes of ethics within an organization. Specifically, a growing attention to the workplace spirituality allows people to construct and sustain fundamental values at work and facilitate various management operations and practices.Advertising We will write a custom essay sample on Spirituality in the Workplace specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More Appeared in 1990s, this domain of organizational ethics has captured the attention of the leading theorist examining management and workplace environment (Giacalone and Jurkiewicz, 2010, p. 27). In particular, contemporary researchers are primarily dedicated to the analysis of spirituality with regard to organizational performance and relationships between the employers and their employees. One way or another, this theoretical framew orks provide promising perspectives for successful development and advancement of company’s philosophies and values allowing to adjust to social and cultural changes. In this regard, there is a growing necessity to study various dimensions of workplace spirituality to define how they influence organizational performance, ethical behavior, and overall atmosphere within an organization. Defining Spirituality in the Workplace So far, spirituality was not considered in relation to work and business and organizational workplace could be compared with oxymoron. However, since 1990 and several decades after, a dramatic interest in the examination of this term as an inherent component in understanding organizations and management provide a solid ground for providing a new definition of spirituality. Manz and Neal (2005) provide the following explanation: â€Å"Spirituality in the workplace is about people seeing their work as a spiritual path, as an opportunity to grow personally an d to contribute to society in a meaningful way. It is about learning to be more caring and compassionate with fellow employees, with bosses, with subordinates and customers. It is about integrity, being true to oneself, and telling the truth to others. Spirituality in the workplace can refer to an individual’s attempts to live his or her values more fully in the workplace.† (p. 121)Advertising Looking for essay on business economics? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More Analyzing this meaning, organizational spirituality touches upon various dimensions of employed environment such as organizational ethics, organizational performance, integrity, cultural diversity, and psychological factors in relations between managers and their subordinates. Literature Synthesis: Elements of Organizational Spirituality Spirituality and organizational performance The introduction of spirituality and virtuous approaches to bu siness management is largely predetermined by the necessity to increase organizational performance, productivity, and revenues. In this regard, a wide range of researches and reports are dedicated to the analysis of these relations. Cavanagh and Bandsuch (2002) question, â€Å"how does [spirituality] maximize the benefits and minimize the problem of spirituality in the workplace† or â€Å"how does one best judge whether a particular spirituality is ‘appropriate’ for the workplace†(p. 109). In this regard, the scholars pay attention to the fact that spirituality contributes greatly to improving cooperation and motivation. More importantly, they believe that spirituality positively affects organizational performance and productivity thus dictating a person-oriented approach to human resource management. The same position is held by Collins (2010) who also believes that spirituality in the workplace is the main condition for achieving impressive financial per formance and productivity and for striking the balance between company’s goals and ethical and spiritual behaviors within an organization. In particular, the scholar provides an original approach for proving that ethics and ethical codes, ethical decision making, and diversity training are closely correlated with performance analysis. More importantly, the research carried by Collins (2010) provides evidence that proper management of organizational spirituality will lead to the improvement of quality of goods and services and facilitates spiritual development and growth. Examinations of relation of spirituality to organizational efficiency and performance have also been proved by Karakas (2010). Specifically, the researcher has managed to successfully outline the main factors affecting high productivity and organization’s prosperity.Advertising We will write a custom essay sample on Spirituality in the Workplace specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More The researcher believes that a successful performance is based on three factors: employee’s welfare and living standard, employees’ motivation and incentives, and employees’ interaction with community. All these factors are effectively enhanced by spirituality. Kolodinsky et al. (2008) have proved the research question provided by Karakas (2010). However, the researcher are more focused on the structuring the main elements of spirituality believing that it should be views through the prism of individual, organizational and interactive aspects. Milliman et al. (1999) agree with this idea that the introduction of the organizational spirituality triggers the increase of company’s profits and provides new incentives and motivation for employees to work harder and more efficiently. With regard to the considerations presented above, it should be stressed that all the researchers have provided completely different positions toward the c onnection between spirituality and organizational performance. Nevertheless, all of them emphasize the importance of spirituality penetration to the workplace. Spirituality and organizational ethics The fact that spirituality and ethics are closely interconnected is undeniable. This is obvious when it concerns the world of business and organizational management, which is another dimension of social world. Therefore, there are plethora of researchers and explorations that provide exhaustive information about codes of ethics, organizational ethics, personal development and how they are connected with spirituality in the work place. Sheep (2006) sufficiently explains two important factors – spirituality in the workplace and ethical dilemmas – with regard to the overall atmosphere within an organization. In particular, the researcher believes that harmonic co-existence of several ethical climates will not provide serious problems, but they can trigger ethical misconception s within differently oriented working teams. In order to eliminate and to prevent such dilemmas, the researcher pays attention to â€Å"quiet desperation† and the problem of instrumentality (Sheep, 2006, p. 538). What is more important, Sheep (2006) suggests a comprehensive approach to solving the problems.Advertising Looking for essay on business economics? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More Specifically, he refers to instrumentality, societal good, and individual fulfillment as the main pillars for striking the balance between ethical issues and organizational spirituality. The same view is held by Manz and Neal (2008) who believe that â€Å"[w]hile virues offer a blueprint for ideal ethical and moral workplace conduct, the realities of the market are often largely in opposition to these lofty intentions† (p. 131). The researchers also suggest that performance can often encounter the problems of spirituality and virtue formation because such aspects as compassion and integrity can conflict with high productivity. In contrast to Sheep’s suggestions, Pawar (2009b) provides a completely different view on the consideration of spirituality and ethical issues. Unlike previous statements, the researcher does not refer to spirituality in the workplace as to the cornerstone for constructing and adapting ethical codes, but as to the basics of organizational ethics. Like Kolodinsky et al. (2008), Pawar (2009b) offers a three dimensional approach to the evaluation of various techniques for facilitating spirituality in the workplace. These dimensions touch upon personal, group, and organizational viewpoints on the connection between spirituality and ethics. Judging from the above assumptions and evidence, the connection of spirituality and ethics in relation to organizational performance is quite controversial. Therefore, this concept should be carefully considered before introduced in the working environment. Spirituality, religion, and social interaction in the business world The contradictions derived from considering organization spirituality are largely connected with wrong understanding of this definition. The problem is that religion and spirituality are closely interconnected because religion can be considered as the main source of spirituality (Manz and Neal, 2008, p. 121). However, this is only one of the basic components included in t his definition which are not properly revealed and explained. Therefore, it is imperative to understand the differences between those terms because there are people are spiritual enough, but do not belong to any of the known religions. Some researchers believe that spirituality in the workplace does not presuppose religion as its main component (Pavlovich and Corner, 2009). The scholars insist on the idea that organizational spirituality identifies various techniques for consolidating and connecting employees. More importantly, Pavlovich and Corner (2009) provide comprehensive models for analyzing environmental and social issues and connect spirituality management with ecological levels. In the studies provides by Pawar (2009a), there is no mentioning about religion as the basic precursor of workplace spirituality. Instead, the scholar provides that this phenomenon is constructed on the basis of self-interest transcendence, organizational behavior, transformational leadership, proce dural justice, and organizational support. Being the main concepts of organizational behavior, spirituality, thus, is presented as a component of organizational ethics where religion cannot be considered, or should be presented apart from business ethics. In order to separate religion from spirituality it is necessary to consider several dimensions these two aspects encounter. According to Hill and Smith (2003), religion is more community focused while spirituality tend to be more individualistic; religion is more observable, measurable, and objective while spirituality is less visible and quantifiable and more objective†¦.religion tend to be behavior-oriented with an emphasis on outward practices while spirituality tend to be more emotionally oriented and inwardly directed;†¦and religion is more oriented toward doctrine, especially that which distinguishes good from evil while spirituality stresses harmony and unity and is less concerned with doctrine (p. 233). With regar d to these distinctions, it is possible to conclude that spirituality and religion create a two-polar opposition where the coincident point can be observed in case emotional and inward states of an individual are based on religious concerns only. Alternatively, considering spirituality and religious are homogenous terms can lead disorganization and misconception of the established theories and approaches. In particular, according to Hicks (2003) spirituality should be presented in the opposition to religion; otherwise, it can create negative connotations in the employed environment. Therefore, spirituality should be set prior to religions to avoid frictions and conflicts in the workplace. Summing up the presented evidence, spirituality in the workplace is based on numerous aspects and influences among which are organizational behavior, leadership, organizational ethics, self-interest transcendence, and religion. It should be emphasized that the latter provokes numerous controversies because it is often confused with the spirituality in the workplace. Hence, the analysis of differences and peculiarities has revealed that religion may serve as a component of organizational spirituality, but it does not provide fundamental conceptions for constructing business ethics. Discussion and Findings An in-depth examination and assessment of the presented sources have infused several valuable assumptions and findings concerning different dimensions of spirituality in the work place. This specifically relates to the ethical dilemmas in the business environment, strategies for handling an organizational behavior, factors affecting an organizational performance and productivity, and the main elements of spirituality. In addition, the definition and explanation of the term has also been identified. To begin with, the literature analysis has provided several discoveries concerning organizational spirituality and performance. Specifically, it has been found that the majority of the researchers (Cavanagh and Bandsuch, 2002; Collins, 2010; Karakas, 2010; Kolodinsky et al., 2008; Milliman, 1999) agree with the assumption that this aspect positively influences company’s performance and employees’ performance because meeting workers’ spiritual and ethical requirements provides more incentives and more solid motivations for working harder. Second, there are some difficulties in defining the relations between spirituality and ethical issues due to some reasons. Hence, it has been found that such controversy is predetermined by various theoretical orientations of both terms with regard to organizational management. Hence, spirituality is more individual oriented, it provides subjective outlooks and positions that should be tackled carefully by organization (Sheep, 2006; Manz and Neal, 2009; Pawar, 2009). More importantly, it is more connected with cultural and emotional diversities that are sometimes difficult to adjust because they may contr adict some established conceptions within an organization. In contrast, organizational ethics is more concerned with inventing some integral and universal concepts that could contribute to establishing favorable working environment and to meeting high levels of performance and productivity. Third, religion and spirituality are not identical notions, specifically with regard to organizational ethics and behavior. Certainly, both spirituality and religions have similarities if considering them apart from the business world. But within it, spirituality prevails where religion may be included only as one of the components along with leadership, organizational behavior, self-interest transcendence (Hill and Smith 2003; Hicks, 2003). At the same time, businesses should treat religion carefully cultivating tolerance and respect being the basic of cultural considerations. All it can be seen spirituality involves a plethora of complicated issues and dilemmas that are carefully studied and co nsidered at interdisciplinary level. This also implies that organizational spirituality is, indeed, crucial for constructing efficient strategies in the field of human resource management and organizational ethics. Limitations to the Presented Literature The majority of the selected scholarly works provides positive perspectives and connotations for introducing organization spirituality. However, little research has been done to analyze the reasons and negative outcomes of implementing spirituality in the workplace. Mostly all reviewed works relate to the analysis of spirituality from the viewpoint of organizational ethics. Specifically, the point is that this notion is not considered as a separate concept, but inherently affiliated to ethical and cultural considerations. Another explicit gap presented in the researches is absence of sufficient models for implementing spirituality in the workplace with regard to psychological factors and professional growth issue. Rather, the introd uction is primarily aimed at improving organizational productivity and performance. Consequently, there is a great distinction between spirituality in the workplace and that presented in the community. The latter is closely associated with individuals’ religious concerns rather with inward emotional state. Finally, there are no accurate studies dedicated to the measurement of spirituality with regard to different organizations. In particular, irrelevant identification of spiritual goals and approaches can lead to theories ethical conflicts. Therefore, it is necessary to expand the meaning of organizational spirituality to keep pace with recent cultural, social, and political changes. This can serve as serious reasons for further researchers in this field. Conclusion The spirituality in the workplace is connected with a wide range of disciplines and studies. Specifically, this notion concerns such areas as human resource management, business ethics, and organizational behavior , and conflict management. The examination and assessment of presented theories and models for treating organizational spirituality provides great perspectives for further exploration and encouragement for building company’s values and codes of ethics and allows to establish a more favorable ground for adapting to cultural and social shifts. The analysis and review of presented scholarly sources has proved numerous hypotheses and provides a solid ground for further explorations. More importantly, the review has also presented the most urgent problem connected with organizational ethics and establishing spirituality in the work place. The concerns are specifically connected with failure to correctly define the essence of spirituality which is often confused with religion. Numerous findings have proved that these concepts belong to completely different dimensions and studies, especially when they are considered in relation to business and management. Another problem occurs when searching place for spirituality within the ethical frameworks. Ethics and spirituality can also be subjected to a two-polar confrontation because sometime organizational ethics is not congruent with moral and spiritual concerns of individuals. In this respect, there are still many issues and aspect that are worth further examination and discussion to provide more accurate explanations for the place of spiritual issues in the employed environment. Reference List Cavanagh, G. F., and Bandsuch, M. R. (2002). Virtue as a Benchmark for Spirituality in Business. Journal of Business Ethics. 38(1/2), pp. 109-117. Collins, D. (2010). Designing ethical organizations for spiritual growth and superior performance: an organization systems approach, Journal of Management, Spirituality Religion, 7(2), pp. 95-117. Giacalone, R. A., and Jurkiewicz, C. L (2010). Handbook of Workplace Spirituality and Organizational Performance. US: M. E. Sharpe SharpeLtd. Hicks, D. A. (2003). Religion and the work place: pluralism, spirituality, leadership. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Hill, P. C. and Smith, G. S. (2003) Coming to Terms with Spirituality and Religion in the Workplace. In R. A. Giacalone and C. L. Jurkiewicz. Handbook of Workplace Spirituality and Organizational Performance. US: M. E. Sharpe SharpeLtd. Karakas, F. (2010). Spirituality and performance in organizations: A literature review. Journal of Business Ethics, 94, pp. 89-106. Kolodinsky, R. W., Giacalone, R. A., and Jurkiewicz, C. L. (2008). Workplace Values and Outcomes: Exploring Personal, Organizational, and Interactive Workplace Spirituality. Journal of Business Ethics. 81(1), pp. 465-480. Manz. C. C., and Neal, J. (2008). The virtuous organization: insights from some of the world’s leading management thinkers. US: World Scientific. Milliman J., Ferguson J., Trickett D., Condemi B. (1999). Spirit and community at Southwest Airlines: An investigation of a spiritual values-based model. Journal of Organ izational Change Management, 12 (3), pp. 221-233. Pavlovich, K. and Corner, P. (2009). Spiritual Organizations and Inter-Connectedness: The Living Nature Experience. Journal of Management, Spirituality and Religion, 6 (3), pp. 209-229. Pawar, B. S. (2009a). Some of the Recent Organizational Behavior Concepts as Precursors to Workplace Spirituality. Journal of Business Ethics. 88(2), pp. 245-261. Pawar, B. S. (2009b). Workplace spirituality facilitation: A comprehensive model. Journal of Business Ethics 90, pp. 375–386. Sheep, M. L. (2006). Nurturing the Whole Person: The Ethics of Workplace Spirituality in a Society of Organizations. Journal of Business Ethics. 66(4), pp. 357-375.

Small Business enterprice Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Small Business enterprice - Essay Example In the United Kingdom, the small and medium enterprises are the significant provider of jobs to the populace and it is upon the potential of such small enterprises, even the national government banks. In the country, such companies are not just perceived to be the job creators but wealth creators. Such organizations get optimum support of the government so that those could well prosper in to their ventures (Ariyo, 2008). According to the data of 2002, in the United Kingdom 94.7% of all the registered business had employee strength of less than 10 and another 4.4% in between 10 to 49. The small enterprises provided more than 43% of the total jobs in the country. Another 11.9% workforce was employed by the medium enterprises (employee strength in between 50 to 249). The small and medium enterprises also had significant share in the total turnover as it contributed almost 52% of the entire turnover leaving other 48% to the large corporations (that had employee strength of 250 or more). The industry of United Kingdom have always identified small and medium enterprises as the major source of growth and prosperity as it always generated significant share of employment. Way back in 1930, the industry of small and medium enterprises contributed with more than 35% of total employment. It experienced steep decrease till the sixth decade of the last century and remained almost stagnant for the next ten years at around 20%. Since 1970, the industry has again taken sharp rise and there has been no looking back. It is estimated that in the year of 2000, the sector provided more than 45% of employment to the population of the United Kingdom. According to the Enterprise Directorate Analytical Unit of 2007 (provided by Department for Business, Enterprise & Regulatory Reform), the small and medium enterprises comprised 99% of the UK economy. The report also focused on the fact that 14.23 million of the workforce (out of total workforce of 30 million) works

Computer Networks and Operating systems Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Computer Networks and Operating systems - Essay Example RFC-1305 specifies the NTP Version 3 protocol machine in terms of events, states, transition unctions and actions and, in addition, engineered algorithms to improve the timekeeping quality and mitigate among several synchronization sources, some of which may be faulty. To achieve accuracies in the low milliseconds over paths spanning major portions of the Internet of today, these intricate algorithms, or their functional equivalents, are necessary. However, in many cases accuracies in the order of significant fractions of a second are acceptable. In such cases, simpler protocols such as the Time Protocol, have been used for this purpose. These protocols SNTP has been described by Network Working Group in their Request for Comments: 1305 specifications. It is a simplified version of Network Time Protocol for servers and clients. It is particularly useful for the client and server machines which were using NTP version 3 to shift over internet and World Wide Web. SNTP is designed to operate in a dedicated server configuration including an integrated radio clock. SNTP protocols can be used to fetch time from NTP server to synchronize client subnet machines. They can not be used to synchronize time between their peer client machines of the network. The first reply received by the SNTP client is used for subsequent unicast requests from designated server and client stops responding to other server replies. Other than the selection of address in the request, the operations of anycast and unicast clients are identical. Requests are normally sent at intervals from 64 s to 1024 s, depending on the frequency tolerance of the client clock and the required accuracy. A unicast or anycast client initializes the NTP message header, sends the request to the server and strips the time of day from the Transmit Timestamp field of the reply. For this purpose, all of the NTP header fields shown above can be set to 0, except the first octet and (optional) Transmit Timestamp

Romeo and Juliet Essay Example for Free

Romeo and Juliet Essay The tragedy of Romeo and Juliet was pre-ordained by fate there was nothing that any of the characters could do to prevent their deaths. Fate is a thing that nobody can run hide or escape from it is just going to happen. The author refers to things like star crossd lovers. This shows the reader that they were made to fall in love and death markd love which suggests that they were made to die if they fell in love, which is also a warning of what might happen. However, there are also references to ancient grudge and to parents rage which suggests that it is not only fate that has a part in their deaths but also human intervention. Actually the part played by some of the characters directly resulted in the deaths of the two principal characters. Romeos friend, Benvolio, has a great deal to answer for. He knew perfectly well that it was wrong to gate crash Lord Capulets party. He must have known that the discovery of his friends presence there would cause serious disquiet, especially to Tybalt. Nevertheless, he encouraged Romeo to go because he had become morbid after his break up with Rosaline and therefore needed cheering up by meeting other girls and as such compare his ladys love against some other maid That I will show you shining at this feast, (Act 1, Scene 2, lines 97 and 98). We know that the party was a masquerade, but the probability that Romeo would be discovered was high. Inevitably this was the case, and, of course, it was Romeos number one foe, Tybalt, who made the discovery. No one can criticise Tybalts reaction on finding out that Romeo had had the audacity to enter the home of his familys enemy, the Capulets. This by his voice should be a Montague. Fetch me my rapier boy. (Act 1, Scene 5, lines 53 and 54) would be a natural reaction of most men on finding an enemy in their camp. Right at the beginning of this tragedy the feud between the two families is immediately brought to our attention. The opening scene involves servants of the two houses making antagonistic noises to each other, enticing one another to fight. We find Benvolio intervening when he says: Part, falls! Put up your swords -you know not what to do. (Act 1, scene 1 lines 56 and 57. ) No reason is given of how the feud started but we know that it has been going on for some time and has affected the lives of the citizens of Verona. Not only is Benvolio fed up with the continual feuding but also the ruler of Verona. We know this because the Prince of Verona decided that he and the city has had enough and vows to put an end to it. In a protracted speech he lays down the law and says in very plain language: If you ever disturb our streets again, your lives shall pay the forfeit of peace. (Act 1, Scene 1, lines 88 and 89. ) Therefore, he declares publicly that all future fights will be severely dealt with and offenders will pay with their lives. Tybalt was a man whose soul purpose on life was to defend his familys honour. The only way to do this was by fighting. His language was naturally that of a hard man. Right at the beginning we see this side of Tybalt when he confronts Benvolio with the words, What, drawn, and talk peace! I hate the word, as I hate hell, all Montagues and thee: Have at thee coward! (Act 1, Scene 1, lines 62, 63 and 64. ) No wonder Tybalt was angry at Romeo for insulting his family honour by his uninvited presence at the party. Of course he wanted to evict Romeo from the party immediately. If he had just been allowed to do so maybe this tragedy could have been avoided, but he wasnt, thanks to the intervention of his uncle. Therefore, Lord Capulet could be held responsible for his own daughters death. He was totally out of order when he took his nephew to one side and gave him a good dressing down. He shall be endured. What, goodman boy, I say he shall, go to! Am I the master here, or you? Go to! (Act 1, Scene 5, lines 75, 76 and 77). Go to, go to, You are a saucy boy. Ist so indeed? This trick may chance the scathe you, I know what. You must contrary me! Marry, tis time. Well said my hearts! -You are a princox, go (Act 1, Scene 5, lines 82, 83, 84, 85 and 86). These words were designed to hurt. To be called an insolent boy by his uncle must have been very upsetting and hard to swallow. It must have made Tybalt so angry and humiliated that a duel to the death between him and Romeo was inevitable. In the initial stages of the romance, Juliets nurse was fully aware of what was going on and made no effort to stop it. In fact she acted as an eager go-between and after being satisfied with Romeos good intentions towards her mistress appears to be encouraging the romance. During a conversation between her and Romeo he asks the nurse to convey his greetings to his beloved and she replies Ay, a thousand times. (Act 2, Scene 4, line 186). It was her solemn duty to her employer to protect his daughter from uninvited suitors. Girls from rich high-born families were seen as assets, as a means of trading up in the social hierarchy. This is evident from the conversation between Juliets father and Paris prior to Lord Capulets party. Paris discloses his intentions towards Juliet and Lord Capulet, although mindful of his daughters age, agrees to the marriage: But woo her, gentle Paris, get her heart, My will to her consent is but a part; And she agreed, within her scope of choice (Act 1, Scene 2, lines 16, 17, 18 and 19). If the nurse had done her job properly and reported to her employer as to what was going on then steps could have been taken to shield Juliet from Romeos advances. Probably, the one who contributed the most to the downfall of Romeo and Juliet must be Friar Lawrence. Although he meant well in that he thought that a marriage would end the feuding his actions were totally unprofessional and not that of a man of the church. His concern was that Romeo and Juliet should not commit a mortal sin by having sex outside marriage was the main reason for him performing the ceremony. His closing remarks after meeting Romeo and Juliet was: Come, come with me, and we will make short work, For, by your leaves, you shall not stay alone Till holy church incorporate two in one. (Act 2, Scene 6, lines 34 to 37). He knew that Juliet was deceiving her parents and he should have condemned her behaviour as he also knew just how old she was. Even her own father thought she was too young to marry as was disclosed in his dialogue with Paris where he says: She hath not seen the change of fourteen years, Let two more summers wither in their pride, Ere we may think her to be a ripe bride. (Act 1, Scene 2, lines 8 to 11). As for his ridiculous scheme, including the faking of Juliets death, this defies all comprehension. Even if successful he must have known that she could never return home and he has, in fact, banished her for life from both her family and community. There is no doubt in my mind that the most significant player to the downfall of the two principal characters was Juliet herself. Throughout the play she was deceitful and constantly lied to her parents. Her mother was concerned about her daughters welfare and thought that her tearful moods were as a consequence of her cousins death: Evermore weeping for your cousins death? (Act 3, Scene 5, line 69). Juliet went out of her way to encourage her mothers interpretation of her emotional state by replying, Yet let me weep for such a feeling loss. (Act 3, Scene 5, line 74). She was pretending to her mother that her hurt was for Tybalt and not for the murderer, Romeo, with the following lines: And yet no man like he doth grieve my heart. (Act 3, Scene 5, line 83), and Ay, madam, from the reach of these my hands. Would none but I might revenge my cousins death. (Act 3, Scene 5, lines 85 and 86). She even goes on to denounce Romeo completely when she states to her mother: Is my heart, so for a kinsman vexed. Madam, if you could find out but a man To bear a poison, I would temper it, That Romeo should upon receipt thereof Soon sleep in quiet. (Act 3, Scene 5, lines 95-99). As I said in my opening paragraph the story of Romeo and Juliet was a tragedy in the making. It was doomed from the start because these two young people broke all the conventions of that era. Juliet most certainly did not have her parents consent and it must be inferred that neither did Romeo. It would be highly unlikely that the two families, who had been feuding for a considerable time, would have wanted any of their offspring marring. Nevertheless, it was an affair that could have been so easily stopped by those who were privy to what was going on. Not one of these characters, who were by the way all adults, took on the responsibility of bringing a sense of proportion and integrity to what can only be described in todays society as a sordid affair. A similar story in contemporary times would receive the attention of the police. The one thing that I find incomprehensible is the interaction between Juliets father, Lord Capulet, and his nephew Tybalt at the party. Why he humiliated Tybalt in such a manner is, for me, totally out of character with the essence of the play. Knowing the background of the play I would have thought that the logical response of Lord Capulet on finding out that a Montague had gate crashed his party would have been to have him thrown out. The tragedy of his actions was the death of his beloved daughter. If he had allowed Tybalt to perform his duty, Juliet would have probably married Paris.

Growing Up In A Single-Parent Family Essay -- Single Parent Family Pap

Growing Up In A Single-Parent Family With the divorce rate as high as it is, more and more children are growing up in single-parent families. Ideally, it is better for children to live with their mom and dad happily married; however, children who grow up in single-parent households can still be well- adjusted children, teenagers, and adults. Although there are always exceptions to every rule, for the most part, children who grow up in single-parent working households are more mature, realistic and independent. First, in a single-parent working family, children tend to be more mature. The children are more mature because they often have to be responsible for themselves. For example, if their mom or dad has to work late, or if they work evenings, the children are in control of when to do their homework or even in some cases when to go to bed. Also, children in this environment or situation sometimes have to be responsible for taking care of their brother, sister or other close relatives. For example, they have to be re...

The Real Mary King’s Close: Principles of Human Resources

The Real Mary King's Close Is 5* visitor attraction in Edinburgh and It is located In the heard of Edinburgh Old Town. The tours are running underground, beneath buildings of Royal Mile. There is an alley of the streets and spaces right there. The close was very busy and most vibrant street in asses. 2) Planning the staff team Staff planning Is concerned with optimizing the use of the organization's human resources, now and in the future. To predict workload in the ARMS, it should be considered the number of visitors from previous years.The ARMS was planning initially 60,000 visitors per year. Since that time the visitor number has increased to 190,000 visitors per year due to new marketing campaigns and promotion of the visitor attraction itself. When planning the staff team the following should be considered: a) Manpower requirements The entertainment Is an essential component of tours provided In the ARMS. Most of the tour guides working for this visitor attraction are actors. The y can easily identify with characters of person presented while on the tour.The members of staff working in the ARMS are: Manager under Manager Marketing Manager Supervisor Tour Guides Retail Staff Cleaners Many roles are carried out at head office of the Continuum Group. B) Budget availability Whatever the objectives of the visitor attraction, its main financial management framework will be its budget. When planning the staff team, the type of contract and number of employees hired has to be within the allocated budget for the payroll. The current allocated budget for payroll within ARMS is over IEEE,OHO per year. This may Increase due to the Increase in visitor number to the attraction and the demand. Mime basis in the ARMS. The rest are employed part-time or on zero hours contracts due to the economic recession and to cut costs. ARMS increases temporary and part- time contracts for a high season in the summer and during the Edinburgh Fringe Festival (August-September). C) Essenti al skills and qualifications, experience required To gain a Job in visitor attraction is essential to have experience in customer facing environment and excellent verbal communication skills in English. To have a degree is desirable but it depends on the position applied.A manager does need some degree whereas the tour guide should have at least interest or understanding of Edinburgh history. The other skills required for the Job in the ARMS are: Positive Attitude Good interpersonal skills Ability to work within a team Ability to use own initiative Ability to work under pressure Able to remember and recall facts Foreign language skills but it is only the advantage ) Use of person specification criteria and Job description in the recruiting process The personnel specification is a description of the human characteristics required by the Job holder and is derived from the demands of the Job description.Many organizations use a framework to prepare personnel specifications and two wide ly used are Aleck Rodgers 7 point plan and John Munroe Framer's 5 fold framework. 3) The function of a Job description Once the Job has been designed a Job description can be produced. This is essential, not only as part of the recruitment process but also to help with training, reward systems and staff appraisals. The Job description provides the employee with a clear outline of their duties, responsibilities and most important contributions needed from a position.The example of Job description for a tour guide is attached in an Appendix 1. 4) The function of a person specification The person specification focuses on the type of person who might be the ideal Job holder. It may include the personal attributes and qualities, training and skills, experience in similar post would be also beneficial. The requirements for person specifications are likely listed in order to their priority and classified as ‘essential' or ‘desirable' for the specific Job. The example of personn el specification is attached in an Appendix 2.The Continuum Group is unique in operating a group of cultural attractions commercially. Their main objective is to maintain the high quality of their customer service to achieve a growth of visitor number and to make a profit for them and their partners. Continuum Group owns and operates a number of leading visitor attractions in the UK and welcomes about 1 million visitors per year. (Scion, 2014) The ARMS is one of the tourist attractions that belong to the Continuum Group. The ARMS is an award-winning heritage attraction which provides underground tours to ore than 150,000 visitors a year.In the ARMS, the manager duties include leading and developing team of staff who influences every aspect of the customer experience to bring the stories of the hidden street to life, helping ensure that this truly special place continues to run smoothly and focus on managing all the on-site visitor attraction activities. (Guardian News, 2014) The tou r guides working in ARMS are talented actors and interpreters. They have to be knowledgeable of the site attraction, to provide customer service in a high level of standard, be able to interpret he customers, and be working under the Health & Safety conditions while on the tour. ) The Individual's Contribution Individual's roles As mentioned above, the management approach adopted at the visitor attraction is really important. The approach taken will influence the staff attitudes and Job satisfaction, and therefore will have a direct impact on the visitor experience at the attraction. Successful attractions tend to be those which are effectively managed. It is significant that the attraction has experienced professional managers across all aspects of the operation.Attractions without such management are often weak in nee or more areas, including marketing, financial control, management of people and strategic planning (Swarthmore, 2002). The role of guiding is an important part of AR MS. Tour guides are employed to lead a group of visitors and provide them with an informative, entertaining and historic insight into a specific tour. The guides' performance influences the visitor experience and their demand on the attraction. Individual employees can play a very important role in helping a business achieve teamwork and operations success.The business needs to realism that any person who works for the organization has their own motives and needs and that the individual will fulfill the business needs if it also meets their individual needs. Teamwork There are several advantages of teamwork within an organization. Some of them are listed below: Reduction of risk of failure while working in a team, the burden is not falling on an individual's shoulder Division of work – each person, who works in a team, execute any task of assigned work with the best possible aptitude. The division of work also assure the work is done on time. Team. The individual put the maxi mum efficiency on the work they are the best in or have knowledge and skills to do it. Team building Very often organizations use team building activities or events to build motivation and support at the workplace, improve communication, increase morale, improve productivity or Just break the ice to help get to know each other better within a team. In the ARMS, the management team uses social functions and occasions as a source of team building for employees – Halloween party or Christmas night out.Retaining staff loyalty It is important to retain staff loyalty within organization. It helps to motivate employees to work for the benefit of the team and the business itself. It also helps to educe recruitment costs and training which has to be provided to new staff. Some of the methods include investing into the employees: To give the opportunity to employees to enhance their professional skills by training and development To help them improve their skills and allow them to rota te between different roles within the workplace to avoid stereotype forcing them to leave the organization. Entrepreneur, 2014) 7) The Recruitment and selection process Many personnel practitioners of organization spend a great deal of their time engaged in the activities associated with the recruitment and selection of staff. The response practitioner has to be knowledgeable about the wider issues involving recruitment and selection decisions, such as legislation and good practice, and the range of recruitment sources and selection methods, as well as being skilled in interviewing and assessing potential employees.Examples of poor practice in recruitment and selection decisions which result in unnecessary costs to the organization are: Making mistakes – failure in redesigning by making changes in new vacancy 0 will have cost implications because the Job has not been designed to suit current needs and possibility of potential savings has been ignored. Recruiting the wrong per son may result in their leaving or being dismissed in the short term or requiring more training than was assuming in the long term.A hurried attempt to meet an advertising deadline in local paper 0 it may result in incorrect copy which misleads potential applicants or discourage them from applying. (Malcolm,2005) The steps from recruitment, selection to final induction are listed below: Produce Application Packs Design the Job descriptions Design the personnel specifications Assist in short-listing Arrange the interviews/tests Correspond with candidates Check their references Maintain recordsDevise induction programmed 8) Investing in Human Resources Human resources are a long term asset of any business, especially when it comes to strategy. The amount of money spent on employees and their learning can be seen as helping the employees to learn better skills that will help the business achieve its goals with more efficiency. The goal of human resources should be to bring the employee s skills out and use them to the business best advantage. Human resource management is concerned with obtaining organizing, training, motivating and rewarding the people needed by the organization. Malcolm, 2005) The organization can gain a competitive advantage over less progressive competitors by developing its human resources to improve employee skills and increase their loyalty to the organization. (Yahoo, 2014) Human resources should be about the development of both fundamentals of management as well as corporate values. This means that any investment in human resource management should achieve both of these goals. A) Customer care training The ARMS is an attraction owned by the Continuum Group which has had a set customer care strategy.The Continuum Group uses the same customer care policy for all owned attractions around the I-J. Staff at the ARMS adopted the basic and clear set of standards outlined by this policy. It is used well every day at the visitor attraction to achie ve a high level of customer care and maintain customer satisfaction. Every aspect of the customer care policy is vital to the success of the Real Mary Kings Close which is outlined in this report. The ARMS participates in the following two customer service training programmed: One Hundred Thousand Welcomes It is a customer service training programmer in Scotland.It gives the staff the ability to deliver excellent customer service, benefiting the staff, visitors and the company. There are two types of programmer provided – one for the management staff and one for front of house staff. Welcome Host Customer Care Training It is a customer service training programmer which helps staff to obtain new customer service and improve communication skills as well as the knowledge of local services. Expectation. They receive a recognized certificate in the end of the training. Both of these training programmed are significant to the success of the ARMS operation.The members of staff are g iven the best knowledge of visitor needs and requirements and how the staff themselves can exceed the expectations of every suitor within the ARMS. B) Investors in People It is a specialist in leading and managing people and its mission is to help to achieve objectives through the staff of the business. In 2008 there were almost 40,000 organizations currently working with Investors in People. It is supported by the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (IBIS). The ARMS received a bronze award from Investors in People and was also a finalist in the Scottish Thistle Awards in 2010.The awards from the service training programmed are very important for the ARMS to show they do the right things, provide the excellent customer service and now what their customers need and want. 9) Training Induction training Before new employee becomes a tour guide, the special induction training program is provided by ARMS. Each new employee must be accompanied by an employee during the tour. Ne w tour guides are provided with detailed scripts to learn in addition to a booklet which contains historical information needed for the tours.They shadow five tours with general public and then are assigned a buddy. All training provided for new staff is given on site. The new tour guides are then expected to expand their tour in their own way and input their own extra information to make the our as interesting as possible. Product knowledge Product knowledge is a key to the success of the attraction at ARMS. The tour guides should be able to give an in-depth description on the close and how life was when it was used, as well as being able to answer many questions by visitors.Health & Safety training As part of the Health & Safety regulations, all staff has to go through special training program before they start to work at the visitor attraction. This training is provided only once, however all employees should repeat the training while working at the attraction to keep the highest level of the customer service. The first aid training is provided only to the management team and they get certificate in the end of the training. This training is not provided for tour guides and it should be changed.The tour guides are responsible for the visitors during the tours taken underground therefore the fast first aid would be necessary. 10) Training programmed and their benefits Benefits to the organization visitors, to know their expectation and needs By providing relevant training to the employees, it increases the customer satisfaction. Visitors would willing to visit attraction where know they do not waste a time and money. Enhance the reputation, people will speak about the attraction and recommend to friends and family. The image of the attraction will improve too.Investing into employees means their loyalty to the organization Benefits to the employees The training programmer can motivate the staff to learn new things, to improve and to develop their skills Train ing makes the employee that they are part of organization â€Å"family' With training provided, the tour guide can provide excellent customer service to the visitors while on the tour. They can be consequently rewarded by weekly award called â€Å"The Magic Award† by their colleagues or by customers' feedback revived as â€Å"Service Excellence Nomination†. 1) Implications to the organization of poor training Low staff aptitude, skills and product knowledge No staff motivation Lack of improvement over time The staff leaving the company 0 poor quality of service 0 bad reputation – the customers' negative feedbacks for tours, tour guides and attraction itself, by mouth 0 less number of visitors to the attraction 0 losing the customers now and in the future 12) The function of Staff Appraisals The organization is able to assess how each member of staff is working by conducting he staff appraisal.The staff appraisal is an opportunity to evaluate the performance of employees at least once per year. It is managed through a discussion between staff members and management. These discussions provide agreements about objectives and the achievement of targets. The aim of the appraisal is to evaluate the work and priorities the individual employee's future duties and development needs. The organization can identify its underachieving employees and either give them special attention to improve their performance, or begin the process of replacing them (eh, 2014)The staff Rota is a list of employees who are working on any given day, week or month. Planning the amount of staff needed to be able to handle the daily and weekly workload of any business is essential. This can be achieved by using a planning Rota to make sure enough staff are available to cover the necessary work, but the business needs to be careful to make sure enough staff are included on the Rota as not enough employees on hand could have bad financial impacts on the business. The purpose to make staff Rota in advance is important for full time employees to give them statutory hours as stated in their contract and to cover holidays.It is also important in high seasons (Summer, during the Fringe Festival) when the number of visitors increases, so the organization hires a seasonal staff and make staff Rota in advance, firstly to expand the tours and secondly can see the flowing visitors number by number of staff on a day. 14) Ineffective roster If the staff roster is not planned and made in advance it could have impact to the employees but mainly to the customers. While less staff is working during the shift it is more stressful, the employees can provide less effort on the customer service and customers are dissatisfied.It is bad reputation for the attraction and it loses the customers now and in the future. The planning of staff Rota also helps to minimize the harmful effects of long shifts and reduce proceeding mistakes. 1 5) Conclusion As said in the beginning of the report the human resources are important in the business as they affect the operation of the attraction, the staff and the customers. The organization should put more effort on recruitment process and consecutive selection of staff to avoid unnecessary cost and mistakes. In the ARMS, the Health & Safety and First Aid training should be considered before new employees start their bob.

Depiction Of The Gilded Age - Free Essay Example

Sample details Pages: 4 Words: 1070 Downloads: 5 Date added: 2019/10/30 Category Society Essay Level High school Tags: Gilded Age Essay Did you like this example? Briefly define the Gilded Age, as well as the growth of industrialization and the prevailing attitude toward employee-employer relations during that era.   Then, explore the problems caused by industrialization and discuss how workers responded to those challenges. The Gilded Age was a period after reconstruction from the 1870s to the 1900. The United States was going through Industrialization during this time and we saw major changes in the economy, government, and technology also spiked. During this period we also saw massive poverty and unequal wealth; the rich were getting richer and poor poorer, there was a rise of extremely rich people who wanted to be monopolies, most of whom were referred to as Robber Barons meaning wealthy businessmen who made tons of money but were paying their employees very cheap, two notable Robber Barons during this period are Andrew Carnegie and John D Rockefeller. Both supported workers rights but on the other hand destroyed unions; Carnegie used most of his fortune in donations to libraries, schools, museums; in his article Gospel of Wealth he states that is it up to upper class citizens to engage in philanthropist work. Rockefeller was also involved in philanthropist work, but they both paid their employers ve ry cheap and did very little to help those from lower class. Don’t waste time! Our writers will create an original "Depiction Of The Gilded Age" essay for you Create order This age was a period of major Economic growth, Industrial development with the rise of cities, and also technology advancements. During the Gilded Age businesses were booming, industrialization brought the invention fax machines, cellphones, playgrounds railroad s were being built abundantly. Many businesses formed strategies to gain wealth and power such as Oligopolies where businesses agreed to not to compete against each other; they also came up with a system called Horizontal integration where companies that produced the same goods came together to increase the production of goods and services, on the other hand Vertical Integration is when one company controls all aspects of other companies, one example would be Andrew Carnegie and his steel industry. There was also a lot of competition which helped with pricing, innovation and wages, new management techniques were put into place such as systematic arrangement, the notion that time is money and slowly machines started replacing workers. Many businesses believed in Social Darwinism to justify their wealth, Social Darwinism is the idea that everyone has the resources and opportunities available to them to succeed and so if a person is poor its because they choose to. They also believed in laissez-faire, the notion that the federal government should have a hands-off approach on businesses.   During this time the need for workers boosted immigration; the country welcomed millions of workers from Europe (Germany, Hungary, Russia, Austria), the working class was diverse and divided, there was the class of skilled workers / labor aristocracy who were usually U.S. born white men and they received higher wages. And there was a class of unskilled workers who were immigrants, children, women, blacks and Mexicans who worked very long hours and were paid very low, sometimes in script, they did dangerous work and were being exploited. Many of these unskilled workers were getting a lot of injuries; kids were losing their fingers this led to states beginning to take action and pass laws against child labor, these laws were made in regards to safety in the workplace, monopolies, and the supreme court passed Munn v Illinois (1877) that approved the power of government to regulate private industries. Later, the federal government took action and passed the Commerce clause which auth orized congress to regulate commerce with foreign nations. Many corporations were starting to become monopolies and so the congress passed the Sherman Anti-trust Act which stated that business activity in restraint of trade is illegal, and was made to protect consumers. This act immensely hurt workers union, they were angry and this led to a massive strike in various nations across the country called the Great Railroad Strike. Workers began to take action, we saw people coming together and the birth of the working class movement was formed, with goals to assert labor rights and regulate businesses. By the 1880s, people began to unionize at local institutes but they keep women out, so women formed their own union and they linked their labor rights to religion and patriotism, they went on strike and boycotted, a few of them became militants, and in the late 1800s, we saw the rise of the Knights of labor. They wanted to include everybody (workers) together no matter if they were skilled or not. Their leader Terrence Powderly believed the poor deserved education, land, temperance (no drinking of alcohol), wages labor and this led to a roar in membership. By 1886 the movement has expanded and we see the year of the great uprising of labor. May 1rst 1986, called May Day becomes national strike day led by Albert Parsons, workers were claiming that 8 hours of work a day is what is necessary. After May Day, police clashed with farmers at the McCormick Company, so farmers started to demonstrate at Haymarket place; someone threw a bomb then violence began, many police officers lost their lives. A lot of people began to leave the Knights of labor and we saw the rise of the American Federation of Labor (AFL). They rejected the thoughts of the Knights and they wanted to fight for people who are skilled (mostly white men). The knights of labor became mostly filled with Blacks, Mexicans, Asians, women The AFLs vision was challenges in Homestead, PA (1892), And Unionists won the battle against Pinkertons. In the Homestead strike.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Urbanization increased as immigrants were moving from rural to urban cities and African Americans were moving from the South. These people were leaving in tenements, there were ethnic communities and they were once again being exploited by boss tweeds. The Gilded Age was a period when industrialization spiked with the creation of machines, and technological advancement, there was a huge increase in the economy, changes in the government. During this period we saw business owners rising to riches and taking advantage of the working class by paying them very poorly, and so the working class was fighting for their rights to be better paid and taken care of as workers. During this time we also saw the formation of many unions working together, there were unions that were only relatable to U.S. born white male skilled workers, unions for unskilled workers/ immigrants and unions for women.