How Can Resourcing and Development Add Value in the Modern Workplace Essay Example for Free

How Can Resourcing and Development Add Value in the Modern Workplace Essay According to Ann Marie E. McSwain, Assistant Professor at Lincoln University, â€Å"leadership is about capacity: the capacity of leaders to listen and observe, to use their expertise as a starting point to encourage dialogue between all levels of decision-making, to establish processes and transparency in decision-making, to articulate their own value and visions clearly but not impose them. Leadership is about setting and not just reacting to agendas, identifying problems, and initiating change that makes for substantial improvement rather than managing change. In the modern workplace, a good leader can lead the team to success and vice versa. The importance of a good leader in an organization cannot be doubted. However, one of the most challenging issues in the modern workplace is keeping talents. Talents or leaders may leave the organization for better offer or higher rate of pay. If no successor to drive it once the leader or key person leaves, the organization may get into troubles. In order to maintain the morale and loyalty for the other employees, another good, competent with respect of others should be appointed as leader. Other than leaders, junior grading employee should also be prepared to develop their career to some senior positions. This can explain why a career management (include succession plan for experienced staff) is so essential in an organization as a way of people sourcing. Career management is the combination of structured planning and the management choice for one’s own professional career. It is a process for employees to become aware of their interests, values, strengths and weaknesses, to get information about job opportunities within the organization, helps to identify the career goals, establish an action plan to achieve the career goals. Succession plan is a process to identify and develop internal potential employee to fill up the key or critical organizational positions. The main purpose of succession plan is to ensure the availability of competent, capable and experienced employee to prepare to be appointed to those positions when they become vacant. Succession planning meaning that prepare the experienced employees to undertake some key roles, focus on leadership continuity and sharing knowledge, provide a more effective and efficient monitoring and tracking of employees’ proficiency levels and the skill gaps and counter the increasing difficulty of recruiting talents externally. Succession plan is a very important and necessary part of an organization to reduce risk, create a proven leadership model, increase employees’ working morale and help the business to run smooth continuity and expand. Both people sourcing way are aids to develop talent and long-term growth, improve the capabilities and overall performance of workforce, create employee retention, meet the career development requirement of existing employee and improve support to employees throughout their employment. Career management is important in the eye of the organization and the employee. From the organization’s view, the failure to motivate their employees to plan for their career may result in shortage of employees to fill up the vacant, lower the employees’ commitment and inappropriate use of money which allocated for the training and development programs. From the employee’s view, lacking of career management may result in frustration, having a feeling that they are not value in the organization and unable to find some other suitable employment when the job nature changed, no matter due to mergers, acquisitions, restructuring or downsizing. The outcome for a successful career management includes employees’ personal fulfillment, goals achievement and a newly promotional theme in the modern workplace which is work-life balance. Different practices of people sourcing method can be used in different size of an organization. Entrepreneurship, partnership and limited company are some practices of forming an organization. Entrepreneurship means the one who undertakes innovations, finance and business acumen in an effort to transform innovations into economic goods. The most obvious formation of entrepreneurship is to start a new business. Entrepreneurship means that the business is run by an owner which call entrepreneur. Partnership is similar to entrepreneurship other than the organization is managed by at least two or above owners. Limited company means it is an organization which shareholders whose liability is limited by shares. Entrepreneurship is usually some small business and has fewer employees than limited organization which runs large business. If the business runs smooth and expand, entrepreneurship can turn into a limited organization. After choosing the right method of people sourcing within an organization, the organization can benefit from different kinds of advantages. With the right practice of people sourcing method in the right size of organization, the organization will be added value. Add value† can mean contributing directly to organization goals and deliver business objectives. Every organization has its goal and objective because these goals and objective can help the organization to define business and drive itself to success. Since the organization’s goal and objective are uses to lead itself to success, all the policies and procedures should follow its direction, including its employee sourcing way. Thomson, a pioneer in the old print economy, helped to create the electronic age with online system and CD-ROM products. One of the goals of his company, Thomson Corporation, is to become the dominant global e-information and solutions business. In order to make the growth strategy become successful, Thomson has to keep some key employees and motivate some junior employees because he believes that the essence to have employee retention includes creating a satisfying an challenging work environment, maintaining the right fit between the employees and their jobs and making sure that his employees have the right tools to perform their jobs successfully. Another goal of his company is to facilitate employees’ career development. In order to achieve this goal, Thomson had to educate his employees that career opportunities are available within the company and he had made it easier for employees to move within the company. By executing the career development within the company, Thomson had developed an online career center for his employees. The website includes seven hundred to nine hundred jobs listing every month. His employee can go to this website and choose specify preferred locations and full time or part time job. Meanwhile, a personal search agent would notify the employee whenever a new opening related jobs or career interests are posted automatically. The website had been developed to include self assessments so that the employees can decide whether they if they have the required skills. If the employees found that he needs some education or training to quality for a position, the website will link them to some courses. The design of the website is a kind of career management for the employees which can retain and motivate employees. After that, their supervisor will conduct performance appraisal annually to review their performance. As the career management systems start from self assessment, reality check, goal setting and finally the action planning, every employee in Thomson Corporation develop their career through the above steps. Self assessment refers to the use of information by the employees to found out their career interests, values, aptitudes and behavioral tendencies and it usually involves some psychological tests. In Thomson Corporation, employees can identify their occupational and job interests, e. . work in different types of environments and identify the relative value they place on work and the leisure activities through the career centre. Through the self assessment, employees may start to consider where they are in their careers, identify the future plans and assess them to fit in the current job with available resources. Reality check means the information that the employees receive about how their organization evaluates their knowledge and skills which help them to fit into organization’s plan. The said information is given by their supervisor as part of the performance appraisal process which included the performance review and employee’s career interests, strengths and possible development plans. Goal setting mean the process of employees developing short term and long term career objective. The goals usually relate to desired positions, level of skill application, work setting or skill acquisition. Employees in Thomson Corporation may have chance to achieve skill acquisition through specify training. Besides, development plan may be written out after the performance appraisal. The development plans include the descriptions of strengths and weakness, career goals and development plans for reaching the career goals. Action planning means how the employees determine their way to achieve short term or long term goals. An action plan usually involves in enrolling to some training courses, conducting information interviews or applying for a vacant within the organization. The information in the website is useful for ensuring the employees’ abilities, skills and nterests matches their jobs. If there is a mismatch, the website will provide some related training information and courses details for them to develop their skills. Other than the employee can benefit from such activities, the organization will benefit from the systems too. Firstly, it can reach a large number of potential job seekers after they post a vacant. Secondly, the website had provided detailed accessible information about the jobs which can facilitates employees’ development. Employees will then aware of what knowledge and skills are needed for the job. Thirdly, the system encourages employees responsible for an active role in the career management. This is congruent with a psychological contract and protean career. Career management is uses for junior grading employees and succession planning is designed for experienced or senior employees. Career management is usually applied to some small entrepreneurship and succession planning is applying to some large size limited companies. As large companies usually divided into few sections and each section will be managed by a line manager, an effective succession plan should be used. Motorola, Inc is an electronic and wireless communications company. In 1991, Motorola restructure itself and set out some new objectives and goals. Meanwhile, Motorola had promoted a succession plan named Organization and Management Development Review (OMDR). The objective would be diversity and sought to accelerate the advancement of women and minorities within the organization. The company goal which is within ten years the number of women and minorities at all levels of management should be representative of the number of women and minorities in the available talent pool. They also made a commitment that every year that at least three women and minorities would be appointed as vice-president among the twenty to forty people. In OMDR, the process of identifying the high potentials would be requires each section to submit a list of candidates in four categories: white men, women, minorities and technical staff. The succession plans are prepared for each high potential and their progress within the organization is being tracked. If the high potential leave or fall out of the list in the future, their supervisor must explain why this would happen. In order to counter the erception that most of the women and minorities are still in the feeder pool, a replacement chart had identifies some key positions and three people who could fill each one was developed. The first priority would be an immediate successor. The second priority would be a person who should success the incumbent if the organization had three to five years to prepare. The third priority would be the most qualified woman or minority candidate at that time, in addition to any women or minorities had already on the first two priorities. Women and minorities must be included even needs to hire externally. Besides the replacement chart, there are some other key elements of the program such as career planning. All individuals would receive a guidance to set out the career goals and develop some strategies to achieve them. The guidance of the program is give by managers through some informal mentoring and through the organization’s women’s leadership conference. In this case, Motorola had show the linkage between the succession planning initiative and the organization’s business goals which emphasis was placed on the business success that can flow from having a socially diverse workforce. Since Motorola sees diversity as a business initiative and not only human resources department but all line managers are responsible for the program’s implementation. Senior managers are required to keep tracking of the representation of women and minorities in their units. The succession planning is then effective because of the cooperation of all employees. Effective career management and succession plan can drive small size company or large size company to success through adding value to it. It can help the employers and employees to fulfill the company objectives and goals. In order to make the plan effective in the company, the below ten points should be noted. First, the organization must define the targets and goals clearly. It should set a time frame and numbers creates impetus for action. Without a clear direction, employee may not know what or how they should do to go for success. When the employee knows the company objective and goal and the time frame, they can set out their own career development plan. Second, the organization should define the details and meaning of the succession plan to include the widest talent pool. Succession plan is not yet common in modern workplace. High potential will be attracted to work in those companies with succession plan in order to get higher achievement. Third, the organization should inform the employee about the succession plan and to let them know that they should be ready all the times. It is because when they are on the radar, they will ask more questions about their development and it is harder for them to be lost within the organization. Fourth, the organization should implement the career management careful and have strategic planning for targeted individuals’ career development. Since being identified is not enough, the organization should consider the potential benefits of encourage informal mentoring. Fifth, the organization should ensure there is strong leadership and commitment from senior management. This is because initial and ongoing personal involvement of the director is an important criterion to lead the plan to success. Sixth, the career management and succession plan must be integrate into the business objective and positioned as a response to the business need. A clear linkage between the business goal and the desired results of the career management will help to gain commitment from the organization and employee. Career management must be success when it portrayed as a core issue. Seventh, the organization should make all the line managers accountable for the success of the initiative. Since the career management is a business initiative, all employees should be responsible and accountable for its delivery, especially the line managers. Eighth, the organization should encourage the employees to take an active role in the career management. The organization should let the employee know that the career management is a tool to help them to get higher achievement which is benefiting them. Ninth, the evaluation should be an on-going one which uses to get improvement. Tenth, career management should be linked to other human resources practices such as performance management, training and recruiting systems. The organization may evaluate the career management through several outcomes. First, the reactions of the managers and the employees who use the career management can be determined through some surveys. Second, some more information with objective related to the results of the career management system can be tracked such as the time needs to fill up a vacant, the percentage of usage of the system. Talent management is a new direction in the modern workplace. Career management and succession plan can help both the small size organization and large size organization to add value through contributing directly to organization objective and goal. In order to success, all organization should focus on the career development of employee more than business since employees are the most valuable assets within an organization

The Fate of Prometheus Essay -- Prometheus

The Fate of Prometheus â€Å"Ah me, alas, pain, pain ever, forever! / No change, no pause, no hope! – Yet I endure† (I, 23-24) – such are the words of Prometheus, when in desperation and overwhelmed by emotion, his thoughts dissolve in sheer agony and turn to himself, away from the Mighty God whose â€Å"ill tyranny† has nailed him to the â€Å"eagle-baffling mountain† (I, 19-20). In his essay, Prometheus: The Romantic Revolutionary, Northrop Frye observes that â€Å"pain is the condition which keeps Prometheus conscious† (96), because in reflection, he is confronted with himself, and his sense of self and being. But he is quick to call once again on the â€Å"cruel King† (I, 50), who has sentenced him to his fate, after begging the natural world to hear his cries and not punish him, no longer to injure his bones by â€Å"burning cold† (I, 33) the chains that bind him or let â€Å"Heaven’s winged hound† (I, 33) feed upon him. His word s echo his earlier sentiment, found in Aeschylus’ work, where he mourns himself, as a â€Å"spectacle of pity† (14) who must suffer the â€Å"disease of tyranny (13) . In his quest and the earlier part of his imprisonment, Prometheus still longed to engage and relate to the Olympian, as â€Å"a counterpart of himself† (Frye 96), as one god contesting with another for power over and influence on the world. This struggle resulted in the imprisonment of Prometheus, because he craved to incite a revolution, where he desired not to transform the degenerate system of Jupiter but overturn it. Frye reminds us that â€Å"Jupiter’s real impetus is toward chaos rather than order† (96), as understood through the initial conversation between Prometheus and the Earth, where he identifies her as a â€Å"living spirit† (I, 139) but she is fearful of that description... ...wer-hungry and egotistical spirit-self within him, which had fastened him to the rock, the altar on which the Priest-King Jupiter had punished him without relief with the power given him. In freeing his true self, Prometheus recognizes the eternal truth that his being was never bound. Works Cited Aeschylus. Prometheus Bound. 7 Famous Greek Plays. Ed. Whitney J, Oates and Eugene O’Neill Jr. New York: Vintage Books, 1950. 5-42. Frye, Northrop. Prometheus: The Romantic Revolutionary. A Study of English Romanticism. New York: Random House, 1968. 87-124. Kierkegaard, Soren. Sickness Unto Death. A Kierkegaard Anthology. Ed. Robert Bretall. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1962. 339-371. Shelley, Percy Bysshe. Prometheus Unbound. Shelley’s Poetry and Prose. Ed. Donald H. Reiman and Neil Fraistat. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, Inc., 2002. 206-283.    The Fate of Prometheus Essay -- Prometheus The Fate of Prometheus â€Å"Ah me, alas, pain, pain ever, forever! / No change, no pause, no hope! – Yet I endure† (I, 23-24) – such are the words of Prometheus, when in desperation and overwhelmed by emotion, his thoughts dissolve in sheer agony and turn to himself, away from the Mighty God whose â€Å"ill tyranny† has nailed him to the â€Å"eagle-baffling mountain† (I, 19-20). In his essay, Prometheus: The Romantic Revolutionary, Northrop Frye observes that â€Å"pain is the condition which keeps Prometheus conscious† (96), because in reflection, he is confronted with himself, and his sense of self and being. But he is quick to call once again on the â€Å"cruel King† (I, 50), who has sentenced him to his fate, after begging the natural world to hear his cries and not punish him, no longer to injure his bones by â€Å"burning cold† (I, 33) the chains that bind him or let â€Å"Heaven’s winged hound† (I, 33) feed upon him. His word s echo his earlier sentiment, found in Aeschylus’ work, where he mourns himself, as a â€Å"spectacle of pity† (14) who must suffer the â€Å"disease of tyranny (13) . In his quest and the earlier part of his imprisonment, Prometheus still longed to engage and relate to the Olympian, as â€Å"a counterpart of himself† (Frye 96), as one god contesting with another for power over and influence on the world. This struggle resulted in the imprisonment of Prometheus, because he craved to incite a revolution, where he desired not to transform the degenerate system of Jupiter but overturn it. Frye reminds us that â€Å"Jupiter’s real impetus is toward chaos rather than order† (96), as understood through the initial conversation between Prometheus and the Earth, where he identifies her as a â€Å"living spirit† (I, 139) but she is fearful of that description... ...wer-hungry and egotistical spirit-self within him, which had fastened him to the rock, the altar on which the Priest-King Jupiter had punished him without relief with the power given him. In freeing his true self, Prometheus recognizes the eternal truth that his being was never bound. Works Cited Aeschylus. Prometheus Bound. 7 Famous Greek Plays. Ed. Whitney J, Oates and Eugene O’Neill Jr. New York: Vintage Books, 1950. 5-42. Frye, Northrop. Prometheus: The Romantic Revolutionary. A Study of English Romanticism. New York: Random House, 1968. 87-124. Kierkegaard, Soren. Sickness Unto Death. A Kierkegaard Anthology. Ed. Robert Bretall. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1962. 339-371. Shelley, Percy Bysshe. Prometheus Unbound. Shelley’s Poetry and Prose. Ed. Donald H. Reiman and Neil Fraistat. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, Inc., 2002. 206-283.   

In the Devil’s Snare Essay

There have been several interpretations of the Salem Witchcraft Crisis of 1692. Like every issue that has come up, everyone has their own take on it. Mary Beth Norton chose to lay out her version of the witchcraft trials in her book, In the Devil’s Snare. It is a tremendously ambitious book. Throughout the book, Norton is trying to lay out connections between the experiences of settlers in Maine, the accusations of the afflicted in Salem, and the actions and decisions of the colony leaders. I’ll admit, I don’t know much about the Salem Witchcraft Trials, if anything at all. I had the choice of reading The Crucible in high school, but I turned it down and chose to read a different book. Therefore, I really had not choice but to believe Norton when she said that her approach to examining the witchcraft crisis was a new one. Instead of looking at events case-by-case, she starts at the very beginning (the first whisper of an accusation) and moves chronologically through the entire episode. When it was needed, Norton would pause to add background information. Mary Beth’s point of view of the Salem Witchcraft Crisis is that it all was triggered by from the results of the Indian Wars. She believes that the only way this crisis could be understood, is if you looked at the military conflict between the English settlers and the Native Americans from that region. By the specific attention paid to Tituba, Martha Corey, and Abigail Hobbs, Norton shows how these individuals contributed to the linkage between the witchcraft crisis and the military conflict with the natives. In my opinion, I think Norton’s conclusion should have been put at the start. This is where she explains her thesis, which was that witchcraft crisis of 1692 was in large part a reaction to King Philip’s War and King William’s War, clearly and concisely. Mary Beth does a good job at connecting the participants to the Wars; however I don’t think she’s very convincing when it came to showing how the lack of military and leadership in the w ar was a driving force to the creation of the Salem Witchcraft Trials. Mary Beth Norton’s, In The Devil’s Snare, was very well written piece of literature. I commend her on stepping outside of what other authors had written about and creating her own version of the Salem WitchCraft Crisis of 1692. Norton has a substantial amount of supporting material that she’s gotten from other sources. The amount of the research involved to write her 304 page book is quite impressive and is ultimately breathtaking. I can only imagination how time consuming it was to lay out all the researched material and piece it together with her side of things. Just the thought of management needed to piece this book together gives me a headache. However, all this information did make the book less interesting to me. To be honest, I don’t think I’ve ever picked up a book that had 86 pages of endnotes! It made the book a drag because I had to continuously keep flipping back and forth between the story itself, and the side notes. Sometimes a reader can get away with skipping the end notes; however, I felt it was necessary to going back and forth because if I didn’t, I don’t think I would have understood most of it. Sometimes Norton’s side notes helped clarify what I was reading. All in all, In The Devil’s Snare was a decent book. I don’t think I ever found it really interesting at any point, nor was there a place that made me want to keep reading and not push the book aside for a little. My recommendation to others would be limited. This isn’t a book I would recommend to those that want something to read in their free time. I feel like all of her background information, and the tedious amount of flipping back and forth would put many people to sleep. I had a hard time reading more than 30 pages at a time! I think the only people I would recommend this book to would be those who take certain interest in this time frame of history. I think this would be a book they’d like, just because it’s given at a different angle.

Salt Flats Formation, Activity, and Examples

Salt flats, also called salt pans, are large and flat areas of land that were once lake beds. Salt flats are covered with salt and other minerals and they oftentimes look white because of the salt presence. These areas of land generally form in deserts and other arid places where large bodies of water have dried up over thousands of years and the salt and other minerals are the remnants. There are salt flats found around the world but some of the largest examples include the Salar de Uyuni in Bolivia, the Bonneville Salt Flats in the state of Utah and those found in California’s Death Valley National Park.   Formation of Salt Flats   According to the United States’ National Park Service, there are three basic things that are needed for salt flats to form. These are a source of salts, an enclosed drainage basin so the salts do not wash out and an arid climate where evaporation is greater than precipitation so the salts can get left behind when the water dries up (National Park Service).   An arid climate is the most important component of salt flat formation. In arid places, rivers with large, meandering stream networks are rare because of a lack of water. As a result, many lakes, if they exist at all, do not have natural outlets such as streams. Enclosed drainage basins are important because they hinder the formation of water outlets. In the western United States, for instance, there is the basin and range region in the states of Nevada and Utah. The topography of these basins consist of deep, flat bowls where the drainage is enclosed because water draining out of the region cannot climb up the mountain ranges surrounding the basins (Alden). Finally, the arid climate comes into play because evaporation must exceed precipitation in the water in the basins for the salt flats to eventually form. In addition to enclosed drainage basins and arid climates, there must also be an actual presence of salt and other minerals in the lakes for salt flats to form. All water bodies contain a variety of dissolved minerals and as lakes dry up through thousands of years of evaporation the minerals become solids and are dropped where the lakes once were. Calcite and gypsum are among some of the minerals found in water but salts, mostly halite, are found in large concentrations in some bodies of water (Alden). It is in places where halite and other salts are found in abundance that salt flats eventually form.   Salt Flat Examples   Salar de Uyuni Large salt flats are found around the world in places such as the United States, South America, and Africa. The largest salt flat in the world is the Salar de Uyuni, located in the Potosi and Oruro, Bolivia. It covers 4,086 square miles (10,852 sq km) and is located at an elevation of 11,995 feet (3,656 m). The Salar de Uyuni is a part of the Altiplano plateau that formed as the Andes Mountains were uplifted. The plateau is home to many lakes and the salt flats formed after several prehistoric lakes evaporated over thousands of years. Scientists believe that the area was an extremely large lake called Lake Minchin around 30,000 to 42,000 years ago (Wikipedia.org). As Lake Minchin began to dry up due to a lack of precipitation and no outlet (the region is surrounded by the Andes Mountains) it became a series of smaller lakes and dry areas. Eventually, the Poopà ³ and Uru Uru lakes and the Salar de Uyuni and Salar de Coipasa salt flats were all that remained. The Salar de Uyuni is significant not only because of its very large size but also because it is a large breeding ground for pink flamingoes, it serves as a transportation route across the Altiplano and it is a rich area for the mining of valuable minerals such as sodium, potassium, lithium and magnesium.   Bonneville Salt Flats   The Bonneville Salt Flats are located in the U.S. state of Utah between the border with Nevada and the Great Salt Lake. They cover about 45 square miles (116.5 sq km) and are managed by the United States Bureau of Land Management as an Area of Critical Environmental Concern and a Special Recreation Management Area (Bureau of Land Management). They are part of the United States’ Basin and Range system.   The Bonneville Salt Flats are a remnant of the very large Lake Bonneville that existed in the area about 17,000 years ago. At its peak, the lake was 1,000 feet (304 m) deep. According to the Bureau of Land Management, evidence for the lake’s depth can be seen on the surrounding Silver Island Mountains. The salt flats began to form as precipitation decreased with a changing climate and the water in Lake Bonneville began to evaporate and recede. As the water evaporated, minerals such as potash and halite were deposited on the remaining soils. Eventually, these minerals built up and were compacted to form a hard, flat, and salty surface. Today the Bonneville Salt Flats are about 5 feet (1.5 m) thick at their center and just are just a few inches thick at the edges. The Bonneville Salt Flats are about 90% salt and consists of about 147 million tons of salt (Bureau of Land Management).   Death Valley The Badwater Basin salt flats located in California’s Death Valley National Park cover about 200 square miles (518 sq km). It is believed that the salt flats are the remnants of the ancient Lake Manly that filled Death Valley about 10,000 to 11,000 years ago as well as more active weather processes today. The main sources of Badwater Basin’s salt are what was evaporated from that lake but also from Death Valley’s nearly 9,000-square mile (23,310 sq km) drainage system that extends to the peaks surrounding the basin (National Park Service). During the wet season precipitation falls on these mountains and then runs off into the very low elevation Death Valley (Badwater Basin is, in fact, the lowest point in North America at -282 feet (-86 m)). In wet years, temporary lakes form and during the very hot, dry summers this water evaporates and minerals such as sodium chloride are left behind. After thousands of years, a salt crust has formed, creating salt flats.   Activities on Salt Flats   Because of the large presence of salts and other minerals, salt flats are often places that are mined for their resources. In addition, there are many other human activities and development that have taken place on them because of their very large, flat nature. The Bonneville Salt Flats, for example, are home to land speed records, while the Salar de Uyuni is an ideal place for calibrating satellites. Their flat nature also makes them good travel routes and Interstate 80 runs through a portion of the Bonneville Salt Flats.