You have been recently appointed as Human Resource Managment (HRM) Essay

You have been recently appointed as Human Resource Managment (HRM) Director of a company which has recognised that it has problem with low workforce motivation - Essay Example Employee motivation is inducement or incentive which may be self-generated or influenced by external forces, that fuels satisfaction and inherent urge towards improvement in performance. Productivity is defined as â€Å"the efficient as well as the effective use of resources to achieve outcomes† (Berman et al, 2005: 309). Productivity depends on the quality of human resources, and their levels of performance. In contemporary organizations, there is increasing emphasis on implementing high performance work practices, taking into consideration all aspects of organizational operations. The purpose of this paper is to examine employee motivation and its impact on organizational productivity; suggest HRM policies, based on relevant theories, that can be introduced in a company with a problem of low workforce motivation and poor workforce productivity, for improving both motivation and productivity. To underscore the importance of human resources management in motivation and subsequent productivity, theories have been formulated on the content and process motivational models by various theorists such as â€Å"Abraham Maslow, Frederick Herzberg, Douglas McGregor, Victor Vroom, Lyman Porter, and Edward Lawler† (Petrick & Furr, 1995: 10). Earlier, the â€Å"content† theories attempted to explain motivation at work in terms of the events, goals, needs and motivators, and â€Å"process† theories were concerned with behaviour at work resulting from employees’ choices; and how different kinds of events, conditions or outcomes motivate behaviour. Thus, the work of the theorists Maslow, Herzberg and others underlined managerial concern for employee satisfaction towards motivation and improvement in performance and productivity (Lashley, 2001: 192). According to the needs-based theory of the process of motivation, it is initiated by the conscious or unconscious recognition of unsatisfied

American History Inmigration between 1880 and 1920 Essay

American History Inmigration between 1880 and 1920 - Essay Example Political instability and the spread of diseases in the homelands of the immigrants also forced them to opt for immigration and lead a better life. Other reasons included the lack of employment and chances of progress. The killings and persecution of people on the basis of their religion was also a reason why people left their homelands. There were many countries from where people chose to immigrate to the United States which included people from Italy, Russia, and Poland and to certain extent from China as well. This era of 1880 and 1920 was also a period of industrialization and it was a period of progress for the United States. The immigrants moved to the country and started working in the factories and mills of America. They settled for lower salaries as compared to the nationals. The great influx of immigrants led to the increased crowding in the cities and hence the maintenance of the infrastructure became very difficult. This led to problems like overcrowding accompanied by po or conditions of living for the immigrants. The crime rate also increased due to the rise in these problems. The increase in the number of immigrants created problems for the nationals as well and hence the immigrants became the targets of discrimination.

Genetic Causes of Choroideremia (CHM)

Genetic Causes of Choroideremia (CHM) Choroideremia (CHM) is a rare genetic impairment of the CHM gene, located on the X sex chromosome, that affects vision, as the retina, a crucial part of the eye involved in sight, loses functionality. This condition affects 1 out of 50,000 to 100,000 and is 4% of all causes of blindness in humans (GHR, 2017). Choroideremia is a sex-linked recessive trait, which means that females who do not express the trait are called carriers because only one of their X-chromosomes has the recessive trait, which is masked by the dominant trait of not having the condition. For males, it only takes the mothers affected X-chromosome to become affected by CHM for life (GHR, 2017). With the assistance from adeno-associated virus gene therapy, conditions like Choroideremia can be treated and cured. The CHM gene on the X-chromosome is responsible for producing the Rab escort protein-1 (REP-1), however if the CHM gene is mutated or absent, the lack of REP-1 CHM is supposed to produce causes cell death in the retina, causing Choroideremia (Mura, 2007). Escort proteins are the cells traffic facilitator, regulating intracellular proteins, organelles, and matter. Rab proteins are characterized by their geranylgeranyl functional group, a fundamental structure involved in prenylation, which is important in binding proteins (Preising, 2005). REP-1 allows for other essential proteins to enter cells, allowing for cellular processes to occur. Choroideremia occurs when the CHM gene fails to produce the REP-1. If there happens to be a lack of REP-1, the body has a backup, REP-2, that can perform nearly all of the same processes as REP-1, except there is little to no REP-2 present in the retina, which is why Choroideremia exists. With the absence of REP-1, the cells lack the facilitator requi red for them to do their work, resulting with premature cell death, or dystrophy (NCBI, 2016). Choroideremia can be treated, and possibly cured, with the use of adeno-associated viruses (AAV) because of its ability to target locations on chromosomes. The adeno-associated virus was discovered in the 1960s as a contaminant of adenovirus (Weitzman and Linden, 2011), and was seen as a useless virus because it required the assistance of another virus in order to replicate (Gonà §alves, 2005). However, the adeno-associated virus is admired for its useful abilities. The adeno-associated virus is admired for its simple structure, consisting of single-stranded DNA with genomes that are controlled by hairpin shaped telomere structures (Cotmore and Tattersall, 2014). Another characteristic of the AAV is the precise targeting of Chromosome 19; in fact, the AAV is known as one of the only viruses with such capacity to specifically act upon on one chromosome nearly 96% of the time (Daya and Berns, 2008). A crucial aspect about the adeno-associated virus is that it lacks pathogenicity, whic h means it does not cause disease in its host nor does it cause cell death. It is the lack of pathogenicity that has allowed medical professionals to pursue new treatments for genetically caused diseases. Because AAVs can act on a specific location on a chromosome without killing the host cell, treating sex-linked traits has become a reality. A clinical study used stem cells from patients with CHM and experimented the virus abilities with an in vitro model using CHO cells, which transferred the hCHM, human CHM DNA, into mice eyeballs to view the precision of genetic transfer. The results revealed that the CHO cells had elevated levels of the REP-1 protein levels, indicating that the introduction of AAV was able to specifically target the X-chromosome and alter the CHM gene. For the hCHM, it responded well to the application of AAV, as REP-1 proteins increased with regular dosage of AAV and compared to control cells, there was a 50-fold amount of REP-1 protein levels with the treated hCHM cells, indicating that AAV is a very promising option for gene therapy (Vasireddy, 2013). A 2014 clinical trial decided to directly administer an AAV encoding REP-1 to six mature males with Choroidere mia (all with little ability to see), waiting for six months after the trial to evaluate the effects of raw AAV administration. The results reveal all of the test subjects gained eyesight from the treatment, as their lines of vision increased as well as increased levels of retinal sensitivity (MacLaren, 2014). With a single mutation in a genetic sequence, life-changing conditions, like Choroideremia, leave people impaired for the remainder of their lives. However, with the assistance of adeno-associated viruses, researchers are able to treat and cure such conditions permanently. Citations/References: Matthew D. Weitzman and R. Michael Linden (2011). Adeno-Associated Virus Biology. Retrieved December 30, 2016, from http://www.hixonparvo.info/Matt%20AAV%20book%20chaptor.pdf Manuel Gonà §alves (2005). Adeno-associated virus: from defective virus to effective vector. Retrieved December 30, 2016, from https://virologyj.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/1743-422X-2-43 Susan F. Cotmore and Peter Tattersall (2014). Parvoviruses: Small does not mean simple. Retrieved January 6, 2017, from http://www.annualreviews.org/doi/abs/10.1146/annurev-virology-031413-085444 Choroideremia Genetics Home Reference (GHR). (2017, January 10). Retrieved January 11, 2017, from https://ghr.nlm.nih.gov/condition/choroideremia#genes CHM CHM, Rab escort protein 1 [Homo sapiens (human)] Gene NCBI. (2016, December 21). Retrieved January 11, 2017, from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/gene/1121 Vasireddy V, Mills JA, Gaddameedi R, Basner-Tschakarjan E, Kohnke M, Black AD, et al. (2013) AAV-Mediated Gene Therapy for Choroideremia: Preclinical Studies in Personalized Models. PLoS ONE 8(5): e61396. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0061396. Retrieved January 11, 2017, from http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/authors?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0061396 Preising, M., and C. Ayuso. Rab Escort Protein 1 (REP1) in Intracellular Traffic: A Functional and Pathophysiological Overview. Retrieved Retrieved January 11, 2017, from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15370541 Mura M, Sereda C, Jablonski MM, MacDonald IM, Iannaccone A. Clinical and functional findings in choroideremia due to complete deletion of the CHM gene. Retrieved Retrieved January 11, 2017, from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/?term=17698759 MacLaren RE, Groppe M, Barnard AR, Cottriall CL, Tolmachova T, Seymour L, Clark KR, During MJ, Cremers FP, Black GC, Lotery AJ, Downes SM, Webster AR, Seabra MC. Retinal gene therapy in patients with choroideremia: initial findings from a phase 1/2 clinical trial.Retrieved January 11, 2017, from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/?term=24439297

Maintaining Marine Reef Aquarium Essay -- essays papers

Maintaining Marine Reef Aquarium Important Aspects in Maintaining a Marine Reef Aquarium There is something fascinating and relaxing in having an aquarium in a home. Like a fireplace’s warm glow and bright colors, the colors that are emitted from an aquarium can be just as warm and even more colorful. From the slow and graceful movement of the fish to the frantic feeding frenzy, an aquarium is different each time it is viewed. Although a freshwater tank can be full or color, it does not come close to the fiery colors that are present in a marine aquarium. Unfortunately, all the color and life that a marine aquarium holds is much more fragile and not as easy to keep as a freshwater tank. Therefore, the marine aquarium requires a plethora of devices working together and at optimum levels to maintain a successful tank. Items like protein skimmers, ultraviolet filters, sump filters, reverse osmosis units, and even wave-makers are just a few of the devices that are required to properly maintain a marine aquarium. With the exception to a properly constructed tank, nothing is as important to the marine aquarium as the water within the tank and the lighting given its inhabitants. Since water is the medium that the aquarium inhabitants must live in, it is the most vital component in any tank. The quality of the water used will directly effect how successful the aquarium is. The chemical balance of the water must be watched closely. If the salt content varies too much, or harmful chemicals build up, the water will kill the inhabitants of the tank. Since fresh pure sea water is not readily accessible, the easiest water source for the majority of hobbyists is the faucet. However, the tap water that comes from the local water treatment plants may be safe for human consumption but is most likely toxic to marine life. Water treatment plants remove most of the harmful chemicals, but the water delivered is anything but pure. Often this tap water contains high levels of phosphates and nitrates that can be harmful to aquarium inhabitants. Also, copper may leach from pipes, and it is deadly to marine invertebrates (Goldstein 8). This leaves very few options for water to the hobbyist. One of the last, and probably the best option for obtaining a pure water source is by using reverse osmosis water. Reverse osmosis is a process of filtering ... ...k monitoring water conditions and lighting quickly becomes only a minor chore as the aquarium begins to regulate itself. Considering the amount of work and money a fireplace requires, the aquarium is a much easier and cheaper centerpiece that can be added to any room. It becomes a landscaping of art that even the best painters have difficulty capturing, and can be enjoyed by everyone. Works Cited Dakin, Nick, The Marine Aquarium Problem Solver. Blaksburg, VA: Tetra Press, 1998. Friese, U. Erich. Keeping a Reef Aquarium. Neptune, NJ:YearBOOKS Inc, 1996. Gamble, Sam. Light Energy 5 October 1999. Goldstein, Robert J. Marine Reef Aquarium Handbook. New York: Barron’s Educational Series, Inc, 1997. Larson, Scott. Personal Interview. 10 September 1999. Madison, Pieter. â€Å"You Can Succeed with Marines.† Tropical Fish Hobbyist. August 1999: 38-46. Paletta, Mike. â€Å"Water Changes.† SeaScope, Fall 1997, 3. Reefkeeper’s FAQ. 18 September 1999. Shimek, Ronald L. â€Å"So, You Want to Join the Marines.† Aquarium USA, 1999: 61-75. Tullock, John H. Natural Reef Aquariums. Shelborne, VT: Microcosm Ltd, 1997. Walker, Matt. Personal Interview. 20 October 1999

Comparing At the Morgue by Helen Garner and Basics Training by Deborah

Comparing At the Morgue by Helen Garner and Basics Training by Deborah Hope AT THE MORGUE – Helen Garner, True Stories 1996 This article is written in the first person's point of view. The style is informal, almost chatty in spite of the morbid topic it deals with. The author uses this style to tell the reader a story, like telling a friend an experience. The author's feelings and thoughts are freely expressed. This helps to put the reader into the author's shoes, to see through her eyes and feel through her heart. This article is a narrative. It does not aim to analyse the topic. It describes the author's experiences at the mortuary and the resulting disturbing thoughts she had. Descriptive language is used to give graphic details. This paints vivid mental pictures in the reader's mind. It contributes to the feeling of personal involvement of the reader. All the author's observations are described in detail. Words used are simple yet effective. The article was an enjoyment to read. It provides an insider's view of what goes on in the mortuary, where not many people can access. It deals with a subject which people do not usually seek information on but are nonetheless intrigued by. The style lessens the formality of the subject, which makes it less scary to deal with. The descriptive language is effectively used. The expression of the author's feeling and thoughts encourages empathy from the reader with the author. BASICS TRAINING – Deborah Hope, The Au...

Collaboration and Innovation at Procter & Gamble Case Study

Collaboration and Innovation at Procter & Gamble CASE STUDY 1. What is Procter & Gamble’s business strategy? What is the relationship of collaboration and innovation to that business strategy? i. Proctor and Gamble’s business strategy focuses on three main areas. This is to maintain the popular the popularity of its existing brands through advertising and marketing; the extension of its brand to related products by developing new products and the creation of new brands from scratch.To achieve these, the company aims to facilitate collaboration between researchers, marketers and managers. ii. By fostering interaction among employees P&G fosters informed decision making and the sharing of ideas and information which ultimately leads the company to produce quality products. 2. How is P&G using collaboration systems to execute its business model and business strategy? List and describe the collaboration systems and technologies it is using and the benefits of each i.P&G res earchers use collaborative tools to share data on various brands they have collected which allows marketers to access this data to create better targeted ad campaigns and likewise managers access data shared t be able to make informed decisions. ii. – P&G use a suite of Microsoft products such as MS Outlook, MS SharePoint and others that have unified communication and integrate services through voice and data transmissions and allow for instant messaging, email and electronic conferences, web conferencing with live meeting, and content management. P&G use social networking innovations -P&G uses blogs instead of emails that are open to anyone interested in their content and attract comments from others. – The company uses Connect beam which is a search tool that allows employees to share bookmarks and tag content with descriptive words that appear in future searches, and facilitates social networks of coworkers to help them find and share information more effectively â €“ It also uses InnovationNet which contains over 5 million research-related documents in digital format accessible through a browser-based portal. P&G have also adopted Cisco Telepresence conference rooms across the globe that allows researchers to communicate and share data. Some benefits of the Cisco Telepresence include the reduction of travel cost, efficient flow of ideas and quick decision making. 3. Why were some collaborative technologies slow to catch on at P&G? Some collaborative tools were slow for P&G because employees resisted to the collaborative tool because in their opinion that would create more work and delays.Employees were more accustomed to emails 4. Compare P&G’s old and new processes for writing up and distributing the results of a research experiment. Researchers under the old process wrote up their experiments using MS Office tools then print them out and glue the papers page by page into notebooks or they would simply paste results of experiments into word documents and pass them out. Also data and speech recordings are entered into MS PowerPoint and emailed to employees.In the new method however, employees use a collaborative tool such as InnovationNet which contains over 5 million research- related documents in digital format accessible to employees via a browser-based portal. Also P&G uses a Microsoft SharePoint page where all presentations are posted. These presentations are stored in a single location and accessible to employees and colleagues in other parts of the company. 5. Why is telepresence such a useful collaborative tool for a company like P&G?Telepresence is a useful collaborative tool for P&G because it helps to foster collaboration between employees across continents and leads to reduction in travel cost, efficient flow of ideas and quick decision making. 6. Can you think of other ways P&G could use collaboration to foster innovation? Proctor and Gamble could use virtual world technology which creates online 3-D environments populated by employees who have in-built graphical representations of themselves known as avatars.P&G can use this virtual world to house online meetings, training sessions, and â€Å"lounges. † Real-world people represented by avatars meet, interact, and exchange ideas at these virtual locations. Communication takes place in the form of text messages similar to instant messages. P&G could also use Google Apps or Google Sites which is a collaborative that allows users to quickly create online, group-editable web sites in minutes and post a variety of files including calendars, text, spreadsheets, and videos for private, group, or public viewing and editing.Also Google a software such as called Google Wave which is part conversation and part document can be used as a collaborative tool. Researchers or any participant of a wave can reply anywhere in the message, edit the content, and add or remove participants at any point in the process. Users are able to see responses from other participants on their â€Å"wave† while typing occur, accelerating the pace of discussion.

Impact of Information Technology on Customer and Supplier Relationships in the Financial Services Essay

Information technology plays an important role to support the relationships between customers and suppliers in financial industry. Different industry faces different competitive and different business practice. Besides, we can use information technology to determine the opportunities and threats to the relationships between customers and suppliers. In this research, it focus on the financial service industry that is motivated by three factors which are the paucity of research in customer and supplier relationships in service industries relative to manufacturing industries, the sheer size of the financial service sector relative to other service sector and the potential for information technology to positively impact firm performance through channel expansion, cost mitigation and service level enhancement. Financial service industry includes all Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) codes starting with the digit six. In this research, we only focus on those services typically classified as â€Å"financial†. Financial service companies are the earliest commercial users of information technology. Economic forces and technological advances, especially Internet has driven this consolidation across international boundaries and across type financial services. The financial service companies are relatively unique in regard to their value chains. Without possessing any intermediate product can add value to the finish product. The financial services industry has been doing business electronically for many years. Some customer and regulatory statutes demand the use of paper-based transaction audit trails and reporting those transactions. However, the industry leaders will pressure them to adopt electric distribution and information management methods. This report concerns on electronic connectivity, alliances and partnerships. There is a lack of understanding of and available insight into the emerging role of e-business as a delivery channel and customer connection mechanism make a great concern of many organizations. Research Methodology The first phase of methodology is to identify the current and potential role of information technology to support relationship among customers and suppliers in financial services. It included 5 steps which are definition of scope; determination of survey methodology and identification of sample; creation of a survey instrument; administration of the survey; and analysis of survey responses. In this phase, they limited the scope to the immediate suppliers and customers of the subject companies. So the respondents no need to identify suppliers of their suppliers or customers of their customers. In this research, it conducts two interviews in several sectors. Due to the availability of contacts, three of the subjects worked in mutual fund industry, one in retail banking, two in each insurance carriers, institutional investment companies, and brokerage. Eight of them were conducted by telephone and another two were chosen to supply written responses. The typical respondents are senior managers and vice president. Interviews were recorded manually by interviewer so that it is confidentiality and security. Analysis The collected data were analyzed using qualitative techniques. It seeks to conceptualize theory from data rather than proposing theory. The method involves organizing and understanding interview transcripts, collected documents and observe social or business practice. The methodology involves extracting theory from one case study and studies to augment, refine the theory by using subsequent case. Since the sample is limited, they only drew inferences upon a convergence of ideas across industry sectors. Findings / Results Based on the results of interview, there are consistent patterns in the thought, planning, and implementation processes of various participants. They have group the result into five categories. First is how information technology supports existing customer and supplier relationships. Second and third are the opportunities and threats they foresee when they expand their business. The fourth session is the drivers of change. Finally, they examine how manager predict the future respect to the relationship among their customers and suppliers. The analysis of current activities begins with an examination of the partnerships that support inter-organizational business activities within the respondent’s respective industries. There is high degree of interdependence among various financial service industries. A non-linear relationship among the parties is clearly shown. Besides, the relationships demonstrate a high level of complexity and variability. Existing audio response and Web-based account access functions reduced the cost of delivery for many customers account services. There are many opportunities to strengthen the relationships with customers and suppliers. One of the opportunities is to improve customer service levels by providing new form of service delivery, rapidly response to customers, and improve customer confidence. Besides, information technology creates opportunity to increase switching costs for their customers. By this, they can add more value to the transaction. It includes the assimilation of information that supports the investment decision and motivates the transaction execution. Furthermore, information technology also creates the opportunity to extend the world-wide relationships of both customers and suppliers. Similarly, the opportunity exists to create a new relationship with suppliers to create, purchase and provide new products and services. Some respondents believed that the ability to demonstrate technological leadership is one of the opportunities to improve market perception. Besides opportunities, there is a variety of threats to their existing relationships. It includes security risks, network and systems instability and the difficulty of integrating different systems. An opportunity to create a new channel and relationship can create a threat of disintermediation for others. A related threat is the commoditization of product, because it is common in all industries. Many financial service companies have historically relied on existing customers to build profit margins and create loyalty. Besides, the respondents feared the risk of adopting the wrong standard. Since the technology is moving rapidly. So the standards are changing so fast. Another threat is the challenge of keeping pace with escalating technological and business change. The greatest threat is they worried that they may unable to move fast because they cannot see the upside potential and downside risk of inactivity. Evolving customer expectations also impact the e-business strategies. Nowadays, customers demand access to real-time data and expect to access at any time and any place. Besides, improvement in security technology are also driven change. Many respondents believed that internal and public network reliability is improving and will facilitate more rapid expansion of services. There are two primary areas for future investment in inter-organizational integration by respondents. First path is expanding commitment to existing forms of technology to deliver new or expanded functionality. Second area is investing in new technology forms and enhances the inter-organizational relationships. All respondents emphasis on development of technology-enabled education and advice services. Linkage of inquiry and advice functionality to available tools is a vital component of service level expansion and customization. The need to integrate new technology and service with existing system are motivating those firms to pursue more alliances both software and hardware suppliers. Conclusion In the conclusion, there is less linear in the relationships among customers and suppliers in financial services compare to manufacturing industries. And there is a high degree of interdependence exists among the sectors of financial service industry. In this research, there is many findings have been predicted. The participants believe that opportunity for cost savings and service enhancement resides in expansion of customer account maintenance via the Web. Maintenance and education in new form of functionality place more control. So the responsibility is in hand of customers. One discerning manager pointed out, â€Å"we’re now doing business on the customer’s terms, not the terms dictated by our firm or our industry.† Managers interviewed shared many concerns about how to competitive threats and the risk of expanding e-business activity. They fear the capabilities of new, competitors rapidly enter new markets without the millstone of legacy system and traditional organizational cultures will block the progress of industry incumbents. It will cause imbalanced cost structures with new services and pricing. The managers predict further opportunities to improve quality of service, reduce costs, reach customers worldwide, and provide new services. Some managers believe that demonstrating technology leadership was a important component of establishing industry leadership and promoting customer acquisition and loyalty. It has many limitations in this research first it has short term applicability. This is because the longevity of the obstacles is unclear. Another limitation is that it is descriptive rather than prescriptive. Lastly, the conclusion is drawn in this study by small size of sample. This study is very important for both researchers and practitioners. Besides, this study also help managers in financial services industry to identify and analysis the opportunities, risk of building relationships with their customers and suppliers through electronic commerce. A better understanding of the treats and opportunities to existing relationships allow them to response customers more rapidly, accurately and cheaply.