The Betrayal and Loyalty in Macbeth and Kite Runner

â€Å"A boy who won’t stand up for himself becomes a man who can’t stand up to anything. † Baba says these words to Rahim Khan while he is talking about Amir at the end of Chapter 3, and the quotation reveals important traits in both Amir and Baba. With these words, Baba sums up one of Amir’s major character flaws—his cowardice—and Baba shows how much value he places in standing up for what is right. Baba is reluctant to praise Amir, largely because he feels Amir lacks the courage to even stand up for himself, leaving Amir constantly craving Baba’s approval.Amir’s desire for this approval as well as his cowardice later cause him to let Assef rape Hassan. The quotation also foreshadows the major test of Amir’s character that occurs when he must decide whether to return to Kabul to save Sohrab. As Amir searches for redemption, the question he struggles with is precisely what concerned Baba: does he have the courage and stre ngth to stand up for what is right? â€Å"I actually aspired to cowardice, because the alternative, the real reason I was running, was that Assef was right: Nothing was free in this world.Maybe Hassan was the price I had to pay, the lamb I had to slay, to win Baba. † When Amir says this, toward the end of Chapter 7, he has just watched Assef rape Hassan,and rather than intervene, he ran away. Amir says he aspired to cowardice because, in his estimation, what he did was worse than cowardice. If fear of being hurt by Assef were the main reason he ran, Amir suggests that at least would have been more justified. Instead, he allowed the rape to happen because he wanted the blue kite, which he thought would prove to Baba that he was a winner like him, earning him Baba’s love and approval.The price of the kite, as Amir says, was Hassan, and this is why Amir calls Hassan the lamb he had to slay. He draws a comparison between Hassan and the lamb sacrificed during the Muslim hol iday of Eid Al-Adha to commemorate Abraham’s near sacrifice of his son to God. In this context, Hassan was the sacrifice Amir had to make to get the kite and ultimately to gain Baba’s affection. â€Å"That was a long time ago, but it’s wrong what they say about the past, I’ve learned, about how you can bury it. Because the past claws its way out. Looking back now, I realize I have been peeking into that deserted alley for he last twenty-six years. † At the outset of Chapter 1, just as the book begins, Amir writes these words. With them, he hints at the central drama of the story and the reason he is telling it. To the reader, the quotation functions as a teaser. It piques the reader’s interest without revealing exactly what Amir is talking about, and from the time period Amir mentions, twenty-six years, the reader gets an idea of just how important this moment was. As the story unfolds, we realize that the deserted alley Amir refers to is wh ere Hassan was raped, and that this event has largely defined the course of Amir’s life since.This is what Amir means when he says that the past continues to claw its way out. Try as he might to bury it, he was unable to because his feelings of guilt kept arising. As a result, he figuratively continues peeking into the alley where Assef raped Hassan, literally meaning that he keeps going over the event in his mind. â€Å"There is a way to be good again. † (pg. 2) Rahim Khan said this to Amir to encourage him to help Hassan’s son escape Afghanistan. †And he got to decide what was black and what was white. You can’t love a person who lives that way without fearing him too.Maybe even hating him a little. † (pg 15) This is Amir’s assessment of his father. It was a look I had seen before. It was the look of the lamb. † (pg. 76) Here Amir describes the look on Hassan’s face as Assef and two others rape him. The look reminds Amir of a sacrifical lamb. I envied her. Her secret was out. Spoken. Dealt with. † (pg 165) Amir makes this comment to the reader after Soraya tells him the whole story of how she ran away with a man and shamed her family. He wishes he could tell what secrets he carries around, too. Baba had wrestled bears his whole life . . In the end, a bear had come that he couldn’t best. But even then, he had lost on his own terms. † (pg 174) Baba has died and Amir sums up his life with these words. The Search For Redemption Amir’s quest to redeem himself makes up the heart of the novel. Early on, Amir strives to redeem himself in Baba’s eyes, primarily because his mother died giving birth to him, and he feels responsible. To redeem himself to Baba, Amir thinks he must win the kite-tournament and bring Baba the losing kite, both of which are inciting incidents that set the rest of the novel in motion.The more substantial part of Amir’s search for redemption, ho wever, stems from his guilt regarding Hassan. That guilt drives the climactic events of the story, including Amir’s journey to Kabul to find Sohrab and his confrontation with Assef. The moral standard Amir must meet to earn his redemption is set early in the book, when Baba says that a boy who doesn’t stand up for himself becomes a man who can’t stand up to anything. As a boy, Amir fails to stand up for himself. As an adult, he can only redeem himself by proving he has the courage to stand up for what is right.The Love and Tension Between Fathers and Sons Amir has a very complex relationship with Baba, and as much as Amir loves Baba, he rarely feels Baba fully loves him back. Amir’s desire to win Baba’s love consequently motivates him not to stop Hassan’s rape. Baba has his own difficulty connecting with Amir. He feels guilty treating Amir well when he can’t acknowledge Hassan as his son. As a result, he is hard on Amir, and he can on ly show his love for Hassan indirectly, by bringing Hassan along when he takes Amir out, for instance, or paying for Hassan’s lip surgery.In contrast with this, the most loving relationship between father and son we see is that of Hassan and Sohrab. Hassan, however, is killed, and toward the end of the novel we watch Amir trying to become a substitute father to Sohrab. Their relationship experiences its own strains as Sohrab, who is recovering from the loss of his parents and the abuse he suffered, has trouble opening up to Amir. When we got to Kabul, I [Rahim Khan] discovered that Hassan had no intention of moving into the house. â€Å"But all these rooms are empty, Hassan jan. No one is going to live in them,† I said. But he would not.He said it was a matter of ihtiram, a matter of respect. He and Farzana moved their things into the hut in the backyard, where he was born. I pleaded for them to move into one of the guest bedrooms upstairs, but Hassan would hear nothin g of it. â€Å"What will Amir agha think? † he said to me. â€Å"What will he think when he comes back to Kabul after the war and finds that I have assumed his place in the house? † Then, in mourning for your father, Hassan wore black for the next forty days. (16. 24-25) You may be confused by the voice here. It's actually not Amir – Rahim Khan gets one chapter in the book.Rahim Khan recounts his trip to Hazarajat to find Hassan and bring him back to the house in Kabul. When Hassan does move back to the house with Rahim Khan, he refuses to live where Baba and Amir lived. Does Hassan's refusal suggest that Hassan is only Amir's servant and the two never achieved an equal friendship? (Side question: Does Hassan sense – on some unconscious level – Baba's true relationship to him? Is that why he mourns Baba for forty days? ) I felt like a man sliding down a steep cliff, clutching at shrubs and tangles of brambles and coming up empty-handed. The room wa s swooping up and down, swaying side to side. Did Hassan know? † I said through lips that didn't feel like my own. Rahim Khan closed his eyes. Shook his head. [†¦ ] â€Å"Please think, Amir Jan. It was a shameful situation. People would talk. All that a man had back then, all that he was, was his honor, his name, and if people talked†¦ We couldn't tell anyone, surely you can see that. † He reached for me, but I shed his hand. Headed for the door. [†¦ ] I opened the door and turned to him. â€Å"Why? What can you possibly say to me? I'm thirty-eight years old and I've just found out my whole life is one big fucking lie!What can you possibly say to make things better? Nothing. Not a goddamn thing! † (17. 57-63) Rahim Khan tells Amir about Baba's betrayal of him, Hassan, and Ali. Here's the story: Baba slept with Sanaubar, Ali's wife, and fathered Hassan. But Baba never told Amir or Hassan about it. We wonder if Rahim Khan's revelation makes life easi er or harder for Amir. On the one hand, Amir sees, for the first time, the similarities between himself and his father. Now he knows he wasn't the only one walking around with a ton of bricks (a. k. a. secret guilt). But does this really help Amir?Is it comforting at all to know his father made similar mistakes? Amir's betrayal of Hassan brings him closer to Baba in ways he couldn't have predicted. Although the two don't share the same secrets, they do share the secrecy of guilt. â€Å"You know,† Rahim Khan said, â€Å"one time, when you weren't around, your father and I were talking. And you know how he always worried about you in those days. I remember he said to me, ‘Rahim, a boy who won't stand up for himself becomes a man who can't stand up to anything. ‘ I wonder, is that what you've become? † (17. 4) Rahim Khan has just asked Amir to rescue Sohrab from Kabul. Amir is initially resistant, so Rahim Khan tries three times to convince Amir to undertake t he task. (The task is obviously a redemptive quest because there's no reason Amir has to rescue Sohrab. Rahim Khan tells Amir he has enough money to get Sohrab, so it seems like anyone could have performed this task. ) Anyway, Rahim Khan gives Amir three reasons why he should rescue Sohrab. One, because your father thought you couldn't stand up for anything and here's your chance to prove him wrong. Second, it's my dying wish that you rescue Sohrab.And third, Hassan was actually your half-brother, so you owe it to him. We think all these reasons add up and Amir agrees to rescue Sohrab. Of course, the third reason seals the deal, but they're all important and end up motivating Amir. How could he have lied to me all those years? To Hassan? He had sat me on his lap when I was little, looked me straight in the eyes, and said, There is only one sin. And that is theft†¦ When you tell a lie, you steal someone's right to the truth. Hadn't he said those words to me? And now, fifteen yea rs after I'd buried him, I was learning that Baba had been a thief.And a thief of the worst kind, because the things he'd stolen had been sacred: from me the right to know I had a brother, from Hassan his identity, and from Ali his honor. His nang. His namoos. (18. 5) This is a central moment in the novel because it revises our picture of Baba, and thus our picture of Amir. Amir's guilt, all these years, has partly resulted from Baba's very strict adherence to a personal code. Baba's set of principles include honor (nang), pride (namoos), and loyalty. Now Amir finds out the following: not only did Baba â€Å"steal† Ali's honor and pride, but he stole a sense of self from Hassan, and a brother from Amir.What are you supposed to do when you find out the single most important figure of authority and morality in your life strayed from his principles? That's right, go on a personal quest of redemption to rescue your half-nephew from a sadistic, Mein Kampf-toting member of the Tali ban. I unfolded the letter. It was written in Farsi. No dots were omitted, no crosses forgotten, no words blurred together – the handwriting was almost childlike in its neatness. (17. 7)| First, it's amazing that Hassan learns how to read and write as an adult. But even more amazing is the aura of innocence still surrounding Hassan.Hassan lives through a tragic attack at a young age. His best friend, Amir, betrays him. He and his father leave their home. War comes to Afghanistan. But through all this, Hassan holds onto something like innocence. Chapter 16 – 17 Going to Kabul becomes a test of Amir’s honor, loyalty, and manhood. Amir is clearly afraid to go. He knows the city is extremely dangerous, and in returning there he would risk everything he has, including his life and the welfare of his family. Kabul will also undoubtedly recall memories of Hassan and his past that Amir would rather not confront.Rahim Khan recognizes that the decision is a difficult one for Amir. To convince him, he brings up the conversation he once had with Baba, when Baba said he feared that Amir would not be able to stand up to anything as a man if he could not stand up for himself as a boy. Amir concedes that Baba may have been right. Then Rahim Khan reveals that Ali was not Hassan’s father, and implies that Hassan was, in fact, Baba’s child. Hassan and Amir, then, would be half-brothers, and Sohrab would be Amir’s nephew, obligating Amir further to find the boy. The dilemma brings together the tensions Amir has struggled with in the novel.By rescuing Sohrab, Amir can become the man that Baba always wanted him to be, and he can finally atone for the ways he failed Hassan as a friend. â€Å"Do you know what I will tell Daoud Khan the next time he comes to our house for dinner? † Assef said. â€Å"I’m going to have a little chat with him, man to man, mard to mard. Tell him what I told my mother. About Hitler. Now, there was a leader. A great leader. A man with vision. I’ll tell Daoud Khan to remember that if they had let Hitler finish what he had started, the world be a better place now. † (Hosseini 43) Assef claims that Hitler was his role model.He has a same point of view as Hitler has. He wants the country to be one race, one religion and one belief. This is also related to the holocaust in WWII. We all know that Hitler’s actions fund the worst actions in human society because he started the WWII. He was also racist against people who have different beliefs and race. Similarly, Assef copied Hitler and isolated the Hazaras from the rest of the country. This prove that his attitude toward the country and those Hazaras end him up with suffering the serious consequences. Assef and Hitler‘s actions are the worst actions in human. His blue eyes flicked to Hassan. Afghanistan is the land of Pashtuns. It always has been, always will be. We are the true Afghans, the pure Afghans, not this Flat-Nose here. His people pollute our homeland, our watan. They dirty our blood. † He made a sweeping, grandiose gesture with his hands. â€Å"Afghanistan for Pashtuns, I say. That’s my vision. † This is a significant because this quote does a good job in terms of portraying Assef’s attitude toward those Hazaras. Assef said this when he is harassing Hassan. We all know that Amir was put in a situation where he has to decide whether he has to stand up for himself or following the belief of Pashtun bully.Assef harassed Hassan and Amir for not following their beliefs and he eventually joined Taliban and killed tons of Hazaras. This harassment due to different religion lead to the worst action the Taliban has done and this lead to the disunity of the country. Assef slipped on the brass knuckles. Gave me an icy look. â€Å"You’re part of the problem, Amir. If idiots like you and your father didn’t take these people in, we’d be rid of them by now. They’d all just go rot in Hazarajat where they belong. You’re a disgrace to Afghanistan. †This quote indirectly tells us that Assef’s attitude will lead Afghanistan to downfall and his point of view will drive him forward to join the Taliban to kill those Hazaras. He thinks Pashtun who spend time with the people with a different religion are disgrace to Afghanistan. His point of view is the same as Hitlers. He think those Hazaras should be always oppressed and Afghanistan is the land only for Pashtun. This is an unfair way of differentiating people. Afghanistan will have the potential to become more united without Taliban’s prejudice and the attitudes toward people with different religion.

UK Post-War Welfare Settlements

Compare and contrast the trends in the ‘settling' & ‘unsettling' of the political, economic & social settlements for the UK social policies relating to health care and social housing. (Approx 2 pages) Explain and illustrate the broad nature of the UK post-war welfare settlements (namely political, economic, social & organizational) and their reconstruction in the 1980s and 1990s. In what ways has the discourse of management affected the above two areas of social policy (i. e. health care & social housing). In the United Kingdom, after the destruction weathered by the British populace during World War II and the subsequent poverty weathered by so many of the British peoples, the argument for the right of universal public services or the creation of an all-encompassing welfare state became popular. The idea that all British citizens had the innate right to accessible roads and a clean and healthy environment was extended to education, social housing, and to health services. Even then, however, there was some disagreement within Parliament about extending such social welfare programs to all, namely that of â€Å"cost. Selectivity is often presented as being more efficient: less money is spent to better effect. There are problems with selective services,† because â€Å"recipients have to be identified, the services can be administratively complex and expensive to run, and there are often boundary problems caused by trying to include some people while excluding others. Selective services sometimes fail to reach people in need,† and to limit the elitism that had so often marked policies in the past, universalism was adopted as the ethos of all social policy programs in the United Kingdom. Thus, unlike the solidarity system of social policy adopted in France, which attempts to provide care via mutually shred social obligations, the United Kingdom created what could be called ‘unsettling' challenge to its former institutional system of social welfare. It created a new system, one in which need was accepted as a normal part of all British citizens social live. (â€Å"Social Policy,† 2005) This guarantee of minimum standards included a minimum income for all Britans. (â€Å"The Welfare State, 2005) The United Kingdom became a unitary state in which central government substantially directed most government activities of social welfare policy, rather than leaving the enforcement of these policies to private industry. (â€Å"Social Policy in the United Kingdom,† 2005) Welfare such as universal health care for all citizens was provided for the population as a whole, in the same way as public services like roads, and the school system was rendered more accessible to all, as students who distinguished themselves received government support for their educations. In an institutional system, welfare is not just for the poor: it is for everyone. † The Beveridge Report of 1942 proposed a system of National Insurance, based on three cornerstones, of equal family allowances, a national health service, and the goal of full employment-this created a new idea of natural human rights than had existed before in England, and settled the question of what constituted innate human rights for the next decades, until the event of Thatcherism in the 1980's. (â€Å"Social Policy in the United Kingdom,† 2005) Eventually, the Beveridge Report â€Å"became a major propaganda weapon, with both major parties committed to its introduction,† because of its popularity. During the war, the coalition government had already committed itself to full employment through free universal secondary education, and the introduction of family allowances, and the right to public housing for all in the form of such innovations council flats as part of the war effort, but unlike the United States social welfare policies during World War II, the British government made a commitment to retaining this philosophy and these formal institutions even after the end of conflict. â€Å"Social Policy in the United Kingdom,† 2005) After World War II, all references to the working classes were removed from British laws. â€Å"The replacement of the housing stock, particularly through clearances, became council housing's main role, with mass building. The subsidies favoured industrial, high-rise building, though this was often more expensive than the alternatives. Quantity was more important than quality. (Housing and Urban Policy,† 2005) When the Labour Government was elected in 1945 it introduced three key acts: the 1946 National Insurance Act, which implemented the Beveridge scheme for social security and old-age pensions, the National Health Service Act 1946; and the 1948 National Assistance Act, which abolished the Poor Law while making provision for welfare services such as housing. † (â€Å"Social Policy in the United Kingdom,† 2005) Thus, the United Kingdom became a unitary state in which central government substantially directed most government activity. However, during the 1980's and 1990's, the rise of Thatcherism began to bring a new ethos to the land. In terms of social housing policy, for example, â€Å"the growth of owner-occupation in Britain† based on tax advantages became more common in the 1980s and 1990s. The Building Societie once founded on a social, co-operative and non-profit making basis, became banks during these decades, abandoning the original â€Å"mutualist tradition† on which they had been founded. â€Å"Housing and Urban Policy,† 2005) In terms of health care, in the 1980s, Enthoven, an American economist, made an influential criticism of National Health Services' organization. Enthoven argued that the NHS was â€Å"inefficient, riddled with perverse incentives and resistance to change,† and in the need of capitalist styles of management. â€Å"The reforms which followed were based in the belief that the NHS would be more efficient if it was organised on something more like market principles. Enthoven argued for a split between purchaser and provider, so that Health Authorities could exercise more effective control over costs and production. The NHS administration was broken up into quasi-autonomous trusts from which authorities bought services. The role of Regional Health Authorities was taken over by eight regional offices of the NHS management executive. † (â€Å"Health Care,† 2005) The United Kingdom to this day retains the mangerial innovations (or setbacks) depending on one's point of view of the Thatcher era. Thatcher was unable to institute some politically unpopular and reactionary ideas, such as a poll tax, during the decline of her power, but the privitization of health care and housing continued, as did such policies as asking for students to pay for more of their post-secondary educations, and limiting social welfare policies within the United Kingdom. The welfare system in the United Kingdom remains universalist in theory, but less and less universalist in practice after the ending decades of the 20th century required the government to make cutting costs and competing in the global marketplace the bywords of political rhetoric and policy. UK Post-War Welfare Settlements Compare and contrast the trends in the ‘settling' & ‘unsettling' of the political, economic & social settlements for the UK social policies relating to health care and social housing. (Approx 2 pages) Explain and illustrate the broad nature of the UK post-war welfare settlements (namely political, economic, social & organizational) and their reconstruction in the 1980s and 1990s. In what ways has the discourse of management affected the above two areas of social policy (i. e. health care & social housing). In the United Kingdom, after the destruction weathered by the British populace during World War II and the subsequent poverty weathered by so many of the British peoples, the argument for the right of universal public services or the creation of an all-encompassing welfare state became popular. The idea that all British citizens had the innate right to accessible roads and a clean and healthy environment was extended to education, social housing, and to health services. Even then, however, there was some disagreement within Parliament about extending such social welfare programs to all, namely that of â€Å"cost. Selectivity is often presented as being more efficient: less money is spent to better effect. There are problems with selective services,† because â€Å"recipients have to be identified, the services can be administratively complex and expensive to run, and there are often boundary problems caused by trying to include some people while excluding others. Selective services sometimes fail to reach people in need,† and to limit the elitism that had so often marked policies in the past, universalism was adopted as the ethos of all social policy programs in the United Kingdom. Thus, unlike the solidarity system of social policy adopted in France, which attempts to provide care via mutually shred social obligations, the United Kingdom created what could be called ‘unsettling' challenge to its former institutional system of social welfare. It created a new system, one in which need was accepted as a normal part of all British citizens social live. (â€Å"Social Policy,† 2005) This guarantee of minimum standards included a minimum income for all Britans. (â€Å"The Welfare State, 2005) The United Kingdom became a unitary state in which central government substantially directed most government activities of social welfare policy, rather than leaving the enforcement of these policies to private industry. (â€Å"Social Policy in the United Kingdom,† 2005) Welfare such as universal health care for all citizens was provided for the population as a whole, in the same way as public services like roads, and the school system was rendered more accessible to all, as students who distinguished themselves received government support for their educations. In an institutional system, welfare is not just for the poor: it is for everyone. † The Beveridge Report of 1942 proposed a system of National Insurance, based on three cornerstones, of equal family allowances, a national health service, and the goal of full employment-this created a new idea of natural human rights than had existed before in England, and settled the question of what constituted innate human rights for the next decades, until the event of Thatcherism in the 1980's. (â€Å"Social Policy in the United Kingdom,† 2005) Eventually, the Beveridge Report â€Å"became a major propaganda weapon, with both major parties committed to its introduction,† because of its popularity. During the war, the coalition government had already committed itself to full employment through free universal secondary education, and the introduction of family allowances, and the right to public housing for all in the form of such innovations council flats as part of the war effort, but unlike the United States social welfare policies during World War II, the British government made a commitment to retaining this philosophy and these formal institutions even after the end of conflict. â€Å"Social Policy in the United Kingdom,† 2005) After World War II, all references to the working classes were removed from British laws. â€Å"The replacement of the housing stock, particularly through clearances, became council housing's main role, with mass building. The subsidies favoured industrial, high-rise building, though this was often more expensive than the alternatives. Quantity was more important than quality. (Housing and Urban Policy,† 2005) When the Labour Government was elected in 1945 it introduced three key acts: the 1946 National Insurance Act, which implemented the Beveridge scheme for social security and old-age pensions, the National Health Service Act 1946; and the 1948 National Assistance Act, which abolished the Poor Law while making provision for welfare services such as housing. † (â€Å"Social Policy in the United Kingdom,† 2005) Thus, the United Kingdom became a unitary state in which central government substantially directed most government activity. However, during the 1980's and 1990's, the rise of Thatcherism began to bring a new ethos to the land. In terms of social housing policy, for example, â€Å"the growth of owner-occupation in Britain† based on tax advantages became more common in the 1980s and 1990s. The Building Societie once founded on a social, co-operative and non-profit making basis, became banks during these decades, abandoning the original â€Å"mutualist tradition† on which they had been founded. â€Å"Housing and Urban Policy,† 2005) In terms of health care, in the 1980s, Enthoven, an American economist, made an influential criticism of National Health Services' organization. Enthoven argued that the NHS was â€Å"inefficient, riddled with perverse incentives and resistance to change,† and in the need of capitalist styles of management. â€Å"The reforms which followed were based in the belief that the NHS would be more efficient if it was organised on something more like market principles. Enthoven argued for a split between purchaser and provider, so that Health Authorities could exercise more effective control over costs and production. The NHS administration was broken up into quasi-autonomous trusts from which authorities bought services. The role of Regional Health Authorities was taken over by eight regional offices of the NHS management executive. † (â€Å"Health Care,† 2005) The United Kingdom to this day retains the mangerial innovations (or setbacks) depending on one's point of view of the Thatcher era. Thatcher was unable to institute some politically unpopular and reactionary ideas, such as a poll tax, during the decline of her power, but the privitization of health care and housing continued, as did such policies as asking for students to pay for more of their post-secondary educations, and limiting social welfare policies within the United Kingdom. The welfare system in the United Kingdom remains universalist in theory, but less and less universalist in practice after the ending decades of the 20th century required the government to make cutting costs and competing in the global marketplace the bywords of political rhetoric and policy.

Annotated Biography Essays - Sport Club Do Recife, Sport

Annotated Biography Dayton, Kels. "Ask a Coach: Should I Specialize in One Sport in High School?"SportzEdge. News 8, 16 Sept. 2013. Web. 27 Dec. 2015. http://sportzedge.com/2013/09/16/ask-a-coach-should-i-specialize-in-one-sport-in-high-school-2/>. I used this article to support my claim that playing more than one sport in high school is good for athletes. You get a firsthand look at what college coaches look for from an actual college coach who knows about recruiting and has been doing so for 20 plus years. You also get examples of great athletes who played multiple sports in high school who are sports super stars such as LeBronJames Fakehany, Tom. "ONE-SPORT HIGH SCHOOL ATHLETES."1 Sport Athletes. 18 Dec. 1995. Web. 27 Dec. 2015. http://home.earthlink.net/tfakehany/1sport.html>. This article counters my claim that playing multiple sports is beneficial. The article states that even though schools support playing multiple sports focusing on one main sport is the best way to get recruited forthatsport.Frollo, Joe. "Playing Multiple Sports Builds Better Athletes." Playing Multiple Sports Builds Better Athletes. 24 Oct. 2014. Web. 27 Dec. 2015. http://usafootball.com/blogs/health-and-safety/post/8942/playing-multiple-sports-builds-better-athletes>. This article supports my claim that playing multiple sports will benefit more than hurt athletes in the long run. In the article there are examples of how playing multiple sports can help them develop duplicate skills to help them a better all-around athlete. "One Sport Athletes."High School Sports Stuff. 20 Jan. 2015. Web. 27 Dec. 2015. http://highschoolsportsstuff.areavoices.com/2015/01/20/one-sport-athletes/>. This article supports my claim that playing multiple sports is good.thearticle includes great points about skills picked from different sports that can be used in another sport. It also includes points about athletes who are not looking to be recruited, but who play for the fun of playing. Oz, M.D., Mehmet, and Michael Roizen, M.D. "Kids Should Play More Than One Sport."Newsmax. 8 Oct. 2014. Web. 27 Dec. 2015. http://www.newsmax.com/health/Dr-Oz/oz-dr-sports-children/2014/10/08/id/599330/>. This article supports my claim that playing multiple sports is good. The article includes facts from doctors about over repetitiveness from playing just one sport is a very high risk for injury. Satterfield,Lem. "Coaches Recognize Competitiveness in Players Who Play Multiple Sports."ESPN. ESPN Internet Ventures, 4 Oct. 2011. Web. 27 Dec.2015. http://espn.go.com/high-school/lacrosse/recruiting-road/story/_/id/7057666/coaches-recognize-competitiveness-players-play-multiple-sports>. This article supports my claim that playing multiple is very beneficial for athletes. In this article collegecoaches give their reasons for wanting to recruit multiple sport athletes because of their competitiveness. Wippel, Teresa. "Should Your Child Play Just One Sport?"-ParentMap. 1 Mar. 2007. Web. 27 Dec. 2015. https://www.parentmap.com/article/should-your-child-play-just-one-sport>. This depicts my claim that playing more than one sport is beneficial. The article includes points about the pressure being too much for kids to handle with doing more than one sport.

Communication class Movie Review Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Communication class - Movie Review Example This is very similar to the research conducted in which relationships develop when two individuals have similar interests or see each other on a regular basis. Clearly, the film illustrates that these two characters had much in common listening to the same music band, going to the same gym and frequenting the same bar. These similarities make building a relationship much easier as the relationship already has building blocks from which it can grow. However, there are several discrepancies in the film for relationship building as shown in the research. The largest discrepancy in the film for relationship development is the same ultimate plot conflict in which Janet was strategically placed in each environment she happened to meet up with Sam. With this happenstance, Sam grew the confidence to begin speaking with Janet repeatedly and eventually ask her on a date, which would last for over one year. However, this type of confidence is rarely found and conflicts with research for divorce es who typically find it difficult to make the first move. Relationship building does occur and is likely when individuals have similar interests, but Sam was not in a position to approach Janet due to his recent divorce. He was only dating women to try to deal with the pain and loneliness he was experiencing, but he legitimately had strong feelings for her from the first moment in the gymnasium.

Examining a Business Failure Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Examining a Business Failure - Essay Example In simple terms, business failure can be defined as a situation whereby a company or an organization ceases operations due to inability to make profit or because it can no longer be able to bring in sufficient revenue that can cover the expenses it incurs. Studies have shown that business failure can be caused by the following factors: increased competition; poor implementation of strategies; outdated technology; poor management; poor leadership; financial problems; and economic challenges (Hatch, 2006). In order to have a better understanding of business failure, this paper will discuss the failure of Enron Corporation. Enron Corporation was one of the leading players in the energy market; actually, in the year 2001, it was the United States ’ seventh Largest Corporation in terms of revenues (Mclean and Elkind, 2003). However, it suffered a catastrophic collapse as a result of financial scandal (famously known as Enron Scandal) which involved its accounting firm (Arthur Ander sen), Enron’s management and leadership. The scandal involved fraudulent accounting procedures and practices which occurred during the 1990s and the beginning of 21st century. These fraudulent activities included manipulation of the Enron’s stock price. This scandal eventually led the Corporation to file for bankruptcy in December 2001 (Fox, 2003). Robbins (2004) argues that whereas events leading to business failure of an organization often take different dimensions, the contribution of the organization’s management, leadership, and organizational structures towards the failure cannot be ruled out. As a matter of facts, he notes that this contribution is usually central to business failure in any given organization. So, how did Enron’s leadership, management, and organizational structures contribute to the failure of the organization? Fox (2003) observes that the trials relating to Enron scandal showed that, indeed, the Corporation’s leadership co ntributed to its failure. Enron executives were charged with criminal acts that include insider trading, money laundering, and fraud. What became clear was that the Corporation’s leadership only focused on influence, greed, power, and profits and paid little attention to the Corporation’s Code of Ethics (Mclean and Elkind, 2003). Their focus made them to make wrong and deceiving decisions, as well as conspiring with Arthur Andersen auditors to engage in illegal accounting activities and methods. Jeff Skilling, Ken Lay and Andrew Fastow are the most notable top-level leaders of Enron whose behaviours greatly contributed to the collapse of the Corporation (Fox, 2003). For example, Andrew Fastow who was the Corporation’s chief financial officer engaged in improper partnerships, fraud, and money laundering activities. Jeff Skilling engaged in conspiracy, insider trading, made false financial reports, and in fraud. Ken Lay made misleading statement and got involved i n fraudulent activities (Mclean and Elkind, 2003). As leaders of the Corporation, Fastow, Skilling, and Lay were expected to adhere to and uphold Enron Code of Ethics that called for integrity, excellence, communication, and respect. However, they engaged in activities that challenged the Corporations ethics code’s foundational values. The top leadership as well as the Corporation’s senior management contributed to the failure by attempting to create a conglomerate in the energy industry that was aimed at increasing the

Assessment does not stand outside teaching and learning but stands in Essay

Assessment does not stand outside teaching and learning but stands in dynamic - Essay Example Informal or regular assessment is usually followed in classrooms because teaching often consists of frequent switches in who speaks and who listens, and teachers make many of their decisions within one second. In such a rapidly changing environment, where teachers have to think on their feet and are denied the luxury of hours of reflection over each of their pedagogic choices, assessment has to be carried out on the move. That is why so much informal assessment is often barely perceptible as the flow of the lesson continues, since it is neatly interlaced with normal-looking instruction and activities. Indeed, many teachers would not even regard the common question, ‘Is anybody not sure what you’re supposed to do?’ as assessment, but it is, informing the teacher of which pupils might need individual help before starting on the task in hand. Bennett has explored a large number of theories relating to pupil learning, teaching and assessment, and believes these theories has a lot more to do mainly on psychology rather than teaching and learning, Bennett offers an explanation of the ambivalence sensed by teachers in their quest to identify these theories which effectively inform their practice. He advances the notion that theories take limited account of the complexities of classroom life. The potential value of such theories seems, therefore, to be marginalized by teachers. In citing Doyle's work, Bennett indicates that classroom environments are complex places in which teachers and pupils adapt to each other and where the created environment impacts on them both. The classroom environment is built by the way of communication between teachers and pupils. Doyle's model of classroom learning processes proceeds on the assumption that 'learning is a covert, intellectual activity which proceeds in the socially complex, potentially rich environment'. If this perspective relates to teachers' experiences in carrying out their role then there are clear restrictions to the applications of many theories of learning to teaching contexts. (Dunn, 2002) Identifying the prominence of complexity by no means excuses careful exploration of the issues. It is recognised that one of the aims of schooling is to promote pupil learning yet it is not all agreed about what should be prioritised to comprise such learning. Further more, there remains considerable disagreement as to how learning occurs. It might be said that since the adoption of the National Curriculum we are nearer to agreeing what should be learnt. However, the ways in which learning occurs seems to be rather side-tracked from what are identified as more pressing mechanisms for teaching curriculum content with the main aim of measuring and raising standards.

Strategic Leadership in a Changing World Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words - 2

Strategic Leadership in a Changing World - Essay Example As the research stresses internal factors refer to the internally based resources the organization own for instance assets, skilled labor personnel and financial outlay that give it the organization efficiency in operation. Strategic position enables the management to implement appropriate strategy that guides the credibility of decisions made to steer the company or organization maximum business output. According to the report findings strategic position analysis should be the relationship between three crucial factors that the management considers in making strategic decisions for an organization. These are the external environment, resource base and competences and stakeholders influence and ethical and cultural values of the organization, however arguments have been put forward to link effective strategic position analysis to incline more to external environment factors more than the organization’s internal resources. External environment has been emphasized because it evaluates macro market influence and micro market influence; macro market influence factors are such as technological factors, economic, political and social factors and micro market influences are industry related factors for instance customers satisfaction, suppliers, barriers to entry and competition. To understand the importance of strategic positioning analysis to an organization, the several three key factors are important; external environment, internally based resources and competencies and stakeholders influence and ethical cultural values of the organization.

Corporate Social Responsibility of IKEA company Essay

Corporate Social Responsibility of IKEA company - Essay Example 47). Consumption rate is expressed in terms of preference to the products and services and the way customers feel and perceive they can associate with the values of the organization or its cause. Pressure to be the best corporate citizen also emerges from the business consumers who buy the components as well as raw materials from the dealers and desire them to act in an ethically acceptable way and environmentally sound manner. This study analyses the case of IKEA’s corporate social responsibility initiatives, devotions and communications and relation to various stakeholders in the Soviet Union. IKEA as a company provides an amazingly rich case for analyzing CSR. IKEA is the biggest global firm dealing in furniture retail chains. The company has enjoyed the privilege of high profile marketing achievements. The retail turnover of the organization has risen up by about 400% in the past ten years (Porter and Kramer, 2006; p. 57). The business model of the firm is based on the concept of getting the control over tactical resources especially via logistical management of a network that consists of 1,500 dealers in 50 emerging and developing nations. The dealers assume the mediators and supply the materials straight to IKEA, which reduces the costs associated with retailers to enable the company to provide low cost furniture to the consumers. Nonetheless, the seeming elimination of the globe’s natural forest has led to a piling pressure on IKEA from various advocates of environment and its global outlook which has made it a spotlight of protesters of anti-globalization. Hence IKEA has included concerns of sustainability, in particular the CSR principles (Economist, 2005: p. 13). With approximately 298 retail stores in about 26 country outlets and 139, 000 employees across the globe, IKEA Group has continued to grow its services in wood sourcing, value chain sales to

Canadian National Health Plan Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Canadian National Health Plan - Assignment Example In carrying out the above research, it would require the researcher to analyze the two health plans in terms of coverage, care, and choice of doctors, an analysis that requires an understanding of the human behavior (Monette, Sullivan and Dejong 125). According to August Comte, the French philosopher whose ideas form the basis of the approach, true knowledge can be obtained by experiment and observation and is based on experiences of the senses. Positivist thinkers use this research approach as a way of generating knowledge, so it has to be understood within the framework of the assumptions and principles of science. All the knowledge available to humans came from positive information of experience that can be observed. One disadvantage of social research is that it is difficult to obtain repeatable and solid results as human beings are variable and complex species, thus leaving the positivist approach as the one best suited. Positivism roots lie in empiricism that works with facts that can be observed only. Its basic principle is that all knowledge that can be classified as facts is based on the positive information obtained from experience that can be observed (Monette, Sullivan and Dejong

English Lit Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3500 words

English Lit - Essay Example This is true to some extent, but again it cannot be generalized. This thesis statement can be more closely introspected if we give a thorough gaze and reviewing glance to the two great American autobiographies of the contemporary times. The two books taken into consideration are â€Å"The Autobiography of Malcolm X† by Malcolm X published in the year 1965 and â€Å"I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings† by Maya Angelou published in the year 1969. â€Å"The Autobiography of Malcolm X† cannot be granted as an Autobiography in its truest sense as it was written by Alex Haley during the years 1964 and 1965. According to Haley, the book was written on the basis of the interview conducted by Haley with the great historical figure Malcolm X and the interview was conducted shortly before his death. The book was published in the year 1965 with an epilogue just after the death of Malcolm. Here lies the greatest controversy on the fact and fiction. Times Magazine claims â€Å"The Autobiography of Malcolm X† as â€Å"one of the most important nonfiction books of the 20th century† (Gray, 1998). But an autobiography should depend on the testimony and not on documentation. Haley himself admitted in his documentary â€Å"Eyes on the Prize† about the difficulty of recording the life and experience of Malcolm X as he was averse to talking about personal issues and was more keen on discussing about the â€Å"Nation of Islam† (American Experience, n.d.). Again, in a more controversial document, historian Manning Marable claimed that just before writing the book, Haley had collaborated with FBI to produce misleading criticism on Malcolm and his Nation of Islam. This is again a possibility for the distraction of truth and will always remain open for controversies and criticism (Democracy Now!, 2005). â€Å"The Autobiography of Malcolm X† encapsulates the upbringing of Malcolm in Michigan and his experience of adulthood to the quest of maturity in the city of Boston and New York.

The Role of Human Activities in Causing Climate Change Essay Example for Free

The Role of Human Activities in Causing Climate Change Essay To begin with, climate change is a tangible problem and its existence can no longer be denied. It would be self-deception to believe that humans had nothing to do with it. Human activities along with natural influences continuously alter the climate of the Earth. However, the fact that near-surface temperature has rapidly increased on the global scale in the past few decades can hardly be accounted for by natural processes. In reality global warming is to a great extent caused by human activity, which has been proven by extensive scientific research (UN Environment Program). By burning coal, natural gas and oil, introducing harmful agricultural practices and destroying forests people make a significant negative impact on the state of the atmosphere, altering its composition irreparably. Reckless and irrational human activities caused the increase in the concentration of the so-called greenhouse gases, such as methane, carbon dioxide, ozone, chlorofluorocarbons and nitrous oxide, in the atmosphere (AGU Statement). Nowadays, the humanity fully depends on the energy provided by fossil fuels, such as oil, natural gas and coal. This energy feeds the industries, the transportation, generates electricity. However, obsequious use of fossil fuel leads to substantial emission of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. Agricultural needs condition changes in the landscape, deforestation, which in its turn leads to more carbon dioxide being emitted, as dead vegetation is never replaced by new growth that would counteract the emission. Currently deforestation is mostly characteristic of the tropical regions whereas re-growth in the northern hemisphere decreases the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere (UN Environment Program). There is reliable evidence of the fact that carbon dioxide buildup is due to human influences. Naturally emitted carbon dioxide differs in the nuclei structure from that produced by burning natural gas, oil and coal. Moreover, non-radioactive carbon dioxide emitted as a result of burning fossil fuels dilutes radioactive carbon dioxide naturally present in the atmosphere. Scientific research clearly shows that total carbon dioxide emission has increased steadily each year and is in direct relation with the human activities. The fact that the concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is greater in the Northern hemisphere can serve as evidence of it being human-induced, as most of the activities involving carbon dioxide emission are conducted in the Northern hemisphere. The fact that a certain amount of carbon dioxide has been added into the atmosphere every year has led to its present concentration, which exceeds pre-industrial level by 30% (AGU Climate Change Position). Besides carbon dioxide, human activities lead to the emission of another greenhouse gas – methane. Its emission results from cattle ranching, rice cultivation and decay in the landfills. An alarming 145% increase of methane content in the atmosphere was caused by human activities. The emission of chlorofluorocarbons used to be triggered by air conditioning and refrigeration, but since it was proved that these gases deplete the ozone layer of the stratosphere, their usage was nearly eliminated. Industrial and agricultural activities lead to the production of nitrous oxide, the concentration of which is currently 15% over the norm. Tropospheric ozone, formed naturally as a reaction to the greenhouse gas emissions, enhances the greenhouse effect dramatically (BBC News). The abovementioned human activities are extremely detrimental to the atmosphere as they create a multitude of tiny airborne particles, which change the energy absorbing and reflecting properties of the atmosphere. Unfortunately, according to the scientific research the increased concentration of carbon dioxide is likely to stay in the atmosphere for many years or even centuries.   Human-induced climate change is reality and the predictions of the scientists are such that it will produce a substantial impact on the climate system, being reflected in the melting of polar ice, changing of the sea levels as well as drought patterns (UN Environment Program). Anthropogenic interference seems to have reached unprecedented extent in the past few decades. According to AGU, the increasing concentration of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere enhanced by negative influence of other human activities presents serious grounds for concern (AGU Statement). The positive tendency nowadays is such that climate scientists possess deeper knowledge of the climate system, which allows to take more effective climate policy decisions.   Profound climate research, objective observations, improved modeling and computation have led to tangible progress in addressing the problem of climate change. The communication of scientific discoveries to organizations authorized to make decisions regarding climate change and their wise implementation are sure to decrease the adverse effects of human-induced disaster. In conclusion, there’s no denying the fact that climate change is largely due to human influences. The following human activities have contributed greatly to the alternation of the climate: air pollution, usage of fossil fuels and land alteration. However, now that the problem is obvious and so is its detrimental effect on the humanity, various measures are taken in order to decrease negative impact produced on nature and alleviate its harmful consequences. It is within the human powers to mitigate the climate change effects by cutting emissions of greenhouse gases, introducing rational land management and environmentally friendly technology. Works Cited How Do We Know that the Atmospheric Build-up of Greenhouse Gases Is Due to Human Activity? Common Questions about Climate Change. United Nations Environment Program World Meteorological Organization, 1997 http://www.gcrio.org/ipcc/qa/05.html Human Impacts on Climate. Adopted by Council December, 2003 http://www.agu.org/sci_soc/policy/climate_change_position.html Statement supporting AGU statement on human-induced climate change, American Astronomical Society, 2004 http://www.aas.org/governance/council/resolutions.php#climate Warming â€Å"very likely† human made. BBC News, BBC, 2007 http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/6321351.stm What Human Activities Contribute to Climate Change? Common Questions about Climate Change. United Nations Environment Program World Meteorological Organization, 1997 http://www.gcrio.org/ipcc/qa/04.html

Social Madia Initiative May Help Increase Organ Donation Essay Example for Free

Social Madia Initiative May Help Increase Organ Donation Essay A new social media initiative helped to boost organ donor registration rates, according to a new study published in the American Journal of Transplantation. The findings suggest that social media might be an effective tool for tackling a variety of problems related to public health in which communication and education are essential. It suggests that social media and social networks may be valuable tools in re-approaching refractory public health problems. (Cameron, A. M. et al. , 2013). Attitudes towards tissue and organ donation have been frequently investigated. Studies, mostly conducted in the United States and Western Europe, have shown that people generally hold positive attitudes towards tissue and organ donation, but only a small percentage of the population really decides to donate them. Many non-donors still hold favorable attitudes towards donor behavior and realize the need for transplants but lack to act upon those attitudes and knowledge. In such situations, a person’s behavior can be influenced by promotion through persuasive messages. A multidimensional conceptualization of donor attitudes was proposed, implying that attitudes towards donation are best represented by two dimensions: one referring to positive aspects and the other to negative consequences of donation. Positive emotions concerning organ donation mostly arise from feeling of pride in being a donor and from the belief in the humanitarian benefits of organ donation, whereas the negative dimension reflects fears of body mutilation and of receiving inadequate medical treatment when ones life is at risk. Parisi Katz, 1986). Concerning organ donation appeals was found that the most effective measure for increasing donation rates was informational message, followed by emotional message, and a message addressing fear. (McIntyre, P. et al. , 1987). Organ transplantation is the most preferred treatment modality for patients with end-stage organ disease. There is an inadequate supply of cadaver organs commensurate with need. Health-care professionals are the critical link in augmenting public awareness about organ donation. Their attitudes and beliefs can influence the public opinion. Another study aims at understanding the awareness, attitudes, and beliefs among the medical postgraduate students. There was a statistically significant correlation between attitudes, beliefs and demographics (Bapat, Kedlaya, Gokulnath, 2010). Suggestions are offered to improve measurement strategy and to guide theoretically based organ donation research within selected disciplines of psychology (Radecki Jaccard, 1997). New strategies are needed to encourage organ donation. Altruism, the impulse that underlies our present system, is undermined by proposals that provide tangible inducements to improve donation which are, in their own subtle ways, coercive (Landry, 2006). Introduction Although the problem of shortage of tissue and organs in Romania has been acknowledged and approached in various ways, no proper methodical research in donor behavior has been done or systematic effort to promote such behavior and increase the number of donors. The main aims of research might be 1) to assess attitudes, knowledge, and intentions regarding donor behavior; 2) to assess the attitudes of health professionals towards tissue and organ donation, as well as their intentions to ask people about donations; 3) to develop two separate persuasive flyiers, one designed especially for the community sample to promote donor behavior, and the other one designed for health professionals to improve their willingness to ask people to donate; and 4) to test the persuasive value and efficiency of the flyiers in inducing and increasing donor behavior. Methods The study may be carried out in two parts. In Study 1, we assess attitudes, knowledge, and intentions about tissue and organ donation of 200 randomly chosen persons from the population of the capital of Bucharest, Romania, as well as of 100 health professionals in different hospitals in Bucharest. We also assess the willingness of health care professionals to ask their patients whether they may be willing to donate their tissue and/or organs. On the basis of attitude and knowledge analyses, two types of tissue and organ donation promotional flyiers are developed: one intended for the community sample and the other for health professionals. The Study 2, may be performed a year later, the leaflets are presented to another group of 100 persons from Bucharest population and 50 health professionals. We compare attitudes, knowledge, and intentions of community sample and health professionals presented with leaflets vs those not presented with leaflets, and assess the persuasive power of the two types of promotional material developed. Hypothesis The community sample presented with the leaflet in Study 2 may show significantly more positive attitudes towards organ donation when compared with the group not presented with a leaflet in Study 1. For health professionals, the Study 2 group presented with a leaflet might show a tendency toward less positive attitudes but significantly more positive intention than those in Study 1 not presented with a leaflet to donate organs. Discussion Presentation of flyiers succeeded in producing a tendency toward more positive attitudes and intentions toward tissue and organ donation. Still, a single presentation is clearly insufficient to produce significant change in all variables attitudes, knowledge, and intentions. The presentation of persuasive flyiers could be successful in improving the attitudes towards tissue and organ donation and increasing the willingness to donate. Obviously, a single presentation of the persuasive material may not be enough to make significant improvement in attitudes or intention to donate. Longerterm promotional interventions should be investigated as a potentially efficient method for increasing donor behavior.

Human Resource Management Practices in Indian Companies

Human Resource Management Practices in Indian Companies Abstract Concepts associated with the resource-based view of the organization are increasingly finding their way into the strategic HRM debate. Human Resource consists of all the individual employees who contribute to the operations of an organization, whether they are employed fulltime, part-time, on a temporary or permanent basis. Human resource Management is more concerned with the people aspect in management. Since management involves getting activities completed well with the help of other people and every organization is made up of people, acquiring their services, developing their skills, motivating them to high levels of performance, and ensuring that they continue to maintain their commitments to the organization are essential to achieving organization are essential to achieving organizational objectives. This study examines how a developing country, and in particular, some selected Indian companies, construe Human Resource Management and whether it is used as a strategy in managing their organizations. It reflects on how organizations in India are influenced by variables that are different from those of their Western counterpart. In the process, this study analyses the meaning of Human Resource Management, the important of corporate culture and corporate strategy in shaping the organization. A questionnaire analysis of selected Indian companies was carried out, enlightening patterns of similarity and differences arising in its organizations. Following analysis, it was found that India. Is still on the verge of change and is still not capable of fully motivating its people. The process of liberalization and globalization necessitates for focus on the big population and means to utilize it to its fullest potential. Therefore, unless development agencies, government and non-government organizations are involved to penetrate the human resource development strategies, its real benefits will not build up. Consequently, the execution of human resource management requires an insight in to the understanding of its importance to Indian organizations. Hence, the evolution of Indian approach to human resource management will depend on an increase in the applicability of the American, European and Japanese approach to human resource management implemented in these organizations. Acknowledgement Chapter 1: Introduction 1. Introduction 1.1 Main Theme of The Topic The birth of the â€Å"Strategic Human Resource Management† (Strategic HRM) possibly took place less than 20 years ago with an article titled â€Å"Human Resources Management: A Strategic Perspective† (Devanna, Fombrum, Tichy 1981). In such a short time, however, an explosion has occurred in writing and research on Strategic HRM. In 1996 both Academy of Management Journal and Industrial Relations devote special issues to the topic of HRM practices and firm performance and in 1997 International Journal of Human Resource Management presented a special issue on Strategic HRM and firm performance. ‘The almost exponential growth of interest in understanding the strategic role that HRM can play in firm performance implies a mindset of â€Å"more, more, more† with regard to research on Strategic HRM. However, before we observe the basic call for more, more, more, perhaps we need to step back and reflect on where we’ve been, where we are, and where we need to be. Human Resource Management (HRM) is a term that, throughout the 1980’s and into the 1990’s has become more and more known to managers and management students. But a decade of getting used to has done too little to clarify exactly what HRM is, where it differs from traditional Personnel Management, and how important it will be for the future. The growth of HRM as a body of management thought in the 1980’s can be connected to a combination of socio-economic factors, in particular, changes in international contest, the reform of industrial sectors and organizations, and the rise of a improved confidence in the power of managers to manage. Under these conditions the contribution of human resources to the success of organizations has been emphasize through the champion of doctrines of ‘brilliance’, ‘quality’, ‘innovation’ and ‘entrepreneurship’. These developments placed the management of people firmly on the agenda and created the conditions for the emergence of a new-style theory of Personnel Management, bearing the brand HRM. Perhaps, there is an clear uncertainty that HRM can, or ever could, live up to the wider claims of its power to so totally transform the employment relationship that some of the intrinsic problems of managing a unstable set of employee issues can be resolved more satisfactorily than by approaches that have grown out of the historical development of Personnel Management. In large part such a reaction can be explained in terms of the gulf that appears to be between Personnel Management ‘on the ground’ and the rather more theoretical ‘strategic’ nature of a great deal of the discussion surrounding Human Resource Management. For Managers, already worn out by the ‘waves of change’, coping with technical innovation and economic shifts, there is a need to develop the contest necessary to manage their working futures (Morgan, 1988). Not only do they need to understand the nature of these changes, but they need also to make on an international perspective in order to manage in different cultures and with different customs. For many years there has been a general interest in the different production systems and management strategies adopted in Japan, the USA and Europe. Increasingly now attention is also focused on the people management systems, attempting to explain the differences in management technique and policies (Mansfield and Poole, 1981; Jacobs et al., 1987). There is therefore a need to understand how different cultures undertake Human Resource Management for what Doeringer (1981) calls ‘pragmatic’ reasons. That is, because there are lessons to be learned from other cultures and we need to control for cultural influences when examining solutions. To this can be added the further realistic and critical reasons that managers must now carry out their skills and technique in multicultural context, and achieve objectives internationally. In advanced economies like the United Kingdom and the USA companies, confronted by the Japanese competition and employment strategies coupled with recession and search for excellence have tended to change from Personnel to Human Resource Management or better still strategic Human resource Management. However, there are questions regarding the extent to which this has happened in the developing countries. In answering this question, one must consider the fact that Human Resource Management methods in developing countries will be highly influenced by psycho-economic variables which are considerably different from western countries. Workers are not forced enough and there is not enough stress put on their training, development, participation and the like. Resources are usually directed to serve the ruling best, then to be unfocused towards finding means and methods for better education, health, and safety for the work force. Women in most developing countries are still treated improperly and there is a lot of power distance between the employer and employee. But the future of Human Resource in developing countries is not miserable, as countries like India have started reallocating their resources towards this department and structures and systems are being set up to facilitate this. The biggest challenge for the developing world is therefore, to convert its vast human resource into chance and take them along in their march into the future. 1.2 Aims and objectives; Aims To critically evaluate strategic Human Resource Management practices In Indian Companies. Objectives: Critically assess and evaluate theories, concepts and models of SHRM given in the literature. To examine the nature of the context of HRM, the problematical nature of organizations in a developing country (like India). To examine the background to the growth of interest in India to HRM and the extent of HRM practice among Indian employers. To analyze the nature of the context of HRM, the problematical nature of organizations in a developing country (like India). Chapter 2: Research Methodology Research Design and Methodology As I have used a survey-questionnaire approach to gather data. The study is based on two stage sampling design. In the first step, Indian organizations were chosen randomly from the national capital region of India. In the second step, the organizations, top, middle and senior level managers in HR or who were line managers were randomly selected to fill in the questionnaires. From this sample of 40 managers a total of 12 questionnaires were filled in. A total of 28 questionnaires returned were either incomplete or the managers refused to oblige. The scope of the study has been limited to managers from the industries in the national capital region of India. The organizations from which the managers responded spanned the multinational companies. Research instruments Human Role Assessment Survey Questionnaire (Conner and Ulrich, 1996) was administered on the sample. Participants were asked to refer to the HR professionals in their business entity and rate the current quality of each activity. This study discusses the methodology and the approach that the researcher followed for the completion of this study. In order for the aims of the project to be fulfilled it is necessary to acquire knowledge of the practices of Human Resource Management within Indian Companies. The research was done with a phenomenological approach. It is so called because it is based on the way people experience social phenomena in the world that they live. This method has its own merits and demerits. On one hand it facilitate the understanding of how and why, it make possible for the researcher to be alive to the changes that occur during the research process, and this method is good for understanding social processes. On the other hand there are certain limitations such as, data collection can be time consuming, data analysis is difficult, and the research has to live with the hesitation that clear patterns may not emerge (Saunders, Lewis Thornhill, 1997). The snapshot view was taken for the companies being analyzed through questionnaires and the literature looked into the development of the HRM techniques through time in the developing countries with special emphasis on India. In order to talk to the objectives of the research, secondary information was collected from books, journals, magazines and newspapers, etc. the research tries to consider the performing areas upon which any form of strategic HRM depends, it describes the current state of the Human Resource Management and Personnel Management in India and tries to evaluate its level of operation to determine whether it is a strategic tool for shaping corporate strategy. This study is thus, descriptive as well as exploratory and concentrates more on qualitative approach. Basically there are two types of research methods, quantitative and qualitative. Quantitative research uses technique based on the principles of physical sciences. Statistical methods are used then to test fixed theory. Quantitative research is also prepared to provide a linear progress from problem to solution. According to Smith (1988) the scientist spends time observing the actions and groups of people. Thus the researchers simply observe without making and value judgments after which the researcher explains the observed behavior. The qualitative data is based on meanings expressed through word. . It results in collection of non-standardized data that requires classification, and is analyzed through the use of conceptualization. Quantitative research then goes from observation to theory, then to testing. However, according to motley (1986) this order is often violated and studies are attacked because they do not follow the conventional chain of events. He goes on further to criticize studies for lacking a strong theoretical basis from which to operate. Yet, quantitative researchers fail to realize the position they put themselves in when they do this. Quantitative research however comes with advantages and disadvantages. Its main advantage is that it gives out quantifiable data, which needs to be generalized sometimes. Also, its greater weakness is that it does not account for human behavior, which is not quantifiable, but significant to find the objectives of the research. In compare, qualitative methods are entirely different, reluctant to more on analysis and are less prone to try and measure every aspect of the study. Qualitative research tends to produce rich intense data, relating to small numbers of people, as opposed to vast standardized data relating to large numbers. Qualitative studies are mainly about people’s subjective interpretations of complex situations. Burrell and Morgan (1979) call this the â€Å"interpretive paradigm†. There is little need to quantifying every detail in qualitative research because it’s not worried about prediction and control (Lindlof, 1995). Nonetheless, this does not mean that qualitative research is not practical. It includes the understanding of the researcher and the subjects of the research. Researchers using the qualitative approach make systematic observations and work to say something meaningful about their chosen topic doing it in a particular way (Buttny, 1993). However, it’s arguable that qualitative methods are more effective when trying to research relationships between people in organizations (Walker, 1985 p.3) There was a limitation as qualitative data analysis is very monotonous and conclusion from such data is subject to debate and might be unfair by individual’s viewpoint (Gill and Johnson, 1997). Questionnaires (appendix 1) were used for collecting the primary data from the companies. The company were selected in India random and questionnaires were sent to them to identify the extent to which Human Resource Management is practiced and its perceived usefulness in improving the efficiency of organizations. Despite, their difference research approaches qualitative and quantitative research seen to share similar characteristics. Both of them use a structure which allows researchers to make performance. Furthermore, they both use interpretation to observe initial results of a course of research. However, qualitative differs greatly in relation to data gathering. Nevertheless, the analysis of qualitative data is highly personalized. Obviously the analysis of the researcher is extremely likely personalized. Obviously the analysis of the researcher is extremely likely to affect the outcome of the researcher. This raises the question of validity and reliability in qualitative research. The basis for these differences lies in the purpose of the research. Quantitative research is intended to be in charge of the topic being studied enabling the researcher to know the content of his or her data before it is even collected. Researchers undergoing qualitative approach of research do not worry with every measurable detail. â€Å"Fundamentally, qualitative researchers seek to preserve the form and content of human behavior and analyze its qualities, rather than subject it to mathematical or formal transformation’s (Lindlof, 1995). Basically, qualitative researchers strive for an agreement on phenomenon. According to Kaplan and Maxwell (1994) the goal for understanding a phenomenon from the point of view of the participants is largely lost when textual data is quantified. Thus its come be seen that qualitative methods rise above most of the shortcomings of quantitative methods. Qualitative research strives to bring depth to a phenomenon that quantitative methods lack. Collection of Data Secondary Data In order to address the objectives of the research, secondary data was collected from books, journals, magazines, newspapers, embassies etc. Secondary data is information which has been collected, collated and analyzed by others for other purposes, while primary data is information collected as part of a particular research because it is considered relevant to the study and research problem (Ghauri et al, 1995:54-57, Riley et al 2000:107). In addition, the following secondary sources that can also be important for any kind of research including the researcher’s study can also come in the form of: Central and local government studies and reports, census reports, State budgets, rules on international trade regarding imports and exports, and policies on the foreign direct investment. Studies and reports of institutions and departments such as the central bureau of statistics, universities, telecommunications departments, marketing and other research institutes, chambers of commerce and foreign missions such as embassies, trade centers and consulates. Academic as well as organizational journals and newsletters pertinent to the problem area. In many countries, different branch organizations publish journals on statistics regarding their own industry, the development of a particular discipline or problem area. Textbooks and other published material directly or indirectly related to the problem area. And lastly, theses and reports written by other students in our own university and in other schools and universities are the best guide line for the student. Many schools keep an up-to-date record of all these written in different disciplines. This is perhaps the most important secondary source at the earlier stages of our research process. They provide us with insight not only into our problem area, but also into the other sources mentioned above. The reason for using secondary data is because it’s very advantageous in terms of saving time and money. It also not only helps me to prepare and understand the research problem better, but it also extends the base for which scientific conclusions can be drawn. Another advantage of consulting secondary data is that it suggests suitable methods or data to handle a particular research problem. According to Churchill (1987:181) ‘Do not bypass secondary data. Begin with secondary data, and only when the secondary data exhausted or show retreating returns, proceeds to primary data.† In addition to secondary data, primary data is equally essential for more insight into the company being researched on. There are several choices regarding the means of collecting primary data. Usually, this includes observations which entails listening and watching other people’s behavior in a way that allows some type of analytical interpretation used to collect first-hand information in a natural setting to interpret and understand the observed behavior or situation more accurately; surveys (questionnaires) and interviews which are the most popular data collection method in business studies. Primary Data The researcher also collected primary data in addition to the secondary data in forms of case studies, unstructured interviews, and participant observation with few respondents. Other includes observations, surveys (questionnaires) and interviews by mail, phone, and personal contact. Surveys and questionnaires are the most popular data collection method in business studies. The most valid research method for the major part of the study was considered to be the interview. Interviews can be differentiated according to the level of structure and standardization adopted: a structured interview being one where a predetermined and standardized or a formal set of questions is adhered to, an unstructured interview does not follow any prearranged process; a semi-structured interview will normally contain an element of both. The advantage of a semi-structured interview is that it enables a disciplined approach to be taken without constraining or inhibiting the responses by the rigidity imposed by a totally structured interview (Elliott and Christopher 1973). Chisnall (1986) stressed that the interaction between the interviewer and the respondent contributes greatly to the success of the interviewer. ‘The intellectual atmosphere of an interview is at least as important as the mechanics of the interview processes. However with this study, the researchers also focused on using questionnaires which are said to be descriptive and analytical as my form of primary data to gain information related to India , initially in Indian organization to identify the extent of which Human Resource Management is practiced and its perceived usefulness in improving the efficiency of Keane and other related organizations. An experience survey approach which is a qualitative information collection technique used in marketing was is a qualitative information collection technique used in marketing was in attempts to tap the knowledge and experience survey approach which is a qualitative information collection technique used in marketing was used in attempts to tap the knowledge and experience of those familiar with the general subject being investigated in addition to identifying the current phenomena. Surveys involve questions of some sort and are important for collecting people’s opinions and needs. It also helped the researcher acquire information quickly with relatively minimal expense and effort from a relatively large number of respondents. The qualitative research is often focused on social process. It is thus common in social and behavioral sciences and those who want to understand human behaviors and functions suitable for studying organizations, groups and individuals (Strauss and Corbin, 1990). Furthermore, descriptive surveys are often used to obtain consumer attitudes towards a certain product and to ascertain views and opinion of employees in an organization (Reeves and Harper, 1981). These surveys will thus help researchers understand the behavior of employees in regards to motivation, job satisfaction and grievances in relation to how human resource management is acknowledged in their company and their view towards HRM practices in India generally. However, in addition to helping the researcher with their study, surveys also help these various organizations understand the expectations and requirements of their customers as well as employees, develop service or product based on the standards as well as employees, develop service or product based on the standards of their required findings: determine how well the organization are satisfying requirements both within the company and outside and finally establish goals and access how well to meet these goals. Special care was taken for designing the questionnaire: questionnaire focus, questionnaire phraseology, the form of response, and question sequencing and overall presentation. Questionnaire were designed in order to gain an in depth knowledge of Human Resource activities in organizations and for a remedy of reality. There are factors which have limited to be unaware about the real meaning of Human resource Management and so most were not very co-operative, as they thought that allowing this type of research would identify some of their weaknesses, which would in turn threaten their competitiveness. The results of the questionnaire survey will be analyzed in depth, but it is important to first point some of the methodological problems that were faced during the course of this study. However, it is safe to note that the greatest drawback under the exploratory study lies where the findings may seem credible enough to be released incorrectly as conclusions. Further downside includes the tendency to extend the exploratory phase, and inadequate representation of diversity. A few problems arose during this research due to time and distance limit. As all the questionnaires were sent to various parts of India, the time was too short and limited for data gathering, the result of which led to the waiting for more replies from such companies. The distance makes it difficult to keep in touch with the companies in order to get a response, in terms of phone calls, which would be very expensive, and the postal questionnaires are very time consuming. Similarly, there were many companies which did not respond to the questionnaires, probably since they did not see Human Resource Management as an integral issue in organizational building and strategy. Thus was quite discouraging for study being carried out. Another probable reason could have been that the companies did not bother posting the questionnaire back at their own expense, or they might not have been able to understand the purpose of the study clearly just by looking at the questionnaire and thus they did not feel like responding. In order to minimize problems of this sort, it is important for the leaders of developing countries, like India, to become more involved and encourages managers of companies to contribute to the betterment of the Human Resource Management by actively participating in the studies like this. This is important as the research is not only academically viable but also potentially useful to them. It may also be necessary to extend the time allotted for this type of study. At the time of writing up this study, there was in fact a response from only companies, and thus the results from these companies can only be analyzed. The companies that responded were from small size, thus the result of this study may possibly be gender, at the companies were selected at random. Chapter 3: Literature Review Background Theory Literature Review Background Theory 3.1 Introduction Nowadays, it is a common belief in both the business and the academic world that â€Å"the human resources of an organization can be a source of competitive advantage†, provided that the policies for managing people are integrated with strategic business planning and organizational culture (Beer, Spector, Lawrence, Quinn, Mills, Walton, 1985).There is a incredible pressure to an organization to perform their duties properly with the rate of the rapid changes taking place. Accordingly organization change such as association, new ways of handing over works, high changing rate in workforce and employee’s capabilities and priorities is observe in the past. Human resource management has become a invasive and influential approach to the management of employment in a wide range of market economies. As a result, the analysis and evaluation of HRM have become major themes in academic, policy and practitioner literatures. Good human resource management entails recruiting and hiring the best employees and getting the most out of them through effective training and supervision. Human resource management helps in identifying key skills sets, knowledge and valued required in the employee. Through manpower planning the management determines its human resource needs and implements plans to address them. Any assessment of the emergence of Human Resource Management has, at least, to take account of this changing context of employment and provide some explanations as to the relationships that exits between the contribution HRM has made to some of these changes on the one hand and, on the other hand, the impact that such changes have had on the theory and practice of HRM itself. (Beardwell and Holden, 1994: 5). An analysis of data relating to the question of a link between Strategic Human Resource Management (SHRM) and performance reveals there is uncertainty as to the direction of the link. Can better performing organizations attribute their good performance to the quality of their HRM or is the standard of their performance due to other factors? The quality of HRM might be an outcome of performance rather than a contributing factor to that performance. There are questions about the meaning of a strategic approach to HRM. What makes an organization’s approach to HRM ‘strategic’ and is there a satisfactory method of differentiating between an approach to HRM that might be considered strategic or one that is not seen to be strategic? As organization restructure, human resources tend to decrease in quantities but increase in quality and in their value to organizational effectiveness. Investing in the development of these valued resources make sense. Most of the companies in developing countries invest in new technology, new machinery, new plant to increase productivity because better models have been developed but we need to develop our own ‘better models’ in human resource area A strategy is a course of action. It shows how the enterprise will move from the business it is now to the business it wants to be in, given its opportunities and threats and its internal strength and weaknesses. Strategic human resource management means formulating and executing HR systems that produce the employee competencies and behaviors the company requires to achieve its strategic aims. The high-performance work system is designed to maximize the overall quality of human capital throughout the organization, and provides a set of benchmarks against which today’s HR manager can compare the structure, content, and efficiency and effectiveness of his or her HR system. Increased in international competition due to newly emerging multinationals and divisional organization has given new scope of management particularly Human Resource Management .India has also woken up to the reality that human resources management is key factor for the better performance of an organization . Its is an ultimate goal an ambition to organization to perform their duty perfectly can only seen in developed countries like UK and USA . The organizational change and development have become a part of working life. 3.2 Meaning of Human Resource Management HR include all the individual employees who contribute to the operations of an organization in any means of form either temporary or permanent basis. (Thompson and Mabey ,1994) It process of getting work done with help of people in efficient manner . It includes planning ,organizing, leading and controlling to make work done till the end task. To manage an organization the common factor taken in consider are goal, limited resource and people. The basic infrastructure of any business is the human capital. Human resource management, therefore, is one of the most important and recognized functions in the industry today. There is more pressure on HR to deliver, develop, and retain employees recognizing the importance of human capital. In today’s world of technological advancement, human resource is the only factors, which differentiate the true potential of an organization. Human resource management is the process of coordinating an organization’s human resources, or employees to meet organizational goals. Some of the challenges today in human resource management are maintaining a diverse workforce, dealing with major technological changes, keeping up the government regulations, and handling corporate restructuring, and downsizing, Human resource professional deals with areas such as: Employee recruitment and selection Performance evaluation Compensation and benefits Professional development Safety and health Forecasting labor relations The smooth version of HRM emphasizes the importance of high commitment, workplace learning and enlightened leadership. Most normative HRM models, whether US or British, assert that the organization’s Human Resource are valued assets, not a variable cost, and emphasize the commitment of employees as a source of competitive advantage (Legge, 1989) By contrast, the difficult version of HRM emphasizes the calculative, quantitative and strategic management aspects of managing the workforce in a balanced way (Store Human Resource Management Practices in Indian Companies Human Resource Management Practices in Indian Companies Abstract Concepts associated with the resource-based view of the organization are increasingly finding their way into the strategic HRM debate. Human Resource consists of all the individual employees who contribute to the operations of an organization, whether they are employed fulltime, part-time, on a temporary or permanent basis. Human resource Management is more concerned with the people aspect in management. Since management involves getting activities completed well with the help of other people and every organization is made up of people, acquiring their services, developing their skills, motivating them to high levels of performance, and ensuring that they continue to maintain their commitments to the organization are essential to achieving organization are essential to achieving organizational objectives. This study examines how a developing country, and in particular, some selected Indian companies, construe Human Resource Management and whether it is used as a strategy in managing their organizations. It reflects on how organizations in India are influenced by variables that are different from those of their Western counterpart. In the process, this study analyses the meaning of Human Resource Management, the important of corporate culture and corporate strategy in shaping the organization. A questionnaire analysis of selected Indian companies was carried out, enlightening patterns of similarity and differences arising in its organizations. Following analysis, it was found that India. Is still on the verge of change and is still not capable of fully motivating its people. The process of liberalization and globalization necessitates for focus on the big population and means to utilize it to its fullest potential. Therefore, unless development agencies, government and non-government organizations are involved to penetrate the human resource development strategies, its real benefits will not build up. Consequently, the execution of human resource management requires an insight in to the understanding of its importance to Indian organizations. Hence, the evolution of Indian approach to human resource management will depend on an increase in the applicability of the American, European and Japanese approach to human resource management implemented in these organizations. Acknowledgement Chapter 1: Introduction 1. Introduction 1.1 Main Theme of The Topic The birth of the â€Å"Strategic Human Resource Management† (Strategic HRM) possibly took place less than 20 years ago with an article titled â€Å"Human Resources Management: A Strategic Perspective† (Devanna, Fombrum, Tichy 1981). In such a short time, however, an explosion has occurred in writing and research on Strategic HRM. In 1996 both Academy of Management Journal and Industrial Relations devote special issues to the topic of HRM practices and firm performance and in 1997 International Journal of Human Resource Management presented a special issue on Strategic HRM and firm performance. ‘The almost exponential growth of interest in understanding the strategic role that HRM can play in firm performance implies a mindset of â€Å"more, more, more† with regard to research on Strategic HRM. However, before we observe the basic call for more, more, more, perhaps we need to step back and reflect on where we’ve been, where we are, and where we need to be. Human Resource Management (HRM) is a term that, throughout the 1980’s and into the 1990’s has become more and more known to managers and management students. But a decade of getting used to has done too little to clarify exactly what HRM is, where it differs from traditional Personnel Management, and how important it will be for the future. The growth of HRM as a body of management thought in the 1980’s can be connected to a combination of socio-economic factors, in particular, changes in international contest, the reform of industrial sectors and organizations, and the rise of a improved confidence in the power of managers to manage. Under these conditions the contribution of human resources to the success of organizations has been emphasize through the champion of doctrines of ‘brilliance’, ‘quality’, ‘innovation’ and ‘entrepreneurship’. These developments placed the management of people firmly on the agenda and created the conditions for the emergence of a new-style theory of Personnel Management, bearing the brand HRM. Perhaps, there is an clear uncertainty that HRM can, or ever could, live up to the wider claims of its power to so totally transform the employment relationship that some of the intrinsic problems of managing a unstable set of employee issues can be resolved more satisfactorily than by approaches that have grown out of the historical development of Personnel Management. In large part such a reaction can be explained in terms of the gulf that appears to be between Personnel Management ‘on the ground’ and the rather more theoretical ‘strategic’ nature of a great deal of the discussion surrounding Human Resource Management. For Managers, already worn out by the ‘waves of change’, coping with technical innovation and economic shifts, there is a need to develop the contest necessary to manage their working futures (Morgan, 1988). Not only do they need to understand the nature of these changes, but they need also to make on an international perspective in order to manage in different cultures and with different customs. For many years there has been a general interest in the different production systems and management strategies adopted in Japan, the USA and Europe. Increasingly now attention is also focused on the people management systems, attempting to explain the differences in management technique and policies (Mansfield and Poole, 1981; Jacobs et al., 1987). There is therefore a need to understand how different cultures undertake Human Resource Management for what Doeringer (1981) calls ‘pragmatic’ reasons. That is, because there are lessons to be learned from other cultures and we need to control for cultural influences when examining solutions. To this can be added the further realistic and critical reasons that managers must now carry out their skills and technique in multicultural context, and achieve objectives internationally. In advanced economies like the United Kingdom and the USA companies, confronted by the Japanese competition and employment strategies coupled with recession and search for excellence have tended to change from Personnel to Human Resource Management or better still strategic Human resource Management. However, there are questions regarding the extent to which this has happened in the developing countries. In answering this question, one must consider the fact that Human Resource Management methods in developing countries will be highly influenced by psycho-economic variables which are considerably different from western countries. Workers are not forced enough and there is not enough stress put on their training, development, participation and the like. Resources are usually directed to serve the ruling best, then to be unfocused towards finding means and methods for better education, health, and safety for the work force. Women in most developing countries are still treated improperly and there is a lot of power distance between the employer and employee. But the future of Human Resource in developing countries is not miserable, as countries like India have started reallocating their resources towards this department and structures and systems are being set up to facilitate this. The biggest challenge for the developing world is therefore, to convert its vast human resource into chance and take them along in their march into the future. 1.2 Aims and objectives; Aims To critically evaluate strategic Human Resource Management practices In Indian Companies. Objectives: Critically assess and evaluate theories, concepts and models of SHRM given in the literature. To examine the nature of the context of HRM, the problematical nature of organizations in a developing country (like India). To examine the background to the growth of interest in India to HRM and the extent of HRM practice among Indian employers. To analyze the nature of the context of HRM, the problematical nature of organizations in a developing country (like India). Chapter 2: Research Methodology Research Design and Methodology As I have used a survey-questionnaire approach to gather data. The study is based on two stage sampling design. In the first step, Indian organizations were chosen randomly from the national capital region of India. In the second step, the organizations, top, middle and senior level managers in HR or who were line managers were randomly selected to fill in the questionnaires. From this sample of 40 managers a total of 12 questionnaires were filled in. A total of 28 questionnaires returned were either incomplete or the managers refused to oblige. The scope of the study has been limited to managers from the industries in the national capital region of India. The organizations from which the managers responded spanned the multinational companies. Research instruments Human Role Assessment Survey Questionnaire (Conner and Ulrich, 1996) was administered on the sample. Participants were asked to refer to the HR professionals in their business entity and rate the current quality of each activity. This study discusses the methodology and the approach that the researcher followed for the completion of this study. In order for the aims of the project to be fulfilled it is necessary to acquire knowledge of the practices of Human Resource Management within Indian Companies. The research was done with a phenomenological approach. It is so called because it is based on the way people experience social phenomena in the world that they live. This method has its own merits and demerits. On one hand it facilitate the understanding of how and why, it make possible for the researcher to be alive to the changes that occur during the research process, and this method is good for understanding social processes. On the other hand there are certain limitations such as, data collection can be time consuming, data analysis is difficult, and the research has to live with the hesitation that clear patterns may not emerge (Saunders, Lewis Thornhill, 1997). The snapshot view was taken for the companies being analyzed through questionnaires and the literature looked into the development of the HRM techniques through time in the developing countries with special emphasis on India. In order to talk to the objectives of the research, secondary information was collected from books, journals, magazines and newspapers, etc. the research tries to consider the performing areas upon which any form of strategic HRM depends, it describes the current state of the Human Resource Management and Personnel Management in India and tries to evaluate its level of operation to determine whether it is a strategic tool for shaping corporate strategy. This study is thus, descriptive as well as exploratory and concentrates more on qualitative approach. Basically there are two types of research methods, quantitative and qualitative. Quantitative research uses technique based on the principles of physical sciences. Statistical methods are used then to test fixed theory. Quantitative research is also prepared to provide a linear progress from problem to solution. According to Smith (1988) the scientist spends time observing the actions and groups of people. Thus the researchers simply observe without making and value judgments after which the researcher explains the observed behavior. The qualitative data is based on meanings expressed through word. . It results in collection of non-standardized data that requires classification, and is analyzed through the use of conceptualization. Quantitative research then goes from observation to theory, then to testing. However, according to motley (1986) this order is often violated and studies are attacked because they do not follow the conventional chain of events. He goes on further to criticize studies for lacking a strong theoretical basis from which to operate. Yet, quantitative researchers fail to realize the position they put themselves in when they do this. Quantitative research however comes with advantages and disadvantages. Its main advantage is that it gives out quantifiable data, which needs to be generalized sometimes. Also, its greater weakness is that it does not account for human behavior, which is not quantifiable, but significant to find the objectives of the research. In compare, qualitative methods are entirely different, reluctant to more on analysis and are less prone to try and measure every aspect of the study. Qualitative research tends to produce rich intense data, relating to small numbers of people, as opposed to vast standardized data relating to large numbers. Qualitative studies are mainly about people’s subjective interpretations of complex situations. Burrell and Morgan (1979) call this the â€Å"interpretive paradigm†. There is little need to quantifying every detail in qualitative research because it’s not worried about prediction and control (Lindlof, 1995). Nonetheless, this does not mean that qualitative research is not practical. It includes the understanding of the researcher and the subjects of the research. Researchers using the qualitative approach make systematic observations and work to say something meaningful about their chosen topic doing it in a particular way (Buttny, 1993). However, it’s arguable that qualitative methods are more effective when trying to research relationships between people in organizations (Walker, 1985 p.3) There was a limitation as qualitative data analysis is very monotonous and conclusion from such data is subject to debate and might be unfair by individual’s viewpoint (Gill and Johnson, 1997). Questionnaires (appendix 1) were used for collecting the primary data from the companies. The company were selected in India random and questionnaires were sent to them to identify the extent to which Human Resource Management is practiced and its perceived usefulness in improving the efficiency of organizations. Despite, their difference research approaches qualitative and quantitative research seen to share similar characteristics. Both of them use a structure which allows researchers to make performance. Furthermore, they both use interpretation to observe initial results of a course of research. However, qualitative differs greatly in relation to data gathering. Nevertheless, the analysis of qualitative data is highly personalized. Obviously the analysis of the researcher is extremely likely personalized. Obviously the analysis of the researcher is extremely likely to affect the outcome of the researcher. This raises the question of validity and reliability in qualitative research. The basis for these differences lies in the purpose of the research. Quantitative research is intended to be in charge of the topic being studied enabling the researcher to know the content of his or her data before it is even collected. Researchers undergoing qualitative approach of research do not worry with every measurable detail. â€Å"Fundamentally, qualitative researchers seek to preserve the form and content of human behavior and analyze its qualities, rather than subject it to mathematical or formal transformation’s (Lindlof, 1995). Basically, qualitative researchers strive for an agreement on phenomenon. According to Kaplan and Maxwell (1994) the goal for understanding a phenomenon from the point of view of the participants is largely lost when textual data is quantified. Thus its come be seen that qualitative methods rise above most of the shortcomings of quantitative methods. Qualitative research strives to bring depth to a phenomenon that quantitative methods lack. Collection of Data Secondary Data In order to address the objectives of the research, secondary data was collected from books, journals, magazines, newspapers, embassies etc. Secondary data is information which has been collected, collated and analyzed by others for other purposes, while primary data is information collected as part of a particular research because it is considered relevant to the study and research problem (Ghauri et al, 1995:54-57, Riley et al 2000:107). In addition, the following secondary sources that can also be important for any kind of research including the researcher’s study can also come in the form of: Central and local government studies and reports, census reports, State budgets, rules on international trade regarding imports and exports, and policies on the foreign direct investment. Studies and reports of institutions and departments such as the central bureau of statistics, universities, telecommunications departments, marketing and other research institutes, chambers of commerce and foreign missions such as embassies, trade centers and consulates. Academic as well as organizational journals and newsletters pertinent to the problem area. In many countries, different branch organizations publish journals on statistics regarding their own industry, the development of a particular discipline or problem area. Textbooks and other published material directly or indirectly related to the problem area. And lastly, theses and reports written by other students in our own university and in other schools and universities are the best guide line for the student. Many schools keep an up-to-date record of all these written in different disciplines. This is perhaps the most important secondary source at the earlier stages of our research process. They provide us with insight not only into our problem area, but also into the other sources mentioned above. The reason for using secondary data is because it’s very advantageous in terms of saving time and money. It also not only helps me to prepare and understand the research problem better, but it also extends the base for which scientific conclusions can be drawn. Another advantage of consulting secondary data is that it suggests suitable methods or data to handle a particular research problem. According to Churchill (1987:181) ‘Do not bypass secondary data. Begin with secondary data, and only when the secondary data exhausted or show retreating returns, proceeds to primary data.† In addition to secondary data, primary data is equally essential for more insight into the company being researched on. There are several choices regarding the means of collecting primary data. Usually, this includes observations which entails listening and watching other people’s behavior in a way that allows some type of analytical interpretation used to collect first-hand information in a natural setting to interpret and understand the observed behavior or situation more accurately; surveys (questionnaires) and interviews which are the most popular data collection method in business studies. Primary Data The researcher also collected primary data in addition to the secondary data in forms of case studies, unstructured interviews, and participant observation with few respondents. Other includes observations, surveys (questionnaires) and interviews by mail, phone, and personal contact. Surveys and questionnaires are the most popular data collection method in business studies. The most valid research method for the major part of the study was considered to be the interview. Interviews can be differentiated according to the level of structure and standardization adopted: a structured interview being one where a predetermined and standardized or a formal set of questions is adhered to, an unstructured interview does not follow any prearranged process; a semi-structured interview will normally contain an element of both. The advantage of a semi-structured interview is that it enables a disciplined approach to be taken without constraining or inhibiting the responses by the rigidity imposed by a totally structured interview (Elliott and Christopher 1973). Chisnall (1986) stressed that the interaction between the interviewer and the respondent contributes greatly to the success of the interviewer. ‘The intellectual atmosphere of an interview is at least as important as the mechanics of the interview processes. However with this study, the researchers also focused on using questionnaires which are said to be descriptive and analytical as my form of primary data to gain information related to India , initially in Indian organization to identify the extent of which Human Resource Management is practiced and its perceived usefulness in improving the efficiency of Keane and other related organizations. An experience survey approach which is a qualitative information collection technique used in marketing was is a qualitative information collection technique used in marketing was in attempts to tap the knowledge and experience survey approach which is a qualitative information collection technique used in marketing was used in attempts to tap the knowledge and experience of those familiar with the general subject being investigated in addition to identifying the current phenomena. Surveys involve questions of some sort and are important for collecting people’s opinions and needs. It also helped the researcher acquire information quickly with relatively minimal expense and effort from a relatively large number of respondents. The qualitative research is often focused on social process. It is thus common in social and behavioral sciences and those who want to understand human behaviors and functions suitable for studying organizations, groups and individuals (Strauss and Corbin, 1990). Furthermore, descriptive surveys are often used to obtain consumer attitudes towards a certain product and to ascertain views and opinion of employees in an organization (Reeves and Harper, 1981). These surveys will thus help researchers understand the behavior of employees in regards to motivation, job satisfaction and grievances in relation to how human resource management is acknowledged in their company and their view towards HRM practices in India generally. However, in addition to helping the researcher with their study, surveys also help these various organizations understand the expectations and requirements of their customers as well as employees, develop service or product based on the standards as well as employees, develop service or product based on the standards of their required findings: determine how well the organization are satisfying requirements both within the company and outside and finally establish goals and access how well to meet these goals. Special care was taken for designing the questionnaire: questionnaire focus, questionnaire phraseology, the form of response, and question sequencing and overall presentation. Questionnaire were designed in order to gain an in depth knowledge of Human Resource activities in organizations and for a remedy of reality. There are factors which have limited to be unaware about the real meaning of Human resource Management and so most were not very co-operative, as they thought that allowing this type of research would identify some of their weaknesses, which would in turn threaten their competitiveness. The results of the questionnaire survey will be analyzed in depth, but it is important to first point some of the methodological problems that were faced during the course of this study. However, it is safe to note that the greatest drawback under the exploratory study lies where the findings may seem credible enough to be released incorrectly as conclusions. Further downside includes the tendency to extend the exploratory phase, and inadequate representation of diversity. A few problems arose during this research due to time and distance limit. As all the questionnaires were sent to various parts of India, the time was too short and limited for data gathering, the result of which led to the waiting for more replies from such companies. The distance makes it difficult to keep in touch with the companies in order to get a response, in terms of phone calls, which would be very expensive, and the postal questionnaires are very time consuming. Similarly, there were many companies which did not respond to the questionnaires, probably since they did not see Human Resource Management as an integral issue in organizational building and strategy. Thus was quite discouraging for study being carried out. Another probable reason could have been that the companies did not bother posting the questionnaire back at their own expense, or they might not have been able to understand the purpose of the study clearly just by looking at the questionnaire and thus they did not feel like responding. In order to minimize problems of this sort, it is important for the leaders of developing countries, like India, to become more involved and encourages managers of companies to contribute to the betterment of the Human Resource Management by actively participating in the studies like this. This is important as the research is not only academically viable but also potentially useful to them. It may also be necessary to extend the time allotted for this type of study. At the time of writing up this study, there was in fact a response from only companies, and thus the results from these companies can only be analyzed. The companies that responded were from small size, thus the result of this study may possibly be gender, at the companies were selected at random. Chapter 3: Literature Review Background Theory Literature Review Background Theory 3.1 Introduction Nowadays, it is a common belief in both the business and the academic world that â€Å"the human resources of an organization can be a source of competitive advantage†, provided that the policies for managing people are integrated with strategic business planning and organizational culture (Beer, Spector, Lawrence, Quinn, Mills, Walton, 1985).There is a incredible pressure to an organization to perform their duties properly with the rate of the rapid changes taking place. Accordingly organization change such as association, new ways of handing over works, high changing rate in workforce and employee’s capabilities and priorities is observe in the past. Human resource management has become a invasive and influential approach to the management of employment in a wide range of market economies. As a result, the analysis and evaluation of HRM have become major themes in academic, policy and practitioner literatures. Good human resource management entails recruiting and hiring the best employees and getting the most out of them through effective training and supervision. Human resource management helps in identifying key skills sets, knowledge and valued required in the employee. Through manpower planning the management determines its human resource needs and implements plans to address them. Any assessment of the emergence of Human Resource Management has, at least, to take account of this changing context of employment and provide some explanations as to the relationships that exits between the contribution HRM has made to some of these changes on the one hand and, on the other hand, the impact that such changes have had on the theory and practice of HRM itself. (Beardwell and Holden, 1994: 5). An analysis of data relating to the question of a link between Strategic Human Resource Management (SHRM) and performance reveals there is uncertainty as to the direction of the link. Can better performing organizations attribute their good performance to the quality of their HRM or is the standard of their performance due to other factors? The quality of HRM might be an outcome of performance rather than a contributing factor to that performance. There are questions about the meaning of a strategic approach to HRM. What makes an organization’s approach to HRM ‘strategic’ and is there a satisfactory method of differentiating between an approach to HRM that might be considered strategic or one that is not seen to be strategic? As organization restructure, human resources tend to decrease in quantities but increase in quality and in their value to organizational effectiveness. Investing in the development of these valued resources make sense. Most of the companies in developing countries invest in new technology, new machinery, new plant to increase productivity because better models have been developed but we need to develop our own ‘better models’ in human resource area A strategy is a course of action. It shows how the enterprise will move from the business it is now to the business it wants to be in, given its opportunities and threats and its internal strength and weaknesses. Strategic human resource management means formulating and executing HR systems that produce the employee competencies and behaviors the company requires to achieve its strategic aims. The high-performance work system is designed to maximize the overall quality of human capital throughout the organization, and provides a set of benchmarks against which today’s HR manager can compare the structure, content, and efficiency and effectiveness of his or her HR system. Increased in international competition due to newly emerging multinationals and divisional organization has given new scope of management particularly Human Resource Management .India has also woken up to the reality that human resources management is key factor for the better performance of an organization . Its is an ultimate goal an ambition to organization to perform their duty perfectly can only seen in developed countries like UK and USA . The organizational change and development have become a part of working life. 3.2 Meaning of Human Resource Management HR include all the individual employees who contribute to the operations of an organization in any means of form either temporary or permanent basis. (Thompson and Mabey ,1994) It process of getting work done with help of people in efficient manner . It includes planning ,organizing, leading and controlling to make work done till the end task. To manage an organization the common factor taken in consider are goal, limited resource and people. The basic infrastructure of any business is the human capital. Human resource management, therefore, is one of the most important and recognized functions in the industry today. There is more pressure on HR to deliver, develop, and retain employees recognizing the importance of human capital. In today’s world of technological advancement, human resource is the only factors, which differentiate the true potential of an organization. Human resource management is the process of coordinating an organization’s human resources, or employees to meet organizational goals. Some of the challenges today in human resource management are maintaining a diverse workforce, dealing with major technological changes, keeping up the government regulations, and handling corporate restructuring, and downsizing, Human resource professional deals with areas such as: Employee recruitment and selection Performance evaluation Compensation and benefits Professional development Safety and health Forecasting labor relations The smooth version of HRM emphasizes the importance of high commitment, workplace learning and enlightened leadership. Most normative HRM models, whether US or British, assert that the organization’s Human Resource are valued assets, not a variable cost, and emphasize the commitment of employees as a source of competitive advantage (Legge, 1989) By contrast, the difficult version of HRM emphasizes the calculative, quantitative and strategic management aspects of managing the workforce in a balanced way (Store