Thursday, October 31, 2019

Study of Efficient Market Hypothesis 04012 Essay

Study of Efficient Market Hypothesis 04012 - Essay Example ns that the bubbles in prices of assets are not possible nor does EMH deny that behavioural and environmental features cannot have deep influences on the required risk premiums and rates of returns (Timmermann and Granger, 2004). EMH declares that shares are constantly traded at their reasonable value, therefore making it impracticable for the investors to purchase the undervalued shares or sell shares for overstated or inflated prices (Borges, 2010). According to this, it may be impossible for the investors to outperform the entire market through market timing or expert share selection. So, the only means for the investor to receive higher or advanced returns is through buying riskier investments. There are three forms of efficiency i.e. weak-form, strong and semi-strong form of efficiency (Morningstar, 2015). In the efficiency of weak-form, it is not possible to predict the future price by analysing the past prices and the surplus returns cannot be received by employing the investment strategies which is based on the historical data (Gupta and Basu, 2011; Moustafa, 2004). In the semi-strong efficiency, stock prices are adjusted to the publicly accessible new information (Ma, 2004). However, the technical o r fundamental analyses are not able to consistently produce surplus returns. In the efficiency of strong-form, share prices reveal all information, private and public and no individual or company can earn surplus returns (Chau and Vayanos, 2008). The most influential argument against EMH is that the securities markets have frequently experienced excessive bubbles. When the market bubble exploded, internet associated stocks lost almost 90% of their value. The related mispricing of securities which are mortgage-backed had excessive consequences for the financial institutions as well as for the economy of entire world. Critics have deemed these incidents to be evident cases of the market inefficiency. The continuation of bubbles in the prices of assets is

Monday, October 28, 2019

Those Silly Magazine Advice Essay Example for Free

Those Silly Magazine Advice Essay A man and his girlfriend were married. It was a large gathering. All of their friends and family came to witness the lovely ceremony and partake of the festivities and celebration. A few months later, the wife came to the husband with a proposal that they would read a magazine for couples, for their marriage to be strengthened. The next morning, they decided they would share each other’s listed annoyances. As the wife started reading her list, her husband was crying. When it was the man’s turn, the wife was touched because he don’t have anything in his list. In life, there are enough times when we are disappointed, depressed and annoyed. We don’t really have to go looking for them. We have a wonderful world that is full of beauty, light, and promise. Reference: Kong, Francis J. (2003). The Early Bird Catches the Worm but the Second Mouse Gets the Cheese: Those Silly Magazine Advice. Philippines: Success Options Inc. In a major university a professor of economics gave a tst to his class. The test had several sections of questions, each of which contained three categories. He instructed the students to choose one question from each section. The first category in each section was worth 50 points. The second category was not quite as hard as worth 4 points. The third category, the easiest, was worth only 30 points. When the students had taken the test and turned in the papers, the students who had chosen the hardest questions, or the 50-point questions, were given A’s. The students who had chosen the 40-point questions were given B’s, and those who chose the 30-point questions, or the easiest questions, were given C’s. Whether or not their answers were correct was not considered. The students were confused and asked the professor how he had graded the exam. The professor leaned back and with a smile explained, â€Å"I wasn’t testing your knowledge. I was testing your aim.† Reference: Kong, Francis J. (2003). The Early Bird Catches the Worm but the Second Mouse Gets the Cheese: Testing Your Aim. Philippines: Success Options Inc.

Saturday, October 26, 2019

Employee Involvement and Participation in Service Industry

Employee Involvement and Participation in Service Industry INTRODUCTION The paper will discuss employee involvement and participation in the service industry with reference to Canary Wharf GBK. The paper starts with the objective of the research and ends with the conclusion and recommendation of the research. Employee involvement is a very important programme to utilize the tacit knowledge of the employees to increase commitment and performance with a limited cost. This paper will discuss different types and models of employees involvement and their benefit and limitations. The research start with the secondary research through collected theories to write the literature reviews to build the base of the research. In the literature reviews, it has explained views of different writer on employees involvement. The literature reviews includes types of involvement, models of employees involvement and management support for employees involvement Further, this research includes a methodology where the research strategy, approach, data collection and sample of the research are outline. Research methodology is crucial, as it is giving the researcher ways to conduct the primary research. The research is base on a case study and the data collection methods are interviews and a survey. In the third section the researcher, outline the finding of interviews and survey. In this research, there are three interviews and one survey conducted by the researcher. The participants in the interviews are the managers and the respondent in the survey are the employees of the organisation. Finally, in the last section the researcher presented analysis and conclusion of the research. In the analysis, the data collected from the research has been tested with the theories of literature. The research concludes with a brief conclusion where the result of the research has discussed. In the end, the researcher gives recommendation and discusses the scope, limitation, and interesting issue of the research. Research objectives are Critically analyse the importance of employee involvement as outlined in the literature review that includes its importance in recession. Evaluate Gourmet Burger Kitchen employee involvement strategy in the light of the research finding and theoretical literature. Discuss the benefits and limitations of Employee involvement. Benchmark the GBK canary wharf case study with other restaurant. Reason for choosing this topic The purpose of this study is to investigate the methods of effective involvement of the employees in a company where the researcher is working. Employees are the most valuable assets of a company. Employee involvement is important as it can result in empowerment and democracy in the organisation. This may result in increased motivation to take more responsibility (Judge and Gennard (2005). In this current economic situationwhen the confidence of the employees is low, EIP can motivate the employees to deliver good customer services, which can eventually result in improved profitability. The researcher aims to explore the role of employee involvement in the hospitality industry where the employees turn over is highest. The researcher is presently working at GBK and has accessto conduct interviews and surveys. Furthermore, the researcher is interested in opening a business in India that is why the researcher has chosen this topic. PART ONE LITRETURE REVIEW Definition of employee involvement Employees, the strongest pillar of the organization are the most valuable asset that contributes significantly to its success and prosperity. According to Price (2004), the involvement of employees in the organizational operation not only motivates them but also enables them to contribute more effectively and efficiently. Further, he explains employee involvement as a process involving participation, communication, decision making which leads to industrial democracy and employee motivation. Further CIPD (2009) explain employee involvement as a commitment of the employees towards the values of the organisation and willingness to help each other to achieve the organisational goal. The results are not only to increase job satisfaction, or motivation but the increasing performance of that organisation. In short, employee involvement is creating an environment where people have a continuous impact on decisions and actions that affect their jobs. Employee involvement Vs participation Understanding and defining the concept Employee involvement and employee participation are like two sides of a coin. Both are supplementary to each other and existence of one depends on the other. There is not any significant difference between the two terms. Participation is an act of sharing information and the meaning of involvement is the day-to-day activity of the organization. Many writers have contributed towards the development of this thought of employee involvement or participation. For example Delaney (1996) had used the term participation as a voice of the employee in the decision making process and to describe different types of involvement of employee in the organizations affair. But very few writers tried to find the difference between the two concepts. Kale (1999) argues that participation is any organizational arrangement under which employees have some sort of share in some aspect of the business which is not specific types of employee involvement. Furthermore Ang (2002) has contributed towards the development of the difference between the two terms and concluded that, Employee involvement calls for participation which is all about sharing information, training, mutual decision making process whereas traditional participative managementviews participation as a part of other organizational process. Marching ton et al. (1993) have used employee participation in a different context and as an umbrella term covering all forms of employee influence in the organization. Employee involvement is used to describe managerially inspired initiatives aimed at winning employee commitment, as part of the practices of industrial democracy, whose aim is to increase the rights of employees to participate in management decisions. This not only results in enhanced employee morale but also retaining the potential manpower resulting in lower attrition rate. Many writers have contributed differently and each one of them has different approach to the concept and the context. Employee involvement was and is still known and referred to by different writers under such headings as participative management, employee participation, and worker involvement. Employee involvement and empowerment The concept of employee involvement is incomplete without it being associated with employee empowerment. According to Cunningham and Hyman (1999) there cannot be a single or simple definition of empowerment as some writers see empowerment as a recent development after increase employee involvement. Further Apostolouain (2000) explains that empowerment is the next step of employee involvement means where the employees have the power to take decisions. Blanchard et al. (1999) has defined its scope referring it as a means for involving team members as business partners in determining company success or failure. The real essence of which comes from releasing the knowledge, experience, and motivational power that is already in people but is being severely underutilized. In short it can be said that employee involvement leads to empowerment of the employees in different management decision process. Importance of Employee involvement The increasing competition and technological changes in the last 20 years have demanded higher skills and flexibility from the employees for the organisation. Walton (1985) stated that the highly competitive environment needs a different strategic approach to manage the employees. He further stated that in order to achieve that the jobs needs to be broader. The jobs structure should be made with proper planning and implementation to improve the performance unless just to maintain it. This situation leads to formation of teams, which are accountable for the performance. Employee involvement not only maintained the standard of the operation process but gives emphasis on continuous improvement and it is reflecting the requirement of the market place. Further Marchington (2001) argues that the employee involvement come into focus in the early 90s when the employer looking for a participative way to manage the work force. Judge and Gennard (2005) further outline the other important aspect of employee involvement is the increases job security of the employees by offering them priority in training and retraining. The training equipped them with the skill and knowledge that the job demands. Greater employee commitment leads a growing expectancy to better job satisfaction and performance. It is difficult for the organisation in current business scenario to improve the performance without employee commitment towards the organizations mission and objective. Employee involvement allows the employee to input their views and ideas on performance and the quality of the service. This will lead the development where the employees want to be part of successful organisation, which provides them a good income and opportunity to enhance their skills for a secure employment. Grates (2009) stated that the engaged employees significantly contributes to the success of the organisation to achieve the goal and objective. H e further said that employee involvement could give competitive advantage in the market. It can help to reduce turnover and increase the productivity. An industrial services survey conducted in 1999 on 49 organisations experiences on employee involvement over the period of 1991-1999 has reported that more then 33% people believe that it enhanced employee commitment and motivation. The same number of people believes that it is really help to improve the relationship between the employee and the employer. Approximately 60% people said that the quality of the product and the services has improved. More then 50% believe that their job satisfaction had increased and the organisational profit has increased. Importance of employee involvement in recession The world has seen its worst recession since 1930s and most of the world economies are fighting against it. The economic crisis forces the employers to introduce cost-cutting measure and one of them is redundancies. According to an article HR focus (2009) most of companies in the world complete the lay offs of employees. Now the big question is how this organisation can use the most of the remaining employees. The other important question is how the company survive and can increase their performance in this difficult time. One of the measures that the organisation uses to give confidence to their employees is greater emphasis on employee involvement and participation scheme. According to Frauenheim (2009) the importance of employee involvement is more crucial in this difficult environment of economic trouble. As it is revels by many experts that worker commitment is more important then before as the confidence of the employees are badly hit by the lay offs. Haters stated that its the employees help that improving the situation during this economic turmoil as employee involvement can give the sense of value to the employees and can increase the job security. Juile Gebauer managing director of Towers Perrin believe that the company must give more attention to employee involvement to survive and performing good in recession as his organization found there is direct link between performance and involvement. Low employee satisfaction or confidence may results poor customer services and in recession where customers are very reluctant to spend, companies can not afford bad customer service. In this difficult time companies have to be more efficient to attract more customers to surviveand customer service isof the tool to do that. It is found that EIP can increase employee satisfaction which can lead better performance Types of employee involvement Employee involvement practices/ approaches According to Ang (2002) the idea of employee involvement is still developing although there is large amount of research done in the last decade still there is not any developed ways to use employee involvement as a management approach. The management approach depends how the employer wants to involve their employee in different operation. According to Lawler et al (1998) the most important factor of employee involvement approaches is how it can represent comprehensively in the process of problem solving, sharing information, rewards for performance and developing knowledge and ideas. He further says that in order to implement these practices the organization needs a particular employee involvement program. Traditional versus current perspective There is a significant difference between the current and the traditional way of employee involvement and participation. According to Gary and Sisson (1994) the traditional way is mostly indirect participation and limited direct participation. Further indirect participation includes trade union and work council and direct participation was limited to improve the quality of the work to counter turnover and absenteeism. He further explains that current employee participation is more direct as it concern with improve the performance of the organization that can be linked with the objective of the organization like customer satisfaction. The types of jobs in the current environment is changing as more and more company recruiting part time employees and they need to adopt different strategy to involve them in the process. Representative participation According to Apostolou (2000) one of the main ways to achieve representative participation is joint consultation where employees elected representative to discuss with the management on various issues which concern them. These processes give the employees an opportunity to influence the proposal before it is finally made. Further Judge and Generd (2004) explain that, joint consolation involves seeking acceptable solutions to problem through a genuine exchange of views and information .Employee communication is concerned with the interchange of information and ideas within an organization. Direct, indirect and financial participation In 1999 Oosthuizen and du Toit classify the employee involvement and participation practice as direct, indirect and financial. Direct participation is the communication between the management and the employees regarding different function of the organization like decision making process to problem solving. Whereas in indirect participation the employees are involve through their representatives who are elected leaders. Financial participation is the economic participation of the employees in the success or failure of the organization through share ownership, profit sharing scheme. Marchington et al (1992) talk of direct and indirect employee participation practices the direct participation consist of downward communication from management to employees which includes team briefing, workplace wide meeting ,staff newsletters and cascading of information down via the management chain. Downward Communication from Managers to Employees According to Marchington et al (1992) the downward involvement technique is used to inform employees of management plans. The management can use different ways to do that. Regular and continuous distribution of the company reports, journal, company publication and videos are the effective way to inform employees about the development of the company. Team briefing and regular team meeting is another ways for the top management to aware the employees about the organization news and development. Upward involvement Marchington et al (1992) explain the other way of direct communication which are upward problem solving communication practices and that includes suggestion schemes, employee attitude surveys, and employee groups established to solve specific problems or discuss aspect of performance or quality and suggestion scheme. Further Taily et al (2003) outline the importance of employees attitude survey and it can be done through questionnaire to a sample of employees to find out their views about different factors of the work. He further explain that formal processes like suggestion scheme can be put forward to find out employees thinking on different issues like quality improvement to enhance performance. Financial participation Financial participation is one of the best direct and tangible forms of employee involvement. The financial participation allows the employee to be a part of the financial success and failure of the organization. This will encourage the employees to show greater commitment and encourage them to take extra responsibility.Further, it is argued that a financial stake gives employees increased enthusiasm for the success of the organization. In its most developed form employee share ownership means that employees become significant shareholders in the business or even their own employer (Judge and Gennard, 2005). Financial employee involvement scheme can be carried out in three ways and that is profit sharing, profit related pay and share ownership. Profit sharing According to Judge al (2004) profit sharing methods can help to build a motivated and committed workforce. Further Taily et al (2004) explains that these schemes encourage employees to work as a team rather then individual as the rewards for working together is more then working individually. Profit sharing scheme ensure that employees benefit from an organization that makes profits. Profit related pay Taily et al (2003) explains that profit related pay scheme where employer rewards the employees for their contribution to the business. Further he outlines that it works where a group of people get pay to the profit of the business for their work. This kind of scheme generally found in the sales business where there is bonus for achieving the target. This scheme can increase the motivation and commitment of the employees. Share ownership Judge et al (2004) stated that latest way of financial participation of the employees is share ownership where the employees are owner of some part of the company through share. It means that they have shareholders right. Further Apostolou (2000) stated that it produces interest among the employees about the company matters. In UK one of 5 employees have share ownership in their company .This kind of schemes seeks long term commitment from the employees and its take the employee involvement in a new stage where employees are promoting to some part of the ownership of the company. Owing share makes the employees more motivated and committed as the loss or the profit directly have an impact on them. Task based participation Task based participation is mainly to the job and an integral part of day-to-day life. It is all about perform the task in the same level or higher level, which can be managers or supervisor. Team working and self management Teamwork one of the important ways of employee involvement described by Pfeiffers (1998) as it is one of the seven key HRM practise. It allows employees to take extra responsibility for the task, without direct supervision, to have discretion over work method and time, to multi skill and to recruit team members. Managerial control is at it most subversive and effective when employees take on responsibility for peer surveillance (Marchington and Wilkinson (1998 Benefit of Team working Team meeting benefit both the employer and the employees. Through introducing team working the employer can improve productivity, customer service, cost cutting. In addition the employers can spread the ideas and be competitive in the market by improving the performance. Further its increase the employees motivation to extra responsibility and care for the organization. Team working is benefited for the employees as well as the outcome of team working are greater job satisfaction and motivation. Service industry characteristics and customer driven attitude or orientation is suits team working (Wilkinson et al 1998).Cully et al (1999) claim that team working participation is used in two third of the British industries. In order to introduce team working the organization needs skillful management and resources. Employee Involvement Model Psychological contracts First used in 1960s the psychological contract became very popular following the development in the world economy like globalization and economic crisis in 1990s.It is described as mutual obligations without any written contract between the employee and the employer. As it is not a written contract these obligations are informal and imprecise and are made in the requirement process or in the performance appraisal. Some obligation is seen as a promise whereas others are term as an expectation. The important part of that is the belief by the employees to be part of good relationship with the employer (CIPD, 2009). The difference between the legal contract and psychological contract can be easily distinguished. Legal contract is a paper sign contract between the employee and the employer which represent the limited reality of the employment. The nature and importance of that can be found in an employment tribunal. On the other hand Psychological contract is more influential than the formal contract as it is affecting the employee behavior. This contract helps the employee to understand the requirement to represent their side and bargain and what they can expect from the job. The contract is based on mutual trust and understanding and cant be enforceable as it is not a legal one (CIPD2009). Professor David Guest (2002) of Kings College London outlines the importance of psychological contracts and what it can offer to the employee and the employer. The model suggests that the importance of employer to adopt people management as it is directly influence the psychological contract .The contract is based on mutual trust and fairness of the employee and the belief that the employer is respecting the deal between them. Further he explains that positive psychological contract increase employee commitment and satisfaction which results increase performance. Limitation of psychological contract The main problem with Psychological contract arises when it is broken by management by not delivering the promises. This can leads to low job satisfaction, low morale and dispute between the employee and management. The employees are feeling cheated if the promise like rewards, training is not fulfilled or negative feedback from the managers about the work. Another limitation could be emerging when the company merges or restructure and the employees concerns are not listened to, this can raise dissatisfaction among the employees. What Psychological contract is important? The nature of the jobs changed dramatically in the last 20 years and there are more temporary and part time jobs available and the people do not have a permanent future in that company, they need to build a relationship with the management to secure their future. The cost of labor is increasing and most of the organization wants to work more with less employees makes the jobs more hectic stressful. Human resources are becoming more critical to get competitive advantage by their tacit and explicit knowledge. Team work culture is increasing. Finally positive psychological can result in high efficiency. Black box model People, Performance link In order to understand the importance or significance of employee involvement and participation it is really important to understand the people and performance link. A research team lead by Professor John Purcell (2003) at Bath University carried out an investigation on people and performance link called as black box model. In that they have carried out interviews in 18 organizations which lasted over three years. In the interview with the managers the aim is to collect the information regarding their attitudes, level commitment, views about the job, team and reporting relationship. There information had been investigating in depth the relationships between practice and performance to develop understanding of the nature and mechanics of the relationship. After analyzing the data the team develops the people and performance model famously called as black box model. These models found that the people management creates the building blocks of performance and that are ability, motivation and opportunity. As in the figure shows Purcell make four pillars to describe the people performance link. The first pillar is the human resources; the second is the AMO factors which is with the help of the line management in pillar three can result in employee commitment, job satisfaction and motivation which can finally lead to discretionary behavior. Further he explains that ability is the willing to learn new skill and apply and recognized, motivation assume that the use of ability in an effective way and finally opportunity assume the involvement of the employees in different operation like problem solving and the decision making process. These factors like ability, motivation and opportunity are very important as they are directly related to job satisfaction and commitment of the employees. It will encourage the employee to exhibit discretionary behavior which means the way doing the job like in speed, care and innovation. These activities are the heart of the employment relationship as it is very difficult for the employer to monitor all the activities in an organization. This behavior makes the performance of the organization to a next level with greater job satisfaction and better performance. (CIPD, 2009). Role of line managers According to Judge and Gennard (2005) the main reason of the failure of employees involvement is the attitude of the middle and lower management. The middle and lower management fail to support the scheme as they think they will lose power to control employees Further a research done by CIPD the role of line managers are the most important to implement the employee involvement and practice. Line managers are constantly in the communication with the employees. The line managers are the best person in explaining the variation in both job satisfaction and discretionary behavior as it one of the most important factors in order to developing commitment in the organization .The managers can encages employees towards their jobs and make them responsible for their jobs. The line managers can evaluate the performance through performance appraisal and motivates them by introducing more bonuses for better performance (CIPD, 2009). Organization culture According to CIPD (2009) it is found that the practice and performance is highly influenced by the organization environment. The practice performance link depends on the origination goal mission statement which must influence by the values the organizations stands for. And want to achieve in the future. The goal or the mission is very important for employee commitment. The goals or the mission should be spread throughout the organization to embed that in the policies of the organization. These values encourage employees to achieve new height in their jobs. This will motivate them as they are feeling valued and that eventually result in better performance. Comparison between Psychological contract and black box model Black box model is a medium for creating the atmosphere that reinforces psychological contract through the power of line managers. While psychological contract is a state of mind that already exists between the management and the employees. Implementation of employee involvement schemes Different organization operates differently so it is very important to understand that the schemes good for one organization may be not appropriate for the other one. There are few factors that are really important in order to successfully implement the schemes. The factors are good employee relations, the organization culture and the top management support, monitoring and reviewing and resources. Good employee relation Judge and Gennard (2005) explains that good employee relation is the basic need in order to implement employee involvement scheme as it is very important to motivate the employees and the management to take part in the process. The management and the employees must be open in their attitude and behavior. The scheme cant be successful in a case of dispute between them. Employee involvement can gain and develop in the background of trust and motivation among the management and the employees. Commitment by the top management The most importance factor regarding the success of employee involvement is the support of the top management. It is the top management who can encourage employee involvement and participation. According to Lawler et al (1995) it is essential, as employee involvement needs the management support to develop and smooth implementation without any obstacle. It is the management responsibility to introduce EI through suggestion programs and problem solving teams. The management can give more training to the employees to increase their skills and when they believe that the employees are knowledgeable and more skilled they can involve them in different organization function through EIP. This can leads to introduce reward and recognition for better performance to encourage employee involvement. Further Judge et al (2005) explain that the management must be keeping the momentum after the introduction of the scheme. This will develop trust and motivation among the employees and the employees feel the seriousness of the management about the scheme. Any inconstant management behavior in the workforce involvement can put the scheme in trouble as the employees will de motivates and questioning the management commitment about the scheme. According to Apostolou(2000) there are four important actions the management needs to take to run the scheme successfully and those are trust the employees and give them more responsibility, always updating the training programme to train the employees about the recent change in the business and technology the third action is effective communication and regular feedback of the work. This is the most crucial one as its shows the management seriousness about the scheme and that can motivate the workforce. Finally introducing of rewards and recognition for good work really helps to increase the commitment of the employees. Free flow of information is another important aspect of employee involvement. The management must provide information about the company through different sources to their employees .But the management should be careful to provide too much or too little information as it may create confusion among the employees. The role of leader is even more crucial in the time of recession and economic turmoil where the environment is not conducive for employee involvement because of lay offs. According to Day(2009) the roles of leader is more important then before as it is not possible for them to maintain the same employee involvement scheme if the company is not getting profit. The leadership should be aware the workforce the reason behind the lay off and must use the most remaining talent. The leadership must regain the confidence of the employee by regular informing about the company progress and make them understand about the difficult time. By giving more seriousness on employee involvement the management can help the organizat Employee Involvement and Participation in Service Industry Employee Involvement and Participation in Service Industry INTRODUCTION The paper will discuss employee involvement and participation in the service industry with reference to Canary Wharf GBK. The paper starts with the objective of the research and ends with the conclusion and recommendation of the research. Employee involvement is a very important programme to utilize the tacit knowledge of the employees to increase commitment and performance with a limited cost. This paper will discuss different types and models of employees involvement and their benefit and limitations. The research start with the secondary research through collected theories to write the literature reviews to build the base of the research. In the literature reviews, it has explained views of different writer on employees involvement. The literature reviews includes types of involvement, models of employees involvement and management support for employees involvement Further, this research includes a methodology where the research strategy, approach, data collection and sample of the research are outline. Research methodology is crucial, as it is giving the researcher ways to conduct the primary research. The research is base on a case study and the data collection methods are interviews and a survey. In the third section the researcher, outline the finding of interviews and survey. In this research, there are three interviews and one survey conducted by the researcher. The participants in the interviews are the managers and the respondent in the survey are the employees of the organisation. Finally, in the last section the researcher presented analysis and conclusion of the research. In the analysis, the data collected from the research has been tested with the theories of literature. The research concludes with a brief conclusion where the result of the research has discussed. In the end, the researcher gives recommendation and discusses the scope, limitation, and interesting issue of the research. Research objectives are Critically analyse the importance of employee involvement as outlined in the literature review that includes its importance in recession. Evaluate Gourmet Burger Kitchen employee involvement strategy in the light of the research finding and theoretical literature. Discuss the benefits and limitations of Employee involvement. Benchmark the GBK canary wharf case study with other restaurant. Reason for choosing this topic The purpose of this study is to investigate the methods of effective involvement of the employees in a company where the researcher is working. Employees are the most valuable assets of a company. Employee involvement is important as it can result in empowerment and democracy in the organisation. This may result in increased motivation to take more responsibility (Judge and Gennard (2005). In this current economic situationwhen the confidence of the employees is low, EIP can motivate the employees to deliver good customer services, which can eventually result in improved profitability. The researcher aims to explore the role of employee involvement in the hospitality industry where the employees turn over is highest. The researcher is presently working at GBK and has accessto conduct interviews and surveys. Furthermore, the researcher is interested in opening a business in India that is why the researcher has chosen this topic. PART ONE LITRETURE REVIEW Definition of employee involvement Employees, the strongest pillar of the organization are the most valuable asset that contributes significantly to its success and prosperity. According to Price (2004), the involvement of employees in the organizational operation not only motivates them but also enables them to contribute more effectively and efficiently. Further, he explains employee involvement as a process involving participation, communication, decision making which leads to industrial democracy and employee motivation. Further CIPD (2009) explain employee involvement as a commitment of the employees towards the values of the organisation and willingness to help each other to achieve the organisational goal. The results are not only to increase job satisfaction, or motivation but the increasing performance of that organisation. In short, employee involvement is creating an environment where people have a continuous impact on decisions and actions that affect their jobs. Employee involvement Vs participation Understanding and defining the concept Employee involvement and employee participation are like two sides of a coin. Both are supplementary to each other and existence of one depends on the other. There is not any significant difference between the two terms. Participation is an act of sharing information and the meaning of involvement is the day-to-day activity of the organization. Many writers have contributed towards the development of this thought of employee involvement or participation. For example Delaney (1996) had used the term participation as a voice of the employee in the decision making process and to describe different types of involvement of employee in the organizations affair. But very few writers tried to find the difference between the two concepts. Kale (1999) argues that participation is any organizational arrangement under which employees have some sort of share in some aspect of the business which is not specific types of employee involvement. Furthermore Ang (2002) has contributed towards the development of the difference between the two terms and concluded that, Employee involvement calls for participation which is all about sharing information, training, mutual decision making process whereas traditional participative managementviews participation as a part of other organizational process. Marching ton et al. (1993) have used employee participation in a different context and as an umbrella term covering all forms of employee influence in the organization. Employee involvement is used to describe managerially inspired initiatives aimed at winning employee commitment, as part of the practices of industrial democracy, whose aim is to increase the rights of employees to participate in management decisions. This not only results in enhanced employee morale but also retaining the potential manpower resulting in lower attrition rate. Many writers have contributed differently and each one of them has different approach to the concept and the context. Employee involvement was and is still known and referred to by different writers under such headings as participative management, employee participation, and worker involvement. Employee involvement and empowerment The concept of employee involvement is incomplete without it being associated with employee empowerment. According to Cunningham and Hyman (1999) there cannot be a single or simple definition of empowerment as some writers see empowerment as a recent development after increase employee involvement. Further Apostolouain (2000) explains that empowerment is the next step of employee involvement means where the employees have the power to take decisions. Blanchard et al. (1999) has defined its scope referring it as a means for involving team members as business partners in determining company success or failure. The real essence of which comes from releasing the knowledge, experience, and motivational power that is already in people but is being severely underutilized. In short it can be said that employee involvement leads to empowerment of the employees in different management decision process. Importance of Employee involvement The increasing competition and technological changes in the last 20 years have demanded higher skills and flexibility from the employees for the organisation. Walton (1985) stated that the highly competitive environment needs a different strategic approach to manage the employees. He further stated that in order to achieve that the jobs needs to be broader. The jobs structure should be made with proper planning and implementation to improve the performance unless just to maintain it. This situation leads to formation of teams, which are accountable for the performance. Employee involvement not only maintained the standard of the operation process but gives emphasis on continuous improvement and it is reflecting the requirement of the market place. Further Marchington (2001) argues that the employee involvement come into focus in the early 90s when the employer looking for a participative way to manage the work force. Judge and Gennard (2005) further outline the other important aspect of employee involvement is the increases job security of the employees by offering them priority in training and retraining. The training equipped them with the skill and knowledge that the job demands. Greater employee commitment leads a growing expectancy to better job satisfaction and performance. It is difficult for the organisation in current business scenario to improve the performance without employee commitment towards the organizations mission and objective. Employee involvement allows the employee to input their views and ideas on performance and the quality of the service. This will lead the development where the employees want to be part of successful organisation, which provides them a good income and opportunity to enhance their skills for a secure employment. Grates (2009) stated that the engaged employees significantly contributes to the success of the organisation to achieve the goal and objective. H e further said that employee involvement could give competitive advantage in the market. It can help to reduce turnover and increase the productivity. An industrial services survey conducted in 1999 on 49 organisations experiences on employee involvement over the period of 1991-1999 has reported that more then 33% people believe that it enhanced employee commitment and motivation. The same number of people believes that it is really help to improve the relationship between the employee and the employer. Approximately 60% people said that the quality of the product and the services has improved. More then 50% believe that their job satisfaction had increased and the organisational profit has increased. Importance of employee involvement in recession The world has seen its worst recession since 1930s and most of the world economies are fighting against it. The economic crisis forces the employers to introduce cost-cutting measure and one of them is redundancies. According to an article HR focus (2009) most of companies in the world complete the lay offs of employees. Now the big question is how this organisation can use the most of the remaining employees. The other important question is how the company survive and can increase their performance in this difficult time. One of the measures that the organisation uses to give confidence to their employees is greater emphasis on employee involvement and participation scheme. According to Frauenheim (2009) the importance of employee involvement is more crucial in this difficult environment of economic trouble. As it is revels by many experts that worker commitment is more important then before as the confidence of the employees are badly hit by the lay offs. Haters stated that its the employees help that improving the situation during this economic turmoil as employee involvement can give the sense of value to the employees and can increase the job security. Juile Gebauer managing director of Towers Perrin believe that the company must give more attention to employee involvement to survive and performing good in recession as his organization found there is direct link between performance and involvement. Low employee satisfaction or confidence may results poor customer services and in recession where customers are very reluctant to spend, companies can not afford bad customer service. In this difficult time companies have to be more efficient to attract more customers to surviveand customer service isof the tool to do that. It is found that EIP can increase employee satisfaction which can lead better performance Types of employee involvement Employee involvement practices/ approaches According to Ang (2002) the idea of employee involvement is still developing although there is large amount of research done in the last decade still there is not any developed ways to use employee involvement as a management approach. The management approach depends how the employer wants to involve their employee in different operation. According to Lawler et al (1998) the most important factor of employee involvement approaches is how it can represent comprehensively in the process of problem solving, sharing information, rewards for performance and developing knowledge and ideas. He further says that in order to implement these practices the organization needs a particular employee involvement program. Traditional versus current perspective There is a significant difference between the current and the traditional way of employee involvement and participation. According to Gary and Sisson (1994) the traditional way is mostly indirect participation and limited direct participation. Further indirect participation includes trade union and work council and direct participation was limited to improve the quality of the work to counter turnover and absenteeism. He further explains that current employee participation is more direct as it concern with improve the performance of the organization that can be linked with the objective of the organization like customer satisfaction. The types of jobs in the current environment is changing as more and more company recruiting part time employees and they need to adopt different strategy to involve them in the process. Representative participation According to Apostolou (2000) one of the main ways to achieve representative participation is joint consultation where employees elected representative to discuss with the management on various issues which concern them. These processes give the employees an opportunity to influence the proposal before it is finally made. Further Judge and Generd (2004) explain that, joint consolation involves seeking acceptable solutions to problem through a genuine exchange of views and information .Employee communication is concerned with the interchange of information and ideas within an organization. Direct, indirect and financial participation In 1999 Oosthuizen and du Toit classify the employee involvement and participation practice as direct, indirect and financial. Direct participation is the communication between the management and the employees regarding different function of the organization like decision making process to problem solving. Whereas in indirect participation the employees are involve through their representatives who are elected leaders. Financial participation is the economic participation of the employees in the success or failure of the organization through share ownership, profit sharing scheme. Marchington et al (1992) talk of direct and indirect employee participation practices the direct participation consist of downward communication from management to employees which includes team briefing, workplace wide meeting ,staff newsletters and cascading of information down via the management chain. Downward Communication from Managers to Employees According to Marchington et al (1992) the downward involvement technique is used to inform employees of management plans. The management can use different ways to do that. Regular and continuous distribution of the company reports, journal, company publication and videos are the effective way to inform employees about the development of the company. Team briefing and regular team meeting is another ways for the top management to aware the employees about the organization news and development. Upward involvement Marchington et al (1992) explain the other way of direct communication which are upward problem solving communication practices and that includes suggestion schemes, employee attitude surveys, and employee groups established to solve specific problems or discuss aspect of performance or quality and suggestion scheme. Further Taily et al (2003) outline the importance of employees attitude survey and it can be done through questionnaire to a sample of employees to find out their views about different factors of the work. He further explain that formal processes like suggestion scheme can be put forward to find out employees thinking on different issues like quality improvement to enhance performance. Financial participation Financial participation is one of the best direct and tangible forms of employee involvement. The financial participation allows the employee to be a part of the financial success and failure of the organization. This will encourage the employees to show greater commitment and encourage them to take extra responsibility.Further, it is argued that a financial stake gives employees increased enthusiasm for the success of the organization. In its most developed form employee share ownership means that employees become significant shareholders in the business or even their own employer (Judge and Gennard, 2005). Financial employee involvement scheme can be carried out in three ways and that is profit sharing, profit related pay and share ownership. Profit sharing According to Judge al (2004) profit sharing methods can help to build a motivated and committed workforce. Further Taily et al (2004) explains that these schemes encourage employees to work as a team rather then individual as the rewards for working together is more then working individually. Profit sharing scheme ensure that employees benefit from an organization that makes profits. Profit related pay Taily et al (2003) explains that profit related pay scheme where employer rewards the employees for their contribution to the business. Further he outlines that it works where a group of people get pay to the profit of the business for their work. This kind of scheme generally found in the sales business where there is bonus for achieving the target. This scheme can increase the motivation and commitment of the employees. Share ownership Judge et al (2004) stated that latest way of financial participation of the employees is share ownership where the employees are owner of some part of the company through share. It means that they have shareholders right. Further Apostolou (2000) stated that it produces interest among the employees about the company matters. In UK one of 5 employees have share ownership in their company .This kind of schemes seeks long term commitment from the employees and its take the employee involvement in a new stage where employees are promoting to some part of the ownership of the company. Owing share makes the employees more motivated and committed as the loss or the profit directly have an impact on them. Task based participation Task based participation is mainly to the job and an integral part of day-to-day life. It is all about perform the task in the same level or higher level, which can be managers or supervisor. Team working and self management Teamwork one of the important ways of employee involvement described by Pfeiffers (1998) as it is one of the seven key HRM practise. It allows employees to take extra responsibility for the task, without direct supervision, to have discretion over work method and time, to multi skill and to recruit team members. Managerial control is at it most subversive and effective when employees take on responsibility for peer surveillance (Marchington and Wilkinson (1998 Benefit of Team working Team meeting benefit both the employer and the employees. Through introducing team working the employer can improve productivity, customer service, cost cutting. In addition the employers can spread the ideas and be competitive in the market by improving the performance. Further its increase the employees motivation to extra responsibility and care for the organization. Team working is benefited for the employees as well as the outcome of team working are greater job satisfaction and motivation. Service industry characteristics and customer driven attitude or orientation is suits team working (Wilkinson et al 1998).Cully et al (1999) claim that team working participation is used in two third of the British industries. In order to introduce team working the organization needs skillful management and resources. Employee Involvement Model Psychological contracts First used in 1960s the psychological contract became very popular following the development in the world economy like globalization and economic crisis in 1990s.It is described as mutual obligations without any written contract between the employee and the employer. As it is not a written contract these obligations are informal and imprecise and are made in the requirement process or in the performance appraisal. Some obligation is seen as a promise whereas others are term as an expectation. The important part of that is the belief by the employees to be part of good relationship with the employer (CIPD, 2009). The difference between the legal contract and psychological contract can be easily distinguished. Legal contract is a paper sign contract between the employee and the employer which represent the limited reality of the employment. The nature and importance of that can be found in an employment tribunal. On the other hand Psychological contract is more influential than the formal contract as it is affecting the employee behavior. This contract helps the employee to understand the requirement to represent their side and bargain and what they can expect from the job. The contract is based on mutual trust and understanding and cant be enforceable as it is not a legal one (CIPD2009). Professor David Guest (2002) of Kings College London outlines the importance of psychological contracts and what it can offer to the employee and the employer. The model suggests that the importance of employer to adopt people management as it is directly influence the psychological contract .The contract is based on mutual trust and fairness of the employee and the belief that the employer is respecting the deal between them. Further he explains that positive psychological contract increase employee commitment and satisfaction which results increase performance. Limitation of psychological contract The main problem with Psychological contract arises when it is broken by management by not delivering the promises. This can leads to low job satisfaction, low morale and dispute between the employee and management. The employees are feeling cheated if the promise like rewards, training is not fulfilled or negative feedback from the managers about the work. Another limitation could be emerging when the company merges or restructure and the employees concerns are not listened to, this can raise dissatisfaction among the employees. What Psychological contract is important? The nature of the jobs changed dramatically in the last 20 years and there are more temporary and part time jobs available and the people do not have a permanent future in that company, they need to build a relationship with the management to secure their future. The cost of labor is increasing and most of the organization wants to work more with less employees makes the jobs more hectic stressful. Human resources are becoming more critical to get competitive advantage by their tacit and explicit knowledge. Team work culture is increasing. Finally positive psychological can result in high efficiency. Black box model People, Performance link In order to understand the importance or significance of employee involvement and participation it is really important to understand the people and performance link. A research team lead by Professor John Purcell (2003) at Bath University carried out an investigation on people and performance link called as black box model. In that they have carried out interviews in 18 organizations which lasted over three years. In the interview with the managers the aim is to collect the information regarding their attitudes, level commitment, views about the job, team and reporting relationship. There information had been investigating in depth the relationships between practice and performance to develop understanding of the nature and mechanics of the relationship. After analyzing the data the team develops the people and performance model famously called as black box model. These models found that the people management creates the building blocks of performance and that are ability, motivation and opportunity. As in the figure shows Purcell make four pillars to describe the people performance link. The first pillar is the human resources; the second is the AMO factors which is with the help of the line management in pillar three can result in employee commitment, job satisfaction and motivation which can finally lead to discretionary behavior. Further he explains that ability is the willing to learn new skill and apply and recognized, motivation assume that the use of ability in an effective way and finally opportunity assume the involvement of the employees in different operation like problem solving and the decision making process. These factors like ability, motivation and opportunity are very important as they are directly related to job satisfaction and commitment of the employees. It will encourage the employee to exhibit discretionary behavior which means the way doing the job like in speed, care and innovation. These activities are the heart of the employment relationship as it is very difficult for the employer to monitor all the activities in an organization. This behavior makes the performance of the organization to a next level with greater job satisfaction and better performance. (CIPD, 2009). Role of line managers According to Judge and Gennard (2005) the main reason of the failure of employees involvement is the attitude of the middle and lower management. The middle and lower management fail to support the scheme as they think they will lose power to control employees Further a research done by CIPD the role of line managers are the most important to implement the employee involvement and practice. Line managers are constantly in the communication with the employees. The line managers are the best person in explaining the variation in both job satisfaction and discretionary behavior as it one of the most important factors in order to developing commitment in the organization .The managers can encages employees towards their jobs and make them responsible for their jobs. The line managers can evaluate the performance through performance appraisal and motivates them by introducing more bonuses for better performance (CIPD, 2009). Organization culture According to CIPD (2009) it is found that the practice and performance is highly influenced by the organization environment. The practice performance link depends on the origination goal mission statement which must influence by the values the organizations stands for. And want to achieve in the future. The goal or the mission is very important for employee commitment. The goals or the mission should be spread throughout the organization to embed that in the policies of the organization. These values encourage employees to achieve new height in their jobs. This will motivate them as they are feeling valued and that eventually result in better performance. Comparison between Psychological contract and black box model Black box model is a medium for creating the atmosphere that reinforces psychological contract through the power of line managers. While psychological contract is a state of mind that already exists between the management and the employees. Implementation of employee involvement schemes Different organization operates differently so it is very important to understand that the schemes good for one organization may be not appropriate for the other one. There are few factors that are really important in order to successfully implement the schemes. The factors are good employee relations, the organization culture and the top management support, monitoring and reviewing and resources. Good employee relation Judge and Gennard (2005) explains that good employee relation is the basic need in order to implement employee involvement scheme as it is very important to motivate the employees and the management to take part in the process. The management and the employees must be open in their attitude and behavior. The scheme cant be successful in a case of dispute between them. Employee involvement can gain and develop in the background of trust and motivation among the management and the employees. Commitment by the top management The most importance factor regarding the success of employee involvement is the support of the top management. It is the top management who can encourage employee involvement and participation. According to Lawler et al (1995) it is essential, as employee involvement needs the management support to develop and smooth implementation without any obstacle. It is the management responsibility to introduce EI through suggestion programs and problem solving teams. The management can give more training to the employees to increase their skills and when they believe that the employees are knowledgeable and more skilled they can involve them in different organization function through EIP. This can leads to introduce reward and recognition for better performance to encourage employee involvement. Further Judge et al (2005) explain that the management must be keeping the momentum after the introduction of the scheme. This will develop trust and motivation among the employees and the employees feel the seriousness of the management about the scheme. Any inconstant management behavior in the workforce involvement can put the scheme in trouble as the employees will de motivates and questioning the management commitment about the scheme. According to Apostolou(2000) there are four important actions the management needs to take to run the scheme successfully and those are trust the employees and give them more responsibility, always updating the training programme to train the employees about the recent change in the business and technology the third action is effective communication and regular feedback of the work. This is the most crucial one as its shows the management seriousness about the scheme and that can motivate the workforce. Finally introducing of rewards and recognition for good work really helps to increase the commitment of the employees. Free flow of information is another important aspect of employee involvement. The management must provide information about the company through different sources to their employees .But the management should be careful to provide too much or too little information as it may create confusion among the employees. The role of leader is even more crucial in the time of recession and economic turmoil where the environment is not conducive for employee involvement because of lay offs. According to Day(2009) the roles of leader is more important then before as it is not possible for them to maintain the same employee involvement scheme if the company is not getting profit. The leadership should be aware the workforce the reason behind the lay off and must use the most remaining talent. The leadership must regain the confidence of the employee by regular informing about the company progress and make them understand about the difficult time. By giving more seriousness on employee involvement the management can help the organizat

Thursday, October 24, 2019

anthem :: essays research papers

In the end of "Anthem", Prometheus comes to the realization that his society's teachings and ideas were not helpful in advancement to the society. Ideas like individuality, that the society tried to squash out of its people, is beneficial to the society as a whole because men are meant to think for themselves. In the book Prometheus made the light bulb back when he was in the society, but once he showed it to the World Council, they but him in jail. After this incidence he realized that no matter what brilliant things he invents, it will never be something that particular society can use. At first he is confused, but realizing that he was acting like an individual made him see that maybe society is the evil one and he is the good one. All of this made him realize that maybe he is not meant for this, and he is thrown out into the uncharted territory. He learns that men are meant to think for themselves, and that if they do society will become more advanced and they wil l be able to move forward instead of staying at the same spot forever. This is how he realizes his "sins" were actually good and that men are supposed to think for themselves. In Prometheus's society, being an individual is considered a "sin", but as events occur Prometheus begins to comprehend that being an individual is the way men are supposed to think. In the beginning of the book, he has a name like everyone else, and like everyone else he is living in a world that thrives off fear. Everyone is afraid to think, act, or be different from the rest, because as society has taught them being different and an individual is a "sin". As he began to grow up, he noticed that he was somewhat different from the rest of the people. He disliked many things such as the way society made people mate because he thought this was despicable and grotesque. The more he began to grow up he was becoming more of an individual and this scared him, he even began to see himself as an evil person. When he started to play around with science and began inventing things like the light bulb, this scared him but then he reasoned that maybe even though he was a cting as an individual the council would let it go because it was such a remarkable invention. anthem :: essays research papers In the end of "Anthem", Prometheus comes to the realization that his society's teachings and ideas were not helpful in advancement to the society. Ideas like individuality, that the society tried to squash out of its people, is beneficial to the society as a whole because men are meant to think for themselves. In the book Prometheus made the light bulb back when he was in the society, but once he showed it to the World Council, they but him in jail. After this incidence he realized that no matter what brilliant things he invents, it will never be something that particular society can use. At first he is confused, but realizing that he was acting like an individual made him see that maybe society is the evil one and he is the good one. All of this made him realize that maybe he is not meant for this, and he is thrown out into the uncharted territory. He learns that men are meant to think for themselves, and that if they do society will become more advanced and they wil l be able to move forward instead of staying at the same spot forever. This is how he realizes his "sins" were actually good and that men are supposed to think for themselves. In Prometheus's society, being an individual is considered a "sin", but as events occur Prometheus begins to comprehend that being an individual is the way men are supposed to think. In the beginning of the book, he has a name like everyone else, and like everyone else he is living in a world that thrives off fear. Everyone is afraid to think, act, or be different from the rest, because as society has taught them being different and an individual is a "sin". As he began to grow up, he noticed that he was somewhat different from the rest of the people. He disliked many things such as the way society made people mate because he thought this was despicable and grotesque. The more he began to grow up he was becoming more of an individual and this scared him, he even began to see himself as an evil person. When he started to play around with science and began inventing things like the light bulb, this scared him but then he reasoned that maybe even though he was a cting as an individual the council would let it go because it was such a remarkable invention.

Wednesday, October 23, 2019

Pomegranate story

The internal rate of return was found to be In the range of 57-59 per cent which was much higher compared to the cost of capital (9. 5 percent) and hence highly profitable. Overall, the proposition of growing pomegranate crop was highly profitable as revealed by the financial feasibility tests. Key words : Investment pattern, cost, returns, pomegranate Introduction per cent of the total area under pomegranate in the district. Hence, Chalkier and Hurry talk was specifically selected for the study.The top villages having larger area under pomegranate cultivation were selected. The Information on area under pomegranate crop and number of pomegranate growers from the selected villages was obtained from the respective village accountants (Total). A proportionate sample of ten per cent of the population from each village was selected randomly. Thus, the total size of the sample selected for the study was 120. The average age of the ample farmers in both talk was found to be 44 years and mo re than 50% farmers depended mainly on agriculture as their primary occupation.Around 25% tot tatters in the selected talks completed their primary education were as the per cent of illiterate farmer in the selected talks ranged from 12 to 15%. So far as size of family was concerned, it was found to be 7 members in family in both talks. The average size of holding of sample farmers was 2. 30 and 2. 89 ha and the average size of the pomegranate orchards was 1. 58 and 1. 47 ha in Chalkier and Hurry talks respectively. The varieties of pomegranate grown in the study area were Ganges or Baggy type. The range of age of bearing orchards was 4 to 15 years.The expected productive life span of pomegranate orchard as estimated by the respondents was 25 years. On an average plant population per ha was 375. For analyzing the data collected during the study, tabular analysis and financial analysis were employed. The technique Material and methods of tabular analysis was employed for estimating t he investment Pomegranate cultivation is practiced throughout the district. Pattern, maintenance cost of pomegranate, pattern of labor However, the large scale litigation of pomegranate is use, yield and return structure of pomegranate etc.In order to concentrated mainly in Chalkier and Hurry talk extending know the relative profitability of investment in pomegranate on an area of 260 and 628 hectares and forming 20. 08 and 48. 42 cultivation measures of project evaluation namely. Pay Back * Part of M. Sc. (Agar. ) thesis submitted by the first author to the University of Agricultural Sciences, Dharma – 580 005, India Horticulture is a fast growing sector and expects comparatively lower requirements of water and easy adaptability to adverse soil and waste land situations.The productivity of fruits and vegetables is of vital importance as it provides higher cash income than cereals per unit of land. India is one of the leading countries in pomegranate production and more than 1. 32 lake hectare area is under cultivation presently. Out of this, nearly 94,000 hectare area is covered in Maharajah's, which produces fruits of over 1 lake metric tones worth about RSI. 400 scores. In Chitchatted district of Karakas, where the study has been conducted pomegranate is being grown on commercial scale. The area under pomegranate in the district is 1297 ha (10. 9 % of total area under pomegranate in the state). Dry land horticulture is picking up fast in the district. The important horticulture crops grown in the district are pomegranate, Saputo, Beer and Papaya. Study of the economics of pomegranate production is indispensable since there is no proper farm business data on its cost of production. The accurate figures on establishment cost, operating cost and input requirement of pomegranate orchard could be of great help to the pomegranate growers of Chitchatted district in particular.Therefore, an attempt was made to study the investment pattern in pomegranate orch ard and to compute the cost and returns in pomegranate litigation in Chitchatted district. 164 Karakas J. Agric. Sic. ,24 (2) : 2011 Period (BP), Net Present Value (NAP), Benefit Cost Ratio (BCC), and Internal Rate of Return (AIR) were computed. Results and discussion The cost of establishing a pomegranate orchard up to bearing can be broadly classified into establishment cost and maintenance cost.So, the establishment cost included not only the costs incurred in the zero years that is at the time of planting but also the costs incurred in maintaining the plants till the time of bearing that is up to three years tot planting. For establishing, pomegranate orchard investment NAS to e made on land, well, pump set, pump house, plant material, digging of pits and sprayer and these costs together constituted the material costs of establishment. These costs have to be invested during the year of establishment of the orchard and are considered as the costs incurred during zero year in the study.During next three years farmers has to maintain the orchard by applying fertilizers, manures, chemicals irrigation etc. The costs incurred by the farmers on all these items for the three years are grouped together as cost of maintenance. The total costs of establishment (Table 1) were found to be 1,90,888. 1 and 1,89,644. 33 per ha of which material costs constituted 56. 87 and 58. 15 per cent and maintenance costs 43. 13 and 41. 85 per cent in Chalkier and Hurry talk respectively. Similar results were obtained by Giuliani (1990) in his study of the pattern of investment in pomegranate orchards in Bujumbura district, Karakas.The establishment cost 24,229. 53) consisted of material cost in the initial year (85. 65) and maintenance cost (49. 35%) Upton bearing three years. The material cost included the value of land, plant material, cost of digging of pits and planting, well, pump set, pump house, and sprayer. The per hectare total establishment cost worked out to be 24, 224. 5 3 and returns per orchard was 45,429. 96. The maintenance cost (Table 2) as indicated in the results included the wages of labor as well as cost of materials utilized and fixed costs in Chalkier talk. It was observed that out of Table 1 .Investment pattern in pomegranate orchards SSL. No. Particulars total maintenance cost the major component was variable cost followed by material cost and fixed cost. Under the variable cost the labor cost formed an important cost accounting nearly 50 per cent of total maintenance cost, since the crops require Geiger amount labor involvement to prefer the important activity like loosening the soil around the trunk and formation of basin, watch and ward, pruning and training and land preparation etc. Among material cost the major component fertilizers, PC and manure.Since the pomegranate crop is responsively to nutrient and as well as in the recent year the diseases like bacterial blight and anthracnose have created lot of problem hence to control th ese diseases the farmers have been trying with different chemicals thus the expenses on these items were found to be higher. So far as fixed cost is concerned the rental value of land formed the major cost component and it is observed that because of the higher productivity of the land and crops which are higher profit fronted the farmers to go for renting of land for the production of pomegranate crops.Even for the farmer who has been entering this crop on their own land where imputed the rental value taking into consideration ongoing rental rate the cost worked out to be higher. Since the opportunity cost of land was taken into consideration for calculating the rental value of land,it was found to vary over the years. In Hurry talk, the maintenance cost (Table 3) included the wages of labor as well as cost of materials utilized and the fixed costs. It was observed that variable cost formed an important component followed by material cost and fixed cost.

Tuesday, October 22, 2019

Biogeochemical Cycles Essay Example

Biogeochemical Cycles Essay Example Biogeochemical Cycles Paper Biogeochemical Cycles Paper Take the hydrological cycle, for example, and throw in an area of heavy pollution and we are bound to get a reaction a lot like throwing tennis balls In a dryer. While you might have harmless Intentions. It makes a lot of noise and causes a lot of damage. The biochemical cycles consist of the carbon, hydrological, nitrogen, sulfur, and phosphorus cycles. Carbon is important to all living organisms and each organism reacts to it differently. Some organisms need carbon to survive while others produce carbon for others. On page 107 of the textbook. They talk about deferent options the planet has to create carbon. Water and Its corresponding cycle Is probably the most well-known cycle of the five. It is general knowledge that rain clouds produce a natural filtration system of water from oceans. The rain falls into rivers, lakes, land and what is not removed or needed is recycled back into our oceans. On page 109 of Visualizing Environmental Science the authors Hager and Berg discuss and diagram the nitrogen cycle. They talk about how there is seemingly no shortage of nitrogen In the atmosphere, how Important It Is to proteins and nucleic acids, and centerboards role In the production line. According to the text. He sulfur cycle Is the least known and least studied of the biochemical cycles. Sulfur may enter the atmosphere by both land and ocean modalities and only a small portion of sulfur is in living organisms, however it is an important player in the formation of proteins of both plants and animals. Bacteria are the organisms that stand to gain the most and they are the main drive of the sulfur cycle. The phosphorus cycle Is the last cycle discussed In this section of chapter 6 In the textbook. It is unlike the previous cycles because It Is not present In the atmosphere. This cycle moves from step to step by and and ocean only. When asked about the biochemical cycles, most responses were What is a biochemical cycle? Once I explained briefly, I asked what level of importance it has on them. Well, the cycles are life and I would say life is pretty important to me, said Connors Carpenter. The rest of the interviewees responded with a similar answer once they understood what It meant. However, even the most Intellectual person In my little sample of society needed further explanation and description of the cycles before he could respond with an educated answer, making me realize that the geochemical cycles are not important nor on the minds of the general public. In addition, I believe the group of individuals I sought out to interview was diverse enough to represent our entire community. As stated previously, the topic Is very Important to me especially considering solutions as well as reasons Tort pollution. Narragansett ten natural now AT ten matter within ecosystems coincides with understanding where the cycles can become more efficient as well as recognizing areas where production can be easily blocked. In addition, I mean natural when talking about natural matter cycles to include human needs and do not mean to exclude us from this term. Humans are part of nature and it is a necessity to consider the resistance we have to any major change when studying the p ossibility of improvements. The biochemical cycles span six pages of the textbook (from 106-112) and include diagrams of each. The diagrams provide a visual way to help understand and an accurate map of different types of water, land, and atmosphere all in the same picture to help understand how they work. The biochemical cycles are always present in society and always will be. They re life and how it is made possible and that is something that will always be a topic on everybody minds, subconsciously. It is not every day that the average person considers why they are alive at any given moment and for that reason, I do not think the life cycles of matter within our atmosphere, water, and land are ever at the front of the mind. As always when considering environmental topics, human pollution must also be purposed as an issue worth discussing. I think humans are effecting the cycles by adding more chemicals in steps of the cycle where they would not normally be. While viewing the diagrams, it is easy to see that an added ingredient anywhere in the mixture will cause an uneven balance and eventually disrupt each individual cycle. According to the text, the sulfur cycle is still not fully understood or documented. Research still continues and scientists are learning more about sulfur and how it reacts within our ecosystems. A majority of the reason the sulfur cycle has not been researched and broken down as much as the other cycles is because it is mostly only relevant to bacteria. Human nature is to be selfish. The matter that is most relevant o humans is focused on sooner than things that have little or no impact on us. Once again, I believe that all parts of the cycles should be carefully studied if we want to purpose solutions to our environmental problems. The 5 biochemical cycles describe how all matter interacts within different ecosystems. Learning about how they work and why they are necessary will help the general public become more ecological conscious of the role they play within the cycles. The first step in any process is to first figure out exactly what needs to be done and I think these cycles provide a blueprint and a starting point to make some major changes.

Monday, October 21, 2019

Mother-Daughter Conflict and Social Assimilation in Girl by Jamaica Kincaid essays

Mother-Daughter Conflict and Social Assimilation in Girl by Jamaica Kincaid essays Social values held to be important in human society are effectively portrayed in literature. Through literary works, individuals/writers are able to express their subjective interpretations of life and social reality as they experience it. Literature as the mirror of social reality is explicitly expressed in the literary work, Girl by Jamaica Kincaid. This literary work illustrate literature as a medium through which Kincaid was able to express her views about the values and norms imposed on women by the society, and sometimes, their own community and social group as well. In Girl, the theme of conflicts between a mother and her daughter and traditional and Western or modern values are portrayed by Kincaid's effective illustration of her relationship with her mother. Jamaica Kincaid, a contemporary American Caribbean writer, illustrates in her work the dynamics of human relationships among immigrants trying to assimilate with the dominantly Westernized English society. Written in 1978, Kincaid details in her short narrative, Girl, issues that the protagonist (or Kincaid) experiences as she and her mother's values clash against each other. In the narrative, the author enumerates the arguments, or facts of life, that her mother uses to her daughter in order to Kincaid to follow her mother's orders, especially when it comes to assuming the role and behavior that she must conduct in public. As the two begin their argument for and against Western culture, norms, and values, fallacies are evident, where the mother's arguments are usually grounded on beliefs that have no concrete or rational basis. This paper looks at the fallacies, ideologies that were illustrated in Girl to show superiority of Western culture (as portrayed by the mother) as both characters try to adjust and assimilate within their new modern English society. The first theme that emerges in the st...

Sunday, October 20, 2019

Top 7 Female Heroes

Top 7 Female Heroes Female Heroes You Should (Not) Know We are used to watching, listening, and reading about male heroes who rescue the world and humankind. However, we should remember that new female heroes are becoming more and more popular nowadays. In the second half of the 20th century, a special genre Wonder Woman presented a series of motion pictures about Mighty Isis and Electra Woman, which appeared on TV and became a sign of that epoch. Unfortunately, they disappeared and were forgotten in 10 years. A new century has brought a new way of thinking and philosophy. Suffragism and feminism have made a new model of the role of women in society. Now, it is hard to imagine the film without female heroes. We have different genres of films and TV programs with a great number of real or fiction female heroes. The struggle between male and female heroes is going on. Find Out More About the Top 7 Modern Female Heroes Whom You Will Probably Like Supergirl and â€Å"Supergirl† One of the most popular and well-known female DC characters is Supergirl. It appeared in action comic number 252 for the first time and became one of the favorite female superheroes thanks to her wide range of abilities flight, superpower and speed, heat and x-ray vision, invincibility and superheating. Melissa Benoist, who plays Kara Danvers, the main hero, appeared on TV series in 2015 and is still very popular. A fiction story about a Supergirl offers us to look at our relationships and behavior. Although it is a fiction story full of supernatural events and moments, it also includes a lot of real-life things. Therefore, this story attracts many viewers of different age. Syd Barrett and â€Å"Legion† Syd Barrett (Rachel Keller), one of the best female DC characters, appears in Legion, a well-known and popular TV series. Syd is isolated and suffers a lot from her ability to switch body and read thoughts through touches. Finally, she figures out that she can get on with Summerland citizens and Davil Haller (Dan Stevens). Soon, she started to learn how to control her power. Then, this female hero realized her mission in the nearest apocalypse. She had a lot of quarrels with Davil because Syd wanted to protect him. Finally, she found another way of salvation. This female superhero created her plan of how to survive in the fiction world called Legion. More than 90 percent of viewers highly recommend watching this TV series with one of the best female DC characters Syd Barrett. Go on reading to find out more about modern and popular female superheroes. Black Canary and Arrow Black Canary Arrow this phrase is so popular nowadays that it is easily recognizable among both teenagers and adults. The character appeared for the first time in flash comics as Dinah Drake; Black Canary Arrow became the favorite TV series for thousands of people thanks to its tangled and interesting plot. The main hero has a particular set of super strengths, such as sonic cry and advanced combat training, which makes her really powerful and influential. Although there are many different characters in this motion picture, we pay attention to the struggle between Black Canary and Black Siren, one more female hero. Their collaboration and temporary union depict Black Canarys will and desire to protect a big idea. Watch and find out more about the peculiarities of main male and female characters. Polaris and The Gifted Lorna Dane (Emma Dumont) and her character have appeared in comics for the first time. Lorna Dane as one of the most popular female superheroes changed through the story. She still has the same super abilities – to stop bullets and make magnetic manipulation that open fences, bring down airplanes, and even kill people. Firstly, she uses her power in different ways just following her thoughts and ideas. Then, she starts to think about the Inner Circle as a place where other mutants are born. She recognized her previous mistakes and was eager to change the current situation. Such Lorna Danes personal features make her one of the best female superheroes. Perhaps, that is why the Gifted still stays extremely popular even after the second season. We highly recommend you to watch a couple of TV series and believe that you will like it since Lorna Dane is not just a female hero; she pretends to depict human life full of diversities, changes, and troubles. We may also meet this charac ter in Disney X-men project. Killer Frost and â€Å"The Flash† The main character Killer Frost is one of the memorable female heroes. She appeared in the comic series – Fury of Firestorm: The Nuclear Man (19) as Caitlin Snow. Many people like her because a lot of them would like to have her ability to manage with cold. Killer Frost can absorb heat from external sources and convert it into waves of cold. Using this ability, Frost Slayer can create objects that consist entirely of ice, and use them both for attack (ice daggers) and defense (ice walls). She can also instantly freeze living beings through physical contact. Also in the series of comics released before the Crisis on the Endless Lands, Killer Frost could subdue men with a kiss. As usual, the plot is tangled, which makes this fiction story about female heroes even more attractive. She was an ordinary girl and fell in love with her university teacher. However, he had no feelings for her, and she was really upset. She went to the temperature chamber and became a creature that could absorb heat and transform it into cold and ice. She named herself Killer Frost and started to fight against men, especially her main enemy Firestorm. Finally, the end of the story is a little bit frustrating and disappointing. She lost the final battle with Firestorm. However, she resurrected as a Black Lantern, and it is a new chance to make a new story about female heroes. This story is a vivid example of how we fight against each other in our daily life. Many viewers may see here more than just a film about female heroes. It is much broader than it seems to be. Elasti woman and Doom Patrol April Bowlby plays Rita Farr in the Doom Patrol, a film based on the comic debut of Elasti-Girl My Greatest Adventure. Rita Farr is a typical female hero. However, she has to become a leader of the other superheroes team Doom Patrol. Her abilities to limit shapes and mass exchange allow her to be strong both as a superhero and a human. She struggles with emotions, which has a great impact on making decisions. There is a strict parallel with a typical woman prototype in our real life where women are usually more emotional than men. It is a hidden sense of this film about female heroes. It tries to make it vivid that our wives, daughters, mothers, grannies, aunts, etc. are female superheroes who are struggling with their fears, emotions, and weaknesses all the time. Although they have all those troubles, they are still female heroes for us. This story is a great chance to reconsider your thoughts and views on the relationship between women and men. Zari Tomaz and DCs Legends of tomorrow. Zari Tomaz is one of the future female heroes. It is a story about a powerful person who can make different air manipulations. This story is a part of the bigger series Legends of tomorrow. Firstly, she seems to be a typical woman, but then she realizes that she is a superhero and someone wants to catch her. The plot is built on the confrontation between two sides. There are a lot of different mentions about different gods and demons who are friends or enemies. Although it is a hero film, there are still some scenes, which represent our daily life and problems.   Why do they chase her? What will happen at the end? You may get to know all these things after watching this female superheroes motion picture. This list of the best female superheroes and female DC characters also reminds us about women who stay heroes even in daily real life full of non-fiction problems and stressful situations.

Saturday, October 19, 2019

All Parents Should Have the Option of Home-schooling Their Children Essay

All Parents Should Have the Option of Home-schooling Their Children - Essay Example Homeschooling enables parents to monitor what their children learn and would feel more secure about the matter. Since parents will largely decide on the education of a child, they can limit what is fed to them on certain matters or they can also give emphasis on the subjects they want their child to be more knowledgeable about. For instance, some parents regard moral values over scientific knowledge while others want their approach to their children’s education to be holistic. Some schools do not teach religion and this would either limit or extend what the parents think about their children’s education. In china for instance, Buddhism, Taoism and Confucianism are among the religious thoughts that are taught in school. A Christian parent who does not want his child to learn the doctrines of such religions should have the option of homeschooling his kid so that he can limit the dogma he wants the child to learn. On the contrary, he can also maximize the time to teach all the values and beliefs he deems necessary for his child to assimilate. Since religion is an important part of every individual, this should be greatly considered because somehow, the world will soon benefit from such kind of education. Another argument why parents should have the option of homeschooling their children is for security reasons. Kidnapping of children is not a foreign issue in many countries. There have been so many cases wherein children are used by criminals as a means to their goals and they are often endangered on their way to school or even in the school itself. Indeed, keeping the children at home may not assure parents that they will not be in danger however their stay at home somehow places a borderline to... This essay approves that children are not the same in their abilities and interests. This is a fact that schools should consider however, with the number of students every teacher has to teach in traditional schools, not all students are well-developed in their environment. Homeschool provides an excellent teacher-student ratio that enables students to maximize their learning experience. Adjustments can always be made when a child is homeschooled. In traditional schools, the success and development of a talented student can be limited because the curriculum is quite rigid. Homeschooling on the contrary is flexible and is more advantageous to the development of a student. This report makes a conclusion that homeschooling is cheaper compared to traditional schools. It provides homes which are not able to afford sending their children to school the chance to be educated. In addition, parents can monitor what their children learn. They can either limit the knowledge of their children or expand them according to how they want their children to be taught. Parents do not have to worry about their educational security. Furthermore, their physical security is also closely supervised. Homeschooling protects children from bully teachers and fellow students. Most importantly, it allows a student to improve one’s weaknesses or enhance his strengths at his own pace. For the aforementioned reasons, it is obvious that homeschooling benefits students and parents in various ways therefore, parents should be given the option of homeschooling their children.

Friday, October 18, 2019

In depth analysis about article Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 1

In depth analysis about article - Essay Example The article contends that foreign trade does not necessarily increases the amount of value of commodity unless it is accompanied by increase in demand. This is important facet of economic principle that heavily relies on demand and supply of goods and services for optimal profit. The influx of capital and employability within the production process results in profits either due to new technology and methods that increase efficiency or there is decrease in wages that help to increase the percentage of profit. Thus, increase in revenue or decrease in consumption will result in accumulation of capital which can be gainfully employed for production of other commodities. They are indeed, vital inputs for trade and apply equally for domestic and foreign trade. Interestingly, the article also highlights that countries tend to favor import of those goods which have relatively higher cost of production. Ricardo gives example of corn which he says would be imported by England even if it has fe rtile land. Main reason is that it gains relatively higher profits on export of wine for which it has developed improved skill and technology which lower the cost of production.