Human Resource management (Workplace Bullying) Essay

Human Resource management (Workplace Bullying) - Essay Example At a time when employee loyalty is an important aspect of organizational strategies, it wise that all organizations shun work place bullying to ensure that employees are committed to the long term plan of the organization and that they perform optimally to achieve the goals of goals of the organization. Research by McCormack, Djurkovic and Casmir (2014) proves that organizations that provide a healthy work environment for the employees profit from optimal work output and perform better than those that pay little attention to work behaviour. Therefore, organizations must design strategies to ensure that work place bullying is shunned to pave way for optimal employee performance. Although the term bullying is common in management, it is clear that it is broad and refers to different aspects of organizational behaviour. Bullying or mobbing refers to situations in which a worker is subjected to long-lasting, recurrent, and serious negative or hostile acts and behaviour that are annoying and oppressing. Evidently, there are various forms of work place bullying within organizations. McCormack, Djurkovic and Casmir (2014) identify few including threats of professional status, threat to personal standing, overwork, destabilization and underpayment as various forms of bullying within many organizations. Among many researchers, there seems to be a consensus that work place bullying as the abuse of power that subjects employees to psychological, emotional or physical torture during their duties in the work place (Namie, 2003: Pfeffer, 2007). Often, those who have more powers in the organization abuse those below them by the way they handle them or even communicate du ring normal duties. Researchers such as McDonald, Backstrom and Allegretto (2007) have paid attention to underpayment as one of the forms of bullying within modern organizations. While this may be controversial, it is clear that in the endeavour to minimize expenditures within the competitive business

Parthenon Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Parthenon - Essay Example The structure is a work of synchronicity and precision. The earliest Hellenic structures date back to the 6th century BCE. There were two large temples dedicated to Athena. In 480 BC the Persians destroyed them, and in 447 BCE, the Athenian leader Pericles ordered the erection of the Parthenon. The form of the temple represents the matrimony of minimalism and authority. That is why it is so important to modern architects. It demonstrates how a building is not only function but also form. It is both art and science; pretty yet practical. This balance is perhaps the most striking element of the Parthenon. It is rare even in modern architecture to find such poise. The architects of Dubai are approaching a contemporary equivalent with their more innovative ideas. The Greek Parthenon is a building par excellence. Here, I have identified what it is, discuss why it’s important, describe its structure, and explain its historical and contemporary relevance. Even with our modern buildings, it still marks the basis for some of our architectural

Perception and intelligence Essay Example for Free

Perception and intelligence Essay Popular ideas of human development need revision to encompass the experience of older persons. In our too quick assumption that old age is a relentless downhill course, we ignore the potential of older persons for strength as well as for a richer emotional, spiritual, and even intellectual and social life than may be possible for the young. Overall physical health of the body plays critical role in determining the energies and adaptive capacities available to older people. They experience a great deal more acute and chronic disease than the younger population. If significant breakthroughs occur in research and treatment of diseases of the aged (heart disease, cancer, arthritis, chronic arteriosclerosis, and acute and brain syndromes), one can envision a very different kind of old age. Assuming adequate environmental supports, including proper nutrition, old age could become a time of lengthy good health with a more gentle and predictable decline. The Process of Becoming Old The kind of personality one carries into old age is a crucial factor in how one will respond to the experience of being old; personality traits produce individual ways of being old. But we will explore the general characteristics of old age and the changes that are fairly common to the aging population at least in the west particularly in the United States, which could also be attributable to other countries (Butler et al. , 1998). Physical changes: Some of the outward alterations experienced by older persons are graying of hair, loss of hair and teeth, elongation of ears and nose, loss of subcutaneous fat, particularly around the face, wrinkling of skin, fading of eyesight and hearing, postural changes, and a progressive structural decline that may result in a shortened trunk with comparatively long arms and legs. Not all of these changes happen to everyone-nor at the same rate. Recent researches have revealed that some or perhaps many of these changes are results of disease states that occur with greater frequency in late life and may be treatable, either by slowing the course of the disease or by preventing it entirely. The potential for life can be lengthened and enhanced, but mysterious flow of human existence from birth to death will prevail (Schaie Willis, 1996; Hurlock, 1982 Peterson, 1989). Although internal changes are not as readily observable as external ones, they are nevertheless are pronounced and as widespread. The muscles tend to become progressively less elastic over time. The most obvious consequence of diminished muscle tone is tiredness and decreased physical strength (Peterson, 1989). The density of our bones become more porous, brittle, fragile (Belsky, 1999) and are subject to fractures and breaks, which are increasingly slow to heal as age progresses (Hurlock, 1986). Internal organs go through a marked transformation. Atrophy is particularly marked by spleen, liver, testes, heart, lungs, pancreas, and kidneys. Perhaps the most marked change of all is in the heart and least and the last affected are the gastrointestinal tract, the urinary tract, and the smooth muscle organs. The senses: Vision and hearing become less sensitive with age. But most of this deterioration is cumulative, beginning early in life. The sensitivity of the other sense of taste, touch, smell and balance also decline with age, though the implications of these changes are generally less serious than for vision and hearing (Schaie Wills, 1996 Peterson, 1989). The motor system: The brain’s rate of electrical activity declines during old age and the conduction speed of the impulses along neuronal fibers throughout the body also decreases. There is slowing down in reaction time-the ability to quickly and accurately take action after a signal to respond appears- with age. It has three major components: sensory transmission time; motor execution time, and central processing time, which involves interpretation, decision, and association. The decreasing speed of processing information could account for many of the observed age differences in learning, memory, perception, and intelligence (Schaie Willis, 1996; Peterson, 1989; Belsky, 1999).

Human Resource Accounting and Indian Practice

Human Resource Accounting and Indian Practice Abstract Traditional acting practice treat expenses incurred on procurement, development, and maintenance of human resource as revenue expenditure and debit this to profit and loss account but now it is being increasingly realized that this expenses are incurred to get future benefit and as such should be capitalized and reflected in the balance sheet. This can only be achieved through introduction and implementation of human resource accounting. The study focuses on how human resource accounting has evolved over the period and how human resource accounting is used in today business application particularly in the Indian context. In addition the study also assesses how human resource cost is treated by the accounting standard and try to discuss alternative treatment. Through the study of Indian companies, the paper will propose ways through which human resource accounting can be introduced in India and become more popular than the current application. Introduction The world has witnessed a transition from manufacturing to service based economies. Before 1960s most economies relied on manufacturing sector to sustain growth but the past few decades have witnessed growth in service based economies. The fundamental difference between manufacturing and service sector lies in the nature of their asset. In manufacturing, physical assets like material, plant, equipment and machinery are very important (Johanson and Mabon, 1998). On the other hand for the service sector altitude and knowledge of employee is of utmost significance. For service firm such as information technology (IT), value of physical asset is considered less worth compared to skill and knowledge of its personnel. Similarly, in academic institution, hospital, audit firm, accounting firms etc the strength of the firm depends on skill and services offered rather than physical asset. Therefore the success of service organization depends on the quality of the work force i.e. competence, kn owledge, motivation, and skills. People in the business world today cite human resources as the common greatest asset. However employee value is rarely reported on the financial statements. This may have resulted from capitalist system that tends to glorify capital resources with a lukewarm emphasis on human resources. For this reason management of business enterprises have been rewarded on the basis of their utilization of capital asset without reference to value of workers. In fact business valuation has been a manifestation of this system. The common measurement of return that are used to value business include return on investment, return on asset or return on capital. In these cases there is no reference to the value of human resources. In service based economies it is important for employee to be recognized as part of the total worth of a firm. In estimating the worth of human capital it is vital to employ some method of quantifying human knowledge, skills, motivation and contribution of human aspect in organization process. Human resource accounting represents this process of measuring or quantifying human resource. Definition of human resource Leon. C. Megginson defined human resource as the total knowledge, skills, creative abilities, talent, altitudes and belief of an organization workforces as well as values, altitude and belief of the individuals involved. Definition of human resource accounting One of the definitions of human resource accounting comes from American Accounting Associations Committee on Human Resource Accounting that defines human resource accounting as the process of identifying and measuring data about human resources and communicating this information to interested parties. Therefore human resource accounting involve measurement of all cost associated with recruitment, selection, induction, training and development of workers as well as the economic value of people in a firm. Flamholtz has a similar definition as he define human resource accounting as the measurement and reporting of the cost and value of people in organizational resources. Human resource accounting has also been defined as the system of recording of transactions relating to the value of human resource i.e. the cost of acquisition of their knowledge and utilization of the energy for production of goods and services in the most profitable manner and thereby achieving the organization goals (bassi, et al 1997). In general human resource accounting may be defined as the process of identifying data about human resource, recording investment made in them and measuring their cost and value. It also involves presenting the information in a significant manner in the financial statement to communicate their worth with changes over the period and result obtained from their utilization to users of financial statement. There are no statutory requirements which demand companies to furnish human resource accounting related information in their final statement. The company act of 1956 had no provision for HRA. The subsequent accounting bodies such as Institute of Chartered Accountants of India have not yet drafted standard or measurement dealing with accounting and reporting of human resource accounting. While most organization give qualitative pronouncement on importance of human resource very few make effort to give quantitative information about human resource. Currently some organizations are furnishing additional report beyond what is required by statute. One notable statement that has gained wider acceptance among many firms is the corporate social responsibility report. This is due to recognition that the traditional financial reporting does not give sufficient information about organization performance. In India some companies have recognized the value of human resource and include related inf ormation in their annual report, they include Infosys, steel authority of India (SAIL), Bharat Heavy Electrical ltd (BHEL), Southern Petrochemicals Industries Corporation of India Ltd, Mineral and Metals Trading Corporation of India, Hindustan Zinc Ltd, Associated cement Companies Ltd, Madras Refineries Ltd, Oil India ltd, Oil and Natural Gas Commission, and the Cement Corporation of India (Punita 2007). Historical development of human resource accounting Human resource accounting can be traced back in the medieval European practice of calculating the expected future earning of a prisoner versus the cost of keeping him. At that time a prisoner was considered as the general property of capturing side and therefore after a victory a decision had to be made on whether to capture a prisoner or kill him depending on cost benefit analysis. If expected benefit outweighed the cost the prisoner was capture but if cost were greater than benefit he was killed. For instance in 1964 Sweden and Austria agreed upon the following price list (figures given in taler) Field marshal 20,000 Colonel 1,000 Cavalry captain 200 Infantry captain 150 Non-commissioned officers 16 Private 8 Though this was a rough measure, it highlights the fact that human resource has value and such value can be measured using appropriate basis. Development of human resource accounting as a detailed and systematic activity began in 1960 by Rensis Likert. Likert defends long-term planning by strong pressure on human resources qualitative variable, resulting in greater benefit in the long run. He defined human resource as to include all such assets as a firms human organization, its customers, loyalty, shareholders loyalty, supplier loyalty, its reputation among the financial community and it reputation in the general society (bowers, 1973). William potty made the first attempt to value the human beings in monetary terms. He was of the opinion that labor was the source of wealth and must be taken into consideration when making an estimate of wealth. From 1960s the behavioral scientist started a real work of studying about human resource accounting (Flamholtz, 1969). This development can be dividend into five stages according to Flamholtz. Stage one (1960 1966) during this era there was increased academic interest in the area of human resource accounting. At this time most people focused on deriving human resource accounting concept from other theories such as psychological theory and economic theory of capital. Stage two (1966 1971) at this stage the focus shifted to developing different models for human resource accounting. The model developed covered monetary, non-monetary value and cost of human resource. The objective of developing such model was to help the firm in managing their human resource and assessing human resource asset in a realistic manner. The main contributor to the study at this era was Roger Hermanson. During his ph.D studies, he studied the problem of measuring the value of human resource as an element of goodwill. Thereafter researchers who were inspired by his work continued to develop methods and concepts of accounting for human asset. Stage three (1971 1976) there was rapid growth in research in the area of human resource accounting. The field gain more acceptance and wide spread interest. During this era most researchers tried to evaluate how human resource accounting could be applied in businesses. A notable experiment was that of R.G. Barry which gave substantial contribution to researchers (Boudreau, 1996). Stage four (1976- 1980) during this era there was minimal research in the field of human resource accounting. This was due to the fact that there were complex issues that needed further exploration and deeper empirical research than the simple model developed earlier. The other reason for slow growth in human resource accounting at this time was unwillingness among many organizations to offer sponsorship for research in this area. Stage five (1980 onward) the shifting from manufacturing to service economies in many developed countries renewed the interest in the area of human resource accounting. In addition the realization of the usefulness of human resource in facilitating growth, profitability and survival of the business contributed to the renewal of interest in the field. Unlike in the previous studies where the main interest was academic with few practical application but since 1990s the focus shifted to application of human resource accounting to business management. Various models which incorporate both tangible and intangible asset have been developed to suit the specific need of the organization. At this time most organization began using human resource accounting as part of financial and managerial accounting practice. Objectives of HRA systems Its basically adopted to treat human resources as assets, to generate human data about names, to assign value to human assets in the balance sheet. The objectives include: Provide information for making management decisions about acquiring, allocating, developing and maintaining human resources in order to attain cost effective organization objective. To develop methods of ensuring human resources cost and value and to allow management personnel to monitor effectively the use of human resources. Provide a system of asset control i.e. whether assets are conserved, deflated, or appreciated (Boedker et al 2008). Aid in the development of management principals by classifying the financial consequences of various practices. Develop a theory that will explain the nature and determinants of the value of people to enterprises. Significance of human resource accounting A well defined human resource accounting can help the management to become more efficient, in addition it is useful in internal reporting and to external users of financial statement. Usefulness in internal reporting Helps in planning Human resource cost acting provides cost information required in human resource planning process thereby facilitating preparation of future forecasts and budget (booth 1998). Help in decision making human resource accounting provides data in areas where alternative option exist e.g. whether to acquire a trained employee or develop one from within, or whether to retrench or retain an employee. Instead of applying non-monetary measures of potential ability, the economic value of recruits will be better criteria for selection and optimization of the expected value of the organization human resource and subsequent valuation of adequacy of return on investment in human resource. Helps in capital budgeting the present technique used in capital budgeting decision consider the human dimension as a qualitative factor. This is not realistic in the present scenario where huge investment is being made in development of employees and therefore human resource accounting system would justly assess the impact of capital budgeting on human and non-human asset. Helps in control human resource accounting help to ensure that human resource objective are attained objectively and efficiently as it provide information necessary to implement the control function. The standard cost of acquisition and development is compared with actual cost incurred and the variance if any is analyzed to identify the possible lapses in personnel management function (Scarpello and Theeke, 1989). Helps in performance evaluation the present convention of measurement of return on investment ignores the changes in human resources and this encourages mangers to use their human resource to include their short term objective. Inclusion of human resource input would be a good performance measure as it would reveal the return on human asset. It helps in activity analysis measurement of human resource value would provide top management with new set of financial ratio for effective organization activities analysis e.g. ratio of human and non-human resources indicate the degree of labor intensity. Higher labor intensity could be used as a result of outdated technology requiring the utilization of high proportion of labor or employment of unwarranted existing labor (Tang, 2005). Usefulness in external reporting In business creditors and other external users of acting information would find data in human resource useful as it would measure change in asset value over period of time thereby reflecting the correct measure of corporate growth. Capitalization of expenses relating to development of human resource also reflects a correct financial position and performance of the organization. The market value of share may reflect changes in value of human resource thereby enhancing the companys image among the competitors while increasing the confidence of shareholders. Usefulness in management of human resources Acquisition of human resource human resource accounting provide information for budget preparation for cost involved in recruiting, selecting and hiring human resource. Besides in selection process personnel executive needs data about economic value of a candidate in order to choose the one with the highest economic value. Allocation of human resource human resource accounting provide quantitative information about capabilities, skills and other personal attribute of employee which will help management in attaining a perfect allocation of organization human resources whereby employees are assigned jobs perfectly matching their own abilities in order to fully utilize their skills and capabilities. Maintenance of human resource presently organization use turnover rates to measure the extent of human resource observation. However such parameters are not adequate as they do not fully reflect the impact of turnover. With inclusion in human resource accounting the management may monitor the investment cost through human resource replacement cost which provides the economic magnitude of turnover rate as well (Drake, 1997). Evaluation and reward for employees as human resource accounting can provide management with changes in value of human resources over time both in monetary and non-monetary term, the figures will not only make possible the determination of salary and wages on the basis of employees value but will also provide a criterion to both the management and unions in negotiating any increases in compensation and reward payment. Training of human resource organization invests heavily on human resource development program without evaluating expected payoff of return because this outlay cost is considered as expenses rather than investment. Since human resource accounting involves treating this expense as asset the information about this cot and the benefit of this program would be evaluated on a rational basis. Case for and against human resource accounting Argument against human resource accounting Incase of high employee turnover rates there may be no basis for capitalization since there is no future benefits to carry asset status. If the definition of asset is future economic benefits the rights of which are owned or controlled by the firm then one may question whether human resources indeed are assets. Unless one is working in a slave society human resource are not owned in the convectional sense of the world, and therefore employees may be opposed to the capitalization because of the connotations that goes with it. The development of human resource accounting is necessary to provide a firm with accurate financial reports to guide its decisions. Its also needed to increase the validity of criteria of measurements used in organizations research. According to asset recognition criteria, an asset is the future economic benefits the rights of which are owned or controlled by an enterprise. Therefore as long as future benefits are expected to come from these training costs, they can be treated as assets. However, as Cea Garcia observes, this does not hold true in reality; There is a clear absence of correspondence between the real assets in the present firms and those recognized in the balance sheet, in front of a pure economic approach where assets is every instrument or way that can be used in production -distribution of a firms process or, in general, every category of economic value which can be transformed into goods or services or any instrument at the service of the firm or that the firm uses, regardless its juridical state, and also all those goods and rights that the firm does not own now but used to own or will own later on, by virtue of collateral contracts or agreement which may induce it. It may be argued that the rate of amortization and the rate of capitalization may coincide and therefore the net effect on the income statement may be as under convection human resources cost expense treatment. The period with which the employee will work for the enterprise is uncertain and therefore the amortization is subjective. Marvin Weiss (1972) discussed the argument for and against Human Resources Accounting argue that there is inability to determine the period of future benefits, the ownership status of such assets and inability to amortize such assets on an objective way. As Ebersberger (1981) argues, even where the logic of HRA is a plausible one must confront the issue of measurement. How does one place a value on an individuals head? How can one value commitment to an employer or ones ability to work as a team. The management may use human resource accounting to manipulate the workers. The manager may reduce the value of a worker as a way of punishment for perceived or real differences. There is an immense amount of power placed in the hands of the valuers of human resource. Any value placed on an employee may have irreparable damage on employees attitude. Managers may also transfer some workers near the end of the period to clean up their balance sheet. Employee may demand to be paid in accordance to their reported value particularly if they believe this would lead to a higher pay HRA may have a disastrous effect on the morale of the employee if his or her value reduces through depreciation. Moreover human beings grow, learn and mature at different rates and therefore a standard depreciation rate is inapplicable. Case for Human Resource Accounting Whereas there may be workers turnover, this may not be justification for expensing the cost of human resources. Failure to capitalize may negate the going concern concept. If an employer were to expect such high turnover then he would not incur expenditure on employee training and development in the first place! On average it is expected that workers will remain long enough for the firm to recoup its investment costs. Workers may not be owned as such but the convention of substance over form argues that what matters in transaction is the economic substance not the legal form. Leased assets are recognized in the books despite the fact that they are not owned. Human resource expenditure like training and development are incurred for workers who are in the process of learning and therefore they do not benefit the operations of the year in which the costs are incurred. For that reason it is inconsistency for charging such costs in the year of expenditure. Instead they should be capitalized and amortised over the years expected to benefit from the employees services. In pension cost accounting armotisation or accrual of expenditure related to employees is required. Such accrual methods take into consideration length of service and turnover rates. Whereas it is agreeable that armotisation rate are subjective, it must be noted that depreciation rates for the tangible assets are mere estimates based on assumptions. It is therefore no justification to prohibit capitalization and armotisation of human resource expenditure. Measurements in human resource accounting The main reason why human resource accounting have taken a long period to be incorporated in the companys final report is the difficulty or challenge of assigning monetary value to various human asset cost, investment and employees worth. There are mainly two methods that are used in assigning monetary value to employee cost, investment or worth. This includes: the cost approach the economic value approach The cost approach is based on the actual cost incurred by the company in relation with employees. The economic value approach considers human resource as asset and tries to identify the future earning resulting from use of human asset. The cost approach Cost is the amount of cash or equivalent given to acquire property or services. If property other than cash is given to acquire property or services the cost is the cash equivalent of property given. When property or the services acquired are sold or consumed the cost are matched with related revenue to determine the amount of net income or net loss. The cost of property or service that are acquired and are still on hand at any particular time represent asset. Such costs are also called unexpired cost. As asset are sold or consumed they become expired cost or expenses. Therefore in accounting cost incurred are recorded in the financial statement as either asset or expenses. Costs which are recorded as expenses in the current period include those which provide benefit during the current accounting period (Schwarz Murphy, 2008). for instance when machinery is purchased the portion of cost recorded as expenses include depreciation for the year (i.e. the benefit accruing from the use of asset in that particular year) while the portion of cost recorded as asset in the net book value (cost accumulated depreciation). Under costing approach various techniques that can be used to value human resource include Historical cost approach The actual cost incurred on recruiting, selecting, training and developing the human resources of the organization are capitalized and written off over the expected useful life of the human resource. Under this method the cost of acquisition i.e. recruitment, selection, hiring and training employees are capitalized and written off over the expected useful life of the employees (Flamholtz, 1999). If the employee decide to leave the employment before anticipated period of service then the amortized portion of cost remaining in the companys book is written off against the profit and loss account in that year. If the employee stays beyond the expected term of service then amortization of cost is rescheduled. According to Caplan (1974) the basic theory behind the historical cost method is that human resources value can be determined by accumulating the cost of investment. Human resource accounting in this respect involves a decision to capitalize rather than to expense costs incurred in t raining and development of employees. When referring to training cost, historical cost means the sacrifice necessary to hire and train people. The training concept is generally used to define three different issues which are difficult to distinguish in practice; they include capacitating, training, and development. Capacitating is the workers acquisition of knowledge and skills necessary for his job. Training better adapts the worker to the job while development mainly focuses on promotion to higher job levels (Guzman 1996). Once capitalized the resulting balance should be amortized as an expense in the periods when the employee became a productive member of the organization and unamortized balances should be written off when the employee leaves the organization. Merits Easy to work and simple to understand. It follows the traditional concept of matching cost with revenue. It is favored because it is most similar to convectional accounting It can provide a basis of evaluating a companys return on its investment in human resources. Limitations Suffers from problem of historical costs accounting. The users of accounts may view these values as a measure of the potential usefulness of an employee. Difficulty in estimating use of human resources. One cannot tell when an employee may quit a job. The economic value of human resources may increase with experience, but armotisation reduces the reported value. It is difficult to reconcile the two. Ignores the aggregate value of employees potential services. People may learn things outside the organization which will be useful in their jobs yet these may not be taken in account. Training and development cost that are capitalized do not guarantee employee increased performance. Opportunity cost approach The value of the human resource is determined according to its alternative use. An estimate of alternative use of the human resource is required. The value of the human resource is the price that the alternative use is ready to pay for it. Opportunity costs are considered as an asset value when [they are] the target of an alternative use [Hekimian and Jones, 1967]. The alternative use is the alternative department. As a result, only scarce resources would have an alternative use. This approach suggests competitive bidding for scarce employees in an organization i.e. opportunity costs of employees linked to scarcity. The approach proposes the capitalizing of additional earning potential of each human resource within the company. The opportunity cost approach requires at least two departments or cost centers both desiring the services of the same person or a group of people. Limitations It cannot value employees who have no alternative use. The valuation of employees on alternative use and competitive bid is inaccurate and misleading. One may not have values in the alternative use but perfectly useful in one department. This valuation restricts alternative use within the organization. In real life there is alternative use outside the business and moreover alternative use within the business may not be identifiable because of constraints in an organizational environment. Standard cost approach The method was developed by David Watson. The approach advocates for a standard cost per grade of employees updated every year. Replacement cost can be used to develop standard costs of recruiting, training and developing individuals. Such standards can be used to compare results with those planned. Any resource produced should be analyzed and would form a useful basis of control. Under this method, standard cost of recruiting, hiring, training and developing per grade of employees are determined annually. The total standard cost for all personnel of the company is the value of human resources The problem is that the determination of the standard cost from each grade of employee is a ticklish process (Moore, 2007). Economic value added approach This approach utilizes the concept of present value. The value of human resource is considered as the present value of future benefit expected to be received from employees service (Lev and Schwartz, 1971). Various scholars have suggested a number of valuation techniques under the present value approach. The technique varies in terms of recognition of benefits. Some argue that the benefits to be discounted are the expected stream of payments that the firm will make to the human resource. In either case the human resource in it is seen as a future stream of benefits up to the date of death or retirement, discounted at an appropriate discount rate. This method is perhaps the most appealing because it incorporates the entire stream of benefits. However, present value approach suffers from the following limitations It ignores the possibility of a human resource leaving employment in the given organization other than through death or retirement. Having many reasons as to why people may leave an organization. Difficult to establish the actual benefits from employment because some of the determining factors like trade unions are out of organizations control. Teamwork is a thing more than the sum of the values of individuals. Present value approach does not reflect the contribution of the team as a whole. It ignores the organizations effect on the value of a human resource. The economic value of human resources may be of group, individual or the whole organization. The method for calculating economic value of human resource may be classified as either monetary or non monetary Monetary measures of human resource value Flamholtz model The Flamholtz model considers the value of human resource as the present worth of services likely to be rendered by an employee in future. When an employee moves from one position to the other at the same level or to different levels the profile of services offered will be different. The value of individual will therefore comprise of the present cumulative value of all possible services to be offered by the employee his career at the organization. The value of individual cannot be determined with certainty and is considered to have two dimensions. Conditional value of individual This is the amount that organization expects to realize from employee service during his productive life in the firm. It is mainly composed of three factors namely Productivity this include various services that employee is expected to undertake in his current position. Transferability this include a number of services that the employee is expected to offer in different position at the same level.

The Life and Literature of Willa Cather Essay -- Authors

â€Å"The great characters in literature are born out of love, often out of some beautiful experience of the writer† (Brown 1). A number of novelists draw much of their inspiration for writing from stories they hear, places they have lived and visited, their childhood, and people they know and hear of in their lives. Willa Cather is no exception. The setting and places in Cather’s novels are derived from her travels, and where she lived. Cather’s earliest life experiences were also integrated into her writing. The characters in Cather’s novels are based on people in and around her life. Willa Cather’s journeys, and residences; childhood, and the people around her permeate in her novels The Professor’s House, and A Lost Lady. The first locale where Cather crafted her scenery after was her home town of Red Cloud, Nebraska. Willa Cather was born in Back Creek Valley, Virginia; she and her family moved to Nebraska four years later. Within A Lost Lady, the home of Captain Daniel Forrester, and wife Marian is described by the narrator as â€Å"[standing] on a low round hill†, and â€Å"[standing] close to a fine cottonwood grove that threw sheltering arms to left and right†. Cather paints a picturesque view of the mansion belonging to then governor Silas and Lyra Garber, his wife. Sweet Water, the town in which A Lost Lady takes place closely resembles Red Cloud. In comparison, Susan Rosowski, renowned Cather scholar describes the home of the Garber’s having â€Å"a cottonwood grove, the shade of the fast growing trees made the place a favorite for picnics and other social affairs for the people in the town, including young Willa Cather† (Rosowski and Ronning 194). The Forresterâ₠¬â„¢s house decided to incorporate in A Lost Lady was, surely a place of solace a... ... Lady, Willa Cather Scholarly Edition. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2003. 190-201. Print. Skaggs, Merrill Maguire. After the World Broke in Two: The Later Novels of Willa Cather. Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1990. Print. "The Professor's House." Cyclopedia Of Literary Characters, Revised Third Edition. 1998. 1-2. Literary Resource Center. Web. 26 April 2012. Van Ghent, Dorothy. "Willa Cather." Willa Cather: Modern Critical Views. Ed. Harold Bloom. New York: Chelsea House Publishers, 1985. 71-73. Print. Wilson, Anna. "Canonical Relations: Willa Cather, America, and The Professor's House." Texas Studies in Literature and Language (2005): 61-74. Literature Reference Center. Web. Woodress, James. Willa Cather: A Literary Life. University of Nebraska Press, 1987. Print. —. Willa Cather: Her Life and Art. New York: Pegasus, 1970. Print.

College Admissions Essay: A Stepping Stone for Others :: College Admissions Essays

A Stepping Stone for Others    I have always had a passion to learn. My interest is in political theory and economics, hoping someday to become a lawyer and stateswoman. I realize that in order to reach any of these goals, a college degree is vital. When I in turn reach my goals, I will use them to encourage and uplift my community by investing my time, money, energy, and influence to become a stepping stone for others.    I feel the most important step in giving back to the community is to stay in the community. As a Mississippi native, I witness first hand some of the financial and economic set backs it faces. Although we are making tremendous progress, I know that I too must do my part in contributing to the well being of my community. So many times the best and brightest of our youth graduate from top Mississippi high schools, continue their college careers in another state, never to return again. After I have obtained my college degree from a Mississippi University, I will become an entrepreneur, contribute to my state by opening up a business, and provide jobs to help stimulate the economy.    With a college degree in the field of political science, and a career in law and politics, I would encourage youth to be active in the political arena. I would offer intern positions in my law firm to help provide youth with first hand experience to further understand our legal and justice system. I would also volunteer my time in becoming a speech and debate coach for a local high school, because it is very important to have corporate and professional involvement with schools. In a hopeful career as a state legislator, or perhaps a congresswoman, I would support legislation that would promote better conditions for our schools and teachers.    My community is very important to me.

Encourage Contact Between Students And Faculty Education Essay

In the universe, an country that has seen much investing is education. Knowledge or instruction was considered the â€Å" 3rd oculus † of adult male which gives him an penetration into all personal businesss. So many people from different age group spend a batch of their clip, money and attempts in prosecuting instruction in assorted establishments of larning. Old ages spent in primary, secondary schools, colleges and universities are about have a life-time in this instance, hence returns from such an investing should be high plenty to justify such attempt. Education is an investing to development, and hapless survey methods should non compromise the authorization of higher instruction establishment to bring forth, continue and circulate cognition and bring forth high quality alumnuss. Universities admit pupils with changing backgrounds in footings of learning/study manners, degrees of readiness and constructs of university instruction. Some were â€Å" drilled † , taug ht for tests, or have incorrect purpose / values of university acquisition. These negatively have impact on their survey accomplishments and accomplishment. In complementing the function played by academic staffs, pupils need to be witting of their survey personality and survey moralss as they influence analyzing. It is ineffectual to learn good while pupils lack the basicss to gestate and internalise the new cognition. Many times, college pupils have non had to pull off their clip expeditiously prior to college because they are bright and seldom challenged in high school. So some pupils who had ‘A ‘s and ‘B ‘s start receiving auxiliary tests and score C ‘s and D ‘s in college. Harmonizing to the National Commission on Excellence in Education ( 1984 ) , many pupils are unsuccessful in school because they lack effectual survey accomplishments. To counter this, the committee recommends that survey accomplishments be introduced to pupils really early in the schooling procedure and go on throughout a pupil ‘s educational calling. In a now authoritative survey of survey accomplishments, ( Entwistle, 1960 ) reported that pupils who voluntarily took a survey accomplishments class were more successful academically than similar pupils who did non voluntarily take the class. ( butcofsky, 1971 ) reported that pupils who have trouble in college often have unequal survey wonts that affect their academic accomplishment. A cardinal job, he noted, was that many of these pupils had non learned how to take effectual notes and manage clip for analyzing. To achieve an effectual survey in higher instruction we sometimes need guidelines and have to follow some certain regulations. We need to hold contact with pupils in our categories and module, as pupils and module members ; we have spent most of our school lives seeking to understand ourselves, and our establishments. And have conducted a small research on higher instruction with dedicate d pupils in a broad scope of schools. We draw the deductions of this study, trusting to assist us all do better, as we emphasizes clip on undertaking, respect diverse endowments and ways of acquisition, promote active acquisition, communicate high outlooks and several of them. But the ways different establishments implement good pattern depends really much on their pupils and their fortunes. In what follows, we describe several different attacks to good pattern that have been used in different sorts of scenes in the last few old ages.2.0 ECOURAGE CONTACT BETWEEN STUDENTS AND FACULTYFrequent student-faculty contact in and out of categories is the most of import factor in pupil motive and engagement. Faculty concern helps pupils get through unsmooth times and maintain on working. Knowing a few module members good enhances pupils ‘ rational committedness and encourages them to believe about their ain values and future programs. Forming seminars for freshers on of import subjects and these subjects will be taught by senior module members, this helps in set uping an early connexion between the fresh and senior pupils and the module in many colleges and universities. Faculty members who lead treatment groups in classs outside their Fieldss of specialisation theoretical account for pupils what it means to be a scholar. ( Arthur & A ; Zelda, 1987 ) In the Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, three out of four undergraduates have joined three-fourthss of the module as junior research co-workers in recent old ages. At Sinclair Community College, pupils in the â€Å" College without Walls † plan have pursued surveies through larning contracts. Each pupil has created a â€Å" resource group, ‘ which includes a module member, a pupil equal, and two â€Å" community resource † module members. This group so provides support and assures quality3. 0 DEVELOPS RECIPROCITY AND COOPERATION AMONG STUDENTSLearning is enhanced when it is more like a squad attempt than a solo race. Good acquisition, like good work, is collaborative and societal, non competitory and stray. Working with others frequently increases engagement in larning. Sharing one ‘s ain thoughts and reacting to others ‘ reactions sharpens believing and deepens understanding. Even in big talk categories, pupils can larn from one another. Learning groups are a common pattern, in which five to seven pupils run into on a regular basis during category throughout the term to work out jobs set by the teacher. Many colleges use peer coachs for pupils who need particular aid. Learning communities are another popular manner of acquiring pupils to work together. Students involved in Learning Communities can take several classs together. The classs, on subjects related to a common subject like scientific discipline, engineering, and human values, are from different subjects. Faculties learning the classs coordinate their activities while another module member, called a â€Å" maestro scholar: ‘ takes the classs with the pupils. Under the way of the maestro scholar, pupils run a seminar which helps them incorporate thoughts from the separate classs.4.0 MotivationAcademic success or failure can bring forth the feelings of competency or incompetency in pupils. These feelings can impact pupils ‘ public presentations by their willingness to go on to larn or give up. ( Haynes, 1993 ) â€Å" It is believed that pupils who have high accomplishment outlooks attribute success to internal and external causes † . There are several schemes that can be used to actuate pupils to larn. ( Tonjes & A ; Zintz, 1981 ) ( 1 ) â€Å" Identify pupil ‘s involvements and taking stuffs that meet the involvements, abilities, and attitudes of the pupils † . Teachers should be able to place what the pupils are interested in so they can assist them take actuate them on geting that involvement. ( 2 ) Give clear aims of the lessons and assignments. ( 3 ) ( Mutsotso & A ; Abenga, 2010 ) â€Å" Allow pupils to take the undertaking and stuffs to finish the undertaking † .5.0 COMMUNICATE HIGH EXPECTATIONExpect more and you will acquire more. High outlooks are of import for everyone, for the ill prepared, for those unwilling to exercise themselves, and for the bright and well-motivated. Expecting pupils to execute good becomes a self-fulfilling prognostication when instructors and establishments hold high outlooks of them and do excess attempts. E.g. ( Arthur & A ; Zelda, 1987 ) in many colleges and universities, pupils with hapless yesteryear records or trial tonss do extraordinary work. Sometimes they outperform pupils with good readying. The University of Wisconsin-Parkside has communicated high outlooks for underprepared high school pupils by conveying them to the university for workshops in academic topics, survey accomplishments, trial pickings, and clip direction. In order to reenforce high outlooks, the plan involves parents and high school counsellors6.0 ACADEMIC INVOLVEMENTDefined as a composite of self-reported traits and behaviours ( e.g. , the extent to which pupils work hard at their surveies, the figure of hours they spend analyzing, the grade of involvement in their classs, good survey wonts ) , academic engagement produces an unusual form of effects. Intense academic engagement tends to retard those alterations in personality and behaviour that usually result from college attending. Therefore, pupils who are profoundly involved academically are less likely than mean pupils to demo additions in liberalism, hedonism, artistic involvements, and spiritual renunciation or decreases in concern involvements.7.0 ACTIVE LearningLearning is non a witness athletics. Students do non larn much merely by sitting in categories listening to instructors, memorising prepacked assignments, and ptyalizing out replies. They must speak about what they are larning, write about it, associate it to past experiences and use it to their day-to-day lives. They must do what they learn portion of themselves. Active acquisition is encouraged in categories that use structured exercisings, disputing treatments, squad undertakings, and equal reviews. Active acquisition can besides happen outside the schoolroom. There are 1000s of internships, independent survey, and concerted occupation plans across the state in all sorts of colleges and universities, in all sorts of Fieldss, for all sorts of pupils. Students besides can assist plan and learn classs or parts of classs. At Brown University, module members and pupils have designed new classs on modern-day issues and cosmopolitan subjects ; the pupils so assist the professors as learning helpers. At the State University of New York at Cortland, get downing pupils in a general chemical science lab have worked in little groups to plan lab processs instead than reiterate restructured exercisings. At the University of Michigan ‘s Residential College, squads of pupils sporadically work with module members on a long-run original research undertaking in the societal scientific disciplines.8.0 TIME MANAGEMENT AND HANDLING STRESS( Alexander, 1999 ) College decision makers are invariably preoccupied with the accretion and allotment of financial resources ; the theory of pupil engagement, nevertheless, suggests that the most cherished institutional resource may be student clip. Harmonizing to the theory, the extent to which pupils can accomplish peculiar developmental ends is a direct map of the clip and attempt they devote to activities de signed to bring forth these additions. For illustration, if increased cognition and apprehension of history is an of import end for history big leagues, the extent to which pupils reach this end is a direct map of the clip they spend at such activities as listening to professor ‘s talk about history, reading books about history, and discoursing history with other pupils. By and large, the more clip pupils spend in these activities, the more history they learn. Stress is any state of affairs that evokes negative ideas and feelings in a individual. The same state of affairs is non redolent or nerve-racking for all people, and all people do non see the same negative ideas and feelings when stressed. One theoretical account that is utile in understanding emphasis among pupils is the person-environmental theoretical account. ( Lazarus, 1966 ) Harmonizing to one fluctuation of this theoretical account, nerve-racking events can be appraised by an person as â€Å" disputing † or â€Å" baleful † . When pupils appraise their instruction as a challenge, emphasis can convey them a sense of competency and an increased capacity to larn. When instruction is seen as a menace, nevertheless, emphasis can arouse feelings of weakness and a fateful sense of loss. A critical issue refering emphasis among pupils is its consequence on acquisition. ( The Yerkes-Dodson jurisprudence 1908 ) postulates that persons under low and high emphasis learn the least, and that those under moderate emphasis learn the most. A field survey and research lab trials support the impression that inordinate emphasis is harmful to pupils ‘ public presentation. Mechanisms that explain why pupils perform severely under emphasis include â€Å" hyper watchfulness † ( inordinate watchfulness to a nerve-racking state of affairs ensuing in terror — for illustration, over analyzing for an test ) and â€Å" premature closing † ( rapidly taking a solution to stop a nerve-racking state of affairs, for illustration, hotfooting through an test ) . Students react to Higher Education in a assortment of ways. For some pupils, college or the University is nerve-racking because it is an disconnected alteration from high school. For others, separation from place is a beginning of emphasis. Although some emphasis is necessary for personal growing to happen, the sum of emphasis can overpower a pupil and impact the ability to get by. Time ON TASK Time plus energy peers larning. There is no replacement for clip on undertaking. Learning to utilize one ‘s clip well is critical for pupils and professionals likewise. Students need aid in larning effectual clip direction. Allocating realistic sums of clip agencies effectual larning for pupils and effectual instruction for module. How an establishment defines clip outlooks for pupils, module, decision makers, and other professional staff can set up the footing for high public presentation for all. E.g. ( 1 ) ( Mutsotso & A ; Abenga, 2010 ) larning how to finish assignments on clip will assist pupils succeeds academically. In the â€Å" Dynamics of Effective Study † pupils are taught how to form and pull off clip sagely. Students are taught how to schedule undertakings hebdomadal and monthly to guarantee success. To heighten the academic accomplishment of pupils, a survey accomplishments class was implemented in the course of study to assist pupils achieve the GPA standa rds. Freshmans have enrolled in this class since it was implemented in 1994. This survey will analyze the effectivity of the class, â€Å" Dynamicss of Effective Study, † on the academic accomplishment of freshers at this school. ( 2 ) ( Arthur & A ; Zelda, 1987 ) Mastery acquisition, contract acquisition, and computer-assisted direction require that pupils spend equal sums of clip on larning. Extended periods of readying for college besides give pupils more clip on undertaking. Matteo Ricci College is known for its attempts to steer high school pupils from the 9th class to a B.A. through a course of study taught jointly by module at Seattle Preparatory school and Seattle University. Supplying pupils with chances to incorporate their surveies into the remainder of their lives helps them usage clip good. As pupils in higher instruction, much is expected of us, and at the same clip there are so many distractions that come our manner. We need to be able to get the better of this distractions, know what to make at a peculiar point in clip, cognize when to acquire a school assignment done so that the work burden wo n't be much, and when to go to to other things. And most significantly know when to make these things at the right clip. So for us to be able to accomplish these purposes in due clip we as pupils need to be able to modulate our clip. For Example You may be making a class with faculties, where each one must be completed in a semester. You might sometimes necessitate to get down assessed plants before you ‘ve had all the categories, to finish it on clip you need to be after yourself good You may be making several faculties at one time all with a similar deadline taking to bunching of plants. If you do n't be after for this you might stop up under force per unit area. If you leave it excessively late to look for indispensable resources, they may non be available. Advance planning is every bit indispensable as the resources If you ‘re making paid work while analyzing, you need to suit it all together. So many pupils have domestic duties to suit in with class work, this besides needs planning.THINGS HIGH IN IMPORTANCE, LOW IN URGENCY.( DAVID, 2009 ) For module and alumnus pupils, things that are extremely of import but less pressing tend to include our original research and our personal relationships. Both are evidently of import, and we know that. But the world is that both of these tend non to experience every bit pressing as our duties for a category. For illustration, calculating out how to research the communicating kineticss that propelled a state to travel to war is undeniably of import, yet it merely does n't transport the same sense of immediateness as prepping for a category that occurs tomorrow and so once more two yearss subsequently, for the following eight hebdomads. Similarly, traveling out to dinner with a close friend can ever be put off until another twenty-four hours, right? And that ‘s precisely what happens with things that are of import but non ( as ) urgent — we tend to force them to the side. As a consequence, many of us get the instruction and pupil work done foremost and merely so turn to a focal point on original research or personal clip that nurtures us. If such clip does non happen, and it frequently does n't, so so be it. And that ‘s the hang-up of the affair. We must do certain that we devote clip to things that are extremely of import, but low in urgency. If we do non, the nature of the academy is that extremely of import, extremely pressing undertakings will herd everything else out. When that occurs, burnout ensues. Here are a few stairss that we can take to do certain we give equal precedence to things high in importance and low in urgency: Schedule them.A If you do n't schedule them, they do n't go on. As a module member, I schedule my research clip and personal activities, to do certain they happen. Otherwise they wo n't. Make different things on different yearss of the week.A I have found that I am best when concentrating on one primary type of work undertaking a twenty-four hours. That is, if I teach on Tuesday so I likely wo n't be much good as a research worker that twenty-four hours. For me, Mondays and Fridays tend to be yearss that I spend making chiefly research and commission work. Believe that you will really be a better instructor and pupil when you do take clip to plunge yourself in what is extremely of import, but non ( as ) urgent.A I ‘m wholly convinced that when I prioritize occasional pockets of personal clip I enrich my instruction and research because my head and energy are renewed.9.0 DecisionHow much a pupil achieves is in portion dependant on the survey methods that he/she applies. There is no 1 survey method that works better for all individuals. The secret lies in being able to place personal survey methods that work for each person in given environments, conditions and fortunes. This requires cognizing oneself in order to do good determinations about how to analyze and do clip, every bit good as know the assorted schemes that can be applied.