Travel Writing

The reluctance to enter this climatic journey was brought upon the experiences of other riders. The facial expressions and comments I was hearing as people exited the ‘Mechanical Emotion Drawer' was unbelievable. The excruciating pain being hidden behind anxiousness and expectation. Every small, timide step forward added to the suspense making me want to break free of my personal pride. The source of my anxiety is in the U.S.A, where they are renowned for making the impossible, possible and reaching new heights in technology. Being a British Asian (Living in England) the creativity and imagination for producing the best inspires me, just like what I was about to experience. As I looked into the skyline of this masterpiece park, one ‘Godzilla' like stature dominated my view. It stood tall, bright red in colour and dominant across this sea of other great participants. This added to my sense of fear and I began to realise that anticipation would soon turn into reality. As I queued impatiently along with four of my fearless cousins, constant screaming and shouting was heard. This was coming above my head, as this piece of high-tech metal flew at a great pace. As I approached the end of my queue, clear, loud and precise instructions came from speakers beside me. ‘Pregnant woman, people with heart problems, back problems should not enter this†¦' As I heard this message , I started to question why this announcement was read out. The message continued, read in a firm manner. ‘This is due to the high speed and great heights this †¦' After hearing this I shut out the rest of the instructions. At this pacific moment, I felt, dare I say it, scared. All I could hear was the laughter and the normality of the conversations my fellow occupants of the seats that we would soon sit in. My personal pride and respect was brought into doubt when my silence was questioned as fear and cowardliness, but as stupid as it sounds I quickly dismissed these suggestions. I used reverse psychology tactics and questioned back, ‘Your frightened, that's why your asking!' Clever eh! My time eventually came and the automatic barriers opened before my glaring eyes. I hurried forward, this was to show my unconditional confidence I had. I sat on these comfortable, leather, soft seats and then only I realised one key point. There's no way back from here! As soon as everyone were seated my legs were lifted slowly behind me. I was literally lying down and, believe me, I was as nervous as going to open some important exam results. Safety padding came slowly down from above me and escape was impossible. This horror machine commenced and all you could hear was the screeching between the contact of the track and each individual open cabin. I felt somewhat relieved to have a secure seat and the thought of me turning back was out of the question. Twisting, turning, looping movements were what I was expecting as we were taken up on top of the skyline. I began to question my real respect, for why I come on death defying stunts?

Human Resources Management Essay

The present state of recession in the IT Industry – as a Human Resource Manager how are you going to undertake Human Resource Planning at Macro Level to tide over this crisis? Human capital formation is acknowledged as one of the most potent sources in contributing directly and significantly to economic growth. As a result even the objectives of economic planning and priorities thereof, began to be shifted away from purely growth oriented development strategies to those that recognize and partly remedy the past neglect of such social sectors like population, planning, health, education, housing, social security and other social services. The objectives of HRP at macro level are to ensure that the organisation: a) Obtains and retains the quality and quantity of human resources it needs at the right time and place; and b) Makes optimal utilisation of these resources. Human resource planning is the formal process of linking organizational strategy with human resource practices. It is about perceiving organizational practices as a whole and not piecemeal. In a competitive climate, organizations need to use models and approaches that secure ‘uniqueness’ of operations along with enhancing ‘organizational capability’. Today, the world is going through, a global economic turmoil. This recession affects almost all the fields especially IT field. To overcome the adverse effect of the economic slowdown, we should plan an effective human resource policy at macro level. Human resource plan is designed to pay attention to shaping the priorities of the H R function than on supporting activities relating to the organization’s functioning as a whole. The economic crisis of 2008/2009 has touched every industry and profession,  radically altering the hiring landscape. Major layoffs, rising unemployment, and lowered profits have reshaped the way workers are hired and fired, and dramatically highlighted the need to rethink workforce planning. Now, the question lingering over the heads of business leaders everywhere is: What will the successful post-recession business look like? Here, we wanted to find out how what steps they are taking in response to the crisis, how their priorities and practices have changed, and what they predict the HR landscape will look like as the economy recovers. This study is focus on the following objectives: 1.How HR Processes got affected by Recession? 2. What was the Reactions of Recession? 3. What HR steps Companies are taking to prepare for Recovery from Recession? 4. What are the Envision on post-recovery staffing model? 5. What are the Roles of Temporary Workforce? 6. What are Managed Serviced Program & its Benefit? First let us brief about Recession. A recession is a contraction phase of the business cycle where significant decline in economic activity lasts more than a few months, which is normally visible in real GDP real income, employment, industrial production, and wholesale-retail sales. The current economic recession has hardly spared any country on earth. Rich countries like USA, UK, Germany, Australia, Japan, and Canada almost all the rich countries have got badly hurt from the recession. So, there is no reason to be surprised to know that Indian economy is also getting hurt from the global economic recession. As a Human resource manager planning is one of the most important sources in contributing the economic growth. To overcome from the recession in IT industry I would like to retain and obtain pure quality of human resources all ways at the right time and at the right place. I ensure that all the resources are utilized properly .I as a human resource manager responsible  for corporate plan along with organizations purpose as the top most priority. The KRA at macro level are: 1- Determine the requirement level in the organization keeping recession in mind. 2- To get the best from the resources available within the organization. 3- Assist productivity bargaining. 4- Evaluate cost of man power in any upcoming new projects coming. 5- Analyze the cost of all the overhead and value associated with it with the function 6- Need to decide whether certain activities need to be sub contracted. 7- Need to provide best training in order to retain talent. 8- Anticipate redundancies. 9- Need to forecast future requirement. 10- Serve as a basis of management development programme The human resource planning is one of the most crucial, complex and continuing managerial function. It is a multi step function with various issues. The issue which needed to cater first are 1- Deciding objective and goal.2- Estimating future organizational structure ,3- Auditing human resources,4-Planning job requirement and job description.5- development of human resource plan. In the recession time in the IT industry it is very important to relate future human resources to future enterprise need so that the return on investment on human gets maximized. The company’s human resources mamager is as much an advocate for the organization as it is for the employees. The responsibility to serve the interests and needs of both can be challenging, especially during a recession when it could difficult to sustain both the company and its workforce. The HR issues during a recession demand an even greater commitment to achieving stability for the company and assuring employees that they won’t endure the harsh effects of a recession. Strategy Strategic direction is an ongoing discussion between HR and company’s  leadership. During a recession, HR Manager’s involvement in developing the company’s strategy should be a priority. Workforce planning, compensation structure and employee satisfaction aren’t just HR goals — they’re organizational goals because the workforce is company’s most valuable resource. Sustaining company’s operations and its profitability largely depends on employee productivity. The communication between HR Manager and the company’s leadership should be candid, frequent and must include communication with employees about the company’s direction. Company Status If the company is recession-proof, meaning it provides necessary products or services, the role of HR manager is to remind employees that the company is forging ahead despite an economic meltdown. As the saying goes, the only sure things in life are death and taxes; therefore, the most recession-proof businesses are likely mortuaries and accounting firms. On the other hand, if the company will be affected by a recession, HR manager’s role is to assist company leaders in describing the business strategy for staying afloat and keeping employees apprised of the company’s status and direction. Employee Communication The employee turnover during a recession could be minimal simply because companies that aren’t recession-proof are closing, which means there are fewer job market opportunities. Leaving a job with a company that is surviving the recession for another one that might not survive could be a bad decision. Therefore, HR’s primary job includes communicating with employees about the company’s status, what it’s doing to be profitable and what it needs the employees to do to ensure the company’s survival. This conveys two important messages. It says you care enough about your workforce to keep them informed and you value their contributions in helping the company make it through the recession. Job Security If I am in a position where I need to hire additional staff, ensure that I am not making any cuts to current employees’ wages. That is likely to make employees wonder if their livelihood is a priority or if the company places more value on input from outsiders. Provide training for employees to take on new responsibilities instead of recruiting an external candidate to do the job. Effective crisis management doesn’t mean eliminating training for employees, according to The Boston Consulting Group 2009 survey of HR measures. In fact, the joint survey conducted with the European Association for People Management revealed that more than 30 percent of the companies that scaled back training — individual and special training — was less effective and demonstrated lower commitment levels during a crisis, such as a recession. Training also conveys the important message that you’re investing in your existing staff, training them to work cross-functionally an d thereby preparing them for continued employment in case their current jobs are eliminated because of the recession. Layoffs If HR must lay off workers, establish a communication strategy that gives employees plenty of notice before the actual layoff. Consult the U.S. Department of Labor Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act, WARN, to determine if you meet the criteria for complying with WARN regulations. Ease the blow of unemployment by scheduling the layoff so it doesn’t coincide untimely with periods such as the year-end holiday season. HR should offer outplacement services to employees who are forced to seek employment elsewhere. Outplacement services can range from career counseling sessions with experts to resume-writing services or time off from work for interviews. Compensation and Benefits HR might not be able to guarantee that employees will get year-end bonuses or even a wage increase, but HR can help employees figure out ways to increase their take-home pay. When employees have questions about their wages, tax withholding and liability or the cost of benefits, such as health insurance premiums and retirement savings ensure the company can provide answers. An HR benefits specialist can guide employees through the decision-making process by advising them to cut back on, say, charitable contributions that are being deducted from their net pay. The benefits specialist also can  refer employees to resources for managing their finances, such as an employee-assistance program. Summary HR managers reported opting for a wide range of practices to respond to the severe pressures presented by the recession. These practices range from changes to pay and pensions, staffing and HR systems, to changes in working time arrangements. While pay freezes for some or all employees were common, pay cuts too operated in a substantial number of firms. Other pay-related measures adopted include lower pay or salary scales for new entrants, bonus cuts and changes in pension arrangements. In terms of headcount and staffing arrangements, changes were also pronounced in that most firms in the survey experienced redundancy (compulsory and voluntary) for some employees. Freezes on recruitment were also commonly instituted. The effects of the recession on a wide range of business and the subsequent pressures experienced by HR managers, was examined next in chapter four. The HR managers present at the focus groups outlined in detail the ways in which they were required to cut and control employee costs in response to deep and acute commercial pressures. Where participants had been taken up for much of the previous boom years with recruiting and retaining staff, the main hub of activity now for most of the participants was on finding ways to control and reduce pay and headcount. Relative to the difficulties of doing this, other areas of HR practice received less attention, although some firms reported continued recruitment efforts for specific positions or new skills sets. Some firms also took measures such as selective pay rises or promotions to retain valued staff. Others operated formal talent management programmes, though these generally predated the recession. Staff redeployment was presented as a routine measure in responding to the recession in non-union firms, but appeared to be more problematic in unionized firms, where it sometimes cut acros s agreements with unions or lines of demarcation between different jobs.

Can ethical behavior really exist in business Research Paper

Can ethical behavior really exist in business - Research Paper Example This paper is an attempt to analyse the concept of ethical behaviour and focus on the possibilities for ethical behaviour to exist in a business. The meaning of business ethics An attempt to answer the following question could help us to understand the meaning of business ethics: What is the relationship between ethics and morality? According to Archie B. Carroll and Ann K. Buchholtz â€Å"ethics is the discipline that deals with what is good and bad and with moral duty and obligation. Ethics can also be regarded as a set of moral principles or values. Morality is a doctrine or system of moral conduct† (Carroll & Buchholtz 242). It is obvious from the definitions that ethics and morality are more or less similar concepts and both these terminologies can be used as substitutes for each other to analyse the right and wrong behaviour in business. Business ethics could thus be observed as linked with the right and wrong behaviour and practices which take place in a business setup. The existence of a business is dependant on the nature of relationship between customers, employees, investors, shareholders, managers and directors. It is the responsibility of director board of a company to ensure the functioning of the organisation in a legal and ethical manner. ... Recent interpretations of right and wrong comprise questions of equity and fairness. There are two important branches of ethics; descriptive ethics and normative ethics. These branches observe the concept of ethics from different angles. As Archie B. Carroll and Ann K. Buchholtz puts in â€Å"descriptive ethics is concerned with describing, characterizing and studying the morality the people, an organisation, a culture or a society. It also compares and contrasts different moral codes, systems, practices, beliefs and values† (Carroll & Buchholtz 242). The focus of descriptive business ethics is primarily on what is taking place in specific areas such as behaviour, action, decisions and practices of organisations. It considers the present happenings in a business establishment and therefore there are possibilities for the development of an attitude among some people to follow the activities of a majority even if the action is unfair. At this point one could recognise the import ance of normative business ethics as it focus on ‘what aught to be’ instead of ‘what is’ the ethical conditions of an organisation. According to Archie B. Carroll and Ann K. Buchholtz â€Å"normative ethics, by contrast, is concerned with supplying and justifying a coherent moral system of thinking and judging. It seeks to uncover, develop and justify basic moral principles that are indented to guide behaviour, actions and decisions† (Carroll & Buchholtz 242). Therefore normative ethics provides a clear cut idea regarding what is ethical and what is unethical in a business. It is more concerned with the do’s and don’ts and with setting up of standards for providing guidelines for a business establishment to ensure its ethical functioning which is

The Formula One Motorsport Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

The Formula One Motorsport - Research Paper Example Formula one motorsport is one of the most exciting games. It is a sport that incorporates motocross racing. It is highly exhilarating, both to the participants and to the spectators. On the other hand, it has elicited mixed reactions in some parts of the world. It is nowadays not a new phenomenon to find people who get agitated due to the sport. The paper describes the formula one sport. It highlights its history together with the historical implications associated with it, economic issues, cultural perspectives, the sanctioning bodies as well as the science that drove to the technology being utilized in the sport. Formula one racing is a motorsport that is characterized by open-wheeled race cars. They are single-seat races, implying that there are no co-drivers in the sport. The sport began in 1906. It is at this time that France held its first ever Grand Prix, an event that was organized and implemented by the Automobile Club de France. Being the first time the race was organized, the event organizers did not anticipate much success. However, at the end of the sporting activity, an evaluation indicated that the sports success had superseded the set expectations. Harris (2007) posits that the first event attracted about thirty-two cars. The event took place in Le Mans with the cars covering sixty-five miles. The first Formula One race was won by Levassor using the Panhard ET Levassor car.

Economic event ( read steps down ) Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Economic event ( read steps down ) - Essay Example In brief, the Reagan Tax Reform Act of 1986 was passed by a bi-partisan majority in both house and senate and signed into law by the President. What this affected was lowering the top individual income tax rate from 50% to 28% (Cebula 132). Although this was a vast reduction, it was in fact revenue â€Å"neutral† as the tax burden that was created from the savings was merely passed off onto businesses. President Bush further passed legislation that reduced the tax burden down from 28% to 20%. This has caused an ever increasing budget deficit as Washington is both unable to curtail spending and seemingly obsessed with further tax cuts. It is this cycle of ever increasing budgets and the inability to raise taxes on any group due to the political pressures that have evolved into the unique situation that both political candidates face. Further complicating the issue is the fact that Mitt Romney’s plan intends on keeping the Bush era tax cuts and extending them indefinitely. Similarly, his tax plan claims that although no additional percentage tax increases will be affected, additional revenue will be generated by reducing itemized deductions and other special benefits that the wealthy typically enjoy on their taxes. Analysis by independent think tanks and tax analysts have proven that this particular maneuver will not even come close to closing the revenue gap that further reduction in the highest individual rates will have (William 4). Furthermore, if Mr. Romney will be able to meet the same level of tax revenues while reducing the tax revenues generated from the wealthy, this will invariably be dependent upon the plan’s ability to cover the shortfalls of tax revenue/generation. Likewise, a primary issue that one quickly realizes when analyzing Mitt Romney’s tax plan is the fact that he is interested in: cutting the

'Cargo' now intends to introduce justintime. Advise Cargo as to the Essay

'Cargo' now intends to introduce justintime. Advise Cargo as to the main problems they are likely to face and examine how they should overcome these problems - Essay Example As the company sells mainly to the Car industry it has to be noted that a change of ownership(especially in a foreign context) will lead to a clash of management and production culture. Some academics have spoken favourably of the incidents of such a takeover as Graham (1988) notes that 'just-in-time' production is an "innovative paradigm for manufacturing control". This production technique is the brainchild of the Japanese management philosophy and Graham (1988) has expressed the view that British and American systems can benefit from this in order to remain internationally competitive. The previous decades have seen a radical modification in the Manufacturing techniques through the interaction and intersection of Western and Japanese techniques. (Graham 1988, Yamashina 1996) It is worth noting that the political atmosphere of the decade of the eighties made the United Kingdom a conducive political environment for the Japanese foreign manufacturers. (Graham 1988, Yamashina 1996).Th is gave them a chance to transfer their highly competitive manufacturing processes and management techniques to the United Kingdom's production culture and a unique permeation of their specialities like Just-in-Time to their production culture.(McDermott 1996). ... Therefore the output is cost reflective and any accumulation of excessively low level production and inventory methods is highly discouraged.(Epps 1995).The system involves the establishment of highly balanced work flows with sophisticated linkages between the production stages.(Epps 1995).The process will involve the reduction of inventory buffers and a heightened emphasis on the economies of scale from wise efficient procedures.(Mc Dermott 1996). Just In Time owes its origins to the development innovations by Toyota Car Company in the mid fifties and later influenced many major western companies/engineering business concerns like General Electric and Rover.(Mc Dermott 1996). Mc Dermott 1996 and Yeung 1997 have stated in reference to Rover that this British Car company had a lot to learn from its Japanese influence as it benefited immensely by reducing the new product development cycle and reduction in and management levels.Also prominent is the introduction of the minimal inventory control (MIC), a just-in-time system as it embraced its Japanese influence in its new slogan- "Prevention not detection: part of Rover's total quality commitment". (Mc Dermott 1996).Therefore the positive western experience has led to the Just In Time systems to be widely used in British Car manufacturing today.Cargo Engineering Company will have to adopt itself to a number of salient features of the Just In Time innovation. At this point we are assuming that the British car company is neither familiar with the Just-in time culture nor has employed any foreign technical staff. However the presence of British labour laws is acknowledged along with an absence of any major technological changes in the past few years. Based on the analysis by Nataraajan &

Montefiore Medical Centre Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Montefiore Medical Centre - Case Study Example In this particular case , one of the fundamental issues that had to be tackled before the introduction of any new system was the introduction and implementation of proper motivational schemes due to the layoffs which had created a demotivated environment for the remaining workforce. And wages were already an issue as the hospital was facing an issue of merit payment non-payments as a result of financial issues which had made such payments impossibility. However, during the year 1999, the hospital had thought along the lines of providing the Senior Executives 20% bonuses in case the hospital was not able to meet its targets. However, these measures should not be used in those circumstances when the hospital when is facing financial crunch which it is at present and hence, this would not be the best of motivational schemes to introduce. An alternative to using money as a motivational technique would be using non-financial motivational techniques such as praising the work of the workforce, giving awards to the best performer, having better communication lines in order to allow the worker a chance to voice their concerns and creating a friendly environment in which the workers were made to feel like a part of a team rather than people who were being used as guinea pigs in some experiment. The second question dealt with the issue of the way the management dealt with the issue. The management would have to change its current operational strategy as that has resulted in creating a misunderstanding between it and the workers who not are unaware of what is required of them but also the purpose as to why the management is doing what is doing. Hence, this not only shows a severe breakdown in communication but also outlines the vast differences that exist in terms of the hierarchical structure. In order to overcome these, the management would have to take greater interest in the workforce and listen to their viewpoints and make them feel like they are actually part of a team instead of merely having meetings. The meetings were surely not successful when the workforce was still being left in the dark as to be required of them; hence the management would have to do a complete overhaul of its communication and co-ordination policy. The third question dealt with the issue of implementing the balanced score card and whether it was actually a wise decision on the behalf on the management to introduce it or whether it resulted in aggravating the situation even further. In terms of the effectiveness of balanced scorecard, it allowed Brennan to create a focused system in which the financials were aligned with the goals of the company, the performance measure which would allow the medical centre to become an interactive centre which would be connected to the external environment. At the same time, it would be outline the cost, quality and cycle of the clinical and administrative measures. Considering the sort of investment that this tool took and the sort of feedback that it received despite having met fierce resistance in the initial times, this tool is certainly worthy enough to become a real and animated technique adopted by the centre. However, in order for it to be successful proper communication and