Management Thoughts and Theories - 1727 Words

MANAGEMENT THOUGHTS AND THEORIES The industrial revolution, which began in Europe in mid-1700s, was the starting point for the development of management concepts and theories. PRECLASSICAL CONTRIBUTORS TO MANAGENENT THOUGHT Name Period Contribution Robert Owen 1771- 1858 Proposed legislative reforms to improve working conditions of labor Charles Babbage 1792-1871 Advocated the concept of ‘division of labor; devised a profit-sharing plan which led to the modern-day Scanlon Plan Andrew Ure 1778-1857 Advocated the study of management Charles Dupin 1784-1873 Henry R. Towne 1844-1924 Emphasized the need to consider management as a separate field of study and the importance of business skills for running a business.†¦show more content†¦Frederick W. Taylor, who attended the presentation, was influenced by Townes ideas. Subsequently, Taylor developed the principles of scientific management. Major Classification of Management Approaches Major Contributors Classical approach Scientific management Frederick W. Taylor, Frank and Lillian Gilbreth and Henry Gantt Bureaucratic management Max Weber Administrative management Henri Fayol Behavioral approach Group influences Mary Parker Follet Hawthorne studies Elton Mayo Maslows needs theory Abraham Maslow Theory X and Theory Y Douglas McGregor Model I versus Model II values Chris Argyris Quantitative approach Management science - Operations management - Management information system - Modern approaches The Systems Theory - Contingency Theory - Emerging approaches: Theory Z and Quality management William Ouchi A Brief Overview of Classical Theories Approach Rationale Focus Contributors Scientific management One best way to do each job Job level Frederick W.Taylor Administrative theories One best way to put an organization together Organizational level Henry Fayol Bureaucratic organization Rational and impersonal organizational arrangements Organizational level Max Weber Frederick Winslow Taylor Frederick Winslow Taylor took up Henry Townes challenge to develop principles of scientific management. Taylor, considered father of scientific management, wrote The Principles ofShow MoreRelatedThe Evolution Of Management Theory1026 Words   |  5 PagesIntroduction The evolution of management has been changed many times since the early 1900’s. Many different management theories have been developed, the external factor also changing at the same time, such as the technology and the nature of career. The main theories include classical theory, neoclassical theory, modern systems theory, contingency (or decision) theory, and chaos theory. In the earliest management theories, efficiency was thought to be the most important. However, in today’s workplace;Read MoreOrganization Theory And Public Management811 Words   |  4 PagesHoan Thi La M number: M00257054 Class: POL674 Organization Theory and Public Management – Jonathan R. Tompkins Summary of Chapter 1: In this chapter, Tompkins stated an overview about organization theory and how to learn this theory. To begin with, he explained definition of a complex organization and their role in society. Then, he discussed definition of organization theory and the reason why managers need to learn and understand this theory. The approach which the author used to write this book.Read MoreEssay on Organizational Theory881 Words   |  4 Pagesof various organization theories and their development from the perspective of legitimacy and efficacy; to evaluate selected discussions regarding theory development and various theories; to encourage the use of evidence based theory development and to provide a look into the model and related theories that are created after looking at the existing theories. While not rejecting the need for thorough testing of theories, I am simply looking into the suggestion of theories and models for their worthRead MoreA Modern Day Management Approach1221 Words   |  5 Pagesapproach to management and leadership as a reaction to environmental changes, intensifying competition and availability of technology. Organizational theories are focused on forging a management style that will facilitate the achievement and growth of the company. Robert, a baby boomer, was inclined to working with others to train and make processes faster at the time that most businesses were focusing on mechanization as a means of achieving competitive advantage. The organizational theory that RobertRead MoreGalaxy Toys Case Study1613 Words   |  7 PagesAssignment 1 Role of the Manager and the Impact of Organizational Theories on Managers (Week 3) Patsy Colbert BMGT 364 6390 Management and Organization Theory (2178) September 10, 2017 Professor Charles Smith Introduction Galaxy Toys in Toledo Ohio, had a major shift in management problem, which cause managers to reevaluate their management approach. A general change in employee workplace values initiated management to modify the culture of increased competition. The advances in technologyRead MoreManagement School of Thought1542 Words   |  7 PagesManagement School of Thought:  During the present century, certain schools of management thought have developed. Each school reflects the problems of the period during which they were popular. Herold Koontz was the first who have attempted to classify the various approaches on the management in the schools of management theory. Based on the writings of some of the scholars and Koontz, the management thoughts, have been classified in the following schools of management theory. a) Management ProcessRead MoreMotivation and Conflict Resolution Essay753 Words   |  4 Pagesemployee motivation. There are motivational theories that help organizations understand workplace relationships, organizational behavior, and their effects on employee motivation. Improved knowledge of employee motivation and workplace conflict help organizations develop effective strategies for conflict resolution. Motivational Theories Maslow recognized that people have more than financial needs and his theory offers managers tools to build team satisfactionRead MoreTheories of Management1221 Words   |  5 PagesTheories gave organizations a framework for knowledge and a guide to achieving their goals. The Industrial Revolution prompted the need for better supervision of workers to boost productivity within the automobile, steel, and coal industries. It is because of this need that the various theories of management began to take shape. The classical management theory, which came about during the Industrial Revolution, focused on the single best way to perform and manage tasks. This enabled factoriesRead MoreThe Galaxy Toys Case Study1394 Words   |  6 Pagesan in-depth analysis of the management theory within the shipping department. The case study revolves around two people, Bart Aldrin and Joyce Barnhart. Bart became the manager of the shipping department in 1969 and held a 20th century management style until he was forced to change. Joyce is Bart’s replacement and is proud of her 21st century management style. This analysis will discuss the different management methods that Bart and Joyce use and the management theories that they incorporated intoRead MoreThe Development Of Management Theory1641 Words   |  7 PagesThe main focus behind the development of management theory is the quest for good ways to make use of managerial means. Management theory evolves constantly with the continuous stream of new ideas that come from the attempts to transform theory into practice, and vice versa (Aguinaldo Powell, 2002). Progression in management theory normal happen as key personnel discover great methods to accomplish the most important management responsibilities: planning, organiz-ing, leading, and controlling

Global Health Essay - 1345 Words

The failure to engage in the fight to anticipate, prevent, and ameliorate global health problems would diminish Americas stature in the realm of health and jeopardize our own †¨health, economy, and national security, stated by The Institute of Medicine. Global health refers to health phenomenon that transcends across national borders. For instance, global health would address predicaments such as: infectious and insect-borne diseases that can spread from one country to another. Thus, global health should be addressed by collaborative actions and solutions. On the other hand, countries tend to focus on other essential issues that are occurring in the present day and therefore, overlook the global health issue. Some issues that countries†¦show more content†¦Thus, finding methods of educating people, and providing medical aid for these preventable diseases can avoid many deaths. Second reason for attending global health issue is for balancing resources. According to The Lancet Journal, ninety percent of the world’s health care resources are spent on diseases that affect only ten percent of the world’s population. (Norris, 2009) Therefore, ensuring that resources are evenly distributed throughout the world would assist to limit the diseases from spreading from country to country. Third, global health can influence Canadians indirectly such as, the increase of diseases. Some of these diseases becoming more prevalent is HIV/AIDS, malaria, and TB and are increasing poverty and political instability within countries. (Worldwide HIV AIDS Statistics, 2009) Thus, global health should be a concern because it can help prevent civil conflict in other countries. (Worldwide HIV AIDS Statistics, 2009) Fourth, global health should be a concern across all nations as there is more contact amongst people because of globalization diseases occurs at a faster rate. Globalization is defined as a modern phenomenon process by which countries and peoples ar e increasingly interconnected, integrated, and interdependent that occurred over centuries. (Andrews, 2010) Since the world is increasingly becoming interconnected, diseases can travel from nation to nation and it can causeShow MoreRelatedHealth Of Health And Global Health1460 Words   |  6 Pagesagree that health plays a huge role in society. The definition for health can be broad and covers not only the biology part many refer to. Health covers the physiology and sociology factors as well. There are two different types of health that can be seen interchangeably because they both focus on improving ones health. Public health and Global health are both equally important in society. Public health focuses on a specific population or communities where as global health focus on health across nationalRead MoreGlobal Health And The Global Security1550 Words   |  7 PagesGlobal health has important role in the global security. Currently, the world has become more globalized through in tegration of economies and easy access to information. Furthermore, people are now able to move from one part of the world to the other. This is posing a great challenge to health practitioners in relation to spread of diseases. Rarely a week passes without being reported of either emergence or re-emergence of a certain disease which is highly infectious and can affect the populationRead MoreGlobal Warming And Its Health Impacts1573 Words   |  7 Pagesthe theory of global warming, the idea that the increasing amount of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere are trapping enormous amounts of heat and causing the earth to become warmer and warmer. Some scientists believe that recent human activates are the cause of the increase of greenhouse gases, while others disagree, and believe it’s just the natural trend of global climate. Although not everyone agrees on the cause of global warming, something all can agree on is the fact that global warming is alteringRead MoreGlobal Warmin g Has On Our Health Essay1165 Words   |  5 PagesGlobal warming has negative affects on our lives as a whole. From agriculture to ecosystems, and more importantly; our health. Many people don’t really understand how much harm global warming has on our health. Not only from physical health, such as, lungs, but there is also a harm that you are causing on your mind. High heat can cause a change in a normal human being’s natural behavior. Leading to the change of our community and our society. It not only affects society, but will continue toRead MoreThe Effects Of Global Warming On Our Health2907 Words   |  12 PagesEarth Global Warming is a big topic in today’s world, and many people aren’t aware of the damages they are causing the planet. Global warming endangers our health, jeopardizes our national security, and threatens our basic human needs. Some impacts such as record high temperatures, rising seas, severe flooding and droughts are already becoming increasingly common. Although some people do not think they are causing global warming; I am here to let them know that the majority of global warming’sRead MoreGlobal Health Is Collaborative Trans National Research And Action For Promoting Health1943 Words   |  8 PagesOver the recent decades, global health efforts have contributed to large reduction in mortality rates in low and middle income countries. While there has been profound achievements in the global health, there is still much more to achieve with the growing globalization. Globalization is changing the way that states must protect and promote health in respons e to the growing number of health hazards that increasingly cross national boundaries (Lee, Ingram, Lock McInnes, 2007). Beaglehole BonitaRead MoreGlobal Warming And Its Effect On Communities, Health, And The Climate972 Words   |  4 Pagescommunities, health, and the climate. It is Global Warming which can be defined as the constant heating of Earth s surface, oceans and atmosphere. In order to understand global warming, the most important basic is to figure out how the of greenhouse effect plays an important part in its development. The greenhouse effect is caused by increased levels of carbon dioxide (CO2) that trap heat in the atmosphere that keeps the Earth warm. The information this text will discuss is the meaning of global warmingRead More The Impact of Global Warming on Human Health Essay1421 Words   |  6 PagesThe Impact of Global Warming on Human Health   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Throughout the world, the presence of particular diseases and other threats to human health depend largely on the local climate. Extreme variation in temperature can directly, and indirectly, cause the loss of human life. The threat of a gradual increase in temperature could be catastrophic to the world, as we know it. In 1999, a heat wave killed more than 250 people in Chicago alone (Union of Concerned Scientists). Many consider such an eventRead MoreGlobal Warming And Its Effects On Communities, Health, And The Climate988 Words   |  4 PagesThere is a serious situation occurring on planet Earth that is causing significant and harmful effects on communities, health, and the climate. It is Global Warming which can be defined as the constant heating of Earth s surface, oceans and atmosphere. In order to understand global warming, the most vital concept is the greenhouse effect and how it plays an important part in its development. Water vapor and certain gases i n the atmosphere absorb infrared radiation, causing what is called the greenhouseRead MoreGlobal Health And Human Health2237 Words   |  9 Pageshave to be successful while working in the field of global health include empathy, teamwork, and perseverance. First, global health workers need empathy to understand the situation, culture, and values of those with whom they work. Global health workers interact with people of many different backgrounds and cultures; therefore, being able to understand others and show empathy will allow for better interactions for both parties. When a global health worker goes to a new country, the locals view them

Managing Strategic Human Resources Management

Question: Discuss about the Managing Strategic Human Resources Management. Answer: Introduction: In a contemporary organization, the trend for reward management plays a crucial role not only for the achievements and success of the employee but also for the betterment of the organization. Nankervis et al. (2014) highlight one such concept of rewards that is executive pay that comprises of six distinct components- salary, benefits, annual incentives, perquisites, long-term incentives and severance agreements. However, Shields et al. (2015) argued that the contemporary rewards management is more beneficial for the benefited people. Sparrow (2013) moreover states that individuals in this context rewarded or provide an opportunity to earn astronomical incomes through signing them for advertisement, hosting some business functions or call them for inaugurating a new business or factory to grab the attention of the community people. Sparrow (2013) moreover shared the opinion that even though the executives attain more money compared to their employees, they are not considered as celebrities. Shields et al. (2015) portray that the work of CEO or other managing executives are not broadcasted as the way the film stars, rock stars and sports stars is broadcasted. Thus, it for providing these executives such attention, media channels should take initiatives for transmitting their successful decision and the benefits the entire organization had received. Nankervis et al. (2014) highlight that not all people go through the companies' annual report or CSR reports and this is the reason people are unaware of their efforts. These efforts can be represented to the local people if they are offered chances like to be the chief guest of a factory inauguration ceremony, where they can share their experience and knowledge regarding the key success factor of that particular company (Sparrow 2013). A detailed advertisement on soc ial media sites concerning the evolution of their organization from conventional to recent times along with the benefits people had received in their daily life can make people aware of these executive's efforts and provide them more recognition for their motivation. Reference List Nankervis, A., Compton, R., Baird, M. Coffey, J., 2014. Strategic Human Resources Management, 8th Edn. Cengage Learning Shields, J., Brown, M., Kaine, S., Dolle-Samuel, C., North-Samardzic, A., McLean, P., Johns, R., Robinson, J., O'Leary, P. and Plimmer, G., 2015.Managing Employee Performance Reward: Concepts, Practices, Strategies. Cambridge University Press. Sparrow, P.R., 2013. 11 International reward management. Reward management: a critical text, p.233.

Writing with style Essays - Human Behavior, Culture, Punctuation

Writing with style: Preparing Essays, PAPERS and Dissertations in History and economic & social History University of Glasgow rev. 23 September 2010 DAS/MDF CONTENTS Introduction 2 1. Preparing Essays: The Basics 2 What Your Tutor Is Looking For in an Essay Structure Presentation Quotations Punctuation and Syntax Style Tables and Figures 2. Plagiarism 8 3. References 9 Footnotes Forms of Reference Bibliography 4. Dissertations 15 5. Citing Primary Sources and Theses 16 Appendices: 1. Mock Essay with Footnotes 19 2. Sample Dissertation Pages 20 INTRODUCTION Written work is central to assessment in History and Economic and Social History. Most undergraduate courses will require students to submit one or two essays, and these provide preparation for examinations. Postgraduates also write essays or papers. Both final year undergraduates and master's students write dissertations, which, while much longer than the typical essay, share many of its features. This handbook seeks to provide guidance to students about the preparation and presentation of written work and about the use and acknowledgement of books, articles, web sites, original documents, and other source materials. Its audience includes students in their first year, who are writing university essays for the first time, all the way to postgraduate students working towards a taught or research degree. PGR students should also familiarise themselves with College and University guidelines on layout of research theses. The first part of chapter 1 is intended primarily for first year students, although more experienced students may still find useful tips here, particularly in sections 1.5 onwards, which cover matters of style and presentation. The guidance on referencing in chapters 3 is relevant to all students writing essays and dissertations. Chapters 4 and 5 are intended for final year and PG students, who are writing dissertations and theses based upon original sources. All students should pay close attention to the advice on avoiding plagiarism in chapter 2. 1. PREPARING ESSAYS: THE BASICS Undergraduate students will usually be asked to write essays, while postgraduates will more often write papers. An essay answers a question set by the tutor, and the student has to start by figuring out what the question is about. A paper is one where the student decides the issues, approaches and parameters, within a general field agreed with the tutor. The initial sections of this chapter are primarily intended for undergraduate students writing essays, although all students should observe the points on punctuation and style from section 1.5 onwards. 1.1. What Your Tutor Is Looking For in an Essay Your tutor is looking for a coherent overall argument which answers the question you have chosen. You should answer the set question in as focused a way as possible. What is the point of the question? What subsidiary questions does it raise? Your tutor needs to see that you understand why the question has been asked and what implications it has. Plan before you start; your tutor will soon notice if your essay begins to lose coherence. A good plan of attack is necessary to a successful essay. Your essay will normally consist of an analysis which presents a series of points, in the form of an argument. Avoid a narrative or chronological approach. It is important that you present appropriate evidence and detailed case studies, but make sure that these support substantive points of your analysis. Do not include description just to fill space. Think about the relevance of all parts of your essay to the question, and the logic of your conclusion. Sustained argument is essential to a successful essay. While showing awareness of different points of views, you should be able to do more than just present the opinions of others; you need to be able to show that you have developed your own view of the topic. Your essay should not consist simply of quotations and paraphrases from your reading. 1.2. Structure There is no hard and fast rule for how an essay should be organised. Some essays will require you to be more aware of debates among historians, while others will place greater emphasis on primary sources. Nonetheless, your essay is likely to have to consider the following issues: . What is the historical context of the set question? What is happening in the period that is relevant? Is there a larger historical problem of which the set question is a component? . What have historians said about the question (or about the larger historical problem)? If they disagree (as they almost certainly do), is this due to differences in methodology, definitions of key concepts, or the evidence they select, or does it reflect particular ideological viewpoints

Mies van der Rohe and Neo-Miesian Architecture

Mies van der Rohe and Neo-Miesian Architecture The United States has a love-hate relationship with Mies van der Rohe. Some say he stripped architecture of all humanity, creating cold, sterile, and unlivable environments. Others praise his work, saying he created architecture in its most pure form. Believing that less is more, Mies van der Rohe became the designer of rational, minimalist skyscrapers, houses, and furniture. Along with the Viennese architect Richard Neutra (1892–1970) and the Swiss architect  Le Corbusier  (1887–1965),  Mies van der Rohe not only set the standard for all modernist design but brought European modernism to America. Background Maria Ludwig Michael Mies was born on March 27, 1886, in Aachen, Germany. He changed his name in 1912 when he opened his own design practice in Berlin, adopting his mothers maiden name, van der Rohe. In todays world of one-name wonders, he is simply called  Mies  (pronounced  Meez  or often  Mees). Education Ludwig Mies van der Rohe began his career in his familys stone-carving business in Germany, learning about the trade from his father who was a master mason and stonecutter. When he was a teenager, he worked as a draftsman for several architects. Later, he moved to Berlin, where he found work in the offices of architect and furniture designer Bruno Paul and industrial architect Peter Behrens. Career Early in his life, Mies van der Rohe began experimenting with steel frames and glass walls, a style that would become known as International. He was the third director of the Bauhaus School of Design, after Walter Gropius and Hannes Meyer, from 1930 until it disbanded in 1933. He moved to the United States in 1937, and for 20 years (1938–1958), he was the director of architecture at the Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT), where he taught his students to build first with wood, then stone, and then brick before progressing to concrete and steel. He believed that architects must completely understand their materials before they can design. Although Mies was not the first architect to practice simplicity in design, he carried the ideals of rationalism and minimalism to new levels. His glass-walled Farnsworth House near Chicago stirred controversy and legal battles. His bronze and glass Seagram Building in New York City (designed in collaboration with Philip Johnson) is considered Americas first glass skyscraper. The Meis philosophy that less is more became a guiding principle for architects in the mid-20th century, and many of the worlds skyscrapers are modeled after his designs. What Is Neo-Miesian? Neo  means  new.  Miesian  refers to Mies van der Rohe. Neo-Miesian  builds upon the beliefs and approaches that Mies practiced- the less is more minimalist buildings in glass and steel. Although Miesian buildings are unornamented, they are not plain.  For example, the famous Farnsworth House combines glass walls with pristine white steel columns. Believing that God is in the details, Mies van der Rohe achieved visual richness through his meticulous and sometimes surprising choice of materials. The towering glass Seagram Building uses bronze beams to accentuate the structure. Interiors juxtapose the whiteness of stone against the swooping, fabric-like wall panels. Some critics call the 2011 Pritzker Prize-winning Portuguese architect Eduardo Souto de Moura neo-Miesian. Like Mies, Souto de Moura (born in 1952) combines simple forms with complex textures. In their citation, the Pritzker Prize jury noted that Souto de Moura has the confidence to use stone that is a thousand years old or to take inspiration from a modern detail by Mies van der Rohe. Although nobody has called Pritzker Laureate Glenn Murcutt (born in 1936) a neo-Miesian, Murcutts simple designs show a Miesian influence. Many of  Murcutts houses in Australia, like the Marika-Alderton House, are elevated on stilts and built on above-ground platforms- taking a page from the Farnsworth House playbook. The Farnsworth House was built in a floodplain, and Murcutts above-ground coastal houses are raised for protection from tidal surges. But Murcutt builds on van der Rohes design- circulating air not only cools the house but also helps keep the Australian critters from finding easy shelter. Perhaps Mies thought of that, too. Death On August 17, 1969, at the age of 83, Mies van der Rohe died of esophageal cancer at Chicago’s Wesley Memorial Hospital. He is buried in nearby Graceland Cemetery. Important Buildings Some of the more notable building designs by Meis, include: 1928-29: Barcelona Pavilion1950: The Farnsworth House, Plano, Illinois1951: Lake Shore Drive Apartments, Chicago1956: Crown Hall, Chicago1958: Seagram Building, New York (with Philip Johnson)1959-74: Federal Center, Chicago Furniture Designs Some of the more notable furniture designs by Meis, include: 1927: Side Chair (MR 10)1929: The Barcelona ® Chair1930: Brno Flat Bar Chair1948: Mies allowed one of his protà ©gà ©s, Florence Knoll, exclusive rights to produce his furniture. Learn more from Knoll, Inc.

Definition and Examples of a Transition in Composition

Definition and Examples of a Transition in Composition In English grammar, a transition is a connection (a word, phrase, clause, sentence, or entire paragraph) between two parts of a piece of writing, contributing to cohesion. Transitional devices include pronouns, repetition, and transitional expressions, all of which are illustrated below. Pronunciation: trans-ZISH-en EtymologyFrom the Latin, to go across Examples and Observations Example:  At first  a toy,  then  a mode of transportation for the rich, the automobile was designed as mans mechanical servant.  Later  it became part of the pattern of living. Here are some examples and insights from other writers: A transition should be short, direct, and almost invisible.Gary Provost, Beyond Style: Mastering the Finer Points of Writing. Writers Digest Books, 1988)A transition is anything that links one sentence- or paragraph- to another. Nearly every sentence, therefore, is transitional. (In that sentence, for example, the linking or transitional words are sentence, therefore, and transitional.) Coherent writing, I suggest, is a constant process of transitioning.(Bill Stott, Write to the Point: And Feel Better About Your Writing, 2nd ed. Columbia University Press, 1991) Repetition and Transitions   In this example, transitions are repeated in the prose: The way I write is who I am, or have become, yet this is a case in which I wish I had instead of words and their rhythms a cutting room, equipped with an Avid, a digital editing system on which I could touch a key and collapse the sequence of time, show you simultaneously all the frames of memory that come to me now, let you pick the takes, the marginally different expressions, the variant readings of the same lines. This is a case in which I need more than words to find the meaning. This is a case in which I need whatever it is I think or believe to be penetrable, if only for myself. (Joan Didion, The Year of Magical Thinking, 2006) Pronouns and Repeated Sentence Structures Grief turns out to be a place none of us know until we reach it. We anticipate (we know) that someone close to us could die, but we do not look beyond the few days or weeks that immediately follow such an imagined death. We misconstrue the nature of even those few days or weeks. We might expect if the death is sudden to feel shock. We do not expect this shock to be obliterative, dislocating to both body and mind. We might expect that we will be prostrate, inconsolable, crazy with loss. We do not expect to be literally crazy, cool customers who believe that their husband is about to return. (Joan Didion, The Year of Magical Thinking, 2006)When you find yourself having difficulty moving from one section of an article to the next, the problem might be due to the fact that you are leaving out information. Rather than trying to force an awkward transition, take another look at what you have written and ask yourself what you need to explain in order to move on to your next section.(Gary Pr ovost, 100 Ways to Improve Your Writing. Mentor, 1972) Tips on Using Transitions After you have developed your essay into something like its final shape, you will want to pay careful attention to your transitions. Moving from paragraph to paragraph, from idea to idea, you will want to use transitions that are very clear- you should leave no doubt in your readers mind how you are getting from one idea to another. Yet your transitions should not be hard and monotonous: though your essay will be so well-organized you may easily use such indications of transitions as one, two, three or first, second, and third, such words have the connotation of the scholarly or technical article and are usually to be avoided, or at least supplemented or varied, in the formal composition. Use one, two, first, second, if you wish, in certain areas of your essay, but also manage to use prepositional phrases and conjunctive adverbs and subordinate clauses and brief transitional paragraphs to achieve your momentum and continuity. Clarity and variety together are what you want. (Winston W eathers and Otis Winchester, The New Strategy of Style. McGraw-Hill, 1978) Space Breaks as Transitions Transitions are usually not that interesting. I use space breaks instead, and a lot of them. A space break makes a clean segue whereas some segues you try to write sound convenient, contrived. The white space sets off, underscores, the writing presented, and you have to be sure it deserves to be highlighted this way. If used honestly and not as a gimmick, these spaces can signify the way the mind really works, noting moments and assembling them in such a way that a kind of logic or pattern comes forward, until the accretion of moments forms a whole experience, observation, state of being. The connective tissue of a story is often the white space, which is not empty. There’s nothing new here, but what you don’t say can be as important as what you do say. (Amy Hempel, interviewed by Paul Winner. The Paris Review, Summer 2003)

Discuss the different eras of resistance kinship relationships to Essay

Discuss the different eras of resistance kinship relationships to Aboriginal people - Essay Example Aboriginals are more found in Australia, India, Africa etc. they are different in the patterns of dressing, adoring, intake of food and medicinal practices. They have been different in various eras like primitive society, agricultural society, industrial society and post modern society. Kinship is the main objective of the sociologists since it is the basic factor in the organization of the society. They focus on the history of kinship irrespective of nation, state and geographical area. â€Å"Kinship systems establish relationships between individuals and groups on the model of biological relationships between parents and children, between siblings, and between marital partners.† (Kinship: a dictionary of sociology, 1998). But some theorists are on the view that the relationship between wife and husband through which they are related by marriage do not include in the category of kinship. They tell that this relationship is called as affinal relationship. But some other theorists say that the biological relationship is not necessary to determine kinship because some children have social father who takes the responsibility of them and therefore kinship must be established on account of social fathers. When we think about kinship the entire influential factors must be considered like the way of relationship, cultural and political background, economic status etc. There are two theories which emerged in the second half of the twentieth century and they are alliance theory and descent theory. Descent theory stresses that the role of kinship system is to understand political entities of the lineage group in the history. When descent theory gives more importance on the descent and succession, alliance theory emphasizes on the marriage. â€Å"Ernest L Schusky has given the following types of kinship.† (Joshi 1999, p.109). First type of kinship is consanguineal kinship which means the relation by blood like parent child

E-business Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

E-business - Essay Example ainst this background, this report seeks to critically explore some of the measures that can be put in place by Friendly Supermarket which has underscored to transform from the traditional use of price tags at the tills while processing a transaction to a modern and sophisticated system that uses scans to detect the bar codes which in turn detect the product and its price. Friendly supermarket is developing this system from scratch and this report seeks to outline the major requirements as well as the benefits of adopting this new system to the top management of the group of supermarkets in Port Elizabeth. Revamping the traditional method of using price lists at the tills or price tags on all products as the only source of getting the correct price for the product at Friendly Supermarket requires a holistic approach since it will certainly bring about various changes to the infrastructure. The traditional method meant that more people would be on the floor sticking prices to each single product in the supermarket using the rivet stickers. However, the new system would see a dramatic shift from this traditional way to a sophisticated method aided by the use of computers and scanners. The major change to the infrastructure would be the introduction of computers in many departments including the till areas and these would be connected to a single server so as to ensure a smooth network. This would also require a system that is capable of holding large quantities of data and can process it at a tremendous speed so as to ensure effectiveness and efficiency compared to the traditional way of sticking price tags on each single product. This system would require all the bar codes on the products to be captured where all necessary details about the product would also be recorded. In this case, the name of the product, quantity as well as price would be recorded against the barcode of that particular product. Scanners connected to the computer servers in the supermarket

Gay Marriage Essay Example for Free

Gay Marriage Essay The issue of gay marriage remains controversial. Some people think that this trend has adverse effects on the society while others believe that it is seen as a natural trend and right for people to choose this type of marriage. My essay will discuss causes and effects of this problem. First, gay marriage is the result of psychological, legal, economic and biological effects. Medically speaking, if someone is born to be gay, the tendency is that he will not change his nature and want to live with people of the same sex. There are cases of men who marry the opposite sex and end up being unhappy till the day they decide to lead their own lives and stay with the same sex. Another reason is derived from economic drive. Despite not being inborn gay, several people, for sake of profit, opt for the solution to marry the similar sex. Besides, only after undergoing painful break-ups with so many people of the different sex do people lose their belief in love, and hence, choose to be by the side of the same sex. These people are believed to sympathize and care about them more. In addition, in such an open society where equality is recognized, it is inevitable that people can marry the one they love, despite the differences in age, race, family background and marriage notion. There are both positive and negative effects in this problem. As a result of recognizing the right of gay people in form of marriage, the society bestows upon these people the feeling of equity which makes them motivated to work as hard as other people. It is the acknowledgement of gay marriage that talented gay people continue contributing their best to social development, without bias. However, the fear is that no sooner has gay marriage become official than the society lacks the next generation since hardly could gay couples give birth. Another disadvantage is that children who are raised in gay families can rarely receive comprehensive education. Such purely male environment or female one is not enough for kids to develop normally, which might result in their mental disorders and sexual disorientation.

Recommendation Letter for Former Employee :: Business Recommendation Letters

November 20, 2004 Mr. Richard Pillsbury Manager, Marketing Services All Industries Inc. 111 Strawberry Bend, Suite 1551 Smallville, OH 05252 Dear Mr. Pillsbury: This is in response to your recent request for a letter of recommendation for Mary Lamb who worked for me up until three years ago. Mary Lamb worked under my direct supervision at Technical Technologies for a period of five and a half years ending in August 2003. During that period, I had the pleasure of seeing her blossom from a junior marketing trainee, into a fully functioning Marketing, Program Co-Ordinator, in her final year and a half with the company. That was the last position she held before moving on to a better career opportunity. Mary is a hard-working self-motivator who understands exactly what a project is all about from the outset, and how to get it done quickly and effectively. During her year and a half in the Marketing Co-Ordinator position, there was never an instance in which she missed a major deadline. She often brought projects in below budget, and a few were even completed ahead of the deadline. Ms. Lamb is a resourceful, creative, and solution-oriented person who was frequently able to come up with new and innovative approaches to her assigned projects. She functioned well as a team leader and she worked effectively as a team member under the direction of other team leaders. On the interpersonal side, Mary has superior writing and verbal communication skills. She gets along extremely well with the staff under her supervision, as well as colleagues at her own level. She is highly respected, both a person and a professional, by colleagues, employees, suppliers, and customers. A year ago, when Ms. Lamb announced her resignation to take up a new position with a larger company, we were not happy to see her leave, although we wished her the best in her new undertaking.

The Lottery by Shirley Jackson

â€Å"The Lottery† by Shirley Jackson opens on a warm June day in a town of about three hundred people, and describes an annual event in the town, a tradition that is apparently widespread among surrounding villages as well. While the townspeople, more than 300, await the arrival of Mr. Summers, and the black wooden box from which everyone is to draw a folded slip of paper, adults chat while children play a game in which they gather stones. The event for which they gather is a lottery conducted by Mr. Summers, a neatly dressed, jovial business man with a wife, but no children. Although many traditional customs associated with the lottery seemed to have been lost over time, Mr. Summers still has †a great deal of fussing to be done† before he declares the lottery open. He has created lists of households, including the heads of households in each family, and members of each household in each family. Just as Mr. Summers turned to the assembled villagers, Mrs. Tessie Hutchinson, a house wife, arrives late just then, telling Mrs. Delacroix that she â€Å"Clean forgot what day it was† until she noticed that her children had left her house, and remembered it was the day of the lottery. Mrs. Tessie Hutchinson than makes her way through the crowd to her husband, while the villagers comment on her arrival. Mr. Summers begins the necessity of confirming everyone’s attendance, and clarifying whom will represent the family. When everything is finalized , each representative is called up one after another, and nervously draws a folded slip of paper from the black box. While people are called up, one of the villagers presents the idea of other towns giving up the lottery. Old Man Warner snorts in reply, â€Å"Pack of crazy fools, Listening to young folks, nothing's good enough for them. Next thing you know, they'll be wanting to go back to living in caves, nobody work anymore, live that way for awhile. Used to be a saying about ‘Lottery in June, corn be heavy soon.' First thing you know, we'd all be eating stewed chickweed and acorns. There's always been a lottery.† This statement sets the importance of this annual event, and the strong beliefs of the town. When the big moment arrives, everyone is silent until the name of Bill Hutchinson rapidly spreads throughout the crowd. Tessie Hutchinson, Bill’s wife, shouts out to Mr. Summers that he didn’t give Bill enough time, and that its not fair. Tessie is silenced, and Mr. summers recons for the family of Bill Hutchinson to come forward. Bill, Tessie, and their three children than proceed as every family of the lottery ever has, and draws a new folded piece of paper from the black box. One by one the family unfolds their piece of paper to determine the sacrificed. Tessie Hutchinson , the declared winner, was led to the center of a cleared space, and with her hands desperately held out in front of her she was hit with the first stone. Everyone then closed in on her, picked up the rocks, the â€Å"proceeds† of the lottery, and stones her to death. â€Å"Although the villagers had forgotten the ritual, and lost the original black box, they still remembered to use stones.à ¢â‚¬  The Lottery by Shirley Jackson There are many characters that are named in Shirley Jackson’s short story, â€Å"The Lottery†. Mr. Summers, a kindly man who runs a coal business, Mr. Martin and his sons, Baxter and Bobby. There is Mr. Graves, the man who helped Mr. Summers prepare the lottery, and Old Man Warner. There is Mr. Hutchinson, Mrs. Hutchinson, and their daughter Eva and son-in-law, Don—just to name a few. And although Jackson’s story has many characters, she is most interested in the social phenomenon of the lottery than she is in the characters, themselves. Instead, the characters serve as a means to depict â€Å"a graphic demonstration of the pointless violence and general inhumanity in people’s lives† (213). From the start of the story, throughout, and in the end, Jackson defines her view of society’s insouciant attitude toward violence with the villagers’ apathetic way of life. Every year on June 27th, the families of the village (and of other towns, too) gather in the center of town and participate in a lottery which culminates with the stoning death of a member of one of the families. This heinous tale takes place amid a pleasant setting, â€Å"The morning of June 27th was clear and sunny, with the fresh warmth of a full-summer day; the flowers were blossoming profusely and the grass was richly green† (213). She writes of the children playing and little boys gathering stones that are stockpiled and guarded and ready for the kill. Jackson stupefies the reader as she describes how the lottery is meticulously prepared by Mr. Summers and Mr. Graves, with such pomp and circumstance: â€Å"There was a great deal of fussing to be done before Mr. Summers declared the lottery open† (214). Then there’s poor Mrs. Hutchinson, who, in her ominous late arrival, is greeted by Mr. Summers, â€Å"Thought we were going to have to get on without you, Tessie†, and she jokingly replies, â€Å"Wouldn’t have me leave m’dishes in the sink, now would you, Joe? † (215). It is this kind of small-talk among the villagers that makes this incredulous social phenomenon more significant than the characters. As fate would have it, Mr. Hutchinson draws the slip of paper with the black dot on it. â€Å"You didn’t give him time enough to take any paper he wanted. I saw you. It wasn’t fair! † (217). Fair? Because her husband draws the paper with the black dot on it, it is inevitable that someone from her family or even herself, will be stoned to death. â€Å"Be a good sport, Tessie. All of us took the same chance† (217). Even the innocent children are included in the lottery. Do these people have any sense of right or wrong? Tessie Hutchinson draws the paper with the black dot on it. Her neighbors, her friends, â€Å"and someone gave little Davy Hutchinson a few pebbles† (218), with which to hurl upon his mother. This sick ritual spares no one. The mere thought of this annual lottery is mind-boggling. The matter-of-fact way in which the villagers carried themselves throughout the event as though they are conducting an election of some sort is unconscionable. Jackson’s writing is brimming with obdurate expressions. As the stoning begins, â€Å"All right, folks, let’s finish quickly†, (218). They want to â€Å"be through in time to allow the villagers to get home for noon dinner† (213). Unbelievable. Hello Lisa, I really enjoyed the insight you offered in your journal. You make very good use of the book by including a great number of citations in your essay and your vocabulary definitely adds to the reader’s understanding of your journal and the passage overall. While you have ample evidence to support your claims throughout your entry, I found a few grammatical and technical errors that I would like to point out: 1. ) â€Å"And although Jackson’s story has many characters, she is most interested in the social phenomenon of the lottery than she is in the characters, themselves. – You do not need a comma before â€Å"themselves†, as a comma separates the thoughts and almost prepares the reader for a new thought. 2. ) â€Å"She writes of the children playing and little boys gathering stones that are stockpiled and guarded and ready for the kill. † – A better way of writing this could be: â€Å"She writes of children playing and gathering stones to be stockpiled, guarded, and readied for the kill. † 3. ) â€Å"Jackson stupefies the reader as she describes how the lottery is meticulously prepared by Mr. Summers and Mr. Graves, with such pomp and circumstance†¦Ã¢â‚¬  – Again, you do not need a comma before â€Å"with such pomp and circumstance†, as you are not introducing a new thought. 4. ) Putting â€Å"unbelievable† at the end of your journal weakens it a little bit as you do not further the claim and give it some evidence. Overall, I think you did a really great job answering the question and giving solid evidence to your claims. From your journal essay, I was able to see that the social phenomenon that the writer is talking about is the desensitizing of our culture as a whole! Good work and good luck for the rest of the semester!

Strategic Hrm

Cornell University ILR School [email  protected] CAHRS Working Paper Series Center for Advanced Human Resource Studies (CAHRS) 4-1-2006 Strategic Management and HRM Mathew R. Allen Patrick M. Wright Cornell University Follow this and additional works at: http://digitalcommons. ilr. cornell. edu/cahrswp This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Center for Advanced Human Resource Studies (CAHRS) at [email  protected] It has been accepted for inclusion in CAHRS Working Paper Series by an authorized administrator of [email  protected]For more information, please contact [email  protected] edu. Strategic Management and HRM Abstract [Excerpt] The purpose of this chapter is to discuss this intersection between Strategic Management and HRM, what we know, and future directions for SHRM research. We will begin by briefly discussing the concept of strategy and the popularization of the resource-based view (RBV) of the firm. Next we will address its role in creating the link between HRM and Strategic Management including key questions that the RBV has raised in relation to SHRM.We will then examine the current state of affairs in SHRM; the progress made, and key questions and concerns occupying the attention of SHRM researchers. Finally, we will conclude with our views on future directions for SHRM research. Keywords CAHRS, ILR, center, human resource, studies, advanced, link, information technology, business partner, strategic role, competencies, HR, HRM, HR professionals, management Comments Suggested Citation Allen, M. R. & Wright, P. M. (2006). Strategic management and HRM (CAHRS Working Paper #06-04).Ithaca, NY: Cornell University, School of Industrial and Labor Relations, Center for Advanced Human Resource Studies. http://digitalcommons. ilr. cornell. edu/cahrswp/404/ This article is available at [email  protected]: http://digitalcommons. ilr. cornell. edu/cahrswp/404 CAHRS at Cornell University 187 Ives Hall Ithaca, NY 14853-3901 USA T el. 607 255-9358 www. ilr. cornell. edu/CAHRS WORKING PAPER SERIES Strategic Management and HRM Mathew R. Allen Patrick M. Wright Working Paper 06 – 04 Strategic Management and HRM CAHRS WP06-04Strategic Management and HRM Mathew R. Allen Patrick M. Wright Department of Human Resource Studies School of Industrial and Labor Relations Cornell University Ithaca, NY 14853-3901 April 2006 http://www. ilr. cornell. edu/cahrs This paper has not undergone formal review or approval of the faculty of the ILR School. It is intended to make results of Center research available to others interested in preliminary form to encourage discussion and suggestions. Most (if not all) of the CAHRS Working Papers are available for reading at the Catherwood Library.For information on what’s available link to the Cornell Library Catalog: http://catalog. library. cornell. edu if you wish. Page 2 of 26 Strategic Management and HRM CAHRS WP06-04 Abstract Page 3 of 26 Strategic Management and HRM CAHRS WP06-04 Strategic Management and HRM Introduction It has been said that the most important assets of any business walk out the door at the end of each day. Indeed, people and the management of people are increasingly seen as key elements of competitive advantage (Boxall & Purcell, 2003; Pfeffer, 1998; Gratton, Hailey & Truss, 2000).Spurred on by increasing competition, fast paced technological change, globalization and other factors, businesses are seeking to understand how one of the last truly competitive resources, their human resources, can be managed for competitive advantage. This idea that the human resources of a firm can play a strategic role in the success of an organization has led to the formation of a field of research often referred to as strategic human resource management (SHRM).This relatively young field represents an intersection of the strategic management and human resource management (HRM) literatures (Boxall, 1998; Boxall and Purcell, 2000). Wright and M cMahan (1992) defined strategic human resource management as â€Å"the pattern of planned human resource deployments and activities intended to enable the firm to achieve its goals† (1992, p. 298). The purpose of this chapter is to discuss this intersection between Strategic Management and HRM, what we know, and future directions for SHRM research.We will begin by briefly discussing the concept of strategy and the popularization of the resource-based view (RBV) of the firm. Next we will address its role in creating the link between HRM and Strategic Management including key questions that the RBV has raised in relation to SHRM. We will then examine the current state of affairs in SHRM; the progress made, and key questions and concerns occupying the attention of SHRM researchers. Finally, we will conclude with our views on future directions for SHRM research. Strategy And The Resource-Based View Of The FirmThe field of strategy focuses on how firms can position themselves to c ompete, and its popularity began increasing exponentially in the mid 1980s with two books. First, Peters & Page 4 of 26 Strategic Management and HRM CAHRS WP06-04 Waterman’s (1982) In Search of Excellence provided a practitioner-oriented analysis of excellent companies and the common threads that united them. However, Porter’s (1980) Competitive Strategy presented a more academically based analysis of strategy, but in a way that practitioners/executives quickly gravitated toward.This Industrial/Organization Economicsbased analysis primarily focused on industry characteristics, in particular the five forces of barriers to entry, power of buyers, power of suppliers, substitutes, and competitive rivalry as the determinants of industry profitability. While this analysis did propose four generic strategies (cost, differentiation, focus, and ‘stuck in the middle’), the bulk of the analysis focused on external factors that determined company profitability. This f ramework seemed to dominate strategic management thinking of the early 1980s.However, with the advent of the resource-based view of the firm (Barney, 1991; Wernerfelt, 1980), strategic management research moved to a more internal focus. Rather than simply developing competitive strategies to address the environment, the resource-based view suggested that firms should look inward to their resources, both physical and intellectual, for sources of competitive advantage. Though others had addressed the concept of the RBV previously, Barney (1991) specifically explicated how firm resources contribute to the sustained competitive advantage of the firm.He suggested that resources that are valuable, rare, inimitable and non-substitutable will lead to competitive advantage. Value in this context is defined as resources either exploiting opportunities or neutralizing threats to the organization and rarity is defined as being a resource that is not currently available to a large number of the organization’s current or future competitors (Barney, 1991). Inimitability refers to the fact it is difficult for other firms to copy or otherwise reproduce the resources for their own use.Finally, non-substitutability means that other resources cannot be used by competitors in order to replicate the benefit (Barney 1991). When all four of these conditions are met, it is said that the firm or organization possess resources which can potentially lead to a sustained competitive advantage over time. Page 5 of 26 Strategic Management and HRM CAHRS WP06-04 The resource-based view has become almost the assumed paradigm within strategic management research (Barney and Wright, 2001).It has been the basic theoretical foundation from which much of the current strategic management research regarding knowledge-based views of the firm (Grant, 1996), human capital (Hitt et al. , 2001), and dynamic capabilities (Teece, Pisano, & Schuen, 1997) are derived. In fact, Priem and Butler (2001) ma pped RBV studies against eighteen strategy research topics, demonstrating the breadth of its diffusion within the strategic management domain.More importantly from the standpoint of this chapter, the resource-based view has become the guiding paradigm on which virtually all strategic HRM research is based (Wright, Dunford, & Snell, 2001). In spite of the wide acceptance of the RBV, it is not without criticism. Priem and Butler, (2001a, b) have leveled the most cogent critique to date suggesting that the RBV does not truly constitute a theory. Their argument focuses primarily on two basic issues. First, they suggest that the RBV is basically tautological in its definition of key constructs.They note that Barney’s statement that â€Å"if a firm’s valuable resources are absolutely unique among a set of competing and potentially competing firms, those resources will generate at least a competitive advantage (Barney, 2001: 102)† essentially requires definitional depe ndence. In other words, without definitional dependence (i. e. â€Å"valuable resources†) the diametrical statement – that unique firms possess competitive advantages – does not logically follow. Their second major criticism of the RBV as a â€Å"theory† focuses on the inability to test it (Priem & Butler, 2001b). They note he necessity condition of â€Å"falsifiability† for a theory. In other words, in order for a set of stated relationships to constitute a theory, the relationships must be able to be measured and tested in a way that allows for the theory to be found to be false. This relates directly to the tautology criticism, but brings the debate into the empirical realm. In spite of these criticisms, even the critics agree that the impact of the RBV on strategic management research has been significant and that the effort to focus on the internal aspects of the organization in explaining competitive advantage has been a useful one (Preim & B utler,Page 6 of 26 Strategic Management and HRM CAHRS WP06-04 2001b). While the debate might continue as to the theoretical implications of the RBV for strategic management research, it is clear that it has made a significant contribution to Strategic Management and, more specifically, SHRM research (Wright, Dunford & Snell, 2001). A Brief History Of Strategic HRM Wright and McMahan’s (1992) definition of strategic human resource management illustrates that the major focus of the field should be on aligning HR with firm strategies.Jim Walker’s (1980) classic book, Human Resource Planning, was one of the first to directly suggest considering a firm’s business strategy when developing a human resource plan. Devanna, Fombrum, and Tichy’s (1981) article, â€Å"Human Resources Management: a Strategic Perspective†, added to the foundation. These attempts tended to take an existing strategy typology (e. g. Miles and Snow’s (1978) prospectors, analy zers and defenders) and delineate the kinds of HRM practices that should be associated with each strategy. These attempts to tie HRM to strategy have been referred to as â€Å"vertical alignment† (Wright & McMahan, 1992).Beer, Spector, Lawrence, Mills and Walton (1984) introduced an alternative to the individual HR sub-function framework for HR strategy. They argued that viewing HRM as separate HR sub-functions was a product of the historical development of HRM and current views of HR departments. They proposed a more generalist approach to viewing HRM with the focus on the entire HR system rather than single HR practices. This led to a focus on how the different HR sub-functions could be aligned and work together to accomplish the goals of HRM and a more macro view of HRM as whole rather than individual functions.This alignment of HR functions with each other is often referred to as â€Å"horizontal alignment† (see this Handbook, chapter 19. ) The combination of both vertical and horizontal alignment was a significant step in explaining how HRM could contribute to the accomplishment of strategic goals. However, given the external focus of the strategic management literature at that time, HR was seen to play only a secondary role in the accomplishment of strategy with an emphasis on the role that HRM Page 7 of 26 Strategic Management and HRM CAHRS WP06-04 layed in strategy implementation, but not strategy formulation. Lengnick-Hall and LengnickHall (1988) stated â€Å"strategic human resource management models emphasize implementation over strategy formulation. Human resources are considered means, not part of generating or selecting strategic objectives. Rarely are human resources seen as a strategic capacity from which competitive choices should be derived† (1988, p. 456). A shift in strategic management thinking would be required to change that perception and open the door for further development of the SHRM literature.The diffusion of the resource-based view into the Strategic HRM literature spurred this paradigmatic shift in the view of the link between strategy and HRM. Because the resourcebased view proposes that firm competitive advantage comes from the internal resources that it possesses (Wernerfelt, 1984; Barney, 1991), the RBV provided a legitimate foundation upon which HRM researchers could argue that people and the human resources of a firm could in fact contribute to firm-level performance and influence strategy formulation.This resulted in a number of efforts to conceptually or theoretically tie strategic HRM to the resource-based view. For instance, Wright, McMahan, and McWilliams (1994) suggested that while HR practices might be easily imitated, the human capital pool of an organization might constitute a source of sustainable competitive advantage. Lado and Wilson (1994) argued that HR practices combined into an overall HR system can be valuable, unique, and difficult to imitate, thus constituting a resource meeting the conditions necessary for sustained competitive advantage.Boxall (1996, 1998) proposed a distinction between human resource advantage (advantage stemming from a superior human capital pool) and organizational process advantage (advantage stemming from superior processes for managing human capital). The resource-based view also provided the theoretical rationale for empirical studies of how HR practices might impact firm success. One of the early empirical studies of this relationship was carried out by Arthur (1994). Using a sample of steel mini-mills, he found that a specific set of HR practices was significantly related to firm performance in the form of lower Page 8 of 26Strategic Management and HRM CAHRS WP06-04 scrap rates and lower turnover. Huselid (1995), in his landmark study, demonstrated that the use of a set of 13 HRM practices representing a ‘high-performance work system’ was significantly and positively related to lower turnover, and higher profits, sales, and market value for the firms studied. In a similar study, MacDuffie (1995), using data from automobile manufacturing plants, demonstrated that different bundles of HR practices led to higher performance, furthering the argument that the integrated HR system, rather than individual HR practices, leads to higher performance.Delery and Doty (1996) similarly demonstrated the impact of HR practices on firm performance among a sample of banks. This vein of research quickly expanded in the U. S. (e. g. , Batt, 1999; Huselid, Jackson, & Schuler, 1996; Youndt, Snell, Dean, & Lepak,, 1996), the U. K. (e. g. , Brewster, 1999; Guest, 1997; Guest, Michie, Conway, & Sheehan, 2003; Tyson, 1997), elsewhere in Europe (e. g. , d’Arcimoles, 1997; Lahteenmaki, Story, & Vanhala, 1998; Rodriguez & Ventura, 2003) and Asia (e. g. Bae & Lawler, 2000; Lee & Chee, 1996; Lee & Miller, 1999), as well as in multinational corporations operating in multiple international environment s (Brewster, Sparrow, and Harris, 2000). In sum, the RBV, with its focus on the internal resources possessed by a firm, has given the field a theoretical understanding of why human resources systems might lead to sustainable competitive advantage and provided the spark to generate empirical research in this vein (Guest, 2001; Paauwe & Boselie, 2005; , Wright et al, 2005). Key Questions Raised By The Application Of RBV To SHRMIn spite of the significant amount of research demonstrating a link between HRM practices and firm performance, there are several key questions regarding the RBV and its implications for SHRM research that remain unanswered. First, there is some question as to whether current research on HRM and performance is truly testing the RBV. Second, there is still a general lack of understanding around the concept of fit, and its role in the link between strategy and HRM. Third, there are still unanswered questions regarding HRM and whether orPage 9 of 26 Strategic Manag ement and HRM CAHRS WP06-04 not HRM defined as systems of HR practices truly constitutes a resource under the conditions outlined by Barney (1991) and, specifically, whether those resources are truly sustainable over time. Finally, there are several measurement and methodological issues that, while not within the direct scope of this chapter, are worth mentioning as they are pertinent to our discussion of this intersection between Strategic Management and HRM research. Testing of the RBV within SHRMWhile the SHRM research just discussed has used the RBV as a basis for the assertion that HRM contributes to performance, it has not actually tested the theory that was presented in Barney’s (1991) article (Wright, Dunford & Snell, 2001). Most of this research has taken a similar view on how HR practices can lead to firm performance. The model generally argues that HRM in the form of HR practices directly impacts the employees either by increasing human capital or motivation or bot h. This in turn will have an impact on operational outcomes such as quality, customer service, turnover or other operational level outcomes.These operational outcomes will in turn impact firm-level outcomes such as financial performance in the form of revenues, profits or other firm-level measures of performance (Dyer, 1984). In a similar vein, Wright Dunford and Snell, (2001) point out that there are three important components of HRM that constitute a resource for the firm that are influenced by the HR practices or HR system. First, there is the human capital pool comprised of the stock of employee knowledge, skills, motivation and behaviors.HR practices can help build the knowledge and skill base as well as elicit relevant behavior. Second, there is the flow of human capital through the firm. This reflects the movement of people (with their individual knowledge, skills and abilities) as well as knowledge itself. HR practices can certainly influence the movement of people. However, more importantly, the types of reward systems, culture, and other aspects of HRM influence the extent to which employees are willing to create, share, and apply knowledge internally. Page 10 of 26 Strategic Management and HRM CAHRS WP06-04Third, the dynamic processes through which organizations change and/or renew themselves constitute the third area illustrating the link between HRM and the resource-based view of the firm. HR practices are the primary levers through which the firm can change the pool of human capital as well as attempt to change the employee behaviors that lead to organizational success. There appears to be a general consensus among SHRM researchers around the general model of the HR to performance relationship and the role of HR practices, the human capital pool, and employee motivation and behaviors as discussed by Dyer (1984) and others.The implications of this for RBV and SHRM research is that while separate components of the full HRM to performance model have been tested such as HR practices (Huselid, 1995; McDuffie, 1995) and human capital (Richard, 2001; Wright, McMahan & Smart, 1995), a full test of the causal model through which HRM impacts performance has not (Wright, Gardner, Moynihan, & Allen, 2005; Wright, Dunford & Snell, 2001; Boxall, 1998). Current research has established an empirical relationship between HR practices and firm performance, but more remains to be done.By testing the full model, including the additional components of the human capital pool and employee relationships and behaviors, a more complete test of the underlying assumptions of the RBV could be established, thus adding credibility to the theoretical model of the relationship between HRM and performance. Fit and the Resource-based View of the Firm In the Priem and Butler (2001) critique of the RBV, one of the points brought up as a theoretical weakness of the RBV is lack of definition around the boundaries or contexts in which it will hold.They point out that â€Å"relative to other strategy theories †¦ little effort to establish the appropriate contexts for the RBV has been apparent† (2001 p. 32). The notion of context has been an important issue in the study of SHRM (Delery & Doty, 1996, Boxall & Purcell, 2000). Most often referred to as contingencies (or the idea of fit), contextual arguments center on the Page 11 of 26 Strategic Management and HRM CAHRS WP06-04 idea that the role that HRM plays in firm performance is contingent on some other variable.We break our discussion of fit into the role of human capital and HR practices. Human Capital and Fit. The most often cited perspective for explaining contingency relationships in SHRM is the behavioral perspective (Jackson, Schuler & Rivero, 1989) which posits that different firm strategies (other contingencies could be inserted as well) require different kinds of behaviors from employees. Consequently, the success of these strategies is dependent at least in part on th e ability of the firm to elicit these behaviors from its employees (Cappelli & Singh, 1992; Wright & Snell, 1998).Going back to the distinction between human capital skills and employee behavior, Wright and Snell (1999) noted that skills and abilities tend to be necessary, but not sufficient conditions for employee behavior. Consequently, any fit to firm strategy must first consider the kinds of employee behavior (e. g. , experimentation and discovery) required to successfully execute the strategy (e. g. , focused on offering innovative products), and the kinds of skills necessary to exhibit those behaviors (e. g. , scientific knowledge).Obviously, the workforce at Nordstrom’s (an upscale retailer) is quite different from the workforce at Wal-Mart (a discount retailer). Thus, the resource-based application to SHRM requires focusing on a fit between the skills and behaviors of employees that are best suited to the firm’s strategy (Wright et al. 1995). While this idea of fit focuses on across-firm variance in the workforce, Lepak and Snell (1999) developed a framework that simultaneously addresses variation across firms and variations in HR systems within firms (see this Handbook, chapter 11).Their model of ‘human resource architecture’ posits that the skills of individuals or jobs within a firm can be placed along two dimensions: value (to the firm’s strategy) and uniqueness. Their framework demonstrates how different jobs within firms may need to be managed differently, but it also helps to explain differences across firms. For instance, within Wal-Mart, those in charge of logistics have extremely valuable and unique skills, much more so than the average sales Page 12 of 26 Strategic Management and HRM CAHRS WP06-04 associate.On the other hand, at Nordstrom’s, because customer service is important, sales associate skills are more critical to the strategy than those of the logistics employees. HR Practices and Fit. The t heoretical assumption that the skills and behaviors of employees must fit the strategic needs of the firm in order for the workforce to be a source of competitive advantage leads to the exploration of how HR practices might also need to achieve some form of fit. With regard to vertical fit, as noted previously, business strategies require different skills and behaviors from employees.Because HR practices are generally the levers through which the firm manages these different skills and behaviors, one would expect to see different practices associated with different strategies. For instance, one would expect that firms focused on low cost might not pay the same level of wages and benefits as firms focused on innovation or customer service. Horizontal fit refers to a fit between HR practices to ensure that the individual HR practices are set up in such a way that they support each other (Boxall & Purcell, 2003; Baird & Meshoulam, 1988, Delery, 1998).An example of this would be a selec tion process that focuses on finding team players and a compensation system that focuses on team-based rewards. Theoretically, the rationale for horizontal fit suggests that (a) complementary bundles of HR practices can be redundantly reinforcing the development of certain skills and behaviors resulting in a higher likelihood that they will occur and (b) conflicting practices can send mixed signals to employees regarding necessary skills and behaviors that reduce the probability that they will be exhibited (Becker & Huselid, 1998).There appears to be some agreement in the literature that both types of fit are necessary for optimal impact of HRM on performance (Baird & Meshoulam, 1988; Delery, 1998; Delery & Doty, 1996; Boxall & Purcell, 2003), but not necessarily empirical support for these types of fit (see this Handbook, chapter 27; Wright & Sherman, 1999). Potential Pitfalls of Fit. The idea of fit, whether it be vertical or horizontal, raises two important questions for SHRM res earchers. The first question focuses on empirical support forPage 13 of 26 Strategic Management and HRM CAHRS WP06-04 the idea of fit. Second, even if fit has positive consequences in the short term, does fitting HRM practices with strategy or other contingent variables universally lead to positive results? That is, are there negative implications of fit? As previously discussed, numerous researchers have argued for fitting HRM to contingent variables. However, the efficacy of fit has not received much empirical support (Paauwe, 2004; Wright & Sherman, 1999).Huselid’s (1995) landmark study sought to test the fit hypothesis using a variety of conceptualizations of fit, yet found little support. Similarly, Delery and Doty (1996) only found limited support across a number of fit tests. The lack of empirical support may largely be due to focusing only on a fit between generic HRM practices and strategy, rather than the outcomes, or products (Wright, 1998) of the HRM practices (sk ills, behaviors, etc. ). Thus, it seems that it may be too early to draw any definite conclusions about the validity of the fit hypothesis.However, while fit between HRM practices and various contingency variables might enhance the ability of HRM to contribute to firm performance, there is also the possibility that a tight fit between HRM and strategy may inhibit the ability of the firm to remain flexible enough to adapt to changing circumstances. Firms are increasingly required to adapt to environments that are constantly changing, both within and outside the firm. A tight fit may appear to be desirable but during times of transition and/or change a lack of fit might make adaptation and change more efficient (Lengnick-Hall, Lengnick-Hall, 1988).Wright and Snell (1998) developed a framework in which HRM contributes to fit and flexibility simultaneously without conflict between the two, but this framework has yet to be tested and the question remains as to when and where fit might be more or less appropriate. The second question raised by contextual issues surrounding SHRM and the idea of fit is related to the efficacy of fit. Regardless of whether or not fit can have a positive effect on organizational outcomes, there is still some question as to whether or not true fit with key contingencies is feasible.Large organizations operate in complex environments, often across Page 14 of 26 Strategic Management and HRM CAHRS WP06-04 multiple products, industries and geographies. This complexity leads to questions regarding the ability of the firm to fit HRM practices to all of these diverse and complex circumstances (Boxall & Purcell, 2003). In addition, Boxall and Purcell, (2003) argue that there are competing ideals within a business that require trade-offs in fit.They describe fit as â€Å"a process that involves some tension among competing objectives in management and inevitably implies tensions among competing interests† (2003, p. 188). A simple example o f these tensions can be seen in attempting to fit a strategy of commitment to employees with a hostile or extremely competitive operating environment. A firm with a strategic commitment to the well-being of employees operating in an economic downturn or time of increased competition may be forced to make choices between commitment to employees and a need for estructuring, layoffs or other non-friendly actions toward employees in order to stay solvent. In these situations, compromises will have to be made on either the fit with the strategy or the fit with the environment or both, raising the question again as to whether or not a true fit with contingencies is feasible. These questions regarding the ability to achieve fit and the desirability of achieving fit do not diminish the importance of understanding contextual issues in SHRM research.Understanding the contextual issues surrounding HRM and its impact on performance remains critical. In spite of the interest in the role of conte xtual issues and fit in SHRM, findings in support of contingency relationships have been mixed (Wright & Sherman, 1999). Much of this criticism could be due to ineffective methods used in the measurement of HRM or the contingency and performance variables studied or that the correct contingencies have not yet been studied (Becker & Gerhart, 1996, Rogers & Wright, 1998; Wright & Sherman, 1999).In addition, Boxall and Purcell (2000) have argued that more complex and comprehensive models of contingency relationships are needed in order to understand the impact of context on the HRM to performance relationship. Regardless of the reasoning, it is clear that the impact of context on this important relationship is not yet completely understood and more research is Page 15 of 26 Strategic Management and HRM CAHRS WP06-04 needed to understand the role of context, as well as questions surrounding models of fit in SHRM research.HRM Practices and Sustainable Competitive Advantage Another issue that has been raised by the RBV and its application to SHRM research is the sustainability of HRM as a competitive advantage. Whether one focuses on bundles of HR practices as an HR system, the human capital pool or employee relationships and behaviors, there remains the question as to whether HRM as a resource meets the inimitability and nonsubstitutability conditions that are required in the RBV for sustained competitive advantage (Barney, 1991).According to Barney (1991), there are three general reasons why firm resources would be difficult to imitate: the resources are created and formed under unique historical conditions, the resources are causally ambiguous, or the resources are socially complex. Labeled as path dependency by Becker and Gerhart (1996), the unique historical conditions under which HRM is formed in individual firms may make its understanding and replication extremely difficult, if not impossible.HR systems are developed over time and the complex history involved in their development makes them difficult to replicate. The development and implementation of a single HR practice such as a variable pay system takes place over time including time to solicit management input and buy-in, work out discrepancies, and align the practice with current strategies as well as firm culture and needs. The end result is a practice that reflects the philosophies and culture of the firm and its management, created to solve the specific needs of the company.Compound that single HR practice with a whole system of practices each with its own history and evolution specific to a particular firm, its philosophies and current situation and you have an HR system that cannot be bought or easily replicated without a significant investment both of time and financial resources. Causal ambiguity implies that the exact manner in which human resource management contributes to the competitive advantage of the firm is either unknown or sufficiently ambiguous Page 16 of 26 Stra tegic Management and HRM CAHRS WP06-04 so as to be difficult or impossible to imitate.According to Becker and Gerhart (1996), the ability to replicate a successful HR system would require an understanding of how all of the elements of this complex system interact and in turn impact the performance of an organization. Given the previous discussion of the basic HRM to performance model and the manner in which it is expected that HRM contributes to firm performance, it is difficult to imagine how the intricate interplay among various HR practices, human capital and employee behaviors, employee outcomes, operational outcomes and firm-level outcomes could be understood by a competitor in a meaningful way.Finally, Barney (1991) points out that competitors will find it difficult to replicate a competitive advantage based on complex social phenomena. Given the nature of HRM and its direct relation to employees, almost every aspect of the HR system, the human capital and especially the emplo yee behavior and relationships has a social component.The way in which HR practices are communicated and implemented among different departments and parts of the organization is influenced by the various social relationships involved; top management to general managers, general managers to department heads or managers and those managers to employees as well as interactions between departments and employees. The complexity of the social relationships in the case of HRM makes it difficult for competitors to imitate it. Finally, for a resource to constitute a source of sustainable competitive advantage it must be non-substitutable.This implies that competitors should not be able to use a different set of resources in order to achieve similar results (Barney, 1991). This concept has not yet been tested, but could provide for interesting research in the area of contextual factors and SHRM. If, in fact, it is found that a particular set of HR practices is positively related to performance in a given context, then, a follow-on question to that which would get at the substitutability question might be whether or not there is another set of HR practices for which the results are similar.This could lead to discussions about strategic configurations of HR Page 17 of 26 Strategic Management and HRM CAHRS WP06-04 practices rather than universal high-performance work systems that have dominated past research (Delery & Doty, 1996). Regardless of whether there is one or many ways to achieve similar results in different contextual situations, the testing of these possibilities would lead to an increased understanding of the relationship between the RBV and SHRM research and the sustainability of HRM as a strategic resource.Measurement and Methodological Issues In addition to key questions surrounding the RBV and SHRM research, there are also several measurement and methodological issues which have hindered our ability to better understand the relationship between strategy and HRM. Measurement issues relating to the HRM, competitive advantage and key control variables have made the comparison of results across studies and interpretation of findings difficult (Rogers & Wright, 1998; Dyer & Reeves, 1995).In addition, there are questions around the appropriate level of analysis within the firm at which to test these relationships as well as issues related to the mixing of variables measured at different levels of analysis (Rogers & Wright 1998, Becker & Gerhart, 1996). Finally, as was pointed out, the majority of research to date has focused on the relationship between HR systems and firm-level performance and, while the findings indicate a positive relationship, there is insufficient evidence at this point to be able to infer that the relationship is causal (Wright et al. , 2005).A full discussion of these issues is beyond the scope of this chapter and a more thorough discussion may be found in other chapters in this text (see particularly chapters 26 and 2 7), but it is important to note in discussing key questions in SHRM that they exist and need to be addressed or at least considered in future research. Future Directions Research on SHRM management over the past decade has made significant progress in developing our understanding of the role that HRM plays in firm performance. The field now has a significant foundation upon which to build future research.In our opinion, future research should focus on both answering key questions that remain in understanding the relationship Page 18 of 26 Strategic Management and HRM CAHRS WP06-04 between HRM and performance and by expanding or broadening what is considered SHRM. Such extension would encompass both other resources and other theories currently studied in strategic management research. Key Unanswered Questions The previous portion of the chapter pointed out several key questions that have been raised as a result of the application of the RBV to SHRM research that are not yet answered. First, research that directly tests the concepts outlined in the RBV has not been done (Priem & Butler, 2001). Thus future research should focus on testing the concepts of the RBV by testing the full model through which HRM leads to competitive advantage or firm performance. Do HR practices impact the human capital pool and the relationships and behaviors of the employees and do those outcomes in turn impact both operational and firm-level performance? Answering these questions by testing the full causal model would be a significant contribution to our understanding of the strategic nature of HRM.In essence, this reflects the â€Å"black box process† that Priem and Butler (2001) argued must be addressed by RBV theorists and researchers. Second, future research should focus on understanding the contextual questions surrounding the HRM to performance relationship. Mixed results in past contextual research is not reason enough to abandon the question all together. It is highly l ikely that HRM matters more or less in certain situations or under certain conditions. Efforts should be made to continue to test established models of HRM in new and unique situations.In addition, more thorough tests of moderating variables in the HRM to performance relationship should be tested. Given the complexity involved in the measurement and testing of these relationships and the mixed results of past research in this area it is likely that researchers will need to seek out contexts with reduced complexity such as departments within large organizations or small businesses where reduced complexity will provide more meaningful measures of potential moderating variables and more meaningful tests of the moderating relationships can be performed. Page 19 of 26 Strategic Management and HRM CAHRS WP06-04Another step that needs to be taken in understanding the role of context in the HRM to performance relationship is to move away from universal-type models of HRM such as highperform ance work systems and high-involvement work systems and develop and test different configurations of HR practices that might apply to specific situations. In doing this, researchers will be able to better understand the specific bundles or HR practices that are applicable or fit with different types of organizations or situations, thus making a significant contribution to our understanding of the types of HRM that will matter in a given situation.Expanding the Role of SHRM Future research in SHRM should focus on conceptually expanding what is considered to be the role of SHRM. Historically, SHRM has been viewed as the interface between HRM and strategic management (Boxall, 1996) with the focus of much research being on understanding how the HRM function (namely HRM practices) can be strategically aligned so as to contribute directly to competitive advantage.This implies a concern with how HR practices can contribute to strategy implementation without addressing the larger question o f how HRM can contribute or play a role in strategy formulation (Lengnick-Hall & Lengnick-Hall, 1988). Wright et. al. (2001) argued that it is the human capital (the knowledge skills and abilities of the human resources) as well as the relationships and motivation of the employees that leads to competitive advantage. The purpose of HR practices is to develop or acquire this human capital and influence the relationships and behaviors of the employees so that they can contribute to the strategic goals of the irm. Future research should examine human capital and the social interactions and motivations of the human element within a firm (Snell, Shadur, & Wright, 2002), not only as independent variables but also as mediating and dependent variables. A focus in this area will bring the field more in line with contemporary views in strategic management. Research in this area will also help us to get beyond questions regarding how HR practices can facilitate the strategic goals of a firm an d begin to understand how organizations can understand the resources found in their human element and use that Page 20 of 26Strategic Management and HRM CAHRS WP06-04 understanding to influence or even drive their decisions about their strategic direction. For instance, IBM’s strong HR processes/competencies led it into the business of offering outsourced HR services. This was an internal resource that was extended into a new product line, and illustrates how an understanding of such resources can influence strategic direction. Along these same lines, another way to break away from this notion of HRM as a facilitator of the strategic direction of the firm is by focusing on some of the resources currently salient to strategic management researchers.In their review of the RBV and SHRM relationship, Wright, Dunford and Snell, (2001) argue that the RBV created a link between HRM and strategic management research and that as a result of this link the two fields were converging. Be cause of this convergence, the potential impact of SHRM research on mainstream strategy issues is tremendous. Increasingly, strategy researchers are focusing on knowledge and knowledge-based resources (Argote, & Ingram, 2000; Grant, 1996;), human capital (Hitt et al. 001), social capital (Inkpen & Tsang, 2005; McFadyen, Ann, & Albert, 2004), capabilities (Dutta, Narasimhan, & Rajiv, 2005), and dynamic capabilities (Teece, Pisano, & Schuen, 1997), as critical resources that lead to organizational success. While HRM practices strongly influence these resources, the SHRM literature seems almost devoid of empirical attention to them. Only recently have researchers began to explore these issues (Kinnie, Swart, & Purcell, 2005; Thompson & Heron, 2005). Additional research in these areas would provide tremendous synergy between HRM and strategy.In addition, alternative theories such as ‘learning organizations’ (Fiol & Lyles, 1985; Fisher & White, 2000), real options theory (Mc Grath, 1997; Trigeorgis, 1996) and institutional theory (Meyer & Rowan, 1977) can be combined with SHRM research to enhance our understanding of the strategic nature of HRM. For instance, Bhattacharya and Wright (2005) showed how real options theory can be applied to understanding flexibility in SHRM. In addition, Paauwe and Boselie (Chapter 9) provide a detailed analysis of how institutional theory can better inform SHRM research. The use of these in addressing questions in SHRM research willPage 21 of 26 Strategic Management and HRM CAHRS WP06-04 provide new lenses through which researchers are able to view the HRM to performance relationship, potentially providing new insights and ideas that will further our understanding of SHRM. Conclusion While the field of strategic HRM is relatively young, significant progress has been made at a rapid pace. Researchers have provided great theoretical and empirical advancements in a period of just over 25 years. Much of this progress is the r esult of the RBV and its emphasis on the internal resources of the firm as a source of sustainable competitive advantage.The RBV and its application to SHRM research created an important link between strategic management and HRM research. Its application has been followed by a significant amount of research using the RBV as a basis for assertions about the strategic nature of HRM. However, the link between HRM and strategic management can be strengthened by breaking away from the focus on HR practices. Other key resources currently being researched in strategic management have the potential to be directly influenced by HRM, but their coverage by SHRM researchers has been minimal, leaving a tremendous opportunity for future research in this area.In addition to this, new theories relevant to strategic management have yet to be combined with SHRM research, leaving potential for additional contributions to our understanding of the intersection between strategic management and HRM. Page 22 of 26 Strategic Management and HRM CAHRS WP06-04 References Argote, L. , Ingram, P. , Levine, J. M. , & Moreland, R. L. (2000). Knowledge transfer in organizations: Learning from the experience of others. Organizational Behavior & Human Decision Processes, 82(1), 1-8. Arthur, J. B. (1994). Effects of human resource systems on manufacturing performance and turnover.Academy of Management Journal, 37(3), 670. Bae, J. , & Lawler, J. J. (2000). 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