Medias role in society essays

Media's role in society essays Media plays a significant role in our society today. It is all around us, from the shows we watch on television, the music we listen to on the radio, to the books and magazines we read each day. Television more so that any of the other medias achieves a myriad of different goals. These goals range from entertaining to educating. Various confines of education and entertainment are depicted in television. For the most part the television is found to be very entertaining. People watch television shows they enjoy and find entertaining. Television is often looked at as a babysitter for children. The viewing of television can entertain the young and old alike for great amounts of time. Along with entertaining, the media is used to inform society. Days are often started by the listening of the news on the morning television, judging the latest updates on the local traffic jams. Days are often concluded with the watching of the late night news on television, keeping us informed of the world and the events occurring around us. Steven Stark, author of Glued to the Set has been quoted as saying, the local newscast has replaced the network news and the newspaper alike as the average Americans main source of news. (390) In addition to informing the television is used to spread a message or to campaign. Political candidates on all levels use this medium to inform the public of their views and hopefully to convince the public to elect them. James B. Twitchwill author of Adcult USA: The Triumph of Advertising in American Culture states,The culture we live in is carried on the back of advertising.(405) Television is used to inform, entertain and campaign and most significantly, it is used for advertising. In fact, television is so centered on advertising and these advertisers play such large sums money to advertise that advertising has taken over. Every five to fifteen minutes a commercial is played on...

The Age of the Ocean Floor

The Age of the Ocean Floor The youngest crust of the ocean floor can be found near the seafloor spreading centers or mid-ocean ridges. As the plates split apart, magma rises from below the Earths surface to fill in the empty void. The magma hardens and crystallizes as it latches onto the moving plate and continues to cool over millions of years as it moves farther away from the divergent boundary. Like any rock, the plates of basaltic composition become less thick and denser as they cool. When an old, cold and dense oceanic plate comes into contact with a thick, buoyant continental crust or younger (and thus warmer and thicker) oceanic crust, it will always subduct.  In essence, oceanic plates are more susceptible to subduction as they get older.   Because of this correlation between age and subduction potential, very little ocean floor is older than 125 million years and almost none of it is older than 200 million years. Therefore, seafloor dating isnt that useful for studying plate motions beyond the Cretaceous. For that, geologists date and study continental crust.  Ã‚   The lone outlier (the bright splash of purple that you see north of Africa) to all of this is the Mediterranean Sea. It is the lasting remnant of an ancient ocean, the Tethys, that is shrinking as Africa and Europe collide in the Alpide  orogeny. At 280 million years, it still pales in comparison to the four-billion-year-old rock that can be found on the continental crust.   A History of Ocean Floor Mapping and Dating The ocean floor is a mysterious place that marine geologists and oceanographers have struggled to fully grasp. In fact, scientists have mapped more of the surface of the Moon, Mars, and Venus than the surface of our ocean. (You may have heard this fact before, and while true, there is a logical explanation as to why.)   Seafloor mapping, in its earliest, most primitive form, consisted of lowering weighted lines and measuring how far the sunk. This was done mostly to determine near-shore hazards for navigation. The development of sonar in the early 20th century allowed scientists to get a clearer picture of seafloor topography.  It didnt provide dates or chemical analyses of the ocean floor, but it did uncover long oceanic ridges, steep canyons and many other landforms that are indicators of plate tectonics.   The seafloor was mapped by shipborne magnetometers in the 1950s and produced puzzling results - sequential zones of normal and reverse magnetic polarity  spreading out from the oceanic ridges. Later theories showed that  this was due to the reversing nature of Earths magnetic field. Every so often (it has occurred over 170 times over the past 100 million years), the poles will suddenly switch.  As the magma and lava cool at seafloor spreading centers, whatever magnetic field is present get ingrained into the rock. The ocean plates spread and grow in opposite directions, so rocks that are equidistance from the center have the same magnetic polarity and age. That is, until they get subducted and recycled under less-dense oceanic or continental crust.   Deep ocean drilling and radiometric dating in the late 1960s gave an accurate stratigraphy and precise date of the ocean floor. From studying the oxygen isotopes of the shells of microfossils in these cores, scientists were able to begin studying the Earths past climates in a study known as paleoclimatology.

Current issues application and practice Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Current issues application and practice - Essay Example Agriculture is very important in the economy of a country especially among developing countries like the Philippines. It provides food for the nation’s inhabitants. It supplies the raw materials needed by the other sectors of the economy such as the manufacturing, trading and services sectors. Agricultural products are an important source of exports for the country. It also generates employment especially among those living in the rural areas. Approximately 30 million hectares or 40 percent of the total land area of the country is classified as farm lands. The country is composed of 7,107 islands with a total coastline of about 18,000 kilometers and which boast of bountiful fishing areas. Farming and fishing are major sources of livelihood for most people in the rural areas. The food crops produced by the farm lands are used for local consumption while some crops are exported. One then wonders why inspire of the rich natural resources of the country it has remained to be a Thi rd World country. The answer is simple. There is not enough government support being given to the industry. Without the necessary government initiatives to improve the agricultural sector, one cannot expect the industry to grow. The people who rely on agriculture are not given the opportunity to raise their income; thus, pushing the economy downwards. To determine the impact of agriculture in the Philippine economy, recent developments in the industry must be examined. In 2010, despite having vast agricultural lands and an ideal geographical location, the agriculture and fishery sector contributed only17 percent to the gross domestic product of the Philippines, a .34 percent decline from the previous year (Bureau of Agricultural Statistics (BAS), 2011). Compared to last year’s level, the gross value of agricultural output rose by 15.97 percent to P706.4 billion at current prices. The BAS also reported that of the country’s total labor force of 38.89 million, about 11.9 6 million persons or 33 percent were employed in the agriculture sector. During the first half of 2010, the daily nominal wages of workers in palay farms in Philippine pesos was P227.23 while those in corn farms earned P175.25. In terms of support services, government expenditures in agriculture amounted to P89.22 billion or six percent of the national expenditures, which represents an increase of 9.58 percent from last year. In the case of irrigation, only 49 percent of the total potential irrigable area is irrigated. The production performance of the agricultural sector in 2010 showed that output of palay and corn dropped by 3.04 percent and 9.34 percent, respectively. Coconut production registered a loss of one percent in the same way as sugarcane also recorded a loss of 21.82 percent. On the contrary, production output for mango, tobacco, onion, cabbage and eggplant grew by more than three percent (BAS, 2011). While agricultural products did not show remarkable improvements, the livestock production went the opposite direction (BAS, 2011). Carabao production increased by 5.05 percent, cattle at 2.71 percent, hog at 1.11 percent and goat at 1.38 percent. Likewise, production of dairy products grew by 11.14 percent. Chicken meat production increased by 4.01 percent and chicken eggs grew by 5.12 percent. Among the major livestock products only duck meat and duck egg production declined by 8.24 percent and 7.44 percent, respect

Emergency Management Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Emergency Management - Essay Example It mainly manufactures cars and trucks, with famous brands like Cadillac, Buick, Pontiac, Chevrolet and Opel etc. The company operates worldwide in 34 countries (General Motors, 2008a). According to the accounts from our employees, the tornado powerfully ravaged our Sport Utility Plant and torn off some metal shield from the Plant. But our employees have carefully hidden themselves in the protective basement that was built for this purpose. However, only one of our employees, a supply truck driver, was hospitalized and our Plant was shut down for weeks as a result of ruins left behind by the tornado. However, our employees also suffered massive loss of their personal property and materials as the tornado devastated their homes. In spite of our enviable Health and Safety Scheme, which includes using the best technologies in the world to ensure that our employees are safe in the face of any disasters, natural or artificial, it is necessary that a new crisis management plan should be set up. We already have an alarm system that quickly alerts our employees of any impending dangers. I would suggest that the following systems be implemented for optimal performance: Legal backing: We have approached the Governor of Oklahoma to assist us with a legal backing in form of a Tornado Relief Bill that would give tax credits and other financial assistance to GM employees that have lost their valuable property during the disaster (Allbusiness, 2003). I take the blame for not suggesting all these important facts before the disaster struck. I am sure that with these ideas I have given above, we would be able to prevent future great damage to our

Eminent domain Essay Example for Free

Eminent domain Essay Eminent domain refers to the authority to sequester the private property of an individual, including his rights, without the need of obtaining the consent of the owner (Ryskamp, 2006). This power is also known as compulsory purchase, resumption acquisition or expropriation in other countries such as the United Kingdom, Australia and Canada. The confiscation of private property is generally performed in order for the government of use the aforesaid property. In other cases, the expropriation is conducted in order for the public to make use of the property (United States v. CARMACK, 1946). The most frequent reasons for implementing eminent domain actions include the construction of public utilities as well as highways and railroads (United States v. Gettysburg Electric Railway Company, 1896). The concept of eminent domain should not be interchanged and confused with cases wherein a private property is confiscated by a government that is in a revolutionary situation. Eminent domain is also different from the concept of forfeiture because the sequestration of the private property in forfeiture is based on breaching of a mortgage contract while eminent domain is based on the sequestration of a private property for the use of the government. Eminent domain is associated with condemnation, which pertains to an action that is implemented by the government that results in the transfer of the title of a property from the original owner to the government. The term condemnation that is associated with eminent domain should also not be confused with the condemnation that is related to the classification of buildings that are considered to be unsafe for entry and habitation by people due to natural disasters such as earthquakes and other physical damages due to man- or nature-caused events. Condemnation that is associated with eminent domain states that the government is obtaining a private property or shows an interest in the private property, such as an easement. Generally, the only thing that remains to be determined and finalized is when a condemnation action is filed in the amount of the appropriate compensation. However, there are also some cases wherein the right to sequester is challenged by the owner of the private property, based on the premise that the attempted sequestration is not for public use, or has not been legally approved or endorsed by the court, or simply because the condemnor did not abide by the standard or proper procedure required by law (Greenhut, 2004). The exercise of eminent domain is not solely applied to real property (Galperin, 2007). Governments also have the authority to condemn personal property, including supplies that will be employed for military warfare, franchises, as well as other intangible property such as contracts, patents, trade secrets and copyrights. The first case of eminent domain in English law was known as the Dobbie Process or the Kings Prerogative in Saltpeter Case. The English king required saltpeter as ammunitions of his military and he acquired saltpeter mine that was privately owned. The owner of the private real property sued the king, resulting in the action of the court of establishing the right of the sovereign to sequester any form of private property that has been determined to be needed for public use, without issues of being accused for trespassing. However, such acquisition requires payment or some form of compensation for the taken saltpeter. When the colonies became the United States and the English Common Law was adopted as the law of the new nation, this principle was accepted. However, different from popular belief, the Fifth Amendment to the Constitution did not describe this right in the United States because this policy was already inherent in common law. The Fifth Amendment restricted the power of eminent domain by requiring that any confiscations be plainly for public use and that an appropriate compensation be provided to the owner of the sequestered private property.

classical conditioning Essay -- essays research papers

When ever the bell rings in any school in any nationyou are guaranteed to see students and teachers file into the hallway.   This automatic response comes from somethingthat has been around for a long time called classical conditioning. Classicalconditioning was discovered and researched by Ivan Pavlov, a Russianphysiologist.   His famous experimentwith his dog is known to nearly everyone who has had a middle school or highereducation.   He fed his dog in a pattern,every time he fed his dog he rang a bell.  Eventually the dog associated the bell with food and would begin tosalivate just on hearing the bell.   Thatis the original experiment proving classical conditioning.   What is aconditioned stimulus?   â€Å"A neutralstimulus that, after repeated pairings with an unconditioned stimulus, becomesassociated with it and elicits a conditioned response.† (World of Psychologypg167)  Ã‚   In English it is something thatis used to train someone or something through repetition.   Pavlov made use of this in his experiment toshow classical conditioning.   Where asan unconditioned stimulus is something that is unlearned but is just respondedto out of instinct.   Pavlov’s dog, for examplehad one unconditioned stimulus and one conditioned stimulus.   Both the conditioned and unconditionedstimuli were to an unconditioned response, the dog salivating.   The unconditioned stimulus was the dog foodthat started the dog salivating.   The conditionedstimulus or new stimulus was the bell being rung every time the dog was fed.After awhile the unconditioned stimulus wasn’t even needed, because the dog wasnow conditioned to respond to the bell and salivate whenever he heard thebell.   Things like this happened all thetime, for example; when I put on running shoes and running clothes my dog willbecome extremely hyper because she knows we are going outside and she will getto run around. Probably thestrongest application of classical conditioning is emotions.   Human emotions are condition extremelyeasily to things that provoke strong reaction, things such as Adolf Hitler, theIRS, the American Flag and chemistry class because of their associations withour emotions.   If something like thatprovoked a strong emotion before in your life when brought up in conversationthe strong emotion that was conditioned comes up also.   For example when a person meets someone withthe same name as someone they previously lik... ...   He thenwondered would the dog still salivate if he attached the device to the dogspelvis, then hind paw, then shoulder, then foreleg and finally the frontpaw.   He discovered that the farther hegot from the rear thigh, or the original conditioning, the less of a salivatingresponse.   Other examples of this arethings such as someone who was attacked by a dog when he or she was young andtherefore grew up hating and fearing all dogs.   On the other sideof generalization there must be discrimination.   Pavlov decided he didn’t want his dogs to salivate to any othertones but â€Å"C.†Ã‚   This was not very hard all that was need was to cause extinction in any other type of tone.   The â€Å"C† tone was reinforced by continuouslygiving food after the tone was rung.   On the other hand whenever any other tone was sounded it was not reinforced by food.   Thus the dog became more conditioned to â€Å"C† and the conditioned responses for the other tones becameextinct. Classicalconditioning has and will continue to be around forever.   It is part of human nature and many peopletake advantage of it daily.   It can beused to dispel fears or as training for a job, it doesn’t matter what it is for it will just be there.

Freudian Analysis of Edgar Allen Poe’s a Tell Tale Heart

A Freudian Analysis of â€Å"The Tell-Tale Heart† By Edgar Allen Poe As an esteemed psychologist analyzing this accused murderer, I have found a few key pieces of evidence that ultimately lead me to the decision that the murderer is in fact mad and I recommend psychological rehabilitation as well as jail sentence as a proper penalty for the crime committed. Although, he claims he can recount the night of the murder â€Å"healthily and calmly† it is not proof enough to disregard his insanity. The murderer insists that he â€Å"loved the old man† which I believe is undoubtedly true. As far as my knowledge goes he was stuck in a paradox of love and hate. With that said I know that people sometimes tend to harm the people they love. He claims he was not after the old man by any greedy or vengeful means, â€Å"He had never wronged me. He had never given me insult. For his gold I had no desire†¦Ã¢â‚¬  By saying this, he makes it clear that he has eliminated any motives that normally inspire a murderer. Instead he describes his obsession with the old man’s, â€Å"vulture eye† as what makes him tick. To everyone except the murderer, the obsession with the old man’s blue eye is unexplainable. The only indication given is that the eye makes his â€Å"blood run cold† so much so that he thought the only just way to eliminate this problem was to end the old man’s life all together. Additionally, when he exclaims his plans to rid himself of the eye forever, subconsciously he wants to rid the old man of the eye because it is evil. However, it is apparent that the murderer does not comprehend that he cannot isolate the man from his eye, and that if he tries he will have killed the man too not just the eye. In his mind, he has separated the man’s identity, which is pleasant and agreeable, from his vulture eye, which is described as evil and eerie. By doing so, the murderer has now justified to himself his capability of murdering the old man. Ultimately, the obsession with the vulture eye is irrational and is by no means a reasonable motive to murder an innocent man. The murderer’s heightened sensitivity to sound is yet another piece of evidence that proves his insanity. He says, â€Å"Above all the sense of hearing acute. I heard all things in heaven and in the earth. I heard many things in hell. † What that means to him, we may not know, but to a listener he is just proving himself crazy. He first encounters the loud sound of the old man’s beating heart while he is still alive in his bed on the night of the murder, â€Å"I knew that sound well too. It was the beating of the old man’s heart. It increased my fury as the beating of a drum stimulates the soldier into courage. † Not only is this testimony of paranoia, it also disproves his original claim he is not insane, because a sound that can’t be heard from a distance at all was driving his rage to attack the old man. Then again at the end of his story, he claims he heard the sound of the beating heart and it drove him to admit to the crime, while the police were investigating the old man’s house. The ringing became more distinct: I talked more freely to get rid of the feeling: but it continued and gained definitiveness – until, at length, I found that the noise was NOT within my ears. † This is a clear display of the murderer’s extreme guilt and paranoia. Not only do I firmly believe this murderer should be sentenced to many years jail for the crime he committed, it is in his best interest to regain his sanity if possible through some psychological therapy program.

Christian environment Essay

â€Å"Today’s Stock market dropped 5%, unemployment rate reaching 10%, Gross Domestic Products dropped for the sixth month in a row. † This economic crisis happened in South Korea in 1999. For sure it was a big trouble for those who lost the job they thought will be their permanent job, like a government owned financial company which I worked for. I witnessed many employees laid off and they were unable to find a new job for a long time due to the lack of technical skills. This event got me thinking of changing my career. My job as an investment bank teller, was very simple and was being replaced by machine. I quit my banking job and started to study in America in 2000. Everything from language to culture was hard for me to adapt but the dream of finding a meaningful career for the rest of my life was a motivation enough to keep me going. Fortunately, I met a good Christian family who introduced me to nursing and it was so attractive to me. First it is its need to solve common societal issues as caring for aging population and Second I thought nursing always needed human touch. One of the new cultures I have observed while living in America is the stress on personal right. Most of the time I hear how important it is to speak up for your own right or people will intimidate or rip you off. I might be wrong because I am an immigrant as I don’t fully understand American society, but can you imagine I never used to speak up for my own interest in a group of people working together? I had to leave my own interest and think about others and the whole organizations. That is how I was taught at home and school in Korea and I learned that practicing these values, altruism and respecting wholeness, brings more joy than loss to my life. Moral Re Armament; was a name of group activity that I was involved in high school. From this group activity,I found myself volunteering for the community. We learned dancing and songs and performed at elderly care centers and orphanages. We visited them with food, helped them clean and played with them regularly. For me it was heart breaking to see how people could be lonely and living in a poor condition. However, these experiences opened my eyes to the world surrounding me as I had thought that I was the poor and the unfortunate one by not having both parents. I started to appreciate the little things such as living in a home, seeing my family each day and laughing with my friends. Most important of all that I learned was extending my hands to those who need help and knowing that there are people in need of help. The reason I chose Loma Linda University Nursing School is because of its Christian environment. I used to believe there was some power handling world beyond human’ limitation, I learned it was God’s hands. Nine years ago when I arrived in America , I needed help desperately, I went to a Korean church. In there I found God’s existence and saw people living as Christians. For me becoming a nurse wouldn’t be possible if there’s no God’s intervention. I have now decided to step towards new nursing knowledge. I believe a good nurse needs to have humbleness, compassion and caring mind for the sick like what we were taught by Jesus. These Christian perspectives in nursing education at Loma Linda University will play an important role in my career to become a good nurse caring for aging population.

Running Head Strategic Plan

Running Head Strategic Plan Introduction A strategic plan is a framework or platform that gives an organization a long-term focus and direction. It consists of long-term decisions concerning organizational focus and organizational operations. The main reason why organizations engage in long-term planning is to guarantee a competitive advantage in the future.Advertising We will write a custom report sample on Running Head: Strategic Plan specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More A strategic plan helps an organization anticipate challenges of the future and prepare for the same. Consequently, a strategic plan is a blue print that explains how the organization is to handle changing environmental challenges. The strategy formulation process helps management to think out of the box. Such a process helps management to consider things that other organizations are likely not to consider or do not have the privilege of considering. What is implied is the fact that in a strategy p rocess, the organization considers how to create a competitive advantage over competition. Usually a strategic plan is a long or medium term plan, which usually encompasses a number of years depending on organizational preferences. In often cases, each department in the organization comes up with its own strategic plan. Therefore, the marketing department, the sales and the Human resource department, among others, will come up with their own independent strategic plans. The human resource strategic plan helps aligning the human resource long-term objectives with the overall long-term objectives of the organization. Queensland Department’s Strategic Plan Strategic Focus As is the case with Queensland department of education and training, their strategic plan covers the period starting 2010 to 2014. Of critical importance in any strategic planning is the vision and mission formulation. The major focus of the Queensland education department’s strategic plan is to accompli sh the collective aims of giving children a good start; laying down a well-grounded educational foundation for children of Queensland. Consequently, the vision of the department is â€Å"clever, Skilled and Creative Queenslanders†. This is where they want to steer their operations towards; the end they desire. Following from the Vision, the strategic plan spells out the mission statement as â€Å"To provide Queenslanders with knowledge, skills and confidence to maximize their potential contribute productively to the economy and build a better Queensland†.Advertising Looking for report on business economics? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More Focus is on developing a critical pool of skilled and knowledgeable youth that will take up important positions in society and make a difference. To achieve this, the strategic plan spells out a number of values. Values are critical because they frame the culture or c onduct that is conducive towards attainment of strategic objectives. Strategic Objectives In every strategic plan, there are clearly stated strategic objectives of the organization. The organization in this case is Queensland while the education department is only part of Queensland state bureaucracy. Consequently, the department’s strategic objectives have to be anchored on the strategic intents of Queensland as a state. The strategic plan for Queensland’s department of education and training spells out the objectives for the department; the objectives outline the organizations aspirations for the four-year period. The department’s strategic plan illustrates its objectives as unitary and geared towards one overall objective i.e. providing education services and requisite resources for proper learning. The objectives of Queensland department of education and training include: To provide all children access to early childhood education To ensure three out of fou r Queenslanders hold a trade training or tertiary level qualification Develop Queenslanders who will power the economy of Queensland with creative ideas To, through education, make young Queenslanders environmental conscious Equip Queenslanders with knowledge to live healthy lifestyles To promote equity and fairness in society Environmental Scanning/ Analysis Coming up with a strategic plan does not end at formulation of objectives and consultation with other stakeholders. To guarantee results there is need for environmental scanning before formulation, during formulation, during implementation and in the evaluation of the strategic plan. Environmental scanning consists investigating into factors both in the internal and external environment of the organization. Internal environmental factors refer to issues relating to the organization in itself that inform its operations. In often cases, the organization has direct control or influence over the internal factors. The external envi ronmental factors are those factors that the organization has no control over but they directly influence organizational operations. Such factors are beyond the organization and relate to external actors in the organizational environment. To scan the environment or to analyze the organizational environment, managers use different tools. Such commonly used models or tools include PESTEL also called the global model and SWOT analysis.Advertising We will write a custom report sample on Running Head: Strategic Plan specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More SWOT Analysis SWOT is an acronym of Strength, Weakness, Opportunities and Threats. Strengths are the strong points of an organization i.e. which the organization is advantaged in. These positive aspects, when properly harnessed and enhanced, can propel an organization to much greater height. In every business organization, a number of things or factors either are still being developed or put th e organization at a disadvantage. In many organizations, there are elements, which tend to decline or diminish a business (Bohm, 2009). These issues originate from within a business and are put down as weaknesses in a SWOT matrix. Unless a business organization takes care of the weaknesses, they are likely to bring the business down or place it in a disadvantaged position in comparison to the competitors. Opportunities can be defined as chances that an organization or individual can maximize in order to gain a competitive advantage i.e. overcome the pressure and intimidations of the competitor (OConnor, 1884). Opportunities are external factors that a person or organization may have very minimal authority to influence. Threats refer to factors in the external environment of an organization that are likely to affect the organization negatively (Griffin, 2007). Queensland Department of Education SWOT Analysis Strengths Government’s strong partnership with industry – growth in the use of technology – strong partnership with Australian government and other states, which helps enhance service delivery in all aspects or as per roles assigned to the department Weaknesses Only 32% of Queenslanders accessing early child hood education Higher proportion of children who are developmentally vulnerable Gap between training outcomes for aboriginal, Torres straight Islanders and other Queenslanders Rapid urban growth and diminishing rural population Sparse geographical distribution of population increasing cost of operation – infrastructural challenges – high demand for staff – need to rethink recruitment and staff retention Opportunities Integrating kindergarten in the rest of the education programs Agencies and community read to work with department – opportunities to use technology Threats Global economic downturn Lack of skilled workforce to use advantages and opportunities in state industry and b usinesses Human Resource Implications The SWOT analysis in the strategic plan identified two human resource implications worth considering. These two strategic concerns include recruitment and retention of employee, leaning, growth and development of workforce.Advertising Looking for report on business economics? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More Human Resource Strategic Plan.  Brief Background Recruitment and Retention of Employees One of the key issues that the strategic plan identifies is need to identify and recruit able staff to drive growth. Before identifying staff to recruit, there is the tough challenge of attracting the right candidates. To enable organic growth in the department of education and training at Queensland, recruitment is fundamental. The Queensland labor market is very dynamic and competitive. When the labor market of a nation is dynamic, it is very difficult to draw and maintain highly qualified employees that will make it possible for the organization to accomplish its purposes (Pieper, 1990). The challenge for most human resource managers including the situation in Queensland department of education and training is to engage the right workers and assign them to the right situation or the right place. Further, the managers have the challenge of assisting recruits to work at most favorable level th at provides the organization with an operational advantage. Learning, Development and Growth Employee development and growth as concerns have to do with capacity building for staff such that they are apt enough to meet the aspirations of the department. The department has very rosy dreams in terms of its vision for Queensland. However, only employees will drive that vision to fruition. Therefore, there is need for mechanisms to ensure employees are trained and developed such that they are up to the challenge. Knowledge management will play a serious role in ensuring significant information is identified captured and dispersed in Queensland department of education and training. Such a process allows key information to be dispersed across the organization. Proper information management coupled with training for employees ensures apt decision making in an organization (Harrison, 2005). According to Harrison (2005), the learning and development packages should enhance learning by focusi ng on realistic knowledge and instances with hypothetical resources accessible. In Queensland, there are people of different calibers. Social equity is of critical value and employee development has to take into account the needs of say the aboriginal. The importance of every region’s language is fundamental in dealing in with different clients; given not all of them may be literate to understand a universal or national language. Similarly, the sale of any region cannot be ignored because they form an important ingredient of what lead to the organization aggregate sale and ultimately revenue. Human Resource Plan: Strategic Focus In line with the identified human resource implication, the focus of the human resource department is on ensuring the organization has employees that will drive its strategic vision. Moreover, there is need to focus on developing employees so that they respond to the challenges that the department is facing. Therefore, the vision of the human resource is to ‘avail and develop and human resource pool that will help drive the organizational vision of realizing clever, skilled and creative Queenslanders’. Human Resource Policy Statement Recruitment Policy Statement The objective of any human resource policy is to entice the very good people and equally select the right person for the right positions in an organization (Wilson, 2005). Wilson (2005) further notes that the aspiration in any good human resource policy is to facilitate the engagement of employees, who will uphold the company principles and objectives. A good human resource policy helps towards making employees trustworthy partners in bid to generate a competitive advantage for the organization (Olsen, 2006). A particular employment procedure is intended to make certain an organization is continuously resourced by means of employees who think outside the box, embrace challenges and extend to turn out to be future leaders lashing an organization to achievemen t. Queensland department of education and training will focus on identifying employees who have knowledge, skills and the confidence to drive the vision of the organization. To achieve this dream, the human resourcing managers will be guided by values outlined in the department’s strategic plan. As an equal opportunity employer, the department will strive towards equity by giving marginalized communities opportunities that help build capacity. Equity is very important towards ensuring cultural diversity becomes instrument as opposed to an obstacle to success (Marsh, 1996). Employee Development Policy Statement An organization’s growth is dependent on the quality of employees that have been obtained through the organization’s recruitment process. The current organization’s approach to recruitment cannot accommodate the business changes due to a changing macro environment. Therefore, the human resource plan should encompass directions in terms of how to mee t challenges posed by flux in the business environment. Such changes result from government macro-economic policies (Weisbrod, 2000). These challenges can only be met through continuous learning and development of employees. It is only through training and development that organizational capacity is built to meet emerging needs. Therefore, as the organization sets out towards new frontiers by the year 2014, there is need to focus on further education and development of the employees. Queensland department of education and training highly believes that mutual relations between the employer and employees are critical if organizational objectives are to be achieved (Beesley, 1975). It is the responsibility of the organization to make available fair and sound training opportunities to all employees for the purposes of dealing with knowledge, skill and soft skill gaps in the organization (Beesley, 1975). As a department, Queensland department of education and training is committed to con tinuous improvement. Objective of the Human Resource Plan In line with the aspirations of the Queensland department of education and training’s strategic plan, the human resource sector has to formulate objectives to drive the department’s vision. The two human resource implications identified are recruitment and retention of employees, then learning and development of the human resource; both existing and those to be recruited. Therefore, the human resource objectives are:- To identify and recruit employees that will drive the departments vision To put in place mechanisms that will ensure employee retention To facilitate employee training and development To align current employee expertise with the needs of marginalize groups in society Necessary Resources and Implementation To attain given objectives, there is need to translate them into tangible actions and thus need for an action plan. Each of the identified actions will require given resources in terms of materi als, money, know how, time and work force. To meet rising needs, the department who has to do a proper human resource audit to determine the human resource needs. The human resource audit would consist in analyzing current human resource needs and future human resource needs. Given the department is a government arm it has to take into account government policy. Discussion by James (1997) indicated that government policy has a huge influence on the human resource needs of government organs. It would also consist in analyzing current human resource practices and streamlining them. To achieve this, the department will have to spend on consultative meetings and crucially on engaging and independent human resource consultant. The reliance on an independent human resource consultancy firm to do the auditing is aimed at ensuring objectivity. Once current needs and future needs have been established, the analysis will also guide in terms of comparing current human resource capacity against required human resource capacity. Once the gaps have been quantified, then a job analysis will have to done followed by drawing up of job descriptions. This activity can then be followed by a recruitment and selection drive aimed at meeting the shortfalls. When it comes to employee retention, again there is need to survey the labor market and establish turnover trends. Once labor market trends are established, it offers room for the human resource officers to design total reward packages for the employees. A good remuneration package takes into account the taxation regime in a country (Staple, 2002). A total reward scheme aims at ensuring all employee needs and aspirations are taken into account when designing the remuneration package. The other activity that is crucial for the attainment of set human resource plan objectives is designing a training policy. The training policy should define how the department is to meet knowledge and skill gaps of its employees. The policy should t ranslate into training plans. The training plans should be based on proper training needs assessments i.e. well quantified and qualified training requirements. Moreover, there will be need to institute knowledge management mechanisms so that expertise in the organization may flow to benefit all employees and the organization at large. Milestones for Monitoring the Progress of the Plan Monitoring and evaluation are critical in ensuring a plan is on course. Consequently, in the human resource plan, there are given milestones that will indicate whether the plan is on course or not. The first milestone is doing a proper Human resource audit. Once the audit is done, then proper human resource needs will have been identified. The second miles stone is recruitment and selection reform i.e. the methods of attracting and selecting employees changed to reflect the values espoused in the department’s strategic plan. The final milestone will be coming up with a training policy, doing a n eeds assessment and coming up with a training and development plan. Training and development needs of employees should be factored when designing the total reward package. Ethical Considerations Ensuring equity i.e. fairness and inclusion in the recruitment process Recruitment exercise has to comply with statutory and legislative stipulations Ensuring fairness in job allocation Commensurate compensations and equity in compensation packages. Recommendations Request for key positions that will be required initially to enable a start on recruitment activities Engage external consultant to complete the plan Develop a buddy program for managers who are not skilled in change management. Identifying change management champions to assist managers to engage the strategic plan in the business unit. Conclusion All successful organizations are anchored on long-term decisions that are tailored towards delivering a competitive edge. Strategic planning provides a platform for organizations to think long term. Long term planning helps organizations to choreograph their operations towards acquiring an advantage against its competitors. Considering the strategic plan by Queensland department of education and training, it provides strategic objectives that spell out the overall focus of the organization. Once clear strategic objectives have been formulated, they provide a locus or focus in all organizational operations. To translate the overall organizational objectives into operational reality, departmental strategic plans come in handy. Before, during and after strategy formulation, environmental scanning comes in very handy. This paper identifies the SWOT analysis as the most common tool used in environmental scanning. Further, during environmental scanning, it is emphasized that both the internal and external environment have to be thoroughly scrutinized. Proper analysis of the environment translates into formulation of plans that address the changing environmental facto rs accurately. Reference list Beesley, M. E. (1975). Industrial Relations in a Changing World. New York: Taylor Francis Publishers Bohm, A. (2009). The SWOT Analysis. Norderdedt: GRIN Verlag Publishers Griffin, W. R. (2007). Fundamental of Management. New Jersey: Cengage Learning Publishers Harrison, M. (2005). Learning and Development. London: CIPD Publishing James, S. (1997). British Government: A Reader in Policy Making. New York: Routledge Marsh, P. M. (1996). Cultural Difference: Self-Esteem and Pedagogy. Ohio: Bowling Green State University Press OConnor, A. (1884). Monopoly, the Cause of All Evils. New York: F Didot publishers Olsen, E. (2006). Strategic Planning For Dummies. New York: For Dummies Publishers Pieper, R. (1990). Human Resource Management: An International Comparison. Rome: Walter de Gruyter Publishers Staple, R. (2002). Taxation. Indiana: Taxation Publishers Weisbrod, B. A. (2000). To Profit or Not to Profit: the Commercial Transformation of the Nonprofit Sect or. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press Wilson, P. J. (2005). Human Resource Development: Learning Training for Individuals Organizations. London: Kogan Page Publishers

Answers to Questions About Hyphens

Answers to Questions About Hyphens Answers to Questions About Hyphens Answers to Questions About Hyphens By Mark Nichol Here are several questions from DailyWritingTips.com readers about hyphenation, followed by my responses. 1. Please help settle an ongoing debate in my office. We often use the phrase â€Å"City of Los Angeles-owned property.† Of the following examples, which, if any, is correct? a) City of Los Angeles-owned property b) City of Los Angeles -owned property c) City of Los Angeles owned property Of course we could change the wording to something like â€Å"property owned by the City of Los Angeles† but that would take the fun out of the debate! The correct answer is d), â€Å"none of the above.† If the reference were generic, â€Å"city-owned property† would be correct, but when a phrase that represents a single concept (such as â€Å"City of Los Angeles†) is attached to a one-word adjective to form a phrasal adjective that precedes a noun, an en dash is used in place of a hyphen to signal that the entire phrase, not just the final word in it, is being attached to the adjective: â€Å"City of Los Angeles–owned property† (not â€Å"City of Los Angeles-owned property,† which appears to suggest â€Å"Angeles-owned property having to do with the City of Los†). (Many readers will miss the subtlety of this convention, which is also little known among writers, even those in the journalism and publishing realms if you see an en dash, thank an editor! but it observes a useful distinction.) Even correctly rendered, however, the phrase is cumbersome. Now that the debate has been settled, relax the wording to â€Å"property owned by the City of Los Angeles.† 2. I recently wrote a hyphenated word, and the spell-checking program underlined it and took out the hyphen. So I replaced the hyphenated word and made it unhyphenated. To my great surprise, when I did that, the spell-checking program highlighted it again and put the hyphen back in! You say look it up? A very good idea, but if a spell checker can’t make up its mind, can we rely on different dictionaries having the same spellings as each other? That’s puzzling! But take solace in the fact that spell-checking programs will never prompt you to misspell a word; they just might prompt a variant spelling. And, no, dictionaries don’t always agree on the best variant, but they never lead one astray. Just use a single dictionary (and, if you write for a client or a company, find out which dictionary it prefers). 3. â€Å"The less-traveled road† is correct. Is a hyphen required for â€Å"the road less traveled†? No. As is usually the case, the hyphen is omitted when the phrasal adjective follows the noun. Want to improve your English in five minutes a day? Get a subscription and start receiving our writing tips and exercises daily! Keep learning! Browse the Spelling category, check our popular posts, or choose a related post below:Arrive To vs. Arrive At"Certified" and "Certificated"8 Great Podcasts for Writers and Book Authors

Implementation of the Saudi Mortgage Law Developing an Effective Research Paper - 3

Implementation of the Saudi Mortgage Law Developing an Effective Mortgage - Research Paper Example The provisions of Saudi Arabia ‘real estate mortgage law’, which was signed into law on July 2, 2012, offer different ways through which the law will be implemented. First, under the ‘Enforcement’ Law, the law has provided that judges should hear and enforce mortgage disputes and insolvency actions (Delloite, 2). In this respect, the law has allowed the courts to decide on the order of the repayment of the mortgages, in a way that would guarantee swift repayments. Under the ‘Real Estate Finance’ Law of the Saudi Mortgage Laws, an elaborate architecture and framework for the authorization and licensing of banks and other non-banking companies to offer mortgage facilities has been established. Thus, according to this section of the law, banks will be allowed to own real estate’s for the purpose of facilitating mortgage lending (Khan, 2). Additionally, the government will facilitate the banks and companies offering the mortgage services, through publicizing real estate market activities, while at the same time granting the companies and the banks an access to the notary registers and the courts (Delloite, 2). This s ection of the law has also provided that a credit risk must be undertaken on the borrowers, through the aid of the authorized and available credit bureaus, to ensure the creditworthiness of all borrowers. Further, the Saudi Mortgage Law includes a section under the ‘Registered Real Estate Mortgage’ Law, which provides for the procedures of the registration of mortgages (Khan, 7).

Knowledge Management Enablers Article Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 7500 words

Knowledge Management Enablers - Article Example This cost them their exile out of the Garden of Eden and onto a life of suffering. Such is the value of knowledge that in its pursuit, it wields its power to drive people to do things unexpected of them. Nonaka and Takeuchi (1995) make the distinction between two types of knowledge: explicit knowledge and tacit knowledge. Discussions of this concept are abundant in the KM literature (Bollinger and Smith, 2001). Explicit knowledge is defined as structured and codified knowledge. It is formal and systematic and is easily expressed in the production specifications, scientific formulae or computer programs (Nonaka and Konno, 1998), thus it can be easily communicated and shared. Tacit knowledge, in contrast, is unconsciously understood and applied, difficult to articulate, and developed directly from experience, and action (Zack, 1999). Tacit knowledge is highly personal, hard to formalize, difficult to communicate or share with others. The adage that â€Å"Knowledge is Power† has been adhered to by many people as a rule of strategy in achieving personal or professional empowerment and advantage, or as a protective measure against the uncertainties and unstable conditions of life’s situations. ... It is as arbitrary and shallow as its premises imply. So, like money and time, knowledge needs to be managed well so it is used for the best outcomes. Knowledge management has been getting much attention due to its accorded importance in organizations. O’Dell and Grayson (1998) defines it as â€Å"a conscious strategy of getting the right knowledge to the right people at the right time and helping people share and put information into action in ways that strive to improve organizational performance† (p.6) In addition, Nakra (2000) contends, â€Å"Knowledge management refers to the ability to develop, share, deposit, extract, and deliver knowledge such that it may be retrieved and used to make decisions or to support the processes† (p. 54). Magnier-Watanabe and Senoo (2008) defines it as â€Å"the process for acquiring, storing/sharing, diffusing and implementing both tacit and explicit knowledge inside and outside the organization’s boundaries with the pu rpose of achieving corporate objectives in the most efficient manner† (cited in Magnier-Watanabe & Senoo, 2010, p. 216). It should be noted that the common characteristics of knowledge management in the definitions is that it is something that is movable from one person to another for the purpose of achieving organizational goals. However, it is not as simple as it seems as there are several considerations in order for knowledge management to be successful in working for the whole organization and not just for a few individuals. Dissecting Magnier-Watanabe & Senoo’s definition further, the processes involved in knowledge management are likewise described. Knowledge acquisition is gaining new knowledge from whatever source and although knowledge already