Human Resources Perspective Essay Example for Free

Human Resources Perspective Essay Introduction For small and large businesses alike, the human resources or personnel function can be helpful for much more than simply processing payroll or handling the open enrollment season once a year. Human resources plays an essential role in developing a companys strategy as well as handling the employee activities of an organization. Human resources can also provide human capital value to the organization, such as Utiliscan. Without this, a company is at potential risk for lost profits. Budget control is another primary function of human resources. This prevents excessive spending, through developing methods for keeping the workforce associated cost within perspective of the company’s goals. This also includes negotiating rates for benefits and health care coverage in conjunction with setting competitive and realistic wages. Throughout the remainder of this paper, we will discuss the results of Utiliscan’s employee survey and what steps Paul could have taken toward improving Utiliscan as the Human Resource Director. Survey Results Are In Upon completion of every survey, it is important to post the results for all employees and management to see. The results should be consolidated with a task assigned and a well-developed plan of action. This is an opportunity to develop the corps values of the company leadership, as well, build growth within the company. Take the time to prioritize company goals, to include expectations of the employer and employees. Tackle the big and the ugly up front by making a statement. After all, your goal is to make the company successful and show growth through opportunity. Result #1: 56% of Utiliscan felt their benefits were below average or poor. Task: Identify comparable benefits packages to meet the company needs as  well the employee Action: Studying the labor market, employment trends and salary analysis based on job functions will assist Paul with Utiliscan, as it is a small business, creating budget constraints. . As the human resources director, Paul should negotiate better rates. His responsibility is to find health coverage and offer package incentives to his employees. A good example of this, high quality insurance that includes low premiums for his employees with high percentage rates of protection. American Blue Cross Blue Shield provides medical, dental, and hearing protection at reasonable rates for companies. Aside from medical requirements, Paul should address salary, wages and retirement benefits packages with his employees. Fidelity is an example of a investment firm that allows parole deductions for employees to save money and earn market based profits and well stock option growth. Many companies in modern America now provide a 401k match plan. 5% to 6% match is a good comparable rate to start with. Result #2: 55% felt safe, with little danger of occupational hazards associated with their physical environment. There were comments, presumably from the 45% who did not feel safe, that some of the utility plants where they worked on installations were not as safe as they should be. Task: Identify safety hazards within and around the work environment. Action: Conduct training and development of employees and supervisors. Needs assessments for the organization’s current workforce to determine the type of skills training and employee development are necessary to improve skill sets. This includes qualifications, licensing and documentation of certifications. A company such as Utiliscan must ensure their employees meet specifications to insure quality productions levels, at the same time improving overall safety of the organization. Many companies identify hazards within the workplace and address them through education of their employees. It is much less expensive than the cost to hire additional staff or more qualified candidates. In addition, it’s a strategy that also can reduce turnover and improve employee retention. Result #3: 74% felt there was little relationship between their performance and their pay. There were numerous comments that performance reviews hadn’t been done on time or hadn’t been done at all. Other comments indicated arbitrary treatment and favoritism of some employees. Task: Identify the root cause for lack of performance appraisals and employee development programs. Build and mentorship program  to better support Utiliscan’s employee foundation. Action: Through Performance Improvement, Training and Development Paul can develop performance management tools. This will enable Paul and his managers to measure the performance of their employees and provide feedba ck. This is a developmental tool to improve the employee skills and expertise. If performance appraisals are not completed then the potential for employees whose performance to fall below the employers expectations can continue. This leads to waste through payroll activities and low-performance employees. Performance appraisals should be conducted monthly or quarterly with a final annual appraisal to determine potential for promotion or retain ability. Result #4: 89% felt there were few if any opportunities to improve their skills and 87% responded there were no promotion opportunities. Task: Develop a mentorship program and identify key developmental positions that will be forecasted. Action: Paul can focus his efforts toward performance management systems. Constructing a plan that measures performance, employees develop specified skill sets in order to become more qualified for potential promotion opportunities. At the same time, Paul can begin succession planning. This enables the company to identify key potential candidates to fill key developmental positon. This is done through identifying employees with the promise and requisite capabilities to eventually transition into leadership roles with the compa ny. This is an important function as it can guarantee the organizations stability and future success. Result # 5: 78% of the employees were satisfied with their working conditions and they enjoyed freedom and flexibility to perform their jobs without strict supervision. 70% felt their workloads were adequate – not too heavy, not too light Task: Despite the overall content attitude toward working conditions and enjoyment of the employees daily work routines, there is always ways to improve the overall employee’s satisfaction. Identify a way to seek employee’s thoughts and ideas of how to make the work place a better environment. Action: Over all employee satisfaction can better the work place and improve the quality of life within the company. Happy employees work harder and produce more. This leads to more money for the company to grow. Paul should place a suggestion box to assist in identifying key components that his employees are requesting to make their work experience better. Some of their ideas may  lead to greater levels of quality, production, and even profits. Another option is to continue with carefully designed employee surveys, focus groups and an exit interview strategy to determine key components of employee dissatisfaction and addresses those issues to motivate employees. Corporate Image The employer who maintains steadfast principles, embraces change, accepts and breeds the company’s philosophy and business principles will win every time. Businesses want to be known as the company to work for or â€Å"Employer of Choice†. This is the company that receives recognition for the way they take care of their employees and care for them. These are the companies that employees find balance. Paul working in human resources can develop the tools to identify balance through recruiting the most qualified applicants, selecting the most suitable candidates and retaining the most talented employees. References: Sharon Armstrong and Barbara Mitchell (2008). The Essential HR Handbook: A Quick and Handy Resource for Any Manager or HR Professional Web Link: http://www.hrmasia.com/case-studies/ Mathis, R.L., Jackson, J.H. (2014). Human Resource Management 14th Ed. Stamford, CT: Cengage Learning.

Contemporary relevance of Porter’s Five Forces to corporate strategy

Contemporary relevance of Porter’s Five Forces to corporate strategy Introduction Porters Five Forces introduced back in 1979 by Michael E. Porter from Harvard University in his first book Competitive Strategy. It becomes international best seller, and considered by many to be a definitive work on corporate strategy. The book itself had been published in nineteen languages and re-printed almost sixty times, changes the way business leaders thought and remains a guide of choice for strategic managers the world over. It has become an important tool for analyzing an industry structure and strategy process [Morrison M., 2008]. Porters work has had a greater influence on business strategy than any other theory in the last half of the twentieth century [referenceforbusiness.com]. The tool provides a simple perspective for assessing the position and competitiveness of a corporation or business organization within the industry. Porter points out five forces which the upturn and downturn, will affect the profitability and existence for a corporation or business organizatio n. Business leaders and managers might be interested in this paper for the purpose of this paper is to discuss the contemporary relevance of Porters Five Forces to corporate strategy. An attempt also being made to find what is missing from this model related to corporate strategy in current business environment. In so doing, a comparison will be made between Porters Five Forces and another tool for corporate strategy. Another assessment made concerning the business environment in Porters era and current business environment. Porters Five Forceshttp://wiki.telfer.uottawa.ca/ci-wiki/images/e/e4/Porters.gif The development of this framework is based on the idea of attractiveness of an industry. As for the attractiveness itself, is determined by the profitability within the industry. More profit means the industry is more attractive and low profitability means a low attractive industry. The way of thinking in the model is to achieve a better competitive position against other players. The competitive advantages developed from strengthening the own position within this Five Forces. The Five Forces framework is based on microeconomics. It considers supply and demand, substitutes and complementary product, and the relationship between production volume and cost of production; also the market structures such as monopoly, oligopoly, or perfect competition. Threat of new entry The chances in which new competitors can enter the market and drive the current players price down. The threat to entry depends on six major forces of barriers which Porters describes as: economics of scale, product differentiation, capital requirements, cost disadvantages independent of size, access to distribution channel, and government policy. The decision of the new-comer also pretty much influenced by their expectation on the existing player. If the incumbents known for previously fought vigorously to new entrants, or possess such substantial resources to fight back (such as excess cash, unused borrowing power, available productive capacity, or clout with distribution channel and customers), the new entrants will likely to have second thought on entering the market. This also happened if they know that the incumbents seem likely to cut the prices. New entrants fear more also when the industry growth is so slow so that newcomers can gain volume only if they take it from the incu mbents. Bargaining power of supplier Another force Porter mention in the model is how powerful the supplier to drive up the prices of is corporate input. The term supplier includes all sources of input that are needed to provide the product. A supplier of group is powerful when it is dominated by few companies and more concentrated than the industry it sells to. The products are also differentiated or unique means relatively no substitutes for the particular input so that it built up the switching cost. The power of supplier also increase when there is a possibility for the supplier for integrating forwards in order to obtain high prices or so. Also when the industry is not an important customer of the supplier group or when it is not obliged to contend with other products for sale to the industry. Bargaining power of customer Similarly, bargaining power of customer settle on how powerful is the customer can impose pressure on margins and demands. Buyer are powerful if it is purchase in large volumes and/or the product it purchases is standard or undifferentiated, means they can always find alternative suppliers. Customer will also become more powerful if the products it purchases from the industry form a component of its product and represent an significant fraction of its cost, in other words, the customer become more price sensitive. Furthermore when they know that the company earns low profits, which create great incentives to lower its purchasing cost; and when the industrys product is unimportant to the quality of the buyers product or services, then the bargaining of customer increase. More threat comes from the possibility of the customer to integrating backward and has the ability to produce the product themselves. Another factor mentioned by Porter is that customer will be more prices sensitive w hen they recognize that the industrys product does not save the buyer money. He gave an example of logging of oil wells, where an accurate survey can save thousands of dollars in drilling costs, therefore affect the market price. Substitute products The extent of which substitute product can be used in place of one product. Porter highlighted the characteristics of substitute products that deserve the most attention as those products that are subjects to trends improving their price-performance trade-off with the industry product or are produced by industries earning high profit. Porter also said that substitutes come into play when the competition within industry increases which lead to price reduction or performance improvement. Jockeying among competitor for position within industry This factor describes the strength or the intensity of competitiveness among the existing players within the industry. High rivalry limits the profitability of an industry. Factors that shape the intense rivalry in a industry are: (a) payers are roughly equal in size and power (b) the growth of the industry is slow, precipitating fights for market share (c) lacks of differentiation and switching cost of the products (d) strong willingness to cut the price either because the fixed cost are high or the product is perishable (e) high barriers to exit the industry (f) capacity is normally augmented in large increments, and (g) diversity of strategies, origins, and personalities of the rivals. Other than the intensity, the dimension basis in which the rivalry takes place also reflects the strength of the rivalry such as price, products features, support service, delivery time, and brand image. Whether the competition takes place in the same dimension, or the rivals converge to compete on same dimensions. Strategy Crafting What do you want to achieve or avoid? The answers to this question are objectives. How will you go about achieving your desire results? The answer to this you can call  strategy. William E Rothschild, Former General Electric Corporate Strategist, CEO of  Rothschild Strategies Unlimited LLC Corporate strategy is about how a firm or business organization should make a decision of series of steps to achieve the desired goal. To create the best decision, the decision maker must be able to analyze the current and expected factors associated with internal as well as external environment. With strategy, one company can be more prepared and comfortable to operate on the market, because good strategy should have examined all the forces involved in business activities. Strategy planning can be developed in three levels, which are: company level, business unit level, and functional or departmental level [Morrison M., 2008]. Corporate strategy Æ’Â ¨ concerned with overall purpose and scope of the business to meet stakeholder expectations. This level of strategy concerned with the selection of business in which the company should compete and with the development and coordination of the portfolio of business. This is a crucial level since it is heavily influenced by the investors in the business and acts to guide strategic decision making throughout the business. Corporate strategy is often stated explicitly in a mission statement along with the formulation of visions and goals. It also decide on how business unit to be governed; through direct corporate intervention (centralization) or through autonomous government (decentralization). Corporate strategy also seeks to developed synergies across the business units. Business Unit StrategyÆ’Â ¨ is concerned more with how a business competes successfully in a particular market. It concerns strategic decision about choice of products, meeting needs of customer, gaining advantage over competitors, exploiting or creating new opportunities or market, etc. The strategic issues is about developing and sustaining a competitive advantage for the product and service that are produced. Functional or Departmental Strategy Æ’Â ¨ the strategy level of the operating divisions. It is concerned with how each part of the business is organized to deliver the corporate and business unit level strategic directions. The functional units translate them into discrete action plans that each division must accomplished for the strategy to succeed. Operational strategy therefore focuses on issues of resources, processes, people, etc. Functional units involved in higher level strategies by providing input into the business unit level and corporate level strategy, such as providing information on customer feedback. Business environment in current era Current business environment much likely to be characterized by more dynamic market situation. The digitalization and globalization contribute to this dynamic movement. The power of information technology (IT) grows more and more each day. And as it grows, all players in the market can have access to more information. The world is flat, globalization made great improvement in distribution of logistics and communication, enable all business to operate globally. Meanwhile, the customers have the chance to shop also on a global level, and compare the prices globally. The trends and demand now changed as the increased commoditization in so many areas. Companies now must be able to differentiate themselves by give more value for their products. One way to do that is by improving customer experience, through the improvement in the service area. Customers now want individual service and attention, and have high expectations for the goods and services they buy. Other tools for corporate strategy David P. Baron nonmarket approach: 4Is Business environment consist of market and nonmarket environment. An effective corporate strategy must be able to facilitate both market and non-market goals of the company. In relation to this, Baron introduced his 4Is, with emphasis on non-market environment. This framework together with Porters Five Forces formed the integrated strategies. The nonmarket environments are social, political, and legal setting that affects the interaction of the corporation outside and in conjunction with, the market environment. Barons define the characteristics as four Is. The first is Issues, of what nonmarket strategies address. Issues in nonmarket environment cover the regulations, proposed laws, court judgments, etc. Second is set of relevant institutions for the particular industry. Regulators or government is usually always become the relevant official body that affect a corporation decision making process. NGOs are also another example of institutions. Interests are individuals and groups with preferences about the industry. Baron includes this factor to address the identity and goals of those with a stake in the issue. Also information concerning with what the interested parties know or believe about the relation between actions and consequences and about the preferences and capabilities of the interested parties. This factor let us to think, what info needed to reach the goal? what is persuasive for the other parties? Prejudices, rumors, state reports, almost all public relations stuff is included in this factor. SWOT model Æ’Â ¨ covering external and internal forces Another tools being used for corporate strategy is SWOT. SWOT models addressing the internal and external forces. The Strength defines what characteristics impose by a company that can be used to keep hold on the market or even expand it. Weakness is really the opposite, this factors is any kind of lack the company has that can affect its existence in a bad way. Both strength and weakness is internal factors. Meanwhile, the external factor is covered by the Opportunity and Threat. Opportunity discuss about all issues or current condition of the environment that can give a better chance for the company to improve the operation. The threat talks about all threatening situation from the environment in which the company operates. More of this are, opportunity and threat, be explored more in Porters Five Forces model. Contemporary relevance between Porters Five Forces and corporate strategy Any organization, especially ones dealing with corporation or business environment realize that their success depend on both internal and external factors. With his Five Forces, Porter tries to emphasis on the most important or most influencing forces to the business profitability and existence. The competitors, the new entrants, new substitute, also the bargaining power of both supplier and buyer covered most aspects of a business activity. Indeed, Porters Five Model focuses heavily in competitive strategy, which is essential. To be specific, the Five Forces, mentioning competition, are related more to analysis of external forces from the market environment of the strategy. Of course, all business organization will always seek the best way to maximize corporate profit and determining the attractiveness of an industry. This is a need that will always be in managers mind in every industry, from every era. Therefore, through his model, Porters tries to give a framework that can help the decision maker to create a strategy where enable the company to stay in the market, defend their current position, and even grow the market size. It supports the decisions about to enter or to exit from an industry or market. As a business leader, it is important to understand the competition in the industry. The model can be used to compare the impact of one competitive force on our own company and to the impact on the competitors. With the knowledge of power and intensity of competitive forces, the strategy can be developed in way that gives the company options to influence the forces to improve their own position, such as new positioning or differentiation of product. It also gives the details on how to prevent the new entrants. Not only new entrants, the strategy should be able to cope with the substitute product that is getting more and more accessible now for the customer. Bargaining power of supplier and buyer is more relevant to supply and demand. It is essential to know which side of supply and demand equation our business is referring to. The framework tells us how profitability can be affected, in good way and in bad way from the context of industry rivalry and competition. It creates to positi on the firm to leverage its strengths and defend against the unfavorable effects from the five forces. Generally speaking, the model talked about the profitability and survival of a company. Referring to the definition of corporate strategy, Porters Five Forces seems irrelevant. Corporate strategy designs the grand strategy for the company grand purpose. And almost no company has a mission statement for to be the most profitable or so. Most company longing for sustainability; to be able to hold on success for a long term period. They achieve this by creating more value through their business, managing portfolio business, and developing business units; things that we dont learned through Porters Five Forces. Profitability is just one way to get to the grand purpose. That is the reason why, for the grandiose strategy of a company, to be based on only Porters that is focus on profitability, is unadvisable. The strategy such as focus and differentiation for competitiveness can be implemented at business unit level strategy to create competitive advantage. It may be relevant in corporate l evel as for the interest of stakeholder, indirectly. When the business unit strategy is achieved the desired goal, which most likely to be more profit, this is also will considered as favorable by the investors. Corporate strategy also concerned about the development and coordination of portfolio of business. The complexity that portfolio has cannot be found in the Porters model. Multi-variance product, multi-company in different industries, all this density of current market environment made Porters Five Forces become less practical. Other relevance is the dimension of competition. It is something that decided at the corporate level. Porters mentioning that based on the competitive advantages, we must choose the dimension of competition and it is best to create a battle field in that dimension, not in other dimension. This is about knowing our company competitive advantages and where to compete and win over the rivalry. What others are missing? Porters Five Forces did not describing the other external factor like regulator and social environment of the company. Porters Five Forces made based on the economic situation on the eighties. During early eighties, the economic situation is more stable and predictable development in industries compared to today dynamics. It is also characterized by cyclical growth and also by strong competition [D. Recklies, website]. Thus, in Porters era, the main objectives of many business organization or corporation are profitability and survival. Porters model focuses on analysis of the actual situation of companys customers, supplier, and competitor; and predictable development from new entrants as well as substitutes. Global and networked markets, as mentioned previously, force the business players to think more in the corporate strategies. Now, it is not enough to only position oneself as a price-leader or quality leader. Competitive advantages now comes from the ability of the company to de velop a way to maintain the relationship with more mobile customer and also to manage the networks that could be located in other part of the world. Porters Five Forces treats customer and supplier as third parties, which they no longer are. Corporate, suppliers, and customer now have extended relationship. And how this relationship managed is not less important than competitive advantages, because it creates values which harder to obtained and maintained than profits. This side of Porters Five Forces, lack of value-adding analysis made Porters Five Forces is less applicable in corporate strategy. In addition to that, in spite of always strengthening position within the industry with competitive advantages to compete against the competitor, co-operation with competitor by mergers and acquisition is also one way to maintain the existence and survival of a business organization. Hence, this model cannot keep up with dynamic situation in the current business environment. Globalization and digitalization Porters did not include how technology developed and that it is a strong force on competitiveness. Whereas, Porter did not explicitly mention it as a force, but it IS there. New entrant and new substitutes could mean that the competitor could have innovations background. New machines can affect the bargaining power of supplier too, in example. Not to mention how information spread unbelievably fast, and wide, around the internet. Experts coined the term of internet economy for this decades in which internet have been so embedded in everyday life. Various e-business applications have strongly influenced almost all industries. The development of the information system gives new opportunity for players from outside industry to chance the basis of competition in a market. Porter did not mention how technology will affect the competitiveness. The difference is that on Porters era, technology is something more like a tool to implement the change. But now, with its more rapid growth compare to eighties, technology has become a most important driver to a change. Non-market environment Needless to say, nonmarket environment, as brought up by Baron, also one important forces that must be considered in crafting the strategy. Any kind of corporation or business organization must dealing with social, politics, and legal arrangement, directly and indirectly. Of course, Baron extended work from Porters Five Forces expected to be able to give the best model to develop the so-called integrated strategy. Dynamic market structure Porters model assumes relatively static market structure. Yet, todays market is far from static. Dynamic market entrants, supported by more technological breakthrough, may change the entry barriers, the business model within short time. The model also assumes that all companies always try to get competitive advantages and win over other player in the industry. The dynamic market structure have new way of thinking of survival than to compete and kill each other. It is designed to analyze individual business performance. It is not considers strategies such as synergies and strategic alliances (mergers, acquisition), electronic linking of information system of all companies along a value chain, virtual enterprise-networks or others [D. Recklies]. This model also cannot assist the more complex structures of industries. The analysis cannot cope with multiple group products, by-products, and segments. And narrowing the focus only in one industry is too risky in todays corporate strategy. T his model also not yet considering that sometimes it may be possible to create new market than compete in the existing market. Nevertheless, later in his paper on 2008, he includes how technology is one factor that can greatly affect competitiveness and rivalry in an industry. Not only had that, he also included other factors such as government and complementary product that can affect the companys profitability. In this paper, he also mentioned how a change in industry structure shifts each of the five forces. In general, Porters Five Model has some limitation in todays market environment application and on its relevance with corporate strategy. In relation to corporate strategy, Porters model might be a little help for defining in which dimension or market out company wants to operate, although this dimension might be converted again once the strategy derived to business unit level. However, with all the lack Porters Five Forces had, the model is not completely obsolete to current business. Porters is an economist, so the model is basically the simple way of how he describes the microeconomics. He describes the attractiveness of the industry that is influenced by the five forces. This is also explains why the model always repeat and focusing more in profitability; for economics talks about profit maximization. Even now, business still operates in five forces framework describes by Porter. The model enable the decision maker, the managers, to think about the environment surrounding their i ndustries in a structured way, easy-to-understand way as a starting point for further analysis. Conclusion In summary, while Porters Five Forces seems less reliable concerning the current competitiveness in the industry (in terms of technology or innovations involvement), it is still manage to help strategic focus of the company in profitability and survival within the industry. The models assist more in business unit level strategy and less applicable in corporate strategy level. Corporate level strategy talks more about value which we hardly find in the Five Forces. Yet, indirectly the success in business unit level strategy supports the achievement of corporate strategy. Porters Five Forces is still relevant to current strategy planning, yet today business players must considered more things such as the growth of globalization and technology and how it will affect the other factors, if not creating its own forces. The tremendous growth of technology nowadays cant be separated in any aspects of life, and that including corporate strategy. However it might be, technology leads to innovation which will influence the every step a company have to defend its market and even expand its market. Certainly, a corporate strategy should not be carelessly made without take note of the non-market environment. In addition to that, examination on the nonmarket environment also should be conducted to support the strategy on market environment of a company. Another kind of analysis also may be needed to examine the dynamic state of markets. Porters framework becomes one of the tools in developing a strategy, maybe as a starting point, but not the most important or the only model being used. A good strategy never should use only one or few model as a basis.

Clarissa Dalloway and Septimus Warren Smith Essay -- essays research p

Clarissa Dalloway and Septimus Warren Smith Clarissa Dalloway and Septimus Warren Smith are two of the character is in the book Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf. Clarissa Dalloway and Septimus Warren Smith are unhappy with their lives. Although, Clarissa and Septimus are both unhappy the basis for their unhappiness stems from different reasons and/or events that have happened in their lives. But the both fear the can not feel as others feel. Clarissa Dalloway, a middle aged upper class woman, is unhappy because of choices she has made in her life she also fears that she can not feel things as others do. Septimus Smith, a World War I veteran, is unhappy because of effects of the war. Septimus worries that when Evan’s died he did not feel anything. Clarissa Dalloway wanted to be a part of the upper class English society. That is the reason she married Richard Dalloway. Throughout the novel Clarissa looks back on her experiences with Peter Walsh. She wonders if she made the correct choice in marrying Richard and rejecting Peter. Clarissa point out in †¦. That one of the reason she didn’t marry Peter is because he would ask her to feel too much. Richard does not ask her to feel things as Peter would. Clarissa didn’t love Richard when she married him but has learned to love him. Although she believes she made the right decision in marrying Richard, she still wonders how things would have been if she married Peter instead. Clarissa has a low self-confidence in her appearance ...

The South Could Not Win the Civil War :: American America History

The South Could Not Win the Civil War "The South could never have won the Civil War," is a true statement, reflecting the various ways in which the Southern states attempted to fight a losing battle from the beginning. The economic dependency of the South on cotton on slavery was obvious, whereas the North had diversified and sufficiently. The advantage also lay with the North for reasons such as better communication and transportation, and even more soldiers. The leadership in the North under Abraham Lincoln was far superior to the less savvy Jefferson Davis. It is also a fair argument to say that the just cause always overcomes, and morally, slavery was not just at all. In the 1850's the North was more populous and urban, due to all the Irish and German immigrants that traveled to the states. By1860, 9 out of the 10 biggest cities were in the North. The North also had 70% of the railroads, and more telegraph lines to send messages instantly. The North had a lot more industry also, with its 10,000 factories that brought in $1.5 billion dollars in goods compared to the South's 20,000 that brought in $155 million.(Source 1) The South did, however, have more slaves and more cotton. This was not any sort of military advantage, and merely made it more obvious to the North how desperate the South was to keep its peculiar institution running. Additionally, the first attack at Fort Sumter was poorly organized and was expected by the North. Lincoln had wanted to attack, but waited so as to retain the sympathies of any Northern moderates. The South's attack played into what he wanted. Once the war began, the military expertise of Ulysses S. Grant for the North made it an uphill battle for the South. His military skill alone was enough to give Robert E. Lee's forces in the South serious problem, but the Union army also greatly outnumbered the South's troops. Though Lee would prove to be a worthy general, his strategic downfall at Gettysburg would begin the inevitable loss for the South. (Source 2) In conclusion, it was obvious from the beginning of the Civil War that the South would not win the war. This having been said, Robert E. Lee was a fine general, but was simply without enough soldiers to lead a successful uprising.

Ghost Story of the Jamesport Manor Inn, Long Island, New York :: Ghost Stories Urban Legends

Jamesport Manor Inn, Long Island, New York The storyteller is a 65 year old Hispanic woman from Riverhead, New York. I collected the story over the phone on April 2, 2006. She started off by telling me that the story took place in 1988 on Long Island. Her landlord had told her about a wonderful restaurant that she just had to go to, so on a Friday night the storyteller and her husband decided to try it out. When stepping up to the Jamesport Manor Inn she had a creepy feeling just from looking at the old mansion. She claimed that it had an eerie sort of feel to it and obviously did not look like a typical restaurant. Although she had just recently moved to Jamesport, she lived most of her life on Long Island and was surprised she had never heard of the restaurant. She began asking her waiter some questions about how new the restaurant was and about the owner and such. She was told that the mansion was built in the 1800s and was obviously somewhat restored. It was recently purchased by a local townsperson and had somewhat recently opened up. The waiter began teasing that the mansion was supposedly haunted because it was so old and there were generations of families who lived and died in the house. He was new to the restaurant but the chefs and other staff at the restaurant claimed they could hear people walking around and opening and closing doors. He told her that the staff generally liked to leave at the same time of night to avoid being alone in the mansion, being that it was haunted. The waiter made a point of claiming that everyone else says it’s true as well. He had never hear d the ghosts, but he was sure they existed in the mansion. My first attempt at finding information was by typing in â€Å"Jamesport Manor Inn + ghosts† at the search engine Google. I found an article from The Suffolk Times, a local newspaper about the rebirth of the Jamesport Manor. It included a picture of the mansion with its owners, and there was a brief paragraph on the suspicion of ghosts roaming the area. â€Å"As for tales about ghosts and later use as a house of ill repute, Mr. Whines laughed and said, ‘I’m a trained historian, so I can’t tell you about that.

Carer Definition Essay

First of all we need to look at what is meant by the word ‘carer’. A government website agrees â€Å"the word ‘carer’ means someone who looks after a friend, relative or neighbour who needs support because of their sickness, age or disability†. (Directgov 2006). A carer goes beyond what is expected from a relative, friend or neighbour; they are not paid like some professionals known as care workers, although they are vital to the government in providing care to some of the most vulnerable. The type of care given within the family environment saves the government billions a year which otherwise would be unaffordable. I am going to discuss throughout the assignment Anne Walker a stepdaughter caring for her stepfather Angus McPhail and touch upon the challenges both these people face in their daily life’s when giving and receiving care. There are many difficulties involved in giving care. Being a carer can be physically and mentally demanding and in some cases carers need to be on call anytime day or night. Caring for a family member can be hard work and your role within the family setting can change. You are no longer seen as a daughter, son, wife or parent but as a carer. This can be a change in identity within the family home which can strain the quality of relationships that already existed prior to taking on the caring role. For example if we look at the case study of Ann Walker who has a full time caring role for her stepfather Angus McPhail. Anne is also a wife, she lacks time to spend with her husband as she needs to attend to her stepfather for all of his physical needs. Her husband also has a difficult relationship with Angus which has led to Anne at times having to physically remove herself from the house.

Gender Inequality in Workplace Essay

Gender inequality and discrimination in organizations will damage the individual quality of life in relation to Maslow’s analysis of human needs. Especially for higher order need which are needs for social, esteem and self-actualization. Women experience gender inequality in workplace. Although there are many women who earn more than men, the average women earn is still lower than men’s. A study has found that in 1992, the median earnings of a year-round, full-time woman worker was $21,440 and for a man worker it was $30,358. Thus women, on average, make about 71 percent of what men make. Women age 45 or over, on average, have a net worth of 64%of men’s asserts, $282,826 compare to $430,650. On the other hand, when organizations hiring people, many executives have a subconscious that men can do better than women for some particular job. Many women feel that â€Å"if we try to climb the corporate ladder, we bump our heads on a glass ceiling, beyond which we cannot climb. The glass ceiling metaphor for subtle gender discrimination in the corporate world.† In fact, in many people’s pespectives, some jobs are designed as the jobs men should do but women, such as actuary, financial analyst, fin ancial engineer, administrator, professional specialist and so on. It is gender inequality which is unfair. While women are moving into the professions, they are stalled in the lower-paying positions. Because this phenomenon has existed for a very long time, there appeared occupational segregation meaning that women sometimes been considered as somebody who do not fit for any particular jobs. This kind of discrimination has leading an earning gap between men and women. For every dollar a man earned, a women earned, on average, 71 cents according to the Womens Bureau of the U.S. Department of Labor. It has been estimated that one-half of the earning gap is due to direct discrimination in the labor market. Thus, women desire more for the need of self-actualization because they believe it will be more harder for them to develop their creativity and problem solving skills, also, harder to reach their goals. What people lack is usually what they need. Women eventually have more need than men for self actualization. Women experience gender inequality in social life as well. Many people still consider women is that group of people who should be in the lower class of  the society. Gender discrimination is still a serious problem. An on-line consultation has ask a question that whether you agree gender inequality should be a highly priority or not. The answer show that 85.6% of respondents strongly agreed or agreed that gender inequality should be a priority. Another question was considering the issue if government should increase funding support for women’s organizations working for equality and bring women’s equality into attention of policy maker. The result can be translated into an average of 4.19 (5 in total), which indicates that the respondents generally agreed. For education, on the other hand, is more obvious. In many parents’ subconscious, born a boy is much better than a girl, because they believe boys can be more successful than girls in the future. Depending on those thoughts, parents will let boys to go to school and been educated but leave girls at home to do some bacis housework. For instance, in China, in primary school, girls constitute only 44 percent of primary school enrollment. In secondary school, girls make up 39 percent. At college level and higher, women account for only 26 percent of enrollment. Thus, for the esteem need and social need, women have more on those than men. Women want to have more respect from other people, they want to be identified by their success. On the other hand, because of women’s nature characteristics, they will have more need on sex intimacy as well.