Performance Appraisal Methods On Psychological Contract Management Essay

Performance Appraisal Methods On Psychological Contract Management Essay The purpose of this dissertation is to investigate the impact of performance appraisal methods on psychological contract between employer and employee in UK retail sector ( Iceland food ltd. ). The author will attempt to achieve this by focusing on importance of performance appraisal methods in improving motivation and performance of the employees and by ascertaining whether there is clear understanding of the term of psychological contract involved in performance appraisal meeting. The UK retail market is set to increase in size by 15% over the next five years, taking its value to just over  £312bn (UK Retail Futures 2011: Sector Summary, Data monitor). However this represents a slowing down of annual growth and with operating costs and the cost of credit set to rise, the retail sector faces challenging times. The retail culture is commercially driven and as such there is pressure to perform. Working in retail is hard work and the dynamic nature of the business requires a flexible attitude. Working in a shop is very likely to involve working weekends and late nights. Work-life balance could be a very significant issue for an industry that traditionally has an image of long or antisocial working hours. The retail industry employs over 3 million people (data collected March 08). This equates to 11% of the total UK workforce (UK Retail Futures 2011: Sector Summary, Data monitor). Almost 8% of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of the UK is generated by the retail sector. UK retail sales were approximately  £265 billion in 2007, which is larger than the combined economies of Denmark and Portugal (UK Retail Futures 2011: Sector Summary, Data monitor). The retail industry and the jobs within it are susceptible to economic and consumer trends. Today, most organisations on the major basis have some kind of performance appraisal system in place. A study conducted by Hirsh (2006) found that only a third of the HR professionals felt that the established appraisal methods have achieved theirs objectives and that most appraised exercises could not really had helped organisations to improve their performance (Hirsh, 2006 as quoted within Fletcher, 2008 p.1). Indeed, appraisal has become an emotive word because it is either done poorly or partly as the organisations keep on ignoring the values of the performance appraisal, thereby affecting the psychological contract of the individual. There are many indicators of a traumatized psychological contract; this can later be attributed to poor performance appraisal methods. Such indicators include; high turnover, low motivation, low job satisfaction (Hiltrop, 1995). According to Fletcher (2008), The unpopularity of using performance appraisal methods can be clearly seen as most organisations use the same process with different titles such as Performance Reviews, Work Planning and Review and many others. Iceland food ltd. follow this rule as the appraisal methods in place are described. Statement of Purpose The purpose of this dissertation is to investigate the impact of performance appraisal methods used on psychological contract between the employer and employee. With an aim of examining the efficiency of the techniques used to perform the appraisal system in place. The importance of the appraisal system within Iceland food ltd. will also be established. This will be initially achieved by investigating the importance of performance appraisal methods in improving the motivation and performance of the employees, and by ascertaining whether there is clear understanding of the terms of psychological contract involved in the performance appraisal meetings. It will be important to understand how these performance appraisal methods are being evaluated. The secondary research conducted on this topic, made use of a number of academic journals, articles and books related to the subject to monitor performance of appraisal techniques. The data collection procedure involves a quantitative questionnaire issued to the employees of Icelands, and a series of semi structured qualitative interviews. 1.2 The Importance of the Study The importance of the study is to understand the effect of performance appraisal on the psychological contract of the individual employee working in the retail food super stores. The method and the aim of the appraisal process is vital in giving training, motivation, confidence and job satisfaction to the employee as well as the rewards they get out of pay review. The author endeavours to find out what are the elements of the psychological contract of employee working in the retail food industry and whether or not it is affected by good or bad appraisal system used by the organisation. The primary research is conducted on the employees of the retail store to get the exact scenario of their present working conditions and their psychological contract with a focus on the performance review policy of the organisation. 1.3 Background of the company Investigated. à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ so thats why mums go to Iceland! Iceland began business in 1970, when Malcolm Walker opened the first store in Oswestry, Shropshire with his business partners Peter Hinchcliffe, Colin Harris, Thomas Duffin and John Apthorp investing  £30 each. This was for only one months rent at their Shropshire store. They were all still employees of Woolworths at the time, and their employment was terminated once their employer discovered their job on the side. Iceland initially specialized in loose frozen food. By 1975, there were 15+ Iceland outlets in North Wales, with the first supermarket-style outlet opening in Manchester a couple of years later. The firms head office moved to Deeside, Flintshire in 1979. Iceland was floated on the London Stock Exchange in 1984, by which stage it had 81 outlets. In 1989 Iceland bought its competitor Bejam which was some three times larger in terms of business. By January 2004, the combined chain had 760 stores throughout the United Kingdom. Finding the retail market more hostile in the late 1990s, Iceland pursued avenues for differentiation. In 1998, the firm began to focus on providing organic food and genetically modified-free food. This policy saw the company convert its entire frozen vegetable range to organic in 2000. In 1999, Iceland launched what it claimed to be the first nationwide, free, online grocery shopping service. This tied in with the rebranding of all outlets under the Iceland.co.uk. However, the rebranding exercise appears to have been quietly abandoned in the early 2000s, as the unadorned Iceland name is now used more widely, although some stores still have the Iceland.co.uk name on display. Iceland was renamed the Big Food Group in Feb 2002, and attempted a refocus on the convenience sector with a bid for Londis. Grimsey remained until the takeover and demerger of the Big Food Group by a consortium led by the Icelandic company, Baugur Group in February 2005. Since Malcolm Walkers return to the company, Iceland has reduced the workforce by 500 jobs at the Deeside Head Office, with approximately 300 jobs moved in September as a result of a relocation of a distribution warehouse from Deeside to Warrington. During July 2006, 300 workers took industrial action with the support of their union, blocking several Lorries from entering the depot. Despite this, the transfer to Warrington took place and the new warehouse was later outsourced to DHL in April 2007. In January 2009, Iceland announced that it would buy 51 stores in the UK from the failed Woolworths Group chain; three days after the final 200 Woolworths stores closed their doors for the last time. In April 2009, Iceland announced plans to close its appliance showrooms by September 2009 to concentrate on food retailing. Icelands sales for the year ended 27 March 2009 were  £2.08 billion, a 16% increase on the previous year, with net profits of  £113.7 million. Iceland is a successful and growing business, and to maintain our momentum we want to help all our people to fulfil their ambitions and realise their potential.   We take pride in our training and development, and our 2009 staff survey showed that 87% of our employees considered that they had all the training they needed to do their job well.   In addition to paying close attention to the results of these regular surveys, we conduct individual performance reviews designed to identify strengths, ambition and potential, and are strongly committed to providing opportunities for those who wish to develop their careers within Iceland.   Over 60% of our store managers have attained their positions through internal promotion. Currently Iceland is having over 750 stores through out the UK. And more than 18000 employees work within Iceland food ltd. Iceland have employees hand book that is handed over to the employees during the induction. This employees handbook is basically designed for the frontline staffs, which includes the entire details of the induction procedure, probationary period, performance appraisal, disciplinary, dress policy, dignity at work and grievance procedures and other important elements of the contract. The entire information on the Icelands was known to the author with the help of store manager of the Iceland food ltd. And from the Iceland food ltd website and staff hand book. AIM The aim of the research is to investigate the effectiveness of appraisal method on the psychological contract between the employer and employee. Objectives To examine the concept and theories related to psychological contract. To examine the concept and theories related to performance appraisal. To describe and compare performance appraisal methods used by Iceland food ltd. To critically analyse the effect of performance appraisal method on psychological contract. 1.6 Overview of the Study The dissertation will be presented in a series of the following chapters. Brief description of each chapter is written below with a diagrammatic representation (Figure 1.0 and Table 1.0 Overview of the study). Chapter 1 Introduction Chapter 2 Literature Review Chapter 3 Methodology Chapter 4 Results Chapter 6 Conclusion and Recommendation Introduction: This chapter gives the introduction to the study, covering the aim and objectives of the study. It includes the statement of purpose and the background of the company investigated. Literature Review: This chapter provides the critical analysis of all the secondary research conducted by the author on the performance appraisal, psychological contract followed by the discussion of the effects of former on latter. Methodology: This chapter explains the research aim and the research process undertaken by the author to fulfil the research questions outlined in previous chapter. It also includes the primary method conducted by the author to gather the research data. Results: This chapter includes the findings of the primary research conducted by the author. It also includes the charts and graphs that explain the findings of the research. Discussion and Analyses: This chapter includes analyses of the finding of the primary research. It also includes the comments of the interviews as well as analyse the outcome of the survey conducted by the author. Conclusion and Recommendation: This is the final chapter of the study which will give a synopsis of all the findings and cross refer it with the objectives stated in the initial chapter. It will also offer the recommendations for further research. Chapter 5 Discussion and Analyses CHAPTER 2 LITERATURE REVIEW 2.0 Introduction A literature review as defined by Fink (2005:3) is a systematic, explicit and reproducible method for identifying, evaluating and synthesising the existing body of completed and recorded work produced by researchers, scholars and practitioners (Fink 2005, p.3) AIM The aim of the research is to investigate the effectiveness of appraisal method on the psychological contract between the employer and employee. Objectives To examine the concept and theories related to psychological contract. To examine the concept and theories related to performance appraisal. To describe and compare performance appraisal methods used by Iceland food ltd. To critically analyse the effect of performance appraisal method on psychological contract. To draw conclusion and make recommendation about the effectiveness performance appraisal method on the employees of Iceland food ltd. This section therefore, attempts to review some related literature relevant to this study. Moreover this literature review seeks to justify the uniqueness of this study in the light of the works of other known scholars in the field of performance assessment strategies on the psychological contract, focusing on the performance appraisal method used by Iceland food ltd, U.K. This section is arranged into themes in line with the research objectives and questions outlined in the preceding chapter. The review will begin with the purpose of the psychological contract and the appraisal method, followed by the different types of the appraisal methods. Then the performance appraisal method used by the Iceland food ltd U.K. will be critically reviewed and how the performance appraisal affect the psychological contract between the employer and employee will be discussed. Lastly the advantages and limitations of this factor and the importance of this study will be presented. In addition, a recent view is of Conway and Briner where they define : What Psychological Contract is ? To examine the concept of the psychological contract, a review of existing definitions and research needs to be assessed. Origins of the term psychological contract derived from Argyris in the 1960s who referred to it as the implicit understanding between a group of employees and their foreman, while Schein in 1965 further developed the concept focussing on the high level relationship between the employee and the organisation (Wellin 2007). Furthermore, Kotter in 1973 (as quoted within Roehling 1997) described the psychological contract as, an implicit contract between an individual and his organisation which specifies what each expects to give and receive from each other in their relationship. (Kotter as quoted within Roehling 1997 p.210) psychological contract as, the perceptions of the two parties, employee and employer, of what their mutual obligations are towards each other (Conway and Briner (2005) as quoted within CIPD 2009) However, Rousseau (1995) (as quoted in Guerrero and Herrbach 2007) believes that the psychological contract is formulated in the minds of the employees, individual beliefs, shaped by the organisation, regarding terms of an exchange agreement between individuals and their organisation. (Rousseau (1995) as quoted within Guerrero and Herrbach 2007 p.4) Taking all that into consideration, the nature of the psychological contract can be seen as the implicit unwritten expectations and beliefs that one holds in relation to their employment relationship. These contracts can be highly subjective and what makes them binding is what they are perceived to be (Hughes and Palmer 2007). Conway and Briner (2002) state that the beliefs refer to employee perceptions of the explicit and implicit promises regarding the exchange of the employee contributions such as effort, ability and loyalty for organisational inducements such as pay, promotion and security. Moreover, Bloisi, Cook and Hunsaker (2003) supports this statement by stipulating that workers are expected to input their skills, time, effort, commitment and loyalty to the organisation in return of wages, benefits, job security, opportunity to progress their achievement, power, status and affiliations. Witte et al. (2008) clarifies further that the idea of balance is key to these mutual exchanges within this dynamic and informal contract so that the employee feels that what is offered by the organisation balances what the individual brings to the relationship. Perceived imbalance could consequently result in the perception of contract violation. The CIPD (2005) highlighted a simplified Guest model (1996) of the p sychological contract as illustrated in Figure 2.1. The influencing factors that feed into the contract include the human resource practices, organisational content and the individual characteristics of the employee. The psychological contract content can be measured in terms of fairness of treatment, trust, and the amount of which the implicit deal or contract is perceived as being delivered in reflection of a set of obligations or some sort of exchange (Guest 1996). The outcomes as a result of the content of the contract are the employee attitudes and behaviours. The CIPD (2005) found that employees attitudes of trust, fairness and delivery of the deal are major determents to gaining a psychological contract which creates employee commitment and satisfaction. Robinson (1996) (as quoted within Bosch-Sjtsema 2007) claimed that expectations are often shaped by past experience, social norms and observations that are influencing factors to the contract. It was also asserted by Rousseau (2001) that these promise based psychological contracts take the form of a mental model or schema over time. She found that an employees pre-employment experiences, recruiting practices within the company and on the job socialisation as influencing factors to the formation of these schemas which may differ the content or form that an individuals psychological contract takes. 2.1 The Purpose of Psychological Contract According to Bloisi et al., (2003; p.123) the psychological contract is considered as workers implicit expectations about what they are expected to contribute to an organisation and what they will receive in return (Bloisi et al., 2003 p. 123) In a similar way Schein (1965) defined that The notion of a psychological contract implies that there is an unwritten set of expectations operating at all times between every member of an organisation and the various managers and others in that organisation (Schein 1965 as quoted within Armstrong 2003, p 297). According to Hiltrop (1995), it has been noticed there is a significant rate of change of the economic environment in which the organisations work during the last twenty years. Increasing competition, globalisation of markets has demanded greater flexibility and productivity of organisations, as well as new strategies focused on innovation and speed. In the psychological contract the perceived responsibility of an organization influenced by employees expectation ( Cheong Kim 2009). As a result, the terms of old psychological contract has changed radically which earlier gave security, stability and predictability to the relationship between employer and employee (Hiltrop, 1995 p. 286 287). Moreover, the above definition stated by Schein (1965) was amplified by Rousseau and Wade-Benzoni (1994) who stated that Psychological contracts refer to beliefs that individuals hold regarding promises made, accepted and relied upon themselves and another. (In case of organisations, these parties include an employee, client, manager, and/or organisation as a whole.) Because psychological contracts represent how people interpret promises and commitments, both parties in the same employment relationship (employer and employee) can have different views regarding specific terms. (Rousseau and Wade-Benzoni, 1994 p. 463-89) Guest and Conway (1998) summarise stating that since the psychological contract is not written down formally it lacks the characteristics of the formal contract due to which it has no beginning and no end and which is why it cannot be enforced in a court or a tribunal. Guest and Conway (1998) also believe that: The psychological contract is best seen as a metaphor; a word or a phrase borrowed from another context which help us make sense of our experience. The psychological contract is a way of interpreting the state of the employment relationship and helping to plot significant changes (Guest and Conway, 1998 as quoted in Armstrong, 2003 p. 298). 2.1.1 The importance of Psychological Contract The importance of the psychological contract was emphasized by Schein (1965) suggests that the extent to which people work effectively and are committed to the organisation depends on the degree to which their own expectation of what the organisation will provide them and in return what the organisation expects of them; and the nature of what actually is exchanged for example, money in exchange for time at work, security in exchange for hard work and loyalty, and various combinations of other things (Schein, 1965 as quoted within Armstrong, 2003, p 299). The HR profession will have significant role to play in the management and balancing of the general or specific psychological contracts of employees. The HR function can act as a focal point for helping to discover employees expectations through collective channels or individual mechanisms, while seeking to provide for the meeting of employees expectations (e.g. Sims, 1994) (Holden and Breadwell, 2001 p. 546). The HR professionals must make sure that different facets of human resource management and the different managers shape and support the psychological contracts in consistent, integrated and balanced manner, (Rousseau and Greller, 1994 p. 385-401). If employees feel that their psychological contract has been disrupted or breached, and then they may withhold or withdraw from the relationships, consciously or unconsciously, (Spindler, 1994: 326- 327). 2.1.2 The Guest model of Psychological Contract This model was formulated by Guest et al, 1996 suggests that the contract should be measured in terms of fairness of treatment, trust, and the extent to which the explicit deal or contract is perceived to be delivered. Figure 2.1: A Model of the psychological contract Causes Organisational culture HRM policy and practice Experience Expectations Alternatives Consequences Fairness Trust The delivery of the deal Content Organisational citizenship Organisational commitment Motivation Satisfaction and well-being Source: Guest et al, 1996 The simplified Guest model of the psychological contract as illustrated above in Figure 2.1 (as quoted in CIPD 2006) defines it in terms of linkage between the inputs, being the HR practices; the employee features and the companys characteristics together with the content, being the fairness and trust and finally the outputs being the employees behaviour; work performance and delivery. ODonnell and Shields (2002) believes that Guests extended model of the psychological contract (from employee perspective) represents a particularly useful way of understanding the attitudinal and behavioural impact of employment practices at the level of the individual employee (Guest 1998: 659-60) Hiltrop (1995) states that this psychological contract has two important aims, the first for providing a gauge for employers of the type of outputs they are going to obtain from employees and secondly by employees contributing their time and effort for the level of rewards they will receive. 2.1.3 The changing nature of the Psychological Contract According to Hiltrop (1995), there is considerable evidence that shows the changing of the psychological contract in the past decades. Now the employers want to know in advance the outcome of the employees efforts and employees want to know what reward he will get in exchange of the hard work and time spend in the organisation. De Meuse and Tornow (1990) stated that since the 1970s, however, the force that connect employers and employees has become severely stressed organisations deal with the need to cut costs and enhance efficiency, have ever more compacted their workforce and eradicated some of the elements (job security, regular promotions up the corporate ladder, annual wage increases, cheap mortgages, etc.) offered as a rule to employees in the earlier decades (De Meuse and Tornow 1990 p. 203-13). Moreover, people fill in the blanks along the way, and they sometimes do so inconsistently (Rousseau, 1994 as quoted in Hiltrop, 1995 p. 287). In addition to the above context, Kolb et al., (1991) have pointed out that a company staffed by cheated individuals who expect far more than they get is headed for trouble (Kolb et al., 1991 as stated in Hiltrop, 1995 p.287). Conversely, optimistically, some organisations are trying to develop steps that can increase mutuality and to endow with scale for tangential career development and enhance knowledge and skills through opportunities for learning. It has been recognised that the organisations can no longer provide a guaranteed long term job to the employees; they have to take responsibilities to build their skills and give a path for career development. In other words they take steps to improve employability (Armstrong, 2003 p. 302). Two diagrammatic representations are given below which shows the differences between the old and new employment contract by Kissler (1994) and the changing nature of the psychological contract by Hiltrop (1995). Figure 2.2: Difference between the old and new contract. OLD Relationship is predetermined and imposed You are who you work for and what you do Loyalty is defined by performance Employees who do what they are told will work till retirement NEW Relationship is mutual and negotiated You are defined by multiple roles, many external to the organisation Loyalty is defined by output and quality People and skills only needed when required Long-term employment is unlikely; expect and prepare for multiple relationships Source: Kissler, 1994, p. 335-52 Figure 2.3: Changing Psychological Contract . FROM Imposed relationship (compliance, command and control) Permanent employment relationship Focus on promotion Finite job duties Meet job requirements Emphasise on job security and loyalty to the company Training provided by organisation TO Mutual relationship (commitment, participation and involvement) Variable employment relationship people and skills only obtained or retained when required Focus on lateral career development Multiple roles Add value Emphasis on employability and loyalty to own career and skills Opportunities for self-managed learning Source: Hiltrop 1995, p 286-294. Hiltrop (1995) also suggests that a new psychological contract is emerging which is more situational and short term that assumes that each party is less dependent on the other for survival and growth. This new contract was described by Hiltrop (1995) as a worker being employed as long as they provide added value to the company and in return they expect the right to demand interesting and important work with the freedom and resources to perform it well along with performance related pay and training and development. However Armstrong (2006) argued that this could hardly be classified as a balanced contract because employers still dictate their workers employment terms and conditions apart from cases where workers are in demand and there is little supply of skills. Mant (1996) (as quoted within Armstrong 2006) classified workers as resources that are acquired or divested according to shortterm economic circumstances, therefore having little influence over the terms of the contract that their employer offers them. Additionally Taylor (2008) claims that the new relationship is less emotional and is simply an economic exchange, thus moving from relational to transactional. Organisations that are now adopting the rationale behind the use of the flexible firm model (Atkinson 1984) will have developed diverse types of psychological contracts among their workforce. Rousseau and Wade-Benzoni (1995) (as quoted within McDonald and Making 2000) found that temporary staff usually have a transactional contract with significance given to the economic elements of the contract, whilst permanent staff are more likely to have a relational contract involving commitment to the organisation. Additionally Guest (2004) found that the content of temporary workers psychological contract is narrower, transactional and easier to manage on both the employers and employees behalf which temporary workers preferred. An investigation into the company Flexco (Saunders and Thornhill 2005) found that forced change within the company structure through downsizing changed the psychological contract of those on permanent and temporary employment contracts. After the changes it was reported that the temporary workers contained mostly transactional expectations and most permanent employees were found to have relational expectations. However, there were a few exceptions regarding permanent employees, who felt that the changes had violated their contract in terms of interpersonal treatment. These employees felt insecure, and worried that they may face a temporary contract in the future, which emphasises that they no longer felt as though their job was secure. 2.2 The purpose of the performance appraisal. Performance assessment is one of the many people management techniques that classify and order individual hierarchically (Townley, 1994, p.33). A performance appraisal is the process by which a manager evaluates an employees work performance by measurement and comparison with previously established standards (Palmer, 1991 p. 1). According to Palmer (1991), there are two major purpose of conducting performance appraisals. One purpose is to provide the information for the administrative decision making such as the increment of salary, bonuses, promotion and the administrative actions that can be brought by the work performance of the employee. This also helps the organisation to decide whether to introduce for instance, a new incentive system or to improve the present pay and promotion methods. In other words, it is a vehicle to validate and refine organisational actions. For example, it has been noticed in the appraisal data that one of the employee has constant conflicts with the fellow colleague or with the supervisor or manager. Some options can be concluded from the above case, which is, showing more importance to the interpersonal skill while recruiting the new staff or encouraging the present employee to attend the sessions on the conflict management offered by various colleges or providing the employee with one-to-one counselling (Billikopf, 2003 p. 60). The other major purpose is to provide feedback to the employees on their work performance based on the standards established on the job description and analysis. Feedback provided by the supervisor or the manager give the employees an opportunity to develop their career path within the organisation. Feedback can be positive or constructive. Positive appraisal has many benefits and beneficiar

Cicero :: essays research papers

Marcus Tullius Cicero, is remembered in modern times as the greatest Roman orator and innovator of what became known as Ciceronian rhetoric. He was the son of a wealthy family of Arpinium. He made his first appearance in the courts in 81. His brilliant defense, in 80 or early 79, of Sextus Roscius against a fabricated charge of parricide established his reputation at the bar. After his election as consul for 63 his chief concern was to discover and make public the seditious intentions of his rival Catiline, who, defeated in 64, appeared again at the consular elections in 63 (over which Cicero presided, wearing armour beneath his toga). Catiline lost and planned to carry out armed uprisings in Italy and arson in Rome. Evidence incriminating the conspirators was secured and they were executed on Cicero's responsibility. Cicero, announcing their death to the crowd with the single word vixerunt ("they are dead"), received a tremendous ovation from all classes. He was hailed by Catulus as pater patriae, "father of his country". This was the climax of his career. At the end of 60, Cicero declined Caesar's invitation to join the political alliance of Caesar, Crassus, and Pompey, and also Caesar's offer in 59 of a place on his staff in Gaul. When Publius Clodius, whom Cicero had antagonized, became tribune in 58, Cicero was in danger, and in March fled Rome. In 57, thanks to the activity of Pompey and particularly the tribune Milo, he was recalled on August 4. Cicero landed at Brundisium on that day and was acclaimed all along his route to Rome, where he arrived a month later. Pompey renewed his compact with Caesar and Crassus at Luca in April 56. Cicero then agreed, under pressure from Pompey, to align himself with the three in politics. He was obliged to accept a number of distasteful defenses, and he abandoned public life. In 51 he was persuaded to govern the province of Cilicia, in south Asia Minor, for a year. By the time Cicero returned to Rome, Pompey and Caesar were struggling for complete power. He disapproved of Caesar's dictatorship; yet he realized that he would have been one of the first victims of Caesar's enemies, had they triumphed. Cicero was not involved in the conspiracy to kill Caesar on March 15, 44, and was not present in the Senate when he was murdered.

Tok Reflection

TOK Reflection One the first lesson of Theory of Knowledge (TOK), we got a booklet called ‘The Nature of knowledge’. This booklet talked about how knowers know, how knowers we should consider a piece of information we get. The booklet suggested that when we get a piece of information we have to judge it on whether it is the truth and whether we should believe it. Just believing in the piece of information is not enough because you need a justification. Second-hand knowledge, cultural tradition, school, Internet, and expert opinion can obtain the justification.Further continuing the studies of TOK, we found out more about the subject, starting with the ways of knowing. The four types of ways of knowing are reason and logic, emotion, sense perception, and language. For the first quarter we have focused on Sense Perception. In sense perception we focused on the 6 senses, which are: touch, sight, smell, hearing, taste, proprioception. 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This documentary talked about all the different signs and actions that people do in various cultures and what they mean. For example, one of the actions that Indian people are prone to do is the shaking of the head from side to side. This action means a yes in the Indian culture but to people who have nev er seen this actions before it look like a mixture of a yes and a no, like a maybe sign.This video was interesting because some of the normal signs we show such as the good luck sign, with the thumb pointing outwards, mean different things in different areas and cultures in the world. The many documentaries we watched helped me learn better and I think I have learned the most out of them mostly because I am a visual learner. On lessons when we didn’t watched movies, we had a lot of discussions within the class. These discussions were about how to know what were are seeing is true, and how to believe what to see.During one of the lessons we had a note taking session about sense perception. This was a slideshow that talked to us about what sense perception is and how it is influenced. I learned that sense perception is influenced by past experiences, which can condition you to expect certain things. Since it is influence by the past you may than see what you expect to see, rath er than what is really there. Your sense perception can be influenced by your social and cultural conditioning, which may give you certain prejudices.I can also be influenced by you spatial awareness, which will try to relate shapes to patterns with which you’re already familiar. It is influence by your biological limitations, which prevent you from hearing certain sounds or tasting certain chemicals. It can also be influenced by what you already know and how your brain already works. 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The Persian Empire History - 2968 Words

The Persian Empire Dominance: 522 BC - 486 BC Existence: 559 BC - 330 BC Fall: Around 330 BC The Persian Empire, also known as the Achaemenid Empire, ruled from 559 BC to 330 BC. Spanning from Egypt to Turkey, the Persian Empire was the largest that the ancient world had seen. The reason that the Persian Empire was featured in Amy Chua’s book was not only because it was the first great leadership that the word has seen, but also because of its sheer size. Today it is still one of the biggest Empires to ever exist. The Persian Empire had a huge influence on the world s grasp of economics, agriculture, religion and society in general. The Persian Empire contained a vast variety of cultural diversities, religions, and later on, after the†¦show more content†¦What goes up must always come down, declared Isaac Newton, and this holds true to most things, Empires included. In this case Alexander the Great put an end to the once invincible Persian Empire. The downhill slope began with Darius III. The Persian Empire fell under his rule. As uprisings started among the subjects, Alexander struck. Caught off guard, Darius couldn’t handle the Greeks militia, and therefore causing the end of the great Persian Empire. The Persian Empire contained a lot of culturally diverse people, as does any nation of that size. Part of this is due to Cyrus the Great not enforcing any religion. â€Å"He embraced linguistic diversity† says Chua. All the rulers after Cyrus pretty much followed his lead. They interfered very little with the lives of their subjects. This caused the growth of many cultures and religions. Ba ck then, everyone had a more barbaric way of living. Wars were fought over property, kingdoms constantly looked for new land to conquer. Now we have a much more civilized way of approaching things. People no longer slaughter each other for an empty lot. Most likely the Persian Empire wouldn’t last long. They might have had control for a little while, but pretty soon things got out of hand. Alexander the Great took control, people started revolting against the power of Darius III. One way or another, the Persian Empire would have

The Use of Force - Free Essay Example

Sample details Pages: 5 Words: 1549 Downloads: 8 Date added: 2017/09/12 Category Advertising Essay Did you like this example? The Use of Force The point of view in the story â€Å"The Use of Force† is in first person narrative. This conveys inner the inner thoughts of the narrator as the doctor. The doctor is a reliable narrator and an observer. I feel that his personality is brought out in the doctor. So the doctors thoughts and behaviors are a reflection of the authors. As for the setting it takes place at a family’s home. I think it takes place somewhere in the early 1900s. I think it would make a difference to the story if it were set somewhere else, only because if the sick girl was brought to like a hospital for example, maybe she would have been diagnosed and helped sooner without all the hassle that occurred at the house. The diction of the story is simple. It doesnt seem too complicated and is easy to make sense of. The author makes his points, and plot of the story clear and easy to understand. The personality of the Doctor is thoughtful. He comes into the house trying to help the sick girl, but after he realizes how shes behaving his personality starts to change. He gets a lot less patient and angrier. Don’t waste time! Our writers will create an original "The Use of Force" essay for you Create order The mothers personality is sort of frantic and nervous. Shes worried about her child, and when the doctor has to use other methods of helping her, she starts to become more worrisome and a little annoying. The fathers personality is kind of concealed but nervous too about his daughter. He doesn’t seem to show much emotion. The daughters personality is concealed and aggressive. I think the doctors personality has he most dramatic change in the story. Like I said, he comes into the house ready to help someone, and after all the being shut out by the child, he starts to get angrier and his thoughts become a little more darker. The conflict in the story is trying to help this little girl. I feel like the conflict changes when the girl becomes more aggressive and wont give in to getting help. The conflict reaches a climax at the end when the doctor struggles to get the girls mouth open and she refuses. The resolution is when the wooden stick breaks, so he uses a metal spoon and he finally gets her mouth open and figures out what was wrong with her. The effect that this plot had on the story is that it put the focus on the girl and doctor. I think the theme to the story is irony. The reason I think its irony is because of the conflict between the doctor and the girl. You would expect a doctor to be gentle and trustful. Thats the way it starts out in the story but when the girl starts refusing medical attention, the doctor must use methods of forcing her. Thats where the name â€Å"The Use of Force† plays in. the theme does provide insight on the human condition, it shows that under a certain amount of stress, or anger, your mindset or personality could change instantly. I don’t think any of the characters experienced an epiphany. â€Å"A Visit Of Charity. † The point of view in the story â€Å"A visit of Charity† is in the third person narrative. I don’t think it really portrays much of the author. I think its just telling the story from the little girl, Marians, point of view. I think Marian is very observant. She noticed a lot of things throughout the story. Like the relationship between the old women. The condition of the room, the way the old women spoke to each other. I don’t think her personality has much effect on whats going on with the old women. The story takes place in an old womens home. Not too sure when this story takes place. It doesn’t give too much detail on that. I think it would change the story a lot if the location were changed. Marian wouldn’t of been able to observe or communicate with the old women if it were somewhere else, the way she did at the old womens home. I don’t think it would of made sense anywhere else. The dictation Marians personality is very shy, scared, and nervous throughout the story. The first old womens personality was very outgoing, talkative and she liked to communicate. The second old women, Addie, was bitter, angry and very pessimistic. No, I don’t think any of the characters personalities changed in the story. So it didn’t effect the point of the story. Something that really puzzled me in the story was when the first old lady ran after Marian in the hall and sort of grabbed her by her hair and asked her for a penny. I didn’t understand that point and I don’t think it made much sense to the story. The conflict in the story is when Marian actually goes into the old womens room. The conflict isn’t very clear, but its very obvious there is a problem. The first old women is very outgoing, and the second old women, is angry, and bitter. So there’s a bit of clashing going on with them and it shows when they spoke to each other. The events that led up to the plot are Marian going into the Old womens home, being in the room and communicating with them til finally she gets so scared she runs out. The theme of this story is also irony. Everything in the story conveyed the theme irony, only because everything seemed like the opposite of what it should have been. For instance when Marian goes to the old womens home for charity. The purpose of charity is to help people who cant help themselves, or to do something nice for someone. In the story, Marian isn’t doing it to be helpful, she is only visiting the old women for extra points for her campfire girls. Another example of the irony was the old women constantly disagreed or contradicted each other. One old women was overly optimistic and ignorant of Addies constant negativity and rudeness towards her. You would expect that since they are roommates and they have no one but each other, that they would get along more and respect each other more, but that’s obviously not the case. The theme does provide insight on the human condition because I think that everyone portrays a little bit of irony in what they do. I don’t think any of the characters had an epiphany during the story. The Gift of Sweat† The point of view in the story â€Å"The Gift of Sweat† is in first person narrative. What this adds to the story is that the author herself might just be the character in the story. The author/character is in fact a reliable narrator, she is very descriptive and detailed. The story I think mainly takes place in Ricks apartment, although the story does reference a few other places such as the hostess, and the hospital. As for the time period that it takes place, that is not very clear. I think changing the setting of the story would effect it. I think since it takes place at Ricks apartment, it kind of represents a stronger relationship between the two. It gives off the sense that theres something between them, personally. If it were changed, for example like at a restauraunt or school, it wouldnt give off that vibe of the two being so close and somewhat intimate with eachother? It seems intimate only becaause of how the women goes to Ricks apartment, and at the end when he gets her a â€Å"gift. † The diction of the story The personality of Ricks women friend is caring and maybe somehow affectionate. Ricks personality is similar. They both are also very friendly with each other. Ricks character does change in the story, I think it happens when he suddenly gets sick. He becomes more weak and his personality seems like it changed also. The conflict in the story is when Rick suddenly gets sick. I didnt realize he was sick from aids, til I read the student analysis of the story in the textbook, so thats when I figured out what was wrong with him. I main events leading up to the plot arent shown in the story, its sort of told to you. The story talks about Ricks friend Barry, who we later find out is Ricks lover. It starts from there. Barry dies from AIDS, and its inferred that Rick now has AIDS. The story reaches its climax when the lady friend comes to Ricks apartment and finds him sick. The resolution I think is when he goes to the hospital. I think the theme in this story is friendship. Im not 100% sure but im not getting any other ideas on it. The reason I think its friendship is because these two people share a close bond with eachother, and when one gets sick, the other tried to make things as easy as possible for the other friend. Like when Rick went to the hospital, the lady friend stayed behind at his apartment and cleaned for him, and

The Legal Drinking Age Should Be Removed - 1735 Words

The legal drinking age should be removed because it teaches safe drinking, it removes the taboo around it, and history proves it does not work at 18. Conor Lewis 12-4-15 English 3rd Alcohol. The source of curiosity among young people everywhere. People everywhere, college students, and even some high school students enjoy it. There’s no doubt this nation enjoys alcohol but what about the people who can’t taste it yet? What about those who are considered adults in every way and permitted to do anything except drink alcohol? Is it right for a government to tell someone that they are fully responsible for themselves but they still don’t give them the full privileges of growing up? What about those countries who do not have a drinking†¦show more content†¦The prohibition proved that Americans will do whatever they can to get ahold of this magical substance no matter the laws or restrictions. So obviously doing away with alcohol will not stop its manufacturing or its use and if anything it will increase its use. But what if we just make it legal for some and not others? After the prohibition the drinking age was raised back up to 21. The age stayed there until the vietnam war came around. Then, states began to lower their personal drinking age to 18 (Tietjan why 21) justifying themselves with the argument â€Å"If a man can die for his nation can he at least enjoy a beer?’ (Tietjan â€Å"Why 21†) We see the states begin to all lower their drinking age, but this too proved not a good idea. Binge drinking and drunk driving was rampant due to teenagers that just earned their drinking rights and were not able to handle it. Teenagers had no clue how to safely drink and it was dangerous for everybody. Mothers against drunk driving (MADD) formed after a Candy Lightner had her daughter ran over by a previously convicted drunk driver. Protesting began, they were effective, and the drinking age was raised to 21 (The Study of Drunk Driving Laws in the US). While many argue that modern seat belt laws and increase of a crackdown on drunk driving has decreased the fatalities, (Danilloff in 18 vs. 21) the amoun t of drunk driving has decreased such a large percentage that it is not likely. Soon president reagan issued a

Leadership Style in Predicting Engagement Free Samples to Students

Question: Discuss about the Leadership Style in Predicting Engagement. Answer: Introduction The effective performance parameter of the organisational staffs is necessary to achieve the competitive advantage in the business scenario. Therefore, it is essential for every organisation to determine the necessary methods for motivating the employees to keep the more focused and engaged to the business functionalities. Judge et al. (2014) implied that different people present their different demands. Therefore, it is difficult to ensure the exact process of motivating the employees. The human resource management of the organisation takes the responsibility to motivate the employees and bring out the effective performance outcome more specifically. Understanding the theoretical approaches will be helpful in analysing the impact of employee motivation on employee engagement. However, David, McClelland, the professor of psychology described the three major types of the motivational factors, such as achievement, affiliation, and authority and power. The study will thus focus on the s pecific motivational process ensured by the organisations to keep the employees engaged towards their job responsibility. The theoretical analysis will provide the clear ideas about the associated the motivational process that help in engaging the employees. The involvement of these factors will be helpful enough in determining the engagement of the employees within the organisational process. When the top management recognises the efforts of the employees, it generates the sense of security among them and accordingly helps them to achieve the personal and professional goals. According to Strom, Sears and Kelly (2014) motivation is the method of boosting the employee morale for encouraging to accomplish the assigned goals. In fact, motivation is conceptualised as the process of achieving the extraordinary results. The skilled performance parameter of the employees is necessary to achieve the organisational success. Hence, it is necessary to adopt certain initiatives that will provide both the monetary and non-monetary facilities to the existing employees (Breevaart et al. 2014). Various types of motivational factors are influencing the employee behaviour in an organisation. The human resource management of the organisation takes the resp onsibility to motivate the employees and bring out the effective performance outcome more specifically. Understanding the theoretical approaches will be helpful in analysing the impact of employee motivation on employee engagement. Theory of Motivation In order to understand the employee behaviour, Frederick Herzberg introduced the two-factor theory. The theory is much helpful in recognising the attitude of the employees. The two factors associated with this theory are motivators and hygiene factors. Hygiene factors are suggesting some of the basic needs of the employees. Usually, these factors do not lead to any kind of positive satisfaction, but the absence of these factors may lead to dissatisfaction. The hygiene factors include the salary structure, company policies, fringe benefits, status, physical working conditions, job security, and interpersonal relationship (Lepper and Greene 2015). The competitive pay structure is essential for the employees to keep them engaged towards the work. The human resource management needs to ensure that the administrative policies are not too rigid for the employees (Shuck and Reio Jr 2014). It will be effective for the employees to feel secure about their position. The employees even seek the fringe benefits, like health care plans and other employee health programmes (Nie et al. 2015). On the other hand, it is necessary for the human resource management to maintain the proper interpersonal relationships with the employees. It is necessary to generate sense of transparency among the employees. On the other hand, the motivational factors include recognition, responsibility, sense of achievement, meaningfulness of work, and growth and promotional activities. It is to be indicated that the motivational factors usually yields the positive satisfaction that are inherent to work. The involvement of these factors will be helpful enough in determining the engagement of the employees within the organisational process. When the top management recognises the efforts of the employees, it generates the sense of security among them and accordingly helps them to achieve the personal and professional goals. It is essential for the employer to provide the proper promotional and growth opportunity to the employees to keep the engaged in performing the organisational functionalities (Nuttin 2014). Hence, it can be inferred that the concentration on such motivational factors to motivate the employees and engage them in the organisational works. In fact, it can be interpreted that the positive outcome of the employees performance can help the organisation to achieve the competitive advantage. Links with the Articles The journal articles provide the insightful ideas about the effectiveness of the employees performance in enhancing the organisational profitability. The subject has the clear links to the topic. The maintenance of the effective performance is eventually increasing the productivity of the entire organisation (Crawford et al. 2014). However, if the employees lack the proper motivation from the top management of the organisation, it will affect their morale. In fact, it may make them more reluctant to perform the organisational activities. Hence, it is essential for the human resource management to keep the focus on the basic needs and demands of the employees (Saks and Gruman 2014). The motivation not only comes from the monetary benefits. The employees even seek some of the non-financial benefits that will serve as the motivational process for the existing individuals. For example, when the employer is paying attention towards the knowledge sharing process of the employees, it will b e helpful for them to improve the professional skills and become competent. The article, Motivating Knowledge Sharing in Knowledge Management Systems: A Quasi-Field Experiment suggests that using the knowledge management system is one of the significant process of motivating the existing employee (Wang, Noe and Wang 2011). The empirical study present in this article is highlighting the psychological factors of the individuals that lead to satisfaction or the dissatisfaction. The employee dissatisfaction even leads to employee attrition. Hence, it is essential to keep the focus on the satisfaction level of the employees. The other article, The Impact of High-Performance Human Resource Practices on Employee Attitude and Behaviours also suggests the necessity of retaining the employees with proper motivations. The article is quite different to the previous article, because it suggests the improvement of the HR roles and responsibilities (Kehoe and Wright 2013). The maintenance of the proper interpersonal relationships by the human resource management is necessa ry to influence the positive behaviour of the existing employees. The obtained information from the data collection process in this article indicates that the high performance of the employees depend on the proper behavioural manner maintained by the human resource management team. The article, Collective Organisational Engagement: Linking Motivational Antecedents, Strategic Implementation, and Firm Performance presents the idea about the comprehensive theoretical implication of the organisational engagement (Barrick et al. 2015). The article clearly portrays the idea that it is essential to motivate the employees in a significant way. It is noted that the employee engagement is facilitated by maintaining three major aspects, such as motivation, human resource roles, and the effective leadership style. Such organisational resources are maximising the psychological conditions that are necessary for engaging the employees in a significant way. Differences between the Articles and Integrated Interpretation The information received from the articles is concentrating on the similar subject matter. However, even though all the articles are conducting the empirical researches, there are some of the dissimilarities between the research processes. The individual articles have used the different types of the tests are associated with the study. The articles needed to present more elaborative ideas about the collective perceptions. The major limitation of the article information is these articles lack the suggestions for the innovative procedures that can be applied to the business processes. The current business world is much advanced. Hence, it is essential to upgrade the methods that can be beneficial for the employees as well as the employers. In fact, the articles do not even include the essential resources for managing the proper motivational process. The lack of the sufficient resources can lead the organisation towards negative consequences. The assimilation of the logical networking i s essential for every individual organisation. The effectiveness of the human resource management is necessary in such cases. Conclusion The skilled performance parameter of the employees is necessary to achieve the organisational success. Hence, it is necessary to adopt certain initiatives that will provide both the monetary and non-monetary facilities to the existing employees. The human resource management needs to ensure that the administrative policies are not too rigid for the employees. It will be effective for the employees to feel secure about their position. The employees even seek the fringe benefits, like health care plans and other employee health programmes. The maintenance of the proper interpersonal relationships by the human resource management is necessary to influence the positive behaviour of the existing employees. The articles needed to present more elaborative ideas about the collective perceptions. The major limitation of the article information is these articles lack the suggestions for the innovative procedures that can be applied to the business processes. The current business world is much advanced. Hence, it is essential to upgrade the methods that can be beneficial for the employees as well as the employers. References Barrick, M., Thurgood, G., Smith, T. and Courtright, S., 2015. Collective Organizational Engagement: Linking Motivational Antecedents, Strategic Implementation, and Firm Performance. Academy of Management Journal, 58(1), pp.111-135. Breevaart, K., Bakker, A., Hetland, J., Demerouti, E., Olsen, O.K. and Espevik, R., 2014. Daily transactional and transformational leadership and daily employee engagement.Journal of occupational and organizational psychology,87(1), pp.138-157. Crawford, E.R., Rich, B.L., Buckman, B. and Bergeron, J., 2014. The antecedents and drivers of employee engagement.Employee engagement in theory and practice, pp.57-81. Judge, T.A., Simon, L.S., Hurst, C. and Kelley, K., 2014. What I experienced yesterday is who I am today: Relationship of work motivations and behaviors to within-individual variation in the five-factor model of personality.Journal of Applied Psychology,99(2), p.199. Kehoe, R. and Wright, P., 2013. The Impact of High-Performance Human Resource Practices on Employees Attitudes and Behaviors. Journal of Management, 39(2), pp.366-391. Lepper, M.R. and Greene, D. eds., 2015.The hidden costs of reward: New perspectives on the psychology of human motivation. Psychology Press. Nie, Y., Chua, B.L., Yeung, A.S., Ryan, R.M. and Chan, W.Y., 2015. The importance of autonomy support and the mediating role of work motivation for well?being: Testing self?determination theory in a Chinese work organisation.International Journal of Psychology,50(4), pp.245-255. Nuttin, J., 2014.Future time perspective and motivation: Theory and research method. Psychology Press. Saks, A.M. and Gruman, J.A., 2014. What do we really know about employee engagement?.Human Resource Development Quarterly,25(2), pp.155-182. Shuck, B. and Reio Jr, T.G., 2014. Employee engagement and well-being: A moderation model and implications for practice.Journal of Leadership Organizational Studies,21(1), pp.43-58. Strom, D.L., Sears, K.L. and Kelly, K.M., 2014. Work engagement: The roles of organizational justice and leadership style in predicting engagement among employees.Journal of Leadership Organizational Studies,21(1), pp.71-82. Wang, S., Noe, R. and Wang, Z., 2011. Motivating Knowledge Sharing in Knowledge Management Systems: A QuasiField Experiment. Journal of Management, 40(4), pp.978-1009.