Engineering Practice Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Engineering Practice - Assignment Example This essay stresses that ethics is a normative science which differs in some way with the positive science. The science which is studied in laboratories of the universities is described as the positive science. Positive science is depicted as what we observe through our eyes or through other sensory organs. There is another science which does not directly deals with the observation rather it is based on the standard of rules and norms by which certain objects are judged, this science is known as normative science. Normative science is also responsible for testing the validity of the set standard of rules. This paper declares that a person gets his ethical principles and values form the moral education at home, lessons taught at school or in some special religious training. Some people also acquire the principles and values from the messages of society via radio, television, newspaper, books and magazines. Some of the individuals also acquire values and principles through real life experiences. Engineering and management are both relevant areas of study. Now Engineering can be defined as a profession where there is knowledge of mathematics and natural science gained through theoretical, practical studies and experience, is applied to develop different forces of nature for the welfare of people. Management can be defined as a process of planning, designing and controlling the environment in which persons, working together in group, successfully accomplishes their desired goals. (Weihrich & Koontz, 2006, p.5-6). Control plays an effective role in the management of an enterprise. An organ isation comprises of different types of employees on the basis of their needs, want and interest, in that area management control creates coordination and give directions (Flamholtz, 1996, p.4-6). Ethical Issues Ethics in workplace is the set of values and beliefs which guides an employee.

African American Studies-Introduction to the Art of Africa Essay

African American Studies-Introduction to the Art of Africa - Essay Example Adult men in African wear most masks. Nevertheless, there are there is one mask that is not worn by men. The main purpose of this paper is to describe which mask is not worn by men. In addition, there will be an analysis of when the mask is worn as well as who wear the masks. Majority of masks are worn by men as they are the only people in the society who are permitted to conduct ritual activities. Most masks are worn in ceremonial dances, initiation ceremonies, during the war as a sign of being brave among other occasions. On the contrary, the Mende mask is worn exclusively by women (Foster 1). The Mende mask is worn by the Sande societies who are geographically located in the sub-Saharan Africa. To be precise, the Sande society is situated in Sierra Leone and Liberia. The Mende people are approximated to be around two million, and their primary economic activity is farming. In the Sande society, women used to perform rituals that required the appearance of the masked figure of the Mende helmet mask. Although there were many variations in carving styles and local practices due to their large population, their significance in performing the rituals was still felt by the Sande society (Schulze 1). In the Sande society, when women reached puberty, the initiation process begun. The goal of the initiation process was to teach young women some of the responsibilities of an adult Mende woman. These Mende girls are taught to be modest in behavior as well as being hardworking. During initiation ceremonies, The Mende women used to wear masks as a show of courage and determination. This was also to demonstrate to the young girls that they are entirely welcome into adulthood. The already initiated girl is then given a unique mask just for her that is carved from a section of a trunk of a tree. In most cases, the carving was made from cotton tree. Before the mask is carved, the woodcarver is let wait until he hears a scream from the girl as she undergoes

Gender In Respond To Stress And Overcome Stress Psychology Essay

Gender In Respond To Stress And Overcome Stress Psychology Essay The process of growing, different gender does have different respond on when facing the stress and even the way of copping the stress. In this study, we were targeting with both gender by category their age, race, culture and surrounding issue that influence or change them the point of respond to stress and the way of copping the stress. There are many issue and different causes of creating stress for our daily life but it is not a way for both genders. We could have more understand type of stress is facing on the certain age and different respond both genders. In the study, we had realize that a great changing view respond to stress and overcome the stress in both gender on category age of teenager and adult. Furthermore, changing view of stress found in different culture for both gender. It is reason for when reach an adult age. Working environment has making them change. Stress In this world, our daily life is filled with stress. Stress is a common issue that has become a discussion among researchers. There are many reasons why a person gets involve in a stressful condition. Based on Laheys study, sources of stress can be categorized into five category which are life events, frustration, conflict, pressure and environmental condition (Lahey,2012). Life events is one of the major sources of stress as people need to have adjustments in their life every day, regardless of any situations or conditions (Dohrenwend,2006;Lahey,2012). Negative events such as losing a loved one or losing a home after disaster creates anxiety, depression and physical illnesses and psychological illnesses (Lahey,2012) However, even positive events can be stressful too. Getting a new car or house, graduating from college, getting married are also happy situations where people need time to adjust to their normal living pattern ( Lahey, 2012). Frustration Other source of stress comes from frustration which is the result or decision that could not able to satisfy a motive (Lahey,2012). Continuous dissatisfactory of the results gained such as individuals being subjected to racial discrimination would be able to become major source of stress.(Gallo Matthews; Lahey,2012) Conflict The third source of stress is conflict in which a state of two or more motives cannot be satisfied because they interfere with one another. (Lahey, 2012) Conflict happens when two people have different goals or different opinions in which both of them are trying to get an agreement. In this condition, two major source of stress in conflict are trying to satisfy each other with their different opinions while being aware of each other to accept their individual decision. Pressure Stress can be aroused from pressure in facing threats of negative events ( Lahey, 2012). For example, college students feel pressure due to handing in assignments before dateline and preparing for exams. A single mother will feel pressure when providing provision for her family while performing well in her job. An employee will feel pressure in pleasing the boss with excellent work while competing with other colleague. Environmental conditions The environment that we are surrounded by is also one of the factor that causes stress ( Lahey, 2012). For instance, if a person lives in a an environment filled with noise pollution, chances of an increase in heart rate, blood pressure and respiration is high and hindrance in the digestive processes is possible ( Hughes M., 2010 ) . Introduction Different Gender in Respond to Stress and How Overcome the Stress. There are many reasons that cause stress; even we are still at a young age. We believe that both genders have their own methods in responding to stress. At the same time we also believe that both genders responses to stress can be influence by other aspect. In the sports field, both genders athletes have different methods to cope with stress. Researchers found that women use the coping strategies of venting motions, positive reinterpretation, dissociation, and emotional social support more often than men did to cope with stress. ( Hammermeister Burton 2004; Mark Toto 2009). Besides that, there is another study about racial discrimination and ways on how to cope with stress among African Americans (Utsey, Ponterotto, Reynolds Cancelli, 2000). It was found that between adult men and women, women tend to seek social support more than men do (Flora Rahim, 2006). Based on the studies, we understand that both genders have different ways of coping with stress. Furthermore, genders differences have an effect in anxiety disorders that appears to begin around the age of 6 where female are higher than male with ratio is already 2:1 (Robinson, 2006; Sharon Jennifer, 2011). From the statement we understood that stress begins at the adolescence stage. In the study of Kagan and Lewis (1965), it was found that girls are more mentally developed ahead of boys. Therefore, girls have better response to stress compared to male at the adolescence stage (Walter Terry, 1974). This led us to believe that different stress occurs in adolescence stage. Nevertheless, some studies have evidences that clearly stated the differences between genders affect stress. Girls have higher level of stress than boys do during their teenage years as they are more likely to be more aggressive to have conflict with parent and teacher. (Walter Terry, 1974). Based on the MacFarlane (1970) study, during period high school period, girls slightly manifest more anxiety than boys (Walter Terry, 1974). On other hand, women may also experience more school-related anxiety than men during both stressful events (examinations) as well as the long term events (Martin, 1997). Besides schooling period, a study showed that during college period, women experience more negative images of themselves and they are more likely to manifest neurotic symptoms than male (McKee and Sherriffs,1957 as cited in Walter Terry,1974). Other researches analysis provided us some insight on the differences between male and female supporting staff. There are differences in stress outcomes experienced by male and female workers between the age of 25 to 30 year old (Dr. Zafir Fazilah). A study showed that women suffer more stress from working environment compared to men because women also experience certain unique stressors such as gender inequality as well as experiencing stressors common to both genders (Kristina Stephen, 2004). Besides that, for married couples, it is believed that neighborhood stressors will have greater impact on womens mental health rather than mens (Flora Rahim, 2006).There is a considerable amount of evidence indicating that women are more psychologically and physiologically reactive to stressors than men (Liu, Spector Lin Shi, 2008). Through this study and the statement provided, we found that women have the higher percentage to develop stress compared to men. For ways of coping stress, there is a slight difference between both genders. In a study, adult men were found to resort to alcoholic method more than women (Christopher Alvin, 2009). Based on Jessicas study, since men are taught that it is unacceptable to express their depression to others, they may seek comfort from other sources such as alcohol. Indeed, one argument supported the idea that the different rates of depression between men and women are illusionary is that alcoholism is twice as common in men as in women (Murakumi J., 2002). Discussion Conclusion. After analyzing the studies and research papers related to the topic, our group agreed that the first thesis is different gender respond to stress in different ways. It is confirmed that the thesis we had made matches the evident to support it. Besides that, we found that different response in stress starts during teenage years with female developing faster than male. On the overall view, all members of our group believed that the methods used to cope with stress are different where female are far more mature than male. Furthermore, we found that the stress level is different for both gender at young age with females getting more anxiety and more depression especially in high school period when compared to males. The reason for higher level of females depression in high school is because female starts to gets themselves non-invisible attention in school through usage of make up so that they are able to follow the trend of teenage years. It is the reason that women have high stress ou tcome than men. Hence, it led us to believe that women have the higher risk to have psychological illnesses such as insomnia and anxiety disorder. However, female are better in managing with stress based on a study by Mark and Toto (2009). Female are known to vent their emotions, positive reinterpretation, dissociation, and emotional social support more often than men do. (Mark and Toto, 2009). Yet this does not mean that males are healthier than female. Males often use negative way to cope with stress compared to females. Examples like alcohol and smoking cigarettes are common ways for males to cope with stress. This brings great impact to the body heath such as lung cancer and liver diseases. Nevertheless not all of the male are using the same negative copping stress as males also use positive ways to cope with stress. For example they do sports to cope with their stress. The current statement had reached our other thesis which is that both genders have their different ways to cop e with stress. At the end, our group came out with a thesis that both genders have their own ways to respond to stress and to cope with stress because everyone have their own personality, thinking and stress outcome.

How do firms penetrate an existing market? Essay -- Business and Manag

How do firms penetrate an existing market? Cadburys have to improve their levels of market penetration and also make more sales customers. Cadburys have improved their penetration which helps them to improve market share. It can increase in there market share which can create significant sales. Market penetration suggests a further penetration of existing markets with existing products. This will involve a strategy of increasing market share within existing segments and markets.  · Market development is a strategy requires the producer to develop raw market segments for products.  · Product development is the process of researching market needs, creating products to meet the identified needs.  · Diversification means going into new market with entirely new products.  · Market penetration is increasing the % of sales in present markets by taking sales from competitors. To improve their market penetration there are six district stages in the development process for new products are; - Ideas All Cadbury products start from ideas. These ideas may come from the following sources: Research and Development -This is where product development and market research working together. Mindstorming -This is where it involves few people developing ideas from words and concepts. Suggestion box - Here Cadburys is working close to the customer and the sales forces understand their needs and requirements. Forced relationships -At times one or more products can be joined together to form new product concepts. Competitors - Monitoring the actions of competitors may provide a rich source of new ideas. Screening of ideas -Once Cadburys ideas have been generated. It is important to screen for the ideas likely to be successful. Considerations may include how well the product fits in with others in the product range the unique element of any idea that makes it competitive. They are likely to demand for the product and whether or not it could be manufactured economically. The two main errors Cadbury needs to avoid when screening ideas are;  · They must not reject new ideas  · They must not develop poor ideas or Cadbury will loose money Market analysis Once Cadburys ideas have been screened market analysis begins. It involves analysis of the product market potential. This he... ...ment consultants in the USA. Stars These are products with a high market share like Cadburys in a rapidly growing industry. Unless Cadburys chocolate bar has not achieved this position through heavy discounting, it should be generating high profits. For Cadbury to remain a star in a competitive environment its chocolate bean will continue to need heavy marketing expenditure. Cash cow Cash cows have a high market share in a slow growing, but mature market. Cadbury could fall into this because there competitors do have higher cost slightly. But Cadbury benefits from high economic of scale. It can generate high profits which could be used to finance ‘problem children/question marks’. Question Marks and problem children This product has a low market share in a rapidly growing market. The business has to decide whether to with draw the product or to support it with heavy marketing, which could be difficult if it is not generating funds elsewhere. Dog This product has a low market share in markets where there is little or no growth. At this stage a product is at the end of its life cycle. The product is best if it is dropped out of its portfolio.

A case study of clothes R Us Essay

Introduction Clothes R Us opened its doors and began operations more than a decade ago.   When the company first opened, the founders and CEOs were on the floor trying to sell to customers their various clothes and designs. The clothes came with economized prices, saved customers time that would have been spent looking for the right attire and in so doing make the customer’s lives less complicated. The store has grown so much in the past decade, to become a major supplier chain that is not only nationally recognized but also globally renowned. The phenomenal growth comes with even higher growth in terms of annual sales and income. The company has surprisingly continues to maintain some sort of loose human resource strategy. Managers have paid little attention towards restructuring the human resource and monitoring of performance especially when it comes to fixed employees. Lack of a centralized system to control and manage the departments’ means that there are no specific details on the performance of employees.   Clothes R us has operated with a decentralized, freewheeling culture in which each store manager has treated his or her own employees as some kind of personal kingdom in which the manager has the right to control their recruitment and performance as they see fit. Majority of the full time sales people have college degrees in addition to vast experience in their area of specialization. However, there is continued discontent with the reliance on casual employees.   The origin of the problem stemmed from the early days when the company required cheap labor. Unfortunately, the continued reliance on casual employees has caused demoralization among the permanent employees. A company that was seeing much growth in the past is not facing a crisis in human resource. Defining the problem Even with various strategies coming to play to ensure that the company does not run out of required manpower, these will only be effective if the permanent employees are motivated to perform at a much higher level.   Clothes R US is only starting to realize the importance of a motivated work force. The challenge comes in ensuring and maintain the motivation of employees.   Continued reliance on casual employees has restrained the flexibility of the permanent employees. Employees lack the opportunity to be independent. Casual employees take up roles that would require creative management and skills; as such the company is now suffering from the existence of a dull work force. Managers have been slow in understanding, how flexibility motivates the employees.   Flexibility is not just in items of duties but also in terms of the work hours and even the work place. A common quote is that change is as good as a rest. Professional human resource consultants often advice companies to ensure that employees have a variety of talents, shifts and even work desks. The change often serves to make the job seem new and therefore motivate the employee.   Poor motivation also means high turnover of the employees. Low confidence:   confidence is a character that lays down the foundation of employee motivation. It is important for employees to feel they not only have the skills but also the know how to deal with various challenges at the work place. Since, Clothes R US focuses more on employing temporarily employees to manage simple tasks; employees are fast losing confidence in their ability to perform. With the planned expansion, the company is now facing a crisis. Employees are unwilling to leave their comfort zones, unwilling to volunteer for the new project and even opting for increased turn over.   Because majority of the employees in the company exhibit low self esteem, they are unable to make use of their skills and talents. Further, they are completely unable to form positive work relationships. This means that they are less than loyal to the company and thus more likely to seek other employment even when they are earning less. It is not surprising therefore to find that employees of cloths R US are always finding excuses as to why they are not performing, why the company is not growing rather than enhancing their own skills to ensure better performance.   The company is currently having a permanent work force suffering from low self esteem. Lowered expectations: one of the main drawbacks of relying on current and contingent employees is that the performance levels and expectations of success have been lowered in the company. It is therefore not surprising to find that the permanent employees only do as much as is expected of them to meet their own duties. The permanent employees do not push themselves or even apply themselves wholeheartedly and diligently to their jobs. The company low expectations have served to kill employee morale to do better and better at each task. Instead, employees report to work, do the minimum and leave the rest to the casual employees. Contingency syndrome: contingency workers often provide an advantage to employers. Clothes R US began taking advantage of this group of worker during the early years of expansion. Contingency workers do not expect benefits and are often paid much less than permanent workers. They are given challenging tasks which would otherwise cost the company in terms of training permanent employees to ensure they have the skills to complete the job.   Unfortunately, the increase of contingency workers in the company has had a negative impact. Contingency workers tend to bring restlessness in permanent employees who are convinced that life could get better and more interesting outside the company. Further, contingency workers do not posses the security and stability of permanent employees; they therefore lack commitment to the job which tends to rub off on permanent employees. They prefer the freedom of their temporary status and often seem to be highly compensated for simple tasks. This situation is likely to de-motivate the permanent employees in addition to causing conflict and strain with the other employees. With time, the permanent employees begin to lose interest in particular tasks foe which they feel they should also be compensated and rewarded. Legal implications Change in organization structure: a move or expansion of Clothes R US not only affects the location of the business but also the organization and business structure. Managers will need to sit down and re-define jobs and responsibilities to accommodate the new store. This also means determining the methods through which the stores will receive their inventory and distribute the same. As a registered business, the company will need to report the change in structure. Gopal (2008) indicates that this is a step that is often over-looked during expansion and which could prove slightly more than costly to the new venture. Registered businesses need to record such changes and report them to the registrar of businesses for their own protection. Should a dispute arise, the company will turn to the changes recorded with the registrar and this is what will be used to determine the direction of the case. Business licenses: although the new store will be operating as a franchise of the main store, it is important to note that licenses will be required for this particular business. This includes licenses to operate in Sheffield, and also distribute items in Sheffield. Lack of a license is considered fraud and could land senior managers and the business itself in a lot of legal problems. In addition, the business will require a tax registration. Many business owners assume that the new venture will operate with the same tax registration. However, according to the law, both businesses are separate ventures and require individual tax registration licenses. Zoning requirements: although there are several clothing and fashion businesses operating in Sheffield, before opening the store it is important to research and find out some of the zoning requirements. To avoid congestion zoning laws are changed frequently. Should such law take effect before the opening of the business, it is likely that the same business could be closed before taking off. Non- disclosure: being in a volatile industry such as fashion and clothing; the company has expanded very fast. With a high turnover of employees, it is not surprising that many other businesses with almost similar structure including marketing and customer relationship are being set up.   This exposure is a result of ignoring the importance of a non-disclosure agreement with all employees. Confidential information is leaked, former employees set up competing shops all because the non- disclosure is ignored, (Dessler 2000). From here on henceforth all employees permanent and contingent should sign non-disclosure agreements prepared by the legal departments and carefully structured for the company needs. Non- disclosure agreements are not just for the employees but also other stakeholders who come into contact with the company. This includes suppliers who may be tempted to contact competitors with sensitive information that could earn them a good and better profit. This means that all contracts must include a tight and binding non- disclosure agreement. This reduces the exposure of the company and gives a chance to legally fight any exposure by stakeholders, suppliers and employees (former and present) successfully. Maintaining healthy relationships During a move such as is planned by Clothes R US, the company often ignores the needs of the human resource or does not adequately address such needs. A move and expansion such as this one is likely to bring feelings of anxiety or apprehension. If such feelings are not properly addressed, the employees will become less than motivated and conflict levels may arise. The following are some of the strategies which could be employed to ensure a healthy relationship during the move: Communication: the communication channels between employees and senior managers of Cloths are US have not always been open. Employees are often in the dark about exactly what is happening to the company. Of course, this is because managers have been plagued with the disease of contingent workers. During this move, it would be advisable for the managers to be open and develop an open door policy with regard to issues facing the company and assisting employees manage the challenges they are facing.   Through proper and good communication, senior managers of the company can improve the efficiency and effectiveness of their own employees. It may also be surprising to learn that some employees possess talent, skills and information that would not only make the move much easier bust also more profitable to the company. Empowerment: employees of Clothes R Us have suffered from lack of empowerment. This has led to lowered performance and serious problems in motivation. The moving period is an ideal opportunity to empower the permanent employees by providing them with unique tasks cultured for their own training and set of skills. This will give employees an opportunity to become more involved and therefore foster commitment to the project. Mathis and Jackson (2003), state that In addition, empowerment will free managers to focus on the bigger tasks rather than sweating the details. This is a great opportunity for employees to test their own abilities and creativity in dealing with the challenges that come forth. The result is a much more motivated and high skilled set of workers who are committed to the project fully. It is time for the senior managers to trust their own employees. Groups and Teams: the company definitely requires some form of synergy in the work force. This could be easily achieved by relying on groups and teams. In teams, members are expected to communicate, bounce ideas around and correct each other’s mistakes. The result is that there is a diverse set of knowledge. Further, tasks are completed as a team fostering healthy and positive relationships which have been lacking within the company. According to Jeffs (2008), to enjoy the full fruits of groups and teams, the managers have the responsibility of ensuring that the teams are composed of members with complimentary knowledge, skills and characters. This reduces the amount of conflict that could be experienced and promotes more positive forms of challenging each other. The groups also need to enjoy some sort of autonomy with minimum supervision so that the members enjoy the freedom of decision making.   The teams in themselves are leaders, coaches and guides in the tasks that are. Recommendations The problems faced by Clothes R US can be resolved simply though the three components of the expectancy theory by Vroom Victor. His theory suggests that when employees believe that high efforts are often met with high rewards, they become more motivated. The components of such motivation are: Increasing expectancy: employees of the company have been suffering from low expectations, a situation that has been brought on by increased reliance of young, temporary workers. Senior managers have an opportunity to communicate that high efforts will lead to great rewards for permanent employees. Based on this, employees need to be challenged to take up challenging tasks, the success of which will be increased rewards. It is the success in such tasks whether in a team or individually that are likely to increase the level of expectancy.   For workers to have the confidence to take up such challenging tasks, they may require extra training and team building activities that will give them the confidence. Increasing instrumentality: managers at Clothes R US have ignored and barely understand the importance of instrumentality to increasing employee motivation. Instrumentality speaks to the employee’s perception about the extent to which performance within certain tasks will lead to desired goals and results. Such goals include, increased pay, job security and the chance to undertake more interesting and captivating projects.   Instrumentality can be achieved simply though the expansion of job duties and flexibility of job titles which allow employees to test their own abilities and talents. For example, should the company link pay rises to performance; there will be increased instrumentation and as such more motivation not just to work but to excel at work. This will also deal with the issue of increased turn over. Increasing valence: expectancy theory acknowledges that when it comes to goals and outcomes, people are different. Whereas some workers may respond to pay increase, others are more interested in challenging tasks and projects. Valence therefore addresses how each of the outcomes appears to employees. Senior managers will not just throw in what they think will be attractive to employees. Rather, they will take time to understand the work force and appeal to their own variety of desires, goals and needs. A key challenge for the managers of Clothes R US, is finding the right pattern of motivation while at the same time trying to expand the scope of the business. No matter how many desirable outcomes the managers present to the employees, if they continue to feel that temporary workers can do better than motivation will go down, (David 2005).   This means scaling down on the contingent workers and relying more and more on the permanent employees. The company has the challenge of brining back confidence to its workers. This means focusing on diversity in the job specifications and ensuring flexibility in the tasks assigned to the work force. References David, F. R. (2005).  Strategic management: Concepts and cases. Upper Saddle River, N.J: Pearson Prentice Hall. Dessler, G. (2000).  Human resource management. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall. Gopal, C. C. R. (2008).  Business legislation (textbook with suggested answers). New Delhi: New Age International (P) Ltd., Publishers. Jeffs, C. (2008).  Strategic management. Los Angeles: SAGE. Mathis, R. L., & Jackson, J. H. (2003).  Human resource management. Mason, Ohio: Thomson/South-western.    A case study of clothes R Us Essay Introduction Clothes R Us opened its doors and began operations more than a decade ago.   When the company first opened, the founders and CEOs were on the floor trying to sell to customers their various clothes and designs. The clothes came with economized prices, saved customers time that would have been spent looking for the right attire and in so doing make the customer’s lives less complicated. The store has grown so much in the past decade, to become a major supplier chain that is not only nationally recognized but also globally renowned. The phenomenal growth comes with even higher growth in terms of annual sales and income. The company has surprisingly continues to maintain some sort of loose human resource strategy. Managers have paid little attention towards restructuring the human resource and monitoring of performance especially when it comes to fixed employees. Lack of a centralized system to control and manage the departments’ means that there are no specific details on the performance of employees.   Clothes R us has operated with a decentralized, freewheeling culture in which each store manager has treated his or her own employees as some kind of personal kingdom in which the manager has the right to control their recruitment and performance as they see fit. Majority of the full time sales people have college degrees in addition to vast experience in their area of specialization. However, there is continued discontent with the reliance on casual employees.   The origin of the problem stemmed from the early days when the company required cheap labor. Unfortunately, the continued reliance on casual employees has caused demoralization among the permanent employees. A company that was seeing much growth in the past is not facing a crisis in human resource. Defining the problem Even with various strategies coming to play to ensure that the company does not run out of required manpower, these will only be effective if the permanent employees are motivated to perform at a much higher level.   Clothes R US is only starting to realize the importance of a motivated work force. The challenge comes in ensuring and maintain the motivation of employees.   Continued reliance on casual employees has restrained the flexibility of the permanent employees. Employees lack the opportunity to be independent. Casual employees take up roles that would require creative management and skills; as such the company is now suffering from the existence of a dull work force. Managers have been slow in understanding, how flexibility motivates the employees.   Flexibility is not just in items of duties but also in terms of the work hours and even the work place. A common quote is that change is as good as a rest. Professional human resource consultants often advice companies to ensure that employees have a variety of talents, shifts and even work desks. The change often serves to make the job seem new and therefore motivate the employee.   Poor motivation also means high turnover of the employees. Low confidence:   confidence is a character that lays down the foundation of employee motivation. It is important for employees to feel they not only have the skills but also the know how to deal with various challenges at the work place. Since, Clothes R US focuses more on employing temporarily employees to manage simple tasks; employees are fast losing confidence in their ability to perform. With the planned expansion, the company is now facing a crisis. Employees are unwilling to leave their comfort zones, unwilling to volunteer for the new project and even opting for increased turn over.   Because majority of the employees in the company exhibit low self esteem, they are unable to make use of their skills and talents. Further, they are completely unable to form positive work relationships. This means that they are less than loyal to the company and thus more likely to seek other employment even when they are earning less. It is not surprising therefore to find that employees of cloths R US are always finding excuses as to why they are not performing, why the company is not growing rather than enhancing their own skills to ensure better performance.   The company is currently having a permanent work force suffering from low self esteem. Lowered expectations: one of the main drawbacks of relying on current and contingent employees is that the performance levels and expectations of success have been lowered in the company. It is therefore not surprising to find that the permanent employees only do as much as is expected of them to meet their own duties. The permanent employees do not push themselves or even apply themselves wholeheartedly and diligently to their jobs. The company low expectations have served to kill employee morale to do better and better at each task. Instead, employees report to work, do the minimum and leave the rest to the casual employees. Contingency syndrome: contingency workers often provide an advantage to employers. Clothes R US began taking advantage of this group of worker during the early years of expansion. Contingency workers do not expect benefits and are often paid much less than permanent workers. They are given challenging tasks which would otherwise cost the company in terms of training permanent employees to ensure they have the skills to complete the job.   Unfortunately, the increase of contingency workers in the company has had a negative impact. Contingency workers tend to bring restlessness in permanent employees who are convinced that life could get better and more interesting outside the company. Further, contingency workers do not posses the security and stability of permanent employees; they therefore lack commitment to the job which tends to rub off on permanent employees. They prefer the freedom of their temporary status and often seem to be highly compensated for simple tasks. This situation is likely to de-motivate the permanent employees in addition to causing conflict and strain with the other employees. With time, the permanent employees begin to lose interest in particular tasks foe which they feel they should also be compensated and rewarded. Legal implications Change in organization structure: a move or expansion of Clothes R US not only affects the location of the business but also the organization and business structure. Managers will need to sit down and re-define jobs and responsibilities to accommodate the new store. This also means determining the methods through which the stores will receive their inventory and distribute the same. As a registered business, the company will need to report the change in structure. Gopal (2008) indicates that this is a step that is often over-looked during expansion and which could prove slightly more than costly to the new venture. Registered businesses need to record such changes and report them to the registrar of businesses for their own protection. Should a dispute arise, the company will turn to the changes recorded with the registrar and this is what will be used to determine the direction of the case. Business licenses: although the new store will be operating as a franchise of the main store, it is important to note that licenses will be required for this particular business. This includes licenses to operate in Sheffield, and also distribute items in Sheffield. Lack of a license is considered fraud and could land senior managers and the business itself in a lot of legal problems. In addition, the business will require a tax registration. Many business owners assume that the new venture will operate with the same tax registration. However, according to the law, both businesses are separate ventures and require individual tax registration licenses. Zoning requirements: although there are several clothing and fashion businesses operating in Sheffield, before opening the store it is important to research and find out some of the zoning requirements. To avoid congestion zoning laws are changed frequently. Should such law take effect before the opening of the business, it is likely that the same business could be closed before taking off. Non- disclosure: being in a volatile industry such as fashion and clothing; the company has expanded very fast. With a high turnover of employees, it is not surprising that many other businesses with almost similar structure including marketing and customer relationship are being set up.   This exposure is a result of ignoring the importance of a non-disclosure agreement with all employees. Confidential information is leaked, former employees set up competing shops all because the non- disclosure is ignored, (Dessler 2000). From here on henceforth all employees permanent and contingent should sign non-disclosure agreements prepared by the legal departments and carefully structured for the company needs. Non-disclosure agreements are not just for the employees but also other stakeholders who come into contact with the company. This includes suppliers who may be tempted to contact competitors with sensitive information that could earn them a good and better profit. This means that all contracts must include a tight and binding non- disclosure agreement. This reduces the exposure of the company and gives a chance to legally fight any exposure by stakeholders, suppliers and employees (former and present) successfully. Maintaining healthy relationships During a move such as is planned by Clothes R US, the company often ignores the needs of the human resource or does not adequately address such needs. A move and expansion such as this one is likely to bring feelings of anxiety or apprehension. If such feelings are not properly addressed, the employees will become less than motivated and conflict levels may arise. The following are some of the strategies which could be employed to ensure a healthy relationship during the move: Communication: the communication channels between employees and senior managers of Cloths are US have not always been open. Employees are often in the dark about exactly what is happening to the company. Of course, this is because managers have been plagued with the disease of contingent workers. During this move, it would be advisable for the managers to be open and develop an open door policy with regard to issues facing the company and assisting employees manage the challenges they are facing.   Through proper and good communication, senior managers of the company can improve the efficiency and effectiveness of their own employees. It may also be surprising to learn that some employees possess talent, skills and information that would not only make the move much easier bust also more profitable to the company. Empowerment: employees of Clothes R Us have suffered from lack of empowerment. This has led to lowered performance and serious problems in motivation. The moving period is an ideal opportunity to empower the permanent employees by providing them with unique tasks cultured for their own training and set of skills. This will give employees an opportunity to become more involved and therefore foster commitment to the project. Mathis and Jackson (2003), state that In addition, empowerment will free managers to focus on the bigger tasks rather than sweating the details. This is a great opportunity for employees to test their own abilities and creativity in dealing with the challenges that come forth. The result is a much more motivated and high skilled set of workers who are committed to the project fully. It is time for the senior managers to trust their own employees. Groups and Teams: the company definitely requires some form of synergy in the work force. This could be easily achieved by relying on groups and teams. In teams, members are expected to communicate, bounce ideas around and correct each other’s mistakes. The result is that there is a diverse set of knowledge. Further, tasks are completed as a team fostering healthy and positive relationships which have been lacking within the company. According to Jeffs (2008), to enjoy the full fruits of groups and teams, the managers have the responsibility of ensuring that the teams are composed of members with complimentary knowledge, skills and characters. This reduces the amount of conflict that could be experienced and promotes more positive forms of challenging each other. The groups also need to enjoy some sort of autonomy with minimum supervision so that the members enjoy the freedom of decision making.   The teams in themselves are leaders, coaches and guides in the tasks that are. Recommendations The problems faced by Clothes R US can be resolved simply though the three components of the expectancy theory by Vroom Victor. His theory suggests that when employees believe that high efforts are often met with high rewards, they become more motivated. The components of such motivation are: Increasing expectancy: employees of the company have been suffering from low expectations, a situation that has been brought on by increased reliance of young, temporary workers. Senior managers have an opportunity to communicate that high efforts will lead to great rewards for permanent employees. Based on this, employees need to be challenged to take up challenging tasks, the success of which will be increased rewards. It is the success in such tasks whether in a team or individually that are likely to increase the level of expectancy.   For workers to have the confidence to take up such challenging tasks, they may require extra training and team building activities that will give them the confidence. Increasing instrumentality: managers at Clothes R US have ignored and barely understand the importance of instrumentality to increasing employee motivation. Instrumentality speaks to the employee’s perception about the extent to which performance within certain tasks will lead to desired goals and results. Such goals include, increased pay, job security and the chance to undertake more interesting and captivating projects.   Instrumentality can be achieved simply though the expansion of job duties and flexibility of job titles which allow employees to test their own abilities and talents. For example, should the company link pay rises to performance; there will be increased instrumentation and as such more motivation not just to work but to excel at work. This will also deal with the issue of increased turn over. Increasing valence: expectancy theory acknowledges that when it comes to goals and outcomes, people are different. Whereas some workers may respond to pay increase, others are more interested in challenging tasks and projects. Valence therefore addresses how each of the outcomes appears to employees. Senior managers will not just throw in what they think will be attractive to employees. Rather, they will take time to understand the work force and appeal to their own variety of desires, goals and needs. A key challenge for the managers of Clothes R US, is finding the right pattern of motivation while at the same time trying to expand the scope of the business. No matter how many desirable outcomes the managers present to the employees, if they continue to feel that temporary workers can do better than motivation will go down, (David 2005).   This means scaling down on the contingent workers and relying more and more on the permanent employees. The company has the challenge of brining back confidence to its workers. This means focusing on diversity in the job specifications and ensuring flexibility in the tasks assigned to the work force. References David, F. R. (2005).  Strategic management: Concepts and cases. Upper Saddle River, N.J: Pearson Prentice Hall. Dessler, G. (2000).  Human resource management. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall. Gopal, C. C. R. (2008).  Business legislation (textbook with suggested answers). New Delhi: New Age International (P) Ltd., Publishers. Jeffs, C. (2008).  Strategic management. Los Angeles: SAGE. Mathis, R. L., & Jackson, J. H. (2003).  Human resource management. Mason, Ohio: Thomson/South-western.      

Response

White's 5 Paragraph Theme Theme This short paper will be in response to my reading of Edward White's â€Å"5 Paragraph Theme Theme† essay. The following paragraphs will Illustrate my opinion of White's Idea, If I think it is an effective means of writing a paper, and If I believe It should be the way all papers, essays, and reports are written. Lastly I will finish up with an overview of what I have discussed.I believe this paper to be well written and thought out. The author follows his own aromatizing of having five parts to his paper and supporting sub-topics, and It's written In an easy to follow logical order that someone could easily duplicate. I am by no means an expert on grammar and punctuation, but It also seemed to be grammatically correct as well. Overall I think his idea of a five-paragraph theme will work for most applications. Do I think it is an effective means of righting a paper?My answer to that is two- fold; as I believe it would work perfectly for shorter reports and essays, but not very long reports that requiring complex thought organization. It is definitely effective in he aspect that White used it as a persuasive essay on convincing you that five paragraphs is the most effective when writing a paper. So, overall I would say yes, it is an effective method of writing a paper, as long as you can effectively convey all the information needed in five paragraphs with three sup-topics each.However, I do not feel it should be used for every type of report or essay. I believe that too ridged of a form can inhibit creativity due to trying too hard to meet a certain format or think of another sub-topic Just to fill a page. This can lead to â€Å"fluff in a report that can diminish its overall effectiveness. For instance when I write I don't do any formatting at all until I'm finished. I feel I can right more freely when I don't have to worry about the specifics, and I can go back and edit everything when finished.This may not be the most effective method of writing a report, but it works for me for right now. I definitely hope to improve in my writing abilities as a result of this class; as I normally struggle with creativity in the literary form and most reports lack luster due to my Inability to elaborate on a given topic. So, to recap, I believe White's paper was well written, organized, and thought out. It Is effective in the persuasion that essays and reports should be written In a five- paragraph format.I understand he did not say this Is the only way to write a paper, but It seems kind of Implied and I do disagree with that. Theme Theme† essay. The following paragraphs will illustrate my opinion of White's idea, if I think it is an effective means of writing a paper, and if I believe it should be formatting of having five parts to his paper and supporting sub-topics, and it's written in an easy to follow logical order that someone could easily duplicate. I am by no means an expert on grammar and punctua tion, but it also seemed to be aromatically correct as well.Overall I think his idea off five-paragraph theme will another sub-topic Just to fill a page. This can lead to â€Å"fluff' in a report that can diminish its overall effectiveness. For instance when I write I don't do any formatting at all until I'm finished. I feel I can right more freely when I don't have to worry about inability to elaborate on a given topic. It is effective in the persuasion that essays and reports should be written in a five- paragraph format. I understand he did not say this is the only way to write a paper, but it seems kind of implied and I do disagree with that.