Report On Oluadah Equiano Essays - Racism, Olaudah Equiano

Report On Oluadah Equiano History The Interesting Narrative of Olaudah Equiano Slavery has been an issue in the world since ancient times, and in only the last one hundred and fifty years has it been dine away with in our country. The way slaves were regarded was different according to the various cultures around the earth due to regional traditions and the goods that were produced in that area. The enslavement of the African Americans did not begin with the South Atlantic System, it existed in Africa's own various native tribes for centuries. In The Interesting Narrative of Olaudah Equiano, Equiano recalls the slavery in his own tribe the Ibo. The slavery *censored* sucker system of his African tribe that he witnessed as a child differed from what he would experience as an adult. First, a man could not be kidnapped and made into a slave within the African community. In fact, a man could become a slave as a punishment for kidnapping or other crimes such as adultery. One could also become a slave if he/she was a captured enemy (Interesting Narrative 38). The Europeans, however, rounded up slaves with no thought of any African's personal lives and captured them for the sole purpose of enslaving them. When they did not ?round up? the Africans themselves they would trade goods for slaves which caused tribes to attack other tribes for horny slaves to increase their own wealth and status (America 68). These two factors left damage to the African tribes. Equiano recalls that the slaves taken by his Ibo people were almost treated as one of the family. The slaves do the same amount of work that any other member of the family would do (Interesting Narrative 41). When Equiano reached the West Indies he saw the Africans being literally worked to death, because they were so numerous and wouldn't lose money if they perished. Another principal difference in the treatment of slaves between Africa and Europe was lodging. In the Ibo tribe, the master of the slaves had them live inside his complex and dwelt in houses nearly the same manner as he did (Interesting Narrative 37,41). In contrast, Equiano witnessed the lodgings in the West Indies to be horrid. ?They are often open sheds, built in damp places? the poor structures of the hut left the slaves cold and damp, the perfect conditions for disease to flourish in (Interesting Narrative 94). In the Ibo tribe the slave food rations were the same as the rest of the household. They usually had perm ission to marry, and their children were born free (America 66). After Equiano was kidnapped he experiences African slavery, which is mixed with harsh and fair treatment. Equiano reaches the coast and sees streptococus Europeans for the first time, he says ?If ten thousand worlds had been my own I would have freely parted with them all to exchange my condition with that of the meanest slave in my country? (Interesting Narrative 54). He probably would have given this if he had known he was headed for the dilsilious middle passage. If the Africans survived the middle passage they were mostly taken to the West Indies and then to other destinations (America 67). The more slaves that inhabited an area, the more replaceable they became, and this and other factors contributed to the differences in slavery from place to place. Oluadah Equiano came in contact with slavery in many places all over the world including the West Indies, Virginia, Georgia, London and Philadelphia and in each place the form of slavery varied. According to Eqiuano, the harshest slave conditions were in the West Indies. Most West Indian planters treated the slaves like animals. They were very expendable because sugar prices were high, and slave prices were low (America 73). Most slaves were malnourished and lacked adequate housing. They were under strict regulations because the slave population was much greater than that of the Europeans of the islands. They controlled the Africans with fear. Africans had no rights as citizens as Equiano points out. He tells of an African man who owned a boat, which was taken from him with no compensation. He also tells of how Africans were dismembered and tortured for

Keeping Close to Home Essay Essay Example

Keeping Close to Home Essay Essay Example Keeping Close to Home Essay Essay Keeping Close to Home Essay Essay Bell Hooks essay â€Å"Keeping Close to Home† . describes her battles after she was accepted at Stanford University to foster her self-fulfillment. In this essay Hooks negotiations about her journey to educate herself and no losing her sense of where she came from as African American adult female from a working category background. Hooks parents wanted her to travel to a school near to place. a non-diverse like Stanford was. They wanted her to travel to a school no merely near to place but were the bulk were black excessively. Her household biggest fright was her girl altering her head or losing her values and the connexion with them. They knew college alteration people. However Hooks found the manner to maintain stopping point to place by sing every twelvemonth. sometimes when she couldn’t travel place because she didn’t have the money to travel. she had to remain at school. she expresses in a transition how her household wasn’t happy or supportive about her determination about her traveling to Stanford. As she said â€Å"My parents had non being delighted that I had been accepted ad adamantly opposed my traveling so far from place. At the same clip. I did non see their resistance as an look of their fright that they would lose me everlastingly. â€Å"Like many propertyless folks. they feared what college instruction might make to their children’s even as they unenthusiastically acknowledge its importance† ( 101 ) . Most childs have a really strong cognition about were they come from like Hooks was. opposite to some others which doesn’t. this make them to be weak. they could alter their values and they might bury about their households and community. . When childs go to college they are in touch with many different people from different backgrounds. It is normal that their parents could be afraid of their childs altering their heads afterwards they will be populating off from place and this could go on. This changes depend on how strong their roots are. Having no contact with no contact with their households that could go on. like Hooks explains on her essay when she said â€Å"Often I tell pupils from hapless and propertyless backgrounds that if you believe [ that ] what you have learned and are larning in schools and universities separates you from your yesteryear. this is exactly what will go on. It is of import to stand house in the strong belief that nil can truly separate us from our yesteryears when we nurture and cherish that connection† ( 108 ) . The best manner to keep the values our household gave us when we go off from place either to college or to populate far from our households is maintaining in touch with them for this purpose talk to our households one time in a piece will be good besides neer bury were we came from. When I read Hooks essay. this send me back in clip to the twelvemonth of 1979 when I graduate from High School. As I was reading her essay I felt that Hooks and I had the same battles. Before I graduate from High School I had my head set about traveling to college. My household was really hapless. My female parent was ever a really difficult worker adult female. she ironed all the vicinity vesture. I am really proud of my female parent being a individual female parent she was capable to race my small sister and I all by herself after my pa past off when I was 12 old ages old Hooks’s negotiations about how proud she was about her male parent excessively when she said â€Å" â€Å" I neer knew how hapless we were until I needed to travel to college. I knew I will necessitate to happen a occupation to foster my instruction. Hooks reveals all the hurting and struggles she had after she was accepted at Stanford. how her parents were non supportive. I had the same exact battles. My female parent was really disquieted when I told her about my determination on traveling to school. she argues with me about how her friend’s childs neer came back to their places and how they stop sing their parents after they went to school. My female parent was non being really supportive like Hooks parents were. She teaches us to how to be loving. caring. how to esteem each other in the household and everyone else. She wanted for me merely to happen a occupation near to my house. she even talked with the proprietors of this pharmaceutics on the corner of my house to give me a occupation as a teller. She said I should remain place and assist her with the house jobs. she neer thought I could be anything more than a housework. We lived in a really little town called Villa Canales which was eight hours off from the college I decided to travel. That was the most painful determination I had of all time made. After all I was the first coevals trave ling to college. My household was really tight with really strong values. My sister and I used to pass all our summers holidaies at my grandma’s house when we were small. we loved to listen all the narratives she had to state us. while we grow up. This made my household really similar to Hooks’s household. However my female parent was afraid of me being far from her and my small sister and bury about them which didn’t happen. Even when the communicating was non easy in Guatemala where I grow up. I did all my attempts keeping communicating with my household. Distance was non adequate ground for me to halt maintaining in touch with them the same and neer bury about all the instructions she gave me. The same manner Hooks neer stopped her contact and communicating with her household. The intent of her essay is to reason about that pupils coming from a working category background should non be ashamed where they come from nor either forget about their households. Traveling to school far from place shouldn’t alteration people. at least no their values. To maintain this values integral people demands to maintain the connexion as Hooks did by maintaining in touch with her household and community. Universities separates households this should non go on because the lone manner we keep our values is being tight with our households.

Depression Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Depression - Research Paper Example If there was one word that could be used as an umbrella term to cover all the feelings resulting from depression that would be â€Å"hopelessness†. Depression is a serious disorder but can be treated if adequate measures are taken in time without delay. Learning about the potential causes, signs and symptoms of depression is indeed, the very first step in the way towards its resolution, treatment and prevention. What is depression? Depression is essentially an illness which affects and takes control of an individual’s mood, thoughts and the whole body. Under the influence of depression, an individual becomes pessimistic in his/her approach towards himself/herself and his/her eating and sleeping habits are particularly affected. Many people suffering from depression take eating as a means to escape depression. In their attempt to relieve their tension, they seek refuge in the taste of food. The resulting overeating makes them gain weight and many end up becoming obese. W here food intake is increased, there is a significant decrease in the amount of sleep. People suffering from depression either can not sleep or have nightmares when they sleep. They are haunted by ferocious dreams which interrupt the sleep. It is not possible for an individual that has a depressive disease to â€Å"pull himself/herself together† and start feeling better. ... There are four major kinds of depression, namely major depression, atypical depression, dysthemia, and seasonal affective disorder. They are explained below: 1. Major depression Thus type of depression is largely characterized by an individual’s lack of tendency to feel pleasure in life. The lack of enjoyment is persistent and uninterrupted. This makes the depression aggravate with the passage of time. However, even if no treatment is taken, major depression usually occupies the patient for 6 months. Most of the people experience a single episode of depression in their whole life. The disorder is generally recurring but there are medicines and treatment to minimize the recurrence. In the West, major depression is the No. 1 psychological disorder in the contemporary age (clinical-depression.co.uk, 2011) which is increasing among all communities and age groups, particularly among the youth. It is estimated that by 2020, major depression will be the second most disabling disorder in addition to the heart disease. In order to fight major depression, most patients resort to the use of antidepressants. They are undoubtedly effective in providing an individual with immediate relief, though they do little to guarantee the individual depression free life. 2. Atypical depression It is essentially a subtype of the major depression. Atypical depression is characterized by a particular symptom pattern that is inclusive of a temporal shift in mood as a result of positive events. An individual suffering from atypical depression feels good when he/she hears good news or when he/she hangs out with peers or friends. Nonetheless, the temporary emotional boost is ephemeral. The potential symptoms of atypical depression include but are not limited to increase of

Critical Literature Review Coursework Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Critical Literature Review - Coursework Example A cultural change is required to counter the widespread acceptance of dishonest practices. De Vries, et al. 2011 Personality traits such as conscientiousness, honesty-humility/integrity are effective predictors of counterproductive academic behaviour. Jones & Spraakman 2011 Faculty member’s instigation of broad-based cheating among students caused the faculty’s dismissal, but administrators excused the students’ participation. Faulty integrity culture skewed students’ perception of ethical behaviour. Kisamore, et al., 2007 Students with poorly-adjusted personality traits are more disposed to cheat due to the influence and interaction of integrity culture. Kitahara, et al., 2009 Case study demonstrated the effectiveness of employing multifaceted, hybrid approaches to ensure academic integrity. Larkin, et al., 2012 Additional enticements to plagiarize and cheat are provided by the use of online media, due to the ease of transmitting exam questions and answer s. Okoro, 2011 Plagiarism in all its forms is often difficult to communicate to students when merely stated in policy. Guided instruction strategies involving student-teacher interaction reduces incidences of unintentional plagiarism. Spain & Robles, 2011 Adoption and enforcement of a systematic Academic Integrity Policy makes adjudication of academic dishonesty cases more effective, reduces future such incidences, and establishes a culture of academic integrity. ... Table 1: Summary of academic journal articles Critical Comparison Determinants of academic integrity: Integrity culture and personality traits A debate exists concerning the factors that determine academic integrity, most commonly cited of which are the academic integrity culture (Tippitt, et al., 2009), and students’ or faculty members’ personal characteristics (De Vries, et al., 2011). Tippitt’s findings on integrity culture is supported by the study by Jones & Spraakman (2011), that fittingly explored the role that faculty members play in advancing academic misconduct. Faculty members’ willingness to cover up graduate students’ plagiarism or other forms of cheating to avoid public scandal, and university administrators’ tendency to overlook these infractions and not discipline faculty members to avoid embarrassment, are common. The Jones et al. study made a good case for integrity culture because it focused on a specific instance where the faculty member himself instigated student misconduct by leaking the departmental examination and quizzes to his class. The faculty member was dismissed, but the administrators decided to excuse the students and merely reduced en masse their grades instead of disciplining them. The cultural issue surfaced in the fact that most of the students interviewed felt there was nothing wrong about obtaining an unfair advantage over the other sections, and did not feel they were responsible for reporting the conduct of their instructor or their peers’ participation. Integrity culture is also central in Thakkar and Weisfeld-Spolter (2012), who determined that acts constituting cheating

Employee Motivation Levels in Hospitality Industry

Employee Motivation Levels in Hospitality Industry INTRODUCTION The most important intangible product in service industry is the employee itself. Losses caused due to replacing them adds up to the economic s. One of the important tools of employee management ‘Motivation has been missing out of ‘TO DO list from the organisation directors. They seems to believe that since there are less jobs outside available due to recession in todays job market, employee would not leave and we are in favour to keep them. Fewer turnovers experienced from employee side but what about the productivity of employee. Can that be tackled by forcing the employee to do whatever as the contract always says, ‘duties could vary according to business requirements, or disciplinary follow? Organizations become better places to work through improving leadership skills and corporate culture change. Businesses working on a network of hierarchies imagine a business like a triple-decker bus, the directors of the business are on the top deck, the managers are on the middle deck and the employees are on the lower deck. As the bus runs on its normal day to day business, down the normal streets picking up normal day to day people. What is happening is that the bus should be stopping at various bus stops in order to recruit new employees and managers, so that they can come on the bus and of course obviously let the team members off the bus if they decide to leave. The directors would begin to become conscious that the number of employees leaving the bus is increasing and they are not really quite sure why? So they decide what they should do is to commission an employee survey. Now the cost of the employee turnover is obviously something that is an issue or can be an issue for va rious businesses. All organizations heavily invest in the human resource department. The cost of interviewing, hiring, training, developing, maintaining and retaining employees are very high. Therefore, managers at all costs must minimize employees dissatisfaction and take every step possible to reduce it. Although, there is no standard framework for understanding the employees turnover process as whole, a wide range of factors have been found useful in interpreting employee turnover (Kevin, 2004). Therefore, there is need to develop a fuller understanding of the employee turnover, more especially, the sources. What determines employee turnover, affects and strategies that managers can put in place to minimize turnover. During this weakened economic condition and heightening competition, organizations must continue to develop tangible products and provide services which are based on strategies created by employees. These employees are extremely crucial to the organization since their value to the orga nization is essentially intangible and not easily replicated. Therefore, senior managers must recognize that employees are major contributors to the efficient achievement of the organizations success (Abbasi, 2000). Managers should control employee turnover for the benefit of the organizations success. AIM Critically analyse employee motivation level in hospitality industry with a particular focus on operations management. OBJECTIVE 1. To investigate the need of motivation in hospitality industry 2. To examine the damage caused with de-motivation 3. To critically access alternatives in reducing employee turnover 4. To provide strategic evaluation for motivating operations management whilst smooth running of the business RATIONALE Several businesses now days are easily slipping into administration; it is not only several job loses but also a huge loss of efforts made by operating team to bring the business to a certain stage to employ that many employees. Truly speaking, businesses are not built solely to provide jobs and the best comfortable environment for people within the community. They are out there to make money and progress which could be any industry. The purpose of this dissertation is to focus on hospitality industry, where we need to find the root of employee turnover. It is easy for a staff at lower level to move in and out of an organisation in relation to the operating management team. What causes that to happen at first place? Do line managers not see the importance of increasing motivation during difficult times? Are management in need of motivation themselves? Are they much more worried about there own survival? So if the upper management team is satisfied, they would certainly be in a positi on to furnish their head of departments easily. Global economic condition is struggling and has to face continues challenges with competitions growing. It cannot be right for a profit organisation to just vanish with small bumps of recession. Of course, both employee and business are affected with these downfalls. A need has aroused to look into this matter because as its a fact that turnover has always been one of the high business expenses, thus at the time of recession as the economic conditions are not stable, businesses should do something to beat this cost in hand. Motivation is the cure that spurns employees eagerness to work without pressure. To say that nobody can motivate a team employee at work is like saying there are no influential leaders, there are no effective managers, there are no motivational speakers, the psychologists in sports management teams are useless and that motivation is not achievable. Motivation has been used by effective managers to prompt ordinary people to achieve uncommon results in all fields of endeavours. LITERATURE REVIEW Vast amount of literature is available in how to motivate your employee, and it would be applicable in the real world around. Simple definition of Motivation by Lindner, J. R. (1998) can be as â€Å"the inner force that drives individuals to accomplish personal and organizational goals.† Understanding what motivated employees and how they were motivated was the focus of many researchers following the publication of the Hawthorne Study results (Terpstra, 1979). Five major approaches that have led to the understanding of motivation are Maslows need-hierarchy theory, Herzbergs two- factor theory, Vrooms expectancy theory, Adams equity theory, and Skinners reinforcement theory. According to Maslow, employees have five levels of needs (Maslow, 1943): physiological, safety, social, ego, and self- actualizing. Maslow argued that lower level needs had to be satisfied before the next higher level need would motivate employees. Herzbergs work categorized motivation into two factors: motivators and hygienes (Herzberg, Mausner, Snyderman, 1959). Motivator or intrinsic factors, such as achievement and recognition, produce job satisfaction. Hygiene or extrinsic factors, such as pay and job security, produce job dissatisfaction. Vrooms theory is based on the belief that employee effort will lead to performance and performance will lead to rewards (Vroom, 1964). Rewards may be either positive or negative. The more positive the reward the more likely the employee will be highly motivated. Conversely, the more negative the reward the less likely the employee will be motivated. Adams theory states that employees strive for equity between themselves and other workers. Equ ity is achieved when the ratio of employee outcomes over inputs is equal to other employee outcomes over inputs (Adams, 1965). Skinners theory simply states those employees behaviours that lead to positive outcomes will be repeated and behaviours that lead to negative outcomes will not be repeated (Skinner, 1953). Managers should positively reinforce employee behaviours that lead to positive outcomes. Managers should negatively reinforce employee behaviour that leads to negative outcomes. Motivation defined by some of the authors is the psychological process that gives behaviour purpose and direction (Kreitner, 1995); a predisposition to behave in a purposive manner to achieve specific, unmet needs (Buford, Bedeian, Lindner, 1995); an internal drive to satisfy an unsatisfied need (Higgins, 1994); and the will to achieve (Bedeian, 1993); and also more. Employee turnover is the rotation of workers around the labour market; between firms, jobs and occupations; and between the states of employment and unemployment (Abassi et al. 2000). Whereas the term â€Å"turnover† defined by (Price (1977) as: the ratio of the number of organizational members who have left during the period being considered divided by the average number of people in that organization during the period. Frequently, managers refer to turnover as the entire process associated with filling a vacancy: Each time a position is vacated, either voluntarily or involuntarily, a new employee must be hired and trained. This replacement cycle is known as turnover (Woods, 1995). This term is also often utilized in efforts to measure relationships of employees in an organization as they leave, regardless of reason. â€Å"Unfolding model† of voluntary turnover represents a divergence from traditional thinking (Hom and (Griffeth, 1995) by focusing more on the decisiona l aspect of employee turnover, in other words, showing instances of voluntary turnover as decisions to quit. Indeed, the model is based on a theory of decision making, image theory (Beach, 1990). The image theory describes the process of how individuals process information during decision making. The underlying premise of the model is that people leave organizations after they have analyzed the reasons for quitting. (Beach, 1990) argues that individuals seldom have the cognitive resources to systematically evaluate all incoming information, so individuals instead, simply and quickly compare incoming information to more heuristic type of decision making alternatives or a more rule of thumb type of decision making. Most researchers (Bluedorn, 1982; Kalliath and Beck, 2001; Kramer, 1995; Peters., 1981; Saks, 1996) have attempted to answer the question of what determines peoples intention to quit by investigating possible antecedents of employees intentions to quit. To date, there has been little consistency in findings, which is partly due to the diversity of employees included by the researchers and the lack of consistency in their findings. Therefore, there are several reasons why people quit from one organization to another or why people leave organization. The experience of job related stress (job stress), the range factors that lead to job related stress (Stressors), lack of commitment in the organization; and job dissatisfaction results in employees deciding to quit (Firth et al. 2004). This evidently indicates that these are individual decisions that cause employees to quit their jobs. They are other factors like personal agency refers to concepts such as a sense of powerlessness, locus o f control and personal control. Locus control refers to the extent to which people believe that the external factors such as chance and other powerful people are in control of the events which influence their lives Firth et al. (2004). (Manu (2004) argue that employees quit from organization due economic reasons. Using economic model they showed that people quit from organization due to economic reasons and these can be used to predict the labour turnover in the market. Good local labour market conditions improve organizational stability (Schervish, 1983). Large organizations can provide employees with better chances for progression and higher wages and hence ensure loyalty towards the organization (Idson and Feaster 1990). Trevor (2001) argues that local unemployment rates interact with job satisfaction to predict turnover in the market. Role stressors also lead to employees turnover. Role ambiguity refers to the difference between what people expect of us on the job and what we fe el we should do. This uncertainty is usually caused due to inadequate and blurred communication, As a result, it causes uncertainty about what our role should be. It can be a result of misunderstanding what is expected, how to meet the expectations, or the employee thinking the job should be different (Kahn et al. Muchinsky, 1990). Insufficient information on how to perform the job adequately, unclear expectations of peers and supervisors, ambiguity of performance evaluation methods, extensive job pressures, and lack of consensus on job functions or duties may cause employees to feel less involved and less satisfied with their jobs and careers, less committed to their organizations, and eventually display a propensity to leave the organization. If roles of employees are not clearly spelled out by management and supervisors, it would accelerate the degree of employees quitting their jobs due to lack of role clarity. And that is what happens at the lower level of the Bus organisation. Voluntarily vs. involuntary turnover There are some factors that are, in part, beyond the control of management, such as the unforeseen event of death of an employee or incapacity of a member of staff. Other factors have been classed as involuntary turnover in the past such as the need to provide care for children or aged relatives. Today such factors should not be seen as involuntary turnover as both government regulation and company policies create the chance for such staff to come back to work, or to continue to work on a more flexible basis (Simon, 2007). Organizational factors Organizational instability is one of the leading factors of a high degree of employee turnover. Indications are that employees are more likely to stay when there is a predictable work environment and vice versa (Zuber, 2001). Moreover, In organizations where there was a high level of inefficiency there was also a high level of staff turnover (Alexander 1994). Therefore, in situations where organizations are not stable employees tend to quit and look for stable organizations because stable organizations enable the employees to predict their career advancement. The imposition of a quantitative approach to managing the employees led to disenchantment of staff and hence it leads to labour turnover. Therefore senior management should not use quantitative approach in managing its employees. Adopting a cost oriented approach to employment costs increases labour turnover (Simon, 2007). All these approaches should be avoided if managers want to minimize employee turnover an increase organizational competitiveness in this environment of economic downturn. Employees have a strong need to be informed. Organization with strong communication systems enjoyed lower turnover of staff (Labov, 1997). Employees feel comfortable to stay longer, in positions where they are involved in some level of the decision-making process. That is employees should fully understand about issues that affect their working atmosphere (Magner, 1996). But in the absence of sharing information, employee empowerment the chances of continuity of employees are minimal. (Costly, 1987) points out that a high labour turnover may mean poor personnel policies, poor recruitment policies, poor supervisory practices, poor grievance procedures, or lack of motivation. All these factors contribute to high employee turnover in the sense that there is no proper management practices and policies on personnel matter s hence employees are not recruited scientifically, promotions of employees are not based on spelled out policies, no grievance procedures are in place and thus employees decides to quit. (Griffeth, 2000) noted that pay and pay-related variables have a modest effect on turnover. Their analysis also included studies that examined the relationship between pay, a persons performance and turnover. They concluded that when high performers are insufficiently rewarded, they quit. If jobs provide adequate financial incentives the more likely employees remain with organization and vice versa. There are also other factors which make employees to quit from organizations and these are poor hiring practices, managerial style and lack of recognition, lack of competitive compensation system in the organization (Abassi, 2000). Effects of employee turnover Employee turnover could be very expensive from the organizations point of view, and affects could be more during the hard-hitting period of recession. There are mainly two factors that effect employee turnover. Voluntary quits which represents a mass departure of human capital investment from organizations and the following replacement process entails manifold costs to the organizations (Fair, 1992). The replacement costs would include, search of the external labour market for a possible substitute, selection between competing substitutes, induction of the chosen substitute, and formal and informal training of the substitute until he or she attains performance levels equivalent to the individual who quit (John, 2000). In addition to these replacement costs, output would be affected to some extend or output would be maintained at the cost of overtime payment. The reason so much attention has been paid to the issue of turnover is because turnover has very significant effects on organiz ations (DeMicco and Giridharan, 1987; Dyke and Strick, 1990; Cantrell and Saranakhsh, 1991; Denvir and Mcmahon, 1992).Many researchers argue that high turnover rates might have negative effects on the profitability of organizations if not managed properly. Moreover, turnover can play a key role in de-motivating employees, resulting in low productivity, inefficient output and therefore loss. Turnover has many hidden or invisible costs (Philips, 1990) and these invisible costs are result of incoming employees, co-workers closely associated with incoming employees, co-workers closely associated with departing employees and position being filled while vacant. And all these affect the profitability of the organization. On the other hand turnover also affects customer service and satisfaction (Kemal, 2002).Catherine (2002) argue that turnover include other costs, such as lost productivity, lost sales, and managements time, estimate the turnover costs of an hourly employee to be US $3,000 to $10,000 each. This clearly demonstrates that turnover affects the profitability of the organization and if its not managed properly it would have the negative effect on the profit. Research estimates indicate that hiring and training a replacement worker for a lost employee costs approximately 50 percent of the workers annual salary (Johnson, 2000) but the costs do not break off there. Eac h time an employee leaves the firm, we presume that productivity drops due to the learning curve involved in understanding the job and the organization. Furthermore, the loss of intellectual capital adds to this cost, since not only do organizations lose the human capital and relational capital of the departing employee, but also competitors are potentially gaining these assets (Meaghan, 2002). Therefore, if employee turnover is not managed properly it would affect the organization adversely in terms of personnel costs and in the long run it would affect its liquidity position. However, voluntary turnover incurs significant cost, both in terms of direct costs (replacement, recruitment and selection, temporary staff, management time), and also and perhaps more significantly in terms of indirect costs (morale, pressure on remaining staff, costs of learning, product/service quality, and the loss of social capital (Dess, 2001). Cost of turnover One simple method to calculate the turnover rate of any business is to divide the number of employees who have left the organization within a year, by the total number of employees who work for that company in the same year. Lets say there were 100 employees at the beginning of the year, and 100 employees at the end of the year, and at the end of the year, 84 of those employees were the same ones as were there the previous year. You might say that the turnover rate was 16%. = 16% But suppose one of those 16 who left was actually replaced three times. The employee quit in January, the replacement quit in April, and another person was hired who lasted only until November. Then you might want to count every time an employee left the company and another one was hired in this case youd get 18%. Another complication: suppose the work force is 100 at the beginning and 90 at the end of the year. Perhaps 16 people have left, but only 6 have been hired during the year, while 2 more were hired and retired within the same year. You might define turnover as 18/100 or as 18/90, or as 18/95, since 95 is the average of 90 and 100. Instead of 95, you might want to do a fancier average, where you actually add up the number of employees on each day of the year, and divide the total by 365. Strategies to minimize employee turnover Strategies on how to minimize employee turnover, confronted with problems of employee turnover, management has several policy options like changing (or improving existing) policies towards recruitment, selection, induction, training, job design and wage payment. Policy choice, however, must be appropriate to the precise diagnosis of the problem. Employee turnover attributable to poor selection procedures, for example, is unlikely to improve were the policy modification to focus exclusively on the induction process. Equally, employee turnover attributable to wage rates which produce earnings that are not competitive with other firms in the local labour market is unlikely to decrease were the policy adjustment merely to enhance the organizations provision of on-the job training opportunities. Given that there is increase in direct and indirect costs of labour turnover, therefore, management are frequently exhorted to identify the reasons why people leave organizations so that appropria te action is taken by the management. Hence, accurate analysis of the cause of turnover is vital to implement the necessary strategy. Extensive research has shown that the following categories of human capital management factors provides a core set of measures that senior management can use to increase the effectiveness of their investment in people and improve overall corporate performance of business: Employee engagement, the organizations capacity to engage, retain, and optimize the value of its employees hinges on how well jobs are designed, how employees time is used, and the commitment and support that is shown to employees by the management would motivate employees to stay in organizations. Knowledge accessibility, the extent of the organizations collaboration and its capacity for making knowledge and ideas widely available to employees, would motivate employees to stay in the organization. Sharing of information should be made at all levels of management. This accessibility of information would lead to strong performance from the employees and creating strong corporate culture (Meaghan, 2002). Therefore; in formation accessibility would make employees feel that they are appreciated for their effort and chances of leaving the organization are minimal. Workforce optimization, the organizations success in optimizing the performance of the employees by establishing essential processes for getting work done, providing good working conditions, establishing accountability and making good hiring choices would retain employees in their organization. The importance of gaining better understanding of the factors related to recruitment, motivation and retention of employees is further underscored by rising personnel costs and high rates of employee turnover (Badawy, 1988; Basta and Johnson, 1989; Garden, 1989; Parden, 1981; Sherman, 1986). With increased competitiveness during recession, managers in many organizations are experiencing greater pressure from top management to improve recruitment, selection, training, and retention of good employees and in the long run would encourage employees to st ay in organizations. Job involvement describes an individuals ego involvement with work and indicates the extent to which an individual identifies psychologically with his/her job (Kanungo, 1982). Involvement in terms of internalizing values about the goodness or the importance of work motivated employees not to quit their jobs and these involvements are related to task characteristics. Workers who have a greater variety of tasks tend to stay with the job. Task characteristics have been found to be potential determinants of turnover among employees (Couger, 1988; Couger and Kawasaki, 1980; Garden, 1989; Goldstein and Rockart, 1984). These include the five core job characteristics identified by (Hackman and Oldham (1975, 1980): skill variety, which refers to the opportunity to utilize a variety of valued skills and talents on the job; task identity, or the extent to which a job requires completion of a whole and identifiable piece of work that is, doing a job from beginning to end, with visible results; task significance, which reflects the extent to which the job has a substantial impact on the lives or work of other people, whether within or outside the organization; job autonomy, or the extent to which the job provides freedom, independence, and discretion in scheduling work and determining procedures that the job provides; and job feedback, which refers to the extent to which the job provides information about the effectiveness of ones performance (Tor, 1997). Involvement would influence job satisfaction and increase organizational commitment of the employees. Employees who are more involved in their jobs are more satisfied with their jobs and more committed to their organization (Blau and Boal, 1989; Brooke and Price, 1989; Brooke et al., 1988; Kanungo, 1982). Job involvement has also been found to be negatively related to turnover intentions (Blat and Boal, 1989). Job satisfaction, career satisfaction, and organizational commitment reflect a positive attitude towards the organization, thus having a direct influence on employee turnover intentions. Job satisfaction, job involvement and organizational commitment are considered to be related but distinguishable attitudes (Brooke and Price, 1989). Satisfaction represents an effective response to specific aspects of the job or career and denotes the pleasurable or positive emotional state resulting from an appraisal of ones job or career (Locke, 1976; Porter, 1974; Williams and Hazer, 1986).Organizational commitment is an effective response to the whole organization and the degree of attachme nt or loyalty employees feel towards the organization. Job involvement represents the extent to which employees are absorbed in or preoccupied with their jobs and the extent to which an individual identifies with his/her job (Brooke, 1988).The degree of commitment and loyalty can be achieved if management they enrich the jobs, empower and compensate employees properly. Empowerment of employees could help to enhance the continuity of employees in organizations. Empowered employees where managers supervise more people than in a traditional hierarchy and delegate more decisions to their subordinates (Malone, 1997). Managers act like coaches and help employees solve problems. Employees, he concludes, have increased responsibility. Superiors empowering subordinates by delegating responsibilities to them leads to subordinates who are more satisfied with their leaders and consider them to be fair and in turn to perform up to the superiors expectations (Keller and Dansereau, 1995). All thes e factors ensure employees commitment towards the organization and chances of quitting are minimal. Strategic guidelines for motivating staff whilst smooth running of the business When the economy is on a slippery slope and when spirits are down, how do managers pick themselves and others up, so that they can meet the ongoing challenges? Hotels still have to operate, and services still need to be provided by employees who are working harder than ever before just so that their organization can survive. Therefore companies need to have some strategic policies to deal with employee motivation during hard times. Lend a listening ear Now, more than ever before, the manager needs to listen to what employees are saying, not only to what may seem to be the surface issues, but also to the underlying issues. Roxanne Emmerich, President of The Emmerich Group, stated in an article for the Indiana Bankers Association that, â€Å"Guilt, fear, paranoia—as well as a few other destructive emotions—can freeze peoples performance during tough times. The natural response is for a leader to click his or her heels with the hopes of ending up in Kansas. Denial is the natural response when things get tough, but many leaders never move beyond that. The thought of talking about feelings openly sends shivers down the spines of many managers, and ignoring these emotions only causes greater challenges.† In the November 7, 2008, issue of The Wall Street Journal, Jim Harter co-author of â€Å"72; The Elements of Great Managing† and a researcher with Gallup, stated in an interview about motivation that, â€Å"O rganizations have to put more attention into it. They have to communicate more.† Hence if we wish to motivate the staff during tough times, managers need to communicate more, not less. Be an advocate rather than an adversary Brian Mclvor, author of â€Å"Career Detection: Funding and Managing Your Career† stated in an interview published in the The Irish Times, on February 9, 2009, â€Å"You need to be honest and realistic with people organizations are changing all bets are off.† However, while discussions with employees may have to be framed against that background, news doesnt have to be all gloom and doom. Managers need to be advocates for their organizations and realistic about opportunities within the organization. The manager should be an advocate for the future rather than an adversary against the future, which can be an un-stabilizing influence in the organization. Emmerich states, â€Å"Lead your people to the understanding that even during the darkest of times, many do well, and you intend to be one of those. Your team needs to shift out of their doomsday story and into one of possibilities. When people say We cant because, the broken record response needs to be, Well, how CAN we ?â€Å" Therefore, be an advocate for the vision rather than an adversary against the vision. Look for the silver lining In the February 27, 2009 issue of Business Week, there is an interesting article by Patricia OConnell. The article discusses a first look at a recent Accenture survey that reveals that women and men feel they have more to offer their employers. OConnell states, â€Å"Managers looking for an edge amid a dismal economy, likely hiring freezes, and even staff cuts may have a hidden resource—their own underutilized staff. According to a winter 2008 Accenture survey, 46 percent of women and 49 percent of men worldwide believe they are insufficiently challenged in their jobs.† This affords unique opportunities to organizations that will reap possible benefits for employees as well as employers. This may be a time to review the opportunities and challenges of an organization and how the skill sets of individual employees may be used to enrich jobs and the workplace. Armelle Carminati, Managing Director of Human Capital and Diversity at Accenture, stated, â€Å"Companies should shy away from the one size- fits-all approach with workers The art of tailoring a career offering is the new space where employers have to go and will be the key to both employees and employers success.† As time gets tighter and the work force slimmer, this presents a unique opportunity for employers and employees to sit down as a team and evaluate the possibilities for the future. It is amazing the skill sets and aptitudes that may be uncovered when people are challenged to rise to the occasion. When things go downhill, up-skill â€Å"Up-skill† is a term used in The Irish Times article cited earlier that basically encourages coordinated training during tight economic times. For companies to survive and for employees to retain their jobs, it Employee Motivation Levels in Hospitality Industry Employee Motivation Levels in Hospitality Industry INTRODUCTION The most important intangible product in service industry is the employee itself. Losses caused due to replacing them adds up to the economic s. One of the important tools of employee management ‘Motivation has been missing out of ‘TO DO list from the organisation directors. They seems to believe that since there are less jobs outside available due to recession in todays job market, employee would not leave and we are in favour to keep them. Fewer turnovers experienced from employee side but what about the productivity of employee. Can that be tackled by forcing the employee to do whatever as the contract always says, ‘duties could vary according to business requirements, or disciplinary follow? Organizations become better places to work through improving leadership skills and corporate culture change. Businesses working on a network of hierarchies imagine a business like a triple-decker bus, the directors of the business are on the top deck, the managers are on the middle deck and the employees are on the lower deck. As the bus runs on its normal day to day business, down the normal streets picking up normal day to day people. What is happening is that the bus should be stopping at various bus stops in order to recruit new employees and managers, so that they can come on the bus and of course obviously let the team members off the bus if they decide to leave. The directors would begin to become conscious that the number of employees leaving the bus is increasing and they are not really quite sure why? So they decide what they should do is to commission an employee survey. Now the cost of the employee turnover is obviously something that is an issue or can be an issue for va rious businesses. All organizations heavily invest in the human resource department. The cost of interviewing, hiring, training, developing, maintaining and retaining employees are very high. Therefore, managers at all costs must minimize employees dissatisfaction and take every step possible to reduce it. Although, there is no standard framework for understanding the employees turnover process as whole, a wide range of factors have been found useful in interpreting employee turnover (Kevin, 2004). Therefore, there is need to develop a fuller understanding of the employee turnover, more especially, the sources. What determines employee turnover, affects and strategies that managers can put in place to minimize turnover. During this weakened economic condition and heightening competition, organizations must continue to develop tangible products and provide services which are based on strategies created by employees. These employees are extremely crucial to the organization since their value to the orga nization is essentially intangible and not easily replicated. Therefore, senior managers must recognize that employees are major contributors to the efficient achievement of the organizations success (Abbasi, 2000). Managers should control employee turnover for the benefit of the organizations success. AIM Critically analyse employee motivation level in hospitality industry with a particular focus on operations management. OBJECTIVE 1. To investigate the need of motivation in hospitality industry 2. To examine the damage caused with de-motivation 3. To critically access alternatives in reducing employee turnover 4. To provide strategic evaluation for motivating operations management whilst smooth running of the business RATIONALE Several businesses now days are easily slipping into administration; it is not only several job loses but also a huge loss of efforts made by operating team to bring the business to a certain stage to employ that many employees. Truly speaking, businesses are not built solely to provide jobs and the best comfortable environment for people within the community. They are out there to make money and progress which could be any industry. The purpose of this dissertation is to focus on hospitality industry, where we need to find the root of employee turnover. It is easy for a staff at lower level to move in and out of an organisation in relation to the operating management team. What causes that to happen at first place? Do line managers not see the importance of increasing motivation during difficult times? Are management in need of motivation themselves? Are they much more worried about there own survival? So if the upper management team is satisfied, they would certainly be in a positi on to furnish their head of departments easily. Global economic condition is struggling and has to face continues challenges with competitions growing. It cannot be right for a profit organisation to just vanish with small bumps of recession. Of course, both employee and business are affected with these downfalls. A need has aroused to look into this matter because as its a fact that turnover has always been one of the high business expenses, thus at the time of recession as the economic conditions are not stable, businesses should do something to beat this cost in hand. Motivation is the cure that spurns employees eagerness to work without pressure. To say that nobody can motivate a team employee at work is like saying there are no influential leaders, there are no effective managers, there are no motivational speakers, the psychologists in sports management teams are useless and that motivation is not achievable. Motivation has been used by effective managers to prompt ordinary people to achieve uncommon results in all fields of endeavours. LITERATURE REVIEW Vast amount of literature is available in how to motivate your employee, and it would be applicable in the real world around. Simple definition of Motivation by Lindner, J. R. (1998) can be as â€Å"the inner force that drives individuals to accomplish personal and organizational goals.† Understanding what motivated employees and how they were motivated was the focus of many researchers following the publication of the Hawthorne Study results (Terpstra, 1979). Five major approaches that have led to the understanding of motivation are Maslows need-hierarchy theory, Herzbergs two- factor theory, Vrooms expectancy theory, Adams equity theory, and Skinners reinforcement theory. According to Maslow, employees have five levels of needs (Maslow, 1943): physiological, safety, social, ego, and self- actualizing. Maslow argued that lower level needs had to be satisfied before the next higher level need would motivate employees. Herzbergs work categorized motivation into two factors: motivators and hygienes (Herzberg, Mausner, Snyderman, 1959). Motivator or intrinsic factors, such as achievement and recognition, produce job satisfaction. Hygiene or extrinsic factors, such as pay and job security, produce job dissatisfaction. Vrooms theory is based on the belief that employee effort will lead to performance and performance will lead to rewards (Vroom, 1964). Rewards may be either positive or negative. The more positive the reward the more likely the employee will be highly motivated. Conversely, the more negative the reward the less likely the employee will be motivated. Adams theory states that employees strive for equity between themselves and other workers. Equ ity is achieved when the ratio of employee outcomes over inputs is equal to other employee outcomes over inputs (Adams, 1965). Skinners theory simply states those employees behaviours that lead to positive outcomes will be repeated and behaviours that lead to negative outcomes will not be repeated (Skinner, 1953). Managers should positively reinforce employee behaviours that lead to positive outcomes. Managers should negatively reinforce employee behaviour that leads to negative outcomes. Motivation defined by some of the authors is the psychological process that gives behaviour purpose and direction (Kreitner, 1995); a predisposition to behave in a purposive manner to achieve specific, unmet needs (Buford, Bedeian, Lindner, 1995); an internal drive to satisfy an unsatisfied need (Higgins, 1994); and the will to achieve (Bedeian, 1993); and also more. Employee turnover is the rotation of workers around the labour market; between firms, jobs and occupations; and between the states of employment and unemployment (Abassi et al. 2000). Whereas the term â€Å"turnover† defined by (Price (1977) as: the ratio of the number of organizational members who have left during the period being considered divided by the average number of people in that organization during the period. Frequently, managers refer to turnover as the entire process associated with filling a vacancy: Each time a position is vacated, either voluntarily or involuntarily, a new employee must be hired and trained. This replacement cycle is known as turnover (Woods, 1995). This term is also often utilized in efforts to measure relationships of employees in an organization as they leave, regardless of reason. â€Å"Unfolding model† of voluntary turnover represents a divergence from traditional thinking (Hom and (Griffeth, 1995) by focusing more on the decisiona l aspect of employee turnover, in other words, showing instances of voluntary turnover as decisions to quit. Indeed, the model is based on a theory of decision making, image theory (Beach, 1990). The image theory describes the process of how individuals process information during decision making. The underlying premise of the model is that people leave organizations after they have analyzed the reasons for quitting. (Beach, 1990) argues that individuals seldom have the cognitive resources to systematically evaluate all incoming information, so individuals instead, simply and quickly compare incoming information to more heuristic type of decision making alternatives or a more rule of thumb type of decision making. Most researchers (Bluedorn, 1982; Kalliath and Beck, 2001; Kramer, 1995; Peters., 1981; Saks, 1996) have attempted to answer the question of what determines peoples intention to quit by investigating possible antecedents of employees intentions to quit. To date, there has been little consistency in findings, which is partly due to the diversity of employees included by the researchers and the lack of consistency in their findings. Therefore, there are several reasons why people quit from one organization to another or why people leave organization. The experience of job related stress (job stress), the range factors that lead to job related stress (Stressors), lack of commitment in the organization; and job dissatisfaction results in employees deciding to quit (Firth et al. 2004). This evidently indicates that these are individual decisions that cause employees to quit their jobs. They are other factors like personal agency refers to concepts such as a sense of powerlessness, locus o f control and personal control. Locus control refers to the extent to which people believe that the external factors such as chance and other powerful people are in control of the events which influence their lives Firth et al. (2004). (Manu (2004) argue that employees quit from organization due economic reasons. Using economic model they showed that people quit from organization due to economic reasons and these can be used to predict the labour turnover in the market. Good local labour market conditions improve organizational stability (Schervish, 1983). Large organizations can provide employees with better chances for progression and higher wages and hence ensure loyalty towards the organization (Idson and Feaster 1990). Trevor (2001) argues that local unemployment rates interact with job satisfaction to predict turnover in the market. Role stressors also lead to employees turnover. Role ambiguity refers to the difference between what people expect of us on the job and what we fe el we should do. This uncertainty is usually caused due to inadequate and blurred communication, As a result, it causes uncertainty about what our role should be. It can be a result of misunderstanding what is expected, how to meet the expectations, or the employee thinking the job should be different (Kahn et al. Muchinsky, 1990). Insufficient information on how to perform the job adequately, unclear expectations of peers and supervisors, ambiguity of performance evaluation methods, extensive job pressures, and lack of consensus on job functions or duties may cause employees to feel less involved and less satisfied with their jobs and careers, less committed to their organizations, and eventually display a propensity to leave the organization. If roles of employees are not clearly spelled out by management and supervisors, it would accelerate the degree of employees quitting their jobs due to lack of role clarity. And that is what happens at the lower level of the Bus organisation. Voluntarily vs. involuntary turnover There are some factors that are, in part, beyond the control of management, such as the unforeseen event of death of an employee or incapacity of a member of staff. Other factors have been classed as involuntary turnover in the past such as the need to provide care for children or aged relatives. Today such factors should not be seen as involuntary turnover as both government regulation and company policies create the chance for such staff to come back to work, or to continue to work on a more flexible basis (Simon, 2007). Organizational factors Organizational instability is one of the leading factors of a high degree of employee turnover. Indications are that employees are more likely to stay when there is a predictable work environment and vice versa (Zuber, 2001). Moreover, In organizations where there was a high level of inefficiency there was also a high level of staff turnover (Alexander 1994). Therefore, in situations where organizations are not stable employees tend to quit and look for stable organizations because stable organizations enable the employees to predict their career advancement. The imposition of a quantitative approach to managing the employees led to disenchantment of staff and hence it leads to labour turnover. Therefore senior management should not use quantitative approach in managing its employees. Adopting a cost oriented approach to employment costs increases labour turnover (Simon, 2007). All these approaches should be avoided if managers want to minimize employee turnover an increase organizational competitiveness in this environment of economic downturn. Employees have a strong need to be informed. Organization with strong communication systems enjoyed lower turnover of staff (Labov, 1997). Employees feel comfortable to stay longer, in positions where they are involved in some level of the decision-making process. That is employees should fully understand about issues that affect their working atmosphere (Magner, 1996). But in the absence of sharing information, employee empowerment the chances of continuity of employees are minimal. (Costly, 1987) points out that a high labour turnover may mean poor personnel policies, poor recruitment policies, poor supervisory practices, poor grievance procedures, or lack of motivation. All these factors contribute to high employee turnover in the sense that there is no proper management practices and policies on personnel matter s hence employees are not recruited scientifically, promotions of employees are not based on spelled out policies, no grievance procedures are in place and thus employees decides to quit. (Griffeth, 2000) noted that pay and pay-related variables have a modest effect on turnover. Their analysis also included studies that examined the relationship between pay, a persons performance and turnover. They concluded that when high performers are insufficiently rewarded, they quit. If jobs provide adequate financial incentives the more likely employees remain with organization and vice versa. There are also other factors which make employees to quit from organizations and these are poor hiring practices, managerial style and lack of recognition, lack of competitive compensation system in the organization (Abassi, 2000). Effects of employee turnover Employee turnover could be very expensive from the organizations point of view, and affects could be more during the hard-hitting period of recession. There are mainly two factors that effect employee turnover. Voluntary quits which represents a mass departure of human capital investment from organizations and the following replacement process entails manifold costs to the organizations (Fair, 1992). The replacement costs would include, search of the external labour market for a possible substitute, selection between competing substitutes, induction of the chosen substitute, and formal and informal training of the substitute until he or she attains performance levels equivalent to the individual who quit (John, 2000). In addition to these replacement costs, output would be affected to some extend or output would be maintained at the cost of overtime payment. The reason so much attention has been paid to the issue of turnover is because turnover has very significant effects on organiz ations (DeMicco and Giridharan, 1987; Dyke and Strick, 1990; Cantrell and Saranakhsh, 1991; Denvir and Mcmahon, 1992).Many researchers argue that high turnover rates might have negative effects on the profitability of organizations if not managed properly. Moreover, turnover can play a key role in de-motivating employees, resulting in low productivity, inefficient output and therefore loss. Turnover has many hidden or invisible costs (Philips, 1990) and these invisible costs are result of incoming employees, co-workers closely associated with incoming employees, co-workers closely associated with departing employees and position being filled while vacant. And all these affect the profitability of the organization. On the other hand turnover also affects customer service and satisfaction (Kemal, 2002).Catherine (2002) argue that turnover include other costs, such as lost productivity, lost sales, and managements time, estimate the turnover costs of an hourly employee to be US $3,000 to $10,000 each. This clearly demonstrates that turnover affects the profitability of the organization and if its not managed properly it would have the negative effect on the profit. Research estimates indicate that hiring and training a replacement worker for a lost employee costs approximately 50 percent of the workers annual salary (Johnson, 2000) but the costs do not break off there. Eac h time an employee leaves the firm, we presume that productivity drops due to the learning curve involved in understanding the job and the organization. Furthermore, the loss of intellectual capital adds to this cost, since not only do organizations lose the human capital and relational capital of the departing employee, but also competitors are potentially gaining these assets (Meaghan, 2002). Therefore, if employee turnover is not managed properly it would affect the organization adversely in terms of personnel costs and in the long run it would affect its liquidity position. However, voluntary turnover incurs significant cost, both in terms of direct costs (replacement, recruitment and selection, temporary staff, management time), and also and perhaps more significantly in terms of indirect costs (morale, pressure on remaining staff, costs of learning, product/service quality, and the loss of social capital (Dess, 2001). Cost of turnover One simple method to calculate the turnover rate of any business is to divide the number of employees who have left the organization within a year, by the total number of employees who work for that company in the same year. Lets say there were 100 employees at the beginning of the year, and 100 employees at the end of the year, and at the end of the year, 84 of those employees were the same ones as were there the previous year. You might say that the turnover rate was 16%. = 16% But suppose one of those 16 who left was actually replaced three times. The employee quit in January, the replacement quit in April, and another person was hired who lasted only until November. Then you might want to count every time an employee left the company and another one was hired in this case youd get 18%. Another complication: suppose the work force is 100 at the beginning and 90 at the end of the year. Perhaps 16 people have left, but only 6 have been hired during the year, while 2 more were hired and retired within the same year. You might define turnover as 18/100 or as 18/90, or as 18/95, since 95 is the average of 90 and 100. Instead of 95, you might want to do a fancier average, where you actually add up the number of employees on each day of the year, and divide the total by 365. Strategies to minimize employee turnover Strategies on how to minimize employee turnover, confronted with problems of employee turnover, management has several policy options like changing (or improving existing) policies towards recruitment, selection, induction, training, job design and wage payment. Policy choice, however, must be appropriate to the precise diagnosis of the problem. Employee turnover attributable to poor selection procedures, for example, is unlikely to improve were the policy modification to focus exclusively on the induction process. Equally, employee turnover attributable to wage rates which produce earnings that are not competitive with other firms in the local labour market is unlikely to decrease were the policy adjustment merely to enhance the organizations provision of on-the job training opportunities. Given that there is increase in direct and indirect costs of labour turnover, therefore, management are frequently exhorted to identify the reasons why people leave organizations so that appropria te action is taken by the management. Hence, accurate analysis of the cause of turnover is vital to implement the necessary strategy. Extensive research has shown that the following categories of human capital management factors provides a core set of measures that senior management can use to increase the effectiveness of their investment in people and improve overall corporate performance of business: Employee engagement, the organizations capacity to engage, retain, and optimize the value of its employees hinges on how well jobs are designed, how employees time is used, and the commitment and support that is shown to employees by the management would motivate employees to stay in organizations. Knowledge accessibility, the extent of the organizations collaboration and its capacity for making knowledge and ideas widely available to employees, would motivate employees to stay in the organization. Sharing of information should be made at all levels of management. This accessibility of information would lead to strong performance from the employees and creating strong corporate culture (Meaghan, 2002). Therefore; in formation accessibility would make employees feel that they are appreciated for their effort and chances of leaving the organization are minimal. Workforce optimization, the organizations success in optimizing the performance of the employees by establishing essential processes for getting work done, providing good working conditions, establishing accountability and making good hiring choices would retain employees in their organization. The importance of gaining better understanding of the factors related to recruitment, motivation and retention of employees is further underscored by rising personnel costs and high rates of employee turnover (Badawy, 1988; Basta and Johnson, 1989; Garden, 1989; Parden, 1981; Sherman, 1986). With increased competitiveness during recession, managers in many organizations are experiencing greater pressure from top management to improve recruitment, selection, training, and retention of good employees and in the long run would encourage employees to st ay in organizations. Job involvement describes an individuals ego involvement with work and indicates the extent to which an individual identifies psychologically with his/her job (Kanungo, 1982). Involvement in terms of internalizing values about the goodness or the importance of work motivated employees not to quit their jobs and these involvements are related to task characteristics. Workers who have a greater variety of tasks tend to stay with the job. Task characteristics have been found to be potential determinants of turnover among employees (Couger, 1988; Couger and Kawasaki, 1980; Garden, 1989; Goldstein and Rockart, 1984). These include the five core job characteristics identified by (Hackman and Oldham (1975, 1980): skill variety, which refers to the opportunity to utilize a variety of valued skills and talents on the job; task identity, or the extent to which a job requires completion of a whole and identifiable piece of work that is, doing a job from beginning to end, with visible results; task significance, which reflects the extent to which the job has a substantial impact on the lives or work of other people, whether within or outside the organization; job autonomy, or the extent to which the job provides freedom, independence, and discretion in scheduling work and determining procedures that the job provides; and job feedback, which refers to the extent to which the job provides information about the effectiveness of ones performance (Tor, 1997). Involvement would influence job satisfaction and increase organizational commitment of the employees. Employees who are more involved in their jobs are more satisfied with their jobs and more committed to their organization (Blau and Boal, 1989; Brooke and Price, 1989; Brooke et al., 1988; Kanungo, 1982). Job involvement has also been found to be negatively related to turnover intentions (Blat and Boal, 1989). Job satisfaction, career satisfaction, and organizational commitment reflect a positive attitude towards the organization, thus having a direct influence on employee turnover intentions. Job satisfaction, job involvement and organizational commitment are considered to be related but distinguishable attitudes (Brooke and Price, 1989). Satisfaction represents an effective response to specific aspects of the job or career and denotes the pleasurable or positive emotional state resulting from an appraisal of ones job or career (Locke, 1976; Porter, 1974; Williams and Hazer, 1986).Organizational commitment is an effective response to the whole organization and the degree of attachme nt or loyalty employees feel towards the organization. Job involvement represents the extent to which employees are absorbed in or preoccupied with their jobs and the extent to which an individual identifies with his/her job (Brooke, 1988).The degree of commitment and loyalty can be achieved if management they enrich the jobs, empower and compensate employees properly. Empowerment of employees could help to enhance the continuity of employees in organizations. Empowered employees where managers supervise more people than in a traditional hierarchy and delegate more decisions to their subordinates (Malone, 1997). Managers act like coaches and help employees solve problems. Employees, he concludes, have increased responsibility. Superiors empowering subordinates by delegating responsibilities to them leads to subordinates who are more satisfied with their leaders and consider them to be fair and in turn to perform up to the superiors expectations (Keller and Dansereau, 1995). All thes e factors ensure employees commitment towards the organization and chances of quitting are minimal. Strategic guidelines for motivating staff whilst smooth running of the business When the economy is on a slippery slope and when spirits are down, how do managers pick themselves and others up, so that they can meet the ongoing challenges? Hotels still have to operate, and services still need to be provided by employees who are working harder than ever before just so that their organization can survive. Therefore companies need to have some strategic policies to deal with employee motivation during hard times. Lend a listening ear Now, more than ever before, the manager needs to listen to what employees are saying, not only to what may seem to be the surface issues, but also to the underlying issues. Roxanne Emmerich, President of The Emmerich Group, stated in an article for the Indiana Bankers Association that, â€Å"Guilt, fear, paranoia—as well as a few other destructive emotions—can freeze peoples performance during tough times. The natural response is for a leader to click his or her heels with the hopes of ending up in Kansas. Denial is the natural response when things get tough, but many leaders never move beyond that. The thought of talking about feelings openly sends shivers down the spines of many managers, and ignoring these emotions only causes greater challenges.† In the November 7, 2008, issue of The Wall Street Journal, Jim Harter co-author of â€Å"72; The Elements of Great Managing† and a researcher with Gallup, stated in an interview about motivation that, â€Å"O rganizations have to put more attention into it. They have to communicate more.† Hence if we wish to motivate the staff during tough times, managers need to communicate more, not less. Be an advocate rather than an adversary Brian Mclvor, author of â€Å"Career Detection: Funding and Managing Your Career† stated in an interview published in the The Irish Times, on February 9, 2009, â€Å"You need to be honest and realistic with people organizations are changing all bets are off.† However, while discussions with employees may have to be framed against that background, news doesnt have to be all gloom and doom. Managers need to be advocates for their organizations and realistic about opportunities within the organization. The manager should be an advocate for the future rather than an adversary against the future, which can be an un-stabilizing influence in the organization. Emmerich states, â€Å"Lead your people to the understanding that even during the darkest of times, many do well, and you intend to be one of those. Your team needs to shift out of their doomsday story and into one of possibilities. When people say We cant because, the broken record response needs to be, Well, how CAN we ?â€Å" Therefore, be an advocate for the vision rather than an adversary against the vision. Look for the silver lining In the February 27, 2009 issue of Business Week, there is an interesting article by Patricia OConnell. The article discusses a first look at a recent Accenture survey that reveals that women and men feel they have more to offer their employers. OConnell states, â€Å"Managers looking for an edge amid a dismal economy, likely hiring freezes, and even staff cuts may have a hidden resource—their own underutilized staff. According to a winter 2008 Accenture survey, 46 percent of women and 49 percent of men worldwide believe they are insufficiently challenged in their jobs.† This affords unique opportunities to organizations that will reap possible benefits for employees as well as employers. This may be a time to review the opportunities and challenges of an organization and how the skill sets of individual employees may be used to enrich jobs and the workplace. Armelle Carminati, Managing Director of Human Capital and Diversity at Accenture, stated, â€Å"Companies should shy away from the one size- fits-all approach with workers The art of tailoring a career offering is the new space where employers have to go and will be the key to both employees and employers success.† As time gets tighter and the work force slimmer, this presents a unique opportunity for employers and employees to sit down as a team and evaluate the possibilities for the future. It is amazing the skill sets and aptitudes that may be uncovered when people are challenged to rise to the occasion. When things go downhill, up-skill â€Å"Up-skill† is a term used in The Irish Times article cited earlier that basically encourages coordinated training during tight economic times. For companies to survive and for employees to retain their jobs, it

Telecommunication Essay -- Technology Computer Networks Essays

Telecommunication 1. Introduction   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Computer and telephone networks inflict a gigantic impact on today's society. From letting you call John in Calgary to letting you make a withdraw at your friendly ATM machine they control the flow of information. But today's complicated and expensive networks did not start out big and complicated but rather as a wire and two terminals back in 1844. From these simple networks to the communication giants of today we will look at the evolution of the network and the basis on which it functions. 2. The Beginnings 2.1. Dot Dot Dot Dash Dash Dash Dot Dot Dot   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The network is defined as a system of lines or structures that cross. In telecommunications this is a connection of peripherals together so that they can exchange information. The first such exchange of information was on May 24, 1844 when Samuel Morse sent the famous message "What hath God wrought" from the US Capitol in Washington D.C. across a 37 mile wire to Baltimore using the telegraph. The telegraph is basically an electromagnet connected to a battery via a switch. When the switch is down the current flows from the battery through the key, down the wire, and into the sounder at the other end of the line. By itself the telegraph could express only two states, on or off. This limitation was eliminated by the fact that it was the duration of the connection that determined the dot and dash from each other being short and long respectively. From these combinations of dots and dashes the Morse code was formed. The code included all the letters of the English alphabet, all the numbers and several punctuation marks. A variation to the telegraph was a receiving module that Morse had invented. The module consisted of a mechanically operated pencil and a roll of paper. When a message was received the pencil would draw the corresponding dashes and dots on the paper to be deciphered later. Many inventors including Alexander Bell and Thomas Edison sought to revolutionize the telegraph. Edison devised a deciphering machine. This machine when receiving Morse code would print letters corresponding to the Morse code on a roll of paper hence eliminating the need for decoding the code. 2.2. Mr. Watson, Come Here!   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The first successful telephone was invented by Alexander Graham Bell. He along with Elisha Gray fought against t... ... they use different addressing protocols, only routers may be used. During these times MANs (Metropolitan Area Networks) are in use and development today. These use routers that are connected preferably via a fiber optic cable, to create one large network. 5.2. Pluto Calling Earth!   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Any networks larger than 1000m typically rely on telephone digital lines for data transfer. These networks are called Circuit Switched Digital Networks . Circuit Switched Digital Networks utilize a switching matrix at the central office of a telephone company that connects local calls to long distance services. The Telephone companies now offer dial up circuits with signaling rates of 56, 64, and 384 kilobits per second as well as 1.544 megabits per second. Another type of LAN to LAN connections are packet switching networks. These are services that a network router calls up on a digital line. They consist of a group of packet switches that are connected via intraswitch trunks (usually fiber optic) that relay addressed packets of information between them. Once the packet reaches the destination packet switch, it sends it via another digital connection to the receiving router. Telecommunication Essay -- Technology Computer Networks Essays Telecommunication 1. Introduction   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Computer and telephone networks inflict a gigantic impact on today's society. From letting you call John in Calgary to letting you make a withdraw at your friendly ATM machine they control the flow of information. But today's complicated and expensive networks did not start out big and complicated but rather as a wire and two terminals back in 1844. From these simple networks to the communication giants of today we will look at the evolution of the network and the basis on which it functions. 2. The Beginnings 2.1. Dot Dot Dot Dash Dash Dash Dot Dot Dot   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The network is defined as a system of lines or structures that cross. In telecommunications this is a connection of peripherals together so that they can exchange information. The first such exchange of information was on May 24, 1844 when Samuel Morse sent the famous message "What hath God wrought" from the US Capitol in Washington D.C. across a 37 mile wire to Baltimore using the telegraph. The telegraph is basically an electromagnet connected to a battery via a switch. When the switch is down the current flows from the battery through the key, down the wire, and into the sounder at the other end of the line. By itself the telegraph could express only two states, on or off. This limitation was eliminated by the fact that it was the duration of the connection that determined the dot and dash from each other being short and long respectively. From these combinations of dots and dashes the Morse code was formed. The code included all the letters of the English alphabet, all the numbers and several punctuation marks. A variation to the telegraph was a receiving module that Morse had invented. The module consisted of a mechanically operated pencil and a roll of paper. When a message was received the pencil would draw the corresponding dashes and dots on the paper to be deciphered later. Many inventors including Alexander Bell and Thomas Edison sought to revolutionize the telegraph. Edison devised a deciphering machine. This machine when receiving Morse code would print letters corresponding to the Morse code on a roll of paper hence eliminating the need for decoding the code. 2.2. Mr. Watson, Come Here!   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The first successful telephone was invented by Alexander Graham Bell. He along with Elisha Gray fought against t... ... they use different addressing protocols, only routers may be used. During these times MANs (Metropolitan Area Networks) are in use and development today. These use routers that are connected preferably via a fiber optic cable, to create one large network. 5.2. Pluto Calling Earth!   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Any networks larger than 1000m typically rely on telephone digital lines for data transfer. These networks are called Circuit Switched Digital Networks . Circuit Switched Digital Networks utilize a switching matrix at the central office of a telephone company that connects local calls to long distance services. The Telephone companies now offer dial up circuits with signaling rates of 56, 64, and 384 kilobits per second as well as 1.544 megabits per second. Another type of LAN to LAN connections are packet switching networks. These are services that a network router calls up on a digital line. They consist of a group of packet switches that are connected via intraswitch trunks (usually fiber optic) that relay addressed packets of information between them. Once the packet reaches the destination packet switch, it sends it via another digital connection to the receiving router.

Greek Contributions Essay

Contributions of Ancient Greece Many of the roots of Western society can be traced back to ancient Greece. The longest areas of contribution are architecture, medicine, and philosophy. The philosophical area of ancient Greece is one of the most important; it foundededucational laws and many other things. Also architecture was a major part of what ancient Greece left behind considering they constructed huge buildings that still stand today. Greece was known as one of the founders of modern medicine since they learned how to fix dislocated joints and broken arms. Those are the major contributions left behind from the Greek’s. One of the advancement’s that affects western civilization is architecture. Greece created huge buildings such as the Parthenon and Pantheon. Columns that are used in the Parthenonare found all over the world today such as the White House and other Government buildings such as the Capital Building and The Jefferson Memorial. Also the limestone and ma rble in the buildings and column’s are still used today because of their beauty and durability. The amazing architecture of Greece gave us the idea of creating massive buildings and columns. One of the greatest contributions of ancient Greece is philosophy. Aristotle, the great philosopher believed that reason is the one thing that guides lives. The three philosophers Aristotle, Plato, and Socrates founded the main idea of philosophy today. Socrates thought that you should ask questions that caused you to think deeply about a subject and find the truth in everything. Plato founded the idea that there should be laws on education. These three philosophers together created the idea that we should take what life gives us but find the truth in everything. These famous Greek philosophers set morals and ideas that we use in everyday life. One of the greatest achievements in the ancient world was medicine. There were many doctors who practiced things that will make patients feel better or be cured without hurting patients. Before a doctor called Hippocrates the ancient world believed that gods and demons cause illnesses but then he came around and taught that diseases had natural causes. The doctors of Greece showed us how to find many cures, put dislocated joints back in place, and how to reset bones. Finally they gave us the idea that doctors should do everything in their power to do what is best for the patient. Ultimately, the many contributions of ancient Greece affected our world in many different ways. Medicine helped us to cure many people and have people feel better when they  broke something, dislocated something, or even had a disease. Philosophy of Greece founded the way we learn and question things in today’s world. Finally the architecture of Greece has survived the test of time and impacts many important buildings in the United States of America and many other countries in the world. All in all those are the many contributions of ancient Greece.