Performance Appraisal Essay -- Business, Employees Participation

This paper assesses the Human Resource practices of employee participation and involvement and their relationship with productivity. An attempt will be made to distinguish between participation and involvement. Also the paper will focus on development and changing trends of employee participation and the evaluation of these participation schemes with respect to their depth, level, scope and form. Finally, a search into whether employee participation and involvement has a bearing on productivity will be considered. In recent times, a key feature of management practice has been the implementation of effective human development strategies to enhance organisational productivity. Human resource management is considered an important element in achieving an organization’s success and a means of gaining competitive advantage (Armstrong 2009).Again; it is common to have management grant some level of participation and involvement to employees concerning core decisions within the organisation, as researches have proved a link between employee involvement and participation having a positive bearing on workplace productivity and performance (Belanger 2000). Employee participation is promoted for different reasons and embedded in various institutional settings across industries and countries due to influences from the legal, economic, political framework found in each country .Thus the level of participation granted employees and the degree and methods of which employers are willing to use in workforce management differ everywhere (Dundon & Wilkinson2009). Participation and involvement as concepts are by definition intertwined and this makes it difficult to distinguish between them. However, some authors have attempted defining them... ...stantive. In conclusion, though it very difficult to justify empirically whether or not employee participation and involvement can increase a firm’s productivity; it can be said from a synthesis of the above discussion that productivity is dependent on several factors including employee participation and involvement. However to increase productivity, employers should adopt and implement the right strategy taking cognisance of organisational goals and existing work environment. In lieu of the above, Youndt et al. (1996) puts it so succinctly that employee involvement and participation is essential in the a firm’s production process since employees provide organizations with an important source of sustainable competitive advantage and that the effective management of human capital, not physical capital may be the ultimate determinant of organisational performance.

Political Aspects of Wireless Electricity Essay

It is no secret that politics plays a big role when it comes to the introduction of the wireless electricity. Some parties are for it, as it can allow for slightly greener ways of powering devices, new jobs, and easier access. But others are against it, seeing the change as a threat to old ways of doing things, as well as a way for people to access electricity for free. Though wireless transmissions and the idea of wireless electricity have existed for quite some time, the actual possibility of creating usable, accessible wireless electricity is just now starting to become a reality. With wireless electricity looming on the horizon, more and more politicians, civilians, and companies are beginning to stand behind the idea; but that has not always been the case. Politics first began working their way into wireless electricity in 1905, when J. P. Morgan pulled all of his funding from Nikola Tesla’s Wardenclyffe Tower project when he erroneously began to believe that it could lead to free electricity for all (Haliburton, 2006). It is that same type of thinking that has helped to keep wireless electricity out of the mainstream for so long. However, information and general knowledge about wireless electricity has come far, and that type of thinking is quickly disappearing. With the recent surge of environmental and financial awareness, people are quickly beginning to gravitate towards the idea of wireless electricity. Even power companies are getting behind the idea, seeing a way to expand their business. Though the idea of wireless electricity has just begun to reemerge, it will quickly become a hot political topic, just as other forms of alternative energy have. The question is this: Will the general public and politicians continue to gravitate towards this new concept? And if they do, how long will it be until wireless electricity becomes the norm?

Dionysus with Pan

The chosen art piece, from Roman origin, is titled â€Å"Dionysus† and portrayed Dionysus, the god of wine, with his follower Pan. This artwork is a great example of Greek art’s influence in Roman artwork. The main elements of Greek’s naturalistic art, specifically of High Classical period, are rendered beautifully in this piece combined with distinctive elements from verism, unique to Roman art. So, the idealism of Greek art and the individualism of Roman art come together to create an art piece that is divine, mythical, and yet very human and therefore, relatable.This piece of art depicted the interaction between Dionysus and Pan in a form of sculpture. The sculpture was created from beautiful marble in A. D. 50 – 150. The work is three dimensional and still in excellent shape. There is almost no sign of physical or visible damage on sculpture which is rare because it has been created about two thousand years ago. This durability of the piece must be cre dited to the sculptor for having engineering intelligence to make the sculpture stay intact for so long.The artwork includes organic and fluid lines because each body feature of Dionysus and Pan is smooth, graceful, and very close to the natural form. The way Dionysus’ left leg is crossed over his right leg conveys that both were just standing and not moving. It is not telling a specific story; rather, it is just taking a moment out of the life of two people which are of a god and his follower in this case. The texture is smooth since it was created from marble. Dionysus’s characteristics of being the god of wine are represented in several elements in this work.The elements include the ritual staff with pinecone head in his right hand that he is known to carry, the wreath of grapes and wines enhancing his beautiful curls, and the wine cup on his left hand. Dionysus is resting his left hand on Pan’s right shoulder. The goat skin on Pan and Dionysus and the tree t runk that both are leaning on convey that they both reside in a forest or in out in nature. Pan, the follower, has the upper body of a human and lower body and the horns of a goat.This mythical creature is holding a stick, for hunting rabbits, in his right hand and looking up at Dionysus with great admiration. Pan’s left arm is wrapped around Dionysus’ back. Pan’s body is smaller, about two-thirds of Dionysus’ body, in comparison to Dionysus indicating Pan’s status as a follower perhaps. However, both are in perfect proportions. This work of art is a mix of naturalism and verism. The beautiful perfect skin, the appropriately proportional body and the beauty of young Dionysus are much idealized.The god of wine doesn’t have the body structure of an athlete; however, the body features and muscles are quite in proportion and yet humanized. Dionysus’ face is very humanlike because it displays a certain sense of kindness and relaxedness. Th ere is no sign of stress, discomfort, or detachedness on his face. Dionysus has his left leg crossed over his right leg and he is leaning on Pan on his left. Dionysus’ unique pose is a varied version of contrapposto pose which was so common in the High Classical sculptures. This pose means that the weight of the body is supported by one leg, right leg in this case.This pose illustrates relaxed state of mind and makes the audience feel that Dionysus is at ease. He also has his left hand resting on Pan while holding the wine cup. This shows that Dionysus is trusted by Pan and Pan is also trusted by him because Pan has his right arm around Dionysus’ waist. This close distance mainly exemplifies love, faith and intimacy of a relationship. The naturalism and intimacy depicted in this art is similar to the playfulness and lightheartedness defined in Late Classical Period and specifically in the sculpture â€Å"Hermes and the Infant Dionysus†.Dionysus in â€Å"Dionysu s† is slender, softer, and graceful similar to Hermes in â€Å"Hermes and the Infant Dionysus†. This is a slight contrast to the canon of proportions in High Classical. The use of emotion makes the Gods look real and humanlike which is also a contrast to the idealized works of High Classical Greek works. Another similarity between the two sculptures is how Hermes and Dionysus are leaning on the tree trunk for support and representing the forest as background.Overall, the work is more realistic than naturalistic which is conveyed by the verism represented in the awestruck like expression of Pan, the kindness and calmness reflecting on Dionysus and their intimacy with each other. By including Pan in this work, the sculptor makes the audience view Dionysus in awe from the eyes of Pan. It makes the audience think that Dionysus is the type of God who is kind, calm, composed, humane, and not strict or unforgiving. Therefore, the most significant part of this artwork is the ge nuine yet stimulating interaction between Dionysus and Pan that makes this art so real and relevant. ?

Character of Catcher in the Rye essays

Character of Catcher in the Rye essays Holden is the protagonist and the narrator of the novel. He is a 16-year-old junior who has been expelled from Pencey Prep for academic failure. Holden is very intelligent, and sensitive, but he narrated the novel in a cynical and jaded tone. He thinks everyone is phony, and believes that he looks much older than he his. Ackley is Holdens next-door neighbor in the dormitory at Pencey Prep. Ackley often barges into Holdens room and doesnt seem to take the hint to leave. Stradlater is Holdens roommate at Pencey Prep. He is a handsome, self-satisfied, and popular, but he is in Holdens words, a secret slob. He appears well groomed, but his razor and other toiletries are disgustingly filthy. Holden spent a lot of time with Jane one summer in Maine. Jane never actually appears in the book, but Holden talks about her all the time because she is one of the few girls Holden respects and finds attractive. Phoebe is Holdens younger sister, whom he loves dearly. Although she is six years younger than Holden, she listens to what he says and understands him more than other people. Allie is Holdens younger brother who died of leukemia three years before the start of the novel. Holden describes him as a brilliant, friendly, redheaded boy. Allie was the smartest of the Caulfields and Holden is tormented by his death. D.B. is Holdens older brother who wrote a collection of short stories, which Holden loves. D.B. lives in Hollywood and prostitutes his writing talents by writing for Hollywood movies. Sally is a very attractive girl that Holden has known and dated for a long time. Holden thinks that Sally is stupid. Mr. Spencer is Holdens history teacher at Pencey Prep, who unsuccessfully tries to sh ...

Kant Immanuel essays

Kant Immanuel essays In his publication, Foundations of the Metaphysics of Morals, Immanuel Kant supplies his readers with a thesis that claims morality can be derived from the principle of the categorical imperative. The strongest argument to support his thesis is the difference between actions in accordance with duty and actions in accordance from duty. To setup his thesis, Kant first draws a distinction between empirical and a priori concepts. Empirical concepts are ideas we reach from our experiences in the world. On the other hand and in contrast, a priori concepts are ideas we reach as an end point of reasoning prior to or apart from any experience of how things occur in the world. Kant then claims that moral actions are supposed done for the reason of morality alone. This train of thought leads to the conclusion that an understanding of morality must be based on a priori concepts of reason. Truly moral ideas are then universally valid if and only if they are based on a priori concepts. From this idea of a priori concepts, Kant begins his thesis with the notion that the only thing in the world that is a qualified good is the good will, even if its efforts bring about a not necessarily good result. A good will is good because of the willing that is involved. Two main implications arise with this idea of the good will. The first implication is moral actions cannot have impure motivations. There are many impure motivations but Kant tends to focus mainly on the motives of the pursuit of happiness and self-preservation. Second, moral actions cannot be based on the speculations of the probable results. This action is not good in itself but good because it brought about a more desirable outcome. Thus, Kant arrives at the conclusion that for an action to be considered to have genuine moral worth its motive must be that of dutifulness to moral law....

A Biography of Sylvia Plath

A Biography of Sylvia Plath Sylvia Plath was born in Boston in 1932, daughter of a German immigrant biology professor, an authority on bees, and his Austrian-American wife. At 8, bio-picSylvia suffered her first great loss: her father died suddenly after surgery for complications of undiagnosed diabetes, and she attained her first literary recognition: a poem published in The Boston Herald. She grew up in Wellesley, in an extremely close relationship with her widowed mother Aurelia. She sent out many poems and stories which were rejected before she began to see them published in national periodicals (Seventeen, The Christian Science Monitor) in 1950. Plaths Education Plath was a star student and an ambitious apprentice writer. She attended Smith College on scholarship and won a guest editorship at Mademoiselle in New York City in the summer of 1953. Later that summer, having learned that she had not been admitted to the Harvard summer writing program for which she’d applied, Sylvia attempted suicide and was treated for depression at McLean Hospital. She returned to Smith the next spring, wrote her honors thesis on the double in Dostoevsky (â€Å"The Magic Mirror†), and graduated summa cum laude in 1955, with a Fulbright scholarship to study at Newnham College, Cambridge. Plaths Marriage to Ted Hughes The meeting between Sylvia Plath and Ted Hughes is legendary, recreated in the biopic  Sylvia. Sylvia had read St. Botolph’s Review, was impressed by Hughes’ poems and went to the publication party determined to meet him. She recited his poems to him, it is said they danced, drank and kissed and she bit him on the cheek until he bled, and they were married within a few months, on Bloomsday 1956. When she completed her studies in 1957, Plath was offered a teaching position back at Smith and the couple returned to America. But after a year, she left academia and she and Ted devoted their life together to writing. Plath and Hughes in England In December 1959, Ted and pregnant Sylvia sailed back to England; Ted wanted his child to be born in his home country. They settled in London, Frieda was born in April 1960, and Sylvia’s first collection, The Colossus, was published in October. In 1961, she suffered a miscarriage and other health troubles, was given a â€Å"first look† contract by The New Yorker and began work on her autobiographical novel, The Bell Jar. When the couple moved to Court Green manor house in Devon, they let their London flat to a poet and his wife, David and Assia Wevill, fatefully: it was Ted’s affair with Assia that broke up their marriage. Plaths Suicide Sylvia’s second child, Nicholas, was born in January 1962. It was during that year that she found her authentic poetic voice, writing the intense and crystalline poems later published in Ariel, even while managing the household and taking care of her two children essentially alone. In the fall she and Hughes separated, in December she moved back to London, to a flat where Yeats had once lived, and The Bell Jar was published under a pseudonym in January 1963. It was an extraordinarily cold winter and the children were sick. Sylvia left them in a separate aired-out room and gassed herself to death on February 11, 1963. The Plath Mystique After Death Sylvia Plath was only 30 years old when she committed suicide, and since her death, she has been elevated to the status of feminist icon and pioneer woman poet. Serious critics may quibble with the fan cult that has arisen around Plath, but her poetry is undeniably beautiful and powerful, and it is generally recognized as the most influential American work of the 20th century- in 1982, she became the first poet to be awarded the Pulitzer Prize posthumously, for her Collected Poems. Books and Recordings by Sylvia Plath The Bell Jar (unabridged audio CD of the novel read by Maggie Gyllenhaal, Caedmon/HarperAudio, 2006)Ariel, The Restored Edition: A Facsimile of Plath’s Manuscript, Reinstating Her Original Selection and Arrangement (with foreword by her daughter Frieda Hughes, HarperCollins, 2004; paperback, 2005)The Unabridged Journals of Sylvia Plath, 1950 - 1962 (transcripts from the original manuscripts at Smith College, edited by Karen V. Kukil, Anchor Books, 2000)The Voice of the Poet: Sylvia Plath (audio cassette with book, Side A recorded with Ted Hughes in 1958, Side B recorded in 1962, just 3 months before her death, Random House Audio, 1999)Plath: Poems (selected by Diane Middlebrook, Everyman’s Library Pocket Poets, 1998)The Journals of Sylvia Plath (abridged and edited by Ted Hughes, The Dial Press, 1982; paperback Anchor Books, 1998)Collected Poems (edited, annotated, and with an introduction by Ted Hughes, Harper Perennial, 1981)Johnny Panic and the Bible of Dreams (short stories, prose and diary excerpts, Harper Row, 1979; paperback HarperCollins, 1980; Harper Perennial, 2000) Letters Home (correspondence, 1950 - 1963, edited by Aurelia Schober Plath, HarperCollins, 1978; paperback Harper Perennial, 1992)Crossing the Water: Transitional Poems (first American edition, Harper Row, 1971; paperback HarperCollins, 1980)The Bell Jar (loosely autobiographical novel, first American edition with drawings by Sylvia Plath, Harper Row, 1971; paperback HarperCollins, 2005)Ariel (poems, first American edition with an introduction by Robert Lowell, Harper Row, 1966; paperback HarperCollins, 1975, 1999)The Colossus and Other Poems (Alfred A. Knopf, 1962; paperback Random House 1968, 1998)

Sun catcher marketing plan Term Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Sun catcher marketing plan - Term Paper Example We at Sun Catcher aim to address marketing, and its organization as other vital company functions, say human resources and finance. It was thus imperative that we studied our competitors and their organizations in order to find the challenges they faced in marketing. The challenges included; performance of transactional and tactical tasks by marketing managers rather than their main activities, lack of clear responsibilities and roles within the marketing departments when compared to other functions, selection of external marketing agencies due to relationships rather than tangible performance, repetitive and data intensive marketing activities performed due to lack of information and resource sharing mechanisms, and finally constrainment and stretching of internal marketing talent pool due to minimal specialized professional marketing strategies and training (Wittemen 2). To avoid these pitfalls, Sun Catcher aims to give marketing its executive role by aligning its cost structures to the business model and strategy (Wittemen 2). We aim to do this via allowing the marketing executives to strategize internally and come up with opportunities for economies of scale. This will align market potential with resources. We also aim to apply lean principles by aligning and integrating marketing processes with an aim of increasing efficiency. Investment in technology is also a must if we are to figure out where to make investments in marketing sensibly. This includes use of customer resource management (Wittemen 2). The establishment of effective and flexible structures that segment the marketing department into transactional, strategic, external and internal functions which clarify the activities of each member is vital for sun Catcher’s survival (Wittemen 2). Sun Catcher has several contingency plans in case an emergency, event, or new information becomes available to us. While Sun Catcher would wish not to be befallen by an