HR practice and consultance Term Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3500 words

HR practice and consultance - Term Paper Example The study will be based upon the consultancy process of the HRM. It will evaluate the ‘gaining entry to the organisation’ and other aspects in the hiring process. Different kinds of approaches of the consultancy process will be evaluated and discussed which will best suit the organisation. Overview Consultancy Process Human resource professional’s most important task is related to hiring of the employees along with other job responsibilities. In the HR process, finding the right candidate or qualified applicant for a particular job, filling the vacancy, upgrading the positions, creating new job, promoting employees and other necessary activities are the vital parts for the selection of the right applicant (University of Virginia, 2010). In order to get a clear understanding about the consultancy process, it would be better to take up a particular organisation. For this purpose the UK based multinational company, BP Plc, has been considered. It is a multi-national organisation that operates in the oil, gas and energy industry globally. There are thirty strategic performing units and other specialist support functioning departments. There are problems faced by the BP Plc such as shortage of professionals in the energy sector. Without appropriate number of personnel in this sector, it will be hard to uplift the future. Skilful and expert personnel are required. This gap can be bridged with the appropriate consultancy process that will assist in providing framework for the entry to the organisation (BP PLC, 2010). Entry to the Organisation The entry to the organisation is the initial phase in any consulting process. During this phase the interaction between the applicant and the HR manager takes place, where the HR tries to acquire knowledge about the applicant as much as possible. The outcomes of the consulting, discussion, and the planning phase are then presented in the consulting contract. The signature of the applicant with the HR manager c oncludes the initial phase (Kubr, M & International Labour Office, 2002). In the phase of distinctive consulting intervention, the client and consultant execute a set of activities that are necessary for the achievement of desired changes and purposes. The activities that are involved are generally known as the ‘consulting processes’. The process is well defined and has clear beginning and end which assist in relationship building. Between the initial phase and the end phase, there are several phases that aid both the client and the consultant to be methodical and systematic, from operations to operations proceeding from one phase to another (BSC, 2002). Processes or Phases of the Consultancy Process There are various phases or ways of subdividing the consultancy process that are found generally in different kind of literatures by various authors. There are many instigators who have provided several phases in the process that range from three to ten. For the BP Plc, whi ch is an organisation belonging to the energy sector; a simple five-phase model would be suitable that consists of the â€Å"comprising entry, diagnosis, action planning, implementation and termination†

Standardisation versus adaptation (MARKETING) Essay

Standardisation versus adaptation (MARKETING) - Essay Example es to maintain a consistence image across all the markets whereas adaptation offers them better opportunity to reach the target audience and consumers through the communication process. This literature work is being produced to understand various factors of the controversial Standardisation versus adaptation strategy of international communication strategy. In the recent past, economies of various part of world have experienced tremendous change due to the fast changes in technology and socio-economic patterns. These changes have raised various issues. One of them is the international communication strategies for a global company. Standardised communication process among all kind of customers has been criticised. It is on the basis of the differences in the consumer choices and preferences across various consumer groups. There have been various debates on the global marketing mix strategies for the international market. Lots of studies and opinions have been developed. (For example, Ghoshal, 1987; Jain, 1989; Levitt, 1983; Quelch and Hoff, 1986)1 The communication process for the different market focusing on advertising issues, its objectives, message, presentation and various decisions related to advertising has gained attention and interest of most of the researchers. It was early 1960 when the issue of advertising standardization in foreign markets was first discussed. (Elinder, 1961; Fatt, 1964)2 Any product or service is result of needs and wants of buyers and consumers. This is the basic factor of any communication process. The objective of communication can be knowledge, persuasion, purchase, interest and others. All of it is based on the basic factor of ‘need’ of consumer. Various authors and researchers have focused on this factor for the international communication strategy as well advocating the universal advertising approach (Fatt, 1967; Buzell, 1968; Sorenson and Weichmann, 1975; Killough, 1978; Levitt, 1983).3 Cost effectiveness, clarity of

How I Prepare to take a Test Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

How I Prepare to take a Test - Essay Example After that, I compare with my notes and the class textbook contents. In the case of any mistakes or omissions, I rectify and transfer the new content to another blank notebook. Here, I also arrange the content according to topics or subtopics with clearly-labeled headings. In addition, I write personal clues on how to interpret the material alongside the content.Finally, I study actively at least one week before the real test. At this stage, I rely mostly on the major concepts I had written the previous week. Here, I read a number of before doing personal evaluation. Next, I evaluate myself by trying to analyze how much I can remember. I do it by writing brief content, mostly short phrases, which provide me with clues of the required content. Since most tests require the understanding of facts rather than memorization of content, I usually go through revision questions at the end of every chapter. In addition, I go through the test questions that have been done by previous groups of learners.Improving My Test-Taking PreparationsThe major challenge I experience while preparing for a test is time. I start my preparations at least three weeks early. Since it is difficult to master all the content within a short period, the three-week strategy affects my performances on some tests. However, if I start preparing earlier than that, I can improve my performance. In this case, if I focus on mastering the content right after every lesson, I can reduce my workload. In most cases, I skip some content because of limited time.

Book Review Assingment - Leading Change by John Kotter Essay

Book Review Assingment - Leading Change by John Kotter - Essay Example He holds that it is primarily for historical reasons that most organizations do not have that kind of leadership. In deviating from management jargon the author has come up with a visionary and understandable version in guiding the business world towards the much required changes in the business world. The book is an excellent business guidebook in which Kotter focuses upon an all inclusive structure, which business executives at all levels can follow to achieve positive results. He has advised people responsible for implementing change that there is no need to panic or become fearful while dealing with urgent organizational issues. Such situations warrant avoidance of complacency and the author emphasizes that change in the 21st century can be affected only if over-managed and under-led cultures are handled with caution. It is important to remember that management deals primarily with the status quo while leadership is responsible to mostly deal with change. There is a strong need f or management to develop skills to create strong leaders. Kotter has also identified the drawbacks of this strategy and has cautioned leaders to avoid people that can destabilize efficient change efforts. The author has commendably argued that instead of individuals, teams should be recognized and the focus should be on life long learning patterns in a constantly changing world. It is not possible to learn everything during any given period because growth is a continuous process that imposes repeated challenges in terms of processes and people. Kotter has discussed the eight main reasons why improvement efforts have proved to be unsatisfactory, primarily because of inappropriate use of resources and people. He has discussed all the errors exhaustively through the use of clear and simple models and asserted that these errors mostly characterize the change process in any organization, which can have severe consequences. Kotter has argued that such errors are not necessarily unavoidabl e, which is why he claims he wrote this book. The fundamental objective is to understand why companies defend against the required changes and to recognize what specifically is the set of processes that can do away with such negative inactions. Most importantly, there is a strong need to understand that the leadership responsible for driving the processes in socially healthy ways has to do much more than just good management. Kotler has discussed the reasons why organizations need to change and improve. The Eight Stage Process for Affecting Change A major lesson from Kotter’s book is that organizations can effectively put the required changes into practice. Kotter holds that the ways of changing the organization are based on the basic fact that major changes will not happen because of several reasons that he sought to overcome with his eight stage process of affecting major changes. Kotter has written about the eight stages that "there are still more mistakes that people make , but these eight are the big ones. In reality, even successful change efforts are messy and full of surprises" (Kotter, 1996, p.89). The author’s first stage relates to establishing a strong sense of urgency that is necessary to get rid of the feeling of

Critique the relevance and validity of applying the capital asset Essay

Critique the relevance and validity of applying the capital asset pricing model in the context of investment choices - Essay Example Undeniably, the CAPM model rules out active investment and management research, and therefore abolishes many applications merely by using a pen, by virtue of the idealistic assumptions made by it (Perold, 2004). Some common applications often depend on the correctness of the modest CAPM, or rather the extensions in defining equilibrium returns. In fact, an imprecise understanding of the market portfolio may not be a vital factor in this. The approximated investment portfolio maintain an essential role in the reconstructed submission that arise from realization of the falsehood of CAPM. In this sense therefore, the application of this model to investment choices can have meaning only on condition that CAPM is false. The conclusion can be that the investment portfolio seems to play a natural role, making possible specifications errors to be unimportant (Shanken,

Liberal arts in our life Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Liberal arts in our life - Research Paper Example Another branch of the liberal arts is known as the humanities which cover literature, languages, history, and philosophy. The third branch is the creative arts – theater, fine art, creative writing and others. All these broad subjects are what are known as the liberal arts and they are, as you can see, quite wide and varied. They are usually available to students at an undergraduate level right at the beginning and at more advanced levels as we move up the higher education chain (Sigurdson 14). II. What I know about the topic 1. The main task of liberal arts Liberal arts are not designed to equip you or enable you to specialize in a specific profession. Rather, they are there to prepare the students for life in the working world. Liberal arts equip you with the ability, first and foremost, to have lifelong learning. Learning does not just end in the classroom or after graduation. It is a process through which we acquire knowledge skills and expertise throughout our life. It is , therefore, necessary for one to have courses that equip you to do exactly that – essentially be a student for life, learning and adapting to new knowledge, new aspects of life and learning how to adapt, live and even thrive with change. 2. The main capacities of liberal arts The liberal arts also give one the ability and capacity for free thinking. It teaches the student how to think, how to question and how to expand your horizons. The liberal arts also enable one to communicate effectively (Schall 7). It is not just a matter of learning how to speak a foreign language or two – though that is also covered in liberal arts – but how to interpret nonverbal communications, how to communicate in cultures other than your own, and how to express yourself in contexts that are different from your traditional ones (Sigurdson 18). The liberal arts give students a chance to not only explore and get their head round a large variety of subjects but also an ability to look at the world, themselves and others in a totally new light. It gives students an appreciation of different points of view and different modes of thought. It is an opportunity to learn about the evolution of human society, how it started out, how it came through civilization, what civilization is all about and what in the world has changed and how it has changed since this civilization came about. In liberal arts one learns what previous generations have learned, thought and experienced (Schall 11). III. Research 1. The main questions of liberal arts What questions did they ask? What answers did the great philosophers seek? Liberal arts give you an opportunity to wrestle with abstract concepts and ideas. There arose questions such as: What is beauty and how does one decide that something is beautiful and the other one is not? Does this color or make-up look good on me? How did our history shape us and our thinking? How did we interact with the environment and what impact has it had o n us and us about it? What acts constitute sexual harassment in the workplace and why and how should they be reported? Thus, liberal arts result in a person who has a more rounded appreciation of himself, others and his environment. A classic story is told to explain the importance of the liberal arts. Three blind men who were told to touch an elephant and then describe what it looked like. The first one touched the elephant’s main body and decided because it was so big, this creature must be like a wall. The second blind man touched the elephant’s tusk and after racing it all the way to the tip, decided that the elephant must be shaped like a spear, like some

Human genetic engineering Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words - 1

Human genetic engineering - Research Paper Example s of an organism and can either be positive or negative where negative brings a subject up to par while positive modifies genetic material to bring it beyond normal limitations (171-175). However, it is important to note that amid arguments and hot debate regarding genetic engineering, it is ethical to use technology in particular cases including altering cells and DNA to minimize disease effects and combating other genetic disorders. This article provides argument regarding human genetic engineering. Biotechnology is the utilization of science and biology technology to alter the living or non-living materials for the production of knowledge, goods, services that are innovative and can improve people’s lives (Evans 44-48). It is a technology that uses living organisms to make superior products that meets life’s greatest needs in a careful and regulated way and serving the needs of scientists. It is worth noting that biotechnology has been in existence for quite a long time including preservation of dairy products and beer fermentation and forms a huge part of the daily life but it has now been to humans. According to Evans, biotechnology plays a major role in meeting human’s daily needs through resource efficiency, food security as well as modification of human genes (44-48). Various things including increase in yields characterize biotechnology as well as offering built in protection against insect damage, prevention of soil erosion, and eventually reduce po verty by increasing food security for a growing population (Gyngell 495-503). However, biotechnology has had serious effects on both human and enhanced climatic changes. Genetically modified humans and organisms are technologically altered through the process of modern biotechnology or gene technology. They are developed because they are perceived to super human who are capable of performing many things that cannot be performed by ordinary persons (Evans 52-59). It is important to note that human