Human Resource Planning Research Proposal Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 5000 words

Human Resource Planning - Research Proposal Example Apparently, skilled, loyal and motivated employees remain nowadays obviously the only reliable asset and competitive advantage of modern corporations. In terms when company's past success does not serve a password to "cloudless future" businesses need to rely on stable assets and first of all on human resources. Increasing attention to human resources has recently called into being a new set of methods, principles and techniques known as Human Research Management (HRM). Respectively, the set of strategies designed to develop the policy towards human resources is known as Human Resource Planning Activities (HRP). The importance of HRM and HRP is hardly objected in any company following western standards of business. It is clear that its performance depends not only on hard and attenuating work of its personnel, but also on the "human side" of the employees, i.e.: their competence, motivation, attitudes, communication and other variables. Observing Gunnigle and associates (2002: 12) HRM is the core of company's general efficiency and the basis for effective management. Beardwell and associates (2003: 15) believe that regardless the visible simplicity, the area of HRM and HRP has dramatic complexity due to potentially unpredictable nature of human resources. If a company fails to design HRP and direct human resources in the right areas of the business, at the right time and at the right cost, serious inefficiencies are likely to arise creating considerable operational difficulties and likely business failure (Beardwell, 2003). In the present project I will (i) identify the importance of human resource and vitality of HRP in modern business; (ii) investigate the HRP of IBM company which is one of the pioneers and leaders in the area of human resource management, (iii) evaluate the effectiveness of IBM's HRP activities and (iv) propose and justify reasonable changes in the HRP policy of the company. The importance of HRM and HRP in modern business Also organizational history is obviously as old as the history of human civilization itself, the chronicle of human resources management is much younger. Originally emerged in 1960s, the paradigm of HRM relied, however, on previous researches and findings of organizational scientists. As Alan Price (2000: 62) believes, HRM "hasn't come out of nowhere" as there is a long history of attempts to achieve an understanding of human behavior in the workplace. Throughout the whole XX century and even earlier both practitioners and scholars attempted to design the theories explaining human behavior at work and the ways to raise its effectiveness. A number of organizational theories brought to life the principles of HRM in 1960s-1970s. Though many of modern HRM principles have been already developed by this time, the year of HRM "official birth" is 1981 when Harvard Business School introduced a course that served a blueprint for global spread of human resource planning and management (Price, 2 000: 64). A good insight into the value of HR related programs has been provided by Schuler (1990: 52-54). He emphasized that the HR function had an opportunity to shift from being an "employee

A divided America on the topic of abortion Essay Example for Free

A divided America on the topic of abortion Essay Abortion In modern history, there have been few subjects of political and social interest as divisive as that of abortion. Ideologically, many traditional religions such as Christianity have stipulated that abortion itself is an unethical practice and one that is morally wrong. Many Christians assert that there is some divinely unethical nature of the mishandling of the fetus itself. Most arguments of this kind essentially pertain to the status of the fetus as a person, one that has the right to the same advantages and privileges as its human mother. As such, abortion has come to dominate many discussions and people have found platforms to argue for or against the acceptance of abortion as a norm in our society. Much of the opposition surrounding the ethics of abortion pertains to religious belief, and many ascribe to the notion that abortion contradicts divine command theory. As such, there are many factors to consider in interpreting abortion from a theological standpoint, as well as in addressing the positives and negatives associated with the act itself. When the United States first began establishing itself as its own country, many of the states simply transferred English laws to their own and used these as a sort of template for how to conduct their own affairs. Abortion was handled much the same in this way, and the structure for how many states began to approach abortion came from how they chose to handle it within this framework. Many states essentially stated that it was not allowed or permitted after around the 15-20 week period immediately following conception. Anti-abortion laws and statutes officially began to manifest themselves in the United States around the 1820s, and these laws expanded upon previous laws to help supplant the notion that abortion was unethical. In the year 1821, one of the first prominent anti-abortion laws came forth from Connecticut, which outlawed medicines that were given to women to help further abortions. In 1829, New York made abortions that Despite the advances that were occurring in medical science and the developments in these fields, many people in the United States still considered it an unethical dilemma to condone the acts that were associated with abortion, or to facilitate them. As medical sciences grew in support of the belief that fetuses didnt exhibit the same traits or characteristics as fully-born children, many theological centers and individuals began imposing their own opinions of the matter, to stand in stark contradiction to these claims. Scientists in this era concluded that conception was merely an inauguration point for the development of a fetus and that it was a continuous process of development until the child fully possessed all of its human-like traits and characteristics. Criminalization of abortion became a huge trend in the late 1860s, as various doctors and legislators began doubling down on the act and making it illegal. By the year 1900, abortion had become a felony in essentially every s tate in the country. Yet, some states had included clauses or provisions which were meant to ensure that abortions could be conducted in a limited nature, when issues such as the health of the mother became a factor, or if the pregnancy was the direct result of incest or rape. In 1973, the Supreme Court was a group the case of Roe v. Wade, one that would transform the history of abortions in the country and provide a catalyst for a more in-depth examination of the ethical nature of abortions themselves. In this particular case, the Supreme Court came to rule that a statute in Texas which forbade abortion, except when it was necessary to ensure the safety of the mother, was unconstitutional. This decision sparked a tremendous amount of backlash and controversy and has provided a plethora of individuals and groups with a reason to once again oppose the act. Many of these groups and entities have debated on the ethical nature of abortion, and have used the divine command theory to support their claims. The divine command theory is a theological approach to understanding and interpreting the grounds of morality, as well as establishing what is moral and what is not. Unlike the ethics of natural law, the divine command theory is used to establish a clear and present moral direction, and to help supplant a sense of duty and ethical foundation. The theory is developed on the notion that God is the creator of the world, and that the laws which govern morality and ethics are extensions of the commands that God asserts. Furthermore, the argument among many theological representatives is that God would be against the nature of abortion, as it stands contrary to the Commandments that God gave humans. A direct and implicit interpretation of the morality of abortion may be surmised from the scripture in Exodus 21:22-24, in which the scripture itself discusses a woman who has a miscarriage as a result of two men who are fighting in the passage. (The Bible, Exodus 21:22-24) The scripture does n ot directly state that she had an abortion at that moment, but it does provide an inference into the miscarriage and states that it was immoral due to the fact a life was lost in this time. As such, it has become a principle Christian belief that a life of a fetus is equivalent to that of an adult human, in terms of the value that God places upon it. In the passage 44:2, it is stated that â€Å"thus says the Lord who made you and formed you from the womb, who will help you. Do not fear, O Jacob My servant, and you Jeshurun whom I have chosen.† (The Bible, Isaiah 44:2) In this bit of scripture, God consults with Jacob and tells him that he should not have any fear because God provided him with life directly from the womb of his mother, which would imply that God has established some level of plan or purpose for Jacob even when he was a fetus. It is this basis that many have used to establish their interpretation of divine command theory. This notion supports the centralized argument that it is humanitys responsibility to provide the most maximum safety for that of all human life, which these theorists argue starts in the womb and immediately after conception. The moral ramifications of abortion, as this theory postulates, is that God will not condone actions which facilitate the likelihood of abortion or the helping of abor tion in any way. While it can be said that the religious groups believe that the life of a fetus is sacred, many people outside of these mentalities believe that there is an inherent right in the mother to control what she does with her own body, and how she goes about doing it. Many of these individuals argue that their belief systems do not correlate directly with this mentality and that it is unethical in itself to subject a woman to the harsh realities of being a mother if it was never her intention to become a mother in the first place. As such, it is worth understanding abortion itself and what it can entail, to better interpret the ethical nature of the act and which side presents a more sound argument. Abortion can be a tremendously devastating act, psychologically. A study that was amassed from approximately 56,000 public records in California concluded that women who had abortions were 160 percent more likely to be sent to the hospital for psychiatric care, as opposed to women who had chosen to see the pregnancy through and deliver the child. (Barlett, 2004, 729) Furthermore, it was noted that the rates of treatment for psychiatric issues were higher by a large margin for upwards of four years, in women who had abortions. Further studies indicate that many women experience psychological issues as early as eight weeks after they have an abortion. These studies have found that approximately 44 percent of women have some level of nervous disorder and that 36 percent note that they have some level of disturbance in their sleep patterns and in their overall regular sleep cycles. (Barlett, 2004, 731) Over 30 percent of these women also note that they openly regret the decision that the y made, and approximately 11 percent of people are prescribed some type of medication to help them cope with the stresses associated with their decision. (Barlett, 2004, 731)   Women who have abortions are more prone to visit psychiatrists than those who have delivered children to full term. Researchers have concluded that there is only one real positive emotion that is correlated with abortions, being that of relief. Yet, this can quickly be supplanted by feelings of numbness or a sense of emotional paralysis. It is often the case that women who have abortions are left with a general inability to express their emotions after the procedure, correlating whatever feelings they have to just a general appreciation for having been able to survive the procedure, with little more being reported. This can lead to a more stable, concurrent level of negative reactions which can continue to manifest themselves throughout the next several months following an abortion-related procedure. Significant studies have concluded that approximately 50 percent of women question their decisions after the procedure, and over 55 percent express some sort of guilt within the 8 weeks that follow the abortion. (Barlett, 2004, 735) Furthermore, approximately forty percent of women who abort report to having sexual complications or dysfunctions, which can last for a short or long period of time in most cases. These can include increased pain or a loss of pleasure from the acts of sex and an aversion to the genitals of their partners, or to males in general. Psychological issues arent the only ones that can manifest themselves after an abortion. Approximately one hundred complications have been associated with the induction of abortion, and all of these have the capacity to affect the women undergoing these processes. Statistics on abortion state that 10 percent of women who are undergoing some type of abortion-related procedure have some type of immediate physical or mental issue that occurs during or after the process and 20 percent of these can be seen as major factors and health-related issues. (Barlett, 2004, 737) Among many of the complications that can physically happen are infections, fevers, abdominal pain, bleeding, vomiting and intestinal disturbances. The most commonly identified major issues that can happen are serious infections, embolism, convulsions, cervical injury, hemorrhaging, perforation of the uterus, bleeding, and shock during the process. A study which cataloged the effects of 1,180 abortions concluded that over 2 7 percent of the patients had some type of infection that lasted more than 3 days after the process. (Barlett, 2004, 741) While it can be said that many of these issues can be immediately treated, a large percentage of them can lead to long-term, more serious results and damages to the reproductive system and other attributes of the womans body and health. 3 to 5 percent of women who have aborted are accidentally left sterile as a result of the effects of the process, and this is even greater when venereal diseases are introduced into the equation. (Barlett, 2004, 740) Despite these factors, there are many potential ethical positives to abortions. Regardless of the health risks associated with abortion, it should ultimately be left to the woman to decide what she will do with her own body. Many experts argue that pregnancies should not be enforced upon the acts of sex. In 2008, a study concluded that 41 percent of all pregnancies that happened in the United States were not planned, or indirectly accidental in some way. (Finn, Moore, 2008, 112) When one considers the size of the population in the United States, there are over 85 million women who identify with this claim. The number of reasons that a woman should be able to cancel a pregnancy should not be so limited, and this affects a large percentage of the population in the United States. Delineating these decisions and the freedom for a woman to have her own say over her body does not pose a significant level of intrinsic value in the life of the woman. Furthermore, the issue becomes more complex when one looks at the availability of contraception. It is often the case that many women who have sex and their partners are not able to readily find contraception, nor do they have the means to ascertain it themselves. Since 1980, there has been a 61 percent decrease in the funds that are available through the Title X program, which helps to provide affordable services to people to help them dictate their family planning. (Finn, Moore, 2008, 110)   Many socially-charged issues and the dissemination of anti-abortion materials have catalyzed a scenario in which women do not have the proper access to the resources that they often need to ensure that they do not get pregnant. When this is considered, enforcing abortions does not have much of an ethical foundation in itself, supplanting the notion that womens bodies and their decisions are not valid or hold the same level of importance as the livelihood of fetuses. Abortion is a tremendously important social issue, and one that has manifested itself in many different ways throughout the course of modern American history. Many opponents of abortion believe that the act is against Gods will, and that God has ordained the value of a fetus existence as comparable to the lives of humans. This coincides with the principles of divine command theory according to many of these individuals, and their belief system is built around the notion that abortion is a fundamentally unethical issue to God. Many ideologies have used this as a principle justification for their unwillingness to understand or accept abortion, which has led to a significant level of controversy in the United States between the groups of people who oppose it and those who support it. As a result, the United States has had a turbulent history with the subject of abortion, which has led to much debate in terms of a womans right to her own livelihood and body. While it can be said that abo rtion can be a potentially harmful action in terms of the effects it can have psychologically and physically, a woman should still be given the freedom to choose how she goes about her own body, and what she chooses to do with it. Socially, it is the responsibility of a nation such as the United States to provide the most adequate resources that it can to help facilitate these processes and the decisions that women make. References Bartlett, LA. Risk factors for legal induced abortion-related mortality in the United   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   States.Obstet Gynecol.Oxford: Oxford University Press. 2004. p. 729-745. Finer, Lawrence B.;   Moore, Ann M.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Reasons U.S. Women Have Abortions: Quantitative and   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Qualitative Perspectives Perspectives on Sexual and Reproductive Health. 2008. pp..   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   110–128. The Bible: Contemporary English Version, 2000. London: Harper Collins. Weingarten, Karen. Abortion in the American Imagination: Before Life and Choice, 1880-1940,   Ã‚  Ã‚   2000.New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press. p. 176.

Early Medieval Wales :: British History

Early Medieval Wales Towards the end of the 6th century the Angles and Saxons in eastern Britain began to entertain designs on the western lands. The inability of the independent western peoples to unify against this threat left the most powerful kingdom, Gwynedd, as the center of cultural and political resistance, a position it has retained until today. The weaker groups were unable to hold the invaders and after the Battle of Dyrham, near Gloucester in 577, the Britons in Cornwall were separated from those in Wales who became similarly cut off from their northern kin in Cumbria after the Battle of Chester in 616. Though still geographically in a state of change, Wales could now be said to exist. At this point, the racial mix in Wales was probably little different from that to the east, where Saxon numbers were small, but Wales was held together by the people's resistance to the Saxons. The Welsh started to refer to themselves as Cymry (fellow countrymen), not by the Saxon term used by English-speakers today, which is generally thought to mean either foreigners or Romanized people. Wales, like England in the Dark Ages, was a land of multiple kingships. The rugged terrain, with impenetrable mountain massifs and inhospitable upland ranges, broken by river valleys, did not make for a unified control or a unified development. The boundary with England was not marked by natural defences, and productive lowland areas as well as profitable upland pastures were open to frequent attacks. Not until Offa of Mercia built his dyke in the second half of the 8th century was there a definable frontier, and that was designed mainly to deter Welsh attacks and control trade across the new border. It was much the longest as well as the most striking man-made boundary in the whole of western medieval Europe, and clearly came to play an important role in shaping the perception of the extent and identity of Wales. Small local communities acknowledged a ruler whose principal function might seem at times to wage war on his neighbors and to plunder their lands. In general, war made them defensive. The principal divisions of Wales (right) were the four major kingdoms or principalities. Gwynedd was based on the Snowdonia massif and on Anglesey. Powys stretched from the borders of Mercia into central Wales. Dyfed, in the south-west, has been thought to represent the survival of very early traditions, some pre-Roman, some linked with the settlement of those who spoke the Goedelic form of Celtic.

Migration of Nurses

Nicola Yeates (2004) asserts that the validity of global care chain analysis while suggesting that its contemporary application to migrant domestic care workers such as nurses must be enlarged in order to fully realize the potential of the analysis. In essence, the author suggests that â€Å"the migration of nurses such as those in Irish territories during the 19th and 20th centuries illustrates the need to revise the global care chain analysis† commonly used in order to â€Å"protect the welfare of nurses migrating from across the globe† (p. 80). In her article, Yeates believes that the migration trends of nurses during the 19th and 20th centuries in the Irish context is representative of the condition of nurses coming from different parts of the world. The migration trend, she believes, is the direct result of the â€Å"changes in the life expectancies and the population sizes† of various countries, most notably in the United Kingdom and the United States of America (p. 85). Another trend is that those countries have also experienced an inadequate workforce of nurses that will cater to the needs of ageing patients in hospitals and hospices. Due to these changes in the healthcare needs of people in different countries and the high wages and other incentives offered to nurses migrating and working in those countries, Yeates believes that the current global care chain analysis that upholds the concept of personal links of people across the globe in terms of paid or unpaid work of caring needs certain revisions in order to further include the current situations dealt with by migrating nurses. I believe that Yeates’ argument is compelling for the reason that the migration trends among nurses have become a fact of life. Contemporary nurses coming from poor countries or from countries where nursing jobs are inadequate tend to migrate to countries that offer an attractive compensation package and actually have job vacancies whether in hospitals or other healthcare institutions. The previous analysis of the trends in nurse migration as well as the migration of other care providers such as the earlier version of the global care chain analysis does indeed require certain revisions. One revision that Yeates offers is the idea that the current situations faced by migrant nurses should be included in the analysis. I agree with the proposition of Yeates, and for good reasons. For one, migrant nurses coming from poor countries leave their families behind under the custody of their relatives or other people who are either paid or unpaid for their â€Å"care† work. The same is true for migrant nurses who—while coming from better-off families in first-world countries—go to other countries in order to work. It is important that the case of migrant nurses be given sufficient attention by carefully researching into the current trends in nurse migration. The body of research that can be derived from the in-depth study of the trends and conditions faced by migrant nurses can help promote their welfare in the long run. As far as the proposal of Yeates is concerned, it is also important to widen the coverage of the current global care chain analysis through scholarly analysis so that the contemporary needs of migrant nurses can be identified. The identification of the contemporary needs of migrant nurses can help in better understanding the situations faced by these nurses and addressing actual problems that are yet to be known. Since the current global care chain analysis does not explicitly involve modern migrant nurses, it is therefore highly relevant that the case of migrant nurses be included. Moreover, the identification of the needs of migrant nurses derived from the body of research can serve as a guide for legislators in different countries to create the necessary policies that can help uplift the welfare of these nurses. The proposal of Yeates to expand the coverage of the global care chain analysis can provide the substantial scholarly background needed to identify and to establish certain regulations in countries that seek nurses from other countries. In doing so, the difficulties experienced by migrant nurses coming from Irish territories during the 19th and 20th centuries as mentioned in the research of Yeates as well as contemporary nurses from other nations can be alleviated or avoided. The most significant contribution of the proposal of Yeates once it is put into practice is that it can help prevent negative consequences on the part of migrant nurses. For instance, it can help prevent unsatisfactory working conditions as well as insufficient wages which can adversely affect not only the nurses but also the families that they have left behind in their home countries. Abuses in the form of being overworked and underpaid can also be prevented once government policies are put in place. To a large extent, the arguments of Yeates in her article is an insightful study into the conditions of contemporary migrant workers analyzed in comparison with the conditions faced by Irish nurses migrating to other countries at an earlier time. It provides the general image of modern nurses working abroad—the image of a migrant worker who sought greener pastures in a foreign land despite the fact that they have to leave their families, especially their children, under the custody of their relatives or other people. It is only important that the conditions of these nurses should be carefully looked into at least from a theoretical and contemporary perspective because it helps the larger public understand the situations faced by migrant nurses and the difficulties that they have to endure.

Discrimination against women

Discrimination against women is still a global social epidemic today. Is this true? Women work two-thirds of the world's working hours and produce half of the world's food, yet they only earn 10 per cent of the world's income and own less than 1 per cent of the world's property and only 12. 7 per cent of all parliamentary seats. These statistics show that women are still being discriminated throughout the globe and it is a wake-up call for everyone to the severity of this issue.Discrimination refers to the njust or prejudice treatment of different categories of people, in this case between female and male. A few areas where discrimination against women occurs globally are the dehumanising practices against women, women rape cases, and the glass ceiling in Jobs for women. One area in which women are discriminated is that there are dehumanising practices against women. Dehumanising practices are acts that deny the â€Å"humanness† of a person, it occurs discursively, symbolicall y or physically.Women are abused both verbally and physically in many parts of the world, such as India and Africa. In 28 countries, ranging from east to west, there are cases of Female Genital Mutilation (FGM), and it has absolutely no benefits for the women, and its main purpose is to deprive them of the pleasure of sex to ensure that they don't cheat on their husbands. However, FGM brings about harmful side effects to the women's bodies; which are bleeding and infections as well as complications to child- birth and all of which may lead to death.Women are the only one who undergoes this, men don't need to do such things as women are viewed to be the weaker sex and are to be controlled. Dehumanising practices causes nothing but harm to women who experience it, and it is still practiced in various parts of the world, mostly in developing countries, and as such serves to support the point that discrimination against women is still a global social epidemic today. Another area which d epicts that women are discriminated against is the numerous rape cases occurring throughout the world.Rape is defined as an instrument used by men to subjugate women, and as women are often seen as objects of desire, men desires them and uses rape to subjugate women. In India, rape and abuse of women is common, as the society is patriarchal. There are over 80,000 rape cases in India that are pending investigation, yet the police or the government have not made significant changes and efforts to resolve this problem. As seen from the above, there is evidence that people's mind- set does not change easily. In the past, gender discrimination was a common ccurrence throughout the world.Although most of the world have moved past gender discrimination, but there are still countries practicing gender discrimination, and it is not one or two, but big enough to make an impact on the world overall. Hence discrimination against women is still a global social epidemic today. One unseen source o f discrimination against women is that there are glass ceilings in jobs for women. Although most societies have moved past gender discrimination, but there is still differences in treatment between men and women, no matter how small n society, and it is mostly observed in workplaces.As the level of authority and power in workplaces and Jobs increase, it is observed that there are less and less women in these levels, only 12. 7 per cent of all parliamentary seats are claimed by unseen glass ceiling that is hindering them, discrimination still prevails even after a few decades of the â€Å"removal of gender discrimination†, Just that now it is more discreet and not that obvious. Hence, discrimination against women is still a global social epidemic today.