ASSESSMENT Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

ASSESSMENT - Essay Example There are, for instance, societies that practice circumcision of males as a way of graduating them into adulthood. On the other hand, there are communities that do not have that kind of practice. When these two categories of people belong in the same team at the workplace and there happens to be acrimony between them, the circumcised person would most likely use unwelcome words on the uncircumcised one to suggest that they are not man enough because they are not circumcised. Cultural clashes can be real horrible experiences at the workplace (Parker, 2013). Supervisors at work have over the years abused the employees working under them only because the employees do not subscribe to their way of thinking. One thing that leads to differences in thinking are the cultural indoctrinations where one believes that everybody else should believe in the things that they believe in (Parker, 2014). A supervisor will tend to frustrate workers that view things differently. They could end up recommending them for sack or demotion and give vague reasons for that while deep inside, they know that the hate they have for such individuals emanates from differences in culture and, in some cases, religion. Those are very common scenarios. Managers of cross-cultural teams always have a lot to do in terms of creating cohesion among employees drawn from sundry cultural backgrounds. The most important thing for such managers is to try as much as they can to inculcate workplace values and ethics that will ensure that cultural diversity is not a source of conflic t and disrespect. Ethno-cultural conflict within the international classroom is a topic that requires a lot of research. There is bound to be fierce conflicts in a class containing people from different ethnic and cultural backgrounds. Teachers and school heads have the duty to ensure that such conflicts do not hamper the learning process and try as much as

Social Psychology Paper Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words - 1

Social Psychology Paper - Essay Example One of its broadest stem is social psychology (Smith & Mackie, 2000). Since an individual has a great impact on oneself of the environment and surroundings, he is living in; therefore, the society or the environment plays a vital role on the performance and actions of the person. This study of how the human behavior comes under effect by the social power is social psychology. Scientific, systematic and methodical techniques are the ways that social psychology exercise in order to comprehend how real, anticipated and foreshadowed/hidden presence of other people plays an influential and convincing role on the moods, reactions, thoughts, psyche, behavior, and actions of an individual. The social psychologist observes and analyzes a number of aspects when studying the human behavior. They generally observe one’s behavior in crowd, his social viewpoint, the way a person responds without using speech, hyperactive behavior, traditional values, intolerance, and management skills. The thinking or the idea of a person and the way a person interrelates in a social gathering are the prime and vital components that come under use for understanding the social behavior. Psychologist conducts the studies of social psychology in order to know the pattern of boilerplate, how individuals react to situations, the likings, and disliking of people in various scenarios, and attraction of opposite sex towards each other (Smith & Mackie, 2000). The history of psychology tells that it was not until the nineteenth century that social psychology achieved recognition and popularity amongst the masses. After the Second World War, social psychology came under studies in detail. Twentieth century also experienced a boom in research related to social psychology. It was because of the studies that people gained the awareness of the activities and mindset of social beings. According to studies, it has come under observation that people often mix up social psychology with folk wisdom, pers onality psychology, and sociology (Smith & Mackie, 2000). The frames of reference that summarize the four distinctive attributes of social psychology as outline in Social Beings are the socio cultural, the evolutionary, the social learning, and the social cognitive (DeLamater & Myers, 2007). The education, apprentice, knowledge and experiences that people acquire from the philosophies and concept of culture, traditions, customs and norms comes under the limelight of socio cultural aspect of social psychology. The culture plays a vital and crucial role in an individual’s life as the norms and traditions of a culture is a huge influencer in the life of people as it helps in developing the persons’ self-image or the identity. The evolutionary characteristic defines that the genes, heredity, heritage, and legacy are the factors that helps in shaping the personality of an individual. Biological impact is another aspect that comes into focus when defining the evolutionary ch aracteristic, that it plays a vital and critical role in forming the person’s behavior (DeLamater & Myers, 2007). The social learning attribute of social psychology has a different school of thought. According to this attribute, development of a person’s behavior depends upon not only the inheritance, but also the perception, recognition, imitation and parody, which develops an understanding into a distinct, exclusive, and unique experiences

History of Furniture Design

History of Furniture Design How did furniture develop through the centuries? Furniture (probably from the French fournir — to provide) is the mass noun for the movable objects (mobile in Latin languages) intended to support various human activities such as seating and sleeping in beds, to hold objects at a convenient height for work using horizontal surfaces above the ground, or to store things. The question above is not an easy one to answer. Going through the ages of the past it can easily be seen that people invented loads of different types and shapes of furniture. To try to answer this question we would have to go all the way back to the medieval times. This period in time would have to be the starting point in this matter and the Fourteenth-Centurys Great Hall would have to be our point A. Moving forward in the pursuit of evolution of the furniture we would come across the Fifteenth-Centurys Solar (room) and following that road the typical Tudor Interior from the Sixteenth-Century in which the Elizabethan trend was the strongest one to point out. Another development going forward was presented in the Seventeenth-Century in the age of Stuarts quickly followed up by the Georgian Times with its changes in the furniture art and craft. Late Eighteen-Century was known as the golden age for furniture also names as â€Å"age of mahogany†. Moving forward into the Victori an times and drastic increase in furniture demand and finally put an end to the journey through the development of furniture and settle in the Twentieth-Century and its long history. The pursuit of the answer to the above question will not be straight forward and it will involve getting into details of different fashion and behaviour of people who lived in the periods presented above. The time frames would have to be examined carefully and the conclusion have to be made after comparing and reviewing examples from each period of time. The plan would be to keep the research chronically and go over the terms of years in historical order. That is the best possible way to point out the differences and potential development of the furniture along the ages. The fact that people are the creators of the furniture supports the positive answer to the question as all human beings are unique and persons mind is infinite. Therefore the furniture build by the hand of men can and will vary among the time. MEDIEVAL: The quest through the ages in the aim of furniture development will start in the medieval time. Furniture in that period was created purely to help people with day to day tasks table was used only to eat or draw on it. It was not designed to be a piece of art, it was more of a tool. There was a very little furniture in a medieval home and the piece were all of basic, utilitarian design. One of the most valued items was the wooden bed on which lay the feather mattress, supported on boards or rope mesh. After the bed the chest was the most important article of furniture, the craftsmen were outrunning themselves in the decorative piercing of them. There were also cupboards for storage of food and plate. Benches and long oak solid and trestle tables were popular as well in that time, the families were big and the longer the table the more people could eat at the same time. Practicality was the main purpose of the medieval age furniture. Great Hall was the main room where peopl e used to dine and festive together. Most furniture was made of oak, boarded for the most part and decorated by carving and painting. Medieval Trestle table Medieval Chest ELIZABETHAN / JACOBEAN: The introduction of joined furniture towards the end of the Fifteenth-Century made possible stronger and lighter articles. In the time of the Tudor dynasty furniture was slowly becoming more varied in design and greater in quantity. Oak was still the wood most in use and decoration was by carving and inlay. In the first half of the Sixteenth-Century linenfold panelling was extensively carved to decorate panels for chests and cupboards. The reign of Elizabeth I (7 September 1533 24 March 1603) is a good starting point for the study of furniture. Elizabethan furniture is characterised by the bulbous leg, carved with acanthus leaf decoration (seen in beds, tables, court cupboards and buffets). The four-poster bed made its appearance in this century. The framework of tester, posts and headboard was richly carved over the entire surface. Through still not common, chairs were more numerous than in the previous times. Elizabethan bedroom Elizabethan table STUART: Furniture, as elsewhere in the house had become more adequate and convenient. Additionally to the kitchen table there was always a settle, a dresser, and chairs. In the second half of the Seventeenth-Century the carving of woodwork reached exceptionally high standard of craftsmanship. Classical ornaments were used in carving. Most common ones were egg and dart, bead and reel and acanthus foliage. After the Restoration of the Monarchy (1660) furniture become more decorative but at the same time they were more useful at home. Charles II after his return to England from France brought different methods of making the furniture. Also, use of the other types of wood and the meaning of ornamentation strongly evolved at that time. Craftsmen from France were permanently moving to England and they were improving and implementing their way of creating the furniture to the local ones. The period between 1660 and 1750s was known in the history as the â€Å"age of walnut†. This wood was generally used purely due to the low cost and the colour of it. The construction of the furniture became more delicate and the design of it varied. Legs were turned in bobbin vase or columnar form or as the quality of lathe design improved, in the spiral twist. The day bed appeared along with the usage of more chairs and settees. Solid dining tables were pushed out by the gate-leg design, card and small side tables. Upholstery was in common use for seating furniture, it was covered with turkeywork, velvet or embroidery and edged with fringe and tassels. The appearance of new decorative techniques (veneering, japanning, gesso, marquetry) raised the art of furniture to the next level. Stuart chair Gate-leg table GEORGIAN: The form of classicism followed by architects during this long period changed markedly. Palladianism appeared and developed in the early years of this period (1714 1760). Typical English style restrained and almost austere on the exterior, correct in its classical design and detail, richer, warmer and bold within. The country houses of this type were set in carefully selected exteriors, ideal positioned in laid out parklands. The Eighteenth-Century was the golden age of the English house. The quality of design and craftsmanship in architecture and the decorative arts had been steadily improving since Elizabethan times and this reached its zenith in the years 1760 1790. There was a trend in furnishing design to follow a rapidly changing variety of different source material. The standard of workmanship suffered due to mass production of decorative parts based on the cost and time saving background. In total, the time and patience required to train a craftsman and the money to pay him to produce a superb piece of furniture were running out and the decay of taste was imminent. The general quality of the furniture was dropping down rapidly. Due to quick increase of population classy and stylish furniture were pushed out by simpler quicker to made designs, more efficient and less effective mass products. The golden age was also called the mahogany age in the furniture history. Although walnut was continued in use until mid-century, other woods were also employed. After the abolition in 1721 of the import duties of West Indian timers, mahogany began to enter the country in numbers. It was a perfect wood for a furniture making industry. Strong, suitable for delicate carving (ribband or lyre back chairs and cabriole legs terminating in claw and ball feet), also available in greater widths than walnut what made it ideal for veneered surfaces of larger area and for table tops. It had a beautiful patina and resistance to woodworm. In this period many new designs appeared at a glance, such as tables, chair, stools, settees, bureaux. China and corner cabinets were also popular, along with dumb waiters, mirrors, candle stands desks and commodes. The designs of the first half of the century were larger scale, nicely carved in classic manner and superbly veneered surfaces. 1750s was the time of the Rococo motif in furnishing, followed by Chinese and Gothic forms. 1760s was a more delicate period characteristic with carved mahogany but also painted and gilded beech, harewood and satinwood veneers, ormolu mounts and marquetry and brass inlay. In this period more delicate furniture pushed out the heavier designs from previous years i.e. the cabriole leg was pushed out by the tapering square leg. New items started appearing in the 70s and 80s of Eighteen-Century and Pembroke table was one of the examples. At the end of the century came the Sheraton era, displaying simultaneously strength, function and delicacy in the furnishing designs. Decoration was restrained in painting, inlay and veneer, often with metal inlay and mounting. The design was plain and mostly copied from antique originals Greece. The sofa table evolved from the Pembroke form. Chairs were characterized with by horizontal backs rather than vertical splats, and legs which often curved in sabre design (Egyptian or Etruscan samples). Typical of mirror design was the circular convex type. The long dining table was revived, standing on curved legs and pillared supports. 1740 1750s room 1760s room (Adams Room) Pembroke table Lattice-back chair Rococo set Regency furniture (late 18th cent.) VICTORIAN: Nineteenth-Century period. The interiors of Victorian houses were in marked contrast to the previous century. One of the major reasons for this was the urbanization process and the migration of people from country to the cities. Also, the major growth of population forced the change in the design of the houses and its interiors. Mass-production methods of supplying the needs led to a greater similarity in their designs, which overall resulted in a poorer level of design and workmanship. The early part of this period saw machines beginning to replace hand labour, the beginning of the industrial age.This period created a large gap between the designer and the craftsmen. The factories had changed, the designers no longer had direct contact with the customer. The new machines were introduced to take away from man the back braking jobs and speed up manufacture. They soon began to take over most of the work and the furniture started to be designed around what the machine could m ake, therefore the quality of design declined. The demand for furniture was high, the factories were manufacturing at a fast pace, and a frantic rush for the designers to keep ahead of each other created poor quality design. Interior decorative schemes were in great contrast to the Regency ones. White or light painted wood work had been replaced by dark brown tones. Furnishing fabrics were all darker and richer in hue and most often strongly patterned. There was a strong tendency to drape materials over everything, tasselled velvet covers to tables and chimneypieces, antimacassars on the chair and sofa backs. Upholstery was heavy, button designs were very fashionable. The whole interior was over furnished and over decorated, a profusion of stuffed birds, framed photographs, lace mats and wax fruit. Designers rather used and modified many styles taken from various time periods in history like Gothic, Tudor, Elizabethan, English Rococo, Neoclassical and others. The clean Grecian lines of the Regency period were out of favour by 1835 and everyone wanted furniture that was showier with plenty of curves. This showier furniture after 1850 led to low prices and poor construction and workmanship that was often h idden by veneer and applied ornament. The Gothic and Rococo revival style were the most common styles to be seen in furniture during this time in history. In the last 20 years of the century colours became lighter again, patterns less vivid, and fewer pieces of furniture were placed in a room. Mass production was still at its height therefore the quality and individualism of the furniture started to extinct. Because of the technical progress in the industry the interior became more casual and was supposed to be functional more than elegant. Furniture was less attractive, it was heavier in design and often over elaborately decorated. In the late century the whole 18th century and the earlier style designs were copied and reproduced for a mass market. It was very hard to establish which the differences between the originals and the reproductions. One of the characteristic Victorian features was the extensive use of the papier mache and to a lesser degree, Tunbridge ware. The balloon back chair and the introduction of brass and iron in the construction of the bedsteads were crucial in the Victorian furniture history. Rocking chairs were v ery popular along with tent beds. Plainer, more traditional furniture was made by a number of designers at the end of the century. William Morris started a rebellion against this trend, founding a company to demonstrate the superiority of quality handmade furniture. Honesty of the handmade joints was his feature of construction. This lead to the Arts and Crafts Movement on the 1880s leading on to Art Nouveau. This drew attention to the merits of 18th Century furniture and led to the practice of purchasing second hand furniture and the antique shop began. Victorian chairs Victorian hall Victorian rocking chair Balloon back chair Tunbridge ware box Papier mache table THE TWENTIETH-CENTURY: Throughout history there has been great change in furniture design, but by far the most rapid and revolutionary period of furniture history was the 20th Century. The two world wars of this century were not themselves responsible for the changes in society. The wars did however act as catalysts speeding up the processes of change. They have created specific barriers before and after the years of struggle with no chance of returning back to the previous existence. All of the above has changed peoples attitude towards change drastically. After each war the position of women and their functionality had altered fundamentally. Middle and upper class housewives found themselves without sufficient labour to run their homes as before needed to arrange labour save equipment and finishes without outer help. Interiors quickly became plain and far lesser furniture was used inside. The history of furniture design in the 20th century reflects the changing tastes and trends within the design community. The early years of 20th century design were dominated by the slow reaction from the mid-Victorian over furnished interior, were the excess of decoration taken place once again. International Arts and Crafts Movement which was quickly followed by Art Nouveau (circa 1910-1920) and Art Deco (circa 1920-1930) became more of a trend than periods in the early 20th century furnishing history. There was a great furniture demand to supply all new build houses after the wars. Machine production had to be established to cope with the needs, however this has greatly impacted the quality of the furniture. Some excellent modern designs were manufactured in Scandinavia and in the 30s were gradually influencing the English product for the better. This flat packed furniture revolutionised the market in the whole Western Europe. By mid century Modern and Post Modern styles accounted for the changing tastes of post-war consumers. Convenience and time-saving became more important to the whole family in the decades after 1945. After World War II, the public as a whole looked to warmer and softer furniture, organic forms, warmer products like timber and upholstered chairs. They wanted to be cared for by their furniture, feel comfortable and most of all have some luxury that had long been missing. Central heating replaced the heating of the individual rooms. These two factors, together with a rising standard of living and a desire for greater privacy for the individual members of the family led to general rearrangement and the new decor of the rooms. The recognition that with a central heating there was no need for a fireplace led to the fact that in most homes the TV receiver became now the focal centre. Smaller, more individual bedrooms appeared in the households. One of the most popular developments of that period was the usage of plastic textiles. In the field of plastic an extensive range of materials has become available to produce colourful, attractive, and easy to care surfaces at home. The plastic materials together with development of synthetic textile fibres, have revolutionised the decoration processes in the furniture industry. Plastics were like the tubular steel of old, it opened up doorways for new furniture design, lightweight and versatile, designers like Joe Colombo, Vernon Panton and Anna Castelli-Ferreri stormed ahead concepting and manufacturing plastic stacking chairs, beautiful and versatile. The industrial style or Hi Tech movement developed in the 70s. The greatest advances were in office furniture and equipment with Olivetti of Italy leading the way. The 80s period of furniture design continued to focus on the industrial sector. Designs were predominately commissioned for retail shopping, hospitals, restaurants, school s and hotels. The favoured materials were metal, perforated metal became popular along with steel reinforcing mesh. Designers of this period searched to find greater meaning and purpose for their furniture design. Some strange and unusual forms were explored like the W.W. Stool by Phillipe Starck a fantasy style piece of furniture that makes you question if you can indeed dare to sit on it! The Soft Heart chair by Ron Arad showed how by using polyurethane foam that the choice of shapes and form was limitless! Clever materials, technology and production methods meant that the only limits were the designers imagination. Going through the period of time and examining all different trends in the history of furniture few interesting conclusions appeared. Bibliography: 1. â€Å"English Interiors a pictorial guide and glossary†, Doreen Yarwood 1983 2. â€Å"The Encyclopedia of Furniture third edition†, Joseph Aronson 1965 3. â€Å"A Century Of Interior Design 1900 2000†, Stanley Abercrombie 2003 4. 20th Century furniture history http://www.slais.ubc.ca/courses/libr559f/04-05-st1/portfolios/G_Bahnemann/Furniture_Design.pdf 5. Victorian Furniture history http://www.interiordezine.com/index.cfm/Furniture_History/Victorian_Furniture

The Manifestation of Pride in The Great Divorce by C.S. Lewis Essay

The Manifestation of Pride in The Great Divorce by C.S. Lewis The Great Divorce by C.S. Lewis suggests that choices made on earth have a consequential effect towards our acceptance into heaven or our plummet into hell. In this book pride manifests itself in a hundred subtle ways as souls whine about perceived injustices or irrational motives. Thankfully, a few tourists do humble themselves, become transformed into marvelously real beings, and remain in heaven. But most don't, about which the great Scottish author George MacDonald, Lewis' heavenly guide, says, â€Å"They may not be rejecting the truth of heaven now. They may be reenacting the rejection they made while on earth†. George MacDonald the narrator/teacher, from whom Lewis found inspiration for his book, is the guide in the journey through the gates of heaven. This provides great wisdom throughout the book which is not understood without reflection. MacDonald in essence presents Lewis with a choice while journeying in the gates of heaven. The stories of lost ghosts in the heavenly gates only provide reflection for Lewis’ own choice. This choice is not revealed by Lewis, rather it is up to the reader to make his/her own choice. MacDonald gives guidance towards our choice, â€Å"The choice of every lost soul can be expressed in the words, ‘Better to reign in Hell than serve in Heaven.’ There is always something they prefer to joy....† (71). At one point in the book McDonald observes a ghost with Lewis and suggests that truth is a lifelong process, our life longs for this truth. Although we may not all realize truth because of lack of time, Lewis suggests it’s just a matter of obtaining the truth through good use of time. â€Å"Evil can be undone, but it cannot ‘develop’ into good. Time does not heal it† (Preface: VIII). Time is in essence, if perhaps used in the way of authentic leisure, a God given tool for overcoming evil and obtaining the truth of heaven. The women in chapter eleven loves her son so much that she has no love left to give and no room for love to be received. The spirit offers to open love to her, when she replies by requesting to see her son. This love has perhaps prevented her from receiving intellectus (receptivity of knowledge), and in my mother’s case, even the ratio (reasoning) is affected. The saying â€Å"love conquers all things† is true, even if it is not also conquering for the goo... ...tellectus. However, while painting in the ratio he noticed some things were more beautiful to paint than others. Ratio is what caused him to not enter through the gates of heaven. He had not preserved his intellectus or true beauty of things. He had lost intellectus through realization of time, of time slowing. So, instead of letting time go he grabbed it which brought him to reason his paintings through the mind rather than the spirit. â€Å"Reality never presents us with an absolutely unavoidable ‘either-or’; that, granted skill and patience and (above all) time enough, some way of embracing both alternatives can always be found† (Preface:VII). Lewis suggests here that time if spent right can bring us to self-realization of our journey, and in effect influence our choices. These choices are dependent on time. As wrong choices are made only in time, no truly rational choices can be made will out of the realm of time. Time is the evil that surrounds us. It is the letting go of this time when we truly feel void of problems. Only by letting go of our problems we will be able to communicate with God, while in the essence of being one with ourselves and finding our true inner self.

Effective Human Resource Planning Essay

The key to effective human resource management is human resource planning 1.0 Introduction Human Resources (HR) Management is a multifaceted function. This entity has an important place within companies in helping key personnel decide on the best staff for their needs, among other things. Sometimes, the employees chosen are full-time employees already working for the company or they could be contractors. Regardless, the goal of HR Management is to choose the most qualified person for the job. Again, HR Management is a group of professionals that wear many hats, some of which include employee benefits and compensation, hiring and terminating employees, and managing personnel policies and employee records. While smaller companies will often perform the tasks of HR Management on their own, most, larger corporations choose to hire professionals to oversee the entire HR department so we can say that the key to effective human resource management is human resource planning, as it is stated by Mark and Cynthia, it involves strategic plans, then devising ways to meet these objectives . In this essay I will try to focus on strategic planning which is a major factor of planning. 2.0 Aims of strategic plans The history of strategic planning begins in the military. According to Webster’s New World Dictionary, strategy is â€Å"the science of planning and directing large-scale military operations, of maneuvering forces into the most advantageous position prior to actual engagement with the enemy† (Guralnic, 1986). In an address to the strategic planning workshop director-general of kwazulu-Netal RK Sizani said â€Å"employees must be able to advise, facilitate, support, consult, guide, monitor, resolve disputes and recommend strategic interventions to government and departments. They must be capable of producing rules, procedures, norms, frameworks, standards, draw common plans and goals which will enhance co-ordination. They require people who are experienced and somewhat capacitated and not junior entry  level officers.† As organizations vary in size, aims, functions, complexity, construction, the physical nature of their product, and appeal as employers, so do the contributions of human resource management. But, in most the ultimate aim of the function is to: â€Å"ensure that at all times the business is correctly staffed by the right number of people with the skills relevant to the business needs†, that is, neither overstaffed. The second area should be about identifying which of these plans and strategies are so fundamental that there must be clear plans to address them before the organisation can achieve on any of its goals. These are likely to include: * Workforce planning issues * Progression planning * Staff skills plans * Motivation and fair treatment issues * Pay levels designed to recruit, retain and motivate people * A grading and remuneration system which is fair * Employment issues which impact on staff recruitment, retention, motivation etc. * A performance management framework – which is designed to meet the needs of all sectors of the organisation. * Career development framework – which look at development within the organisation at equipping employees with â€Å"employability† so that they can cope with increasingly frequent changes in employer and employment patterns * Policies and framework- to ensure that people development issues are addressed systematically: competence frameworks, self-managed learning etc. The HR strategy will need to show that careful planning of the people issues will make it substantially easier for the organisation to achieve its wider strategic and operational goals. 3.0 Recruitment of staff Recruitment should be preceded by an analysis of the job to be done (i.e. an analytical study of the tasks to be performed to determine their essential factors) written into a job description so that the selectors know what physical and mental characteristics applicants must possess, what qualities and attitudes are desirable and what characteristics are a decided disadvantage; * In the case of replacement staff a critical questioning of the need to recruit at all (replacement should rarely be an automatic process). * Effectively, selection is ‘buying’ an employee (the price being the wage or salary multiplied by probable years of service) hence bad buys can be very expensive. For that reason some firms (and some firms for particular jobs) use external expert consultants for recruitment and selection. Equally some small organizations exist to ‘head hunt’, i.e. to attract staff with high reputations from existing employers to the recruiting employer. However, the ‘cost’ of poor selection is such that, even for the ordinary day-to-day jobs, those who recruit and select should be well trained to judge the suitability of applicants. 3.1 The main sources of recruitment are: * Internal promotion and internal introductions * University appointment boards; * Agencies for the unemployed; * Advertising (often via agents for specialist posts) or the use of other local media (e.g. commercial radio). The organization put its trade mark for rapid attraction and it must take care not to offend the sex, race, etc. antidiscrimination legislation either directly or indirectly. Interviewing can be carried out by individuals (e.g. supervisor or departmental manager), by panels of interviewers or in the form of sequential interviews by different personal skills techniques to aid judgment include selection testing for: * Aptitudes (particularly useful for school leavers); * Attainments; * General intelligence. (All of these need skilled testing and assessment.) In more senior posts other techniques are: * Leaderless groups; * Command exercises; * Group problem solving. (These are some common techniques – professional selection organizations often use other techniques to aid in selection.) Training in interviewing and in appraising candidates is clearly essential to good recruitment. Largely the former consists of teaching interviewers how  to draw out the interviewee and the latter how to rate the candidates. For consistency rating often consists of scoring candidates for experience, knowledge, physical/mental capabilities, intellectual levels, motivation, prospective potential, leadership abilities etc. 4.0 Analysis 4.1 Setting the strategic direction This process focuses on aligning human resource policies to support the accomplishment of the Company’s mission, vision, goals and strategies. The business’ goals sit at the heart of any HR plan and in order to align business and HR you need to answer one key question, â€Å"Can your organisation’s internal capability deliver the organisation’s business goals?† Many organisations cite their people as their primary source of competitive advantage. Successful companies continuously identify and adopt innovative human resource management policies and practices to sustain that advantage. More importantly, they structure work and design training, performance management, pay, and reward policies to help members of the organization succeed in achieving desired organizational outcomes. In other words, they integrate and align HRM policies and practices to reinforce employee behaviors that can best realize the leaders’ strategic intent. In the most successful companies, the set of policies and practices that collectively make up a company’s HRM system is the critical management tool for communicating and reinforcing the leaders’ strategic intent. 5.0 Conclusion While Human resource management strategies must be developed to support the achievement of the organisation’s objectives, it is a two-way process. These strategies can themselves be critical inputs in determining the strategic initiatives for the organisation. A fatal error, however, is to develop and implement Human resource management strategies without thinking of the  organisational strategic planning process. A common mistake is the development of workplace skills plans which are not linked to any strategic goals or objectives or which have no affirmative action components. So, Human resource planning is the key to effective human resource management. 6.0 References 1. http://www.searchbites.com/docs/HR_MANAGEMENT.asp (28th December 2004) 2. Mark Lengnick-Hall and Cynthia Lengnick-Hall. (22 December 2003) Human Resource Management in the Knowledge Economy: New Challenges, New Roles, New Capabilities, 3. Guralnik, D. (Ed.). (1986). Webster’s New World Dictionary (2nd ed.). Cleveland, OH: Prentice Hall Press. 4. R K Sizani, Workshop of the on implementation and action an address to the strategic planning, (02nd December 2001) 5. Behrman M, (2004), A guide to strategic human resource planning, Workinfor bulletin, south Africa 6. http://www.accel-team.com/human_resources/hrm_02.html, (31 December 2004) 7. A Strategic Human Resource Management System for the 21st Century. Naval Personnel Task Force, September 2000, Story Number: NNS040406-02, 04th June 2004 8. Human Resources, Pay & Trends Bulletin ,The employers’ organisation for local authorities in the south east,(June 2004),

Hindu Religion

HINDU RELIGION Dennis E. Leber Axia College RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD (AXIA) HUM/130 NAOMI DOUMBIA AUG 14, 2007 The Hindu religion The Hindu religion is strongly dependent on the Hindu philosophy and in addition, has inculcated a lot of rituals and practices. The Hindu religion has 333 million gods; this is because the Hindu philosophy believes that every human being is God himself. This acceptance of the multiplicity of the Supreme Being in many forms is the hallmark of the Hindu religion. The Hindu religion is also very assimilative and has accepted many faiths into it. The Hindu religion also allows religious freedom and does not enforce the edicts of the religion on anyone. In fact, Hinduism teaches that a person, in order to attain liberation from the worldly bondage, must select the religion that he is comfortable in. Hence, it accepts the existence of all other religions as a means to realize God. The Hindu religion like other religions also believes in the battle between the good and the evil although at a lower level of existence. The religion preaches that man must advance himself through successive levels of knowledge in his quest for the final truth. Hence, the concept of the Devas, or the good deities and the Asuras, the demoniac characters are very important in the Hindu traditions. Many folklores revolve around the battles between the Devas and the Asuras. The important Godheads in the Hindu tradition are Brahma, Vishnu and Siva who correspond with the three ‘Gunas' or qualities of Satva (pureness), Rajas(action), and Tamas(darkness and inactivity). Man is a mixture of the three gunas and the inherent nature of a person will depend on the predominance of the three gunas in him. The Hindu Social Life The Hindu social life is caste based, which was originally devised for the division of labor. Hence the Hindu society has the Brahmins, the highest class who performs rituals and is supposed to be the most educated in terms of religion. Then comes the Kshatriyas who are the warrior and ruling class. Following them in importance comes the Vaishyas, who are the business class. Last comes the Shudras who serve the upper class. People who do not come in these four classes were previously classified as the untouchables who had to do menial jobs in the society and were looked down upon. Women were given important position in the family even though her importance in public affairs was greatly curtailed during the later years of Hindu history The Hindu way of life has many beliefs that were perhaps a means that offered social balance in the society. For example, the norm of sacrifice and the mandatory rules on feeding others helped to provide food for the needy. Similarly, the social practices were seen as the physical manifestations of the philosophical edicts that Hinduism preached. For example the practice of sacrifice to the fire is a physical manifestation of the philosophic ritual of giving up everything for the sake of understanding the truth. Similarly, the belief that the confluence of the three rivers Ganga, Yamuna and Saraswathi is holy, is due to the Tantric belief that the meeting point of the three nerve centers in the body awakens the Kundalini, which is the seat of power in the human body. The desire for liberation from earthly existence Dharma is the duty that you have to fulfill in life through your placement. Karma states that you will reap what you sow. And the desire for liberation from earthly existence is achieved through the combination of the two aforementioned methods. Life & death has a cycle. The cycle is wrought with earthly pleasures & pain. Your intention is to be free from materialistic desires because they are temporary. Only the soul is eternal. So by meditating, fulfilling your duties, and by eventually ridding yourself of your karma; you are free to exist as soul and be one with the universe as opposed to continuing the cycle of birth & death. http://en. wikipedia. org/wiki/Hindu drawn from Aug, 2007 Origin of Hinduism, About. com drawn from Aug 2007