1984 vs Brave New World Essays -- essays research papers

1984 vs. Brave New World   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  1984 and Brave New World, written by George Orwell and Aldous Huxley, respectively, are both books that reflect the authors vision of how society would end up at the course it was going at the time of the writing of the book. Both books were written more than fifty years ago, but far enough apart that society was going in a totally different direction at the time. There are many ways to compare these two books and point out the similarities. On certain, deep levels they are very much the same, while at first glance, on the surface, they are very different. One point that in some parts is the same and some very different, is the governments in each of these books method’s of control.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The first thing to think about is how the governments control the newborns, infants, and children. In 1984, children are taught as early as possible all the thoughts and teachings the government wants them to. With these teachings being carved into their brains also comes intense loyalty, each child of the Party is ready and willing to turn their parents in to the authorities at the first sign of heretical thoughts. They are taught this as early as possible to keep them from having time of form independent thoughts of their own. The newborns of Brave New World in some cases are not even alive long enough to have thoughts of their own. People are no longer born, they are grown and hatched to fill a need of the so...

Belonging Essay

Belonging is a natural reaction, intrinsic. We search in order to find a community, a group of friends, a country in which we belong. America is a place whereWhen we feel uncomfortable, we say â€Å"I don’t belong here† and when you find a situation in which you are happy, you can be yourself, natural and free you feel as if it was created only for you. It can also be the most wonderfully liberating experience when you find yourself in a culture in which you do not belong. In not belonging, you become someone free of restrictions, free of the expectations, free to creatively exre your imagination without the guilt that often latently lies behind the veiled threat of failure and disappointment. The apparent fact of not belonging is open for everyone, but it†tms the course of action taken in light of this cultural segregation which should be the goal of the traveler today. â€Å"I had, I realized become strangely accustomed to living in Korea, even though a part of me desired to be back on the beach in Thailand. Rules, or lack of, which shaped me more as an individual than any thing else I had experienced in my life. We are expected to increase our spending power as we age, not our understanding of other cultures, not our compassion for each other or for those living on the other side of the economic spectrum. The traveler, if open to the possibility, is in a perfect position to experience this transcendence. America is the ultimate machine, the ultimate company, and the by-product of its hyper capitalist model is the increasingly glaring loss of personal creativity and individualism within its borders. We are consumers and we are resources to be used and abused in a cycle of production of consumption. I didn†tmt belong, but I could never belong and it was a liberating experience, one which taught me in a way the rules for living on the fringe of a society. I was an outsider, I obviously did not belong into this society, one which is very homogeneous, one in which a foreigner learns to live with the constant attention of being gawked and stared at, around each corner, in each subway car, in every restaurant, everywhere. In our own cultures, where in a sense, at least culturally, linguistically and historically we do belong, life often becomes a stifling world in which our lives are predestined, packaged products.

Outline and evaluate research into the effects of deprivation Essay

In the 1950’s Robertson (on behalf of Bowlby) carried out observations of 49 children aged 1-4 over a two-year period of children separated from their main caregiver(s) due to hospitalisation or being placed in a residential nursery because their main caregiver had to be hospitalised. Findings reliably showed that the effects of deprivation pass through three distinct stages: the immediate response to separation is ‘protest’ followed by despair and then followed by detachment. In the protest the child cries and is unable to be comforted by caregivers with which an attachment has not been formed. In the despair stage the child eventually becomes calmer but is uninterested in others and no longer searches for the caregiver with which an attachment has been formed. In the detachment the child appears to be coping well nevertheless the child tends to treat others all in a similar superficial manner. Furthermore if the attachment-figure returns the ‘abandoned’ child behaves in a very detached manner towards the main caregiver often ignoring or rejecting their ‘advances’. (AO1) Robertson’s research reliably showed the effects of deprivation over a two-year period. Nevertheless this research used an opportunity sample which was very small consequently it may lack external validity in that it may mean that the findings cannot be generalised to situations other than hospitals or residential nurseries nor situations involving reasons for separation other than hospitalisation of the child or main caregiver. However because this study was a naturalistic observation of children experiencing real deprivation in a real-life situation the study might well have high external validity in that the research situation does represent real life. Nevertheless whilst a naturalistic observational method may well be high in terms of external validity it often lacks internal validity as the researcher makes no attempt to control variables and therefore Robertson may not be measuring what he claims to measure – i.e. the effects of separation – but, instead may be measuring the effects of something else – such as the child’s reaction to being placed in a very unfamiliar environment. (AO2) Bowlby (1946) carried out a retrospective study on 88 children that had been referred to his psychiatric clinic because they were suffering psychological disturbances. Half of these children showed delinquent behaviour in that they had a criminal record for theft and 14 of these ‘thieves’ displayed an ‘affectionless’ personality the other 44 children were emotionally disturbed children but did not show delinquent behaviour. When Bowlby investigated the children’s life histories he found that 17 of the 44 children in the ‘delinquent group’ had experienced separation/deprivation from their mothers for more than 6 months during the first four years of life, whereas only 2 in the ’emotionally disturbed group had experienced this. Bowlby concluded that maternal deprivation played the major role in causing delinquency in later life. This appears to suggest that early separations may well be related to later emotional maladjustment. (AO1) However a number of criticisms can be aimed at Bowlby’s research, for example:Â  The data on separation were collected retrospectively and may not be reliable or valid. (AO2)Â  Even though only two of the non-delinquent group had suffered deprivation all were suffering from psychological disturbances suggesting that deprivation does have negative effects on development; however many children experience deprivation and do not suffer and long-term serious psychological problems suggesting that it is not as ‘clear cut’ as Bowlby is suggesting. (AO2) Bowlby’s sample was biased in that all of the children in the sample were maladjusted in some way and therefore is not representative and probably not generalisable to children who are not maladjusted in some way. The sample is also too small to be representative of the population. (AO2)Â  Bowlby makes the assumption that maternal deprivation was the major cause of maladjustment when it could have been due to many other factors, for example, being placed in strange and frightening environments, lack of attention from any potential caregiver, etc. (AO2) Bowlby’s research may well have been biased as he was employed to do such research by the World Health Organisation for political purposes. That is Bowlby’s work was used to support governments eager to encourage women to return to the home and leave the workplace after World War II. In reaction to this, feminists cited anthropological research from around the world to show that sole care by the mother was a recent Western invention. They also point out that in cultures where the mother was not the main caregiver or played little if any role in care-giving the children were not maladapted and grew up to be socialised, well-adjusted adults. (AO2)

Aging Workforce in Singapore Essay

Populations in many developed countries are ageing, and Singapore is no exception. The first batch of post-war baby boomers will reach 65 years of age by 2012. The number of seniors will increase from 8.4% in 2005 to 18.7% in 2030 (refer to Table 1). According to the 2010 Population Report,  The proportion of residents (i.e. citizens and PRs) aged 65 and above increased from 7.0% of the resident population in 1999 to 8.8% in 2009. Correspondingly, the number of younger residents aged 15-64 for every resident aged 65 and above (i.e. the old-age support ratio) fell from 10.1 in 1999 to 8.3 in 2009 (refer to Table 2). (Singapore Department of Statistics, 2010, p. 4) Today, one out of every 12 Singaporeans is aged 65 or above. By 2030, this ratio will become one out of five. On January 2011, the parliament has passed down the new employment law of changing to retirement age from 62 to the age of 65 from January 2012. This is a good news to many Singaporeans who felt that they are still capable of working beyond the retirement age of 62 (Nayak, 2011, para. 3). An ageing population brings both challenges and opportunities, having tremendous effect on all parts of our society – individuals, families, communities, businesses and government. Therefore, we ought to prepare early for the challenges of an ageing population to ensure the well-being of our seniors and their families to provide the first line of support. At the same time, we must be ready to seize the economic opportunities that will emerge from the demographic shift. Aging Workforce in the Hotel Industry With relevance to the major demographic trends, aging population, this revolution will change the face of our labour market. Correspondingly, the workforce is not only ageing, but also growing at a much slower pace. Increasingly, companies are facing problems in recruiting replacements for retiring employees. This is a reality that companies have to grapple with and adapt to. Nevertheless, not all companies are being affected equally nor are they moving at the same rate to identify and address how the ageing trend will be impacting their businesses. Impacts In the hospitality industry, service is the factor that differentiates hotels from its competitors. Therefore with a large amount of aging workforce in the frontline, it will bring down the image of the hotel in terms of appearance; a younger worker would look fresher and have a better appeal to guests. As a guest of a hotel overseas, he or she would be preferred to be served by younger workers than people of an old age. As older employees are naturally more prone to illnesses, they would tend to take more medical leaves thus decreasing the manpower. When one gets sick, it affects the employees’ mood to work and thus less concentration when working. This in turn reduces the efficiency of the operations of hotels. In addition, the needs and interest changes with aging workforce. According to the study by Tripartite Alliance for Fair Employment Practices (TAFEP) (2010), â€Å"rising health and insurance costs, concern about physical abilities, and adaptability/willingness were ranked as the top three challenges† (p. 3). With the ever changing preferences and needs of the society, hotels have to constantly upgrade their standard of services. However, older employees may not be equipped with latest skills and knowledge needed to achieve the hotel’s competitive advantage. Thus, there is a need to constantly upgrade the skills of their older employees. Older employees are more resistant to changes and improvements. This may be mainly due to their thinking of already having the appropriate experience and knowledge and there is no need for further training, especially in the situation of â€Å"leapfrogging†, where a younger worker is put in charge of a more experienced worker. Many hotels will have an advantage by having a large pool of elderly employees. It is mainly because there are many job positions which young employees would be unwilling to take up. Most time, foreigners would be hired to fill up the rest of the job vacancies that do not appeal to the young employees; however, hotels can have another avenue of recruitment – the elderly workforce. This will give hotels a great advantage to handpick the best candidates out of the pool of elderly workforce. In hotels, there are certain positions that elderly employees occupy, for example managerial positions. Being loyal to the company, they would not want to leave their positions easily as compared to the younger workforce who usually job hops for a better pay. This relieves the hotel’s need to constantly recruit and train new workers, thus helping to cut the costs during the process of recruitment and training. Challenges A) The Human Resource (HR) unit has a challenge to allocate the older employees in suitable positions that is beneficial for both the hotel and the aging workforce. The HR unit also has to ensure that the hotel would maintain a good image and increases their productivity. There is also a need for the HR unit to create a supportive culture for the older workers in order to manage such diverse workforce. B) Keeping older employees motivated at work along with the right attitude is important when serving their customers. In addition, with the older employees being more prone to illnesses, hotels have to struggle with ways to keep their costs low and at the same time provide adequate medical benefits for them. During such periods it is more crucial for managers and supervisors to show them care and patience. C) Values tend to change from one generation to another as well as during different life stages. The thinking of the older generation is more conservative than those of the younger generation. It would thus be a challenge for the hotels wanting the older employees to improve their values in their job scope. With a more conservative mindset and thinking, they would be afraid to try new things and be more innovative. In turn, the hotel will lose its competitiveness if new changes are adopted. Hence, the HR unit in a hotel has to place their older employees in the most relevant training to help them prepare for changes in their current jobs. Besides that, older employees would normally take a longer time to adapt to changes, thus the management has to work out appropriate schedules to help their employees to have a proper balance with their job and trainings. D) Older employees tend to have more skills and knowledge in the industry due to the experiences they have gone through. Retaining this skills and knowledge is critical for hotels to ensure that the younger generation will also have these basic skills and knowledge as a platform for them to have an advantage over their competitors. E) Although there is a need to retain these skills and knowledge, there will definitely be a time when one has to retire. However, the aging workforce is usually reluctant to leave their positions as they are emotionally attached to the hotel. This would be a challenge for the hotel to find ways to recruit younger employees, without resulting in excess manpower and high costs, especially for positions in the higher management. If the hotel were to retain most of the older employees, they may miss opportunities on recruiting young employees who can be a more valuable asset to the hotels which helps to bring their standards to a higher level. Solutions It is time for employers to start responding to the potential consequences of the ageing workforce on their businesses. If not well-prepared, employers may find themselves suddenly faced with labour loss, experience and expertise that will be difficult to offset, given the relatively small pool of new employees. With many companies facing the same problem, competition for new talents is likely to surface. A) Hotels can have interviews to know which areas older employees would prefer to work in and the languages they can speak. With the information gathered, hotels will be able to know their strengths and weaknesses which help to determine where to allocate each individual. With the proper job assignment, hotels will be able to maintain a good image, by reassigning the older employees with language barriers to the backhouse such as room attendant. This allows them to be in their comfort zone and after getting used to their task, the productivity will be maximized in both the frontline and backhouse. B) In order to keep older employees engaged and motivated, it is vital for the HR department to maintain constant communication with the older employees and understand any problems, issues and concerns that they are encountering. By treating their employees like family members, it may be a major job happiness-driver for them and thus motivating them to do better for the hotel. Besides that, communication and treating each other with respect ensures that the spirit of their employees is always high. Through job empowerment, employees will have more decision making responsibilities and hence they will feel more respected as an employee as they are given a chance to handle more difficult situation on their own. As for medical benefits, hotels can pay a certain percentage of their medical fees. For example, the hotels will pay 50% of their employee’s medical fees while the other 50% is paid by the employees. C) Facing the challenge that older generation is more conservative, companies can focus on creating a positive work environment for older employees by allowing flexible hours, more communication and constantly motivating them. Some of the actions can be allowing the older employees to have an option to consider different jobs and different sets of responsibilities. Some older employees may wish to devote their later career years to jobs that allow them to develop new competencies. Others may want jobs that are less demanding, these older employees may be interested in making transitions to different jobs within the company or make lateral moves or even to lower positions with a pay reduction. Other than that, the hotel can allow them to have a choice over the number of hours worked and provide them with flexible schedule for trainings. For example, older employees work on reduced-hours such as part-time or job sharing, so as to schedule the rest of their time for trainings that are a rranged for them. D) To retain the skills and knowledge, the older employees can train and guide the younger employees before they retire to ensure that the skills and knowledge are passed down. After retirement, they can come back and help out by overlooking and having workshops to give further training that is needed. E) To attract the younger people, creative ways are needed. For example, the hotel can come up with a program like the popular show â€Å"The Apprentice† by Donald Trump to search for the best employee. However, we must ensure there is no excessive pool of manpower and costs are kept low. The hotels can allow their older employees to be on-call workers or have flexible work schedules. On-call workers are employees who are called to work only when needed, although they can be scheduled for work for several days or weeks in a row. In days when the hotels need a massive number of employees, the on-call workers will be called back. By providing flexible work schedules, older employees are allowed to plan their work schedules with the choice over the number of hours worked. This will prolong the retirement period for older employees by allowing them to work but at a lesser duration, so that younger employees have the chance to excel and there will not be a surplus or shortage in th e manpower. Case Study: Royal Plaza on Scott The Royal Plaza on Scott is a 5-star leading hotel in Singapore. 50% of the hotel 300 employees are classified under the mature and older category. The company recognized the importance of mature employees and has sets out strategy as Singapore faces human capital challenge of managing a mature and older workforce. According to Fiat (2010), The mature employees are valuable assets to the organization as they are able to share their wealth of experience with the younger employees. The hotel taps on their expertise by pairing the mature employees with the younger generation of new hires to provide guidance and encourage cohesiveness. The hotel also implemented a buddy system where a new mature employee is paired with a younger co-worker or vice versa to work together and learn from each other. For example, younger employees may learn from mature and older employees on how to handle difficult customers while guiding their older colleagues on the effective usage of technology at the workplace. (TAFEP, p. 45) Royal Plaza on Scott has developed recruitment strategies like implementing Flexible Working Arrangements (FWA), where there is a flexible work arrangement which includes flexi-time, part time, job shares and compressed workweeks. Health benefits and programmes will also be implemented including regular health screening, health talk, yoga courses, sushi-making classes and others. This is to encourage for a healthy work life balance. Another great strategy used is to set up a Recreational Committee that was assigned to take care of the well being of co-worker. This committee will be in charge of organizing health awareness events, initiatives to create awareness of healthy lifestyle as well as to bond employees of difference generations (TAFEP, 2010, p.46).

Toyota Compensation and Benefits

Toyota Compensation and Benefits Trends in Human Resources Management Teresa Hall U8a1 Instructor: John Devellier Toyota Motor Corporation has never faced an issue with their employee compensation and benefits packages. Part of their philosophy has been people are their greatest asset and they treat them as such by paying them a good salary and empowering their employees. How can they attract top talent? Well even the top executives at Toyota do not make a seven figure salary. Wages are determined with a fair market value in mind, but it is the â€Å"me† versus â€Å"we† attitude that drives Toyota's success.Describe the formal pay structure within the organization. Toyota has long marched to a different drummer when it comes to wages and compensation. Now with the economy turning upside down, Toyota has been forced into cost cutting measures to align hourly wages more closely with state manufacturing wages of where the plant is located. They have always followed the po licy of pay your employees well and they will perform better and be more productive, but also promote a policy of equal payment for each job. Describe any benchmarking activities undertaken by the organization.Include information as to whether the organization offers a competitive compensation structure. Describe incentives offered by the organization. You can take a page by the introduction of the Toyota Way to employees in the Camry Plant of Kentucky (Kentent, 2009). Initially high wages allowed Toyota to hire the cream of the crop. Daily, monthly and yearly goals were outlined for each department and offered a bonus system if goals were achieved. The bonus was distributed to each member regardless if a profit was made and not by individual performance thus enhancing the team concept.The company used also non-monetary awards, as letters of â€Å"thank you† from the president, recognition on Toyota publications, and daily recognition from their peers and supervisors. One of the highlights of the Camry plant was to build a gym, cafeteria and a nursery for the children of the employees. The upper management also does not have special parking places or any other perks to enhance the feeling of equality with their fellow employees. Describe any profit sharing, stock ownership programs that are available.While owning part of the company is not an option for most Toyota employees, profit sharing is with the gains consistently being passed on to workers throughout the years (Miller & Novak, 2008) often making Toyota employees the highest paid workers in the automaker industry. Describe how benefits are communicated to employees. Benefits are communicated to employees on their day of hire with the Toyota Handbook which explains company policy wages, benefits, health care packages, retirement and pension plans and the company mission.Also included is the (Toyota, 2003) Toyota mindset of Kaizen, continuous improvement and employee respect. Describe any problems associated with compensation policies of the organization. Some of the problems associated with compensation result in the low wages paid to employees versus other automakers. Initially Toyota offers high salaries in an effort to attract the best talent, but there it ends. Even top executives in Toyota rarely receive more than a seven figure salary. After all the training and development Toyota puts into its employees, some can be wooed away from other companies with the promise of more money.Describe the environmental factors that have influenced compensation and benefits of the organization. Toyota believes in â€Å"green† and that is passed on to its employees by making them socially aware of establishing a low carbon society. There is no waste of any kind at Toyota and sometimes that means eliminating positions and tasks that may potentially harm the environment. But that does not mean that the employee is discarded along the way. They are just retrained into another job. Describe any current issues faced by the organization as they relate to compensation and benefits. The current recession has made Toyota consider the â€Å"unthinkable† for them and that is laying people off. In previous articles this has never been an issue for Toyota as people are their most valuable asset. They have managed to avoid it thus far by reducing man hours, moving people to different operations and rethinking their benefit packages. They are in favor of tailoring an individual benefit plan instead of offering the comprehensive group plans they now offer.References: Kentent. (2009). Toyota production system. Retrieved from http://kentent. hubpages. com/hub/Toyota-Production-System Miller, J. , & Novak, V. (2008, December 11). Auto worker salaries. Retrieved from http://www. factcheck. org/2008/12/auto-worker-salaries/ Toyota. (2003). Toyota environmental and social report. Retrieved from http://www. toyota. co. jp/en/environmental_rep/03/jyugyoin03. html Toyota. ( n. d. ). Toyota motor corporation. Retrieved from http://www. toyota-global. com/sustainability/environmental_responsibility/

Administration and Procurement Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Administration and Procurement - Essay Example Procurement systems can be categorized as: Project management is excluded as it is considered that a project manager could be applied to any procurement method. In other words, to dispel a common misconception, project management is not a procurement method (Bennett, 1986, p. 5).The following criteria can be used to examine client requirements and 'experts' preferences for the performance of each procurement method. NEDO (1985), Skitmore and Marsden (1988) and Singh (1990) suggest employing the following criteria to establish a profile of the clients' requirements:NEDO (1985) relates the characteristics of the most popular procurement methods used to a list of nine client priorities or needs. This technique, while useful as a guide in terms of eliminating unsuitable procurement methods from the available alternatives, is insufficiently sophisticated to enable a final decision to be taken as to the method appropriate for a building project (Masterman, 1992). Franks (1990) uses a rating system based on the ability of each procu rement system to meet seven common satisfying criteria. A scale of 1-5 is used, where 1 is the minimum and 5 is the maximum. Masterman (1992) states that the use of this technique in determining clients' needs is valid but is flawed with subjectivity. Skitmore and Marsden (1988) and Singh (1990) used the multi-attribute approach, which is a technique applied to measure a degree of objectivity to subjective areas. Both studies adapted the procurement path decision chart from NEDO (1985) to aid the decision-making process. Bennett and Grice (1990) have undertaken similar work. Furthermore, Skitmore and Marsden (1988) applied concordance analysis and discriminant analysis to their theoretical framework. Concordance analysis is used to measure the consistency of experts' ranking for each procurement against a set predetermined criterion. Discriminant analysis examined data collected under a set of criteria that are characteristics on

CAPM Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

CAPM - Assignment Example CAPM has theoretical limitation, which include impractical assumptions and instability of the beta values. The Arbitrage Pricing Model and Rolls have criticized the theory indicating that it may be unreliable and invalid. This study will examine the theoretical limitations and criticisms of the theory. Theoretical Limitations of the Theory The theory argues that all investors are risk avoiders and that the returns are normally distributed (Ma, 2011). This is not the case because investors are normally risk takers who are willing to make huge returns when their predictions favor them and lose when they fail. Assuming that returns are normally distributed is also unfounded because investors are not usually sure of the yields on their assets (Ma, 2011). The assumption that assets are free from risk is also unrealistic because it is hard to find such stocks in the real world. The theory argues that short-term securities offered by the government are free from hazards because the state as sures investors certain returns on the assets. This is not the case because the risk on the assets is in the form of inflation, which is the instability of prices in the market (Ma, 2011). Inflation leads to the loss of value of money, and this means that, assets also lose their worth when prices rise in the economy. Since money loses its value then it means that investors face the risk of lower returns when their stock matures. For example, when the state pays 10% on its short-term bonds then inflation rises in the country by 2%, investors get 8% returns on their securities in real terms. This means that investors face the risk of inflation, which reduces their earnings. This also indicates that the CAPM model is applicable in an ideal world, an occurrence that is impossible (Ma, 2011). Roll’s Critique of CAPM Roll criticizes the validity of the Capital Asset Pricing Model equation. The equation is as indicated below: E(Ri) =RF +?i [E(RM) - RF] Where E(Ri) represents the yie ld on security i. RF is the risk free rate of return. Bi is the market risk that security i faces. Roll’s first critique was that the model could not be tested using current data because it is constructed based on historical data. The impossibility of testing the model arises from the fact that it is based on market values of stocks, real estates, jewelers, and labor. Rolls argue that it is impossible to find the market value of this portfolio because no accurate data of these factors exists in reality. Thus, Roll argues that the CAPM cannot be proven right or wrong because of the impossibility of getting accurate data (Ma, 2011). Roll argues that economic models should be easy to test using future data because they simplify the real life. However, according to him, CAPM is complex because of the inability of being tested using future data, and this makes it unreliable. Roll also postulates that it is impossible to get efficient stocks whose values and rates of return have li near relationships ideally (Ma, 2011). Therefore, Rolls argument generally argues that CAPM is unreliable because it has never been tested using real data, and it is still impossible to do so because of uncertainty of prices, which is common in the real world. Arbitrage Pricing Model (APM) The APM addresses the weaknesses of CAPM by doing away with the assumption that the