Management of Human Resources

Question: Discuss about the Management of Human Resources. Answer: Introduction Human Resource Management (HRM) deals with management of human resources towards extracting the best from the employees (DeNisi, Wilson and Biteman 2014). It is mostly associated with recruitment and selection, training and development, performance management, employee motivation, compensation planning, maintaining employee relation and employee security (Sultana 2014). This study will agree with the statement that there is no such thing as 'best practice' in HRM. The study will prove this statement through defining various elements human resource practice in the context of different business needs. Moreover, the study will also be real life evidence for proving this statement. Discussion There is no single set of definitive practice and rules for working living and anything else in the life. Likewise, Human Resource Management (HRM) cannot be different. HRM plays an important role in achieving the success of an organization. It can extract the best out of the employees, if right strategy is implemented at the right place (Harley 2015). People are extremely tempted and willing to resolve any issues with the best practice model. However, best practice model in HRM always focuses on one-size-fit approach, which does permit adaptability. Furthermore, todays business environment is highly dynamic in nature. Therefore, the HRM strategy should always be adaptable with the changing nature of the business. Hence, it can be said that there is no such thing as 'best practice' in HRM. Contemporary HRM practices have been founded by the year 1970 with its new ideas and concepts. According to Brewster, Brookes and Gollan (2015), contemporary human resource practice is more flexible and adaptable with the changing needs of the business. On the other hand, Vanhala and Ritala (2016) opined that the idea of contemporary human resource management is to optimize the employees towards meeting the strategic objectives of organization. The increasing nature of agility of contemporary business has led the human resource managers to rely on contingency approach. Rather than sticking to a particular HRM strategy model, todays human resource managers are always inclined to explore innovative strategy for aligning the best efforts of the employees with the strategic organizational objectives (Edwards et al. 2013). They are trying to be freed from the restrictions and concentrating on that model, which suites them the best at particular point of time. The best HRM practice proved for one organization cannot be fruitful for the other. Hence, HRM strategies are always needed to be tailored with the particular needs of the business. While considering the recruitment or talent acquisition practice of organization, there cannot be any such best practice model. Moreover, the recruitment managers need to tailor their strategies through with the specific needs and demands of their organization. However, all the organizations like to select the best candidate for their businesses. According to Paill et al. (2014), different business organizations need to have employees having different set of skills, knowledge and expertise. In case of recruitment practice of Google, the organization always focuses on technical skill, knowledge and expertise of the employees. The platform of the business is wholly built upon technical aspects, where the prime need of the employees is technical skill. Hence, they always need to be concentrated on hiring the employees having high level of technical knowledge (Sheehan 2014). On the other, in case of recruitment practice of mass media and entertainment conglomerate Disney, the organization always focuses on artistic mind of the employees. The platform of Disney is fully built upon creative artistic knowledge of the employees. Therefore, the prime criteria of its recruitment strategy to assess the creativity power of the employees (Ma and Ye 2015). Therefore, there is no such best practice for HRM. Todays business environment is highly competitive in nature. Organizations can beat the market competition based on either of three strategies such as cost leadership, quality and focus. Human resource management practice has to do a lot for implementing these strategies. In case of cost leadership, organizations are likely to beat the market competition through reducing product price and reducing the organizational cost. In this extent, human resource managers need to reduce the cost of recruitment and other HR budget for minimizing the overall organizational cost (Marler and Fisher 2013). However, the strategy for reducing HR budget cannot be same for different organizations. As per Chang et al. (2014), the popular food and beverage company Coca-Cola Amatil is more inclined to hire their employees from international market like Indonesia for low labor cost of the country. In this way, they are quite successful reducing the organizational cost and achieve cost leadership. On the other hand, the retail giant Woolworth uses different strategy for reducing HR costs. Fulmer and Ployhart (2014) opined that Woolworth uses employee referrals for recruiting new employees in reduced cost. In this strategy, the organization gets employee references for hiring best candidate for the organization with reduced cost. In this way, the organization tries to achieve cost leadership towards achieving competitive advantage. Hence, again, there is no such best practice in human resource management. While considering the quality leadership in business, an organization always needs innovation and creativity at each step of its business process. According to Boxall (2013), human resource practice has huge role in flourishing the innovative ideas and creativity power of the employees towards achieving business innovation. On the other hand, Vaiman and Collings (2013) opined that effective of innovation is highly dependent on tailored HRM strategy to extract innovative ideas for meeting the changing needs of the markets. Moreover, employee innovation only comes, when they are highly motivated towards achieving the organizational success. It is highly dependent on the quality of leadership, which the employees face in their workplace. In case of motivational strategies, the organizational leaders are to identify the internal motivating factors of the employees. Motivating factors are quite different from one employee to other. Hence, the leadership and motivational tools also should be customized with the needs of the employees. While considering the example of MYOB, the organization mostly motivates the employees through providing them lucrative reward to the top performing employees. The employees of this organization are only motivated through monetary rewards towards enhancing their performance. Hence, after appraising the performance of the employees, the leaders provide lucrative reward to the top performers. It motivates the employees towards providing more effort and incorporating their creativity in the organizational success (Cerdin and Brewster 2014). On the other hand, the employees of Commonwealth Bank are highly motivated through recognition. Hence, the leaders of this organization have to mostly rely on praising the contribution of the employees in organizational success. They are more concentrated on succession planning for the employees towards their motivation and enhancing performance (Alfes et al. 2013). This comparison also proves that there cannot be any best practice for human resource management. In case of weak performers, who are identified in the performance assessment process, there is a need for enhancing their skills and abilities for meeting organizational objectives. According to Sultana (2014), training and development programs should always cover the basic as well as the set of good foundation for employee development. On the other hand, Vanhala and Ritala (2016) opined that covering only the basics can leave the employees short on their skills, as the content of the training program cannot connect back to the specific skills needed for their specific job roles and responsibilities. This situation has raised the needs for customizing the training and development programs as per the specific needs of the employees in different sectors. Moreover, there is not best practice of training and development program for developing the skills level of the employees. While considering the example of Sausage Software of Australia, the prime skill needed for the employees is technical skill. Therefore, the human resource managers of the organization mostly provide technical training to the employees towards producing best quality web editing tools. This type of training develops the technical skills of the employees, who have limited technical knowledge for fulfilling the specific technical needs of the organization (Sheehan 2014). On the other hand, the prime skill needed for the employees of Coles Supermarket is client interaction skills. It needs the development of interpersonal skills among the employees of the organization. Hence, this organization provides interpersonal training to the employees for enhancing the client interaction skills towards meeting the organizational objectives (Fulmer and Ployhart 2014). The nature of human resource management can also be varied control of leaders. According Vaiman and Collings (2013) the organizations, which are only productivity oriented, are more inclined to practice hard human resource practice in their leadership. The leaders of these organizations use to force the employees towards more and more productivity with no or little welling programs for the employees. Moreover, the leaders in these organizations are mostly autocratic in nature having huge control over the employees. For instance, the leaders of Wesfarmers are highly productivity oriented. Hence, the leaders of this organization use to follow hard human resource strategy for managing their employees and keeping them highly productive (Edwards et al. 2013). On the other hand, Marler and Fisher (2013) opined that the organizations, which are more quality oriented, are more inclined to practice soft human resource management. The leaders of these organizations always give priority to the needs and wellbeing of the employees. Moreover, they practice democratic leadership in their human resource management. Hence, employees are highly encouraged to put their efficiency in their jobs towards achieving organizational efficiency. For instance, the leaders of Cotton On use to practice soft HRM practice for having quality design in their cloths from the efforts of the employees (Paill et al. 2014). Moreover, the leadership styles cannot be same for all types of organizations and it varies from one organization to other depending on their needs. While considering the employee health security of different organizations, the strategies of employee health and safety should also be customized as per the business process of the organizations. Depending on the nature of the business process, there are different types of health and safety issues for the employees in different sector. In case of retail sectors, there are limited possibilities of employee health hazards, which can damage the health of the employees. On the other hand, in case of mining and chemical sectors, there are high chances of health hazards for the employees working in the workplace. However, health hazard like fire, infections are violence are very common in all kind of organizations. The security measures commonly adopted for retail employees are in terms of prevention for slips and trips, reducing manual handling of products and prevention measures for possible violence (Ma and Ye 2015). However, the employees in mining and chemical sector are most likely to face workplace hazards in terms of flammable atmosphere, ignition sources, contaminated chemicals and lots more. Hence, the HR manager of these sectors should be more concentrated on the health security strategy of the employees than the retail sector. There should be explosion venting, explosion suppression and avoidance of ignition sources (Chang et al. 2014). It again proves the same statement that there is no such best practice in human resource management. Conclusion While concluding the study, it can be said that there is there is no such thing as 'best practice' in HRM.One-size-fit approach is quite traditional in human resource management and it can be fit in todays business environment. Todays business organizations are more focused on providing customized products and service for beating the market competition. In such situation, the strategies for human resource management should also be customized for extracting the innovating ideas from them and meeting the dynamic needs of the customers. In case of skills development programs, the HR managers should specifically focus on the core organizational needs and then design the programs. In such extent, with different organizational needs in different sector, the training and development needs are also need to be different. Apart from that, the motivational factor for employees also varies from one employee to other depending on their needs. Hence, the motivational strategies of the organization s can also be different based on either reward strategy or recognition strategy. Apart from that, depending on the business needs, some organizations are highly productivity oriented and some others are highly employee oriented. In this way, the human resource practice is also different as per those business needs. References Alfes, K., Truss, C., Soane, E.C., Rees, C. and Gatenby, M., 2013. The relationship between line manager behavior, perceived HRM practices, and individual performance: Examining the mediating role of engagement.Human resource management,52(6), pp.839-859. Boxall, P., 2013. Mutuality in the management of human resources: assessing the quality of alignment in employment relationships.Human Resource Management Journal,23(1), pp.3-17. Brewster, C., Brookes, M. and Gollan, P.J., 2015. The institutional antecedents of the assignment of HRM responsibilities to line managers.Human Resource Management,54(4), pp.577-597. Cerdin, J.L. and Brewster, C., 2014. Talent management and expatriation: Bridging two streams of research and practice.Journal of World Business,49(2), pp.245-252. Chang, S., Jia, L., Takeuchi, R. and Cai, Y., 2014. Do high-commitment work systems affect creativity? A multilevel combinational approach to employee creativity.Journal of Applied Psychology,99(4), p.665. DeNisi, A.S., Wilson, M.S. and Biteman, J., 2014. Research and practice in HRM: A historical perspective.Human Resource Management Review,24(3), pp.219-231. Edwards, P. K., Snchez-Mangas, R., Tregaskis, O., Levesque, C., McDonnell, A., Quintanilla, J. (2013). Human resource management practices in the multinational company: A test of system, societal, and dominance effects.ILR Review,66(3), 588-617. Fulmer, I.S. and Ployhart, R.E., 2014. Our Most Important Asset A Multidisciplinary/Multilevel Review of Human Capital Valuation for Research and Practice.Journal of Management,40(1), pp.161-192. Harley, B., 2015. The one best way?Scientificresearch on HRM and the threat to critical scholarship.Human Resource Management Journal,25(4), pp.399-407. Ma, L. and Ye, M., 2015. The Role of Electronic Human Resource Management in Contemporary Human Resource Management.Open Journal of Social Sciences,3(04), p.71. Marler, J.H. and Fisher, S.L., 2013. An evidence-based review of e-HRM and strategic human resource management.Human Resource Management Review,23(1), pp.18-36. Paill, P., Chen, Y., Boiral, O. and Jin, J., 2014. The impact of human resource management on environmental performance: An employee-level study.Journal of Business Ethics,121(3), pp.451-466. Sheehan, M., 2014. Human resource management and performance: Evidence from small and medium-sized firms.International Small Business Journal,32(5), pp.545-570. Sultana, S., 2014. An empirical study on Human Resource Management (HRM) practices on employees performance.International Journal of Management, IT and Engineering,4(4), p.290. Vaiman, V. and Collings, D.G., 2013. Talent management: advancing the field.The International Journal of Human Resource Management,24(9), pp.1737-1743. Vanhala, M. and Ritala, P., 2016. HRM practices, impersonal trust and organizational innovativeness.Journal of Managerial Psychology,31(1), p.95.

Speech Recognition free essay sample

Speech is the vocalized form of human Harvery Fletcher and Homer Dudley communication. It is based upon the ?rmly established the importance of the syntactic combination of lexicals and signal spectrum for reliable identi? cation names that are drawn from very large of the phonetic nature of a speech sound. (usually about 10,000 different words) Following the convention established by vocabularies. Each spoken word is these two outstanding scientists, most created out of the phonetic combination modern systems and algorithms for of a limited set of vowel and consonant speech recognition are based on the  speech sound units. These vocabularies, concept of measurement of the (time- the syntax which structures them, and varying) speech power spectrum (or its their set of speech sound units differ, variants such as the cepstrum), in part creating the existence of many thousands due to the fact that measurement of the of different types of mutually unintelligible power spectrum from a signal is relatively human languages [1]. We will write a custom essay sample on Speech Recognition or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page easy to accomplish with modern digital The speech is the quintessential form of signal processing techniques. Due the human communication, is what has drive increased on the processing power at the  the human race so far, talking about it on CPU on the modern computers this task technology is also and important subject become more and more every day, to study. On 1874, the experiments allowing to concentrated on the task of conduced by Alexander Graham Bell interpreting the speech and responding to proves that the frequency harmonics from actions from it than to await for an electrical signal can be divided, this processing the speech patterns. was the foundation that later on leads to The Problem with Automatic Speech the digitalization of the speech, entering. Recognition (ARS) is in writing computer  on the Speech Recognition era. programs that can comprehend a sound 1 wave and reproduced the same spectrogram or a spectrum analyzer, sequence of words that a person would though in vowels spoken with a high hear when listening to the same sound, fundamental frequency, as in a female or this means de? ne an association child voice, the frequency of the between the acoustic features of sounds resonance may lie between the widely- and the words people perceive. spread harmonics and hence no peak is visible. Speech Recognizers In 1952, Davis, Biddulph, and Balashek The ? st attempts to design systems for  of Bell Laboratories built a system for automatic speech recognition were isolated digit recognition for a single mostly guide by the theory of acoustic- speaker, using the formant frequencies phonetics. That is a sub? eld of phonetics measured (or estimated) during vowel which deals with acoustic aspects of regions of each digit [2], this system work speech sounds. Acoustic phonetics with the formant trajectories along the investigates properties like the mean dimensions of the ? rst and the second squared amplitude of a waveform, its formant frequencies for each of the ten duration, its fundamental frequency, or  digits, one-nine and 0, respectively. other properties of its frequency. These trajectories served as the spectrum, and the relationship of these â€Å"reference pattern† for determining the properties to other branches of phonetics, identity of an unknown digit utterance as and to abstract linguistic concepts like the best matching digit. phones, phrases, or utterances [3]. In another early recognition system Fry Another important term during the and Denes, at University College in process of speech recognition is the England, built a phoneme recognizer to formant o formants that in speech  recognize 4 vowels and 9 consonants. By science and phonetics, is used to mean incorporating statistical information about an acoustic resonance of the human allowable phoneme sequences in vocal tract. It is often measured as an English, they increased the overall amplitude peak in the frequency phoneme recognition accuracy for words spectrum of the sound, using a consisting of two or more phonemes, this through the supplying of the system with 2 previous entries or by basically training programming, in numerous variant forms the system to know the vowels and the as the Viterbi algorithm, this one is a  consonants by repetition as we do now dynamic programming algorithm for with the neural networks. This work ?nding the most likely sequence of marked the ? rst use of statistical syntax hidden states – called the Viterbi path – (at the phoneme level) in automatic that results in a sequence of observed speech recognition [2]. events, especially in the context of An alternative to the use of a speech Markov information sources and hidden segmenter was the concept of adopting a Markov models, has become an non-uniform time scale for aligning indispensable technique in automatic speech patterns. This concept started to speech recognition. In speech-to-text gain acceptance in the 1960’s through (speech recognition), the acoustic signal the work Speech Recognition by Feature is treated as the observed sequence of Abstraction Techniques by Tom Martin at events, and a string of text is considered RCA Laboratories in witch he recognized to be the hidden cause of the acoustic the need to deal with the temporal non- signal. The Viterbi algorithm   the uniformity in repeated speech events and most likely string of text given the suggested a range of solutions, including acoustic signal [4].  detection of utterance endpoints, which 4. Hidden Markov Model greatly enhanced the reliability of the The widespread popularity of the HMM recognizer performance and Speech framework can be attributed to its simple Discrimination by Dynamic Programming algorithmic structure, which is straight- by Vintsyuk in the Soviet Union, proposed forward to implement, and to its clear the use of dynamic programming for time performance superiority over alternative alignment between two utterances in recognition structures. As part of this a order to derive a meaningful assessment speech-recognition task is often  of their similarity. Others proposed taxonomized according to its different methods like dynamic time requirements in handling speci? c or warping, in speech pattern matching nonspeci? c talkers (speaker-dependent Since the late 1970’s, mainly due to the vs. speaker-independent) and in publication by Sakoe and Chiba, dynamic 3 accepting only isolated utterances or multiple acoustic features at a single ?uent speech (isolated word vs. point in time in a way that has not connected word). Systems based on previously been exploited in discrete- HMM have been demonstrated to be able  observation Hidden Markov Models. to achieve 96% word accuracy. These 6. Conclusion results sometimes rival human The DBN and HMM are the biggest ways performance and thus, of course, af? rm of working with Automatic Speech the potential usefulness of an automatic Recognition, those are the precursors of speech-recognition system in designated the neural networks that now a days are applications[7]. trying to make the switch of the old We also have to take in consideration systems that still pretty accurate. when we are talking about Hidden Markov Model, that this one is, one of the  most simple Dynamic Bayesian Networks, so using a more complex DBN we can achieve better result, just because the complexity found on those networks. Dynamic Bayesian Networks Over the last twenty years, probabilistic emerged as the method of choice for large-scale speech recognition tasks in two dominant forms: hidden Markov models (Rabiner b: Juang 1993), and neural networks with explicitly probabilistic interpretations (Bourlard Morgan 1994; Robinson Fallside 1991) [6]. This change is mainly due the fact that Dynamic Bayesian Networks are able to model the correlations among

What to Do and Not Do to Make More Money When the Work Dries Up

What to Do and Not Do to Make More Money When the Work Dries Up As I close in on 14 years of full-time freelancing, I find that now and then work can suddenly dry up. Whether the high-paying kind of work that I enjoy offers returns depends on how I respond to these lulls. I used to panic and go after any and all work that I could find. This so-called work included the cheapest lowball offers in and outside my niche, accepting any style, genre and subject matter. I was desperate and looked and acted it. I attracted the worst side of this business. I lost much of my confidence in getting high-quality, high-paying work again. After about two or three weeks of this behavior, my plate would fill with bad, low-paying gigs. Then, as luck would have it, a flood of my normal, high-paying work would come in too. Now I had twice the work I could handle, half of which I didnt want. I couldnt turn the good work down, and I couldnt ignore my responsibility to complete the other work I had committed to. I have since learned to spend those two- or three-week periods calmly, patiently and confidently going after the best work I possibly could. I did so with patience, not letting anyone know my situation, not acting or appearing desperate. Now at the end of such periods, there is no crap to deal with when my luck turns around. I now live and work with the confidence that every time such periods come along, if I respond in a confident manner, in lieu of fearful and desperate, everything will return to normal in a few weeks. Let me elaborate on what I do during those typically two- to three- week periods to bring a rush of new work in. First, I approach existing editors, asking them as to how they are doing and taking a genuine interest in them, both personally and professionally. I drop them an email with tips and leads or open up a discussion on topics that interest them. If that doesnt lead to an assignment, I re-read the publication and competing publications, and I look for unanswered questions and other material that may be the impetus for new pitches. Then I write longer, better and more detailed pitches than I typically do for these editors I already know. I think they respect the additional effort and commitment to the project. And the more they can see upfront, the more convincing my argument that I can finish a great story. I do likewise with new-to-me editors, but again only those with the best work and pay rates. I put together well-considered letters of introduction and samples to go with great story pitches. The more excited I am about a story, and the more research I have done to develop it, the easier it is for editors to become interested. Here is the critical theme in all this: The more you need the work, the more serious and committed you have to be. You have to make your biggest investment, your strongest commitment, and demonstrate extensive preparation in your proposals in order to get the work. More than that, show your best creative writing chops in the process. Write things that are genuinely profound in unique ways. Speak about subjects in a manner no one has ever done before. Dont be afraid to cut against the grain a little bit. But dont let them smell your fear. That does nobody any good.

The truth in lending act Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

The truth in lending act - Research Paper Example Over the passage of time, lenders including the banks looked for and retrieved different kinds of exceptions that put them in a position where they could charge the consumers the fees that were not part of the APR or were not disclosed through the APR to the consumers. The egregiousness of this practice can be estimated from the fact that a lender in the case between NCAS of Delaware and the Pennsylvania Department of Banking could legally claim a certain percentage of the APR while the actual percentage of the cost of loan was considerably higher. An in-depth analysis of the TILA suggests that it has failed as an act to provide the Americans with protection against the deceptive lending practices. Case Study: Pennsylvania Department of Banking v. NCAS of Delaware This case started in Pennsylvania’s Commonwealth Court. The opinion of the trial court was taken on 31 July 2007. The opinion of the trial court did not follow a bench trial and included a decision over the pretrial motions of the defendant and the plaintiff. The plaintiff had moved for an injunction and summary judgment thus requiring the defendant to desist while the defendant decided to go for the summary judgment. On 20 March 2008, Pennsylvania’s Supreme Court gave its decision over the case between Pennsylvania Department of Banking and the NCAS of Delaware. This case includes a payday loans lender. Payday loans can be defined as short term loans that are given usually in small amounts but the interest rates charged on them are substantially high. In this case, the APR advertised by the lender was 5.98 per cent that was indeed, the loan’s APR’s accurate calculation by law (McGingley, 2013). Although this was a low rate and was reasonable, the company added an additional monthly participation fee to the rate worth $149.50 on monthly basis. Although this fee of participation does not have to be included in the APR’s calculation, yet the usury law of Pennsylvaniaâ €™s Section 3A prohibits such forms from charging fees that sum up to over 6 per cent. Nevertheless, the true borrowing cost in this case was nearly 368 per cent. Analysis and discussion The finance charge’s centrality imparts the need for accurate reflection of the loan’s true total cost by this amount. It is important that all lenders uniformly calculate this amount so that the fundamental objective of the TILA of offering a simple method of drawing a comparison between the loan costs to the consumers can be achieved. Unfortunately, however, the integrity of the APR and the finance charge has been challenged in the USA. Paradoxically, certain provisions within the TILA have played a role in challenging the integrity of the finance charge and the APR, though the actions of the Federal Reserve Board also contributed to the weakening of the system. The TILA provides for the exceptions by a limited number; excluded charges which may not necessarily be disclosed or ma de part of the stated charge of finance. This is inclusive of the fees for the preparation of documents, carrying out the surveys of property, appraisals, escrow and notary fees, insurance, and credit reports. The TILA authorized the Federal Reserve Board to develop more exceptions as it deems necessary in order to effectuate the TILA’s purposes. The Regulation Z issued by the Federal Reser

The study of immigration Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

The study of immigration - Essay Example During this time, my family managed to establish successful business and partnerships with the local inhabitants of the region; a factor that contributed to the social and financial success of my family. My family maintains close ties with other family members residing in my country of origin. Due to the availability of multiple communication facilities, the tie has grown stronger with the passage of time. Culturally speaking, our family still uses Arabic as our primary means of communication among the family members but we are well versant in English language and this is essential for our survival and success in the American community. Although we are used to American foods now, my family still prepares foods that have their origin in the Arabian culture. My family still celebrates and performs the religious and cultural festivals and rituals that are in alignment with our Arabic tradition. Although my family has been living in the US for __ years now, our cultural attachment with our native country still survives and I am proud of being a

Collegial and Formal Type of Leadership

Collegial and Formal Type of Leadership This assignment consists of two parts. In the first part, the models of collegial and formal type of leadership are considered and compared to the head teachers role to which the author is familiar within the educational system of Cyprus. The head teachers role will be analysed both leadership styles. In the second part, the author concentrates on the assumptions made about the school organization and its values with the collegial and formal types of leadership. The assignment ends with a conclusion based on the authors understanding of leadership that emerges from a consideration of both theory and practice in relation to these two models. Part 1 According to Pashiardis (1995) the educational system in Cyprus has a bureaucratic structure and school principals are constantly trying to satisfy the bureaucrats rather than the needs of students and parents. Everything must be done in a pre-determined manner, which hardly leaves any space for errors or gives leeway for deviation from the mainstream. This is the main reason why the formal model of leadership is being chosen. Most of the elements of management fit into the bureaucratic structure of the Cypriot educational system. On the other hand, within the collegial model of leadership the governing body of each school is free to set additional aims and objectives that would not only benefit the school community but also the quality of the education offered. Collegial Model of Management According to Bush (1995) and his collegial model, the aims emerge from a participative process whereby staff reach an agreement based on common values. The leader in a collegial model believes that school staff should always be a team in order to be effective and that everyone should be involved in all activities concerning the school practices. In this case, all teachers should have a common vision, set a mission and be aware of their role to ensure the success of the academic enterprise. The elements of Collegial Model are the processes by which goals are determined by the nature of decision process and the leadership style. The collegial model is based on agreement goals among the members of an organization and presents lateral structures and all members have the right to participate in the decision process. As Kaily P. (2010) wrote specific problems can be addressed by different committees which are appointed at the beginning of the school year. These committees consist of teachers according to their abilities and expertise. They undertake to address and solve problems that arise during the school year such as student discipline by formulating a code of conduct, violence at school- prevention and treatment, development activities for motivation in learning, learning difficulties and workarounds (Kaily P. E849 Web Activity 1, 2 November 2010). Furthermore, Palli C. (2010) there is a shared leadership and a collective sense of responsibility among the staff at her sc hool. At the beginning of the school year there was a delegation of roles and responsibilities. Also the teachers had the opportunity to select the committees they wanted to be members according to their interests (Palli C. E849 Web Activity 1, 3 November 2010). The most positive aspect of the Collegial Model is the fact that goals have already been agreed, resulting to the possibility for the participant staff to concentrate and to achieve the goals set. Everybodys ambitions, expertise and capabilities are taken into consideration and used in a way that promotes the welfare of the school unit. As Bennett has argued, knowledge is an important power resource. Sharing knowledge in a collaborative way requires a high degree of mutual trust and consensus (Study Guide p. 37). Formal Model of Management Looking into Bush (1995) the formal models of management aver that objectives are set at the institutional level. Goals are determined by senior staff and the support of other teachers is taken for granted. Therefore, the activities of schools are evaluated in the light of these official purposes. Furthermore, the organizational structure is regarded as objective reality. Individuals hold defined positions in the organization and working relationships are assumed to be strongly influenced by these official positions. Formal models treat structures as hierarchical with decision-making as a top-down process (Study Guide p. 32). In contrast to collegiality, the characteristics of  the formal management models  according to Bush (2003) heads have  authority because of their positions  and are  accountable  for what they do to their sponsor they use any  rational  way to achieve goalsâ‚ ¬Ã‚ ¦Ã‚  fits a lot to the Cypriot Educational System. Not only do public schools but also private ones have debt-reduction management programmes and everything must be centralized and economies of scale must be made. One is asked to annually report in advance how many students are registered for the following academic year that the number of teachers is reduced to the minimum to save resources. In bureaucracy, efficiency, discipline, control, reliability  is more important (Weber 1989, p.312). Promotion is on the basis of seniority  (Bush 2003) more like a typical formal bureaucratic Cypriot school. However, after a long waiting at the age of 40-55 one finally leave from the low-paying Cypriot private sc hool and is employed by a highly-benefiting Cypriot public school. When he/she gets employed at public school, will only find out just a few days before the school year starts, revealing bureaucracy which is neither efficient nor reliable. Part 2 According to Bush and Derek (2003) leadership may be understood as influence but this notion is neutral in that it does not explain or recommend what goals or actions should be sought through this process. However, certain alternative constructs of leadership focus on the need for leadership to be grounded in firm personal and professional values (Bush and Derek, 2003, p.4). Wasserberg (1999) also claims that the primary role of any leader is the unification of people around key values (Wasserberg, 1999, p.158). Furthermore, according to Gross (1985) values are generated externally to the individual rather than being internal, personal creations. However individuals play crucial role in establishing particular values with environments in which they live and work (Study Guide, p. 47). Bush (1998; 2003) also links leadership to values or purpose while management relates to implementation or technical issues (Bush, 1998, 2003, p.4) Collegial model is interpinned by integrative and motivating values. Integrative values are those that serve to draw individuals into collectivity and motivating values are those that shape individual and collective perceptions of needs and interests (Study Guide, p. 46). The implication of these values for leadership role in the educational system in Cyprus could justified since head teachers usually encourage the staff to take part in any decision-making procedure. In this way agrees for certain values the schools. Thus personal opinions (teachers, parents students) are acceptable by others, differences and disagreements are shown in a democratic form. In addition, collaboration is promoted by head teachers. Every teacher, parent, student has its personal needs and interests. Head teachers try to help all members in personal and professional difficulties and offer ways in order for everyone to have a role in the school. Moreover, head teachers promote trust and confidence among all members, make constructive comments and encourage staff to participate in educational seminars and other educational programs. The formal leadership model combines mostly regulatory and directive values which seek to control the behaviour of individuals and groups. The equal opportunities and race relations legislation is enacted in many developed countries. Such values are an important part of the policy process both nationally and within organizations. Whether we accept or reject someone elses value system is not the same as denying that it is a value which shapes their actions (Study Guide p.46). This is one of the three different kinds of Grosss classified values which influence different facets of the school.   Although the ministry of Education and Culture directs schools on how to operate, each school may develop its own principles and values according to its particular needs and aims. Under the guidance of the Head Teacher certain values have been defined for my schools culture like: Equal opportunities for all children as an expression of fundamental human rights, the development of students socia l skills, democratic dialogue in case of conflicts among the children, the multi-dimensional improvement of childrens personality, the importance of interaction with the external environment (parents), and the practice of multiple intelligences. All the above societal values are articulated within the school serve to draw individuals into a formality. The way that my school is managed promotes collaboration and reduces conflict between staff. The head teacher supports the efforts of his teachers and motivates them to share and generate the schools values. He helps teachers cope with the difficulties encountered and promotes respect, democracy, honesty and trust. He encourages teachers to take part in educational seminars and provides equal opportunities for participation in decision making trying to follow democratic values. Individuals play a crucial role in establishing particular values within the environments in which they live and work. Values are manifested in the actions people take, including the things that they say and the language they use (Study Guide, 47).   According to Sergiovanni (2000), how we resolve a problem relates to the extent to which our decision making is dominated by the values of our life world and our system world. As he interprets, system world should be interdependent with life world (the essence o f values and beliefs) Conclusion In conclusion it can be seen that there has to be a leadership style which will incorporate practices from both styles of leadership and which promote the development of the school through the participation and involvement of all the staff members. A head teachers role is to make the vision and the mission of the school known to his/her staff in order for the teachers with the right knowledge and ability to be involved in the decision making. References Bush T 2003. Theories of Educational Management, 3rd edn. London: Sage. Bush T. And Derek G., (2003), School Leadership: Concepts and Evidence, Full report Spring 2003 E849 Leading and Managing for Effective Education, Study Guide, (2003), The Open University. Kaily P. E849 Web Activity 1, 2 November 2010 Palli C., E849 Web Activity 1, 3 November 2010 Pashiardis, P. (1995), Cyprus principals and the universalities of effective leadership, International Studies in Educational Administration, Vol. 23 No. 1, pp. 16-26. Bush, T. (1998) The National Professional Qualification for Headship: the key to effective school leadership?, School Leadership and Management, 18(3) 321-34. Sergiovanni 2000, Effective Educational Leadership, O.U., Sage Wasserberg, M. (1999), Creating the vision and making it happen, in Tomlinson, H., Gunter, H. and Smith, P. (Eds.), Living Headship: Voices, Values and Vision, London, Paul Chapman. Webb, R. and Vulliamy, G. (1996), The changing role of the primary head teacher, Educational Management and Administration, 24 (3), 301-15.

Critique of Story Haircut :: essays research papers

Reading through the whole story "Haircut" , it is not easy to believe that the death of Jim Kendall is really accidental. It is most likely that the incident is a murder. Jim Kendall is not a man who is loved by people in that small town, although some people find his jokes funny as long as they are not on them. There are many examples of those on whom Jim always makes annoying jokes such as Milt who "has got an Adams apple that looks more like a mushmelon" Julie Gregg and especially Paul Dickson who fell out of a tree when he was about ten years old : "Lit on his head and it done something to him and he ain’t never been right. No harm in him, but just silly." Paul is the most important one among them because of two reasons: He is not as clever and reasonable as the others and he is the one who was killed Jim Kendall. Of course these do not prove that the killing of Jim is on purpose. However there are some more reasons that can cause Paul kill Jim on purpose. As we understood from what is told, Paul is fall in love with Julie although she just feels pity on him : "The poor boy was crazy about Julie and she always treated him mighty nice and made him feel like he was welcome, though of course it wasn’t nothing but pity on her side" But according to Paul, Jim never treated her right. He faked her by mimicking Doc. Stair when Doc. Stair was away and made her come to doctor’s office. By the way he and some of his friends hid near the office and laugh at her when she realized the trick. They made fun of her till she got home. Later, when Paul learned this he told the whole story to Doc. Stair. He replied Paul that he would make Jim suffer some how : "It’s a chinch Doc went up in the air and swore he’d make Jim suffer" These words from Doc. Stair may well encourage such a person like Paul about punishing Jim Kendall in his own way. We do not know exactly how old Paul is but it can be assumed that he is not very old, he may be a teenager. In his ages insults are much more damaging than knifes.