NSA Spying free essay sample

The NSA is the United States security agency. It has many spying capabilities and many people are worried about them. I personally am not that worried about the NSA. The NSA is keeping the United States safe from foreign aggresors and also protecting domestic terrorism. Edward Snowden, a former agenency contractor, leaked some information about the NSA and has gotten people upset about their rights. They have been breaking peoples rights since 1952, but back then no one was complaining. Whether people like it or not, they are constantly spying on them. It honestly does not concern me because due to the fact I am not a terrorist or anyone that does harm. If the NSA is invading your rights, you can try to stop them but in reality, you are doing nothing. Even if the U. S. decides to stop the National Security Agency they will still be spying on you. We will write a custom essay sample on NSA Spying or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page The NSA is not going to snoop around your emails and look at your selfies. They are protecting the U. S from foreign and domestic affairs. Even though they missed the bombings recently does not mean it is not useful. If the U. S removed the NSA completely, we would be open to invasion and more affairs. The article is biased and is trying to look at all the bad things. Would you rather have protection in the exchange of your rights or would you have no protection in exchange for your life? The NSA makes me feel safe and does not worry me much. In The Open Window the mood starts off pleasant and full of hospitality, but then the mood turns sinister as readers learn of a dark illness that supposedly lies in the aunt but when it is revealed that the niece was lying it turns the mood by making the readers feel a sense of violation because the story really has the reader believing the niece up to the climax. In â€Å"swimming to Antarctica† – the mood starts of with the readers feeling the anticipation of the swim. There is fear mainly of the unknown but when the swim starts the mood turns desperate the cold water sapping her strength slowly hijacking her nerves, which turns the mood into a more alarming state, but when she pulls through the mood turns into victory Swimming to Antarctica, by Lynne Cox, the author uses a First-person point of view. What this is a narrative device whereby the narrator is speaking for and about himself or herself. The story is set in the English country house of Mrs. Sappleton. The home has a huge window which allows Vera to make up the fanciful tale of how Mr. Sappleton and his hunting party left one day, never to return. Framton Nuttel has been sent to the country to rest his nerves, but Veras tale and subsequent events make that impossible. The setting of Swimming to Antarctica is the frigid Salt water of the Antarctica Surrounded by glaciers. With close encounters with wildlife such as penguins. The Open Window, by Saki, the author uses a third-person omniscient point of view. What this means is that the narrator is a not a part of the story but can share what the characters are thinking and feeling. The reader learns about the characters from the third-person narrator as the narrator conveys what the characters are thinking and feeling in the short story: For the most part, the narrator shares Framton Nuttels point of view. He is the one who is nervous, calling upon strangers. He is the one who sits and listens to Veras tall tale, not knowing it is a far-fetched story. He is the one who believes Veras tall tale. In the short story, In The Open Window, Exposition is when Mr. Nuttel is thinking to himself and Introducing himself and his reason of visiting the Sappelton home Rising action occurs as Frampton Nuttel arrives at the Sappleton home and is told the story by Vera, Mrs. Sappletons niece. She explains to him in great detail that the window remains open as a memorial in waiting. Her aunt expects the return of her husbands hunting party which was lost in the marsh. Vera is very convincing in her story, she has Mr. Nuttel scared to death and convinced that Mrs. Sappleton is insane. Climax of the story is when Mrs. Sappleton announces that she sees her husband and brothers coming towards the house. Resolution of the story occurs as Mrs. Sappleton, puzzled by Mr. Nuttels hasty departure from her home, is told by Vera that he ran out of the house because of the dog that was approaching the house. You see, said Vera in the resolution, he told me he was terrified of dogs. IN Swimming to Antarctica Exposition- Lynne Cox introduces herself and the task she is about to undertake Rising Action- Lynne Cox enters the frigid water and begins feeling despair Climax- She reaches the Beach amid all odds Falling Action- She is being cheered on by her fans and supporters Resolution- she has now swam a mile in the Freezing waters of the Antarctic In the Open Window- Mr. Nuttel has a truth that the Sappleton household had faced a tragic event in which the loss of Mr. Sappleton and his hunting party. But in reality the hunting party had left that morning and was in fact alive In Swimming to Antarctica, Lynne Cox Believes that she cant do physical harm ad the dangers of swimming the Antarctic was inconsequential, Later does she learn that the Cold water has done nerve damage and the danger were

Tourism And Economic Development In Singapore Tourism Essay Essays

Tourism And Economic Development In Singapore Tourism Essay Essays Tourism And Economic Development In Singapore Tourism Essay Essay Tourism And Economic Development In Singapore Tourism Essay Essay The Singapore Tourism Board ( STB ) is a taking economic development in touristry, one of Singapore s cardinal service sectors. The organisation is known for partnership, invention and excellence in doing it a cardinal economic driver for Singapore. ( STB, updated 2010 ) Based on the Singapore Tourism Board ( STB ) media release on April 23, 2009 and October 27, 2009, the cardinal statistics show that there is an unfavourable alteration in inflow of Singapore Tourism. Visitor reaching to Singapore has declined in earlier portion of the twelvemonth 2009 when compared to twelvemonth 2008. This is well caused by the lessening of tourer reaching from Singapore s top five visitor-generating markets which is besides deduction of the external forces by Political, Economical, Socio-cultural and Technology developments at the tourer bring forthing states every bit good as the finish state. Other major factors include the followerss ; The gap of boundary lines An addition in disposable income and holidaies Reasonable priced airfares An addition in the figure of people with clip and money More people with the impulse to go The weak public presentation in tourer reaching further leads to worsen in general economic system of the state as Tourism provides authorities with significant revenue enhancement grosss. As there is mutuality between assorted sections of touristry, public presentation by other touristry related sectors such as Hotel, Attractions, Restaurants, Theme Parks and other Resorts in Singapore faced the negative multiplier consequence of the lessening of tourer reaching in earlier 2009. Problem Identification and Analysis As at April 2009, Tourist reaching bead hotel industry public presentation bead in general compared to the same month in twelvemonth 2008 AOR / ARR/ Revpar/ room revenue/ †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ There is a tendency in Singapore touristry harmonizing to functionary records that there is a well low inbounds in the first months of a calendar twelvemonth. These could moderately be caused by the agenda and modus operandis of a on the job mid-class visitants where there are least likely to be granted a holiday period. Another cardinal influence of the inflow is the planetary economic system crisis that took topographic point and effected world-wide economic system in 2008 which was triggered by a liquidness deficit in the United States banking system. It contributed to the failure of cardinal concern, diminutions in consumer wealth, significant fiscal committednesss incurred by authoritiess, and a important diminution in economic activity. Harmonizing to the statistics from October 2009, media release by Singapore Tourism Board, the visitant reachings to Singapore has picked up in a positive mark registering increase figure of 9,000 which was about 10 % of the reaching in earlier that twelvemonth. This is an deduction of cardinal part by top visitor-generating markets from Malaysia, Indonesia, Vietnam and Japan. These influences could be regarded as a consequence from public vacations at the tourer bring forthing states. Some factors include grant vacations and holiday period by the employer to bulk of the staff and being the most suited clip to unclutter the one-year leave by twelvemonth terminal. Some other factors may be attributed to attractive travel bundles and aggressive selling for major events in the finish state. Statement of Key jobs and Issues Based on the statistics from STB during the earlier months of twelvemonth 2009, there were issues between viing hotel industry. Mid-Tier hotel category, hotels located in premier commercial zones or instantly outlaying countries of Singapore, had achieved the highest AOR but low ARR †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦.. Economy-Tier, hotels in budget section and are by and large located in outlaying countries of Singapore, faced lowest AOR but high ARR and Revpar †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ . Although the growing of tourer reaching improved by terminal of the twelvemonth 2009, the hotel industry remained slow in accomplishing the standard public presentation compared to old twelvemonth. There was a important addition in AOR by September 2009. However ARR/ Revpar decreased ensuing in bead of entire Hotel room gross when compared to twelvemonth 2008. This implies that touristry related sectors and concerns could non better public presentation in line with the tourer reaching as there are strong competition among the competition houses and sharing of market available at given chance. Upscale grade, which include hotels in upscale section and are by and large in premier locations or hotels with dress shop positioning in premier or typical locations, received a lower consequence with little diminution. This shows a certain section of the industry that is non every bit sensitive as other sections. Coevals and Evaluation of Alternative Solutions Hotels operation could avoid important impact by practising gross management†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ Media consciousness in tourer bring forthing states, †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ . Travel publicity to be marketed and enforced by oversea tourer offices under STB, peculiarly establishing publicity run for the vacation periods. Government should put against the background of turning chances from both traditional out-bounds markets including the United States, Europe and Japan, and high growing possible markets such as China and India. Execution of Recommendations Should take to distinguish and market Singapore as a must see finish offering a concentration of enriching experiences. STB should transport out the actions to advance Singapore Tourism and the local tourer attractive force in order to stand out as a top finish in Asia Pacific and among the universe celebrated finish. Tour operators, Hotel directions and Food and Beverages concern should spread out their web by associating with more mediators such as travel agents and circuit operators. With current position and strong competition among the houses, concern operators from single touristry sections should understand the mutuality between the assorted sections of touristry as in Travel, Lodging, Food service, and diversion musca volitanss. If any chance given to bind in with one another, these sections should actively originate the bundle that would profit each and every section. For illustration, a travel agent offering air ticket along with room darks of a certain hotel, which will besides have a half twenty-four hours tour at the local attractive forces to lend the local community. It is besides of import to acknowledge the multiplier consequence in the Tourism industry where the money spent by tourers to go, to remain in a hotel or to eat in a eating house, is recycled by those concern to buy more goods thereby bring forthing further usage of the money which is favourable for the local community. Current and future tendency of Singapore Tourism Medical Tourism The addition in the figure of people to seek medical intervention in Singapore has been driven chiefly by cheap travel, a rise in the figure of persons with longer life anticipations and extra income. Furthermore, twosome with expensive and long waiting periods for domestic intervention in other Asia states and the information available through media and cyberspace has boost the inbound medical touristry for Singapore. Since October 2003, Singapore authorities had launched Singapore Medicine, a multi-government enterprise aimed at developing Singapore into one of Asia taking finishs for international patients. It targets to draw1million foreign patients to Singapore by twelvemonth 2012. In footings of gross, it sets to bring forth S $ 3 billion for the medical travel industry where the Economic Development Board ( EDB ) , Singapore Tourism Board ( STB ) and International Enterprise ( IE ) Singapore are portion of this enterprise. ( STB, 2004 ) Singapore Grand Prix Singapore GP is the major event go oning in Singapore which staged Formula 1, auto rushing get downing with the 2008 Season. Many of the F1 fans travelled to Singapore in order to take part in this major juncture, lending a important encouragement in Singapore Tourism. This sort of events has promoted the touristry of Singapore and brought in gross for other touristry related sectors such as Conveyances, Lodging and Food and Beverages. Completion of the two Integrated Resorts Marina Bay Sands and Resort World Sentosa, the two major undertakings had completed in 2010, lending a major addition in tourer reaching mostly from Asia parts and other Europe states. †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦

Anais Nin Biography

Anais Nin Biography Essay Anais Nin was a passionate woman, not only in her works but also in her life. The fact that she lived life to the fullest is what made her books so intriguing. Although her diaries were a chronicle of her experience, her fiction showed the reader sides of her while displaying everyones innermost desires. In her own words Nin says, the role of the writer is not to say what we can all say, but what we are unable to say Rollins, and she does exactly that. For this reason her works take one on a journey through ones soul and allows the pondering which may never have been considered. This feeling of self discovery is quite powerful and erotic; the enpowerment supplies a feeling of utter enjoyment. This is why Anais Nins books are ageless, and they are impossible to parallel or surpass. Though many authors draw their story ideas from life experiences. Anais takes most directly in order to make them pure and unclouded by the imagination. This is why her favorite method of writing was the use of her actual diaries. She wrote of her many love affairs and personal traumas in order to educate the reader as well as to examine her true self. For it is known that one person could not experience all that is possible, and therefore one must learn from others mistakes as well as their own. Nin is greatly renown for her diaries, especially for her famous letters of her affair with Henry Miller . This later amounted to a movie based on the relationship Henry and June in 1986 site 1. Yet her fiction, although quite intellectual and harder to grasp than her diaries, also reveals a lot about the writer and open views on all aspects of living. She is creative enough to allow all to draw something personal from her writings, and this makes reading her novels an experience that one could associate with some aspect of their own life. Nins heightened sensitivity and perception site 1 are derived from her fiery lifestyle which started when she was very young. She was born in France, a country of vast influence, and she traveled throughout Europe for most of her childhood. When She was twelve years old she was relocated to New York, where the culture and diversity is unparalleled. She experience d so many lifestyles as various occupations: a dancer, a teacher, and later on even a psychoanalyst Scholar 5. She lived a very free life style for the time period, and she enjoyed this liberation to the fullest. She had many affairs, but she also had many great relationships that helped her improve and most of all experience. Through all of this she never lost the ability to appreciate her solitude. As her fictitious novels are analyzed it will be shown that a large part of Anais Nin resides in every one of her works, but she made sure to leave enough to allow a little piece of every reader to fit.! In this way the reader may be alone but in good company. Anais creates this aura by using the literary device known as negative capability, which is basically concurrence with the philosophy of saying less is saying more Walsh. She writes in such a way that allows one to see a general idea that does not cheapen a complicated idea by trying to isolate and define it. The theories which she attempts to explain are often too complicated for words, so Nin often turns to surrealism when she can think of no other way to address them. READ: The Lottery by Shirley Jackson EssayHuman emotion and existence is not something that can be black or white, and Nin describes it as somewhere in the gray area Knapp 39-68. The use of poetic and stream-of-conscientiousness phrasing allows the reader to find there own relative truth, since absolute truth in these situations are impossible. Her metaphors are powerful and shocking, but Nin was not an extreme surrealist. She believed in the fusing of the conscious and unconscious minds to allow one to see the total picture, instead of only looking from one point of view. Negative capability is best displayed in The House of Incest since this book was based largely upon Nin own dreams. She embarks upon a journey of self-discovery in this novel and starts out in a very logical place, the womb. The idea of a sense of peace and structure are seen through liquid and fuzziness which seem to make one want to remain there forever. Yet one does not attempt to live then one may be punished for this passive approach. Intellectual and social growth is a human need and must be met or else despair is inevitable. Therefore Nin traces the paths of human emotions and stances through many different people, who in actuality are all parts of a whole. She also explores the themes of lesbian love and incest by detailing how they allow the whole to feel safe and nurtured. Nin feels that one can not become too comfortable in one position or stuck in a rut that can cause on to die emotionally. Therefore her incestual character Isolina is sent to a horrible place, the house of incest, because she has tried to hide behind her brothers protection. Isolina never escapes or repents for her sins unlike her counterpart the dancer who recovers from selfishly cling to the ones she loved Nin House of Incest. Therefore she escaped her torment: And she danced, she danced with the music and with rhythm of earths circles, she turned with the earth turning, like a disk, turning all faces to light and to darkness evenly, dancing towards daylight DISCovering Authors. In these vague identifications and character references Anais presents, she suggests to the reader that man is a sum of many parts that will never equal the ideal self. Consequently one can not ignore any of their personalities or demand perfection without falling into decay or someplace equal to the dreadful house of incest DISCovering Authors. The prose style of the work lends to the subject matter extremely well and makes the insinuations appear simpler than they actually are. The Four-Chambered Heart investigates the complications of love, which will be contemplated by humans until no more exist. The relationship of Djuna and her musician lover, Rango, is again set in the fluctuating water on a house boat. She uses this to show the reader more than what is said; the relationship has the potential to sail, but instead it stays moored an increasingly in need of repair. This whole boat acts as a microcosm for their relationship throughout the novel. Rango is a married man which is attached to the shore by his hypochondriac wife who is comparable to Zeena in Edith Whartons Ethan Frome. She uses her manipulative powers to connect them all in a chain of mutual parasitism. They eventually come to resent each another, and they become parts of heart that are unable to communicate but able to work together to nearly emit life. This dependence eventually becomes unbearable. Nin relates this feeling to the reader by using the metaphor of a rag doll who has committed suicide. Djuna feels that by entering this relationship she has given up her life, which is very true. She eventually obtains release but feels as if her heart has stopped. This writing device allows the reader to identify with her dejected situation and the destruction of her dreams and the pain of her being. READ: Great Expectations by Charles Dickens EssayNin The Four-Chambered Heart. This tale was taken from an actual point in Nins life in which she had an affair on a house boat on the Seine Knapp 122-130. She used this story to analyze her situation and let others grow from her disheartening experience. This novel was a therapeutic device for Nin in which she could review her life objectively from different perspectives. Similarly, the diaries helped sort her feelings, and The House of Incest allowed her to delve into her surrealistic side. Nins flowing style and intangible ideals allow her novels to grow and influence the individual reader on many different levels, both of the subconscious and conscious mind. She was a writer who transferred her passion for life into the written word by the closest resemblance to actual thought. The more one tries to explain the greater the meaning is lost in translation. Nin had a passion like no other author I have read, as she states: If what Proust says is true, that happiness is the absence of fever, then I will never know happiness. For I am possessed my a fever for knowledge, experience, and creation. site 1. This fever is found in every page of the authors works, especially her erotic novels which are blunt and an education of experience that remains unparalleled. Yet with more subtlety she displays this burning in her tamer fiction, if one can read between the lines and fuse their beliefs with those that Nin wishes to convey. Her tales ignite the fire burning in the curious soul who has not yet to live or imagine half of what the author has experienced. Consequently she is an influential author on many young minds because she feels that her books are an emulation of her morale. The major themes found in The Four Chambered Heart and The House of Incest are presented in a way that allow everyone to be satisfied because Nin believed that We dont see things as they are, we see things as we are site 2. In conclusion, the use of negative capability permits the reader to see things as we are. This warrants the endurance of her writings through the passage of the decades for they still remain relevant to all of society.

The WTO has been hijacked by rich country interests, thereby worsening Essay

The WTO has been hijacked by rich country interests, thereby worsening the conditions of the poor in less prosperous countries - Essay Example Taking the case of Zimbabwe as case in point, one can see how the WTO seeks to exploit this resource rich area of the globe for its mineral wealth while at the same time rejecting the market value of finished goods or food that Zimbabwe is capable of producing (Baumberg & Anderson, 2008). As such, the relationship is only a one way relationship in which Zimbabwe, and many nations like it, are forced to sell their products at lower prices to the richer members of the WTO. Further, even the goods that might exist to be traded on the global market are disproportionately priced and locked out of key global markets as a result of the actions that entities such as the WTO engage. Yes, it must not be the understanding of the reader that such a situation of raw material extraction and price setting is somehow unique with regards to sub-Saharan Africa. Instead, the unfortunate fact of the matter is that developed nations around the globe utilize price setting and currency wars, as well as pro duct dumping, to ensure that this particular approach to global supremacy and economic power are maintained at a systemic level. Further, taking the example of Burma, a nation that has only recently stepped out of military dictatorship, it can be understood that the WTO also seeks to take advantage of this nation; not only with respect to its surplus of cheap labor but with regards to its agricultural exports. As a direct result of the combined benefit of preferential trade, WTO member nations, specifically the wealthy ones, are able to pay their own farmers a subsidy in order that they might be able to compete with the low cost exports of nations such as Burma. In such a manner, entities such as the WTO are able to exploit poorer/less developed nations by forcing them to sell the products that are desired at a given price as well as ensuring that they are not able to gorow their own domestic economy by subsidizing any industry or agricultural sector that runs the risk of being over taken by the cheap exports that such a nation might provide to the market (Williams, 2001). One need look no further than the way in which heavy levels of subsidies exist throughout Western Europe and the United States in order to understand the way in which offenses maneuvers are continually engaged to ensure that the third world is unable to compete with the first. As such, the take away understanding that can be provided from this brief analysis is the fact that the WTO is ultimately like any other organization is made up of a large number of stakeholders (Antell & Coleman, 2011). Rather than determining that the WTO is brought to human ethics and should be dissolved immediately and forth with, the more reasonable and rational understanding that should be engaged is the fact that a disproportionate level of power and determinacy is given to those nations that hold the wealth throughout the global system; enabling them to take advantage of the poorer nations and set prices rather than engaging in a level of true economic freedom and cooperation. Ironically, this level of freedom and economic cooperation is the cornerstone upon which the WTO was originally founded. However, as can be seen from the preceding

Strategic Management in the Non Profit Sector Essay - 1

Strategic Management in the Non Profit Sector - Essay Example Partnerships are an important function in the non-profit sector. The positioning of efforts in tandem with that of another organisation helps the organisation move towards effective goal achievement. This also promotes harmony in activities and the society in general. The structuring and strategic management of goals and structures within an organisation must lead to partnerships with external parties. This is due to the fact that a not for profit organisation basically deals with what is outside, rather than what is inside. Its activities revolve around the betterment of people and their environments. For this reason, it is important to work in tandem with other organisations that can provide it with something that is lacking within the organisation in question. This is a matter of strategic positioning and the strategic use and management of resources that belong to the society as a whole. Partnerships are also a good option in strategic management for new and developing organisati ons as it helps in the sharing of costs and resources. It also helps the new organisation in garnering the requisite amount of experience and leverage in the market.

Assignment “Introduction to Leadership” Essay Example for Free

Assignment â€Å"Introduction to Leadership† Essay Leadership styles: When looking at leadership style I have to look at what as a manager I am good at and that has got me to the position as Manager and what I need to do to progress my team. Firstly I need to gain the respect of my team by treating everyone fairly. Leadership is defined as ‘the process in which an individual influences the group of individuals to attain a common goal’. The goal is attained by mutual cooperation and cohesive behaviour. A leader infuses a sense of positivity and directs others to reach the specified goal. A leader is someone who stands not only for his cause but takes responsibility and motivates other individuals also. There is a clear difference between being a manager and a leader. A leader is a motivation for others and inspires individuals to aim high and attain that aim. However a manager only supervises over his subordinates. Power naturally comes to a leader but that power is not a tool of leader. To be a good lead I have to look at the managers around me and what in my opinion makes them good or bad leaders and also if these are traits that I can adapt and use or ultimately will they be out of character for me and be counterproductive for me. Using the Paul and Kenneth Blanchard model of Situational Leadership:- Telling: this is where a person has low ability and low willingness maybe a new starter. This is the style I would use for a new starter who does not yet have the skills to operate independently. Selling: this is where a person would have low ability but high willingness. This style I would use on someone like Dave in the office he wants to do a good job but is of an age that he does not quite have the skills he needs but he more than makes up for that with his knowledge of the job. So I need to draw on his experience to help him achieve his goals. Participating: this is for a person will high ability and low willingness. This leadership style I would use on Becca as she has the ability but when things are going against her tends to try and hide from difficult circumstances so i would have a discussion with her and give her the support needed to get the job done. Delegating: this is for High ability and high willingness. This i am more than comfortable using on Ann and Mel as they have shown that they can comfortably do the tasks i set them. I have also set them individual tasks looking at how we can improve our day to day activities and ultimately make our lives easier in the long run. After doing the test I came down as someone who was fairly evenly spread of tell, selling and participating but who does not delegate this is something I have known about and my team has told me and something I can now begin to address Review of own leadership behaviour:- I am relatively new in the role of Sales office Manager. I have progressed from a role within the factory by doing an excellent job as a traffic planner. I took all the information gain by talking to people and being in the loop within the factory. I took in account what the factory could do and what our customer expectations were which allowed us to plan what was needed and by when to meet what the customer actually needed. Being new to the sales role I have had to take myself out the information loop and learn a new role. I have had to learn a new computer system and at the same time be the role model for my team. Whilst doing this I have made myself available for any problems the team has but have tried to show that I can do the job and also help team members who have been doing it for years. I currently have a team of five people all with varying abilities. I have two long serving members of staff one part time and two that started at the beginning of the year. With no two members of staff the same I have had to employ different leadership style i.e. with Dave he is coming up to retirement and I would say he was low on ability he has a high willingness to complete tasks set so with him I would employ the telling leadership style which was very similar with my two new starters but as the months progressed they both showed high ability but one was more willing to achieve than the other so with Becca I had to show a participating style of leadership and with Mel I am able to delegate more as she showed both high ability and high willingness. The factory as a whole is very unionised and whilst the majority of the staff are in the union they do generally like to get the job done and if this means working long stressful hours they do. When we are in these situations I will change my leadership style to match the situation where it be acting on their behalf to speak to people who they have issue with (maybe another member of staff or even customers) or by re-enforcing procedures that are there to make the lives easier or by finding courses that will ultimately give them the tools to make their jobs easier in the long run. I have spoken to members of the team and other managers around the office and all have said I try to do too much and that I need to â€Å"learn to delegate† and whilst this doesn’t come naturally to me (my preferred leadership style was telling and participating) I have taken their comments on board and have started to delegate a lot more around the team and focused on other areas within the team that would help them to improve and grow. I can improve myself as a leader by listening to others and taking advice and giving and receiving feedback and also by doing courses and re assessing myself to look at things from a different angle and point of view. Within the factory I am constantly being assessed and feedback given my goals are constantly moving but I personally need to delegate more to enable me to grow as a manager. I have also started to meet other Sales office managers within the group so I know that the job I have been doing whilst not exactly the same as other sites is very similar and I haven’t been doing that bad a job but perception is everything so I have to look at promoting myself with the site and also more importantly to other sites what I have to say has value and I can bring a lot to the table but I also have to look at the individuals within my team and look at their maturity levels and adapt my leadership to what is needed to each individual and also learn to delegate more.

Gender and Age: Causes of Social Rejection to High-Functioning Autisti

Introduction Temple Grandin is a biopic that shows how a young, autistic woman becomes a world famous expert in animal husbandry by overcoming limitation from her disease. In the movie, Temple is always the target of bully in school; however, some people react more aggressively than others. My second research is based on this movie will concern factors that motivate teenagers to socially reject and discriminate against autistic people at school. In this paper, I will observe the way in which gender and age change people's reactions to autistic people and cause any kind of bullying to the disabled. The present study will apply a qualitative method to analyze the words used by the bully in the film that show social rejection to autistic student. It is expected that social rejection will be affected by gender and age, and the attitude would be more positive from women and older young people. Research Question Research question: Do gender and age cause young people to socially reject people with high-functioning autism at school in early 20th century? The primary goal of this essay is to analyze the way in which gender and age vary young people's attitudes to high-functioning autistic people, as well as the way in which these variables lead to discrimination against autistic students. This study is relevant because knowing the connection between the variables and social rejection may avoid future autistic students being victimized at public school. Operationalization In Temple Grandin, different genders react differently to the main character, a high-functioning autistic girl. It is hypothesized that male is more aggressive and is inclined to physically bully the autistic student. Based on the assumption, I observed the insulting wor... ...ute to discrimination against autistic students. By using qualitative methodology, this paper analyzes specific lines of dialogue and behaviour and finally proves gender to be a major influence on people's decision. Yet, due to the limitation of the film, not enough data has been collected to identify age as a factor of social rejection among young people. Overall, this paper proves that gender is an important factor to the level of social rejection, whereas, further study is need to determine whether age is another influence on young people's decision about bullying and social rejection. Works Cited Temple Grandin. Dir. Mick Jackson. Perf. Claire Catherine Danes. Warner Bros., 2010. DVD. Brym, Robert. "Gender." "Sociology of the Body: Disability, Aging, and Death." Commit Sociology. By Christian O. Caron. First ed. Vol. 1. Toronto: Nelson, 2013. 166-67. Print.

Assessing a Underachieving Employee Essay

Executive Summary This is a short report about assessing an underachieving employee that I personally had to deal with. It discusses the problems that arose. I analysed them and then put into place a couple of solutions. The most problematic work situation that I personally encountered was with a work colleague who was a young lady working at the Cooperative food group and she was underachieving. This relates to the concepts of book2, An introduction to human resource management in business, session 4 Assessing and developing people at work. When my work colleague first started working at the Cooperative she was an excellent worker who gave 100% all the time. She had worked at the Cooperative for just over two years and we were in the process of thinking about promoting her from a customer service assistant to a supervisor. She started to make mistakes at the checkout, our manager noticed cash shortages, missing transaction paperwork and mistakes on the lottery and paypoint terminals. As a supervisor my manager asked me to monitor the situation over a two week period and to write down any mistakes or cash shortages and put the dates they happened so that our manager could decide what the next course of action would be. Assessing a Underachieving Employee The analysis of the problems that arose. I am using concepts from book 2, An introduction to human resource management in business, session 4, assessing and developing people at work. These mistakes that my work colleague were making could be happening for a number of reasons. She could be having financial difficulties so she has stolen the money that is why there are cash shortages, however that does not explain why the other mistakes have occurred on the lottery and paypoint terminals and it’s very easy to jump to the wrong conclusion when analysing this. I believe the main point to be about performance management as it states in book 2, session 4.1, performance management â€Å"ensuring that staff are motivated†. I don’t think she is motivated anymore, as when she is at work she is stuck on a checkout for very long periods of time. There is no variety in her job role to keep her motivated, and to be perfectly honest when other members of staff are busy she does get forgotten about and if she does not ask the other members of staff she would not even get her breaks as they forget about her. Doing the same thing day in day and day out can become a bit monotonous. This is why her performance has started to suffer as she feels deflated and demotivated. It is as though she has given up on this job and just turns up because she has to and she needs the money. As it states in book 2, session 4.2 Assessing performance â€Å"the person may lack direction or be working to less than full capacity†. Which in this case I believe to be true. This will affect how the business is run if not dealt  with as other members of staff could start to do the same. Customers will not want to shop there if the staff don’t show an interest. The standards that were once there will start to drop resulting in a negative impac t on the business. A solution to the problems that occurred The first thing I would do would be to set up a record of meetings with this work colleague and our manager. This is a discussion about what is happening and it is recorded for future reference. At this meeting I would discuss how we can move forward together as a team. I would explain to her the importance of her job role and how important it is to get it right. I would set her small achievable targets to aim for with rewards given when achieved. Arranging regular meetings is also a good idea; this could be done as a performance appraisal. As it states in book 2, session 4.4, table 4.2, it has the â€Å"Opportunity to motivate staff by recognising achievements†. I believe this is what is needed in this situation, she needs to feel like a valued team member, this would then give her the motivation needed to do her job correctly and to her full capacity, the business will then be more productive as it stated in book 2, session 4.2 Assessing performance. I may then look into whether she would be interested in changing her job role a little, for example, stock replenishment, and fetching deliveries in, checking dates on products, that sort of thing. This would give her some variety in her job and hopefully motivate her again. This would require more training and cost the business, however if she is just on the checkouts and not been monitored she is costing the business money anyway through the mistakes she is making. Some of this training would be done externally, through training courses, however most of the training would be done by coaching. As it states in book 2, session 4.6, Developing is not just training courses, â€Å"coaching; a way of transferring knowledge and skill from a more experienced person to a less experienced person†. I think this is the best way forward for this work colleague in this situation. Research from the Internet I looked on the internet and did some research to see how to develop underachievers at work. I found two the first one was Yourbusiness.azcentral.com. It basically states that underachievers inhibit teamwork and lower morale of other staff members. It also says you need to form relationships with employees, so you can create a willingness to help the individual. It also says to set incremental goals for the employee. What this website was saying made sense, however I’m not sure how reliable this source is as it wants me to subscribe to them. The next one I looked at was www.acas.org.uk. I found this website very interesting as it gives a full list of different forms that you can print including appraisal forms, absence record sheets and lots of information about how to manage performance. I believe this to be a reliable source as this organisation is devoted to preventing and resolving employment issues, also it wasn’t trying to sell me anything. Tutor group forum I particularly enjoyed the tutor group forum activity 2.1 – Work Pleasure or Pain? It was nice that most people thought the same as me, in that they enjoyed their work. My husband hates work and never understands how I can enjoy going to work. I totally agreed with what Mark Pickering said in that work is a pleasure and that it allows me to achieve my goals in life, while providing for my family. References Book 2 (2012) ‘An introduction to human resource management in business’ The Open University, Milton Keynes. Study Companion (2012), The Open University, Milton Keynes. Yourbusiness.azcentral.com. www.acas.org.uk

Refining the Hr Policy Framework to Support the Vision

[pic] Growing Esteem: Refining the HR Policy Framework to Support the Vision December 2010 Table of Contents 1Introduction3 2Background3 2. 1The environment we will be working in3 2. 1. 1External factors3 2. 1. 2Internal decisions and factors4 2. 1. 3The HR policy imperatives5 2. 2Where we are now5 2. 2. 1Our current staffing profile5 2. 2. 2Current performance7 2. 3The future8 2. 3. 1The goals of Growing Esteem 20108 2. 3. 2Supporting this vision through a refined HR Strategy9 3The refined HR policy framework9 3. 1Consultation and Feedback10 Priority areas for reform10 4. 1Improvement of the performance development framework11 4. 2Clarifying performance expectations12 4. 3Align work activity to ‘work focus categories’ and link these to performance expectations13 4. 4Supporting early career staff15 4. 5Classification issues – broad banding of professional staff classifications16 5Other policy issues17 5. 1Building flexibility – Classification issues17 5. 2A ttracting and retaining highest quality staff17 5. 3Aligning performance – Probation and confirmation17 5. Investing in staff – Leadership and management development18 6Next Steps18 6. 1Governance of the implementation project18 6. 2Plan for areas of further work19 Appendix 1: Schematic diagram of the refined strategic HR Policy Framework20 Introduction We are all part of an institution with a proud record of scholarship and achievement. The University of Melbourne has a well deserved international reputation for research excellence and quality of student outcomes and we have demonstrated our capacity to innovate and lead higher education nationally.Melbourne’s international standing and research prominence has enabled us to attract fine students and staff. We seek to lead through research, to educate for excellence and to connect and contribute through engagement. Substantial progress has been made towards achievement of our vision to be one of the worldâ€℠¢s finest universities and we will need to continue to adapt and improve in pursuit of this vision.The University’s strategy document Growing Esteem 2010, states: â€Å"For the University to realise the ambitions of a refined Growing Esteem strategy it needs people who share the vision and can achieve the actions required. â€Å" Over the coming years we need to ensure that our research and teaching reputation remain among the best in the world in the face of increasing competition; to adapt our approach, to both teaching and our general interactions with students to support a greater proportion of graduate students; and to diversify our sources of revenue to support our endeavour.It is in this context that we seek to articulate our HR strategies and refine our HR Policy Framework so that we can support and develop our staff to achieve the excellence in performance that provides individual satisfaction and collectively will maintain and grow Melbourne’s standing. Thi s paper identifies the major strategic and policy issues which need to be addressed to position us for the future through a refinement of the current HR management framework over the next three years. This paper provides a blueprint for action to guide HR policy development over the next three years.From this framework, detailed policies and procedures will be specified, and there will be opportunity for staff and other stakeholders to provide further input to these as they are progressively developed. These policies will be implemented at the local level within the University and therefore the support that will be provided to our supervisors and managers who are responsible for the day to day interactions with our staff will be vital to their success in bringing about the required changes. Background 1 The environment we will be working inThe environment we will operate in over the next 5-10 years will change significantly and both external factors and the internal decisions made i n our plans will impact on the staff profile we will need to prosper in the new environment and the HR policies and procedures that we need to support our staff. 1 External factors Changes in the external environment provide us with challenges and opportunities. Increased globalisation of the higher education sector will lead to stronger competition for the best students and staff.This competition for staff will include professional staff, particularly specialists, who will also be sought after in the wider economy. Strategies will need to be implemented to attract, develop and retain the best academic and professional staff who can plan, deliver and support an excellent learning experience for students, and also demonstrate innovation and a capacity to thrive in a changing environment. Technological change will also open new avenues for both education and research and the way in which work is performed in general and aids networking.The increasing pace of knowledge acquisition will require review of the range of information taught in courses and in the way it is delivered. On the research side, funding models and the interest of governments in finding solutions to major societal problems drives greater collaboration – both in the development of cross functional teams within the University and also in increased engagement with other universities, other research bodies and industry.The national higher education policy environment is placing more emphasis on nation-building through growth in graduate outputs, job readiness of graduates, social inclusion, funding for performance, and international standardisation of award nomenclature and content. There is also greater emphasis on engagement of universities with their broader communities. All of these factors and the funding regimes which support the national policy decisions are focussed on growth, which is at odds with our chosen direction to limit growth in student numbers.The local policy framework is also influenced by continuing fluctuation in the global financial environment. The international education company IDP Education is now predicting a considerable decline in international student numbers coming to Australia in the medium term which will impact on the University’s capacity to replace lost local revenue from this source. The ageing academic and professional staff profile across the sector and within the University more specifically means that we will have to attract, develop and retain high quality staff to replace staff lost through natural attrition. Internal decisions and factors Melbourne has taken the decision to limit growth and to eventually reduce student numbers to a more stable and manageable size in order to provide the highest quality education to our students. Consequently we will need to build other revenue streams and to find ways of doing things more efficiently. We will need to be both flexible and entrepreneurial and be able to engage well with the external community. Over this time we will also significantly change our student profile, from the current ratio of 70:30 undergraduate to postgraduate students to achieve a 50:50 balance.It will be challenging to attract high quality postgraduate students in these numbers. This more mature student population will be more demanding and will have high expectations of teaching and support and of their interactions with our administrative staff. Their assessment of the quality of the teaching they receive, their overall satisfaction with their experience and their capacity to get good jobs will impact on our rankings both nationally and internationally against our competitors. The HR policy imperatives This likely future environment highlights the need to consider how together we can increase the focus on performance and productivity and ensure that each staff member achieves their goals and contributes to the University in the way best suited to their strengths and expertise. Thi s will require a strong alignment between individual goals and performance and the University’s objectives and a different approach to developing and managing performance.These changes must be introduced in ways which protect and preserve the fundamental values of the institution, such as meritocracy, collegiality and academic freedom. 2 Where we are now 1 Our current staffing profile Melbourne’s permanent staff number in excess of seven thousand, divided almost evenly between academic and professional staff and is supported by over two and a half thousand additional casual staff. Our academic and professional staff include many talented, committed and long-serving people.It is our staff, their interactions with each other, with students and with local, national and international communities that establish and define our reputation and position in the global higher education sector. Staff are employed in positions classified according to the current academic and profes sional staff classification structures, specified in the University’s Collective Agreement. In addition to our paid staff, a large number of honorary and visiting academic staff contribute to the life and scholarship of the University.Our current staffing profile has the following characteristics: †¢ We have a large number of early career academics, with approximately 60% of the University’s academic staff employed at Levels A and B; †¢ These early career academics are predominantly employed on fixed term contracts. This position changes with seniority, with the majority of academic staff at Level C and above employed on a continuing basis; †¢ In contrast, most professional staff are employed on a continuing basis, with 55% of professional staff employed at HEW Levels 5 to 7;Figure 1 : Current distribution of Academic Staff by Classification (headcount, excluding casuals) |[pic] |% Staff Fixed term | | | | | | | |Figure 2 : Distribution of Fixed term and Continuing Professional Staff by |Level A. | |Classification (headcount) |96. | |[pic] | | | |Level B. | | |71. 8 | | | | | |Level C. | | |42. | | | | | |Level D. | | |25. 3 | | | | | |Level E. | |27. 9 | | | | | | | †¢ The growth in the University’s staff numbers from 2005 to 2008 has largely been the result of an increase in casual staff numbers. †¢ Over 10 % of the University’s academic work was performed by casual staff in 2009.Casual tutors are responsible for a significant portion of teaching into new generation degrees. †¢ The ratio of professional to academic staff has remained relatively steady since 2007 and is below the average for Australian universities and the Group of Eight. This is largely because of the way the University classifies Level A and B research support staff as academic rather than professional staff unlike many other universities. †¢ Approximately a third of both professional staff and academic staff are over 50 years of age; Figure 3: Age distribution of academic and professional staff pic] Academic Staff by level [pic] Professional Staff by level †¢ Approximately 55% of Melbourne academics are male; †¢ Women make up the majority of academic staff at Level A, but by senior levels the position is reversed. Although Melbourne performs better than the sector average in terms of the percentage of women at Levels D and E and at HEW10, women remain underrepresented at PVC and DVC levels as well as amongst membership of the Senior Executive more generally.The appropriate consideration of â€Å"performance relative to opportunity† for staff with significant external responsibilities, non-traditional career paths, or less than full-time working hours remains an ongoing challenge; †¢ A higher proportion of our female staff is employed on a part-time basis than the sector average; †¢ In 2008 and 2009 over half of all professional staff positions have also been filled internally w hile 56% of self-initiated departures from the University in 2009 from this group were from staff with less than 3 years service.The corresponding percentage for academic staff for self-initiated early departure is 51%. This suggests a turnover of newer staff to the University and is a concern if these staff are of high quality and being attracted by better offers from other employers. Level A academic staff and professional staff at HEW levels 3-5 are over-represented in these departure statistics suggesting a need to provide better opportunities and support for good early career academics and professional staff; and †¢ Staffing costs per FTE are increasing at a faster rate than student load.Until recently this has been compensated for by revenue growth but as the environmental scan above shows, this may not be possible in the future. 2 Current performance Melbourne is well ranked in international rankings and we improved our position in the most recent round of the Shanghai J iao Tong and Times Higher Education Rankings. In the Jiao Tong rankings Melbourne was ranked 62nd in the world, the second Australian institution after ANU at 59th. This ranking system uses weighted scores associated with alumni, awards, citations, and publications.Melbourne scores better than ANU in the alumni and awards categories but has lower scores in each of the research categories. In the Times Higher Education rankings Melbourne is ranked first of the Australian institutions, at 36th in the world listing. A new methodology was used in 2010 for this ranking based on teaching (the learning environment), international mix (staff and student ratios), industry income, research volume, income and reputation, and citation impact. The quality of teaching within the University is vital to our students’ educational outcomes.While the Times Higher Education teaching scores for Melbourne are higher than our national competitors we have some way to go to reach the level of our int ernational benchmarking partners. The CEQ good teaching scale also indicates room for improvement. While these rankings vary and are not absolute indicators of teaching performance, it is clear that teaching performance has a significant impact on the level of satisfaction of our students. Improvement in our overall teaching performance will contribute to a more positive learning environment for our students.Nationally in 2008 and 2009 Melbourne was ranked first in the country for research income and publications however, if these measures were viewed per capita (across the total number of research and teaching and research staff), then our leading position would not be maintained. We also performed well in nearly all discipline categories in the first trial ERA outcomes gaining scores of 4 or 5 in nearly all discipline categories. Our research performance has a significant impact on our rankings and on our ability to attract research income and quality staff and students.While we s hould be justifiably proud of that performance it will be more difficult to maintain this position in the future due to likely improvements in the performance of our competitors. We could raise our position in the international rankings and maintain our premier position nationally if there was improved average performance in winning grants and publishing across a broader spectrum of the academic staff complement. 3 The future 1 The goals of Growing Esteem 2010Melbourne has articulated the outcomes we wish to achieve by 2015 in Growing Esteem 2010, including that: †¢ Melbourne will have an academic workforce sustainable in number and quality and outstanding in its achievement; †¢ Melbourne will be top ranked in all key national indicators of research excellence and impact; †¢ Melbourne will be top ranked in relation to research higher degree recruitment and outcomes; †¢ Through key partnerships we will have maximised the global impact of our research; †¢ Melb ourne will be ranked in the top five against all national learning and teaching and student satisfaction indicators; †¢ Melbourne will be providing the best graduate experience in the country according to appropriate national indicators; †¢ Staff will feel able to contribute broadly to our vision of interaction with wider society through knowledge partnership, advancement and international activities; and †¢ Melbourne will have talented, diverse staff who share a common vision and whose skills and knowledge equip them to achieve the University’s goal of being one of the best international universities in the world.As has been shown Melbourne is currently well placed in relation to some of these measures of performance, but given the increasingly competitive and global higher education environment, to maintain or improve this position will require improvements in leadership and management and to performance management and development, recognition of the diversit y of professional and academic roles, greater recognition of the efforts of our staff and innovative approaches to retaining, and nurturing the best teachers and researchers and flexible and innovative professional staff. Specifically, amongst other things, we need to: †¢ Emphasise research excellence not just research activity and improve he overall consistency of research performance and the number of high citation researchers who count among the world’s top 250 in their fields; †¢ Understand, reward and promote research excellence and creativity, provide career development opportunities and mentoring and develop a research recruitment and retention strategy; †¢ Improve the consistency of the quality of teaching and the student experience across the University while allowing for increased specialisation of academic staff in this area; and, †¢ Promote engagement activities as an equal partner to research and learning and teaching. 2 Supporting this vision through a refined HR Strategy To flourish in this environment and achieve these ambitious outcomes we will need to more actively manage our staff profile over the next five years through a refined HR Strategy. Our HR strategy must enable us to achieve the level of performance necessary if we are to be one of the world’s finest universities. We will need to: †¢ Develop our existing staff; †¢ Commit resources to attract and retain staff of the highest quality; †¢ Put in place appropriate succession planning; Provide classification structures which recognise diverse career paths and allow specialisation by both academic and professional staff; †¢ Nurture early career academic and professional staff and provide them with clear career paths in the university; †¢ Address the issues relating to the casualisation of our staff complement and the increasing proportion of fixed term staff, while retaining flexible working arrangements; †¢ Recognise and dev elop the partnership between academic and professional staff and build the ability of staff to work seamlessly with colleagues from other disciplines and institutions; †¢ Develop and recruit change-adept and flexible academic and professional staff; †¢ Enhance the support provided for the core activities of the University by improving performance of the central enabling divisions through professional development and performance review; †¢ Develop and improve systems which reward and recognise excellent performance in learning and teaching, research, engagement and leadership and in professionals disciplines; and †¢Continue to encourage diversity and address issues relating to the participation of women, particularly at higher levels of the University. These actions will need to occur in the context of managing staffing and non-salary costs. The current HR Policy Framework needs to be refined to align with this revised HR Strategy to allow greater flexibility in t he way work is organised and to support the development and performance of high achieving staff. The refined HR policy framework The refined HR Policy Framework which addresses this strategy links the following components (and is shown schematically in Appendix 1): †¢ The strategy presented in section 2. 3. 2; The necessary organisational and individual capabilities to underpin the achievement of this strategy –a commitment to excellence; flexibility and a willingness to collaborate and cooperate with internal and external partners (these capabilities were well supported by staff during consultation) ; †¢ Broad HR focus areas– these are the areas where our HR actions will be focussed to assist in building performance and include building flexibility; attracting and retaining the highest quality staff; aligning performance with the University’s objectives; and investing in staff; †¢ The specific high priority HR practices which will have most impac t on the achievement of the University’s strategy and the development of the people required for the future; and †¢ Enablers that will support reform. The enablers to support reform include improved HR support, including the provision of accurate, timely and high level advice for our managers and supervisors, to assist them in working with our staff to continue to build capability and best direct efforts towards our goal of being one of the world’s finest universities. 1 Consultation and Feedback A range of stakeholders were consulted about the refinement of the current HR Policy Framework through a number of forums, including: †¢ the 2010 Heads and Deans Conference; †¢ Senior Executive; individual and group consultations with Deans, Deputy Vice-Chancellors, Pro Vice-Chancellors, senior administrative staff and members of the HR Professional Practice Area; †¢ Academic Board; †¢ the 2010 Planning and Budget Conference (PBC); †¢ facilitated focus groups of staff randomly selected from across the University; and, †¢ a four week consultation period during which staff and unions could review the proposed Framework and provide anonymous feedback. Approximately 200 staff provided feedback via an online survey, which included the capacity to make free text comment. Approximately 60% of responses received were from Professional staff.Respondents represented all levels of the University, all budget divisions and included continuing, fixed term and casual staff. Staff were generally supportive of the HR framework. While there were some differences of opinion expressed, on the whole there was sound endorsement of the priorities that are set out in the following section. Priority areas for reform A number of priority areas for reform are outlined in the following sections. Although they form an integrated set of actions, the first are those considered by stakeholders to be of highest initial priority in contributing to indiv idual and collective performance. The immediate focus of reform will be: 1. improvement of the performance development framework; 2. larification of performance expectations; 3. alignment of academic work activity to ‘work focus categories’ and linking these to performance expectations; 4. support for early career staff; and, 5. professional staff classification structures. As these areas are the highest initial priorities for reform, this paper canvasses them in more detail. Other policy issues, including leadership and management strategy, which will also be integral to the refined HR Policy Framework are identified later in this paper. As specific policies are developed relating to each of these proposals there will be additional opportunity for consultation with staff.This consultation will be undertaken in accordance with: †¢ standard processes for consulting with staff and unions over changes to HR policy; and/or, †¢ the specific requirements of Schedule 6 of the Agreement which contemplates reviews of the i. Performance Development Framework; and, ii. the academic and professional staff classification structures. The consultation required under Schedule 6 of the Agreement will be conducted by a Working Group comprised of four representatives of each of the University and the NTEU in accordance with agreed processes for consultation and negotiation. The review process and outcomes will be implemented no later than 30 June 2011.The priority areas that received most support from staff during consultation were: †¢ support for early career staff †¢ leadership and management development †¢ clarifying individual performance expectations, and †¢ improved HR support. Unless otherwise identified, the proposals discussed are relevant to both professional and academic staff members, though some have specific relevance to one or other category of staff. 1 Improvement of the performance development framework The current PDF system is similar to those used in many other universities. Its application across the University is widespread and the incidence of participation is monitored.Effective performance management of staff allows the University to set clear objectives against which to develop and reward good performers and to identify, support and manage under-performing staff. Sound performance management of both academic and professional staff is central to the University being able to achieve the objectives and the ranking targets it has set in Growing Esteem 2010 as documented in section 2. 3. 1. Sound performance management has particular benefit for staff where it enables development needs to be clearly identified and addressed. Key policy issues relating to staff performance management in the University include: †¢ the nature of the performance management system; and, †¢ its effective application and use as a development tool. To improve the performance development framework we will: al ign performance, confirmation and promotion outcomes for academic staff so that they represent stages in a performance continuum rather than isolated events; †¢ align position descriptions, probationary criteria and objectives specified through the PDF for professional staff; †¢ develop a streamlined and simpler performance management system; †¢ set performance objectives and requirements which are tailored to the work required of the staff member and include consideration of performance relative to opportunity issues; †¢ rate performance against the different aspects of a staff member’s job rather than just one general rating; †¢ replace current performance assessment rating descriptors to reflect the relative achievement of performance expectations (e. g. he â€Å"satisfactory† rating would become â€Å"has met performance objectives†); †¢ better align the PDF with business plans and with departmental and University goals; †¢ develop more objective performance measures and greater capacity to distinguish between levels of performance; †¢ provide a higher level of HR support to provide managers and supervisors with the skills to develop staff and address performance issues; †¢ ensure that we take a fair, firm, timely and more consistent approach to treatment of underperformance; †¢ consider requiring Budget Divisions to establish a panel to benchmark and moderate for consistency and fairness of performance management across the Division[1]; and, †¢ provide a framework in which faculties and other budget divisions can develop performance management schemes specific to their area. Additionally, for academic staff we will: recognise individual strengths of academic staff in the core areas of teaching, research and engagement and rewarding staff for excellence in those areas; †¢ introduce appropriate descriptors for academic staff work functions or focus areas; and †¢ align staf f actual effort with these work functions. Aspects of this reform will be undertaken in accordance with the review process outlined at Schedule 6 of the University of Melbourne Collective Agreement 2010. Other aspects will be subject to the standard processes for consulting with staff and unions over changes to HR policy. 2 Clarifying performance expectations Clear performance expectations are essential to guide staff effort and allow staff to understand how their work contributes to the strategies and goals of the University.They also support the quality, consistency and improvement of performance and allow for self-monitoring which contributes to job satisfaction. To clarify performance expectations we will: †¢ Develop general performance expectations for academic and professional staff (e. g. The Melbourne Academic, The Melbourne Professional). These statements will specify in general terms the University’s expectations of each group and its staff as a whole (includin g broad behavioural expectations); †¢ Remove the University-wide definition of research activity and replacing this with faculty or discipline specific definitions; †¢ Set clear and measurable performance standards for teaching, research, ngagement and leadership on a Faculty basis to guide performance against which individuals can be assessed; †¢ Over time establish common performance standards for professional job families (eg finance, IT, marketing, HR, administration etc) and †¢ Align individual objectives with specific goals for the relevant budget division. This reform will be undertaken in accordance with the standard processes for consulting with staff and unions over changes to HR policy. 3 Align work activity to ‘work focus categories’ and link these to performance expectations Academic work at the University is varied, has diversified and will continue to do so. While the majority of staff combine teaching with research and an engagement c omponent, there are staff who focus solely on research and others who predominantly teach.The academic staff complement includes clinicians and specialist curriculum developers, others who focus on engagement with the wider community or on the provision of specialist services and others who have management roles. Despite the general expectation for Melbourne academics, some of these roles may not have a requirement or an expectation for a research component. There is recognition of the diverse nature of academic work in both our promotion criteria and the Minimum Standards for Academic Levels (MSALs)[2] which provide for academics to contribute to research and/or scholarship and/or teaching (that is to focus on one or more aspects of an academic career). Nonetheless, our research focus, although central to the University, may not allow sufficient recognition of academics with strengths outside this area.An alternative approach is to recognise that not all academics for various reaso ns are equally involved with teaching and research or are required to produce similar research outputs and that it can be difficult for academics to manage the competing priorities of teaching, research, community engagement and administrative duties. While recognising that most will continue to combine teaching with research and will meet expectations in both areas, within a single academic classification, staff with a primary focus on teaching or -activities other than research should be appropriately recognised in terms of this primary focus and associated outputs. The University has recognised in its objectives and targets that the quality of teaching is vital to our aspiration to offer an outstanding educational experience.This can partly be achieved by providing a strong career path for those staff who have an excellent record in teaching, or who have demonstrated the capacity to develop this and who are less focused on a research career. Teaching specialist roles have already been created at a number of leading Australian universities to recognise excellence in teaching. The teaching specialist roles require the staff members appointed to them to make a substantial contribution to learning and teaching, educational design and delivery, and educational leadership. Such roles reflect high performance in teaching and are not created to support and manage staff who are not performing at an appropriate level.During consultation, it was proposed that academic staff within the University should have the capacity to be appointed to positions with a focus on teaching or academic support/leadership based on the excellence of their performance in these areas. This proposition received broad support. Staff who are, or who have demonstrated the capacity to become excellent teachers and who have made a practice of innovation and scholarship in teaching in their discipline could accept an offer to take up a teaching-focused role. Other staff who have academic roles, w ith no specific requirement for research, could accept an offer to take up an ‘other specialist’ role.For example, staff who undertake management roles outside a particular faculty and who are employed to pursue a particular mission for the University (such as the DVC and PVC positions) would be considered part of this focus area. Academic staff within the University will therefore be identified as belonging to one of the following work focus categories based on the requirements of their role and subject to meeting any relevant requirements for the focus category: †¢ Research-focussed †¢ Teaching and Research †¢ Teaching specialist †¢ Other specialist. Appropriately for a research led institution such as Melbourne, the majority of academic staff would remain within their current teaching and research or research focused categories, with performance expectations appropriate to the relevant category and faculty or discipline.Such reform allows for the retention of a single academic classification structure, along with its ranks, levels and salaries, but provides greater recognition of the diversity of work undertaken by individuals within that classification structure. The capacity to move between work focus categories over the course of an academic career is provided for, to allow for broad and flexible careers. Movement between the groups will take into account individual performance and development needs as determined through the performance development system. Teaching and other specialist roles may be offered after joint consideration of the interests, qualifications and capacity of the staff member and the specific needs of the Department, School or Faculty.At present the University has a number of staff classified as Level A and B academic staff who are categorised as Research Only staff but who are supporting the research endeavour rather than undertaking original research. In most other universities this group is general ly classified as professional staff rather than academic. A change in classification for a number of these staff will ensure more consistent reporting between the University of Melbourne and its competitors. As previously discussed, work will also be considered at a later date around further development of the job family categories for professional staff, with appropriate expectations being developed by level and job family. To better recognise the diversity of academic work we will: introduce a new academic work focus category of Teaching Specialist to complement the existing categories of Teaching & Research, Research Focussed and Other specialists; †¢ identify academic staff within the University by work focus category; †¢ develop and apply performance expectations appropriate to the relevant category and faculty and discipline; We will also: †¢ further develop the job family categories for professional staff. This reform will be subject to the standard processes f or consulting with staff and unions over changes to HR policy. 4 Supporting early career staff We need to support the development of our early career professional and academic staff, to provide a positive employment experience and assist them in becoming productive members of staff. Graduate entry level for professional staff is most commonly at HEW5 level, and mentoring and other professional development is important at this stage. We need to be able to provide career paths for the development of specialist expertise.This emphasises the need for a sound performance development program which clarifies objectives and identifies career needs. While, when taken together, growth in fixed term and continuing academic and professional staff in recent years has been relatively modest, the percentage growth in casual staff from 2007 to 2009 is more than double this figure. The key issues for casual early career academic staff are the difficulty in establishing an academic career when there is limited certainty of employment and the concentration of casual staff at lower levels of the academic classification structures and into particular areas, notably teaching into New Generation Degrees.The New Generation Degrees will account for approximately half our coursework student load and their success will be critically important to the future success of the Growing Esteem strategy. The quality of the teaching of undergraduate students is important to, student engagement and outcomes. Improved certainty of employment for excellent staff teaching into the New Generation Degrees should be considered. Pathways for research higher degree students into an academic career also need to be improved, particularly given the need for renewal of the academic workforce. We need to recognise that casual and sessional staff, as well as research students, make a significant contribution to University teaching effort and that early career academics in general require support. To better supp ort early career staff we will: address the barriers to employing early career staff on more secure forms of employment; †¢ improve access to and quality of professional development and mentoring programs for early career staff, particularly in relation to supporting early career staff develop capabilities in relation to teaching (where relevant); †¢ employ research students as a preference for casual and sessional roles; †¢ seek agreement to create a new form of employment which provides greater employment security for early career staff; and, †¢ support budget divisions to increase the number of Early Career Development Fellowships. [3] The introduction of the proposed academic work focus categories will also provide clearer career paths for early career academics. A teaching-specialist academic category would better facilitate the appointment of teaching-specialists as course coordinators (on other than on a casual basis) to support the teaching of large New G eneration Degree subjects. This reform will be subject to the standard processes for consulting with staff and unions over changes to HR policy. Classification issues – broad banding of professional staff classifications Broad banding professional staff classification categories will improve career pathways, provide greater flexibility in staffing and aid retention of good staff. There are currently 10 classification levels for professional staff. Staff can progress to a higher classification by applying for another job which is graded at the higher level or by applying for reclassification where higher level duties are required by the work area. These options may not be available within all work areas and so high performing professional staff may seek employment elsewhere, including outside the University.In order to rationalise the large number of classification categories for professional staff and to provide better career pathways it is proposed that a new professional st aff classification structure be introduced consisting of four broad bands reflecting the level of responsibility and specialisation of professional positions in the University. |New Broad Band |Former Classification |Number of Pay Points within the band | |4 |HEW Level 10 A – 10E |3 | |3 |HEW Level 8 – Level 10 Base |9 | |2 |HEW Level 5 – 7 |9 | |1 |HEW Level 1 – 4 |9 |In order to improve the classification structure for professional staff we will: †¢ reform the structure to provide for a number of broad bands within which movement would be based on performance; †¢ reduce the number of pay points within each band in most cases with the effect of increasing the salary differential between each pay point and make movement between pay points more meaningful; †¢ develop clear performance standards for each broad band; †¢ align position descriptions with each level of the system; †¢ require movement between bands to be based on assessm ent of an application for a position in the higher band; and †¢ introduce soft barriers within the bands that staff would have to satisfy in order to progress.This reform will be undertaken in accordance with the review process outlined at Schedule 6 of the University of Melbourne Collective Agreement 2010. Other policy issues There are also other policy issues which will be included in the revised HR Policy Framework and are important to assist our current staff to achieve their potential and to help the University remain attractive to prospective staff. They will be the subject of further consultation and development through appropriate working groups. The issues identified below are grouped into the key focus areas of the Policy Framework shown in Appendix 1. 1 Building flexibility – Classification issues Policy action |Timing | |Introduce additional performance based salary points at the top of current academic and professional classification levels|2011 | |Aid attr action and retention and strengthen the link between reward and performance for level E staff, possibly by |2011 | |providing additional salary steps at this level | | |Explore introduction of a single salary spine for academic and professional staff |2012 | |Revise academic nomenclature |2012 | 2 Attracting and retaining highest quality staff Policy action |Timing | |Review and determine new reward and recognition policies , including implementing a reward for performance structure to |2011 | |recognise, reward and retain high performing staff | | |Review and revise the staff equity and diversity strategies and action plans |2011 | |Improve Workforce Planning and develop succession plans |2011 | |Review and determine new recruitment procedures to attract good staff |2011 | |Talent management program |2011 | 3 Aligning performance – Probation and confirmation |Policy action |Timing | |Improve linkages between promotion, confirmation/probation and the PDF process |2011 | 4 Investing in staff – Leadership and management development Effective leadership has a strong impact on staff satisfaction and is vitally important to the achievement of our goals.To ensure that we have effective leadership and management from our senior staff, we need to: †¢ clarify expectations of our leaders and managers; †¢ develop a broader skill set amongst staff to manage complex people matters; †¢ provide a business skills set to our managers including business planning and budgeting; †¢ incorporate greater levels of mentoring and coaching by peers; †¢ foster an open culture that embraces and supports change and diversity; †¢ provide more specialised development for professional roles; and †¢ deliver development programs differently so that skills more easily translate into the workplace. Future policy issues for consideration are listed below. Policy action |Timing | |Develop a Leadership and Management Development Strategy |2 011 | |Involving: | | |A clear statement of the nature of leadership and management capabilities; | | |Formal coaching and mentoring; | | |Processes for identification of high potential talent and accelerated development plans for high performers; | | |Quality standards for development program design and delivery; and, | | |Dedicated resourcing and funding to address any identified skills gap. | |Develop and gain agreement to a behavioural competency statement |2011 | Next Steps 1 Governance of the implementation project The further refinement of the revised HR Policy Framework will be overseen by a Steering Committee jointly chaired by the Provost and the Senior Vice-Principal. There will also be a number of related work streams each led by a project owner within HR Chancellery and coordinated by a project director, reporting to the Executive Director, HR. These work streams will draw on expertise across the University from faculties and professional practice areas. Specific refe rence groups mentioned above have also been established to rovide a forum for the further development and testing of policy and procedural initiatives and implementation plans. The Academic Reference group will specifically inform work around the introduction of academic work focus categories within the academic classification system, associated changes to the Performance Development Framework and measures to support early career academics. A Professional Staff Reference Group will similarly inform work on broad-banding the professional staff classification structure as well as the associated changes to the Performance Development Framework and other key matters for professional staff. 2 Plan for areas of further work The following is a broad action plan for the refined HR Policy Framework. Timing |Policy initiatives to be completed | |By June 2011 |Leadership and Management strategy and revised program development | | |Negotiation completed with NTEU and staff about proposed chan ges to PDF and classification structures | | |canvassed above | | |Additional support in place for managers in managing performance | |By Dec 2011 |Establishment of links between promotion, confirmation/probation and the PDF process | | |Leadership and Management strategy and programs finalised | | |Behavioural competency statement developed (with initial emphasis on Leadership and Management | | |competencies) | | |Broad banding of professional staff classification structure (subject to negotiation with NTEU) | | |Improved Workforce Planning and succession plans in place | |Career paths: | | |Program for support of early career academics (including casuals) developed | | |Review of transfer and secondment policies | | |Career paths identified within professional staff job families | | |Review of reward and recognition policies complete | | |Talent management program developed | |2012 |Review of recruitment practices complete | | |Competencies incorporated into HR processes such as performance management, recruitment and selection and | | |learning pathways | | |Consultation on possible changes to academic classification structure (for example, varying number of | | |increment points; overlapping bands) prior to negotiation of the next Collective Agreement | | |Consultation on possible revision of academic nomenclature | | |Employer brand developed to promote employment with the University | | |Revision of Staff Equity and Diversity strategy completed | Appendix 1: Schematic diagram of the refined strategic HR Policy Framework [pic] ———————– [1] The supervisor is responsible for performance management practices, however, it is envisaged that the panel is responsible for the higher level consistent implementation of performance management. Some faculties have moved to implement such practices already. [2] MSALs form part of theUniversity’s Collective Agreement [3] Early Career Development Fello wships are a new category of fixed-term employment introduced through the new Collective Agreement. The University must advertise at least 28 such Fellowships before 30 June 2012. Early Career Development Fellowships were designed to provide a more secure form of employment for Level A and B staff who are predominantly employed on a casual or fixed-term basis. These Fellowships will include a structured development program providing training, supervision and appropriate career and professional development opportunities to enable early career academics to establish an academic career.

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Measuring Photosynthesis essays Measuring Photosynthesis: The Effects of Green and White Light In this experiment we will be measuring the amount of oxygen produced in photosynthesis by white and green light. We began by placing the elodea in the 250ml flask along with the NaHCO3 and a stopper and a bent piece of glass tubing. We turned the lamp on and timed it for 10 minutes. After 10 minutes, we re-marked the tubing with the wax pencil. The releasing of oxygen was supposed to make the solution move. The results were a net photosynthesis with an average of 20mm, aerobic cellular respiration of 1mm, gross total photosynthesis of 21.1, and a rate of photosynthesis of 123mm. The average of net photosynthesis 9.8mm, aerobic cellular respiration was 91.1mm, gross photosynthesis 54.5mm, and a rate of photosynthesis of 39.3. One may wonder what is photosynthesis and why is it so important. Photosynthesis is the process by which plants use sunlight energy to produce sugar, which cellular respiration converts into ATP. The green pigment chlorophyll converts unusable sunlight into usable chemical energy. The photosynthetic process uses water and releases the oxygen that we must have to stay alive. The Arizona State University Biology department states that photosynthesis is arguably the most important biological process on earth. By liberating oxygen and consuming carbon dioxide, it has transformed the world into the hospitable environment we know today. Directly or indirectly, photosynthesis fills all of our food requirements and many of our needs for fiber and building materials. The energy stored in petroleum, natural gas ad coal all came from the sun via photosynthesis, as does the energy in firewood, which is a major fuel in many parts of the world. This being the case, scientific research into photosynthesis is vitally important. If we can understand and control the intricacies of the photosynthetic process, we can ...

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Vote against war between America and Germany Essay

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