Od Consultant free essay sample

What is the role of an OD consultant as a change leader? What are the core competencies of an OD professional? A change leader is the person who is designated to oversee change within an organization (Brown, 2011). The change leader is usually an external or internal practitioner. The external practitioner is brought from outside the organization as consultant who is an OD specialist. An internal practitioner is an individual selected from within the organization. It is dependent upon the organization which type of practitioner is needed to accomplish the change that is needed within the organization. The role of an OD consultant as a change leader is to initiate, stimulate, or facilitate a change program, which begins with the intervention of the OD consultant with the use of several points of entry into an organization (Brown, 2011). The goal entry into the organization by the OD consultant is to be effective, which places emphasis on goal accomplishment; and the other goal is morale, which places emphasis on the relationships and participants satisfaction during change (Brown, 2011). We will write a custom essay sample on Od Consultant or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page The core competencies of an OD professional are: 1. Interpersonal skills (Kahnweiler, 2006) 2. Diagnostic ability (Kahnweiler, 2006) 3. Knowledge of OD (Cote, 2004) 4. Theory and practice in OD (Cote, 2004) 5. Design and intervention skills (Cote, 2004) 6. Influencing skills (Cote, 2004) 7. Self-awareness (Cote, 2004) 8. Values and ethics (Cote, 2004) References Cote, S. (2004). Does formal OD training matter in determining OD proficiency? An analysis of OD expertise in the federal public service of Canada. Organization Development Journal, 22(4), 31-42. Kahnweiler, W. M. (2006). The development of OD careers: A preliminary framework for enacting what we preach. Organization Development Journal, 24(1), 10-21.

Compare and Contrast between Socialism and Capitalism

Compare and Contrast between Socialism and Capitalism Introduction Socialism has been regarded as kind of economy which relocates its means of production from individual ownership to state ownership and communal ownership.Advertising We will write a custom essay sample on Compare and Contrast between Socialism and Capitalism specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More A state that operates under socialism possesses all the means of production and also supervises them. This system has been believed to construct a different egalitarian system which is founded on the values of cooperation and solidarity. However, this further relies on another feature where human beings are viewed as capable of interacting and cooperating with one another (Newman 3). Capitalism on the other hand could be reffered as a system where means of production are employed and owned by individuals. This kind of economy develops under the right of an individual who decides freely where and how they want to produce (Hunt and Laut zenheiser 5). Therefore these are two diverse systems; the following essay illustrates the differences and similarities between these two systems. Economy and Trade Marxist economists described various ideas concerning socialism and capitalism using various illustrations. According to his famous accounts, capitalist was depicted as destructive, a kind of system that is prone to crisis and administered by logic of capital. It was mostly expressed on the basis of economic laws of motion also the desire to accumulate on the capital. However, socialism denoted elimination or suppression of such logic and its fundamental drives and laws, hence created the likelihood of a rational, organized way of managing social and economic life. Marxist economists condemned capitalism because of instability and irrational outcomes of a system based on private markets and properties. Marxist noted the devastating social and economic outcomes of capitalist organizations, economic anarchy; for instance, sales seldom matched actual or expected levels of production, and the overall amount of savings planned for investments, hence affecting business cycles. Other associated crises were ineffective outcomes and uneconomical expenditures which led to starvation, unemployment, and ecological deterioration. There was social disintegration and fragmentation because of unequal distribution of power and wealth and promotion of privacy, social interests, and personal interests over public. It encouraged alienation for instance through commodity fetishism because conception of false needs was encouraged rather than satisfaction of true needs. This led to denial of genuine individual knowledge concerning themselves and also the society surrounding them (Ruccio and Amariglio 216-17).Advertising Looking for essay on political sciences? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More In contrast, socialism because of eliminating the scope of priva te markets and properties and its institution of planning, it has been represented as a system that demonstrates basic rationality and stability. Therefore, the results were fairly different; economic coordination and balance which was supervised by a central planning board and analyzed by enterprises and ministries. Furthermore, the system portrayed effective and socially beneficial expenditures which were based on coherent calculations and no profit making motive. The system created unification and social harmony because of establishment of relative equality and social and private interests which were then allowed to converge. More importantly, it promoted self realization and true needs could be articulated and the nature of social interactions was transparent and immediate. Marxist economists has also noted the degree at which capitalism has been based on individual exploitation which involves extraction of surplus value while in socialism almost all surplus was appropriated com munally or socially (Ruccio and Amariglio 216-17). Property Rights Socialism could be defined as transfer of titles of a particular property from those individuals who have invested scarcely to those who have contractually acquired them or for some different use. It could be regarded as a social system where the scarce resources or means of production which are utilized to produce consumption products are socialized or nationalized. The concept of socialization of means of production has been practiced in a number of countries such as Soviet Union and afterwards by Soviet dominated nations of Eastern Europe and various countries all over the world. If private property becomes the means of production, then one encourages differences. By eradicating private ownership everybody’s ownership means of production is equated. Every person becomes the co- owner of all the properties and this reflects every individual’s identical standing as a human being. The economic rationale of a scheme like that one is suggested to be more effective. In contrast, capitalism which concentrates on private ownership as the means of production seems to be very chaotic. It appears more of a wasteful system which is characterized by ruinous competition, duplicating efforts and lacks concerted, coordinated action. Unless the communal ownership is substituted with private then it’s possible to eradicate that waste by executing a single, coordinated comprehensive production plan. The property regulations which are assumed under the socialization policy and those which comprise the general legal principles of nations such as Russia are distinguished by two complementary attributes. First, no one possesses socialized means of production but they are owned socially.Advertising We will write a custom essay sample on Compare and Contrast between Socialism and Capitalism specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More That means nobody or no group of people, or all of them together have the right to either obtain them or trade them and retain the receipts got from their sale confidentially. Their use is however determined by people not as the owners but as the caretakers of the things (Herman 19-22). Secondly, no individual or groups of people or all of them together has the right to engage in personal investment and form new personal means of production. They could neither invest through changing the existing, nonproductively already used resources into productive ones, by pooling resources with the rest of the people, by original saving, nor by a combination of those techniques. Investment could be done only by caretakers, not for private profit but for the benefit of the community. In an economy such as capitalism which is founded on private ownership, owners resolve what to do with the means of production. However in socialized economy such owners never exist hence it cannot happen and the major problem is what to do with the means of production. The difference between socialized property economy and private one is the concept of whose will prevails if there are conflicts. In capitalism somebody must be there to control and others who do not control and therefore real difference exists among people. In this case, the problem on whose opinion prevails is determined by original contract and appropriation. Similarly, in socialism real difference exists between noncontrollers and controllers under some occasions, the issue on whose opinion prevails is not resolved through previous contract or usership but through political means (Herman 19-22). Therefore, capitalist differs from socialism by replacing public ownership with private ownership. Public ownership caused excessive depersonalization of the property. Neither losses nor gains had exclusive and direct effects on a particular individual, responsibility normally was enormously low. To some extent private property still existed in socialism ( Kornai 87). Nevertheless, it seems to be scarce hence it does not cover the means of production.Advertising Looking for essay on political sciences? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More If the property could not be transferred to the state, communal properties like agricultural cooperatives or small businesses such as handicraft were introduced. This shows theoretically the membership is voluntary and such ownership was not affected legally. Hence collective ownership was regarded as an intermediary stage which would be replaced by the state ownership finally. On the other hand, in capitalism under property right it is evident there was division of labor, making of profit and uneven distribution of wealth and massive involvement in economic exchanges. That was portrayed as the only means of maintaining an individual existence which signify a great need for steady rules and enforcement system. That is mainly essential for property rights, and their transfer and their protection. Coordination Another disparity between socialism and capitalism is depicted on how coordination is accomplished. Rather than letting people do what they desire, capitalism organizes the acti ons by restraining people to respect the earlier user ownership. Capitalist is distinguished by decentralist and unstructured coordination instead of centralized management and steering. This is clearly observed in disincentives and incentives which are not set politically. In such society, distribution of resources occurs through the market. On the other hand, in socialism rather than allowing people do what they wish, it manages individual plans through superimposing on an individual’s plan or the plan of a group and that of varying individual or group in spite of prior ownership and other mutual exchange contracts (Herman 23). This depicts central planning where the state owns almost all production facilities. The required inputs for production and preliminary products are determined then organized, political priorities are always considered. The consumer and producer demand are anticipated while correct exchange relations are resolved by the setting of the price. However, this is costly and huge task to be carried by the administration which tends to be more complicated and develops technologically according to the nation economy. Security Capitalists system argues that the major role of the government is to safe guard its citizens from deception or various forms of corruption. They argue that force is the security of individual’s rights. To achieve that, the government employs police force that is in charge of security at their homes and military group which guards any exterior attack while the court ensures that local disputes between the residents are cleared. In addition, they believe that stirring force could only lead to violation of rights; hence the government simply uses force in case one initiates it. In this society, anyone could begin any type of business one desires. This is because the security of monopolies does not operate. The main law which is plainly decreed and everybody is supposed to observe is that members of the societ y should not violate an individual’s human rights (De Soto 68). Thus they give credibility to observing individual’s rights which is supreme and freedoms are also regarded as supreme. On the other hand, socialism is a reverse; the government is centrally involved while the society manages communal properties such as cooperatives and industries. Even though, they own those properties through the government. In addition, the workers are in charge of means of production owned by the society and are invested for the well being of the whole economy but not just the wealthy individuals. In this system, the government manages the overall means of production but the members have the duty of choosing the best setting for the production, the amount to produce and which product should be produced. Those produces should also be allocated fairly to ensure everybody is satisfied. Some philosophers like Karl Marx claimed that there is possibility of capitalism being overshadowed beca use already there are some evident changes in capitalist societies which resemble socialism. They further suggested that they must look for a means to conquer capitalists’ resistance and their proposers to achieve socialism. In socialism economy, there is equal allocation of resources within its members and focuses on providing basic needs to the members to ensure equality. To make sure every member in the society benefits, the government ensures it caters for those who are needy and cannot support themselves, this is achieved through community based programs and related organizations. In addition, socialist societies are usually known because of their charitable social security systems. These include: free education, full employment, total coverage through pension system, subsidized housing, welfare for the sick, orphans and elderly and good public security depicted by low crime rates (Rudiger 14). Social Welfare For several decades the Soviet Union lived as an enormous nati onal socialist government. The Kibbutzim and Mennonites abandoned the Soviet Union and settled in capitalist nations like Israel and United States. The Amish live peacefully under capitalism since the community reaps together and sows together. Because they are not buying food and paying wages, there is fairly little taxable business taking place. Furthermore, the community could also work jointly to produce goods which could be sold to neighbors surrounding the community. That enables the community to pay for things like property taxes (Gilpin 220). That indicates that the socialist society should own the means of production, but not the individuals within their society. Since socialism depends on production which belongs to the collective, then it’s very hard for a single socialist unit to exist in another socialist unit. Also in a case of a joint ownership, one of the parties must have more power over the property than the other. It is impossible for two units to have sove reignty over similar property. As a result, socialist groups like Kibbutzim and Mennonites abandoned areas such as Eastern Europe and Russia in favor of Israel and United States. Socialist society depends on willing contribution of every member of that society. In case of the less productive members within the society, that is not regarded as a problem. Nevertheless, if the most productive members in that society were able of being independent, that could be a problem. This is because if those members who are most productive depart from the collective, then the overall resources allocated to every member decreases. In case this repeatedly happens then socialism would collapse, since the only people who would remain are the less productive (Duck 2). There must be something to maintain the most productive members in the socialist country; this ensures they do not leave. For instance, majority of productive Mennonites are kept within their society by the religion or the Jews in their K ibbutzim. Patriotism might also maintain majority of productive members in a socialist country. Nonetheless, the tie of religion is stronger than that of patriotism. Because socialism cannot permit most of its members who are productive to depart from the collective, then it is very hard for capitalist to exist within socialism. This is evident because socialist government always takes production from those people who are most productive and then reallocate it to the less productive people. If that was done against the desires of the people, subsequently they will harbor bitterness against socialist government. As a result, the tie of patriotism will grow weaker (Duck 2). Government Role on Social Life Critics argue that a government which is capable of providing everything is also powerful enough to take away everything. This happened to German National Socialists and Communist Russia. Nevertheless, government with socialist system does not withhold social welfare but the power it has over the economy of that nation leaves the citizens vulnerable to the dictators (Newman 39). They argue that in a nation where Congress are not permitted to pass law which focuses on establishment of religion, then government social programs seems to be corrupt and mostly tend to be agnostic. As a result, such social programs seem to prohibit religion which is a free exercise or others encourage atheism. There are many well documented government education programs which prohibit prayer and encourage atheism. Socialist governments appear to atheism. The morality of Atheist is only a manifestation of the light reflected by biblical morality. Without the guiding light from the bible, atheist morality is likely to go off course. Finally, it degrades to level where immoral behaviors such as genocide turn to be acceptable. Critics further argue that socialism should not be allowed to exist in a government and socialist groups ought to support capitalism in their government since in ca pitalism they can freely exist. They believe that the framework of capitalism leads to efficient socialism, this is because it allows people to embrace socialism (Duck 2-3). Prices Formation In capitalist system, prices are not determined by the state but set by interplay between demand and supply in the free markets. Nevertheless, the state could affect the prices indirectly through subsidization, taxation, restrictions of imports and in case it manages the Central Bank, through monetary policy like money supply and interest rates. Therefore, in this system coordination of transactions through prices is a distinctive feature of capitalist system (Friedman 8-13). On the other hand, in case of socialist economy channeling so much power on the prices it would require sufficient market structure; it would also challenge the structure and the state that formed such system while trying to allocate resources in the economy. In socialist economy price mechanisms were not fully eliminated, mostly it was incorporated in economic planning. This led to unofficial or multiple official price systems. This altered price system which never reflects true scarcity levels and makes consumers and companies to be price inelastic, thus they do not react adequately to increase and decrease of prices because these are meaningless. Conversely, households in classical socialist economy work under constrain due to the hard budget because their funds are limited. Thus they never respond to prices because the state controls the prices which become political relevance. As a result, the prices of services and basic goods like medical services, staple food, housing, childcare, are normally subsidized whilst the demand for luxury goods is controlled through setting high prices. As proposed by classical economic theory the consumers respond promptly, they buy extra of the subsidized goods compared to what they would purchase in market equilibrium. Market Structure In capitalist system, privat e enterprises of different sizes coexist and usually compete with those enterprises owned by the state and other forms like the cooperatives. The main feature of capitalist system appears to be free market exit and entry. Thus it’s not a static system however it operates under dynamic renewal. On the other hand, in socialist economy the seller incurs total transaction cost, seeks information on how and where to find the product, adapts to the seller’s supply through forced substitution. Therefore, the buyer bears the outcomes of uncertainty. This is opposite of capitalist economy which can be regarded as buyer’s market. In the case of seller’s market as in socialism, it’s usually a stable condition where demand constantly exceeds supply (Rudiger 11). Conclusion According to the discussion above it is evident that these two systems are quite different with a few similarities. Majorly, the socialist economy is depicted by its communal ownership as th e name suggests. The society properties are owned by everybody and there is no one entitled as the sole manager. The property rights are generally communal and the members act as caretakers of the properties. On the other hand, capitalism is distinguished by the private ownership of property. Analyzing on the prices the two systems are really diverse, under socialism the consumers are in control of the market and they bear the overall cost of market uncertainties. Moreover, they are supposed to seek where and how to use the means of production hence the name seller market. On the other hand, under capitalism it’s the reverse it’s called the buyer market since the government is in control of the means of production. One similarity is that both governments control the amount of money workers contributes thus the pension is under government management. De Soto, Hernando. The Mystery of Capital: Why Capitalism Triumphs in the West and Fails Everywhere Else. New York: Rand om House, 2000. Duck, Samuel. â€Å"Comparing national socialism to capitalism, liberty, charity, and local socialism†, 2009. Web. Friedman, Milton. Capitalism and Freedom. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2002. Gilpin, Robert. Global Political Economy: Understanding the International Economic Order. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2001. Hans-Hermann, Hoppe. Theory of Socialism and Capitalism. Alabama: Ludwing von Mises Institute, 2007. Hunt, E. and Lautzenheiser, Mark. History of Economic Thought: A Critical Perspective. New York: M.E. Sharpe, 2011. Kornai, Janos. The Socialist System: The Political Economy of Communism. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1992. Newman, Michael. Socialism: a very short introduction. New York: Oxford University Press, 2005. Ruccio, David and Amariglio, Jack. Postmodern moments in modern economics. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2003. Rudiger, Frank. â€Å"North Korea: East Asian Socialism, Capitalism, or What?† U niversity of Vienna, 2008. Web.

Atrial Fibrillation Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Atrial Fibrillation - Essay Example AF may occur in men or women and is generally seen in the elderly population in the age group of 60 -70 years or above. As Kowey and Naccarelli points out â€Å"from an epidemiological standpoint AF is predominantly a disease of elderly individuals with cardiovascular diseases† (Kowey and Naccarelli, p.1). AF generally is not seen in the young population. The human heart consists of four chambers – the upper two chambers are known as atria while the two lower ones are known as ventricles. De-oxygenated blood containing high amounts of carbon dioxide enters the right atrium via the superior vena cava and inferior vena cava and flows into the right ventricle. The right atrium contracts to pump the rest of the blood into the right ventricle which in turn contracts to pump the blood into the lungs where the blood loses its carbon dioxide and gets fresh oxygen supply. This oxygenated blood then enters the left atrium which contracts to pump the blood into left ventricle. The left ventricle contracts to send the blood to the rest of the body. These contractions of the heart muscles occur due to an inbuilt electric supply system present in the human heart that sends out electrical signals during each heart beat. Each electrical signal starts its journey from the sino-atrial (SA) node present in the right atrium of the heart. From her e as it moves down it causes both the atria to contract thus pumping blood to the ventricles. The electrical signal then moves down to the atrio-ventricular node and via the bundle of His enter both the ventricles causing them to contract and pump blood to the lungs and the rest of the body. In atrial fibrillation this electrical signal arises from the nearby pulmonary veins and other parts of the right atrium instead of the SA node. These electrical signals produced are extremely irregular and generally very rapid and can range up to 350 signals per

Business Finance Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words

Business Finance - Essay Example The maximization act in general is the one being criticized as the managers tend to be carried away by the mere feeling to satisfice and not really come up with means of maximizing or optimizing according the theories of finance. This means that the mangers go for solutions which they regard as satisfactory yet they need to seek the best solutions that are possible respecting the existing constraints. Considering the structure of most modern firms, it is almost impossible to single out the mangers true motives. Modern firms are mostly organized to operate as a corporation where shareholders happen to be the legal owners of such firms and the managers have been given the mandate to act on behalf of their shareholders. This happens if the manager is out to merely satisfy the firm’s stockholders while at the same time pursing other goals of his or her own interests that are in no manner related to attempts to try and maximize the firm’s value. A good example is charitable organizations where it is hard to tell the firm’s support makes an integral part of its value maximization in long terms. In addition, considering a case where the size of the firm in continuously increasing yet the profits are not; this can be attributed to the decision of the manager to have his motivation as being to expand the size of the business through increasing its prestige association with other lager firms or an effort to make the firm more recognized on the market place. It becomes very hard to come up with definite answers to situations like the ones mentioned above resulting to some of the financial theorists to come up with theories on firm behavior. The theories have come up with different situation in relation to the managers and maximization of the ownership wealth. They include; A firm manager may primarily try to maximize the growth or size of the firm and not its current value, the firm’s manager may try to maximize their own welfare or utility and in other cases a firm being considered as a collection of different individuals who have divergent goals rather than one common goal (Williamson 2000, p. 73) As the financial theories regarding firm try to increase the understanding on how firms behave, they don’t necessarily provide the most desired solution especially when it comes to wealth maximization considering the dynamics in the structures of different firms. However, they serve as basis for better understanding and interpretation of different behaviors witnessed in firms. Financial theorists have argued that it is the intense market competition for services and goods that usually force the firm managers to make decisions regarding value and wealth maximization. If a firm fails to come up with the right decision regarding alternatives that are most efficient which imply the need to go for maximum costs for every output level, considering the commodity market price being produced by the firm, other firms may end up o utcompeting the firm thus pushing it out of existence. Competition also impacts the firm operations through the capital market. In such as case, stockholders are mainly interested in their stocks returns as well as the prices of their stock which are determined by the value of the firm, that is the expected profits current value that has been discounted. This forces the managers to maximize the profits of the

Private Blogging In Paramedic Science Education Essay

Private Blogging In Paramedic Science Education Essay Abstract Reflection on clinical practice and sharing of declarative knowledge is a foundation for which the Bachelor of Paramedic Science program was developed. The overall scope of the project was to trial Evernote as a private reflective blogging service and also the opportunity to gain experience (both staff and students) with using Evernote with a view of it becoming a potential tool for reflection and assessment on clinical placement, informing not only Paramedic Science but other clinical based health programs. Ultimately this project was about improving the engagement of distance students online, and encourage reflection on their own declarative knowledge. The scope of the project was to also improve formative feedback between students and the academics and finally to evaluate the technology for appropriateness as a private blogging service in a clinical setting for reflection. The educational motivation towards student engagement is high on the agenda of tertiary institutions and this study is one representation of how social media concepts can improve this engagement. The findings of this study identified that students interact better with SMS combined with online forums within a learning management system. Key Words Blogging Reflective Practice Student Engagement Learning Management Systems Key Points The use of private blogging aims to improve engagement of distance students online, and encourage reflection on their studies within the course. The use of private blogging aims to improve formative feedback between student paramedics and lecturers Evaluation of technology and the use of social media are high on the agenda of tertiary institutions Private blogging aims to enhance clinical reasoning by students. Formative feedback provided to students through their own self discovery of new concepts introduced during the course as well as self-regulated learning by the students is important in paramedic education. Introduction Reflection on and sharing of clinical information amongst student paramedics is a practice that has been introduced across all paramedic specific courses on offer in the Bachelor of Paramedic Science at CQUniversity. The aim of the study- private blogging in paramedic foundations was designed to improve the engagement of distance education students online and encourage reflection on their studies within the course. The objective was to also improve formative feedback and evaluate the technology for appropriateness as a private blogging service in a clinical setting. The overall scope of the project was to trial Evernote as a private reflective blogging service and also the opportunity to gain experience (both staff and students) with using Evernote with a view of it becoming a potential tool for reflection and assessment on clinical placement, informing not only Paramedic Science but other clinical based medical and health programs on offer at CQUniversity. Background The study commenced during term for a course within the Bachelor of Paramedic Science at CQUniversity 2011. Nineteen students were enrolled in the course and had the opportunity to engage with the course lecturer/s through set weekly tutorial questions in which all students were to respond to through their private blog enhancing engagement by students. These blogs were then summarised by the course coordinator and put online through the weekly forum in Moodle. Students were also to consider the clinical judgement aspects of the course reflecting on their clinical practices such as history taking and patient assessment. The introduction of private blogging into the course was intended to improve formative feedback provided to students through their own self discovery of new concepts introduced during the course as well as self regulated learning by the students performing set tasks on family and friends as a way of skills development and competency. The use of private blogging was hop ed to improve engagement with distance education students and also to seek improvements in competent and reflective paramedic practice to be used throughout the program especially for work integrated learning. Blogging to improve student interaction Prior to the commencement of this study the course was offered in term one with approximately 70 students enrolled. Online weekly tutorials consisted of weekly problem solving and clinical judgement questions that required a response from the student. These questions ranged from problem solving exercises to case management exercises and general case studies requiring question and answer responses. The interaction for these weekly formative tutorial sessions was low with a 12% (n= 8) students per week responding. The below table identifies the average response rate for all term 1 2011 courses and for the paramedic course within the Moodle learning management system. Table 1. Files, messages, clicks and discussions for 70 students in term 1, 2011 PMSC11001 paramedic course compared to the average for all term 1 2011 courses in the university. Course Files uploaded Messages Clicks Discussion hits Discussion posts Discussion replies Paramedic Course 128 113 32380 4135 77 36 Average all T1 2011 courses 15 109 13359 2879 40 68 Due to the limited amount of discussion replies (36 versus 68) it was difficult to ascertain what the students learned during the lectures. In turn it was then difficult to predict if what they learned in theory was going to be put into practice at their residential school simulation laboratory sessions. An article by Wetmore et al. (2010) identified that writing about what was learnt theoretically is an effective strategy to promote reflective learning leading to the development of critical thinking. In other words if a student effectively reflects on the declarative knowledge of their studies, this reflection will in turn improve the procedural knowledge and skills application required for proficient practice. Overwhelming evidence is in support of reflective learning practices through effective student-teacher interaction being included in clinical education paradigms (Wetmore et al. 2010). Methods Data presented in this paper are drawn from an exploratory survey conducted at the completion of a three day residential school for a first year baccalaureate paramedic program. The course they attended was Foundations of Paramedics Science which is a first year course of the three year Bachelor of Paramedic Science program. The students in the course were distance education students. The aim of the study was to evaluate Evernote as a blogging service for students. The purpose of Evernote is to: Improve engagement of distance students online, and encourage reflection on their studies within the course. Improve formative feedback from teachers Evaluate Evernote as a private blogging service in a clinical setting The overall scope of the project was to trial Evernote as a private reflective blogging service and also the opportunity to gain experience (both staff and students) with using Evernote with a view to it becoming a potential tool for reflection and assessment on clinical placement, informing not only Paramedic Science, but other clinical based programs such as Medical Sciences and Sonography. Evernote is a technology that assists users with organising various types of information from several different sources into one, central, web-based location. The product also allows users to clip web pages and archive them for later reference, store screen shots, photos, audio memos and text notes, all within a customizable storage system. Evernote can organize notes chronologically and share them between multiple users. In the context of this research students would share their notes (blog posts) only with their teachers in the course, thus creating a private blogging environment. The students had tutorials and on-line blog activities during which they were required to enter their responses and other relevant information into the Evernote program. Â   The activities were located in their resource manuals and were identified by a blog sign. They were informed that they will be required to input information into EVERNOTE which only the lecturers will see, and that this information will be summarised and feedback provided to all students. The students were initially provided step by step guidance on how to access Evernote and begin their blogging campaign. The lecturers were provided training sessions leading up to the commencement of term and the students were also given online training videos to assist in using Evernote. The authors conducted a survey after a three day residential school in January 2012. The survey was distributed and received back by a non-teaching staff member. The questionnaire consisted of five sections. Section one contained demographic information related to the participants. Section two contained questionnaires based around their knowledge and capabilities of blogging with section three following on from this and contained 13 questions with a seven-point Likert scale identifying the students beliefs about blogging in the course. The fourth section discussed the students feeling about the blogging process and identified any alternative methods for their engagement with the lecturers. The final section attempted to identify their clinical reasoning by allowing the students to reflect on actual paramedic practice and the use of evidence based practice in paramedicine and whether blogging assisted them in improving clinical reasoning and judgement. Data used in the analyses came from a student paramedic-based e survey of blogging. Data collected by the questionnaire were stored on a Microsoft Access database that resided on CQUniversitys computer server. Survey data were coded and transferred from the Access database to an SPSS 18.0 (SPSS, 2010) statistical package software program. Ethical approval was acquired by CQUniversity Human Ethics Committee. Ethics approval (H11/11-163) was granted from 5 December 2011 to 30 June 2012 and was considered under the low risk review process. Results Eleven students out of 19 (58%) completed the survey with only 19 out of 27 students attending the residential school. The intent of the blogging exercise was to assess the students engagement with information extracted from the Evernote data base through the weekly tutorial sessions with questions uploaded by lecturers and answers provided by the students. Unfortunately out of a potential 190 blogs required there were only 14.1% of responses from students (n =27) which did not reflect an accurate account of engagement and was only a two percent improvement on the previous engagement strategy through the Moodle online forum. Their engagement through blogging in Evernote was not a formal graded assessment which kept with the consistency in the previous tutorial sessions through on line forums to ascertain if blogging improved engagement. Demographics Demographic data was gathered for comparison only, and a frequency distribution of gender, age, highest level of education, state of residence and current employment/student status was undertaken. Information is noted in tables 1 and 2. Of the participants who completed this survey there was an almost equal division of gender with 55 percent (n=6) female. Fifty percent were in the age group of 20-29 (mean 23 years ) (range 19-37) (table 2). Based on the ANOVA analysis, P values indicated that there is no significant difference between genders and amongst age groups with regard to their thoughts on blogging (P value threshold set at P Table 2 Participants Gender Gender N Percentage Female Male 6 5 55 45 Total 11 100 Table 3- age of participants Descriptor N Percentage 19 20 22 27 29 32 37 missing 2 1 2 1 1 2 1 1 18.2 9.1 18.2 9.1 9.1 18.2 9.1 9.1 Total 11 100 The second part of the survey asked participants if they have blogged before. Of the 11 respondents, only one had previous blogging experience and that persons experience was over 12 months previous to this survey. To ascertain if students had concerns with blogging based on past experiences of themselves or family/friends, a second question asked do you know of any bloggers who have gotten in trouble with friends or family for things they posted on blogs? There was an overwhelming response of no for this response (n=11, 100%). The final question within this section asked for a comment on blogging and what the participants would like to know about blogging, of the responses received three out of eleven (27%) participants advised that they did not enjoy the blogging experience and therefore did not want any further information provided to them. The third section of the questionnaire was aimed at gathering information about the participants beliefs of blogging in the course PMSC11001. They were advised there were no right or wrong answers and the researcher were only interested in their general opinions about the participants beliefs and thoughts of blogging within the course PMSC11001. This section was assessed using a 13 item, seven-point Likert-type scale anchored by the use of bipolar adjectives (i.e. pairs of opposites) from Strongly agree = 1 to Strongly disagree = 7. Table 4- Questionnaire Mean Scores (n=11) Question Mean Standard Deviation How confident were you that your writing in your blog was private 3.18 1.47 How often did you consider something was too personal to blog 5.18 1.40 How often did you look at the log of the lecturers responses Would you take lesser care with what you wrote if it was open to the public 4.30 3.72 2.00 2.19 How much did the comment the lecturers wrote on your blog affect future entries 4.63 1.12 Would it bother you if the things you publish on our blog could be available to other students Do you believe things you publish on your blog affect your grading Do you believe lecturers would feel negative towards you based on your blog Do you believe your peers would feel negative towards you based on your blog 5.09 5.09 5.00 4.82 1.58 1.22 1.34 1.25 How did you find the process of enrolling in Evernote Did you find using Evernote program easy for your weekly blog entries Were you able to find responses from your lecturers easily through the Evernote program Were you able to publish your blogs easily through Evernote 4.73 4.82 5.00 5.00 1.49 1.33 1.09 1.61 Although most students did not engage with Evernote blogging as part of their weekly tutorial and as identified below students did not want to engage with lecturers through blogging there was a slightly positive inference about their confidence in their blogs being private (M = 3.18, SD = 1.47) and they identified that they would take more care if they knew the blogs were available in the public domain (M=3.72, SD=2.19). A majority of the respondents indicated a negative response to their experience with the Evernote blogging system and especially if it had negative impact on their grades (M=5.09, SD=1.22) and they also believed that lecturers would think adverse of them (M=5.00, SD=1.34). In relation to reading posts and publishing blogs in Evernote, again the students had a negative impression of this suggesting that it was slightly difficult to enroll in Evernote M=4.73, SD=1.49) despite the step by step guide offered to them. They also found it slightly difficult to use (M=4.82, SD=1.33) and found it difficult to find the lecturers responses (M=5.00, SD=1.61). The fourth section asks the students about their feelings towards Evernote blogging and then continued to ask about other social media concepts for engagement with their lecturers. Students were able to give more than one response for this answer Table 5 Social Media Concepts for Engagement Moodle Online Forums Skype Blogging Facebook Twitter SMS Participants 45% 0% 0% 0% 0% 90% There were five responses (45%) to using the Moodle online forums with the majority of students (90%, n=10/11) advising that engagement by the lecturers was best through SMS contact. Two students advised that they liked to be contacted by SMS and then would look immediately at the online forum site if requested to. Of the questions have your blogging habits changed since the use of Evernote and would you blog again in another course, all the respondents (100%) answered no with 27% (n=3) advising that they did not enjoy the experience and would not like to use blogging again within another course. Discussion CQUniversitys ten year strategic plan states: CQUniversity will attract and retain more students, helping them to achieve their educational goals regardless of their cultural and family background or their country of origin. We will offer a range of ways for students to access higher education and reach their educational potential. We will provide a stimulating environment that promotes and supports learner engagement utilizing appropriate technology and infrastructure (CQUniversity 2012). Despite limited research into the efficacy of social network technology in paramedic education, this pilot study has identified that to achieve the strategic goals of the university and in particular utilizing appropriate technology, students in this program have identified SMS as an engaging way of helping them achieve their goals. Paulus et al. (2009) identified that new technologies assists teaching and learning methods by providing a way of not stagnating the education of students through traditional methods and now supports the students construction of new knowledge. It has also been identified in the literature that academics need to keep abreast of the technological changes and the needs of the current generation of students. There is the potential for a division between students and faculty if they are struggling with new technology (Liu 2010). Liu (2010) also identified that through the Horizon Report 2009 several challenges had arisen and one of them is the growing gap in t echnology use between students and faculty even though technology use in academia is becoming more and more popular (p. 102). Additionally it has been identified in literature that blogging or journaling is an effective strategy to improve the education of students (Wetmore et al. 2010) where educators in various health and medical related programs have implemented blogs and reported benefits for student success when interacting with blogging exercises and activities (p.1339). Within this pilot study it was clearly identified by all students non-dependant of age or gender that blogging was not a preferred method of engagement with the lecturers with the preference being SMS in combination with online forums, despite previous evidence suggesting students do not engage with online Moodle forums. This is despite overwhelming evidence identified in the paper published by Ladyshewsky and Gardner (2008) where they stated that there is a growing body of literature to support the use of web based discussions to form student centred learning. They also identified that students come literately prepared for university through their knowledge of email, SMS and handheld devices including iPad (Ladyshewsky and Gardner 2008). In an online article by Becka(2012) it was identified that Recent research into how students use mobile devices has highlighted how frequently they access SMS and therefore this aspect is crucial to ensuring we engage effectively with them at key times and about key issues. In another article it was clearly identified SMS was the best technology used to support learning through engaging students in formative assessment objective questions with feedback, as well as SMS-based collaborative learning tasks (Brett 2011). Evidence that students within the Bachelor of Paramedic Science program at CQUniversity have engaged with lecturers through SMS is evident in the course evaluation surveys completed at the end of every term. During term one 2011 the course evaluation response was 78% with a rating of 4 out of a maximum score of 5 for the course, this was improved in term three 2011 with an 89% response rate and a score of 4.1/5 for the evaluation. Finally for term one 2012 the response ra te was 97% with an overall satisfaction rating of 4.7/5. Limitations and Recommendations The respondents to this survey were not randomly selected but were enrolled in the paramedic specific course and provided with the opportunity to trial the Evernote system as part of this course. The relatively small number of students available in this pilot study and the number of responses made it difficult to apply some statistical tests. Although the results here were overwhelming against blogging with support of SMS social concept for engagement and also online forums through the existing Moodle LMS, future research should utilise a larger sample across all years and courses of the paramedic program in order to enable a more accurate analysis and more precise calculations. Although the results of the survey indicated that students overwhelmingly preferred the use of SMS, given the technical constraints on the number of characters in an SMS, it does have limitations as a tool for reflection. The educational motivation towards student engagement is high on the agenda of tertiary institutions and this study is one representation of how social media concepts can improve this engagement. Future research with a qualitative component would enable effective evaluation of students thoughts on social concepts for engagement. With the availability of diverse and large amounts of technology, tertiary institutions should be looking at areas of social concepts for engagement and interaction which are easily accessible, are user friendly and usable by all students. In other words hardware and software that is in line with the next generation of students is recommended. A schematic of how future SMS integration into teaching and learning is shown in the chart below. Ask questions related to lectures through SMS 1 2 STUDENT LECTURER 3 Students notified of questions in LMS via SMS 2 1 4 Answers provided in online forum 3 PROVIDE CONTINUOUS FEEDBACK And summarise findings into Moodle LMS Conclusion This study has provided a picture of student engagement techniques which are of value and enjoyment for baccalaureate students. Findings indicate a clear association between SMS and online Moodle forums on improving student engagement with these techniques being both valued and enjoyed by students. This engagement will allow academics to further explore perceptions of students within their courses and value of the course content through the SMS and forums. Interactivity and active participation seems to lead to a new learning and teaching behaviour. By using modern technologies, students knowledge and engagement in course material can be implemented even to large lecture rooms. Sharing and collaborating different pieces of content as well as communication over different channels allows rethinking didactical approaches. Both students and academic staff will report a great potential for engaging with large class sizes. Conflicts of Interest None Ethical Approval Ethic approval was gained through CQUniversitys Human Ethics Committee

Human Capital Management Essay

â€Å"It is important for HR Management in managing the knowledge capital of an organization and aligning it with organization’s strategic plan†. Critically assess the strategic role of HCM and challenges of managing the knowledge capital in an organization that you are familiar. The organization that I would like to choose is Jabatan Pelajaran Negeri Terengganu (JPNT). JPNT consists of more than 400 workforce and this agency is responsible for administrative and policy executioner of Ministry of Education in the whole Terengganu. In JPNT, there is a small unit of Human Resource Department and this department has 20 staffs. However, until the last day of my service there, the HR department did not establish any single policy about human capital management. Therefore I will attempt to answer this question while recommending what should be done by JPNT to succeed in maximizing their human capital. Before we discuss further the strategic role of HCM and challenges that had to be overcome by HCM specialist, let us look at the technical definition of this question. Knowledge capital is defined by Business Dictionary as the â€Å"know how† that results from the experience, information, knowledge, learning, and skills of the employees of an organization. Of all the factors of production, knowledge capital creates the longest lasting competitive advantage. It may consist entirely of technical information or may reside in the actual experience or skills acquired by the individuals (BusinessDictionary. com 2012) . Knowledge capital is an essential component of human capital. Human Capital is defined by (Baron and Armstrong 2007) as the knowledge, skills, abilities and capacity to develop and innovate possessed by people in the organization. This is one of the attributes of the intellectual capital. Intellectual capital is defined by the same author as the stocks and flows of knowledge available to an organization. It is categorized into three categories namely human capital, social capital and organizational capital. These capitals are usually combined with the physical resources which are the financial and physical assets for the purpose of value creation to the firm. As cited by (Sveiby 1998)Tom Stewart who in his June 1991 article Brain Power – How Intellectual Capital Is Becoming America’s Most Valuable Asset, proposed the importance of intellectual capital to the management agenda. He defined intellectual capital in his article as: the sum of everything everybody in your company knows that gives you a competitive edge in the market place. Knowledge Management consists of managerial activities that focus on the development and control of knowledge in an organization to fulfill organizational objectives. (Sveiby 1998) Therefore it means that the integration of all management activities that focus on development and control of knowledge is what we call as knowledge management. Challenges of managing knowledge capital in JPNT will be diffused together as I explained about the role of HCM in the organization. Knowledge management is defined as the process of storing and sharing the wisdom, understanding and expertise accumulated in an organization about its processes, techniques and operations (Baron and Armstrong 2007). Therefore, the data that should be synthesized and acquired should explain the organization’s activity for instance the achievement of the employees in knowledge sharing among them and ensure that the knowledge is maximized in terms of its usage. Everybody must share their skill, knowledge and experience without any malicious intentions for the purpose of maximizing the performance of JPNT. However, it brings challenges to HR specialist in JPNT as it is not a culture of sharing. Some of the staffs afraid to share their know how because they thought that by doing so, it might jeopardized their career envelopment in the future. HR specialist overcomes this by implementing a fair assessment indicator to measure their performance without favoritism, nepotism and biasness. In my opinion, the most important attributes that distinguish Human Resource (HR) with Human Capital Management is the element of the workers as assets. As discussed by (Baron and Armstrong 2007) human capital theory emphasized on regarding people as assets of the organization, and investment in people will generate long run return. Scarborough and Elias noted that human capital theory is similar to physical capital theory but they differ in terms of the reference for human capital theory is made to people and skills while in physical capital theory reference is made to plant and equipments. Both emphasized on value creations to firm. Thus by applying this theory, JPNT needs to redefine the cost associated with training and development and career progression as the investment that will create value for the agency. Staff that undergoes training must be ensured that the new skills matched with their job description and the staff is using that new knowledge in order to effectively execute their job. For instance, the weekly training is not supposed to be done by the JPNT if on the purpose of fulfilling the quotas of training hours. Remuneration is not under JPNT’s jurisdictions however JPNT can recommend the salary of their staff to PSD (Public Service Department). Accepting staff as the asset of the organization will be mutually benefit to both parties involved. On the employee’s part, they will be feeling more motivated, appreciated thus will contribute better in their performances. As for the organization, it will boost the overall organization’s performance, decrease turnover rate, absenteeism and other negative behavior of the staffs. However this theory is not agreed by some scholar for instance Davenport(1999). Davenport argued that worker must not be treated as assets because of three main reasons. The first reason is workers cannot be brought, sold and replaced by their owner. Secondly, the principle of this theory is unacceptable and inappropriate in practice is because workers cannot be owned by the firm as the firm owned plants and machines. Lastly, there is not absolute way of calculating human value-no convincing method of attaching financial value to human resources. Therefore, treating workers sorely based on assets can create drawback to the organization. The interpretation of this concept should be made carefully and it should match with the objective of the organization. It is also not an easy task to convince the top management since the culture of bureaucracy is very strong in JPNT. The next part, I will discuss about the strategic role of HCM. HCM’s role as stated in the book Human Capital Management by Baron and Armstrong, HCM acts as business partner of the firm. Secondly, they are also responsible in developing, analyzing and using business data. Thirdly, they are also responsible for enhancing job engagement and commitment, fourthly, they are responsible to build ‘Business Case’ and lastly, they are also responsible for engaging with the other function of the organization. (Baron and Armstrong 2007)These points will be elaborated one by one in below. For the first one HCM acts as the business partner with the top management of the organization. This concept was introduced by Ulrich in 1998 where the author proposed that HR specialist should be share responsibility with management people to run the business. They must have the ability to understand and exploit opportunities and HR specialist themselves must understand how their role could help in achieving the objective of the organizations. Ulrich suggested that in order for the organization to create value, HR professionals must carry out their responsibility as strategic partners, administrative experts, employees’ advocates and as driver of changes. This can be done through strategy execution, improved planning by thorough discussion on how the firm should be organized to carry out the strategies. HR engagement with operating and marketing function is essentials in ensuring that all of their initiatives will become successful by answering the following issues- whether the initiatives is best aligned with strategy implementations, they make selection based on priority, and lastly the evaluations of the initiatives should be indicate positive linkage to business result. HR specialist must act as employee advocate, human capital developer, functional expert, strategic partner and lastly as leader in terms of HR function. However, the premise â€Å"HCM act as business partner† did not agreed by all practitioners. Tim Miller and Alex Wilson reported by Smethurst(2005) and Pickard(2005) are the examples of the top management who disagree with this premise. Convincing the top management will not going to be easy. Still HCM emphasized on the importance of evaluation of what had been happen within the organization and it also provides basis for value adding strategist. Therefore, according to this theory, HCM in this case the HR specialist in the human resource department should work together with the top management of JPNT in ensuring the creation of value to the firm. The value that we meant here is creating competitive human capital that at the end of the day this human capital will be able to serve successfully to their customers thus deliver excellence business service for the organizations. Secondly, HR is responsible to develop, analyze and use human capital data. The measurements that must be developed by HR should be able to measure issues relating to workforce, capable of measuring the levels and trends in performance achieved by both individual and business, can measure the impact of HR policies and practices on business performance or what Mercer HR Consulting called as â€Å"Business Impact Modeling†. It is also expected that HR should be able in building an effective measurement to measure the effectiveness of line manager in applying HR policies and the measurement tools should be able to measure the effectiveness of HR function (Baron and Armstrong 2007). The workforce matrix should provide data which allows the business to measure the key characteristics of the people it employs. Understanding the relationship between workforce matrix and people management is very important because the workforce matrix focus on the influences business performance and show the business of what need to be done to improved the added value from human capital resources. Therefore, HR cannot simply gain data without proper implementations of specific procedures and standards because gaining accurate data will never be easy. The data accuracy will show the current situation and trends of human capital within the organizations. In JPNT, the typical tool to measure the human capital is Key Performance Indicator (KPI) in human resource department reflect the organizational goal. They matched the number of training and types of training according to the need of the staff. Therefore KPI’s adopt by Human Resource department is quantifiable; they are defined in terms of the feedback that they gain through exit training survey. This KPI however is not emphasized on skills retention that the staff gained on the training. They are not focus workers as the assets of an organization; therefore, I think there are a lot of improvement needs to be carried out to improve this measurement method. Next, is on the aspect of measuring the overall performance. Human Resource department use Balance Score Card that is developed by Beatty et. Al (2005) to measure them. Balance Score Card highlighted four important aspects which are customer perspectives, internal perspectives, innovations and learning perspectives and lastly the financial perspectives. This scorecard focuses on balanced representation and analysis of data. In HR, four dimensions are being highlighted which are HR competencies, its practices, systems and deliverables. On the aspect of financial performance, the HR department always runs cost benefit analysis to choose the best trainer to train their staff or just simply using the internal sources that they have. Productivity is measure when the training course that undergo by the staff is beneficial and the new knowledge are continuously used by the staff. The operational impact or effectiveness is measure for instance creation of successful training course to the staff and when the staff perceived such programs contribute to their career developments. Lastly, is in terms of customer service. Through continuous training programs, the staffs become more skillful in treating the customers thus more of them will be delighted. Measuring the impact of HR policies and practices are one of the toughest roles of HR specialist. This is because it is hard to determine â€Å"causation†-what actions or factors that are specially cause the performance (Baron and Armstrong 2007). Genome II is a model that was developed by National Building Society proved statistically that the more committed the employee, the happier the customer will. Genome project had focus on recruitment and retention, deeper understanding of the commitment of the employees, reward system that is more transparent and flexible, increase the effectiveness of the execution on the first line management, promotes recognitions, and develop a culture where both managers and their subordinates demonstrate right behaviors. Focus area of GenomeII could act as a benchmark to be applied in JPNT. Effectiveness of the line manager could be improved with the intervention HCM (Bohlander and Snell 2010). Guidance, help and further training is available in case where they need them. With this, it was hoped that line managers can carry out their people management responsibilities effectively. For instance if the line manager of JPNT encounter any unsolved problem or the problem is not routine, they can always refers to HCM specialist to guide them. Human resource should be measure to indicate whether they are executing their role and meet the target of their department. Tsui and Gomez-Mejia (1998) cited in (Baron and Armstrong 2007) had clarified the distinction between process criteria- how well things are done and output criteria- the effectiveness of the end result. To distinguish them, ‘utility approach’ by Boudreau(1998) can be applied. Beside this approach, HR performances can also be measured using points suggested by Likierman (2005) that the budget allocation is in line with HR objectives- means HR has a say in changes in implementing the strategy, analyze and interpret the reason behind it, comparing internal and external benchmarking, enhance the usage face to face discussion to gain the feedback, and lastly the measurement should not expect to measure something that is impossible, and they should be noted that many problems just being mitigated, instead of being solved, and this is harmful to the JPNT. Another important role of HCM is in the terms of promoting job engagement and commitment. Job engagement happens when people are willing to commit to their work and willing to perform excellently in their job. Hay Group defined engage performance as a result that is stimulated by employee’s enthusiasm for their work and direct it to the success of the organizations. On the other hand, organizational commitment is defined as the recognition of goals and values of the organization, a sense of belonging to the organization and willingness to contribute effort for the organization (Baron and Armstrong 2007). Organization commitment and job engagement can be created by JPNT if JPNT set a great place to work, HR people promotes positive discretionary behavior, create excellence total reward policy and constantly measure job engagement and commitments. JPNT should provide conductive working environment- comfortable in nature, ergonomics, make sure that the job prospect is parallel with training, appraisal, and the superior staff should take care of the welfare of their subordinates. JPNT can adopt the criteria suggested by The Sunday Times in identifying the best 100 companies which are leadership of senior management level, good relation with their superiors, have the opportunities of personal growth and developments, balanced work-life issues, cooperativeness between colleagues, my company- the way JPNT treats its staff and lastly the fair deal- pay and benefits are provided to all, without nepotism and biasness. The superior should also act in discretion manner; it means that not everything must be solved black and white. For instance, if one of the subordinates absent for their work with a concrete reason, the superior should not punish he or her. Reward is categorized into two which are transactional reward (tangible reward-the pay and benefits) and relational reward (intangible reward-learning and development and work environment). That is the responsibility of HR to create the best reward model that can motivate their employees in the future. The tangible reward is easily to be copied by the competitors as everyone have the capability to pay and gives benefit for instance dental plan, but the intangible reward it harder to be imitated thus increase the chances of sustaining the firm’s competitive advantages. Next, another role for HR professionals is as strategist. Strategist here means HR professional should be able to address long term issues related to management and development of people and the employment relationships. This role is clearly demonstrated when HR professional are being regarded as business partner- they have the persuasion power to influence the top managers to develop business strategies that are maximizing the potential of human capital. (Baron and Armstrong 2007) As we discussed earlier, people are the assets of the organizations, thus they are one of the resource to achieve and sustain competitive advantage of JPNT HCM is also responsible to develop a good business case. Baron and Armstrong 2007) As I discussed previously, HR specialist should be able to persuade top management, a good business case can act as one of the convincing evidences on why the top management should agree to HR specialist’s proposals. The case should show how the purposed course will add value in terms of income will exceed the cost or by executing the proposal, it will yield positive return on investments (Bohlander and Snell 2010). The business case should present on how the available human capital data will impact on key areas of organization’s operation, show how it will the proposal will increase the business competitive edge, or presenting a successful pilot projects to be implemented to the entire organization, the proposal can be implemented without much hassles, it will also able to enhance the employer’s brand by promoting JPNT as the best place to work and lastly the points, data are presented in neat manner, simple and easy to understand. Challenges for managing knowledge are knowledge acquisition, knowledge modeling, knowledge retrieval, knowledge reuse and knowledge maintenance. In JPNT it is hard to get the information needed and turn the information to become useable. For instance, it is hard to transform the tacit knowledge to become explicit knowledge, to identify the gaps in knowledge, and difficult to acquire and integrate the knowledge that is cross departmental and different expertise. Therefore, it is important for the HR specialist in JPNT to be able to create an approach that is able to integrate all knowledge in the organization so that it can be benefited to all. On the top of that, knowledge modeling is also can be another obstacle for HR specialist in managing knowledge capital in the organization. The challenge that is faced by JPNT HR specialist is how to use the knowledge available in solving problems because knowledge possessed by staffs are varies from one another (Bhojaraju 2005). To overcome this, HR departments had introduce mentor and protege program. As a conclusion, the roles that are played by HCM are indeed complex and requires HR specialists to be able to multitasking, possessed multidisciplinary of knowledge and wide range of skills to execute their roles perfectly thus enable them to overcome the challenges of managing knowledge capital in JPNT. Top managements should also give full cooperation in favor of HCM so that the utilization of knowledge capital in JPNT could be maximized.

Living with Strangers Essay

To top the essence of discomfort off, Hustvedt states that â€Å"On the subway, I found myself in intimate contact with people I didn’t know, my body pressed so tightly against hem, I could smell their hair oils, perfumes and sweat. † (p. 1, l. 4-16) This closeness is something that most of us, Hustvedt as well, saves exclusively to boyfriends and close family – This exclusiveness only survives because of the ‘Pretend it isn’t happening’-rule. Throughout the essay Hustvedt takes us down her memory-lane of New York, where she tell us the things that can describe exactly why her view on urban living is how it is. The ‘Pretend it isn’t happening’-rule seems to be the most visible theme in the essay. To an outsider taking a stance against something that is clearly wrong seems logical, if not almost necessary. Whereas Hustvedt says that in New York that is uncommon and almost illogical behavior, because of the possible outcomes when someone is asked to stop whatever they felt they had the right to do. This is allowed because of the aforementioned rule. To explain her point further Siri Hustvedt exemplifies it for us. Hustvedts’ husband had witnessed a man stepping on the subway with a lit cigarette, another man confronted him politely by stating that it’s illegal to smoke on he subway, the smoker had then replied â€Å"Do you wanna die? To much luck the smoker had to get off the subway at the next stop, which resulted in a quick ending to the affairs, but Hustvedt points out that this couldVe ended much, much worse. Siri Hustvedt almost attempts to Justify the ‘pretend it isn’t happening’-rule, by showing the dangers ot not pretending. Hustvedt points out that New Yorkers barely even notice that they’re doing it, it’s such a custom reaction to these situations that in the urban cities you’re raised with them – Just as you’re raised with table manners. To exemplify this Siri Hustvedt mentions her daughter, Sophie, who has adapted to the behavioral pattern already as â€Å"she feigns deafness when the inevitable stray character comes along and tries a pickup. † (p. 2, l. 80-81) and that her daughter has been â€Å"refining the frozen, blank expression that accompanies the Pretend law. † (p. 2, 1. 76-77) In the same example Hustvedt explains that her daughter often gets hit on and some of these admirers are more stray than others. One day Sophie had experienced a man who had been shamelessly staring at her, but when he stepped ff the train and the daughter didn’t, the man had thrown himself against the window and yelled â€Å"l love you† at her. Sophie had felt embarrassed and frightened, but the man next to her had commented â€Å"It looks like you have an admirer†. To this Siri Hustvedt explains that â€Å"His understatement not only defined the comedy inherent in the scene; it lifted my daughter out of the solitary misery that comes from being the object of unwanted attention among strangers. † (p. 3, l. 92-94). This example turns the essay towards a new point-of-view, whereas the reader started out ith having a sense of displeasure and discomfort towards urban living, Hustvedt turns the entire essay around in the end where she enlightens us that urban living is not all that bad: â€Å"Nevertheless, compliments, insults, banter, smiles, and genuine conversations among strangers are part of the city’s noise, its stimulus, its charm. † (p. 3, l. 102-104) in this quote, Hustvedt points out to us that isn’t not only incredibly dull, if urban life only revolved around â€Å"pretending it’s not happening†, but that is it almost down-right impossible. She also states that because of this rule, those who break it make a turning point to everyday life and it’s those people who make urban living all the more charming. Siri Hustvedt mentions that â€Å"Sometimes a brief exchange with an unknown person marks you forever, not because it is profound but because it is uncommonly vivid. † (p. 3, l. 112-113) and to end the essay she mentions a moment 20 years earlier in her life, where a homeless man had called her beautiful and asked her to dinner, and when she politely said ‘no’, he then had grinned and aid â€Å"Lunch? This example not only supports her statement that it has indeed marked her forever, but it almost seems like what then wouldVe seemed rather creepy – now is a little comical and it probably even lifts her spirit when thinking about it. l, for one, believe that the statement is as true as anything can be. It’s not always the deep conversations you have with your family and closest f riends that mark you, it’s the sudden situations; because they’re not forced and that makes them all the more real and therefore deep. I may not live in a true urban city like Copenhagen or New York, but the ‘pretend’-rule is everywhere – and because of that all of the times that it’s broken may seem a little odd or even scary at first can make the rest of one’s day all the more interesting. A sudden compliment, a smile to a stranger or even a short conversation with someone about why the train is delayed – yet again. It gives one time to reflect over the minor things in life and sometimes it may even remind you Just how little you actually are – in a good way, of course.