Two Companies in the Leisure Industry Coursework

Two Companies in the Leisure Industry - Coursework Example Hence, in addition for being a leisure getaway for the locals, it is also a tourist attraction directly competing with the above mentioned attractions. The idea conceived by a husband and wife architecture team in 1989 and with the backing of British Airways it took them one and half year to complete the project. The London Eye in particular under the operation of the Tussauds Group that is in charge of other popular attractions mentioned earlier. The London Eye had outdone other London attractions in visitors number, which is at around 3.5 million a year (Barfield, 2007). As the tallest Ferris wheel in Europe and worldwide, it has few competitors that are taller. The tallest Ferris wheel is located in Singapore and it stands 165 meters, while the London Eye stands at 135 meters making it the third tallest Ferris wheel after Star of Nanchang at 160 meters. The 32 sealed and air-conditioned capsules can hold 25 people and allow them enough room to walk around. One complete round takes around 30 minutes and because of the involved slow speed, passengers can walk on and off the capsules without it stopping to accommodate them. The current owner as mentioned earlier is the Tussauds Group that was able to buy out British Airways and Marks Barfield, the family who were among the lead architects. The Tussauds Group after its purchase in 2007 by Merlin Entertainment and currently London Eye is officially knows as the Merlin Entertainment London Eye and the British Airways brand name is slowly giving way to the new brand name (Mann et. al, 2001) (BBC News). It is a successful attraction attested by the fact that since its opening around 30 million people had ridden in its capsules. The new owner is also leaving its print on the Ferris wheel by opening 4D theatre. It does not mean London Eyes did not have financial problems since it was besieged financially in the outset and later on, since some of the land it stands on belonged to other sources that had demanded a huge amount of rent, from 64.000 pound a year to 2.5 million pounds a year (Reece, 2001). However, the mayor of London had intervened and was able to obtain a 25 year lease on behalf of the Ferris wheel that will cost it around 500.000 pounds a year. Arena Leisure Plc Arena Leisure Plc is also another UK company based in London and it operates seven of the UK’s horse racing tracks. The company that started in 1997 also has under its wings golf courses, hotels and an interest of at least 47% stake At The Races making is in charge of at least 25 % of the horse racing business in the UK. The company claims that it has three main divisions namely racing, it operates the known UK race tracks, catering, it creates its own events and cater for others’ events, and At The Races is broadcasting what takes place in the UK and Irish horse racing. Its racing divisions consists of seven tracks and it is from this ownership the 25% share of the racetrack control comes from. In addition, t he company is involved in leisure activity that it avails through Lingfield Park Marriott Hotel and a country club with an 18-hole golf club. Its catering division is in charge of catering at the seven horse racing tracks. While its catering division is in charge of catering at the seven horseracing tracks, it has successfully won the bid to provide catering at some of the 2012 Olympic games. The company’

Performance Appraisal: Functions and Implementation

Performance Appraisal: Functions and Implementation Chapter 1: 1.1 Introduction This dissertation project has been undertaken for the fulfilment of the business degree MBA, General Management from the University of East London. The findings of this dissertation will contribute to concerned company and the author to complete the MBA degree. At the beginning, a leading mobile tele-communication organisation in Bangladesh named Banglalink was chosen as the research organisation. In the middle of the study, the management refused to cooperate with providing information. As a result the author had to find and choose a suitable company to collect research information and data to finish the study. Secure Facilities Management Company Ltd. (SFM) was the new company chosen to finish the research. The introduction chapter gives an overall idea about the study. In this part, the background, objectives and research questions and the structure of this dissertation will be discussed. 1.2 Background of the Study The study discusses about the functions and the implementation of performance appraisal in the new era. The concept of ‘Welfare Personnel was developed in the end of the British golden colonial history by the humane concerns of some business families like Cadbury and Rowntree. Then within the next century, the concept had changed and became Personnel Management and later on Human Recourse Management. Now the world has just entered into a new millennium and the concept of human resource management has become a strategic partner for the business organisations. (McKenna Beech, 2008:2 3) Organisations require many things in order to be effective, a method for producing a product or service, financial resources, a way of marketing and human resources. While all of these are important to organisational effectiveness, the only factor that represents a potential competitive advantage is human resources. This is why the concept of human resource management is s important to every organisation.. The basics of managing people are getting people, preparing them, stimulating them motivate them. To manage human resources in any organisation the following questions are to be considered: (Dessler, 2005:4-5) Are the persons hired for the job wrong? Is the organisation able to milk out the best from the employees? What is the most frustrated area of human resource management? Is the rewarding system working properly? The above refers to how people worked in the past, what changes are required in future to make the production system effective, what are the weaknesses of the system and how to improve. These actually refer to the evaluation of employees of job which is called Performance Appraisal. Performance appraisal system is an important function of personnel department in any organisation. The system has a close relationship between organisation goals and individual performance. The performance appraisal system represents a year round exercise of managing individual performance in an integrated manner with a view to enabling employees to perform at their performance standards. (Dessler, 2005:310) With the view of increasing organisational effectiveness through the effective management of human resources, the organisations use different methods of appraising performance of their employees. For this research a small security service company named ‘Secure Facilities Management Company Ltd. (SFM) a private single owner security service company has been chosen. SFM became a successful organisation in the last few years. Their high standard efficient employees are one of the key factors for their success. For that, SFM has been chosen to practice the theoretical knowledge and to get familiar with the existing system of Performance Appraisal of a small private company. 1.2 Research Question In general, most of the organisations have a kind of formal or informal performance appraisal system. Through the performance appraisal system, the employees get to know their performance standards, which area of their performance needs to be developed etc. The supervisor also provides them with feedback, development and incentives to help them eliminating their performance deficiencies. If performance appraisal system is effectively used, it can improve attraction motivation of the employees on the job. If inappropriately used the appraisal process can have disastrous effects (Dessler, 2005:310). Hence the discussion leads to the research questions: What is the level of understanding and compliance of the employees on performance appraisal? What are the reactions of the employees regarding the performance appraisal? What are the constraints of the performance appraisal in practical life? 1.3 Aims and Objectives of the Study The research has been undertaken for the fulfilment of the requirement for completion of MBA, General Management for the year 2008/2009. This is mainly aimed to develop the job expertise in the performance appraisal activities under the guidance of expert faculty member of University of East London. It is really a difficult task to assess consistency, relevance and reliability of the tools and techniques of the system, however and effort is made to have some ideas about the matter. 1.3.1 Aims The study mainly aims at knowing about the awareness, the level of understanding and compliance of the employees of SFM regarding performance appraisal system. The study attempts to analyse the present performance appraisal system and the role of both appraisers and appraises in connection with the implantation of the system in real life situation. 1.3.2 Objectives To be acquainted with and acquire practical knowledge regarding performance appraisal system of an organisation. To relate the theoretical knowledge of performance appraisal with practical implication. To determine the acceptability and reliability of the performance appraisal system in a certain organisation. To assess the constraints/factors which influence the performance appraisal system. 1.4 Scope of the Study Target group includes officers of all level. The working forces those who are working in the head office and also in the other sites. Value Perception of both appraisers and appraises of the organisation under study. 1.5 Limitations of the Study While preparing this report, the following limitations had been faced: At the beginning a renowned mobile Tele-communication company in Bangladesh, Banglalink, was chosen for the study but they refused to deliver any information and cooperation just one and half month before the submission date. As a result, the author had to choose a small security company, Secure Facilities Management Company Ltd. (SFM) to carry on and finish the study within such a short time. SFM has a master plan on performance appraisal, but at present implementing a part of it. As a part of the business strategy, SFM did not provide all information on their performance appraisal procedure. The major limitation of the study was the lack of time for such an intensive work which compelled the author to narrow the scope of the study. All officials were very busy with their own assignments. As a result, they had a little opportunity for giving much time in this regard. Limitation was faced on the volume of the report due to which many relevant and important things will remain unexplored in detail. 1.6 Organisation Profile Introduction to Secure Facilities Management Company Ltd. (SFM): Since its formation SFM has built its reputation by providing security personnel of the highest calibre. This has been achieved by combining sound management with sensible terms and conditions for all staff. SFM strives to ensure that their clients and staff benefit from a focused and well-defined professional approach, the ratio of management to client is kept to no more than one manager per 10 clients. SFM strives to provide the highest standards of efficiency to all its clients, both large and small. SFM understands the importance of first impressions and that their personnel are often the first point of contact for their clients visitors and residents. 1.7 Structure of the Research This structure of this study has the following five chapters: Chapter 1 is the introduction chapter where the background, research question and rationale, objective, company profile and structure of the research are stated. Chapter 2 contains a brief literature review on performance management, history and meaning of the performance appraisal, purposes, functions, types of performance appraisal, MBO, 360 degree appraisal, problems and solutions of performance appraisal and essentials of a good performance appraisal. This chapter will provide a basic understanding about performance appraisal which is related to the research questions. Chapter 3 contains Research Methodology which includes research framework, the design of the research, population and sampling, and questionnaire. Chapter 4 provides Data analysis, statistical analysis and findings of the research. Chapter 5 describes the critical review of the findings. Chapter 6 discusses on recommendation and conclusion of the study and reflection summery. Chapter 2: Literature Review 2.1 Introduction Organisations require consistent levels of high performance from their employees in order to survive in a highly competitive environment. In a view of this, performance appraisal can be a systematic system through which evaluation of an employee is done analyze effectively to determine required performance. It plays a key role in rewarding systems. It is the process of evaluating the performance of employees, sharing information with them and searching for ways to improve their performance. Appraisal is necessary in order to: Allocate resources in a dynamic environment; Motivate and reward employees; Give employees feedback about their work; Maintain fair relationships within groups; Coach and develop employees; and Comply with regulations. It is also a formal opportunity to do what should be done much more frequently in organisations to express appreciation for employee contributions. Companies must administer their employee performance reviews, at all levels, fairly and without discrimination. Since all appraisals can be used against a company in an appraisal employee lawsuit, it is critical that these reviews should be completely accurate. This practice of performance appraisal has been given a variety of titles. The academicians call it performance appraisal, performance review etc. In Government services in Bangladesh, it is known as ACR (Annual Confidential Report). In private organisations, it is often described as merit rating, personnel rating, progress rating, annual performance, etc. Performance appraisal plays a major role in Human Resource Management. The subject is a part of Performance Management. It is necessary to discuss the performance management briefly before proceeding to performance appraisal. Performance Management The primary concern of performance management is the improvement of individual and collective performance. It is a continuous cycle of self-renewing. The aim of performance management is make direct link together individual goals, departmental purpose and organisational objectives. It integrates the major elements of HRM like appraisal and employee development, performance-related pay and reward management, individualism and employee relations. In other way it can be called as day-to-day management activity as it deals with organising works to get the best result. â€Å" a strategic integrated approach to delivering sustained success to organisations by improving the performance of the people who work in them and by developing the capabilities of tams and individual contributors†. Armstrong (2001:467) According to Armstrong (2001:475) the main activities of performance management are Role Definition, The Performance Agreement or Contract, The Performance Development Plan, Managing Performance Throughout the Year and Performance Review. These activities are a continuous cycle. According to Marchington Wilkinson (2004:187), the process of performance management system involves Induction and Socialisation, Reviewing and Appraising Performance, Reinforcing Performance Standards and Counselling and Support. Beardwell and Holden (2001:538) stated â€Å"Performance Management is not simply the appraisal of individual performance: it is an integrated and continuous process that develops, communicates and enables the future direction, core competencies and values of organisation, and helps to create an ‘horizon of understanding†. Performance Management is an effective tool by which the employees work behaviours are aligned with the organisations goals. There is no one way to manage performance. Whatever system is adopted needs to be similar with the culture and the principles of that organisation. However, most system of performance management has several parts: Defining Performance: Carefully defines employee performance so that it supports the organisations strategic goals. Setting of clear goals for the individual employee is a critical component of performance management. Measuring Performance: Measuring performance does not need to be narrowly conceived, but can bring together multiple types of performance measured in various ways. The key is to measure often and use the information for mid-course corrections. Feedback and Coaching: In order to improve performance, the employee needs information (feedback) about their performance, along with the guidance in reaching the next level of results. Without frequent feedback, employees are unlikely to know that behaviour is out of synchronization with relevant goals, or what to do about it. The major aim of performance management is to find ways of continual improvement of levels of both organisational and individual performance and performance appraisal is the perfect weapon for that improvement. The Rise of Performance Appraisal The performance appraisal has a long history which started China in the third century, the reign of Wei Dynasty. It was mainly used for the civil servants, army officers and managers until recently. Now it is very much wide spread all over the world and has become a popular management tool. In the UK most of the private sector organisations has introduced and are practicing performance appraisal during the last decade or two. Some people suggested that the reason behind for its growth is to use the individualised performance-pay system. Some other factors like market competition, managing change, organisation goal, milk out the best from the employees etc. are also important. Now the terminology ‘performance appraisal is changing to ‘personal development review and ‘performance review and development. (Taylor, 2004:247-248) Meaning of Performance Appraisal Performance Appraisal (PA) is a methodical, on the job-review of an employees abilities and accomplishments. Performance appraisal functions as a valuable management assessment tool and a superior employee motivation weapon. It enables us to strike a workable balance between organisations need for qualified and trained personnel and employees need for feedback and motivation. Performance is the contribution and appraisal is the procedure of measuring the contribution. Performance appraisal is an integral part of a system of managing individuals working in an organisation. Performance appraisal is an inevitable inspire of modern technology and all the systems and controls coming into widespread us, people remain the most important factor in all kinds of business, government agencies, charitable organisations and all other organisation. Performance appraisal is a process of bringing together the approaches of performance management like counselling, training, improving performance etc. that helps the managers to exercise them to achieve the goal of the organisation. It is a procedure of rewarding and disciplining the employees to improve the over performance of the organisation. It is the process of evaluating performance or contribution of an employee to the organisation during a specific period of time by his or her supervisor with relation to his or her job requirements. An effective, reliable and valid performance appraisal system recognizes the legitimate desire of employees for progress in their professions. Integration of organisational demands and individual needs through career management is the part of performance appraisal. Therefore, the performance appraisal program is inevitable for measuring the contribution of both â€Å"employees and managerial personnel†. Performance appraisal program is the basis of determining who is profitable to higher position and who is to be rewarded for better contribution to the organisation he or she belongs to. Performance feedback lets employees know how well they have performed in comparison with the standards of the organisation. Performance appraisal program is the administrative and employee development tool, which is the domain of the management not shared by the employees. Opponents of the performance appraisal attack it on a variety of grounds but without appraising performance of the employees career development, organisational development, recently a number of organisations have revamped their appraisal system in a bid to reduce possible negative outcomes. Appraisal, no doubt is a complex issue and it is clear that to be effective, a system must be designed and implemented with great care. â€Å"Performance appraisal means evaluating an employees current and/or past performance relative to his or her performance standards†. (Dessler, 2005:310) Michael Armstrong (2001:486) says â€Å"Performance review discussions enable a perspective to be obtained on past performance as a basis for making plans for the future.† He explains that the five elements of performance management (measurement, feedback, positive reinforcement, exchange of views and agreement on action plans) can be achieved through performance review. In the conclusion it can be said that, performance appraisal is the process by which an employees contribution to the organisation during a specific period of time is assessed. Performance Feedback then lets the employee know how well they have performed in comparison with the standards of the organisation. Who Should Do The Appraisal? By traditionally a managers authority typically has included appraising subordinates performance. The logic behind this tradition seems to be that since managers are held responsible for their employees† performance, it only makes sense that these managers do the evaluating of their performance. The employees immediate boss conducts about 95 percent of all performance appraisals at the lower and middle levels of the organisation. Purposes Purposes of Performance Appraisal: HRD Employees View Performance appraisal or evaluation serves a number of purposes for Human Resources Department and for the development of the employees. Management uses performance appraisal for general human resource decisions. Evaluations provide input into such important decisions, transfers, and terminations. Performance appraisals identify training and development needs. They pinpoint employee skills and competencies that are currently inadequate but for which programs can be developed to remedy. Performance appraisal can be used as a criterion against which selection and development programs are validated. Newly Hired employees who perform poorly can be identified through performance appraisal. Similarly, the effectiveness of training development programs can be determined by assessing how well those employees who have participated do on their performance appraisal. Performance appraisals also fulfil the purpose of providing feedback to employees on how the organisation views their performance. Furthermore performance appraisals are used as the basis for reward allocations. Decisions as to who gets merit pay increases and other rewards are frequently determined by performance appraisal. Purposes of Performance Appraisal: Organisations View Identify the successful less successful aspects of the employee needs organisational goals. Assist decision makers in allocating resources in planning for future. Assist managers in just frying expenditure accounting for those expenditures. Monitor employee activities to detect any change in activities or the quality of services. Serve as a benchmark, i.e. identifying best practice performance, using that performance as a goal, investigating the factors that led up to that performance, then trying to replicate that level of performance. Functions / Uses of Performance Appraisal Multiple uses of Performance Appraisal are: Development uses. Administrative uses/decision makings. Organizational maintenance/objectives. Documentation. Types of Performance Appraisal There are various types of performance appraisal which includes Alternation Ranking Method, Graphic Rating Scale, Management By Objectives (MBO) etc. (Dessler, 2005:315) These are explained below. Alternation Ranking Method It is the oldest simplest of formal systematic rating is to compare one person with all others for the purpose of placing them in a simple rank order of worth. In doing this, the appraiser considers person and performance as an entity; no attempt is made to systematically fractionize what being appraised into component elements. Graphic Rating Scale This method is widely used in merit rating is similar to the techniques in point-evaluation plan. This involves the supervisor to rate employee performance in terms of prescribed traits i.e. quality of work, quantity of work, initiative, dependability, knowledge of work etc. Each trait is defined various degrees of each are prescribed in some way. From traits degrees over-all rating can be obtained. Forced Distribution Choice Another attempt to counteract the tendency of raters to give average ratings or even sometimes to â€Å"twist† a report to bring about a desired result is the forced-choice technique. Here the rater is faced with groups of three of four statements, he must tick the one, which applies most nearly to the employee under assessment. These statements are so devised that it is impossible for the rater to know which will give the most favourable rating. Grading It is a further development to the guideline approach which attempts to provide a frame work of reference by defining a number of levels at which the characteristics is displayed asking Managers to select the definition which most closely describes the individual they are assessing. For example, in rating effective output the Manager in a typical grading scheme is asked to choose between: Outstanding Outstanding output of high quality work Satisfactory Satisfactory level of output effort Fair Completes less than the average amount of effective work Poor Low output poor worker. Critical Incident Method The critical incident method requires every Supervisor to adopt a practice of recording in a note-book of those significant incidents in each employees behaviour that indicate effective or poor behaviour. These are recorded in a specifically-designed notebook that contains characteristics under which the various behaviours can be recorded. Management by Objectives (MBO) Management by Objectives (MBO) is a critical process that often consists of four steps as a way to attain desired performance: Objective setting-joint determination by manager employee of appropriate levels of future performance for the employee, within the context of over-all unit goals resources. These objectives are often set for the next calendar year. Action planning-participative or even independent planning by the employee as to how to reach those objectives. Providing some autonomy to employees is invaluable; they are more likely to use their ingenuity, as well as feel more committed to the plans success. Periodic reviews-joint assessment of progress toward objectives by manager employee performed informally sometimes spontaneously. Annual evaluation-more formal assessment of success in achieving the employees annual objectives coupled with a renewal of the planning cycle. Some MBO systems also use performance appraisal to tie rewards for employees to the level of results attained. MBO had been taken likened to a modem form of scientific management. It is also subject to the same possible criticisms of too great an emphasis on individual job definition together with a management authority structure, the assumption of no conflict between individual organisation goals. MBO should not be applied simply as a pressure device by which management apply increasingly demanding targets which Staffs are expected to achieve. MBO draws attention to the objectives for individual members of the organisation as a whole. MBO is a potentially attractive system. It provides an opportunity for staff of accept greater responsibility to make a higher level or personal contribution. There is much to recommend it to both the organisation individual managers. 360 Degree Appraisal or Evaluation The latest approach to performance appraisal is the use of 360 Degree evaluations. It provides for performance feedback from the full circle of daily contacts that an employee might have, ranging from mailroom personnel to customers to bosses to peers. The number of appraisals can be as few as three or four evaluations or as many as 25; with most organisations collecting five to ten per employees. The appeal of 360-degree appraisals is to fit well into organisations that have introduced teams, employee involvement, and TQM programs. By relaying on feedback from co-workers, customers and subordinates, these organisations are hoping to give every one more accurate reading on employee performance. Appraising Performance: Problems and Solutions Few of the things a manager does which are more risky than appraising subordinates performance. Employees in general tend to be overly optimistic about what their ratings will be, and also know that their raises, career progress, and peace of mind may well hinge of how they are rated. This alone should make it somewhat difficult to rate performance; even more problematic. There are more numerous structural problems that can cause serious doubt on just how fare the whole process is. Some of the main appraisal problems and their solution are explained below. Dealing with the Five Main Rating Scale Appraisal Problems Five main problems can undermine appraisal tools such as graphic rating scales: unclear standards, halo effect, central tendency, leniency or strictness, and bias. Unclear Standards: The problem of unclear standards is illustrated. Although the graphic rating scale seems objective, it would probably result in unfair appraisals because the traits and degrees of merit are open to interpretation. For example, different supervisors would probably define ‘good performance, ‘fair performance, and so on differently. The same is true of traits such as ‘quality of work or ‘creativity. Halo Effect: The halo effect means that the rating of subordinate on one trait (such as ‘gets along with others) biases the way that person is rated on other traits (such as ‘quality of work). This problem often occurs with employees who are especially friendly (or unfriendly) towards the supervisor. For example, an unfriendly employee will often be rated unsatisfactory for all traits rather than just for the trait ‘gets along well with others. Being aware of this problem is a major step toward avoiding it. Supervisory training can also solve the problem. Central Tendency: Many supervisors have a central tendency when filling in rating scales. For example, if the rating scale ranges from 1 to 7, they tend to avoid the highs (6 to 7) and lows (1to 2) and rate most of their people between 3 and 5. In a graphic rating scale, this central tendency could mean that all employees are simply rated ‘average. Such a restriction can distort the evaluations, making them less useful for promotion, salary, or counselling purposes. Ranking the employees instead of using a graphic rating scale can avoid this central tendency problem because all employees must be ranked and thus cannot all be rated average. Leniency or Strictness: Some supervisors tend to rate all their subordinates consistently high (or low), just all some instructors are notoriously high graders and others are not. This strictness/leniency problem is especially serious with graphic rating scales since supervisors arent necessarily required to avoid giving all their employees high (or low) ratings. On the other hand, when the raters rank subordinates, they are forced to distinguish between high and low performances. Thus, strictness/leniency is not a problem with the ranking or forced distribution approach. In fact, if a graphic rating scale must be used, it may be a good idea to assume a distribution of performances-that, say, only about 10% of the people should be rated ‘excellent, 20% ‘good, and so forth. In other words, try to get a spread (unless, of course, the raters are sure all their people really do fall into just one or two categories). Bias: Individual differences among raters in terms of characteristics like age, race, and sex can affect their ratings, often quite apart from each rates actual performance. In one study, for instance, researchers found a systematic tendency to evaluate older rates (over 60 years of age) lower on ‘performance capacity and ‘potential for development then younger employees. The rates race and sex can also affect the persons rating. However, bias is not necessarily consistently against minorities or women, as it seems to be in the case of older workers. In one study, high performing females were often rated significantly higher than were high performing males. An interesting picture of how age can distort evaluations emerges from a study of registered nurses. When the nurses were 30-39 years old, they and their supervisors each rated the nurses performance virtually the same. In the 21-29 category, supervisors actually rated nurses higher than they rated themselves. However, for the 40-61 nurse age categories, the supervisors rated nurses performance lower than the nurses rated their own performance. The conclusion here may be that supervisors are tougher in appraising older subordinates. Specifically, they dont give them as much credit for their success, while attributing any low performance to their lack of ability. A related problem is described in the Diversity Counts feature. An employees previous performance can also affect the evaluation of h

Good Queen Bess Essay -- essays research papers fc

  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Good Queen Bess   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  When Anne Boleyn gave birth to King Henry the eighths first born daughter, it changed the world’s history as we know it. His daughter, Elizabeth the 1st would have a huge impact on the culture, life and the way women are thought of in British history.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  On Sept. 7th 1533, Elizabeth, the daughter of King Henry was born. The King of England wasn’t as thrilled since she wasn’t a boy, who would mean an heir to the throne, but it was still okay. Due to the fact that after 2 more births that resulted in death, Anne Boleyn was beheaded in 1936 when Elizabeth was only 3 years old. As her father continued to remarry, divorce, and execute his wives, one more child would be born, resulting to Elizabeth having one sister, Mary, and a new born brother named Edward. After Edward was born, his mother Jane died. She was known for being the one wife that Henry actually loved. Elizabeth grew into a very smart girl. She was known as Bess as times spoke Latin, French, German, and Henry gave her a tutor to study with. Along with everything else, she developed a temper that would help her later on as being a Queen.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Now, Henry had an heir to the throne, his son Edward. As time would pass, the future king of England was getting more and more weak and sicker. Henry passed on,   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  &...

Culture shock Essay

Culture in simplicity is a body of learned behavior, a collection of beliefs, habits and traditions, shared by a group of people and successively learned by people who enter the society. Furthermore, culture is learned, not inherited. If this is correct, then it can be assumed that it is not impossible to learn new cultural traits and to unlearn old ones. Therefore, it must be feasible to integrate cultural differences. Cultural adaptation would involve many essentials as, language; verbal and non-verbal, economics, religion, politics, social institutions, values, attitudes, manners, customs, material items, aesthetics and education. Culture shock is primarily a set of emotional reactions to the loss of perceptual reinforcements from one’s own culture to new cultural stimuli, which have little or no meaning. In layman’s terms, culture shock is the anxiety resulting from losing one’s sense of when to do what and how. There are many different ways to experience culture shock. It can be experienced across the world or as near as one’s backyard. Some aspects of culture shock include strain caused by the effort to adapt, sense of loss and feeling of deprivation, status, profession, possessions, feelings of rejection and rejecting members of the new culture, confusion in role, values, self-identity crisis, anxiety, disgust, anger on foreign practices and feelings of helplessness of not being capable of adapting to the new environment. Culture shock is a widely experienced phenomenon when people enter a different country. Many Americans would venture that they consider themselves very culturally accepting. Often, when these same Americans travel abroad, they experience culture shock. It is not always a negative thing. Often it is just the shock of being in a place that is completely different in every way from anything one has ever known. The first Push factor is that operating in an unfamiliar environment is stressful and â€Å"hard work.† Secondly, it leads to feelings of helplessness as well as self-doubt. The role of an individual may be confused due to the new environment. Lastly, the more one learns about a different culture, the more visible differences become. The different practices could disgust a person, and the person would feel â€Å"guilty† because they â€Å"failed to respect local customs.† A good example is walking through a door regardless of other  people coming behind. I did it so many times with a clear mind not knowing how detrimental in was to my reputation on campus. So many kids misunderstood my ignorance to certain American cultural norms and hated me with a passion. The two Pull factors are loss of status and the ever-common homesickness. Whenever something new happens to me, mostly in shock, I remember home. I feel so demoralized and want to return back home. The stages do not always have smooth transition and take a different amount of time for each different individual. There is the initial contact, disintegration of the old familiar cues, reintegration of new cues, gradual autonomy and independence. Each stage is described according to the individual’s perceptions, emotional ranges, behaviors and interpretations of these. Disintegration is a period of confusion and disorientation where the differences become increasingly noticeable as different behaviors, values, and attitudes are introduced. The next stage is reintegration, which is characterized by a strong rejection of the new culture. This is the stage when visitors to a new and different country like me usually return home. It is when an individual wants to return to what they’re used to and know. Autonomy is when there is a rising sensitivity to the understanding of the new culture. The individual is relaxed and capable of understanding what happens around them. This stage is marked by the growth of personal flexibility and the development of appropriate coping skills. The last stage is independence. This is described as attitudes, emotionality, and behavior that are independent but not â€Å"independent† of cultural influence. Basically this stage is when the individual reaches a self-actualized state of being in which they choose to explore the diversity of the world, while still maintaining their sense of self as a changing being. It is the capability of having preconceptions, assumptions, values, and attitudes challenged. I believe that culture shock has a behavioral core, meaning the behavior determines the stage of shock, it has an emotional core, meaning the emotion experienced determines the level. Preparing for a two-year overseas college degree program in Lagos, Nigeria, I submitted to no fewer than five shots as a protective measure against everything from yellow fever to hepatitis. Although I managed to avoid any  dreaded tropical disease during his assignment, I contracted one malady for which there was no vaccination. The disease was culture shock. To speak of my own experiences, I have traveled abroad several times to different countries. Each time I left Nigeria, I was convinced that the culture in the country I was visiting would not be that much different. Every time I arrived, even so close to Nigeria in South Africa, I was bombarded by a culture difference than mine. Even within these individual countries there were different â€Å"sub-cultures† that were completely new to me. I spent a few months in South Africa and just when I thought I had gotten used to the culture, something would happen that made me experience culture shock all over again. That was quite a clash of different cultural beliefs and a difficult one to explain to my parents! One specific example of cultural difference is the market bargain. In America, when one goes to purchase an item, most times, no matter where one purchases it, it has a set market price. In Nigeria, there is no such thing as a set price unless you go to big stores. The vendors expect and want their customers to haggle with them and bargain the prices down. When I first tried to buy a necklace, the vendor got insulted because I wouldn’t haggle and refused to sell the necklace to me. Eventually I got the hang of haggling, but as soon as I got used to that, American culture found other differences to swing my way. Towards the end of my most recent two-month stay in a college where I intend to get my college degree, I feel reached a stage of autonomy in the model of culture shock. I was astonished by the sight of students who disregard the riches of the world and dressed in shabby outfits in practice popularly known as ‘hippies’. Many of them had metals pierced through their tongues, nipples, belly buttons, lips and eyebrows. In other countries, there’s nothing wrong with that, it was just shocking to have something I had always taken for granted so blatantly pointed out! I was appalled to find out just how â€Å"Nigerian† I am. Therefore an understanding of cultural self-awareness is important to understand ones own logic and structure before one can understand another. Another essential ingredient is communication. For a long time, my work supervisor nursed a bad impression toward my attitude to work because I  always responded contrary to her instructions. The only reason was the difficulty I had to apprehend the American accent. This problem lingered until I explained myself out. Because of this problem, many students feel uncomfortable interacting with me. It seemed to me like an unending quest to blend into the society because I had no other option other than explaining myself to a student body of seven hundred. Proficiency in communicating can also play a major role in adjusting to culture shock. Enhancing intercultural communication improves the procedural insight of a person interacting with those of another culture. For example, it is a known fact that Americans can be very expressive and open; blunt fits well, an American expatriate going to Nigeria, for instance, will face difficulties in holding back their thoughts as Nigerians are a fairly reserved set of people. Cultures have different perceptions of how each of these categories should be interpreted to be appropriate. Americans have very high individualism and relatively low power distance; thus, they prefer to do things themselves and are equal in terms of power. Conversely many of the underdeveloped countries such as Nigeria, Hong Kong and Columbia are characterized by a large power distance and low individualism, these nations tend to be collectivist in their approach. In summary, the home culture of an expatriate predisposes them to certain behaviors and situations. It allows them to operate efficiently in the environment. However, moving to another country changes that operating environment and makes their ‘mental software’ less efficient and effective. Better cultural understanding gives informational knowledge, in essence, about the host country and culture. My advice is not to mimic or copy local behavior, instead, just be yourself. Concepts such as values, needs, behaviors and norms are required to be understood. This information can assist them in better executing their work tasks and by knowing that culture shock may be present and is not a permanent disease will hopefully reduce their symptoms. In order to avoid culture shock, I suggest cross-cultural training programs that emphasize the cultural differences between behaviors of two different cultures. It would provide skills and information regarding the culture so that the visitor knows what to expect with their new culture. The training is aimed at cognition and designed to change the way people  think about differences between different societies. Communication, in-groups, and socially acceptable activities as well as socially unacceptable activities are all discussed and explained. Personally, as much as I think that would help limit culture shock, nothing short from going to the different cultures itself would eliminate it completely. A doctor can’t cure a patient with out ever seeing them; I don’t think culture shock can be prevented with out exposure. I personally don’t see a problem with culture shock as long as it doesn’t result in something harmful to oneself or others. A result of learning about another culture abruptly through culture shock, is that the individual learns about his or her self, his or her own culture, and new identities in the different culture. The individual learns to grow towards multicultural perspectives and develop alternative futures for his or her self, thus making his or her self a more culturally accepting person.

Essay on Slavery Throughout Time Essay

One might describe money as being stored up labor; therefore to make money you must simply labor. This is how industries all around the world have made money, by paying workers to labor. However if you could have your workers labor for no pay then you yourself would essentially be making free money. The appeal of this free money is why slavery has been a predominant trend throughout history. It doesn’t matter what the labor is but, there are three main types of slavery that have been present in the world and those are labor slaves, war slaves, and trafficking slaves. I predict that slavery will continue to exist in the future because the appeal of free money it is too great, wars will bring with it war slaves, humans have a natural sex drive which means there will be a steady need for trafficking, and because there will continue to be people who believe they are above other humans. The greatest account of slavery for simply labor and free money without the presence of war is the African slave trade that existed in the early Americas. Europeans would sail to Africa and bring over boat loads of African people to the Caribbean and the colonies in North America, where they were forced to labor. They would be bought by people and then would usually end up Rydalch 2 working on a plantation. The plantations would have them do a variety of tasks. The slaves would be beaten and lived in horrible conditions, some would try and escape and others would not because of the fear they had of being caught. This type of slavery of enslaving innocent people and forcing them to labor rarely exists in today’s world. In most first world countries there are laws that prevent this from happening but there may be rare occasions in other parts of the world in which this happens. The reason that slavery such as this is so appealing is mainly because of the wealth that it can bring you. It can put you in a more prestigious class without actually having the intuition to get there. I also think that some of the slave masters enjoyed there power and took pride in the fact that there were people who feared them. I think that this version of slavery will continue to diminish in the future. Warfare as been a factor of human civilization since human civilizations began and it will continue to be a factor. War can result from a number of things and it can lead to a number of things. The winner of the war however can take their land and their people. When they take the people these people could possibly become slaves of war. Many ancient civilizations captured people to be used as slaves when they were at war, such as the Egyptians. The slaves were held in a variety of conditions depending on who enslaved them. As long as there is still war in the world then there will still be slaves of war, whether they are forced to labor, used as prostitutes or are just held hostage. In the future I believe that slaves of war will not be forced to do labor but will more likely be held as hostages or forced into prostitution. Rydalch 3 The more modern issue involving slavery is not that of labor slaves or slaves of war but it is slaves of human trafficking. Human trafficking is when people are held against their will and are usually forced to do sexual acts with those who pay to do so. The reason why human trafficking can be a successful business is because humans have a natural sex drive. Human trafficking taps into this natural longing and gives people a way to pay their way to satisfaction. The people who run the trafficking don’t have to pay the women who perform the acts. That is what separates human trafficking from prostitution. This is the most predominant type of slavery in the world today because of laws that have restricted other types of slavery. People all around the world abduct girls anywhere from teenagers to adults; they then sometimes addict them to drugs or other cruel things. Most often they are forced to do sexual acts with customers. The world is taking notice to this and some things are being done to try and stop it. Google recently made huge contributions and donations to try and prevent this from happening. I however think that human trafficking will continue on into the future. Although it may not grow it will always be there because humans will always have a natural sex drive, and people will always be looking for means of satisfaction. With the African slave trade that I mentioned earlier in my paper, they were taking innocent people and putting them to work. In today’s world we would find that to be extremely unjust, unlawful, and immoral. However back when the Europeans were doing it they did not think that what they were doing was bad. They thought of themselves as being superior to the rest of the world. They thought that since the African people were of dark skin and frankly not Rydalch 4 European that they were below them and therefore taking them as their slaves was no problem whatsoever. This reason for enslaving other people rarely, if ever, exist in today’s modern world. This is because all humans have accepted that we are all the same species and that we all of certain rights. I do not see this form of slavery rising to power again in the future unless one civilization takes over the whole world, which is extremely unlikely as you may know. Over the course of following my trend of slavery I discovered many things about the different forms of slavery and the motives behind each of them. By understanding these I was able to make my predictions about whether or not I thought they would continue in the future. Many of them are nearly non existent today which provides for easy predicting of its future, while others I was not sure on. I discovered that the ultimate reason for slavery along with many other things in the world is money. Slavery provides for a way to get free money and it is not that hard to do, especially before modern laws were put in place. Today all forms of slavery are frowned upon greatly and are deemed by most morally wrong and lawfully wrong. This is why there are things being done to stop it, but no matter how many laws you pass there will still be people who try to do it. Slavery will continue to exist in the future because the appeal of free money it is too great, wars will bring with it war slaves, humans have a natural sex drive which means there will be a steady need for trafficking, and because there will continue to be people who believe they are above other humans. The worlds view on slavery might change but for the near future I see it Rydalch 5 staying the same. The modern view on slavery is clearly for the majority that it is a bad thing. However in the future it could be that slavery is accepted, but only time will tell.