Importance of aligning human resource processes with business strategy

Importance of aligning human resource processes with business strategy Strategic alignment these terms are some of the phrases which are being used to explain the latest, evolving function of human resources process. The aligning human resource processes with business strategy about the growth of the business, increasing the performance of the employees and keeping the costs under a control. Which means the employee satisfaction and benefits provide to the population as they are not the strategic goals, but they are tools to reach the goals important for the whole organization. The importance of the alignment of the HR process with the business strategy is about going deeper and finding the real root components of the successful human capital management in the organization. The HR Managers have to identify the real goals of the business, the business way how to reach the goals and the real needs of the business from Human Resources. Dainty (2000) the HR tends to take care of employees, but it is not what the business asks for usually. The HR process ali gnment with the business strategy needs many discussions inside Human Resources about the real goals of the organization and how the organization will utilize its human capital to reach the goals. It is not about the employee satisfaction, it is a side effect. They have to understand, how the business wants to reach the goals and then the HR process can be developed and fully aligned with the business strategy. The aligned HR process misses the nice words about the retention, the employee satisfaction and other nice HR initiatives. These are the tools; the real business goals are different. These few points which are important in jumpstarting the organisations revenue and profit growth if well utilized: Develop a workforce that can perform higher-grade assignments. Increase efficiency, effectiveness and standards of performance by the employee Keep the employees informed Provide the usual training of new recruited workforce Business strategy remains important in ensuring that a business performs well. It is important that human resources process is carried out in a proper manner the human resource has a function of delivering strategy insights in the organisation so as to enable the organisation to be more effective in sourcing, evaluating and motivating employees in this increasingly unstable business environment. J. D Wheelen (2003) the human resource has to continue providing administrative services which are dependable, responsive and cost effective to the needs of the organization. Starbucks and Humana companies have been able to be successful because of their good human resources management practices. It is clear that, for any company to be able to achieve, its market goals, it has to have correct human resources management. However, aligning the human resources does not guarantee 100% success towards achieving the market objective of a company. 2.  Discuss how the firm used benchmarking to determine the performance standards for leadership, client-facing and specialty/support functions? Leaders in different organisations and contexts do not look the same, but they share many characteristics. The challenge for  businesses is to understand both what they have  and what they  need in order to  secure  their future. Druker, J (1995), the Support Function will be an integral part of this practice which helps service-based businesses achieves significant, rapid, and sustainable improvements in customer satisfaction, cost, and revenue performance. These strategies bring our clients competitive advantage and significant, measurable, bottom-line impact. Benchmarking leadership and clients facing talent must take account  of  the values and strategic intent of the organisation. Leadership and client facing assessment can be applied at all levels in the organisation, from the identification of high potential leaders to an intervention with a senior team to examine their effectiveness and help them to raise their performance. The benchmarking for leadership, clien t facing, specialty/support functions may be driven by: Mergers and acquisitions Changes of ownership Changes to adapt to new technologies or markets Building leadership bench strength and a leadership pipeline Appointments to senior leadership positions Building high performance teams Self-confidence is more trustworthy than the statistical data. Develop approaches and methods for optimizing business support functions in strategic and administrative area Prepare project proposals and client discussions, assist with project planning, organize client workshops/meetings/conferences Participate in internal knowledge building/management Strategic and creative thinkers who are exceptionally adept with quantitative analysis and business case work Passionate about and committed to operations and technical excellence Proven leaders with the ability to inspire others, build strong relationships, and create a true followership Results-driven achievers who are able to grasp and communicate complex ideas clearly Collaborative team players, capable of working well with others but also autonomously with little direction Demonstrated broad business perspective 3.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Identify and explain three objectives of the talent management system including one from each category of operations, customer, and financial objectives? Objective of talent management system is to optimizing the performance of each employee and the organization. However within many companies the concept of human capital management has just begun to develop. In fact only few of the organizations have a clear talent management strategy and operational programs in place today. It is very important to develop a clear talent management strategy and to increase awareness of available talent and successors, all organizations should conduct regular talent review meetings to be prepared for a variety of business changes, such as mergers, company growth, or a decrease in talent needs. In the same way that all companies have regular meetings and reports regarding their financial status and budgetary needs, the talent review meeting is designed to review the current talent status and future successor needs in the organization. Grant R.M. (2005) the talent review meeting is an important part of the overall talent management process; it is designe d to review the performance and career potential of employees, to discuss possible vacancy risks of current employees, to identify successors and top talent in the organization, and to create development action plans to prepare employees for future roles in the organization. This is what talent management is all about gathering information about talent, analyzing their career interests and organizational business needs, identifying top talent and successes, and developing these individuals to reduce the risk of losing the best people and experiencing extensive leadership gaps when turnover occurs. Main objective of Talent Management System will assist organization in developing, managing, rewarding and optimizing organizational talent to increase workforce productivity and maximize operating performance. 4.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Discuss how the company would measure each objective. Company would measure any objective through Balanced Scorecard. This is a management system that maps an organizations strategic objectives into performance metrics in four perspectives: financial, internal processes, customers, and learning and growth. These perspectives provide relevant feedback as to how well the strategic plan is executing so that adjustments can be made as necessary. The term scorecard signifies quantified performance measures and balanced signifies that the system is balanced between: short-term objectives and long-term objectives financial measures and non-financial measures lagging indicators and leading indicators internal performance and external performance perspectives The financial perspective addresses the question of how shareholders view the firm and which financial goals are desired from the shareholders perspective. The specific goals depend on the companys stage in the business life cycle. Hunger (2003) the customer perspective addresses the question of how the firm is viewed by its customers and how well the firm is serving its targeted customers in order to meet the financial objectives. Generally, customers view the firm in terms of time, quality, performance, and cost. Most customer objectives fall into one of those four categories. Operation objectives address the question of which processes are most critical for satisfying customers and shareholders. These are the processes in which the firm must concentrate its efforts to excel. 5.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Discuss how the changes made to Porter Novellis talent management system impact organizational performance. Carter, L. Goldsmith, M. (2010) changes made to Porter Novellis talent management system impact organizational performance to meet the needs of todays organizations, this handbook is filled with practical advice on how to implement employee and customer-centered programs that emphasize consensus building; self, group, organizational, and one-on-one awareness and effective communication; clear connections to overall business objectives; and quantifiable business results. With lessons from companies that are widely recognized as among the best in organization change and leadership development, for succeeding during challenging times. As best practice organizational champions, these companies share many similar attributes including openness to learning and collaboration, humility, innovation and creativity, integrity, a high regard for peoples needs and perspectives, and a passion for change. And all these outstanding organizations have invested in human capital the most important asse t inside of organizations today. Porter Novellis talent management system offers lessons from the worlds best organizations in various industries and sizes, and shows how to identify the key elements of leading successful, results-driven talent management; access the tools, models, instruments, and strategies for leading talent management; apply practical how-to approaches to diagnosing, assessing, designing, implementing, coaching, following-up on, and evaluating talent management; and measure critical success factors and critical failure factors of a program. No matter what the size or mission of the organization for diagnosing, assessing, designing, implementing, coaching, and evaluating a winning team of talent.

New British Empire

Interview a senior citizen Tonya Williams PSYCH/500 March 25, 2013 Tanya Semcesen A face to face interview was held with Mr. C. Mr. C. is an 82 year old African American male. Physically looking at interviewee he does not look that age at all he looks like he is in his early sixties. Part I: Questions & Answers Q-How old are you? A-I am 82 years old. Q-When will you be 83? A-I will be 83 in mid-July Q-Are you married? A-I am a widow and have been for almost 53 years. Q-Do you have children, grandchildren, and great grandchildren?A-Yes I do. I had three children, eight grandchildren, and nine great grandchildren. Q-Do you live alone? A-No I do not, my youngest son lives with me. Q-Tell me a little about your background? A-I was born in the south and raised in the north by an aunt. Both of my parents died when they were fairly young. My mother at 56 and my father at 42. They were both ill the reason for their passing’s. I graduated high school at age 17. I am a retired restauran t worker for 21 years now. Q-What are no most memorable experiences that you have had?A-The most memorable experiences that I have had are a few good ones. My marriage is one, the birth of my children and grandchildren, and buying my own home. Q-What are the most significant life’s events for you? A-The death of my wife the mother of my three children, the death of my oldest son, my parents, and the death of my domestic partner was another significant stressful event for me. Q-If you had the opportunity to change anything would you and what would that be? A-Of course I would change the passing of my family members besides that it would be the type of job that I choose and when.I would have choose one that gave me better financial security and job happiness. Part II: Senior Citizen Developmental History There is a saying that says â€Å"once a child twice a man†. There a many stages in the development of the human lifespan. In middle and late adulthood people tend to lo ok at things in quite a different prospective as they reflect back on the journey of life. This paper and reflective interview will address the many developmental histories of a senior citizen. Mr. C. is an 82 year old African American who lives along with his adult son.Mr. C. is a widow whom had fathered three children one of which is deceased. Mr. C is the oldest of five children whom are all males. He was born in Virginia and raised in New York since he was age 13 with his aunt. He has been living in New York since then. He was educated in New York’s city public school system where he graduated high school at the age of 17. Married at age 27 and widowed at age 30. Mr. C. ’s father died at age 42 making Mr. C 15 years of age and at the passing of his mother he was 36 years old his mother was 56.Mr. C. never remarried he really never got over the death of his wife and children’s mother. Mr. C. lost his oldest son when the son was 27 years old. Mr. C. was in a d omestic partnership many years after the death of his wife. After multiple years in the domestic partnership yet again he was faced with another death, the death of her. Chronologically Mr. C is 82 and is an imperfect indicator of his functional age. Mr. C looks like he is in his sixties. People age biologically at different rates Mr. C. eems younger than he really is (Sutin, Wethington, et al. , 2010). Mr. C was so gracious to disclose his medical status with me. He is a survivor of prostate cancer, his cancer has been in remission on and off for 12 years. He suffers from congestive heart failure which he developed a few years ago. Not an indication of heart disease at all genetics and environment play a big role in the aging process and disease (Beck, 2010). During the duration of the interview when speaking about the deaths of his family members Mr. C. ecame a little emotional and seem to drift back into time a moment of reminiscence is what I think he was doing, trying to relive those moments in time. I asked him how he felt about their deaths. He responded by saying that he came to terms with it and that he was powerless over what had happened and that everyone has an appointment with God and his faith is what sustains him to carry on every day. According to ((Sutin, Wethington, et al. , 2010) the events that individuals define as stressful and how they cope with these events change across the lifespan (  Aldwin, Sutton, et al. , 1996).Starting in late adolescence, the ability to reconstrue negative experiences as positive develops, but it is not until young adulthood that this experienced wisdom is translated into a touchstone for coping with future situations (  Bluck & Gluck, 2004). The most surprisingly response in the interview process was the interviewee’s ability to remain powerless and come to terms about death. He spoke about what he wanted his son and daughter to do when the time came when he passed on in this life, He accepts death a nd knows that it is inevitable that it cannot be avoided no matter who you are.He keeps his faith in God to help deal with the end of life situations. Religious affiliations and psychological aids are helpful in handling depression and may improve the quality of life of aging individuals (Butler, Fujii, et al. , 2011). The birth of his children and grandchildren played a major part in the interviewee’s life. While interviewing he always said family first. I gathered the impression that he is a very family orientated person. In the bedrooms, living room, and hallway of the interviewee’s apartment is pictures of all family members, recent and the throw backs that is what the younger generation calls old pictures.A different demeanor hovers over the interviewee when he shows me family pictures and speaks about his family. I sense it brings him back to his more youthful days, days where he was the ruler of full independence. I asked Mr. C. did he belong to any senior citiz ens centers and his reply was no and he further elaborated for me. He wanted to be around younger people not people his age that constantly reminded him of what reality was indeed about but to feel vivacious for if only a moment when youth was on his side.He stated that is why he loved for his daughter to bring her youngest grandchild over. He loved the sound of the baby especially when he heard it cry it reminded him of youthfulness and independence. Aging is inevitable; becoming wiser with age is not. Researchers, theorists, and clinicians have noted that older adults approach their lives in one of two ways: Either they draw on their strengths and live life to the fullest, or they magnify their weaknesses and restrict their lives to succumb to life's inevitable end  (Gilbin, 2011). From listening to stories about when Mr. C. as much younger and able to take full control of his independence that making the transition from young adult and middle adult to the latter being late adul thood was the hardest to come to terms with and except fully. Hot cocoa was made for me and coffee was made for him by none other but Mr. C. I offered but that was not an option he insisted upon doing so. He maneuvered around his home with no assistance from anyone and when I attempted to do so he refused. I see that he is like a person with a special need and you opt to do it or help they respond by simply saying they can do it.He spoke about being able to do chores around his home that he no longer could do, his failing eye sight and the need for a therapeutic bed, he has difficulty getting up from lying flat. No longer being able to reach items that are on his top shelf in the kitchen cabinets was a hindrance at one time Mr. C. uses ingenious items to help around his home with activities of daily living. Self-efficacy allows one to develop and carry out a plan of action, allowing for a sense of competency (Butler, Fujii, et al. , 2011).His cognitive skills are on point and sharp and he held on to the conversation that he and I shared foe quite some time for a senior citizen his age. The second premise of successful aging is maximizing high physical and cognitive functioning, with these two factors partnering to optimize overall functioning. Physical function is maintained with moderate exercise and a network of support from family and friends. Cognitive function can be sustained with mental exercises and active engagement through conversation (Butler, Fujii, et al. , 2011).The most valuable information that I received from this interview  is to make sure that I take care of myself health wise, choose a career that I get satisfaction from, and live life like it is golden. Do what I want to do like life is a bucket list. At the end when life is almost near the end you hold no regrets. . References Berk, L. E. (2010). Development through the lifespan (5th ed. ). Boston, MA: Allyn ; Bacon. Butler, J. P. , Fujii, M. , ; Sasaki, H. (2011, January). Balanced agi ng, or successful aging?. Geriatrics ; Gerontology International. pp. 1-2. doi:10. 1111/j. 1447-0594. 010. 00661. x. Giblin, J. C. (2011). Successful aging. Journal of Psychosocial Nursing ; Mental Health Services,  49(3), 23-26. doi: http://dx. doi. org/10. 3928/02793695-20110208-01 Rowe, J. W. , ; Kahn, R. L. (1997). Successful aging. The Gerontologist,  37(4), 433-40. Retrieved from http://search. proquest. com/docview/210948228? accountid=35812 Sutin, A. R. , Costa, P. r. , Wethington, E. , ; Eaton, W. (2010). Turning points and lessons learned: Stressful life events and personality trait development across middle adulthood. Psychology And Aging,  25(3), 524-533. doi:10. 1037/a0018751

Descartes’ Epistemology Essay

Carefully explain Descartes’ cogito and his attempt to build his knowledge structure from the ground up. (Be as succinct as possible.) Does Descartes succeed or fail in that attempt? Justify your answer in full. Descartes’ Epistemology. This essay attempts to explain Descartes’ epistemology of his knowledge, his â€Å"Cogito, Ergo Sum† concept (found in the Meditations), and why he used it [the cogito concept] as a foundation when building his structure of knowledge. After explaining the concept I give a brief evaluation of his success in introducing and using this cogito as a foundation. Finally, I provide reasons why I think Descartes succeeded in his epistemology. The First Meditation began with Descartes deciding to employ radical scepticism in his quest of acquiring true knowledge and this lead him to conclude that he could not be sure of anything except that he knew nothing (Descartes, 1984:12-15). Meaning that Descartes discarded all his knowledge whether it was knowing that he had fingers, knowing that the physical world existed, knowledge of his studies etc. he began by acknowledging how everything that constituted his preconceived knowledge could be doubt worthy. This climax of doubt was rooted in one fact: Descartes felt that there was good reason to believe that a higher power could have deceived him into believing that his empirical and a priori knowledge was plausible. Since God is a higher power that Descartes believed to be all good and never deceptive, he named his deceiver the â€Å"Evil Demon† a complete opposite to his wholesome observation of God (Blackburn, 2001:19). Descartes established that the â€Å"Evil Demon† argument could wipe away any assurance of his prior knowledge except for one: his existence (Descartes, 1984:17). This was a good argument because it presented a well thought out reason to question his knowledge. Descartes argued that if an â€Å"Evil Demon† truly existed and is only focused on deceiving him then this proves that he [Descartes] exists†¦ â€Å"If he is deceiving me; and let him deceive me as much as he can, he will never bring about that I am nothing so long as I think that I am something†¦ I am, I exist, is necessarily true whenever it is†¦conceived in my mind† (Blackburn, 2001:20). It is possible to refute this definition of existence in the form  of: Do we suppose that a thinking thing exists because it has experienced thoughts? According to the Second Meditation Descartes’ response would be that ‘I am, I exist’ stands only for a thing that is doing the thinking now and if it were to cease thinking it would cease to exist altogether (Descartes, 1984:18). In addition it is not the thinking that lead to existence, but the existence lead to the thinking. Descartes was willing to be questioned about his knowledge of the world and to prove that he truly sought the correct answer to any objection that may be raised; he overlooked everything he knew and started to build an argument from scratch to assert the knowledge he would later accept as accurate. Thus, Descartes chose the cogito concept as a foundation that he could begin to enlarge his territory of understanding on. From observation it is clear that Descartes only began his Meditations to build a foundation of understanding and since he had discarded all his prior knowledge he needed a solid base to begin reconstructing on, hence the cogito concept emanates. â€Å"Cogito, Ergo Sum† is Latin for â€Å"I think, therefore I am†. The cogito argument is as follows: 1. An evil demon might be deceiving me into believing that I don’t exist. 2. If I believe that I don’t exist, then I exist. 3. I exist. This argument states that, â€Å"if I convinced myself of something then I certainly existed† (Descartes, 1984:17). This simply means that anyone doubting his or her own existence or presence indeed exists because in order for doubt to take place there has to be someone to do it. A proper understanding of the cogito concept means recognizing specifically the classification in which this ‘someone’ that is existing fits into and whether it is accurate to say that he or she exists. The argument, as Descartes presented, does not give a valid reason for the existence of the body or anything else in the physical world, so we cannot accept that bodies exist. Neither does the cogito account for the existence of other minds as that would entail knowledge of the physical world where other things exist. The cogito concept does however; give a valid argument for the existence of the mind or a thinking thing that exists independently of the body. In his  novel Think, Blackburn explains the cogito concept as a means of justifying the core of one’s existence as thinking, we accept that thought exists not a ‘self’ (Blackburn, 2001:20). I agree with Blackburn because his [Descartes’] concept serves well to prove that we exist as thinking things and even if we were to discard any a priori or a posteriori knowledge, we can still endorse the cogito. The cogito concept stands regardless of empirical knowledge because it suggests the existence of thought without actually linking it to the body (which constitutes a sort of empirical way of acquiring knowledge through the senses). In addition, it can be accepted without any a priori knowledge since Descartes only introduced it after concluding that he knew nothing, and could only accept knowledge of his own existence as vindicated. To assess Descartes choice of foundation I will raise some questions that implore an explanation regarding the cogito concept. Firstly, if we only exist when thinking and the â€Å"Evil Demon† is able to manipulate our knowledge of everything else, why are our thoughts not susceptible to his deception? In my perspective, the â€Å"Evil Demon† has the ability to deceive us to a certain point, that point is our existence, and we have established that our existence leads to thinking. Descartes supposed that the ‘Evil Demon† may have influenced our thoughts but the thought he [Evil Demon] could not alter is the thought of us thinking. For example, if I were to throw a plastic ball into a recycle bin and it were melted and reshaped into a mug, although the state of the ball may have changed it is still plastic and even if we discard its previous state its present state shows that it is indeed existing and I cannot convince the plastic that it never existed just because it is in a different state. This example explains how our definition of existence may have changed but the fact remains that we exist hence we think. My example is another way of stating Descartes’ wax example(Descartes,1984:20-21), which according to Blackburn, he [Descartes] uses to confirm that with the cogito we can solidify that our thoughts exist regardless of them being immaterial, various and not constrained to a physical body (Blackburn, 2001:21). A second question could be, if we know(or supposedly accept) that we are being deceived by the â€Å"Evil Demon†Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ wouldn’t that mean that we were aware of when we were not being deceived by him and so before we established our foundation(using the cogito concept), we had already accepted some knowledge which lead to the foundation? I think  Descartes would respond by saying that the fact that we can think of the â€Å"Evil Demon† and accept that he is deceiving us means that we already established the cogito before moving on to think of the actual idea of a deceiver, again we see that any thinking means something existed to do it(the thinking). This response seems to present some equivocation but unfortunately I think that any of Descartes’ responses may shift the burden of proof to the person who raised the question. His argument, as I would render it, may be that the question is going in circles and only raises doubt of his [Descartes] means of acquiring knowledge and not actually any objection to the cogito. This last response seems to credit Descartes success in establishing that the cogito is a concept that gives us the best potential start to gaining any knowledge. Even the knowledge of an â€Å"Evil Demon† would mean we have to start by accepting that we exist (cogito) in order to prove any of our knowledge as untrustworthy.  A third and final question is, what form of knowledge is the cogito and what other knowledge can we build on this foundation? The cogito is a form of a priori knowledge because we do not need to prove its validity by explaining anything or drawing on a previous experience to prove it. Descartes further used the cogito when acquiring the knowledge of Cartesian Dualism, which is his next step of building knowledge that is rooted in the cogito. Descartes said that Cartesian Dualism is justified by the cogito because we only have knowledge of an existing ‘thinking’ entity that has no body, hence the body and the mind should be viewed as separate and neither one has the ability to influence the other (Descartes, 1984:21). I think the cogito concept provokes a sense of identity that each of our thinking may contain and this identity entails that as much as the â€Å"Evil Demon† may try to take away our knowledge we still have that little something, as thinking beings, that can only be explained as an existence. This entity of our existence is immaterial, yes, but it leads us into thinking and thinking is our starting point of gaining new knowledge. Therefore Descartes succeeded in his epistemology by choosing â€Å"Cogito, Ergo Sum† as a base for his future knowledge. Once the cogito is accepted Descartes can acquire new knowledge. In conclusion Descartes’ processes of building a knowledge structure foundation was fruitful and ultimately leads to a successful epistemology. Bibliography Blackburn, S. 1999. Think: A Compelling Introduction to Philosophy. New York: Oxford University Press. Descartes, R. 1984. The Philosophical Writings of Descartes, Vol. II, Cottingham, Stoothoff and Murdoch (Translators).UK: Cambridge University Press. Lerm, J. 2013. [Descartes’ ‘Second Meditation’: The Cogito Argument] Lecture Slides. ——————————————– [ 1 ]. J. Lerm [Rebulding Begins] lecture slide 2 [ 2 ]. Lerm [The Cogito Argument] lecture slide 7

Characteristics Of Cabo San Viejo s Customer Base

What are the characteristics of Cabo San Viejo’s customer base? Despite Cabo San Viejo’s (CSV) start in the late 1970s as a â€Å"fat farm,† catering primarily to women, the resort is now operating in a more niche and exclusive market, providing for guests who are largely affluent with high expectations for the service. In terms of pure demographics, the business welcomes 3,500 new guests each year. Between new and repeat customers, 70% to 80% are female. In the high seasons of winter, spring and fall, the average household income (AHI) exceeds $150,000 for 82% of guests; in the summer an AHI greater than $150,000 applies to 59% of guests. Most customers live in California and the West coast region and are in their 40s or 50s. It is interesting and should be pointed out that between 1992 and 2004, CSV’s average customer age has increased by 10 years of age, from 47 to 57. Behaviorally, up to 70% of new guests became aware of CSV via word of mouth, while 30% visited as a result of travel agent referrals. The most common reason s for patronizing CSV (regardless of frequency) are rest, a healthy vacation option, fitness vacation option and spa activities and offerings. The average guest takes 3 to 4 vacations per year and first time guests returned to the resort within six years at a rate of 32% and 62% of initial return visitors returned again within 6 years. The two most common reasons for customers returning are health benefits (35%) and a great overall vacation (30%). CSV