Essay --

These days, all the new technologies and new media made people’s life easier but also it made it stressful so before we define happiness we need to understand the actual situation of our modern life. Researchers agreed that modern life especially in big cities such as London or New York has created a new type of living and working. However, this new lifestyle brought stress as well, due to long working hours, traffic jams and fewer hours to relax. Psychologists admit that in recent years more people living in big cities are taking anti-stress medication. Furthermore, the number of depressed, unhappy and anxious people has multiplied. So making people find happiness became an important task in our modern life. So at first, what is happiness? All the great thinkers and philosophers throughout history have debated about the meaning of happiness. Moreover, psychologists have effectively advanced to this debate by analyzing numerous of researches to determine happiness. In spite of these efforts made until this day, we do not have a proper definition of happiness. Aristotle (2011, 1098a13...

Original Writing – Prose: A day in the life of Lauryn-Emily Jones!

I woke up feeling worried about the day before me, The other staff members had warned me that Thursday was always the worst day but refused to tell me why. Since Monday I had been working in the oncology outpatients department of the city hospital and so far had dealt with all the different emotions adequately. It was hard work not because of the jobs I had to do but because seeing people in and out everyday either recently being told they had cancer or having suffered for years they were still sad when they got bad news and happy when they got good so all the emotions were mixed up. When I walked in on Thursday morning just before nine as I had for the past three days things looked normal. The walls which had been freshly painted were looking bright and fresh and all the staff still looked happy and were smiling so I hoped it was going to be a good day. I went behind reception and there was nothing to do so I stood and watched the people. Most were quite old but all had someone with them for support. I wished silently that everyone that day would get good news but I knew deep down that it was not going to happen and I felt a slight pain in my heart for all the people sitting there, Who were not lucky enough to be seen by some of the best doctors in the world. The disease that was slowly killing could be cured in some cases but it also had lots of side effects to go with it including hair loss, feeling sick at most times, plus the risk of killing too many good cells while killing the bad ones and being in great pain a lot of the time. As I stood thinking about all these things something suddenly popped into my head, What about all the people that did get better? These people included my own Nan who had suffered with throat cancer for a long time but was now cured? This is the proof that these treatments although terrible did work and that even if someone is diagnosed with cancer things can get better. I carried on looking around when a little girl who I later found out was only four came running in, She seemed to know her way around the department and as I looked I realized she did not have very much hair and then I saw her mother. She was a feeble looking woman in a wheel chair; Her husband was pushing her along as she was too weak to do it herself. I decided to talk to this wonderful family and found out the mother had been diagnosed with cancer not long after the doctors told her their daughter had a brain tumour and without a lot of operations and radiotherapy would not live very long and if she did she would be very weak for a lot of her life so may not enjoy it as much as she could. I watched the girl. She was very small and thin and she had tiny patches of hair on her head where the chemotherapy and radiotherapy had made it fall out. Her mother said she had a cancer which they could not specify because it was a mixture of two and she had to have more tests until they could find out. The little girl continued to run around and say hello everyone always keeping a massive smile on her face! This made me smile and I noticed that her father was a very strong man who obviously loved them very much. They soon had to go as the little girl had to have some more radiotherapy. As soon as they went I decided to see what I could find out about radiotherapy. I was told that if a child has to have radiotherapy they get fitted for a mask which fits right over their face, head and neck this is then sent to be made into plastic mask. When the mask is sent back and the child is ready for the radiotherapy, because they can not stay still enough the mask is put over their face with only two little holes for breathing as eye holes are too dangerous. The mask is bolted tightly to the table to stop the child moving because the equipment they use is just a small laser. Unlike chemotherapy it can only be used on the affected part of the body to kill the cells and not on other parts of the body as it kills too many cells and can be very harmful. I stood and thought about this for a minute and wondered whether I would be able to cope with this and how that lively, amazing little girl could cope with it and was told by the lady who does the radiotherapy that most of the time patients have to be put to sleep because they get too distressed by the mask. This thought frightened me and once again I thought how lucky I was to be a normal, healthy 15 year old girl. I found that being in radiotherapy was too distressing and decided to go back up to oncology but when I walked in straight away everything was different, the atmosphere had changed while I was away and I could feel it. I carried on in through the doors and as soon as I got round the corner I realized the whole of the oncology department was full of young men! To any other teenage girl this would be wonderful but to me it was scary. I turned to look and saw a young man no older than 22 sitting in a wheel chair and when it came to going to have his blood taken needed help to get up because he was so weak due to the all the treatment and the disease. I went back behind reception and carried on looking around when I was startled by a lad who slammed his arm down on the desk he looked at me and I noticed he was about the same age as me and he did not look very happy, he had another lad with him who I guessed was for moral support they both smiled at me but the smile was small and not very positive. I decided to go and sit with the lads to see if they would talk to me. I explained what I was doing and they were ok to talk to me. The lad who's name was Rikki told me he was 15 and had been diagnosed with teratoma cancer when he was just 13 and had recently had an operation to try and get rid of it after chemotherapy failed. The other lad who was there was his best mate Ashley, he had been there through everything and they were very close. He said today he had come in to find out whether they had got rid of the cancer or not but was told the chances were small, he gave me a glance his eyes looked sad but I could tell there was a glimmer of hope in there but as he explained he didn't want to get too excited for just in case the news was not good. He said he had to stay for a while because he also had to have blood tests and that he would come and see me before he went. I looked at the time and realized I had missed nearly half of my lunch! Although it was raining I wanted to go and sit outside in the fresh air so I could think and I had a chance to clear my head, I watched the people walk in and out and made the decision I would take each day as it comes because I never know what is around the corner, I also decided I would keep very busy after lunch so I could not think about it to much as deep down I was very distressed and was finding it very hard. When I had finished my lunch I went back in to find the waiting area not so packed but was still full of young men waiting to see the doctor. I went to find one of the nurses to talk to and came across Zoi, she had been in the oncology department for 2 years but was leaving soon as she wanted to finish training as a nurse because she never had the chance to do the things she had wanted. We talked about all the people and my feelings; she said the best way to deal with it is to just pretend that everyone was going to be cured and to think myself lucky it was not me. It sounded like a good idea and she also told me Audrey my supervisor wanted to see me at 3 o'clock. We went back to reception and I was asked to do some filing and pulling. This meant taking people's notes and putting them back on the shelves and getting the lists for the next week and pulling all the files for that which is hard because sometimes they are not there so I have to go to other places around the hospital. Once again when I was reading through the lists thinking about whether I had seen any of the sets of notes I was startled by a hand slamming down on the desk but this time when I looked up I saw a smiling face! It was Rikki again but this time he had the kind of smile I knew no one was going to get rid of! I asked him what the doctor said and in the most wonderful happy voice I have ever heard he said â€Å"It's gone! † I smiled at him and he carried on jumping around laughing and then proceeded to try and get me to go to the pub with him to celebrate. We chatted for a little while then I realized I had to get on with my jobs so he gave me one more very happy smile and walked off. Even with his back to me I knew he was going to be smiling for a very long time and it was going to take a lot to get rid of that smile!

Japanese Airlines Strategic HRM - Free Essay Example

Sample details Pages: 9 Words: 2829 Downloads: 4 Date added: 2017/06/26 Category Transport Essay Type Analytical essay Did you like this example? The world we live in is constantly faced with many new challenges that must overcome to survive in which business world is one of them. Changes in the world have affected many companies and industrial activities to develop and able to adapt in various kind of nature (Kearns, 2010). The most effectively modified to profit in the business world would be the approaching to human resource sector. For the past decades, human work force have been using like an operating machines, working hard and harsh. But in the present world, human work force can be call the most valuable assets for the business world, presenting as a company core competency and the force that would drive an organization to archives goals (Pate Beaumont, 2006). Management in human resource currently have create and issues within the corporations, also as for the activating the service sector, in which the quality of interaction between costumers and service providers is very important for the succes s in the business activity. Airline companies have increase on the human resource strategies and policies to make use of them in the company values (Heracleous Wirtz, 2009). This essay presents the most relevant human resource management practices to be adopted by JAL to cope up with the various problems. According to Kearns(2010), For most of the 20th century, the number of tasks and levels in large organizations grew incrementally, with new job and career opportunities to full-time employees. Opening the phase of 21st century have been about fundamental changes as because of many factors include global developments on technological and economical, also in labor market trends as well as the need of flexibility (Holbeche, 2009). As such, organizations have to temporary cancel some of their operations or closing the facilities. Need for cost reduction, plus speed and flexibility have made an organization to decrease a full-time employees result in temporary employment. Global lab or market trend is constantly facing an extensive transformation in which cause difficulty in recruiting an employee and to maintain quality workers (Hunter, 2006). Hence, private and public organizations are becoming reliant on alternative employee work patterns. The first step to be taken at JAL is to realistically analyze the current state of all HR-related matters and to develop a concept for its future development. This will revolve around the issues of market changes in coming years and the companys skills and core competences. The management of people in the airline company is complicated by the pro-cyclical nature of the industry and the proportion and malleability of labor costs (Boswell, Bingham Colvin, 2006). These factors have combined to necessitate cost cutting and to insure that those cuts are often focused on the labor. Competent management of people in airline is extremely important. Pilots occupy a position of considerable bargaining power and have not been ave rse to exercising that power. Flight crew is also an extremely valuable commodity for airlines due to their extensive training and their scarcity (Harvey Turnbull, 2006). It is imperative, then, management generates a committed and satisfied flight crew community. As per Kearns (2010), The business plan should include a description of organizational structure, including management and human resources capabilities, philosophy and needs, the number of employees intended to hire, how to manage them and the estimated personnel costs. The objective of the HR action plan at JAL should be to build JALs institutional capacity, productivity, and efficiency by effectively managing its most important asset, its staff. At the core of the HR action plan are measures to enhance and update HR management to attract, motivate and retain high-quality staff with the technical skills, behaviors and values needed to implement Strategy. This can be achieved by recruiting and developing staff with ful l commitment to JALs mission and the proactive attitudes essential for adapting to a changing environment; providing stable and clear mid- and long-term employment with more clearly defined career expectations; and offering an enabling environment in which staff can fully realize their potential to produce high-quality products and services (Ruefli, 2007). Given this relatively long-term employment model and the dynamic region in which JAL operates, the knowledge and skills sets of JAL staff need to be relevant and up to date. Recognizing the importance of keeping staffs technical skills sets current, JAL must in turn provide more learning opportunities. This will also support one of the thrusts of Strategy; enhancing JALs knowledge products and services. A key element in providing such an enabling environment will be for JAL to adopt best HR management practices so its staff and stakeholders recognize that HR is being managed properly and in full support of Strategy. These will include offering attractive and competitive conditions that are in line with those at comparator organizations; implementing HR actions based on performance and merit that are fair, reasonable, transparent and consistently practiced; and providing career development and learning opportunities to enable staff to develop and continually upgrade their skills in an evolving environment (Miles Mangold, 2005). Collectively, these measures are expected to address most of the issues highlighted by staff. These included career development and progression, performance management, staff development, salary and benefits, work-life balance. More effective communication with staff to manage the change is essential for JAL to achieve the intended impact for all actions. In order to define a framework for development, SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats) and PESTLIED (political, economic, social, technological, legal, international, environmental and demographic changes) analyse s are helpful for JAL (Hamill, 2006). Customer and employee surveys can provide important information about the various stakeholders interests. Analyses of competitors indicate current market position. But how does the company want to position itself on the market in the future? A vision helps the company define its aims and objectives (Doherty, 2005). This way, JAL can decide whether it wants to focus on price, innovation or customer relations. When the company has developed visions and aims based on upcoming challenges, they can check what skills already exist. They can then compare the current situation with future requirements using such tools as a qualifications matrix or a dynamic training requirement analysis (Holbeche, 2009). FAQs at such a time for JAL are: What should our employees do differently in the future, and Why are not they doing this already? But one also asks, what distinguishes a good employee from a bad one? At JAL, the human resource functions need to be ca lled as the People Department. Recognizing that the people are the competitive advantage, there is a need to deliver the resources and services to prepare the people to be winners, to support the growth and profitability of the company, while preserving the values and special culture of JAL. The importance of HR should be reflected in every human resource function. Recruitment, selection, training, performance management, compensation, benefits and labor relations all should be supportive to JALs business strategy (Heracleous Wirtz, 2009). As a manager of a human resources department, diversity initiatives, team building, and leadership development would be very important parts of the strategy (Pate Beaumont, 2006). There are several reasons for this. The goal is to keep the best and most energetic people with the company. Develop leadership can work along with personal goals with corporate goal and improve the trust to the organization. It also shows a sincere effort to improv e the individual. Team building helps improve a sense of belonging and loyalty to the company. Many people who are known to each other and have common interest tend to work better together (Miles Mangold, 2005). This will make an environment in JAL where it is pleasant to work and where employees are more inclined to help each other, especially during a crisis. Safe and happy workplace make employees feel good to be there. Each individual is given importance and provide security that give them motivation to stay on. This usually can be achieved by surveys to be able to find out the satisfied level of the employees (Hamill, 2006). Open Management Employees dislike the feeling of not knowing the state of what happening in the company. They would feel more motivated when they have part in discussion of company policies, sales, clients, contracts, and objectives (Ruefli, 2007). This encourages participative management. Ask the employees for ideas on how to improve would make them th ink more creative. Being open about everything related to company, will help building trust and motivated the employees in JAL. Open management policy and be use and practice using several tools. Good performance should be reward, such as bonuses or giving other compensation for well done job. With this reward system organization would not be struggle to keep up with attrition rate (Ruefli, 2007). Even if it is employees job, completion in an appropriate and acceptable manner would create a more profitable profit, and this also can boost up the staff morality (Hunter, 2006). These incentive can be use at JAL, individual or at team level, this have been observe that this works, getting the best out of employees. Still the reward should not be given without reason unless it is for annual bonuses. Doing so would reduce the perceived value of bonuses (Kearns, 2010). It is a well known for HR managers that hiring managers would try to begin the hiring process for a candidate that o nly have little idea of what exactly they are looking for (Boswell, Bingham Colvin, 2006). Even when job description is available for them to refer to, they must be kept on reminded to use it as a reference tool or else they are wasting everybodys time. Hiring managers must review what it is that they are looking for. Each year, requirement and criteria change. It is necessary to post all jobs that is vacant on company website so that everyone knows about it can apply for that some might be qualified (Harvey Turnbull, 2006). Candidate must need to conduct on behavior and technical test first, and then telephone screening, next as for face-to-face interview. The first advantage of testing is that there are no surprises later about their abilities. It make recruiting process tighter and more quality quantified and having constant process make recruiting consistent across all departments (Doherty, 2005). JAL should publicly explain almost every detail of the practices to be used t o select employees. In theory, any company could attempt to copy the process and claim it as their own, but it would probably fall for a number of reasons. At JAL, much more energy and time should be expanded on the process. To find the right people, they should spend the money up front on the selection process, in the belief that it will become worthwhile over time (Ruefli, 2007). What should managers at JAL look for in the selection process? The approach should place great emphasis on hiring based on attitude. The search should be for something that considers to be elusive and important: a blend of energy, humor, team spirit, and self-confidence. These key predictors should be used at JAL to indicate how well applicants will perform. There should be centralized process that will help the organization as the applicants will have to go to one place and specialists trained in selection techniques can assist in the process of deciding which candidates should be hired and where t hey ought to be placed. JAL should keep the line managers and other employees involved in the process, and doing so will benefit the company for a number of reasons. Employees who will get the opportunity to contribute in the selection of their team members will become more committed to helping them succeed, and the process will also give them a sense of urgency (Pate Beaumont, 2006). The involvement of all levels of management and employees along with the HR department in the selection and placement process will help in building a strong network of employees. Thus, it will help JAL in providing the right attitude and service to its customers. There should be sound procedures in place for any level of selection, be it in the form of personality tests, interviews, or other assessments (Ruefli, 2007). The selection and placement decisions, however, should be ultimately made by a combined panel of line managers and specialized representatives from the People Department. These decis ions will seem to be made with the full participation of present employees in the spirit of true partnership. There should be great emphasis on specialization and training. The training of new hires should be focused on building relational competence as well as functional expertise. Each new hire should receive classroom training and on-the-job training (Boswell, Bingham Colvin, 2006). Orientation should include ample exposure to JALs culture. Training should be broadly focused so that the new employees understand the jobs of other JAL staffers they may have to interact with. This will help employees to understand how their job fits and they can support others, consistent with the team aspect of the culture. At JAL, sharing of information such as contact and financial information with employees is a must so that they would understand the decision that has been made (Doherty, 2005). Passing this process, employees learn about the business, which is more than just a creative su bject. This involves making a strategic decision to allow on contracts that are along with business and strategic business models (Hamill, 2006). People have knowledgeable and understand where money comes from and go to. They know what happen at bonus time and why it does or doesnt get paid out. People become more knowledgeable about business and feel more importance about their contribution and impact (Ruefli, 2007). Employees have changed their focus on just their job to the whole company. The importance of labor relation cannot be underestimated in any company (Harvey Turnbull, 2006). As the JAL employees union members and IASCO employees were not have the union less bargaining power. Pay and benefits of all employees should be specified through the collective bargaining. JAL began to hire non-Japanese employees and pay labor wages. All employees should be paid equally at or above-market pay. It should introduce the profit sharing plan. Stock purchase plan should be introduce d which will allow employees to purchase stock shares from payroll deductions at a discount (Miles Mangold, 2005). JAL should provide attractive benefits packages. Employees should receive medical insurance, dental insurance, vision coverage, life insurance, long-term disability insurance, dependent care, adoption assistance and mental health assistance (Doherty, 2005). This will let employees to know how much they are valued by helping them in times of need, be it with financial assistance or something else. Moreover, there should be job security. JAL should not have a layoff and it will help the employees to realize that job security is an important benefit provided by JAL. Paying bonuses or having any kind of variable compensation plan can be either an incentive or a distraction, depending on how it is administered and communicated (Pate Beaumont, 2006). Bonuses should be giving out in a way that the employees understand that this payment is due to the company hits a certain level of profitability. Then the criteria of giving out can be base on team success and individual success. It is based on performance, criteria is consistent for everyone, it is related for the employees to the success of the company, brings the necessity profit into reality, creating people to focus more on team (Harvey Turnbull, 2006). JAL should incorporate profit sharing, stock options, other non financial-based incentives, and a great communication plan for when a bonus plan is there. JALs employees evaluations should be based on demonstrating the spirit of outrageous customer service. Managers who will give an employee superior performance ratings must include documentation of actual examples of exemplary customer service that warranty the rating. Performance measures to be used should be cross functional (Kearns, 2010). This will motivate cooperation rather than competition. At most of the airlines, delays are attributed to specific units such as fueling, cleaning or ba ggage handling. At JAL, delays should be tied to the entire team or process, reducing blame shifting, and encouraging employees to assist other functions when needed (Miles Mangold, 2005). Performance measurement should be used as a performance management tool to foster cooperation, learning, and improvement. This essay is attempting to solve the problems faced by JAL. Eventually, employees form the greatest asset and must be continuously nurtured and developed as company strives to maintain reputation for excellence in the highly competitive global air travel industry. JAL should adopt a multi-faceted approach which incorporates all aspects of HR, which serves its employees from Recruitment to Retirement. There is a need to continuously improve processes and strategies. The people factor should be given top priority across the whole organization. Feedback and inputs from management, other divisions and diverse employee groups should be welcomed, and this will immensely contribu te towards improving the standards and quality of output. JAL should have such an environment in which people can work well to the best, including the enjoyment of working that employees can develop, and be able to perform the most out of their ability and talents. Don’t waste time! Our writers will create an original "Japanese Airlines Strategic HRM" essay for you Create order