The quality of life for all humans Essay Example for Free

The quality of life for all humans Essay If the governments of the world adopted a socialist philosophy and economy, in recognition of the fact that we are all stuck on this rock together, the quality of life for all humans would greatly improve. First, there would no longer be a need for war. With a sense of global community and the accompanying economy there wouldnt be any motivation to wage wars with each  other. There would be no super-powers, no struggle to attain land or control natural resources. Humans are the only animals in nature that kill each other for reasons of greed and power. How refreshing it would be to finally evolve beyond our current bellicose nature. If we banned together as a world wide society, we could, at long last, live in peace. Next, we could direct our resources and efforts toward fighting the diseases that afflict us. A socialist-based economy would practically eliminate hunger by providing  enough sustenance for everyone, and that would effectively end our battle with malnutrition. Without the political walls put up by governments around scientific and  medical research, we would be able to pool our knowledge and further advance our understanding of medicine. Searching for cures and treatments of diseases would no  longer be a competitive, profitable endeavor. Finally, the only way humans as a race can hope to progress is first by becoming peaceful in nature and, secondly, by joining together and concentrating our efforts on gaining an understanding for where we fit in the universe. We would all benefit from such a focusing of effort. When we shift our attention from the rat-race pursuit of going to work just to maintain what weve acquired, to a more meaningful quest for real understanding, we truly will separate ourselves form the animals. The  exploration of our universe, for example, is in its zygote stage; we know little enough about the community in which we live. How can we be so egocentric as a race to be on a tiny planet in a vast universe and not explore our surroundings with sincerity, as we fight over narrow strips of real estate? Perhaps through the exploration of space we may encounter other forms of life,  possibly even intelligent. Statistically, it is highly unlikely we are the only place in the whole universe where life exists. Seeking out other forms of life and even communicating with them would move us toward being involved in a universal community. But our first step must be taken here on our home planet. Socialism is this first required step in allowing man to reach his potential. It would provide an environment in which a greater understanding would evolve. We could be free of wars, disease and other problems that plague us today. There would be less need for a government and more resources would become available for meaningful purposes.

Computer Technology Shapes the Future of Education :: Teaching Education Essays

Computer Technology Shapes the Future of Education The accessibility of computer education is stratified between the classes. The higher socio-economic schools, homes, and businesses are able to receive computer education and have daily contact with computers. However, in the lower socio-economic areas the computer usage is very low. To break down the divide many school districts and corporations have begun computer education programs, in lower-socio-economic areas. These advancements can assist the students to reach higher levels of education, which can lead to higher level careers. The advancements of computer use in the education field illustrate the benefits of computers on student’s lives. The requirement of technological knowledge has been raised. The ideal way to educate children on computers is to include computers in their everyday activities. Many schools need extra support from the community to achieve such a high standard. Also, many schools in lower socio-economic areas have experienced a difficulty in merely getting the children to school on time or at all. The lower attendance issues can stem from unreliable transportation to the parent keeping the student home to help with the household (Milone/Salpeter, 46). Therefore with assistance from companies and the community, schools are able to propel the students into school more regularly and to learn more with and about computer technology. Many corporations have assisted in the advancement of the equipment to all students by giving schools computers or payment plans to purchase them. In the fall of 1996, â€Å"Microsoft and Toshiba gave 8,000 students from kindergarten to 12th grade a Toshiba Pentium notebook loaded with Microsoft Office and full modem connectivity (Levin 30).† The computers boosted the school’s attendance to almost one hundred percent. In comparison most of the schools that benefited from this program exhibited a 50% daily attendance average, among the lower socio-economic students (30). Microsoft and Toshiba are not only donating computers, but they have also instated a special lease program for schools. Their plan is modeled after a similar successful program in Australia, and primarily sets it up so that each child pays $35 a month for three years and after that time, they can purchase their computer for one dollar (Levin 30). This program has been very successful because all children in the classroom have access to these computer notebooks. Computer Technology Shapes the Future of Education :: Teaching Education Essays Computer Technology Shapes the Future of Education The accessibility of computer education is stratified between the classes. The higher socio-economic schools, homes, and businesses are able to receive computer education and have daily contact with computers. However, in the lower socio-economic areas the computer usage is very low. To break down the divide many school districts and corporations have begun computer education programs, in lower-socio-economic areas. These advancements can assist the students to reach higher levels of education, which can lead to higher level careers. The advancements of computer use in the education field illustrate the benefits of computers on student’s lives. The requirement of technological knowledge has been raised. The ideal way to educate children on computers is to include computers in their everyday activities. Many schools need extra support from the community to achieve such a high standard. Also, many schools in lower socio-economic areas have experienced a difficulty in merely getting the children to school on time or at all. The lower attendance issues can stem from unreliable transportation to the parent keeping the student home to help with the household (Milone/Salpeter, 46). Therefore with assistance from companies and the community, schools are able to propel the students into school more regularly and to learn more with and about computer technology. Many corporations have assisted in the advancement of the equipment to all students by giving schools computers or payment plans to purchase them. In the fall of 1996, â€Å"Microsoft and Toshiba gave 8,000 students from kindergarten to 12th grade a Toshiba Pentium notebook loaded with Microsoft Office and full modem connectivity (Levin 30).† The computers boosted the school’s attendance to almost one hundred percent. In comparison most of the schools that benefited from this program exhibited a 50% daily attendance average, among the lower socio-economic students (30). Microsoft and Toshiba are not only donating computers, but they have also instated a special lease program for schools. Their plan is modeled after a similar successful program in Australia, and primarily sets it up so that each child pays $35 a month for three years and after that time, they can purchase their computer for one dollar (Levin 30). This program has been very successful because all children in the classroom have access to these computer notebooks.

Managing Diversity Essay

1. Put forward a business case for taking a ‘managing diversity’ approach at Hinchliffe Cards. Britain now has one of the most diverse workforces in the world, consisting of a wide range of religions and ethnic backgrounds. However, diversity is not just acknowledged in terms of religious and ethnic origin. It can refer to political beliefs, age, sexual orientation, nationality, colour, etc. Therefore, it is absolutely paramount that diversity is managed effectively in parallel with Britain’ s rapidly changing social society. The need to manage diversity is even greater after the events of 9/11 as the world’s societies have become more politically charged and involved than ever before. Attached to diversity is the concept of equality from which any contentious questions arise. One such issue is the extent to which UK organisations are fair when it comes to offering equality of opportunity to minority groups in employment. There is a wide range of elements involved in managing diversity including legislative considerations, the handling of equal opportunity issues, as well as the aims of making ‘managing diversity’ work for organisations. The traditional approach has focused on using the legislation driven equal opportunities route in tacking issues of diversity, and the broad aims of managing diversity are similar to that of equal opportunities, but managing diversity has a more internal focus. Many of these aims are bound up with the various legislation that outlaws discrimination on the grounds of sex, pay, race, disability and criminal record: * Sex Discrmination Act 1975 and 1976. * Equal Pay Act (Amended) 1983. * Race Relations Act 1976 (Amended 2000). * Disability Discrimination Act 1995. * Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974. So why should organisations make the most employee diversity? Well, as mentioned previously, the make-up of our society is changing, and businesses must reflect this change. Wheatley, (p, 30, 2000) highlights three important trends that exist and are continuing to develop further. Firstly, the UK population is ageing fast. In 2000, there were 1.5M fewer 16-25 year olds entering employment than in 1987. Secondly, ethnic minority groups made up 5.5% of the total UK population at the time of the 1991 census. Thirdly, women now are a large and significant proportion of the UK workforce. Generally, the management of equal opportunity issues involves a social responsibility on the part of the individual organisation, objective consideration when taking selection decisions, develop a reputation for managing diversity, creating a more healthy business environment including high staff morale. Managing diversity also holds huge significance for business growth. Managing diversity also entails issues of organisational culture that refer to an organisation’s norms, values and beliefs. A diverse organisation in which there is a broad mix of people will add to the social dimension of the organisation and help to reduce the under-representation experienced by minority groups. Managing diversity is an internally driven proactive mechanism that acknowledges the interests of these groups. Moreover, at a strategic level, managing diversity involves: * Board level participation, responsibility and accountability on diversity issues; * Links to all business plans and benefits at all levels; * Employee ownership of diversity objectives; * Commitment of resources for training and research; * A proactive diversity approach to recruitment, marketing and supplier selection; * The building of diversity issues into recruitment, performance and reward systems. Source: Wheatley, (p. 32, 2000) Managing diversity focuses on the individual as opposed to Equal Opportunity (EO) that focuses on treating individuals as groups. Managing diversity (MD) goes beyond the EO perspective. It acknowledges differences in a more positive light. It does this by intending to proliferate staff performance, generating greater flexibility in the workforce and working practices as well as making organisations more equitable. It endeavours to use the differences to the benefit of the organisation. As stated by kandolla and Fullerton, the concept of managing diversity ‘is founded on the premise that harnessing these differences will create a productive environment in which everyone will feel valued, where there talents are fully valued, where there talents are fully utilised, and in which organisational goals are met’1. Whilst EO is legally driven, and subject to the achievement of the performance target, MD seeks to accommodate diverse interests. MD will also enable organisations to become a good corporate citizen, by ensuring that the workforce reflects the (local) population. Moreover, having a diverse workforce will help organisations explore new markets or client groups as MD adds to the social dimension of the organisation. This is particularly relevant after the events of 9/11, which require good understanding of race and cultural issues. In a business sense, it is important to have a workforce that understands diverse cultural backgrounds, especially as businesses become more internationalised. As stated above, MD uses individual differences and recognises them as strengths and talents, which help to dismantle barriers which otherwise prevent them from doing so. MD also brings with it in-built proactive measures such as maternity leave, flexible working patterns etc By doing so, organisations can improve their efforts in meeting their customer’s needs and increase their organisation’s profile. Under MD, people are acknowledged as the nucleus the organisation, and organisations can benefit from the following: * MD recognises that female managers have distinct managerial styles and abilities; * Mature workers can offer organisations increased reliability, stability, quality, experience and overall efficiency; * Members of ethnic groups can provide a rich and cultural experience at work; * Disabled people can offer highly developed problem solving and analytical skills because they operate in an inaccessible environment; * Individuals can feel confident in their abilities and their contribution to the organisation; * MD will add to the creative side of the organisation; * MD views employees as an invaluable asset; * MD recognises the need for n-going training; * Increased emphasis and responsibility to diversity issues; * Better recruitment, retention and performance systems. MD provides a more transparent and proactive method of dealing with employee diversity. This involves a fundamental transformation of the organisation’s working practices, making it more staff-friendly, re-consider the management structure and introduce more fairer recruitment and retention procedures. MD eliminates barriers to opportunity by recognising differences of individuals as positive strengths that can be used to develop a culture of diversity. Successful companies are those that are able to monitor and meet shifts in social expectations, to control risks and to anticipate market opportunities. Businesses that have the vision and the will to create an enabling environment for diverse parts of the community will prosper. 2. Analyse how the human resources activities might have to be changed at Hinchliffe Cards and make recommendations based on your analysis. The main problem the company is having is managing diversity while the organisation is evolving. The case study highlights many issues, which are fundamentally flawed in creating a more diverse productive organisation. At present 70 % of Hinchliffe Cards workforce is made up of women. There is only one woman manager within the organisation dealing with HRM, which is not a primarily authorative role. These statistics are very worrying when you consider that projections show that ‘in less than ten years time there will be two million more jobs within the economy – 80% of which will be filled by women’2. In order to meet with theses changes Hinchliffe Cards would have to consider having more women in leadership and decision making positions. Many factors may have led to this lack of women in senior positions, like discrimination due to family commitments, womens lack of confidence, the attitudes of senior executives or even men seeing women as a threat. Nevertheless organisations which fail to utilise the potential of women managers will be commiting ‘economic suicicde'(Davidson, 1991). As women managers come with many potential benefits i.e, participative and caring management styles . Hinchliffe Cards have also started to use casual labour during the spring months to deal with the Christmas demand. Over this period they use 20 casual workers to help operate some of the more sophisticated machines during this period. This is due to the current shortage of skill within the industry. This has been met by much discontent from the full time worker who doesn’t believe they have the same pride in their work, which affects its quality and ultimately the workforces bonuses. Hinchliffe cards should really be working trying providing a positive learning environment for all staff. A positive learning environment is one in which the values of the organisation include the expressed and acted on belief that the development of its human capital through effective learning is necessary or achieving a competitive environment. The existence of such a environment depends on the active encouragement and support of top management, the belief by lie managers that learning and deve lopment activities pay off, and the extent to which the workforce are motivated to learn The female workers are also complaining about the opportunities open to them within the company, as they have not been trained on the complex machines. They feel left out as these machines offer the highest rewards in terms of bonus. In addition to this they are also concerned about the long hours they are made to work during peak periods, which is seen to interfere with their family life. This shows discrimination towards the female staff in using more complex machinery. This is bad for Hinchliffe cards because taking action on diversity and equality has many benefits for the organisation. According to government research it can lead to better recruitment and retention- followed with better morale and performance. If this discrimination and unfair treatment can be reduced, it can have a knock on effect on grievances and relations in the organisation. This can reduce absenteeism and labour turnover by enhancing employee’s attachment to the organisation and have a positive effect on labour productivity. Concerns about being able to balance family life with work is also a major problem. The costs for businesses who don’t meet these needs can be striking. According to british industry, ‘sickness and absence costs cost employers around à ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½10 billion a year and 30% of this may be related to stress’. In a recent survey, over a fith of women said they would change they’re jobs for more flexible arrangements. Employers may incur additional costs in adopting policies to support work-life balance, including increased managerial worloads. Such costs are however generally outweighed by the gains in achieveing strategic objectives. Hinchliffe have also recently outsourced their work to in home workers to cope with recent demand for handmade products. These workers are mainly women from ethnic groups and the company is experiencing a high rate of labour turnover. Due to this the company is thinking of investing in a team of in house designers employed officially by the firm who can be based in the firms headquarters. However the majority of the women aren’t interested in this option as they fit they’re work around looking after small children. They believe they’re getting a rough deal from the company as materials are often not delivered on time and they’re has been some talk of covert racism form the company. Senior managers also believe there is position for the company to expand into the EU. The company however would have to be equipped with a workforce with a more diverse range of skills from sales and marketing staff. This would mean being able to speak a different European language and be comfortable dealing with managers from different cultures. The current sales and marketing staff however lack these skills. References 1. Bunderson J S and Sutcliffe K M (2002) â€Å"Comparing alternative conceptualizations of functional diversity in management teams: process and performance effects†, Academy of Management Journal, Oct 1, 2002 v45 i4 p875(19) 2. Caudron, S., (1990) â€Å"Monsanto responds to diversity†, Personnel Journal, 41, 72-80. 3. D’Netto B and Sohal A S (1999) â€Å"Human resource practices and workforce diversity: an empirical assessment†, International Journal of Manpower, Volume 20 Number 8 1999 pp. 530-547 4. Jackson, S.E., May, K.E., Whitney, K., 1995, â€Å"Understanding the dynamics of diversity in decision-making teams†, Guzzo, R., Salas, E. and Associates, Team Effectiveness in Decision Making in Organizations, Jossey-Bass, San Francisco, CA, 204-61. 5. Jenner L (1994) â€Å"Diversity management: what does it mean†, HR Focus, Jan 1994 v71 n1 p11(1) 6. Kandola R and Fullerton J (1994) Managing the mosaic diversity in action, IPD (1994), p19 7. Morrison, A.M. (1992) The New Leaders: Guidelines on Leadership Diversity in America, Jossey-Bass Publishers, San Francisco, CA. 8. Mullins L J (2002) Management and organisational behaviour†, 6th edition, Prentice Hall, Essex 9. Personnel Journal (1994) â€Å"Diverse networking prompts change†, Personnel Journal, August 1994 v73 n8 pS20(2) 10. Personnel Journal (1995) â€Å"Open the corporate closet to sexual orientation issues†, Personnel Journal, August 1995 v74 n8 p42(7) 11. Peters T (1993) Video â€Å"Management revolution and corporate reinvention†, BBC for Business. Cited in Mullins (2002). 12. Schreiber, C.T., Price, K.F., Morrison, A., (1993) â€Å"Workplace diversity and the glass ceiling: practices, barriers, possibilities†, Human Resource Planning, 16, 2, 51-69. 13. Soni V (2000) â€Å"A Twenty-First-Century Reception for Diversity in the Public Sector: A Case Study†, Public Administration Review, Sept 2000 v60 i5 p395 14. Zeffane R M and Mayo G (1994) â€Å"Career Trends and Staffing Strategies in the 1990s†, International Journal of Career Management, Volume 06 Number 5 1994 pp. 30-35 1 Armstrong, M. (2003)A handbook of Human Resource Management practice (9th edition). P133 2 www.dti.gov.uk/bestpractice/assets/bdciv.txt

Deviance Among Adolescents And Their Social Environment Essay

Deviance among adolescents in our society has many different causes and multiple theories throughout the history of criminal justice have been developed to attempt to explain, prevent and reduce incidents of status offenses and juvenile delinquency. There are theories varying from individual, to social and environmental. All of these theories have their merits and contribute in one way or another to the advancement of the understanding of juvenile delinquency and the treatment and prevention of delinquency within our society. Those that have proven to be successful we have applied in our justice system while those that are proven over time to be ineffective or defective we have discarded. There is no single theory that applies to all delinquent behavior in all situations. It is best to determine what theory may work best in each specific case based on the individual and the specific situation. Dodge’s information processing theory of social problem solving (Crick and Dodge 199 4) was developed by Kenneth Dodge in an attempt to explain the interaction between the child’s cognitive development and their social environment. This theory combines elements of both the individual and the social environment and examines how these two variables interact with each other to present a model for juvenile delinquency. During my investigation of this topic I discovered that an adapted model of Dodge’s theory existed that seemed to be more encompassing of the causes of juvenile delinquency,Show MoreRelatedIs Affiliation with Deviant Peers an Inheritable Trait?682 Words   |  3 PagesPsychology Essay The paper is addressing the theory that suggests that affiliation with deviate peers is inheritable. Phenotypic research has mainly centred on environmental associates of peer deviance. 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