Governing Global Business Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words - 1

Governing Global Business - Essay Example One of such trends is growing role of multinational companies not only in a business world, but in the whole society. Transnational companies have influence equal to influence of some countries. That is why it is important to study their role and predict possible future. It is going to be the main task of this research paper. Big attention is going to be paid to national economies and place of TNCs in the countries of North Africa. To begin with it would be reasonable to provide background information about the region under consideration. North Africa is the widest part of the mainland. This region of Africa includes the following countries: Algeria, Egypt, Libya, Mauritania, Morocco, Sudan, Tunisia, and Western Sahara. Canary Islands, Ethiopia, Eritrea and Madeira are also sometimes referred to North Africa. North Africa is the most developed among African countries. The most developed are the following countries: Egypt, Libya, Tunisia, Morocco, and Algeria. This region has a favorable economic and geographical position, situated at the crossroads of three continents - Europe, Asia and Africa. Trade has always played an important role, especially after the construction of the Suez Canal. Then the region gained important military-strategic importance. Countries in the region are heterogeneous in terms of economic development. Basis countries are members of OPEC, where GDP per capita is 17-20 thousand dollars. The region is rich in minerals (phosphates, chromite, bauxite, zinc), but the main resource is energy - oil and natural gas. Profits from the sale of oil - "petrodollars" in recent decades have been invested in the economy. According to experts, this figure reaches more than a trillion dollars. Most of them went to the creation of new industries in these countries: automotive, petroleum, chemistry, organic synthesis, basic chemistry, light industry and others. Some countries in the region have invested heavily in the creation of

Magic of Reckless Policies Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Magic of Reckless Policies - Essay Example In the last quarter of 2011, the GDP growth rate stood at 3 percent (BEA). In 2011, the GDP at current prices amounted to $15.094 billion or $13.315,1 at the 2005 prices (BEA). In 2010, the GDP at 2005 prices amounted to $13.088 billion. In 2011, it was the durable goods manufacturing that led the growth (BEA). Manufacturing value increased by 11.2 percent in 2010, and then again by 7.9 percent in 2011 (BEA). In comparison to durable goods, the services producing sector grew by 3 percent in 2010, and only 1.6 percent in 2011 (BEA). However, consumers suffered in 2012 from increased inflation and in turn decreased consumption of durables. An average person in the US benefitted from the positive GDP growth. In March of 2012, the real disposable personal income increased by 0.4 percent (BEA). The growth rate in the last quarter of 2011 was 1.7 percent (BEA). The cause of this decrease has been attributed to a rise in consumer prices in 2012 from 1.2 percent increase in 2011, to an addit ional 2.4 percent increase in 2012 (BEA). Real consumer spending, i.e. consumer spending adjusted for an increase in prices, increased 0.5 percent in February and then 0.1 percent in March (BEA). BEA attributes this decrease in the growth rate to a decrease in durable goods spending such as motor vehicles and parts (BEA). Since manufacturing of durables drove the GDP growth rates in 2010 and 2011, a decrease in demand led to a decrease in supply and thus GDP in March 2012. On the other hand, the US current account deficit increased by 2011. The current account deficit stood at $470.9 billion in 2010 and $473.4 billion in 2011 (BEA). The current account deficit in BEA National Economic Accounts is defined as: â€Å"the combined balances on trade in goods and services, income, and net unilateral current transfers.† The deficit amounted to 3.2 percent of GDP in 2010 and 3.1 percent in 2011. When dissected, the deficit on international trade in goods increased in 2011 to $738.3 b illion from $645.9 billion in 2010. However, there was a surplus on international trade in services, which increased to $178.3 billion in 2011, from $145.8 billion in 2010 (BEA). Income payments too were in surplus in 2011. Net financial inflows increased in 2011 from 2010. Whereas they amounted to $254.3 billion in 2010, they increased to $394.1 billion in 2011 (BEA). Unilateral transfers decreased in 2011. In February 2012, the deficit on international trade in goods and services amounted to $46 billion, which is a decrease from $52.5 billion in January 2012 (BEA). It is expected that the current deficit will decrease in 2012 if the trade deficit keeps on decreasing and other variables remain moving as in 2011. Unemployment rate decreased in 2012. In March 2012, the unemployment rate stood at 8.2 percent in comparison to 8.9 percent in 2011 (Bureau of Labor Statistics [BLS]). When comparing to the start of the financial crisis in 2007, it can be seen that by 2010, unemployment rea ched it peek. In 2007, the unemployment rate stood at 4.6 percent. By 2010, the unemployment rate increased to 9.6 percent and has been decreasing since then (BLS). Unemployment has been decreasing in Ohio as well. In February 2012, the unemployment rate stood at 7.6 percent and then decreased by one percentage point by March 2012 (Johnson). In March of 2011, the unemployment rate stood at 8.8 percent (Johnson). Daily Treasury interest rates have decreased since 2011. The interest rate on a one month

Johann Pachelbel's Canon Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Johann Pachelbel's Canon - Essay Example Pachelbel in his youth was taught music by Heinrich Schwemmer. He was quick to grasp the gist of music and his talent was eminent. He portrayed outstanding music abilities in his early days and this encouraged his early teachers to nature the talent in him. He went to primary school at the Auditorio Aegediano and in St. Lorenz Hauptschule in his birth town of Nuremberg. He was a quick learner and performed brilliantly in school. He later on went to the University of Altdorf where his family was unable to raise the school fees for his education midway in his course and he was compelled to quite school. On sporting his talent and academic ability, he was offered an opportunity for further education where he joined Gymnasium Poeticum which is in Regensburg where he studied on a scholarship. He did not disappoint as he performed exceptionally well and was among the top students. He was in fact offered an admission in the school to be a surplus in the number of students as the school had already filled its maximum capacity number. Pachelbel got married twice with the first marriage ending by a plague which killed his wife and only son at the time. It was a very tragic event which put him under a lot of stress and even threatened his career in the music industry. Barbara Gabler died in October 1683 only two years after their marriage and leaving him a devastated man. Pachelbel got married to Judith Drommer ten months after the death of his first family as a way to reinvent himself and fill the gap that was so deeply intrenched into his heart. In this second marriage this time he bore two girls and five boys. This was seen as a way to keep an insurance for himself just in case such an event as that of the plague took place again then he would have someone dear to him to live with and to gain emotional support from when he needed it. He fortunately lived a happy life and got to be celebrated widely for his music. He finally died on the 3rd of March 1706 while working a s a church organist and was laid to rest at the St. Rochus Cemetery in his birth place, Nuremberg, Germany. II. Historical Information Pachelbel lived during the historic era of the reign of the Habsburg empire and the Baroque era. It was an extensive empire at the time (17th Century) which had its capital at Vienna. The empire had most of its culture and its taste of music being influenced by predominantly by the Italian culture and this in a major way influenced the music of Pachelbel to have a flare of Italian touch. He grew very famous in the empire and was so fond of the capital Vienna that he spend more than one quarter of his entire life living and practicing music in Vienna. The musicians during the time of Pachelbel made a living almost entirely out of music alone. There were quite a number of job opportunities for anyone who was good in music. Pachelbel is one of the veteran musicians of the time and he spent his life making a career out of music till his death at the age of 53. In fact at some point in time Pachelbel was offered jobs but he declined. He already had a job at a church where they considered him a very important part of the society and his departure will would leave a huge gap in the community. This led to the church offering him an increase of salary and he opted to stay on in the church for another four years. Musicians at the time worked as court organists, church organists, tutors in

Low-cost Leadership Program Essay Example for Free

Low-cost Leadership Program Essay The best way for an organization to implement a low cost leadership-training program is to use a variety of approaches; this will maximize organizations efforts to have well trained employees with a focus on long-term development. In the case of a non-profit organization, the best way to set up a low-cost-leadership-training program would be to set-up a training committee. The committee would be composed of entry-level managers, upper management, and executives. This would allow for entry-level managers to have an input regarding what the employees need training and developing on. Also, with t upper-management and executives being involved and spearheading the committee, it lets employees realize that the organization cares about its employees. Once the training committee has been set up, it can then look into the variety of options they have available to them. It can send committee members to seminars, conferences, and trainings, which in turn would allow them to gather information and then train the organizations employees on the matter at hand. For example, a non-profit that works in family and youth development can send 3 site managers and 1 area director to a BOOST conference, a three-day conference that assists non-profits with ways to fundraise, market, build relationships with school faculty, connecting with members, redirecting negative behavior, etc. The employees that were chosen would then bring back the information they learned and recreate the training for the employees in the organization. Financially, this would be a great way for the organization to save money, while still managing to train employees. The training committee would also set up site visits to other highly productive companies and organizations. By doing so, the committee can send non-committee members as well as committee officials to do site visits to observe the work culture and environment of such company. The committee would have to brief the employees on what the purpose of the visit will be; therefore, allowing the employees to prepare questions that can be tailored to extract information pertinent to their needs. For example, the Boys and Girls Club doing a site visit to the YMCA. Finally, managers can find themselves overwhelmed by the amount of people they oversee and allotting enough time to each employee. Employees have a myriad  of concerns and issues that they might want to address with their supervisors. However, many times these issues are minimal but time consuming. Therefore, in order to minimize distractions and optimize productivity from lone employees and managers, setting up a mentor program within the organization would be a highly effective addition to training and developing program. Long-standing company employees would be mentors to new employees. This would allow for new employees to have a person to resort to in case they have any doubts or questions. The pros of setting up a training committee are low financial costs. It also allows for employees from all categories to interact and join efforts in the overall improvement of the organization. Also, if the organizations overall production increases and the organization sees sufficient growth, this committee can become its own department in the long run. It is important to keep in mind that regardless of the benefits this may provide a company, it undoubtedly will also come its consequences. In order for the company to ensure that the committee is successful, it will have to ensure that the committee members are effective communicators, great planners, and have plenty of public speaking skills. Otherwise, this will be detrimental to the committee but more importantly to the employees who will be receiving training from them. Also, trainings must be composed of material that will be useful to employees, and has to incorporate active learning techniques, case analysis, and hands on interaction in order to involve and stimulate the employees. The mentor program might also face its problems, so when pairing up employees, upper management must ensure that personalities are compatible and that the mentor is qualified to be one.

Communication Practices at Abellio ScotRail

Communication Practices at Abellio ScotRail Aim To investigate and establish the impact of internal communication practices on employee engagement and performance at Abellio ScotRail Ltd. Objectives In order to achieve the above aim, the below research objectives have equally been set out as: To critically review the literature on both concepts to enhance the understanding of the concepts and associated theories, and their interaction by exploring the meaning and drivers of employee engagement, as well as internal communications meaning and role as a vehicle to support organisation performance. To adopt a case study strategy, this will facilitate the collection and analysis of both primary and secondary information necessary for the baseline of this research. To critically examine the existing internal communication policy, and practices at Abellio ScotRail Ltd and their contribution to employee engagement. To critically analyse employees and managers perspectives of internal communication and employee engagement at Abellio ScotRail Ltd. To present and then discuss primary research findings through comparison with the literature to date. To draw conclusions from primary and secondary research before providing recommendations where appropriate. Literature Review Employee engagement is recognised as an important factor affecting organisational effectiveness, innovation, and competitiveness (Goodman et al, 2009). Consequently, several authors and professionals have made an empirical contribution towards establishing an explicit meaning and understanding of the concept, however, there are many definitions of the employee engagement as there are authors without any consensus on the subject. This paper aims to make a brief contribution by considering the role of communication in enhancing employee engagement. Goodman et al, (2009) research study identified employee engagement as one of the three top trends facing organisations and the term has its roots more in an academic exercise. Given a global leadership concern about employee engagement, human resources and communication professionals involved in internal communication management need an in-depth understanding of the concept so that they can develop strategies and tactics which would contrib ute to building engagement in the workplace. Additionally, internal communication has been suggested to be an important factor in the development of employment engagement. This study now intends to tackle the gap in the literature with a proposed model of the role of internal corporate communication in enhancing employee engagement. This section intends to firstly provide an overview of the evolution of the employee engagement concept, discussing definitional approaches, and highlighting components of engagement. Secondly, it discusses issues arising from the review concerning the nature of the concept, including its relationship with overlapping and related constructs such as commitment and motivation; and finally, it develops a corporate communication perspective of employee engagement. The Development of employee engagement Analysis of employee engagement literature has enabled the identification of stages in the development of the employee engagement concept, conceptualised here as a series of waves. Wave 1 (1990-1999) The wave begins in the 1990s with academic work on personal engagement been led by Kahn. His work has a significant impact without the direct use of employee engagement as concept in his qualitative research nevertheless, by using personal work engagement, he defined it as the harnessing of organisational members selves to their work roles; in engagement, people employ and express themselves physically, cognitively, and emotionally during role performance Kahn, (1990 p. 694) He further postulate the necessity of three psychological engagement conditions for an employee to engage themselves in their work role performance. Wave 2 (2000-2005) This second wave is characterised by professional consultancy firms that associated high engagement to increase corporate performance. Harter et al. (2003); Harter and Schmidt, (2008) made a report to Gallup Workplace Audit (GWA) questionnaire designed to measure series of elements that are called employee engagement. Consequently, they define employee engagement as a combination of cognitive and emotional antecedent variables in a work environment. Wave 3 (2006-2010) Taking the lead in the third wave of employee engagement work, Saks (2006) regards employee engagement as a concept more rooted in practitioner literature than academic literature. He is in agreement with Kahns view of employee engagement been consists of cognitive, emotional, and behavioural components. Equally in this league is the work of professional body such as the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD, 2006) as well as Bakker and Leiter, (2010) published work that throws more light on work engagement as it was then called William A. Kahn (1990) regard the concept of engagement in a workplace as the harnessing of organisational members selves to their work roles in his research study through which he identified three dimensions of engagement as emotional, physical and cognitive. Kahn (1990) developed the concepts of personal engagement and disengagement which are used in describing the behaviours by which people bring in or leave out their personal selves during work role performances. He defined personal engagement as the harnessing of organisation members selves to their work roles; in engagement, people employ and express themselves physically, cognitively, and emotionally during role performances. Personal disengagement was defined as the extrication of oneself from work roles; that is, people pull out and shield themselves physically, cognitively, or emotionally during work role performances. Kahn (1990, 1992), stated that employees can be engaged on one dimension and not the other. But, the more an employee is engaged on each dimension, the higher his personal engagement. In consequence of this, Kahn concentrated on the emotional, cognitive and physical aspect of engagement in his research study. In the work of Macey and Schneider (2008) engagement is defined along the line of the psychological state, trait, and behavioural engagement which is characterized by feelings of passion, energy, enthusiasm, and activation. Behavioural engagement is described as an adaptive behaviour; Trait engagement as a number of interconnected personalities while attributes relate to state engagement whether directly or indirectly to behavioural engagement. A different definition of employee engagement stems from the positive psychology champion by Maslach and Jackson (1981) with its centre of attention on the positive as against the negative aspects of work described as a burnout. They conducted a research on employee burnout and developed what is now known as the Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI). According to Maslach and Jackson (1981), burnout is a psychological condition that ensues from persistent interpersonal relations at work. In addition, Schaufeli and Bakker (2004) in their view regard engagement as the exact positive diametric of workplace burnout. This is a reversal model score of the Maslach Burnout Inventory measurement of engagement, Maslach, et al, (2001). This indicated a low score on job fatigue and a high score on professional efficiency are indicators of engagement. Furthermore, Theresa M. Welbourne (2007) defined engagement in relation to the behaviour of the managers when she posits that engaged employees are those that work and prosper in the noncore job roles using a performance model she developed. The model identified six major roles that employees engage at work. These are (i) Core job-holder role, (ii) Entrepreneur/ innovator role, (iii) coming up with new ideas, participating in others innovations, (iv) Team member role, (v) Career role, and (vi) Organizational member role or citizenship role. Going by Saks, (2006) term, employee engagement is job and organisation engagements which are related but distinct constructs. They attributed the rationale for Employee engagement to Social exchange theory explaining that employees will choose to engage themselves to varying degrees and in response to the resources they receive from their organization. The two most dominant roles for most organizational members are their work role and their role as a member of an organization. In the opinion of Robinson et al (2004) employee engagement is an inspirational disposition held by the employee towards the organisation and its values. Gallup, as reported by Dernovsek (2008), compares employee engagement to the employees positive emotional sentimental attachment and commitment to the organisation. The CIPD (2016) recognises employee communication, better known as internal communication, as an essential part of the business and the HR function. It continues that effective internal communication is important for developing trust within an organisation and it is shown to have a significant impact on employee engagement, organisational culture and, ultimately, productivity (CIPD, 2016). This collaborates Boynton and Mishras (2014) earlier research study that examined the role of communication in the public relations (PR) industry and suggested that internal communication can play an important role in building trust and behaviour as shown by public relations professionals in the industry.

Biological Rights Essay -- essays research papers

Biological Rights What is a parent? A parent is someone who will love and nurture a child, and help mold it into the best that child can be. At least that is what society would like to believe. If someone adopts a child, does that make him or her any less of a parent? Is it not possible that they will love that child more then its biological parent could? Unfortunately, once adoption is final some biological parents try to fight for their child back. This can only bring confusion into the child’s life period. Tearing a child away from the parents it knows, is a cruel, unhealthy and immoral act. Every state has their own set of laws concerning adoption. The one part that each state varies the most is the â€Å"Waiting Period†. The â€Å"Waiting Period† begins when both sets of parents sign papers signifying the beginning of the adoption. â€Å"Typically, the waiting period ends six months after the child is placed in the home. The temporary decree is replaced by a final one. The most important feature of this decree is that it is final. The biological parents now have no legal relationship to the child.†{Bolles 94} Some biological parents, however, just do not understand that. They fight to get their child back, that they so willingly gave up. They don’t care about the feelings of the child, only their personal needs that they feel the need to satisfy. â€Å"Children are compared to property rather then a person†.{Bolles 36} These children, who live with the adoptive parents, who are now in ...

Alvin Ailey :: essays research papers

Alvin Ailey   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  It was really impressive performance I ever seen. I like all programs and their performance was too attractive and interesting. I like lighting and music because it looked very decent with the performance. In addition, they organized it very well. I really like it. The following paragraphs give a few facts about Alvin Ailey and his background.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Alvin Ailey was born in Rogers, Texas on January 5, 1931 and moved to Los Angeles, California at the age of twelve. There, on a junior high school class trip to the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo, he fell in love with concert dance. Inspired by performances of the Katherine Dunham Dance Company and classes with Lester Horton, Mr Ailey began his formal dance training. It was with Mr. Horton, the founder of the first racially integrated Dance Company in this country, that Mr. Ailey embarked on his professional dance career. After Horton's death in 1953, Mr. Ailey became the director of the Lester Horton Dance Theater and began to choreograph his own works. In 1954, he and his friend Carmen de Lavallade were invited to New York to dance in the Broadway show, House of Flowers by Truman Capote. In New York, Mr. Ailey studied with many outstanding dance artists, including Martha Graham, Doris Humphrey and Charles Weidman and took acting classes with Stella Adler. In 1958, Mr. Ailey founded his own company, the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater. In 1960, he choreographed Revelations, the classic masterpiece of American modern dance based on the religious heritage of his youth. Throughout his lifetime, Mr. Ailey created some 79 ballets, many of which have appeared in the repertoire of major dance companies, including American Ballet Theatre, The Joffrey Ballet, Dance Theatre of Harlem, Paris Opera Ballet and La Scala Ballet.