Performance Management in a Human Resources Framework Essay Example for Free

Performance Management in a Human Resources Framework Essay Performance Management in a Human Resources Framework Introduction The purpose of this assignment to is to consider Performance Management in a Human Resources Framework. Firstly, the assignment will look at the concept of ‘Human Resources Management’ as a holistic strategic approach to managing the relationship between employer and employee that goes beyond the bounds of mere ‘Personnel Management’. Secondly, in light of the statement from Cooke and Armstrong (1990, cited in Rudman, 2002) that â€Å"Human resources strategies exist to ensure that the culture, values and structure of the organisation and the quality, motivation and commitment of its members contribute fully to the achievement of its objectives† (p. 7), I will examine the extent to which my school’s performance appraisal and professional development policy and practice fit into a human resources framework. Lastly, these examples will be used to identify some of the potential and pitfalls of performance appraisal and professional development for an educational organisation. Human Resources Management – a holistic approach Human resource management (HRM) can be viewed as a holistic approach to managing the relationships in an organisation between the employer and employee. Rudman’s (2002) definition of HRM implies this holistic approach, in that HRM â€Å"covers all the concepts, strategies, policies and practices which organisations use to manage and develop the people who work for them† (p. 3). Several authors (Macky Johnson 2000; McGraw, 1997; Rudman, 2002; Smith, 1998) acknowledge that HRM is the strategic and coherent approach to the management of an organisations most valued assets the people working there who individually and collectively contribute to the achievement of the objectives of the organisation. The terms ‘human resource management’ (HRM), ‘human resources’ (HR) and even ‘strategic human resource management’ (SHRM) have largely replaced the term personnel management as a description of the processes involved in managing people in organisations during the decades of the 1980s and 1990s (McGraw, 1997; Rudman, 2002). â€Å"People have been making personnel decisions since the earliest of times† (Rudman, 2002, p. 2), however, from a historical perspective, the modern form of personnel management was founded from the time of the industrial revolution on two main beliefs: 1) the employer’s concern for the welfare of its workers, and 2) the organisation’s need for control (Rudman, 2002). Over the last century personnel management evolved through the changing responses between these two beliefs and altered because of influences through scientific management, the industrial welfare and human relations movements, the developm ent of trade unions and collective bargaining, and the growth of employment-related legislation (Rudman, 2002). Today, personnel management is associated with the functional aspects of people in organisations, whereas HRM is associated with the strategic aspects of people in organisations (Rudman, 2002). In practice the distinction between Personnel and Human Resource Management is often blurred because organisations need both function and strategic direction for managing and developing people (McGraw, 1997). Personnel management (PM) is therefore often used to describe the work related with administering policies and procedures for staff appointments, salaries, training and other employer/employee interactions.

Absurdity: An Essay On The Stranger :: essays research papers

An Essay on†¦ The Stranger; The Absurd "One Ring to rule them all, One Ring to find them, One Ring to bring them all And in the Darkness bind them" (Lord of the Rings Volume II, The Council of Elrond) Within the Stranger, Albert Camus brought up many questions and a few answers. He created an outsider to society and showed us how he lived, Meursault. Meursault was always indifferent. Meursault accepted death. Why? Meursault saw the purpose of life meaningless. That is â€Å"Absurdity†! Absurdity, how does that word sound? Pretty bad, eh? Absurdity when used like â€Å"that’s absurd!† gives the feeling of negative judgment and a sense of finality. The idea of the Absurd seems to attach itself with meaningless, pointless and other such words that express a destination but without the means to get there and vice versa means but no destination. So from there I inferred that Camus does not believe in God nor any high law or universal law that are associated with a divinity, which is a path in life (either the means or the destination). So what is Absurd? The Absurd is living, a quest to find the meaning of anything within a reality with no purpose. Reality has no purpose because there is no high law, a universal law nor a God. Therefore this reality must be randomness. I believe that Camus wants us to see thi s and begin questioning our existence. So he wants he wants us to see the Absurdity and to cope with the Absurdity. If there is no point to living why do we continue to live? If this reality is absurd why don’t we recognize that and commit suicide? Taking one’s life shows the lack of will or reasons to live and also the needlessness of suffering. So what is living? Living is the Absurd. Living is hopelessness. Living is keeping the absurd alive. To keep the absurd alive you only have to live the absurd. 'Life will be more fully lived in so far as it has no meaning.' is a quote from Camus that shows this. Camus shows that you can â€Å"hope† for the best without hope. â€Å"Hope† is not the same as hope. â€Å"Hope† is optimism. Freedom from hope is freedom to your soul. You can no longer hurt yourself by living. It is hard to believe that being hopeless leads to living but living is an imprisonment. We try to be the best we can be but does not life limit us?

War, by Luigi Pirandello and Denial

This is perfectly demonstrated In the short story ‘War†, by Lugging Primordial. In â€Å"War†, the character called the fat traveler or old man gives testament to the effects of denial. Upon analysis, it is revealed that he is a dynamic character; through Primordial's usage of characterization and his eventual transformation. Primordial's characterization of the fat traveler follows a linear process: a marked emergence, explanation of his beliefs, the other characters' reaction to him, and his transformation. The manner which he is Introduced sets the mood and tone for him, s he enters though loudly Interrupting a conversation with â€Å"Nonsense†.He Is described as â€Å"a fat, red-faced man with bloodshot eyes of the palest gray. He was panting†¦ Trying to cover his mouth with his hand so as to hide the two missing front teeth†. At this point, he carries a negative tone, with the mood thick in disrespect. Every detail about him carries a negati ve connotation, from being fat to toothless. This is not by accident, as he is displayed as a decrepit individual no person wants to become. This primes the reader to be skeptical of him, and what he stands for (War 08)_ This is directly followed by an explanation of his beliefs.It would seem that the fat traveler is zealous in his beliefs, as it is written that â€Å"From his bulging eyes seemed to spurt inner violence of an uncontrolled vitality which his weakened body could hardly contain†. This illustrates him as speaking with fervor, with him placing so much energy Into what he says that his body can hardly take it. This Image complements the manner which he responds to the other travelers statement of â€Å"Our children do not belong to us, they belong to the country'; through using a monologue: Bosh, Do we think of the country when we give life to our children?We belong to them but they never belong to us. And when they reach twenty they are exactly what we were at th eir age. We too had a father and mother, but there were so many other things as well and the Country, of course, whose call we would have answered-?when we were twenty-? even If father and mother had said no. Now, at our age, the love of our Country is still great, of course, but stronger than it is the love of our children. Isn't it natural that at their age they should consider the love for heir Country (l am speaking of decent boys, of course) even greater than the love for us?Isn't it natural that it should be so, as after all they must look upon us as upon old boys who cannot move any more and must sit at home? If Country is a natural necessity Like bread of which each of us must eat In order not to patriotism, that everyone has an innate, natural love for their country; and that the only thing the parents love more than country are their sons. This is reinforced by the tiny husband's explanation of his wife's behavior: that she is overtaken with grief cause their son, â€Å"a boy of twenty [years] to whom both [the husband and wife] had devoted their entire life†, is to be sent to the front-lines (Primordial 108).The fat man continues, stating that they, as parents of soldiers, should not be afraid for their boys because their sons are proud to fight and die for the country they love: â€Å"And our sons go, when they are twenty, and they don't want tears, because if they die, they die inflamed and happy (l am speaking, of course, of decent boys). Now, if one dies young and happy, without having the sides of life what more can we ask for him? Everyone should stop ugly crying; because my everyone should laugh, as I do†¦ r at least thank God-?as I do son, before dying, sent me a message saying that he was dying having ended his life in the best way he could have satisfied at wished. That is why, as you see, I do not even wear mourning†¦ † (109) The fat man's beliefs allude to the romantic ideal of war, an ideal that became savagely a ntiquated during World War l. In the war, millions of young men lost their lives in the name of nationalism, and the citizenry were left disillusioned to the mystic of war. The fat man perfectly personifies his, as he is an ugly, misshapen individual speaking of pride and grandeur.Also, up at this point he is only referred to as either the fat man or the fat traveler. The word â€Å"fat† connotes to him be â€Å"full of it†, or not telling the truth (full of it). This connotation is revealed through his body language after his monologue, as â€Å"his livid lip over his missing teeth was trembling, his eyes were watery and motionless, and soon after he ended with a shrill laugh which might well have been a sob† (109). It is used to relate to two things, that there is no glory in war and that he is lying about not wearing running about his son.In response to the fat man's speech, the other travelers state â€Å"Quite so†¦ Quite so†¦ † And nod in a greement. The fat man's words had a special effect on the portly woman. At this point in the story, the he is presented as the foil to her. She is introduced as being in â€Å"deep mourning† and keeping to herself; while the fat traveler is proud and abrupt. Upon hearing his speech, â€Å"She [realizes] that it [isn't] the others who [are] wrong but herself who could not rise up to the same height of those fathers and mothers willing to resign themselves, without crying, not only to the aperture of their sons but even to their death†.Her transformation of thought is short-lived, as she snaps out of it, â€Å"Just as if she had heard nothing of what had been said and almost as if waking up from a dream† and asks the old man, â€Å"Then†¦ Is your son really dead? † The old man turned to look at her, fixing his great, bulging, horribly watery light gray eyes, deep in her face. For some time he tried to answer, but words failed him. He looked and looked at her, almost as if only then at that silly, incongruous question-?he had suddenly realized at last that son was really dead-?gone forever-?forever.His face contracted, horribly distorted, then he snatched in haste a handkerchief from pocket and, to the amazement of everyone, broke into harrowing, heart- became time the fat traveler is called â€Å"old†. â€Å"Old† connotes to him being delicate and fragile. When directly confronted with the question of losing his son, he was forced to accept the grim truth that his son was gone; and this reality breaks him (109). In the context of the story, Primordial uses the old man to showcase the effects of denial.Right from the get-go he is described as ugly and malformed, with a desire to splay his beliefs aggressively. It appears he is trying to convince the other travelers to â€Å"stop crying† and be happy, but he is really trying to convince himself. Even though he says that he does not â€Å"even wear mourningâ₠¬ , his body begins to tremble at the mention of it. He can't even address his son's death directly, as he only mentions that his son sent him a message before dying. When the portly woman asks him if his son is really dead, he is forced to face the reality that â€Å"his son was really dead-?gone forever-?forever†.

The Western Military Trajectory During The Gunpowder And...

The Western military trajectory finds many of the impetuses for a military revolution stemming from non-Western stimuli. Innovations such as the composite bow (introduced by the Hyksos), cavalry (accredited to Assyria and Persia), the stirrup (attributed to China), gunpowder (China), crossbow (China), and cannons (China) have been attributed to non-Western regions; however, it is the Western militaries that exploited these innovations to their full deadly potential and in the process created military revolutions. This paper will discuss how some of these exploitations affected the Western military trajectory during the Gunpowder and First Industrial Revolutions, most often leaving the non-Western militaries lagging behind. It will also†¦show more content†¦The French invasion of Italy was not only an early part of the Gunpowder Revolution and the beginning of the modern age of warfare, but it was one of the first attempts at building nation-states. At the time, Italy was divided into several city-states, sovereign regions formed by a city and its surrounding territories. Due to the small size of many city-states, their defense was turned over to mercenary captains, condottieri. The paid men who formed compagnie (companies) under the condottieri were most often foreigners who lacked loyalty to their paymasters. On the other hand, as France expanded and took over city-states such as Armagnac, Burgundy, Provence, Anjou, and Brittany, they would become a part the French nation and its military. As such, King Charles VIII became the leader of the most powerful state in Europe by advancing the nation-state instead of city-states. Nearly one and a half centuries later, Swedish King Gustavus II Adolphus would further advance the French artillery techniques and make modern modifications to the formation and maneuver of his troops during the Battle of Breitenfeld in 1631 against Count Johann Tilly, an Imperial commander. Tilly formed his forces in seve nteen tercios, large formation of pikemen and musketeers fifty men abreast and thirty men deep. This formation was deadly for everything in its forward path, but it didShow MoreRelatedThe Industrial Revolution And Latin America1609 Words   |  7 PagesThe Industrial Revolution Latin America in The Nineteenth Century ââ€"  Only Japan underwent a major industrial transformation during the Nineteenth Century. ââ€"  India, Egypt, Ottoman Empire, China and Latin America experimented in modern industry. ââ€"  They were nowhere near the kind of major social transformation that had taken place in Britain, Europe, North America and Japan. ââ€"  The profound impact of European and North American industrialization was hard to avoid. After Independence in Latin America