Thursday, October 31, 2019

EU Law Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words

EU Law - Essay Example The first elections of the European parliament â€Å"by direct universal suffrage† took place in June 1979 (Europa, 2007). Since then these elections take place every five years giving more strength and responsibility to the Parliament. In European Union, EP is the only directly elected body. Every five year, 27 member states select 736 Members, which represent 500 million people of EU (EuroParl, 2011a). It covers every sphere of EU’s citizens life; civil, social, political, economical and environmental. Its domain of control is huge. Gradually EU’s parliament has gained a position of â€Å"co legislator† for all the new laws and amendments. Few people say that it has given increased powers and it can exercise it anywhere it wants. It has given supervisory powers in law making; even the Central bank cannot select its president without EU’s Parliaments assent. EuroParl (2011a) writes, â€Å"The European Parliament and the Council must adhere to the annual spending limits laid down in the multiannual financial perspective.† It has all the controlling power in monetary matters. It can also set up inquiries over controversial matters. EuroParl (2011b) writes, â€Å"With the entry into force of the Lisbon Treaty, the Parliament became a true co-legislator for the EU's entire annual budget, deciding on it in close collaboration with the Council.† The whole document is repeatedly filled with such sentences. â€Å"The European Parliament and the Council may, by means of directives adopted in accordance with the ordinary legislative procedure, establish†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ... In 1990, unification of Germany took place. On the other hand, Treaty of European Union, the new treaty was negotiated by the members of the EU, taking place at Maastricht in Dec 1991. It was put to force in Nov 1993. EP’s role under Maastricht Treaty stretched and each citizen regardless of its nationality was given the right to vote in the elections of the European Parliament. During March 2000, EU wore a new, modernized face enabling Europe to emerge as a giant business Union, concerning many other issues like, education, information, environment, unemployment etc. People, who were voters of EU were getting really restless demanding their Governments to find real solutions of their problems. EU has been evolving ever since it came into being along with its parliament’s powers and functions. This enhanced cooperation procedure, introduced firstly in Amsterdam treaty, has come a long way and literally plays a role in most of the EU matters. EU’s parliament eithe r has to give consent or has to be kept informed throughout. The main provision of Nice treaty was to change the decision-making process to make it more democratic. French and Dutch voters discarded the constitutional treaty and took 18 months to process the reforms. In December 2007 Lisbon treaty was signed by all the EU members and it is currently being endorsed. This treaty gave increased powers to European parliament at three fronts; Legislative, budgetary and supervisory powers. Witte, et al. (2010, pp.67) states, â€Å"Lisbon treaty has entrusted the EP with more active role in law making.† Enhanced co operation procedure was initiated in 1987, in which EP was free to give opinions and regulate directives proposed by the EC and

Tuesday, October 29, 2019

Reading response Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words - 10

Reading response - Assignment Example headedness† and â€Å"handedness† the author notes how contemporary scholars in psychology have come up with various categories of intelligence, which provide better insight into what aptitude constitutes. These intelligence types include logical, musical, linguistic, spatial, bodily, interpersonal, and intrapersonal. These intelligence classes are not distinctive and most often individuals possess several in tandem. The second article titled â€Å"The Narrative Construction of Reality† by Bruner (2-21) denotes how extensive the focus on the manner through which human beings achieve true knowledge has been since time immemorial. According to the author, the quest for understanding this has brought about immense development in the field of psychology attempting to explain people’s acquisition of knowledge. The article emphasizes that the traditional explanations for knowledge were unilinear, either rationalist focusing on the mind’s internal power or empiricist on the ability to learn from externalities. The principle argument supported by the article is that man’s knowledge capacity is a combination of several factors and is neither strictly unilinear not logical. For this reason, individuals must not only strive to be rational, but also embrace symbolic external factors to gain knowledge. The final article â€Å"Science and Linguistics† by Whorf (69-70), begins by providing description of what the author refers to as "natural logic". This is a concept suggesting that every person beyond infancy talks and has deeply embedded ideas regarding speech and its connection to thinking. The author’s principal assertion is that thought and language are autonomous and that thinking is the same for virtually everyone, with the only slight distinction being in language. All of the articles point towards the psychology of learning, knowledge, or overall intelligence. These scholarly works also show that human intelligence cannot be considered to be as a result of

Sunday, October 27, 2019

Analysis of McDonalds’ Expansion Strategy

Analysis of McDonalds’ Expansion Strategy Introduction: McDonalds is one of the most giant burger brands in the global fast food chain which is presented in nearly 120 countries (Keegan and Green, 2013). However, McDonald still has to challenge with a number of problems arisen in not only home market but also global market (CBS Chicago, 2014). Based on its report of final quarter last year, there was a huge number of its customers purchasing McDonalds’ products has been decreased. Especially in the U.S market in 2013, the company has lost more than 1.6 percent of its customers compared to the same moment with previous years (CBS Chicago, 2014). Question 1: McDonalds has lost its customer attraction in home market, however, its reputation is still popular in emerging markets due to the lack of trust on their local brands (Doctoroff, 2014). Understanding this opportunity, McDonald has made a decision of expanding its business to the global market (Rudarakanchana, 2013). Though McDonalds segmented its business in a number of parts, the quality of its products and services has been claimed that: â€Å"McDonald’s was built on a strong foundation of a core menu that we took around the world but we need to make sure we are more locally relevant,† (Grant, 2006). In particular, the quality of its products will be locally delivered that is different with other regions by applying ‘polycentric orientation’ which related to ‘localized approach’ (Keegan and Green, 2013). This answer will use four main aspects of marketing mix to analyse how McDonalds run its business locally in its segmentations. Product: When McDonalds entered the India market, it coped with the problems of beefs products in there because the most Indian people follow the Hinduism avoid using meat from beef or cow (Rowley, 2012). Hence, McAloo Tikki which is a beef-free burger has been provided in the India market and quickly became the most favourite products in India McDonalds (Hickman, 2013). In addition, in the France, McDonalds has also produced the McCamembert for the local market which using the Camembert cheese the popular cheese brand in France (Tepper, 2013). Moreover, McArabia burger product, which uses chicken sandwiched between a long bread, has been presented in the Middle East market (Hickman, 2013). Place: McDonalds’ expansion strategy has been executed with a huge number of nearly 40 thousands stores in over 110 countries (McDonalds, 2014). Taking advantages from this succeed and its experience in home market, the corporation planned to keep increasing the number of over 400 drive-thru stores to compete with other rivals in global market (Vignali, 2001). For example, McDonalds in the UK has opened its stores in diversified places but still focused on high traffic locations such as in shopping malls, near entertainment areas or at airports and train stations (McDonalds, 2014). It happened as the same as in India McDonalds where has more than 200 restaurants in the final quarter of 2010. McDonalds established also nearly 2000 outlets in China and approximately 1000 restaurants in France (Keegan and Green, 2013). Price: The price for a McDonalds’ burger, in particular the Big Mac, was created based on the average wages of customers in the market. The higher minimum wages is, the higher price of a Big Mac will be charged (The Economist, 2014). The Figure 1 will present the differences of prices of Big Mac that McDonalds charges in some popular markets. The income rank of India has been considered as a lower in the middle class with the minimum wage from USD 5 to USD 6 per day (Office of Labour Department, 2014). Hence, the price of USD 1.54 for a Big Mac of McDonalds is much cheaper compared to the price in the UK market with the price for a Big Mac burger is charged USD 4.63, approximately equal price in the US home market. Promotion: Firstly, understanding the habits of watching commercial on television in China, McDonalds in China plans to attract its customers through print media (Vignali, 2008). In addition, ‘Green’ promotion has been executed in India with the claim of no beef products delivered (Keegan and Green, 2013). Secondly, sponsorship activities have been implemented in a number of sports. For example, in the USA, McDonalds maintains close relationship with the most favourite basketball league NBA to attract the awareness of its audience on McDonalds’ brand (Vignali, 2008). Brand name of the McDonalds was also changed in order to be suitable to the market. For example, in Australia, Macca’s was known as McDonalds in there (The Telegraph, 2013). Thirdly, sales promotion has been also delivered to McDonalds’ customers. For example, â€Å"Another burger each weekend† promotion was conducted in Czech market which provided different tastes of burgers (Keegan and Gre en, 2013, pp. 55) Question 2: For a giant service-orientated corporation as McDonalds, there will exist a number of arisen problems related to environmental aspects that influence the internationalisation of its brand. This paper will analyse these impacts by using the PEST framework which will be briefly presented in Figure 2. Factors Opportunities Threats Political Conflicts between national government and Beijing’s government in terms of McDonalds promotion plan Legislators and critics discouragements in terms of McDonalds’ impacts on French food culture Economic China is one of the rapidest-developing market Currency instability Social Indian customers are interested in McDonalds Indian prevents using beefs products French complains about World Cup sponsorship of McDonalds Technological Designing outlets by using more glass window and air cooling systems in India Applying electronic devices to provide better services Creating Order Application Political factor: In order to conduct a huge investment on promotion strategy in China, McDonalds has spent more than USD 1 billion on building a big shopping mall in the middle of Beijing where is considered as a crowded area. However, though having agreements from Beijing government, this project of McDonalds was still postponed by the nation government of China (Keegan and Green, 2013). In France, concerning the negative impacts of McDonalds into traditional lifestyle of French people, there was a lot of legislators and critics has been in disagreements with continuing to allow McDonalds’ outlets to be established more (Keegan and Green, 2013). Economic factor: Due to the hundred time of development in terms of meal industry in India, McDonalds has considered this statistic as one of potential changes to expand its business in this market. Hence, the company opened a number of outlets mainly in areas where have high customer traffic (McDonalds, 2014). Since McDonalds has realized the potential of fast food industry in China, it has planned to enter this market and achieved considerable outcomes in terms of profits and customer attentions. Hence, China was considered by McDonalds as the rapidest-developing market that stimulates the company to keep expanding in there (Keegan and Green, 2013). However, currency instability was also recognized as one of serious threats for McDonalds in terms of economical factor. Due to its main proportion of profits generated from external American market, there may cause a significant threats to McDonalds’ profit if exchange rates are not constant. For example, in 2012, nearly 0.5 percent of company’s revenue has been decreased because of this issue of exchange rates (Gasparro, 2012). Social factor: The customer expectation for the fast food industry was increased strongly in India when McDonalds entered this market in 1996. After a number of being presented here, the amount of money for purchasing fast food products has been increased strongly and will be expected to be increased up to 1.5 time in 2016 compared to the statistic in 2013 (Nayak, 2013). However, there still has a number of considerations towards this factors. For example, most Indian people follow the Hinduism which indicated that beefs and products from beefs will not able to be used in there. Therefore, McDonalds has had to design a different menu for its customers in this market (Hickman, 2013). In addition, the presence of its brand in World Cup 1998 in France was received a lot of criticisms in terms of health issues from French people. Technological factor: Understanding the fast innovation of technology that affects considerably towards business strategy, McDonalds has spent much efforts on planning to apply high-technological devices in delivering its services (Patton, 2013). In order to make its customer comfortable and be relax when using McDonalds’ services, iPod and television were provided to customers to use. In addition, in India, glass window and air cooling systems have been used to help McDonalds’ outlets in this market satisfy Indian customers (Keegan and Green, 2013). Question 3: Assuming that McDonalds has decided to expand its business into Vietnam fast food market, the following step is very essential for the corporation to start planning a strategy to deliver its products in this market. This part will use the international market entry strategy which will be outlined in Figure 3 to provide recommendations for McDonalds. Indirect exporting: This decision of market entry was considered as the safest way for the McDonalds. When this type of strategy is chosen, the company will not participate to export its product oversea and it also not participate in marketing strategy in the target market (Lambin, Chumpitaz and Schuiling, 2007). For example, McDonalds may trade its products with a local company and allow to sell these products into Vietnam market. Hence, this local company will take responsibility for the sales of these products. However, with the weak connections between McDonalds and its products, the company may be unsuccessful to attract the huge awareness from target customers (Lambin, Chumpitaz and Schuiling, 2007). Direct exporting: In contrast with the indirect exporting decision, with the direct exporting strategy, McDonalds will straight participate to export its products to a Vietnamese company to sell it in this market. The advantage of this action is that the company can ensure its marketing strategy in the targeted market (Lymbersky, 2008). Hence, though McDonalds has to spend a lot of efforts on justifying the market before making decision, it will have more power on managing its sales and marketing activities in the foreign market (Lymbersky, 2008). Direct investment: The popular activity related to this direct investment strategy is to collaborate with a local company in the target market, particularly Vietnam market, in order to create a joint venture form. The advantage of this activity is that McDonalds is not the only one who has to suffer risks from entering new markets, especially in terms of profits. It also has a chance to acquire more information of the market from its partner. However, managerial issues can be arisen when working with the local company due to the dissimilarity between two cultures (Keegan and Green, 2013). Indirect investment: Related to this type of strategy, licensing and franchising are considered as two popular methods which are used to plan to enter a new market (Keegan and Green, 2013). Licensing. Similar to direct investment decision, licensing will be used for the long-term purpose which provides less risks to the company, in this case is McDonalds. The local company in the targeted market will be empowered to use the reputation of McDonalds to distribute products in its market (Lymbersky, 2008). Because of using image of popular products, it will create an opportunity for the local distributor to attract a huge number of customers for these products that related to increase sales revenue (Lambin, Chumpitaz and Schuiling, 2007). Hence, McDonalds in this case may take profit benefits from this method. However, it is also considered as a risk for McDonalds due to the lack of power on controlling the delivered marketing strategy of the distributors into the market (Lambin, Chumpitaz and Schuiling, 2007). Franchising. Franchising plays as one of recommendations for investing indirectly to enter the new market. This method is the agreement between the franchiser, in this case is McDonalds, and the franchisee who will be empowered by McDonalds to sell its products in the targeted market (Jobber and Fahy, 2009). Though it seems to be similar to licensing, there is a difference that the franchise will run its business as the same as the business in the host country (Keegan and Green, 2013). For example, there will be an outlet of McDonalds in Vietnam which has the same design of outlets and deliver the same services with McDonalds in the US. This type of market entry strategy has been also used by McDonalds in overall markets that it entered (McDonalds, 2014). The main advantage of this decision is that McDonalds, who plays as the franchiser role, can apply its global marketing strategy to its outlet in Vietnam. Moreover, it is easy for McDonalds for controlling the quality of delivered p roducts, the quality of recruited staffs in the Vietnamese outlet to ensure the similarity between its outlets in home market and in Vietnam. Hence, it could be seen that Vietnamese customers can have a chance to experience the products and services as the same as it is delivered in the U.S (Lymbersky, 2008). Taking advantages from the success in terms of franchising strategy in the world market and the popularity of its reputation, it could be recommended that franchising should be adapted in the Vietnamese market. Question 4: Based on the global expansion strategy of McDonalds, ‘Plan to Win’ was designed in order to create a standard marketing plan which will be adapted in any market in general (McDonalds, 2014). However, for a particular market as Vietnam fast food market, there still has to concern in a number of factors initiatively that influence the strategy of marketing to create competitive advantage. Porter’s five forces model (Porter, 2008) will be used to explain in detail. Threat of New Entrants. With the positive GDP growth of the economy started from 2004, Vietnam was reported as one of the fastest and the most stable economy in Asia. In addition, in 2007, Vietnam has been conceded as one of official members of WTO and the government of this country has renovated its laws and regulations which provided open opportunities for multinational companies like McDonalds to enter Vietnamese market. (KPMG, 2012). Threat of Power of Suppliers. Though there is a lot of potential local suppliers for food ingredients and equipment for fast food services, only few current foreign brands in Vietnam accepted to participate with them due to disagreements (Vietnamnet Bridge, 2014). Hence, there has a chance for McDonalds to find its suppliers in the local market to reduce the cost from importing oversea if the company find solutions for this issue. Threat of Power of Buyers. Due to the increase of young population and the high proportion of middle income customers in Vietnam, the demand for reputable brands, particularly in fast food restaurants, has been raise rapidly (Azzaro, 2012). Hence, it partly reduces pressures for McDonalds entering the new Vietnam fast food market. Threat of Substitute Products. In case of charging the price of McDonalds’ products as similar as them in some Asian market, McDonalds may have to suffer the loss of customers to substitute products. For example, steam sticky rice, pho or noodles are popular traditional fast food in Vietnam which can be considered as substitute products for burgers of McDonalds (Vietnamnet Bridge, 2014). Threat of Competitors. McDonalds could be considered as a late fast food giant in Vietnamese fast food market because there was a number of giants, for example, KFC, Lotteria, Starbucks, Subway or Burger King have earlier entered the market than McDonalds (Vu, 2014). Understanding these five forces can help McDonalds to create its own competitive advantage over its current rivals in Vietnam fast food industry. Presented as a late competitor in this market, in order to compete with its competitors, it could be recommended that spending significant efforts on executing its marketing plan is very important though â€Å"Plan to Win† global strategies has been provided with clear marketing mix. As the same as obtaining qualitative and quantitative results by creating an effective marketing plan, there are three marketing executing tools which are popular to be applied to implement its plans (Pride and Ferrell, 2008). Customer Relationship Management. Though researching on customer’s needs before entering the market is necessary, maintaining the relationship between McDonalds and its customers is also important. (Pride and Ferrell, 2008). Hence, McDonalds should collect information or feedbacks of customers who used its products and classify this data to enhance the better services to the customers. Since potential customers are satisfied, it is less challenge for the company to create marketing plans to maintain the relationship with its customers in long term (Pride and Ferrell, 2008). Internal Marketing. Customers are not only known as people who use products or services but also known as the human resources who directly participate in delivering products and services of a company. This is considered as internal customers (Saxena, 2009). Therefore, the company should assign clear job tasks and suitable reward systems for employees that fulfil their expectations to help them commit to contribute to the success of the company (Pride and Ferrell, 2008). Total Quality Management. Due to the low-priced products strategy, McDonalds has to spend a considerable effort to effectively control the quality of its products and services. It is not only related to ensure the customer relationship maintenance but also its suppliers’ relationships in order to increase its market shares and reduce the costs of production (McDonalds, 2014). Therefore, the company can satisfy its customers by delivering cheaper products but still ensuring its high quality. Conclusion: This paper has attempted to analyse McDonalds’ expansion strategy and provided justification and executing plain for entering Vietnam fast food market. With the positive researched information of fast food market in Vietnam, it could be believed that McDonalds will be successful to attract the customers and compete other rivals to become market leader in there. However, adjustments for this marketing plan will be required due to the change of environmental factors in the market.

Friday, October 25, 2019

Biography of Aristotle (384 -322 BC) :: essays research papers

Aristotle (384 -322 BC) ARISTOTLE'S LIFE Aristotle, Greek philosopher and scientist, is one of the most famous of ancient philosophers. He was born in Stagira, Greece to a physician to the royal court. When he became eighteen, Aristotle entered Plato's School in Athens and remained at this academy for twenty years, as a student and then as a teacher. He was recognized as the Academy's brightest and was given the title of "The Intelligence of the School". When Plato died in 347 BC, Aristotle left Athens and joined a group of disciples of Plato, with his friend Hermias. Hermias became ruler of a city called Assos, a city in Asia Minor. Aristotle married Hermias' adopted daughter, Pythias. In 343 or 342 BC, Philip II, king of Macedonia, told Aristotle to supervise the education of his son, Alexander (later known as "Alexander the Great"). He taught him until 336 BC, when Alexander became the ruler of Macedonia. Alexander the Great later became the ruler of all Greece, and over threw the Persian Empire. In 334 BC, Aristotle returned to Athens and started his own school, the Lyceum. Because he taught while walking around, his students were called the Peripatetic students, meaning "walking" or "strolling". When Alexander died in 323 BC, Aristotle was charged with impiety (lack of reverence to the gods) by the Athenians. The Athenians probably did this because they resented Lu-2 Aristotle's friendship with Alexander, the man who conquered them. Aristotle fled to Euboea. He died there the next year. ETHICS Aristotle believed that there was no way to make an accurate resolution of human

Thursday, October 24, 2019

The Crucible Play Character Analysis

Throughout The Crucible there are good characters, bad characters and the characters who do not take action when action is required. Of these characters, close to all of them embodies one of the seven deadly sins. Of each of the seven, there is always one character that is the worst sinner of that particular vice.There are seven deadly sins but out of the seven there are two in particular that drives this play the most. In control of these sins is Abigail Williams, a young vengeful girl who used to work for the Proctor before being fired for supposedly having an affair with John Proctor. In Arthur Miller’s The Crucible, Abigail demonstrates envy and wrath in order to gain power over John Proctor. Ultimately, however, her intentions result in disastrous circumstances for both her and Proctor.In the play, Abigail is jealous of Elizabeth Proctor for having John Proctor as a husband and this is one of the main reasons she rains hell down on the city of Salem. Abigail’s envy gets the better of her, and throughout the whole play all, she wants is John by her side. Abigail goes to some extreme measure by plotting to kill Elizabeth and steal John for her own.In the beginning of the play, the girls are in the woods dancing, and Abigail drinks a vial of blood which is part of a ritual that Tituba is in charge of. This later leads the girls to worry that they may be in some major trouble; you can tell this when Betty says, â€Å"You drank blood, Abby! You didn't tell him that! You did, you did!You drank a charm to kill John Proctor's wife! You drank a charm to kill Goody Proctor!† (Miller 837). The reason Abigail drinks the blood is to complete the ritual to kill Elizabeth Proctor. Her plot to eliminate Elizabeth does not end there because she calls her a witch in court.In the play Abigail’s wrath is the thing that allows her to get away and out of trouble. Even though it’s her envy that drives her to do the things she does it is her wra th which allows her to get what she wants. Wrath is  vengeance or punishment as the consequence of anger and when Abigail gets angry or upset she starts calling people witches.Abigail still works for her power over John by calling Elizabeth a witch to get rid of her and then have John all to herself. When Proctor asks for the transactions of the court and threatens to whip Mary, she proclaims while pointing at Elizabeth â€Å"I saved her life today!† (Miller 854) We know that it was Abigail who accused Elizabeth of being a witch because of the fact she wants John and drank a blood charm to kill her.Close to the End of the play her intentions for both her and Proctor result in disastrous circumstances because John ends up being accused of witchcraft because of the twist of fate from Elizabeth lying about why she really fired Abigail. In the end it’s John who decides his fate by not signing the confession because he wants to keep his name clean for his kids.John also g oes on to say â€Å"How may I live without my name? I have given you my soul; leave me my name!† (Miller 886) This quote is one John’s last lines in the play meaning he dies for the sole purpose of his name. Abigail goes on to run away and become a prostitute, a fitting end for a whore.Abigail’s envy and wrath for John Proctor is ultimately a disastrous circumstance for both her and Proctor. In Abigail’s envy for John she ends up destroying the man she loves and raining hell on Salem. Abigail‘s wrath is also her passion, she loves tormenting people even the ones she loves.In the end everything is messed up, there is no order, no listening, no control, all because of Abigail and her deadly sins.

Wednesday, October 23, 2019

Human Resources Practice Essay

1. Introduction The HR Profession Map was developed using the following design principles: †¢ It describes what you need to do, what you need to know and how you need to do it within each professional area at four bands of professional competence. †¢ It covers behaviours as well as the technical elements of professional competence required in the HR profession. †¢ It is organised around areas of professional competence, not organisation structures, job levels or roles. †¢ The scope of the Map will cover the breadth and depth of the HR profession, from small to large organisations, from fundamental to sophisticated practice, local to global, corporate to consulting, charity to public sector, traditional to progressive. †¢ It has the versatility to be used in part, or viewed as a whole, with the core professional areas acting as the key or centre that is relevant to all. 2. Activity 1 Summarise the HRPM The Profession Map captures what successful and effective HR people do and deliver across their specialist profession, and sets out the required activities, behaviours and knowledge. Covering 10 professional areas and eight behaviours, set out in four bands of competence the Map covers every level of the HR profession, from band one at the start of an HR career through to band four for the most senior leaders. The Map has been designed to be relevant and applicable to HR professionals operating anywhere in the world, in all sectors and in organisations of all shapes and sizes. Professional Areas 1. Insights, Strategy and Solutions 2. Leading HR 3. Organisation Design 4. Organisation Development 5. Resource and Talent Planning 6. Learning and Development 7. Performance and Reward 8. Employee Engagement 9. Employee Relations 10. Service, Delivery and Information Behaviours 1. Curious 2. Decisive Thinker 3. Skilled Influencer 4. Personally Credible 5. Collaborative 6. Driven to Deliver 7. Courage to Challenge 8. Role Model (www.cipd.co.uk) 2.1Insights, Strategy and Solutions Human Resources professionals work from a deep business, contextual and organisational understanding to develop actionable insight, and prioritise HR strategies that make the most difference at any given time. You develop insight-led solutions, prioritised and tailored around a good business, contextual and organisation understanding – identifying opportunities and risks and acting on them. Business Vision and strategy of the organisation Products/services and customer profiles Financial and non-financial performance information Contextual Your sector and related regulations/legislation Political, economic, social, technological and environmental issues. Organisation Structure, processes, governance Culture, values, behaviours Key relationships, stakeholders, how decisions get made This understanding – and the resulting insights – allow us to create prioritised and situational HR strategies that make the most difference and build a compelling case for change. Includes these topics: Building a picture Developing actionable insight Delivering situational HR solutions that stick Building capacity and capability -Working with agility Organisation context determines the influence and priority of stakeholder roles and individuals, it also determines how readily new systems/ applications or methods can be adopted, and whether we can get there. If customers / principal stakeholders come from different contexts, this may systematically shape the goals and requirements 2.2 Leading HR Resourcing Band 1 Human Resources Professionals need to have a good knowledge of the principles and procedures for organisations recruitment, selection, training, compensation and benefits of labour relations and personnel information systems. A sound knowledge of business and management principles involved in strategic planning, modelling, leadership technique, production methods, and coordination of people and resources. Motivating, developing, and directing people, as they work, identifying the best people for the job also been able to identify potential for succession planning. . 3. Activity 2 Timely and Effective Service With any organization, we will typically find the customers HR supports are within recruiting, employee relations, training, etc, all pretty much the same, regardless of department, our customers are anyone who uses the HR services we provide we interact with supervisors, managers, employees, external candidates, and external organizations. The way that HR interacts with each of these groups is different depending on what is being delivered, but in the general sense, our customers are all as important as each other. 3.1 Employees Employees want professional HR support from real people and HR need to be responsive and clear about what services we offer. HR need to be easy to contact and able to respond quickly and effectively. Obviously employees require accurate pay and benefits, on time. They also want to be given the opportunity for training and development. 3.2 Managers Managers want an HR function which understands the workforce and can help management balance employee and business needs. They want a proactive HR function which identifies issues before they happen and works with managers to address them. They would like HR to help them with their most challenging people issues including motivation, change and skills development. An HR function which does not understand the business and the workforce completely loses its value. The needs of both employees and managers are sometimes be conflicting. For example, managers require a higher level of production and sometimes longer working hours whereas employees tend to want more time off and more focus on a work/life balance. A good HR department needs to work with both groups to find the best balance. A way of resolving these conflicts is to focus on the overall needs of the organisation, ensuring that the right employees are recruited and retained will help this. The skills and abilities of all employees need to be aligned to their job role and as HR we need to provide development and training to ensure productivity is reached and to manage turnover of employees. Coaching and counselling employees will also help and providing an effective reward and recognition system. 3.3 Recruitment Agencies HR and recruitment agencies are committed to developing and maintaining closer relationships, the outcomes for both parties are more positive, and from a strategic perspective, it’s the formation of these stronger partnerships that bring mutual business benefits and added value. Good reasons why an organisation would use recruitment agencies Gain access to job-seekers (both active and passive)  source candidates from more specific talent pools and match them to an  organisation’s vacancies reduce the time and in-house resources dedicated to recruitment use a range of specialist skills offered by recruitment experts Access specialist services such as screening, filtering and profiling of candidates Gain flexibility in recruitment to meet cyclical/ market demand Get expert opinion about and knowledge of current recruitment legislation Benchmarking purposes – access to salary data and local market knowledge. However in past experience working with some recruitme nt agencies it can become an expensive option as they tend to charge anywhere from 12.5 percentage of the starting salary upwards and a finders fee if the candidate does become permanent. 3.4 Communication Communication Type Advantages Disadvantages Email Easy to send Fairly quick to send Can send 365 days of the year Can send to a group of people at once Email can get stuck in spam and not received Attachments could contain viruses Internet could go down and may not receive mail for sometime Phone call Calls can be made 24 hours a day 7 days a week Get your message across and gain feedback immediately You cannot see each other’s body language Things could get mis-interpreted Costly Fax Can send exact copies of documents Easy to train how to use No immediate response Could misdial number sending documents to wrong person Poor quality of received document 3.5 Effective Service Delivery An effective HR services for all employees is seen as be supportive, not to dilute the responsibility of people management. Also have the ability to coach line managers, especially around managing performance. 3.6 Delivering Service HR should obtain thorough feedback from internal customers, line managers, senior managers and employees. This should cover both what they need from HR, and their user experience of current services. Such feedback could generate a clear and more effective HR function within the organisation. It can provide fresh insights and help the HR function to focus its efforts in these areas could add value to the business. 3.7 Difficult Customers Assuming that the employee provides value to the company and possesses redeeming qualities, there are ways to deal with difficult employees. Most often, managers will simply ignore problematic staffers. Managers who live by this rule hope the problem will just go away; that these people will somehow turn themselves around or stop being troublesome. Ignoring the situation is the wrong solution to what could likely become a progressive problem. It is important to take action as soon as the negative behavior pattern becomes evident when left untouched, this problem will only escalate. (http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/201950#ixzz2h4AjsnQf) 3.8 Resolving Complaints Employee complaints alert us to potential problems within the business Depending on the type of complaint that comes in you’re going to want to keep relevant portions of your staff appraised of it while simultaneously safeguarding the privacy of the individuals involved. It’s important to be transparent in these situations because â€Å"employees are probably going to know this on the office gossip vine anyway,† says Kelly. â€Å"They want to see that management is aware of it too and that management does take action and demonstrates a commitment to a higher ethical standard.† (http://www.inc.com/guides/2010/04/handle-employee-complaints.html/1)