Big Data has gained massive importance in IT and Business...

Big Data has gained massive importance in IT and Business today. A report recently published state that use of big data by a retailer could increase its operating margin by more than 60 percent and it also states that US health care sector could make more than $300 billion profit with the use of big data. There are many other sectors that could profit largely by proper analysis and usage of big data. Although big data promises better margin’s, more revenue and improvised operations it also brings new challenges to the It infrastructure which is â€Å"extreme data management† .At the same time these companies should also need to look at workload automation and make sure it is robust enough to make to handle the needs that the big data is†¦show more content†¦We can combine these with existing enterprise data warehouse to create an integrated information supply chain which will be very effective. The goals of an information supply chain would be to utilize and integrate the many various raw source data that already exists in organizations, analyze this data and lastly to deliver the analytical results to business users. This information supply chain enable the data component called Smarter Computing. Supporting Extreme Workloads has always been a challenge faced by the computing industry. For example the business transaction processing systems have supported extreme transaction workload even since the beginning of data processing. With the advent of new business these organizations have employed custom and optimized transaction processing systems to handle application workloads that created boundaries which was beyond what could be handled by the generalized technologies. There are many examples for this these type of application like : 1. Airline reservation systems 2. Retail point-of-sale terminals 3. Bank ATM systems 4. Financial trading systems 5. Mobile phone systems Most recently applications for sensor network that track items with RFID tags can also be added to this list of examples. In the present scenario there has been a similarShow MoreRelatedThe Challenges of Big Data and Extreme Workload2964 Words   |  12 Pages The Challenges of Big Data and Extreme Workload: Big Data has gained massive importance in IT and Business today. A report recently published state that use of big data by a retailer could increase its operating margin by more than 60 percent and it also states that US health care sector could make more than $300 billion profit with the use of big data. There are many other sectors that could profit largely by proper analysis and usage of big data. Although big data promises better margin’s, moreRead MoreAn Evaluation Analysis of Tesco Plc7760 Words   |  32 PagesBusiness and Financial Performance of Tesco Plc over three years THE BUSINESS AND FINANCIAL PERFORMANCE OF TESCO PLC OVER A THREE YEAR PERIOD Oxford Brooks University Submitted by: TAHIR GHAFOOR ACCA Registration # 1969183 Date Submitted: 21 Nov, 2011 Word count: 6495 approximately. 1|Page Business and Financial Performance of Tesco Plc over three years Table of Contents Table of Contents .................................................................................................. 2 .Read MoreLenovo Strategic Management7889 Words   |  32 PagesIndividual Research Report Title: Strategic Management of Lenovo in Mainland China PC Market [pic] Name: FIN Number: Course Enrolled: Date of Submission: Table of Contents: 1. 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As proposed by Golan Steven (1982); Interviews were conducted with a state director

Effect of Child Abuse in Our Society - 1405 Words

INTRODUCTION TO SOCIOLOGY EFFECT OF CHILD ABUSE IN OUR SOCIETY INTRODUCTION Child abuse is the physical, sexual, emotional abandonment and/or maltreatment of a child. Child abuse is a latent function of some families that is not intended but happens anyway. Child abuse is often seen differently, depending on various cultures, societies, and groups. We as a society cannot really understand the effect of â€Å"Child Abuse in Our Society† unless we have the grasp knowledge of what child abuse actually is. This paper will thus explain in detail, the causes of child abuse, as understanding the causes of abuse is crucial to addressing the problem of child abuse. This paper will also show the micro and macro†¦show more content†¦Psychological problems often manifest as high-risk behaviors. Depression and anxiety, for example, may make a person more likely to smoke, abuse alcohol or illicit drugs. (Child Welfare Information Gateway, 2008). The Macro effect of child abuse in our society and the cultural implications are in the greater capacity compare to the â€Å"micro† effects. Most of the criminal cases in America today have traces to the upbringing of the alleged criminal. Most convicted murderer has told the story of their child abuse experience which as a result, developed them into a non caring people. Child abuse gives the abused child a distorted view of the society, be it emotional, physical, or sexual. The abused child will grow disoriented and often unable to engage with the general population, also they suffer developmental skills resulting in various social problems in life, which in turn affects all of us one way or another such as, increase in crime rate, unrest due to various attacks in the society, addition to drugs in a attempt to hide from their problems. Although specific causes are not known, a significant body of research has identified several risk and protective factors. 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Minimum wage versus Earned Income Tax Credit Free Essays

Minimal pay versus Earned Income Tax Credit Abstraction Minimal pay can be defined as the smallest hourly pay rate that a staff member paid as authorized by federal jurisprudence. The pay rate was ab initio verified by corporate bargaining by authorities regulations and ordinance, saying the lowest rate at which workers may be employed. A legal minimal pay rate is one permitted by authorities for all staff members in a society, with little figure of freedoms. We will write a custom essay sample on Minimum wage versus Earned Income Tax Credit or any similar topic only for you Order Now In other words, lower limit pay is the least dollar sum that company must pay to non-exempt staff members per hr, as permitted by local, province or federal jurisprudence. Most of the companies pay to the workers by hourly rate or in some other manner like on committee footing. However, in any instance, the sum of dollar that qualified staff members earn, divided by the entire hours that they worked, must be tantamount to the current minimal pay rate. Earned income revenue enhancement recognition is a revenue enhancement recognition for employees gaining low incomes. Even employees whose incomes are so low to hold paid revenue enhancements can acquire earned income revenue enhancement recognition. The thought is to diminish the income revenue enhancement that for certain low-income tax-payers would otherwise be indebted. It is a refundable sum of recognition ; hence if the revenue enhancement that is outstanding is less than the sum of the recognition, the difference is paid to the taxpayer as a refund. To run into the standards for the earned income revenue enhancement recognition, a taxpayer must work and gain less than the authorities ‘s bound for registering position and household fortunes, convene a set of peculiar state of affairss, and register the needed IRS programs. Minimal pay versus Earned Income Tax Credit Minimal pay can be defined as the smallest hourly, day-to-day or monthly pay that employers may legitimately pay to employees or staff members. Systematically, it is the lowest pay at which employees may sell off their labor. Even though minimal pay regulations are in consequence in a great many governments, there are unsimilarities of sentiment about the net incomes, benefits and disadvantages of a minimal pay. The follower of the minimal pay say that is enhances or increases the populating criterion of employees and this will certainly cut down the per centum of poorness. Whereas, rivals say that if it is more than plenty to be effectual, it increases the ratio of unemployment, specifically among employees with really low productiveness because of rawness or disability, in that manner to aching lesser skilled workers to the benefit of better skilled workers. Minimal rewards were ab initio planned as a manner to form the detonation of perspiration stores in fabrication industries. The perspiration stores provide services to big population of adult females and immature workers, reimbursing them what were judged to be unsatisfactory rewards. Nowadays, lower limit pay Torahs cover up employees in most low-paid countries of employment. Even though, the aims of the minimal pay are loosely admitted as proper, there is great disagreement as to whether the minimal pay is much effective in accomplishing its aims. From the clip of their debut, lower limit pay Torahs have been highly controversial politically, and have received less aid and support from economic experts as compared to the general populace ( Neumark, A ; Wascher, 2008 ) . Earned income is a scientific and practical term defined by the United States revenue enhancement codification. The below mentioned are the chief beginnings for the earned income: – rewards, wages, tips, committees from outside beginnings and other nonexempt employee compensation – net incomes from self-employment – sum income received as a statutory employee – less population of disablement payments – non-taxable battle wages which an associate of the United States armed services opts to include entirely for the motivation of earned income revenue enhancement recognition computation. Earned income revenue enhancement recognition shortly known as EITC or EIC, is a refundable revenue enhancement recognition, it is agencies tested, and planned to back up low-income employees of staff members and equilibrate the load of United States paysheet revenue enhancements. In other words, it is a refundable federal income revenue enhancement recognition for little to sensible income working individuals and households. Initially, Congress granted the revenue enhancement recognition statute law in 1975 in portion to counterbalance the burden and load of societal security revenue enhancements and to offer an inducement to work. When earned income revenue enhancement recognition goes beyond the sum of outstanding revenue enhancements, the effects in a revenue enhancement refund to those who claim and measure up for the recognition. To run into the standards for earned income revenue enhancement recognition, you must hold earned income from employment, self-employment or any other resource and acquire together specific regulations and ordinances. Additionally, you must either run into the excess regulations for staff employees or workers without a measure uping kid or have a child that convenes all the Qualifying Child Rules for you ( Meyer, A ; Holtz-Eakin, 2002 ) . As, we have discussed about the basic debut of both footings, now, we can make up one’s mind which does more for households holding low incomes? Raising the minimal rewards or bettering the earned-income revenue enhancement recognition, a hard currency fillip to be paid to workers gaining low-incomes. – By raising the minimal pay to 47.25, approximately 18 % of the 12 million members of staff who were paid between the current minimal pay and $ 7.24 an hr rate were in households that had hard currency income under the federal poorness in 2004. All of the employees come under that pay scope, instead than they received the sum of $ 7.25 per hr, they would hold gotten about $ 11 billion in excess rewards in the same twelvemonth. About 15 % of those excess and extra rewards ( $ 1.6 billion ) would hold been received by employees in hapless households. – Making better the earned income revenue enhancement recognition ( EITC ) : It all depends on how accurately Congress altered the jurisprudence, surely, by increasing revenue enhancement credits for childless workers and by besides increasing the credits for households with three or more childs, would hold cost up to $ 2.4 billion in 2004, with employees in households under the poorness line having $ 1.4 billion of the same. The basic thought of both constructs is, households who received fewer sums would hold received a maximal revenue enhancement recognition, and those persons who earned more sums would hold received a smaller sum of revenue enhancement recognition. Families whose revenue enhancement recognition crosses the sum of revenue enhancement owed in world receive a cheque from the authorities for the difference. The earned income revenue enhancement recognition is fundamentally the same as a negative income revenue enhancement, excepting that the eligibility for the plan is restricted to the persons who work. Similar to the statement, both the negative income revenue enhancement and the minimal pay, the earned income revenue enhancement recognition topographic points extra income into the custodies of employees who worked at low rewards. However, unlike the lower limit pay, the earned income revenue enhancement recognition makes no inducement for employers to put off low-wage staff members ( F rank, A ; Bernanke, 2007 ) . Decision As we have clearly discussed about both subjects, lower limit pay and earned income revenue enhancement recognition. We believe that the minimal pay is merely the 2nd best option to the earned income revenue enhancement recognition and other displacement to the worker belongs to the hapless household. I believe that the traditional analysis of the lower limit pay has a reasonable sum and an person would truly hold a penchant to see more transportation payments to people, who are working and less attempts to carry through the same aim through regulative decree. Mentions Frank, Robert H. , A ; Bernanke, Ben S. ( 2007 ) .Principles of economic sciences. New Delhi, India: Tata McGraw Hill Publishing Company Limited. Neumark, David, A ; Wascher, William L. ( 2008 ) .Minimum rewards. Massachusetts, USA: Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Meyer, Bruce D. , A ; Holtz-Eakin, Douglas. ( 2002 ) .Making work wage: the earned income revenue enhancement recognition and its impact on America ‘s households. New York, USA: Russell Sage Foundation Publications. How to cite Minimum wage versus Earned Income Tax Credit, Essay examples

Maslow and Motivation Hierarchy Method (Sample Solution)

Question: Discuss about the Maslow and Motivation Hierarchy Method. Answer: Introduction Strategic Human Resource Management (Gobind 2014)is about sourcing, inducting, training and development, rewarding, and retention of employees for the benefit of the organization. It is a process of management of the complete lifecycle of the employee in the organization for the mutual benefit of both. The focus of this approach is human resources in the organization in context of the goals and strategies of the firm and the challenging nature of work due to fast paced changes in the environment. It also involves the alignment of other HR strategies (Bagga and Srivastava 2014) such as reward and recognition or performance management and determines how they can be integrated into the overall business strategy. It begins with the process of clearly defining the goals and objectives of the organization and then aligning the HR strategy with it. It ensures that the entire workforce of the organization integrates into strategic planning and that HR policies (Bagga and Srivastava 2014) are consistent across the work levels and departments and the same are universally accepted by all the employees and used by line managers in conduct of their daily duties. When HR becomes a partner in the business strategy rather than responsible only for legal compliance, payroll and compensation management it leads to organization success. Strategic Human Resource Management enhances organizational performance in both good and bad economic times. The evolution (Beer 2015) of Human Resource Management has been very interesting. In pre industrial revolution era the economy society was largely agrarian with very limited production and human capabilities, and the number of specialized crafts was limited within the village or community and exchange was through barter. The learning of the specialized crafts was passed down generations within the family and the communication channels (Deadrick and Stone 2014) also were under developed. Then came the period of Industrial Revolution (Beer 2015) (1750 to 1850) which transformed the economy from agrarian to industrial. This was the beginning of machine age and no of factories were set up in which large no of workers were employed. A personnel department was set up in the factory to look into the wages of the workers, maintenance of their records, and much very less importance was given to the welfare of the workers. The workers working in the industries or factories were usually exploited and ill- treated, made to work long hours, and provided fewer wages. The labor was always seen as a cost meant to be reduced while ensuring that the production was increased. There was a big communication gap between the management and the workers, and this led to a growing unrest in the labor community. The workers started to protest and form groups and notable fallout of these events was the growth of labor Unions (1790).This led to conflicts between the labor and management leading to strikes, lockouts, slowdown of work leading to loss of productivity etc. To deal with these issues the management and the personnel department had to be political and diplomatic and any agreement with the union was seen as a win only if it was in favor of the management. There was hardly any concept of employee satisfaction or motivation. This was therefore a loselose situation for both the employees as well as the organizations. Post the Industrial Revolution (Beer 2015) in 1850 the term Human Resource Management saw a major change and numerous experiments and studies were conducted during this period which changed the entire perspective of HRM. Frederick W. Taylor propounded the theory of scientific human resource management (Deadrick and Stone 2014) (1857 to 1911) and the focus of the same was primarily on training of the workers, maintaining parity of wages and improving the productivity of the workers. In a similar manner Hawthorne experiments conducted by Elton Mayo and Fritz Roethlisberger (1927 to 1940) spoke about better work satisfaction leading to better efficiency of the workers. Later, Douglas McGregor (1960) developed the Theory X and Y (Deadrick and Stone 2014) of motivation in which Theory X stressed on inherent dislike of work and to professed a system of reward and penalties coupled with strict supervision whereas Theory Y on the other hand spoke of internal motivation to work. At the same t ime Maslow spoke of Hierarchy of needs (Taormina and Gao 2013) (1954) and tried to explain the different needs of different types of people and considered employees as a valuable resource in variance to the earlier negative and passive approach to human capital management. As a result, human resource function gained importance and was considered a line function closely associated with core business operations, and most of the activities (J. Phillips and P. Phillips 2014) namely sourcing and recruitment, employee rewards and benefits, training and development, salaries linked to performance and performance appraisals played an important role in improving the performance of the organizations. Strategic Human Resource Management has evolved post-1990 and is assuming a major role in running of the organizations today. The focus of this approach is in the alignment of individuals goals and priorities with that of the corporate (Bagga and Srivastava 2014) and the importance of differentiation with respect to competition which results in a long term impact on the success (Arora 2016) of the corporate. Strategic Human Resource Management is, therefore, all about doing a SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats) of the corporate. It analyses the opportunities and threats (Gobind 2014) that exist in the external environment of the corporate and looks internally to get a good understanding of the organizations strengths and weaknesses which forms the basis of formulating the strategic direction followed by implementation of the same and also evaluation of the progress so that the objective is met. It, therefore, believes in prioritization of resources (Wang and Shyu 2008) and all major decisions are taken in alignment with the objectives. It also optimizes resources and time taken correcting ad-hoc or wrong decisions and tries to harmonize individual behaviors into a total team effort. It creates a collaborative and cooperative team effort to innovate and tackle business opportunities and threats and brings in a degree of formality to the management of human capital and business (Jones and Martain 2013) and enables the organizations to deal travails of business in a far more disciplines and systematic fashion. During economic prosperity or when the business is expanding (Paauwe, Guest and Wright 2013) the SHRM approach gives an ability and flexibility to adapt quickly to the change of direction and align resources to participate in the growth. During the time of growth (Gerhards and Heinz 2017) when the business is expanding the organization must attract the right talent who are either from the same industry or a different industry with the relevant skill sets, therefore can be quickly trained and deployed to become productive. It could involve making changes in the compensation and benefits and offering a work environment that is better than the competition to ensure that business has resources to grow or grab market share from the competition. Companies must invest in training and development (Kramar 2013) of all employees during times of prosperity so that the employees stay relevant to the business now and in future and they also perceive a value addition to their skills. Assessing whe re the knowledge gap (Nolan 2010) is should be a key focus in a learning environment. The performance evaluation system (Arora 2016) helps assess the performance and potential of employees and also gaps in development which can then be used to fine tune learning and development programs and prepare them for the future (Sung and Choi 2013). This approach makes sure that the employees continue to receive training and development inputs (Kramar 2013) when the times are good which will result in more nimble and relevant workforce enabling them to change according to the changing economic climate. One has seen enumerable examples of this happening in Telecom sector across nations when an existing operator expands into a new market and tries to make a dent in the business of the incumbent operators in that market ex when Airtel entered the Africa market they were competing with existing players such as Globacom etc. While they deployed lot of trained resources from the parent to set up th e business but at the same time they either acquired local operators along with their workforce or recruited local talent to help understand the local markets. Therefore for the incumbents engaging and retaining these employees who are now trained and productive becomes a focus area whereas the new operator is looking for trained manpower. Similarly during the sudden changes in the business strategy or a downturn (Cook, MacKenzie and Forde 2016) SHRM again plays an important role in managing the change which could mean redeployment of excess manpower, out-placement of resources (Thomas 2009) or managing the attrition in a manner that it does not hurt the business in the short term. Making sure employees have been properly selected (Thomas 2009) for a reduction in force will reduce the risk of monetary loss to the business and manage the transition of employees into different responsibilities or other temporary roles. By making sure people are trained, the cost of unemployment (Sung and Choi 2013) will be less if they are ready to be employed elsewhere. Keeping HR involved in the conversations and abreast of changes in business strategy (Bagga and Srivastava 2014) will lower the risk of mismanaging downsizing. In fact, the role of SHRM is a far more critical in an economic downturn especially when the company is downsiz ing as retaining the good talent (Pardey 2007) becomes a bigger challenge. The HR team should be strong enough to have the experience and knowledge to manage the most expensive asset (J. Phillips and P. Phillips 2014) businesses have, its employees. Having the HR team involved (Gerhards and Heinz 2017) managing change during business downturns is critical to making sure employees are ready to face changes the future brings. The recent consolidation of telecom sector in India where in the last few years the number of players in each of the Telecom circles have come down from more than ten players to four or five operators. This has resulted in mergers and acquisitions, downsizing of operations, and loss of jobs in a highly competitive industry. It may be appropriate to conclude that the Human Resource Management as a function has progressively evolved through the years. While the personnel management was involved with rules and regulations of the employee welfare todays strategic human resource management considers employees as assets and extremely critical to bring profits to business. On the contrary organizations are far more open to recognize this change and willing to engage (J. Phillips and P. Phillips 2014) with employees to be part of these profits and also work actively in improving their skill sets as per the requirements of the current role or future needs of the organization. Those days are gone when training (Clifford and Thorpe 2007) used to be considered a cost as now it is considered as an investment which business cannot ignore. It has been rightly said that Organizations would rather spend on training and have trained employees who leave rather than having untrained employees who stay. So whether the econo mic conditions are good or adverse Strategic Human Resource Management is very critical for enhancing the performance or smooth functioning (Bagga and Srivastava 2014) of the business. The future growth in the area of human resource will be in harnessing the power of rapidly evolving technology (Deadrick and Stone 2014) for every aspect of workforce management, instead of limiting it to just maintaining payrolls, etc. In future the digitization of organizations (Zhang 2014) and the amount of data available to process and draw meaning from will bring a whole new meaning to this strategic approach to management of the human capital. The business world is changing very fast and the organizations are increasingly recognizing the fact that the employees are an asset rather than a cost (Hennessy and McCartney 2008); therefore, more and more companies are increasingly focusing on integration of the entire workforce with the business strategy along with the process of setting up a vision, mission, goals, and objectives of the Organization. The Strategic Human Resource Management (Bagga and Srivastava 2014) is a process of transformation of the entire human capital of the organization by aligning it with the stated business strategy of the firm with the intent of improving the performance. The Best Fit and Best Practice are the two types of approaches (Gobind 2014) to Strategic Human Resource Management. The Best Fit approach believes in the fact that the HR strategy is far more effective and efficient if it is synchronized to business environment (Hennessy and McCartney 2008) prevailing in the organization. Therefore it tries to ensure that the HR policies and practices are vertically integrated (Gilbert, De Winne and Sels 2015) into the business strategy. It also makes sure that the HR strategy is in line with the different lifecycle stage of the organization and ensures that the processes and culture (Patil and Kant 2012) of the organization are integrated with the same. This approach is more appealing to the HR practitioners as it increases their involvement in decision making (Phillips 2011) as the rejection of one size fits all approach (Hong 2009) gives them far more options to experiment with and bring in their individual flavor to the decision making process. There are three models (Boxall and Purcell 2016) namely the Lifecycle Model, Best fit and Competitive strategy model and Strategic Configuration model. The lifecycle model consists of four stages (Hennessy and McCartney 2008) very similar to product lifecycle namely Start-up, Growth, Maturity, and Decline and therefore the HR strategies for each of the stages are quite different. In the Start-up phase, the human resource management is more informal, and everyones involvement is expected to do everything to get the business started though some functional expertise is also required. In the growth phase the new employees are inducted, and the organization structure gets streamlined and becomes more formal and specialized. In this phase the focus is to hire functional experts, and people with can-do attitude as the organization is into a building phase and requires a lot of hard work, energy, and innovation. During this time policies and work practices are set up paving the way for culture building (Patil and Kant 2012) in the organization. In the maturity phase, the focus is on retention of employees, building their capabilities so tha t these resources give them the edge against the competition. The decline is the most difficult phase, as the company goes through a downturn, the profitability has to be maintained by cutting costs and the HR team is called upon to rationalize or downsize. In thebest fit and competitive model, the competitive strategy of the organization is defined say with the help of Porters five competitive strategies and also the best fit HR practices and policies and the expected employee behavior that goes well with them. In the case of say low- cost competitive scenario the job descriptions are clear and narrowly defined that encourage specialization and expertise. The appraisals are short term and result oriented, and there is a minimal focus on training and development with a close focus on market parity of salary levels for the same kind of jobs. The behavior expected from employees is repetitive and predictable with average concern for quality but a greater emphasis on volume, and usually, the activities performed are independent of the individual and more dependent on the machines. This kind of scenario prevails in job work and low-quality manufacturing set ups. The Strategic Configuration model (Hennessy and McCartney 2008) proposed by Delery and Doty (1996) talks of market type system or internal type system and tries to match it with the type of organizations proposed by Miles and Snow (1978) based on the rate at which they changed their products or markets namely Prospectors, Defenders, Analyzers, and Reactors. Similarly, Mintzberg (1979) classified organizations as Simple Structure, Machine Bureaucracy, Professional Bureaucracy, Divisionalized form, and Adhocracy. In the market type system, there is hardly any use of internal ladders or formal training or appraisals and tends to use external hiring. There is no job security and the roles are also not clearly defined whereas in the Internal type system there is greater emphasis on internal talent progression, formal training, and clear role definitions. In this approach, if there is alignment between the HR practices and organization strategy it would be highly beneficial. 'Best practice' approach, on the other hand, believes that certain 'best' human resource practices (Edmondson 2010) which are time tested and successfully proven would result in improvement in the organizational performance, improvement in employee attitude, lower attrition and absenteeism and better productivity. This model is also referred as high commitment model. The California Management Review listed Best Practices for competitive advantage (Edmondson 2010) namely selective hiring, pay for performance, employment security; self managed teams, extensive training, and sharing information. Another element of best-practice is horizontal integration of various policies and consistency between them. When we think of best practice, it implies approaches which are well researched and benchmarked. It assumes a one size fit all approach (Hong 2009) which is a tried and tested recipe for success and also an approach which is the better than the rest. The underlying objective of both the Best Fit and Best Practice approach is to achieve high performance; therefore, there is a lot of commonality between the two. Both focus on the organization strategy and what kinds of performance levels are expected from the employees (Ingham 2010) to achieve the same. Therefore both consider employees as assets and resources to achieve the objectives. Both have staffing and hiring strategies (Edmondson 2010) which include selective hiring, extensive training, and employment security, a structure that encourages employee participation and pay policies and rewards that are higher than other industry competitors. Above all both of them view HR as a link in supporting the organization strategy. On the other hand there are quite a few differences between the two approaches as well, and at a generic level, best fit is a contingency approach as it is based on the organizations objectives whereas best practice is a universal approach as it takes the standard best practices and applies the same universally. The Best Fit method is based on the fact that HR policies and practices should depend on the environment of the organization and its overall business strategy. The factors determining HR strategy (Edmondson 2010) is dependent on the organization size, geographic location, technology adopted, business strategy, industry type, labor market, management and economic conditions. Best practice is referred as a universal approach (Kuvaas and Dysvik 2010) as it documents the benefits of human resource management across all contexts. For the Best Fit approach, the organizational strategy is primary which is followed by the formulation of systems and practices achieve the goals however , in case of Best Practice a pre determined set of practices which are time tested and proven are set before the strategy is even decided. In the Best Practice model, the best practice is identified first, top level commitment is taken, then sold to internal stakeholders, implemented, measures for performance is fixed and then performance is rewarded. However, in 'Best Fit' model the external fit linked to the business strategy is identified and then linked to the HR strategy. To be more specific say for example in case of rewards and recognition (Ingham 2010) both approaches have a difference of opinion regarding the influence of pay in people of the employees. Best Fit system believes in pay as a motivator of human beings and works on the premise that employees perform better if they know that the effort will be rewarded. Therefore the Best Fit method believes in carrot and stick approach to motivation and financial aspect is a major consideration in rewards and recognition of emp loyees. The Best Practice approach on the other hand considers pay as a hygiene factor (Edmondson 2010) that prevents dissatisfaction and provides symbolic recognition that employees are valued. It believes that individual rewards destroys relationships and promotes a feeling of distrust amongst employees. Therefore this system promotes team incentives and recognition as a tool to motivate employees than pay for performance. In conclusion, the moot question is which one of the two approaches are better? It is clear from the arguments above that the every organizations need to define a unique strategy dependent on its operating market environment, resources, objectives, and the requirements of its stakeholders. It is therefore imperative for the organizations to manage its resources in a planned and coherent manner in line with its business strategy. On the other hand if we implement some of the best practices and focus our energy on benchmarking ourselves with our competitors within the industry then we are not really doing the best for our own organization neither we are using our energies properly. Benchmarking (Ingham 2010) does help determine what your accomplishments really are, and gives you a chance to exceed the best in the business. A great example from the Industry is of Motorola which was an early pioneer in benchmarking and one of its successes was to slash the time taken to close the books o f accounts from fourteen days to two day. On the other hand another great example of a potential downfall of benchmarking is when the leader tries to benchmark within the same industry illustrated by Southwest Airlines which tried to benchmark its refueling processes against other airlines and discovered it was already one of the leaders in the industry. They then benchmarked themselves with turnaround processes used during pit stops in Formula One racing and managed to reduce its refueling time to 12 minutes. So the question to ask is whether we should fit our organization to the Best Practice or should we consider a best fit approach that considers the unique organizations characteristics which can at the same time leverage the relevant aspects of Best Practice. The point to consider is whether we should compare our organization to others in the industry or we keep ahead of our competitors and strive for continuous improvement. The best thing for every organization to do would be design the HR programs as per its unique situation and this would involve evaluating the current programs or practices, fixing the desired future state, and considering the Best Practice that leads to the desired future state. Following the Best practices blindly may not be best option for the organization as each organization is unique however, drawing from the experience of the others in the industry and modifying it to suit ones situation may be the best alternative in the fast paced and changing times. Therefore follow a Best Fit approach while adapting the Best practices from the Industry as per the needs of the Organization. References Arora, Rajat. 2016. 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"Mitchells Butlers HR Strategy To Deliver Business Performance".Strategic HR Review11 (1). doi:10.1108/shr.2012.37211aaa.007. Sung, Sun Young, and Jin Nam Choi. 2013. "Do Organizations Spend Wisely On Employees? Effects Of Training And Development Investments On Learning And Innovation In Organizations".Journal Of Organizational Behavior35 (3): 393-412. doi:10.1002/job.1897. Taormina, and Gao. 2013. "Maslow And The Motivation Hierarchy: Measuring Satisfaction Of The Needs".The American Journal Of Psychology126 (2): 155. doi:10.5406/amerjpsyc.126.2.0155. Thomas, Bill. 2009. "Creative HR Solutions For Tough Economic Times".Strategic HR Review8 (3): 24-29. doi:10.1108/14754390910946549. Wang, Dan?Shang, and Chi?Lih Shyu. 2008. "Will The Strategic Fit Between Business And HRM Strategy Influence HRM Effectiveness And Organizational Performance?".International Journal Of Manpower29 (2): 92-110. doi:10.1108/01437720810872677. Zhang, Man Jing. 2014. 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Environmental Pollution and Degradation Essay Example

Environmental Pollution and Degradation Paper Causes of Environmental Pollution and Degradation Poverty still remains a problem at the root Of several environmental problems. Introduction to environmental issues problems There are innumerable issues and problems faced by the environment today. Due to rapid industrialization, heavy usage of chemicals and lack of concern for the environment, today we are facing several problems. These issues should be dealt with immediately else mankind may have to face serious repercussions. Environmental degradation is a r exult of socio-economical, technological and institutional activities. Degradation occurs when Earth’s natural resources are depleted. These resources which are affected include: ; Water ; Air Soil CAUSES The causes of environmental degradation are often as complex the problems that result. The primary cause is human disturbance. The degree of the environmental impact varies with the cause, the habitat, and the plants and animals that inhabit it. There are many causes of environmental degradation. These include. Environmental changes are based on many factors including: ; arbitration ; Population growth ; Economic growth ; Intensification of agriculture Increase in energy use Causes of Environmental Pollution Increased and uncontrolled human activities like industries, transportation, agriculture, health care, dwelling, and energy generation are some of the causes of environmental pollution. Several industries like textile, steel, paper, sugar, food, petroleum, cement industries, and chemical industries and causes soil or land pollution, air pollution, and water pollution. Conclusion of environmental pollution is that the major cause for the environmental pollution is activities of humans. Industrial pollutants that causes pollution includes gases like cyanide, methane, carbon disulphide, carbon tetrachloride, hydrochloric acids, hydrogen disulphide, carbon monoxide, ammonia, and sulfur dioxide and several other liquid / solid compounds. We will write a custom essay sample on Environmental Pollution and Degradation specifically for you for only $16.38 $13.9/page Order now We will write a custom essay sample on Environmental Pollution and Degradation specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer We will write a custom essay sample on Environmental Pollution and Degradation specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer Modern agriculture which uses large scale of pesticides and fertilizers causes soil pollution and pollution of drinking water. Vehicular traffic releasing excess amounts sulfur dioxide, carbon monoxide, and nitrogen dioxide are the major causes of air pollution especially in cities. INCREASE IN TRANSPORTATION Increased and uncontrolled human activities like industries, transportation, agriculture, health care, dwelling and energy generation are some of the causes of environmental pollution. Several industries like textile, steel, paper, sugar, food, petroleum, cement industries, and chemical industries and causes soil or land pollution, air pollution, and water pollution. Conclusion of environmental pollution is that the major cause for the environmental pollution is activities of humans. Industrial pollutants that causes pollution includes gases like cyanide, methane, carbon disulphide, carbon tetrachloride, hydrochloric acids, hydrogen disulphide, carbon monoxide, ammonia, and sulfur dioxide and several other liquid / solid compounds. Modern agriculture which uses large scale of suicides and fertilizers causes soil pollution and pollution of drinking water. Vehicular traffic releasing excess amounts sulfur dioxide, carbon monoxide, and nitrogen dioxide are the major causes of air pollution especially in cities. ; Water and air HABITAT FRAGMENTATION Habitat fragmentation carries long term environmental impacts some of which can destroy entire ecosystems. An ecosystem is a distinct unit and includes all the living and non-living elements that reside within it. Plants and animals are obvious members, but it will also include other components on which they rely on such as streams, lakes, and soils. ACID RAIN Acid rain occurs when sulfur dioxide from coal plant emissions combines with moisture present in the air. A chemical reaction creates this acid precipitation. Acid rain can acidify and pollute lakes and streams. It causes similar effects to the soil. If enough acid rain falls in a given environment, it can acidify the water or soil to a point where no life can be sustained. Plants die off. The AGRICULTURAL RUNOFF animals that depend upon them disappear. The condition of the environment deteriorates. Agricultural runoff is a deadly source of pollutants which can degrade environments,. Surface water washes over the soil and onto lakes and streams. When it does so, it carries the fertilizers and pesticides used on the farm lands into water resources. Obviously, introducing poisons into waterways will have dire consequences. Fertilizers whether or not they are organic carry equal risks. URBAN DEVELOPMENT Urban development is the primary cause of environmental degradation. As populations increased, so did the need for land for homes and farms. Wetlands were drained. Environmental degradation is one of most urgent of environmental issues. Depending upon the damage, some environments may never recover. The plants and animals that inhabited these places will be lost reeve. We do not have to look far to see the impacts of environmental degradation on our Earth. DEFORESTATION Cutting down massive forests impacts our biosphere. Deforestation, wasting resources, and pollution all add to the demise of an environmentally-sound and safe planet. For example, when trees in forests are cut down in large quantities, so that more homes can be built on the land, the birds and wildlife who lived in the forest must find a new place to live. Unfortunate Impacts of Environmental Degradation The degradation also impacts our: ; Wildlife ; Plants ; Animals ; Micro-organisms When factories produce harmful chemicals and toxic waste into bodies of water, humans suffer. Pesticides and fertilizers can also get into a region’s water system and pollute it. Drinking water is contaminated. Some residing in third-world countries are highly effected by the degradation of our planet and these unhealthy practices cause the following: ; Illnesses ; Death in children ; Death in adults POVERTY . People are finding less nutritious food to eat. Especially those around the Equator, are vulnerable to weather changes, water shortages, and arbitration. All of these factors are increasing the health and lives of hosannas. Some scientists and environmentalists are asking that non-food items and agriculture waste be used as alternative fuel for vehicles instead. LOSING EARTH’S BEAUTY AS humans dump waste products, use chemicals, and over fish in the oceans and seas, areas of beauty such as coral reefs are damaged. At times the destruction is so great that is cannot be reversed. We are killing our planet and the consequences are tremendous. How to Stop Degradation There are ways which you can help to decrease degradation in our environment. Some Of these include: ;Purchase recycled products ; Conserve water Do not litter or toss waste into inappropriate places ; Conserve energy ; Join an awareness group ; Talk with others about the impacts of environmental degradation ; Be an advocate to save our planet! Factors Affecting Nevi: Destruction of natural resources: Agricultural development and farming activities contribute, to soil erosion, land salivation and loss of nutrients. The green revolution and over exploitation of land and water resources, and use of fertilizers and pesticides have increased to many folds resulting in land degradation and water logging. Effects of Environmental Degradation: Loss Of biodiversity: The extinction of plant and animal species will heavily affect the ecosystem; it will reduce ecosystem adaptability and lead to the loss of genetic resources. Environmental changes: Global warming is the r esult of ozone depletion which is responsible for perhaps 300,000 additional cases of skin cancer a year and 1. Million cases of cataracts and may lead to increase in the risk of climatic natural disasters. Hazardous waste production: Diseases are spread by uncovered garbage and drains; the health risks from hazardous wastes are typically more localized, but often acute. Wastes affect productivity causing pollution of groundwater resources. Soil erosion has increased due to deforestation. Climate has become warmer in the deforested regions due to lack of humidity. Floods and droughts have become frequent. Pattern of rainfall has been changing. Pollution due to increased levels of chlorofluorocarbons and nitrogen oxides cause depletion of ozone layer in the stratosphere. Acid rain is the indirect impact of air pollution. Use of pesticides makes the soil toxic for plants. Large amount of organic matter causes transportation. Thermal conation caused by hot water affects migration of aquatic animals due to thermal barriers. Environmental pollution can be defined as the deleterious effects or changes that causes disturbance to the existing environment and affects the components of the environment. Find below the causes, effects, and conclusion of environmental pollution. Presence of unsafe unnatural components that causes imbalance to the ecosystems and health hazards to animals and human beings is called pollution. Pollution affects the all the components of environment that mainly includes soil (land), water, and air Effects of Environmental Pollution Health problems due to environmental pollution ranges from the skin irritations and simple vomiting to brain tumors, intestinal cancer, and other cancers, from simple fever to the fatal hepatitis, from normal throat irritation to the deadly heart diseases. Air pollution affects the human health and is associated with problems of lungs, throat, respiratory problems, cancer etc. Water pollution of water causes health problems like gastric problems in human, affects the life aquatic organism, etc. Foods that we consume are polluted due to the use of polluted water and use of pesticides, or microbial activities. Many persistent pesticides that enter into the food chain accumulate in the human and animal bodies at larger concentrations and affect the health. Soil pollution due to various hazardous solids and liquids creates imbalances to soil ecosystems and affects the vegetation and habitats of living organisms. Conclusion of environmental pollution effects is it is a major concern of human and animal health and affects the entire ecosystem. So keeping in view of effects of environmental pollution humans and government should take several measures to prevent pollution and incorporate stringent laws to prevent environmental pollution. Environmental Issues Problems Conservation of species:Conservation of water, air and the natural habitat of animals and plants to curb their extinction. Over the last fadedness several plants and animal species have become extinct which has led to a loss of biodiversity on the planet. Climate Change: Due to global warming effect the climate has changed significantly over the last century. Extreme temperatures are bringing about never before seen natural calamities like frequent draught and flooding Energy Crisis:Excessive usage of fossil fuels has led to depletion in these fuels. Usage of alternate fuel will help conserve fossil fuel. Exploitation of Natural Resources: Large scale deforestation has led to loss of vegetation. This in turn has affected rainfall, caused land degradation, soil erosion and changed the planet surface. Nuclear Issues:Usage of nuclear power has caused major changes in the climate and composition of soil, water and air. This in turn has changed the habitat for birds, animals which migrate to other places In search of a good habitat and sometimes become extinct. Radioactive Nuclear waste needs to be dealt with in a proper way so that it does not affect the environment. Overpopulation:Overpopulation is a major global environmental issue.

Critique Marcello essays

Critique Marcello essays The Selby public library has pieces from the students from the ringling school of art and design. The piece that stood out the most was a portrait by senior, Marcello Dos Santos. It was a mixed media with oils piece, the oils being very evident. It was painted on a 5 foot high, 3 feet wide canvas that made the figure more life like, not quite life size. Life size would have taken away from the distant quality the figure had. The figure was done in a greyish-blue and hunched over with it's knees to it's chest, and it's knuckles pressed against the ground to hold it's balance. The figure's side is shown looking up, which helps your eye travel up the picture plane. The pull of the figure is so strong because of the way the knukles are to the ground, the knees are pushing into the body and the head is pulling out and away from the body. Then the background is done in a maroon color that pulls your eye away from the figure but being such a deep color pushes you right back into the figure. Then the ground is done in a pea green color that is of corse the opposite of red, but close to the blue that balances out the back, middle, and foreground. The actual detail of the figure is not shown, there is indication of muscle tone which is done in a smooth manner with the oils. Only emphasizing the muscle tone is what makes it such an eye-catching figure, besides the choice in color and technique. The sort of monotone color scheme is what makes the figure and actually whole piece have a distant quality. The basic composition of a kneeling figure to the side of the picture plane is a common choice of study. But the smooth painting style, color scheme, and variations of light and dark in the muscle tone of the figure is what made this stand out from the rest. ...

The Federalist Number Ten Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

The Federalist Number Ten - Essay Example First strategy proposed by Madison is eliminating the causes of factions. Second, Madison provides a proposal involving controlling the effects of factions in a democratic society. Eliminating the formation of factions in the society may be in two ways. The first viable option is eliminating liberty that permits factions to form or developing similar interest. The second option is to discourage the passions and opinions in people to control the effects of factions (Hamilton, 2006). According to Madison, the causes to factions are impracticable to eliminate. Therefore, the most-feasible strategy is controlling the effects of factions in a democratic society. A minority faction in a pure democracy poses insignificant threat since it is easy to outvote and suppress it. On the contrary, the majority faction has power to control the government completely. Therefore, modification is necessary to any democracy to protect the minority from oppression by minority. According to Madison, allowing citizens to make their laws promotes the risk of promoting self-interest at the expense of public interests. In such situations, majority society members oppress the minority to their advantage (Hamilton, 2006). James Madison asserts that citizens have different self-interests, and every society forms factions that sometimes harm fellow citizens. The Articles of Confederation never controlled the adverse effects of factions on the nations effectively prompting the necessity for a new government. Madison concludes that a diverse nation ruled by the majority can thrive if it factors a fair consideration for all. Madison, J. (November 23, 1787). The Same Subject Continued: The Union as a Safeguard Against Domestic Faction and Insurrection. The Federalist Papers No. 10. Retrieved from

The Performance of the U.S. Economy Today Essay

The Performance of the U.S. Economy Today - Essay Example The main reason for the slow economic growth of the economy is lack of responsibility and initiatives taken by the government in reducing the expenditure. While considering the GDP rate of the country it is experienced that the overall economy should be rated as B grade. The rate of GDP decreased during the first quarter, it decreased to 0.2 and then it recovered in the second and the third quarter. The decrease in the oil prices facilitated the people to spend more which mainly accounts for two third of the gross domestic product. The government took initiatives in raising the GDP of the economy by reducing the total government spending which includes local, state and federal expenditure. The spending decreased from 39% to 35%.The decline in government spending led to the increase in GDP. The main reason behind grading the economy as B is that the economy is not performing effectively and efficiently, the corporations and the owners of the company or the businessman have become greedy, cautious and myopic. The investors instead of holding the cash for future they are engaged in hoarding the cash and utilizing the cash for short term profitability (Collins, 2015). The export and import function of the economy did not prosper. After the recovery of the financial crisis it is observed that the changes in case of both export and import are comparatively less. This resulted in the increase of trade deficit. The FED justified and explained that the labor and the market condition of the economy are improving as compared to the previous years. Although the number of investors increased during the period of recession but the amount of investment by the investors are decreasing with the due course of time. Therefore the level of investment failed to contribute towards the growth of the economy. The consumer spending is mainly measured in

Critical Perspectives on Management and Organisations Essay

Critical Perspectives on Management and Organisations - Essay Example The purpose of this paper is to highlight the groupthink implications, which could easily be pointed out as one of the reasons leading to the crisis. The decisions were either taken alone or by the group in totality, but if the decisions taken are imperfect, then outcomes have huge implications on the society. This study discusses the way in which Janis’ theory of groupthink can be linked to the space shuttle disaster. Groupthink can be described as a psychological process of the group members, where people end up taking an erroneous decision that affects them adversely. This implies that the group unanimously takes a decision, despite the existence of another correct course of action. The proponent of this theory is Irving Janis and his researches show that, at times, group of individuals takes successful decisions and at other times, they are unsuccessful. The root cause for failing to analyse the problem comes from the inability of group members to challenge the traditional understanding. This is because they feel empowered if all members agree to a certain perspective (even if it is erroneous) and fails to provide alternative, critique or a new opinion. This essay will first establish a thorough understanding of the groupthink theory and various critiques that has been proposed by other eminent researchers. The next section deals with application of the groupthink theory on the Challenger space shuttle disaster. This is followed by an alternative theory developed by Whyte in order to explain the Challenger disaster. The recommendations and conclusion are mentioned in the last section. Firstly, the managers of NASA were fully aware of flaws in the design of Morton Thiokol’s O-ring. NASA had tried to underplay the problem at hand and the managers decided to stay on schedule. There were also evidences that data, which was provided to the Group Decision Support System (GDSS) of NASA from Thiokol, had declared that it would be safe to launch the mission.

PESTEL analysis of the Chinese and German flooring industries

PESTEL analysis of the Chinese and German flooring industries Since 1979, China adopted an export-manufacturing strategy successfully following with Japan, Korea and Hong Kong. The Golden Bridge Co., Ltd is one of the beneficiaries. It was founded in 2007 with flooring as its main products. The product is of high quality by utilizing advanced technology and equipments imported from Germany and Italy. The glue and lacquer materials for production are also imported. In current stage, Golden Bridge has a total capital of 800 million RMB and exported to 35 foreign markets including the U.S., Canada, Japan and Germany. In order to help it to expand the business, our consultancy company attempt to analyze the China business environment and seek a foreign market to relocate the manufacturing of this company with proper entering and competing strategies. This essay first illustrates the business environment of flooring industry in China and German with PESTEL analysis. Then it evaluates the threats in Germany market by following Porters five-force mode l. Later a recommendation would be given on how to properly enter into the targeted country. PESTEL analysis of china market: The PESTEL analysis is used to assess the macro environment and identify the challenges Golden Bridge faced with in china market in order to make an appropriate suggestion. Political: The Chinese political system characterized as one-party communist dictatorship makes a great contribution to national stability, enabling the economy keep dynamic and sustainable. Nevertheless, when the economic system was deregulated from the command economy to market economy since 1978, the power of economic management was increasingly decentralized, raising the issue of uncoordinated development of regional economy. Currently, though the central government has made effort to alleviate the gap among different areas in terms of developing standards, provinces tend to give a priority to local profits rather than considering the integrated advancement of the whole country. Local protectionism exerts detrimental influences upon market expansion of Golden Bridge Company in nationwide and deters the establishment of a comprehensive distribution channel. Economical: China is valued as one of the most vibrant countries in terms of economic development among the world. The reform opening up in 1978 accelerated Chinas GDP growth from 362.4 billion RMB to 30 trillion RMB within a 30-year period. Moreover, in 2010, China has been the second largest economy instead of Japan whilst the value of export accounted for 10% of world. Based on these statistics, judgment can be made that manufactures in China including flooring industry may keep an optimistic attitude to their future prospects in some extent. Nonetheless, Chinese economy may suffer unpredictable circumstance in the future. Labor resource is one double-edge sword. Once being an advantage of China, abundant labor resource and economical labor price make a great contribution to progress of those labor-intensive manufacturing industries. This is also the primary reason that China flooring industry is quite profitable though China is a net importer of timber. However, as cited by AME info (2005) there is a growth in the minimum wage standard, labor may not be regard as a perpetual advantage of China if this trend continues. In Addition, appreciation of CNY since 2005 against USD may imperil the export of Golden Bridge Company (Goldstein, M. and Lardy, N., 2006). Social: It is claimed by Su and Littlefied (2001) that China is an extremely high-context country where people prefer to receive implied messages. For establishing a business in China, strong private-relationships with different stakeholders is the key to success. However, this is extremely time-consuming while the maintenance is also expensive. Potential conflicts in interest may easily erode it. Besides the relationship, corruption is another issue in China. According to the Corruption Perceptions Index, China was positioned 72nd among all 179 countries in 2008. However, damages caused by corruption may be far more hazardous than anticipated, particularly to the economic development. Corruption has been treated as a vital barrier for operating in Chinese market due to enormous back-stage expenditures as well as resulted injustice. For Golden Bridge to gain more import quotas and pay less tariff, costs may be made up of not only normal ingredients such as transporting, but also implied expense for smoothing the network. Technological: China wood flooring industry is experiencing a relatively laggard technological standard in its initial stage of development. According to Cheng and Song (2006), the level of timber utilization was 61% in 2004 with a considerable disparity with developed countries (nearly 90%). Additionally, imbalanced technological support aggravates the long-term conflicts between wood supply and demand in Chinese domestic market. In 2004, though the total domestic timber supply is 273.6 million cubic meters and exceeded the total consumption of 241.5 million cubic meters, scarcity of raw material still existed in some parts of timber manufacturing industry. Environment Legal: Chinese government proposed the Natural Forest Protection Program (NFPP) nationwide in 1998 to limit exploitation of natural forest resources. The legislation made the supply of domestic natural timber restricted. Between 1997 and 2003, natural timbers supply decreased from 32.05 million cubic meters to 12.145 million cubic meters (Cheng and Song, 2005), which was extremely insufficient to satisfy demands of the highly prosperous timber industry in China. Timer manufacturing companies in China have to depend on importing. Statistics shows that in 1997 the quantity of imported timber only occupied 23.56% of total wood consumption, while the number soared to 53.78% in 2004. The expenditure of imported timber was $33.96 higher per cubic meter compared with the price in 2007, which increased the material coast of Golden Bridge Company. PESTEL analysis of German market: Since this essay has analyzed the macro environment of the china flooring market, further looking at the political, economic, social and technological factors of the German can help advance and strength the logic of the whole assessment. Political factors: Germany is a home of secure, legal and rewarding investment. The World Economic Forum has rewarded its legal system as the most efficient and this fact has also gained international recognition. Flooring coverings are categorized according to German and EU laws and building products should be subject to the EU construction products directive and the German construction products law. The directive and law are mainly focused on environmental, health-related, material and usability sectors and most people agree that by considering the environmental restrictions, the EU can be the strictest market. Moreover, with the transnational economic environment, it is predicted by experts that the approval criteria for flooring is likely to decrease and there seems to be a limited permission of eco-labels for flooring products. Further, comprehensive incentives  are provided to both home and oversea investors by German government, individual federal states and the EU. Economic factors Germany is the largest economy in Europe and in general German is export-oriented. Since 2003, German has been the largest exporter machinery, vehicles, chemicals and household equipment, with an annual export increase of 8%. However, factors that may prevent Golden Bridge from entering into and developing itself in Germany also exist. They can be excessive dependence on euro currency, tight credit markets and an increasing rate of unemployment. Stimulus and stabilization efforts initiated in 2008 and 2009 and tax cuts introduced in Chancellor Angela MERKELs second term will increase Germanys record budget deficit, which is expected to exceed 5% of GDP in 2010. The EU required Germany to get its consolidated budget deficit below 3% of GDP until 2013. A new constitutional amendment likewise limits the federal government to structural deficits of no more than 0.35% of GDP per annum as of 2016. Technology factors: Germany is claimed to be the leading nation in high-tech development and receives high turnover accordingly. In 2007, the high-tech products exported by Germany accounted to a value of RUR 114 billion, ranked first in Europe and third worldwide. More than 27% turnover of German manufacturing factory is generated from high-tech products, compared to a European average of 19%. Social factors: Social factors also need consideration. Hofstedes analysis of Germany shows the emphasis on individualism, masculinity and uncertainty avoidance. Power distance and long-term orientation are both ranked considerably lower than the others. Germany believes in equality and equal opportunity, as well as its ability to change and adapt rapidly. Another arising issue is the social awareness of pollution, which leads Germany to use more environmental-friendly materials. Abstract for the use of five-force model: After analyzing the macro-environment of both countries, it is reasonable and necessary to apply Michel Porters five-force model in order to provide a thoroughly understanding of the German flooring market before the Golden Bridge company entering into it. According to this model, the competitiveness of an industry is influenced by such five forces and their collective strength and thus determines the ultimate profit potential of this targeting industry. These five forces covered in the analysis are competitive rivalry, supplier power, buyer power, the threat of substitution and the threat of potential new entry. However, the five-forces framework is not a set of principals per se, instead is a tool for systematically use these principals to assess the current status and likely evolution of an industry. Competitive Rivalry: The internal competitive rivalry in German flooring market seems high. There are three main reasons. First, the switching cost is low because flooring products are homogenous with little product differentiation. Another reason is that the German flooring market is saturated with a relatively low growth rate. The flooring production in 2008 suffered a 15.1% decline while the total consumption slumped for about 12.19% (FEP, 2008). Also the number of competitive companies in German flooring market and the intensity of rivalry also determine the high threats of rivalry. There are a large number of companies competing in the German flooring market and these companies are divided into three categories, they are Small and Medium Sized Enterprises (SMEs), Domestic Leading Manufacturers (DLMs) and Niche Market Brands (NMBs). First of all, SMEs has the largest number in the German flooring market (Roadmap, 2010). These SMEs are often manufacturers provide low-grade flooring with low price. Their marketing strategy is just reverse to Golden Bridges. Thus Golden Bridge is suggested to treat them in an abstemious way. However, there are also a few numbers of large flooring manufacturers who operating on European and/or global base. It is suggested by German Timber (2007) that few DLMs account for the majority of the total market share. These companies usually possess strong competencies, highly recognized reputation and well-established brand image. One main rivalry is the Krono Group, who is one of the world leading producers of high-quality flooring. Founded in 1897, it has accumulated years of experience and extensive knowledge know-how. It delivers products to 80 countries worldwide while has its own production-base in 18 countries. In 2004, its production capability of flooring reached 310 million à £Ã … ½Ã‚ ¡, took up about 1/3 of the world market share with total sales revenue of 24 billion RMB. It also has an annual RD investment of 15billion RMB with over 200 scientists doing research in Krono International Laboratory. In addition, there are Niche Market Brands (NMBs) with several well-known brands like Espirt and Kaindl, holding part of the flooring market (FEP, 2007). These companies merely provide certain kinds of flooring to meet the special needs of a group of customers. Furthermore, in order to gaining competitive strength, the NMBs together with some foreign brands such as Balterio from Belgian and Vito from Austria have formed a conglomerate named Beamy International, a commercial platform allowing them to compete on both domestic and global markets (FEP, 2008). As the competition is fierce in German flooring market, Golden Bridge is suggested to adopt a niche strategy and doing effective promotion after entering the market. To explain, the original German wood flooring manufacturers already gains economy of scales and undeniably enjoy a cost advantage. Advanced distribution channel comparing with those new entrants also allows them first mover advantages. Cost disadvantage and lacking reliable cooperators are main barriers for Golden Bridge to survive in German market. Insufficient in capital determines that an aggressive expansion strategy is also irrational. However, one advantage Golden Bridge occupies is that it has been doing export business within German importers for couple of years and its products did have certain reputation in this highly competitive market. By offering additional value, Golden Bridge can efficiently differentiate itself among the rivals with a brand image of reliability, valuable, and symbol of statuses. This may help obtain sustainable brand loyalty among German customers. Threat of Substitutes: The threat of substitution refers to the extent to which different products used in place of a companys products or offered by other industrials. Flooring is not restricted on only wood but other materials such as textile and stone/ceramics are also widely used. For instance, in German market in 2008, textile took the largest raw material market share (i.e. about 37.4%) for making flooring. This is followed by stone/ceramics of 28.6%. Comparably, the laminate only had a market share of 13.9%, ranked in the third place. In terms of switching cost, the result can be distinct regarding to different objects of study. To individual consumers, there is almost no switching cost exists because choose one kind of material instead of another is just a matter of personal taste. However, this can be criticized in depth for the reasons that wood-made flooring has its own characteristics and functions that other materials may not have. To some extent and to specific customer groups, for instance, those who have fixed-decoration style, the switching cost can be relatively high. However, to large wholesalers (e.g. Beamy International) who previously dedicated in wood-made flooring, the switching cost would be extremely high, as they may lose the stable distribution channels with their current wholesalers or retailers, and also the price advantage provided by the long-term cooperative producers. This means the substitution threat is less considerable because their past investment in developing stable distribution channels with retailers and producers offers them an advantage in current market and this may make them unwilling to undertake risks of operating and competing in a new and highly competitive market. Summing up the above, it is the end-user customers that Golden Bridge should pay close attention to. First of all, it is advised that a regular customer survey to be conducted to make a comprehension of customers preferences and what they really appreciate. The company should also emphasize the exclusiveness and unique utilities of their products, making it cost more for the customers to switching to other substitutes. In the meantime, though as mentioned the future trend seems favor wood flooring industry, Golden Bridge should cause enough value that the technology development is always indeterminate. Thus in order to avoid sudden shock of new technologies that brings in comparable substitutes, Golden Bridge should invest continuously in Research and Development to keep pace with the times. Threat of New Entrants: Threat of new entrants is moderate. As put by European Commission (2001), the main barriers to enter German market include certification approval and the quality standards and label, while the incentive to enter German market depends mainly on its impeccable infrastructure system. The extensive unified intensification, which has been mentioned before in PEST Analysis of German, increase the starting investment of new entry, accordingly has negative effect on new entrants to the market. There are totally fourteen member countries of European Federation of the Parquet Industry (FEP). Under the Single European Market policy, twelve of them have reached an agreement on moving goods, service and capital freely internally, giving companies in these markets strong mobility. To put it simpler, a flooring company located in Germany for example, can either choose to develop domestically or entre into either of the other 11 member countries of EFP, in support of the unified system. Once entering into the consolidated FEP, the new members deserve this privilege with little hindrance, however, the legal entry requirement, especially for flooring companies compliance with environmental protection, is said to be quite strict in European Market, which is especially true in Ge rmany. Thus it can be expected that in order to harmonize to European standards, a large quality of funds will be needed to invest in order to fulfilling the standards ranging from environmental protection to individual healthcare. What is more, the sophisticated infrastructures that Germany possesses nationwide make the market considerably attractive to those adventurous entrepreneurs. As known to all, Germany lays in the center of the Western Europe, with large-scale transportation centers such as International airport in Frankfurt and seaport in Hamburg (ELA, 2010). Centering in a fast and efficient logistic network covering almost all the main markets in Europe, flooring companies in Germany can procure raw materials namely timber on a global scale, and reach the external markets with relatively lower transportation costs. Therefore the threats of new entrants would be moderate in German flooring market. For Golden Bridge, the corporate should create a marketing and brand image and keep customers loyalty, tie up to both suppliers and distributors. More important, it should sign a patent to protect the intellectual property of their high-tech products. Buyer Power: Buyer power, which is determined by the individual customers ability in negotiating purchase prices with suppliers, is at an intermediate level in German market basing on four crucial reasons. Firstly, according to the previous analysis, competition in the wood flooring manufacturing is largely intensified by a large amount of incumbents. Hence, purchasers are more unrestricted in choosing their suppliers with considering competitive advantages of products, and price may be a decisive factor for some customers. However, it is important to note that Wholesalers have more bargaining power than individuals. Being the large-volume buyers, they are not only main customers where companies earn profits from, but also controllers of dominant distribution channels. By stark contrast, individual customers with smaller purchase volume may be positioned less vitally in suppliers minds. Secondly, the buyer power is attenuated by the availability of substitutes of wood flooring in German market. E xcept for this category of flooring, more choices are supplied on the market. Despite competition reinforces customers bargaining power, the phenomena of demand surplus in German wood flooring alleviates this circumstance. According to the research of European Federation of the Parquet Industry (FEP), the consumption of German wood flooring is about 17.88 million square meters, while the production of German wood flooring is only about 11.04 million square meters (Slides Stats 2008). In additionally, German culture also plays a significant role in lessening customers bargaining power. The spirit of the nation, such prudence and fixation lead to a fairly strict standardization in both work and life. Germans are used to calculating a precise price based on all dimensions. Hence, they dislike dealing with situations out of their planning, enabling bargaining become very difficult. Ten percentage cut in price is the biggest range they will agree in they dealing with foreign buyers. (LeMont Schmidt, 2001). Supplier Power: Supplier Power refers the power of suppliers to drive up the prices of raw materials, supplies, equipment or inputs. Your company purchases the glue, paint and equipment, and employs labors from Germany and imports the wood from Russia. There are some crucial factors performing low supplier power of your company. Firstly, German is not used to bargaining, which is mentioned in Buyer power. Hence, it is meaningless for German suppliers to drive up the price of material and equipment. Negotiating power is weak in Russia as well. Although the nation is one of the largest wood producers, there are a large number of wood suppliers ¼Ã…’which provide a strongly competitive circumstance in Russia. Admittedly wood is a kind of nature product so that customers are sensitive to the price of wood. Because of high standard of transparency, the switching cost is low in Russia. On the other hand, many substitutes with lower expenditures are becoming increasingly prevalent such as marble, carpet, plastic flooring. High standard of substitutes threat can restrict the suppliers to drive up the price and reduce the power of suppliers. However, high labor cost strengthens the supplier power. The German labor cost is one of the highest in world. According to Common Protocol of Salary, Labor wage need be determined by the negotiation between wood flooring industry and backwards industry (Fact about Germany, 1996). Therefore, the security of labor force is quite completed. Unions are powerful to argue with unfair wage or welfare. For example, Michael Sommer, the head of the trade union federation(DGB) , claimed that is necessary to increase labors wage with the upturn of economy in 2010( Guardian ¼Ã…’2010). Supplier power and buyer power, which exert a moderate threat on Golden Bridges development in German, can be alleviated through several ways. From one aspect, to limit bargaining power of large-volume wholesalers, the company should give priority to building up a distribution network itself by developing new franchisers rather than depending on the primary channels of wholesalers. In terms of individual customers as well as challenges from substitutes, enhancing the products benefits would be the most efficient way to reduce their bargaining desire as most of affluent people value quality more important than price. From the other aspects, labor relationship, the most considerable barrier in lessening German supplier power, should be harmonized through affording sufficient welfare to employees, as well as building a relative democratic organizational culture by the company. Moreover, it is supposed that importing a few skilled workers from China would benefit the company not only by more economical labor cost, but also reducing the significant dependence on the German labor market. Limitation of the 5-forces: Porters five-force model is not perfect but based on the assumption that from the view of any one firm, all the other firms no matter whether they are supplier, competitor or buyer are threats to the profitability. However, according to Brandenberger and Nalebuffs value net theory, interactions among firms can sometimes enhance profits. Thus critics raised and attentions on cooperation are much more paid. The cooperation between the Golden Bridge Company and other foreign flooring companies will be analyzed and evaluated in the later recommendation part. Recommendation By illustrating the German macroeconomic environment and its circumstance of flooring industry, it is thought that the most recommended strategy for Golden Bridge is to build a joint venture with one or several German covering floor manufacturing enterprises, whilst maintaining the manufacturing section and primary market system in China. Joint venture can be explained as a collaborative formation among companies that each party invests parts capabilities to constitute a new enterprise, thereafter determining the distribution of ownership according to corresponding contributions. Nevertheless, two preconditions should be taken into consideration before making an alliance with German incumbents. Firstly, as a dominant barrier in Chinese market, capital insufficiency would also limit the investment ability of Golden Bridge in German to a large extent. Consequently, small-to-medium incumbents are more desirable as cooperators rather than large-scale companies in terms of ensuring a rela tively high proportion of ownership of Golden Bridge in the new joint venture. Moreover, it is imperative to illustrate compatibility of potential partners based on a number of philosophic criteria, including similar experience, common principles and agreed future target as well (Kanter, 1994). Where extremely intensive competition takes place, German market would tend to pose more threats than opportunities on the Golden Bridge if the company attempts to entirely entry the market alone. In comparison, cooperating and aligning with local companies would be a much safer and efficient measure from two aspects. First, by giving joint ventures preferential treatment, the Golden Bridge gains a good opportunity to penetrate the German market in a relatively short period with minimum risks as the company is unnecessary to expose abundant long-term investments to gain market shares in German wood flooring industry. Instead, it can utilize those important strategic assets of local cooperators such as complete distribution channels, customer relationships and brand loyalty. Moreover, Golden Bridge is still deficient at technology and management comparing with the local German companies. Through setting up a joint venture, advanced technology and managerial know-how can be more easily accessible by Golden Bridge, which is beneficial to its development in China market as well. Nevertheless, possible issues relating to joint venture cannot be neglected by the Golden Bridge. First, operational dissimilarities caused by political and economic divergence between China and German may be a vital problem for Golden Bridge. For instance, blind spots in law or financial systems will damage the corporate profits at initial stage. Additionally, cultural and managerial difference may be difficult to consolidate as different authority, reporting and decision-making patterns (Kanter, 1994), therefore leading to possible mistrust and misunderstanding between Golden Bridge and its partners. It has been widely recognized that German managers are prudent and rigid in dealing with regulations and rarely consider the influences of the network relationship, which is fairly distinct from Chinese managers conceptions. Conclusion: In conclusion, according to the PESTEL analysis, there are a number of challenges in China. These challenges can be the unbalanced market condition in china because of local protectionism and insufficient infrastructures, under-developed technology and managerial skill led to the low efficiency of timber industry in China, Natural Forest Protection Program limits the domestic nature timbers supply as well as the increasing labor cost in flooring industry due to Chinas economy prosperous. The complexity of interrelationship of different parties involved in the business environment also cannot be neglected. The PESTEL analysis of German market was further conducted to make the assessment more comprehensive. Later the consultants use five-force model to assess threat of entering the German flooring market. For instance, the competitive rivalry and threat of entry in German flooring market is extremely high. In terms of threat of substitution, it is much more complex. The supplier power and buyer power are both at an intermediate level. However, Porters model is criticized for lacking of corporation with other market players. Thus, a recommendation is made by our consultancy company for Golden Bridge to organize a joint venture and thus with other reliable and competitive companies for instance, the Beamy International. Facts about Germany. (1996). Frankfurt am Main: Società ¤ts Verlag. LeMont Schmidt, P. (2001). Die amerikanische und die deutsche Wirtschaftskultur im Vergleich: Ein Praxisbuch fà ¼r Manager. Gà ¶ttingen: Hainholz Verlag. 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