HR management Essay Example for Free

HR management Essay HR management forms a valuable and effective administration concerned mainly with working category. It evaluates the steps to be implemented to make the working category into further industrious, satisfied and happy. As an integral fraction of society of human resource management policies, the team have supported that the strategies need to encourage the companies to provide pioneering and flexible plans that are highly benefit. The work-life policies laid forward by the SHRM proved to be highly beneficial to employees. However, there are several human resource factors, which influence an organization to adopt the work-life plans as a vital division of SHRM practices and plans. Majority of the factors that stressed upon work life policies incorporates the demographic variation occurring with the prospective workforce, variation in social characteristics, role and responsibility changes in organizations and other governmental factors. Women make an essential part of almost all types of organization in the most modern era. Most of the working class woman wishes to conjointly take the responsibilities of their family as well as the employment terms. This was considered as an apparent factor that resulted in the emergence of family friendly plans. This plan was further termed as work life policies and rapidly gained importance in the area of SHRM. The next vital factor associated with demographic variation forms the ageing employees that raised the value of the work life policies. As per the plan, the aged workgroup may remain in the organization. However, they only need to work for very few hours or may change their shift timings as per their comfort. Most of the working people hold the responsibilities for bringing up their kids and take equal responsibilities for their aged parents. The plan allows even the aged people to support their children with their responsibilities. With the advance of modern technology, the labor market gets tightens and requires more and more skilled laborers. The organization needs to implement the work life policies to influence and regain employers who might have left the organization previously due to some or other cause. As per a study conducted by IRS, the most important motive behind the management to initiate the work life plan is strongly associated with recruitment of staffs as well as retention. As majority of leading organizations work on a 24 hour per day basis, increasing the working hours. However, there is strong requirement of flexible plans to cover these elaborated hours with efficiency. Surveys shows that adaptation of faster work pace has lead to organizational stress and most of the workers experience severe problems such as anxiety, stress, workload and inadequate personal time. These variations make the organizations to breach the government induced rules. Evaluating with respect to a legal outlook, all the working categories have a role on self care and protection and work life policies influence this particular concept. With the policies of work life, every employee may endorse a healthy and happy job environment and understand more about their social errands as a working personality. Thus, the policies offer high benefits to the employees as well as appropriate guidance with proper management to the employers.

Using Roleplay To Help Students Learn English

Using Roleplay To Help Students Learn English 1. INTRODUCTION The more students talk, the better they learn; Speaking skill is not given special significance in the teaching of English in Vietnamese universities. Traditional English education in Vietnam focuses heavily on reading skill. Also, many Vietnamese students and even teachers have examination-orientation. In the first semester, students start the elementary level with the textbooks Lifeline set (Hutchinson, 2001). The textbook cover four skills: speaking, listening, reading and writing. The assessment at the end of each semester is based on a written test involving reading and writing skills only. As a result, pre intermediate students spend more time improving reading and writing skills and mostly ignoring listening and speaking skills. This fact happens at not a single university in Vietnam but across the country. In the first semester, pre intermediate students do not have many chances to communicate in English; therefore, their speaking skill is restricted with lack of naturalness, reaction and pronunciation. Many are shy to speak out in English as they are afraid that listeners cant understand well what they say. Role play is considered one teaching method which motivates pre intermediate students to get involved in speaking lessons. In opinion of James G. Clawson (1997, p.2), role play is a superb vehicle for bringing the distiction between concept and reality to the fore. During role play, students are motivated to perform and act and speak in English class. They are challenged to use their English words in mind to apply into simple conversation in daily life. This indeed enables them to get familiar with normal conversation in their real life. Also, motivation influences how and why people learn as well as how they perform (Chin Chun Shih, 2001). While role play contributes to affect students attitudes positively and improve their English speaking skills, there is little research examining its effectiveness towards pre intermediate students in universities. In Vietnam, much of the research focuses on role play aiming at junior high schools students in foreign countries like Hong Kong, Japan and Korea. There is little research that indicates how role-play could influence students learning attitudes directly. Scarcella Oxford (1992, p.54) also pointed out that most researchers talk about using cooperative learning activities or student-centered learning in order not to put too much pressure on an individual student in front of the class. Therefore, this particular research is intended to focus on the effectiveness of role play in teaching speaking skills for pre intermediate students. Based on the above rationale, this research tends to seek answers to two below research questions: What are pre-intermediate students attitudes toward the role-play activity? In what way does role play improve pre-intermediate students speaking skills? Generally, this research aims at making clear two important aspects of role play: affecting attitudes positively and improving speaking skills properly. Firstly, this research shows how role -play has a direct effect on learners attitudes. Secondly, this research intends to point out how role play help improve their speaking skills in particular. The structure of this research includes the context and methodology as the qualitative method. Data will be collected via oral test, interview and observation, which will then described and analyzed in item data analysis. Next, the content of reflection shows what is gained and which possibly further research questions are. 2. LITERATURE REVIEW Definitions of terms Role-play can be divided into role and play. Gillian (2002, p.7) refers role as to play a part (either their own or somebody elses) in a specific situation. He also indicates that Play represents the role is taken on in a safe environment in which students are as inventive and playful as possible (p.5). This teaching method enables students to enjoy the experience of having conversations with people in real life so as to develop their social communication. The function of role-play in language learning Teaching English in Vietnam mostly concentrates on grammar translation methods and is examination oriented. Adian Doff and Maxwell (2002, 1997) pointed out the problems of those English teaching methods, and argued that there is a need to develop more diverse English teaching methods or activities. Vietnamese students have common weakness reportedly as their speaking ability. They have little chance to practice conversation, even in the second language classrooms. In order to encourage students to speak in public, role -play is often used by teachers as one of the teaching methods. Maxwell (1997) holds the opinion that the purpose of role-play is to improve students verbal and nonverbal communication skills and to link and use previously built schemas, in both structured and improvised situations (p.1). This viewpoint shows that role -play could improve students in verbal or nonverbal communication while they are performing the roles in the dialogue. James G. Clawson (1997, p. 4) pointed that A common theme in the benefits of using role play is that the techninque can bring abstract discussions alive, make them live, and in so doing, open up students willingness to learn When taking part in the dialogues created by teachers or extracted from the text books, students will be required to act as the characters in the dialogues, therefore, they will find it easier to use the conversation in daily lives. Daily conversation will create lots of unpredictable situations that make students confused how to deal with. As noted by Salies (1995, p.6), role-play helps learn ers to deal with unpredictability, motivating them by adding emotion and increase the awareness of the listeners. Accordingly, role-play helps create a safe environment for students to practice their language skills. The influence of role play on attitudes Attitude plays an important role in learning English speaking skill. Without adequate and appropriate attitudes, pre-intermediate students are usually unwilling to learn what their teachers try to teach them. To make a change about students learning attitudes, teachers can use role play to increase their confidence because role-play proves to be a good choice for them to understand and handle the learning content. James G. Clawson (1997, p4) indicated that role play helps improve learners abilities to communicate their thoughts and feelings in effective and productive ways among peers. They will find themselves better motivated to learn if they are recognized as a part of the class. Motivation is important because it helps create good start. Role-play can also help reinforce students knowledge gained through constant practice and acting. Also, students learn to how to cooperate well with each other through working and discussing English together, which will lead to mutual affection. He pointed that emotional climate is a good motivation during learning process (Ray, 1992, p.9). Students can gain more confidence in a safe environment brought by role play method. The learning environment ha s become particularly important for students. Ray (1992) also agreed that students prefer a consistent learning environment with good order at which they feel safe. (p.5). In other words, students can learn better in a little pressure environment. Furthermore, role-play helps create peer relationships which have become very important in improving attitudes. Ray said that the main motivational factor for pre intermediate students is the social incentives reflected in peer relationships (1992, p.13). The speaking and practicing subjects would be their classmates, who are familiar to the students and cause them less pressure and nervousness. Students work in small or big groups and there is a competitiveness among these groups. By this kind of stimulus, students are able to increase their learning attitudes, and to learn the second language further. Therefore, in the context of this research study, the findings above show that role-play could affect students attitudes positively in four aspects: improving students confidence, motivating their participation, creating interest in speaking lessons, and improving peer relationships through moderate competition. In conclusion, the literature above may lead to the fact that the main function of role-play is to help students improve speaking skills. Below context will indicate that there is a need to examine how role-play can facilitate students speaking ability in Vietnams education environment. 3. CONTEXT In Vietnam, the teaching of English has been criticized with lack of practice and heavy focus on written examination. In most universities in Vietnam, students are tested in written form, meanwhile, oral tests are ignored since they are time consuming and too difficult for students. Many pre- intermediate students are reported with lack of English communicative ability due to their emphasis on the written exam in previous grades. Adian Doff (2002) stated that teachers would look at prior tests to assure that they covered the subject matter of the test or test objectives (p.2). The Entrance Exam is the main examination for high school students to enter university. There are two parts of questions. The first part include multiple choice grammar questions for each of which students must choose the best answer. The second part is a reading comprehension assessment that includes cloze tests (Ministry of Education and Training, 1999). Thus, students focus on writing and reading rather than speaking skills. Also, starting their learning in universities, pre-intermediate students are lack of chance to improve their speaking skills. They feel shy and can hardly speak and listen to English in their daily lives. Although they are taught the curriculum Lifeline set (Hutchinson, 2001) with four skills, the speaking skills are often ignored due to limited time in one period. Grammar or reading exercises are taken greater priority. Besides, teaching speaking seems to put a lot of effort into and not every teacher will be successful in a speaking lesson. As a matter of fact, so many teachers of English in Vietnam universities are trained with grammar translation method. That is the reason why they will face a big challenge to create an environment in which students are given more opportunities to use English as a means of communication. It has become more and more difficult for Vietnamese teachers when they have to work with large classes which are more suitable to give lectures instead of asking students to work in small groups. Teachers of English make it impossible to control such large classes if they have intention of teaching English in communicative way. A serious problem teachers in Vietnam have to tackle is that although there is a number of a method of teaching speaking skill, it is not easy at all to find out appropriate methods which help Vietnamese students, especially those at pre-intermediate leve l make some improvements in speaking skill. Researchers argue that role-play can help learners improve it. Firstly, role-play helps improve students listening ability. In viewpoint of Salies (1995, p.8), role-play makes students aware of the listener. Therefore, listening ability is as important as speaking ability and role-play might help to improve this skill. Secondly, role -play contributes to improve speaking ability. In order to speak well in a daily conversation, one should take consideration about the pronunciation as well because clear pronunciation helps speaking become two-way communication. In this case, while students are performing in speaking lessons, teachers will be able to listen to each students pronunciation and correct him/her individually during speaking sessions. In conclusion, the context above is critical because it indicates that there is a need to examine how role-play can facilitate pre intermediate students speaking ability in Vietnams universities. 4. METHODOLOGY According to C. Pope and N. Mays (1995), the goal of qualitative research is the development of concepts which help us to understand social phenomena in natural (rather than experimental) settings, giving due emphasis to the meanings, experiences, and views of all the participants. In the researchers viewpoint, qualitative method is proper to discover pre-students attitudes towards role play and how role play motivates them in speaking lessons. This part presents subjects, data collection instruments consisting of oral tests, interview and observation via two role play activities. 4.1. Subjects Participants Six students are randomly chosen. All are between the age of 19 and 20 and study English at pre-intermediate level. Students at pre-intermediate level but not other levels are chosen as they have more chance to take part in communication activities. In order to get an exact result, the participants English speaking ability is different. The backgrounds of participants are stated below. Name Sex Background English Level Nam Male He is quite good at English. He performs enthusiastically and confidently in English class. Good Mai Female Her English is at medium. However, she is willing to learn and perform in class. Medium Trung Male He is a person who is enthusiastic in English lesson even though his English is not as good as others. Medium Hoa Female Her English level is medium. She is very shy. She likes English, especially English speaking skill. But she is too shy to perform in class. Medium Sy Male He likes taking part in all games in class. Although his English is not good, he is not afraid to speak English. Not good Phuong Female She likes to talk loud in class, but not in English. Due to her weakness at English she seems to be very quiet in English lessons. Not good Teaching materials The main pilot teaching material is The New Headway Pre-intermediate textbook compiled by Liz John Soars. There are two dialogues used in this research. The researcher asked the informants to play the roles of the dialogues. Students are voluntarily encouraged to contribute their own ideas to make the play role activities more creative and interesting. 4.2. Instruments of data collection 4.2.1. Oral tests and Interviews Two oral tests and interviews were conducted for this study with the participation of six students. The first oral test was done before the two-week experiment, and the second oral test was held after the experiment of the two-week experiment. Moreover, during the interview the researcher asked them related questions to clarify the purpose of the study. Yes-no questions and WH- questions that students have to answer are included in oral test questions. Yes-no questions are for students who can not have long answers, and WH- questions are for students who are at better learners. The questions are displayed in Appendix A. After finishing the pre-oral test, the study proceeded to the main part, which was role-play. During role-play, I interviewed every student individually. The interview questions were based on some basic questions but might be changed to adapt the situations and students reactions (see Appendix C). Moreover, students were interviewed in their mother tongue so that they felt at ease to express their feelings. When the pre-oral test, two role play activities and interview were finished, it was time to examine how students improve their speaking ability. And the post-oral test was done to compare the students performances from the beginning to the end (see Appendix A). 4.2.2. Observation The researcher observed six pre-intermediate students participation during two role play activities. The observation in this study was done via my note-taking or keeping diary, and tape-recording through the pilot teaching. The purpose of this part is to see what pre-intermediate students behaviors are when role play is employed as a speaking activity. Furthermore, during the pilot teaching, tape recording was also carried out to get the data for the research. The students utterances were recorded and analyzed later to find out how the role play was used and how it motivated students. 5. DATA ANALYSIS Descriptive data are analyzed by qualitative method. 5.1. Descriptive data of oral tests The oral tests were arranged and conducted at the participants convenience. The oral tests (see Appendix A) were given before and after the two-week experiment. In order to give descriptive data of oral tests, interviews and observation, I have based on seven criteria to review pre-intermediate students English speaking ability including: 1) the influency of speaking, 2) the frequency of using words that have been taught, 3) the accuracy of grammar application, 4) the listening skills absorption, 5) the anxiety of students, 6) the accuracy of pronunciation, 7) the pause while interviewing. The oral tests showed that students speaking ability did improve after the use of role-play. Specifically, three fourth of the participants spoke more fluently. While doing the oral test, I also felt that students would try hard to answer in English. They might not give complete sentences, but they would manage to use the words they had learned. They also tried to use correct grammar when giving answers. However, some students who were not good at English such as Sy and Phuong sometimes produced wrong grammar sentences. Moreover, students not only understood what I asked during the oral tests, but also tried hard to listen to whole sentences and digested them. I, myself, had a strong feeling that students tried very hard to pay attention to the post-oral test, because most students had enthusiastic responses with me. Moreover, students anxiety had been decreased during the second oral test. One of the reasons that the researcher postulated was that students were familiar with the res earcher, and might not be afraid to speak English. They also learned how to pay due attention to their pronunciation while performing in front of their classmates. This also made them have better pronunciation during the oral tests. Some of them even tried to improve their pronunciation by making repetition of what they spoke. The pause frequency of interviewees was really high during the first oral tests, but it seemed lower during the second. Some students said I dont know or I have no idea when they could not find the answers to the questions. In general, the oral-tests showed that role-play had a positive influence on pre-elementary students speaking skill. Most students might not have the ability to answer in complete sentences, but they showed positive attitudes during the oral tests. They paid due attention to the questions, and answered the questions using the vocabulary they had learnt, which showed their willingness to attempt to learn English in general and speak English in particular. Therefore, I can conclude that role-play not only stimulated students when they learned English in speaking lessons, but also made them eager to learn more. 5.2. Descriptive data of observation In order to assess the participation and effectiveness of using role-play in speaking lessons, I based on four levels: 1-3 (bad), 4-6 (medium), 7-9 (good), 10 (excellent). In this part, I would like to use two dialogues and asked participants to play role (see appendix B). For the first role play activity, the researcher used the telephone conversation between the receptionist and client in book New Headway Pre-intermediate by Liz and John Soars (p.77, unit 9). I asked the participants to work in pairs which mean three couples did the same role play. In order to make the role play more effective and to have an exact observation, I asked Nam to work with Mai, Trung with Phuong, and Sy with Hoa. Nam, Trung, Sy played the role of the receptionist whereas Mai, Phuong, Hoa played the role of the client. The researcher instructed first and three pairs presented in turn. During the role play activity, I would observe, take notes, and record. The first role play is easy and simple so that students can feel comfortable and confident to take part in. The results of observation basing on the four levels are presented as below. For the second role play activity, the researcher used a more difficult role play activity which was extracted from the book New Headway Pre-intermediate by Liz and John Soars (p.57, unit 7). This role play was an interview with the band Style. Participants had to play the role of an interviewer a journalist and the role of two interviewees Suzie and Guy. In this part, students worked in group of three. Nam, Mai, Sy were the first group. Trung, Hoa, Phuong were the second group. Nam, Hoa who are better at English were the interviewers. The rest were the interviewees in which Mai, Phuong played the role of Suzie, and Sy, Trung played the role of Guy. Similar to the first role play, the researcher instructed first, and the two groups presented in turn. The results of observation from the second role play activity basing on the four levels are stated as below. The second role play After experiencing the two role-play activities, the researcher found that the pre-elementary students English speaking ability has been improved. Specifically, four out of six participants made a clear progress in the influence of speaking ability, and the ability of expressing him/her self. Moreover, half of participants used grammar more correctly. Also, half of participants became more confident such as Mai, Trung, Sy. In addition, Nam the best participant at English speaking improved his vocabulary. Thus, the observations results show that pre-students English speaking skill has been improved when the researcher uses the role play in speaking lessons. 5.3. Descriptive data of interview The interview was conducted during and after role play. All the students were interviewed once. Additionally, the interviews were conducted in Vietnamese. During the interviews, the whole procedure was recorded and taken notes. The questions of interview are available in Appendix C When being asked to compare the traditional teaching method most of the students answered that they really like the role-play teaching method. They explained that role-play gave them a joyful feeling and avoid being sleepy in class. In general, most students feel that role play is an interesting teaching activity and they really like it. In other words, their feeling of this teaching method is positive. For example, one of the interviewees, Hoa, expressed that: Well, I extremely like this teaching activity. It helps me be more confident in speaking English. Especially, it makes me more interested in lesson instead of being sleepy. I always feel bored and sleepy in lessons which are given in a traditional way. Another participant Nam said that: I think using role play in speaking lessons is good because we get more confident when playing role and speaking in front of other friends. I like this teaching method than the traditional method. For the second question Do you think that your speaking skill has been improved after doing role-play in class? all participants answer Yes. For example, Sy pointed out that role-play can help him improve his speaking skill: I thinkà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ my speaking is better after doing role-play several times. My speaking ability seems to be more fluent. Andà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦.I feel more confident. When replying this question, Trung also determined that his speaking English skill had been improved. He said Ummà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦.You know that now I can speak English a little bit fluently. I feel more confident to speak in front of other students. Does it mean that my English speaking skill has been improved? Furthermore, I asked the participants whether there are any negative sides when applying role-play in class. And most of them answered that the problem is the class order was not very good in that case. Sometimes, there was too much noise for students to act in class. Participants, however, still show a positive attitude. Mai said: I think noise is unavoidable when we learn speaking skill. I really like this kind of teaching activity. It is fun. It makes me want to study English and want to speak English in class. However, in order to add to the negative sides of using role play in class, Hoa stated that Sometimes role play takes much time. In my opinion, it is a negative side of role play. I asked the students if it was tiring or stressful for them to plan the dialogues beforehand. As a result, most students showed a positive response to the preparation. Phuong who is not good at English expressed that I feel difficult to have a good preparation at first. My English is not very good. I can not study it at home without teachers instruction. However, after preparing for the class for several times, I start to feel that preview is really important. I know the lesson prior to class and I can understand what the teacher talks about in class. Furthermore, as I have had preparation before class, I become less nervous and shy when speaking on the stage in English. Similarly, Trung said eagerly: Well, my teacher also asked us to prepare in advance. For the first time I felt quiet tired because I didnt get familiar with this learning method. But for the third time, everything seemed to be better. And now I have no problem with preparation in advance. When observing participants doing the first role-play, the researcher recognized that some of the students were very extroverted. However when they were asked to perform the role play in class, they started to keep avoiding from this opportunity. I wanted to know what resulted in such a reaction. Some students told me that they were really shy; some of them could not find out the proper way to act. However, after doing the second role-play the participants responses seemed to be more positive. They participated to the activity more enthusiastically. They did not appear to be shy any more. For example, Trung said that I am an extroverted person. However, I dont feel confident when speaking English in class because I know that my English is not good and as a result, I dont want to speak English in class. But now I feel better. After doing the first and the second role-play activities I recognize that theres no reason to be shyà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦please take part in the activity, please spea k. Wellà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦it is really good. In short, most of the participants hold the positive attitudes to the role-play teaching activity in speaking lessons. For example, students showed more interest in learning speaking English with the role -play activity, students agreed that role-play helped improve their speaking skills, and they showed higher willingness to perform in public. 6. REFLECTION This study was designed to research the effectiveness of using the role-play to motivate pre-intermediate students in speaking lessons. There were six participants in the research. Also, the researcher used qualitative method to do the research in which oral tests, interviews, and observation are used to collect data. Based on the results of the study, the findings have been drawn. These findings are: (1) participants have a positive attitude to role-play in speaking lessons. (2) Role-play motivates pre-intermediate students in learning speaking. Moreover, the findings of this study may offer three practical implications for English teachers in Vietnam to help students develop speaking ability. The first implication for English teachers is that they should apply a communicative teaching technique in English speaking classes such as role play. However, role play should be merged with the traditional English teaching. The second implication is that teachers can affect students learning attitudes/motivation positively by lively activities. The last implication is to provide a safe environment with tender discipline in class because this will make student feel more comfortable and eager to learn, especially to speak English in class. In other words, English teaching in Vietnam should be added lively and interesting communicative teaching methods in class, especially in English speaking class. I believe that the study is successful. Also, it is proper to use the qualitative method for this study. However, there is one limitation which may influence the outcome of the study. The limitation referred in this study is time limitation. Because of limited time, I can only give two role-play activities to experience and test the effectiveness of role-play on pre-intermediate students. Suggestions for further research In order to have a more accurate and complete result, further study can be done with the cooperation of the involved students English teacher. Working with the English teacher is advantageous as he/she might help me understand every students English level in a short time. Moreover, it would be better to have two instructors to review students during oral tests and performances. Besides role-play, I would like to add some other activities to class and think of some interesting topics for students to act in role-play. It would be boring if the whole period of class was proceeding in the role-play teaching activity only, thus, added activities may help students concentrate in class more effectively. The dialogues in students textbooks did not really attract them. Students already had those contents in their regular English classes. It would affect students attitudes/motivation positively if there were more interesting topics for students to discuss and act. Last but not least, in a future research, I may have more chances to videotape the whole process of the experiment which includes the oral tests, interviews and performances. Students gestures, facial expressions or body languages could serve as the sources to interpret their intentions as well. Besides, some non-verbal languages could appear beyond expectation, so those expressions are also important for descriptive data. 7. CONCLUSION I would like to conclude my research in two aspects. Firstly, role play is not beneficial only for the pre intermediate students but even students of upper levels as well as lower levels. Role play proves to be a good way to motivate English learners to speak out what they want to say. In fact, students have to experience different situations in real life. The final and the most important goal of teaching English is none other than helping students use English in those situations. Role-play creates many daily situations for students to practice their English. In addition, it really creates a safe environment and productive learning environment in language class which would be interesting to absorb knowledge. Secondly, although role play works well in speaking lessons as well as with pre-intermediate university students, it is not the only method for teachers to apply in every lesson. In other words, there are numerous different ways Vietnamese teachers are offered to apply to motivate students communicate in English naturally and effectively, to affect their attitudes positively and to increase s

Lessons Learned :: Personal Narrative Friendship Essays

Lessons Learned â€Å"Hey hun, how did ya sleep?† my husband Max said as he gave me a quick peck on the cheek. â€Å"Fine. What time is your meeting?† I asked â€Å"The Board is meeting at noon and then I have another briefing at 2.† He took a sip of his orange juice and asked, â€Å"What do you have planned for today?† â€Å"Well... ya know it’s Lucy’s birthday, I thought I would go see her.† â€Å"Okay I gotta go, try to be home before 5. We’ll go out to dinner. Ohh and can you pick Emily up from school at 4, I won’t be able to,† he said as he tightened his tie, grabbed his briefcase and then vanished through the kitchen door, not waiting for my reply. I went upstairs to change out of my pajamas. I grabbed a faded pair of jeans and pulled my sun-streaked hair into a loose ponytail. I grabbed the gift that I had bought for Lucy and headed out the front door. In a few minutes I was heading away from my sub-division and steering my Lincoln Navigator onto the expressway. I let my mind drift upon thoughts of my best friend. Lucy White and I had been best friends since the day we met in kindergarten. She caught my eye while standing in the corner crying for her mom. I wanted to cry too, but was too afraid. I thought she was pretty cool because she could wear her long stringy blonde hair down, and I had to wear mine tightly pulled back and stiffly braided. I still remember her standing there in her new Jordache jeans and sucking her thumb when I went up to her and said, â€Å"My mom told me that only babies suck their thumbs.† She quickly pulled the drool soaked finger out of her mouth and stopped crying. From then on she was always following my lead. I thought of how I could always convince her to do the things that I knew were wrong but wanted to find out about anyways.

Motivation and Conflict Management Essay -- Workplace

Motivation and Conflict Management Organizations strive for creative ways to enhance employee motivation and resolve conflicts with the desire to have employees perform better within the workplace. To motivate one has to be motivated. Motivation within the workplace has to be constant and requiring a goal. Motivation, if not repeated will not last. Therefore, learning to determine how different organizations apply motivation theories to motivate employees, analyzing conflict management strategies and what approaches work best in different organizations will influence the success of an organization. Motivation Theories and Organizational Behavior Motivation is the concept of stimulating or arousing a person to achieve a goal. Motivation has much to do with desire and ambition, and if they are absent, motivation is absent too (What is Motivation and How to Strengthen It, para. 1). Motivation theories are unique to each organization. Some organizations have come up with motivation theories such as setting work goals, job performance evaluations, and fair treatment policies within the work environment to keep employees motivated. The impact that individuals, groups and structures have on behavior within organizations is Organizational Behavior. Motivation is affected by organizational behaviors, which is why different organizations apply motivation theories to motivate employees. Applying Motivation Theories to Motivate Employees Keeping workers motivated in today workplace can be not just a job, but also an adventure. In many organizations this is a challenge because the workplace is made up of a diverse cultural environment. Managers are still the driving force for any business and the responsibility and demand to ac... ...ional behavior. Team B was able to discuss and analyze different conflict strategies used in the workplace. The research educates Team B to how organizations implement various theories and strategies in accordance with their work environments. Works Cited Lewis, Clive (2007) Human resource management international digest. Bradford: 2007. Vol 15, Iss.4: pg. 3. Sasson, R. (2001-2010). SuccessConsciousness.com. Retrieved from http://www.successconsciousness.com/strengthen_motivation.htm Swinton, Lyndsay (2006). Workplace Conflict Management: Strategy for Successful Resolution. Retrieved November 14, 2010 from http://www.mftrou.com/workplace-conflict-management-strategy.html John R. Schermerhorn, James G. Hunt, Richard N. Osborn (2008). Organizational Behavior 10th ED. Retrieved November 12, 2010 from Academic Search Motivation and Conflict Management Essay -- Workplace Motivation and Conflict Management Organizations strive for creative ways to enhance employee motivation and resolve conflicts with the desire to have employees perform better within the workplace. To motivate one has to be motivated. Motivation within the workplace has to be constant and requiring a goal. Motivation, if not repeated will not last. Therefore, learning to determine how different organizations apply motivation theories to motivate employees, analyzing conflict management strategies and what approaches work best in different organizations will influence the success of an organization. Motivation Theories and Organizational Behavior Motivation is the concept of stimulating or arousing a person to achieve a goal. Motivation has much to do with desire and ambition, and if they are absent, motivation is absent too (What is Motivation and How to Strengthen It, para. 1). Motivation theories are unique to each organization. Some organizations have come up with motivation theories such as setting work goals, job performance evaluations, and fair treatment policies within the work environment to keep employees motivated. The impact that individuals, groups and structures have on behavior within organizations is Organizational Behavior. Motivation is affected by organizational behaviors, which is why different organizations apply motivation theories to motivate employees. Applying Motivation Theories to Motivate Employees Keeping workers motivated in today workplace can be not just a job, but also an adventure. In many organizations this is a challenge because the workplace is made up of a diverse cultural environment. Managers are still the driving force for any business and the responsibility and demand to ac... ...ional behavior. Team B was able to discuss and analyze different conflict strategies used in the workplace. The research educates Team B to how organizations implement various theories and strategies in accordance with their work environments. Works Cited Lewis, Clive (2007) Human resource management international digest. Bradford: 2007. Vol 15, Iss.4: pg. 3. Sasson, R. (2001-2010). SuccessConsciousness.com. Retrieved from http://www.successconsciousness.com/strengthen_motivation.htm Swinton, Lyndsay (2006). Workplace Conflict Management: Strategy for Successful Resolution. Retrieved November 14, 2010 from http://www.mftrou.com/workplace-conflict-management-strategy.html John R. Schermerhorn, James G. Hunt, Richard N. Osborn (2008). Organizational Behavior 10th ED. Retrieved November 12, 2010 from Academic Search

Characters, Symbolism, and Themes in The Lord of The Flies Essay

The Lord of the Flies is a story about a stranded group of boys on a deserted island after their plane crashes. It is about an adventure at the start of a new World War. The boys try to create a society by selecting a leader and doing everything they can to survive. It is all a game without adult supervision until the island becomes a nightmare and their imaginations come to life. Everything becomes more realistic when the twins, Sam and Eric, find the body of the dead parachutist hanging from a tree on the island. Then the boys declare that there is some type of beast on the island and they must kill it to stay alive. Soon the boys turn on each other and kill Simon because he is mistaken for the beast. Jack then, takes over the group of boys and hunts down Piggy and Ralph. Then Roger pushes a boulder off the cliff and kills Piggy. The boys follow Ralph, which is the main character and the boys began to set the jungle on fire in attempt to smoke Ralph out. Ralph then discovers that h e is back on the beach after collapsing from exhaustion. After looking up, he then finds a Naval officer standing over him. The officer saw the raging fire in the jungle from his ship at sea. Overwhelmingly Ralph explains what happened to the officer. He and the boys begin to cry because they realize that they are finally being rescued and are going home. Symbolism is shown throughout the story, by the little things like the conch shell and Piggy’s glasses. The pig’s head is a huge symbol, showing that the boys believe in a power of evil. In this book the main theme is civilization vs. savagery. The boys lose their civilized being and innocence ways as they become savages and kill Simon and Piggy. In The Lord of The Flies, Golding analyzes characters, ... ...Cathy Falk. Vol. 58. Detroit: Gale Research, 1990. Literature Resources from Gale. Web. 19 Jan. 2012. Slayton, Paul. "Teaching Rationale for William Golding's Lord of the Flies." Censored Books: Critical Viewpoints. Ed. Nicholas J. Karolides, Lee Burress, and John M. Kean. The Scarecrow Press, Inc, 1993. 351-357. Rpt. in Novels for Students. Ed. Diane Telgen. Vol. 2. Detroit: Gale, 1998. Literature Resources from Gale. Web. 19 Jan. 2012. SparkNotes. N.p., n.d. Web. 12 Feb 2012. 98. Literature Resources from Gale. Web. 19 Jan. 2012. Townsend, R. C. "Lord of the Flies': Fool's Gold." The Journal of General Education. Vol. 16. University Park, Pa.: The Pennsylvania State University Press, 1964. 153-160. Rpt. in Contemporary Literary Criticism. Ed. Roger Matuz and Cathy Falk. Vol. 58. Detroit: Gale Research, 1990. Literature Resources from Gale. Web. 19 Jan. 2012.

The Education System of Today

Testing today has taken over schools. The pressure of society for a person to strive to reach the best schools and therefore the best education, to do this your test scores have to be the best. This brings up the question on weather or not the highest test scores show who the smartest people really are? These high test scores raise the question, does the school you go to have an influence on how you do on your tests. If it does make a difference does the money involved create a preddjudicous. Also should someone use all their powers available to find get into the best schools? Society is leaning more towards Machiavelli†s view where the ends justify the means. This also brings morals into the situation. The education system of today has used testing as an easer way to show how smart someone is. Teachers use tests to see how well students understand what they have taught. This has a positive effect making the students learn the material that the teacher wants them to learn, however the student ends up just learning it because they have to. In order to become educated someone has to want to learn something. That is the only way that they would truly push themselves to further their knowledge. The only thing that pushes students to learn today is the pressure that society makes. These pressures consist of anything from parents pushing the child to go to college, to business that will not hire anyone without a college degree. Parents want to see their child succeed more then the child wants too. The child wants to succeed too because no one wants to grow up only to be able to work in a minim wage job. Without the benefits of a college degree a person is limited as to what positions are available in today†s workplace. The better the college that the person got the degree from the better chance they have at the job. This leads into the whole network of schooling involved to get the best jobs available. In order to get into the best college to get the best job one has to go to the best high school, which takes the best lower school, and to get into that lower school one has to get into the best preschool. This path is not an exact one but there is a quality of school that has to be kept up with. At the young age where this cycle is started the child has no say in any of it. The parents are left to put their child in the best school they can. Most parents will go threw many lengths to give their children the best possible start into the world. They will spend all of their precious money and they will use all of their contacts to get their child into the best schools they can. This however is an unfair system. Not everyone can afford the best schools because they usually end up being the most expensive. Like wise not everyone has an aunt to get them into the collage that they otherwise would not have been able to get into. This raises the question do the ends justify the means like in Machiavelli's peace â€Å"The Qualities of the Prince†. The system that he suggests a prince should govern under is not the ideal system but in the end it makes the best prince. The system that someone uses to get threw schools using all available resources may not be the fairest but in the end they will get the best education possible. I believe in using all available resources to give yourself a leg up on others. Sure it is not an ideal way to run the education system. It is not fair to everyone that dose not have the same resources, but it is a dog –eat-dog world and you have to do what you can to make it. In order to make education less of a social and financial thing standardized testing was invented. These tests were and still are supposed to be a way that gives everyone, no matter what connections or how much money they have, the equal chance. This in theory would be perfect but it dose not work that way. The tests can only test on so much material, and who says that the material is the most important. These tests did lessen the gap between schools. Someone that went to a private school with the best teachers had just as a student that was home taught. It tested on the same material and it gave everyone the chance to show their knowledge. There are many nitpicky things that come up about the unfair ness of tests like the SAT. It is impossible to make questions that equally apply to everyone. As an example a question about sailing would be a lot harder for someone that did not live near water then it would be for someone that grew up on a sailboat. The only major problem with tests like the SATs, is that it dose not take into account the people that are smart and know just as much as the next guy but just doesn†t do as well on tests. Tests only show you so much of a person. The problem of a test is in its inability to show the person. Sure it shows how well that person knows the material he or she is tested on, but it dose not show that person. What if the student dose poorly on the SAT, but ends up having the best management skills. He won†t get into the best collage and there fore the biggest companies will not look at him and he will end up getting a lesser job. It also has the opposite possibility. If someone dose amassing one these tests and gets hired by a big aw firm but this person cannot get along with anyone, it turns out just as bad. This too can be argued by the fact that many of these business hiring these people, that do amassing on these test, are looking for they type of person that is known to test well. There is an endless list of prows and cons for testing. Some of them are so nitpicky they are laughed at, but in the hole I believe that tests are good. They are only good for finding someone†s intelligence if they are used along with other methods. There is no one way that is good for everyone. If every person was the same and knew the same things then you could fined one way to see who was smarter, but people are different. Some people excel in English and some excel in math but how do you judge who is smarter. They do not have a common area to be tested in. The editoral by David Ignatius points out all the wrongs with today†s education system, but it dose not give a realistic solution. Sure it would be nice to encourage people to go to collage just to learn more and farther their knowledge, but most students go to school now because it is the only way to keep their options in life open. I personally came to college to learn how to become an engineer. I am very interested in this field and am doing well. In the beginning of the year I started taking psychology, which I fined very interesting. I had to drop the class. In order to excel in my required core sources I needed more time and therefore had to drop psychology. This was a very hypocritical move on my part. I wanted to farther my knowledge in other subjects that interest me but I gave in to the pressures to succeed instead of learn. School is not ideal and the education systems are not completely focused on learning, but that is the way it is now so as a student I have to deal with this and make the best out of what I am given. Every advantage that is possible should be taken, like when Machiavelli pointed out the methods for becoming the best prince, not the best methods for becoming a prince. They were not always the ideal way of dealing with situations but it was the most effective. Just like testing and using connections is not the best method for getting an education but they will give you the best shot at excelling at it. The Education System of Today Testing today has taken over schools. The pressure of society for a person to strive to reach the best schools and therefore the best education, to do this your test scores have to be the best. This brings up the question on weather or not the highest test scores show who the smartest people really are? These high test scores raise the question, does the school you go to have an influence on how you do on your tests. If it does make a difference does the money involved create a preddjudicous. Also should someone use all their powers available to find get into the best schools? Society is leaning more towards Machiavelli†s view where the ends justify the means. This also brings morals into the situation. The education system of today has used testing as an easer way to show how smart someone is. Teachers use tests to see how well students understand what they have taught. This has a positive effect making the students learn the material that the teacher wants them to learn, however the student ends up just learning it because they have to. In order to become educated someone has to want to learn something. That is the only way that they would truly push themselves to further their knowledge. The only thing that pushes students to learn today is the pressure that society makes. These pressures consist of anything from parents pushing the child to go to college, to business that will not hire anyone without a college degree. Parents want to see their child succeed more then the child wants too. The child wants to succeed too because no one wants to grow up only to be able to work in a minim wage job. Without the benefits of a college degree a person is limited as to what positions are available in today†s workplace. The better the college that the person got the degree from the better chance they have at the job. This leads into the whole network of schooling involved to get the best jobs available. In order to get into the best college to get the best job one has to go to the best high school, which takes the best lower school, and to get into that lower school one has to get into the best preschool. This path is not an exact one but there is a quality of school that has to be kept up with. At the young age where this cycle is started the child has no say in any of it. The parents are left to put their child in the best school they can. Most parents will go threw many lengths to give their children the best possible start into the world. They will spend all of their precious money and they will use all of their contacts to get their child into the best schools they can. This however is an unfair system. Not everyone can afford the best schools because they usually end up being the most expensive. Like wise not everyone has an aunt to get them into the collage that they otherwise would not have been able to get into. This raises the question do the ends justify the means like in Machiavelli's peace â€Å"The Qualities of the Prince†. The system that he suggests a prince should govern under is not the ideal system but in the end it makes the best prince. The system that someone uses to get threw schools using all available resources may not be the fairest but in the end they will get the best education possible. I believe in using all available resources to give yourself a leg up on others. Sure it is not an ideal way to run the education system. It is not fair to everyone that dose not have the same resources, but it is a dog –eat-dog world and you have to do what you can to make it. In order to make education less of a social and financial thing standardized testing was invented. These tests were and still are supposed to be a way that gives everyone, no matter what connections or how much money they have, the equal chance. This in theory would be perfect but it dose not work that way. The tests can only test on so much material, and who says that the material is the most important. These tests did lessen the gap between schools. Someone that went to a private school with the best teachers had just as a student that was home taught. It tested on the same material and it gave everyone the chance to show their knowledge. There are many nitpicky things that come up about the unfair ness of tests like the SAT. It is impossible to make questions that equally apply to everyone. As an example a question about sailing would be a lot harder for someone that did not live near water then it would be for someone that grew up on a sailboat. The only major problem with tests like the SATs, is that it dose not take into account the people that are smart and know just as much as the next guy but just doesn†t do as well on tests. Tests only show you so much of a person. The problem of a test is in its inability to show the person. Sure it shows how well that person knows the material he or she is tested on, but it dose not show that person. What if the student dose poorly on the SAT, but ends up having the best management skills. He won†t get into the best collage and there fore the biggest companies will not look at him and he will end up getting a lesser job. It also has the opposite possibility. If someone dose amassing one these tests and gets hired by a big aw firm but this person cannot get along with anyone, it turns out just as bad. This too can be argued by the fact that many of these business hiring these people, that do amassing on these test, are looking for they type of person that is known to test well. There is an endless list of prows and cons for testing. Some of them are so nitpicky they are laughed at, but in the hole I believe that tests are good. They are only good for finding someone†s intelligence if they are used along with other methods. There is no one way that is good for everyone. If every person was the same and knew the same things then you could fined one way to see who was smarter, but people are different. Some people excel in English and some excel in math but how do you judge who is smarter. They do not have a common area to be tested in. The editoral by David Ignatius points out all the wrongs with today†s education system, but it dose not give a realistic solution. Sure it would be nice to encourage people to go to collage just to learn more and farther their knowledge, but most students go to school now because it is the only way to keep their options in life open. I personally came to college to learn how to become an engineer. I am very interested in this field and am doing well. In the beginning of the year I started taking psychology, which I fined very interesting. I had to drop the class. In order to excel in my required core sources I needed more time and therefore had to drop psychology. This was a very hypocritical move on my part. I wanted to farther my knowledge in other subjects that interest me but I gave in to the pressures to succeed instead of learn. School is not ideal and the education systems are not completely focused on learning, but that is the way it is now so as a student I have to deal with this and make the best out of what I am given. Every advantage that is possible should be taken, like when Machiavelli pointed out the methods for becoming the best prince, not the best methods for becoming a prince. They were not always the ideal way of dealing with situations but it was the most effective. Just like testing and using connections is not the best method for getting an education but they will give you the best shot at excelling at it.

A Comparison of Berrypicking and Sense-Making in Human Information Behavior

In today’s society, people are inundated with information from a variety of sources, including television programs, radio shows, newspaper articles and the Internet. Daily exposure to this new information provides the opportunity to further our knowledge and understanding of a subject by doing further research but what is the most effective way to go about doing so? Two different approaches based on Human Information Behavior (HIB) have been modeled which help identify individual’s information-seeking behavior and provide guidance for creating systems which make searching for information a successful proposition.The two approaches that will be examined in this paper include the â€Å"Berrypicking† model proposed by Marcia Bates and Brenda Dervin’s methodology â€Å"Sense-Making†. These two principles vary widely in their scope but are complementary as systems to aid in an information search. Berrypicking Before the late 1980’s, the universal model in information retrieval (IR) research was referred to as â€Å"one query, one use†.According to Marcia Bates, real information searching by an individual does not always conform to the â€Å"one query, one use† method that had been assumed. Bates states that with the development of more sophisticated computer systems that evolved over time, a new design based on the way that regular human beings in real-life situations perform searches for information was necessary (Bates, 2005). She presented a model of the Berrypicking search, and then proposed a variety of design features for users of online systems and other information systems.In Marcia Bates’ model of Berrypicking, information seeking behavior is modeled as an â€Å"evolving search† (Bates, 1989) whereby the search starts with one query, but is modified at various points based on the information returned by that initial query. The final result may not match the original query, because new inf ormation introduced during the search process may identify alternate paths to follow in finding the most accurate data in the least amount of results.Bates compares this process to â€Å"real life† searching in manual applications such as footnote chasing, citation searching, journal runs, etc. (Bates, 1989). She used such searches to form the basis of a system that would allow users to follow these same manual processes within electronic files. Bates provides a number of applications for Berrypicking in her article; unfortunately most are outdated due to today’s advances in technology. The process she outlined, however, is still in use for a number of applications today. One example of Berrypicking involves a typical Internet search.A user might begin the hunt for information by using a popular search engine, but the results returned often provide hyperlinks within pages which then takes the user on a different search down an alternate path. Each new click provides th e opportunity to revise the original search, ultimately leading the user to a new set of results. Bates argues that Berrypicking should not be considered browsing, because while browsing allows a user to redirect their searching, it is more random and undirected, whereas Berrypicking is an integrated part of the information seeking process.Bates (1989) also identifies Berrypicking as searching within the individual’s â€Å"Universe of Interest† (or what information they are interested in seeking) in their own â€Å"Universe of Knowledge† (which includes what they may already know to get them started on their search) but this model does not hold up to the example of a typical Internet search due to the all-inclusive nature of the world wide web. Any query online could provide results that may be outside of an initial universe of interest by exposing alternate concepts or ideas and thus enhancing the search process.The inclusion of Figure 3 (Bates, 1989 ) in this model seems to be a rather weak one; perhaps due to the fact that the Internet has evolved so much since the introduction of this model in 1989. Sense-Making Alternately, Brenda Dervin’s Sense-Making Methodology delineates the behavior an individual follows when he seeks to fill a gap in his understanding of information rather than the searching steps that occur to reach it. Sense-Making endeavors to explain how â€Å"the individual defines and attempts to bridge discontinuities or gaps† (Dervin, 1992) in information.Dervin likens this process to a person crossing a bridge. In this case, an individual attempts to fill a gap between himself and the other side. The decisions he makes as well as his responses to the situation will determine how this person actually maneuvers. Sense-Making focuses on examining the capacity of the user to impact the flow of information between systems and users. This methodology has a wide applicability because it does not attempt to model specific information-seeking behavior but rather the thought process that occurs in conjunction with it.In her article Dervin offers several examples of ways in which this approach has already been used. In one example researchers attempted to understand where a gap existed in communication from a community library and its Hispanic population. After many failed attempts to reach this population through usual publicity efforts, researchers formulated a Sense-Making methodology in the form of a questionnaire that targeted a group of users at the library and asked them the specific question, â€Å"How were you helped? † (Dervin, 1992).This question gave the researchers a better understanding of the needs of this community by delving into their thought processes: â€Å"It helped us to see patrons from a different point of view; to understand them better† (Dervin, 1992). Through an application of the Sense-Making methodology this library was able to fill the discontinuity b etween the library and its Hispanic patrons by listening to the needs of the targeted population. The challenge in using the Sense-Making approach to eradicate a gap is that the behaviors exhibited may not be understood until after the event is over.Comparison and Contrast Dervin would argue that one way to understand the fundamental differences between Berrypicking and Sense-Making is to examine the different ways that theories can be used to define them. Theory, when used to describe the Berrypicking system, would most closely match what Dervin calls theory of the first kind, or that which â€Å"results from observation† (Dervin, 2005). Theory of the second kind is defined as the broader theories that direct the observation process; they are also known as metatheories.However, Sense-Making does not fall into this category. Sense-Making is an attempt to link theories of the first kind with theories of the second kind, or what Dervin (2005) calls theory of the third kind â₠¬â€œ methodological theory. As a new methodology underlying the relationship between the theory that directs observation and the theory that results from observation, Sense-Making is highly powerful in its capacity to call into question earlier research methods and conclusions.An important aspect in studying HIB is the focus on the user, rather than the system. Each of these two approaches explains the core concepts behind user behavior and work methodologies rather than attempting to conform human behavior to fit an existing system. Both ideas are concerned with analyzing the way an increased focus on users can impact information systems and aid the unrestrained flow of information.Berrypicking is a fairly narrow model, representative of a specific type of HIB (searching) and it has limits in applicability to other types of information-seeking behavior. Sense-Making has a broader application, because the methodology is also part of a theory (theory for methodology) which can be use d to study various types of HIB. Dervin argues that users should be viewed as moving through a space-time continuum using multiple strategies and systems as they attempt to make sense of their world and address gaps in their knowledge.Tonyia Tidline (2005) notes in her dissertation Making Sense of Art as Information, â€Å"Sense-Making has great utility for shifting researchers’ focus from categorization to process, a focus that might better reflect the intricacies of information behavior†. Tidline asserts that Brenda Dervin’s ideas about information needs and the methodology of information-focused research are not effective by themselves, but become so when used in combination with other methods and theories to improve how we observe, analyze and understand information behavior (Tidline, 2005).Consequently, the Berrypicking model, when used in conjunction with the Sense-Making methodology would be complementary and allow for the achievement of better results in those designing systems for IR. Berrypicking could be used as part of Sense-Making/gap-filling process by a user, because each new evolution of the search could fill a new gap or satisfy a discontinuity in our reality. Conclusion Theories or models provide us with a way of understanding and identifying HIB.In our daily lives we have an endless number of opportunities to interact with information. Some of this behavior is obvious, but not always. At times our need for new information is only required to bridge the gap in knowledge of something we do not understand. How we attempt to obtain that understanding depends on our circumstances and resources and how well we use each. This paper examined two approaches to HIB: Marcia Bates’ model Berrypicking and Brenda Dervin's methodology Sense-Making.Both of these approaches were designed to help researchers understand and better assist users in their exploration of information, whether their need is to search across multiple types of resources or to better communicate about unfamiliar topics. As systems designers endeavor to develop products that assist users in the search for information, they will be well served to grasp a greater understanding of HIB and consequently, the principles behind Berrypicking and Sense-Making. Individuals who seek further understanding of the world and its plethora of information will profit immensely from this well-rounded approach.