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Monday, April 23, 2012

Dissertation on Human Resource Management

Dissertation on HRM

QUESTIONS
1. How have the external environments influenced the human resource policies and practices in OA?
The human resource policies and practices in AO are a lot based on the external environmental influences. This is primary due to the fact that first of all it has to deal with the socio-cultural background of the employees, their education, experience and character of social relations in the region. This is a vital external factor as it becomes the forerunner of the potential technological learning capability of the human resources and has impact on their performance and productivity. The economic, legal and political factors are essential to take into consideration as they can cause certain difficulties in the company’s functioning as well as the team functioning. This is primary due to the fact that AO management concentrates on the household (economic issues) of its employees as well as many other aspects like safety (the legal issues) which are somehow related to their work. The international character of the AO team management sets high requirements and provides it with a global nature. The proper implementation of the Star concept is what makes AO management competitive in any sphere.

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2. What internal environmental factors have been most relevant in influencing OA’s human resource system?
OA’s human resource system is also greatly influenced by the internal factors. The first position is given to the management style, because it is what determines the success of the team, corresponding team members and the ability of these team members to fulfill necessary tasks. Personnel training peer appraisals and compensations and other make this management style and philosophy so appealing. OA takes the necessary time to make sure the employee is well trained and ready to operate. The organizational structure with the board of directors and the president on top and the plant manager, the HR manager ,the controller, the training manager and the MIS manager – make up the solid base for the successful team functioning. Production technology is learnt by the employees through training and through the team leaders and is mainly controlled by the planning system. Therefore it is another important internal relevant in influencing the OA human resource system. As the corporate culture of the OA HR has a solid character. OA’s physical facility is also one important internal factor as it helps the HR in a way that it is an automated facility and its manufacturing capability is great.

3. What are the unique issues in human resource planning that team management organizations must address?
HR is vital for the team management. The team management organization in terms of human resource planning in the first place needs to take into consideration the necessity to have employees that would fit in the OA Team Concept. As team management is concentrated on team work it is obvious that the team members need to show interaction with other team members in order to be a team that has one task and is responsible for it. So the human resource planning should address the “fit in” issues, which are obtained not only through the social, cultural and education background, but also through training which the employee can eventually realize in a well structured team and have his concrete responsibilities that are a part of greater team responsibilities. The planning concentrates on treating the operation personnel and trusting the same way the managerial personal is treated and trusted.

4. What role should teams and team members play in human resource planning?
When a new team member comes into the system, the OA Team concept is what makes him eventually competent as the team teaches him and “upgrades” him to the team level. Therefore the teams and team members, with their practical experience should participate in human resource planning in a way that they need to mention their recommendations: those HR characteristics that make their job more effective and does not make it harder. As the OA teams are paid for what “they know, not for what they do”, the teams may give recommendation on what future team members need to potentially know. 

As the OA Team concept is concentrated on the positive team member treatment, therefore here the team opinion may become an essential component as it may lead to new level of productivity and the higher dedication of the team in general and team members in particular. The OA’s” fundamental concern” about people is in the first place to the revealed through the participation of teams and team members in human resource planning.

5. How does job design in self-managing teams differ from traditional job design?
The job design of self-managing teams strongly differs from the traditional job design. The OA job design calls for equality between the team leaders and team members. In OA’s job design there is no place for reserved parking, executive dining rooms and it actually implies an all-salaried workforce. 

Every team member is important for the team, correspondingly there are no more or less important team members. Therefore the self-managing tem job design is observed in the daily work of the team. 

As opposed to the traditional job design, the self-managing job design implies defines team as the basic unit of the organization which performs work. The traditional approach gives tasks given to individuals repeatedly. When an OA tem gets a task the whole team works on learning all the necessary skills to cope with it in.

6. How would you evaluate the effectiveness of OA’s initial recruitment efforts?
It is necessary to say, OA revealed a strong position in its initial recruitment efforts. In order to recruit potential employees OA invited HR and training experts. While the building was under the construction, this group of people formed a recruitment system which corresponded to OA’s demands. 

The recruitment of the employees for the mill was absolutely based on the notion that each and every employee has to be able to survive in a team management environment. The initial effort identified potential employees as effective “team players”. They went through a half-day orientation session. 

This session explained the main directions the organization is aimed to follow, analyzed the importance of the team concept in terms of the organization and what are the potential employees expected to do. This session sifted out those individuals that were not interested. The rest completed applications and passed a variety of tests in the assessment center. It is necessary to say that this step was rather effective as objective observers rate the participants and the tests revealed differed sides of the employee. This sifted out a group of people who went through several interviews and only after this the training for the actual job began and people were hired. Such comprehensive approach is rather difficult, but the result is very impressive and provided exactly what OA wanted – good team members.

7. Would you recommend any changes in the way the organization should recruit for future openings?
The OA’s recruitment system is progressive and effective. It perfectly corresponds to the goal which OA put as the priorities of the organization. A thorough selection of the potential employees, their orientation and further training and development of skills results in effective team work – the primary goal of the organization. OA’s work is impressive and it is very hard to give any kind of recommendations to its improvement. The only recommendation would be the suggestion to initially sort out those individuals who come to the orientation session, because it would facilitate the following laborious and expensive testing work.

8. OA used a comprehensive approach to employee selection, especially through the use of an assessment center. What are the advantages and disadvantages of this approach?
The comprehensive approach allows maximizing the probability of choosing a good employee for the organization. It allows analyzing the capability of the potential employee to fit in the Team concept and ability to interact within such specific corporative culture. The main problem is that many people are not ready for such approach and they expect concrete individual repeated tasks, the OA introduced a new system in which the team is responsible for the task and not the individual. The main disadvantage is that some employees may find it difficult to be “paid for what they know”, because people are ordinarily paid for “what they do”. Additional skills result into addition compensation within seven levels of development. The comprehensive pay and progression plan has a concrete view of what the necessary skills are to be and in what measure they must be demonstrated. So, it may be said that both the advantage and the disadvantage of the comprehensive approach to employee selection is the innovative character of this selection which changes the mentality of the workers.

9. How would you describe the role of training in OA?
It is very hard to underestimate the role of training in OA as it is what makes the employee “suitable” for their places. Training is vital for OA as it is comprehensive, it possess a systematic character in a way that the team member constantly progress. The training always has to deal with concrete tasks the employee may face and therefore it is always related to it. The evaluation of the training skills is always very objective and the whole training program uses the individual approach to each employee. 

OA training gives both the theoretical and the practical aspects of the required skill. Evidently, OA’s training leads the employees to the “no-fail” motivation which is priceless in terms of HR. Such training unites the team members and the makes inter-team relations better.

10. How do you think the role of training and development will change at the organization?
The only possible direction of changing training and development at the organization is the full implementation of the Star Concept which would eventually result into making all teams at an equal level of development. Therefore this would extremely raise the productivity of the organization. The training and development may change is such a way that would allow all the team adapt to the conditions at the same rate and correspond to the organization’s highest expectations. OA’s training and development is an essential aspect for the team concept, therefore its role is expected only to grow in direct progression to the amount of training class and their members with special attention to the pre-hire and post-hire orientations. From all perspectives, the role of training and development within the OA’s team concept is to rise and become the dominant one within the Star concept.

11. OA has developed a peer appraisal approach system that is used within the teams. What are the advantages and disadvantages of this approach?
Each team uses peer appraisal forms learnt from the classes that teach employees how to actually do appraisals, avoid pitfalls and how to help in order to assure consistency in the process of appraisal. The main advantage of this system of appraisals is that it helps to monitor the product quality through performance appraisal and statistical process system. Nevertheless, the appraisal still includes the subjectivity factor of every individual and this becomes its main disadvantage. This factor is very hard to eliminate, nevertheless OA’s appraisal classes do their best in teaching the team members how to avoid subjectivity and make the appraisals basing on objective factors and criteria.

12. What are some of the issues related to the compensation plan OA had to resolve?
As it has been mentioned before, the OA compensation plan deals with the notion that the employees get paid for “what they know”. When they come to mastering additional skills they get addition compensation. The compensation plan is basically a reward plan, which stimulates the employees to develop more and more new skills required for effective completion of the organization’s tasks. For instance, in order to assure that team members attend team meetings – they are paid for this one-half hour meeting. This both respects their time and makes sure the team members interact and share their difficulties in order to solve them. Therefore these meeting provide the required communication between the team members and correspond to the OA team concept. Any overtime work – is compensated as well as team building activities. The compensation plan helps to maintain the cross-training model and makes the team more prepared for further problem-solving.

13. Identify some of the strategies that OA has used to enhance employee relations?
OA is very interested in enhancing employee relations. According to OA team concept it is necessary to focus on employee relations and development activities as they establish positive relations not only between team members but also between team members and top-level managers. Fine communications between upper and lower units creates the “we” attitude, which is very important in terms of OA’s management. Basically, the main strategy used to enhance employee is aimed at the prevention of adversarial relationships and may be called the “non-adversarial strategy”. Another aspect of the strategy is enhancing employee relations through the process of training. Plant wide meeting, team visits to the president and quarterly communications meetings are also the realizations of this strategy. By means of these activities the pressure is taken away and the team concept actually starts working.

14. Most discipline was handled within the team structure in OA. List the advantages and disadvantages of this approach.
As the majority of discipline was handled within the team structure as any other aspect is has both advantages and disadvantages. The discipline is based on the accountability system and is a vital element of any organization. Owing to this system the inter-team control is maintained and as the result the quality of product raises. The advantages are the next: the team approach allows maintaining disciple at every stage of production, team work and team building activities. At the same time it puts the president away from all the disciplinary sanctions; it creates the perception of individual accountability and therefore may undermine the top-level management authority. This converts the team into an organization inside another organization in which they are only interdependent.

15. Show how the following are interrelated and integrated in OA: Employment Environment, Human Resource Planning, Recruitment, Selection, Training and Development, Performance Appraisal, Compensation, Employee Relations and Discipline.

OA started it work with the analysis of the employment environment which semed suitable for the peculiarities of their offered jobs. The process of recruitment consisted of several phases and on each of the phases the process of selection took place at the end resulting in a number of individuals that “fit” the organization’s team concept. At these stage training and development starts with the post-hire orientation. The further development and training is stimulated by the system of compensations. 

According to the system each new skills is rewarded. The evaluation of the skills is conducted with the help of performance appraisals when the individual passes written and performance tests. In case the skill’s level corresponds to the demands of the organization, the employee get compensation. Also team meeting and team-building activities may provide compensation too. Evidently, the OA’s team concept implies that the team plays the role of the discipline controller of the individuals. This is how the teams are self-managed.
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Wednesday, April 18, 2012

Dissertation on Iraq

Dissertation on Iraq

Formerly the territory of Iraq is the cradle of the civilization, but presently it becomes the field of battle, on which there is a fight for control under this territory between a few forces. Encroachment of foreign troops with the United States at the head in 2003 was the impulse to this violent fight. As a result the government of Saddam Hussein was overthrown. Now in the country there is new government which functions at support of thousands of soldiers. It faced with the sequence of crises. Among urgent tasks there is renewal of civil society and system of country safety.

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Attacks of militants on the peaceful habitants and Iraqi forces of safety do not stop. Tense relations between Muslim -Sunni and Muslim –Shi’a became the result of sanguinary collisions.

But war with Iran, in the Persian Gulf in 1991 after occupation of Kuwait, and subsequent introduction of international sanctions, made a destructive effect on the economy of country and its population. In 1991 UNO declared that Iraq had become into the state of pre-industrial period. Last years, after the overthrow of Saddam, damage, inflicted upon country as a result of attacking of insurgents on Iraqi oil buildings, made the milliards of the lost income.

The development and changes in Iraqi society during last decades were reflected in the Journal article by Shereen T. Ismael “Dismantling the Iraqi Social Fabric: from Dictatorship through Sanctions to Occupation”.

The subject of Iraqi women is widely opened in articles By Arwa Damon and Peter Beaumont.

Iraqi women and girls live with the fear of being killed or raped. At present time the lack of security induces the Iraqi women to avoid public life and appreciably embarrasses the development of their rights. Since the beginning of the military campaign in 2003 armed bands had persecuted and killed several women-politicians, and active defenders of women’s rights.

Three wars and more than ten years of economic sanctions have brought very difficult consequences for Iraqi women. During the regime of Saddam they were underwent discrimination on the gender basis, including rape and other kings of sexual violence. Besides they were underwent as political figures, relatives of politicians and members of separate ethnical and religious groups.

Prostitution was illegal, but there were pleasure marriages are when a man hires a woman to be his wife in exchange for money. Nowadays a lot of families live poorly, and women have to be prostitutes to feed their children.

Iraqi children paid the highest price for this war. It becomes evident from the Shereen T. Ismael “The Cost of War: The Children of Iraq”. During 2007 hundreds of Iraqi children died. Experts of the Children Fund of UNO calculated that every month among forced migrants and refugees there were in general about 25 thousands of children. At the end of the year in camps and temporary refuges about 75 thousands of children lived. In this situation children don’t have access to education and treatment. 

UNICEF worried that during last years situation with education in Iraq become worse. According to their data only 28% of teenagers passed their exams at schools. Situation in the field of children health protection is aggravated because of only 20% of people who live outside Baghdad live in the places with the functioning sewer system.

Journal article by Gary A. Stradiotto insists that the first Gulf War in 1991 Iraq had one of the best educational performances in the region. “Education was free; enrollment and literacy rates were high”.

Journal article by Shereen T. Ismael “Dismantling the Iraqi Social Fabric: From Dictatorship through Sanctions to Occupation” represents the analysis of social life in Iraq.

The old men have the opportunity to get the cash benefit: pension.

Families have become unstable as a result of intensive migration of the population.

Death in the family can be the reason of break-up of family household, and if the death was a result of religious conflict, the possibility that family will come into other place, increases.

In the article by Frederick W. Kagan “Iraq is not Vietnam” the author analyzed the policy of the USA in these countries and the positions of soldiers in these conflicts.

Soldier of the USA in battle conditions must carry on himself about 50 kg. This is standard accoutrements - rifle, helmet, body armour, meal, water, devices for nightly vision and a lot of electronics with batteries.

The USA army is the best trained army in the world. But what circumstances force them to live their families and go to Iraq? The reasons may be: good payment, benefits, and maybe respect.

Analyzing these articles and journals I was horrified about the changes in the Iraqi people’s life. All these sources describe the reader earth-shattering results of this war.
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Total Quality Management Dissertation

Dissertation on TQM

Introduction
This paper will discuss the advantages and disadvantages of Total Quality Management (TQM) in relation to the hotel and leisure industry. More specifically, it will analyze the application of TQM principles to catering services in the hotel industry. Catering is defined as a service including delivery of meals outside the restaurant, for instance, room service, delivering meals to functions in the hotel such as buffets, and catering to outside events. The importance of this service is hard to overestimate: catering ensures the quality of customer experience, especially in cases the hotel is used for high-level events such as business meeting and conferences as well as social occasions. The advantages and disadvantages of TQM in catering will be illustrated by a case study focusing on the delivery of this service in Ritz Carlton chain.

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The paper will have the following structure: first of all, theoretical principles of TQM will be discussed; secondly, different aspects of TQM in catering services will be analyzed using the example of Ritz Carlton hotel chain (including such aspects of TQM as organizational communication, service availability, food quality guarantee, customer focus, organizational integrity, and employee development and empowerment); thirdly, a comprehensive conclusion will be made concerning the advantages and disadvantages of applying TQM in the hotel industry.

Theoretical Background
There is little consensus among researchers and practitioners concerning the most appropriate definition of Total Quality Management (TQM). This practice is defined by the UK Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform (2000) as ‘a way of managing people and business processes to ensure complete customer satisfaction at every stage, internally and externally’ (p. 1).

The key focus of this approach is on producing quality goods or delivering satisfactory services on the first try rather than correcting mistakes. In order to implement TQM, changes have to be made to people, processes and systems of an organization. These changes encompass commitment to quality among both leaders and employees, communication of the quality message, and creating a culture of TQM in an organization.

Quality is defined as comprising ‘performance, appearance, availability, delivery, reliability, maintainability, cost effectiveness and price’ (Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform, 2000, p. 2).

Easton and Sherry (1998) suggest that TQM is based on the principles of process focus (including process definition, process management, and process improvement); systematic improvement (cycle-time reduction, cost reduction, and prevention-based orientation); companywide emphasis (quality is a central concept for all functions of an organization, including product development and business support processes); customer focus (encompassing lead-time reduction, on-time delivery, field and technical support, integrating customer information into management system, involving customer into planning and product development); management-by-fact (decision-making on the basis of objective data by deployment and tracking of metrics); employee participation and development (employee empowerment and organizational learning); cross-functional management (enhanced focus on processes that cross several functions); supplier performance and supplier relationships (supplier capabilities, supplier improvement, and supplier involvement and integration); and recognition of TQM as a critical competitive strategy (TQM becoming a concern of employees at all levels).

Achieving quality starts with a research into customers’ needs and expectations. An organization should clearly identify its internal and external customers and measure its own ability to meet their expectations. If this ability turns out to be insufficient, the organization should actively seek ways to enhance it. The organization should also develop a system of monitoring changes in customers’ needs and expectations. Every customer-supplier interaction should be a part of a quality chain, in which all members demonstrate a straight-out commitment to quality.

Additionally, TQM requires leaders to have a strategic vision and to be able to communicate it to the entire workforce. Leaders who do not give clear direction constitute a prevalent case of decreased efficiency and quality. Moreover, competitive positioning should be understood and acted upon. Reactive responses to market moves should be given up in favor of a proactive position. The unproductive thinking that a level of defects or errors is inevitable should be eliminated. Large amounts of wasted effort and energy in organization should be reduced to minimum. Benefit of all stakeholders should become a priority.

Achieving TQM requires an organization to function in a well-coordinated and cooperative manner. Interdepartmental rivalry and hostility should be solved and prevented in the future. In general, the focus of TQM is on prevention and not correction of mistakes and misunderstandings.

Senior management should define and communicate corporate beliefs, values and objectives, act as role models in achieving TQM, and encourage effective employee participation. Supervising and training, teamwork and system thinking and can ensure success of TQM implementation.

TQM principles were first developed for manufacturing. Given the increasing interest in TQM from the side of service companies, there were attempts to apply this approach to hotel and leisure industry as well. Several problems were encountered with quality assurance in service sector, such as ‘the intangibility and perishability of the product, variability of delivery, simultaneous production and consumption of the service, and the changing needs and expectations of providers and users’ (Partlow, 1993, p. 17-18).

Despite the aforementioned difficulties, TQM is nowadays widely applied in all sectors of the economy. The paper will proceed with examining different aspects of TQM that relate to catering services in Ritz Carlton hotel chain.

Organizational Communication and Service Availability
It has been noted above that communicating the message of quality is essential for achieving TQM. Ritz Carlton chain has implemented TQM principles in all management and service processes; it was the first hotel group to win prestigious Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award by the U.S. Commerce Department's National Institute of Standards and Technology. The recipients of this award has achieved excellence in such fields as leadership, information analysis, strategic quality planning, human resource development and management, quality assurance, quality operating results, and customer satisfaction (Partlow, 1993).

Communication between management and employees as well as between employees is widely recognized as one of the key elements of quality service delivery. The chain of communication from kitchen staff to waiters delivering the food to guest has to be fairly long, and failure of communication at each stage can be fatal.

To avoid such blunders in the delivery of catering services, Ritz Carlton focuses on teamwork as one of the most vital aspects of TQM. Teamwork is encouraged by communicating the message that all employees, irrespective of their statuary duties, should help their fellow workers if assistance is required by an employee who is responding to a customer’s complaint or wish. Teams are given a considerable amount of independence: ‘[a]t each level of the company--from corporate leaders to managers and employees in the individual work areas--teams are charged with setting objectives and devising action plans, which are reviewed by the corporate steering committee’ (Partlow, 1993, p. 19).

Speaking about availability of catering services, Ritz Carlton hotels make a genuine effort to ensure such availability at all times. For example, Ritz Carlton Chicago made in-room dining service available 24 hours a day, serving a variety of menus at different times. In-room dining menus ‘include an inspired selection of nutritionally balanced fare that does not sacrifice gourmet presentation and taste’ (Ritz Carlton Chicago, 2008, ‘Specialties’). In-room catering options include a children's menu, a pet menu, a hospitality menu and a wine list.

Food Quality Guarantee
The staff of a hotel striving for achieving TQM should demonstrate a continuous commitment to providing only the best in freshness and taste. For instance, Ritz Carlton Chicago achieves food quality through recruiting award-winning chefs and developing menus in close cooperation with nutritional experts from Northwestern Memorial Hospital's Wellness Institute. Therefore, catered menus are ‘calorie-controlled, low in fat, carbohydrate-controlled, and high in fibre’ (Ritz Carlton Chicago, 2008).

Another Ritz Carlton hotel, at Lake Las Vegas, serves food that has less butter, more olive and infused oils and relies heavily upon the food’s natural flavors (Ritz Carlton Lake Las Vegas, 2008).

Customer Focus
Catering services should be diverse enough to fulfill a wide range of customer needs, both dietary and cultural. One of the principles of Ritz Carlton Chicago is developing diverse gourmet menus without compromising food quality. The hotel ‘prides itself on culinary creativity, and offers an extensive array of menus to choose from’ (Ritz Carlton Chicago, 2008, ‘Wedding Details’, ‘Menu creations’).

Menus for special occasions such as weddings or other social events can be custom-designed, giving the customer an opportunity to make his or her own selection of food items and beverages. As concerns customers’ cultural preferences, Ritz Carlton Chicago (2008) informs that it is ‘proud to offer extraordinary kosher catering’ (‘Wedding Details’, ‘Specialty Kitchen’).

In general, Ritz Carlton is noted for its exceptional commitment to satisfying customer needs. Therefore, the chain can be considered an example of a service-oriented organization implementing a one-to-one customer interaction strategy. The chain runs a database of customer profiles that allow its staff to anticipate customer preferences and, as a result, increase customer satisfaction. The elements of this profile are customer suggestions, preferences, and complaints. The information comes from two sources: the customer and hotel workers (Wells, Fuerst & Choobineh, 1999).

The chain management ‘records guest preferences gleaned from conversation with customers during their stay and uses them to tailor the services that customers receive on their next visit at any other Ritz-Carlton in the world’ (Chen & Popovich, 2003, p. 676-677).

As concerns the second way of gathering information, Ritz Carlton provides each of its workers with a ‘guest preference pad’ for recording information about the customer, based on face-to-face interactions with the customer together with direct observation (Wells, Fuerst & Choobineh, 1999).

As a result, each employees of Ritz Carlton ‘will know the needs of their internal and external customers (guests and fellow employees) so that we may deliver the products and services they expect’ (Partlow, 1993, p. 18).

Organizational Integrity
Quality being defined differently by different departments can be a major obstacle for achieving TQM. Therefore, it is of paramount importance to integrate the message of quality with the message of consistency across departments. It usually starts with top management being clear about company’s values and objectives and encouraging all departments to adhere to uniform standards, senior management acting as role models.

When Ritz Carlton pioneered the TQM model, it united the efforts of its CEO and senior executives in setting up a corporate steering committee and a senior quality-management team. During their weekly meeting, the team devoted one-fourth of their time to discussing ‘product- and service-quality measures, guest satisfaction, market growth and development, organizational indicators, profits, and competitive status’ (Partlow, 1993, p. 19).

A new vision has been formulated and communicated to all employees under the name of Ritz-Carlton Gold Standards. These standards included a credo (a pledge to provide the best service and facilities for guests and fulfills even the unexpressed wishes and needs of all customers); motto (‘We are Ladies and Gentlemen serving Ladies and Gentlemen’); three steps of service (a sincere greeting, anticipation and compliance with customer needs, an warm farewell); and twenty Ritz-Carlton Basics (practical steps aimed at ensuring quality and customer satisfaction).

This vision has been continuously communicated by daily ‘line ups,’ regular recognition for significant achievements, and performance appraisals. All workers are surveyed each year to ascertain their levels of satisfaction and commitment to quality standards. The final measure to ensure consistent understanding of quality issues was designated a quality leader in each hotel, charged with being a resource and advocate as teams and workers develop and carry out their quality plans (Partlow, 1993).

Employee Development and Empowerment
Under the TQM model, training should be offered to enhance the quality of service and to create an excellent experience for the customer. As concern training, Ritz Carlton requires that all new hires receive Training Certification to ensure they understand how to perform to The Ritz-Carlton standards in their position: ‘new employees are versed on the corporate culture through a two-day orientation, followed by extensive on-the-job training, then job certification’ (Partlow, 1993, p. 19).

The second important aspect of employee development is empowerment: ‘[e]mpowering employees and teams requires training them to use their authority effectively...[and]...redesigning some jobs to facilitate a team approach and modifying policies and practices that support rewards for results and other cultural elements that empower employees’ (Partlow, 1993, p. 20).

The philosophy of Ritz Carlton chain in the field of employee empowerment consists of the following principles: 1) At The Ritz-Carlton our staff are the most important resource in our service commitment to our guests; 2) All employees have the right to be involved in the planning of work that affects them; 3) Each employee is empowered; 4) Whoever receives a complaint from a guest will own it and resolve it to the guest's satisfaction (Nicholls et al., 2000, p. 177).

Employees are given sufficient independence to detect and correct all irregularities of service delivery by themselves. They are encouraged to use the so-called ‘Mr. BIV’ formula, which stands for Mistakes, Rework, Breakdowns, Inefficiencies, and Variations. All irregularities that have been solved should be followed up with a telephone call within 20 minutes to ensure that the issue has been settled to the customer's satisfaction. Every case of guest dissatisfaction should be reported using guest-incident action forms.

Every work area is supervised by three teams charged with problem solving, strategic planning, and setting quality-certification standards for each set of job duties. Daily quality reports are collected from each of the work areas in the hotel. They can be used as a warning signal for detecting problems that can be an obstacle for fulfilling quality and customer-satisfaction standards. By these means, Ritz Carlton ensures that quality is not compromised and all employees are involved in running the business (Partlow, 1993).

Conclusion
Implementation of TQM in the hotel industry has apparent advantages, such as increased customer and employee satisfaction, elimination of wasted effort, and focus on efficiency. However, there are certain disadvantages as well. By virtue of intangibility of services and subjectivity of delivery evaluation, TQM in the hospitality industry might be hard to ensure. However, if all TQM principles are construed correctly and implemented fully, an increase in efficiency can be achieved by an organization from any field. 

Ritz Carlton hotel is a brilliant example of a hotel chain that maintains a competitive edge due to practicing TQM. It was one of the first hotel chains to pioneer this approach to management. Nowadays it is a classical example of a successful organization committed to quality and customer satisfaction, development of employees and strong corporate persona. 

Ritz Carlton achieves TQM in catering through ensuring food quality, service availability, anticipating and fulfilling customer needs, and offering well-trained and committed staff.

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This is a small excerpt from dissertation on TQM topic. As free dissertation samples and dissertation proposal examples are plagiarized we recommend you not to use it in your own dissertation or thesis paper. Why not to get online dissertation writing help on Total Quality Management from professional dissertation writing company? Top-rated PhD academic writers will write a custom dissertation on any topic and discipline from scratch!

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Monday, April 16, 2012

Dissertation on Dollarization

Dollarization Dissertation

Recently, Ecuador announced that it would replace it's local currency, the sucre with the US Dollar for all purposes. This change was intended to help return the country to growth and prosperity. This "Dollarization" has become a popular topic and has been considered by many developing nations in Latin America and other regions.

By implementing dollarization, a developing country would accept the following consequences:
1. It's government would give up the revenue and benefits it enjoys from creating it's own money. This is typically referred to seignorage meaning that the country can print currency at very little cost to purchase what it needs. In a dollarization situation, the country would give up its seignorage revenues to the US government. 

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Seignorage revenues have typically amount to 0.3-1.3% of GDP for Argentina and Brazil, respectively. The level of seignorage indicates the degree to which the government relies to finance their budgets. Therefore, it would be much easier for a country with lower seignorage revenue to implement a dollarization policy. In addition to the revolving seignorage revenues which would be lost, a dollarizing country would also be subject to the one-time start up cost of trading the local currency in circulation for dollars.

2. It's central bank would no longer serve as a lender of last resort to domestic banks. The lender of last resort is a crucial component to reassure creditors and depositors of the banks such as the assurance provided by the FDIC in the US. Since the ability to print local currency would no longer be in the control of the country, they would lose this ability to provide an influx of cash to bail out struggling banks. If there is no lender of last resort, confidence weakens and bank runs (increase of withdrawals) becomes more likely and more damaging when they occur. However, the cost of this impact is hard to quantify depending on the type of system it is replacing (i.e. currency board with fixed exchange rats vs. floating exchange rates). Options to ensuring backing of the banking system include: setting aside a liquid fund to be lent to banks in a crisis or securing a line of credit from abroad.

3. It would no longer control domestic monetary policy. Therefore the government would be forced to accept the decision of Federal Reserve. By controlling the monetary base, a central bank can have an impact on inflation. With dollarization, the country would lose this control. The "cost" of this impact is questionable depending on the level to which the country has used monetary policy in the past; may countries in Latin American have only used interest adjustment sparingly, therefore the "cost" would be minimal. In the end, the "cost" will depend on the value that a more stable currency brings relative to the more standard behavior of output and employment typical of standard flexible exchange rates.

Benefits of dollarization include:
Dollarization may lower the country's cost of foreign credit. The risk of currency devaluation would not exist because the domestic currency would disappear, therefore the cost of foreign credit would come down due to the elimination of default risk or sovereign risk, stimulating investment and economic growth. However, there is the countering concern that the elimination of a lender of last resort will result in an increase of risk.

It may enhance the credibility of government policy. The background of this statement is that dollarization would be more difficult to reverse than another fixed exchange system. The problem is putting a value on this benefit. Three (3) benefits can be stated based on the irreversible nature of dollarization: 1) elimination of possibility of devaluation, 2) monetary policy removed from central bank which is often unreliable, and 3) enhance fiscal discipline.

The conclusion reached by many economists is that dollarization is a desirable reform in spite of widespread uncertainty about its economic benefits. Most of the costs can be identified and quantified, however the benefits remain to be demonstrated.
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Dissertation on Church

Dissertation on Women in the Catholic Church

The media continually changes the way that people think about important issues. Mass media reaches us in the car, in our homes, on our computers and in most other areas within our lives. Without the gift of media we would not know what was going on in the world around us. Newspapers accompany people at the breakfast table, the internet is often the first thing people turn on in the morning, and television is frequently what people watch as they fall asleep. On political issues media is generally what informs us about important topics and how they present these issues can greatly affect the way that we feel about those matters. The "gatekeepers" or editors of TV stations, newspapers and magazines play the role of God as they decide what will be reported on and how that news will be broadcasted.

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As important information arises the media is constantly changing and with that change, attitudes change. Within the past few years there have been numerous "hot topics" discussed daily by Americans, some of these events include; environmental issues, the war on Iraq, global warming, the downfall of the economy, and so on. One issue that has been debated over the years and continues to come up in the news is the decision of whether or not women should be considered to be ordained into the priesthood in the Catholic Church. Over the years various events surrounding the Catholic Church on the basis of women in the priesthood have been addressed, and questions as to what roles women should play in the church have been asked. To date there has been no definite decisions made and undoubtedly there are two major points of view; those who believe women should be ordained and those who believe they should not.

Women in great numbers have expressed that they feel their role is to be the supporter of others and the backbone to their husbands within the church. It has been said that when women do feel called to leadership roles and the priesthood often their husbands, clergy and even women friends may think they are foolish, acting out of the traditional roles of the church. Through examining the ideals of a few feminist groups as well as the Catholic Church and members of it we shall see the difficult strain that this issue has put on everyone involved for years. Should women be allowed to enter the priesthood? The answer to this question is different for each individual; however, how you chose to answer it can affect many other areas of decision making. If one says, "no women should not take on these roles," that would lead to believe that all men are not one in the sight of God, as God has said. However on the other hand if the answer is, "yes women should be equal and take on roles in the priesthood," other questions arise within the value of tradition, and also the many scriptures that can be found to back up ideas that wives are to serve their husbands and be the home makers, not home builders. It is an interesting debate that has affected the way that women view their lives for centuries, can women join the priesthood?

The mere consideration of accepting women into the priesthood has caused many people to feel confused about their own role in the church. Many members of the Church of England have even considered leaving the church after the decision was made to consider women for ordination. Some members said that they would split and create their own church and others said that they may go to other branches of the church which are upholding what they believe to be the true tradition of the Catholic Church, an all male priesthood (Steinfel). Many members of the church have voiced that they are appalled by the notion of women in leadership roles however there are also plenty of people inside and outside the Church that believe women and men should be treated completely equal in their roles within the church. They have stated that by denying women this opportunity to join the priesthood they are denying women of their human rights. One woman has even sued the Church for "refusal to consider women for the priesthood" stating that it "violates her right to free expression and religion (United)." Her suit requires that the church's tax-exempt status be withdrawn and not reissued until the church agrees to ordain women (United). She feels that until the church is hit hard in the pocketbook that there will be no change. This tactic has gotten attention, but many ask if change will really occur. It is apparent that she means business, however many people feel this approach is unethical under the laws of their religion. This contradiction makes it a very touchy problem with the power to upset a great number of people rather effortlessly.

An example of a group that believes women should at least be considered for the opportunity of join the priesthood is The Catholic Theological Society of America. This group has voted 216 to 22 (with 10 abstentions) in favor of a resolution urging to continue discussing the possibility of ordaining women in the priesthood (Steinfels). This is a very controversial vote because although the Pope has never vetoed the ordination of female priests, which would close the entire discussion, the Congregation has stated that women should not be ordained based on scripture, Catholic tradition, and century old education (Steinfels). By this group believing that women should be considered for ordination it will certainly spread and make other members question what they believe and quite possible vote for the side of the women.

However, due to the firm and steadfast opinions against women based on tradition it can be hard for women to speak up when they feel they have been called to the priesthood. Frances O'Connor uses a very powerful analogy in her book The Female Face in Patriarchy: Oppression as Culture, she says that the patriarchal society that women in the Catholic Church are forced to endure is like carbon monoxide poisoning. Often women do not know that they are being poisoned by this male dominated society yet it seeps into their lungs and takes over them as does carbon monoxide. O'Connor continues to discuss many ideals that the Catholic Church has conditioned women to believe, such as; "to relate to a male God only, trust in an external superior male authority, believe that only males have been called to the alter, believe decision making should be done by men only and believe that the term "men" is the norm and thus that the term men includes women also."

O'Connor goes on to discuss messages that women have absorbed throughout the years. These messages include; the thinking that women belong in the home, volunteering in the church is a privilege, the more humble women are the holier they are and that a woman's role is to be secondary and supportive. All of these ideals plague women each day as they attempt to be "good" women and wives while still accomplishing their own goals. This patriarchal conditioning has so debilitated women that they continually look to clergy for approval. In this self-doubting state women are constantly trying to make everyone happy while worrying about what others are thinking of them.

James Kenneally brings up an interesting conversation about how women are forced to live in a world where they often feel they cannot complete their purpose in his book; American Catholic Women: A Historical Exploration. Kenneally discusses the protest of 1870 when the first national women's antisuffrage society was formed. When this occurred people were appalled saying that it would bring nothing but the downfall of families and increased divorce. At this time, as early as the eighteenth century, young women were taught that the ideal women was pure, pious, submissive, and domestic and should be confined to her own sphere of activity, a standard quite in keeping with the church. Women were told that they should keep with these virtues to become perfect in the eyes of God and their husbands. It is in these beginnings that women today are still basing many of their roles within the church. Some of these ideas are not completely overdrawn; women can be pure and domestic without losing who they are in the seeking of these attributes. It is only a problem when women feel that they are nothing unless they can be everything that history has described women to be. For example the women who feel they should not be aloud to work because they are to take care of the house and the children. These women can often feel dissatisfied even if their homes are pleasant and their family is well taken care of because they are denying themselves the right to go out and accomplish their own personal goals. This is not to say that taking care of children and a home are not amazing accomplishments, but for the women who feel they only meant for that it is unfortunate when they feel called to other jobs that they feel they are not deserving of. In this instance the church can be a hiding place for many women; they may use it to feel as though they are being the perfect member of the church even if they are not fulfilling their other goals.

The church has continually ignored advances from feminist groups that attempt to get a rise out of the church by the use of strong accusations and extreme demands. Under the current Pope it seems apparent that there will not be a vote to consider women for ordination as those groups would request. He has said, "the Church has no authority whatsoever to confer priestly ordination on women and that this judgment is to be definitely held by all the Church's faithful (Francisco)." It seems that the church has evaded this issue continuously in an attempt to keep the members of the church happy and possibly ignore the fact that there is an increasing amount of women who feel that their gifts are being stifled under the strict patriarchal society that has been in place for centuries. Although there are different views that can be taken within the church it is apparent that change is always hard, especially when it comes to a tradition that has been in place for centuries and is founded on what people have structured their lives on, their religion.

This is an issue that can be viewed differently by varied groups. The media has given us the means to develop our own belief surrounding this matter; however it still hinders us because we are never given an unbiased viewpoint. To truly understand this issue and be able to take a stance on it we much look beyond what is presented at face value and seek to find the truth. Whether women are allowed equal rights in the church or not shall come into view in the future, and the media stories surrounding this with continue to unfold as new decisions are made and opinions are realized.
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Thursday, April 12, 2012

Dissertation on Immigration Policy

Dissertation on Immigration Policy

Globalization Shaping State Immigration Policies
Globalization helps explain the union of leaders’ and employers’ immigration policy preferences and policy outcomes across countries. For example, Hollifield describes a convergence of immigration policies among industrialized democracies in the 1960s, 1970s, and early 1980s based on a common understanding of rights-based liberalism and the globalization of markets (11-12). Likewise, Cornelius, Martin, and Hollifield argue that the confluence of rights-based liberalism and changes in international political economy has led to a convergence of policies for controlling immigration among industrialized, labor-importing countries (23). This paper argues that globalization and global economic factors are crucial intervening variables that affect leaders’ and employers’ immigration preferences and their tactics for influencing policy.

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On the one hand, Collinson (211) and Baldwin-Edwards (204-206) state that regulatory influence on the immigration policies is influenced by numerous internal forces such as domestic immigration historical data, all sorts of labor market requirements and intra-country fiscal policy development, as well as differing degrees of organizational control of immigration processes.

On the other hand, globalization helps shape leaders’ and employers’ immigration preferences by facilitating migration through improvements in transportation and communication technology.

Fluctuations in the global economy also have amplified the demand for inexpensive, elastic immigrant force in difference industries such as hospitality services, building, real estate, and agriculture. Generally , government and the policymakers that try to confine immigration clash with applicable market forces. Even though the government may productively regulate official immigration policies, global migration trends usually work in favor of underground immigration patterns, thus limiting the influence of the official regulatory bodies. As a result, many internal and external state policymakers treat immigration as a direct result of the spreading globalization tendencies and are persuaded that means to limit it will not be successful.

Changes in the global economy also have affected employers’ policy preferences. In the 1950s and 1960s, the system of mass production— based on semi-skilled labor, assembly-line production, and economies of scale—dominated industrial organization in several European countries (Milkman, 45-49). During this period, demand for immigrant labor was concentrated in large manufacturing firms, which wielded considerable power at the national level. In the late 1970s and 1980s, technological advances and global economic competition lessened the importance of mass production systems (Lee, 90-93).

To increase profitability, many employers experimented with flexible and decentralized employment and production strategies, such as part-time and temporary contracts, and subcontracting to small enterprises. Other employers moved production to the underground economy, where labor costs are lower and labor regulations and unions can be evaded. Today, the demand for immigrant labor is still pervasive. But it is highly decentralized in secondary sectors, such as agriculture and domestic service, and in the underground economy.

Like their European counterparts, American leaders have to deal with a number of challenges caused by globalization. Globalization is challenging the U.S. ability to control its borders by making communication and transportation technology more accessible to migrants, and by opening developing countries’ economies to greater international trade and capital flows. Globalization also increases economic competition from low-wage countries, which in turn encourages employers in developed countries to seek out more flexible employment strategies. As a result, the number of contingent jobs has grown at the expense of permanent, full-time employment. This growth of the contingent work force in turn hurts union organizing efforts (Milkman, 45-49).

According to the American Federation of Labor-Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO), contingent workers are difficult to organize because of legal impediments imposed by the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), which presupposes stable employment relationships and a defined bargaining unit for union organizing drives (14). Organizing these “orphans of the law,” many of whom are immigrants, is one of the biggest challenges facing unions in a rapidly changing global economy (15). As a result, American policymakers are creating new ways to fight the ways globalization challenges their recruiting means. For instance, the AFL-CIO’s “Campaign for Global Fairness” insists that workers’ rights be included in all trade agreements and IMF and World Bank loan agreements (AFL-CIO, 15).The AFL-CIO’s new immigration platform was developed in the shadows of global economic changes that have weakened the state’s capacity to control its borders, threatened union organization, and marginalized immigrant workers.

In this context, the AFL-CIO’s starting points for immigration reform include:
  • permanent legal status for undocumented immigrants through a new amnesty program;
  • eliminating the current system of employer sanctions;
  • full workplace rights for immigrant workers;
  • cooperative mechanisms between business and labor that allow law-abiding employers to satisfy legitimate needs for workers;
  • whistle-blower protections for undocumented workers who report violations of work protection laws;
  • a halt to the expansion of guest worker programs (AFL-CIO, 16).
On the surface, it appears that globalization is causing U.S. labor leaders’ immigration preferences to converge with those of European labor leaders. However, domestic factors filter the effects of globalization so that labor leaders from different countries, and even different unions in the same country, form different immigration preferences.

One factor unique to the U.S. case is the highly decentralized structure of the AFL-CIO compared to European confederations. The seventy-two national and international unions, not to mention thousands of locals, represented by the administrative umbrella of the AFL-CIO are highly autonomous (Bronfenbrenner, et al., 67-69). As a result, initiatives often originate at the local level and work their way up to the national level.

The initiative for change also had a regional dimension. In 1994, two California regional labor confederations, Alameda and Los Angeles, called for an end to employer sanctions and a new amnesty for undocumented workers (Bronfenbrenner, et al., 73). These demands gradually worked their way up to the national level of the AFL-CIO, and were facilitated by a new leadership team elected in 1995 that was open to change and intent on increasing union membership.

This effect stands in contrast to the top-down structure of more centralized European unions. In Spain, Italy, and France, changes in labor leaders’ immigration preferences occurred first among the top leadership, at the federal level, and worked its way down to regional unions through educational initiatives for the rank and file, and through local provision of social and legal services for immigrant workers (Lee, 90-93).

Central to the AFL-CIO’s new immigration position is the belief that the current system of immigration enforcement is “broken and needs to be fixed” (Qtd in Labor Immigrant Organizing Network, 5). The AFL-CIO immigration reform program highlights several problems with U.S. law, such as flawed guest worker programs, delays in the naturalization process, and the failure to legalize thousands of undocumented immigrants who were eligible for the 1986 amnesty. However, the AFL-CIO believes the most egregious flaw in U.S. immigration policy is the failure of employer sanctions to reduce employer demand for illegal immigrant workers.

In the beginning of 1980s, the AFL-CIO took measures favoring regulatory means against those companies provided job to the illegal immigrants. The leadership believed that sanctions would protect American jobs by discouraging employers from hiring cheap, illegal immigrant labor. They also believed that sanctions would help reduce illegal immigration by cutting off the demand for foreign labor (Labor Immigrant Organizing Network, 5-7). Having obtained the solid support from the labor unions, regulatory measures against the companies hiring illegal immigrants became a major issue of the Immigration Reform and Control Act passed in 1986.

However, as mentioned previously, policy-makers lacked the political will to give teeth to the enforcement provision of IRCA. As a result, the INS did not have the legal or physical capacity to enforce employer sanctions successfully.

Not surprisingly, then, the employer sanctions provision of IRCA has not arrested the demand for, or supply of, illegal immigrants. In fact, after falling to between 1.8 and 3 million people after 1986, the undocumented population rose to between 2.7 and 3.7 million by 1992 (Labor Immigrant Organizing Network, 9). Nor have unsystematically enforced sanctions discouraged employers from hiring illegal immigrants. In fact, according to many labor leaders, rather than protecting the employment rights of native and legal immigrant workers, employer sanctions have been turned against workers. “On the surface this IRCA looks like an anti-employer law. In reality it’s an anti-worker law”(Labor Immigrant Organizers Network, 24).

The change in U.S. labor leaders’ immigration preferences has been heavily influenced by the desire to build union membership, which has declined steadily since the 1950s. After reaching a peak of about 35 percent of the workforce in 1953, by the late 1990s union density rates declined overall to less than 15 percent, and to about 10 percent in the private sector (Milkman, 11).

Many labor leaders were complacent about this loss of membership. But in the United States, where membership dictates union bargaining power with employers, the AFL-CIO does not enjoy an institutionalized role in collective bargaining at the national or local level, as unions often do in Europe. Likewise, U.S. collective bargaining agreements do not cover workers who are not members in a union. There fore, in contrast to their European counterparts, American labor leaders increasingly see immigrant workers as a crucial source of new membership to bolster union strength (Milkman, 12).

Beginning in the 1970s and 1980s, economic restructuring forced new immigrants, many of them undocumented, into peripheral jobs that lacked union representation. Because immigrant workers tend to be concentrated in the unskilled, contingent workforce, legal barriers imposed by the NLRB make traditional organizing efforts difficult (Milkman, 11). As a result, immigrant workers and local unions have devised new organizing strategies.

Also standing in the way of immigrant unionization is the fear of employer retaliation. The AFL-CIO wants to remove such barriers. First, labor leaders argue that the fear of employer retaliation must be eliminated by legalizing undocumented workers and granting immigrants and natives equal workplace rights. Second, they say that the current system of employer sanctions must end. Finally, labor leaders want whistleblower protections for undocumented immigrants who report employer violations. According to AFL-CIO Executive Vice President Linda Chavez-Thompson, “Too often, immigrant workers’ rights are being routinely violated. Courageous undocumented workers who come forward to assert their rights should not be faced with deportation as a result of their actions”(AFL-CIO, 16).

Economic marginalization of undocumented immigrants is a recurring theme in the AFL-CIO’s immigration reform dialogue. However, U.S. labor leaders do not equate illegal immigration with the growth of the underground economy, nor do they see legalization as a means to shrink the underground economy.

Labor leaders in the United States favor open immigration policies and believe that restrictive policies fail to control illegal immigration. What’s more, they have resigned themselves to the fact that regulated legal immigration is better than unregulated illegal immigration. However, they reached these conclusions in different ways, ways that depend largely on the domestic pressures they are subject to. U.S. labor leaders place more emphasis on increasing union membership. Hence, they support legalization and an end to employer sanctions as a means to reduce the risk of immigrant-organizing drives.

Changes in the global economy have helped shape the immigration policy preferences of the European and U.S. employers. In Europe and the United States, employers, in response to increasing global economic competition, have discarded mass production models in favor of flexible and decentralized production and employment strategies, such as subcontracting, relocating production overseas, and temporary and part-time contracts. Likewise, global economic restructuring has encouraged a bifurcation of the labor market between highly skilled, information-based workers and low-skilled workers. Employers in the United States and Europe increasingly are looking abroad to recruit both skilled technology workers and unskilled workers.

In contrast to European national employers’ associations, many U.S. employers are openly pro-immigration. Most American employers, from growers to software manufacturers to restaurant owners, want more permanent and temporary employment-based immigration. A number of companies even support the idea of giving documents to the illegal immigrants. For example, the Essential Workers Immigration Coalition, a group of businesses and trade associations concerned with a shortage of semi-skilled and unskilled workers, wants undocumented immigrants who have been working in the United States to be allowed to legalize their status (Lee, 23).

One explanation for the differing attitudes of European and American employers is economic. The more flexible U.S. economy did not suffer as deep or as long an economic recession as Europe did after the 1973 oil crisis, so that employer demand for immigrant workers has been more prevalent and politically palatable in the United States. However, other explanations beyond economic cycles of growth and recession, such as differences in the policy-making process and the decentralization of business interests in the United States, help explain U.S. employers’ openly pro-immigration policy preferences.

The US regulatory measures taken in order to combat the illegal immigration differs, in general, from the European means of fighting the same problems. This is in part because for historical and cultural reasons the United States considers itself to be a country of immigration, whereas Spain, Italy, and France, etc do not. As a result, immigration policy debates in the United States almost always include discussion on whether to decrease, maintain, or increase annual immigration quotas. Even in the mid-1990s, when the public debate shifted to the provision of social welfare benefits for legal and illegal immigrants, the appropriate level of legal immigration was debated in Congress (Lee, 34, 63).

Also, the politicization of U.S. immigration policy is bound to the perceived social and economic costs of illegal immigration. Employers, who want access to immigrant labor, have therefore pursued a clever lobbying strategy of splitting the legal and illegal components of immigration bills. For example, an early Senate version of the 1996 Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act included a measure to reduce skill-based visas from 140,000 to 90,000. Many employers and employer groups, including the National Association of Manufacturers, Microsoft, and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, were outraged by these proposals (Lee, 109).

Business lobbyists mobilized to split the bill between its legal and illegal components, thereby maintaining legal immigration levels. This strategy, also pursued by employers with the 1990 Immigration Act, allows government to ease public concerns about illegal immigration by fortifying borders or restricting access to social services. At the same time, legislators can satisfy employer demand for immigrant labor by maintaining or increasing legal immigration levels.
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Strategic Management Thesis Proposal

Thesis Proposal on Strategic Management

CACI, being a successful publicly held IT company based in the UK, is currently focused on the improvement its market position in order to maintain a highly competitive position in the contemporary business environment. In actuality, the position of the company on the market is stable and CACI has good prospect for the further development. At the same time, it is necessary to understand the fact that the competition on the market is steadily growing and the company have to use its full potential, eliminate its weaknesses and develop its strengths to gain the larger share of the market and improve its current position even more.

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On analyzing strengths of CACI, it is important to underline that the company is focused on the development of information technologies and it pays a particular attention to the defense, national security and intelligence-related solutions. In such a way, the company operates in a highly technological industry and, what is more, it is oriented on the introduction of innovations, which is very important in the contemporary business environment because innovations and the focus on the knowledge-based industry allows the company to take the leading position in the market, employ prospective specialists who are able to provide the development of new technologies.

On the other hand, there are certain weaknesses since the company cannot fully control all of its employees, even though they deal with technologies and information which is, as a rule, a top secret information. In this respect, it should be said that some of its employees have already proved to be irresponsible as they have been involved in the Abu Ghraib scandal that deteriorated not only the public image of the company but also the situation within the company. To put it more precisely, the unethical behavior of some of its employees undermines the entire organizational culture and reveals certain weaknesses in the work of the company with its employees in regard to ethical norms they should observe and basic principles of a moral behavior.

At the same time, the company still has huge opportunities for the further development and progress. 

In this respect, it should be said that, being a state contractor, the company can count for a long term contracts and prospects of the further development. Obviously, in the situation when the state demand for the services of the company grows consistently because of the increasing threat to the national security of the US and the UK that increases the demand for services and products of the company which offers defense, military and intelligence solutions. On the basis of state contracts, the company can expand its presence in the private sector of the market.

However, the competition in the IT industry constantly grows and the company can face serious problems, especially if it is involved in scandals such as the one in Abu Ghraib. At the same time, the introduction of new technologies by competitors can deteriorate the position of the company on the market.

Thus, CACI has large opportunities for the further development but it needs to minimize risks and threats that persist at the moment.
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Monday, April 9, 2012

Arab Israeli Conflict Dissertation

Dissertation on Arab Israeli Conflict

In this paper I will investigate in the Arab-Israeli Conflict, describe the scope of the conflict, provide the brief description of the conflict’s history, as well as the history of wars, and present the peace plans for the future.

Arab-Israeli conflict has the wide history scope that dates back for about a century of open hostilities and political tensions. It is tightly connected with the foundation of the Zionist movement and the establishment of the modern State of Israel. The conflict concerns the relationships of Arab countries and Israel that started before the World War I, in the beginning of the 20th century. In order to understand the matter of the conflict it is important to follow its emergence and analyze its reasons.

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Even though the territory of conflict was very small, this Arab-Israeli conflict attracted much attention from the side of worldwide media, international organizations and diplomatic authorities. Many people, organizations and countries were involved in the conflict for having many connections with Islam, Arab and Jewish culture, Judaism, etc. To some extent, this conflict can be viewed as the part of the larger ideological conflict of the Western and Arab world (Reich 56).

The history of the conflict dates back to the end of the 19th century and there can be named five important periods or levels of its development. The first period started at the end of the 19th century and ended three years after the end of the WW II, in 1948. Before the WW I, Palestine was the part of the Ottoman Empire for the last 5 centuries. And during the lat century of its existence, Ottomans began to accept the primacy of Turkish nation. That led to the discrimination of Arabs.

During the WW I, many Jews and Arabs were supporting allied powers for the promise of liberation of Ottoman Empire, which led to the emergence of the Arab nationalism. After the WW I, Palestine area became British and was called the British mandate of Palestine (Geddes 45-51). Starting with that period of time, immigration of Jewish people to Palestine increased, which increased tensions in the region. After Nazi came to power in Germany, Jewish population in Palestine almost doubled. 

Palestinian Arabs saw that as the threat to their country unity and people identity. Later, particular policies were introduced, which made the situation even worse- Jewish policies prohibited Arab employment in Jewish companies and restricted possibilities of land purchase. Arabs considered those Jewish preference policies be unfair, as they were only immigrants on their land.

Those increasing discontents led to the Arab revolt in Palestine in 1936-1939. As a result, British government finally decreased the number of Jewish immigrants. But soon after that, period of Nazi Holocaust started, and the Jewish immigration continued, though it was illegal then. The tensions were rising in the region, and the committee to solve problems in Palestine was appointed by United Nations- UNSCOP, with the representatives from eleven states, which proposed the separation of Arab and Jewish territories and establish a partitioned state. This decision was approved in 1947, even though the Arab representatives (Arab League) voted against (Feste 124). That was the opening of the strategic fight for controlling major positions in Palestine of Arab and Jewish population. In 1948, Israel declared its sovereignty and independence and the day after that Arab League expressed its open opposition to the partition of the land and armies of Lebanon, Syria, Egypt, Jordan and Iraq invaded the Arab Palestine and the War of 1948 began. Israeli Defense Forces succeeded in repulsing Arab armies from occupied territories and extending their borders. The War ended with the signing of the Armistice Agreements between Israel and each Arab ally in 1949 and the armistice line, also called green line, was established and internationally recognized.

The second period lasted from 1949 to 1967 and is famous for the violation of Armistice agreement by the Arab side, when Egypt closed Straits of Tiran to the shipping of Israel and the Gulf of Acaba was blockaded in 1956. The Israeli answer to those events was the invasion of the Sinai Peninsula and Gaza Strip in the same year with the assistance of Britain and France. Finally United States and United Nations interfered and the conflict was provisionally resolved. UNEF United Nations Emergency Force was created to control the situation. May, 30-June, 5 1967- Six-Day War, as a results of which Israel again gained control over Gaza Strip, Sinai Peninsula, the West Bank, the Golan Heights and eastern Jerusalem (Freedman 245-64).

The third period lasted only 5 years- from 1967 till 1973, during which Arab leaders finally decided that they do not recognize the state of Israel, they do not want the peace and no negotiations with Israel were discussed. In 1969 the War of Attrition was initiated by Egypt aiming to get Sinai Peninsula back, but the war ended suddenly with Nasser’s death in 1970. Three years later, Yom Kippur was attacked by Syria and Egypt, which started the indirect confrontation between the USSR and the USA on the basis of the nuclear weapon.

The forth period started in 1974 and ended in 2000, which is outstanding for signing peace treaties of Israel with Jordan (1994), Egypt (1979) and Lebanon (1983) and for Israel destruction of Iraq nuclear facilities (1981).

The last period is still lasting from 2000. In 2006 the Lebanon War took place. On the 6th of September, 2007 Israel side bombed northern Syrian complex, which was suspected to hold nuclear missiles of North Korea.

Arab peace plan was first introduced in 2002 and was aiming to withdraw Israelites from Arab territories, which were occupied since 1967, establish the independent Palestinian state and promote overall normalization and stabilization of Arab-Israeli relationships. That peace initiative was introduced by the Arab League at the Riyadh Summit in 2007, which was welcomed by Israel, but needs time for implementation.

In the conclusion I would like to say that even though Arab-Israeli conflict lasts for about a century already, the foundation for its resolution is already laid with the Arab Peace Initiative.

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