Discrimination Against Lesbians in Britain

Discrimination Against Lesbians in Britain Lesbianism and the problems of identification in contemporary Britain In Britain, lesbian women may not have had to campaign to have their sexual activities decriminalised, as homosexual had needed to do; yet their lives were not free of problems. However, men even homosexual men had more social, economic, and political power and status than British women did as a whole have. Men had a greater control of and over their own bodies than either heterosexual or lesbian women had in the immediate post-war period, and indeed before then as well. British lesbian women would have to campaign for greater rights as both women do, and as lesbians to challenge the discrimination and expected gender roles from a patriarchal and heterosexual dominated society. In other words, British lesbians had to counter sexual discrimination as well as orientation discrimination before they were able to feel fully secure in publicising their sexual orientation and identification. Changing public perceptions of their different gender roles and sexual orientation was, as the main lesbian rights groups realised was not going to be easy, as their experiences during the 1970s proved.[8] In Britain the 1960s was a decade that brought about some wide-ranging social changes and promised further changes for the future. Lesbian women could certainly regard the availability of the contraceptive pill and the legalisation of abortion as being an improvement for the choices that all women were able to make in relation to their own bodies. During the 1960s expectations about the gender roles of women began to change, as feminism meant that fewer women were prepared to become wives and mothers without having a career first. Lesbian women also realised they did not have to put up with marriage and children just because it was expected of them to do so. The decriminalisation of male homosexual acts at the end of the 1960s could also be viewed as a demonstration that British society was slowly becoming less illiberal in its attitudes towards people that embraced alternative lifestyles. For the more radical lesbians the social changes in the 1960s were the start of the process of fighting discrimination, rather than the end of the process. British lesbian women and gay men were encouraged to start gay pride movements by the apparent success such groups in the United States were having in altering social attitudes, especially in cities like New York and San Francisco.[9] British lesbian and gay pride organisations began in earnest during the early 1970s with the objectives of enabling their members to have pride in their orientation identification, as well as aiming to reduce the level of social discrimination which their own members had to endure. The hope was that reduced social discrimination and reduced fear of such prejudices would allow all lesbian women to readily admit their sexuality with pride. These lesbian pride organisations as a whole found that changing social attitudes towards them and their sexual orientation was a slow process, after all generations of social prejudices could not be expected to vanish overnight.[10] The effectiveness or otherwise of lesbian and gay pride movements since the 1970s has been an area of much debate. Depending on which criteria are used to judge the gay pride movements the achievements of these organisations will alter.[11] If judging the achievements of the lesbian and gay pride movements solely in terms of their ability to have anti-discrimination legislation passed these movements were undoubtedly a failure before the election of the New Labour government in 1997.[12] The only lesbian women to gain from anti-discrimination legislation between the early 1970s and 1997 did so because they also came under gender equality, race relations and disability legislation. Governments from the early 1970s did not believe that legislation was needed to prevent homophobic discrimination, leaving lesbian and gay pride organisations on their own to lower such prejudice aimed at their members. New Labour has taken more steps than any previous governments to pass legislation to red uce homophobic prejudices and promote the rights of all lesbians and gays. New Labour legislation has included passing legislation to end discrimination upon the grounds of sexual orientation to enhance the opportunities for all lesbians and gays to be openly identified as such without fear of homophobic discrimination. Besides specific legislation to protect lesbian and gay rights, lesbians can also use the Human Rights Act of 1998 to make sure that their orientation being publicly identifiable is not detrimental to their rights or their safety.[13] Under New Labour, lesbian women have finally received legal equality with heterosexual men and women. For instance, lesbian women and gay men are no longer dismissed from Britain’s armed forces if they openly admit their sexuality. Lesbian women and gay men now also have the right to ‘marry’ each other in civil partnerships. The introduction of civil partnerships means that lesbian women in long term partnerships hav e the same rights as married and co-habitant heterosexual couples in terms of property, taxation and inheritance rights, as well as the same benefit and pension entitlements. Lesbian women now have the same rights as heterosexual women when it comes to the custody or adoption of children.[14] In respect of the lesbian pride movements they probably had a more immediate impact on changing social attitudes towards them than they did in influencing governments to pass legislation which tackled discrimination against them. Lesbian and gay pride organisations did not use the same tactics to publicise their sexual orientation. The more radical lesbian and gay pride organisations were happy to shock heterosexuals in British society with the tone and the methods in which they demonstrated their identifications of sexual orientations. More radical groups were even prepared to ‘out’ famous people to make headlines and raise public awareness of lesbian and gay issues.[15] Other more moderate lesbian and gay pride groups were less keen on showing their sexual orientation and identification in such an ostentatious manner. The more moderate lesbian pride groups would have preferred to be open about their sexual orientation and identification without using over the top publi city stunts. Moderate lesbian groups would have fitted in with insider pressure groups, which attempt to achieve their objectives behind closed doors, rather than in public. Radical lesbian and gay pride groups are examples of outsider groups that have little influence with governments and rely on publicity to bring their objectives to public attention.[16] The campaigns of lesbian pride groups were not as successful in changing public perceptions of lesbian women as a majority of those groups would have hoped from the early 1970s. This was especially the case during the period of Conservative governments between 1979 to 1997. The Conservative party more than the Labour and Liberal/Liberal Democrats parties like to represent traditional family values instead of promoting the rights and the lifestyles of lesbian and gay pride groups. When in office the Conservatives prevented lesbian and gay groups’ form educating school pupils about their sexual orientations and identification through the infamous section 28. Lesbian and gay groups lobbied New Labour to have the section removed as soon as possible. The media did not always help lesbian and gay groups convey the messages to the public that they wanted to be sent out, especially right wing newspapers did not want to change public perceptions of lesbian women. The right wing newspap ers often portrayed the objectives of lesbian and gay groups in the most negative perspective possible.[17] Despite the efforts of some politicians, religious groups, and parts of the media the number of people who happen to be publicly prepared to be known as being lesbian and gay in Britain has increased noticeably since the 1970s. It is harder to argue out right that such a situation is entirely due to the attempts of lesbian and gay pride groups to alter the attitudes of British society. After all changed reactions towards their orientation and gender identification could have resulted from the campaigning of such groups, or alternatively could just have been a continuation of increasing indifference to how other people chose to live their lives.[18] Thus in conclusion, lesbian women in Britain have not always felt comfortable or able to openly display their sexual orientation, and their gender identification due to the nature of British society. The immediate post-war society in Britain has remained predominantly patriarchal and heterosexual in terms of social and gender relationships as well as expected behaviours, roles, and identifications. That situation meant lesbianism did exist in Britain, it was just well hidden. The 1960s were a decade that kick started the process of altering British society, and provided the stimulus for lesbian and gay pride groups to emerge during the early 1970s. The legacies, influence, and success of such groups are highly debatable. Although these groups certainly raised the profile of lesbians and gays in Britain they actually had little affect on the mainstream political agenda prior to New Labour gaining office in 1997. Lesbian and gay pride groups may have attempted to increase acceptance of their lifestyles and their alternative identifications, yet changing public perceptions of lesbian women has not been universal or overwhelmingly favourable. The way in socialisation operates in such a haphazard way means that the predominantly heterosexual and patriarchal nature of British society will continue for a considerable amount of time, even if the acceptance of lesbian women should continue to improve, and more fluid gender roles should develop further. Bibliography Abercrombie N, Hill S Turner B S (2000) Penguin Dictionary of Sociology 4th edition, Penguin, London Eatwell R Wright A (2003) Contemporary Political Ideologies 2nd Edition, Continuum, London Hobsbawm, E (1994) Age of Extremes, the Short Twentieth Century 1914-1991, Michael Joseph, London Whitaker’s, (2007) Whitaker’s Almanack – today’s world in a single volume, A C Black, London Young H, (2003) supping with the Devils – Political writing from Thatcher to Blair, Guardian Books, London 1 Footnotes [1] Abercrombie, Hill, Turner, 2000 p. [2] Judt, 2007 p.485 [3] Martin, 2003 p. 233 [4] Abercrombie, Hill, Turner, 2000 p. 314 [5] Abercrombie, Hill, Turner, 2000 p. 314 [6] Abercrombie, Hill, Turner, 2000 p. 314 [7] Sandbrook, 2005 p. 599 [8] Eatwell Wright, 2003 p. 214 [9] Hobsbawm, 1994 p. 428 [10] Abercrombie, Hill, Turner, 2000 p. 314 [11] Judt, 2007 p. 785 [12] Abercrombie, Hill Turner, 2000, p. 314 [13] Young, 2003 p. 216 [14] Whitaker’s, 2007 p. 604 [15] Judt, 2007 p. 785 [16] Abercrombie, Hill, Turner, 2000 p. 336 [17] Abercrombie, Hill, Turner, 2000 p. 314 [18] Judt, 2007 p. 785

HR Practices At Shell Pakistan Limited

HR Practices At Shell Pakistan Limited Pakistans first oil field was discovered in the late 1952 in Baluchistan near a giant Sui gas field. It covers 122.67 square kilometers (47.36 sq mi). Pakistan Petroleum and Pakistan Oilfields explored and began drilling from Toot area is one of the oldest oil producing regions in Pakistan with the first oil well was drilled in 1964 when President Ayub Khan encourages a mineral development policy. The commercial production started in 1967. There are about 60 million barrels of oil in place with 12%-15% of which is recoverable. At its peak during 1986, the field was producing approximately 2,400 barrel of oil per day. Oil production was entirely confined to the Potwar Plateau till 1981, when Union Texas Pakistan discovered its first oil-field in Lower Sindh. By 1998-1999, the Lower Sindh gas-fields were producing more oil than the Potwar Plateau. Since then, new deposits have also been found here. In 2005, the Vancouver-based International Sovereign Energy signed a memorandum of understanding with the Oil and Gas Development Company Limited, Pakistans national oil company, to develop the Toot field.   Pakistan has not experienced many new oil fields coming online. As a result, oil production has remained fairly flat, at around 60,000 barrels per day (bbl/d). Due to Pakistans modest oil production, the country is dependent on oil imports to satisfy domestic oil demand. As of November 2006, Pakistan had consumed approximately 350 thousand barrels of oil and various petroleum products, of which, more than 80 percent was imported. The majority of oil imports come from the Middle East, with Saudi Arabia as the lead importer. In Pakistan transport sector in the biggest user of the petroleum products use 48%, energy sector uses about 36%, and industrial sector which has a share of 12 % while remaining 4% is shared by the residential sector. There are almost four major national oil companies currently involved in the sector, namely Oil and Gas development corporation limited (OGDCL), Pakistan petroleum limited (PPL), and Pakistan state oil company limited and Pakistan oilfields limited (POL). http://i95.photobucket.com/albums/l140/tortoise_bucket/Shell-Skull-Iran-Animated.gif Introduction of Shell Pakistan Limited The documented history of Royal Dutch Shell plc (commonly known as Shell) in Pakistan dates back to 1903 when partnership was struck between The Shell Transport Trading Company and the Royal Dutch Petroleum Company to supply petroleum to Asia. In 1928 when Royal Dutch Shell plc and the Burmah Oil Company Limited (was a leading British oil business) in India were merged and Burmah Shell Oil Storage Distribution Company of India was born. After the independence of Pakistan in 1947, the name was changed to the Burmah Shell Oil Distribution Company of Pakistan. In 1970, when 51% of the shareholding was transferred to Pakistani investors, the name of changed to Pakistan Burmah Shell (PBS) Limited. The Shell and the Burmah Groups, retained the remaining 49% in equal proportions. In February of 1993, as economic liberalization began to take root and the Burmah divested from PBS, Shell Petroleum stepped into raise its stake to 51%. The years 2001-2 have seen the Shell Petroleum Company successively increasing its share, with the Group now having a 76% stake in Shell Pakistan Ltd (SPL) an expression of confidence The second largest oil company in the country, Shell Pakistan has successfully positioned itself as the preferred oil and Gas Company in Pakistan, leading the field in its commitment to customer service, quality of products, safety and environmental protection. Currently shell has been operating for over more than 90 countries and territories and has been providing its products and services. Shell Pakistan is divided into 8 functional areas i.e. Retail, Lubricants, Aviation, Operations, Finance, Corporate, Human Resource and Commercial Fuels. It has played a leading role in energy demand of Pakistan. It represented in all aspects of the upstream and downstream oil business in Pakistan, in exploration both onshore and offshore, in refining, as well as a 26% share holding in the white oil pipeline( an oil pipeline from Port Qasim to the Pak-Arab Refinery (PARCO) at Mehmood Kot, Multan District, Punjab,). As Shell has a rich legacy and long association with Pakistan, it operates over 800 retail stations, it has the leading market share among foreign petroleum retail businesses in Pakistan. HR BUSINESS STRUCTURE OF SHELL A business needs people to achieve its goals. In every organization the business activities are performed by different people working in different departments like marketing, finance, IT, and others, but HR is the one whose functions are not only associated with performing its own department activities but also to look over the activities of other departments. In two words, it is charged with the overall responsibility for deciding upon and implementing strategies and policies aligned with organizations goals and getting the things done from people and then with the management of individuals and departments. Shells HR activities are not dependent on a respective country level but they are categorized into three different levels. HR Business (Global) Shells HR Business has been operating at the global level and evolved in designing the replica of various businesses like Retail, supply and distribution, commercial, global functions, manufacturing, chemicals, finance/controllers, etc. Centre of Excellence (Regional) The people working in centers of excellence are on the regional level and are responsible in making overall policies, setting remuneration, expatriation, and making policies for competence development. HR Country (Respective country) At the country level they are the people like HR managers so where ever shell has been operating the respective country includes HRM. The policies aligned to the business and functions are implemented here and the managers are responsible in conveying what needs to be done. Shell Pakistan is dealing at this country level so our further discussion will be based on the activities of HR country Pakistan. HR Departments Structure at Country Level The responsibilities for HR department at country level are not divided into different sub-departments rather; there are the job positions in the hierarchy which are responsible in having certain duties to be performed and to hold certain responsibilities. The benchmarks are as follows: Employee Relations/Industrial Relations Employee and Industrial Relations at shell are maintained by the HR account managers who focus on the morale and motivation of employees and how they feel about working for Shell, as well as building strong relationships with employee representatives. A lot of Hr managers time is spent in communicating and consulting with Shell staff and representative bodies to ensure theyre aware of decisions at all levels, that they feel involved in the decision-making process. Learning and development Learning development is another seat for the account manager at the table within HR, the HR account manager helps in achieving of business strategies and operational plans. It helps in providing and developing key capabilities to meet the demands and challenges of the business. Working on the design and delivery of learning programs covering Leadership Development, Technical/Professional Development, and the Personal and Business Skills portfolio are the basic responsibilities for manager. Recruitment Country level HRAM provides a recruitment process that brings the best of the worlds talent to Shell and goes for top graduates and experienced professionals whose skills will secure long-term competitive advantage for the company. Policy The next HRAM is responsible in implementing policies that comes into shells basic business principles which includes core values, honesty, integrity, respect for people and the promotion of trust, openness, teamwork and professionalism, and pride in what they do. HRM enforces employees to follow up with these policies. HR PROCESS OF SHELL PAKISTAN LIMITED The process gets started with the planning of HR needs. The first basic need f HR is to make sure that the right number and right people are there at the right time. By performing job analysis it comes to know that the right people are there, by knowing surplus and shortage situations it can work on right quantity and time. Job analysis is done at the global level so Shell at country level is responsible in taking the actions on the situations of surplus and shortage. Surplus of Employees It is in the companys policy not to hire more than 500 employees. During surplus the employees are given the opportunity to apply for other jobs within country at shell and clear the selection process or other then that the HR management refers the excessive employees to other big organizations. Shortage of Employees In case of shortage the company satisfies the term fill in the vacancy in which it gives first priority to its internal employees to apply for the proceeding vacancy and then it goes for external recruitment to fill the place which has been left over by the promoted employee. RECRUITMENT AT SHELL PAKISTAN Those individuals who want to see their future at shell decides upon the way in which they want to proceed with it. There have been different recruitment methods that HR department has been considering: Methods of Recruitment Head hunter firm Shell outsources the responsibility for recruitment when it seeks to recruit a top level professional with defining the requirement grounds of maturity and competence. The organization is in a favor of equal opportunity employer where men and women both are preferred. The outsourcing is done so that the higher position does not become the victim of nepotism or corrupt system. Global Recruitment Shell appreciates the best fit employees for the above positions for which the HRAM put efforts in bringing global talent to Pakistan and it is normally done for the senior position. As Leon GM of Shell says, Global recruitment is done for global talent Internal Recruitment This method receives the primary concern at shell in which the internal employees are more preferred to apply and get selected for the positions on a fair basis as they also have to go through the overall selection process. As internal employees are more familiar with the culture, work unit, rules and regulations so it benefits the organization as well in cost saving. Moreover, there are no promotion opportunities for employees so the internal recruitment has turned out to be an alternate motivational factor to work unit. The employees can apply by visiting the companys intranet. Advertisement Advertisement opens another way for the job seekers. The advertisement is based on job specification in which all the requirements are mentioned which perhaps reduces the possibility of untalented individuals to apply. As the Gm said that going into job description is a lengthy process. The blind box strategy has been proved not that helpful for the HR managers at shell because they applied this strategy for twice but no adequate response was received. Employee Referrals When the company posts the job offers on the notice board or on its intranet for the internal employees then it also runs the possibility that employees will get their referrals along. Job search (cyberspace) Cyberspace is categorized for professionals, internees, and graduates. There are application forms which need to be filled with an attached resumes. POST-RECRUITMENT PROCESS Initial Screening CV/Resumes The individuals curriculum vitae (CV) and resumes are taken into consideration when making selection decision. Shells HR management primarily focuses on the format of the resume of the candidate in other words they short list these resumes on format and pattern bases. Application Form Those candidates who apply on the internet have to register themselves for filling up an application form given on the website of shell. Here it encourages those candidates who are eligible on the criteria as decided by the company. Those candidates are short listed who meets the required criteria and they also enclose their resumes along here. The internal candidates are already registered who just need to log in while applying for the new job. SELECTION Interview Those candidates whose application forms are short listed are invited for an interview. Here an individuals culturally fit requirement is given a close consideration and two interviews are conducted. The first interview is taken by the manager of HR department and then short listed from here are sent for the second interview which is taken by the department managers along with the senior managers. Candidates behavior is also of a keen interest to an interviewer and he is assessed against capacity, achievement, relationship skills and technical skills. Background Investigation There is no specific need of background investigation because the documents that an employee carries along on the interview day become a clear evidence of employees profile. For some positions the degree and experience background is important but mostly an employee can be from any background but must be eligible for the position. Medical Requirement Minimum fitness to work is required as it is set by the Centre of excellence. The country level Hr manager while considering the main factors can reject who does not fit to the minimum requirement. ORIENTATIONAT SHELL PAKISTAN LIMITED Internally selected candidates Employees who are internally selected are given no orientation as they have already been through it and are familiar with the norms, values and culture of the organization. The work introduction is made by the line manager and the employee gradually learns about new work. New Employees The new employees when join the company they are given a set of documents in which they can make themselves aware of the framework in which policies are set so that it makes an organization a good place to work. The documents can contain the following lessons: Code of conduct and ethics Anti-corruption and bribery Anti-trust in which whistle blowing is considered as unethical Policies around harassment and gender A new employee is introduced with the work unit but its his/her responsibility as well to go, shake hand and introduce him or her to others. Moreover there are communications meetings which makes them socialize and they are also given the organization tour. Curriculum activities performed by employees The employees are also offered to attend a day in which there are number of ground activities they need to perform including group discussion, presentations, exercises, real case studies, team building activities and others, to analyze how individual can grapple with different business scenarios. It is done at the global level. LEARNING AND TRAINING Shell believes that the best way to learn is by doing. The emphasis is being on shadowing people and then if the lacking is found during performance evaluation then the employees are trained by on-the-job methods. The new employees are shadowed by which they are assigned to the line managers and observe how the work is to be carried out, what are the daily responsibilities and a lot more. They keep on learning about their work so they develop overtime. The employees are not rotated on the jobs as the promotions are restricted but it can be done by a communication or negotiation with line managers. For suppose, If an employee wants to learn about the new work or job then he can ask of it from the line manager and by the mutual discussion between them he can learn farther. There are specific indicators which analyze the need for training and are computed on the yearly based performances. Analyzing Training needs Accept Error The Hr department keeps the record of employees to evaluate their performances and to see whether they are set into the environment. It looks that the person must be culturally fit, behavior is good, does the work by own, performance is good, and dont tries to dominate over others. Many times the employees are imaged as a perfect candidate for the position during an interview process but the time when the reality appears and if it is opposite then the HR manager does consider it as an accept error. It indicates that an employee needs more of the training. The person is given a period of six months in which he or she is trained to fit into the specific requirements and evaluation also goes a long time to time. Competence profile There are competence profiles for each job and people are supposed to be assessed together on profiles. For instance, firstly the people are shadowed and then if somebody needs to acquire leadership skills, negotiation or interpersonal skills or any other skill then for that there are programs like on-the-job training such as; Work Assignments Team tasks Projects Shadowing people Links to websites with different universities Management articles and research publications DEVELOPMENT AND TRAINING There are international programs for employee development and training. The pure development is been made through foreign courses which are considered as a part of off-the-job training and the training which helps a little in development of an employee are virtual courses. Foreign Courses Foreign courses are considered as the development of an employee as the HR director stated, There are public and foreign courses which is a part of the overall development, we look at the individuals job performance and potential so everybody doesnt go for that and everybody may think that unless are gone for a course they cant be able to learn, but learning and development are two different things. You should need to be learning all the time and as development is the costly process so we limits off the candidates. Virtual courses (Shell Open University) These are the online courses by which an employee can learn by browsing the shells official website where one can get the access to shell Open Universitys web page and learn all the relevant things. PERFORMANCE APPRAISAL Performance appraisal is done by two way process: Goal Performance Appraisal Shell set targets for improvement and measures, appraises and then reports performance. There is a competency profile for each job according to which an employee is assigned to the different work-related goals that need to be achieved. GPA is given on the evaluation whether the goals have been achieved. Ranking Ranking is a process alike on which the individuals are compared within their departments and the best ranker receives the reward. There is a structured budget so only one person will be receiving the reward. As the HR manager stated, Everybody cant be man of the match in every match. REWARDS AND BENEFITS TO EMPLOYEES The employees are benefited and rewarded on many different grounds. Some of them are as follows: Internal recruitment The internal employees are given the first priority to apply for the next positions. This has been made as an alternate for promotions. Competitive Salary The competitive salary is based on market conditions so the experienced and the one with high skills is probably the one who is paid high. Performance-related pay and bonuses When the employee accomplishes goal-performance appraisal then he/she is rewarded with bonuses or sometimes it gets the increase in salary. Club memberships The employees are given different club memberships and are also offered to participate into its activities in which they are awarded as well by the clubs. Vehicles The employees are given cars and pick and drop facilities. The top managers are also benefited with fuels. Annual paid leaves The employees are given annual paid leaves for which there salary is not deducted. Flexible working practices The environment of the work place is made so flexible and interesting that the employees feel secure and remain concentrated while being at the work place. The timings are also flexible so that employees cannot think about taking out time for some of his/her off the job related work during job. Long Service Awards Shell recently held a long service awards distribution ceremony in 2010 at Karachi in which the eligible staff who had completed 30, 25, 20, 15, 10 years of experience in the company were awarded. Champions trophy The champions trophy-east was launched in 2009 to recognize and reward account managers and sales managers for the commercial fuel teams in east. It was aimed to energize the sales professionals and appreciate the outstanding performances .From Pakistan Ehtesham saleem, AM for a Pakistan commercial fuel was awarded. Traveling vouchers In 2009 shell evaluated its top 3 sales performers in east and they were given travel vouchers valued at 3,000pounds, 2,500 pounds, and 2,000 pounds for the first, second and third winner respectively in which the account managers from Pakistan were also included. Other benefits and rewards include: Maternity/paternity leave and possible sabbaticals Mobile bills Shell fuel cards Pension/ retirement plans Healthcare coverage Recommendations Shell is one of the biggest organizations globally, but as it has all the policies designed at global level so it costs high at regional level. The demands of culture and needs of employees vary from country to country. So for every region the policies should be well designed and structured according to the needs of the employees. It is very time consuming because the HR department working in Pakistan has to gather all the information regarding performance appraisals, promotions etc and then all of this information is sent at a global level, it can create a communication gap without the HR department working at a global and a regional level. Policies should not only be implemented but should also be created according to the employees, because the supervisor or the manager to whom the employee reports directly only knows about his/her performance. Conclusion HR department in every organization plays a vital role in managing all the activities which are related to profitability and management of employees which are main assets of an organization. Shell is a multi-national organization which is working at a global and regional level. All the policies are made for the benefit of the employees, they consider everyone equally none is favored or prioritized unless he/she is capable and prove themselves by fulfilling the tasks assigned. They motivate their employees by providing them the opportunity to apply for a vacant position which shows that how much they are valued. Team work is valued because they consider that an employee is no good to the organization if he/she cannot cope up with the team, everyone can work for themselves but a true dedicated individual is that who matches his desired needs with the organization demands.

21st Century Essay -- essays research papers

  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Alternatives to animal testing   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚     Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Imagine you are walking down the cosmetics isle at your grocery store. While picking up some deodorant or toothpaste, have you ever stopped to think if your favorite product has been tested on animals? You probably haven’t, but the chances are very high that it has been. Two of the main reasons why companies continue to use animals to test their products are to determine possible dangers to human health and to avoid product liability suits, but now there are many reliable tests that can be conducted to determine the safety of products without the use of animals. To better understand this important issue I will discuss how animal testing began, what companies do and do not test products on animals, some alternatives to animal testing, and the awareness and prevention that demands our help.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Experimentation on live animals began as early as the 17th Century. Philosopher Jeremy Bentham rejected Philosopher Rene Descartes’ theory that animals are not able to reason and therefore do not feel pain. Bentham’s philosophy on animals was: â€Å" The question is not can they reason? Nor, can they talk? but, can they suffer? â€Å". The practice of testing cosmetics on...

The ICU as an Effective Learning Environment Essay -- Nursing Reflecti

Learning is the lifelong process of transforming information and experience into knowledge, skills, behaviors and attitudes. It may occur as part of education, personal development or training. According to Hinchliff (1999), there are many factors that can give and affect the quality of learning such as students, teachers and the environment. Meanwhile, learning environment itself is the physical or virtual setting in which learning takes place. Hannafin, Land & Oliver (1999) described learning environment as a typically constructivist in nature, engaging learners in â€Å"sense-making† or reasoning about extensive resource set, including four components which are enabling context, resources, a set of tools and scaffolds. This paper is going to discuss the significance of my clinical area as a context for learning and how myself as practitioner can give to an effective learning environment. I have been a critical care nurse working in intensive care unit for almost seven years. I am graduated from local nursing school in 2002. At first, I worked on a regular hospital floor. One year later, I came to intensive care unit and obtained my intensive care post basic certificate in 2006. I was attracted to critical care nursing because of the challengers and the environment. Here in the intensive care unit my nursing skills and role continues to evolve. The intensive care unit is at a very strategic location and in the second floor where immediate transportation of patient is available from all departments and wards. The unit is staffed and equipped to a high standard to give quality care to the patient. The unit is divided into two adjacent clinical areas. Open plan area with ten bedded spaces and isolation room with two bedded spa... ... into people’s actions and feelings and can be a resource for helping people to improve their lives. The continuing in the students experiences at practice area are important in creating a welcoming learning environment. This can be achieved through a regular daily schedule and group support by involving staffs, unit sisters, doctors and specialists that have different level of knowledge and experiences. Finally, promoting a sense of community within the hospital and the practice area is an essential element to a welcome and supportive social climate. To end, this paper has identified my clinical area as context for learning in which it offers great learning opportunities although there are some limitations. A few recommendations have been highlighted to improve the quality of learning in the future.

Analysis of As You Like It by Daniel Maclise :: As You Like It Daniel Maclise Literature Essays

Analysis of As You Like It by Daniel Maclise During the time that France was divided into provinces (or dukedoms as they were called) there reigned in one of these provinces an usurper, who had deposed and banished his elder brother, the lawful duke. The duke, who was thus driven from his dominions, retired with a few faithful followers to the forest of Arden; and here the good duke lived with his loving friends, who had put themselves into a voluntary exile for his sake, while their land and revenues enriched the false usurper; and custom soon made the life of careless ease they led here more sweet to them than the pomp and uneasy splendour of a courtier's life. Here they lived like the old Robin Hood of England, and to this forest many noble youths daily resorted from the court, and did fleet the time carelessly, as they did who lived in the golden age. In the summer they lay along under the fine shade of the large forest trees, marking the playful sports of the wild deer; and so fond were they of these poor dappled fools, who seemed to be the native inhabitants of the forest, that it grieved them to be forced to kill them to supply themselves with venison for their food. When the cold winds of winter made the duke feel the cha nge of his adverse fortune, he would endure it patiently, and say: 'These chilling winds which blow upon my body are true counsellors; they do not flatter, but represent truly to me my condition; and though they bite sharply, their tooth is nothing like so keen as that of unkindness and ingratitude. I find that howsoever men speak against adversity, yet some sweet uses are to be extracted from it; like the jewel, precious for medicine, which is taken from the head of the -venomous and despised toad.' In this manner did the patient duke draw a useful moral from everything that he saw; and by the help of this moralizing turn, in that life of his, remote from public haunts, he could find tongues in trees, books in the running brooks, sermons in stones, and good in everything. The banished duke had an only daughter, named Rosalind, whom the usurper, duke Frederick, when he banished her father, still retained in his court as a companion for his own daughter Celia.

The Effect of Different Colored Light on Plant Growth

In the future, I would put different types of plants underneath the same color of cellophane to see if the light had the same effect that it did on the pole mean plants. I would also weigh the plants to find out their overall mass. I would also find out how much sugar is being produced by photosynthesis Cellophane is a thin, transparent sheet made of regenerated cellulose. Its low permeability to air, oils, greases and bacteria makes it useful for food packaging. It's clear, it's handy, and it's wrapped around my candy.The cellophane wrap is one of the most versatile discoveries of the sass. Intended to be a protective textile, the cellophane has since found application in many Industries as a packaging material and as a semi-permeable film. Many people mistake cellophane for plastic. The truth Is the two materials are of completely different composition. Plastic Is a synthetic or semi-synthetic polymer. In contrast, cellophane is a sheet of regenerated cellulose. The only thing that cellophane and plastic have in common is that both materials are usually made into transparent sheets.Uses for cellophane One of the earliest applications for cellophane wrap is for packaging and storage of food products. This specific function of the cellophane remains to this day, even though some Industries have turned to plastic for the same purpose. Nevertheless, the use of cellophane as a packaging material extends beyond food products. Almost all consumer products are able to utilize cellophane for packaging. I nerve are various toner applications Tort cellophane. Oneself tapes, sun as 3 Scotch tape, use cellophane as a base for their products. There are those who use printed cellophane for gift wrapping.Cellophane is also used as a semi-permeable barrier for battery cells. Beauty spas employ cellophane wrap for hair and cellulite treatments. In the realm of medicine, cellophane is also used as semi-permeable tubing for dialysis. With such an impressive track record, people will continue to utilize cellophane as an important material for industry. Article Source: http://Centralizes. Com/4264429 How is it made? Unlike the man-made polymers in plastics, which are largely derived from petroleum, cellophane is a natural polymer made from cellulose, a component of plants and trees.Cellophane is not made from rainforest's trees, but rather from trees farmed and harvested specifically for cellophane production. Cellophane is made by digesting wood and cotton pulps in a series of chemical baths that remove impurities ND break the long fiber chains in this raw material. Regenerated as a clear, shiny film, with plasticizing chemicals added for flexibility, cellophane is still comprised largely of crystalline cellulose molecules. This means that it can be broken down by micro-organisms in the soil Just as leaves and plants are. Is it earth-friendly?Cellulose belongs to a class of compounds known in organic chemistry as carbohydrates. The base unit of cellulose is the glucose molecule. Thousands of these glucose molecules are brought together in the plant growth cycle to form long Haines, termed cellulose. These chains are in turn broken down in the production process to form cellulose film used in either an uncoated or coated form in packaging. When buried, uncoated cellulose film is generally found to degrade within 10 to 30 days; PAID-coated film is found to degrade in 90 to 120 days and nitrocellulose- coated cellulose is found to degrade in 60 to 90 days.Tests have shown that the average total time for complete bio-degradation of cellulose film is from 28 to 60 days for uncoated products, and from 80 to 120 days for coated cellulose products. In lake eater, the rate of bio-degradation is 10 days for uncoated film and 30 days for coated cellulose film. Even materials which are thought of as highly degradable, like paper and green leaves, take longer to degrade than cellulose film products. Conversely, plastics, polyvinyl chloride, polyth ene, polyethylene transliterate, and oriented- polypropylene show almost no sign of degradation after long periods of burial.I Introduction Peachy (Brassier ARPA L. C.v. group Pack Choc') is an erect, biennial herb, cultivate as an annual auto 1 30 m tall In vegetative I Stage. Ovate leaves are ranged spirally and spreading. The petioles are enlarged and grow upright forming a subliminally bundle. I luminescence is a raceme with pale yellow flowers. Seeds are 1 mm in diameter and are reddish to blackish brown in color. I Uses and Nutritional Value I Peachy is used mainly for its immature, but fully expanded tender leaves. The succulent petioles are often the preferred part. It I list used as main ingredient for soup and stir-fried dishes.

Fuzzy Topsis Method

Fuzzy TOPSIS method This is an approach based on the TOPSIS technique (Technique for Order Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution) and the fuzzy set theory. The TOPSIS method is based on the concept that the optimum option has the least distance from the positive ideal solution. It is a linear weighting technique, which was first proposed, in its crisp version by Chen and Hwang(1992), with reference to Hwang and Yoon(1981).Since then, this method has been widely adopted to solve MCDM problems in many different fields. Because decision information is uncertain instead of certain in most environments, further extension for group decision making problems under fuzzy environment was published by Cheng(2000),known as Fuzzy TOPSIS. The selection of the third-party provider is a typical MCDM problem. In this method firstly we screen out providers that have not minimal qualifications by the selection criteria.Then closeness coefficient of contractors to each proposal will be computed by Fuzzy TOPSIS method and finally these coefficients as successful indicators for each provider will be fed in to a linear programming to select most profitable projects and providers with respect to the constraints. The stages are described blow: Stage1: Eliminate contractors that haven't minimal qualifications. For the purpose of analysis, selection criteria need to be rationally selected at first. There are a lot of researches with respect to the decision criteria for evaluating the supplier.Such as the study of Dickson(1966), Ellram (1990),Weber et al. (1991), ,Grupe (1997), and Akomode et al. (1998). According to an empirical survey, the top four selection criteria are responsiveness to service requirements, quality of management, track record of ethical importance, and ability to provide value-added services. The less important selection criteria are listed in a descending order as below: low cost, specific channel expertise, knowledge of market, personal relationship with key c ontacts, willingness to assume risk, investment in state-of- art technologies, size of firm, and national market coverage.Keeping the outcomes of the supplier selection literature review as a guideline, we derived the relevant factors to evaluate in the provider selection process based on the outsourcing view. However selection of criteria is totally industry specific and based on each case and the criteria are changed and replaced. Then opinions of decision makers on criteria were aggregated and weights of all criteria have been calculated by organizing the expert meeting. Meanwhile, the outcomes of the supplier selection literature review should be kept as a guideline.Stage2: Computing closeness coefficient (CC) for each project by fuzzy TOPSIS method So after we have obtained the important evaluation criteria and the qualified provider candidates to form the MCDM problem,the ranking of the shortlisted vendor providers will be done using the fuzzy TOPSIS approach. First,choose the appropriate linguistic variables for the importance weight of the criteria ,asses the importance of each contractor in each project with respect to each criterion by DM, using linguistic variables.Convert these evaluation into triangular fuzzy numbers with fuzzy weight for each criterion. Fuzzy weight wj of criterion C j are obtained with regard to DM’s opinions. Then the importance of the criteria and the rating of alternatives with respect to each criterion and the aggregated rating Xij under criteria C j can be calculated as: Wj=1K[Wj1+Wj2+†¦+Wjk] xij=1K[xij1+xij2+†¦+xijk] Wjk is the importance weight of the kth decision maker. xijk is the rating of the kth decision maker. Construct the normalized fuzzy decision matrix.If we describe the linguistic variables by triangular fuzzy numbers, xij=(aij,bij,cij) and wij=(wj1,wj2,wj3)then we can get the fuzzy decision matrix denoted by R, and R= R=[rij]m? n. rij=(aijcj,bijcj,cijcj) rij=(aj-aij,aj-bij,aj-cij) Next, the we ighted normalized fuzzy decision matrix is constructed by : V=[vij]m? n, i=1,2,†¦,m j=1,2,†¦,n Where vij=rij(. )wj After all of these analysis and calculation ,a positive-ideal solution (PIS, A+) and a fuzzy negative-ideal solution (NIS,A-) as the criterion are chosen.The best alternative solution should be the closest to the Positive Ideal Solution (PIS) and the farthest from the Negative Ideal Solution (NIS). A+=(v1*,v2*,†¦,vn*) A-=(v1-,v2-,†¦,vn-) vj*=1,1,1 vj-=0,0,0 Calculate the total distance of each components from the fuzzy positive ideal and negative ideal: ? If A and B are two fuzzy numbers as follows, distance between these fuzzy numbers is calculated by equation below: A=(a1,b1,c1) B=(a2,b2,c2) Equation : DA,B=13[a2-a12+b2-b12+c2-c12]Given the above description on how to calculate the distance between fuzzy numbers, the distance of components from positive and negative ideas can be derived respectively as: di*=j=1nd(vij,vj*), i=1,2,†¦,m di-=j=1nd (vij,vj-), i=1,2,†¦,m In the end,the relative closeness coefficient (CC)of each contractor-project in each criterion can be calculated as: CCi=di*di-+di+, i=1,2,†¦,m Stage3: Selecting the best projects and related contractors Select the best projects and related contractors by ranking options based on the descending cci.An alternative with index cci approaching 1 indicates that the alternative is close to the fuzzy positive ideal reference point and far from the fuzzy negative ideal reference point. A large value of closeness index indicates a good performance of the alternative. A case study: The proposed methodology for supplier selection problem, composed of TOPSIS method, consists of three Steps: (1) Identify the criteria to be used in the model; (2) weigh the criteria by using expert views; (3) evaluation of alternatives with TOPSIS and determination of the final rank.The case is that of a major company operating in the dairy products field. In the first phase, the pr oject team operated mainly through roundtable discussions on developing their main selection criteria. After identity the criteria attributed under consideration, five alternatives suppliers are written in the list. There are several criteria need to be considered, and each vendor’s information under each criteria are collected, calculating each vendor’s overall rating weight, shown in Table 2. (Mohammad Saeed Zaeri,2010) Finally, the closeness coefficient was calculated to rank alternatives.The results obtained are shown in Table 4: (Mohammad Saeed Zaeri,2010) The order of rating among those vendors is Supplier3;gt; Supplier 4;gt; Supplier 1;gt; Supplier2;gt;Supplier5, the best vendor would be Supplier3. To conclude, the TOPSIS method had several advantages. First, TOPSIS makes it possible to appraise the distances of each candidate from the positive and negative ideal solutions. Second, it allows the straight linguistic definition of weights and ratings under each cr iterion, without the need of cumbersome pairwise comparisons and the risk of inconsistencies.It evaluates the projects and each provider more precisely by expert decision makers in each stage of the whole process. Moreover, the method is very easy to understand and to implement. All these issues are of fundamental importance for a direct field implementation of the methodology by logistics practitioners. However TOPSIS is proved to be insensitive to the number of alternatives and has its worst performance only in case of very limited number of criteria. In order to apply fuzzy TOPSIS to a MCDM problem, selection criteria have to be monotonic.