Wednesday, January 29, 2020

Bean Trees Essay Example for Free

Bean Trees Essay Most authors convey an important message or idea throughout their noevls to give a greater understanding to their readers. In Barbara Kingsolvers novel, The Bean Trees, a strong idea that was developed was the possiublity of new beginnings. The Bean Trees is the story of the protagonist Taylor Greer, who starts off on a journey from her home town of Kentucky to Arizona. Along the way she she is given an abandoned child which is the start to her learning about motherhood, becoming a women, the power of friendships and also learns to be capable. The idea of new beginnings is the ability for characters to start over and leave their past behind them. It was mainly developed through Taylor, Turtle, and also a Guatamalan couple Estevan and Esperanza. The first person who helped develop this idea is Taylor. At the beginning of the story Taylor was called Marietta before she decided that she wanted to have a clean break because she had never been crazy about the names which she had been called previously. I didnt have any special name in mind, but just wanted a change this fitted into the theme of new beginnings because she was capable of leaving behind her old life and things that surrounded her name and had the opportunity to have the chance to create a new destiny for herself. As well as giving herself another chance to start her life and live it the way that she wanted through the changing of her name she also left her home town, house, friends, and mother all in search of somewhere new to live her life. She used chance to decide where she was going to stop with the use of her car. Wherever it ran out of fuel or something happened to it, she would stop there. With the ambition of leaving her old Kentucky life behind her, she started a journey which led her to Oklahoma. this just happened to be the place where she was given an abandoned child. This was another new beginning for Taylor. Can you talk? What am I supposed to do with you tonight? What do you eat? This series of questions that Taylor asked the abandoned child showed that she had absolutely no idea what she was doing and still had to learn the first steps of becoming a mother. It was a new beginning for her to take on responsibility for someone else. She had to grow, learn and understand in order to take care of the child that she had suddenly gained to take on her journey. She may not have understood what to do or how to do it, or even truly wanted this new beginning, but all in all she was given the chance. Kingsolver suggests through the use of Taylor that often life presents us with unexpected occurances, but if grasped correctly can lead to a possible great change, and therefore future. Through the use of Taylor as a character Kingsolver helps to show us that around the corner, in every situation, if something as small as a car journey, can lead to amazing opportunities to start afresh in our lives. Turtle is another character that helps develop Kingsolvers idea of new beginnings. Turtle is an abandoned 3 year old Indian child, who was abused when she was younger. After her mother died she was left to an unexpected Taylor who was just someone passing through the town, but turned into the receiver of a child who she had no clue what to do with. On later inspection of the child which she named Turtle she noticed that her body was covered in bruises and worse as Taylor said. When Taylor realised that turtle was a girl she said that fact already burdened her short life with a kind of misery that she could not imagine. Through this you can picture just how horrible the life this young child must have had. However this was the end of her bad story and the beginning to a new one. Just like Taylor she is given a new name, but also a new mother, new friends, and a new chance. With the opportunity Turtle is now able to grow. Turtle had managed to get through her whole life without a book, I suppose, and then she had two of them bought for her in one day. This quote shows the beginning if Turtles chance of recovery. She was a 3 year old stuck in an 18 month old body. She was a child with a horrible past, but a chance to start over. The development of Turtle made you understand that the majority of people are at some point given the ability to have a new beginning, no matter how terrible their life was before hand. Estevan and Esperanza are a Guatamalan couple who are also given the opportunity to have a new beginning and therefore helped develop the idea of new beginnings. Estevan and Esperanza are people who are illegally living in Tucson. Esperanza and Estevan live in Matties sanctuary that she has set up for people like them. After becoming good friends with Taylor they decide that they need to move on from Tucson and constantly running from the law. With Taylor and Turtle they set off to go to a safe house in Oklahoma. They were considered illegals and needed to be taken out of the country. however there should not be people judged as legal or illegal. There is only a difference between people who are good or bad. Because of this they are taken to a safe house where they are unlikely to be taken away. Instead of focusing on the negative once at the church Estevan says dont think of us stuck here forever. Think of us back in Guatemala with our families. His optimism in their new ability to have a clean break and go back to their home country showed the idea of new beginnings in a different light. It'[s not always physically being somewhere that gives people their new beginnings. Sometimes it is just a chance that makes believing in what was, or what could be, possible again. This is how Estevan and Esperanza helped deleop new beginnings as an idea in the novel. In conclusion, everyone has a chance at a new beginning, whther big or small. Three different sets of characters showed this throughout the novel The Bean Trees. Taylor helped the idea become present in the story as well as develop in as not only the physical actions that allow the new beginning to happen, but also a state of mind. Turtle developed the idea so that it showed the readers that just because someones life starts out badly, it doesnt mean their opportunity to have a new beginning wont come along. Estevan and Esperanza developed the idea so that you realised sometimes all that you need is faith to have the chance at a new beginning. In the end new beginnings was an idea that many characters showed their their own stories and therefore developed into their own way of showing the idea and allowing readers to understand it.

Tuesday, January 21, 2020

African-american Troops In The Civil War: The 54th Massachusetts :: essays research papers

African-American Troops in the Civil War: The 54th Massachusetts The Fifty-fourth Massachusetts was organized in early 1863 by Robert Gould Shaw, twenty-six year old member of a prominent Boston abolitionist family. Shaw had earlier served in the Seventh New York National Guard and the Second Massachusetts Infantry, and was appointed colonel of the Fifty-fourth in February 1863 by Massachusetts governor John A. Andrew. As one of the first black units organized in the northern states, the Fifty-fourth was the object of great interest and curiosity, and its performance would be considered an important indication of the possibilities surrounding the use of blacks in combat. The regiment was composed primarily of free blacks from throughout the north, particularly Massachusetts and Pennsylvania. Amongst its recruits was Lewis N. Douglass, son of the famous ex-slave and abolitionist, Frederick Douglass. After a period of recruiting and training, the unit proceeded to the Department of the South, arriving at Hilton Head, South Carolina, on June 3, 1863. The regiment earned its greatest fame on July 18, 1863, when it led the unsuccessful and controversial assault on the Confederate positions at Battery Wagner. In this desperate attack, the Fifty-fourth was placed in the vanguard and over 250 men of the regiment became casualties. Shaw, the regiment's young colonel, died on the crest of the enemy parapet, shouting, "Forward, Fifty- fourth!" That heroic charge, coupled with Shaw's death, made the regiment a household name throughout the north, and helped spur black recruiting. For the remainder of 1863 the unit participated in siege operations around Charleston, before boarding transports for Florida early in February 1864. The regiment numbered 510 officers and men at the opening of the Florida Campaign, and its new commander was Edward N. Hallowell, a twenty-seven year old merchant from Medford, Massachusetts. Anxious to avenge the Battery Wagner repulse, the Fifty- fourth was the best black regiment available to General Seymour, the Union commander. Along with the First North Carolina Colored Infantry, the Fifty-fourth entered the fighting late in the day at Olustee, and helped save the Union army from complete disaster. The Fifty-fourth marched into battle yelling, "Three cheers for Massachusetts and seven dollars a month." The latter referred to the difference in pay between white and colored Union infantry, long a sore point with colored troops. Congress had just passed a bill correcting this and giving colored troops equal pay. However, word of the bill would not reach these troops until after the battle of Olustee. The regiment lost eighty-six men in the battle, the lowest number of the three black regiments present. After Olustee, the Fifty-fourth was not sent to participate in the bloody Virginia campaigns

Monday, January 13, 2020

Difference between personnel management and HRM Essay

Difference between Human Resource Management and Personnel Management Human resource management involves all management decisions and practices that directly affect or influence the people, or human resources, who work for the organization. In other words, Human resource management is concerned with ‘people centric issues’ in management. The Human Resources Management (HRM) function includes a variety of activities, and key among them is deciding what staffing needs you have and whether to use independent contractors or hire employees to fill these needs, recruiting and training the best employees, ensuring they are high performers, dealing with performance issues, and ensuring your personnel and management practices conform to various regulations. Activities also include managing your approach to employee benefits and compensation, employee records and personnel policies. Usually small businesses (for-profit or nonprofit) have to carry out these activities themselves because they can’t yet afford part- or full-time help. However, they should always ensure that employees have — and are aware of — personnel policies which conform to current regulations. These policies are often in the form of employee manuals, which all employees have. DIFFERENCES BETWEEN HRM AND PERSONNEL MANAGEMENT ALTHOUGH both human resource management (HRM) and personnel management focus on people management, if we examine critically, there are many differences between them. Some are listed below: i) Nature of relations: The nature of relations can be seen through two different perspective views which are Pluralist and Unitarist. There is a clear distinct difference between both because in personnel management, the focus is more on individualistic where individual interest is more than group interest. The relationship between management and employees are merely on contractual basis where one hires and the others perform. Whereas, HRM focuses more on Unitarist where the word â€Å"uni† refers to one and together. Here, HRM through a shared vision between management and staff create a corporate vision and mission which are linked to business goals and the fulfillment of mutual interest where the organization’s needs are satisfied  by employees and employees’ needs are well-taken care by the organization. Motorola and Seagate are good examples of organizations that belief in this Unitarist approach which also focuses in team management and sees employees as partners in an organization. Relation of power and management: The distribution of power in personnel management is centralized where the top management has full authority in decision-making where even the personnel managers are not even allowed to give ideas or take part in any decision which involves â€Å"employees†. HRM, on the other hand, sees the decentralization of power where the power between top management is shared with middle and lower management groups. This is known as â€Å"empowerment† because employees play an important role together with line and HR managers to make collective and mutual decisions, which can benefit both the management and employees themselves. In fact, HRM focuses more on TQM approach as part of a team management with the involvement and participation of management and employees with shared power and authority. The nature of management is focused more on bottom-up approach with employees giving feedback to the top management and then the top management gives support to employees to achieve mutually agreed goals and objectives. ii) Leadership and management role: Personnel management emphasizes much on leadership style which is very transactional. This style of leadership merely sees the leader as a task-oriented person. This leader focuses more on procedures that must be followed, punishment form non-performance and non-compliance of rules and regulations and put figures and task accomplishments ahead of human factors such as personal bonding, interpersonal relationship, trust, understanding, tolerance and care. HRM creates leaders who are transformational. This leadership style encourages business objectives to be shared by both employees and management. Here, leaders only focus more on people-oriented and importance on rules, procedures and regulations are eliminated and replaced with: Shared vision; Corporate culture and missions; Trust and flexibility; and HRM needs that integrates business needs. iii) Contract of employment: In personnel management, employees contract of employment is clearly written and employees must observe strictly the agreed employment contract. The contract is so rigid that there is no room for changes and modifications. There is no compromise in written contracts that stipulates rules, regulations, job and obligations. HRM, on the other hand, does not focus on one-time life-long contract where working hours and other terms and conditions of employment are seen as less rigid. Here, it goes beyond the normal contract that takes place between organizations and employees. The new â€Å"flexible approach† encourages employees to choose various ways to keep contributing their skills and knowledge to the organization. HRM, with its new approach, has created flexi-working hours, work from home policies and not forgetting the creation on â€Å"open contract† system that is currently practiced by some multinational companies such as Motorola, Siemens and GEC. HRM today gives employees the opportunity and freedom to select any type of working system that can suit them and at the same time benefit the organization as well. Drucker (1996) calls this approach a â€Å"win-win† approach. iv) Pay policies and job design: Pay policies in personnel management is merely based on skills and knowledge required for the perspective jobs only. The value is based on the ability to perform the task and duties as per the employment contract requirement only. It does not encourage value-added incentives to be paid out. This is also because the job design is very functional, where the functions are more departmentalized in which each job falls into one functional department. This is merely known as division on labour based on job needs and skill possessions and requirement. HRM, on the contrary, encourages organizations to look beyond pay for functional duties. Here, the pay is designed to encourage continuous job performance and improvement which is linked to value-added incentives such as gain sharing schemes, group profit sharing and individual incentive plans. The job design is no more functional based but teamwork and cyclical based. HRM creates a new approach towards job design such as job rotation which is inter and intra-departmental based and job enlargement which encourages one potential and capable individual to take on more tasks to add value to his/her job and  in return enjoy added incentives and benefits. Human resource management is the new version of personnel management. There is no any watertight difference between human resource management and personnel management. However, there are some differences in the following matters. 1. Personnel management is a traditional approach of managing people in the organization. Human resource management is a modern approach of managing people and their strengths in the organization. 2. Personnel management focuses on personnel administration, employee welfare and labor relation. Human resource management focuses on acquisition, development, motivation and maintenance of human resources in the organization. 3. Personnel management assumes people as a input for achieving desired output. Human resource management assumes people as an important and valuable resource for achieving desired output. 4. Under personnel management, personnel function is undertaken for employee’s satisfaction. Under human resource management, administrative function is undertaken for goal achievement. 5. Under personnel management, job design is done on the basis of division of labor. Under human resource management, job design function is done on the basis of group work/team work. 6. Under personnel management, employees are provided with less training and development opportunities. Under human resource management, employees are provided with more training and development opportunities. 7. In personnel management, decisions are made by the top management as per the rules and regulation of the organization. In human resource management, decisions are made collectively after considering employee’s participation,  authority, decentralization, competitive environment etc. 8. Personnel management focuses on increased production and satisfied employees. Human resource management focuses on effectiveness, culture, productivity and employee’s participation. 9. Personnel management is concerned with personnel manager. Human resource management is concerned with all level of managers from top to bottom. 10. Personnel management is a routine function. Human resource management is a strategic function. Human resource management past and present Human resource management has changed a lot in the past 100 years. Previously, HRM was called personnel administration or personnel management, that is, it had to do with the staff or workers of an organisation. It was mainly concerned with the administrative tasks that have to do with organising or managing an organisation, such as record keeping and dealing with employee wages, salaries and benefits. The personnel officer (the person in charge of personnel management) also dealt with labour relations.such as problems with trade unions or difficulties between employers (those who employ workers) and their employees. Before we look at the role of HRM in organisations today, we will examine the way people were managed in organisations in the past. Definition Personnel Management – Personnel Management is thus basically an administrative record-keeping function, at the operational level. Personnel Management attempts to maintain fair terms and conditions of employment, while at the same time, efficiently managing personnel activities for individual departments etc. It is assumed that the outcomes from providing justice and achieving efficiency in the management of personnel activities will result ultimately in achieving organizational success. Facts [+] The U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM) is the world’s largest HR department. OPM provides HR services for the federal governments workforce of nearly 2.8 million workers. It’s staff carry out the tasks to recruit, interview, and promote employees; oversee merit pay, benefits and retirement programs; and ensure that all employees and applicants are treated fairly and according to the law. To set the COLA [cost-of-living allowances] rates, the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) surveys the prices of over 300 items, including goods and services, housing, transportation, and miscellaneous expenses. OPM conducts these surveys in each of the COLA areas and in the Washington, DC, area. Human resource management is concerned with the development and implementation of people strategies, which are integrated with corporate strategies, and ensures that the culture, values and structure of the organization, and the quality, motivation and commitment of its members contribute fully to the achievement of its goals. HRM is concerned with carrying out the SAME functional activities traditionally performed by the personnel function, such as HR planning, job analysis, recruitment and selection, employee relations, performance management, employee appraisals, compensation management, training and development etc. But, the HRM approach performs these functions in a qualitatively DISTINCT way, when compared with Personnel Management. Main Differences between Personnel Management and HRM HRM has a long history of growing from a simple welfare and maintenance function to that of a board level activity of the companies. In recent years, the focus on people management from human capital/intellectual capital perspective is also shaping firmly. However, the hard fact is that this growth can be generally witnessed in management literature and rarely in practice. Peripheral observation of people management in organization can mislead the observers since, hardly there could be any organization that is  yet to rename its old fashioned title of industrial relations/personnel/welfare/administration department into HRM department. But, in practice, these organizations continue to handle the people management activities the way they had been handling earlier. The reasons for this could be many and varied. Among them, the potential reason is lack of clear understanding about the differences between personnel/IR and HRM. Professor John Storey brilliantly portrayed these differences in 27 areas of people management in 1992 in his book titled Developments in the Management of Human Resources. These differences are illustrated in Table Dimensions Personnel and IR HRM Beliefs and assumptions 1. Contract Careful delineation of written contracts Aim to go beyond contract 2. Rules Importance of devising clear rules/mutually ‘Can-do’ outlook; Impatience with ‘rule’ 3. Guide to management action Procedures Business-need’ 4. Behaviour referent Norms/custom and practice Values/mission 5. Managerial task vis-a-vis labour Monitoring Nurturing 6. Nature of relations Pluralist Unitarist 7. Conflict Institutionalized De-emphasized Strategic aspects 8. Key relations Labour management Customer 9. Initiatives Piecemeal Integrated 10. Corporate plan Marginal Central 11. Speed of decision Slow Fast Line management 12. Management role Transactional Transformational leadership 13. Key managers Personnel/ IR specialists General/business/line managers 14. Communication Indirect Direct 15. Standardization High (e.g. ‘parity’ an issue) Low (e.g. ‘parity’ not seen as relevant) 16. Prized management skills Negotiation Facilitation Key levers 17. Selection Separate, marginal task Integrated, key task 18. Pay Job evaluation (fixed grades) Performance-related 19. Conditions Separately negotiated Harmonization 20. Labour-management Collective bargaining contracts Towards individual contracts 21. Thrust of relations with stewards Regularized through facilities and training Marginalized (with exception of some bargaining for change models) 22. Job categories and grades Many Few 23. Communication Restricted flow Increased flow 24. Job design Division of labour Teamwork 25. Conflict handling Reach temporary truces Manage climate and culture 26. Training and development Controlled access to courses Learning companies 27. Foci of attention for interventions Personnel procedures Wide ranging cultural, structural and personnel strategies

Saturday, January 4, 2020

When Did World War II Start

No one wanted war. However, when Germany attacked Poland on Sept. 1, 1939, other European countries felt they had to act. The result was six long years of  World War II. Learn more about what led to Germanys aggression and how other countries reacted. Hitlers Ambitions Adolf Hitler wanted more land, especially in the east, to expand Germany according to the Nazi policy of lebensraum. Hitler used the harsh limitations that were set against Germany in the Versailles Treaty as a pretext for Germanys right to acquire land where German-speaking people lived. Germany successfully used this reasoning to envelop two entire countries without starting a war. Austria: On March 13, 1938, Germany took over Austria (termed the Anschluss) - a contingency specifically disallowed in the Versailles Treaty.Czechoslovakia: At the Munich Conference on Sept.  28-29, 1938, the French and the British handed Germany a large portion of Czechoslovakia. Hitler then took the rest of Czechoslovakia by March 1939. Many people have wondered why Germany was allowed to take over both Austria and Czechoslovakia without a fight. The simple reason is that Great Britain and France did not want to repeat the bloodshed of World War I. Britain and France believed, wrongly as it turned out, they could avoid another world war by appeasing Hitler with a few concessions (such as Austria and Czechoslovakia). At this time, Great Britain and France did not understand that Hitlers goal of land acquisition was much, much larger than any one country. The Excuse After having gained both Austria and Czechoslovakia, Hitler was confident that he could again move east, this time acquiring Poland without having to fight Britain or France. (To eliminate the possibility of the Soviet Union fighting if Poland were attacked, Hitler made a pact with the Soviet Union - the Nazi-Soviet Non-Aggression Pact.) So that Germany did not officially seem the aggressor (which it was), Hitler needed an excuse for attacking Poland. It was Heinrich Himmler who came up with the idea; thus the plan was code-named Operation Himmler. On the night of Aug. 31, 1939, Nazis took an unknown prisoner from one of their concentration camps, dressed him in a Polish uniform, took him to the town of Gleiwitz (on the border of Poland and Germany), and then shot him. The staged scene with the dead prisoner dressed in a Polish uniform was supposed to appear as a Polish attack against a German radio station. Hitler used this staged attack as the excuse to invade Poland. Blitzkrieg At 4:45 on the morning of Sept. 1, 1939 (the morning following the staged attack), German troops entered Poland. The sudden, immense attack by the Germans was called a Blitzkrieg (lightning war). The German air attack hit so quickly that most of Polands air force was destroyed while still on the ground. To hinder Polish mobilization, the Germans bombed bridges and roads. Groups of marching soldiers were machine-gunned from the air. But the Germans did not just aim for soldiers; they also shot at civilians. Groups of fleeing civilians often found themselves under attack. The more confusion and chaos the Germans could create, the slower Poland could mobilize its forces. Using 62 divisions, six of which were armored and ten mechanized, the Germans invaded Poland by land. Poland was not defenseless, but they could not compete with Germanys motorized army. With only 40 divisions, none of which were armored, and with nearly their entire air force demolished, the Poles were at a severe disadvantage. The Polish cavalry was no match for German tanks. Declarations of War On Sept. 1, 1939, the beginning of the German attack, Great Britain, and France sent Adolf Hitler an ultimatum - either withdraw German forces from Poland, or Great Britain and France would go to war against Germany. On Sept. 3, with Germanys forces penetrating deeper into Poland, Great Britain and France both declared war on Germany. World War II had begun.