The Similarities and Differences in Perceptions of a Thai Boutique Essay

The Similarities and Differences in Perceptions of a Thai Boutique Hotel Between Hoteliers and Guests - Essay Example The guests assert that a boutique hotel is distinguished by its size. It has less than a hundrded rooms and does not form part of a big hotel chain. Moreover, it is usually found in an urban setting, and are uniquely designed. On the contrary, managers emphasize the hotels uniqueness rather than its size. On the rationale for choosing such hotels, the response of the guests can be summarized into five main factors: (1) design; (2) services; (3) atmosphere; (4) location; and (5) price. The managers, on the other hand, emphasize the boutique hotels leverage on price. On attributes, it can be said that for majority of guests, the atmosphere is one very influential factor in helping them choose a hotel to check in.   Another variable that a guest considers important in the choice of hotels is the design, which is affirmed by the respondent managers, indicating that a unique concept is a strong selling point of boutique hotels.   Finally, all managers have the same opinion that the lo cation is also as important as the design and the atmosphere noting that the right location can be an advantage if the boutique hotels cannot compete with the prestige of the chain hotels. It may also be concluded that in terms of guest expectations, convenient location, radiant style, quality product offerings, available amenities and facilities, excellent customer service are among the services and/or attributes that a guest would expect the most from the boutique hotel. Boutique hotels originated in the United Kingdom in the early 1980s when Anouska Hempel designed the first boutique hotel called Blake’s located in London. However, there has been much debate going on regarding this issue, with some individuals arguing that the concept of boutique hotels started in 1984 thanks to a certain Ian Schrager and Steve Ribell, both of which opened Morgans Hotel in New York (Brights, 2007). In this chapter, the researcher would like to give a brief introduction about

Henry Clay Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Henry Clay - Essay Example as Senator from Kentucky (1806-1807); came back to the State House of Representatives (1807-1809) and in 1810 he came back to the Senate and served until 1811 (Clay 1852, 87). He was the pioneer of a group of Congressmen known as the War Hawks when he was a U.S. Agent and Speaker of the House from 1811 to 1814. According to Kelly (2002), Henry went ahead to serve as a U.S. Delegate, and again as the Speaker of the House. Henry distinction as a compromiser originated from his contribution with the Missouri Compromise, the Comprise Tariff of 1833, and the Compromise of 1850 (Clay 1852, 87). Henrys father passed on in 1781; the year British and supporter warriors attacked the region and plundered the Clay home (Clay and Ellis 1910, 15). After ten years, his mother remarried and his stepfather moved the family to Richmond, where he filled in as an agent in the store. Afterward, from 1793 to 1797, he served as a secretary to George Wythe, chancellor of the High Court of Chancery. Henry had minimal general knowledge, though he read in Wythes library and figured out how to capitalize on inadequate data. He moved to Lexington, Ky., in November 1797 and made the notoriety for being a legal counselor. Henry and Lucretia Hart tied a knot in 1799 and were lucky to have 11 kids. Henry Clays life and political vocation assumed a vital part in the progressions made in the state of Kentucky, and in addition the country. His handle, "The Great Compromiser," was given to him based on his arrangement and trading off aptitudes. Henry led a careless life as he was a drunkard and a gambler during the time for his high stakes; this did not ruin an open profession in this youthful American, and he had properties that served him well on legislative issues (Clay 1852, 57). Adams, who had watched him closely, said Clay was "half-taught" yet included that the world had been his school and that he had "the entire ideas imperative to a famous man." Clay was chosen to Kentucky state assembly

The Importance Of Recruitment And Selection Business Essay

The Importance Of Recruitment And Selection Business Essay The following chapter critically reviews relevant literature on the nature of recruitment and selection. This is based on the understanding that there is a key difference between recruitment and selection. The key differences highlighted in the literature are therefore discussed firstly. Reasons why organisations recruit staff are then considered, focusing on why the banking sector has a particular interest. Factors impacting on recruitment and selection are analysed. Recruitment and selection methods are then evaluated. At the end of this chapter, a brief conclusion of the above is concluding whether there are any best practices available for organisations to ensure a good recruitment and selection process. Differences between recruitment and selection In the literature differences between recruitment and selection are identified, though they are the components of one system. For example Taylor (2008) highlights that recruitment is used to attract well qualified applicants. Similarly Pilbeam and Corbridge (2002) state recruitment aims to attract suitably qualified candidates for particular positions. It is the phase directly before selection. Moreover Stredwick (2006) describes recruitment policy as an organisations performance manner, including rules and regulations to be followed. On the contrary, Taylor (2008) indicates that in selection, employer picks out the best and rejects the others from recruitment pool, also known as negative activity. Similarly Edenborough (2005) states selection as a combination of different processes which lead towards the choices of suitable candidates over others. From the above, it can be synthesised that recruitment is basically an attraction of the candidates for the available post, however in selection employer chooses the best available candidate for the post. Nature of recruitment In nature of recruitment, the reasons why organisations recruit staff are discussed. Firstly, an organisation recruits because of an increase in the business volume, which requires more skilful staff to meet the needs and demands of customer. According to the Heraty et al. (1997), that organisations are altered their structures that are built on functions and jobs, to empower individuals with diverse backgrounds, are replacing conventional specialised workers. Secondly, an organisation recruits because it needs a replacement for a leaver or entirely new vacancy occours. Sometimes recruitment is just because of the short of knowledge and pair of hands in an organisation. The empty space is necessary to be filled and it is purely a functional matter. Thirdly, staff turnover is the reason of recruitment in an organisation. Employee turnover is the rate at which an employer gains and loses employees. In other words, it means that how long employees be likely to stay in the organisation. Employee turnover is calculated for individual companies and for their industry as a whole. If an organisation acheives high turnover relative to its competitors, shows that its employees have a shorter average tenure than other organisations. The productivity of an organisation suffers, if there is high turnover because of high number of begainer employees. If the resourcing process of an organisation is not validate to employee right people for the right posts then there is a tendency of people leaving the organisation more often than competitors. It puts very bad impact on business operations because the number of important positions are oftenly empty which delays the completion of operations as well as the new employee takes some time to adjust and thus creates some more problems for organisation. Also organisation invests a huge amount of cost in recrutment process and because of the wrong resourcing policy or wrong selection tool organisation losse it all. It creates the unconsistancy amongst the staff and customers behaviour as well and ultimately effects profit of the organisation. Nothing can be more frustrating to a small business owner or manager than the constant aggravation of employee turnover. High or low employee turnover can be detrimental for organisations. Employee turnover can vary as a result of the industry and location of organisation. For instance, the food service industry typically experiences turnover of 100-300%. The stress of employee turnover is much greater on smaller businesses than larger corporations. There is a valid formula designed for calculation of employee turnover used by many banks all over the world. Total employee turnover cost = Costs of hiring new employees + Costs of training new employees Factors impacting on recruitment and selection There are some following factors impacting on the recruitment selection for an organisations decision making. Economic: The salary packages offered by the organisations to its employees are sometimes resulting in the staff expectations, which create difficulties for organisations. Sometimes the location of an organisation is also contributes to the difficulties in attracting skilled and experience applicants. Conversely, Gribben (1999), state that organisations are cutting back on recruitment despite growing confidence of economy. Demographic: Demographic factors are the most important factors affecting on the recruitment. These factors state (Linda, 2001) that in future the number of older people is increasing and younger people is decreasing. If so, there will be shortage of young skilled workers in future and organisations have to recruit multi-skilled employees and work hard to retain their employees. Social: Linda (2001), states that the appropriate candidate availability can be influenced because of the social blend of the labour group, which probably limit the types of skills required. Various government regulations prohibiting discrimination in hiring and employment have direct impact on recruitment practices. Also, trade unions play important role in recruitment. This restricts management freedom to select those individuals who it believes would be the best performers. However, the recruiters need to be able to understand the process, skills and able to take a systematic approach for the successful process. Recruitment methods The business scenario and job vacancy shows how the employer performs the whole recruitment process, from submitting a recruitment request, to advertising the vacancy and selecting personnel, to closing the recruitment cycle.  It consists of three business participants; the candidate, the employer and the external service provider. The candidate is the internal or external  person who is actively or passively looking for a new position.  The employer takes both the role of the hiring manager and the recruiter. The hiring manager is the one who has an open position to fill. The recruiter is an HR department employee who helps the hiring manager to  find suitable candidates and select and employ the right persons. The employer submits a recruitment request for the positions to be filled. For this recruitment request the employer looks the available talents and then  specifies the recruitment plan, for example which target group should be given first choice, where to advertise , and so on. The most appropriate candidates receive an offer from employer and if the candidates accept the offer, the employer closes the recruitment cycle and prepares for their hiring. There are mainly two types of recruitment methods which a manager can recruit; internal and external recruitment. Internal recruitments: Before going for external resources i.e. advertising, agencies or consultants, it is important to review of an internal recruitment for candidates are made. Internal recruitment is when the business looks to fill the vacancy from within its existing workforce. Most of the private sector employers, as a matter of course, attempt to fill vacancies internally before they consider looking for people outside the organization (Newell 2005; CIPD 2007). According to Fuller and Huber (1998), internal recruitment consists of four methods i.e. promotions from within, lateral transfers, job rotation and rehiring former employees. Similarly, in internal recruitment promotion and transfer of existing personnel or through referrals, by current staff members, of friends and family members. Where internal recruitment is the chosen method, job openings can be advertised by job posting, which is a strategy of placing notices on manual and electronic bulletin boards, in company newsletters and through office memoranda. Referrals are usually word-of-mouth advertisements that are a low-cost-per-hire way of recruiting. In each of these methods the current or former staff of the organisations is made aware of the opportunities available to develop their career wi th some new role. Pros: The vacancies can be advertised using notice boards, newsletters, intranet system etc which is very much cost effective and a big advantage for the employers to retain their experienced employees by providing them these career developing opportunities. Other advantages according to Taylor (2008), includes that the employers dont have to spend huge investment on staff training, the time taken to fill the vacancy is usually much quicker and also enhancing motivation commitment among existing staff. In other words when the existing employees know that they get promotion by doing excelent work or completing the task well and less time than others, which give them motivation to do satisfactory work for organisation, if they need promotion. Cons: Internal recruitment is like an old way that tends to carry out the tasks and work in existing ways of thinking. There are also some strong arguments put forward by some researchers writers against the internal recruitment. Heneman (2000) states that traditional approach of internal recruitment starts with the assumption that the individual from the organisation can be promoted upwards and is capable of fulfilling the required persons post. The managers hence are more attentive to analyse the work of the available working staff suitable for the vacancy and employees start competing each other for the promotion. Because of the internal competition between employees for promotion there are some problems i.e. employees attitude, which can be harmful for the organisations atmosphere and goals. This type of recruitment is useful for smaller organisations but not for bigger ones or MNCs. Because small firms have very limited resources regarding to thier finances so firms hesitate to spend a big amount of finance on external recruitment and traning of employees, even at the cost of putting inappropriate or less experianced person for vacant place. New experience is also need of a time for any organisation in t odays competitive world. Similarly Hirish (2000) highlights that sometimes the promoted person is less capable of handling all the situations required by the post i.e. rehabilitate the failed internal candidates so as to avoid the bad performances, unnecessary resignations and collapse in office relationship. In other words the promoted person usually dont have interpersonal qualities to motivate theose employees who are having some problems as well as keep an eye on their needs thoughts or not a perfect choice for the required post. Internal recruitment does not always produce the number or quality of personnel needed i.e. the organisation needs to recruit from external sources, either by encouraging walk-in applicants; advertising vacancies in newspapers, magazines and journals, and the visual and/or audio media; using employment agencies to head hunt; advertising on-line via the Internet; or through job fairs and the use of college recruitment. External recruitments: External recruitment is when the business looks to fill the vacancy from any suitable applicant outside the business. It is the process of attracting and selecting employees from outside the organization. It depends entirely on the numbers and level of the vacancies. Process of identifying and hiring best qualified candidates, from outside of an organisation, for a job vacancy, in a most timely and cost effective manner. There are numerous different approaches used to attract the external employees, in which some of them are more conservative than the others. According to Taylor (2008) banks use following methods of advertisement of the job posts for external employees; printed media, external agencies, education liaison and other methods i.e. personal reccomendations, telephonic interviews, internet etc When managers deciding, which method to use for recruitment, they also have to consider other methods benefits back draws. Recruiters always think about every option available for t hem and then deciding the best one for organisation. The line managers of any organisation is the most responsible person regarding to recruitment and selection because they are solely responsible for decision making at the initial stages of process, whether or not the applicant fulfil the requirement for the required post (Heraty Morley, 1998).   There are some different ways or methods through which line managers and HR department work combinely to recruit employees. Print Media In print media national newspapers, local newspapers, trade professional journals and magazines are suitable for attracting the candidates. Advertisements are the most common form of external recruitment. They can be found in many places (local and national newspapers, notice boards, recruitment fairs) and McKenna Beech (2002) emphasies that this should include some important information relating to the available vacancy (job title, pay package, location, job description, how to apply-either by CV or application form). Because by doing this, only those candidates will apply for the job who are capable of fulfilling the requirements of the organisation and resisting those who are not appropriate. Where a business chooses to advertise will depend on the cost of advertising and the coverage needed (i.e. how far away people will consider applying for the job. The choice of publication depend upon target audiance and Paddison (1990), explains that by doing appropriate advertisement an o rganisation can also acheive the diversity objectives as well. External Agencies In external agencies, job centres are the most important recruitment methods. Job centres are paid for by the government and are responsible for helping the unemployed find jobs or get training. They also provide a service for businesses needing to advertise a vacancy and are generally free to use. This is a good for business because by doing this organisation attracts a big pool of applicants, who fulfil all the requirements of vacant post and organisation has a good choice to pick a right and suitable person. It is also a cost effective way of sourcing candiadtes for interview. Public service agencies enjoy greater exposure to scrutiny than most private sector organisations; therefore, openness and transparency in recruitment and selection practices are crucial. The discussion that follows will identify some of the options available for attracting applicants to the public service job market and discuss strategies for managing the process. The external service provider is an external agent who supports the overall recruitment strategies, the use of various media channels,  the assessments of candidates and pre- employment checks. Another way of recruitment is Recruitment agency. These agencies provides employers with details of suitable candidates for a vacancy and can sometimes be referred to as head-hunters. They work for a fee and often specialise in particular employment areas e.g. nursing, financial services, teacher recruitment. When organisation wishes to fill a vacancy of senior post or a highly specialist person required then the organisations have very small choices because of huge expected qualification. For this purpose, managers use Executive search agencies. These agencies charge very high cost for their services. External agencies are very benificial and cost effective way of recruitment for organisations especially for the banks but it is very lengthy and time taking process, which can take more time than usual. And sometimes by resourcing through agencies, organisations are not able to find such a candidate who is perfect for the vacancy. Education liaison Another form of recruitment which is available for employee recruitment is widely used known as education liaison. In this method, managers recruiting people directly from the educational institutions. The most attractive recruitment is of graduate recruitment. The Careers advisers in schools and colleges, and university appointment boards, may be able to provide suitable candidates. According to McKenna Beech (2002), some of the organisations traditionally taken the employees from education institutions have operated many processes to recruit the young people, who are in their final-year or just completed their studies. Many organisations also recruit young educated employees through open days, recruitment fairs, careers fairs and careers conventions. This type of resourcing is normally prove to be very benificial for banks/organisations because they attract those candidates who are familiar with the new ways and techniques of business field and also enthusiastic to develop their carrers. Other Methods There are some others methods too available to mangers for resourcing. One of them isPersonal recommendation. It is often referred to as word of mouth and can be a recommendation from a colleague at work. A full assessment of the candidate is still needed however but potentially it saves on advertising cost. The current employees who is already working for the firm recommends someone they know. This takes place at all levels of business. A director may recommend that a friend should be appointed to the board of directors. In such kind of recruitment diversity of the organisation effected because the candidate reffered through word of mouth is very similar to the employee who reffered him/her, which can be a negative impact on the culture of the organisation. In most of the cases the first major contact between a candidate and an employer is CV or application form. But some organisations use an alternative in the shape of telephone hotline. The organisations publicise their contact numbers for the candidates to discuss the vacancies availability and requirements. This method is normally used for quick response. According to the McKenna Beech (2002), the use of Internet is as a means of recruitment has been mounting now a day. Applicants all over the world use internet to gain the information about the companies, their vacancies and processes of application. This method provide candidates a system of self screening through which they can find out that whether they are suitable for the required position. For instance, Cisco System and Dell are the big examples of recruiting employees exclusively on internet. Some other recruitment methods are television, radio, cinemas, government training schemes, waiting lists, trade union referral suppliers etc Pros: There is a larger pool of skilled people from which the organisation chooses the best suitable for their vacancy. The new employees bring in new ideas for the development of an organisation. Sometimes the new employee has a wider range of experience which is quite worthwhile for any organisation. Cons: Sometimes few methods are ruled out in external recruitment because of the time constraint. The methods of recruitment in such a haste are very few i.e. employment agencies, job centres, personal contacts and local newspaper advertisement. And because of less time to spend on the process, probably the method chosen by the recruiters is not the best suited for the post. Another main issue in external recruitment is the huge volume of applications received by recruiters and the ability to deal with applications screening them effectively e.g. advertisement in newspaper for senior accounts manager or opening a new branch etc Selection methods Recruitment proceeds selection of the candidate. It is considered to be a very crucial stage in which candidates matched to the requirements of the job are selected. There are number of methods and techniques for doing this process i.e. face-to-face interviews, self-test questionnaires, biodata, assessment centres, selection tests etcà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ This is the stage where successful candidates get an offer of employment. It is often thought that the selection process is very simple in which wanted against offered is matched and then selecting the best fit for it. Overall, it all boils down to choosing the right candidate for the right position and at the right time. Organisations would not want it the other way around. Employee selection applying these high-tech solutions reduces the cost and time spent in recruiting and selecting qualified candidates. According to the Pilbeam Cobridge (2002), there are some different ways of employee selection used by organisations i.e. interview, psychometric testing, work sampling, assessment centres, biodata, graphology and online questionnaire. There is the explanation of some of the selection methods use by the organisations. Interviews The most popular selection technique is the interview either by face-to-face or in front of the interview panel. According to Lewis (1985), although the validity of interview is considered very low but it is still popular for selection. Interview provides the basis of two way exchange of information which is very useful to determine that the candidate is an appropriate person for the organisation and its culture. Shackleton and Newell (1991), highlights the point that every organisation use a interview sample at least once in the selection process. There are mainly two types of interview, structured and unstructured. According to McDaniel et al. (1994), structured interviews are more valid for selection purpose than unstructured one. This can be useful for two way exchange of ideas and information. It helps to improve the quality of decision but (Heffcutt and Arthur, 1994) it is not improving the validity. In unstructured or triditional interviews candidates asked different type of q uestions from which interviewer gets information about applicant in an unsystematic manner and draw the conclusion in his mind whether or not offer the job to applicant. Which may lead the poor selection. There are some very common problems with unstructured interview explains below. The first and the foremost problem is the undue influence or bais behaviour of the interviewer. Interviewer sometimes given the positive or negative response to candidate from his CV/application form or on the basis of similar qualities, background, career, personality or attitude, in other way decision is just on the basis of personal likeness or dislikeness. Sometimes the interviewer is not a fully trained person for conduct an interview and lead to a wrong decision of selection of employee. Poor questioning is also a big problem of these interviews because interviewer ask questions designed for the initial impression of candidates and make a decision way to early about applicants. These problems play a big part while selection process. If the organisation not overcome these problems before the interview process then it lead towards discrimination with applicants or the wrong selection of an employee. Work-based Test When an organisation want to access the abilities and altitude of applicants competence, a work-based test can be used. In this test candidates have to come with the different and logical ideas as a solution of a problem presented infront of the. They required to undertake some typical tasks associated with the job, which shows the quality of their work and on these basis applicants are assessed. For example applicants could be given with the series of theoretical situations and want them to respond at the mean time. This is very similar to the situational interview. Another example is the individual performance of an applicant in a group work, where two or more applicants discuss a specific assignment and then their performance in the discussion is accessed. Work-based tests are very valuable because these tests provides the actual competence and ability of an applicant. In Pakistan, the useage of work-based test is quite low for selection of an employee but it is extensively used ( Lockyer, 1996) in United Kingdom. Biodata When candidates apply for the job, normally they fill an application form or submit a CV or both. From these application forms and CVs managers find a key biographical information about the candidates i.e. age, education, interests, personal history and employment history. In selection particular things of a candidates biographical profile receives higher score then others because these features are most appropriate and required ones for the vacancy. Shackleton and Newell (1991), indicate that only 20% of the organisations used biodata as a selection tool to some extent and only 4% for all vacancies, which is increasing now a day but still very hard (Wilkinson, 1997) to find any evidence of a broader spread of biodata. Sometimes employers have difficulty in choosing the right person for the vacant post in their organisation. Employee selection promises to be a difficult task especially if the current recruitment systems fall below industry standards and fail to meet the companys recr uitment objective. One specific aspect in employee selection is data inquiry. HR system users usually require a list of all the possible candidates for a position in ranking order. Ranking employee selection is achieved using software solutions that efficiently go through application data by matching candidate resumes and other pertinent application documents with the job requirement. An automated system generally ensures an accurate and fast result for various types of employee selection inquiry. According to the Brown and Campion (1994), there are some advantages and usefulness of biodata as a selection tool. It is very useful to screen the large number of applications in response of an advertisement. It is very systematic approach which helps to improve the selection decisions. If referances considered as a selection tool then it is very useful as it provides honesty and moral integrity of applicant which is vital consideration. The big disadvantage of biographical test is the la rge amount of time required for this exercise. Another potential draw back is biasism against certain groups or communities. Another draw back is of referances as a selection device because applicant nominates refrees and the choosen persons are very unlikely to provide any negative assesment. According to Hunter Hunter (1984), generally the strength and consistency of referances are pretty poor but still remains accepted in UK. Employment References This is the third of three selection techniques know as classic trio and the other two are interviews and application forms explained above. Normally organisations asked to shortlist candidates to provide them at least two referances which considered to be an important contribution to selection. This is one of the last tools used for selection of a candidate. Referances are taken for two major purposes, one is to provide confirmation that the information provided by applicant is right and the other is persons character referance. According to the IRS (2002a), approximately 70% of the referances are taken following the decision of selection has been made. Conclusions/summary This review of the literature highlights a range of issues and perspectives for the approach to recruitment and selection of employees which has implications for the Pakistani banking sector. There is not a specific perfect recruitment and selection process available for banks for resourcing of employees. It depends upon the size and culture of the bank that what kind of resourcing policy performs. There are several good ways identified for resourcing of employees. For example the best methods of recruitment in small banks is internal recruitment i.e. promotion of an employee and for big organisation it is it is external recruitment i.e print media, as it has less problems to deal with. And for Selection, interviews are the most common and widely tool used by banks. There are some important findings/issues highlighted from the above literature review. The specific areas through primary research are followings. Rational for the type of recruitment resourcing policies used. The role of stakeholders (HR managers line managers) in recruitment and selection. Identification of key issues experianced. The next chapter outlines and explains the research design adopted to investigate these implications from the perspectives of HR managers with responsibility for recruitment and selection.

The Diary of an Anne Frank Essay -- Essays Papers

The Diary of an Anne Frank The events recounted in Anne Frank’s Diary took place during World War 11. By 1933, the strongest party in Germany had gained ultimate power with Hitler under their command. Hitler was Germany’s dictator who spread his gospel of racial hatred through politics. While poverty and unemployment were at an all time high he launched a campaign of anti-Semitism. Hitler’s main target was the Jews, claiming that they were â€Å"racially inferior.† He developed an idea of a Master Aryan Race, the need to rid Germany of â€Å"inferior people†, such as Jews and Gypsies, and the need to expand Germany’s borders. In doing this, he caused many Jews to abandoned their homes and go into total isolation. The Frank family was one of many who endured Hitler's wrath. The Diary of Anne Frank is about a little girl who tells her story of struggle and courage through her diary. On Anne’s thirteenth birthday she received various presents, but the present that she cherished the most was her diary that she named â€Å"Kitty†. The Diary of Anne Frank, captures Anne’s feelings, emotions, thoughts, and events that surrounded her. On May 10, 1940 the German Army invaded the Netherlands, where Anne and her family lived. The invasion caused them to go into secret hiding, because of fear of their life. This was the first measure in the campaign of persecution against the Jews of the Netherlands. A short phrase captures Anne’s emotions about this situation; â€Å"Anti-Jewish decrees followed each other in quick succession. Jews must wear yellow star, Jews must hand in their bicycles, Jew are banned from trams and are forbidden to drive. Jews must be indoor by eight o’clock and cannot even sit in their own gardens after hour. Jews may not take part in any public sports. Jews may not visit Christians. Our freedom wa s strictly limited. Yet things were bearable.† Even though things were tough, Anne always tried to look for the good things in situations and make the best of them. After the invasion the Frank family went into hiding in the â€Å"Secret Annexe† with the help of Mr. Franks colleagues. This is where her two-year journey of fear begins for Anne. I am sure that such repression and fear of life would make almost any teenager completely depressed and miserable. However, Anne managed to keep her hope for a better tomorrow and man... ...heerfulness attitude. One person recalls, â€Å" She was very pallid at first, but there was something so intensely attractive about her frailty and her expressive face.† Despite what was going on around her, she tried to keep a joyful attitude at Westerbork. Shortly after Anne’s sister died of typhus, Anne sensed something was wrong with herself and passed away peacefully. If she had survived a few more days she would have been there for the liberation of the concentration camp. The Diary of Anne Frank is wonderfully well presented, not losing the interest of the reader. Each part of the diary helps me understand the terrible hardships that she faced and how she overcame her problems. Even though she was young, she still had a very effective style of writing to inform her readers. This book shows us the ignorance of what Hitler caused thinking that one race is â€Å"racially inferior† to another. The Diary of Anne Frank is a superb book to read to find out about the struggle and hardships that that the Jews had to face during World War 11. It showed me that even the Nazis could not diminish the hope and happiness of a fourteen-year-old girl named Anne Frank.

Literature Review Of International Business in U.S.

Finding a country to conduct business in can be a very easy task depending on the company’s top management. The way a company normally discovers where to conduct research is through leads on potential operations from outside sources. The selection of which leads to investigate becomes the difficult task. After sifting through the leads and finding the right ones to investigate management must formulate an international marketing plan. This further helps management in locating potential markets for their products. The first step is to use secondary research to find out what the sales potential is in a given market. Asking the questions of need, demand, and support gives one a starting point for research. If we were a company that sold pants we might want to ask the following questions. Is there a need for pants? Is it cold enough there to wear pants? Do people that demand the pants have money? These are the questions that one should ask of potential markets. After gathering the information from the secondary research, the picture of a potential market becomes more evident. However, to make the picture clearer, one must conduct primary research. This research outlines the specifics of the potential market that directly pertain to the product. Robert Douglas' book, Penetrating the International Market, addresses the issue of locating potential markets in greater detail. After finding a lead that contains profitable markets it is necessary to analyze the venture as a whole. The decisions of companies must be based on the facts of reliable sources on all investments. To gather the information needed for investment projects, management must organize a competent feasibility team. The members of this team should be comprised of employees of the company; this is so that the knowledge will stay within the company. If the resources are not available for an employee conducted study then outside consultants may be used, it may also be beneficial to use a combination of the two. The first step in conducting a study is to design it by using project objectives as the base. During the second step the team must be staffed with people that have the ability to solve problems in any situation. In the third step the team should be properly placed and instructed. In the fourth and final step the product of the feasibility study should be properly communicated to the decision-making management. The design of a feasibility study first assumes that a company possesses the skills and resources necessary to be competitive in the market under analysis. Management must know the limits of its operations abroad. The operating margin for the expense of establishing and starting operations abroad should be easily recoverable within a reasonable time period. The design should also include the management's goals, which come down from the investors of the company. The goals of management should be to acquire specific knowledge of the partner, in a joint venture situation, as well as the financial aspects, and the business-environment. The currency of the host country along with the political situation, and the economy are finer points of detail that the study must cover when analyzing the business-environment. In a less formal sense the design of the study should cover relevant material so that when viewing the final report decision-makers will know with what they are becoming involved. Staffing a feasibility study is of major importance. Not only must the members be competent in communication and understanding, but the management selecting the team must be confident in the abilities of each individual. Communication in international affairs plays a great role for the fact that different languages spoken and unspoken are involved. The communication through a translator let alone person-to person communication can be vastly misconstrued. The individual's communication skills should be top-notch in order to be selected for the team. The members of the team should also be aware of the cultural factors that play a role in communication. Two books The Way to Wealth by Ben Franklin and Microserfs by David Coupland, support economic values of their specific time periods. Franklin’s book is written in 1733, when agriculture was the way of life. Coupland’s book is a present day description of technology and how Microsoft has had such an impact on our lives. Both books, each defining different eras, come together to portray the epitome of economic values. The writers’ depiction of work, from their respected eras, show how these American economic values has not changed. Poor Richard Saunders’ advice symbolizes what American worker’s economic values should be. Poor Richard is a character Franklin uses to push his economic values, and he believes that firm economic values will create wealth. He explains get what you can, and what you get hold; ‘Tis the stone that will turn all your lead into gold. Having good economic values can give you the gold touch. Good time management and sound management of one’s money are the keys to success. Hence Franklin’s famous sayings a penny saved is a penny earned and early to bed, and early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise. The sayings of Richard Saunders are for the ages, as well as the agricultural life as he knew it. Douglas Coupland’s character analysis of [email  protected] serves as the icon of a modern day American technological worker. [email  protected] is an employee of Bill Gates’ corporation Microsoft which employs more than 32,000 people in 60 countries. Indeed, despite international commercial success, economic values of American lives have not changed over the past several hundred years. From the adages of Ben Franklin, to the genius of Bill Gates, Americans are economically the same. In the book Microserfs, the highlight of the story was when an employee got emailed by Bill himself. Gates has been described as â€Å"spending a significant person of his time to. . . staying in contact with Microsoft employees around the world though email.† References Ashamalla, Maali H. â€Å"International Human Resource Management Practices: The Challenge Of Expatriation.† Competitiveness Review. 1998. pp. 54-65. Barton, Ron & Bishko, Michael. â€Å"Global Mobility Strategy.† HR Focus. 1998. pp. S7-S8. Coupland, Douglas. Microserfs. Lunsford. pp. 595-606. Dibb, S., Simkin, L., Pride, W.M. and Ferrell, O.C., â€Å"Marketing: Concepts and Strategies.† Marketing in International Markets. Houghton Mifflin. 1997. pp. 65-68, 171-177, 90-94, 103-105. Dutton, Gail. â€Å"Building a Global Brain.† Management Review. 1999. pp. 34-38. Engel, James F., Roger Blackwell, and Bowel Miniard. Consumer Behavior. Harcourt. 1982. pp. 162-168. Ewing, John S. and Meissner, Frank. International Business Management: Readings and Cases. California: Wadsworth. 1964. pp. 4, 146-152, 313-320. Fayerweather, John. International Business Management: A Conceptual Framework. New York: McGraw-Hill. 1969. pp. 51-64. Franklin, Benjamin. The Way to Wealth. Lusford. 1999. p. 545. Haner, F.T. Multinational Management. Ohio: Merrill. 1973. pp. 43-58.

Social Benefits of Audit

Audit emerges because society needed. Auditing has been a regular feature of organized human activity from the earliest times. Indeed evidence suggests that formal audit procedures existed in the economic activities of the most of the early civilization. With the advancement of development, audit emerges as a separate discipline & contributes to the economic & social advancement. Audits serve a vital economic purpose and play an important role in serving the public interest to strengthen accountability and reinforce trust and confidence in financial reporting. As such, audits help enhance economic prosperity, expanding the variety, number and value of transactions that people are prepared to enter into. However, in recent years, and in the light of corporate scandals, we have witnessed ongoing global demands for improvements in audit quality. Changes have been taken place to promote greater transparency in the audit and accountability in auditors but there are continuing demands for further improvements to be made. Definition of audit: The availability and use of resources is strongly influenced by the type of economic policies that entities implement. Modern audit is concerned with citizen’s economic and social benefits. In the jargon of economics, government actions typically ‘distort’ the operation of economies, compared with the benchmark of a competitive market economy, and assumed to be able to operate without any government intervention. Such actions can only be justified by auditor if there are benefits stemming from the action that outweigh its costs. Here is an example of such logic applied to education: To finance better-quality schooling for those who have the least educated parents, and who attend the worse schools, it may be necessary to raise taxes on other people. The basic economic insight that such taxation distorts incentives remains valid. Such policies should be implemented only to the extent that the (present) value of the long-run benefits of greater equity exceed the efficiency costs of funding them. [World Bank, World Development Report 2006 (Washington DC: World Bank, 2006) at page 22. Benefits and costs are typically measured using a money-metric. Education is typically valued in terms of additions to a person’s expected future lifetime earnings, placing a low value on education of people whose expected future lifetime earnings are low, and no value on people for whom such earnings are zero. The same tension can be found if we look at the economy as a whole. Neoclassical economics judges the benefits of economic policies in terms of maximizing the output of goods and services, as measured by the level and rate of growth of the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP). It is assumed that rapid economic growth will lift people out of poverty, and that private ownership and market competition are likely to be the best mechanisms for maximizing economic growth. (This belief is what underpins the advocacy of privatization of public enterprises and services, and liberalization of markets). If some people are left behind, or indeed made worse-off, by policies aimed at maximizing national output, then it is assumed that ‘winners’ can compensate ‘losers’, for instance via taxation and public expenditure ( though these instruments must be used in a way that minimizes so-called ‘distortions’). This might be described as a strategy of ‘first maximize the size of the pie, then hope that it will be sliced up in such a way that nobody is made worse off’. Note that this approach is indifferent as to whether the losers are people who are already very rich, or very poor. Each is equally deserving of compensation. Nor does it pay much attention to the likelihood of compensation actually taking place. If the policy measures are expected to produce the maximum possible extra output, then auditor will express opinion that is enough for them to be judged ‘optimal’. States enjoy a margin of discretion in selecting the means to carry out their obligations. However, in discharging their obligations for the realization of economic and social rights, states must pay regard to the following key points: the requirement for progressive realization; the use of maximum available resources; the avoidance of retrogression; the satisfaction of minimum essential levels of economic and social rights; non-discrimination and equality; and participation, transparency and accountability. These principles can be used as a framework for auditing economic policy. Role of audit to the social perspective: Governments are facing an ever? growing demand to be more accountable and socially responsible and the people are becoming more assertive about their rights to be informed and to influence governments? decision? making processes. Faced with these demands, the executive and the legislature are looking for new ways to evaluate their performance. Civil society organizations are also undertaking ? Social Audits? to monitor and verify the social performance claims of the organizations and institutions. Social Audit is a tool with which government departments can plan, manage and measure non? financial activities and monitor both internal and external consequences of the department/organization’s social and commercial operations. It is an instrument of social accountability for an organisation. In other words, Social Audit may be defined as an in? depth scrutiny and analysis of the working of any public utility vis? a? vis its social relevance. Social Audit has significant role in social development. Purpose of the Social Audit The purpose of conducting Social Audit is not to find fault with the individual functionaries but to assess the performance in terms of social, environmental and community goals of the organisation. It is a way of measuring the extent to which an organisation lives up to the shared values and objectives it has committed itself to. It provides an assessment of the impact of organisations non-financial objectives through systematic and regular monitoring, based on the views of its stakeholders. Salient Features The foremost principle of Social Audit is to achieve continuously improved performances in relation to the chosen social objectives. Eight specific key principles have been identified from Social Auditing practices around the world. They are: 1. Multi? Perspective/Polyvocal. Aims to reflect the views (voices) of all those people (stakeholders) involved with or affected by the organisation/department/programme. 2. Comprehensive. Aims to (eventually) report on all aspects of the organisation? s work and performance. 3. Participatory. Encourages participation of stakeholders and sharing of their values. 4. Multidirectional. Stakeholders share and give feedback on multiple aspects. 5. Regular. Aims to produce social accounts on a regular basis so that the concept and the practice become embedded in the culture of the organisation covering all the activities. 6. Comparative. Provides a means, whereby, the organisation can compare its own performance each year and against appropriate external norms or benchmarks; and provide for comparisons with organisations doing similar work and reporting in similar fashion. 7. Verification. Ensures that the social accounts are audited by a suitably experienced person or agency with no vested interest in the organisation. . Disclosure. Ensures that the audited accounts are disclosed to stakeholders and the wider community in the interests of accountability and transparency. The following figure depicts the principles of Social Audit and universal values: These are the pillars of Social Audit, where socio? cultural, administrative, legal and democratic settings form the foundation to operational social Audit. The Social Audit process is intended as a means for social engagement, transparency and communication of information, leading to greater accountability of decision? akers, representatives, managers and officials. The underlying ideas are directly linked to concepts of democracy and participation. The application of Social Audit at the village level holds tremendous potential for contributing to good local governance and increased transparency and accountability of the local bodies. Applying the Tool The six steps of Social Auditing are: 1. Preparatory activities 2. Defining audit boundaries and identifying stakeholders 3. Social accounting and book? keeping 4. Preparing and using social accounts 5. Social audit and dissemination 6. Feedback and institutionalization of social audit Stakeholder consultation, involving department functionaries and civil society, would be the forum for sharing the Social Audit plan. This consultation would clarify the issues important for Social Auditing, role of stakeholders, as well as commitments from them. The outcome of the consultation would be fed into the process of detailing out: the indicators to be monitored; which existing records are to be used; and how additional information would be collected. The next key step is to fix responsibilities for various activities. The activities include preparing formats for social account? keeping, compilation of data and reporting the same on a monthly basis (internal use). Managers of the department/programmes can use this information for monitoring as well as providing feedback for improving performance and overcoming bottlenecks. Ideally, Social Audit should be conducted regularly, and the method should be developed through a participatory relationship between the auditor and the organisations/departments. The following figure depicts the detailed steps followed in the social audit cycle.