Saturday, August 17, 2019

Recruitment Strategy and Job Offer Process Essay

Organizations such as education, business and engineering all use diverse recruitment techniques as their operations transform and the demand for employees vary, based on the direction in which the organization is headed. This paper will study in detail business establishments and how they use their recruitment strategy to fill job vacancies. In addition, the paper will select and/or suggest which would be the best recruitment strategy to achieve the goal of drawing qualified personnel from within this industry. Finally, this paper will detail the process to be used in offering a job to an applicant. The first phase of recruitment is deciding on the need for personnel to fill current or future job openings. In business establishments, it is essential for a company to recognize whether an open or targeted recruitment strategy is effective, and to understand which one will succeed in meeting the company’s requirements. If there is no urgency in finding suitable candidates for th e position, then a better option would be an open recruitment policy (Mesmer, 1999). For instance, if a company has to fill more than 35 vacancies, the only real option for it is to choose an open recruitment policy. The open recruitment policy helps in attracting a number of applicants including an assorted group of people (Heinemann & Judge, 2009). In this way, the organization can obtain pools of potential employees with differing standards of knowledge, skills, aptitudes & other characteristics (KSAOs) from which they can select to fill vacancies. â€Å"If a business is required to recruit as many people as possible within a limited period, a sizeable applicant pool often supplies a company with a good number of personnel to fill vacancies† (â€Å"Recruiting practices,†1995). Hiring via newspaper, television, job fairs, radio and media channels will attract numerous candidates needed to fill several vacancies in businesses. The possibility of skimming a broad applicant pool reduces the company’s ability to appraise every application, resultin g in triggering high future attrition rates (Soberg & Bennington, 2009). Employing the open recruitment policy will not initiate a candidate pool with specific skills or experience levels as witnessed with the targeted recruitment policy. However, when organizational requirements demand specific skills, education, or experience levels, a business will adopt a targeted recruitment policy. Positive action also calls for a company to target a particular segment of the labor force like minority groups (Heneman & Judge, 2006). After identifying a specific target, a business may take the help of a talent management team equipped to win over a predetermined sort of applicant (â€Å"CTS strengthens†, 2010). For instance, a company in need of a web designer may advertise available job positions online rather than via the radio or other media channels. With technological advances, the Internet is fast becoming a cost-effect means of hiring, with advertising targeted at specific group of candidates. For a company on the lookout for a certain type of applicant, the target recruitment policy is the best method to use. With the evolving of businesses, organizations should use ingenious recruitment strategies to surface from the conventional â€Å"talent pools† which as Kemsley states are approached with caution and suspicion for assistance (2009). Businesses are becoming very choosy in their hiring methods when recruiting in the present economic scenario. They are recruiting based on business requirements; for instance, an accounting firm which is considering future job vacancies, may approach local educational institutions and target college students who are enrolled currently as accounting majors. The accounting firm then can target specific sub-groups within that group by seeking students with a specific GPA – grade point average, thus making certain that the company can hire new recruits with the requisite job qualifications. â€Å"In the same way, a business specializing in health care can adopt a recruitment strategy targeting personnel in the healthcare sector, thereby guaranteeing the solicitation of candidates with healthcare experience† (â€Å"Online health,† 2000). For some business establishments, limiting their options to a single recruitment strategy is bad. When a business does not have a recruitment deadline, the organization can gain from a good blend of open & targeted recruitment policies. For most businesses, using an open recruitment policy enables the company to fill vacancies which are not key positions like support staff. When organizational needs demand a highly qualified, trained, or experienced person, then it’s advantageous to use the target recruitment policy. The subsequent phase of recruitment after the interview & selection process is the job offer. Developing and extending a job offer can either be a simple task or a risky endeavor. If the business demands that numerous vacancies should be filled without any delay, the employment offer process is quite simple and the company faces no real risks. With a sizeable applicant pool, a company can extend basic job offers with minimal emphasis on bonus payments or incentives. However, where a business needs specialized skills, the business should know what the competition is offering employees with similar skills set. The greater the demands a company places on applicant qualifications, the more specialized are the job qualifications and the greater the risk involved in the employment offer process. When trying to lure a competitor’s employee, the company should be willing to provide what best fits such an employee’s requirements with no promise of long-term gains for the organization. If the receiver is undecided about accepting the employment offer, the company should decide if it’s willing to significantly change the employment offer in such a way that the receiver cannot turn it down. Finalizing the employment offer demands seeing all aspects of incentives/benefits verbally offered are properly documented. Moreover, the business must make certain that the job offer is not in violation of any federal or state laws. In business industries, limiting recruiting options to a single strategy is not beneficial; however, if a business has no recruitment deadlines, it can benefit greatly from using a mix of open & targeted recruitment policies. For most organizations, using an open recruitment policy enables them to fill job vacancies which are not key positions like support staff. Where an organization requires candidates with specialized skills or higher education or greater experience, then it’s profitable to use the target recruitment policy. Recognizing the differences in these two strategies enables a business to avail of the optimum recruitment strategy to meet the organizational requirements prevailing at that time. References CTS strengthen recruiting efforts with talent coordination teams. (2010, July 3). Health & Wellness Resource Center Alternative Health Module. Kemsley, N. (2009). Employee-centric markets: A different direction. People and Strategy. New York: 2009. Vol. 32(3), p. 14. Heneman, G. H., & Judge, A. T. (2006). Staffing Organizations (6th ed.). New York: McGraw-Hill. Messmer, M. (1999, September). Developing a strategic staffing plan. National Public Accountant, 44(7), 20. Online health care recruiting company makes debut. (2000, July 3). The Enterprise, p. 7. Soberg, A., & Bennington, A. (2009). Workforce planning: implications for healthcare in Canada and elsewhere. People and Strategy. New York: 2009, 32(3), 26. Recruiting practices changing. (1995, November). Physician Executive, 21(11), 4.

Friday, August 16, 2019

Dante’s Inferno: Contrapasso Essay

Contrapasso means suffer the opposite. It refers to the punishment of souls in Dante’s Inferno by a process either resembling or contrasting with the sin itself. There are many examples of contrapasso in Dante’s Inferno, as he travels ever deeper into the depths of hell. In the Inferno, we are given a tour through Hell by Dante, who is a middle-aged man. The Inferno is a story of a journey given by two different Dantes: Dante the pilgrim and Dante the author. He has a natural emotion of pity, which he is often reprimanded for. At the beginning of his journey, he is confronted by three animals. These animals represent the three rings of Hell. The first one is the she-wolf, representing incontinence, the second is the lion, representing violence, and the third is the leopard, representing fraud and deception. According to Dante, fraud and deception are the worst sins, followed by violence, then incontinence. Virgil is Dante’s guide throughout this treacherous journey. Dante uses the concept of contrapasso to express his own views on ethics of various sins, reflecting on the cultural and political state of Italy at the time. Before Dante and Virgil enter Hell proper, they find the opportunists in the vestibule. They are running around wildly chasing a banner, while nude being stung by hornets and wasps. When the split came between Satan and God, they tried to stay neutral, and now they must suffer their punishment. Here, the banner symbolizes a leader, serving as a direct punishment for their indecisive nature. They come across limbo next, where the virtuous pagans are. These are the souls of good non-Christians, who are stuck in limbo because they were never baptized and never went to church to study Jesus. This is where Virgil and the poets reside. Limbo is not a bad place to be, and their only punishment is that they will never get to see the face of God. This is a fitting punishment because while alive they never knew of God, and now they are forbidden from him. They encounter the least offensive sinners in the first ring of Hell, represented by the she-wolf. Once inside the gates of Hell, Dante encounters the Carnal (or lustful). The souls who are in this first section of Hell are so because they let their lusts control them in life. The punishment of the Carnal is that they are trapped in a whirlwind, blizzard storm. They see the object of their lust, but they cannot have sex in Hell. They are doomed to chase their love around in the whirlwind, and they cannot satisfy their needs in any way. Contrapasso is appropriate here because while living they could not control their urges and always satisfied their needs, but now in Hell they are not allowed to. In circle three of Hell, we find the gluttons. Ciacco is a representative of the gluttons whom Dante knows personally. Ciacco means hog in Italian. Because gluttony is a sin of incontinence, their punishment is wallowing around in a slushy mound of garbage. The gluttons are in a storm of putrefaction. Gluttony was considered a major sin back in Dante’s day. Also in this circle are the hoarders and wasters. They contribute to each other’s punishment as they are in a constant rock war. Hoarders and wasters are two extremes. This is contrapasso because the hoarders are constantly trying to take the rock, while the wasters are trying to get rid of it. Next, they come across the wrathful and sullen. They are stuck in the Marsh of Styx. The sullen were drawn within themselves and tried not to associate with others in life, they took a sour disposition towards life. Their punishment is appropriate because they are stuck at the bottom of the marsh, beneath the slimy surface. Moving along through Hell, Dante and Virgil come across the heretics. This is a sort of a transitional stage between the sins of incontinence and violence. A heretic is anyone who doesn’t adhere to strict Catholic doctrine. Heretics committed some of the worst crimes, according to Dante. Their punishment was to spend eternity in a grave on fire. Contrapasso is in effect here because heretics thought that the soul dies with the body, and since they believe their souls died, they are entombed. Some of them even have to share tombs with people they hated. The second category of sinners is the violent. There are three types of violence: violence against neighbors, violence against self, and violence against God. The violent against neighbors are stuck in the river Phlegethon. This is a river of boiling blood, and if the sinners try to escape, centaurs shoot them with arrows. This is contrapasso because these violent souls left their victims in a pool of blood when they murdered them, and now they are stuck in a pool of blood. Violence against self is the next form of violent sin. Those who committed suicide became trees. Since they rejected God’s gift of body, they are forced to stand still and see the human life they rejected. This is their contrapasso, also whenever a limb from the tree falls off, they feel it. The final form of violence is that against God. These blasphemers, who curse God, are punished in circle seven, round 3. They are forced to lie in a field of burning sand and a fire rain constantly falls down on them. This is ironic because it is the first time while Dante is in Hell that we actually see fire. Circle eight of Hell begins the worst sins, those of fraud and treachery. These sins are the worst because it breaks the trust of the individual. The usurers are loan sharks. They do not further mankind, they just want money. According to The Holy Bible, it is unnatural to charge usury. Their punishment is to carry a pouch with lead weights around their necks. They constantly have to fight off fire and chains from lashing devils with their hands. This is their contrapasso because they used to use their greedy hands to abuse people by taking their money. The panderers and seducers are punished by having to constantly run from one side to another, and demons are there whipping them. The second section contains the flatterers. Because they lied and figuratively slung excrement from their mouths, they are punished by wallowing in excrement, which they flatter. This is a perfect example of contrapasso. The fortune tellers and diviners presumed to have the power to see God’s future, but most of them are just tricksters. Their contrapasso is that their heads are twisted completely around, and they can no longer see what’s ahead of them. Dante sees weeping shades slowly marching in single file, each one covered from head to foot with a golden cloak lined with lead. It is appropriate because on the outside the cloaks look beautiful, but on the inside they are horrible, like the hypocrites, and they are weighed down by their guilt. Contrapasso for thieves is depicted as serpents chasing nude sinners, and when the snake bites them, they burst into blames and disintegrate. Sometimes they become the serpent, and the serpent becomes them. This sets out to show that thieves can’t even claim their own bodies. Also, the snakes represent trickery, and the serpents steal the thieves’ bodies, just as they stole. Bertrand de Born was guilty of separating father and son (King Henry II and son), which caused war. His contrapasso is walking around with his head separated from his body, carrying it like a lantern. It is also symbolic of the father being the head of the family, and his body is separated from it because he separated them. In the ninth circle of Hell, Cocytus, Dante encounters the absolute worst sinners, including Satan. These sinners are frozen with the memory of their sins, and they cannot move. These evilest of sinners are in a sea of ice. Sins of betrayal are in the ninth circle. They were cold hearted and fake in life with no warmth of heart. A unique encounter Dante has is with Count Ugolino and Archbishop Ruggiere. In life, they made a deal, but it went awry. Now, the count feeds on the head of the archbishop. Since the archbishop imprisoned him and sons, they starved to death, thus his contrapasso is that Ruggiere is Ugolino’s last meal for all of eternity. At the end of the journey, Dante encounters Satan. He is bigger than the giants with three heads. Each head is chewing on the worst sinners in history up to that point: Judas, Brutus, and Cassius. They represent hate, impotence, and ignorance to contrast the three highest virtues of Heaven. Satan is at the center of the universe. His main punishment is that he is frozen and can’t do anything. This is the ultimate contrapasso. Dante highlights that Satan himself is an example of contrapasso as Satan’s sin of seeking God’s place as ruler of Heaven resulting in him forever ruling over the damned. Here, the sin reflects the punishment as Satan aims to raise himself higher and as a result is cast down into the depths of the Inferno. Dante takes us on an intriguing and eye-opening journey throughout his Hell. He uses contrapasso as a way to show the many different sins and how he thinks they should be punished. Dante also places real people in his Inferno to point out the cultural and political state of Italy at that time. While he does this, he is pretty fair and impartial about who belongs in which area of Hell. Near the end of his journey, Dante finally realizes that the sinners got what they deserved, and he no longer pities them. By having Satan frozen in ice, Dante is portraying the message Satan cannot do anything, unless you let him because he is not that powerful.

Thursday, August 15, 2019

The mistress and harp of burma

In Japanese Literature, stories have often depicted what greatly influenced the prevalent period of common life and social sentiment. In the two books written by Japanese authors in two separate periods of Japan’s history, a transition is clearly seen through literature often expressed in superb storytelling. In Ogai Mori’s â€Å"The Wild Geese†, human struggle is greatly influenced by tales of love in the midst of Japan’s industrialization boom. Writers depict and assimilate the concepts of free-thinking which brought romance and human emotion to the limelight. The familiarity of the reforms established during the period for which Ogai’s novel was actually written apparently brought forward the chance to openly discuss Japan’s so-called evil customs and traditions in a bid to strengthen the imperial rule. Okada, as one of the main characters clearly narrated how he felt that a woman should be only a beautiful object, something loveable, a being who keeps her beauty and loneliness no matter what the situation she is in (Ogai, 20). In the same page, Okada added that this sentiment is brought about under the influence of habitual reading of old Chinese love stories. There is therefore a clear view in principle that establishes a need to disregard culture and ideas that wrongly adapted the old Oriental ways which often restricted free-thinkers to intellectually prosper. In Toyoda’s movie, â€Å"The Mistress†, adapted from Mori Ogai’s The Wild Geese, oriental values was the main discussion with aims to expose the ancient cultural standards that stand in the way of personal freedom. In Otama we see the oppressed and marginalized people driven and deceived without any hope of being uplifted from the moral and restrictive bounds that society places upon them. The simplistic adventure of romance in a plot heightens into limelight the realities of life and the prevailing social views of the middle class which somehow voices out a need for reform in the Meiji Restoration period. Several decades later after Japan was able to stand on its own two feet, Japan experienced a wartime defeat that brought home sad stories of soldiers taken as prisoners of war. Takayama’s â€Å"Harp of Burma† showed pacifism as the main aim of both novel and on film. â€Å"We have to be ready for hardship, for all we know, we may die here in Burma. If that time comes, let us die together†¦Ã¢â‚¬ , (Takeyama, 33). Such poignant words relay veiled patriotism whose desire for peace in an armistice agreement with their British captors aims to relay the evils of war. Written during a period where wartime horrors still stayed afresh in the minds of the Japanese people, there was not an ounce of blame or an aim to proclaim the evils of their captors. Its sincere inward idea was just to dwell on the problems the war brought to everyone involved. In retrospect, The Harp of Burma establishes a deeper humanistic connection to modern day events where peace is the common desire of mankind. The movie through cinematic effect exceeds sensory reflection that somehow created a link to present day situations around the world where wars and battles are fought. Although Ogai’s novel discussed social issues on a road to recovery, the pressing need for peace exceeds in meaning and connection through the Harp of Burma that was successfully portrayed in film. Seeing the ravages of war makes a good reflection how one favors such madness that resulted in tragedy and death. As an anti-war film, it even exceeded the points portrayed in its novel where suffering is presented as a result of too much desire. As a challenge to survival, the movie â€Å"Fires on the Plain† declares a clearly made manifestation of human woes compared to the movie of the same title, â€Å"The Burmese Harp†. Both movies however adapted Takeyama’s novel The Harp of Burma that depicted a deep sense of longing for the fatherland while emphasizing compassion in the midst of survival and atrocities. As a human interest film, â€Å"Fires on the Plain† arouses a relative connection through artistic performance of reality in full color for young viewers to understand how wars wreak and break even the strongest heart. Works Cited Mori, Ogai trans. Ociai, Kingo and Goldstein, Sanford (1959). The Wild Geese. Boston: Tuttle Publishing Takeyama, Michio trans., Howard Hibbett ( 1966). Harp of Burma. Boston: Tuttle Publishing.      

Wednesday, August 14, 2019

Lord of the Flies †Hook or Brook? Essay

In my point of view one of the best novels you can study for GCSE English is ‘Lord of The Flies’ by William Golding. But I’m not just talking about the book I’m going to talk about the films, Peter Brook’s 1963 black and white film and Harry Hook’s American style film made in 1994 and how they both differ from each other and the book. Sir William Golding was an English grammar school boy who studied Natural Sciences for two years at Oxford University before transferring to English Literature. He enlisted in the navy to fight in World War II where he was involved in the pursuit of Germany’s mightiest battleship, the Bismarck and involved in D-Day landings. When he came back to the UK to write and to teach he had dramatically different ideas of humanity. Many of his books contained the ideas that there is no such thing as true innocence, most men are only concerned for their own well being and that all men are evil at heart under pressure. His first novel ‘Lord of the Flies’ is very much based on these ideas. Golding wrote many other books including: The Inheritors, Darkness Visible and To the Ends of the Earth. In 1979 Golding won the James Tait Black Memorial Prize, in 1980 he won the Booker Prize, in 1983 he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature and was knighted by the Queen in 1988. Eventually he died of heart failure on June 19, 1993. In his lifetime he saw his greatest novel, ‘Lord of The Flies’ turned in to a film in the 1960’s but died before he could see the second adaptation of the film released in 1994. The initial images at the start of both films of ‘Lord of the flies’ are very important as they give first impressions of the film and set the scene for what is to come. Brook’s film starts with a series of photographs showing groups of English grammar school boys in every day life, then being evacuated (for a reason that you don’t know) and then the plane crash on the island. As the images are a hymn snug in latin which, when translates means god give us mercy. In Hook’s version the opening scene starts looking up at the thrashing legs of the boys trying to swim in the ocean but in almost complete silence then the picture raises above the water to reveal the sight of all the boy panicking and the sounds of screaming, the picture then sinks to show the pilot sinking and a hand pulling him to the surface followed by the picture to show a life raft opening. The better of the two openings in my point of view is the later 1994 film because it draws you in to the film because you don’t know what is going to happen. In both Brook’s film and in Hook’s film the boys end up on a tropical island some were in the pacific ocean as it is in the book, but the ways this is portrayed in the two films are very different giving the two openings to the films very different feelings. In Brook’s 1963 film you first see the island during the day with a wide, long curved sandy beach laid out in front if you, backed with low tropical forest stretching into the distance with very shallow light coloured sea. This gives a very light calm atmosphere to the beginning of the film giving a sense of hopefulness. The film was filmed mainly on the island of Vieques in Puerto Rico. In contrast Hooks 1994 adaptation has island is first seen at night as the boys enter a small sheltered bay, on a life raft, and are confronted with tiny beach with the black silhouette of the huge forests and mountains looming over them shrouding every thing with shadows this give a sense of little hope, danger, panic and fear because they don’t know what’s in the shadows. In my mind this sets the mood better for the moments after a plane crash where you are completely lost, on one knows where you are, all the adults with you have died, compared with the almost happy felling given in Brook’s film. As in the book the first two character introduced in both films are Ralf and Piggy. In Brook’s 63 films, as in the book, Ralf and Piggy have never met before and Piggy is the first person that Ralf finds after the plane crash. Piggy in first film is a rather small, fat boy with glasses, from a lower class back ground who won’t do any physical work because he is over worried about his asthma and is very cautious about everything. Ralf in this film is an average grammar school boy although older than most of the boys, with a strong sense of leadership who later becomes leader of the children on the island because of his initial popularity with the younger members of the group. However in Hooks american 94 film all the children are all from the same military cadet school. As they are from the same school they already know each other so as Ralf was in a higher position than all the rest of the other boys in the school he was almost automatically elected the leader of the group. Piggy is a very fat child with over sized glasses and is very venerable and can be very annoying as he is in both films and the book. Also in hooks film Ralf is automatically is very protective of piggy all though in brooks film and the book Ralf makes fun of piggy before befriending him and becoming protective him from some of the other characters. The other main character that you are introduced to in the film is Jack. Jack in brooks film is the leader of a choir who end up on the island because of the plane crash with his coir. He immediately tries to take control of the group and is very aggressive towards Piggy and bullies him. When he fails to take control of the group he immediately separates him self and the coir to become hunters for the group and become obsessive with kill wild pigs. This is very similar with hooks film when Ralf wins control of the group jack splits of and makes a group of hunters and becomes very violent and aggressive. Symbolism in many of Goldings book plays a big part and they have a big role in films of ‘The lord of the flies’. The conch shell that Ralf and Piggy find on the beach in one of the first sense is of order and that only the person holding the shell can speak. When the conch shell is blown for the first time by Ralf al the boys respond by coming to its source like answering to a school bell. This means that the conch shell in both films is a symbol of order, respect and control. Piggy’s glasses also become a symbol of fire because the are the boys only source of fire on the island and however has the glasses is in control of fire which is vital for life on the island. The hunting knife in hooks 94 film is a large symbol as it provides a source of food by killing the pigs on the island and a way to make weapons for the hunters. One of the main themes in the book and films is of victimisation and domination within the group. Almost as soon as the group is formed Ralf (in the book and in the 63 film) or Jack (in the 94 film) immediately torments piggy by giving him his name, and tries to put himself above everyone else and take control of the group. In hooks 94 film all the young members of the group call Jack and Ralf ‘Sir’ showing respect to the dominant people in the group. The sound and music within the films are very important as they get the feeling of the situation. In brooks 63-film native pipe music is played as their children are moving through the forest and this give of feeling of excitement, as they are moving through the forest. In both films the ambient sounds, like birds and frogs, give sense of alertness and can add to the tension of a seen. In both films what the characters are wearing give a felling of how long the have been there and what they have been doing. In the 63 film ate the start all the boys have full uniform on, especially the coir how have gowns and hats one, to having very little ripped torn fragments of clothes on in Hooks 94 film the boys go from having full military uniform to topless with ripped shorts on and war paint on there faces and chests. The length of boy’s hair in both films doesn’t change in either film implying that they aren’t there for a very long time. One thing that was over look in both films is that after the plane crash all the boys are perfectly clean, tidy and well dressed. The colours in the 94 film added to the mood of the seen. When the boys are working together on the beach the colours are lighter adding to the felling of hopefulness. On the other hand the forest is almost always dark greens, browns and blacks and this helps to emphasise a negative mood. I think that Brooks 63 film is always let down by the fact it is in black and white. I think the use of the camera is one other main thing that separates the two films. In hooks film the camera shots are used to help emphasise what’s is going on in the film, for example: shots where the camera is looking down on someone makes them seam very venerable like when the boys first land on the beach, and when the camera is pointing up at some ones face makes you feel that there very powerful or dominant. Partly because of this I feel that the 94 is better than the 64 films because it lacks the quality of camera shots. In my mind they are both good films but the better of the two film is Harry Hook’s 1994 version because of the better quality of the film and definitely the acting which in Peter Brook’s 1964 film was very wooden but many people just thinks it was let down by the technology of the time and because it is much close to the book it is a much better film.

Tuesday, August 13, 2019

How Can Social Media Sites Be Used To Improve Knowledge Sharing, Build Essay

How Can Social Media Sites Be Used To Improve Knowledge Sharing, Build Social Capital, Support Innovation, And Aid Problem Solving In Multinational Corporations - Essay Example The use of Twitter for professional enhancement is well established now. The educational philosophy of constructivism offers a strong rationale for greater social media integration within the organization. These days, just as the sweep and reach of social media has increased, so have the niche media spaces that facilitate the interaction. Hence, beyond the prominent household names of Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn, we now have other specialized avenues for interaction like wiki portals and Youtube repositories of learning videos. In today’s competitive business environment, it is imperative for mutli-national companies to adopt social media strategies for external and internal communication. Social media sites like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc can be useful allies for managers in promoting knowledge sharing and team building. If applied selectively and appropriately, these media facilities can be sources of innovation and problem solving within the business corporation. T he term ‘social media’ is a bit misleading and off-putting for managers, as it sounds as an avenue for recreation and time-pass. But when one understands the full scope of possible activities that could be carried out through these sites its utility for managers becomes clear. Another positive aspect of social media sites is their malleability/customizability to specific organizational purposes and goals. Beyond the prominent sites like Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn, there are a host of more specialized sites for sharing pictures or bookmarks or applications have cropped up. There are also niche professional blogs and wikis which are seeing steady increase in patronage. (Zielinski, 2012) The objective of this essay is to argue in affirmation of the positive role of social media to improve knowledge sharing, build social capital, support innovation and aid problem solving in multinational corporations. Social media as a tool for innovation and research: A key area where social media sites differ from conventional sites is the content. The former generate their own content, â€Å"collaboratively creating, editing, sharing, tagging, and organizing information, reshaping the contributions of others and engaging in peer-to-peer discussion. These are emergent technologies, meaning that structure and content and even application emerge with use, from the needs and activities of the users.† ("The Revolution Will Be," 2011) And it is in this feature of dynamic and contemporaneous content that best suits knowledge sharing exercises. This feature is as well suited to the organizational task of building social capital. Management thinker James Surowiecki has argued in his book, The Wisdom of Crowds, that by tapping the power of social media and in creating goal-specific discussion forums etc, substantial social capital can be built. In forums such as these, people from diverse backgrounds and opinions can bring to table â€Å"shrewd judgments and cre ative solutions†. The management can play a constructive role in this process by setting up apt mechanisms to collect and assimilate feedbacks, inputs and opinions. Surowiecki’s concept is closely aligned with that of ‘crowd-sourcing’, which is an emerging model of employee participation in the creative processes of business development. And social media outlets have been the backbone of prominent examples of crowd-sourcing. ("The Revolution Will Be," 2011) For a company to excel in innovation, it must allow employees a convenient and

Monday, August 12, 2019

Stock Price and Information Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 5000 words

Stock Price and Information - Essay Example This will benefit existing shareholders.however; the potential new shareholders are not stupid. They will infer overvaluation from the new issue, thereby bidding down the stock price on the announcement date of the issue. So, for the information asymmetry stock price is raised.therefore, information affects stock price in many way. There is substantial evidence of short-term stock price continuation, which the prior literature often attributes to investor under reaction to new information. 1 By information uncertainty, it is meant that ambiguity with respect to the implications of new information for a firm's value, which potentially stems from two sources: The volatility of a firm's underlying fundamentals and poor information. Here, main hypothesis is that if investors under react to public information, they will under react even more in cases of greater information uncertainty. The testable implication is that greater information uncertainty about the impact of news on stock value leads to higher expected stock returns following good news but lower expected stock returns following bad news relative to the returns of stocks about which there is less information uncertainty. ... Several papers including Chan, Jegadeesh, and Lakonishok (1996) attribute price continuation to a gradual market response to information. Hirshleifer (2001) and Daniel, Hirshleifer, and Subrahmanyam (1998, 2001) posit that psychological biases are increased when there is more uncertainty. New information is public, easily categorized as good or bad, and occurs fairly frequently. There are six proxies for information uncertainty: Firm size, firm age, analyst coverage, dispersion in analyst forecasts, return volatility, and cash flow volatility.2 For each of the six proxies, greater information uncertainty leads to relatively lower future stock returns following bad news and relatively higher future returns following good news, suggesting that uncertainty delays the flow of information into stock prices. In other words, the market reaction to new information is relatively complete for low-uncertainty stocks, and there is little news-based return predictability. For high-uncertainty stocks, on the other hand, the market reaction is far from complete. Good news predicts relatively higher future returns and bad news predicts relatively lower future returns. This relation between information of uncertainty and future returns has used in prior empirical studies. Further assu rance that is missing risk factors does not drive the results by documenting a similar return pattern around subsequent earnings announcement dates. The opposite effects of information uncertainty on stock returns following good vs. bad news amplify the results of trading strategies. As a result, trading strategies that buy good-news stocks and short bad-news stocks work particularly well when limited to high-uncertainty stocks. For example, a momentum

Sunday, August 11, 2019

Critique of Selected Epidemiological Research Article Paper - 1

Critique of Selected Epidemiological Article - Research Paper Example The study reports a hypothesis that the visits that are undertaken for the older age in the cardiovascular study is related to main demographic, lifestyle, health and function participant traits and that the oldest age would have the poorest retention for in-person visits, particularly clinic visits. The hypothesis of the study is directional as it has taken a stand on the subject matter which is yet to be determined. However, it is a complex one since the measurement methods would not be easy in terms of tool applications. It also requires the application of more than one tool for its determination. It was tested using the face to face interviews, phone interviews, as well as personal visits. This was also done through sampling from Medicare eligibility lists, non-institutionalized, ambulatory men and women aged 65 and above. During the study, men and women of age 65 and older got enrolled including the 5201 at 4 US field centers. These formed a mean enrollment age of 73 years with a range of 65-100 forming 58%, 16 % being black. The first phase took place in 1989 to 1990 with the addition of 687 African-American participants in the year 1992 to 93. The participants were taken through an extensive baseline evaluation. This included the laboratory assessments, physical and cognitive functioning and medical history. All these components were repeated at the annual clinic visits through 1998 to 1999. The total population of the study of surviving participants throughout the time was, N=43,772. By the year 2005-06, the entire population was re-recruited in order to reevaluate physical and cognitive functioning and reassess functional status. In this case, the median age was 85 while the range was 77-102 of which 67% were women, and 17% were black (Strotmeyer, et al., 2010). The study in this case was quasi-experimental since it involved the determination of the