Zara Summary Essay Example for Free

Zara Summary Essay Global apparel chain are characterized by unique combinations of high value research, design that they have been pursued for quite some time. Almost more than 30% percent of world production apparel was exported. Lots of company making their manufacturing production on the developing country, because of some factor of the cheap labor intensive. Some country are keen to supply their product to the country that has a very low quote restrictions like China supply their product to Japan where there are no quota restrictions. Some country also do like combining all of the resources part from other country and combine it, like in making a jacket, the zipper come from Japan, the shell from Korea, the jacket filling from Japan, and the label, and other trim are from Hong Kong. Apparel retailing usually try to promote quick response that is needed to improve coordination between the manufacturer and the retailer itself. This is used to increase flexibility and response. The main competitor of Zara are GAP, HM, Benetton. All of them have a comparative advantage among each other. More than 90% percent of GAP product are outsourced from outside US, GAP do this to get the competitive advantage of cheap labor, also, they are lack of clear fashion positioning. HM are Inditex closest competitors from all side. They generate more than half sales outside the country. They have a cheaper price than ZARA. The last is Benneton, they focus on a colored knitwear. They are labor intensive. They use a strategy of narrowing their product lines. Basically, Inditex are global specialty retailer that sell apparel, footwear and accessories for women, children, and men through a prominent store like Zara and others. They are headquartered in Galatia to get the advantage of poor labor and other advantage. There are 6 chains that Inditex worked with which Pull and Bear, Massimo Dutti, Bershka, Stradivarius, Oysho and Zara. This are all the prominent chain. That are all the chain in 2002, but in May 2001, Inditex sold 26% percent of their share to the public to raise cash. The largest chain of Inditex are Zara that are oprated in 507 stores in various countries. Zara has it’s own way to track consumer preferences. Zara usually supply the store directly from the main distributor which usually take twice a week. Zara can work very fast regarding the finished goods, with the systematic technique, they can be able to have a finished goods including finishing the design in just 4 weeks. Zara has it’s own professional creative team, designer and consulting team, product development and sourcing specialist. Zara focused it’s product distribution from internal and external supplier. That passes through the distribution center in Arteixo and than it is distributed on the store to saves time. By the time going, Zara want to improve their model to be more sophisticated based on the trends to increase consumer loyalty and keep maintaining the lower prices than the competitor. Zara only do a small amount of advertising campaign. They focused on the freshness of the product that stay up to date with the changing environments.

The Age Of Neoliberalism Politics Essay

The Age Of Neoliberalism Politics Essay Neoliberalism is in the first instance, a theory of political economic practices that proposes that human well-being can best be advanced by liberating individual entrepreneurial freedoms and skills within an institutional framework characterized by strong private property rights, free markets and free trade. The role of the state is to create and preserve an institutional framework appropriate to such practices. The state has to guarantee, for example, the quality and integrity of money. It must also set up those military, defence, police and legal structures and functions required to secure private property rights and to guarantee, by force if need be, the proper functioning of markets. Furthermore, if markets do not exist (in areas such as land, water, education, health care, social security, or environmental pollution) then they must be created, by state action if necessary. But beyond these tasks the state should not venture. State interventions in markets (once created) must be kept to a bare minimum because, according to the theory, the state cannot possibly possess enough information to second-guess market signals (prices) and because powerful interest groups will inevitably distort and bias state interventions (particularly in democracies) for their own benefit Its foundations can be traced back to the classical liberalism advocated by Adam Smith, and to the specific conception of man and society on which he founds his economic theories. Neoliberalism is, under this view, thought of as an entirely new paradigm for economic theory and policy-making the ideology behind the most recent stage in the development of capitalist society and at the same time a revival of the economic theories of Smith and his intellectual heirs in the nineteenth century. A great reversal had taken place, where neoliberalism had replaced the economic theories of John Maynard Keynes and his followers. Keynesianism, as it came to be called, was the dominant theoretical framework in economics and economic policy-making in the period between 1945 and 1970, The theory stipulated that full employment is necessary for capitalism to grow and it can be achieved only if governments and central banks intervene to increase employment. These ideas had much influence on Presiden t Roosevelts New Deal, which did improve life for many people. The belief that government should advance the common good became widely accepted. But the capitalist crisis over the last 25 years, with its shrinking profit rates, inspired the corporate elite to revive economic liberalism. It was then replaced by a more monetaristà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã… ¸ approach inspired by the theories and research of Milton Friedman is an ideology somewhat similar to and yet markedly different from much conventional conservative thought, and often hardly recognisable as a genuinely conservative that individual liberty depends on there being a free-market economy, where the state has voluntarily given up its ability to control the economy for the good of society as a whole, or the interests of its own citizens. The main points of neo-liberalism include: The rule of the market: Liberating free enterprise or private enterprise from any bonds imposed by the government (the state) no matter how much social damage this causes. Greater openness to international trade and investment, as in NAFTA. Reduce wages by de-unionizing workers and eliminating workers rights that had been won over many years of struggle. No more price controls. All in all, total freedom of movement for capital, goods and services. To convince us this is good for us, they say an unregulated market is the best way to increase economic growth, which will ultimately benefit everyone. Its like Reagans supply-side and trickle-down economics, but somehow the wealth didnt trickle down very much. Cutting public expenditure for public service: like education and health care.reducing the safety net for the poor, and even maintenance of roads, bridges, water supply, again in the name of reducing governments role. Of course, they dont oppose government subsidies and tax benefits for business. Deregulation: Reduce government regulation of everything that could diminish profits, including protecting the environment and safety on the job. Privatization: Sell state-owned enterprises, goods and services to private investors. This includes banks, key industries, railroads, toll highways, electricity, schools, hospitals and even fresh water. Although usually done in the name of greater efficiency, which is often needed, privatization has mainly had the effect of concentrating wealth even more in a few hands and making the public pay even more for its needs. Eliminating the concept of public good or community and replacing it with individual responsibility. Pressuring the poorest people in a society to find solutions to their lack of health care, education and social security all by themselves then blaming them, if they fail, as lazy. Neoliberalism has played a major role in redefining the nature of the welfare state. The fundamental problem with neoliberalism, is their perception that the market can cure all problems especially when dealing with the welfare system, which they believe has no reason to exist. They prefer to use either negative income tax or other market-based means to provide for them. Whats worse is they rationalize not giving welfare people through a variety of means which Linda Gordon typifies the problem in their perception with her enlightening and shocking article Who deserves Help? Who must provide? Within it she explicates how the neoliberals pressure the poorest people in a society to find a job, then blame them if they fail, as lazy. She then delves into of how a major structural feature of the US welfare system is that stratification of entitlement justified by degrees of deservingness creates perception of deservingness and undeservingness.  [i]  Many studies show that welfare recip ients find welfare degrading and demoralizing, and greatly prefer the chance to work. There is no incentive for lazy people to enrol in welfare because the payments do not allow families to make ends meet. In the case of the US its gender based, more specifically for mothers (especially single ones.) Welfare mothers familys rent and utilities cost more than the welfare check. Even for those few who receive housing assistance, very little is left over to cover all other monthly expenses, such as transportation, clothing, hygiene and school supplies. The typical food stamp allowance is insufficient, and many recipients actually go hungry near the end of the month. To make ends meet, mothers have to receive income from somewhere else. They do so because they cannot get jobs that pay better than welfare. The very reason why they cant get any jobs that pay better than welfare is a direct result of neoliberal practices that result in only low-wage work remaining in the West. As a result of outsourcing, factories and subsequently jobs, neoliberal countries do nothing to stop multinational corporations from doing so for they would be affecting free trade. Thus allowing jobs to leave the country and people being exploited elsewhere. As well the only real jobs that are really created in recent years have been predominantly retail and service jobs that are low paying and thus inadequate substitutes for the working poor or mothers, to help themselves out of the poverty line. In their article welfare reform as race population control, Kenneth Neubeck and Noel Cazenave continue Gordons path, by charting the evolution of welfare racism and the rationale behind this racism in the United States through a detailed analysis of specific case studies. They delve into welfare racism against black people, immigrants in general and black women. Beginning with the 1911 mothers pensions (largely intended for white widowed women), Neubeck and Cazenave demonstrate that U.S. welfare policy has been racialized, gendered and stigmatized from its very inception, at times excluding and discriminating against African Americans, then eventually immigrants and at other times providing a limited form of highly stigmatized assistance. Using their concept of welfare racism as an analytical tool, the authors explain that: welfare racism exists as a major force shaping contemporary public assistance attitudes, policies and practices à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ it serves three major functions, s ocial stratification and social control functions for racialized societies and their racial states.'  [ii]  Welfare racism provides social prestige for the general white population, political and career power for its politicians and other elites, and economic acquisition for the nations economic elite in the form of a large and easily exploitable low-wage labour pool. This is what is needed to perpetuate neoliberalism it is integral to the continual expansion of profits upon which capitalism depends. Neoliberalism is constituted not simply by the exchange of things but is founded on the commodification (which the next article the Three worlds of Welfare Capitalism further delves into) and exchange of labour itself: the source of profit. This is the primary goal of this racialization. As well in tracing the ways that welfare racism exists, persists and changes, Neubeck and Cazenave reveal the mythical and erroneous and persistent characterization of African-American women as welf are queens or welfare mothers. This racism-centered framework provides an excellent lens for exploring the links between stigmatized welfare policy and stereotypes of poor racialized women and men in U. S. social and political discourse. The reason this becazme a popular notion, that of stereotyping black people, immigrants and mothers (especially black ones) is that Neoliberalism is a failing policy, and has not been at all successful in reducing unemployment to the levels that free trade was purported to, in fact its increased ion every country that has implemented them, thus they have no choice but to rationalize this disaster of a policy by blaming not the economic component, but rather the people. Their either lazy, immigrants looking to freeload or welfare mothers who merely desire to have babies and again freeload off the system. Neoliberalism provides the jobs, they just dont want to work them. Their rationale sadly isnt backed up by statistics, for each year America and our country Canada loses major jobs in our manufacturing sector, which sadly service or retail based jobs we might gain dont make up for this loss. Neoliberalism has proven itself to be an unsuccessful ideology in the way it treats its citizens and the next article The three worlds of Welfare Capitalism really delves deep into Neoliberalisms commodification of its citizens. I will commence my analysis of this article by addressing the concept of commodification. Furthermore, I will summarize the three theories presented and apply them to the concept of commodification.   This will lead to the synthesis of themes presented and will, if my intentions are realized, provoke response to the idea of commodifying (or decommodifying) human labour.  Ã‚  Ã‚   Whilst reading about commodified labour images of workers with price tags and discount tickets floated through my subconscious in much the same way one might imagine a car lot.   Rows of eager workers aiming to receive the best price for their resources and skills while at the same time guaranteeing they dont get passed over in favour of the more appealing offer in the next row.   Perhaps comparing human capabilities with a car lot appears crude and grossly dysfunctional, but the methodology behind such madness will become apparent.  I shall, therefore, draw upon this analogy in order to develop an analysis of Esping-Andersons welfare regimes. A commodified worker is, in simple terms, a worker with a price.   On a purely micro level, the individual determines what he or she must earn in order to survive within the constraints of the cash nexus, a decision influenced by macro level factors such as the demand and price typically awarded for a particular skill or qualification. Within the market the neoliberalism appears justified: the worker can freely choose between alternative utilities, jobs, employers, and leisure trade-offs. Thus, in a model free market, the worker is able to make decisions freely and without negative ramifications.  Conversely, it is the decommodification of the worker that Esping-Anderson aspires to as this definition of commodification implies that the market is indeed dogmatic.  Furthermore, in reality the market is far from stable and is unrelenting to those unable to participate. Referring to the analogy of car lots commodification requires several conditions including the stability previously mentioned.   This would enable the worker to obtain a fair wage from an employer in much the same way a dealer would assess a fair price to a worthy vehicle.  Ã‚  The absence of stability in the marketplace leads to the inability of workers to exercise freedom of choice.   Faced with the dilemma of an injury (think a head-gasket or deflated tires) the worker must withdraw from the marketplace to recover. But unlike a car with easily replaceable parts return to the marker may not be as simple or prompt and the worker will require an alternative means of income.   The inability to work decreases choice based on the sole premise that ones skills are no longer active and thus, no longer in demand as a commodity.   The employer will seek out alternative labour just as a dealer purchasing new vehicles for the lot would move right along to the cars in the next row; a fter all who wants a car lot of faulty or less than optimal vehicles?   The worker must find a means of survival.   It is within this framework the humanistic element of welfare emerges.   When a worker can no longer subsist independently, what resources exist to prevent degradation?   It is this dilemma which introduces the humanistic element to the analogy.  A car is easily replaced without much consequence to the defunct vehicle itself.  A worker, while potentially easily replaced, most certainly does experience the negative consequences negative of commodification.   For example, transition to a new job may require specific, time consuming, potentially costly retraining.   Esping-Anderson offers a critique of the three theories of welfare, feeling that although some attempt to solve the problem decommodifcation doesnt exist from any of these approaches, it only deceptively convinces the masses that they are being aided. The first theory is the social-insurance model. The adoption of the German social security approach by the Western European countries and the USA countries had two fundamental purposes; the first one to cover the human risks to guarantee a productive labour class; and the second one to maintain the security of the elites, through of control and the stabilization of the labour class. It sought to achieve two simultaneous stratification results. The first goal was to consolidate divisions amongst wage earners by legislating distinct programs for different class and status groups, each with its own conspicuously unique set of rights and privileges designed to accentuate the individuals appropriate station in life. The second objective was to tie the loyalties of the individual directly to the monarchy or in our case (state authority). The goal was to combat labour movements.  [iii]  The state is viewed largely as a minimal interventionist with any welfare allocated firmly upholding the stratification of society or maintaining the hierarchical/patriarchal structure.   The second tactic was Fraternal societies were voluntary mutual-aid associations. The principle behind the fraternal societies was simple. A group of working-class people would form an association (or join a local branch, or lodge, of an existing association) and pay monthly fees into the associations treasury; individual members would then be able to draw on the pooled resources in time of need. The fraternal societies thus operated as a form of self-help insurance company. Sadly despite this supposedly being a fraternal collectivistic approach and an example of a true communalism, the end result was stratification for the weakest, the most likely to need help wereà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦likely[to] be excluded.  [iv]   A third porposed methodology was universalism, which is an integral system based on the provision of social welfare for all through public or private institutions rather than partial and individuals subsidies. Programs are established universally to serve everybody and are financed by Government. In this approach institutions are obligated to deliver social services to all without constrains As a principle universalism focuses in Society as a whole; it does not distinguish by class, religion, age, race, sexual orientation, or gender. Universalism in social policy is a re-distributive institutional approach; it considers social welfare as a very important institution of society providing general services outside the market on the basis of the necessities principle. Of course, the reality of fully socialized welfare programs is minimal due to the overwhelming maintenance costs and the problems experienced by governments that try to convince the population to pay higher taxes in order t o provide for those who do not compete in the market place, unwillingly or not. There are, however, several states which strive for high levels of decommodification the best examples situated in the countries comprising Scandinavia.   For him, this model incorporates the redistributions system of available resources along time. However despite sounding equitable the end result was not what was intended. Without verging upon the perimeter of repetition the following summaries of the three major theories presented by Esping-Anderson serve as the foundation for the ultimate link with commodification. This will illustrate the extent to which regime types with characteristics of any of the three regime-types embrace, or berate the decommodification of labour.   The neoliberal welfare regime argues that a free market will abolish class and inequality, while state intervention only strengthens issues of class. The neoliberal model argues that democracy and universal suffrage would be likely to politicize the distributional struggle, pervert the market, and fuel inefficiencies. In reality, however, the neoliberal regime, through the capitalist system, tends to commodify labour to such an extent that people were unable to survive outside of the market. Stripping society of the institutional layers that guaranteed social reproduction outside the labour contract meant the people were decommodified. This leads to a difficulty in class mobilization as workers are now nothing more than a commodity to be traded between industries. As such, they are unlikely to gain the political power to translate power into desired policies and reforms. Because the neoliberal regime is so reliant on market forces, the state will not intervene unless the familial or market institutions fail. Esping-Anderson refers to this structure as a residual or welfare state. Such a state is characterized by means-tested social assistance. This often punishes and stigmatizes recipients of social welfare and ultimately creates a system of class stratification, particularly between the middle class who relies on market social insurance and the poor who are reliant on state-sponsored social insurance programs. Generally, the benefits offered by the neoliberal regime are quite small, as social welfare is seen as a cause of poverty and unemployment, and may lead to laziness and moral corruption. The Social-insurance model disagreed with the idea of laissez-faire economic policies. Esping-Anderson suggests that Social-insurance model ideal was the perpetuation of patriarchy and absolutism as the best legal, political, and social shell for capitalism without class struggle.  [v]   The Social-insurance model paradigm sees a more authoritarian state as better fo r everyone, as opposed to a more chaotic system based on free markets. As such, the corporatist model created its first social policies because the corporatists saw liberalism democracy and capitalism as destroying the old hierarchical structure. In sum, the Social-insurance model does not want to see people starve commodification is morally repugnant. Rather, they want people to subordinate self-interest to recognized authority and prevailing institutions.  [vi]   This idea is characterized in the modern social welfare regimes in that it is still reliant on many of the precommodification institutions. Rather than having people be slaves to the market, the corporatist model makes people reliant on the state. Lastly, the universalism model argues that the accumulation of capital disowns people of property. This leads to deeper class divisions. Additionally, social welfare initiatives like those posed by the neoliberal and corporatist model, is more conducive to ensuring class di visions in the name of stability, instead of actually addressing need . The universalism model expands on this premise, arguing that by bringing social policy into the parliament, workers will have less dependence on the market and employers. This, coupled with a strong coalition between labour and other groups, farmers perhaps, leads to a system of equality and socialism through the exercise of political power Around the world, neo-liberalism has been imposed by powerful financial institutions like the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the World Bank and the Inter-American Development Bank. It is raging all over Latin America. The first clear example of neo-liberalism at work came in Chile (with thanks to University of Chicago economist Milton Friedman), after the CIA-supported coup against the popularly elected Allende regime in 1973. Other countries followed, with some of the worst effects in Mexico where wages declined 40 to 50% in the first year of NAFTA while the cost of living rose by 80%. Over 20,000 small and medium businesses have failed and more than 1,000 state-owned enterprises have been privatized in Mexico. In the United States neo-liberalism is destroying welfare programs; attacking the rights of labour (including all immigrant workers); and cutting back social programs. The Republican Contract on America is pure neo-liberalism. Its supporters are working hard to deny protection to children, youth, women, the planet itself, and trying to trick Americans into acceptance by saying this will get government off my back. The beneficiaries of neo-liberalism are a minority of the worlds people. For the vast majority it brings even more suffering than before: suffering without the small, hard-won gains of the last 60 years, suffering without end.

Employee Retention Strategies in Insurance Sector

Employee Retention Strategies in Insurance Sector Increasing pressures on the corporates to cut the costs, resulting in frequent layoffs and downsizing, diminishing employee loyalty, absence of job security and increasing competition in the hunt for talent etc. are just a few reasons why the process of attracting and retaining talent has become an onerous task more than ever before. As the highly talented workforce in organizations, across various levels, enhances skills and job-hop from one company to another, managers seem to be feeling the heat in countering abnormally high attrition rates. One of the key responsibilities of a manager or supervisor is to get the work done through the employees. Moreover, when we say work, it is not just the basic minimum work to get by, but also those tasks that are accomplished when the employees are highly motivated to succeed, excel in their work, and continue to be committed to the organization. Managers and supervisors indeed find it extremely difficult in keeping their star performers satis fied and not wanting to shift their jobs. Employee retention is important in almost all the cases. It is senseless to allow good people to leave your organization because when they leave, they take away with them the intellectual property, relationships, investments (in both time and money), an occasional employee, or two, and a chunk of the organizations future. Employee Retention Strategies helps organizations provide effective employee communication to improve commitment and enhance workforce support for key corporate initiatives. The insurance sector in India is rising rapidly to bring in growth and employment opportunities. Insurance companies are basically human intensive, and human resources act as an undoubted differentiator. Quality manpower and its retention would act as a Litmus test. Turnover of sales force has been high because of low entry and exit barriers. The paper addresses issues of recruitment, retention, and turnover of sales force in insurance companies. An attempt is made to integrate them to Maslows Need Hierarchy. A survey was conducted among 350 employees who worked in or had left insurance companies to analyze factors that inà ¯Ã‚ ¬Ã¢â‚¬Å¡uenced their decisions and job satisfaction. The data were treated with factor analysis. Factors such as Safety Security, Social Esteem, and Personal Work Style emerged as the inà ¯Ã‚ ¬Ã¢â‚¬Å¡uencers to join insurance companies. Primary Needs and Social Self Esteem Needs were the factors associated with job satisfaction; Stress, Career Advancement, and Work Environment emerged as factors for leaving the companies. INTRODUCTION Intense competition and globalization of businesses has put mounting pressure on organizations to deliver more and better than before. Organizations need to develop and deploy human resources that can articulate the vision of the organization and make teams with the synergy to perform at much higher levels. Human resource management (HRM) is a strategic and coherent approach to the management of an organizations most valued assets i.e. the people working there, who individually and collectively, contribute to the achievement of the objectives of the business. Human Resource management is evolving rapidly. The terms human resource management and human resources (HR) have largely replaced the term personnel management as a description of the processes involved in managing people in the organizations. Human resource management is a business practice as well as an academic theory that addresses the practical and theoretical techniques of managing the workforce of an organization. The Human Resources Management (HRM) function includes a variety of activities, and the most important among them is to decide what are the staffing needs of the organization and the ways to fill these needs i.e. whether to hire employees or use independent contractors to hire employees to fill these needs, to recruit and train the best employees, to ensure that they are high performers, to deal with performance issues, and to ensure the organizations personnel and management practices conform to various regulations. Managing the organizations approach to employee records, employee compensation and benefits, and personnel policies are also the included activities. The small businesses whether for-profit or nonprofit ones usually have to carry out these activities themselves because they cannot yet afford part- or full-time help. However, it must be ensured by them that the employees are aware of the personnel policies, which confirm to current regulations. The HRM function and HRD profession have undergone tremendous changes over the past 20-30 years. Many years ago, large organizations looked to the Personnel Department, mostly to manage the paperwork around hiring and paying people. More recently, organizations consider the HR Department as playing a major role in staffing, training, and helping to manage people so that people and the organization are performing at maximum capability in a highly fulfilling manner Human resource builds and drives the knowledge assets of an organization, the value of which has been established to be many times more than the tangibles. In the present scenario, it is becoming important for organizations to focus on finding, developing, and retaining talented employees. This paper aims to enhance understanding of the phenomenon of high employee turnover in the insurance industry and factors that lead to job satisfaction of employees. Researchers have also made an attempt to integrate Maslows Needs Hierarchy to the underlying inà ¯Ã‚ ¬Ã¢â‚¬Å¡uencers for the sales force of insurance companies to join or leave the organization. The findings may be helpful for the companies to improve retention levels. OBJECTIVES: Employee turnover is a larger problem currently faced by insurance companies, as a major part of their revenue is lost. Analyzing the causes of employee turnover is imperative for insurance companies. An exploratory survey is designed, keeping in mind following objectives: To identify the factors which influence the decision to join the Insurance Industry. To analyze the factors which play a major role in job satisfaction. To identify the factors which influence the high attrition rate. To study and formulate the strategies for employee retention. EMPLOYEE RETENTION OVERVIEW: By looking in a dictionary, we are given that the word retention has synonyms like preservation, maintenance, withholding, and custody. Not just the meaning, the concept has different perceptions for the employees and organizations. Effective employee retention is a systematic effort by employers to create and foster an environment that encourages current employees to remain employed by having policies and practices in place that address their diverse needs. A strong retention strategy becomes a powerful recruitment tool. Retention of key employees is critical to the long-term health and success of any organization. It is a known fact that retaining your best employees ensures customer satisfaction, increased product sales, satisfied colleagues, and reporting staff, effective succession planning and deeply embedded organizational knowledge and learning. Why are we concerned about employee retention now, when we also are talking about a reduced state workforce? The reality of hiring freezes and possibly even layoffs during economic slowdowns means it is critical to focus on retaining and enabling our remaining people to reach peak performance. Lean organizations depend heavily on the performance and quality of current employees. Current employees have specialized, institutional knowledge. Employee retention matters as organizational issues such as training time and investment; lost knowledge; insecure employees and a costly candidate search are involved. Hence, the failure to retain an important employee is a costly affair for an organization. The importance of retaining the best talent in the organization is usually realized by intelligent employers INDIAN INSURANCE SECTOR AT A GLANCE The insurance sector in India is one of the booming sectors of the economy and is growing at the rate of 15-20% per annum. Together with banking services, it contributes to about 7% of the countrys GDP. The sector has completed a full circle in India from being an open competitive market to nationalization, and back to a liberalized market again. The government of India liberalized the insurance sector in March 2000, lifting all entry restrictions for private players and allowing foreign players to enter the market with some limits on direct foreign ownership. Under the current guidelines, there is a 26% equity cap for foreign partners in an insurance company. There is a proposal to increase this limit to 49%. With several reforms and policy regulations, the Indian Insurance Sector has witnessed tremendous growth in the recent past. According to a report by the Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India (Assocham), a growth of over 200% is likely to be seen in Indian insur ance business by 2009-10, in which private insurance business would grow at 140% in view of aggressive marketing techniques. Insurance companies in India are growing vertically and horizontally bringing growth and new employment opportunities. Even after having so many private players in the insurance sector, still the largest company is the government owned, Life Insurance Corporation of India. Insurance sector is an intensively people-oriented business and human resources will be the undoubted differentiator. The quality of work force attracted and retained by insurers and how their abilities and ambitions are harnessed would be the litmus test for the industry. Traditionally, a large number of insurance agents, who work on a commission basis, manage the insurance business. The turnover of insurance agents has usually been high in this business. The insurance sector faces high rates of employee turnover. The highest employee turnover is at the financial advisors (agent) level, where the entry barriers are low but targets and work pressures are very high. The insurance companies in India are: Bajaj Allianz Life Insurance Company Limited Birla Sun Life Insurance Co. Ltd HDFC Standard life Insurance Co. Ltd ICICI Prudential Life Insurance Co. Ltd. ING Vysya Life Insurance Company Ltd. Life Insurance Corporation of India Max New York Life Insurance Co. Ltd Met Life India Insurance Company Ltd. Kotak Mahindra Old Mutual Life Insurance Limited SBI Life Insurance Co. Ltd Tata AIG Life Insurance Company Limited Reliance Life Insurance Company Limited. Aviva Life Insurance Co. India Pvt. Ltd. Shriram Life Insurance Co, Ltd. Sahara India Life Insurance Bharti AXA Life Insurance Future Generali Life Insurance IDBI Fortis Life Insurance Canara HSBC Oriental Bank of Commerce Life Insurance Religare Life Insurance DLF Pramerica Life Insurance Star Union Dai-ichi Life Insurance Agriculture Insurance Company of India Apollo DKV Insurance Cholamandalam MS General Insurance HDFC Ergo General Insurance Company ICICI Lombard General Insurance IFFCO Tokio General Insurance National Insurance Company Ltd New India Assurance Oriental Insurance Company Reliance General Insurance Royal Sundaram Alliance Insurance Shriram General Insurance Company Limited Tata AIG General Insurance United India Insurance Universal Sompo General Insurance Co. Ltd VIEWS OF RECRUITERS IN INDIAN INSURANCE COMPANIES The attrition rate is about 35% in the first year of recruitment. This goes down to about 18% by the fourth year. Most of those who drop out are non-performers, as told by the Executive Director of the Kotak Mahindra Mutual Life Insurance Company; he attributes it to the high expectations on the part of the agents. Most people think that they can make a lot of money in a short span of time. It is a high-pressure job. Sustenance requires constant networking and acquiring new relationships that requires a lot of discipline. MD Kotak Life Insurance opines that it is a sunrise industry, many people just want to join the race, but cannot retain the enthusiasm till the end of a year. The attrition rate in the industry is pitched between 14% and 38% at this rate; it will soon rival the 50 per cent churn rate of the ITs-BPO sector. Country Manager, Tata AIG, argues that the industry today is more at an attraction stage; insurers are also attracting a lot of talent from banking, Fast Moving C onsumer Goods, BPO-IT industries. Head (hr and Admin, HDFC Standard Life Insurance) stated that attrition rates are at 14% in the industry. Companies have to go beyond building a brand to offer the agents careers and let them grow with the market. While retaining employees may be a problem, attracting fresh talent is still relatively easy. The slowdown in the Fast Moving Consumer Goods and Consumer Durables sector and people trained by direct marketing companies like Amway and Orflamme, too find a way into selling insurance. Head (hr ICICI Prudential Life Insurance) opines that companies cannot hold on to people, especially among frontline sales force, and this will rise as the market matures, since people are actually experiencing large amount of money coming in. Managing director and CEO (Prudential Life Insurance), the hr challenge is being addressed by offering employees learning and growth opportunities. The company offers opportunities for cross-functional learning, skills and talent development, thereby expanding ones job profile. Further, employees also develop a sense of belongingness with the company. Recruiters explain that high employee turnover rates significantly increase the investments that are made in the employees. The problem of losing funds in employee acquisition is prominent. Companies invest significant amounts of money and time in training in the initial phase; but these investments do not always get converted into actual profits. In the case of the insurance industry, each agent level recruitment costs a company nearly Rs.5000, other associated costs of training and administrative service are also involved. Each agent works in a non-productive or partly productive mode in the organization for nearly the first 2-3 months. An employee leaving the organization within the first 6 months is a bad investment for the company. While most insurers were not willing to share the number of staff members they lost to competitors and other sectors i n recent times, industry sources indicate that newer companies like Reliance, Bharti Axa, IDBI Fortis, Pantaloons-Generali and others have been active in fresh recruitment of officials from established companies like ICICI Prudential Life, Birla Sun Life, HDFC Standard Life. LITERATURE REVIEW Researchers have done a literature review on the issues related to the reasons for and consequences of the employee loss and how the management may deal with turnover in various industries, in order to have a fair understanding of the strategies that can be adopted by the Insurance companies. William J Rothwell (May 2008) in his article, Motivating for Retention refers to motivation as a topic of perennial interest. As organizational leaders begin a war for talent, they need to consider new ways to motivate people to stay. Since much research indicates that people often make decisions to leave because of their supervisors treatment with them, it only makes sense to consider ways of improving managers treatment of workers and this article focuses on that particular issue. While many theories of motivation have been proposed, many managers today are looking for ways to retain their most talented people. One way to do that is to focus attention on how a manager treats the workers. This article also offers some thoughts on what behaviors to examine for improvement and has provided two instruments that may be helpful in doing that. Dongho Kim (2006) in his article Employee Motivation: Just Ask Your Employees says that the imperative need of discovering, comprehending and implementing employee motivation has been a principal concern for organizations, managers and even first line supervisors, as employee motivation has been and will be the deciding factor in work performance as well as the success or failure of an organization. The purpose of this paper is to re-emphasize and analyze the necessary components of employee motivation so that the contemporary managers, especially those who are inexperienced, can enhance their knowledge and understanding of employee motivation. If a company knows as to why its employees come to work on time, stay with the company for their full working lives, and are productive, then the company may be able to ensure that all of their employees behave that way. The priorities of employee motivational factors change over time, and there is more than one reason why these changes occur. The reasons may be the economic conditions, change of the working environment or industries, labor market conditions, industry competitions, change in the workers attitude etc. An organization must realize that the employee motivation and its process are there to motivate its employees, and hence, the employee input must be valued and included throughout this process. In todays knowledge-based economy, the most challenging task before a HR Manager is to motivate and retain employees. Though various attempts have been made in this direction, there has not been much of success and no one knows as to what exactly is the route to employees heart. Sanjeev Sharma (22 July 2006), in his article, A Right Way to Motivate an Employee is to Win his Heart, focuses on the reasons why motivation is ignored even though it is of greater significance motivation is intangible, drives all human actions, can be observed but not measured and is lost in a twilight zone; he compares motivation to that of a pop-up fly ball which can fall into cracks, if not handled or played effectively. Further, he explains the need for motivation and profile 10 areas that powerfully impact motivation which include economic rewards, promotion and transfers, opportunity to grow, challenging and stimulating work, autonomy, leadership, informal psychic rewards, goals and fun. Helping the management team optimize employees emotions will enable the organization to make significant impact on the primary sources of competitive advantage in todays market place. Beach, Brereton, and Cliff (2003) in their article Workforce turnover in FIFO mining operations in Australia: An exploratory study. examined that the term turnover refers to employee movements that create vacancies within an organizational unit. These vacancies may be the result of resignations, transfers, retirements, dismissals, or the completion of fixed term contracts. Jyothi and Venkatesh (2006), in their book Human Resource Management, have told that the application of skill or competence leads to performance and performance is the criterion for evaluating effectiveness. Therefore, a pay-for-competence program enhances productivity and product quality, reduces absenteeism, turnover, and accident rates. Campbell and Baldwin(1993), in their article Recruitment difficulties and skill shortages: an analysis of labor market information in Yorkshire and Humberside, suggest that in many industrialized countries there is a concern that skills shortages and mismatches are appearing in the labor market and that policy makers are aware that recruitment difficulties and skill shortages may reduce the competitiveness of small and large firms. Islam and Rasad (2006) in their article, Employee performance evaluation by the AHP: A case study, studies that employee performance appraisal has been practiced by numerous organizations since centuries. Though performance appraisal system has been debated by many, however, overall, it is viewed that performance appraisal is an inseparable part of organizational life. Wu (2005), in his article A DEA approach to understanding the performance of Taiwans steel industries 1970-1996, mentions performance management as a complex problem and it involves various kinds of judgments about which performance measure to use. Evaluation scores depend upon these criteria heavily. Hale (1998) in his article Strategic rewards: Compensation and benefits management. stated that employers cited recruitment costs of 50% to 60% of an employees first years salary and up to 100% for certain specialized, high-skill positions. Bowen and Shuster (1986) in their article American professors: A national resource imperiled. stated that while all constituting elements of an organization are important for its success, it is its enhanced ability to attract and retain the best quality talent that separates it from the others. Abbasid and Holman (2000) in their article Turnover: The real bottom-line. Public Personnel Management sought to determine the impact of employee turnover on an organization and found that excessive employee turnover often engenders far-reaching consequences and at the extreme may jeopardize efforts to attain the organizational objectives. Elangovan (2001) in his article Casual ordering of stress, satisfaction and commitment, and intention to quit: A structural equation analysis. has argued that there is a reciprocal link between organizational commitment and turnover intention, i.e. lower commitment increases turnover intention, which lowers commitment further. Abdul Rahman, Raza Naqvi, and Ismail Ramay (2008) in their article Measuring turnover intention: A study of it professionals in Pakistan. revealed that job satisfaction and organizational commitment had a negative effect on turnover intentions, whereas perceived alternative job opportunities had a significant positive correlation with turnover intentions and is the major factor associated with turnover intention among it Professionals in Pakistan. Van Dick et al. (2004) in their article Should I stay or should I go? Explaining turnover intentions with organizational identification and job satisfaction. have also identified job satisfaction as a predictor of turnover intention; however, they argue that it is a mediating variable between organizational identification and turnover intention. According to their study, organizational identification feeds into job satisfaction, which, in turn, predicts turnover intention. Gomez-Mejia, Balkin and Cardy (2003) in their article Managing Human Resources have analyzed that socialization is the process of orienting new employees to the organization or the unit in which they will be working. Socialization can make the difference between a new workers feeling like an outsider and feeling like the member of the team. Zheng and Lamond (2009) in their article Forthcoming Organizational determinants of employee turnover for multinational companies in Asia. found out that training, size, length of operation and the nature of the industry are significantly related to turnover. Determining what constitutes high turnover is a complex issue, because there is no simple linear relationship between turnover rates and the social and/or economic performance of companies. Issues ranging from poor job fit, lack of recognition or support from senior management, uncertainty about the organizations future and poor management communication are some of the reasons why people start looking for other opportunities. Reasons that can be attributed to high employee turnover in the insurance sector are: Being an insurance agent in India is seen as a societal stigma as there is uncertainty of job and income attached to it. People join insurance companies as a part time job or a gap filler occupation and not as a long-term career. Very few competent people want to become agents owing to low social status attached to it. It is a high-pressure job. It is expected from an agent to understand the customers needs and sell the products accordingly. This process involves a high level of persuasion and a sustained effort for a long period. A lot of people succumb to such pressures. The expectation achievement gap adds to the turnover. Many people are lured to the profession with a high earning potential. However, to earn a decent income, agents require a lot of patience, perseverance, and persuasion in the field. During early phase, the earnings of the agents are low despite hard work. This expectation achievement gap leads many of them to break down in the initial period of joining the profession. Scarce skilled or experienced human resource in insurance market leads to wide scale poaching and head hunting amongst the competitors. The industry has yet to witness mature hr processes, like work force planning, training, motivation, and retention. The lack of preplanned recruitment leads the firms to indulge in poaching human resources working in other insurance firms. With insurers having a high percentage of the workforce from multiple sectors (non-domain), the chances of losing employees to other fields, like Fast Moving Consumer Goods companies or other financial outfits, are high. Employee Turnover is perhaps paid the least attention among various employees issues. It is shrugged off as inevitable. Few companies take a proactive approach towards reducing employee turnover. It always includes substantial costs of replacing the key employee who fall into the category of high performers. Replacing includes the costs of recruitment advertisement, referral bonuses, selection testing, training costs, etc. Moreover, turnover results in loss of time and efforts, low productivity, loss of morale, loss of knowledge and so on. DEALING WITH EMPLOYEE TURNOVER Organizations that keep the front line staff motivated and equip them with the right tools are most likely to enjoy long-term superior performance (Rogers and Peccoud 2005). The challenge of creating a dynamic, enthusiastic, motivated front line environment is an opportunity in disguise for organizations. Organizations need employees who are committed, à ¯Ã‚ ¬Ã¢â‚¬Å¡exible, and ready to participate in decision-making. Retaining such employees in the organizations is becoming imperative in todays competitive environment. Behavioral research studies show that all human activities including jobs are directed towards satisfying certain needs. Patterns of individual behavior and motivation differ, because individuals seek to fulfill different sets of needs in different ways as adopted from their environmental and social backgrounds. Maslow (1943) propounded the Hierarchy of Needs theory originally applied as a general theory of psychological motivation. However, the usefulness of its the oretical model was adopted by organizational theorist McGregor in 1960, who applied Maslows theory in the work place. Later on, the Hierarchy of Needs theory has been adopted and incorporated into applications in many areas in business (Shoura and Singh 1998). In the management field, it is an effective approach towards understanding motivation. Motivation is connected to several levels of the needs hierarchy of human beings. Appreciation, love, respect and fulfilling work are several motivators other than monetary benefits that an individual looks for. An attempt is made in the paper to align Maslows Hierarchy of needs to the findings of the survey to offer a better understanding of employee turnover. Maslow suggests that each individual aspires for a higher-level unfulfilled need once they have gratified the lower order need. An individuals level of aspirations rise when needs on lower levels are satisfied. The lower four layers of the pyramid are called deficiency needs or D-needs, physiological, safety and security, love and belongingness and esteem. With the exception of the lowest layer of physiological needs, if these deficiency needs are not met, the body gives no physical indication but the individual feels anxious and tensed. Various levels of Maslows Hierarchy of Needs are analyzed  in the perspective of insurance agents: PHYSIOLOGICAL NEEDS: These include the most basic needs that are vital to survival, including the need for water, air, food, and sleep. These needs are the most basic and instinctive needs in the hierarchy. All other needs become secondary until these physiological needs are met. In the perspective of insurance agents, these needs are addressed by the compensation plan. Insurance companies primarily work on incentive-based compensation plans, which lead to income uncertainties. An employee looks forward to a sufficient compensation structure, which would take care of all of his/her basic physiological needs. A robust, safe, and easy to understand compensation plan may retain employees who are striving to materialize their physiological needs. It is necessary for the companies to update the compensation plan with time, so that it fulfills the physiological needs of the individual and his/her family at different stages of their lives. SAFETY NEEDS: Such needs are important for survival, but they are not as demanding as the physiological needs. Desire for steady employment, health insurance, safe neighborhoods, and shelter from the environment could be a few. There are two aspects of the security, which would concern a person in the insurance business. One is the personal physical security while on field; and the psychological fear of job security with high targets is the second. SOCIAL NEEDS: Maslow states that people seek to overcome feelings of loneliness and alienation. This involves both giving and receiving love, affection and the sense of belongingness. This need of an individual gets highly affected in insurance companies predominantly. Individuals do not gain a high status in society, which is attributed to the social stigma of being an insurance agent, and big target pressure causes separation from ones family, friends, and relatives. Employees have been found complaining about not being able to spend ample time with their family and friends. The insurance companies may compensate for this by creating a fun-filled work environment and developing a conducive work environment. Teambuilding initiatives can be taken by mangers to inculcate the sense of belongingness. NEEDS FOR ESTEEM: A normal human desires to be accepted and valued by others. People engage themselves to gaining recognition, attaining a sense of contribution, feeling accepted and self-valued, be it in a profession or hobby. Imbalances at this level can result in low self-esteem or an inferiority complex. Those working as employees in an insurance company are viewed as people of comparatively less ability. The attitude is developed due to mass recruitment undertaken by insurance firms, where not much focus is placed on selecting suitable candidates. This diminution in esteem leads to leaving the industry on getting a better opportunity. Many companies are focusing on creating a positive image of the industry by using the media, though much is yet to be done. Measures like change in job title and nature of the job could be positive steps in this direction. As the industry matures, the positioning needs a change from being a mere moneymaker option to an industry that provides learni ng and high growth opportunities. NEED FOR SELF-ACTUALIZATION: Maslow describes self-actualization as a persons need to be and do what he/she was born to do. These needs make themselves felt in signs of restlessness. A person

Discussion of Murder Mysteries Essay -- Papers

Murder mysteries have a motive to start off the investigation. Murder mysteries always have detectives, murder/ killing, alibi ´s, victims, weapons, evidence, a twist in a tail, a bit of suspense or maybe a lot of suspense. The location and the setting are some of main factors for a murder mysteries. If a murder mystery doesn ´t contain any of these, it cannot be defined as a murder mystery. Lamb to the Slaughter was written by Roald Dahl. It was first published in 1954. Lamb to the Slaughter is written in speech of time the story was published. In Lamb to the Slaughter the use of present day modern language so automatically gives the impression that it is written in present day modern and now. Roald Dahl is more famous for writing children ´s story. Roald Dahl always writes about ordinary people who get involved in difficult situations for his stories for adults. Lamb to the Slaughter is more prominent as an adults story. This is a murder mystery and one of the two short stories that I am going to investigate. The other short story which I will be investigating is The Speckled Band. The Speckled Band was written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. It was first published in 1892. The Speckled Band is also written in speech of the time the Speckled Band was first Published. The language of that time seemed to be much formal as accurate English and much less slang was used. Holmes and Watson speak very typically English and p... ... manner that the reader ´s suspension of disbelief is never broken. We are with Mary Maloney from the first sentence of the story, and only at the end do we realise that we never really knew her at all. The irony of it all is that the police who were puzzled why they could not find the murder weapon we are consuming it. This was almost a sick comical twist to the ending. When she laughs didn ´t seem funny but more sinister and evil. Compare The Speckled Band, Lamb to the Slaughter is easy to work out from the Speckled Band and more predictable. So if you are looking for a challenge The Speckled Band is the one to read but I think for the younger reader ´s Lamb to the Slaughter would be better. The Speckled was much more complicated and had much more twists and turns in it, and you weren ´t sure what was going to come next.

Meditation Essay -- essays research papers

Meditation is a private devotion or mental exercise consisting of a number of techniques of concentration, contemplation, and abstraction to heighten spiritual awareness. It has also been defined as, â€Å"Consciously directing your attention to alter your state of consciousness.† Meditation has been practiced around the world since the ancient times. It was used back then and still used today for spiritual growth (becoming more conscious). Meditation is mostly concerned about your attention, where it is directed to, and how it alters or changes a person’s consciousness.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Although meditation has been used for spiritual growth, recently it has become a way of finding a peaceful bridge between stress and the fast paced world around us. It has become a way of taking time out of all the distractions and stress that occurs in our lives and relaxing and finding ourselves. Some other uses of meditation include healing, emotional cleansing and balancing, deepening concentration and insight, manifesting change, developing intuition, unlocking creativity, exploring higher realities, and finding inner guidance.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  There is no exact way to meditate. Different people meditate in different ways. However, there are many similar guidelines or ways that people go about meditating. First, put your expectations aside. Don’t expect to all of a sudden have your consciousness altered. Be open to meditation but don’t try to force something to hap...

Affirmative Action: The White Women-have Made The Greatest Gains

â€Å"Affirmative action was orginally designed to help minorities, but women-especially white women-have made the greatest gains as a result of these programs†(Gross, 1996). Affirmative action is a growing argument among our society. It is multifaceted and very often defined vaguely. Many people define affirmative action as the ability to strive for equality and inclusiveness. Others might see it as a quote-based system for different minority groups. I agree and support affirmative actions in that individual†s should be treated equally. I feel affirmative action as an assurance that the best qualified person will receive the job. Is affirmative action fair? In 1974, a woman named Rose was truned down for a supervisory job in favor of a male. She was told that she was the most qualified person, but the position was going to be filled by a man, because he had a family to support. Five years before that, when Rose was about to fill an entry-level position in bank! ing, a personnel officer outlined the woman†s pay scale, which was $25 to $50 month less than what men were being payed for the same position. Rose was furious because she felt this was descriminating to her. She confronted the personnel officer and he saw nothing wrong with it. Thanks to affirmative action today things like these situations are becoming more rare and/or corrected more quickly. Affirmative action has definately helped women and minorities in their careers, but it has yet to succed in the goal of equality to the fullest for the business world to woment and minorities. Some observers argue that women have made huge strides! with the help of affirmative action. They now hold 40 percent of all corporate middle-management jobs, and the number of women-owned businesses has grown by 57 percent since 1982†³(Blackwood, 1995). â€Å"Affirmative action was desinged to give qualified minorities a chance to compete on equal footing with Whites† (Chappell, 1995). Equal opportunities for the blacks, for the most part, has remained more wishful-thinking than fact. Black students are continuing to struggle to seek an education, black business owners are still competing against their White counterparts, and black workers are experienceing an unemployment rate twice that of Whites and hold dead-end, labor-intensive, low-paying jobs. â€Å"Few can argue that racism is still rampant in awarding craontcts, jobs, and educational opportunities, eventhough it†s been proven benefical to have peop[le of different races with different ideas and different experiences working toward the same goal† (Chappell, 1995). The employment outlook for minorities is grim, but not hopeless. We definaltely need affirmative action to overcome the disparities of employment that exist int his country. A recent Urban Benchmarks† study found that of 71 metro areas surveyed nationwide, Pittsburgh had the highest rate of employment-related problems among non-Hispanic whites between! the ages of 25 and 54 and the sixth highest rate among African Americans in the same age group. We have a lot of problems with basic education here and if you don†t have basic education, you have no chance of getting a good job because competition is increasing for everyone. We must make sure that we educate our potential work force, including minorities, or our competitive edge, if we have one, will continue to decline in golbal markets. Many jobs today are in the technician and technologist area. â€Å"Jobs require more than a high-school diploma,but less than a four-year degree–such as an associate degree or certificate fro! m a vocational or trade school† (Kovatch, 1996). As more and more women faced discrimination in large firms, more decided to strike out on their own. In conclusion, most Americans know that the deck is stacked against poor kids. They also realize that, because of past discrimination, an extraordinary number of those facing unequal opportunities are black. So, while 75 percent of Americans oppose racial preferences, according to a 1995 Washington Post/ABC poll, two-thirds with to â€Å"change† affirmative actionprograms rather than â€Å"do away with them entirely†. But the public also realized that, in real life, the legacy of discrimination is not always so neat. It is diffuse, and it requires a broader remedy. Affirmative Action: The White Women-have Made The Greatest Gains â€Å"Affirmative action was orginally designed to help minorities, but women-especially white women-have made the greatest gains as a result of these programs†(Gross, 1996). Affirmative action is a growing argument among our society. It is multifaceted and very often defined vaguely. Many people define affirmative action as the ability to strive for equality and inclusiveness. Others might see it as a quote-based system for different minority groups. I agree and support affirmative actions in that individual†s should be treated equally. I feel affirmative action as an assurance that the best qualified person will receive the job. Is affirmative action fair? In 1974, a woman named Rose was truned down for a supervisory job in favor of a male. She was told that she was the most qualified person, but the position was going to be filled by a man, because he had a family to support. Five years before that, when Rose was about to fill an entry-level position in bank! ing, a personnel officer outlined the woman†s pay scale, which was $25 to $50 month less than what men were being payed for the same position. Rose was furious because she felt this was descriminating to her. She confronted the personnel officer and he saw nothing wrong with it. Thanks to affirmative action today things like these situations are becoming more rare and/or corrected more quickly. Affirmative action has definately helped women and minorities in their careers, but it has yet to succed in the goal of equality to the fullest for the business world to woment and minorities. Some observers argue that women have made huge strides! with the help of affirmative action. They now hold 40 percent of all corporate middle-management jobs, and the number of women-owned businesses has grown by 57 percent since 1982†³(Blackwood, 1995). â€Å"Affirmative action was desinged to give qualified minorities a chance to compete on equal footing with Whites† (Chappell, 1995). Equal opportunities for the blacks, for the most part, has remained more wishful-thinking than fact. Black students are continuing to struggle to seek an education, black business owners are still competing against their White counterparts, and black workers are experienceing an unemployment rate twice that of Whites and hold dead-end, labor-intensive, low-paying jobs. â€Å"Few can argue that racism is still rampant in awarding craontcts, jobs, and educational opportunities, eventhough it†s been proven benefical to have peop[le of different races with different ideas and different experiences working toward the same goal† (Chappell, 1995). The employment outlook for minorities is grim, but not hopeless. We definaltely need affirmative action to overcome the disparities of employment that exist int his country. A recent Urban Benchmarks† study found that of 71 metro areas surveyed nationwide, Pittsburgh had the highest rate of employment-related problems among non-Hispanic whites between! the ages of 25 and 54 and the sixth highest rate among African Americans in the same age group. We have a lot of problems with basic education here and if you don†t have basic education, you have no chance of getting a good job because competition is increasing for everyone. We must make sure that we educate our potential work force, including minorities, or our competitive edge, if we have one, will continue to decline in golbal markets. Many jobs today are in the technician and technologist area. â€Å"Jobs require more than a high-school diploma,but less than a four-year degree–such as an associate degree or certificate fro! m a vocational or trade school† (Kovatch, 1996). As more and more women faced discrimination in large firms, more decided to strike out on their own. In conclusion, most Americans know that the deck is stacked against poor kids. They also realize that, because of past discrimination, an extraordinary number of those facing unequal opportunities are black. So, while 75 percent of Americans oppose racial preferences, according to a 1995 Washington Post/ABC poll, two-thirds with to â€Å"change† affirmative actionprograms rather than â€Å"do away with them entirely†. But the public also realized that, in real life, the legacy of discrimination is not always so neat. It is diffuse, and it requires a broader remedy.

Science fair project: sun light vs artificial sun light

Sun light vs articical light One of the main benefits of artificial light is that you can control how many hours of light per day your plants receive. This way, those living in northern or southern latitudes can provide their plants with light for growth and development even when the sun sets early, in essence tricking the plants into believing that it is summertime and that they should continue to grow rather than become dormant or, in the case of annuals, die. In addition, your plants will receive constant direct light for as long as you leave the lights turned on.Read more: http://www. ehow. om/about_6720270_sunlight-artificial-light-plant- growth. html#ixzz2isDOMJQa Incandescent Light Although affordable, incandescent lights provide little of the blue-spectrum light essential to plant growth. They are less efficient than other artificial lights as they produce less illumination while utilizing more energy. To draw the most benefit from an incandescent light, you would have to pla ce it close to your plants, and because incandescent lights produce more heat than other types of bulbs, this would likely result in burning your plants.Incandescent bulbs also have very short lives. High- Intensity Discharge Light High-intensity discharge lights produce far more illumination while using much less electricity than incandescent bulbs. In addition, while they produce a considerable amount of heat, you can hang them twice as far away from your plants as you would an incandescent bulb, so burning of the plants is less likely. High-pressure sodium lamps emit much red-spectrum light and little in the blue spectrum, making them ideal for greenhouse flowers to supplement natural sunlight and encourage blooming.Metal halide bulbs emit more blue-spectrum light, making them perfect or indoor growing operations for plants that will not flower, such as decorative plants and herbs. HPS bulbs last 12 times longer than incandescent bulbs, and MH bulbs can last five times as long. F luorescent Light Fluorescent lights produce less luminosity than high-intensity discharge lights, though far more than do incandescent bulbs. Fluorescents also produce very little heat and can hang very close to your plants.Bulbs rated in the higher Kelvin temperature range (5,000 to 6,500) emit more blue-spectrum light and those in the lower range (2,700 to 3,000) emit more red-spectrum light, although both also provide ull-spectrum light in lower intensities. Compact fluorescent lights will last five times as long as incandescent bulbs, and the straight T-5 full-spectrum fluorescents will last 10 times as long. Read more. nttp://www . enow. com/aoou growth. html#ixzz2isEHgmnp In general, sunlight is better for plant growth as it is intense and contains the full spectrum of electromagnetic radiation required for optimal plant growth.Artificial light, if it is an ordinary room light, will only support low-light tolerant plants. Most artificial light sources (fluorescent and incandes cent) do not provide the full isible light spectrum that is required by plants for optimal growth, this results in plants that are tall and spindly (etiolated) and sometimes discolored. However, there are special lights with a spectrum that is tailored for growing plants. They have to be on for longer hours than sunlight, but as long as a plant is getting enough light-energy to manufacture its food, it will grow well.It doesn't matter whether that light is coming from the sun or from grow lights. The downside to extended exposure to light is the plants metabolic functions operate twice as hard for the same amount of output. Recent studies have also highlighted ome of the negative aspects of extended photosynthetic periods (extended light reactive period and shortened dark reaction period). There are times when artificial light has an advantage. Hydroponic gardening with artificial light makes it possible to grow plants in unreliable climates that are lacking in sunshine – thi nk of the long â€Å"night† periods of areas of the northern hemisphere.In some places in Canada forage for animals is produced indoors during the winter months in artificial conditions. Supplemental lighting is used in horticulture to produce plants in flower outside of their normal flowering period. For instance Christmas cactus, poinsettias, tulips, narcissus, chrysanthemums, etc. Many houseplants grow better under artificial lamps, not because of the lights, but because it keeps them away from drafty windowsills! Plants will grow better under sunlight; artificial light lacks the complete spectrum of light provided by the sun. But a photon is a photon – and light is light – wnetner It comes Trom tne sun or a Tlasnllgnt vastly more energy comes Trom tne sun than from any artificial light. But the light from the sun is different from a street lamp another way: most artificial light doesn't emit as much energy in the red and blue region of the light spectrum as sunlight does. In other words, different ratios of reds, yellows and blues all combine together to make up white sunlight.Researchers can successfully grow plants using only artificial light in growth chambers. But sunlight is best for most plants. It's generally more intense than artificial light, and it's pretty equally distributed among the different wavelengths that earthly plants have evolved to like best. And there's another difference between lamps – even â€Å"grow lamps† – and sunlight. Grow lamps need energy to light up. Sunlight is unlimited and free. http://earthsky. org/human-world/artificial-light-plant- growth