Public Human Resource Management Essay Example for Free

Public Human Resource Management Essay Please respond to the following: * Analyze the topics discussed in Chapter 1, with the exception of the laws. Select two topics and discuss two positive effects and two challenges the topic poses for human resource departments in the public sector. Performance Managementfor human resource departments it is important; to utilize the skills, focus and provide incentives for employees that are based on performance to achieve the organization’s goal. Human resource departments need to provide training and programs that are accessible to help enhance members of the organization’s learning with constant changes in policies and procedures. Two challenges posed to human resource departments; the inability to provide essential information to access or evaluate an employee’s performance accurately, Failure to provide quality and satisfactory customers services to connect with a task group with the strategies and plans the organization has implemented. Improvement in Labor Managementfor human resource departments it mean networking and communicating with various industrials and labor force can be a way to improve relationships even though they may not agree on some issues. Implementing policies and strategic plans that will benefit the public and private globally as well as nationally is vital in society today. Challenges posed to human resource departments; a human resource department or union disputing and failing to negotiation and resolve an issue, Trends in the change or advancement of technology and the ability of human resource departments to deal with the change especially in a global labor market. The outsourcings of jobs and employees that perform their jobs without being in a traditional workplace can create challenges for human resource departments when there is less or no communication among staff. Two topics that have an effect for human resources are 1) Recruitment and 2) Training and development. Two positive effects for recruitment is that there is a need to  fill 300k positions annually, and their is a need to attract quality applicants. Two challenges for Recruitment are recruiting qualified applicants, and keeping up with the rapid pace to hire the most qualified applicants. Two positive effects for training and development is that it will allow employees to take advantage of gaining knowledge to increase their chances of getting promoted. It will also allow companies to attract the best employees. Two challenges would consist of the cost for setting up training and development, and the alloted time allowed for an employee to complete neccessary training. Week1-Dq2 Public Human Resource Management in the News Please respond to the following: * From the e-Activities, discuss the current event you reviewed from the selected agency and determine the cause of the issue, noting if the cause was due to neglected public bureaucracies from elected and appointed officials. Discuss at least two results of the issue. Using USA.gov, I chose to investigate the United States Postal Service (USPS) agency. I was aware that this group was in financial strain for some time, but I found it interesting to review some of the latest information regarding key problems and possible solutions. Currently, the USPS operates with about 650,000 unionized personnel. Employees sort, package, transport, and deliver the public mail. Although the organization charges for its services (postage rates, etc), as an agency, much of its budget is subsidized by public funds. In discussing the current situation, the Washington Post reported, â€Å"first-class mail volume [is] plummeti ng as Americans conduct more business and communications through the Internet.† Perhaps what is most important is the fact that this trend is continuing as the USPS reportedly lost $16 billion in the 2012 fiscal year. For this reason the USPS issue has been debated in Congress for years and has recently been one of several key debates for lawmakers during the â€Å"fiscal cliff† dilemma. In the past Congress has had difficulty deciding whether to adopt solutions such as suspending Saturday delivery and limiting other specialty services. Also, there is the question of how much public money should go to USPS employee retirement benefits and labor contracts. To many individuals, this is traditionally seen as a bureaucratic problem; however, personally I do not believe that the problem is purely the result of public  sector negligence. Like many government services, it is more likely that the answer lies in serious reform rather than complete suspension. Interestingly, I located an article about the nonprofit National Academy of Public Administration – that suggested a kind of public/private hybrid approach to fix the USPS’s difficulties. The concept entails â€Å"farming out† much of the behind the scenes process while a federal letter carrier would still handle front-line delivery services. What is apparent is that there are several significant results from this issue including the continuing postal rate increases, the reduction of service (e.g. limited post office hours), and continued legislative debate of whether this public service is vital enough to continue to ask taxpayers to subsidize what seems to be a failing business formula. http://www.usa.gov/directory/federal/us-postal-service.shtml http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/think-tank-to-study-privatizing-most-postal-service-operations/2013/01/03/2adc0b08-55ed-11e2-8b9e-dd8773594efc_story.html http://about.usps.com/who-we-are/postal-history/universal-service-postal-monopoly-history.pdf http://www.gao.gov/assets/210/203772.pdf wk2dq1 Building HRM Capacity Please respond to the following: * Imagine you are the consultant for the agency you selected in the Week 1 e-Activity (you may choose from one of the e-Activities). Assume the selected agency is large but poorly performing in a highly visible public program which did not have performance measures for employees. The public program serves over two million citizens across the 52 states. Propose and provide a rationale for two change strategies to address the agency’s performance. * Propose two methods of performance measures for the department to meet within six months. Provide a rationale for each method. * In week one I selected to analyze the United States Postal Service (USPS). Over the past decade this agency has been under increasing scrutiny regarding operation costs, procedures and personnel. Since last week’s discussion I took a few minutes to speak to my postal carrier in order to gain some perspective on internal communication within the agency. It was  surprising to learn that the departments within the organization are isolated in such a way that – with exception to â€Å"water cooler† talk – most USPS workers have about the same understanding of the agency’s problem as the general public. * * After reading the â€Å"Instructor’s Insight† supplemental article, I started to consider how the USPS personnel might benefit from a more constitutional administrative approach. Like many, I have noticed that customer service (or just simple pride in the job) is severely lacking with many USPS employees. Considering today’s job market, one would assume that individuals would take their work and team management very seriously. One might also say that it appears that some postal workers are immune from accountability. * * This said, one of the strategies that I would implement would be to reform the organizational culture. It should be a privilege to be employed by and serve the American people, while also being trusted to process citizens’ personal property. I agree with Newbold’s (2010) article, in that, public personnel members should pledge to uphold the U.S. Constitution through their service. I also feel that department management should be given the authority to make certain that this new attitude sustains. A simple professional attitude change within the organization can lead to greater productivity, and it could be measured in 6-months via public reaction (exit surveys, media reports, increase in sales, etc). * * After reading Chapter 2 in the Riccucci (2012) book, it also became apparent to me that the method in which recruiting and managing personnel could also benefit from change. In the section regarding â€Å"Strengthening Teaching† Klinger (2012) writes, â€Å"†¦transition includes ethical competencies: the ability to balance conflicting expectations like employee rights and organizational effectiveness†¦ (p22)† Balancing job productivity and employee needs is a challenge in almost every industry. Perhaps another solution might be to focus not only on hiring quality personnel, but continually reassessing employee qualities and how it might best serve the organization. * * Individuals can be motivated by compensation; however, exceptional performance tends to stem from passion. My recommendation would be that 21st-century HRM has to be focused on the individual’s strengths and weaknesses and not what the worker’s union requires. This in my opinion is currently a shortcoming of the USPS. Therefore, I would offer a 6-month challenge that involves department managers communicating with each staff members every 2 to 4 weeks – and document at least one unique item that each staff person could offer that would benefit the USPS operation team. I believe that with a slow transition, personality can be infused into traditional staff procedure which will lead to empowerment and greater productivity.

Trepanation, Spirituality and Loneliness :: Biology Essays Research Papers

The search for a "higher level of consciousness" is one that seems to be as old as consciousness itself. Practices such as the ritualistic or religious consumption of peyote, ayahuasca, psilocybe mushrooms or other such naturally-occuring hallucinogenic drugs, self-deprivation and transcendental meditation are just a few of the countless ways in which mankind has sought to expand the limits of human experience; these practices are still a mainstay in many modern countercultures. They are also very well-known and documented practices. There exists, however, a radical surgical procedure, as old as the aforementioned practices but far less notorious in the general public, which purports to result in the same sort of enlightenment: trepanation, also known as trephination. (Be prepared: likely, the primary reason that trepanation has not received so much attention from popular culture is that it is far more extreme than the other methods mentioned above.) What is trepanation? Strictly speaking, it is the practice of drilling, scraping or in any other way creating a small hole in the skull down to, but not through, the dura mater, or the thick, tough membrane that contains the brain. Archeological evidence tells us that it was performed by ancient cultures on every continent; the oldest trepanned skulls that have currently been found date as far back as 3000 B.C (approximately). In almost all cases, the evidence points to the trepanation having been performed with skill and a great deal of precision - it was clearly a procedure that had ritualistic import. (1) What purpose could this operation possibly serve? In early documented incarnations, trepanation existed as a cure for mental illness - it was believed that mental illnesses were the result of demons living within the skull, and thus a hole was made in the skull through which these demons could escape. The more modern perspective on trepanation as a means of expanding consciousness was started in by Bart Hughes when his text "The Mechanism of Brainbloodvolume ('BBV')" was published in 1962. (1) Bart Hughes' theory can be summed up as follows: "...as we mature and age our skulls harden, restricting blood flow to the capillaries of the brain....children, especially babies with their "soft spot", had a clearer outlook on the world because their brains were free to receive more cerebral blood volume than...our adult brains with hermetically-sealed skulls." (1) There are many ways to increase brainbloodvolume (the self-explanatory term coined by Hughes, hereafter referred to as BBV) tempor arily, such as standing on one's head, quickly moving from a hot to a cold bath, or the consumption of psychedelic drugs; however, according to Hughes trepanation is the only way to increase BBV permanently.

Marriage, a History

Coontz (2005) focused on historical changes in marriages from prehistoric to present times, mainly in terms of how institutional and social needs affected restrictions on the liberties of wives.   Although she described historical periods as characterizing marital patterns, she carefully noted that both within and between periods, history has been cyclical.For example, birth and divorce rates have fluctuated based on the changing needs of economies during different times, and conceptions of women as either sexually â€Å"pure† or â€Å"wanton† have varied over the ages.   She takes issue with three â€Å"myths† she believes people hold:   that the history of women contributing to the support of their families has a fairly short history, and that both love as a reason for marrying and couples aspiring to the marital form of husband as sole â€Å"breadwinner† have long histories.Contrary to what Coontz believes many people think, from the beginning of human evolution, through the days of ancient Greece, until the 1950s, the majority of women were a part of what we now call the work force.   In prehistoric history, she, of course, noted that men were â€Å"hunters† and women were â€Å"gatherers,† since gathering could be done while caring for the young.   However, it was gathering, not hunting, that provided most of the food needed for survival, and hunters and gatherers shared within groups or â€Å"bands† (p. 38), rather than as couples.   Marriages between sons and daughters from different bands served to maintain friendly between-band relationships.The author dated the time that marriage became an institution where wives lacked power in â€Å"ancient agricultural societies† (p. 46), although â€Å"widows† would be a more accurate term than â€Å"wives.†Ã‚   Coontz was referring to the choices a woman had after the death of her husband, e.g., killing herself or marrying a relativ e of her dead husband.   These practices were a result of the development of economic inequalities, where wealthier families became more interested â€Å"in whom their kin married† (p. 46).Both economic theories and the fact that it is women who are able to reproduce make this interpretation convincing.   In addition, although not noted by Coontz, the fact that on average men are physically larger and stronger might explain why women were not able to resist in becoming dominated.Probably because women were the ones who gave birth, there has been a tradition of holding them accountable for failing to provide male â€Å"heirs† for their husbands.   Coontz recounted the well-known fate of Anne Boleyn in the sixteenth century (p. 133), who refused to become the mistress of Henry VIII, when his current wife Catherine failed to produce a son.Her refusal led Henry to break ties with the pope who refused to grant him a divorce, so he could marry Anne – but he had her executed when she too failed to produce a son.   People still speak of wives â€Å"giving† their husbands sons, when anyone who has taken high-school biology knows that women have nothing to do with a child’s genetic sex – i.e., since only men have a Y chromosome, women always provide one of their two X chromosomes and the genetic sex of a child depends upon whether the father passes on his X or Y chromosome.Prior to the seventeenth century, although married women and men might come to love each other after marriage, love was not considered necessary or even desirable in a marriage.   Indeed, early Christianity discouraged close marital or other family ties because one’s first loyalty was supposed to be to God (pp. 87-88).   In medieval Europe, marriages within family aristocracies were encouraged, and despite the selectively enforced rules of the Catholic Church, incest was not uncommon.The overwhelming majority of people were not among the ari stocracy, but marriages among tradespersons also were arranged for economic purposes, and the marriages of peasants generally were arranged by their masters.In the seventeenth century, marriage based on the personal choices of those being married was sanctioned.   But it wasn’t until the eighteenth century â€Å"in Western Europe and North America†¦ [that] marriage for love†¦[became] a cultural ideal† (p. 7), until the nineteenth century that marriage in the form of husband as â€Å"breadwinner† with a wife at home emerged, and it wasn’t until the 1950s that the economy in America permitted the majority of marriages to assume this form.It is easy to assume, as Coontz does, that those who marry for love have been happier than those in arranged marriages or those marrying for other reasons.   Interestingly, there seems to be no evidence that social scientists have ever tested this assumption.   We don’t really know, for example, wheth er women who marry for love wind up any more or less happy than women in arranged marriages, such as Golde, in Fiddler on the Roof (Stein, 1971), who ends her description of years of caring for her husband’s needs, by asking, â€Å"If that’s not love, what is?†Actually, the difference between a sexual relationship between a couple who love each other and a couple who are â€Å"in love† is not clear, and may, in fact, be a quantitative variable, rather than the qualitative one people assume.   Montagu (1999), considered a major anthropologist of the last century, wrote, â€Å"Marriages between persons of character who can be friends tend to last and grow in reward and happiness† and ultimately result in love, as opposed to marriages resulting from â€Å"that frenzy miscalled ‘love’† (p. 105).In fact, most of us know some very happily married couples who met because they were able to afford the expensive services of businesses t hat have replaced the â€Å"matchmakers† of days past.   In fact, based on observation, â€Å"love† does not â€Å"conquer all,† in the sense that most marriages still are between those of similar socioeconomic status, who are of the same race, and even the same religion.As for the form of marriage where the husband is â€Å"breadwinner,† as Coontz observed, the form was a goal of both husbands and wives.   Presumably, the rewards husbands expected were status, i.e., being a man who could provide for his wife and children through his own efforts (or the efforts of wealthy ancestors), having his needs met by women advised to have elegant meals and spotless homes and children awaiting his return from work, and the advantages of a charming wife to help him succeed in corporate America.   Women too must have expected status, i.e., snaring a successful husband through her own charms (or those perceived in women with wealthy ancestors), fulfillment in bei ng able to devote herself to raising her children, and leisure to pursue her interests.Coontz has noted that the male â€Å"breadwinner† model has worked and continues to work for some couples, but not for most.   Men were less vocal, probably because it’s harder, or perceived as less noble, to express discontent for having sole responsibility than to express discontent about not being able to assume responsibilities.   While Coontz devoted only half a page (p. 251) to male discontent, and does so in the context of rebelling against social expectations and wanting to enjoy the sexual pleasures Hugh Heffner was promoting, men were expressing the realities of the world of work they knew, as opposed to women expressing a desire to join a world they didn’t yet know.When you think of work, as others have done, in terms of what you actually do, as opposed to how much you’re paid to do it, how much work is there that’s inherently interesting or reward ing to those doing it, how much is even a pleasant way to pass the time, and how much is so meaningless and mind-numbing that those doing it are â€Å"leading lives of quiet desperation† (Thoreau, 1854/1995)?     Ã‚  It would be interesting to read about work and marital relationships written in the year 2050.Coontz views the rejection of the 1950s predominant model of marriage in the context of dissatisfaction with this model.   She describes The Feminine Mystique (Friedan, 1063/2001) as a wake-up call to women that was an important force in introducing the changes over the next thirty years that have made diverse forms of relationships acceptable.Friedan’s book was, in fact, a wake-up call to white middle-class women, but the rejection of the 1950s model of marriage probably should be seen as part of the larger historical context, i.e., rejection of a decade of fear of nonconformity after people witnessed lives were destroyed as a result of seeing communists un der all of our beds who were out to paint America â€Å"red.†Ã‚   The 1950s dictated not only marital arrangements but all facets of our lives.   While still oversimplified, perhaps the wake-up call that eventually resonated with many Americans was the question finally put to Joe McCarthy:   â€Å"Have you no shame, sir?† (Welch, 1954, cited in Kiely, 2005).SurprisesIt should surprise no-one that wives have had a long history in the work force.   If nothing else, we do know that â€Å"ladies† had maids and some of the ladies’ maids must have had husbands. We know too that some have considered prostitution the â€Å"oldest profession† and, despite the obstacles, there were at least some women who were able to become poets or scientists.   However, I had never thought about the large number of women, married and single, who would have had needed to work because the overwhelming majority of people were and in some countries still are poor.Whil e we all know that arranged marriages were not unusual in the past, I was surprised to learn that for most of human history virtually all marriages were arranged and love was not even considered a reason for marrying.   I guess my surprise is a result of our culture being saturated by stories of love.   If love is not the theme of a movie, it’s hard to think of any movie that doesn’t have a â€Å"love interest† as part of the plot.By the fifth grade, girls and boys claim they are â€Å"in love,† and, despite the changes in the ways Coontz believes young people think, most of the young people I know think, talk, and are more involved in both love and sex than in thinking about and working on equitable and mutually rewarding relationships.   Knowing now that loving before marrying wasn’t even considered for most of human history, I’d like to know how the concept â€Å"in love† developed and suspect it’s actually a social co nstruction – or perhaps simply means both loving someone and wanting a permanent sexual relationship with that person.As for the history of the â€Å"man as breadwinner† form of marriage, I did assume it had always been around, but was not surprised that it was a form that, except for the fifties, most married couples were unable to adopt.   Even in the fifties, this form of marriage was affordable by only a small majority   Ã‚  As long as women are allowed to work and can find jobs that pay more than the cost of childcare, for most of the world, working is not an â€Å"option† that women or men â€Å"choose,† but what one does in order to put food on the table, pay the rent, etc.Coontz said in reference to the nineteenth century, â€Å"It is hard for us to grasp the slim margin that made the difference between survival and destitution for so many people in the past† (p. 174).   This sentence probably surprised me more than anything else in h er book.   It is hard for me to grasp that anyone capable of reading a book, let alone writing one, is unable to grasp that this slim margin is true for â€Å"so many people† in the present, for many in the United States and for the majority of those living in many so-called third-world nations.   Perhaps this sentence explains why I had the sense that after descriptions of her own middle-class reality, she merely felt obliged to pay lip-service to the â€Å"unwashed masses.†Sometimes, what she failed to say was more revealing than what she did say.   For example, she failed to mention that a by-product of Friedan’s (1063/2001) call for middle-class married women to enter the work force resulted in poor, often minority, women being poorly paid (probably in cash) for caring for the children left at home or in children being left with poorly paid and poorly trained workers at understaffed daycare centers.   I also was surprised that she felt comfortable dr awing conclusions without providing empirical data to support them.   For example, she says that marriage â€Å"remains the highest expression of commitment in our culture.†Ã‚   She states this as fact, rather than as I would state my belief as an â€Å"opinion that the highest expression of commitment is between mothers and their children.†Finally, her noting that marital history was cyclical made me realize that it was a mistake to consider current social conditions in general as either permanent or becoming more firmly established.   However, Coontz herself believes that we cannot turn back from changes in patterns created by the â€Å"marriage revolution.†Ã‚   Why not?   She does not even consider this question.ReferencesCoontz, S. (2005).   Marriage, a History:   From obedience to intimacy or how love  conquered marriage.   New York:   Viking.Friedan, B.   (1963/2001).   The feminine mystique.   New York:   Norton.Kiely, K.   (2005 ).   Supreme court.   USA Today.   Retrieved April 23, 2007.Montagu, A. (1999).   The natural superiority of women.   Walnut Creek, CA:   AltaMira Press.Stein, J. (1971, based on Aleicham, S.).   Fiddler on the roof.   Minsch-Cartier Production.Thoreau, H. D. (1854/1995).   Walden.   New York:   Houghton Mifflin.

Barbara Ehrenreich, The Author Of The Novel Nickeled And

Barbara Ehrenreich, the author of the novel Nickeled and Dimed on (Not) Getting by in America, family had achieved middle class, as she was fulfilling her Bachelor’s degree in physics. As time proceeds, she attended Graduate school to pursue her master’s degree in cell biology. Ehrenreich became involved with a woman s health movement, and also became a teacher at Old Westbury, in New York. With her activism in the women’s movement, she began to write about feminism and the myth regarding it being a cause of heart disease. This article opened doors for Ehrenreich, and was the foundation for her career in journalism. Ehrenreich primarily focused on social injustices, inequality, and women’s rights. In 2001, Ehrenreich published her book,†¦show more content†¦However, those actions were the ones that set her apart from â€Å"typical† low wage individuals; for the things she could not sacrifice were many of which low- wage workers did not have . From that point on, her motif became objective; her new goal was to assess the scientific perspective of relations between a low- wage worker’s income, to their ability to cover their expenses. To some these may extreme ways to experience poverty, I am for one included in that bunch. As she soon realized, she was never going to truly understand what it is necessarily â€Å" be poor† because she has become dependent on the commodities and accommodations that come along with wealth, I began to regain interest into her motifs. To coincide, due to her exposure to wealth and middle- class commodities, such as her car, she had a difficult time making necessary sacrifices. In opposition, for those who are not given the luxury of owning a car, they will not have a difficult time adjusting because they know how to survive without one. The materialistic commodities that she desired, are those of which may not be attained by those living on low- income. I find it relatively displeasing when she states that the â€Å"working poor are anonymous donors† (P. 120) because that statement is relatively accurate. I have watched my family push beyond the poverty line, but that did not come with great sacrifice. My parents decided to move to Arizona and work until they could breach that