Internationalization: Japanese Manufacturing Company

Internationalization: Japanese Manufacturing Company This report was written to review the process of internationalization of one Japanese manufacturing company in Singapore. Impacts from financial crisis in year 2008 forced the group companies to exercise cost-cutting measures in their global operations, and localization is the only way to save costs and to maximize the utilization of local expertise and responsiveness to meet global competition. The review focuses on several front-end aspects of international HRM activities during the process of internationalization. Literature review on the topics of strategic IHRM, staffing systems, cultural differences and expatriate selections were studied and compared with the current organization structure and its HR management approaches and practices. Issues and problems arises from expatriate assignments were reviewed for future development. Comprehensive evaluation activities and areas of improvement were recommended for the company to leap forward. 1. Strategic Human Resources Management in International Context Strategy Human Resources Management (SHRM) is a process that allowed a company to bring its core resources together for strategic planning, for example core competency, core processes, cultural, structure and human resource to align with the company strategy to achieve its goal and objectives, see figure 1. In the context of international field where the firm operation involves in various countries and employing different national categories of workforces, the SHRM will look into broader perspective, for example in the area of six identified human resource activities in domestic context internationalization [Dowling P.J 2008]. Some of the additional international HRMs activities implemented by the HR department when Mastec progressed into internationalization are given in Table 1. The terminology of employee category are such as, i) PCN:- employees born and live in parent (home) country (headquarter), ii) HCD:- employees born and raised in the host country (where the subsidiary operate, and iii) TCN:- employees born in a country other than the host and parent country, were introduced into the company human resource system. The implementation of the strategic IHRM depends on the stage of the company at during the process of internationalization. Adler and Ghadars model (1990) based on Vernons life-cycle theory distinguishes three phases in the international product life-cycle [H. Scullion, 2005]. The first phase (high-tech) focuses on products, research and development that emphasizing on technical competency and role of functional area. The second phase (growth and internationalization) concentrates on business growth and market penetration in local and foreign country. The third phase (maturity) put pressure on the lower price and cost-control measures due to global competition. In the modern technology world, product life-cycle has been shortened to 3~5 years, which allowed Adler and Ghader to suggest a fourth phase. The fourth phase emphasis that a firm must pursue differentiation and global integration in order to achieve cost-control measures. This is the main reason for headquarter in Japan to re organize the business structure in Southeast Asia. The parent company has seen the maturity of the market in Southeast which triggered their decision to implement cost-control measures. However, detail examines at each of the subsidiary shown that there are mixture of phases which the subsidiaries are experiencing. For example, Vietnam and India are in the first phase which focuses on products and developing technical competency. Human Resource Activities International Human Resource Activities Human resource planning administrative activities in foreign subsidiary, cross-border risks management, political risk, terrorism and welfare Staffing Staffing approach in subsidiaries in Vietnam, India, Thailand and Malaysia. Recruitment of HCNs for host-country operation, etc. Training and Development Cross-cultural training, language translation, pre-departure training Performance management Evaluation of expatriate performance, overseas assignment ROI evaluation and staffs evaluation for foreign subsidiary Compensation and Benefits Tax equalization, overseas housing and posting allowances, return air ticket benefits, health-care, etc. Industrial Relationship different taxation law, compliances with host government policy, and compliances with general acceptable practice of doing business. Table: 1 The other approach to strategic IHRM implementation was contributed by the two logic of Evans and Lorange which suggested product-market logic and social-culture logic [Evans Lorange, 1989]. Both raise a question how a firm operates in a different product markets and diverse social-culture environment, which effectively establish human resource policies. Product-market logic implied that various phases of produce life-cycle need different focuses of manager which dictates the HR activities to concentrate on core competency, entrepreneurial skills and technical know-how. Social-culture logic suggested that for a firm to operate in various counties, employing people from difference social-culture backgrounds influences HR activities into providing training and education of cultural difference. Focusing on encouraging open communication, an open-minded listening, discouraging silo and facilitating activities that required less sentence structure will get around language and cultural di fferent barriers [H. Buknall, 2005]. The argument stressed the important of willingness to listen, letting the other party to clarify any doubt without making self assumption to achieve effective communication. Since Mastec had gained the status of regional headquarter in year 2009, the HR activities had started to look into above requirement, but the implementation process is still at a learning stages. This is the reason why only expatriate from Singapore was allocated to subsidiary operation in Vietnam, whereas Thailand and India still managed directly from Japan. The effectiveness of current organization structure to manage the subsidiary and how effective it can perform its role as regional headquarter and maintaining the similar level of corporate government as before need to be evaluated. 2. Staffing Approach and Human Resource Orientation As a firm progressing toward internationalization, management and control become more complex due to operation in geographical dispersion and multiculturalism. In leveraging those factors, the multinational firm can adopts centralized or decentralized approach which ever fits the complexity of its environments. Majority of Taiwaneses MNC likes Foxconn and Acer Computer practicing centralized control system. Prahalad and Doz refer centralized approach as global integration with strict control and decisions making from headquarter. Decentralized approach is more towards local responsive that gives some decision making autonomy to its subsidiary in order to best modify it product and services to meet local market demands [Prahalad, 1987]. Typical decentralized control company is a joint venture alliances. One of a reference company which operates very successfully under decentralized system is Johnson Johnson. The IHRM literature used four approaches to managing and staffing its subsidiary, called ethnocentric, polycentric, geocentric and regiocentric [Perlmutter, 1979]. Through these four types of management orientations, companies can clearly change from one orientation to another, depending on the needs of the company [Mujtaba, 2006]. This statement was proven by the decision of headquarter to change management system in Southeast from pure ethnocentric to regiocentric. Detail explanations of each type of the staffing approached are given as follows: 2.1) Ethnocentric Is a staffing approach where subsidiaries are managed by staffs from PCN. In ethnocentric approach, PCNs are dispatched to fill in key position of a subsidiary in host-country. The mind set of management is what work at home, will work here [Guergana K.S. Mujtaba, 2009]. Some of the reasons to pursue ethnocentric management system are lack of qualified personal, competency or special technical knowledge in HCNs. The need for centralized control, risk management, needs for parent-subsidiary to maintain good communication and coordination are another reasons to practice ethnocentric management. However, there are several limitations associated with ethnocentric system where HCNs has limited opportunity for career promotion and leads to high turnover. Adaptation of expatriates to host country takes much longer time and often leads to poor decision and cross-cultural conflict may occur [Zeira, 1976]. High operating cost to sustain expatriates expenses being viewed as unjustified by HCNs . Typical example of ethnocentric approach company are Japanese firms such as Panasonic, Sony and Hitachi. In Mastec organization, the staffing approach for subsidiaries in Thailand, Vietnam and India adopted ethnocentric system due to lack of competency of HCNs and the needs for corporate communication. Most of the customers in India and Thailand are Japanese manufacturers, therefore an expatriate with Japanese language ability to communicate with customers parent company in Japan is still vital. 2.2) Polycentric In polycentric staffing approach, multinational firms rely on the HCN to run the business operation and rarely PCN are transferred to foreign subsidiary. Each subsidiary is treated as an independent business entity with decision making autonomy. In some cases, PCN belief that foreign markets are too difficult to understand and therefore a join venture alliance was formed. The benefits of polycentric are local subsidiary has more leverage to run business operation and achieve fastest local response to market demand. Polycentric system allows continuity of management by HCNs in foreign subsidiary. Language barrier, cross-cultural adaptation problems and high relocation cost to sustain expatriate expenses were eliminated. The disadvantage of polycentric is bridging gap between HCNs and PCNs at headquarter due to language barrier, conflicting of national loyalties and compliance to headquarter HRM policies. There are potential risks of subsidiary become federation, isolated from headquar ter and not pursuing corporate business goals [Dowling P.J 2008]. In Mastecs organization, the establishment of subsidiaries in Indonesia and Malaysia was under joint venture alliance and operate under polycentric system. In order to maintain a reasonable level of control and to provide managerial and engineering support, virtual assignments system was implemented with frequent business trips to visit the subsidiary company by the respective manager. 2.3) Geocentric The management style in geocentric staffing system focuses on global operation to draw best talents and resources. Each subsidiary and headquarter are interdependent of each other to make unique contribution based on their comparative advantages. An example of this company is Mercedes Benz, where the company sources raw materials around the world from the lowest-cost perspective and assembles their cars in Germany where the best technology is located. The strengths of geocentric approach are multinational firms able to develop a pool of global executive for deployment throughout the global organization. It encourages career development and promotion of high-potential executive regardless of nationality. However, in the process of collecting wisdoms and deploying expertise globally, host government may intervenes recruitment using immigration control to encourage employment of HCNs. Extensive international socializing between PCN, HCN and TCN to support geocentric staffing system need s centralized control which reduced independency of subsidiaries and the staffing decision is time consuming. High cost associated with cross-cultural training, relocation expenses and the need to have compensation package with international standard gives substantial financial burden to the firms. 2.4) Regiocentric Regiocentric staffing approach focuses at a specific geographic boundary, but used a pool of managers from the subsidiaries within the region. Several regional headquarter can be formed such as in Asia, Europe and Middle East which will report to headquarter in parent country. The regional headquarter gains decision making autonomy to operate their business. HCH will be able to interact with PCN posted in the regional headquarter. Parent company is able to maintain reasonable compliances to headquarter HR policy and manage risks control with PCN staffed in regional office [Dowling P.J 2008]. However, there is a potential of federation at regional rather than a country basis. Career prospect also limited to regional level and lack of opportunity for HCN or TCN to explore headquarter working experience. One should remember that the four management orientations are not mutually exclusive. Therefore, they can take place all the time within same organization for its departments or product lines [Guergana K.S. Mujtaba, 2009]. The current organization structure of Mastec clearly demonstrating the application of various management styles within an organization. 3. Managing Cultural Differences Culture can be defined as shared of beliefs, values of a group of person, ways of thinking and living [L. Laroche, 2007]. It encompasses what we are taught to think and response to any given situation by the society in which we are raised. In multinational business context that operating globally, one has to be sensitive and understand the cultural ways of doing business. An example is, in Japanese culture, some of the decision making process is executed through informal advance discussion to reach a consensus called nemawashi [Jon Miller 2007]. Greert Hofstede has defined culture as: Culture is more often a source of conflict than of synergy. Cultural differences are a nuisance at best and often a disaster.[Geert Hofstedeà ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¾Ã‚ ¢ Cultural Dimensions, 2009] The statement implied that if we have an insight view of different people behaves in different cultures, we will tend to interact with the people in other countries more effectively to create successful business results. The Hofstedes five cultural dimensions of study can be applied to have broader views of national culture. Power Distance: Most of the countries in Southeast Asia region exhibits large power distance. In such organization, most of the power centralized in the hands of few key staffs. Subordinates have high dependency on their bosses and are unlikely to approach and contradict with their bosses directly. Individualism: Countries in Southeast Asia are a mixed of individualism and collectivism. Thailand, Indonesia and Vietnam are more collectivism due to the people from birth onwards are integrated into cohesive groups, high respect for royal family and family oriented. In Japanese culture, individual opinions almost do not exist and employees will act according to the interest of their group ~ the group come before individual. American and Australia countries exhibit high individualism where people are more self-oriented. Masculinity: Refer to the societies where gender roles are clearly distinct. In masculinity society male are supposed to be assertive, tough and material success oriented. Female are supposed to be more modest, tender, submissive and concerned with quality. In Asian society, especially Korean and Japanese company, the masculinity culture is stronger, where female staffs are expected to serve tea whenever there is an important visitor. Uncertainty Avoidance: This can be defined as people tolerance toward uncertainty or ambiguity. It indicate to what extend the cultural intricate a person to exhibit the feeling of uncomfortable and nervous in unstructured situations. Country of USA and UK exhibit low level of uncertainty avoidance whereas Japan and Singapore exhibit high level of uncertainty avoidance. An example, Japan tends to have strict laws and procedures to which their people adhered closely. Long-Term Orientation: Long-term orientation versus short-term orientation. This fifth culture is said to deal with Virtue regardless of Truth. Values associated with long-term orientation are thrift and perseverance and values associated with short-term orientation are respect for tradition, fulfilling social obligations, and protecting ones face. Both the positively and the negatively rated values of this dimension are found in the teachings of Confucius, the most influential Chinese philosopher who lived around 500 B.C. This dimension also applies to countries without a Confucian heritage such as Brazil. [Hofstede, 1994, Geert Hofstedeà ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¾Ã‚ ¢ Cultural Dimensions, 2009] Beyond the economic and political-legal issues, a countrys cultural environment (communications, religion, values and ideologies, education, and social structure) also has an important implications when it comes to a companys decision about when and how to do business there [Bohlander/Snell 2007]. Asian society comprised of various cultures and traditional customs inherited from different countries. It is vital for a global manager or expatriate to fully aware of the respective culture before departing for international assignment. Some manager can adopt culturally appropriate behaviors, but that does not apply all the time in all cultural setting [Dowling P.J, 2008]. Therefore, it is essential for HR to arrange and facilitates cultural training to equip expatriates with necessary skills to cope with the new environment in foreign country. 4. Expatriates Selection Hiring and deployment people to effectively perform international assignment is a crucial decision because failure in expatriate assignment will cause huge financial loss, damaging a business, and distance a relations between subsidiary and parent company. One can concluded that an expatriate failure represents a selection error, compounded in some cases by poor expatriate management [Eugene Nic, 2002]. Recruitment and selection is a process of searching potential job candidates and gathering information for the purpose of evaluating and deciding best people for a particular vacancy. The factors involved in expatriate selection can be assessed from individual and situation aspects. Individual factors are i) technical ability, ii) cross-culture suitability, and iii) family requirement, whereas situation factors are categorized as i) culture or country requirement, ii) language, iii) MNE requirement. Technical ability of an employee to perform the required tasks is the most important consideration, given most of the reason for international assignment is to fill up position. That means, special skills and competency or important roles will be assigned to the expatriate. In most of the developing country such as Vietnam and India, lack of HCNs staffs ability required parent company to dispatch expertise to do the jobs as well as knowledge transfer. Giving that reason, an effective skill of expatriate is also important to translate technical or managerial skills to HCN. Cross-culture suitability or ability to adapt to foreign environment is crucial for an expatriate to operate independently in foreign environment. The desirable attributes shall include cultural empathy, adaptability, diplomacy, language ability, positive attitude, emotionally stability and maturity [Caligiuri, 2000]. An employee with high coping skill enabled him to survive and mix into local culture. Apart from culture ability, individuals personality, communication skills and attitude to foreigner are also important factors for expatriate to build up personal network in foreign country, hence contribute to successful of international assignment. Family requirement determines the ability of family members to adapt to the new foreign environment, particularly spouse. The responsibility of spouse to setup new home, plus the down side emotional feeling of leaving behind a career, friends and social support network may cause burden to an expatriate and affected the work performance. The major causes of expatriate failure are family adjustment causing premature departure, poor performances, lifestyle issues, work adjustment, business climate and repatriation issues, and other opportunities arise. By far, the biggest factor tends to be a spouses inability to adjust to his or her new surroundings [Riki Takeuchi, 2002]. Disruption to children education, the need to take care of aging parents and custody of children for a single parent may cause the selected candidate to reject the international assignment. In order to avoid burden of trailing spouse, the manager assigned to India is without accompanying by his spouse and children. Country or cultural requirement may impose restriction to employ PCN or TCN. Multinational firm need to demonstrate that HCN is not available, or providing a training program to transfer knowledge to HCN before the host government will issue working permit. An example is in UK, working permit for Japanese language translation is easy to obtain compared engineering jobs. In some country, working permits only issued to expatriate where trailing spouse is not permitted to work, which may create adjustment problems. Or work permit only issues to male expatriate (eg. no work permit for woman expatriate in Middle East country). MNE staffing policy is another important decision to meet company objective, for example knowledge transfer, management development or organization development. The motivational of HCN, HCNs career progression and keeping the lowest cost of business operation also need to be considered. However, for the reason of corporate control and the need for special skills, staffing of PCN cannot be avoided. Other situational factors are mode of operation, duration and type of assignment and amount of knowledge transfers will affect the staffing policy. The ability to speak local language linked to the capability to learn local culture. Differences in language are recognized as major barrier to effective cross-cultural communication. Even though, many multinational firms places language at less important criteria and they view language as a mechanical which is manageable by individual. Expatriates who are able to speak local language will be regarded as part of the local society which make business communication much easier and friendlier. The other important aspect of language is the ability to understand corporate language. Some multinational firm from non-English speaking countries may adopt corporate communication using the language of parent country (eg. Japanese or Korean) as a standard way of reporting. Prospective candidate may be eliminated from the potential pool due to a lack of competency in the common language [R.Marschanp, 1999]. Therefore, language ability may limit the multinational firm ability to select the most ap propriate candidate. The requirement of Japanese language to communicate with Japanese customers has placed restriction of expatriate selection in India Thailand. 5. Lessons Learned The decision of headquarter in Japan to change management system in Southeast Asia region has put great pressures on Mastecs HR management to looks beyond local context. Throughout the process of implementing IHRM activities, numerous valuable experiences have been learned for future improvement although there is no major problems arise. Those experiences suggested that IHRM does not only facilitate and supporting business units but plays a strategic roles to initiate the planning process and monitoring the implementation throughout the organization. The close coordination between HR department and individual business units in the implementation process is essential to realize the company objections. Several experiences gained are examined below for learning process: 5.1) Mis-match of expectation: Lack of cultural understanding: It is not surprise that the cultural training was ignored because HR department has taken for granted that Singapore is a multicultural country. The expectation manager from the HNC in term of responsiveness and local staffs management have causes conflict under visible management system. This had resulted the manager to fly more often to the destination to resolve the issues. 5.2) Lack of cultural understanding: In India, holding hands between male-and-male indicate good relationship and trust of each other. However, this practice has given a culture shock to the Japanese expatriate when a local customer tried to hold his hand during the walks for lunch after a serious business discussion. 5.3) Insufficient expatriate arrangements: The last minutes decision of selecting a candidate for job assignments in Vietnam has given surprises to the spouses. In order to keep his job performance, the expatriate agreed on the assignment and leave behind his ill parent to be taken care by his spouse alone. Frequently, the expatriate has to return to home at his own expenses for traveling cost. 5.4) Lack of communication channel: The above mentioned expatriate does not has communication channel to relay his personal problem to the company. Approaching directly to his boss could be misinterpreted into demanding for extra benefits. The issue may be solved if HR could approach open-minded discussion or using mentoring approach. 5.5) Language barrier: Due to the unique communication requirement with Japanese expatriate of customers and potential local candidate for jobs assignment in Thailand and India was eliminated. This has slowed down company objective to reduce operating cost toward regiocentric management system. 5.6) Lack of broader perspective: Due to different compensation package for overseas assignment between Japanese and Singapore expatriate, a potential local candidate who has Japanese language ability rejected the offers for job assignment in India. The difference of compensation especially in hardship country has viewed as unjustified and less attractive by local staff. 5.7) Lack of cultural understanding: A newly expatriate Japanese manager exercises his authority to force a group of employee to work during the cultural national holiday in Thailand (Buddhist festival celebration). The manager has promised to his customer to dispatch his employees to support production and will pay triple salary for the over-time working hours. Without understanding the cultural practice of religious celebration in Thailand, he applied pure ethnocentric management style that worked well in Japan into Thailand society. That incident caused cultural conflict between that group or worker and the expatriate. 6. Conclusions The internationalization process of Mastec is still at an early stage where there are still many activities needed to put in place to strengthen its operation. Mastec need to look beyond its coverage of IHRM studies in the area of training and development, performance management of expatriate, management of repatriates, succession plan, industrial relation, and human resources management in host-country. The issues and problems that arise could be avoided if the proper pre-departure trainings were conducted before expatriate assignment. People before Products is a philosophy of the founder of Panasonic Group company, Konosuke Matsushita (1984-1989), emphasize on cultivating the potential ability and development of workers before business [Konosuke Matsushita, 2007]. For example, Samsung Electronics used internal developed Local Expert program to train employees to better understand the international business environment [Tony Michell, 2010]. We can also predict that in long run there is possibility for parent company decision to move toward to polycentric system in Southeast Asia region subjected to successful of current arrangement. Therefore, it is crucial for Mastec to implement more IHRM activities in order to demonstrate its independency and capability to manage the regional business. At the same time, it is essential to gain respect and trust from headquarter by adopting strong corporate governance, cooperation and compliances to headquarter HR policies in Japan. 7. Bibliography Peter J.Dowling; Marion Festing Allen D.Engle, SR.: International Human Resources Management (2008). South-Western Cengage Learning Hugh Scullion Margaret Linehan: International Human Resources Management (2005) Evan P; Lorange: The Two Logics Behind Human Resource Management (1989). Palgrave Macmillan Hugh Bucknall; Reiji Ohtaki: Mastering Business in Asia (2005). John Wiley Son D.A. Heenan and H.V. Perlmutter: Multinational Organization Development (1979) Addision-Wesley. Prahalad C.K.; and Doz Y.L: The Multinational Mission, Balancing Local Demand and Global Vision (1987). New York, Free Press Mujtaba B.G: Cross Cultural Change Management (2006). Liumina Press, Tamarac, Florida Guergana Karadjova-Stoev; Mujtaba B.G: Strategy Human Resource Management and Global Expansion Lessons from The Euro Disney Challenges in France, International Business Economics Research Journal, Vol.8, No. 1 (January 2009), pp.69-77 Y.Zeira: Management Development in Ethnocentric Multinational Corporation, California Business Review, Vol. 18, No.4 (1976), pp.34-42 Lionel Laroche; Don Rutherford: Recruiting, Retaining, and Promoting Culturally Differences Employees (2007). Butterworth-Heinemanm Jon Miller (2007): The Art of Nemawashi http://www.gembapantarei.com/2007/03/the_art_of_nemawashi.html Geert Hofstedeà ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¾Ã‚ ¢ Cultural Dimensions. http://www.geert-hofstede.com/ Geert Hofstede: Cultural and Organization Intercultural-cooperation and its important for survival (1994). Maidenhead, McGraw Hill Bohlander/Snell: Managing Human Resources (2007), 14e. Thomson South-Western Eugene McKenna and Nic Beech: Human Resources Management-a concise analysis (2002). Financial times, Prentice Hall P. Caligiuri: The Big Five Personality Characteristics as Predictors of Expatriates Desire to Terminate the Assignment and Supervisor-rated Performance. Personal Psychology, Vol. 53 (2000), pp 67-88. R.Marschanp-Piekkari, D.Welch and L.Welch: Adopting Common Corporate Language, International Journal of Human Resource Management, Vol. 10, No.3 (1999), pp.377-90 Riki Takeuchi, Seokhwa Yun, and Paul Tesluk: An Examination of Crossover and Spillover Effects of Spousal and Expatriate Cross-Cultural Adjustment on Expatriate Outcomes. Journal of Applied Psychology, Vol. 87, No. 4 (August 2002): 655-66. Konosuke Matsushita: Konosuke Matsushitas Enduring Insight-The Heart of Management (2007). PHP INSTITUTE, INC, ISBN978-4-569-69112-1 Tony Michell: Samsung Electronics-and the struggle for leadership of the electronics industry (2010). John Wiley Son

St. Francis Of Assisi Essay -- essays research papers

St. Francis of Assisi was born in Umbria in the year 1182. He was a child every father hoped for, he was filled with life, a determined and courageous individual. He was gifted with rather good looks, qualities that attracted friends and a gift of leadership. His father was an extremely wealthy merchant in Assisi. But this son, his favourite, was the one who broke Peter Bernardone’s heart. The boy turned on his father, and in a vicious event that eventually resulted into a public scene. St. Francis of Assisi stepped away from his father, his business and left his father in a state of immense emotional suffering. Francis joined the military at the age of 20. Prior to this date (1202), the favoured son showed his parents that he would like to follow his own life, not in the footsteps of his father. After his enlistment, he struggled heroically in one bloody battle, but his troop experienced defeat. Taken prisoner of war, he was held captive for several months, then released and sent home. His parents were joyful and made up to him for the long months of suffering by showering him with affection. Francis probably enjoyed receiving extra money the most from this. Being a prisoner of war did take a toll on Francis. His body became so sick that he almost died and it took over a year to recover. It was during this year that for the first time in his young life, he did some serious pondering. He explored the age old problems, "What am I?", "Where do I come from?", "Where am I going", "What is this world?" and "What is love?". St. Francis was an Italian Catholic and a talented poet. As an Italian, his heart moved naturally to deep affection, love and enjoyment. As a poet, he could see right through the outcome of those answers. One night during a dream, he saw his house turned into a palace. The walls of this palace were hung with glorious armory, banners, shields, and swords – all instruments of war. Suddenly he heard a voice, it explained that this was to be his palace, the gathering place for all his knights. The arms were theirs, the banners, and tokens of their countless conquests. To complete this wonderful dream, a gorgeous bride awaited him. St. Francis awoke charmed. A few days after that, he left Assisi to go to Southern Italy to enlist. He reached Spoleto, wh... ...Gospel with the greatest amount of individual liberty and the minimum of regulation. Cardinal Hugolino, the late Gregory IX, assisted Francis in the completion of the Rule of in 1223. All this effort took its tool on the health of Francis, he started realizing that he was nearing the end of his life. Since he believed he had lived like Christ, he pleaded to die like Christ. In 1224, accompanied by a few followers, he marched up the Alvernia Mountain, near Assisi to pray. At this time, Francis and Christ shared words with each other. Extreme exchanges were made between both sides. Francis told Christ about his request, to his wonder, the crucified figure of Christ surfaced to him. When Francis stepped back, he discovered that his body had wounds located in the same five areas that Jesus suffered on the cross. During the last two years of Francis’ life, his health was destroyed. He felt tremendous pain in his eyes, spleen, and liver, stomach and have contracted malaria. Francis knew his last days were nearing. He asked his attendants to sing to him, for Francis enjoyed the sound of music. St. Francis died on October 3rd, 1226, while singing his nature song, Canticle of the Sun.

Essay --

Who loves spending a night away from the hustle and bustle of everyday life? Most all of us enjoy the experience of spending a night or several nights in a nice hotel. Whether it is for business or pleasure, a nice hotel experience can be refreshing. The hotel manager is the person responsible for making sure that the hotel runs efficiently, and ensures that the guests have a pleasant stay. He/she coordinates all service, housekeeping, finance, and maintenance. I have two years experience working in the hotel industry and plan to continue learning the hotel business with the goal of becoming manager of my own hotel. Nature of the Work The job of hotel manager has lots of responsibilities, they have to manage the hotel and its staff. Hotel manager also have to plan and execute advertise and promotion campaigns designed to attract more guests. Lodging managers also have to make sure that guests on vacation or business travels have a good experience at a hotel, motel, or other type of establishment with accommodations. They also ensure that the establishment is run efficiently and profitably. Managers also deal with all inquires in a professional and courteous manner, in person on the phone or e-mail (â€Å"Lodging Manager†). â€Å"Hospitality is a broad term for an industry that encompasses many types of employers and hundreds of job titles† (Aushn,23). Hospitality is another word for the business of hotels, motels, and resorts. It is estimated that one in eighteen employees in the united state works at some type of job in the hospitality industry. Travelers in the United State spent 527 billion dollars in 2001, and that amount has increased each year since. (Ashen 23). Hotel managers have many duties that they perform throughout the da... ...nsure that hotel operations meet a group’s expectation. Some other jobs in the hospitality industry are bed and breakfast proprietors. They manage small lording facilities within a home. Many of these homes are restored historical homes and offer a true vintage experience. A concierge at a hotel provides service to hotel guests such as show ticket dinner reservations or taxi service. Hotel desk clerk and office manager assist the hotel manager in large hotel and take care of those specific areas (â€Å"Lodging Managers†). A career as a hotel manager is very demanding. They perform many duties throughout their day and have a great deal of responsibility. Their main job is to see that the hotel or motel is run efficiently so that their guests have a pleasant stay. I have been training for a job as a hotel manager and would like to continue pursuing this job as my career.

Colonization In America :: US History Colony American

Before Europeans had ever set foot on North America the continent was a vast land made up of various Native American nations that had their own distinct cultures, history and social hierarchies. The Natives here possessed all of the aspects that human beings all over the world incorporated into their societies. They had social structures, trade routes and relationships between various Native groups and were by no means a cluster of heathens waiting to be discovered by white Europeans who would come to claim the land they have lived on for thousands of years. Upon their arrival on the continent that was often tagged as The New World the three prevalent European countries that established colonies in North America England, France and Spain each took fundamentally different approaches to establishing their colonies and forming relationships with the native inhabitants. There were many various reasons for why each European country chose to participate in the colonization and their affair s with Indians in the ways they had. The country itself and the goals it had set for establishing settlements in the New World along with the location of the settlement and the Indians that they would be confronting as a result of their settlement are all interesting aspects that play vital roles in why each colonial society differed from one another in the 16th and 17th centuries. The Spanish in the New World landed their ships and set up Catholic monasteries in Florida as well as the area now known as New Mexico. The Spanish who have had a long history of coexisting in Spain with the Mores brought some of their conventional diplomacy with them when they attempted to establish permanent settlements in the New World. Although a large portion of Spain's reasoning behind occupying land in the New World was the conversion of Native Americans as well as gaining gold, wealth and power just like the Conquistadors had done in the past from conquering the Aztecs. Spain brought a sort of diplomacy with them when they tried to coexist their culture and peoples with that of the native inhabitants of Florida. This approach was probably just as much done out of necessity than modern European kindness, because the Spanish settlers who founded the string of settlement towns in Florida were vastly outnumbered by their Indian counterparts.

Equal pay act Essay -- essays research papers

Chapter 1: The Scenario   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The story begins at a local Wal-Mart super center, its Friday, payday. As employees open their paychecks they are awaiting their annual raise. As one employee, Sue opens up her paycheck she finds she has not yet received a raise; she has waited all year for this raise. She is very sad to find she did not receive one, she begins to think maybe she did something wrong. She starts to think back through the year, and can not seem to come up with any solutions as to why she did not receive one. She really felt she worked especially hard that year in hopes to receive a good raise and really felt she deserved to be recognized for it. In the break room she overhears John, her follow co-worker, bragging to their colleague’s about his second raise. Now John is making $1.25 more per hour than her even though they both have been working at Wal-Mart for two years. They both have the same job descriptions and titles so there should not be differences in their pay. Sue ca n not quite understand why he received two when she only received one. She has seen him numerous times being tardy for work or calling in sick. She knows she is a better worker and is more efficient. Sue recently took a human resource class at Buffalo State College and she remembers learning about a law regarding equal pay. She can’t seem to recall the specifics, so she is determined to look into it further and fix the problem. Chapter 2 Sue: The Victim Sue is a 35 year old divorcee and mother of two young children. For the past ten years or so she has been doing similar work in retail that pays mediocre wages and that have given her good benefits. About two years ago Sue got was laid off from her last job. She applied at many different entry-level positions, as she has no other experience. She does not receive a lot of child support from her ex-husband so Sue relies on the income she brings in to support her and her two children. When Wal-Mart called Sue for an interview, she was so relieved and excited about the opportunity. Wal-Mart hired Sue; she was told that she would start above minimum because of her ten years experience in the field. She was also told that all full-time employees, based upon work performance, receive an annual raise of a dollar each year of their employment. Sue also received a 401k plan. Sue was excited, she hoped to slowl... ...to review stale pay practices will find themselves unable to retain these valuable employees as well as risk being in breach of the federal civil rights laws. It should be encouraged that all employers closely examine their salary policies in order to identify and voluntarily eliminate pay discrepancies based solely on gender. Chapter 7: Sue’s New Lifestyle   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  After winning her court case and receiving her deserved compensation Sue found another job that would ensure she would never be discriminated by pay again. Sue is a manager at Victoria’s Secret where she feels more comfortable around women like her, and most important of all she is treated the way she should be. Sue also used some of her settlement money to move into a nicer place. She is much happier in an apartment that does not have any water leaks and her children are safer and better cared for. Sue spends her spare time as an advocate for women’s rights. In the end Sue is glad that she spoke up against her mistreatment, and has helped several other women with similar situations where they did not have the courage to speak up. this paper is in the form of a story on the equal pay act

How Global Warming Impacts the World

Nowadays, we are concerned with the increasing temperature nowadays, which has a great effect on the earth. When it becomes hotter, the most evident change we can see is in sea level. Icebergs all over the world are melting and change from ice to water, which has larger volume. As a result, more space has to be occupied to contain water instead of icebergs, and sea level increases. Many beaches are getting smaller, and some islands are even disappearing. It was also reported that some countries based on the islands of East Asia had to move to Australia because of the increasing sea level. Animals and human are suffering from the process. Not only polar bears, but also penguins and other animals have less space to live on or less food to eat because of the melting icebergs. Meanwhile, they are used to cold weather and are forced by global warming to get used to a higher temperature, which may increase their death rate. Human are also affected. The number of people dying from extreme hot weather is increasing, which makes the others worry al lot. In an addition point, global warming also has impacts on agriculture. Weather conditions and soil change in response to global warming, and as a consequent, places like Russia benefit from global warming for they can grow more kinds of food in a larger area, while places like Africa suffer from the expanding deserts results from global warming. Despite agriculture, there are also other indirectly effects on economy and many other aspects, and people are now finding solutions for them. The first thing to do is giving out less Carbon dioxide or other gases related to global warming. To achieve the goal, less electricity should be used, car should be driven less frequently, and alternative energy resources should partly replace the traditional ones. Greater emphasis has been put on planting trees to absorb Carbon dioxide. In the short term, special zoos can also be set up for animals like polar bear to provide them with enough food and places. As it can be seen, climate change has directly or unconsciously impacts on ecology, agriculture and other aspects. Serious though it seems, it can be solved with technology and everyone's efforts.

Sociology of Sport Film Review

Bend it like beckham is based on Jess, a 17 year old British born, Sikh girl who has an undying passion for football, her favourite player is David Beckham and he is exactly who jess wants to be. But jess’s parents have taken every effort to stay in touch with the families Indian heritage. Jess' father and mother are after their daughter to go to law school, learn to cook a traditional Indian dinner, and settle down with a nice Indian boy — the latter of which is high on the agenda of her older sister Pinky, who is soon to wed her long-time beau Teetu. However, her family is unaware that Jess has a secret passion ,football. Her parents don't know that in her spare time she likes to play a friendly game in the park with some of the boys in the neighbourhood. One day, while Jess and her pals kick the ball around, she meets Jules, who is quite impressed with Jess' skills. Jules plays with a local semi-pro women's football team, the Hounslow Harriers, and she thinks Jess has what it takes to make the team. Jess knows that her parents would never approve of their daughter playing football, so she doesn't tell them, and starts spinning an increasingly complex series of lies as she tries to keep up a double life as a student and a footballer. Jess soon discovers a number of her new friends have their own problems to overcome; Jules dreams of playing pro ball in America, but has to deal with her stubborn and disapproving mother, while Joe, Hounslow's Irish coach, still struggles with the disappointment of a career as a professional athlete which was dashed by a knee injury. Throughout Bend it like Beckham, clear sociological factors all appear, from stereotypical ideologies through to race, class and gender, bend it like Beckham is a enjoyable, funny film that can be used to explain more clearly how ideologies, identity, power and social influences all have a part to play in everyone’s lives. Ideologies are beliefs and ideas that people form to give meaning to their life experiences and make sense of the world, there are different types of ideologies, including class, race and gender ideologies and these ideologies form identities. Identity is about belonging, about what you have in common with some people and what differentiates you from others. At its most basic it gives you a sense of personal location, the stable core to your individuality. But it is also about your social relationships, your complex involvement with others’ (Weeks 1990 p. 88 cited in Rutherford 1990 p. 88) Class ideologies are the beliefs that people have to understand economic inequalities, identify them in terms of their class position and evaluate the manner in which economic inequalities are and how they should be integrated into the organization of social worlds. Class ideology is not an as important factor in the movie as the other forms of ideology but it picked up upon slightly when the father mentions that they are not rich, also the environment in which the movie is filmed portrayed her family as working class, however she is planning to go to university and wins a scholarship at the end so her education is pretty good. Racial ideology is one of the main ideologies depicted in the movie, it is a set of ideas and beliefs that people use to give meaning to skin colour and to evaluate people in terms of racial classifications. Racial ideologies vary around the world, but they are powerful when people use them to classify humans into racial categories. In the film, jess is Sikh, this means the family generally follow strict cultural life preferences due to their religion and these preferences cause restrictions in jess’s freedom, she shouldn’t even show as much skin as a football kit reveals in general, let alone play football itself, with girls from other cultural backgrounds, she is seen as disgracing the family for her participation. Racism is touched upon in a scene during which she retaliates to a tackle and receives a red card, only to find out that she was called a ‘paki’. The coach explains to her that he also received discrimination due to him being Irish. This informs us of the constraints of racial barriers still produced now, even in today’s multi-cultural society. Another factor in the movie is that Jess and Joe ( the Irish coach) end up falling for each other which is another racial barrier that is not regularly crossed due more to the beliefs and culture of jess and her families religion. Gender ideology is also a set of ideas and beliefs but that masculinity, femininity, and male-female relationships. It is the Basis for defining what it means to be a man or a woman, evaluating and judging people and relationships and determining what is natural and moral related to gender. The main issue relating the gender ideologies in this film relates to the race ideology and that is that she opposes the obvious stereotype of an Indian woman, An Indian woman’s identity is created by the tradition’s of an Indian woman, for example according to ideologies her job is to cook and look after the house and children. however her interest is not a family and learning how to cook, but to become a professional female footballer and attend university to study for a degree. By Jess opposing this gender ideology, she is creating her own identity as an Indian woman footballer, trying to keep her femininity by falling for the Irish coach, sticking to her Indian traditions by wearing the clothes and learning to cook, however she does this all and still able to play football up to a scholarship standard, doing the best job to define her own identity. She also defies the stereotypical footballer, which for a start, is male, and is rarely Indian, in English society anyway. , emphasising on her identity as a woman footballer, not a man. Jess opposes her parents and other groups of people with the same traditions and beliefs, who feel that women shouldn’t play football, and this is a clear example of femininity, also during a scene where jess is involved in a match, the same is being watched by 4 of jess’ male friends who shout sexist remarks at the team members, not in a malicious way but this still shows the males idea of women as an object, during this scene, jess’s secret gay friend ( who is also Indian and therefore causes another constraint in that omosexuality is frowned upon more than it is in other cultures) asks the boys, which are also his friends, as to why they can’t see the woman as footballers, and they all just laugh, which emphasises peoples stereotypical thoughts of women. In the film they also talk about the opinion that even Indian boys should not play football, so for a female Sikh to play is deemed as even worse, Jess is completely contradicting two ideologies, her ge nder ideology, and her race ideology. But this way creating her own identity, its is a struggle for Jess to fight all the ideologies present to achieve her goal. Ideologies of women in sport mean that there are several gender barriers to overcome people still feel that sport is male dominant and there are certain sports that are for men, and certain sports that are for women, and bend it like Beckham contradicts this belief. Power is also noticeable in the movie and there are different power hierarchies, the football coach is male, so still portrays the male dominance in the sport as he is seem as the leader and the team of females still have to do as he says. Also the parents have different levels of parent, jess’s mother seems to have influence over the father, and they both have influence over their daughter. Jess feels that she is being constrained and sees the football team as a social structure; Identity is formed in the relationships between ‘social structures’ and an individual ‘subjectivity’ (Hughson et al 2005 p. 110). She feels she can use this social structure to assert her agency; Jess knows that sporting achievement is a sign of social mobility, therefore she knows that her constraints could decrease in society if she can achieve high in a football career, barriers would decline and she would exceed expectation due to the stereotypes she is grouped in and op portunities in life would come more easily. So Jess is taking her individualism as a Sikh female to create a relationship with a social structure, which is the football club. and she can achieve all this by the opportunity to play football. The film shows she achieving this to her best of her ability as she gets scouted and wins a scholarship to a top university to play football, where she can individually change peoples perception of Indian woman, and also influence other Indian females to start playing football. The one key moment in the movie that I felt best exhibits all the main sociological factors of identity, ideology and power comes on 6 minutes into the movie, jess is walking through the local park when her male friend sees her and asks her to join in, as soon as she starts playing to can see power and gender ideologies already, the group of men that she is playing have there tops off for a start, and being able to take there tops off to play football shows male dominance and masculinity, which shows power is present as the men believe they are in charge because they are male. Also they say sexist comments to jess about her football capabilities as a female for example, one of the men say â€Å" can you chest it like Beckham, you know, give it sum bounce (emphasising on her chest) , it wasn’t malicious as they were all friends but it was another means so showing the gender ideology and male dominance, as well as gender discrimination. The movie continues and jess gets hold of the ball and takes it round all the boys before scoring, unknowingly being watched by Jules, her soon to be football partner and best friend. Jules runs off and Jess continues to play football. The movie then continues into Jess’s room where she talks to her poster of David beckham, she says â€Å"its not fair that the boys never have to come home and help† what she is saying is that because of her families religion, there are rules that must abided to and one of them is that the women are the ones in the home, for cooking and cleaning and the boys are the ones who work.. This is one of the main barriers to participation she has, her ethnicity means she is going against her families beliefs by playing football. She also asks the question, of if she had an arranged marriage, would they let her play football? This emphasises on the constraint that her ethnicity causes for her participation in the sport. Her father then walks in the room and starts to moan about all the posters of ‘a bald man’ on her wall, the opposite of how a man should look like according to her religion. The clip carries on into the engagement party located at her house, and by the large amount of people in the house, which is small as it is, this can be looked upon as defining her class ideology of a working class family, as they may not be able to afford a bigger area of the night. Now jess is dressed in all her traditional Indian clothing, a big contrast to her shorts and Manchester united top she wore down the park. Jess is handing out a plate of food and an old lady, says to her that it will be her turn soon to get married and does she want a proper Sikh with a full bear and a turban, the direct opposite to David beckham, this links to race ideology as saying that their religion has a typical man and that her marriage and Sikh life in evitable, it also just hints on the barriers she must overcome to achieve her dream, she doesn’t want the traditional normal life of a female Sikh, she wants to be a professional footballer. This key moment continues but now the scene is set back at the park, again she is playing football with the same group of topless men, whereas three girls who know jess, are watching on, checking out the men. Jess makes this a stark contradiction to the stereotypical scenario because even though she is female, she is playing football, in her football shirt, with the lads, rather than sit with the girls. She contradicts her own stereotype by playing football, she is not the Sikh girl everyone wants her to be. Jess finds it easier to fit in with the girls by knowing the boys, he is very much a tomboy who would rather be out getting muddy than buying new clothes. Again contradicting her own gender ideology, she also comes across as gay to many of the Sikhs because of her unorthodox activities. While playing football Jules goes over to jess, and in front of the lads asks her if she plays for any team, immediately afterwards one of the males says â€Å" yer like who, Southport united sari squad† this is a dig at her ethnicity not at her gender or sex, so this explains my point that she has to overcome two main barriers that are her gender and her ethnicity, both ideologies constrain her from participation, and also male dominance and masculinity also don’t help with her problem of her being a female footballer either and the power influence can be seen underlying the movie. This is where my key moment ended. In summary, I have learnt that social identities and ideologies are formed from sport societies, in today’s world, Groups and societies are characterised by shared values and conflicts of interest and sports forms are culturally produced, reproduced and/or transformed, sports forms are social constructions that change as power relations change and as narratives and discourses change. n relation to identity, ideology and power, Bend it like Beckham touches on several key sociological dimensions, it mainly focuses on how her cultural identity constraints her from participating in the sport she loves as her parents strict beliefs and traditions and they feel that she should be a proper Sikh and learn to cook Indian food, not play football. She should be focusing on becoming a lawyer according to her parents. She also has to deal with the fact that she is a woman and football is a male dominated game, therefore, for an Indian female to wanting to play football, she must overcome social barriers and constraints to achieve her goal, and the film is based on her attempt to achieve this. Sport is a very important influence in everyone’s social lives, it effects peoples participation, culture and social groups, is a reflection on peoples social life.