Reflection and skills practice Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Reflection and skills practice - Essay Example I will also describe my feelings about coaching and mentoring and what questions that arose to me from course activity. In the end of this paper I will talk about what I hope to gain from this course. From my experience in this field I found that coach and mentor should try to generate enthusiasm for the change by sharing their goals and visions. They are responsible for engaging their clients to create the change needed and support them. As the book of Coaching and Mentoring at Work: Developing Effective Practice states, â€Å"the coach or mentor is a facilitator, not an instructor. They support and challenge the client to learn and to develop. The client learns by acquiring new awareness, insight, skills, ideas and knowledge† (Connor & Pokora, 2007, p9). In addition, the coach and mentor should help the trainee develop their skills. They also should know what does the client needs or what they want? As the book of Coaching and Mentoring at Work: Developing Effective Practice states, â€Å"the client may want or need to improve their work performance in the short term, or they may be concerned with broader issues of personal, professional and career development† (C onnor & Pokora, 2007, p7). From my perspective, coaching and mentoring will help us to handle new business challenges. Based on my own experience I think active listening still persists in the work. Fortunately some people have good skills to analyze the problem however those people are usually doing something wrong, why? Based on what I have learned in this course a good example would be that they usually are trying to solve the problem, which is not acceptable for coach. Based on our discussions about coaching and mentoring I found that the coach is a partner in decision making process as well as an educator who provides valuable inputs to the client. As stated by Garvey, Stokes & Megginson, (2009) in Coaching and Mentoring: Theory and Practice , â€Å"in

Week 4 Discussion Coursework Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Week 4 Discussion - Coursework Example Clear accountability and responsibility of members of the team; all team members should have an apparent understanding of their roles in the project (Kerzner, 2013). There should also be frequent monitoring as well as measurement of milestones, time, equipment and people schedules. Correctly done schedule control as well gives the primary hint that initial planning might not be going as per the schedule. The initial step is to identify as well as engage with the main stakeholders. Have talks, an official stakeholder consultation or a problem definition seminar, but it is important to begin the hunt for extra data on the business need. Secondly, after gaining a grasp on what the business need entails, begin to translate and construe that need into a structured problem or explanation of the scope. More importantly at this phase is to write down the business need into an understandable language (Kerzner, 2013). Thirdly, after clarifying and agreeing on what the existing business need is, the process of brainstorming ideas of how the need can be addressed begins. Another very crucial part of this task on any project is to deal with the change of business needs right from the beginning of any business project. Building firm relationship with stakeholders is the final phase. Lack of good relationships amid the business stakeholders and the project team stakeholders, as well as the supporting technical members, can make the project fail. b. Obstacles and how to overcome Communication and Language: The prioritization and precise nature of needs usually differ with a projects stakeholders. Diverse interpretations are usually discovered very late in the development cycle, when alterations entail a lot of effort and cost. Creating a prototype all through requirements gathering can assist to settle any disparity in understanding. Overbooked

Affect of Specific Language Impairment Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Affect of Specific Language Impairment - Essay Example A child whose major problem is with receptive language (comprehension) faces difficulties in language which inhibit appropriate communication exchanges and their comprehension may act as a barrier to the development of social interactions and socially-skilled behaviours as compared to children with expressive language difficulties, Also they are more likely to experience social and behavioural problems and to be the target for bullying. Their measures of cognitive and language performance tend to be consistent over time, but ratings or measures of behavioural difficulties are more variable they show higher level of behavioural, emotional, and social adjustment difficulties.  A child with expressive language impairment has difficulty with the production of language that adequately represents the child intended message and may include problems with word retrieval, word use, sentence formulation, and/or conversational skills. The following characteristics may indicate difficulties in producing language. The child speaks in words, phrases, incomplete or inaccurate sentences, relies upon gesture to supplement or substitute for oral language, uses pronouns, plurals, and possessives incorrectly, has difficulty with the agreement of subjects and verbs, , has difficulty telling a story or describing an event or procedure in a logical sequence, uses run-on sentences, has limited expressive vocabulary, has difficulty finding the appropriate word (s) to express meaning, overuses filler words such as â€Å"ah† or â€Å"um†.

Marked or Unmarked Essay Example for Free

Marked or Unmarked Essay Marked or Unmarked status for both men and women still remains to be an indirect type of cultural norm practiced by different societies. This type of connotation often is a manifestation of collective practices, actions, and norms promoted by a certain society. This is one of the facets that separate us from every other specie in the world – our ability to create meanings out of something. With this, one can clearly just say that there could be no such thing as an unmarked woman. But, for it to hold ground there must be sufficient explanations and arguments that would justify the particular claim. It is thus important for an elaboration the difficulty of creating an unmarked woman. The first important thing is to establish the real meaning of the concept. One can see that the real debate concerns again the inequality of achieving a marked or unmarked status between male and female. Tannen argues in the article that marked â€Å"refers to the way language alters the base meaning of a word by adding a linguistic particle that has no meaning on its own† (p. 1). On one hand we see again the way man has created meaning over symbols to the extent of even creating one over nothingness. This argument goes to show that only men are subject to be unmarked. Tannen mentions that â€Å"the unmarked forms of most English words also convey male† (p. 1). Seeing such definition, there is a sexual distinction to people who are unmarked (male) and those who are â€Å"marked† (female). Though there seems to be no problem with such sexual distinction, problems often arises when different interpretations go into the picture. Tannen points out several important characteristics on as to why such distinctions became so eminent among women. The tendency of women to be criticized for their every action subjects them to the notion that they are indeed marked. Tannen elaborates this claim by pursuing the way people perceive women’s hairstyle. According to (Tannen) â€Å"the range of women’s hair styles are staggering, but women whose hair has no particular style is perceived as not caring about how she looks, which can disqualify her for many positions, and will subtly diminish her as a person in the eyes of some† (p. 1). Such example only proves one thing for women; it is indeed difficult for women to be unmarked since the continuous knots are in place for marked perceptions, actions, and ideas. It is like a continued cycle of being ‘marked’ and curtailed with only several moves that will also still connote the same thing – being ‘marked’. This is one argument as to why women cannot be considered or classified as unmarked. However, thinkers who see such scenario often attest and complain about the particular setup of things. Though it may be wrong to associate them to feminist, but somehow these people are often pointed toward such orientation due to its overall principle – equality for both men and women. It is through this that several people sought to argue that ‘unmarking’ of women in society is possible. The article points out several scholars who argue how men have and society continued to tolerate such status of women. Tannen stresses in her article that â€Å"language and culture are particularly unfair in treating women as the marked case because biologically it is the male that is marked† (p. 1) He cited several works of Fasold who advocated an alternative approach in explaining that indeed men are the ones who are ‘marked’ contrary to the original notion. One example cited by Tannen in Fasold’s study includes the notion concerning genetics and says that biologically males are the ones that are really ‘marked’. Tannen says that â€Å"while two X chromosomes make a female, two Y chromosomes make nothing. Like the linguistic markers s, es or ess, the Y chromosome doesnt mean anything unless it is attached to a root form an X chromosome† (p. 1) Pursuing Fasold’s ideas further, he again pointed several important reasons as to why women should not be considered ‘marked’. Tannen stipulated that â€Å"Fasold points out that girls are born with fully female bodies, while boys are born with modified female bodies. † (p. 1) Lastly, Fasold points out his argument by making establishing a possible relationship with biology and language. Tannen points out that â€Å"if language reflected biology, grammar books would direct us to use she to include males and females and he only for specifically male referents. † (p. 1) Arguing on this matter, Tannen clearly dismisses the claim of Fasold’s due to his inability to strike a relationship between his study in biological makeup of man and man’s sociological makeup. Yes, it can be argued that Fasold’s argument may hold water, however there is a huge differences in perspective on how to view the issue. Biological makeup/component for that matter is more standardized with a definitive value for everything. However, with regards to sociology and gender, there is a diverse and multiple levels of interpretations that can be made to ascertain an occurrence of something. Establishing such difference, Tannen contends with the argument of Fasold’s by focusing that the parameters of biology differ in scope compared to language particularly in the realm of using the term ‘he’ or ‘she’. Tannen points out that â€Å"use of he as the sex-indefinite pronoun is an innovation introduced into English by grammarians in the 18th and 19th centuries, according to Peter Muhlhausler and Rom Harre in Pronouns and People† (p. 1) By establishing such argument, it was mentioned that the ‘she’ word again is marked. It is through this that the argument pertaining to women can be unmarked remains to be bleak and difficult to achieve. However, I am not saying that it is unattainable, but it will take a radical effort for women to achieve such status. Even the author attests the difficulty. If ever you fight for something that will challenge the status quo, labeling shall be given to you – feminist, male basher, etc. This in turn again promotes the process of being ‘marked’ for women. In the end, after careful analysis of arguments, it can be justified that there are no unmarked women. Women may strive for such status, however such endeavor may only be futile since even the author of the article attested its relative difficulty and grasp among females. Tannen said that â€Å"I felt sad to think that we women didnt have the freedom to be unmarked that the men sitting next to us had. † (p. 1) In the end, the only scenario is accepting the fact that women shall be subject to being ‘marked’. The only thing that they can do is create an environment where their ‘mark’ is more on the positive side compared to a degenerative idea. Work Cited Tannen, Deborah. Marked Women, Unmarked Men in The New York Times Magazine 1993 accessed 14 April 2008

The Tory governments in the period of 1822-30 Essay Example for Free

The Tory governments in the period of 1822-30 Essay How accurate is it to describe the Tory governments in the period of 1822-30 as liberal Tory. Some historians believe that in this period of history the Tory government were liberal as they intended on reforming some aspects of how the country was governed and run. While other believe that the Tory governments were not liberal at all and there was only a few liberal Tories while many didn’t want any such reform such as catholic emancipation or parliamentary reform. In 1822 Liverpools decided on a catholic reshuffle in government, this meant that new men were brought into the government to replace the ones who had either lost there jobs or died or who had received other jobs. The new men that came into the government who brought new ideas which could have been passed through the cabinet and there ideas could have led to them becoming more liberal. This is because people such as Peel came from rich middle class families in the city who wanted to see that industrialists could have more a say in the running of the government. The cabinet reshuffle was liberal as it was a clear change in personnel in government, suggesting a change in think and policies. Also the new men who were brought into were less aristocratic that the old, they weren’t lords who owned large amounts of land they were more upper middle class; a different background meant different views. Finally there views were more liberal for example Canning wanted more religious freedom while Robinson wanted free trade. However all of the new members of he cabinet were still part of Liverpools government before 1822 and supported repressive policies, supported anti-radical legislation. Also the new people were only brought in due to practical reasons. Liverpools felt that he had to bring Canning into government as he had many supporters. The ideas that were introduced during 1822 the ideas had already been spoken about before this time. Finally the government was really unpopular and they wanted to change there image, no clear movement in a liberal direction. Overall the cabinet reshuffle isn’t any proof of a move towards liberalism as it was only done for practical reasons and even if people such as Canning wanted change he would have been outvoted in the cabinet anyway. During the period of 1822 – 27 the country saw a strong economic growth, some people believe that this was a key reason why radical ideologies decreased during this time as they was better living standards and more jobs circulating in the economy. During this period the government undertook a number of important economic reforms which suggested that the government was moving away from protection and towards free trade. The Tories were moving more liberal as Liverpool himself was known to be a supporter of some of these ideas and in one speech admitted that there needed to be a reduce on tariffs and taxes on imports. One of the reforms that were introduced was the reduction of custom duties on imports, this encouraged demand and stimulated the economy. It benefited the new manufacturing industries and increased employment. Another reform was the introduction of the reciprocity of duties act 1823, this allowed trade agreements with individual countries. There was also changes to the navigation laws which also improved trade as it meant that Britain as the ban with Holland stopped. Most importantly there was a relaxing of the Corn Laws, this allowed foreign wheat to enter the country without any duty once the price of British wheat rose. On the other hand it could be argued that the implementation of these liberal reforms are more of an example of continuity of government policy rather than a clear break with the past, the government didn’t really embrace the idea of fair trade and they only saw it as a way of making more money for themselves. Even though the Corn Laws were changed they weren’t really amended to suit the poor. Overall I think that the Tories were liberal in there economic reform as it didn’t successfully increase trade and profit and reduced tariffs on many good, however they could of done much more and it seemed that many of the reforms that were introduced the ideas had already been spoken about before. Peel tried to reform the home office in this period, one of the ways in which he intended on doing this was reforming the penal system. The penal code was far too severe over 200 offences including minor ones like stealing a loaf of bread, damaging Westminster Bridge and impersonating a Chelsea pensioner were punishable by death. Another 400 were punishable by hard labour in the convict settlements of Australia. In practise the system broke down because the juries often refused to convict if it meant execution for a trivial offence and many criminals went unpunished. Peel seemed to be a liberal reformer as the death penalty was abolished for over 180 crimes and it was left for the judge to decide whether the death penalty should be imposed. Punishments for other offences were less severe. The barbaric practise of burying suicides crossroads with a stake through the heart was abolished. He was open about his motives and he understood the need for change. On the other hand Peel relied much on the work of Henry Hobhouse, the diligent and experienced under secretary he had inherited from Sidmouth. If Peel opened the way to the Whig reforms which reduced the number of capital crimes he did so unintentionally. Only noticeable change in the criminal law arrived only in the 1830’s under the Whig government. Another reform in the home office was the prison reform this was because the conditions in prisons were poor. They were overcrowded. Filthy, insanitary and disease ridden; child offenders were put with hardened criminals. The jailers were unpaid and were paid only by the prisoners themselves. The jails act removed some of the worst abuses of the prison system. Magistrates were to inspect prisons at least three times a quarter. However there was nothing liberal about this reform, Peel did little about the shortcomings in penal provision. Peel believed that evil should be punished and he supported the use of corporal punishments such as the whip and the treadmill. In other words, his aim was not to liberalise the prison regime. Rather, his aim was to make it work in a more uniform manner. Also, he was merely building on his experience as chief secretary of Ireland where in 1814 he had established an efficient police system. Gash points out that the 1823 jails act had been prepared by parliamentary committee and accepted by the government in 1821, he was simply implementing legislation that had been accepted by the government three years earlier. At first it seemed that the new reforms were very liberal as there seemed to be much change, however Peel was after more convictions and wanted to gain more control in certain aspects of the home office. Peel also wanted to amend the trade unions the combination laws got rid of the ban on trade unions; they had been banned since 1799 because it was felt that they posed a threat to the stability of the state, especially when unity was needed during the middle of the Napoleonic war. The amending act 1825 permitted trade unions to exist for the purpose of negotiating about wages and hours of work, but they were not allowed to molest or obstruct. It seemed that Peel was trying to be more liberal as he was going against traditional views by allowing trade unions and it gave workers many more rights and made there bosses give them a fair wage, suitable hours and acceptable living conditions. Conversely, the amending act was much less liberal than the previous act and certainly restricted such liberties so the Tories cannot be seen as liberal on this front. When this act was passed the government introduced a second committee which recommended the tightening of the law. Even though the act was passed the trade unions were still restricted of freedom of action. Also as soon as it became clear that workers would take advantage of the new legislation the government backtracked and passed the amending law. This suggests that the aim was to restrict rather than to encourage union activity. It was, in other words, an illiberal rather than liberal measure. During this period of history there was much discrimination against Roman catholics. Roman catholics in the UK were regarded as second calls subjects as they didnt have the same rights and freedoms of conformists. In Ireland all land and wealth was in the hands of a small group of Protestants. The wealth and status of the Anglican Church stood in stark contrast to the positions of the Catholic Church which relied on the contribution, of its congregations. Some Catholics could vote if they held enough land but they were prohibited from holding any public office, this meant that they could not change the existing situation. Catholic emancipation would be the government giving the same right stand freedom as conformists; this would mean that they would be able to become MPs or to work for the government. This would mean that they no longer were second class subjects and had the same rights as Protestants. On the face of it, it seemed that the some Tories supported it and it gave more rights and freedom to catholics. However, it was only passed to stop a civil war and even after the emancipation the Tory party split over it, which shows that all Tories were not liberal and they didn’t want change. There was growing demand for parliamentary reform in the 1820’s the new middle class wanted representation. As the old system was out of date and the distribution of seats did not reflect the population changes in the country. There was also no secret ballot which meant that the franchise was open to corruption and bribery. Some Tories were in favour of parliamentary reform, as people such as Canning were brought up from an industrial background and because of this wanted to see them areas get more of say in the running of the country. Surprisingly also some Ultra Tories eventually supported reform as they could see that there was no other way they were going to stay in power unless there was some slight reform. But some Tories were completely opposed to reform, and they opposed even the slightest amount of reform. Some Tories only supported reform as they wanted to bring down Wellingtons government because they thought it would produce a parliament opposed to catholic emancipation. Overall I believe that the Troy government during this period was not liberal. This is because that some of the reforms they did implement were for just practical reasons and they were just a continuity of ideas that had been mentioned in years before. There were no huge changes that could suggest that the Tories were liberal and also only some Tories supported reform while some didn’t want to see any change. But during this period there was slight change in the government and it could be seen that the Tories were gradually becoming more liberal and if they had won the next general election they could have pushed on with liberalism.

The HR policies in multinational companies

The HR policies in multinational companies A critical issue faced by host-country nationals with respect to HR management is the degree to which Multinational Companies (MNCs) include parent HR policies as part of global HR policies (Lawler, 1999). This greatly depends on the company structure, market structure, and its global presence. However, HR policies are affected by various factors that these MNCs need to incorporate once they start operating in host countries. A major factor because of which MNCs incorporate these factors in their HR policies is due to culture; many of the HR policies of MNCs take into account the culture of the host country of which gender is an important factor (Lawler, 1999). If gender discrimination is not appreciated in the host country, companies will need to formulate HR policies accordingly, whereas in countries that discriminate on the basis of gender and is culturally and socially acceptable, then MNCs may or may not formulate policies based on it as then it would be the parent companies discretion as to how they would want to approach the matter keeping in mind the company values and objectives. One way to study the culture of countries and understand how important the issue of gender discrimination is is by examining factors using Hofstedes cultural dimensions. These dimensions are power distance, individualism/collectivism, masculinity/femininity, and uncertainty avoidance (Hofstede, 1991). To study the extent to which gender issues affect the HR policies of MNCs, it is more appropriate to look at individualism/collectivism rather than masculinity/femininity; gender issues in the context of HR is more about the degree to which women liberalisation is prevalent in the country rather than how masculine or feminine the culture of the country is. Individualistic cultures focus more on personal accomplishments hence those cultures are more likely to influence MNCs to formulate gender bias-free HR policies when operating in that particular country; the study reveals that in individualistic countries, HR policies of MNCs do not discriminate people on the basis of gender (Lawler, 1999). Globalization The world today has become highly dynamic and competitive; globalisation has become the catchphrase in the business world where policies and strategies are developed as per global competitiveness (Joynt and Morton, 2005). Due to this factor which affects revenue generation and profits of organisations greatly, multinationals try and formulate bias-free policies when it comes to gender. A research was conducted to compare the HR practices in insurance companies of Indian and multinational companies; results showed that Indian companies discriminated salaries and job positions on gender basis; however, in multinationals, this practice was not evident (Kundu and Malhan, 2009). Today, what companies are looking for is a competent skilled employee who is the right person for the job; jobs are not restricted to males or females, rather they are about the right person. Hence, it can be concluded that in multinational companies gender does not affect HR policies if organisations are revolvin g their strategies and corporate objectives around globalisation and are trying to gain corporate and competitive advantage on a global level. European Cases The European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions (2005) studied a number of European corporate cases that included the HR practices of companies operating in Europe. All these examples focus on how important gender has been in being a part of HR policies and finally in achieving corporate objectives. Grupo Texto Editores is a Portuguese company that realised the importance of gender equality and made it a part of its HR policies as the management felt that gender balance was extremely important in order to make the company competitive; this HR policy of the company has won it the Gender Equality and Quality Award by CITE in 2000 (European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions, 2005). According to Mr. Luis Pedro Nunes, Head of Global Human Resources Operations of the group, the companys success is largely due to the gender policy of the group; the HR policies have been built on the principle of hiring the right people and hence it automatically maintains a gender balance in the organisation. Another case that the European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions (2005) has studied with respect to gender and HR policies is that of Nestle. Nestle France has faced major challenges with respect to gender imbalances in the company which has affected its reputation globally. The multinationals HR policies in recruitment and other areas such as training are seen to be highly discriminatory by the union; women are not promoted to senior positions, they are not sent on training, and much of their demands are not addressed by the senior management. This resulted in unbalanced salary structures between men and women, limited training opportunities for women, and very few promotions for women to senior levels. French legislation has passed considerable bills that force firms not to discriminate on the basis of gender; companies with a workforce of over 200 are required to even have equality commissions. Nestle France however falls short in displaying gender quality and hence falls behind other global competitors such as Danone. The management did get concern about the discriminatory practices in the company and hence conducted a survey which showed drastic discrimination against women. Nestle France consequently made changes in its HR policies to tackle this problem and by 2003 the company had female managers in high positions and a female member on its board. Nestle has also put certain mechanisms to ensure gender equality as part of its global HR policy. Nestle France clearly illustrates an example whereby how gender-biased HR policies can affect the reputation of companies. If companies do not address these issues, they fail to gain competitive advantage over other firms, just like Nestle France has lost it to Danone. The Case of Norway Gender greatly affects the reputation of countries because of which they continue including it in HR policy formation. Norway has been given the status of forerunners regarding gender equality in Europe; it is also among the top countries that promote female participation in the workforce. However, the government of Norway, even after these statuses regarding gender equality, realised that the companies operating in Norway did not have much representation of women in leadership positions. To counter this issue, the government encouraged companies to formulate HR policies that give more opportunities to women and increase their role in leadership positions. Another reason they formulated such policies was because the country realised that they are wasting the 50% female population of the country and were not utilising these resources when females could contribute to the society in similar ways as men could. The Ministerial Intervention at the EU Informal Ministerial Meeting on Gender Equality (2008) discussed gender bias-free HR policies as a precondition for building competitive organisations in the global corporate world. The MNCs also saw women as the future and a sign of modernity for them which encouraged them to formulate gender-friendly HR policies. Due to these reasons, the gender balance requirement was set in Norway which was at 40% in all companies. This has proven successful across Norway; hence, it can be concluded that gender does affect HR policies in multinational companies and other companies, especially when countries, as a whole, realise the strategic importance of gender bias-free policies. Gender Pay Inequalities One of the major reasons for gender-based discrimination in MNCs is pay (Blau and Kahn, 2007). Many labor force statistics reveal the existence of gender pay gaps. In the USA, an average woman had to work until April 2008 at the present gap rate in order to earn what an average man earned towards the end of 2007 (The National Womens Law Center, 2008). Likewise, in the European Union, there are a number of MNCs being biased in their HR policies where the matter is related to pay structures. An average full time working woman in the UK would miss approximately  £369,000 in her working life (BBC News, 14.11.2008). At times, women do not even realise that they are being discriminated against on the basis of pay structures; in some cases, women may be aware of the discrimination as per company HR policies; however, they might not consider pay disparities as important when compared to other dimensions of work (Khoreva, 2009). The Global Gender Gap Index Gender, being a discriminatory factor in global HR policies, has become so important in todays globalised world that a need for a Global Gender Gap Index has arisen. Gender greatly affects the HR policies of MNCs, consequently creating gender gaps. The Global Gender Gap Index scrutinises the gap between women and men in four basic yet extremely important areas: economic participation and opportunity, educational attainment, political empowerment and health and survival (The Global Gender Gap, 2008). It can be concluded form the report that the gap has been widening globally as the number of countries with widening gaps in 2006-2007 was 24, where as in 2007-2008 the number was 41 (The Global Gender Gap, 2008). Although countries with narrowing gaps are more than countries with widening gaps, the percentage of improvement is decreasing over the years; from 91% in 2006-2007, the rate has gone down to 87% in 2007-2008 (The Global Gender Gap, 2008). Hence, it is evident that MNCs globally are not addressing gender discriminatory issues in their HR policies as the Global Gender Gap Index is continuously increasing. Conclusion The discussion throughout this paper focused on different factors and reasons that affect HR policy formation; policy formation is not only based on corporate philosophies that promote gender equality or favor women, however there are multiple ways by which gender affects HR policy formation in multinational companies. Gender equality greatly affects HR policies in multinational companies primarily because of the global village the world has shrunk into. The need of the hour is the integration of the entire world where gender plays an extremely important and crucial role. Gender equality has become a prerequisite in developing multinational companies into highly competitive organisations. The world has become so competitive that in order to survive, companies will not just have to include women in its workforce but also invest in their training and development in order to help them reach leadership positions in top management. If companies favour either of the two genders, they will never be able to achieve success levels that organisations having gender bias-free HR policies might have achieved or will achieve in the future. Incorporating gender as a major factor in formulating HR policies especially in multinational companies motivates the local population of the host country. It helps bring the youth of the country, both men and women, together in contributing to society and more by being part of these companies. Finally, equal opportunity policies should be formulated as HR policies of multinational companies so that these companies are able to develop trust between the people of host countries they are operating in and the MNCs as that will facilitate the entire process of global communication and make the world a better place to live and work in.

Feminism In The Handmaids Tale Essay -- Feminism Feminist Women Criti

Feminism In The Handmaid's Tale      Ã‚  Ã‚   Feminism as we know it began in the mid 1960's as the Women's Liberation Movement. Among its chief tenants is the idea of women's empowerment, the idea that women are capable of doing and should be allowed to do anything men can do. Feminists believe that neither sex is naturally superior. They stand behind the idea that women are inherently just as strong and intelligent as the so-called stronger sex. Many writers have taken up the cause of feminism in their work. One of the most well known writers to deal with feminist themes is Margaret Atwood. Her work is clearly influenced by the movement and many literary critics, as well as Atwood herself, have identified her as a feminist writer. However, one of Atwood's most successful books, The Handmaid's Tale, stands in stark contrast to the ideas of feminism. In fact, the female characters in the novel are portrayed in such a way that they directly conflict with the idea of women's empowerment.    On the surface, The Handmaid's Tale appears to be feminist in nature. The point-of-view character and narrator is a woman and thus we see the world through a woman's eyes. There's much more to the story than that, though. Atwood doesn't show us our world. She shows us a newly created world in which women lack the freedoms that they currently take for granted. This dystopian society is completely controlled by men. Of course, the men have help from the Aunts, a crack team of brainwashers that run the reeducation centers and teach the handmaids how to be slaves. These characters really don't speak well for womankind for two reasons. First of all, it's difficult to tell who their real life counterpart is, assuming that this... ...st writers. It's obvious that Atwood intentionally set herself apart from these writers with The Handmaid's Tale. At times, she seems to disagree with them completely, such as when she shows pornography in a favorable manner. At other times, she portrays feminists themselves as the powerful women they would like to be seen as, but it's always with full disclosure of their human frailty. Atwood never bashes feminism. Instead, she shows both sides of it. Like everything else in the novel, feminism is shown to have good and bad elements. Even in Atwood's brave new world, there is no black and white.    Sources Atwood, Margaret. The Handmaid's Tale. New York: Fawcett Crest, 1985. Moore, Pamela, Atwood, Margaret: The Handmaid's Tale. Boston, MS: Houghton Mifflin, 1986. Internet www.wsu.edu:8000/~brains/science_fiction/handmaid.html