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Title: Music Assignment Name: Shaila Sharmin ID: 1221771 Course ID: MUS 101 Course Instractor: Nazir Ahmed Section: 01 Date: 14. 03. 2013 Music is very important part for a human being. It refresh humans mind. After hard working all day people want to be relax. For such kind of relaxation music is the best way. Now I want to tell you about music and why it is important to study music; such as how music establish, where from it, why music becomes very popular to people over the world and what types of instruments are need to play a beautiful music and also the types of music.Music is found in every known culture, past and present. Varing widely between times and places since all people of the world, including the most isolated tribal groups have a form of music. Dictionaries and encyclopedias define music as â€Å"an artistic form of auditory communication incorporating instrumental or vocal tones in a structured and continuous manner. † It is also defined as â€Å"any pleasin g and harmonious sound† and â€Å"the sounds produced by singers or musical instruments. † Early Music: The history of music is very interesting. At first Bengali language is come from kolmunda & showtal.Bangle means Shanskrit or Indo European language. Bengali music was found in early period of time 9 to 18th century A. D. Then it spread out over the world. Language——–Charya Geeti—Composer -Musical tone—Geeta Govinda—Expression & its Aesthetics -Expression —-Perception -Religion Charya song is the earliest song in Bengle. Shidha Charya was the first Bangla music composed by a Buddist. Joy dev was the founder of Geeta Govinda. Geeta Govinda is the dhrupod type melody. It has different types of expressions. Such as rag-ragini. Joydev divided 24 songs in 12 kantos.After Geeta Govinda Bodu Chandidas was founded by Sree krisno kirton. Pandit Hara Prasad sastre invented more than 49 to 50 composer,they called liquipa. These co mposer was related to Dhanjog, Karmajog & ganjog. Medieval Music Time line: In the middle age people believe in religious among the Bengali people, Hindu religious and Buddist religious. Southern and Northern musical instruments were found in the middle age. Music during the middle ages is characterized by the beginning of musical notation as well as polyphony. During this time ,there were two general types of music styles, the monophonic and the polyphonic.During this period, there were several composers and musicians who largly contributed to how music evolved. 20th century Music: Music during the 20th century bought about many innovations on how music was performed and appreciated. Artists were more willingly to experiment on new music forms and used technology to enhance their compositions. Types of Music: Music is an art form that uses sound as medium in time and space. The basic elements of music, rhythm, dynamics and sound properties are color and intensity. Music through his tory had tried to define a number of theorists, philosophers, composers and musicians themselves.The very word music derives from the Greek word mousike, which is derived from the word mouse, and   people around the world know that as a Latin form of the word music. Music and sound can make human voice or instrument which can cause emotional experience. Music reaches far into the past and during this time they develop different styles and genres of music, which is still listening. All styles and genres of music, one thing is common, and that is to make people happy. Today, music has increasingly spreading and people can’t live without music. On this website you can find out what music actually is, its history and its styles and genres.There a lot of different types of music from all over the world. The best-known types of music are: 1. Bengali music 2. Classical music 3. Folk music 4. Indian music a) Southern system & b) Northern system 5. Rock music 6. Western music 7. Lat in music 8. Country music 9. Jazz music 10. Pop music 11. Metal music 12. Electronic music 13. R & B music and so on. Instruments of Music: A  musical instrument  is a device created or adapted to musical sounds. In principle, any object that produces  sound  can be a musical instrument, it is through purpose that the object becomes a musical instrument.The history of musical instruments dates back to the beginnings of human culture. The purpose of early musical instruments was ritual. Cultures later developed the processes of composing and performing  melodies  for entertainment. Musical instruments evolved in step with changing applications. The date and origin of the first device considered a musical instrument is disputed. However, most historians believe that determining a specific time of musical instrument invention is impossible due to the subjectivity of the definition and the relative instability of materials that were used in their construction.Many early musi cal instruments were made from animal skins, bone, wood, and other non-durable materials. Musical instruments developed independently in many populated regions of the world The classification of musical instruments is a discipline in its own right, and many systems of classification have been used over the years. One may classify musical instruments by their effective range or their material composition; There are different types of instruments used in music. These are: 1. Flute 2. Keyboard 3. Tabla 4. Harmony 5. Piano 6. Guitar 7. Setara 8.Bina 9. Tuba 10. Trumpet and so on. Prestigious person in music life: In the early music some person put a significance on music . Rabindranath Tagore was such kind of person. He (1861-1941) was the youngest son of Debendranath Tagore, a leader of the Brahmo Samaj, which was a new religious sect in nineteenth-century Bengal and which attempted a revival of the ultimate monistic basis of Hinduism as laid down in the Upanishads.. He was educated at home; and although at seventeen he was sent to England for formal schooling, he did not finish his studies there.He converted his Bengali poet into English. Though he was not so good in English language but he did it for his own satisfaction. About the weakness of his English he told his sister-in-law that he had no knowledge about English. In his mature years, in addition to his many-sided literary activities, he managed the family estates, a project which brought him into close touch with common humanity and increased his interest in social reforms. He also started an experimental school at Shantiniketan where he tried his Upanishadic ideals of education.From time to time he participated in the Indian nationalist movement, though in his own non-sentimental and visionary way; and Gandhi, the political father of modern India, was his devoted friend. Tagore was knighted by the ruling British Government in 1915, but within a few years he resigned the honour as a protest against Briti sh policies in India. Tagore had early success as a writer in his native Bengal. With his translations of some of his poems he became rapidly known in the West.In fact his fame attained a luminous height, taking him across continents on lecture tours and tours of friendship. For the world he became the voice of India's spiritual heritage; and for India, especially for Bengal, he became a great living institution. Although Tagore wrote successfully in all literary genres, he was first of all a poet. Among his fifty and odd volumes of poetry are  Manasi  (1890) [The Ideal One],  Sonar Tari  (1894) (The Golden Boat),  Gitanjali  (1910) (Song Offerings),  Gitimalya  (1914) [Wreath of Songs], and Balaka  (1916) (The Flight of Cranes).The English renderings of his poetry, which include  The Gardener  (1913),  Fruit-Gathering  (1916), and  The Fugitive  (1921), do not generally correspond to particular volumes in the original Bengali; and in spite of its title ,  Gitanjali: Song Offerings(1912), the most acclaimed of them, contains poems from other works besides its namesake. He won the Nobel prize on his creativity (Gitanjali) at 1913. His life style was so simple. He wrote different types of poets, so many songs, drama etc. The Bengali nation is proud for him for such creativity.The importance of music: Music participation provides a unique opportunity for literacy preparation. Whether the children are singing, playing, or listening, teachers direct them to listen and hear in new ways which exercises their aural discrimination. Playing instruments and adding movement to the lessons teaches children about sequential learning which is essential in reading comprehension. Music is academic. For some people, this is the primary reason for providing music lessons to their children. A recent study from the University of California found that music trains the brain for higher forms of thinking.Second graders who were given music lessons score d 27% higher on proportional math and fractions tests than children who received no special instruction. Research indicates that musical training permanently wires a young mind for enhanced performance. Music is physical. Music can be described as a sport. Learning to sing and keep rhythm develops coordination. The air and wind power necessary to blow a flute, trumpet or saxophone promotes a healthy body. Music is emotional. Music is an art form. We are emotional beings and every child requires an artistic outlet. Music may be your child’s vehicle of expression. Music is for life.Most people can’t play soccer, or football at 70 or 80 years of age but they can sing. And they can play piano or some other instrument. Music is a gift you can give your child that will last their entire lives. Every person should take the course of music appreciation. Because it helps people to gain their knowledge and also people can relax from mental or other types of distress   Recent r esearch has found that music uses both sides of the brain, a fact that makes it valuable in all areas of development. Music affects the growth of a child’s brain academically, emotionally, physically and spiritually.. So people have to know about music.

High availability Essay

In the advent of the computer age, the growth of the internet has also necessitated the development of technologies that are not only able to cope with the demands of users but also within the limitations of current hardware. With multitasking having evolved into the norm, the availability of media and applications online has made it increasingly important to provide  high availability (Marcus 2003). The mission-critical applications that have surfaced on the internet have placed added pressure to make sure that highly available services are always ready. As such, this brief discourse will attempt to discuss the current state of high availability technology as well as any recent trends or variations that have surfaced. High Availability, as the term suggests, refers to systems or instruments in information technology that are not only continuously available but also continuously operational for long periods of time (Marcus 2003). The term availability is used to refer to the access that the users or members of user community have to the system. This type of access or ability can include anything from uploading files, to changing entries, updating works or even just scanning previous works (Marcus 2003). The failure to access the system results in downtime or unavailability. An example of this would be the manner by which community users like to be able to use Facebook to chat, watch videos, update links and upload pictures all at the same time. With a network that has Low Availability, the users will occasionally experience failures with regard to logging in or accessing different functions of the website because of the necessary downtime for system updating and maintenance (Ulrick 2010). This downtime can be prejudicial for a website or an internet application because it reduces the desirability of the technology. With the pressure on to provide complete and persistent accessibility, companies have tried to achieve the optimum â€Å"100% operational† or â€Å"never failing† Availability Status . One way of providing almost constant availability (High Availability) is by creating clusters. These computer systems or networks consist of several pieces that act as back-ups or failover processing mechanism that store data and allow for access. This includes the Redundant Array of Independent Disks (RAID) or the Storage Area Network (SAN), which are used as back up storage devices to ensure constant availability (Marcus 2003). These systems, however, are constantly evolving and changing depending on the technology that is available and developed such as systems that have solid membership administration, consistent group communication sub-systems, quoram sub-systems, and even concurrent control sub-systems, among others. By creating a clustered computer system or network, backups are created in the form of redundancies for both hardware and software. This is achieved by forming or grouping several independent nodes with each of them simultaneously running a copy of the operating system (OS) and the application software (Marcus 2003). Whenever there is a failure in any of the nodes or when daemon failures occur, the system can quickly be reconfigured and the existing workload is then passed on to the other available or functional nodes within the cluster. Thus, there is always, theoretically, one system that is available and running to handle the services and access for the user community. It was reported in 1996 that the lost revenue and productivity due to downtime amounted to over US$ 4. 54 billion for American businesses alone (IBM 1998). As such, High availability has been consistently upgrading and evolving to be able to address this issue. The recent development include the creation of High Availability Clusters (HA Clusters or Failover Clusters). The concept of this is that it provides greater High Availability by operating several computer clusters at the same time. While this applies the same concept as High Availability, it attempts to create several failover systems and clusters that cater to this. It does, however, retain the same concept of constant monitoring to make sure that the systems are running as programmed and as planned. Recent research in this field has shown that there is also a diminishing return principle that can be applied. Up until recently, it was thought that by creating an expansive network and creating several clusters, the availability could be increased proportionally. However, there are findings that show that High Availability decreases when there are more components that are added to the system. This means that instead of improving the process it is instead undermined by the installation of additional components. The reason for this, according to Chee-Wei Ang, is that the more complex a system the more potential failures arise (Ang 2007). Since there are more systems to monitor, it becomes more difficult to point out exactly where the problem is. This can be compared to a complicated plumbing system wherein it becomes difficult to find the source of the leak. Though it has been argued by experts that a number of highly available systems utilize a simple design architecture which features high quality multipurpose systems. Yet even with this, it cannot ignore the basic fact that theses systems still require constant upgrading, patching and maintenance. The recent developments in this field include the creation of more advanced systems designs that streamline and facilitate the maintenance of systems without the need for compromising the availability. This has been achieved by doing load balancing and more advanced failover techniques. It is admitted, however, that while there are several developments, like all hardware devices these systems are also prone to human error and typical wear and tear which cannot be avoided though their effects can be mitigated by the introduction of more effective and efficient means.

Marx and Habermas Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words

Marx and Habermas - Research Paper Example A belief or theory may produce successful predictions, as in the case of Newtonian mechanics, and yet not be true; that is, rationally justifiable in the long run. Indeed, Thomas Kuhn's study of scientific revolutions, which Habermas cites, indicates that the most basic propositions of a scientific theory are worked out in advance of evidential confirmationThis happens in conversations between scientists about what counts as a pressing problem, how such a problem ought to be conceptualized, and so forth. Such propositions are irreducible to empirical predictions. For it is only when they are taken in combination with one another that they yield testable hypotheses. Consequently, their truth would have to be captured in terms of an ideal consensus. Thus, true propositions are those which anyone would agree to in the long run, given sufficient time for rational reflection. (Deborah 2004) The fact that scientific truth presupposes the existence of a communicative community leads Haberma s to consider the categorical framework in which intersubjective meaning, value and validity are constituted. It is obvious how predictive science is related to the context of instrumental action. (Allen, 2009) It is also obvious that the anthropological usefulness and transcendental validity of science resides in its successful satisfaction of a technical interest. However, it is unclear what, if any, interest is satisfied by communication. Equally unclear is the relationship between communication and those sciences of man associated with history, literature, cultural anthropology, etc. Nevertheless, Habermas will argue that the kind of textual interpretation preferred by these sciences is essentially related to communication. The latter, in turn, will be shown to satisfy a practical interest in procuring intersubjective agreement, regarding shared norms and values. This is a necessary condition, not only for the creation and maintenance of personal and social identity, but also fo r the achievement of individual freedom. Peirce provided the necessary link connecting the logic of causal explanation to Marx's notion of labor as an activity underlying self-realization and world constitution. (Moore and Robin, 1964) Dilthey provides a similar link connecting communication and symbolic understanding to Hegel's master-slave dialectic. This dialectic shows how one's identity is defined and confirmed through recognition by other. For Dilthey, this dialectic is as essential to the methodological grounding of history, philology, and literary criticism-sciences concerned with understanding the spiritual life of humankind—as causal explanation is to the methodological grounding of the natural sciences. The method of understanding grounding the human sciences is none other than the circular interpretation of textual wholes in terms of their parts, and the interpretation of these parts in terms of more inclusive wholes. This circular dialectic also encompasses the i nterpreter. The interpreter is responsible for much of the meaning contained in the text. At the same time, the text is responsible for opening up new meaning for the interpreter. Stated somewhat paradoxically, text and interpreter mutually constitute one another as meaningful identities. This activity of symbolic reproduction, Habermas will argue, is capable of advancing moral knowledge. Yet, it can do so only to the extent that the dialectic between text and interpreter assumes the form of a simulated dialogue. (Habermas, 1872) According to Dilthey, the understanding of the past, or the interpretation of an ancient text, is an elaboration of the sort of retrospective self interpretation that an individual continually engages in, while reconstituting the continuity of his or her life history--the very substance of one's unique identity. (Hodges. 1944) To begin with, the generation and maintenance of a stable, personal identity involves assigning one's

E-Commerce Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 2

E-Commerce - Essay Example and use a variety of e-commerce applications, which make their businesses more efficient and help them to meet the most sophisticated customer needs. Generally, e-commerce applications cover a variety of systems and techniques, which businesses and entrepreneurs can use to meet their business and consumer objectives. Supply chain management, e-tailing and procurement, auction, commercial websites, and search engines are widely used to promote the popularity and efficiency of online businesses. In this context, a supply chain is, probably, the most popular and well-known form of e-commerce application. A supply chain can be generally defined as â€Å"a set of relationships between a number of companies who have a symbiotic relationship with each other in that one company supplies commodities or services to other companies which, in turn, supply commodities or services to other companies, and so on† (Kalakota & Robinson, 2005). That e-businesses all over the world apply to the benefits of supply chains is not surprising, for the latter have already become a conventional form of making business and an efficient instrument of establishing close relationships between suppliers and customers, as well as between them and their partners. However, supply chain management solutions would not suffice, to bring e-commerce to the current point of evolution: today, businesses and entrepreneurs online can use a variety of other applications, including e-tailing and procurement. E-tailing is a popular form of making business online, which implies the use of archetypal solutions similar to those at Amazon.com. E-tailing is the general form of selling goods online, and is often treated as a synonym to e-commerce, e-business, and business-to-customer transactions online. Amazon is, probably, the brightest example of how e-tailing works in practice: Amazon encompasses a variety of different applications and solutions that allow customers making purchases online, tracking their

Developing Professional Practice in HR Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2750 words

Developing Professional Practice in HR - Essay Example This essay analyses and discusses the process of developing professional practice in HR. The first part presents the analysis and findings of a small-scale piece of research. The second part is a reflective review on the competencies and contribution of HR professionals. The third part discusses the contribution of CPD to the performance of HR professionals. And the last part presents a concise personal development plan. Small-Scale Piece of Research Human resource (HR) professionals have to work in a strategic manner. They should acquire the essential competencies, and this is only possible through familiarity with HR theories, practices, and knowledge. Moreover, acquisition of these essential competencies arises from having the capacity to use information within particular business contexts. At present, developing HR professionals is very crucial in numerous aspects of human resource management (HRM): recruitment, strategic planning, and performance management, amongst many others (Porter, Smith, & Fagg, 2012). HR competencies are the qualities that facilitate successful performance of HR professionals and that give an organisation the ability to compete effectively in a highly competitive business world. The objective of this small-scale piece of research is to find out the specific HR competencies that actual service organisations, specifically those in the hospitality industry, value most. The researcher interviewed several HR personnel from three service organisations: a hotel, a restaurant, and transportation. Majority of the HR personnel interviewed believe that HR professionals should have personal integrity. Most of them named good interpersonal skills and personal communication as the most important HR competencies. HR professionals have to learn the skill of building a relationship that is based on trust. Trust consequently builds motivation and personal integrity. HR professionals have a good chance of taking part in their organisations’ str ategic planning activity if they are able to build trust. Nevertheless, most of the HR personnel interviewed ranked competency in strategic performance the lowest. This possibly implies that HR professionals in these service organisations are incapable in terms of strategic decision-making and management of organisational culture. This finding is very important because HR professionals must be capable of determining, building, and integrating organisational cultures that contribute to the successful implementation of business strategies and competitive strategies. Moreover, according to Yeung and colleagues (1996), if HR professionals do not have the ability to effectively manage or cope with change, they would have difficulties dealing or communicating with important people to guarantee prompt decision-making and appropriate resource allocation. HR professionals should acquire the necessary qualities of an effective strategic business expert. Most scholars believe that HR professio nals should first aspire to become a strategic business expert then eventually progress to key contributors (Labedz & Lee, 2011). Because a great deal of the literature on the subject matter has demonstrated a positive correlation between organisational performance and strategic human resource management, this small-scale piece of research tried to determine the HR competencies valued most by HR personnel in service organisat

Safety Management Measures For Organizations Essay

Safety Management Measures For Organizations - Essay Example Managers have to hire employees and influence employees by motivating them to take all the safety precautions and use all safety resources to ensure that the organization and its people are safe, these activities are conducted in the staffing and the directing function. 2. Employers use various incentive programs in order to stimulate and motivate employees to follow the safety guidelines and take all safety measures in order to keep the workplace safe and healthy (Friend 245). These incentives have a very short term effect, they bring about a positive change in the employees for as long as the incentive programs are in place. As soon as the employers discontinue these incentive programs, employees resort to working according to their prior standards and their standards even decline. They do so in order to persuade the employees to restart the incentive programs. Incentive programs are based on statistical data, the employees try to provide misleading statistics in order to persuade the employees to implement or continue with particular incentive programs. ... 3. Maslow came up with the theory known as Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, the theory states that each individual have 5 levels of needs and employers can motivate employees by helping them fulfill these needs. The theory states that all individuals first try to fulfill the basic level of needs such as the psychological needs and safety needs, and then they try to pursue the remaining needs in the hierarchy. Employers can motivate the employees to take care of the safety of the organization and the safety of the people working in the organization by providing them incentives so they can fulfill their needs. These incentives can help employees obtain food which is a part of their psychological need, employers can provide job security which will help fulfill employees need for safety, managers can make the employees feel that they are a part of the organization and this will help fulfill the need for belongingness, by assigning employees with targets and work employers can help ful fill the esteem needs of the employees. Once all the needs are fulfilled, the employees will start helping others in the organization and in their daily life which will fulfill the employees need for self-actualization. 4. Need Achievement theory proposed by McClelland states that every human being is born in this world with the need for power, affiliation and achievement and the levels of these needs varies in different individuals.  

World Politics Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words - 4

World Politics - Essay Example The developing nations have to adopt policies that conform to the standards required by superpowers. However, evidence shows that terrorism is one of the latest factors to have influenced the formulation of foreign policies. Terrorism doesn’t make a distinction between a superpower and a developing nation. For this reason, nations have come together to fight the common enemy. Although it has been the hardest task, most nations have proved to be resilient in the fight and have vowed to bring to justice, those suspected to be terrorists and their sympathizers. Nation’s foreign policies are major components in world politics (Duncan, Jancar-Webster & Switky, 2009). A nation’s foreign policy determines how it relates with other nations (Constitutional Rights Foundation, 2014). Most foreign policies consist of a number of strategies chosen by a nation with regard to its interests. These policies help in the maintenance of relations with other nations and the achievement of a nation’s goals. The interaction is moderated in order to gain maximum benefits on international cooperation. The governments incorporate high level decision bodies to help them make the soundest decisions. According to Duncan, Jancar-Webster and Switky, â€Å"foreign policy is put into play by the world’s states, but other players, such as Intergovernmental Organizations (IGOs) and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs)†¦.may also make decisions that affect the foreign policy of states† (2009, p. 131). Foreign policies were introduce d during the world wars. Most nations took the step in order to improve the relations between them and prevent potential wars. There are various factors that influence the foreign relations of a nation; these factors determine how a nation will treat the other and ensure that it conducts itself in such a way that it remains relevant to other nations as well as its citizens. Terrorism: The

Obesity in New Orleans Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Obesity in New Orleans - Essay Example That ... would be like a 5-foot-8-inch person weighing 197 pounds. The National Institutes of Health defines morbid obesity as a BMI above 40." (Graves). New Orleans is the city that loves to eat. It's no wonder, that this passion is reflected on the appearance and health of dwellers. The estimated quantity of overweight people in the New Orleans is 60% percent. The officials say it is obesity that is the cause for most diseases the New Orleans dwellers suffer from. They also add that the obesity-related diseases account for more than half of Louisiana's health care budget. (Sell) In 2005 Men's Fitness ranked New Orleans the seventh fattest city in the country. In 2004 it was on the twenty second place. The quantity of obese people in New Orleans is growing rapidly with each passing year, and thus the quantity of those, who suffer from the obesity-related diseases, also increases. New Orleans dwellers become less active, and eat more. One of the reasons of this process is that the fast foods are gaining popularity in New Orleans, the same as in the other American cities. The contemporary pace of life often doesn't allow time for cooking at home, thus the families either eat out, or order food home. It is rarely that families order home healthy foods like salad.

Mcdonald Case Study Essay Example for Free

Mcdonald Case Study Essay Mission Statement McDonald’s mission statement is: McDonalds vision is to be the worlds best quick service restaurant experience. Being the best means providing outstanding quality, service, cleanliness and value, so that we make every customer in every restaurant smile. Strategy McDonald’s competitive strategy competes on several bases, including cost, respond, speed, and health issue. Their strongest priority is â€Å"making customers happy†. Product Maturity McDonald’s in is the mature stage of their product life cycle. All the competitors are known and established. This means that they go for more of a cost structure to have a cheap product while still maintaining the MacDonald’s quality. Because the franchise maintains the same product line they can focus on cutting costs. Product Development Process MacDonald’s uses product development teams to gather many minds as a resource for ideas. This allows for the cooks, marketers, service representatives, and others to sit together and think from many different angles to come up with a product. When coming up with a product together, they try to identify potential target markets to penetrate or needs that are not being fulfilled. This is all done in a food studio in Oak Brook, Illinois. They then test the product in a small test market for 6 weeks. And then if successful there they expand the test markets to 800 to 1,000 restaurants. Ethical Performance McDonald considers priorities for food safety, product quality and costs. The facts are together with ethical, environmental and economic responsibilities. Moreover, McDonald had been pushing effort on animal welfare. McDonalds Recognized on worlds most ethical Companies List on 2009. Quality System At McDonald’s, quality is the #1 priority when serving customers. McDonalds delivers quality both through products and services by actively training each employee so that a high standard is set for the food they create. They also purchase their products from high class companies such as their fries from McCain and their drinks from Minute Maid. Process Strategy McDonald’s uses a process focus strategy by developing a system that can be used in every McDonalds you go in to. For example, when entering McDonald’s for a Big Mac meal, one employee takes the order at the counter and gets the drink, another is at the fry machine always making sure fries are made fresh, and a third employee is making the burger. Technology Strategy Along with McDonalds new approach to revamp its physical exterior image much is changing inside the restaurant itself from a technology aspect. Recently McDonalds has introduced WI-FI into many of their outlets providing customers with free access to internet to surf the web or check emails while they enjoy a meal or just a coffee. What McDonalds hopes to achieve with this is to create a more welcoming atmosphere where the food is still fast but the stay is longer and more enjoyable. The internet is one such feature where people can keep in touch while outside of the office without a need for rushing back but also McDonalds has introduced new flat screen televisions which play the local news. These technologic features with cozy leather couches and a new sleek interior look is intended to keep up with the technology changes that go on outside of the restaurant. The building itself is changing as well. McDonalds has introduced a new ventilation system in the building that quickly whisks the kitchen smells such as the burgers and fries outside of the dining room. No longer does the kitchen smell linger into the dining room providing a cleaner and more appealing way to dine within the restaurant. The kitchen is being constantly upgraded for faster and better service and McDonalds is currently looking at installing new grills that will enable them to provide their number one success all day; the breakfast menu.

Learning and Development Essay Example for Free

Learning and Development Essay Strategic activities in organization or at work places are approaches to human resource management that provide a framework to support long term business goals and outcomes, these approaches vary in relation to the business activities itself. Schwab (1980) noted that the growing body of strategic research can be seen in two interrelated ways which are the substantive and measurement streams. The substantive stream refers to studies which emphasizes on the physiology or character of a theoretical relationship between independent and dependent variables while the measurement stream focuses on the outcome of the correlation between the underlying theoretical concept and operationalization itself (Venkatraman and Grant 1986). This academic article tries to look at more of the measurement stream in relation to training, learning and development based on previous academic articles and my own general understanding of how truly these strategic these concepts are or not. Learning training and development are human resource development activities and over time, two factors have influenced these concepts towards being part of the evolutional role of the formulating business strategy which are the centrality of information technology to business success and the sustainable competitive advantage offered by work force expertise (Swanson and Terraco 1995) Critical business issues from new marketing strategies to innovations in production technology are based on, among other factors, the performance capabilities of those expected to use these new work systems, this means that employee expertise itself has been expanded through effective programs of employee development. Therefore activities of human resource development in the work place such as learning training and development have truly been strategic by maintaining the pace with the increasingly sophisticated information and production technologies that continue to diffuse throughout vital industries of the world (swanson and terraco1994). The conceptualization of strategic human resource management as a management system which matches business concerns with human resource activities (Beer et al 1984;miles and snow 1984) have been referred to as a high performance work system(HPWS)(Bercker et al 1196) which is characterized by provision of employee development and training activities in with the business strategy(Aurthur 1994: Huselid 1995; Jackson and Schuler 1995;MacDuffie 1995) for example,selction, development and rewards involves the internal combination of procedures across the hr function. This shows the degree of emphases placed on the link between human resource activities and business need in relation to strategy (Baird and Meshoulam 1988; Lengnick-Hall and Lengnick-Hall 1988; Fisher 1989; Boxall 1992; Mabey and Iles 1993; Schuler 1992).  Successful internal integration of HR activities results in organizational benefits (Becker et al. 1996). This essay of mine attempts to show the link among learning train ing and development as a strategy to organization. Learning and development as an approach of strategy stands for how an organization make sure that the present and future learning and development activities support the achievements of its goals by improving skills and capabilities of individuals and teams.. it should be business directed, this means that it should be designed to help the attainment of business goals by promoting human capital management(Armstrong 2009). Learning can be defined as a means by which a person acquire and develop new knowledge, skills, capabilities, behaviors and attitudes† Armstrong 2011 pg 664. Honey and Mumford noted explained learning happens when people show that they know they didn’t prior to the time they are now. The enhancement of capabilities previously had which leads to skills, knowledge and attitudes through a continual process that tends to prepare people for more responsibities in the future is the act of learning. Estherby-smith et al (2000) agreed to the fact that there is a debate whether learning should be defined as change in cognition or behaviors, thus showing that researchers would agree with defining learning as a change in organizations knowledge and is a fuction of experience. Learning and development as a strategy is concerned with creating a learning culture that will encourage learning and will provide a basis for planning and implementing learning activities and programmes(Armstrong 2011) this means that for an organization to use the concept of learning as a strategy is has to imbibe the learning culture which is one that learning that is practiced from top management, line managers and employees generally as an essential way of doing things in the firm which they commit to and continuously done. A learning organization was deined by senge(1990) as one where people learn together, where collective aspiration is set free, where there is nuturinng of expansive pattern of thinking and they continuously enlarge their capabilities to create outcomes they truly desire. I have previously mentioned development with learning because both of the them are related when one think about it generally but would like to define it now in the next paragraph. i would be explaining learning and developments together as being strategic. Development can be defined as concerned withensuring that a perons ability and potential are grown and raised in the process of learning experiences or through self directed learning. Development is the end product of true learning which can be seen through changes in outcome of pre and post learning activities i. e the change from the present state of understanding and capabilitiy to a new and higher level of knowledge, skills and abilities. These processes of learning and developments wouldnot take place not to now talk of being strategic without individuals in the organization, this means that individual members are the organism through which organizational learning and development take place. The knowledge embedded in that or those individuals have to be reposited to other people in the firm to gain competitive advantage which is the whole reason for the strategy in itself which are affected by the following factors explained by Argote(2011). Firstly, the experience of the organization affects the organizational learning,this done not by characterizing experience at a gross level , but taking a fine grained approach to describing or noting its elements along with various dimensions( Argote et al 2002). the purpose of taking this approach is to be be able to tell when experience is positive or negative in relation to the processes and outcomes in order to be able to explain relationships amongst the types of experience and to design the learning experience in order to be strategic about the learning. Secondly is the process of organizational learning itself, which is conceived as having three processes: creating, retaining and transferring knowledge. Not much research has been done on creation unlike knowledge retention and transfer. Empirical research over at least the last twenty years that there would be significant difference innovative capabilities of a firm and its knowledge through it transfers within the firm (easterby et all 2008) this is key to the success of the ensuring of the strategy of the firm. This depends on characteristics of the individual that has the knowledge, recipient, attributes of the knowledge and the knowledge transfer process itself as an mportant factor to developing learning capabilities which lead to competitive advantage of the firm (Grant 1996) Another factor is the that could lad to learning being a succes is thr stratetic management it self,peopke whoput these learning and development strategy into place itself. Dynamic capabilities which is an example of strategic management are impotant concepts in relation to organisational learning and its sub process. ‘a greater understanding of how dynamic capabilities develop through organizational learning is needed† Argate 2011 pg Contextuality is also another factor that affects learning which is characterized by the situation and envitonment in which the company finds it self. Oragnisational learniong can do well in an environment which its stability varies with time or turbulent (herdberg 981) little inducement of learning occurs in an environment that’s stable while in a too turbulent environment, the organisation would not be able to interpret environmental responses(bierly and hamalainen 1995) if care is not taken,learning under ambiguity may occur which march and olsen 1975 defined as a situation where the environment is unanalysable and the learning cyle still continues and percieved as an interpretation or meaning. â€Å" Knowledge capabilities are at the heart of the effectiveness of organizations. Since the market and competitive environment of all companies is rapidly changing, the value of existing capabilities will quickly decay, resulting in a lack of competitiveness. It is imperative for organizations to focus on developing their knowledge capabilities on an ongoing basis, or they will face extinction. Organizational development must be centered on the continual enhancement of knowledge capabilities, as the foundation of organizational effectiveness in all fields† Dawson 2000. Armstrong(2009) identified the following elements needed for learning and development to be really strategic and they go follows: it should make a major contribution to the successful attainment of the organizations objective and investments: it should be integrated with and support the achievement of business and human resource strategies: it should be designed un such a way that it would achieve improvement in corporate functional and maximum development in skills and knowledge of people in the organization; equal opportunity for everyone in the organization to develop their skills and knowledge while attaining personal development through the framework of individual and self directed learning but still maintain the primary knowledge of knowing that this is dependent on the employee themselves who be guided and supported by their manager as necessary with the members of the hr department.