Teachers Understanding of the Pledge of Allegiance :: Patriotism Pledge of Allegiance Essays

Teachers' Understanding of the Pledge of Allegiance Introduction Current social context demands that we see people either as flag-waving patriots or traitorous war protesters. American social institutions have supported this dichotomy by fostering a haven from the complexity of the world situation since 9/11: come in, they seem to say, and say a prayer for our country, sing the national anthem, recite the Pledge. These institutions know that familiar words act as aural blankets. We wrap ourselves with vocabulary and cadences that soothe our souls, repeating words without thought. Although the custom had fallen off prior to 9/11, a great many American public schools begin the school day by reciting the Pledge of Allegiance. The recitation of a promise to support the flag and the country it represents constitutes an oath that is said by almost every student and teacher daily. We are concerned that the recitation of the pledge has gone unexamined by both teacher and student. While it may be acceptable for religious institutions to demand oath without analysis, public schools should be and are held to a different standard. Fostering the critical analysis of the documents that have supported our country is part of the rights and responsibilities of the American school system and those whom it employs. In this paper, we will begin the process of exploring what actually happens to the recitation and analysis of the Pledge of Allegiance in public schools. Our primary question for this initial work is: What do teachers think about the Pledge as it is used in their classroom? Background Research on the Pledge of Allegiance. In the last thirty years, there has been surprisingly little study of this particular ritual in democratic participation. The majority of this work tends to focus on the legal issues concerning refusal to say the Pledge (Knowles, 1992; Urofsky, 1995). This work effectively summarizes the current legal understanding of the relationship between state law and local school governance, that while states have a compelling interest to encourage democratic education in schools, their ability to mandate such participation is effectively limited by the Constitutional obligation to protect freedom of religion (Minersville School District v. Gobitis, 1940; Urofsky, 1995). In addition, there was a small cluster of studies that occurred around the U.S. centennial examining how the Pledge was being used in the context of democratic education (c.

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There are many drug cartels in the country of Mexico, but one of the most powerful drug trafficking organization in the world being the Sinaloa Cartel. A drug trafficking, money laundering, and organized crime group that still remains the strongest in the country and has the largest presence nationwide. It was founded in 1989 in the city of Culiacan, Sinaloa. The youngest city just up the northwest of Mexico. Not only is it known as the Sinaloa Cartel, it was also known as La Alianza de Sangre, meaning Blood Alliance. Hector Palma, a drug lord that was in charge of the cartel was arrested in the year of 1995 and passed it on to one of his well known business partner, Joaquin â€Å"El Chapo† Guzman. In that time period, he took leadership and is now currently running it. He is considered to be the second generation of drug smugglers along with many other individuals such as Rafael Quintero, Ernesto Carrillo, and Miguel Gallardo. These second generations were brought to the cartel through connections from family relations, especially Joaquin â€Å"El Chapo† Guzman. The first generation dates b...

Marc Antony Speech Essay

Antony’s skillful ways To be a good public speaker, a person needs a very specific set of skills to deliver a powerful speech. In the play, The Tragedy of Julius Caesar, by William Shakespeare, a group of men conspire to assassinate Julius Caesar. Throughout the play, they succeed in killing Caesar by stabbing him multiple times. The conspirators have to convince the people of Rome that Caesar is a bad man and he had to be killed for the sake of Rome. Another man by the name of Marc Antony, who was a loyal friend of Caesar, comes and turns the tide over to his favor. He does this by delivering a powerful speech to the people of Rome at Caesar’s funeral. Marc Antony is a skilled orator because he excels at using rhetorical devices such as:ethos, pathos, and logos. One of the many ways that Mark Antony is an excellent speaker is how he uses the rhetorical device ethos. He persuades the crowd by giving them compliments such as, â€Å"Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears. † This shows that Mark Antony is getting into the crowd’s heart with his status as a trustworthy man. Furthermore, Antony is familiar with the crowd, and he knows how to get into their heads. He also persuades them using an ethical argument by saying, â€Å"Come I to speak in Caesar’s funeral. He was my friend, faithful and just to me. † Mark Antony is telling the plebeians that he was close to Caesar and that he knew him very well – that they should believe his word. Mark Antony’s speech was success at persuading the crowd because he used his own characteristics to his advantage (III, ii, 73-86). Mark Antony was also able to announce an admirable speech because he exposed his apathy towards Caesar using the rhetorical device pathos. He touched the plebeians hearts by saying, â€Å"O judgment, thou art fled to brutish beasts, And men have lost their reason! Bear with me; My heart is in the coffin there with Caesar, And I must pause till it come back to me. † At this point in his speech, Antony is showing his anger towards the conspirators making the crowd filled with rage. He also shows his sorrow by pausing in the middle of his speech,showing the crowd that he is mournful towards his noble friend Caesar. He also moved the crowd by speaking about Caesar, â€Å" When that the poor have cried, Caesar hath wept. † By stating this he is letting the Romans know that Caesar understood their pain and compassion. Anthony’s remarkable speech was successful because of the way he delivered his emotions (III, ii,92-108). Using logic, Antony was able to affect the crowd over to his side. For example, in his speech , he tells the Romans, â€Å" You all did see that on the Lupercal I thrice presented him a kingly crown, which he did thrice refuse. Was this ambition? † By using his debate skills, he is maneuvering the audience into believing that Caesar was not ambitious by stating that he did not want to take the crown every time he presented it to him. Another way to prove that Antony’s arguments were reasonable was when he questions the crowd, â€Å"You all did love him once, not without cause;What cause withholds you then to mourn for him ? † This reminds the crowd of how their lives were before Caesar was killed, making them realize how the conspirators manipulated them. Antony was able to successfully persuade the crowd by using the rhetorical device logos. Anthony’s speech was magnificent because it contained rhetorical devices. By using ethos he was able to make the crowd consider him truthful. He also conveyed the crowd to rebel and feel sympathy by using pathos. Finally, he was able to completely turn the crowd over by reasoning with them. In the end, Mark Antony was able to convince a large group of people because he contained debate skills like no other.

Presenting information Essay

Present complex internal business information using 3 different methods appropriate to the users need. Easy Jets aims and objectives are to be Europe’s preferred short-haul airline, delivering market leading returns. Subject: Interim report From: Marketing manager The introduction of the Easy Jet app has boosted many aspects of the organisation as a whole. Overall, EasyJet have provided their customers with a very effective mobile app. Making a booking, checking on the flight status and reviewing existing bookings are very easy to do. Though checking in online and downloading a mobile boarding pass is not supported. These are things that a passenger on the move might well want to do.+ Last year, we made 17.4% profit before capital and corporate tax, the app being released early January. Meaning that in 2013, since the app launch, we’ve made a profit off  £647.4 million. Before the launch, last year, the changes in net profits was 6.1%, compared to this year’s profit. 6.1% is an explosive profit margin for an organisation with our scale, size and calibre & over such a short period of time. Analysts point that our profit margins have been rapidly expanding at such an explosive rate because of our application. Before the app, in 2010, our profit was only 121 million, which is not even half of what we’ve made in 2013. This is of course, not only enhancing our disposable income capacity but also reaching our annual financial aims and meeting our objectives. I and the department strongly recommend expanding our influence over the interweb to reach our customers through virtual means and mobiles.

Ufc Business Strategy

General Environment The fastest growing sports organization in the world, the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC), started in 1993 as a professional mix martial arts (MMA) organization. Once the UFC brand was launched, MMA popularity surged in Brazil, followed by immense interest in Japan where these bouts became major events. The most recent fight in April, UFC sold 55,000 tickets in minutes, became the largest paid audience in North American to witness a mix martial arts event.They delivered top rating in male 18-34 and 18-49 demographics. Globally, UFC programming is broadcast in over 149 countries and territories, reaching a half a billion homes worldwide, in 20 different languages. Response to the UFC brand of MMA has been tremendous, resulting in a growing fan base that has grown exponentially through the years. So, UFC is very popular to the whole world. Porter’s Five Forces: Threat of New Entrants Threat of new entrants is low because everyone in the world is watching UFC.UFC is the only mixed martial arts industry in the world, but it is part of fighting sports industry. Power of Suppliers I would say that power of suppliers is high because the whole world is selling UFC’s stuffs. Suppliers are selling UFC apparels, shorts, DVDs, equipments and gears. Some of the suppliers including Affliction are selling UFC’s apparel. Others (Clear Vision) are selling DVD such as work-out or copies of UFC fights. UFC spends a lot on advertisement because they’re one of the most recognizable by the whole world.The Ultimate Fighting Championship has partnered with Fox  for a seven-year broadcast deal through the  Fox Sports  subsidiary, effectively ending the UFC's  Spike TV  and Versus (now  NBC Sports Network) partnership. I believe fighters are one of the suppliers because they are paid per fight, with amounts depending on how well-known the fighters are and how well sponsored a fighter and an event is. Fighters will typicall y get paid money to fight with an additional bonus if they win. Power of Buyers Buyers’ power is really high because UFC is very popular to the world.The UFC brand completely restructured MMA into a highly organized and controlled compact sports. Now, UFC produces over twelve live Pay-Per-View events annually that are distributed residentially through North American cable and satellite providers including iNDEMAND Networks, DIRECTv, DISH Network, TVN Entertainment, Shaw Pay-Per-View, BellTv, Viewers Choice, SaskTel Max and via the Internet worldwide on UFC. com and Yahoo! , commercially through Joe Hand Promotions. It is very expensive because you have to order Pay-Per-View or DIRECTv to watch UFC.Substitute I don’t believe there is a substitute because UFC is wrestling, martial art mixed. UFC is a very unique sport, but it is part of fighting sports. So, I believe substitute is very low. There are wrestling, boxing, martial arts mixed, and other fighting sports. Compe titor Analysis: Boxing Boxing is a  martial art  and  combat sport  in which two people engage in a contest of strength, reflexes, and endurance by throwing  punches  at an opponent with  gloved hands. They can get two most popular, best and recognizable boxers to fight each other.They have so many passionate fans. They’ve partnered with HBO and SHOWTIME. They are focused on the best fighters from all over the world and give the best show for the world. Internal Industry: Strength UFC is one of the most popular sports, not in just United States, but in the whole world. They have surpassed the boxing on fans’ popularity. They are really high on suppliers’ and buyers’ power. They have sold out their tickets within minutes, not hours or days. Weakness It is not for younger kids to watch UFC because it is a bad image and bad influence for them.You don’t want to have bullies at schools. UFC are worrying about what the fighters say or do be cause Advocacy groups have criticized the fighters’ comments as sexist and homophobic. The incidents cited by National Center on Domestic and Sexual Violence include an undated video linked on unfitforchildren. org, in which UFC fighter Quinton â€Å"Rampage† Jackson  urges a Japanese-speaking fan to say nasty words. Also, people are complained about their advertisement because they showed a half nude woman in one of their commercial with Bud Light Lime. Recommendation

Individual Reflection : Handling Difficult Conversation

This paper is my individual reflection on how to handle difficult conversations. We are faced with difficulty to transfer the message we want the other to understand and comply or support. Because of this complexity of communication barrier we end up in a conflict or a confrontation. When this happens we let go of the problem – forget it , avoid it, avoid being involved or ignore it. Learning two way conversation and certain strategies to handle a difficult conversation, is a step to better yourself in the way you voice out without any personal intent.In our everyday lives whether professional or personal we always encounter a difficult conversation – conflict on one and confrontation on the other. Most in some cases goes for the best of intentions for the benefit or interest of the person or the company. But what makes it a difficult conversation is how you relay the message on board, how one decides to handle it, how you understand it, how your message is being unders tood by the other and whether to comply or give support.My individual reflection for this is an incident that has occurred between two directors of the company whom are also the proprietors of the company – my mother and I. As much as my mother and I are the sole owners of the company, my late father left behind, I would like to use it in relation to this topic of difficult conversations in a professional setting. My mother and I have different ways of doing things and have different ideals when it comes to running a business. She is my superior as the Managing director of the company.She is old fashioned in her approach to things and also does not read or write and I am kind of what I’ll like to describe as transforming. There was a situation that occurred when some of our clients were complaining about the quality of the TV sets in their rooms and how they didn’t like the idea of them having to pay that much money for a night in the hotel and have to watch a b oxed TV instead of the new flat screen TV that were in vogue. I decided to have a meeting with my mother on this matter to explain the importance of upping our standards in terms of quality.My mum found this statement from me demeaning and queried me that it’s not in my place to talk to her about such matters. I on hearing those exact words flamed up and attacked saying I had as much rights and power as her when it meant running of the company and as such my opinions as well as decisions matters whenever I decide to put them forth. Next thing I noticed was that our conversation became so heated and filled with argument that we weren't even talking about the success of the business anymore but moved from away from its professional discussion to that of a personal confrontation.I decided to stop talking about this because I noticed my mother wasn't being receptive to anything I was saying at that moment, so I let the topic drop for that moment but went on to contact my aunt and explained to her my views on the issue and how difficult it was for my mother to see my view on the issue. This turned out to be a good idea as my aunt was able to relay my opinion concerning the company and its improvements and she helped to straightening out a lot of things also.Using my aunt as an intermediary between my mother and I was effective as it was able to quell the discord we were having as well as relay my opinions on the pressing issue at hand at that moment in time. But as time goes by I sat and thought over things that I cannot be using my aunt as an intermediary all the time my mother and I are having an argument. I had to think of a more approachable way to rely my messages across to my mother without creating any misunderstanding. I realized that I needed to deliver the message towards thinking of it as a two-way learning conversation.  (Christensen, 2011).When I thought over our argument I realized I involved too much emotions and forgot about the companyâ₠¬â„¢s interest. In that I noticed how money, as well as emotions are factors that lead to difficult conversations as Christensen. K (2011). Moreover I also didn’t take into consideration the age difference, refinement of etiquette, difference of seeing things and also literateness.I sat with my mother on a normal day and asked her â€Å"Mom, how did you understand when I told you we had to upgrade the quality of services we offer in the hotel?†, she said â€Å"Mariah, I am not stupid you know, I do not know how to read and write and that is not my fault because my parents couldn’t send me to school but I give you the opportunity and you benefitted to where you are today, and when you want to say something, talk to me in a manner you don’t have to be sarcastic. † It took me a while to understand what she meant by me being sarcastic. I wondered whether my being straightforward telling her the truth was unacceptable or was it the way I said it.As acco rding to Amy & Diana I realized I had a personal motive conflict between my mother and I when there are better ways to voice it out calmly without involving any personal interest or have any personal intention whatsoever Moreover I remembered what my father told me once that in business don’t argue to win or to imply who is right or wrong. A problem or an unpleasant event has happened instead of sitting there and complaining and arguing what should and should not be done, take the professional actions to solve the problem if it benefits the company and everybody at the end. No loss occurred and incurred.Well, if I had listened to my father I do not think I would end up having an argument with my mother and wasting time to solve the problem. Nevertheless, from this course I have learned from Amy & Diana to practice self – management â€Å"the ability to examine and transform the thoughts and feelings that hijack one’s ability to reason cally when conflicts heat up†, reflecting on spontaneous reactions – â€Å"once a conflict triggers an emotional reaction, reflecting can cool one’s own emotion down by turning the automatic â€Å"go† response into a more deliberate â€Å"know† response†, reframing and manage conversations.Moreoevr according to Engels, he stated that when you deliver difficult messages you should avoid ordering/directing, warning/threatening, preaching/moralizing, advising/giving solutions, evaluating/blaming and interpreting/diagnosing. In which I realized I was having a rather ordering tone with my mother. Being that I am able to admit where I am having a problem with delivering my messages, from what I have learned I would be well prepared to most especially listen before I react and plan for a better conversation and find a more comfortable way in relaying my messages across.

HRM in Marks and Spencer Essay

Introduction and Background Marks and Spencer, established 1894 in Leeds,UK and as one of the most recognized brands in the UK and worldwide, had been hugely successful in terms of both profit and market share until the late 1990s. However, after that it suffered a reversal in its fortunes. Correspondingly, its organizational structure and culture also underwent certain transformation. The set of dramatic changes include changing top executive and their managerial philosophies. Now, it seems to be on the road to recovery after these radical changes. This article focuses on human resource management in M&S, analysis ranges from its traditional paternalism culture to new HRM practices. Paternalism & Unitarist Characteristics Under paternalism, employers and employees view the company as a family. It’s different from traditional manufacturing culture. The separation between the shop floor and management and feelings of ‘them and us’ are what might be expected within a traditional manufacturing culture, where the employment is full-time, long-term and relatively stable and the typical workplace is a large firm or store. The corporation is a stable sovereign organization with a clear division of labors and everyone abides by the social contract. Similarly, Unitarist deems the business organization as a team united by shared interests and values with senior management as the sole source of authority and focus of loyalty, conflict is seen as irrational and unnecessary. Historically, Marks and Spencer fits into an anatomy of paternalism with characteristic features of hereditary family ownership, personal relations between employer and worker, a sense of UK religious mission and a commitment to social welfare and public service. The ideal type paternalist workforce matches these, with family employment through large kinship networks and is embedded in a surrounding occupational community. Moreover, there was a feeling of camaraderie and close-knit family atmosphere within the stores and they employed staffs who are most suitable and can readily become part of this family. In addition, every M&S store is identical and the store managers followed central direction. The highly centralized authority also means that there exists little disagreement with policies sent down from the top. Also, there had never been a CEO of M&S who had not been a member of the founder’s family or a lifetime employee. The first exception is Vandervelde who had been appointed to the position of chairman at M&S in 2000 from outside the organization. Therefore, this kind of HRM is a typical form of paternalism, which totally breaks with trade unions and has highly centralized authority and represents the characteristic of unitarist as well. Organization’s success is depended not only on reducing costs but also on improving the performance of the workforce. The organization’s objective or their currently expect of their employees may be completely different from what they expected in the past due to the changing external environment such as new competitors or new technologies, internal strategy such as focusing on reducing costs and cutting the full-time sales assistants in store. Some of the external environment and the individual factors driving psychological contract research are illustrated in following figure. Old Contract (Greenbury) New Contract Change environment Stable, short-term focus Continuous change Culture Paternalism, time-served, exchange security for commitment Those who perform get rewarded and have contract developed Rewards Paid on level, position and status Paid on contributions or performance-based Promotion basis Expected, based on time served in store and competence Less opportunity, new criteria, for those who deserve it Personal development The organization’s responsibility Individual’s responsibility to improve employability Consequently, employee’s job descriptions might be broadened and their psychological contract will shift correspondingly. Evidence suggests that these changes represented a threat to the reciprocal nature of the psychological contract with consequences for both employees and employers. Meanwhile, the strength of the psychological contract is dependent on how fair the individual believes the organization is in fulfilling its perceived obligations that the organization treats them fairly, respects their efforts and rewards them justly, it’s based on mutual obligation. In addition to the summarized old contract characters, evidence also shows that Greenbury only used sales figures and visitors to stores as the basis to make judgments on how M&S was operating, whereas lost touch with what their employees’ opinions or wants. It makes employees feel their roles are unimportant; also it weakens their morale and motivation. ‘The Thrill of the Purchase’ article states this famous paternalistic culture of M&S. They offered cradle-to-grave benefits for employees but rigidly governed the way that managers operated. Moreover, every aspect of the company was rule-driven. Most of employees feel rule-bound and they are not encouraged to use their personal discretion as well. Nevertheless, they gradually realized their culture are fall-out-of-step and with the implementation of new HR strategic, M&S becomes open and receptive, moving from a culture of paternalism to a more sophisticated culture of choice. Matching employee behaviors and HRM activities to competitive strategies Michael Porter’s generic ‘low-cost’ or ‘differentiation’ strategy can be adopted in the Marks&Spencer case. Namely, each Porterian competitive strategy involves a unique set of responses from workers or ‘needed role behaviours’ and a particular HRM strategy that might generate and reinforce a unique pattern of behaviour (Schuler and Jackson, 2002). Therefore, any inconsistency in internal HRM practices will likely lead to ‘role conflict or ambiguity that can interfere with individual performance and organizational effectiveness’. In the Devanna et al. model, human resource management strategy and structure follow and feed upon one another and are influenced by environmental forces. This basic model constituted the bare bones of a theory on SHRM. (Linda Maund, 2001:73) Porter’s model comprised three components: 1. Low-cost leadership or cost reduction strategy Using this strategy, organization will gain competitive advantage by being the lowest cost producer. Managers are attempting to increase the organization’s market share by emphasizing low cost compared to that of its competitors, they try to emphasize that their goods or services are cheaper. It’s an aggressive and tightly cost-controlled strategy that emphasizes overhead minimization. Meanwhile, it pursuits the economies of scale and primarily focus on increasing productivity through reducing output cost per person and reducing wage levels by all means. This approach takes effect by means of mass-producing, mass-selling to save the costs, whereby gain the price superiority. Moreover, it keeps manufacturing process simple and repetitive in order to save the costs of raw materials, whereas basically there are no improvements or expansion of their products. Greenbury, the former chief executive of Marks and Spencer, had decided that to control costs by means of cutting full-time sales assistants in stores, at the same time, bring in full-time, part-time and Saturday staffs to work in stores. Further, their approach is also rely on and highly trust the quality of British suppliers and M&S play as a bulk buyer who even buy up all the stock of specific suppliers, whereby conducting mass-selling to earn profits. In addition, as the Channel 4 programme stated at 25th Feb,2001 that operations of the organization within M&S is focused on short-term strategy rather than long-term one and they were firmly placed in the ‘middle ground’, emphasize getting generalized view of the market instead of trying to target various segments market. The overall strategy is risk-aversive and traditional. Hence, they are adapting typical cost-reduction strategy, meanwhile, with somewhat emphasis on quality aspect. In general, cost reduction pursued through increasingly using of part-time employees, subcontractors, work simplification, measurement procedures, automation, work rule changes, job assignment flexibility. Therefore, according to this competitive strategy, the expected employees behaviors should be followed the key cost-reduction strategy characteristics illustrate as follow: Low-cost leadership strategy (Greenbury) Needed Employees Behaviors Human Resource Practices Relatively repetitive and predictable behaviors Relatively fixed and explicit job descriptions A rather short-term focus Narrowly designed jobs Primarily autonomous or individual activity Narrowly defined career path, unitarism Modest concern for quality Externally, reliable suppliers; internally, QC function High concern for quantity of output Lean production, JIT system, fully participation Primary concern for results Minimal levels of employee training and development Low risk-taking activity Short-term, result oriented performance appraisals Relatively high degree of comfort with stability Close monitoring of market pay level 2. Differentiation or quality enhancement strategy This strategic emphasizes on enhancing products or services quality and offering products or services that different from those of its competitors. There are numerous ways to implement this strategy, the most common ones are advertising, offering distinctive product or service features, providing exceptional service, or relying on new technology. The organization is trying to make a unique product or provide a unique service with high quality to attract target customers and earn profits. Due to the risk-aversive and traditional managerial methodologies, actually Greenbury laid less emphasis on quality enhancement or on delivering products with unique quality. Therefore, by April 1999, in order to overcome the difficulties M&S had been facing, Salsbury, the successor of Greenbury, had devised a large-scale promotional campaign to try to restore its images as an innovative retailer offering unique quality products. He started to segment the market and offer different category products to its target customers with strong emphasis on its unique quality. Also, by moving away from its original bureaucratic culture and hierarchical environment, modest amount of cooperation was formed to enhance products quality. At the end of March 2001, for the future development of M&S, Vandervelde, the new chief executive of M&S, started to focus on its core 300 domestic stores by cutting or withdrawing its stores worldwide, and started moving business closer to the customer and selling customized products within the UK. For customized products, quality is a key success factor. Therefore, obviously, at this stage, M&S strategy focuses mostly on differentiation character. The matching HRM practices of this competitive strategy for M&S are summarized as following table: Quality enhancement strategy (Salsbury and Vandervelde) Needed Employees Behaviors Human Resource Practices Relatively repetitive and predictable behaviors Relatively fixed and explicit job descriptions More long-term or intermediate focus Giving employees more discretion Modest amount of cooperative, interdependent behaviors Mix of individual and group criteria for performance appraisal High concern for quality Extensive and continuous training and development of employees, QC function, TQM practices Modest concern for quantity of output High level of employee participation High concern for process Training and development of employees, TQM practices Low risk-taking activity Relatively egalitarian treatment of employees Commitment to the goals of the organization Applying Balance scorecard 3. Focus or innovation strategy However, they also try to design a new range of clothes for M&S through hiring famous innovators and conducting in-depth research to understand customers’ shopping habits and their demographics. This strategy emphasizes some of the innovative character, whereby gain advantaged of its competitors. It’s different from the previous two strategies. Meanwhile, the organization concentrates on a specific geographical area, specific group of customers. Overall, for firms pursuing a competitive strategy of innovation, the employees are encouraging to offer suggestions for new and improved ways of doing their job or manufacturing products. Eventually, this strategy will result in feeling of enhanced personal control and morale, greater commitment to self and profession. In addtition, selecting highly skilled individuals or training employees could be costly once adopting this strategy. Focus or innovation strategy (Vandervelde) Needed Employees Behaviors Human Resource Practices High degree of creative behaviors Selecting highly skilled individuals Long-term focus Appraising performance for its long-run implication Relatively high level of cooperative, teamworking, knowledge sharing and interdependent behaviors Using minimal controls Moderate degree of concern for both quality and quantity TQM practices, making a greater investment in human resources Equal degree of concern for process and results Providing more resources for experimentation Greater degree of risk taking Allowing and even rewarding occasional failure Uncertainty, unpredictability and constant change Compensation, incentives, giving employees more discretion Comparatively speaking, Low-cost leadership is effective but difficult to do in a high-cost organization. Differentiation can be profitable if target customers are not particularly concerned with price but it’s costly to implement, such as research and development, advertising costs. Focus strategy can gain quick returns but takes time to identify area or group and the cost could be even higher since it focuses on innovative aspect of products. Analyze Matching model and other HRM strategies From the above comparison, we can see that effectiveness will increase by melding HR practices with competitive strategy. The advantages of this model are obviously and are summarized as following table: Component Advantages Disadvantages Low-cost leadership Effective Difficult to do in a high-cost organization Differentiation Can be profitable if target customers are not particularly concerned with price Costly to implement, e.g. research and development, advertising costs Focus Quick returns Takes time to identify area or group (Linda Maund, 2001:55 ‘Adantages and disadvantages of Porter’s competitive strategies’) However, besides the disadvantages illustrated above, the practice of this matching model could also be problematic since achieving the goal of ‘close fit’ of business and HRM strategy can contradict the core ‘soft’ HRM goals of commitment, flexibility and quality. Work organization as M&S may adopt a ‘soft’ version of HRM for managerial staffs, which is consistent with its current strategy, whereas simultaneously pursuing a ‘hard’ version of HRM for low-level worker, which might undermine the commitment of the latter. Hence, the matching model is essentially unitary and it tends to assume that workers are unproblematic and will comply with managements’ perception of the ‘needed role behaviors’. Meanwhile, we also cannot ignore the fact that workers and their unions, especially for M&S’s famous British working union, might influence strategic planning. In addition, ‘excessive fit’ can be disadvantageous to gaining competitive advantage since it can make a company inflexible and incapable of adapting quickly to the external environment. Recalled that when Greenbury insisted on its cost-reduction strategy and its quality criteria, the environment of the whole market has gradually changed. Competitors targeted at niche market and adopted differentiation strategy to attract and gain credibility among numerous consumers, whereas M&S still keep its traditional or risk-aversive way to do business. Recommendation Other HR strategies suggestions for M&S: At individual level, employees’ motivation can be stimulated through appropriate job design and rewards. Also, emphasizing employees’ participation or empowerment, and it could be reinforced through encouraging front-line staff to solve customer problems on the spot, without constant recourse to management approval. At organizational level: Development through changing the paternalism structure and corresponding traditional culture to a culture of the individual and of teams. The organization should focus on building its growth valued (such as brand revitalized by Vandervelde) and rewards excellence. Meanwhile, strategy-focused organizations like M&S can apply the balanced scorecard to align their employees to their strategy. This strategy can be implemented through communication and education, personal and team objectives, and incentive and reward systems. They should extensively use self-managed teams and decentralization. Also, paying attention to reducing status differentials and encouraging willingness to share information. Finally, when individuals understand how their pay is linked to achieving strategic objectives, and set personal objectives to met and help to achieve the strategic objectives, organization’s effectiveness will expect to be achieved. Â   References and Bibliographies: Linda,M.(2001) ‘An Introduction to Human Resource Management: theory and practice’, Hampshire, New York: Palgrave Publishers Ltd Schuler,R.S and Jackson,S.E (2002, 7th edn) ‘Managing Human Resources: A Partnership Perspective’: Journal of Personnel Review,31(1),114-121 Tyson,S. and York,A. (2000,4th edn) ‘Essentials of HRM’, Houston: Butterworth Heinemann Torrington,D. and Hall,L. (1998, 4th edn) ‘Human Resource Management’, Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Prentice Hall Inc Maund,L. (1999) ‘Understanding People and Organisations: An Introduction to Organisational Behaviour’, Cheltenham: Stanley Thornes Schuler,R.S and Jackson,S.E (2000) ‘Strategic Human Resource Management’, Journal:Personnel Review,29(6),816-821 James,A. and McGoldrick,A.E. 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