HRM for the Service Industries

Interview The researcher succeeded to carry out an interview that involved two employees who work at Delta Air Lines, Inc. The two individuals gave different views regarding motivation and leadership approaches practiced by the management of Delta Air Line. The two respondents were referred to as person X and person Y in this research, for purposes of anonymity, which was necessary to gather unbiased information from the two individuals.Advertising We will write a custom report sample on HRM for the Service Industries specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More In relation to motivation, person X pointed out that Delta Airline was a good company to work with since it recognizes the performance of employees. Specifically, he mentioned the Chairman Club, which was established with an aim of giving recognition to best performing employees. However, person Y was not happy about the role Delta Air Lines. She argued that Delta Airline benefitted m uch from recognition in relation to employees. Person Y emphasized that recognition benefited the company through low cost of operations while employees continued to suffer since they were given paltry salaries (Creswell 1998, p. 12). The two respondents showed similar reactions in relation to leadership approaches. Both person X and Y said that operating manuals provided by the management team enabled Delta Air Lines to attain excellent performance. They claimed that operating manuals issued to every department enabled the company to achieve its predetermined objectives. This is because operating manuals ensured that each department worked hard to achieve the set operating standards. Person Y accentuated that Passengers Service Manual, which is used by Customer Service department to track services delivered to clients, enabled Delta Air Lines to attain admirable performance. Introduction Hospitality industry is classified in the contemporary world as the highest earning industry. A number of scholars and businesspersons refer to it as a billionaire industry. Considering that manufacturing era is gone, it is no doubt that we are living in an era characterized by the service industry. The service industry is broad and mainly encompasses food, service delivery and accommodation related sectors of the economy. Lodging, transportation, tourism, entertainment and restaurants among other segments fall within hospitality industry.Advertising Looking for report on business economics? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More Hospitality industry chiefly depends on leisure time and disposable income. Although hospitality industry involves several groups that deal with maintenance of company facilities, operations as well as management, it is confirmed beyond reasonable doubt that managing employees remains a key aspect towards improving the level of performance for a range of companies in the hospitality industry. This ha s compelled several managements in the service industry to come up with effective leadership approaches that aim at improving performance of employees, with diverse expertise and abilities. Different techniques of motivating employees are devised on daily basis hoping that the level of performance would significantly improve at workplace. Delta Airlines considers a number of management styles including giving handsome package to its employees, with an intention of improving its airline services as well as revenue. Furthermore, Delta Airlines endeavors to improve the level of returns for its major and minor investors. In addition, Delta Airlines Company ensures that customers choosing the services of the company experience the most appealing flights that would attract them the second time they would be traveling. Such aspects include best entertainment, executive seats and offering flights at affordable prices (Bratton Gold 2007, p. 67). Delta Air Lines, Inc. Delta Air Lines is amon gst the competitive airline companies in the U.S. With its headquarters in Atlanta, Georgia, Delta operates at domestic and international markets. Due to its aggressive strategies, the company has grown rapidly and today, it claims 11% of the market share. Delta Air Lines is popularly known worldwide for its busiest hub. Delta Air Lines hub, which is based at the Hart-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, serves an average of 88 million passengers every year. Currently, this airline company has about 716 aircrafts, which operate at local markets as well as international markets. This makes Delta Air Lines the largest airline company based on the size of its fleet. In total, Delta Air Lines operates in about 247 destinations, which are located in both the U.S. and elsewhere in other foreign countries. Delta Air Lines closed the financial year 2010 with revenue of 31.8 billion. Its assets stood at 43.2 billion at the end of the fiscal year 2010.Advertising We will write a custom report sample on HRM for the Service Industries specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More This indicated a strong performance for Delta Air Lines as compared to its counterparts at local and foreign markets. Perhaps, its financial strength over and above quality services would be attributed to its effective management team. Delta Air Lines Management Team and Strategies Richard Anderson leads delta Air Lines as its Chief Executive Officer. Edward Bastian acts as its president while Michael Campbell is the Executive Vice President and chiefly deals with the Human Resources and Labor Relations. Other top personalities include Stephen Gorman who is the chief operating officer; Glen Hauestein the network planning and revenue management, Hank Halter the financial officer, Holden Shannon the corporate strategy and real estate leader, John Walker the corporate communications director, and Theresa Wise the chief information officer. Richard Anderson ensures that Delta Air Lines maintains its competitive edge in the airline industry by embracing aggressive strategies such as those related to reducing fares, commonly referred to as cost leadership strategy. In addition, the management ensures that effectual measures are set, which merely ensures that investors get high returns for their investments. Employees are as well motivated with diverse incentives such as high salaries and long lasting employment contracts. Strategies are also put in place to ensure that its services are expanded to other emerging markets. Delta Air Line traditional approach of expansion focused on acquisition of other companies at the market. For instance, in 1972, Delta successfully acquired Northeast Airlines. Later on in 1986, Delta acquired Western Airlines. However, in 1994, Delta realized that airline industry had become increasingly competitive and needed contemporary approaches to maintain its competitive edge in the turbulent market environment. Consequently, Delta Air Lines sought to restructuring and streamlining its operations. The new package involved reducing the costs of operations as well as reducing the flight-fare price. Leadership Leadership is defined by a good number of scholars as ability to influence employees in an organization towards attaining predetermined goals and objectives. It is also defined as the ability of an organization to align individuals within the organization in order to achieve set targets.Advertising Looking for report on business economics? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More It also aims at empowering employees with necessary skills and tools to undertake required actions that would meet the common goals set by the management. Although there are arguments concerning whether leaders are made or born, it has been discovered that managers and leaders depict different characteristics. Leaders are said to be innovate, original, people oriented, inspiring, developing and setting long-range perspectives. Leaders frequently challenge the status quo as well as doing right things always among other characteristics. This helps them to convene short term and long-term objectives of the organization. On the other hand, managers rely much on the regulations and rules of the organization to administer policies that encourage employees to focus on achieving the set targets (Storey 2007, p. 102). Managers are perceived as people who are fond of copying, maintaining, focusing on structures and systems, relying much on control and regulations, and more importantly meeting the objectives of an organization. Their characteristics also include, but not limited to short-range view, eyeing the bottom line, imitating previous approaches of management, accepting status quo and doing things right. What fascinates scholars and perhaps what exactly distinguish managers from leaders relates to ‘how’ and ‘when’ questions. Leaders frequently ask themselves ‘what’ and ‘whys’ sort of questions. These are common aspects that distinguish the originality displayed by leadership and imitation aspects characterized by managers. A number of theories have been put forward to explain characteristics of different leaders. Trait Theory Trait theory explains that individuals are born either with leadership characteristics or without. Trait theory focuses on several factors that distinguish leaders from non-leaders. The factors include individual personality, socialization process, physical characteristics and intelligence. Behavioral theory The behavioral theory relates to the ability to initiate a particular system and coming up with some considerations over an event. This would refer to the orientation of the leader regarding the aims and responsibilities of employees. Mangers may perhaps be workers oriented, which could mean that they are concerned more about employees. Task orientation could mean that a firm is more concerned about production levels. Fielder contingency model Fielder contingency model states that an effective team relies on an effectual match between the approach of a leader interacting with employees and the extent to which the environment gives a leader the authority to control and influence his or her subordinates. According to Fielder, the environment or situation refers to the relationship between leaders and staff members. Logically, it refers to the confidence and respect built between a leader and his or her followers. The situation refers to the task structure and the pow er position. Power position refers to the level of authority that is mostly derived from the position of the leader within the organizational system (Winstanley Woodall 2000, p. 112). Fielder affirms that good relations between staff members and their leaders characterize a favorable situation, affective structure of tasks and a powerful position of a manager in an organization. Path Goal Theory This theory relates environmental and subordinate contingency aspects to leadership traits. Path goal theory argues that performance or outcomes depend on traits associated with leadership behavior such as directives, supportive and perceptive features in relation to subordinate and environmental contingency aspects. Subordinate contingency features include locus of control, individual experiences and ones perceived ability and competence. On the other hand, situational contingency features include structures of job assignments, formality of systems and policies, as well as team members. Ch arismatic leaders Charismatic leaders portray features that have considerable influence on performance of subordinates. This type of leaders are said to portray different characteristics from those of other leaders. To begin with, charismatic leaders depict self-confidence. Self-confidence is displayed by their total confidence in their policies and competence. A vision is also another significant feature, which brings about confidence that would lead to a better future rather than relying on an organization’s status quo. A leader should ensure that there is a broad margin between the current status quo and the set goals or objectives. Charismatic leaders are also recognized for their outstanding abilities in articulating vision. They are able to explain and describe vision in a way that employees understand without difficulties. This assists in avoiding issues related to confusions and doubts. However, to articulate vision, a visionary leader should understand his or her emp loyees adequately. Charismatic leader should have high levels of commitment and high personal risk that help organizations in achieving pragmatic goals within a predetermined period. Charming leaders frequently depict behavior that is different from conventional or normal traits of ordinary managers and employees. Although these behaviors appear different from those of common leaders, followers are easily lured to follow such behaviors, especially in the event that a leader becomes successful with his or her unique style of management (Legge1998, p. 56). Other major characteristics displayed by appealing leaders include realistic evaluation of business environments in relation to constraints and resources and coming up with pragmatic strategies. Generally, charismatic leaders are perceived as aspects of radical change as opposed to maintaining organization’s status quo. Relationship between transactional and transformational leaders Several reputable scholars in the field of management have identified distinguishing factors between transactional and transformational leaders. It is believed that old management style was characterized by transactional kind of leadership. However, because of dynamic and competitive business environment, contemporary type of management associates itself with transformational leadership. Transactional leaders Transformational leaders recognize achievements that ensure employees are rewarded in accordance to their level of performance. The management should always identify the disparity existing between performance and predetermined policies. This would help in initiating corrective actions and responses. A more contradicting feature as regards to transactional leadership is its passive system. Passive approach refers to intervening situations when standards tend to fall below or deviate from the track. Transactional leader would assign already laid down tasks and responsibilities to different departments. However, they attem pt to avoid making major and minor decisions regarding the operations of the organization. Transformation leaders Scholars and managements term transformational leadership as contemporary approach (Beardwell Claydon 2007, p. 83). Transformational leaders are charismatic and would occasionally provide followers with realistic vision and mission, which eventually earns them respect and trust. They are too inspiring since they communicate high expectations to their subordinates, use symbols to express directions and targets of organizations. Their level of intelligence is proved by their high level of rationality, as well as extra-ordinary logics mostly expressed in their analytical abilities, especially during problem solving. Transformational leaders differ from their transactional leaders for the reason that they are able to give personal attention to their employees apart from coaching and advising employees personally. What it takes to be an effectual and successful leader What i t takes to be an effective leader remains a contentious issue in the contemporary world of business. However, a number of observable studies have distinguished effective leaders from ineffective leaders. Effective leaders are seen communicating routinely. Their communication is associated with exchanging information and frequent handling of paperwork. Effective managers as well practice traditional management, which is merely known for its controlling, decision-making and planning facets. More importantly, effective management is characterized by networking where leaders are seen often interacting with outsiders in addition to sharing social, economical and political issues with several groups. Regarding the human resource management, successful leaders are seen motivating and rewarding their subordinates on a continuous basis. Furthermore, training and developing careers ensures that employees meet standards set by the firm. Nevertheless, transformational leaders manage conflicts a rising successfully. Motivation Motivation is a process that intends to elicit, control, manage or sustain an individual’s behavior. Motivation is categorized as either intrinsic or extrinsic. Extrinsic motivation is associated with external factors. For instance, a student who is interested in acquiring certain knowledge in a given field for not only getting good grades but also gaining mastery is most likely motivated by intrinsic factors. On the other hand, it would be an extrinsic motivation if an employee were encouraged to perform well at work place by increasing salary or providing other incentives. It is therefore true that employee performance depends heavily on motivation. Nevertheless, to realize good performance through motivation, employees should be equipped with necessary skills, equipments, supplies, time and ability (Goleman1998, p. 72). A motivating agent is principally determined by the needs of an employee. Although money is generally regarded as the main motivator, it is not the only employee motivator. Money would act as a motivator if it were able to meet individual’s needs and desires. In addition, an employee should believe that he or she is in a position to achieve monetary rewards offered by the organization. Generally, financial incentives offered by a range of organizations include production bonus systems, commission, gain sharing, group incentive plans, profit sharing, piecework systems among others. Because financial incentives can be limiting to any business that intends to motivate its employees, other approaches satisfy employees such as good contact with consumers’ brand, job enlargement and rotations. In many cases, organizations motivate employees by giving rewards that have value, providing rewards based on individual performance, treating individual staff members personally, encouraging staff participation and providing immediate feedback regarding employees’ performance. Since motivation conc erns itself with giving incentives to employees with an aim of enforcing compliance, most supervisors frequently use incentives to ensure that employees meet the objectives and goals set by management. With this regard, it would be beneficial if supervisors would have necessary skills regarding employees’ motivation. Managers influence the behavior of employees using various methods. However, the commonly used incentives include flextime and job sharing. Flextime is a strategy used in organizations, which allow individuals to choose when to work for 8 hours assigned in a day or 40 hours in a week. Conversely, job sharing refers to an arrangement in which two individuals working part-time choose to share tasks of a full-time job. Theories of motivation Maslow’s Hierarchy of needs Maslow states that a number of unmet needs motivate individuals. In accordance to Maslow’s theory, needs which motivates people fall into five categories. They include physiological need s, security, social needs such as love, needs relating to esteem and self-actualization needs. Physiological needs are basic needs, which an individual requires for survival. Security needs refer to protection and safety. Social needs are those associated with the need for companionship, as well as love. Individuals in the society desire to be respected by their colleagues. This is popularly termed esteem needs. Self-actualization refers to a situation where an individual peruses the full measure of happiness. McClelland’s Achievement-Power-Affiliation Theory This theory states that people develop diverse needs via life experiences. The three needs classified by McClelland include the need for achievement, need for power and the need for affiliation. Need for achievement is one’s aspiration to do better. Need for power is associated to ambition to manage, control and influence people. Need for affiliation is concerned about aspiration to sustain sociable relations. Alt hough people have all the above needs to some degree, strength of various needs depicts what motivates an employee or a worker (Mintzberg, Simons Basu 2002, p. 88). Hertzberg’s Two-Factor Theory Hertzberg claims that both dissatisfaction and satisfaction are associated with dissimilar sources. In his argument, dissatisfaction is seen to result from lack of hygiene factors such as companionship and handsome salary package. Satisfaction, on the other hand, results from existence of motivating dynamics such as fortunate prospects. Vroom’s Expectancy-Valence Theory Vroom proved that individuals do whatever they do in life with an aim of satisfying their needs. His argument was based on explaining the degree of an individuals’ level of motivation. According to Vroom’s theory, motivation depends on both valence and expectancy. Valence refers to the importance that someone places on result of a specified behavior whereas expectancy is the perception that a cert ain behavior would lead to a given result. In many circumstances, people are predominantly motivated to seek out outcomes that they value. They also believe that such outcomes are achievable. Individual members have different perception as regards to rewards, as well as whether they are in a position to attain the set up rewards. As a result, every employee determines personally the value of rewards and the capability of attaining the results. Since individuals in an organization cannot be generalized, it would be prudent for supervisors to study the needs and abilities of employees within an organization. Skinner’s Reinforcement Theory According to Skinner, people tend to do a particular thing hoping that it would lead to a desirable consequence. The same people would avoid things that may lead to undesirable consequences. For instance, people desire doing things that may give them praises from either fellow colleagues or the management team at work place. The management may influence the behavior of individuals by responding to traits technically. Skinner says that consequences can be classified as either reinforcement or punishment. Reinforcement is a positive behavioral consequence. In other words, reinforcement refers to favorable consequences or preferred behavior. Conversely, punishment is also referred to as negative consequence. Most supervisors tend to stop unfavorable behavior using various approaches, such as demotion and firing employees. Modifying Employees’ Behavior Various organizations use either punishment or reinforcement in modifying the behavior of employees. However, ineffectiveness of punishment, many organizations choose reinforcement. Reinforcement tends to result to positive and favorable behavior, which is desired by a firm whereas frequent use of punishment tends to instill a belief of inability among staff members (Nohria, Groysberg Eling 2008, p. 93). Since motivating factors are different among employees, the manag ement should learn individual motivating factors at personal level and design rewards as per their demands. In addition, the management should consider policies, regulations and labor contracts guiding the process of rewarding in an organization. Financial Incentives The Management assumes that money motivates employees to deliver a quality service. According to theories of motivation, finance is perceived as a motivator if it meets the demands and needs of employees. In particular, an individual earning paltry salary will highly be motivated by its increment. However, an employee who is comfortable with his or her salary may be motivated by other factors, such as achieving a sense of respect and personal esteem. As for finances, employees would be given financial incentives to make them meet or exceed certain set standards. Delta Air Lines: Leadership and Motivation Management’s Systems and Procedures Delta Air Lines has various departments with diverse systems. Delta Air Li nes management offers operating manuals that give standards to every department. The operating manual helps departments to monitor the performance of employees, as well as customers on a regular basis (Storey 2001, p. 57). The most important manual is the Passengers Service Manual, which is used by Customer Service department to track services delivered to clients. This has enabled employees to provide excellent services to their customers. Operating manual, on the other hand, enables the management to access updated performance, as well as easy references that would help in making major decisions concerning the performance of the company. The most important information provided by Passengers Service Manual includes passengers’ acceptance, refusal of passenger, ticketing and luggage acceptance. Delta Air Lines decided to post passengers’ information online where each employee can access it in a 24 hours clock to increase its efficiency. Moreover, the management has mad e sure that employees stand a chance to access information at home provided one is connected to Delta’s intranet. Management performance measures A website that is solely designed by Delta for measuring and controlling performance would help in monitoring and improving services offered by Delta Air Lines. The website categorically provides a section, which indicates standards expected by the management. The website also provides essential applications for monitoring performance of various departments. In addition, the website provides a section through which the management is able to monitor procedures for giving rewards to subordinates. The key performance indicators used by Delta include measure of flights take off, lost baggage for every 1000 passengers, airplanes damages and injuries sustained by employees while at work place or during official working hours. This information is to be collected from various airports, combined and analyzed on a yearly basis to estimate the overall performance of the management team. Performance leaders Performance leaders are concerned about assigning tasks to different employees and ensuring that operations are covered in entirety. Generally, they normally guide employees on various work processes and allocate diverse resources as per the requirement of the job. Performance leaders frequently ensure that workers arrive on time at the work place, apart from ensuring that team members complete assigned responsibilities within predetermined time and as per the set standards. In many cases, performance leaders are seen to handle customers’ conflict either internally or externally. Training and employees performance improvement Delta Air Lines provides sufficient training to its employees with an aim of improving its services. The management emphasizes on continuous training with an objective of improving its service delivery. Delta Air Lines has some school training centers for pilots. A stringent policy relating to training pilots is aimed at improving the standards of its flights. In fact, customer department statement aims at empowering employees with adequate experience and skills in order to provide excellent service. Delta Air Lines offers a reimbursement of $2000 for tuition fee. In addition, the company provides an e-learning technology, which helps to improve employees’ performance for those present at workplace. Employees Rewarding The management concluded that individual recognition is the most effective way of motivating employees. Delta Air Lines recognize that the most important aspect in an individual is his or her attitude. According to Delta Air Lines’ management, for employees to be instilled with positive attitude, his or her morale should be improved. During difficult financial times, recognition of employees has helped to reduce operation costs associated with employees’ rewarding. The management developed Delta Gaining Altitude program, which enabl es employees to be recognized and rewarded for their services. Delta Gaining Attitude program helps to instill a positive approach to its employees. This is aimed at motivating employees by influencing their behavior positively. As a strategy, Delta Air Lines management has empowered employees to recognize and comment on the performance of their colleagues. Currently, Delta Air Lines provides cumulative points for purchasing products, which has been entirely welcomed by all staff members. Delta Air Lines recognizes employee anniversaries where it begins with the first year and then performed at an interval of 5 years. On completing ten years, an employee would receive a recognition letter from the CEO. Chairman Club was established with an aim of giving recognition to best performing employees. On average, the Chairman Club initiates 102 staff members who have contributed enormously to the success of Delta Air Lines. Such employees are to be chosen by their workmates and confirmed b y the management. However, an individual should be registered at a site provided by Chairman Club in order to receive recommendation for good performance. Stiff competition at the Airline Industry Delta Air Lines faces tough competition in the airline industry both at local and international markets. Stiff competition in the market is due to the presence of major airlines that offer excellent services. Recently, a number of airline companies have come up with cost-leadership strategies, which have forced Delta to respond equally by lowering its initial fare prices. The major foreign rivals of Delta Air Lines include Singapore Airline, Cathay Pacific and Air New Zealand. However, Delta is responding to the competition through increasingly improving its services. Recommendation Although policies and structures of an organization are important in determining the performance of an entity, it has been recognized by a number of scholars that human aspect is crucial in determining the effe ctiveness and efficiency of a firm (Woods West 2010, p. 75). Human beings control machines and other physical facilities including computers and therefore, a slight change in human behavior might highly affect results of a particular process or activity. Any organization should ensure that it has effectual management team, as well as competent employees in ensure that quality services are provided as per the set standards. Since Delta faces stiff competition in the airline industry, it would be prudent to come up with specific measures that would ensure excellent services are offered to its esteem clients. Such activities would require well laid strategies, which would particularly generate an effective leader. Services improvement, such as fitting aircrafts with executive seats, would help Delta attract a number of customers. Generally, customers require comfort, such as good entertainment and provision of quality and affordable meals and drinks both inside the aircraft and at the airport waiting lounge. Although cost-leadership strategy has been a major strategy used by airline companies, it would be advisable not to lower prices beyond certain levels. This would lead to losses. To ensure that excellence is maintained at Delta Air Lines, the management should provide more appealing rewards that would enhance productivity of employees. For instance, employees should be provided with salary increment, though it has to be realistic to avoid exorbitant operational expenses. Delta is embracing recognition as opposed to other rewards approaches. Although this has an effect of reducing costs associated with rewards, such rewards would have less impact on employee’s level of performance. Delta should in fact consider other non-financial rewarding techniques such as promotions, job rotation and employee empowerment. Such approaches are likely to facilitate high levels of performance amongst staff members. Conclusion This paper has covered a number of issues r egarding leadership and motivation. It has solely discussed issues pertaining to leadership and motivation practices at Delta Air Lines. To understand fully the implication of effective leadership and motivating approaches that would finally help in improving the level of performance at Delta Air Lines, this paper has discussed various types of leaderships, as well as theories that were put forward by different scholars. It has also given more details concerning motivation and related theories. From various reading materials and various managerial perspectives in different institutions including Delta Air Lines, it is confirmed that effective leadership is one that has routine and effectual communication processes. Leaders should communicate complex aspects in a more simple way. They should understand the proficiency and qualifications of individual employees in order to assign jobs accurately. Competent leaders ensure that they give pragmatic directions and vision, which assists in attaining the set objectives and standards. Although traditional modes of management are not popular in the contemporary world of business, it is evident that planning, controlling and monitoring remain key factors in improving employees’ level of performance. In addition, motivation factors, such as offering financial incentives, are mostly used by a range of entities to increase the level of productivity among its employees. However, it is concluded that non-financial incentives to a large extend help in reducing the cost of operations among various organizations such as Delta Air Line. Delta Air Lines has a number of rewarding approaches. However, it considerably embraces recognition technique as opposed to rewarding systems. Recognition is initiated by allowing employees to give comments online. Chairman Club helps to identify some individuals who are rewarded after recognizing their great contribution towards the overall performance of the company. Moreover, Delta Air L ine continues to show competent leadership through the websites that are chiefly designed for monitoring performance of various departments. For instance, customer service department is provided with operation manuals where it records all data concerning customers. This helps in keeping track and controlling operations at Delta Air Lines. List of References Beardwell, J Claydon, T 2007, Human Resource Management: A Contemporary Approach, Prentice Hall, Harlow. Bratton, J Gold, J 2007, Human Resource Management: Theory and Practice, Palgrave, Basingstoke. Creswell, J 1998, Qualitative Inquiry and Research Design: Choosing Among Five Traditions, Sage, California. Goleman, D 1998, Working with Emotional Intelligence, Bloomsbury, London. Legge, K 1998, Is HRM ethical? Can HRM be ethical? Sage, London. Mintzberg, H, Simons, R Basu, K 2002, â€Å"Beyond Selfishness†, Sloan Management Review, Issue 2, no. 1. Nohria, N, Groysberg, B Eling, L 2008, â€Å"Employee Motivation: A po werful new model†, Harvard Business Review, Issue 4, no. 6. Storey, J 2001, Human Resource Management; A Critical Text, Thomson Learning, Padstow. Storey, J 2007, Human Resource Management: A critical text, Thomson Learning, Padstow. Winstanley, D Woodall, J 2000, Ethical issues in contemporary human resource management, Palgrave, Mendham. Woods, S West, M 2010, Organizational Culture, Climate and Change, Cengage, New York. This report on HRM for the Service Industries was written and submitted by user Sage Durham to help you with your own studies. You are free to use it for research and reference purposes in order to write your own paper; however, you must cite it accordingly. You can donate your paper here.

The Right to Clean Water Essay Example

The Right to Clean Water Essay Example The Right to Clean Water Essay The Right to Clean Water Essay he Right to Access Clean Water Only 2% of earth’s water is available for human consumption because 98% of the earth’s water is frozen in ice caps, flowing in the ocean, and even in animal bodies, etc. More than a billion people have no decent water supply, adding to that about 2. 4 billion people do not have proper sanitation; therefore more than 60% of global illness is linked to the lack of healthy water. Water is a natural source of nature and access to clean water should not be used as a traded or withheld good in economic markets. While a developed country is using water to water their gardens, golf courses and swimming in their pools, the problem only gets worse because of income inequality increases between the countries. South Africa specifically has been having many problems when it comes to water privatization. Everything needs water, therefore it should be a common good shared by everyone and is the responsibility of governments to help their people access clean water and should not be looked upon as opportunities to make money. This problem is for the government who are held responsible for their people and not private companies around the world who want to make money of whatever they can. Water is an essential source of life, but there are categories of water which includes fresh or salt water. Most of earth’s land roaming animals needs fresh water for survival, including 6. 7 billion people and their crops. The lack of fresh water makes a chain reaction of bad factors like illness, bad crops and unsanitary living conditions. Without water people cannot water their crops which leads to hunger, then bad health, and soon after illnesses that prevents them from working and going to school. It is easy to see why water is treated as an economic good because it has to be collected, managed, processed and supplied; it is a very expensive process that water goes through before it is clean and can be giving out to people to drink. Most private companies will provide water for a commercial return, but not without investment that will be much higher than publicly funded. The institute’s fear that private, bottom-line-driven companies will not supply water to those who cannot afford to pay high prices is nevertheless clearly stated: ‘The water needs of the poor should not be left in the hands of profit-driven, transnational water corporations,† (IRIN). On the other hand, governments because of the interested in keeping their people safe usually prefer privatization so they can target places that ar e in the most need against money lucrative opportunities. Water companies have a tendency to play monopoly because they do not want to drive prices down or have the pressure to drive up equalities. Water is something everyone needs and should not be treated as a game of how to make the most money of it, but should be thought as how to help people with it. There is so much water yet only a small percentage can be used, so it is very precious and cannot be used as a way to make money of what is needed most. Companies are taking full advantage where they can within developed countries to make water a purely economic good, but that is 78% that does not live in poverty. It is only 22% of people who absolute need water yet the water subsidies are not essential to them. Women in South Africa would rather walk long distances to get water than pay for water that they could get for free even if it harmful to drink. Not that they do not want to pay for the water but do not have the money to do so. 1. 7 billion People live in poverty, where will they get the money to buy water, if they did have money, then what about all the other things that need to buy for a living? This is not to say that water should be completely free, but it should be made affordable to all. In South Africa alone there are more than 20 million people without sufficient sanitation services and another 15 million without a safe water supply. Most private companies do not care much about the environment because their worries are more about their shareholders. To have maximum profits they are more likely to find every way they can do reduce cost even if it means less care for the environment. The well being of the ecosystem and biodiversity is almost impossible to calculate so private companies’ would rather just use it as just another resource to be exploited, which is easier than protecting it. It’s hard enough getting fresh water in South Africa, but it gets even harder when some of their water is filled with acid because of the left over and abandoned mines in South Africa. â€Å"A study by Naicker et al. (2003) revealed that the groundwater in the mining district of Johannesburg, South Africa, is heavily contaminated and acidified as a result of oxidation of pyrite contained in the mine tailings sups, and has elected concentrations of heavy metals. The polluted groundwater is discharging into streams in the area and contributes up to 20% of stream flow, causing an increase the acidity of the stream water. The affect of the contaminated water from the mine can persist for more than 10 km beyond the source,† (Naicker et al. , 2003). This problem is all due to the fact that companies do not care about the ecosystem, but they were to prevent this in the first place there would not be a problem now. To clean this problem wastes even more money that could have gone to bringing more water to the needed. South African governments have taken actions into their own hands with a strong commitment to serve water to those who need it most, which is everyone. There have been many improvements with accessing water supplies from the urban to rural areas. There has been a significant increase in supplying water to rural areas from 1990 to 2006; it went from 62% to 92%, but within the same time frame there has only been a 55% to 59% increase in achieving sanitation. The problem is a very complex and expensive solution and it all has to do with maintenance. The government can fix the problem, but finding enough funding for the problem is a large concern. Why should this even be a problem because more than 60%t of illness can be traced back to lack of clean water? Having that knowledge that un-sanitized water is the problem, it should be the number one concern and should be fixed right away, but yet it is not. There are only a handful of private companies that manage a water and waste utility in South Africa the Siza Water Company, Greater Nelspruit utility Company and Johannesburg Water. Even still, all three of the companies’ focus on bringing water to the land, but are not fully concentrated on achieving sanitation. It seems South Africa has some of the most horrendous experiences when it comes to water privatization. South Africa, in August of 2002 had the worst outbreak of cholera in history that started outside of Empangeni and this is all due to the lack of clean water. â€Å"ANC Water and Forestry minister Ronnie Kasrils has admitted that the outbreak would not have happened if free water had been available. ‘The problem is that when we try to implement cost-recovery, any of the poor cannot pay,† (wsww). Even with access to government-provided water, if it is not free the poor cannot pay the $4. 80. People died and got even sicker; Now they need health care to become better, which costs more money. This could all have been prevented if only water was free, a price anyone can afford. Water is a precious resource of life for everyone, but companies take the time and effort to make it only so they can make money because it is something that is needed. People are getting sicker because of the lack of clean water that the government should provide because it is an essential eed and it is the government’s responsibility to their people to give them what they need to keep healthy. More than 60% of health problems can be traced back to water, therefore it is an easy problem to prevent, but it’s not. With clean water we can reverse the cycle because with clean water illness levels decrease, therefore people can go to work or school. With work or school they can then take care of themselves and their family. Therefore water is a human right not a human privilege; everyone should have access to clean water for their health and for their future. Cited â€Å"Running Dry: the humanitarian impact of the global water crisis. † IRIN In-Depth October 2006. November 16, 2010 lt; irinnews. org/pdf/in-depth/Running-Dry-IRIN-In-Depth. pdfgt; Naicker, K. , Cukrowska, E. , amp; McCarthy, T. S. 2003. Acid mine drainage from gold mining activities in Johannesburg, South Africa and environs. Environmental Pollution 122, 29-40. Marshall, Leon. â€Å"Water Crisis Looms in South Africa. † National Geographic. November 5, 2010. November 15, 2010. lt;http://blogs. nationalgeographic. om/blogs/news/chiefeditor/2010/11/water-crisis-looms-in-south-africa. htmlgt; â€Å"Water privatization in South Africa. † Wikipedia. November 15, 2010. lt;http://en. wikipedia. org/wiki/Water_privatisation_in_South_Africagt; â€Å"Private Vs. Public† Food and Water Watch. November 16, 2010. lt; foodandwaterwatch. org/water/private-vs-public/gt; Mason, Berry and Talbot, Chris. â€Å"What water privatization means for Africa. † Wor ld Socialist Web Site. September 7, 2002. November 15, 2010. lt; wsws. org/articles/2002/sep2002/wate-s07. shtmlgt;

Critically discuss the distinction between quality control and quality Essay

Critically discuss the distinction between quality control and quality assurance - Essay Example If the team identifies a problem in a product, it makes the quality control department stop the production of that product for the time being not only to make required changes in the product but also to ensure that the product meets the customers’ demands properly. â€Å"Quality assurance is the process of verifying or determining whether products or services meet or exceed expectations† (Kietzman 2011). It is a process-driven approach towards achieving quality which requires specific steps to identify and attain goals. Quality assurance exceeds the customer expectations through a measurable and accountable process. The quality assurance team examines and tests the product manufacturing process in order to ensure excellence in every stage of the process by identify the defects and taking appropriate steps to remove those defects. Quality control involves such actions that assess and evaluate the manufacturing process of a product, whereas quality assurance involves such activities which ensure adequacy of the product development and quality maintenance processes. Quality control team focuses on finding defects in a product in order to remove them.

Microanalysis of the recent Market, economic conditions, and the Essay

Microanalysis of the recent Market, economic conditions, and the outlook - Essay Example The good returns in March were attributed to positive economic data on employment and retail sales. In S&P 500, stocks listed in all sectors ended the month in a positive territory led by healthcare, utilities and consumer staples sectors which were among the best performing. The investors mainly bought into stocks offering relatively high dividend yields, strong brands, and some other business models that had lagged behind. Broadly, consumer discretionary and financial stocks outperformed the market expectation. The rest were less robust led by stocks from the energy sector which was the least performing. The stocks did well across all market capitalizations, with value and growth shares fairly matched during the month. In the month of April, the stock market underwent what analysts would call market correction after touching record highs in both the S&P 200 and DJIA. The DJIA touched levels just below 14900 while S$P 500 rallied to above 1,600 points. Analysts say the market has to correct itself after a rally which began late 2011, through 2012, to March this year. The indices dropped at the close of the month as compared to the March data. Going forward, the markets are picking in May, but the yearly cycle sell off is expected in the next few days which might depress the market (T. Rowe Price Investment Services, 2013). Bonds market produced flat results in the month of March with the long-term government bonds being the poorest performers in the category of domestic fixed income sectors as the yields realized were modest. The investment corporate bonds which had the lowest nominal yield rates, trailed the entire market and significantly lagged behind compared to high yield counterparts. The high-yield bonds benefitted from robust equity market and relatively low levels of new issuance in the month. The mortgage-backed securities performed better the overall investment- grade market which was propped by higher yields which lured investors back into the sect or alongside Federal Reserve. Foreign bonds on the other hand, lagged and posted modest losses. This was due to the major currencies devaluing against the US dollar which weighed on foreign markets’ bonds besides political turmoil and rise in the risk aversion by traders on the emerging market’s investment vehicles (Shreve, 2013). Treasury yields, on the other hand, moved higher in the month, but retraced a portion of the previous gains. In the first half of the month, long-term yields steadily with a ten-year year notes reaching 2.06% which was an almost one-year high on the 8th of March. The rise was manly driven by the promising labor market report which raised the prospect of future market inflation and the less accommodative Federal Reserve policy. The Labor Department had earlier, in February, announced that the unemployment rate had fallen to a four-low of 7.7%, with the number f jobs created standing at about 236,000. The services sector also showed surprising strength which was reflected in the healthy growth in retail sales. The Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) has a two-day meeting in the month of March. They decided to maintain the monetary policy, but it altered the assessment of the overall economic outlook of the country. This time they were more upbeat saying that the labor market conditions had shown signs of improvement in recent months. The fed, led by Ben Bernanke

Contributions of Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux

Contributions of Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux To what extent Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux have contributed to the professional practice of Landscape Architecture? Both Frederick Law and Calvert Vaux are actively participating in Landscape Architectural projects in the 19th century. Calvert Vaux was a young Architect in the year 1857. He collaborated with Frederick Law in the Central Park competition. Apart from landscape projects Vaux also committed himself as an architect designing various houses that harmonises with nature. Frederick Law Olmsted being known as the â€Å"Founder of American Landscape Architecture as well as a well-known park designer† by the National Park Service. Frederick Law Olmsted started the being a Landscape Architecture after experimenting and trying out many different career fields. From a newspaperman, social commentator and farmer. He had many interests in his early life. In landscape architecture, Olmsted combined his thoughts and interests in rural life and conditions and thoughts of autonomous glory to create a new form of civil engineering that not only focuses on its function but as well as beauty. The Urbanization Olmsted seen on the road with its interest in rural problems soon make him wanted to work as a Landscape Architect. As he was touring around in Britain in the 1850s, he visited England’s Birkenhead Park, which was an important and a catalyst in venturing into the landscape career path. In the year 1858, the city commissioners selected, out of the total thirty-tree designs being submitted in the competition for the new park (Central Park) the one chosen â€Å"Greensward,† which was the collaboration work of Frederick Law and Calvert Vaux. Central Park is the recognition of this design through its significant features. It was also one of the earliest examples of a park that is being referred as a well balance work of landscape architecture, as well as the first in any country to propose spacious relaxing grounds which have the beauty of minimalist natural scenery as it met the qualities of complete enclosure by a tightly built city. Central Park was a great success where both he and Vaux are able to closely towards each other. The use of hills, trees and curve walkways created a form of tranquillity and remoteness from the city. Both Olmsted and Vaux also formed a company and designed major parks in Brooklyn, Buffalo and more. Apart from the formed company, Olmsted also founded his own personal firm in the 1883 which led him to move his home to modernize Boston and created â€Å"Fairsted† known as the world’s first professional office for the Landscape Design. Vaux and Olmsted then started a long partnership with each other where they form the landscape ideas of the position that should be played in the life of cities. But individual inputs by each of them has always been unclear. Some also argued that Vaux must be leading in the project as he is more experience in landscape architecture as compared to Olmsted, thus there is no reason to misbelief Vaux’s design. Soon later, the park’s authorities had decided to make Olmsted the Head Architect with Vaux as an assistant. Although Olmsted had a lot of suffering in the later years in order to highlight Vaux important role towards the design as well as the development of the parks, Vaux had always felt that he did not had the fame that he should receive. Apart from the Central park project, Olmsted and Vaux also collaborated in 1865 after the Civil War on what many referred as their most successful design The Brooklyn’s Prospect Park. Not only that they also designed several other Brooklyn parks which includes the Carroll Park in Carroll Gardens , Washington Park and the Parade Ground and Tompkins Square. Olmsted and Vaux also created a new form of pathway that is able to solve the problem of inefficiency of Brooklyn’s Grid Street system. These landscaped pavements are used to connect various different neighbourhoods to different parks all around the queen’s border. Olmsted crafted various examples of designs which the Position of Landscape Architecture is able to enhance the quality of life in America. These include large urban parks being devoted to the contact and involvement of the scenery and designed to resist and balance out the bogusness of the city and the stress of modern life. One of the most important transports were the Private carriages a smooth road reserved for them that is able to connect parks and spread the advantages of public green space around the city. Olmsted and Vaux designed the park to be able to create ways and path for the pedestrians and carriages to enjoy and admire the park without having to annoy each other. The design of the roads is considered radical as it allows vehicular access to drive through the park without being divided from the park’s experience. It provides an array of public facilities for the residents and scenic preservation safeguarding areas of extraordinary landscape beauty from destruction as well as commercial uses. Garden / landscape design could improve both awareness as well as the self-reflections of occupants. With an increasing number in open-air apartments, it encourages outdoor activities where the garden space is a specified training ground for the citizens living around it. Governmental buildings would have been more efficient and do understand the importance of planning. Olmsted’s design approach showed the complexity of his perception and even paid attention to the slightest details for a resident in harmonizing green-space. Olmsted understands the reasoning behind his landscape work which is capable of affecting the emotions of others. This was quite noticeable throughout his park designs, where he designed the pavements of the scenery such that the visitors would be saturated. Able to experience the curative action of the landscape as what Olmsted would describe it as â€Å"Unconscious† process. In order to achieve this outcome, he overpowered all the elements of the design in making the land-art contacts more subtle. Olmsted always wanted to think ahead of the current trends and actions and being able to derive his designs based on the important principles of human psychology. In detail, he cross referenced from the analysis of earlier British Sophist of unsentimental landscape and their attention towards the special qualities of composition and attractive scenery. The essence of agrarian landscape was the English deer park, creating an emotion of an enlarged space and its delicately inflected ground and smooth, a cropped lawn. He was able to realise that this style is known as his special formula to cure the bad effects of an modern life. The â€Å"Picturesque† style was being used in deep and worn out terrain, and followed by planting with a thick layer of different ground covers , shrubs and etc. This eventually will result in a thought of charitableness, outpouring and secrecy. His extreme experience of this effect was on the Isthmus of Panama as he was passing through a journey to California. Where both forms includes the qualities of infiniteness, and the shortage of singular objects for a detail exploration. As Olmsted defined it , the term â€Å"scenery† is never applied to vision of any field that is seen as straight forward. Hence it should have a level of complexity in its shapes and visuals closer towards the eye, unimportant details when looked further away. These characters were important for the unknown motion of the scenery in mind. They were also an important element to his design as practicing benchmarks for exquisite understanding. The standard of elegance that includes a mixture, complexity and a fine series of surfaces, colours and tones were important to Olmsted creative and cultivating purpose. Although the site that Olmsted favoured needs a at least a rainfall in order to achieve its outcome, he understood that majority of the United States does have a different weather. Following that he sets out to develop a distinct landscape technique for the south, while in the west it requires a water-conserving technique. He applied the techniques of this approach with six projects in the San Francisco Bay and Colorado. During Olmsted career, he and his firm completed out over 500 commissioned projects. Which includes 100 parks and recreation areas, with over 200 private estates as well as numerous residential projects and campus design for a handful of academic institutions. Olmsted himself is a creative designer, even though he had trouble with expressing his ideas in words. With approximately six thousand letters were still around till this days, With its discussion with 300 design commissions. And at times he paid for the publications as well as public distribution of these letters which includes his experience in journeys and several documents by the United States commission. Calvert Vaux who is also one of America’s well-known architect / Landscape architect. He also shaped some of America’s most prominent landscape during the 19th century. He worked with famous landscape figures such as Andrew Jackson Downing and later with Frederick Olmsted, and hence Vaux’s style on the landscape architecture was ignored in the 20th century. Vaux was an optimist who worked hard throughout his career and life to improve the living conditions of the lower class and promoted art education for all. Calvert Vaux had been successful in Architecture before the age of twenty-four, where he came to America and met downing. And after the sudden death of downing in the 1854, the project of designing the grounds of the capitol and the Smithsonian Intuition has yet been completed in America. In Vaux private life, he was a man of singular purity, kindness and trustworthy. Although he lacked of socializing skills, which was able to allow him to have a better position. But he still had many accomplishments and practice of the best type. The career of Vaux was an inspiring one for those young artists who are struggling as well as citizens who are labouring and working in civic and village improvements. Although the 1870s were Vaux’s most productive years but he latter soon found out that his High Victorian Gothic Style against the rising popularity of Neoclassical style had soon made his worked looked dull and outdated. Even though he won the projects with the High Victorian architect, for the American Museum of History as well as the Metropolitan Museum of Art and building the first stage of each of them, he soon lost the projects for continuing the later parts, due to the multiple reviews that the buildings had. His ability to win over large projects soon drops, and he turned to designing lodge houses and other beneficial buildings for the Children’s Aid Society located over in New York City. Apart from that he also devoted his last few years of life in focusing projects on the New York Public Parks as landscape architect, which led him to design several small parks throughout the city and also being able to continue his work on the Central Park. At his death during 1895, Vaux did not lead the role in the developments of architecture in America but he had left a long and unforgotten projects. In their late 1880s both Frederick Olmsted and Vaux collaborated with each other on Special projects such as providing free design service to the city of Newburgh (New York) where they construct a park in memory of Andrew Jacks. Their final collaboration concerns the Niagara Reservation. An area the state of New York bought as to prevent any form of commercial development which will compromise the scenery. Both Olmsted and Vaux composed their plans that would revive the Niagara’s spectacular sceneries making it accessible to tourist. In conclusion I think that both Landscape Architects did way beyond their part in the professional practice of Landscape Architecture as they were very sensitive towards minor details such as the landform, climate changes, materials/surfaces and the thoughts / activities of the people. They did not neglect other points in its design such as transportation in which are widely used till this day where they are able to immerse themselves in to the landscape, rather than being separated and divided. They also tried to make roads and path efficient for both pedestrians as well as vehicles. And the landscapes that both men design had special qualities in them where it’s designed towards tranquil and peaceful emotions. These psychological design qualities are a huge advantage towards the users in terms of de-stressing themselves and being able to admire the elegant sceneries.

Children + Violence + Television = Bad Essay -- essays research pape

On September 11th, 2001, millions around the world crowded around televisions across the globe and watched the horrific scenes of terrorism that had struck New York City, Washington, D.C and Pennsylvania on that ill-fated and now infamous morning. Suddenly, in a crowded room everyone felt alone. As the Twin Towers vanished before our very eyes, so did our sense of security and protection. We watched with shock and horror, disbelief and grief as the images were repeatedly flashed before our eyes. There was no escape. Every television channel and every radio station constantly reminded us of the tragedy that we will never forget. Even today, over three years later, I can see the images and remember the desperate pleas for help of people searching for their loved ones in my mind – over and over. Every sympathetic person was captivated by the horror on the television. We felt like we were there. September 11th, 2001 was an unprecedented tragedy that undoubtedly proves that violenc e on television is a very powerful influence. In that crowded room, workplace, classroom, or living room we all felt alone. We could not have been more wrong. We were all probably feeling a lot of the same emotions. Children across the globe were seeing the same events unfold repeatedly too. For the next few days, the major broadcasting stations had twenty-four hour coverage of the â€Å"attack on America.† I remember turning off the television because I watched all I could bare. I laid in bed with my eyes closed, but all I could see were the images replay and all I could feel was the warmth of my tears on my pillow. If we as adults were so affected by the trauma of the events, then what about the children? With an undeveloped capacity to understand the world and the proximity of danger, how can anyone claim that children were not affected by the violence illustrated on television of this tragedy? In the weeks following the tragedy, the images of the attack on the Pentagon and World Trade Center were banned from the media. Government officials and scientific experts agreed that the trauma incited by these images were detrimental to children. President Bush expressed his concern for the welfare of our children who were exposed to violence in the media reports of the attack. It is evident that scientific experts, government officials, and The President of the United States all agree that vio... ... family fun. The worst thing I can remember ever hearing or seeing on that television show was Bart saying, â€Å"Eat my shorts.† That was near ten years ago. Things have certainly changed. That television show now covers a wide range of topics from puberty to pregnancy, from detentions to murder, from injury to death. Television shows on regular television need to rated and placed into appropriate time slots. How can people expect their children not to curse when that’s what they hear on television shows they watch with their parents? The line has to be drawn. Parenting is probably the most important job anyone can have. Unfortunately, it’s also the only job that does not come with training. If our government can regulate television shows to enhance the lives of every citizen by lessening the affects of violent television on children, then they should – and they can. The government just hasn’t done it. In my opinion, three words will always be synonymous with each other: politics, power, and money. If experts believed that this violence has no effects on children, why then would they regulate exposure to the images of violent destruction and terrorism that occurred on September 11th?

Multi-Level Organizational Research

Organization is central to human achievement. The most accomplished individuals tend to have supporting groups and structures, which have major roles in celebrated successes, though they may remain hidden from superficial views. Organizations date back to the dawn of civilization, with religious institutions and military forces being enduring examples. Organizations are inherently multi-level (Klein, & Kozlowski, 2003). Each level is connected with and dependent on the others. The individual, teams, and the organization as a whole, are the 3 significant parts of a typical structure. Organizations, though they exist in kaleidoscopic varieties of purposes, sizes, and natures, share common issues when they become subjects of systematic inquiry. Performance and effectiveness are the two most important motivations for organizational research, though the interactions between individuals and groups are matters of primary interests in fields of sociology and psychology. This document reflects on the inevitable implications of multiple levels in organizations, and suggests best practices with respect to studying such structures and the people who function within them. The focus is on how to incorporate multi-level realities in to organizational research, Stating the Obvious It is common knowledge that organizations are made of individuals, and that groups of people have to function as teams. However, the implications of the obvious on how organizations should be studied and measured are complex and certainly not as obvious. It may be tempting to resort to over-simplification and ignore multi-level aspects of organizations when designing research projects to study them. Interplay between individual perceptions and organizations are common to all types of organizations. Multi level variations have been found even in the prison structure (Camp, et al. 1997), where institutional operations and satisfaction with immediate supervision have equal influences on the social climate. The implication is that any research in to the functioning and performance of a large structure with branches at multiple levels has to incorporate distinct phases of research for individuals at the periphery, for teams that operate within the body of structures, and for the entire organization as an entity. Each of these levels will be in dynamic inter-play with the other two. A phenomenon at a lower level, for example,   may not connect with theory validation at a higher level (Crowston, 2002). There are many examples of technologies being integrated in to organizations at lower levels, without incontrovertible evidence of the benefits at higher levels. That is why conclusions from research at a single level may not yield entirely relevant conclusions. The best individual technical skills may come to naught if a person cannot deal with others; similarly, the best teams cannot function without adequate resources and support from above (Loo, 2003). No level of organization can be independent, take all the credit, or be assigned all of the blame. Investigative research, which aims to diagnose why an organization functions below par, or which seeks to make recommendations for improvement, has to validate its suggestions for feasibility and appropriateness at each of the multiple levels. Past organizational research has focused more on the individual level, and not enough on teams and the organization as a unit, or on the interactions between these levels (Schnake, and Dumler, 2003). However, this trend has begun to change and researchers of today can no longer the multiple level structures of organizations they may wish to study. Organization science needs to match the integration which marks literature on the existence of multiple levels (Klein, & Kozlowski, 2003). Mixed level research needs methods and measurements of their own (Schnake, and Dumler, 2003); the levels of data collection and analysis are often not the same.   Pluralistic ignorance, in which each individual has a special perception of the self versus that of others and of the organization, commonly plagues organizational research. That is why projects should not be based solely on the surveyed and perceived opinions of individual members about their peers, superior, subordinates, and groups. Bottom up models which draw inferences from lower levels for the higher will yield different conclusions if a top down approach is used (Klein, & Kozlowski, 2003). Research methods must account for how perspectives change with levels. It may be best to adopt an iterative approach, thinking not micro or macro, but both micro and macro (Klein, & Kozlowski, 2003). Research Objectives as Determinants Given that multiple levels are ubiquitous in organizations of all types and sizes, all research in this area should take the phenomenon in to account. Organizational research may vary by objectives, and this factor of difference can help in dealing with multiple levels. The People and Process elements of the Marketing Mix for Services (Payne, 2002) play important roles in determining strategies followed by organizations which do not have concrete or tangible product features in their offers. Research in to the internal workings of such organizations may focus on the lower levels of individual capabilities, and small team functioning, rather than concern itself with organization-level matters. Conversely, stock market analysts who are concerned with specific financial outcomes may prefer to dwell on effectiveness of organizations as a whole (Huber and Glick, 1993), rather than bother with details of issues at micro levels. Downsizing and new designs are some major concerns of contemporary organizational research. These phenomena create most strains on the individual (Huber, and Glick, 1993) and hence projects which seek to study the effects of integration and different hierarchies should focus on the lowest level of individual members of staff. The simplistic approach of focusing on just one level of organization will not work in all cases. Communication issues, matters related to diversity in the work force and matters concerning global organizations, all require work to be done at all levels (Huber, and Glick, 1993). Social climate studies also have to take all levels in to account, since institutional initiatives can have variations at its spatially separated sites, and individual variations as well with regard to job satisfaction and organizational commitment (Camp, et al. 1997). Some of the research problems of multiple levels in organizations arose in the past because of the paucity of prior work in similar areas. However, there has been a cascade of organizational research in recent times, with multiple level enquiries (Huber and Glick, 1993). This new body of work can be used as templates when fresh research projects in organizational behavior are undertaken. The Effects of Organizational Labeling Organizations tend to fit in to stereotypes which have been created in public minds over time. Professionally managed corporations, political parties, religious institutions, and bureaucracies, are a few examples of such set patterns of our collective minds. Simultaneously, organizations are more than just people who control or work in them. Suppliers, financiers, regulators, franchisees, and customers are some of the other categories of stake holders. All organizations do not have to be equally responsive to the environment (Huber and Glick, 1993). Monolithic, powerful, and strongly entrenched organizations may demand research of how to further their aims, but worry less about the proclivities of employees and suppliers of goods and services at the bottoms and fringes of their hierarchies. A highly evolved organization will be dynamic and open minded: it deserves and needs organizational research at multiple levels, with plenty of iteration, and the objective validation of hypotheses. Others will be directive and in a hurry for results: they may appreciate the values of enquiries at multiple levels less or not at all. Organizational research driven by purely scholastic intent is a rare privilege. The professional researcher will more often have a restrictive brief set by a paying client with a specific and selfish perspective. Organizational studies may mention all the levels in passing or for the sake of completeness, rather than address each of them in detail and in concert. The multiple levels within organizations should always be kept in mind when studying structures and group working. Even though studies may be sponsored by the most apical level of organization, valid findings and scientific rigor require that the study extends to teams and to individuals as well. Towards Best Practices Multiple levels are inevitable in organizational studies. How can the complexities of this reality be incorporated for better research project design, and to ensure findings on which sponsors can rely? It is best to start with the environment in which the organization operates (Huber, and Glick, 1993). Such a prior effort will put research fully in context. It is necessary to spend time to collect primary data on how the organization functions; and to focus on processes which link the various levels (Crowston, 2002). It is risky to plunge headlong in to researching an organization: every investment in understanding its needs and to profile it accurately, will pay off in terms of relevant findings on which action can be taken. Levels in organizations can be conceived in terms of internal customers. This is a standard concept in Services Marketing (Payne, 2002). A higher level in an organization, or a branch of the same level, is a customer of a team which supports it through its function. Thus, a Sales Manager is a customer of his or her sales people, and the entire sales function is a customer of the production or manufacturing department. Since dealing with all levels can make organizational research very complicated, a workable option is to use the internal customer concept to delineate levels of research. Another approach is to set up microcosms of the organization in external settings, to act as laboratories for experimentation. Groups of employees may be placed on extended sabbaticals, and asked to play roles equivalent to the levels of their parent organizations. This approach has the advantage of eliciting more objective input data from people inside the organization, but can be expensive and time consuming. Research projects which adopt this ‘laboratory’ approach require patience and sustained support, but yield better and more applicable findings at the same time. A relatively quick and simple compromise could be to adopt a problem-solving approach (Loo, 2003). The median level is a good optimum in such cases, with a focus on actual teams from the structure, with additional participation by representatives from other levels and branches. This team approach can use direct and indirect benchmarking to support its recommendations. Wherever a choice is available, the organizational researcher should try to go as micro as possible as uncontrollable factors and complexities keep increasing as the analysis goes to higher levels (Camp, et al. 1997). Aggregate measures tend to mislead, and reduce the chances of useful and valid findings. Regardless of how organizational research is approached, a common requirement is to specify qualitative organizational performance measures as closely as possible. What for example is motivation or how will supervision be assessed? This will also address the issue of phenomena at lower levels not being confirmed by theories at higher levels-perhaps the higher level has not specified the benefits it seeks (Crowston, 2002). Such specification will also reduce the pitfalls of data from a lower level from pluralistic ignorance, affecting analysis of a higher level (Schnake, and Dumler, 2003). Finally, the organizational researcher must always think of multi-level implications of proposed work and suggestive conclusions whether or not all levels are included in the work (Klein, & Kozlowski, 2003). Such an approach should persist throughout the research, including the critical stage of sampling. Conclusions While multiple levels in organizations and their influences cannot be denied, including all of them comprehensively in actual projects may present.   It may often be best to make research manageable with clear statements of assumptions and limitations. Organizations are in flux in any case and will evolve towards the median level. This is the historic trend (Huber, and Glick, 1993). Excellence and thoroughness in studying the team level may be a good compromise. The perspective of each category of stake holders is distinct, yet valid. The researcher would do well to keep the expectations and profile of his or her customer in mind! Multiple levels, in the end, are integral to all significant organizations, and all research in to such groupings must take these multiple levels in to account. References Camp, R. et al. (1997) Aggregating Individual-Level Evaluations of the Organizational Social Climate: A Multilevel Investigation of the Work Environment at the Federal Bureau of Prisons. Justice Quarterly 14: 4: 739-762. Crowston, K, (2002) Process as theory in information systems research, Proceedings of The IFIP WG 8.2 International Conference: The Social and Organizational Perspective on Research and Practice in Information Technology, 10–12 June 2000, Aalborg, Denmark. Huber, G, and Glick, W, (1993) Organizational Change and Redesign: Ideas and Insights for Improving Performance, Oxford University Press Klein, K & Kozlowski, S, (2003) A Multilevel Approach to Theory and Research in Organizations: Contextual, Temporal, and Emergent Processes, Chapter 1 in Multilevel Theory, Research, and Methods in Organizations: Foundations, Extensions, and New Directions, JOSSEY BASS Loo, Robert (2003) A multi-level causal model for best practices in project management, Benchmarking, Vol10, Issue 1; pg. 29, 8 pgs Payne, A, (2002), The Essentials of Services Marketing, Prentice-Hall Schnake, M. and Dumler, M. (2003) Levels of measurement and analysis issues in organizational citizenship behavior research, Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology. 76(3):283