Law of Evidence Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words - 4

Law of Evidence - Essay Example As a result, three recognizable problems can be established. First, the impact on the European Convention of Human Rights on the statutory provisions which seem to offer expressly for a burden of proof that is to be placed on a defendant. The second problem is that whether such burden has ever been placed on a defendant in a criminal trial. And, thirdly, if it possible to inform if Parliament has, in a specific statute, impliedly placed such a burden on a defendant3. Where the issue of implied reverse burden of proof arises by way of statute, it needs to be compatible and given effect with any rights protected under the Article 6(2) ECHR4. The Human Rights Act 1998 (HRA 1998) is where the Convention actually integrated into English laws5. A legal burden of proof is also known as ‘persuasive’ burden of proof. The persuasive burden of proof is the responsibility that is vested on only one party and ought to be satisfied so as to win in any specific issue in question. In that perspective, in some criminal trials, only one party bears the burden of proof on some issue and a different party on others. A discussion that relates to the legal burden of proof in any specific trial usually makes no sense unless that burden is related to a particular issue of fact. It is really very important to establish that the guilt of the accused is for the prosecution to prove and remains there all through the trial as in Woolmington v DPP6. Adrian cited that a legal burden is a burden of proof which a standard of proof can actually be assigned but saved in the case where the defendant needs to establish his insanity upon a balance of probabilities and of defence of insanity. In some instances, a ‘reverse legal burden’ is placed on the defendant7. Donnellan argued that reverse burden procedures usually arises when the statute that creates the criminal offense imposes a legal burden on the

Literature and Social Reality Essay Example for Free

Literature and Social Reality Essay In this paper I will discuss and analyze the social forces of immigration and industrialization that shape literature during the period of 1865 to 1912. I will describe the major literary movements of the period. Additionally I will explain how Realism and Naturalism influenced the literature of the period, how immigration and industrialization contributed to the influences. I will illustrate using examples from some of the greatest authors of the period. Immigration and Industrialization The United States’ population grew quickly in the late 1800s and early 1900s. Baym (2008) et al. write that there were 38. million people in 1870 and had grown to 92 million in 1910. This growth resulted mostly from immigration. People came from countries all over the world but predominantly from European and Asian nations. Immigration was also the major cause for urbanization in the United States according to Baym et al. (2008) with a dramatic proportional shift from a mostly rural population to a larger city population. Simultaneously with this mass immigration industrialization was happening creating an abundance of factory jobs and building immense wealth for some while also creating dramatic divides in society. Baym et al. (2008) describe the situation: â€Å"Long-settled white Americans faced newly arrived white people across divides of power, income, and privilege – worker against owner, farm against city, immigrant against native-born, leading to suspicion and social turbulence on a scale that the nation had not seen† (p. 3). The consequences were labor struggles resulting from terrible working conditions. Immigration brought an abundance of workers resulting in low wages as well as â€Å"inhumane and dangerous working conditions† (Baym et al. 2008, p. ). Conflict also arose from farmers being pushed off their land by the railroads and competition between native-born citizens and immigrants. There was also increased suspicion and resentment between the social classes likely based on fear of losing their â€Å"part of the cake† for the upper and middle classes, whereas the lower class was resentful because of how they were treated. Major Literary Movements The major literary movements during this period were realism and naturalism emerging after a long period of idealism and romanticism. Realism shifted literature to a way of describe life as it actually is instead of trying to present an idealized or romantic image. It was an objective style that offered detached perspectives on the everyday lives of the middle-class, working-class and the poor. This style worked well for describing the struggles of the period. Baym et al. (2008) describe W. D. Howells as the â€Å"chief American advocate† of realism (p. 6). Mark Twain, Henry James, Edith Wharton, and others also joined in this movement as well as some distinguished African American writers such as W. E.  B Du Bois, Booker T. Washington, and Ida B. Wells-Barnett (Baym et al. , 2008). The nature of Naturalism has been debated as being the opposite of realism or as â€Å"extension or intensification of realism† (Baym et al. , 2008, p. 7). Naturalism usually describes more extreme settings and circumstances than realism and focuses on harsher conditions and poorer characters. Baym et al. (2008) suggest that while characters in realistic works often overcome difficulties, in naturalistic pieces the characters never stand a chance. It is a much more pessimistic literary style than realism. Crane, Dreiser, London, and Norris are described by Baym et al. (2008) as the leading American naturalistic writers of the period. How Realism and Naturalism Influenced Literature Realism had an immense influence on the literature during this period. Mark Twain was one of the major authors and his â€Å"Adventures of Huckleberry Finn† is an excellent example of his style, which became regarded as a leading piece for the â€Å"American style† (Baym et al. , 2008, p. 6). Twain used colloquial speech and his writing style puts the reader in the position of participant, almost as if in a dialogue with Huck. It is a very intimate and informal way of writing. Huckleberry Finn is uneducated and sees the world through the lens of his own experience as well as the social circumstances and mores of the time. In chapter 23 of â€Å"Adventures of Huckleberry Finn† Huck ponders about Jim, his African American companion on his adventure: â€Å"He was thinking about his wife and his children, away up yonder, and he was low and homesick; because he hadn’t ever been away from home before in his life; and I do believe he cared just as much for his people as white folks do for their’n. It don’t seem natural, but I reckon it is so† (Baym et al. , 2008, p. 204). This passage realistically illustrates the view of a young boy at the time who only knows the world through the social context of his time and place, which included slavery and a very derogatory view of African Americans. Twain was very critical and pessimistic about humankind and his writing often reflected this. However with Huck Finn he appears to be attempting to show that even an uneducated young boy in the 1840s could be open-minded and open-hearted enough to see that people are equals. Henry James writes about â€Å"Daisy Miller,† a young American woman who is a new kind of modern girl. She does not appear to care about the established rules and mores of the time and is both bold and naive in her demeanor. Baym et al. (2008) write that James shows his nature as â€Å"a true cosmopolitan concerned with exploring American national character as it is tested by cultural displacement† (p. 317). James is painting a picture of the old and established strict rules of social class and position and how they become a hindrance in forming true connection between people. The established upper- and middle-class look down on the lower class and the up-and-comers. The result is miscommunication, suspicion, and conflict. Jack London was one of the leading naturalist writers of his time. In his essay â€Å"What Life Means to me† he describes his own experience as a working class youngster who toiled in a variety of jobs until finally he had enough of heavy labor and became a vagrant for a while (Baym et al. , 2008). He describes how he found himself at the bottom of society and how in that place â€Å"life offered nothing but sordidness and wretchedness, both of the flesh and the spirit; for here flesh and spirit were alike starved and tormented† (Baym et al. , 2008, p. 582). He was keenly aware of the inequalities and injustice that industrialization had brought for the working class. He writes that he realizes that a laborer is finished and broken down at 45 or 50 while an intellectual, â€Å"a brain seller† (Baym et al. , 2008, p. 584) comes into his prime at that age or later. He decides to ducate himself to make a difference both for himself and for the working class dear to his heart. London eventually encountered and the Socialist movement and describes in joyful terms finding â€Å"warm faith in then human, glowing idealism, sweetness of unselfishness, renunciation, and martyrdom – all the splendid, stinging things of the spirit† (Baym et al. , 2008, p. 584). He was a masterful naturalist writer describing in exquisite detail and with a detached, scientific narrative how the man slowly succumbs to the cold and freezes to death in his short story â€Å"To Build a Fire. Clearly his own experiences in Alaska had provided him with great fodder for this kind of story. Conclusion In this paper I discussed and analyzed the social forces of immigration and industrialization that shaped literature during the period of 1865 to 1912. I described the major literary movements of the period. Additionally I explained how Realism and Naturalism influenced the literature of the period and illustrated with examples from some of the greatest writers of that time.

Concerns in Implementing Biometric Technology

Concerns in Implementing Biometric Technology Though this seems to be an advantage, the integration of this system into the existing system is tedious. Some of the major concerns in implementing biometric technology are as follows, The system relies on complex data processing algorithms which consumes considerable amount of time. Lack of manufacturing and integration of special purpose hardware in the existing system. Adoption of biometric technology in the day-to-day life is slow. A new approach that is gaining attention in the field of biometrics is referred as behavioral biometrics, also referred as behaviometrics. The behaviometrics concentrate on analysis the behavior of the user while interacting with the computer and try to authenticate him. The hardware Mouse capable of monitor the movements of the user and analyzing them to extract a signature, which is unique for every individuals [4]–[6]. Generally there two kinds of authentication mode available in the mouse dynamics, Static authentication Dynamic authentication The main strength of mouse dynamics biometric technology is in its ability to continuously monitor the legitimate and illegitimate users based on their session usage of a computer system. This is referred to as continuous authentication. Continuous authentication, or identity confirmation based on mouse dynamics, is very useful for continuous monitoring applications such as intrusion detection [5]–[8]. II. RELATED WORK Extensive research has been made in the field of utilising the oe of the computer input devices, Mouse, towards the development of user interface design structure [10]. Only in the recent times, the mouse dynamics is further improvised as behaviour biometric technology. The previous attempt ware made to study the user’s identity based on the mouse gesture analysis . Initially, the number of participants for this prgramme is around 48[12].The system is focused on both static and dynamic mode of authentication, but later the system exclusively tried to develop the continuous authentication because for static authentication where in the need of special purpose design of GUI and usage of certain predefined form of signature. Gamboa et al conducted similar experiments to learn the user’s movements while playing a memory game. They are 50 participants involved in the experiment. A sequential forward selection technique based on the greedy algorithm was simply used to find the best single feature later add one feature at a time to the feature vector. Gamboa et al[5] proved that increase in the movements (interactions), the more accurate the identification process would be. But, we cant use this approach to the static authentication type becau se Gamboa et al[5] reported that the memory game took 10-15 min in average. The main issues with these studies are the minimum amount of mouse movements required to authenticate an user was improbable. This method holds well for user reauthentication or continuous authentication but failed in static authentication. So, further work has to be done in the field of Mouse gesture dynamics: a behavior biometric [18], [19]. Our work is to identify the user based on their handwriting patterns. There are considerable amount of research work was made in the field of identifying the user based on his handwriting. The entire work process has been divided into two processes: signature verification and user identification. The pilot experiment where the 50 ample users are allowed to sign and their signature is later used to identify them. The participants are requested to draw eight different gesture and each of them twenty times. The same eight gestures are used throughout the entire process and the users are advised to draw the strokes in a single stroke. By studying pilot experiment meticulously, we can perceive following facts which play crucial role in our work and they are as follows. The average gesture size drawn was made up of 64 data points in a single stroke. Some participant tends to sign faster as they time goes and this cause departure from their normal behavior. The raw data contained noises that must be filtered before processing. The users were advised to be as consistent with the variability in shape and size. These variations were clearly a major source of inconsistency. In our paper, we provide security against shoulder surfing by toggling between the visibilities of the signature and also we provide additional security features like anonymous password feature. III. PROPOSED SYSTEM Based on the facts, we obtained from pilot experiment, we divided our entire work into following modules. Input gesture and sample modules Gesture processing Extraction and acquisition of data points Anonymous Password feature A. Input gesture and Sample modules The input gesture creation module and sample module is simple drawing screen that used to ask the participant to freely draw a set of predefined gestures. The main purpose of this module is to make the participant experienced with the system and to draw them in his own way which is to replicate them later on. So, the gestures are not bound to any specified language and they do not necessarily have a meaning. The input gesture creation and sample module helps the user in two different ways. First, it moves the input drawing to the center of the area. Though the shifting of the drawn gesture is done, the data points are collected without saving these changes. Second, the module moves the gesture spacing to achieve a size of 64 data points. These 64 data points were based on the pilot experiment. As mentioned earlier, we were able to determine the average size of drawing the predefined set of gestures in one stroke. B. Gesture Processing Once, the data is collected how these signatures are modified for further use. What are the steps involved in the process of converting the user signature into their corresponding data points are well briefed in this section. The signature collected from the drawing area consists of three main components, the horizontal coordinate (x-axis), vertical coordinate (y-axis), and the elapsed time in milliseconds at each pixel. Each gesture replication for a given gesture can be identified as the sequence of data points and each of them is represented by a triple consisting of the X-coordinate, Y-coordinate, and elapsed time, respectively. For example, the jth replication of a gesture G can be represented as a sequence Gj = {, , }, where n is referred to as the gesture size (GS) and each where (1≠¤ i ≠¤ n) is a data point. C. Extraction and acquisition of datapoints The extraction and acquisition of data points module involves three main components, namely, data acquisition, data preparation, and data storage and authentication. 1) Data Acquisition: This module presents the gestures, which was created initially by the user in the input gesture creation module, and displays them to the user to replicate. The module records the user’s drawing while he interact with the computer. This module essentially records the signature in three components, horizontal coordinates denoted by xij, vertical coordinates denoted by yij, and the elapsed time in milliseconds starting from the origin of the gesture tij, as explained in the input gesture module. For each user, the application creates individual folder containing all the replication of different gestures. Each gesture must be replicated a specific number of times (eg., 20 times). The user has to wait for minimum 3 s between each replication which is to prevent the user from drawing the gesture too fast. We believed that the wait time and mouse release will force the users back to his normal speed and behavior each time they replicate the gesture. 2) Data Preprocessing: This module is to process the collected data points in such a way it reduces to noise in it. The user’s signature may be shakened or jagged during drawing. They may lead to inconsistencies in the process of data point collections. There are two kinds of normalization techniques which should be applid first before reducing the noise patterns. The first is center normalization which shifts the gesture to the center of the drawing area. The idea behind this tranisition is that the user may tend to draw his signature at any corner of the drawing area so we need to process the signature from any any part of the area. So, it is advisable to move all the gestures to the center of drawing area. The second is size normalization which alters the size of the gesture so that the final size is equal to the size of the template gesture in order to compare the two gestures later. If the size of gesture is larger than the template size then k means algorithm is used to reduce its size. The k means algorithm forms 64 clusters of data points initially, take the centroids of each cluster as the datapoints. To remove the outliners and noise in each replication, data smoothing techniques are introduced. The user cant draw same signature without changing its size and shape under multiple occasions. So, the data smoothing removes the variations in the signature. We use the standard weighted least-squares regression (WLSR) method to smooth the data and Peirce’s criterion [21] to eliminate the outliers. 3) Data Storage and authentication: The collected data points are further stored in the database for each use. The database is capable of storing all the replication of gestures of the user which he entered during the input gesture and sample module. When the user entered the signature during the authentication time, all the replication gesture would be compared. is one of the imminent disaster in these modern technical world. Information extortion occurs when an attacker took the password and other authentication information from the user forcibly. Neither the traditional text-based password system nor biometric systems provide easy way-out of this. No matter the password is a text, fingerprint or iris movements it can be taken by force.

The National Health Services Essay -- Health, Insurance

The National health services (NHS) provides a comprehensive healthcare services across the entire nation. It is considered to be UK’s proudest institution, and is envied by many other countries because of its free of cost health delivery to its population. Nevertheless, it is often seen as a ‘political football’ as it affects all of us in some way and hence everyone carry an opinion about it (Cass, 2006). Factors such as government policies, funding, number of service users, taxation etc all make up small parts of this large complex organisation. Therefore, any imbalances within one sector can pose a substantial risk on the overall NHS (Wheeler & Grice, 2000). This essay will discuss whether the NHS aim of reducing the nations need for provision of health was achieved or not, taking into account different health models. The concept of NHS came into power from 5th July 1948. Although, Bevan who had this ideology of ‘welfare state’ was successful in architecting NHS. In fact, the need for such a consolidation of service provision was initially identified in 1919 by the Dawson Committee report (Christopher, 2004). The state in which healthcare system operated before1948 was incomprehensive, full of inequality and even lacked in providing minimum adequate standards to the general public. The people living in poverty and on Low income (working class) were affected the most; whereas, rich families were able to afford the healthcare services adequately. The health insurance was provided under the National Insurance Act 191, but was only available to the workers, whereas, their dependants (wife and children’s) were excluded. Therefore, every time they used the services they were required to pay for it. Thus, because most... ...are immense, as it has only finite resources to use, but needs its services to be clinically effective as well as able to meet the needs of individual’s, their choice of preferences and be value for money. To accomplish this NHS will need to harness more securely its investment in surveillance, analysis and budgets, and therefore establishing a framework that would than serve and provide a better health outcome to the entire nation. Lastly, UK spends about half of what is spent by the US (about 14 % of GDP) on its healthcare, yet in US out of 250 million over 30 million citizens are still without health care provision. Thus, despite such a massive expenditure by US government, failure to provide basic health care to millions of its citizen is not overcome, however, that is certainly not the case in UK (Bilton, et al., 2002; Christopher, 2004; Smith I. , 2007).

Off Job and on Job Analysis Essay

Introduction of Topic The subject study is aimed to investigate an issue i. e. â€Å"Comparative Analysis of on-job & off-job training effects on employee performance† for this I have select to method of training off job training and two moderate variables environment and trainers which control on employee performance. On job training and off job training variable are conducted as comparative variable while other variable conducted as moderate variables. In general the organizations are using performance appraisals in order to appraise their employees and to assess their annual performance. Performance Appraisals have become a management craze over the past decade whereby every organization seems to think that by faithfully adhering to this practice, people within the organization will grow and develop in the company image. Nothing could be further from reality. Experience has proved to me that since those who are carrying out the assessment are usually poorly trained, poorly prepared and with an ‘ I am your boss so I must be more effective than you’ attitude. The result is often than not highly subjective and of very little value to either the organization or to assess. Every human resource manager knows that through training they can improve the skills or performance of employees or work force. But I want to clear which training method is most beneficial for work force. So that human resource manger would provide that training method which is most suitable for improve the performance of employees. For this purpose I conduct my research and comparative analysis that which training method is efficient and which factor influence more on performance of an employee. Problem Statement: Comparative Analysis of on-job & off-job training effects on employee performance Objective Statement: From side to side training can get better the skills or achievement of employees. My objective of conduct a comparative research is to find out efficient method of training to enhance or improve the skill of employee. Introduction to Variables: Dependent variable: Performance of Employee Independent Variables: On job training, Off job training Moderate Variables: Environment, Trainers Chapter 2 REVIEW OF LITERATURE. Training on the job has become a major source of skill buildup for workers in the last two decades due to the rapid pace of technological change. Studies by Bishop (1994) and Bartle and Lichtenburg (1987), among others, establish that a well-trained workforce provides returns to employers in the form of higher productivity and better flexibility to technological change. Hence, there is a strong incentive for employers to sponsor training for their workforce. However, employers also need to think with the possibility that workers may quit before employers can fully realize the benefits of the training that was provided. For nearly three decades since Becker (1964) classified training as general training (training that builds skills transferable to other firms) or specific training (training that builds firm-specific skills), researchers have assumed that employers would be more willing to sponsor specific training as opposite to general training that could be used elsewhere. However, many recent experimental studies have failed to provide any evidence for this idea. Instead, experimental research has consistently found that most employer-sponsored training does, in fact, provide employees with skills that are transferable to other employers (i.e. , that most employer-sponsored training should be classified as general training). Studies by Barron, Berger and Black (1999), Lowenstein and Splatter (1999), Booth and Bryan (2002) find, that most or all the training that is sponsored by employers result in workers acquiring general skills that can be used at other firms. Such recent findings have sparked a changed interest in the following question: do workers who acquire transferable skills from employer-sponsored training continue working in the same job or do they seek better returns for their newly acquired skills from other  employers? While this question has been explored in many recent studies, most of this research (possibly due to the nature of the survey data available) has focused on younger workers or a cross-section of workers. In doing this, workers who are in the middle of their careers – a subset of workers who enjoy a considerable benefit from training – have been overlooked; it is well-understood that the type of training undergone by young workers is considerably different from the re-training of mid-career workers. De Grip and Van Loo (2002) detail the various ways, in which a workers skill may degrade over the course of a career, necessitating corrective on-the-job training is often essential to maintaining worker productivity. In this context, it could be reasonably expected that the nature of training mid-career employees receive would take fundamentally different forms than training for the labor force at large. Also, workers tend to be highly mobile between jobs early in their careers; Topel and Ward (1992), for example, show that a typical worker holds seven different jobs during the first 10 years of his/her career, with the rate of job mobility then declining significantly. Hence, employers may be more willing to sponsor general training for such workers, believing that they would be more likely to experience the rewards of this training due to the decreased job mobility at this stage of the worker’s career. Effective training programmers’ require the dedicated support of top management (Motwani, Frahm et al. 1994). Such organizations provide training mapped to employee and organizational needs (Mann, 1997), and provide this at the proper time. Yet, not all companies place the same emphasis on, or show the same commitment to employee training (Roberts and McDonald, 1995; Hughey and Mussnug, 1997). Some companies work hard to recruit the best people and yet spend relatively little effort to retain them once hired (Cappelli, 2000). There is evidence to show that benefits follow to organizations that are committed to employee training (Wills, 1994). Organizations that place a high value on training give resources to the management of the training process. They devote time to ensuring that employees get the training programmers’ that is most appropriate for them given their existing IT skill sets (Eighteen, 1999). Such firms are most successful at maximizing the effectiveness of their training programs (Huang, 2001). Organizations that commit effort and finances to training programmers’ and employee development do so with the  objective of a pay-off in terms of increased skill-sets, increased motivation, increased knowledge transfer (Pate, Martin et al. , 2000), more positive psychological and organizational dynamics, as well as a measurable aggressive edge. The use of training courses future outstrips what is known of their usefulness (Foxon, 1989; Schonewille, 2001). Mann (1996) maintains that despite heavy investment in training, organizations can frequently fail to evaluate adequately the value or success of their training programmes. Organizations that devote considerable resources to training also understand the value of evaluating the training process (Motswana, Frahm et al. , 1994; Mann, 1996). Such evaluation is a key phase in any proposed training and development process (Al-Khayyat and Elgamal, 1997). While such appraisal is desirable in principle it is difficult in practice (Morris, 1984). Even those companies who do carry out evaluations often use measures later considered ineffective (Schonewille, 2001). The most common metric of evaluation is trainee perceptions . Such assessments are random, informal, and unstructured evaluations of training programmers, which tend to be post training appraisals rather than approaching the evaluation of training programmers from their design stages (James and Rolfe, 2000). Many forms of training exist ( Switzer and Kleiner, 1996; Huang, 2001). The range of training techniques has been expanded by the application of technology in its â€Å"hard† (for example through computing technology) and â€Å"soft† (for example through instructional design) (Sadler-Smith, Down et al. , 2000). In relation to IT training, many methodologies for the approach to and delivery of training can be used: forms of training include instructor console training in a classroom situation, stand-alone terminals with remote instruction, computer based training (CBT) without instructor, hypermedia training (a computer based method of non-sequential reading and writing, a technique with which chunks of information can be arranged and rearranged according to an individual’s needs, previous knowledge, and curiosities (Higginbotham-Wheat, 1992; Murray, 1998)), self-paced training using a variety of delivery methods (Compeau, 1995), distance learning (whether by videoconferencing, email, or other method). Learning networks, simulations, groupware communication, use of mentors or coaches, job rotation, management games, role playing and behavior modeling (Williams, 2001), or Internet based training. While many new training approaches based on new technology  exist, these modern training methods have been subjected to comparatively little empirical or critical study (Sadler-Smith, Down et al. , 2000). The literature suggests that that some of the most effective training techniques are not new, but are merely the application of old-fashioned common sense to the assessment of training needs (Switzer and Kleiner, 1996; Sadler-Smith, Down et al. , 2000; Smith, 2002). Sadler-Smith et al. (2000) believe that flexibility of delivery is a fundamental issue for smaller firms, to which open/distance/technology-based learning may present a workable solution; however, the modernity of some delivery methods may in itself lead to assumption of applicability and efficiency. Bostrom at all (1988) argue that the delivery method can directly influence the effectiveness of, and the benefits accrued from training. Read and Kleiner (1996) present the most commonly used training methods across non-industry specific U. S Companies. They found that the top ten training methods used in business, listed in order from highest to lowest use, were: videotapes, lectures, one-on-one instruction, role plays, games/simulation, case studies, slides, computer-based training, audio tapes, and films. In a survey carried out by 450 respondents, Mathews et al. (2001) studied the incidence of training delivery methods across non-industry specific organizations in the U.K. , Portugal, and Finland within the context of benefits accrued. They found that training methods most commonly used tended to be traditional, with little impact evident of more HITECH methods. Traditional methods included external short courses, internal lectures and seminars, issuing of training manuals and materials to be self-taught, using training videos, short demonstrations, and the delegation of training responsibilities to training consultants. This study found that in-house participative seminars were the preferred training delivery method in the UK, whereas external short courses were the preferred method in Finland and Portugal. Impersonal methods such as training videos, and internet or Computer-based training, were viewed across the UK, Finland, and Portugal as poor methods. In contrast, highly personal methods of training such as participative courses and seminars were viewed as the most effective and highly regarded methods. From a company perspective, training and development of company employees are essential for organizational operation, and organizational development. From an employee perspective, these same factors are both vital and critical for skill development and for career advancement. Retention of employees, and the retention of valued skill sets, is important for continued business achievements (Mak and Sockel, 1999). The successful retention of employees leads to knowledge conservation within the organization (Cappelli, 2000). Employee turnover may lead to a loss of human resources weakening competitive positions. At a company level, mechanisms that allow for and promote knowledge transfer amongst employees can help minimize the effect of the loss of skilled staff to other companies (Cappelli, 2000). Training employees leads to increased employee satisfaction, facilitates the updating of skills, leads to an increased sense of belonging and benefit, increased employee commitment to the organization (Bushardt, Fretwell et al. , 1994), and strengthens the organization’s competitiveness (Hughey and Mussnug, 1997; Burden and Proctor, 2000). Job-related training increases an employee’s ability to perform job-related tasks. Job satisfaction is an important motivator for employee performance and is negatively related to turnover (Mak and Sockel, 1999). Company commitment to the training needs of its employees positively influences employee satisfaction, leading to an increase in employee motivation and an increase in retention (Mak and Sockel, 1999; Ranft and Lord, 2000). Such commitment culminates in employee exposure to quality job-related training, leading to better employee morale, an increased sense of employee achievement and accomplishment (Elizur, 1996), and ultimately to an increase in organizational competitiveness. Whilst company commitment to training for its employees positively affects retention and leads to desirable outputs, there are many different categories and types of training (Switzer and Kleiner, 1996; Huang, 2001; Mathews, Ueno et al. , 2001). To have positive results, organizational commitment to training must tie closely to appropriate effective training methods and training delivery mechanisms. In terms of training methodologies, what may be appropriate for one company (or employee) may not be for another. This paper describes a descriptive study, which assesses the impact of training on employee retention, and examines the relationship between organizational commitment to training and benefits accrued. Results of the study demonstrate that organizational attitudes and provision for training relate positively to employee expectations and requirements. Findings indicate that well-engineered training initiatives lead to increased organizational strength, job-related employee competencies, and job satisfaction. The study finds that training helps in retaining knowledge within the organization, but may not help in retaining employees. The main method of training delivery is by instructor-led formal sessions, followed by self-training and workshops. Findings show that more modern methods such as web-based and computer based training are not pervasive. Almost one third of respondents believe that training received has not helped to reduce job-related stress. More than one quarter of respondents indicate that their organization does not structure training based on employee feedback on requirements. There are many cases where the training needs of employees have not been sufficiently addressed and cases where organizations have not evaluated the quality or effectiveness of training programmers, making return on investment hard to measure. To succeed, an organization must create an environment that not only attracts people to join and give their best every day, but one that also strives to retain existing staff. The retention of talented experienced, productive and knowledgeable employees can be a source of competitive advantage for companies (King, 1997; Cheng and Brown, 1998; Roepke, Agarwal et al. , 2000). The maintenance of employees provides staff stability, which aids organizational knowledge retention (Cappelli, 2000), offers the opportunity to raise quality standards through continuous improvement practices (Motwani, Frahm et al. , 1994) and facilitates the achievement of more reliable customer care (Rowley and Purcell, 2001). It is important for employers to identify and to understand their employees’ viewpoints on what the employees consider to be the most important aspects of their jobs, if employees are to be more content (Ventakesh, 1999; Mulder, 2001). While staff retention in general is important, the retention of IT employees is vital for business success (Mak and Sockel, 1999; MacDonald, Gabriel et al. , 2000). understanding IT leaders recognize that the greatest impediments to success are often related to people rather than to information, technology, and systems (Roepke, Agarwal et al. , 2000). Considering the high costs associated with replacing IT staff and their experience, it makes sense for companies to invest in mechanisms designed to keep IT staff longer (Mak and Sockel, 1999; Moore, 2000). One such staff retention mechanism is the use of employee training programmes for existing members of staff (Mulder, 2001). The use of such programmes in recent times by employers may have more to do with securing employee commitment in uncertain times than about transforming skill levels (Hallier and Butts, 1999). As such, for some organizations the key objective of training is to increase employee commitment to the organization and to create a culture that underlines the value of long-term employment. Mak and Sockel (1999) found that most employees consider career development a priority motivational tool; and once motivated, they are more likely to be devoted to their job and the company’s retention rate should improve. As such, management commitment to the development of the employee can significantly affect retention, even in situations where economic incentives such as incremental salary increases do not (Ranft and Lord, 2000). Specific training initiatives have specific goals. These include the improvement of employee job performance, employee development (Burden and Proctor, 2000), the development of skills, knowledge, and attitudes (Al-Khayyat and Elgamal, 1997), and a means of achieving a competitive edge (Hughey and Mussnug, 1997; Hallier and Butts, 2000). Given the fast obsolescence of IT specific skills there is a repeated need to provide opportunities for employees to update their technical skill sets. The failure to provide such training increase the chance of failure and such companies may pay more in the long run (Auer, 1995). Organizations must respond to demands for change while at the same time realizing that advances in technology and knowledge are rendering many traditional employee skills obsolete, while simultaneously developing needs for new ones (Read and Kleiner, 1996). It is this continuous risk of knowledge obsolescence that makes training and retraining necessary, not only for individual growth but also for organizational growth (Read and Kleiner, 1996). Within the IT sector, training can be considered to encompass organized, structured, formal events and sessions offered to IT employees as a company initiative. This paper does not consider on-the-job daily experiences to be classed as formal training, although such experiences can aid the development of skills related to job functions (Sadler-Smith, Down et al. , 2000; Smallbone, Supri et al. , 2000). The beginning of the modern concern about skills and economic competitiveness in the United States came perhaps with the government report, A Nation at Risk (National Commission on Excellence in Education, 1983), which documented the poor academic performance of U. S. students compared to those of major competitor nations. Studies such as Baumol, Blackman, and Wolff (1989) focused attention on the long-run and comparative performance of the U. S. economy. Piore and Sabel (1984), Cohen and Zysman (1987), and others drew attention to the importance of production work to an economy and to the fact that work organization and employee skills influenced the competitiveness of manufacturing firms and their ability to adapt to changing markets. Dertouzos, Lester, Solow, and the Industrial Productivity (1989) developed these views into an argument about declining U. S. competitiveness that became almost a standard for future studies. The work organization and management structures of U. S. firms rely too much on outdated scientific management approaches. They are hierarchical, based on narrow job titles and unskilled workers, and, as a result, are not as flexible in adjusting to changing markets as the competitor firms in other countries. The more flexible techniques of Japanese management in particular demand higher skills from the labor force. Other studies soon pounced on the connection between skills, productivity, and economic performance. Both America’s Choice (1990) and the Office of Technology Assessment’s report (1990) argued that higher levels of skills in the workforce were necessary in order to develop the new, more productive systems of work organization and compete successfully with other nations. With these reports as a backdrop, the Secretary of Labor’s Commission on Achieving Necessary Skills (SCANS) was established in 1990 to identify the skills that the workplace was demanding. In its various reports, the Commission has argued forcefully that new types of organizations and new arrangements for organizing work—employee empowerment, teams, and new work technologies—require new skills and a higher level of existing skills from workers. Furthermore, the skills that are required are at least in part general work skills that translate across employers and industries. Both employers and individual workers are seen as benefiting from those higher skills (SCANS, 1992). Arguments like these have in large measure been responsible for a new thrust in public policy toward raising skill levels, especially through schooling. The National Goals for Education, for example, is an effort to raise educational standards in the country at least in part to improve competitiveness. The list of skills identified by SCANS as reasonably generic to the U. S. economy has been used to drive the curriculum in high schools and in training programs such as the Job Corps and those funded by the Job Training Partnership. The School-to-Work Opportunities Act, passed by Congress to establish school-to-work change programs like youth apprenticeships, is also designed to raise work-related skills. Given the speed with which these arguments have moved forward, it is indeed surprising to find so little experiential research that examines the relationship between skills, worker productivity, and economic performance. It is not obvious, in the absence of empirical evidence; those higher levels of skills will necessarily lead to better economic performance. Unless jobs require or allow workers to make use of higher skills, for example, one should not expect performance to improve when skills increase. Further, jobs that require higher levels of skills now than in the past still may not tax the skills that employees already have. In assembly jobs, for example, the initial skill requirements are so low that they could rise substantially and still be within the set that virtually all workers possess. Loewenstein and Spletzer (1999), Booth and Bryan (2002) find, that most or all the training that is sponsored by employers result in workers acquiring general skills that can be used at other firms. Such recent findings have sparked a renewed interest in the following question: do workers who acquire transferable skills from employer-sponsored training continue working in the same job or do they seek better returns for their newly acquired skills from other employers? While this question has been explored in many recent studies, most of this research (possibly due to the nature of the survey data available) has focused on younger workers or a cross-section of workers. Finally, where skills are in shortage, the relevant skills may be job-specific ones that are typically seen as being the responsibility of the employer to provide. Perhaps the main reason for the lack of research on skills and performance is the difficulty in obtaining direct measures of an employee’s skill. What are typically available are aggregate measures of the amount of education and training workers receive. These are the inputs that should produce skill and that are related to indirect measures of performance. The body of research on the economic returns on education is particularly wide and may have some relevance for these questions. Human capital research clearly finds that employees with more education earn more, suggesting that the skills they have are valued in the market. Whether education is simply a alternate or screen for some other desirable characteristic, such as resolve, is a complicating factor in the argument. The fact that the return on education appears to be rising over the past decade—rising rapidly for college graduates and falling sharply for high school dropouts— suggests that such education is increasingly valuable in the labor market (cf. Levy & Murnane, 1992). The fact that both initial and further education and training earn a higher return suggests that some of the skills associated with education are increasingly valuable (see Tuijnman, 1992, for references to research in Colombia, the Netherlands, Sweden, Norway, and the United States). But for which specific skills is the return being earned? Research on the relationship between vocational course work and subsequent job performance may shed some light on this question. Vocational education programs typically provide training for specific occupations, and research on the labor market outcomes for students in these programs can help in understanding the effects of general or vocational skills on the economy. Altonji (1992) found that students who took more vocational courses earned higher wages, other things being equal. Other studies find that enrollment in vocational education programs improves participants’ labor market experience but only for those who find jobs in the field for which they received training (e. g. , Campbell, Eliot, Laughlin, & Suesy, 1987). High school students who participate in vocationally oriented programs like workstudy and co-op substitute on-the-job training for academic classes, andstudies suggest that they do not necessarily do better in the labor market than those who did not participate in such programs (Bishop, Blakemore, & Low, 1985). Hollenbeck (cited in Stern, Stone, Finkelstein, Latting, & Martinez, 1993) found that students enrolled in occupationally based technical training following high school did better in the labor market than did those who pursued a baccalaureate program. It is difficult to draw reliable conclusions from these studies about the skills needed to improve economic performance (Berryman, 1994; Stern & Tuijnman, in press). The fact that vocational skills pay off when graduates find jobs in their field of training but not otherwise may indicate, for example, that the programs help simply by giving access to a well-paying job market. In one of the few studies that attempts to sort out the source of higher wages, Grubb (1991) concludes that the return on a two-year college degree comes mainly from access to better paying occupations than are available to non-degree workers and not from obtaining higher paying jobs within the same occupation. The latter measures the extent to which education produces higher performance for the economy as a whole. The complication noted above about interpreting evidence on returns from education is that education may function as a screen for some other desirable characteristic, such as persistence, that covaries with educational attainment and drives success. One way around this problem is to examine individuals’ skills directly, as opposed to their educational attainment. Bishop’s (1991) comparison of workers’ wages with their scores on the Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery is one example of this approach. (Al-Khayyat and Elgamal, 1997) He finds that higher competencies were not associated with higher starting wages. Basic academic competencies such as mathematical ability actually received a negative premium from the labor market while vocational skills such as typing speed earned a considerable premium. , (Hughey and Mussnug, 1997; Hallier and Butts, 2000). These competencies were related, however, to performance on the job as measured by the reports of supervisors. SCANS conducted its own, although indirect, test of the relationship between skills and performance by examining the current wages for a sample of jobs and the SCANS competencies associated with them (SCANS, 1992, p. 9). Not surprisingly, it was found that jobs requiring higher skills pay more. As noted above, however, it is not clear what to conclude from this. It does not indicate, for example, that workers with higher skills perform better in the same job or that the economy would be better off if skills levels rose. A second complication about interpreting evidence from the economic returns on skills as measured by wages is that such skills raise wages in two ways. The first is by providing access to higher paying occupations, and the second is by helping improve performance within occupations. The policy interest associated with the arguments above is mainly with the second relationship. While jobs in medicine, for example, require higher skills and pay individuals more, the economy as a whole cannot grow by making more and more people into doctors. Even for individuals, the gains from expanding access to higher wage occupations face the well-known fallacy of composition. If the supply of workers with the skills needed to fill a particular job rose, the wages associated with that job would fall, as would its desirability. Performance and wages can grow, however, if all workers become more productive at their current jobs. An alternative approach, therefore, is to examine the relationship between skills and job performance within one’s current job, using actual job productivity measures for the estimates. Most of these studies come from personnel psychology where they form the basis of attempts to validate selection procedures (see, e. g. , American Psychological Association, American Educational Research Association, & National Council on Measurement in Education [Joint Committee], 1985). Studies of skills that might generalize across settings concentrate mainly on academic material of the kind associated with classroom instruction. Academic skills as measured by aptitude tests can be reasonably good predictors of job performance (cf. Barrett & Depinet, 1991). The best known of these tests is the General Abilities Test Battery (GATB), which is used extensively by the employment service. The cognitive composite scale from GATB measures traditional academic skills such as verbal and numeric skill. It is related to job performance at roughly the same level as vocational skills, which correlate at levels between . 20 and . 30 (see National Research Council, 1989). Academic performance as measured by grades in school, however, is a substantially worse predictor of job performance (cf. Hunter & Hunter, 1984; Schmitt, Goodling, Noe, & Kirsch, 1984). Other studies use organizational performance measures to examine the relationship with skills. Bartel and Lichtenberg (1987) find, for example, that the rate of innovation is higher in industries that have more educated workers. Cohen and Levinthal (1990) also find that firms that have made a greater investment in learning experience greater innovations. Overall, the results surveyed above suggest that job performance—and ultimately economic performance—might be improved by raising academic skills in the workforce as a whole. 2 With respect to the policy arguments above, however, it is not clear which skills are the important ones for performance or whether new work systems are creating higher demands for skills. SCANS essentially performed a job analysis for the economy as a whole, producing a set of basic skills that are said to generalize across virtually all jobs in the workplace. While all job analyses are somewhat subjective, the SCANS skills are similar to those generated by other widely used job analyses such as the Position Analysis Questionnaire (McCormick & Jeanneret, 1988). SCANS identified two categories of these general skills: foundation skills associated with traditional academic education and interpersonal skills, and workplace competencies, which are more practical and vocational, applying skills to a workplace context.

European Settlers in the New World essays

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Wild Geese by Martha Ostenso essays

Wild Geese by Martha Ostenso essays A lot of great Canadian authors base their books on the prairie or land and its inhabitants. Wild Geese by Martha Ostenso is a wonderful example of this. Throughout the novel, many references are made to natural elements and also animals. Three very noticeable references could be picked out. These references were made to Judith, who is seen as a wild horse, to the wild geese that always move to new places, and also to the weather and how the family's attitudes and emotions, especially Caleb's, are changed by it. Wild Geese are talked about quite frequently throughout this novel. There are many references to people who are compared to the wild goose, along with what they symbolize. Lind Archer, the schoolteacher, is considered the wild goose for the first while. She came from a large municipality, "to a region beyond human warmth...beyond even human isolation..." (Ostenso, p.34). Mark Jordan is also compared to a wild goose for fundamentally the same reasons as Lind. When he first meets Lind, she thinks that his cry seems to be a, "smote cry upon the heart like the loneliness of the universe..." (Ostenso, p.53). Both Mark and Lind can be compared here, because they are both lonely and isolated. The wild goose symbolizes moving, loneliness, and isolation. Moving is shown when Mark and Lind come from their large municipalities to move up north to a very cold and unfriendly place. Loneliness is shown again through Mark and Lind and how they both miss their life before. They have ver y few friends and are moderately secluded to a very little area. Isolation is also shown by the fact that they are secluded and also that they are in the middle of nowhere with no one within a close distance to talk to. They feel isolated form society because the farms are so spread apart. In the end Mark and Lind move together to go back to the large municipality and wild geese are referred to again. They moved back to where they came f ...