SHRM Terms and Models in Organizational Strategy Essay - 1

SHRM Terms and Models in Organizational Strategy - Essay Example 1. The SHRM approach focuses on types of people and skills needed, while the strengths based approach applies a wider perspective. It draws not on skills or things that people are good at, but on strengths which are defined as â€Å"pre –existing capacities for a particular way of behaving, thinking or feeling that is authentic and energising to the user and enables optimal functioning, development and performance†. 2. SHRM is concerned with the contributions human resource strategies make to organizational effectiveness, and the ways in which these contributions are achieved (see Boxall & Purcell, 2000 and Delery & Shaw, 2001). The strengths based approach interpreted with regard to the SHRM model, is also a human resource strategy to increase organizational effectiveness. It fits the â€Å"best practice† model that is advocated by SHRM scholars who have suggested that a single high performance human resource strategy (HPHRS) enhances organizational effectiveness regardless of organizational goals, work systems, or context (Becker & Huselid, 1998; Pfeffer, 1998). In this sense the strengths based approach can be seen as HPHRS since the focus is not on achieving a set organizational goal or being concerned with work systems or context, the idea is to change the organizational culture so that overall business performance improves (case study). However achievement of certain goals may stil l be targeted as seen in the case study where the board is allotted projects according to their strengths.

Transaction Processing Systems

Transaction Processing Systems The main information systems used for operational support in a business are transaction processing systems. This type of system processes data about transactions, which are events that have occurred that affect the business, such as the sale or purchase of goods. A transaction processing system has 3 main purposes: keep records about the state of an organization, process transactions that affect these records, and produce outputs that report on transactions that have occurred. For example, an inventory control system tracks records about inventory, processes sales and purchases of inventory, and produces reports about the amount and value of items on hand, on order, etc. Transaction processing systems exist in all areas of an organization, and in all types of organizations. TPSs can be used by employees (order entry) or customers (bank ATMs). They can use various types of hardware, software, and networks. TPSs use stored data in both files and databases, and many types of programs. TPS structure The structure of a TPS generally consists of a user or other TPS that interacts with TPS software, and stored data used by the TPS. Users of the system are typically personnel who work with business transactions, such as salespeople. Input data comes from users and other TPS. Output includes data back to other TPSs, screens, and reports. TPS functions Like other information systems, TPSs perform four main functions: input, processing, output, and data storage. The input function accepts data for processing from outside the system. The processing output transforms the data in some way. The output function makes the processing results available outside the system. The storage function stores the data for use. Before transaction data can be brought into a TPS, it must be acquired from its source. This step is called data capture. The receiving report is an example of a source document that is used to perform data entry. Data entry means using a screen similar to the one in this figure to enter data. Once the data is entered, a program checks it for errors, a process called data validation. For example, inventory receiving data might be checked to ensure that all number entries are numeric that the item is known to the system, and that quantities are in acceptable ranges. Much output from a TPS is in the form of reports. Several types of reports are commonly produced by TPSs. A detailed report lists details about transactions, such as inventory movement. A summary report summarizes data at various levels. Exception reports indicate data that are exceptions to some condition or standard. Data in a TPS is stored to data files and databases. Two types of stored data are commonly found in TPSs: transaction and master data. Master data is the main data used by the TPS. Master data is usually permanent data that remains in the system as long as the system is in use. For example, an inventory system would have an inventory master file with one record for each item in inventory. Transaction data is data about transactions that have occurred. Transaction data usually remains with the system only until the transactions are processed. The transaction data is then replaced with other transaction data for new transactions. For example, in the inventory control system, a transaction file would contain data about inventory transactions. That data would be used to update the inventory master file. Once the update was complete, the transaction file would be cleared and a new list of transactions would be started. After the data is created, the TPS can retrieve data from the file or database, a process called accessing the data. The data is accessed to produce reports, update master files, and other purposes. Sometimes, before a TPS can access data, it must be arranged in an order that is useful to the system, a process called sorting. For example, the inventory system may produce a report of the 5 most expensive items. The item list should then be sorted in descending order of cost. The data put into a file or database when it is created will become obsolete over time. The TPS must update the data periodically to keep it current. Updating can involve adding new data, changing current data, and deleting old data. Transaction data is used to update master data. Processing involves manipulating data within the system. One function that just involves data processing and not any of the other functions is computation, such as calculating details and totals. Another processing function is decision making, or checking for conditions and acting on them. TPS Controls TPSs must have procedures to ensure the completeness of the data processing, and to minimize the chance of errors. In general, these procedures are called controls. Many types of controls are used, including control totals, audit trails, and backup and recovery procedures. All data in a TPS may not be processed for various reasons, including hardware and software failures, and human error. One way that a TPS checks that all data is processed is through control totals. A control total is a number that is computed when data enters a system, and again after the system has processed the data. For example, in the inventory control system, a number reflecting an initial count of receiving reports to be entered would be entered into the system. After the receiving reports are entered, a count of the documents entered would be produced. There are also other types of control totals. Document counts are only one type. An audit trail is a way of tracing the effect of data through a system. A good audit trail is one in which someone can start with the output and go back through the system to the source document and vice versa. For example, the inventory receiving system could produce a report of all item counts. This could be used to trace each item received back to its receiving report source document. Computer systems sometimes fail, causing a loss of corruption of data. The failure may be caused by a malfunction in the hardware or software, or because of something outside the system, such as a lightning strike. The main way of ensuring against loss of data is to use a backup procedure. This means copying important data and programs to a portable media and moving it somewhere away from the main computing site. Important files and databases are usually backed up daily or weekly. The backup of the stored data can be copied back to the system, a process known are restoring the data. If a system fails, recovery procedures tell the computer professionals how to use the backups to recover from a crash. Modes of Data Processing Data in a TPS can be processed using two basic approaches: batch and online processing. A TPS may use both online and batch processing. In batch processing, data for all transactions to be processed are prepared in form understandable to the computer before actual processing begins. Then the batch of data is processed by the computer, and the resulting output is received in a batch. An example of batch processing is overnight payroll check processing and printing. With online processing, or OLTP, a person uses a screen and keyboard or I/O device connected to the computer at the time the processing is done. Each set of data for a transaction is entered directly into the computer. The data is processed, and the output is received before the next input data is entered. Online processing may also be called interactive processing. An example of online processing is an airline reservation system. The term à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“real-timeà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚  may also be used to indicate online processing. Real-time means the processing is performed immediately after the data is entered. This description is not quite accurate for online processing. If there are many users of an online system, processing may not begin for some time after the input is received. The amount of time depends on the hardware, software, and number of users. One example of a real-time system is a manufacturing monitoring system. If cars are being manufactured and thereà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s a problem with the computerized assembly line, the system alerts operators immediately.

Fact vs. Fiction in the Movie (Film), Jurassic Park :: Movie Film Essays

Fact vs. Fiction in the Movie (Film), Jurassic Park In Steven Spielberg's Jurassic Park, dinosaurs come to life on the big screen for audiences' worldwide.   Millions have watched this film, but what number of them have halted to wonder at the truth behind the story?   How many have stopped to think whether the dinosaurs are portrayed correctly within a scientific aspect?   Unbeknownst to many, there are a number of mistakes in Spielberg's film regarding the dinosaurs, from how they were recreated to their common names. One prominent flub that is witnessed throughout the duration of the film, besides the fact that most of the dinosaurs are from the cretaceous period, is the fact that it remains impossible to bring dinosaurs back to life.   Dinosaurs are extinct!   They have been extinct for 65 million years.   True, one would need dinosaur DNA to recreate dinosaurs, and it is indeed possible for mosquitoes with the DNA of dinosaurs to have been trapped in hardening amber, as seen in the film.   However, it is impossible for scientists today to find hardened amber with dinosaur DNA in it, simply because DNA does not last; it degrades over time (even in preserved amber).   Just the tiniest bit of degradation would ruin its value (UCMP 1995).   Therefore, you would not have the starting point for proceeding with such an endeavor as the scientists inaccurately accomplish in Spielberg's film: the breeding of dinosaurs. Continuing on with the amber, the film claims that it was discovered in a Dominican mine.   Dominican amber mines are scientifically aged at the Miocene and Oligocene epochs (French 1998).   These epochs take place later than 65 million years ago, roughly from 38 to 5 million years ago, which in turn means that dinosaurs were most likely not around when this specific amber was formed.   Remains of dinosaurs have only been found from the Triassic, Jurassic, and Cretaceuos periods, from 251 to 65 million years ago. Another fact of fiction in this film involves the truly terrifying velociraptors.   These specific dinosaurs are nicknamed "raptors", a name that now refers to the entire family of dinosaurs, not just the velociraptor as indicated in the film.   In science before the film, the name "raptor" identified birds of prey.

Beyond Tests: Alternatives in Assessment

AWANG INDRA S. / 107835010 BEYOND TESTS: ALTERNATIVES IN ASSESSMENT This chapter tries to discuss alternative in assessment and the problems found in alternative in assessments. Performance Based Assessment Performance based assessment implies productive, observable skills, such as speaking and writing of content valid tasks.According to O’malley and Valdez Pierce (1996), the characteristics of performance assessment are 1) students make a constructed response, 2) They engage in higher order thinking, with open-ended tasks, 3) tasks are meaningful, engaging and authentic, 4) tasks call for the integration of language skills, 5) both process and product are assessed, 6) depth of a student’s mastery is emphasized over breadth. Portfolios One of the most popular alternatives in assessment, especially within a framework of communicative language teaching, is portfolio development.Portfolios include materials such as: a. Essays and compositions in draft and final forms, b. Reports, project outlines, c. Poetry and creative prose, d. Artwork, photos, newspaper or magazine clippings, e. Audio and/or video recordings of presentations, demonstrations, etc, f. Journals, diaries, and other personal reflection, g. Test, test scores, and written homework exercises, h. Notes on lecturer, i. Self-and peer- assessments-comments, and checklists. Journals A journal is a log or account of one’s thoughts, feelings, reactions, assessment, ideas, or progress toward goals, usually written with little attention to structure, form, or correctness.Categories or purposes in journal writing, such as the following: a. Language learning logs, b. Grammar journals, c. Responses to readings, d. Strategies based learning logs, e. Self-assessment reflections, f. Diaries of attitudes, feelings, and other affective factors, g. Acculturation logs. Conferences Conferences are not limited to drafts of written work including portfolios and journals. Conferences must assume that the teacher plays the role of a facilitator and guide, not of an admini strator, of a formal assessment. Conferences are by nature formative, not summative and their primary purpose is to offer positive washback.Interviews This term is intended to denote a context in which a teacher interviews a student for a designated assessment purpose. Interview may have one or more of several possible goals in which the teacher:1. Assesses the student’s oral production, 2. Ascertains a students need before designing a course of curriculum, 3. Seeks to discover a students’ learning style and preferences, 4. Asks a student to assess his or her own performance, 5. Requests an evaluation of a course.ObservationsAll teachers, whether they are aware of it or not, observe their students in the classroom almost constantly. One of the objectives of such observation is to assess students without their awareness (and possible consequent anxiety) of the observation so that the naturalness of their linguistic performance can be maximized. 7. Self – and Peer Assessments Most successful learners extend the learning process well beyond the classroom and the presence of a teacher or tutor, autonomously mastering the art of self-assessment. Where peers are available to render assessment, the advantage of such additional input is obvious. According to Brown (2004), there are five categories of self and peer assessment:1.Assessment of performance, in this category, a student typically monitors him or herself in either oral or written production and renders some kind of evaluation of performance.2. Indirect assessment of competence, indirect assessment targets larger slices of time with a view to rendering an evaluation of general ability as opposed to one to one specific, relatively time constrained performance.3. Metacognitive assessment for setting goals, some kind evaluation are more strategic in nature, with the purpose not just of viewing past performance or competence but of setting goals and maintaining an eye on the process of their pursuit.4. Socioaffective assessment, yet another type of self and peer assessment comes in the form of methods of examining affective factors in learning. Such assessment is quite different from looking at and planning linguistic aspects of acquisition.5. Student generated tests, a final type of assessment that is not usually classified strictly as self or peer assessment is the technique of engaging students in the process of constructing tests themselves. Guidelines for self-and peer assessmentSelf-and peer assessment are among the best possible formative types of assessment and possibly the most rewarding, but they must be carefully designed and administered for them to reach their potential. Four guidelines will help teachers bring this intrinsically motivating task into the classroom successfully.Tell students the purpose of assessmentDefine the task clearlyEncourage impartial evaluation of performance or abilityEnsure beneficial washback through follow up tasks

Vygotsky Learning Theory

Lev Semyonovich Vygotsky developed a learning theory for education based on one’s culture in the 1920s and 1930s. Even without a psychology background, he became fascinated by the subject. During his short life, he was influenced by the great social and political upheaval of the Marxist Revolution. After his death in 1934, his ideas were rejected by the U. S. S. R. and only resurfaced after the Cold War ended in 1991. Vygotsky’s theory has exceedingly influenced education in Russia and in other countries. Lev Vygotsky was born in Orsha, Western Russia, which is now Belarus in 1896.Vygotsky was born into a typical middle-class Jewish family and grew up in a predominantly Jewish town of Gomel, roughly four hundred miles from Moscow (Kouzlin, 1990). He studied and graduated law from the University of Moscow on a Jewish scholarship. After graduation, he prepared his first research project in the psychology field in 1925 with The Psychology of Art, which was not published un til the 1960s. Some time later, he became a psychologist working with Alexandar Luria and Alexei Leontiev (Gallagher, 1999). Lev Vygotsky’s socioculture theory begs to answer the question: What is culture and why is it important to a child’s learning.Dr. Diane Bukatko, psychology professor, says culture is â€Å"the many facets of the environment that humans have created and continue to produce. . . But even more importantly, culture includes language and the practices, values, and beliefs accumulated and communicated from one generation to the next† (Bukatko, 2004). Vygotsky’s theory places an emphasis on the learner’s culture. Vygotsky believed that the â€Å"child’s cognitive growth must be understood in the content of the culture in which he or she lives† (Bukatko, 2004).That is to say, he believed that a child is shaped by his or her own culture. Vygotsky believed that the social activity with â€Å"children, caregivers, peers, and tutors cultivate in them the particular skills and abilities their cultural group values† (Bukatko, 2004). This social activity is the backbone to his theory. Vygotsky had two main theories of cognitive development: the More Knowledgeable Other and the Zone of Proximal Development. The More Knowledgeable Other simply means that this is a person that has a higher understanding that the learner.This may be teacher to student or it can be student to student. Vygotsky’s other major theory, Zone of Proximal Development is the â€Å"span or disparity between what children are able to do without the assistance of others and what they are often able to accomplish by having someone more expect assist them at key points† (Bukatko, 2004). Vygotsky believed that the most effective instruction took place just slightly above the learner’s current ability. There was a study done in which children were asked which items of wooden furniture when into a doll house.Some children were allowed to play with their mother, the More Knowledgable Other, before they attempted it alone, while others were only allowed to do it by themselves. It was found that those who had previously worked with a More Knowledgable Other showed greatest improvement with their attempt than those who did not (McLeod, 2007). The most important of Vygotsky’s theories in regards to education is his Zone of Proximal Development. It gives the educator a scale defining what the learner is able to achieve with or without assistance and exactly at what level he or she can attain.Based on his ZPD, Vygotsky believed that play is a â€Å"vehicle for a child behaving more maturely than at other times† and in play â€Å"children can work at the top of their Zone of Proximal Development† (Vygotsky, 1978). Vygotsky’s Zone of Proximal Development shows what a child can learn with assistance. This can be a great tool in the teacher’s proverbial toolbox. His t heories also gives a great understanding in children learning from each other and from the teacher based on the More Knowledgeable Other and sociocultural understanding.Language and thought is sometimes believed to develop together. A child knows what a cat is before he can actually say the word. If the parent asks the child where the cat is, the child is able to point and correctly label the cat (assuming they have a cat as a pet, of course). This is directly in opposition to his idea that the child must know the spoken word â€Å"cat† before the child learns the concept. Vygotsky also believed that one’s culture is the defining growth characteristic in language and development. However, his theory states little on biological factors.