Environmental conditions: Apple iTunes in the UK

Environmental conditions apple iTunes in the UK1. IntroductionThe following report will communicate out an assessment of the macro and micro purlieual conditions that ar likely to impact upon apple iTunes indoors the United Kingdom. The analysis which will be carried out will include an assessment of the degree of the affright or the opportunities posed by the existing and potence tilt. iTunes is a digital media player application which is used for playing and organising digital and video files. iTunes to a fault connects to the iTunes storehouse via the internet to purchase and download harmony, medication videos, television commemorates, applications, games, audio books and podcasts.The Music attention has radically swapd in the last couple of years, thanks to the increasing insight of broad batch, which has made it progressively convenient for unison l everywheres to buy via the web, this has the nonion of promoting digital downloads. Content owners fork over b een hit by the increasing problem of amerciable downloading which has had the effect of devaluating the value of medicinal drug for an entire generation of youth. (Mintel 2009) After its launch in 2002 Apples iTunes has come to dominate the music speech communication business in galore(postnominal) countries close to the world, including the United Kingdom. Using a number of tools which opine at both the micro and macro environment, and dissimilar analysis I will draw galore(postnominal) conclusions whether thither is a likelihood of continued success for Apple iTunes in the future.2. What is Apple iTunes?iTunes is a forgive application for your Mac or PC it organises your digital music and video on your computer. It syncs all your media with you iPod, iPhone and Apple TV. It is also a store on your computer it has everything you need to be entertained whatsoeverwhere, anytime. (Apple 2010) Apple iTunes was bluely- dieed in early 2002 and has developed ever since in relat ion to Apples continued success with their portable media player the iPod. Ever since 2002 legion(predicate) new features nurture been added to iTunes much(prenominal)(prenominal) as in April 2003 when version 4.0 of Apple iTunes was released which added the feature of the iTunes Store, to exact it the success of what it is today. (Apple 2004)3. Apple iTunes Market PositionThe music attention has witnessed a large change over the last few years this is overimputable to many reasons. One thoroughgoing change has been the increasing user usage of broadband technology, the change magnitude whet and to a greater extent people adopting the technology has led to consumers to view downloading music via the web to be convenient and simple. This development originally led many of the conventional high street retailers such as HMV to start selling music online in CD format. In more upstart times music both hotshot tracks and albums abide become more and more easily accessible f or the average consumer due to the continued popularity of function such as Apple iTunes.3.1 Market info on The Music IndustryIn January 2009 the British Phonographic Industry (BPI) predicted that the UK will spend over 600 million on digital music in 2012 (Mintel 2009). As you freighter fill from (Appendix 2) downloads atomic number 18 dominated by singles or the download of individual tracks. alone iTunes and other digital competitors are looking at improving the way in which they are grocery storeing to consumers hopping to persuade them to purchase more albums digitally. Also in (Appendix 2) using BPI figures it shows the demand for single downloads has extendd by a massive 340% from 2004-2009, where by the sale of single music in physical format has decreased by 850%. The same trend can be seen for album gross sales as well.As you can see from the table in (Appendix 1) pre-recorded music sales are continually moving from the traditional music stores, super market plac es etceterato the internet to gos such as iTunes. Over a period from 2007-2009 there was a 6% increase of sales of pre-recorded music on the internet, where as other means of selling/distri entirelying pre-recorded music saw a considerable decrease year on year over the same period.The music assiduity has seen revenue decrease by 4% in 2008 and it is predicted that this trend will likely continue. Although digital distri furtherion of music will manipulate the be involved when selling music will be dramatically lower, this will lead to increased profit margins for legal music sales in the future. Mintel has forecasted that the music market will continue for the bordering few years until 2013 to continue to decline. The market will see a dramatic fall of 33% of new expenses from 2008-2013, 2009 saw the biggest drop which was 16% (Appendix 3). This is all due to a number of contributing factors, the main being that frugal conditions are poised to remain questionable which ha mpers consumer confidence. (Mintel 2009)3.2 Music Market Industry Key Points/FindingsThe music industry has changed in recent years due to the study(ip) rise in downloadable content which is seen as more appropriate due to the rise of the portable media player as well as it being much easier for consumers to get hold of music, by hardly downloading. The following will outline some spot findings from the Music Industry which Apple iTunes affiance at heart.* The music market for digital download retailers market persona will continue to grow with many new entrants looking to move into the market where Apple iTunes dominate by fling digital rights management (DRM) free tracks. (Mintel 2009)* The Dominance of iTunes will remain until new entrants are established. (Mintel 2009)Over recent years ever since the download revolution began there has been one major retailer, iTunes. They live with been seen as a threat to major music labels, to counter this threat major labels eat gra nter DRM free tracks to many other retailers to encourage completion in the market place. This move looks to have changed the market place in the future by allowing the consumer to have more choice where they choose to purchase/download there music. (Harvey 2009)3.2 CompetitorsIt is vitally important when analysing the market which Apple iTunes operate within to outline their competitors. Many different competitors can come upon Apples performance within the market, the competitors can be categorised into direct, close, substitute or indirect competitors. It is vitally important to analyse all of these competitors because they will all affect Apple iTunes in some aspect. As you can see from (Appendix 5) it shows all of the possible competitors within the industry, Apple in 2008 had a market share of 80% Apple the market leader with an80 per cent market share (Lynch 2009) which means there are at least 25 sloppeds who are in (Appendix 5) and many other firms battling it out for the stay 20% of the market. Apple have been able to gain such a large market share with little or no contestation due the agreement they had with the major record labels such as Sony/BMG, Vivendi Universal, Warner and EMG up until 2007 Apple were the market leaders and were starting to begin to range prices to the record labels which began to dispatch them worried that they had originally given away to much to Apple iTunes. The record companies realised that Apple had gained dominance of the music on-line delivery industry and could dictate prices to the record companies. As a result, the record companies decided to drop DRM in all and encourage other delivery companies to enter the industry they needed some competition for Apple. (Lynch 2009)Once DRM free music began to be readily available it enticed many new businesses into the market, in the table in (Appendix 5) you can see the many firms who have seen how sure-fire iTunes has been and they would like to gain some of the suc cess which Apple has created for itself with iTunes. Direct competitors are those who offer a very similar service to what iTunes offers firms such as Amazon, HMV Digital, and Tesco Digital are all looking to break the dominance of Apple by offering a similar service but by offering the tracks at much cheaper price, due to them wanting to break into the industry. While Apple raised prices, competitors cut theirs. Amazon, the online retailer, cut the price of many of its top-selling music downloads on Monday to 29p as it competes for a larger share of the digital music market. (Ahmed 2009)Close competition are businesses which offer a similar service to what iTunes offers but are not in direct completion, these are firms such as subscription based services of Napster, Sky Songs and eMusic as well as bundled download services run by both Nokia and Omnifone which are Comes With Music and Music Station respectively as well as services run by the major mobile ne bothrks within the UK suc h as O2 and Orange. Competition which is classed as substitutes to the service which iTunes offers are firms which offer a different service to iTunes but could be used instead by potential customers. These are businesses such as Spotify and We7 who offer free music for users but the service contains many adverts which make the service free, the revenue is all ad driven. Also substitute services are business which use the latest web technology which is streaming, firms such as YouTube, MySpace Music and Last.fm are all services which are free and legal allow users to listen to music online but not actually download and put onto a portable media player, such as the iPod. New services like Spotify give us hope for the future, but physical sales continue to fall and even digital services bark to compete with free illegal music. (Mostrous 2010) Substitute services such as Spotify which are free to the consumer may the future of music as they offer a service which costs nothing and is legal.Indirect competition, is a service which is completely different to what is offered by iTunes. Sony has started to promote and sell the e-book reader, which is a similar idea to the iPod but instead of music allows users to download books and read them on a screen. It seems the traditional gift wrapped tome is being trumped by downloads, after Amazon customers bought more e-books than printed books for the starting signal time on Christmas Day. The department store chain John Lewis highlighted the popularity of e-readers this Christmas, reporting a jump in sales of Sonys eBook readers. (Allen 2009) The music market when from physical music CDs etc to digital downloads, now the book market looks to go a similar way by offering the user to read books in a digital format.4. Macro Environmental FactorsThe macro environment is the major external and un fudgelable factors that have an influence on the organisations ability to make decisions and also can affect the strategy and the performance. The macro environment looks to include many factors such as economic, legal, social, governmental and technological changes. (Grant 2005) Included in the following section of the report a PESTEL analysis will be carried out of Apple iTunes which is a framework which looks at the macro environmental factors any business faces in the external environment, also an industry life cycle will be carried out.4.1 PESTEL AnalysisThis model is a way of looking at Apple iTunes macro environment it looks at the six key factors of the external environment, Political, Economic, Social, Technological, Environmental and Legal. The following section of the report will use this framework to look at the key factors effecting Apple iTunes in the macro environment. (Masterson 2004)Firstly, political this looks at if there are any pressures from the government or associated bodies, also any potential pressure from other business such as the major record labels such as Sony/BMG in Apple iTun es case. A breakthrough occurred when Apple iTunes made a deal with the record industry in 2002 which revolutionised the music industry. For the first time it was possible to download music for a payment without the problems of DRM which had become frustrating for consumers. By 2008 iTunes was the market leader with a massive market share of 80%, before this in 2007 the major record companies began to realise they had given away too much to Apple. iTunes had gained dominance in the market and were in a position to dictate prices to the record companies, this had the result in record companies dropping DRM and encouraging new entrants into the market to compete with Apple iTunes. The first two new entrants which tried to break up the dominance of iTunes were Nokia and Amazon. (Lynch 2009) Censorship can cause a great deal of problems for a service such as iTunes, in the build up to the Olympic Games in Beijing, China iTunes was selling on its iTunes Store a Tibetan album. Due to the political unrest between Tibet and China, the Chinese government blocked the use of the iTunes Store Parts of iTunes are blocked in China access to iTunes store is completely restricted in the majority of China. (Branigan 2008)side by side(p) is Economic, which looks at how Apple iTunes will be affected by the macroeconomic environment. The UK economy still remains in a recession which has effects for all of Apple iTunes potential customers within the UK market, consumers are unlikely to be willing to purchase luxury goods such as the music iTunes offer within its online store. This is due to aims of disposable income is not at the levels of previous times, also due to low levels of disposable income Apple iTunes will see very few new customers as people who have not experienced downloading music before may not even have a computer so will not go out and purchase one in these times. Although many experts deal the UK economy will begin to show some growth in the near future, the e conomy will still be in a recession, officially the recession has not yet ended. Analysts believe that fourth quarter figures will show the economy returning to growth. (BBC Business watchword 2009) It is extremely important for Apple to be aware of the economic factors within the macro environment.Thirdly social, this looks at the demographics and the trends within the market which Apple iTunes operate within. This part of the PESTLE analysis will outline a few key trends which detail the market place Apple iTunes operate within.* 16-24 year olds are more likely to favour downloading music.(Mintel 2009)* Over 45s are less likely to download, due to being concerned about quality and equipment and compatibility issues, this is linked to the understanding of technical development, also unsure what is legal and what is not. (Mintel 2009)* The amount of Internet usage is a massive influence on consumers views. (Mintel 2009)The above trends allow Apple iTunes to target certain sectors o f the market place, they would look to continue to target their products to the 16-24 market place, but would look to develop a bigger customer group within the over 45s by possibly educating these customers on how iTunes works.Next is Technological, technology is changing constantly at an peculiar rate and has created many opportunities which Apple iTunes have adopted. The broadband revolution has meant a facility has been created for consumers to access music at a reduced price compared to regulation hard copy media. Also continued innovation by Apple for new products, such as the lasts iPhone 3GS has meant more people are using the iTunes service, fastest, or so positionful iPhone yet the 3GS (Blake 2009) The Music industry has radically changed in the last couple of years due to technology, thanks to the increasing penetration of broadband, which has made it increasingly convenient for music lovers to buy via the web, this has the effect of promoting digital downloads.Enviro nmental is the fifth factor of the PESTEL framework this looks at the how the performance of Apple iTunes effects the environment which they operate within. Apple is aware of the environmental factors within the industry and is trying to off driven the damages they cause, We account for everything, including out products. Apple reports environmental impact comprehensively, we do this by focusing on our products what when we design them, what happens when we make them and what happens when you take them home and use them. (Apple Environment 2010) Apple seems to be very aware about that negative impacts of fruit and of consumers using their products, they are aware of the need for themselves to be socially responsible.Finally legal, this is a massive aspect for a firm such as Apple iTunes as there are many legal aspects to how they operate within the market place. Also it is important they are aware of the illegal actions potential customers carry out within the market. Illegal downl oads is continuing to grow despite the many actions carried out across the industry, The issue of illegal downloading remains a problem that is set to persist. Although various efforts are being made by those in the sector to minimise the problem there is no easy solution. (Mintel 2007) Below are two key findings for the UK market which Apple iTunes need to be aware of as it shows that UK consumers are attracted to the prospect of illegal downloads.* Consumers favour illegal downloads due to their lack of cost.* heavy downloaders are further encourages to continue by the lack of legislation against file sharing from the authorities. (Mintel 2007) 4.2 Industry Life CycleThe industry life cycle is the supply-side equivalent weight of the product life cycle it is made up of four key phases, Introduction (Emergence), Growth, Maturity and Decline. There are two main factors which are fundamental which lead to industry evolution they are demand growth and the creation and diffusion of a cquaintance. Demand growth is when the life cycle and the changes with in it are delineate primarily by changes in an industries growth rate over time. The second major driving force of the industry life cycle is knowledge. New knowledge in the form of production innovation is responsible for an industrys creation. The dual process of both knowledge creation and knowledge diffusion is to exert a major influence on industry evolution. (Grant 2005)Apple iTunes are positioned on the industry life cycle on the maturity symbolise, (Appendix 4) they have just entered the maturity stage from experiencing rapid growth to be the market leaders in digital music distribution. They show many of the characteristics of the maturity stage, they are dealing with the mass market having many millions of customers although they need to be aware that potential customers now are begging to become more sensitive to price due to the current economic climate but more so due to the ever increasing competi tion of price within the market place. The omnipresent iTunes has triumphed over its digital-market competition, providing three-quarters of the online sales in the market. But it isnt the only show in town there is a huge amount of competition, not just on the service offered but primarily on the price which music is sold for. (Robin 2008) Other characteristics which show that Apple iTunes are in the maturity stage are that they are introducing new products that are continually being innovative by adapting the iTunes service, such as adding additions to the iTunes Store and extra features.5. Micro Environmental FactorsThe Micro Environment factors are that what affects an organisations immediate sphere of influence of operations. It affects the decision making and the overall performance of the business the factors which it looks at are customers, distribution channels and competitors. (Grant 2005)In this section of the report I will look to adapt the porters cinque forces model which will then be applied to Apple iTunes, which will allow for analysing the five key forces that shape the industry. 5.1 Porters 5 ForcesPorters five forces analysis helps firms to analyse the strength of competitive threats and is particularly useful to Apple iTunes as it allows them to analyse the competitive environment. The model focuses on the competition and the talk terms actor in the supply chain suppliers through to customers. The model is made up of five forces they are threat of new entrants, bargaining power of buyers, threat of substitutes, bargaining power of suppliers and the industry competitors. (Masterson 2004)Firstly threat of new entrants this looks at the activities of potential competitors as well as existing competitors within the market place. In 2007 the major record labels began to realise that they had given iTunes too much power over the digital music market and were able to dictate the price they wanted to pay to the major record labels, Apple iTun es was now the biggest firm in the industry with over 80% of the market. As a result, the record companies decided to drop DRM completely and encourage other delivery companies to enter the industry they needed some competition for Apple. (Lynch 2009) DRM free tracks were introduced to create new entrants into the market, which it has succeeded in doing which has meant Apple iTunes now has many major competitors to its dominance. iTunes have the highest market share in the industry at present and due to the increased competition that has developed but they still have not taken away iTunes dominance, new firms who come into the market must be aware that the only way they are going to be successful is if they are innovative. Also to prevent new entrants into the market iTunes has the power to set a price for its downloads at whatever it sees fit due to how successful and respect the Apple brand is, this price may be lower than what new firms into the market may be able to afford whi ch would prevent them from competing in the market. Next is the bargaining power of Apple iTunes suppliers this will look at the relationships developed between the record labels and how these relationships have changed over time. iTunes suppliers are the record labels such as such as Universal, Sony, Warner Music and EMI, in 2009 they believed that they could make more money out of the industry by making iTunes charge more for the tracks which they sell in there iTunes store. Apple were made to charge 99p for their highest price track, the music labels insisted that it would be in Apples interest for future development of the industry as it would mean more revenue to be available to promote new artists and prevent piracy. Apple iTunes caved in to pressure from the record companies and introduced variable pricing yesterday, raising the top price for a song to 99p. (Ahmed 2009) Originally before the record industry decided to offer DRM free tracks, iTunes were the only business in th e market and they had complete control over the record labels and could charge the prices they wanted. But now due to the increased competition the record labels want to create iTunes now have to listen to their suppliers more, and sometimes take on board what they recommend even if they dont believe it will have a positive impact on their business. Thirdly is the bargaining power of the buyers these are customers who use the Apple iTunes service this will look at what power the customers have over iTunes. iTunes is the largest service online which offers users the ability to download digital music, but customers within the UK are extremely price sensitive especially in this current economic climate where currently the UK is in recession (BBC Business News 2009) When services such as Amazon are offering users the chance to download identical digital music tracks which are DRM free for 29p compared to iTunes 99p consumers may call to use Amazons service rather than iTunes. Amazon, t he online retailer, cut the price of many of its top-selling music downloads on Monday to 29p as it competes for a larger share of the digital music market. (Ahmed 2009)The next force which the model looks at is the threat of substitutes within the market, the market is full of competitors but the majority are very similar to the service which iTunes offers its customers. The threat of substitutes though is great, due to the industry which iTunes operates within. Technology is ever developing, if a new firm was to enter the market and adapt new technology which no other firm had looked at, they would be an innovative service which may be looked upon by consumers as something different and one which they may want to try and use on a regular basis. It is vitally important that Apple iTunes continues to innovate by introducing new ideas and features to its products so that they continue to be the market leaders. As with Amazon in the Ahmed 2009 article, iTunes were persuaded to increas e their prices even though Amazon who are trying to gain a foothold into the market continued to have their prices 70p cheaper per track, which could lead Amazon becoming a substitute to the service which iTunes offers. (Ahmed 2009)Finally the inter rivalry of competitors this looks at various factors such as competitive edge, price wars and the market growth rate etc. The digital music market is highly competitive the market is growing very rapidly. The main aspect of the market is that every business within the market are selling the same digital music to which iTunes are offering all at different prices, this is due the record labels introducing DRM free tracks to create competition for iTunes within the music download market. iTunes are not the cheapest within the market place but have been able to develop a brand render which has led them to major success, they are the market leaders and continue to innovate new successful products. 6. SWOT AnalysisSWOT analysis is a oecumeni cal management tool, which consists of four main factors. Two of which are internal factors which look at the micro environment they are the strengths and weaknesses of Apple iTunes. Whilst the other two factors are external to the business looking at the macro environment they are the opportunities and threats of the industry Apple iTunes operates within and are unable to change.Strength is something that iTunes has or something that it carries out, that is advantageously better than its competitors. iTunes is a service which is owned and run by Apple they are a very successful company who have developed many different products such as computers and in more recent years the leading portable media player the iPod. (Apple 2010) The strength of their brand image and its loyal band of customers has meant that iTunes has been able to build on the success of previous products to ensure that Apple iTunes is a success. Relationships were created with the leading record labels early on in the development of iTunes so that they could become the industry leaders in the market by 2008 they had 80% of the market. (Lynch 2009) The strengths of iTunes are that it is a service offered by a business which has already had major success in the market place with the leading digital music player the iPod, users who have an iPod automatically use iTunes to put music onto their player which has meant they have been massively successful.Weaknesses are parts of iTunes that are worse than the competition within the market or aspects of iTunes which they could improve upon. iTunes have been forced by record labels to make the cost of using their service higher(prenominal) than many of its competitors iTunes highest price for the latest music in the charts is 99p where as the main competitor which is Amazon has their highest track at 79p. Amazon is already in second place in terms of market share for digital music, although it started its service only 18 months ago. (Ahmed 2009) In rec ent times it is believed that Apple are worried that they may be close to market saturation in the future due to not seeing any increase in the sales of their digital music player the iPod which is the hardware which is directly linked to iTunes. Traders were worried by news that iPod sales were no higher than in the previous year. It is vitally important that Apple continue to innovate new products to continue the dominance of Apple iTunes. (Clark 2008)Opportunities are developments in the external environment which iTunes could look to adapt into their business to improve the service which they offer to their customers. Technology is ever developing and Apple iTunes continually need to be aware of the developments so they are early adopters and can implement the changes into the services they offer their customers. Recently iTunes has developed new features such as television episodes, video and applications which have been added to the iTunes service. But the next opportunity whi ch they could look to adopt is the potential to read books, magazines and newspapers on say for example the latest iPod. Apple is believed to be looking into this, following the market leaders Sony into this market. There are electronic reading devices in existence already, such as Sonys e-Reader and Amazons Kindle. But, publishers hope the unquestioned design talents of Apple will ensure that its latest product is the vehicle that enables them to transform their business models. After all, the iPod has converted millions to the idea of paying to download songs and, to a degree, has revived the music industry, becoming the worlds largest music retailer in the process. (Burrell 2010)Threats are something that is going on in Apple iTunes external environment which is likely to cause them potential future problems. Apple iTunes have been hit by the increasing problem of illegal downloading, which had the effect of devaluing the music for an entire generation of youth. It is estimated t hat over 95% of all music downloaded is done via illegal methods, which means the music industry and services such as iTunes lose out on the revenue gained by these potential extra sales. Despite loaded growth in digital music sales, the industry body for world music estimated that more than 95% of downloaded music was not paid for. (Mostrous 2010)7. Future conquest for Apple iTunesThere are many factors involved when discussing if there is potential for future success for Apple iTunes, the report above has look at the industry/market which Apple iTunes operate within and then used that analysis to look at both the micro and macro environment using various models to analyse the prospect of future success for Apple iTunes. There are many factors involved when discussing if there is potential for future success for Apple iTunes, in January 2009 the BPI predicted that the UK spend over 600 million on digital music in 2012. (Mintel 2009) This should allow Apple iTunes to see that ther e is still some potential growth within the market even though Apple are worried that they may be close to saturation within the market, due to the sales of the iPod not increasing from 2008 to 2009. Continually there seems to be growth within the industry from 2004-2009 at a massive rate of 340%, (Appendix 2) this rate increase over that period is not going to be sustainable into the future in the current market place due the increased competition and the increased level of illegal downloading activity. iTunes should be aware of this, but if there are more and more successful artists being introduced into the industry there is still potential for more growth in the market for Apple iTunes.DRM free tracks introduced into the market in 2007 meant that Apple had gone from being the only major player in the market, to an industry which now has hundreds of competitors. This meant consumers had much more choice of where they should purchase there digital music from. The record companies realised that Apple had gained dominance of the music on-line delivery i

Different Forms Of People Management Commerce Essay

Different Forms Of People Management Commerce EssayAt the end of the nineteenth century many workers were employed in the manufacturing sectors, where they had to put in long hours and conditions were often harsh. The welfare state did not exist and no work could mean destitution. However, even in such unenlightened times some employers did value their workers and took on a paternalist role for their employees. Such famous label as Cadbury, Rowntree and Bournville, all chocolate manufacturers, and Lever, a soap manufacturer, all took their employees welfare actually seriously and established the provision of health and education as break up of their role as a responsible employer. These enlightened employers tended to be Quakers and were some of the first employers to employ welfare officers. The welfare officers were often women and were concerned not only(prenominal) with visiting sick employees but also with supervising moral welfare. We will take an overview of the state of d ebate.THE STATE OF DEBATEThe question of whether human resource solicitude has the capacity to transform or replace deeply rooted models of personnel management and industrial relations, or could become fully worked-through theory of management, is one that cannot be resolvented in a simple manner. Human resource management has many cogent critics and many sceptical supporters. Initial criticism which claimed that it was old wine impertinently bottles ,the restatement perspective outlined earlier in this chapter, still has well adherents (Keenoy and Anthony, 1993). Others see it as a version of the emperors new clothes (Legge, 1989) or a wolf sheeps clothing (Armstrong, 1987)The 1990s stool seen a growing sophistication in the nature of the debate involving HRM. One very strong characteristic is the desire on the part of a number of commentators to explore the consequences of implementing HRM techniques for arrangements. Thus the nature of the argument now strongly incorporate s the concept of HRM outcomes rather than relying mostly on descriptions of styles or types of HRM philosophies. Part of this development has been promoted by the realisation that traditional sources of competitive advantage, such as technological supremacy, patents, capital and so forth, are very much less important than they were in a world in which many countries can display equal advantage in at least some of these critical aspects (Pfeffer, 1994). Thus the extent to which an organization can mobilise is internal human resources may hold the key to achievable advantage in the future (Prahalad and Hamel, 1990). The general managerial epithet that people are our greatest asset is a tried clich what distinguishes the most recent work is its focus on the recourse based model of HRM and the particular mix ofskills and attributes that can be developed and applied to economic performance. Thus Huselid (1995) has argued that high performance work practices have an economically and sta tically significant electrical shock on such employee outcomes as turnover and productivity and both short- and long-term measures of corporate financial performance.In my opinion is, the enormousness of HRM as rhetoric that speaks to the concerns of a wide range of stakeholder groups-personnel and line managers, government and academics-should not be underestimated. We will take an overview of the chances in external environmental factors and HR practices and strategies.CHANGE-MANAGEMENT OBJECTIVESThese are required if organizations are to be effective in developing an innovative and fast moving organisation that keep up with the fast ill-use of development in a modern society. Organizations privation to be adaptable and flexible, which means that policies and objectives need to be place to manage convert. Many of the IT industrys need to be adaptable and fast changing to keep up with changes in modern engineering science. For caseful, Apple Computers market share was in gl oam referable(p) to monopoly of the Microsoft windows operating system, but it has reinvented itself with the iPod, and is now leading the way in music technology. Without change management objectives Apple would have found it much harder to respond to rapid changes. For this reason the recruitment, selection and development strategies all need to feed into the change management objectives.Policy formulation and management of changeThis means using HR form _or_ system of government to depict and manage change in a line of products environment. This extends from Harward model, which has not identified change effectively to jibe competitiveness. Apple Computers managed to develop the iPod and infer competitive advantage by having policies for managing innovation and change.Nevertheless, these assumptions inform the practices and policies of management, and hence define the organizational and conceptual space that HRM fills and generate the multiple meanings of which HRM is con structed. We shall examine some of them in greater detail shortly.Competing interpretations of organisations and managementWhen we stand back from the concrete world of managing to that of theories about organizations and management, we find that not only have very different interpretations been make overtime, but there exist simultaneously several strongly competing interpretations. Again, we can only skim over this material, but u can pursue the issues by reading, for example, Child (1969), who traces the development of management trough in Britain or Morgan (1986), who examines in a very accessible way eight different metaphors or ways that theorists as well as others have construed organisations.Brunsson (1989) throws a different light on the nature and goals of organising, based on his research in Scandinavian municipal administrations. He suggest that the outputs of these kinds of organizations are talk, decision and physical products. He proposes two ideal types of organizat ion that depends on action for its legitimacy. Talk and decisions in the action organization lead to actions, whereas the outputs of the political organization are talk and decisions that may not lead to action.Having now examined some of the choices managers make to deal with the tensions in spite of appearance organizations and some of the competing interpretations offered by theorist of those tensions and choices, we need to stepback even further to become aware of the ways of thinking and of seeing that inform their assumptions. First, however, we shall examine the next layer of the context of HRM.THE place setting OF HUMAN RECOURCE MANAGEMENTHuman resource management cannot take place in isolation from the internal organization or the external environment where the political, economic, societal, technological and international context can have an stupor on how the organization operates and how HRM is managed within that context. The context (the external and internal environ ment within which HR operates) within which HR takes place will impact on organizational polices and have implications for the functions of HR. this has been highlighted earlier in the example of the Beardmore conference Hotel, whose flexible benefits reflected the local society and conclusion as well as the economic environment, where managers recognised the need to attract and retain staff at that time.Context has many layers, which build up to impact on how the organization does business.THE ORGANIZATIONAL conditionTo operate successfully the organization needs to ask itself the following questions. What business are we in? How can we conduct out our business to be as effective as possible and to work out stakeholders(identifiable clusters of people who have an economic and/or social come to in the performance of an organization) needs? The organizational context is also influenced by external context it interacts with its environment and this in turn impacts on HR. for this reason, HR practices need to be designed to reflect the organizational context. However, in a fast-changing working environment this is often difficult to achieve new technologies are developed, governments and attitudes change policy will, in turn, inform practice but needs to be flexible enough to respond to the influences of the external environment. For example, changes in practise, which in theory has meant a lessening in working hours for some workers.The approaches adopted by managers to resolve the tensions in organizationsThe existence of several stakeholders in the employment relationshipTheir differing perspectives upon events, experiences and relationshipsTheir differing aims, interest and needsThe interplay amidst formal organization and individual potential.These tensions have to be resolved through the process of management, or rather, continuously resolved, for these tensions are inherent in organizations.THE EXTERNAL CONTEXTThe external environment influences the external context of the organization. An organization would not be effective if it ignored the external context of politics, economics, society and technology. In London and the southeastward of England, there is a shortage of key workers, such as nurses and teachers, and many workers have been employed from abroad to fill the vacancies. For organizations, this means a review of policies to ensure that new workers needs are considered. On a practical side, new aspect of training may have to be delivered to meet language needs. To do this an organization needs to operate as an open system (system influenced by the external environment and inputs, making it complex and difficult to control), which can change to meet the needs of its external environment.The political contextThe political context not only refers to the type of government in power at the time, but also, whether the terra firma is democratic or not. In UK the political context changes depending on which political part y is in power. In the past, the conservative government has tended to favour the employer over the employee an example of this was the removal of the minimum wage. Traditional labour governments have focused on the employee and have had close links with the unions. With new labour the lines have become more or less blurred although they have reintroduced the minimum wage, they have also formed close links with industry by encouraging public/private partnerships. With every change of government the HR practitioner needs to identify the impact on the organisation and the HR department.The economic contextThe economic context refers to health of the nation. If business is booming and unemployment is low, it may be harder to find and retain staff. In times of economic decline, unemployment increases and greater choice of labour is available to the employer. However economic decline may also mean that your organisation has to downsize and HR department will than face the dilemma of deal ing with redundancies. An organization may also need to answer to shareholders, who expect to see a healthy return on their investment. For the HR professional this could mean developing operations overseas where labour is cheaper, such as prudential moving its call centres to India. It may also mean outsourcing some or all of the functions of HR, as the organization pursues its competitive advantage. An example of outsourcing is discussed in the technology transformation box.The social contextthe social context refers to the culture, politics ,leadership and management style that influence the organization. An HR manager must be able to identify the culture within which the organization operates. This means he or she needs to recognise and image the values the organization is trying to promote. However, they also need to understand the culture and society from which their employees are recruited.An HR manager should not underestimate the importance of the social context of busines s as, in many instances. Businesses have foundered due to a lack of understanding of the culture. Examples are Euro Disney Paris, whose lack of understanding of European culture and its failure to embrace all things American had a serious impact on business. Or, Wal-Mart in Argentina, which failed to understand how the argentines liked to shop, and could not understand why business was not booming in its bright and shiny new supermarkets.CONCLUSIONSHR goes in to decline-outsourcing and downsizing has removed the HR specialist from organisations and placed the HR role with the overworked line manager. The HR function will be closely interconnected in to the vision and strategy of the organization and it will continue as it has done in the past, due to the limitations of labour markets, unions, legislation, etc. this implies that it stands still and does not develop. some(prenominal) the view of HR and how it develops in the future, it is important to understand where it has come fro m and what has influenced it.

Bob Hope: Hollywoods Brightest Star :: Essays Papers

bobsleigh Hope Hollywoods Brightest Star This PBS documentary of go after Hope as an entertainer was well done. It looks at Bobs contributions as an actor, comedian, dancer and humanitarian. The films footage, from the early 1900s to present, is revealing to the eras of Bob Hopes career. It takes you through Bobs career in vaudeville, Broadway, radio, movies, television and live performances. As narrator Les Brown Jr. states Bob Hope is an American icon and the only entertainer to be 1 in all facets of the entertainment field. This documentary is proof that this statement is true.The narrator starts off with a biography of Bob Hope, while showing scenes of the early 1900s. Bob was born in 1903 in England, who migrated to the linked States with his parents and six brothers in 1907 and settled in Cleveland, Ohio. By age six, Bob was already doing impersonations of Charlie Chaplin. Bob took dancing lessons from a vaudeville entertainer named John Root and was currently ente ring talent contests all over town.At age eighteen, Bob had started a dance act with his girl friend Millie Rosequest, but it did not detain long. Bob soon teamed up with another dancer named George Burd. They took their act to New York and worked at a lot of vaudeville show houses. It was at one of these places where Bob was asked to do the announcing in between acts. Bobs comedic talent and acts took hold and lead to the beginning of his solo career. In less than five years Bob had become the to the highest degree sought after talent and the 1 hit in the vaudeville circuit.Bobs success in vaudeville caught the eye of many Broadway producers. He was soon write to do a Broadway show called Roberta. This lead to many more offers and to Bob doing a year tour with the Ziegfield Follies. Bob was now considered to be the hottest act virtually and was being recruited by radio stations and movie studios. In 1937, Bob signed a twenty-six week contract with NBC radio to do the W oodbury goop Show. Since Bob was such a big hit NBC gave him his own radio show, The Bob Hope Show. Bob would do a monologue to start the show, then bring out other actors and perform skits.

Death Of A Salesman Annotated Bibliography :: Miller Death Salesman

Arthur Millers Death of a Salesman reflects the numerous issues post-war United States was dealing with during the late 1940s when it was written. Death of a Salesman was written and published in 1949, when the United States was booming with impudent economic capabilities and radical found power, resulting in a golden age regardless of the growing tensions of the threat of communist invasion. Racial violence and the escalating issues regarding the deluded American moon that was turning go forth to be quite different than that which our founding fathers had originally idealized. During the time Death of a Salesman was created, Post-War United States was undergoing a metamorphosis into a new era of prosperity, communist paranoia, and social/philosophical change. World War II had left the United States into an economic nightmare, but its resilient nature allowed a precipitate return to glory. The United States entered the late 1940s as the strongest, most stable and powerful economy in the world (Wikipedia). Trade surplus and booming businesss engulfed the country as the country initiated into a new period of economic miracle. The deciding factors in this were the record breaking trade surpluses and the raising real income and investments into foreign business. Rising productiveness and lowering unemployment allowed the nation to conjure a time where confidence in business and government reigned supreme. in business and government grew greatly, as large industrial corporations accounted for vast portions of the national income. Nevertheless, the Yalta conference did make USSR the second leading superpower after Nazi Germanys fall in 1945 (The American Pageant). The Communist machine direct a monstrous influence to countless countries and possible allies to the democratic United States. Such neighboring nations to the staggeringly huge Soviet led nation succumbed quickly to its humungous size and sheer military strength. The result of this was a terrifying internal attack on the United States by alleged communist enthusiasts. light-emitting diode by the brainwashed and borderline insane Joseph McCarthy, the Red Scare during the 1950s led to a new concept of warfare dictated by the drawn out Cold War (Wikipeida).

A Modest Proposal Essay -- essays research papers

Have You Eaten Yet? Swifts Final Solution&9As a lately favored eighteenth century essay, Jonathan Swifts "Proposal" has been canonized as a satirical model of wit. As will be discussed shortly, Swifts essay is often seen as an solelyegory for Englands oppression of Ireland. Swift, himself and Irishman (Tucker 142), would seem to have pointed his razor wit against the foreign nation trusty for his citys ruin. Wearing the lens of a New Historicist, however, requires that we reexamine the power structures at officiate in Swifts society. We must dig out into non only Swifts "Proposal," but also into other of his correspondence, and even into discourse of the epoch in order to gain a thickheaded description of the many levels of understanding present in Swifts "Proposal." &9As a model of rhetorical discourse, Jonathan Swifts "A Modest Proposal for Preventing the Children of Poor People in Ireland from Being a Burthen to Their Parents or Country, and for Making them Beneficial to the Public" is unique among the plethora of pamphlets which circulated Ireland in the early eighteenth century. However, it is imprudent to think of the work as having emerged purely isolated from the pressures of the society in which Swift wrote. While propositions such as "A Modest Proposal for the More Certain and yet More Easie Provision for the Poor, and Likewise for the Better Suppression of TheivesTending Much to the Advancement of Trade, Especially in the most Profitable Part of It," (Author Unknown, Cited in Rawson 189) were commonly circulated in order to postulate solutions to the crises of the day, Jonathan Swifts "Proposal" has been read as a scoff of this sort of pamphlet (Rawson 189). There can be no solid support for such a thesis, and it would be wrong to infer that what is at work in Swifts "Proposal" in any important sense is a burlesque on project concerning the poor or on the titles of certain types of econo mic tracts. The mimicry of these things which Swift employs is but seasoning, and not the main point. Likewise, to suggest that Swift was radically attacking the notion of economic planning of homo affairs, or even that his attitude on certain central questions was humane or liberal is misleading. The majority of interp... ...ocaust becomes a close analogue to the "proposal," since the problem, whose formulation and truly existence might elsewhere seem preposterous, underwent a Final Solution with hideous efficiency. This comparison reinforces the point that the "proposal" is not a sheer fantasy, nor a sardonically frivolous gesture of despair. With a New Historic lens, we must examine the interplay of interpretations of the history we have been taught. As Tyson puts it, "had the Nazis won World War II, we would all be reading a very different account of the war." (Tyson 282) We cannot be satisfied with any interpretation of history which relies on subject ive information. &9It is not surprising that the targets of Swifts satire cannot be, and are not meant to be, clearly distinguished from one another, nor that Swifts allegiances between the English, the Anglo-Irish, and the natives are blurred and move things. These confusions provide essential energies of Swifts style. The "Modest Proposal" clearly is an embodiment of the complexities and contradictions of the English-Irish relationship in the eighteenth century.

The Coquette Essay -- Literary Analysis, Hannah Webster Foster

The teaser, written by Hannah Webster Foster in 1797, chronicles the life of an affluent woman in the 18th century. There atomic number 18 a few themes that are presented throughout the whole novel correspondence, sexual freedom, and ideal womanhood. Elizabeth Whitman has been an icon of American history since the 19th century because of her bravery and contempt for the caged position of women in society. It is state that the tombstone of Elizabeth Whitman is a popular tourist attraction her grave was a popular destination for New England travelers, who beat paths to the far corner of Danverss superannuated South Cemetery through the entire nineteenth century. (Waterman)The Coquette was loosely based on the story of Elizabeth Whitman, born in 1752 and dead in 1788. Women were typically not objects of novels because women were not deemed important by society, therefore it is surprising when a novel about a woman becomes very popular among the general public. The Coquette was adver tised as a dime novel in the late 17 and early 1800s but come the turn of the 21st century, it is one of the nigh popular novels about womens liberation and sexual freedom. Since The Coquette is based on true events, there must be a primary or credible secondary source in this case, the epistolary novel was compiled using themes from the original letter written by Elizabeth Whitman. There were only 15 letters that remain of the correspondence between Elizabeth Whitman and Joel Barlow that exist in the Baldwin Family Papers. (Waterman) In her novel The Romance of the Association, Caroline Wells Healy Dall had to personally contact the Baldwin family in order to examine the original letters. This is why correspondence is so important in novels of this time period. ... ...est stick since she lost her life and her reputation, the two most important things to her. However I would argue that the punishments were the same, Sanford lost the two most important things to him as well, Eliza and his money. Depending on ones view point, it may be better to die than to become without the love of your life. Works CitedCastiglione, Balclesar. The Book of the Coutier . Castiglione, Balclesar. The Third Book. London Norton & Company, 1523. 147-187.Elizabeth Whitman Grave. Peabody, n.d. Photograph.Foster, Hanna Webster. The Coquette. Oxford University Press, 1797. ebook.Waterman, Bryan. Coquetry and Correspondence in Revolutionary-Era Reading Elizabeth Whitmans Letters. Early American Literature (2011) 541-563.Wenska Jr., Walter P. The Coquette AND THE American DREAM OF FREEDOM. Early American Literature (1977) 243-256.

Is There a Criminal Brain? Essay -- Biology Biological Essays

Is There a vicious Brain? It is very rare these days to turn on the news program and non hear about a crime or a murder. Crime is a common occurrence yet many times it is heavy to see how someone could bring themselves to do these things. It does seem to make any sense why a young handsome man from a intelligent family would loss to kill someone and then be able to go through with it. This leads one to wonder if the brains of people who be hand in socially unsatisfactory ship canal are different from everyone elses brains. There is a substantial amount of evidence that suggests some criminals do have differences in their brains that most likely give way to their behavior. many an(prenominal) of these individuals have Antisocial reputation inconvenience and some are considered sociopaths. Everyones brain is made up slightly differently, which is good because it provides individual variation. These biological differences shtup greatly influence how the individual be haves. For example, the frog brain and the human being brain look very different structurally and the behaviors exhibited by a frog and a human are very different. Differences in brain structure are not limited to different species, there can be differences within the uniform species. Wildcats and municipal cats are a good example of this. The visual system of the wild cat and the domestic cat differ in substantial ways. national cats have fewer ganglion cells in the retina and have a smaller lateral geniculate nucleus, which is a part of the thalamus (9). In addition, they have fewer total neurons gnarly in the visual system of the brain, however the sizes of neurons do not change between the wild and domestic cats (9). It may be possible to explain these changes by facial expression at domesticati... ...http//abcnews.go.com/sections/living/DailyNews/antisocials000214.html2)What Lurks Within Murderous Minds?http//www.edu-cyberpg.com/Teachers/discipline.html3)Neural Roots of M urderhttp//www.academicpress.com/inscight/09151997/graphb.htm4)Crime & Nourishmenthttp//mhnet.org/perspectives/articles/art03964.htm5)Prenatal Smoking Linked to Conduct Disorder in Boyshttp//www.cqs.com/smokaspd.htm 6)Psychopathy and Antisocial Personality Disorder A Case of Diagnostic Confusionhttp//www.mhsource.com/pt/p960239.jhtml?_requestid=4546307)The Psychopaths Brain Tormented Souls, Diseased Brainshttp//www.epub.org.br/cm/n07/doencas/disease_i.htm8)Functional Families, Dysfunctional Brainshttp//www.sciencedaily.com/releases/1998/04/980410101830.htm9)Different Brains, Different Behaviors http//serendip.brynmawr.edu/pkinser/bb/ Is There a Criminal Brain? Essay -- Biology Biological EssaysIs There a Criminal Brain? It is very rare these days to turn on the news and not hear about a crime or a murder. Crime is a common occurrence yet many times it is difficult to understand how someone could bring themselves to do these things. It does seem to make any sense why a young handsome man from a good family would want to kill someone and then be able to go through with it. This leads one to wonder if the brains of people who behave in socially unacceptable ways are different from everyone elses brains. There is a substantial amount of evidence that suggests some criminals do have differences in their brains that most likely contribute to their behavior. Many of these individuals have Antisocial Personality Disorder and some are considered sociopaths. Everyones brain is made up slightly differently, which is good because it provides individual variation. These biological differences can greatly influence how the individual behaves. For example, the frog brain and the human brain look very different structurally and the behaviors exhibited by a frog and a human are very different. Differences in brain structure are not limited to different species, there can be differences within the same species. Wildcats and domestic cats are a good examp le of this. The visual system of the wild cat and the domestic cat differ in substantial ways. Domestic cats have fewer ganglion cells in the retina and have a smaller lateral geniculate nucleus, which is a part of the thalamus (9). In addition, they have fewer total neurons involved in the visual system of the brain, however the sizes of neurons do not change between the wild and domestic cats (9). It may be possible to explain these changes by looking at domesticati... ...http//abcnews.go.com/sections/living/DailyNews/antisocials000214.html2)What Lurks Within Murderous Minds?http//www.edu-cyberpg.com/Teachers/discipline.html3)Neural Roots of Murderhttp//www.academicpress.com/inscight/09151997/graphb.htm4)Crime & Nourishmenthttp//mhnet.org/perspectives/articles/art03964.htm5)Prenatal Smoking Linked to Conduct Disorder in Boyshttp//www.cqs.com/smokaspd.htm 6)Psychopathy and Antisocial Personality Disorder A Case of Diagnostic Confusionhttp//www.mhsource.com/pt/p960239.jhtml?_reques tid=4546307)The Psychopaths Brain Tormented Souls, Diseased Brainshttp//www.epub.org.br/cm/n07/doencas/disease_i.htm8)Functional Families, Dysfunctional Brainshttp//www.sciencedaily.com/releases/1998/04/980410101830.htm9)Different Brains, Different Behaviors http//serendip.brynmawr.edu/pkinser/bb/