Writer Albert Camus

Written by Albert Camus, The Guest is an irrational intriguing short story found in the novel Exile and Kingdom. The captivating masterwork is a reflection of the kind of politics that Algeria exercised during the colonial times.Advertising We will write a custom essay sample on Writer Albert Camus specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More Camus uses Daru as the main character solely to bring out different themes like alienation, absurd, freedom and solitude among others. He speculates and examines the negative impacts of one failing to back up any party during political upheaval in Algeria. In addition, the story also explores his political stand during his stay in France. In 1914, Albert Camus was born to Algerian parents. Unluckily, his father passed on during the World War II leaving him in the care of his mother and grandmother. As a journalist and co-founder of theatrical group, he was part of the intellect community in Algeria. He w as a member of the communist party but two years later, he quitted due to differences in the Algerian nationalism. He moved to Paris where the French actively opposed him, a scenario that fuelled his publishing of a number of novels among them The Stranger, The Plague, and The Guest besides working in a publishing company. In 1952, he fell out with his friend Jean-Paul Sartre due to differences in the communism. Due to his political stand and refusal to back up neither Algerians nor the French, he constantly received criticisms. In January 1960, his life ended prematurely due to a car accident in Villeblevin. The setting of the Novel is in Algeria during the colonial times of the republic of France. Ethnic conflicts and fight for decolonization or freedom by the Arabs are among the problems Algeria was experiencing at the time. Daru, the schoolteacher is the main character in the story. He lives in school quarters but due to drought, pupils are not attending school. However, the sch ool administration confers him the role of distributing relief food to pupils. In addition, he plays the role of handing over a rebellious Arab to the authority, which he breaks by letting the Arab go free. The second character is Balducci, who brings the Arab prisoner to Daru to hand him over to the authority for conviction. The Arab prisoner is the third and final character who is a rebellious, rude and murderer and one who is supposed to face the law.Advertising Looking for essay on american literature? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More There are different themes like absurd, morality, alienation, solitude, and freedom among others that the author vividly highlights. The theme of absurd is one of the major themes. The author describes the earth surface as inhabitable and cruel for human survival. Due to extreme drought, the land is less productive. Despite the human suffering, they strive to survive through relief food. Camus brings out the theme of absurd when he says, â€Å"The absurd is born of this confrontation between Human need and the unreasonable silence of the world† (14). The author symbolically uses the earth’s harsh climate and human confidence to survive to bring out the theme of absurd. Although the personas brings out the theme of absurd and struggle to survival, finally he is unable to forge on as he gives up. The second major theme is freedom. The author uses Daru to highlight this theme. Although plateaus have a harsh climate and seem inhabitable, Daru freely chose to live there. Despite the desert’s harsh conditions, he is able to live and survive there. However, Daru is to decide the freedom of the Arab and this leaves him undecided on which is the best route to chose. Finally, he leaves the Arab to decide for himself. The author uses Daru symbolically to highlight and describe the fights between ethnic groups in Algeria. He lives in a desert plateaus and hilly environment. The desert is a symbol of the Arabs who are struggling to survive in their harsh country because of French colonialism. On the other hand, the plateau is a symbol of the French. Therefore, the French forced the Arabs to live with them as symbolically represented by Daru who lives in the plateau because of his role as schoolteacher. This is because Daru did not always want to side with either Arabs or the French. Balducci brings out the irony of the story in that though he is arrogant, rude and disrespectful to the Arab prisoner he does not face the law (Eberhard 6). He lives freely in the society without any form of conviction. On the other hand, Daru who appears kind and caring to the Arab faces the wrath of the fellow Arabs. This is because after freeing him he finds some scribble on the board asking about the Arab prisoner (Camus 20). In summary, the author, Albert Camus who is a famous writer highlights the problems Algerians faced during colonialism. On the other h and, he symbolically uses the characters like Daru and Balducci to highlight the major themes of the story. Absurd and freedom are the major themes the author brings out the story. He also applies irony to show the cruelty of the Arabs and French people during the colonial period.Advertising We will write a custom essay sample on Writer Albert Camus specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More Works Cited Camus, Albert. Exile and Kingdom: The guest. France: Gallimard Press, 1957. Eberhard, Greim. Albert Camus’s The Guest: A New Look at the Prisoner. Britain: Longmans Publishing, 1993. Print This essay on Writer Albert Camus was written and submitted by user Patricia P. to help you with your own studies. You are free to use it for research and reference purposes in order to write your own paper; however, you must cite it accordingly. You can donate your paper here.

Copying Files On, To, or Onto

Copying Files On, To, or Onto Copying Files On, To, or Onto Copying Files On, To, or Onto By Maeve Maddox Preposition use is not easy to formulate. In this post I will focus on incorrect- or at least ambiguous- uses of on, to, and onto in the context of electronic file transfer. First, some definitions: to: expressing motion directed toward and reaching a place. Ex. I took the book to the library. I copied the file to a jump drive. on: expressing a position above and in contact with; at rest on the upper surface of. Ex. She laid the book on the counter. I saved a copy of my dissertation on a CD. onto: indicating physical motion to a position on. Ex. The clerk dropped the book onto a moving conveyor belt. I copied a movie onto a DVD.    Here are examples of questionable preposition usage: Incorrect: Embed the HD videos you  create onto  your personal or professional websites to help bolster your reputation. Correct : Embed the HD videos you  create in  your personal or professional websites to help bolster your reputation. The use of onto with embed appears to be very common in the context of transferring files from one medium to another, but this usage disregards the meaning of embed: â€Å"to fix firmly in a surrounding mass of some solid material.† For example, a fossil may be found embedded in a layer of rock. A YouTube video may be embedded in a web page, but not on one. Incorrect: If you  want to copy on  the same volume, use the Finder  File.   Correct : If you want to copy to (or onto) the same volume, use the Finder File. Movies are copied to tape or disk. Once copied, they are on the tape or the disk. Incorrect: I am hoping to save a font from one computer onto my USB drive and transfer it to another computer. Correct : I am hoping to save a font from one computer on my USB drive and transfer it to another computer. Or: I am hoping to copy a font from one computer onto my USB drive and transfer it [from there] to another computer. Want to improve your English in five minutes a day? Get a subscription and start receiving our writing tips and exercises daily! Keep learning! Browse the Expressions category, check our popular posts, or choose a related post below:How to Format a UK Business Letter3 Cases of Complicated Hyphenation15 Idioms for Periods of Time

Situational Awareness Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Situational Awareness - Essay Example 05). SA has been widely referenced in the world of aviation due to the fact that it plays a highly prominent role in operations taking place in flights. Even though the concept is considered to be very effectively in the domain of aviation, for safely operating aircraft functions for flights; it is no wonder to account for the fact that the very concept has been misemployed in its destined area. What is not appropriate is that the use of SA is most of the time based on an understanding which bases more on intuitive underpinnings than on objective analysis and implementation. Moreover, a commonly acceptable definition of SA is also scarce. As such the aviation psychologists have put all their attention on the mental links of SA owing to the fact that for tasks operations should undertake are of highly cognitive nature. Henceforth, the aviation psychologists have attempted to work out the cognitive areas that comprise the very components of SA. In other words, the aviation psychologist s have attempted to investigate the cognitive behavior of human practice that can lead to a successful understanding of SA. The empirical studies conducted in the past have revealed high correlation of memory usage in the practice of SA. (Sohn, & Doane, p. 461, 2004). Ways to Detect SA There are several ways by which ways to detect SA can be acquired. One such area is the analysis of the role played by memory in SA. Here, this single is divisible into many a subheads which tell us of the importance of understanding the role of memory in SA. Such relevant content as systems, hazards, or tasks are put to processing and ultimately stored in memory. Henceforth, the degree of accuracy of SA relies on memory in a way that the information coming in is synchronized into the cohesive interpretation and forecast of aircraft status. Due to the importance that memory components hold in SA, a number of researchers have concentrated on the role of memory in a number of differential tasks like air traffic control to detect ways of SA (Sohn, & Doane, p. 461, 2004). The basic step toward understanding SA and ways to detect it is to understand the construct of SA itself. According to Sohn, and Doane (p. 461, 2004), information processing view is the one step on which the entire understanding of SA can be employed. Here the authors quote Endsley's view that defines three levels of SA with respect to the components of processes that are cognitively perceivable. On this model the first level of understanding the construct takes into consideration the perceiving of the elements present in the environment. These elements can are other aircraft, status of the system being used, the terrain, and lights of warning. The second level of understanding the construct of SA to detect the ways to prevent any haphazard observation of any action is to integer information which is "a process of activating long-term memory (LTM) knowledge structures in order to organize the perceived situation elements into

Materials Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Materials - Assignment Example Storage tanks and other structures operating in a corrosive environment would prefer the use of stainless steel material of density 8200kg/m^3. ((Bansal R.K, 1998) Measurement of densities is critical since a defective product with a cracks or porosity would indicate a different density. Determination of density of a component indirectly leads to the calculation of the total weight of the structure and the corresponding stress due to this self weight. 2. Stress and Strain- Stress is defined as the intensity of force or force per unit area. In an engineering design the maximum allowable stress for a particular material is predefined and is a function of its yield strength. Therefore when a member has stresses beyond the allowable range, the area resisting this force is increased to bring it within the allowable range. Strain is defined as defined as the elongation of a structure per unit length. Calculating the strain helps the design engineer in comparing the values with the maximum allowable deflection.( Timoshenko Stephen and Gere James, 2004) 3. Tensile and Compressive strength- When a force is applied on bar or a structure in such a manner that it forces it to elongate, the resulting stresses are tensile stress. The maximum value of this particular stress for a particular material is called Tensile strength. ... The behaviour of the material is linear till this point. (b) The strain increases rapidly and the material shows elastic behaviour up to the elastic limit. (c) Beyond this point a significant increase in strain has only a minor change in tensile force. The material at this point is yielding and the point at which this starts is called the yield point. (d) Beyond the yield point to the lower yield point the material show plastic behaviour with large change in strain showing no change or a partial dip in stress values. The material is thus encountering plastic deformation.( Timoshenko Stephen and Gere James, 2004) 5. Modulus of Elasticity- As discussed in the previous graph stress is directly proportional to strain up to the proportional limit i.e Stress ? Strain or Stress= E x Strain. E here represents the Modulus of Elasticity and is dependent on the nature of the material. The elongation for a bar of length L, cross sectional area A under the impact of a force P having modulus of el asticity as E is given by ?L= P*L/(A*E). Modulus of elasticity is therefore critical in evaluating deflections. ( Timoshenko Stephen and Gere James, 2004) Experiment using Round piece of mild steel ( Timoshenko Stephen and Gere James, 2004) Reading Load Extension Strain Stress 1 50 0.09 0.00046 0.10186 2 100 0.19 0.00097 0.20372 3 150 0.29 0.00149 0.30558 4 160 0.34 0.00174 0.32595 5 165 0.46 0.00236 0.33614 6 170 0.78 0.004 0.34632 7 180 0.84 0.00431 0.36669 8 190 0.91 0.00467 0.38706 9 200 0.98 0.00503 0.40744 10 210 1.07 0.00549 0.42781 11 220 1.24 0.00636 0.44818 12 230 1.49 0.00764 0.46855 13 240 1.88 0.00964 0.48892 14 250 2.39 0.01226 0.5093 15 255 3.95

The Social Security Act Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

The Social Security Act - Research Paper Example The Social Security Act was first released on August 14, 1935. Since then, there have been a number of adaptions made to the Act to ensure that every provided with every necessity. E.g., originally this act just provided necessities for employees who worked in the nonagricultural and commerce sectors. Now, however, almost all kinds of works are covered by this program.The Old-Age, Survivors, and Disability Insurance (OASDI) is considered to be every American’s social right regardless of their financial need. In 1995, social security comprised of around one-fifth of the federal government expenses. The funding is done through payroll tax which is divided equally between the boss and the worker. These benefits are also adjusted as the living costs rise. To gain the benefits of social insurance, the individual must have made a contribution through payroll taxes when employed. Persons who contribute in this manner for at least ten years may be ensured that they will always be prov ided for by the government. The number and kind of benefits an individual receives depends on the amount of money that he earned and at what age he retired.The government provides aid for the disabled as well. These are adults aged between the years of 18 and 64 who are not fit enough to have a well earning job. Disability is defined as â€Å"inability to engage in any substantial gainful activity by reason of any medically determinable physical or mental impairment which can be expected to result in death.

Internationalization: Japanese Manufacturing Company

Internationalization: Japanese Manufacturing Company This report was written to review the process of internationalization of one Japanese manufacturing company in Singapore. Impacts from financial crisis in year 2008 forced the group companies to exercise cost-cutting measures in their global operations, and localization is the only way to save costs and to maximize the utilization of local expertise and responsiveness to meet global competition. The review focuses on several front-end aspects of international HRM activities during the process of internationalization. Literature review on the topics of strategic IHRM, staffing systems, cultural differences and expatriate selections were studied and compared with the current organization structure and its HR management approaches and practices. Issues and problems arises from expatriate assignments were reviewed for future development. Comprehensive evaluation activities and areas of improvement were recommended for the company to leap forward. 1. Strategic Human Resources Management in International Context Strategy Human Resources Management (SHRM) is a process that allowed a company to bring its core resources together for strategic planning, for example core competency, core processes, cultural, structure and human resource to align with the company strategy to achieve its goal and objectives, see figure 1. In the context of international field where the firm operation involves in various countries and employing different national categories of workforces, the SHRM will look into broader perspective, for example in the area of six identified human resource activities in domestic context internationalization [Dowling P.J 2008]. Some of the additional international HRMs activities implemented by the HR department when Mastec progressed into internationalization are given in Table 1. The terminology of employee category are such as, i) PCN:- employees born and live in parent (home) country (headquarter), ii) HCD:- employees born and raised in the host country (where the subsidiary operate, and iii) TCN:- employees born in a country other than the host and parent country, were introduced into the company human resource system. The implementation of the strategic IHRM depends on the stage of the company at during the process of internationalization. Adler and Ghadars model (1990) based on Vernons life-cycle theory distinguishes three phases in the international product life-cycle [H. Scullion, 2005]. The first phase (high-tech) focuses on products, research and development that emphasizing on technical competency and role of functional area. The second phase (growth and internationalization) concentrates on business growth and market penetration in local and foreign country. The third phase (maturity) put pressure on the lower price and cost-control measures due to global competition. In the modern technology world, product life-cycle has been shortened to 3~5 years, which allowed Adler and Ghader to suggest a fourth phase. The fourth phase emphasis that a firm must pursue differentiation and global integration in order to achieve cost-control measures. This is the main reason for headquarter in Japan to re organize the business structure in Southeast Asia. The parent company has seen the maturity of the market in Southeast which triggered their decision to implement cost-control measures. However, detail examines at each of the subsidiary shown that there are mixture of phases which the subsidiaries are experiencing. For example, Vietnam and India are in the first phase which focuses on products and developing technical competency. Human Resource Activities International Human Resource Activities Human resource planning administrative activities in foreign subsidiary, cross-border risks management, political risk, terrorism and welfare Staffing Staffing approach in subsidiaries in Vietnam, India, Thailand and Malaysia. Recruitment of HCNs for host-country operation, etc. Training and Development Cross-cultural training, language translation, pre-departure training Performance management Evaluation of expatriate performance, overseas assignment ROI evaluation and staffs evaluation for foreign subsidiary Compensation and Benefits Tax equalization, overseas housing and posting allowances, return air ticket benefits, health-care, etc. Industrial Relationship different taxation law, compliances with host government policy, and compliances with general acceptable practice of doing business. Table: 1 The other approach to strategic IHRM implementation was contributed by the two logic of Evans and Lorange which suggested product-market logic and social-culture logic [Evans Lorange, 1989]. Both raise a question how a firm operates in a different product markets and diverse social-culture environment, which effectively establish human resource policies. Product-market logic implied that various phases of produce life-cycle need different focuses of manager which dictates the HR activities to concentrate on core competency, entrepreneurial skills and technical know-how. Social-culture logic suggested that for a firm to operate in various counties, employing people from difference social-culture backgrounds influences HR activities into providing training and education of cultural difference. Focusing on encouraging open communication, an open-minded listening, discouraging silo and facilitating activities that required less sentence structure will get around language and cultural di fferent barriers [H. Buknall, 2005]. The argument stressed the important of willingness to listen, letting the other party to clarify any doubt without making self assumption to achieve effective communication. Since Mastec had gained the status of regional headquarter in year 2009, the HR activities had started to look into above requirement, but the implementation process is still at a learning stages. This is the reason why only expatriate from Singapore was allocated to subsidiary operation in Vietnam, whereas Thailand and India still managed directly from Japan. The effectiveness of current organization structure to manage the subsidiary and how effective it can perform its role as regional headquarter and maintaining the similar level of corporate government as before need to be evaluated. 2. Staffing Approach and Human Resource Orientation As a firm progressing toward internationalization, management and control become more complex due to operation in geographical dispersion and multiculturalism. In leveraging those factors, the multinational firm can adopts centralized or decentralized approach which ever fits the complexity of its environments. Majority of Taiwaneses MNC likes Foxconn and Acer Computer practicing centralized control system. Prahalad and Doz refer centralized approach as global integration with strict control and decisions making from headquarter. Decentralized approach is more towards local responsive that gives some decision making autonomy to its subsidiary in order to best modify it product and services to meet local market demands [Prahalad, 1987]. Typical decentralized control company is a joint venture alliances. One of a reference company which operates very successfully under decentralized system is Johnson Johnson. The IHRM literature used four approaches to managing and staffing its subsidiary, called ethnocentric, polycentric, geocentric and regiocentric [Perlmutter, 1979]. Through these four types of management orientations, companies can clearly change from one orientation to another, depending on the needs of the company [Mujtaba, 2006]. This statement was proven by the decision of headquarter to change management system in Southeast from pure ethnocentric to regiocentric. Detail explanations of each type of the staffing approached are given as follows: 2.1) Ethnocentric Is a staffing approach where subsidiaries are managed by staffs from PCN. In ethnocentric approach, PCNs are dispatched to fill in key position of a subsidiary in host-country. The mind set of management is what work at home, will work here [Guergana K.S. Mujtaba, 2009]. Some of the reasons to pursue ethnocentric management system are lack of qualified personal, competency or special technical knowledge in HCNs. The need for centralized control, risk management, needs for parent-subsidiary to maintain good communication and coordination are another reasons to practice ethnocentric management. However, there are several limitations associated with ethnocentric system where HCNs has limited opportunity for career promotion and leads to high turnover. Adaptation of expatriates to host country takes much longer time and often leads to poor decision and cross-cultural conflict may occur [Zeira, 1976]. High operating cost to sustain expatriates expenses being viewed as unjustified by HCNs . Typical example of ethnocentric approach company are Japanese firms such as Panasonic, Sony and Hitachi. In Mastec organization, the staffing approach for subsidiaries in Thailand, Vietnam and India adopted ethnocentric system due to lack of competency of HCNs and the needs for corporate communication. Most of the customers in India and Thailand are Japanese manufacturers, therefore an expatriate with Japanese language ability to communicate with customers parent company in Japan is still vital. 2.2) Polycentric In polycentric staffing approach, multinational firms rely on the HCN to run the business operation and rarely PCN are transferred to foreign subsidiary. Each subsidiary is treated as an independent business entity with decision making autonomy. In some cases, PCN belief that foreign markets are too difficult to understand and therefore a join venture alliance was formed. The benefits of polycentric are local subsidiary has more leverage to run business operation and achieve fastest local response to market demand. Polycentric system allows continuity of management by HCNs in foreign subsidiary. Language barrier, cross-cultural adaptation problems and high relocation cost to sustain expatriate expenses were eliminated. The disadvantage of polycentric is bridging gap between HCNs and PCNs at headquarter due to language barrier, conflicting of national loyalties and compliance to headquarter HRM policies. There are potential risks of subsidiary become federation, isolated from headquar ter and not pursuing corporate business goals [Dowling P.J 2008]. In Mastecs organization, the establishment of subsidiaries in Indonesia and Malaysia was under joint venture alliance and operate under polycentric system. In order to maintain a reasonable level of control and to provide managerial and engineering support, virtual assignments system was implemented with frequent business trips to visit the subsidiary company by the respective manager. 2.3) Geocentric The management style in geocentric staffing system focuses on global operation to draw best talents and resources. Each subsidiary and headquarter are interdependent of each other to make unique contribution based on their comparative advantages. An example of this company is Mercedes Benz, where the company sources raw materials around the world from the lowest-cost perspective and assembles their cars in Germany where the best technology is located. The strengths of geocentric approach are multinational firms able to develop a pool of global executive for deployment throughout the global organization. It encourages career development and promotion of high-potential executive regardless of nationality. However, in the process of collecting wisdoms and deploying expertise globally, host government may intervenes recruitment using immigration control to encourage employment of HCNs. Extensive international socializing between PCN, HCN and TCN to support geocentric staffing system need s centralized control which reduced independency of subsidiaries and the staffing decision is time consuming. High cost associated with cross-cultural training, relocation expenses and the need to have compensation package with international standard gives substantial financial burden to the firms. 2.4) Regiocentric Regiocentric staffing approach focuses at a specific geographic boundary, but used a pool of managers from the subsidiaries within the region. Several regional headquarter can be formed such as in Asia, Europe and Middle East which will report to headquarter in parent country. The regional headquarter gains decision making autonomy to operate their business. HCH will be able to interact with PCN posted in the regional headquarter. Parent company is able to maintain reasonable compliances to headquarter HR policy and manage risks control with PCN staffed in regional office [Dowling P.J 2008]. However, there is a potential of federation at regional rather than a country basis. Career prospect also limited to regional level and lack of opportunity for HCN or TCN to explore headquarter working experience. One should remember that the four management orientations are not mutually exclusive. Therefore, they can take place all the time within same organization for its departments or product lines [Guergana K.S. Mujtaba, 2009]. The current organization structure of Mastec clearly demonstrating the application of various management styles within an organization. 3. Managing Cultural Differences Culture can be defined as shared of beliefs, values of a group of person, ways of thinking and living [L. Laroche, 2007]. It encompasses what we are taught to think and response to any given situation by the society in which we are raised. In multinational business context that operating globally, one has to be sensitive and understand the cultural ways of doing business. An example is, in Japanese culture, some of the decision making process is executed through informal advance discussion to reach a consensus called nemawashi [Jon Miller 2007]. Greert Hofstede has defined culture as: Culture is more often a source of conflict than of synergy. Cultural differences are a nuisance at best and often a disaster.[Geert Hofstedeà ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¾Ã‚ ¢ Cultural Dimensions, 2009] The statement implied that if we have an insight view of different people behaves in different cultures, we will tend to interact with the people in other countries more effectively to create successful business results. The Hofstedes five cultural dimensions of study can be applied to have broader views of national culture. Power Distance: Most of the countries in Southeast Asia region exhibits large power distance. In such organization, most of the power centralized in the hands of few key staffs. Subordinates have high dependency on their bosses and are unlikely to approach and contradict with their bosses directly. Individualism: Countries in Southeast Asia are a mixed of individualism and collectivism. Thailand, Indonesia and Vietnam are more collectivism due to the people from birth onwards are integrated into cohesive groups, high respect for royal family and family oriented. In Japanese culture, individual opinions almost do not exist and employees will act according to the interest of their group ~ the group come before individual. American and Australia countries exhibit high individualism where people are more self-oriented. Masculinity: Refer to the societies where gender roles are clearly distinct. In masculinity society male are supposed to be assertive, tough and material success oriented. Female are supposed to be more modest, tender, submissive and concerned with quality. In Asian society, especially Korean and Japanese company, the masculinity culture is stronger, where female staffs are expected to serve tea whenever there is an important visitor. Uncertainty Avoidance: This can be defined as people tolerance toward uncertainty or ambiguity. It indicate to what extend the cultural intricate a person to exhibit the feeling of uncomfortable and nervous in unstructured situations. Country of USA and UK exhibit low level of uncertainty avoidance whereas Japan and Singapore exhibit high level of uncertainty avoidance. An example, Japan tends to have strict laws and procedures to which their people adhered closely. Long-Term Orientation: Long-term orientation versus short-term orientation. This fifth culture is said to deal with Virtue regardless of Truth. Values associated with long-term orientation are thrift and perseverance and values associated with short-term orientation are respect for tradition, fulfilling social obligations, and protecting ones face. Both the positively and the negatively rated values of this dimension are found in the teachings of Confucius, the most influential Chinese philosopher who lived around 500 B.C. This dimension also applies to countries without a Confucian heritage such as Brazil. [Hofstede, 1994, Geert Hofstedeà ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¾Ã‚ ¢ Cultural Dimensions, 2009] Beyond the economic and political-legal issues, a countrys cultural environment (communications, religion, values and ideologies, education, and social structure) also has an important implications when it comes to a companys decision about when and how to do business there [Bohlander/Snell 2007]. Asian society comprised of various cultures and traditional customs inherited from different countries. It is vital for a global manager or expatriate to fully aware of the respective culture before departing for international assignment. Some manager can adopt culturally appropriate behaviors, but that does not apply all the time in all cultural setting [Dowling P.J, 2008]. Therefore, it is essential for HR to arrange and facilitates cultural training to equip expatriates with necessary skills to cope with the new environment in foreign country. 4. Expatriates Selection Hiring and deployment people to effectively perform international assignment is a crucial decision because failure in expatriate assignment will cause huge financial loss, damaging a business, and distance a relations between subsidiary and parent company. One can concluded that an expatriate failure represents a selection error, compounded in some cases by poor expatriate management [Eugene Nic, 2002]. Recruitment and selection is a process of searching potential job candidates and gathering information for the purpose of evaluating and deciding best people for a particular vacancy. The factors involved in expatriate selection can be assessed from individual and situation aspects. Individual factors are i) technical ability, ii) cross-culture suitability, and iii) family requirement, whereas situation factors are categorized as i) culture or country requirement, ii) language, iii) MNE requirement. Technical ability of an employee to perform the required tasks is the most important consideration, given most of the reason for international assignment is to fill up position. That means, special skills and competency or important roles will be assigned to the expatriate. In most of the developing country such as Vietnam and India, lack of HCNs staffs ability required parent company to dispatch expertise to do the jobs as well as knowledge transfer. Giving that reason, an effective skill of expatriate is also important to translate technical or managerial skills to HCN. Cross-culture suitability or ability to adapt to foreign environment is crucial for an expatriate to operate independently in foreign environment. The desirable attributes shall include cultural empathy, adaptability, diplomacy, language ability, positive attitude, emotionally stability and maturity [Caligiuri, 2000]. An employee with high coping skill enabled him to survive and mix into local culture. Apart from culture ability, individuals personality, communication skills and attitude to foreigner are also important factors for expatriate to build up personal network in foreign country, hence contribute to successful of international assignment. Family requirement determines the ability of family members to adapt to the new foreign environment, particularly spouse. The responsibility of spouse to setup new home, plus the down side emotional feeling of leaving behind a career, friends and social support network may cause burden to an expatriate and affected the work performance. The major causes of expatriate failure are family adjustment causing premature departure, poor performances, lifestyle issues, work adjustment, business climate and repatriation issues, and other opportunities arise. By far, the biggest factor tends to be a spouses inability to adjust to his or her new surroundings [Riki Takeuchi, 2002]. Disruption to children education, the need to take care of aging parents and custody of children for a single parent may cause the selected candidate to reject the international assignment. In order to avoid burden of trailing spouse, the manager assigned to India is without accompanying by his spouse and children. Country or cultural requirement may impose restriction to employ PCN or TCN. Multinational firm need to demonstrate that HCN is not available, or providing a training program to transfer knowledge to HCN before the host government will issue working permit. An example is in UK, working permit for Japanese language translation is easy to obtain compared engineering jobs. In some country, working permits only issued to expatriate where trailing spouse is not permitted to work, which may create adjustment problems. Or work permit only issues to male expatriate (eg. no work permit for woman expatriate in Middle East country). MNE staffing policy is another important decision to meet company objective, for example knowledge transfer, management development or organization development. The motivational of HCN, HCNs career progression and keeping the lowest cost of business operation also need to be considered. However, for the reason of corporate control and the need for special skills, staffing of PCN cannot be avoided. Other situational factors are mode of operation, duration and type of assignment and amount of knowledge transfers will affect the staffing policy. The ability to speak local language linked to the capability to learn local culture. Differences in language are recognized as major barrier to effective cross-cultural communication. Even though, many multinational firms places language at less important criteria and they view language as a mechanical which is manageable by individual. Expatriates who are able to speak local language will be regarded as part of the local society which make business communication much easier and friendlier. The other important aspect of language is the ability to understand corporate language. Some multinational firm from non-English speaking countries may adopt corporate communication using the language of parent country (eg. Japanese or Korean) as a standard way of reporting. Prospective candidate may be eliminated from the potential pool due to a lack of competency in the common language [R.Marschanp, 1999]. Therefore, language ability may limit the multinational firm ability to select the most ap propriate candidate. The requirement of Japanese language to communicate with Japanese customers has placed restriction of expatriate selection in India Thailand. 5. Lessons Learned The decision of headquarter in Japan to change management system in Southeast Asia region has put great pressures on Mastecs HR management to looks beyond local context. Throughout the process of implementing IHRM activities, numerous valuable experiences have been learned for future improvement although there is no major problems arise. Those experiences suggested that IHRM does not only facilitate and supporting business units but plays a strategic roles to initiate the planning process and monitoring the implementation throughout the organization. The close coordination between HR department and individual business units in the implementation process is essential to realize the company objections. Several experiences gained are examined below for learning process: 5.1) Mis-match of expectation: Lack of cultural understanding: It is not surprise that the cultural training was ignored because HR department has taken for granted that Singapore is a multicultural country. The expectation manager from the HNC in term of responsiveness and local staffs management have causes conflict under visible management system. This had resulted the manager to fly more often to the destination to resolve the issues. 5.2) Lack of cultural understanding: In India, holding hands between male-and-male indicate good relationship and trust of each other. However, this practice has given a culture shock to the Japanese expatriate when a local customer tried to hold his hand during the walks for lunch after a serious business discussion. 5.3) Insufficient expatriate arrangements: The last minutes decision of selecting a candidate for job assignments in Vietnam has given surprises to the spouses. In order to keep his job performance, the expatriate agreed on the assignment and leave behind his ill parent to be taken care by his spouse alone. Frequently, the expatriate has to return to home at his own expenses for traveling cost. 5.4) Lack of communication channel: The above mentioned expatriate does not has communication channel to relay his personal problem to the company. Approaching directly to his boss could be misinterpreted into demanding for extra benefits. The issue may be solved if HR could approach open-minded discussion or using mentoring approach. 5.5) Language barrier: Due to the unique communication requirement with Japanese expatriate of customers and potential local candidate for jobs assignment in Thailand and India was eliminated. This has slowed down company objective to reduce operating cost toward regiocentric management system. 5.6) Lack of broader perspective: Due to different compensation package for overseas assignment between Japanese and Singapore expatriate, a potential local candidate who has Japanese language ability rejected the offers for job assignment in India. The difference of compensation especially in hardship country has viewed as unjustified and less attractive by local staff. 5.7) Lack of cultural understanding: A newly expatriate Japanese manager exercises his authority to force a group of employee to work during the cultural national holiday in Thailand (Buddhist festival celebration). The manager has promised to his customer to dispatch his employees to support production and will pay triple salary for the over-time working hours. Without understanding the cultural practice of religious celebration in Thailand, he applied pure ethnocentric management style that worked well in Japan into Thailand society. That incident caused cultural conflict between that group or worker and the expatriate. 6. Conclusions The internationalization process of Mastec is still at an early stage where there are still many activities needed to put in place to strengthen its operation. Mastec need to look beyond its coverage of IHRM studies in the area of training and development, performance management of expatriate, management of repatriates, succession plan, industrial relation, and human resources management in host-country. The issues and problems that arise could be avoided if the proper pre-departure trainings were conducted before expatriate assignment. People before Products is a philosophy of the founder of Panasonic Group company, Konosuke Matsushita (1984-1989), emphasize on cultivating the potential ability and development of workers before business [Konosuke Matsushita, 2007]. For example, Samsung Electronics used internal developed Local Expert program to train employees to better understand the international business environment [Tony Michell, 2010]. We can also predict that in long run there is possibility for parent company decision to move toward to polycentric system in Southeast Asia region subjected to successful of current arrangement. Therefore, it is crucial for Mastec to implement more IHRM activities in order to demonstrate its independency and capability to manage the regional business. At the same time, it is essential to gain respect and trust from headquarter by adopting strong corporate governance, cooperation and compliances to headquarter HR policies in Japan. 7. 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Communism and its Unfortunate Flaw :: Exploratory Essays Research Papers

Communism and its Unfortunate Flaw Throughout the course of history, colonies, city-states, and countries alike have attempted different forms of government. From monarchies to anarchies, it has remained clear what manner of government works best, both for the economy and the people- a capitalist society. Capitalism breeds competition and individual accomplishments. Unfortunately Karl Marx did not feel this way when he published his short piece, The Communist Manifesto, a cry for all those in favor of a communist world to stand up and unite. According to Marx, the capitalist form of government "has torn away from the family its sentimental veil, and has reduced the family relation to a mere money relation" (82). He goes on to describe more of these crimes the government, notably the bourgeoisie, has inflicted upon the populace, the proletariat. Yet Marx proves to over-generalize himself on a majority of issues. Although communism is itself almost infallible theoretically, it simply cannot exist in the overwhelmingly competitive, capitalist world that exists today. George O rwell's Animal Farm is an exceptional example that illustrates the faults of communism. In this fictional tale similar to the Russian Revolution of the early 1900's, a group of farm animals overthrows its corrupt farmer and forms its own society. The parallels to communism become clear as all animals are made equal and work toward the same goal of building their farm. Unfortunately, human nature and competition sink in, as the intelligent pigs become the all-knowing leaders. This is not so much to say that competition is a negative aspect of the economy; on the contrary, it has been very much an overall positive influence. Communism also does not take into account that human nature has a tendency to create competition. People strive to do their best, for when they do they are most often rewarded. Communism does no such thing, and provides for one of the main flaws that attributes to its failure. In Marx's ideal communist world, the entire populace is equal, and shares everything. There is no competition, and no one is rewarded more or less based on his or her individual achievement. Yet with this newfound sense of a worldwide sharing, there, in theory, is no poverty or hunger.