Judiasm Essays - Book Of Exodus, Bo, Torah, Israelites, Moses

Judiasm Judaism was a parent of Christianity, and we probably know more about it than any other religion, excluding our own, right off the top of our heads. The ancestors of the Jews, called the Israelites, established a kingdom in Canaan-the land of Milk and Honey. The Israelites first began to see themselves in a special relationship with their God at about 1000 B.C.E. God had selected them to be a Chosen People. God had offered the Chosen People a covenant, or special agreement. In this covenant, the Israelites promised to worship only God, and in return God promised them preservation throughout history and the land of Canaan. Canaan was later called Judah, Israel, and Palestine. Central to the understanding of the Jewish convenant is the prosperous herdsman who heard and followed God's call, Abraham. Abraham answered God's call and led his family from Ur of the Chaldees to Canaan. Abraham mad a son, Isaac, and a grandson Jacob who also inherited the convenant. Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob were called the patriarchs, or the founders of Judiasm. Moses, being one of the great religious leaders in history, God revealed his name Yahweh to him. Yahweh means ?to be? in Hebrew. The events recorded in Exodus indicate that through Moses a new and deeper understanding of God was revealed. The worship of Yahweh was unknown before Moses. The Israelites as a whole began to realize that the God of Moses was a very ?jealous God,? who would not tolerate worship of any other god. As the book of Exodus opens, we find that the Israelites are slaves in the land of Egypt. Exodus became the heart and soul of Judaism. Moses is the key character in Exodus and one of great religious leaders in history. The Exodus story is one that is very touching. The persecution of the Jews in the 1930's was horrible and will be remembered forever. After being crushed in the economic disaster in the Great Depression and being totally defeated in WWI, the time was perfect for Hitler to take anti-Semitism, or hatred for Jews-to a whole different level. Jews all over became victims of Hitler's awful laws such as those in Poland, Europe, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, and Germany. It was an awful time for the Jewish people and in camps all over Germany and Poland Jews were being murdered by starvation, disease, beating, mutilation, infection, gassing, and burning. Six million Jews, or about one-third of the entire Jewish population of the world was completely wiped out. Only fifty thousand Jews remained after the war. The faith of the Jewish people was tested greatly during the Holocaust. The vivid living faith of the Jewish people is shown through their mant festivals and celebrations throughout the year. Besides the Sabbath observance, the Jewish year is filled with yearly festivals. They are all based on the Jewish lunal calendar. Rosh Hashanah, or the Jewish new year, which is celebrated in October, opens ten ?Days of Awe?. There is a celebration at the beginning and end of the two days. Yom Kippur is the ?Day of Atonement?. It is considered the most holy day of the year and is the closest to repentance. Five days after Yom Kippur, the Feast of Tabernacles, or Sukkoth, is celebrated. This is a week long feast in the fall celebrating God's presence when the Israelites were in the desert. The Rejoicing of the Torah closes the Sukkoth. Hanukkah is the Festival of Lights and is celebrated in December. It commemorates the restoration of the Temple after it was destroyed by the Syrians. Purin celebrates Esther's success to find a plot to massacre all Jews in the Persian Empire. One of the most important spring holy days is Pesach, or the Passover. There are many special foods associated with this holiday, especially those served at the seder (ceremonial meal). Fifty days after the Seder, the feast of the Pentecost which remembers the giving of the Law of Moses fifty days after the Passover. The Jewish calendar year is filled with many feasts and special ceremonies. There are three branches of Judaism. Orthodox Judaism is the oldest and largest of the three branches. It has the full tradition of Judaism. It calls itself the ?Torah-True Judaism? because of its strict adherence to the law of Moses. This stance seems to influence and shape tis approach to theology. The second branch of Judaism is Reform. The Reform branch is extremely liberal and call their houses of worship ?temples? and have begun to ordain female rabbis. They believe that the Mosaic law should not be

10 Fascinating Facts About Butterflies

10 Fascinating Facts About Butterflies People love watching colorful butterflies float from flower to flower. From the tiniest blues to the largest swallowtails,  how much do you really know about these insects? Here are 10 fascinating facts about butterflies. Butterfly wings are transparent How can that be? We know butterflies as perhaps the most colorful, vibrant insects around! A butterflys wings are covered by thousands of tiny scales, and these scales reflect light in different colors. But underneath all of those scales, a  butterfly wing is actually formed by layers of chitin, the same protein that makes up an insects exoskeleton. These layers are so thin you can see right through them. As a butterfly ages, scales fall off the wings, leaving spots of transparency where the chitin layer is exposed. Butterflies taste with their feet Butterflies have taste receptors on their feet to help them find their host plants and locate food. A female butterfly lands on different plants, drumming the leaves with her feet until the plant releases its juices. Spines on the back of her legs have chemoreceptors that detect the right match of plant chemicals. When she identified the right plant, she lays her eggs. A butterfly will also step on its food, using organs that sense dissolved sugars to taste food sources like fermenting fruit. Butterflies live on an all-liquid diet Speaking of butterflies eating, adult butterflies can only feed on liquids, usually nectar. Their mouthparts are modified to enable them to drink, but they cant chew solids. A proboscis, which functions as a drinking straw, stays curled up under the butterflys chin until it finds a source of nectar or other liquid nutrition. It then unfurls the long, tubular structure and sips up a meal. A few butterflies feed on sap, and some even resort to sipping from decaying carrion. No matter the meal, they suck it up a straw. A butterfly must assemble its proboscis as soon as it emerges from the chrysalis A butterfly that cant drink nectar is doomed. One of its first jobs as an adult butterfly is to assemble its mouthparts. When a new adult emerges from the pupal case or chrysalis, its mouth is in two pieces. Using palpi located adjacent to the proboscis, the butterfly begins working the two parts together to form a single, tubular proboscis. You may see a newly emerged butterfly curling and uncurling the proboscis over and over, testing it out. Butterflies drink from mud puddles A butterfly cannot live on sugar alone; it needs minerals, too. To supplement its diet of nectar, a butterfly will occasionally sip from mud puddles, which are rich in minerals and salts. This behavior, called puddling, occurs more often in male butterflies, which incorporate the minerals into their sperm. These nutrients are then transferred to the female during mating, and help improve the viability of her eggs. Butterflies cant fly if theyre cold Butterflies need an ideal body temperature of about 85 ºF to fly. Since theyre cold-blooded animals, they cant regulate their own body temperatures. The surrounding air temperature has a big impact on their ability to function. If the air temperature falls below 55 ºF, butterflies are rendered immobile, unable to flee from predators or feed. When air temperatures range between 82 º-100 ºF, butterflies can fly with ease. Cooler days require a butterfly to warm up its flight muscles, either by shivering or basking in the sun. Even sun-loving butterflies can get overheated when temperatures soar above 100 °Ã‚  F and may seek shade to cool down.   A newly emerged butterfly cant fly Inside the chrysalis, a developing butterfly waits to emerge with its wings collapsed around its body. When it finally breaks free of the pupal case, it greets the world with tiny, shriveled wings. The butterfly must immediately pump body fluid through its wing veins to expand them. Once its wings reach full-size, the butterfly must rest for a few hours to allow its body to dry and harden before it can take its first flight. Butterflies live just a few weeks, usually Once it emerges from its chrysalis as an adult, a butterfly has only 2-4 short weeks to live, in most cases. During that time, it focuses all its energy on two tasks – eating and mating. Some of the smallest butterflies, the blues, may only survive a few days. Butterflies that overwinter as adults, like monarchs and mourning cloaks, can live as long as 9 months. Butterflies are nearsighted, but they can see and discriminate a lot of colors Within about 10-12 feet, butterfly eyesight is quite good. Anything beyond that distance gets a little blurry to a butterfly, though. Butterflies rely on their eyesight for vital tasks, like finding mates of the same species and finding flowers on which to feed. In addition to seeing some of the colors we can see, butterflies can see a range of ultraviolet colors invisible to the human eye. The butterflies themselves may have ultraviolet markings on their wings to help them identify one another and locate potential mates. Flowers, too, display ultraviolet markings that act as traffic signals to incoming pollinators like butterflies – pollinate me! Butterflies employ all kinds of tricks to keep from being eaten Butterflies rank pretty low on the food chain, with lots of hungry predators happy to make a meal of them. Some butterflies fold their wings to blend into the background, using camouflage to render themselves all but invisible to predators. Others try the opposite strategy, wearing vibrant colors and patterns that boldly announce their presence. Bright colored insects often pack a toxic punch if eaten, so predators learn to avoid them. Some butterflies arent toxic at all, but pattern themselves after other species known for their toxicity. By mimicking their foul-tasting cousins, they repel predators.

Does knowledge affect attitudes and perceived risks of HIV infection Essay

Does knowledge affect attitudes and perceived risks of HIV infection among young adults influencing consistent condom use - Essay Example ost of these adolescents were typical of those all over the world, having a mixture of correct and incorrect knowledge about HIV transmission and sexually transmitted infections. It was seen that more males than females accounted that they have had sex, having used condoms. They also exhibited an inconsistent use of condoms. Some of the sexual attitudes definitely conformed to machismo ideology; but there were others that provises a scope for interventions and preventions. In many cases it was seen that the stigma attached to HIV was high and it was also seen that many of the adolescents disapproved of same sex relations. Intervention is particularly vital that some intercession is sought against homosexuality-related stigma because it may result in a concentrated HIV epidemic. The surveys showed that personal religious thoughts and beliefs were not a barrier to use of condoms. The multivariate model showed that, being out of school could be significantly correlated to having had sex as well as of insufficient HIV/AIDS-related knowledge. This necessitates that HIV prevention interventions must not be limited to only school going adolescents. For a successful result what is needed is a multi-component approach to prevention. This must include community-based programmes as well as programmes in schools, the mass media and health facilities. HIV infection is a disease that is caused by the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV). This virus slowly destroys the immune system and as a result, the antibodies within the body find it harder to fight off the infections. There is no cure for HIV infection, precaution being the only way of keeping away from this fatal disease. There has been a rising concern regarding HIV/AIDS infection among young adults globally. The most common way this virus is transmitted from one person to the other is through unprotected sexual intercourse. The statistics on the impact made by HIV/AIDS is overwhelming. According to the estimates made by

Listening power Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Listening power - Essay Example The technique to manage your boss to agree with you is through finding weak spots in him. If you listen carefully, your boss might give you ways into his weaker side through what he says and you could use them to your advantage. For example, if your boss tells you something like â€Å"I am just 2 years away from a great retirement plan. I don’t want to deal with stupid people like you†, then you must focus more on his retirement and less on you being referred to as a stupid person. Let us now move on and outline the basic steps you must take to get your boss to agree with you. First comes the listening part. You must listen carefully and find out what exactly it is that your boss wants. Every boss is different. Some bosses want to feel the power in their hands, some want security, and some are only concerned with the money. Therefore, you must listen and analyze your boss and find out what his basic requirements are. After that, you must deal with him accordingly based on what he wants. For instance, if he’s looking for power, ask him to give you a chance to do things your own way, and that if you failed, you would be ready to do whatever he wants. Similarly, if your boss appears to be insecure, you could try talking to him like a colleague rather than a subordinate and ask him about his family and interests. This would cause him to be more open to you and would develop a bond of trust and understanding between the two of you. It is important to note that arguing does not lead to any good. Whatever insight to your boss you get from listening and communicating with him, you must ensure that your tone is not that of an argument when you try to convince him. Instead, you should devise a well thought out plan of action for your discussion with him and ask him questions to get to the root of his requirements. Even after all the listening and planning, however, you might not be able to reach a

Declaration of Independence Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Declaration of Independence - Research Paper Example Onuf noticed that America was undergoing a problem of identity. Jefferson and other parties had worked hard to realize an independent America only to be coupled with a weak articulated national government. Delegates from Virginia came together to draft the declaration. This lead to its confirmation where it was backed by an undisputed voting. As an excellent orator and writer, Jefferson decided to write the declaration in July 4, 1776. Through his commitment, he was elected to serve his people as the governor of Virginia. He managed to serve Americans and his family, where he bore several children (Fox, 1948). Place and time â€Å"The US Declaration for Independence† was presented in July 4, 1776 at â€Å"Virginia. This was possible after there was a unanimous acceptance of the declaration. The article has since received acceptance in both America and the world over. Prior knowledge This journal was written during the American Revolution when Americans felt it was necessary t o resolve their political issues. Through the constitution, members of different states sought to remain united through establishing justice and liberty among the different states. The declaration was meant to synthesis and assist address constitutional issues (Jefferson, 9). These issues had earlier been argued by historians who left them unconcluded. Thus, the scholars took a long interpretive focus to ensure issues of governance and the constitution were addressed. In order to address the pressing issues, it was necessary to eliminate the presence of French persons in North America. The conclusion of this advancement occurred after the inclusion of the British victory after the war that lasted seven years (Onuf, 73). Anglo-Americans failed to distinguish between foreign and domestic relations. They focused a lot on local matters, disregarding other states and their relations with them. For this reason, Americans failed to claim membership in the international community. Audience Onuf (73) targets the Americans as his audience, seeking to enlighten them on the need for pursuing their constitutional rights. He further encourages them to focus on organizational and issues of international politics because of their status as an independent country (Onuf, 72). Reason The main reason for writing this article was to enlighten Americans on the importance of advocating for their constitutional issues, which they could only access through independence (Jefferson, 6). Onuf (75) urges Americans to be watchful and ensure they repossess their membership from the international community. Onuf (75) argues that the country seeks to gain access to great opportunities to explore foreign policy. He refers his audience to the present state of the world and concludes that history contributed greatly to it. He seeks to urge Americans to enhance their issues of nation-state and identity. He cautions that inability to remain vigilant in the issues of state is vital to exercise issu es of sovereignty and capabilities of the state to embrace the international system (Tewell, 82). The Main Idea Jefferson (7) wants his audience to know the importance of declaring independence for a country. He briefly describes the circumstances under which the Americans decided to unite as a single state. He later outlines the pertinent issues outlined in the constitution, which

Human resources practices influence customer satisfaction

Human resources practices influence customer satisfaction The focus of this research is on examining the process through which human resource practices influences customer satisfaction in banking sector of Pakistan. Drawing on literature from strategic human resource management, organizational behavior, and marketing, a model of HRP-CS is proposed with employee commitment as its central plank. It is argued that such commitment is influenced by organizational human resource practices and in turn it influences employee behavior towards organizational customers which is then translated into customer satisfaction. Despite heavily documented performance link between human resource practices and organizational, the term HR practices has rarely been adequately defined in the literature. In fact researchers have tested for link between HR practices and firm performance with different HR practices as input and different performance outcomes as output. Boselie and his colleagues have very rightly noted that, Still no consensus has emerged on what employee management activities should be in a comprehensive HRM checklist, since no widely accepted theoretical rationale exists for selecting practices as definitively essential to HRM. Selection of HR practices for this dissertation is based on the review of relevant studies. Liao and Chuang noted that involvement, training and performance incentives are among the most relevant for employee performance in service settings. Similarly, Boselie and his colleagues have identified training, performance based rewards and performance appraisal as the top three researched human resource practices. They argue that this might be because these practices reflect the main objectives of most conceptualisations of a strategic HRM programme. Result oriented appraisals, employment security, and profit sharing have also been reported to be strongly related to organizational performance . In the light of the above discussion, I selected human resource practices that adequately cover the areas identified by the strategic HR researchers as being important in improving organizational performance. The practices include internal career opportunities, training, result oriented appraisals, employment security, participation, and compensation. All these practices are supposed to enhance organizational human capital which will then serve as a competitive advantage for the firm. Nevertheless, a group of researchers including Jackson and Schuler , Ferris and his colleagues and Uhl- Bien et al called for more focus on social context of the relationships within the organization. These researchers argue that employee interaction within organization comprises social capital, and no firm can effectively achieve its goals until it actively utilizes its social capital along with its human capital. The central proposition of social capital theory is that network of relationships constitute valuable resource for the conduct of social affairs. As supervisor-employee interaction is among the most frequent experiences in organizational life, the importance of this relationship in social capital formation is very much understandable. Additionally, as supervisors are viewed as agents of organization, who are responsible for directing and facilitating employees job responsibilities, their attitude and behavior is viewed as indicative of organizational orientation towards their employees . Although, supervisor support or supervisor behavior may not qualify itself as firms HR practice, I have added it to the list of HR practices in my dissertation due to its importance in eliciting employee responses towards organization and its customers. Thus the list of HR practices which will be the subject of study in this dissertation are as following: Supervisor support (SS) Internal career opportunities (ICO) Training (Trg) Result-oriented appraisal (ROA) Employment security (ES) Participation in Decision Making (Part) Compensation (Comp) 3.2 Human Resource Management Practices and Customer Satisfaction: In one of the early studies on relationship between employees perception of organizational practices and customers perception of service quality, Schneider, Parkington, and Buxton noted that both are significantly correlated. They conducted a study of twenty three bank branches of a full service bank and observed a strong correlation (r = 0.67) between employees perception of branch service and customers perception of quality of service at the branch. Although, this study did not measure the role of organizational human resource practices on customers perception of service quality or customer satisfaction, it laid down the foundation for studying the role of employee attitudes and behavior in connection with customer satisfaction. In order to yield better perceptions of service quality from customers, the study emphasized to focus attention on the role of boundary personnel in retail service organizations like the branch banks . Rogg, Schmidt, Shull, and Schmitt conducted a study of 351 franchise dealerships of an automobile company to examine the impact of human resource practices on customer satisfaction. They found that HR practices effects customer satisfaction through its influence on organizational climate. This is to say that they tested for a mediating role of climate in HR-CS relationship. Their data analysis supported the hypothesis that human resource practices are significantly related to customer satisfaction, though most of the correlations were less than 0.20. While this study adds to our belief that firms human resource practices are related to its customers satisfaction, it is not without its problems. First, the data on HR practices and climate variables were collected using single instrument, thus increasing the chance of same source bias. Secondly, the data on, human resource practices and climate, variables were collected from single respondent in the organization. While the data of huma n resource practices were factual, the data on climate were attitudinal and is highly prone to single rater error. Both these problems (same source bias and single rater error) have been taken care of in this study. In another study of 137 BDG (Branch Director Group) of a full service bank, Gelade and Ivery documented that BDGs HRM practices are positively associated with customer satisfaction. They analyzed the relationship between HRM indicators (staffing level, overtime, and professional development) and organizational performance indicators (sales against targets, customer satisfaction, staff retention, and clerical accuracy) and found that almost all the three HRM indicators are positively associated with organizational performance indicators including customer satisfaction and that such association is moderated by organizational climate. Whereas most of the studies which examined the relationship between human resource practices and customer satisfaction were conducted on organizational or DMU level of analysis , Liao and Chaung investigated the factors influencing customer satisfaction using a multi-level conceptual framework. There data comprised responses of 257 employees, 44 managers, and 1993 customers from 25 franchised restaurants. The human resource practices data were collected from restaurant manager while employee performance and customer satisfaction data were based on self-reports of employees and customers respectively. The data gathered thus gathered from employees and customers were aggregated to restaurant level to analyze the HR practices customer outcome relationship at unit level. The results of the study showed that of the human resource practices only employee involvement was significantly related to the service performance, while other two HR practices (service training, and performance incent ives) did not have any significant relationship with employee performance. The study did not examine the direct effect of human resource practices on customer satisfaction; however the relationship between restaurant-level service performance and customer satisfaction was found significant. Although, this study provided a better understanding of how employees actions and perceptions influences organizational context, still it did not explicitly examines the role of employees perception of human resource practices in eliciting customer perception of service quality and customer satisfaction. While most of studies conducted on human resource management customer satisfaction relationship have focused on organizational climate as mediating variable between the two, Nishii, et al is the first one to examines the role of employees perceptions, attitudes and behaviors as the central plank of such relationship. There sample included 95 stores each with approximately 18 departments. Data was collected from 4208 employees from 362 departments across these 95 stores. Nishii and her colleagues in a multilevel analysis investigated the role of employee perceptions of why organization adopted certain human resource policies (HR attribution) in shaping their work attitudes and behaviors and the relationship between such attitudes/behaviors and customer satisfaction. The data regarding employee HR attributions, commitment and satisfaction were collected from employees at individual level, while data regarding employee behavior and customer satisfaction were collected from store manage rs and customers respectively at store-level. The individual level data were than aggregated to store level in order to analyze the relationship at store level unit of analysis. The results of this study revealed that employees attributions of human resource practices (HR attributions) are positively related to employee attitudes. They further found that unit-level attitudes were positively related to two aspects of employee behavior, measured in terms of OCB (organizational citizenship behavior). One dimension of OCB (OCB-helping) was found significantly associated with customer satisfaction. The most important finding of the study was, that the same set of HR practices may not even exhibit similar effects within a single organization. The implication is that it is not just the HR practices themselves but rather also employees perceptions of those HR practices that are important for achieving desired organizational outcomes. [italics added] . In fact focus on employee (or member) perception is not a new phenomenon in organizational studies. Almost thirty years ago Schneider, et al based on Heider , Miller, Galanter, and Pribram and Bowers noted that, Member perceptions of organizational practices and procedures are the critical data in understanding organizational behavior. No behavior in, or of, organizations occurs in the absence of perceptions. To conceptualize an organization requires a consideration of human behavior, and human behavior does not exist without perception. Similarly, drawing on Endler and Magnusson and Drazin, Glynn, and Kazanjian Bowen and Ostroff argued that individual behavior potential are not based on . . . actual situation per se, rather, the situation individuals see based on their perceptions, à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦. Finally, Nishii and her colleagues emphasized the need for focusing more future SHRM research on the way that HR practices are enacted in organizations, as revealed in human perception à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦. Though the study undertaken by Nishi and her colleagues is among the first to empirically test the role of employees perception of HR practices in influencing customer satisfaction, it did not actually measured the employees perception of HR practices per se, rather, it took a different approach and examined the employees perception of why particular HR practices exists and the effect of this why on customer satisfaction. Thus, the important and frequently sought after question regarding the role of employees perception of human resource practices in influencing their attitude, behavior and customer satisfaction is still unanswered in the existing literature. Based on past literature, which demonstrates a positive link between organizational HR practices and customer satisfaction, and to answer a very important, but still unanswered, question in strategic human resource management literature, I hypothesized the relationship between employees perception of HR practices and customer satisfaction as follows: H1: There will be a positive relationship between perceptions of Supervisor Support (SS) Internal Career Opportunities (ICO) Organizational Training (Trg) Human Result Oriented Appraisal (ROA) Resource Employment Security (ES) Practices (HRP) Participation in Decision Making (Part), and Compensation and customer satisfaction such that the customers interacting with employees who more positively perceive HR practices will be more satisfied and vice-versa. 3.3 Research Model: The Process through which HR Practices Influences Customer Satisfaction: As earlier noted in the introduction, the primary aim of this research is to investigate the process/path through which human resource practices influence customer satisfaction, as this is the dynamics of such process which is of immense importance to the owners and managers of the organizations. It is only through the clear and proper understanding of mediating mechanisms between HR practices and customer satisfaction that managers can avoid engaging in conflicting, and at time counter-productive, HR policies. The proposed model indicating the mediating process between perceptions of human resource practices and customer satisfaction is shown in figure 3-1. HR Practices Employee Perceptions Employee Outcome Organizational Outcome Internal Career Opportunities Result Oriented Appraisal Participation in Decision Making Employment Security Supervisor Support Training Compensation Perceived Organizational Support Customer Satisfaction Affective Commitment Customer Oriented Behavior Theoretical Framework Research Model Figure 3-1: Research Model The Influence of HR Practices on Employee Commitment and Customer Satisfaction An examination of the figure 3-1 depicts the relationship of various variables in the model. It is proposed that for human resource practices to influence customer satisfaction they are to be first perceived by the organizational employees in favorable or unfavorable manner. The cumulative employee perception about HR practices is then translated into perceived organizational support (POS), a concept which indicates the organizational commitment towards employee wellbeing. It is further proposed that this POS is reciprocated by the employees in the form of their commitment to organization, which then forms the basis for customer-oriented behavior on their part. The final part of the model deals with the boundary spanning role of the employees and hypothesizes that employee behavior influences the customers perception of service quality in organizations which ultimately leads to customer satisfaction with the organization. In what follows each of the relationships proposed in the model is examined in greater detail in the light of relevant literature. Research hypotheses based on such relationships are formulated within each section. 3.4 Human Resource Practices and Perceived Organizational Support: Perceived organizational support is defined as employees perceptions about the degree to which the organization cares about their well-being and values their contribution . Studies have shown that human resource practices signaling investments in employees are positively related to perceived organizational support . Organization support theory argues that employees assign humanlike characteristics to organizations. This tendency to personify organizations is encouraged by the organizational norms, practices and policies that prescribe employee role behaviors . This personification leads employees to believe that treatment met to them by their organizations is its indication of favor or disfavor to them . The treatment met to employees signal organizations readiness to reward increased work performance and to meet its employees needs for approval and recognition. As the organization treat its employees through the implementation of various human resource practices, I argue that the de velopment of employees global belief regarding the extent to which organizations value its members contribution and care about their wellbeing (perceived organizational support) is the reciprocation of such HR practices. Further, Eisenberger and his colleagues noted that perceived organizational support depends on attribution processes and is based on employees judgments, among other things, of organizational sincerity. Similarly, Whitener , while identifying the possible causes of different employee outcomes towards same HR practice, stressed upon the future researchers to . . . measure employees perceptions of the characteristics of human resource practices as an intervening variable between managers descriptions of human resource practices and employees perceptions of support. . In fact more and more researchers today are realizing the important role of employees perceptions in HR practices employee outcomes relationship. In a very recent publication Nishii et al have argued tha t, . . . in order for HR practices to exert their desired effect on employee attitudes and behaviors, they first have to be perceived and interpreted subjectively by employees . . . . Thus I refine my earlier argument regarding the relationship between HR practices and POS by accommodating the role of employees perception in HR-POS relationship; I hypothesize that it is employees perceptions of organizational human resource practices, instead of practices themselves, which leads to development of employees POS. The following sub-sections will review the literature about the relationship between the hypothesized HR practices and POS in detail. 3.4.1 Supervisor Support: Levinson observed that supervisory actions are often viewed as more indicative of organizations intent than solely based on supervisors personal motive. This is in part due to the fact that employees consider organizations to be responsible for legal, moral, and financial actions of its agents actions. Because supervisors act as organizational agents, the employees receipt of favorable treatment from a supervisor should contribute to POS. Additionally employees believe that managers forward their evaluation of subordinates to upper management which considerably influences managements treatment of their employees, thus perceptions of supervisor support should contribute to development of POS . Reciprocity norm dictates that perceived supervisor support should increase employees felt obligation towards supervisor and organization . H2a: There will be a positive relationship between employees perception of supervisor support (SS) and his/her perceived organizational support (POS). 3.4.2 Internal Career Opportunities: The opportunities to grow internally within the organization signals a strong positive message to employees that they are being cared and their work being valued . Such a policy also inculcates a sense of justice and fairness in the employees who feel that their stay and attachment with the organization for longer tenures is valued and rewarded . Thus the perception of availability of internal career opportunities will be linked to employees perception of organizational support. H2b: There will be positive relationship between employees perception of internal career opportunities (ICO) and his/her level of POS. 3.4.3 Training Training may be viewed as a form of capital investment in humans whether such an investment is made by firm or individual . A number of authors including Huselid and MacDuffie have counted organizational training as one of the important high-performance human resource (HR) practices. Employees, just like other human beings, have a desire to enhance their capabilities and learn new skills to improve their survivability in the environment. Training provides opportunities for both, enhancement of existing capabilities and learning of new skills. Thus provision of adequate training facilities by the organization to its employees signals its commitment to them. By providing career development opportunities, the organization conveys its willingness and dedication to the personal growth of its employees. The provision of training opportunities is indicative of the importance which the organization attaches to the contributions of its employees and is a token of its recognition for such contributions . In Pakistan most of the times such trainings and other career development opportunities go beyond any formal union contract and is thus viewed by the employees as out-of-will treatment by the organization. Such discretionary treatment on part of the organization is viewed by its employees as indicative of organizational support for them . Previous studies have found evidence that career development opportunities are positively related to perceptions of organizational support and that training predicts POS . Similarly, a significant relationship between career development opportunities and POS is also been reported by Meyer and Smith . Based on the review of past research, I hypothesize that an employees level of POS will be positively related to his/her belief of the training and career development opportunities provided by the organization. H2c: Employees perceptions about training opportunities (Trg) will be positively related to the level of his/her POS. 3.4.4 Result-Oriented Appraisal: Previous researches has documented a positive relationship between result-oriented appraisal and firm performance . These authors reported a correlation of r = .13 at p H2d: Employees perception of result oriented appraisal (ROA) will be positively related to their perceptions of organizational support (POS). 3.4.5 Employment Security: Delery and Doty in their research on banking sector of US have found a positive relationship between employment security and firm performance. The positive relationship was attributed to increased employee commitment and motivation due to secure jobs in banks. Similarly Fey, Bjorkman, and Pavlovskaya argued that provision of long term job security to employees signal organizational commitment to them. Pfeffer asserts that norm of reciprocity bounds employees to reciprocate such commitment in the form to their support to the organization and its goals. On the other hand organizational commitment of employees working for an employer who treats its employees as unimportant or dispensable tends to be low. Further, in times of economic turbulence when people are finding it increasingly difficult to find jobs, long term job security by the organization to the employees enhance their perceptions of organizational support. In light of the existing theoretical and empirical rationale I predic t about the relationship between employment security and perceived organizational support (POS) as following: H2e: There will be a positive relationship between employees perception of employment security (ES) and his/her perceived organizational support (POS). 3.4.6 Participation in Decision Making: Studies have concluded that organizations will yield better results if they gave their employees participation or voice in decision making activities . Providing opportunities to the employees to participate in decision making should indicate that their contribution is being valued by the organization . Researchers, have previously suggested that having say in decision making and voice in formulating organizational policy should be tested as a precursor of perceived organizational support . Whitener argued the fact that it is not only the existence of participation practice which is enough to elicit positive response from the the employees rather it is the perception regarding the existence and usefulness of such participatory mechanism which enhances employees perception of organizational support. Thus, the following relationship between participation and perceived organizational support is predicted: H2f: Employees perception of participation in organizational decision making (Part) will be positively related to his/her perceptions of organizational support (POS). 3.4.7 Compensation Organizational Support Theory argues that organizational rewards signals the nature of employee concern by the organization. Thus, favorable rewards signal that employee contributions are being valued by organization . More specifically this theory holds that favorable organizational rewards are conceived as organizations recognition and appreciation of employees work, and therefore, a major source of POS development . Organizational rewards may take the form of different variables when it comes to measuring its relationship with POS. In literature variables such as pay itself , distributive justice , procedural justice and general organizational rewards are researched for their relationship with POS. A common theme which emerges out of these studies is that POS is positively influenced by organizational rewards. Perceived organizational support is found to be positively related to employee pay satisfaction in a study conducted by Shore and Tetrick . Another study, which tested the relationship between employees perception about procedural justice and their perception of organizational support, found that both are positively related . Similarly, Wayne et al. noted a positive association between perceptions of procedural justice and POS. One can easily note from the above studies that though different indicators have been used to capture the concept of organizational rewards and then test their relationship with perceived organizational support, these researches converge in their conclusion about positive link between reward and development of POS. As the focus of this dissertation on measuring the influence of organizational human resource practices on employee commitment and customer satisfaction, the issues of relationship between rewards like distributive and procedural justice is somewhat out of scope for this study. Of particular importance to this study is the role of compensation as organizational reward, and the role it plays in development of POS. Willis noted that compensation is the most critical issue when it comes to attracting and keeping talent. Compensation is the cornerstone of the majority employment contracts. As Parker and Wright noted that basic reason for such centrality to the issue of compensation is the assumption that money influences behavior. In 1999 a study conducted by Bassi and Van Buren revealed that firms using high-performance work practices provide compensation based on group-performance and company profit sharing to enhance the employees feeling of organizational support. Especially, profit-sharing mechanism is a clear sign that organization does not only recognize and value its employees efforts in its profit but is ready to share it with them. This line of thinking clearly indicates a positive possibility of relationship between employees compensation and their perceptions of organizational support. Thus based on review of existing literature and logic which dictates a relationship between compensation and POS, I hypothesize as under: H2g: Employees perceptions of compensation (Comp) will be positively related to the level of his/her POS. 3.5 Perceived Organizational Support (POS) and Organizational Commitment (OC) During the last two decades the concept of organizational commitment (OC) remained a major focus of research in organizational studies. One of the reasons for such focus is the assumed relationship between organizational commitment and performance . In the following lines I will first explain the concept of commitment and will then explain the logic of proposing relationship between POS and OC. The term commitment has been widely used in research and is being variedly used to explain the antecedents, consequences and process of being committed to organization . This variety of definitions of commitment led Meyer and Allen to note that OC may be a multidimensional concept that has the potential to be interpreted in variety of ways. Nevertheless, the major definitions of OC appear to be affective or attitudinal , normative , behavioral and calculative . However, as Allen and Grisaffe noted, most researchers would agree that organizational commitment refers to a psychological state that characterizes an employees relationship with the organization for which he or she works and that has implications for whether or not the employee will choose to remain with the organization. Researchers differ in their opinion about why or how commitment occurs. Meyer and Allen conceptualizes that commitment develops as a result of experiences of satisfying employees needs motivational and/or compatible with their values . They further argued that desired commitment profile of employees may be developed by managing the employee work experience. Some researchers have described commitment as a strong belief in and acceptance of the organizations goals and values, a willingness to exert considerable effort on behalf of the organization, and a definite desire to maintain organizational membership . This definition highlights the role which commitment plays in enhancing individual performance such that more committed employees are supposed to be exerting more effort in achievement of organizational goals. Another important way of conceptualizing commitment is through individuals attitude towards employer organization. Researchers have noted that virtually all the research conducted on organizational commitment, per se, has used the attitudinal conceptualization. The following description of attitudinal commitment is forwarded by Mowday et al. : Attitudinal commitment focuses on the process by which people come to think about their relationship with the organization. In many ways it can be thought of as a mind set in which individuals consider the extent to which their own values and goals are congruent with those of the organization. Such a description suggests that strongly committed individuals will put in more work required for attainment of desired organizational outcomes as such outcomes are consistent with their personal values and goals. Meyer and Allen noted that organizational commitment is a mind set or psychological state (i.e., feelings and/or beliefs concerning the employees relationship with an organization) They conceptualized commitment through a three component framework. The three components are affective commitment, continuance commitment and normative commitment and has been described by Allen and Meyer as under: . . . employees with strong affective commitment remain with the organization because they

Roman Empire :: essays research papers fc

Roman empire â€Å"The Romans were a people of genius whose empire dominated the western world for 500 years.†(Pg. 7, Ancient Rome) What made the Romans so powerful was their way of government. It was very similar to the one that we have today, except emperors don’t rule us. The pax romana, or ‘the Roman Peace,’ gave millions of people in Italy and surrounding areas peace. Rome fell when it was invaded by overwhelming tribes and groups of barbarians. Rome was first founded on the legendary date of 735 B.C. The myth of Romulus and Remus was how Rome got its name. The myth was that Mars, god of war, came down to the mortal world and met a human princess. Romulus and Remus were then born shortly after, but abandoned. A She-Wolf nursed them until they were old enough to be on their own. Their dream was to make a beautiful city, and govern it and become powerful. Romulus and Remus had an argument. Which led to a fight to the death. Romulus won, killing his brother Remus. The peoples called his city Rome, after Romulus, who became the founder. Rome’s Symbol is the She-Wolf that nursed Romulus and Remus nursing them. Rome started out as just a group of farmers and Romulus as the emperor. Eventually, the small city-state became larger, and the government stronger, and more sophisticated. In 509 B.C., the Roman Republic was founded. Patricians were the ones who organized the state. Instead of a King, Rome picked 2 magistrates, or consuls, to rule Rome. Eventually, the consuls became too powerful, and the plebeians (peoples of Rome) became angry because they wanted rights equal to those of the consuls in ways. In 494 B.C. the plebs revolted. They elected certain members to be called ‘the Tribunes,’ and be their leaders. The plebs wanted the consuls to notice them. Eventually, after a year of rebelling, the 2 consuls let the plebs have the rights they wanted because in the future, Rome would need some of the plebs to become an army for th e protection of Rome and the conquering of new territory. Eventually, The 2 consuls’ decisions became useful. Rome started to wage wars with its neighbors, the Aequi, Volsci, Celts, and Samnites. For 250 years, the Romans were almost at war constantly. The Romans either made alliances with their neighbor’s or they conquered them.