Ivan Illyich's Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Ivan Illyich's - Assignment Example Ivan’s unexpected death was certainly a terrible shock for Peter at the moment he first learnt about the same; as the painful moments his childhood friend spent at the verge of death portrayed a dark, drab and dismal picture of the ultimate ceasing of mortal life. Although he was well aware of the bitter reality that everyone had to give up the ghost sooner or later, yet no one actually appears to be ready to submit to the fact that his name is also included in the list of those leaving the world. An intense sway of unpleasant idea looked piercing into his mind, leaving him at the state of horror and anxiety. However, soon he realized that it was actually Ivan, and not he himself to become the prey of death. Consequently, man’s urge to live a long and an immortal life for the future decades to come could be explored in his sub-conscious that forbids him to admit the certainty about the end of life. It is therefore, Peter pretended to ignore the entire sourness of the me mories related to Ivan’s immediate demise within days (Tolstoy, 101-102). The author rightly elucidates an imperative divergence between â€Å"intellectual knowledge and emotional realization† of any social or natural phenomenon, which keeps humans at a safe distance from realizing the bitter facts courageously at heart. Consequently, man does not surrender before the powers that could turn all his strength and abilities into weaknesses and disabilities respectively. Although Peter scared death, and felt unpleasant exit of his friend from the world, yet he mistakenly viewed that death had also departed from there along with Ivan far away to some yonder lands. The contemporary era psychologist R. Kastenbaum has elaborated the facts behind anxiety, denial and acceptance of the death phenomenon in various volumes on human perils and fears about death. While explaining the reasons behind one’s anxieties about the inevitability of the end of life, Kastenbaum is of th e opinion that age, gender and life experiences certainly play dynamic role in respect of the intensity of the anxiety people maintain regarding death. The psychologist, based on his study on the same topic, refutes the false notion that the elderly fear death more than the young and middle aged individuals. On the contrary, the elderly start accepting the bitter reality that they are entering the period of life when death is at hand, and they could become prey to it at any moment. Since they already have consumed the most productive years of their life, and have made accomplishments in accordance with the education, skill, experience and proficiency etc they had obtained in their active years. Thus, they happily accept the death phenomenon as an inevitable part of life, and do not try to deny the same. On the other hand, since the young individuals have developed many dreams in life, they have serious reservations about the end of life without meeting the goals and hitting their ta rgets in an apposite manner. It is therefore, Kastenbaum (2010) regards early 20s as the period of lif

Chipping Away at Intel Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Chipping Away at Intel - Case Study Example The reorganization of Architecture Group took place in the third year of Barrett’s tenure, in which a new unit consisting of networking operations and merger of communications was established. The intention behind these reorganizations was decentralization; and making decision making process stronger so that business operations would be carried out in a systematic way. In the tenure of Barrett, Intel had to face environmental pressures which disturbed company’s reputation and finances. The three most significant environmental pressures faced by Intel were competitor’s effect, economic turmoil & geopolitical factor and fall of corporate reputation. Intel went into the production of network servers and routers. This initiative was not applauded by Cisco and Dell, which were its biggest customers of chips. Intel had to eventually stop the production of network servers and routers. Advanced Micro Devices produced Athlon processor chip which was faster than Intel Pentium III chip. The political and economic situation of the region was also not promising as September, 2001 attacks brought U.S economy down. The threat of U.S troop’s invasion also into Iraq did not bring good results for the economic market of U.S. Its consequences were seen in the stock market where Intel share went down from $26 to $20 in October 2001. The 60% downfall of shares was a big concern for company’s prestige. A tremendous internal organizational pressure was recorded in the possession of CEO Craig Barrett due to his thrive for change and innovation. The objectives of Barrett were to achieve employee’s job satisfaction and better customer services, but this whole idea turned out differently. Job rotation of 80% of the Micro processing Unit staff created uncertainty in job roles and responsibilities. The idea of Barrett was that employees would know about company’s diverse operations by adapting

Anaesthesia and Associated Infection: An Unrecognized Source

Anaesthesia and Associated Infection: An Unrecognized Source Hospital acquired infections (HAIs) are preventable diseases and place anenomrous socio-economic burden on economy. It is well established that intensive care units (ICU) are epicenters of cross infections and bacterial resistance, but a little is known about the role of anaesthesia atmosphere in this process. Intraoperative environment due to several reasons serves as risk factor for HAIs. [1-3] Immune suppression associated with general anaesthesia, aerosolized particles and healthcare tools used within the anaesthesia workstation area, may also be linked with development of HAIs [4]. There is high probability of patient contamination during the practice of anaesthesia due to rapid patient care combined with frequent contact with potential sources of bacterial transmission. HAIs are more common in countries with poor socioeconomic status where disposable or single use only items are re-used many times. Hospital acquired infections caused by various infectious organisms including ba cteria, virus, fungi and parasites, all of which flourish on suitable reservoirs, such as medical equipment. Precautions are recommended for all patients regardless of their diagnosis or presumed infectious status when there is a possibility of contact with blood, body fluids, non-intact skin and mucus membranes. Preventive measures should be based on the likelihood of an infectious agent being present, the nature of the agent and possibility of dispersion. A standard set of precautions should be established for every invasive procedure with additional risk assessment of each patient. FACTOR RESPONSIBLE FOR CROSS INFECTION Intravascular catheter Stopcocks used for injection of medication, administration of intravenous (IV) infusions, and collection of blood samples represent a potential portal of entry for microorganism into vascular access catheters. Stopcocks should be capped when not being used. â€Å"Piggyback† systems (a side port on a primary infusion set) are used as an alternative to stopcocks but also have risk of infection. Modified piggyback systems have the potential to prevent contamination at these sites. Use of needleless connectors or mechanical valves appears to be effective in reducing connector colonization as compared with standard stopcocks. To reduce intravascular catheter related infection change needleless components of catheter at least every 72 hour, minimize leaks and breaks in the system, scrubbing the access port with an appropriate antiseptic and accessing the port only with sterile devices. Contamination of drugs Drugs and fluids need safe handling by anaesthesiologist and should follow protocols for preparation and administration to prevent contamination. Infusion setswith side port (preferably needle-free Luer injection devices)for drug administration and self-collapsible intravenous fluid bags, so no need of air venting which prevent entry of air born infectious particles into fluids. Connection and injection ports in intravenous lines should be kept least.Prepared syringes and needles should be kept in a clean sterile container and capped. Care must be taken when drawing drugs. Single used ampules should be discarded after required amount of drug is drawn up and not re-used for next patients. Syringes and needles must not be used for multiple patients once connected to a patient’s vascular lines or infusions. Injection port kept free of blood and covered with a cap when not in use. After use all syringes and needles should be discarded into an approved sharp container. Unsafe use and disposal of sharps Inadvertent injury or inoculation with infected blood is an occupational hazard and present a significant risk to anaesthesiologist. These are mainly caused by needles during venipuncture, drug administration and during recapping of needles. These should be prevented by adhering to guidelines and standards regarding this. Sharps must not be transferred between personnel and handling should be kept minimum. Needle must not be bent or broken prior to use or disposal. Movement within the theater complex Restricted movement in and out of operating theater reduces airborne contamination. Door should be closed and eatable items should not be allowed inside O.T complex. Patient’s dress should be changed before transferring to O.T complex. Visitors should change into theater suits and wear designated footwear. Order of patients Patients likely to disperse microbes and at risk to others should be scheduled last in the operating list. In between successive patients, transmissions of infection are airborne or on surfaces and object that have been contact with patients. Cleaning of the operating theater between all patients should be undertaken. When there is visible contamination with blood or others body materials, the area must be disinfected according to local protocols and then cleaned with detergent and water. Floors of the operating room should be disinfected at end of each session. Anesthetic equipment Either by direct contact with patients or indirectly via splashing, by secretion or from handling anaesthetics equipment may become contaminated. All used equipment’s or its parts must be assumed to be contaminated and disposed of or, if reusable, undergo a process of decontamination. Areas of anaesthetics machine and monitoring equipment which are touched by gloved hand that has been in contact with blood or secretion, should be regarded as contaminated and should be cleaned as early as possible. Equipment that touches intact skin or not touches the patient at all but visibly contaminated is cleaned at the end of day or whenever visibly contaminated. This includes non-invasive blood pressure cuffs and tubing, pulse oximeter probes and cables, stethoscopes, electrocardiographic cablesetc. Oxygen mask and tubing should be single-patient use products. If reused it must be cleaned and sterilized if possible or according to manufacturer’s instructions. Anaesthetic face masks are usually in contact with intact skin; these are frequently contaminated by secretions from patients and have been implicated in causing cross infection.[5]Airways and tubes readily contaminated with transmissible organism and blood and should be single-use type.[6, 7] Supra-glottic airways commonly used are re-usable design; therefore they should be sterilized but no more often than the manufacturer recommends. A supraglottic airway used for tonsillectomy or adenoidectomy should not be used again (due to risk of Prion Disease). Laryngoscope blades are regularly contaminated with blood due to penetration of mucous membranes, which places these items into a high–risk category.[8] Decontamination and disinfection between patients are ineffective, leaving residual contamination that has been implicated as source of cross infection.[9, 10] So proper cleaning of laryngoscope blades is important before decontamination /sterilization particularly around light sources or articulated section. ForAnaesthetic machinesManufacturers cleaning and maintenance policesshould be followed, and bellows, unidirectional valves and carbon dioxide absorbers should be cleaned and disinfected periodically. Bacterial/viral filter is used between patient and circuit to prevent air born transmission of microorganism. Surfaces of anaesthesia machines should be cleaned on daily basis with an appropriate disinfectant.Anaesthesia breathing system actsas important reservoir for microorganism if used for longer period or used without filter. It is recommended that an appropriate filter should be placed between the patient and breathing system for each new patient. It is claimed that hydrophobic filters have better performance than most electrostatic filters, the clinical relevance yet to be established. [11, 12] Departments may follow the manufacturer’s recommendations for use but if visibly contaminated or used for highly infectious case, the circuit should be changed between patients and safely discarded. Bougies re-use has been associated with cross infection.[13]Gum elastic bougie may be disinfected up to five times or according to manufacturer recommendation and stored in a sealed packet. Preferably single-use intubation aids are employed when possible. INFECTIOUS COMPLICATION OF REGIONAL ANAESTHESIA Infectious complication of regional anaesthesia includes abscess formation, necrotizing fasciitis, meningitis, arachnoiditis which can lead to paralysis and death. The rate of spinal- epidural abscess or meningitis occurrence has been reported to be 1:10000 to 1:40000.[14, 15]Potential routes might be contaminated syringes, catheter hubs, local anaesthetics or breaches in aseptic technique.The suggested mechanism of hematogenous infection of central nervous system caused by subarachnoid or epidural puncture might be an accidental vessel puncture lead to introduction of blood into the intrathecal space. Staphylococcus aureus is the organism most commonly associated epidural abscess and often this infection occurred in patient with impaired immunity. Meningitis follows dural puncture is typically caused by alpha-hemolytic streptococci, with the source of organism the nasopharynx of the anaesthesiologist. [14] WHAT IS THENEED? Anesthesiologist’s are insensitive regarding prevention of infection in anaesthesia atmosphere in many institution of our country. Excessive movement in Operation Theater complex, drug bags or edible items in operative room and poor compliance with cap and mask by anaesthesiologist are also contributing factors. Equipment’s are used repeatedly without cleaning/sterilization e.g. Face mask, ventilator circuit, bougie, tubes etc. Stress should be given on preventive medicine in medical and nursing curriculum. Irrespective of specialty infection prevention should be a part of the teaching curriculum. Hospital must dedicate time to re-educating and re-training their staff in infection prevention. Various studies shows that, in spite of increase in knowledge scores regarding infection prevention, doctors were least compliant of the HCW in infection control practices. [16, 17] Early detection with surveillance and screening are the important step in the prevention of hospital acquired infections. Prevention of cross infection is by isolating the affected patients, educating the public/ healthcare professionals, appropriate use of antibiotics, meticuloushand hygiene and appropriate cleaning and decontamination of the environment and medical equipment Three main techniques are important to prevent infection transmission from provider to the patients. These include aseptic practice, proper hand hygiene, and appropriate barrier techniques are recommended by Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. References Madar R, Novakova E, Baska T. The role of non-critical health-care tools on the transmission of nosocomial infection. Bratisl Lek Listy 2005;106:348-50. Maslyk PA, Nafziger DA, Burns SM, Bowers PR. Microbial growth on anaesthesia machine. AANA J 2002; 70:53-6. Lessard MR, Trepanier CA, Gourdeau M, Denault PH. A microbiological study of contamination of the syringes used in anaesthesia practice. Can J Anaesth 1988;35:567-9. Hajjar J, Girard R. Surveillance of nosocomial infections related to anaesthesia. A multicenter study. Ann Fr Anesth Reanim 2000,19:47-53 MacCallum FO, Noble WC. Disinfection of anaesthetic face masks. Anaesthesia 1960; 15: 307. Miller DH, Youkhana I, KarunaratneWU,Pearce A. Presence of protein deposits on cleaned re-usable anaesthetic equipment. Anaesthesia 2001; 56: 1069–72. Chrisco JA, Devane G. A descriptive study of blood in the mouth following routine oral endotracheal intubation. Journal of American Association of Nurse Anesthetists 1992;60:379-83. Phillips RA, Monaghan WP. Incidence of visible and occult blood on laryngoscope blades and handles. Journal of American Association of Nurse Anesthetists 1997;65:241-6. Ballin MS, McCluskey A, Maxwell S, Spilsbury S. Contamination of laryngoscopes. Anaesthesia 1999;54:1115-6. Esler MD, Baines LC, Wilkinson DJ, Langford RM. Decontamination of laryngoscopes: a survey of national practice. Anaesthesia 1999;54:587-92. Wilkes AR. Breathing system filters. British Journal of Anaesthesia. CEPD Review. 2002;2:151-4. Wilkes AR, Benbough JE, Speight SE, Harmer M. The bacterial and viral filtration performance of breathing system filters. Anaesthesia 2002;55:458-65. 33- Jerwood DC, Mortiboy D. Disinfection of gum elastic bougies. Anaesthesia 1995;50:376. Horlocker T T, Wedel D J. Infectious complication of regional anaesthesia. Best Pract Res Clin Anaesthesiol 2008;22:451-75. Moen V, Dahlgren N, Irestedt L. Severe neurological complications after central neuraxial blocksdes in Sweden 1990-1999.Anaesthesiology 2004;101:950-9. Gupta A, Kapil A, Lodha R, Sreenivas V. Knowledge, attitude and practice towards infection control among healthcare professionals. Nat Med J India 2013;19:76-81. Suchitra JB, Lakshmi Devi N. Impact of education on knowledge, attitudes and practices among various categories of health care workers on nosocomial infections. Indian J Med Microbiol 2007;25:181-7

Age Ain’t Nothing But a Number Essay -- Essays Papers

Age Ain’t Nothing But a Number During the last thirty years, there has been an increase in violent crimes committed by minors. In many of these cases, the minors are faced with harsher charges than what the law declares, such as being charged as adults. The majority of the United States justifies the age 18 as when an individual is no longer considered a minor. Yet, in the past ten years, the United States has seen the age of individuals being charged as adults drop. For example, in 1993, Nathan Dunlap a seventeen year-old from my hometown Aurora, Colorado was sentenced to the death penalty and eight years later, twelve year-old Lionel Tate of Fort Lauderdale, Florida was charged with life in prison. Currently the United States government has established age requirements for a minor to be charged as an adult because it is a â€Å"quick and ready pragmatic definition† (Overton 109). However, a simple age limit is not the proper method in determining charges against an individual. Since each American has a different mindset due to their experiences, upbringings, and morals, our laws should reflect that diversity. The court system of the United States should replace the method of using the chronological age of a minor to their mental age when determining the charges against an individual, because it is the state of one’s mentality that leads them to commit a crime. During the late eighteen-hundreds, the U.S. added a branch of law that specifically focused on juveniles. The location of the nation’s first juvenile court for children under the age of 16 opened in 1899 in Chicago, Illinois. The purpose of the juvenile court was to rehabilitate criminals instead of prosecuting them as adults. The social reformers that propos... ...rd ed. New York: Arnold Publishers, 1999. 16-53. - â€Å"History of Intelligence Testing†. IQTest. Google. 4 Feb. 2005 . - â€Å"Interview with Deborah Yurgelum-Todd†. Frontline: Inside the Teenage Brain. 2002. PBS.org. 6 Feb. 2005 . - â€Å"Interview with Jay Giedd, M.D.†. Frontline: Inside the Teenage Brain. 2002. PBS.org. 6 Feb 2005 . - McKibben, Ginny. â€Å"Court Files Hold Details of Slayings Accounts of Dunlap’s ‘Confession’.† The Denver Post. 1 Jan. 1996. ProQuest. 28 Jan. 2005 . - Overton, Willis F. â€Å"Chapter 3: Developmental Psychology: Philosophy, Concepts, and Methodology†. Handbook of Children Psychology. 5th ed. Ed. William Damon. New York: John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 1998. 109. Age Ain’t Nothing But a Number Essay -- Essays Papers Age Ain’t Nothing But a Number During the last thirty years, there has been an increase in violent crimes committed by minors. In many of these cases, the minors are faced with harsher charges than what the law declares, such as being charged as adults. The majority of the United States justifies the age 18 as when an individual is no longer considered a minor. Yet, in the past ten years, the United States has seen the age of individuals being charged as adults drop. For example, in 1993, Nathan Dunlap a seventeen year-old from my hometown Aurora, Colorado was sentenced to the death penalty and eight years later, twelve year-old Lionel Tate of Fort Lauderdale, Florida was charged with life in prison. Currently the United States government has established age requirements for a minor to be charged as an adult because it is a â€Å"quick and ready pragmatic definition† (Overton 109). However, a simple age limit is not the proper method in determining charges against an individual. Since each American has a different mindset due to their experiences, upbringings, and morals, our laws should reflect that diversity. The court system of the United States should replace the method of using the chronological age of a minor to their mental age when determining the charges against an individual, because it is the state of one’s mentality that leads them to commit a crime. During the late eighteen-hundreds, the U.S. added a branch of law that specifically focused on juveniles. The location of the nation’s first juvenile court for children under the age of 16 opened in 1899 in Chicago, Illinois. The purpose of the juvenile court was to rehabilitate criminals instead of prosecuting them as adults. The social reformers that propos... ...rd ed. New York: Arnold Publishers, 1999. 16-53. - â€Å"History of Intelligence Testing†. IQTest. Google. 4 Feb. 2005 . - â€Å"Interview with Deborah Yurgelum-Todd†. Frontline: Inside the Teenage Brain. 2002. PBS.org. 6 Feb. 2005 . - â€Å"Interview with Jay Giedd, M.D.†. Frontline: Inside the Teenage Brain. 2002. PBS.org. 6 Feb 2005 . - McKibben, Ginny. â€Å"Court Files Hold Details of Slayings Accounts of Dunlap’s ‘Confession’.† The Denver Post. 1 Jan. 1996. ProQuest. 28 Jan. 2005 . - Overton, Willis F. â€Å"Chapter 3: Developmental Psychology: Philosophy, Concepts, and Methodology†. Handbook of Children Psychology. 5th ed. Ed. William Damon. New York: John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 1998. 109.

Human Resources Issues in Mining

Human Resource Strategies 660 Monday, Trimester 1 2011, 18th April Assignment 3 HR Case Analysis at Workplace Word Count:2500 I. Introduction The Global Financial Crisis (GFC) in 2008 affected lots of industries including the miners. Employment in mining is particularly vulnerable to a cycle of rapid expansion and contraction, as changing economic circumstances cause demand and prices for certain commodities to rise or fall. Eventually the GFC resulted in lots of labour cutbacks in the resource industry (Australian Government, 2009).The key human resources (HR) challenges facing the West Australian mining industry for the next few years are considered to be: replacing retirees; the retention of key talent; growing the talent pool training and development; and keeping staff motivated (Dickie and Dwyer, 2010). On the other hand the WA Chamber of Minerals & Energy (CME, 2006) identified a number of HR strategic issues for the WA resource sector like; skills shortage, employee attraction and retention, flexible workplace practices, indigenous employment opportunities and community-regional services.The company I work for decided to go through downsizing in order to reduce the operating costs during GFC. This article aims to delineate several HR issues as a result of global downsizing process in the organisation. The main focus will be sudden redundancies, decrease in motivation, labour shortage, health and safety issues and recruitment of new employees. Since several HR issues are interrelated to each other, with the purpose of this article, the main focus will be mainly on downsizing policy and its short and long term effects in the organisation. II. The Downsizing Policy and Its EffectsOrganizational downsizing is a prevalent strategy designed to improve organizational performance while selectively decreasing costs. It refers to â€Å"an organizational decision to reduce the workforce in order to improve organizational performance† (Kozlowski et al. , 1993 ). Therefore stemming from the desire to become more efficient and effective, firms in both the private and the public sectors has adopted downsizing strategies (Cameron, 1987). Furthermore, the increasingly dynamic and competitive workplace and the trend toward globalization have prompted many firms to downsize (Appelbaum et. l, 1999). The GFC created considerable uncertainty, in the mining industry. In addition to the recruitment and retention issues, organisations were faced with trying to keep staff motivated at a time when more job losses were predicted and budgets became getting tighter (Dickie and Dwyer,2010). My current employer decided to go through global downsizing as a response to GFC. Fifty percent of the employees were made redundant and number of the projects was tremendously decreased due to the limited budget. The HR department played an active role in that period to manage the downsizing process.One of the strengths during this process was keeping good communicatio n between HR and the upper level managers. The process was completed with collaborative work between HR and management. The professional assist received from consultants involved improvement the employees’ self awareness levels, increase their motivation and confidence as well as creating effective CVs. However during downsizing process several HR related issues started to rise in the company. The employees who remained in the company lost their trust and motivation.Besides due to loss of skilled labour the productivity decreased and the incident numbers dramatically increased. The turn-over rates were high and the team dynamics were damaged. Eventually the sudden decision given by upper managerial level due to economical downturn resulted serious HR issues in the company. The downsizing process and its long and short term influences for this case study is summarised in Figure 1 below. Global Downsizing Global Financial Crisis HR Issues Redundancies Survival syndrome in remai ning employees Increased turn-over records Skills Shortage Increase number of injuries in the companyManagement of HR Issues Aggressive recruitment policy (overseas transfers, secondments , graduates) Employee Engagement Survey Re-evaluation of salary packages and staff benefits Job Analysis and Talent Assessment Improved Graduate Development Program Maintaining trainings and developments Improvement in Health and Safety System Figure 1. The HR Issues of company. II. A. Survival Syndrome Since company mainly focused on those who lost their jobs; the employees who remained in the company suffered more after redundancies. Employee resentment and concern, loss of morale was high among the remaining employees.The labour shortage created several issues for employees like job burnouts, working longer hours, increased pressure, and role overload and decrease morale. Unfortunately the bad influence of downsizing on the psychology of remaining employees was not well managed by HR department of the company. Brockner (1992) defines ‘the survivor syndrome’ as impact of downsizing on the remaining employees. There is considerable evidence that remaining employees feel shocked, embittered towards management, fearful about their future and guilty about still having a job whilst colleagues have been laid off.Such employees are more likely to have lower morale and increased stress levels, be less productive, and less loyal with increased quit levels. According to study 70 percent of senior managers who remained in downsized firms reported that morale, trust, and productivity declined after downsizing those who lose their jobs may seem the most affected by downsizing, it is more likely that the employees who remain suffer the more negative effects (Appelbaum et. al, 1999). Eventually the HR was not able to create good strategy to keep the remaining employees’ motivation high during downsizing process.Shook and Roth (2010) explained that failure to identify e mployee issues in the pre-downsizing due diligence phase creates a chaotic workplace atmosphere and increases employee fears and stress levels. These change events affect career uncertainty, fear, and stress in employees. Employees have long-term memories of their old comfortable culture and they fight to keep it. Employee resistance includes a variety of passive as well as aggressive techniques. Culture change may take years to complete and can be difficult to manage, even when HR is fully engaged and supported.These transitions are more difficult to manage when HR is not involved. In fact, culture change may never be fully realized without HR support because of the human resistance (Szabla, 2007). Furthermore due to limited professionals the remaining staff started to have difficulty to maintain the work and life balance. The consequences of imbalance between work and personal or family life were visible at the workplace. The emotional exhaustion, cynicism and burnouts were common . Unfortunately The HR department was not fully aware of the situation until the employee turnovers increased and also effectiveness decreased.With shortages of professionals and an active economy the pressures on existing employees looks set to rise and therefore this is an area which needs to be benchmarked and revisited with a view to adopting best practice throughout the sector (Wilkinson, 2008). II. B. Skills Shortage On the other hand downsizing affects employees’ affective commitment to the organization both directly and indirectly. However, its indirect impact is much stronger (Lee and Corbett, 2005). Apart form the short term sudden effects the long term effects of the downsizing started in the organisation.Working with less force resulted in company to have inadequate supply of talent, increasing number of health and safety incidents at workplace and delays in production due to limited talented labour force. Especially after the recent mining boom, the company decid ed to increase the number of production activities in spite of limited skilled labour. It is a big challenge nowadays to find the specialised professionals in the mining industry. Apparently the HR division and management team chosen to concentrate on short-term needs rather than the organisation’s long term eeds during GFC. Sheaffer et. al (2009) claim that whereas downsizing affects the short-term performance of larger and established companies positively, it generally affects long-term performance inversely. A common mistake for HR managers is to concentrate on short-term replacement needs rather than on the organisation’s long-range HR requirements. Such a non-strategic approach causes management to be caught unawareness by changes in employee availability and quality of labour, creates a series of short-term dilemmas.Stone also adds that of the right numbers of qualified and skilled employees are not available, an organisation may not be able to meet its strategic business objectives (Stone, 2010). The mining companies are now beginning to acknowledge that the current supply shortage is already impacting the productivity, efficiency and profitability of their operations. The shortage of skilled workers in combination with high turn-over rates are among the top factors impacting industry growth, either by stopping or delaying projects that would otherwise proceed, or by significantly adding to the cost of new projects (Schultz and Grimm, 2008).During boom times, mining companies find it difficult to attract staff, even though huge salaries are on offer. This highlights a challenge quite unique to mining; namely, attracting highly skilled people to the remote location of most mine sites (Ednie, 2004). Eventually the skills shortage is still one of the biggest issues in the organisation. Since most of the experienced (high-cost) employees were made redundant company faces challenges in finding the experienced professionals. The HR department st arted the recruitment process however the mining market is still sparse of skilled professionals in specific roles.This is one of the biggest challenges for the HR department. II. C. Health and Safety Issues Poor occupational health and safety (OHS) performance equates with poor human resource management (HRM), and poor ethical, legal and social responsibility (Stone, 2010). Since the mining boom hit the market recently the mining organisations increased their production activities in order to compete among the resource market. However the number of the staff stayed same while the number of projects was tremendously increasing. This lead to enhance health and safety related incidents at work place.Specifically in this case during the downsizing process most experienced staff with extensive safety culture made redundant. This created a big gap in management of health and safety issues in the company. When employees leave, they take valuable process knowledge, customer and supplier re lationships and a host of organizational know-how with them (Schultz and Grimm, 2008). The inexperienced new employees (i. e graduates, overseas staff) have difficulty in implementing the high quality safety standards due to their sparse knowledge about the safety system of the organisation.Therefore increased emphasis on HR management is particularly important to the development of safety culture in the organisation. On the other hand once the crisis in the division was more visible due to increased number of incidents and low quality work the HR department started to take active role in collaboration with upper management. The pro-active recruitment strategy implemented in order to attract more skilled employees. Moreover â€Å"global employee engagement survey† was performed in order to evaluate the current employee’s satisfaction and asses the major HR related issues at that time.This survey added tremendous value to the group to define the major problems in the or ganisation. The HR department in collaboration with upper managers performed well by initiating extensive survey and also by following up the survey results. III. Improvement in HR Strategies Successive HR planning is essential in order to solve any HR issues at the workplace. During the downsizing process HR department has an important role. Chadwick et al. (2004) indicates that downsizing is more likely to be effective in the longer term when accompanied by accompanied by practices that reinforce the contribution of HR to financial success (e. . , extensive communication, respectful treatment of redundant employees and attention to survivors concerns over job security). Levin (2009) identified three broad priorities in Australian businesses: (1) Retention strategies. (2) Downsizing or â€Å"Right sizing† activity will continue. (3) Organisations need to continue to invest in their people. In a downturn economy, HR practitioners need to be emphasising to their organisations that it is necessary to do the right thing for the long-term value and sustainability of the business (Levin,2009).This includes recognising the link between leadership and performance, and hence ensuring that leadership talent is retained, developed and, most importantly, allowed to lead through the tough times (HRL, 2009). Based on the literature survey several strategies are proposed in this section to manage the previously defined critical HR issues: A. Investment in HR systems in the organisation: Especially during the global decisions the HR should be in collaboration with all levels of management.Alignment between the business and human resource management (HRM) strategy is the key factor of success for organisations (Wylie,2005 and Wang and Shyu, 2008). Implementing proactive HRM practices and succession planning programs should be one of the targets. B. Gap Analysis: Clear understanding of the problems is severe in HR practice. In order to manage the ‘survivor syndrom e’ HR should focus on motivation of remaining employees. The department can make detailed gap analysis and survey in order to assess the staff morale and expectations. This should be followed by upper management actions.C. Optimising Human Capital: Mining companies needed to communicate the reasons for staff redundancies and budget cutbacks and engage their staff in decisions going forward in order to generate trust among their remaining workforce so that they could remain competitive once the economy improved. HR should create serious strategies in order to make people connected to the organisation (Dickie and Dwyer, 2010). D. Talent Assessment: The employee talent assessment in collaboration with HR and line managers will address the current skills gap in the organisation.This will also give good understanding about the skills and expectations of the current staff. E. Training and Career Development: Developing a collaborative, cross-industry strategy for training/education al programs and employer-provided training to facilitate the availability of a skilled labour force is one of the retention strategies. Company should actively support and enhance the people skills and relational abilities of all employees through training and development programs (Dickie and Dwyer, 2010).With this perspective well structured graduate and mentoring program also can be attractive especially for the Gen Y workers. F. Focus on improvements in leadership: Training managers to actively manage retention in their areas also adds value. Besides the leadership competencies of the management should be improved ino der to solve the current challenge. Pick et. al (2010) proposes action reflection learning (ARL) methodology as an HR tool to improve the skills of leaders in the organisation. G. Improvement in Health and Safety: The current safety culture should be measured by HR.Sexton et al (2006) describes Safety Attitude Questionnaire (SAQ) as an HR tool which helps to measure the team work climate, job satisfaction, perceptions of management, safety climate, working conditions and stress recognition. Also learning from incidents as well as improved safety system should be managed by HR. On the other hand visible leadership and supervising on sites should be maintained to assist the new employees. H. Growing the Talent Pool: Since it is a big challenge to attract the best employees in the market, employee benefit offerings such as full medical, dental, profit sharing and wellness programs could be effective.Attractive packages in a work culture with a family-oriented atmosphere need to be developed. Recruitment strategies should be improved to persuade the skilled specialists in the market. I. Communication: The mostly effective companies have two-way communication between senior leaders and employees. A good communication plan on how to deliver HR initiatives would be beneficial (Dickie and Dwyer,2010). IV. Conclusion Since mining operations operate wit h a finite resource, often remote locations, require specialised skills, with high capital intensity and are subject to political, social and environmental global issues.Downsizing policies will be choice of the organisations in the market with plunging commodity prices and falling demand (Dickie and Dwyer,2010). Strong HR strategy creating a link between leadership and performance is a key factor to cope with these trends in the resource sector. References Appelbaum, S. H. , A. , Everard, and L. T. S. , Hung. 1999. Strategic downsizing:critical success factors. Management Decision, 37(70): 535-552. http://www. emeraldinsight. com. dbgw. lis. curtin. edu. au Brockner, J. 1992. Managing the Effects of Layoffs on Survivors, California Management Review. (34): 9-27.Cameron, K. S. , D. A. , Whetten, and M. U. , Kim. 1987. Organizational dysfunctions of decline, Academy of Management Journal, 30: 126-38. Chadwick, C. , L. W. , Hunter, and S. L. , Walston. 2004. Effects of Downsizing Prac tices on the Performance of Hospitals, Strategic Management Journal, 25(5):405–427. CME . 2006. Australia Strategic Management Issues Facing WA in 2007 and beyond, Chamber of Minerals & Energy, Perth. Department of Resources Energy and Tourism, Australian Government, 2009. Our people: Demographics, workforce and Indigenous Participation. Enhancing Australia’s Economic Prosperity. ttp://www. ret. gov. au/energy Dickie, C. , and Dwyer, J. 2010. A 2009 perspective of HR practices in Australian mining. Journal of Management Development. 30(4):329-343. Ednie, H. 2004. Innovative solutions for mining’s human resource challenges, CIM Bulletin, 97(1076):9. HRL. 2009. How HR Can Revive to Survive, Human Resources Leader, Chatswood. Kozlowski, W. J. S. ,G. T. , Chao, E. M. , Smith, and J. , Hedlund. 1993. Organizational downsizing: strategies, interventions, and research implications, International Review of Industrial and Organizational Psychology, 8: 263-317.Levin, A. 2 009. HR Priorities in 2009: The Landscape Continues to Change, Brisbane. http://www. astorlevin. com Lee, J. , and J. M. Corbett. 2005. The impact of downsizing on employees’ affective commitment, Journal of Managerial Psychology,21(3):176-199. Pick, D. , K. ,Dayaram and B. Butler. 2010. Regional development and global capitalism:the case of the Pilbara, Western Australia, Society and Business Review, 5(1):99-110. http://www. emeraldinsight. com. dbgw. lis. curtin. edu. au Schultz, R. and M. , Grimm. 2008.Recruitment and Retention Challenges in the Mining Industry, MRC-Business Consulting Services. http://mining. com Sexton, J. B. , R. L. Helmreaich, T. B. Neilands, K. Rowan, K. Vella, J. Boyden. , et al. 2006a. The safety attitudes questionmnaire:Pschometric properties, benchmarking data, and emerging research. BMC Health Services Research, 6(1): 1-44. Sheaffer,Z. , A. Carmeli, M. S. , Revivo, and S. Zionit. 2009. Dwonsizing strategies and organisational performance:a longit udinal study, Management Divison, 47(6):950-974. http://www. emeraldinsight. com. dbgw. lis. curtin. edu. au/Shook, L. V. , and G. Roth. 2010. Downsizings, mergers, and acquisitions –Perspectives of human resource development practitioners, Journal of European Industrial Training. 35(2):135-153. http://www. emeraldinsight. com. dbgw. lis. curtin. edu. au Stone, R. J. (2008) â€Å"Managing Human Resources† 3rd Edition, Brisbane: John Wiley & Sons. Szabla, D. 2007. A multidimensional view of resistance to organizational change: exploring cognitive, emotional, and intentional responses to planned change across perceived leadership strategies, Human Resource Development Quarterly, 18( 4):525-58.Wang, D. and C. , Shyu. 2008. 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Movie “The Blind Side” Essay

I have selected the movie; â€Å"The Blind Side†, it is the true story of Michael Oher, a homeless teenager who was able to overcome great obstacles in order to become a first round draft pick in the NFL. Michael Oher had a rough childhood as he didn’t know his father and his mother was addicted to drugs. He was in and out of foster homes and at times living on the street. The football coach at Wingate, a private school, saw football potential in Michael and got him admitted into the prestigious school. However, he had learning disabilities and still did not have a permanent home. Leigh Anne Tuohy, the mother of a Wingate student, and wife of the owner of several Taco Bell restaurants, finds out about Michael’s predicament and invites him to stay the night at their home. Once Michael is in the Tuohy home, a close relationship develops between him and the Tuohys. The one night stay turns into a permanent living situation for Oher. Leigh Anne makes it her personal mission to make sure Michael has everything he needs emotionally and academically to graduate from high school and to get admitted to Ole Miss. After a successful college football campaign, Oher was drafted by the Baltimore Ravens in the first round in 2009, thus fulfilling his dream. This movie has it all. As you watch it, you experience the emotions of both sadness and joy, as you watch this young man go from being homeless to being drafted in the first round of the 2009 NFL draft.