How policies and procedures help children Essay Example for Free

How policies and procedures help children Essay Discuss how policies and procedures help children and young people and their families whilst the child is being looked after. In this essay I am going to discuss 6 policies and their procedures whist a child is being looked after. I am going to expand on why this is important for the child parent or legal guardian and also why they are put in place. Firstly I am going to discuss the Safeguarding Policy. Safeguarding Policy Safeguarding is the policy that describes the function of protecting adults and children from abuse or neglect. It is an important shared priority of many public services, and a key responsibility of local authorities.Safeguarding relates to the need to protect certain people who may be in vulnerable circumstances. These are people who may be at risk of abuse or neglect, due to the actions (or lack of action) of another person usually their parent or carer. In these cases, it is critical that services work together to identify people at risk, and put in place interventions to help prevent abuse or neglect, and to protect Safe guarding helps make sure the people whom are protecting the children are correctly checked for example a CRB is mandatory when looking after a vulnerable child. What is a DBS check and why is it needed? Since March 2002, the Criminal Records Bureau has enabled employers to check the criminal records of employees and potential employees, in order to ascertain whether or not they are suitable to work with vulnerable adults and children. For individuals working in certain positions, a valid DBS disclosure is a legislative requirement. The Disclosure and Barring Service also manage lists of individuals who are barred from working with children and adults. New safeguarding regulations introduced in October 2009 place an obligation on employers, social services and professional regulators to notify the DBS of relevant information. This obligation ensures that individuals who pose a threat to vulnerable groups can be barred from working with them. It also makes it a criminal offence for these individuals to apply to work with these groups and for employers to knowingly employ them. This makes sure the child is safe whilst being cared for by a  professional or a carer whom isnt their parent or legal guardian. It is also important so the parents or carers know the child is in safe hands whilst being cared for out of their control. Recording and Handling Information Policy Recording and handling data is important when looking after children for example whilst a child is in school all their documents must be kept confidential in case any of the other children or irrelevant staff members read or disclose any confidential information. The only time data or information about child should be revealed is if the child is at risk or in danger. Then the relevant person can inform the carer or relevant person to make sure the child is kept safe. Keeping childrens medical records safe is also important in case they ever need reviewed or used in case of emergency. Health and Safety Policy This policy promotes making sure the child is kept safe and in a safe environment for example there are a few policies put in place to make sure this is possible. They are RIDDOR  (Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations) This is an assessment that must be put in place and a report filed upon if a child is injured in school or any other official place of work. For parents or carers this makes sure it is dealt with and supported correctly it also keeps children safe. COSHH (Control of Substances Hazardous to Health) This is similar to the RIDDOR policy I have expanded on above. All people taking care of the child must make sure all harmful substances are kept away from the child to prevent serious or injury or death. Risk Assessments. Risk assessments are carried out everywhere a child is looked after to make sure the environment and building is safe for the child to live or be taught in. This is a mandatory legal document especially in a school or care environment. This could put a parent or carers mind at risk knowing there child is safe. Health Policy It is a legal requirement that all children must get free healthcare throughout their childhood and adolescent life if needed for example medical care, dentistry care and mental support if needed. This helps support the child so they can stay healthy and get the right support they need. It also helps the parent so they don’t need to worry about the financial side as all this support is free. Education Policy Education is mandatory until you are 18 as of 2012. This is so children don’t fall out of education at 16. You can go down many routes when leaving school for example college, sixth form, training or apprentiships. There is also a legal standard of education in the United Kingdom that must be followed, there are 224 policies within 1 policy itself for education ranging from Reducing violent and gun crime to Reforming qualifications and the curriculum to better prepare pupils for life after school. Having policies in place makes sure that children get the right standard of education and that parents and carers can go out to work whilst their children are at school to make sure they can give their children the best standard of life. It also sets the child up for a good standard of life with good qualifications and life skills. Play Policy When children are in education especially primary school it is a legal requirement that they get break time and toys and equipment to use during this time. The best way for a child to learn is using exploratory learning and learning by trial and error. This is how a child learns life and social skills from a young age. When a child starts school this also gets them well adjusted to letting go from spending all their time with there parent or carer. Every Child Matters 1 Be Healthy 2 Stay Safe 3 Enjoy and Achieve 4 Make a Positive Contribution 5 Achieve Economic Wellbeing I believe that all they above policies shape a childs life and with the right guidance from parents, carers and education you can shape a decent outcome and setup for a childs life and development. Refrences. http://www.every-child-matters.org.uk/Framework_5_key_outcomes http://www.theguardian.com/politics/education http://www.playengland.org.uk/resources/national-play-policy.aspx https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/health-and-safety-advice-for-school https://www.gov.uk/disclosure-barring-service-check/overview

Knowledge Management: Concepts, Practices and Effects

Knowledge Management: Concepts, Practices and Effects Abstract Today Information Technology is gaining new heights with greater leaps. This enables new age managers to develop newer tools to manage business better. IT has not only expedited the intra and inter organizational communication but also enabled us to manage a lot of data effectively. Knowledge management is emerging as a key management tool for the new century. Although it can be defined in a variety of ways, the process of organizing knowledge in order to get a sustainable development can be termed as Knowledge management. It consists of identification, representation, distribution, application and utilization of available knowledge to get improved performance. Knowledge Management in a company is carried out by systematically organizing the intellectual capital to achieve its business goals. The intellectual capital means the companys intangible assets which increase its valuation. The Core competencies of a company go together with the sustainable competitive advantage. This report explains the process of Knowledge Management to bring in Competitive advantage in the Indian IT industry. It also elaborates on the methods on how innovation can be encouraged in the company. Further, the challenges for KM like resistance to culture change and tacit knowledge sharing are discussed. In India companies have started taking knowledge management as an important aspect as it not only gives a good working culture but also improves the return on investments eventually. However, there is still a good scope of improvement in the field of Knowledge management for the Indian IT industry. The research uses questionnaires and interpretations from interviews to collect primary data .Though it gives a comprehensive analysis, it leaves a further scope for research in the field. CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION Knowledge Management is relatively new buzz in the corporate world. It is a tool developed to safeguard the organization from competition in future. Apparently, the physical assets and tangible capacities are not sufficient to sustain a competitive advantage in todays market place. What make difference in the long run are the intangible assets, such as Brands, Intellectual property, knowledge etc. These assets can not be bought but have to be created within organization, by the members of organization over a period of time. Aim The aim of this report is to identify and analyse the concepts and current practices of Knowledge management in order to recommend ways of propelling innovation and competitive advantage within the companies. Objective The Research Objective is to Get a comprehensive idea of the current Knowledge Management practises. Identify and analyse the challenges faced by the organizations in implementing Knowledge Management Know the ways of how companies can propel innovation and competitive advantage. Recommendations in order to improve the company culture. Suggest the methods to attain sustainable competitive advantage handling the challenges faced. Key Questions The guiding principal of my research is as follows How do companies integrate KM with their company policies? How change should be initiated? What are the levels of hierarchy? When the change does actually happen? Is KM just for innovation, competitive advantage or more? Are rewards and recognition the way to drive KM? What are the basic challenges for KM? Research Approach The research philosophy is Positivism Philosophy that involves working with an observable social reality. The emphasis is on highly structured methodology to facilitate replication, and the end product can be law-like generalisations similar to those produced by the physical and natural scientists. (Saunders, 2000) This research contains mainly qualitative data collection methods for both primary and secondary data. Primary data was obtained by interviewing the key people of some of the IT companies in India. Questionnaire was designed to get the views of the employees working in the IT industry. Questionnaires were also designed and used to obtain primary data. The response of these questionnaires is being used in order to obtain a particular result in the form of percentage. The secondary data has been collected through books, journals, websites, etc. All of the research methods will be discussed in further detail in the relevant chapter. Research Outcomes The key outcome of this research would be a perfect understanding of the knowledge management practises and to know how companies use it in India for competitive advantage and innovation. Thus using this knowledge the researcher expects to identify main problems in the current trends and evaluate solutions for them. Finally, it also determines the difference between being a multinational corporation (MNC) and small to medium enterprise (SME) with respect to knowledge management. CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOGY This chapter describes the research methodology adopted for the report. To start with, this report elaborates on the research philosophy Positivism, moving on towards the various stages of research like primary and secondary data collection methods. The reasons behind selecting the particular method are also explained in the report. 2.1 Approach This report includes both primary and secondary data collected from various sources. Secondary data refers to data already collected by someone else and primary data is collected for a specific purpose by the researcher (Saunders, 2000).The research philosophy is Positivism Philosophy that involves working with an observable social reality. The emphasis is on highly structured methodology to facilitate replication, and the end product can be law-like generalisations similar to those produced by the physical and natural scientists. (Saunders, 2000) 2.1.1 Research Strategy: This research is based on the quantitative research strategy which involves collection of data from various sources. It also proposes to collect some primary data through interviews and questionnaires from people from the IT industry in India. A survey is a method whereby a sample of subjects is drawn from a population and studied to make analysis about the population. The survey strategy enables the researcher to collect a large amount of data in a highly efficient way. 2.1.2 Sample Size: For the interviews there was no such constraint of number of questions. The interviewees were asked questions in order to know the KM practices in their organization. In case of the questionnaires due to restrictions of time and access, only 500 questionnaires were distributed to various IT company employees. The reason for distributing the questionnaires to the employees from all the levels and department was to get a clear idea of how employees take the concept of Knowledge management at their workplace. 2.2 Research Stages 2.2.1 Secondary Data Collection: The first stage of the research was a critical literature review to obtain the secondary data. Secondary data collected includes the information and concepts from books, journals and websites based on Knowledge management, Organisational behaviour, Knowledge Integration etc. The list of various sources referred can be viewed from the relevant chapter of the report. Access to the books and journals was through Coventry University Library and electronic library databases like FAME, Engineering Village2 etc. Case studies of various companies as mentioned in the appendices were analysed by the researcher in order to get the relevant information and to decide on certain concepts considering them as the evidences. 2.2.2 Interviews: The second stage of the research was to interview some key people of various IT companies in India. Selection of these companies for the interview was done on the basis of how KM practices are being carried out there. These vary from the Market leaders to the new entrants in the IT industry. Many companies are such that they have been practising good KM processes since a long time, but a few have just started to get into it. This was done so because it gave researcher a clear idea of the current scenario in the Indian IT industry. Selecting the best companies alone would not have helped in introducing the scope of improvement for the research. The interviews were face to face interviews and the researcher has written down the important points from the session. The people who have been interviewed were mainly the Knowledge Management Executives in the companies. These were the people who knew exactly what processes are being practised in the company, so interviewing them was the best way to get the details about the KM practices in the companies. Their designations were like senior knowledge officers, Chief knowledge officers etc. Confidentiality was requested by the interviewees so company names are not mentioned anywhere. 2.2.3 Questionnaires: The final stage for primary data collection was through questionnaires. The questionnaires designed were distributed to the employees of junior level in the IT companies. It had just 10 questions but they were selected in such a way that the they would serve the main purpose of the survey to understand the current scenario in Indian IT industry among that class of employee by whom the KM practices are expected to follow. Questions selected were simple to answer so that the respondents are interested in answering till the end of the questionnaire. This also makes it possible to collect maximum responses. These questionnaires were not passed on to the management level or the KM people as the interviews were carried out with them. The researcher wanted to extract information from the employees in the Indian IT companies regarding their views about the Knowledge Management processes in their companies. This was also helpful in getting an overview of the facts about the how aware the Ind ian corporate world is in regards with knowledge management. CHAPTER 3: CRITICAL LITRATURE REVIEW 3.1 Introduction 3.1.1. What is knowledge? Definition of knowledge provided by Schulz (2001) beginning with the 1992 American Heritage Dictionary: ‘knowledge is what has been learned from experience or study. Knowledge is a broad concept that usually includes insights, interpretations, and information. Organizational knowledge refers to knowledge and information that all, part, or parts of the organization share, and that is frequently stored in standard operating procedures, routines, or rules. Today, knowledge has emerged and is accepted as the most critical resource available to an organization (Bartlett and Ghosal 1993, Davenport and Prusak 1995, Drucker 1993, Leonard-Barton 1992, Nonaka 1991, Nonaka and Takeuchi 1995, Nonaka et al. 2001, Stewart 1997 and 2001, Toffler 1990 and World Bank 1998). Knowledge can be defined as the understanding of a concept gained by education, experience or even by mere observation. To acquire knowledge means processing of information with the help of learning, communication, perception, reasoning and linking. It is the theoretical or practical understanding of information and facts which is obtained by correctly processing the raw data. Here arises the need to understand the difference between data, information and knowledge. Data is the collection of certain facts or values about a particular concept. Information is the processing done on data using relevant theory. The organization of data is nothing but information. The extraction of information on the basis of proper understanding is Knowledge. This can be further explained by considering an example of solving a quadratic equation. The variables are in the form of information, a value of the variable is data and the operation we carry out with them for calculating the answer is our knowledge. The following figure shows the DIKW (Data Information Knowledge Wisdom) hierarchy as stated by Clark, 2004. Figure 1: The DIKW hierarchy (Clark, 2004) Knowledge is generally personal, subjective and inherently local it is found â€Å"within the heads of employees† (www.ichnet.org/glossary.htm 2004) 3.1.2 Classification of Knowledge: Knowledge can be classified as: 1. Tacit Knowledge This type of knowledge is hard to formulate and communicate because it is gained by experience. Tacit knowledge is personnel and context specific. People carry tacit knowledge in their brain, thus it is not easy to share it. There is no systematic approach to store tacit knowledge as people are many times unaware of their tacit knowledge. However it is the most valuable form of knowledge as it is can be acquired only by experience and is not easily found written anywhere. 2. Explicit Knowledge Explicit knowledge is transmittable into a formal systematic language with the help of tacit knowledge. Thus, the codification of ones tacit knowledge results into explicit knowledge. Explicit knowledge can be in the form of books, manuals, notes, documents etc. The definition of some phenomenon is the explicit part whereas the practical understanding behind the phenomenon is tacit. 3. Embedded Knowledge The knowledge contained in some kind of physical form is known as embedded knowledge. For example the design of an artefact gives us the basic idea of where it can be used. 3.1.3 Knowledge Management. Knowledge management is defined as the process of getting the right information to the right people at the right time, and helping people create knowledge and share and act upon information in ways that will measurably improve the performance of organization and its partners. This means providing access to information at the time people need it to make the best decisions possible for mission safety and success. According to Wally Block of The Intranet Journal, the following points make up the generalized term: Knowledge Management. Knowledge management is the way that organizations create, capture and reuse knowledge to achieve organizational objectives. Knowledge management can also be defined as a process with four parts that comprise a loop. Knowledge is created. This happens in the heads of people. Knowledge is captured. It is put on paper in a report, entered into a computer system of some kind or simply remembered. Knowledge is classified and modified. The classification can be the addition of keywords; it may be indexing. Modification can add context, background or other things that make it easier to reuse later. The test of this steps success is to determine how easily people in the organization will be able to find and use the knowledge when they need it. Knowledge is shared. When knowledge is shared and used, its modified by the folks who use it. This takes us back to knowledge creation. The process of organizing knowledge in order to get a sustainable development can be termed as Knowledge management. It consists of identification, representation, distribution, application and utilization of available knowledge to get improved performance. Knowledge Management in a company is carried out by systematically organizing the intellectual capital to achieve its business goals. The intellectual capital means the companys intangible assets which increase its valuation. 3.2. Knowledge Creation: According to Nonaka â€Å"the key to knowledge creation lies in the mobilization and conversion of tacit knowledge†. The process of Knowledge creation is done my transformation of tacit and explicit forms thus giving rise to four forms of transformations. This can be further explained with the help of the following diagram: Fig: Nonakas Spiral model. Source: Nonaka, I.   (1991)   The knowledge creating company. Harvard Business Review, 69, (Nov-Dec) Tacit to Tacit: Socialization Team meetings are held to share the experiences of the team members. This provides everyone to share their ideas and also solution of similar problem in the past can be used. Tacit to Explicit: Externalization This can be done by having question answer sessions. Here the senior employees are capable of solving the queries of their juniors. Explicit to Explicit: Combination Sharing of documents is the best example of this type of transformation. The case studies, notes etc can be exchanged in order to have a faster creation of knowledge. Explicit to Tacit: Internalization Internalization can be done by reading and understanding documents prepared by others. Extracting knowledge from an e-mail received from a colleague is the best example of this. 3.3 Knowledge Capture 3.4 Knowledge Sharing The World Bark (1998) identifies and discusses the most important decisions that an organization must make in establishing its knowledge management program. These are: Deciding with whom to share; deciding what to share; deciding how to share; and deciding to share. 3.5 Learning Organization: A Learning Organization is one in which people at all levels, individually and collectively, are continually increasing their capacity to produce results they really care about. The learning organization focuses on enhancing its systems (including people) to continually increase the organizations capacity for performance. The concept of learning organization can be better understood by considering the following points: Development An organization learns many important aspects of business, skills and technology during the process of learning. For an organization to grow in a competitive world, it is very important to never let the learning process end. 3.5.2 Levels of learning: Aligning learning with corporate priorities Designing learning for maximum impact Using e-business technologies to enable formal and informal interactions Obtaining recognition by the entire organization that learning is a critical enabler to success Community of Practice Ardichvili, Page and Wentling (2003) study community of practice at Caterpillar Inc and find that when employees view knowledge as a public good belonging to the whole organization, it flows easily. However, even when individuals give the highest priority to the interest of the organization and of their community, they tend to shy away from contributing knowledge out of fear of criticism or misleading the community members. Trust increases knowledge sharing. Essex (2000) discusses a study titled .Beyond knowledge Management: New ways to Work and Learn undertaken by the Conference Board in New York in early 2000. It says that management support and corporate culture, not technology, drive successful KM projects. CHANGE what draws people to share varies from organization to organization and matches the core values and other processes. Alignment with the current culture and a practical purpose to share is, specifically, what draws people most strongly to share knowledge. (Blue http://gbr.sagepub.com/cgi/reprint/7/1/119) The concept of a community of practice (often abbreviated as CoP) refers to the process of social learning that occurs when people who have a common interest in some subject or problem collaborate over an extended period to share ideas, find solutions, and build innovations Communities of Action Communities of Circumstance Communities of Interest Communities of Position Communities of Purpose (Source: Shin and Bickel (2008) in Chris Kimble and Paul Hildreth (2008). Communities of Practice: Creating Learning Environments for Educators. Information Age Publishing) Obstacles Performance Management NECESSITY OF KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT A systematic capture, transfer, and use of internal and external know-how are a vital part of any business strategy. With no common processes for sharing information among employees, partners, and customers, limited information exchange will occur among suppliers and the engineering, manufacturing, and service functions. Consequently, the organization will experience ineffective design reuse, and product launch mistakes will be repeated. If there is no company standard expertise locator or people finder, then the inability to locate subject matter experts will result in lost opportunities, lost time, and being incapable of applying the right resources to significant problems. And with too many different systems, proposals, and pricing sheets, sales representatives cannot have access to information they need when they need it. This can prolong the sales cycle and lead to less-than-best sales solutions offered to the client With retirement and turnover, knowledge is walking out the door everyday. New hires do not have the benefit of past experiences and lessons learned, yet their time-to-competence needs to be compressed. Mergers and acquisitions result in two bodies of knowledge and expertise and two cultures that must assimilate quickly. Portals and e-business are drivers of knowledge management. People want information they can use and trust from a single point of access. Also, an often neglected point is that customers want access to your knowledge and to their business transactions with you. Another driving factor is e-learning. Firms now must know where and how knowledge is really being created and acquired. Knowledge management can set the framework for how learning fits into the overall picture of developing employees and making them productive. The key component of a good knowledge management system is the content itself. If the knowledge management system does not provide users with timely, accurate information, inform them of best practices, and link them to expertise, organizations will not realize the full value of their investment in the system. One of the key steps in the strategic design of knowledge management systems is identifying the information already in use within an organization.   Although, in theory, an effective knowledge management system is a central database of data, information, and knowledge contained within the organization, the act of actually creating, maintaining, and using such a central repository is a challenge in practical terms. One of the many benefits of knowledge management is the learning that occurs when a user takes a piece of information from one place, personally transforms it, and creates something new. Although the designers and developers of the knowledge management system can facilitate this type of learning by encouraging those who have the knowledge to capture it, and by designing a system that links end users to information that they might find helpful, neither the designers nor the developers could have planned or predicted such this particular act of learning. It happened informally, without the guidance of an instructor and without the suggestion of a designer.† (Carliner, section 1) Knowledge Management takes advantage of a companys information experience and expertise to serve customers better and respond quickly to changing marketing conditions. Successful companies build a corporate environment that fosters a desire for knowledge among their employees and that ensures its continual application, distribution and creation.   Less successful companies tend to take a top down approach: pushing knowledge to where it is needed.   Besides creating an environment that encourages knowledge pull, successful companies excel in applying, distributing, and creating knowledge.   (Hauschild, 2001) Companies link all their information together and build models that improve processes, product and customer relations.   Such companies understand that true knowledge management requires them to develop ways of making workers aware of those links and goes beyond infrastructure to touch almost every aspect of business. COMPONENTS OF KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT SYSTEM â€Å"The key component of a good knowledge management system is the content itself. If the knowledge management system does not provide users with timely, accurate information, inform them of best practices, and link them to expertise, organizations will not realize the full value of their investment in the system. One of the key steps in the strategic design of knowledge management systems is identifying the information already in use within an organization.   Although, in theory, an effective knowledge management system is a central database of data, information, and knowledge contained within the organization, the act of actually creating, maintaining, and using such a central repository is a challenge in practical terms. One of the many benefits of knowledge management is the learning that occurs when a user takes a piece of information from one place, personally transforms it, and creates something new. Although the designers and developers of the knowledge management system can facilitate this type of learning by encouraging those who have the knowledge to capture it, and by designing a system that links end users to information that they might find helpful, neither the designers nor the developers could have planned or predicted such this particular act of learning. It happened informally, without the guidance of an instructor and without the suggestion of a designer.† Knowledge Management takes advantage of a companys information experience and expertise to serve customers better and respond quickly to changing marketing conditions. Successful companies build a corporate environment that fosters a desire for knowledge among their employees and that ensures its continual application, distribution and creation.   Less successful companies tend to take a top down approach: pushing knowledge to where it is needed.   Besides creating an environment that encourages knowledge pull, successful companies excel in applying, distributing, and creating knowledge. Companies link all their information together and build models that improve processes, product and customer relations.   Such companies understand that true knowledge management requires them to develop ways of making workers aware of those links and goes beyond infrastructure to touch almost every aspect of business. ENTERPRISE KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT Enterprise knowledge management entails formally managing knowledge resources in order to facilitate access and reuse of knowledge, typically by using advanced information technology. KM is formal in that knowledge is classified and categorized according to a prespecified—but evolving—ontology into structured and semi structured data and knowledge bases. The overriding purpose of enterprise KM is to make knowledge accessible and reusable to the enterprise. Knowledge resources vary for particular industries and applications, but they generally include manuals, letters, summaries of responses to clients, news, customer information, competitor intelligence, and knowledge derived from work processes. A wide range of technologies are being used to implement KM systems: e-mail; databases and data warehouses; group support systems; browsers and search engines; intranets and internets; expert and knowledge-based systems; and intelligent agents. In artificial intelligence, knowledge bases are generated for consumption by so-called expert and knowledge-based systems, where computers use rule inference to answer user questions. Although knowledge acquisition for computer intervening is still important, most recent KM developments make knowledge available for direct human consumption or develop software that processes that knowledge. Historically, KM has been aimed at a single group—managers—through what has been generally referred to as an executive information system. An EIS contains a portfolio of tools such as drill-down access to databases, news source alerts, and other information— all aimed at supporting managerial decision making. More recently, however, KM systems are increasingly designed for entire organizations. If executives need access to information and knowledge, their employees are also likely to have an interest in and need for that information. In addition, KM technology is ideally suited for non management groups—such as customer support, where customer service requests and their solutions can be codified and entered into a database available to all customer service representatives. IMPLEMENTING KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT As organizations store an increasing amount of information and knowledge in data and knowledge warehouses and in data and knowledge bases, they are attempting to manage that knowledge in more efficient ways. Historically, organizational knowledge has been stored on paper and in peoples minds. Unfortunately, paper has limited accessibility and is difficult to update. And when people leave, they take most of their knowledge with them, so reuse is not always feasible. Thus, firms have moved to data and knowledge warehouses and to data and knowledge bases to improve accessibility, updatability, and achievability of data and knowledge. Data warehouses In many companies, one of the first KM tools is a data warehouse. A data warehouse acts as a central storage area—a warehouse—for an organizations transaction data. Data warehouses differ from traditional transaction databases in that they are designed to support decision making rather than simply efficiently capturing transaction data. Typically, data warehouses contain multiple years of transaction databases stored in the same database. Data warehouses are not updated on a transaction-by-transaction basis. Instead, the entire database is updated periodically. The size of data warehouses can be substantial. A leading bank in US has a 560-Gbyte data warehouse, for example, and MasterCard On-Line is a 1.2- Tbyte database available to member companies for a fee. With all the data accessible in one place, relationships between data elements can be more effectively explored. Users can browse the data or establish queries, though this type of analysis generally results only in knowledge for particular individuals. An alternative approach is to use a process called knowledge discovery to determine whether there is additional knowledge hidden in the data. Knowledge warehouses Rather than the kind of quantitative data typical of data warehouses, knowledge warehouses are aimed more at qualitative data. KM systems generate knowledge from a wide range of databases including Lotus Notes databases, data warehouses, work processes, news articles, external databases, Web pages (both internal and external), and people. Thus, knowledge warehouses are likely to be virtual warehouses where the knowledge is dispersed across a number of servers. In some cases, a Web browser can be used as an interface to a relational database. For example, Ford Research and Development uses a browsable Oracle database. The database contains manuals and design rules, specifications, and requirements. A

The emergence of sociology

The emergence of sociology What social forces were at work that led to the emergence of sociology in the late 18th and early 19th Century? Sociology can be defined as the study of societies and their development in terms of their political decisions, ethics, economic development, religion and laws. It consists of the organization of collections of human bodies into forms of social life. The end of the 18th century was marked by the French Revolution, the Enlightenment and the Industrial Revolution initiated in England. The purpose of this essay is to discuss these social forces in terms of their contribution towards the emergence of sociology. The three major factors which influence the emergence of sociology as a sphere of study began in the late eighteenth century with the French Revolution, the period known as the Enlightenment and the industrial revolution. Each one of these influences has contributed to what Karl Polanyi , the Austro-Hungarian philosopher termed the Great Transformation in his book of the same name, one of the results of this great transformation resulted in the emergence of the science of sociology. History began to change in 1789 when the French Revolution broke out followed by the Enlightenment the creation of a new framework of ideas about man, society and nature. In addition, further economic and social changes were brought forward with the industrial revolution firstly in England and then in the whole of Europe. The French revolution had lasted for ten whole years and was the first modern and ideological revolution of its kind. It had a great impact on society because it changed its structure. It managed to eliminate the social distinctions between people and the feudal society.The power shifted away from the Church and came to hands of the people. This was the first time people were seen as citizens. In addition to this, the clerical hierarchy which had existed until then gave up its rights and property. These changes had a historical, political and social impact in the entire of Europe and not just France.Plato and Aristotle had become exterminally manifest in the social and historical world as a consequence of the revolution in France. Additionally, the French Revolution brought significant changes to the family since it was followed by the Declaration of Human Rights which stated that all humans are born free and equal. Changes to family-related issues were also brought into force. At the same time the Church lost much of its tremendous influence and power, which devolved to the people. The clerical hierarchy that had existed until then gave up its rights and property. Civil marriage and divorce were established. Civil marriage was another way for people to project their doubts upon the Church. A couple blessed by God could now follow different paths in their lives with the divorce being established and accepted. Education and religion were also subject to changes.. The second major event, that took place during the late 18th and early 19th century, was Industrialisation. The Industrial Revolution began in England in 18th century (1870) and brought several changes in societies, shaping them in the form they are today. It was the major shift of technological, socioeconomic and cultural conditions in the late 18th and early 19th century that began in Britain and spread throughout the world (Wikipedia, Internet encyclopaedia). At the end of the 18th century the world was experiencing a rapid population growth which led to an economic boom. As the demand was increasing, more workers were needed to cover the increasing demand. Production of goods increased. This was a different type of work before Industrialisation people were working in a traditional forms. Technology brought significant changes in the work place which led to great improvement and efficiency. Machines were now helping people in production and thereby improving time efficiency and production volume as well as the conditions under which people worked. Technological changes included the use of iron and steel, new energy sources. These changes in technology improved both the quality of the products being produced as well as the work-conditions of the workers in production. Fewer efforts were now required by the workers in terms of producing a good. Technology also improved transportation and hence trade and commerce between countries. Markets expanded even more since goods and raw materials that were scarce in one country could be supplied from another. Machines became the symbols of the new society and humanity could be seen to be all working into this machine. In addition, the area of communication also saw great improvement during this time period and people could now travel easier and reach their destination quicker. In the past, the only method people could communicate between them was through letters. This way of communication however, was both time consuming and uncertain since the letters were often lost somewhere in between. Fortunately, during the late 18th and early 19th century letters could be delivered faster and new ways of communication were developed such as the telegraph. These improvements also brought people and societies closer to one another. People moved to the cities were the markets began to emerge. The Enlightenment was a significant contributing factor to the emergence of sociology in the late 18th and early 19th century. The Enlightenment is considered to be the source of critical ideas, such as the centrality freedom, democracy, and reason as primary values of society. It is the creation of a new framework of ideas about man, society and nature, which challenged existing conceptions rooted in a traditional world-view, dominated by Christianity (Hamilton,23). The Enlightenment was an intellectual movement consisting of many philosophers. The most popular figures of this new framework were Charles Montesquieu (1689-1755), Jacques Tugot (1729-1781) and Jean Condorcet (1743-1794). They managed to challenge the traditional and existing conceptions of the world. The thinkers of Enlightenment aimed to teach people stop listening and following blindly the churchs opinion and decisions, and start thinking on their own. Challenge what they hear and develop their critical judgment. People were now advised to try and solve their problems on their own rather than wait for God to provide a solution for them. This new way of thinking was a big factor in economic growth. The iincreased education, through the emergence of upper class philosophers, the publishing of newspapers and the emergence of new types of media resulted in the arts, such a writing and painting to only develop, improve and flourish during that time period. Reaching to a conclusion, the French Revolution, the Industrial Revolutionand the Enlightenment were the three major factors that contributed towards the emergence of sociology in the late 18th and early 19th century. During this historical period,peoples lives became much easier and better. All these changes helped people become more open minded and created for them a life with more choices. , This important turning point in history led to a technological and economic boom. It also resulted in people learning to live in societies. A person who cannot live in society, or does not need to because he is self-sufficient, is either a beast or a God. (Aristotle, Politics) Bibliography Lecture and Tutorial notes Wikipedia-online encyclopedia Internet the rise of sociology Morrison, K. 2006. Marx Durkheim Weber. Bilton, T. Bonnet, K. Jones, P. Lawson, T. Skinner, D. Stanworth, M. Webster, A. 2002. Introductory sociology, 4th edition. Palgrave Macmillan

Ban On Spam? :: essays research papers

Ban on Spam? Since the early days of the Internet with it’s slow connections, to today’s high tech version that plays a major function in everyday business, most advancements have been positive ones. Unfortunately one advancement that has not is Junk E-mail. These junk e-mails, (also known as â€Å"Spam†) can be described as useless messages are plaguing our Internet Service Providers (ISP) mail systems. The result of this is slower connections, a loss of time and of money. Therefore, in this work we will explore effects of Spam, (negative and positive) and will even decide if it is possible to make this practice an illegal one, even with the protection of our Constitutional First Amendment rights The question of whether or not junk emails could actually be made illegal does not have a short or easy answer. Yes it is true that these mails slow down many ISP servers by the massive amount of traffic they create, but do they really cause that much of a problem? Years before many of the current telemarketing laws were passed, companies could call whenever they felt that people were home, and attempted to pass on a good (and many times bad) deal to the consumer. This resulted in calls ranging from the early morning, to dinnertime, and lasting until the late hours of the evening. Now clearly this was a problem that needed to be alleviated. In contrast to the ring of each telephone throughout a person’s home, an E-mail box simply shows that a mail has been sent. In this case of E-mails, users can simply click on their delete button and the mail would be no more, that’s it. This gives companies who use Spam as a commercial tool a valid point. In addition, they also have a friend called the First Amendment on their side. The 1st amendment is thus far most likely the reason that Spam has not been made illegal, or controlled by the Federal government. Clearly stating that, â€Å"Congress shall make no law†¦prohibiting the freedom of speech, or of the press†¦Ã¢â‚¬  law makers are desperately attempting to find a loophole to gaining legal action against Spam. Despite the opposition of some free-speech advocates, the legislation is creeping closer to the House floor. Now for such legislation to be put into law, a bill would have to be proposed in the House of Representatives. A committee would devise a Bill and once debaters of both sides finished their arguments, a vote would take place.

Online Gaming in South Korea Essay examples -- Asia Technology Essays

Online Gaming in South Korea The rise of online gaming in South Korea has brought improved economic prospects and notoriety, but at what price? Beginning in the late 1990’s South Korea has quickly become the undisputed king of the online gaming world. Gaming and the culture that has grown up around it are now the defining aspects of the lives of many South Korea youths. While this eruption of online gaming has created revenue for the country and made South Korea a global hotspot for international gamers it has also been a cause of concern in much the same way excessive television viewing and game playing has in the U.S. A number of factors contribute to the huge percentage of online-gamers in South Korea. A fast internet connection is a necessity and South Korea is, per capita, the most wired country in the world. Over 60% of households have broadband – compared to 20% in the United States (Kim 2). South Korea’s small geographical size and high population density make running the required cabling an easier task than it would be in the U.S. Broadband access in South Korea is, furthermore, the cheapest in the world at $25 per month (Kim 2). Additionally, in South Korea console gaming isn’t nearly as popular as it is in the U.S. and elsewhere. Console systems – Playstation, Nintendo, Sega – are by and large of Japanese origin. Due to past discord between the two countries – Korean being a colony under the rather, at the time, iron-fisted Japanese – Japanese imports have been both officially and culturally unpopular (Herz 3). Without consoles to take away from the base of game players, in South Korea unlike the U.S., online computer gaming is the dominant form of electronic gaming. Though more than half the homes in South Korea a... ...bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/2499957.stm) Fulford, Benjamin. â€Å"Korea’s Weird Wired World† Forbes Online 21 July 2003. October 28, 2003. (http://www.forbes.com/technology/free_forbes/2003/0721/092.html?partner=newscom) Kim, Jin David. â€Å"Lucrative Lessons from Online Game Players† International Herald Tribune 12 March 2002. October 28, 2003. (http://www.iht.com/articles/89432.html) Ihlwan, Moon. â€Å"The Champs in Online Games† Business Week Online 23 July 2001. October 28, 2003. (http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/01_30/b3742142.htm) Electro Lobby. â€Å"E-Sport: Gaming Goes Pro – Interview.† Unknown. October 28, 2003 (http://www.tnc.net/el/el01/progaming.html) Related Links: http://www.worldcybergames.com/ - home site of the World Cyber Games http://www.ncsoft.net/ - NCsoft, makers of Lineage http://www.blizzard.com/ - Blizzard Inc., makers of Starcraft

William Wordsworth

Describe similarities and differences between â€Å"I wandered lonely as a Cloud† by William Wordsworth and the extract from The Grasmere Journals by his sister Dorothy Wordsworth. Comparison must include comments on the, language, imagery, genre and audience of the two texts. â€Å"I wandered lonely as a Cloud† by William Wordsworth is a lyric poem focusing on the poet's response to the beauty of nature. A lyric poem presents the deep feelings and emotions of the poet rather than telling a story or presenting a witty observation.This is also seen on the language of the poem as W. Wordsworth uses personifications when he starts by comparing himself to a lonely cloud. Another personification and metaphor is when W. W compares the daffodils to a crowd of people and further more dancing humans. He starts his poem with a simile Alliteration: lonely as a cloud (line 1). Simile: Comparison (using as) of the speaker's solitariness to that of a cloud (line 1). Personification: Comparison of the cloud to a lonely human. line 1) Alliteration: high o'er vales and Hills (line 2). Alliteration: When all at once (line 3). (Note that the w and o have the same consonant sound. ) Personification/Metaphor: Comparison of daffodils to a crowd of people (lines 3-4). Alliteration: golden Daffodils (line 4). Alliteration: Beside the Lake, beneath the trees, Personification/Metaphor: Comparison of daffodils to dancing humans (lines 4, 6). The speaker humanizes the daffodils when he says they are engaging in a dance.

Critically Assess Whether Strategic Hrm Leads to ‘High Performance’’

Essay Question 1: ‘Critically assess whether strategic HRM leads to ‘high performance’’ Introduction There is a controversy whether the Strategic Human Resources Management (SHRM) leads to ‘high performance’. A general idea of SHRM is that â€Å"the linkage of management and deployment of the individual within the firm to the business overall and its environment whereas HRM is the activities that take place under this area. † Truss and Gratton (1994). It spotlights on long-term strategy.Two theoretical perspectives to the Strategic Human Resources Management (SHRM) will be introduced and compared to determine whether they manage to ‘high performance’ or not. First, the Universalist approach is ‘one best way’ of dealing human resource to improve business performance. Second, the Contingency approach is to align HR policies and practices with the details of business strategy to create a positive impact on business. In addition, two examples: a large company and a medium-size company will be used to illustrate both approaches practically.At the same time, there are issues associate with theoretical perspectives that need to be discussed. Such issues are the implementation problems as well as the measurement problems. After all, the question will be answered with analysing all of the above. The advantages and disadvantages of each approach will be identified by gathering views of researchers. To the final stage, both approaches are being recognised if the linkage is existence to ‘high performance’ and to the level of measure that are being noticed. Different approaches to SHRM * Universalist approachA Universalist approach is known as ‘best practice’ human resource management (HRM). This approach describes there is ‘one best way’ to manage people in order to improve organizational performance. It argues that all organizations, regardless of sector, size or country, will benefit from identifying, gaining commitment to and implementing a set of best HRM practices. The job of a researcher is to identify what the practices are, and a job of HR professional to implement them. For example, a research from Delery and Doty (1996) identify certain practices that improve organizational performance.The detailed components are ‘high performance work systems (HPWS)’ Berg (1999); Appelbaum et al (2000), ‘high commitment management’ Walton (1985); Guest (2001a, 2001b) and ‘high involvement management’ Wood (1999a). Another researcher by Jeffrey Pfeffer (1998) identifies that seven universally applicable practices will benefit all firms. The components include: 1) Employment security, 2) Careful hiring, 3) Self-managed teams and decentralized decision-making, 4) Comparatively high compensation, 5) Extensive training, 6) Low status distinctions and barriers, 7) Extensive sharing of financial and performance info rmation.The implication is that when a coherent bundle of HR practices is outlined, the integrated HR practices will impact positively on organizational performance. The ‘best practice’ HRM sees there is ‘one best way’ of managing people and that is appropriate across all circumstances. * Contingency Approach On the other hand, the Contingency approach is known as ‘best-fit’ HRM. It takes account of factors such as organizational size, location, sector, strategy and the nature of work. Baird and Meshoulam’s (1998) model advocates that HRM approaches will differ giving to different life-cycle stages.These life cycle stages ranges from start-up to maturity. While an organization is growing and maturing over time, it becomes gradually complex. Therefore, more sophisticated HR structures and policies are needed. This approach focuses on two types of ‘fit’ and ‘line management integration’. The first type is ‘E xternal fit’ and it is commonly known as ‘vertical fit’. It is in coherence and alignment with business strategy and external market factors. When HR policies and practices are aligned to strategic focus, performance will improve.Porter’s (1985) strategic options on 1) Cost Leadership, 2) Differentiation and Innovation and 3) Focus are adopted. The second type is ‘Internal fit’ and it can also interpret to ‘horizontal fit’. HR policies and practices are all fit together so that they are in coherence. They are also mutually reinforcing and are applied continuously. Jeffrey Pfeffer’s (1998) seven practices are adopted. Lastly, ‘Line management integration’ is when line managers act as a critical character in implementing HRM strategy. Best-fit’ HRM suggests that the best to manage people will vary depending on organizational circumstances, and hence, the link to business strategy is key. Empirical evidence of SHRM model * A large company – Tarmac The UK quarrying company Tarmac has over 12500 employees at present. The operations function is key to overall company’s performance. It needs the support of finance managers, zone managers and HR managers. A finance manager delivers financial and management accounts to contribute the strategic decision-making process by forecasting financial performance.A zone manager manages operational performance. They meet and improve targets for cost, quality, delivery, safety and business ethics shown in key performance indicators (KPIs). Lastly a HR manager ensures business managers apply HR policies and procedures. The company’s goal is to achieve objectives by motivating all individuals working together as one team across the business units and functions. Each objective has its strategies. The followings practices are to achieve ‘Engage employees’ and ‘Act Responsibly’ objectives.Firstly, Tarmac focuse s on a high level of employee involvement and encourages high employee commitment to the organization so that workers feel they are trusted and treated in an open and positive attitude. For example, employees regularly discuss with managers about their viewpoints within development teams. This helps workers feel part of the wider team, strengthens employee engagement and commitment to the company. Secondly, team-working practices create a closer supervision and a flat hierarchy. A coaching style manager develops employees to manage themselves rather than to manage each task.Employee’s suggestions are offered, and this contributes to improvements in organizational performance. An example of Tarmac targets and measures a decline in waste. In 2010, eighteen workshop-training sessions were held for all site employees on CO2 awareness and energy. All district managers were involved in the programme. Some external experts from Carbon Trust were also invited to support the rollout o f the training programme. As a result, Tarmac gained benefit from 500 energy and CO2 reduction. Overall, Tarmac adopted a high commitment strategy to meet the objectives.Therefore, it improved the company’s performance. * A small-medium size company – i-LEVEL i-Level is one of the most innovative digital media companies and is ranked the ‘Sunday Times 100 best companies to work for’ in 2004. It has a size of workforce of 60 employees. The i-Level company has a high level of financial performance. There was a 33 per cent increase in earnings per annum. Their guiding principles are used as a framework. This is to ensure the internal fit and the external fit of company. The company is at the growing stage which a lot of the recruitment effort is on discovering the potential staff. -Level frequently seeks appropriate employees to be supported to work with the company. To fit HR policies and practices together, i-Level uses physical arrangements to remove top-d own hierarchy in order to encourage employees’ participation, communication, creativity, self-managed teams and organisational values. As a result, a complete, open plan office is the environment where employees conduct their normal day-to-day operations. Moreover, i-Level sees pay is significant for performance. 15 per cent of the company’s pre-tax profit is kept for performance bonuses from 2003 to 2004.Meanwhile, the company argues pay is not their primary motivating force. On the other hand, the company aligns with business strategy and external environment by providing training courses for technical skills in media advertising. The company also offers an unusual training budget. There is an annual allowance provided for personal training and development purposes that are no obvious relation with work. The belief is to develop the skills and interests of workers in ways not studied before. This is expected to enhance i-level workers’ innovative thoughts at w ork through practices outside the company’s work area.To summaries, i-LEVEL achieves competitive advantage through innovation and which competes in very tight labour markets. It adopted Porter’s strategic option of ‘Focus’ and Pfeffer’s 7 practices to enhance the company's performance. Additional issues to reflect * Problems of implementation Line managers are central HRM performers in the organization, and they play a vital role in implementation of HR policies and practices. They influence their team‘s performance in a direct manner. A number of factors account for the line management problem. Firstly, it seems there is devolution to line managers.For instance, line managers do not want the responsibility of being a line manager or do not have enough time to deal with it accurately. They might not have the skills to handle HR issues successfully or are unaware of recent developments in view of HRM. Some managers do not consider a long-term v iew of the company or are inefficient for making policy in this area. Secondly, McGovern et al (1997), Marchington (2001) and Hutchinson and Purcell (2003) identify there are differences between ‘espoused’ and ‘actual’ policies that are relatively recognized to line managers.For example, some policies are normative rather than positive. Some descriptions of policies and practices are in general terms rather than analytical about actual situations. Hence, managers are unable to implement them specifically to meet the company’s goals. Furthermore, a broader issue, the line manager jobs in firms become progressively complex due to new firms’ structures. For instance, virtual and network companies have less clear line manager characters than the layered hierarchical company. One observable implication is pressure for reducing the size of the HR department.There will be a cut down in numbers of HR professionals. Ultimately, these factors all affect the organizational performance due to unsuccessful implementation of HR policies and practices. * Problems of measurement Fitzgerald (1991) and Neely (1998) stated that performance measurement is a key issue in guaranteeing the effective implementation of a firm’s strategy. However, using inadequate measurements is poor in supporting managements’ business objectives. The followings are the circumstances. Scientists use large-scale data groups made self-completed questionnaires.This will lead to two problems. First of all, there is dependence on one person, to represent the whole group. Secondly, there is dependence on a design of questionnaires. For example, respondents are answering yes or no questions rather than giving thoughts and opinions. This type of questions may generate a less accurate result. Moreover, there is uncertainty of how the data should be gathered, presented and analysed. The major problem is mis-reporting single respondents. Respondents may have limited knowledge of the area and use of policies.Furthermore, the measures of performance commonly take account of the financial performance, whereas there is a few findings focus on the broader issue of employee attitudes and well-being. Equally, there are matters to the range of HR practices. For instance, a report shows statistics of whether a company has self-managed teams, some may look at the proportion of workers running in a self-managed team. Lastly, Atkinson (2005) suggests that the measurement of productivity in the service sector can be exceptionally challenging.It is always easy to get typical, comparable financial statistics. To sum up, the measurement of data are related to the level of relevance to business performance. Critical analysis of the beyond * Best practice Pros ; Cons Research states there is a positive link between the HR practices and organisational performance. Firstly, Huselid (1995, p. 667) discovered that ‘the degree of returns for investments in High Performance Work Systems is significant’. In fact, ‘A one standard deviation rise in High Performance Work Systems practices is associated with a comparative 7. 5 per cent drop in labour turnover. On ‘per employee’ base, $27,044, $18,641 and $3814 more in sales, more in market value and profits respectively. Secondly, the workplace employee relation survey (Cully et al 1999) indicates that there is 14 per cent of organisations adopted high commitment strategy. In contrast, researcher (Delery 1998) also emphasized ‘deadly’ bundles of practices need to be avoided. For example, it occurs to managers giving reward based on individual performance while they are working as a team.Furthermore, Boxall and Purcell (2003, p. 64) commented while multi-national companies make the effort standardise their practices across nations, national perspective and organisational sectoral perspectives show criticism on the effectiveness of these practices. M archington and Grulis (2000, p. 1117) argue the most common example is in labour intensive organisations recognise costs are expensive when they use these practices. To summaries the best practice approach, Guest’s (1987) argues that there is no best practice.At the same time, he also suggests a set of best practices such as high commitment management is the route to survival of UK business. This leads to an argument that in order to enhance company performance, managers must alter their HR policies and practices to the framework that is operational. The interpretation comes to ‘best-fit’ approach. * Best-fit Pros ; Cons Thompson (2000) conducted two studies of firms in the UK aerospace industry. His first study in 1997 showed that with higher levels of value added per worker encourages greater diffusion of innovative working practices with their non-management employees.These organisations are towards to more heavily engaged in specialist production for niche ma rkets and hired technical and professional workers. The second study in 1999 showed evidence that organizations introduced a larger number of high performance work practices had much enhanced business performance. As a result, companies moving from less than five to more than six innovative practices created a 34 per cent increase in value added per worker. On the other hand, Miles and Snow (1984) align suitable managerial types to three genetic strategies of prospector, defender and analyser.If managerial properties and skills are aligned to company strategy, there will be a higher level of link to organisational performance. Thomas and Ramaswamy (1996) offered such support. As a result, performance in aligned firms was statistically excellent. In comparison, (Purcell 1999 p. 35) outlines that a number of successful organisations features that are unable to model. These are the cultural norms that have been developed gradually over a long period associated with accomplishment. It i s easy to identify the key factors that drive to success. Especially when the organisations are large and complex.Imaginably the major problem is that many organisations exist inside complex external environments with multiple contingencies that are not to be ignored or recognized. * Comparing both approaches Each approach has advantages evidence and disadvantages evidence. It could be argued that different approaches can apply in different sectors. For example, Guest (2001) advocates that there is the possibility that a high commitment management is most applicable in manufacturing i. e. Tarmac, while strategic choice for fitting with business strategy, is more credible in the service sector i. . i-LEVEL. As a whole, critically discuss the link between SHRM and performance. Evidence from Patterson et al (1997) examined sixty-seven manufacturing businesses in the UK for a period. The outcomes were 19 per cent of profitability and 18 per cent of the variation in productivity could be certified to HRM practices. This demonstrated HRM practices has a positive impact on organisational performance. Conclusion In summary, SHRM consists of a number of practices and is an organization level analysis of how HRM systems impact on performance.Two theoretical perspectives outline different views. The ‘best-practice’ approach defines there is ‘one best way’ of managing people. It is appropriate across all circumstances. Whereas ‘best-fit’ approach terms the best to manage people will change depending on organizational circumstances. It highlights the essence of linking business strategy. Tarmac was used as an example. It applied the ‘best practice’ approach and adopted a high commitment strategy to meet the objectives. Hence Tarmac improved its firm’s performance.I-Level was used an example to describe the competitive advantage the company had achieved through innovation while competing in extremely tight labour ma rket. It adopted Porter’s strategic option of ‘Focus’ and Pfeffer’s 7 practices to enhance the firm’s performance. Empirical evidences show both organisations are successful with adopting different approaches to their specific, targeted firms. These firms had a positive impact on performance. This can be concluded that SHRM has a clear link to business performance practically. In depth, other issues such as implementation and measurement roblems are considered. Problems of implementation affect the organizational performance due to unsuccessful implementation of HR policies and practices in line management. On the other hand, problems of measurement are valued on the basis of how easy and difficult the data is to represent and most importantly the level of relevance to business performance. If the relevance is slight, it may have little or no impact on business performance. In the final stage of comparing both approaches, many researchers’ po int of views is gathered. ‘Best-practice’ approach has advantages and disadvantages.It seems to argue that high commitment management is the route to successful business performance. On the other hand, the advantages and disadvantages of ‘best-fit’ approach suggest that applying this approach can be rigid and inflexibility due exists of complex external environments. Furthermore, in recent arguments, the product labour market seems to be emerged to a new post-industrial age where employers will tend to hire self-employed workers to carry out specific, time-limited projects for companies. This is due to the prediction of radical change.It can lead to a view that ‘best-fit’ approach should to be managed appropriately. This means practices should be adequate in different company’s life-cycle stage and align with different strategies. So that, it can feasibly enhance the organizational performance. Finally, strategic human resources manageme nt gives evidences, views, researches and facts to enhance organizational performance. However, the degree of high performance in context varies in different organizations under their circumstances. Hence, it does not necessary impact to ‘high’ performance.