To whom it may concern

I am writing this letter in hope of consideration to your fine academic institution.   I know there are some irregularities in my recent academic past and I hope this letter can clear some of those things up as well as reassure you that I take the responsibilities of my academic career very seriously and intend to maintain the academic standard of your institution.First, let me take the time to thank you for allowing me the opportunity to apply to your school.   I selected your school for its proud history in our area as well as the course curriculum that you offer.   Several friends have recommended the university positively as a great place to learn and succeed so I hope too to be able to thrive there.As you may be aware, the last semester at my previous institution was rather disastrous resulting in a 1.71 overall GPA for the term.   I am quite ashamed at such a low score, however I wish to assure you that it is the result of a very tragic and unusual situation and not aca demic negligence.My mother fell quite ill during the term and was unable to work and I had no choice but to take more hours at work to make up the slack.   I attempted to drop my classes per my university’s instructions, however they only dropped two of the total classes I was enlisted in, and the stress and worry from the extra work and assisting my ailing mother was simply too much, resulting in such poor grades.My mother passed away earlier this summer, and it’s clichà © to say that such a death makes you re-evaluate your life, but when you find yourself within the situation it’s quite true.   I thought of all the things my mother has done for me, and all the things she will never see me accomplish that she wanted to.Her death put fire to my spirits in a way and encouraged me to re-enroll as soon as I could to finish what I started, an education my mother always wanted me to have.I know university considerations are not often about sentiment, but rather about academic rigor, commitment and honesty.   However I do feel I possess these as well and feel I will be a positive addition to your student body.   I am a US Navy veteran, having spent four years in the service of our country with pride.My time in the Navy was often met with hardship and required a will to persevere and taught me to be a stronger and more resourceful human being.   Through your institution I hope to graduate and earn my commission to continue on with my career in the US Navy.In my application I have enclosed my naval evaluations.   These are evaluations done at regular intervals that serve as a kind of report card of our service.   While I understand my last academic term may have put a bad mark on my academic history I hope the spotless record of my naval service can help to put a bit of perspective on my long-term prospects as an academic student.   Should you require any additional documentation or assistance in reading said evaluations, please l et me know.In closing, again, thank you so much for the opportunity to continue my education and to make my mother and country proud.   I hope my admission to your university will be a fresh start for me on the road to my future career goals and happiness.

Health & Hygiene

Change in health & hygiene There has been towering change in the area of health and hygiene in rural Bangladesh. Almost all the villages have a health complex and a pharmacy nearby. People are coming out of the ignorance and consulting the doctors when necessary unlike earlier times. Health consciousness has modulated the rate of mortality especially in case of women and children. People at village are now more aware of the healthy ways of living their lives. Health campaigns by government and NGOs assisted a lot in framing up the health awareness.People at village are more concerned about taking care of the pregnant mothers and their health. Most of the families now know about the vaccination of the infants and almost all of them give effort to ensure the good health of the infants. Taking â€Å"Polio â€Å"vaccine has already been a common trend there in every year. All these resulted in a noticeable decline in mortality rate of infants and pregnant mother. Not only that, importa nce of having pure drinking water has also been realized by rural people. The campaign against arsenic in last decade has been totally worthwhile. Proper sanitation is also encouraged now.A massive change has taken place in terms of outlook. Family planning is no longer discouraged in village since villagers are moving away from orthodox religious practices that might harm. In terms of health and hygiene almost all of the changes have been in public interest till now but there are rooms for further development. Villagers do still lack good doctors and nurses. Points for presentation * Establishment of hospitals and pharmacies in rural areas * Public health awareness * More caring attitude towards pregnant mothers & infants * Awareness about family planning * Need for more skilled doctors & nurses

America from 1790 to 1845 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

America from 1790 to 1845 - Essay Example The work force consisted of former slaves who had been freed, Native Americans and Irish immigrants from New York who had come in search of jobs at a salary of $12 per month. A densely forested pass in the Appalachian mountains was cut through using instruments like the axe and the shovel. The engineers and workers constructed locks, and by-passed waterfalls. After the canal was opened for traffic, many cities sprang up on its banks. It facilitated trade between the East and the West. The young nation became a well knit nation because of the canal According to the author,.if the canal had not been built during that time, the western states of the United States might have formed a separate nation. The story of the Erie canal is very inspiring, and the engineers and workmen who achieved it in spite of many hardships are praiseworthy. I do not agree with the author that the West would have become a separate nation if the canal had not been built at that time.

Andy Warhol's Pop Art Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Andy Warhol's Pop Art - Research Paper Example The paper "Andy Warhol's Pop Art" states the primary sources of Andy Warhol's pop art. The world of fashion in New York and internationally were interwoven with the fine art crowd of museums. Artists, models, young actors and actresses, musicians, and all manner of up and coming celebrities were pictured in Andy Warhol’s diary. Warhol’s language is like gossip when he describes the scenes, scandals, cliques, and conversations that occur in his presence involving some of the most famous names in pop culture. Mick Jagger, Bianca Jagger, Halston, Basquiat, Lou Reed, Nico, and others are favorites as he attends parties on the Upper East Side of Manhattan featuring all of the wealth and luxury of the entertainment world. Warhol clearly understood the path to celebrity and struggled to achieve that in his life. Hacket writes: â€Å"Every night, celebrities of the art, fashion, music, and ‘underground’ filmmaking crowds jammed themselves into favorite corners of the back room at Max’s and monitored each other’s clothes, makeup, wit, and love interests while they received ‘exchange’ celebrities from out of town—directors and producers from Europe or Hollywood—and waited to be taken away from ‘all this’ (New York notoriety) and put into ‘all that’. Andy’s art hung on the wall.† Thus, if every artist must be supported and reflective of a larger culture, than Warhol’s closest identity is to this Upper East Side Manhattan and Greenwich Village crowd of young bohemians, artists, models, and actresses., all of whom shared the career goals of Warhol of attaining celebrity status through their self-expression. Warhol’s art becomes more â€Å"universal† and American when it symbolizes a superficial culture, pop culture, where everybody has 15 minutes of fame. Fame is an integral part of art and art history as it is known in modern times, because if an artist is not famous, his or her work will not be printed, distributed, and known. If the artist is not famous, it will have no influence on other artists and vanish, no matter its beauty or technical excellence. Warhol’s art is conceptual and uses silk-screens of sampled images taken from photographs, or copied from print and television advertisements. Warhol himself may only paint a few details of

Transformational Leadership Style and Communication in the New Research Paper

Transformational Leadership Style and Communication in the New Organizational Goals - Research Paper Example For a business to be successful, significant changes within the external market environment of shoe industry should be aligned with the internal business environment (Change Management. Session 1. The Context of Change (lecture notes), 2010). Given that the company’s target consumers are working men and women between the age brackets of 26 to 45 years old, Richard and Katie’s plan to shift from the focus on selling Oakes shoes from small-scale shoe shops to online selling could significantly increase the company’s annual sales and profit by expanding the business within the U.K. market to international market. In line with this, there is a strong need to provide training programmes for its staff with regards to the use of online marketing and selling, new courses on web designs, and web-based applications. As an increasingly Human Capital Centric organization, Lawler (2008) explained that the HR selection and recruitment process plays an important role in terms o f establishing a long-term business relationship with its employees. In line with this, the availability of competitive and flexible training and development programmes could encourage competitive employees to deliver outstanding customer service and remain loyal to the company for a long period of time. Since the company aims to improve its existing shoe designs and expand its market through the use of online selling, it is necessary for the company to consider the need to recruit young individuals who are technically qualified to perform online marketing and selling on a part-time basis.

JOHN BUNYAN Term Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

JOHN BUNYAN - Term Paper Example It was after this experience with the Holy Spirit that he began preaching. However, this was not quite a smooth mission for him as he was imprisoned severally for preaching. John began preaching in Bedford, England, and it was here that he faced all those difficulties in relation to his mission; especially between 1660 and 1672. It was during his term as a prisoner when he wrote a popular classic- Pilgrim’s Progress. In his autography, Bunyan recognized the fact that the devil kept on placing mockeries in his soul. He had a feeling that his sins were not of the type that Jesus Christ died for and that he could only be forgiven if Christ descended from heaven to come and die afresh for his sins. These things tormented him for quite a long time, and that thinking of anyone of them increased his misery (Venables, 79). Although he recognized that Jesus Christ had too much love for him, he thought that He could not be forgivendue his transgressions and unfaithfulness. In addition B unyan himself thought that his sins were beyond bounds of pardon. Worst of all, he never thought that he could ever inherit eternal life, but believed that it was quite easy for the heaven and earth to pass. It was a result of these assaults that he perceived his soul to be more of a broken vessel, hence heading into despair. He even went to an extent of thinking that as far as he was concerned, conditions and promises of the new covenant could turn another way and be changed. John went to disclose that the more he thought about these issues, the more he was overwhelmed with fears, guilt and fright leading to desperation. Bunyan likened his state to that of a man who lived in tombs, always crying and cutting himself with stones (Mark 5:25). It is from this verse of the Bible that Bunyan came to learn that neither desperation nor the old covenant would save him. In addition, both the heaven and earth were bound to pass away, while both the word and the law of grace would fail or be d one away with. It was after recognition of this scripture that Bunyan experienced the goodness of Jesus Christ, got saved and confirmed that scriptures were the Word of God. Before he reached this point, one day as he sat on a bench on a certain street, Bunyan fell asleep and had a vision as though the sun that shone in heaven was against him and it could not shed enough light (Deal, 35). In addition, he saw stones on the street and tiles upon houses bend against him, and all had collaborated to eliminate him from the earth. This meant that he was unfit to live among them and he could not partake of the benefits that they harbored as he had sinned against God in Heaven. From this moment onwards, Bunyan learnt to accept and appreciate everything with thanks giving. At one time they had been commanded to go and besiege a place, but another person was chosen to replace him (Bunyan) even after he had consented. Unfortunately, the solder who replaced him was killed in that battle. Bunyan recognized that these were God’s mercies upon his life. Bunyan came to appreciate God’s divine mercies for saving his life after he fell in an extremely deep pit when he was traveling at night (Horner, 120). He also had the reason to thank God for the divine healing and provision of food, even though he was still a sinner. Bunyan recognized

Human Resource Management Practices Marks and Spencer Case Study

Human Resource Management Practices Marks and Spencer - Case Study Example In other words, HR management is a necessary tool for corporate restructuring. However, its use should be made very carefully trying to take into account the firm’s strengths as well as its potentials for the future. On the other hand, in the case that HR professionals are called in order to propose specific plans of HR restructuring, then they should have a series of competencies which fall in the next categories: In order to evaluate the role of human resources management in the improvement of the firm’s performance, we should ‘test’ the practices followed by organizations within a particular industrial sector. In most cases these practices present similarities, however, there could be elements of the operational strategy with significant differentiation among the participants/ companies. For this reason, any relevant comparison should take into consideration the particular characteristics of each specific organization trying to ensure the protection of the persons involved (i.e. publication of data only in cases where it is strictly permitted by the law). The issue of the effectiveness of HRM practices followed in specific companies has been the study of many researchers throughout the years. In the particular case, Marks and Spencer have been a company with a long history in the British retail sector. The company which was found in 1884 operates currently worldwide with about 515 stores and several franchises. The current paper examines particularly the issue of application of â€Å"best practice/high commitment† model of HRM presented by Marchington & Wilkinson (2002, 179). The application of the particular model is examined in combination with other HR – related issues trying to identify the strengths and the weaknesses of the above model as well as the potential choices available to the company in a case that the above model does not produce the required result. In order for this research to be conducted more accurately a company of the UK market, Marks and Spencer have been used as an example.  Ã‚  

McBride Financial Services Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

McBride Financial Services - Essay Example In short, the problems of the firm are integral since the management organ of the firm has adopted customs that are not in line with the international standards of corporate governance. The firm is experiencing many challenges at the start up stage since it is a private and small firm. Unlike many brokerage firms, the management of the institution has a limited experience in the brokerage industry, and this can result to a downfall of the industry. The chief executive officer is one of the key challenges to the achievement of the firm since he is the owner of the firm and, as a result, there will be a tendency of putting his own interests first. McBride being the chief executive officer and the chairman of the board will have a significant influence on the decision made by the board of directors as well as the management team (Fayol, 1949). This is because being the head of the two organs he can refuse a decision that is not favourable to his own interest. Commercial analysts have cr iticized the organization for its inability to comply with the rules of investment and borrowing funds from beltway investment. Beltway investment on the other hand, emphasizes that; all the firms that seek any assistance from it must comply with all the requirements of investment, failure to which the application of the assistance will be null and void. The management of McBride investment is willing to obey and follow all the requirements of Beltway Investments. The management strategy of beltway investment seems to have some doubtful professional standards though McBride seriously opposes the perception. Beltway investment grants firm the freedom to manage on their own style. It emphasizes on the universal standards of corporate governance, and any equity based compensation plans in line with the achievement of the firm’s objectives. There should be no any form of discrimination. Even though McBride is seeking to fully comply with beltway investment he insists that his dec ision on the directors and the management

Mergers and aqcuisition Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2750 words

Mergers and aqcuisition - Essay Example Since Bentley has somehow gained fame after operating with eleven stores in Southern Europe, Zeta's should look for 24-year AA bonds to determine the discount rate. Judging by the present status of Bentley in the Southern European market, the discount rate Zeta's should use to assess the value of Bentley for their equity holders should range from 5.0%-5.25%. At this low discount rate, they generally have a much shorter period concerning their liabilities. Furthermore, a discount rate of that range is competitive enough to acquire Bentley if Zeta's other competitors for Bentley acquisition uses a higher discount rate. Zeta's also have the advantage since they have operated for years and gained patronization from retail stores in London and Newcastle. Thus, using a lower discount rate to assess the Bentley's is a safe way for their excess cash. By doing so, Zeta's is being prudent enough. If they take the bond rate, Bentley equity holders would actually overview it down for prudence. A pparently, it is quite difficult to get a good AA measure for acquisition and bond yields. Markova (2001) states that if a company uses a discount rate of such range, the competitors tend to overlook the rate and thus t discourages them to continue bidding. Terminal value is defined as the value of any item at the end of a particular time phase. For instance, the terminal value may include the value of a fully depreciated asset and the maturity value of a bond (Bergstein, 1998). Based on the Table 1 of Mr. Sharpe, the terminal value is 8.5 million. The terminal value that should be used in order to evaluate the cash flow of Bentley is satisfactory enough for Zeta's to gain full acquisition to it, which has principally been driven by the market. Since Bentley has somehow gained fame after operating with eleven stores in Southern Europe, Zeta's should look for 24-year AA bond. At this terminal value, they generally have a much shorter period concerning meeting the demands of their liabilities. Furthermore, a Bentley's terminal value for 2005 which is expected to grow by 5% in 2006 is competitive enough to acquire Bentley if Zeta's other competitors for Bentley acquisition uses fashion retail items using their own names. Since Zeta's is j ust planning to start using its own name, Zeta's have the advantage since they have operated for years and gained patronization from retail stores in London and Newcastle. Thus, using a lower discount rate to assess the Bentley's is a safe way for their excess cash. By doing so, Zeta's is being prudent enough. If they take the bond rate, Bentley equity holders would actually overview it down for prudence. Collateral, which consists of securities that could be sold by the Reserve Bank if the borrower fails to pay back the loan, limits the Fed's (and therefore the taxpaying public's) risk exposure. Acceptable collateral includes, among other things, U.S. Treasury securities, government agency securities, municipal securities, mortgages on one- to four-family dwellings, and short-term commercial notes. Usually, collateral is kept at the Reserve Bank,

Fr Trd or Fir Trd Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Fr Trd or Fir Trd - Essay Example As the report declares CÐ FTÐ  spÐ µcifiÐ µs rulÐ µs for lÐ µngthy tÐ °riff phÐ °sÐ µ-out schÐ µdulÐ µs Ð °s wÐ µll Ð °s trÐ °nsitionÐ °l sÐ °fÐ µguÐ °rds Ð °nd tÐ °riff rÐ °tÐ µ quotÐ °s (TRQs) for sÐ µnsitivÐ µ goods. Ð lthough mÐ °ny goods would Ð °ttÐ °in immÐ µdiÐ °tÐ µ duty-frÐ µÃ µ trÐ µÃ °tmÐ µnt, othÐ µrs would hÐ °vÐ µ tÐ °riffs phÐ °sÐ µd out incrÐ µmÐ µntÐ °lly so thÐ °t duty-frÐ µÃ µ trÐ µÃ °tmÐ µnt is rÐ µÃ °chÐ µd in 5, 10, 15, or 20 yÐ µÃ °rs from thÐ µ timÐ µ thÐ µ Ð °grÐ µÃ µmÐ µnt tÐ °kÐ µs Ð µffÐ µct. Duty-frÐ µÃ µ trÐ µÃ °tmÐ µnt would bÐ µ dÐ µlÐ °yÐ µd for thÐ µ morÐ µ sÐ µnsitivÐ µ products, Ð °nd in somÐ µ cÐ °sÐ µs, thÐ µ tÐ °riff rÐ µductions would not bÐ µgin until 7 or 12 yÐ µÃ °rs into thÐ µ Ð °grÐ µÃ µmÐ µnt. This paper stresses that CÐ FTÐ  is controvÐ µrsiÐ °l Ð °nd fÐ °cÐ µs politicÐ °l uncÐ µrtÐ °inty. SupportÐ µrs hopÐ µ thÐ °t CÐ FTÐ  cÐ °n bÐ µ pÐ °rt of Ð ° policy foundÐ °tion supportivÐ µ of both improvÐ µd intrÐ °rÐ µgionÐ °l trÐ °dÐ µ Ð °nd long-tÐ µrm sociÐ °l, politicÐ °l, Ð °nd Ð µconomic dÐ µvÐ µlopmÐ µnt. ConcÐ µrns rÐ µmÐ °in, howÐ µvÐ µr, ovÐ µr thÐ µ nÐ µgÐ °tivÐ µ Ð µffÐ µcts on cÐ µrtÐ °in sÐ µctors Ð °nd Ð µmployÐ µÃ µs of thÐ µ U.S. Ð µconomy, Ð °nd thÐ °t Ð ° bÐ °lÐ °ncÐ µd outcomÐ µ mÐ °y bÐ µ difficult to Ð °chiÐ µvÐ µ if thÐ µ FTÐ  fÐ °ils to Ð °ccommodÐ °tÐ µ sufficiÐ µntly thÐ µ Ð °djustmÐ µnt costs Ð °lso fÐ °cing cÐ µrtÐ °in CÐ µntrÐ °l Ð mÐ µricÐ °n workÐ µrs, smÐ °ll fÐ °rmÐ µrs, Ð °nd othÐ µr groups. ThÐ µ history somÐ µ CÐ FTÐ  countriÐ µs hÐ °vÐ µ of poor lÐ °bor rights Ð µnforcÐ µmÐ µnt rÐ °isÐ µs quÐ µstions ovÐ µr whÐ µthÐ µr thÐ µ lÐ °bor provisions will Ð °dÐ µquÐ °tÐ µly promotÐ µ sociÐ °l dÐ µvÐ µlopmÐ µnt. For Ð °ll CÐ FTÐ  countriÐ µs, thÐ µ constÐ °ntly incrÐ µÃ °sing US forÐ µign dirÐ µct invÐ µstmÐ µnt Ð °nd Ð °ccÐ µss to US tÐ µchnology combinÐ µd with thÐ µ incrÐ µÃ °sÐ µd duty frÐ µÃ µ Ð °ccÐ µss to thÐ µ US mÐ °rkÐ µt rÐ µprÐ µsÐ µnt significÐ °nt bÐ µnÐ µfits.

Philosophy of education Essay Example for Free

Philosophy of education Essay Philosophy is a set of beliefs or ideas one has towards their discipline or line of work. Don Kauchak and Paul Eggen, authors of the textbook â€Å"Introduction to Teaching: Becoming a Professional,† define philosophy as â€Å"The study of theories of knowledge, truth, existence, and morality† [ (Kauchak Eggen, 2011) ]. The philosophy of education is a very important aspect of teaching. It is meant to guide teachers in the classroom and offer insight to the thinking of past experts [ (Kauchak Eggen, 2011) ]. It often will answer the main questions any new and even seasoned teachers have when preparing to teach in the classroom. There are various degrees of philosophy, for example; there is the philosophy of life, the philosophy of religion, and the philosophy of education. However, there are four philosophies of education they include: Perennialism, Essentialism, Progressivism, and Social Reconstructionism. After calculating my scores on the philosophical assessment in the Kauchak and Eggen textbook, I found that my personal philosophy of education is an equal combination of Perennialism and Social Reconstructionism. According to Kauchak and Eggen, Perennialism consists of the teaching of classic knowledge [ (Kauchak Eggen, 2011) ]. This includes literacy, mathematics, and science. Another way of looking at this is teaching student’s subjects that they will use in the future, even if it does not seem relevant now. The definition of perennial is â€Å"long-term† and that is exactly how a teacher with a Perennialism philosophy teaches. Social Reconstructionism, according to Kauchak and Eggen is â€Å"An educational philosophy suggesting that schools, teachers, and students should lead in alleviating social inequities in our society† [ (Kauchak Eggen, 2011) ]. In other words, a teacher with this philosophy teaches their students about social problems, improving society and teaching their students about personal responsibilities. Perennialism and Social Reconstructionism are each on opposite ends of the spectrum. Social Reconstructionism focuses more on the society in which the student lives, while Perennialism focuses more on the intellect of the student. Having these two as my personal philosophies is a bit difficult. While I do believe teaching tolerance and understanding is important, I also know that learning mathematics, science and literacy is equally important. After reading the scenario on page 219 of the Kauchak and Eggen textbook, I would respond to the students by first trying to motivate them. Offering incentives is a great way to get students’ attention; they are more eager to pay attention if they are pursuing it to get something out of it. You can use anything as a motivator; my favorite was always free dessert at lunch! You can also give extra credit points on the next quiz or for younger students you could offer an incentive such as â€Å"line leader† or â€Å"bathroom monitor† for the day. The younger students love when they think they are in charge of something, it can also help their self-esteem knowing they are doing something important. I do believe this is more of an example of Perennialism, however, depending on the specific motivator and the response it gets; it could be Social Reconstructionism as well. The second response I would try is starting a discussion. I would try getting the students’ attention by putting them in discussion groups or having a discussion as a whole class. This would definitely be an example of Social Reconstructionism. This encourages the students to work together and to come up with a solution together. It gives them a chance to ask each other questions before asking the teacher. It also compels them to stay focused on the topic and eliminates the â€Å"my hand wasn’t raised† excuse. My third response, though I would make it my last resort, would be to write a summary on what was taught during the instruction. By doing this, it makes the students want and need to listen in order to do their assignment correctly. This also offers a chance to get some feedback from the teacher and allows you to reflect on what you learned and what you need to work on. This is an example of Perennialism, as it deals with the thought process and encouraging literacy. While Perennialism and Social Reconstructionism are complete opposites, they also share some characteristics, making it easier to teach using both philosophies. Many common knowledge subjects can be transitioned to include activities that work well to alleviate social problems. In math, you can have the students work in groups. This promotes team work and logic. In literacy, you may give reading assignments dealing with a specific problem in society (e. g. poverty, bullying, etc) and have the students write summaries on what they read. This can promote logical thinking as well as establishing knowledge of the society issue in the reading.

The Grammar Translation Method In FLT

The Grammar Translation Method In FLT Lets look at one of the classical teaching methods in the theory of foreign language teaching. The grammar-translation method, also called the GT method, is one of these traditional language teaching methods that consist primarily of a sequence of classroom activities that focus on the grammar, vocabulary, and literature of a target language. This method requires students to translate the whole text, word for word, and memorize numerous grammatical rules and exceptions as well as enormous vocabulary lists. We could say the goal of the GT method is to be able to read and translate typical modern novels as well as literary masterpieces and classics. In GT method, classes are conducted in the native language. Instructors tend to teach from textbooks that begin with an enormous list of vocabularies for students to memorize. And Grammar lessons are also taught from the texts presented in textbooks. For you guys, this might sound new, but tedious translation and grammar drills are used as exercises to strengthen the students knowledge. We can see the skill dominantly exercised in this method is reading, but only in the context of translation. Q2You wouldnt find it surprising that there are many criticisms against this method, as the method by definition, has a very limited scope of objectives. It also appears that GT method hugely favors reading over listening and speaking skills, to an extent that they are forgetting to teach speaking. Without opportunities to practice their speaking, students are missing out on an opportunity to learn the language fluently. I mean, it lacks the spontaneous creative output Q3its like saying the best students are the ones that can translate most precisely. But whats the point if they arent learning how to communicate? Not only is the focus of the class too narrow, but the materials taught in classes are also very limited. The study into the culture of the target language is strictly limited to its literature and fine arts, because that is the only text used in the class. The overly traditional role of the teacher is another component of this method that is criticized. In the classroom, the teacher is the ultimate authority, with little or no student-to-student interaction, and he or she is always the one who gives out the correct answer. Having the correct answer is considered very important, and in many cases, students who give the wrong answers are scolded by the teacher. How would you feel if I reprimanded you for getting a question wrong? You would probably be discouraged and wouldnt want to try next time, right? Ultimately, due to excessive reliance solely on textbooks, the materials taught in class might not even require a teacher; um the role of the teacher is strictly limited to the extent that theres barely any interaction between a student and a teacher. Q4Additionally, the translation exercises and practice tests the students are given, are clearly just for practice purposes, and thus rarely ever used in real life. The materials taught do not state how written style of language differs from the colloquial language, which is another problem of depending on a written text. Therefore, it lacks authenticity, lacking usefulness in real life, and doesnt prepare the students efficiently enough for real-life usage of the language. Theorists such as Vietor, Passy, Berlitz, and Jespersen began to shed light on the problems of the grammar translation method and suggested that a new kind of foreign language instruction was needed. They supported teaching the language in a slightly different way from the GT methodQ5they have not only focused on the text, but also emphasized the importance of speech. Johnson, one of the many critics of teaching methods, said that the GT method can give foreign language students a total loss of genuine feeling for the language. Okay, so although the GT method carries much criticism along with it, it is also important to acknowledge some of the positive aspects of this method. For example, the great emphasis made on the grammar and vocabulary of the target language will strengthen the students reading and writing skills extensively. Also, by reading and appreciating foreign literature, they can become better at analyzing and will become more intellectual thinkers. Translation exercises, grammar practices, and vocabulary memorization can all provide the students with good mental exercises and make the form of the target language more familiar to the learner. Plus, language learning through speaking comes at a high cost as it requires more teaching time. Its much easier for students to study reading by themselves than speaking. Q6However, ultimately, the GT method has proven to be ineffective nowadays, and many teachers are avoiding this traditional method. Next class, we will look at another traditional method of foreign language teaching: the audio-lingual method. 11

Effect of Motivation on Employee Performance

Effect of Motivation on Employee Performance Chapter 1 INTRODUCTION 1.1 Background of the Study In todays competitive world, employee is an important asset to every organisation. An organisation cannot progress without employees. However, the success of an organisation depends on how the management utilise their workers capabilities in achieving organisation goals and objectives. Employees need to be inspired as well as motivated to perform well and perform efficiently. According to Smith (n.d.), employees who like where they work will help the company make more money. Sears conducted an 800-store survey that showed the impact of employee attitudes on the bottom line. When employee attitudes improved by 5%, customer satisfactionjumped 1.3%, consequently increasing revenue by one-half a percentage point. Seeking ways to motivate and build worker morale pays dividends to any business or organization. The motivated worker is more committed to the job and to the customer. This shows that happy employees performed well which increases the quality and quantity of their work. Long time ago, employees were considered as merely an input to the production of good and services. However as time goes by, this way of thinking has changed as many studies has been done on the employees behaviour and job performance. An employees performance may affect the production of the company, from the quality to the quantity of the products and services. This is why the management must identify the factors affecting their workers performance. A high performance workforce is the most important foundation for organisations success no matter how big or how small the organisation is. Job performance is the ability and skill that an employee possesses in performing the job required by the employer. The level of performance by the employee is going to affect the organisations goal and productivity. Besides, employees performance may also be affected by the management of the company, the job itself or even the employees own behaviour. Good job performance provides great achievement to the organisation, harmony in the workplace and also employees self-accomplishment. Thus, to have a good workforce and good employee performance, organisation must firstly identify and understand the factors which affect the employees job performance in achieving companys goal. 1.2 Research Problem For centuries, individuals have questioned and performed research on the factors affecting employees job performance and yet the answers may vary from one another. Some researcher said that employees performance is influenced by their pay and some said they are not. Employees are an organisations important asset which is why good performance by the employees is essential in producing good job quality and productivity. Employees are the ones who are running the organisation on behalf of the company. They have the responsibilities to perform well for the company in order to achieve organisation goal and compete with other organisations in the same industry. Employees are the one who plan, manage, organise and run the business activities of an organisation. This means that poor employees job performance may reduce the quality of services and productivity which will eventually slow down the operation of the organisation and lead to wastage of resources such as money and time. Organisations may find ways to solve the problem by terminating poorly performed employees or even choose to ignore it which may lead to unsuccessful business or bankruptcy. By choosing to terminate underperformed employee could not solve the problem as time is needed to hire new employee and extra cost will be incurred for training new employee. Management should find ways that inspires their workers to perform well in order to achieve organisations goal and in order to fully utilise their resources. Management believes that by paying employees more (increase of wages), employees will tend to perform better. Perhaps it might be true according to some researcher. However, there are also recent studies that have shown that employees motivations are not solely affected by pay. Thus, this research is carried out to investigate the factors that affect employees performance. This research will attempt to evaluate the effect of four variables which are motivation, job commitment, job design and work environment. 1.3 Research Objectives The reason for this research is: To investigate if motivation has the significant affect on employees job performance. To investigate if job commitment has the significant affect on employees job performance. To investigate if job design has the significant affect on employees job performance. To investigate if work environment has the significant affect on employees job performance. Job design is techniques that are use in the job design exercise are such as job enlargement, job enrichment, job rotation and job simplification. The work environment or working place which an employee performs in, can affect his or her performance. Work environment can be divided into two categories which are physical environment and social environment. The physical environment includes safe working place with ample resources and equipment such as comfortable chair, lighting and etc whereas the social environment includes people that the employees are working with in the organisation such as working colleagues or subordinates, supervisors and etc. 1.4 Scope of the Study This empirical study consists of dependent and independent variables. The dependent variable is employees job performance whereas the independent variables consist of factors that affect employees job performance such as motivation (pay, benefits, rewards, etc), job commitment, job design and work environment. The population for this study take into account the employees working in the manufacturing companies in Penang and is randomly selected by using convenience sampling method. Questionnaires will be distributed to 150 employees. Questionnaires will then be collected back and data will be analysed using the regression testing that is use to test the effects of the independent variables onto the dependent variables. 1.5 Significance of Study It is definite that every organisation no matter how big or small in size the company is in the whole wide world needs people or employees to operate and manage their company. The significance of this study is to investigate the four factors relationship with employees job performance, as employees job performance is important in producing good job quality and maximum productivity. This study is also essential to find out the influences of the four factors to the organisations. An organisation is considered dead and cannot operate without workers. Well performed employees may lead the organisation to success and earn competitive advantage over competitors while poor performed employees may lead company to failure and even bankruptcy. Besides poorly performed workers causes insufficiency in productivity which indirectly waste company resources. It might also cause company to be defeated by its rival. Therefore this study will help managers and employees to understand better the problem affecting their performance and reduce the negative effects to the company. Chapter 2 LITERATURE RREVIEW 2.1 Introduction These days, the business world is becoming more challenging than ever. This increases the managements awareness that good job performance is the key success to the organisation. To have well-performed employees, various ways or techniques should be conducted to manipulate humans nature and needs to produce desired behaviours and well performance. For that reason, the first thing the management should do is to understand human (employees) needs and wants. Employee job performance is the ability of employees to perform effectively in their job required and they need to have understanding of complete and up-to-date job description for their position. Besides that, they also need to be aware of the job performance requirements and standard that they are expected to meet. Supervisors or the management of the organisation should then review their employees job description and performance requirements. Job performance can be reviewed in terms of overall efficiency in the job or in terms of specific components that the job compromises. The purpose of performance standards is to communicate expectations. Some supervisors prefer to make them as specific as possible, and some prefer to use them as talking points with the specificity defined in the discussion (University Human Resource Services, 2005). In general employees and supervisors use the performance assessment annually to sum up an overall review of how the job has been done over the previous 12 months, to identify whether organisational goals have been met, to identify areas which require additional efforts, and lastly to identify the achievement and development goals for the forthcoming year. Performance reviews typically take place annually, but can be scheduled more frequently. Performance review processes vary depending on whether your appointment is as classified or professional staff. For classified staff covered by a labour contract, the contract establishes the performance review process requirements (University of Washington, 2007). People who are joining the workplace today are not only looking for jobs that earn money, but are also looking for more opportunities such as self-development. They are willing to put more effort on their job when their own needs, goals, expectation and desires are met. For that reason, the management of the organisation have to find out the factors affecting the employees performance and come up with techniques to improve employees job performance. Management must also make sure that employees goals are in line with organisations objectives. As the world become more competitive, organisations around the world are also alerted by the need to compete effectively against each other. In order to do so, organisations need to prepare themselves by making sure the people in their organisation are able to perform well and compete competently. Job performance will be the key success for organisation as it enables employees to work at their best and maximize their contribution to the organisa tion. 2.2 History of Research on Job Performance According to Hersen (2004), â€Å"job performance is a complex, multidimensional construct that can be defined and assessed in varying ways. Job performance can be defined (and assessed) in terms of quantifiable outcomes of work behaviours (e.g., amount of sales measured in dollars, productivity level, number of academic journal publications, number of lines of computer code written) and in terms of behavioural dimensions (work-related communication, decision making, attention to detail) that are less quantifiable†. Employees job performance also stands for the level ability of every employee to work efficiently (in terms of quantity and quality) in their job as required or expected by their employers. The employees job performance is then evaluated by the employer, supervisors or the people in charge. The job performance can be evaluated in terms of effectiveness all together in the job and in terms of particular components that the job compromises. The employees performances will show the personalities, knowledge and experiences of themselves. Each employees performance level is different as each individual has different capability and behaviour. Employees poor level of performance may be affected by many factors which include motivation, job commitment, job design and the work environment of the organisation. Historically, many researchers have attempted to study the factors affecting job performance but it is not as simple as one may think and the answer may vary from one another. Buchanan (n.d.), who has done a study on the relation of job satisfaction and performance, pointed out in her study that â€Å"the relationship between job satisfaction and performance is an issue of continuing debate and controversy. One view, associated with the early human relations approach, is that satisfaction leads to performance. An alternative view is that performance leads to satisfaction†. She also mentioned that many researchers tend to relate job satisfaction and job performance in a specific fashion, which is a happy worker, is a good worker. Job satisfaction is defined as the extent to which people like (satisfaction) or dislike (dissatisfaction) their jobs (Spector, 1997). This definition suggests job satisfaction is a general or global affective reaction that individuals hold about their job (Williams, 2004). Job satisfaction is usually linked with motivation, but the nature of this relationship is not clear. Satisfaction is not the same as motivation. Several numbers of studies has found that there is only a limited amount of relationship between employees satisfaction and their job performance. For example, it was found by Brayfield and Crockett (1955) that there is only a minimal relationship between job performance and job satisfaction (Judge et al., 2001). The increased of job satisfaction does not necessarily mean increased of employees job performance. If the goals of the organisation are not aligned with the goals of employees, then employees are not effectively working towards the mission of the organisation. Therefore, Buchanan concluded in her study that each employees performance is normally determined by motivation, ability, and the work environment. The motivation factor is the desire of the employee to do the job; ability is the capability of the employee to do the job and lastly the work environment which is the tools, materials and information that is needed by the employee to do the job required. 2.3 Past Research on Motivation Affecting Job Performance In the past, employees job performance are traditionally been looked at in terms of ‘motivation. Many researchers have come out with a conclusion that employees levels of performance are influenced by the motivation factor. Examples of researchers are like Maslow (1954), who developed ‘the hierarchy of needs or Hezberg (1966), who developed the idea of ‘hygiene factors, such as pay and conditions which, if not ‘right in the eyes of the employee, act as de-motivators. There is also the work of McClelland who argued that people struggled to fulfil needs of power or influence and social interaction, amongst others. All these ideas have uses in the management of the poor performer. Sometimes, however; they seem to be too complex to use on a day-to-day basis and are more suited to giving the manager a theoretical understanding rather than a useful tool (Proud, n.d.). From the theory of motivation such as Maslows hierarchy of needs,modern leaders, executive managers or supervisors findmeans of motivation for the purposesof employees performance and workforce management. Motivation is always view as an important issue in the business world. This is because motivation is vital in every organisation as it will affect the productivity of the organisation. When the employees in an organisation are unmotivated, the productivity of that organisation will be decreased whereas compared to an organisation which have motivated employees the labour turnover will be lower and production will be higher. According to Dev (n.d.), â€Å"A Gallup organisation study indicated that companies with positive employee attitudes are 50 percent more likely to achieve customer loyalty, and 44 percent more likely to achieve above-average profits. Additionally, the study finds firms that measure in the top quartile with regard to employee engagement averaged 24 percent higher profitability, 29 percent greater revenue and 10 percent less employee turnover than businesses in the bottom quartile. The evidence is clear. Better people management practices produce better business results.† According to Bartol Martin (1998), â€Å"motivation is defined as the force that energises behaviour, gives direction to behaviour, and underlies the tendency to persist. This definition recognises that in order to achieve goals, individual must be sufficiently stimulated and energetic , must have a clear focus on what is to be achieved, and must be willing to commit their energy for a long enough period of time to realise their aim†. Thus, motivated behaviours are performed and controlled voluntarily by the employees themselves whereas supervisors or managers only act as the motivator to encourage employees to increase their level of job performance. Many people who are not motivated keep their performance to an acceptable level by expending only 20% to 30% of their ability whereas managers who know how to motivate their employees can achieve 80% to 90% ability levels and consequently higher levels of performance (Geoff, n.d.). Motivation comes in many different forms. It can be in a simple form like praise by the supervisors or managers, in the form of monetary (increase in pay), rewards, promotion, job security and etc. These factors are important because it will affect the employees level of job performance. Hence it is truly essential that managers and supervisors of an organisation knows how to motivate its employees in performing well and achieving organisation goals. According to Wagner (n.d.), â€Å"Abraham Maslow first introduced his concept of a hierarchy of needs in his 1943 paper, ‘A Theory of Human Motivation. This hierarchy suggests that people are motivated to fulfil basic needs before moving on to other needs†. Maslows hierarchy of needs is most often displayed as a pyramid, with lowest levels of the pyramid made up of the most basic needs and more complex needs are at the top of the pyramid. The basis of Maslows theory is that human beings are motivated by unsatisfied needs, and that certain lower needs need to be satisfied before higher needs can be satisfied. A satisfied need is not a motivator as the most influential employee need is the one that has not been satisfied. From the Maslows hierarchy of needs, management should understand and identify what their employees need and then satisfy them from the lowest to the highest level. Physiological needs are needs which are at the bottom of the pyramid, are the most essential needs to human living. In the workforce, organisation helps employees to satisfy their needs by giving them basic salary. Safety needs are security needs that include the needs for shelter from the environment and health insurance. In the organization context, employees express their security needs as a desire for job security with fringe benefits. The management should provide employees with safe working environment with ample tools and resources. These will be the factor that helps employees to perform well. Social needs are needs related to the need for friendship, love and sense of belonging. At the workplace, these needs include having good relationship with colleagues, superiors or etc. When employees enjoy working closely with each other, it may result in positive behaviour at work which will also result in better employee performances. The management can also help to satisfy employees social needs by showing direct concern for them. Esteem needs are the needs of self-respect, respect or recognition from others and a sense of personal achievement. When these needs are satisfied, the person feels self-confident and valuable as a person in the world (Simons et al., 1987). In the organisation, the management can fulfil employees esteem needs by showing their appreciation through promotion, rewards, recognition and etc. Self-actualisation needs are place at the highest level of the pyramid. These needs are associated to personal growth, self-fulfilment and the realisation of ones full potential. In this stage, the management can help the employees by giving them tasks that challenges their own intelligence. All the elements in the Maslows hierarchy of needs are the motivator for employees to perform well in their job. A motivated employee is usually someone with clearly defined goals who takes action which he or she expects to achieve. Besides that, motivated employees will be likely to put in more effort towards the organisation objectives and goals. A leader that recognises employee efforts and helps employees achieve and grow can help improve motivation which therefore increases job performance. According to Hong et al. (1995), Vroom maintained in his expectation theory that everyone works in expectation of some rewards (both spiritual and material), and welfare is one of them. In other words, the degree of reward influences the quality and quantity of work, and in turn productivity. So it is important for management to explore how to give the stimulus (welfare) in order to promote work motivation and performance. Image. Relationship between the type of employee benefit and impact on job performance However, there are some researchers that found out that motivation has limited relationship with employees job performance. They do not believe that money (salary and bonuses) is a good motivator. McNamara (n.d.), who did a research on employee motivation, said that â€Å"certain things like money, a nice office and job security can help people from becoming less motivated, but they usually dont help people to become more motivated. A key goal for the company is to understand the motivations of each of their employees†. Another researcher, Urichuck (n.d.), stated that â€Å"organisations could provide employee motivation through a bonus in the form of money at the end of a period. For sure they will be glad and grateful. They may even perform better, but what are their expectations at the end of the next period will be more money. External employee motivation is temporary and it is never lasting. Money is an external employee motivator. Its an incentive that once acquired, leads to expectations for more, bigger or better. Nevertheless the employees will not even realise that the company is facing a crisis. They will want a bonus at least equal to what they got last year, but preferably more, not less†. According to him, there is a survey on thousands of workers around the world that uses compared rankings by supervisors and employees on employee motivating factors. The typical supervisory group ranked the factors in the following order; high wages, job security, promotion in the organisation, good working conditions, interesting work, personal loyalty of supervisor, tactful discipline, full appreciation of work done, help on personal problems, and feeling of being in on things. However, when employees were given the same exercise and asked what affects their morale and employee motivation the most, their answers followed this pattern; full appreciation of work done, feeling of being in on things, help on personal problems, job security, high wages, interesting work, promotion in the organization, personal loyalty of supervisor, good working conditions, and tactful discipline. Note that the top three employee motivating factors marked by the employees are the last three felt to be important for them by their supervisors (Urichuck, n.d.). As a result, this research shows that motivation through the form of money, has limited amount of relationship with employees job performance while recognition is the most influential motivator that affects employees job performance. 2.4 Past Research on Job Commitment Affecting Job Performance Job commitment is the willingness of the employees to be devoted in completing the job assigned to them at minimum level of commitment or exceeding the amount that is required. The level of employee commitment to their job is often the key determinant of whether the employee performs as expected or exceeding the expectations. The level of employee commitment may affect employees job performance. Committed employees often performed well and results in companys success and increase of productivity level. Besides job commitment includes the level of employee involvement and employee loyalty to the organisation. Simpson (n.d.), who did a research on building employee commitment for business success, stated that â€Å"the indication of lack of employee commitment could be an indication of a company on the way to becoming another business failure. The workplace is changing dramatically and demands for the highest quality of product and service is increasing. To remain competitive in the face of these pressures, employee commitment is crucial. The two keys to success in todays environment of increasing competition and rapid change are an absolute passion for, and dedication to, excellence in customer service and the effective and enlightened management of our workforce. The employees commitment will lead to achieving desired standards in customer service and high job performance. Without employee commitment, there can be no improvement in any area of business activity. In the absence of good management, employees will simply treat their work as a job; a 9am to 5pm routine without any desire to accomplish any more than is necessary to remain employed. It does not take many uncommitted employees to prevent a business from prospering and thereby ceding a big advantage to its competitors†. Another researcher, Fink (1992), asserted that although there are many factors that affect employees performance, the key factor of employees performance is affected by employees job commitment. He defines commitment as an attitude that develops from a process called identification, which occurs when one experiences something, someone, or some idea as an extension of oneself. While all research on commitment treats it only in terms of identification with organisation, that is, its goals, values, and mission, on the other hand, he focuses on three-dimensional concept including identification with the work itself and with co-workers. He is sure that these are equally important because they can have powerful effects upon employee performance. As basis of his research he makes an interactive model that proposes: good management practices result in an effective reward system and employee commitment, an effective reward system results in enhanced employee commitment and employee performanc e, and employee commitment results in enhanced employee performance. As a result of his research in two companies, who has 418 and 430 employees, respectively, he found that there was significant correlation between employee performance ratings and commitment score in all categories, and also the correlation between performance and commitment for managers and operational employees grouped separately were significant in all categories. The higher the level of employee commitment to work; co-worker, and organisation, the higher the level of the performance will be. Based on Sutanto‘s (1999) findings, instead of concluding that job commitment only has significant affect on job performance, he has found that â€Å"there is also a positive and significant relationship between commitment to supervisors and performance. He also stated that employees commitment to supervisors have become a good predictor to performance rather than commitment to organisations†. After conducting a larger project to all 1,803 members of May 1993 graduating class of large north-western university, Becker (1992), has found that commitment to supervisors was positively related to performance. â€Å"Further, internalization of supervisors and organizations values was associated with performance but identification with these foci (targets) was not. A number of theorists and researchers have begun to view employee commitment as having multiple foci and bases. Foci commitments are the individuals and group to whom an employee is attached†. Thus, in order to increase employees performance, the study suggest that managers should focus on creating employees commitment to supervisors rather than creating employees commitment to the organisation. On the other hand, Cohens (1999) research supported the important status of job involvement as an antecedent to organisational commitment. Specifically, Cohen argued that those individuals with high levels of job involvement, which stem from positive experiences on-the-job (Witt, 1993), make attributions for these experiences to the organisation. Thus, having previously received benefits from the organisation and being obligated by the norm of reciprocity (Gouldner, 1960) to repay them, high job involvement employees feel compelled to reciprocate in some form. This increased affective commitment (i.e. where employees adopt the companys goals as their own and, therefore, desire to remain with the organisation to help it achieve its goals; Meyer and Allen, 1984; Mowday et al., 1979) and later was found to reduce turnover intentions, absence behaviour, and/or turnover, as well as increased job performance. Tough many researchers have confirmed that employees commitment result in high job performance, nevertheless some past researchers have also found that job commitment or involvement has limited affect on employees job performance. According to Rotenberry and Moberg (2007), â€Å"research finding a significant impact of job involvement on employee performance has met limited success (e.g. Brown, 1996; Brown and Leigh, 1996; Diefendorff et al., 2006 and Vroom, 1962)†. Diefendorff et al. (2002) stated that â€Å"research has been limited for two reasons. Specifically, they asserted that past studies had predominantly used inferior measures of job involvement, which led to their insignificant findings. In addition, Diefendorff et al. (2002) argued that the performance domain assessed in those previous studies needed to be expanded in order to ascertain job involvements true impact on performance at work. The researchers tested the validity of these propositions, but called for additional research in the area paying particular attention to theory development regarding the job involvement-performance relationship†. 2.5 Past Research on Job Design Affecting Job Performance Job design is the method of arranging various work elements in forming a job that suit the employees. Job design identifies what work must be performed to be precise, the content of the job, how it will be performed, where it is to be performed and the competencies required by the person who will perform it. Job design also facilitates the achievement of organizational goals and performance of the work the job was established to accomplish (Sharon, 1998). Job design is also important to avoid employees dissatisfaction. The design of the job must follow the organisations and employees requirement including the health and safety requirement. Besides, job design implementation includes methods such as job enlargement, job rotation, job enrichment and job simplification. The first, job enlargement, can be used to increase motivation by giving employees more and varied tasks. Tasks that reduce the amount of specialization required by the employee, as well as, extending the length of time he or she has to complete them. The second, job rotation, allows an employee to work in different departments or jobs in an organization to gain better insight into operations. This, in itself, does not modify or redesigns the employees job, but allows the opportunity to increase his/her skills and knowledge about other jobs. Job enrichment, the third method, allows the employee to take on some responsibilities normally delegated to management. The risk here is that the employee would be transferred too much responsibility and autonomy in the planning and control aspects of the job. Done right, however, the newfound control would invigorate the employee to work more effectively and thus increased it Effect of Motivation on Employee Performance Effect of Motivation on Employee Performance Chapter 1 INTRODUCTION 1.1 Background of the Study In todays competitive world, employee is an important asset to every organisation. An organisation cannot progress without employees. However, the success of an organisation depends on how the management utilise their workers capabilities in achieving organisation goals and objectives. Employees need to be inspired as well as motivated to perform well and perform efficiently. According to Smith (n.d.), employees who like where they work will help the company make more money. Sears conducted an 800-store survey that showed the impact of employee attitudes on the bottom line. When employee attitudes improved by 5%, customer satisfactionjumped 1.3%, consequently increasing revenue by one-half a percentage point. Seeking ways to motivate and build worker morale pays dividends to any business or organization. The motivated worker is more committed to the job and to the customer. This shows that happy employees performed well which increases the quality and quantity of their work. Long time ago, employees were considered as merely an input to the production of good and services. However as time goes by, this way of thinking has changed as many studies has been done on the employees behaviour and job performance. An employees performance may affect the production of the company, from the quality to the quantity of the products and services. This is why the management must identify the factors affecting their workers performance. A high performance workforce is the most important foundation for organisations success no matter how big or how small the organisation is. Job performance is the ability and skill that an employee possesses in performing the job required by the employer. The level of performance by the employee is going to affect the organisations goal and productivity. Besides, employees performance may also be affected by the management of the company, the job itself or even the employees own behaviour. Good job performance provides great achievement to the organisation, harmony in the workplace and also employees self-accomplishment. Thus, to have a good workforce and good employee performance, organisation must firstly identify and understand the factors which affect the employees job performance in achieving companys goal. 1.2 Research Problem For centuries, individuals have questioned and performed research on the factors affecting employees job performance and yet the answers may vary from one another. Some researcher said that employees performance is influenced by their pay and some said they are not. Employees are an organisations important asset which is why good performance by the employees is essential in producing good job quality and productivity. Employees are the ones who are running the organisation on behalf of the company. They have the responsibilities to perform well for the company in order to achieve organisation goal and compete with other organisations in the same industry. Employees are the one who plan, manage, organise and run the business activities of an organisation. This means that poor employees job performance may reduce the quality of services and productivity which will eventually slow down the operation of the organisation and lead to wastage of resources such as money and time. Organisations may find ways to solve the problem by terminating poorly performed employees or even choose to ignore it which may lead to unsuccessful business or bankruptcy. By choosing to terminate underperformed employee could not solve the problem as time is needed to hire new employee and extra cost will be incurred for training new employee. Management should find ways that inspires their workers to perform well in order to achieve organisations goal and in order to fully utilise their resources. Management believes that by paying employees more (increase of wages), employees will tend to perform better. Perhaps it might be true according to some researcher. However, there are also recent studies that have shown that employees motivations are not solely affected by pay. Thus, this research is carried out to investigate the factors that affect employees performance. This research will attempt to evaluate the effect of four variables which are motivation, job commitment, job design and work environment. 1.3 Research Objectives The reason for this research is: To investigate if motivation has the significant affect on employees job performance. To investigate if job commitment has the significant affect on employees job performance. To investigate if job design has the significant affect on employees job performance. To investigate if work environment has the significant affect on employees job performance. Job design is techniques that are use in the job design exercise are such as job enlargement, job enrichment, job rotation and job simplification. The work environment or working place which an employee performs in, can affect his or her performance. Work environment can be divided into two categories which are physical environment and social environment. The physical environment includes safe working place with ample resources and equipment such as comfortable chair, lighting and etc whereas the social environment includes people that the employees are working with in the organisation such as working colleagues or subordinates, supervisors and etc. 1.4 Scope of the Study This empirical study consists of dependent and independent variables. The dependent variable is employees job performance whereas the independent variables consist of factors that affect employees job performance such as motivation (pay, benefits, rewards, etc), job commitment, job design and work environment. The population for this study take into account the employees working in the manufacturing companies in Penang and is randomly selected by using convenience sampling method. Questionnaires will be distributed to 150 employees. Questionnaires will then be collected back and data will be analysed using the regression testing that is use to test the effects of the independent variables onto the dependent variables. 1.5 Significance of Study It is definite that every organisation no matter how big or small in size the company is in the whole wide world needs people or employees to operate and manage their company. The significance of this study is to investigate the four factors relationship with employees job performance, as employees job performance is important in producing good job quality and maximum productivity. This study is also essential to find out the influences of the four factors to the organisations. An organisation is considered dead and cannot operate without workers. Well performed employees may lead the organisation to success and earn competitive advantage over competitors while poor performed employees may lead company to failure and even bankruptcy. Besides poorly performed workers causes insufficiency in productivity which indirectly waste company resources. It might also cause company to be defeated by its rival. Therefore this study will help managers and employees to understand better the problem affecting their performance and reduce the negative effects to the company. Chapter 2 LITERATURE RREVIEW 2.1 Introduction These days, the business world is becoming more challenging than ever. This increases the managements awareness that good job performance is the key success to the organisation. To have well-performed employees, various ways or techniques should be conducted to manipulate humans nature and needs to produce desired behaviours and well performance. For that reason, the first thing the management should do is to understand human (employees) needs and wants. Employee job performance is the ability of employees to perform effectively in their job required and they need to have understanding of complete and up-to-date job description for their position. Besides that, they also need to be aware of the job performance requirements and standard that they are expected to meet. Supervisors or the management of the organisation should then review their employees job description and performance requirements. Job performance can be reviewed in terms of overall efficiency in the job or in terms of specific components that the job compromises. The purpose of performance standards is to communicate expectations. Some supervisors prefer to make them as specific as possible, and some prefer to use them as talking points with the specificity defined in the discussion (University Human Resource Services, 2005). In general employees and supervisors use the performance assessment annually to sum up an overall review of how the job has been done over the previous 12 months, to identify whether organisational goals have been met, to identify areas which require additional efforts, and lastly to identify the achievement and development goals for the forthcoming year. Performance reviews typically take place annually, but can be scheduled more frequently. Performance review processes vary depending on whether your appointment is as classified or professional staff. For classified staff covered by a labour contract, the contract establishes the performance review process requirements (University of Washington, 2007). People who are joining the workplace today are not only looking for jobs that earn money, but are also looking for more opportunities such as self-development. They are willing to put more effort on their job when their own needs, goals, expectation and desires are met. For that reason, the management of the organisation have to find out the factors affecting the employees performance and come up with techniques to improve employees job performance. Management must also make sure that employees goals are in line with organisations objectives. As the world become more competitive, organisations around the world are also alerted by the need to compete effectively against each other. In order to do so, organisations need to prepare themselves by making sure the people in their organisation are able to perform well and compete competently. Job performance will be the key success for organisation as it enables employees to work at their best and maximize their contribution to the organisa tion. 2.2 History of Research on Job Performance According to Hersen (2004), â€Å"job performance is a complex, multidimensional construct that can be defined and assessed in varying ways. Job performance can be defined (and assessed) in terms of quantifiable outcomes of work behaviours (e.g., amount of sales measured in dollars, productivity level, number of academic journal publications, number of lines of computer code written) and in terms of behavioural dimensions (work-related communication, decision making, attention to detail) that are less quantifiable†. Employees job performance also stands for the level ability of every employee to work efficiently (in terms of quantity and quality) in their job as required or expected by their employers. The employees job performance is then evaluated by the employer, supervisors or the people in charge. The job performance can be evaluated in terms of effectiveness all together in the job and in terms of particular components that the job compromises. The employees performances will show the personalities, knowledge and experiences of themselves. Each employees performance level is different as each individual has different capability and behaviour. Employees poor level of performance may be affected by many factors which include motivation, job commitment, job design and the work environment of the organisation. Historically, many researchers have attempted to study the factors affecting job performance but it is not as simple as one may think and the answer may vary from one another. Buchanan (n.d.), who has done a study on the relation of job satisfaction and performance, pointed out in her study that â€Å"the relationship between job satisfaction and performance is an issue of continuing debate and controversy. One view, associated with the early human relations approach, is that satisfaction leads to performance. An alternative view is that performance leads to satisfaction†. She also mentioned that many researchers tend to relate job satisfaction and job performance in a specific fashion, which is a happy worker, is a good worker. Job satisfaction is defined as the extent to which people like (satisfaction) or dislike (dissatisfaction) their jobs (Spector, 1997). This definition suggests job satisfaction is a general or global affective reaction that individuals hold about their job (Williams, 2004). Job satisfaction is usually linked with motivation, but the nature of this relationship is not clear. Satisfaction is not the same as motivation. Several numbers of studies has found that there is only a limited amount of relationship between employees satisfaction and their job performance. For example, it was found by Brayfield and Crockett (1955) that there is only a minimal relationship between job performance and job satisfaction (Judge et al., 2001). The increased of job satisfaction does not necessarily mean increased of employees job performance. If the goals of the organisation are not aligned with the goals of employees, then employees are not effectively working towards the mission of the organisation. Therefore, Buchanan concluded in her study that each employees performance is normally determined by motivation, ability, and the work environment. The motivation factor is the desire of the employee to do the job; ability is the capability of the employee to do the job and lastly the work environment which is the tools, materials and information that is needed by the employee to do the job required. 2.3 Past Research on Motivation Affecting Job Performance In the past, employees job performance are traditionally been looked at in terms of ‘motivation. Many researchers have come out with a conclusion that employees levels of performance are influenced by the motivation factor. Examples of researchers are like Maslow (1954), who developed ‘the hierarchy of needs or Hezberg (1966), who developed the idea of ‘hygiene factors, such as pay and conditions which, if not ‘right in the eyes of the employee, act as de-motivators. There is also the work of McClelland who argued that people struggled to fulfil needs of power or influence and social interaction, amongst others. All these ideas have uses in the management of the poor performer. Sometimes, however; they seem to be too complex to use on a day-to-day basis and are more suited to giving the manager a theoretical understanding rather than a useful tool (Proud, n.d.). From the theory of motivation such as Maslows hierarchy of needs,modern leaders, executive managers or supervisors findmeans of motivation for the purposesof employees performance and workforce management. Motivation is always view as an important issue in the business world. This is because motivation is vital in every organisation as it will affect the productivity of the organisation. When the employees in an organisation are unmotivated, the productivity of that organisation will be decreased whereas compared to an organisation which have motivated employees the labour turnover will be lower and production will be higher. According to Dev (n.d.), â€Å"A Gallup organisation study indicated that companies with positive employee attitudes are 50 percent more likely to achieve customer loyalty, and 44 percent more likely to achieve above-average profits. Additionally, the study finds firms that measure in the top quartile with regard to employee engagement averaged 24 percent higher profitability, 29 percent greater revenue and 10 percent less employee turnover than businesses in the bottom quartile. The evidence is clear. Better people management practices produce better business results.† According to Bartol Martin (1998), â€Å"motivation is defined as the force that energises behaviour, gives direction to behaviour, and underlies the tendency to persist. This definition recognises that in order to achieve goals, individual must be sufficiently stimulated and energetic , must have a clear focus on what is to be achieved, and must be willing to commit their energy for a long enough period of time to realise their aim†. Thus, motivated behaviours are performed and controlled voluntarily by the employees themselves whereas supervisors or managers only act as the motivator to encourage employees to increase their level of job performance. Many people who are not motivated keep their performance to an acceptable level by expending only 20% to 30% of their ability whereas managers who know how to motivate their employees can achieve 80% to 90% ability levels and consequently higher levels of performance (Geoff, n.d.). Motivation comes in many different forms. It can be in a simple form like praise by the supervisors or managers, in the form of monetary (increase in pay), rewards, promotion, job security and etc. These factors are important because it will affect the employees level of job performance. Hence it is truly essential that managers and supervisors of an organisation knows how to motivate its employees in performing well and achieving organisation goals. According to Wagner (n.d.), â€Å"Abraham Maslow first introduced his concept of a hierarchy of needs in his 1943 paper, ‘A Theory of Human Motivation. This hierarchy suggests that people are motivated to fulfil basic needs before moving on to other needs†. Maslows hierarchy of needs is most often displayed as a pyramid, with lowest levels of the pyramid made up of the most basic needs and more complex needs are at the top of the pyramid. The basis of Maslows theory is that human beings are motivated by unsatisfied needs, and that certain lower needs need to be satisfied before higher needs can be satisfied. A satisfied need is not a motivator as the most influential employee need is the one that has not been satisfied. From the Maslows hierarchy of needs, management should understand and identify what their employees need and then satisfy them from the lowest to the highest level. Physiological needs are needs which are at the bottom of the pyramid, are the most essential needs to human living. In the workforce, organisation helps employees to satisfy their needs by giving them basic salary. Safety needs are security needs that include the needs for shelter from the environment and health insurance. In the organization context, employees express their security needs as a desire for job security with fringe benefits. The management should provide employees with safe working environment with ample tools and resources. These will be the factor that helps employees to perform well. Social needs are needs related to the need for friendship, love and sense of belonging. At the workplace, these needs include having good relationship with colleagues, superiors or etc. When employees enjoy working closely with each other, it may result in positive behaviour at work which will also result in better employee performances. The management can also help to satisfy employees social needs by showing direct concern for them. Esteem needs are the needs of self-respect, respect or recognition from others and a sense of personal achievement. When these needs are satisfied, the person feels self-confident and valuable as a person in the world (Simons et al., 1987). In the organisation, the management can fulfil employees esteem needs by showing their appreciation through promotion, rewards, recognition and etc. Self-actualisation needs are place at the highest level of the pyramid. These needs are associated to personal growth, self-fulfilment and the realisation of ones full potential. In this stage, the management can help the employees by giving them tasks that challenges their own intelligence. All the elements in the Maslows hierarchy of needs are the motivator for employees to perform well in their job. A motivated employee is usually someone with clearly defined goals who takes action which he or she expects to achieve. Besides that, motivated employees will be likely to put in more effort towards the organisation objectives and goals. A leader that recognises employee efforts and helps employees achieve and grow can help improve motivation which therefore increases job performance. According to Hong et al. (1995), Vroom maintained in his expectation theory that everyone works in expectation of some rewards (both spiritual and material), and welfare is one of them. In other words, the degree of reward influences the quality and quantity of work, and in turn productivity. So it is important for management to explore how to give the stimulus (welfare) in order to promote work motivation and performance. Image. Relationship between the type of employee benefit and impact on job performance However, there are some researchers that found out that motivation has limited relationship with employees job performance. They do not believe that money (salary and bonuses) is a good motivator. McNamara (n.d.), who did a research on employee motivation, said that â€Å"certain things like money, a nice office and job security can help people from becoming less motivated, but they usually dont help people to become more motivated. A key goal for the company is to understand the motivations of each of their employees†. Another researcher, Urichuck (n.d.), stated that â€Å"organisations could provide employee motivation through a bonus in the form of money at the end of a period. For sure they will be glad and grateful. They may even perform better, but what are their expectations at the end of the next period will be more money. External employee motivation is temporary and it is never lasting. Money is an external employee motivator. Its an incentive that once acquired, leads to expectations for more, bigger or better. Nevertheless the employees will not even realise that the company is facing a crisis. They will want a bonus at least equal to what they got last year, but preferably more, not less†. According to him, there is a survey on thousands of workers around the world that uses compared rankings by supervisors and employees on employee motivating factors. The typical supervisory group ranked the factors in the following order; high wages, job security, promotion in the organisation, good working conditions, interesting work, personal loyalty of supervisor, tactful discipline, full appreciation of work done, help on personal problems, and feeling of being in on things. However, when employees were given the same exercise and asked what affects their morale and employee motivation the most, their answers followed this pattern; full appreciation of work done, feeling of being in on things, help on personal problems, job security, high wages, interesting work, promotion in the organization, personal loyalty of supervisor, good working conditions, and tactful discipline. Note that the top three employee motivating factors marked by the employees are the last three felt to be important for them by their supervisors (Urichuck, n.d.). As a result, this research shows that motivation through the form of money, has limited amount of relationship with employees job performance while recognition is the most influential motivator that affects employees job performance. 2.4 Past Research on Job Commitment Affecting Job Performance Job commitment is the willingness of the employees to be devoted in completing the job assigned to them at minimum level of commitment or exceeding the amount that is required. The level of employee commitment to their job is often the key determinant of whether the employee performs as expected or exceeding the expectations. The level of employee commitment may affect employees job performance. Committed employees often performed well and results in companys success and increase of productivity level. Besides job commitment includes the level of employee involvement and employee loyalty to the organisation. Simpson (n.d.), who did a research on building employee commitment for business success, stated that â€Å"the indication of lack of employee commitment could be an indication of a company on the way to becoming another business failure. The workplace is changing dramatically and demands for the highest quality of product and service is increasing. To remain competitive in the face of these pressures, employee commitment is crucial. The two keys to success in todays environment of increasing competition and rapid change are an absolute passion for, and dedication to, excellence in customer service and the effective and enlightened management of our workforce. The employees commitment will lead to achieving desired standards in customer service and high job performance. Without employee commitment, there can be no improvement in any area of business activity. In the absence of good management, employees will simply treat their work as a job; a 9am to 5pm routine without any desire to accomplish any more than is necessary to remain employed. It does not take many uncommitted employees to prevent a business from prospering and thereby ceding a big advantage to its competitors†. Another researcher, Fink (1992), asserted that although there are many factors that affect employees performance, the key factor of employees performance is affected by employees job commitment. He defines commitment as an attitude that develops from a process called identification, which occurs when one experiences something, someone, or some idea as an extension of oneself. While all research on commitment treats it only in terms of identification with organisation, that is, its goals, values, and mission, on the other hand, he focuses on three-dimensional concept including identification with the work itself and with co-workers. He is sure that these are equally important because they can have powerful effects upon employee performance. As basis of his research he makes an interactive model that proposes: good management practices result in an effective reward system and employee commitment, an effective reward system results in enhanced employee commitment and employee performanc e, and employee commitment results in enhanced employee performance. As a result of his research in two companies, who has 418 and 430 employees, respectively, he found that there was significant correlation between employee performance ratings and commitment score in all categories, and also the correlation between performance and commitment for managers and operational employees grouped separately were significant in all categories. The higher the level of employee commitment to work; co-worker, and organisation, the higher the level of the performance will be. Based on Sutanto‘s (1999) findings, instead of concluding that job commitment only has significant affect on job performance, he has found that â€Å"there is also a positive and significant relationship between commitment to supervisors and performance. He also stated that employees commitment to supervisors have become a good predictor to performance rather than commitment to organisations†. After conducting a larger project to all 1,803 members of May 1993 graduating class of large north-western university, Becker (1992), has found that commitment to supervisors was positively related to performance. â€Å"Further, internalization of supervisors and organizations values was associated with performance but identification with these foci (targets) was not. A number of theorists and researchers have begun to view employee commitment as having multiple foci and bases. Foci commitments are the individuals and group to whom an employee is attached†. Thus, in order to increase employees performance, the study suggest that managers should focus on creating employees commitment to supervisors rather than creating employees commitment to the organisation. On the other hand, Cohens (1999) research supported the important status of job involvement as an antecedent to organisational commitment. Specifically, Cohen argued that those individuals with high levels of job involvement, which stem from positive experiences on-the-job (Witt, 1993), make attributions for these experiences to the organisation. Thus, having previously received benefits from the organisation and being obligated by the norm of reciprocity (Gouldner, 1960) to repay them, high job involvement employees feel compelled to reciprocate in some form. This increased affective commitment (i.e. where employees adopt the companys goals as their own and, therefore, desire to remain with the organisation to help it achieve its goals; Meyer and Allen, 1984; Mowday et al., 1979) and later was found to reduce turnover intentions, absence behaviour, and/or turnover, as well as increased job performance. Tough many researchers have confirmed that employees commitment result in high job performance, nevertheless some past researchers have also found that job commitment or involvement has limited affect on employees job performance. According to Rotenberry and Moberg (2007), â€Å"research finding a significant impact of job involvement on employee performance has met limited success (e.g. Brown, 1996; Brown and Leigh, 1996; Diefendorff et al., 2006 and Vroom, 1962)†. Diefendorff et al. (2002) stated that â€Å"research has been limited for two reasons. Specifically, they asserted that past studies had predominantly used inferior measures of job involvement, which led to their insignificant findings. In addition, Diefendorff et al. (2002) argued that the performance domain assessed in those previous studies needed to be expanded in order to ascertain job involvements true impact on performance at work. The researchers tested the validity of these propositions, but called for additional research in the area paying particular attention to theory development regarding the job involvement-performance relationship†. 2.5 Past Research on Job Design Affecting Job Performance Job design is the method of arranging various work elements in forming a job that suit the employees. Job design identifies what work must be performed to be precise, the content of the job, how it will be performed, where it is to be performed and the competencies required by the person who will perform it. Job design also facilitates the achievement of organizational goals and performance of the work the job was established to accomplish (Sharon, 1998). Job design is also important to avoid employees dissatisfaction. The design of the job must follow the organisations and employees requirement including the health and safety requirement. Besides, job design implementation includes methods such as job enlargement, job rotation, job enrichment and job simplification. The first, job enlargement, can be used to increase motivation by giving employees more and varied tasks. Tasks that reduce the amount of specialization required by the employee, as well as, extending the length of time he or she has to complete them. The second, job rotation, allows an employee to work in different departments or jobs in an organization to gain better insight into operations. This, in itself, does not modify or redesigns the employees job, but allows the opportunity to increase his/her skills and knowledge about other jobs. Job enrichment, the third method, allows the employee to take on some responsibilities normally delegated to management. The risk here is that the employee would be transferred too much responsibility and autonomy in the planning and control aspects of the job. Done right, however, the newfound control would invigorate the employee to work more effectively and thus increased it

Culture And Defining The Role Of Leadership Essay -- Leadership Busine

Culture and Defining The Role Of Leadership Abstract I believe a person can be taught to lead and manage but one can't be taught how to effectively and successfully lead and manage. I don't believe the corporate culture of the organization has to with it. I think leading and managing has to do with the individual person. How that person is motivated, how that person sees him/herself. Can he/she lead effectively or is managing the nitch that they have. A Leader will effectively orchestrate change, create a vision, inspire people to follow the vision and keep people focused towards an ideal future. What is Culture? I first want you to understand what culture is because to understand culture is to understand the organization. According to Anthropologist James Sparely, culture is "the acquired knowledge people use to interpret experience and generate behavior". Culture can be interpreted in many ways such as national/ethnic culture, secondary or subgroup culture, culture in the anthropological sense and the capital C culture. The national/ ethnic culture is described as how one was raised as a child such as African American culture or Chinese culture. This interpretation is a very narrow view because it is a norm and it also raises challenges in our virtual team communication. Secondary or sub-group culture is described as our social groups such as women's group or golf group. Culture in the anthropological sense refers to behaviors one shares over time and the capital C culture refers to the performing arts. Individuals from different cultures vary in terms of their behaviors and communication styles (Gudykunst, 1997). Edward Halls th... ...wing the Mission and Vision stated this company has greatly succeeded in its leadership in maintaining a healthy organizational culture. I think the key to a healthy organizational culture is truly a great leader. A leader with self motivation, a leader with life skills not just educational skills. This leader should know what to expect from his/or her members because his vision is clear and concise. This leader will not only have plans for present day activities but for future endeavors, making sure that followers can see this future and actually taste success. A great leader trains others to precede him when he cannot lead any longer making certain that his vision stays alive. References Research website www.culture-at-work.com Research website www.tnellen.com/ted/tc/schein.html Research website www.aipfl.com