The World War II Era - 1212 Words

It is striking how much our world has changed in the last 75 years; our technology as well as our knowledge has advanced by leaps and bounds. The World War II era was a time of rampant progression for America on many levels. Women entered the workforce out of necessity, and as a result women became a driving force in the economy: they made money, and they spent it. Marketing agencies understood this and they began tailoring their advertisements toward women. When war broke out and we began shipping our men off to battle, marketing agencies used the American people’s sympathies toward our soldiers to sell more products. With the limited knowledge about the products they were selling, advertisements from this era focused more on how the item made them â€Å"cool†, how it was â€Å"good for you†, and how it was the better than the rest – all without truly understanding the product, or the long – term effects it might create. Modern advertising has chan ged dramatically, with the advancement of so many fields; we have more information about the products that are being sold, and there are many more regulations about truth in advertising. It’s a completely different playing field for marketing firms today, they have to employ far more creativity to hook an audience and get their message across than our counterparts in the WWII era. Advertising has a powerful role in shaping the culture of a nation, and has the power to change self-perception. Cigarette advertisements are one of the bestShow MoreRelatedThe World War II Era1410 Words   |  6 PagesThe ideology that a specific religious, political, or ethnic group is superior to others, a key trait of totalitarianism, played a role in World War II-era atrocities such as the pogroms against the Jewish community in Germany, the killing of dissidents in the USSR, and the brutal treatment and massacres of the Chinese by the Japanese army. The Nazi ideation espoused by Adolf Hitler, for instance, led to the implementation of various pogroms in Germany attacking those seen as inferior. The ideologyRead MoreThe Cold War Era During World War II1349 Words   |  6 PagesThe Cold War Era that followed the end of World War II was unlike any Americans had seen before. After defeating Germany and its allies in the war, the United States faced a change on the home front: young Americans rushed into marriage and parenthood in unprecedented numbers. In Homeward Bound: American Families in the Cold War Era, Elaine Tyler May describes these changes from the end of the war through the early 1960s. The author makes a compelling range of arguments about the changes that affectedRead MoreWorld War II : The Great Wars Of The Modern Era870 Words   |  4 Pages World War II is often seen as one of the great wars of the modern era. The allies and axis powers both accomplished major scientific advancements and brought about projects of great engineering marvel. Both sides place enormous efforts into the research of new and improved war machines, firearms, and weapons of mass destruction. Nazi Germany jump-started their nuclear project in the mid-1939, a whole three years in advance of the British and the Americans joint effort. Despite Germany’s head startRead MoreThe First World War II Era Showed Of Men And Women851 Words   |  4 PagesPre World War II era showed that men and women had vastly different gender roles, which lead to separate ideas and beliefs between the two. During the 1930s, women were expected to stay at home and be the wife and mother. They could hold some jobs, but the job opportunities were limited to things such as teachers, clerks, and nurses; however the majority of husbands did not want the wives to work bec ause of their expected gender roles and were still viewed as being weaker than men. Men also did notRead MoreEssay on African Americans During the Post World War II Era1824 Words   |  8 PagesThis time in the post World War II era, many African Americans had began to become a more urbanized center of population, around 1970. (Inmotionaame, pg. 1) The regular population included about 70 percent of just the natural population to live in more urbanized cities. (Inmotionaame, pg. 1) Soon African Americans dominated, having 80 percent of their community to live and take the same benefits in more urbanized centers of the Unites States. (Inmotionaame, pg. 2) Only about 53 percent of AfricanRead MoreCasablanca was a Great Film Produced During the World War II Era898 Words   |  4 PagesMany films were produced in the World War II era showing how Americans lived during that time. Some of the greatest films were produced in this era, for example, Casablanca. Casablanca was released in 1942, and is one of the greatest war movies in American history. It depicts life during the early stages of the war in a neutral Africa. This film attempts to promote the war and succeeds as propaganda. Casablanca portrayed isolation, sacrifice, and the threat of fascism to American society. CasablancaRead MoreEssay about America and Post World War II Era: New Left Versus Right2119 Words   |  9 PagesAmerica’s Post-World War II Era: New Left vs. Right The challenge to a variety of political and social issues distinctly characterizes the post World War II (WWII) era, from the mid 1940’s through the 1970’s, in the United States. These issues included African-American civil rights, women’s rights, the threat of Communism, and America’s continuous war effort by entering the Cold War immediately after the end to WWII. These debated issues led to the birth of multiple social movements, collectivelyRead MoreThe Era Of The State Of Wyoming1598 Words   |  7 Pagesthe influenced his style of art. After moving to New York City in the 1930s, Pollock worked with numerous surrealists, muralists and others who influenced and shaped Pollock’s mature style and an era he opened the audience’s mind to, an era called, Abstract Expressionism.(2). Abstract Expressionism was an era that embraced a variety of individual styles, freedom of techniques, use of large canvases and a â€Å"desire to give sp ontaneous expression to the unconscious,† something Pollock’s works exude. (2)Read MoreComparing Two Diaries, Donald Vining s A Gay Diary Vol Essay1733 Words   |  7 PagesMartin Duberman’s Gay in the Fifties look into the everyday life of gay males in the post-World War II Era. While World War II increased freedom for men to sexually explore within the male community, post-World War II extended the freedom of exploration but also created a subsequent backlash against homosexual practices. Vining and Duberman’s diaries document an extension of gay freedoms in the post-World War II period. Although Vining and Duberman give contrasting accounts of their lives as gay malesRead MoreIn The Modern Era, Technology Has Become The Driving Force1699 Words   |  7 Pages In the modern era, technology has become the driving force of the world and has led to many positive advancements, however when incorporating technological advancements into war, it can be said t hat technology has had more negative effects rather than positive ones. Technological advancements have had a negative effect on wars because the number of casualties increases, civilians are more susceptible to getting accidentally killed, and arms of mass destruction can easily fall into the wrong hands

Formal Memo - Generic competencies with References

Question: Discuss that the issue of customer dissatisfaction is a serious issue or not. Answer: The issue of customer dissatisfaction is a serious issue for One Pound Emporium and it must be dealt with seriously. It is recommended that the training needs of employees should be meet. At the same time, it is also important that employees involvement must be high in the training and development programs. The organization would have to make continuous efforts to update the training framework to make it applicable through time spam. This continuous update is particularly necessary due to the fact that the business environment is not stagnant and to maintain competitive advantage. This focus on the past competencies to measure the current (or present) competencies is like Pilbeam and Corbridge (2010) stated, generalizes and assumes that it would always be applicable. The competency framework for One Pound Emporium should be based on three key principles. These are: People who demonstrate integrity, respect and teaming People with energy, enthusiasm and courage to lead People who build relationships based on doing the right thing It is also important to mention that the training needs of different employees would vary. For example the training need of store manager may not be the same as the training need of customer facing staff (Clardy, 2008). The specific and generic competencies required for workforce can be discussed as: Specific competencies: Store Manager and first line supervisors It is important that manager and supervisor should focus on management and leadership competencies. The specific competencies for store manager and first line supervisors would revolve around social interactions with employees and store staff that has to face customer. Social interaction is what makes good leaders, delight customers and it brings cohesion in a work environment. It includes effective communication, persuasion, active listening, collaborating with others, conflict resolution, friendliness and generally influencing others. Social interaction can be measured through feedback surveys like 360-degree feedback, customer satisfaction surveys or peer reviews among others (Graf, 2007). It can be said that the competency framework for store manager and supervisors should help them to develop a culture where they can create a system of check and balances for store staff. Some of the specific competencies for store managers and supervisors would be: Trusted and respect by peers and management. Recognized as capable to stand-in as delegate supervisor. Positively represents his store staff and cultivates cross learning opportunities from other stores and teams. Develops network of relevant contacts. Recognized as a coaching lead Generic competencies: Customer facing store staff The competency for store staff should focus on absolute customer satisfaction. It is important that the store staff should be able to put the customer needs as the top priority (Anderson, 2004). It can happen only when support staff can find a match between their personal goals and objectives and organizational goals and objectives (Dysvik, 2010). The ethical component of competency would also ensure that managers would develop the policies and strategies that follow the ethical code of conduct as defined by the organization. The UK private sector is very competitive and One Pound Emporium must develop a strong competency framework that could satisfy the training and development needs of its employees. Competencies are intangible assets and like most intangible things difficult or near impossible to quantify/measure. However monitoring and analyzing the causal relationship between competence and performance could provide a view to assessing the impact of competence (Ramachandran, 2011). Given the agility and sometimes volatility of markets, organizations use of certain qualities such as creativity and social interaction are also vital for attracting and retaining customer loyalty, so such qualities have transcending functions and benefits for the organization. There exist various fundamental differences between the culture and nature of business of the private organizations and the public organizations in UK. Beyond doubt public sector HR has lacked credibility and is generally regarded as weak. The reasons of which are poor governance, high corruption rates, political interference, lack of accountability and lack of healthy competition etc. Mostly hit by this are the less developed countries which battle with political crisis and economic instability, especially where there is no drive towards improving the organizations performance (Guest, 2014). However, this trend is changing, as the market is more competitive; agencies are now held accountable for their activities, encouraging autonomy and decreasing external influence. Once the focus of these public bodies become performance-oriented, HR practices will also adjust to provide adequate/competent staffing, incentives to motivate employees and training so that employees are better equipp ed to deliver. It can be said that implementing competency framework in private organization is relatively easy because employee at private organization are responsive and understand the reasons for specific action, training or measurement. Dr. Bach (2001) in his paper HR and new approaches to public sector management indicated that most government are mainly concerned with macro-economic issues, particularly the size of the workforce instead of the micro-level focus of contemporary HR practice which concentrates on the motivation and performance of the workforce. Today it is becoming ever more routine for organizations to place more value on their employees, as such the use of Competency-Based Management is even being adopted in large public service organizations. Bonder et. al., (2011) perused their work on competency-based management in the UK public sector. As with private organizations, maximizing productivity and effectively managing employees is just as important. The organizations in UK pub lic sector are able to integrate competency modeling and job analysis and successfully implement a competency framework. The core of the framework is centered on employee competencies at every job level. It is important for the business and service economics in UK should focus to develop a dynamic and flexible competency framework that could help managers and leaders to bring the best from their employees. To understand what is expected from employee, it is useful to read the job description, yet more interesting to understand the differences between skills and competencies for the best useon the job (Torrington, 2011). It is important that business and service organizations should keep their employees motivated and updated. The corporations in UK must realize that skills required to complete the job may never be constant. Therefore, it is important that employers should develop a culture where employees can work to update their skills. The presence of competency framework would help UK corporations to develop a feeling of self-belongingness among employees. Finally, managers must see the potential of setting new competencies in addition to workable past competencies. The wisdom behi nd the new competencies for the future is a benefit to organizations. The two lifelong learning and training initiatives can be discussed as: Training initiative to satisfy the customer needs: It would be correct to say that one of the most basic yet important training need for employees is to satisfy the needs of customers. There must be a training initiative to satisfy the needs of customers, as the needs of customers are not constant (Armstrong, 2009). Therefore, the employees must be trained to understand the needs of customers and work accordingly. Training to develop job specific skills and capabilities: Competencies are more subjective than objective, implying a variation with respect to shifts in the business as these shift drives the workforce and hence HR. Competencies include all knowledge, skills, capabilities embedded in the organization structure, technology etc. The size of the firm, its position on technology, strategy/structure, management and competition will influence HR competence as it continues modify itself, adjusting to reflect current objective of the firm. As Jerald (2009) wrote, the skills that are to be considered important in the current century is being shaped by many trends and IT that is part of the automation trend takes a central role. Furthermore, he mentioned due to automation computers and computer-driven machineries displaced humans, and computers can now perform many work-related thinking jobs that were only done by human beings before. It is also important that employees should be considered as first line of customers. Encouraging that employees are regarded as customers, promotes a customer driven philosophy and in this case customer driven framework, that ensures the achievement of the organizations goal. The government of UK would have a key role to play as it would the governments responsibility to ensure that a system of check and balances could be created. It is also important that the corporations in UK should work as per the laws and policies of UK government. It would help the organizations like One Pound Emporiu m to achieve its goals and objectives. References Anderson, E. W., Fornell, C. Mazvancheryl, S. K. (2004) 'Customer Satisfaction and Shareholder Value',Journal of Marketing, 68, October, pp. 172-185. Armstrong, M. (2009), A Handbook of Human Resource Practice Management, 11th ed. Kogan Page Bonder, A, Bouchard, C, Bellemare, G 2011, "Competency-Based Management-An Integrated Approach to Human Resource Management in the UK Public Sector",Public Personnel Management,40(1), pp. 1-10, education Research Clardy, A 2008, " The strategic role of Human Resource Develpment in managing core competencie",Human Resource Development International,11(2), pp. 183-197 Dr. Bach, S. (2001)HR and new approaches to public sector management: improving HRM capacity, World Health Org. Geneva, Switzerland [accessed on the 05thFebruary, 2016https://www.who.int/hrh/en/Improving_hrm_capacity.pdf Graf, A 2007,"Changing roles of customers: consequences for HRM",International Journal of ServiceIndustry Management, 18(5), pp. 491-509 Jerald, C.D. (2009)Defining a 21stcentury education. Available at:https://www.centerforpubliceducation.org/Learn-About/21st-Century/Defining-a-21st-Century-Education-Full-Report-PDF.pdf(Accessed: 05 February 2015). Kuvaas, B. Dysvik, A. (2010) 'Does best practice HRM only work for intrinsically motivated employees?',International Journal Of Human Resource Management, 21 (13), pp. 2339-2357 Pilbeam, S. Corbridge, M. (2010)People resourcing and talent planning: HRM in practice. 4th ed. London: Prentice Hall International. Ramachandran, R. (2011) 'Professional competence and statistical integrity challenges faced in the small area estimation: A public policy tool development perspective',Statistical Journal of the IAOS, 27, pp. 39-47. Torrington, D., Taylor, S. And Hall, L. (2011), Human Resource Management, 8th ed. FT/Prentice Hall Woodrow, C., Guest, D. E. (2014). When good HR gets bad results: exploring the challenge of HR implementation in the case of workplace bullying.Human Resource Management Journal,24(1), 38-56.