Human Resource Management report

Summary This paper looks at the human resource management strategies adopted by the World Health Organization (WHO) and the various competing organizational pressures. It also looks at the organizational, sectoral, national and international contexts that affect the Human Resource Management policies and practices of the organization.Advertising We will write a custom report sample on Human Resource Management report specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More Introduction The World Health Organization (WHO), which was developed in 1948, is an organization within the United Nations that coordinates on the various aspects of public health across the world. Its headquarters are situated at Geneva, Switzerland. WHO took over from the Health Organization which was in the League of Nations. The main mandate of the World Health Organization is to ensure that all people are as healthy as possible. It therefore does this by controlling some of the d iseases that are easily infected and they include malaria, TB and H.I.V/AIDS and come up with other programs that actually treat or provide preventive measures against those diseases. Preventive measures include use of vaccines whose effectiveness has been guaranteed. Use of condoms has also been encouraged by the organization so as to prevent the deadly HIV/AIDS. WHO is well known for its success in the complete eradication of the smallpox in 1980. Polio is currently in its list and is to be eradicated in the coming few years. The World Health Organization employs and encourages its Members to use evidence-based strategies such as the use of data collection in health surveys in there health policy structure. The WHO normally prints out the World Health Report that provide information on some of the issues to do with health globally. The organisation has also developed strategies to assess the capacity of the systems and the workers so as to ensure that it meets goals of attaining g ood health for the nations. WHO is also involved in conducting campaigns that may help raise awareness of some of the health hazards such as the smoking of cigarettes that contain tobacco which pose threat to human health. It also encourages the consumption of certain foods such as vegetables and fruits which promote health. World Health Organization conducts research on health issues and tackles some diseases that are of global concern. It has also developed networks that ensure that information on research done on health issues can be accessed in the third world countries. The organization obtains its funds from contributions from local governments, Non-organizational organizations and private sectors of its members and through donations. The WHO has developed partnerships with other bodies in doing its work and now has at least eighty partnerships.Advertising Looking for report on business economics? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Lea rn More The World Health Organization has a personnel policy which is similar to that of other United Nations agencies. Recently, the organization prohibited the recruitment of smokers to be part of staff so as to promote its integrity on having an environment free of tobacco. This principle was also adopted by other one hundred and sixty eight countries in 2003 and actually signed a convention that controlled the use of tobacco. Methodology This paper will use the World Health Organization (WHO) as a case study and its human resource strategies and policies will be looked at critically so as to analyze the various components of human resource management policy and practice which include recruitment and selection of staff, training, Human Resource Development, employment relations, employee participation and rewarding systems. The various challenges faced will be looked at and recommendations will be made. Secondary sources of data collection will be used and will include books an d internet information about the organization in question. WHO’s HR strategies and policies At the moment, the World Health Organization has estimated the number of the total health workers to hit the 59.2 million. Two thirds of the estimated number constitutes those that provide health services and the rest are management and subordinate staff (World Health Report, 2006). It has been identified that problems that face the health sector revolve around politics and the culture of a given country. The economic status and the type of health systems employed also may cause problems in the health sector. In order to combat these problems, various factors can be considered. Inputting funds in the sector can help tackle some issues. Changing the training programs can also work towards solving some of the problems faced in the health sector. Improving data accessibility and the working conditions in the sector can be huge change effectors. The above factors are however not directly c ontrolled by the Human Resource for Health (HRH) policy makers. It has therefore been hypothesised that, for countries to implement their Human Resource for health policies, it must make its strategies to be compatible with the reforms of that country and also to utilize processes based on sound data in making of policies.Advertising We will write a custom report sample on Human Resource Management report specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More The Global Health Workforce Strategy Group (GHWSG) was initiated by the World Health Organization in 2000. It was established so as to assist in the job of bettering the performance of the health workers. The various groups made discussions via videoconferencing. The workshop attended by the GHWSG was aimed at informing other stakeholders and ensure their full participation in finding the important areas that would make-better the HRH policy. The Global Health Workforce Strategy workshop was a bi g step in the attempt to curtail the human resource issues faced globally and ensuring sustainability in human resource for health. The issues to do with health workers and human resource for health are among the most challenging areas to change in especially for countries that are aiming at improving the health sector and its systems. WHO came up with certain strategies to aid in sustainability in human resource for health. This includes developing ways of performing impact assessment for the human resource and induces human resource activities in other parts of the policy. This involves the incorporation of mechanisms that aid countries in performing impact assessment on the initiatives that are suggested for the health sector that affect the workers. WHO advocates for the developing of competent staff through encouraging further training and education. This involves the use of experts in the field to integrate and apply necessary knowledge mechanisms. WHO also advocates for human resource and encourages for networks to be created by raising the awareness among its stakeholders. One way in which this is done is through the development of web sites that provide the necessary information. HRM policy and practice The World Health Organization usually recruit workforce on either permanent terms or temporarily by offering contracts and are put into two broad categories; either General Service staff and professionals abbreviated as G and P respectively.Advertising Looking for report on business economics? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More The professional workers are obtained internationally and hold senior management positions. They are therefore required to have high levels of training and expertise. The professionals are required to be flexible in terms of their working environments since they can be deployed for service at any part of the globe. The general service staff (G) however are recruited locally and placed at respective stations where they are expected to work. Their main work is that of assisting the professional staff so as to ensure that there is smooth running of the activities. National Professional Officers work in their come from and do their job in a professional manner. They are required to work in the country of origin since they require knowledge and experience of their country. One of the requirements for one to qualify for the professional position at the WHO includes having a degree from the university and having pursued a postgraduate course that is management or health-related. Some relev ant amount of experience in the area is required at global level. The candidate must possess knowledge on policy issues and public health. Another additional requirement is the proficiency in a second language apart from English. The WHO observes certain principles during recruitment and this includes maintaining diversity of staff in the organization and obtaining representatives in each member state. Only qualified staff is recruited and gender balance is assured. Some restrictions are however observed during recruitment and this includes age restrictions. People of the ages below 20 and 62 do not qualify for recruitment. The policy against smokers disqualifies tobacco smokers in the recruitment process. WHO considers tobacco as a killer and takes away approximately 5 million people per year while this many cases of death are very preventable. As for members of staff who smoke, WHO encourages them to quit and provide them with assistance on how to quit. The organization has develo ped several strategies to increase awareness about the organization and the employment opportunities available there so as to attract potential workforce from all over the world. Another method employed is the use of the missions in Geneva to look for potential candidate from various institutions and other organizations that participate in health-related stuff. Another strategy yet is the use of e-mails in disseminating of the information. The WHO sent e-mails to its collaborators so as locate its potential candidates. The WHO is involved in conducting quality assessments and quality assurance so as to ensure that the members of staff are competent and provide quality service to the organization. Assessment is done on individuals and groups so as to check for team work. Quality assessment is essential so as to attain quality assurance by an organization (Bandaranayake, 2000). A World Health Organization report on activities done in South-East Asia to check on quality of its services on blood transfusion showed that they were at various levels in development when compared with other states. Thailand, for example is ISO certified due to its excellent systems. Some countries do not attain this level of quality assurance despite having good infrastructure in form of qualified personnel, quality and funds. This is mainly because of the lack of full support of the government in the sector and many changes that occur in the government (Bandaranayake, 2000). The World Health Organization however acknowledges that there are factors beyond control that prevent assurance of quality service by the country and these includes factors such as climate change, factors that impede communication, infrastructure and political influence. In an attempt to explain this, a report on the laboratory services at Maldives was considered. One of the reasons that were identified as the reasons for the low quality of service were the difficulties faced during the transportation process. Ano ther reason was the fact that some of the slides and reagents that were being used for the laboratory activities had actually expired. The WHO uses staff appraisal as part of its practices so as to ensure achievement of its goals and objectives. It has however been argued that staff appraisal has more effect on staff behaviour than the organization’s performance (Martinez, 2000). For a long time, appraisal of staff had only to do with relationship between a manager (head) and the individual being appraised and therefore the individual hardly ever knew of it as it was kept from him. As much as it is advisable to maintain interactions at personal levels, it doesn’t necessarily mean that there will be incorporation between the person and the goals of the organization. The World Health Organization supports and encourages the use of teamwork in the performance of its activities. The WHO ensures staff development through offering rewards to its workers both at individual an d team levels. It has been proven that rewards contribute greatly in the performance of an organization and there are cases recorded where there was no evidence of enhancement of performance until a form of reward system was adopted (Martinez, 2000). Many writers have however argued out that a integration of a number of incentives-both positive and negative-to either commend a staff member for impressive performance or to punish and discourage staff that perform poorly. Several studies have specifically looked at the relationship that exists between human resources and the reforms that have been developed concerning health. Most have just looked at the way the reforms have changed the mode of interaction among health workforce within the place of work but only a small number of the researchers have actually looked at how the workers themselves affect the reforms. These reforms have changed various important aspects of the health workers. These changes include the level of decentrali zation of areas of management, the working conditions, the level of skills needed for one to be recruited and the issues to do with incentives and payments. The health workers have now on many occasions presented their ideas and have had their voices heard and therefore have had the opportunity to air their views on the various aspects of management (Dussault and Rigoli, 2003). This evidences show the extent to which the workforce in the health sector-whether as individually or as a collection-have had in the changing of the reforms and therefore ensuring success in the participation of the staff (staff involvement). This provides a tool that can be used to predict the way in which the workforce can react to emerging issues to do with reforms. Competing organizational pressures Some of the challenges facing the World Health Organization in its mandate of promoting health throughout the globe include the acute shortage of trained health workers. This shortage has been caused due to v arious factors which include the moving out of people to other developed countries hence reducing their numbers. The other reason include the under production of the workers in the health sector and the difficulty in paying high salaries and allowances to health workers and hence the difficulty in sustaining them in the respective countries. Some factors that are unavoidable such as illness and death of staff also contribute the acute shortage of the workers (Brito and Novick, 2000). O’Neil (2008) confirmed that the major deficiency in all health systems is the presence of Human Resource managers and qualified specialists who can stand in the way of the challenges that face the health sector. Some managers and leadership figures in the health sector have complained of being forced to comply with some dictatorial rules laid by the civil service that impede their performance. The presence of self-centred and disunified Human resource management systems and the inappropriate uti lization of the health workforce is also a great challenge that faces WHO. Managers in many states acknowledge that the leadership force to combat these issues are lacking. Human resource management systems in the health sector are not usually centralized and the different authorities in charge of planning, incentive, promotions and the other human resource activities being assigned to different ministries in stead of a single body. Another challenge facing the WHO is the difficulty in securing equal job opportunities in the health sector for women. There is also a difficulty in motivating staff and ensuring high performance in the health sector through the utilization of incentives that involve pay or non-pay strategies. This includes providing opportunities for further learning to its staff and also opportunities to further develop their careers (WHO, 2000). Conclusion The world Health Organization is an important organization because of its task of ensuring that there is almost p erfect health for all the people within its member countries. It has been known to uphold its integrity in its policies and has been on the race in the attempt to raise awareness on such dangers as the use of tobacco cigarettes which is a killer and has claimed millions of lives. By ensuring a tobacco free environment, the WHO passes a strong message against the use of tobacco and in the process raise awareness on its dangers. The WHO adopts transparency in its method of recruiting staff and in the process maintains highly skilled staff members that ensure that the goals and objectives of the organization are obtained. The process of advertising for vacant posts within the organization ensures that many different states are alerted and the most qualified potential candidates only are given the opportunity to show their competence and skills. In this way it displays its corruption free nature and wins the trust of many who are looking forward to working for the organization or consid ering it the first choice when it comes to health issues. Since the World Health organization recruits both male and female candidates in organization, it promotes equity and help to shape the mentality and the perception that women are less useful to the society and in the process acts as a role model to the many organizations that have not been able to attain this level of equity in the selection of staff. This also helps promote the girl-child education especially in the third world (developing) countries. The world Health organization also appreciates its well performing staff by offering rewards and therefore motivates them and provides a good working environment and working conditions with its staff. The offering of disincentives to the poorer performing staff also helps them realize their weaknesses and through the help of management and other leaders in the organization, they would be able to rectify their misdeeds and ensure a bright future for the organization and its staf f. This also helps in establishing good relationships between the management and the staff and therefore creating a good environment for the workers and in the long run lead to the overall success of the organization. Recommendations Since the World Health organization faces some challenges which include having deficiencies in staff numbers due to insufficient salaries and allowances offered to them by their countries, I would recommend that the WHO should partner with its other member states and form a baseline to which all staff occupying the same position in the organization should the same amount of pay irrespective to the country the person is working for. Since some management figures in the health sector complain of being influenced negatively by political influence and being forced to comply with some law requirements that are set by the civil service, I would recommend that the WHO be made to be an independent body so that it can function independently from the political bo dies within the country and therefore attain its goals and objectives much easily. Human resource management systems in the health sector should centralized so that all activities are run by one centralized body instead of many group of bodies that may limit of success of the WHO. So as to combat the problem of shortage of trained staff, the WHO should set aside more of its funds on training staff rather than spending a lot of its funds of purchasing medicines that are to be administered to people and yet there are no people to administer it. References Bandaranayake, D. (2001) Assessing performance management of human resources for health in South-East Asian countries. Aspects of quality and outcome. Retrieved from https://www.who.int/hrh/en/Assessing_performance.pdf Black, C. (2011) WHO Employment: Who We need. World Health Organisation. Retrieved from https://www.who.int/careers/en/ Brito, G. and Novick, M. (2000) Labour relations, employment conditions and participation in the h ealth sector. Retrieved from https://www.who.int/hrh/documents/en/Labour_relations.pdf Dussault, G. and Rigoli, F. (2003) The interface between health sector reform and human resources in health. [online]. Available from  https://human-resources-health.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/1478-4491-1-9 . Martinez, J. (2001) Assessing quality, outcome and performance management. London, The Institute for Health Sector Development. O’Neil, L. M. (2008) Human resource leadership: the key to improved results in health. Cambridge, Human resource for health. WHO (2000) Workshop on global health workforce strategy. Web. This report on Human Resource Management report was written and submitted by user Samantha Hodge to help you with your own studies. You are free to use it for research and reference purposes in order to write your own paper; however, you must cite it accordingly. You can donate your paper here.

A Child Called It Essays

A Child Called It Essays A Child Called It Essay A Child Called It Essay A Child Called It is a first-person narrative of a severely abused child, Dave Pelzer, who has survived to tell his tale. This book is a brief, horrifying account of the bizarre tortures Daves mother inflicted on him, told from his point of view as a young boy. Among the cruel games Daves maniac, alcoholic mother played were smashing him face-first into mirrors, forcing him to eat the contents of his baby brothers diaper, drinking ammonia, and burning him over a gas stove. Daves story has two objectives: the first is to inform the reader how a loving, caring parent can change to a cold, abusive monster venting frustrations on a helpless child; the second is the eventual survival and triumph of the human spirit over seemingly insurmountable odds (164). Dave describes his earlier years as idyllic: In the years before I was abused, my family was the Brady Brunch of the 1960s. My two brothers and I were blessed with the perfect parents. Our every whim was fulfilled with love and care (17). His mothers behavior began to change drastically and Dave and his brothers had become afraid of her. Eventually, Dave was singled out for such vicious treatment. His mother made sure he knew that theres nothing he can do to impress her. She told him, you are a nobody! An It! You are nonexistent! You are a bastard child! I hate you and I wish you were dead! Dead! (140) School held no appeal to Dave either: At school I was a total outcast. I had no one to talk to or play with. I felt all alone (58). Since his mother rarely gave him the luxury of eating food, Dave resorted to stealing from his classmates lunch pails. The teachers and principal knew and carefully watched him. Oddly, his father never intervened. His attempts to talk to his wife about Dave failed, and only worsened the abuse. This caused Dave to hate his father: he was fully aware of the hell I lived in, but he lacked the courage to rescue me as he had promised so many times in the past (134). As the beatings and the torture continued, Dave began to give up: With no dreams, I found that words like hope and faith were only letters, randomly put together into something meaningless-words only for fairy tales (132). Inside, my soul became so cold I hated everything (133). Whats your single greatest accomplishment and why? Im so alive (155). My life as a child was extremely turbulent, being pushed and pulled in every direction. I tried as hard as I could to reach the light at the end of the dark tunnel, but it always seemed out of reach. Until suddenly, without warning, I broke free (156). What was your biggest obstacle? How did you overcome it? My mothers abusing me was no doubt my biggest obstacle. I hated Mother most and wished that she were dead. But before she died, I wanted her to feel the magnitude of my pain and my loneliness for all these years (134). As the years passed by and the beatings became more intense, I wished shed returned with a knife and ended it all.. My morale had become so low that in some self-destructive way I hoped she would kill me (141). But I made a promise to myself that kept me going. I wanted to show The Bitch that she could beat me only if I died, and I was determined not to give in, even to death (91). What one trait or characteristic would you most like to be remembered for? Why? I would definitely most like to be remembered for my resilience. Perhaps my faith and the security of my early years helped me develop enough resilience to survive the abuse and grow up to be an emotionally healthy adult with a child of my own. The challenges of my past have made me immensely strong inside. I adapted quickly, learning how to survive from a bad situation. I learned the secret of internal motivation. My experience gave me a different outlook on life, that others may never know. I have a vast appreciation for things that others may take for granted.. I hope that my story will help instill resilience in others. What was the single, most important thing youve learned? Why do you consider this so? The single, most important thing Ive learned from my past hardships was that even in its darkest passages, the heart is unconquerable. It is important that the body survives, but it is more meaningful that the human spirit prevails (165). I believe that no matter what happens in your past, you can overcome the dark side and press on to a brighter world. It is perhaps a paradox that without the abuse of my past, I might not be what I am today (166). My Reaction: I read A Child Called It in one day. Its one of those books you cant put down because you want to know whats going to happen next. I was always in constant suspense as to what Daves emotionally unstable mother was going to do to him and how he was going to survive the abuse. This book really sunk into my heart and the imagery used in the book helped put a clear picture of the dysfunctional household Dave lived in. The fact that this is a true story and millions of children suffer from the same ordeal saddens me. Also, the fact that he remembers all those horrible things that he went through in the past, in detail, is very sad. Im glad that Dave triumphed not only in finding a better, loving family, but also within himself. If I was in his shoes, I dont think Id be able to make it where he is today. His story truly changed my perspective on life. I realized how lucky I am to belong to a nice, tight-knit family and that I have it good compared to most people.

The Difference between Originality and Plagiarism Essay

The Difference between Originality and Plagiarism - Essay Example Literature review is a must before we can put relevant description on the topic and research question. Our literature review should follow the concept of unity and coherence so that our discussion remains focused throughout. The description that we make out should be well structured and organized. These details are necessary for our analysis part. Analysis is a process systematically employed to arrive at certain deductions logically and scientifically. Description is like a foundation of the building on which whole construction of analysis rests. For a good and meaningful analysis, detailed but pertinent review and description is necessary. Data selection Data selection is an important part of correct analysis. Many scientific researches are not possible without a proper set of data available to researcher. Thus, data collection becomes an important part to steer meaningful research. Data collection becomes more important particularly when research has some quantitative measures to investigate. Depending upon the research question, data could be of either operational in nature such as inventory, cost, payroll, accounting or nonoperational types related to macroeconomic issues. Data also give us the information about past trend. The study of the past trend based on the available data can be extrapolated to give future indications and outcomes. Since the outcomes and results are derived from the collected data, it becomes even more important for us to remain double sure about the authenticity of data. Many marketing issues and strategies are based on several set of data that are collected across wide section of community, their buying behaviors, the demographics and many such factors. The data mining thus becomes important. Authentic data... In order to arrive at the conclusion whether US housing price has any correlation with unemployment rate, we need to have data revealing unemployment rate in last 10 years.Above data when studied in detail reveals a lot regarding some correlation between unemployment rate and housing prices. The U.S. housing price has been on rise since the year 2000 until 2007. The average price rise is found to be about 5% percent or more. The unemployment rate between 2000 and 2007 was hovering between 4 to 6 percent. This unemployment rate had no effect on the uptrend of housing price.  It is a well known fact that market moves up and down as per the demand and supply parameters. It is a fact that during the period a cheap credit was available to borrowers and that fueled the demand. Speculators did enter the market taking advantage of the easy availability of finance. Demand of the housing during the period was made of genuine consumers and speculators; however, as usual speculator’s so le objective is profiting from the deal and they are never long term holders of the commodity and they dump the good as soon as they see the first sign of weakness in the market. Once they became sellers supply increased manifold with demand reducing drastically. That is what happened in the housing market during 2008 and onwards when subprime mortgage crisis surfaced and everybody got in panicky.The whole event culminated into a crisis when economy took downturn and people started losing their jobs.

Organizational Cultural Audit and Gap Analysis Essay

Organizational Cultural Audit and Gap Analysis - Essay Example McDonald is among those giant companies which claim to be responsible for high ethical values but yet certain gaps may be identified. However they believe in bilateral communications with stakeholders and remain pretty successful to cover these gaps. Nevertheless certain gaps are frequently observed related to workplace conditions and animal wild welfare indeed. They, time to time, put enormous endeavors to create an environmental friendly image in front of the entire stake holders. The target approach reveals that they have to follow system growth avenues but it seems to be failed by the poor annual performance. One of the most important priorities of the company is to disguise the underlying gaps. Background of the Company McDonald’s is world’s most popular fast food retail chain. Its first outlet was inaugurated in 1955 in United States. When it was started for the very first time, nobody could even imagine that this business would grow so fast that the number of cha ins will cross the figure of 30,000 within 50 years. The basic strategy of outlets is franchising but it is a little bit different in UK. Around 30% of the outlets in UK are company owned while remaining is franchised traditionally. The new franchises being opened in UK are franchised rather than being in company ownership. McDonalds is growing geographically by leaps and bounds. The food courts concepts has remained enough abundant for the company by opening the new sites in smaller towns, road sides, amusement parks, river banks and sea side’s (Annual Report). Marketing Strategy of McDonald Vision of the company is related to providing the most efficient services amongst all of the fast food retailers in the world. The QSC&V approach can be observed in the organizational culture. This stands for Quality, Services, Cleanliness and Value. All these are expected to deliver in an exceptional way. They relate this with customer happiness by making them smile through unmatched se rvices and value addition. The value creation and adding more value in to the products and service packages is the key component of McDonald’s marketing strategies. The products, which are excessively valued and customer oriented, are the most popular in the name of McDonald’s throughout the burger market of the globe. Value strategy for pricing is addressed by presenting the products and services at relatively lower prices (Schein, 1985). Children are addressed by McDonald’s kids’ meals offerings such as happy meals or toy meals etc. There is a strong differentiation over the core offerings of the company. This aids Porter’s five forces model as this differentiation put barriers for new entrants in the market. These offerings may include Big Mac and Fries (Henriques and Valls, 2001). Environmental and Ethical Position The management reveals about ethical values of the company as they are more interested in truthfulness, integrity and honesty while carrying out the business operations. They have profound and diligent interest in presenting a picture of ethically concentrated company in front of the stakeholders of the company. They have set a boarder of expectations which is beyond the reality within their mission and vision statement. However the feasibility of mission statement is quite viable as compared to the stated vision. They have stated a number of ethical stances

Popularity of Soccer Essay Example for Free

Popularity of Soccer Essay When the United States national soccer team defeated the Spanish national team in the semifinals of the 2009 Confederations Cup, many sportswriters and fans called the U. S team’s win one of the biggest upsets in modern soccer. Although the United States is known for having dominant sports teams, many refuse to admit that the United States has a good soccer team, let alone believe that Americans know about the sport soccer. In all fairness, even people in the United States do not believe that Americans know a lot about the sport and think it is a unpopular sport in the U. Â  S. Long has been the misconception that soccer is not popular in the United States and that many Americans do not even know the rules of the game. In an episode of Family Guy, Chris Griffin is playing in a soccer game. The bleachers are almost empty with the exception of a handful amount of people. When a ball is kicked towards Chris, he catches the ball. The referee, dressed like an American football official, awards Chris’s opponents a penalty kick with a tone and style of his speech as that of a football official. A parent of Chris’s teammate yells out in anger because Chris’s mistake awards the other team an immense advantage. This scene exemplifies the common misconception about soccer in the United States. The small number of audience in the crowd suggests that soccer is not a popular sport in America. Chris’s lack of knowledge of the sport and the inaccurate uniform of the referee imply that many Americans do not know the rules of soccer and are not familiar with the sport because not many Americans play the sport. Furthermore, Chris lacks enthusiasm in his game; this lack of enthusiasm illustrates the hypervisiblity of the popularity of soccer in the United States. Soccer was virtually unknown to Americans until 1967 when the first professional soccer league was set up in the United States. The league was named the North American Soccer League (NASL). The league attracted some of the most famous soccer players in the world such as the Brazilian Pele, arguably the best soccer player of all time, and the German Franz Beckenbauer, regarded as the best German player of all time. Although the league attracted some of the greatest players, soccer overall remained a less popular sports like baseball and football in the United States. Perhaps Americans’ reluctance to follow the rules set by the British is the reason for soccer’s initially low popularity. Baseball and football, undoubtedly the two most popular sports in the United States, has its roots in the United Kingdom. An early form of baseball has been played in England in the mid-eighteenth century(The history of baseball). American football was originated from rugby football, which originated in the United Kingdom in the mid-19th century(American football history). However, the rules of baseball and American football have been adapted by Americans from their origins to become American sports. Perhaps because Americans put in place their own laws of these sports, baseball and football had been successfully integrated into the American culture and had been immensely popular since their beginnings. Soccer on the other hand, was nowhere near as popular as baseball and football when first introduced in the United States. Soccer’s laws were set forth by the International Football Association Board (IFAB) which consists of the four United Kingdom countries’ associations- England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland(The International FA Board). The fact that the rules of soccer were not created by Americans and the fact that the sport’s rules were created by the United States’s competitive rivals may contribute to soccer’s originally low popularity. Whatever the reason, soccer was clearly not a popular sport in the United States even though it was by far the most popular sport in the world. Certainly, the North American Soccer League (NASL) was not a widely watched league when it was established in 1967. Its low popularity did not improve as the NASL eventually failed in 1984. Although the much improved Major League Soccer (MLS) was founded in 1996(About MLS) to replace the NASL, the MLS was and is still not a very successful league in terms of salary. The average salary of a player in the MLS in 2010 is $138,169 compared to MLB’s $3,297,828 (2010) (MLB Salaries), and NFL’s $990,000 (2009) (NFL Player Salaries). In fact, the MLB’s and the NFL’s minimum salaries are far greater than the average MLS salary. MLB’s minimum salary in 2009 was $400,000(MLBPA Info), while NFL’s minimum salary in 2009 was $310,000. Based solely on salaries of professional athletes in the United States, one can get an idea of the low popularity of soccer compared to sports like baseball and football in the U. S. These stats may seem to support the hypervisibility of soccer’s popularity in the United States, but in reality they do not reflect the growing adoration and acknowledgement of the sport. Soccer’s popularity in America has been growing since the inauguration of the NASL and the MLS. The MLS may seem unpopular based on the salaries of the players in the league, but spectator attendance suggests otherwise. The MLS averages 18,452 people per game, higher than National Basketball League’s 17,110, and NHL’s 17,004. In fact, the MLS’s average attendance is even higher than the Scottish Premier League’s average attendance(Avoiding the Drop). The amount of soccer players in America further emphasizes the tremendous popularity of the sport. In the U. S. , there are a total of 24,472,778 players. This number is far larger than some of the powerhouses in world soccer such as England which has 4,164,110 players, Brazil which has 13,197,733 players, and Spain which has 2,834,190 players(FIFA. com). Lastly, the 2010 World Cup had an average of 24. 3 million viewers in the United States. The World Series and the NBA Finals, on the other hand, only averaged 19. 4 viewers and 18 million viewers respectively(deseretnews. com). The United States was not even in the final of the World Cup and still managed to attract more viewers than the World Series and the NBA finals. Had the U. S. National Team been in the final, the number of viewers of the World Cup final could have been significantly larger. The high number of attendance at MLS games, soccer players in the United States, and viewers of the World Cup final testifies against the hypervisibility that asserts that soccer is an unpopular sport in the United States. However, facts surrounding the attention of soccer in the United States firmly affirms that soccer has now established itself as one of the most popular sports in America.

The Road Not Taken and the Journey of Life :: Road Not Taken essays

The Road Not Taken and the Journey of Life This poem by Robert Frost was first read to me in the last year of my high school experience. Back then, not only did I have absolutely no interest in any literary work, but moreover, had no intension to lye there and analyze a poem into its symbolic definitions. Only now have I been taught the proper way to read a literary work as a formalistic critic might read. With this new approach to literature I can understand the underlying meaning to Robert Frost's "The Road Not Taken". In addition to merely grasping the author's intension, I was able to justly incur that this poem, without directly mentioning anything about life's decisions, is in its entirety about just that. Robert Frost interpreted most of the decisions we make in life into this twenty-line poem of a man choosing which path to take in a "yellow wood". Everyday I make a decision to do a certain task, take that certain walk, or to sit at home and do absolutely nothing. Being one person, I can never know for sure what the exact outcome might be if I were to choose the other decision. For instance, I take a leisurely walk every night and I sacrifice my time to do something else. Although this may not always account to me personally, I do sometimes think what the other choice may have brought me. And often times, I complete the task with a sense of relief, a "sigh" perhaps, that the choice I made turned to be a well-made decision. Though most people rarely look into the sacrifice of decision making the way Robert Frost does, it is indeed a highly examined way too understand "a path less traveled by". The first stanza introduced the reader to the decision the author would have to make. "Two roads diverged in a yellow wood" to me signified that the result of his decision would arise from the same origin to which in my own life, I can reflect on. And though he would like to have seen the outcome of both paths, he knew he could only choose one. And to help him decide, he would look down both choices and see only until the road took a bend.

Data Warehouse

The Kimball Lifestyle is the recommended approach to design, develop & deploy he DO/BI, as described in aforementioned text book (eBook). The illustration at Figure 1 summarizes main stages from the Lifestyle. Figure 1: The Kimball DO/BI Lifestyle The Kimball method helps to explain business requirements adding value to an organization. The company must realize this value add, acknowledge it and then decide to implement the solution. (MS. Com, n. D. ).Issues and Process involved in Implementation of DO/BI system Dimensions Business Processes Date Transaction Client outlet Category Type Product Venue Budget Events_organize x Celebrity Booking Advertisement Books Sale Book Distribution Commission payment The Data Warehouse Bus Matrix The main process involved is the development of the Data warehouse Bus Matrix, as it was highlighted in the earlier section. The Enterprise Data Warehouse Bus Matrix is the data framework for the enterprise data warehouse.The Figure below shows the bus mat rix for Jar Bookstore: Data Model Design The Kimball method provides practical approach land selects the right physical model based upon how usable and flexible it is and how is its performance & maintenance. Almost all these type of models are classic star schemas, as shown in Figure 3. The complete information of a process is its central fact table. Its like a first normal form or ‘De-normalized' dimension tables, which surrounds the fact table.Then there are details or dimension tables which can be joined with integer keys called ‘surrogate keys'. This is shown in the below figure. Some researchers call for the normalized, third normal form model at lowest level in data warehouse as this provides Max flexibility. The dimension or detail table bear an analogy to this as will be shown in the subsequent analysis in the later sections. (MS. Com n. . ) Figure 3: An orders business process star schema Star Schema Model Here is a design of star schema, with clear dimensions with Primary an Foreign Keys.As per the Kimball Method, the star schema represents the Normalized Source Tables. As per the model, the â€Å"dimensions are the objects that participate in an organization's business processes. We generally model these as one table per object. Building the dimension in the TTL system involves joining the various normalized description and hierarchy tables that populate the dimension attributes and writing the results into a single table. (Thorniest, W, 201 1) RED Diagram to provide a complete overview of the Online Bookstore.Data warehouse requires designing Fact tables and dimension tables. As provided earlier the fact table is the central table within star schema of a data warehouse. A fact table contains basic, raw and De-normalized data. For the Jar Bookstore there are three types of facts: (Thorniest, W, 2011) 1. Additive: these are summed up data 2. Semi-Additive: Semi-additive facts that can be summed up for some data only 3. Non-Additive: Non -additive facts are facts that cannot be summed up. In the context of Jar Bookstore we illustrate each these three types of facts.The first example assumes that we are a retailer, and we have a fact table with the follows Eng columns: Date Store Sales Amount This table records the sales amount for each product in each store on a daily basis. This data is extracted in the excel sheet as well and will be analyzed in the later sections. The Jar Bookstore has the following fact table: Date Books Current Balance Profit_Margin The object of this table is to record the current balance for each account at the end of each day (DOD Balance).