The Western Bank Of The Bosporus - 1303 Words

On the western bank of the Bosporus, just north of a sinuous waterway known by locals as the Golden Horn, stood a bustling Genoese colony called Pera. With merchants from Genoa, Venice and Tuscany overflowing its narrow streets, one could hardly tell that these Italian traders were in fact no less than eight hundred miles away from their Apennine homeland. As a town of itinerants, Pera of course hosted a great many places for lodging, and it was in the room of one such lodge where we would find our weary cartographer – a mid-aged man by the name of Cristoforo Buondelmonti. The time: late fall, 1422. Appearing in front of Cristoforo was a piece of creased paper, empty and trivial, yet the sole focus of his attention. He had received†¦show more content†¦Prior to receiving the commission, Cristoforo had been traveling extensively in the Aegean Sea. Though born to an affluent Florentine family, he spent the last ten years mastering the Greek language and documenting Greek islands. Accompanying him on his trip to Constantinople was a Thessalonian fur trader and acquaintance named John Anagnostes, who offered to guide him through the city before leaving for the trading post in Crimea. â€Å"What lie ahead will forever linger in your mind.† John mysteriously stated as they arrived at the city by cart from the south. Already Cristoforo could make out a wall that stretched along the horizon, which only grew in immensity as they drew closer. Its limestone blocks soaring into the sky, the Theodosian Wall (as John informed him) appeared far more imposing than any fortification he had witnessed in the West. When they approached its base, though, he soon noticed the heavy damage dealt to the rampart. â€Å"The Ottomans laid siege to the city this spring.† John said. â€Å"I heard they acquired cannons for the first time, but the defenders were able to fend off their assault after a prolonged battle.† While entering the Golden Gate, the main entrance to the capital, Cristoforo could not help but ponder the fashion of his mapping: should he emphasize the wall’s massive scale, or its wounded state? What exactly could be accomplished by either? †¦ His thoughts, however, were cut short by the awesome view

The Justification for Staying Private - 1100 Words

The Justification for Staying Private In at least three different poems Emily Dickinson shows her thinking about being a public person. In â€Å"This is my letter to the world,† (519) the speaker says she wants to be private, but to fully understand why she wants this, the reader must look at two other poems. The reader must turn to an earlier poem, â€Å"I’m Nobody,† (260) and surprisingly, in order to grasp poem 260, a later poem, â€Å"Publication - is the Auction† (788), is also necessary. These three poems have a similar theme of publicity and privacy, and they also use similar elements—rhyme, meter, and punctuation—to express that theme. Therefore, when these poems are taken together, 788 clarifies 260, which itself explains 519. By itself, poem†¦show more content†¦Poem 260 sheds light on this question through a similar use of rhyme and a contrast of meter. In the poem, the speaker asks the reader whether he or she is a â€Å"Nobody,† someone not famous. At first, this seems to be a simple question. The first rhyme, though, shows what the speaker means. She rhymes â€Å"Who are you† with â€Å"Nobody - too.† The words â€Å"you† and â€Å"too† are both referring to the reader. In connecting these words together—and not to any other words—the speaker makes a closed-circuit: the â€Å"you† is only associated with another you, and not with any other people. In doing this, the speaker asks whether the reader—like the rhyming words—is unreliant on any other words or people. Thus, the speaker wants herself and the reader to be original. Poem 260’s lack of meter conveys this as well. The poem has a similar theme to that of poem 519, but unlike poem 519 it does not have a meter. The speaker has no meter to show that her ideal way to live is to be different from everyone else. A â€Å"Nobody† is good because Nobodies do not feel the need to be consistent with the rest of the world, just like the speaker did not feel the need for any of her lines to have consistent meter with the rest of the lines. The second rhyme shows what is wrong with being unoriginal. When talking about how awful being a â€Å"Somebody† is, the speaker rhymes the words â€Å"Frog,† referring to a Somebody, and â€Å"Bog,† referring to the public. Thus,Show MoreRelatedIs the Ban on Muslim Headscarves in French Schools Justified?1271 Words   |  6 Pagesattacking the justification of the ban on Muslim headscarves; first, the children’s autonomy; and second, positive and negative liberty. 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Performance Management Volatile Business Environment

Question: Discuss about thePerformance Managementfor Volatile Business Environment. Answer: Introduction In the volatile business environment it is extremely tough for the organization to retain employees merely through offering few employment benefit programs. It is essential that the organizations must take initiatives to provide the employees with work life flexibility (Robert Half, 2017). In past few decades the organizations and other institutions had their entire focus on achieving higher work life balance so that the employees can have improved engagement in the organization. But with change in time and scenario, the demands and requirements are continuously increasing. In such case, now the employees demand for work life flexibility instead of work life balance. In the present scenario as well as in the upcoming future there will be enormous changes which will take place in the structuring of the organizational workplaces. This will have both positive as well as negative impact over the employees as well as over the human resource management (Acas, 2015). To achieve competitiven ess and long term sustainability the organizations are moving towards achievement of higher work life balance. The report will highlight several aspects of work life balance and the manner in which it will replace the aspect of work life balance in the coming time frame. The report will also throw lights upon the various implications of work life balance for the employees as well as for the HRM. The way in which leaders will have to act differently and the way in which employees have to develop new skills and competencies top work in such a changed environment. Work-Life Flexibility will Replace Work Life Balance In the modern business institutions there is high demand for work life flexibility as the employees are the real and the most precious assets of the organization. Thus the organizations make every possible effort to retain this potential asset for longer time frame. Work life balance is one of that approaches which was implemented by the organizations to attain increased employee engagement. Work life balance can be explained as the association between the job role of an employee and the various other commitments in the employees personal life. Both these thing poses a high impact on each other and to maintain a balance between both of these things employees take use of work life balance (Emory, 2009). The government and the organizational employers desire to increase the workforce participation. However, in the present scenario, individuals have an extremely demanding life where they have to struggle hard to manage and make a balance between their professional as well as personal re sponsibilities. The professional responsibilities include achievement of organizational objectives, team work, achievement of target and efficiency in work whereas in the personal responsibilities comprises of caring of elderly parent, family members and children. It becomes highly difficult for the employees to develop a work life balance and take out time for personal work, taking care of their self-fitness, health, volunteering in other activities of recreation, sports etc (ERICSSON, 2015). Ideally there is no perfect approach for achieving work life balance as there are number of things which keeps on changing with time and thus there develops high personal commitments. In such situation the organizations are required to focus upon work life flexibility instead of work life balance. There are several issues present in the work life balance which gives rise to introduction of work life flexibility. The issues comprise of increased work pressure, augmented personal responsibilities, change in job role, high volatility in business environment, deceased employee morale and skills etc. These issues pose a negative impact over the performance of the organization as the employees are not able to focus upon their work and their productivity and efficiency keeps on decreasing. Thus to overcome these issues work life flexibility comes in existence (Emory, 2009). Work life flexibility can be explained as one of the most vital components of work life effectiveness. Maximum of the organizations take use of this approach for having a positive response to the work-life needs of the employees, for managing load and for attaining improved retention and recruitment. There are several organizations which work to implement work life flexibility in the organizations. The work life flexibility includes number of flexible working arrangements for example flexible working hours, compressed workweeks, telecommuting, job sharing, part-time working etc (Kelliher and Anderson, 2008). All these are few aspects of work life flexibility which have significant advantages both for the organization as well as for the employees. Benefits such as building highly responsive organization, improved office coverage, reduced expenses, providing a rec recruitment edge, safeguarding the investments, improve employee commitment and morale and improving productivity, recruitment and retention (UCDAVIS, 2016). The Implications for Employees The change in the workplace culture i.e. incorporating the approaches work life flexibility in the organization poses both positive as well as negative implications for the employee. Following are few implications for employees as a result of work life flexibility: Reducing Stress It has been analyzed that the primary impact over the employees is that there stress gets reduced or eliminate. The flexible working arrangements provide job satisfaction to the employees as they can attain high work-life balance. The performance of the employees gets improved which resulted into decreased work stress. Therefore the employees are considered as appropriate fit for the organization. The low level of stress and fulfillment of personal commitments results into increased employee engagement (Hill, et al., 2010). Decreased Negative Spillover Spillo0ver can be explained as the practices through which the behavior and attitude is being carried over from one job to another. The spillover develops among the family and the work is considered as highly negative as this gives rise to family-work conflict or it may be positive too as there is family-work enhancement. These spillover numbers of time co-exist to some extent. For instance, the stressful and highly pressurized jobs results onto negative spillover in the personal commitments. But with work-life flexibility the employees get rid of these spillovers as there is an adequate balance between the personal and professional lives of the employees (Beauregard and Henry, 2009). Improved Work-Family Balance There are primary two aspects of work-life balance i.e. interference of family in work and interference of work in family. The nature of job impacts the family life of an employee in a positive or negative manner and the family situation affects the efficiency and productivity of an employee in the organization. The flexibility in the working arrangements supports the employees to achieve a higher degree of work-family balance which have positive implications over the organization as well as the employee. In various studies it has been found that the flexible working hours provide extreme support to female employee in comparison with the male employees. The rate of work-family conflict decreased with an increasing rate with the implementation of work-life flexibility approach in the organizations (Jeffrey Hill, et al., 2008). Thus the work-life flexibility eliminates the issues of work-family balance and also improves it. Improve Work Life Balance The work-life balance can b e explained as the competence and skill of a person to maintain balance among the non-work and work responsibilities. Work-life balance helps an individual to have sufficient well-being., energy and time to fulfill the personal commitments (Government of South Africa, 2012). But then also there are number of issues which are still present in this approach. Thus the introduction of work-life flexibility eliminates these issues and supports individuals to have greater work arrangements flexibility and have greater work-life balance. Mental and Physical Wellbeing It has been analyzed that the higher working flexibility gives the employee improved control and choice which poses a positive impact t over the well-being and health of an employee. For instance, in a study conducted over the employers in the extended-care facilities, it was found that, workers possess increased symptoms of cardiovascular disease who worked with decreased creativity and work-family openness. This was identified both through the diagnosed reports by the doctors and biomarker assessments. This study shows that the work-life balance is necessary for the employee to have mental and physical wellbeing (Aging Work, n.d.). It is analyzed that if the employees are provided with flexible working arrangements then they have an improved participation in the healthier behaviors which results into decreased issues such as work-related impairments, stress and sickness-absences. Fulfillment of Personal Commitment and Improved Morale The primary benefit which the employees want to achieve from work-life flexibility is the likelihood to fulfill all their personal commitments which were accomplished because of the extreme job pressure (Richman, 2008). Earlier only the higher authorities can relish these advantages because of the authoritative position. But as per the equity theory where the employees develop their perceptions upon the prevailing equity in the organization there takes place numerous conflicts because of unevenness in benefits and equity among employees (King and Grace, 2010). Thus there were high attrition rates in the organizations. But with the work-life flexibility approach, the grass root level employees also get the similar equity to have improved work life balance. This results into improved morale nod increased productivity. Enabling Mobility It is one of the most positive implications for the employees of implementing work-life flexibility. The organization provides flexible working hours to the employees. It helps the employees to have required mobility. They can manage their personal responsibilities effectively as result of increased mobility. This gives an advantage to the employees to manage their work and non-work roles effectively (Grawitch and Barber, 2010). The HRM Implications There are several HRM implications which are the result of incorporating the approach of work-life flexibility in the organizations. Following are few implications for HRM as a result of work life flexibility: Changed Way of Functioning The human resource management primary task is to have effective and efficient workforce in the organization. With the flexible working arrangements it has been analyzed that the HRM has to change its way of functioning. The increase flexibility give the employees a chance to work on flexible hours and thus HRM has to take care of all the work taking places in different shift hours (Vandello, et al., 2013). Higher Retention Rate The increased work-life flexibility has a direct benefit for the organization is the retention rate of the employees tends to increase. This can be explained through the expectancy theory. In this theory, the employees expect benefits and supportive workplace environment (Skinner, 2014). The employees are more focus upon other amenities and benefits instead of monetary incentives. These other benefits such as increased work-life balance results into high job satisfaction. This laid emphasis over the employee to get associated with the organization for longer time frame. McDonalds is one of such organization which offers its employees with the best possible benefits and flexibility such as the part time jobs, pay based on shifts etc (Crawford, R., (2015). Thus the HRM get positively impacted with higher flexibility s the retention rate of employees up surge. Need to Have Innovative Working Approaches It is also one of the implications for the HRM department of other organizations to implement innovative ways to retain employees or to have high work-life flexibility. As the employees tends to compare the work-life balance provided in several organizations. Thus it is essential that the HRM department must have these approaches otherwise the employee can easily switch over to other companies which provide better and highly flexible work arrangements (Kossek, et al., 2011). The Implications for Leaders and Managers Whenever any kind of change takes place in the organization it is the responsibility of the leaders or the mangers to execute and incorporate it efficiently. The approach of work-life flexibility is they next phase of work-life balance only. But the leaders of the managers are required to maintain adequate guidelines to attain the desired objectives. Following are few implications for leaders and managers as a result of work life flexibility: Declined Rate of Continuous Recruitment It has been analyzed that the higher work-life flexibility results into increased retention rate of the employees. And if the employees retained in the organization for a longer period of time then it poses a positive impact over the managers as it is no more required by the managers to recruit new individuals on a continuous basis. The attrition arte is low and so there are less chances of wastage of resources and time to employee new candidates (Jeffrey Hill, et al., 2008). Effective Management The flexible work arrangements provide several benefits to the employees which acts as a morale booster for them. This has a direct impact t over the management of the employees. The happier workforce makes less number of mistakes as well as there are decrease numbers of workplace conflicts. The managers and leaders are satisfied with the employee performance and therefore the mutual understanding among the mangers and the employees leads to effective management (Carlson, Grzywacz and Michele Kacmar, 2010). Decrease Organizational Pressure With the work-life flexibility there are also include functional flexibility which results into development of diverse skills and competencies in an individual employee. This results into shared working. The organization is not required to halt the work in the absence of the key people. Thus as a result it decrease the pressure laid upon the mangers for continuous working. The flexibility approach helps the managers to make the work done by another employee (Kossek and Van Dynet, 2011). Conclusion and Recommendations Presently the business environment is highly dynamic and so the needs and demands of the workforce. To have higher employee engagement and elevated retention rate it is necessary that the organization must focus upon achieving work-life flexibility. The report concludes that in the present scenario it is very much essential to provide the employees with higher flexibility so that they can achieve an improved work life balance. The personal commitments of the employees force them to move their focus from their organizational job role to individual responsibilities. And this leads to negative implication over the efficiency and effectiveness of the employee in the organizational work. To understand the needs of the employees the organizations try to provide the higher flexible working arrangements to the employees such as part time shifts, higher mobility, and sufficient time to manage the personal commitments etc. There are few recommendations for the organizations which still do not have work-life flexibility that the policies are not enough to have improved employee performance and thus it is necessary for the organization to implement this approach. There must also be continuous surveys so that the dynamic needs of the employees can be analyzed and appropriate policies can be framed according to the requirements. The mangers and leaders must also provide with adequate trainings so that they can understand the work load pressure over the employees and help them getting out of it in a positive manner (Renee Baptiste, 2008). Thus from the overall perspective it can be conclude that for achieving improved results organizations must take an initiative to implement improved work-life flexibility approach at the workplaces. References Acas, (2015). Flexible working and work-life balance, Pp.20, Retrieved on: 1st February, 2017, Retrieved from: https://www.acas.org.uk/media/pdf/j/m/Flexible-working-and-work-life-balance.pdf Aging Work, (n.d.). Why employees need workplace flexibility, Retrieved on: 1st February, 2017, Retrieved from: https://workplaceflexibility.bc.edu/need/need_employees Beauregard, T. A., Henry, L. C. (2009). Making the link between work-life balance practices and organizational performance.Human resource management review,19(1), 9-22. Carlson, D. S., Grzywacz, J. G., Michele Kacmar, K. (2010). The relationship of schedule flexibility and outcomes via the work-family interface.Journal of Managerial Psychology,25(4), 330-355. Crawford, R., (2015). McDonalds Restaurants puts motivation and reward at heart of business strategy, Retrieved on: 1st February, Retrieved from: https://www.employeebenefits.co.uk/issues/june-2015/mcdonalds-restaurants-puts-motivation-and-reward-at-heart-of-business-strategy/ Emory, (2009). Advantages of Workplace Flexibility, Retrieved on: 1st February, 2017, Retrieved from: https://www.worklife.emory.edu/workplaceflexibility/quickguides/advantages.html Emory, (2009). Workplace Flexibility, Retrieved on: 1st February, 2017, Retrieved from: https://www.worklife.emory.edu/workplaceflexibility/ ERICSSON, (2015). Flexibility in work life, Pp.8, Retrieved on: 1st February, 2017, Retrieved from: https://www.ericsson.com/res/docs/2015/consumerlab/ericsson-consumerlab-flexibility-in-work-life.pdf Government of South Africa, (2012). What is work life balance? Retrieved on: 1st February, 2017, Retrieved from: https://www.safework.sa.gov.au/worklifebalance/wlb_show_page.jsp?id=111580 Grawitch, M. J., Barber, L. K. (2010). Work flexibility or nonwork support? Theoretical and empirical distinctions for worklife initiatives.Consulting Psychology Journal: Practice and Research,62(3), 169. Hill, E. J., Erickson, J. J., Holmes, E. K., Ferris, M. (2010). Workplace flexibility, work hours, and work-life conflict: finding an extra day or two.Journal of Family Psychology,24(3), 349. Jeffrey Hill, E., Grzywacz, J. G., Allen, S., Blanchard, V. L., Matz-Costa, C., Shulkin, S., Pitt-Catsouphes, M. (2008). Defining and conceptualizing workplace flexibility.Community, Work and Family,11(2), 149-163. Jeffrey Hill, E., Jacob, J. I., Shannon, L. L., Brennan, R. T., Blanchard, V. L., Martinengo, G. (2008). Exploring the relationship of workplace flexibility, gender, and life stage to family-to-work conflict, and stress and burnout.Community, work and Family,11(2), 165-181. Kelliher, C., Anderson, D. (2008). For better or for worse? An analysis of how flexible working practices influence employees' perceptions of job quality.The International Journal of Human Resource Management,,19(3), 419-431. King, C., Grace, D. (2010). Building and measuring employee-based brand equity.European Journal of Marketing,44(7/8), 938-971. Kossek, E. E., Van Dynet, L. (2011). How WorkLife Flexibility Influences Work Performance of Individuals and Groups.Handbook of work-family integration: Research, theory, and best practices, 305. Kossek, E. E., Pichler, S., Bodner, T., Hammer, L. B. (2011). Workplace social support and workfamily conflict: A meta?analysis clarifying the influence of general and workfamily?specific supervisor and organizational support.Personnel psychology,64(2), 289-313. Renee Baptiste, N. (2008). Tightening the link between employee wellbeing at work and performance: A new dimension for HRM.Management decision,46(2), 284-309. Richman, A. L., Civian, J. T., Shannon, L. L., Jeffrey Hill, E., Brennan, R. T. (2008). The relationship of perceived flexibility, supportive worklife policies, and use of formal flexible arrangements and occasional flexibility to employee engagement and expected retention.Community, work and family,11(2), 183-197. Robert Half, (2017). Work-Life Balance as Part of an Employee Retention Strategy, Retrieved on: 1st February, 2017, Retrieved from: https://www.roberthalf.com/employers/hiring-advice/employee-retention/corporate-culture/work-life-balance Skinner, B. F. (2014).Contingencies of reinforcement: A theoretical analysis(Vol. 3). BF Skinner Foundation UCDAVIS, (2016). WorkLife and Wellness, Retrieved on: 1st February, 2017, Retrieved from: https://worklife-wellness.ucdavis.edu/workplaceflexibility/ Vandello, J. A., Hettinger, V. E., Bosson, J. K., Siddiqi, J. (2013). When equal isn't really equal: The masculine dilemma of seeking work flexibility.Journal of Social Issues,69(2), 303-321.