School Shootings: Causes and Warning Signs

School Shootings: Causes and Warning Signs The Virginia Tech Massacre, the Sandy Hook shooting, and the Columbine High School Massacre are events that people will never forget. School shootings are a rare occurrence but for the people experiencing these events time stands still, and they will never forget. This paper will look at the reasons why these events take place, and the warning signs displayed by the shooters before the event happens. This paper will also explore what the media’s role in covering the shooting events, and the preventive measures that have been made over time to combat this issue that faces schools around the world. The number one issue that faces children today is bullying in school. It is not just the face to face type of bullying that is thought of when a person thinks of bullying. Today’s youth have to face cyber bullying along with the face to face bullying at school. Roland defines bullying as â€Å"continuing, negative behavior directed toward a victim by an individual or group† (2002). Another study calls the act of bullying marginalization. They define this as the act of pushing individuals outside the realm of social significance (Mongan, Hatcher and Maschi 2009). Yet another word associated with bullying that came from Mongan, Hatcher, and Maschi’s study is what is called masculinity attacks (2009). There study was conducted on the Columbine shooting. This is a statement from a survivor of that shooting describing what was said to the two young men that committed the shooting. â€Å"Sure we teased them. But what do you expect with kids who come to school with weird hairdos and horns on their hats? It’s not just jocks; the whole school’s disgusted with them. They’re a bunch of homos†¦..If you want to get rid of someone; usually you tease ‘em. So the whole school would call them homos† (Gibbs Roche, 1996, p.48). Bullying would be a form of peer rejection. When a person is rejected by one group that they see as a positive, they may be pushed to another group that will have a negative influence or even resort to social isolation. Studies show that if a person has a strong attachment to family, peers, and school they are less likely to be an offender of delinquent acts (Curran and Renzetti 2001). They will see themselves as outcasts from the mainstream groups, and he or she will grow a large amount of animosity toward the group that bullied them. There has been some research conducted on the effects of bullying on school shooters, but bulling may be just a catalyst and not the main reason. Hann and Mays conducted a study and found that two thirds of all the offenders were bullied prior to the shooting incident (2013). Hann’s and Mays’s study does show a connection between bullying and school shooting, but also shows that the bully or bullies may not be the specific targets. They s uggest that the stats show that bullies are the targets, but then go on to say that the shooters randomly target students in the school forgetting about the bullies (Hanns and Mays 2013). They may give more weight to the theory that bullying is more of a catalyst to the shooting than a main reason. Being bullied at school can lead to indicators or warning signs that a child may be going in the wrong direction. If the child becomes very isolated from social interactions this may be a warning sign that he or she may be having problems. Mongan, Hatcher, and Maschi show the stages that a person goes through before the final act of violence. They have come up with a model called the Stages of Change Model. This informative model shows people what to look for in regards to a child’s behavior. The table on the next page shows the different stages that a child may go through before committing the school shooting. This chart is to show school administrators and parents the warning sig ns to look for. TABLE 1 Applying the Stages-of-Change Model to Youth At Risk of Committing a School Shooting Stages of change        Ã‚  Identifying signs: Thoughts, feelings, and behaviors of at-risk youth Stage 1         Precontemplation _ Has thoughts about planning or engaging in a school shooting Stage 2        Ã‚  Contemplation _ Feels unfairly treated Has ‘‘grandiose’’ ideas of getting back at the school or others Stage 3        Ã‚  Preparation _ Weighs the pros and cons of attempting a school shooting Has morbid fantasies of death Develops a plan of attack Stage 4        Ã‚  Action _ Commits to follow through on plan_ Withdraws from others_ Obtains weapons for attack Stage 5        Ã‚  Maintenance _ Establishes a plan and sets a date for the attack_ Spends time rehearsing plans (i.e., thinking about it or practicing) Stage 6        Ã‚  Termination _ Feels attack is justified_ Completes the attack (murder and/or suicide) (p.639) These warning signs are used to help prevent a possible shooting. Other issues that may also push a child to delinquency or other crimes may include abuse in the home. If a child is already having a tough time at school, and then he or she goes to an abusive home life this will have a negative effect on the child. He or she may also have a personality disorders that have an effect on the delinquency, and this can often lead to suicide (Hann and Mays 2013). Violent movies and music have also been linked to violent behavior along with interest in firearms and bombs. Other psychological problems including depression, impulse control, or sadistic tendencies have been linked to school shooters (Hann and Mays 2013). Another argument that is being made is the accessibility of guns in the United States. Hann and Mays study points out that this is a major factor in the person’s ability to commit the act of a school shooting (2013). However, Mongan, Hatcher, and Maschi (2009) point out about the availability of guns in America that, â€Å"school shoo tings have also occurred in countries that employ strict gun control laws, and school shootings did not begin in America until 1966 even though there was a pro gun culture† (p637). When these types of events take place people want to place the blame on someone or something to achieve closure. This is when the blame game starts and blame is pushed from one person or thing to another. According to Hann and Mays parents are often at least partially to blame for the shooting then followed by teachers and school administrators (2013). However, there is another source that many people place at least some blame too and that is the media. The media coverage of school shooting is very highly scrutinized among the victims and researchers alike. Some researchers put a lot of blame on the media for their coverage of these events. The people who make these claims seem to believe that the media’s coverage of these events cause â€Å"copy cat† school shooters. Hann and Mays point out that school shootings did not attract the media attention before 1997 as they do now (2013). The first major event that got the media coverage that Hann and Mays are speaking of is the Columbine shooting in 2001. It was the worst high school shooting of the time killing 12 students and one teacher and is believed by some to inspire others to commit similar crimes in different parts of the United States (Hann Mays 2013). A study was conducted by Haravuori, Suomalainen, Berg, Kivirousu, and Marttunen to see what impact the media coverage had on adolescents traumatized in a school shooting. This study was conducted on 231 students aged 13-19 years in Finland. A similar study was conducted on students at Virginia Tech after that shooting. There were three types of journalistic behavior experienced during the media coverage of both events. These behaviors included behaving badly, media mod, and displaying compassion. Both studies concluded that that being approached by the media and being interviewed had a negative effect on posttraumatic distress (2011). Most media outlets would say that they were doing what the people want them to do and that is to report the news, and something as big as a school shooting would need to have extended coverage to get all that needs to be reported. They would also argue that they show great sympathy for the victims and their families. Where the issue lies for the researchers is when the extended coverage becomes too extended. Hann and Mays suggest that the media coverage prolongs the grief found in the communities that experience these tragedies (2013). What is meant by that statement is that the media prolongs the grieving process in that the people have to relive the event every time they step out their door or turn on the television. The researchers say that media needs to stick to just the facts of the situation and not over do the coverage with needless information. The entire how, why, and the target selected may spark another school shooting at another location according to the researchers. The prevention of these types of crimes has to be combated early before the crime even happens. Parents, teachers, and school administrators need to see the warning signs early to prevent these types of crimes in their communities. The majority of the effort should be placed on prevention. According to Hann and Mays (2013), â€Å"In almost all shootings there were signs that the shooter or shooters might be preparing for this violent act. Over 90% of the shootings studied were planned at least 2 days ahead, and most of these shootings were discussed by the perpetrators via social media shortly before they occurred† (p.52). They also say that the media needs to tone back on the coverage of school shootings to help prevent other possible shootings (2013). Another possible prevention is schools suspension practices. If a child is suspended from school then that child may not have the proper supervision at home. If a child is already displaying warning signs of a possible delinque nt then this type of punishment will only aggravate his or her already fragile condition (Hann Mays 2013). Hann and Mann state that some school districts have created crisis management teams to deal with possible school shootings. Mongan, Hatcher, and Maschi conducted a nationwide survey in 2007 that concluded that, â€Å"6% of students had carried a weapon on school property† (p. 635). They suggest that the policies that schools have in place that deal with carrying weapon on their campus is not enough and that better measure need to be in place to help prevent and combat the issue of school violence. Schools need to provide workshops to educate on the stages of change model (Table 1) and how it applies to school violence, and instituting and formal referral process in the schools (Mongan, Hatcher, Maschi 2009). Almost all of the authors of articles that deal with school shooting do say that more steps need to be taken to prevent these acts of violence from happening. These authors contend that due to the violent nature of these crimes and the negative effect that it has on our society that stronger measures need to be implemented in our schools. School administrators and parents need to look for the warning signs that the child displays, and they need to have a reporting system in place that will handle the problem before it escalates. They also say that the media needs to scale its coverage back to limit the amount of time it takes for the community to heal. Media outlets need to be aware that they may inadvertently spark a copycat school shooting at another location with the extended coverage that is given to these types of events. A group that has studied school shootings has produced a chart that shows the different stages of progression that a possible school shooter may go through bef ore committing the act. They suggest that schools have workshops for parents and teachers to help with seeing the warning signs before they get out of hand. References Curran, D.J., Renzetti, C.M. (2001) Theories of Crime (2nd ed). Needham Heights, MA: Allyn Bacon. Center for the Prevention of School Violence (2002, May). Just what is school violence: New brief. Retrieved November 21, 2008, from http://www.ncdjjdp.org/ cpsv/index.html Center for Disease Control. (2008). Understanding school violence. Retrieved November 21, 2008, from http://cdc.gov/ncipc/dvp/YVP/SV_FactSheet.pdf Gibbs, N., Roche, T. (1999, December 20). The Columbine tapes: In five secret videos they recorded before the massacre, the killers reveal their hatreds-and their lust for fame. Time, 154(25), 40- 51. Haan, P., Mays, L. (2013). Children Killing Children: School Shootings in the United States. Social Work Review / Revista De Asistenta Sociala, (4), 49-55. Mongan, P., Hatcher, S., Maschi, T. (2009). Etiology of School Shootings: Utilizing a Purposive, Non-Impulsive Model for Social Work Practice. Journal Of Human Behavior In The Social Environment, 19(5), 635-645. doi:10.1080/10911350902910583 Reddy, M., Borum, R., Berglund, J., Vossekuil, B., Fein, R., Modzeleski, W. (2011) Evaluating risk for targeted violence in schools: Comparing risk assessment, threat assessment, and other approaches. Psychology in the Schools, 38, 2, 157‑172. Roland, E. (2002) Bullying, depressive symptoms and suicidal thoughts. Educational Research, 44, 55‑67.

Artwork Essay

The â€Å"Self-Portrait with a bandaged ear† by Vincent Van Gogh and â€Å"The Two Fridas† by Mexican painter Kahlo Frida are depicting the artists’ deep hurt and emotional breakdown at losing their special person in life. However, the portrait â€Å"The Two Fridas† is representing the artist’s conflicting psychological mind more into details and straightforward than Vincent Van Gogh’s self-portrait â€Å"The Bandaged Ear. † In â€Å"The Two Fridas,† she uses various actions and clear setting to help viewers the theme of painting easily. The background is filled with the agitated clouds on the stormy dark sky and it obviously reflects her inner pain. Frida who sits on the left side portrays rejected Frida by her husband Diego Rivera. On the right, it represents loved and respected Frida by him. The two Fridas hold hands each other as if loved Frida tries to join unloved Frida’s suffering. It also implies her only companion is herself since she was six years old. She was isolated from other people due to her health problems. In â€Å"The bandaged ear,† Van Gogh pierces the viewer’s feeling using the facial expression rather than actions. His pale and thin face like Jesus Christ in a late medieval painting and every brushstroke that he made on the canvas tells his pitiful presence at the time. In fact, it is not easy to catching the purpose of the Japanese painting on the wall behind Van Gogh. For late 18th century, European artists considered the traditional Japanese art as a utopian aestheticism. So, he uses the Japanese painting for representing his lost paradise. Frida utilizes many symbolic and striking objects to illustrate her turmoil. The two hearts express her pain. The abandoned Frida’s heart is dying while the other Frida’s heart is whole. The unloved Frida is holding the surgical pincer to cut off a vein that travels through both Fridas’ hearts. Frida tries to stop the flow of blood from loved Frida on the right. Therefore, the blood is dripping on her white dress and it is the sign of danger of bleeding to death. In addition, her white dress is ripped open and it refers her broken relationship between Diego. Van Gogh simply uses fewer objects than Frida’s portrait. In combination of wearing a bandage across his ear to under his chin and his sallow skin imply his health condition is unwell. He may be shivering inside because he wears a coat and hat. Frida Kahlo has been associated with the surrealist movement which is the most influential movement in early 1900’s. This movement is influenced by Sigman Freud and Karl Max and they are well known psychologists. The surrealists believe the conscious mind repress the power of imagination so they are willing to depict their unlimited imagination. They expose the uncensored feeling as if in a dream. Also, they use many different kinds of symbols and colors to make art more details and straightforward. Unlike surrealist Frida, the impressionist artist Van Gogh conveys the subject of his art by demonstrating the techniques of loose brushstrokes that barely forms the figure and it makes his piece sort of like a sketch or â€Å"unfinished painting. He uses not many different colors but instead he focuses on putting shadows or highlights in color. Both of great self portraits portray the artists’ mental and physical collapse in their own stylistic and unique techniques. However, Kahlo Frida’s painting is easier to analyze the subject of artwork than Van Gogh’s painting. Because, she chooses varieties of symbols and colors to express her strange and violent imaginations and it definitely helps viewers easy to define her painful heart through her painting.

Unrealistic, Unconstitutional, And Unhelpful On Homeless...

Name: Koehler, Meara Student ID: C02470584 Course CRN Number: 82974.201523 Unrealistic, Unconstitutional, and Unhelpful: On Homeless Criminalization Hansi Lo Wang of National Public Radio reports that as of nine months ago, New York City’s homelessness rates have reached record-breaking heights. Reading his report, I was not surprised by the trend; the real-estate market has no regard for low-income families and individuals, and according to Wang’s report, this is especially true in New York. (Wang) The Coalition for the Homeless describes housing affordability in the city as a crisis, disproportionately affecting African-American and Latino people. Children have been hit the hardest by the rising homelessness rates. (Markee) What I hadn’t expected to learn while researching New York’s situation is this: the city’s crime rate is lower than it was last year by 5.6%. (Wang) I was inspired to examine why I, along with residents of New York City, jumped straight to the conclusion that higher homelessness rates would coincide with higher crime rates. I became alarmed by the assumption that homeless p eople would make the city â€Å"menacing and unlivable†, as the New York Post suggests, and how quickly I had come to it. (Post) According to surveys, New Yorkers believe that their city of declining crime rates is actually becoming more dangerous. (Wang) My opinion on the situation in New York quickly developed from that point on in my reading. Criminalizing homeless people will not

The Laramie Project, By Moses Kaufman Essay - 1583 Words

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Human And Social Development Level Of Development - 993 Words

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Change and People Free Essays

string(71) " or who would be able to attest to your potential and accomplishments\." Outline for â€Å"The Psychological Impact of Dejobbing† †¢ â€Å"You are what you do† – most Americans are defined in terms of their jobs, connected to a wider community through their jobs, and provided with structure and purpose by their jobs. †¢ What you must learn, for today’s job environment – learn to live with work situations that are not framed by job descriptions and clear reporting relationships. We will have to learn to live with multiple roles, where the role mix changes frequently. We will write a custom essay sample on Change and People or any similar topic only for you Order Now And we will have to find the income we need in such unstable and unpredictable conditions †¢ The most difficult aspect of being laid off or otherwise â€Å"dejobbed† – The hardest part of being laid off is the mental aspect. † In the long run it will probably be the psychological aspect of dejobbing that people find most difficult. Incomes are modular and portable; they can be replaced. Replacing the psychological rewards that jobs have provided is far more difficult. What work gives each of us, cognitively and emotionally – A job gives people parts to play and tells them what they need to do to feel good about their contribution. It gives them a way of knowing when they have done enough, and it tells them when their results are satisfactory. Jobs provide people with a place where they need to show up regularly, a list of things they’ve got to do; a role to play in some larger undertaking; a set of expectations to be measured against. It gives them an everyday sense of purpose, and fulfilling such purpose is a source of self-esteem. For people whose personal lives are not going very well, the job may be the only source of self-esteem. †¢ Relationship between order and change in the world of work today – The art of progress is to preserve order amid change and to preserve change amid order. † It is important to recognize this reciprocal relationship and to understand that change and stability are not in an either-or relationship to one another†¦Without order, change has nothing to work on†¦but without hange, order cannot be maintained through time†¦You can feel this relation between change and order when you ride a bicycle: you need to keep making little turns, or else you won’t travel straight and stay upright for very long†¦what the dejobbed worker needs to look for is neither a way to recover absolute stability, nor a way to live with utter chaos, but a dynamic kind o f order that does not block the flow of change How to give a sense of structure and meaning to your life if you are ever â€Å"dejobbed†: I. Grouping changes: 1. Goals – listing the three most important goals you have now†¦we’re looking for big, comprehensive goals here, not the many little ones. Then, decide what intermediate objectives (no more than three) each of your goals requires you to meet in the near future. Your to-do list comes from these nine objectives, but nine is too many. Prioritize them. Which three need to be done pronto? Which three could wait until next week? Which three simply have to be done sometime pretty soon? Now, take the ‘prontos. What immediate, first step does each of them demand? Write them down. Those are the actions you are going to take this week. 2. Steps – After any big change in your life, you are going to have to reprioritize again, because any big change changes the value you put on everything in your life†¦It’s also important to keep others up to date on what your priorities are, since any change is going to affect other people, too. The minute you start considering others, you will find that priority-setting isn’t a game of solitaire. . Actions – Keeping your priorities in order is easier if you are not being swamped by sudden and unexpected changes understand better than others the implications of changes that have already taken place. 4. Environmental shifts – , it is important to improve your capacity to see disruptive changes coming†¦subtle shifts in the environment that have already taken place but have not yet been fully recognized by the people who will be affected by them†¦The demise of jobs is such a shift:†¦closure of ilitary bases, the massive restructuring of the health care industry,†¦ the end of American dominance in world markets†¦What economic, technological, demographic or cultural changes in your own work environment fall into this 5. Internal audit – conduct an audit of your†¦expectations, habits, contacts and personal â€Å"rules,† in regard to how they affect your ability to handle constant change. For each of these ask yourself, what is hindering you? What is helping you? Expectations: do you have expectations that are continually being violated by the next change, such as: †¢ After this change, things will settle down. †¢ If you are employed by a large organization, you will be insulated from the ravages of constant change. †¢ If you â€Å"do a good job† for your employer, you’ll remain on the payroll. †¢ A human being will always be able to do your job better than a machine will. †¢ The government will step in if the competition from overseas gets too intense. †¢ Long service to an organization will be viewed as a plus. Habits: It is critical for you to stay up to date on the social, technical and economic changes that are likely to have an impact on the kind of work you do†¦decide what periodicals you would read, and what professional or trade meetings you would attend, if you were an independent professional in the field. †¢ Contacts: Are you ready to launch a personal business-development effort tomorrow by contacting the first two or three of the several dozen people who could help you move in whatever direction you decided was appropriate? These would be people who, themselves, have contacts; or who know a lot about something you need to understand; or who might be partners in a joint venture, or who have resources you might be able to use, or who would be able to attest to your potential and accomplishments. You read "Change and People" in category "Essay examples" †¢ Personal â€Å"Rules†: Most of us are still playing under the old rules. You need to keep an eye out for them via your self-audit and replace them when find them; rules such as: †¢ Don’t leave a job when good jobs are hard to get. Remember, your present job is only temporarily expedient†¦it is going to disappear. The best jobs go to the people with the best qualifications. This is a half-truth, because the whole idea of â€Å"qualification† is changing. The old ‘qualifications’ included degrees or other formal certification, experience in a similar job, and recommendations. Today, most recommendations are known to be hot air or tail-covering platitudes. Experience is more likely to produce a repetition of the past than the kind of new approach that today’s conditions demand. And there often isn’t any degree or certification in the activity that today’s organization needs. The new meaning of â€Å"qualification† is – your D. A. T. A. †¢ Don’t try to change careers after forty. †¢ Getting into the â€Å"right business† assures a secure future†¦designating any field (as the â€Å"right† one) would be bad advice because although there are parts of the economy that are destined to expand, no part of the economy immune to dejobbing. †¢ It doesn’t matter what you want; it’s what â€Å"they† want that counts. Most of us were raised on this one. Maturity was a matter of tempering our wants and of conforming to what someone with more influence and resources wanted of us. But today, it doesn’t matter nearly as much what an organization wants as it used to. The power has moved elsewhere; the only â€Å"they† that matters much any more is, customers. †¢ You have to be a salesman to get ahead today. Not necessarily, but what you do need is†¦a clear understanding of why someone needs what you have and do, and the ability to make your case effectively. Many people who do those well have no experience or interest in sales as a field. II. Changes in how work-related words are being defined: 1. â€Å"Qualification† – 2. â€Å"Risky† vs. â€Å"responsible† employment – III. Frames of meaning: 1. Identity/integrity – is about psychological rather than ethical. It means wholeness With so much change and fragmentation in the new career world, you need a solid core of self. You have to be true to who you are; to your identity. Here, â€Å"identity† means sameness. It refers to the thread of being-the-same-person that runs through all the actions and relationships and statements of an integrated person. Thus the integrity/identity frame is capable of both maintaining continuity and containing change†¦It is the thread of sameness on which differing activities can be strung The life journey – The first is a journey toward some external goal: influence and power, a happy family, salvation, or self-actualization. The characteristic of this journey is that it has a recognizable destination that is so desirable that we are willing to put up with the hardships along the way. Those hardships are just hurdles or barriers to be overcome. We may even see barriers as â€Å"filters† that keep the impure, the undeveloped or the basely motivated from reaching the valuable goal. We may also view them as filters that screen out those elements in ourselves, in which case we say that the journey made us better people. On this second type of journey we are trying to become the people we are meant to be. We’re â€Å"ugly ducklings† who don’t know that we are really swans†¦we fail to see that most of what the â€Å"great people† of the world have accomplished was not done because they were different but because they were not busy trying to be somebody else. Most of what has been worth doing†¦was accomplished by people who were (like you and me, most of the time) self-doubting, ambivalent and more than a bit discouraged. This second type of journey frames the difficulties along the way no so much as hurdles to be cleared as signals to be attended to, or even lessons to be learned†¦When someone on this journey says that â€Å"there are no accidents,† that does not mean hat we are living according to some great computer program in the sky, but simply that those times when â€Å"the wrong thing happens† are simply the times when we are looking at the world through the filters formed by our outgrown expectations. It means that if we could see the accidental as if it were part of a lesson plan, Our original goals and expectations are little more than the â€Å"bait† that lure us into whatever is the next leg of the journey. Anyone who has come to appreciate these things and can see how often the life journey includes or even depends upon events and situations that we didn’t really want to happen can appreciate the definition of the journey offered by an anonymous sage: â€Å"A journey is a trip after you’ve lost your luggage. 1. Where you place your loyalties – As people get tossed around in the changes that are constantly happening in today’s organizations, they lose their loyalty to organizations and increase their loyalty to the kind of work they do. This constitutes a shift in the continuity-producing frame. The organization can no longer perform that task, since the individual’s connection with it is too easily broken. Only something portable can , so the profession, the vocation, or the work becomes the frame. In another version of the same process, â€Å"professional growth† becomes the frame. Here the work and the journey metaphor are blended, as the changes that the person encounters are translated into chances to learn more about one’s vocation†¦The journey of increasing expertise and the journey toward mastery become personally meaningful frames, for they contain and give meaning to not only one’s achievements, but even to very serious work-related failures and disappointments. 2. Reality† – Quantum physics has taught us to think in terms of energy fields rather than solid matter, and has show us that some life changes occur not gradually or piecemeal as ordinary experience would suggest, but in â€Å"quantum leaps† wherein a pattern of energy moves suddenly from one state or level to another. Life sometimes has that quality – we wake up one morning and â€Å"everything has changed. † The career that looked fine yesterday is today trivial and worthless. The relationship that was very important to us yesterday suddenly isn’t. Or perhaps chaos theory provides an more effective metaphor. If the organization is not like a set of children’s building blocks, all horizontals and verticals on the organizational chart, perhaps the organization is more like flowing water†¦Ã¢â‚¬ Points† are unreal; it’s all flux. The patterns are like weather systems, only predictable in the very short term – yet undeniably ordered by some principle beyond randomness. Contemporary chaos theory talks about so-called strange attractors, which are the ordering principles within such apparently random patterns. They are found in water flows, in the seasons, in the rise and fall of animal populations, in the behavior of financial markets†¦Such a ‘frame’ has the feel of life, its messiness-without-meaninglessness, its constant change and continuous transformation†¦ Create â€Å"Islands of Order†: One of the ways to manage a life of constant change is to maintain stability in some areas your life by not letting change into them†¦some people whose careers have taken them all over the world have kept a home base somewhere that they return to whenever they need to put the pieces back together again. Many people whose work associates come and go†¦keep a circle of friends which changes very little. Many people who go through professional identities as though they were seasonal clothing maintain a spiritual discipline†¦or play a sport seriously. These are the solid points of contact are their rock, which enable them to move safely. Other islands of order are temporal and periodic: quiet time every weekend, every other weekend, one weekend every month; a half-hour of meditation or solitary exercise every morning; two or three weeks â€Å"away from it all† every summer. Some time-outs are occasional: a break, a totally free and passive period at the end of every big project. Some are spontaneous: a sudden decision to spend the afternoon at a movie, take a hike or swim, instead of working. Other islands of order are spatial. They are places where the person goes to break the pattern of constant change. It may be a little park near where you work that you stop by every lunch hour. It may be a room (even a corner of a room) in your house or a chair under a tree in the backyard. It may be a motel room you rent at the beach. Whatever and wherever they are, these are places of order, where you take a break from constant input and output. Still other islands of order are created by favored activities. They may be hobbies†¦stamp collecting†¦playing a musical instrument or a sport†¦cooking, listening to music, taking walks, gardening, doing carpentry, brushing a horse, or training a dog. The common element is that time slows down, even stands still, when you do them. How to cite Change and People, Essay examples

Human resource Management Issues during Relocation Free Sample

Question: Identify and discuss the Human Resource Management Issues that a HR Manager in Melbourne would have to consider when relocating a Manager from Australia to Manage a subsidiary branch of an Australian Multinational Organisation that is Located in London in the United Kingdom. Answer: Introduction The issue of employee relocation is a major concern for international human resources management. There is in fact a major challenge when this relocating has to do with moving the employee from one environment to a different one. Some of the issues that employers are faced with when relocating employees include the moving expenses, relocation agreements, support for their families, communication, legal and economic issues. It thus becomes important that the human resources department ensure relocation is one that will attract the affected employee and ensure they are retained at all costs(Baker Anderson, 2010). The human resources department needs to make sure that they provide the most competitive relocation package for these employees through fair policies and practices. It is also important to appreciate that employee relocation can help in retaining current employees in need of promotion while luring in new hires, this provides employee with new career opportunities while advancing development in the overall goal of the organisation. The following essay analyses some of the human resource management issues that a manager in Melbourne needs to consider as he or she relocates a manager from Australia to manage a branch located in London, United Kingdom(Baskerville, 2003). In doing so the paper will also analyze some of the employment relations and human resource issues on the employee working in the foreign country. Human resource Management issues during relocation In most case businesses that operate within Australian border have the advantage of dealing with a relatively limited cultural, economic and legal requirements for relocation since Australia is a capitalist competitive country. For a company that operates in multinational perspective then they are bound to face some human resources issues due to lack of homogeneity. One of the main examples is the minimum mandated holidays that the employee will not enjoy will living in the united kingdom. There are also other general issues like the need for security and terrorism awareness training for employees in international assignments where crime and other issues like kidnapping might be common for foreign employees(Prewitt, Weil, McClure, 2011). The HR manager in Melbourne Australia function in the multinational company will be complicated highly by the need to adapt the HR policy and procedure to the united kingdoms subsidiary company. some of the other issues that will have to be consider ed by the HR manager during relocation will be as follows: Exception request For any company, it is usually a huge challenge for the HR department to have a relocation program that will cover each and every single need for the person being relocated. This is because each employee is different. The manager should be efficient enough to track relocation needs from designated transferees. Each relocation needs to be treated differently. This can be done by reviewing all the relocation issues collectively in the event that the season dies down to determine whether or not the policies should be altered. One of the example is when one has an large amount of transfer requests for extended living in the native country(Prewitt, Weil, McClure, 2011). The changes in relocation policies may also not mean that they will lead to an increase in the budget. Economic Issue It is a common trend for people to keep on talking and sharing vital information in the office, this will also come in to play whenever the Human Resources (HR) manager is planning to relocate an employee. Employees are always talking with one another meaning that the manager may be faced with a multitude of request for relocations at the same time with regard to the benefits of moving from Australia to the united kingdom. However, if employees discover that the relocations policies are similar in one way or the other, it may discourage acceptance(Kenton Yarnall, 2009). Also during relocation, the company will also have to consider economic burden that comes with relocation. The difference in the United Kingdom and Australian economies will also mean that there are differences in HR practices. For example, in a free enterprise system, the efficiency requirements usually favors HR policies which looks in to efficiency of workers, productivity and staff regulation in relation to marke t forces(Prewitt, Weil, McClure, 2011). As the organisation moves along the scale, the HR practices will continue to shift towards the prevention of unemployment even at the expense of ensuring efficiency during relocation. The cost of relocation In most cases, it is important for the HR manager to offer the employee reimbursement for expenses incurred during relocation. Such expenses may include house hunting, transportation costs and temporary living expenses. For some organisations, they may decide to forego reimbursement and consider paying the employee upfront to enable them cover their expenses. As a way of motivating the employee, allow them to keep whatever remains from the lump sum compensation for their acceptance to relocated(Stone, Russell, Patterson, 2003). This means that the HR department will not follow up on the expenses or keep a detailed record on how the employee spent the lump sum compensation. The differences in the cost of labor for the two countries will also be a major issue during relocation. This is because a high cost of labor as experienced in the United Kingdom will mean a major focus be put on efficiency and other HR practices like pay-for-performance; this will ensure an improvement of employee performance. The differences in the cost of labor for many countries is very important issue during relocation. For example, the hourly compensation for production workers in the manufacturing industry is $25.56 in Europe and $2.65 in Mexico. This may encourage or discourage the employee from accepting relocation. Other factors to consider in the cost of labor include the number of working hours in the united kingdom and that of Australia, holidays, performance appraisals and individual development(Kenton Yarnall, 2009). The payback clause Just like any other operations in the organisation, the company will spent a lot of money during relocation of the employee. In some cases this relocation may never meet the company objective in the case that the employee leaves the company shortly after they have been relocated. It thus becomes important for the company to have the payback clause when writing relocation agreements, this should also include the costs of relocation and other forms of compensation that the employee is given(Deng, Menguc, Benson, 2015). In the payback clauses the relocated employees should agree to pay back all or part of the expenses for the relocation in the even that he leaves the company within a suggested period which is usually a year and half. Such clauses are common for industries with the highest turnover. Employee relations issues while working in the united Kingdom There are some cultural differences that will play between working in Australia and working in the united kingdom for the relocated manager. This is because the employee will encounter differences in HR practices among employees in the foreign subsidiary. The cultural norms of the people in the united kingdom and the relevance of these norms will affect the Australian employees typical view of his relationship with employees in the united kingdom, this will also affect the way he will execute his assignment(Prewitt, Weil, McClure, 2011). For example, employees in the united kingdom usually expect lifetime employment with regard to performance for example. In addition, appraisals is mostly focused in the individual and not the working group, meaning that the manager will have to consider such developments. According to Geert Hofstede, there are a lot of international cultural differences during relocation. In this line, employees firstly differ in power distance which is the extent to which the less powerful member in the organisation will expect and accept that power will be unequally distributed. Individualism vs. collectivism where the relationship between individuals in an organisation is usually less close and more loose. In the United Kingdom for example, each employee is expected to look after themselves and their immediate relations(Baskerville, 2003). This is something that will affect the way the employee will blend in with his new colleagues. Masculinity vs. feminity will also look at the extent to which the society values assertiveness and caring. These intercultural differences in Australia and the united Kingdom will also have implications for the manager during relocation. It is important that as the manager is being relocated, he should be given an orientation of HR pra ctices in the united kingdom including selection testing and the payment plans to fit the local norms. The best case scenario would be to draw a manager from the UK citizens(Baskerville, 2003). Also when selecting and employee for relocation, it is important to maintain a high degree of empathy with reference to attitude and cultural demands of the host country. This is because a HR staff that is able to share the cultural background of an employee is more likely to become sensitive to the expectations and needs of the new workplace and manage the company successful. Lastly, while looking at the industrial relation as an issue, the main focus is put in the union, the employee and the employer from Australia and in the united kingdom(Kenton Yarnall, 2009). There are other factors also like the employee act and how it has been applied in the united kingdom and in Australia. Managers should use mathematics like the cost and benefit analysis to look at the overall costs of relocation and the cost of locally sourcing for an employee. An overall relocation program will also not function if it does not include such costs like the transfer costs, replacement, training, family movement costs and hardship costs for the employee. Other legal issues like immigration, work permit and labor costs should also be looked in to(Adler Elmhorst, 2010). The differences in the working periods, compensation in terms of money and time allocation for employees should also be looked in to. It is also important that an employee is given site visits and orientation to the new host country before relocation, this will allow him or her time to understand the professional and cultural differences that they will encounter after relocation. Conclusions In conclusion, any manager willing to relocated from one country to another will want to be offered a very attractive package during relocation. This is especially very important if the person is going to undertake an high level or executive position as there is usually a high cost associated with such a package. It is however important for the human resources manager to find out whether there will be any financial gain in relocating or locally hiring an employee in the host country. There is usually a lot of pressure for the human resources manager to cut down on costs and put in place policies whereby employees will still be relocated to places they are required to move. References Adler, R., Elmhorst, J. (2010). Communication at work: principles and practices for business and the professions (10th ed.). New York, NY.: McGraw Hill. Baker, H. K., Anderson, R. (2010). Corporate Governance: A Synthesis of Theory, Research, and Practice (Robert W. Kolb Series) (1st ed.). NY: Wiley. Baskerville, R. (2003). Hofstede never studied culture. Accounting, Organizations and Society, 28(1), 3-7. Beardwell, J., Claydon, T. (2010). Human Resource Management: A contemporary approach (6 ed., Vol. 42). Harlow: Financial Times Prentice Hall. Deng, J., Menguc, B., Benson, J. (2015). The impact of human resource management on export performance of Hospitality enterprises. Thunderbird International Business Review, 14(6), 409429. Kenton, B., Yarnall, J. (2009). HR: The Business Partner . Routledge; 2 edition. Prewitt, J., Weil, R., McClure, A. (2011). Developing Leadership in Global and Multi-cultural Organizations. International Journal of Business and Social Science, 2(13), 1-20. Stone, G., Russell, R., Patterson, K. (2003). Transformational versus servant leadership: a difference in leader focus. Leadership Organizational?Development Journal, 25(4), 349-361 .