Assess the future prospects for British banks Essay

Assess the future prospects for British banks - Essay Example banks provide extremely good value for customers unlike in other countries where customers pay both to have bank account and for the services they use whereas in U.K. banks, they provide free banking including access to free debit card, free access to ATM’S, free use of cheques, internet banking etc. Their charges are transparent and are advised to customers when they open the account. Banks generally publish their tariff charges also. London is both home to the world headquarters of the major British banks, and the host to major trading activities of both US and Continental European banks. London today is with 264 foreign banks and has 20 % of international bank lending. So it becomes the largest center for cross border banking. British banks account for 5 of the worlds top 20 by market capitalization, while there are 7 in the rest of Europe, 6 in America, and the remaining 2 are Japanese (Smallwood, 2005). The development of a number of world-class British-based banks successes is based on their own competitiveness, and not on any degree of government subvention or protection. A consequence of this is that London is, and is likely to remain for at least some appreciable time, the most international of capital market centers. The UK accounts for 60 per cent of primary international bond trading, and 70 per cent of secondary. There are more companies listed on the London Stock Exchange than on either the New York or Tokyo exchanges. In the OTC derivatives market, the UK accounts for over 40 per cent of global trade, compared with 24 per cent for the US, 10 per cent for France, and 3 per cent for Germany. Our fund management and insurance industries are both the third largest in the world, behind those of the US and Japan. The good news is the present strength of banks: a high level of profitability, strong levels of capital, and risk management, which has

Assignment2 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words - 1

Assignment2 - Essay Example Glossary†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦..13 Images Image 1: The Waikato River System†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦4 Image 2: The Waikato River passing through Hamilton City†¦..5 Abstract The government of New Zealand has made it known that it intends to sell Mighty River Power together with some other assets; Mighty River Power is the sole proprietor of the Waikato River Hydro scheme which makes use of waters of the Waikato river water to generate hydroelectric power. A number of Maori organizations have indicated that they are against the sale because they believe they should have a say on the usage of the waters of river Waikato, and through the sale they will not be able to put this claim to the test. This issue has resulted in a nationwide debate regarding the ownership of the river’s waters, and is therefore worth discussing an d writing about. The Treaty of Waitangi, an agreement between the Maori tribes of New Zealand and the Britain’s colonial government, was signed in 1840 after much deliberation by the Queen and a growing concern for the welfare of New Zealand’s indigenous peoples (Orange 1987, pg.32). The Resource Management Act (RMA) was an act of parliament that was passed in 1991 for the primary purpose of stipulating how New Zealand’s natural resources should be managed, and the principles of the Treaty are regarded as the guiding framework of the Treaty of Waitangi. ... At the end of this report, this question should be solved and more clarity should be achieved with regards to this issue. 1. Introduction The Treaty of Waitangi is often viewed as the founding document of the country that is now known as New Zealand (Calman 2003, pg.30). Since its signing in 1840, it has played a very influential role in shaping the country, how its resources are managed and its relation to its indigenous peoples (in this case the Maori). Over years, there have been disagreements between the New Zealand government over the management of resources that the Maori people consider â€Å"theirs†. Most recently, the Crown’s intention to sell Mighty River Power has drawn criticism, outrage and uproar from various groups representing the Maori people. The purpose of this report is to discuss, examine and evaluate the Treaty, the RMA and the principles and to come up with a sensible and practical conclusion on the issue at hand. These three aspects are very impo rtant to the final outcome since they explain where all this is coming from and how it can be resolved. The significance of this report is that it will finally decide how to move forward in this whole conundrum; it will look at both parties’ claims and address them in a sound manner and finally put the matter to bed. This report will cover events and aspects dating from 1840 to the current and most recent controversy pitting the government of New Zealand and the Maori people. As a result, whatever conclusion is reached will be arrived at after a lot of factors are studied and examined exhaustively. Limitations to this study might be that so many changes have occurred since 1840, and yet everything in between must be looked into; the

Facebook Organisational Culture Case Study

Facebook Organisational Culture Case Study Managers with conceptual skills are able to see the organization as a whole, conceptualize about abstract and complex situations ´ and to think strategically (Robbins Coulter 2005). With reference to Forbes Magazine, Mark Zuckerberg, the creator of marvel Facebook and one of the youngest billionaire yet, contributes the ability of vast conceptual skills. Zuckerberg has the ability to think critically and plan for long term. For example, he is able to see the potential of success by using the Internet to connect with people more effectively. Therefore, he created Facebook at 2004 and now it becomes the largest social networking site with millions of users worldwide. Moreover, Zuckerberg carries out his role as disturbance handler with the combination of conceptual skill to solve the difficulties. For instance, he received criticize from users when Facebook introduced new features and issues about privacy. However, Zuckerberg resolve these problems appropriately and continue to oper ate the company successfully. Although Zuckerberg made mistakes in decision making, most of the people believed that he have the potential to improve his conceptual skill and consequently bring Facebook to upper level of achievement. As the CEO of Facebook, Zuckerberg plays multiple roles in managing the organization. Directing, training, motivating and organizing subordinates, supervising their improvement, promoting and reassuring their development are the duties required from the role of leader (LMC 2008). As a leader, Zuckerberg is skilled in making clear decision and limiting unwanted debate. Employees are allowed to recommend various solutions and gain knowledge on possible problems solved by him. Employees are encouraged to argue with his thought on projects to find a better solution (Bosworth 2010). Zuckerberg plays a good leader role by adapting in the human skills and conceptual skills. Next role that he is acting on is resource allocator, which carries the responsibility related to resources allocation of the organization among all concerned people or department. It involves budgeting, scheduling, allocation of duty to subordinates and authorization. From time to time, Zuckerberg has been scheduling for the ‘f8 platform† which is the â€Å"like† button in Facebook. There is three f8 in total in which the first one occuring on May 24th, 2007, second one happening on July 23rd, 2008 and consequently the third one happening on April 21-22 in 2010. During this period, the active user had increase tremendously. Figurehead role involves handling ceremonial and symbolic activities for the department or organization (Daft 2010). Mark Zuckerberg has successfully carried out the role of figurehead in Web 2.0 global social networking trend. For example, Zuckerberg discusses hiring the right people and challenges of an entrepreneur in the lectures on Entrepreneurship for Stanford University students on October 26, 2005 (Entrepreneurial Thought Leaders Lecture 2005). Furthermore, Zuckerberg planned to set up a foundation with $100 million of Facebooks closely held stock to the Newark Public Schools in New Jersey (Martinez Fowler 2010). His philanthropic donation has helped to improve Facebook image. The figurehead role played by Zuckerberg has enabled him to get more attention than Googles co-founder, Larry Page and Sergey Brin. In general Mark Zuckerberg use a great skill of conceptual skills and plays extensive character in all informational, interpersonal and decisional roles in the Facebook which allows and makes it to be the leading social media today. Q2) The only thing that would not change in the world is: the world is kept on changing. The external organizational environment is the elements happen outside of its boundary and may affect the growth of the organization. Figure 1 shows that Facebooks number of users is obviously more than its competitor, Twitter. Although Facebook currently rank as the top social networking sites, they still have to persist in innovating to hold on the honor. From the dimension of legal-political, Facebook created an opportunity that encourages users to share information online for the purpose of communication and business transactions. Unfortunately, it is also a threat that causes Facebook confronts disputation on privacy issue once beacon is launched. Beacon is a platform which takes data from 44 web destinations and combined with Facebooks internal information for the purpose of advertising. It allowed third parties site being posted on the wall of the users profile. It can also track everything people done online even they had logout from Facebook and despite who is using the computer. Regarding to this issue, many investigations have been carried out by security researcher â€Å"Wednesday†, Canadian privacy commissioner, Press coverage and European Commission. There is more than 100 million users personal information being used or spread out to the public without users authorization. This issue is not just about data leakage for user but also for developers and marketers who uses Facebook to operate their business. To pacify this issue, Facebook paid $9.5 million settlement to a class action lawsuit and it is being approved (Kravets 2010). Under the settlement, Facebook agreed to terminate Beaon platform started from November 2009. Facebook should provide a more user friendly privacy settings for the user to avoid the issue above to happen again. For international and sociocultural dimension, Table 1(pg) indicates that the number of users in USA is surprisingly high and owns the first place in the ranking. Although China and India has the largest population in the world but India only owns the fifth place. However, Table 2 (pg) indicates that a month later, India is the leading country which owns the highest audience growth rate. Reason for China did not appear in the ranking is Facebook is being censored by China since 2009. Prediction made by Daft said that â€Å"China will overtake United State economy as number one by midcentury† (Daft 2010, p.66). Unfortunately, China banned Facebook bring down a lot registration in China Mainland population which is about 1,330,141,295 (CIA World Factbook, Jan 2011) and opportunities to generate profit. China government always being tight to the access of internet, information flow and media banned Facebook because of the fatal riots happen in western region of Xinjiang in provin ce of China. Perhaps they believe that such an action will contain the reports or discussions of the riots or stop them from happening completely. Recent news reported that, Mark Zuckerberg still wanted to get connected to China and is now creating some localized version of site to fit Chinas government and hope to launch it in China. Therefore, every organization should be prepared to react to subtle environment shifts and adapt to various challenges environment that are increasingly dynamic. Facebook had tried their best to grapple with challenges like settlement of privacy issues and intervention with China. After conquering the challenges, Facebook is now one step nearer to its mission to connect the whole world. Q3) Ravasi and Schultz (2006) define organisation culture as a set of shared mental assumptions that guide organisation understanding and action by defining appropriate behaviour for various situations. In the past, hierarchy of management is vital for a corporate. However, CEO of Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg has created a relaxed, unstructured and open corporate culture that emphasizes more on equality (Boissonneau 2011). At Facebook, there are no cubicles, no walls, just mainly office furniture. This enables employees to work in a relaxed environment as they have more employee freedom with no standard work schedules. Furthermore, Facebooks managers also practice this working environment. Sheryl Sandberg, Facebooks Chief Operating Officer, and even Zuckerberg himself has no office. They work among the employees in the open workspace that could enhance openness and problem solving process. Every Friday, Zuckerberg holds a public question-and-answer session for an hour for the entire organisation. The openness created by this session, according to Zuckerberg, encourages collaboration, team-work and an informal atmosphere and communication among organisation. Facebook is ballooning into an empire, but it remains shabby, funky and slightly adorable. That is partly attributable to a workplace that combines playful start-up culture with muscular ambition and bite. â€Å"Facebooks goal is to be viewed as a â€Å"hip geek culture† in order to attract the best talent† (Finch 2011). Zuckerberg is responsible for the foundations of this culture, creating a fun environment by knocking a gong when someone finishes a big coding project. Facebook even hired well-known graffiti artist David Choe to paint murals in its first offices. According to Yiannopoulos, theres a block of Facebooks meeting rooms named after inventors, with one given to Al Gore, who invented the internet (2011). Facebook uses adaptability culture to interpret and respond quickly to the high-risk decision-making and rapid alteration environment. Besides, Facebook adapts involvement culture that emphasizes employees needs and responses towards environment changes. Face book is creating an intrinsically social culture, rather than enterprise software or geeky, engineer-driven algorithms. At Facebook, the employees can play video or table tennis games whenever they need to unwind on the job. This fun working environment has increased employees job satisfaction. Job satisfaction is the primary factor in intrinsic motivation. Therefore, due to the corporate culture recognized by Zuckerberg, Facebook employees are satisfied with their jobs and as a result do their jobs well and raise the productivity of Facebook. Facebooks slogan is â€Å"Facebook is a social utility that connects you with the people around you†. This slogan explains slightly about the social platform. Facebook has taken a very practical standpoint on providing a social network by created a framework and are expecting users to do most of the work. Facebook internal environment changes when Zuckerberg brought on Sheryl Sandberg, a respected executive from Google in March 2008. Besides, Zuckerberg is willing to take risks by hired Chris Cox, who was grad school dropout as Facebook HR manager. Organisational hierarchy was generally indicated through the price of suit. However, Zuckerberg has changed this culture by still wears T-shirts, jeans and Adidas flip-flops to work just as he did in 2004, when he co-founded Facebook at age 19 (Deneen 2011). Mark Zuckerberg shows effectiveness as a cultural leader for Facebook by able and willing to take the risks in hiring the executives for the company and motivate employees to achieve Facebooks goals by established a comfortable, amusing and unstructured corporate culture. Q4) As time passed, many professions developed several management theories as a guide for manager to run the organization. There are Classical Perspective, which occurred during nineteenth and early twenty, Management Science Perspective, which emerged during World War Two, Recent Historical Trend which happen after the World War Two and Modern Management which combine all different theories. Today business world required different management thinking and theory to fits in different industries and achieve organisational goals (Sridhar n.d). Facebook is the new trend in twenty-first century, which manage and lead by the founder name Mark Zuckerberg. Humanistic perspective was conducted by Mary Parker Follett and Chester Barnard. They believe that manager need to first value peoples feelings, needs, thoughts and social relations (Daft 2010). Mark Zuckerberg had this management thinking of creating a social network that allowed people all over the world to engage which each other and get updates even faster. Besides, Zuckerberg also adapting this theory to his employees by providing those free meals along the day, bottomless finger foods and unrestricted dry cleaning service. He allowed subordinates to express themselves, motivate them to have the same goals as the organisations goals by giving opinions on improvement of the organisation. He claims that an office is only a place to gather people to brain storming to generate profits and human are the most important resources for the organisation. Therefore, he design his headquarter with no wall between departments, and meeting rooms are located at the middle of work space separat ed by glass walls so everyone can see through the meetings. Besides, a study under ‘A Theory of Human Motivation of Abraham Maslow theories claims that people are influenced by several needs in pyramid order (Kendra n.d). Zuckerberg has fulfilled three levels of need for employees by providing employees free meals and considerable income to satisfied physical needs, allowing them to disclose their thoughts and opinions, appreciate them contribute many ideas and plans to run the business. This will increase employees esteem needs and belief that they are the proper source in helping make the world improve, and Zuckerberg will somehow challenge employees to meet certain goals (Bosworth 2010). This theory will increase organisation growth and acknowledges employees to fulfil their self-actualization needs. But, it required more psychological thinking from Zuckerberg, takes time for him to observe employees personalities and make organisation goals as part of their interest goals. Learning organisation is a modern theory which allows people not afraid to make mistakes and hope they can learn from the mistakes. It allows managers to raise the capability to discover and grow (Senge 1990:3). When Facebook dealing with the mistakes they made in beacon, they understand that not all people like to disclose their thoughts to the public, certain privacy are required from them. Facebook has learnt from this mistake and change their privacy settings. But, they also face the challenge of missing certain trust and confidence from the user. After Zuckerberg combining classical and modern theory, facebook will be creating a better competitive advantage to adapt into today rapid change world. Facebook will be more effective and efficient after adapting with all the theory, although Zuckerberg face a certain weight of challenges.

Comparing Marriage in Maria, or the Wrongs of Woman, She Stoops to Conq

Separation between Love and Marriage in Mary the Wrongs of Woman, She Stoops to Conquer and Moll Flanders      Ã‚  Ã‚   Our aim in this paper will be to analyze and discuss the different ways in which love and marriage were dealt with during the eighteenth century and to what extent these two terms were linked together or considered as opposite. To accomplish this matter we are going to focus our attention on several works that are representative from this period and that reflect in an accurate way the social mores and more specifically, marriage conventions and romantic love. Throughout this discussion we will be emphasizing the idea that marriage is represented in these works as an institution completely detached from love and that it pursues more than anything else economic purposes and an rising in the social hierarchy. First of all we should account for the situation of English women during the eighteenth century, that despite several social improvements, continued having less rights or freedom than men within the family and marriage as an institution. Patriarchal forms were still a deep-rooted custom that ruled society, which was male-centered. Marriage was often forced on women as their only way of having a recognized position in society, but at the same time led them to slavery. Women's property could be spent to the discretion of the husband as she was considered, together with all that she owned, a possession of the husband. Significantly relevant is the fact that the convention of marriages arranged by parents was still widely accepted. Evidences of this aspect can be found in Goldsmith's work She Stoops to Conquer. At the very beginning of the play Mr.Hardcastle expresses that he has already chosen a husband for... ...and stability. However, the existence of arranged marriages and consequently the lack of love, turned matrimony into a prison where women were locked. A male-ruled world transformed women into virtual slaves that had no rights, and the cases where marriage was the result of a true and passionate love can be counted for as exceptional. Works Cited Wollstonecraft, M., Mary The Wrongs of Woman, Oxford World's Classics.  Ã‚   (1976) Defoe, D., Moll Flanders (1978) Penguin English Classics.   (1999) Goldsmith, O., She Stoops to Conquer Dover Thrift Editions. (1991) Stone, L. The Family, Sex and Marriage in England 1500-1800, (1979) Pelikan   Ty, E. Unsex'd Revolutionaries: Five Women Novelists of the 1790's.   University of Toronto Press, Toronto.   (1993) Spencer, J., The Rise of the Woman Novelist: From Aphra Behn to Jane Austen Oxford Press (1987)

Festivals Essay

Festivals is a celebration of life. These celebrations bring peace and joy to the humanity ,and break the monotony of life. Festivals are numerous in my country. We can divide festivals into three kinds; national, religious and seasonal. In connection with the first kind, the national festivals are celebrated with great patriotic favour. The second represents the religious association of people. The third marks the change of season that public celebrate their faith or seasonal change with gaiety and enthusiasm. In my beloved country, The national festivals as Hala February; it is an annual festival, that is organized by Kuwait city. Being a distinct month in Kuwait because, it coincides with both Kuwait’s National and Liberation Days. Kuwait, in February, is known for its moderate weather and beauty of nature. Festivals are organized during all the month. Variety of activities, carnivals and special events are organized through the festival. Festival attendants, also, enjoy sp ending their time in shopping, as well as, attending musical parties, poetry evenings, cultural seminars and plastic arts. Many opportunities are available for winning special prizes and gifts in the daily raffles. In addition, sport teams on both the local and international level participate in the various activities held in the Kuwait sporting clubs. The religious festivals as Eid Al-Fitr; All Kuwaiti people look very happy, everybody wake up early in the morning and wear the best of clothes that one possesses. Then, they go to perform Eid prayer in open areas or at mosques. After the prayer, people usually visit their family, friends, give gifts to children, and make phone calls to distant relatives to give well-wishes for the Eid. These activities traditionally continue for three days. The entire 3-day period is an official holiday. The seasonal festivals as New Year’s Eve; it is one of the most celebrated days in the world. It is something that we all look forward to. It marks the beginning of a year and the end to another year. This day is shaped by different customs and traditions. Each culture celebrates this festival in its own way. Every country has its own way to celebrate New Year’s Eve. In me country, Streets become crowded with people celebrating the advent of the New Year with fireworks in a joyous occasion. The celebration continued at the maritime facade of the Gulf beach where citizens and foreigners had gathered to observe the wonderful event, there are other celebrations at various commercial complexes and in areas along t he Gulf beach, while  motorists performed amazing stunts on the roads. People enjoy the entire day, taking rest and welcoming the year with all high spirits and enjoyment. They get together with friends and family makes it more exciting and fun. Everybody hopes and wishes that the year ahead would give them peace, harmony, happiness and wealth, not only for them but to mankind across the globe. Finally, Festivals are part of one’s custom, culture and tradition. They are there for us to celebrate. It helps us forget our routine. It gives us some momentary, mental and physical relaxation and thus frees us from die shackles of monotonous work. It is a celebration, entertainment or series of performances of a certain kind, often held periodically.

Public Human Resource Management Essay

Please respond to the following: * Analyze the topics discussed in Chapter 1, with the exception of the laws. Select two topics and discuss two positive effects and two challenges the topic poses for human resource departments in the public sector. Performance Managementfor human resource departments it is important; to utilize the skills, focus and provide incentives for employees that are based on performance to achieve the organization’s goal. Human resource departments need to provide training and programs that are accessible to help enhance members of the organization’s learning with constant changes in policies and procedures. Two challenges posed to human resource departments; the inability to provide essential information to access or evaluate an employee’s performance accurately, Failure to provide quality and satisfactory customers services to connect with a task group with the strategies and plans the organization has implemented. Improvement in Labor Managementfor human resource departments it mean networking and communicating with various industrials and labor force can be a way to improve relationships even though they may not agree on some issues. Implementing policies and strategic plans that will benefit the public and private globally as well as nationally is vital in society today. Challenges posed to human resource departments; a human resource department or union disputing and failing to negotiation and resolve an issue, Trends in the change or advancement of technology and the ability of human resource departments to deal with the change especially in a global labor market. The outsourcings of jobs and employees that perform their jobs without being in a traditional workplace can create challenges for human resource departments when there is less or no communication among staff. Two topics that have an effect for human resources are 1) Recruitment and 2) Training and development. Two positive effects for recruitment is that there is a need to  fill 300k positions annually, and their is a need to attract quality applicants. Two challenges for Recruitment are recruiting qualified applicants, and keeping up with the rapid pace to hire the most qualified applicants. Two positive effects for training and development is that it will allow employees to take advantage of gaining knowledge to increase their chances of getting promoted. It will also allow companies to attract the best employees. Two challenges would consist of the cost for setting up training and development, and the alloted time allowed for an employee to complete neccessary training. Week1-Dq2 â€Å"Public Human Resource Management in the News† Please respond to the following: * From the e-Activities, discuss the current event you reviewed from the selected agency and determine the cause of the issue, noting if the cause was due to neglected public bureaucracies from elected and appointed officials. Discuss at least two results of the issue. Using USA.gov, I chose to investigate the United States Postal Service (USPS) agency. I was aware that this group was in financial strain for some time, but I found it interesting to review some of the latest information regarding key problems and possible solutions. Currently, the USPS operates with about 650,000 unionized personnel. Employees sort, package, transport, and deliver the public mail. Although the organization charges for its services (postage rates, etc), as an agency, much of its budget is subsidized by public funds. In discussing the current situation, the Washington Post reported, â€Å"first-class mail volume [is] plummeting as Americans conduct more business and communications through the Internet.† Perhaps what is most important is the fact that this trend is continuing as the USPS reportedly lost $16 billion in the 2012 fiscal year. For this reason the USPS issue has been debated in Congress for years and has recently been one of several key debates for lawmakers during the â€Å"fiscal cliff† dilemma. In the past Congress has had difficulty deciding whether to adopt solutions such as suspending Saturday delivery and limiting other specialty services. Also, there is the question of how much public money should go to USPS employee retirement benefits and labor contracts. To many individuals, this is traditionally seen as a bureaucratic problem; however, personally I do not believe that the problem is purely the result of public  sector negligence. Like many government services, it is more likely that the answer lies in serious reform rather than complete suspension. Interestingly, I located an article about the nonprofit – National Academy of Public Administration – that suggested a kind of public/private hybrid approach to fix the USPS’s difficulties. The concept entails â€Å"farming out† much of the behind the scenes process while a federal letter carrier would still handle front-line delivery services. What is apparent is that there are several significant results from this issue including the continuing postal rate increases, the reduction of service (e.g. limited post office hours), and continued legislative debate of whether this public service is vital enough to continue to ask taxpayers to subsidize what seems to be a failing business formula. http://www.usa.gov/directory/federal/us-postal-service.shtml http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/think-tank-to-study-privatizing-most-postal-service-operations/2013/01/03/2adc0b08-55ed-11e2-8b9e-dd8773594efc_story.html http://about.usps.com/who-we-are/postal-history/universal-service-postal-monopoly-history.pdf http://www.gao.gov/assets/210/203772.pdf wk2dq1 â€Å"Building HRM Capacity† Please respond to the following: * Imagine you are the consultant for the agency you selected in the Week 1 e-Activity (you may choose from one of the e-Activities). Assume the selected agency is large but poorly performing in a highly visible public program which did not have performance measures for employees. The public program serves over two million citizens across the 52 states. Propose and provide a rationale for two change strategies to address the agency’s performance. * Propose two methods of performance measures for the department to meet within six months. Provide a rationale for each method. * In week one I selected to analyze the United States Postal Service (USPS). Over the past decade this agency has been under increasing scrutiny regarding operation costs, procedures and personnel. Since last week’s discussion I took a few minutes to speak to my postal carrier in order to gain some perspective on internal communication within the agency. It was  surprising to learn that the departments within the organization are isolated in such a way that – with exception to â€Å"water cooler† talk – most USPS workers have about the same understanding of the agency’s problem as the general public. * * After reading the â€Å"Instructor’s Insight† supplemental article, I started to consider how the USPS personnel might benefit from a more constitutional administrative approach. Like many, I have noticed that customer service (or just simple pride in the job) is severely lacking with many USPS employees. Considering today’s job market, one would assume that individuals would take their work and team management very seriously. One might also say that it appears that some postal workers are immune from accountability. * * This said, one of the strategies that I would implement would be to reform the organizational culture. It should be a privilege to be employed by – and serve – the American people, while also being trusted to process citizens’ personal property. I agree with Newbold’s (2010) article, in that, public personnel members should pledge to uphold the U.S. Constitution through their service. I also feel that department management should be given the authority to make certain that this new attitude sustains. A simple professional attitude change within the organization can lead to greater productivity, and it could be measured in 6-months via public reaction (exit surveys, media reports, increase in sales, etc). * * After reading Chapter 2 in the Riccucci (2012) book, it also became apparent to me that the method in which recruiting and managing personnel could also benefit from change. In the section regarding â€Å"Strengthening Teaching† Klinger (2012) writes, â€Å"†¦transition includes ethical competencies: the ability to balance conflicting expectations like employee rights and organizational effectiveness†¦ (p22)† Balancing job productivity and employee needs is a challenge in almost every industry. Perhaps another solution might be to focus not only on hiring quality personnel, but continually reassessing employee qualities and how it might best serve the organization. * * Individuals can be motivated by compensation; however, exceptional performance tends to stem from passion. My recommendation would be that 21st-century HRM has to be focused on the individual’s strengths and weaknesses and not what the worker’s union requires. This in my opinion is currently a shortcoming of the USPS. Therefore, I would offer a 6-month challenge that involves department managers communicating with each staff members – every 2 to 4 weeks – and document at least one unique item that each staff person could offer that would benefit the USPS operation team. I believe that with a slow transition, personality can be infused into traditional staff procedure which will lead to empowerment and greater productivity.