Vikings, Civilized?

In the year AD 789, the Viking Era began. They came across the sea from the region now called Scandinavia. Hundreds of years later, there were many Vikings living in all corners of Europe because their homelands couldn’t support their growing population. The Vikings for a long time had a bad reputation. People feared the Vikings, describing them as vicious vandals and barbaric raiders. That is what the Vikings are mostly remembered for today. Aside from all the raiding and looting of towns the Vikings did, in their homelands, they had a certain level of civilisation in their culture.The name ‘Viking’ translates to ‘pirate’ in Norse; a language spoken by the Vikings. The Vikings were very fierce and brutal fighters. 4 years after the Vikings settled in England/Europe, they violently raided the monks of Lindisfarne. The war party struck quickly and unexpectedly. The monks at first thought they would be safe, living in a monastery and sacred place, but t hey were wrong. The people of Lindisfarne were defenseless, making it easier for the Vikings to steal treasures, burn down buildings and murder monks.The Vikings were violent and heartless towards others. They would torture their victims and did not hesitate to kill anyone†¦ including innocent babies. After raiding the monastery, the Vikings longships would sail home loaded with goods and captives. The Vikings would raid and loot through towns as they travelled. Their swords and axes caused terror and fear wherever they went. They had many cruel and disturbing ways to kill people. One of the most popular ways they used is called a butterfly cut, which ended up with the victim’s lungs hanging out.They would also drown people in the sea until they died. Some Vikings called ‘The berserkers’ were worked up with drugs before and in battles which made them wild and somehow, pain free. Despite the Vikings status as raiders, not all Vikings voyages were violent. Alt hough they might loot and destroy one town, they would go to another in peace and trade goods. While some of the popular belief of Vikings being nothing but ruthless fights are correct, contrary to belief, the Vikings culture and way of life is less barbaric than most may think.In addition, Vikings were very skilled craftspeople. They were expert sailors and shipbuilders. Their longship sailed all the way to the Mediterranean Sea. The Vikings built many types of boats like small rowing boats, trading and transport ships and of course the mighty longship used for raids. The Vikings were excellent navigators, and with their longship, could travel far distances. Furthermore, the Vikings had a very structured and stable society. They had equal rights, their own religion and language which are all signs of a civilised culture.The Vikings honored the dead and evidence from a number of primary sources reveal that the Vikings would bury the dead in mass graves, in deep pits, in wagons and b oats. Cremation was another common burial practice for Pagan Vikings. The Viking’s society was divided into 3 groups. The Jarls who were the privileged, rich and powerful ones, the Karls who were the middle class made up the majority of the Viking society. They were the craftspeople, farmers and merchants. On the bottom of the Viking society were the Thralls.Most of them were slaves and did the heavy work. The Vikings would have festivals with music, storytelling and games In conclusion, saying the Vikings were nothing but ruthless, bloodthirsty savage beasts would be unfair. Yes, they did attack and kill many innocent people but that does not mean their society was uncivilised. The Vikings were the master of the seas and were skilled at many things. They had a structured society and had their own beliefs. In saying that, the Vikings were far less barbaric than most think.

Women in Psychology Mary Calkins

What does it take to be number one? As we know everyone loves a winner. Most people if they were asked who the fastest man in the world was? They would correctly answer with the name Usain Bolt. Nobody remembers number two right? However, let us imagine Mr. Bolt being told that he could compete in track and field but he could not officially win any medal because he was Jamaican. Sounds far-fetched today and against our values and everything we stand for in the 21st century? Well in the 1800s, things were very different especially for women and Mary Calkins was no exception. Mary Calkins not only made countless contributions to the field of psychology, her perseverance changed many perceptions resulting in her indirectly becoming a champion for women’s rights and equality. In this assignment, we will examine Mrs. Calkin’s background, theoretical perspectives and the integral role she played in the field of psychology. Mary Calkins, the oldest of five children was born to Wolcott and Charlotte Calkins on March 30, 1863, in Hartford, Connecticut. Her parents placed a great emphasis on education so in addition to elementary school, she took private lessons so she could learn German. After graduating high school Mary enrolled in Smith College in 1882, but took a hiatus her junior year in 1884, due to the untimely death of her sister and her mother being gravely ill. Mary did not make waste of this time. While at home she decided to learn Greek which was pivotal to her journey in the field of psychology. After Mary finally earned her degrees in Classics and Philosophy, she took a trip to Europe with family and had already decided when she returned that she would be a teacher and as well as tutor students in the Greek Language. However, her plans changed when she was offered the opportunity to teach Greek, at Wellesley, College, one of the few higher learning educational institutions for women in the country. At Wellesley, she taught not only Greek, but philosophy and psychology as well. This ultimately resulting in the university creating a new position for her in the experimental psychology department, although she had no credentialed training in psychology. This was crucial because many schools back then did not even admit women as students much less allow them to hold such a prestigious osition. For Mary to be successful, she knew she would have to further her education and learn more about psychology. Her ambition led her to enroll in two psychology seminars, one being at Clark University and the taught by Edmund C. Sanford and was taught by William James at Harvard University. Initially she was denied entry into Harvard because she was a woman. However, she had the president of Wellesley and her father both write letters on her behalf and was accepted. In 1891, her determination began paying dividends as she was able to set up a psychological laboratory at Wellesley and added scientific psychology to the program of study. From 1892 to 1895, she attended Harvard University. This is where she received some of the greatest resistance to everything she was trying to accomplish. Men and society during this time did not believe that women were fit for any job unless it was something that assisted a man i. e. doctor-nurse, boss-secretary, and homemaker. While Mary was allowed to attend Harvard, it was not without conditions. She could take classes and test, but in the University’s eyes she would be considered as guest. Undeterred and ready for the challenge, Mary enrolled in William James seminar on psychology; all the other students who happened to be men dropped the course in protest. What they believed is that if they did this the professor would boot her from the program because he would not want to lose his other students. Instead Professor James taught her individually and became her mentor. She also studied in the psychological laboratory at Harvard. She did all this while remaining a professor at Wellesley College herself. Mary completed all the required work and passed all her exams to earn a Ph. D. However, she was not awarded one due to the fact the she was a woman and women were not allowed to officially register at Harvard back then. She was later offered a Ph. D. , by Radcliffe College which was the female equivalent of Harvard, but she turned it down, believing that she done all of her work at Harvard, so it should be Harvard that awards her Ph. D. In 1898 is when Mary became a full time professor at Wellesley College focusing on philosophy and psychology publishing a slew of articles. When ten leading psychologists in the field of psychology were asked to rate their contemporaries by the measure of their work, Mary Calkins was listed 12 out of 50. Mary Calkins has given much to the field of psychology. For example there were only twelve colleges that had psychological laboratories in the entire United States and she created one. In her laboratory she had fifty four students dissect sheep brains and carry out studies on sensation, space perception, memory and reaction time. All of which are things that are used today by other scientists and different medical communities. For example, we are always hearing that drunk driving skews your space perception, sensation, memory and reaction time. One has to think this is not a coincidence that her work contributed to their findings. It was the first at a woman’s college and she did this with a mere $200. From 1891-1892 at the behest of G. Stanley Hall who has the editor of the American Journal of Psychology, her articles were normally studies and experiment by her and her studies that included everything from children’s emotions, moral consciousness, drawings, psychological anesthetics, and dreams. From her research in dreams she discovered there was a close relationship between her patient’s dreams and what happens in real life. Her work would not be appreciated during its early stages by most scholars as they were on board with Freudian thought process on dreams. Later this same community would dismiss Freud’s method and make Calkins research integral to dream researching. Through all of her research while pursuing her doctorate one of her most significant things she have to psychology was the Paired Technique. This technique is explained is putting to paired numbers in different colors on cards and flashing them to see what the subject could remember. What she found was bright colors were retained better as well as a new memorization method. It later became a standard means for human learning and remnants of it are still used today by psychologists. Of all of Mary Calkins contributions to psychology, she was most interested in self-psychology and ignited the brainstorm over this that caused many to take up research on the subject. She even published an autobiography in 1930, where her goal was to get psychologists to become self-psychologists. In 1900, she even wrote and published a paper expressing her belief that psychology is a science of the self. This was immediately followed by criticism from other academics. Mary Calkins was never afraid of a challenge and answered those criticisms in work that followed and in her presidential address at the American Psychological Association meeting in 1905. For all that she tried to do in self psychology, unfortunately Dr. Kohut, Dr. Honess, and Dr. Yardley failed to credit to give her any credit in this arena. During her career Mary was really busy evidenced by her writing 67 articles on psychology and 37 in philosophy. She also wrote and had 4 books on psychology published. Mary Calkins exemplary work preceded her and resulted in her being the first woman named president of the American Psychological Association and the American Philosophical Association. What Mary Calkins was able to accomplish in her day and age was simply amazing. She had to overcome numerous obstacles that would have made any other person give up and pursue a different profession. She worked and went to school, dealt with sexism and static thinking, in terms of a womens’ place in society. I say to Mary Calkins you are a winner and we remember you. Not only for your contributions that you have to the respective field of psychology, but the barriers that you broke down so that other women were allowed to be more easily accepted and respected. From my research on Mary Calkins I learned that a group of Harvard alumni petitioned for her to be awarded her doctorate in 1930, but they were denied. I think that it would be fitting if this cause was taken up once again today. For everything Mary Calkins has meant to the field of psychology it is the least we could do to honor all of the blood, sweat, and tears that she put into her work.

The business environment of ARM along with an appraisal of the Essay

The business environment of ARM along with an appraisal of the organizations strategy - Essay Example According to the study conducted ARM may see itself in the PC Market in direct competition with Intel. Intel, initially operated in the PC Market and both the companies, though manufactured microprocessors, catered to different markets entirely. Intel had strong hold over the PC industry while ARM boasted sales in the mobile industry. However, in the recent years, with the PC market coming to a cooling phase, Intel has decided to enter the mobile market and make competition tough for ARM. The possibility of new entrants in the market is quite low. New entrants in the case ARM are only occurring in the shape of Intel that previously went with capturing the PC market; and even though Intel is a huge company as compared to ARM, it will still be facing difficulty in competing with ARM. This makes threat of new entrants low. There are two reasons behind the low threat of entrants. Firstly, ARM has been able to develop a near monopoly in the cell phone market. The buyers of ARM are satisfi ed with ARM at this point of time and do not wish to switch to new substitutes. Another reason is that ARM has developed specific software that work with its microprocessors; and asking buyers to switch would be asking to invest money and time in understanding and adapting to different software that could complicate issues. Threat of Substitute Products is medium for ARM. At this point of time, the threat of substitute products is balanced for ARM. While the semiconductor industry is quite competitive with the presence of industries such as Intel, Samsung, Toshiba etc, ARM is able to generate revenues because of its software and licensing. This makes it difficult for competitors to replace the ARM chips in 95% of the cell phones (Clara, 2012). Manufactures of cell phones have adapted to the technology of ARM and do not wish to switch over to substitute products that may not generate the same value as that of ARM. The cost of switching over to substitute products is quite high for th e buyers which include additional risk; but this is counterattacked by the presence of giants in the semi-conductor industry that could take hold of the ARM market with some effort. Bargaining Power of the Buyers: Bargaining Power of the Buyers in the case of ARM is quite high. This is because the buyers mainly include chipmakers such as Qualcomm, who would likely produce their own semiconductors if the prices of the chips exceed further. At the moment, ARM is generating profits through royalty and license fees on the chips that it sells with royalty as low as 1 percent for each chip (D’ Altorio, 2010). Bargaining Power of the Suppliers: Bargaining Power of the Suppliers in this case is medium. This is because ARM does not manufacture its own microprocessors but is dependant of outside suppliers. ARM has its own RISC chips that are energy efficient and sell the most; therefore supplier power is low as compared to the buyer power Competitive Rivalry: From the above analysis, w e can conclude that competitive rivalry for ARM in the cell phone market is low but in the semiconductor industry, ARM ranks quite low in terms of its sales. ARM enjoys a significant power in the market due to its licensing but other than

Course Project Term Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3250 words

Course Project - Term Paper Example BPM is a divided discipline with many different styles, notations and assets. An example is the UML which extends from the application level to the BPM level. All existing BPM approaches can be utilized as a starting point for Subject- Oriented Architecture and Design. The primary goal of a service-oriented analysis is to determine the necessary parameters for subsequent design and building of a project. In this process abstract candidates are only modeled to be considered in the final design process (Erl, 2006). The process is important in that the relevant candidates considered are subjected to the technical architecture for the design and are expected to be sustained. This stage thus involves the creation of service candidates and the proposition of operation candidates. A customer management system stores the customer profile and related information. It consist of database with a Web-based data entry and user reporting interface. They are contact-centric database that offers tracking approach to all the information and activities linked to customers. It allows several people in the company to share information in the database. It has an advantage of tracking sales and a centralized repository of contact information. The second automation system is a two-tier client-server system that controls the accounting and inventory transactions. Information is fed into incoming and outgoing standard transaction documents. A receipt of a purchase order initiates the invoicing and start of a delivery process of the selected movies from the Blockbooster website. The proposed business process is broken into smaller process steps. Our case study concerns an alliance between Blockbooster and Reddish Box $1 to salvage the Blockbooster from an imminent collapse. Due to stiff competition from a major competitor (NetFlicks) the alliance implemented by an SOA Web service will

Film Project Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Film Project - Essay Example The discussion below analyzes some important scenes in the two films thereby portraying the similarity and differences in the two. The two films have simplistic yet realistic plots. The last detail, just as the name portrays shows laxity in the operations of marines as an executive officer of the marine sends two petty officers Billy "Badass" Buddusky and Richard "Mule" Mulhall to escort a young convicted prisoner Larry Meadows who is facing eight years imprisonment. The two officers travel from Norfolk Virginia to Portsmouth New Hampshire as they escort the prisoner and put him in one of the most adventurous journey of his life. When they arrive in Portsmouth, the soldiers learn that the executive officer had to cover the detailed paperwork and that the two had not been sent on any mission, at least not according to the paperwork. Coming home, on the other hand, is a love triangle. In the film, Sally is a wife of a soldier, Bob Hyde. When Bob goes on a mission in Vietnam, Sally meets and falls in love with Luke Martin her former classmate and a soldier returning from Vietnam. The story shows the adverse physic al and psychological effects of war on the soldiers as the conflict between the three heighten. The summary of the plots shows some preliminary similarities in Hal Ashby’s works. Both plots show the lives of soldiers. While one can argue that the occurrence is coincidental given the independence of both scripts, Ashby employs similar features in building the legitimacy of the story line. He uses appropriate characters who possess the physique and mental alertness of soldiers. Characters enhance the success of a film. Characters should possess the appropriate traits that help bring out the best in the personality required for every character. In The Last detail, he uses Jack Nicholson as "Badass" Buddusky, Otis Young

Architecture and the Culture of Modernism Essay

Architecture and the Culture of Modernism - Essay Example The essay "Architecture and the Culture of Modernism" discovers architecture and culture of modernism. In a world of development, it is considerably argumentative how architecture could actually follow through the different changes. In this paper, a focus on how modern architecture actually faces the demands by which the human society actually need the changes in structures established today shall be well discussed. Judging from the fact that there are still primitive tribes today who live in caves and rude shelters, some have concluded that it has taken man many thousands of years to develop an architectural sense. According to this theory, modern man’s forebears had to grope their way through many ages of mindless development before intelligence began to dawn. Already vast projects were being undertaken. This was in the days of the rebel Nimrod, a man who defied the Creator, put himself prominently before men as a leader and engaged in building city after city, commencing wi th Babel. Men had mastered the art of building with kiln-dried bricks and mortar. Prominent in Babel and well-calculated to catch the eye and dominate the landscape was the lofty temple tower, probably of the ziggurat type of structure, each story stepped back from the one below. The long-lasting influence of those ancient architects in the pyramids of Egypt, the ruins of the Maya empires of Central America, the remains of colossal shrines in Cambodia and India, and the stepped-back structures of New York and other large cities.

Strategy briefing paper regarding the strategic issue Essay

Strategy briefing paper regarding the strategic issue - Essay Example So the handsets manufactured must have facilities that support internet surfing (Grant, 2010, p. 72). The major players in the handset business are Samsung and Apple which have captured a huge amount of market. The brands have considerable acceptability throughout the world. Not only that these brands are constantly in the process of providing the customers with the most updated products making the handset experience as pleasant as possible. There are several booming economies like China, Latin America and India which these companies have targeted and for this these brands had to take very intense pricing strategies. These companies have a very wide acceptability in these economies. The introduction of the 3G in the mobile network has resulted in making the telecommunications faster (Johnson, Whittington and Scholes, 2011, p. 23). Apple and Samsung have remained the market leader in the 3G technology. Nokia has lagged behind in this segment. The design innovation in case of Samsung and Apple are much better .Hence these handsets have better acceptability among the customers. The ope rating system that Nokia initially used has very low acceptability and therefore most of the buyers have switched to the Android Model. Thus it is essential for Nokia to upgrade itself to the Windows operating system to get the acceptability in the market. After the acquisition of the company by the software giant Microsoft the company can explore a lot of opportunities in which Nokia should be following the strategies taken by Apple (Wingfield, 2013, p. 12). Nokia would be able to use the advanced operating system of Microsoft. The company can use the technological research and developments made by Microsoft to enhance the features of the Nokia handset. The software giant Microsoft would be able to market the products of Nokia in a better way. This is because Microsoft has a very wide network and the distribution channels and

Sociology - (Classical theorist Marx) Give an account of how Marx Essay

Sociology - (Classical theorist Marx) Give an account of how Marx understood History - Essay Example But was Karl Marx, sometimes in collaboration with friend and political economist, Friedrich Engels (1820-1895) who revolutionized the relationship of material production and the role of human beings within social structures. He devoted a good part of his time to economic studies on the flaws of the capitalist society; and produced some famous works like the ‘Communist Manifesto’ (1848) and ‘Das Capital’ (1867), with one aim: the self-emancipation of the working class. Hegel (1770-1831) and Ludwig Feuerbach (1804 -1872) are two theorists who affected Marx very strongly. The concept of Historical Materialism: In his ‘Introduction to Theses On Feuerbach’ (1845), Marx commences his own distinctive posit on Materialism, based on Feuerbach’s critique of Hegel’s ‘Theory of the Right’ (1821).His view of history is very different from the others. Marx, states that â€Å"it is not the consciousness of men that determines their being, but, on the contrary, their social being that determines their consciousness (Marx and Engels, 1859: pp 503-504). According to Hegel (1821), God created everything from Him, thus ‘God’ was the ‘Absolute Idea’. Then, due to the nature of the material world opposing God, the ‘negation’ or ‘alienation’ from God occurred; this was a dialectic or a clash of opposite forces; until a third stage of the growth of man’s consciousness, would reconcile with the ‘Absolute Idea’ and return to a state of original consciousness. It had at its centre that all events are predetermined by God. Feuerbach (1841) argued that, the faculty of thought, which is the property of human beings, was the ruling principle of existence, and not God, as theorized by Hegel, and love was what united them. Marx, while agreeing with Hegel in part by accepting the ‘clash of opposing forces’ notion, he rejected Hegel’s view of the ‘Absolute Idea’. Marx posited that ‘labour’ was the ‘essence

Death is my best theme Essay Example for Free

Death is my best theme Essay Death is my best theme, dont you think? (Williams). Explore the varied uses Tennesse Williams makes of death and dieing in A Streetcar Names Desire Referring to A Streetcar Named Desire, I completely agree that death is Williams best theme, closely followed by sex. There are many references to death as well as imagery and symbolism. He also uses many varied points on death. The first major speech about death is when Blanche is talking about her losing Belle Reve Blanche: All of those deaths! The long parade to the graveyard! Father, mother! Margaret, that dreadful way! So big with it, it couldnt be put in a coffin! This is the first thing that Blanche says that has any power and real feeling behind it and the topic is death. This is showing that death is going to play a large part in the feeling in and behind the story. Blanche: You just came home in time for the funerals, Stella. And funerals are pretty compared to deaths. Funerals are quiet, but deaths-not always. Stella is being associated with the funerals and Blanche with the deaths. This is showing Stella being quiet and Blanche being louder and more highly strung as that is how she has described the difference in her speech. Although on the outside this speech made by Blanche may sound like she is just talking about the deaths of all her family members but it is also relating to the death of Belle Reve and how the two are connected Blanche: How in hell do you think all that sickness and dying was paid for? Death is expensive, Miss Stella! She describes death in quite a lot of detail in this speech; it is showing that death is going to become an important topic in this play. A lot of the deaths seem to be because of the men and their gambling and this could be a view of Williams. Blanche: Honey-thats how it slipped through my fingers! Which of them left us a fortune? In A Streetcar Named Desire a lot of the times when death is being discussed, sex seems to come into the conversation to. There is a strange relation between sex and death here. I let the place go? Where were you. In bed with your-Polak! This is not the strongest reference to death and sex combined although it is a slight one. A much stronger one is Blanches speech about her late husband- Blanche: Then I found out in the worst of all possible ways. By coming suddenly into a room that I though was empty-which wasnt empty, but had two people in it. Blanche: Hed stuck the revolver into his mouth, and fired-so that the back of his head had been-blown away! Seeing her husband have sex with another man and then blow his head off within the time span of two hours causes a strange equation and connection between sex and death. The way he killed himself could also be perceived as a homosexual reference sticking the gun in his mouth. A vendor comes around the corner. She is a blind MEXICAN WOMAN in a dark shawl, carrying bunches of those gaudy tin flowers that lower class Mexicans display at funerals and other festive occasions. Here, the woman carrying the funeral flowers is symbolising two things Death and Blanche. It is ambiguous whether or not any of the other characters can see or are aware of the presence of the Mexican woman except from Blanche. Blanches thoughts seem to be provoked by the Mexican woman and it almost seems as if the Mexican woman is a representation of Blanche herself, and the Mexican woman is walking around celebrating death which shows the death within Blanches past and presence. Mexican Woman: Corones para los muertos. Corones Blanche: Legacies! Huh. And other things such as blood-stained pillow-slips You can really see Blanche going mad in this scene as she is almost talking to herself rather than to Mitch and this symbolises the dying of Blanches mind. She also has fragmented speech patterns here and if talking about incoherent memories that only she can really understand. Blanche: -and on the way back they would all stagger on to my lawn and call-Blanche! Blanche! The deaf old lady remaining suspected nothing. But sometimes I slipped outside to answer their calls. Later the paddy-wagon would gather them up like daisies. the long way home. Another view on death Tennesse Williams uses is the death of Belle Reve. Shown using Blanche and Stanley, there is a clash between two worlds and the Belle Reve world is dying communicated by Stanley taking power of Blanche and bringing her into their world and getting rid of her airs and graces. He breaks her and makes her realise that her old way of living is dead and that she has to enter the real world. In A Streetcar Named Desire the conflict between two ways of life is concentrated within the battle between Blanche and Stanley. The old civilisation vested in Blanche is demonstrably decadent; her only means of survival in the modern world is to batten onto someone else and live off their emotional, physical and material resources, like a decorative fungus. (Commentary). Blanche: I will die with my hand in the hand of some nice-looking ships doctor, a very young one with a small blond moustache and a big silver watch. Blanche: And Ill be buried at sea sewn up in a clean white sack and dropped overboard-at noon-in the blaze of summer-and into an ocean as blue as (chimes again) my first lovers eyes. Blanche brings the equation of sex and death together again here as she is planning of dieing with a man by her side. This speech made by Blanche nearing the end of the play also has a slight reference to Othelia in Shakespeares Hamlet. Othelia died in water and that is what Blanche is dreaming about doing. Queen: One woe doth tread upon anothers heel, So fast they follow. Your sisters drownd, Laertes. Laer: Drownd? O, where? (Hamlet). In conclusion Tennesse Williams uses a lot of different views on death, the connection between sex, the death of other things except people like the death of Belle Reve and Blanches mind, and the death of people who happen to all be someone in Blanches Past. Williams uses different angles to express the theme of death, symbolism of the death of Belle Reve, the Mexican woman symbolising the death of Blanches mind, and the outward talking of real death of people. This makes it an important topic as it depicted in so many ways. Death is defiantly in the running for Tennesse Williams best theme in A Streetcar Named Desire.

Principles and practice of Human Resource Management Essay Example for Free

Principles and practice of Human Resource Management Essay In 21st century, the organization which considers its employees as an asset rather than cost has competitive advantage. The term suggested for employees is human capital. It refers to productive potential of ones knowledge and actions. In todays knowledge economy, efficient management of human capital ensures success for the organization. This tells the importance of human resource management. It is about managing human capital in the same way as asset management or financial management. Actually human resource management acts as a medium of exchange between employees and organization. Employees offer knowledge, abilities, skills, efforts, time, motivation, commitment and performance to the organization in return for job security, empowerment, generous pay for performance, training, promotion and trustful relationship. Thus human resource management is considered as a matching process that is matching organizational goals with employees needs in order to satisfy both optimally. The more formal definition of human resource management is the activities undertaken by the organization to attract, develop and maintain an effective workforce within an organization. (Daft, 1982) Thus attracting an effective workforce for an organization, developing it to its potential and finally maintaining it are the three main goals of the human resource management. And all the strategies are developed by the human resource department for attaining these three goals and these strategies tend to be organizational wide in order to support the overall corporate strategy. The skills required for attracting the workforce includes human resource planning, job analysis, forecasting, recruiting and selecting; skills for developing the workforce includes training and performance appraisal; and skills for maintaining the workforce includes wages, salaries, benefits and termination. Organizations especially perform human resource management in order to tackle the issues related to human resource proactively rather than reactively. ( Price , 2007). Having developed the concept of human resource management, we will now talk about the different approaches taken by the organization for pursing HRM. Read more:Â  Managing The Human Resources The first approach is hard HRM developed by Michigan business school and the second one is soft HRM developed by Harvard business school. (Fombrun, Tichy and Devanna, 1984) Both approaches are opposite as they are based on different sets of assumptions. (Storey 1992) Soft HRM has humanistic edge in managing employees while hard HRM considers employees as resources which have to be managed in the same way as capital equipments and raw materials. That is hard HRM is bit more technical and mechanical in its approach which involves in obtaining as cheap labor as possible that should be fully exploited. Soft HRM advocates unitary perspective which means employees and organization needs and interest are coherent which leads to mutual goals, influence, respect, rewards and responsibility. The outcome is therefore employee commitment and organizational success (Walton 1985). On contrary, pluralist perspective sees differences in employee and organization goals as a cause for conflicts and problems. Management’s task is to induce the appropriate behavior in workers so that their actions accomplish the company’s goals, not their own. This paves the way for showing direction and coercion by management. This perspective underlies hard HRM. .( Price , 2007) Mc Gregor in 1960 gave Theory X and Theory Y about the nature of employees. Theory X depicted employees who dislike work and try to avoid it when they can. People have to be coerced to work and have to be closely directed and regulated thus leading to tight managerial control. On the other hand theory Y depicted employees who like to work and exercise self direction and self control if they are committed to the goals and objectives. In this case there is loose managerial control and managements function is to foster individual growth and development. Apparently soft HRM is associated with theory Y which emphasizes employees commitment through trust, open communication, training and development and autonomous work environment. This will produce employee behavior which is self directed and this is the main reason for organizations competitive advantage. Whereas hard HRM contingent to theory X, focuses on quantitative, calculative and strategic aspects of managing HR as for any other factor of production. The practices of hard HRM consist of strict performance appraisal, supervision and external control over individuals activities. Now we will examine how soft and hard HRM approaches lead to different kinds of activities and outcomes at different stages of human resource lifecycle. The first stage is of attracting the potential employees. This requires human resource planning by forecasting HR needs and matching the individuals with expected job vacancies. The soft HRM will seek to forecast needed employees in order to complete a work unit or finding the best mix of employees for the team in order to elicit commitment from team members by setting of good team norms and strong cohesiveness. Whereas hard HRM will look to minimize the need for additional employees and will try to reduce the head count. This will lead to incomplete work unit. The job vacancies will not be fully matched with potential employees, which will lead to incomplete work outcomes or delays in achieving goals deadlines. However hard HRM is best suited in condition of financial crisis and economic recession. In these conditions companies are incurring losses and they cannot afford hiring of new employees. Hard HRM is helpful in minimizing external hiring and shifting and relocating existing employees within organization. This will make existing employees loyal because they were not laid off by the organization when downsizing is the only option that remains during financial crisis. (Fombrun, 1984). The recruitment and selection is the most important process in hiring of employees. It requires analysis of both job applicants and job itself. We have to look for desired characteristics in applicants so that he must make a good match with particular job requirements. If his skills, education and experience are not adequate for the specific job then it will lead to frustration and confusion. The result will be poor performance, job dissatisfaction and high turnover. Both soft and hard HRM approach will provide realistic job preview and job description so that employees can judge their potential for a specific job. However soft HRM approach will be more insightful as it will look into the hidden personality traits, attitudes and beliefs of the applicants so that they can be better integrated into overall corporate culture, norms and values. Whereas hard HRM will only look to match the applicants skills with the technical specification of the job. Soft HRM give more attention to the human processes such as communication, sharing of knowledge, cohesiveness and trust among employees. Interviews, paper pencil test etc are the most common selection devices and are used by both approaches. However soft HRM approach has additional selection devices such as personality test, psychological test, case studies and different types of surveys. The second stage in HR lifecycle is development of effective workforce which includes training and performance appraisal as the two most important activities. Soft HRM approach will be more inclined towards training for individual advancement and career development. Soft HRM will go for various types of training techniques such as on the job training, class room training, computer assisted instructions, conferences and case discussion groups. Employees will be made to learn multiple skills so that they can be rotated among various jobs in order to reduce monotony and introduce variety. Hard HRM will see training as an expense. It will usually design job which leaves little room for showing discretion and creativity. The job is monotonous and set rules and procedures are there to perform the job. So training is limited to learning those specific job procedures which limits career advancement. This reduces employee motivation and cause job dissatisfaction and high turnover rate because of increase in monotony. The practice of hard HRM is most suitable in assembly line work. However it will fail in work demanding creativity and originality and whose environment is more unstable and uncertain, for example, film industry. While considering the activity of performance appraisal, hard HRM is more stringent in its appraisal process. The poor performance is mostly attributed to individuals lack of ability and no consideration is given to various external factors influencing the individuals performance. External factors are outside individual control and includes pathetic work environment, work place conflicts, distrust, no sharing of information and resources, bad relations and poor communication with top management. (Drucker , 1954 ) On the other hand soft HRM gives objective feedback on employees performance. It also uses the technique of 360 degree feedback that uses multiple raters and self rating to enhance the reliability and credibility of feedback in the eyes of employees. Multiple raters can include customers, co workers, supervisors and subordinates. Employee is also given a chance to explain his point of view and give explanation if his performance is not up to the standard. At the end of the appraisal top performances are also rewarded with bonuses, recognition and promotion. The feedback style of soft HRM is such that employees are motivated to improve their performance further. It enhances employees self efficacy by making clear role expectations and removing role conflicts and role ambiguity. This approach is therefore best suited for organizations whose culture encompasses total quality management. TQM stresses for customer satisfaction by providing better quality product or services through dedication to training, continuous improvement and teamwork. The third and last stage in HR life cycle is maintaining of workforce so that they continue to work for the organization over the long run. This stage consists of four activities such as rewards management, industrial relation, occupational health and safety and termination. In soft HRM approach rewards are such that it recognizes individual’s accomplishment as well as teamwork. Rewards are administered in such a way that it promotes collaboration and cooperation among employees so that they work as a unit for the overall goals of the organization. The focus is on creating the synergy so that different department of organization works coherently and in alignment of corporate strategy. Ivancevich, 2003). Soft HRM approach also gives rewards which increases intrinsic motivation of employees. Intrinsic motivation to work comes from the internal satisfaction and honor one feels when he completes some meaningful work which makes the difference for the organization. These types of rewards increase employees’ sense of meaningfulness, competence, progress and choice. Intrinsic rewards which increase intrinsic motivation are important for increasing employees’ commitment to organization’s goals and mission. The hard HRM has tight control over rewards. Apart from basic salary, less effort is made to recognize individual performance. However calculated yearly bonuses are given when year end profit target is achieved. In other words no effort is made in hard HRM’s reward system to increase employees’ commitment to work. The main problem is that hard HRM follows corporate strategy in rewarding employees and no analysis is done about employee’s needs and desires. Soft HRM is good enough as its rewards system makes a best fit between employees’ needs and rewards. Moreover the other organization dynamics which affects rewards system is employees’ perceived equity of rewards. If the distribution of rewards is not considered equitable by employees then motivating effects of rewards will vanish. There will be feeling of cognitive dissonance in employees and to remove this feeling, he will either alter his inputs to the work or will demand changes in rewards. The soft HRM approach dealing with human processes designs reward system to improve employees’ perceived equity while hard HRM fails to do so. According to Herzberg, working conditions, pay, good company policy and interpersonal relationships are called hygiene factors and their presence removes job dissatisfaction. The hygiene factors are well cared by soft HRM approach. The hard one fails to provide hygiene factors because its main objective is to accomplish a task in most economical terms as possible. It is only the soft HRM approach that has clear and functional policies and procedures about occupational health and safety. (Noe, 2003). Soft HRM approach looks to build long term relationship with employees. It opens all channels of communication such as upward, downward and lateral. Moreover grapevine and management by objective techniques are also used by managers to delve deeper into employees’ problems and requirements. Hard HRM only uses formal and hierarchical communication channel. This is also the cause for many communication breakdown and distortion. The most important feature of soft HRM is of mentoring and socialization which greatly helps in building cooperative and trustful corporate culture and environment.