Role of Training and Development in Employee Empowerment

Role of Training and Development in Employee Empowerment Research Objective The main objective of my dissertation is to analyse how training and empowerment assist organization in the hospitality industry in general and the Hilton Group in particular gain the much needed strategic advantage over their competitors and help them gain and sustain market share in the long run. The dissertation will also demonstrate the various actions that are may be initiated by organizations in the hospitality industry to achieve higher levels of empowerment within its workforce without compromising on its internal controls. Research Questions What is the role of training and development in employee empowerment at the Hilton Hotels? Why is empowerment necessary in the running of Hotels, with particular reference to the Hilton Hotel Chain? What strategies or policies are pursued by organizations to enable them improve the level of skills and knowledge of their employees to meet emerging challenges? The dissertation will also attempt to answer the following questions: Does active implementation of training and learning policies lead to the empowerment of employees? What is the meaning of empowerment of employees within an organizations setting? What are the likely benefits of empowered workforce to the organization? Even though a lot of research may have been done in related or similar topics, this dissertation will objectively examine the findings of other researchers on similar topics, critique their findings and arguments and build a neutral position that may stand the test of thorough independent analysis and that is in line with the current theories of HRM and management in general. The Context(s): The hospitality industry in the UK has often been faced with many challenges which on one hand, prompted employees to be more responsive to the challenges they face and on the other hand, challenged industry players to remain competitive in the wake of aggressive competition from competitors. This industry, in particular, benefits and integrates their employees and other human resources (providing the industrys services) with the structural and integral part of the organizational strategy as a strategic partner. This allows companies such as the Hilton plc. to invest in people, train them in order to prosper and survive within the competitive environment. Other challenges for this industry include the ever changing demands of consumers tastes and preferences, rising demand for extra services, thus hard to accommodate. Additionally these customers preferences has made it practically unviable to continue with the old ways of doing business as it present many obvious risks of losing clients to more dynamic competitors. Thus training and empowering employees will help reduce these risks in some way or another. The Hilton Group Plc. is made up of some 500 hotels located in some 50 countries across all regions of the world (DAnnunzio-Green, Maxwell Watson, 2004). The Hotel presently employs over 60,000 employees in its worldwide operation and has a management structure divided in to the key regions of its operations, with each region headed by a president, all answerable to the board of directors (DAnnunzio-Green, et al, 2004). The terms training, education, development and learning may appear synonymous and be used interchangeably in other applications, but from HRD point of view, they are different but also mutually inclusive (Buckley Caple, 2007). Whitener (2003) in her paper titled Impact of Human Resource Activities on Employee Trust emphasizes the role of training in providing more knowledge and skills to employees to enable them perform their respective jobs better. Thus the primary role of training according to whitener is the enhancement of skills, while it may also serve the purpose of motivating the employees if offered in recognition for exemplary performance (Whitener, 1997) The aim of the training program would be to enable the organization gain sustainable strategic advantage that would not be easily replicated among competitors (Porter, 1985 as cited in Clardy, 2008). To be earmarked for enhancement through training and development would be the skills that add value to the organization commonly referred to as core competencies (Clardy, 2008). In this dissertation I will also show how training and empowerment are related. In the Barret and OConnel article of 1999, found in the journal of The Institute of Study of Labour, the authors assert that despite the challenges so far faced, training has gained prominence in the recent past as a key tool for empowerment for improvement in productivity and operational efficiency (Barret OConnell, 1999). According to Barret OConnell, (1999), there are two forms of training; general and specific training. General training is that form of training which boost productivity in the firm where it was provided and all firms, while specific training only raises productivity in the firm where it was provided. Organizations thus would seem to favour specific training and would readily pay for it for it since it is likely to give them a competitive advantage in their business (Barret OConnell, 1999). Since the main focus of the dissertation is empowerment of employees through training and development of a learning culture, it would be important to address the theoretical background information relating to the research topic. Case in point is training and learning, which must be properly understood in order to authoritatively argue about its role in empowerment of employees. According to Buckley Caple, (2007), training refers to imparting new skills or reinforcing previously known skills and knowledge on employees for a positive change in behaviour that would change the way they work and behave. This will also be illustrated in literature review as I intend to show why Buckley thinks that training is a relevant activity that need to be pursued by all organizations in order to achieve their long term mission and objectives. Research design (including methods) or critical approach: Research Methodology: In order to achieve the main objectives of the study, it would be inevitable to collect and analyse data and other information so as to enable arriving at a conclusion. One method that would be used would involve the collection of information and data from secondary sources such as the library, internet sources, journals, newspaper articles to collect as much information as possible relevant to the research topic. This would also involve using available data from credible sources such as hotel industry regulated websites, journals and magazines or from previous peer reviewed and published works by other researchers and comparing the information there on to establish a common pattern that would guide the discussion and the conclusion of the research questions. For this particular dissertation, the bulk of the information and data will be obtained from peer reviewed and published research articles in similar research subjects. The main reasons for adopting this methodology are that it is generally simple to undertake and does not require a lot of time and resources to undertake. This is because the research does not involve field based data collection which is often more time consuming and expensive. This makes the approach ideal in situations where there is limited time and researches to undertake the research, which is indeed applicable to this dissertation. Further the data and information collected would be generally accurate since it would be based on published peer reviewed researches and other papers on the same topic which have stood the test of rigorous scrutiny by HR professionals and other management researchers over the years and found to be authentic. The books and other materials that may be used would generally also bear accurate information and would provide useful insights in to the theoretical background of the research subject. Research Strategies In order to effectively carry out the research assignment, it would be important to identify the appropriate research strategies that would be acceptable and help in answering the research questions conclusively. This dissertation would use both deductive and inductive research strategies to achieve this aim. Norman Blaikie in his book titled, Designing Social Research published in 2009 define inductive research strategies as those strategies that help in answering the what research questions and are generally explorative and descriptive in nature (Blaikie, 2009). Deductive strategies would also be used in order to address the why research questions that form part of the dissertation. Blaikie (2009) also describes deductive strategies as those research strategies that assist in answering the why questions and are most suitable for pursuing the purpose of explanations Ethical issues: There should not be any ethical issue related to my research. Special resources required: No special resources will be required for my dissertation.

The Joy of Community Service :: Community Service Essays

Never in my wildest dreams would I have even begun to imagine that community service could  Ã‚  be such a rewarding experience. As the oldest child I never had the opportunity of having someone that  Ã‚  could help me with my homework, play with me and help me when I needed something. My parents  Ã‚  once in a while could help me with homework, but once we moved to the United States I was definitely  Ã‚  on my own considering my parents didn’t know enough English to help me. From this moment forward, I  Ã‚  can say I’m very proud of myself for being where I am now without any help throughout my school  Ã‚  years. Yet, I know I could have done better with the help of someone. I figured with the opportunity to  Ã‚  do community service, I could take advantage of this situation and choose something that would help  Ã‚  kids with whatever they needed and maybe even play with them if I had the chance. Looking through the long list of places to do community service, the YMCA Child Care Center  Ã‚  caught my attention. I knew this was going to be a great choice but I didn’t think it could make such an  Ã‚  impact in my life. This child care is an educational and fun place for kids after school to stay at while  Ã‚  their parents get off of work. They have a certain schedule where they eat snacks, do their homework,  Ã‚  go to a Sumba class, play outside and other activities. I had the pleasure of meeting a group of  Ã‚  wonderful little kids. Within the first week of me being there as soon as they walked in they would give  Ã‚  me a hug to greet me. When they needed help with their homework or to tie their shoe they would  Ã‚  come running to me to ask for help with whatever they needed. They made me feel good because I was  Ã‚  someone they looked up to and I had the ability to help them with anything they needed. At first I had  Ã‚  my doubts about doing c ommunity service here because I am a very impatient person especially when it  Ã‚  comes to kids. I didn’t think I could be around so many kids for so long. Yet, the love and respect this  Ã‚  kids showed me helped me become a better and more patient person with them and all other kids in my  Ã‚  personal life. Every day I looked forward to going to the YMCA and spending time with these kids,  Ã‚  helping, dancing Sumba, and playing games with them.

Coffee Shop Essay

Why should I be nice to you?. Coffee shops and the politics of good service is the article of Emily Raine shows the issues of the working environment like coffee shop. Raine’s worked in good and bad conditions in many place for many years. She finds the ways that make her feel better and less stress at work. Raine’s deal with difficult kind of people like the manager, â€Å"the displayed that unique of pleasant customers†. She was not happy because the â€Å"pay†, and the â€Å"long† hours that she has to work. She learned that good service doesn’t mean much of anything. The most important thing that I knew that every single customer service all know is, always be nice to the customers. I understand that the customer’s experience should always be the best it can possibly be, that you should always strive to make their experience better. No matter what they said to you, what they treat you, how rude and disrespectful they were and what they want from you. That is the most difficult thing to do, because you never know if they in the bad mood or good mood. If customers received a bad service because you in bad mood then it is very possible that could cause you in trouble or decrease the chance of those customer coming back to your restaurant. Why Should I Be Nice To You? : Coffee Shops and the Politics of Good Service is the article about Emily Raine’s opinions about the coffee shop. She used many examples to get reader attention and understand for her how difficult when working in the coffee shop. There are different between work in the â€Å"service jobs† â€Å"find dining to cocktail waitressing to hip euro-bistro counter work† and the coffee shop. She thought she got pay too little for the long hours, the boring at work and the tricky person like the â€Å"manager†. She talks about the Starbuck coffee shop, â€Å"where cheerful young workers are displayed behind elevated counters†. Starbuck has branded a new kind of worker, â€Å"the happy wholesome, perfume-free barista†. She also compared the working environment of Starbuck and other companies finally she understood that there is no easy way to serve without being a â€Å"servant† and she always found that the best way to serve is to show actual emotion rather than affecting a smooth display of interminable patience of good will† also personality with a customer it very important of being good sever. I agree and also disagree with her opinion. I think that she already knew how much she got paid before the first day of work so why did she choose to work for that jobs. I understand that before the first day of work the manager explain for you everything that you need and how long that you have to work for each day. She shouldn’t complain about the pay and how long that she has to work because she already knew all of that. She said that â€Å"The managers demanding†, of course when you work under someone else, you have to follow every single demand of someone above you. You have to understand for them, because there is someone else above demand them to do that. She feel that working in the coffee shop the time to interact with customer not too long â€Å"Unlike table service, where interaction with customers spans a minimum of half an hour, the average contact with a cafe customer lasts less than ten seconds†( Raine 213). Every job has a different time to communicate with your customer in restaurants. For example the time to communicate with the server and waitress in the restaurant is longer time than serving in the coffee shop. Customers in the fast food restaurant and the coffee shop get order the food, the drink, and carry the food out to the table. When you serve in the restaurant, you need to stop by couple of time to ask if the customer need something else. In the coffee shop, the customer service stand behind the counter and get what the customers need. In the coffee shop not many people will stand up or ask you for something else, because the counter around the coffee shop is full of everything they need, sugar, milk, straw and napkin, the place where they can serve by themselves. But in the restaurant, they will ask you for a little thing such as napkin, refill the drink, or order something else for their table, because restaurants are fancier places than fast food restaurants or coffee shops. I believe that the way fast food restaurant run is get people in line, order what they want by take a little â€Å"trip† inside the restaurant. The purpose is get customer feel like they are not wasting time to get their food. â€Å"This means that in a given visit a customer might order from one worker, receive food from the next, then brewed coffee or tea from yet another, then pay a cashier before proceeding down the line of the counter. Every employee has a different job and in some way you need more than three or four people to service you, and you don’t want to wait any longer to receive the food. She also complains â€Å"Our notions of good service revolve around a series of platitudes about professionalism; we’re at your service, with a smile where the customer’s always right†(Raine 214). Of course you need to smile at customers to show your happy personality so it make customer feel more comfortable when eating in your restaurant no matter where you work, not only in the coffee shop. The customer always right, I don’t thinks many place that have this rule, because sometime customers need more than what you can give. They need something over your work, that means you don’t have to follow their demand. She also said that the server at the Starbucks â€Å"where cheerful young workers are displayed behind elevated counters as they banter back and forth, calling out fancy Italian drink names and creating theatre out of their productive labor†(Raine 215). All of this also depend on you, depend on your partners. You want to make your work become happy and cheerful, you can do that. The boss wants their employees feel comfortable at their work. Raine’s said Starbuck coffee has good benefits for their employees such as, health insurance, dental plans and other perks such as product discount and give away† (Raine 216). I don’t understand what she talk about those unusual benefit. What is an unusual benefit for service?. I know that a lot companies offer good insurance for their employees. What is the difference between Starbucks benefits and other companies’ benefits? She needs to explain little bit more about the unusual benefits of Starbucks offer for their employees. The text was written in a way that was easily understandable, and also itwas very easy to relate to. Most people have had an encounter with some type of customer service work, whether they were actually working, or they were being served. I agree and also disagree with her opinion. Because there are a lot of different kinds of people that you have to service and you’re a worker you have to deal with your boss and follow their demand. After I read this article I also understand how difficult and hard time for service work behind the counter. I understand how difficult it was for her and other worker to deal managers. I suggest for Raine’s that changing the jobs until you find a better job is a good way to improve your work skills and have less stress at work and also my suggestion for the manager is as a manager you has to understand how hard your employees have to work. Try to put more people on the schedule and more than one people on one station that more easy for employees to do their work. The more comfortable employees have the more success they could bring to your restaurant or the coffee shop.

Timaeus essays

Timaeus essays R.G. Bury. Timaeus: The Loeb Classical Library, Vol. IX. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 1989. Platos Timaeus was written in an attempt to make sense of the beginnings of time, of the world, as we know it. It is an attempt to describe how the world came into being. It is important to note that even Plato states that this is only a likely account(53). Nonetheless, it is an excellent summary of Platonic philosophy and was extremely influential in later years over the ancient and mediaeval world. To the modern reader, such as a college student, it proves to be quite obscure and repulsive, but interesting just the same. Plato first argues that since the sensible world is that which is becoming always and never existent(49) it must have come to be. Therefore, the world must have some for of cause, a cause to be. He refers to the cause as the maker and father of the universe(51) as well as the Mind(109) and God(127) later in the work. It is very common to hear Platos god referred to as the Demiurge, which literally means craftsman. Now then, since the Demiurge was depicted as good, he desired that, so far as possible, all things should be good and nothing evil(55). This is where Plato begins to describe the qualities of the universe that the Demiurge is creating. The deductions that Plato makes involving the forming of the universe shows his optimism concerning humankind. He views humankind as formed for the greater good of the universe. The world created by the Demiurge is alive, intelligent, eternal, and good, and therefore it is a blessed god(65). It just so happens that along with the influence of the Demiurge there was another factor at work. Plato refers to this as the Errant Cause(111). It is apparent that this other principle could be likened to the mother of the cosmos, sense t ...

Watergate Scandal Essays - Watergate Scandal, United States

Watergate Scandal Essays - Watergate Scandal, United States Watergate Scandal THE WATERGATE SCANDAL Watergate is a hotel in Washington D.C. where the Democratic National Committee held their campaign headquarters. The current president at the time was Richard M. Nixon, who was involved in the scandal himself and which lead to the cause of his resignation. The Watergate scandal should not have happened, but it did and it caused the American people to judge less of their government system. The scandal began on June 17, 1972, with the arrest of five men who were caught in the offices of the Democrats campaign headquarters. Their arrest uncovered a White House sponsored plan of espionage against the political opponents and a trail of intrigue that led to some of the highest officials in the land. The officials involved in the Watergate scandal were former U.S. Attorney General John Mitchell, White House Counsel John Dean, White House Chief of Staff H.R. Haldman, White House Special Assistant on Domestic Affairs John Ehrlichman, and President Nixon. On April 30, 1973, nearly one year after a grand jury investigation of the burglary and arrest of the people involved, President Nixon accepted the resignation of Haldeman and Ehrlichman and announced the dismissal of John Dean. Furthermore, U.S. Attorney General Richard Kleindienst resigned as well shifting the position to the new attorney general, Elliot Richardson. However, Elliot Richardson decided to put Harvard Law School professor Archibald Cox in charge of conducting a full-scale investigation of the Watergate break-in. Hearings were opened in May of 1973 by the Senate Select Committee on Presidential Activities with Senator Sam Ervin of North Carolina as the chairman. Suddenly, a series of startling revelations began as Dean testified that Mitchell had ordered the break-in and that a major attempt was under way to hide White House involvement. Dean also claimed that President Nixon had authorized payments to the burglars to keep them quiet. The Nixon administration denied any involvement in the scandal, but the testimony of White House aide Alexander Butterfield exposed Nixon and unlocked the entire investigation. On July 16, 1973, Butterfield told the committee, on nationwide television, that President Nixon had ordered a taping system to be installed in the White House to automatically record all conversations. With this what Nixon had said and when he had said it was on the tapes and these tapes could verify everything. Cox immediately exposed eight relevant tapes to the court to confirm Deans t estimony. Nixon refused to release the tapes, claiming that they were vital to the national security. Therefore, U.S. District Court Judge John Sirica ruled that President Nixon must give the tapes to Cox, and an appeals court upheld the decision. Nixon still refused to turn over the tapes and on Saturday, October 20, 1973, ordered Richardson to dismiss Cox. Richardson refused and resigned instead, as did Deputy Attorney General William Ruckelshaus. Finally, the solicitor general discharged Cox. Suddenly, a storm of public protest occurred, thus leading to the Saturday Night Massacre. Nixon, in his defense, appointed another special prosecutor, Leon Jaworski, a Texas lawyer, and gave the tapes to Sirica. Unfortunately, some of the conversations were missing from the tapes and one tape had a mysterious gap of eighteen and a half minutes. Experts determined that the gap was the result of five separate erasures. Nevertheless, on March 1974, a grand jury indicated Mitchell, Haldeman, Ehrlichman, and four other White House officials for their part in the Watergate cover-up and named President Nixon as an unindicated co-conspirator. In the following month Jaworski requested and Nixon released written transcripts of forty-two more tapes. The conversations revealed an overwhelming concern with punishing political opponents and denied the Watergate investigation. On May 1974, Jaworski requested sixty-four more tapes as evidence in the criminal cases against the indicted officials. Nixon refused to turn over the tapes and on July 24, 1974, the Supreme Court voted 8-0 that Nixon must turn over the tapes. Thus, on July 29 and 30, 1974, the House Judiciary Committee approved three articles of impeachment, charging Nixon with misusing power in order to violate the constitutional rights of U.S. citizens, obstructing justice in the Watergate affair, and defying Judiciary Committee orders. Then on August 5, 1974, three tapes revealed that Nixon had, on June 23, 1972, ordered

Economics of Gender, Race And Globalization Essay

Economics of Gender, Race And Globalization - Essay Example nder, race, and globalization The roles of both the genders have changed considerably with the time and that can be explained with the help of the following facts. The working women of the United States of America earned about 29% for every dollar that the men earned during the period of 1815 and increased to 76% per dollar by the year 2004. Besides the change in the economic behavior, the social aspects of the lives of both male and female have changed. According to a study made on the US economy a thirty years old man of the present century is four times more likely to be divorced than an individual of the same age in 1950 and the chance of the individual being not yet married is twice more than that of the earlier period. Discrimination between the two genders occurs because of their difference in their biological existence, difference in their psychology, in their culture and also in their abilities. There are policies that affect the two ends of the gender differently. The ways in which we could discriminate the two genders are uncountable in practical sense. Difference in the gender of individuals and the difference in their sex are different as the cultural influences make the two different from each other. However, majority of the differences between men and women that are not biological are incorporated by the society itself. Since childhood, a girl is presented with baby dolls so as to make them grow up with the feeling that motherhood is one of the ultimate goals they need to achieve in their lives. Thus, the gender issue gained importance from period of indefinite past and the economics of gender mainly deals with the change in the economic behavior of men and women with the changing economic environment and the social nature of living. (Jacobsen, 1-7) The... This report stresses that the immediate effect of racism is the increase in poverty level of the country. Thus, the world is a place where if individuals are born with the colors of their skin other than white are likely to be grown up to be poor. Economic globalization through increasing and staggering debt of the poor nations has perpetuated the colonization of the racialized world. This essay makes a conclusion that the most adverse effect of both gender and race is the increase in the poverty level of the society. A nation with more gender and racial discrimination experience more of their population living in poverty. The combined discrimination of gender and racism reveals that racialized women bear the incidence of poverty almost double than that of non-racialized women. The rate of white women living in poverty is only 18% as compared to 37% chance of living in poverty of women with color. The public sectors that are mostly ill maintained in the country are the places of dependence and association of the women of the society and the minority classes. Until date, no dominant international organization has come forward to protect the interest of the racial communities and that of the Women of the society. Globalization brought the people of the world together as consumers of international market but they are separated as people of different race and gender.

ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOUR Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOUR - Assignment Example What follows a portion of the meeting’s proceedings: Gus (Accounting Technician): â€Å"You see, the problem here is this new manager is constantly interfering. He gives us a job to do, gives us a deadline, and then before we can get to work, he’s down our necks for no apparent reason.† Our department, all 6 of us, had grown very used to running our show, to holding each other accountable, and for taking on many of the duties that our last boss entrusted us with challenging responsibilities, many of which he himself used to oversee until he saw that we could do it. We earned his trust and he had ours in return. Now, the freedom to make decisions, the ability to chart our own course seems to have vanished. It’s been a shocker, and a disappointing one to say the least†. ... Some days I’m not sure if I’m supposed to actually lead the team, or if I’m expected to function as a Staff Accountant when our Director’s around – after all, he’s calling all the shots around here anyway. It seems I’m not really leading anything.† And when I do give direction to the team, I feel myself snapping at them more than assisting them. It never used to be like that. We got along so well, understood our roles so clearly, and always seemed to have each other’s back when it counted. Now it’s like we can’t stand each other, are always at each other, and can’t wait for quitting time to roll around. Petra: This is helpful, and obviously not easy to for some to discuss. I appreciate your honesty here. Does anyone else have anything to add that I should be aware of? Darlene (Accounts Payable Clerk): I just can’t get over how different the look and feel of our team has become in the last month. As Gus and Wanda have said, we were a pretty well-oiled machine before this new Director stepped in. You could give us a task, offer a deadline, and know that this team would make things happen. Now, everyone is so confused over what is expected that it’s impacting our ability to work together. For myself, I’m finding myself growing so unsure of my own ability to exercise any independent thought for fear of retribution, that it’s just becoming easier to let others take the lead and kind of sit back. I know this isn’t right, and I know I need to get back to the way I once was, but I’m just not sure how realistic that is given our current situation. Besides, when I ever I step in and try to manage, I’m feeling second guessed. I don’t know whether I should be managing or