Student Absenteeism Results to Dropping Out of School Essay Example for Free

Student Absenteeism Results to Dropping Out of School Essay

Samuel Clemens in Buffalo: A Woman and an Artist Essay -- Samuel Cleme

Samuel Clemens in Buffalo: A Woman and an Artist Preface While literary critics and historians alike have thoroughly examined the influence of Samuel Langhorne Clemens’ Missouri boyhood and foreign travels on his writing, scholars outside of Western New York consistently overlook the importance of the eighteen months he spent in Buffalo from August 1869 to March 1871. Though a Buffalo resident for the past twenty years, I was also only vaguely aware that Clemens passed through until Dr. Walter Sharrow of the Canisius College History Department mentioned his local stay. The suggestion that America’s best satirist lived in Buffalo—a location that could provide a contemporary wit with a wide range of material—tickled my historical sensibilities. Nearly immediately, I began to speculate why America’s most famous writer would migrate to Buffalo. After I discarded my first ideas—the weather, the Buffalo Bills, the efficiency and effectiveness of our local political leaders—I concluded it must be because of a woman. Indeed, my early research echoed this assumption, reinforcing my interest in Twain’s experience here and inspiring the first section of this paper. When furthering my research, I developed a second point of interest. Two local scholars, Martin B. Fried and Tom Reigstad both suggest that Buffalo was a major point of transition for Clemens. Fried writes, â€Å"His Buffalo experience, scanted in most biographies, has significance because it was the final stage in a long campaign for an artistic existence free of financial worries and of the burdens of journalistic writing.† This suggestion—that his time in Buffalo inspired his development from humorist and journalist to the novelist who produced Huck Finn—intrigued me de... ...287 _____________. 11 and 13 March 1871.Mark Twain’s Letters, vol. 4, 349-350. Langdon, Olivia. 17 June 1868. Mark Twain’s Letters, vol. 2, 286. Twain, Mark. â€Å"Salutatory,† Buffalo Express. August 21, 1869: reprinted in Joseph B. McCullough and Janice McIntire-Strasburg, Mark Twain and the Buffalo Express, 5. Twain, Mark. â€Å"A General Reply.† Buffalo Express. November 12, 1870: reprinted in Joseph B. McCullough and Janice McIntire-Strasburg, Mark Twain and the Buffalo Express, 254. Secondary Sources Martin B. Fried, â€Å"Mark Twain in Buffalo,† Niagara Frontier 5, no. 4 (Buffalo: Buffalo Historical Society, Winter 1959): 89. Justin Kaplan, Mr. Clemens and Mr. Twain, (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1966), 52. Joseph B. McCullough and Janice McIntire-Strasburg, Mark Twain and the Buffalo Express. DeKalb: Northern Illinois Press: 1999, xix.

Travelers Import Cars Case

Erin Crow/Criscolo Robb Romans 4/19/10 HRM Zigrossi Case Study 3: Traveler Import Cars Inc. Facts: †¢ Traveler Import Cars owners Randy and Beryl Traveler both have extensive industry experience. Randy was a partner in Capitol Imports, a prosperous foreign car dealership, and Beryl was a consult holding an MBA who specialized in automobile dealerships. †¢ They decided to go into business for themselves and their successful import car dealership has been in operation for over 5 years. †¢ Several of Traveler’s employees once worked for Capital Imports but were enticed by Randy and Beryl to leave and work for them. None of Traveler’s employees are unionized (but get equivalent benefits) and the staff feels like they are family. †¢ The company started with 1 small dealership, but has expanded and now operates two dealerships, a leasing company, and a wholesale parts store. †¢ Beryl had been in charge of the dealership’s daily operations but w ith the company’s fast growth she felt overworked and hired two experienced managers to help relieve some of her work load. †¢ Although the new managers had good ideas, Beryl was now working harder than ever as the dealership was continuing to expand rapidly. Despite regular meetings Beryl had with managers, her ideas weren’t implemented and important deadlines were missed with increasing frequency. Additionally, employee absenteeism and tardiness was becoming a regular occurrence. †¢ At her wits end, Beryl hired experienced consultant J. P. Muzak to straighten out Traveler’s Import Cars’ quality circle. †¢ Muzak conducted a needs analysis and met with Travelers management team to discuss his findings. †¢ Muzak also conducted an assessment of the company’s managers and discussed the results with Beryl privately. He concluded that most managers could be trained, but that a few were simply incapable of holding management positions. Assumptions: †¢ Muzak’s evaluation of Traveler Import Cars was thorough and his findings are accurate. †¢ Beryl and Randy trust Muzak’s and our advice and will implement our suggestions. †¢ The company can be restructured and remain successful even after Beryl steps back and is less involved in the daily operations of the business. Problems: †¢ Company has grown rapidly without an increase in management capability and efficiency. Lack of equal reporting structure and operational control between Randy and Beryl. †¢ Poor management structure and inefficiency causes high workload for Beryl. †¢ Unqualified and ineffective general manager. †¢ Ineffective employees Jeff Amos and Tom Tucker. †¢ Management decisions are not implemented or maintained. †¢ Company goals and objectives are not clearly defined or communi cated. †¢ The organizational structure is complicated, ineffective, and confusing. †¢ Lack of communication between offices; Supervisors don’t inform subordinates. Poor selection process for managerial positions results in untrained and inexperienced managers and supervisors. †¢ No periodic formal performance appraisal; No performance-based reward system. †¢ Undisciplined or unsupervised employees with increasing absenteeism. †¢ Problematic operational control system in lower levels in organization. †¢ Problems found by Muzak: o Quality circle needs restructuring. o Shorten decision time. o Organization does not implement management decisions. o Lack of follow-up causes serious problems. o Policies and procedures not fixed. o Managers do not delegate sufficiently. New car salesmen do not always transfer sold customers to F&I office resulting in lost revenue. o Service desk employees not retained impacting revenues. Recommendations by Quarter: â⠂¬ ¢ Q1 o Determine the vision and mission of the organization and communicate to personnel. o Develop a comprehensive communication plan for all positions. o Write and distribute job descriptions for all positions in the organization. o Implement a low-tolerance policy for absenteeism/tardiness. Have employees sign written warnings, with three offences equaling automatic termination. Clarify the reporting structure. See the suggested organization chart on page four. o Place Randy as President, Leasing Company, and President, Travelers Motor Cars. o Place Beryl as President, New Dealership. o Ben Schyler reports to Beryl; Stuart Graham reports to Randy. o Promote John Beam to General Manager, Leasing Company, reporting to Randy. Hire a replacement New/Used car salesperson. †¢ Q2 o Release Stuart Graham from the company with a generous severance package. o Promote Sam Carney to General Manager. Hire a consultant to assist with the transition and provide training to Sam. Promote Charles Spikes to Fixed Operations Manager, replacing Sam. o Reevaluate the selection process for new managers and supervisors to ensure only qualified candidates are appointed to those positions. †¢ Q3 o Develop a formal training program aligned with the company’s goals for the managers and supervisors. o Release Jeff Amos from the company. Replace with new hire. o Move Tom Tucker or a new hire to Service Manager. o Hire a New/Used Sales Manager. o Hire a Parts Manager and another New/Used car salesperson. †¢ Q4 Collaboratively create yearly goals for all managers and supervisors and track performance. o Conduct regular performance appraisals of managers and supervisors. o Create a compensation system that rewards employees for achieving measurable targets and for positive appraisals. o Monitor morale in an ongoing program. The HR activities used in the evaluation of this case include testing and selecting employees, training and developing employees, performance m anagement and appraisals, compensating employees, and managing labor relations. Recommended organization chart [pic]

What Role Did Women Play in World War I

Perhaps the best-known effect on women of World War I was the opening up of a vast range of new jobs for them. As men left their old work to fill the need for soldiers, women were needed to take their place in the workforce. While women were already an important part of the workforce and no strangers to factories, they were limited in the jobs they were allowed to perform. However, the extent to which these new opportunities survived the war is debated, and it’s now generally believed that the war didn’t have a huge, lasting effect on women’s employment. New Jobs, New Roles In Britain during World War I, roughly two million women replaced men at their jobs. Some of these were positions women might have been expected to fill before the war, such as clerical jobs. However, one effect of the war wasn’t just the number of jobs, but the type. Women were suddenly in demand for work on the land, on transport, in hospitals, and most significantly, in industry and engineering. Women were involved in the vital munitions factories, building ships and doing labor, such as loading and unloading coal. Few types of jobs were not filled by women by the war’s end. In Russia, the number of women in the industry went up from 26 to 43 percent, while in Austria a million women joined the workforce. In France, where women were already a relatively large proportion of the workforce, female employment still grew by 20 percent. Women doctors, although initially refused places working with the military, were able to also break into a male-dominated world (women being considered more suitable as nurses), whether through setting up their own volunteer hospitals or, later, being included officially when medical services tried to broaden to meet the war’s higher than expected demand. The Case of Germany In contrast, Germany saw fewer women join the workplace than other countries at war. This was largely due to pressure from trade unions, who were afraid women would undercut men’s jobs. These unions were partly responsible for forcing the government to turn away from moving women into workplaces more aggressively. The Auxiliary Service for the Fatherland law, designed to shift workers from the civilian into the military industry and increase the quantity of the potential workforce employed, only focused on men aged 17 to 60. Some members of the German High Command (and German suffrage groups) wanted women included but to no avail. This meant all-female labor had to come from volunteers who were not well encouraged, leading to a smaller proportion of women entering employment. It has been suggested that one small factor contributing to Germany’s loss in the war was their failure to maximize their potential workforce by ignoring women, although they did force women in occupied areas into manual labor. Regional Variation As the differences between Britain and Germany highlight, the opportunities available to women varied state by state and region by region. Generally, women in urban areas had more opportunities, such as working in factories, while women in rural areas tended to be drawn to the still-vital task of replacing farm laborers. Class was also a decider, with upper and middle-class women more prevalent in police work, volunteer work, nursing, and jobs which formed a bridge between employers and the lower class workers, such as supervisors. As opportunities increased in some work, the war caused a decline in the uptake of other jobs. One staple of pre-war women’s employment was domestic service for the upper and middle classes. The opportunities offered by war sped up the fall in this industry as women found alternative sources of employment. This included better-paying and more rewarding work in industries and other suddenly-available jobs. Wages and Unions While the war offered many new choices for women and work, it did not usually lead to a rise in the salaries of women, which were already much lower than mens. In Britain, rather than paying a woman during the war what they would have paid a man (as per government equal pay regulations), employers split tasks down into smaller steps, employing a woman for each and giving them less for doing it. This employed more women  but undermined their wages. In France in 1917, women initiated strikes over low wages, seven-day workweeks, and the continuing war. On the other hand, the number and size of female trade unions increased as the newly-employed labor force countered a pre-war tendency for unions to have few women — as they worked in part-time or small companies — or be outright hostile to them. In Britain, women’s membership of trade unions went from 350,000 in 1914 to over a 1,000,000 in 1918. Overall, women were able to earn more than they would have done pre-war, but less than a man doing the same job would make. Women in WW1 While the opportunity for women to expand their careers presented itself during World War 1, there was a range of reasons why women changed their lives to take up the new offers. There was firstly patriotic reasons, as pushed by the propaganda of the day, to do something to support their nation. Tied into this was a desire to do something more interesting and varied, and something which would help the war effort. Higher wages, relatively speaking, also played a part, as did the ensuing rise in social status. Some women entered the new forms of work out of sheer need because the government support (which varied by nation and generally supported only the dependants of absent soldiers) didn’t meet the gap. Post-War Effects After the war, there was pressure from returning men who wanted their jobs back. This also happened among women, with singles sometimes pressuring married women into staying at home. One setback in Britain occurred in the 1920s when women were again pushed out of hospital work. In 1921, the percentage of British women in the labor force was two percent less than in 1911. Yet the war undoubtedly opened doors. Historians are divided on the real impact, with Susan Grayzel (Women and the First World War) arguing: The extent to which individual women had better employment opportunities in the postwar world thus depended on nation, class, education, age, and other factors; there was no clear sense that the war had benefitted women overall. Source Grayzel, Susan R. Women and the First World War. 1st Edition, Routledge, August 29, 2002.