Database Application (DBMS) Project

Introduction Technology has resulted to an immense change in the manner in which organisations increase the effectiveness of their human resource functions. The concepts of human resource systems were first established at general motors’ in 1950s.Advertising We will write a custom essay sample on Database Application (DBMS) Project specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More Since then, â€Å"HRIS have advanced from a basic process to convert manual information keeping systems into computerised systems to the HR information systems that are used today† (Friesen 2003, p.28). This change has been associated with the need to integrate various functions of HR to a common platform. The aftermath is the emergence of a third generation HRIS that is computerised. This generation â€Å"has taken HR data systems far beyond being mere data repositories by creating tools with which human resource professionals could do much more† (B yars, 2004). Additionally, the generation comprises of self-contained feature-rich and broad-based human resource information systems. The purpose of this paper is to provide a plan and a set of recommendations that would identify protocols and parameters for devising a HR DBMS in an industry of tertiary education. The organisation considered is a university undergoing an immense growth and needs to recruit 500 staff within a year. It also needs to â€Å"identify the performance and skill profiles of present employees for later possible redundancies† (Hagood Friedman 2002, p.544). Setting plan for HR DBMS To set a plan for setting recommendations critical in identification of parameters and protocols for coming up with HR DBMS in a university undergoing tremendous growth requires that a consideration be made of the characteristics of a credible HR data base. It is however crucial to note that, even with the inclusion of computer applications in automation and integration of human resource functions within an organisation, the traditional function of HR has not changed. Consequently, an ample HR database needs to have the capacity to house all these functions from which the developed HR software can process the data to yield HR organisational decisions.Advertising Looking for essay on business economics? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More A database having all the requisite concerns of the HR is also critical in ensuring that HR realises its auditing and metrics development that are vital for standardisation rapidly. A credible HR database also needs to provide HRIS with the capacity to â€Å"provide real-time people information to non –HR processes systems as well standardise and automate key HR process and policies† (Hagood Friedman 2002, p.544). Arguably, such a database needs to be customised to ensure cute automation of various workflows coupled with myriads of HR competences. Th is is right from the fundamental information of an employee stored as an individual entity within the database to facilitate the overall decisions vital in setting the overall workforce’s compensation mechanisms, training and education, and in the generation of payrolls. Design modifications to undertake organisational operations In planning for a HRIS, a number of factors are vital for consideration. In its actual nature, human resource information system is meant to enhance the enforcement of disciplines in the derivation of HR policies coupled with processes. Arguably, â€Å"organisations, which have been working on agile decision making mechanisms initially find implementation a challenge since the flexibility of decision making as per circumstances is significantly reduced† (Uyen 2005, p.7). Consequently, the most vital elements that HR database developers need to pay credible attention to while planning for a HRIS in a university undergoing rapid growth is the ma gnitude of strategic maturity desired to be realised through the system being developed. Among the factors considered in the development of a credible HRIS includes identification of processes that are desired to get automated and reports that are anticipated to be realised through processing of the data contained in the database.Advertising We will write a custom essay sample on Database Application (DBMS) Project specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More They also include the magnitude of information security required, the necessity of conducting an improvement of processes of the HR to match the market requirement, the anticipated decision making, and the business units supported by the system. Moreover, according to Wojcik (2004), other factors include â€Å"people who need to run the systems and their internal capability, the monetary and man power investment needed to be made when planning the HRIS and knowing the way out of the le gacy systems when migrating to the new system† (p.19). Once all these factors are given ample consideration, it becomes critical to consider the specific design modifications required to undertake and address recruitment, training and development, career planning, performance review, occupational health, and safety operations within the tertiary educational industry. Recruitment and selection There are main changes to the design of recruitment and selection while deriving a new HRIS in a tertiary education. One is to ensure online recruiting and selection becomes the central methodology of the HR department. This change is credible since it would aid an â€Å"organisation to garner potential candidates for available positions within minimal time and cost† (Avison Fitzgerald 2003, p.79). Redesigning the recruitment and selection this way can help the university to recruit 500 employees within the available time span of 12 months. Training and development Training and de velopment encompasses one of the noble obligations of HR in an organisation. To enhance the effectiveness of this task, a change is required to incorporate a LMS (learning management system) as an integral part of HR system developed in the university. According to Conway and Monks (2008), A LMS facilitates â€Å"HR to track education, qualifications and skills of the employees, as well as outlining what training courses, books, CDs, web based learning or materials that are available to develop necessary skills† (p.73).Advertising Looking for essay on business economics? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More Consequently, it would become possible to utilise the employees’ information stored in the HR database â€Å"to offer various courses during particular sessions in which all the delegates coupled with the resources used in the training process are managed and mapped on to a common information system† (Walker 1982, p.56). Such a system would also permit the HR to authenticate training budgets and appraisal metrics. Career planning At the heart of organisational success rests the need for HR to conduct research on the emerging needs of further career development among the employees to ensure that the organisation benefits from the most recent technological development. For the university’s case, this may include the emergence of new research methods or new disciplines within the areas of specialisation of tutors. The desired alteration of the HRIS is to incorporate mechanisms of tracking the profiles of the existing university human resource and match them with th e possible emerging career opportunities. This is followed by subsequent placement of these employees to such opportunities. Performance review A performance review module is necessary for incorporation as a design modification for the HRIS utilised in the university. Such a system deserves to garner and process information related to work efforts, which are then merged with the established remuneration procedures adopted by the university. The results obtained from analysis conducted by performance review module could be credible in basing decisions on possible redundancies of the employees within the university. Occupational health and safety In addition to the discussed roles of HR in an organisation, it is also the role of the department to ensure that the employees’ occupational health and safety issue are proactively managed to enhance the productivity of the workforce. The modification changes in the new HRIS system ensure that the system facilitates quick querying of teaching and non-teaching staff concerns of their safety and occupational health on an online environment. This is anticipated to boost morale of the workforce since such concerns may act as stressors. Role of IT in assisting to design modifications to undertake organisational operations In enhancing a practical realisation of the above modification changes, IT personnel play critical roles. In this regard, Broderick and Boudreau (1992) reckon, â€Å"HR executives depend on internal or external IT professionals to develop and maintain an integrated HRIS† (p.6). Therefore, the IT team is charged with development of a database with field taking in data relevant to the mandates of HR department within an organisation. These include â€Å"payrolls, time attendance, appraisal performance, benefit administration, recruiting, performance record, employees’ self-service, and scheduling and absence management† (Sandberg 2000, p.13). This information is necessary for maki ng sure that human resource accomplishes its tasks, which not only entails the management of the workforce but also in aiding to create business intelligence and tracking the resource available to an organisation to make it more productive, cost effective, and fostering the brand. More importantly, the role of the IT is to develop the software entities for processing various HR-related data besides integrating these entities into a common platform that enables the HR to make compound decisions. References Avison, E Fitzgerald, G 2003, Information Systems Development: Methodologies, Techniques and Tools, McGraw-Hill, London. Broderick, R Boudreau, J 1992, ‘Human resource management, information Technology, and the competitive edge’, Academy of Management Executive, vol.6 no. 2, pp. 7–17. Byars, L Rue, W 2004, Human Resource Management, The McGraw-Hill Companies, London. Conway, E Monks, K 2008, ‘HR practices and commitment to change: an employee-level An alysis’, Human Resource Management Journal, vol. 18 no.1, pp. 72–89. Friesen, B 2003, ‘Is your client ready for e-HR?’, Consulting to Management, vol.14 no.3, pp. 27-33. Hagood, W Friedman, L 2002, ‘Using the balanced scorecard to measure the performance of your HR information system’, Public Personnel Management, vol. 31 no. 4, pp. 543-558. Sandberg, J 2000, ‘Understanding Human Competence at Work: An Interpretative Approach’, Academy of Management Journal, vol.43 no.1, pp. 9–25. Uyen ,V 2005, ‘Contracting out HRIS easy call at Terasen Pipelines’, Canadian HR Reporter, vol. 18 no. 4, pp. 5-9. Walker, J 1982, HRIS Development: A Project Team Guide to Building an Effective Personnel Information System, Van Nostrand Reinhold, New York. Wojcik, J 2004, ‘Toshiba Employee Handbook Goes Online, Business Insurance’, vol. 38 no.49, pp. 18-23. This essay on Database Application (DBMS) Project was written and submitted by user Miranda Delaney to help you with your own studies. You are free to use it for research and reference purposes in order to write your own paper; however, you must cite it accordingly. You can donate your paper here.

Tone (In Writing) Definition and Examples

Tone (In Writing) Definition and Examples In composition, tone is the expression of a writers attitude toward subject, audience, and self. Tone is primarily conveyed in writing through diction, point of view, syntax, and level of formality. In  Writing: A Manual for the Digital Age (2012),  Blakesley and Hoogeveen make a simple distinction between style and tone: Style refers to the overall flavor and texture created by the writers word choices and sentence structures. Tone is an attitude toward the events of the story- humorous, ironic, cynical, and so on. In practice, theres a close connection between style and tone. EtymologyFrom the Latin, string, a stretching Tone and Persona If persona is the complex personality implicit in the writing, tone is a web of feelings stretched throughout an essay, feelings from which our sense of the persona emerges. Tone has three main strands: the writers attitude toward subject, reader, and self. Each of these determinants of tone is important, and each has many variations. Writers may be angry about a subject or amused by it or discuss it dispassionately. They may treat readers as intellectual inferiors to be lectured (usually a poor tactic) or as friends with whom they are talking. Themselves they may regard very seriously or with an ironic or an amused detachment (to suggest only three of numerous possibilities). Given all these variables, the possibilities of tone are almost endless. Tone, like persona, is unavoidable. You imply it in the words you select and in how you arrange them. (Thomas S. Kane, The New Oxford Guide to Writing. Oxford University Press, 1988) Tone and Diction The main factor in tone is diction, the words that the writer chooses. For one kind of writing, an author may choose one type of vocabulary, perhaps slang, and for another, the same writer may choose an entirely different set of words. . . .Even such small matters as contractions make a difference in tone, the contracted verbs being less formal: It is strange that the professor had not assigned any papers for three weeks.Its strange that the professor hadnt assigned any papers for three weeks. (W. Ross Winterowd, The Contemporary Writer: A Practical Rhetoric, 2nd ed. Harcourt, 1981) Tone in Business Writing Tone in writing . . . can range from formal and impersonal (a scientific report) to informal and personal (an email to a friend or a how-to article for consumers). Your tone can be unprofessionally sarcastic or diplomatically agreeable. Tone, like style, is indicated in part by the words you choose. . . . The tone of your writing is especially important in occupational writing because it reflects the image you project to your readers and thus determines how they will respond to you, your work, and your company. Depending on your tone, you can appear sincere and intelligent or angry and uninformed. . . . The wrong tone in a letter or a proposal might cost you a customer. (Philip C. Kolin, Successful Writing at Work, Concise 4th ed. Cengage, 2015) Sentence Sounds Robert Frost believed sentence tones (which he called sound of sense) are already there- living in the cave of the mouth. He considered them real cave things: they were before words were (Thompson 191). To write a vital sentence, he believed, we must write with the ear on the speaking voice (Thompson 159). The ear is the only true writer and the only true reader. Eye readers miss the best part. The sentence sound often says more than the words (Thompson 113). According to Frost: Only when we are making sentences so shaped [by spoken sentence tones] are we truly writing. A sentence must convey a meaning by tone of voice and it must be the particular meaning the writer intended. The reader must have no choice in the matter. The tone of voice and its meaning must be in black and white on the page.(Thompson 204) In writing, we cant indicate body language, but we can control how sentences are heard. And it is through our arrangement of words into sentences, one after another, that we can approximate some of the intonation in speech that tells our readers not only information about the world but also how we feel about it, who we are in relationship to it, and who we think our readers are in relationship to us and the message we want to deliver. (Dona Hickey, Developing a Written Voice. Mayfield, 1993) We are not won by arguments that we can analyze but by the tone and temper, by the manner which is the man himself. (Attributed to novelist Samuel Butler)

Combined joint task force-horn of Africa Research Paper

Combined joint task force-horn of Africa - Research Paper Example Terrorism has been one of the key issues in countries such as Yemen, Djibouti, Sudan, Ethopia, Eriteria, Somolia, and Kenya, commonly known as Horn of Africa. Lot of efforts and key strategies have been formulated over a period of time to counter this menace One such effort to combat terrorism was the establishment of a Combined Joint Task Force which was formed to address the issues of terrorism in Horn of Africa.The paper understudy is aimed at giving an overview of this task force and its operations typically in Kenya The paper understudy is aimed at giving an overview of this task force and its operations typically in Kenya with a view to address the efforts launched in by this team in combating and reducing terrorist activities. Moreover, it also accentuates on the manner in which the contribution of Kenya with respect to war on terrorism has attracted the United State’s attentions and interest in the region. The establishment of Combined Joint Task Force - Horn of Africa took place on 19  October, 2002  (Combined Joint Task Force- Horn of Africa, 2011)  in North Carolina under the oversight of United State Central Command. CJTF - Horn of Africa conducts operations in East Africa, namely in Yemen, Djibouti, Sudan, Ethiopia, Criteria, Somalia and Kenya to build and foster an effective counterterrorism partnership. This was done to promote regional security, ensure stable conditions within the horn of Africa AOR, oversee conflict and dispute prevention, and safeguard and protect the interest of the United States and its allies. Prior to the creation of the CJTF – Horn of Africa, Kenya was plagued by rampant, unchecked terrorism that had impacts within the local, regional and global theaters. Once established however, Kenya’s ability to combat terrorism within the horn of Africa AOR bolstered dramatically.  Ã‚   The discussion of CJTF - Horn of Africa would remain incomplete without its role in Kenya which holds a very substantial and significant place in the war against terrorism. Many experts have regarded Kenya as a harbor of increasing terrorist activities and branded it as a helpless state victimized by waves of terrorism throughout the country. In 2003 the Government of Kenya accepted that western countries had been targeted by a possible member of the Al Qaeda network, affirming the potential of Al Qaeda operating within national boundaries. Beginning with a bombing attack on the American Embassy  (Ploch, 2011), the country’s capital showed signs of terrorist activities as far back as 1998.  Ã‚  The acknowledgement from government however, came very late. Since then, Kenya has become a regular victim of groups having international terrorism expertise. Further investigation determined that poor immigration laws and security legislature have greatly contributed to  the terrorism flourishing in the region. The cells in Kenya were completely under control by foreign groups from within the Gul f States and Somalia.  Ã‚  These groups eventually involved locals, helping them to establish their businesses and using these as fronts for their networks. The leaders of these Kenyan Cells were found to have connections with the Al Qaeda network and disappeared soon after the attacks on the US embassy. The government, in cooperation with FBI, then made endeavors to destroy these Al Qaeda controlled cells in various parts of country, including arrests in July and November of 2001 of Yemeni and Somali people.  Ã‚  Despite of all these efforts, the situation in Kenya never fully regained control and an Israeli airliner was shot down in Mombasa in  2002. The investigation led to another connection with Al Qaeda and revealed terrorist control over major elements of the national security system, as evident by their transportation of surface-to-air missile which was fired at an American military jet at the Prince Sultan Air Base in Saudi Arabia  (Menkhaus, 2011). After this devel opment, the Kenyan government officially acknowledged the