The Piano History Essay Example for Free

The Piano History Essay In the 1700’s the piano was invented by Bartolomeo Cristofori in Florence, Italy first introduced to the world as the pianoforte meaning â€Å"Soft loud†. â€Å"In the last quarter of the 18th century the piano had become the leading instrument of the western art of music that still lives on till today as an exotic instrument played by talented people in the world.† (Wendy Powers, 2003) Music has lived on from the beginning of time by all cultures and races for decades. Music is known to make the heart, soul, and brain one. Without this invention Beethoven would have not made the music that lives on till today and many other talented famous throughout the world. The piano reaches out to the most inner deepest soul all the way to keys that charge up chakras for well-being. A piano has 8 white keys c,d,e,f,g,a,b,c and 5 black known as the Chromatic scale which is 13 including next count which correlates with the 8, 11, 13 chakras. Bartolomeo Cristofori was born on May 4 on 1655 and passed away in 1731. Bartolomeo Cristofori’s occupation was a harpsichord maker and a designer. By 1688, Prince Ferdinando de Medici of Florence, son of the Grand Duke of Tuscany got Bartolomeo Cristofori because of his talent and reputation. The princes owned forty harpsichords and spinets, and hired Cristofori at the age of 33 to both curate the collection, and build new ones. Cristofori became the custodian of the instruments in the court in starting from 1690. Around 1700, he began to work on an instrument on which the player could achieve changes in loudness just by changing the force with which the keys were struck. Instead of the quill jacks used to pluck the string on the harpsichord, Cristofori’s innovation was to devise a way in which the strings were struck from below by individual hammers covered in deer leather. He had created the first two harpsichords with the first real escapement mechanism. When Italian Renaissance spread throughout Europe, the upsurge of innovation in art, culture and science was developing todays known as culturally rich. The 17th and the 18th centuries, decades from when the piano was invented the history of Italy is considered part of the early modern period. However this period, at least the first half, is often closely associated with the dominant artistic and architectural movement known as Baroque. The era of Italian Baroque was the birth of opera as a major form of entertainment. Unlike the plays popular up to this time, opera combined music and theatre into a spectacle that was designed to be a feast for the senses (Chakras). The origins of opera are credited to a Late Renaissance group of poets, musicians and humanist known as the Florentine Camerata, thanks to Bartolomeo Cristofori invention. This time also was marked the beginning of long foreign domination of Italy in the aftermath of the Italian Wars of the 16th century. After these wars were over, the Italian landscape was peaceful for a long time, expression with art talks during these time periods. The Renaissance in Italy was over by 1600 but Italy still made up a large portion of the European economy. However, the economic power of the country as a whole declined and none of the various Italian states did anything concrete to take advantage of the Industrial Revolution but they did however make other history in humanities. From the 14th century until the late 17th century, Italy grieved a very high death rate from many outbreaks of the plague. They are known as the Black Death and associated with medieval times; this plague did not come even come to a near end in the 13th century. The largest death toll had been in the early 1600s when an estimated 1,730,000 people died due to plague in Italy. Perhaps the pianos were some kind of good thing in the survivor’s lives’ to expression and create music. This was almost 14% of the population of the country at that time and also the time the piano had come around. There was an Economic decline; the powerful Habsburgs of Spain had dominated most of Italy in one form or another starting 1559 to 1713, and music and art continued to speak freely. In developing the piano Bartolomeo Cristofori had been working on getting a feel for the harpsichord to respond to touch. He developed a mechanical action that made it possible to sound simultaneously as many notes as one had fingers and do to this to be able to produce any work in the entire literature of Western music with variations of loud and soft according to the players touch at the keyboard. It included a complex mechanical action with a hammer that rose towards a string four times as fast as the finger, an escapement to allow the hammer to rebound from the freely vibrating string, a check for the hammer to prevent bouncing, and a shift so the hammer would play only one of the two strings to reduce volume. Cristofori’s hammer mechanism was so well designed, that no other of comparable sensitivity and reliability was developed as known for another seventy-five years. The highly compound accomplishment of the modern piano may be sketched directly to his original concepti on. Todays the piano sustains pitches in a lyrical fashion, creating all musical styles and moods and is universal all because of Bartolomeo Cristofori’s invention of the great musical instrument. This popular instrument has changed over the years (except for its hammers), and how its flexibility and expressiveness have inspired composers such as Beethoven, Schumann, Liszt, and Bartà ³k. It’s been pasted down for decades and artist today become best friends with the piano as they have the talent to sing and play with the piano. People have talents and a musical part in their life because of the invention that was lead down for decades starting from Beethoven. Pianos have improved from the 1700s of course from sound, shape and functionality since Bartolomeo Cristofori’s invention but he was the Italian that brought a different sound of music into our world. We went from having 88 keys on the piano 36 black and 52 white to high performance grand pianos with 92 keys as of today. From 1790 to the mid-1800s, piano technology and sound was greatly improved due to the inventions of the Industrial Revolution, such as the new high quality steel called piano wire, and the ability to precisely cast iron frames. The tonal range of the piano increased from the five octaves of the pianoforte to the seven and more octaves found on modern pianos. Around 1780, the upright piano was created by Johann Schmidt of Salzburg, Austria and later improved in 1802 by Thomas Loud of London whose upright piano had strings that ran diagonally. In 1881, an early patent for a piano player was issued to John McTammany of Cambridge, Mass. John McTammany described h is invention as a mechanical musical instrument. It worked using narrow sheets of perforated flexible paper which triggered the notes. A later automatic piano player was the Angelus patented by Edward H. Leveaux of England on 27 February 1879, and described as an apparatus for storing and transmitting motive power. John McTammanys invention was actually the earlier one invented (1876), however, the patents dates are in the opposite order due to filing procedures. On March 28, 1889, William Fleming received a patent for a player piano using electricity. Although before all these important beings and Bartolomeo Cristofori a man named Johannes Spinctus made the Spinet when later followed Bartolomeo Cristofori and his invention of the Spinettone which means â€Å"Big Spinet†. Not all of the piano elements where invented by Bartolomeo, but he did built the first piano and made great improvements in his time. Musicians that we still listen to their creations to including Bach and Beethoven first played on Bartolomeo Cristoforiâ₠¬â„¢s Harpsichord and liked to do so because of the higher pitch! Bartolomeo Cristofori put the pieces of the puzzle together for the invention of the piano. â€Å"The modern piano keyboard was first established during the 13th century of Medieval Europe with black and white wooden keys as it was later invented by Cristofori.† N/A (Unknown) Title Of Source: Piano History: The Complete Story. For decades the piano has become part of a business and career, and great talent of musical art. My boyfriend is a producer and he plays the piano and it is also a proven fact that music is the best medicine, specially hearing a piano play, and it was all because of the invention of the original piano back in time that lead to improved ones as of today. People evolved and became smarter and had the sources to build improved pianos. The piano is something that can be passed down for decades to come, just as Bartolomeo’s pieces have and changed the universe. Looking deeper into the Piano, it was created as corresponding to the flower of life. The flower of life is the original perfect geometric cemetry that created the universe. It is not only the root of mathematical proportions but also the source of shape, light of photonic solids and the source to every musical system in the world both known and unknown to humans, yes the dearest piano too. Isn’t it just phenomenal to know that music notes are separated by 90 degrees so are our chakras. So we can thank the flower of life that gave us the piano. The piano is a beautiful instrument that makes harmonic music and good for the soul. Now, what I came to conclusion is the piano might has not been able to change the world because wars, starvation and injustice continued. In the world of musicians and music lovers the piano was an improvement over the harpsichord which was only able to play loud of soft when levers where pushed. Many people try to push their dreams, because of their piano perfection and that opens doors to the talented! It’s nice to have a piano around; it’s a different feel every time, a great field of sound. Today 3 creations of Bartolomeo Cristofori from the years 1720, 1722, and 1726 remain in Museum’s around the world, but are too old and not playable. References Arkenberg, Rebecca. (October, 2002) Title of Source: Music in the Renaissance† Retrieved From: 2000http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/renm/hd_renm.htm Bellis, Mary. (Unknown) Title of Source: The History of the Piano Bartolomeo Cristofori Retrieved From: http://inventors.about.com/od/pstartinventions/a/piano.htm Cipolla, Carlo M. (1981) Title of Source: Fighting the Plague in Seventeenth Century Italy. Retrieved From: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Italian_plague_of_1629%E2%80%931631 Duchnycz, Jordan. (May, 2012) Title Of Source: Spirit Of Science 1-15 full movie series Retrieved From: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IaDOkMEK4ukfeature=related Powers, Wendy. (October, 2003) Title Of Source: The Piano: The Pianofortes of Bartolomeo Cristofori (1655–1731) Retrieved From: http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/cris/hd_cris.htm N/A. (Unknown). Title of Source: Who Invented the Piano? Retrieved From: http://www.piano-play-it.com/who-invented-the-piano.html N/A (Unknown) Title Of Source: Piano History: The Complete Story Retrieved From: http://www.get-piano-lessons.com/piano-history.html

Human Resources in Sri Lankas IT Sector

Human Resources in Sri Lankas IT Sector CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION For an organization to survive and expand in the rapidly competitive environment dominated by several players, it is paramount for an organization to perform. The organization performance would be measure according to several variables such profitability, sales, production quality and market share, however, few organizations give prominence for the most important factors which is human resources performance. According to HRM commentators retention and development of the organization employees are pivotal for organization performance. The overall purpose of human resource management is to ensure that the organization is able to achieve their success through people. Ulrich and Lake (1990) states that: ‘HRM systems can be the source of organizational capabilities that allow firms to learn and capitalize on new opportunities. But in the other hand HRM has an ethical dimension as well, which means it should also concern the rights and needs of people in an organization. With the increased competition, globalization, boundless technological advances, -companies are forced to think about the factors like HRM, environment†¦etc to run the extra mile ahead of the others. Therefore nowadays employers consider investments on the HRM functions are very significant and effective, rather than seeing it as just a cost. As it shown above, HRM should be incorporated with each and every function with in an organization. Starting from the recruitment process to the training and development, performance appraisal, performance incentives, promotion system , design of work and working environment†¦etc should aligned with effective HRM practices as it will reduce the direct indirect employee grievances which results in a highly motivated and pleased workforce, which in turn influences on the overall organization performances. When considering the structure of the Human resource management, there are two categories; 1. Managerial Functions 2. Operative functions Functions of HRM Managerial Functions Operative Functions Planning Employment Organising Human Resource Directing Development Controlling Compensation Human relations Recent trend in HRM 1. Managerial functions It include Planning, organizing, directing and controlling.  · Planning is the main activity that a manager has to consider. The management has to decide what to do and how to do to achieve the objective of the organization. Management uses this process to plan the future of the company, decide what actions they are going to make to avoid difficult problems etc. (Bateman, Snell, 2007).  · Organizing is established in the internal structure of the organization. It mainly concerns the flow of information within the company, division and coordination. Manager has to know what the subordinates can do and what kind of training they need. To achieve the objectives set in the planning process there should be a proper organization of work. In here the management set the tasks, responsibilities and authorities to the employees. The manager has to discuss the tasks with the employees and has to clarify what to do, how to do and make them understand about the job (Allen, G, 1998). Then it is easy to achieve the objective.  · Directing is the next stage after completing planning and organizing. This is to execution of the plan. It influences the people to achieve the objectives in a correct way through motivation, communication, and leadership. The proper direction of employees will affect the achievement of the objectives. The manager has to have a proper relationship with the employees in the company, and then they can easily direct the employees to achieve the target.  · Controlling involves checking, verifying and comparing of the actual with the plan that the company set. Actions and operations are adjusted to identified plans and standards through control. The training programs, conducting interviews, analyzing labor turnover details are some of the controlling functions that a manager can work out. Controlling allows setting the performance standards within the groups and to do the proper communication. 2. Operative functions These activities are related to specific activities such as, employment, human resources development, compensation, human relations and recent trends in human resource management.  · Employment This means securing and employing the people with the relevant qualifications to achieve the organizational objectives. The functions include in employment are, Job analysis, human resource planning, recruitment, selection, placement and induction.  · Human resource development This is the process of improving skills, knowledge, attitudes, aptitudes, commitment etc. depending on the organizational requirements. The functions include in human resource development are; Performance appraisal, training, management development, career planning and development, promotion, demotion and change and organization development.  · Compensation This is the process of providing sufficient, equal and fair reward to all employees. The functions include in compensation are; Job evaluation, incentives, wage and salary, bonus, fringe benefits, social security and measures.  · Human Relations It is the process of interaction between people. The management can practice different human resource policies to interact with the people. Good relationship will motivate people to do a better job In the organization. The functions in human relations include; Motivating the employees, developing the communication skills, developing leadership skills, providing comfortable work environment to the people, improving quality of work life of employees and boosting employee morale.  · Recent trend in human resource management This area is always developing. It is advancing at a fast rate. The recent trends in human resource management is; Quality of work life, recent techniques of Human resource management and total quality in human resources. In 1989 David Guest describes a human resource model according to what he thought. . This model consists of four elements; Human resource policies and practices Human resource outcomes Organizational outcomes Leadership 1. Human resource policies and practices when an organization is introduced there are many policies available in a company. They are; Organization and job design Management of change Recruitment, selection and socialisation Appraisal, training and development Reward systems Communication According to this model human resource policies are design to achieve the four key human resource outcomes which explains as the second element of this model. 2. Human resource outcomes The model include followings; Commitment Quality Flexibility Strategic integration Quality is not only concern about the quality of manufacturing product or the services provided by the company, it includes the quality of the workforce, the management of the workforce and the human resource policies used in the company. Flexibility is the facility to change the jobs people are doing, working arrangement such as number of hours they are working and the nature of employees contract. Strategic integration is the link between human resource strategy and business strategy. Guest explains that integration requires an organizational culture where managers work or share. The commitments have a direct relationship with valued business consequences. He says that commitment is confused and that the relationship between commitment and the performance is difficult to establish. When an employee commitment is higher means that employee is satisfied about the facilities and the way the company treat to employees. When they are satisfied performance will be automatically higher in the organization. 3. Organizational outcomes The organizational outcomes include following; High job performance High problem solving High innovation Low turnover, absence High cost effectiveness 4. Leadership Leadership is the most important element to make all these outcomes success. With the understanding of importance of the involvement of HRM for the betterment of an organization, this paper is about the effect of HRM development to the IFS business success. 1.1 Aims and objectives of the study During the recent years IT sector began to bloom and many leading IT professionals fortified the future of their companies by investing in Sri Lanka. Within few years it begins to expand and now a days it has become a major business sector which support the economy and which provides enormous career opportunities to the younger generation. Latest s show that, over 175 software developments companies are actively operating in Sri Lanka, which are originated from both national and international grounds and they are providing services for both the export and domestic markets. Some of these companies and their products are already well recognized and performing extremely well in the IT sector by competing with other foreign markets. Among these, companies like,Millennium Information Technologies- who not only turned the Colombo stock exchange in Sri Lanka into the worlds first ever event-driven exchange but with their versatile automated trading system have powered the Boston stock exchange among several other clients in the United States, as well as exchanges in Europe, Asia Pacific and Africa;Virtusa Corporation- one of the fastest growing software services firms in the US with seven years of consecutive growth and the largest technology center based in Sri Lanka and; Informatics- a local company whose telecom product is in operation at the regional sites of some of the worlds leading telecom operators, such as Cable Wireless of UK and Millicom of Luxembourg, are leading the way, marking the name of Sri Lanka in the world. Furthermore international names likeIFSfrom Sweden have set up their research and development center employing over 700 people and recently MicrosoftandOraclehave also opened offices in Sri Lanka. graph1 This is an effort to find out the involvement of human resource to the success of Sri Lankan IT sector and how well they are managed for them to get ready to face the future challenges in ever changing world. Taking the IFS Sri Lanka Ltd as the Reference point, the research will focus on interpreting the influence of Human Resource Management on the companys success. Research as a whole, is a process to find an answer to a specific question. The initial objectives of this study are to formalize the necessary procedures and questions to be answered, in order to gather the intended information, which will be desirable in finding an answer to the core research question. To achieve the above objectives, following are the outline of the information that will try to gather, to be used in developing proper evaluations conclusions. Actions taken to motivate the employees. Established procedures on providing job satisfaction to the employees. The process of developing employee skill and how the company utilize it. How strong is the employee-employer relationship Level of performance of the company and how the employees contribute its success. 1.2 Company Background IFS, is one of the worlds leading providers of component-based business software developed using open standards. Since 1983, IFS has been a provider of business applications focused on meeting the needs of selected industries. Basically, IFS operates in two areas: lifecycle management, where asset and product lifecycle management are critical issues, and mid market ERP (Enterprise resource planning), which covers distribution and manufacturing in midsize companies. Mainly company operates in Europe, the US, the UK, Australia and Asia with the head office situated in Linkoping, Sweden and having the employs about 2,723. Today, IFS is a global software company that helps leading enterprises improve efficiency, cut costs, react swiftly to market conditions, and take advantage of new business opportunities. IFS Applications, IFS suite of more than 60 web-based components, is the only true component-based business solution on the market, allowing deploying the software step by step as companys needs and budget dictate. Using open standards, IFS makes it easier to stay up-to-date with technology and integrate with legacy systems. And only IFS offers total lifecycle management, enabling their customers to maximize profitability over the lifecycles of your products, customers, and assets. IFS superior technology, functionality, and Industry focus have won praise from some of the worlds leading analyst firms. Gartner recognizes IFS as either a visionary or a leader in all four of its ERP and asset management Magic Quadrants. Most important, IFS legendary commitment to customer service has never wavered. Tod ay, IFS has an impressive roster of satisfied customers, ranging from mid-size companies to global industry leaders such as PepsiCo, General Electric, Lockheed Martin, General Dynamics, DuPont, Volvo, BMW, Deere Co., and Rockwell Automation. Since the day, IFS was founded, they have given a greater importance for the customer service. Therefore today, IFS has become the only enterprise software provider that offers a global product for the mid-market together with local support. IFS has support centres in each country in which it operates, ensuring that you will receive the best customer support anywhere in the world. IFS keep track of your unique component configuration; patch levels, and customizations, ensuring that the information is available globally to all IFS support centres. Therefore it has become the huge network of all the information required to solve the customer issues without any unnecessary delays. Within the huge IFS network, office in Sri Lanka has a major importance, as it is one of the two IFS R D centres in world and major part of software development is done there, with having more than 700 employees in two local country offices. The focus group for the study is mainly taken from Sri Lankan offices and depending on the opportunities employees from the other locations were involved in the study. 1.2.1 Financial Highlights Based on the IFS Annual report 2008, it illustrate that the company is having growth in every section. Mid 2008, IFS has announced long-term financial targets entailing that, in the next five years, product revenue will double through organic growth and acquisitions, the operating margin will increase to15 percent, the dividend will rise to 50 percent of earnings after tax and surplus liquidity will be used to repurchase shares. Furthermore, report says that IFS has signed 10 largest license agreements during the year had an aggregate value of SKr 141 million where as the corresponding for 2007 was SKr 103 million. A total of 20 license agreements valued at more than US$ 0.5 million each were signed. And In all, 215 (177 in 2007) new customers were added, and 760 (778 in 2007) customers either upgraded or expanded their existing solutions. Annual Net Revenue Annual Earnings Before Interest Tax (EBIT) Value Net Debt In order to summarize the success I have extracted the above three from the report which explains the key factors of companys growth. Net revenue (: 7) amounted to SKr 2,518 million (2,356 in 2007), an increase of 7 percent, which is the highest revenue the company achieved per year for the last 4 years. EBIT (Earnings before Interest Tax) value turns out to be Skr, million 154, which is a great turn over compared to the value, SKr million -128 in 2004. Furthermore, as the : 9 shows, IFS have succeeded in diminishing their debts. They have being able to reduce the debts from Skr, million 363 to Skr, million 3, which is a sole evidence for the success of the company. Variation of Total Assets Number of employees While concerned of their financial growth, IFS seems dedicated to the expansion of the company. From 2004 to 2008, their asset, as well as number of employees has increased continuously in a similar rate. 1.3 Significance of the research Success and development of any company is depends on the level of human resource involvement. Therefore it is most important to maintain motivated and satisfied workforce to obtain the very best results of its investment. Skill development, employer employee relationship, grade pay structure employee benefits are some of the key factor which directly related with the motivation of the work force. Purpose of study is to find out how well the importances of above factors are absorbed in the Sri Lankan IT sector; within IFS Sri Lanka Ltd. The research will try to extract the information related to the specific factors and analyze them with the every aspect of the companys performances. 1.4 Structure of the Research work With having the text divided in to the several sections, the dissertation starts with an introduction, which provides the basic understanding of HRM and its functions. It concludes with an overview of the whole thesis including the information helpful for the reader to understand the topic and related facts, we are going to discuss about. The next section is the literature review, which explains relevant theories that will help to support the topic and it is followed by the research methodology which explains the research approach, and how the aims and objectives are planned to achieved. Moreover it, clearly explain the methods that used to collect the relevant data and explained the reasons why there are chosen. The result section provides the actual results I have obtained, carrying out the research, and within the analysis section, it exploits the information gathered, and structured a comprehensive analysis. Conclusion and Recommendation sections conclude the research with interp reting the gathered data and results obtained in Analysis section, along with the aims and objectives discussed at the beginning and provide the necessary recommendations based on the live facts and exhibit the virtue of the research. 1.5 Limitations of research The main limitation of this research is getting the access to the employees within the selected company. The results would be much meaningful if the researcher is succeeded in involving many individuals as possible. Therefore it would be a greater challenge to formalize an easy and simple method to acquire the relevant information from the employees, to make sure that they dont feel it as an extra burden. Time can be considered as the other major issue since I have to formalize the whole process with in a very short time period and to make sure it has grasp many individuals as possible. CHAPTER 2 LITERATURE REVIEW Job Satisfaction Job satisfaction is one of the most important aspects related to the employee management as it is directly related to the performance of an organization. Because of humans tends to listen to the feelings deep in their thoughts, its not enough to full fill every other things, if the employee is not satisfied with what he/she does. Job satisfaction is not same as the motivation but it linked. Job design is aimed to enhance job satisfaction and performance by using different design methods such as Job rotation, job enlargement, job enrichment etc. Job satisfaction can be viewed as â€Å"a pleasurable or positive emotional state resulting from the appraisal of ones job experience† (Lock 1976). When someone is satisfied with his/her job that is job satisfaction, or when any job is fulfilled ones expectation that is job satisfaction. Job satisfaction mainly considers the attitudes and feelings that people have about the work. The Guion (1958) defines morale as ‘the extent to which an individuals needs are satisfied and the extent to which the individual perceives that satisfaction as stemming from his total work situation. However there are some features of job satisfaction identified by Paul Spectors (1985) such as, Pay- amount and fairness or equity of salary, Promotion-opportunities and fairness of promotion, Supervision-fairness and competence at managerial tasks by ones supervisor, Benefits- insurance, vacation, and fringe benefits, Contingent procedures-sense of respect, recognition and appreciation. According to While Luthan (1998) there are three important views to job satisfaction; Job satisfaction is an emotional thing related to a job that cannot measure. It is determined by how well outcome is achieved or exceeds expectations It shows some attitudes which can be used to identify how employees think about their job and how they achieve their targets. The factors that affect the job satisfaction of an employee can be divided in to three main areas; Internal factors External factors Individual factors Internal, external and individual factors which affect to the job satisfaction are listed in the table. Internal factors are the factors that linked to work but those are not the only factors affecting job satisfaction. External factors are related to work or to the working environment and individual factors mainly consider a person and the persons family and network of friends. Job satisfaction factors Description Internal Factors  · Job variety Number of skills and depth of knowledge required to do the job  · Autonomy The freedom that the employee get to control their own work  · Goal determination The freedom that the employees get to set their own targets and the criteria to achieve those targets  · Feedback and recognition The private and public comments that they achieve for their performance External Factors  · Achievement The persons success on their job. The trainings, improved equipments, proper education may be the way to increase the achievement and the job satisfaction.  · Role ambiguity and role conflicts Knowing the position of the work place, responsibilities and agreement between roles. Clarifying the tasks in the job, and the position in the organization. When reduce role ambiguity it lead to job satisfaction  · Opportunity The opportunities with the current and the other employers. If employees feel they have fewer opportunities in the current position, then job satisfaction decrease.  · Job security The assurance that employees get to their job  · Social interaction The way they deal with the others. The quality and the quantity of the interaction.  · Supervision Herzberg explain this as a hygiene factor. The quality of management is affect to the job satisfaction. If the quality is lower, worker can become dissatisfied.  · Organizational culture Culture and management style can increase/decrease job satisfaction.  · Work schedules Match between work schedule and the employees schedule. Flexitime may increase the job satisfaction by allowing employee to interface between work life and personal life  · Seniority The time duration that a person has held a position. When people are respect to the seniority, it will increase job satisfaction  · Compensation The rewards and the role of money Individual Factors  · Commitment This is the dedication that a person is doing to his/her job. If the actions of researching, selecting and the way he/she doing the job is visible to friends and others, then the person is satisfied.  · Expectations Every person has some expectation. Basically what people expect in return for work.  · Job involvement How important a job in someones life. More the person involved more satisfaction.  · Effort / reward ratio This is the balance between the amount they worked and rewards received  · Comparisons How a person can rate the job with someone else jobs. If a person has a good job compared to others they are satisfied.  · Age How old someone, the people who old have more work experience, they understand what are the best thing to do, but sometimes they cannot satisfy with their job. Younger people have no previous experience which to compare with the current job. So they are satisfied. Table 1 There are two main theories of job satisfaction, Variance theory and the model of job characteristics. According to Hackman and Oldham (1975) the variance theory explains that if you want X from your work then you are satisfied to the extent that it provides you with X. The second model explains the causes of job satisfaction are objective characteristics. When the employees are satisfied with their work they tend to work more, they are become more committed to the organization, and they are more productive than previous, they try to achieve their targets in a better way. (Bravendam Research Incorporated, 2002). However job satisfaction association with organizational commitment that was not mentioned in most of the studies was noted by Elangovan (2001). A negative association between the job satisfaction, stress and commitment was indicated in his study. According to his study, higher stress leads to lower job satisfaction and this in turn results in lower commitment. Petty et al, ( 1984) explains that there are three possible links between performance and job satisfaction. 1. Satisfaction generates performance 2. Performance generates satisfaction 3. Satisfaction and performance link indirectly 1. Satisfaction generates performance When designing the job it should aim to produce job satisfaction. Then it will optimize worker performance. 2. Performance generates satisfaction When a person perform well that achievement generates job satisfaction. He/ she feel to do more for their job. So the effort should be made to improve performance then it will increase job satisfaction. 3. Satisfaction and performance link indirectly These two are linked but under certain conditions. Apart from the above theories, there are successful studies proving the importance and impact of maintaining a satisfied workforce. The analysis by Vroom (1964) covered 20 studies, in each of which one or measures of job satisfaction or employee attitudes were correlated with one or more criteria of performance. Low salaries, lack of status and social security affect the motivation. When the motivation is low, job satisfaction is low. Lack of job satisfaction is a sign of turnover in an organization. The salaries and benefits which employees can achieve are related to job satisfaction. Motivation â€Å"Management is nothing more than motivating other people†, is one of the most popular proven principle followed within any kind of organization. Motivation is concerned with the strength and direction of behaviour and the factors that influence individuals to behave in certain ways. Individuals are motivated to perform in a specific method based on their perception of the situation. Motivation primarily concerned with what energizes human behaviour, what direct or channels such behaviour, how this behaviour is maintained. Motivation concerns energy, persistence and direction. According to Arnold et al (1991) there are three components of motivation, 1. Direction -what a person is trying to do 2. Effort how hard a person is trying 3. Persistence how long a person keeps on trying According to the diagram felt need creates tension for people. Tensions motivate people to avoid it. The environment will influence to shape people needs and expectations influence the effort. Management can influence employees expectations in a different ways, by offering incentives and setting them specific goals. The persons effort and results can influence the level of performance. The rewards / outcomes are the results achieved. Outcome can come from internal / external environment. Outcomes are always not positive; it can be negative as well. If it is negative, they tend to result in employee dissatisfaction / de motivation. There are number of motivation theories which are complementary to one another. The content models in motivation mainly focus on the needs that individuals are trying to satisfy in a situation. The process models focus on how managers can change the situation in a better way to tie satisfaction to performance. Reinforcement theory is as developed by Hull (1951) suggests that successes, in achieving goals and rewards act as positive incentives and reinforce the successful behaviour, which is repeated the next time a similar need emerges which is coincided with the theory by Taylor (1911), who wrote: â€Å"It is impossible, through any longer period of time, to get workmen to work much harder than the average men around them unless they are assured a large and permanent increase in their pay†. In this theory there are four principal techniques available, 1. Positive reinforcement If someone encourages the people when they done something they are utilising positive reinforcement. 2. Escape/avoidance reinforcement (Negative Reinforcement) This is a form of a reinforcement. It increases the behaviour of a person by taking away something bad. The negative reinforcement is not same as punishment. It is not a form of a punishment. 3. Extinction (repeated non reinforcement) Elimination of behaviour 4. Punishment Most of the people are not expected to take this kind of an experience. The main idea of punishment is to withhold rewards. Motivation is only likely when a clearly perceived and usable relationship exists between performance and outcome, and the outcome is seen as a means of satisfying needs. This theory was developed by Porter and Lawler (1968) in to a model that follows Vrooms ideas by suggesting that there are two factors determining the effort people put in to their jobs. First the value of the rewards to individuals that they satisfy their needs for security, social esteem, autonomy and self actualization, and the second is that rewards depend on effort, as perceived by individuals. According to Latham and Locke (1979) motivation and performance are higher when individuals are set specific goals, when goals are difficult but accepted, and when there is feedback on performance. Abraham Maslow developed the Hierarchy of needs model in 1940s and still it valid today to understand motivation, management training and personal development. This model explains the responsibility of employers to provide the work place environment which is encourages employees to fulfill their requirements. At the same time he explains needs are interrelated with some other needs that are less understood. Those are, Knowledge needs, understanding needs and aesthetic needs. The relationship of Maslows other needs The need for knowledge is defined as the desire to build up facts and s. The need for understanding is an extension of the need for knowledge. This involves search for the relationships between things and what they know and it includes the search for meaning. The aesthetic needs are the beautiful things need to be surrounded. According to Maslow all these need

Immigration Case Study :: Immigration Immigrant Essays Papers

Immigration Case Study Four hours a week, discussing the issues of immigration, combined with a mountain of reading on the topic will eventually have an effect on a person's every day outlook. I discovered as much during my last semester at University. The absence of thought was more than made up for in the ensuing semester, as the ideas we discussed in class oozed into my daydreams, my personal time, and my personal associations. And if all that hadn?t happened, I never would have met Rosa. I came down the stairs in the hotel reservation center where I work and slid down the worn, but very clean tiles towards the employee?s break room. As had become a habit in the past few weeks, I was thinking over the most recent reading from SOC 331. This one was by Jo Ann Koltyk?New Pioneers in the Heartland, Hmong Life in Wisconsin. It told the story of several Hmong refugees who were carving out a new life for themselves in Wisconsin. It was filled with statistics and numbers, but what always came back to me when I least expected it was the people, and the faces that I dreamed up for them. Sometimes I would try to see out from inside those faces and watch how folks reacted to me, wondering if they wanted me to leave and go back ?home.? But, of course, being a white boy from Utah, I was one of the least qualified for that little piece of introspection. Rosa was mopping the otherwise empty break room. I didn?t know her name at that point. In fact I had never given her more than a friendly smile before side-stepping her custodian cart, and heading back to the time clock. I had heard her speaking in Spanish to the few other janitors, all of whom worked the late shift like me on the weekends. I worked poor hours because I was relatively new in my department. They worked them, I assumed because no one wanted to see floors being mopped during the day. As I stepped into the room this time, I looked at the woman who was cleaning the tiles for me and discovered that I was impressed. Immigration Case Study :: Immigration Immigrant Essays Papers Immigration Case Study Four hours a week, discussing the issues of immigration, combined with a mountain of reading on the topic will eventually have an effect on a person's every day outlook. I discovered as much during my last semester at University. The absence of thought was more than made up for in the ensuing semester, as the ideas we discussed in class oozed into my daydreams, my personal time, and my personal associations. And if all that hadn?t happened, I never would have met Rosa. I came down the stairs in the hotel reservation center where I work and slid down the worn, but very clean tiles towards the employee?s break room. As had become a habit in the past few weeks, I was thinking over the most recent reading from SOC 331. This one was by Jo Ann Koltyk?New Pioneers in the Heartland, Hmong Life in Wisconsin. It told the story of several Hmong refugees who were carving out a new life for themselves in Wisconsin. It was filled with statistics and numbers, but what always came back to me when I least expected it was the people, and the faces that I dreamed up for them. Sometimes I would try to see out from inside those faces and watch how folks reacted to me, wondering if they wanted me to leave and go back ?home.? But, of course, being a white boy from Utah, I was one of the least qualified for that little piece of introspection. Rosa was mopping the otherwise empty break room. I didn?t know her name at that point. In fact I had never given her more than a friendly smile before side-stepping her custodian cart, and heading back to the time clock. I had heard her speaking in Spanish to the few other janitors, all of whom worked the late shift like me on the weekends. I worked poor hours because I was relatively new in my department. They worked them, I assumed because no one wanted to see floors being mopped during the day. As I stepped into the room this time, I looked at the woman who was cleaning the tiles for me and discovered that I was impressed.

Inflation and the Economy Essays -- Inflation Economy Economics Essays

Inflation and the Economy WHY UNDER MONETARY FREEDOM INFLATION COULD BE STOPPED WITHOUT BRINGING ABOUT UNEMPLOYMENT 1. Unemployment and inflation do coexist and inflation causes much unemployment which would cease with it. 2. Excessively inflated prices would fall to market prices and so promote sales and employment. 3. Less government spending would mean more private spending. 4. Prices and wages could be adjusted fast. If this is not done then this is not the effect of stopping inflation! 5. Price adjustments through gold-value clearing could take place already during a continuing paper money inflation - leaving no adjustment problem. 6. While FALLING prices do indeed deter from buying and promote unemployment, FALLEN prices do the contrary. Under monetary freedom there would only be FALLEN prices. 7. The un- or under-used productive capital investment would, under monetary freedom, be almost fully used and would thus ensure that there arises or remains no unemployment. 8. Under monetary freedom there would also be no difficulty to mobilize fully the real working capital of any country: the goods and services ready for retail sale and to finance with them full employment - naturally at market wages and prices. 9. Monetary freedom would allow all desired exchanges to take place and would put Say's Law, that supply tends to create equivalent demand, into practice. No sales difficulties or unemployment would result. 10.Unemployment is an unnatural condition: Under monetary freedom it would no more occur than under barter. TEN WAYS HOW, INDEED, WRONG ATTEMPTS TO STOP INFLATION COULD LEAD TO UNEMPLOYMENT - UNDER CONTINUED MONETARY DESPOTISM. 1. Stopping the note ... ...s of the free banking literature. 17. A critique of the note issue monopoly. Sorry, but 15-17 are not yet out, either. On the other hand, LMP has fiched hundreds of monetary freedom titles, including a 124pp free banking bibliography. A handbook on monetary freedom and one dealing especially with cause and cure for unemployment are still in the works by February 1999. John Zube, 11. 2. 1999. Note: I merely scanned this text in and afterward somewhat corrected the scanning and did minor editing. The scanning may still have left some mistakes I did not notice, apart from my own and usual ones. The Word 97 program sometimes insists upon its own layout and stubbornly resists my correction attempts. Somewhat corrected and edited on 26.6.1999 & 2.7.99. Bibliography: Go back to: lmphomepage.htm.htm Go forward to: app23-lt.htm.htm

Moore’s Proposed Proof for an External World :: Philosophy Literature Essays

Moore’s Proposed Proof for an External World In his â€Å"Proof of an External World†, Moore puts forth several supported hypotheses in regards to the nature of the existence of things outside the self. Primarily, Moore discusses hands; his argument is that if he can produce two hands then it follows logically that two hands must exist. Furthermore, Moore puts forth the theory that if hands exist then this alone is proof of an external world. In opposition to Moore’s opinions will be found three main arguments: firstly that all of Moore’s evidence is based upon sensory input, secondly that the truth of one fact based on the truth of another fact forms an Epistemic Circle in this case, and finally that the evidence out forth by Moore, even if proved, does not necessarily prove the fact that he is attempting to prove. Moore’s â€Å"Proof of an External World† is based on the fact that he has two hands. Moore’s argument for the existence of these hands is as follows: I can prove now, for instance, that two human hands exist. How? By holding up my two hands, and saying, as I make a certain gesture with the right hand, >Here is one hand=, and adding, as I make a certain gesture with the left, >and here is another=. And if, by doing this, I have proved ipso facto the existence of external things, you will all see that I can also do it now in numbers of other ways: there is no need to multiply examples.1 Moore’s evidence for the existence of hands is based entirely upon data received from the senses, yet in no way at any time does Moore even put forth any proof in support of the assumption that his senses are indeed functioning correctly and are not in fact deceiving him. Take for example the argument put forth by Descartes that reads as follows: I will suppose therefore that not God, who is supremely good and the source of truth, but rather some malicious demon of the utmost power and cunning has employed all his energies in order to deceive me. I shall think that the sky, the air, the earth, colours, shapes, sounds and all external things are merely the delusions of dreams which he has devised to ensnare my judgment.

BPO: The Boon with a Twist Essay

The India business process outsourcing (BPO) ‘success story’ needs to be tempered with a strong dose of caution. The two issues that this paper seeks to raise viz. employees’ welfare and working at the lower end of the value chain, need to be addressed if indeed the BPO phenomenon is to be called a ‘boon’ for India. The paper discusses the state of the industry in India and the reasons why BPO is the ‘Big Wave’. However, the emphasis of the paper is on another aspect of the story that at best ignored and at worst completely discounted. Some vital questions have been raised like- what is the impact that this newly spawned industry is having on the millions that is now employs? Also, it is not just about the health of the individual that is of concern here. It is about the entire social, physical and psychological fabric of a nation that is slowly changing. From the perspective of the companies also, the high staff turnover must makes it increasingly expensive for India based operations to maintain and improve their quality of service. Another dark side of the story is that India is still working on the low end of the value chain of the business-processes. Over time India’s success will depend on moving up the value chain and make the competitiveness non-replicable by other low cost countries. Read more:  BPO Management System The paper concludes with some solutions to the above-mentioned problems, concentrating primarily on the employee welfare and moving up the value chain. This requires the concerted efforts of both the industry and the government. BPO: The Boon with a Twist â€Å"Yesterday upon the stair I met a man who wasn’t there He wasn’t there again today I wish that man would go away† The Sunrise Sector: An Introduction There have been various studies and papers highlighting how the BPO is the best thing to happen to the Indian youth since the Internet. And not without reason. McKinsey and Co. tell us that by 2008 India will have a whooping 5 million people employed in the BPO sector and will be able to boast of additional revenues in excess of $57 billion. We need this opportunity like never before. However, there is another aspect of the story that is relatively ignored by both, the industry captains and the popular press alike. This paper looks into that aspect of the BPO industry in India and attempts to question the ‘blind faith’ in the sector. It raises some vital questions like- what is the impact that this newly spawned industry is having on the millions that is now employs? Are the reports that we keep hearing, about over-stressed 22-somethings leaving their jobs and the irritable alienated-from-friends-and-family youngsters true? It is not just about the health of the individual that is of concern here. The entire social fabric of a nation that is slowly changing as fresh graduates suddenly find themselves with lots of money due to these sunrise sector jobs, but no time or energy to spend it. The Bright Side The major driving force in the BPO sector is money. In his or her first job, an Indian back-office recruit can easily earn between Rs.15, 000 and Rs.20, 000 a month, which may only be a tenth of what their US counterparts earn, but considering that in terms of the World Bank-calculated purchasing-power parity, $1 can buy four times as much in India as it can in the US, Rs.15,000 per month is certainly a lot more than pocket change to an average youngster. Competition, sense of achievement, and financial freedom are the other driving forces, say BPO professionals. A brief snapshot of how the BPO industry operates puts forth some very interesting facts. The BPO industry is built around the raison d’ etre of efficiency and cost-effectiveness. With the current focus on core business capabilities, many companies in the Western world are outsourcing select business functions to expert partners. BPO takes a set of activities and takes on the responsibility of reengineering the entire way the operation is done. The most popular BPO activity currently outsourced to India is Call Centre operations. Companies selling products or services very often promise 24Ãâ€"7 support through telephones, email or the Internet for their wares. These require a large workforce to constantly be ready at helpdesks with answers to questions customers may call in with. The cost of setting up a call center in the US combined with the cost of wages is 10 to 20 times the cost of setting up a center in a developing nation like India. Hence, these companies re-route the calls made to helpdesks for their products to Indian call centres. These calls are handled by Indians sitting in India and donning an identity (and an accent) similar to their US counterparts. In pure economic terms it is much more sensible to run cost centres like these out of India. The average savings are in the region of 20-30%. And in an age when a penny saved is a penny earned these savings can be used to fuel further growth. The Not So Bright Side: The Human Face One of the reasons that provides India this opportunity is that Indians have readily adapted to – and are working entirely in the US time zone. This phenomenon has only increased over the past few years, popularly known as working the ‘Graveyard Shift’. In its eagerness to pave the way for the BPO boom, the government is infringing on protections bitterly fought for, like the eight-hour day.1 Labor legislation governing employment of workers in this sector is being amended to allow for night-shift work, work during notified holidays in India, staggering of weekends off and the like. Registered trade unions already struggling against this onslaught. Various researches on this darker aspect present some hard facts: * There is an increasing number of BPO employees who leave because they can’t handle the pressure and schedule of jobs * For most of them stress at work is their biggest source of discomfort * Most of these stressed-out employees suffer from sleep-related disorders and have digestive disorders. * Women who work the night shift face an increased risk of breast cancer of up to 60 percent2. * Stress is leading to impairment of conventional social and family life. Difficulties are particularly acute for women with child-care responsibilities. The high stress and irregular hours are taking their toll on many of the mostly just-out-of-college employees. Nutritionists, doctors and psychiatrists say there has been a dramatic increase in call center employees coming to them with problems like hair loss, ear infections from contaminated head phones, ulcers and digestion problems, piles and sleeplessness. All this is having far reaching consequences on the lives of the individuals who are working in this industry. The Not So Bright Side: The Value Chain Outsourcing – a job that no graduate or educated person in the US wants to do is shifted to low wage developing countries like India where there are ‘high quality’ graduates to do the job. In fact that’s the main USP of India – English speaking, ‘high quality’ people being employed for work that may not require half their potential. If we take our best and brightest and put them in dead end outsourcing jobs, where is this country headed? NASSCOM is touting the BPO industry as the new wave. There is no denying that it creates jobs. However the real question is for how long and what kinds of jobs? The government is spending huge resources to educate the highly talented young people only to relegate them to mindless transaction processing. The lucre of these jobs can be ascertained from the disinterest shown the educated people in Europe and US. In these ‘sending countries’ its seen as a part time job – something a college dropout or housewife with time to kill would do. India needs to worry about her youth. The best and brightest go to the US and work there which is an intellectual drain for India. The others – and undoubtedly a lot of bright ones do remain – seem to be sucked by into this BPO machine. India cannot afford continue working at the lowest end of the value chain. Sooner or later Indian companies will have to realize – and fight for – the fact we need to do a little more of the ‘value-added work’. In the long run, the business model of Indian BPOs will become unsustainable and unless they re-engineer a transformation the entire sector will fail to exist as an industry3. Taking a Moment As BPO employees soon find out, money and the college-like ambience is not everything. Cultural shifts, loss of identity, stress due to continuous night shifts and adverse effect on health were only some of the problems that cropped up in several interviews with employees of BPOs. For youngsters it’s a trade-off between what they gain in poise and confidence, and what they lose out in family life and social circle of friends who were not part of this field. Suffering severe sleep disturbances, headaches and even blackouts, most spend all their time away from the job sleeping. And the only long-term solution they can suggest is to quit. Hence, it is of serious concern not only for the employees but also for the companies. The issue of quality of service is raised by the very high staff turnover rates in India, especially at call centres, where annual turnover is said to exceed 50 per cent. High staff turnover is reported even amongst the more established, employee friendly IT companies, some of whom offer stock options and residential accommodations to entice employees to stay on. High staff turnover must make it increasingly expensive for India based operations to maintain and improve their quality of service. This is due to the rising costs for hiring and training and the higher wages needed to attract quality employees. It costs an average of Rs.20,000 to train every Call Center employee4. With the attrition rate so high this is hitting the bottom line for these companies very hard. Moreover high dropout rates have much larger implications for maintaining consistent quality standards. It is impossible to maintain a high quality of service when the entire workforce turns over every 3 years.5 The Road Ahead This section deals with some proposed solutions to fight the two challenges. Improving Employee Welfare: In some countries where the call center industry has been there for a while, e.g. UK and Australia a lot of understanding on what this unique workplace entails and what needs to be done about it, has evolved. For instance, in the UK, the government intervened a while ago with a local authority circular called ‘Advice Regarding Call Center Working Practices’. This circular lists in detail the stress factors and ailments peculiar to this industry, and has various measures to deal with them. However in India, no understanding of the problem exists. This is a serious concern not only from the employee’s end but also from the company’s perspective. The employers incur huge costs of agent attrition due to stress. It’s high time that the Indian government and the industry made some concerted effort on the lines of the above-mentioned countries and brought forth proactive measures of dealing with employee issues in call centers. Role of Companies Companies need to get their act together quickly if they have to arrest the high rate of inflation and avoid the high burnout rate among employees. One of the things to be understood is that the BPO sector is not yet being looked at as a career but rather as a stop-gap arrangement till a better job comes up. Unfortunately as is turns out the next ‘non-bpo’ sector job for most of these individuals turns out to be a fairly less paying one as well. Towards this end taking care of the employees well being becomes a priority for the companies. Most companies are already moving in this direction with well established programs that take care of the all round well-being of the employees with regular health checkups, reduced work hours, adequate training programs and a concern for the employees growth in the organization. Employee welfare will work on three factors each of which need to be understood by organization. Towards this goal an integrated strategy for employee welfare can be developed. Some specific recommendations regarding ensuring employee well being can include regular mental and physical check-ups for employees, periodic counseling on career regulating the number of night shifts worked in a row etc. More importantly, such programs wherein certain employees can avail of funding to aid further studies should be introduced. Role of Government An important part needs to be played by the government in regulating the industry with regards to labour laws. Although the government’s provisions to make it easier for the industry to grow at the pace it has are commendable, this growth cannot be had at the expense of human capital. It is necessary to safeguard the interests of the employees through enforced regulations to ensure sustenance. Specifically the government needs to re-look at * Specific regulations monitoring night-shift work * Monitoring work during notified holidays and weekends * Review of policies regarding food arrangements at workplaces * Policies regarding working of women at night – ensuring safety Moving up the value chain: Despite the fact that the world’s athletic shoes are produced in low-wage environments, their design remains firmly rooted in developed nations. Even today, despite all of the electronics manufacturing located in developing nations, the bulk of the value-added design remains in the developed nations. Taking on the ‘risks’ of the business-processes instead of simply reengineering them is one of the surest ways of convincing outsourcing companies to give greater value added work to the Indian firms. Similarly, it is important to forge alliances and partnerships of the outsourcing companies to convince them to trust us with their core processes instead on taking on fringe work. To summarize, in the end there are only two sustainable end-game models for companies in the BPO segment – the first is insight driven and the other is a platform model. Both of them leverage on proprietary capabilities of individual companies. Over time, a country’s competitiveness will eventually be commoditized and therefore become replicable. India is at that stage. For further growth a company will have to differentiate itself from the labor arbitrage and country competitiveness gamut and build on in-house capabilities that sets it apart. When Indian BPOs move away from the ‘replication’ model and start providing specialized value-added services for clients, they have a far greater chance of surviving, he said. The issue of differential time zones that forces Indian employees to take on jobs with permanent night shifts seems to be completely non-negotiable. However, by shifting the nature of work away from real time to delayed time, this too can be man aged in some companies over a period of time.    1 The Karnataka government has â€Å"simplified† labor legislations: Several barriers, including employment of women at night, flexible working hours, mandatory weekly offs have all been removed by necessary amendments to relevant laws to create an â€Å"optimal environment† for the growth of the BPO sector in the State. 2 A study (2001) by the Seattle based Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, in association with the National Cancer Institute 3 Presentation on the BPO landscape and possible end-game models at the NASSCOM ITES-BPO Summit in Bangalore in June 2003. 4 McKinsey-Nasscom study 2002 5 Went for Cost, Stayed for Quality: Moving the Back Office to India, paper by Rafiq Dossani, Senior Research Scholar, Asia/Pacific Research Center, Stanford University

Discuss the Importance of Dreams in Of Mice and Men Essay

The book ‘Of Mice and Men’ was published in September, 1937 and was set in the depression of the 1930s in California at the location of Soledad. Steinbeck uses ‘Soledad’ because it translates as loneliness which arises the point that the time in which this book was set was a time of loneliness where it was very unusual to have a companion or family with you which led to the existence of dreams; to look forward to more pleasant and happier times. At this time: 1930s America, most Americans had the so-called American Dream. This was to own their own piece of land as well as being the boss of it. This was the common dream amongst ranch workers to have something to live for and aid them with their loneliness. The dream came into existence in the 1800s when land was more readily available. By the 1930s, when this novella was set, it was almost impossible to make their dreams a reality due to the 1929 Wall Street stock market collapse which had resulted in prices increasing drastically, and more importantly; there was a desperate act of poverty making people sell what they had and live on the streets. This is what led to the rugged individualism of each person. As well as this, it was made even more difficult as most land had been bought beforehand. It is due to the Wall Street Crash that many went to California for work. President Roosevelt at that time had the job of directing workers such as George and Lennie to ranches or farms where there was work. Steinbeck uses Lennie and George to personify the dream of the migrant worker; own their own land along with giving the opportunity to settle in the ‘promised land (California)’. Migrant workers are labourers who work on ranches as harvesters involving lifting heavy materials; hard work for little wages. They have no family or friends as they continuously travel to different ranches in California in order to keep work. This is how workers had to get jobs and was the way of life for migrant workers. In relation to this, work card were important as it gave them a work permit which ranch owners required when recruiting. In comparison to modern day working conditions, workers such as George and Lennie would not receive holidays, sickness payments or old age pensions from their ranch. Therefore, futures for most men looked bleak. Without dreams, no-one would have reason to keep going. An example of this is Lennie wanting his own animals in the future to ‘pet.’ There is symbolism within the book that refers to the Garden of Eden. He sets the scene of this by using description such as â€Å"Willows fresh and green with every spring† which could be interpreted as referring to the Garden of Eden. I believe Steinbeck is trying to put across the imperfectness of humans along with temptation and results of doing a â€Å"bad thing† (said by Lennie). Lennie shows that temptation causes him to lose his way and represents the imperfection of humans. His desire to pet soft objects without foreseeing the consequences puts him on a collision course with others. Also, the girl in Weed and Curley’s wife are both temptations that made his curiosity grow and he could not resist. Curley’s wife could be seen as the serpent in the garden; a liar, a temptation, a manipulator of men to get her way. Like Eve, she is curious, in this case about Lennie. Her actions are innocent but the outcomes are bad, (telling Lennie to touch her soft hair in the barn which leads to her death) just as Eve’s actions caused them and human beings to be sent of the ‘perfect place.’ Curley’s wife’s actions tempt Lennie whose actions cause him along with the others to lose their dream of a little farm. Lastly, Adam and Eve were thrown out of Eden for going against God; therefore mankind is in loneliness and wandering. Steinbeck shows this when George asks who used to live on his bunk with Candy replying that he had just left: â€Å"gimme my time one might like any guy would.† After this, George then brings Lennie along which creates suspicion because two men didn’t travel together; â€Å"Hardly none of the guys ever travel together.† There was a big contrast in the timeless rural vision of America and what was to all but end this: the 1930s Depression. The vision was that workers will move up the ranks of working to eventually own their individual land; however this would never be when the 1930s Depression occurred. There was a big drop in every economic growth along with very high unemployment. It also resulted in countries leaving the gold standard in order to recover. These reasons helped the American Dream to not be a successful one for so many. Steinbeck is effective and does well to imply that there is another world other then the perfect one that was envisaged by everyone by saying: â€Å"beaten hard by the boys coming down from the ranches† and â€Å"beaten hard by tramps who come wearily down from the highway.† Words such as â€Å"beaten hard† and â€Å"tramps† suggest this other world and show the stark contrast between dreams and reality. The main characters include George, who is a small, quick man with well-defined features. He is a migrant ranch worker who dreams of one day saving enough money to buy his own place and being his own boss, many men in the Depression dreamed of this. His only set back is his mentally handicapped friend Lennie whom he travels with and has been since he promised Lennie’s Aunt Clara he would look after him after she died. Looking after Lennie stops George from working towards his dream and even prevent him from having a normal life of a rancher, because of this, George and Lennie regularly fight. George yearns for companionship as can be told by the metaphor of him playing solitaire. The tension of having to look after Lennie and himself shows in George and he shows a wide variety of emotions during the novella, from anger to patience to sadness. Lennie is mentally slow, he’s enormous. He is George’s companion and he is the source of the all the novel’s conflict. He is George’s opposite both mentally and physically. Lennie’s innocence and helplessness, his childish actions, such is his desire to pet soft things makes him likeable to the readers of the novella. George and Lennie’s dream is more materialistic than to just own land and be their own boss, as they envision a place where â€Å"nobody gona get hurt nor steal from them.† The friendship between the two is firmly rooted in their dream. Candy and Crooks along with others are also caught up in the dream. Curly’s wife also had a dream which was to become a movie star. But in one way or another, all the dreams of these workers are smashed.