Dispute Summary

Introduction This paper will concentrate on a dispute that occurred in a company where my friend worked. The dispute has been resolved informally and has never resulted in any form of legal process such as grievance, agency complaint, arbitration, or litigation. The management of the company succeeded in using effectively the services of a third-party mediator, applying the so-called Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR). We will examine the effectiveness of the dispute resolution process, given the seriousness and the length of the dispute.The start of the disputeThe dispute was originated due to the computer fraud by the company's employees. The company is a medium-size local grocery store chain. The management discovered that employees of the accounting department were sometimes skipping booking some of the transactions, selling in this way some of the stuff they traded on their own. In this way they developed a business of their own, in fact using the company's premises. When the store manager discovered this practice, he decided to take the fraudulent employees to court, claiming a compensation of the lost revenue and profits.However, the chief executive of the branch suggested that the conflict can be resolved without costly litigation, offering that the employees who had perpetrated the fraud compensate the losses. Analysis of the dispute The dispute appeared between several stakeholders in the firm. It evolved on the level employee-supervisor, and in fact involved three separate levels such as rank-and-file employees (accountants), and top management (chief executive officer of the company). The subject was the dispute was the punishment that the employees should get for their fraud.Dispute Resolution Process The dispute was resolved through the application of Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR). The management of the firm invited a third-party mediator. The mediating firm, Legal Solutions, opened the mediation process with a joint session where they in vited all the participants in the conflict. Namely, all project managers and department heads were present, as well as representatives of the other employees. In these meetings, the mediator also asked the parties’ representatives to put forward their suggestions for the solution of the issue.Then the mediator once again held meetings with parties separately seeking to inform each party of the other’s solutions. The lead mediator has worked out his own solution for the dispute and offered it for both parties’ consideration. The working proposition was discussed and accepted by the parties. Subsequently, the dispute resolution process ended with signing a detailed written agreement by both parties.Assessment of the effectiveness of the dispute resolution processI would say that this dispute was resolved in a very speedy and efficient manner as it was resolved in less than two weeks. The ending of the process without resort to formal procedures like arbitration or litigation can also be considered a success for the project. The process ended with the decision that employees paid the sum that exceeded the losses of the company in the double amount. They benefited from such a decision as their case was not taken to court, and they did not have their reputations marred by the lawsuit.All of the fraudsters had to resign, but kept a clean record. The company, on its part, saved on the litigation expenses, and received the needed compensation. Conclusion The dispute related to fraud in the grocery store has been resolved effectively and in a timely manner. This effectiveness was reached through the involvement of a third party, a mediator, who brought his expertise and skill to the mediation table opening new channels of communication and helped to achieve a lasting accord among the firm’s employees.

Social Capital has been described as involving egocentric, weak ties and socio-centric types of relationships

Social Capital has been described as involving egocentric, weak ties and socio-centric types of relationships. How might these concepts help to improve the way organisations generate new knowledge. Might some these concepts also act as a barrier to generating and sharing knowledge? Explain your answer. Introduction In contemporary, highly developing business environment, the success factors of many organisations have been affected with the rapid advancement in communication and ways of sharing knowledge. The knowledge economy has changed the basis of trading and doing business. Success and wealth of businesses no longer depends on their wealth of organisations but on the abilities and knowledge of their employees and the degree to which an organisation harnesses and develops those skills. The more effective the relationship between supplier and customer, the more successful an organisation is. This success depends on their abilities to operate in today's fast moving global marketplace. Defining the notion of Social Capital The notion of social capital first appeared in discussions of rural school community centers by Lyda Judson Hanifan's. Hanifan addressed the cultivation of good will, fellowship, sympathy and social intercourse among those that ‘made up a social unit.' More recently however, the work of Robert D. Putnam (1993, 2000) launched social capital as a focus for research and policy discussion. Putman defined the concept of social capital as â€Å"Features of social organisation, such as trust, norms and networks that can improve the efficiency of society by facilitating coordinated action† (Putnam, 1993). This definition of social capital can be criticised for adopting a single view, and being too narrow, as it ignores the fact that social capital can generate negative externalities as well as positive. Putman assumes ‘trust, norms and networks' to have positive outcomes for an individual, or a group however fails to recognise that it can be harmful for an organisation as a whole. Michael Woolcock on the other hand defined social capital as â€Å"the norms and social relations embedded in the social structure that enable people to coordinate action to achieve desired goals† This definition not only recognises both positive and negative externalities of social capital but focuses solely on sources of social capital, rather than also including the outcomes derived from it. One of the most famous examples where social capital is commonly referred to is in Silicon Valley (San Francisco). Silicon Valley is in the southern part of the San Francisco Bay Area in Northern California in the United States. It contains many high tech businesses that are supplying the global market with many innovating technologies and silicon microchips. In Silicon Valley, there is a very high level of knowledge held within individual firms, but this would be true whether they were located in clusters or in isolation. There is also a very high level of knowledge about the firms as well. This information is differentially more available to those in the Valley and in the network. This knowledge is not just technical, it is knowledge about who is a good manager or well connected. It is embedded in the social setting, a knowledge that comes from learning and being in the place where the knowledge is being used, and having an opportunity to use it in that setting. It is about knowled ge use and production in action. Social Capital – promotes knowledge sharing and communication Many contemporary theorists who conducted studies on social capital identified two differing perspectives within the concept. These concepts are socio-centric, and ego-centric. The socio-centric approach argues that the social structure of interpersonal contacts is important for organizational success (Sandefur and Laumann, 1998). A business can benefit from a strong social structure, by allowing employee cooperation that will enable flexibility and innovation. Knowledge sharing helps employees perform their jobs more effectively, retain their jobs, and guides them in personal and career development. It also rewards them for successful achievements, and brings more personal recognition so that knowledge sharing will become more practiced. By sharing and collaborating with others an employee is more likely to succeed in providing solutions to his/hers own jobs and by helping others achieve their objectives. The philosophy of modern knowledge management exponents is that ‘intrinsic motivation' is the only real motivator of knowledge sharing. This is where an individual, group or community are sympathetic to each other's goals, those of the organisation work for collective goals-if these are best achieved through sharing then this is what happens. Intrinsic motivation is making sure that individuals feel part of the business and culture through reward and recognition. The second perspective of social capital is concerned with the relationships between individuals. Sandefur and Laumann (1998) refer to this as the egocentric approach of social networks, where â€Å"an individual's social capital is characterized by their direct relationships with others and by the other people and relationships that they can reach through those to whom they are directly tied†. From this perspective, social capital is able to explain the differences in the success of individuals and firms in a competitive environment (Adler and Kwon, 1999). A learning organisation views its future and subsequent competitive advantage based on continuous learning and adaptive behaviour. It develops a culture and processes to improve its ability to learn and share both at an individual and organisational level. The main aim is to create a flexible, agile organisation able to handle uncertainty and then hopefully organisations will use this uncertainty to generate new ways of working, to build on this success and learn by mistakes. For example: a large multinational company, British Airways (BA) identified its culture as the biggest barrier it had to learning and sharing so it set out to create an environment where this was made easy. BA developed facilities for staff to access knowledge, libraries, have meeting rooms, training rooms that enhanced its culture. Therefore the facilitation of personal contacts and network, and the enhance role of training and development being a core was British Airways success for its new culture. Social capital – barrier to knowledge sharing and communication As developed in Ronald Burt's theory (1998), the socio-centric notion can act as a barrier to generating and sharing knowledge in an organisation. The socio-centric perspective includes the concept of power benefits acquired by individuals that control structural holes. This idea shows how certain individuals within an organisation may have power over groups of employees and act as the link between them. Such individuals are said to be ‘filling a structural hole', therefore their relative contacts have no direct contact with one another. This allows such an individual to have a certain level of manipulation over knowledge sharing between the two groups and benefit from the social capital derived from them. This can be both an advantage and disadvantage to the firm. It can be an advantage to the individual in that their social capital is increased, and that it allows the two departments to communicate ideas effectively. However the filling of structural holes with one individual could also act as a barrier to generating and sharing new knowledge within the firm. Because when implemented in a firm it means that individuals in different departments do not need to communicate between each other eliminating knowledge sharing within the individuals in each department. Within an egocentric network, sharing of knowledge can be one of the most difficult problems faced by knowledge organisations. In most organisations knowledge sharing requires a change in corporate culture, from ‘information is power' to ‘knowledge sharing build power.' Many organisations decide that the most effective way to encourage individual sharing appears to be through appraisal systems where individuals are asked to assess their own knowledge-sharing behaviours and consider their colleagues view of their sharing performance. The most obvious disadvantages are: an employee may fear senior experts or a supervisor. This fear can have an impact on the way the employee conveys his/her opinions. Another disadvantage is that employees can get compromising solutions from a group of experts with conflicting opinions. This would not give the knowledge engineer an accurate view of the knowledge needed. Also, there can also be a Lack of confidentiality as employees may feel threatened by knowing that their contributions will be shared with and evaluated or validated by other domain experts. However, the results of the appraisals may affect promotion and salary but their use is part of the development culture that includes knowledge sharing as a core competence. Conclusion Social capital has been described as a non-tradable form of capital that will depreciate if not used. Social capital increases in value through use, as relationships get stronger and weak ties are increased (Klaus Nielsen, 2003). In this article we have established that social capital is a rapidly growing notion, more commonly referred to by theorists when discussing issues of economics and organisational knowledge sharing. The concept has been criticised for the diversity of its definition, measurement challenges, and over-versatility (Woolcock and Schuller, 2000). These theorists concluded that social capital can have both a positive and a negative impact on the overall success of an organisation. Positive, in the aspects that a well working network of sharing knowledge can lead to innovation, and greater efficiency of the employees working relationships. Negative in the sense that strong social capital for an individual, or a group of employees does not necessarily guarantee a benefit on a macro scale for the organisation.

Is Flirting the Same as Sexual Harassment

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Interview Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words - 7

Interview - Essay Example of experience working in the position and thus knows a great deal about how the work is done; furthermore, he has developed proper skills with respect to teaching people that are newly hired within the work environment and train them regarding the job at hand. Moreover, he seemed very genial and professional at the same time, making it very comfortable for those working in the library and also has excellent customer management skills which are very essential for the purpose of a good library student leader. Working at the library involves a great deal of customer service and it is like a public service job where one has to cater to the needs of other people; books need to be kept in order, music CDs and films need to be kept in a proper manner so that they are easily found by others when they require them. Furthermore, the organization of all these resources also requires the people handling them to be very careful so as to ensure no damage of the same. We discussed the purpose of various groups within the library work field and how they are organized and utilized in an efficient manner – for example, the purpose of the people handling the inventory; when there are about ten people handling the same, they divide the job among themselves so as to get done faster and in a more efficient manner. Other chores in the library involve discharging books, CDs and DVDs and maintaining them in a proper order. He has spent a considerable amount of time working with various groups in the lib rary carrying out these different functions and has experience in utilizing groups; over the last two years he has used various methods to get the inventory work done faster by segregating the literature in different parts according to their genres, covering the books and then placing them in their respective racks to be found easily and issued by the customers. The groups are thus utilized in an efficient manner; however Mr Ferguson also said that there could be more groups with respect

Buy USA Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words - 1

Buy USA - Essay Example This Commercial Service Trade professional helps the US companies across the globe to increase sales or start exporting in new emerging global markets. The services of Commercial Service include trade counseling, business matchmaking, and market intelligence. Trade data helps the US organizations to identify the potential global markets in order to target exporting efforts. The organization can measure the size of business market for their goods and services. Moreover, it helps the organizations to develop an effective pricing strategy to survive in the competitive global market. Industry pages are regularly updated by several potential commercial specialists around the globe. It helps the organizations to check the industry updates. On the other hand, webinars help the exporters to understand export regulations of several countries. Before starting of new business, it is important for the organization to develop an effective market entry plan. They need to conduct an effective marke t research. It will help them to learn about the potentiality of the specific products and services in a given international market place. The organizations can access the United States Commercial Service Market Research Library. ... Several trade events include seminars and webinars while the fundamental principles of exporting helps the organizations to organize face to face meeting with their business partners and customers. The United States government provides several important resources to the exporters. It helps them to identify potential business leads. This Export.gov Trade Guide Database includes time sensitive leads, pre-screened leads and government tenders. The MCC is a government corporation of United States. This Millennium Challenge Corporation was designed to work collaboratively with some underdeveloped countries. This Millennium Challenge Corporation depends upon a key principle that helps to provide global aid in order to reinforce economic freedom, effective governance and public investments. However, it has been identified that the Export.gov is trying to help the exporters to increase their business competencies in global market place. Discuss how you would leverage two (2) resources in the short term and two (2) that could be used for long-term planning. Influence of the United State government, vast global network and effective business contact will help the exporters to leverage their knowledge. The organization can use international sales and marketing strategies and international financial strategies as their short term resources. The US organizations can access online resources. It will help them to get customized counseling. The organization can develop their international business plan and strategy. This short term resources will help the organizations to target potential international market. Moreover, through this resource the organization can

Doctor patient relationship Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Doctor patient relationship - Essay Example Carver takes this idea further by looking at the way in which a career limits the communication skills of a person. The minimal style enhances the starkness of loss especially when it is accompanied by a distant doctor. The paper concludes that the intention of both texts is to illuminate the inequality of the doctor/patient relationship although, unlike Carver, Williams resolves this. Carver provides a hint at the answer by the family finding resolution with the baker. 'A Small, Good Thing' and 'The Girl with the Pimply Face' are initially comparable because they share the subject matter of the medical profession and the narrative techniques are superficially quite similar. The primary theme is the sensitivity of patient/doctor relationships. Williams' story focuses on the doctor's humanity; his susceptibility to desire, boredom and irresponsibility, but also his caring response to a family facing several problems. Changeability is a central quality of being human. Everyone is subject to the same whims and desires whether they are a doctor or not. He has the desire to help, gives his work freely, possesses a genuine interest in the family and does not criticise his patients when they cannot pay. On the other hand there are hints that he is nave because he does not realise the family are taking advantage of him. Furthermore his reasons for being interested in the family are ambiguous. His concern possibly stems from his attraction to the girl with acne rather than genuine professional interest. Although his interest in her is professional; he wants to help her acne and her legs, his thoughts reveal there is something about the girl that would be of interest to him whether or not she needed his attention as a doctor,. Conversely Carver treats the medical profession with suspicion, focusing on the gap between doctors and the ordinary family. Where Williams uses similar language for both the doctor and the girl, Carver uses different language. Williams emphasises the willingness of his doctor to step over professional boundaries and help the girl with advice and money whereas Carver's doctors shift the blame of Scotty's death away from themselves, emphasising that there was nothing they could do. Dr. Francis was disinclined to linger with the parents at the end and Ann feels as if he wants her to leave before she is ready. He never crosses over the professional line. Each story uses distinctive narrative methods to expound this theme. Firstly, neither story has an objective narrator. The Williams' story is told by the doctor and the language is colloquial. There is an outstanding lack of conventional grammar. Spoken words mingle with description. For example, 'What's the matter with her I asked.' (79) The effect is two-fold. Firstly it envelops the reader in the doctor's world, inviting sympathy. However it also makes him susceptible to criticism. His language is not medical and his attention darts quickly away from his patient. He is different from the traditional image of a doctor. 'For the moment at least I had lost all interest in the baby.'(80) By having access to the doctor's inner thoughts the reader is privileged to his true opinion of his patients, feelings not expected of a doctor, 'this young kid in charge of the house did something to me that I liked.'(80) On the other hand Carver's technique incorporates the inner

Biological effects of the use of dirty bombs Essay

Biological effects of the use of dirty bombs - Essay Example The purpose of this report is to comprehensively examine these effects by assessing relevant scientific studies, researches and literature. Introduction As stated in the preceding section of the report, the focus of this assessment is directed towards conducting an analysis of the biological effects of the use of dirty bombs that are a type of a radiological dispersal device (RDD) which also incorporates the detonation of conventional explosives. The discussion topics that have been identified as primary and key considerations of this report include 1) an introduction to dirty bombs as a type of RDD 2) examination of the use of dirty bombs by military armies 3) identification of the determinants that govern the extent or degree of biological impact of dirty bomb detonation 4) assessment of an organism’s biological response to the detonation of dirty bombs and 5) the biological effects of the use of dirty bombs. ... he quantity and kinds of physical damage linked with the detonation of a dirty bomb would be comparable to that of an attack which is conducted by devices or bombs that are not radioactive in nature (Horoho 224). While, this statement postulates that the impact or effects of a dirty bomb are similar to that of a conventional bomb, the fundamental distinction in this case is that the detonation of a dirty bomb, as a radiological dispersal device (RDD) would result in the likelihood of victims and rescuers coming into contact with radioactive materials by the means of inhalation or through the embedment of radioactive materials in the injured party (Horoho 224). Thus, Lifshitz understands that the adverse effects of dirty bombs can be categorized on the basis of the direct impact of the explosion and the consequences that the victims may experience as a result of being exposed to radiation (710). The military application of dirty bombs involves their utilization as bunker busters in or der to break through fortified targets or targets that are present in underground compounds. Even though, the detonation of dirty bombs has proven to be effective in this regard the key issue of concern is linked with the harmful dispersal of radiation that is caused by the explosion which has the ability to adversely impact indigenous peoples. According to Lifshitz, the extent of the impact of a dirty bomb explosion on the victims can be viewed on a scale which constitutes of high-level radiation and low-level radiation (710). The impact of high-level radiation comprises of the onset of severe illness and radiation sickness, which emerge in a brief period ranging from days to weeks and can be identified as the cause of victim’s death, in most cases (Lifshitz 710). On the contrary, low