It Was Awful And Bitter When The Allies And The Central

It was awful and bitter when the Allies and the Central Powers clashed and unleashed their military power at the war front in World War I. World War I also known as the â€Å"war to all end wars, or the Great War occurred between June 28, 1914, to November 11, 1918. The war left over thirty-eight million civilians and militaries casualties. Much work was needed to get the European countries back together after the war. In the book Fear written by Gabriel Chevallier, the narrator shows the unforgettable memories a war can bring. The main character Jean Dartemont is supposed to be enthusiastic to go to war like many other young nineteen-year-old French men at the time. Nationalism is high in France and there are many military posters promoting†¦show more content†¦He takes a time throughout to book to look at his reason why he went off to war. The physical scars that Jean left with during the war were clearly seen in these accounts. Emotionally the soldiers went off to work feeling unbeatable with a strong nationalistic pride. However, they soon realized that all their emotions would not be able to conqueror the evils the war had to offer. One of the most horrific memories for Jean was when he spoke about the different type of corpse he saw while they were on their way to another town. They had crouched down on their knees under a pile of debris. When they got up they saw a decapitated head of a soldier who probably died days ago. Jean is shaken up by this horrific site by saying that when he looked at the man’s face he could fell like the man was blaming him for his death. He reminisces on all the horrific events emotionally that left him scarred, however, he goes on to say that this was the â€Å"most horrible impression† that he could take away from the war front. Jean later goes on to describe the agony and numerous positions where the corpse would lay. Personally, as the reader, I could really fell the suffering of the dying soldiers when Jean describes the â€Å"glass eyes and twisted mouths† of the dead bodies in the trench†. This evidence took a toll on Jean because he leaves the scene in disgust and without hope of a return home. Lastly, the warShow MoreRelatedChemical Warfare During The First World War1984 Words   |  8 PagesIt is from these experiences, on the bitter, mud drenched fields of Flanders, Eastern Europe, and elsewhere, that many technologies that shape the modern battlefield today, such as the air plane or the tank, were first put to use on a grand scale. It is here too, that another weapon was unleashed upon humanity for first time, but this one was deemed so sinister that the nations of the world near unanimously agreed to ban once the war ended. A weapon so awful that even today, nearly a century afterRead MoreThe Front De Liberation Du Quebec2477 Words   |  10 Pagesunderstanding, ultimately culminating in the publication and distribution of an FLQ manifesto, which brazenly stated, â€Å"We are the workers of Quà ©bec and we will continue to the bitter end. We want to replace the slave society with a free society, functioning by itself and for itself; a society open to the world† (Belanger, 2007). Trudeau was adept at realizing how impactful a persuasive outside influence could be on minority populations who felt left behind by a changing Canada. Being French himself, he openlyRead MoreBhopal Gas Disaster84210 Words   |  337 Pagesto pay for most medical bills. In 1996, t elve years after the disaster, Union Carbide became part of the Dow Chemical w Corporation, which flatly refused to assume any liabilities in India - or clean up the toxic poisons left behind saying that it was the responsibility of the Madhya Pradesh state government which had taken over the site. Today twenty five years since that fateful night, lakhs of people still living in the vicinity of the factory are exposed to toxic chemicals that continue to leachRead MoreStrategic Marketing Management337596 Words   |  1351 PagesStrategic Marketing Management Dedication This book is dedicated to the authors’ wives – Gillian and Rosie – and to Ben Gilligan for their support while it was being written. Acknowledgements Our thanks go to Janice Nunn for all the effort that she put in to the preparation of the manuscript. Strategic Marketing Management Planning, implementation and control Third edition Richard M.S. Wilson Emeritus Professor of Business Administration The Business School Loughborough University

Consequent International HRM Management Issues and Contingencies

Question: Describe about the Consequent International HRM Management Issues and Contingencies. Answer: General Company Setup Overview As a soft drinks company, determination of strategic companys primary home and a secondary host locations would be of great importance to ensure effective and efficient running of business operations with regards to production and marketing factors to ensure the achievement of organizational success and provide for business continuity. Home Location overview The Production unit of the company would greatly determine the general selection of the most suitable location to setup the companys home location with regards: to accessibility of the core manufacturing raw materials (especially sugar), human work-force, accessibility to the market and any consequent factors such as transportation, product standardization rules and regulation put up in the country among others. Brazil, situated along the Eastern coast line of South America would greatly house the companys industrial facilities and also provide for material and labor requirements. With its underlying population of about 200.4 Million citizens by the year 2013, labor would be greatly provided for. On the other hand, the country enjoys a sugar exportation income of around US$ 7.6 Billion each fiscal year from its rich sugar-cane plantations which produced around 560, 360 Million tons by the years 2011 and 2012 thus a direct access to the primary raw-material would be fully guaranteed. Transportation network in Brazil is also quiet developed, with an actual railway network of 29, 303 Km across the country, 1, 751,868 Km of roads both paved and unpaved and around 50,000 Km of waterways. This would greatly favor the company when it came to matters of accessing the raw-materials directly from their produces and taking the product to market (i.e exportation or into local markets). Host Location overview With the companys overall start-up goal to improve its market share within the first 3 years, it would be greatly vital that determination of the host country be regarded to Marketing and Promotion needs of the company. Employing a Global Information System would greatly help to analyze the population and socioeconomic factors of a given location which would be an underlying factor for determining the best markets. Together with this, it would be advisable to employ a PESTEL framework which would help gather the various Political, Economic, Social cultural among other factors that would greatly influence cross-cultural diversity in this host location. With a population of around 41.45 million, Argentina could be quite a suitable location to set up a market base for the company as it sees an annual soft drink consumption of around 155 liters per individual. Furthermore, in a World Economy rank, Argentina holds the 25th position and the 2nd position in South America. With the huge population and diverse industrial facilities in the country, consumer growth for the companys product would gradually grow helping improve our overall market share and further encourage a move to expand to other global markets. Environmental Factors Affecting The Host Location A general business makeup constitutes of two environments (the internal and external environments). The external environment to a company is generally comprised of the various entities that directly or indirectly interact with the company. It is of general importance to analyze these entities and determine exactly how they influence the companys operations and the decision making process to ensure that consequent operational risks are minimal and to also help makeup a contingency plan to ensure business continuity. Business in Argentina is otherwise not so flexible but is associated with various external factors that could be termed into: Macro environmental factors Political Factors in Argentina: The move by Argentinian President Cristina Elisabet Fernandez to nationalize YPF (Oil Fields) by exproprating 51 percent of 57.43 percent stake in YPF, kicked the debate about Argentina's worth as an investment destination (Mamta Badkar, 2012). Furthermore, the U.S assists Argentina by boosting regional stability and democracy, building a non-proliferation unity on export controls and border security. Economic Factors in Argentina: The country has a high income economy being ranked the second largest in South America alone and the 25th in the entire world. With a growing industrial and service sector, the companys holds a high market expectation in the country furthermore regarded to the high consumer population within the next 3 fiscal years. Social Factors in Argentina: Ranked 3rd in South America with a population density of 15 persons per square kilometer population growth by 2008 was forecast-ed to be 0.92% annually, with a birth rate of 16.32 per 1000 persons and a 7.54 deaths per 1000 persons mortality rate. Technological Factors in Argentina: Although the country's economy grows gradually, a divide exists between the rich and the poor. Marginalized regions across the nation are ignored and abandoned without any support and as they grow frustrated with the lack of resources and social programs, local NGO's take the opportunity to confront these needs by issuing resources to authorize and give rise to sustainable solutions. Environmental Factors in Argentina: As a developing nation, Argentina faces poor water and air sustainability due to increased deforestation and soil degradation. Failure to enforce existing laws plus internal conflicts during the 2001 economic crisis has proved to be the major reasons. Increased industrial waste disposal in the environment has also created quite a strain in the provision of safe drinking water. On the other hand, increased public awareness has pressurized the government to take action. Legal Factors in Argentina: Argentina IRAM (Instituto Argentino de Normalizacin y Certificacin), a non-profit and private organization was launched in the year 1935 as the countrys national standards body. By a Presidential decree on August 1994 it was embodied with the task of consumer product standardization, products, process and services certification with a close co-action with the government, industry, consumers, technology and research. Micro environmental factors Consumption: Driven by Kirchner's demand-oriented strategy, Argentinian soft drink industry has seen an improved impulse with the economy rebound in terms of consumption and industrial activity. Suppliers: Being a world leading producer and exporter of both lemons and oranges, Argentina is a viable supplier point for necessary company raw-materials. Marketing intermediaries: many retail points exist in the countrys capital, Buenos Aires among other towns which could be strategic local market points for the company. Resultant Issues with Cross-Cultural and HRM Management Establishing the company in two different countries i.e two different cultural environments would give birth to the aspect of multiculturalism which would be quite remunerative and attractive for the company. It would prove difficult to maintain consistency in governance across the two cultural diversity due to the variance in the political, economical, social, technological, environmental and legal aspects of the two countries. Some of the resulting issues would generally comprise of: Organizational Structure: With the advent of multiculturalism, performance of the entire company in the two countries would greatly be determined by the overall companys organizational structure. Having a bureaucratic structure across each culture would be highly unhealthy and limiting during operations that required mutual co-operation. It would be of great preference to delegate authority to country managers thus creating a decentralized organizational structure (Diwakar Singh, P. 46) Co-operation: To achieve, the companys overall objectives, team-work across both countrys would be highly required. It would rather be difficult to achieve business success if at all the two nations rivaled and consequently difficult, tedious and expensive for the companys management to bring both groups to an understanding. Communication: Communication between two diverse cultures could generally pose as the greatest barrier limiting productivity and growth for the organization. Especially during the initial setup of the host countrys facilities, recruitment of employees from the local nation could generally pose a challenge since Spanish is Argentinas national language. Communication between personnel from diverse backgrounds could greatly be conflicted due to the fact that each background has its mode of interpretation of languages, signs and other means of communications which would greatly affect how decisions are made. Multiculturalism should greatly inspire team work but instead, communication discrepancies could entirely lead to confusion of customer and business needs affecting employee morale and consequently resulting in a division between the employees (Shina Neo, 2015) Resistance to change: Often, cultural diversity within the company could be met with resistance from some of its personnel a factor that is greatly determined by the variance in levels of cognition, awareness and information. Their exists a belief that good intercultural relations are ensured by everyone sticking to the home corporate culture. This is easily mistaken as corporate patriotism especially among personnel who havent visited the other global facilities or whose travels are restricted to short (Richard Cook, 2015). Employee Recruitment and Retention while Lowering costs of labor: Over the next few years, as the adoption of technology and globalization increase, a challenge will pose proving difficult to retain skilled employees who feel that their stellar achievements are no longer adequately compensated. Recruiting new employees will also be hectic as labor investments decreases to focus on other factors beyond compensation. Socio-Cultural Dimensions: Societies are generally comprised of various constellations of groups, all with their own cultural properties which include norms, customs and language. Societies can either be Paternalistic; whereby leaders are recognized and respected by their subjects while they provide for guidance, protection and nurturing care or they could be Fatalism whereby an underlying belief that it is impossible to delegate the consequence of an individuals actions and therefore, trying to achieve something and formulating long term plans and procedures are not worthwhile practices (Aycan et al, 2000 pg. 197-202). Context: With the advent of multiculturalism, the sharing of knowledge is complex and vulnerable to multiculturalism variances and according. A superior culture with extensive information networks requires minimal to less context as compared to inferior cultures which requires an extensive background information before they can formulate any decisions (Shoji et al, 2008, pg. 784 - 786, quoted in Hall Hall, 1980, pg. 6) Possible Solutions and Contingency to Deal With Cross-Cultural and HRM Management Issues It would be of great importance as a company to formulate various procedures to deal with these issues to ensure the maximum performance and effectiveness of multicultural operations by minimizing on the fore-mentioned drawbacks. Some of the various moves could include: Encouraging cross-cultural training to personnel to create cross-cultural awareness Introducing a third-culture in multicultural activities to enhance cooperation. Recognizing the importance of HRM management of cultural diversity and its necessity to determine the success or failure of Multiculturalism. Employing outsourcing techniques between the two facilities to enhance idea exchange and cooperation among personnel. Further to this, it is necessary to carry out a SWOT analysis (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats) which encourages discussion around the companys strategy and situation to ensure that every factor that could possibly impact the success of the overall objectives is accounted for. It is highly recommendable that accurate information be captured to ensure that real and reliable information is drawn from the analysis. It is also advisable that a PESTEL framework be employed to determine the various macro-environmental factors involved to understand financial growth or decline, business position and the likely or suitable means of operations to help determine the most suitable geographical locations to setup international facilities.Conclusion With the various business opportunities that Argentina has to offer, ranging from an extensive raw material source, skilled labor and the consumer ratio, setting up a global branch in the country will see quite a transformation in the companys market and industrial ranking across South America. Although some minimal factors posing risk will need to be handled to ensure maximum capital utilization and profit pull. Recommendation It is highly recommendable that the board develop and put into phase a contingency plan to deal with some minor macro-environmental factors that could arise such as waste disposal and water handling to ensure that the company conforms to healthy and hygienic operating standards. Furthermore, the plan should also cover some of the various procedures that should help minimize resultant cross-cultural diversity effects especially matters of communication and co-operation between managerial heads and the personnel in a manner that maintains operational consistency between the two facilities to enhance efficiency and effectiveness in production and marketing. Bibliography Jackson, T., 2002.International HRM: A cross-cultural approach. Sage. Nishii, L.H. and Schneider, B., 2007. HRM in service: the contingencies abound.CAHRS Working Paper Series, p.469. . Primecz, H., Romani, L. and Sackmann, S.A., 2009. Cross-cultural management research: Contributions from various paradigms. New York :Sage Publications. https://digitalcommons.ilr.cornell.edu/cahrswp/469/ [Accessed on September 14, 2016] Sierra Services, (2012). BREAKING DOWN THE CHAIN: A guide to the soft drink industry. Society for Human Resource Management. (2008). Workplace forecast. Alexandria, VA: Author. [ONLINE] Available from: https://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m3495/is_9_53/ai_n29460531/pg_14/?tag=content;col1 [Accessed on September 14, 2016] Singh, D., Managing Cross-cultural Diversity: Issues and Challenges in Global Organizations. Taylor, C., 2005. Walking the Talk: Building a Culture for Success.The Learning Organization,12(1), pp.96-98. [ONLINE] Available from: https://www.humanresourcesmagazine.com.au/articles/EF/0C02E3EF.asp?Type=60Category=1256 [Accessed on September 14, 2016] Nishimura, S., Nevgi, A. and Tella, S., 2008, February. Communication style and cultural features in high/low context communication cultures: A case study of Finland, Japan and India. InProceedings of a Subject-Didactic Symposium, Finland, Helsinki.P. 784 - 786