HRM Assignmnet 10

Personnel Management and Human Resource Management

Personnel Management
“The function of a personnel manager usually begins with the staffing process. The manager may be focused on screening and interviewing applicants, with an eye to placing individuals with the right skill sets in the right position within the company. Along with placement, the HR manager may also oversee, or at least be involved in, the creation of entry level training programs, as well as continuing education opportunities for existing employees.

Determining company policies and procedures as they relate to personnel is another important aspect of the personnel management process. HR functions often include drafting vacation, sick leave, and bereavement policies that apply to all employees. The personnel management team is also often responsible for managing any healthcare program provided to the employees as well.

One aspect of company organization that needs the input of effective personnel management is the drafting of a company handbook. Establishing operation policies and procedures, requirements for employment, commendation and disciplinary procedures, and even something as simple as a dress code has to be compared with state and federal guidelines before the handbook is ready for release to the company at large. Personnel managers and the HR staff are ideal for drafting and reviewing the company handbook.

Sometimes overlooked in the course of personnel management is the emotional welfare of the employees. Increasingly, more personnel managers understand that a well-adjusted employee is an asset to the company. To this end, many people in charge of personnel management try to provide opportunities for employees who are in need of counseling to receive support from the company.

This support often involves scheduling time during working hours for the counseling sessions, and perhaps picking up the cost if insurance does not cover counseling. As with continuing educational programs, counseling is seen as another way that the company invests in the future relationship between the employee and the employer. A good HR manager understands this and will strive to make sure this sort of support is available.

Depending on the size of the organization, it may be possible for one person to handle all personnel management functions. As a company grows, it may be necessary to expand from a single personnel manager to a full-fledged personnel management, or Human Resources team. By understanding the needs of the company at each point in its growth, management can readily see to the addition to the Human Resources team over time.”
http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-personnel-management.htm

This article actually talks about personnel management’s functions or the personnel manager’s functions in the organization. With these definitions, the basic roles of a personnel manager are clearly defined. Personnel manages are primarily concerned with the staffing process.

“Personnel management is not confined to the role of specialist personnel managers in work organizations. It compasses all those people who are involved in devising personnel policies, as well as all those with direct responsibility for managing personnel. Indeed, one of the most interesting developments in recent years has been the changing role of general managers, specialist personnel managers and line managers in managing the human resource.”
By: Jon Clark (Ph. D.)
http://books.google.com.ph/books?id=FJeqctNCv0EC&pg=PA2&lpg=PA2&dq=human+resource+management+definition&source=bl&ots=KBcdKI00LW&sig=YoDr6StSycp-WH0PXUEmuj0Vi_s&hl=tl&ei=Z06mSrucDIT6sQPlkOmMDw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=8#v=onepage&q=human%20resource%20management%20definition&f=false

This definition by Jon Clark defines personnel management to be a process that concerns the organizations management of its personnel and their responsibility. The author also emphasized that personnel management does not only concern the role of the personnel manager but all the people involved in personnel stuffs in the organization. I agree that when we say personnel management it does not directly addresses the personnel manager but the whole workforce that is related to it in a certain organization.

“Administrative discipline of hiring and developing employees so that they become more valuable to the organization. It includes (1) conducting job analyses, (2) planning personnel needs, and recruitment, (3) selecting the right people for the job, (4) orienting and training, (5) determining and managing wages and salaries, (6) providing benefits and incentives, (7) appraising performance, ( resolving disputes, (9) communicating with all employees at all levels.”
http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/personnel-management.html

Just like the first definition I had gotten, this one also specifies the basic roles of personnel management in an organization. This definition contradicts to what Jon Clark defines that personnel management should not only deal with the personnel managers role.

“Personnel management is concerned with the effective use of the skills of people. They may be salespeople in a store, clerks in an office, operators in a factory, or technicians in a research laboratory. In a business, personnel management starts with the recruiting and hiring of qualified people and continues with directing and encouraging their growth as they encounter problems and tensions that arise in working toward established goals.”
http://www.zeromillion.com/business/personnel/personnel-mangement.html

This is somewhat concur with the idea of Jon Clark because it not only talks about personnel managers. Personnel management here is defined to be a process of facilitating people in an organization concerning how they would be effective end efficient for such positions they’ll be having.

“Personnel Management is responsible for the provision of specialist personnel and human resource management advisory services to departments, and the development and implementation of a relevant, coherent and modern framework of employment policies and practices throughout the University.
Each member of Personnel Management is responsible for the provision of these services to a number of departments. This distribution is known as the Personnel Management Portfolio.
Personnel Management is also responsible for the delivery of the Human Resource Strategy and associated programmes of work.”
http://www.staffs.ac.uk/uniservices/personnel/management/index.php

In this definition it also talks about the organization or the facilitation of people in an organization. The definition also gives the responsibilities of Personnel Management.

“Within organizations that employ people, this is the function with policy responsibility for the selection and recruitment of staff, training, performance assessment, career development, disciplinary proceedings, pre-retirement advisory work, equal opportunities policies, pay bargaining, and industrial relations. In small organizations these functions may be combined with other management responsibilities; in large organizations a substantial separate department may be involved in setting policy, its implementation, and in keeping up to date with developments in labour law. In recent years the newer alternative term 'human resource management' has come into use, reflecting the increased importance of this function in labour-intensive service-sector industries.”
http://wiki.answers.com/Q/Definition_of_personnel_management

In this definition personnel management refers to the function of a certain person as to the responsibility to the employees and staff of the organization.

The part of management that is concerned with people and their relationships at work. Personnel management is the responsibility of all those who manage people, as well as a description of the work of specialists. Personnel managers advise on, formulate, and implement personnel policies such as recruitment, conditions of employment, performance appraisal, training, industrial relations, and health and safety. There are various models of personnel management, of which human resource management is the most recent.
http://dictionary.bnet.com/definition/personnel+management.html

I think this is a simple and easy-to-understand definition of personnel management. In my own understanding this would be just the standard meaning of what personnel management is.

Human Resource Management
The Human Resources Management (HRM) function includes a variety of activities, and key among them is deciding what staffing needs you have and whether to use independent contractors or hire employees to fill these needs, recruiting and training the best employees, ensuring they are high performers, dealing with performance issues, and ensuring your personnel and management practices conform to various regulations. Activities also include managing your approach to employee benefits and compensation, employee records and personnel policies. Usually small businesses (for-profit or nonprofit) have to carry out these activities themselves because they can't yet afford part- or full-time help. However, they should always ensure that employees have -- and are aware of -- personnel policies which conform to current regulations. These policies are often in the form of employee manuals, which all employees have.
by Carter McNamara, MBA, PhD
http://managementhelp.org/hr_mgmnt/hr_mgmnt.htm

Unlike personnel management human resource management directly refers to the staffing and deciding employee processes in an organization.

Human Resource Management (HRM) is the function within an organization that focuses on recruitment of, management of, and providing direction for the people who work in the organization. Human Resource Management can also be performed by line managers.
Human Resource Management is the organizational function that deals with issues related to people such as compensation, hiring, performance management, organization development, safety, wellness, benefits, employee motivation, communication, administration, and training.
http://humanresources.about.com/od/glossaryh/f/hr_management.htm

Similar with the fist definition HRM in this definition also refers to the organizational function or recruitment, staffing and other process concerning staffs and employees.

a model of personnel management that focuses on the individual rather than taking a collective approach. Responsibility for human resource management is often devolved to line management. It is characterized by an emphasis on strategic integration, employee commitment, workforce flexibility, and quality of goods and services.
http://dictionary.bnet.com/definition/human+resource+management.html

This could be summarized as the management or in line with management and strategy in the organization of the workforce in an organization.

Administrative activities associated with human resources planning, recruitment, selection, orientation, training, appraisal, motivation, remuneration, etc. HRM aims at developing people through work.
http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/human-resource-management-HRM.html

This definition refers to the planning and the organization of human resources.

"Human resource management is responsible for how people are treated in organizations. It is responsible for bringing people into the organization, helping them perform their work, compensating them for their labors, and solving problems that arise" (Cherrington, 1995, p. 5).
http://www.answers.com/topic/human-resource-management

Human Resources management in this definition refers to the treatment of people in the organizations. Also on how people are trained for their jobs.

HRM Assignmnet 9

Nature, Scope, and Role of Human Resource Management

Interview a personnel/human resource manager on his concept on the nature, scope and role of human resource management. Do you agree with him? Explain. Is his concept similar to that of the management of his organization? If not, ask him how the differences are settled. (1500 words)

In this assignment we are tasked to interview a human resource manager regarding his view on human resource management and see if his concept correspond on how the company functions.
I had started this assignment quite late because we have not been scheduled for an interview on our chosen company.
On the previous assignments, human resource management have already been defined as a strategic and coherent

approach to the management of an organization's most valued assets which are the people working there who individually and collectively contribute to the achievement of the objectives of the business.
I found the following article on the web referring to the nature, scope, objective and function of the human resource management.


Human Resource Management - Nature, Scope, Objectives and Function
By A Aryan

Human resources may be defined as the total knowledge, skills, creative abilities, talents and aptitudes of an organization's workforce, as well as the values, attitudes, approaches and beliefs of the individuals involved in the affairs of the organization. It is the sum total or aggregate of inherent abilities, acquired knowledge and skills represented by the talents and aptitudes of the persons employed in the organization.
The human resources are multi¬dimensional in nature. From the national point of view, human resources may be defined as the knowledge, skills, creative abilities, talents and aptitudes obtained in the population; whereas from the view¬point of the individual enterprise, they represent the total of the inherent abilities, acquired knowledge and skills as exemplified in the talents and aptitudes of its employees.
Human Resource Manage¬ment: Nature
Human Resource Management is a process of bringing people and organizations together so that the goals of each are met. The various features of HRM include:
• It is pervasive in nature as it is present in all enterprises.
• Its focus is on results rather than on rules.
• It tries to help employees deve¬lop their potential fully.
• It encourages employees to give their best to the organization.
• It is all about people at work, both as individuals and groups.
• It tries to put people on assigned jobs in order to produce good results.
• It helps an organization meet its goals in the future by providing for competent and well-moti¬vated employees.
• It tries to build and maintain cordial relations between people working at various levels in the organization.
• It is a multi-disciplinary activity, utilizing knowledge and inputs drawn from psychology, econo¬mics, etc.

Human Resource Management: Scope
The scope of HRM is very wide:
1. Personnel aspect-This is con¬cerned with manpower planning, recruitment, selection, place¬ment, transfer, promotion, train¬ing and development, layoff and retrenchment, remuneration, incentives, productivity etc.
2. Welfare aspect-It deals with working conditions and ameni¬ties such as canteens, creches, rest and lunch rooms, housing, transport, medical assistance, education, health and safety, recreation facilities, etc.
3. Industrial relations aspect-This covers union-management rela¬tions, joint consultation, collec¬tive bargaining, grievance and disciplinary procedures, settle¬ment of disputes, etc.

Human Resource Manage¬ment: Objectives
To help the organization reach its goals.
To ensure effective utilization and maximum develop¬ment of human resources.
To ensure respect for human beings. To identify and satisfy the needs of individuals.
To ensure reconciliation of indivi¬dual goals with those of the organization.
To achieve and maintain high morale among employees.
To provide the organization with well-trained and well-motivated employees.
To increase to the fullest the employee's job satisfaction and self-actualization.
To develop and maintain a quality of work life.
To be ethically and socially res¬ponsive to the needs of society.
To develop overall personality of each employee in its multi¬dimensional aspect.
To enhance employee's capabi¬lities to perform the present job.
To equip the employees with precision and clarity in trans¬action of business.
To inculcate the sense of team spirit, team work and inter-team collaboration.

Human Resource Manage¬ment: Functions
In order to achieve the above objectives, Human Resource Manage¬ment undertakes the following activi¬ties:
1. Human resource or manpower planning.
2. Recruitment, selection and place¬ment of personnel.
3. Training and development of employees.
4. Appraisal of performance of employees.
5. Taking corrective steps such as transfer from one job to another.
6. Remuneration of employees.
7. Social security and welfare of employees.
8. Setting general and specific management policy for organiza¬tional relationship.
9. Collective bargaining, contract negotiation and grievance hand¬ling.
10. Staffing the organization.
11. Aiding in the self-development of employees at all levels.
12. Developing and maintaining motivation for workers by pro¬viding incentives.
13. Reviewing and auditing man¬power management in the organization
14. Potential Appraisal. Feedback Counseling.
15. Role Analysis for job occupants.
16. Job Rotation.
17. Quality Circle, Organization development and Quality of Working Life.

http://ezinearticles.com/?Human-Resource-Management---Nature,-Scope,-Objectives-and-Function&id=2658370

Role of HRM
developed by Dave Ulrich, defines 4 fields for the HRM function:

* Strategic business partner
* Change management
* Employee champion
* Administration
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_Resources_Management

His/her concept
These I will discuss are according to Ms. Jane Lee who is a consultant for Davao Light and Power Company and the former supervisor of the said company. According to Ms. Lee Human Resource is a very important part of every company. Without the department it would not be possible for the company to run well or would not actually run at all. Human resource Management refers to the administration of the people fro them to function well in the company. Ms. Lee said that the company have useful training for their employees appropriate for the job description they will get into.

Do you agree with him or her?
I do agree with the concept which Ms. Lee had conveyed to us. Human Resource Management is important for every company for it will be the one to administer the employee functions for the company.

MIS Assignment 9

Information Environment

Our task is to identify an information environment of our choice and write an essay to address the following questions:

• What should be your role within this environment?
• How can the principles of information organization and representation help you in performing this role?
• What are the challenges facing you in performing the role? How will you address these challenges?

Defining Information Environment
There is now a critical mass of digital information resources that can be used to support researchers, learners, teachers and administrators in their work and study. The production of information is on the increase and ways to deal with this effectively are required. There is the need to ensure that quality information isn’t lost amongst the masses of digital data created everyday. If we can continue to improve the management, interrogation and serving of ‘quality’ information there is huge potential to enhance knowledge creation across learning and research communities. The aim of the Information Environment is to help provide convenient access to resources for research and learning through the use of resource discovery and resource management tools and the development of better services and practice. The Information Environment aims to allow discovery, access and use of resources for research and learning irrespective of their location.
http://www.jisc.ac.uk/whatwedo/themes/informationenvironment.aspx

By definition, mass communication is a message created by a person or a group of people sent through a transmitting device (a medium) to a large audience or market.

So What Exactly is Mass Media?
Mass media is any medium used to transmit mass communication. Until recently mass media was clearly defined and was comprised of the eight mass media industries; Books, Newspapers, Magazines, and Recordings, Radio, Movies, Television and The Internet.
Defining mass media is no longer clear cut or simple. The continuing explosion of digital communication technology is producing more than a little confusion on the subject.
Developing new technology breeds new questions. Should cell phones be included in a definition of mass media? What about video and computer games? Is “World of Warcraft” a mass medium strictly speaking?
Considerable debate surrounds this topic at the moment and the answer is still not entirely clear.

http://medialiteracy.suite101.com/article.cfm/what_is_mass_media_


Well I got my ideas of what is an information environment from my classmates. As what I’ve understood, information environment refers to an environment which provides with effective knowledge from such information resources.

I chose mass media as my information environment. We all know for a fact that mass media plays a big part of transmitting to us so many information.

Mass media denotes a section of the media specifically designed to reach a very large audience such as the population of a nation state. The term was coined in the 1920s with the advent of nationwide radio networks, mass-circulation newspapers and magazines. However, some forms of mass media such as books and manuscripts had already been in use centuries. The term public media has a similar meaning: it is the sum of the public mass distributors of news and entertainment across media such as newspapers, television, radio, broadcasting, which may require union membership in some large markets such as Newspaper Guild, AFTRA, & text publishers.
Mass media includes Internet media (like blogs, message boards, podcasts, and video sharingu) because individuals now have a means to exposure that is comparable in scale to that previously restricted to a select group of mass media producers. The communications audience has been viewed by some commentators as forming a mass society with special characteristics, notably atomization or lack of social connections, which render it especially susceptible to the influence of modern mass-media techniques such as advertising and propaganda. The term "MSM" or "mainstream media" has been widely used in the blogosphere in discussion of the mass media and media bias.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mass_media

What are the Purpose of Mass media?
Mass media can be used for various purposes:
• Advocacy, both for business and social concerns. This can include advertising, marketing, propaganda, public relations, and political communication.
• Entertainment, traditionally through performances of acting, music, and sports, along with light reading; since the late 20th century also through video and computer games.
• Public service announcements.

Negative characteristics of mass media
Another description of Mass Media is central media which implies:
• An inability to transmit tacit knowledge (or perhaps it can only transfer bad tacit).
• The manipulation of large groups of people through media outlets, for the benefit of a particular political party and/or group of people.
• Marshall McLuhan, one of the biggest critics in media's history, brought up the idea that "the medium is the message."
• Bias, political or otherwise, towards favoring a certain individual, outcome or resolution of an event.
• "The corporate media is not a watchdog protecting us from the powerful, it is a lapdog begging for scraps."
This view of central media can be contrasted with lateral media, such as email networks, where messages are all slightly different and spread by a process of lateral diffusion.

Journalism
Journalism is the discipline of collecting, analyzing, verifying and presenting information regarding current events, trends, issues and people. Those who practice journalism are known as journalists.
News-oriented journalism is sometimes described as the "first rough draft of history" (attributed to Phil Graham), because journalists often record important events, producing news articles on short deadlines. While under pressure to be first with their stories, news media organizations usually edit and proofread their reports prior to publication, adhering to each organization's standards of accuracy, quality and style. Many news organizations claim proud traditions of holding government officials and institutions accountable to the public, while media critics have raised questions about holding the press itself accountable.
Public relations
Public relations is the art and science of managing communication between an organization and its key publics to build, manage and sustain its positive image. Examples include:
• Corporations use marketing public relations (MPR) to convey information about the products they manufacture or services they provide to potential customers to support their direct sales efforts. Typically, they support sales in the short and long term, establishing and burnishing the corporation's branding for a strong, ongoing market.
• Corporations also use public-relations as a vehicle to reach legislators and other politicians, seeking favorable tax, regulatory, and other treatment, and they may use public relations to portray themselves as enlightened employers, in support of human-resources recruiting programs.
• Non-profit organizations, including schools and universities, hospitals, and human and social service agencies, use public relations in support of awareness programs, fund-raising programs, staff recruiting, and to increase patronage of their services.
• Politicians use public relations to attract votes and raise money, and, when successful at the ballot box, to promote and defend their service in office, with an eye to the next election or, at career’s end, to their legacy.

Forms of mass media
Electronic media and print media include:
• Broadcasting, in the narrow sense, for radio and television.
• Various types of discs or tapes. In the 20th century, these were mainly used for music. Video and computer uses followed.
• Film, most often used for entertainment, but also for documentaries.
Film is a term that encompasses motion pictures as individual projects, as well as the field in general. The origin of the name comes from the fact that photographic film (also called filmstock) has historically been the primary medium for recording and displaying motion pictures. Many other terms exist — motion pictures (or just pictures and "picture"), the silver screen, photoplays, the cinema, picture shows, flicks — and commonly movies.

• Internet, which has many uses and presents both opportunities and challenges. Blogs and podcasts (such as news, music, pre-recorded speech, and video)
The Internet (also known simply as "the Net" or "the Web") is a more interactive medium of mass media, and can be briefly described as "a network of networks". Specifically, it is the worldwide, publicly accessible network of interconnected computer networks that transmit data by packet switching using the standard Internet Protocol (IP). It consists of millions of smaller domestic, academic, business, and governmental networks, which together carry various information and services, such as electronic mail, online chat, file transfer, and the interlinked Web pages and other documents of the World Wide Web.
Contrary to some common usage, the Internet and the World Wide Web are not synonymous: the Internet is the system of interconnected computer networks, linked by copper wires, fiber-optic cables, wireless connections etc.; the Web is the contents, or the interconnected documents, linked by hyperlinks and URLs. The World Wide Web is accessible through the Internet, along with many other services including e-mail, file sharing and others described below.
The internet thus far has become an extremely dominant form of media.
Blogs (Web Logs)
Blogging has become a huge form of media, popular through the internet. A blog is a website, usually maintained by an individual, with regular entries of commentary, descriptions of events, or other material such as graphics or video. Entries are commonly displayed in reverse chronological order. Many blogs provide commentary or news on a particular subject; others function as more personal online diaries. A typical blog combines text, images, and links to other blogs, web pages, and other media related to its topic. The ability for readers to leave comments in an interactive format is an important part of many blogs. Most blogs are primarily textual, although some focus on art (artlog), photographs (photoblog), sketchblog, videos (vlog), music (MP3 blog), audio (podcasting) are part of a wider network of social media. Micro-blogging is another type of blogging which consists of blogs with very short posts.
RSS feeds
RSS is a format for syndicating news and the content of news-like sites, including major news sites like Wired, news-oriented community sites like Slashdot, and personal blogs. It is a family of Web feed formats used to publish frequently updated content such as blog entries, news headlines, and podcasts. An RSS document (which is called a "feed" or "web feed" or "channel") contains either a summary of content from an associated web site or the full text. RSS makes it possible for people to keep up with web sites in an automated manner that can be piped into special programs or filtered displays.
Podcast
Main article: Podcast
A podcast is a series of digital-media files which are distributed over the Internet using syndication feeds for playback on portable media players and computers. The term podcast, like broadcast, can refer either to the series of content itself or to the method by which it is syndicated; the latter is also called podcasting. The host or author of a podcast is often called a podcaster.

• Mobile phones, often called the 7th Mass Media, used for rapid breaking news, short clips of entertainment like jokes, horoscopes, alerts, games, music, and advertising
Mobile phones were introduced in Japan in 1979 but became a mass media only in 1998 when the first downloadable ringing tones were introduced in Finland. Soon most forms of media content were introduced on mobile phones, and today the total value of media consumed on mobile towers over that of internet content, and was worth over 31 billion dollars in 2007 (source Informa). The mobile media content includes over 8 billion dollars worth of mobile music (ringing tones, ringback tones, truetones, MP3 files, karaoke, music videos, music streaming services etc); over 5 billion dollars worth of mobile gaming; and various news, entertainment and advertising services. In Japan mobile phone books are so popular that five of the ten best-selling printed books were originally released as mobile phone books.

• Publishing is the industry concerned with the production of literature or information – the activity of making information available for public view. In some cases, authors may be their own publishers.
Traditionally, the term refers to the distribution of printed works such as books and newspapers. With the advent of digital information systems and the Internet, the scope of publishing has expanded to include websites, blogs, and the like.
As a business, publishing includes the development, marketing, production, and distribution of newspapers, magazines, books, literary works, musical works, software, other works dealing with information.
Forms of Publishing
Magazine
A magazine is a periodical publication containing a variety of articles, generally financed by advertising and/or purchase by readers.
Magazines are typically published weekly, biweekly, monthly, bimonthly or quarterly, with a date on the cover that is in advance of the date it is actually published. They are often printed in color on coated paper, and are bound with a soft cover.
Magazines fall into two broad categories: consumer magazines and business magazines. In practice, magazines are a subset of periodicals, distinct from those periodicals produced by scientific, artistic, academic or special interest publishers which are subscription-only, more expensive, narrowly limited in circulation, and often have little or no advertising.
Newspaper
A newspaper is a publication containing news and information and advertising, usually printed on low-cost paper called newsprint. It may be general or special interest, most often published daily or weekly. The first printed newspaper was published in 1605, and the form has thrived even in the face of competition from technologies such as radio and television. Recent developments on the Internet are posing major threats to its business model, however. Paid circulation is declining in most countries, and advertising revenue, which makes up the bulk of a newspaper's income, is shifting from print to online; some commentators, nevertheless, point out that historically new media such as radio and television did not entirely supplant existing.
Software publishing
A software publisher is a publishing company in the software industry between the developer and the distributor. In some companies, two or all three of these roles may be combined (and indeed, may reside in a single person, especially in the case of shareware).
Software publishers often license software from developers with specific limitations, such as a time limit or geographical region. The terms of licensing vary enormously, and are typically secret.
Developers may use publishers to reach larger or foreign markets, or to avoid focussing on marketing. Or publishers may use developers to create software to meet a market need that the publisher has identified.
Mass wire media
Mass wire media is a new frontier of news reporting in the high-tech age. A few decades ago news reporting was through newspapers and radio and television. The radio broadcasts that were made famous by Franklin D. Roosevelt during World War II changed the way radio was looked at. These fireside chats made the radio news and news radio. Things are different now as we are witnessing a revolution of people-oriented reporting in real time and other times. This element of intimate knowledge of the event or story being reported has dramatically changed the way we all view news stories.
This is called by some the Social Media Revolution. This revolution has intrinsically altered the way news is reported almost the way it happens. The trend of people-oriented reporting is only on the rise as reporting news becomes more personal and more accurate - although also more subjective.

• Video games,
A video game is a computer-controlled game where a video display such as a monitor or television is the primary feedback device. The term "computer game" also includes games which display only text (and which can therefore theoretically be played on a teletypewriter) or which use other methods, such as sound or vibration, as their primary feedback device, but there are very few new games in these categories. There always must also be some sort of input device, usually in the form of button/joystick combinations (on arcade games), a keyboard & mouse/trackball combination (computer games), or a controller (console games), or a combination of any of the above. Also, more esoteric devices have been used for input. Usually there are rules and goals, but in more open-ended games the player may be free to do whatever they like within the confines of the virtual universe.

Personal media
Non-mass or "personal" media (point-to-point and person-to-person communication) include:
• Gestures
• Interactive
• Internet
• Mail
• Speech
• Telephony
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mass_media

What should be your role within this environment?
In the environment of mass media, we all have the benefit of having been the receiver of such information that the mass media brings about. My role now is just to see and benefit with the information the mass media delivers to us. Sometimes the mass media brings out the consciousness of people and leading them to be active in the society. It is a challenge for us to be aware of what is happening to the environment and thanks to the mass media for relaying such information to us.

MIS Assignment 8

Outsourcing or In-sourcing??

“As a student, you were invited by the Dean of the Institute of Computing to attend a seminar-workshop on information systems planning with some of the faculty members. In one of the sessions, a discussion of outsourcing came up. You have been asked to present your evaluation about outsourcing the information systems functions of the school.

Required:

You are to take a position- outsource or in-source and justify your position. (3000words)”

Assuming I am to attend a seminar-workshop on information systems planning with some of the faculty members and we are talking about outsourcing and in-sourcing. It really gave me a hard time to choose from the position of outsourcing the information system of the school. Before continuing I would give the following definitions for better understanding.

Outsourcing is subcontracting a process, such as product design or manufacturing, to a third-party company. The decision to outsource is often made in the interest of lowering cost or making better use of time and energy costs, redirecting or conserving energy directed at the competencies of a particular business, or to make more efficient use of land, labor, capital, (information) technology and resources. Outsourcing became part of the business lexicon during the 1980s. It is essentially a division of labour. Out sourcing in the information technology field has two meanings. One is to commission the development of an application to another organization, usually a company that specializes in the development of this type of application. The other is to hire the services of another company to manage all or parts of the services that otherwise would be rendered by an IT unit of the organization. The latter concept might not include development of new applications.
Outsourcing involves the transfer of the management and/or day-to-day execution of an entire business function to an external service provider. The client organization and the supplier enter into a contractual agreement that defines the transferred services. Under the agreement the supplier acquires the means of production in the form of a transfer of people, assets and other resources from the client. The client agrees to procure the services from the supplier for the term of the contract. Business segments typically outsourced include information technology, human resources, facilities, real estate management, and accounting. Many companies also outsource customer support and call center functions like telemarketing, CAD drafting, customer service, market research, manufacturing, designing, web development, print-to-mail, content writing, ghostwriting and engineering. Offshoring is the type of outsourcing in which the buyer organization belongs to another country.
Outsourcing and offshoring are used interchangeably in public discourse despite important technical differences. Outsourcing involves contracting with a supplier, which may or may not involve some degree of offshoring. Offshoring is the transfer of an organizational function to another country, regardless of whether the work is outsourced or stays within the same corporation/company.

So why outsource??
Organizations that outsource are seeking to realize benefits or address the following issues:
• Cost savings. The lowering of the overall cost of the service to the business. This will involve reducing the scope, defining quality levels, re-pricing, re-negotiation, cost re-structuring. Access to lower cost economies through offshoring called "labor arbitrage" generated by the wage gap between industrialized and developing nations.
• Focus on Core Business. Resources (for example investment, people, infrastructure) are focused on developing the core business. For example often organizations outsource their IT support to specilaised IT services companies.
• Cost restructuring. Operating leverage is a measure that compares fixed costs to variable costs. Outsourcing changes the balance of this ratio by offering a move from fixed to variable cost and also by making variable costs more predictable.
• Improve quality. Achieve a step change in quality through contracting out the service with a new service level agreement.
• Knowledge. Access to intellectual property and wider experience and knowledge.
• Contract. Services will be provided to a legally binding contract with financial penalties and legal redress. This is not the case with internal services.
• Operational expertise. Access to operational best practice that would be too difficult or time consuming to develop in-house.
• Access to talent. Access to a larger talent pool and a sustainable source of skills, in particular in science and engineering.
• Capacity management. An improved method of capacity management of services and technology where the risk in providing the excess capacity is borne by the supplier.
• Catalyst for change. An organization can use an outsourcing agreement as a catalyst for major step change that can not be achieved alone. The outsourcer becomes a Change agent in the process.
• Enhance capacity for innovation. Companies increasingly use external knowledge service providers to supplement limited in-house capacity for product innovation.
• Reduce time to market. The acceleration of the development or production of a product through the additional capability brought by the supplier.
• Commodification. The trend of standardizing business processes, IT Services and application services enabling businesses to intelligently buy at the right price. Allows a wide range of businesses access to services previously only available to large corporations.
• Risk management. An approach to risk management for some types of risks is to partner with an outsourcer who is better able to provide the mitigation.
• Venture Capital. Some countries match government funds venture capital with private venture capital for startups that start businesses in their country.
• Tax Benefit. Countries offer tax incentives to move manufacturing operations to counter high corporate taxes within another country.

However outsourcing could also have some risks for the organization and these are the following:

Quality Risks
Quality Risk is the propensity for a product or service to be defective, due to operations-related issues. Quality risk in outsourcing is driven by a list of factors. One such factor is opportunism by suppliers due to misaligned incentives between buyer and supplier, information asymmetry, high asset specificity, or high supplier switching costs. Other factors contributing to quality risk in outsourcing are poor buyer-supplier communication, lack of supplier capabilities/resources/capacity, or buyer-supplier contract enforceability. Two main concepts must be considered when considering observability as it related to quality risks in outsourcing: the concepts of testability and criticality.

Public opinion
There is a strong public opinion regarding outsourcing (especially when combined with offshoring) that outsourcing damages a local labor market. Outsourcing is the transfer of the delivery of services which affects both jobs and individuals. It is difficult to dispute that outsourcing has a detrimental effect on individuals who face job disruption and employment insecurity; however, its supporters believe that outsourcing should bring down prices, providing greater economic benefit to all.

Language skills
In the area of call centers end-user-experience is deemed to be of lower quality when a service is outsourced. This is exacerbated when outsourcing is combined with off-shoring to regions where the first language and culture are different. The questionable quality is particularly evident when call centers that service the public are outsourced and offshored.
The public generally find linguistic features such as accents, word use and phraseology different which may make call center agents difficult to understand. The visual clues that are present in face-to-face encounters are missing from the call center interactions and this also may lead to misunderstandings and difficulties.
In addition to language and accent differences, a lack of local social and geographic knowledge is often present, leading to misunderstandings or mis-communications.

Social responsibility
Outsourcing sends jobs to the lower-income areas where work is being outsourced to, which provides jobs in these areas and has a net equalizing effect on the overall distribution of wealth. Some argue that the outsourcing of jobs (particularly off-shore) exploits the lower paid workers. A contrary view is that more people are employed and benefit from paid work. Despite this argument, domestic workers displaced by such equalization are proportionately unable to outsource their own costs of housing, food and transportation.
Social responsibility is also reflected in the costs of benefits provided to workers. Companies outsourcing jobs effectively transfer the cost of retirement and medical benefits to the countries where the services are outsourced. This represents a significant reduction in total cost of labor for the outsourcing company. A side effect of this trend is the reduction in salaries and benefits at home in the occupations most directly impacted by outsourcing.

Quality of service
Quality of service is measured through a service level agreement (SLA) in the outsourcing contract. In poorly defined contracts there is no measure of quality or SLA defined. Even when an SLA exists it may not be to the same level as previously enjoyed. This may be due to the process of implementing proper objective measurement and reporting which is being done for the first time. It may also be lower quality through design to match the lower price.
Quality in terms of end-user-experience is best measured through customer satisfaction questionnaires which are professionally designed to capture an unbiased view of quality. Surveys can be one of research. This allows quality to be tracked over time and also for corrective action to be identified and taken.

Staff turnover
The staff turnover of employee who originally transferred to the outsourcer is a concern for many companies. Turnover is higher under an outsourcer and key company skills may be lost with retention outside of the control of the company.
In outsourcing offshore there is an issue of staff turnover in the outsourcer companies call centers. It is quite normal for such companies to replace its entire workforce each year in a call center. This inhibits the build-up of employee knowledge and keeps quality at a low level.

Company knowledge
Outsourcing could lead to communication problems with transferred employees. For example, before transfer staff have access to broadcast company e-mail informing them of new products, procedures etc. Once in the outsourcing organization the same access may not be available. Also to reduce costs, some outsource employees may not have access to e-mail, but any information which is new is delivered in team meetings.

Qualifications of outsourcers
The outsourcer may replace staff with less qualified people or with people with different non-equivalent qualifications.
Failure to deliver business transformation
Business transformation has traditionally been promised by outsourcing suppliers, but they have usually failed to deliver. In a commoditised market where any half-decent service provider can do things cheaper and faster, smart vendors have promised a second wave of benefits that will improve the client’s business outcomes.

Productivity
Offshore outsourcing for the purpose of saving cost can often have a negative influence on the real productivity of a company. Rather than investing in technology to improve productivity, companies gain non-real productivity by hiring fewer people locally and outsourcing work to less productive facilities offshore that appear to be more productive simply because the workers are paid less.
In contrast, increases in real productivity are the result of more productive tools or methods of operating that make it possible for a worker to do more work. Non-real productivity gains are the result of shifting work to lower paid workers, often without regards to real productivity. The net result of choosing non-real over real productivity gain is that the company falls behind and obsoletes itself overtime rather than making investments in real productivity.

Standpoint of labor
From the standpoint of labor within countries on the negative end of outsourcing this may represent a new threat, contributing to rampant worker insecurity, and reflective of the general process of globalization. While the "outsourcing" process may provide benefits to less developed countries or global society as a whole, in some form and to some degree - include rising wages or increasing standards of living - these benefits are not secure. Further, the term outsourcing is also used to describe a process by which an internal department, equipment as well as personnel, is sold to a service provider, who may retain the workforce on worse conditions or discharge them in the short term. The affected workers thus often feel they are being "sold down the river."

Security
Before outsourcing an organization is responsible for the actions of all their staff and liable for their actions. When these same people are transferred to an outsourcer they may not change desk but their legal status has changed. They no-longer are directly employed or responsible to the organization. This causes legal, security and compliance issues that need to be addressed through the contract between the client and the suppliers. This is one of the most complex areas of outsourcing and requires a specialist third party adviser.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Outsourcing

Insourcing is the opposite of outsourcing; that is insourcing (or contracting in) is often defined as the delegation of operations or jobs from production within a business to an internal (but 'stand-alone') entity that specializes in that operation. Insourcing is a business decision that is often made to maintain control of critical production or competencies. An alternate use of the term implies transferring jobs to within the country where the term is used, either by hiring local subcontractors or building a facility.
Insourcing is widely used in an area such as production to reduce costs of taxes, labor (e.g., American labor is often cheaper than European labor), transportation, etc.

According to PR Web, insourcing was becoming more common by 2006 as businesses had less than satisfactory experiences with outsourcing (including customer support). Many outsourcing proponents responded to a negative consumer opinion backlash resulting from outsourcing their communications management to vendors who rely on overseas operations.

To those who are concerned that nations may be losing a net amount of jobs due to outsourcing, some point out that insourcing also occurs. According to a study by Mary Amiti and Shang-Jin Wei, in the United States, the United Kingdom, and many other industrialized countries more jobs are insourced than outsourced. They found that out of all the countries in the world they studied, the U.S. and the U.K. actually have the largest net trade surpluses in business services. Countries with a net deficit in business services include Indonesia, Germany and Ireland.

Insourcing is loosely referred in call centers who are doing the work of the outsourcing companies. Companies that outsource include Dell, Hewlett Packard, Symantec, and Linksys. The callcenters and technicians that are contracted to handle the outsourced work are usually over-seas. Customers may refer to these countries as "India" technical support if they are hard to understand over telecommunications. These insourcing companies were a great way to save money for the outsourcing of work, but quality varies, and poor performance has sometimes harmed the reputations of companies who provide 24/7 customer/technical support.

The Organization for International Investment, a Washington D.C. trade association, uses the term to describe the creation of jobs through foreign direct investment within the United States.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Insourcing

Now having been defined outsourcing and in-sourcing, I would go with the in-sourcing. Though outsourcing have many benefits still it has some risks for the organization. I go with in-sourcing because if staffs are trained within the organization company data would be more safer because staffs are just from inside the company. I do agree that outsourcing do have some great benefits but then it would be hard to risk the companies privacy.

HRM Assignmnet 8

SONA 2009

Microfinance loans/ pabahay at palupa

"Nakinabang ang pitong milyong entrepreneur sa 165 billion pesos in microfinance loans. Nakinabang ang sandaan libo sa emergency employment ng ating economic resiliency plan. Kasama natin ngayon ang isa sa kanila, si Gigi Gabiola. Dating household service worker sa Dubai, ngayon siya ay nagtatrabaho sa DOLE. Good luck! Gigi."

"Nakinabang ang isang milyong pamilya sa programang pabahay at palupa, mula Pag-IBIG, NHA, community mortgage programs, certificates of lot award, at saka yung inyong Loan Condonation and Restructuring Act. Salamat."

Such things mentioned and if surely be done and provide people then it would definitely improve the quality of life of the people involving it. Microfinance refers to the provision of financial services to low-income clients, including consumers and the self-employed. This would help those small clients and self-employed citizens to have just enough financial loan for starting a small business or just grant their financial needs.

EDUCATION
"Nagtayo tayo ng 95,000 na silid-aralan, nagdagdag ng 60,000 na guro, naglaan ng 1.5 billion pesos para sa teacher training, especially for 100,000 English teachers. Isa sa pinakamahirap sa Millennium Development Goals ay yung ‘Education para sa Lahat’ pagdating ng 2015. Ibig sabihin, lahat ng nasa tamang edad ay dapat nasa primary school. Halos walang bansang makakatupad nito.

Congratulations! In technical education and skills training, we have invested three times that of three previous administrations combined. Narito si Jennifer Silbor, isa sa sampung milyong trainee. Natuto siya ng medical transcription. Now, as an independent contractor and lecturer for transcriptions in Davao, kumikita siya ng 18,000 pesos bawat buwan. Good job, Jennifer! The Presidential Task Force on Education headed by Jesuit educator Father Bienvenido Nebres has come out with the Main Education Highway towards a Knowledge-Based Economy. It envisions seamless education from basic to vocational school or college.

It seeks to mainstream early childhood development in basic education. Our children are our most cherished possession. In their early years we must make sure they get a healthy start in life. They must receive the right food for a healthy body, the right education for a bright and inquiring mind, and the equal opportunity for a meaningful job."

On education President Arroyo just shared her accomplished jobs in the past years and is planning for more improvements for public schools and the teachers. Well as I\'ve said a while this would be a great help for every students if it would come into reality. Hope so. The president also pointed out some improvements for technical education and skills training so as to early childhood development. This technical education and skills training would be of help for those who wants easy course that would make them land in a good job. Having teachers to undergo training would also be of help for the improvement of the quality of education in the country.

OFW
"Sa hirap at ginhawa, pinapatatag ang ating bansa ng ating overseas Filipinos. Iyong padala nilang 16 billion dollars noong isang taon ay record. Itong taon, mas mataas pa. I know that this is not a sacrifice joyfully borne. This is work where it can be found in faraway places, among strangers with different cultures. It is lonely work, it is hard work. Kaya nagsisikap tayong lumikha dito sa atin ng mga trabahong maganda ang sahod, so that overseas work will just be a career choice, not the only option for a hardworking Filipino.

Meanwhile, we should make their sacrifices worthwhile. Dapat gumawa tayo ng mas epektibong proteksyon at pagpapalawak ng halaga ng kanilang pinagsikapang sweldo. That means stronger consumer protection for overseas Filipinos investing in property and products back home. Para sa kanila, pinapakilos natin ang Investors Protection Task Force. (applause) Hindi ako nag-aatubiling bisitahin ang ating taong-bayan at kanilang mga host sa buong mundo mula Hapon hanggang Brazil, mula Europa at Middle East hanggang sa American Midwest, nakikinig sa kanilang mga problema at pangangailangan, inaalam kung paano sila matulungan ng ating pamahalaan -- by working out better policies on migrant labor, or by saving lives and restoring liberty.

Pagpunta ko sa Saudi, pinatawad ni Haring Abdullah ang pitong daang OFW na nasa preso. (applause) Pinuno nila ang isang buong eroplano at umuwi kasama ko. (applause) Mula sa ating State Visit sa Espanya, it has become our biggest European donor. At si Haring Juan Carlos ay nakikipag-usap sa ibang mga bansa para sa ating mga namomoblemang OFW. Ganoon din si Sheikh Khalifa, ang Prime Minister ng Bahrain. (applause) Pagpunta ko sa Kuwait, Emir Al-Sabah commuted death sentences. (applause) We thank all our leaders, all the world leaders who have shown compassion for our overseas Filipino workers. Maraming salamat (applause)
Our vigorous international engagement has helped bring in foreign investment. Net foreign direct investments multiplied 15 times during our administration. Kasama ng ating mga OFW, they more than doubled our
foreign exchange reserves. Pinalakas ang ating piso, naiwasan ang lubhang pagtaas ng presyo. They upgraded our credit because while the reserves of our peers have shrunk this past years, our reserves grew by three billion dollars."

Talking about our OFW\'s.in other countries is not an easy job. They have made a lot of sacrifices for their families. It is just enough taht the government would make such improvement for the quality of life of our fellow OFW\'s. The said protection for the OFW\'s should be implemented for the sake of the hardworking lives of the OFW\'s in other countries.

Source: http://www.omiyageh.com/2009/07/gma-2009-sona-speech.html