The Difficulty for Women in the Workplace Research Paper

The Difficulty for Women in the Workplace - Research Paper Example   The author further recommends strategies in order to address these challenges. The paper focuses on women in business and undertakes a literature review of gender disparities in compensation, employment, and promotion. According to the author, women dominated industries should have less gender discrimination, improved pay equity and comprise a higher number of women executive than male-dominated industries. LaBeach (2007) carries out a quantitative method to fill in research gaps identified in the literature review. Compensation data from a female-dominated healthcare organization (the American Dietetic Association), is analyzed to assess if women dominated industries have improved pay equity. Compensation was measured by the total cash for registered dieticians employed full-time for a minimum of one year. The author notes that certain workplace behaviors and attitudes should change so as to ensure women achieve career satisfaction and salary equity. Further, the author recommen ds that the workplace should be protected from expressions of gender/sex bias and partiality. The recommendations are meant for businesses, policymakers and researchers. Newman et al. (2011) undertake a study on gender discrimination and workplace violence. The author notes that workplace violence has been documented in many sectors. However, female-dominated sectors such as social services and health are at a particular risk. The article reexamines a set of study findings, which directly relate to the influence of gender or workplace violence and discrimination. In the study, 297 health workers (comprising 205 women and 92 men), were selected randomly. Newman et al. (2011) employed a utilization-focused approach and administered facility audits, health worker survey, health facility manager interviews, key informant and focus groups to collect data. In their findings, 39% of health workers had suffered some form of workplace violence in a year prior to the study. The study identifi ed gender-based patterns of victimization, perpetration, and reactions to violence. Negative stereotypes of women workers, discrimination based on family responsibilities, pregnancy, and maternity affected female health workers. These contributed to the context of violence. Gender equality was found to lower the odds of workers experiencing violence. The researchers used the results to formulate recommendations in order to address gender discrimination through programs and policy reforms. Unnikrishnan et al. (2010) undertake a study to assess harassment among women at the workplace. The objectives of the study were to find out how harassment occurs among women at the workplace. In addition, the authors also sought to determine the types and reasons for workplace harassment generally faced by working women. In order to achieve their objects, the authors carry out a cross-sectional study. The study participants comprised women working in banks, education institutions, and hospitals. T hese establishments were chosen because they employ a considerable number of women. Data was gathered from a total of 160 participants.  Ã‚  

Developing the Self and Employability Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Developing the Self and Employability - Essay Example To understand the employability skills, it is imperative to assess the job of an officer in the Human Resource Department of an organization. A human resource officer undertakes duties such as the evaluation of jobs, planning of the organization, planning of the manpower available, selection and recruitment of new employees, employee services, development and training of the current employees and termination of employment. The academic requirements for this job entail the applicant possessing a Bachelors’ Degree in a relevant field. Some organizations require a person to be a holder of any degree. However, having a degree in Psychology, Law, Management or having any other business-related degree increases the chances of someone getting a job in the human resource department. In some organizations, a person who applies for a job as an officer in the Human Resource Department may need to have some experience in either a technical or a scientific field. This depends on the nature of operations that the organization undertakes (Inkson et al, 2012, p. 325). Employability skills are a set of skills that an individual seeking a job needs to possess so that an organization may employ them (Briscoe, Hall & Frautschydemuth, 2006, p. 31). These skills support the subject knowledge and the good understanding of the technicalities that the job requires, and employers look out for them when they interview potential employees. Employability skills are those skills that will equip a worker so that they are able to carry out the specific roles that their employers have assigned to them to their best (Hall, 2004, p. 7). I undertook an MBTI test. An MBTI test is an essential tool for assessing whether a person is suited for a specific job or career and it is among the most widely used personality assessment tests.  

The Good Governance In Public Sectors Politics Essay

The Good Governance In Public Sectors Politics Essay Principles of good governance in the public sector are very important because it builds a relationship with people in the community. These principles are based on support, respect, communication, fairness, predictability and competence. The first section of this essay will discuss all of them in detail because they all lead into each other. Support is a good principle because if you do not support the public they could turn on you and put someone else in power that will support them and listen to their needs. Support helps build confidence in the public sector by giving the people what they need and want. If the people are happy with you, you will gain their respect, which leads to my next point. Respect begets respect because without it, you could be put out of power, but if you respect the public, the public will respect you and the decisions you have made. You could also get ideas from the public if you listen to and respect their input, which helps you tend to their needs and wants. This could also help you in staying in power for a longer period because you are communicating with the public, which brings in my next point communication. Communication is the interaction of people, who create meaningful interaction together as a team. This is very important in the public sector because you need to communicate with th e public and receive feedback from them before you can make decisions on any matter. The reason for this is so you can make the right decisions. In this way, the communities are happy and know that they are being treated fairly. Fairness is my next point. Fairness is important because you have to treat everyone equally. You do this because it is right to give everybody an equal say in what is happening because they are the ones who have to live with the choices made. Furthermore, if the community gives an idea that you use, give the community the credit and recognition that they deserve. In this way, the community will say that you are fair in your decision-making processes. So, always consider what everyone has to say and be fair to all of them by giving everyone a fair chance. My next point is predictability. Predictability means that you know what someone is going to do before thy do it. In the public sector, it is good because if you know what problems are going to arise, you ca n have an effective plan to deal with the problem before it becomes severe. You can predict what the peoples needs and wants are and supply it to them without wasting any time. This leads into my final topic, which is competence. Competence is the ability to do something very well. It is important because you have to know what you need to do for your job and you need to do it right. If you are competent, the community will see that you know what you are doing and they will trust you and the decisions that you make because they will believe that you have their best interests at heart. There are three separations of powers in the government. They are legislative authority, executive authority and judicial authority. They all have different responsibilities and duties to the public and this section will discuss all of them. To start, legislative authority is going to be discussed. The legislative authority in a democratic society is responsible for the orderly conduct of that society. Legislative authority plays a leading role in the process of state administration, by means of the law of the country and the budget of the rising expenditure and revenue. Parliament is the legislative authority of South Africa. Therefore, the legislative authority has the power to create laws for the country in accordance with the Constitution. It consists of the National Assembly, the National Council of provinces and sittings are open to the public. These laws apply only in the boundaries of the province. The following are some of the functional domains with regard to which the prov inces can make laws: agriculture, environment and local government. The legislative authority at local government level is vested in the municipal council which has the power to make bylaws. Such bylaws may not be inconsistent with the provisions of the Constitution. (Van der Waldt and Du Toit, 1999:146) This ends legislative authority and continues with judicial authority. Judicial authorities main goal is to guarantee the rights and freedoms of the individual and to preserve the sovereignty of the lawà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Judicial authority of the Republic vests in the courts. The judiciary is independent, impartial and subject only to the Constitutions and the law. No person and no organ of state may interfere with judicial officers in the performance of their functions. (Van der Waldt and Du Toit, 1999:147) The judicial authority of the Republic vests in the courts, the Constitutional Court, Supreme Court, the Magistrates Court and other courts. The judicial authority has the power to give more rights to the people. Some of the rights they gave are the right to life, the right to human dignity, the right to privacy and many more. Judicial authority has a definite influence on the Public Protector. The executive authority is the next and final power. The executive authority consists of a variety of public executive institutions established by some law or government decision and which are financial either wholly or partly from state funds. These executive institutions are referred to as the public service. The public has to execute the laws of the country and function as part of the public sector. (Van der Waldt and Du Toit, 1999:153) All the powers are different and the have there own goal in mind but all are linked to one greater goal and that is to make South Africa a better place. Every government institution makes an indispensable contribution to the ultimate goal of the state, namely the advancement of the general welfare of society. For this reason, there is a relationship of interdependence between the respective government structures and institutions. This relationship of interdependence implies interaction between the respective government structures and institutions. (Van der Waldt and Du Toit, 1999:161) Coordination and liaison between the respective authorities and executive institutions, is of great importance. To date, a number of intergovernmental structures have been told to promote and facilitate co-operative government and intergovernmental relations between the respective spheres of government. (Van der Waldt and Du Toit, 1999:162) These include an Intergovernmental Forum (IGF), Ministerial Forums, Intergovernmental Forums and the Department of Constitutional Development. Approaches to governmental relations are Constitutional or legal approach , Democratic approach, Financial approach and Normative operational approach. Vertical intergovernmental relations can be divided into three. They are relations between the central government and provincial governments, relations between the central government and local governments and relations between the provincial government and local governments. Horizontal relations between government institutions refer to relations between institutions at the same level, and they are particularly important for public managers. At local government level, horizontal relations take place mainly through, among others things, municipal associations and cooperation agreements. (Van der Waldt and Du Toit, 1999:164) Extra-governmental relations are relations between government institutions and external institutions. (Van der Waldt and Du Toit, 1999:164) The categories of relations that can be distinguished are social, politics, economics and institutional. There are four factors that may influence go vernmental relations, they are organisation of government institutions, decentralisation, fiscal and financial variables and personnel and human resources problems. Public versus private management. The differences and similarities. Private businesses are run for a profit and public institutions are not, but they are run for the general welfare. In the private sector, the various businesses compete with one another but the public institutions are basically monoplies. Private businesses can become involved in any activity not prohibited by legislations, while public institutions may only carry out functions or exercise competencies expressly delegated to them by the laws of our country. The nature and scope of services or products provided by the public sector are smaller in extent than those provided by government institutions. The transactions of private institutions usually known only to the owner or shareholder and are not divulged to the public while the actions of public institutions should always take place in the open.(Southern Business School, 2007:73) The differences are that legislation plays a prominent role; it is financed by the pub lic funds and is not non profit-oriented; it is directed by politics; accountability to the public is of prime importance; the focus in the public sector; the principles of public administration plays an important role and the method of allocating functions in the public sector is frequently based more on political considerations that on pure efficiency. The similarities are both comprise people and fixed personnel regulations are therefore required, work programmes methods and systems are the same, organisational arrangements and structures for providing time and staff functions delegation of authority coordination and communication are more or less the same, management principals, techniques, functions and skills are generic to both sectors, both follow standard accounting principals and control measures are applicable to both to ensure that predetermined objectives are achieved. Those are the differences and similarities of public and private management. Although there is a broad spectrum of disciplines which can be involved with considerable success. We will focus only on those disciplines that seem more approachable. They are Political Science, Economics, Developmental Administration/ Management, Etnology, Management Science and Sociology. Political Science can be defined as the scientific study of politics. Fields and subfields of Political Science include political theory and philosophy, national political systems, international politics, public administration, political institutions and political behaviour. (Van der Waldt and Du Toit, 1999:61) Political Science studies the public or government sector in terms of its political context, as opposed to Public Administration, which concentrates on the internal functioning of executive government institutions (Cloete, 1986 in Van der Waldt and Du Toit, 1999:61). Economics studies individuals as economic entities and their behaviour in economic affairs that is how they use scarce resou rces (Cloete, 1986, in Van der Waldt and Du Toit, 1999:61). According to Cloete, Public Administration and Economics are inextricably linked. Development Administration developed as a specialised field of study from Public Administration. (Van der Waldt and Du Toit, 1999:61) Public Administration may well be concerned with the overall improvement of living standards. It implies development but a need nonetheless exists for a discipline specialising developmental principles and morals. Ethnology aims at creating a better understanding of developing communities. In this way, insight is gained into the way of life and institutions of different racial groups, including the way in which they conduct their public affairs. (Cloete, 1986 in Van der Waldt and Du Toit, 1999:61) According to Cronje, Neuland and van Reenen (1987 in Van der Waldt and Du Toit, 1999:62), management science studies private enterptises in the search for ways to improve their functioning. Sociology involves the study of numerous institutions and other phenomence encountered in human society. (Cloete, 1986 in Van der Waldt and Du Toit, 1999:62) There are various disciplines in Public Administration and new theories and approaches develop as a result of the interaction between academics and practitioners who study and practice the individual disciplines. Successful management of an institution is closely related to the way people are managed in that institution and it is important that managers understand the individuals in the institution. A manager has to be a psychologist, sociologist, anthropologist and political scientist all at the same time to understand and motivate your employees. There are three guidelines a manager needs to follow. They are guidelines from the body politic, guidelines from community values and prescribed guidelines. Guidelines from the body politic includes political supremacy which is ministers are the political head of public institutions and therefore have authority over the actions of officials, public accountability which includes the public responsibility of the legislative judicial an executive authorities with regard to service delivery and conduct which is in the public interest and tenets of democracy which implies that those who govern must not abuse the power vested in them in their personal in terest or in the interest of one population group only and that deliberations and consultations with the community must take place. Guidelines from communities values include religious doctrines and values systems, fairness and reasonableness, balanced decision-making, thoroughness, probity and honesty, and efficiency and effectiveness. Prescribed guidelines includes legal rules which is every action of a public official must be within the limits of enabling provisions of Acts and regulations, fundamental rights which are binding on all legislative and executive organs of state at all levels of government and it provide for equality, the right to life and respect for protection of dignity, Code of ethics or conduct which specialist unit within the public sector has a set of guidelines governing conduct, the conduct usually do not have any legal authority, but are simply guidelines that have been formed over time, right to information held by the state which is provided in terms of s ection 32 of the Constitution is also important with regard to internal ethical conduct, Just administration action is the normative principles of Public Administration. Measures to prevent unethical conduct are training and development of officials by means of courses, among other things, control measures and checkpoints, participation in departmental decision making, the elimination of excessive secrecy, media coverage of unethical conduct, politically dishonest officials can be removed during elections, the public service commission, the auditor general in his / her capacity, the public protector who looks after the interest of the public, administrative law and legal rules and a code of ethics or conduct for every profession, occupational group and field of activity. There are three different environmental levels in the public institution. The levels are macro-level or general level, the intermediate level and the micro-level or specific level. Micro-environment or internal environment is defined in more specific operational terms. Kast and Rosenzweig (1974 in Van der Walt and Du Toit, 1999:102) define the internal level as an attempt to classify and describe the focus that have an influence on the institution specifically. (Schwella 1983 in Van der Waldt and Du Toit, 1999:102) describes the micro-environment as that part of general environment that is potentially relevant for the setting of objectives. The specific environment is thus more concrete than the general environment. It may directly influence the availability of resources to be the organisational unit. The influences it may have include supplying, withholding, decreasing or increasing the recourse used by the institution (Van der Waldt, 1992 in Van der Waldt and Du Toit, 1999:102). Th e core components of micro environment is mission, goal, strategy, resources, institutional culture, inter regulars, external regulators and information. The intermediate environment or task or client environment induces al institutions, groups, individuals and influences with which the institution has direct outward interaction because public institutions are essentially providers of services. The community should be the most important component of the intermediate environment. Another intermediate environmental component is regulators that control and regulate the relationship between an institution, its suppliers, clients and competitors. Regulators include policy, laws, procedures and standardsà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Opportunities and threats in the intermediate environment pg102 have a direct implication for the functioning and management of an institution.(Van der Waldt and Du Toit, 1999:102) Intermediaries or facilitation acts as agents linking the macro and micro-environment. Another factor that plays a significant role in the provision of services is ethical norms and standards that are derived from the community. (Van der Waldt and Du Toit, 1999:102) According to Schwella (1991 in Van der Waldt and Du Toit, 1999:100) the macro- or general environment level consists of political, economic, legal, social, cultural and technological components. It includes influences outside the boundaries of the institution that is all factors external to the institutions micro- and intermediate environments that influence the functioning of both these environments. It is important to note that these environmental components are interdependent and that there are no absolute distinctions between them. Events in one environment can lead to changes in environments. (Van der Waldt and Du Toit, 1999:101) Before, public managers were expected to present good ideas about which director the state should take, to decide on courses of action or goals to be accomplished and to use their influence or control to sway the opinions and the views of the staff in that certain direction. A more modern approach indicates that the future leader will be someone who assists the organisation in understanding its needs and potential combines and formats the vision of the group and catalyses the occurrence of group action. The leader will also not just be the head, but will play out every ones roles. Future public managers will need to be able to do certain things by utilising, among others, the following skills and abilities: leadership, deliberation and the skills associated with it viz. mediation, teamwork, negotiation and problem-solving etc. in various cultural settings; communication skills such as written, graphic, oral, technological and foreign languages; the skill of gathering, analysing and evaluating information; being able to critically (using different views and opinions), creatively (having the ability to come up with different ideas) and ethically (not infringing on anyones rights and moral obligations) reason; human relations i.e. dealing with staff, clients etc., which is vital for attaining success in a world that is so diverse in culture and ever changing; commit themselves to their own physical, emotional and psychological wellness, as well as that of others around them; have the ability to appreciate the human experience as being diverse which includes activ ities that are aesthetic and creative; display behaviour that is in accordance with the ethical principals and civic virtues normally displayed by good and responsible citizens of the immediate community, the state or province, the nation and ultimately the world; thinking critically, creatively as well as ethically; interpersonal (with themselves), intra-group (within a specific group) and inter-group (amongst different groups) skills which are important for attaining success in a world so complex; etc. According to Fox et al. (1991) and McCurdy (1995), a public manager has to adopt some new attitudes, which go against the rigid and bureaucratic inclinations of the past. (Southern Business School, 2007:118 119) They suggest that a public manager should become a crusader, an organiser, a pro-active policy formulator, a social change agent, a crises manager, a humanitarian, an interest broker, etc. for this they will need to be critical and honest about themselves and their own positions and allow personal change.

Psychological Assesment of a client :: essays research papers

Psychological Analysis 1) What are your initial observations of the patient? Include name, age, marital status, profession, behavior, etc.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   My client’s name is Arleen Mc Coy. Arleen is a thirty eight year old female. She has been married for 15 years and has two sons ages five and twelve. Arleen is a police officer and has been so for ten years. She is currently on paid medical leave and has three weeks left before she is due back at work. Arleen’s parents have been divorced for sixteen years and her father is an alcoholic with history of physical abuse toward his children. Her profession as a police officer came about from her desire to â€Å"serve and protect† because she could not do so as a child. Arleen has two brothers, one that she keeps in contact with and one that she does not. The day of our first visit my client seemed edgy and relayed to us that she has been feeling extremely stressed lately. Her husband and her have not been getting along because of her edginess. She says she has not been able to sleep, and does not want to go back to work or visit any of her fellow colleagues. My client has been having dreams and flashbacks about an incident that occurred while on the job. The incident occurred when she made a routine traffic stop and an altercation occurred between her and the suspect after one kilogram of cocaine was found during a routine search. The suspect then pulled out a gun and fired a shot wounding officer Mc Coy and ricocheting onto a car. By misfortune the car lost control and a five-year-old boy was killed as a result of the crash. Since the event my client has experienced feelings of helplessness, she feels if she could only go back and do something differently the child would not of had to die. 2) What is your diagnosis? Discuss the reasons for your diagnosis- the specific symptoms, social conditions etc that lead you to make your diagnosis.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The diagnosis that seems most appropriate for my client is Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. PTSD is the response to an extremely traumatic event, which elicits fear, helplessness, or horror. Some of the characteristic symptoms for this disorder include the re-experiencing of the event in forms of dreams and flashbacks, which occur while awakening or intoxicated. Arleen claims that every time she closes her eyes the scene re-plays in her head time and time again, and she has been drinking to help her cope with this. Psychological Assesment of a client :: essays research papers Psychological Analysis 1) What are your initial observations of the patient? Include name, age, marital status, profession, behavior, etc.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   My client’s name is Arleen Mc Coy. Arleen is a thirty eight year old female. She has been married for 15 years and has two sons ages five and twelve. Arleen is a police officer and has been so for ten years. She is currently on paid medical leave and has three weeks left before she is due back at work. Arleen’s parents have been divorced for sixteen years and her father is an alcoholic with history of physical abuse toward his children. Her profession as a police officer came about from her desire to â€Å"serve and protect† because she could not do so as a child. Arleen has two brothers, one that she keeps in contact with and one that she does not. The day of our first visit my client seemed edgy and relayed to us that she has been feeling extremely stressed lately. Her husband and her have not been getting along because of her edginess. She says she has not been able to sleep, and does not want to go back to work or visit any of her fellow colleagues. My client has been having dreams and flashbacks about an incident that occurred while on the job. The incident occurred when she made a routine traffic stop and an altercation occurred between her and the suspect after one kilogram of cocaine was found during a routine search. The suspect then pulled out a gun and fired a shot wounding officer Mc Coy and ricocheting onto a car. By misfortune the car lost control and a five-year-old boy was killed as a result of the crash. Since the event my client has experienced feelings of helplessness, she feels if she could only go back and do something differently the child would not of had to die. 2) What is your diagnosis? Discuss the reasons for your diagnosis- the specific symptoms, social conditions etc that lead you to make your diagnosis.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The diagnosis that seems most appropriate for my client is Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. PTSD is the response to an extremely traumatic event, which elicits fear, helplessness, or horror. Some of the characteristic symptoms for this disorder include the re-experiencing of the event in forms of dreams and flashbacks, which occur while awakening or intoxicated. Arleen claims that every time she closes her eyes the scene re-plays in her head time and time again, and she has been drinking to help her cope with this.

Psychometric Tests Essay

Introduction Psychometric tests developed quickly during the 1980s and 1990s and nowadays, it is very commonly used by many organisations for making decisions on selection and promotion. â€Å"In the UK, about 75% of medium to large sized organizations use them as part of their selection procedure alongside interviews or other face-to-face assessment techniques.† (Website: http://www.morrisby.com/faq/faq_answer.asp?ID=11 Accessed 30/11/2005) The psychometric tests are a useful tool for understanding more about the candidates, and finding out their aptitude and personality to support the organisation making prediction about the person’s behaviour or work performance in the future. Types of psychometric tests â€Å"A key feature of all psychometric tests is that they have to fulfil two principal criteria in use: reliability, ie, tests must provide consistent results when measuring the same characteristics, or factors, on two or more occasions, usually on a test-retest basis; validity, i.e they must be able to measure what they claim to measure.† (G A Cole, Organisational Behaviour, 1995, Continuum) The psychometric tests fall into two types: * Aptitude tests – Measure a person’s potential rather than knowledge and how well they can learn new skills to cope with the job. The tests mostly focus on the person’s numerical, verbal, non-verbal and spatial ability. It is different to the attainment tests because it helps to predict the performance of the person, whereas the attainment tests focus on the person’s achievement in the past. However, there is a link between the attainment tests and ability tests because what the person has achieved depends on his/her ability. * Personality questionnaires – Focus on the person’s personality, values, interests, etc. The tests involve finding out and analysing the ways in which people deal with things, their attitude and how they will behave in different situations. The tests normally don’t have a time limit, and there is no â€Å"right† or â€Å"wrong† answers. Back to 400 BC, Hippocrates from Greece was the first theorist to measure the differences between individuals’ personality. He believed that individual’s personality or temperament were determined by their bodily fluids or ‘humours’, i.e. yellow bile – choleric – aggressive, excitable, irritable. Another type theory was developed by William Sheldon (1898-1970,) he believed that the temperament of people were related to their physique, i.e. the ectomorph type, people who are thin, shy, creative and intelligent, the mesomorph type, which are people who are strong, active, brave and assertive, and the endomorpht type, people who are fat, sociable and easy going. Another example of type theory was created by Swiss psychologist Carl Gustav Jung; he focused on how people think. He created eight psychological types, four Extraverted (E) attitudes plus four Introverted (I) attitudes combine with either thinking (T) or feeling (F), and either sensing (S) or intuition (N); EST, ESF, ENT, ENF, IST, ISF, INT and INF. His work was later developed by two generations of the Myers-Briggs family, which the MBTI test use one side or other of all four of Jung’s, establish a four-letter code to set up sixteen types of personality. In addition, one of the most famous trait theories was created by Hans Jà ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½rgen Eysenck (1997; 1990) and the Sixteen personality Factor Questionnaire (16PF) created by R.B. Cattell, it’s one of the best-known personality measures, also one of the most frequently used in the selection process. The use and effectiveness of psychometric tests Organisations spend lots of money and time on selection and all they want is the right person for the right job, an employee who has the ability, enjoys doing the job, and will provide a good level of performance, and benefit the organisation as a result. In other words, the tests help the organisations to save money and time, because once they have got the right person for the job, they might not need to go through the recruitment process again. During the interview process, sometimes applicants might lie about their achievement and ability, or even create a false good impression to increase their chance of getting the job. With the help of the psychometric tests, the organisation will be able to make decisions about people more effective and accurately because the information they gather from the tests are reliable, and also enable them to predict the ability and the performance of the candidate. â€Å"Recent meta-analysis studies have consistently demonstrated that cognitive ability testing accurately predicts future job performance across almost all operational areas.† (John Arnold, Work Psychology, 4th edition, 2005, Pearson Education Limited) An example of the use of a psychometric test during the selection process could involve a potential sales manager, and possibly testing them for their numerical ability, verbal reasoning powers and for analysing their personality, enabling the company to see how he/she deals things, behaves towards the staff or reacts in different situations. Using a psychometric test during the selection process would also help an organisation to give feedback to those who failed to get the job; the feedback is accurate and straight forward, helping the applicants to identify their strengths and weaknesses, so they know what kind of job is suitable for them and to help self-development. During the training and promotion processes, the tests are also useful as they help to identify whether the employees need training and assistance in improving their skills in specific areas. During the promotion process, the organisation might use the personality questionnaires to find out which candidate’s personality is most suitable to promote to a higher level. Some organisations might even use the results of a psychometric test to make someone redundant. I personally think that it is not fair because the tests should be seen as additional information, and also the personality does not fully reflect the productivity of the employee. Limitation of the tests First of all, it may be costly and time-consuming for the organisations to produce the tests because the materials required can be expensive, big organisations may even employ a psychologist to design specific tests and it will therefore increase their costs. Examples such as personality tests are difficult to manage and interpret results, and therefore specific experts are needed. Secondly, the applicants can fake their response in the personality tests as it increases their chances of getting the job, as they might attempt to give the answers to which the organisation is looking for. It can be described as â€Å"social desirability† and it contains two fundamentals, self-deception and impression management (Paulhaus, 1989). â€Å"Self-deception refers to applicants’ being overly optimistic in their perceptions of positive personality features while simultaneously trying to play down their perceived negative aspects. Impression management is more concerned with applicants trying to appear â€Å"nice† because they fear social disapproval.† (Dominic Cooper and Ivan T. Robertson, The Psychology of Personnel Selection, 1995, Routledge). It’s also required to take into account that sometimes applicants might be nervous when they are taking the tests, and that it might have an influence on the answers they are giving. For the aptitude and ability tests, some jobs might require multi-skilled applicants who do not have all of the abilities, this does not mean that they cannot perform well, but their performance would also depend on many other factors, i.e. company’s policies, procedures and structure, luck, team working, appraisal system, etc. It is hard to predict the performance of an individual when sometimes people rotate their duty or positions, tailored to one of the methods of motivation. The purpose of the aptitude and personality tests are to predict an individual’s performance, personality and behaviour, specifically when the individuals receive new information and obtain new experiences, i.e. If a special event or dramatic change in life were to occur, their attitudes would change and it can therefore influence their performance. Another strong argued point against aptitude and personality tests would be, for example, an employee who performs well but has a bad personality; he/she could be unfriendly, unsociable and may not like to work as part of a team, but overall his/her performance could be the best within the department. The question is, is he/she really the most suitable person for the job? From the business’ view, he/she is definitely the right person for the job as long as he/she helps to achieve the business targets. However, the use of the personality tests would become useless, and fail to take into account their performance capability in this situation because it clearly proves that his/her personality does not reflect their performance. In addition, the tests might be unfair to applicants whose first language is not English, even though some tests might require a certain amount of education, i.e. vocabulary, but also it would be unfair to applicants who have different cultures, or come from a different background, because they might have different beliefs, opinions and values on different things or react differently to similar situations. Conclusion I personally think that the aptitude and ability tests are really useful for organisations, as it helps them to make decisions during their selection and promotion stages. It is reliable and accurate, helps to identify the ability of the applicants and predicts their performance. However, there are lots of factors that could create an influence on the individuals’ life, which would directly or indirectly affect their performance. The personality questionnaire can be accurate if the person answers honestly to the questions, it can help them to know more about themselves and find out what type of person they are. However, I suggest that the personality questionnaire should not be used within workplace because I strongly believe that personality does not reflect the productivity of the person. Finally, I think it is important for organisations not to rely on these tests because they cannot be 100% accurate, and that they should set out a good selection procedure, making sure they are providing a good feedback system to the applicants, and make sure discriminations do not take place during the selection process. Bibliography Reading list G A Cole, (1995), Organisational Behaviour, Continuum Laurie. J Mullins, (2005), Management and organisational behaviour, 7th Edition, Prentice Hall. Andrzej Huczynski and David Buchanan, (2001), Organizational Behaviour An Introductory Text, 4th Edition, Prentice Hall John Arnold, (2005), Work Psychology, 4th Edition, Prentice Hall Christoper Lewis, (1992), Employee Selection, 2nd Edition, Stanley Thornes Dominic Cooper and Ivan T. Robertson, (1995), The Psychology of Personnel Selection, Routledge Website http://www.lboro.ac.uk/service/careers/section/apps_ints/apps_psyc.html#WHAT Accessed 30 November 2005 http://www.psychometricadvantage.co.uk/personalityprofiling.html Accessed 28 November 2005 http://www.cosmiccoaching.com/articles/psycho.htm Accessed 28 November 2005 http://www.morrisby.com/test_takers_guide/psychometrics.asp#8 Accessed 28 November 2005

Show

Variety show is about showing talents and skills using creative minds. It is a way of entertaining people and getting socialize to other persons that are new and close to you. It is also a way in improving a person’s self –confidence and to help a person in getting socialize and interact with other people. When we start practicing for our variety, we encounter so many problems like misunderstanding and lack of cooperation but it didn’t affect our performance . Instead we do our best to have a wonderful and creative show. We prepare so many things to entertain our audience like we have fire dance, band, modeling and other things.When we started to performed in front of so many people we feel nervous and happy because all of our efforts and talents are can be share and shown to other people. All of classmates are cheering to each one of us to give strength and to help boost each of one’s self-confidence. At the end of our show you can see from their faces th at they are truly happy with what they done for the variety show, you can see to each one of us the laughter and the tears in getting flat one grade in our variety show. For me our show was totally great and worth remembering for although we had so many mistakes in our performance.I realize so many things after our variety show that we need to arrive early to have much time in preparing for our variety show and when you are performing in front, you must focus on audience faces . The audience should be the central focus of everything you do. Don't go over their heads unless it's the only thing keeping you upright. Make eye contact, smile at them, and feed of that energy . I enjoyed very much our first variety show in college and I would really treasure it for the rest of my life. Submitted by: Leedee Liane S. Carbonilla