Society, Ethics and Technology Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Society, Ethics and Technology - Essay Example Reference will also be made from other sources to expound on the concept. Why does Cowan believe it is important to examine technologies in the context of technological systems? What advantage does this broader perspective give to planners? Give a specific current technological example (not it the reading) in support of your answer. Technological concepts cannot be understood clearly without a determined focus on technological systems. The knowledge includes an understanding of the input, output, transformation, control and interdependency to other systems (Winston and Edelbach, 2012). Technological systems have led to increased levels of productivity at all sectors of the economy leading to changes in lifestyles. The improvement in technological systems has led to globalization, with people becoming more reliant and interdependent on one another than ever before. Technological systems are the perfect indicators of advancement in technology for any nation. For instance, although the American industrialization began in the early 1780’s, the instability of its technological system was hampered by the civil war. This delayed the attainment of the status of an industrialized nation until the end of the civil war. ... The improvement in living and working conditions is caused by the presence of advanced technology. Some of the current technological systems include the electric, telephone and petroleum systems. Examining technology in the context of technological systems enables the planners to identify those areas of human life that require technological advancement, and thus design the most effective and efficient system for improvement. The aspects of human culture that conflict with technological advancement can also be aligned for a beneficial coexistence. An example of the impact of recent technological systems on technology is the improvement in the medical technology that has witnessed the use of advanced technologies such as kidney dialysis machines that have enhanced the efficiency of intravenous therapy. Landes argues that there were cultural differences between the East and Middle East and the West that affected the development and application of some technologies such as the clock. Did these differences also affect the way these cultures approached information technologies such as the printing press? Can you make a comparison with the different approaches taken by Eastern and Middle Eastern and Western cultures today and current information technologies? The cultural diversity that characterized the East, Middle East and the West led to the modification of the individual technologies to suit societal demand. The Chinese cultural language is written in ideographs and does not submit itself to the current changes in the language patterns. This explains the increased popularity of full page block printing among the Chinese, contrary to movable type that is more preferred by the West (Winston and Edelbach, 2012, pp.

Human Resource Management Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words - 1

Human Resource Management - Research Paper Example This research work discusses the relevance, roles and responsibilities of management and relevant theories related to recruiting and hiring, performance management, labor and employee relation, strategic HRM, training and development and organization development. Recruiting and Hiring Recruiting is a process that seeks and attracts a pool of people from which only qualified candidates for job can be chosen (Byars and Rue, 2008, p. 111). Recruiting is a strategic HR planning in which employers come to take appropriate decisions regarding who to be selected in order to meet the requirement (Mathis and Jackson, 2010, p. 208). Hiring, which is the final step involved in recruiting, is bringing on someone new to the firm. An effectively carried out recruiting helps the management find out most appropriate people, improve productivity, reduce labor costs and achieve the high performance working. The major roles and responsibilities of HR management in relation to recruitment and hiring are identifying the personnel requirement in the firm, evaluate their required skills and knowledge, attract a pool of people either from internal or external sources, conducting interviews, hiring and selection procedures and planning for their training and development programs (Searle, 2009, p. ... rategic managing approach to assessing, evaluating, monitoring and correcting the performance of employees is critical to the function of human resource management. From the analysis of various definitions of performance management, Deb (2006, p. 202) outlined that performance management is a holistic approach to ensure that value is added and a process of integration of performance measures, benchmarks and goals in order to achieve optimal results. As human capital is the most powerful asset in a firm and the performance of people is closely related to achieving the organizational goals, it is an economic imperative that the management must assess, evaluate and correct the performance through an effective management system. In an effective performance management, the management has to function in a systematic way and to play five major roles. They are; 1) Planning the work and setting the expectations, 2) Monitoring the performance in a regular basis, 3) Developing the capacity to p erform well, 4) Rating periodically, and 5) Rewarding for the improved and better performance (Deb, 2006, p. 202). Performance appraisal, which is considered as part of performance management, has gained increased importance as an important concept in the area of HRM. High Performance Working which is the best possible fit between the social system and the technical system in a firm (Noe, Hollenbeck and Gerhert, 2003, p. 5) has also gained increased importance in the field of HRM. Labor relation and Collective bargaining Maintaining healthy relation between employers and employees is a key requirement for the HRM since this relation can have significant impact on morale, motivation and ultimately on productivity as well (Mello, 2009, p. 528). Similarly, collective bargaining is also an