Questions on International Marketing

1. What atomic number 18 the important issues that neediness to be addressed when conducting market query in a foreign demesne? Cultural differences, racial differences, climatic differences, stinting differences, religious differences, historical differences, language differences, differences in actual and potential target groups. 2. What atomic number 18 the factors that add to the complexity of world-wide merchandising explore? Ethnocentrism, polycentrism, regiocentrism, geocentrism. 3. What are the steps to be includen in coordinating foreign research? Identifying and defining your problemDeveloping your approach Establishing research design and strategy Collecting the info Performing data analysis insurance coverage and presentation 4. What are roughly respectable problems that marketing researchers face in plan and conducting field studies in different countries? whatever questions lot be in truth watertight or offensives to some culture, but this kindred que stions can be rattling natural to an other culture, so people who are thinking in doing a international marketing research should be very careful in how they structure the questions because everything depends in the culture. . peter Philips, an engineering student, has designed an in advance(p) piece of equipment to help the physic bothy modify to communicate. The equipment incorporates a system of electronic signals emitted with a slight turn of the head. This ware is before long a success in the get together States among health-care organizations. Peter wants to market this product in different countries. Acting as Mr. Phillips marketing/international business consultant, suggest a course of action to help Peter bring this product to the international market. This is an duplication question which will have to a greater extent weight than the other questions) Well, first of all peter has to choose which market he is going to hit, I mean in which boorish he would like to wander his product. Then he would have to buzz off an international marketing research in which this investigation clearly helps him to get along if this country its interested in this product, because a lot of people readiness not be interested in this product or they dont have a go at it this in the buff product.The research need to crock up very important information more or less how the economy is going in that country, I mean this product can be in the profit range for American people but a some other people in other country cant drop such an expensive equipment, so it might be very risk to put in to that new market. Besides this here comes the profound and policies barriers in which he have to know how to negotiate all this barriers. So it is very important before introducing a new product to a country to choose an marketing research so you can know and measure the risk that it would take to introduce your new product another(prenominal) country.

'Obstacles Teachers May Face Essay\r'

'The process of how an individual learns is base on the theories surrounding demeanourism, instruct, clay sculpture and ego regulation. Students merchantman be problematic if proper re closures atomic number 18n’t put in place when a dilemma arises. on that point is a prominent emphasis on the importance and relevancy in motivating the scholars in the classroom. Without the noesis of extrinsic and inherent motivation and what drives assimilators to learn, t distri preciselyivelyers whitethorn non know what inspires or how to progress students to work to the best of their ability.\r\nTeachers moldiness exhibit themselves in a professional behavior at wholly times, whether they are dealings with students, parents or colleagues. Professionalism merchant ship be defined in several ways and close to characteristics of a professional instructor involve being committed to learners in a way that incorporates a code of ethics, suck in the ability to baffle routine and in force(p) decisions in a complex and unreadable situation, conduct a critical self interrogatoryination of star’s teachings, i. . brooding practice, and look at the fragment of professional companionship to constantly improve, develop and enlarge star’s methods of teaching to maximize study environments (Eggan, P. & group A; Kauchak, D. 2010. pp, 4 †6). One blockage a instructor whitethorn pose is if he or she gets asked a research that they don’t know the retort to. Students look up to teachers and depend on them for the association they require (Yero, J. L. , 2002. P173).\r\nUnderstanding each topic is simply not seemly; a teacher consumes to be able to represent topics in an comprehendible way that is appropriate to the age of the learner. For example, the solution to explaining how to multiply numbers is to firstly acquire the knowledge of content then illustrate how to multiply the numbers. This is referred to as ped agogical knowledge. pedagogic knowledge requires the teacher to find out principles of instructional strategies and classroom management.\r\nInvolving each student in the instruction process in influence to enhance productive skill comes with knowledge and experience. Instructional strategies that promote productive cultivation include: selecting topics that are valuable for students to learn, let clear education objectives and prepare culture activities respectively, design assessments that relate to the workload and sustain the instructional alignment between the three, i. e. the liaison between study objectives, instruction activities and assessments (Eggan, P. Kauchak, D. 2010. pp390 †394). A teacher must lose a affirmatory and caring attitude, be organized, fleet effectively, respect and encourage rather than revenge and constantly question and prompt erroneous answers to manage a productive classroom (Nelson, J. , Lott, L. & Glen, S. p20-27). Identi fying clear standards of acceptable behavior i. e. rules, be supportive to each student and create a sense of balance are all strategies to condition a productive and manageable classroom.\r\nThe aim of all teachers is to promote as much learning as possible. Behaviorism focuses on the predilection that learning is â€Å"influenced by stimuli from the environment” (Eggan, P. & Kauchak, D. 2010. p,164). For example, whole toneing nervous before an exam is a learned behavior out-of-pocket to previous experiences/knowledge of exams. This feeling is free to the individual, and it is referred to as classical conditioning. Classical conditioning rear end be corroborative or minus, depending on which, it tail end have different effects on the learner.\r\nIf the teacher uses positive reinforcement within the classroom the students leave gradually associate learning to the teacher’s manner and thus feel safe within the classroom resulting in a productive learning environment. In contrast negative or non-reinforcement results in the cessation of a behavior and results in a classroom environment that is not productive. Children learn acceptable behaviors through and through notice adults, therefore teachers are role models, and it is important for a teacher to demonstrate respect, tolerance, and set to set off learning (Call, N. Featherstone, S. 2004 p. 47). Cognitive modeling is essential to the learning process as teachers use this to perform a expression and verbalize the thinking behind the actions interpreted (Eggan, P. & Kauchak. D. , 2010. p. 182). An obstacle one may face is if some children are having hurt learning how to pass a netball to one another. Often, children instinctively bounce the ball, instead of transient it, as classical conditioning has taught them to do so from a young age.\r\nThe teacher must describe one’s thoughts of how to pass a netball, whilst performing the action, which in tour of duty enco urages students to verbalize their visualizeings in whatsoever situation, resulting in a productive learning environment. Modeling is the key concept of accessible cognitive opening. Cognitive, behavioral and emotional transmit in children is a result of observing models. Modeling affects people by learning new behaviors, facilitating existing behaviors, changing inhibitions and by arousing emotions (Eggan, P. & Kauchak, D. 2010. p. 183).\r\nThese observations lead to learner behaveations, which in turn are accomplished through self-regulation. Settings goals and monitoring that progress is an essential element of learning. The student observes another student sledding the netball. He then models the observation, uses that experience to expand his knowledge thus takes responsibility and constraint of his learning. Teaching is constantly developing and changing, and the need for motivation is a necessary surgical operation to support and increase student learning and the teaching process.\r\nA common obstacle teacher’s face is how to motivate uninterested and unengaged students. Some students seem naturally enthusiastic about learning, but many need or expect their instructors to inspire, challenge and stimulate them. An un make student is likely to choose work that is inappropriately easy, show a negative attitude, progress to up quickly and leave tasks unfinished. This can disrupt the students around him and cause interruptions in the learning environment (Nelson, J. Lott L. , & Glenn, S. 1997 p. 72).\r\nThere are two broad forms of motivation; extrinsic †where some students will be motivated by the approval of others, for example, by getting a good grade, and intrinsic motivation, where the learner studies in order to understand the content presented to them because they like the challenge and neediness to perform (Eggen, P. & Kauchak, D. 2010. p. 287). To encourage students to move self motivated and independent learners, teachers can give frequent, early, positive feedback. This supports the students beliefs’ that they can, and are doing well as viewed by the humanistic supposition of motivation.\r\nThe teacher can also economic aid students find personal meaning and rank in the material as viewed by cognitive and social cognitive theory of motivation, and create an atmosphere that is open and positive which help students feel that they are a valued member of the learning fraternity which is based on the socioculural theory of motivation. In addition, a teacher can ensure opportunities for students’ success by assigning tasks that are n any also easy nor too difficult which is a view dual-lane by behaviorist theories (Eggen, P. & Kauchak, D. 2010. p. 289). It must be understood that individuals are motivated through a wide alteration of needs.\r\nWhile teachers can’t make or teach students to be self-motivated, they can encourage and promote this highly plummy trai t. To conclude, there are many solutions to the obstacles a teacher may face in a learning environment. A teacher should act and approach a classroom with a professional attitude and an academic manner by being learned and recognizing the importance for assessing oneself. Teachers must be aware(p) of the influence they make on students’ learning and how to promote positive and engaging classroom environments in order to solve the dilemmas they may be presented with in regards to behaviors students display.\r\nFurthermore, teachers need to understand that the process of motivation stems from stimulation, which in turn is followed by an emotional reaction that leads to either a positive or negative behavioral response. By understanding the theories based on solutions to the problems a teacher may face in the classroom, they may have a better chance at expecting when a problem may arise, and fade out the situation immediately.\r\n'

'The bear ruled over the land with all his might\r'

' formerly upon a time there were two spacious lowers separated by a great w altogether. One of the kingdoms had an oppressive and over looking maintain and the some different one was control by a greedy and savage tiger. The have got linguistic ruled over the land with all his might and power and did non look after the needs of the florid mice in his dominion. The greedy and cruel tiger remained neglectful of the blue mice citizenry.At dawn all the mice, some(prenominal) bolshy and blue, in all(prenominal) land would wake up and pass over working hard on their lands. You could fall upon the joy and cheer on their faces as they trim the trees and water the plants.At noontime, the mice had the routine antic of gathering the finest fruits for their mastersâ€the tiger and the wear off. However, it seemed that the tiger and the bear had no feeling of satiety, for all(prenominal) time the mice offered them the finest fruits of their land, the tiger would swiftl y peek at the bountiful fruits and look up to the other side of the palisade saying, â€Å"I wish I could have what is slowly that wall. I think I be more than the fruits of this land.”In the same manner, every time the red mice would offer their bear the fruits of their toil, the bear thought to himself saying, â€Å"I am the mighty bear and mighty bears rule the largest lands.” It did non take very keen-sighted before the bear approached the great wall and in all curiosity peeped at bottom a small hole on the wall to see what was behind it. The tiger also approached the wall and saw the bear and his land, which was similar to the tiger’s land.Because of the bear’s covetousness, the land on the other side of the fence looked so invite and enticing. In all bravado, he beamed, â€Å"This is my land and you all must be downstairs my control.”  Suddenly an old bird of Jove with resonate light and long white travel came from blue sky and said, â€Å"You can not do this to each other.  You scare the mice and heedlessness the walls. â€Å"Who cares about the mice?” the bear replied pointing his hand to all the land saying, â€Å"This is my land.”  The tiger roared at the eagle and in an instant scratched and wounded the eagle’s right wing with his corking long claws.This made the eagle extend profusely. Suddenly the resonating light vanished and both lands looked so gloomy. The sky turned into red with overcast black shadows as the two leading broke into a felonious grapple. In an instant, both the tiger and bear were locked in each other’s mighty claws, biting and fiercely hand-to-hand struggle each other. They ordered their own mice to fight the other troops and a pestiferous battle ensued.After the air had cleared, most of the mice on both camps were dead. However, the bear and the tiger were lone(prenominal) slightly injured. In the end, the two leaders ruled over their land that stayed faltering and beaten with a few mice to lead. This left hand the tiger and the bear puzzled over what led them to destroy each other’s kingdom instantly in a fit of rage.\r\n \r\n'

'Online Shopping for Electronic Products Essay\r'

'â€Å"The net income has changed how information is communicated and processed. People social function the profits for different purposes, including communicating with friends, researching and monitoring online line of business prices, trading stock, paying bills, banking, and obtain. Growing numbers of consumers barter for goods and services, gather product information, or just to rank online”(Demangeot & Broderick, 2007). People to twenty-four hour period are and so bombarded with technology. Most people cannot get through the day without their laptops or smart phones, especially for today’s youth. Since today’s college students were raised in a technological age. â€Å"It is no surprise that internet recitation among college respondents has seen a marked incr residuum in juvenile years” (Budden et al, 2007). â€Å"Most college students surveyed enjoy crap online” (Arnaudovska et al, 2010).\r\nOnline shopping gradually appears in p eople’s lives, especially in college students’ life. â€Å"Online shopping is the process whereby consumers buy goods or services directly from a seller in real time over the Internet. Online shopping environments are, therefore, compete an increasing role in the relationship amongst marketers and their consumers” (Demangeot & Broderick, 2007).\r\nTherefore, internet is not only thus playing an important role today, but as well as in the future. â€Å"In the city of the future, bricks-and-mortar sellers will be just as savvy as their online counterparts. In recent years, the convenience of purchasing almost anything via the Internet has driven the decline of numerous chains. Stores don’t have the data websites do, so they don’t understand their customers as well. However, they’re increasingly experimenting with revolutionary ways to lure you into their aisles, analyze your patterns and fine-tune their offering-just as the websites have done for years”(Castaldo, J. 2012).\r\nFor sales of electronic products online, according to US Census’s E-Stats, 2009 E-commerce Multi-sector piece of music (2011), it increased from 5,848 one million million dollars in 2003 to 17,684 million dollars in 2009. The Census Bureau of the Department of Commerce proclaimed at November 16, 2012 that â€Å"the estimate of U.S. retail e-commerce sales for the ternion turd of 2012 was $57.0 billion, an increase of 3.7 portion from the second derriere of 2012. Total retail sales for the third dirt of 2012 were estimated at $1,092.2 billion, an increase of 1.4 part from the second quarter of 2012. The third quarter 2012 e-commerce estimate increased 17.3 percent from the third quarter of 2011 while total retail sales increased 4.6 percent in the alike(p) period. E-commerce sales in the third quarter of 2012 accounted for 5.2 percent of total sales.” ( U.S. Census Bureau, 2012)\r\nAccording to the research by Yulihasri et al (2011), â€Å"Among all the proposed students differences particularors, compatibility and usefulness have been pitch as the most significant to influence students’ view for shopping on Internet and position, normative-beliefs have been frame as the most significant to influence students’ aim for shopping on Internet. The idea of salient beliefs including compatibility, ease of use, usefulness and security are highly relevant that influence students’ attitude towards on-line shopping, except privacy. However, attitude strongly associated to intention.”\r\nThe purpose of this study is to investigate college students’ attitudes toward online shopping for electronic products by using Fishbein And Ajzen’s scheme of reasoned action (Ajzen and Fishbein, 1980). As well as what factors influence people generally on their decision. obtain online has very different characteristics from shopping in a store. Some of these charac teristics may contribute to consumers’ intention to shop online, while others may discourage them. In adjunct to consumers’ psycho-graphics and demographic backgrounds that likely affect their attitudes toward and intentions of shopping online, the fact that the Internet is accessible and therefore merchandise is widely available is important.\r\nAccording to Laudon et al. (2012), Approximately 80 million households have broadband access to the Internet in 2010, representing about 68 percent of all households. just about 83 million Americans now access the Internet using a smartphone such as an iPhone, Droid, or BlackBerry. Mobile e-commerce has begun a rapid growth base on apps, ring tones, downloaded entertainment, and location-based services. In a hardly a(prenominal) years, mobile phones will be the most familiar Internet access device. In addition, according to Hasslinger et al. (2007)’s research, they identified price, trust and convince as the elem entary concern when people shopping online.\r\n'

'Succubus Blues CHAPTER 21\r'

'I had no.boyfri end up. contempt every(prenominal) the uncertainties in my world, that at least was whizzness thing I could feel confident more or less. Unfortunately, this nephilim plain had a more optimistic view of my dear life.\r\nâ€Å"I dont turn in who youre talking ab come to the fore,” I yelled to my empty hitice. â€Å"Do you hear me, you son of a bitch? I dont know who youre fucking talking or so!”\r\nNo one(a) responded.\r\nPaige, passing by a mowork forcet deeplyr, stuck her orient inside. â€Å"Did you refer me?”\r\nâ€Å"No,” I grumbled. She wore a dress that clung distinctly to her swelling belly. It didnt service of process my mood every. â€Å"Just talking to myself.” I unopen the inletsill aft(prenominal) she left field.\r\nMy immediate impulse was to dispose for help. Carter. Jerome. Somebody. whatsoeverbody. I couldnt deal with this alone.\r\nFail †or strike any of your immortal contacts †and no amount of â€Å" safekeeping” will do him any good.\r\nDamn it. I didnt change surface know who â€Å"he” was. Franti margin birdc exclusivelyy, I act to figure come place of the closuret who among my mortal acquaintances could dumbfound been untrue by the nephilim as some(prenominal)thing more. As if it wasnt weighed start bounteous being my friend already.\r\nSurprisingly †or by take on not †my thoughts promptly strayed to stage set. I thought some our recent rapport. Censored and proper certainly, precisely appease warm. take over dependable and natural. Still occasionally devising me catch my breath when we touched.\r\nNo, that was stupid. My fascination with him was shallow. His books do me weather from hero worship, and our friendship had become a elucidate of rebound from papistic. Whatever crush or boor attraction hed had for me had to be fading fast. Hed shown no oppositewisewise indications of more-than-friends feelings, and my distancing had to be having an effect. Besides, he motionlessness kept vanish for mysterious meets, in all probability for some girl he was besides shy to divide me ab fall stunned. It was presumptuous of me to even consider him in a boyfriend category.\r\n all the same… would the nephilim know any of that? Who knew what the bastard was thinking? If it had observe Seth and me having our coffee chats, it big businessman assume anything. fearfulness clenched me, making me want to immediately turn tail upstairs and check on Seth. exactly no. That would be a waste, for now at least. He was writing, in public, surrounded by people. The nephilim would not attempt him in such a setting.\r\nWho else so? rabbit warren perhaps? That voyeur nephilim had watched us have sex. If that didnt tally as some sort of relationship, I didnt know what did. Of course, the nephilim would have also observed that warren and I al most(prenominal) never interacted in any other inti mate focussing. Poor Warren. Sex with me had already wiped him out; it would be beyond cruel if he became a tar labour for the nephilims bizarrely misplaced humor. Fortunately, I had already seen Warren come in to solar day. He was busy in his pip, honorable perhaps that still counted as safe. only he might be, notwithstanding any screams from a nephilim attack would immediately draw attention.\r\nDoug? He and I had always had a perky flirtation. Certainly one might consider his sporadic pursuit of me significative of something more than friendship. Yet, in the last hardly a(prenominal) weeks, he and I hadnt talked very such(prenominal). Id been too distracted by the nephilim attacks. Those, and roman letters.\r\nAh, Roman. T present it was, the possibility that had been h everyplaceing in the plump for of my understanding. The naive realism Id been avoiding because it think oft contacting him, break of serveing the silence Id tried so hard to maintain. I didnt know what was between us, other than a scorching attraction and the occasional tug of solidarity. I didnt know if it was heat or the start of love or whatever. But I knew I c bed astir(predicate) him. A drawing card. I fall behinded him. Cutting myself off all had been the safest way to recover, to recrudesce over my liking and move on. I feared what reinitiating contact could do.\r\nAnd yet… because I cared about him, I could not let this nephilim pit upon him. I could not risk Romans life in this because, unfeignedly, he probably was the most likely candidate. fractional the bookstall stave still considered us an occurrence; why not the nephilim ? Especially in dismay of how touchy-feely wed been on a number of outings. Any stalking nephilim would be well on the dotified in reading that as romantic attachment I picked up my cell bring forward and called him with bated breath. No answer.\r\nâ€Å"Shit,” I swore, listening to his voice mail. â€Å"Hi Roman, its me. I know I wasnt, uh, going to call you anymore, but somethings come up… and I rattling exact to talk to you. As presently as possible. Its really weird, but its really important too. transport call me.” I left him both my cell and the bookstore numbers.\r\nI disconnected, then sat and pondered. Now what did I do? On impulse, I descryd at the staff directory and dialed Dougs menage number. He had the day off.\r\nNo answer, just like Roman. W here was everybody?\r\nShifting my attention guts to Roman, I tried to figure out where he would be. Work, most likely. Unfortunately, I didnt know where that was. What a negligent pseudo-girlfriend I was. Hed verbalise he taught at a partnership college. He referred to it all the cadence, but it was always â€Å"at school” or â€Å"at the college.” Hed never mentioned the name.\r\nI move to my computer and did a search for local anesthetic community colleges. When the search returned several hits for Seattle alone, I swore again. more than existed outside of the city too, in the suburbs and neighboring sister cities. Any of them could be possibilities. I printed out a list of all of them, with phone numbers, and stuffed the authorship in my handbag. I compulsory to get out of here, take to take this search to the field.\r\nI open my office gate to leave and flinched. Another identically written tubercle hung on my door. I peered around in the offices hallway, half hoping to see something. nada. I pulled the note atomic reactor and opened it.\r\nYoure losing period and men. Youve already lost the writer. Youd outmatch get a move-on with this scavenger line.\r\nâ€Å"Scavenger hunt indeed,” I muttered, crumpling the note. â€Å"Youre such an asshole.”\r\nBut… what did he mean about losing the writer? Seth? My pulse quickened, and I raced up to the cafe, earning a few startled looks a dour the way.\r\nNo Seth. His corner was empty.\r\nâ€Å"Where s Seth?” I demanded of Bruce. â€Å"He was just here.”\r\nâ€Å"He was,” concurred the barista. â€Å"Then he all of a emergent packed up and left.”\r\nâ€Å"Thanks.”\r\nI definitely demand to get out of here. I found Paige in New Books.\r\nâ€Å"I think I need to go home,” I told her. â€Å"Im getting a migraine. â€Å"\r\nShe looked startled. I had the best track record for attendance of any employee. I never called in shed. Yet, for that very reason, she could just refuse me. I was not a histrion who ab employ the system.\r\n afterward shed assured me I should go, I added, â€Å"Maybe you can get Doug to come in.” That would fling off two birds with one stone.\r\nâ€Å"Maybe,” she said. â€Å"Im sure well manage, though. Warren and I are here all day.”\r\nâ€Å"Hes here all day?”\r\nWhen she reiterated that he would indeed be there, I matte up somewhat relieved. Okay. He was off the list.\r\nAs I walke d home to my flatbed, I called Seths cell phone.\r\nâ€Å"Where are you?” I acquireed.\r\nâ€Å" groundwork. I forgot some notes I needed.”\r\nHome? Alone?\r\nâ€Å"Do you want to get eat with me?” I asked suddenly, needing to get him out.\r\nâ€Å"Its nigh one.”\r\nâ€Å"Brunch? eat?”\r\nâ€Å" arnt you at work?”\r\nâ€Å"I went home sick.”\r\nâ€Å"Are you sick?”\r\nâ€Å"No. Just meet me.” I gave him an finish and hung up.\r\nAs I drove to the rendezvous, I tried Romans cell again. Voice mail. I pulled out the community college phone numbers and started with the graduation exercise one on the list.\r\nWhat a pain. First, I had to start with campus cultivation and try to get to the right department. Most community colleges didnt even have linguistics departments, though virtually all had at least one preliminary class taught through some other colligate area †like anthropology or humanities.\r\nI make i t through three colleges by the time I reached Capitol Hill. I breathed a sigh of relief, visual perception Seth waiting outside the place Id indicated. After I parked and paid the meter, I walked up to him, trying to smile in some head game of normality.\r\nIt apparently didnt work.\r\nâ€Å"Whats wrong?”\r\nâ€Å"Nothing, energy,” I proclaimed cheerfully. also cheerfully.\r\nHis look implied disbelief, but he let the calculate drop. â€Å"Are we eating here?”\r\nâ€Å"Yup. But first we have to go see Doug.”\r\nâ€Å"Doug?” Seths confusion deepened.\r\nI led him to an flat building next door and climbed to Dougs floor. Music blared from inside his apartment, which I took as a good sign. I had to beat on the door three times ahead anyone answered.\r\nIt wasnt Doug. It was his roommate. He looked stoned.\r\nâ€Å"Is Doug here?”\r\nHe blinked at me and scratched his long, unkempt hair.\r\nâ€Å"Doug?” he asked.\r\nâ€Å"Yeah, Doug Sato.”\r\nâ€Å"Oh, Doug. Yeah.”\r\nâ€Å"Yeah, hes here?”\r\nâ€Å"No, man. Hes…” The guy squinted. Lord, who got high this early in the day? I hadnt even done that back in the 1960s. â€Å"Hes practicing.”\r\nâ€Å"Where? Where do they practice?”\r\nThe guy stared at me.\r\nâ€Å"Where do they practice?” I repeated.\r\nâ€Å"Dude, did you know you have, like, the most perfective tits Ive ever seen? Theyre like… poetry. Are they real?”\r\nI clenched my teeth. â€Å"Where. Does. Doug. Practice?”\r\nHe dragged his eyeball from my chest.\r\nâ€Å" air jacket Seattle. Over by Alki.”\r\nâ€Å"Do you have an address?”\r\nâ€Å"Its by… California and Alaska.” He blinked again. â€Å"Whoa. California and Alaska. chafe it?”\r\nâ€Å"An address?”\r\nâ€Å"Its common. You cant miss it.”\r\nWhen no other development came, Seth and I left. We went to the eating place I had indicated. â€Å"Poetry,” he reflected along the way, amused. â€Å"Like an ee cummings poem, Id word.”\r\nI was too preoccupied to process what he was saying, my mind racing. dismantle waffles with strawberries couldnt keep me from get toing about this squiffy scavenger hunt. Seth attempted conversation, but my answers were wisplike and distracted, my mind clearly not with him through the meal. When we finished, I unsuccessfully tried Roman again, then turned to Seth.\r\nâ€Å"Are you going back to the bookstore?”\r\nHe agitate his head. â€Å"No. Im going home. I know I need too untold of my inquiry to write this scene. Easier to stay in my own office.”\r\n misgiving blazed through me. â€Å"Home? But…” What could I say? Tell him that if he stayed at home, he might be in danger of attack by a sociopathic, supernatural creature?\r\nâ€Å" stomach with me,” I blurted out. â€Å"Run errands with me.”\r\nHis polite complacency finally broke. â€Å"Georgina, what in the world is going on? You go home sick when youre not. Youre clearly agitated about something, urgently so. Tell me what this is about. Is something wrong with Doug?”\r\nI closed my eye for a second, wishing this was all over. Wishing I was somewhere else. Or person else. Seth mustiness think I was out of my mind.\r\nâ€Å"I cant give tongue to you whats wrong, only that something is. You have to leave it at that.” Then, hesitantly, I reached out and squeezed his hand, turning my eyes pleadingly toward his. â€Å"Please. Stay with me.”\r\nHe tightened his grip on my hand and took a step forward, face concerned and compassionate. For a moment, I forgot about the nephilim. What did other men matter when Seth looked at me like that? I had the urge to encompass him and feel his arms enclose me.\r\nI almost laughed. Who was I kidding? I didnt need to worry about leading him on. I was the one getting aquiline he re. I was the one in danger of escalating this relationship. I needed to stop procrastinating on my â€Å"clean break” with him.\r\nI hastily broke apart and bring down my eyes. â€Å"Thank you.”\r\nHe offered to drive to West Seattle, button me up to keep calling colleges. I had to the highest degree finished by the time we reached the intersection of Alaska and California. He slowed s crystallisely, and we both peered around, searching for a viridity house.\r\nYou cant miss it.It was a stupid piece of advice. What constituted green at any rate? I apothegm a discerning house, a forest green house, and a colour in that could have been green or blue. Some houses had green trim, green doors, or â€\r\nâ€Å"Whoa,” said Seth.\r\nA small, check out house painted a glaring tint of mintish lime stood there, nearly obscured by two much tweer houses.\r\nâ€Å"You cant miss it,” I muttered.\r\nWe parked and walked toward it. As we did, the sounds of D ougs rope clearly emanated from the garage. When we reached the open door, I saw nocturnal Admission in full glory, Doug belting out lyrics in that amazing voice of his. He boil down off abruptly when he saw me.\r\nâ€Å"Kincaid?”\r\nHis buster band members looked on quizzically as he jumped down and sprinted over to me. Seth discretely took a few steps away, studying some nearby hydrangea bushes.\r\nâ€Å"What are you doing here?” asked Doug, not offended so much as astounded.\r\nâ€Å"I called in sick,” I said stupidly. What did I do now?\r\nâ€Å"Are you sick?”\r\nâ€Å"No. I †I had something to do. Still do. But Im… Im worried about leaving the store. How long will you be here? Can you fill in for me after this?”\r\nâ€Å"You came here to ask me to cover for you? Whyd you call in sick? Are you finally foot race away with Mortensen?”\r\nâ€Å"I †no. I cant rationalise it. Just promise me, after this, youll swing by t he store and see if they need help.”\r\nHe was sodding(a) at me with a look Seth had been wound me all afternoon. hotshot that sort of implied I needed a tranquilizer.\r\nâ€Å"Kincaid… youre freaking me out here…”\r\nI looked up at him with the same baleful expression Id used on Seth. Succubus charisma in action. â€Å"Please? You still owe me, remember?”\r\nHis dark eyes frowned in understandable consternation.\r\nAt last he said, â€Å"Okay. But itll be a few hours in the first place I can go.”\r\nâ€Å"Thats all right. Just go there straight afterward. No stops. And dont… dont tell them you saw me. Im supposed to be sick. Make up some reason to go there.”\r\nHe shook his head in exasperation, and I thanked him with a quick hug. As Seth and I departed, I saw Doug glance at Seth questioningly. Seth shrugged, answering the other mans silent inquiry with shared confusion.\r\nI made more phone calls as we drove away, application my college list and leaving yet another awful message for Roman.\r\nâ€Å"What now?” asked Seth when I sink into silence. Hard to say what he thought of my agony of both Roman and Doug.\r\nâ€Å"I…I dont know.”\r\nI had reached the end of my options. Everyone was accounted for except Roman, and I had no way to reach him. The clock was ticking. I didnt know where he lived. I thought hed mentioned Madrona once, but that was a big area. I could hardly start rap on all those doors. The nephilim had said I had until the end of my shift. Despite bailing on work, I assumed that still meant nine oclock. I had almost three hours left.\r\nâ€Å"I guess Ill pick up my car and go back home.”\r\nSeth dropped me off at the restaurant and followed me back to Queen Anne. A traffic light halt him, so I made it to my apartment about a minute before he did. On my door was another note.\r\nNice job. Youll probably end up alienating all of these men with your erratic beh avior, but I admire your pluck. One left to go. I wonder how fast on his feet your dancer truly is.\r\nI was crumpling this note up when Seth reached me. I pulled my key out of my pocketbook and feebly attempted to put it in my lock. My hand shook so badly, I couldnt do it. He took the key from me and opened the door.\r\nWe entered, and I collapsed on to the couch. Aubrey slithered out from behind it and jumped on my lap. Seth sat nearby, pickings in my apartment †including my prominently displayed collection of his books on the new shelf †then returned his worried paying attention to me.\r\nâ€Å"Georgina… what can I do?”\r\nI shook my head, feeling helpless and defeated. â€Å"Nothing. Im just gladiolus youre here.”\r\nâ€Å"I…” He hesitated. â€Å"I hate to tell you this, but Ive got to leave in a little while. Im meeting someone.”\r\nI looked up sharply. Another of those mysterious meetings. end temporarily replaced my fear, but I couldnt question him. Couldnt ask if he was meeting some woman. At least he said he was meeting someone. He wouldnt be alone.\r\nâ€Å"Youll be with… them… for a while then?”\r\nHe nodded. â€Å"I could come back late tonight, if you treasured. Or… maybe I could cancel.”\r\nâ€Å"No, no, dont worry about it.” By then, it would all be over.\r\nHe stayed for a while longer, again attempting conversation I couldnt participate in. When he finally stood up to leave, I could see solicitude written all over him and felt portentous Id involved him in this.\r\nâ€Å"This will all be resolved tomorrow,” I told him. â€Å"So dont worry. Ill be back to normal then. I promise.”\r\nâ€Å"Okay. If you need anything, let me know. diagnose me, no matter what. Otherwise… well, Ill see you at work.”\r\nâ€Å"No. I have tomorrow off.”\r\nâ€Å"Oh. Well. Do you mind if I stop by?”\r\nâ€Å"Sure. Go ahead.” I would have agreed to anything. I was too tired to view as to my earlier notion of distancing. Id worry about that later. Honestly. One thing at a time.\r\nHe left aversely, no doubt befuddled when I told him to spend a lot of time with whoever he was meeting. As for me, I paced all over my apartment, not knowing what to do. Maybe I couldnt get ahold of Roman because the nephilim had already found him. That would hardly be fair since Id never even had a chance to genuinely warn him, but this nephilim didnt really expect like the type to care about right or wrong.\r\nStruck by inspiration, I called Information, realizing Id missed the obvious way to find him. It didnt matter. Unlisted.\r\nTwo hours before my shift would have ended, I left Roman another message. â€Å"Please, please, please call me,” I begged. â€Å"Even if youre really mad at me for what happened. Just tell me youre out there and okay.”\r\nNo return call came. Eight oclock rolled around. With one hour remaining, I left him another message. I could feel vehemence creeping in. God, what was I going to do? totally I did do was continue pacing, pondering how soon would be too soon to call Roman one more time.\r\nFive minutes before nine, utterly frantic, I grabbed my purse, horrendous to leave my apartment and do something. Anything. Time was almost up.\r\nWhat would happen? How would I know if Id successfully jumped through the nephilims hoops? When I saw Romans murder plastered across the paper tomorrow? Would there be another note? Or maybe some gruesome image? What if the nephilim hadnt even meant any of the people Id considered? What if it was someone completely out of the realm of â€\r\nI opened my door to leave and gasped.\r\nâ€Å"Roman!”\r\nHe stood there, mid-knock, as strike to see me as I was him.\r\nI dropped my purse and ran to him, flinging myself at him in a fierce cover up that nearly toppled him. â€Å"Oh God,” I breathed into his shoulde r, â€Å"Im so glad to see you.”\r\nâ€Å"I guess,” he replied, pulling approximately away to look down at me, his greenish blue eyes concerned. â€Å"Lord, Georgina, whats wrong? Ive got like eighty messages from you †â€Å"\r\nâ€Å"I know, I know,” I told him, still not permit go. Seeing him stirred up all the old, aflutter feelings I had thought were buried. He looked so good. He smelled so good. â€Å"Im sorry †its just, I thought something had happened to you…”\r\nI hugged him again, catching sight of my watch as I did so. Nine oclock. My shift was over, as was the nephilims ridiculous game.\r\nâ€Å"Okay, its all right.” He patted me awkwardly on the back. â€Å"Whats going on?”\r\nâ€Å"I cant tell you.” My voice shook.\r\nHis mouth opened to protest, but he reconsidered. â€Å"Okay. Lets take this slow. Youre pale. Lets go get something to eat. You can explain all this then.”\r\nYeah, that would be a fun conversation. â€Å"No. We cant do that…”\r\nâ€Å"Come on. Theres no way you can leave me all those desperate messages and then start playing the ‘we need space game. Seriously, Georgina. Youre a wreck. Youre shaking. I wouldnt want you to be by yourself anyway if Id found you like this, let alone after those calls.”\r\nâ€Å"No. No. No going out.” I sat down on the couch, needing to let him go, reluctant to do so. â€Å"Lets stay here.”\r\nStill looking distressed, Roman fetched me a glass of water, then sat down by me, holding my hand. As time passed, I calmed down, listening as Roman talked about inconsequential things in an effort to make me feel break down.\r\nFor his part, he was quite nice about my psycho phone calls. He continued trying to tease out an explanation, but when I remained evasive, only saying I had cause to worry about him, he stopped pushing †for now. He continued cheering me up, vocalizing me funny thin gs as well as his normal political soliloquies, complaining about the irrational rules and fraud of the powers that be.\r\nBy late in the evening, I was relaxed again, left only with embarrassment for the way Id behaved. Damn, I hated that nephilim.\r\nâ€Å"Its getting late. You going to be okay if I go?” he asked, standing with me near my dungeon room window, overlooking Queen Anne Avenue.\r\nâ€Å"Probably better than if you stay.”\r\nâ€Å"Well, thats a matter of opinion,” he chuckled, running a hand over my hair.\r\nâ€Å"Thanks for coming by. I know… I know… it seems crazy, but youve just got to trust me on this one.”\r\nHe shrugged. â€Å"I dont really have a choice. Besides… its kind of nice to know you were worried about me.”\r\nâ€Å"Of course I was. How could I not be?”\r\nâ€Å"I dont know. You arent open to read. I couldnt figure out if you really wish me… or if I was just something to pass the time . A diversion.”\r\nSomething in his words rang a bell in my head, something I should have paid attention to. preferably I was more caught up in how close he suddenly stood to me, how his hand ran down my speak to my neck and to my shoulder. He had long, sensuous fingers. Fingers that could do a lot of good in a lot of good places.\r\nâ€Å"I do like you, Roman. If you dont cerebrate anything else I tell you, believe that.”\r\nHe smiled then, a smile so full and beautiful, it made my amount of money melt. God, I had missed that smile and his funny, breezy charm. pathetic his hand back up to my neck, he pulled me toward him, and I realized he was going to kiss me again.\r\nâ€Å"No… no… dont,” I murmured, squirming out of his grasp.\r\nHe approve off from the kiss, still holding on to me as he exhaled, disappointment all over his face. â€Å"Still worried about that?”\r\nâ€Å"You cant understand. Im sorry. I just cant…”\r\nâ⠂¬Å"Georgina, nothing traumatic happened the last time we kissed. Short of your reaction, I mean.”\r\nâ€Å"I know, but its not that simple.”\r\nâ€Å"Nothing happened,” he repeated, an unfamiliar hardness in his voice.\r\nâ€Å"I know, but †â€Å"\r\nMy mouth hung there mid-sentence as I replayed his words. Nothing happened. No, something had happened that night at the concert, kissing in the back hallway. Id seen Roman stagger from the kiss. But me… what had happened to me? What had I felt? Nothing. A kiss that intense, a kiss with someone strong, a kiss with someone I wanted so badly should have triggered something. Even with a low energy yield like Warren, a deep kiss would wake up my succubus instinct, start to connect us, even if no strong transfer took place. Kissing Roman like that †in particular when he ostensibly had a reaction †should have resulted in some kind of feeling on my end. Some genius. Yet, there had been nothing. N othing at all.\r\nI had written it off to too much alcohol at the time. But that was ridiculous. I drank all the time before getting a fix. alcoholic beverage could good deal my senses †as it obviously had that night †but no amount of intoxication could completely negate the sensation of anima transfer. Nothing could. I had been too trashed to realize the truth. Alcohol or no, I would always feel something from knowledgeable or intimate physical contact unless…\r\nUnless I was with another immortal.\r\nI jerked away from Roman, breaking his hold on me. His expression registered surprise, immediately replaced by sudden understanding. Those beautiful eyes sparkling dangerously, he laughed.\r\nâ€Å"Took you long enough.”\r\n'

'Staff Development and Performance Appraisal in a Brazilian Research Centre\r'

'The modern issue and full text archive of this journal is avail fitting at www. emeraldinsight. com/1460-1060. htm supply fracturement and procedure judgment in a brazil nutian query affection Cristina Lourenco Ubeda and Fernando Cesar Almada Santos ? Staff ontogenesis and assessment 109 ? ? University of Sao Paulo, Sao Paulo, Brazil Abstract Purpose †The fetch of this musical composition is to privyvas the staff extendment and carrying start estimation in a Brazilian enquiry summation.Design/methodology/ mount †The key issues of this racing shell cogitation ar: the most-valuable(prenominal) g e rattlingplacenmental changes which fuck off don place oer the dying decades; the aspects of the giving medicational structure that obtain either contri excepted to or hindered competency-establish speakion; the evolution of obligatory queryers’ competencys related to main holds and moreovert ones and the substance of appraising the sch ooling of their competencys.The abridgment of this paper was carried appear canvassing the come ab asideing phases: strategicalalalalalalal protrudening, speci? cations of spews and processes, competency-based watchfulness and surgery idea of investigateers. Findings †Although integration was found amongst the per breedance measuring rod stick and strategic plans de? ned by the explore amount of money, competence-based centeringing is relieve centred on various(prenominal)s and based on their tasks. The marry between exploreers’ competences and their mixer context is non considered.Originality/value †Feedback from the expirations of search swans and cycle of arrangingal processes would completelyow the study administration non b atomic number 18ly to localise the psyche competences needed for on the whole(prenominal) activity, but too to improve the kinship between professional growth and diversity brought ab come to the fore by matched strategies of companies. Keywords competencys, Innovation, adult male vision c ar, exertion judgement, seek organizations, Brazil Paper case Case study IntroductionCurrent free-enterprise(a) grocerys atomic number 18 highly in? uenced by the foodstuffs existence sphericised, technological innovation and stiff disceptation. Competence-based focal point appears in this scenario as an tone-beginning to serviceman mental imagery instruction which shows interaction between benevolent imaginativeness organizations and a keep c bother’s scheme (Santos, 2000; Schuler and Jackson, 1995; Meshoulam and Baird, 1987). technical changes require companies to set aside kind-hearted competences as an meaning(a) positionor knocked appear(p) to carry through success and necessitate belligerent advantage (Drejer and Riis, 1999).The main clinical of growing competences is to encapable deal to assimilate the skills, cognition and a ttitudes incumbent for their hypothesises (Sandberg, 2000). strategical world option focal point has attempted to link its blueprints to innovation strategies of companies which deal with ever-changing, unpredictable and demanding markets (Hagan, 1996; H personalid et al. , 1997; Mills et al. , 1998; Jayaram et al. , 1999; Drejer, 2000a; radiation therapy et al. , 2004). Hgenus Uman imagination focus consists of constitution of ruless such as selection, staff’s exploit estimation, cargoner solicitude, remuneration and motivation pulls.European diary of Innovation charge Vol. 10 nary(prenominal) 1, 2007 pp. 109-125 q Emerald Group Publishing Limited 1460-1060 inside 10. 1108/14601060710720573 EJIM 10,1 110 All these systems may favour or hinder the going of competences which ar incumbent for a play along’s system (Sandberg, 2000). The systems in valet mental imagerys may help a company to augment its hawkishness by applianceing competence-b ased worry. Models for competence-based management have been astray apply in state to align mortal abilities with subject matter competences of a company.A structure of competences is essentially silent as a link between people’s discipline and a company’s dodge. Competence-based management uses a structure of competences to align its strategic objectives with its key processes in homosexual resource management (Le Deist and Winterton, 2005). The aim of this paper is to analyse a Brazilian investigate centre by reinforcing the main challenges of implementing competence-based management in this centre which deals with innovation.Its mission is to develop solutions for sustainable breeding of Brazilian agri growth line organizationes by creating, adapting and transferring effledge and technology to bene? t society (Ubeda, 2003, p. 50). This look is applicable because: . it suck ups the exertion and transfer of technology as a distinct factor in lines of innovation which allows companies to achieve a leading position in international markets (Fleury and Fleury, 2004); and . the outgrowth of competences which is selectly colligate to market demands is analysed (Mans? ld, 2004; Schroeder et al. , 2002; Hagan, 1996; Drejer, 2000a; Drejer and Riis, 1999). As a consequence, this abridgment is based on a theoretical proposal concerning the instruction of person competences which reinforces transaction estimation as a musical instrument to identify and monitor staff’s competences, as advantageously up as taking into account a company’s core competence and remote demands. The paper is based on trio germane(predicate) topics: (1) Working free-enterprise(a)ly wants placing high value on people, considering their fathers, ideas and p filename extensions.Their meshing in presidencys is necessary because employees and managers have to plow a company’s objectives together. (2) Encouraging employeesâ⠂¬â„¢ participation means creating opport building block of measurementies to offer people a corporal perspective concerning the signi? rousece of their professional practice and a manner of macrocosm part of the future. (3) It is fundamental to consider not alone the staff’s speci? c quali? cations ask for the positions in the government activityal structure, but likewise their companionship, experiences, skills and results for future innovations. person competences which argon identi? d by exercise judgment in all the hierarchical levels of an organisation are central aspects concerning the success of a company’s agonistical strategy. Once the company is aware of the single(a) competences needed for severally process, it can identify modern dashs of evolution its compassionate resources by changing the focus of its tender-hearted resource systems. An meldd sham for compassionate resource management with a business-oriented strategy uses in dividual competences as a reference for the systems in hgenus Uman resource management, such as selection, readying and breeding, compensation and career management.Taking this into account, Dutra (2001, p. 27) says that: . . . organisations and people, side by side, score a continuous process of competence exchange. A company transfers its assets to the people, enriching and preparing them to face new professional and in-person military strengths, inside or outside of the organisation. Its staff, in turn, part evolution their individual abilities, transfer their teaching to the organisation, providing it conditions to jazz with new challenges. Competence-based management Competence-based management has a direct effect on the future exploit of its human resources (employees, managers and directors).It also considers attitudes, values, personal characteristics and relationships in teams which are necessary for innovation and not only when the knowledge and skills postula te for completing their jobs (Conde, 2001). Therefore, competence-based management is a strategic practice which aims at increasing the global effect of a slew by increasing the individual writ of execution of its employees (Hagan, 1996). It is necessary to identify factors which produce differences between individuals jibe to the results of their jobs and experiences (Moore et al. , 2002; Drejer, 2000b).For this reason, e genuinely company which strives for competitiveness in its market recognises that competence-based management and exertion estimate are strategic functions, as this has brought to the highest degree innovation by recycling companies’ processes and individuals’ activities (Bitencourt, 2004; Drejer and Riis, 1999; Houtzagers, 1999; Baker et al. , 1997). Competence-based management creates opportwholeies for effective strategic human resource management. However, without proceeding ideas, some(a)(prenominal) for individuals and teams, a compan y can neither monitor its own development nor the progress of its staff’s cognitive operation.As a consequence, it cannot develop or manage its individual competences (Ritter et al. , 2002; Robotham and Jubb, 1996). Therefore, the main objectives of competence-based management are: . to guide managerial conclusivenesss related to providing employees with the resources necessary for them to carry out their exercise satisfactorily, as well as to catch their training necessarily; . to plan staff’s activities and identify the work conditions that in? uence their performance; . to guide the company’s human resource policies and guidelines; and . to reward, promote and even punish, warn or ? e employees. study of individual competences When considering amicable interaction between people and objectives, competitive strategy makes use of a formal structure to exchange data and human resource management that provides guidelines for selection, job propose and e valuation, performance idea and rewards (Devanna et al. , 1984). A competitive strategy formulation must be based on the strongest competences of a company. Constant progress of competences creates opportunities for systematic Staff development and judgment 111 EJIM 10,1 112 re? ement and reformulation of competitive strategy and, by doing so, new tracks can be identi? ed to develop competences (Fleury and Fleury, 2004). Developing individual competences is cyclical. jibe to environmental demands, companies de? ne their competitive strategy and core competences in ordinance to get their energy into their speci? c characteristics and, then, to adopt human resource systems that support the identi? cation and management of their individual competences. In this paper, development of individual competences is considered as a way of render information to different systems and processes.First of all, the company must: . establish what the strategy and organisational competences a re; . de? ne the speci? cations of point of intersections and processes; . study the perspectives of necessary individual competences for severally speci? c process; and . plan and carry out performance estimate ( pulp 1). When competence-based management is combine into a company’s strategy, one can keep abreast the relationship between identifying personal competences and main human resource systems: selection, training and development, compensation and career management.Companies which integrate competence-based management into strategic proviso be manage able to make use of some tools, such as a balance circuit board in order to measure the organisational performance in quatern equilibrate perspectives: ? nance, customers, informal processes and staff’s acquirement and growth. Kaplan and no.ton (1997) highlight the enormousness of creating a strategic feedback system to test, authorise and modify the hypotheses which are coordinated into strategic bu siness units. When cause and effect relations are incorporated into the balanced scorecard, they allow executives to establish short term goals which re? ct their best expectations in de? ciencies and impacts and consequently affect performance measurements. From the feedback obtained by performance judgement, supervisors and employees can identify what the necessary skills and knowledge are for activities to be developed, and what type of training is necessary to improve have management. Competence and human performance somebody competence associates explicit knowledge, personal skills and experiences with individuals’ results and judgement of organisational values which are obtained in ? their social context (Hipolito, 2001, p. 1; Fleury and Fleury, 2000; Zari? an, 2001; Sveiby, 1998). It considers the employment and handing in of results which are linked to employees’ mobilisation, that is to say, it incorporates the value added by them to business, as shown in externalise 2. Ubeda (2003) emphasises that competence involves the individuals operative closely in a team by doing practical activities, as well as their workaday routine which results in a constant â€Å"know how to learn”. The individuals must be apt to take the initiative and assume responsibilities to cope with professional situations which they come across.This right is undoubtedly the counterpart of decentralising decision making. Individuals forget not give orders any more(prenominal), but they allow individually assume the Staff development and appraisal INNOVATION 113 schema F F boot Objectives E E E CORE COMPETENCES D B D SPECIFICATIONS OF PRODUCT AND PROCESSES A C E B A person COMPETENCES K C K PERFORMANCE APPRAISAL propose 1. The competence development process base: Ubeda (2003, p. 50) responsibility for evaluating a situation, the required initiative and the effects that will inevitably arise from this situation.Therefore, a person or a team (when ac cepting responsibilities) accepts to be judged and be re notiond for the achieved results in terms of performance for which they are responsible. They draw in themselves to producing and handing in results of their activities. Thus, it is not possible to consider competence without presenting the logic behind human performance, as performance appraisal guides the development of individual competences accord to business needs (Moore et al. , 2002; Lawler, 1995). The use of competences means rethinking the procedures of staff’s appraisal because: . . from each one individual becomes aware of which result must be reached and how it can be achieved. The competences form the basis of the language utilise to de? ne the pass judgment deportment which modifys performance and improvement to be carried out (Conde, 2001, p. 80). EJIM 10,1 114 INDIVIDUAL COMPETENCE SKILL Know how to do something PRODUCTION AND DELIVERY Results ATTITUDE Intend to do something POTENTIAL Knowledge F igure 2. The individual competence fancy Source: Hipolito (2001, p. 81) According to Dutra (2001, p. 33), one of the close dif? ult issues concerning people management is to de? ne and assess performance in terms of the results to be pass in by a determined person, company or business. feat appraisal makes it possible to identify three individual aspects that interact between themselves: development, driving force and behaviour (Figure 3): Each aspect must be dealt with in a different way, concerning not only the way to mensurate, but also the actions which follow the appraisal. In general, companies mix these three aspects and emphasise effort and behaviour.At the genuine moment, staff’s professional growth is the close to important aspect of performance and it is worthy of fussy attention (Dutra, 2001, p. 35). Dejours (1997, p. 54) highlights performance appraisal as evaluating a job that can take place in two ways: evaluating helpfulness and social relationships. Evaluating the technical, social or economic usefulness of the individual is linked to the workplace and the person who does it is generally in a hierarchical position (boss, manager or organiser) to appraise the usefulness.Evaluating social relationships is related to the alignment of the job and production with standards which have been socially established by peers in the same hierarchical level which enables the individual to last to a collective group. This evaluation is related to the job and its activities. What is appraised and evaluated is the job and not the individual. From the perspective of the human factor theory proposed by Dejours (1997, p. 55), this is an essential point because an individual’s contribution to the job effectiveness makes knowledge and compensation possible.PERFORMANCE APPRAISAL BEHAVIOUR DEVELOPMENT attempt Figure 3. The three aspects of performance appraisal Source: Dutra (2001, p. 35) Recent studies point out models of performance apprai sal based on behaviour and attitudes, but not only the ones focussed on the analysis of operable features of each job (Moore et al. , 2002). They reinforce the increasing in? uence of technology, functional requisites and organisational learning in terms of developing competences (Drejer and Riis, 1999). According to Zari? an (2001, p. 121), nobody can compel individuals to be competent.A company can only create favorable conditions for their development. Thus, motivation becomes a key element in terms of developing competences. It is necessary for the employees to feel useful and be able to assume responsibilities. The individuals will be more motivated as they consider that the practice of their competences also contributes to the development of their projects and perspectives. Performance appraisal as an instrument to identify employees’ competences Competence-based management is supported by organisational competences that directly in? ence an individual’s compe tences, which are necessary for carrying out tasks and processes and, then are considered in performance appraisals. Consequently, the feedback concerning the data from these appraisals enables the whole organisation to reprocess strategies and competences. Many authors highlight the dif? culty of measuring the impact of developing competences regarding a company’s performance (Mans? eld, 2004; Moore et al. , 2002; Ritter et al. , 2002; Drejer, 2000a; Sandberg, 2000; Hagan, 1996). This situation is worsened if the individual metrics of each work process are thought to be measured.Becker et al. (2001) emphasise that performance appraisal systems are incoherent in terms of what is measured and what is important. When implementing a company’s strategy, human resource managers have to be able to understand exactly how people contribute to a company’s results by being precious and how to measure this contribution. This situation only takes place if these managers genuinely participate in the development of a company’s strategy. These authors state that satisfactory performance appraisal produces two types of results: 1) it improves the decision-making processes of the sector responsible for human resource management by focusing its activities on the aspects of the organisation that contribute to the development of a company’s strategy; and (2) it provides a better allocation of resources, de? ning direct relations between human resource investments and strategic assets of a company. Developing competences in a look into centre Aiming at evaluating competence-based management in practice, a case study in a research centre located in Brazil was carried out.This organisation is a unit of a Federal frequent research flock which consists of 37 research centres, three national service centres and 11 central unit of? ces and is present in almost all the States of the Brazilian Federation. This corporation has invested in training a nd quali? cations of its staff since it was founded. In 2003, there were a total number of 8,619 employees. kayoed of 2,221 researchers who work in this corporation, 45 per cent have a master’s degree and 53 per cent a PhD. Staff development and appraisal 115 EJIM 10,1 16 The canvass research centre is responsible for developing new technology which can facilitate the life of producers and rural workers in the country. The organisation was chosen because it has implemented a performance appraisal system which aligns the development of its products and processes with human resource management. methodological analysis An experiential study was undertaken from February to noember, 2003 using the following data collection instruments: interviews with opportunities for participants’ comments and analysis of documents.Seven professionals from this research centre were interviewed: quaternity employees of the human resource area, the associate head of the research centr e and two researchers. The participative observation of the researchers, the interviewees’ comments and the documental analysis provided a personal and close contact with the organisation identifying institutional materials, norms, routines and programs developed by the professionals. The key questions of this case study focus on: . the main organisational changes which have taken place over the last decades; . he aspects of the organisational structure that have either contributed to or hindered competence-based management; . the development of necessary researchers’ competences related to main projects and processes; and . the way of appraising the development of researchers’ competences. The case study The analyze research corporation experienced some organisational changes over time that had clearly de? ned its business-oriented strategy. There is a tangible concern about integrating this strategy with human resource management, however, the performance app raisal system shows an unrhythmical historical background.The investigated corporation was founded in the 1970s, a intent of outstanding economic growth in Brazil. Moreover, the Brazilian government supported the training of experts in research in public organs and in the agri heathen sector (Ubeda, 2003). At that time, the corporation did not experience either ? nancial or human resource problems because the objective of the Federal government was to form a forefront institution in its ? eld. The research guidelines of research were de? ned by the corporation’s headquarters and then followed by the research centres.The corporation’s concern about integrating strategies with human resource management change magnitude from the 1990s onwards, as well as plans to implement a structured performance appraisal system (Table I). The research centres were regionally located according to product lines and were set up to solve local problems. These units followed and carried out nationwide policies, as well as guidelines de? ned by the corporation’s headquarters. At this moment, there was no concern about performance appraisal.From 1988 onwards, due to the sure Federal Constitution being approved, public institutions became more concerned about the strategic management of the appraisal of processes and results, not only of the organisation but also of the individuals. Period Institution’s organisational scenario 1970s outgrowth and consolidation of the canvas corporation Employment and development of human resources Availability of ? nancial resources for project development modernization of management Application of strategic supplying decoct on resultsAnalysis of global scenarios Rede? nition of the research centre’s mission and vision Formulation of a global policy for the organisation consisting of research policy, businesses’ policy, and business intercourse policy Focus on the customers Organisational re-structur ing of processes and projects 1988-1992 1994-1998 1999-2003 Source: Ubeda (2003, p. 69) Aiming to follow these changes of organisational and technological paradigms, the studied organisation started to adopt strategic readiness principles in its institutional culture and move up its ? st corporate plan for 1988-1992. In 1991, the corporation initiated a process of organisational change, using strategic planning techniques, focusing on their operations and processes in the market, head research projects towards solving social problems, and not only exclusively towards the progress of pure science, attempting to ? nd an add-on in ef? ciency and effectiveness to continue being competitive and to guarantee its sustainability (Nader et al. , 1998).From 1994 onwards, a new system to appraise individual job performance was created and integrated with both strategic planning and the institutional management system of the whole corporation, as well as with the practicable plan of each r esearch centre. To remain competitive and to guarantee sustainability, the corporation adopted a process of organisational change based on a management model drawn on results and customers’ requirements, as well as having been supported by the balanced scorecard methodology (Kaplan and nary(prenominal)ton, 1997).From 1997 to 1999, the institution started implementing a new strategic management model in order to provide guidelines which really showed what was de? ned by the corporation. Therefore, the entire organisation’s staff would work in favour of the de? ned goals (Sentanin, 2003). at bottom its job structure, the institution manages its human resources by linking the acquirement of the proposed goals of its annual operational plan to negotiating the proposed activities for each employee in the performance appraisal system.The performance appraisal system, also being an instrument to recognise achieved results, is also used to identify human competences, which are important for research, and is a basis for selection, training and compensation practices in research centres. Concerned about meeting the needs of its customers, the corporation de? nes its strategic objectives and conveys them to its research centres that incorporate them into the annual operational plan. These units establish important processes to ful? the proposed goals in the performance appraisal systems of researchers, and consequently, researchers develop new practices and technology (Figure 4). Staff development and appraisal 117 Table I. Organisational scenario of the studied corporation EJIM 10,1 118 bodily Strategic Plan Plan of Each unit Annual Operational Plan Figure 4. Performance strategic management process in the organisation studied Performance Measurement Strategic indicate F E E D B A C K Strategic Management Model Based on Processes Performance estimation Source: Ubeda (2003, p. 82)In each research centre, there is an internal technical citizens comm ittee which co-ordinates research regarding themes and developed projects. This committee analyses pre-proposals and proposals of projects and processes of its unit with technical, operational and ? nancial criteria. Thus, each new project undergoes evaluation and approval of the committee. Once a project is approved, it can be developed, and after it is concluded, it is evaluated once once more to re? ect on the results, assuring both the commitment of its staff and the quality of its technical projects and processes.The units’ type of structure is ad hocratic, according to Mintzberg’s (1983) terminology, because it consists of teams which develop the approved projects, as well as them being concerned with innovation and always centred on the development of new products and processes. The head of research of each unit co-ordinates and appraises the performance of the projects which are carried out. The structure of this centre is the re? ection of its strategies, sinc e it attempts to create an integration of specialties using its project teams with the aim of competitiveness and customer satisfaction.As for the job structure, there are two functional careers: research and support for research. data analysis, results and implication of this research Research on competence-based management was focused on performance appraisal because it is an important instrument to identify human competences based on the innovation strategy of the studied centre. In this performance appraisal system there is explicit planning of the following activities: . what the results of the jobs are expected to be; . ow the product should be presented and what the standard of performance is expected to be; . . when the deadline for the product to be presented is; and feedback of the results of the jobs. However, since 1994 when it was implemented, the performance appraisal system has undergone modi? cations to improve its methodology, attempting to make its participants aw are of the need for weekly dialogue and supervise the activities, as well as for the impartial and speci? c appraisal of the activities planned in relation to the availability of means to carry out these activities.The planning of employees’ activities must be made according to the goals of its unit, area or sector, and to the projects under the responsibility of the studied research centre (Ubeda, 2003, p. 82). Performance appraisal must consider the employee’s individual competences and the results of the job which were de? ned in strategic planning. Competence-based management aims at guiding managerial decisions, the processes of professional development, as well as planning the human resource systems.An analysis of the development of competences in the Brazilian research centre was carried out by comparing the main theoretical issues of the literature with practices of the organisation which was studied (Figure 5). Firstly, the strategic objectives (item 1 of F igure 5) of the studied organisation were formulated according to the corporation and unit’s missions and the corporation’s objectives. A entailment of the theoretical issues concerning organisational competences (item 2 of Figure 5) is presented as follows: . eveloping organisational competences is based on the internal abilities of companies (Wernerfelt, 1984); . these competences consist of skills, abilities and technology which enable a company to meet the speci? c needs of its customers, that is to say, to achieve a competitive advantage spiffing to competitors (Hamel and Prahalad, 1994); Staff development and appraisal 119 FORMULATION OF STRATEGY (1) Objectives are defined according to the corporation and unit’s missions and the corporation’s objectives PRACTICES OF THE STUDIED placement OF ORGANIZATIONAL COMPETENCES (3) ISSUES OF LITERATURE ONORGANIZATIONAL COMPETENCES (2) ISSUES OF LITERATURE ON INDIVIDUAL COMPETENCES (4) ISSUES OF LITERATURE O N PERFORMANCE APPRAISAL (6) F E E D B A C K PRACTICES OF INDIVIDUAL COMPETENCES OF THE STUDIED agreement (5) ITEMS OF PERFORMANCE APPRAISAL IN THE STUDIED organization (7) Core of this analysis: researchers Focus of the performance appraisal: researchers’university degree qualifications Figure 5. Analysis of the development of competences in the research centre EJIM 10,1 . . 120 they require an instinct of competitive advantage mechanisms which may be used over time.When competitive strategies are being developed, companies have to make the best use of their speci? c features (Grant, 1991); and a competence can be de? ned by considering four elements and their relationships: technology, people, organisational structure and organisational context (Drejer and Riis, 1999). The main features of organisational competences practised in the researched company (item 3 of Figure 5) were: . focus on the internal ability of research in agribusiness and breeding; . support for competi tive agribusinesses development in the global economy; . ncouraging the development of agribusinesses with the sustainability of economical activities and environmental balance; . diminishing environmental imbalanced aspects of agribusinesses; and . supplying raw materials and food which encourage the population’s health, improving the nutritional level and quality of life. Individual competence issues in the literature (item 4 of Figure 5) may be summarised as follows: . individual competence links explicit knowledge, skills and experiences of individuals to the results and judgements of value built indoors their social ? etwork (Hipolito, 2001; Fleury and Fleury, 2000; Zari? an, 2001; Sveiby, 1998); . individual competence can be explained altogether by the skills (to know how to do something), attitudes (to intend to do something), knowledge (to understand why to do something and search for solutions) and results (to produce and come ? up with the solution) (Hipolito, 200 1); and . in order to develop involved competences, complex systems involve not only many people in different areas of the organisation, but also interlocking technology.It is very dif? cult to understand and imitate them because they are very dependent on people and technology (Drejer and Riis, 1999). To develop individual competences in the research centre (item 5 of Figure 5), the following initiatives were carried out: . stimulant and honor creativity; . seeking effectiveness, developing actions with a focus on the achievement of results and solutions with compatible and competitive cost; . planning the company for the future by strategically positioning its resources and abilities; . eing committed to honesty and ethical posture by placing high value on human beings and dealing with all groups of society with respect; . attempting to meet the particularities of customers’ demands by following the principles of total quality; . stimulating leadership when creating, adapt ing and transferring knowledge, products, services and technology; . . . . encouraging partnerships with opposite organisations and individuals; developing partnerships in terms of science and technology in agribusinesses; striving for scienti? c rigour, using scienti? methods in research, caring about the exactness and precision of procedures in all the phases of the process, and not tolerating bias in results; and backup teams which deal with problems in a systemic way in order to make believe the ? nal objectives of their jobs. With regards to the issues presented in the literature on performance appraisal (item 6 of Figure 5): . the three main aspects of performance appraisal are people’s development, effort and behaviour (Dutra, 2001); . models for performance appraisal are based on behaviour and attitudes, and not only on the speci? functional analysis of each job (Moore et al. , 2002); and . technology, functional requisites and organisational learning in? uence the development of competences (Drejer and Riis, 1999). However, the main items of performance appraisal in the studied organisation (item 7 of Figure 5) are limited to: . researchers’ ability of monitoring the projects being carried out; . researchers’ scienti? c publications, such as articles, proceedings of congresses and scienti? c journals, books and chapters of books; . production and transfer of technology; and . publicising the research centre’s image.Although there is integration between performance appraisal and strategic plans de? ned by the research centre, competence-based management is still centred on the individuals, and it is also based on their tasks and not on the individuals linked to their social context, as previously pointed out by Moore et al. (2002), Zari? an (2001), Drejer and Riis (1999) and Dejours (1997). The previous fact is also a result of the dif? culty in measuring innovation and the degree of the development of a research project. Until the moment the research project does not achieve the proposed objective, it is dif? ult to quantify how much this research has progressed over time. All the risks are assumed and the decisions are concentrate by researchers who coordinate the project teams. These facts took place because of the studied organisation which did not manage to deal with complex competences in a decentralised way. Although this research centre is a reference in Brazil, the competence notion of this institution recognises only the scope of skills (to know how to do it) and knowledge (information and experiences), not considering the scope of the attitudes (to intend to do it).The organisation only recognises competences based on a university degree quali? cation, and does not include the initiative and the responsibilities necessary to cope with complex situations. It does not centre the development of individual competences either on speci? c projects or on integration and team work. Staff develo pment and appraisal 121 EJIM 10,1 122 Project management and performance appraisal are centred on the main researchers’ skills and knowledge, minimising the importance of the competences of the former(a) members of the research project team.However, it is important to mention that the three-figure criteria of performance appraisal do not only re? ect the concern about customers’ satisfaction, but also guide the distribution of resources and the human resource policies of the studied institution. Performance appraisal does not consider either the team aspect or the concept of feedback structured by 360 degrees appraisal in which all the staff appraise and are appraised by their superiors, subordinates and colleagues (Borman, 1997). Employees are appraised by their superiors in the studied centre.The results of the performance appraisal system contribute to strategic planning, however, the organisation and superiors are not appraised by the employees. In addition, an in vestigation into the organisational gentle wind was not made. There is not a channel for the feedback of performance appraisals which could result in both the development of researchers’ competences and the innovation process of this centre. The processes in which technology is transferred and research is carried out are not de? ned according to the guidelines and parameters of this research centre, but they are de? ed by the corporation. Regarding cultural aspects, there is a great resistance and agnosticism of the performance appraisal systems and the development of competences, despite the employees being already familiar with the appraisal systems of the research projects. Considering this incredulity, the appraisers do not take the role of planning and monitoring individual jobs. â€Å"There is always something more important and more urgent to do than ‘to sit put through with somebody to plan actions related to the individuals’ job and his/her respectiv e(prenominal) performance” (Nader et al. 1998, p. 17). In Table II some theoretical references are compared with the investigated institution’s practice. This is an approach combining the presence of the aspects of: competence (skills, attitudes, knowledge, production and handing in), Competence-based management elements in the studied organisation Table II. Elements of competence-based management in the organisation studied Performance appraisal integrated with strategic planning Performance appraisal integrated with human resource systems Development of skillsDevelopment of knowledge Development of attitudes Consideration of the social context of project teams Development of competences according to production and delivery Performance appraisal based on results Use of balanced scorecard to establish and rede? ne goals Participation of all members of a research project team in the performance appraisal through 360 degrees performance appraisal Concern about employees a nd researchers’ professional growth considering all the elements of competenceFeedback of appraisals in terms of attitudes, opportunities of professional growth and social context to develop new strategies Source: vary from Ubeda (2003, p. 95) Present Absent X X X X X X X X X X X X the performance appraisal model, and the strategic integration of processes with human resource management. Conclusions When dealing with current competitive markets and needs for technological innovation, as well as stiff competition for new market niches, competence-based management is really a strategic practice adopted by companies to attain competitive advantage in order to answer the customers quickly and ef? iently. As a consequence, the alignment of human resource management practices and business strategies is of fundamental importance to company’s competitiveness, and it emphasises people as a distinct resource for success. Thus, competence and human performance help the developm ent of projects and internal processes. Competence-based management is carried out based on identifying individual competences, using performance appraisal of results from an individual’s job.It is based not only on the competitive strategy and the organisational structure, but also on processes and projects of a company. It is also a reference for managers’ decisions concerning the selection, training and compensation policies of a company’s staff. To implement a consistent performance appraisal system which is capable of appraising the competences of each employee, it is necessary to check which knowledge, skills and attitudes should be developed in order to improve the internal processes of the organisation, without remaining focused only on jobs and tasks.In this case, the research centre is basically just concerned with its operational plans whose main reference is striving for productivity. However, it was observed in practice that the development of indiv idual competences does not link the performance appraisal system to the collective and social approach of competence-based management, and it also does not include the scope of attitudes in order to integrate strategic planning, its monitoring, performance appraisal, the feedback of results of a research project and the improvement of processes.It is exactly this feedback, if well managed, that makes a difference, not only when identifying individual competences necessary for each activity, but also in the possibility of share professional growth concurrently with innovation and competitive strategy of companies. Feedback linked to the organisation’s strategy could increase the integration between all its organisational units and levels possible. rude(a) research to obtain greater understanding of the relationship between competence-based management and performance appraisal is necessary because the existing literature does not speci? ally take apart the development of ind ividual competences. The main contribution of this paper is to present not only the dif? culty of managing human competences, but also a vision of the process of developing competences in a research centre by analysing its particularities and limitations. References Baker, J. C. , Mapes, J. , New, C. C. and Szwejczewski, N. (1997), â€Å"A hierarchical model of business competence”, Integrated Manufacturing Systems, Vol. 8 no. 5, pp. 265-72. ? ? Becker, B. E. , Huselid, M. A. and Ulrich, D. (2001), Gestao estrategica de pessoas com scorecard: ? nterligando pessoas, estrategia e performance, Campus, Rio de janeiro. ? ? 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Corresponding author Cristina Lourenco Ubeda can be contacted at: [email protected] com. br ? To purchase reprints of this article beguile e-mail: [email protected] com Or visit our entanglement site for further details: www. emeraldinsight. com/reprints Staff developm ent and appraisal 125\r\n'

'Going Back to School Essay\r'

'Returning to tutor was rough social occasion I alway intended to do in my life. I knew there would be nigh(prenominal) obstacles and hurdles i would guide to overcome to pick out my dream come true. Here are some obstacles I had to overcome in my past with anterior school experinces I have had to return cover charge to school. When I was younger, I remember my mom wakeful my older brother up and sending him away to school. I would get so mad, because I treasured to go.\r\nThan finally my day came, I got up and get rid of to school I went. Elementary school was the great. I loved playing with the other kids. Kindergarten through fifth grade do me feel like school was a game. Yeah, we learned our basic studies, merely we had dramatic play doing it. Than came prison term for moving on up to marrow school. My first couple of weeks were okay, but the work started acquire harder, the other kids weren’t very nice and we didn’t have much free time. I didnâ⠂¬â„¢t like it, but it was something I got used too and I stuck it out. Finally, my ninth year came, I was a freshman in high school.\r\nI detest it, I was always getting pushed around and made fun of because my family didn’t have much money. I didn’t have name brand home or clothes. Everybody kept telling me I take an eduacation to get anywhere in this world. Well I tried, finally when I was seventeen, only six months forrader graduation, I got so fed up, I dropped out. erst I turned eighteen, I realized it was time to make a life of my own. My family shouldn’t have to support me. So I went out and erect me a job. I was so proud of this job. I was doing good, or so I thought. After a few years of working for this company, I calculate out I was already at the snarf of the ladder, I couldn’t go up anymore.\r\nI had to better my life. I needed a high education. I got it in my head and went and got my GED. Than once once again my learning process s topped right there. turn up of the blue one day, my mom calls and tells me about these online college courses. She knew I didn’t I didn’t want to go sit in a classroom. This struck some interest in me. It took me a few days, but I called and got enrolled.\r\nWhen I started my first class, I was a bit nauseating, it took sometime to get stern into the sail of things. I’m still somewhat nervous but it gets better with each class. Going back to school was the hardest decision I have forever had to make. Well, it took the longest time anyway. I am so glad I decided to go back. cosmos back at school makes me feel so much better about myself. This is one thing I won’t quit again.\r\n'