The Civil Rights Movement Essay Example for Free

The Civil Rights Movement Essay The Civil Rights Movement is the most significant and eventful era in America and in African American history. The movement refers to the movements in the United States aimed at outlawing racial discrimination against African Americans and restoring voting rights in Southern states. The movement opened new economic, social and political opportunities to blacks. It had a strong effect on the way people thought and acted. The struggle was about far more than just civil rights under law; it was also about fundamental issues of freedom, respect, dignity, and economic and social equality. Significant achievements during this phase of the Civil Rights Movement were passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, that banned discrimination based on race, color, religion, or national origin in employment practices and public accommodations. Further, Martin Luther King Jr. organized the Montgomery Bus Boycott. Finally racial separation on the buses in Montgomery was also declared illegal. After the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. in 1968 the civil rights movement, however, begun to lose momentum. The Civil Rights Movement marks a remarkable moment in history. Women’s Movement: The womens movement of the 1960s and 1970s drew inspiration from the civil rights movement. It was made up mainly of members of the middle class, and thus partook of the spirit of rebellion that affected large segments of middle-class youth in the 1960s. During the 1950s and 1960s, increasing numbers of married women entered the labor force, but in 1963 the average working woman earned only 63 percent of what a man made. Women argued that they had no outlets for expression other than finding a husband and bearing children. Women were encouraged to seek new roles and responsibilities, to seek their own personal and professional identities rather than have them defined by the outside, male-dominated society. The womens movement stagnated in the late 1970’s. Divisions arose between moderate and radical feminists and the movement failed to move beyond the middle class. Conservative opponents mounted a campaign against the Equal Rights Amendment, and it died in 1982 without gaining the approval of the 38 states needed for ratification. Oprah Winfrey: Oprah Winfrey is a popular African American television host, actress, producer, and philanthropist. Winfrey was born in 1954 in rural Mississippi to a teenage single mother and later raised in an inner-city Milwaukee neighborhood. She experienced considerable hardship during her childhood, including being raped at the age of nine and becoming pregnant at 14. At 18 Winfrey won the Miss Black Tennessee beauty pageant. She is known for her self-titled talk show. Her show has become the highest-rated program of its kind in history. Winfreys talk show went national in 1986, and as it had in Chicago, Oprah took the top spot almost immediately. Its been the top-rated daytime talk show ever since. There is immense power in Winfreys opinions and endorsements to influence public opinion. She certainly has a place in one of the most powerful women in the World today. The Color Purple: The Color Purple is an epistolary novel by American author Alice Walker. It received the 1983 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and the National Book Award. The book has been adapted into a film and musical of the same name. The story is told in the form of diary entries and letters. The story focuses on female black life during the 1930s in the Southern United States, addressing the numerous issues including their exceedingly low position in American social culture. Celie is a poor uneducated young black woman in 1909 Georgia who, aged only fourteen, is raped and impregnated twice by a man she calls Pa. Celie goes through life having a hard time noticing the beautiful aspects and appreciating them. She had a difficult life and was abused as an adolescent. The color purple is continually equated with suffering and pain. Eventually, Celies life is complete, as the two families join as one, despite blood relations and years of separation. The novel was adapted into a film of the same name in 1985. On December 1, 2005, a musical adaptation of the novel opened at The Broadway Theatre in New York City. (www. colorpurple. com) Reference http://www.buzzle.com/articles/1960s-civil-rights-movement-in-america.html

The length and resistance Essay Example for Free

The length and resistance Essay The aim of this investigation is to find out how changing the length of a piece of wire will affect its resistance. Prediction I think that increasing the length of a wire will increase its resistance. This is because in a conductive metal, the electrons in the outer shell of each atom are free to move around. An electrical current is where all these electrons are caused to move in the same direction through the metal. Resistance is the property of a substance that restricts the flow of electricity through it, and is often associated with heat. As the electrons are passing through the metal, they are constantly colliding with the atoms of the metal, causing their course to be slowed down. The collisions cause changes of direction which dissipate energy as heat, which is why more resistant metals heat up more than metals which let electrons pass through more easily. It is easier for electrons to pass through metals in which the atoms are small and far apart, because the free electrons can pass through with less collision to slow their path. It is most important for the metal to contain a lot of free electrons. Fewer collisions mean that less energy is transferred to heat: this is low resistance. As the length of the wire is increased, there will be more fixed atoms for the free electrons to collide with, thus slowing their course. The length of the wire and the resistance of the wire will be directly proportional. If you double the length of the wire, the resistance will also double. This is because there will be double the amount of atoms in the wire for the electrons to collide with. The fact that it would take twice as long for the electrons to pass through in a metal twice the length is of almost irrelevant consequence because electrons move close to the speed of light, and so there is no point in taking this into consideration. If the resistance of the material is increasing, then it will need an increasingly large force to push it through: This is the voltage. The resistance (R) is how much voltage (V) is needed to drive a given current (I). R = V/I Based on my prediction, I would expect my graph to look like this: Resistance (? ) is also equal to the resistivity of the wire(?cm) multiplied by its length(cm), and then divided by its cross sectional area(cm2). Resistance (? ) = resistance of the metal(? cm) x length(cm)   cross sectional area (cm2) The cross sectional area of the wire is constant, and so is the material I am using. It is only the length that will be changing, so as you can see from the formula, the length and resistance must be directly proportional. Planning My experiment shall be set up as follows: I shall use the following apparatus:  connecting wires The power supply will be permanently set to 2volts, but it is important to keep the amperage below 1A so that the wire does not overheat. We will do this using the rheostat. The nichrome wire has a resistivity of 103 x 10-6, and a diameter of 0. 2285mm (0. 02285cm). We have chosen nichrome wire because its properties are suitable for this experiment. It is quite easy to keep the amperage low, but the experiment must still be started with the length of wire that is long enough so that the amps are not too high, as otherwise, this would result in an increase in temperature which is not related to increased resistance. We have chosen to calculate the resistance of the wire in intervals of 5 cm, starting at 5cm, and going up to 70cm. All our decisions are based on a variety of pre- tests. Fair testing The key variables in this experiment are:   temperature   diameter   type of wire length of wire In order for this experiment to be fair, it is important that these variables are carefully monitored. Temperature: It is important that any change in temperature is a result only of resistance. To do this, the room temperature must be kept the same, and the current running through the wire must be kept below 1amp. If it were to exceed this limit, it would result in an increase in the vibrations of the atoms in the metal. This would cause the free electrons to collide more often with the fixed atoms and would cause an apparent increase in resistance that is not due to the change in the length of the wire. In order to prevent this from happening, we have used a rheostat: using this, we can keep the current very low. If desired, we could keep it at a constant, but this is not necessary. Diameter: The diameter of the wire will be kept constant throughout the experiment. This is important because it affects the overall area of the wire. The resistance is inversely proportional to the cross-sectional area. The only way in which the area of the wire should be changed is in length. An increase change in diameter would affect the number of fixed atoms that the free electrons could collide with and would produce inaccurate results with regards to resistance. The smaller the diameter the better, as it will mean a smaller all-round area which will make it possible for more results to be taken, as the amperage would not have so great an effect on the wires temperature. Also, the larger the diameter, the easier it would be for the free electrons to flow through, just as water flows more easily through a wider pipe than a thinner one. Type of wire: All metals have different properties, and in order to make the test fair, the type of wire used must be kept the same. I have chosen to use nichrome as it has good properties which have been tested in the pre-test. It is also important to keep the wire straight, as this will make it easier to measure. Length of wire: The length of the wire is the variable that I shall be changing. I have chosen to do so in 5cm stages. It is very important that the wire is measured accurately, as otherwise the readings off the ammeter and voltmeter will not be as accurate as they could have been. To do this, we are using a ruler, but one problem that we are likely to encounter is the fact that is will be difficult to measure around the top of the rod on which the wire is fixed. So as not to get inaccurate readings, I am going to disregard the reading at 35cm, as that is the length that falls upon the end of the rod. Pre-test It is important to conduct a pre-test before doing the actually experiment. In this pre-test, I have tested 3 types of wire: nichrome, copper and Constantan, to which is most suitable for the experiment. I did the pre-tests on a computer program. Diameter I tested the three available metals using the computer program to find out how close to the maximum of 1 amp I could reach by adjusting the diameter of the wires. I want the amperage to be as close to 1 as possible because the amps will go down as I do the experiment, and I want to get a lot of results. The amps must not be above 1amp, because this would mean that the wire would get too hot, and the results would be inaccurate, as I have previously explained.

Sociological Concepts of the Family Modern Day Family

Sociological Concepts of the Family Modern Day Family Introduction In this essay, I will be explaining the family structure of my case study (who we will refer to as Andrew to protect his identity and in keeping with the Data Protection Act 1998) and the influence the family has had in his life. I will identify and explain two sociological perspectives and compare them with todays idea of the family with the traditional idea of the family, I will also provide three sociological concepts and explain them in relation to the role of the family. There have been many changes to the family since the 1950s when a typical family would have been described as a nuclear family which was made up of a married couple and their dependent children, the husband would have been the bread winner and the wife the homemaker. Today, however the structure of the family has gradually changed over the years since then, we are now seeing a rise in single parent families which is defined as families with children (under 18 years old) headed by a parent who is widowed, divorced and not remarried, or by a parent who has never been married. In Scotland, it is believed that there are just over 170,000 single parents looking after 291,000 children (www.news.gov.scot/news/lone-parents), divorce rates in Scotland between 2000 and 2007 steadily rose and at its peak in 2007 stood at 13,767, since then the number of divorces decreased (www.statista.com) a total of 9,700 marriages legally ended in 2012-13, a drop of 14% over the previous 4 years (www.bbc.co. uk/news/uk-scotland-26714426). Nowadays there are also more couples choosing to cohabitate rather than get married as it is seen as more acceptable, in a report by the Telegraph it is believed that divorce rates are at their lowest in 40 years due to the rise in the cost of getting married and couples choosing to live as common law husband and wife. (www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/12011714/divorce-rate-at-lowest-level-in-40-years-after-cohabitation-revolution.html). With more and more women becoming independent and building careers, the man is now seen to be sharing the responsibilities of the childcare and housework, this is known as the symmetrical family which basically means more similar roles exist. We have also seen a rise in a blended family, also known as step family, reconstituted family. It is when a family unit where one or both parents have children from a previous relationship, but they have combined to form a new family. The parents may or may not have children togeth er. In 2011 step-families made up 8% 26,000 of the population and household in Scotland (www.scotlandscensus.gov.uk). Andrews family structure could best be described as a single parent family before being taken into care. His mother ended her relationship with Andrews father before she gave birth due to domestic violence and them both being dependant on drugs, to date Andrew has never met his birth father. Sociological perspectives such as functionalism are a theory that all positions in society serve a function and is essential to the continuation and structure of that society. Emile Durkheim (1858-1917) was a sociologist who argued that society had to be studied in its own terms and not of that of the individual. Durkheim believed that societies were knitted together by everyone sharing the same values, which through time would change as these societies get bigger and more complex.   Durkheim referred as how society comes together through a shared view of rules, norms and roles. Mechanical solidarity is a form of social cohesion that arises when people in society maintain similar values and beliefs and engages in similar types of work, organic solidarity is a form of social cohesion that arises when people in society are interdependent, but hold varying values and beliefs and engage in various types of work.   Another perspective is based on the conflict theory, which is primaril y based on the work of Karl Marx (1818-1883). The conflict perspective focuses on the class divide, how the wealthy control the poor and the weak in the competition of scarce resources. The bourgeoisie represents the class with the wealth and means and the proletariat represents the working class or poor, Marxs theory was that the bourgeoisie would control the proletariat with their wealth and power therefor subjecting them to worsening conditions, bringing inequality to light and the possibility of revolt. If conditions were addressed to the concerns of the proletariat, the conflict circle would eventually repeat. Using these perspectives in comparison with todays idea of the family with the traditional idea of the family, the functionalist perspective has some similarities and differences. The similarities are that society still shares the same views, beliefs and norms, however through time these have changed, before the idea of the traditional family would be the nuclear family which would consist of a father, mother and dependent children, but with the rise in divorce rates and couples choosing not to get married in the past years we are now seeing more of single parent families. With laws and attitudes changing we are now also seeing it more acceptable in society for same sex couples getting married and starting families, something that would have been unacceptable in past years. The advance in technology is something that has had an impact on family life, before families would gather round for dinner, play games, watch TV etc. but with the technical advances in mobile phones, social media and gaming consoles this is something that has dwindled and we are now seeing less of. Using the conflict perspective, we still have the divide in class with the wealthy having the majority of power and means. We still see competition for the scarce resources and the poorer and weaker families suffering as a result, mainly due to low minimum wage, benefit sanctions and the lack of social housing. We have seen a rise in social conflict in that communities have been divided by religion and race, with the rise in terrorist attacks many minorities and people seeking asylum are feeling isolated and victimised as a consequence of other peoples actions. The roles of the family are broken down as mum, dad, sister, brother, grandparents etc., in Andrews case this is something that was quite confusing to him as he had never known his father and seen his older sister and grandmother as his primary care givers and parental figures. Even though his sister was not much older than him he realised that his mother was not acting in the role she should have been. This was due to neglect through drug use and his sister taking on the role of his mother and for Andrew his role as a son was never accomplished due being unable to form an attachment with his mother. This is something that we have seen all too often in Scotland which the Scottish government are highlighting through a report called Hidden Harm. It highlights that, parental drug use can and does cause serious harm to children of every age. With Andrew not having a father figure in his life he seen his mother as the sole provider of the household. With most of the financial resources be ing brought into the household being used to fund his mothers drug use, Andrew had noticed the social divide in class when he started school as the other children would be dressed better and spoke about the things they had that he didnt, this lead to Andrew being bullied which contributed to the behaviours he displayed at home. The norms of the family may include doing together such as going to church, having dinner, holidays picnics, watching movies etc., the definition of norm is something that is usual, typical, or standard. In todays society, it is much harder for families to spend time together. According to a report by the daily mail it is estimated that families spend less than eight hours a week together due to the stresses of modern life. this could be due to parent/parents working long hours or anti-social hours to keep up with the bills, with the advance in technology parents and children spending more time on social media, children playing gaming consoles and watching TV, however it is important for families to spend time together to create an environment that helps shape childrens character and self-esteem and brings the family closer. Family values are something that is passed on from generation to generation and contribute to the familys structure, function, roles, beliefs and attitudes. The importance of family values is something many people take for granted and is highlighted in times of crisis, this is when our values influences the decisions we make and seek protection from outside influences such as peer pressure. This is when parental guidance is needed, in Andrews case he never had the values or parental guidance needed to steer him through his childhood and adolescence, something that might have helped manage his behaviours towards others. Conclusion My research into the family has helped me to understand my case study more and how the influences of the family can have a big impact on how a person is shaped in society. Word count 1570 References http://www.statista.com/statistics/367809/scotland-divorce-rate/ accessed 06.02.17 http://www.gov.scot/news/lone-parents-in-work accessed 06.02.17 http://sheknows.com/parenting/article/831061/5-reasons-family-time-rocks accessed 09.01.17 http://www.gov.scot/resource/doc/114027/0027764.pdf accessed 27.02.16 http://www.scotlandscensus.gov.uk accessed 07.02.17 http://www.medlineplus.gov>ency>article accessed 19.12.16 http://www.psyhologytoday.com>basics accessed 19.12.16 http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/12011714/Divorce-rate-at-lowest-level-in-40-years accessed 30.12.16 http://www.sociology.com/001/Profiles/fl/Why-Emile-Durkheim-Matters-to-Sociologists.htm accessed 05.01.17 http://www.investopedia.com/terms/c/conflict-theory.asp accessed 06.01.17 http://.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-236193/No-time-family-You-Parents-children-spend-hour-day-modern-demands.html accessed 04.01.17 http://www.cecp.air.org/wraparound/family.html accessed 04.01.17 http://www.healthofthechildren.com/s/Single-Parent-Families.html accessed 05.02.17 http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-26714426 accessed 06.02.17

Francis Marion Essay -- essays research papers

Francis Marion 1732-1795 Also known as: Swamp Fox Born: WINTER, 1732 in South Carolina, United States, Berkeley County Died: February 27, 1795 Occupation: General Source Database: DISCovering U.S. History Table of Contents Biographical Essay | Further Readings | Source Citation Hero of the southern campaign in the American Revolution, who was known for his mastery of the small-unit tactics necessary for effective guerrilla warfare. BIOGRAPHICAL ESSAY Francis Marion was born in the winter of 1732 (his exact birth date is unknown) at Goatfield Plantation in St. John's Parish, Berkeley County, South Carolina. His parents, Gabriel and Esther Marion, were of French Huguenot descent. The Huguenots were French Protestants who had suffered persecution for their beliefs during the reign of Louis XIV. Following the 1685 revocation of the Edict of Nantes, which forbade the practice of Protestantism, 50,000 Huguenots left France. Marion's grandparents were among them. Along with 70 or 80 other Huguenot families, they farmed the banks of the Santee River near Charleston, South Carolina, where the land proved ideal for growing rice and indigo, a highly treasured blue dye which brought a good price in Europe. The cultivation of both crops spanned an entire year, so the planters were never idle, and they were rewarded with a comfortable lifestyle. Because the land had been largely untouched before the Huguenots began farming it, much effort was expended preparing the land for raising crops, leaving little time for the acquiring of formal educations. Although the Huguenots were firm believers in cultural pursuits, Marion received only a rudimentary education, as his correspondence attests. When Marion was five or six years old, his family moved to another plantation, Winyah Bay in Prince George Parish, near a port called Georgetown. Despite Marion's small, rather puny, stature and ill health, his young life was a continuous cycle of work. But as he farmed the land, his dreams took him to sea, and, at the age of 15, he received the consent of his parents to sign on with a schooner bound for the West Indies. But nearly as soon as Marion's dreams of sailing became reality, the reality became a nightmare. On the voyage home, a whale rammed the schooner, ripping the seams and sending water into the hold. Before the schooner went down, the captain, al... ...ontinental, 1948. †¢ Rankin, Hugh F. Francis Marion: The Swamp Fox. Crowell, 1973. †¢ Risjord, Norman K. "The Swamp Fox: Francis Marion," in Representative Americans. D.C. Heath, 1980. †¢ Simms, William Gilmore. "The Marion Family," in Southern and Western Monthly Magazine. Vol. 1 (1845): pp. 209--215. †¢ Alden, John Richard. The South in the Revolution, 1763--1789. †¢ Chidsey, Donald Barr. The War in the South. Crown, 1969. †¢ Davis, Burke. The Cowpens-Guilford Courthouse Campaign. Lippincott, 1962. †¢ Treacy, M.F. Prelude to Yorktown. University of North Carolina Press, 1963. †¢ Weigley, Russell F. The Partisan War: The South Carolina Campaign of 1780--1782. University of South Carolina Press, 1970. Source Citation: "Francis Marion." DISCovering U.S. History. Gale Research, 1997. Reproduced in History Resource Center. Farmington Hills, MI: Gale Group. http://galenet.galegroup.com.ezproxy.umuc.edu/servlet/HistRC/

Fraud :: essays research papers

FRAUD MANY OF MY FRIENDS and acquaintances are still reluctant to use their credit-card numbers on the Internet, even to buy from well-known merchants over secure connections, and even when their credit-card issuers offer full protection against fraudulent charges. This side of the Internet fraud problem has received much more attention than the other side: that Internet merchants have no really effective way to protect themselves against credit-card fraud. Standard credit-card processing software will give the merchant an approval if the card account is valid, and has enough open credit to cover the sale. For cards issued by U.S. banks, there is an additional security feature called Address Verification System, or AVS. This compares the billing address associated with the card with the one entered by the merchant. The system works fairly well for goods shipped to billing addresses in the U.S. But there are two major gaps in protection. First, and most seriously, there is no AVS for cards issued by foreign banks. In other words, there is no way for a merchant to use the standard credit-card processing system to guarantee that a foreign credit-card transaction is valid. This forces them to use heuristic, and sometimes arbitrary, measures for fraud screening. My company, for example, won't fulfill orders from Romania, having been burned a few times too many. Customers with hotmail or other free, Web-based e-mail accounts have a point or two against them. Express shipping, ordering many items, and ordering the latest games (instead of reference or educational software) all reduce the likelihood that we'll accept the order. The case is similar for U.S. cards when the goods are shipped to an address other than the card's billing address. If we guess wrong and ship an order that turns out to be fraudulent - we usually find out months later - we get a "chargeback," meaning that the amount we received for the order is taken back from us. If we guess wrong the other way, refusing to ship a legitimate order, we risk alienating potential customers. My company manages to keep its chargbacks very low, but it's frustrating to be in this situation where there is no way to avoid doing the wrong thing from time to time. There are commercial fraud-screening services that filter credit-card transactions automatically, applying these and other checks, but they are not perfect. We have had limited success referring fraudulent transactions to collection agencies.

Alcohol Consumption Essay -- Social Issues, Alcohol Abuse

Alcohol consumption poses a threat for many public health harms. Impaired driving is one of the largest contributors to motor vehicle crashes (Burris, Grunwald, Anderson, & Filippoli, 2011). In the United States each year roughly 13,400 people die and an additional 255,500 are injured in motor vehicle crashes involving an alcohol-impaired driver according to Burris et al., 2011. In 2006, these crashes accounted for almost a third of all U.S. traffic-related deaths (Burris et al., 2011). Alcohol is the most commonly abused substance in the United States according to Pandrea, Happel, Amedee, Bagby, & Nelson, 2010, and studies show that reducing alcohol consumption can lead to public health improvements such as decreased incidence of â€Å"liver cirrhosis, delirium tremens, male suicide, criminality, hospitalizations, alcohol-related disease mortality, workplace injuries, STDs, IPV, rape, robbery, and severe violence towards children† (Jernigan). Public heath deals with many other issues that cause burdens to individuals and society alike such as obesity and gun use. Over the past several months, headlines in the news have been echoing â€Å"Chocolate Milk Removed from School Lunches,† and â€Å"Senate Considers Federal Tax on Soda.† While the removal of chocolate milk from school menus has actually happened in certain school districts across the country, federal tax on sodas has only been a proposal at this point. However, both echoes resounding through the news originated from escalating research that America’s twin epidemics of diabetes and obesity are due to diets high in sugar. The end result is that the actions taken to fight obesity have not been classified as either effective, uncertain, or harmful consistently through studies and ... ...twice and as a result, tax revenues that accounted for 12 percent of the sales of alcohol in 1980 now amount to only 7 percent of total sales. The result is a de facto subsidy on drinking and extra profits for alcohol manufacturers at the expense of taxpayers (Alcohol Taxes on the Federal Front, 2005). CONCLUSION: The beer industry has long opposed raising taxes on its products, even maintaining that they should be lowered. However, lower beer taxes would only add to the deficit, cater to a prosperous industry, reward and encourage heavy drinking, and attract more young drinkers, fueling increased alcohol problems and increasing public costs. The best interests of consumers, young people, the U.S. Treasury, and the public health and safety of America would be better served by raising, not lowering beer taxes. (Alcohol Taxes on the Federal Front, 2005)

Infosys Case Analysis Essay

? Case analysis – infosys document structure We have approached the case by first analyzing the identified issues, and then associate root causes to those issues. Further to it we have used two frameworks, â€Å"Web of Change† and â€Å"Hewitt Best Employer Characteristics†, to theoretically assess the weaknesses in Infosys Human Resource and Change Management policies. These frameworks can be used by organizations to better plan their change management and human resource management initiatives. We have used â€Å"Hewitt’s Best Employer Survey†, to identify the key initiatives which Infosys should undertake to enable it to reach its target of â€Å"Best Employer† by 2011. Further to it we believe that â€Å"Best Employer† and â€Å"Best Performer† are complementary goals, and it’s difficult to achieve one without the other, and hence we have identified the key initiatives which can help Infosys to achieve â€Å"Best Performer† target without compromising on its â€Å"Best Employer† objective. about infosys Infosys is the second largest Indian IT software services company. Infosys has reached pinnacles of success in short span of 20 years, through innovative business strategies and human resource practices. Currently it is facing challenges around balancing between business growth and employee satisfaction. About its business Model Infosys delivers IT services to its clients globally in a model called GDM (Global Delivery Model). The main characteristic of this model is that it decouples client location and project execution. Project is executed in locations which provide best combination of cost and talent. Project teams are spread across client site and offshore development centers in countries like India, China, and Mexico etc which provide rich availability of talent at competitive cost. Usually teams at client site document requirements and manage client relationship and offshore team manages delivery. This is a human resource intensive industry and the challenge is exacerbated by the fact that most of the resources are highly skilled professionals (engineers, MBAs, computer scientists etc). Being an industry where human resource is your only asset and your only competitive advantage, managing, ssues and Root Cause analysis In this section we’ll analyze the issues identified in the case and will attempt to identify root causes which led to employee dissatisfaction. After our analysis we believe that issues mentioned in the case is symptomatic of gaps in general principles of leadership, change management and HRM. Policies are not written in blood and stone, and they change ov er the lifetime of organizations. What should not change are basic organizations principles around human resource management. Our assessment is that policy changes in Infosys were reflective of external environment and business imperatives. However, diverging from the basic principles of Change management, leadership, communication and employee development in implementing new policies is what led to its fall in Best Employer ratings. â€Å"Stock Options started lacking luster to the new employees and created equity imbalance among employees† Stakeholders involved New Employees Discontentment Impact Inequity of income/wealth effect in the company which created tension between employees. New employees who had seen Infosys from outside as an organization committed to fairness, equity, and employee wealth creation got disenchanted. Root Cause Failure to Manage Expectations This issue primarily arose because of incorrect expectation setting of new employees. Infosys kept on using stock options and the millionaires’ stories as branding activity, even when stock options were no more an incentive to new recruits. Company should have made it very clear about its new compensation philosophy when it discontinued ESOPS. 1. Managing scale and attrition risk Stakeholders involved Employees Managers Discontentment Impact Infosys was growing at a speed where it was doubling its organizational strength every 1-2 years. However organization was plagued by high attrition rate. Employees felt lack of motivation, due to repetitive process tasks, which the business model demanded. Due to high growth, a lot of employees moved up the managerial ladder, but lacked proper training and orientation and hence couldn’t connect to employees Root Cause Lack of Employee fulfillment ( from the job ) Detached Lleaderships To stress on the need for the above two, we’ll give two examples from Indian public sector. Indian Railways Indian railways has recently transformed itself into a highly profitable organization, and according to the officer on special with Railways, single most critical factor which contributed to this success is involvement and commitment of employees of railways despite having a poor compensation structure. Employees of Indian railways take great pride in their work, since they believe they are contributing to the running of the country’s biggest infrastructure and are responsible for transporting of 2 crore customers every days. This association with organizational goal and pride in your organization is what makes an organization for perpetuity. Due to changing business needs, Iinfosys couldn’t connect to its employees in motivating them. Indian Army A unit commander in the army is able to inspire its soldiers to give up their life, compensation etc notwithstanding. The only reasons soldiers are so committed, is their immediate leader. It depends on the unit commander’s ability to connect to his soldiers, motivate them and show a genuine concern for their wellbeing, is what motivates the soldiers to do the unthinkable for their leader. According to research in human resources field, people leave managers and not companies. The leadership skills of managers are the greatest source of employee fulfillment at work. Lack of engagement and commitment of managers towards their subordinates, was probably the single biggest reason for high attrition rate at Infosys. 2. Strong formalization and process orientation, which came as part of growth, took away bandwidth to innovate from employees. Stakeholders involved Employees Discontentment Impact Employees who were used to getting the thrill and satisfaction from using their skill on technical challenges were feeling cocooned because of new process driven and re-use methodology. Similar impact was observed in people policy issues. All personal policies were getting more and more formalized. Root Cause Lack of employee Motivation Resistance to change One of the basic principles of organization design is that you don’t use strong formalization from highly skilled agents (employees). Formalization is for low skilled repeatable tasks. Infosys should have come up with business models aimed at high end, value added services much earlier. This would have kept its inherent talent not only motivated but better utilized for higher margins. In 1990s moving away from body shopping to GDM provide this opportunity, but in early to middle 2000s, Iinfosys couldn’t reinvent itself. Formalization in organizational policies when it grows out from entrepreneurial stage is inevitable. It’s actually needed to ensure consistent implementation of policies and create a sense of equity and fairness among employee. Dissatisfaction on this front could be attributed to resistance to change, and hence effective change management principles should be employed for disruptive changes. 3. Introduction of variable pay Stakeholders involved Employees Senior Management HR Department Discontentment Impact Variable pay was received with a lot of skepticism by the employees, fearing that it was introduced to reduce their compensation Root Cause/s Change Management Failure Lack of Leadership engagement Communication Failure This was probably one of the most disruptive changes introduced by Infosys. The amount of skepticism and distrust displayed by employees was a first in Infosys. Immediate reaction of employees was that this policy has been introduced to cut employee costs to satisfy shareholders demand for higher and higher profitability. The fact that a vast majority of senior management were shareholders in the company added to employee distrust. There was no clarity among employees how this policy will pan out. A lot of employees were not comfortable in linking their performance to factors outside their control (market conditions, decision taken by management etc). Also since the amount of variable component was high (more than 50% for project managers and above), employees could not understand how much their monthly take home were. This is a classic case of failure in change management and involvement of leadership at every level. Infosys data on variable payout shows that most of the time company has delivered 100% payout and even higher percentage to high performers. So employee skepticism bore from lack of clarity and communication on this policy. Lack of clarity, communication and involvement of employees was to such an extent that even middle management was taken by surprise by this policy. Many managers, who couldn’t appreciate the policy implementation, were reluctant in communicating the changes to the employees. For an employee first point of contact for clarification is his/her immediate line manager, hence it’s important to fully equip leadership at every level with information. To understand the role what leadership plays in motivating, retaining employees, we should look at armed forces. Unit commanders are able to motivate their employees to give their life, despite the fact that compensation package of soldiers is one of the lowest. This commitment in subordinates comes because of total commitment of their leader in engaging with them and motivating with them. Immediate line managers are the biggest reason employees leave an organization and are also the main reason employees go beyond their capabilities to outperform. 4. Retaining Organizational Culture with fast track growth Stakeholders involved HR Department Employees Discontentment Impact Due to business growth imperatives, and its business model, Infosys was doubling its employee strength every 1-2 years. To accommodate this type of growth, it had to lower its hiring standards and quality and culture was a victim of this. Root Cause/s Lack of Employee on boarding ( orientation) planning This issue had an impact on multiple facets. It led to a feeling disenchantment in existing employees, as they felt their brand equity in the market was getting diluted. New employees, who were not able to appreciate infosys inherent culture, didn’t felt comfortable and had a feeling that the organization is biased toward old employees. Root cause of this issue was that although organization had changed its selection criteria, it didn’t change its employee orientation strategy, or training methodology. Infosys should have changed its orientation program to be more customized offering for similar group of employees and using existing employees as mentor to help develop organizational culture and values in new employees. Similarly if you are hiring for quantity and not quality, it should have modified its training plan to be more exhaustive. 5. Broad Banding and promotions Stakeholders involved Employees Discontentment Impact Lack of faith in the organization Chaos and confusion in employees minds Root Cause/s Change Management Communication Leadership This policy again created a lot of employee discomfort since they didn’t knew the details of change. It’s again a classic change management failure. Although the policy was designed to bring more clarity in role structure and bring equity amongst similar roles, across the organization, poor communications created fear and scientism in minds of people. We can observe from the reinvention of Indian Railways, one of the reasons organization could progress on the growth trajectory, was employee commitment to the cause of Indian Railways, despite of low compensation. Employees felt proud to be part of the world’s biggest railways and were motivated to excel. Some of the senior managers lacked clarity about policies, hence they were apprehensive of clarifying the policy. This shows a major organizational failure in terms of change management and engagement of leadership with people. Similarly as discussed above, since employee appraisal parameters were not clearly defined, an employee could not appreciate how his/her appraisal going to impact promotions? Web Of Change – Change Management Framework To do substantiate our above understanding of issues at Iinfosys, we used â€Å"Web of Change†, a change management framework to understand the change management issues at Infosys. â€Å"Web of change: is the framework proposed by Stephen Thomas. This model defines 8 change elements as shown below and the web of change helps us to see how the values of each element changed during the Organization Change process in Infosys. The baseline score is the value of the Change elements in Infosys during the glory years of 1990’s and the re-assessment scores the value of the same change elements in the 2000’s when Infosys was going through the â€Å"Growth pangs†.