Tutankhamuns Tomb, Egypt free essay sample

Previous excavations in the Valley of the Kings in Egypt by Theodore Davis had found and cleared the tombs of Tutankhamun’s family and their possessions. By 1913, Davis had not yet found an intact royal tomb and became disillusioned, finally declaring the area exhausted of By 1920, the tomb of nearly every New Kingdom king from between 1550 and 1070 BCE had been found in the Valley of the Kings, but Tutankhamun’s remained missing. Lord Carnarvon, an English aristocrat who was enthusiastic about Egyptology, applied for and purchased the license Davis gave up and chose Howard Carter, a British Egyptologist, to continue the search. Minor finds by Davis bearing Tutankhamun’s name led Carter to believe the king was still somewhere in the valley and felt the finds justified a further exploration. Between 1917 and 1921 the two worked in the eastern valley without success. Carter convinced Carnarvon to persist for another season, determined to find Tutankhamun. We will write a custom essay sample on Tutankhamuns Tomb, Egypt or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page Carter’s team cleared bedrock using the grid system of archaeological excavation. This technique was developed in WWI for the purpose of maintaining a system that ensured stratigraphic control of excavations in trench digging and artillery barrages. Using these methods, on November 1st 1922 a staircase was uncovered in the limestone cliffs of the Valley of the Kings. The entrance door, which had a dry limestone blocking plastered with gypsum, was later uncovered to reveal Tutankhamun’s name. The entrance they excavated then led to an eight-metre-long corridor that revealed evidence of past robberies. Four small rooms flowed from the entrance and corridor, including an Antechamber, Annexe, Burial Chamber and Treasury. On November 6, Lord Carnarvon was summoned by telegraph and arrived with his daughter, Lady Evelyn Herbert, to watch the excavation process unfold. Compared to tombs of other pharaohs of the time, Tutankhamun’s tomb was small and lacked some of the more elaborate features – for example, tomb paintings and decoration were only found in the Burial Chamber room rather than all rooms. Due to Tutankhamun’s early death, a lack of time was left to prepare his tomb. One of the most remarkable divisions of Tutankhamun’s tomb was that he was the only pharaoh to have been discovered intact in his tomb with the complete burial furniture and possessions surrounding. These objects included gilded statues of Tutankhamun, gods, and family members,. Objects from the king’s daily life were also present such as clothes, furniture and sceptres. Funerary goods such as canopic jars containing the king’s entrails and hundreds of shabtis (which were small statues of people, intended to serve as slaves in the afterlife) were found, along with more personal items. Two miniature coffins containing mummies of stillborn babies were placed beside Tutankhamun’s sarcophagus. These were likely to have been his children by his half-sister and wife, Ankhsenamun, whom he married around the age of ten. It took Carter the most part of ten years to empty all the chambers. This was due to difficulties from a sudden change in protocol and access privileges from both British and Egyptian governments, affecting the excavation on the site and delaying the whole process. It was also due to the meticulous process Carter took in his excavation – each object was recorded, catalogued, described, and photographed in situ, before being preserved and conserved, then finally packed and transported to the Egyptian Museum in Cairo. The main archaeological find of the tomb however, was King Tutankhamun himself. Inside the burial chamber were four gilded shrines, one inside the other. The innermost shrine held a quartzite sarcophagus which in turn held three coffins. The innermost coffin made of solid gold contained the mummy of Tutankhamun, wrapped in linen and wearing his famous gold plated mask, inlaid with blue glaze and inscribed with religious spells. Although the body was found to be poorly preserved, Tutankhamun was notable for being the only Egyptian pharaoh found in situ, intact and unsealed since ancient times in his tomb. In 1925 the body was removed from the coffins with difficulty, due to the abundance of resin that had been poured over the mummy at the funeral. Carter and his team were forced to cut the body in order to remove it from the coffin. Four sessions of scientific analysis were conducted on Tutankhamun’s body over the years. These proved to ablaze many controversial issues and interpretations over Tutankhamun’s cause of death. The first inquiry was an autopsy which began after Carter’s excavation in 1925, carried out by Douglas E. Derry, a Professor of Anatomy at the Egyptian University in Cairo. Derry found Tutankhamun to have a fracture in his lower left thighbone, a large, ragged embalming wound, and estimated his age of death to be between 18 and 22 years. He also reconfirmed the body’s poor preservation, noting that the inner layers of linen were reduced to the ‘consistency of soot’, that an overload of resin destroyed the corpse, and that the nose was heavily flattened by the bandages. The second scientific analysis of the body was conducted by R. G. Harrison in 1968. With an x-ray the team concluded that two bone fragments in the skull and haemorrhaging may have been caused by a blow to the head, and that the body was missing a sternum and some frontal rib bones. This caused speculations about Tutankhamun’s death, some suggesting murder and others suggesting a fatal chariot accident. Examiners also noted that the spine showed signs of scoliosis. A further x-ray and blood analysis in 1978 was led by James E. Harris. It wrongly concluded that the king was perhaps 23 to 27 years old at death. A blood analysis supported the idea that Tutankhamun was related to the body of Akhenaten found in another tomb in the Valley of the Kings – suggesting it was Tutankhamun’s father. A final CT scan in 2005 was conducted to test the conclusions of previous inquiries and to look for additional details still undiscovered. Led by Dr Zahi Hawass, the scan confirmed the previous findings of the king’s height, health, general features and age of death at around 18-19 years. It also disproved the theory of scoliosis, relating the curvature of his spine instead the way his body was arranged by the embalmers. 8MINSThe theory of murder by head trauma and death relating to the missing ribs was also ruled out and blamed on embalmers and/or Carter’s team, The leg trauma found in Tutankhamun’s lower left femur may have introduced infection which may have been fatal. This theory however remains unproven. Facial reconstruction of King Tutankhamun was also commenced using the new CT scan data in 2005. A forensic anthropologist calculated sizes of tissue on his face. A cast was then made of the skull from this data which was used to build a latex model. When the CT scan data and skull cast was given to another forensic team for checking, the skin colour proved to be somewhat controversial in interpretation. Controversies occurred as it is impossible to determine skin colour accurately. This is because there is a large variation on skin tones in the area, and not enough accurate information available as Ancient Egyptian art depicted bodies in unrealistic colours. Thus, no consensus on the King’s skin tone was reached, however the overall results between the different reconstructions was similar. At the time of discovery, very little was known about this ancient pharaoh. Thanks to the efforts put into many investigations over the years and, in particular, the 1923 ‘Curse of King Tut’ phenomena that was spread through media following the untimely death of Lord Carnarvon, knowledge and interest of Tutankhamun has skyrocketed. Tutankhamun’s legacy remains to this day and he continues to stand across the globe as one of the most well-known Egyptian pharaohs in history. [ 1 ]. Carter, H. , Mace, A. C. , The Tomb of Tut-Ankh-Amen: Discovered by the Late Earl of Carnarvon and Howard Carter, Volume 1 (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1923), 94. [ 2 ]. N. Reeves, The Complete Tutankhamun, Thames Hudson, 1990, pp. 116-17

Superman Will Fly No More essays

Superman Will Fly No More essays Fyodor Dostoevskis Crime and Punishment follows the main character Raskolnikov as he attempts to prove his theories on the possibility of a superman having the power to transgress the law and morality because he is more extraordinary than the common man. Throughout his journey testing his theory, the author not only uses the main character as a representation of how such an egotistical theory isnt true, but also uses another character, Svidrigailov, as an example of the philosophys fallibility. In Crime and Punishment, Dostoevski characterizes Svidrigailov as the embodiment of evil as he represents the Nietzsche superman, and through Svidrigailovs death, proves his belief in the inability of anyones will to exist above humanity in the world. Arkady Ivanovitch Svidrigailov is a character based on the philosophical ideas of Nietzsche, known for his beliefs that it is possible for a superman to be so great that laws, morals, and ethics cant touch him in the sense that hes not physically of emotionally punished. This extraordinary man does not exist for the benefit of society, but only for his own self-gratification. He also believes that his will is above that of any Supreme being, therefore God does not exist. With no higher form of life to punish him, he is able to assert his will freely as he chooses. According to Nietzsche, he who possesses the strongest will can enforce his desires and power above those intellectually inferior. Dostoevski applies this concept with the characterization of Svidrigailov, who can rape a thirteen-year old girl and aid in the death of his wife without the fear of some higher power punishing him. Just as Raskolnikov can justify the murders of the old pawnbroker and her sister by means necessary to complete his experiment, Svidrigailov can justify his rape because he is above the common morality. The wealt...

What Is a Good ACT Writing Score

What Is a Good ACT Writing Score SAT / ACT Prep Online Guides and Tips As you study for the ACT, it's easy enough to calculate your ACT composite target score. But where does your essay score fit into all this? What’s a good ACT Writing score? Read on to find out how to figure it out! feature image credit: Had a Good Boogie Lately? by Jocelyn Kinghorn, used under CC BY-SA 2.0/Cropped from original. How Do You Figure Out What’s a Good ACT Writing Score? A good essay score depends on what your goals are. These goals should be concrete and determined by the colleges you’re applying to. Find out more about why this is the only factor that truly matters in our article on what a good, bad, and excellent ACT score is. So how do you figure out your target ACT Writing Score? Step 0: Is ACT Writing Required? Especially now that the SAT essay is no longer mandatory, many schools have been reevaluating their stance on whether or not to require the ACT essay (since schools generally like to have a consistent standard across the two tests). Some colleges are ACT Writing-optional, while others don't consider it at all. Use our complete list of which schools require ACT Writing to figure out where the schools you're applying to stand on the issue. Step 1: Use Our Worksheet We've created a handy worksheet to help you figure out your target ACT score. For now we'll be adapting the worksheet to figure out what a good ACT Writing score is for you, although I definitely recommend also filling out a second sheet to figure out your target ACT composite score. Step 2: Fill In Your Schools On the worksheet, fill in the names of the schools you want to get into in the leftmost column. Include dream or â€Å"reach† schools, but don’t include â€Å"safety schools† (schools you think you have at least a 90% chance of getting into). Step 3: Get ACT Writing Score Data You can try to get the data from each school's admissions website, but this is time-consuming and not always successful, as admission sites aren't laid out in a particularly standardized way. The best source of data for ACT Writing scores is a school's Common Data Set, if the school chooses to publish it. The Common Data Set, or CDS, is a set of survey items that schools can choose to fill out and put online to give students information about the school in a standardized way. The CDS's section about First-Time, First-Year (Freshman) Admission may include information about students' 25th and 75th percentile scores on ACT Writing. It's not mandatory for schools to fill out the CDS, and even if they do, they don't have to fill out the information about ACT Writing, so you won't always find that information, but the CDS is the most up-to-date and reliable source for ACT Writing score information. A third option is to take to Google and search out other sources for this data; however, you should differentiate between this kind of unofficial information and official data released by the schools. Step 4: Average Both Columns Total up the 25th and 75th percentile scores, then find the average of each column. We recommended that you take the 75th percentile score as your target ACT Writing score since it will give you a very strong chance of getting into the schools you’ve listed. If you’re applying to humanities programs, you may even want to consider a higher target score for ACT Writing, as it may be used for placement in certain courses. A quick refresher on what percentile scores mean: 25th percentile means that 25 percent of the students attending have a score at or below that number (below average). The 75th percentile means that 75 percent of students have a score at or below that number (above average). For example, let's say that the 25th/75th percentile ACT Writing score range for Northwestern University is 7/10. If you score above the 75th percentile score (a 10), your Writing score will help your chances of admission; if you score below the 25th percentile (a 7-8), your Writing score might harm your chances of admission. What If There's No ACT Writing Score Data? Unfortunately, very few colleges actually release their ACT Writing score ranges. Rarely is the information easily accessible on the school websites (since admission sites have no standardized formats)- instead, you have to search for a school's most recent Common Data Set or rely on data provided by third parties. If there is no data for ACT Writing scores at all, you can take a look at the school's composite ACT score ranges to get a rough idea of where your ACT Writing score should be. Because it requires exceptional skill to get 6 in all domains (or a 12/12) on the ACT Writing, even the most competitive schools will accept a 9/12 on the essay (which puts you in the 95th percentile for ACT Writing), even if the school's ACT composite range is 32-35. We've created a chart below that compares percentiles for ACT composite scores and ACT Writing scores. You can use this chart to help you figure out roughly where your Writing score should fall, based on your composite score. Percentile Composite Score (1-36) Writing Score (2-12) 100 36 12 99 31-35 11 99 31-35 10 95 27-31 9 88 22-27 8 65 19-22 7 47 15-19 6 24 13-15 5 12 12-13 4 4 11-12 3 2 1-11 2 source: two different ACT.org pages As an example, Northwestern's 25/75 range for ACT composite scores is 32-34, so you should aim for an overall ACT Writing score of between 8 and 11 out of 12. In general, as long as your Writing score percentile is in the general ballpark (within 10-20 percentile points) of your composite score percentile, you'll be fine. Summary: How to Decide What a Good ACT Writing Score Is First, look up whether the schools you wish to apply to require ACT Writing scores. Next, figure out the ACT Writing score ranges of those schools that do require ACT Writing scores be submitted. To do this, you can: Check the school's admissions site or Common Data Set (if published) to see if there is data for ACT Writing, OR Estimate the Writing score range based on the school's ACT composite score range Then, sum up the ACT Writing score ranges for the 25th and 75th percentiles, average the 25th and 75th percentile scores, and choose a target ACT Writing score (75th percentile average score is recommended as a target). 3D Bullseye. Credit: StockMonkeys.com (used under CC BY 2.0) What’s Next? Now that you've stuck your toe in the waters of ACT Writing scoring, are you ready for more? Of course you are. Get into the depths of ACT Writing with this full analysis of the ACT essay grading rubric. Is a longer essay always better? Find out how essay length affects your ACT Writing score here. Completely confused about how the ACT Writing test is scored? You're not alone. Dispel your confusion with our complete guide to ACT essay scoring. Curious about where your ACT Writing score stands in comparison to everyone else? Find out what an average ACT Writing score is in this article. Want to improve your ACT score by 4 points? Check out our best-in-class online ACT prep classes. We guarantee your money back if you don't improve your ACT score by 4 points or more. Our classes are entirely online, and they're taught by ACT experts. If you liked this article, you'll love our classes. Along with expert-led classes, you'll get personalized homework with thousands of practice problems organized by individual skills so you learn most effectively. We'll also give you a step-by-step, custom program to follow so you'll never be confused about what to study next. Try it risk-free today:

Health Promotion and Health Education Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Health Promotion and Health Education - Essay Example Obese children also are at increased risk for dyslipidemia, both increased low-density lipoprotein levels and decreased high-density lipoprotein levels (Leung & Robson, 1990). Longitudinal data from the Bogolusa Heart Study indicates a significant risk for developing type 2 diabetes for obese adolescents (Srinivasan, Bao, Wattigney, & Berenson, 1996). Among those who were obese as adolescents, 2.4% had developed type 2 diabetes by the age of 30 compared to none in the non-obese population. The detrimental health effects of obesity are pervasive and enduring. Strauss (1999) reported that being an obese adolescent predicted early mortality even more consistently than obesity in adulthood. The complications related to obesity in youths are not limited to physical health. Obesity in adolescents also has been associated with fewer years of education, higher poverty, lower marriage rates and lower family income (Dietz, 1997; Maffeis & Tato, 2001). However, evidence for an association between overweight and obesity and low self-esteem are inconsistent. Some studies have found no significant relationship (e.g., Gortmaker, 1993; Renman, Engstrom, Silfverdal, & Aman, 1999), while others find that those children and adolescents who are obese exhibit significantly lower self-esteem than their peers (French, Story, & Perry, 1995). Israel and Ivanova (2002) posit that severity of obesity is related to self-esteem with those more severely obese experiencing the most damage to their self-esteem. This hypothesis has been validated in the findings among clinical populations where self-esteem has been significantly related to obesity status (Rumpel & Harris, 1994). The most consisten tly replicated psychosocial outcomes for obesity relate to negative body image (Israel & Ivanvova, 2002). In addition, clinically significant problems with memory functioning and learning abilities have been found among overweight children. These deficits are seemingly the result of sleep apnea, which has been reported at rates as high as 94% among samples of obese children (Brenner, Kelly, Wenger, Brich, & Morrow, 2001). 5.2 Overview of the proposed program In light of the pressing and prevalent problems posed by obesity, the researcher has proposed a cardiovascular risk reduction program which aims at assessing the health behaviors of elementary school children and impacting changes on both a school level and individual level. On the school level, the program aims to decrease the fat and sodium content of the lunch received by elementary students during the course of the school day while simultaneously increasing the level of physical activity among those students. On an individual level, the proposed program aims to first and foremost decrease the level of cholesterol in the blood of the students while secondarily impacting psychosocial changes through mandatory self-reporting as well as behavior modification for aversive health maintenance behavior. Essentially, this proposed program examines the efficacy of school and home-based interventions in impacting changes in children's behavior and promotes a lifestyle that will reduce their risk of heart disease. This program will target both the

Human Resources - Pay Plans Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Human Resources - Pay Plans - Essay Example Hence, reward system in organization can be defined as â€Å"The degree to which reward allocations (i.e., salary increase, promotions) are based on employee performance criteria in contrast to seniority, favoritism and so on.† However, reward systems are more than bonus and stock options. As Steve Jobs says â€Å"The journey is reward†; often rewards include both of these incentives, they can also include other recognition such as reassignment, non-monetary like vacations. Abraham Maslow’s theory of needs hierarchy explains the needs of human beings into five hierarchical categories namely physiological, safety, social, esteem, and need for self-actualisation.   On the contrary, Victor Vroom’s expectancy theory explains why employees act the way they do, in light of their aspirations and their expectation of reaching those goals. These two theories are renowned frameworks that are used to create effective reward systems in organisations. Intrinsic rewards are intangible, i.e., feeling of accomplishment and a sense of achievement. These rewards are those that produce non-quantifiable, personal satisfaction and a feeling that the work of employee is appreciated. On the other hand, extrinsic rewards are tangible outcome such as monetary, promotion, bonuses and sales prizes. Such employees are thought to be motivated to work hard to produce quality results when extrinsic rewards are offered. In research paper of â€Å"Management implication of the interaction between intrinsic motivation and extrinsic rewards† by David Beswick of University of Melbourne, when employee is intrinsically motivated, they are more aware of wide range of phenomena while giving more attention to complexities, inconsistencies and unexpected possibilities. Such employees need time and independence to make choices, to collect and process information, and to get applauded for well

Uptian Sinclair And Socialism Essay -- essays research papers

Upton Sinclair and Socialism   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Socialism has always been hard for me to understand. I never really grasped the concept of it until I read the book The Jungle and began to research for this paper. Before I begin I would like to go through a condensed version of the history of Socialism. It was founded in 1901 in Indianapolis, Indiana. Two groups came together to form the Socialists, the Social Democratic Party and the â€Å"Kangaroo† wing of the older Socialist Labor Party. These parties contained mostly immigrant workers from big cities (Jurgis from The Jungle was one such fictional worker). The new party expanded and included every type of extremist. They stood on the motto of â€Å"reform vs. revolution† and focused mainly on the labor union’s, â€Å"this included the concepts of revolution by education and of ‘building the new society within the shell of it’s old.’   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  In 1912 they had elected two members of Congress and more than seventy mayors. The most members it every attained at this time was 100,000 and even had a presidential candidate, Eugene Debs, who received almost a million votes. However soon the party began to have internal problems due to diverse ideologies. During the war half did not believe in the war and half believed in Stalin and his Communist ways, therefore, the party split.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The party had become weak and did not enter a political candidate for the presidential election. However, once the Great Depression began the Socialist party took a turn back to full tilt and gained strength. It ran Norman Thomas as their Presidential Candidate. He never won but continued to run, loosing votes every time he ran. Finally in 1948 with only 80,000 votes Thomas declared, â€Å"a Socialist presidential race was a futile effort and an utter waste of the party’s resources.†   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  This warning was pushed aside and the party ran Darlington Hoopes in 1952. He received merely 20,203 votes and in the next election he received only a woeful 2,126 votes in the race of 1956. The Socialist Party in this nation had come to a crashing final end in terms of elections. It now only had an underdeveloped 2,000 members nationwide. In 1960, the first time since 1924 the Socialist party did not enter a presidential candidate on the ballot.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  It was at th... ...d writer believed in the power of Socialism during the times on the late 1800’s to the mid 1970’s. It was felt that it was the only true way to end the â€Å" army of the unemployed†.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Sinclair may have not been a great writer in terms of structure or the use of symbolism . He was more interested in politics rather than the inner reaches of a man’s mind. His character’s lacked development beyond a static figure. He had no formal education as a writer and except for The Jungle he is hardly remembered at all and has no bearing on modern writers. He simply attempted to make literature functional and express his ideals concerning Socialism and perhaps persuade a few younger members to join. He seemingly failed to grasp the concept of literature in a whole â€Å"reveals life as complex and difficult to fathom†. He merely wanted to simplify it. In spite of all this, he remains a mystery, an enigma to critics the world round. â€Å"Even within a larger realization of his literary weaknesses and intellectual ambivalences, and taking into account even his blindness to racial oppression, Sinclairs’s commitment to social justice commands respect.† Uptian Sinclair And Socialism Essay -- essays research papers Upton Sinclair and Socialism   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Socialism has always been hard for me to understand. I never really grasped the concept of it until I read the book The Jungle and began to research for this paper. Before I begin I would like to go through a condensed version of the history of Socialism. It was founded in 1901 in Indianapolis, Indiana. Two groups came together to form the Socialists, the Social Democratic Party and the â€Å"Kangaroo† wing of the older Socialist Labor Party. These parties contained mostly immigrant workers from big cities (Jurgis from The Jungle was one such fictional worker). The new party expanded and included every type of extremist. They stood on the motto of â€Å"reform vs. revolution† and focused mainly on the labor union’s, â€Å"this included the concepts of revolution by education and of ‘building the new society within the shell of it’s old.’   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  In 1912 they had elected two members of Congress and more than seventy mayors. The most members it every attained at this time was 100,000 and even had a presidential candidate, Eugene Debs, who received almost a million votes. However soon the party began to have internal problems due to diverse ideologies. During the war half did not believe in the war and half believed in Stalin and his Communist ways, therefore, the party split.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The party had become weak and did not enter a political candidate for the presidential election. However, once the Great Depression began the Socialist party took a turn back to full tilt and gained strength. It ran Norman Thomas as their Presidential Candidate. He never won but continued to run, loosing votes every time he ran. Finally in 1948 with only 80,000 votes Thomas declared, â€Å"a Socialist presidential race was a futile effort and an utter waste of the party’s resources.†   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  This warning was pushed aside and the party ran Darlington Hoopes in 1952. He received merely 20,203 votes and in the next election he received only a woeful 2,126 votes in the race of 1956. The Socialist Party in this nation had come to a crashing final end in terms of elections. It now only had an underdeveloped 2,000 members nationwide. In 1960, the first time since 1924 the Socialist party did not enter a presidential candidate on the ballot.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  It was at th... ...d writer believed in the power of Socialism during the times on the late 1800’s to the mid 1970’s. It was felt that it was the only true way to end the â€Å" army of the unemployed†.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Sinclair may have not been a great writer in terms of structure or the use of symbolism . He was more interested in politics rather than the inner reaches of a man’s mind. His character’s lacked development beyond a static figure. He had no formal education as a writer and except for The Jungle he is hardly remembered at all and has no bearing on modern writers. He simply attempted to make literature functional and express his ideals concerning Socialism and perhaps persuade a few younger members to join. He seemingly failed to grasp the concept of literature in a whole â€Å"reveals life as complex and difficult to fathom†. He merely wanted to simplify it. In spite of all this, he remains a mystery, an enigma to critics the world round. â€Å"Even within a larger realization of his literary weaknesses and intellectual ambivalences, and taking into account even his blindness to racial oppression, Sinclairs’s commitment to social justice commands respect.†

Managing Change in Organisations †Improved HR onboarding process Essay

The main goal of this change initiative is to improve the financial results of the company by improving the engagement and performance of the new HR employees at Mars, Inc. It’s aimed to be achieved by introducing a new, globally aligned, best-in-class 1-year-long induction process with supporting tools and learning events. The target group of new HR associates1 includes those who joined HR at Mars less than 12 month ago, either from externally (from other company) or internally (from other department). As Mars,Inc. is a large family-owned business with over 100 years of history and globally well known brands. It has unique and mature company culture which is driven by its 5 principles: Quality, Responsibility, Mutuality, Effectiveness and Freedom. These principles drive the behaviour of the employees at all level of the hierarchy and have been shaping the characteristics of the organisation. Mars, Inc. fits well to ‘elaboration of structure phase’ (Granier 1972) of the organisational life-cycle: the company is led by a team of professional managers and is very much decentralised with a small headquarter. The business units of the countries therefore enjoy a lot of freedom and responsibility to drive the local business effectively. This approach reflects also in the way they shape the processes within the company: the global process standards are mainly just broadly defined with limited (if any) written documentation about them, which lets the local teams shape it and use it as best fits to their needs. As it has the advantage to allow tailor-made solutions to best assist local business objectives, it also has disadvantages. It is not uncommon that extra local resources are needed to shape the process, and when the process has changed too much, it becomes difficult to compare the practices and results of different units. It also often happens that local units come up with very similar best practices after investing significant resources locally in process development, which resources could have been reduced if globally – or at least regionally – someone would have co-ordinated these development initiatives. As part of the company culture, Mars, Inc. refers to employees as associates, therefore in my paper I will use both terms to reflect the same concept. Realising the potential of this kind of centralisation led the business leaders to setting up global functional centres of expertise, like the Mars University (Mars U) is for learning and development within Mars, Inc. The Mars U is responsible for designing and deploying world-class learning programs, which enable the competency building of employees, so they can achieve their full potential in contributing to the business to achieve its goals. It has matrix structure and its smaller teams are set up by functions (named â€Å"Colleges† of HR, finance, supply, etc.), regions (they coordinate the deployment of functional development programs in a region) and special learning and development related areas (like learning technology). Mars U therefore faces the challenge of balancing between centralisation and decentralisation by providing centrally defined and globally aligned learning solutions in a matrix organisation with decentralised leadership. That is the same challenge in case of the new induction process initiative. In the near past an introductory training program existed for new HR employees, which was similar in all the regions, but inconsistent in content, so it gave a lot of space for local solutions to flower. Moving from this decentralised approach to a more centralised one may cause push backs from the associates in these local units, thus careful change management is essential. Nature of change By assessing the nature of change based on the description above, this change can be categorised with the terms of Ackerman (1997) as ‘transitional’ as the intention is to â€Å"achieve (†¦) a desired state† by setting up a globally aligned world-class induction process for new HR associates, which is a significant difference from the current decentralised approach. One can argue whether it is not defined as ‘transformational change’ as it can result a difference in an organisational process and change in the culture, but as it won’t change fundamentally neither areas, the definition of ‘transitional change’ fits better in this case. To give a full picture about the nature of change, it need to be emphasised that after finishing this particular change project, the change itself will not stop, it will continue as ‘developmental change’ by continuously improving the set up induction process. From another perspective, using the categories of Mintzberg and Waters (1985) this change initiative can be identified as ‘determined’ or planned change as the goal, that need to be achieved, is clearly set, as well as the process how to get there. It does not mean though, that ‘emergent’ changes will not come up during the project, as it may happen that a locally designed induction process which works well will have an improving effect on the globally designed process and tools to ensure the implementation of the best possible practices. Drivers of the change This change initiative has mainly internal triggers. First and foremost, improve the productivity of every new HR associates by providing them all the essential knowledge, competencies and network they need in their new role. Improving their engagement level is also an important trigger, as engaged associates have usually better performance and they less likely to leave the business (Buckingham and Coffman, 2005). In case of HR department, better performance of associates, among other things, could lead to better internal and external customer satisfaction or decrease of costs by effective ways of working, while improved retention cut the costs and time invested in recruitment and training of a new employee. Although the internal triggers are more relevant in this case, the external drivers also need to be mentioned. Mars, Inc. had several acquisitions in the last few years which led to an incoherent culture in the different business segments. To enable exchangeability of human resources and best practices, setting up centrally aligned processes is a key. Also, considering that Mars, Inc. operates in a quickly changing market (FMCG), being innovative and best-in-class in its processes could ensure competitive advantage and retention of employees. Nonetheless, the change needs to be done in a global environment fitting to the expectations of different cultures in different regions. Key Stakeholders As in case of most major changes in an organisation, winning the support of top level management is essential. In this case the management means the Global HR Leadership Team of Mars, Inc. who also plays the role of sponsor of the project and expected to play a key role by being role model in using the new induction process. Their influence is very high as they could stop or change this initiative any time. Their attitude toward the change to be expected very positive, still, contracting with them is critical as many priority projects are currently going on in the business so need to ensure proper focus. Driving the change process requires change agents to ensure smooth implementation: the Mars U associates in the regions and other (local) learning or talent development specialists. As the project aligns well with their general purpose of their roles – to improve associates capabilities, – their attitude is expected to be positive. As they will play the role of connecting the project leaders with associates in their regions or units, their influence is also very high, but mainly only in their area of responsibility. The communication and deployment of the change will focus mainly on the HR managers as they will be the most affected by the change, as they need to change their ways of working the most. Thus, 5 their attitude can be either positive or negative depending how valuable the new process seems to them. Their influence can be high in the area of their responsibility – so the more senior the manager is the higher is the influence. Also important stakeholders, but less influential, are the new HR associates. The new process is all about them, but from change management perspective they play a smaller role, as their attitude to be expected very positive. In any case, careful communication toward them needs to be planned to ensure their full involvement in the process and gain feedback from them to identify potential areas for improvements. There are also some other key stakeholders, like the trainers of the courses, whose contribution to the success can be very important, but as they are interchangeable in the roles, their influence on the process can be categorised as moderate. Furthermore, there are some other subject matter experts (e.g. learning technology or global communication specialists), who will be involved during the design and communication phases, but their influence is rather small and their attitude is expected to be supportive. Management objectives To summarise the main objective, the goal is to implement in all business segments and units of Mars, Inc. a newly designed, globally aligned, efficient and engaging functional induction process with its supporting tools (guides and learning modules) for every new HR employees, which supports their development in the first 12 months after joining in their new role and covers the essential Mars specific knowledge and provides network needed for achieving high performance. The new process and tools should be used by mid of 2013 in all business units. Task 2 For a successful change project it’s not only important to see where we would like to go, but to be able to define how we will get there, we need a careful and detailed analysis on where we are at the moment. Besides a general process overview in the organisation (e.g. by the support of models like ‘McKinsey 7S’ (Waterman et al. 1980) or ‘Burke-Litwin Causal model’ (Burke & Litwin, 1992)), we also need to understand why do we have the problem in our organisation. For this we may use problem analysis models, like the ‘Fishbone diagram’ or the ‘5 Whys?’ (Taiichi 1988) model. Input-Transformation-Output model To better understand the functional induction process, by the ‘Input-Transformation-Output model’ (RDI, 2012a) the main elements can be summarised visually: This model can support the planning process in several ways. It is easier for the change leaders to identify the key stakeholders (see the detailed stakeholder analysis above), to keep objectives always in mind and focus on the processes which need to be changed in order to be able to achieve the desired output. Furthermore, it gives a great overview about who shall be involved in reviewing and developing the process by providing feedback before, during and after the change. Nonetheless, it is essential to be clear on both the transformed and transforming resources required for the whole process to avoid disturbance due to the lack of them. Cause-and-Effect Analysis After having a broader overview of the issue, before taking any actions, a thorough problem analysis is a must. Even though having an initial idea about what can improve the current situation, in a complex organisation with a huge overall impact of the topic, the change leader need to ensure addressing the right issues and providing the right solutions based on that. In defining all the relevant causes of a problem can help the Cause-and-Effect Analysis (Ishikawa, 1968) or Fishbone diagram. In case of our described example, the model looks like this: After defining the list of important causes, the major ones to be selected by the analysing team then the potential actions can be planned. When it’s presented to the management team, their duty is then to decide on which topics to focus on the actions. In this example case, a globally aligned process with supporting tools and metrics are very much missing. When it’s designed and ready to be deployed, then these should be available to all HR managers to be able to drive the induction processes locally and measure their own efficiency. Plan the change After the green light of the management team concerning the project initiative, can start the proper, detailed planning: the development of the change strategy, in which the desired outcome, key actions, milestones, action owners and resources needs are defined. Winning the commitment of the key stakeholders also need to be carefully planned with a supporting communication plan. As unexpected situations are likely to disturb the planned flow of actions, to minimise the potential disturbance, a risk analysis in advance of doing actions can help the project management team to prepare for these scenarios or totally avoid them. Also, a continuous review of the change project is highly recommended to ensure the project execution is on track to achieve the project goal (see the 8 potential feedback sources in the Input-Output model) – this also can be part of the change strategy plan. The next step is then to execute the plan. When unexpected situations happen, continuous adjustments of the plan may be required to ensure proper improvement and keep the progress to achieve the final goal. After all planned actions are executed, the project leader should control that the project goal has been achieved as defined. If no, the project still continues. If yes, the project shall be formally closed with the involvement of the project sponsors and the success should be feed back to the key stakeholders. Task 3 Business Process Transformation Although Mars, Inc. in this situation chose to go on with a change project concentrating on only one function (HR) to improve its induction process, using the Business Process Transformation (BPT), i.e. Business Process Re-engineering model could have led to better results. By talking generally about the BPT model, one can say that improving the customer engagement and cutting the operational costs by improving and simplifying processes (cross-functional) within the company, is in the heart of this approach (Hammer 1990). Let use the definition of re-engineering by Hammer and Champy (1993) to show the key characteristics of this model: â€Å"†¦ the fundamental rethinking and radical redesign of business processes to achieve dramatic improvements in critical contemporary modern measures of performance, such as cost, quality, service, and speed.† This approach is one of the favourites currently in change management, as it promises â€Å"dramatic improvements† in business performance and customer satisfaction, even though it has its own challenges. The most important is that it requires a holistic view from the business leaders to face the issues within an organisation. It needs broad perspective to be able to come out of functional silos and to view the process as a whole, from the very beginning till the very end. If the change project happens only within a single function, there is high probability of missing some important opportunities of improvement. By using the example of Mars, a cross-functional approach could lead to a different, although very thorough solution – like implementing a standardised, world-class induction experience in every part of the company, during which the new employees can learn the most important functional and business knowledge to best support the customer focused processes. Based on its holistic view, the BPT approach requires more complexity from change management perspective as well as total alignment and drive from the top management team. The process improvement strategy should be aligned with the vision, mission and business strategy of the company, while the desired behaviours and key performance indicators should be also clearly defined and communicated to support the process and the measure of success (RDI 2012b). The process improvement initiative should start with a company-wide analysis of the current situation, keeping in mind not only how the processes can be simplified, but also what could be the benefits for the customers by the change initiative. The analysis then will be followed by the definition of the detailed plan: to where and how the company would like to get. To achieve great improvement in company results, increasing the amount of invested efforts and resources and high risk taking is unavoidable – although most probably in mid- and long-term the investment of these extra resources will pay. All these mentioned characteristics of the model lead to the fact that this model can’t be used without a heavy top down and centralised approach due to its holistic nature and complexity. Starting a process improvement initiative from any other level of the organisation without the full support and involvement of the company top leaders can lead to only a temporary and restricted (to a region or function) solution. Managing the implementation of the change at Mars, Inc. Although the change project defined by Mars also intends to improve the measures mentioned in the re-engineering definition, the main difference lies in the adjectives used by the authors: dramatic, fundamental and radical. So in this case we can’t really talk about BPT approach, as it would rather mean taking the whole on-boarding and induction process in all functions of the company and use that to work on, even though it could be very beneficial for the company. Also, without winning the top management support for a holistic change approach, the project leader of this initiative better use a general Change management (RDI 2012c), or preferably, the Total Quality Management (TQM) 2 methodology with using some holistic OD models – like the ‘Burke-Litwin model’ (Burke & Litwin 1992) or the ‘McKinsey 7S model’ (Waterman et al. 1980) – for analysing the potential areas of change interventions. Definition of TQM by Kanji (1990): â€Å"TQM is the way of life of an organization committed to customer satisfaction through continuous improvement. This way of life varies from organisation to organisation and from one country to another but has certain principles which can be implemented to secure market share, increase profits and reduce costs.† The principles of the TQM approach fits well to the culture of Mars, Inc. by focusing on continuous improvement opportunities, on customer needs and motivating employees at all level of the organisation to take part of this and drive innovations. It also reflects in all of the 5 principles of the company3. The management style also resonates well with the principles of TQM, as it engages the collaborative company culture with empowering and motivating the employees to drive continuous improvement for achieving better quality in everything within the business. Although a lot of things fit well to use this model for the change case at Mars, to fully benefit of the TQM methodology, the project leader and the participants shall be skilled to use all its principles to achieve the best possible result, which is currently not yet the case. Task 4 Measure of Success – Processes There are certain elements of the change process, which we can check and measure during and after the project to evaluate the success. Firstly, it is inevitable to set with involvement and communicate to the key stakeholders a clear vision, a well defined ‘S.M.A.R.T. objective’ (Doran, 1981) and some key performance indicators regarding the desired end result of the change initiative. Additionally, it is also important element of the second success factor, which is the level of commitment to the change of the key stakeholders. During the implementation phase, the success of the process can be measured at the key milestones: whether they were achieved on time by providing good quality results within the allocated resource limits. In this phase, the ability of flexible to any disturbance and opportunities through the process is also essential, to keep or even improve the result quality of the change, or to use less resources to achieve the original goal. It may be measured by reaction the quickness of the response or the amount of extra resources needed to keep the good progress. In connection to this, reviewing the key challenges and capturing the lessons learnt for the future also shows the efficiency of the process. Last, but not least, a clear project closure can also indicate how well the project went. Measure of Success – Outcomes If we have a closer look on the change initiative of Mars, Inc., the desired outcome which we wish to measure lies in the main objective4. The company’s main goal is to improve the efficiency and Quality, Mutuality, Responsibility, Effectiveness and Freedom For details see the Management Objective paragraph performance of the new HR employees. As HR is a support department with less direct impact on financial results and the quality of end products than other areas in the business, measuring these goals may be difficult, especially if we need to focus on only the new employee. So it’s advised to define other measures, like the individual performance or future career potential of the new employee, which can be measured by the company globally standardized performance evaluation system. Although the improved employee performance is difficult to be described with exact figures, we can also use historical data to compare the past and the present, and measure factors which can influence performance (e.g. the Line Manager’s evaluation of the performance or the engagement level of the new associate). Besides the employee performance, the efficiency of the new process shall be measured as well (e.g. could we involve everybody we intended to use the new process). Furthermore, as in case of all change projects, defining the return on investment can show the level of success. For example the cost of resource investment of the change project may be compared with the amount of money were saved by better retention of the new associates. By measuring the outcome of a new process we also need to investigate the resource needs of sustaining the process efficiently on long term. 1References: Ackerman, L., 1997, Development, transition or transformation: the question of change in organisations. In: Van Eynde, D., Hoy, J and Van Eynde, D (eds) Organisation Development Classics. San Francisco, Jossey Bass. Buckingham, M. and Coffman, C., 2005. First, Break All The Rules: What the World’s Great Managers Do Differently. Simon & Schuster. Burke, W. W. and Litwin, G. H., 1992. A causal model of organizational performance and change. Journal of Management, 18 (3), 523-545. Doran, G. T., 1981. There’s a S.M.A.R.T. way to write management’s goals and objectives. Management Review, Volume 70, Issue 11, pp. 35-36.