Dickens Era--Child Labor :: History

Dickens Era--Child Labor Even though many of you parents out there are in fact opposed to sending your children to work in these textile factories, there are, in fact, many parents who do feel differently. However, there aren’t enough of these kinds of parents to satisfy factory owners, so they went as far as to purchase innocent children from orphanages and workhouses. These poor children are now called pauper apprentices. They are forced into signing contracts that pronounced them the property of the factory. Because these Pauper apprentices are quite a bit cheaper to house and pay than adult workers these types of children labor workers have become extremely popular. These children work and live under terrible conditions. There are even children as young as three years old put into work in these factories. Normally, however they began work at age 5, and generally die before they reach age 25. This leaves them about four years away from working. Many of them are released at age 21. Punishment is a common activity in these factories. Because maintaining the speed the over lookers of these laborers can get very difficult after a while, the over lookers, with their hearts of stone, have no sympathy and punish the children for slowing down. They are either hit with a strap to make them work faster or sometimes get their heads dipped into the water boiler. If late to work or caught talking to their peers, they are punished as well. Runaways are immediately sent to jail as well as suspected runaways. The owners are supposed to supply their workers with meals. The quality of the food isn’t good and the quantity is meager. Often, these children have to eat while working causing dust and other particles to smother the food. I was given the opportunity to briefly interview one little boy from a factory. However, our interview was cut off because he had to return to his duties. He is an eight year old named Jeremy who works at the Quarry Bank Mill. It broke my heart listening to him: How old are you Jeremy? I’m eight How long have you been working here? Since I was 4 years old Jeremy, I noticed that your leg is injured, how long has your leg been this way? It’s been this way for a few years—I think it’s because I never get a chance to really rest it.

Job Design

Job DesignJob design can defined as work arrangement or re- arrangement focused on overcoming job dissatisfaction and employee alienation arising from mechanistic tasks and repetitive. Organizations try to improve productivity levels by giving non- monetary rewards through job design. Non- monetary rewards such as better satisfaction from a personal achievement in meeting the responsibility of one’s work and increased challenge (Business Dictionary, 2013)It also refers to constitute a particular job position by grouped together with set of activities and tasks. Job design should not be underestimated because of organization’s overall productivity will be affected by the way jobs are structured (Pamela S. Lewis, 2007). 2.0 Various Approaches of Job DesignMechanistic Job- Design ApproachThis approach is derived from the scientific- management school of thought, work specialization and work simplification. Its main scientific basis is classic industrial engineering.Diagram 1: indicates the questions might ask to identify whether a job matches the mechanistic approach. Jobs with high mechanistic features the employees training time is usually very short. The reason is mental demands are less, overload and stress unlikely. The disadvantages of this approach are less motivated, less satisfied and higher absenteeism will occur within the organization. In highly repetitive and machine- paced work can lead to health complaints and injuries caused by carelessness and physical wear. For example, low-level factory jobs and unskilled jobs who are working at construction (Michael A. Campion and Paul W. Thayer, 2001).Biological Job- Design ApproachThis approach stems from the sciences of biomechanics, anthropometry, occupational medicine and work physiology. It is called ergonomics, and its main focus on minimize the biological risks of work and physical costs. Ergonomics is means the science of designing working environments or workstations that match the needs and physical abilities of employees. The goal is to make sure that people’s physical limitations and capabilities are not exceeded by the design of their jobs.This approach has been applied in the redesign of equipment used in higher physically demanding jobs so that employees can perform better. This will result in less physical fatigue, create less complaints of health, cause fewer injuries compare with other jobs, and require less physical effort. For instance, ladders, gloves and other equipment have been improved for the telephone installed job and many of assembly tools have been innovated become smaller to is better for female worker to grasp.In fact, a proper seating design is important for all employees with office jobs because of musculoskeletal health (Michael A. Campion and Paul W. Thayer, 2001). Through this approach employees are more satisfying with their job, but it requires higher financial costs to innovate the equipment in the organization.Modern Job-Desig n ApproachModern Job-Design has been practicing by organizations nowadays. It can be divided into job enlargement, job rotation, job enrichment and job empowerment. Job enlargement can define as a job with increasing the number and variety of tasks. This approach was developing challenges to the workers. The tasks are giving at the same level of responsibility; job enlargement is also known as horizontal job loading. Conversely, job enrichment is known as vertical job loading, an employee add variety task in different area. The results of increasing task can be giving the job holder more discretion, authority, and responsibility for making decision in their present role.Next, job rotation is the planned and systematic rotation of employees in pre-determined jobs so they able to get additional skills or knowledge. It is very useful for developing managers because they need to have fully understanding overall operation in the organization. This approach also will help the employees wh o want to improve their knowledge and advance to a new role. One of the benefits of job rotation are employees have an opportunity to learn skills, improve knowledge and ability by working in the different business units or departments. Another job design approaches is empowerment, it can refer to a management practice of sharing rewards, power and information with employees so that they able to take initiative and make decisions to resolve problems and improve performance.Empowerment is based on the idea that providing employees opportunity, skills, resources, motivation, authority, as well holding them accountable and responsible for outcomes of their decisions, will contribute to their satisfaction and competence. These approaches are the most effectively motivating method used by the organizations which improves the decision making skills of the employees and useful in their overall development (John B. Miner, 2007).Important of Job DesignJob design is very important because it design to fulfill the requirements of the organization for operational efficiency, productivity and quality of product or service. A proper job design might help the organization to achieve the goals. Job design offers good rest and work schedule by clearly defining the number of hours an employee required to spend on his or her job. For example, job design for insurance agent has a flexible work schedule and it will help to target more customers. A flexible work schedule means employee can set their own working hours with a fixed number of total hours (CareerBuilder, 2012).This is because their customer may ask them to come out for sign contract or have the knowledge of the insurance at night if the working hour for insurance agent is fixed it will result the agent might not able to get the sales. Furthermore, Job design is fulfilling the needs of the individual for interest, accomplishment, and challenge. When the organization provided a proper job design for each individual emplo yee may aid to increase the job satisfaction, retention of employees, and commitment of employees. For example, organization has sales and marketing vacant and this position have to travel. So the organization has to hire the person who is interest on travelling and meet the requirement of the job.This not only benefits to the individual employee it also the organization due to the employees is found interest with the job. Furthermore, the organization should use motivational job approach to retain employees. The employer ought to use job enrichment or enlargement to sustain the employees who are look for challenge on work. With job enrichment, employer can expand the task for some employees. The employer may provide more interesting and stimulating work that increases variety and challenge to an employee’s daily routine.In fact, Coca- Cola Company is providing on-the-job learning, development programs, coaching and feedback, they make sure that everyone in  the organizatio n to learn more and build their careers. The Coca- Cola stated â€Å"we want Coca-Cola to be a great place to work where people are inspired and motivated to be the best they can be† (Coca-Cola, 2010)Advantages of Job DesignBesides that, a good job design will increase the value of the position to the organization, engages the employee and reduce organizational risk. It results to better organizational effectiveness and efficiency. Not only benefits the organization it also brings better results from employees. Organizational BenefitsEmployee Benefits– Increased productivity and efficiency – Greater clarity of work role and purpose. – More effective work teams – Good team cohesion as roles, relationships and resources are clearly defined – Improved employee attraction, engagement and retention – Increased job satisfaction and engagement – Targeted training to maximize value from training investment. – Targeted training t o meet current and future job needsThe job design can benefit the organization to increase productivity and efficiency due to the employees has a clear work role, target and purpose of the job. Nowadays, the job advertising for all vacancy all clearly stated what the position required. Other than that, the organization will benefit more effective work teams through the team cohesion as roles, relationships and resources are clearly defined. That means they are clearly understand what is the purpose or goal for the organization and it will reduce conflict between employer and employees.Through a proper job design for every individual employee the organization can reduce the requirement cost because the engagement and retention of employees. For employees, they are more satisfied with their job because the job is customizing for her/ him. Furthermore, Training is a part of job design. Contrary to the philosophy of â€Å"leave them alone†, is better to emphasis on training so th ey aware what are their job demands and how it is to be done (MSG, 2013).It targeted on training employees to maximize value to the organization; for employees’  benefits, they can get proper training from the organization and meet the current or future job needs. For example, insurance agent in AIA is provided training to improve their communication skills and soft skills to convince the client to purchase their services. Job design is a continuous process it aimed at helping employees make adjustment with the changes in the workplace. The end goal is reducing employee dissatisfaction, enhancing employee engagement and motivation at the workplace.Disadvantages of Having a Poor Job DesignA poor jobs design and poor systems may result of organizational stress. Research by the World Health Organization indicates that most stress of job happens when an organization values excessive demands and pressures that do not match employees’ abilities and knowledge. A poor job de sign is often attended by a few opportunities for the employees to exercise control or select in their positions. By offering more control for employee in decision- making can increase employee morale and productivity, as well as remove job stress.Overlooking poor work system design and job design might result in increased sick leaves and employee absenteeism. Employees can loss concern and become less committed and irritable to their work (Mary Tucker- McLaughlim, 2013). In addition, the poor ergonomics also will influence employee productivity and job satisfaction. Ergonomics is under biological job- design approach, it applied to verify those employees are not at risk of injury by pressure from working environment. However, ergonomics may also influence both on employees satisfaction and productivity of organization. One of the factors influence the worker productivity is poor design of ergonomics. This can be the physical layout of the workplace, which is poorly designed can slo w down the employee’s want to move items around his/her workplace.Empirical evidence on year 1998 study from Florida International University it indicated the movement of distance, effect of tool mass, and work height on the productivity of the subjects. This researched resulted that three variables had an impact on performance time. It was increased costs and decreased productivity due to poor ergonomics (Beth Winston, 2013).Suggestion and RecommendationDiagram 3To develop a good job structure for new employee or senior employee who is promoted to higher position as a Human Resource (HR) manager must follow the development of job design showed at diagram 3. The way of develop job design is significance for future. It will reduce employee turnover in the organization through this will save cost from recruitment and training new employees. An employer might misinterpret that money is one of the tools to motivate their employees. Nowadays, job design is a significant in motivat ing employees to be more productive. Job design is an important impact on job satisfaction, employee motivation, and commitment to the organization. All of these will be affect the efficiency of the organization.Another purpose of job design is done for correcting and identifying any insufficiencies that affect motivation and performance of employees. Before apply job design to employees must identify their skills and knowledge. After that, decide what job design approaches to providing them. Job design must continually process, it is not only for new employee who joins the organization but also senior employees. A job design is benefits for senior employees to learn more and prevent boredom on their current tasks. Nowadays, job design is very significant to all organizations.When an organization gives a poor job design to an employee, it might result that low productivity or performance. This will influence the overall profitability within the organization. The organization has to customize to every employees because different employees have different level of ability or knowledge.

Food Wastage Essay

1. It is hard to produce food. a) Food takes time to grow and mature. Besides this, there are a lot of factors that contribute towards the production of food. i. Temperature and rainfall are critical elements determining when and how often crops can be sown. While some Asian countries are able to harvest three times in a single year, food production nearly halts during dry seasons in many tropical zones and during winter cold in temperate areas. (DeRose, Messer & Millman, 1998) b) It cost a lot to maintain a good production of food. i. Investments in agricultural intensification, including higher-yield-potential seeds, fertilizers, water management and chemicals for pest control, are costly and make it unlikely that they will be easily or widely available for use by poorer farmers and countries. (DeRose, Messer & Millman, 1998) c) We are starting to lack food production area to support civilizations. i. South Korea’s Daewoo Logistics announced last month that it has signed a 99-year lease on 3. 2 million acres of land in Madagascar, which it will use to produce corn and palm oil for shipment home. (Goering, 2008) ii. The rush to buy or enter long-term leases on land has been fueled in part by the low levels of world grain stocks, despite record harvests this year, and by a growing sense that world markets cannot be trusted to supply adequate grain. (Goering, 2008) 2. People are wasting a lot of food. d) In different occasions, people waste food. i. A significant proportion of food waste is produced by the domestic household, which, in 2007, created 6,700,000 tonnes of food waste. Potatoes, bread slices and apples are respectively the most wasted foods by quantity, while salads are thrown away in the greatest proportion. e) Food products from restaurants and shops are seldom kept when they are not sold after the day. Those foods were thrown away. i. Grocery stores discard products because of spoilage or minor cosmetic blemishes. Restaurants throw away what they don’t use. (Martin, 2008) ii. Supermarkets particularly have been criticized for wasting items which are damaged or unsold (surplus food), but that often remain edible. (Yorkshire & Lincolnshire,2005) f) According to statistic, people waste more food than they eat. i. Americans generate roughly 30 million tons of food waste each year, which is about 12 percent of the total waste stream. ( Trum, 1998) 3. Food wastage causes a lot of problems. g) It affects the environment by increasing waste, and pollutes the area. i. The rotting food that ends up in landfills produces methane, a major source of greenhouse gases. h) Wasting the food we have indirectly causes starvation to other people. It is because the amount of food we waste can actually feed upon many poor people. i. Each year, Americans discard more than 96 billion pounds of good food. If 5% was recovered, it could provide the equivalent of a day’s food for four million hungry people; 10%, eight million; and 25%, 20 million. (Trum, 1998) i) Wasting food also wasted our money. It costs us money to produce food and treat the food waste. i. 1 ton of rice requires a world average of 3419 m3 per ton of water. Imagine the amount of food we wasted. The amount of water wasted is even larger, and we are now low on clean potable water. Call to actions: 1. Registration of World Fund Program (WFP) to favor organizations in providing aids to people who are unable to produce enough food to support them. 2. Audiences should sign an indemnity letter on following the 5 steps towards reduce food waste: plan meal, make detail shopping list and stick to it, serve reasonable size portion food, save leftovers and eat those leftovers.