Human Resource Management - Recruitment and Selection Essay Example for Free

Human Resource Management Recruitment and Selection Essay 1. A report distinguishing between traditional personnel management and the new approach to human resource management, outlining their historical development. 2. The Human Resource department in TD Travel Group. Its role and purpose in the organization. Task 2 1. An analysis of the objectives and the process of human resource planning. 2. An evaluation of the systematic approach to recruitment for NIS Europe. 3. An investigation of the selection procedures used for NIS Europe and TD Travel Group. 3. Evaluation and Conclusion 4. Bibliography Task 1 TASK 2 AN ANALYSIS OF THE OBJECTIVES AND THE PROCESS OF HUMAN RESOURCE PLANNING. Human resource planning is the task of assessing and anticipating the skill, knowledge and labour time requirements of the organisation and initiating action to fulfill those requirements. Human resource planning involves a strategy for the: * Recruitment * Retention * Utilisation * Improvement, and * Disposal of the human resources of a business. It needs to look at the following factors: * What are the skills and abilities of the current workforce? * What skills and abilities the organisation needs in the future? * Where can the organisation find its future supply of labour? * What are the future objectives of the business likely to be? * How will the business manage and obtain its human resources to meet these objectives? In order to plan Human Resources effectively a business has to undertake considerable research. Here is a table showing the things companies have consider when planning human resources: What is happening now? * Organisational Objectives * Analysis of staff numbers and age * Wage rates * Work loads * Key skills * Labour turnover * Absenteeism What do we expect to happen to the demand for products / services and therefore labour? * Changing technology * Sales forecasts * Market research * New product development * Managerial skills * Wage Rates * Union Agreements What do we expect labour supply to be like in the future? * Local unemployment / employment trends * Local skills and availability * Demographic changes * Legislation * Government training schemes * Quality of local education, housing and transport * Competition for workers All these issues raise questions, which the human resource plan should cover. The plan should include: * Organisation development * Training and management development * Recruitment, redundancy and redeployment * Appraisal and job evaluation * Promotion prospects Human Resource Planning (HRM) is a form of risk management. It involves realistically appraising the present and anticipating the future (as far as possible) in order to get the right people into the right jobs at the right time. This may seem simple at first, short of staff hire some new staff, too many staff make redundancies. Unfortunately its not that simple anymore and that is why human resource planning is necessary. Why Human Resource Planning is necessary: It is increasingly important to look beyond the present and short-term future to be able to prepare for contingencies. This will help to exercise control over as many variables as possible, which influence the success and failure of a business. For example, for highly skilled or specialised jobs, it will be more difficult to find replacement staff with the right skills quickly, therefore the need for new staff will have to be anticipated in advance to give enough time for extra training to be given without leaving the company short staffed and unable to provide an efficient service. For example, in the travel industry, reservation staff need to be fully trained on the computer reservation system (CRS) and have a full understanding of fares and ticketing, otherwise there would be a minimum of a six month training period, which would leave the business vulnerable and unable to provide good quality service Redundancies are not as easy to make anymore. It is a much slower more costly experience, not only in financial terms but also in loss of reputation as a secure employer. This in itself may make it harder to recruit labour when required. Rapid technological change is leading to a requirement for manpower, which is both more highly skilled and adaptable. Labour flexibility is a major issue, which means that the career and retraining potential of staff are at least as important as their actual qualifications and skills. They must be assessed in advance of requirements. In the selection process trainability is one of the most popular innovations of the HRM era of personnel management. The UK still suffers from particular skill shortages, despite high unemployment levels, for example nurses at Macclesfield Hospital, 20 nurses from the Philippines have had to be employed, as there was a shortage of suitably skilled staff in the UK. The scope and variety of markets, competition and labour resources are continually increased by political and economic moves such as the unification of Germany, the opening of Eastern Europe and continuing progress towards European Union. Computer technology has made available techniques which facilitate the monitoring and planning of manpower over fairly long time spans: manipulation of manpower statistics, trend analysis, modeling and so on. THE PROCESS OF HRP There are three main factors in HRP: * Forecasting Demand * Forecasting Supply * Closing the gap between demand and supply FORCASTING DEMAND The Demand for labour must be forecast by considering several factors: The objectives of an organisation Organisations will normally devise a strategic plan, which will set out its objectives. This will be the responsibility of the directors who will devise their plan after discussion with the most senior managers. In some cases the directors of companies may decide to change the strategy of the business completely. This could involve getting rid of the senior managers and replacing them with a new managerial team, which can put the new strategy into place more efficiently. This happened both at British Airways and at Tescos where it was decided that a complete change of image was needed to improve profits. Most of the top management were replaced and in both cases the strategy was successful. This sort of strategy will obviously affect the demand for labour in general and / or for particular skills. Manpower utilisation how much labour will be required given the expected productivity or work rate of different types of employees and the expected volume of business activity. Productivity will depend on capital expenditure, technology, work organisation, employee motivation and skills, negotiated productivity deals and many other factors. The cost of Labour including overtime, training and other incentives, and therefore what financial constraints there are on the organisations manpower levels. Environmental factors trends in technology and markets that will require organisational change, because of threats or opportunities. The recession in the 90s created conditions in which expectations of labour demand in the short term were low: downsizing of staffs and delayering of organisation structures were the trend. FORCASTING SUPPLY The available supply of labour will be forecast by considering the following factors: * The skill base, potential trainability and current and potential productivity level of the existing workforce * The structure of the existing workforce e.g. age distribution, skills, hours of work, rates of pay etc The likelihood of changes to the productivity, size and structure of the workforce, caused by, wastage (turnover by resignation and retirement), promotions and transfers, absenteeism and other staff movements; this will require information on: * The age structure of staff (forthcoming retirement or family start-up) * Labour turnover for a comparable period * Promotion potential and ambitions of staff Other causes of changes in productivity are employee trainability and motivation, which may increase productivity and flexibility. Organisational, technological and cultural changes are factors, which may affect employee productivity and loyalty. The present and potential future supplies of skilled labour in the environment that is, the external labour market. The HR planner will have to assess and monitor factors such as: * Skill availability, locally, nationally and internationally (e.g. within the EU) * Changes to skill availability due to education and training initiatives (or lack of these) * Competitor activity which may absorb more or less of the available skill pool * Demographic changes areas of population growth and decline, the proportion of younger / older people in the workforce in a particular region, the number of women in a workforce etc. * Wage and salary rates in the market for particular jobs CLOSING THE GAP BETWEEN DEMAND AND SUPPLY A deficiency of labour may be met by: * Internal transfers and promotions, training and development * External recruitment or improvement to recruitment methods * Extension of temporary contracts, or contracts of those about to retire * Reducing labour turnover by reviewing possible causes (e.g. pay and benefits) and improving induction and socialisation * The use of freelance / temporary / agency staff * The development of flexible working methods and structures * Encouraging overtime working * Productivity bargaining to increase productivity * Automation (increasing productivity, and / or reducing the need for human labour) A surplus of labour may be met by: * Running down manning levels by natural / accelerated wastage * Restricting or freezing recruitment * Redundancies (voluntary and/or compulsory) * Early retirement incentives * A tougher stance on discipline, enabling more dismissals * Part time and short contract working, or job sharing * Eliminating overtime and peripheral workforce groups * Redeployment of staff to areas of labour shortage. This may necessitate diversification by the organisation, to find new work for the labour force, and/or plans for multi-skilling, so that the workforce can be flexibly deployed in areas of labour shortage as and when they emerge. There are also external constraints on HR planners when considering any of the above such as, UK legislation and EU directives, regulations and court rulings, the employer brand or reputation and other factors must be taken into account when planning to hire, fire or alter working terms and conditions. Labour turnover is the number of employees leaving an organisation and being replaced. The rate of turnover is often expressed as the number of people leaving as a percentage of the average number of people employed, in a given period of time. The term natural wastage is used to describe a normal flow of people out of an organisation through retirement, career or job change, relocation etc. AN EVALUATION OF THE SYSTEMATIC APPROACH TO RECRUITMENT AT NIS EUROPE. Recruitment is the phase, which immediately precedes selection. Its purpose is to pave the way for selection procedures by producing, ideally the smallest number of candidates who appear to be capable either of performing the required tasks of the job from the outset, or of developing the ability to do so within a period of time acceptable to the employing organisation. The main point that needs to be made about the recruitment task is that the employing organisation should not waste time and money examining the credentials of the people whose qualifications do not match the requirements of the job. A primary task of the recruitment phase is to help would-be applicants to decide whether they are likely to be suitable to fill the job vacancy. This is clearly in the interest of both the employing organisation and the applicants. The current approach to recruitment within NIS Europe works in six stages. Stage One Determining the vacancies Human resources would confirm what resources are needed and determine as to whether or not they wanted to fill the vacancy. This very much depends on the aim and objectives of NIS Europe. Stage Two Considering the sources internally and externally If appropriate they would advertise the vacancy internally, or think of possible transfers. HR within NIS always gives this very careful consideration and where possible favours this option first for the following reasons: * Existing employees are know to the organisation and are generally familiar with its customs and practices * The cost and time that recruitment, selection and induction procedures consume can be significantly reduced * Internal recruitment may be used as a means of career development, widening opportunities and stimulating motivation amongst existing employees If the vacancy were not filled internally then they would look to external sources. Dependent on the vacancy this would be via one of the two main means: * Through employment agencies governmental, institutional and private commercial * Advertisements in newspapers and journals Stage Four -Preparing and publishing information NIS Europe feels that this aspect of the recruitment process requires very special attention and skill. It is their objective to publish information, which fulfils the following conditions: * It is succinct and yet gives a comprehensive and accurate description of the job and its requirements * It is likely to attract the attention of the maximum number of potentially suitable candidates * It gives a favourable image of the organisation in terms of efficiency and its attitude towards people * It does not contravene employment laws concerning sex and racial discrimination Along with the submission of curriculum vitae, NIS Europe standard procedure is for each applicant to submit a NIS Europe application form. This falls in line with equal opportunities and allows NIS to obtain standard information about the applicant, that on a curriculum vita may be omitted. See appendix for job advert and application form. Stage Five Processing and assessing applications When all the applicants have been received by the due date, the next task is to select those applicants who, on the evidence available, appear to be the most suitable as future employees of NIS Europe and therefore, worth the time and cost of further examination in the selection procedures. The screening process is based on the published requirements for the job. It involves a scrupulous study of the information provided by the applicants, a comparison of this information with the job requirements, and then a final decision as to whether to accept or reject the applicant at this stage. Stage Six Notifying applicants Once the selection process from the applicants has taken place, the final step is to notify the chosen applicants of the arrangements for the selection procedures, and the rejected applicants that they have not been chosen. The letter to the successful applicants will have full details about the arrangements for the selection procedures, i.e. time and place. NIS Europe ensures that all letters informing applicants of the result of applications are sent as soon as possible. THE EVALUATION OF THE SYSTEMATIC APPROACH FOR NAVIGANT INTEGRATED SERVICES EUROPE Below is an evaluation of the recruitment procedure for Navigant Integrated Services (NIS). The aim of this evaluation is to determine whether NIS recruitment procedures succeed in getting a suitable person for the job advertised and at an acceptable cost. The methods for auditing the recruitment process follow these performance indicators: Total numbers of applicants received: Dependent on the type of vacancy NIS Europe can expect to receive on average around a dozen applicants for an advertised job vacancy. They have recently advertised for an accounts co-ordinator and have received over 30 applicants. They have admitted by not stating the salary this has interested applications, covering a wide range of experience, or in some cases very little experience. Time taken to locate applicants: Most vacancies within NIS are usually filled within one month of the advert being placed. Cost per applicant: NIS calculates à ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½1000.00 per applicant, including the initial training. Time taken to process applications: NIS normally processes their applications within one week. Number of female /minority/ disabled applicants: NIS does not meet this indicator. They predominantly employ females; they have one minority employee and no disabled employees. When this was discussed with our HR department they advised this was nothing discriminate. The travel industry is known as being a female dominated environment and there have never been any disabled applicants at NIS. If there were any disabled or other minority applicants, they would go through the same process, as other applicants and no preferential treatment would be given. Number of qualified applicants: 90% of applicants are qualified for the job advertised. NIS biggest employment is of reservation staff for the travel industry. If they obtain a new account they will need to recruit fairly quickly, training is costly and time consuming so it is important that they stipulate qualified applicants only, at the advert stage, which is why they have a good success rate in finding candidates quickly for the vacancy advertised. Number of qualified female/minority/disabled applicants: About 70% of our applicants are female and qualified. NIS has very few minority or disabled applicants applying. Cost effectiveness of the recruitment methods: Dependent on the type of job will determine where NIS Europe advertises for staff. If they are looking for reservation agents they would normally get in touch with one of the industries recruitment agencys. Most staff within the industry registers with the agencies. Many years ago jobs were advertised in industry papers the trend now leans towards recruitment agencies. Dependent on the level of salary the agencies take a percentage. For example on a salary of 17,000 they would take 10% of the gross salary. As the salary increases so does the percentage. Although working with an agency can work out costly, they do have a majority of the qualified personnel on their database and therefore gives NIS access to qualified personnel straight away. Monitoring the make-up of the workforce: NIS Europe workforce is split into the following departments and the make up of the workforce is as follows: Reservations within the Travel, Hotel Conference reservations department, NIS employs 60 staff in this department, 10% of the workforce is male, 88.33% are female, none are disabled and only one staff member is a minority employee. * Sales and Marketing NIS employs eight staff in this department, 37.5% of the workforce is male and 62.5% are female. None are disabled or minority employees. * Accounts NIS employs four staff in the department, 25% are male and 75% are female. None are disabled or minority employees * HR NIS employs two staff in this department, 100% are female. None are disabled or minority employees. * IT NIS employs five staff in this department, 100% are male. None are disabled or minority employees. * Top line management The top line management of NIS is made up of four. 25% is female and 75% are male. None are disabled or minority. From the above information it is evident that there are three groups of employees that are underrepresented at NIS Europe, male, disabled and minority. Attitude Surveys: Once you under taken employment with NIS Europe, they do not require you to fill in an attitude survey asking you if you were satisfied with the stages of recruitment and selection process. AN INVESTIGATION OF THE SELECTION PROCEDURES USED AT NIS EUROPE AND TD TRAVEL GROUP. Selection is the part of the employee resourcing process, which follows on from recruitment. It essentially involves the identifying of the most suitable of the potential employees attracted to the organisation by recruitment efforts. The crucial importance of selecting people who can meet the requirements described in the job description and person specification hardly need to be stressed. It is equally evident that mistakes in selection can have very serious consequences for corporate effectiveness. Such mistakes may adversely affect colleagues, subordinates and clients. Employee incompetence may lead to costly mistakes, loss and waste of valuable resources, accidents and avoidable expenditure on training. Employee selectors face an inevitable dilemma. They have to carry out a vitally important task, but one that at the same time is fraught with problems to which there are either no answers or no easy answers. The abiding problem is the dependence on subjective human judgment. We must take into consideration, that fallible human beings devise so-called objective lists. For example some person specifications require certain attitudes and attributes, such as conscientious or able to stand pressure, how can the selectors identify these requirements in a person whom they do not know during the short acquaintance of the selection process. In view of the importance and difficulties of the task, employers need to take selection most seriously. Appropriate investment at this stage can and will be cost-effective if it avoids the possibly enormous and incalculable cost that faulty employee selection may produce. For example, NIS Europe recently employed an operations manager through a recruitment agency, within six weeks of employment it was evident to NIS that he was not capable of the job he had been employed to do. Therefore NIS had to terminate his employment at a cost to the company of approximately à ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½8,000. Other errors of the selection process could include lack of skill or experience of interviewers, stereotyping by the interviewer in the absence of more detailed information and incorrect assessment of qualitative factors such as motivation, honesty or integrity. Various selection methods are used to try to reduce the risks by gathering as much relevant information about the candidate as possible. Currently NIS Europe is working with UMIST on a competencies project where NIS is contacting their client base to investigate in terms of service, what their expectations of NIS Europe are. The information collated in turn will then be translated into competencies and then used in the selection process. Following on from our earlier systematic approach to recruitment is the systematic approach to selection Point five six of the systematic approach to recruitment overlaps with the first second point of the Systematic approach to selection. Stage One Processing and assessing applications When all the applicants have been received by the due date, the next task is to select those applicants who, on the evidence available, appear to be the most suitable as future employees of NIS Europe and TD Travel Group and therefore, worth the time and cost of further examination in the selection procedures. The screening process is based on the published requirements for the job. It involves a scrupulous study of the information provided by the applicants, a comparison of this information with the job requirements, and then a final decision as to whether to accept or reject the applicant at this stage. Stage Two Notifying applicants Once the selection process from the applicants has taken place, the final step is to notify the chosen applicants of the arrangements for the selection procedures, and the rejected applicants that they have not been chosen. The letter to the successful applicants will have full details about the arrangements for the selection procedures, i.e. time and place. NIS Europe ensures that all letters informing applicants of the result of applications are sent as soon as possible. TD Travel Group operates a very informal selection procedure. If the curriculum vitae are up to standard the applicant will be called for an interview, nothing will be advised on paper, arrangements are made on the telephone. If the curriculum vitae do not have the correct qualifications for the job it will be discarded straight away and no call to advise the applicant will be made. Stage Three Possible interviewees Possibles will then be more closely scrutinised, and a short-list for interviews drawn up. Ideally this should be done by the HR specialist and the perspective manager of the successful candidate, who will have a more immediate knowledge of the type of person that will fit into the culture and activities of his department. In TD Travel Groups case, John Owen (the operations Director) would be solely responsible for this stage, as there is no human resources department employed. At NIS Europe Barbara Sutton (Human Resources Director) and the line manager of the relevant department would be jointly responsible. Stage Four- Inviting candidates from the short list for interviews At this stage the company would require successful candidates to complete a standardised application form if not already submitted at the outset. NIS Europe standard procedure is for each applicant to submit a NIS Europe application form along with the curriculum vitae at the first stage for applying for the job. See appendix for application form. This falls in line with equal opportunities and allows NIS to obtain standard information about the applicant, that from a curriculum vita may be omitted. TD Travel Group have no standard information that is required and work off the submission of a curriculum vitae only. Stage five Interview potentially qualified candidates. Since the interview is likely to continue to play a major role in the selection process, it seems sensible to adopt a realistic approach, which means making the best possible use of the interview. There are many different types of interview including: * One-to-one interviews these are the most common selection method. They offer the advantages of direct face-to-face communication, and opportunity to establish rapport between the candidate and interviewer. Each has to give attention solely to the other and there is potentially a relaxed atmosphere, if the interviewer is willing to establish an informal style. * Panel Interviews A panel may consist of two or three people who together interview a single candidate, most commonly, a personnel manager and the departmental manager who will have responsibility for the successful candidate. NIS Europe use the above forms of interview, however they also have other interviewing techniques, which can be panel interviews or one to one interviews, such as: * Audition interview this is predominantly to assess people in leisure and service industries; it focuses on personality versus skill. This would involve exercises, which display the personality of the candidate as well as the skills. * Criteria based interview these are specific questions which highlight predetermined behavior which you are looking for e.g. if you need an outgoing person you would ask a question If somebody came into the room how would you put them at ease? You would rate the response as positive or negative. * Behavioral event interview ideally this interview is a taped interview. The interviewer would have a competence list on a chart and when questions asked and in turn answered, the competencies would be marked off. TD Travel has a much more informal interview technique. It is generally a panel interview conducted by the Operations Director with the General manager and also the Sales and Marketing Director. There are no set techniques; it is more of a formal chat about skills and qualifications, outlined on the curriculum vitae. Stage six Selection testing Once the interview has taken place, some companies go one step further by inviting candidates for a selection test. These tests are all standardised so that an individuals score can be related to others, reliable in that it always measures the same thing and is non discriminatory. These can be in various forms: * Intelligence or cognitive testing these test memory, ability to think quickly, perceptual speed, verbal fluency and problem solving skills. See appendix. * Aptitude tests these are designed to predict an individuals potential for performing a job or learning new skills. * Personality tests these may measure a variety of characteristics such as the applicants skill in dealing with other people, ambition, motivation or emotional stability. See appendix. * Proficiency tests these measure the ability of the applicant to do the work involved e.g. a typist would be asked to type, and a salesperson would be asked to sell. Td Travel does not use selection tests at all. Most people are employed through word of mouth, as travel is a very incestuous business. NIS Europe use personality and aptitude tests. Stage seven Checking references of short listed candidates References provide further confidential information about the perspective employee. A reference should contain: * Straightforward factual information confirming the nature of the applicants previous jobs, previous employment, pay and circumstances of leaving * Opinions about the applicants personality and other attributes. At least two employer references are desirable, providing necessary factual information, and comparison of personal views. NIS Europe and TD Travel Group offer the successful candidate the job subject to checking the references. Stage eight -Institute follow-up procedures for successful applicants The follow up procedures include: * Offer of employment Assuming that the right candidate has by now been identified, an offer of employment can be made. It is common for an oral offer to be made. With a negociated period for consideration and acceptance. * Draw up a contract or written particulars this should include all terms, conditions and circumstances of the offer must be clearly stated and negotiable aspects of the offer and timetable for acceptance should be set out, in order to control the closing stages of the process * Arrange work permits if required Work permits are required of people coming into the UK for employment * Plan induction Induction is a formal programme, designed and carried out by HRM to introduce new employees to the organisation, in all its social as well as work aspects. Stage nine- Review all candidates Review un-interviewed candidates and sort out those that my be kept on file for possible future use. Send standard letters to unsuccessful to applicants and holding letters to those being kept on file. NIS Europe will hold candidates on file for a maximum of one year. TD Travel group do not use this procedure, they would start their informal recruitment process again as and when required. SUMMARY OF THE SELECTION PROCESS FOR TD TRAVEL GROUP AND NIS EUROPE It is evident from the above information that NIS Europe carries out a more formal selection procedure than TD Travel Group. This is down to the fact that NIS Europe have more employees than TD Travel Group, and therefore see it necessary to have a HR department.

An Era Understood Through Fitzgerald’s Characters Essay -- Literary An

â€Å"Gatsby believed in the green light, the orgastic future that year by year recedes before us.†¦ Tomorrow we will run faster, stretch out our arms farther.†¦ And one fine morning—† (Fitzgerald 180). In this quote from The Great Gatsby, Nick attempts to describe the nature of Gatsby’s hope and draws the parallel to all of our hopes and dreams that we have as Americans. F. Scott Fitzgerald, an American novelist and short-story writer, was an amazing author who used his work, just like in the quote above, to write about the Roaring Twenties and the hopes of Americans during that time. His earlier works show an idealistic feeling for the potentials of life at college and in â€Å"The East,† he attained the sobriquet of â€Å"the spokesman of the Jazz Age.† His third novel, The Great Gatsby, is one of the most powerful portrayals of American life and the pursuit of the great American dream during the 1920s. Throughout this paper, Fitzgerald ’s excellent job in conveying the lifestyle and pursuit of the American dream through his characters, in both The Great Gatsby and â€Å"Winter Dreams†, will be reflected upon. Fitzgerald’s life influences on his works, why he is regarded as a historian of the 1920s and how Fitzgerald uses his characters to reveal the Roaring Twenties era, will all be explored. Fitzgerald, during his youth, showed a talent for dramas, first writing original plays for amateur fabrication. While at Princeton, he composed stanzas for the university's well-known Triangle Club productions. Before he had the opportunity to graduate, he volunteered during World War I for the army. Due to his enlistment, he spent the weekends writing the original drafts of his first novel. The work was a success and accepted in 1919 by Charles Scribner’s S... ...dwick-Johnston Memorial Lib., Madisonville, TN. 12 March 2012. Prigozy, Ruth. "F(rancis) Scott (Key) Fitzgerald." American Short-Story Writers, 1910- 1945: First Series. Ed. Bobby Ellen Kimbel. Detroit: Gale Research, 1989. Dictionary of Literary Biography Vol. 86. Literature Resource Center. Hardwick-Johnston Memorial Lib., Madisonville, TN. 12 March 2012. Tompkins, Sandra. Lecture: â€Å"F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby.† English 3120: Hiwassee College. 27 March 2012. Trask, David F. â€Å"A Note on Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby.† University Review 33.3 (Mar. 1967): 197-202. Rpt. in Novels for Students. Ed. Diane Telgen. Vol. 2. Detroit: Gale, 1998. Literature Resource Center. Hardwick-Johnston Memorial Lib., Madisonville, TN. 12 March 2012. Whitley, Peggy. â€Å"Lone Star College - Kingwood.† American Cultural History. Lone Star College Library. 5 Apr. 2012.

Journal Articles Essay

Reading the title and the objective of the research study, I was kind of skeptical about the main assertion of the authors, which was that there is a strong connection between the prevalence of mental disorders, and ethnic minority groups that individuals belong to. I have read studies about genetics or heredity and environment as contributing factors to the occurrence of mental disorders, however, I have not heard about the influence of ethnicity on mental health. Therefore, I am in no position to either agree or disagree with the assertions of this particular research, primarily. Reading through the rest of the research, I would have to say that the authors presented a comprehensive amount of data, which supported their claim. Enlightened about the issue, perhaps, I would agree that the most significant contributory factor would be the limited access of the minority groups identified to mental health services. Culture would be less significant in explaining the phenomenon, because if I were to agree with this idea, it is like I am generalizing the prevalence of mental disorders to minority groups. Moreover, it promotes the idea of racism or discrimination. Primarily, reading an article that I am not really aware about contributed to my interest in the topic. This time around, the article is yet again disputing another published research study regarding the matter. Disputes, such as these, are intriguing, it adds more knowledge regarding mental health, and ethnic minority groups because an individual learns about two sides of the issue. Yes, the article revealed a comprehensive take on the issue as its objective was to study all the angles of ethnicity and mental health. Contrasting results to the previous study by the Surgeon General’s Supplement, as well as the agreeable points of the same study, were all explicated. However, there needs to be another study regarding the issue in order to answer the questions left by the study, supplement both research studies, and synthesize all ideas in order to form a unified body of knowledge about the said topic. Marielena, L. , Gamboa, C. , Kahramanian, M. I. , Morales, L. S. , & Hayes-Bautista, H. B. (2005). â€Å"Acculturation and Latino health in the United States: a review of the literature and its sociopolitical context. † Annual Review Public Health, Vol. 26, 367-397. In any aspect of life with regards to multiculturalism, acculturation seems to be one of the determinants of an individual’s way of life. Acculturation does not only influence health, but also other factors such as education, political beliefs, language, choice of food or clothing, and culture in its entirety. It is not surprising to learn that the healths of Latinos, who form a specific multiracial group in the country, are influenced by acculturation. One of the top priorities of the United States is health care, and being able to provide the best services in health care at lower rates to all its citizens. If this is the case, then Latinos who assimilate or adapt the American culture are more conscious of their health as compared to their previous views about the issue. Aside from this view, the adaptation of the English language is also important in affording health care in the country for individuals who are initially non-English speakers. I have read case and research studies about the limitations of health care access to multiracial groups because of communication barriers brought about by differences in language. Acculturation, in terms of language acquisition, greatly affects the access of Latinos to health care services in the country. What I like about the article is that it points out the importance of acculturation to, not just Latinos, but other ethnic minority groups’ access to health care services in the country. Since the issues about age groups and the rate of health awareness and mortality rates are discussed, this article informs all age groups within a particular ethnic minority group to accept change in order to be granted health care services that they deserve, regardless of being a child or an adult. The article is not part of an argument; rather, it is informative and seeks to notify readers about the impact and importance of acculturation to the very significant issue of health care. It was successful in accomplishing this aim, With regards to its coverage of the topics that are needed to complete the study, it was also successful.

Descartes and the Problem of Error

Descartes and the Problem of Error Among common public, Rene Descartes is most widely known for the system of rectangular coordinates in geometry that he proposed. However, he is also known for being the father of modern Western philosophy. In his Meditations on First Philosophy, Descartes explores and investigates a number of questions. One of them is the problem of error. It consists in that if God is not a deceiver, how can people, his creation, make so much mistakes and from so much false beliefs? In his Fourth Meditation, Descartes provides his resolution to this problem. In this essay, I will explain Descartes’s argument and assess its effectiveness in responding to the problem of error. The problem of error arises as soon as we recall simultaneously two facts: the first is that God is all-perfect, infinite, and benevolent, and the second is that humans, his creation, err so often. There is tension between these notions because if all in humans comes from God, then the flaws such as capacity for error could not come from flawlessness. Thus, Descartes points out, if errors are not due to some capacity given by God that we operate correctly, there has to be other reasons for them. And as he soon finds out, this reason is how humans make decisions. Descartes suggests that we have two main capacities involved in making right or wrong decisions. They are intellect and will (Descartes 19). He further examines both of them. The only thing intellect does is that it provides us with ideas upon which we are to impose judgment. As Descartes suggests, intellect is essentially without error, because there is actually no room for error in it. The only problem associated with it is that it does not give us ideas on every possible matter. In other words, we do not possess all the ideas. However, as Descartes asserts, this is not a flaw. This would only be a flaw if we, by our nature, would be ought to have all the ideas. However, it is not the case. Given that our capacities are limited, while God’s are infinite, we naturally would have some limited number of ideas. Which number of ideas God would give to each of us is in some way decided by him. We cannot give no reasons for whether God should have given more or less ideas to us tha n we have, because we, given our limited nature, cannot grasp God’s ways, whose nature is infinite. The second capacity, will, is the ability to do or not to do anything. Descartes suggest, that we are given free will by God, which means that we may make any decisions without feeling pressure from external forces. He asserts that our natural inclinations that come from our knowledge or divine revelations are not impediments to free will, because they only assist us in making decisions. In case of possessing a clear and distinct knowledge about the matter under consideration, we can spare efforts and time and make a decision very quickly and easily. In doing so, we, however, do not feel like being forced, instead we feel like being perfectly free and doing the right thing. Ultimately, the capacity of will is limitless. In fact, if will is considered apart from its context, but by itself, God’s will is not greater than the will humans possess. So, the power of human will is also not flawed. The errors, Descartes concludes, arise from the fact that our will is limitless, while our intellect is limited. Thus by exercising our will in matters in which do not possess enough knowledge, we make mistakes. Thus, it is not the flawed nature of our capacities that gives us the possibility of error, but the difference in their scopes. The answer of Descartes to the problem of error is indeed a clever one. However, his model of how error arises does not cover all the possible cases. As a matter of fact, Descartes suggests that by shedding the light of our intellect on the problem and gaining clear and distinct understanding of the issue under consideration, we can use our will to make the right decision or form a true belief. Although it is true for many cases, it does not account for the situations in which we are guided by false knowledge which is also clear and distinct. This is because the criterion Descartes sets for avoiding error is purely psychological. In this regard, if a person possesses a large amount of coherent but false knowledge, she will be making mistakes, while believing that she is not. Consider an example. Suppose a person living in Ancient times who thinks that Earth is static and that Sun orbits around it. Suppose this person is a scholar. She talks to other intelligent people and makes obser vations with different tools. She has read many books and made a lot of observations. And all of that supports the fact that Sun orbits around the Earth. She sees these ideas extremely clearly and distinctly – Sun rises in the East and sets in the West at daytime. Its visible trajectory is very much like a semicircle. Also, the Sun is not visible approximately the same time as it is visible. Thus, the person concludes, Sun orbits around the Earth in a circular trajectory. For all this person knows, she is right. She certainly possesses a reasonable amount of knowledge, which is coherent. However, as we now know, the belief she forms is false, because the knowledge she relies on is not true. Therefore, error may be cause not only by the lack of knowledge, but also by the available knowledge being coherent but false. Rene Descartes in his Meditations, pondered on many philosophical problems. One of them was the problem of error. Descartes found an answer to the apparent incompatibility of a perfect God and human errors. He found that errors are not due to flaws in human nature but due to the fact that our will is much greater in scope than our intellect. His model is witty, but it does not account for all the cases or errors. As I pointed out, error happens not only because the agent lacks knowledge, but also because the knowledge he possesses is coherent but false.