Flexicurity a Relevant Approach in Central and Eastern Europe Essay

Flexicurity Introduction   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Flexicurity is an integrated approach for endorsing security and flexibility in the labor market. Flexicurity endeavors to merge employers’ call for for a flexible labor force with workers’ call for for security. Employee call for security implies the confidence that the employees will not go through stretched periods of joblessness. Flexicurity is a new policy that is called upon because of the increased nee of security and flexibility faced by national governments, European Union, individual workers and companies, as well as sectors of industry. Legislators, policy-makers, employers and trade unions organizations have a strong call for new flexicurity policy concepts and models that guarantee to reunite the strategies of endorsing security and flexibility at the same time.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Flexibility and security has for a long time seen as incompatible, thus this new policy will be very significant in industrial relations. The EU aim of enhancing security and flexibility in the labor market is to achieve a competitive advantage and open knowledge-based economy across the world that is proficient of sustainable economic expansion with immense cohesion and more and superior job opportunities. The new flexicurity approach is common within the European Employment strategy. The European Employment Guideline 13 formulated in 2001, under the Adaptability pillar, clearly tackle both security and flexibility strategies and also welcomes social stakeholders to mediate and implement appropriate agreements to update the how work is organized, incorporating flexible working programs, with an objective of achieving high productivity, required balance between security and flexibility as well as competitiveness.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Flexicurity is very vital since appropriate balance between security and flexibility will increase productivity and quality of work, competitiveness and help corporations to adapt to changes in the economy. Flexicurity is important to European employment policies and update of EU labor law especially in the recent economy which is faced by increasing globalization, financial and economic crisis. The position of social dialogue and social partners is greatly emphasized in flexicurity. Swedish industrial relations and labor laws system is based on cooperation between stakeholders, self-regulation and collective bargaining. Collective bargaining is estimated to be 90% and trade unionization is estimated to be about 70 percent. Salaries and other job conditions and terms are set by collective bargaining. European Union member states apply different approaches to flexicurity depending on industrial relations, their labor laws, and social securi ty systems.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Countries implement the new flexicurity policy with an aim of cutting down market segmentation and enhance changes. Equal treatment of all employees can be attained via values of equal treatment and non-discrimination and appropriate reforms to the guideline of employment security and fixed-term occupation. Flexicurity policies call upon enterprises to make reforms on their existing laws and police in order to accommodate security and flexibility. Functional flexibility has led to a heated debate in the labor markets. In order to come up with effective flexicurity firms should examine the existing internal and external flexibility. Internal flexibility help employees to adjust labor input in case of transitory fall in demand while conserving jobs which are feasible in the long run. Flexicurity poicy can account for the resilience in many European nations especially helping them maintain low and stable unemployment rate. This is because fle xicurity protect employees from income losses connected to key lay-offs and plant closures. However, external flexibility of many firms remained unchanged for the last three decades. Research reveals that income losses of misplaced workers have reduced since the workers can get swift re-employment.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Flexicurity has faced many criticisms from the people who proposed that flexicurity was developed with an aim of eliminating employment protection legislation, but it encourages a suitable blueprint of employment protection legislation. Open-ended contract between an employee and the employer would be redesigned to incorporate gradual development of job security. The job protection would gradually build-up with the job term, until full job security is attained. The tenure track approach is very significant since it reduces the incidents of employees being trapped in less protected contracts. Reforms of the employment due to economic crisis are aimed at addressing length of procedure, bureaucracy, improve lucidity and make the procedure more dependable. The starting job protection policies may take into consideration notification periods, the procedural phase of dismissal protection and the amount of severance pay.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   European Expert Group on Flexicurity propose that use of fixed-term agreement should be reduced and undeclared work should be cut short as swiftly as possible by raising valuable inspections. It is crucial to acknowledge that outside the sphere of the European Employment plan, the open technique of coordination and Europe 2020 Strategy, the flexicurity policy has not yet brought up fresh legal suggestions associated to employment security. Flexicurity slightly regulate the employment security at EU level with an aim of achieving their main objectives and meet the requirement of member states in areas such as protection of workers whose employment contract is abruptly terminated. EU agreement of Fundamental Rights state that every employee has the right to safety from groundless dismissal as per the national and union laws and policies.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Flexicurity has been able to increase flexibility in the labor market while at the same time maintaining security via promotion of more employment opportunities and enough ground of employment benefits. Counties with solid employment protections tend to go through fewer incidents of labor market disruptions as compared to nations with weaker employment security. Flexicurity has dominated over the famous Commission’s labor market policy prescriptions. The interest of flexicurity in labor market originated from Netherlands and Denmark which serve as an example. These countries enjoyed the lowest unemployment rates in the global economy crisis in Europe while maintaining adequate unemployment benefits. The main reason was that Denmark and Netherlands emphasized on active labor market measures accompanied by modest employment protection. European Commission has gradually incorporated flexicurity policies when developing its labor market policy instructions and has persuaded the EU members to develop labor market laws that conform to flexicurity plan. In endeavors to direct development of national policy, the commission highlighted four pillars of flexicurity which include: flexible and dependable contractual agreement between employer and employees, comprehensive long-lasting learning scheme to enlighten the workers, successful active labor market policies and updated social security systems.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   In conclusion, flexicurity is a very significant strategy that will help countries to cope up even during economic hardship. Flexicurity also offer the employee allows flexibility at work and at the same time maintaining security. This ensures firms acquire competitive advantage, increase productivity and quality of work and help employees and corporations to adapt to changes in the economy. Nations are called upon to incorporate flexicurity policy in their labor markets so that they can enjoy various benefits associated with this new strategy. However, appropriate measures must be undertaken to ensure there is the required balance between security and flexibility. References Cazes, S., & Nesporova, A. (2006). Flexicurity a Relevant Approach in Central and Eastern Europe.. Geneva: International Labour Office. Flexicurity: perspectives and practice.. (2010). Dublin: European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions. Source document

Fermentation of Carbohydrates: Ethanol from Sucrose Essay

Objective: To demonstrate a fermentation process, isolate the ethanol produced by fractional distillation, determine the composition of the ethanol solution recovered, and make stoichiometric and yield calculations. Procedures: Fermentation Weigh out 20.0 g of sucrose and place it into a 250-mL Erlenmeyer flask. Add 100 mL of water and gently shake until all the sucrose has dissolved. To this solution add 0.60 g of dipotassium hydrogen phosphate (K), 1.8 g of sodium phosphate hydrate (Na3PO4ï‚ ·12HO) and 2.0 g of dried baker’s yeast. Vigorously shake the contents to mix them thoroughly. The Erlenmeyer flask is fitted with a one-hole rubber stopper containing a short piece of glass tubing. Latex tubing (8 -12 in.) is attached to the glass tubing. An overhand knot is loosely tied in the tubing. The low part of the loop is filled with just enough water so that the passage is blocked, but gas from the fermenting chamber will be able to push the water out of the way and escape (brewers call this an airlock). This setup excludes air (and oxygen) from the system (which allows anaerobic oxidation) and prevents further oxidation (by aerobic oxidation) of the ethanol to acetic acid. Label the fermentation setup with you r name and place the flask in the incubator chamber Isolation by Fractional Distillation Do not shake the flask; avoid disturbing the sediment on the bottom! Get your flask from the incubator bath or chamber. Carefully remove the rubber stopper from the 250-mL Erlenmeyer flask. Prepare a vacuum filtration assembly using two 250-mL side-arm filter flasks, a 5.5-cm Buchner funnel (with a Filtervac or neoprene adapter), and two lengths (each 12 in.) of vacuum tubing. [N.B. We use the second flask so between the aspirator and our filter flask so that the filtrate will not become contaminated if tap water is pulled back through the hose.] Place a piece of filter paper into the Buchner funnel so that it covers all the holes and lies flat. Into a  250-mL beaker, place 100 mL of water and one tablespoon of Celite. Stir vigorously and pour the mixture into the Buchner funnel while the water is running and a vacuum is applied. A thin layer of the Celite Filter Aid will form on the filter paper. Discard the water collected in the filter flask. Do not suck too much air through the filter pad; if it dries, it may crack and be unusable. Carefully decant the liquid in the fermentation flask above the sediment through the Celite Filter Aid, using suction. This technique traps the small yeast particles in the Celite Filter Aid but lets through water, ethanol, and any other liquid impurities. This liquid filtrate will be distilled. Obtain a distillation setup and assemble the glassware for distillation. Note the placement of the thermometer bulb in the adapter take-off to the condenser. Securely clamp the apparatus and condenser, and secure joints with plastic clips. Use a small dab of silicone grease on all the standard-taper joints as you connect them. Collect the distillate in a graduated cylinder. Use a round-bottom distilling flask that will be filled approximately one-half to twothirds full; a 250-mL round-bottom flask should do. Add 2-3 boiling stones to the flask. Use a heating mantle for the heat source and a Variac to control the heat. Your mantle may have a built in voltage controller. Gradually turn up the heat until the liquid in the distillation flask begins to boil. As the vapors rise in the head, you will see liquid condensing; this ring of condensate will rise in the column. Control the setting on the Variac so that the condensate rises slowly through the column and at an even rate. (If the rate is too fast, the column will flood.) The temperature readings at the distillation head will rise; when the temperature reaches (about) 78 °C, begin to collect the liquid that distills. Discard any liquid distilling before this temperature is reached. Collect liquid distilling between 78 and 90 °C. Collect 10-15 mL of distillate. Turn off the heat source and remove the heating mantle from the distillation flask. Weigh a 50-mL beaker to the nearest 0.001 g. With a 10-mL volumetric pipet, transfer 10 mL of distillate to the beaker (V). Do not pipet with your mouth; use a pipet bulb. Reweigh the beaker and liquid (5), and by difference, determine the weight of the distillate. Determine the density,  and by referring to the graph, determine the percent composition of the ethanol.

Interview Tucker Max dishes on the state of publishing

Interview Tucker Max dishes on the state of publishing "How I made Simon Schuster give me my own publishing company:" An Interview with Tucker Max As you probably know if you’re a frequent reader of this blog, there are now many ways to bring a book to market. Whether it’s in print or digital, self-published or through a publisher, with or without an agent, the choices available to a new author is almost mind-boggling. Tucker Max is different. As the author of I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell, he ignored all the options available to writers and made publishers do what they’d never done before - give an author their own publishing company.In these times of great change, it's possible for authors to forge their own path - as Tucker did by picking and choosing the elements of self-publishing and traditional publishing that make the most sense for his book.Watch our interview with Tucker - or read the transcript below - for some inspiration! How publishing worked 15 years agoHi Tucker, it’s great to have you with us today. Let’s start from the beginning - can you tell us from the early days when you started to write and wanted to get your stories out into books?Tucker: Yeah, I started in writing in a totally different era (2001). I used to send emails to my friends, and they thought they were really funny. They kept telling me, †you need to publish this. This needs to be a book." Question 3: Why is that audience going to care? What are you going to say that's interesting and valuable to them?If you cannot answer those three questions clearly, then don't write a book.Now let's say you can answer those three questions. I would say that for almost all non-fiction, the best bet is to self-publish. That way you get to control the rights to the book, and you can use it to promote whatever it is you're trying to promote. As soon as you go traditional, you have now sold the rights and royalties to that book to someone else. So you can't give copies away. If you're trying to do speaking gigs with the book, you've got to buy the book at price from your publisher.If you want to do excerpts, if you want to use the content other places, you don't own the content anymore, the publisher does. And they don't care about your business at all. They care about selling actual copies of the book. So for most non-fiction authors, their goals are not aligned with a publisher’ s goals. So that's why going self-publishing is the better route, for almost all non-fiction authors.Photo credit:  Mac Danzig.If you're a non-fiction author, do you agree with Tucker's take on publishing? What has been your experience of working with a traditional publisher, if any? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.

Die Theory essays

Die Theory essays The industrial art of manufacturing consist of many catergories like stamping dies, plastics molds, and jigs and fixtures to be used in the mass production of solid objects. I have experienced working on a press with sheet metal. My job was to slide the sheet metal onto a pressworking die and place the palms of my hands on a sensor so that the press would then stamp the sheet metal into a predetermined shape. Next, I had to slide it onto the next die for the next shape to be made. The pressworking dies in the factory would range from extremely small to gigantic;but the press that stamps out the roof of a car is about three stories highand capable of exerting tons of force. The manufacturing of plastic molding is quite similar to that of stamping dies. The principal difference is that stamping requires force, while molding does not. I recently graduated from a machinist training program in Detroit: (Focus Hope Machinist Training Institute), and we worked on several different machines such as the Lathe, Grinder, CNC mills, and a software system called Auto Cad. After that program I began to understand the importance of machine tools in the industry; having the skill to operate machines and design parts on the computer (Auto Cad). I really enjoyed working on these machines such as the grinder machine which removes small chips from metal parts that are brought into contact with a rotating abrasive wheel called a grinding wheel or an abrasive belt. The sparks that the grinder generates from the part could be considered cool to look at if your not the person grinding. One machine that I did not enjoy working on was the Press. This large class of machines includes equipment used for forming metal parts byapplying the following processes: shearing, blanking, forming, drawing, bending, forging, flanging, squeezing, and ...

Making A Successful And Thus A Good Team Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Making A Successful And Thus A Good Team - Essay Example Mainly organizations understand that being principled is high-quality business performance and pays in the protracted run. To be moral needs taking care of others, which includes, consumers and staff, appropriately and moderately. An organization that is involved in expansion and profits must create dealings with customers and employees supported on faith. Development of the employer-employee affiliation is significant to both parties for quite a few motives (McShane & Glinow, 2004, Pp 415-417). Are you confronting your first team-building session Do you doubt what you will do How to start According to Biech (2001, Pg 72-73) Team building is an organization development involvement that provides teams an opportunity to silence in their daily work to examine what's working and what could be improved. The consultant's role in team building is one of process guide, not content expert. This article provides insight into that role. It helps the consultant understand the goals of team building and how it differs from team training. The activities and norms developed in team-building sessions are different but complementary to that characteristic of management-training and skill-building sessions. Concepts such as leadership styles, decision-making, communication patterns, motivation, competition, and morale are all relevant to the process of team development. Improved Communication The basis for almost any problem in any organization is usually communication. Good teamwork can widen the circle of communication. Teamwork goes a step beyond, however, and helps people understand each other's jobs and roles in the organization. This leads to an appreciation for colleagues and a desire to help make their jobs easier. Personal Satisfaction Team members generally report a sense of personal satisfaction. A team may provide a sense of security that allows individuals to take risks and make decisions that they would not make if they were working alone. This generally leads to growth for the organization as well as the individual. Because most of us spend about 25 percent of our lives at work, it should be a pleasant experience. Teamwork can lead the way to making work pleasurable by helping to develop personal relationships. In fact, you should not feel as if you are getting up to go to work, but instead that you are getting up to go to play each day! Clear Goals Clearly defined goals are essential so that everyone understands the purpose and vision of the team. You might be surprised at how many people do not know the reason they are doing the tasks that make up their jobs, much less what their team is doing. Everyone must be pulling in the same direction and be aware of the end goals. Clear goals help team members understand where the team is going. Clear goals help a team know when it has been successful by defining exactly what the team is doing and what it wants to

Brain-based Learning Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Brain-based Learning - Essay Example Since the brain has a finite amount of storage space, it attempts to connect and reconcile new information with previous information. The ultimate result of this process is a blending into general concepts called schema. As we acquire, process, and store more information concerning a specific schema, the neural connection grows and learning takes place (Hardiman, 2003; Huitt, 2003). While the specifics of the schema-forming process are not yet known, research in language acquisition has shown that humans are genetically predisposed to process information in specific ways. Thus scientists have created several learning theories which attempt to better explain the specifics. One such prevailing theory is the levels of processing theory which says that "learners utilize different levels of elaboration as they process information. This is done on a continuum from perception, through attention, to labeling, and finally, meaning" (Huitt, 2003, p. 1). But what does this mean in the classroom Educators must realize that students come to them with perceptions about life and school already in place. Skillful teachers will attempt to find out where their students are coming from and what prior knowledge they have before introducing new information. Review activities should be provided so students with a chance to repeat a specific learning task.

OPERATIONS MANAGEMENT ASSIGNMENT Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3500 words - 1

OPERATIONS MANAGEMENT ASSIGNMENT - Essay Example Radio Frequency Identification (RFID), Data Interchange (EDI), Electronic Data Interchange (EDI), Point of Sales (POS), mCRM – (mobile CRM), Inter Organizational Information Systems (IOIS), and various other Data Mining (DM) technologies are used across various departments in the retail industry. The use of the above mentioned technologies in various stages of the supply chain in a retail industry is shown in Figure 2. â€Å"RFID is a term that describes any system of identification wherein an electronic device that uses radio frequency or magnetic field variations to communicate is attached to an item" (Glover, Bhatt, 2006). It comprises of two key components namely – a tag and a reader. The tag functions as an identification device and is attached to an item while the reader is a device which is used to identify / detect the RFID tags attached to various items (see Figure 3). The software used is known as an RFID middleware. Recently huge retail giants such as IKEA and Wal-Mart are known to depend on the RFID technology for enhancing their supply chain management process. RFID helps in better management of the retail supply chain through eliminating wastage, reducing labour cost and improving customer service (Jones et al., 2005). Electronic Data Interchange refers to a standardized process where data / business transactions take place in a computer-to-computer system (Walton, Marucheck, 1997). Within the retail industry, a significant portion of business documents including purchase orders, delivery schedules and notes, invoices, payment transfers etc are created and maintained in an electronic format. The EDI system helps in transmitting this paperless data in a hassle free manner and with minimum human intervention, thus eliminating the chances of human errors (Becker et al., 2001). Point of sale refers to a system which facilitates the sale of the product / service to the customer by accessing a product in store, and dynamically updating the inventory