Flexible Work Schedule and Work

Introduction Work-life balance is a top agenda item for human resource managers of most multinational and large organizations. It is even the top priority issue for employees everywhere. Whether to adopt work-life balance or flexible schedules remains a contentious issue especially with times of great business economic threats on one hand and increased family pressure on the other.Advertising We will write a custom essay sample on Flexible Work Schedule and Work-Life Balance specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More Even though organizations globally manage a workforce that is very culturally diverse, they are faced with one similar challenge of managing a more informed workforce which demands for more and more rights even in difficult economic times. Even the environment itself promotes such demands to arise and thus managers must remain competitively capable of handling this. For instance, a recent survey and report in the UK showed that longer drinking hours have significantly increased work absence (Churchard 2011). There is a continuous search for ways that will not force people to choose between work and family or friends. In multinationals, the task is not as easy as it may be on local companies. The international human resource managers are faced by an extra task of understanding the various demographic and cultural differences in the countries in which their organizations are to be found. This means that the HR policies may not be directly transferable among the countries. A policy that may be applicable in one culture without any resistance from staff may face rejection if applied in a different culture if customization is not done. In this paper, focus is given to personnel policies that relate to flexibility and work-life balance. The human resource practices in some local and multinational companies are addressed and it is sought if a set of policies related to work-life balance in a multinational corpor ation can be applicable to a subsidiary in a different country. â€Å"Trends of Working Time in Europe† â€Å" In Europe, clear efforts to improve on working hours began in the 1980s, even though there had been efforts here and there to achieve the same. In Germany, working time flexibility increased since the compromise in the metal working industry in 1984. Today, over 52% of all the dependent employees work within a flexible organization. (Carl Maier 2009)Advertising Looking for essay on business economics? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More In an experts meeting held in Dublin on 3rd June 2011, Boulin (2011) suggested that institutions in the European Union adopt policies that favor work/life balance through parental leaves and childcare facilities and also gender mainstreaming. A suggestion was therefore made that revision of working time be done in regards to long working hours, working time options and rules conc erning unsocial hours. On the same meeting, Italian human resource expert Addabbo Tindara suggested that the quality of work dimensions be looked at from six sides namely the â€Å"social, economic, work-life balance, complexity, organizational and ergonomic dimensions.† According to the Norwegian National Institute of Occupational Health (STAMI), flexible working hours can be a major hindrance to work-life balance. Data shows that for people working less than 40 hours a week, there is no much work-family conflict. However, for employees doing over 40 hours there is greater work-family conflict. According to the study by the institute, predictability is better than flexibility as far as work-family balance is concerned. The idea of working hours being flexible is not enough, they should be predictable too. Flexible contracts can come in form of temporary working, fixed term contracts, sub contracting, and zero hour’s contracts. Other ways of creating flexible work hour s are part-time work, flexitime and overtime. People can also do job sharing and compressed hours. Different countries have adopted different forms of flexible work in line with cultural beliefs, religion and moral principles. Literature Review Work-Life Balance There is an increasing rate for the demand for work-life balance solutions by employees and managers (Bird 2006). According to Bird, work-life is a serious concern even to the senior executives for the following reasons. Work-life balance affects growth and profit of the company i.e. on and off-the-job stresses adversely affect bottom line growth and drive down productivity. There is full engagement in customer service- this creates an unnecessarily stressed and out of balance workforce. There is increased expectation by the current pool of younger workers that there is a life to live other than and out of the job. Health cost solution- there is a rising cost of health care by organizations owing to the increased work relate d illnesses.Advertising We will write a custom essay sample on Flexible Work Schedule and Work-Life Balance specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More The health perspective According to Mayo-Clinic, inability to have a good work-life balance has far reaching health effects especially to the worker. Fatigue, suppressed immunity and general unproductivity are just among the many problems the worker experiences. Mayo-Clinic proposes a strategy to strike a better balance. They propose an approach that starts with tracking one’s weekly schedule and cutting or delegating those tasks you cannot handle. They also advise people to learn to say no when extra work out of schedule is assigned to make room for joy and additional meaningful activities. Work should be left at the workplace. Advice is therefore given, especially with the current technology that could connect home to work, that people should learn to separate work from personal act ivities. Good time management is especially crucial. This goes a long way in giving the worker enough time to relax and attend to other personal matters. In addition, it goes a long way in preventing conflicts at home more so for the married workforce. Above all, a good and healthy nutrition coupled with daily physical activity routines to nurture the physical and emotional wellbeing are recommended. It goes without saying that taking time to engage in regular physical activity in a preventive measure to cardiovascular diseases among other illnesses that are accentuated by living physically inactive life. This is a trend that is very common among the working class. As such, taking time to do activities that one enjoys could be a good thing to do (Stiles 2009). It is one’s responsibility to evaluate oneself and seek professional help when it is the right time. Working long hours and working in unsocial hours of the night necessitate frequent medical check ups and other forms o f medical attention. Multinationals which have subsidiaries in areas where there is no elaborate legislation on flexible and work-life balance must take this into account. Their human resources management must also create provisions that will ensure they are well trained for health work related life. This will increase employee retention, reduce days that employees miss job due to work-related sicknesses and in the end company maintains profitability. Taking the health of the workforce with high regard also motivates the employees, which is a gain to the organization.Advertising Looking for essay on business economics? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More Flex-time Mayo-Clinic suggests that one can take advantage of available options like flex hours, job sharing, compressed week and telecommuting among others. Control over one’s hours will give less stress. Flexible working arrangements have widely been advocated for by governments and private institutions. The Australian Government (2011) attaches the following benefits to flexible working arrangements. To begin with, the Australian government has realized that flex-time improves the firm’s ability to attract skilled and motivated employees, not to mention the effect of enhancing employee retention. Staffs who are allowed to take flex-time working schedules eventually become loyal to the organization since they feel the organization appreciates them by giving them space to make their choices. The staffs therefore execute their duties as if they are shareholders of the organization. The government of Australia has also recognized that allowing for flexi-time schedules i s a great step towards increasing trust and respect between employees and the management. When employees get flex-time opportunities, they end up contributing positively to the organization by improving productivity. This is because flexible work schedules can enable staff to execute their office duties even in odd hours which otherwise they would not have been working. It is well identified that flexi-time schedules lead to a reduction in staff absenteeism and labour turnover, eventually raising the company’s productivity and profitability. The Australian Government (2011) also highlights that flexible work schedules go a long way in reducing stress levels and boosting morale and commitment in employees. Finally, flexible work schedules reduce discrimination at work place. After recognizing the above benefits of flexible work schedules, the Australian Government (2011) went ahead to propose a three step approach to ease the introduction of flexible work practices. In the fir st step, new arrangements appropriate to the individual are decided in consideration of available options. The second step is to plan the strategy, especially on how to make the negotiations. The final one is to engage the actual negotiations with the employer, giving good reasons and explanations on benefits to you and the organization too. To the employer, the government says that this move will increase recruitment of the number of persons with disabilities. These people have an advantage of lower absenteeism, lower cost of hiring them, building staff morale and fewer accidents at work. In a case study of KPMG UK, a study was done to help in improvement of the performance of its large workforce in the country. The main challenges to be overcome were to cater for the greater expectations of freedom from staff. The real challenge was therefore to create a flexible working strategy that could both meet the staff needs and still improve its competitiveness. Line managers were therefo re set to work along HR to evaluate the requests. The results were glide time, part-time working hours, job sharing, additional holiday purchase, unpaid leave, career break and home working. Time off to deal with child care is also allowed (Giglio n.d). These are indications that KPMG adopted an approach that favored flex time as opposed to balanced work-life. In the long run, it achieved business benefits through creating a more loyal, motivated and productive staff, reduced recruitment cost due to better staff retention, a diverse workforce was maintained, and reinforced the company’s core values. Despite the fact that KPMG is a multinational that has subsidiaries in almost every part of the world, the human resource practices that relate to work-life and flexible working do not apply in all subsidiaries. Those in areas where employees are not much into flexible work hours do full time with core working hours being ten to four o’clock but reporting to work at eight i n the morning and leaving at six o’clock in the evening (Giglio n.d). The Ad Council, a private non profit organization with head offices in New York and Washington D.C has an average of 100 employees. All the employees are given liberty to utilize flexible hours provided they show that their productivity will not decline nor will the company incur further financial obligations. This program began with one employee who requested to be allowed to work from home. The employees hence gain in working in a happy environment spending more time with their children. Employees end up staying while the company remains attractive to job seekers. The company does not have to give several leaves like long maternity or paternity leaves since the parents can work soonest at the comfort of their homes (Vaele 2011). A furniture company, Ward’s Furniture based in Long Beach, California began to look for flexibility options as a means of taming employee turnover and thereby retain its va luable employees. The employees are treated like a family while the company still manages to keep its stores staffed. It was able to realize between 5 and 10 percent increase in annual sales in a business unfriendly time while most of its competitors shut their doors with lack of business. Management of global workforce in relation to flexi-time and work-life balance It is difficult for organizations that have a global presence to manage a flexible and very satisfied workforce. On the international arena, the managers are faced with a challenge of making flexible schedules for the employees. Most have therefore adopted a flexible schedule of work at home, which requires commitment both from employers and employees. In a study to search the applicability of this technique globally, it was found that there were more challenges in countries with collectivist cultures. Business Process Organizations and IT firms have gone a mile ahead in establishing such schedules. In most countries th at have effected flexible work hours, the call to have them comes as a result of different employee or employer needs. For instance, employees may call for flexible hours to allow them attend to other personal issues and then compensate with later hours. The call may also come from the employer in a bid to tame employee turnover, to share work due to inadequate supply of labour or to give chances to more employees or people with disabilities. The policies thus adopted will have a different basis in the effort to meet these demands. Cross border transfer of the policies may therefore not be possible as it will be difficult to meet these demands with just one set of homogeneous provisions. Perceptions on position, culture and career This would be one of the greatest variables in determining if transfer of personnel policies across borders will be effective. Surprisingly, this also has to do with the management’s taste as it may determine if these kinds of flexible schedules wil l be introduced. A study done on women around the globe showed that 81% of the North American women would make career sacrifices to improve personal life. This compares to 70% Asian women and 55% European (Rudrappa 2005). Even when academic credentials and other experiences are very important aspects in the selection of the right candidates for a job, an arising criterion is getting the right people in the right place with focus on cultural fit. International companies like Ikea have their selection of candidates more leaning towards cultural fit. Oracle is one other company that will use this criterion even for managerial positions. Other multinational companies like the Japanese Sony and All Nippon Airways do not let academic documents get in the way of getting the right staff. Internationalization calls for special attention such that the strategies applied are consistent while at the same time being flexible. In the end, the organization is able to meet international standards w hile at the same time being sensitive to local needs. In conclusion flexibility of people both in mindset, working hours and other key aspects is deeply etched into cultures. It is one of the reasons international human resource managers will look at cultural affiliation when considering who to consider for a position. Career women and flexibility In proportion to the relative number of employed women against employed men, women seem to be the largest group that is affected by lack of flexibility of work. In fact, a study was done to determine this and it was found that 67% of women interviewed would voluntarily leave work to stay at home as a wife or mother. An overwhelming 79% would quit for family obligations while 38% would do if they were forced to stay at home to be mothers or family custodians. However, challenges are still imposed by technology by bringing a work environment at home. It adversely affects women since they are now expected to balance the life of childcare, pro fessional work and family. ILO asserts that flexible working could lead to gender balance if well managed. They warn that it could lead to the woman being more oppressed if much work is brought to the home environment while there are lots of other domestic issues to handle (International Labour Organization 2007). As such, career women would end up not being favored by the flexibility of working as expected. Criticisms In an effort to achieve maximum productivity of an international human workforce, the focus should not dwell on the culture of the group from which the international organizations draw their workforce from. With the world becoming a global village, most of these hard-line cultures are being abandoned to embrace modern living. There is also a stronger need-based force, stronger than cultural tendencies that defy culture. For instance, most multinational companies looking for labour force would go where it is cheaper, that is in countries like China, India and generally Africa. The three are deeply rooted in the connectivism culture and are likely to oppose ideas like night shifts, working on holy days and other special times. However, this is only ideal. Members of these cultural groups have swam against the tide and made an impressively flexible workforce. With several advances having been made globally in management, it is only evident that either flexible time or good work-life balance is not entirely what is needed to increase sales or acquire a competitive edge; there are a myriad of many other ways. It would be wrong, therefore, to conclude that because a company used one of these at a certain time and performed well, it is the cause of increased productivity. It is often a complex interaction of these factors. Of major importance is the psychological consideration of individuals as separate entities and identifying each person’s needs. Transfer of personnel policies across borders The transfer of personnel policies on flexible and w ork-life balance is limited by the reasons each country established its statutes as compared to the other than it is by cultural differences. There is also lots of revision of the statutes as the workers and work demands keep changing and therefore necessitating their constant change. The absence of a very elaborate policy direction from the International Labour Organization is a limitation in itself to a smooth transfer of personnel policies regarding this area among nations. During its presidency of the European Union, Sweden promoted its working life. It is a clear indication that there is no homogeneous body of social science knowledge about work-life balance which can allow policy formulation and legislation. The incongruence in the laws formulated and lack of information in certain cases in different countries therefore pose a hindrance to easy transfers of personnel across borders. What may be considered as a bundle of family friendly practices in one country may be the oppos ite in the other (Tulgan 1996). Comparative issues have not been adequately dealt with to identify the key issues of work-life balance. There are therefore many cross-national differences in assumptions about the norms of family life and employer’s responsibilities. Divorce rates are a good indicator of this (Guest 2001). A good example is in what was back in the years, the Soviet Union. It used to have a strong stress on welfare and family support in its factory system but with the collapse of the communist system, a breakdown of these institutions was experienced. The International Labour Organization (ILO) has certain provisions that regard healthy working time and family friendly working time. It thus works towards seeking a solution of the traditional â€Å"male bread winner- female home maker† situation. Much of what it proposes falls within the flexible schedule brackets as part of it is part-time jobs and hourly wages for full time jobs (International Labour Or ganization 2007). Europe however is a step ahead in promoting some homogeny even though there still arises some disparities in legislation among the member countries. It is for that reason easier to have transfer of these policies within Europe. The ICT industry has been successful in maneuvering around most legislative and cultural barriers that may come in the way of flexible and work-life balance. The main reason is that much of ICT-related work can be done form whichever point in location. Technology has eased the barriers even though it has not cleared them. Most jobs that can be done online and perhaps have no tight deadlines encourage flexibility. Other than working as a ‘Flexibility Coach’, the human resource manager of a multinational must orientate himself to understanding of diverse cultures and their attitudes towards all aspects of work. As employees of today focus on improving on their work-life balance, the option of across border transfers is at stake. E mployees want to be either near home or at home, whether working or attending to personal matters. In this perspective, IHRM must focus on the real impact of flexible work-life balance. In most developing, nations especially of Africa and Asia, the concept of flexibility may be relatively new and if it has been adopted, it is only by a few companies related to ICT, though still to a lesser magnitude. For instance, choice may be on when to work but not necessarily on where to do it. For multinationals that have expanded to these areas, the use of a common HR policy on all aspects may not be possible, unless the members of the subsidiary group are flexible in their mindset to accommodate it. The culture of the host nation and donor nation may differ and this will have its share of the reasons transfer of personnel policies will not be efficient. In a case study to compare such cultures, Taiwan and UK were taken into consideration. First, UK is a developed economy while Taiwan is an up coming economy. Taiwanese principles are based on Confucianism while UK principles are based on individualism. Duty to family, harmonious attitude and a consensus towards a conflict-free working are some of the guiding principles for Taiwan. For UK, the individualism approach has no such thing as society to regard. The Taiwanese system provides permanent work because of values of Confucianism like â€Å"long term orientation†. On the other hand, at least 64% of UK’s workforce is either home-based workers or part-time workers. On such basis, transferability of the policies is therefore difficult for the two countries (Chang, Wilkinson Mellahi 2007). Challenges facing international work time management One of the greatest challenges a general manager of an international organization would face is managing people of different cultures in relation to productivity for his organization. The manager is left with an option of considering labour cost factors and economic facto rs as the major determinants. Even the expansion would need to consider these cultural factors. The prevailing religion could be considered as cultural. Religion affects people’s stands and these would best be factored in consideration of setting up an international business. Selecting managers for various assignments would mean screening them for such cultural factors for the sake of adaptability, self orientation and relational skills. Agreements on work life and flexible work Most researchers seem to agree that flex time and work balance must go hand in hand if it is possible for a specific job. Mayo-Clinic seems especially to propose a harmonized balance of the two. There is especially one general agreement in all schools of thought that the number of hours each person works per week could be rescheduled to become more productive and beneficial to the employee. Scholars of different schools of thought seem to agree that flexible work schedules can be either beneficial or detrimental to the organization. Detriment seems to come from less commitment of work-at-home employees. Conflicts on work life and flexible work The greatest conflict arises when the two aspects of work improvement are not differentiated and are addressed as one and the same thing. The Work Foundation (2008) addresses work-life balance as â€Å"having a measure of control over when, where and how you work leading to ability to enjoy an optimal quality of life† (para 5). In this definition, more of the issues addressed would rather fall on flexible work than work-life balance. It does not address the internal adjustment of the individual in terms of preparedness, personal schedule and attitudes towards work in an effort to make sure that work does not stall personal affairs or the other way. Some scholars depict work-life balance and the right to ask for a flexible working as impossible to overcome owing to the differences in cultures. They suggest that it could only be handl ed like subsidiaries requiring totally independent practices and policies. Other scholars imply that with the globalization of management, everything else concerning the working environment could be ‘globalized’ and enable transfer of personnel policies internationally. Summary There is diversity amongst European countries concerning the basis on which statutes on flexible working were introduced. UK, for instance, introduced them in response to labour market shortages and to eliminate work-family conflict that became a barrier to employment. Other countries introduced theirs in response to unemployment and therefore it was a means of work sharing. The compatibility of personnel policies of such countries is therefore capped by these facts and is difficult to effect. The internationalization of HRM is limited by social cultural factors. Some of these factors are issues like common age, size, and norms of behavior, presence of customs, influence of labour unions, labour market and perceptions of different stakeholders. When looked at from a flexibility dimension, many other factors like pay and benefits, communication, transfers and business environment come into play. It is becoming increasingly important for multinational enterprises to globalize their human resource practices. How best to do it on a culturally diverse workforce depends on the continued innovativeness and creativity of the managers. Gaps between strategic management and international human resource management function must be bridged. Despite its difficulty, it has proved possible with several multinational companies effectively effecting flexible schedules to all their subsidiaries. German companies are known, for instance, to expand to Thailand, Singapore and Indonesia and still successfully implement their personnel policies in all of them. International human resource management is faced with such emerging issues and must be competitive enough to cater for it to overcome such challenges and retain a competitive edge. The disparities in how such policies evolve must be catered for because the rate of changes may not be the same. It will even mean constant revision of the policies in a fast changing world. Countries that are technologically advanced are easier to manage because infrastructure supports such changes. The human resource management team will however experience a higher demand from employees of such countries. Competent international human resource managers will, according to this research, be open-minded so as to accommodate different cultures in the work-life balance requests. In the long run, the human resource manager seeks to help the employees achieve personal satisfaction as they achieve organizational goals. He may not be able to put into effect these flexible schedules for managers since their roles are more demanding and options like sharing will be out of question even with much delegation. Differences in cultural factors are partia lly a hindrance to the transferability of personnel policies, but not a block never to be overcome. List of References Australian Government, 2011. How to negotiate a flexible work environment. JobAccess. [online] Available at: http://jobaccess.gov.au/Jobseekers/Starting_work/How_to_negotiate_a_flexible_work_environment/Pages/home.aspx . Bird, J., 2006. Work-life balance: Doing it right and avoiding the pitfalls. Employment Relations Today, 33(3), 1-9. Boulin, J., 2011. Flexible working hours and their impact on work-life balance and working conditions. Expert Meeting- Organization of Working time: Implications for Working Conditions, Dublin, June 3rd 2011. [Online] Available at: http://www.eurofound.europa.eu/events/2011/workingtime/meeting2.htm . Carl, A. Maier, F., 2009. â€Å"Flexible working time arrangements in Germany.† External Report Commissioned by and presented to the EU Directorate-General Employment and Social Affairs, Unit G1 ‘Equality between women and m en’. [Online] Available at: http://www.fgbegge.it/public/documets/Flexible%20working%20time%20arrangements%20in%20Germany.pdf Chang, Y. Y., Wilkinson, A. J. Mellahi, K., 2007. HRM strategies and MNCs from emerging economies in the UK. European Business Review, 19(5), 404 – 419 Churchard, C., 2010. Longer drinking hours ‘drive up workplace absence’. [online] Available at: http://www.peoplemanagement.co.uk/pm/articles/2011/10/longer-drinking-hours-drive-up-workplace-absence.htm Giglio, K., n.d. Workplace flexibility case studies. Sloan Work and Family Research Network. [online] Available at http://wfnetwork.bc.edu/template.phpname=casestudy#unc Guest, D. E., 2001. Perspectives on the study of work-life balance. [Online] Available at: http://www.ucm.es/info/Psyap/enop/guest.htm . International Labour Organization, 2007. Decent working time: Balancing workers’ needs with business requirements. ILO. [online] Available at: http://www.ilo.org/travail/w hatwedo/publications/lang–en/docName–WCMS_145391/index.htm Rudrappa, S., 2005. Women in global workforce. [online] Available at: http://www.dell.com/downloads/global/corporate/press/20050419_ut_whitepaper.pdf Stiles, P. et al., 2009. Best practice and key themes in global human resource Management: Project Report [online] Available at: http://www.cihrm.jbs.cam.ac.uk/research/downloads/ghrra_report.pdf . The Work Foundation, 2008. Jargon buster. theworkfoundation.com. [online] Available at: http://www.theworkfoundation.com/difference/e4wlb/jargonbuster.aspx Tulgan, B., 1996. Managing Generation X. Oxford: Capstone. Vaele, P., 2011. Workplace flexibility case study: The Ad Council’s flexible work schedule policy. [online] Available at: wfnetwork.bc.edu/pdfs/adcouncil.pdf This essay on Flexible Work Schedule and Work-Life Balance was written and submitted by user Maxim Casey to help you with your own studies. You are free to use it for research and reference purposes in order to write your own paper; however, you must cite it accordingly. You can donate your paper here.

Nobel Prize History - How the First Nobel Prizes Were Awarded

Nobel Prize History - How the First Nobel Prizes Were Awarded A pacifist at heart and an inventor by nature, Swedish chemist Alfred Nobel invented dynamite. However, the invention that he thought would end all wars was seen by many others as an extremely deadly product. In 1888, when Alfreds brother Ludvig died, a French newspaper mistakenly ran an obituary for Alfred which called him the merchant of death. Not wanting to go down in history with such a horrible epitaph, Nobel created a will that soon shocked his relatives and established the now famous Nobel Prizes. Who was Alfred Nobel? Why did Nobels will make establishing the prizes so difficult? Alfred Nobel Alfred Nobel was born on October 21, 1833, in Stockholm, Sweden. In 1842, when Alfred was nine years old, his mother (Andrietta Ahlsell) and brothers (Robert and Ludvig) moved to St. Petersburg, Russia to join Alfreds father (Immanuel), who had moved there five years earlier. The following year, Alfreds younger brother, Emil, was born. Immanuel Nobel, an architect, builder, and inventor, opened a machine shop in St. Petersburg and was soon very successful with contracts from the Russian government to build defense weapons. Because of his fathers success, Alfred was tutored at home until the age of 16. Yet, many consider Alfred Nobel a mostly self-educated man. Besides being a trained chemist, Alfred was an avid reader of literature and was fluent in English, German, French, Swedish, and Russian. Alfred also spent two years traveling. He spent much of this time working in a laboratory in Paris but also traveled to the United States. Upon his return, Alfred worked in his fathers factory. He worked there until his father went bankrupt in 1859. Alfred soon began experimenting with nitroglycerine, creating his first explosions in early summer 1862. In only a year (October 1863), Alfred received a Swedish patent for his percussion detonator - the Nobel lighter. Having moved back to Sweden to help his father with an invention, Alfred established a small factory at Helenborg near Stockholm to manufacture nitroglycerine. Unfortunately, nitroglycerine is a very difficult and dangerous material to handle. In 1864, Alfreds factory blew up - killing several people, including Alfreds younger brother, Emil. The explosion did not slow down Alfred, and within only a month, he organized other factories to manufacture nitroglycerine. In 1867, Alfred invented a new and safer-to-handle explosive - dynamite. Though Alfred became famous for his invention of dynamite, many people did not intimately know Alfred Nobel. He was a quiet man who did not like a lot of pretense or show. He had very few friends and never married. And though he recognized the destructive power of dynamite, Alfred believed it was a harbinger of peace. Alfred told Bertha von Suttner, an advocate for world peace, My factories may make an end of war sooner than your congresses. The day when two army corps can annihilate each other in one second, all civilized nations, it is to be hoped, will recoil from war and discharge their troops. * Unfortunately, Alfred did not see peace in his time. Alfred Nobel, chemist and inventor, died alone on December 10, 1896, after suffering a cerebral hemorrhage. After several funeral services were held and Alfred Nobels body was cremated, the will was opened. Everyone was shocked. The Will Alfred Nobel had written several wills during his lifetime, but the last one was dated November 27, 1895 - a little over a year before he died. Nobels last will left approximately 94 percent of his worth to the establishment of five prizes (physics, chemistry, physiology or medicine, literature, and peace) to those who, during the preceding year, shall have conferred the greatest benefit on mankind. Though Nobel had proposed a very grandiose plan for the prizes in his will, there were a great many problems with the will. Relatives of Alfred Nobel were so shocked that many wanted the will contested.The format of the will had formal defects which could have caused the will to be contested in France.It was unclear which country Alfred had his legal residence. He was a Swedish citizen until age nine, but after that he had lived in Russia, France, and Italy without becoming a citizen. Nobel had been making plans for a final home for himself in Sweden when he died. The location of residency would determine what countrys laws would govern the will and the estate. If determined to be France, the will could have been contested and French taxes would have been taken.Because Nobel had wanted the Norwegian Storting (parliament) to choose the peace prize winner, many charged Nobel with a lack of patriotism.The fund that was to implement the prizes did not yet exist and would have to be created.The organizations that Nobel named in his will to award the prizes had not been asked to take on these duties prior to No bels death. Also, there was no plan to compensate these organizations for their work on the prizes. The will did not state what should be done if no prize winners for a year were found. Because of the incompleteness and other obstacles presented by Alfreds will, it took five years of hurdles before the Nobel Foundation could be established and the first prizes awarded. The First Nobel Prizes On the fifth anniversary of Alfred Nobels death, December 10, 1901, the first set of Nobel Prizes were awarded. Chemistry: Jacobus H. vant HoffPhysics: Wilhelm C. Rà ¶ntgenPhysiology or Medicine: Emil A. von BehringLiterature: Rene F. A. Sully PrudhommePeace: Jean H. Dunant and Frà ©dà ©ric Passy * As quoted in W. Odelberg (ed.), Nobel: The Man His Prizes (New York: American Elsevier Publishing Company, Inc., 1972) 12. Bibliography Axelrod, Alan and Charles Phillips. What Everyone Should Know About the 20th Century. Holbrook, Massachusetts: Adams Media Corporation, 1998. Odelberg, W. (ed.). Nobel: The Man His Prizes. New York: American Elsevier Publishing Company, Inc., 1972. Official Website of the Nobel Foundation. Retrieved April 20, 2000 from the World Wide Web: nobel.se

Human Language Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Human Language - Essay Example However, this physicality poses a greater risk ÃŽ ¿f choking as food passes directly across the trachea. Other animals do not have this anatomy so therefore physically cannot speak. Evolutionary psychologists argue that for this to have evolved into humans over millions of ÃŽ ¿f years the advantages must far outweigh the potential hazards. They maintain that human language originated for a specific reason. The majority ÃŽ ¿f time spent by our early ancestors would be foraging for food in a hostile environment, with little time for establishing bonds with their present groups. Primates communicate within groups by grooming, but obviously, this is time-consuming and can only be done on an individual basis. Dunbar comments, "What language seems to do is allow you to overcome that barrier and use what time you have in a much more efficient way." Language allows humans to talk to several people at the same time. You can talk whilst doing other tasks and this enables humans to reach many m ore individuals, increasing the amount ÃŽ ¿f people you are communicating with. Physicalities aside, Aitchison defines human language as having four unique factors; semanticity - in that the words or other units must have a meaning; displacement - where language can be used whether the object in question is present or not; structure dependence - given that the order ÃŽ ¿f the words must make grammatical sense and creativity - probably the most human quality ÃŽ ¿f all, as there are in essence.... Other animals do not have this anatomy so therefore physically cannot speak. Evolutionary psychologists argue that for this to have evolved in humans over millions f years the advantages must far outweigh the potential hazards. They maintain that human language originated for a specific reason. The majority f time spent by our early ancestors would be foraging for food in a hostile environment, with little time for establishing bonds with their present groups. Primates communicate within groups by grooming, but obviously this is time consuming and can only be done on an individual basis. Dunbar (1993, p. 89) comments, "What language seems to do is allow you to overcome that barrier and use what time you have in a much more efficient way." Language allows humans to talk to several people at the same time. You can talk whilst doing other tasks and this enables humans to reach many more individuals, increasing the amount f people you are communicating with. Physicalities aside, Aitchison (1983) defines human language as having four unique factors; semancity - in that the words or other units must have a meaning; displacement - where language can be used whether the object in question is present or not; structure dependence - given that the order f the words (syntax) must make grammatical sense and creativity - probably the most human quality f all, as there are in essence, a never-ending number f different expressions that can be communicated. Humans use particular tools when communicating. They attempt to recognise and allocate words to certain meanings, then identify the grammatical placement f the word in a sentence, and finally refer back to a wider textual context, using previous knowledge to