The Existence of Intelligent Life Essay -- Extraterrestrial Intelligen

The Existence of Intelligent Life Bertrand Russell wrote, "There are two possibilities. Maybe we are alone. Maybe we are not. Both are equally frightening (Jakosky 1)." The question of life in the universe is one that leaves many in a state of bewilderment. It becomes even more interesting when it leads to another question -- that of intelligent life in the universe. Finding other intelligent civilizations among the interstellar space would greatly affect every aspect of our existence. Conversely, not finding such a civilization would force us to examine the purpose of our own existence. To help answer the question, astronomers and scientists set up a program in search for extraterrestrial intelligence. This program, or SETI, was set up to verify, by observation that extraterrestrial life does exist. SETI tries to prove this by picking up and analyzing radio signals by means of satellites and advanced computers (Heidmann 116). The history of the SETI program is quite interesting. It started back in 1959 with the help of two famous Cornell University physicists, Guiseppi Cocconi and Phil Morrison. Both claimed that it would be possible to communicate with other potential extraterrestrial life in space by the use of techniques used in radio astronomy (Heidmann 112). Together, they voiced their belief that if other "alien astronomers" elsewhere in the universe possessed radio telescopes, that it would be possible to converse between the two (Heidmann 112-113). A young astronomer by the name of Francis Drake agreed with the theories of Cocconi and Morrison. He proposed building a radio receiver in order to listen for waves of sound being transmitted through space. It wasn't until the spring of 1960 that Dra... ...sity Press, 1992. 2. Jakosky, Bruce. The Search for Life on Other Planets. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1998. 3. Kahney, Leander. "A Search for Intelligent Searchers." Wired News (1999). 29 January 2000 *http://www.nitehawk.com/rasmit/*. 4. Hipschma, Ron. " The Problem -- Mountains of Data." How SETI @Home Works (1999). 29 January 2000 http://www.nitehawk.com/rasmit/. 5. "Project Omar." SETI Institute. 1999. SETI Institute. 28 January 2000 http://www.seti.org/science/ozma.html. 6. "History of SETI." SETI Institute. 1999. SETI Institute. 29 January 2000 http://www.seti.org/general/history.html. 7. "The Optical SETI Resource for Planet Earth." The Columbus Optical SETI Observatory. 1999. Columbus Observatory. 27 January 2000 http://www.coseti.org/. 8. Ward, Peter. Interview with Lori Stokes. The Debate Over Life Beyond Earth. MSNBC. 10 Feb. 2000.

The Leadership Education

A. Leadership education. While the debate over whether effective leaders are born that way or can learn these skills, the fact remains that even natural-born leaders need some help in understand the dynamics involved in teams. All of the U.S. military branches of services recognized this need early on and established service academies to help train their future leaders, but people in business, academia and other professions also have relevant leadership education available as well. According to Barker and Rost (2000), the content of leadership education courses required for the 21st century should address three general categories: (i) the evolution of social change and development, (ii) the processes that influence social development, and (iii) the dynamics of human nature in change processes. These authors add that, â€Å"Leadership education is aimed at producing citizens for a democratic society† (p. 3). B. Continuing education. Many professions require continuing education credits to maintain credentialing and privileges for practice; for example, lawyers and healthcare practitioners must complete a set number of credit hours each year for this purpose. While all professions may not mandate it, the individual pursuit of continuing education in any field should be regarded as a sound business investment, just as the provision of such training by organizations makes good sense. Because of the importance of having effective leaders in any organizational setting, it is vitally important for them to remain cognizant of changes and innovations in their field, as well as in allied fields that may impact their industry. Today is an excellent time to be a professional in search of continuing educational opportunities, though, because of the explosion in adult education classes designed for this purpose, particularly in online forums of various types. In this regard, Jarvis (2002) reports that, â€Å"Adult and continuing education is changing at a tremendously rapid rate in this contemporary, urban world,† and the purposes for which adult leaders are seeking continuing education have changed in fundamental ways in recent years (p. iii). Likewise, Beaudoin (2002) points out that, â€Å"The proliferation of instructional technology in the past decade, particularly in higher education settings, is having a profound impact on how teaching and learning now occurs, and is transforming the means by which institutions reach and support an emerging worldwide market across time and distance† (p. 131). This author adds that because it is so important to organizational and individual success, continuing education has a well developed format concerning not only to the planning and management of continuing education activities, but also insights in the area of leadership (Beaudoin, 2002). C. Types of education. Because every business situation is unique, leadership is taught in a variety of ways across many disciplines. According to Nirenberg (1998), â€Å"Most schools of business typically include the study of leadership as part of a survey of organizational behavior (OB) theory and not as a course in its own right. By all accounts, though, there are continuing and adult education opportunities available for virtually any vocation and avocation today through community colleges and online learning forums and even busy professionals can take advantages of these services. More importantly, though, effective leaders need to be well-rounded individuals with a basic understanding of how the business world works and what makes people behave the way they do. The types of education required for these complicated purposes are clearly a lifelong endeavor because they must continue to be updated and refined, and the more variety in the educational services taken over the course of a individual's career, the more effective leader that person will likely be. The Leadership Education A. Leadership education. While the debate over whether effective leaders are born that way or can learn these skills, the fact remains that even natural-born leaders need some help in understand the dynamics involved in teams. All of the U.S. military branches of services recognized this need early on and established service academies to help train their future leaders, but people in business, academia and other professions also have relevant leadership education available as well. According to Barker and Rost (2000), the content of leadership education courses required for the 21st century should address three general categories: (i) the evolution of social change and development, (ii) the processes that influence social development, and (iii) the dynamics of human nature in change processes. These authors add that, â€Å"Leadership education is aimed at producing citizens for a democratic society† (p. 3). B. Continuing education. Many professions require continuing education credits to maintain credentialing and privileges for practice; for example, lawyers and healthcare practitioners must complete a set number of credit hours each year for this purpose. While all professions may not mandate it, the individual pursuit of continuing education in any field should be regarded as a sound business investment, just as the provision of such training by organizations makes good sense. Because of the importance of having effective leaders in any organizational setting, it is vitally important for them to remain cognizant of changes and innovations in their field, as well as in allied fields that may impact their industry. Today is an excellent time to be a professional in search of continuing educational opportunities, though, because of the explosion in adult education classes designed for this purpose, particularly in online forums of various types. In this regard, Jarvis (2002) reports that, â€Å"Adult and continuing education is changing at a tremendously rapid rate in this contemporary, urban world,† and the purposes for which adult leaders are seeking continuing education have changed in fundamental ways in recent years (p. iii). Likewise, Beaudoin (2002) points out that, â€Å"The proliferation of instructional technology in the past decade, particularly in higher education settings, is having a profound impact on how teaching and learning now occurs, and is transforming the means by which institutions reach and support an emerging worldwide market across time and distance† (p. 131). This author adds that because it is so important to organizational and individual success, continuing education has a well developed format concerning not only to the planning and management of continuing education activities, but also insights in the area of leadership (Beaudoin, 2002). C. Types of education. Because every business situation is unique, leadership is taught in a variety of ways across many disciplines. According to Nirenberg (1998), â€Å"Most schools of business typically include the study of leadership as part of a survey of organizational behavior (OB) theory and not as a course in its own right. By all accounts, though, there are continuing and adult education opportunities available for virtually any vocation and avocation today through community colleges and online learning forums and even busy professionals can take advantages of these services. More importantly, though, effective leaders need to be well-rounded individuals with a basic understanding of how the business world works and what makes people behave the way they do. The types of education required for these complicated purposes are clearly a lifelong endeavor because they must continue to be updated and refined, and the more variety in the educational services taken over the course of a individual's career, the more effective leader that person will likely be.

The Process Thats Involved In Recruitment Business Essay - Free Essay Example

Sample details Pages: 5 Words: 1527 Downloads: 5 Date added: 2017/06/26 Category Business Essay Type Research paper Did you like this example? Recruitment is the process of generating a pool of qualified candidates for a particular job (Luis R, 2007, P.146). It is the major function in the human resource management department and the recruitment process is the first step to create the competitive advantage for the organizations. Recruitment process involves a serious of systematic steps from identifying the talents needed by the organization until the arranging and conducting the interviews. Don’t waste time! Our writers will create an original "The Process Thats Involved In Recruitment Business Essay" essay for you Create order The recruitment process will bring a few benefits towards the organization. Firstly, it is helping to attract and encourage more and more qualified candidates who are having different background, experience and skills to apply the jobs are provided from the organization. Secondly, the recruitment process is also helping the organization to identify and determine the human resource requirements needs for the development of an organization at present in the future time. Thirdly, the recruitment process is also helping the organization to increase the diversity of its workforce by receiving the employee who are having different background, experience and skills. This will help the organization to improve the quality of service towards customer and enhance the customer satisfaction. Lastly, the recruitment process is also helping the organization to make sure the employees are having enough ability to fit for the job in order to increase the productivity and increase the conflicts. The recruitment process is playing a major role for the sustainable development of an organization. Thus, I will use Kuo Kuang primary school as an example to discuss and comment on its recruitment process in the next part of this assignment. The steps of recruitment process Kuo Kuang primary school is a Chinese primary school which is having two campuses and both are located in Skudai. In terms of student population, Kuo Kuang is one of the largest primary school in Malaysia. In this part, I will introduce the recruitment process within school in a simple manner. 2.1) Step 1: Identifying the human resource needs During the first steps, the human resource department in Kuo Kuang is responsible to identity the human resources needs for the present and the future development of the organization. For Kuo Kuang primary school, there are certain thing must be included such as the purpose of the job must in the line with the mission and vision of the organization. This is very important for an organization to identity its human resource needs in order to ensure that the human resources is available to deal with any changes or make expansion for the organization. Identity the human resource needs timely will help the organization to control and facilitate its operations and even help the organization to increase its productivity. 2.2) Step 2: Prepare the job description and specification After identify the human resource needs, a job description and specification must be prepared. Job description is a written document that identifies describes and defines a job in terms of its duties, responsibilities, working, conditions, and specifications (Luis R, 2007, P.63). Kuo Kuang is treated the job description and specification as a criteria for selection. For Kuo Kuang primary school, there are certain thing must be included in the job description and specification such as the function of the job , the task and responsibility of the job, nature of authority, the required skills, working condition, job title, personal traits and characteristics, knowledge and working experience. The benefit of job description and job specification is that which is helping to contribute a serious of criteria for the performance appraisal and evaluation. Additionally, which is also helps the organization to save the cost of training and development if the employee is fit for the job. 2.3) Step 3: Advertising the vacancy After finished the preparation of job description and job specification, the recruitment process is entering into the step of advertising the vacancy. The purpose of advertising the vacancy is to attract and inform the qualified applicant to apply for this vacancy. For Kuo Kuang primary school, it is only use the newspaper to advertise the vacancy. Kuo Kuang also emphasize that a job advertisement should be consist of certain information such as the job title, requirements of the job, the criteria for the job applicants, job location and contact number, payment or reward structure as well as the details information on how to apply. The content of a job advertisement should be communicate directly and concisely as well as related to the job. However, newspaper advertising still has its limitation such as the advertising space in newspaper can be expensive and the popularity of the Internet is gradually increased so that a growing number of readers are interested in read the onlin e publication rather than read the newspaper. 2.4) Step 4: Managing the application process After undergo the advertising process, the vacancy has been informed to public by the newspapers. Thus, the recruitment process is entering into the step of managing the application process. For Kuo Kuang primary school, due to the reason that it is not using online recruitment process so that the organization only wait and collect the resume latter from the postman. Thus, managing the application process in this step is very time consuming. 2.5) Step 5: Prepare for short listing After undergo the application process, the resume latter from the applicant have been collected. Thus, the recruitment process is entering into the step of short listing. Short listing is refers to the process of identifying which applicant has the opportunity to be interviewed by the organization based on criteria that set by the organization. As mentioned before, Kuo Kuang is treated the job description and specification as a criteria for selection so that those applicant who are meet the requirement in job description and specification have the opportunity to be interviewed by the organization. For Kuo Kuang primary school, this short listing process should be undertaken by at least two people in order to avoid bias and ensure that the recruitment process is to be fairness to every applicant. 2.6) Step 6: Arrange interviews and selection tests After undergo the short listing process, the recruitment process is entering into the step of interview and selection test process. A job interview is a process that a potential employee is evaluated by an employer. Interview is an important way to finding out more information about the applicant whether they meet the criteria or having the ability to fit for the job. For Kuo Kuang primary school, it is require the applicant conduct a presentation of their teaching method, this can be regarded as a knowledge and skill test. 2.7) Step 7: Preparing the letter of offer The final step of the recruitment process in Kuo Kuang is to prepare the latter of offer. The latter of offer is done by the department of human resource management in order to inform the winners of the job interviews and welcome them to join the organization. For Kuo Kuang primary school, there are certain thing must be included in the latter of offer such as the position, the salary, and any other benefits that the applicant has negotiated or has agreed by the company. Conclusion From the above, a simple understanding of the recruitment process within Kuo Kuang primary school has been introduced. The recruitment process in Kuo Kuang primary school is having seven steps which include identifying the human resource needs, prepare the job description and specification, advertising the vacancy, managing the application process, prepare for short listing, arrange interviews and selection tests and finally preparing the letter of offer. Overall, Kuo Kuang primary school has a good recruitment process but I would like to suggest another two methods to improve the recruitment process in order to make the recruitment process become more perfect. Firstly, Kuo Kuang may be able to try to match the online recruitment into the traditional recruitment process together in order to make its recruitment process more effectively. Online recruitment is refers to the use of technology or the internet tools to help the recruitment process run smoothly. The tools may include a job website like JobsMalaysia.com, or the corporate web site of the organization. The internet is treated as a source of recruitment and using by many big and small organizations. These organizations advertise the job vacancies through the internet. The benefit of online recruitment is that it is very convenience for the job seekers to post their resume easily and view the progress of their application through the internet. Besides that, the jobs vacancies can be posted on the web site immed iately and it is also cheaper than advertise this post in the newspapers by saving the design and print costs. Secondly, Kuo Kuang may be able to try the outsourcing recruitment. Outsourcing recruitment refers to the organizations is outsourcing its recruitment process to an external consultant in which are providing the recruitment services. The benefit of outsourcing recruitment is that it help the organization to save most of the recruitment costs and the organization can improve the speed and the quality of the whole recruitment process with the help of the experienced consultants. In this way, the organization is able to be more concentrate to develop the strategy for managing people resources rather than wasting the efforts, time and money on this recruitment process.