Distributed Software Development :: Outsourcing Careers Technology Essays

Distributed Software Development As new technologies emerge, they often eliminate certain types of jobs. History is littered with many such examples. The number of bank tellers dropped by about 37% between 1983 and 1993.1 The new technology responsible for eliminating those jobs was the ATM (Automatic Teller Machine). More recently, the wide popularity of buying books over the web has caused many book stores to close down. You may have noticed this in your own neighborhood. Since the Industrial Revolution, technology has been blamed for massive unemployment.2 However, more recently, in addition to technology eliminating certain jobs, technology is enabling the transferring (for valid reasons) of certain jobs from the USA and Europe to far away places like India. Software development is a benefactor (or victim, depending on the viewpoint) of this technology. The technologies that were developed by the US in the 1990s boom are facilitating distributed software development. These range from global high-speed networks, ever-cheaper computers, collaborative tools, satellite communication, and the web.3 Requirements documents and software tools no longer need to be snail mailed, rather they can be emailed to pretty much anywhere in the world. This phenomenon of having software developed in far off places such as India, has come to be known as outsourcing or offshoring. While their may be some small differences in these two terms, they are many times used interchangeably. Earlier, outsourcing referred to the practice of turning over noncritical parts of a business to a company that specialized in that activity.4 But now outsourcing affects a business' critical components as well. While jobs have moved over seas before, like Levi Strauss jobs, which is now completely manufactured overseas, software jobs are getting lots of attention because this seems to be the first time white-collar jobs are being affected.5 While outsourcing can be painful for some of the parties involved, I will s how that it is still an ethical practice. Outsourcing is predicted to affect a very large number of jobs in the future. In the US, about 14 million jobs (or 11%) are identified as being at risk of being sent abroad.6 While not all of these are software related, many of them are. The non-software jobs that are also at risk of being sent abroad are telephone call center, data entry, business and financial support, legal assistant, diagnostic support services, accounting, bookkeeping, and payroll.

Human Resource Management on Sheraton Hotel Surabaya

Human Resource Function: Sheraton Hotel and Tower Surabaya Alex Chandra 3104009 Raymond Kurniawan Tjiadi 3104010 Kevin Krisnadi 3104802 Julian Giovanni 3104812 Anastasia Santoso 3114701 IBN – Fundamental of Human Resource Management Universitas Surabaya 1. Overview The origins of the brand date back to  1937  when  Ernest Henderson  and  Robert Moore  acquired the Stonehaven Hotel in  Springfield, Massachusetts. The chain got its name from another early hotel that the pair had acquired, which had a lighted sign on the roof saying â€Å"Sheraton Hotel† which was large and heavy and therefore too expensive to change. Instead, they decided to call all their hotels by that name. Henderson and Moore had opened three hotels in  Boston  by 1939, continuing with their rapid expansion opening properties along the entire East Coast. In the 1940s, Sheraton purchased the famousHotel Kimball  of  Springfield, Massachusetts, and transformed the 4-star hotel into The Sheraton-Kimball Hotel, attracting guests like President  John F. Kennedy. In 1945, it was the first hotel chain to be listed on the  New York Stock Exchange. In 1949 Sheraton expanded internationally with the purchase of two Canadian hotel chains. The 1960s saw the first Sheraton hotels outside North America with the opening of the Tel Aviv-Sheraton in February 1961 and the Macuto-Sheraton outside Caracas, Venezuela, in 1963. By 1965, the 100th Sheraton had opened its doors. The multinational conglomerate  ITT  purchased the chain in 1968, after which it was known as ITT Sheraton. In 1985 Sheraton became the first Western company to operate a hotel in the People's Republic of China, assuming management of the state-built Great Wall Hotel in Beijing, which became the Great Wall Sheraton. In 1994, ITT Sheraton purchased a controlling interest in the Italian CIGA chain, the Compagnia Italiana Grandi Alberghi, or Italian Grand Hotels Company, which had been seized from its previous owner, the  Aga Khan, by its creditors. The chain had begun by operating hotels in Italy, but overexpanded across Europe just as a recession hit. These hotels formed the core of what came to be the ITT Sheraton Luxury group, later Starwood's Luxury Collection. In April 1995, Sheraton introduced a new, mid-scale hotel brand Four Points by Sheraton Hotels, to replace the designation of certain hotels as Sheraton Inns. In 1998, Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide, Inc. acquired ITT Sheraton, outbidding Hilton. Under Starwood's leadership, Sheraton has begun renovating many existing hotels and expanding the brand's footprint including their management contracting partnership with Pakuwon Jati Tbk to build Surabaya Sheraton Hotel and Tower. 2. Field Report Q: How important are the function of HRM and the contribution towards the performance of company as a whole? In the recruitment process, what method is used by Sheraton Hotel in choosing and selecting the new employee? What competence / requirement is the major concern? A:As important as the others. Human resource in nowadays has a role as a business partner rather than only recruiting agency that only need sharpness for recruitment. Skill can be taught. But behavior is more important. Sharing about their past (know people from the past. Not a formal interview but make the condition as comfort as possible). Q: About the training and development program, how Sheraton Hotel implement in training and developing the competence from the new and existing employee? What objective that Sheraton Hotel want to achieve? A: Not only work but also study. Training for 48 hours, the orientation is about brand and etc. Have it’s own culture. Service culture needed and built for years and become loyal. We can see from their will for change and develop. We have 4 kinds of training, in our own hotel, in the department training (refreshing the previous training), training analysis (according to appraisal), and the last is training abroad or seminar. Every month they send report and attendance. Q: Human Resource Department of course inseparable from the process of giving motivation both moral and materially. In the motivation of materially or incentive, what is your view about the role of incentive towards the performance of the company? What kind of criteria that awarded that kind of incentive? We have many kinds of motivation, like promotion, associate of the month, associate gathering, care share (can be redeem), president award (star of the month will be registered to the regional), and incentives for sales. We also have two kinds of incentives, cash incentives (quarterly) and trip incentives (yearly). Q: How Sheraton Hotel respond to the violation from rules that happen by the employees? What kind of approach that the Sheraton used? Department and Supervisor manage them. Light warning (discussed) and will be given to the employee a written warning. In relation to the safety function and health care of company to the employee, what implementation that Sheraton use? How Sheraton see that benefits? Is it only as a cost or expense that arise from obligations solely or as an investment in improving company performance? We have safety and security certification (checked from the third party). We also have training for new comers. Once in 3 months, there will be a evacuation practice without any announcement. We also have an emergency response team to ensure safety. We give 4 kinds of insurance that are jamsostek, old age insurance, inpatient, and life insurance. Q: Towards the rules for giving day off compensation that Sheraton give, is there any specific regulations? We give our employee 5 working days in a week. 9 hours per day (8 hours working, 1 hour for rest). We also have some rules for day off. For those who have work for 5 years or above, that will be 12 days off + 8 days. For those who have work for 10 years or above, that will be 12 days off + 20 days. For those who work more than 15 years, that will be 30 days off + 12 days. We treat associate like we treat our consumers. 3. Perception The Human Resources Department is responsible for employee compensation and benefits, policy development, recruitment, affirmative action, employee relations, training and development, administration of the Sheraton’s automated human resources/payroll system and maintenance of employee records. Sheraton Human Resources strive to: Maintain consistency across the organization with regard to human resource issues †¢ Ensure that the workforce reflects the diversity of the community it serves †¢ Ensure that all employees are treated with equal respect and dignity; †¢ Ensure that all employees understand the Sheraton's pay-for performance merit system †¢ Provide departmental support to ensure that Human Resource is an integral partner of every dep artment’s operations. A top priority for the department is to implement a corporate wide training and development program to enhance leadership skills among Sheraton’s employees and managers. Human Resources is also dedicated to meeting the highest level of customer service by providing prompt and accurate service in employee relations, recruitment, compensation and benefits. And lastly, the department is committed to make the service culture better and better among Sheraton Hotel employees to make them loyal. From the interview side we can see an interesting way that they interview them from their past. And we think their recruitment system as something unique. It’s very rare to see an interview like their system. They also respect their employee, by giving a good treatment from insurance, day off and incentives. They also consider the career of their employee by giving some promotion or president award that will make them registered to the regional. 4. Summary After conducting the interview to assess the human resource function in the Sheraton Hotel and Tower, we can conclude that Sheraton had been running the whole Human Resource Function that a company should have. The Sheraton’s HRM Function consists as follow: Staffing According to the Sheraton’s management, we could conclude an excellent performance that they had been conduct. Eventhough they said that their function is more than only recruiting, in reality they had been doing an effective yet proper staffing’s system in light of the type of the industry that they’re dealing. The high customer contact that they must face everyday had made them must modify their recruiting system into a system that emphasizing their behavior and attitude which is an important element in the service industry. Furthermore, they also make a strong highlight in the company’s culture that they always put into every associate’s mind. All of those strategies is conducted by Sheraton Hotel and Tower because in the service industry, technical advantages can be copied instantly by the competitors whereas an advantage in company’s culture can only built by years of improvement. Training and Development Sheraton Hotel and Towers treat their employee more than just an hourly labor or a machine to generate revenue. Moreover, they call the employee as â€Å"associate† that refer to their principle to treat employee as a business partner that can grow together as one entity. For this reason, they also said that they want to hire a F;B waiter that can be a F;B Director. It means that they had a very big concern in the development of their associate. Their commitment of 48 hours of training and development also show their leading advantages in the training and Development aspect because they saw Training and Development as an investment to achieve Higher Company’s performance through the improvement of their associate as the front line of their services. Empowerment In giving a motivation to their employee, Sheraton Hotel and Towers focuses not only in a narrow aspect but moreover they focus on every aspect that employee had achieved. For example, if other company only consider their employee achievement in the business aspect, such as sales performance, profit earned, market share, etc. , Sheraton also appreciate the achievement in other aspect such as internal relationship, social relationship between employee, etc. Furthermore, in line of their HRD’s goal to improve the performance of their associate, they make the incentive more frequent through giving cash incentive quarterly and also yearly trip incentive. The incentives also using the immaterial empowerement using associate recognition system such as romotion, associate of the month appreciation that made the employee focus on the performance and not the material. Safety and Healthcare Unlike manufacture company that rely on the machine that had 100% Performance Rating, high customer contact firm such as Sheraton rely mostly on their associate. Therefore, any absenteeism that caused on many factors to their employee will cause a severe loss to their company. Thus, they set a high standard on the safety and healthcare regulation, such as double the insurance from the Jamsostek standard and also give a full health benefit.

Leadership Is The Core And The Spirit Of An Organization

Leadership is essentially the core and the spirit of an organization. As the people in charge, they not only manage the organization s affairs; they also deal with the general employees face to face. Entrusted with the task to communicate organizational goals, visions and ideas to employees, leaders are responsible for maintaining and implementing organizational rules and systems and even have the final say on promotion, retention and dismissal. Therefore, in a sense, leaders at all levels are the spoke persons of their organizations, serving as the bridge and the link connecting employees. In the eyes of employees, leaders represent their organizations hence; leadership relationship influences the employee s attitude towards their organization. Realizing the mission and vision of my organizations, staff must know that they can grow and advance. One of the goal of the organization is to promote with in therefore they train their own leaders. Trying to getting a promotion within the system has been very challenging. I have applied for several leadership position over the past four years without any success. My concerns are the ethical responsibilities of an employer to their employees and ways in which individuals can get proper training to be promoted . The research for this project was conducted by reviewing employees, polices, practices, industry professionals, other organizations/associations, textbooks, the library, internetShow MoreRelatedLeadership Is The Core And Spirit Of An Organization1431 Words   |  6 PagesLeadership is essentially the core and spirit of an organization. As the people in charge, they not only manage the organization s affairs but also deal with the general employees face to face. 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