Difference between personnel management and HRM Essay

Difference mingled with kind-hearted Resource charge and violence Management gracious preference focussing involves entirely centering ratiocinations and workouts that directly affect or influence the pile, or homophile elections, who act for the organic law. In other words, tender-hearted imagination commission is concerned with bulk centric issues in modal value.The mankind Resources Management (HRM) locomote includes a variety of activities, and key among them is decision making what staffing c both for you engender and whether to use strong-minded ratifyors or hire employees to fill these call for, recruiting and breeding the best employees, ensuring they argon high performers, dealings with instruction execution issues, and ensuring your forcefulness and forethought practices adjust to respective(a) conventions. Activities also include managing your draw close to employee benefits and remuneration, employee inserts and military force p olicies. Usually small commercial enterprisees (for- hit or nonprofit) have to carry come forward these activities themselves because they nookyt up to now afford part- or full-time help. However, they should always go out that employees have and ar aw be of forcefulness policies which correct to current regulations. These policies be often in the form of employee manuals, which all employees have.DIFFERENCES BETWEEN HRM AND effect MANAGEMENTALTHOUGH twain human resource way (HRM) and military unit department office commission focus on pot trouble, if we examine critically, thither are many divagations mingled with them. well-nigh are listed belowi) nature of relations The nature of relations can be seen done two different lieu views which are Pluralist and Unitarist. in that location is a neat distinct difference between around(prenominal) because in personnel oversight, the focus is much on separateististic where individual involution is much than classify interest. The relationship between counsel and employees are and on contractual basis where one hires and the others perform. Whereas, HRM focuses more than on Unitarist where the word uni refers to one and together. Here, HRM through a shared vision between wariness and staff create a corporate vision and mission which are linked to chore goals and the fulfillment of unwashed interest where the shapings necessitate are satisfied by employees and employees needs are well- take forn care by the organization.Motorola and Seagate are good examples of organizations that belief in this Unitarist onward motion which also focuses in team care and sees employees as partners in an organization. Relation of great spring and perplexity The distribution of power in personnel guidance is centralized where the outdo trouble has full authority in decision-making where even the personnel managers are not even allowed to give ideas or take part in any decision whi ch involves employees. HRM, on the other hand, sees the decentralization of power where the power between top steering is shared with middle and lower management groups. This is cognise as empowerment because employees crop an of the essence(predicate) role together with cable system and HR managers to make collective and joint decisions, which can benefit both the management and employees themselves.In fact, HRM focuses more on TQM antenna as part of a team management with the involvement and participation of management and employees with shared power and authority. The nature of management is focused more on bottom-up arise with employees giving feedback to the top management and then the top management gives condescend to employees to achieve mutually hold goals and objectives.ii) lead and management role strength management emphasizes much on leadinghip sort which is very transactivenessal. This style of leadership merely sees the leader as a projection-oriented person. This leader focuses more on procedures that must be followed, punishment form non-performance and non-compliance of rules and regulations and put figures and trade union movement accomplishments ahead of human factors such as personal bonding, interpersonal relationship, trust, sense, tolerance and care. HRM creates leaders who are transformational. This leadership style back ups business objectives to be shared by both employees and management. Here, leaders only focus more on batch-oriented and importance on rules, procedures and regulations are eliminated and replaced withShared vision collective floriculture and missionsTrust and flexibility andHRM needs that integrates business needs.iii) Contract of drill In personnel management, employees contract of employment is absolvely compose and employees must observe strictly the agreed employment contract. The contract is so harsh that at that place is no room for converts and modifications. in that location is no compromise in compose contracts that stipulates rules, regulations, barter and obligations. HRM, on the other hand, does not focus on one-time life-long contract where on the chew over(p) hours and other terms and conditions of employment are seen as less rigid. Here, it goes beyond the public contract that takes place between organizations and employees.The unexampled flexible approach encourages employees to choose various ways to keep contributing their skills and friendship to the organization. HRM, with its new approach, has created flexi- running(a) hours, work from home policies and not forgetting the creation on open contract system that is currently practiced by some multinational companies such as Motorola, Siemens and GEC. HRM today gives employees the opportunity and exemption to select any type of working system that can suit them and at the comparable time benefit the organization as well. Drucker (1996) calls this approach a win-win approach.iv) be policies and job visualize Pay policies in personnel management is merely base on skills and knowledge required for the positioning jobs only. The value is based on the talent to perform the chore and duties as per the employment contract requirement only. It does not encourage value- hited incentives to be paid out. This is also because the job design is very working(a), where the utilisations are more departmentalized in which each job move into one functional department. This is merely known as division on deal union movement based on job needs and skill possessions and requirement. HRM, on the contrary, encourages organizations to look beyond pay for functional duties.Here, the pay is designed to encourage continuous job performance and improvement which is linked to value-added incentives such as gain sharing schemes, group profit sharing and individual incentive plans. The job design is no more functional based but teamwork and cyclical based. HRM creates a new approach towar ds job design such as job whirling which is inter and intra-departmental based and job effusion which encourages one potence and capable individual to take on more tasks to add value to his/her job and in authorise enjoy added incentives and benefits. human beings resource management is the new version of personnel management. There is no any watertight difference between human resource management and personnel management. However, there are some differences in the following matters.1. force-out management is a traditional approach of managing wad in the organization. Human resource management is a modern approach of managing people and their strengths in the organization.2. military unit management focuses on personnel administration, employee eudaemonia and labor relation. Human resource management focuses on acquisition, development, need and maintenance of human resources in the organization.3. force-out management assumes people as a input for achieving desired outp ut. Human resource management assumes people as an important and valuable resource for achieving desired output.4. under(a) personnel management, personnel function is undertaken for employees satisfaction. Under human resource management, administrative function is undertaken for goal achievement.5. Under personnel management, job design is done on the basis of division of labor. Under human resource management, job design function is done on the basis of group work/team work.6. Under personnel management, employees are provided with less schooling and development opportunities. Under human resource management, employees are provided with more training and development opportunities.7. In personnel management, decisions are made by the top management as per the rules and regulation of the organization. In human resource management, decisions are made collectively after considering employees participation, authority, decentralization, competitive environment etcetera8. milita ry group management focuses on increased return and satisfied employees. Human resource management focuses on effectiveness, culture, productivity and employees participation.9. Personnel management is concerned with personnel manager. Human resource management is concerned with all level of managers from top to bottom.10. Personnel management is a routine function. Human resource management is a strategic function.Human resource management past and attestHuman resource management has changed a lot in the past deoxycytidine monophosphate years. Previously, HRM was called personnel administration or personnel management, that is, it had to do with the staff or workers of an organisation. It was in general concerned with the administrative tasks that have to do with organising or managing an organisation, such as record keeping and dealing with employee wages, salaries and benefits. The personnel military officer (the person in charge of personnel management) also dealt with res triction relations.such as problems with trade unions or difficulties between employers (those who employ workers) and their employees. forwards we look at the role of HRM in organisations today, we will examine the way people were managed in organisations in the past.DefinitionPersonnel Management Personnel Management is then basically an administrative record-keeping function, at the usable level. Personnel Management attempts to maintain sensible terms and conditions of employment, while at the same time, efficiently managing personnel activities for individual departments etc. It is assumed that the outcomes from providing justice and achieving efficiency in the management of personnel activities will guide ultimately in achieving organizational success. Facts +The U.S. exponent of Personnel Management (OPM) is the worlds largest HR department. OPM provides HR services for the federal governments workforce of nearly 2.8 million workers. Its staff carry out the tasks to r ecruit, interview, and elicit employees oversee merit pay, benefits and retirement programs and ensure that all employees and applicants are treated plum and according to the law.To set the low-down cost-of-living allowances rates, the government agency of Personnel Management (OPM) surveys the prices of over three hundred items, including goods and services, housing, transportation, and miscellaneous expenses. OPM conducts these surveys in each of the COLA areas and in the Washington, DC, area.Human resource management is concerned with the development and implementation of people strategies, which are integrated with corporate strategies, and ensures that the culture, determine and structure of the organization, and the quality, motivation and commitment of its members domiciliate fully to the achievement of its goals.HRM is concerned with carrying out the SAME functional activities traditionally performed by the personnel function, such as HR planning, job analysis, recrui tment and selection, employee relations, performance management, employee appraisals, compensation management, training and development etc. But, the HRM approach performs these functions in a qualitatively clean-cut way, when compared with Personnel Management.Main Differences between Personnel Management and HRMHRM has a long account statement of growing from a simple upbeat and maintenance function to that of a progress level activity of the companies. In recent years, the focus on people management from human not bad(p)/intellectual capital perspective is also shaping firmly. However, the problematical fact is that this growth can be generally witnessed in management publications and rarely in practice. Peripheral expression of people management in organization can mislead the observers since, hardly there could be any organization that is yet to rename its old fashioned human activity of industrial relations/personnel/welfare/administration department into HRM dep artment. But, in practice, these organizations go along to handle the people management activities the way they had been handling earlier. The reasons for this could be many and varied. Among them, the potential reason is lack of clear understanding about the differences between personnel/IR and HRM.Professor John Storey brightly portrayed these differences in 27 areas of people management in 1992 in his rule book titled Developments in the Management of Human Resources. These differences are illustrated in TableDimensionsPersonnel and IRHRMBeliefs and assumptions1. ContractCareful painting of written contractsAim to go beyond contract2. RulesImportance of devising clear rules/mutuallyCan-do outlook temper with rule3. Guide to management actionProceduresBusiness-need4. Behaviour referentNorms/custom and practiceValues/mission5. Managerial task vis-a-vis labourMonitoringNurturing6. Nature of relationsPluralistUnitarist7. ConflictInstitutionalizedDe-emphasized strategical aspects 8. Key relationsLabour managementCustomer9. InitiativesPiecemealIntegrated10. Corporate planMarginalCentral11. expedite of decisionSlowFast path management12. Management roleTransactionalTransformational leadership13. Key managersPersonnel/ IR specialists popular/business/line managers14. conference verificatoryDirect15. StandardizationHigh (e.g. space-reflection symmetry an issue)Low (e.g. parity not seen as relevant)16. Prized management skillsNegotiationFacilitationKey levers17. woofSeparate, marginal taskIntegrated, key task18. PayJob evaluation (fixed grades)Performance-related19. Conditions apiece negotiatedHarmonization20. Labour-managementCollective bargaining contractsTowards individual contracts21. Thrust of relations with stewardsRegularized through facilities and trainingMarginalized (with exception of some bargaining for change models)22. Job categories and gradesManyFew23. CommunicationRestricted fly the coopIncreased flow24. Job designDivision of labourTeamwork25 . Conflict handlingReach unstable trucesManage climate and culture26. readiness and developmentControlled access to coursesLearning companies27. Foci of assist for interventionsPersonnel proceduresWide ranging cultural, structural and personnel strategies

EOQ, Economic Order Quantity

An Economic lay out amount is the best number of lay out that minimizes total unsettled prices required to order and gift register, that is to say, that EOQ helps us to discipline the appropriate nitty-gritty and frequency when ordering and holding inventory. EOQ is use as part of a ceaseless review inventory system, in which the reduce aim of inventory is monitored at all meters, and a fixed quantity is ordered individually time the inventory level reaches a specific reorder point, as it shown in the left-hand intense, where R is the minimum inventory.More all over, EOQ is sanctionedally an accounting convening that determines the point at which the combination of order be and inventory carrying costs atomic number 18 the least. The result is the some cost effective quantity to order. Also, EOQ is in general recomm lay offed in ope rations where demand is relatively steady, items with demand variability such as seasonality can still use the framework by goi ng to shorter time periods for the EOQ calculation. This exemplar have som assumptions that are important to ready into account 1. Demand is know and is deterministic, ie. constant. 2. The entrust time, ie. he time between the perspective of the order and the receipt of the order is known and constant. 3. The receipt of inventory is instantaneous. In early(a) manner of speaking the inventory from an order arrives in wizard batch at unmatchable point in time. 4. measure discounts are not possible, in other words it does not make any difference of opinion how much we order, the price of the product allow still be the same. (for the Basic EOQ-Model) 5. That the only if costs pertinent to the inventory mannikin are the cost of placing an order and the cost of holding or storing inventory over time.The basic Economic Order Quantity (EOQ) formula is WhereA = Demand for the year Cp = terms to place a single order Ch = price to hold one unit inventory for a year Then, the out front formula try to Minimize the nub cost per period, that consist in core cost per period = inventory holding costs per period + order costs per period Where Order Cost = The get of Orders Placed in the period x Order be Carrying Cost = middling Inventory Level x the Carrying Costs of 1 unit of Stock for one period Then as a Result of this minimizing we get the Total germane(predicate) Cost (TRC) which is TRC = Yearly Holding Cost + Yearly Ordering Cost = So we can see that the Economic Order Quantity (EOQ) is derived from this formula as the graphic shows. Economic Order Quantities can overly have many variations on its basic model. The most useful ones are * Quantity discount logic can be programmed to work in conjunction with the EOQ formula to determine optimum order quantities. about systems will require this additional programming. * additive logic can be programmed to determine max quantities for items subject to spoilage or to prevent obsolescence on items reachin g the end of their product life cycle. When used in manufacturing to determine lot sizes where production runs are very long (weeks or months) and destroyed product is being released to stock and consumed/ change throughout the production run you may compulsion to take into account the ratio of production to consumption to more accurately represent the average inventory level. * Your safeguard stock calculation may take into account the order cycle time that is driven by the EOQ. If so, you may need to tie the cost of the change in safety stock levels into the formula.

'History Indian Democracy and British Raj\r'

'India’s struggle for independence by Bipan Citandra Indian guinea pig copulation represented * Founded in declination 1885 by 72 political workers. * rootage organised expression of Indian disciplineism on an all-India scale A puissant and long lasting myth ‘the safe valve’ had arisen around this question. The myth is that The Indian National relation: * Started by A. O. Hume and other chthonian the official direction, guidance and advice of no little a person that Lord Dufferin, the viceroy * Was to provide a safe, mild, peaceful, and constitutional spillage or golosh Valve * For the rising dissatis situationion among the peopleThat was tip to wards a frequent and violent consequence * Core was that violent alteration was on the cards at the time Was emptyed by the foundation of the sexual intercourse * Liberals absorb it * Writers accept it * Radicals use it to prove that relation back has of all time been comprising imperialism. * Extreme right use it to institute that the Congress has been anti-national from the beginning All cope with that the panache of its birth affected the canonical character and future work of the Congress in a crucial manner Young India by Extremist drawing card Lala Lajpat Raj Used ‘safety valve’ theory to ardor the Moderates in the Congress * Suggested Congress ‘was a product of Lord Dufferin’s wizard’ * Argued that ‘the Congress was started more with the object of providence the British empire from danger than with that of gentle political liberty for India. The interests of the British Empire were primary and those of India only secondary’. * Added ‘no one can say that the Congress has non been true to that ideal’ India at present by R. Palme Dutt * Myth of the safety valve = an definitive element in the liberal and adical discussion section of the political system * Wrote that Congress as bought into existence through direct governmental initiative and guidance and through ‘a plan secretly pre- logical with the Viceroy’ * Wrote that Congress was used by Government ‘as an intended weapon for safeguarding British command against the rising forces of popular unrest and anti-impending revolution’ * Said it was ‘an attempt to defeat, or kind of forestall, an impending revolution * Said copulation had two strands 1. Strand of cooperation with imperialism against the ‘menace’ of the hatful movement 2.Strand of leadership of the masses in the national struggle Congress in time became a nationalist organic structure and the vehicle of mass movements. It became the organiser of the anti-imperialist movement. It fought and collaborated with imperialism, and conduct to the mass movements and when the masses moved towards the radical path, it betrayed the movement to imperialism. Became an organ of opposition to echt revolution, a violent revolution. We by M. S. Golwalkar(RSS Chief) Found safety valve theory handy in attaching the Congress for its secularism and anti-nationalism. Said that Hindu national consciousness had been destroyed by those claiming to be nationalists who had pushed the ‘notions of democracy’ and the perverse notion that the Muslims had something in common with the Hindus * Suggested the fight in India was not just between Indians and British it was a ‘triangular fight’ Hindus were at war with Muslims and on the other hand with the British * Said what led Hindus to ‘denationalisation’ was the aims and insurance policy laid down by Hume, like and Wedderburn in 1885 The Rise and Growth of the Congress in India by liberal C.F. Andrews and Girija Mukerji * They fully accepted the safety valve theory * It had helped avoid ‘useless bloodshed’ before as well as after 1947 Tens of scholars and hundreds of popular writers have repeated some mutation of these points of view. Rise and Growth Despite the fact that Hume was a lover of liberty and precious political liberty for India under the protection of the British Crown be was above all an English Patriot , in one case he saw British incur was threatened with an impending calamity he decided to create a safety valve for the discontent.Hume wrote: ‘I was shown several large volumes containing a vast number of entries… all arranged according to district’ he mentions that he had volumes in his stubbornness only for a week, ‘all going to show that these execrable men were pervaded with a sense of the despondency of the existing state of affairs; that they were convinced(p) that they would starve and die, and that they wanted to do something, and patronize by each other, and that something meant violence’ rattling soon the seven volumes started undergoing a duty period * In 1933 (in Gurmukh Hihal Singh’s hands) they became ‘government reportsâ €™ * Andrews and Mukerji modify them into ‘several volumes of secret reports from the CID’ * Came into Hume’s obstinance in this official capacity Dutt wrote, ‘Hume in his official capacity had received possession of the voluminous secret police reports’\r\n'

'How and Why did Labor Unions Start Essay\r'

'Essentially, grate conjugations are associations of workers who are bind together for the purpose of improving their usage conditions and protecting themselves and their coworkers from economic and legal exploitation. Members of task unions engage in collective negotiate with their employers, as well as popular political activism. tug unions are well-nigh as old as the States itself. Although primitive unions of carpenters and other messspeople made an demeanor in various cities in compound America, the first national labor unions gained potency in the 1820s. During this time, workers banded together to let down the working day from a grueling 12 hours to a more achievable 10 hours. In 1866, the Nation Labor Union persuaded Congress to cut the working day down to today’s eight-spot hour standard.\r\nLabor twenty-four hours, a holiday observed on the first Monday in September, is a creation of the organized labor movement. The day is intended to honor the ach ievements of American workers and the contributions they have made to the prosperity and aptitude of the United States. The first Labor Day celebration was organized by members of the key Labor Union and held on 5 September 1882. Labor unions are de jure recognized as representatives of workers in many another(prenominal) industries in the United StatesLarger unions also typically engage in lobbying activities and electi atomic number 53ering at the state and federal level. Most unions in America are aligned with one of two larger umbrella organizations: the AFL-CIO created in 1955, and the Change to Win Federation which breach from the AFL-CIO in 2005.\r\nBoth advocate policies and economy on behalf of workers in the United States and Canada, and affiance an active role in politics. The AFL-CIO is peculiarly concerned with global trade issues. Although more smaller compared to their peak membership in the 1950s, American unions remain a orotund political factor, both thro ugh mobilisation of their own memberships and through coalitions with like-minded activistic organizations around issues such as immigrant rights, trade policy, health care, and living wage campaigns.\r\nTo clamber alleged employer anti-union programs, unions are currently advocating reinvigorated â€Å"card check” federal jurisprudence that would require employers to bargain with a union if more than 50% of workers signed forms, or â€Å"cards,” stating they wish to be represented by that union. The current procedure involves waiting 45 to 90 days for a federally supervised secret-ballot employee referendum on the subject.\r\n'

'A Resource-Based View of International Human Resources: Toward a Framework of Integrative and Creative Capabilities\r'

' step up for pass on pitying imaginativeness Studies (CAHRS) CAHRS working(a) Paper Series Cornell University ILR tutor Year 2005 A choice-Based View Of awayistic tender Re generators: Toward A Framework of consolidative and original Capabilities Shad S. Morris Cornell University Scott A. Snell Cornell University Patrick M. Wright Cornell University This paper is posted at [email&# mavin hundred sixty;protected] http://digitalcommons. ilr. cornell. edu/cahrswp/284 CAHRS at Cornell University 187 Ives H alone Ithaca, NY 14853-3901 the States Tel. 607 255-9358 www. ilr. cornell. edu/CAHRS WORKING PAPER SERIES\r\nA Re root sy idea-Based View of international kind-hearted visions: Toward a Framework of Integrative and original Capabilities Shad S. Morris Scott A. Snell Patrick M. Wright works Paper 05 †16 servicemanwide gentlemans gentleman Resources CAHRS WP05-16 A Resource-Based View Of global adult male Resources: Toward A Framework of Integrative and imag inative Capabilities Shad S. Morris Cornell University School of Industrial and Labor dealing 393 Ives Hall Ithaca, NY 14853 (607) 255-7622 [email protected] edu Scott A. Snell Cornell University Center for Advanced gentleman Resource Studies (CAHRS) 393 Ives Hall Ithaca, NY 14853 (607) 255-4112 scott. [email protected] edu Patrick M. Wright Cornell University Center for Advanced merciful Resource Studies (CAHRS) 393 Ives Hall Ithaca, NY 14853 (607) 255-3429 [email protected] edu http://www. ilr. cornell. edu/cahrs This paper has non infragone formal freshen or appla spend of the faculty of the ILR School. It is intended to make results of Center search unattached to separates interested in preliminary form to encourage word of honor and suggestions. Most (if not all) of the CAHRS Working coer atomic number 18 avail fitting for reading at the Catherwood Library.\r\nFor randomness on what’s available link to the Cornell Library Catalog: http://cat alog. library. cornell. edu if you wish. rogue 2 foreign military personnel Resources scam CAHRS WP05-16 Drawing on organisational intentionalness and MNC steads, we extend the election anchor gather in to address how ball-shaped compassionate imagery c be allow fors sustainable warlike favor. We expose a exemplar that emphasizes and extends traditionalistic assumptions of the mental imagery- metrical footd keep an eye on by identifying the reading capabilities necessary for a knotty and ever-changing world(prenominal) surround.\r\nThese capabilities address how MNCs big businessman less(prenominal)(prenominal) r for all(prenominal) one spic-and-spanfangled HR blueprints in result to topical anesthetic anaesthetic anaesthetic anaesthetic environments and mix in living HR traffic patterns from other split of the potent ( accords, regional supply, and orbiculate headquarters). In an causa to transform the nature of such capabilitie s, we contend aspects of piece seat of g everywherenment, neighborly crownwork, and organisational enceinte that might be linked to their receivement. rascal 3 internationalistic gentlemans gentleman Resources world CAHRS WP05-16 Few depart argue against the immensity of international kind mental imagery oversight (IHRM) in like a shot’s international quite a little (MNC).\r\nA wide say of issuesâ€that varies from spheric sourcing and off-shoring to regional trade agreements and compass standards to strategicalalal alliances and cosmosâ€all mastermind to the vital nature of IHRM in today’s world(prenominal) economy. In agitate, some observers film suggested that how certains manage their work forces is among the strongest predictors of sure-fire versus unsuccessful MNCs (cf. , Bartlett & Ghoshal, 1989; Doz & Prahalad, 1986; Hedlund, 1986). keep in linekers hasten follow a number of variant conjecture-based app roaches for studying IHRM.\r\nNot surprisingly, the mental imagery-based view (RBV) of the inviolable has emerged as perhaps the predominant perspective (Wright, Dunford, and Snell, 2002). RBV is extraly attractive to IHRM questioners in that it topical anesthetic anaestheticizees instanter on the say-so nurture of a unbendable’s sexual asset stocks for conceiving and executing various strategies. This perspective deseparate from traditional I/O economic models of combative return that focus on the bodily social structure of markets as the primary discourageminant of so physical exercised executing (Barney, 1991; Wernerfelt, 1984).\r\nAlso in personal line of credit with I/O economic models, the RBV is based on the assumption that mental imagerys be (1) distri plainlyed manifoldly cross slip itinerary fast(a)s and (2) remain imperfectly mobile over clock. Because these asset stocks atomic number 18 unequal, on that point is the possible for co mparative good. And when the picks atomic number 18 unshakable, that utility whitethorn be hard-fought to trance or imitate, thereby conferring a sustainable profit In the mount of MNCs, the premises of choice heterogeneousness and unfeelingness allow particular relevance.\r\ndarn the RBV typically focuses on resource heterogeneity cross anxietys debaucheds, MNCs ar fantastic in that they stimulate heterogeneity in spite of appearance their asset stocks as salubrious. Because they operate in treble environments, MNCs ar apparent to possess variations in both their bulk and practices that smooth local requirements, laws, and cultures. This variation is a strength source of profit at a local train, and quarter submit a global good to the MNC as a whole if the noesis, skills, and capabilities lay near be leveraged fittingly. pageboy 4\r\nInternational valet de chambre Resources CAHRS WP05-16 However, part heterogeneous resources are exitiveness ly immobile across immobiles, they whitethorn excessively be immobile in spite of appearance sures (MNCs). Given that scholars abide consistently noted the vexedies of compound population and practices in spite of appearance MNCs (e. g. , Szulanski, 1996; McWilliams, forefront Fleet, & Wright, 2001), the challenge of desegregation remains one of the to a great extent puzzling organisational and strategic issues. It is therefore reasonably surprising that IHRM researchers have not intercommunicate this issue much directly.\r\nThe routine of this chapter is to summate the literature on RBV and IHRM by addressing the ways in which resource heterogeneity and lethargy provide potential returnss to MNCs. However, we likewise hold to extend the RBV in this place setting by addressing some of the primary challenges ofâ€and capabilities deficiencyed to†take a shit resources and amalgamate them across business units at bottom the MNC. In this sense, we draw upon the cognition-based view of the dissipated (KBV) and organisational eruditeness perspectives to go to at how practices are stimulated and compound on a global outstrip (Grant, 1996; Teece, Pisano, & Shuen, 1997).\r\nTo organize this discussion, we breach the chapter down into three parts: First, we review how the RBV has been applied to IHRM issues to date and discuss the cardinal assumptions of this research. Second, we extend the RBV logical system to more than appropriately deal with issues of practice consolidation and mental hospital within a globally moral force environment by turning focus to aspects of learning capabilities. Finally, we discuss the implications for future research and where this extended view of RBV might mend research on a firm’s gay resources.\r\nIHM, People, Practices, And Competitive advantage Discussions of IHRM within the RBV manakinwork focus on both the work force (i. e. , the community) as good as the HR pas s (i. e. , the structures, policies and practices) (e. g. , Evans, Pucik, & Basoux, 2002; touched(predicate) & Bjorkman, 2001; MacDuffie, 1995; Schuler, Dowling, & De Cieri, 1993). To have a sustainable private-enterprise(a) advantage a firm moldiness first possess population with assorted and better skills and cognition than its competitors or it moldiness possess HR practices that allow for speciality from competitors.\r\nSecond, these practices or skills and abilities should not be cushy for competitors to duplicate or imitate (Wright, Dunford, & Snell, 2001). page 5 International homo Resources Managing international Workforces CAHRS WP05-16 Building on the assumptions of heterogeneity and immobility, scholars consistently stress the strategic contributions of people’s intimacy and skills to the movement of firms and keep up militant advantage (Boxall, 1996). In fact, Barney (1991) substantial a model to show how particular proposition as sets eject be strategically identified to spend to sustainable war-ridden advantage.\r\nBuilding on this model, McWilliams, Van Fleet, and Wright (2001) argue that valet resources, drawd as the entire pool of employees, dedicate a bizarre source of advantage in comparison to domestic drive pools in call of value, rarity, inimit dexterity, and nonsubstitut mightiness (VRIN). Given the VRIN supposed account, McWilliams et al. (2001) argued that firms atomic number 50 benefit from a global workforce in ii ways: (1) crownworkizing on the global labor pools, and (2) exploiting the cultural synergies of a diverse workforce. First, global (heterogeneous) labor pools potentially provide superior tender with child(p).\r\nThis is because firms corporation draw from contrary labor pools to bear upon the different needs of the firm (Bartlett & Ghoshal, 1989). For voice, some labor pools may have workers who, on average, have higher cognitive superpower or have had gre ater adit to education and training. An MNC could potentially draw from the highest superior labor pools for those functions that require high cognitive ability and education and training (McWilliams et al. , 2001). Second, the use of heterogeneous labor pools potentially increases the select of global business decision making.\r\nWhen an MNC draws from its multiple labor pools it has the potential to a construct diverse and flexible cadre of managers that are better able to bring different perspectives to a decision than a perplexity group based solely from the grow country (Ricks, 1993). That diversity alike enables centering to be flexible in applying their skills passim the different parts of the firm. Wright and Snell (1998) discussed theses advantages in terms of resource flexibility and coordination flexibility.\r\n plot of ground McWilliams et al. (2001) highlighted the benefits of gentleman resource heterogeneity and immobility; they also point out the difficulty in graftring and integrating these resources pageboy 6 International Human Resources CAHRS WP05-16 within the MNC. Drawing on Szulanski’s (1996) concept of stickiness, they note that the exchanges are made more difficult by â€Å"the lack of absorptive aptitude of the recipient, causative ambiguity, and an arduous relationship between the source and the recipient” (Szulanski, 1996: 36).\r\nYet, shortsighted research exists discussing how subjective stickiness poop be overcome in line of battle to maximize the benefits of a global workforce age overcoming the challenges of consolidation and coordination. Managing worldwide HR Functions Placing people as the source of sustainable hawkish advantage persists us to the dilemma of how best to manage their fellowship, skills, and abilities. in spite of appearance the RBV literature, issues of resource heterogeneity and immobility be the inevitable strain between local responsiveness and global integrating in MNCs (cf. Bae & Lawler, 2000; Brewster, 1999; Fey & Bjorkman, 2001; Sparrow, Schuler & Jackson, 1994). Local responsiveness and the value derived from customization implies variationâ€i. e. , heterogeneityâ€within the MNC. orbicular efficiency, on the other hand, requires integrating across business units. However, given the assumption of resource immobility, this consolidation is not always voiced to achieve. Schuler et al. (1993) captured the essence of these tradeoffs by highlighting the relationships between inbred operations and interunit linkages.\r\nFrom the standpoint of inhering operations, each overseas affiliate moldiness operate as effectively as possible relative to the competitive outline of the MNC. This means that these affiliates can offer advantages to the MNC by recognizing and sticking HR practices that are appropriate for their local markets, employment laws, cultural traditions, and the like. bit intragroup operations at the loc al level are strategic, the MNC essential also establish interunit linkages to gain efficiencies of surmount and image across several different countries.\r\nThis suggests that plot of ground overseas affiliates can generate advantages locally, there are also substantial advantages that can be gained globally by compound HR practices. Each is important, but each carries with it a different set of judicatureal requirements. These requirements point directly to issues relevant for HRM. rascal 7 International Human Resources CAHRS WP05-16 Extending these ideas, Taylor, Beechler, and Napier (1996) pull how MNCs might break out a more integrative approach to HRM. The objective of this dodge is to share best practices from all parts of the firm (not just merged) to raise a worldwide system.\r\nWhile there are allowances for local differentiation, the focus is on substantial global desegregation. Differentiation provides both the potential for local response and customizat ion, as substantially as the figure of ideas and practices needed for conception at the global level. However, integrating by dint of coordination, communication, and learning is not always easily achieved in this context. Ironically, the very characteristics that provide resource-based advantage at the local level truly complicate integrating at the global level.\r\nThe ability of firms to gain efficiencies of scope and scale at a global level is made more difficult by resource heterogeneity, and this challenge is exacerbated by resource immobility. The challenge then for the international firm is to identify how firms can stay on variety (and local customization) period simultaneously establishing a formation for consolidation and efficiency. As mentioned by McWilliams et al. (2001) very few scholars have address the â€Å"stickiness” issue involved in match the global and local tension. Taylor et al. 1996) allude to such integration difficulties when they n ote: â€Å"The reason firms move toward an exportive rather than an integrative SIHRM orientation…is that the weapon to identify and deepen the best HRM practices in their overseas affiliates are not in place. much(prenominal) mechanisms as having regional or global meetings of affiliate HR directors, transferring HRM materials (e. g. , performance appraisal forms to affiliates) or posting of the HR director of the affiliates to the HQs of the firm were not developed…” (p. 972). These same power issues are raise by McWilliams et al. 2001) when they discuss the major causes of internal stickiness existence lack of absorptive capacity, causal ambiguity, and arduous relationships between the source and recipient. In both examples, barriers to global practice integration are raised and discussed, but not resolved. This issue is addressed more in full below. scalawag 8 International Human Resources IHM And Capabilities CAHRS WP05-16 Given the immensityâ€and difficultyâ€of integrating human resources at a global level, musical composition preserving the uniqueness and heterogeneity at the local level, it seems reasonable to discuss these issues in the context of competitive capabilities.\r\nBased on the association based view (KBV) of firms, that emphasizes the need to acquire and immix develop, we suggest two such capabilities (see Figure 1). First, friendship integration ability refers to a firm’s ability to transfer and coordinate human resources across affiliates in a way that utilizes economies of scale and scope plot of ground allowing and promoting responsiveness to the local environment. Second, acquaintance cosmea capability refers to a firms’ ability to create untested and potentially innovative practices at the local level.\r\nFigure 1 IHRM: People, Practices, and Capabilities rivet Theories RBV: Focus on individual resources of intimacy, skills, and abilities RBV and Competencies: Focus on uni te resources of HR practices strategic nous Workforce: What are the fellowship, skills, and abilities that are heterogeneous and immobile? HR Practices and Systems: What are the HR practices and systems that are heterogeneous and immobile? acquisition Capabilities: How can HR practices and systems be created and coordinated to restrain heterogeneity and immobility?\r\nSources McWilliams, Van Fleet, & Wright, 2001 People Practices Taylor, Beechler, & Napier, 1996 KBV and organisational Capabilities: Capabilities Focus on learning formes and capabilities Chadwick & Cappelli, 1999 association Integration dexterity Ironically, while learning capability is one of the key dimensions of the Bartlett and Ghoshal (1989) framework of transnational organizations, most IHRM researchers have made exclusively passing mention of how firms share and desegregate best practice within the MNC.\r\nSnell, Youndt, and Wright (1996) argued that, peculiarly in dynamic environments, organizational learning may be the lonesome(prenominal) way to ensure that resources sustain their value and uniqueness over summon 9 International Human Resources CAHRS WP05-16 quantify. In essence, the capability to integrate HR practices better than competitors may be a key source of sustainable competitive advantage (cf. , Kogut & Zander, 1992). In the sections below, we frame the key factors underlying association integration capability in terms of organizational crownwork, favorable nifty, and human capital.\r\norganisational smashing. Youndt, Subramaniam, and Snell (2004) define organizational capital as the institutionalized companionship and codified inhabits residing within an organization. Artifacts of organizational capital take on an organization’s reliance on manuals and entropybases to preserve noesis, along with the establishment of structures, processes, and affairs that encourage repeated use of this make (Hansen, Hohria, & Tierne y, 1999). As an integration mechanism, organizational capital allows the firm to preserve knowledge as incoming employees replace those leaving.\r\nAn example of such an artifact might be a â€Å"lessons learned” database to ensure that lessons learned by one group can be made accessible for all groups. Based on MNC research, in order to improve the integration of knowledge within an MNC relative to the speed of its diffusion or imitation by competitors, firms invest in ways to make knowledge evident by encoding its use and replicating it in rules and inscriptionation (Kogut & Zander, 1993). Other forms of organizational capital are apparent to re hand flesh outed, bon ton-wide dailys on how advanced HR practices should be co-ordinated by all affiliates.\r\nThese routines may detail how practices should be shared to reduce the partition and time it takes to implement each mod approach, and thereby, improve the overall efficiency of knowledge integration (March, 1991). Similarly, organizations typically implement entropy systems to provide affiliates with a common platform for HR processes and practices (Snell, Stueber & Lepak, 2002). These systems, processes, and routines ensure that: (1) practices are enforced routinely through established data collection procedures and (2) practices are rapidly disseminated throughout the entire MNC with minimal costs (Daft & Weick, 1984).\r\nIn terms of integration capability, then, organizational capital provides a stem for share and rascal 10 International Human Resources CAHRS WP05-16 institutionalizing knowledge across affiliates. However, it may work against efforts to preserve heterogeneity at the sub-unit level. hearty detonator. favorable capitalâ€defined as the knowledge enter within cordial electronic networksâ€also make ups a potentially valuable friendly function in the integration capability of MNCs (Nahapiet & Ghoshal, 1998). For example, Szulanski (199 5) found that one of the biggest obstacles to transfer knowledge in MNCs is the poor relationship between sources and recipients of information.\r\nalong this line, Ghoshal and Bartlett (1989) empirically showed that knowledge communion and integration could not occur without the humankind of strong neighborly connections. The importance of social capital for integration capability is found in research by Kostova and Roth (2002), who conclude that successful practice adoption is for the most part dependent upon relationships based on verify and shared identity. Trust provides the motive to move with others, while shared identity provides an cooccur take ining of what is important to share. Both of these elements of social capital would seem vital for integration capability.\r\nAnd importantly, neither of them would de facto require the loss of local autonomy. Human Capital. While organizational and social capital are both potentially important resources underlying a firmâ⠂¬â„¢s integration capability, Teece (1977) argued that one of the doctrine obstacles to transfer and integration is lack of previous mother and knowledge (i. e. , human capital). research by Szulanski (1996) and Tsai (2002), for example, has shown that knowledge share and integration is facilitated when respective parties have the absorptive capacity or prior experience to understand related ideas (Szulansk, 1996; Tsai, 2002).\r\nIn the context of MNCs, Haas (2004) showed that groups with gigantic amounts of international experience are more apparent to integrate knowledge from other parts of the organization than those that do not. Similarly, Gregersen and shadowy (1992) found that not only is international experience important for integration, but when it is mate with experience in bodily headquarters affiliates are more likely to bear allegiance to the overall goals of the firm. These international and corporate skills and knowledge are often gained through transfers a nd rotational assignments that enable the HR function to develop a more complex Page 11\r\nInternational Human Resources CAHRS WP05-16 and global orientation. This provides them with the ability to more systematically manage the integration process (Kedia & Bhagat, 1988). such(prenominal) forms of human capital can also correct any tendency of HR subunits to assume that the situation in the drove country is unique; thus avoiding the not-invented-here syndrome. The takings of this discussion s is that a firm’s integration capability likely depends on a combination of human, social, and organizational capital.\r\n kind and organizational capital are alternativeâ€and potentially complementaryâ€resources for knowledge and practice share. Human capital, in turn, is important for absorbing or acquiring that knowledge. As firms develop the capability to integrate brisk practices they potentially can achieve economies of scale and scope through HRM. And when these inte grative mechanisms preserve resource heterogeneity at a local level, it may pass away to a more rapid response to a global environment and greater potential for competitive advantage.\r\nFigure 2 Capabilities: Creative and Integrative Focus commercialize assertion Value Proposition Sources Integrative Capabilities perpetual commercialize: Resources must be combined and integrated to maintain an advantage corporate trust resources in ways that others cannot copy creates benefits arising from scarcity Taylor, Beechler, & Napier, 1996; McWilliams, Van Fleet, & Wright, 2001 Creative Capabilities Dynamic Market: Resources must be reconfigured and created to maintain an advantage Developing new resources that competitors don’t yet have creates benefits arising from transformation\r\nChadwick & Cappelli, 1999; Snell, Youndt, and Wright; 1996 Page 12 International Human Resources intimacy Creation potency CAHRS WP05-16 In the context of organizational learning and the KBV, it is important to eliminate knowledge integration capability from knowledge innovation capability. Just because a firm is able to integrate practices across affiliates does not mean that it will be able to create new practices as well (See Figure 2). Creation capabilities allow the MNC to develop new practices that lead to resource heterogeneity in the first place.\r\nWhile few HRM researchers have mentioned the importance of integration mechanisms, fewer still have discussed the importance of psychiatric hospital mechanisms that renew a firm’s stock of HR practices. This is despite the fact that as firms continually integrate practices, it is desperate that new practices are created and developed that allows for innovation and unremitting improvement in a changing environment. Therefore, in global environments characterized by rapid change and increasing competition, inactive concepts of heterogeneity may no prolonged be sufficient to explain (and susta in) a competitive advantage.\r\nAn ongoing debate in strategy is whether any static view of resources can really explain a competitive advantage that is sustainable over time (Lippman & Rumelt, 1982). For example, Grant (1996) argues that idiosyncratic advantages by nature erode over time. This debate is specially relevant in the global environment where what might create a competitive advantage at one point in time or in one location, may not at another point in time or location. Hence, it is vital that MNCs develop the capability to create and renew HR practices in order to maintain a competitive advantage.\r\nGhoshal & Bartlett (1988) stated that MNCs â€Å"create” new products, practices, or systems locally, using specific mechanisms to oppose to local circumstances. Creating local HR practices lies at the heart of an MNC’s capability to be responsive to the unique and changing opportunities of different environments. Below, we discuss how human capita l, social capital, and organizational capital might influence the knowledge design capability of new HR practices. (See Figure 3 for an overview of mechanisms that influence knowledge integration and creation capabilities).\r\nPage 13 International Human Resources CAHRS WP05-16 Figure 3 Capabilities: Human Capital, Social Capital, Organizational Capital Human Capital Social Capital Organizational Capital Creative capacity •In-depth local experience •International experience outside of corporate •Broad internal network range •Broad external network range •Local Market relationships •Localized routines •Creative processes and systems •Norms of promiscuousity •Overarching rules or guidelines change magnitude Influence on Creative Capability Integrative Capability\r\nIncreasing Influence on Integrative Capability •Absorptive capacity •International and corporate experience •Internal Social connections • du al-lane perceptions and identity •Internal Trust •Company-wide rules and routines • somatic culture of sharing •Interactive technologies • entropy collection system Human Capital. The knowledge and experienceâ€i. e. , human capitalâ€of the people within the HR function is a key factor in new HR practice creationâ€whether of new practice ideas, or of improvements in the practices (Lepak & Snell, 1999).\r\nFor example, HR functions possessing large amounts of local knowledge and experience should be able to effectively create practices on their own in response to the various, changing environments. This localize experience answers them to understand the needs of local clients and suppliers, which allows them to develop practices that are unique to each region or country, and hence, heterogeneous across the firm. Page 14 International Human Resources CAHRS WP05-16 International experiences are also important for creating new HR practices.\r \nFor example, because international experience is often highly valued in MNCs (e. g. , Mendenhall & Stahl, 2000), people with international skills and knowledge are more likely to be seen by others as being confident and willing to share divergent opinions and advocate for their own position (Stasser, Stewart, & Wittenbaum, 1995). Moreover, Gregersen & dark (1992) showed that people with strong experience in many international settings and limited experience in corporate are more likely to make changes based on local demands rather than pressures from central parts of the firm.\r\nThis is most likely due to the people’s array of international experiences that have detached them from an allegiance with the company as a whole. Social Capital. Specific aspects of social capital have been argued to play a role in knowledge creation. For example, while Hansen (2002) argued that social networks provide an important conduit for the sharing of knowledge, he also arg ued that such networks play a role in knowledge creation because they inform network members about the existence, location, and significance of new knowledge.\r\nBurt (1982) found that networks comprising a broader range of contacts will have a more heterogeneous base of information and knowledge to draw from. While such wide networks may not always facilitate a deep take to the woods of knowledge, they offer different reference points for HR members to make comparisons and explore new ideas. A firm’s ability to happen upon new opportunities is likely to be a function of multiple local contacts. HR affiliates often have critical colligate with local vendors and, perhaps, competing HR groups that allow them to take after local opportunities (Bartlett & Ghoshal, 1989; Hedlund, 1986).\r\nBirkinshaw (1997) refers to these as relationships within the ‘local market’. Within the local market an affiliate is likely to be embedded in different types of relationsh ips (Ghoshal & Bartlett, 1990; Ghoshal & Nohria, 1989). McEvily and Zaheer (1999) argue that because each part of the MNC maintains different local patterns of network linkages, they are exposed to new knowledge, ideas, and opportunities. Organizational Capital. In many cases, organizational capital may actually hinder knowledge creation capability. The formalized processes, systems, structures, etc. ave a Page 15 International Human Resources CAHRS WP05-16 tendency to reinforce existing routines and get rid of against variation and change that engender creativity. However, in some instances, organizational capital may facilitate flexibility in the line of merchandise of actions that allow a firm to hear to environmental cues. This is especially true when employees are encouraged to take action that substitute company-wide, interchangeable routines in favor of localized response that allows knowledge assimilation from the local environment (Daft & Weick, 1984).\r \nFor example, parts of the firm may develop yeasty processes and systems to identify problems, develop hypotheses, communicate ideas to others, and contradict what would normally be expected (Torrence, 1988). Grant (1996) argued that such creative routines and processes offer an efficient framework for people to create new, situation-specific practices by utilizing local perspectives in developing practices for the firm.\r\nThough potentially tangled for the integrative capability, localized routines and creative processes help affiliates relate better with local vendors, clients, and competitors by providing a set of expectations and processes that encourage HR groups to turn to the surrounding environment. For example, an HR affiliate may have developed a simple manual or informal norm of what to do when developing a new practice. Such a routine is likely to leave many gaps in exact steps to follow, but provide an overview or value to help the HR group be innovative.\r\nThis si mple routine allows the local HR group to gull knowledge more quickly from its employees and develop practices to meet their needs. In summary, these aspects of human capital, social capital, and organizational capital help us identify how the knowledge integration and creation capabilities might occur within an MNC. most of these forms of capital are more effectual depending upon the capability it is backup, and ironically, some of these mechanisms that influence integration might actually hinder knowledge creation and vice versa.\r\nFor example, firms heavy in local knowledge and experiences and weak in international experiences might have a detrimental affect on a firm’s ability to integrate practices across the various parts of the firm. Such strong human capital is likely to promote the not-invented-here syndrome through the affiliate’s strong belief and experience base dealing exclusively with the local environment. Similarly, buckram forms of Page 16 Inter national Human Resources CAHRS WP05-16 organizational capital, in terms of standardised routines and shared electronic databases, might deter the various parts of HR to develop and create practices on their own.\r\nThis could by and large stem from the fact that so much structure and support for integration is in place that HR groups fail to find time to bring about new practices or adapt existing practices to the local environment. Implications For Research And Theory The unique complexities and challenges faced by today’s global firms present different implications for the RBV and its application to strategic IHRM. For example, because a large amount of the international management literature focuses on variances in cultural, geographical, and institutional pressures; the implications for applying the RBV become more complex.\r\nAs MNCs oppose to create and integrate their practices across borders, they are faced with unique challenges that either poking for global effic iency or local responsiveness. These challenges open the discussion for ways to actually manage both the creation and integration of knowledge on a global scale. This means that the questions typically asked by strategic IHRM scholars (e. g. , HR practices and performance) should be augmented with questions of how HR practices are created and integrated in ways that lead toward resource heterogeneity and immobility.\r\nTo create a sustainable competitive advantage firms must not only be able to respond to their local environments or standardize their practices across the firm. They must be able to relief a tension of practice heterogeneity through local practice creation and immobility of those practices through their integration across the firm. One supposititious implication of this discussion calls for a greater understanding of the rents found through the creation and integration of HR practices. As Chadwick and Dabu (2004) explain, a marriage of rent concepts with theories of the firm (i. e. RBV) is infixed to describing firm’s competitive advantages and in particular in understanding how actors within firms can take conscious steps to toward a sustainable competitive advantage. The current strategic IHRM literature strongly alludes to the importance of integration and being able to Page 17 International Human Resources CAHRS WP05-16 organize heterogeneous resources in a way that is difficult for competitors to imitate. The assumption here is that heterogeneity and immobility of resources creates greater performance or rents arising from scarcityâ€Ricardian rents (cf. , work, Sanders, Gregersen, 2001).\r\nIn essence, Ricardian rents can be root in the cross-border integration of various HR practices. The integration of such practices not only assures that some of them will be unique to the firm, but that they will be difficult for others to imitateâ€making them scarce in the market. The advantages that come from constant creation of HR p ractices operates under a different principle than traditional resources leading to Ricardian rents. Rather than rents arising from scarcity, the creation capability perspective emphasizes rents arising from market discontinuitiesâ€Schumpeterian rents (cf. Carpenter et al. , 2001). Schumpeterian rents derive from a firm’s ability to exploit or leverage resources to address changing environments (Teece et al. , 1997; Amit & Schoemaker, 1993). Based on Schumpeterian rents, a focus on the continuous creation of resources can enable a firm to achieve competitive advantage on a sustainable basis by developing new practices that lead to practice heterogeneity across a complex and ambiguous global network. Hence, as mentioned by Lado and Wilson (1994) and Teece et al. 1997), turning to these dynamic capabilities as an extended approach to the RBV offers a close at hand(predicate) understanding of the actual sources of competitive advantage in a changing global environment. While we discuss the main mechanisms private road knowledge creation and integration (Grant, 1996), aspects of integration tend to focus on a broad array of learning processes, including knowledge sharing, transfer, codification, adoption, and/or institutionalization. Further research should look at how different aspects of the integration process might be influenced by specific human, social, and organizational capital mechanisms.\r\nFor example, Hansen and Haas (2001) showed that many firms have little difficulty in sharing knowledge across various units of the firm, but that the actual application or institutionalization of this knowledge is a completely different matter. While other scholars such as Kogut and Zander (1992) and Schulz (2001) have theoretically separated integration to include transfer and integration (or combination), very Page 18 International Human Resources CAHRS WP05-16 little practical research has been done on what factors might influence the transfer and what factors might influence the integration of knowledge.\r\nClearly, there must be differences since research such as Hansen and Haas’ (2001) notice the disparity in knowledge that is shared and knowledge that is actually applied. Also, while the ideas presented in this chapter are rooted in theory, empirical research is needed to study the impact of human, social,, and organizational capital on knowledge creation and integration capabilities. While theory suggests that aspects of all three of these factors will influence both capabilities, it is most probable that aspects of human capital will more strongly influence the creative capability.\r\nThis is largely due to the fact that people and their knowledge and skills are what allows the different HR affiliates the ability to develop local practices on their own, without onus or supervision from regional or corporate headquarters. Similarly, social and organizational capital should have their strongest influences on the integrative capability. This is due, in part, to the conduits and repositories created from aspects of social capital and organizational capital, respectively.\r\nIn fact, as we mentioned earlier, some aspects of organizational capital might have a negative effect on the firm’s ability to create new practices (knowledge), while some aspects of human capital may have a negative effect on the firm’s ability to integrate those practices across affiliates. Conclusion The purpose of this chapter has been to summarize the literature on RBV and IHRM in multinational firms by addressing the ways in which resource heterogeneity and immobility provide potential advantages to MNCs.\r\nHowever, we have also try to extend the RBV in this context by addressing some of the primary challenges ofâ€and capabilities needed to†integrate resources across business units within the MNC. The resolvent frequently used by firms has been to standardize HR practices and policies at a gl obal level, but this solves the integration problem while destroying the advantages of local Page 19 International Human Resources CAHRS WP05-16 variety. The challenge as we see it is identifying how firms can preserve variety (and local customization) while simultaneously establishing a foundation for integration and efficiency.\r\nThe ability for HR managers to balance this tension lies in the culture of capabilities to create and integrate practices across the global HR function. We extended traditional views of RBV to include aspects of practice integration and creation. Such capabilities allow firms to perpetually renew their HR practices in a way that allows them to respond to multiple external pressures while being coordinated and integrated to ensure that these practices drive the firm’s sustainable competitive advantage. 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Taylor, S. , Beechler, S. , & Napier, N. 1996. Toward an integrative model of strategic international human resource management. Academy of Management Review, 21: 959 -985. Teece, D. 1977.\r\nTime-cost tradeoffs: Elasticity estimates and determinants for international technology transfer projects. Management Science, 23: 830-837. Page 23 International Human Resources CAHRS WP05-16 Teece, D. J. , Pisano, G. , & Shuen, A. 1997. Dynamic capabilities and strategic management. Strategic Management Journal, 18: 509-534. Tsai, W. 2002. Social structure of coopetition within a multiunit organization: Coordination, competition, and intraorganziational knowledge sharing. Organization Science, 13: 179-192. Wernerfelt, B. 1984. A resource-based view of the firm. Strategic Management Journal, 5: 171-180. Wright, P. M. , Dunford, B.\r\nB. , & Snell, S. A. 2001. Human resources and the resource based view of the firm. Journal of Management, 27: 701-721. Wright, P. M. , & McMahon, G. C. 1992. Alternative theoretical perspectives on strategic human resource management. Journal of Management, 18: 295-320. Wright, P. M. & Snell, S. A. 1998. Towa rd a centripetal framework for exploring fit and flexibility in strategic human resource management. Academy of Management Review, 22 (4): 756-772. Youndt, M. A. , Subramaniam, M. , & Snell, S. A. 2004. Intellectual capital profiles: An examination of investments and returns. Journal of Management Studies, 41: 335-361. Page 24\r\n'

'Epics: Gilgamesh and Joseph\r'

'Archetypes in literature coiffe as basic models or exemplar examples of the hu valet thoughts, feelings, and reactions which underlie and determine a vast variety of piece experiences (Kluger, 1991, p. 16). Both, the stories of Gilgamesh and Joseph, be pregnant with rich archetypal imagery. They accord us perspective on the general human condition, while also providing in person applic able-bodied insight and exploration. Gilgamesh by dint of Gilgamesh’s adventures, timeless themes of heroism, providence, have sex, fellowship, and immortality are presented in a story of character growth. Gilgamesh possesses a likely for greatness that is realized by his takeoff boostership with Enkidu and his quests for ren declare and immortality” (Chastain, 2004, pg. 286). His jaunt begins in Uruk, where he reigns as a selfish and autocratic power scarce ultimately, his journey brings him crime syndicate to Uruk as a sassyr, nobler exponent. He is an pilot burner o f flawed heroism †undeniably courageous, but also undeniably imperfect. Using his known fighting skills, he exploits the men of his own country and takes their brides at whim.\r\nThe people of Uruk constitute so bulgeraged at this impropriety that they implore the gods for help. Anu and the goddess Arurur root their pleas in the stochastic variable of a man named Enkidu, who is equipped to refer the strength of Gilgamesh. Ironically, what the people and gods fashion for Gilgamesh’s demise, becomes his salvation. The gods are, in fact, successful in checking the king’s unbecoming behavior, but in an unexpected means. This is archetypal providence at work in the divine. bigs 3 Endiku doesn’t rise up and de operation the in life-threatening order warrior-king in one fatal swoop, preferably he ends up befriending him.\r\nTheir first confrontation typifies their relationship: Gilgamesh intends to enter a bride’s chamber to defile her, Endiku st ands at the door to refuse his entrance. They wrestle fiercely, equally matched. Endiku manages to skip the king’s unseemly intentions and get along his affection in the process. through their relationship, cut typifies itself as a powerful inducing for change. Both characters evolve and mature through their shared friendship. Endiku transitions from a wild man into a noble man, who enjoys royalty and battles bravely.\r\nOnce, he socialized sole(prenominal) with animals, but he soon developed into a prone man allow foring to lay his feeling down for a fellow human being. Gilgamesh slows his lustful pursuit of women and realizes authentic love through friendship. His self-centeredness dissipates as he grieves heartily septenary days and seven nights over the loss of his dear friend. The faulty demise of Enkidu causes him to face his own vulnerability. He remembers the horrors of the Underworld as relayed by his friend and suddenly experiences the first fear of dea th, which leads him to the archetypical quest for immortality.\r\nHis bereavement turns into a rigid expedition for eternal life. After order of magnitude the erection of a statue dedicated to his companion, his care began. After several failed attempts, the story’s hero is unable to beat death; it is inevitable and approaching. Ultimately, he must translate to content himself with the legacy he’ll hand rather than the escape of an afterlife. However, all is not lost. Although, he does not return to Uruk with sodding(a) life for himself and his people, he does return as a much improved despot.\r\n to each one journey he undertook shaped and evolved his character. Epic 4 Joseph Joseph’s story, according to the scriptural Old Testament narrative, is powerfully inspiring. It is the recruit of one man’s acclivity from pit to palace. He overcomes obstacles, injustice and mischance with grace and honor. Ultimately, every wrong is balance with wildly u nexpected success and wealth. Through it all, is the unmistakable mark of divine providence. thither is a â€Å"behind-the-scenes presence of oneness whose Hand guides every event, small or large, from beginning to end” (Westermann, 1996, pg. iii). This sense of orchestration and heavenly aid lends insight to a very personally involved Deity. some other striking element in Joseph’s story is the relentless scope of his morality. He endures temptation after temptation with holy place resolve. Although he suffers harm for the purity of his integrity, he remains loyal to decency nonetheless. Not only was Joseph moral, apparently, he was likeable. He won the upgrade of m whatsoever throughout his lifetime, beginning with his parents. He was the highly respected son of his father, Jacob, and this prepossess was not veiled from his brothers.\r\nTheir jealousy escalated so remarkably that they sought to kill him. They threw him into a pit while callously eat their lunc h and plotting his murder. However, through the intervention of an elderly brother, Reuben, they opted instead to sell him to traveling merchants. Through this cruel betrayal, Joseph landed in Egypt as slave to a wealthy ordained named Potiphar. He excelled in his environment and locomote quickly. â€Å"Joseph found favor in his eyeball and became his attendant. Potiphar put him in take of his place, Epics 5 nd he entrusted to his care everything he owned” (Genesis 39:4, New transnational Version). From the moment he was put in charge, paragon evoke Potiphar’s household for Joseph’s sake. In the midst of favor and excellence, injustice reentered the scene in the fig of Potiphar’s wife. Steadfast in his good obligation, Joseph refused the wife’s sexual allurement. This raging the jilted seductress and caused her to lash out vindictively. She wrongfully accused Joseph of the very act he refused to commit. Once over again, his life change d immediately in the heat of another’s scorn.\r\nHe was promptly imprisoned. â€Å"But while Joseph was thither in the prison, the LORD was with him; He showed him kindliness and granted him favor in the eyeball of the prison warden” (Genesis 37:19-20). Whether in a pit or in a prison, Joseph remained tethered to the bigger element of destiny. parsimoniousness used every scenario to nurture his latent aptitude in preparation for his ultimate position of elevated authority. As in the preceding circumstances, Joseph proved himself trustworthy and was inclined a position of leadership inwardly the prison. He was faithful and successful in all under his care.\r\nGod blessed his labor. Joseph didn’t remain in the king’s dungeon long in the beginning divine purpose began drawing him out of injustice a second time. believe God, he interprets the dream of a captive under his care. He predicts that the man will soon be freed to return to the powerfulness ’s palace as chief(prenominal) cupbearer. In return for such good news, Joseph asks that the cupbearer remember him and advocate his plight forwards the king. In gross negligence, the cupbearer forgets Joseph. It seems that he is the victim of inequality yet once again but two years later, Joseph is remembered.\r\nAt the cupbearer’s insistence, Joseph is summoned to interpret the King’s dream. Giving God credit for any potential achievement, Joseph begins interpretation †a feat which no other man in Pharaoh’s court could manage. The king was so impressed by Joseph’s answer and demeanor that he immediately bestowed the little thirty-year-old with royal authority: Since God has do all this known to you, there is no one so discerning and wise as you. You shall be in charge of my palace, and all my people are to subjugate to your orders. Only with respect to the throne will I be greater than you. (Genesis 41:39-40)\r\nThe cycle of discrimina tion, favor and blessing had reiterate itself once again. The two constants in Joseph’s umteen surprising adventures were the hand of God and tenacious morality. Even at the natural elevation of his success and power, Joseph chose goodness over vengeful reciprication. A dire famine in the region set the stage for a climatic final confrontation surrounded by Joseph and the brothers who betrayed him so long ago. They came to him in Egypt, unknowingly, pleading for rations. Joseph’s position of command allowed him many possible reactions â€anger, retaliation, intimidation- but he chose pity and generosity.\r\nHe reveals himself to his brothers through heavy tears and warm embraces. Their fateful reunion was masterful in perfect absolution. Joseph’s journey from the pit to the palace, taught him dependence on God, the trustworthy, omniscient One. He remained dedicated to hope and faith and was not disappointed. In the end, he was able to see purpose in ev ery trial and deific direction in every season. He was able to scan: â€Å"But as for you, ye thought sliminess against me; but God meant it unto good” (Genesis 50:20, King James Version).\r\n'

'The Internet – Pros and Cons\r'

'In the age of the technological development nobody who moves with the generation rear end imagine existing without the mesh. However, its popularity makes us affirm in mind all its side effects. many argue that the network is a treasury of cultivation while the others find it as a quotation of misleading information and danger. So, is the Internet a force for good or a force for injustice? Firstly, the Internet is an invaluable tool which helps students learn. Without any essay we can gain an access to the study aids.Furthermore, we can save time avoiding queues thanks to a queen-sized selection of online stores, which is particularly important for the disabled. Moreover, the Internet gives an luck to get in touch with new commonwealth from all over the world and keep in touch with the loved ones. However the Internet cannot be always shown in favourable light. First and foremost, the Internet is incredibly addictive †surfers are often not able to bear without check ing their mail hundreds of times per day.Moreover, immeasurable possibilities of communication with surfers cause losing an active social disembodied spirit in the real world. Lastly, inappropriate information as even pornography await under-age users at every turn. To sum up, there are many advantages and disadvantages of the Internet. some people say the Internet has ruined our lives simply in my opinion it transformed the world for the better. Although the Internet may be dangerous, it is a great purpose and a window to the world.\r\n'

'The Economic System of Western After the Breakup of Fuedalism\r'

'The distinguished in the nineteenth century and it”s collapse in the twentieth century pass led to similar, though much slower and slight obvious, bring in the course of modern science. at once”s frantic development in the sector of technology has a quality reminiscent of the old age preceding the economic crash of 1929. The clearest evidence of it whitethorn be seen in such comparatively schoolboyish sciences such as psychology and political economy. In psychology, one may stick with the attempt to guinea pig hu hu troops behavior without wing to the fact that military personnel is conscious.\r\nIn political economy, one may observe the attempt to study and device tender systems without reference to worldly concern. Political economy came into prominence in the nineteenth century, in the era of philosophies post kantian disintegration, and no one rose to check its premises or to ch solelyenge its base. Political economist-including the advocates of capitalism -defined their sciences as the study of trouble or direction or organization or universeipulation of â€Å"community”s” or nations resources.\r\nThe indite goes on to pronounce that the European culture regarded corporal productions as spend a penny that should be done by slaves or serfs and non first categorize citizens. It must be remembered that the institution of private belongings, in the full, legal meaning of the term, was brought into existence save by capitalism. In the pre- capitalist eras, private property existed de facto solely not de jure, i. e. by custom and sufferance, not by good or by law. In law and in belief all land belonged to the head of the tribe, the king, and was held unless by permission, which could be revoked at whatsoever period.\r\nCAPITALISM, a term using upd to donate the economic systems that has been look out on in the western world since the breakup of feudalism. radical to any system called capitalist are the dea ling between private consumeers of non-personal convey of production (land mines, industrial plants, etc…. collectively kn experience as capital) and waive but capitalizes workers, who sell their labor services to employers. The resulting wage bargains determines the rest in which the center products of fellowship will be shared between the class of laborers and the class of capitalist entrepreneurs.\r\nProductive aim of the â€Å"social surplus” was finical virtue that enabled capitalism to outstrip all introductory economic systems. Instead of building pyramids and cathedrals, those in education of the social surplus chose to invest in ships, warehouses, sore materials, finished goods and other material forms of wealth. There is of course, no such thing as a â€Å"social surplus. ” All wealth is produced by somebody and belongs to somebody. piece of musics native characteristic is his rational faculty. man”s forefront is his basic kernel o f survival-his nevertheless means of gaining knowledge.\r\nIf some men do not choose to think, they dirty dognister survive only by imitating and repeating a routine of work intoxicateed by others-but those others had to discover it, or none would have survived. If men do not choose to think or to work, they mass survive (temporarily) only by looting the goods produced by others-but those others had to produce them or none would have survived. Man dopenot survive as animals do, by the mere guidance of perceptions.\r\nHe cannot provide for his simplest strong-arm need without process of judgment. e needs a process of thought to discover how to plant and grow food or how to make weapons for hunting. His precepts might lead him to a cave. No precepts or instincts will tell him how to light a fire. Is man a sovereign person who owns his person, his mind, his life, his work and it”s products-or is he the property of the tribe (the state, the society, the collective) that m ay dispose of him any way it pleases, that may dictate his convictions, prescribe the course of his life, control his work and deprive his products? Does man have the decline?\r\nTo exist for his own sake-or is he born of bondage, as an indentures servant who must keep buying his life by dowry the tribe but can never play it free and clear. In a capitalist society, all human relationships are free. Men are free to cooperate or not, to deal with one other or not, as their own individual judgments, convictions, and interests dictate. They can deal with one another only in terms of and by means of reason, i. e. by means of discussion, persuasion, and contractual agreement, by voluntary choice, by voluntary choice of mutual benefit.\r\nThe decent to agree with others is not a problem in any society; it is the decently to disagree that crucial. It is the institution of private property the protects and implements the rights to disagree-and thus keeps the roaf open to man”s roughly valuable attribute (valuable personally, socially, and objectively): the creative mind. The recognition of individual rights entails the banishment of physical force from human relationships: basically, rights can be unwrapd by only means of force. In a capitalist society, no man or group may initiate the use of physical force against others.\r\nThe only function of the government is such a society is, the task of protect man”s rights, i. e. the task of protecting him from physical force. The author goes on to say that the only time the government can use force is when on that point is retaliation. Such there is no such entity as â€Å"society” since society is only a come up of individual men, this meant, in practice, that the rulers did not abide by the moral laws only subject to traditional rituals, they held total power and exacted blind obedience. They believed good which is good for the society.\r\nThe most profoundly revolutionary achievement of the get together States of the States was subordination of society to moral law. The principle of man”s individual rights represented the extension of devotion into the social system-as a limitation tot he power of the state, as man”s safeguard against the brute force of the collective. He goes onto say the United States was the first moral state. I don”t know what kind of morals the author is in reality referring to. A right is a moral principle defining and sanctioning a mans freedom of action at law in a social context.\r\nThere is only one fundamental â€Å"right”: mans right to his own life. The right to life is the source of all rights-and the right to property is their only implementation. He goes on to say all previous systems had regarded man as a sacrificial means to the end of others, and society as a means to a peaceful, orderly, voluntary, coexistence of individuals. All previous systems had regard man”s life as society property that the y could dispose of him anytime they felt equivalent it Without property rights, no other rights are possible.\r\nSince man has to sustain life by his own effort, the man who has no right to property is a right to action, like all the others: it is not the right to an object, but to the action and consequences of producing or earning that object. It is not a tackle that am man will earn any property, but only a guarantee that he will own it if he earn it. It is the right to gain, to keep , to use and to dispose of material values. To violate man”s right means to engage him against his own judgment, or to expropriate his values. there is only on why to do it: by the use of physical force.\r\n'

'The Hunters: Phantom Chapter 27\r'

'The next morning was an other(a) hot single. The picnic was so thick and humid that cracking walk of heart overthrow the street mat unpleasantly resembling attemptting slapped with a warm, damp washc massh. level indoors the car with the air-conditioning on, Elena could feel her usual y flowing whisker frizzing from the humidity.\r\nStefan had false up at her augury just afterward breakfast, this time with a s counselling of herbs and wizardly supplies Mrs. Flowers cherished them to get down up in t cause for recent encourageion spel s.\r\nAs they drove, Elena gazed taboo the window at the neat white houses and trim kelvin lawns of residential Fel ‘s Church as they gradual y gave way to the brick buildings and tasteful store windows of the obtain district at the center of town.\r\nStefan parked on the main street, egressside a cute teensy-weensy cafe w hither(predicate) they had sipped cappuccinos to stir upher stand firm fal , shortly after sh ed learned what he was. Sitting at sensation of the tiny tables, Stefan had told her how to make a traditional Italian cappuccino, and that had led to his reminiscing ab place the extensive feasts of his y pop divulgeh during the reincarnation: aromatic soups sprinkled with pomegranate conds; rich roasts basted with rosewater; pastries with elder flowers and pectusnuts. raceway after course of sweet, rich, heavily spiced foods that a novel Italian would n eer recognize as share of his countrys cuisine.\r\nIt had awed Elena when she echtized how varied the world had been the detain time Stefan had eaten human food. He had menti angiotensin-converting enzymed in passing play that forks had just been coming into fashion when he was young, and that his baffle had derided them as a foppish fad. Until Katherine had brought a much(prenominal) fashionable and lady inadequacy influence into their home, they had eaten with hardly spoons and nippy knives for cutting. â€Å"I t was elegant, though,” hed give tongue to, laughing at the expression on her hardihood. â€Å"We al had excel ent table manners. Youd hardly choose detect.”\r\nAt the time, shed approximation his differences from the boys shed tell apartn †the scope of al the hitarradiddle hed witnessed â€\r\nwas romantic.\r\nNow… wel , now she didnt know what she perspective.\r\nâ€Å"Its good deal here, I remember,” verbalize Stefan, victorious her hand and returning her to the pre displace. â€Å"Mrs. Flowers verbalize a New Age store has subject up and that they should waste most of the things we need.”\r\nThe shop was cal ed Spirit and Soul, and it was tiny plainly vibrant, cluttered with vociferationstals and unicorn figurines, tarot cards and dream transporters. Everything was painted in sunglasses of purple and silver, and silky wal hangings blew in the breeze from a weeny windowsil air conditi ir. The air conditi mavinr wasnt stron g plentiful to put much of a dent in the stickiness of todays heat, though, and the bird standardized critical woman with considerable curling pilus and clattering necklaces who emerged from the choke dour of the shop looked tired and sweaty.\r\nâ€Å"How idler I help you?” she tell in a low, melodious parting that Elena suspected she adopted to fit in with the atmosphere of the store.\r\nStefan pul ed erupt the scrap of publisher covered in Mrs. Flowerss tangled handwriting and squinted at it. Vampire vision or non, deciphering Mrs. Flowerss writing could be a chal enge.\r\nOh, Stefan. He was earnest, and sweet, and noble. His poets soul sh angiotensin converting enzyme by dint of those beautiful green eyeball. She couldnt regret loving Stefan. hardly sometimes she secretly wished that she had found Stefan in a little complicated form, that the soul and the intel igence, the revel and the passion, the sophistication and the sissiness had somehow been poss ible in the form of a real number eighteenyear-old boy; that he had been what he had fictive to be when she first met him: mysterious, foreign, just human.\r\nâ€Å"Do you have got boththing made of hematite?” he asked now. â€Å"Jewelry, or mayhap knickknacks? And incense with…” He frowned at the paper. â€Å"Althea in it? Does althea travel right?”\r\nâ€Å"Of course!” verbalise the shopkeeper enthusiastical y.\r\nâ€Å"Altheas mature for protection and security. And it smel s great. The different kinds of incense are over here.”\r\nStefan fol owed her deeper into the shop, but Elena lingered give the sack up the door. She felt exhausted, point though the day had further begun.\r\n in that respect was a rack of clothing by the front window, and she fiddled distractedly with it, pushing hangers lynchpin and forth. There was a wispy pink tunic continue with tiny mirrors, a little hippieish but cute. honest competency a equal (p) this, Elena legal opinion automatical y, and then flinched.\r\n through the window, she glimpsed a face she knew, and turned, the top hanging forgotten in her hand. She searched her mind for the name. Tom Parker, that was it. Shed gone out on a few dates with him junior year, earlier she and flat had gotten to bilkher. It felt worry a lot more than a year and a half(prenominal) ago. Tom had been pleasant enough and handsome enough, a perfectly satisfactory date, but she hadnt felt a spark between them and, as Meredith had verbalize, â€Å"practiced catch and release” with him,\r\nâ€Å"freeing him to swim clog up into the irrigate of dating.”\r\nHe had been crazy well-nigh her, though. Even after she set him freehanded, hed hung just about, looking at her with puppy-dog look, pleading with her to request him cover version.\r\nIf things had been different, if she had felt anything for Tom, wouldnt her life be simpler now?\r\nShe watched Tom. He was stro l ing mint the street, smiling, hand in hand with Marissa Peterson, the miss he had started dating near the end of last year. Tom was tal , and he bent his shaggy phantasm head down to hear what Marissa was saying. They grinned at to each one other, and he lifted his free hand to softly, tauntingly tug on her long pig. They looked happy together.\r\nWel , good for them. Easy to be happy when they were uncomplicatedly in love, when thither was energy more difficult in their lives than a summer spent with their friends ahead head word gain to col ege. Easy to be happy when they couldnt even remember the chaos their town had been in before Elena had saved them. They werent even grateful. They were in like manner lucky: They knew zero of the darkness that lurked on the edges of their safe, sunlit lives. Elenas stomach twisted. Vampires, demons, phantoms, star-crossed love. wherefore did she have to be the one to deal with it al ?\r\nShe listened for a moment. Stefan was s til consulting with the shopkeeper, and she heard him say worriedly, â€Å"Wil rowan twigs have the same effect, though?” and the womans reassuring murmur. He would be busy for a while longer, then. He was provided about a third of the way down the list Mrs. Flowers had given them.\r\nElena put the shirt back in its place on the rack and walked out of the store.\r\nCareful not to be noticed by the couple across the street, she fol owed them at a distance, taking a good long look at Marissa. She was skinny, with freckles and a little blob of a nose. middling enough, Elena supposed, with long, straight dark hair and a gigantic utter, but not especial y eyecatching. Shed been goose egg much at school, either. Vol eybal team, maybe. Yearbook. Passable, but not stel ar grades. Friends, but not popular. An occasional date, but not a girl who boys noticed. A part-time joke in a store, or maybe the library. Ordinary. zippo special. So why did ordinary, nothing-special Marissa get to have this uncomplicated, sunlit life, while Elena had been through hel †literal y †to get what Marissa detectmed to have with Tom and yet she still didnt get to have it?\r\nA cutting breeze moved(p) Elenas skin, and she shivered despite the mornings heat. She looked up.\r\n aphotic, imperturbable tendrils of hide were drifting around her, yet the rest of the street was just as sunny as it had been a few legal proceeding before. Elenas heart began to pound hard before her capitulum even caught up and realized what was happening. Run! something intimate her howled, but it was too late. Her limbs were suddenly heavy as lead.\r\nA cool, dry sound speak constrictive rump her, a voice that sounded eerily like the observational one privileged her own head, the one that told her the uncomfortable truths she didnt want to acknowledge. â€Å"why is it,” the voice tell, â€Å"that you can just now love monsters?”\r\nElena couldnt bring herself to turn around.\r\nâ€Å"Or is it that only monsters can truly love you, Elena?” the voice went on, taking on a softly imperious tone. â€Å"Al those boys in high school, they only valued you as a trophy. They saw your golden hair and your blue eyeball and your perfect face and they thought how fine they would look with you on their arm.”\r\nSteeling herself, Elena slowly turned around. There was no one there, but the blot out was growing thicker. A woman pushing a strol er brushed past her with a unperturbed glance. Couldnt she trance Elena was universe wrapped in her own private fog? Elena open up her mouth to cry out, but the words stuck in her pharynx.\r\nThe fog was colder now, and it felt well-nigh solid, like it was waitinging Elena back. With a great effort of wil , she forced herself before, but could stagger only as remote as the judicature in front of a nearby store. The voice spoke again, whispering in her ear, gloating. â€Å"They never saw you , those boys. Girls like Marissa, like Meredith, can find love and be happy. Only the monsters bother to find the real Elena. Poor, lamentable Elena, youl never be normal, wil you? non like other girls.” It laughed softly, viciously.\r\nThe fog press thicker around her. Now Elena couldnt see the rest of the street, or anything beyond the darkness. She time-tested to get to her feet, to move forward a few go, to judder off the fog. precisely she couldnt move. The fog was like a heavy blanket belongings her down, but she couldnt tactility it, couldnt fight it.\r\nElena panicked, tried once more to heave up to her feet, opened her mouth to cal , Stefan! alone the fog swirled into her, through her, soaking into her every pore. Unable to fight back or cal out, she col apsed.\r\nIt was stil freezing cold.\r\nâ€Å"At least I have clothes on this time,” Damon muttered, kick at a piece of charred wood as he trudged across the barren surface of the Dark Moon.\r\nThe p lace was beginning to get to him, he had to admit. He had been wandering this desolate landscape for what felt like years, although the unchanging darkness here made it un call upable for him to know for sure how much time had passed.\r\nWhen he had awakened, Damon had assumed he would find the little redbird next to him, eager for his company and protection. But hed awoken alone, untruth on the ground. No phantom, no grateful girl.\r\nHe frowned and poked one tentative foot into a jam of ash that might conceal a body, but was unsurprised to find nothing but remains beneath the ash, smearing more filth onto his once-polished black boots. afterward hed arrived here and started searching for decorous, hed expected that at any moment, he might stumble across her unconscious(p) body. Hed had a ruling image of what she would look like, watch and silent in the darkness, long red curls caked with ash. But now he was becoming convinced that, wheresoever the phantom had taken Bonn ie, she wasnt here. Hed manage here to be a hero: defeat the phantom, save the girl, and in the long turn tail save his girl. What an idiot, he thought, curling his lip at his own foolishness. The phantom hadnt brought him to wherever it was keeping Bonnie. wholly on this ash heap of the moon, he felt oddly rejected. Didnt it want him?\r\nA sudden military forceful wind pushed against him, and Damon staggered backward a few steps before regaining his balance. The wind brought a sound with it: Was that a moan? He altered his course, hunching his shoulders and heading for where he thought the sound had lift from. and so the sound came again, a sad, sobbing moan allow loose butt him.\r\nHe turned back, but his footsteps were encompassing(prenominal) together and less surefooted than usual. What if he was ravish and the little witch was hurt and alone somewhere on this godforsaken moon?\r\nHe was awful hungry. He pushed his tongue against his hurt canines, and they grew k nife-sharp. His mouth was so dry; he imagined the flow of sweet, rich blood, life itself pulsing against his lips. The moaning came once more, from his odd this time, and again he swerved toward it. The wind blew against his face, cold and rigorous with mist. This was al Elenas fault.\r\nHe was a monster. He was supposed to be a monster, to take blood unflinchingly, to kil without a second thought or care. But Elena had changed al that. She had made him want to protect her. Then he had started looking out for her friends, and final y even saving her churl little town, when any self-respecting vampire would have either been long gone when the kitsune came, or enjoyed the forlornness with warm blood on his lips.\r\nHed done al that †hed changed for her †and she stil didnt love him.\r\nNot enough, anyway. When hed kissed her throat and stroked her hair the other night, who had she been meaning of? That weakling Stefan.\r\nâ€Å"Its always Stefan, isnt it?” a clear, cool voice utter behind him. Damon froze, the hairs on the back of his neck rising.\r\nâ€Å"Whatever you tried to take from him,” the voice continued, â€Å"you were just fighting to even the scales, because the fact is that he got everything, and you had nothing at al . You just cute things to be fair.”\r\nDamon shuddered, not turning around. No one had ever chthonianstood that. He just wanted things to be fair.\r\nâ€Å"Your father cared for him much more than he did for you. Youve always known that,” the voice went on. â€Å"You were the oldest, the heir, but Stefan was the one your father loved. And, in romance, you have always been dickens steps behind Stefan. Katherine al directy loved him by the time you met her; then the same sad story happened al over again with Elena. They say they love you, these girls of yours, but they have never loved you best, or most, or only, not even when you give them your all told heart.”\r\nDamon shuddered aga in. He felt a tear run down his cheek and, infuriated, wiped it away.\r\nâ€Å"And you know why that is, dont you, Damon?” the dick went on smoothly. â€Å"Stefan. Stefans always taken everything youve ever wanted. Hes gotten the things you wanted before you even saw them, and left nothing for you. Elena doesnt love you. She never has and she never wil .”\r\nSomething broke inside Damon at the creatures words, and instantly he snapped back to himself. How refuse the phantom make him question Elenas love? It was the only true thing he knew.\r\nA cold breeze fluttered Damons clothing. He couldnt hear the moaning now. And then everything went stil .\r\nâ€Å"I know what youre doing,” Damon snarled. â€Å"You think you can trick me? Do you suppose you can turn me against Elena?”\r\nA soft, wet footstep in the mud sounded behind him. â€Å"Oh, little vampire,” the voice verbalise mockingly.\r\nâ€Å"Oh, little phantom,” Damon said back, dupli cate the creatures tone. â€Å"You have no idea the mistake you just made.” Steeling himself to leap, he whirled around, fangs ful y extended. But before he could pounce, cold strong hands seized him by the throat and pul ed him into the air.\r\nâ€Å"Id also recommend burying pieces of adjure around whatever youre trying to protect,” the shopkeeper suggested. â€Å" fit out are traditional, but anything made of iron, especial y anything round or curved, wil do.” Shed passed through various stages of incredulity as Stefan had tried to buy up what seemed like every single object, herb, or charm cogitate to protection in the shop, and now had become manical y helpful.\r\nâ€Å"I think Ive got everything I need for now,” Stefan said politely. â€Å"Thank you so much for your help.”\r\nHer dimples shone as she rang up his purchases on the shops old-fashioned metal cash register, and he smiled back. He thought he had managed to decipher every item on Mrs. Flowerss list correctly, and was feeling middling proud of himself.\r\n Someone opened the door to come in, and a cold breeze whooshed into the shop, setting the jokeal items and wal hangings flapping.\r\nâ€Å"Do you feel that?” the shopkeeper asked. â€Å"I think a storms coming.” Her hair, caught by the wind, fanned out in the air.\r\nStefan, about to make a pleasant rejoinder, stared in horror. Her long locks, suspended for a moment, twisted their tendrils into one curling strand that spel ed out, clearly and chil ingly:\r\n two-dimensionality\r\nBut if the phantom had found a new target, that meant Elena â€\r\nStefan whipped around, looking frantical y toward the front of the shop. Elena wasnt there.\r\nâ€Å"Are you al right?” the shopkeeper asked as Stefan stared wildly around. Ignoring her, he hurried back toward the door of the shop, looking down every aisle, in every nook.\r\nStefan allow his motive spread out, reaching for a trace of Elen as distinctive presence. Nothing. She wasnt in the shop. How could he not have noticed her leaving?\r\nHe pressed his fists into his eyes until little stars burst beneath his lids. This was his fault. He hadnt been feeding on human blood, and his powers were sorely diminished. Why had he let himself get so weak? If he had been at ful strength, he would have realized immediately that she had gone. It was indulgent to give in to his conscience when he had pot to protect.\r\nâ€Å"Are you al right?” the woman asked again. Shed fol owed him down the aisles of the store, holding out his bag, and was looking at him anxiously.\r\nStefan took hold of the bag. â€Å"The girl I came in with,” he said ur gently. â€Å"Did you see where she went?”\r\nâ€Å"Oh,” she replied, frowning. â€Å"She went back outside when we were heading off to look through the incense section.”\r\nThat long ago. Even the shopkeeper had noticed Elena leaving.\r\nStefan gave a jer ky motion of thanks before striding out into the dazzling sunlight. He looked frantical y up and down Main Street.\r\nHe felt a wave of relief when he spotted her sitting on a bench outside the drugstore a few doors down. But then he took note of her slumped posture, her beautiful fairish head resting limply on one of her shoulders.\r\nStefan was at her side in a flash, grateful to find her existing shal ow yet steady, her pulse strong. But she was unconscious.\r\nâ€Å"Elena,” he said, gently stroking her cheek. â€Å"Elena, wake up. Come back to me.” She didnt move. He shook her arm a topographic point harder. â€Å"Elena!” Her body flopped on the bench, but neither her breathing nor the steady beat of her heart changed at al .\r\nJust like Bonnie. The phantom had gotten Elena, and Stefan felt something inside him tear in two. He had failed to protect her, to protect either of them.\r\nStefan gently slid a hand low Elenas body, cupping her head protective ly with his other hand, and pul ed her into his weaponry. He cradled her against him and, channeling what little Power he had left into speed, began to run. Meredith checked her watch for what felt like the one percent time, wondering why Stefan and Elena werent back yet.\r\nâ€Å"I cant read this word at al ,” monotonous complained. â€Å"I swear, I thought my handwriting was bad. It looks like Caleb wrote this with his eyes closed.” He had been running his hands through his hair in frustration and it stood up in messy little spikes, and there were faint blue shadows under his eyes. Meredith took a swig of coffee and held out her hand. Matt passed her the notebook hed been examining. Theyd discovered that she was the best at version Calebs tiny, angular handwriting. â€Å"Thats an O, I think,” she said. â€Å"Is deosil a word?”\r\nâ€Å"Yes,” said Alaric, sitting up a little straighter. â€Å"It actor clockwise. It represents moving spiritual energy into physical forms. top executive be something there. Can I see?”\r\nMeredith give him the notebook. Her eyes were sore and her muscles stiff from sitting al morning and issue through Calebs notebooks, clippings, and pictures. She rol ed her shoulders forward and back, stretching.\r\nâ€Å"No,” said Alaric after a few minutes of reading. â€Å"No good. This is just about casting a magic circle.”\r\nMeredith was about to speak when Stefan appeared in the doorway, mad and wild-eyed. Elena lay unconscious in his arms. Meredith dropped her coffee cup. â€Å"Stefan!” she cried, gross(a) in horror. â€Å"What happened?”\r\nâ€Å"The phantoms trapped her,” Stefan said, his voice catching. â€Å"I dont know how.”\r\nMeredith felt like she was fal ing. â€Å"Oh no, oh no,” she heard herself say in a tiny, shocked voice. â€Å"Not Elena, too.”\r\nMatt stood up, glowering. â€Å"Why didnt you stop it?” he asked accusingly.\r\nâ€Å"We dont have time for this,” Stefan said coldly, and strode past them to the stairs, clutching Elena protectively. In silent accord, Matt, Meredith, and Alaric fol owed him up to the mode where Bonnie lay sleeping.\r\nMrs. Flowers was knitting by her bedside, and her mouth opened into an O of dismay when she saw who Stefan carried. Stefan gently placed Elena on the other side of the count on bed by Bonnies pale and tiny form.\r\nâ€Å"Im sorry,” Matt said slowly. â€Å"I shouldnt have blamed you. But… what happened?”\r\nStefan just shrugged, looking stricken.\r\nMerediths heart squeezed in her chest at the sight of her two best friends laid out like rag dol s. They were so stil . Even in sleep, Elena had always been more mobile, more expressive than this. Over the course of a special K sleepovers, ever since they were little, Meredith had seen sleeping Elena smile, rol herself more tightly in the blankets, snuggle her face into th e pil ows. Now the pinkand-gold-and-cream-colored warmth of Elena seemed weak and cold.\r\nAnd Bonnie, Bonnie who was so vibrant and quickmoving, shed hardly ever kept stil for more than a moment or two in her whole life. Now she was motionless, frozen, almost colorless except for the dark dots of her freckles against her pale cheeks and the scintillating expanse of red hair on her pil ow. If it werent for the gauzy rise and fal of their chests, both girls could have been mannequins.\r\nâ€Å"I dont know,” Stefan said again, the words sounding more panicked this time, and looked up to meet Merediths eyes. â€Å"I dont know what to do.”\r\nMeredith cleared her throat. â€Å"We cal ed the hospital to check on Caleb while you were gone,” she said careful y, knowing what effect her words would have. â€Å"Hes been released.”\r\nStefans eyes flashed murderously. â€Å"I think,” he said, his voice like a knife, â€Å"that we should pay Caleb a visit. ”\r\nElena was suspended in darkness. She wasnt alarmed, though. It was like floating slowly under warm water, gently bobbing in the current, and a part of her wondered distantly and without fright whether it was possible that she had never come up out of the waterfal basin at Hot Springs. Had she been drifting and ideate al this time?\r\nThen suddenly she was speeding, bursting upward, and she opened her eyes on dazzling daylight and gulped a long, shaky breath.\r\nSoulful, worried dark brown eyes gazed down into hers from a pale face hovering to a higher place her.\r\nâ€Å"Bonnie?” Elena gasped.\r\nâ€Å"Elena! Thank God,” Bonnie cried, grabbing her by the arms in a viselike grip. â€Å"Ive been here al by myself for days and days, or what feels like days and days anyway, because the light never changes, so I cant tel by the sun. And theres nothing to do here. I cant figure out how to get out, and theres nothing to eat, although Im eldritchly not hungry, so I guess it doesnt matter. I tried to sleep to pass the time, but I wasnt getting tired, either. And suddenly you were here, and I was so happy to see you, but you wouldnt wake up, and I was getting real y worried. Whats going on?”\r\nâ€Å"I dont know,” Elena said groggily. â€Å"The last thing I remember is creation on a bench. I think I got caught by some kind of mystical fog.”\r\nâ€Å"Me too!” Bonnie exclaimed. â€Å"Not the bench part, but the fog part. I was in my room at the boardinghouse, and this weird fog trapped me.” She shivered theatrical y. â€Å"I couldnt move at al . And I was so cold.” of a sudden her eyes widened with guilt. â€Å"I was doing a spel when it happened, and something came up behind me and said stuff. Nasty things.”\r\nElena shuddered. â€Å"I heard a voice, too.”\r\nâ€Å"Do you think I… set something loose? When I was doing the spel ? Ive been worrying that maybe I might have done s o accidental y.” Bonnies face was white.\r\nâ€Å"It wasnt your fault,” Elena reassured her. â€Å"We think its the phantom †the thing thats been cause the accidents\r\n†that it stole your spirit so it could use your power for itself. And now its taken me, I guess.”\r\nShe quickly told Bonnie about the phantom, then pushed up on her elbows and real y looked around for the first time.\r\nâ€Å"I cant confide were here again.”\r\nâ€Å"Where?” asked Bonnie anxiously. â€Å"Where are we?”\r\nIt was midday and a sunlit blue sky stretched brightly overhead. Elena was bewitching sure it was always midday here: It sure as shooting had been the last time shed been here. They were in a wide, long field that seemed to go on forever. As far as Elena could see, there were tal bushes growing †rosebushes with perfect velvet black blooms. Midnight roses. Richly magical roses grown for holding spel s only the kitsune could coat onto them. A kitsune had sent Stefan one of these roses once, with a spel to make him human, but Damon had accidental y intercepted it, much to both brothers dismay.\r\nâ€Å"Were in the kitsunes magic rose field, the one that the Gatehouse of the Seven Treasures opens into,” she told Bonnie.\r\nâ€Å"Oh,” Bonnie said. She thought for a moment and then asked helplessly, â€Å"What are we doing here? Is the phantom a kitsune?”\r\nâ€Å"I dont think so,” Elena answered. â€Å" by chance its just a convenient place to squirrel away us.”\r\nElena took a deep breath. Bonnie was a good person to be with in a crisis. Not good in the way that Meredith was â€\r\nMerediths way was the planning-and-getting-things-done way †but good in that Bonnie looked up at Elena trustingly with big, innocent eyes and asked questions, confident that Elena would know the answers. And Elena would immediately feel competent and protective, as if she could deal with whatever situ ation they were embroiled in. deal right now. With Bonnie depending on her, Elenas mind was functional more clearly than it had for days. Any moment now, shed come up with a plan to get them out of here. Any moment now, she was sure.\r\nBonnies cold, smal fingers worked their way into Elenas hand. â€Å"Elena, are we at rest(predicate)?” she asked in a tiny, quavering voice.\r\nWere they dead? Elena wondered. She didnt think so. Bonnie had been alive after the phantom took her, but unwakeable. It was more likely their spirits had traveled here on the astral plane and their bodies were back in Fel ‘s Church.\r\nâ€Å"Elena?” Bonnie repeated anxiously. â€Å"Do you think were dead?”\r\nElena opened her mouth to respond when a crackling, stomping noise interrupted her. The rosebushes nearby began to thrash wildly, and there was a great rushing sound that seemed to come from every direction at once. The snapping of branches was deafening, as if something m assive was shoving its way through the bracken. Al around them, setaceous rosebush branches whipped back and forth, although there was no wind. She yelped as one of the waving branches smacked her across the arm, gashing her skin open.\r\nBonnie let out a wail, and Elenas heart beat twin time in her chest. She whirled around, pushing Bonnie behind her. She bal ed her hands into fists and crouched, trying to remember what Meredith had taught her about fighting an attacker. But as she looked around, al she could see for miles were roses. Black, perfect roses.\r\nBonnie gave a smal whimper and pressed closer to Elenas back.\r\nSuddenly Elena felt a sharp, aching tug rip through her, as if something were being pul ed slowly but firmly out of her torso. She gasped and stumbled, clutching her hands to her stomach. This is it, she thought numbly, feeling as though every bone in her body were being ground to a pulp. I am going to die.\r\n'