The Human Relations Movement Term Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

The Human Relations Movement - Term Paper Example Response Scientific management concept gave birth to the field of management about a century ago with pioneering work performed by Fredrick W Taylor during 1900s. The concept of management has, ever since, evolved and developed into a completely new framework that is based on quite contrasting factors described in scientific management, referred to as the human relations movement, after pioneering work of Elton May and colleagues through the Hawthorne experiments. While scientific management levied greater emphasis on the employer and the business, contemporary management levies higher significance on employees. However, both management concepts are focused on improving and growing business and reducing costs and wastage. Management specialists regard scientific management or Taylorism as the villain and the Human Relations Movement as the hero of present times. This discourse evaluates this comparison in lieu of current organizational challenges. In the process, it also evaluates va rious situations that continue to apply scientific management concepts and how these concepts continue to save organizations. At the same time, application concepts from the human relations movement are also analyzed. Scientific management was indeed first science applied to management in order to help the employer reap maximum benefits from his/her employers’ efforts. ... Taylor strongly believed that not all members of a group can be equally efficient or productive. In order to minimize inefficiency, he proposed principles of management based on a scientific study conducted in the manufacturing industry. Taylor believed that the principal object of management should be to secure maximum prosperity for the employer, coupled with the maximum prosperity for the employee (qt. In Schermerhorn, 2010). Scientific management or Taylorism is based on three core principles derived from three myths as considered by Taylor (2008).  Ã‚  

Showing Respect Essay Example for Free

Showing Respect Essay As teachers, usually we have to deal with a lot of things, such as yelling in the classroom, running in the halls and the lack of respect. Nowadays, disrespect is filling our classrooms and parents do not do anything to put a stop to the situation. As teachers or human beings we do not have to confuse respect with fear, because our work is to give tools and knowledge to our students, not frighten them. Kids are not showing any type of respect to teachers. Being in front of the class to communicate with your students might be a really strong task, especially if your students do not pay any attention to you. But, what should we do? Should we yell at them? Would that change something? Respect is not about being afraid of the teacher. Bueno (2009) once wrote â€Å"A child may obey you simply because he is afraid of you. However, when a child understands that your rules and disciplinary actions are ultimately for his own good, he will obey you because he respects you. † It is really important for our students to understand why they should or should not do something. If the learn how to respect to others, they would be able to communicate with others throughout their lifetime. When I was in front of the classroom, I try as hard as I could to be supportive to my students, but sometimes they think you only want to dig on their lives. Usually when kids show strange behaviours they are looking for some attention or they have trouble at their home. If the kid do not show any respect, neither would do the teacher, or at least it would be more difficult to keep calm and maintain a good environment in the classroom. Kids would make everything to make me feel powerless, defeated and everything will make me lose my mind. So I start wondering what is going on or how they behave in their houses. The problem might be there. Schutte (2008) explained â€Å"Parents have to pick their battles. If your child wants to wear a shirt/skirt combo that makes her look like she dressed herself in a dark closet, you may ask yourself if its worth fighting her to get her to change her duds. On the other hand, if she wants to spend time with a boy in a dark closet, you might want to make a big deal out of that. The battles that you choose to fight will directly affect your childs level of isbehaviour. † You may ask why you want to do this, but clothes are not as important as dating a boy. So, either option is just to gain attention. If we find the root of the behaviour of the students is a family problem, we, as people, have two choices, work for them or keep against them. Either kids want attention or they are having problems in their house. We, as teachers, only have one option. Help them. Every time I see a troublesome kid I get instantly attached to him or her. I try to get close to them; to their friends and find out what can I do for them. Rich (1998) wrote† In this complex world, it takes more than a good school to educate children. And it takes more than a good home. It takes these two major educational institutions working together. † Without the parents’ support, you will be stuck in that spot. So we have to get the family involved in the learning process to reach out the success the children may achieve. I always work for the children’s success through the respect and I really expect he same from them. Our job as teachers is more than just give away contents. It is about giving lessons of life and spreading some values that might be helpful for them in their lifetime. That is our goal; show them they could be better. Explain them how great can they be, or how far they might go with just a little bit of work, not only with themselves, but also with their families. We just might be proud of them when we could see what they have accomplished and think that we were involved in their success.

The causes and effects of mergers and acquisitions

The causes and effects of mergers and acquisitions It is still the start of the 21st century and as per the predictions, the world is moving at a brisk speed. The people who catches up with the world right now will be able to survive others will not be able to follow them. Same is the case with the companies of the 21st century. Companies today need to be fast growing, efficient, profitable, flexible, adaptable, and future-ready and have a dominant market position. Without these qualities, firms believe that it is virtually impossible to be competitive in todays global economy. Academics and other observers advance value-maximization,[6] managerial ego, mimicry, the need to reduce uncertainty and defensive considerations (acquire to avoid being acquired; ensure that growth keeps up with that of competitors, etc.) and high levels of corporate reserves and share valuations among the motives behind consolidation in financial services. Supporters of MAs allege that they facilitate synergies between merged organizations, generate efficiency improvements and increase competitiveness. Indeed, they hold that mergers, by increasing economies of scale and spreading costs over a larger customer base, enable financial operators to provide services at lower prices. Demonstrating that MAs improve efficiency is thus central to making the case for the consumer benefits of mergers and in assessing their potential impact on consumers.[7] If mergers improve efficiency, then larger, combined firms may be expected to pass some savings on to consumers through lower prices or improved service. In some industries such as insurance or banking, firms may move into new markets. In others such as pharmaceuticals or software technology, firms may work with smaller firms that have developed or are developing new products that they can manufacture and/or distribute more efficiently, while other firms focus on their own internal growth, leadership and development. Regardless of industry, however, it appears that it has become all but impossible in our global environment for firms to compete with others without growing and expanding through deals that result in mergers or acquisitions. Mergers and acquisitions are increasingly being used by firms to strengthen and maintain their position in the market place. They are seen by many as a relatively fast and efficient way to expand into new markets and incorporate new technologies. Yet their success is by no means assured. To the contrary, a majority fall short of their stated goals and objectives. Mergers Acquisitions an opportunity to improve employee relations or pull off some krafty moves? Mergers and Acquisitions (MA) have been a current topic within HR and Employment Law for a long time now but the last ten years has seen far greater opportunities opening up for companies (including private equity funds etc) to make that transforming acquisition or merger with a rival which will deliver major financial benefits and enhance shareholder value. Of course it is a well known fact that more than 60% of mergers/acquisitions fail to achieve their planned objectives. One major contributory factor in this has been the failure to pay sufficient attention to the people aspect of this type of change. Emotions can and do run high during protracted MA battles. Obviously the financial, legal and commercial issues will take precedence over the people issues. However compelling the financial or commercial case, a takeover will not succeed if key individuals are not motivated to make the new arrangements work. Those key individuals can be at any level in the business and it is not always the case that there are many other qualified and more motivated people just waiting to take their places. Rectifying these problems, although possible, can be costly. Kraft may rue the day when they failed to deliver on their commitment and dismissed many knowledgeable and experienced staff at Cadburys near Keynsham.   Neglecting the human factor is a frequent cause of failure Cultural and symbolic elements in MAs are typically framed in terms of the distinction between the merging firms, thus leading to an us versus them dualism. The creation of formal, internal communications mechanisms as early as possible in the process is necessary to limit the anxiety that will otherwise be fuelled by rumour, the grapevine, or even outside news reports. Employees complain that their first knowledge that their employer is involved in a merger or acquisition is often from the morning news before setting off for work. According to a Hewitt Associates executive, the fact that the human factor is taken into account in only 5 per cent of MAs explains why more than half of them in all sectors fail. Teams are usually put together to oversee merger and acquisition operations. These teams almost always comprise specialists in legal and financial issues as well as experts in strategy but rarely do they include human resource directors. One possible explanation is the fact that speed is generally considered of capital importance for success. While the integration phase of merging enterprises may cover between three to five years, the first 100 days after the announcement of the transaction are the most crucial for success or failure. It has become common practice to prepare and communicate to staff and shareholders a programme of integration activities to cover this period, when the feelings of fear, apathy, demotivation and the classical victor and vanquished syndromes are at their highest. Since a majori ty of mergers end up with the elimination of overlapping functions and positions, the first 100 days are likely to be those when staff are most uncertain about jobs, career prospects and the disappearance of their own corporate culture. To reduce the possibilities of failure in MAs, some management experts have recommended that human capital be placed at the centre of the process, or at least be given equal attention to that assigned to economic and financial considerations. According to this school of thought, such a redirection would enable acquirers to select the most compatible acquisition targets from a human resource perspective and make integration that much easier. Frank communication on a daily basis between management and staff helps to dispel some of the uncertainties of MAs and avoid organizational drift. Employees should be informed in good time about the manner in which redundancies, if there are to be any, will be decided and about the role of their trade unions or representatives in the process. It is also important for staff from the acquired organization to be assured that the rights and entitlements they had with their previous employer are to be respected; otherwise there is a high probability of conflict. Merger uncertainties are also frequently blamed for the loss of talent from target companies, which can destroy the very basis for the merger. The failed merger plans between the Deutsche Bank and Dresdner Bank in April 2000 demonstrate how staff resistance can undermine corporate strategies and management wishes. Integration of teams from the respective investment banks of the two parent banks posed a risk to the balance already achieved between staff in Deutsche Morgan Grenfell and the previously acquired Bankers Trust. MAs imply immediate and direct job losses A study on the efficiency effects of bank mergers in the United States,[49] which summarizes nine case studies, reports that all nine mergers resulted in significant cost cutting in line with pre-merger projections, although only four of the mergers were clearly successful in improving cost efficiency. As for employment, the largest volume of cost reductions was generally associated with staff reductions and data processing systems and operations. Payroll reductions often accounted for over 50  per cent of the total cost reduction and in at least one case the reduction in staff costs accounted for nearly two-thirds of the total. In all cases, the savings achieved were of the order of 30 to 40 per cent of the non-interest expenses of the target. All of the merged firms indicated that the actual savings either met or exceeded expectations. Most of the firms projected that the cost savings would be fully achieved within three years after the merger, with the majority of the savings be ing achieved after two years. Managing downsizing related   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  to MA restructuring While MAs are driven largely by financial considerations, their success vitally depends on the motivation of retained workers to contribute to the achievement of merger objectives. The high proportion of failed MAs may not be unrelated to the manner in which staff are often relegated to cost variables rather than being made active partners in the change process. Social plans, guarantees against forced departures and the involvement of staff in MA-related decision-making are critical motivating factors. The study referred to in Chapter 1[69] concluded that the failure of the overwhelming majority of MAs resulted from concentration on hard legal and finance issues to the detriment of the soft people issues in merger planning and implementation. Poor communications with employees appeared to pose a greater risk than that with shareholders, suppliers or customers. The study found that success was linked to a holistic approach when the soft people and cultural issues were an integral part of the focus on financial performance. Of the companies involved in the survey, just nine (less than 10 per cent of respondents) addressed all the soft keys, and each was successful. The study stresses the fact that once value was lost, it was seldom recovered. Even though possibly the most difficult to implement effectively, headcount reduction was the area in which most companies reported achieving their targets. Loss of staff an inevitable result of MAs often included the very individuals the acquirer needed and intended to keep to succeed. MA value extraction was impossible without the enthusiastic cooperation of employees. MAs, remuneration and other compensation issues Two conflicting aims appear to characterize current practices in financial sector remuneration: the need to reduce labour costs within a context of increasing competition and decreasing profitability and the necessity to compensate and adequately reward employee performance and commitment within an environment of continuous and challenging change.[75] Recent trends in compensation policies are moving towards more contingent, individualized and explicitly performance-based systems, while seeking to retain workers loyalty and commitment to organizational goals. This might explain why changes in compensation have tended to be less dramatic than expected compared with both current rhetoric and experience in other industries. The main exception to the industry trend is the United States, where in the absence of a collective wage agreement or any kind of coordination between banks in wage setting, wide differences in compensation levels both between and within financial institutions have a lways been the rule. Sales-based bonuses, either individual-based (as for lenders in wholesale operations) or distributed via managers to branch offices, are the most widespread example of incentives, while commissions have become common for crucial jobs, such as investment advisors.[76 MAs and working time The link between financial sector concentration and patterns in regular working time is difficult to identify because working-time agreements depend upon the national context and are not limited to the sector under consideration. Banks adoption of the retailing model is encouraging them to adjust their hours to customer requirements, extending opening hours on at least one day a week and even opening some branches on traditionally closed days such as Saturdays a trend which has aroused strong trade union reactions in a number of countries. It goes without saying that MAs can provide an opportunity for management to opt for more customer-friendly working hours. However, the rapid development of Internet-based direct banking and ATMs often accelerating and accelerated by MAs has the opposite effect of reducing the need for longer opening hours. Given that successful management of the restructuring process is vital for achieving organizational objectives, managers need to be aware that downsizing is more than a reduction in head count and work reorganization. Terminations destroy the firms social fabric as structures are altered, relationships disrupted and work patterns and communication flows modified, making it more difficult for retained staff to do their work. These structural problems may inhibit performance so that staff need help to cultivate new ties, although insufficient attention is usually given to the intricate relationship between the organizations formal and informal structures. In addition, survivors who are already subject to survivors syndrome find they have to work harder to cover staffing shortfalls, with the consequence that increased workloads feed the stress related to job insecurity, undermining the very efficiency goals that motivated the merger or acquisition. Job insecurity may make employees feel pressured into agreeing to put extra effort into their jobs to demonstrate organizational loyalty; but such working conditions are neither sustainable nor conducive to the achievement of corporate objectives. Financial sector restructuring around the world has led to a high rate of call centre growth. Research by Deloitte Touche has found, for instance, that Australia has 1,400 call centres and help-desks employing 50,000 people and annual sales of $2 billion. Staff turnover averages 18 per cent a year mainly due to stress, as confirmed by the fact that 80 per cent of workers are requesting stress management training assistance. The annual cost to the industry from the high turnover has been estimated at around $100 million. MAs generate high levels of staff anxiety and stress as their working world is turned upside down, their jobs come under threat and their career prospects and professional competence are called into question. Collective defensive mechanisms, especially in hostile takeovers involving previously keen competitors, may lead to a victor-vanquished syndrome inducing behaviour inimical to the smooth implementation of changes for successful integration. Employees from each company are aware that there are many duplicated positions to be eliminated and the struggle to survive will be fierce. Trade unions may themselves be at loggerheads as the merger may involve companies recognizing different negotiating partners. Not surprisingly, it is much easier for managers to convince shareholders about the merits of proposed mergers than it is to persuade their own staff.

Ancient Civilizations Essay example -- essays research papers

#1   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  A pattern that was common among the ancient civilizations of China, Rome, Greece, Mesopotamia, Egypt, and India was that most of them started as a dictatorship, a monarchy, or a dynasty. Eventually, most of them changed to a democracy, republic, or to class systems. Almost all of the civilizations had one or two great leaders. For example, Egypt had King Tut, Greece had Alexander the Great and Rome had Julius Caesar.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  China has had many different leaders through the years. Dynasties, or a series of rulers from the same decent, ruled this government. Some of the most powerful dynasties were the Shang, Zhou, and Qin. These dynasties and many others ruled from the times of 1500 BC to 1900 AD. The dynasty that lasted the longest was the Zhou Dynasty. It lasted from 1122 BC through 256 BC. The Qin Dynasty had one of the strongest central governments, but only lasted fourteen years. The most peaceful time was when the Han Dynasty ruled.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Another ancient civilization was the Romans. They started out as a monarchy government by having one ruler. Eventually an idea of republicanism overthrew the monarchy. The Romans thought that this would keep any one person from gaining too much power. The most powerful governing body was the senate. The senators elected two consuls each year. The consul’s jobs were to supervise the business of government and command the armies. They could only se...

Future Trends of Human Resource Essay

1. Introduction What does the human resource information system look like in the future? It is hard to find an accurate answer for me. Every year, thousands of HRIS specialists trying to predict the future trends of HRIS and, of course, their prediction differ. However, despite of what prediction they had made, I think social media will play an important role in next few years. In this paper, I will try to discuss what social media means to human resource and discuss three major players in the field—Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter. 2. Social Network Site vs. HR According to the 2011 Kelly Services Global employees Index research, published by the famous human resource service organization Kelly Services, social network site is becoming the â€Å"edge tool† in the future workplace. According to the research, social network site (SNS) is changing the way of life and work. It expanded its function from only entertaining to boosting working efficiency and enhancing the success rate of job applying. The research shows that over 80% of workforce is using SNS every day, while over 60% of workforce considers it as a work booster. According to the research, a lot of employees think they can develop an instant synchronized â€Å"expert tank†, from which they can acquire relative knowledge, skill and experience, so that they will be support by experts wherever, whenever. They also regard SNS as a pipe cleaner of the networking. By using SNS, they can manage their networking just within few clicks. It is a cost efficiency and personalized way. In addition, they also use SNS to relieve work pressure. According to the research, SNS is now penetrating to the area of traditional recruiting. The advantage of it includes no limits of time and space, cost efficiency and high reliability. The research indicated that over 90% active job seekers are now using SNS at least once per week. It also indicated that job seekers who age below 25 are more willing to use SNS as a tool to find job, while who age over 35 are more possible to find a job by using it. The research suggests that company should pay attention to what SNS may change the future workplace. According to the research, the most common worries toward SNS are affecting productivity, occupying internet and threating the information security. It also report that there are a lot of companies are now start using SNS to recruit, manage market, promote public relation and guide career development by setting new policies and using latest antivirus technics. 3. Facebook Facebook is a SNS launched in February 2004, owned and operated by Facebook, Inc. By the time of October 2012, Facebook has over one billion active users, more than half of them using Facebook on a mobile device. According to the research, 23% of Facebook users check their account 5 times or more per day. By the time of May 2012, Facebook received more than 1.6 billion visits per week. There are over 1,000,000 links shared on Facebook every 20 minutes. If you regard Facebook merely as an entertaining SNS, you will be absolutely wrong. In the era of internet, Facebook is now developing different social platforms. It transforms its function from just connecting and entertaining people to job bank and social synergy. By Facebook recently launched job applying app â€Å"Jobvite†, people can find, refer, and match jobs to friends with Jobvite’s proprietary matching technology, providing better access to opportunities for job seekers and more quality hires for employers. Users can connect and apply to jobs completely within Facebook; and they can see their status in the hiring process at any time, creating a positive, transparent relationship for companies and candidates. By using another job applying app â€Å"jobandtalent†, users can discover and leverage their existing Facebook network to find job opportunities and stand out to top companies. Jobandtalent claimed that they are working with world top companies like Goldman Sachs, Deloitte and Google. The fact is that the data stored on Facebook not only including job relate area, but also including other areas, such as daily life. Employer can acquire 360-degree background information of candidates via Facebook. â€Å"It is easy to track record of candidates on Facebook. These records may imply personal interests, personality and other attributes† Said an HR specialist, â€Å"Traditional resumes are monotonous, like masks, but these records are alive and we can totally tell a difference.† It is not surprisingly true. Tell me if I wrong, if the records of a candidate show that he use the â€Å"f† word all the time, dare you or dare you not hire him? Job applicants like him will lose his opportunity from the beginning. Facebook is now challenging LinkedIn by this advantage. According to the survey conducted by Bureau of Labor Statistics, almost half of companies are now using Facebook in their recruitment process, such as Boeing and Dell. They use Facebook not only for job posting, but also for background investigation. However, research shows that there are different between social media behavior and real life behavior. It is to be studied whether it is reliable to investigate candidates via SNS. 4. LinkedIn LinkedIn is a SNS for professional people. Launched on May 5th, 2003, it is mainly used for professional networking. By the time of June 2012, LinkedIn reports more than 175,000,000 users in more than 200 countries. Monster is one of three largest job posting web site, however, its financial report showed a significant decline in business revenue. According to the market analyst, because of the blooming of LinkedIn, companies like Monster are losing market share in a large scale. Just like Facebook, LinkedIn founded upon the theory of Six Degrees of Separation. Also it was not designed for recruiting; LinkedIn became the major way to recruit in the U.S. by the time of 2006 and achieve profitability. LinkedIn is known as its high accurate matching rate. It can even â€Å"push† eligible candidates to employers by preset standard. According to the co-founder Reid Hoffman, it is more and more important for people to utilize their networking in the future. If you want to change you r job every two or three years, you have to maintain your networking to find new opportunities. SNS is the easiest way to do it. You don’t have to make call after call and desperate to find topic to cottoning up, you don’t have to visit people with gifts door after door. The only thing you have to do is just within few clicks, and you can make connection with people you want to. In his opinion, the value of LinkedIn is â€Å"concentrate in the value moment†. Also Facebook has more user base and more stickiness; it is not safe to say that LinkedIn is losing the game. The orientation of these two web-sites is different. The business scope of Facebook is wide and the â€Å"killer app† of it is social game and â€Å"Share†, while LinkedIn concentrate in professional occupations. In a way, the overlap of these two web-sites is small. People regard Facebook as â€Å"individual† and LinkedIn as â€Å"professional†. Compare to strong interaction of Facebook, LinkedIn is not that strong. However, this weak interaction as â€Å"professional community† is where it value lies. For the user of LinkedIn, log in every day and post threats is meaningless and way far from the identity of professional, it will only imply that you are not in the working status. In other word, user stickiness makes little sense for LinkedIn. In addition, compared to Facebook, LinkedIn is a real-name, high quality user concentrated SNS. In other word, the user group is rich and high-educated middle-aged professions. This user group is known as high business value. According to the statistics from Quantcast, in the United States, the proportion of user over 35 is over 70%, the proportion of user with bachelor or above education is over 75% and the proportion of user with over $100,000 incomes is over 39%, compared to Facebook with only 32%, 53% and 32% (Chart 1). Chart1 Demographic Analysis of Facebook and LinkedIn What’s more, in business related area, LinkedIn is highly recognized than Facebook. According to a research conducted by Jobvite, in job applicants who are now using or will use SNS to find jobs, more than 95% indicate that they will choose LinkedIn. Only 59% chose Facebook and 42% chose Twitter. In people who already find a job by using SNS, 89% of them used LinkedIn, 28% used Facebook. To sum up, although Facebook is now challenging LinkedIn in professional SNS area, LinkedIn is still No.1 in the field. 5. Twitter Twitter is an online social networking service and micro blogging service that enables its users to send and read text-based messages of up to 140 characters, known as â€Å"tweets†. Launched in July, 2006, the service rapidly gained worldwide popularity. By the time of 2012, over 500,000,000 active users generating over 340,000,000 tweets per day and handling over 1,600,000,000 search queries per day. Twitter has been described as â€Å"the SMS of the Internet† Unlike Facebook and LinkedIn, Twitter has its own characteristics. Firstly, there is a limit of characters for each tweet. You can only send up to 140 characters in one tweet. This limit made information fragmented. This kind of fragmented information eliminated the time of reading, and by this elimination user can spread their thought more accurately and more efficiency. Secondly, you don’t have to get â€Å"approval† to follow somebody. This character makes Twitter more like a broadcasting station. Users could follow the Twitter of their favorite celebrity, brand and company to acquire latest trend. Likewise, the later will use Twitter to improve public relation to the target user group. Thirdly, most of user write and read tweets by using mobile devices. That means you will get first hand news via Twitter. An interesting statistic shows that within Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn, Twitter has second largest influence of commercial both in B2B and B2C. Facebook has the largest influence of B2C commercial while LinkedIn has the largest influence of B2B commercial (Chart 2). Chart 2 Influences in Commercial For human resource, Twitter has two major functions. The first function is to use Twitter to improve company image. More and more companies now hiring Twitter specialist to manage company Twitter. The other is to recruit. Compare to Facebook and LinkedIn, Twitter is more cost saving, speedy and simple. According to William Fisher, the founder of job searching web site TwitJobSearch, there are more than 340,000 jobs posting in Twitter per month. TwitJobSearch release two apps—Job-Deck and TweetDeck. Users can sort and find job posting related tweets by using these two apps. 6. Cites http://recruiting.jobvite.com/company/press-releases/2011/jobvite-launches-social-job-app-on-facebook-to-power-referral-hiring/ http://callcenterinfo.tmcnet.com/news/2011/10/03/5822750.htm

Minds and Machines essays

Minds and Machines essays 1) Briefly describe Descartes view of the relation between mind and body. What, if anything, is wrong with this view? Rene Descartes view of the relation between the mind and body, is a very complicated one. However if one was to put it simply, Descartes view is that the mind and the body are separate substances (Grayling 2001 p, 1). This idea of the mind and body being separate entities is known as Dualism. Descartes claimed that because he could think of the mind and body as being apart from each other, then they could also exist apart (Mattey 2001 p, 10). Descartes also stated that human bodies are external in that they can be observed by others (Mattey 2001 p, 11). This ability to be observed, coupled with the thought that a body is a part of space, also labeled the body as extended and part of the physical world. Descartes also believed that the body was subordinate to mechanical laws (Ryle 1949 p,120). In contrast to the body being external, Descartes declared that the mind was internal, in that no one could observe the workings of the mind, aside from the person themselves (Mattey p, 11). The mind was said to be part of the mental world. By taking Descartes views into account, one could then conclude that a person is divided into two separate entities, the mind and the body. However Descartes definitions of the relationship between the mind and body, or more importantly the lack of, raised many problems for philosophers and people in general (Kihlstrom p, 1). One of the major problems for dualists, such as Descartes, to over come was initiated by the fact that the body and mind can interact (Kihlstrom p, 2). This interaction can be seen when one considers that the mind can control and cause actions in the body, for example the movement of ones arms or legs. It can also be seen that the body acts with the mind, ...

Solubility Rules for Inorganic Compounds

Solubility Rules for Inorganic Compounds These are the general solubility rules for inorganic compounds, primarily inorganic salts. Use the solubility rules to determine whether a compound will dissolve or precipitate in water. Generally Soluble Inorganic Compounds Ammonium (NH4), potassium (K), sodium (Na) : All ammonium, potassium and sodium salts are soluble. Exceptions: some transition metal compounds.Bromides (Br–), chlorides (Cl–) and iodides (I–): Most bromides are soluble. Exceptions: salts containing silver, lead, and mercury.Acetates (C2H3O2–): All acetates are soluble. Exception: silver acetate is only moderately soluble.Nitrates (NO3–): All nitrates are soluble.Sulfates (SO42–): All sulfates are soluble except barium and lead. Silver, mercury(I), and calcium sulfates are slightly soluble. Hydrogen sulfates (HSO4–) (the bisulfates) are more soluble than the other sulfates. Generally Insoluble Inorganic Compounds Carbonates (CO32–), chromates (CrO42–), phosphates (PO43–), silicates (SiO42–): All carbonates, chromates, phosphates,  and silicates are insoluble. Exceptions: those of ammonium, potassium and sodium. An exception to the exceptions is MgCrO4, which is soluble.Hydroxides (OH–): All hydroxides (except ammonium, lithium, sodium, potassium, cesium, rubidium) are insoluble. Ba(OH)2, Ca(OH)2 and Sr(OH)2 are slightly soluble.Silver (Ag): All silver salts are insoluble. Exceptions: AgNO3 and AgClO4. AgC2H3O2 and Ag2SO4 are moderately soluble.Sulfides (S2–): All sulfides (except sodium, potassium, ammonium, magnesium, calcium,  and barium) are insoluble.Aluminum sulfides and chromium sulfides are hydrolyzed and precipitate as hydroxides. Table of Ionic Compound Solubility in Water at 25 °C Remember, solubility depends on the temperature of the water. Compounds that dont dissolve around room temperature may become more soluble in warm water. When using the table, refer to the soluble compounds first. For example, sodium carbonate is soluble because all sodium compounds are soluble, even though most carbonates are insoluble. Soluble Compounds Exceptions (are insoluble) Alkali metal compounds (Li+, Na+, K+, Rb+, Cs+) ammonium ion compounds (NH4+ Nitrates (NO3-), bicarbonates (HCO3-), chlorates (ClO3-) Halides (Cl-, Br-, I-) Halides of Ag+, Hg22+, Pb2+ Sulfates (SO42-) Sulfates of Ag+, Ca2+, Sr2+, Ba2+, Hg22+, Pb2+ Insoluble Compounds Exceptions (are soluble) Carbonates (CO32-), phosphates (PO42-), chromates (CrO42-), sulfides (S2-) Alkali metal compounds and those containing the ammonium ion Hydroxides (OH-) Alkali metal compounds and those containing Ba2+ As a final tip, remember solubility is not all-or-none. While some compounds completely dissolve in water and some are almost completely insoluble, many insoluble compounds are actually slightly soluble. If you get unexpected results in an experiment (or are looking for sources of error), remember a small amount of an insoluble compound may be participating in a chemical reaction.