Greatest Happiness Principle Analysis Philosophy Essay

Most prominent Happiness Principle Analysis Philosophy Essay A portion of the eighteenth century English moralists, including Butler and Shaftesbury, focused on the expectation of kindheartedness or of looking to benefit others and of its place in the ethical life and Hutcheson really expressed that the target or material finish of good lead is the best bliss for the numbers, the expression that came to be the witticism of English Utilitarianism. The extraordinary pioneers of this school at its prosperous period, the start of the nineteenth century, were Bentham, James Mill, and his child, John Stuart Mill. In the event that these moralists had only contended for a simply decadent hypothesis of morals, keeping up that joy is the sole acceptable, their hypothesis probably won't have met with such broad acknowledgment. Credited with the essentials of utilitarianism are Jeremy Bentham and a short time later, John Stuart Mill. They are regularly referenced together; in any case, each had contradicted perspectives on in excess of a couple of parts of the hypothesis. Bentham was progressively essential in his picture of utility, concentrating on the base human impulses of taking advantage of delight and maintaining a strategic distance from torment. He advanced a plan called the gluttonous analytics. In this technique, one could mathematically choose the correct decision by setting the expected positive results and negative outcomes of an activity against another. Bentham was happy with likening the joy of a round of pushpin to that of understanding verse; Mill was choosier, articulating pecking orders of delights relying on their insightful worth. Utilitarianism depends on two arrangements of premises, the aphoristic realities of proud gratification on one side, and the standards of generosity and value on the opposite side. A keeps an eye on commitment to the quest for general bliss is the best methods for accomplishing satisfaction for him so compromise between vain gratification and utilitarianism perhaps conceivable upon acknowledgment that another people joy is of indistinguishable incentive to ones own. Plant accepted that the most moral activity was what brought the vast majority the best measure of bliss. Satisfaction, as indicated by Mill, is delight and the nonattendance of agony, and misery is torment, and the privation of joy. The essence of Mills moral hypothesis is his Greatest Happiness Principle, as per which activities are directly in extent as they will in general advance bliss, off-base as they will in general produce the opposite of joy. Each person attempts to advance their own bliss, and stay away from misery, which is common instead of moral anyway advancing joy turns into a moral hypothesis when applied to every individual, as opposed to simply people. Utility is characterized as augmenting joy over torment, According to Mill, human joys are a lot of better than carnal ones: when individuals are made mindful of their higher resources, they will never be glad to leave them uncultivated; consequently satisfaction is an indication that we are practicing our higher resources. The facts confirm that a few joys might be base; in any case, this doesn't imply that every one of them are: fairly, some are naturally more significant than others. When making an ethical judgment on a move, utilitarianism subsequently considers the amount, yet additionally the nature of the joys coming about because of. A delight is of higher caliber if individuals would pick it over an alternate joy regardless of whether it is joined by distress, and in the event that they would not exchange it for a more noteworthy measure of the other joy. Besides, Mill fights, given equivalent access to a wide range of delights, individuals will lean toward those that intrig ue to their higher resources. The individuals best able to pass judgment on a joys quality are individuals who have encountered both the higher and the lower. Besides, Mill saw that regardless of whether the ownership of an honorable character carried less satisfaction to the individual, society would in any case advantage. Plant additionally contends that people groups accomplishment of objectives and closures, for example, upright living, ought to be considered piece of their joy. Since the utilitarians standard for passing judgment on a demonstration is the bliss surprisingly, not of the operator alone, accordingly, an individual must not esteem his own satisfaction over the joy of others; and law and instruction help to ingrain this liberality in people. In any case, this doesn't imply that people groups thought processes should just be to serve the best great; to be sure utilitarianism isn't worried about the intentions behind an activity; the ethical quality of an activity relies upon the decency of its outcome as it were. In addition, in many parts of regular day to day existence, an individual won't be influencing enormous quantities of others, and in this manner need not think about their activities according to the benefit of all, however just to the benefit of those included. It is just the individuals who work in the open circle and influence numerous others who must consider open utility all the time. Utilitarianisms sanctions (inward and external),a feeling for humankind, depend on common human assumptions, which the best possible arrangement of instruction could support. So as to show that bliss is the sole measure for profound quality, it is important to show that individuals want nothing however joy. Factory says that individuals do want things like ethicalness, which in like manner language is recognized from joy. Nonetheless, Mill expresses that individuals love ideals simply because it comprises a piece of satisfaction. Plant contends that joy isn't a theoretical thought, yet an entire with segment parts. Since ethicalness is a piece of joy, and advances the general joy, utilitarianism energizes the improvement of excellence. Act Utilitarianism holds that activities ought to be judged legitimately as per their ramifications for bliss while rule utilitarians are supportive of the rule that activities ought to be decided by rules which, whenever followed, will have outcomes helpful for the more prominent joy. Basic appreciation As opposed to the impression Benthams and Mills featuring upon joy may give, utilitarianism doesn't suggest or embrace a prideful way to deal with life. Bentham says, Each is to mean one and nobody for mutiple. for example my own joys and torments and those of others are to be determined and thought about precisely on a standard. Utilitarian(s) demand that everyones government assistance ought to be treated as equivalent. This guarantees utilitarianism isn't a self absorbed convention. Nor is utilitarianism unselfish, for example it permits us to be worried about our own government assistance, however not to the prohibition of others, a demeanor of summed up kindheartedness. The explanation that delight is the main thing that is attractive submits a naturalistic misrepresentation. Alluring methods what should be wanted can't be characterized regarding what men want and that men really want it is no evidence of a thing being attractive To derive from the explanation that every people bliss is a decent to every specific individual, the end that the general joy regards the entire number of people, submits the false notion of organization.

Compare And Contrast Seamus Heaneys Poems Digging And Follower Essay Example For Students

Look into Seamus Heaneys Poems Digging And Follower Essay Seamus Heaneys sonnets, Digging and Follower depict to us the solid connection between the dad and child, as Heaney will in general admire the older folks in his family. The two sonnets make that peaceful kind of air with the title, Digging proposing to us delving into the past. Supporter then again gives us the picture of the childs perspective on cultivating of copying his dads activities. The sonnets recommend the flawlessness of Heaneys father at physical work, acquainting somebody for Heaney with gaze upward to and respect. The sonnet Follower delineates to us the quality and expertise, which is handled in Heaneys father. The sonnet Digging recommends to us the extraordinary measure of massive ability expected to ace working in the fields of the open country. Both Digging and Follower disclose to us stories, which are comparable and diverse from numerous points of view. This sonnet Digging is very like Follower as it shows how youthful Heaney admired his older folks yet in this sonnet he gazes upward to the two his dad and granddad. Heaney considers his to be as now old, stressing to burrow flowerbeds. The writer reviews to himself of his dad burrowing potato bores and much prior his granddad burrowing peat. Heaney realizes he cannot coordinate men like them with a spade, realizing the pen is mightier for him, and he will delve into the past with it. Heaney additionally shows the ability and qualification required in difficult work. The writer additionally represents to us their feeling of work, as the dad despite everything delves in mature age, and the granddad, when working, would scarcely stop to drink. In the sonnet Follower it shows the ability associated with nation life including being a specialist, without breaking. This gives us what a practiced rancher Heaneys father is. It likewise shows us the nation life, by representing how much expertise goes into an apparently common assignment, for example, furrowing a field. The turf turned over without breaking doesnt just delineate the ability in the nation yet the excellence too. The possibility of newly furrowed soil, adds to the perusers perspective on the wide open as a delightful spot thus nation life is likewise depicted as something cheerful. Diving and Follower contrast in their structures as Digging comprises of an a lot looser structure than Follower. The main verse comprises of two lines, the subsequent refrain comprises of three lines and the third verse comprises of four lines. So the lengths of the refrains in Digging shift a lot contrasted with the Follower. There is rhyme present in the two sonnets yet it is more continuous and incredible in Follower than Digging. Heres the rhyme in Digging, flowerbeds/away/drills/burrowing, and heres in Follower, round/eye/ground/precisely. In Digging, the initial two verses have incredible rhyme however for the remainder of the sonnet it essentially ceases to exist. A portion of the rhyme words utilized are, sound/ground/down, proposing solid rhyme. For the most part the rhyme plot utilized in Follower is ABAB meaning the main line rhymes with the third. In Digging the rhyme conspire in the first place is AA BBB, however then the rhyme sort of ceases to exist since not all the sonnet rhymes. Both Follower and Digging will in general utilize a greater amount of half rhyme as opposed to full rhyme, which doesnt make it rudely self-evident. The rhyme in the two sonnets will in general give us a feeling of mood to the sonnet. As it were it likewise accentuates the rhyme words bringing to us the association between the rhyme words. Heaney utilizes more rhyme in Follower than in Digging since it gives a characteristic inclination to the sonnet and furthermore helps in accentuating the dads ability. In Digging there are some pushed and unstressed syllable words. A portion of the focused on words are, Between finger thumb/squat pen rests cozy weapon. The words that are unstressed in that refrain are, my and my/the as a. In Follower a portion of the focused on syllables are, shoulders globed full sail hung, and a portion of the unstressed ones are, His like a. There are an assortment of natural graceful procedures utilized by Heaney in Digging and Follower. Task Poetry EssayIn the two sonnets it is additionally demonstrated the disappointments of the child not satisfying his dads models, not proceeding with the family root, similar to elderly person could deal with a spade/like his father. This proposes his granddad and father burrowed, which has become like a family custom, which is an analogy as it is his familys in contact with the land. In Follower also the child neglected to follow the dads model, as stated, all I could possibly do was follow/aggravation, stumbling. There is additionally a job inversion in Follower towards the end, when it isnt Heaney giving his dad down however is access certainty his dad, my dad continues lurching/won't leave. That kind of job inversion, where the dad is developing old doesnt occur in Digging having it an effect between the two sonnets. One of the contrasts among Digging and Follower is the way that Follower utilizes a great deal of allegorical language like, globed. In the two sonnets the child shows a great deal of goal in the two sonnets, for instance, I could possibly do was follow/in his expansive shadow round the homestead, and in Digging, dissipate new potatoes e picked/adoring cool hardness in our grasp. These models from the two sonnets reveal to us that he showed trust towards following his dads life, however they just couldnt do it any longer. They asserted that they didnt have the kind of ability their folks or granddad accomplished for this specific sort of work. In Follower you would discover two word sentences where as in Digging there none in sight. A specialist, is the little expression utilized Heaney which stands apart due to being in the start of the subsequent refrain and basically being just two words. The period after the two short words makes them stand apart as something rather significant. That two word sentence resembles a caption gives us a trace of what the verse is probably going to be about. This single word sentence proposes to us that it is just a reality Heaney grew up with and this thought of ability causes it to appear to be significant. In the last sentence of the sonnet it starts with But, which should just ever be utilized in a sentence. The utilization of this word recommends to us how noteworthy Heaney sees this word to be, giving us how large the change has been, between the time he let his dad down and when his dad let him down. In Follower there is a respite between the single bravery and the clarification of what is being culled. That causes us at the possibility that such a little development could have such an emotional impact a solitary fearlessness/of reins, the perspiring group pivoted/and once again into the land. His eye at a finish of a line causes us feel the force and intensity of the look being portrayed. Supporter comprises of six verses each comprising of around four lines. Then again Digging comprises of nine verses of each containing various quantities of lines. Devotee for instance with a steady number of lines keeps the sonnet streaming and helps the mood of the sonnet. Burrowing then again doesnt has a particular design which upsets the progression of the sonnet somewhat, and it additionally makes it marginally harder to peruse too. I can arrive at the resolution that the two sonnets unmistakably show a lot of similitudes and contrasts, and both elegantly composed pieces give us a solid feeling of the peaceful side of the world. Not to overlook it shows us the emphatically connected connection between the dad and the child and they way the child admires his dad as a good example.

Where Im From

Winter/Summer/Where I’m From I spent this past IAP at home in Central Pennsylvania. This is where I grew up, from 13 to 18, and where I spend most of my IAPs and long weekends when I can. PA is colder than Boston, or it feels that way. In the winter the grass is covered in hoarfrost (???? in Russian, I learned) that melts during the day except in the shadow of the house. I call my grandmother on my dad’s side, which I only get to do when I visit my parents. We talk about vacations and compare temperatures (-5 here, -25 in Perm). We talk about my and Cory’s apartment garden, and why my radishes won’t grow (it’s not cold enough). I tell her about how my peas died, and how the onion and dill, which grow so well in Russia, have been four inches tall for the past four months. Winter in PA is grey trees against a warm, colorless sky, stillness, grey chimney smoke drifting, grey mountains. When night falls the pink streetlights light the forest from behind, the snow a white shadow on all the trees. In the summer the cold settles between the valleys. Mornings are foggy; nights are cold. On the 4th of July you can drive from town to town up and between the hills and see dozens of fireworks shows, a dozen at a time if you park under a mountain, each one lighting one small town and sometimes the nights before and after. The silence manifests itself as loud static at night in my city-trained ears. Next time I’m visiting it will be summer, and my thesis and my MIT education will be done. I wonder how it will feel to feel that silence when this is all over, in the same bed I slept in when I started high school, now a decade later at 24, my biggest dreams from that age achieved and I back where I started. Here’s an view of the town (top) and of  Shaver’s Creek, one of our favorite places to go walking (bottom).       Here’s parts of the town from Tussey, our ski spot.                     Finally, here’s something I wrote six and a half years ago (and reused in my MIT application) about helping teach canoe camps at Millbrook Marsh. The cove resonated with yells and the incessant thump and scrape of paddles against gunwales. Occasionally a louder voice called an instruction or a bit of advice, but for the most part the yells were from the kids, struggling against inexperience and each other for control of their canoes. Here, out on the lake, it was quieter. The yells bounced off the mountains but were deafened shadows by the time they untangled themselves from the lines of forest separating me from the canoe camp. Tomorrow would be their first day on moving water and six, seven boats would go over. After lunch they’d play games, and I’d do six, seven rescues per boat. But for now they were with another counselor, and some were on the beach, so this hour was mine. I dropped my paddle into the boat and leaned my hands on the black gunwales behind me. In half an hour they’d be scalding hot, but as yet the sun had heated them to just warmer than the air. I closed my eyes and dangled my feet over the bow in the cool water. I stayed there for a few minutes, letting the July sun pulse warmth into my skin like it did the gunwales. Occasionally the remains of a distant motorboat’s wake would rock my boat, but otherwise it was still. I’d drifted far enough from the cove for the air to be still as well, still and silent except for an occasional bird. Maybe I’d stay there longer, maybe I’d drop into the water and swim. Time stretched and spread itself through the lake and curved over the mountains. For once I had no schedule to follow, no places to be. I was just there, with the mountains and the lake and the sun, and this hour was mine.

The Impact Of Internet On Our Daily Lives - 1540 Words

The widespread use of internet in our daily lives has brought upon not just positive outcomes, but also negative outcomes an example being cybercrime. We find that the internet is the fastest growing technological infrastructure development in today’s modern world. This is evident due to the emergence of a digital platform trend. The increasing demand of the internet and computers has led to the adoption of computer technology into products that initially used to perform without the use of either. Examples are buildings, vehicles and even trains. ICT in general has been embraced in almost everything from the military to transportation to sales, name it. The introduction of ICT into many of our daily life happenings has acted as a complementing factor in this modern world. Taking an example of technical development in this sector has seen the world go into an ease in the banking sector, online banking is now available, shopping online, telephone services just to mention, but a few. However, with every pro there is a con. The growth of ICT is usually accompanied by serious threats. Since then essential services in most of the countries have operated via the ICT platform, attacks are prone to happen since there is a loophole of threat creation. Introduction What is cybercrime? Generally cybercrime refers to crime that is conducted via the internet portal or with the use of another computer network. Criminal activities that may be categorized as cybercrime mayShow MoreRelatedThe Impact of the Internet in Our Daily Lives4186 Words   |  17 PagesTHE IMPACT OF THE INTERNET IN OUR DAILY LIFE There is a big influence of technique on our daily life. Electronic devices, multimedia and computers are things we have to deal with everyday. Especially the Internet is becoming more and more important for nearly everybody as it is one of the newest and most forward-looking media and surely the medium of the future. 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This has made our lives easier andRead MoreInternet And Its Impact On Society Essay1388 Words   |  6 Pagesâ€Æ' Table of Contents Table of Contents 2 1.1 Introduction 3 1.2 Definition of the internet 3 1.3 History of the internet 3 1.4 Internet use 3 1.4.1 Internet use world-wide 3 1.4.2 Internet use in Kenya 3 1.5 Impact of the internet 3 1.6 Conclusion 4 â€Æ' 1.1 Introduction In order to achieve political, economic and personal advancement, the internet has played a major role in it. The internet, according to Wikipedia, has many uses that include data sharing, e-commerce, booking of tickets, socializingRead MoreInternet Negative Effects891 Words   |  4 PagesThe Internet is a technology that has negative impacts on our daily lives. It has changed aspects of our life for the last 50 years, and it has demonstrated the considerable influence on people’s lives. Almost 3.2 billion people in the world use the internet. 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Love Song Analysis - 2033 Words

Love is â€Å"an intense feeling of attraction†. This is how Webster’s Dictionary defines love. It is much more complicated than that though, or maybe we just make it out to be more complicated, either way it’s hard to explain. A few words that characterize love for me are sacrifice, safe, comfortable, commitment, selfless, trust, and bond. Love is more than just a word, it’s an action. It is accepting and appreciating someone for who they are regardless of their flaws and trusting that you’ll stick by one another through thick and thin. It’s caring about another person’s well-being and happiness more than your own. There are different ways of expressing your love for another person. There is the romantic love, where there is sexual chemistry†¦show more content†¦Before picking out my songs I had to ask myself how I was going to analyze them. I thought about what kind of artists I wanted to use. Did I want to use males or fema les, old or young? Should I pick songs that are about new relationships emerging, old ones growing closer, old ones being maintained, old ones growing apart, or relationships that are ending? Am I going to use songs about romantic love or the friend/family kind of love? Should the songs I pick have a positive or negative opinion about love? What kind of message do I want the songs to portray? What do these songs mean to me? These are all questions I asked myself going into this assignment as well as while I was analyzing the songs. I decided that I was going to use songs that had a little bit of all of these in them. I didn’t want to use just males or just females because personally I think that men and women sometimes have a different definition of the word love itself so I didn’t want to get just one side of that. Also, I didn’t want to pick just new relationships instead of new and old because again, love might seem different than how it really is. 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Alfred Prufrock895 Words   |  4 PagesEssay Two- Critical Analysis Writing a critical analysis is diving into the text. Readers must break down all parts of the text and pin pointing the author s purpose for the writing. A very challenging poem to analysis is T.S. Eliot’s â€Å"The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock†. It has been declared that â€Å"The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock† started that Anglo-American modernist movement with poetry. The poem was the first poem with American poetry to flow free verse. At the time, it was deemedRead MoreAnalysis Of The Poem The Love Song Of J. Alfred Prufrock1529 Words   |  7 PagesAnalysis of the setting of the poems â€Å"The Love song of J. Alfred Prufrock† and â€Å"Something Whispered in the Shakuhachi† â€Å"The Love song of J. Alfred Prufrock† and â€Å"Something Whispered in the Shakuhachi† are poems written by T.S. Eliot and Garrett Hongo correspondently. Both poems put a great emphasis on the depiction of the narrator’s emotion. 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Alfred Prufrock915 Words   |  4 Pagesperiod, the atmosphere changed from the male perspective. For example, T.S. Eliot wrote â€Å"The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock† which characterized many men of the modern age. The poem starts out as a man that is idealistic about his feelings toward women. He plans to go into the shop and pick out a woman, which he can love for externally. This is where the modern period is because this period it is about love and personal experiences. In line 8- 10, †Å"Streets that follow like a tedious argument/ of insidious

Relation of Group Performance to Age Free Essays

string(139) " of previous quantitative reviews of the age–performance relationship, and discuss how the current study extends these previous reviews\." Journal of Applied Psychology 2008, Vol. 93, No. 2, 392– 423 Copyright 2008 by the American Psychological Association 0021-9010/08/$12. We will write a custom essay sample on Relation of Group Performance to Age or any similar topic only for you Order Now 00 DOI: 10. 1037/0021-9010. 93. 2. 392 The Relationship of Age to Ten Dimensions of Job Performance Thomas W. H. Ng The University of Hong Kong Daniel C. Feldman The University of Georgia Previous reviews of the literature on the relationship between age and job performance have largely focused on core task performance but have paid much less attention to other job behaviors that also contribute to productivity. The current study provides an expanded meta-analysis on the relationship between age and job performance that includes 10 dimensions of job performance: core task performance, creativity, performance in training programs, organizational citizenship behaviors, safety performance, general counterproductive work behaviors, workplace aggression, on-the-job substance use, tardiness, and absenteeism. Results show that although age was largely unrelated to core task performance, creativity, and performance in training programs, it demonstrated stronger relationships with the other 7 performance dimensions. Results also highlight that the relationships of age with core task performance and with counterproductive work behaviors are curvilinear in nature and that several sample characteristics and data collection characteristics moderate age–performance relationships. The article concludes with a discussion of key research design issues that may further knowledge about the age–performance relationship in the future. Keywords: age, aging, older workers, job performance, meta-analysis According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the median age of the American workforce has been increasing over the last 30 years—35 years old in 1980, 37 years old in 1990, 39 years old in 2000, and 41 years old in 2006. This trend is also evident worldwide. For instance, International Labor Organization (2005) statistics indicate that young adults between the ages of 20 and 24 were the largest segment of the working population in 1980. However, by 1990 the 30 –34 age group was the largest segment of the working population, and today the largest segment of the world’s working population is the age 40 – 44 cohort. Older workers are becoming an increasingly important concern for organizations for reasons beyond their sheer numbers. The shift to an older workforce has caused many organizations to spend more money on succession planning, pension benefits, health insurance, and medical benefits (Beehr Bowling, 2002; Paul Townsend, 1993). In addition, numerous organizations have concerns (and/or stereotypes) that older workers may exhibit lower productivity (Avolio Waldman, 1994; Greller Simpson, 1999; Hassell Perrewe, 1995; Lawrence, 1996). For instance, compared with younger workers, older workers are stereotyped as being less physically capable, as more likely to have problems getting along with coworkers, as preferring to invest more time in their families than in their jobs (Fung, Lai, Ng, 2001; Paul Townsend, 1993), as less technologically savvy, and as less willing to adapt quickly in volatile environments (Isaksson Johansson, 2000; Riolli-Saltzman Luthans, 2001). Thomas W. H. Ng, School of Business and Economics, The University of Hong Kong, Pok Fu Lam, Hong Kong; Daniel C. Feldman, Terry College of Business, The University of Georgia. Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Thomas W. H. Ng, School of Business and Economics, The University of Hong Kong, Pok Fu Lam, Hong Kong. E-mail: tng@business. hku. hk 392 Previous research has produced mixed results, however, regarding the precise relationship between age and job performance. In the three most-cited quantitative reviews of this literature, one found a moderate-sized positive relationship between age and performance (Waldman Avolio, 1986), one found that age was largely unrelated to performance (McEvoy Cascio, 1989), and the third found that the age–performance relationship took an inverted-U shape (Sturman, 2003). We believe that one reason for these mixed results is that much of the previous research on the age–performance relationship has focused rather narrowly on the performance of core task activities. As a result, past research has not closely examined the broad spectrum of behaviors that comprise â€Å"job performance† and the multiple ways in which age is related to work effectiveness. Over the past 2 decades, organizational researchers have been examining numerous other job-related behaviors that also legitimately fall under the rubric of job performance. These include the following: creativity, performance in training programs, organizational citizenship behaviors (OCBs), safety performance, counterproductive work behaviors, on-the-job substance use, workplace aggression, tardiness, and absence. Although most of these job behaviors could not be called core task activities per se (Organ, 1988), they do significantly affect organizational productivity by shaping the organizational cultures and environments in which core task performance takes place (Borman Motowidlo, 1997). As such, examining a broader and more inclusive set of job performance measures may help clarify the complex relationship between age and performance. Mixed results on the age–performance relationship may also be partially attributable to the differing nature of research samples and data collection characteristics (Lawrence, 1996; S. R. Rhodes, 1983). For instance, research samples may vary in terms of the types of jobs workers perform, and as such, results may vary depending upon which skills older workers are required to utilize. AGE AND JOB PERFORMANCE 393 Similarly, because the nature of the work environment has changed substantially over the past 30 years, studies on the age–performance relationship conducted in the 1970s may have yielded very different results than studies conducted more recently. In addition, there may be differences in results depending upon whether data were collected cross-sectionally or longitudinally. For example, the effect of intraindividual aging on performance observed in longitudinal studies may be smaller in magnitude than the effect of broad age group differences observed in cross-sectional studies at any one point in time. Thus, examining the potential moderating effects of sample and data collection characteristics is not only important for research methodology purposes but for theoretical and practical reasons too. It allows us to identify the conditions under which age is likely to have positive, zero, or negative associations with various components of job performance. In the following section of the article, then, we briefly address some definitional issues, consider the results of previous quantitative reviews of the age–performance relationship, and discuss how the current study extends these previous reviews. You read "Relation of Group Performance to Age" in category "Papers" Next, we present the results of an extended meta-analysis and provide evidence on the relationships between age and 10 performance dimensions. In the subsequent section, we examine the moderating effects of sample and data collection characteristics and also explore potential curvilinear relationships between age and performance dimensions. Finally, in the concluding section, we discuss the implications of our findings for future research and the management of older workers. Theoretical Background Definitional Issues Age versus aging. Age is a continuous variable and is used as such in our analyses. When we refer to age differences, we are referring to group-level differences between individuals at one age and individuals at another age. It is important to note here that, similar to previous quantitative reviews in this area of research (McEvoy Cascio, 1989; Waldman Avolio, 1986), the goal of the current meta-analysis is not to isolate the effects of aging per se. That is, we are not directly examining the intraindividual aging process itself and how it relates to job performance. Instead, our goal is to examine the relationships between age and job performance dimensions across different cohorts and research contexts. For instance, is age, on average, related to job performance after taking into consideration different sample characteristics and research conditions? Is the relationship between age and core task performance stronger or weaker than the relationship between age and citizenship behavior? These are the kinds of questions we attempt to address here. Older workers. Who is considered an â€Å"older worker† has been debated in the literature for quite some time. In the retirement literature, older workers are often identified by having reached retirement age or by years until reaching retirement age (Beehr, 1986; Doeringer, 1990). Moreover, as Cleveland and Shore (1992) have noted, age can be defined in terms of an employee’s chronological age, the employee’s subjective age (the individual’s self-perception of age), the employee’s social age (others’ perceptions of the employee’s age), and the employee’s relative age (the egree to which the individual is older than others in the work group). Thus, the meaning of â€Å"old† depends, to some extent, on the demographic profiles of an organization or occupation (Shore, Cleveland, Goldberg, 2003). Another definition that is frequently used in this literature is the legal definition of â€Å"older worker† provided by the U. S. Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967 (ADEA). This act prohibits discrimination against workers who are 40 years old or above. Although our data analyses use continuous measures of age wherever possible, in our discussion of â€Å"older workers† in the text, we generally rely on the ADEA definition for a variety of reasons. First, previous meta-analyses of age in the applied psychology literature have also utilized 40 years old as the cutoff age (Thornton Dumke, 2005). Second, unlike authors in disciplines like gerontology and sociology (e. g. , Lindenberger Baltes, 1997) who use high cutoff ages to make fine distinctions between the â€Å"young elderly† and â€Å"old elderly† (e. g. under and over age 85), scholars in the organizational sciences are particularly attuned to the fact that the age range in the active workforce is typically 16 – 65 years old (International Labor Organization, 2005). Thus, at least in terms of making a dichotomous split in the workforce, 40 years old appears to be an acceptable cutoff to distinguish between younger and older workers. Third, careers researchers have observed that age 40 typically marks the end of career establishment stage and the start of career maintenance stage (Super, 1980). As such, the chronological age of 40 often represents a major transition in career stages as well. Finally, defining older workers as 40 or above has some practical benefits because it directly aligns research findings regarding older workers to management implications regarding ADEA compliance in hiring, termination, performance evaluation, and promotion decisions. Undoubtedly over time, the definition of â€Å"older worker† will change. For example, the amendment of ADEA (by the Older Workers Benefit Protection Act of 1990 and the Civil Rights Act of 1991) to prohibit mandatory retirement ages may ultimately push back the age t which people retire (although labor statistics have not indicated any increases in retirement age as of yet). Even more likely, gains in life expectancy will change our conceptions of who is â€Å"middle-aged† and who is â€Å"old. † For our current purposes, though, the definition of older workers as being age 40 or older is consistent with both previous research and legal definitions and has the benefit of being â€Å"objectively† determined and verifiable across researchers and contexts. Previous Reviews of the Age–Performance Relationship Three major quantitative reviews of this literature have been published in the last 25 years. Waldman and Avolio’s (1986) review is the earliest meta-analysis in this area. The authors identified 13 empirical studies containing 40 samples. They found that age was positively related to productivity measures of job performance (. 27). On the other hand, age was weakly but negatively related to supervisor ratings of job performance ( . 14). Furthermore, Waldman and Avolio found that the relationship between age and supervisor-rated job performance was stronger for nonprofessionals ( . 8) than for professionals ( . 05). Peer ratings of job performance were related to age at . 10. In sum, Waldman and Avolio (1986) illustrated that the sign of the relationship between age and task performance varies depend- 394 NG AND FELDMAN ing upon which measure of performance is being utilized, who does the performance ratings, and what kinds of jobs workers hold. To the extent that there is a d rawback to this meta-analysis, it is the lack of availability of a large number of studies at that time. Meta-analyses that include too few cumulative studies may contain second-order sampling errors (Hunter Schmidt, 1990). Addressing this drawback, McEvoy and Cascio (1989) identified 65 empirical studies (containing 96 samples) conducted on the relationship between age and performance. Across these 96 samples, the authors found that the mean correlation between age and job performance was quite low (. 06) and that the confidence intervals contained the value of zero. Unlike Waldman and Avolio (1986), McEvoy and Cascio found that type of performance rating (productivity vs. upervisory rating) and job type (professional vs. nonprofessional) did not moderate the relationship between age and performance. The different results observed in these two meta-analyses may be attributable to the different sets of studies the researchers considered, as McEvoy and Cascio located a wider range of empirical studies than Waldman and Avolio had included. Sturman’s (2003) meta-analysis hypothesiz ed that the relationships of performance with three age-related variables (chronological age, job experience, and organizational tenure) were in the form of an inverted-U shape. With respect to the age–performance relationship, Sturman found that the corrected effect size across 115 empirical studies was . 03. Although this effect size is very small, he did find that this relationship was indeed an inverted-U shape. That is, age was positively related to job performance when age was low but was negatively related to job performance when age was high ( 49 years old). Below, we highlight the main evidence supporting these three different perspectives on the age–performance relationship. Whereas earlier research on older workers largely focused on the negative relationship between age and task performance (S. R. Rhodes, 1983), more recently researchers have been examining the ways in which age can facilitate task performance or, at the minimum, not adversely affect it (Ebner, Freund, Baltes, 2006; Kanfer Ackerman, 2004). As a result, we have a much richer picture now of how age is positively or negatively related to core task performance but not as complete a picture of how age relates to a broad spectrum of other performance measures. unctions, that is, monitoring and controlling attention, suppressing irrelevant information, utilizing analytical reasoning, and updating information in working memory. Older individuals were found to perform much more poorly on this test battery than their younger counterparts. In general, M. G. Rhodes’s results suggest that older individuals may have more difficulties with complex tasks that require a high level of executive functioning. Indeed, there is also cumulative empirical evidence to indicate that older individuals do not do as well as younger individuals when performing multiple complex tasks simultaneously (Verhaeghen, Steitz, Sliwinski, Cerella, 2003). Another area in which age appears to have negative association with performance is memory capacity. Previous meta-analyses have demonstrated a significant negative relationship between age and memory. For instance, older adults were found to have poorer recognition and recall memory than younger adults (La Voie Light, 1994; Spencer Raz, 1995; Verhaeghen, Marcoen, Goosens, 1993). Moreover, as a result of these memory differences, employees are less likely to trust the memories of older coworkers. In an experimental study of attribution theory, for example, Erber and Danker (1995) found that participants expected memory-related performance problems of older workers to continue longer than those of younger workers and were less likely to recommend training when â€Å"problem† employees were older. Above and beyond these differences in aptitudes and short-term memory, researchers have also found that older individuals may have less intense work motivation than their younger colleagues (S. R. Rhodes, 1983). For instance, Ebner et al. 2006) found that younger individuals are more likely to frame their goal orientations in terms of striving for gains (e. g. , I want to improve my fitness), whereas older individuals are more likely to frame their goal orientation around maintaining the status quo or preventing loss (e. g. , I do not want my fitness to deteriorate). These changes in motivation may also be linked to lower productivity on the job. Evidence Supporting Positive or Neutral Relationships of Age With Performance The above literature paints a rather pessimistic view of the relationship of age with job performance. Nonetheless, a strong case can also be made that older workers may exhibit at least the same, if not greater, job performance as their younger colleagues (Greller Simpson, 1999). The rationale most frequently cited to support this case is that older workers substitute lengthy job experience and greater general expertise for speed of information acquisition and information recall. This wisdom and expertise, accumulated over the course of a career, may be sufficient to compensate for productivity losses due to any changes in cognitive and physical abilities (Baltes, Staudinger, Maercker, Smith, 1995). Kanfer and Ackerman (2004) have emphasized that older age is often accompanied by increases in â€Å"crystallized† intelligence (experiential knowledge). Indeed, experimental evidence provides robust support for Kanfer and Ackerman’s assertion. For instance, Allen, Lien, Murphy, Sanders, and McCann (2002) found that older participants could multitask as effectively as younger participants, albeit at a slower pace. Artistico, Cervone, and Pezzuti (2003) found that older adults’ performance in solving problems exceeded that of younger adults when the problems were familiar Evidence Supporting Negative Relationships of Age With Performance Numerous studies have found support for the proposition that age negatively relates to cognitive functioning. For instance, in a large sample of 20,000 American workers across multiple occupational groups, Avolio and Waldman (1994) found that age was negatively related to several types of aptitudes, including general intelligence, verbal aptitude, numerical aptitude, spatial aptitude, form perception, clerical perception, motor coordination, finger dexterity, and manual dexterity. Thus, for jobs in which general cognitive abilities, visual-perceptual abilities, and psychomotor abilities are important components for superior job performance, Avolio and Waldman have suggested that age is negatively related to job performance. Furthermore, M. G. Rhodes (2004) found that there was a strong and significant difference between older and younger adults in performance on a test battery measuring individuals’ executive AGE AND JOB PERFORMANCE 395 and representative of tasks frequently encountered. ColoniaWillner (1998) found that the best performing older employees had higher levels of tacit knowledge than their younger employees. Studies using different research designs have also found that professional expertise, developed over years of practice and experience, can attenuate potential negative relationships between age and performance dimensions (Hess Auman, 2001; Lindenberger, Kliegl, Baltes, 1992; Morrow, Leirer, Altieri, Fitzsimmons, 1994; Thornton Dumke, 2005; Wilson, Li, Bienias, Bennett, 2006). Taken together, the research described above suggests that, after a slower pace of initial learning, older workers can reach the same performance levels as those of their younger colleagues and can multitask effectively. Moreover, when older workers are asked to solve familiar problems, higher self-efficacy beliefs are activated, and these beliefs can accelerate performance. Thus, although fluid intelligence, short-term working memory, and cognitive speed may decrease with age, deductive reasoning and professional expertise are likely to increase (Masunaga Horn, 2001). Moreover, increased wisdom and judgment gained over years of service may increase older workers’ effectiveness in contextual performance activities as well. Creativity Creativity is the extent to which employees generate new and useful ideas for improving organizational productivity (Anderson, De Dreu, Nijstad, 2004). For many jobs, creativity might be considered as a separate element of job performance, particularly when creativity relates to organizational adaptability and flexibility. For instance, some researchers have emphasized the importance of employees’ creativity as a critical component of an organization’s ability to adapt to rapidly changing business environments (A. De Jonge De Ruyter, 2004; Johnson, 2001). Consistent with this view of creativity as a key element of job effectiveness, a major study of performance evaluation systems found that some organizations evaluated employees on their innovativeness as well as on their core task performance (Welbourne, Johnson, Erez, 1998). Performance in Training Programs Older workers are often stereotyped as being somewhat resistant to change and slow in learning new material. For this reason, researchers have examined older workers’ performance in training programs as an element of job effectiveness (Martocchio, 1994). As Tracey, Tannenbaum, and Michael (1995) have suggested, organizations typically provide training to employees on the basis of the assumption that the short-run costs of the design and execution of training can be recouped through employees’ increased productivity in the long run. However, if employees do not perform well in training programs, it is highly unlikely that they will transfer that new knowledge to real work settings. Furthermore, when employees fail to learn in training programs, the expenses associated with training are wasted as well (Winfred, Bennett, Edens, Bell, 2003). Expanding the Domain of the Performance Construct Previous reviews of the age–performance relationship have primarily focused on the performance of core tasks. According to Borman and Motowidlo (1997), core task performance is concerned with â€Å"the effectiveness with which job incumbents perform activities that contribute to the organization’s technical core† (p. 99). In addition to core task performance, however, we also examine nine other performance dimensions that comprise the two broad categories of job behaviors identified by Hunt (1996) as independent of the core job role, namely, citizenship behaviors and minimum performance behaviors. Citizenship behaviors are those extra behaviors engaged in by employees, over and above their core task requirements, that actively promote and strengthen the organization’s effectiveness (Organ, 1988). In this study, the first category is represented by such dimensions as employee creativity, performance in training programs, citizenship behaviors geared to different beneficiaries, and safety performance. In contrast, minimum performance behaviors are those that employees have to engage in (like attending work) or refrain from engaging in (like theft) to keep their jobs (Hunt, 1996). This second category is represented by such dimensions as general counterproductive work behaviors, workplace aggression, on-the-job substance use, tardiness, and absenteeism. Conceptually, there are certainly other behavioral dimensions that could be included under these two categories. For example, working long hours and demonstrating effective leadership are examples of additional citizenship behaviors that might be considered, whereas refraining from sexual harassment and manipulating stock prices are additional examples of minimum performance variables that could be considered. Empirically, however, a metaanalysis is constrained by the number of previous studies conducted on a specific relationship, and here we have included the nine dimensions identified above as the ones on which the most empirical studies are available. We discuss each of these additional nine dimensions of job performance in more detail below. OCBs Researchers have documented the importance of OCB for organizational functioning over the last 2 decades (LePine, Erez, Johnson, 2002; Organ, 1988). OCBs (sometimes called prosocial behaviors or extrarole behaviors) are not job-specific but rather support the broader organizational environment in which core performance takes place (Motowidlo Van Scotter, 1994; Organ, 1988). Examples of OCB are compliance with organizational norms, not complaining about trivial matters, and helping coworkers. Employees’ aggregated OCBs frequently benefit group, unit, and organizational productivity (Podsakoff, MacKenzie, Paine, Bachrach, 2000). Safety Performance Safety performance is the extent to which employees comply with safety rules and demonstrate safe behaviors in the workplace (Parker, Axtell, Turner, 2001). This performance dimension is particularly important in industries that require employee contact with hazardous materials, operation of heavy machinery, and extensive highway driving (Clarke Robertson, 2005). Poor safety performance can have two distinct negative consequences for firms’ effectiveness. At the individual level, inattention to safety behaviors contributes to employee injuries; these injuries result in lower worker productivity and time lost from work. At the orga- 396 NG AND FELDMAN nizational level, poor safety practices contribute to potentially costly litigation. These claims create substantial financial burdens for firms in the event of serious employee accidents, dismemberments, and death (Hofmann Morgeson, 1999). Both directly and indirectly, then, employee safety behaviors are an important component of job performance. General Counterproductive Work Behaviors Whereas research investigating OCB concentrates on what workers can do to romote smooth organizational functioning, research on workplace deviance examines how the lack of counterproductive work behaviors is essential to maintaining smooth organizational functioning (Neuman Baron, 1998). Counterproductive work behaviors are intentional employee acts that harm organizations’ legitimate business interests (Bennett Robinson, 2000). Examples of counterproductive work behaviors include working on personal matters instead of assigned tasks, neglecting supervisorsâ €™ instructions, stealing property, starting or repeating rumors and gossip, and using unprofessional language. It is easy to see the multiple ways in which these counterproductive work behaviors can reduce both individual and group performance. Moreover, Dalal (2005) found that employees who frequently engaged in counterproductive work behaviors were also less likely to demonstrate OCBs. son, 2000; Martocchio, 1989). Researchers have documented numerous negative effects of employee absence on organizational productivity (Harrison Martocchio, 1998). When employees are absent from work, the completion of their own work is slowed down. Coworkers are often called upon to cover for absent employees, thereby distracting them from completing their own assignments. In cases in which task interdependence among a group of workers is high, the whole team’s progress may be affected when an employee is chronically absent or absent for extended periods of time. As with tardiness, frequent absences can also adversely affect organizational productivity by creating an â€Å"absence culture† in which more and more employees consider being absent acceptable (rather than counterproductive) behavior (Johns Xie, 1998). Summary. Before we can draw strong conclusions about the relationship of age to job performance, then, it is important to consider citizenship behaviors and minimum performance behaviors in addition to core task performance. In light of the above literature review, we include 10 dimensions of job performance in the current meta-analysis: core task performance, creativity, performance in training programs, OCB, safety performance, general counterproductive work behaviors, workplace aggression, on-thejob substance use, tardiness, and absenteeism. From this point on, we use the phrase â€Å"job performance† to represent these 10 dimensions collectively. Specific Counterproductive Work Behaviors In addition to general counterproductive work behaviors, four specific forms of counterproductive work behavior have been discussed separately and extensively in the literature. We also examine these four specific counterproductive work behaviors— workplace aggression, on-the-job substance use, tardiness, and absenteeism—in the present meta-analysis. Workplace aggression. Workplace aggression consists of employees’ efforts to harm others with whom they work, harm the reputation of their current employers, or harm former colleagues and previous employers (Lapierre, Spector, Leck, 2005). Acts of workplace aggression can cause bodily harm to employees, pose physical danger for customers, create public relations crises, and harm the business reputation of the firm as a whole. On-the-job substance use. On-the-job substance use involves drinking alcohol or taking illegal drugs at work or during work time (Frone, 2003). Researchers have found that on-the-job substance use hampers individuals’ decision-making abilities; increases the frequency of dysfunctional job behaviors; and puts coworkers, supervisors, and customers at increased risk of injury (Lehman Simpson, 1992). Tardiness. Tardiness is lateness for work (Blau, 1994; Koslowsky, Sagie, Krausz, Singer, 1997). Employee tardiness is likely to create both direct financial costs to organizations (e. g. , decreased time on productive activities) and indirect financial costs (e. g. , time lost by coworkers waiting for late colleagues. . Left unchecked, numerous cases of tardiness can lead to a â€Å"culture of tardiness† (Koslowsky et al. , 1997) in which employees come to see being late as an acceptable behavior rather than as a deviant one. Absenteeism. Skipping work has also been conceptualized as a form of employee counterproductive behavior (Bennett Robin- Moderator Relationships Another way in which the present study contribut es to the literature is by investigating how different sample and design characteristics moderate the relationship between age and job performance. Many of these characteristics have been discussed in the literature as variables that can affect age–performance relationships (Lawrence, 1996; S. R. Rhodes, 1983; Shore et al. , 2003; Sturman, 2003) and as potential explanations for inconsistent research findings in the area. Sample Characteristics In this study, we examine the potential moderating effects of the average age, age dispersion, job tenure, and organizational tenure of research samples. Testing for average sample age as a moderator essentially examines whether the form of the relationship between age and performance is linear or curvilinear (see Sturman, 2003). Testing the moderating role of age dispersion associated with the sample (operationalized as the standard deviation of age in the sample) assesses whether the age–performance relationship varies across samples with different degrees of age homogeneity. Testing for average job tenure and average organizational tenure examines whether the age–performance relationship varies across samples with different (average) tenures. In general, these four sample characteristics might influence authors’ definitions of â€Å"old† in a particular setting. We also examine the potential moderating effects of job complexity. The job complexity of the sample is important to consider here because it influences the extent to which the specific job skills required on jobs are associated with age-related performance problems. For the same reason, we also consider two related variables, namely, proportion of college degree holders and proportion of AGE AND JOB PERFORMANCE 397 managers in the sample. It is likely that older workers with more education or who hold managerial roles may have greater ability to substitute accumulated knowledge and judgment for precise technical skills. As such, the results of research on age–performance relationships may vary across samples with different mixes of college graduates and managers. In a more exploratory fashion, we also examine the effects of proportion of women and proportion of Caucasians in the sample. Gender and race have frequently been studied as independent or control variables in previous research on aging, but here we consider their potential moderating effects instead. Examining these two â€Å"proportion† moderators assesses whether the age–performance relationship varies across samples with different proportions of women and Caucasians. of 1993 may have changed the ways in which organizations distinguish between â€Å"absence† and â€Å"leave† before and after that year. Similarly, the amended ADEA prohibits mandatory retirement ages, which might have changed the relationship between age and performance over time because of a potential change in the proportion of older workers in the labor force. Collectively, then, these changes may have affected the context in which older workers perform and thus the relationship of age to performance as well. Method Literature Search We performed a comprehensive search for those articles published during or before December 2006 that examined the relationship between age and job performance. Other published studies that did not aim at investigating this specific relationship but reported their effect sizes nonetheless were also included. We also searched for unpublished studies and dissertations to reduce the â€Å"file-drawer problem† (Rosenthal, 1979). We began our literature search by using the following keywords: age, job performance, task performance, productivity, creativity, innovation, training effectiveness, training performance, contextual performance, citizenship behavior, prosocial behavior, extrarole behavior, safety, injuries, accidents, counterproductive behavior, deviance, deviant behavior, aggression, aggressive behavior, violence, violent behavior, substance use, drinking, alcohol, drug, tardiness, lateness, absenteeism, absence, and job complexity. We searched in numerous research databases, including Dissertation Abstracts International, EBSCOHost, Emerald, Factiva, JSTOR, Oxford Journals, Proquest, PsycINFO, ScienceDirect, Sage Full-Text Collections, and several Wiley InterScience databases. Furthermore, the reference lists of recent meta-analyses that focused on criterion variables of interest were examined carefully to locate other relevant articles. These included, for instance, reference lists from meta-analyses on OCB (LePine et al. , 2002), absence (Martocchio, 1989), task performance (Judge, Thoresen, Bono, Patton, 2001), work injuries (Clarke Robertson, 2005), and ounterproductive work behavior (Dalal, 2005). Such metaanalyses contained comprehensive and current reference lists in their respective research fields. Four inclusion and exclusion criteria were set prior to the start of the article search. First, we included field studies in which the age–job performance relationship occurred naturally, whereas la boratory studies were excluded. It is much more difficult to gather measures on performance dimensions besides core task performance in experimental settings (e. g. , lateness and absence). In addition, we had some concern that core task performance observed in laboratory studies might be partially attributable to the strength and form of the experimental manipulations themselves. Second, studies that examined age or performance only at the team level or organization level were excluded because our focus in this research is on individual behavior rather than group-level performance. Third, to avoid double counting, we excluded those studies in which authors used the same data set and reported the same correlations as in their other published studies. Fourth, we included studies that involved four types of performance ratings: ratings by Data Collection Characteristics We examine the moderating effects of two data collection characteristics in particular: (a) whether data were collected longitudinally or cross-sectionally, and (b) the publication year of articles. Both these moderators address the role of time in the age–performance relationship. Cross-sectional data collection allows researchers to examine the extent to which there are group-level age differences (between different age cohorts) in job performance across different samples and research contexts. In contrast, longitudinal data collection helps shed light on the extent to which intraindividual aging is related to job performance (Baltes, Schaie, Nardi, 1971; Schaie Hofer, 2001). Results may vary, then, depending upon how the data in a study were collected. For instance, the effect of intraindividual aging on performance may be subtle and gradual, but the differences in performance between broad age groups at one point in time can be quite large. Thus, we examine the distinction between cross-sectional and longitudinal data collection as a potential moderator here. It should be noted that to truly examine the effect of aging on erformance, it would be ideal to focus the meta-analysis on longitudinal studies alone. However, there are too few articles available to conduct a meta-analysis on only longitudinal studies; in fact, only 12% of the articles on this topic have been longitudinal in nature. Further, even if we tried to examine only longitudinal studies, the time period e xamined in those studies does not exceed 5 years, and the average period of time examined in those studies is only about 1 year. Thus, these studies generally do not use long enough time spans to capture intraindividual aging either. Thus, our database here largely consists of cross-sectional studies, allowing us to get an overall picture of the strength of various age–performance links, considering the variation in the specific performance measures, sample characteristics, and data collection characteristics. We revisit the limitations of cross-sectional data collection in conducting research involving age in more detail later in the article. The year a particular study was published is used here as a rough proxy for the nature of the work environment at the time a study was conducted. For instance, the last 2 decades have seen increased reliance on career self-management (Arthur Rousseau, 1996), which may have loosened workers’ attachment to long-time employers and increased workers’ willingness to change careers later in life. The introduction of the Family and Medical Leave Act 398 NG AND FELDMAN supervisors, ratings by others (peers, subordinates, and customers), self-ratings, and objective measures. This allowed us to examine the moderating role of sources of rating in the age–performance relationship. With the above search criteria, our search yielded a total of 380 empirical studies, which collectively contain 438 independent samples. Thirteen studies were unpublished dissertations. Of the studies, 14% were published before 1990, 30% of the studies were published between 1990 and 1999, and the remaining 56% were published between 2000 and 2006. The average age across all samples that provided age information was 36. 6 years old (ranged between 17 and 59 years old with a standard deviation of 8. 8 years). The list of studies is provided in the Appendix. Measures of Key Constructs Creativity. Previous studies have measured creativity either via self-ratings or ratings by others; we used these two categories in the meta-analysis as well. Sample items of typical Likert-scale measures of creativity include the following: â€Å"creating new ideas for improvements†; â€Å"searching out new working methods, techniques, or instruments†; and â€Å"generating original solutions to problems† (Janssen, 2001). It should be noted that we did not differentiate between creativity and innovation (Anderson et al. , 2004); both types of measures are included in our study. Performance in training programs. Here, we focused on studies that involved training of adults on tasks that have at least some relevance in organizational contexts. Furthermore, only studies that had an explicit training intervention and had measured posttraining performance, competence, or learning were included. Measures of training performance consisted of either ratings given by supervisors or performance on posttraining tests. Studies that assessed employees’ participation in computer usage training are representative of the kinds of research articles included in this meta-analysis (e. . , Martocchio, 1994). Other example studies include training programs that teach specific competences or subject-related knowledge (e. g. , law or health care). Although our decision to include only studies that measured posttraining performance gave us a consistent perspective on the effects of training on performance, as we discuss later, the resulting set of studies was likely overrepr esented by technology training programs in which older workers might be less likely to excel. OCBs. We included two types of OCB in the meta-analysis. The first set of studies examined general OCBs and did not differentiate among beneficiaries of those OCBs. The second set of studies examined OCBs geared to three specific beneficiaries: other people on the job, the employer organization as a whole, and the tasks themselves. These subtypes have been identified by previous researchers as reasonable groupings of behaviors in this domain (LePine et al. , 2002). According to LePine et al. (2002), examples of OCB directed to others are helping colleagues with their work and orienting newcomers. Examples of organization-directed OCB are compliance with organizational norms and not complaining about trivial matters. Examples of task-directed OCB are spending extra effort and persistence on the job and trying hard to improve personal and group performance. It should be noted, too, that within each of these three subtypes, we further differentiated self-ratings from ratings by others. Safety performance. With respect to the measurement of safety performance, three major indicators have frequently been used in previous research and were included in the present metaanalysis. First, some studies have measured the frequency of work injuries via archival industrial health records. For instance, Hofmann and Morgeson (1999) measured workplace injuries by using the company’s archival records of injuries or accidents that occurred in the previous 12-month period. Second, other studies have utilized self-report measures of frequency of work injuries. A third set of studies have measured self-reported levels of compliance with safety procedures and practices. A sample item from this kind of measure is â€Å"Occasionally I bend the safety rules when I know it’s safe to do so (reverse coded)† (Parker et al. 2001). General counterproductive work behaviors. Most studies have measured general counterproductive work behaviors without differentiating targets, that is, without specifying the target of the counterproductive behavior. A few studies have differentiated between counterproductive work behaviors directed at specific others and those direct ed at the organization as a whole (e. g. , Liao, Joshi, Chuang, 2004). However, because of the small number of studies making this distinction, the current meta-analysis did not differentiate between these two categories of studies. In those few studies that reported both interpersonal and organizational counterproductive work behaviors, we averaged the correlations to obtain an estimate of general counterproductive work behavior. Sample Likert items of measures of general counterproductive work behaviors include the following: â€Å"I keep important information away from my boss† and â€Å"I openly compromise with others but delay implementing the compromise until my own objectives are accomplished† (Duffy, Ganster, Shaw, 1998). Here, too, we differentiated between self-ratings of counterproductive work behavior and ratings by others. Workplace aggression. As mentioned above, four specific types of counterproductive work behaviors have frequently been measured in previous research on this topic, and therefore we examined these four specific types of counterproductive behavior in more depth. Measures of workplace aggression typically ask respondents to indicate the frequency of occurrence of aggressive behaviors, such as yelling, swearing at others, damaging others’ property, and fighting (Glomb Liao, 2003). All the studies we located utilized self-reported measures. On-the-job substance use. These measures typically ask respondents to indicate the frequency of on-the-job use of alcohol or drugs (Frone, 2003). Here, too, all the studies identified utilized self-ratings. Tardiness. Tardiness is typically measured in two ways. In the first, employees are asked self-report questions like â€Å"How often are you late from work? (never to constantly)† (Hanisch Hulin, 1990). In the second, archival measures of lateness are obtained directly from personnel records (Conte Jacobs, 2003). We included both self-report and archival measures of tardiness in the meta-analysis. Absenteeism. Absenteeism has been measured in three different ways in previous research. The first group of studies measure general absenteeism; these studies do not differentiate between when employees are absent because of sickness or for purely discretionary reasons (Xie Johns, 2000). Other studies in this line of research measure either the number of days absent from work in a given period (absence duration) or the frequency of AGE AND JOB PERFORMANCE 99 absence spells in a given period (absence frequency). Because these indices are all closely related (Conte Jacobs, 2003), they are aggregated together in the present meta-analysis. A second research stream includes studies that measure sickness absenteeism. As an example, J. De Jonge, Reuvers, Houtman, and Kompier (2000) computed sickness absence as the number of separate spells of sickness absence during 1 full calendar year. Researchers have traditionally viewed absenteeism due to sickness as involuntary absence (Dalton Todor, 1993). The third, and last, group of absence studies consists of those that measure nonsickness-related absenteeism. For instance, Vigoda (2001, p. 1499) asked respondents to report â€Å"their estimates of days missed work (during the previous year) for reasons other than sickness. † As another example, Deery, Erwin, and Iverson (1999) obtained personnel records of frequency of nonmedically certified absences during the prior 12-month period. In contrast to sickness-related absence, researchers have generally viewed nonsickness-related absence as an indicator of voluntary withdrawal behavior (Dalton Todor, 1993). Meta-Analytical Procedures Hunter and Schmidt’s (1990) meta-analysis technique, which requires corrections for both measurement error and sampling error, was used. Because there is no theoretical reason to believe the measurement of age would contain measurement error, we followed the practice of previous researchers (Martocchio, 1989) and did not disattenuate the measurement of age in individual studies. On the other hand, the behavioral measures of job performance did require disattenuation to remove the influence of measurement errors. Disattenuation of core task performance. Some researchers have reasoned that it is more appropriate to use interrater reliability to correct for imperfect measurement when task performance is rated by others (i. e. , not by oneself; Judge et al. , 2001; Schmidt Hunter, 1996; Viswesvaran, Ones, Schmidt, 1996). In contrast, other researchers argue that measures of intrarater reliability (that is, alpha coefficients or internal consistency estimates) are more appropriate in this regard (Murphy De Shon, 2000). In light of these different perspectives on disattentuation, we disattenuated the observed correlations for either imperfect intrarater reliability or imperfect interrater reliability. We first corrected studies for the lack of perfect intrarater reliability in the measurement of core task performance. Because different studies may measure the same construct using different scales, this disattenuation process also adjusts for the different levels of measurement error contained in different scales (Hunter Schmidt, 1990). This type of correction requires the use of alpha coefficients (i. e. , internal consistency estimates) reported in individual studies. If no alpha value was reported for a particular scale in a study, an average alpha value calculated from the rest of the studies using the same scale was taken as a substitute (Judge et al. , 2001). The above procedure for correction for imperfect intrarater reliability was performed on all self-report measures and on all measures provided by supervisors, peers, and customers. We corrected studies for imperfect interrater reliability when core task performance was measured via ratings by others (i. e. , not via self-reports). This type of correction required the use of interrater reliability estimates. Unfortunately, many studies included in the meta-analysis did not report these estimates. Therefore, following Judge et al. (2001), for studies that used supervisors as the rating source, we disattenuated the correlations using the metaanalytical estimate of the reliability of supervisor-rated job performance provided by Viswesvaran et al. (1996). For studies that used peers to rate job performance, we disattenuated the correlations using the meta-analytical estimate of the reliability of peer-rated job performance. Because there is a lack of research on interrater reliability associated with less frequently-used raters (i. e. , customers, subordinates, students, or spouses), in these cases we utilized as a proxy estimate the average of the meta-analytical estimate of the reliability of supervisor-rated performance and that of peerrated job performance. As noted earlier, several studies utilized objective measures of core task performance (e. g. quantity of output, sales volume, errors made). Although the notion of interrater and intrarater reliability does not apply to objective measures, it should be noted that these objective measures are still likely to contain some measurement error and might vary depending upon the job complexity of the sample (Sturman, Cheramie, Cashen, 2005). Because studies seldom reported any kind o f reliability estimates for objective measures of core task performance, as a substitute we adopted the meta-analytical estimate of the test–retest reliability of the objective measure of job performance provided by Sturman et al. 2005). Sturman et al. calculated two separate estimates of the reliability of objective task performance, one for jobs of low complexity (e. g. , secretary) and one for jobs of high complexity (e. g. , engineer). For those studies that sampled mixed job complexity types, we used the average value of Sturman et al. ’s two estimates as the proxy. Disattenuation of other performance measures. The disattenuation of the observed correlations between age and the remaining dimensions of job performance largely followed the protocols outlined above. For instance, for self-ratings of creativity, OCB, counterproductive work behaviors, workplace aggression, tardiness, and absence, we corrected for imperfect intrarater reliability using either alpha coefficients (if provided) or an average alpha value based on the remaining studies that used the same scales (if alpha was not provided). For nonself ratings of these performance dimensions, in addition to correcting for imperfect intrarater reliability using the above procedure, we also corrected for imperfect interrater reliability using Viswesvaran et al. s (1996) metaanalytical estimates of the reliability of job performance. Finally, for performance measures that were objective in nature (e. g. , training test scores and company records of work injuries, lateness, and absence), we used Sturman et al. ’s (2005) meta-analytical estimate of test–retest reliability of the objective performance measure as a substitute. Corrections for sampling errors. The second step in th e metaanalysis was correction for sampling errors. Here, we calculated the sample size-weighted corrected correlation. A corrected correlation was judged to be significant at . 5 when its 95% confidence interval did not include the value of zero. Moderator Analyses Subgroup moderator analyses. Two approaches to moderator testing were used. The first one was subgroup analysis; this ap- 400 NG AND FELDMAN proach was taken when the moderator variables were categorical in nature (e. g. , longitudinal vs. cross-sectional data collection). The coding of most of these categorical moderator variables is self-explanatory. The coding for the job complexity and age moderators, though, requires some further explanation. In the case of job complexity, two researchers were responsible for the coding. The coding process was guided by previous metaanalyses that also coded job complexity (e. g. , Avolio Waldman, 1990; Salgado et al. , 2003; Wood, Mento, Locke, 1987). Specifically, the two raters classified each sample occupation into high and low job complexity according to the general intelligence, verbal ability, and numerical ability required to perform the job (Avolio Waldman, 1990). Interrater agreement was 93%. In situations in which there was disagreement, discussion was used to reach consensus. The Dictionary of Occupational Titles (1991) was used to assist in these discussions, too, because jobs in the Dictionary of Occupational Titles are coded and classified according to several dimensions (e. g. , data, people, and things) that reflect job complexity (Avolio Waldman, 1990; Salgado et al. , 2003). Examples of â€Å"high complexity† jobs are researchers, accountants, business consultants, psychiatrists, engineers, managers/executives, financial analysts, nurses, IT professionals, and teachers. â€Å"Low complexity† jobs include clerks, restaurant workers, highway maintenance workers, truck drivers, and receptionists. In those cases in which we needed to examine the differences across different age subgroups, we sorted studies into four groups on the basis of the average age of the sample: less than 30 years old, 31–35, 36 – 40, and over 40 years old. The reason underlying this categorization is four-fold. First, it approximately equalized the number of studies contained in each group. Second, previous research on life-span development has suggested that the time before 30 years old is often a period within which individuals explore careers, whereas the time after 40 years old roughly marked the end of establishment years (Super, 1980). Third, ADEA also uses 40 as the â€Å"cutoff age. † Last, much of the previous research on age and job performance has used decade or halfdecade benchmarks. Regression-based moderator testing. In other cases, the original studies did not provide sufficient sample information with which to categorize moderators. For these moderator variables, therefore, regression-based moderator testing was used. To illustrate the statistical procedures, we utilize the example of â€Å"proportion of women† (i. e. , gender). We tested the plausibility of gender as a moderator by investigating the effect of the percentage of women in the sample (which was a continuous variable) on the observed relationship between age and job performance (cf. Ng, Eby, Sorensen, Feldman, 2005). In essence, we used the percentage of women in the sample as an independent variable, in a weighted least squares multiple regression, to predict the correlation coefficients for the age–job performance relationship. If the percentage of women in the sample as a significant predictor of a relationship between age and a dimension of job performance, then it would suggest that gender moderated that relationship. It should be noted that, among the eight sample characteristics on which we applied this regression approach, only average age, age dispersion, average job tenure, and average organizational tenure of the sample were truly continuous variables per se. The remaining characteristics (proportion of degree holders, manager s, women, and Caucasians) were proxies for sociodemographic variables that are typically measured as categorical variables at the individual level. Nonetheless, this regression technique for testing for moderators in meta-analyses has been found to be more reliable and robust than alternative methods for dealing with this analysis challenge (Steel Kammeyer-Mueller, 2002). Results The meta-analysis results for the relationships between age and the 10 performance dimensions are presented in Table 1. Relationships Between Age and Job Performance Core task performance. We found that age was largely unrelated to core task performance. It was related to supervisor-rated task performance at . 02 (. 03 when corrected for interrater reliability), objective measures of task performance at . 3, and self-rated task performance at . 06. Age was unrelated to core task performance as rated by peers and others. Creativity. Age was not significantly related to creativity. Age was neither related to employee creativity as rated by supervisor (. 01; . 02 when corrected for interrater reliability) nor to selfreports of creativity ( . 01). Performa nce in training programs. We found that age had a weak, negative relationship with performance in training programs ( . 04). That is, older workers’ performance in training programs was found to be slightly lower than that of younger workers. General and specific types of OCB. On the other hand, age demonstrated significant and positive relationships with OCB. With respect to general OCB (i. e. , OCB that did not differentiate among or specify targets), age was related to ratings by others at . 06 (. 08 when corrected for interrater reliability) and to selfratings at . 08. Examining studies that differentiated targets of OCB revealed some interesting results. With respect to OCB directed at others, age was related to ratings by others at . 05 (. 06 when corrected for interrater reliability) and to self-ratings at . 07. With respect to OCB directed at organizations, age was related to ratings by others at . 6 (. 08 when corrected for interrater reliability) and to selfratings at . 14. With respect to OCB directed at tasks, age was related to ratings by others at . 21 (. 27 when corrected for interrater reliability) and to self-ratings at . 13. Safety performance. Age also demonstrated significant relationships with safety behavior. Specifically, age was pos itively related to self-rated compliance with safety rules and procedures at . 10. Furthermore, it was negatively related to objective frequency measures of work injuries at . 08 and to self-rated frequency of work injuries at . 03. General counterproductive work behavior. Age was significantly and negatively related to general counterproductive work behaviors. Most studies have measured general counterproductive work behaviors without differentiating targets. Age was negatively related to these ratings of counterproductive work behaviors given by others (supervisors/peers) at . 09 ( . 12 when corrected for interrater reliability) and to self-ratings at . 12. Specific counterproductive work behaviors. Moreover, older workers appear to engage in less workplace aggression, on-the-job substance use, and tardiness in particular. Age was negatively AGE AND JOB PERFORMANCE 401 Table 1 Meta-Analytical Relationships Between Age and Job Performance Variable Core task performance Supervisor-rated (Corrected for interrater reliability) Rated by peers and others (Corrected for interrater reliability) Objective measures Self-rated Creativity Rated by supervisor or objective measures (Corrected for interrater reliability) Self-rated Performance in training programs Rated by supervisor or objective measures OCB General (undifferentiated targets) Rated by supervisors, peers, or others (Corrected for interrater reliability) Self-rated Directed at others Rated by supervisors, peers, or others (Corrected for interrater reliability) Self-rated Directed at organization Rated by supervisors, peers, or others (Corrected for interrater reliability) Self-rated Directed at tasks Rated by supervisors, peers, or others (Corrected for interrater reliability) Self-rated Safety performance Self-rated compliance with safety rules Objective frequency of work injuries Self-rated frequency of work injuries General counterproductive work behavior (undifferentiated targets or types) Rated by supervisor or peers (Corrected for interrater reliability) Self-rated Self-rated workplace aggression Self-rated on-the-job substance use Tard How to cite Relation of Group Performance to Age, Papers

Tuffstuff Ltd Analysis

Question: Describe the organisational structure that is most likely to be applicable to Tuffstuff Ltd Discuss the utility, as an analytical tool, of a PEST analysis. Prepare a business report for the CEO of Tuffstuff Ltd that analyses the key factors to be considered with regard to Tuffstuffs proposed venture and sets out your recommendation. It is expected that a PEST analysis of Tuffstuffà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã… ¸s proposed venture in Rwanda will form the basis of your report. Answer: Introduction Most of the companies, especially the leading companies throughout the world are gradually becoming interested to expand their business in the international markets for increasing their market share and profit. However, it is difficult to set up a business within an unknown territory, especially when the market environments of such territories are different from their domestic markets (Acar, 2015). Therefore, it is essential for the companies to analyse both internal and external environment (Micro and Macro environment) of the particular business and market or economy. The markets cannot control both Micro and Macro environment factors, but such factors can influence the strategic decisions of the marketers. There are various analytical tools such as Porter's five forces, SWOT and PEST analysis available for assessing the Micro and Macro environment factors (Frynas and Mellahi, 2015). The CEO of Tuffstuff Ltd is expecting less or no competition, but the CEO is expressing concerns re garding the expansion of the business in Africa. The current study concentrates evaluating the importance of SWOT and PEST analysis for justifying whether the CEO of Tuffstuff Ltd is making an appropriate decision by setting up manufacturing and distribution operation in sub-Saharan Africa, in particular, Rwanda. Applicable Organizational Structure to Tuffstuff Ltd Organizational structure has an impact upon the success of a business largely, as the structure implies how the organization is going to perform their business operations. It is essential for the organizations like Tuffstuff Ltd to select the most effective organizational structure, especially when such organizations are going to implement their business into an unknown territory (Gustafsson and Wikner, 2015). Geographical organizational structure and Matrix organizational structure are two effective organizational structures Organizational Structure is most likely to be applicable to Tuffstuff Ltd. There are various benefits of the Geographical organizational structure of Tuffstuff Ltd. The management of Tuffstuff Ltd should consider creating a separate geographical division for developing manufacturing and distribution operation in sub-Saharan Africa, in particular Rwanda. However, the division will also be responsible for reporting directly to their head office. The objectives of all the employees and staffs of that particular division will be same as the objectives the division. The managers of Tuffstuff Ltd should lead the division from the top of a chain of command. The company should also consider hiring the local people (Rasheed et al. 2015). Definitions (Organisational SWOT and PEST) PEST Analysis PEST analysis or PESTLE analysis is essential for analysing the macro-environment factors, which include Political (P), Economical (E), Socio-Cultural (S), Technological (T), Legal (L) and Environmental (E) factors. Controlling such factors is beyond the ability of the businesses, but they can make effective decisions based on those factors (Shah et al. 2015). Political Political factors can influence the decisions of the government of an economy. Due to political factor, the government may become convinced to implement particular policies regarding tax policies, Fiscal policy, trade tariffs etc. Such policies may largely affect the business environment (economic environment) (Shabanova et al. 2015). Economical Economical factors are the determinants for influencing the performance of an economy. The economic performance of an economy has an impact upon the performance of a business from the long-term perspectives. For instance, changes in inflation may affect the decisions of the businesses regarding their method of pricing their products and services. On the other hand, economic factors may also have impacts upon the demand and supply model in terms on purchasing power of a consumer (Snieskiene, 2015). The inflation rate, interest rates, foreign exchange rates, economic growth patterns etc are the key examples of economic factors. The policies of the governments regarding FDI (foreign direct investment) are also significant parts of the economic factors. Socio-Cultural Socio-cultural factors are one of the key macro-environment factors, especially in todays business world of globalization. The key determinants of socio-cultural environment include demographics, cultural trends, population analytics etc. Such factors may also include cultural influences (Haron, 2015). Technological Technological factors imply the extent to which innovations and advancements in technology may affect the operations of the industry and the businesses. Research and Development (RD), automation, technological awareness etc can also influence or make an impact upon the performance of a business (Schneider, 2015). Utility of PEST Analysis PEST analysis is one of the most simplistic and easy-to-use analytical frameworks for industry/market/business analysis for making appropriate and effective strategic decisions (Haron, 2015). PEST analysis includes cross-functional expertise and skills. PEST analysis largely helps to identify and to minimise the potential impact and effects of possible threats of an organization (Shabanova et al. 2015). PEST analysis encourages developing strategic thinking within an organization. PEST analysis is one of the most effective mechanism or analytical tools help to identify and to exploit new opportunities (Jeschke, 2015). PEST analysis largely helps to evaluate implication of entering new markets both nationally and internationally. Limitations of PEST Analysis Most of the external factors are dynamic and change rapidly. Therefore, it is essential for the organizations to conduct such process continuously to obtain an effective outcome. However, very few organizations have the financial capability to continue investing towards such process (Fragouli and Yankson, 2015). Businesses have the ability to generalise the information, which is essential for making information (Shah et al. 2015). An organization may consider rejecting a project in case the organization is getting enough negative feedback from too much information. However, the key purpose of PEST analysis is to identify the issues for making necessary decisions resolve such issues (Haron, 2015). Due to time and cost considerations, it is possible that an organization frequently restricts who is involved. Such situation affects the technique's effectiveness, as it may overlook the key perspectives (Schneider, 2015). Most of the businesses cannot manage to access adequate quality external information due to limited time and costs (Acar, 2015). It is subjective to make any strategic decision based on the assumptions. SWOT Analysis SWOT analysis is one of the effective analytical methods, widely used for evaluating the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats of an organization. Strengths and weaknesses indicate mostly the internal factors while opportunities and threats imply external factors. SWOT analysis not only helps to assess the current position of the business, but it also helps to make effective strategic decisions. The companies should concentrate using their strengths to utilise their opportunities and to avoid strengths. In addition, the companies also have the ability to overcome their weaknesses by utilising their opportunities. Following is the example structure of SWOT analysis (Frynas and Mellahi, 2015). INTERNAL STRENGTHS WEAKNESSES Things an organization is good at Knowledge and Experience Creative and Unique characteristics Resources Geographical territory Core Capabilities and Competencies Reputation and Quality Pricing, Distribution, Flexibility on Product or Service Things an organization should improvise Skills and Knowledge Gaps Financial Issues Reputation and Market Awareness Management and Leadership Issues Staff Involvement and Motivation Poor location EXTERNAL OPPORTUNITIES THREATS Expanding Business in New Markets Acquisitions and Strategic Alliances Business and Product or Service Diversity Utilising new analytical tools such as PESTLE New Product Development Minimising Costs Innovation and technology Development RD Environment Changes (PESTLE) Losing business and existing Loyal Customers Increase in costs of Raw Material, Energy and Transportation Costs Increasing Market Competition New Product Development and Innovation by the competitors Technological Changes Seasonality Table 1: SWOT Analysis (Source: SniekienÄ—, 2015) Most importantly, as SWOT helps to give adequate information regarding the weaknesses, the companies have the opportunity to work upon their weaknesses to avoid any possible threats. Relationship between PEST and SWOT Analyses SWOT analysis implies the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats of a business plan while PEST analysis examines the external political, economic, social, technological factors surrounding the macro-environment of the business. However, both tools are essential for making effective strategic decisions (Gustafsson and Wikner, 2015). PEST analysis largely helps to evaluate the components of the SWOT analysis. PEST analysis tends to broader perspectives while SWOT analysis is much focused and narrower (Jeschke, 2015). PEST analysis is relevant for analysing complex business issues and such process cannot consider analysing the internal factors of a business unlike the SWOT analysis (Shabanova et al. 2015). Report of Tuffstuff Ltd in analysing key factors on the proposed venture It is seen in the major business areas that bring proposed venture considered on Tuffstuff. The researcher has signed a treaty to gain the market share of companies in entering to Africa. A major quote says, Future lies on the common lines of business positions on Africa. A comparative review has been laid through major decisions where people find working age and the total population in the developmental area (Briggs, 2011). The main purpose of the topic is evident to check the business solutions to enter Africa in gaining the market through PEST analysis. Working as CEO of Tuffstuff Ltd has a good base of the operations of UK and Continental Europe to manufacture cement. However, it is actively considered in setting manufacturing and distribution process in Sub-Saharan Africa in major parts of Rwanda. The company also has a distribution policy that makes the competition even in making market competition high on Parts of Africa (Miyajima, Mohanty and Chan, 2012). Thus, working as a c onsultant that provides major firms and business readily accepts territories on the proposed investment policies. However, the support will regard in studying PEST analysis of Tuffstuff in making market through PEST analysis of Cement Company. However, this section introduces an idea that can be entertained on the business principles of performing a SWOT analysis of the company (Mulligan, 2012). Working as a Consultant in a firm that provides business solutions in development is approached by the CEO of Tuffstuff Ltd to operate the activities performed in Africa. Since, Tuffstuff Ltd enters major parts of Africa particularly in the areas of Rwanda to increase the market growth to form stability, but CEO has replied to the event that applying PEST analysis would not help to increase the market distribution on major scales. Thus, the main reflection on this topic suggests variable factors that are applying PEST analysis will determine good ability to cope with market share. Africa has been holding a political and legal environment, which stabilizes major events to make the country developed (Pimenta da Gama, 2011). However, there may be factors that evolve changes in the trade regulations and tariffs in business. The legal enforcement would simplify the working perspective, which will increase regulations of the market to stabilize good effects. The CEO of Tuffstuff Ltd has ev aluated key factors that are: The inflation rate is increasing the trend of business that can form gradual reduction. Here, the inflation targeting policies will govern an initiative on the targeting policies. The growth rate has made competition to increase prices on the financial economy. The social environment has made political factors stable on the increase in population and demographics (Saren, 2011). The consultant will motivate employees through a good sequence in making the competitive market of Africa even. PEST analysis will be performed through business ideas through Political, Economic, Social and Technological environment in analysing the perspectives of major opportunities (Srivastava, 2011). Since, Tuffstuff Ltd trade cement to major parts of UK and Europe, but now it wants to join hands with Africa. The market position would be sustainable if PEST analysis will support terms on operations of Sub-Saharan Africa in Rwanda. The information evolved on the personal ideas in making the assumptions clear, and contrast develops through a business approach in Africa (Teglio, 2012). Political factors would underline Africas current policies in holding good interest on market growth. The consultant would improvise changes through government and regional policies in making it effective (Briggs, 2011). There are other contenders, which empower sustainable positions right for making business policies ideal. However, they would review change perspective on a business policy that Tuffstuff Ltd develops in making a good reflection on market share. The treaty would assume major changes that make Tuffstuff Ltd to make a proper evaluation of rights and regulations in making market developed through legislation and taxation (Mulligan, 2012). The planning perspective would analyze business through an approach in launching distribution of cement through corporate policies, social responsibilities, environmental issues and customer protection rights in Rwanda. Economic factors also stabilize on the current economy to see how Tuffstuff Ltd Company makes market gain through growth, stability and declination. The consultant would see if major changes from significant positions on the customer levels to become disposable if income is falling apart (Chang, 2011). It is also seen if unemployment rate would be easy to build a workforce. Then it would be hard to sustain a good position in the business module. However, globalization has a great effect in holding economic barriers of Africa in making production good as done in UK and Europe. The Socio-Cultural factors have made the trend of market growth to increase population on the age of the individual relatively in major parts of Africa. Bringing newer changes on Africa has favored increasing societys level of education, health and social mobility. The employment patterns will reflect change perspective to show trends and attitudes in building good stability in holding market success (Hoballah and Erlich, 2012). Thus, population change will increase these factors on religious beliefs and lifestyles in Rwanda to hold good market share. Technological factors also have a great impact to see whether the change would reflect Tuffstuff Ltd to increase market distribution and growth in Rwanda. Since in the present market, technology holds a greater area. Thus, this strategy would avail major resources to access new technologies in redefining Tuffstuff product through government policies and educational institutions (Miyajima, Mohanty and Chan, 2012). However, infrastructural changes also balance technology to hold the good structure in the market in Rwanda. The researcher has made an effect to overcome ideas by taking PEST analysis on going to perform SWOT analysis. The CEO has evaluated major changes that could be ideal to sustain good effect in the market in performing SWOT analysis through the converging ideas in making it a perfect solution. Through a proposed venture, an explanation would reflect on the policies that make the assessment criteria evolved through the market structure of Tuffstuff Ltd in entering African market (Pimenta da Gama, 2011). Strengths would evolve good ideas that could make advantages of Tuffstuff Ltd better in Rwanda. This will lower costs for major resources that drive strategic market through Unique selling proposition (Saren, 2011). Looking among the competitors of Cement Company, Tuffstuff may provide high quality products in making the market gain effective in major areas of Rwanda in assessing the economic factors of PEST analysis. There may be major weaknesses in determining the companys areas that how it can be improved (Wenzel, 2012). The CEO of Tuffstuff Ltd has applied changes in making the market growth effective. However, through Socio-economic factors of PEST analysis, people may find good areas in making market gain developed. Competitors may form realistic and unpleasant here. Opportunities also have a good impact on the interesting trends in making market effective. This would be compact on major areas of Rwanda to apply social trends, increase in population, lifestyle changes. Thus, this research focuses on the local events as revised by the CEO of Tuffstuff Ltd to make local events an interesting perspective on technological areas of PEST analysis (Teglio, 2012). Threats would form a major obstacle among the competitors of Tuffstuff Ltd in making the market even through development procedures. There are major specifications that enhance services offered on products and services that are changing effectively (Mulligan, 2012). Hence, political factors can hold good stability on the competitive market on the major threats in Rwanda. Recommendations In this topic, the market has evolved a greater area in holding stability through profitability areas in development and succession. This would increase changes made through technological influence and good infrastructural facilities of Tuffstuff Ltd in Africa. Since, Tuffstuff Ltd has made a growing market in areas of UK and continental Europe. Therefore, to reflect new changes in the governmental procedures of cement industry in the business environment would increase market share in Africa. Thus, the researcher has taken ideas in giving necessary recommendations of Tuffstuff Ltd through sustainability, technology, infrastructure and rise of corporate social responsibility. Rise of Technology Technology has made a great impact on the African countries to make specifications through development in trading with these companies. Since, these companies have great technological influence. Thus, Tuffstuff can increase their market growth higher in Africa through various innovative ideas among the common people in future. Infrastructural facilities Since, Africa is an underdeveloped continent its major parts can be developed through good infrastructural techniques. Tuffstuff can do this through increasing cement on building blocks in major parts of Rwanda. Maintaining Environmental Sustainability The management of Tuffstuff Ltd should consider maintaining environmental sustainability to enhance their reputation and to develop the effective relationship with the African government and the community. Such commitment will also help the company to gain long-term sustainable growth. Better Communication with the African Government and the Community The Company should frequently communicate and collaborate with the local government and the community to obtain their support, which is essential for their business. The management should also consider hiring people from the local community to increase their CSR reputation. The management should also contribute financially to the well-being of the local community. Offering free education and medical treatment to the local people are the most popular contributions that the management of Tuffstuff Ltd may widely consider. Conclusion The idea performed in this research will help to assess various knowledge and skills performed in the business environment. This would change prolific ideas entertained on Tuffstuff Ltd to enter African market. In this research, the researcher has taken various concepts to perform strategic idea on organisational behaviour in making market distribution higher. The researcher has also outlined a strategy to perform SWOT and PEST analysis through objectives made in giving a specific proposition. Hence, the research concludes that through various factors as evolved by the CEO of Tuffstuff to make a good territory in Rwanda will help to stabilize market intensity higher. Reference List Acar, A., (2015). .Strategic Foresight in an Unstable Economic Environment. Marketing Intelligence Planning Briggs, M. (2011). Pegasus Town: innovative marketing of a new property venture. Marketing Intelligence Planning, 29(6), pp.602-610. Chang, J. (2011). 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