3.4: Implementing Retention Strategies
- Explain the strategies and considerations in development of a retention plan.
As we have addressed so far in this chapter, retention and reduction of turnover is paramount to a healthy organization. Performing research, such as calculating turnover rates, doing exit interviews, and surveying employees’ satisfaction, are the first steps. Once this is done, understanding motivational theories and the application of them in the retention plan can help reduce turnover. Next, we can apply specific retention strategies to include in our plans, while keeping our budget in mind. Some of the retention strategies discussed have already or will be discussed in their own chapters, but they are certainly worth a mention here as part of the overall plan.
Salaries and Benefits
As we know from Chapter 6 “Compensation and Benefits”, a comprehensive compensation plan that includes not only pay but things such as health benefits and paid time off (PTO) is the first retention strategy that should be addressed. The compensation plan should not only help in recruitment of the right people but also help retain employees. Utilizing a pay banding system, in which the levels of compensation for jobs are clearly defined, is one way to ensure fairness exists within internal pay structures.
As we know from this chapter, compensation is not everything. An employee can be well paid and have great benefits but still not be satisfied with the organization. Some of the considerations surrounding pay as a way to retain employees include the following:
- Instituting a standard process. Many organizations do not have set pay plans, which can result in unfairness when onboarding (the process of bringing someone “on board” with the company, including discussion and negotiation of compensation) or offering pay increases. Make sure the process for receiving pay raises is fair and defensible, so as not to appear to be discriminatory. This can be addressed in both your compensation planning process as well as your retention plan.
- A pay communication strategy. Employees deserve to know how their pay rates are being determined. Transparency in the process of how raises are given and then communicating the process can help in your retention planning process 1 .
- Paid time off. Is your organization offering competitive PTO? Consider implementing a PTO system that is based on the amount of hours an employee works. For example, rather than developing a policy based on hours worked for the company, consider revising the policy so that for every X number of hours worked, PTO is earned. This can create fairness for the salaried employee, especially for those employees who may work more than the required forty hours.
Please refer to Chapter 6 “Compensation and Benefits” for more information on pay and benefits, and analyze how your compensation plans could be negatively affecting your retention.
Training and Development
To meet our higher level needs, humans need to experience self-growth. HR professionals and managers can help this process by offering training programs within the organization and paying for employees to attend career skill seminars and programs. In addition, many companies offer tuition reimbursement programs to help the employee earn a degree. Dick’s Drive-In, a local fast food restaurant in Seattle, Washington, offers $18,000 in scholarships over four years to employees working twenty hours per week. There is a six-month waiting period, and the employee must continue to work twenty hours per week. In a high turnover industry, Dick’s Drive-In boasts one of the highest retention rates around.
How Would You Handle This?
You work for a small organization in the HR department. One of your web developers schedules a meeting with you, and during the meeting she says that she doesn’t see any career growth for her in the organization. As a result, she confides that she is planning to leave the organization as soon as she can find another job. She is one of the best developers you have and you would hate to lose her.
Performance Appraisals
The performance appraisal is a formalized process to assess how well an employee does his or her job. The effectiveness of this process can contribute to employee retention, in that employees can gain constructive feedback on their job performance, and it can be an opportunity for the manager to work with the employee to set goals within the organization. This process can help ensure the employee’s upper level self-actualization needs are met, but it also can address some of the motivational factors discussed by Herzberg, such as achievement, recognition, and responsibility.
How important is PTO to you? How do you think the amount of PTO would affect your likelihood to accept one job over another?
Succession Planning
Succession planning is a process of identifying and developing internal people who have the potential for filling positions. As we know, many people leave organizations because they do not see career growth or potential. One way we can combat this in our retention plan is to make sure we have a clear succession planning process that is communicated to employees. Succession planning is sometimes called the talent bench, because successful companies always have talented people “on the bench” or ready to do the job should a key position become vacant. The goals of most succession plans include the following (Rothwell & Kazanas, 1999):
- Identify high-potential employees capable of advancing to positions of higher responsibility.
- Ensure the development of these individuals to help them be “ready” to earn a promotion into a new position.
- Ensure diversity in the talent bench by creating a formal succession planning process.
Succession planning must be just that: planned. This allows clear communication to the employees on how they can further develop within the organization, and it helps them see what skills they should master before that time comes. Chapter 8 “Training and Development” will provide more information on how to develop and implement a succession plan.
Examples of Retention Strategies at Michels Corporation
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This video addresses some “real world” retention strategies used at Michels Corporation, a utility contractor services company.
Flextime, Telecommuting, and Sabbaticals
According to a Salary.com survey, the ability to work from home and flexible work schedules are benefits that would entice an employee to stay in their job 2 . The ability to implement this type of retention strategy might be difficult, depending on the type of business. For example, a retailer may not be able to implement this, since the sales associate must be in the store to assist customers. However, for many professions, it is a viable option, worth including in the retention plan and part of work-life balance, which we will discuss in Section 7.3.10 “Work-Life Balance” .
Some companies, such as Recreational Equipment Incorporated, based in Seattle, offer twelve weeks of unpaid leave per year (beyond the twelve weeks required under the Family and Medical Leave Act) for the employee to pursue volunteering or traveling opportunities. In addition, with fifteen years of service with the company, paid sabbaticals are offered, which include four weeks plus already earned vacation time.
Management Training
As we discuss in Section “Reasons for Voluntary Turnover”, a manager can affect an employee’s willingness to stay on the job. In a recent Gallup poll of one million workers, a poor supervisor or manager is the number one reason why people leave their jobs 3 . Managers who bully, use the theory X approach, communicate poorly, or are incompetent may find it difficult to motivate employees to stay within the organization. While in HR we cannot control a manager’s behavior, we can provide training to create better management. Training of managers to be better communicators and motivators is a way to handle this retention issue. We will discuss training further in Chapter 8 “Training and Development”.
Conflict Management and Fairness
Perceptions on fairness and how organizations handle conflict can be a contributing factor to retention. Outcome fairness refers to the judgment that people make with respect to the outcomes they receive versus the outcomes received by others with whom they associate with. When people are deciding if something is fair, they will likely look at procedural justice, or the process used to determine the outcomes received. There are six main areas employees will use to determine the outcome fairness of a conflict:
- Consistency. The employee will determine if the procedures are applied consistently to other persons and throughout periods of time.
- Bias suppression. The employee perceives the person making the decision does not have bias or vested interest in the outcome.
- Information accuracy. The decision made is based on correct information.
- Correctability. The decision is able to be appealed and mistakes in the decision process can be corrected.
- Representativeness. The employee feels the concerns of all stakeholders involved have been taken into account.
- Ethicality. The decision is in line with moral societal standards.
For example, let’s suppose JoAnn just received a bonus and recognition at the company party for her contributions to an important company project. Another employee, Sam, might compare his inputs and outputs and determine it was unfair that JoAnn was recognized because he had worked on bigger projects and not received the same recognition or bonus. When we look at how our retention strategies are developed, we want to be sure they can apply to everyone in the organization; otherwise it may cause retention problems. Some of the procedures questioned could include the following:
- How time off is requested
- How assignments of the “best” projects are given
- Division of work
- Promotion processes
- Pay processes
While some of these policies may seem minor, they can make a big difference in retention. Besides development of fair policies, we should be sure that the policies are clearly communicated and any processes are communicated as well. These types of policies should be revisited yearly and addressed in the retention plan if it appears they are causing employee dissatisfaction.
In addition to a sense of fairness within the organization, there should be a specific way (process) of managing conflict. If the organization is unionized, it is likely a grievance process is already in place to handle many types of conflicts. We will discuss this process in greater detail in Chapter 12 “Working with Labor Unions”. There are four basic steps to handle conflict. First, the individuals in conflict should try to handle the conflict by discussing the problem with one another. If this doesn’t work, a panel of representatives from the organization should hear both sides of the dispute and make a recommendation. If this doesn’t work, the organization may want to consider mediation and, in extreme cases, arbitration. In mediation, a neutral third party from outside the organization hears both sides of a dispute and tries to get the parties to come to a resolution, while in arbitration, an outside person hears both sides and makes a specific decision about how things should proceed.
Fortune 500 Focus
With over nineteen thousand employees in sixty countries, Google has seen its share of retention problems 4 . In late 2010, Googlers left the organization en masse to work for Facebook or Twitter (Popper, 2010). Many who left were looking for pre–initial public offering (IPO) organizations to work with, something that Google couldn’t compete with, since it went IPO in April 2004. As a result of the high turnover, Google put its mathematical algorithms to work to determine which employees were most likely to leave, allowing HR to determine what departments to focus on in their retention plans. In 2011, Google gave every employee a 10 percent pay raise, and it continues to offer a variety of new and old perks, such as free food in any of its cafeterias, 20 percent of time to work on personal projects, and $175 peer spot bonuses. Google also offers free laundry services, climbing walls, tuition reimbursement, child-care centers, financial planning classes, and matching funds (up to $3,000 per employee) to nonprofit organizations. For all this, Google ranked number four on Fortune magazine’s list of 100 best companies to work for in 2011 5 . Some say it isn’t the perks, high pay, or bonuses but the company culture that Google creates. A weekly all-hands meeting with the founders, where people are encouraged to ask the founders questions, and a team focus meeting where everyone shares ideas are examples of the company culture Google creates. Google exemplifies the importance of culture in retention of employees.
Job Design, Job Enlargement, and Empowerment
As we have discussed previously, one of the reasons for job dissatisfaction is the job itself. Ensuring we are appropriately matching skills with the job when we do our initial hiring is important. Revisiting the recruitment plan and selection process should be a consideration.
Job enrichment means to enhance a job by adding more meaningful tasks to make the employee’s work more rewarding. For example, if a retail salesperson is good at creating eye-catching displays, allow him or her to practice this skill and assign tasks revolving around this. Job enrichment can fulfill the higher level of human needs while creating job satisfaction at the same time. In fact, research in this area by Richard Hackman and Greg Oldham (Ford, 1969; Paul, et. al., 1969) found that employees need the following to achieve job satisfaction:
- Skill variety, or many different activities as part of the job
- Task identity, or being able to complete one task from beginning to end
- Task significance, or the degree to which the job has impact on others, internally or externally
- Autonomy, or freedom to make decisions within the job
- Feedback, or clear information about performance
In addition, job enlargement, defined as the adding of new challenges or responsibilities to a current job, can create job satisfaction. Assigning employees to a special project or task is an example of job enlargement. Be cautioned, though, that some employees may resent additional work, and job enlargement could actually be a demotivator. Otherwise, knowing the employee and his or her goals and adding work that can be an end to these goals is the best way to achieve retention through job enlargement.
Employee empowerment involves employees in their work by allowing them to make decisions and act upon those decisions, with the support of the organization. Employees who are not micromanaged and who have the power to determine the sequence of their own work day, for example, tend to be more satisfied than those who are not empowered. Empowerment can include the following:
- Encourage innovation or new ways of doing things.
- Make sure employees have the information they need to do their jobs; for example, they are not dependent on managers for information in decision making.
- Use management styles that allow for participation, feedback, and ideas from employees.
Pay-for-Performance Strategies
In “Compensation and Benefits”, we discussed several pay-for-performance strategies we can implement to motivate our employees. A pay-for-performance strategy means that employees are rewarded for meeting preset objectives within the organization. For example, in a merit-based pay system, the employee is rewarded for meeting or exceeding performance during a given time period. Rather than a set pay increase every year, the increase is based on performance. Some organizations offer bonuses to employees for meeting objectives, while some organizations offer team incentive pay if a team achieves a specific, predetermined outcome. For example, each player on the winning team of the 2010 NFL Super Bowl earned a team bonus of $83,000 (Rovell, 2011), while the losing team of the Super Bowl took home $42,000. Players also earn money for each wild card game and payoff game. Some organizations also offer profit sharing, which is tied to a company’s overall performance. Gain sharing, different from profit sharing, focuses on improvement of productivity within the organization. For example, the city of Loveland in Colorado implemented a gain-sharing program that defined three criteria that needed to be met for employees to be given extra compensation. The city revenues had to exceed expenses, expenses had to be equal to or less than the previous year’s expenses, and a citizen satisfaction survey had to meet minimum requirements.
To make sure a pay-for-performance system works, the organization needs to ensure the following:
- Standards are specific and measureable.
- The system is applied fairly to all employees.
- The system is communicated clearly to employees.
- The best work from everyone in the organization is encouraged.
- Rewards are given to performers versus nonperformers.
- The system is updated as the business climate changes.
- There are substantial rewards for high performers.
As we have already addressed, pay isn’t everything, but it certainly can be an important part of the employee retention plan and strategy.
Pay for Performance: Teachers
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This video shows an example of a new pay-for-performance plan for teachers in South Carolina.
Work-Life Balance
Work-life balance discussions originated during the 1960s and 1970s and pertained mostly to working mothers’ meeting the demands of family and work. During the 1980s, the realization that meeting a work-life balance is important (for all, not just working mothers) resulted in companies such as IBM implementing flextime and home-based work solutions. The growing awareness of the work-life balance problem continued into the 1990s, when policies were developed and implemented but not acted upon by managers and employees, according to Jim Bird in Employment Relations Today (Bird, 2006). Today, work-life balance is considered an important topic, so much so that the World at Work Society offers special certifications in this area. The World at Work certification programs focus on creation of successful programs to attract, retain, and motivate employees.
Karol Rose, author of Work Life Effectiveness (Rose, 2006), says that most companies look at a systems approach of work-life balance, instead of a systems and individual approach. The systems approach to work-life balance includes policies and procedures that allow people flexibility, such as telecommuting and flextime options.
According to Rose, looking at the individual differences is equally as important as the systems approach. Brad Harrington, the director of Boston College’s Center for Work and Family, stresses this issue: “Work-life balance comes down, not to an organizational strategy, but to an individual strategy.” For example, a single parent has a different work-life balance need than someone without children. In other words, as HR professionals, we can create work-life balance systems, but we should also look at individual approaches. For example, at Recreational Equipment Incorporated (REI) 6 , they use the systems approach perspective and offer paid time off and sabbaticals, but their employee assistance program also offers access to services, referrals, and free consulting for the individual to find his or her perfect work-life balance. For this, REI receives a number nine ranking on Fortune ’s list of best companies to work for in the area of work-life balance.
The company culture can contribute greatly to work-life balance. Some organizations have a culture of flexibility that fares well for workers who do not want to feel tethered to an office, while some workers prefer to be in the office where more informal socializing can occur. While some companies promote work-life balance on paper, upper management needs to let employees know it is OK to take advantage of the alternatives to create a positive work-life balance. For example, companies place different levels of value on work-life options such as telecommuting. An organization may have a telecommuting option, but the employees must feel it is OK to use these options. Even in a company that has work-life balance systems, a manager who sends e-mails at 10 p.m. on Saturday night could be sending the wrong message to employees about the expectations, creating an environment in which work-life balance is not practiced in reality. O’Neill, a surf gear company in California, sends a strong message to its employees by offering half-day Fridays during the summer 7 , so employees can get a head start on the weekend.
Jim Bird, in his work-life balance article in Employment Relations Today , suggests implementing a work-life balance training program that is dual purpose (can serve both personal interests and professional development). In other words, implement trainings in which the employee can develop both personal skills and interests that can translate into higher productivity at work.
Besides the training program, Bird suggests creating a monthly work-life newsletter as an educational tool to show the company’s commitment to work-life balance. The newsletter can include interviews from respected employees and tips on how to create a work-life balance.
Finally, training managers on the importance of work-life balance and how to create a culture that embraces this is a key way to use work-life balance as a retention strategy.
Other Retention Strategies
According to Fortune ’s “100 Best Companies to Work For,” 5 retention strategies that are more unusual might be part of your retention plan. Some strategies from the list might include the following:
- On-site daycare or daycare assistance
- Gym memberships or on-site gyms
- Concierge service to assist in party planning or dog grooming, for example
- On-site dry cleaning drop-off and pickup
- Car care, such as oil changes, on-site once a week
- On-site doggie daycare
- On-site yoga or other fitness classes
- “Summer Fridays,” when all employees work half days on Fridays during the summer
- Various support groups for cancer survivors, weight loss, or support in caring for aging parents
- Allowance for fertility treatment benefits
- On-site life coaches
- Peer-to-peer employee recognition programs
- Management recognition programs
While some of these options may not work in your organization, we must remember to be creative when our goal is to retain our best employees and reduce turnover in our organizations. The bottom line is to create a plan and make sure the plan is communicated to all employees.
- Once you determine the employee’s level of satisfaction through exit interviews and surveys and understand motivational theories, you can begin to develop specific retention strategies.
- Of course, salary and benefits are a major component of retention strategies. Consistent pay systems and transparent processes as to how raises occur must be included in a retention plan (and compensation strategy).
- Training and development meets the higher level needs of the individual. Many companies offer paid tuition programs, reimbursement programs, and in-house training to increase the skills and knowledge of the employee.
- Performance appraisals provide an avenue for feedback and goal setting. They also allow for employees to be recognized for their contributions.
- Succession plans allow employees to see how they can continue their career with the organization, and they clearly detail what employees need to do to achieve career growth, without leaving your organization.
- Flextime and telecommuting options are worth considering as an addition to your retention plan. These types of plans allow the employee flexibility when developing his or her schedule and some control of his or her work. Some companies also offer paid or unpaid sabbaticals after a certain number of years with the company to pursue personal interests.
- Since one of the reasons people are dissatisfied at their job is because of the relationship with their manager, providing in-house training to all management team members to help them become better communicators and better managers can trickle down to the employee level, creating better relationships and resulting in better retention and less turnover.
- Reviewing company policies to ensure they are fair can contribute to better retention. For example, how projects are assigned or the process for requesting vacation time can contribute to dissatisfaction if the employee feels the processes are not fair.
- Review the job design to ensure the employee is experiencing growth within their job. Changing the job through empowerment or job enlargement to help the growth of the employee can create better retention.
- Other, more unique ways of retaining employees might include offering services to make the employee’s life easier, such as dry cleaning, daycare services, or on-site yoga classes.
- Research two different companies you might be interested in working for. When reviewing their list of benefits, which ones are offered that might motivate someone to stay with the organization?
1 “The Knowledge of Pay Study,” WorldatWork and The LeBlanc Group LLC, 2010, accessed February 26, 2011, www.worldatwork.org/waw/Content/research/html/research-home.jsp.
2 “Employee Job Satisfaction and Retention Survey, 2007/2008,” Salary.com, 2008, accessed February 26, 2011, www.salary.com/docs/resources/JobSatSurvey_08.pdf.
3 “No. 1 Reason People Quit Their jobs,” AOL News, Netscape, n.d., accessed July 28, 2011, webcenters.netscape.compuserve.com/whatsnew/package.jsp?name=fte/quitjobs/quitjobs&floc=wn-dx.
4 “Our Philosophy,” Google, n.d., accessed July 28, 2011, www.google.com/about/corporate/company/tenthings.html.
5 “100 Best Companies to Work For,” CNN Money, 2011, accessed July 28, 2011, http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/bestcompanies/2011/snapshots/4.html .
6 “Pay and Benefits: Total Rewards at REI,” Recreational Equipment Incorporated, n.d., accessed July 29, 2011, www.rei.com/jobs/pay.html.
7 “Vans, Quiksilver, and California Top Skate Companies Offer Dream Careers to FIDM’s Graphic Design School Grads,” Fashion News , June 4, 2011, accessed July 29, 2011, www.fashionnews.com/2011/06/04/vans-quiksilver-californias-top-skate-companies-offer-dream-careers-to-fidms-graphic -design-school-grads.
References
Bird, J., “Work-Life Balance: Doing It Right and Avoiding the Pitfalls,” Employment Relations Today 33, no. 3 (2006), reprinted on WorkLifeBalance.com, accessed July 29, 2011, www.worklifebalance.com/assets/pdfs/article3.pdf.
Ford, R. N., Motivation through the Work Itself (New York: American Management Association, 1969).
Paul, W. J., Keith B. Robertson, and Frederick Herzberg, “Job Enrichment Pays Off,” Harvard Business Review , March–April 1969, 61–78.
Popper, B., “Why Google’s Retention Plan Backfired,” CBS Business Network, September 16, 2010, accessed July 28, 2011, http://www.bnet.com/blog/high-tech/why-googles-retention-plan-backfired/1172 .
Rose, K., Work-life Effectiveness: Bottom-line Strategies for Today’s Workplace (Scottsdale, AZ: World at Work Press, 2006).
Rothwell, W. J., and H. C. Kazanas, Building In-House Leadership and Management Development Programs: Their Creation, Management, and Continuous Improvement (Westport, CT: Quorum Books, 1999), 131.
Rovell, D., “How Much Do Players Get Paid for Winning the Super Bowl?” CNBC Sports, January 18, 2011, accessed July 29, 2011, www.cnbc.com/id/41138354/How_Much_Do_Players_Get_Paid_For_Winning_the_Super_Bowl.


6.8: Putting It Together- Trade-Area Analysis and Site Selection
The location, the demographics of the population, how many people live within the trading area, secondary trading area and fringe area, along with many other variables need to be evaluated when you are putting together plans for any retail location. Even online businesses need to know their market in order to advertise appropriately and reach the right consumers.
There are so many different facets to retail operations, and the location you choose to open your business is by far the most important. Knowing your competition, and businesses that may help your business thrive are important aspects as well.
The U.S Census is a good place to start, but you may need more current and detailed information regarding your market, which can be obtained through GIS systems. Being able to overlap data to find the best possible location options is available through the use of GIS. Building a new business is tough, so use all of the available resources to help you find the perfect location with the perfect consumers.
Contributors and Attributions
- Putting It Together: Trade-Area Analysis and Site Selection. Authored by : Freedom Learning Group. Provided by : Lumen Learning. License : CC BY: Attribution


12: Geological Implications
This section takes into consideration everything we have discussed so far. We will take a glance back at the formation of rocks and minerals, concentrating on mineral and energy resources. These resources focus mainly on our fossil fuels—oil, natural gas and coal. However, we use a variety of other material as well. Most of the resources we use are done so indirectly. For example, each person will use over 450,000 pounds of coal in their lifetime. While you may not go to the store and purchase coal to use like you would gasoline for your car, you do it in other indirect ways—for instance, most electricity in the US is generated by coal burning.
Thumbnail: An open-pit copper mine in Chuquicamata, Chile. (CC BY-SA 2.0; ).
Contributors and Attributions
-
Original content from Kimberly Schulte (Columbia Basin College) and supplemented by Lumen Learning . The content on this page is copyrighted under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license.


15.1: Microsoft 365- Collaboration and Integration
By the end of this section, you will be able to:
- Explain how Microsoft 365 supports collaboration
- Explain integration across Microsoft 365 apps
- Link and embed objects in Microsoft 365 apps
- Import a PDF using Microsoft 365 apps
WorldCorp is preparing for its annual meeting. Businesses often have a large, yearly meeting to summarize the organization’s performance over the last year. Publicly traded companies (those that sell stock) are actually required to hold this kind of meeting each year. Key stakeholders are invited to this meeting, and important documents and performance metrics are shared in both formal presentations and documents. These key stakeholders can include a wide variety of constituents, such as the owners of the company, important customers, vendors, and upper management. This is WorldCorp’s chance to showcase its successes and highlight goals for the next year. There is a good deal of preparation that goes into the meeting, including determining the agenda, creating the presentations, and formatting the documents to be distributed. You not only want the information conveyed to be accurate, but you also want to share the information in a way that is engaging and easy to follow.
Collaboration in Microsoft 365
Microsoft 365 (more commonly known by its former longtime name, Microsoft Office) gives users the ability to collaborate on almost any platform. You can access and often edit files on a wide variety of devices through the downloaded apps. Organizations rely on collaborating to achieve their goals. This, of course, will vary by industry and type of organization, but most would agree that working with others both within and outside of the business occurs on a regular, if not daily, basis.
Today we often hear the phrase collaborative workspace . Collaborative workspaces are secure virtual environments that allow users access to company files, programs, and apps from any location. These workspaces allow employees to work remotely, and many companies today incorporate such workspaces into their overall company strategy. By offering employees options to work remotely, companies can meet the diverse needs of their employees and in some cases have seen an increase in productivity. For example, one study found that 40 percent of employees indicate they work more hours when working remotely than when in the office. Employees also indicated they felt less stress. The workspace does not have to be exclusively virtual but does need to be organized in such a way to foster teamwork and productivity with access to the needed information and tools to accomplish the company goals.
Programs such as the Microsoft suite facilitate incorporating collaborative workspaces into the company structure. Through applications such as Microsoft Teams and Microsoft SharePoint, users can share files, manage schedules, create team folders, meet virtually, and edit documents in real time. Using these features of Microsoft allows employees located in different parts of the world to work together on a project, even if they are never in the same physical location. Technological advances have changed how organizations function, saving them money while aiding employee job satisfaction and work-life balance.
Drift , a technology firm in Boston, Massachusetts, was founded in 2015 as a traditional, in-person workplace. As the company grew to include additional offices and employees, collaborating virtually became a high priority. Like many companies, Drift was forced to move to a fully remote workplace during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. After the initial transition to establish expectations and common practices for collaboration and acquire the needed technology, the company decided to remain a fully remote workplace , which has allowed employees to relocate to be closer to family and make life choices, such as marriage or having children, a bit easier. This has also enhanced the diversity within the company.
Drift’s Chief People Officer Dena Upton said the company took what is called a Digital First approach:
“It means that our primary work spaces are our homes. The bulk of individual work will happen there. When the team does come together, we’ll do so in ‘Conversation Spaces,’ or our repurposed offices. Everywhere we currently have a physical space—Boston, San Francisco, and Tampa—we’re creating collaboration outposts for group work.”
This is just one example of a company that is realizing the benefits of a remote workplace, at both company and employee levels. There are, of course, many others, and when employees are given the chance, they choose remote work. According to a McKinsey & Company American Opportunity Survey, which tracks the public’s views on economic issues, 87 percent of workers who are offered the chance to work remotely take the offer.
Not every company, however, is on board with a fully remote workforce. In fact, some high-profile companies such as Goldman Sachs and Netflix have called employees back into the physical office full time. To track these trends, visit Hubble , which specializes in helping companies set up hybrid and remote solutions. It maintains and updates a list it calls The Official List of Every Company’s Back-to-Office Strategy.
Integration in Microsoft 365
When applications that serve different purposes work together in a seamless, functional way, this is called integration . One key feature of Office that fosters integration across applications is the common user interface. Each application has a similar format and structure. When you open Microsoft Word, for example, you will notice many of the same functions and tabs that you will see in Microsoft Excel or Microsoft Outlook. Additionally, the keyboard shortcuts are common among the Microsoft applications. As an example, Ctrl+C (Command+C for Mac) is the keyboard shortcut for “copy,” and this shortcut works in all Office (and Google) applications. This commonality between functions, tools, and tabs allows users to easily switch between applications.
Microsoft SharePoint and Microsoft OneDrive are two other features of Office that help with integration of the applications. Company files can be stored and shared where all employees can access the information. You can also manage who can access and edit files in the shared folders. You can think of SharePoint and/or OneDrive as the main repository of company files. Generally, SharePoint is accessed across the enterprise, while OneDrive is usually accessed by individual users. These files can be accessed within individual applications, such as Excel or Teams, or easily emailed as attachments. Files can also be accessed and often edited on a wide variety of devices.
Microsoft has designed their applications to work together to serve the various informational needs of individuals and business organizations. Users can see real-time edits to documents, collaborate on creating a presentation, or efficiently schedule a meeting using the calendar features. Files can be attached to meeting invitations, files can be shared via Microsoft Teams, and Excel spreadsheets can be embedded in Word documents. These are just a few examples of how the Microsoft applications are integrated with each other.
Linking and Embedding Objects
Information from any of the Microsoft programs can be integrated into another program in a few ways. With integration, you are putting information from one file type into another file type. In previous Excel chapters, you learned how to copy a table and paste that into Word or PowerPoint. Copying and pasting information allows you to include the information in your Word or PowerPoint file, but as a static version of the object. This means that if you changed the information in Excel, it would not be changed in the Word or PowerPoint file. To update the table in your other file, you would need to copy and paste the table again. This simple process may be acceptable in some cases, but it can be time consuming and repetitive. Other options for integrating content from another source include linking and embedding objects.
Linking and embedding items in applications files are useful tools when adding information or objects from one program to another. The information that you are linking or embedding into another program comes from the source file . You bring information from the source file to move to another program. For example, you can bring a table from an existing Excel file (the source file) into a PowerPoint slide (the destination).
Linking items means creating a direct, dynamic connection between the source file and the destination file . When an object is linked, the information is stored in the original application (the source file) but just displayed in the other application (the destination file). A link allows the user to work with the information in the source file and have it update automatically in the destination file. For example, when data from an Excel spreadsheet is linked to a Word document, the Excel data is stored in the Excel spreadsheet but displayed in the Word document. This can be a useful function when information from one department is stored separately from another department, such as in a separate SharePoint folder. You might not want someone outside of the department to have access to all the files in the departmental folder, but they might need access to selected information. Note that when linking files together, you need to be sure that all users have access to both files at least to view the files. For example, if you link a Word document and an Excel file and would like a coworker to be able to make changes to the linked data, they will need to have access to both the source file and the destination file.
Embedding an object in another program is much like using the copy-and-paste functions, except that you do not have to open the other file. Embedding will place a copy of the information from the source file into the destination file, where it becomes part of the destination file. This creates a static copy, just like copying and pasting does. It also means that if the information is changed in the source file, it will not be updated in the destination file where it is embedded. Furthermore, once information is embedded into the destination file, that information becomes part of the file size of the destination file. For example, embedding a video into a Word document will increase the file size of the Word document, because it now contains a copy of the video.
To link or embed information from another file, go to the Insert tab and to the Text command group (see Figure 15.2). Choose the Object function to open the drop-down menu. Because the ribbons are similar across programs, you should be able to do this in Word, PowerPoint, and Excel.
Notice that there are two options in the Object menu: Object and Text from File. Using the Object function, you can either link or embed another file into your current file.
When you first select the Object function, you will see two options (see Figure 15.3): you can create a different file type from scratch (Create New), or you can get information from an existing file (Create from File).
Linking to Objects
When you want to link to a file, you probably already have a file in mind. Select the Create from File in the Object dialog window, then use the Browse button to search for the file where the information is saved. Tick the box called Link to file (Figure 15.4).
The Link to file option places a link to the file location in the current file. When you link a source file to the current file, you establish a connection between the two files. You can then access the source file by double-clicking on the link. Linking to a source file also ensures that any information that is changed in the source file will also be changed in the current file. For example, let’s say you want to insert a dynamic link to an Excel worksheet into a Word document. If any information is changed in that Excel file, that change will be reflected when you click on the link in the Word document.
However, keep in mind that there is one drawback to linking a source file to another file: If you change the location where that source file is saved, the link will no longer be valid. Continuing with our previous example, let’s say that the Excel file that you linked to was saved on your desktop. Later, you move that Excel file to your OneDrive. If you click on the link in the Word document, the link will no longer work. You would have to insert the link again using the new location of the source file.
You can also insert links to other files directly from the Insert tab, from the Links command group (see Figure 15.5). When you choose this option, the file name, underlined and in blue font, will be used to show the linkage. Choosing the Link option directly from the Insert tab will give you a listing of your most recently used files. If the file that you wish to link is not in the list, you can browse for the file by choosing Insert Link from the bottom of the drop-down menu.
Embedding Objects
You can also use the same Object function, located in the Insert tab, to embed a file. Let’s return to the Insert Object dialog window, as shown in Figure 15.3. Let’s choose “Microsoft Excel Chart” from the Object type list. This will insert two Excel worksheets into our destination file: one worksheet containing the chart and the other containing the data used to build that chart. (We learn more about inserting Excel charts into Word documents in Inserting Microsoft Excel Charts into Microsoft Word Documents.) You would then add the data for the chart as you would if you were working in Excel (Figure 15.6).
In the Insert Object dialog box, you can also choose the checkbox Display as icon (Figure 15.7). This will insert an icon for the appropriate program that will allow the user to click on it to insert the object (as in Figure 15.8).
Remember, embedding is similar to copy and paste except that you do not have to actually open the source file. When embedding information from another file, the application will insert a snapshot of the file where it was last saved.
For example, if you last saved your Excel worksheet with your cursor on a cell in Sheet4, then essentially Sheet4 is the selected worksheet. The data on Sheet4 will be embedded into the other file showing the image of Sheet4. If you are on slide 5 in your PowerPoint presentation when you save the presentation, then slide 5 will be displayed in the new file. You can double-click on the embedded object, and it will open the source file type so that you can view the other slides and worksheets if they are present. If you embed an Excel chart, it will open as Excel where you can make changes. However, these changes will not change the source file. It will only change the information in the file you are working with currently. The source files will not change when they are embedded.
Inserting Text from a File
You may recall from Figure 15.2 that there were two options available when inserting an Object from the Text command group: Object, and Text from File. This option, which allows you to insert text from another file into the current file, is often used as a shortcut to combine information contained in multiple Word documents. The Text from File function is available only in Word. It is not an option when inserting objects in Excel or PowerPoint. And although the source file can be of any type, it is generally easiest to use Word, PowerPoint, or PDF files because these file types are more textual. If you try to insert text from an Excel file, you may find that the information is not formatted properly.
Importing a PDF File
There are a few different ways to handle importing content from a PDF file into a Word document. You can copy and paste the text from within the PDF, try to convert the PDF by opening it with Word, or insert the PDF into your document as an object.
The copy-and-paste solution is the most straightforward, but this method copies only the text from the PDF. To use this method, first open the PDF file in Adobe Acrobat (or another PDF viewer), press Ctrl+A to select all, press Ctrl+C to copy, and then go to your Word document and press Ctrl+V to paste the selected text into Word. You can also use the other copy-and-paste methods you learned earlier in this book. Double-check to make sure all the text has copied correctly. If it didn’t, try to select smaller areas instead of the whole document. Using the copy-and-paste option with PDFs often leaves you with inaccurate line breaks, odd characters, and other errors to fix, which can be time consuming.
You can also try to open the PDF file using Word’s conversion tools. To do this, locate the PDF file and right-click to activate your system’s contextual menu, then go to Open with . . . and select Word as the app. This will effectively convert the PDF to a .docx file, while keeping the images and the text intact. Unfortunately, this conversion process is not always successful.
As an example, let’s open a graphics-heavy file, such as a report with images on the first page. As shown in Figure 15.9, Word warns that the file may not look the same after it has been converted to a .docx file. You can see in Figure 15.10 that the conversion resulted in a number of changes to the text and images on the page. Therefore, the Word conversion tool may be a better choice for simpler files that do not contain many images or special formatting, such as section breaks or tables.
Finally, you can also insert your source document into Word as a linked object , following the same steps you used for Excel object insertion. Go to the Insert tab and select the Object drop-down command, then click Object to open the Object dialog box. On the second tab, Create from File, browse to the PDF file’s folder location and select the file. Then select the Link to File checkbox and choose OK. Now the item’s first page has been inserted as an object in the Word document. This is a link to the PDF file, so if you double-click it, the PDF file will open. To make this first page smaller, hover over one of the corners and, as the mouse pointer changes from a symbol to arrows, use the mouse to reduce the size of the page.
Link to Learning
Microsoft continues to improve the features of their programs to facilitate real-time collaboration. This is an increasingly important capability as more people are working remotely at least part of the time. Additionally, collaborative features can foster team building and enhanced productivity in an organization, whether the members are physically in the same location or not. In the future, more businesses may use Microsoft’s technology to move to a fully or primarily remote business model. Watch this video about some of the advanced features of the Microsoft suite to learn more.


8.2: Conflict in Organizations - Basic Considerations
How do you recognize and resolve short- and long-term conflicts among group members and among groups?
By any standard of comparison, conflict in organizations represents an important topic for managers. Just how important it is can be seen in the results of a study of how managers spend their time. It was found that approximately 20 percent of top and middle managers’ time was spent dealing with some form of conflict. In another study, it was found that managerial skill in handling conflict was a major predictor of managerial success and effectiveness.
A good example of the magnitude of the problems that conflict can cause in an organization is the case of General Concrete, Inc., of Coventry, Rhode Island. Operations at this concrete plant came to a halt for more than three weeks because the plant’s one truck driver and sole member of the Teamsters Union began picketing after he was laid off by the company. The company intended to use other drivers from another of their plants. In response to the picketing, not a single employee of General Concrete crossed the picket line, thereby closing the plant and costing the company a considerable amount in lost production and profit. Could this problem have been handled better? We shall see.
In the sections that follow, several aspects of conflict in organizations are considered. First, conflict is defined, and variations of conflict are considered by type and by level. Next, constructive and destructive aspects of conflict are discussed. A basic model of the conflict process is then examined, followed by a look at several of the more prominent antecedents of conflict. Finally, effective and ineffective strategies for conflict resolution are contrasted. Throughout, emphasis is placed on problem identification and problem resolution.
There are many ways to determine conflict as it relates to the workplace. For our purposes here, we will define conflict as the process by which individuals or groups react to other entities that have frustrated, or are about to frustrate, their plans, goals, beliefs, or activities. In other words, conflict involves situations in which the expectations or actual goal-directed behaviors of one person or group are blocked—or about to be blocked—by another person or group. Hence, if a sales representative cannot secure enough funds to mount what she considers to be an effective sales campaign, conflict can ensue. Similarly, if A gets promoted and B doesn’t, conflict can emerge. Finally, if a company finds it necessary to lay off valued employees because of difficult financial conditions, conflict can occur. Many such examples can be identified; in each, a situation emerges in which someone or some group cannot do what it wants to do (for whatever reason) and responds by experiencing an inner frustration.
Types of Conflict
If we are to try to understand the roots of conflict, we need to know what type of conflict is present. At least four types of conflict can be identified:
- Goal conflict . Goal conflict can occur when one person or group desires a different outcome than others do. This is simply a clash over whose goals are going to be pursued.
- Cognitive conflict . Cognitive conflict can result when one person or group holds ideas or opinions that are inconsistent with those of others. This type of conflict is evident in political debates.
- Affective conflict. This type of conflict emerges when one person’s or group’s feelings or emotions (attitudes) are incompatible with those of others. Affective conflict is seen in situations where two individuals simply don’t get along with each other.
- Behavioral conflict . Behavioral conflict exists when one person or group does something (i.e., behaves in a certain way) that is unacceptable to others. Dressing for work in a way that “offends” others and using profane language are examples of behavioral conflict.
Each of these types of conflict is usually triggered by different factors, and each can lead to very different responses by the individual or group.
Levels of Conflict
In addition to different types of conflict, there exist several different levels of conflict. Level refers to the number of individuals involved in the conflict. That is, is the conflict within just one person, between two people, between two or more groups, or between two or more organizations? Both the causes of a conflict and the most effective means to resolve it can be affected by level. Four such levels can be identified:
- Intrapersonal conflict . Intrapersonal conflict is conflict within one person. We often hear about someone who has an approach-avoidance conflict; that is, she is both attracted to and repelled by the same object. Similarly, a person can be attracted to two equally appealing alternatives, such as two good job offers (approach-approach conflict) or repelled by two equally unpleasant alternatives, such as the threat of being fired if one fails to identify a coworker guilty of breaking plant rules (avoidance-avoidance conflict). In any case, the conflict is within the individual.
- Interpersonal conflict. Conflict can also take form in an interpersonal conflict , where two individuals disagree on some matter. For example, you can have an argument with a coworker over an issue of mutual concern. Such conflicts often tend to get highly personal because only two parties are involved and each person embodies the opposing position in the conflict. Hence, it is sometimes difficult to distinguish between the opponent’s position and her person.
- Intergroup conflict . Third, conflict can be found between groups. Intergroup conflict usually involves disagreements between two opposing forces over goals or the sharing of resources. For example, we often see conflict between the marketing and production units within a corporation as each vies for more resources to accomplish its subgoals. Intergroup conflict is typically the most complicated form of conflict because of the number of individuals involved. Coalitions form within and between groups, and an “us-against-them” mentality develops. Here, too, is an opportunity for groupthink to develop and thrive.
- Interorganizational conflict . Finally, we can see interorganizational conflict in disputes between two companies in the same industry (for example, a disagreement between computer manufactures over computer standards), between two companies in different industries or economic sectors (for example, a conflict between real estate interests and environmentalists over land use planning), and even between two or more countries (for example, a trade dispute between the United States and Japan or France). In each case, both parties inevitably feel the pursuit of their goals is being frustrated by the other party.
The Positive and Negative Sides of Conflict
People often assume that all conflict is necessarily bad and should be eliminated. On the contrary, there are some circumstances in which a moderate amount of conflict can be helpful. For instance, conflict can lead to the search for new ideas and new mechanisms as solutions to organizational problems. Conflict can stimulate innovation and change. It can also facilitate employee motivation in cases where employees feel a need to excel and, as a result, push themselves in order to meet performance objectives.
Conflict can at times help individuals and group members grow and develop self-identities. As noted by Coser:
Conflict, which aims at a resolution of tension between antagonists, is likely to have stabilizing and integrative functions for the relationship. By permitting immediate and direct expression of rival claims, such social systems are able to readjust their structures by eliminating their sources of dissatisfaction. The multiple conflicts which they experience may serve to eliminate the causes for dissociation and to reestablish unity. These systems avail themselves, through the toleration and institutionalization of conflict, of an important stabilizing mechanism.
Conflict can, on the other hand, have negative consequences for both individuals and organizations when people divert energies away from performance and goal attainment and direct them toward resolving the conflict. Continued conflict can take a heavy toll in terms of psychological well-being. As we will see in the next chapter, conflict has a major influence on stress and the psychophysical consequences of stress. Finally, continued conflict can also affect the social climate of the group and inhibit group cohesiveness.
Thus, conflict can be either functional or dysfunctional in work situations depending upon the nature of the conflict, its intensity, and its duration. Indeed, both too much and too little conflict can lead to a variety of negative outcomes, as discussed above. This is shown in Figure \(\PageIndex{1}\). In such circumstances, a moderate amount of conflict may be the best course of action. The issue for management, therefore, is not how to eliminate conflict but rather how to manage and resolve it when it occurs.
Managerial Leadership
Executive Conflict Resolution Strategies
A good way to see how conflict can be functional or dysfunctional is to observe the behaviors of many of America’s CEOs. Classic examples include the cases of Jack Welch, former chairman of General Electric, and Fred Ackman, former chairman of Superior Oil. Welch enjoyed a good fight and took pleasure in the give-and-take of discussions and negotiations. On one occasion, he engaged a senior vice president in a prolonged and emotional shouting match over the merits of a certain proposal. Several managers who were present were embarrassed by the confrontation. Yet after the argument, Welch thanked the vice president for standing up to him and defending his views. This is what Welch calls “constructive conflict,” also termed constructive confrontation.
On the other hand, according to one account, Fred Ackman approached conflict quite differently. Ackman has been accused of being autocratic—he often refused even to discuss suggestions or modifications to proposals he presented. Disagreement was seen as disloyalty and was often met with an abusive temper. As one former subordinate said, “He couldn’t stand it when someone disagreed with him, even in private.  It happened all the time.”
Many today will suggest that Jack Welch’s management approach and the conglomerate approach of GE has led to the company’s fiscal problems, while others fault the direction that Jack Welch’s successor Jeff Immelt. Others say that leaders at other companies, such as Apple’s Tim Cook, are making the same leadership errors as Jack Welch.
Questions:
- How do you feel you respond to such conflict?
- Would your friends agree with your assessment?
Sources:
R. X. Cringely, “2019 prediction #1 -- Apple under Tim Cook emulates GE under Jack Welch, BetaNews , February 27, 2019, https://betanews.com/2019/02/28/2019...er-jack-welch/ ;
M. A. Harris, “Can Jack Welsh Reinvent GE?” Business Week , June 30, 1986;
S. Flax, “The Ten Toughest Bosses in America,” Fortune , August 6, 1984, p. 21;
J. A. Byrne, “Jack Welch successor destroyed GE he inherited,” USA Today , July 15, 2018, https://www.usatoday.com/story/opini...ates/36895027/ .
How can the use of power help and harm organizations?


20.6: Summary
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Key Takeaways
Batteries are usually formed from a collection of electrochemical cells. Batteries provide a constant electric potential difference across their terminals, usually sustained by a chemical reaction, as long as the current through the battery is not too large (or the chemical reactions cannot be sustained). An ideal battery has no resistance and can be modeled as a simple potential difference in a circuit. A real battery includes an internal resistance and be modeled in a circuit as an ideal battery in series with a resistor. The voltage across the terminals of a real battery is equal to the voltage across the terminals of the ideal battery only when no current flows through the internal resistance.
Circuits are modeled using circuit diagram that include components (such as batteries and resistors) and wires. Wires are always modeled as having no resistance, since their resistance can be included by placing the appropriate resistor along the wire. The electric potential is always constant along a wire with no resistance. When modeling a circuit, one always models the direction of conventional current ; that is, current is always indicated as the direction in which positive charges flow (even if in reality, it is negative electrons that flow in the opposite direction).
Circuits should be thought of in terms of conservation of energy. Components produce a potential difference between sections of wire. Batteries correspond to an increase in potential (if going from the negative to the positive terminal), whereas resistors corresponds to a decrease in potential (if going in the same direction as current through the resistor).
Kirchhooff’s rules allow us to model complex circuits:
The junction rule states that: The current entering a junction must be equal to the current exiting a junction. This is a statement about conservation of charge. If charges are flowing into a junction, then the same amount of charges must flow back out of the junction per unit time.
The loop rule states that: The net voltage drop across a loop must be zero. This is a statement about conservation of energy indicating that as the potential energy of a positive charge increases as it goes through a battery, it will decrease by the same amount if it goes through a resistor that is connected to the terminals of that battery.
In order to apply the loop rule , we strongly suggest using the following procedure, after having made a clear, labeled diagram showing battery arrows and currents in the circuit:
- Identify the loop, including starting position and direction.
- Start at the beginning of the loop, and trace around the loop.
- Each time a battery is encountered, add the battery voltage if you are tracing the loop in the same direction as the corresponding battery arrow , subtract the voltage otherwise.
- Each time a resistor is encountered, subtract the voltage across that resistor ( \(RI\) , from Ohm’s Law) if tracing the loop in the same direction as the current , add the the voltage otherwise.
- Once you have traced back to the starting point, the resulting sum must be zero.
In general, we suggest the following procedure in order to use Kirchhooff’s rules to model any circuit:
- Make a good diagram of the circuit.
- Simplify any resistors that can easily be combined into effective resistors (in series or in parallel).
- Make a new diagram with the effective resistors, showing battery arrows, and labeling all of the nodes so that loops can easily be described.
- Make a guess for the directions of the current in each segment.
- Write the junction rule equations. Usually, you will get \(M-1\) independent equations for \(M\) loops.
- Write the loop equations. Usually, you will get \(M-1\) independent equations for \(M\) loops.
- This will lead to \(N\) independent equations that one can solve for the \(N\) different currents in the circuit.
- Once you have determined all of the currents, if some of them are negative numbers, switch the direction of those currents in the diagram (they will be negative if you guessed the direction incorrectly).
Current and voltage measuring devices (ammeters and voltmeters, respectively) can be constructed from a galvanometer, which measures small currents. An ammeter is constructed by placing a small shunt resistor in parallel with the galvanometer so that most of the current passes through the shunt resistor. The resulting ammeter must be placed in series with a component in order to measure the current through that component.
A voltmeter is constructed by placing a resistor in series with the galvanometer in order to reduce the current through the galvanometer. The resulting voltmeter must be placed in parallel with a component in a circuit in order to measure the voltage across that component. Note that because voltmeters and ammeters have a non-zero resistance, they will affect the circuit once they are connected.
When a capacitor is placed in a circuit, the current in the circuit will no longer be constant in time. If an uncharged capacitor with capacitance, \(C\) , is placed in a series circuit with a battery and a resistor of resistance, \(R\) , the capacitor will charge until the voltage across the capacitor is equal to that across the battery. Once the capacitor is charged, current ceases to flow in the circuit. The charges on a capacitor accumulate with a rate that decays exponentially; it will take an infinite amount of time for the capacitor to become fully charged. It will be charged to about 63% of maximum charge after a period of time, \(\tau=RC\) , called the time constant of the capacitor.
Important Equations
Ohm’s Law:
\[\begin{aligned} \Delta V &= IR\end{aligned}\]
Junction Rule:
\[\begin{aligned} \sum I_{in} &= \sum I_{out}\end{aligned}\]
Loop Rule:
\[\begin{aligned} \sum_{loop} \Delta V = 0\end{aligned}\]


5.20: General Uniform Distributions
This section explores uniform distributions in an abstract setting. If you are a new student of probability, or are not familiar with measure theory, you may want to skip this section and read the sections on the uniform distribution on an interval and the discrete uniform distributions.
Basic Theory
Definition
Suppose that \( (S, \mathscr S, \lambda) \) is a measure space. That is, \( S \) is a set, \( \mathscr S \) a \( \sigma \)-algebra of subsets of \( S \), and \( \lambda \) a positive measure on \( \mathscr S \). Suppose also that \( 0 \lt \lambda(S) \lt \infty \), so that \( \lambda \) is a finite, positive measure.
Random variable \( X \) with values in \( S \) has the uniform distribution on \( S \) (with respect to \( \lambda \)) if \[ \P(X \in A) = \frac{\lambda(A)}{\lambda(S)}, \quad A \in \mathscr S \]
Thus, the probability assigned to a set \( A \in \mathscr S\) depends only on the size of \( A \) (as measured by \( \lambda \)).
The most common special cases are as follows:
- Discrete : The set \( S \) is finite and non-empty, \( \mathscr S \) is the \( \sigma \)-algebra of all subsets of \( S \), and \( \lambda = \# \) (counting measure).
- Euclidean : For \(n \in \N_+\), let \(\mathscr R_n\) denote the \(\sigma\)-algebra of Borel measureable subsets of \(\R^n\) and let \(\lambda_n\) denote Lebesgue measure on \((\R^n, \mathscr R_n)\). In this setting, \(S \in \mathscr R_n\) with \(0 \lt \lambda_n(S) \lt \infty\), \(\mathscr S = \{A \in \mathscr R_n: A \subseteq S\}\), and the measure is \(\lambda_n\) restricted to \((S, \mathscr S)\).
In the Euclidean case, recall that \( \lambda_1 \) is length measure on \( \R \), \( \lambda_2 \) is area measure on \( \R^2 \), \( \lambda_3 \) is volume measure on \( \R^3 \), and in general \( \lambda_n \) is sometimes referred to as \( n \)-dimensional volume. Thus, \( S \in \mathscr R_n \) is a set with positive, finite volume.
Properties
Suppose \((S, \mathscr S, \lambda)\) is a finite, positive measure space, as above, and that \( X \) is uniformly distributed on \( S \).
The probability density function \( f \) of \( X \) (with respect to \( \lambda \)) is \[ f(x) = \frac{1}{\lambda(S)}, \quad x \in S \]
Proof
This follows directly from the definition of probability density function: \[\int_A \frac 1 {\lambda(S)} \, d\lambda(x) = \frac{\lambda(A)}{\lambda(S)}, \quad A \in \mathscr S\]
Thus, the defining property of the uniform distribution on a set is constant density on that set. Another basic property is that uniform distributions are preserved under conditioning.
Suppose that \( R \in \mathscr S \) with \( \lambda(R) \gt 0 \). The conditional distribution of \( X \) given \( X \in R \) is uniform on \( R \).
Proof
For \(A \in \mathscr S\) with \( A \subseteq R \), \[ \P(X \in A \mid X \in R) = \frac{\P(X \in A)}{\P(X \in R)} = \frac{\lambda(A)/\lambda(S)}{\lambda(R)/\lambda(S)} = \frac{\lambda(A)}{\lambda(R)} \]
In the setting of previous result, suppose that \( \bs{X} = (X_1, X_2, \ldots) \) is a sequence of independent variables, each uniformly distributed on \( S \). Let \( N = \min\{n \in \N_+: X_n \in R\} \). Then \( N \) has the geometric distribution on \( \N_+ \) with success parameter \( p = \P(X \in R) \). More importantly, the distribution of \( X_N \) is the same as the conditional distribution of \( X \) given \( X \in R \), and hence is uniform on \( R \). This is the basis of the rejection method of simulation. If we can simulate a uniform distribution on \( S \), then we can simulate a uniform distribution on \( R \).
If \( h \) is a real-valued function on \( S \), then \( \E[h(X)] \) is the average value of \( h \) on \( S \), as measured by \( \lambda \):
If \( h: S \to \R \) is integrable with respect to \( \lambda \) Then \[ \E[h(X)] = \frac{1}{\lambda(S)} \int_S h(x) \, d\lambda(x) \]
Proof
This result follows from the change of variables theorem for expected value, since \[ \E[h(X)] = \int_S h(x) f(x) \, d\lambda(x) = \frac 1 {\lambda(S)} \int_S h(x) \, d\lambda(x)\]
The entropy of the uniform distribution on \( S \) depends only on the size of \( S \), as measured by \( \lambda \):
The entropy of \( X \) is \( H(X) = \ln[\lambda(S)] \).
Proof
\[ H(X) = \E\{-\ln[f(X)]\} = \int_S -\ln\left(\frac{1}{\lambda(S)}\right) \frac{1}{\lambda(S)} = -\ln\left(\frac{1}{\lambda(S)}\right) = \ln[\lambda(S)] \]Product Spaces
Suppose now that \( (S, \mathscr S, \lambda) \) and \( (T, \mathscr T, \mu) \) are finite, positive measure spaces, so that \( 0 \lt \lambda(S) \lt \infty \) and \( 0 \lt \mu(T) \lt \infty \). Recall the product space \( (S \times T, \mathscr S \otimes \mathscr T, \lambda \otimes \mu) \). The product \( \sigma \)-algebra \( \mathscr S \otimes \mathscr T \) is the \( \sigma \)-algebra of subsets of \( S \times T \) generated by product sets \( A \times B \) where \( A \in \mathscr S \) and \( B \in \mathscr T \). The product measure \( \lambda \otimes \mu \) is the unique positive measure on \( (S \times T, \mathscr S \otimes \mathscr T) \) that satisfies \( (\lambda \otimes \mu)(A \times B) = \lambda(A) \mu(B) \) for \( A \in \mathscr S \) and \( B \in \mathscr T \).
\( (X, Y) \) is uniformly distributed on \( S \times T \) if and only if \( X \) is uniformly distributed on \( S \), \( Y \) is uniformly distributed on \( T \), and \( X \) and \( Y \) are independent.
Proof
Suppose first that \( (X, Y) \) is uniformly distributed on \( S \times T\). If \( A \in \mathscr S \) and \( B \in \mathscr T \) then \[ \P(X \in A, Y \in B) = \P[(X, Y) \in A \times B] = \frac{(\lambda \otimes \mu)(A \times B)}{(\lambda \otimes \mu)(S \times T)} = \frac{\lambda(A) \mu(B)}{\lambda(S) \mu(T)} = \frac{\lambda(A)}{\lambda(S)} \frac{\mu(B)}{\mu(T)} \] Taking \( B = T \) in the displayed equation gives \( \P(X \in A) = \lambda(A) \big/ \lambda(S) \) for \( A \in \mathscr S \), so \( X \) is uniformly distributed on \( S \). Taking \( A = S \) in the displayed equation gives \( \P(Y \in B) = \mu(B) \big/ \mu(T) \) for \( B \in \mathscr T \), so \( Y \) is uniformly distributed on \( T \). Returning to the displayed equation generally gives \( \P(X \in A, Y \in B) = \P(X \in A) \P(Y \in B) \) for \( A \in \mathscr S \) and \( B \in \mathscr T \), so \( X \) and \( Y \) are independent.
Conversely, suppose that \( X \) is uniformly distributed on \( S \), \( Y \) is uniformly distributed on \( T \), and \( X \) and \( Y \) are independent. Then for \( A \in \mathscr S \) and \( B \in \mathscr T \), \[ \P[(X, Y) \in A \times B] = \P(X \in A, Y \in B) = \P(X \in A) \P(Y \in B) = \frac{\lambda(A)}{\lambda(S)} \frac{\mu(B)}{\mu(T)} = \frac{\lambda(A) \mu(B)}{\lambda(S) \mu(T)} = \frac{(\lambda \otimes \mu)(A \times B)}{(\lambda \otimes \mu)(S \times T)} \] It then follows (see the section on existence and uniqueness of measures) that \( \P[(X, Y) \in C] = (\lambda \otimes \mu)(C) / (\lambda \otimes \mu)(S \times T) \) for every \( C \in \mathscr S \otimes \mathscr T \), so \( (X, Y) \) is uniformly distributed on \( S \times T \).


4.5: Henry Fielding's The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling (excerpt)
Henry Fielding was a strong student of the classics at Eton. This scholarship would later give design to his novels, works he first described as “comic prose epics,” that is, hybrids that openly declared their artfulness. He took the novel genre into new realms as openly serious and a valuable contribution to the English literary tradition. After graduating from Eton, Fielding entered society under the auspices of his cousin Mary Wortley Montagu, to whom he dedicated his first comedy Love in Several Masques (1728). He followed this with numerous other works, including translations, satires, comedies, burlesques (absurd imitations), and farces (broad comedies). His preface to the burlesque The Tragedy of Tragedies: Or, The Life and Death of Tom Thumb the Great (published in 1731) justified his using “lesser” genres like the burlesque. He suggested that his “tragedy” conformed to the tragic dimensions of the epic and exemplified the manner in which tragedies necessarily were written in his unheroic day and age—as comedies and parodies. He thus brought to the drama the shift in genre that Pope brought to poetry with his Rape of the Lock.
Fielding extended this shift to prose in his two parodies of Samuel Richardson’s epistolary novel Pamela: Or, Virtue Rewarded (1740). Fielding’s An Apology for the Life of Mrs. Shamela Andrews (1741) and Joseph Andrews, and of His Friend Mr. Abraham Adams parody Richardson’s work in which a libertine kidnaps a servant in order to “have his way” with her. The titillating situation, and Pamela’s ultimate reward for protecting her virtue (even as she skates between truth-telling and lying to fend off the antagonist Mr. B.), highlighted problematic qualities of the developing novel as genre, such as its depicting wickedness in great detail in order to convert the reader to goodness (as Defoe does in Moll Flanders ).
Fielding used his experience as a playwright to carefully design his novels. For example, in Joseph Andrews, he carefully plotted out individual scenes that have clear beginnings, middles, and ends; also, he gave clearly-identifiable speech to individual characters. He developed these strengths further in his comic novel The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling (1749). These works include a range of different characters, from merchants and lawyers to aristocrats, landed gentry, and their servants. Fielding himself appears as a character in these works; in Joseph Andrews , he clearly identifies himself as the creator of fiction—not masquerading as history or fact—in order to reveal Truth. He does so because “It is a trite but true Observation, that Examples work more forcibly on the Mind than Precepts” ( Joseph Andrews ). He also includes the Reader as a character, characterizing the reader in multiple ways, as serious, uni-ligual, and more (in at least sixteen different ways). By doing so, he identified the novel genre with comprehensiveness, with a comprehensive range of incidents and characters, in order to convey the fullness of his society.
Fielding came to know his society very well indeed, writing long political essays, taking the bar in 1740, and being appointed as magistrate at Bow Street in 1748 and later as magistrate of Middlesex. His Bow Street Runners were law officers who patrolled the streets, protecting private citizens from thieves and gangs. Through his careful administration, Fielding’s police force would lead to the modern Scotland Yard.
History of Tom Jones, a Foundling by Henry Fielding
The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling is in the Public Domain and may be read online free of cost at the Gutenberg Project .
Excerpt from History of Tom Jones, a Foundling, BOOK I. — CONTAINING AS MUCH OF THE BIRTH OF THE FOUNDLING AS IS NECESSARY OR PROPER TO ACQUAINT THE READER WITH IN THE BEGINNING OF THIS HISTORY.
Chapter i. — The introduction to the work, or bill of fare to the feast.
An author ought to consider himself, not as a gentleman who gives a private or eleemosynary treat, but rather as one who keeps a public ordinary, at which all persons are welcome for their money. In the former case, it is well known that the entertainer provides what fare he pleases; and though this should be very indifferent, and utterly disagreeable to the taste of his company, they must not find any fault; nay, on the contrary, good breeding forces them outwardly to approve and to commend whatever is set before them. Now the contrary of this happens to the master of an ordinary. Men who pay for what they eat will insist on gratifying their palates, however nice and whimsical these may prove; and if everything is not agreeable to their taste, will challenge a right to censure, to abuse, and to d—n their dinner without controul.
To prevent, therefore, giving offence to their customers by any such disappointment, it hath been usual with the honest and well-meaning host to provide a bill of fare which all persons may peruse at their first entrance into the house; and having thence acquainted themselves with the entertainment which they may expect, may either stay and regale with what is provided for them, or may depart to some other ordinary better accommodated to their taste.
As we do not disdain to borrow wit or wisdom from any man who is capable of lending us either, we have condescended to take a hint from these honest victuallers, and shall prefix not only a general bill of fare to our whole entertainment, but shall likewise give the reader particular bills to every course which is to be served up in this and the ensuing volumes.
The provision, then, which we have here made is no other than Human Nature . Nor do I fear that my sensible reader, though most luxurious in his taste, will start, cavil, or be offended, because I have named but one article. The tortoise—as the alderman of Bristol, well learned in eating, knows by much experience—besides the delicious calipash and calipee, contains many different kinds of food; nor can the learned reader be ignorant, that in human nature, though here collected under one general name, is such prodigious variety, that a cook will have sooner gone through all the several species of animal and vegetable food in the world, than an author will be able to exhaust so extensive a subject.
An objection may perhaps be apprehended from the more delicate, that this dish is too common and vulgar; for what else is the subject of all the romances, novels, plays, and poems, with which the stalls abound? Many exquisite viands might be rejected by the epicure, if it was a sufficient cause for his contemning of them as common and vulgar, that something was to be found in the most paltry alleys under the same name. In reality, true nature is as difficult to be met with in authors, as the Bayonne ham, or Bologna sausage, is to be found in the shops.
But the whole, to continue the same metaphor, consists in the cookery of the author; for, as Mr Pope tells us—
“True wit is nature to advantage drest; What oft was thought, but ne'er so well exprest.”
The same animal which hath the honour to have some part of his flesh eaten at the table of a duke, may perhaps be degraded in another part, and some of his limbs gibbeted, as it were, in the vilest stall in town. Where, then, lies the difference between the food of the nobleman and the porter, if both are at dinner on the same ox or calf, but in the seasoning, the dressing, the garnishing, and the setting forth? Hence the one provokes and incites the most languid appetite, and the other turns and palls that which is the sharpest and keenest.
In like manner, the excellence of the mental entertainment consists less in the subject than in the author's skill in well dressing it up. How pleased, therefore, will the reader be to find that we have, in the following work, adhered closely to one of the highest principles of the best cook which the present age, or perhaps that of Heliogabalus, hath produced. This great man, as is well known to all lovers of polite eating, begins at first by setting plain things before his hungry guests, rising afterwards by degrees as their stomachs may be supposed to decrease, to the very quintessence of sauce and spices. In like manner, we shall represent human nature at first to the keen appetite of our reader, in that more plain and simple manner in which it is found in the country, and shall hereafter hash and ragoo it with all the high French and Italian seasoning of affectation and vice which courts and cities afford. By these means, we doubt not but our reader may be rendered desirous to read on for ever, as the great person just above-mentioned is supposed to have made some persons eat.
Having premised thus much, we will now detain those who like our bill of fare no longer from their diet, and shall proceed directly to serve up the first course of our history for their entertainment.
The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling is in the Public Domain and may be read online free of cost at the Gutenberg Project .


5.6: Dihydroxylation, Aminohydroxylation and Aziridination Reactions
5.6.1 Dihydroxylation Reaction
In 1980, the first attempt for enantioselective cis -dihydroxylation of alkenes with osmium tetroxide was appeared. Subsequent continuous efforts led to improve the reaction yield and enantioselectivity in the presence of osmium-cinchona alkaloid complexes (Scheme \(\PageIndex{1}\)). The reactions can be performed at ambient conditions in liquid-liquid biphase system having water and t-BuOH employing secondary oxidant such as K 3 Fe(CN) 6 to afford the target 1,2- cis diols with high enantioselectivity. Please see Module I, Reagents and Organic Reactions, for the mechanism.
K 3 Fe(CN) 6 is used as a oxidant to reoxidize the Os(VI) after each catalytic cycle. Since OsO 4 is volatile and toxic, the osmium is usually added as K 2 OsO 2 (OH) 4 , which forms OsO 4 in the reaction mixture. K 2 CO 3 and methanesulfonamide (MeSO 2 NH 2 ) are used as additive to enhance the rate of the reaction. Scheme 2 summarizes some of the successful cinchona alkaloid based ligands for the asymmetric dihydroxylation reactions. The approach of hydroxyl group is directed to either the top face or the bottom face of the alkene which depends on the nature of the ligands, DHQD or DHQ, are used.
In parallel to the above described catalytic processes, the use of optically active bidentate 1,2-diamine based ligand L has been demonstrated in place of alkaloid as a chiral source for the asymmetric dihydroxylation of alkenes using OsO 4 (Scheme \(\PageIndex{3}\)). The reactions of a series of alkenes can be accomplished with good to excellent yield and enantioselectivity.
In addition, the bidentate ligand L 1 is found to effective for the OsO 4 -mediated dihydroxylation of trans -disubstituted and monosubstituted alkenes (Scheme\(\PageIndex{4}\)). The reaction is believed to involve intermediate A and the products are obtained with high yield and enantioselectivity.
<IP_ADDRESS> Synthesis of Biologically Important Molecules
The Os-catalyzed enantioselective dihydroxylation is used as a key step in the highly expeditious synthesis of the antibacterial agent (–)-chloramphenicol (Scheme \(\PageIndex{5}\)).
The synthesis of the β -receptor-blocking drug ( S ) - propranolol has been demonstrated employing osmium-catalyzed dihydroxylation as a key step (Scheme \(\PageIndex{6}\)). Reaction of α - naphthol with allylic bromide gives allyl naphthyl ether that could be dihydroxylated using AD-mix - β with 91% ee. The diol derivative could be converted into ( S ) - propranolol by classical methods.
The synthesis of chromophore of anthracycline antibiotic uses chiral osmium complex bearing chiral diamine L for asymmetric dihydroxylation with good enantioselectivity (Scheme \(\PageIndex{7}\)). The resultant 1,2-diol could be subsequently converted into the desired chromophore of anthracycline antibiotic in good yield.
5.6.2 Asymmetric Aminohydroxylation
The chiral β -amino alcohol structural unit is a key motif in many biologically important molecules. It is difficult to imagine a more efficient means of creating this functionality than by the direct addition of the two heteroatom substituents to an alkene, especially if this transformation could be achieved in regioselective and enantioselective fashion. In parallel to allylic epoxidation and dihydroxylation of alkenes; Sharpless group has developed asymmetric aminohydroxylation of alkenes using osmium based catalysis.
Synthesis of chiral α -sulfonamido hydroxy compounds can be obtained when the alkene substrates are subjected to the aminohydroxylation reaction using chloramine-T (TsNClNa) as the nitrogen source and H 2 O as the oxygen source. The reaction is found to be successful in the presence of osmium complex bearing (DHQ) 2 PHAL or (DHQD) 2 PHAL. The α -sulfonamido hydroxy compounds can be isolated with high yield and enantiomeric purity. Better results are obtained with chloramine-T (oxidant) salts bearing smaller organic substituents on the sulfur. This reagent could be prepared separately and added to the reaction mixture as the stable anhydrous salt or it can be generated in situ (Scheme \(\PageIndex{8}\)). The methyl ( E )-cinnamate can be successfully converted into α -hydroxy- β -amino product with high enantioselectivity. The resultant product is used to construct the taxol side chain, and this process establishes the shortest and the most efficient route to the side chain of this pharmaceutically important agent.
The key issue is the regioselectivity of the reaction. Replacement of sulfonamide in chloramine-T with alkyl carbamates like BnO 2 CNH 2 , EtO 2 CNH 2 , and t-BuO 2 CNH 2 or amides greatly improves the reaction scope of the substrate and selectivity up to 99% ee and 80% yield. Also carbamate product could be easily converted into free amino alcohol. t -Butyl carbamate is superior to ethyl carbamate in terms of yield, enantioselectivity, and ease of removal of the N -protecting group.
Nitrogen source 2-trimethylsilylethyl N -chloro- N -sodiocarbamate (TeoCNClNa) could be synthesized by reacting NaOH and t -BuOCl with 2-(trimethylsilyl)ethyl carbamate, which can be prepared by successively adding carbonyl diimidazole and ammonia to 2-trimethylsilylethanol in benzene (Scheme \(\PageIndex{9}\)-\(\PageIndex{10}\)). The TeoC group can be cleaved by fluoride under very mild conditions, yielding the free amino alcohol with high enantiomeric purity.
The mechanism of the reaction is shown in Scheme \(\PageIndex{11}\). The Os(VI) azaglycolate is reoxidized by the N -chloroamide substrate and releases the target product after hydrolysis. The reoxidized metallacycle undergoes a second cycloaddition leading to an Os(VI) bis(azaglycolate). Conducting the reaction in an aqueous medium under more dilute conditions favors the hydrolysis.
5.6.3 Asymmetric Aziridination
Aziridines are versatile building blocks in organic synthesis. Considerable progress has been made in the area of asymmetric aziridination employing copper based systems. Mn(porphyrin) and Mn-salen complexes have been shown as effective catalysts for this reaction. The reactions proceed via active nitrenoid species and most of the methods use a hypervalent iodine reagent such as PhI=NTs as nitrenoid source. The deprotection of N-sulfonyl groups require harsh reaction conditions, development of new methods has thus been focused without protecting group or with a readily removable group. In this context, the use of azide compounds as nitrogen source has been recently demonstrated.
Ru-salen is found to be effective catalyst for the aziridination of alkenes with TsN 3 at room temperature with excellent enantioselectivity (Scheme \(\PageIndex{12}\)). p -Nitro and o -nitrobenzenesulfonyl azide and 2-(trimethylsilyl)ethanesulfonyl azide (SESN 3 ) are also effective for this reaction affording the aziridine with high enantioselectivity. Furthermore, less nucleophilic α , β -unsaturated esters proceed aziridination with high enantioselectivity.
An aminimide that is generated by deprotonation of the corresponding aminimine undergoes aziridination of chalcone via conjugate addition and ring closure by N-N bond cleavage. For example, O-mesitylenesulfonylhydroxylamine proceeds reaction in the presence of (+)-Troger base and CsOH∙.H 2 O with moderate enantioselectivity (Scheme \(\PageIndex{13}\)). Soon after the use of quiniclidine for the reaction of O -(diphenylphosphinyl)hydroxylamine with chalcone is shown with 56% ee (Scheme \(\PageIndex{14}\)).