Interrelationship Between HRM and an Organisation

Interrelationship Between HRM and an Organisation INTRODUCTION The aim of this assignment is to examine the interrelationship between Human Resource Management (HRM), an organization and its environment. This essay will cover four main topics which will be discussed in detail. First part is The Strategic HRM with reference to Armstrong and Long (1994). Second part is Policies and practices with reference to Devanna, Fombrun Tichy (1984). Third part is challenges in human resource planning and fourth part is stages in planning process. Human resource management is defined as a tactical and coherent approach to the group of an organization’s most cherished assets; the people working at hand who individually and collectively contribute to the accomplishment of its objectives. Boxall et al (2007) illustrates HRM as the management of job and people en route for desired ends. Strategic HRM is an approach that explores how the organization’s goals will be achieved throughout individuals by means of HR strategy and incorporated HR policy and practices. Strategic human resource management â€Å"Strategic HRM addresses broad organisational concerns relating to changes in structure and culture, organizational effectiveness and performance, matching resources to future requirements and the management of change. Overall it will consider any major ‘people’ issues (Armstrong and Long 1994) Pak and save is best known as a supermarket retailer for grocery goods in NZ. It believes that they have a variety of employment policies to make certain that their workforce is as representative of the wider community.(Bized.co 2012) For changes in structure and culture employees usually has several options of employment including part time, flexible contracts for retail employees, job share, enhanced maternity leave/pay, paternity leave, special leave for personal development. (Bized.co(2012).It may be well argued that in many cases the human feature is over and done in relative to how they deal with people, leaving most employees unhappy creating a high staff turnover which harms organisational performance. It is then a great importance that individuals as opposed to just workers want to be managed in a way that dependable with broad organisational requirement such as effectiveness. Mainly organisational efficiency relies on they’re being a fixed ‘fit’ amongst human resource and business strategies. Overall strategies illustrate the general intentions of the association about how individuals must be managed on which potions must be taken to make sure so that as far as possible workers are dedicated, inspired and occupied. All operations regard quality as an important part whereby customers find is easy to judge the operation. As far as customer satisfaction is concerned, the empirical findings demonstrate that most of respondents are satisfied with the overall level of performance of their most preferred supermarket while others are neutral and dissatisfied. Department managers and staff are accountable for the way they communicate and conduct business within the organization. It engages the staff in learning and training techniques to improve their own management skills to meet up the everyday challenges of the working environment. Matching resources to future requirement for Pak and save is by keeping communicating support to employees. The employer develops clear goals, expresses the company’s commitment so that staff can work hard and achieve them, it assigns responsibilities such as training job analysis etc to designated staff members to achieve their set goals, and it ensures that assigned responsibilities are fulfilled. Also it provides appropriate resources for future. Management of change is adapting of knowledge to increase its capabilities. In order to keep Pak and save competitive it has to adopt strategic changes. It enables the organization to widen their services and provides the customers diverse options. It enables the customers to derive information about various products and services. Policies and Practices The formulation of HRM policies and implementation of personnel practices and procedures must be based on fundamental philosophies of controlling behaviour and employee relationships. Often referred to as the original model of strategic HRM the ‘matching model’ developed by Devanna, Fombrun Tichy (1984) shows how HR policies and practices are inextricably linked to the formulation and implementation of strategic corporate or business objectives. This model emphasises the need for ‘tight fit’ between HR and business strategies but also recognises the role of external forces and environmental circumstances in determining just what an organization’s mission and strategies might be. HRM is a top-level activity concerned with setting board directions and strategies. In this model planning is used. There is logical approach to the plan and organization of HR systems based on an employment policy and staffing strategy often underpinned by a philosophy. HR policies and activities are matched to some explicit business strategy. The Michigan model shown recognises the external and internal forces of HRM as a triangle. Management decides the mission and strategy, it designs the organisational structure to meet the strategy and mission, and integrates and organises HRM to fi t in with the structure and to fulfill the mission and strategy. The mission, strategy, organisational structure and human resource management cannot operate in isolation. They also need to respond to the external forces of politics, economics and culture. Once these have been taken into account, managers can commence to plan the human resource system. The Michigan model is based on strategic control, organisational structure and systems putting place for managing people. (Blog spot 2012). It explores the need for human assets to be managed to achieve strategic goals. Motivation and rewards are important but only as a means of achieving the organisational mission and goals. Economic forces that affect Pak and save are income, inflation, recession and interest rate. Political forces are either positively or negatively depending on the existing circumstances in the country. It mostly forms the outside factors which are a fraction of the macro-environment which controls the ability of individuals. Cultural forces are dealing with different ethnic groups of people for example like in Pak and save we deal with all kinds of races like asian, polynesian etc. Mission and strategies is the description of what the organization does. Every staff member’s actions in Pak and save express the mission statement by the behaviour and attitude in action. Organisational structure of any organization will vary upon the size and type of business. In retail store (Pak and Save) creates a variety of divisions for every particular function along with many layers of management. It has employees consisting of a manager, assistant manager and sales associates. An organisation operating ‘hard’ HRM would aim to have a rational fi t among the organisation’s strategy, structure and HRM systems. The management style would see employees as a means of achieving business goals, and employees would be valued only if their worth had a positive effect on business strategy. The hard model of HRM is much closer in its philosophy to free market thinking with the use of hiring, fi ring and cost-cutting to ensure that the human resource is fully utilised. Challenges in human resource planning Human Resource Planning (HRP) could be expressed as a procedure by which the organization ensures the right number of people and right kind of people, at the right place, at the right time doing the right things for which they are recruited and positioned for the accomplishment of goals of the business.(Mullick.H 2013). It is a procedure of deciding what positions the firm will have to fill up, and how to fill up them. (Mullick.H 2013).It also determines HR needs of the organization in the context of its strategic planning. Human resource planning is a continuous process. According to Dale S Beach (2013) â€Å"Human Resource Planning is a procedure of determining and assuring that the business will have an satisfactory quantity of skilled people on hand at the appropriate time, performing jobs which meet up the requirements of the enterprise and which give satisfaction for the people involved†. Some of the challenges of HRP are firstly, Economic and Technological Changes which is shift jobs for developing and to examine industries and telecommunications, pressures of global competition cause firms to adjust by lowering costs and rising production, growth of information technology (Thomson Business Professional Publishing.(2005). Secondly, Workforce Availability and Quality which is insufficient contribution of employees with required skills for â€Å"knowledge jobs†, education of workers in basic skills. Thirdly, Growth in Contingent Workforce which is Increases in short-term employees, independent contractors, leased workers, and temporary staff members caused by necessitate for flexibility in recruitment levels, greater than before trouble in sacking usual workers, reduced legal accountability from contract workers.(Essays.com 2013) Fourthly, demographics and diversity Issues which are more diversity of race, gender, age and ethnicity. Fifth, balancing Work and Family such as dual-career couples, single-parent households, decline in the â€Å" traditional family†, working mothers and family/childcare, single employee â€Å"backlash† against family-oriented programs. Lastly, Organizational Restructuring, Mergers, and Acquisitions which is â€Å"Right-sizing†Ã¢â‚¬â€eliminating of layers of management, closing facilities, integrating with other organizations such as Intended results are flatter organizations, increases in production, quality, service and lower costs, expenses are survivor approach, loss of employee loyalty, and turnover of priceless workers. HR managers must work in the direction of ensuring cultural compatibility in mergers. Stages in Planning Process Human resource planning is a strategy for the acquisition, utilisation, improvement retention of an organization’s human resources.(Scribed Inc 2013).It is the procedure of analyzing and identifying the requirement for and accessibility of human resources so that the business can meet up its objectives. There are six steps in this approach: first is strategic business plans .The organization’s mission and strategies form the foundation for all human resources planning. By analysing the strategies and plans managers gain a clear view of the organizations directions and to be able to find out what type of organizational skills and proficiency are essential to achieve strategic goals and planned targets. Relation to Pak and save supermarket uses strategies to attract attention of consumers and to increase the sales. Different techniques are implemented so that they can achieve the goals and managers are being guided by the store manager on how planning has to be done prio r to the activities. Secondly, human resource requirements the organization must plan how it will organize and manage the work involved. Whether it is necessary to change the structure of the organization and how the workload can be distributed. This stage involves job design, job analysis and person profiles. For example in Pak and savethe store manager instructs the department managers on their duties and the managers assign their department staff member’s duties. On checkout department, my manager instructs on which shifts I should be working and tells in detail on how the job should be done. Thirdly human resource availability – The supply side of the equation requires equally carefully analysis. It involves the assessment of the organisations current human resources stock and the prediction of movement likely to occur in future. For example in Pak and savethe stock is ordered before a day so that shortage doesn’t arise and by having available stock all the time makes customers happy to do shopping rather than discouraged to come in store. For future it shows a positive view for the customers and the job is secured for the staff members. It is the estimation number and value of customers necessary to gather future desires for the business. Fourthly, assessment of human resources needs is comparing human resources needs with existing resources is at the heart of HR successful planning. It covers internal and external sources of supply.Fifthly action planning which involves planning of organizations current human resources and its future needs which are preparations of new organizations charts, job descriptions, and job evaluations, development of remuneration management plans, performance appraisal, career development and counseling activities. Sixthly, implementation and monitoring Implementation and monitoring – The planning effort can be wasted if the resulting plans aren’t carefully implemented and monitored. HR planni ng however is not a static or one time exercise. It is a continuous process which requires constant checking and adjustment as circumstances and needs change, at the quantitative level, supply and demand forecast should be updated from time to time. At the quantitative level there is need of checking required so that the recruitment selection, development and training, retention activities and downsizing plan. Conclusion The aim of this assignment has been to investigate the connection between the function of an organization’s HRM within its wider strategy. This essay argued that the development of strategic HRM in the literature is a clear indication and also provided a literature review of specific areas for developing strategic approach to HRM. Reference Armstrong, M and Long, P (1994) the Reality of Strategic HRM, Institute of Personnel and Development, London. Bized.co(2012). Sinsbury Case Study. Retrieved from http://www.bized.co.uk/compfact/sainsbury/sainsindex.htm?page=15 Blog spot.com (2012). Michigan model. Retrieved from  http://paulooliveiramartins1967.blogspot.com/2012/11/unit-1-michigan-model.html Dale.S.(2013). What is Human Resource. Retrieved from http://www.whatishumanresource.com/human-resource-planning Fombrun, C., Tichy, N., Devanna, M. (Eds.). (1984). Strategic Human Resources Management. New York: John Wiley. Mullick.H(2013).Human Resource Planning. Retrieved from  http://www.slideshare.net/HARENDRA_MULLICK/human-resource-planning-10503057 Rudman, R. (2000).Human resources management in New Zealand.(4th ed.).Auckland, New Zealand: Pearson Education New Zealand Limited Scribd Inc. (2013).Human Resource Planning. Retrieved from  http://www.scribd.com/doc/37546102/Human-Resource-Planning Singh, S (2013). Human Resource (handout). Auckland, New Zealand: Aotearoa Tertiary Institute: Diploma in Business. Thomson Business Professional Publishing.(2005).Nature of human resource management. Retrieved from  http://www.cob.sjsu.edu/virick_m/bus150_slides/Ch1.ppt Retail.com(2013). Organisation. Retrieved from  http://retail.about.com/od/staffingyourstore/a/organization.htm?vm=rvm=r UK Essays.com(2013).The Current and Future Conditions of HRM Management. Retrieved from  http://www.ukessays.com/essays/management/the-current-and-future-conditions-of-hrm-management-essay.php

Business Marketing

Chapter 7 LO1. There are four major trends that have influenced world trade and global marketing . first one is decline of economic protectionism , is the practice of shielding one or more industries within a country’s economy from foreign competition through the use of tariffs or quotas . Second is rise of economic integration , just like creation of the European Union and the North American Free Trade Agreement . Third , there exists global competition among global companies for global consumers , resulting in firms adopting global marketing strategies and promoting global brands .And finally , is the emergence of a networked global marketspace has emerged using internet technology as a tool for exchanging goods , services , and information on a global scale. LO2. Global marketing efforts was shape by three major environmental . first , cultural diversity , including a society’s values , customs and cultural symbols and language . Second , Economic considerations whic h include economic infrastructure , consumer income and purchasing power , currency exchange rates is also shape global marketing efforts . The last one is political-regulatory climate .Its for marketing in a country or region of the world means not only identifying the current climate but determining how long a favorable or unfavorable climate will last . LO3. Exporting , licensing , joint venture , and direct investment are four alternative approaches for entering global markets . Exporting involves producing goods in one country and selling them in another country . A company offers the right to a trademark , patent , trade secret , or other similarly valued item of intellectual property in return for a royalty or fee , that is licensing .When a foreign company and a local firm invest together to create a local business it is called a joint venture . They share ownership , control , and the profits of the new company . Finally , The direct investment is which entails a domestic f irm actually investing in and owning a foreign subsidiary or division , that is the biggest commitment a company can make when entering the global market . LO4. Successful global marketers standardize global marketing programs whenever possible and customize them wherever necessary .Companies distinguish between standardization and customization when crafting worldwide marketing programs . Standardization means that all elements of the marketing program are the same across counties and cultures , like Coca-Cola ,Levi’s jeans or Sony consumer electronics. Customization means that one or more elements of the marketing program are adapted to meet the needs or preferences of consumers is a particular country or culture .Like McDonald’s does not sell beef hamburgers in its restaurants in India because the cow is considered sacred by almost 85 percent of the population . Global marketers apply a simple rule when crafting worldwide marketing programs : standardize marketing p rograms whenever possible and customize them wherever necessary . Chapter 8 LO1. Marketing research is the process of defining a marketing problem and opportunity , systematically collecting and analyzing information, and recommending actions .Marketing research reduces risk by providing the vital information to help marketing managers understand those wants and needs and translate them into marketing actions. LO2. Those are five-step decisions-making process to collect information that will help improve marketing decisions when engage marketing researchers. Define the problem is the first step should do . Every marketing problem faces its own research challenges , should setting the research objective and identifying possible marketing actions .Develop the research plan is the second step in the marketing research process requires , which the researcher specify the constaints on the marketing research activity , identify the data needed for marketing decisions , and determine how t o collect the data . Collect relevant information is the next step , which includes considering pertinent secondary data and primary data as well as using information technology and data mining to trigger marketing actions . Step 4 is develop findings from the marketing research data collected .This involved analyze the data and present the findings of the research . The last step is take marketing actions , which involves implement the action recommendations , evaluate the results . LO3. Secondary data have already been recorded before the start of the project and consist of two parts : internal secondary data , which originate from within the organization , such as sales reports and customer comments , and external secondary data , which are created y other organizations , such as the U. S.Census Bureau , or business and trade publications , Primary data are collected specifically for the project and are obtained by either observing or questioning people . LO4. Marketing researche rs observe people in various ways , such as electronically using Nielsen people meters to measure TV viewing behavior or personally using mystery shoppers or ethnographic techniques . A recent electronic innovation is neuromarketing –useing high-tech brain scanning to record the responses of a consumer’s brain to marketing stimuli like packages or TV ads .Questionnaires involve asking people questions in person using interviews or focus groups or via a questionnaire using a telephone, fax , print, e-mail , or internet survey . Panels involve a sample of consumers or stores that are repeatedly measured through time to see if their behaviors change . Experiments , such as test markets , involve measuring the effect of marketing variables such as price or advertising on sales . Collecting data from social networks like Facebook or Twitter is increasingly important because users can share their opinions about products and services with countless â€Å"friends† aroun d the globe.LO5. Today’s marketing managers are often overloaded with data–from internal sales and customer data to external on TV viewing habits or grocery purchases from the scanner data at checkout counters Information technology enables this massive amount of marketing data to be stored , accessed , and processed . The resulting databases can be queried using data mining to find statistical relationships useful for marketing decisions and actions . LO6. One approach uses subjective judgments of the decision maker , such as direct or lost-horse forecasts . A direct forecast involves estimating the alue to be forecast without any intervening steps . A lost-horse forecast starts with the last known value of the item being forecast , and then lists the factors that could affect the forecast , assesses whether thy have a positive or negative impact , and makes the final forecast . Surveys of knowledgeable groups , a second method , involves obtaining information such as the intentions of potential buyers or estimates of the salesforce . Statistical methods involving extending a pattern observed in past data into the future are a third approach . The best-known statistical method is linear trend extrapolation .

Prohibition

Issue #10 Was prohibition a failure? In 1919, the Volstead Act outlawed alcoholic beverages with an alcoholic content over 0. 5 percent. This topic is debated in the book, Taking Sides; there are two opposing sides to the question, â€Å"was prohibition a failure? † David E. Kyvig argues that the Volstead act did not specifically prohibit the use or consumption of alcohol beverages and that liquor was still being provided by gangland bootleggers to provide alcohol to the demands of the consumers.Regardless of the efforts to enforce the law the federal government failed to create an acceptable institutional network that insured the obedience of the people. Even though the consumption of alcohol did drop significantly during the 1920s, the legislation failed to eliminate drinking. On the other hand, J. C. Burnham argues that the enforcement of the prohibition laws were effective in certain areas. The enactment of the prohibition laws led to several positive social significances. For example, during the 1920s, there were fewer people arrested for public drunkenness and fewer people being treated for alcohol related diseases. He concludes that the prohibition was more of a success than a failure. Prohibition led to the first and the only time an Amendment of United States Constitution was repealed more than once. Personally, I think that the Volstead Act of 1919 was a failure and the prohibition laws gave rise to speakeasies and organized crime. David E. Kyvig states that the prohibition was a failure.When the Volstead Act was passed not every American felt obligated to stop drinking alcohol. The consumers were being supplied at first in small amounts but as time progressed they were being supplied in excess amounts of alcoholic beverages. The Volstead Act banned manufacturing of â€Å"intoxicating liquors for beverage purposes† but it did not state that they could not transport, sale, import, or export intoxicating liquors, thus making it legal to pur chase or use and it was not a crime to do so. It allowed people to continue to possess intoxicant beverages prior to prohibition.The act outlawed all beverages with alcoholic contents over the set amount of 0. 5 percent. People in many different parts of the United States voluntarily obeyed the Eighteenth Amendment; citizens elsewhere deliberately chose to ignore it. These kinds of violations seemed to significantly grow in small towns as well as large cities. National prohibition quickly gained an image, not as a law which significantly reduced the use of alcoholic beverages, but relatively as a law that was broadly disobeyed by many.As alcohol became more in demand it created an opportunity for bootleggers to make money off of supplying to the demands made by the people. Crime rates escalated greatly as well as violent outbreaks between those competing for territory. In the 1920s the prisons contained a little over 5,000 inmates, after ten years the number of inmates in prisons co ntained over 12,000, more than 4,000 of those inmates were incarcerated for liquor violations. The court systems were so overwhelmed by the national prohibition and were overworked with all the trials they had.Prohibition may have reduced the consumption of alcohol in the United States, the law fell substantially short of all expectations it had. J. C. Burnham counter argues that Prohibition was quite effective in many places. He goes on to say that prohibition began well before 1920, in addition to the local wide spread of the local prohibition laws, federal laws greatly restricted the production and sale of alcoholic beverages mostly in the beginning in 1917.Manufactures of distilled spirits beverages as an example, had been forbidden for more than three months when the congress passed the Eighteenth Amendment. The Eighteenth Amendment was created to prohibit the manufacturing, selling, importing, or transporting of â€Å"intoxicating liquors†. It was designed to kill all t he liquor businesses and the saloons in particular. The Amendment did not prohibit people from possessing or drinking alcohol. Burnham reinforces his position by stating that the prohibition had a positive impact on society.The prohibition cased a decrease of arrests for public drunkenness, fewer hospitalizations for alcoholism and less incidences of other alcohol related disease, like cirrhosis of the liver from 1918 to 1920-1922. The most substantial evidence that prohibition did not fail was in the mental hospital admission rates. People who had to deal with alcohol related mental diseases were impressed with the recent reviewing of New York state hospitals mental hospital admissions rate was only 1. 9 percent for 1920. With the topic question, Was prohibition a failure? David E.Kyvig made a clear, well defined and easy to understand argument compared to J. C. Burnham. Burnham’s argument was difficult to understand where he stood in his argument. He would say a few reasons how prohibition failed in on aspect but then he would give on reason why it did not. It was hard to keep track when he was defending the side he was on. Kyvig, on the other hand made it very clear how prohibition failed in certain aspects and he explained exactly how it failed. He gave specific reasons as to why people would ignore and break the law to get their alcohol.He explains the negative effects the prohibition had on society. How prohibition created an opportunity for bootleggers to make money by supply what the people were demanding. He clarifies how crime rates went up as well as how violence broke out due to bootleggers fighting for territory. David E. Kyvig gave a more in depth explanation than J. C. Burnham; he was able to support his claims and had provided clear and precise answers. He gave you statistics to prove what he was stating. With all the evidence that he was able present he persuaded me into believing that in reality prohibition did fail.The question is, wa s prohibition a failure? I must agree with Kyvig, prohibition did in fact fail in many ways. The prohibition law was not favored by many people and that was proven by the high crime rates, the high amount of court hearings relating to violations of the prohibition law, and the failure of Congress to provide enough enforcement. Even when the Eighteenth Amendment and the Volstead Act were passed people never stopped drinking. Physicians were able to legally prescribe alcohol to their patients, 57,000 pharmacists obtained licenses to dispense liquor.As the law enforcements began cracking down on the consumption of alchol it opened a door for bootleggers to come into business and make money off of those who demanded alcohol. Bootleggers like Al Capone became very successful in his dispensing of alcohol. He says that prohibition was just a business to him and he supplied what was being demanded. Violence became evident as more bootleggers began compete with other groups for territory. As these fights over territories became more and more prominent, many people were being killed due to the rival gangs. However I do believe that there were some ood out comes from prohibition. There were fewer drunkards out in public, less alcohol incidents and hospitalization due to alcoholism. I think the prohibition laws could have worked if there weren’t so many loop holes for people to get away with things. So all in all, both sides of this topic had very good, valid point. David E. Kyvig proves that the prohibition law failed. He does acknowledge that the consumption rate of alcohol has decreased but that it was inevitable to stop everyone from drinking alcohol ever. So really this was a noble experiment but evidently failed.

How Did Feathered Dinosaurs Learn to Fly

As little as 50 years ago, the theory that birds descended from dinosaurs seemed completely ridiculous--after all, everyone knows that most birds are small, light, fluttery creatures, while most dinosaurs were huge, plodding, and distinctly unaerodynamic. But as the evidence--small dinosaurs possessing feathers, beaks, and other birdlike characteristics--began to mount, the connection between dinosaurs and birds became apparent to scientists, and then to the general public. Today, its the rare paleontologist who disputes the descent of birds from dinosaurs, though there are some outliers who try, and were left to explain why birds arent dinosaur-sized. This doesn’t mean, however, that all of the technical aspects of the dinosaur/bird transition have been settled once and for all. Researchers still disagree about which families of dinosaurs were most closely related to modern birds, whether the feathers of these dinosaurs were aerodynamic or ornamental, and--perhaps most contentiously of all--how these reptilian proto-birds managed to achieve the huge evolutionary leap into powered flight. The Origin of Feathered Dinosaurs Why, and how, did the small theropod dinosaurs of the Jurassic and Cretaceous periods evolve feathers? Its a common mistake among those unversed in evolutionary theory to assume that feathers evolved specifically for the purpose of flight. Evolution, however, is a blind process--it doesn’t know where its going until it gets there. For this reason, the most widely accepted explanation today is that dinosaurs evolved feathers as a means of insulating themselves in cold climates (and, possibly, as a way to puff themselves up in the eyes of the opposite sex with coats of garish plumage). If this sounds unlikely, bear in mind that even birds that have been flightless for millions of years, like ostriches and emus, still retain their feathers, an expensive accessory in terms of energy usage. If the purpose of feathers was solely to power flight, there would be no reason, from an evolutionary perspective, for penguins to keep these appendages: in fact, they might be better off completely naked, or sporting thick coats of fur! (For more on this subject, see Why Did Dinosaurs Have Feathers?) The first indisputably feathered dinosaurs--like Archaeopteryx and Epidendrosaurus--appeared on earth during the late Jurassic period, anywhere from 160 to 150 million years ago. As the eons ground on, the primitive (that is, short and hairlike) feathers of these early dino-birds gradually evolved into the broad, flat feathers were familiar with today, which are better suited to trapping air (and thus insulating the underlying skin). At this point the question asks itself: how did these feathered dinosaurs make the transition to flight? Theory #1: Feathered Dinosaurs Took a Running Leap Into Flight Extrapolating backward from the behavior of some modern birds, its reasonable to infer that the small- to medium-sized, two-legged theropods of the Cretaceous period (notably the ornithomimids, or bird mimics, but also raptors and possibly even small tyrannosaurs) could attain top running speeds of 30 or 40 miles per hour. As these theropods ran (either in the act of chasing down prey or trying to escape being eaten themselves), their coat of insulating feathers gave them a slight aerodynamic bounce, helping them land their next meal or live to see another day. Since well-fed dinosaurs, and those that avoided predation, produced more offspring, the evolutionary trend was toward larger feathers, which provided more lift. From there, the theory goes, it would only have been a matter of time before a feathered dinosaur achieved actual flight, at least for a brief period of time. But at this point, its important to understand what a short time means in an evolutionary context. There wasnt a single defining moment when a small, feathered theropod accidentally ran straight off the side of a cliff and magically took flight like a modern bird. Rather, you have to picture this process happening incrementally, over the course of millions of years--leaps of four feet, five feet, ten feet, until something resembling powered flight gradually emerged. In the excellent Nova episode The Four-Winged Dinosaur (about a specimen of Microraptor that had recently been discovered in China), a paleontologist is quoted as saying that the hatchlings of modern birds tend to recapitulate their evolutionary heritage. That is, even though these newly hatched chicks are unable to fly, they can jump for farther distances, and more easily scuttle up inclined surfaces, with the aerodynamic lift provided by their feathers--the same advantages as may have been enjoyed by the feathered dinosaurs of the Jurassic and Cretaceous periods. Theory #2: Feathered Dinosaurs Achieved Flight by Falling Out of Trees The trouble with Theory #1 is that birds arent the only animals alive today whose behavior can be extrapolated back to extinct dinosaurs. Flying squirrels, for instance, glide across forest canopies by leaping off the tall branches of trees and spreading the flaps of skin attached to their arms and legs. They’re not capable of powered flight, of course, but they can glide for impressive distances, up to two-thirds of the length of a football field for some species. (Another family of gliding and flying animals is the pterosaurs, which were only distantly related to dinosaurs and not directly ancestral to modern birds.) Conceivably, some types of feathered dinosaurs might have lived high up in trees (which would entail their being a relatively small size and having the ability to climb). These theropods, the reasoning goes, might then have followed the same evolutionary path as flying squirrels, gliding for longer and longer distances from branch to branch, or from tree to tree, as their feathers slowly evolved to the optimum shape and configuration. Eventually, they could leap off a high branch and take to the air for indefinite periods of time, and voila - the first prehistoric birds! The main problem with this arboreal theory of flight, as it’s called, is that its easier to imagine powered flight evolving in the ground-up scenario (picture a terrified dinosaur desperately flapping its vestigial wings while trying to escape a ravenous Allosaurus) than as a result of tree-to-tree gliding. We also have indirect evidence against this scenario, which is that, despite millions of years of evolution, no flying squirrel (with the exception of Bullwinkles pal Rocky) has managed to achieve powered flight--although, to be fair, bats certainly have. More to the point, though, paleontologists have adduced absolutely no fossil evidence for tree-dwelling dinosaurs. Current Thinking About Feathered Dinosaurs and Birds New genera of small, feathered dinosaurs are constantly being discovered, many of them in China. Since these dinosaurs date back to different geologic times ranging from the Jurassic to the Cretaceous, separated by tens of millions of years, it can be difficult for paleontologists to reconstruct the exact evolutionary line that led from dinosaurs to birds. For example, the weird, four-winged Microraptor has provoked intense debate: some researchers see it as an evolutionary dead end, others as an intermediate form between dinosaurs and birds, and yet others as not technically a dinosaur at all, but an offshoot of the archosaur family tree that predated the rise of the dinosaurs. Further complicating matters, its possible that birds evolved not once, but multiple times during the Mesozoic Era. (This type of convergent evolution is fairly common; its why, for instance, modern giraffes mimic the body shape of hundred-million-year-old sauropods). Some of these birds may have achieved flight runway-fashion, others by falling out of trees, and still others by some bizarre combination of the two. All we can say for sure is that all modern birds derive from one common ancestor; that is, if birds did indeed evolve multiple times during the age of dinosaurs, only one of these lines managed to survive into the Cenozoic Era.