Defining The Line Managers Role - Free Essay Example

Sample details Pages: 13 Words: 3871 Downloads: 5 Date added: 2017/06/26 Category Statistics Essay Did you like this example? à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“Understanding how HR function equips line manager to deal with devolved responsibilityà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬? Literature review: Don’t waste time! Our writers will create an original "Defining The Line Managers Role" essay for you Create order Government deregulation, strong competition and big pressure in domestic and overseas market have led many organisations to concentrate on the management of employees in order to meet increasing demands for quality goods and services. It was posited that HRM represented an opportunity for the function to improve its status by making innovative and positive contributions to corporate goals and business success (Tyson, 1987) There is however general agreement over one structural change that has taken place, many organisations have devolved manpower responsibility from a function personnel office to line manager ( Hutchinson and wood,1995) In order to maintain competitive advantage, companies have been forced to come up with a new strategic innovation and devolved some HR responsibility to line managers to keep the business on track and to achieve the overall HRM strategy and thus the business strategy. This new vision of bringing HR task to the line has been dictated by the fast changing business environment, keenoy (1990) tend to see HRM as an instrumental approach to people management, driven by market oriented activities that affect the business as a whole. Cunningham and Hymans (1999) noticed that personnel function was being removed from departments and devolved to line managers because it has consistently failed to achieve results in the past, but other causes that helped to build up a new way in how hr function and line managers work together, many changes in the corporate environment like competition, decentralisation, and privatisation has reformed HR function. Another problem is that HR profession does not control access to personnel job, a non HR manager can become an HR manager when the employers decide so. The rational of why line involvement has become more frequent following the idea of (Brewster, Larsen.2000.p196) is mainly because of five factors: To reduce cost To provide a more comprehensive approach of HRM. To place responsibility for HRM with managers most responsible for it. To speed-up decision making. As an alternative to outsourcing the HR function. Defining line managers role : The literature make a distinction between line and staff function, line function are those who have direct responsibility for achieving the objectives of the organisation (Stewart ,1963). Dalton (1959) said that line officers are lacking skills when translating staff advice into effective working practice. We can notice different layers of line activity within organisations but for the purpose of our research the term line managers refers to section or area heads that exists above supervisory level but doesnà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢t include senior position within the hierarchy (Noreen, Michael, 1995) Drucker (1974) views that the management job consist of five basic operations: Setting objectives Organising Motivating and communicating Measurement People development March and Gilies (1983) said that industrial relation and day to day personnel activities lie with line and staff manager and subordinate supervisors. A useful typology of senior/middle line manager was proposed by storey (1992), this typology give us better view about different roles that a manager can do in the organisation, he used two key dimension of the line manager described in the matrix figure 1. Source : Storey 1992 , Typology of middle line managers . The first dimension is when a manager is commercially oriented or technically oriented and the second dimension is measuring whether a manager is taking a proactive or reactive attitude. storeyà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s typology is useful because it let us know different role that a manager can do in the area of HRD which is part of the devolved task to line managers. The HR role : We understood from the previous that line manager have the responsibility of HR task in their area, in the other side HR department is responsible for HRM across all the organisation (Henrick , Brewster .2003). Tyson and fell 1992 proposed a conceptualised classification of three models of personnel management as follow: From 1960s à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“clerk of worksà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬? doing routine works. From 1970s as a à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“contract managerà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬? From 1980s as an architect à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“ business manager who is responsible of planning , Tyson and fell concluded that personnel managers facilitate other management task to occur, and their most important skills depend in their timing of applying techniques and their ability to sell their services to client line managers. Storey (1992) came up with the à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“ intervention /non intervention à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬? dimension and a à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“strategic/tacticalà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬? axis and he presented four main types of personnel practitioner : advisers , handmaiden(reactive, client/contractors of line manager), regulators (intervene to monitor the observance of employment rules) , and last the highest position which is strategic and interventionary change makers, storey findings explain that personnel in the majority of companies wasnà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢t the main drivers of the change wanted , because the regulator still outnumbered the change makers in most of the companies. Source : Storey J 1992, four roles of personnel managers. The HR function is responsible of giving guidance and taking initiative, in order to support and solve all the problems associated to the organisationà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s employee. HR function is a very important part in an organisation providing the advice and services that facilitate organisation to get the job done through people. The HR function is in place to make sure HR strategies, policies and practices are known by everybody in the organisation and maintained, but also providing the support for everything concerning the employment, well being of people and their development and the existent relationship between management and employee. It plays a major role in creating an environment that encourage employee to realize their potential to the benefit of the company and themselves (Armstrong, 2010) HR function, line management set up : Many researchS have been done to prove the consensual relation between hr function and line managers , (Guest 1987) presented a framework which resulted in an HRM approach, according to him the adoption of an HRM should result in à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“an organisational pay-off designed to produce a strategic integration, high commitment , high quality , and flexibility among employeesà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬? . guest said that integration as a concept is composed of four aspects, firstly the integration of HR policy making and corporate strategic planning process, second HRM policy should be integrated with one another and with other business strategy in the organisation like finance and marketing, the third one is that it should be an integration between attitude and practices of line managers within the organisationà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s HR policies, the fourth aspect is the integration of the employees with the interest of the organisation by showing a high commitment to the organisation. The leadersh ip behaviour and HR practice of line managers will affect the employees commitment, the commitment could be to the organisation or more likely to the line manager as proved by the team at bath university and supported by CIPD, the research showed where people feel positive about their relationship with their front line managers they are more likely to have higher levels of job satisfaction, commitment and loyalty which result in better performance. Sisson (1994) emphasise that the first two aspect of integration are difficult to achieve unless they are seriously managed by top and middle managers in the organisation. Storey (1992) as well refers to three key elements and suggested to associate them with a distinctive approach of HRM, the first element is that the HRM of an organisation is the one that à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“makes the differenceà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬?. The second element is that in order to make the difference , HRM needs to be managed in a strategic way . The third element is the one that requires line managers to know the link between HRM and the strategic direction of the organisation designed by its top managers. This third element matches the third aspects of integration , and (guest 1987.p514) add that in order to achieve the third outcome of flexibility , managers need to have à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“change agent à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬? skills. Hutchinson examined the involvement of line manager in HR and found that HR manager do consult line managers, and some other managers are working in partnership. The empirical evidence from Hutchinson and wood study (1995) shows a joint working between personal and line managers and also an increasing role for line manager in the HR function. Another study from Cunningham and Hymanà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s noted that more line manager are getting involved in HR work, an evidence from à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“Saragotaà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬? study suggested that the extent that line management were involved in HR task was wide with the line doing around third of core HR department roles.(IRS,1995). Torington and Hall (1996) found HR specialist work in partnership with line manager when they design the HR strategy, the study showed that personnel function was involved in strategy at some point and was developed in cooperation with line managers, the conclusion was that the approach was small rather than holistic and personnel was reactive rather than proactive . the impact of this devolved responsibility to the line was that some line managers supported the move, but others taught that it starts à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“people problemà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬? which is the responsibility of HR to deal with , because line managers didnà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢t have the skills to take on these new tasks , some other problem was lack of consistency and inadequacy of training and support provided for line management. Pool and Jekins (1997) analysed the extent of line management responsibility for HR practices concluding that line managers were à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“far more responsible than might have been supposed with a central pattern of line dominance in operational responsibility on most personnel HR matters. Mc Govern et al (1997) study of line management practice discovered the reluctance of some managers to take on personnel responsibilities, believing that ità ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s not their job but personnelà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s job, as a result many HR department were afraid or reluctant to devolve responsibilities to the line as there was lack of knowledge and ability to take it on. They identified a model of line managers getting involved directly in HR activities with the support of the HR function and personal motivation was the factor motivating the line , but some obstacles were facing them like the quality of practice by line managers, short term managerial approaches another big problem wa s that the line couldnà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢t devote much time to HR activities as their return on effort was not directly quantifiable and they concluded : à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“ The prospect for full-blown devolvement to the line are not promising given the current priorities of these business , attempts to devolve HRM to the line may be possible but only by providing support from HR specialistà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬? (McGovern et al ,1997 , p 26) Other researcher report a joint working arrangement at two different level, the first one is at director level between HR and other directors, and the second at a subsidiary company level between line managers and personnel managers (Genard, Kelly , 1997) and this resulted in business driven partnership to improve performance and a big importance was given to the influential role that HR director has to play . Tornhill and Saunders (1998) came up with the worst scenario for the HR specialist known as The absentee specialist which suggest the complete devolution of HR task to line managers and could result in negative implication for successful HR outputs. Other researcher argued that overall the personnel function is still à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“vulnerableà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬? even though line manager work in managing subordinates could help the presence of personnel to assist the line in less than a strategic function. Some researchers even suspect devolution of HR responsibilities to the line came from the desire to cut cost and the companies wish to free themselves from some responsibilities. Thus the claim (Guest, 1987,P.51) could mislead the reader because to achieve a successful HRM practices within an organisation a qualified HRM specialist is needed and line managers need the appropriate designed HR practices to use in their management activities. (Purcell , Hutchinson , 2007, p .57) However there is an alternative that a close participation between line management and hr function can have a mutual benefit and could help to solve business problems. (Gennard, Kelly , 1997) Partnership between HR and the line : Ità ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s argued that people responsible for HR are those directly responsible for supervising staff that there primary purpose is to manufacture products , sell goods or equipments or deliver a public or customer service , but the problem could be that these line managers have a lack of knowledge and skills to supervise staff effectively (Sisson , storey , 2000) and this is why it would be more rewarding if HR specialist and line managers work together in partnership (Witacker , Mick, 2003) Tyson and Fell (1992) noticed that there is no clear communication between management and employee of their personnel function, this gives the opportunity à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“ to act as partners with senior line managers to create orderly change à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬? storey 1992 called that as à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“full team memberà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬? where the running of the business is shared between line manager and personnel . Tomlinson (1993) describe partnership as being where HR needs to get involved in more supportive, collaborative relationship with managers. Other researcher described the partnership approach between HR executives and line managers to be an ideal situation, but recognise that we donà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢t find this partnership happening in all companies. The idea of HR professional acting in partnership with senior line managers was raised by (Ulrich , 1997) to identify HR practices that achieve business strategy (figure 2). https://www.stw.de/typo3temp/pics/c98097d6bc.jpg The HR Business Partner (based on an idea by Dave Ulrich, 1997) he says that line managers and HR professionals working separately cannot be HR champions, this is why they have to form a partnership and in this partnerships line managers will have authority , power and sponsorship , and have the overall responsibility for the HR community, and HR professional will bring technical expertise which show a competence credibility, Ulrich (1997,2005) pointed four new HR roles which are as follow ( business partners, change agent, administrative expert and employee champion ) those new roles lead to three important HR function : Centres of excellence. Shared services. Business partners. But this redefinition of roles and reorganisation of HR function was seen by (CIPD 2007) as having some difficulties to define the new roles, to make change, to deal with skills gap and resources deficiency. Maxwell and Watson (2006) argued that the dominant model for HR operation within organisation is the partnership between HR specialist and line managers. We can understand that the concept of partnership is a good one if everybody is making the effort in the same direction for the benefit of the organisation , we can describe this relation as a reciprocal one , where line manager has to do some HR task but in order to do it properly the right support and training is needed from the HR specialist , but for this partnership to be successful a lot of work need to be done and specially a lot of communication is needed to act fast and solve problems quickly, finally getting the line more involved in HR tasks is not a threat for the HR specialist , because the need of specialist is real and their presence is very important to supervise , help and support the line but also their job will be more strategic. Line manager role for devolved responsibility and the obstacles facing them: First of all let see how line manager are involved in making the policy , ( Hutchinson , wood,1995. P. 17) found that HR specialist are the one responsible for making the policy across all area, they noticed that line managers are not leaders in making the policy either on their own or in consultation with personnel colleagues, but in HR practice they found that line managers are more involved in resourcing and employee relation , however in employee development and employee reward the HR specialist had a major role to play . Hall and Torrington (1998) found that a bigger role is played by HR manager in issues relates to pay and benefit , and the least in appraisal , health and safety , quality initiative and communication . It appears that HR specialist have higher involvement when ità ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s a matter of consistency and specialist expertise and lower when line managers are dealing with every day responsibilities. Storey (1992) concluded after doing a survey of fifteen companies that the responsibility of line managers are becoming more important in human resources and their task can include : pay award , training and development , motivating teams , appraisal , on the job coaching , reducing cost , improve the quality , respond to customer service needs , continuous improvement and deploying labour. Another research from Renwick (2002, p. 262) has studied three big organisation which has an HR director on the top team management or board of director and has noticed that the most devolved HR task to the line include : Grievance management, performance appraisal, redundancy selection , pay award , communication with employee , recruitment , employee development and handling sickness absence . CIPD (2010) supported a research made by team of researcher from bath university and describe area where line managers make the biggest difference in people management are as follow : Performing appraisal Training , coaching and guidance Employee engagement ( communication between line management and employee ) Openness ( how easy is it for employees to talk about problems ) The devolution of some HR task to the line is a fact but many research has identified some difficulties facing line managers while handling performance management system , and Gratton et al (1999) said that managers dislike the bureaucracy involved in this process , in the other side there was a reluctance to accept responsibility for decision and adjustment taken by line manager from HR managers, and Redman (2001) found that where line managers are doing performance appraisal they are doing it poorly . another research has shown managerà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s attitude to employee involvement and describe it as no more negative than those of senior managers , and in case of failure of the employee involvement , line manager will be the one to blame (Fenton , Oà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢creavy , 2001) another research concentrate on line management handling of grievance and discipline, the outcomes shows that line managers are more involved than before but not as much as HR managers and this is be cause of the complexity of the task , and this task being time consuming and the fear of failing in this task which can have a huge impact in the finance of the company (IRS,2001) Cunningham and James (2001) found that line managers handling of sickness and disability was limited and that was because line managers didnà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢t want to attend training session. Many constraints face line managers in achieving the goal of this devolution because of many reasons , even though there are a positive aspects of devolving HR task to line managers as described in Renwick (2003) as a career enhancer for them in doing HR work but also line managers are the one who apply the HR strategy in practice and bring the HR policy to life (Hutchinson .Purcell 2003) One of the major problem is the workload that the line have to perform especially if they know that they are not expert in doing HR tasks, and this workload leads them to be reluctant on doing HR tasks (Brewster, soderstrom.1994). Another big issue is a lack of training because if line managers have a lack of understanding of HR practices it will prevent the organisation from developing a strong learning culture. This lack of support and training show a bit of confusion because if an organisation devolved HR task to the line , it is to be more efficient and more profitable , but if the line lacks the necessary skills as McGovern et al (1997) describes it that a lack of training can lead to a failure in implementing HR policies, and exposing the organisation to tribunals and this is why the line should be equipped with the right tools to enable them to perform the devolved HR tasks properly which means that continuous and well designed training is needed to be able to achieve the goal set by the organisation. And to be able to achieve the goal , the organisation need to put a special budget for training and development of manager and not leaving them to develop themselves on their own. (McGuire et al 2008) Another big problem is the lack of specialist expert to support managers when dealing with HR tasks, this is happening because of the downsizing of the HR departments in most organisations ignoring the precious need of the line to the specialist and just focusing on reducing cost , but as Renwick and Brewster (2003. P. 231) noticed that reducing the size of HR department could reduce the cost but could also increase it, if managers make inappropriate and wrong decision. (Henrick, Brewster , 2003 . p30) noted that when an organisation has an HR department with a high number of specialist it is more likely to be able to influence line management practice directly , there is a case study evidence that shows how important and influent are HR specialist and they were given the name of à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“ strategic change makers à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬? (Gennard , Kelly 1997.p35) Many of the criticism concerning the lack of contribution from HR specialist to organisational performance were from line managers, firstly personal practitioner are far away from the commercial realities, and ità ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s difficult for them to understand the business , the customer and the corporate target. Secondly HR stops line manager to make decision that they feel are in best interest for the company. Third HR manager act slowly and always want to check how many options do they have rather than making a series of appropriate actions (Marchington ,Wilkinson , 2003.p248) The role of line managers in implementing HR policies was not taken seriously by senior managers, or taken for granted by many companies and there is a small evidence of companies that provide a formal training to equip their line manager to undertake the role of facilitating HRM outcomes. (Cunningham , Hyman. 1995) , Brewster and Larsen has identified three main reason for this : Senior managers presume that line managers already knows the technical aspects of HRM to base their decision. Senior managers do not offer appropriate training before delegating tasks. Senior managers believe that line managers will learn HRM by practising it. Lack of training is a negative factor that make line mangers weak when dealing with devolved HR tasks, but also they are very important for delivering a good HR practice because they are working on the shop floor and they are the one that can make change, which means that an HRM strategy without the line playing a major role would never succeed, in the other side HR specialist will have to equip them with the right training to develop their capacity to deal with people management and excessive stress because of the workload. Another negative aspect is reducing the number of HR expert that can provide the line with precious advise and help and equip them with the right training, this partnership will give HR specialist to concentrate more on making positive change in the organisation, another important question which is worth to research in the future is whether reducing the number of HR experts really reduce the cost in organisation or is it just wrong and cost more money to the organisation? Hutchinson and Purcell (2003) proposed the following suggestion on how line manager can better deal with people management: Provide them with time to carry out their people management duties . Pay more attention to the behavioural competencies required while recruiting manager. Support line managers with strong organisational value in relation to leadership and people management. Develop a good working relationship with different level of management. Make sure the line receive sufficient skills training to enable them to perform their people management activities appropriately.

An All New Avengers Universe - 1839 Words

An All New Avengers Universe Description: Here s what we know about the new Marvel Avengers teams so far The Avengers is quite possibly Marvel s most well known and loved teams. They ve gained a lot of their popularity through the very successful Marvel Cinematic Universe, turning the Avengers into a billion dollar franchise movie franchise. Since popularity tends to equal sales, it only makes sense that Marvel would go on to make a lot more Avengers comics. And so they are. In fact, there are going to be a lot of changes coming to the Marvel Universe, including all new teams with a few new Avengers. So, let s see how the Earth’s mightest heroes will be in the all new all different Marvel. p.s. This list will include The Hulk,†¦show more content†¦The team line up is as follows Steve Rogers as leader, Spider-man (Peter Paker), Rogue, Quicksilver in that new ugly costume, The Human Torch (Johnny Storm), Deadpool finally an Avenger, Brother Voodoo and Synpase a new inhuman character. To be completly honest I’m really excited for Uncanny Avengers the title is like a mash-up of all sides of the Marvel Universe and I can’t wait to read this title and to see how every character interacts with one another; should be a fun read. 4. New Avengers A.I.M goes through a rebranding from Advanced.Idea.Mechanics to Avengers.Idea.Mechanics under ownership of Sunspot in New Avengers by writer El ewing and art by Gerardo.The New Avengers will be a team focused mainly on global heroics. The New Avengers will have Sunspot as leader and Songbird as field leader Wiccan, Hulkling, Hawkeye (Clint Barton), White Tiger, Pod, Power man, and Squirrel Girl! This title has a lot of stuff in it first of all Sunspot can’t legally operate in the U.S.A due to incidents that happened during the 8-months and he’ll be under house arrest, someone on the team is a traitor, Mister Fantastic from the ultimate universe a.k.a the Maker will be the villain of the first arc. 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LTG. Timothy J. Maude. Free Essays

Lieutenant General Timothy Maude was killed on September 11th 2001 in Pentagon attack. He had been serving as Deputy Chief of staff for Personnel in the army. He was born on 18th November 1947 in Indianapolis in India. We will write a custom essay sample on LTG. Timothy J. Maude. or any similar topic only for you Order Now His long character of understanding human spirit will never be forgotten. According to him, the well being of civilians, veterans, families, retirees, and soldiers was determined by the concept of readiness within the force. The success within the army with a component of oneness was a standard that defined human nature which fostered a great attribute to him in providing and understanding of this phenomenon. According to him, the current young generations were aimed at providing a greater capacity than oneself which could oblige them in the aspect of duty as their most noble endeavor for the country. (http://www.maudefoundation.org/aboutTim.html) The future of the US army is to be influenced by his contributions and values in support of humanity founded on the influence of the army personnel. He had great love for his soldiers which even led to great sigh of devotion in the deepest and most genuine capacity. His long love trailed in the soldiers, the army and the whole country. In every of his action, commitment for his duty was cheerfully reflected. His death left many of his compassionate activities, contributions and values he exercised for the good of the country. His contribution as a G-1 officer remains remarkable in remembrance. He had a vision for the people in providing transformation through giving adequate standards for the persons providing human resource in the army. This is an aspect worth of emulation by others. (http://www.maudefoundation.org/aboutTim.html) He’s adequate affection and love of the people, army and country is perhaps the greatest epoch of values which the future commanders and army personnel should emulate. He serviced the cost of his roles with integrity which was occupied by his great will of revolution to provide the will and the good image of the country. According to him, his generosity in duty performance served to support the fundamental objectives allied to the G-1 occupation; well being, the force and the personnel. Generally, it was great for the Maude and the future army activity should emulate his advocacy. As a warrant officer 1 in the army the actions, values and contributions of Maude should never be evaded. At one level, his love for the country, the army, the soldiers and the families should act as an example to other warranty officers. Elsewhere, his transformation attitude for the army personnel to a better personality is a key element of emulation. Nevertheless, he had a great vow in developing the human resource capacity through a good leadership model which should also be a character and value of emulation by other personnel. Bibliography. The Maude Foundation. About Tim. Retrieved on 22nd March 2008 from,   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   http://www.maudefoundation.org/aboutTim.html       How to cite LTG. Timothy J. Maude., Essay examples

Emergence of the Cold War free essay sample

By the end of the war, the United States stood alone. The end of World War II virtually left two of these superpowers, who helped end Hitler’s realm, at a crossroads. The rivalry between the Soviet Union the United States and for control over the post World War II world emerged before World War II had even ended. The two United States presidents who served their tenure during the war (Franklin D. Roosevelt and Harry S Truman) and disgruntled Soviet leader Joseph Stalin never actually trusted one another. Even through teaming up to bring down Nazi Germany and Adolf Hitler, this mutual mistrust actually began as far back as 1917. In 1917, the United States was never on good terms with the Bolshevik government that formed after the Russian Revolution. Stalin also resented the relationship the United States had with Great Britain throughout the war. The United States and Great Britain did not share nuclear weapons research with the Soviet Union during the war in fear that a nuclear epidemic may one-day rise because of the mass abundance of nuclear warheads. Stalin was also very annoyed and seemingly somewhat jealous of Truman’s offering of postwar relief funds to Great Britain and not extending any help to the USSR. There were many other factors that contributed to the conflicts between the United States and Soviet Union policies but they can all be summed up by one word: Power. United States foreign policy was given a very formidable window of opportunity post World War II. After playing a major role in the defeat of the Nazi Germany super power, post-war ramifications were essentially dictated by the United States. With the backing of Stalin and the Soviet Union, the United Nations was also formed to stop wars between countries, and to provide a platform for dialogue. The United Nations aimed to facilitate cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, social progress, human rights, and achievement of world peace . Although together on the United Nations front, policy actions taken by the United States differed greatly from those of the Soviet Union. While under the microscope of the entire world, President Harry S. Truman saw this as an opportunity to spread democracy. United States foreign policy sought to promote a world rich full of capitalism and free of communism. Truman worked endlessly to clean up the huge mess left behind after World War II by establishing a number of international organizations that would promote democratic order and keep peace between nations. After the United Nations, he helped create the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) while also funding the rebuilding of a broken down and debt ridden Japan under the command of General Douglas MacArthur. After prosecuting Nazi war criminals at the Nuremberg trials, Truman in 1947 also outlined the Marshall Plan, which set aside more than $10 billion for the rebuilding and reindustrialization of Germany. The Marshall plan was a direct result of the Soviets unwillingness to comply with international order in maintaining democracy, and it is one of the pinnacle moments that set the stage for the beginnings of the Cold War. Soviet foreign policy differed greatly from the United States post World War II. The Soviet Union, under the rule of Stalin, had always been a communistic society. There were two main fundamentals that drove Soviet foreign policy. Firstly, Soviet foreign policy has traditionally been seen in terms of security, hence its strong interest in Eastern Europe after WWII. This area provided potential invasion routes into the Soviet Union. Stalin felt very strongly about communist ideals and sought to spread his ideology throughout Europe while it was looking for direction post World War II. The other key feature of Soviet foreign policy was its ideology – Marxist-Leninism (the theories of Marx as developed by Lenin). A core belief was to encourage and foster communist revolutions wherever and whenever possible. This ideology was sometimes seen as contradictory to the security f the Soviet Union because by spreading communistic revolution ideals, it furthered scrutiny from established super powers (the United States and Great Britain), which threatened its security. A number of commissions, councils, and conferences were established in order to determine post-war ramifications for European countries. The Council of Foreign Ministers (CFM), Far Eastern Advisory Commission (FEAC), Yalta Conference, Allied Control Council (ACC), and Paris Peace Con ference were all instrumental in establishing a sense of world order to help sort out European issue stemming from World War II. There seemed to be a pattern of Soviet discontent throughout all of these councils and conferences because of the minority political stance they shared within their Grand Alliance partners (the United States and Great Britain). In 1944, a memorandum from the Maisky Commission to Molotov stated that the Soviets intentions were to â€Å"break Germany up into a number of more or less independent state formations†¦ Military, industrial and ideological (reparations, especially) reparations in labour†¦Ã¢â‚¬  Germany’s reparations were one of the main components that began to cause tension feeding into United States vs. Soviet foreign policy. In February of 1945, at the Yalta Conference held in Russia, the Soviets proposed German reparations of $20,000,000,000 be paid, half of which would go to the Soviets. This was a number that was scoffed at by the Grand Alliance. It was evident that Soviet policy intended to spread communism throughout war-ridden Europe, especially through their reparation demands. Tensions rose at the Potsdam Conference regarding Soviet behavior in Germany at the war’s end, a working paper of United States delegation stated â€Å"Payment of reparations should leave sufficient resources to enable the German people to subsist without external assistance†¦ all these removals were in complete violation of all efforts to maintain ‘non-war potential’ industries in Germany†¦ What we saw amounts to organized vandalism directed not alone against Germany, but against US forces of occupation† Stalin’s policy on Germany was simply to make sure they never posed a threat to Soviet existence again by burying them while they were down post-war. A classic battle for the future of German ideology existed, communism vs. democracy, Stalin vs. Truman. Joseph Stalin’s most successful policy for the Soviet regime came with the installment of the â€Å"Iron Curtain† at the Yalta Conference. The Iron Curtain was both a physical and an ideological division that represented the way Europe was viewed after World War II. To the east of the Iron Curtain were the countries that were connected to or influenced by the former Soviet Union. These included: Poland, Eastern Germany, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, and Austria. Stalin was also able to finagle policies that gave Soviet occupation on top of the Iron Curtain as well. These countries included: Korea, China, Albania, Yugoslavia, and Iran. The Soviet stronghold of Eastern Europe was seen as a threat to the United States and Great Britain because of the threat of communism and permanent rifts between countries. Though ironically enough, the Soviet occupation was supported by the United States at the Yalta Conference. Foreign Minister Molotov viewed democracy as a threat to the Soviet Union and furthermore would lead to world domination by the United States. In the Novikov telegram, Molotov states â€Å"the foreign policy of the United States, which reflects imperialist tendencies of American monopolistic capital, is characterized in the postwar period by a striving for world supremacy† Stalin also began to grow jealous of the United States relationship with Great Britain, specifically with the postwar loans made and this is reflected in the telegram: â€Å"The current relations between England and the United States, despite the temporary attainment of agreements on very important questions, are plagued with great internal contradictions and cannot be lasting. In accepting the loan, England finds herself in a certain financial dependence on the United States from which it will not be easy to free herself†¦ The objective has been to impose the will of other countries on the Soviet Union† Molotov then goes on to mention that the only thing standing in between the United States and world domination would be a war with the Soviet Union. The United States didn’t have the nicest words to say about the Soviets either after World War II. In February of 1946, George Keenan, a young State Department expert stationed in Moscow, drafted his famous â€Å"long telegram†. This expressed a view of Soviet power as an â€Å"intractable† foe, bent on an expansionist policy to spread its power and influence, which became the basis of American Cold War policy. Kennan powerfully states, â€Å"World communism is like a malignant parasite which feeds only on diseased tissue†¦ Many foreign peoples, in Europe at least, are tired and frightened by experiences of the past, and are less interested in abstract freedom than in security. They are seeking guidance rather than responsibilities. We should be better able than Russians to give them this. And unless we do, Russians certainly will† The alarm sounded by Keenan seemed to be confirmed by Moscow’s growing influence throughout the world. Stalinist occupations in France, Italy, Greece and Vietnam seemed posed to take power. European nations faced immense pressure to de-colonize their pre-war empires, particularly the Near East and Asia. The Truman administration embraced a strategy of containment to block any further spread of Russian power. The spread of communism influenced United States policy more so than any other threat during that time. The United States and President Truman believed that drastic differences in political and socioeconomic ideologies would only cause further rifts between nations in the future. Although democracy was the fundamental ideology promoted by the United States, its main concern post World War II was to stop communism. In 1947, the United States and Truman began establishing many agencies and policies, domestically and foreign, to support their cause. Within the United States, Truman began his push by signing the National Security Act in 1947 to restructure America’s defenses for the new Communist threat. The act successfully reorganized the military and created new office positions: Secretary of Defense and the Joint Chiefs of Staff. It also created the National Security Council (NSC), to advise the president on global affairs, and the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) to conduct espionage.