Personnel Management And Human Resource Management Commerce Essay

Personnel Management And Human Resource Management Commerce Essay As per the senior managements comment in the meeting: Our Company is suffering in the marketplace, as we take a personal management approach rather than a HRM approach. Report to answer Managers query: This report has been designed in order to enable the line manager to address the issue raised in the management meeting. What we understand from the managements comments is that our new store of TESCO Company is facing lot of issues and competition at the new market place. Similarities and differences between HRM and personal management? Why senior management of TESCO feels that our new store should take a HRM approach instead of a personal management approach? Personnel management expands into human resource management. In general terms, Personnel management is considered to be an administrative function of an organization. Personnel management is supposed to be organized in such a way that any changes in the organisation stimulate response from personnel management. In an organisation, a person or a team of individuals are believed to be engaged in the process of Personnel management, when they become in charge of considering programs and making sure setting policies are appropriately set so that it can have an impact on every individual associated with the company and its performance. Objective of personnel Management: By this we mean that the focus point through which personnel management is helping in development of the people in the organisation. These objectives can be divided in 4 types: community Personnel Project Amalgamation What is an excellent personnel management: Characteristics of personnel management when it is considered to be excellent has been listed below: Personnel management is expected to bring stability Personnel management should be adaptable and capable to encounter any issue Employee relation management Should have a set objective for the department or the organization Functions of Personnel Management: Following are some of the functions of Personnel Management: Assessing employees requirement Hiring employees Screening of the applicants Selecting the applicants Orientation of the new hired employees towards business 1. 1 Definition of Human Resource Management (HRM)? As per Human resource management, employees are considered the most valuable assets of an organisation. HRM is considered as a development function of an organization. Objectives of Human resource management: Management of the manpower in any company or organisation is human resource management. The main objective of HRM is to increase the efficiency and performance of the employees, staff and other department by identifying the job requirements and hiring the appropriate candidate for that post. This has both development and implementation of strategy. What is good human resource management: HRM is considered to be resource centered. The main functions of HRM are listed below, Recruiting employees Development of training programs Implementation of trusted appraisal system Provide growth opportunity in organisation Performance management HR planning Employee retention Implementation of new resources to increase efficiency of employee etc 1.3 Similarities and differences between HRM and personnel management In this part we will cover some of the similarities and differences between Personnel management and Human resource management. Similarity between HRM and Personnel Management: Even though most of the people try to evaluate the difference between HRM and Personnel management, there are lots of the similarities between these two management systems: Both work on business based strategies Both HRM and Personnel management understands the responsibility of a manager Both believe is getting right candidate for right job Both understand that interaction with employees is the key for the success of management Differences between HRM and personnel management: Stephen and Keith in their works mention Storey Js (1992 twenty seven points of difference between Personnel management and HRM, of which some key differences are: 27 points of difference Dimension Personnel Strategic aspects Key relations Labor management Initiatives Piecemeal Speed of excision Slow Line Management Management Transactional Key managers Personnel/ IR specialists Communication Indirect Key levers Selection Separate, marginal task Pay Job evaluation Communication Restricted flow Conflict handling Reach temporary truces HRM is more proactive when compared to personnel management Personnel management is in general operational whereas HRM is strategy based Personnel management focuses in workforce whereas Human resource on resource. As per personnel management employee is supposed to be utilized for companys benefits but in human resource management, not only the company but also the employee, their family should be given the benefits. In personnel management, employee is considered to be the cost center, whereas in human resource management, they are considered as profit centers Function Personnel Management HRM Approach Administrative Development Selection Targets the current needs Targets the trainability and retention Deployment Need based Skill based Performance Review Supervisor oriented Pre defined targets and goals. Aims for transparency Promotions Based on performance and need Pre developed career path 1.4 Why Senior management TESCO feels that our new store should take a HRM approach instead of a personal management approach? Comments say: à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦that our company is suffering in the marketplace, as we take a personal management approach rather than a HRM approach. At first when we go through the senior managements comments, we dont see any details regarding the reason which has provoked the management to pass this comment. Even though we can clear understand that there is a serious issue that our new store or company is facing in the marketplace. As mentioned earlier reason for the poor performance has not been highlighted in the comment. Based on our assumption we can consider the problems related to staff turnover, customer handling, job satisfaction, etc. The other reason can be that the customers coming to the store are getting poor service and minimal attention to their needs. So based on this we can consider the issue to be the employee management. We know that if the staff performance is not up to the mark, it has a direct impact on the status of the TESCO Company and their other stores as well. The senior management might having the opinion that since this a new store with lots of challenging situation, it required development work. As per the managements comment, we can understand that if we want our store to be successful in the marketplace, we need to start working based on Human resource management. Task 2. Recruitment, selection and retention (L01) We all know that TESCO has both food and non-food store across United Kingdom, and they keep on recruiting staff members on regular basis for these stores as per the requirement. Use of appropriate hiring and selection process not only saves valuable amount of time as well as cash of the company. Any job position becomes available in a company: Opening of new stores Vacancies Sudden requirement at some store 2.1.1 Recruitment and Selection Procedures Usually we will see people getting confused with the terms recruitment and selection. In this section we will clearly explain the difference between Recruitment and Selection process. The HR process has two stages: Recruitment: The process of finding the correct candidates and encouraging them to apply for jobs vacancies in the company is called Recruitment process. Recruitment process involves seven steps: Job vacancies identification Preparing and consolidating specific job requirement Job advertisement Managing the responses received through the advertisement Short-listing the candidates Arranging interviews for the short-listed candidates Conducting interview and deciding on the right applicant There are two methods through which recruitment of an employee can be done: Internal recruitment: Internal recruitment is nothing but Transfers, promotions and Re-employment of ex-employee. This is performed internally in a company External recruitment: In this people are invited to fill in the job application and attend interview. This is outside the company means all the appropriate candidates can apply for the job posting. Recruitment mainly helps company in 4 different ways: Opting for highly qualified people for the job Making sure candidate stick for long time with the company Creating cultural mixture Expense and profit equalizing Selection: Selection is the process of selecting the right candidate out of all the picked candidates. This process involves lot of phases through which an applicant goes through before selection. This is a critical step as in this process the right applicants is selected as per the job opening available in the company. There are four likely out comes of Selection process: Selection of the right applicant (positive for company) Rejection of unsuitable applicant (positive for company) Selection of reject-able applicant (negative for company) Rejection of appropriate candidate (negative for company) Selection process takes place in the following order: Initial interview Application filling Verbal and written test Interview with HR manager Handover of Appointment letter 2.1.2 Tescos Recruitment and selection process TESCO- The biggest private sector employer in United Kingdom There are lot of people who are part of these stores and they are Checkout staffs, Stock handlers, Supervisors and specialist like bakers, pharmacist etc. The Recruitment process in TESCO can be summarized as follows: As Tesco recruitment is mainly done through there website or through job advertisement regarding the vacancies available at the store. This site contains all the information about the company and the requirements for the particular job vacancy. Usually TESCO site is uploaded with all the job vacancies and the candidates just need to search the appropriate job by using search option. One the application is filled, the candidate is called for interview based on screening. Any company first checks on the list of the current employees at different stores and there past work experience at store. As per qualification, education and previous job experiences, initially the candidates will be filtered. Line manager will make sure suitable candidate is selected for our new store. 2.2.3 Sample interview questionnaire: Below are some of the questions asked in interviews; Why do you want to join TESCO? What are reasons for you to leave your previous job? Tell us something about your strengths? What do you consider as your weakness? Are you good at handling work related pressure and stress? What salary expectation you have? Tell us something about yourself? What is your qualification? Tell us something about your previous experiences? What are your expectations from Managers and Team leaders? 2.2 Retention Employees or the staff members are like the back bone for company. No company can work without staff skillful staff members. Commonly employee dissatisfaction leads to resignation, hence as far as employee satisfaction is concerned; being manager of a new store, the responsibility is to achieve not only customer satisfaction but also as employees satisfaction. Employee Retention is created by Effective Managers. As recruiting a skillful staff member is difficult same way retaining them is lot more challenging. Employesses in any company expect compensation, good working environment, career growth and good working relationship. Employees tend to leave managers who cant: Clarify issues Assist in career growth Give regular performance based feedback One way of keeping your cost down will be to make sure that staff turnover is low. 2.2.1 Why Staff leaves the job? In this section we will take a look at some of the reasons that provoke an employee to leave their current job: New job: Every person looks out for better opportunity if they are not finding one their current job. Higher Salaries: This is most common reason for any staff member to leave the job Poor management Human Resources department response to employees Communication Work environment Job satisfaction No growth Biased 2.2.2 Method to retain the Staff members Following are some of the suggestion to increase Staff retention: Recruit people who have talent, ability and ready to work in any position Provide benefits like life insurance, permanent or temporary disability insurance and flexible hours. Regular feedback session based on performance Growth opportunity Celebration at workplace Proper appraisal system Regular appreciation Good work environment Should provide work and life balance opportunity Regularly address is staff issues 2.3 Legal and Ethical Issues in Recruitment Recruitment process is not simple as it sounds. Lot of legal and ethical issues needs to be kept in mind during this process. To meet legal requirement company needs to make sure that Job postings, inspecting references, interview questionnaire, and job offers all need to be done in appropriate way. As per BC Human Rights Code (Discrimination in employment advertisements), a job should not be published if it gives preference to the following: Race/Cast Color Heritage Place of origin Religious conviction Marital category Belief involving politics Family status Age Psychological disability Physical Religious conviction Any applicant can take legal action against the company if the question is in appropriate. In order to keep the staff members aware of the legal and ethical issue pertaining to company, the store manager can provide a handbook once the candidate is selected. An employer should always be ready with the appropriate documents supporting that the job requirements are legal and not against the ethics of the company. 3. Disciplinary Procedures 3.1 Introduction The main focus of implementation of disciplinary process is to bring out improvement in an employee or staff member. Implementation of Disciplinary procedure is very important in any work place. A staff member needs to be aware that when ever there is something going wrong, it was an end result. Whenever any employee breaks policies of the company or doesnt work to their expectation, disciplinary procedures is administered. Usually disciplinary procedure is applied when a staff members performance is below expectation or not up to the mark. Before an appropriate action can be taken disciplinary procedure demands an explanation of the issue from both the sides. There are two ways of handling these situations Informal and formal. An informal step involves talking to the staff personally and internally but a formal step involves other departments like HRM. There are different methods in application of discipline like Warning (verbal or written), Probation, Suspension/ transfer, Demotion, Discharge Below mentioned the issues that have been observed recently in the Store will give a clear understanding about disciplinary procedure: 3.2 Paul Wilkinson Coming late and leaving early Issue: Paul Wilkinson a 44 year old supervisor has recently been coming to work late and leaving early. You have already spoken to him about this, but unfortunately the situation hasnt improved. In this case, Supervisor is expected to be extremely punctual as they act as role models for the new staff. As this is a repeated offence from Pauls side, initially he was given verbal warning but as the situation has not improved, he will be given a written warning. Try to speak to him and offer him some other shift in which he can work with commitment without compromising on the time. Putting him on probation can also a an option. Transferring him another store is just waste of time and cash. It will only hamper other stores performance and reputation as well. Depending on seriousness of the offense, next time can lead in his demotion or removal from the job. To better understand Pauls recent activity, we need to know if He is facing any family or personal issue pertaining to time of work. Is he no longer happy working at the store Reason for his dissatisfaction if any 3.3 Sheena Johnson Stealing in the Store Issue: Sheena Johnson is 28 and a machine operator in the department. You have been informed that security found her stealing some finished and part-finished items from the department. She has been told to report to you at 9 a.m. tomorrow morning. In this case; In Sheenas case, legal action is necessary to be taken to handle this issue. In any industry or organization stealing is against the ethics of the store and legal action can be taken depending on the seriousness of the offence. Being a manager, I need to make sure that this offence is not repeated either by Sheena or anyone else. If this information becomes public, customer will not come into the store as they wont find their articles safe. Before taking legal actions, immediate terminate Sheena from her post and clear the accounts. Order her to return back all the articles stolen from the shop or pay compensation. Other information needed to understand Sheenas activity is From when she has started stealing Possible reason behind this act 4. Summary Management is getting all different kinds of people together and work as a team. We know that the management of personnel and human resource has been changing periodically. Stability in business is important and human resource management and personnel management has an important role to play. Through the above task we have got a clear understanding of how personnel management differs from human resource management as well as similar to each other. Through the report development, we will help the line manager to address the issue pertaining to the new store at the market place. We have discussed how Tesco has been of selecting right candidate through appropriate recruitment and selection process. We discussed about the reasons for the staff members to leave the job and the retention methods that are implemented to retain the skillful employees.

Parent and Child Relationships Essay

â€Å"I Am Sam† is a powerfully touching film that tells the story of a parent and child’s love for one another. It shows that love is pure, and that no matter how great the mind is, love is even greater. The film’s protagonist is Sam, a mentally-challenged adult with a mental age of 7. Sam has a daughter, Lucy, with a prostitute who left them. Sam works at the local Starbucks to support Lucy, and everything is going along well until Lucy turned 7, because she already surpassed her father’s mental abilities. This creates problems, because early on we see that Lucy is precocious and inquisitive, and she is no longer satisfied with her father’s nonsense answers to her questions. When she starts wanting to read more difficult books than what Sam reads to her, she fakes having difficulty reading so as not to offend her father and make him feel inferior. On Sam’s part, even when he sees that Lucy is already growing up, he tries his best to support her the best way he knows how. Lucy does not see this yet because she is still a child, but she understands that her father is different, but she loves him because he is a very loving father who takes her out to the park and to eat pancakes and generally takes good care of her. Later in the film she is embarrassed when her classmates tease her that her father is a retard that she denies him and tells them that she is adopted. The authorities take her away from Sam, and later on sent to a foster home. When the authorities take Lucy away from him, he does everything he could to get her back. He even gets the fearsome lawyer Rita to help his cause. Rita, a successful and stringent lawyer who values winning more than anything, decides to take Sam’s case just to prove that she is not as selfish as she looks. Through the course of helping Sam, she realizes that Sam is a good father, that Sam’s mental inadequacy has not hampered his ability to love and care for his daughter at all. That in fact, he is a better parent than she is. When at first she sought to win Sam’s case because she did not want to lose, eventually Rita sympathizes with Sam’s cause. Sam visits Lucy regularly, and Lucy realizes that she wants her father back, and that she is going to fight back just to be with him, even if she is smarter than him, even if the world laughs at her for having a retard for a father. At this moment, Lucy has matured, and although she is just 7, she has taken responsibility not only of her own actions, but also decided that she will take care of her father when he could no longer take care of her, that she needs to be smart and capable and strong for the both of them. She saw just how much her father loves her and how he does not give up on her even when she denied him. However, even with Rita’s help, Sam loses the custody battle at court. Sam breaks down as he is convinced that he cannot take care of his own daughter. All this time, he was doing everything he could, enlisting the help of his friends and employers and colleagues to prove that he has what it takes to raise his daughter, but he finally accepts the fact that he is mentally inadequate to give her needs. If he really loves his daughter, he would do what is best for her even if it means letting go of her so that she could be the best that she could be. And Sam does that. He accepts that he cannot take care of Lucy, but even when he concedes, he does not give up on being a father to her. He moves in to an apartment just to be nearer to Lucy, so that even if he cannot raise her at least he could be there for her whenever she needed him, and so that he could watch her grow up. Lucy is hurt that she cannot be with her father, but she takes matters on her own hands, Late at night she sneaks out of her foster home to be with her father. Her foster parents find her out, and she does not deny that she longs to be with her father, even if they think that they can be better parents than him. Eventually, the foster parents let her go back to Sam, for Sam to have custody of her. The film tells us that love is great driving force that cannot be measured by financial success, or by intellectual achievements. Society may look at Sam as a retarded, inadequate man, but he fought for his daughter against all odds, when Lucy’s own mother simply walked out and left them. Lucy was smarter than Sam, but she learned about love from her father because he showered her with it. That is why even when she was presented with a better future with a â€Å"better† set of parents, she still chooses to go back to Sam, because she knows that her father loves her and she loves him. At the end, the film teaches us what a parent can give best to his child, and what a child needs most from a parent – love. And that is something that cannot be bought or substituted with material things, because children will always know if their parents have shown them enough love.

Devoted Son

Analytical essay In the story â€Å"The devoted son† by Anita Desai. The author illustrates strong and vivid meaning in the depth of the story. The Author portrays a truth. No matter how well progressive one is, tradition will always counter it.Rakesh’s Father went ill and sick even though he was under a professional doctor who was also his son â€Å"One day when the father was really sick, having ordered his daughter-in-law to make him a dish of soojie halwa  and eaten it with a saucerful of cream, Rakesh marched into the room, not with his usual respectful step but with the confident and rather contemptuous stride of the famous doctor, and declared, â€Å"No more  halwa  for you, papa. We must be sensible, at your age. If you must have something sweet, Veena will cook you a little  kheer, that’s light, just a little rice and milk.But nothing fried anything rich. We can’t have this happening again. †(Desai, 79). We see essentialism, where the father expects his son to get him what he wants. At the same time we see Marxist theory where shift in the balance of power happens. Before the father had the power to tell his son what to do, and it seems like the father is still used to it. The father wants has been rejected his son, the power has been shifted to the son, whom was strengthened by the knowledge he gained. Not to say his knowledge was wrong though.The father then sits shocked with his eyes widely pierced out (Desai, 79). The tradition of the father kicks in because it was against the child to object on the father’s needs and wants. The essentialism here is clear. And that the shift in balance of power happens because of knowledge. Secondly Even though Rakesh has succeeded in prolonging his father’s life, Old Varma wanted to die. The medicines Rakesh’s father takes actually did make his father live longer and healthy, but actually he just also made his father hate living and suicidal.Superego can be seen here because Rakesh sees that the right thing is that medicine and Vitamins pills will only cure his father. From the Knowledge and experience Rakesh had as a doctor, he knew exactly what his father should eat, the doze and the number of times a day. His purpose was only to make his father live longer. On the Other side Old Varma’s point of view is that his son is limiting his food for him, limiting the quality of the food, limiting the number of times he can eat. Rakesh rejects his father’s desires, where Varma sees it as torture. He complains to his neighbour about that.He doesn’t even want to live anymore so he tells Rakesh â€Å" Let me die, it would be better, I do not want to live only to eat your medicine† Clearly an image of depression and mental illness is seen through Rakesh’s father, Even though Rakesh just wanted to make his father live longer. This relates to the truth, where Rakesh’s knowledge is countering his fat her’s Traditional desires to halawi and Jaledi and other sorts of food which Varma is used to and enjoys eating. This leads to the father desiring death, and waiting for god to take him. Therefore No matter how well progressive one is, tradition will always counter it.In the story â€Å"What is poverty† by T. Dalymple. He illustrates an important message that every country has its own definition of poverty. Corruption has started by the government. â€Å"They'll find her a new flat. They'll buy her new furniture, television, and refrigerator, because it's unacceptable poverty in this day and age to live without them†¦ She’ll invite him there, he'll smash it up again, and then they'll find her somewhere else to live. There is, in fact, nothing she can do that will deprive her of the state's obligation to house, feed, and entertain her. ( Daliymple,3) The implicit meaning of this quote is that the British government will buy her a new place to stay, includin g the necessity and appliances. The man will get away though. In the end the guy will come back and damage the house and all this will repeat over and over. One of the literary devices in this quote is sarcasm. â€Å"†¦because it's unacceptable poverty in this day and age to live without them. [ furniture, television, and refrigerator]† The author sarcastically expresses his opinion on poverty in UK. It is not that important to have T.V or furniture or fridge; those items are for luxurious purposes. This portrays how high the standard of poverty in UK is. Although that sounds like a good thing, it actually is not. They get spoiled by luxury. Making them unable to see how hard it is to afford a flat or a television. This quote also has situational irony. This is because the women’s flat got damaged by her Ex-boyfriend, and even though she gets her rights from the law and gets a new house, she still will invite him over so he can damaged her new house again.This sho ws how laid back the British citizens are specifically the ones living on the poverty line. In this case the woman abuses the law since she doesn’t care about the house. She didn’t pay for the flat. Who actually paid for it, are the rich people paying their taxes. This leads to the theory of representation, where those couples represent how laid back and lazy the British people whom are living on poverty are. The government’s opinion of how their society should be like and how the poverty standard should be spoils the society. Making them not feel how hard it is to work for getting a house or cleaning is.The government made the British citizens corrupted with their high standard of living, making poverty have a different meaning. In UK, poverty means to have T. V and a house given by the government along with the furniture. Secondly, the narrator shows how the British culture is falling behind. The narrator kept referring to the other 3rd world doctors that work with him. He portrays how dependant UK citizens are on the government, how they do not care of cleaning and their life has no order or appreciation and disrespectful culture. This shows Discrimination theory of difference.The author shows that the British’s culture has an unhealthy essential life, versus the third world, where they work had to achieve a house, water or luxurious items. Narrator talks about the struggle going on to achieve a house. How the poverty is in India and Philippines. The author also illustrates the difference between the amount of respect given to the doctor between UK and 3rd world countries. UK had the man who cursed the doctors, but in 3rd world countries they probably will thank the doctors for helping them with their issues.Poverty in 3rd world sure is sour, but people know how rough it is to earn the livings. While as UK’s poverty has a very high standard, the citizens do not know how hard it is to live, and they abuse the laws. Therefor e every country has it is own definition of poverty. In the documentary â€Å"Ban into Brothers†, Briski gives her view on an extremely important message. This message is that parents and society are the major influences on a child's future. Briski interviewed a boy who lived a miserable and struggling life. His name was Avijit. There is nothing called hope in my life† (Briski), said Avijit. Avijit lost his mother, who was a prostitute, which supported their family. On the other hand, Avijit is a drug addict (hash). Basically, Avijit is living in the very lowest class. He has no home, and education is not easy for him. Avijit says: â€Å"We don't have enough time to live let alone to study. † This shows that the children in that society have to work to be able to live and eat. Lastly, Briski illustrates Puja as a solid representation of feminisms in that community and the true power that women have.Puja's families are all prostitutes. Her mother is a prostitute, as well as her grandmother. Although Puja dresses well and eats well, the method being used to support her and her family is entirely wrong. This leads to the analytical theory of commodotisation. Puja's lives in a society where prostitution is the only opportunity for females to support themselves and their families with enough money. This is evident when Puja's family pulls her out of school early in order to make more money, sooner, to better support their family. Puja's future is not bright at all.Her family and her environment have ruined her life, and any hopes and dreams that Puja has for her future. She was destined to be a prostitute and sell her body, just like her older generations. Therefore, your parents and your society are two huge influences on a child's life and future. In conclusion, in all 3 previous steps, there is one common truth. In the stories of â€Å"What is poverty† by T. Dalymple, â€Å"The devoted son† by Anita Desai, and â€Å"born into b rothels† by Zana Briski we see the common universal truth of, Education and Society raises one’s level into the world and community.In The devoted son, we see that Rakesh was very well educated; his society was not a problem. Rakesh grew up to become a doctor. He became wealth. He stood out in his community. He was very well known, and people loved him. His father also was proud of him; they did not suffer from any health or financial issues. Rakesh was lucky to be one of the people whom are on the higher level. On the other hand the documentary of â€Å"Born into Brothels† Though the opposite was seen where children living in that society could not even taste hope.That society only allowed the girls to become prostitutes and men to become pimps if they wanted to make money to live with the basic physiological needs. Others in that society couldn’t travel, just for living in that society; others found schooling not possible because their mother is a prosti tute or a slave. Children mentioned in that movie, such as Puja and Avijit, they are living in the lowest level in their community and in the world. In the story â€Å"what is poverty† by T. Dalymple. Poverty had a higher standard, where television and fridge was provided. But the society had struggles within itself.Lack of independency, and feeling the pain to earn money made them blind and turn into disrespectful, ungrateful, lazy, unhealthy community. They are living a good life maybe, but the society is not very well developed. People living in that poverty can be on the middle level. Without education, one cannot raise his level in the world, and without a proper society people will not have a healthy good future. Education and society are like stairs, where one needs it to go up higher, higher in terms of living standard. Therefore Education and the Society raise one’s level into the world and community.

American Lion (Panthera Leo Atrox) Facts and Figures

Name: American Lion; also known as Panthera leo atrox Habitat: Plains of North America Historical Period: Pleistocene-Modern (two million-10,000 years ago) Size and Weight: Up to 13 feet long and 1,000 pounds Diet: Meat Distinguishing Characteristics: Large size; lithe build; thick coat of fur About the American Lion (Panthera leo atrox) Contrary to popular belief, the saber-toothed tiger  (more accurately referred to by its genus name, Smilodon) wasnt the only feline apex predator of Pleistocene North America: there was also the American Lion, Panthera leo atrox. If this plus-sized cat was, in fact, a true lion—some paleontologists speculate that it may have been a species of jaguar or tiger—it was the largest of its kind that ever lived, outweighing its contemporary African relatives by hundreds of pounds. Even still, the American lion was no match for Smilodon, a more heavily built predator (only distantly related to the Panthera genus) that employed an entirely different hunting style. On the other hand, the American lion may have been smarter than Smilodon; before the advent of human civilization, thousands of saber-toothed tigers became mired in the La Brea Tar Pits in search of prey, but only a few dozen individuals of Panthera leo atrox met such a fate. Intelligence would have been a valuable trait in the competitive landscape of Pleistocene North America, where the American lion had to out-hunt not only Smilodon but also the dire wolf (Canis dirus) and the giant short-faced bear (Arctodus simus), among other megafauna mammals. Unfortunately, by the end of the last Ice Age, all of these vicious carnivores occupied the same dismal playing field, hunted to extinction by early humans at the same time as climate change and a reduction in their usual prey thinned out their populations. How was the American lion related to another famous big cat of Pleistocene North America, the cave lion? According to a recent analysis of mitochondrial DNA (which is passed on only by females, thus allowing for detailed genealogical studies), the American lion diverged from an isolated family of cave lions, cut off from the rest of the population by glacial activity, about 340,000 years ago. From that point on, the American lion and the cave lion coexisted in different North American territories, pursuing different hunting strategies.