Q1. Google. What makes Google a great company to work for In Essay

Q1. Google. What makes Google a great company to work for In particular, explore the nature and impact that the company's HR - Essay Example To make the ‘different’ employees coordinate and cooperate, a common and effective organizational culture has to be actualized by the organization in line with effective HR policies. When such a culture is implemented, the employees’ mind will become more focused on the targets and tasks, and their motivational levels will get elevated. With highly motivated mind, the employees could contribute maximally to organization’s functioning, resulting in success. When success is achieved, the employees will be aptly rewarded, and these rewards and the success, will make the employees build a psychological contract with their employers. So, this paper will discuss how Google with its effective HR policies is able to positively impact its organizational culture, leading to better motivation and psychological contract, thereby making Google a great company to work for. Background In today’s internet savvy world, Google has become one of the best known brands, making its ‘presence’ or virtual presence in maximal parts of the world. Established by Larry Paige and Sergey Brin in 1998, Google, apart from having physical infrastructures of over one million servers, also has offices world over employing around 25,000 employees. The way, Google provides an optimal working environment for these employees or Googlers (as the Google employees call themselves) only makes them a dream company to work for. Google tops the list of various yearly surveys conducted by prestigious agencies to find the companies that are great places to work for employees. Right from the early days, its founders Larry and Sergey were clear cut that the working environment that will be visible in Google will not be the conventional one. This can be clearly seen in the way, they advertise to prospective employees, â€Å"Google is not a conventional company, and we don’t intend to become one. True, we share attributes with the world’s most success ful organizations – a focus on innovation and smart business practices comes to mind – but even as we continue to grow, we’re committed to retaining a small-company feel.† (google.com). This wish to maintain a non-conventional and small company feel has made Google to implement an organizational culture and its related HR practices, which not only motivates the current employees, but also evokes the interest of maximum number of prospective employees. â€Å"Google is attractive to prospective workers. Worldwide, 760,000 individuals applied for just 3,000 positions in 2006. The firm receives approximately 1,300 resumes per day.† (Griffin and Moorhead 2009, p.218). As mentioned above, Google tops the list of various surveys for the best employers including Fortune magazine's list of great companies to work for, having ranked in the top five for the past four years. Importantly, revenue wise, Google has been showing tremendous growth garnering revenues close to 30 billion dollars, with profits itself is in the range of 8 billion. (U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission 2010). Its’ share price has always been on the upswing. All this financial growth has been achieved within 12 years of its inception, with employees being one of the main beneficiaries in the form of sizable financial rewards and other incentives. This raises the question, whether Google is a great place to

UNit 8 Written Assignment Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

UNit 8 Written Assignment - Essay Example The clients rights include: to be diligently served in the management of his business; to be informed of its progress, and; that his counsel shall not disclose what has been professionally confided to him. (Garner, 2007) The term witness is defined as one who can give a firsthand account of something seen, heard, or experienced. (Garner, 2007) An example is â€Å"a witness to the accident†. For legal purposes, a witness is :One who is called on to testify before a court; One who is called on to be present at a transaction in order to attest to what takes place; One who signs ones name to a document for the purpose of attesting to its authenticity and an attestation to a fact, statement, or event. (Garner, 2007) The initial interview is, of course, the one unit of service that is constant across all forms of legal service delivery. It is also one of the most critical units of service. The initial interview: (1) shapes client perception of the lawyer; (2) defines the service to be provided in terms of both problem and goal; and (3) is an important opportunity for client education, e.g. confidentiality, substantive legal rights, what the client can do for himself or herself, and the need to preserve evidence. (Alfieri 1991) In many cases the initial interview may in fact be the most significant communication before outcome determinative events such as hearing or settlement. The duty of confidentiality exists to inspire client trust and prompt candor. To achieve these purposes, clients should be informed about confidentiality at the very outset of the relationship. The most important the time to bring up attorney-client confidentiality is when you start asking questions, and offer the followin g sample statement: The witness is not interviewed in the same way as the client. The witness does not have confidentiality protections, thus they are

Crisis of Low Morale in Nursing Staff

Crisis of Low Morale in Nursing Staff Introduction of Firm This case study describes Los Rayos a medical center that is in a nurse crisis not only for their high turn over rate but for their low morale among its nursing staff. Although the hospital works diligently to provide quality care to its patients it is failing in many areas due to understaffed and overworked nursing staff. Mandated to keep up government regulations, the hospital understands the importance of not compromising quality even though it has had to minimize quantity in staff. The hospital requires nurses to come up with strategies to be implemented to help improve not only working conditions and quality control but patient care and ideas to help increase personal job performance. Over the last eight years the hospital has enforced some of the changes suggested but it finds itself still with the issue of nurses who feel that they are overextending themselves. Nursing staff is still in the position of trying to keep up with the demand of continuous educational conditioning an d development while performing on the job tasks in addition to extra curricular activities. Overview of Firm Competitive Advantage In order to have a firm competitive advantage an organization has to possess something unique that its competition does not have. What makes one different from another? This question is what separates groups and classes and makes one stand out among the rest. At Los Rayos they have qualified staff just not enough of it. Partnering with another major medical facility was a good business move as it can serve the purpose of showing Los Rayos ways it can improve on its functions within the facility. A normal turnover rate for hospitals is at 14% while Los Rayos is at 21%. Changes in an industry can affect bases and balance among it (Porter, 1985). Job satisfaction will make the difference on the advantage another medical facility will gain when nurses are looking upon where they would like to settle for a career. Some nurses will take a salary cut or drive further in order to work within a medical facility that offers them more than an opportunity to use their credentials. As the medical environment is forever changing one thing that may give a hospital a firm competitive advantage would be their values. Having an expectation of learning within the organization lets nursing staff know that they will be encouraged and required to continue to advance in their field and stay current on all resources and advancements in medicine. Having a competitive advantage means that you make it more difficult for competition and shake up the level playing field. According to Michael Porter (1985), if an organization can achieve and maintain differentiation they will be an above average performer in their industry and exceed competition. In order to be successful in this strategy Los Rayos will have to identify attributes and qualities among their nursing staff that are different from their rivals who are the organizations who benefit from their high turnover rate. They need to identify the factors that contribute the turnovers and come up solutions to keep nursing staff from leavi ng and also keep staff happy on the job. Problem statement The problem with Los Rayos medical facility is management does not resourcefully use staff, which leads to a high number in turnovers. The facility is understaffed and overworked and they promoted housekeepers to health techs and provided no skill training leaving nurses to double work as they would need to perform the patient care tasks that the health techs: were promoted to do. The hospital also dropped moral amongst staff as they took away appreciation events such as the employee picnic and Christmas party that gives staff something to look forward to every year. It is highly noted that when employees feel they are appreciated on the job it reflects in their job performance. The hospital reduced its nursing staff to double patients per nurse and increased shifts from 8 hour to 12 hour. This tedious and exhausting work schedule not only creates a hostile work environment as staff are reluctant to go the extra mile or over achieve for patients and colleagues. The hospital requires a lot from its nursing staff and where a raise or an on the job leisure activity would have compensated for the tedious job detail, management has taken those tokens away. Alternative Solutions/Opportunities a.) Create a rewards system to retain staff -there should be a work environment where staff have materials and training to properly perform tasks and should be awarded for productive performance. Evaluations should be done quarterly on staff to review job performance and adhere to what can be done better but also praise what has been done successfully. During this process not only is staff being rewarded for their accomplishments but also they acquire new knowledge and education that helps expand their skill and personal development. i) Build moral in the workplace ii) Cause discord among staff b.) Regular Shifts- Staff has become overwhelmed by the hours they spend on the job. If they had shorter shifts they would have time to reprogram and detox and come back refreshed eliminating turnover and burnouts i.) Gives staff a chance to unwind from a days work and not have to report right back for duty ii) Staff may call out or take more time off with shorter shifts Decision and Support In order to create a work environment that constantly develops nurses skills so that they can efficiently perform job tasks management needs to create a rewards system to help retain staff. Management has to recognize the nurses core commitment is to provide quality care to their patients and they need to help reduce job related stress by ensuring that supporting staff such as health techs are properly trained and skilled in work related duties. Nurses need to feel important, valued, and appreciated by their organization, as they love their job and they just want working conditions to improve. Action Plan Moving to implement the rewards system and shorter shifts for staff should take place immediately to ensure that staff understands management understands their concerns and have worked to rectify their issues. To implement successful changes, management must play an active role in the entire change process. It is the managers responsibility to understand how to address and put the change into action along with properly overseeing resistance from the staff. It is the managers responsibility to understand how to address and put the change into action along with properly overseeing resistance from the staff. Identifying potential risks, anticipating risks, estimating impact of risks, and managing risks successfully are all accomplishments and work towards building moral and retention. Scundra (2016) explained the importance of leaders understanding how to deal with different people and personalities hence the importance of the quarterly evaluations so management can provide feedback to each nurse and staff member personally. Once nursing staff feels compensated for their diligent work they will be eager to preform on the job and happy to work at Los Rayos now and in the future. REFERENCES Drucker,P. (2009). Management Cases.New York, NY. Harper Collins Publisher Porter, M. E. (1985). Competitive Advantage . Creating and Sustaining Superior Performance , 1-30. Retrieved January 22, 2017. Sacndura, T. A. (2016). Essentials of Organizational Behavior. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.

Murder Rationale in Dostoevskys Crime and Punishment Essay -- Crime P

Murder Rationale in Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment Feodor Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment is a murder mystery unlike most murder mysteries. In this novel the reader knows "who done it"; the mystery lies in why the murder is committed. Throughout the story, Raskolnikov gives three main reasons why he kills Alena Ivanovna. Although these reasons seem unrelated on a superficial level, there is truth in all of them. What's more, each one builds on its predecessor. Raskolnikov's first two reasons are scrutinized by Sonya one at a time as his solitary motive for murder. These reasons are then disproved on their own, leaving one ultimate motive that essentially encompasses the other two. As readers, we sometimes tend to want a direct explanation for events that have occurred. Dostoevsky gives us explanations, but they are not direct and can be confusing if we are looking for an obvious cause and effect relationship. Crime and Punishment imitates life in that the happenings do not always fit in nice neat categories. Perhaps this is one of the elements that make it such an intriguing and acclaimed novel. Raskolnikov's first reason for murdering the pawn broker is to help himself. He claims he wanted the money. He states in his confession to Sonya, "It was to rob her" (348). It is obvious that he needed money for school. Also, if he had the money to put himself through school, his mother would not have to scrimp and borrow from others to help her son. Since the death of his father, Raskolnikov's mother and sister are greatly dependent upon him to make something of himself. His mother says in a letter to him, "You are all we have, Dunya and I, you are everything to us, our only hope and trust" (25). In this same letter, his mo... ... commoners. His last reason was accepted as his ultimate motive; "Sonya understood that this gloomy creed had become his faith and his law" (353). Raskolnikov himself does not really know why he is committing murder when the murder is taking place. It is a discovery of self and of a theory that was not yet developed. He uses excuses for his reasoning in the beginning, saying that he needs the money, and, later, that he is performing a service for the greater good. These excuses are necessary and fundamental steps of Raskolnikov's journey into self-discovery. It is human nature to rationalize, which is what he is doing. Ironically, this very need for rationalization and excuse is what fails him in his quest for proof of his superiority. Work Cited Dostoevsky, Feodor. Crime and Punishment. Trans. Jessie Coulson. Ed. Goerge Gibian. New York: Norton, 1989.

Nathaniel Hawthorne’s as Anti-Transcendentalist Essay

Nathaniel Hawthorne an American romantic writer, whose literature is known for its Anti-Transcendentalism, wrote Young Goodman Brown and The Scarlet Letter. Nathaniel Hawthorne is a writer during the American Romantics, where the majority of writing is focused on nature, supernatural elements; one’s psychology and the criticism of society’s â€Å"norm†. Nathaniel is Hawthorne known for his notorious Anti-Transcendentalist literature. Anti-Transcendentalism ideals are about one’s evil and inner and sinful nature, where everyone is born evil and no matter what, and that humanity is evil and destructive. Hawthorne is not able to accept the optimism of the Transcendentalists and through his writing he tries to look for truths in one’s heart and mind. Hawthorne’s use of symbols, characters, and themes in his literature classify his writings as Anti-Transcendentalist.Through the use of character development Hawthorne’s literature can be clas sified as Anti-Transcendentalist. In both pieces of literature Hawthorne uses characters who act as the epitome of Anti-Transcendentalism. The Scarlet Letter has two imperative characters that exemplify Anti-Transcendentalist. First we have Dimmesdale; he is a minister in the town and is one of the most highly respected men in Boston. In reality Dimmesdale is a sinner and an adulterer as he slept with Hester, another man’s wife and got her pregnant. Hester’s punishment for her actions are; public humiliation, and the Scarlet Letter. Though Dimmesdale is not revealed as her accomplice over time he himself grows a Scarlet Letter of his own. â€Å"Most of the spectators testified to having seen, on the breast of the unhappy minister, a Scarlet Letter†¦Mr. Dimmesdale, on the very day when Hester Prynne first wore her ignominious badge, had begun a course of penance†(SL 211). When Hawthorne reveals Dimmesdale having a Scarlet Letter it expresses the ideals of Anti-Transcendentalism where his own Scarlet Letter is the example of one’s inner darkness and evil that is inside of him. In Young Goodman Brown after Goodman Brown witnesses all of the townspeople participating in a witchcraft ceremony and comes back to his home he sees the world in a new perspective. â€Å"The next morning Goodman Brown came slowly into the streets of Salem staring around him like a bewildered man†(YGB 7). He is never the same and trusts no one, including his wife. It says that he snatched away the children that Goody Cloyse was talking to and when his wife embraced him he just walked away.(YGB 7 )Hawthorne uses Goodman Brown to show that everyone is evil inside and that he human spirit is destructive. Character development acknowledges a role in how Hawthorne’s literature should be classified as Anti-Transcendentalist.Character Development is not the only factor that classifies Hawthorne’s literature as Anti-Transcendentalist; symbols take on an enormous role as well. In the Scarlet Letter two symbols are Pearl, and the actual Scarlet Letter. Pearl is not only a peculiar child for her age she has a much deeper meaning. Pearl is Hester’s living example of her sin. Pearl’s purpose in the Scarlet Letter is to represent sin, but not only to Hester but in the world as well. The Actual Scarlet Letter is also a symbol which represents not only sin, but the Anti-Transcendentalist idea that your sins will never go away, sin will remain evident inside you and around you. These two examples could not exemplify Anti-Transcendentalist beliefs any more as its primary focus is about sinfulness and how people view sin. In Young Goodman Brown a few symbols that embody Anti-Transcendentalism are the forest and the old man who is meant to be the devil. The forest in both of Hawthorne’s literature has a dark meaning towards it and also is a place where no good can happen Goodman Brown believes that the devil could be present in the forest, and when he sees a woman from his town he hides as he is ashamed to be walking in the forest. The forest is characterized as devilish, frightening, and dark. The old man is also a symbol which is portrayed as the devil. He is used to represent the destructiveness of the human spirit and to show the evil within humanity. All of these characteristics contribute to classify Hawthorne’s writing as Anti-Transcendentalist. Aside from characters and symbols Hawthorne uses themes in his literature which contribute to classifying his writings as Anti-Transcendentalist. The most prominent theme in both pieces of his literature is the, nature of evil in humanity. The Scarlet Letter uses the â€Å"Black Man† as an alter ego to Chillingworth who is a representation for the Devil. On the outside Chillingworth is a doctor who is supposed to help people when they are sick but inside he is evil. Instead of giving Dimmesdale life he is making him sick, as he is taking life and making it miserable. â€Å"‘Come away, or yonder old black man will catch you! He hath got hold of the minister already. Come away, mother or he will catch you!’†(SL 61) The quote is from Pearl who understands Chillingworth is the devil and has already captured and made Dimmesdale’s life horrible. Another instance of the evil in humanity partakes in the Story of Young Goodman Brown where it contains a greate r depth of evil in humanity. The Scarlet Letter is only one man consumed by the devil but in Young Goodman Brown the whole town appears to be taking part in a witchcraft ceremony. When he is taken into the forest he sees the minister, a deacon and many more respected men of his town are evil. â€Å"He recognized a score of church members of Salem†¦Good old Deacon Gookin had arrived, his reserved pastor†(YGB 6) These men and women who are highly respected are taking part in English witchcraft. Hawthorne is expressing that humans are capable of inner darkness and evil, which enable his literature to be classified as Anti-Transcendentalist. Symbols, characters, and themes are the elements that Hawthorne uses to show how his literature can be classified as Anti-Transcendentalist. The symbols in both pieces of Hawthorne’s literature represent sin, and evil, both which are qualities of Anti-Transcendentalism. All the characters in Hawthorne’s literature contain evidence of sinful nature, inner darkness and the destructiveness of the human spirit. These qualities are most prominent in Chillingworth and Dimmesdale and especially with Goodman Brown. Lastly Hawthorne’s primary theme in all his literature is the nature of evil in humanity. Chillingworth exemplifies this theme greatly as well as the towns’ people in Young Goodman Brown. The way Hawthorne writes and his use of symbols, themes, and characters classify his writing as Anti-Transcendentalist.

Jane Goodall Research Paper

Jane Goodall Jane Goodall once said, â€Å"I wanted to talk to the animals like Dr. Doolittle. † Obviously you can tell from this quote that Jane Goodall was very passionate about animals. She was an ethologist, which is a person who studies the behavior of animals, and more specifically a primatologist. She studied chimpanzees in Africa and made ground breaking discoveries about the similarities between primates and humans. So in a nutshell, the research of Jane Goodall was revolutionary and it changed the way that we view ourselves.Before she was conducting powerful research in Africa, she started out as a normal child. She was born on April 3, 1934, in London, England. She had always loved animals and this was easily seen when at the age of 4 she slept with earthworms in her bed and stayed in a hen house for 5 hours to see her hen lay an egg. See loved all animals but her infatuation with primates stemmed from receiving a stuffed chimpanzee which she named Jubilee, at the a ge of 2. This was from Current Biography. Jane had always dreamed of going to Africa to be among nature but it took her several years to make it there.Finally, one of her friends invited her to her family’s farm in Kenya. She finally got to Africa in 1957 at the age of 23. Jane greatly enjoyed being in Africa and once there she was determined to find the paleontologist, Louis Leakey. She was able to meet him and when she did she found out he was doing a study on apes. He ended up letting her be the main field worker. The scientific community thought that it was crazy to let a woman with no science education run a study. Leakey was aware of these conceptions but didn’t pay them any mind.So in the year 1960, Jane set off for Gombe, Africa to begin researching. Just before Goodall was getting ready to start the study, many researchers discouraged her, telling her that she would never get close to the chimps and it would be a waste of time. Jane didn’t head any of t his advice. She knew that she was going to this study her way and that she would be successful. The first two months were a little disappointing for Jane. She would walk through the underbrush and only be able to hear the chimps screeching from high above and rarely, even catch a glimpse of a chimp.When she thought that everything was going terribly, she found a place she called, the â€Å"peak. † The peak was a clearing about 100 ft. above the jungle floor. Jane could sit there and observe the chimps’ natural behavior. It was here where Jane started gathering her first observations. She saw the chimps greet one another with hugs and kisses and walk hand in hand. Once she even witnessed a male take a female’s hand and gently kiss it. Jane was able to conclude from these first few observations that chimps are very social creatures like us.In no time at all, Jane had made a discovery that shocked the science world. She had observed chimps on several occasions stra tegically, hunt down and kill other animals. Until then it was believed that chimpanzees were herbivores. Another ground breaking discovery that Goodall made around that same time was that chimps made tools to help them do things. According to PBS, she saw a chimp pick out a grass stem, whittle it with his teeth, and use it as a sort of fishing pole to scrape insects out of the ground.No one had ever recorded seeing any creature other than a human create a tool. This made people rethink the definition of a human. Even though Goodall was making discoveries, she still wasn’t pleased with the fact that she wasn’t able to get close to any chimps yet. Her new focus was to do just that. She would sit on the forest floor and watch as the chimps walked by. Eventually they warmed up to her and came closer. Suddenly the chimps were aggressive toward her but after a few weeks it stopped and the chimps let her follow them while hunting for food.Soon she was even able to start inte racting with them a little. She had a special connection with a chimp she named David Grey Beard. He was the first chimp she actually made physical contact with. Many of Jane’s peers didn’t like her because she named her subjects, and told stories about them instead of recording data. A lot of them didn’t trust the authenticity of her discoveries. Jane disregarded all of this negativity. She called herself an â€Å"old fashioned naturalist. † In fact she said she would have stopped if she had had to things the official way.In the end, Goodall’s discoveries were validated and some of her research techniques have been adopted by the scientific community. So in conclusion, the research of Jane Goodall was revolutionary and it changed the way that we view ourselves. She discovered that chimps were omnivores ancd used tools; are social creatures just like humans; and was able to have contact with a wild chimp which no one else had done. So after hearing about Jane Goodall can you say that you are that much different than a chimp?

Pelican Facts

Pelican Facts There are eight living species of pelicans (Pelecanus species) on our planet, all of which are water birds and water carnivores that feed on live fish in coastal regions and/or interior lakes and rivers. The most common in the United States are the brown pelican (Pelecanus occidentalis) and the Great White (P. anocratalus). Pelicans are members of Pelecaniformes, a group of birds that also includes the blue-footed booby, tropicbirds, cormorants, gannets, and the great frigate bird. Pelicans and their relatives have webbed feet and are well adapted to catching fish, their primary food source. Many species dive or swim underwater to capture their prey. Fast Facts: Pelicans Scientific Name: Pelecanus erythrorhynchos, P. occidentalis, P. thagus, P. onocrotalu, P. conspicullatus, P. rufescens, P. crispus, and P.philippensisCommon Names: American white pelican, brown pelican, Peruvian pelican, great white pelican, Australian pelican, pink-backed pelican, Dalmatian pelican and spot-billed pelicanBasic Animal Group: BirdSize: Length: 4.3–6.2 feet; wingspan: 6.6-11.2 feetWeight: 8–26 poundsLifespan: 15–25 years in the wildDiet: CarnivoreHabitat: Found on all continents except Antarctica, near coastlines or large inland waterwaysPopulation: Estimates only available for two near-threatened species: Spot-billed, (8700–12,000) and Dalmation (11,400–13,400)Conservation Status: Dalmatian, spot-billed, and Peruvian pelicans are classed as Near-Threatened; all other species are Least Concern Description All pelicans have two webbed feet with four toes, all of which are connected by the web (known as the totipalmate foot). All of them have large bills with an obvious gular pouch (throat pouch) which they use for catching fish and draining water. Gular sacs are also used for mating displays and regulating body temperature. Pelicans have large wingspans- some over 11 feet- and are masters in the air and on the water.   A great white pelican uses its gular pouch to capture a fish. Michael Allen Siebold / Getty Images Habitat and Distribution   Pelicans are found on all of the continents of the world except Antarctica. DNA studies have shown that pelicans can be grouped into three branches: Old World (spot-billed, pink-backed, and Australian pelicans), New World (brown, American White, and Peruvian); and the Great White. The American white is restricted to interior parts of Canada; the brown pelican is found along the western coast and Florida coasts of the United States and northern South America. The Peruvian pelican clings to the Pacific coastlines of Peru and Chile. They are fish eaters that thrive near rivers, lakes, deltas, and estuaries; some are confined to coastal regions while others range near large interior lakes.   Diet and Behavior   All pelicans eat fish, and they hunt for them singly or in groups. They scoop up fish in their beaks and then drain the water from their pouches before swallowing their prey- which is when gulls and terns attempt to steal the fish from their beaks. They can also dive into the water at great speed to capture their prey. Some of the pelicans migrate large distances, others are mostly sedentary.   Pelicans are social creatures who nest in colonies, sometimes as many as thousands of pairs. The largest of the species- the largest ones, Great White, American White, Australian, and Dalmation- build nests on the ground while the smaller ones nest in trees or shrubs or on cliff ledges. The nests vary in size and complexity.   Pelicans Diving for fish. Jean-Yves Bruel / Getty Images Reproduction and Offspring   Pelican breeding schedules vary with the species. Breeding may occur annually or every two years; some occur in specific seasons or occur year round. The eggs vary in coloration by species from chalky white to reddish to pale green or blue. Mother pelicans lay eggs in clutches that vary with the species, from one to six at once; and the eggs incubate for a period between 24 and 57 days.   Both parents take a role in feeding and tending the chicks, feeding them regurgitated fish. Many of the species have post-fledgling care that can last as long as 18 months. Pelicans take between three and five years to reach sexual maturity.   Pink-backed Pelican (Pelecanus rufescens) can be found in Okavango Delta, Botswana. Dave Hamman / Getty Images Conservation Status   The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) considers most pelican species of least concern. Population estimates are available for two near-threatened species: In 2018, the spot-billed pelican was estimated by the IUCN as between 8700 and 12,000 individuals), and the Dalmatian pelican at between 11,400 and13,400. Currently, the American white and Peruvian are known to be increasing in population while the spot-billed and Dalmatian are decreasing, and the Australian and pink-backed are stable. The Great White Pelican has not been counted recently. Although brown pelicans were listed as endangered during the 1970s and 1980s because of pesticides that had entered their food chains, the populations have recovered and they are no longer considered endangered. Evolutionary History The eight living pelicans belong to the order Pelecaniformes. Members of the Order Pelecaniformes include pelicans, tropicbirds, boobies, darters, gannets, cormorants, and frigate birds. There are six families and about 65 species in the Order Pelecaniformes. Early Pelecaniformes appeared during the end of the Cretaceous period. There is some controversy whether or not Pelecaniformes all share common descent. Recent studies suggest that some shared characteristics among the various pelecaniform subgroups are the result of convergent evolution. Sources Brown pelican. National Wildlife Federation, Wildlife Guide, Birds.Pelicans. IUCN Red List.  Kennedy, Martyn, Hamish G. Spencer, and Russell D. Gray. Hop, Step and Gape: Do the Social Displays of the Pelecaniformes Reflect Phylogeny? Animal Behaviour 51.2 (1996): 273-91. Print.Kennedy, Martyn, et al. The Phylogenetic Relationships of the Extant Pelicans Inferred from DNA Sequence Data. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 66.1 (2013): 215-22. Print.Patterson, S.A., J.A. Morris-Pocock, and V. L. Friesen. A Multilocus Phylogeny of the Sulidae (Aves: Pelecaniformes). Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 58.2 (2011): 181-91. Print.