Employee relations in the public sector have generally been conflict Essay

Employee relations in the public sector have generally been conflict ridden for some time. Discuss the reasons for this and what - Essay Example Privatization, organizational changes, and subsequent withdrawal of trade unions from the public sector further complicate the situation. Conflicts between employees and public sector employers reflect the growing complexity of their relations and reduced role of the trade union support in collective bargaining issues. Given that relatively little is known about public sector employee behaviors and their decisions, a deeper analysis of their conflicts and situations needs to be performed. The development of partnerships between public sector employees and trade unions, and the use of integrative management approaches to organizational change must guarantee active involvement of the public sector employees in the processes and decisions that influence the terms and conditions of their workplace performance. Employment relations in the public sector: Conflicts and underlying reasons That employee relations in public sector have been conflict ridden for some time is a well-known fact. C averley, Cunningham and Mitchell (2006) are correct in that any conflicts in employee relations illustrate and expose a wide range of difficulties, many of which reflect employee resistance to organizational and other changes in work. Such resistance is relevant for all public sector employees, irrespective of the issues and conflicts that affect their performance. The latter may range from a disagreement over benefits and pays to the issues in scheduling in the workplace (Caverley, Cunningham & Mitchell 2006). In these situations, different parties take different positions and argue, make concessions, and reach a consensus (Caverley, Cunningham & Mitchell 2006). Unfortunately, public sector employees often fail to achieve such an agreement with their employees and external parties. For this reason, conflicts are becoming a definitive feature of employment relations in the public sector. The reasons of such conflicts are numerous and varied. Objectively, that the relations between e mployees and employers in the public sector are characterized by a number of peculiar features. First, the state is no longer a silent, neutral representative of the public employee interest but exemplifies a self-interested party in the employee relations field (Beaumont 1992). Second, the state is no longer a mechanism of reacting to the civil society pressures but an autonomous organism, which becomes even more autonomous during the major economic shakes (Beaumont 1992). Third, the growing autonomy of the state is directly associated with increased probability of inter-role conflicts in the public sector, when employees and employers either fail to understand or are not willing to accept the distribution of functions proposed by the state (Beaumont 1992). Ultimately, these are governments’ macroeconomic decisions and policies that usually lead to the growing discontent in public sector employees – therefore, political environment has far-reaching implications for th e quality and stability of industrial relationships in the public sector (Beaumont 1992). In the 20th century, the state in Great Britain used to be the principal provider and, simultaneously, the key employer in numerous public sectors, including health, education, and social services (Prowse & Prowse 2007). As a result, the state was also the key player in the development of

Trends in Workplace Essay Example for Free

Trends in Workplace Essay The ancient Chinese saying May you live in interesting times has perhaps never been more relevant. As the 1990s draw to a close and the new millennium fast approaches, life is phenomenally interestingand demanding. Professionals who are responsible for workplace learning and performance improvement are squarely in the center of the swirl of exciting possibilitiesand requirementsthat are emerging. The inextricable link between rapid technological change and the emergence of the global economy has created the necessity for profound change in the way people and organizations work. As a result, workplace learning is arguably more strategic to the competitive advantage of both individuals and employers than at any point in all of recorded history. So its a great time to be in this profession. But along with the tremendous opportunity that this period of economic history has brought come unprecedented requirements and responsibilities. The same technological advances that are behind the rapid emergence of a truly global economy are forever changing both the demand for and supply of workplace learning opportunities. This article is the third of ASTDs annual reports that identify major trends that are affecting the field of workplace learning and performance improvement. The underlying trends that were identified in the first two of these articles (see the November 1996 and 1997 issues of Training Development) are longstanding and not likely to change in the near term. Four particularly noteworthy demand-side developments are the growing effort given to managing knowledge, the integration of learning and communication functions, a resurgence of interest in leadership development and executive coaching, and the intensifying requirement among employees that career development become an integral part of their employment relationship. The supply-side developments to follow are those that hold the potential for revolutionizing the way in which work and learning occur: the Internet, intelligent tutoring systems, learning objects, and voice recognition. Two important developments in the marketplace for workplace learning, where supply meets demand, are the ongoing consolidation within the supplier community and the creation of an electronic marketplace where buyers and sellers of learning products and tools can meet virtually. Demand and supplypowerful, global forces that  cannot be escaped but that can be harnessed to your advantage. So read on for a glimpse of what the world holds in store for you as the new year and the new millennium unfold. And as you read, keep in mind another old sayingforewarned is forearmed. The demand for workplace learning and performance improvement Periods of rapid change create a premium on learningfor both individuals and organizations. Prosperity and growth are the rewards for those who are the fastest at learning and putting their learning into action; stagnation and decline are the penalties for delay. In an era when it is knowledge rather than physical assets that increasingly defines competitive advantage, the process of managing knowledge becomes a central part of the learning process. Knowledge management. According to some observers, the industrial eras successorthe information age, in which white-collar jobs exceeded blue-collar jobs and entire industries arose just to help companies manage and process informationis already at or past the midpoint of its life cycle. The ever-declining cost of processing information has made it universally available. Indeed, information has become a commodity that is readily bought and sold. As a result, it is no longer enough to define competitive advantage. Gone are the days, for example, when banks could compete exclusively on the basis of which had the fastest information technology or which could slice and dice their account information in more ways than anyone else. Hence, the rapidly growing interest in knowledge as the new source of competitive advantage and the realization that we have now entered a new erathe knowledge era. In many ways, this is nothing new at all. A firms knowledgethe brains of its employees, their know-how, the processes a nd customer knowledge that they createhas always been a source of competitive advantage. And by extension, so too has been knowledge managementthe processes by which a firm creates and leverages knowledge. Whatis unique about the knowledge era is that knowledge is becoming the primary source of competitive advantage within a growing number of industries. Organizations from industrial-era industries, such as automobile manufacturing, to information-age industries such as consulting are recognizing that they each have a unique storehouse  of knowledge, and that the future belongs to those that can grow their knowledge fastest and then apply and use it best. With the benefit of hindsight, it is apparent that in the knowledge era, creating and leveraging knowledge is the business of business. By all available measures, the stock market is already providing handsome rewards to companies that successfully leverage their knowledgea phenomenon that will almost surely grow in significance as knowledge-based organizations increase in size and number. A number of firms are anticipating this and looking to knowledge management to enhance, measure, and manage the knowledge of their employees and organizations more effectively. Why manage knowledge? There are a variety of reasons for the emergence of knowledge management as a real business concern. Among them is the messy transition from industrial-based production and work systems to information-based systems, which rendered many functions and people obsolete. Though downsizing seemed to be the answer of the 1980s, this butchers knife approach often resulted in the loss of valuable knowledge rather than the financial gains that firms expected. Knowledge management offers, instead, a surgeons scalpel that sharpens and refines the value of people and what they know. Certainly, the exponential growth of information technology and the plummeting cost of information processing also helped by laying the technological foundation for the emergence of knowledge management. A necessary, but in no way sufficient, part of most knowledge management efforts is a set of technologies for capturing and synthesizing information from which knowledge can be created and sharedtechnologies such as intranets, Lotus Notes, electronic performance support systems, and specialized software. These technologies provide not only wide and instantaneous access to information by people inside and outside firms who previously lacked such access, but also to the contextual cues that transform information into knowledge. Results from one of the first benchmarking studies on knowledge management, by the American Productivity and Quality Center, suggest several other reasons for its rise, including †¢ the need to capture what employees learn through customer contact. Empowered employees who had no way of sharing new solutions or innovations. †¢ internal and external benchmarking as a way of finding best practices  Ã¢â‚¬ ¢ increasingly global and geographically dispersed operations †¢ customers seeking firms who leverage knowledge to meet their needs †¢ the rise of knowledge work and increased need for collaboration †¢ the need for increased responsiveness and shorter cycle times. What exactly is knowledge management? Like the fable of the blind men and the elephant, what knowledge management means to people depends on which part they are touching. For many, knowledge management is simply a more contemporary label for what they have already been doing under the rubric of information management, total quality management, training, the learning organization, electronic libraries, and so on. Adding further confusion is that some cast the knowledge management net more widely than others. Karl Erik Sveiby, an early advocate of knowledge management, views it as the art of creating value from an organizations intangible assets. For others, knowledge management is confined to the management of the codified, formalized, explicit forms of knowledge such as repositories of lessons learned, documents, databases, and company yellow pages, rather than all intangible assets. In their book Creating the Knowledge-Based Business, David Skyrme and Debra Amidon define knowledge management as the explicit and systematic management of vital knowledge and its associated processes of creating, gathering, organizing, diffusion, use, and exploitation. Perhaps the best way to understand knowledge management is to take a closer look at some examples of what companies actually do when they make knowledge management a priority. In a now classic study, Tom Davenport, along with Mike Beers and Dave DeLong, of Ernst Young found that knowledge management initiatives tend to fall into one of several categories, including †¢ creating and storing knowledge in repositories †¢ measuring the financial value of knowledge †¢ facilitating the transfer of knowledge †¢ creating a knowledge-sharing environment. The most common initiativebuilding knowledge repositoriesis intended to take some form of knowledge that has been extracted from peoples heads and store it in an information system for later access. For example, Hewlett Packard and Sequent Computer both have systems that store sales-oriented documentswhite papers, presentations, marketing collateralfor access by  their field salesforces in selling computers. Other knowledge repositories are less structured, consisting of the insights and observations of employees, sometimes called discussion databases or lessons-learned systems. Some repositories do not hold the knowledge itself, but point to those who have knowledge. Hewlett Packard, for instance, has expert repositories for researchers in its HP Laboratories and Corporate Education groups. A number of firms have undertaken initiatives to measure and manage the economic value of their knowledge. Two of the most widely known firms that have focused on value are Skandia and Dow Chemical. Skandia, the Swedish insurance company whose focus on intellectual capital is perhaps the most widely known, primarily addresses the measurement of value. Dow focuses more on the management of value by harvesting little-used patent and license assets. Many firms have knowledge transfer, the third type of initiative, as their primary objectiveeither through technology or human means. BP Exploration has built a desktop videoconferencing system to enable workers at remote exploration sites to exchange their knowledge with each other. UNISYS relies upon virtual team rooms to allow members of a particular project team to share files and communicate on a regular basis. Yet, other initiatives do not address any specific knowledge domain, but rather try to improve the overall knowledge environment by fostering an appreciation for knowledge and a culture of sharing. These projects may focus specifically on the reward systems for evaluating knowledge generation, sharing, or use. Given the fact that much of the interest in knowledge management has come about because of advances in information technology, it should come as no surprise that most of the initiatives falling into the just-described categories are centered around the introduction or use of information technology. A survey by the Ernst Young Center for Business Innovation found, for instance, that technology-centered efforts dominated the specific knowledge management projects of the 431 U.S. and European organizations that participated (see the table). The same survey found that information technology (IT) departments were twice as likely to lead knowledge management projects as any other pa rt of the organization. Knowledge management roles. Companies going down the knowledge management road, even after just a few timid steps, find that it wont happen on its own. Sure, knowledge has been gathered and shared as long as people have been able to communicate, but leveraging knowledge for business success requires that someone have explicit responsibility for making sure it happens and happens well. Hence the rise of the chief knowledge officer (CKO), director of intellectual capital, and chief learning officer (CLO). Though responsibilities may vary from firm to firm, this new executive-level position is typically charged with organizing, capturing, and distributing the organizations knowledge. Some of the most widely known people with titles such as these include CLO Steve Kerr of General Electric (GE), CKOs John Peetz of Ernst Young and Judith Rosenblum of Coca-Cola, and Leif Edvinsson, director of intellectual capital for Skandia. One estimate suggests there may be more than 250 firms in the United States with positions such as these. However, the jury is still out on the value of CKOs, CLOs, and the like. Though slightly more than half of the participants in Ernst Youngs survey said that a CKO could be valuable for their organization, only about 28 percent said that establishing new knowledge roles would make sense for their organization. Regardless of whether knowledge management is given a seat of its own in the boardroom, large firms especially discover quickly a need for a host of knowledge managers. The knowledge management roles for managing Pricewaterhouse Cooperss intranet KnowledgeCurve and its 150 Lotus Notes servers in the United States is an excellent example. More than 100 people in the firms knowledge management organization report to Ellen Knapp, its CKO. This number does not include the owner, moderator, and administrator of each discussion group or her power user council of more than 200 KnowledgeCurve champions in PricewaterhouseCoopers. These positions are critical for capturing the best knowledge in the organization, ensuring the quality of knowledge, and supporting the smooth operation of the entire system. No one said it would be easy No matter what knowledge management projects organizations undertake or how they support them, we already know that road is paved with obstacles and  fraught with complexity. Ernst Youngs survey reveals that the top four difficulties most organizations are likely to face fall into the areas of culture, measurement, quality, and money (see the table below). Overcoming technological limitations, by contrast, came in nearly last (15 percent). Larry Prusak of the IBM Consulting Group warns, When it comes to successfully managing knowledge, culture trumps all other factors. Some organizations are fortunate to have had a knowledge-sharing culture before beginning to formalize their knowledge management. These firms, typically high-tech or knowledge-driven organizations, according to Davenport and Prusak in their book Working Knowledge, have the advantage that they already attract and hire employees who sought and applied knowledge while in school. Other organizations, however, must cultivate such a culture by providing an  environment that encourages and rewards the sharing and use of knowledge. People must be given the time and opportunity to share and then be reassured that their contributions will be recognized. Perhaps the most critical condition for overcoming a culture in which knowledge is seen as power is senior management support for knowledge management. Robert Buckman, CEO of Buckman Laboratories, puts it moresuccinctly: Frankly, I do not think you can have a successful knowledge project without that proactive entrepreneurial support from the top. Other firms find success by building their knowledge management efforts off of groups or parts of the organization that already share knowledge. Is knowledge management a passing fad? Today, it does seem that there is more talk than action. Thomas Stewart, the Fortune magazine writer who first called the business worlds attention to the importance of peoples brainpower, warns that knowledge management has the potential for becoming a fad solely because of the money to be made from the information technology tools that frequently support it. But the forces behind its emergence are real and fundamental, and likely to continue. One thing is certain: Managing knowledge is not a well-defined process. There are many questions that remain unanswered. What knowledge should you keep and what should you toss away? How do you capture the knowledge of chance hallway conversations? How do you avoid the perception that having the latest, best hardware or software equates to managing knowledge? How do you make tacit knowledge explicit? On the other hand, the potential benefits are enormous. Those firms who answer those questions will benefit from knowledge management by †¢ increasing the amount of learning that takes place †¢ making work less frustrating and onerous †¢ making the promise of the learning organization a reality †¢ creating knowledge, insight, and understanding that can help people in their lives outside of work. All of which will be essential to competing in the knowledge era. Learning and employee communications The business imperative to accelerate organizational learning has created new functions within organizations to speed up the process of creating, capturing, and disseminating information and knowledge. The same forces that are creating a focus on knowledge management are causing firms to combine their learning and communications strategies. As training moves to learning, more and more organizations are looking to foster a learning environment to piggyback on training or to create an architecture in which learning, both formal and informal, is ongoing and consistent. As a relatively young company, Qualcomm (founded in 1985), a San Diego-based wireless communications company, did not have an internal communications department. So when the director of the learning department, Tamar Elkeles, decided she needed to better communicate Qualcomms learning and training initiatives to employees, she created a subdepartment within the learning department, called employee communications. Different from corporate communications, which is located at the headquarters facility and focuses on external public  relations, employee communications informs employees about more than just training events; this group has assumed responsibility for communicating the companys training and learning philosophy, as well as its culture and values. The use of the companys intranet Website for information exchange, as well as for more formal distance learning, has been an essential tool in Qualcomms employee communications efforts. Employee communications has been a part of Silicon Graphicss learning and development department for some time. Drew Banks, manager of integrated performance support at SGI, believes that intranet-based distribution of information was the catalyst that made combining learning and development with employee communications work. But he thinks that the underpinning philosophy that drives it is the view that organizational communication and learning are both on t he same continuum. Lars Thykier, director of training at Scandinavian Airlines System, agrees: The border between training/learning and internal communications is increasingly difficult to draw. And, he continues, There is increasing awareness that internal communications are also learning activities, meaning that there is a need for closer ties between the two strategies. If a corporate learning department is set up for broad-based corporate learning (not just skill-based training), says Banks, then this combination can make sense. In fact, he says, it is one of the four logical placements of an employee communications department (as shown in table). The placement of employee communications within an organization should depend on which goal is more difficult to achieve without an organizational linkage. For example, in a command-and-control culture, the first option in the table is best. Additionally, says Banks, any one of these goals could be more critical than the others depending on where the comp any is in its life cycle. This would mean that the organizational placement of employee communications could change over time. The increasing overlap of learning and employee communications within organizations originates from the need of an organization to link its functional silos, says Michele Miller, director of knowledge, strategy, and facilitation at Arthur Andersen. Much like the trend toward combining learning and performance consulting, organizations are melding learning and internal employee communications. Although many organizations have recognized this need, says Miller, they are taking different approaches to address it. Some organizations, for instance, have  located the employee communications department under the training department umbrella. Other organizations, like Arthur Andersen, are looking at creating stronger partnerships with broad-based groups that may have organizational responsibility for the knowledge and communications areas. This has resulted from the blurring of distinctions among communications, knowledge, and learning and from the increased importance of a holistic approach to address their different dimensions. The desire to move learning from discrete interventions to a complete learning environment appears to be pushing the integration of the learning and employee communications departments. Knowledge management, formal and informal learning, performance improvement, and intellectual capital enhancement appear to form the basis for this push, as well as a desire to help employees better understand their organizations vision, mission, culture, and values. No longer content to work within the constraints of functional silos, learning directors have begun to take a more systemic view of informing and developing employees through the creation of their own, or integration with existing, employee communications departments.

Project Managers Are They Born Or Made Management Essay

Project Managers Are They Born Or Made Management Essay Can a person be born to undertake a specific role in life or are they moulded by both training and their experiences in life. This paper examines whether Project Managers have the innate skills to be a success or if they like many other professionals require training to become proficient in their chosen career. This paper will also examine whether there are particular personality traits that are required in order to be a successful Project Manager. With this information, organisations would then be in a better position to ascertain whether particular individuals are either suited or not to the role of a Project Manager and thereby ensuring that their Project Managers can bring projects to a successful conclusion. Introduction Dittman et al.,2004 use the Apollo 13 incident to illustrate the skills of a Project Manager. Gene Krantz, was the flight director of the Apollo 13 mission to the moon. With systems failing, a lack of power and a dwindling supply of oxygen he led his team to discover solutions against almost impossible odds. Krantz exhibited the characteristics and personality traits of a superstar Project Manager by leading his team to achieve a common goal of ensuring the safe return of the aircraft and the lives of the astronauts and in this instance the team could easily have resigned themselves to their fate or made an error in judgement (Dittman et al.,2004). However the team and its project leader relied on both their training and their instincts to ensure the safe return of the aircraft. It can be seen from this instance that the team leader instilled the thought into all of his team members that failure was not an option. This is an extreme example of the skills required of a Project Manager , but it asks the question were Gene Krantzs actions the product of training and experience or were they innate in his personality. With the rapid advances currently being made in information technology there has now become an increased need for Project Managers within the IT industry. The scale and number of projects has increased thereby increasing the risk associated with these projects. With this in mind the choosing of project managers with the required skills to ensure the successful completion of projects has become critical and organisations have recognized that the choosing of the right individual to lead a project can have a significant bearing on the success of the organisation. As can be seen above in the Apollo 13 example the role of the project leader was crucial to the success of the project. This paper will look at the necessary skills required to be an effective manager and whether these skills are inherent or whether they can be taught (Dittman et al.,2004). 1.0 Leadership Styles Studies have shown that there are primarily six main schools of leadership theory (Dulewicz Higgs, 2003;Handy, 1982; Partington, 2003) and these are as follows: 1. The Trait school 2. The Behavioural or Style school 3. The Contingency school 4. The Visionary or Charismatic school 5. The Emotional Intelligence School 6. The Competency school. 1.1 The Trait School This approach was popular up to the 1940s with the main idea being that effective leaders share common traits. This school of thought assumes that leaders are born, not made. The supporters of this school in attempting to identify the traits of effective leaders have focused on the following three main areas: à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Abilities: hard management skills such as Time Management, Forecasting and Procurement à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Personality: such as self-confidence and emotional variables à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Physical appearance: Project Managers appearance and physical size Through his work at Henley Management College, Turner (1999) identified seven traits of effective project managers: à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Problem-solving ability à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Results orientation à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Energy and initiative à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Self-confidence à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Perspective à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Communication à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Negotiating ability. Turners identification of the above traits concentrate on the softer skills of Project Management with only the trait of Problem Solving being one that could possibly be taught and the others being skills of a nature more specific to an individual. 1.2 The Behavioural or Style School The behavioural or style school became popular from the 1940s to the 1960s. This school assumed that effective leaders would adopt certain styles or behaviours. This schools theory assumed, that effective leaders can be made and that the parameters include the following: 1. Concern for people or relationships 2. Concern for production 3. Use of authority 4. Involvement of the team in decision-making (formulating decisions) 5. Involvement of the team in decision-taking (choosing options) 6. Flexibility versus the application of rules. Parameter Blake and 1.3 The Contingency School The contingency school came into being during the 1960s and 1970s (Fiedler, 1967; House, 1971; Krech, et al., 1962; Robbins, 1997). Rather than seeking all encompassing theories of leadership that would apply in all situations, contingency theories suggested that what made an effective leader would depend on the situation that the leaders found themselves in. The supporters of this school had a tendency to follow similar patterns: 1. An assessment of the characteristics of the leader 2. An evaluation of the situation in terms of certain key contingency variables 3. The seeking of a match between the leader and the situation. One contingency theory that has proven popular is path-goal theory (House, 1971). The idea is the leader must help the team find the path to their goals and help them in that process. This theory identifies four distinct leadership behaviours: à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Directive leaders à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Supportive leaders à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Participative leaders à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Achievement-oriented leaders. These must then be matched to environmental and subordinate contingency factors: à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Environmental factors: Task structure Formal authority system Work group. à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Subordinate factors: Locus of control Experience Perceived ability. 1.4 The Visionary or Charismatic School During the 1980s and 1990s, the visionary or charismatic school arose from the study of successful business leaders who were leading their organizations through change. Bass (1990) identified two types of leadership, transactional and transformational: Transactional leadership: This form of leadership rewards followers for meeting performance targets and managing by exception by taking action when tasks have not been undertaken in accordance with what was predicted 1.4.2 Transformational leadership: A Project Manager who displays this form of leadership would be charismatic, visionary and would engender pride, respect and trust. They would also provide motivation by creating high expectations, providing intellectual stimulation and challenging their team members with fresh ideas and approaches. They would also give consideration to individuals by showing them respect and paying personal attention to them. From a project management perspective, Keegan and den Hartog (2004) believed that a project managers leadership style needed to be more transformational than transactional, but did not find any evidence to confirm this. What they were able to conclude was that although there is a significant correlation between the managers leadership style and employees commitment and motivation, there does not exist a similar correlation for project managers. 1.4 The Emotional Intelligence School The emotional intelligence school has flourished since the late 1990s, and espouses the view that the leaders emotional intelligence has a greater impact on his or her success and the performance of his or her team than does the leaders intellectual capability (Goleman, Boyatzis, McKee, 2002). They identified six leadership styles: à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Visionary à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Democratic à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Coaching à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Pacesetting à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Affiliative à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Commanding. Goleman, Boyatzis, and McKee (2002) say that the first four of these styles will engender a sense of teamwork, and usually lead to better performance in appropriate circumstances. They also stated that the last two styles can encourage dissonance, so these last two styles need to be used with care. Goleman, Boyatzis, and McKee, as well as other authors, have shown a clear correlation between the emotional intelligence and leadership style of managers and the performance of their organizations. 1.5 The Competency School The competency school of the 1990s has placed an emphasis on the competencies of effective leaders and seeks to identify them. This according to Turner et al. 2005 when taken at face value may appear to be a return to the trait approach. However, they also state that competencies can be learned, so leaders can be made, not just born. Further, different combinations of competencies can lead to different styles of leadership which can be appropriate in different circumstances thereby producing transactional leaders in situations of low complexity and transformational leaders in situations of high complexity (Turner et al., 2005). 2.0 Skills of a Project Manager A good project manager should have the knowledge and skills necessary to perform their job. A project manager can be defined as the person responsible for working with the project sponsor, the project team, and the other people involved in a project to meet project goals (Schwalbe, 2004). To become an IT project manager requires knowledge in the core skills such as time management, risk management, scope management, cost budgeting, and knowledge of IT systems (Dittman et al., 2004). They also stated that a project manager must have skills in addition to the basics of project management to succeed and that the skills required are the soft skills that have to do with getting things that you want done and adjudicating issues between people, managers, egos and agendas. Its basically how to get a job done without annoying people (Melymuka, 2000). These soft skills can include basic leadership and team building abilities that are needed for the team to complete the designated project and t he basic business skills that are necessary for a project manager to be successful in the IT world (Dittman et al., 2004). They also concluded that these could include the ability to communicate into measurable results, utilize financial skills to keep the project cost effective, and identify and predict trends in the project. The ability to communicate effectively is a pre-requisite in project management and it is essential for project managers to have the capacity to listen and understand the people on their project team as well as the customers of their project and by doing so, expectations and feedback can be easily passed on to the team and it will be easier to solve problems and complete tasks within the project (Dittman et al., 2004).. Dennis Johnson, an Assistant vice President at USAA stated that A project manager needs the ability to question without alienating to listen and watch peoples body language and really see whats happening (Melymuka, 2000) and this skill will enable a project manager to step away from a project and view issues from a different perspective. This subsequently enables a project manager to better communicate his ideas and plans with the team and also with his superiors within the organization. Relationship management is a skill that is important to have While managing projects a project manager should be capable of working with all levels within the organization and relationship management is an important skill to either inherently have or to learn. Relationship management can also include identifying the unique characteristics and abilities of each individual on the team and determine the most effective way to utilize them throughout the project (Dittman et al., 2004). A project manager will also need to know how to mobilize and coach the people on their team and establish trust within the project team. The project manager and the team must develop a level of trust and comfort with each other in single-minded pursuit of project goals (Kharbanda, 2003). This is based on the premise that project managers should be able to build and sustain relationships within their project team and throughout all levels of their organization. There are many skills a project manager may have that are argued to be ingrained in the human spirit, the largest of these being the ability to influence others (Dittman et al., 2004). Linda Pittinger, CEO of People3, states Its hard to find people who can influence others and create win-win situations (Melymuka, 2000). The project manager needs to have the ability to sell the value of the project to other people within the organization and must be able to persuade and influence team members to get their job done well and on time must also have the confidence, credibility, and commitment to overcome the obstacles when faced with the task of running an IT project (Dittman et al., 2004). Without the ability to influence people particularly those who may not be in full support of the project, a project manager will be more likely to fail. The ability to make decisions can be either learned or innate and it has been said that the best decision makers are the most experienced decision makers (Dittman et al., 2004).. As a manager and leader, every step you take required decision making skills. What makes it more challenging is the pressure to make the right decision is often very high (Canterucci, 2003). When faced with having to make the correct decision a Project Manager may often have to base this decision on past experience or pure instinct. Should a project manager be new to the field of project management they will not have accrued sufficient experience to make the correct decision but they will have the ability to judge based on their instinct if those instincts are of a project manager with those innate skills. As can be seen above many of the skills required to be an effective project manager are the softer skills of management and that to a large extent these skills can not generally be taught as they rely on the individuals personality. These softer skills however can be honed through time and experience so to some extent there is a degree of learning. 3.0 Personalities of a Project Manager In order to be an effective project manager a persons character and personality traits will play a key role. Dittman et al. 2004 asked the question Within an IT project management program, can people be really prepared for the trials and tribulations of dealing with people while managing a project? The use of personality tests, such as the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, can assess whether an individual will make a good project manager. By undertaking these assessments, an individual can analyze their personality and connect their personality type with a particular type of career. The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) assessment is incredibly popular for doing just this. The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) is an assessment technique that gives the participant 4 individual letters that are designed to match their personality type. This classification is set out below: Extrovert v. Introvert, Sensing v. Intuitive, Thinking v. Feeling, and Judging v. Perceiving. The research database shows that leaders mostly fall into the ENTJ category (extrovert, intuitive, thinking, and judging). ENTJs are especially well-suited to be leaders and organization builders. They have the ability to clearly identify problems and innovative solutions for the short and long term well-being of an organization(BSM Consulting, 2000). A project manager would generally fall into the category of ESTJ. They are good at a lot of different things, because they put forth a tremendous amount of effort towards doing things the right way. They will be happiest in leadership positions, however, because they have a natural drive to be in charge. They are best suited for jobs which require creating order and structure (BSM Consulting, 2000). The Keirsey Temperament Sorter is another technique that can also be used to determine personal characteristics and aid people gain new understanding of their traits, motivations, and behaviours (AdvisorTeam, 2003). The temperament sorter is an assessment to analyze one specific aspect of ones personality: temperament. Temperament is a set of inclinations that each of us is born with, its a predisposition to certain attitudes and actions (AdvisorTeam, 2003). The four temperaments that people will fall into are artisans, guardians, idealists, and rationals. These groupings have the following characteristics: 1 Artisans value freedom and spontaneity. They want to be without constraint, at liberty to act on their impulses, play and create. Guardians value belonging to a group or community. They maintain stability through responsible, conservative, traditional behaviour. Idealists value personal growth, authenticity, and integrity. They yearn to develop themselves fully as individuals and to facilitate growth in others. Rationals value competence and intelligence. They strive to learn, know, predict, and control the resources in their environment. It has been shown through research that project managers and leaders will most likely fall into the category of either Rational or Guardian (Dittman et al., 2004). A Rational tends to be pragmatic and organized. Their organizational and coordinating skills tends to be highly developed, which means that they are likely to be good at systematizing, ordering priorities, generalizing, summarizing, and at demonstrating their ideas (Prometheus Nemesis, 1998). Guardians tend to be very specific in their communication and reliable when it comes to completing tasks. They also are very cooperative with implementing goals and good at supervision and protecting their subordinates. The Supervisor Guardian is the type of that most fits the personality of the project manager. Supervisor Guardians go by experience, not speculation and experimentation, and certainly not fantasy. They keep their feet firmly on the ground and make sure that those under their supervision do the same (Prometheus Nemesis, 1998). The personality assessments described above are good tools to examine an individuals personality type and compare it to that of the typical project manager career. Each assessment can be used separately or they can be used in conjunction to get the best results. Using these evaluations, it can be shown whether a person has the requisite skills to be a good project manager, and decisions can be made whether to put them in that role, whether they would need further training to be successful in the project manager role, or whether they would be best placed in a different career altogether. 4.0 Conclusion As can be seen an individuals personality can be measured or assessed using the techniques detailed above. These techniques enable organisations to eliminate individuals rather than select individuals as project managers. The methodology behind these techniques would indicate that project managers are born rather than made as the characteristics used to describe individuals are those of an innate nature rather than a derived or coached one. However on the other side of the equation the technical skills required by a Project Manager can be learned and need not necessarily be inherent in the individual. So it could also be concluded that a project manager can be made through learning alone. The leadership style theories above look at the science or art of project management depending on the school to which an individual ascribes to. If an individual is of the viewpoint that Project Managers are born with the innate capabilities to be a project manager then Project Managers have to be viewed as artists. However if the conclusion is that project managers can be taught and trained then they should possibly be viewed as scientists. These can be viewed as two conflicting views with those of a scientific inclination believing that project managers are made and those of a more artistic inclination believing that they are born. From the research undertaken above there is no definitive answer to this question. In the case of Project Management, where there are so many human variables there can be no comprehensive training course that will detail a case study for every given scenario. This would indicate that Project Managers can be and are made but that the best and most effective Project Managers are born.

Computer Crime In The 1990s :: essays research papers

Computer Crime In The 1990's We're being ushered into the digital frontier. It's a cyberland with incredible promise and untold dangers. Are we prepared ? It's a battle between modern day computer cops and digital hackers. Essentially just think what is controlled by computer systems, virtually everything. By programming a telephone voice mail to repeat the word yes over and over again a hacker has beaten the system. The hacker of the 1990's is increasingly becoming more organized very clear in what they're looking for and very, very sophisticated in their methods of attack.. As hackers have become more sophisticated and more destructive, governments, phone companies and businesses are struggling to defend themselves. Phone Fraud In North America the telecommunications industry estimates long distance fraud costs five hundred million perhaps up to a billion every year, the exact the exact figures are hard to be sure of but in North America alone phone fraud committed by computer hackers costs three, four maybe even up to five billion dollars every year. Making an unwitting company pay for long distance calls is the most popular form of phone fraud today. The first step is to gain access to a private automated branch exchange known as a "PABX" or "PBX". One of these can be found in any company with twenty or more employees. A "PABX" is a computer that manages the phone system including it's voice mail. Once inside a "PABX" a hacker looks for a phone whose voice mail has not yet been programmed, then the hacker cracks it's access code and programs it's voice mail account to accept charges for long distance calls, until the authorities catch on, not for a few days, hackers can use voice mail accounts to make free and untraceablecalls to all over the world. The hackers that commit this type of crime are becoming increasingly organized. Known as "call cell operators" they setup flyby night storefronts were people off the street can come in and make long distance calls at a large discount, for the call cell operators of course the calls cost nothing, by hacking into a PABX system they can put all the charges on the victimized companies tab. With a set of stolen voice mail access codes known as "good numbers" hackers can crack into any phone whenever a company disables the phone they're using. In some cases call cell operators have run up hundreds of thousands of dollars in long distance charges, driving businesses and companies straight into bankruptcy. Hacking into a PABX is not as complicated as some people seem to think.

Cenralistaion vs Decentalisation

The main decisions are made by senior management, where little authority is passed down the organisation. advantages †¢ decisions are made by experienced people with an overview of the company. †¢ ensures policies are consistent throughout the company. †¢ ensures quick decisions can be made without consultation. †¢ procedures such as ordering and purchasing can be standardised throughout the company, leading to economies of scale. †¢ in times of crisis the firm may need strong leadership by a central group of senior managers. disadvantages (mainly advantages of decentralisation) centralisation reduces the input of the day to day experts, e. g. , the shop floor staff, into the firms decision making. †¢ it risks demoralising branch managers who may feel mistrusted or powerless. Decentralisation Decisions are made by junior management as authority is passed down the organisation, thereby accepting less uniformity in how things are down. There has been a trend in the 1980s and 1990s is to decentralise to provide greater flexibility. advantages †¢ reduces the stress and burdens of senior management †¢ it can empower local managers encouraging them to be more innovated and motivated. it reduces the volume of day to day communication between head office and the branches, therefore giving senior managers the time to consider long term strategy. †¢ subordinates may have a better knowledge of local conditions affecting their areas of work. This should allow them to make more informed well judged choices, e. g. , salespersons have detailed knowledge of customers. †¢ management at middle and junior levels are groomed to take over higher positions. They are given the experience of decision making when carrying out delegated tasks (management development). could allow greater flexibility and a quicker response to changes. If problems do not have to referred to senior management decision making will be quicker. Since decisions are quicker, they are easier to change in the light of unforeseen circumstances. disadvantages †¢ reduction in uniformity may unsettle customers who expect every Sainsbury’s to look the same or for every McDonald’s hamburger to contain just one slice of gherkin. †¢ head office is in a position to measure the success of every aspect of the product and sales mix, therefore its instructions may prove more profitable than local manager’s intuition. Conclusion It is unlikely there will ever be complete centralisation or decentralisation. Certain functions within a business will always be centralised because of their importance, e. g. , decisions about budget allocation are likely to be centralised as they affect the whole economy. The decision to distribute profits is also taken only by a few. Some delegation is necessary in all firms because the limits to the amount of work senior management can carry out. Even if authority is delegated to a subordinate it is usual for the manager to retain responsibility.

Race and Racism Essay

In comparison to the almighty universe in which people all live in, human beings are merely a speck of dust at the size of it all. Then here are these beings on planet earth, with all 7 billion people under the same moon, divided. No longer are human equals as beings, but separate because of the system of ignorance, exploitation, and power used to oppress people on the basis of ethnicity, culture, mannerisms, and culture (Marable 1). Racism is the issue Americans have swept under the rug; the problem is being ignored, leaving cultures in the dark of their own history causing blame to be shifted on to all sorts of hosts, and it’s time to pick up the rug to dust. Society as a whole seems to have broken down what makes a person unique, dehumanizing them and leaving them susceptible to oppression (Marable 2). One must not be so quick to forget that every single human being is made up of the same genetic material, to forget something so broad is to undermine the gift of thinking itself. Manning Marable writes in Racism and Sexism that stereotypes are at the heart of every form of racism today. Racism is not a topic that sits around at the front of everybody’s brain. Racism does not twist on the tip of your tongue begging to be talked about. Racism is something that is ignored and denied. Shocking statistics from Tim Wise’s On White Privilege were discussed, stating that in 1962, 80% of white folk believed that racism was not even a problem. In the same year, 90% of white folk believed that colored children had equal education opportunities as white children. To believe that racism was not even a problem would be to say that over the 750 race riots 228 people were not actually killed, 12,741 people were not critically injured, and that the 15,000 acts of arson did not leave black urban neighborhoods in ruins, in the same year of 1962 (Postrel). White people are completely unburdened by race; where as colored people constantly feel their capabilities are always being second guessed. However, Charles M. Blow, author of Escaping Slavery, explains to the reader that apparently white people think their actions are justified! And Blow goes as far as to say that â€Å"the idea that progress toward radical harmony would or should be steady and continuous is fraying† (Blow 1). In On White Privilege, the speaker Tim Wise pointed out that white people were asked in 2009 if they believed that racial discrimination is still a problem and only 6% said ‘yes. ’ To put that into perspective: more people would believe that Elvis is still alive than to believe that racial discrimination is still a problem (Wise). Perhaps the density of the universe compromised the carrying capacity of the human brain causing a malfunction making it so the only thing people can think about is them self. Definitely not progress (Blow 2). The white system of ignorance and exploitations is causing the cultures of color to completely lose track of their own histories (Marable). People who are oppressed themselves begin to lose touch with their own traditions of history, community, love, celebrations, struggle, and change (Marable). Tim Wise reminds viewers whose history we are truly learning in school- text books are filled only with white history; people of color are forced to regurgitate white history, white literature, white art, white theater, etc. , while if a white person does not know an ounce of black history, it can go virtually unnoticed in this country (Wise). Actions speak louder than words and people seem to continue to prove their ignorance. As part of the Civil Rights Movement and an effort to create a solution to unlawful discrimination in housing based on race, color, sex, nation origin, or religion, the Fair Housing Act was passed in 1968 (Russell). Fast forward 38 years later where 2006 showed the highest level of discriminating housing complaints based on race (Wise). 38 whole years later and the only thing society can show on terms of progress is the lack of acceptance being distributed around the country. There is not enough change taking place as a country in order to move forward into truly being the United States of America; home of the Brave but we still fear what we do not know. It is always easier to accuse other forces for a problem than to admit that you are actually making the mess yourself. It has been said that if one is not a part of the solution then one is a part of the problem; however, some people are purely unburdened by race, they don’t know racism because they have never had to experience it- people are completely surrounded by and completely oblivious of the problem. Failure to talk about racism feeds the denial (Wise). The finger can be pointed in any direction, and instead of calling it â€Å"blame† the word â€Å"cause† is used instead because that is more constructive, and let’s face it, we need as much progress as we can get. However, progress seems to be unbearably intangible when Blow points out that the pillars of the institution- the fundamental devaluation of dark skin and stained justifications are for the unconscionable- have proved surprisingly resilient (Blow). The ignorance and lack of education only feeds the pillars’ strength. Completely blinded by utter fear, America seems to be in a standstill of progress towards the issue on racism. Starting with Charles Blow’s work in Escaping Slavery, down to Manning Marable’s Racism and Sexism, and what Tim Wise said in On White Privilege, it can be assumed that progress will always need to be made to bring this country closer to unity. Breaking down racial barriers and stereotypes have proven to be an especially lengthy process, however that does not justify the slothfulness of it all. Open minds and hearts is what it is going to take to shatter the structure that leaves this country divided. Word Count: 1,100 Works Cited Blow, Charles. â€Å"Escaping Slavery. † New York Times 4 January 2013. Marable, Manning. â€Å"Racism and Sexism. † Race, Class, and Gender in the United States, 5th ed. Ed. Paul Rothenberg. New York: Worth Publishers, 2001. 124-129. Pring. Wise, Tim. On White Privilege: Racism, White Denial, and the Costs of Inequality. The Media Education Foundation, 2008. DVD. Postrel, Virginia. â€Å"The Consequences of the 1960’s Race Riots Come Into View. † The New York Times. N. p. , 30 Dec. 2004. Web. 18 Feb. 2013.

Free Essays on The Bride Come to Yellow Sky

In â€Å"The Bride Comes to Yellow Sky† by Stephen Crane, you see the changing of Scratchy Wilson. When he first comes into the story he is depicted as someone who is the village drunk, he is calm most of the time, but every once in a while he gets drunk, and goes looking for a fight, mainly with Jack Potter. At the end of the story he is then greeted by Jack and his new bride and seeing this Scratchy calls off his fights. This goes to show that fulfilling your own life can affect more people then you know, and you have to act accordingly. At the start Scratchy’s fights disrupt the town, and he has a regular bought with Jack. He sees this as alright, and does not seem to be effected by what he does. But at the end when he is trying to pick a fight, he learns that Jack just got married, and he then comes to the realization that he is now going to be ruining his life with her, and calls off their rivalry. As a married man Jack is no longer the town sheriff, he is now a husband, he was no less of a person before this, but it took the marriage to make Scratchy realize it. At the beginning of the story we also see that Jack also has a conflict. He thinks that by bringing his new bride home he is going to ruin his life in the town for a short while. He almost feels ashamed for not getting prior approval of the townsfolk before running off and marrying. But at the end it is actually his wife that gets him approval. By brining her along, Scratchy â€Å"approves† of him, and therefore does not carry out with his intention of a gun fight. So Jack’s fear of acceptance was unfounded at the beginning, but plays a role at the end.... Free Essays on The Bride Come to Yellow Sky Free Essays on The Bride Come to Yellow Sky In â€Å"The Bride Comes to Yellow Sky† by Stephen Crane, you see the changing of Scratchy Wilson. When he first comes into the story he is depicted as someone who is the village drunk, he is calm most of the time, but every once in a while he gets drunk, and goes looking for a fight, mainly with Jack Potter. At the end of the story he is then greeted by Jack and his new bride and seeing this Scratchy calls off his fights. This goes to show that fulfilling your own life can affect more people then you know, and you have to act accordingly. At the start Scratchy’s fights disrupt the town, and he has a regular bought with Jack. He sees this as alright, and does not seem to be effected by what he does. But at the end when he is trying to pick a fight, he learns that Jack just got married, and he then comes to the realization that he is now going to be ruining his life with her, and calls off their rivalry. As a married man Jack is no longer the town sheriff, he is now a husband, he was no less of a person before this, but it took the marriage to make Scratchy realize it. At the beginning of the story we also see that Jack also has a conflict. He thinks that by bringing his new bride home he is going to ruin his life in the town for a short while. He almost feels ashamed for not getting prior approval of the townsfolk before running off and marrying. But at the end it is actually his wife that gets him approval. By brining her along, Scratchy â€Å"approves† of him, and therefore does not carry out with his intention of a gun fight. So Jack’s fear of acceptance was unfounded at the beginning, but plays a role at the end....

More matter with less art Essay Example

More matter with less art Essay Example More matter with less art Paper More matter with less art Paper His prating in this scene can, in some, undoubtedly raise a cynical smile; Polonius is interpreted as a comical character; the fact the Queen demands More matter with less art. is coupled with Polonius artful way of denying hell use it is a prime example of the irony in this scene. He can be therefore viewed as a clownish figure by many audiences. It may be the case, despite the irony displayed in his choice of words, that he is simply afraid of being the purveyor of bad news, especially news he delivers after being wrong about Hamlets madness. But, as we see, after Polonius asks the question What do you think of me?, Claudius answers Of a man faithful and honourable.. If Claudius was to think otherwise, it would be obvious Polonius would not be Secretary of State. Polonius pomposity can be seen in Shakespeares presentation of him in his scene with Reynaldo. He relates to Reynaldo on a high, somewhat elitist level, referring to himself of wisdom and of reach. He may be presented as pompous in the scene with the King and Queen concerning Hamlets madness also; from the prating displayed in an earlier quote he may be interpreted by audience as someone who is showing off his intellect, language skills and deep thought. Despite this, Polonius has not been wrong in the past; he may have the right to be as pompous as he is, because his actions have always been right before, and he thinks they will be now. It is also arguable that Shakespeare presents Polonius in his dealings with his son Laertes as authoritative and over intrusive, and somewhat of self-interest. In the key scene with Reynaldo, one can assume that Polonius list of activities that he wishes Laertes to be restrained from, including drinking, fencing, swearing, quarrelling, / Drabbing, that Polonius wants no scandal on him. His methods of finding out the truth, especially the apparent loss of grip on his speech (possibly being a trick) suggest that Polonius is not concerned about Laertes well-being; rather he could be worried his familys reputation. However, Polonius can be seen as very sensible in his advice to Reynaldo in relation to Laertes; although it is restrictive, he does say to allow Laertes to have fun; also, in his advice to Laertes, concerning things such as friends: grapple them unto thy soul with hoops of steel; clothes: costly thy habit as thy purse can buy; money: neither a borrower or a lender be and socialising: Give each man thy ear, but few thy voice he is very succint and wise in approach. The last two lines, Thou canst not then be false to any man. Farewell, my blessing season this in thee., can be seen as very selfless and purely for the good of his son. Furthermore, Laertes apparent and civilised respect found just as Polonius enters later, remarking that A double blessing is a double grace; Occasion smiles upon a second leave. again shows Laertes courtesy towards his father as a very wise man and a person of great importance to him. Later in the play, seemingly in another act of parental restriction, Polonius is presented to involve himself in relations with Ophelia and Hamlet in a meddlesome manner. He does not want a daughter that would succumb to what he thinks Hamlet is after: sexual relations, and those alone. Shakespeare could be presenting Polonius as using a lie as an example to sway her, and he says how he does know, / When the blood burns, how prodigal the soul / Lends the tongue vows., maybe having her taking his view and keeping away from Hamlet, even though Hamlet seems to need Ophelia as someone to trust and rely on in a harsh time for him. Despite the fact Polonius can be seen to be over-intrusive with Ophelia, lying to her to sway her opinion of Hamlet, this may be in order to keep her safe. If he really has experience in matters of love, and that he does know, When the blood burns, how prodigal the soul Lends the tongue vows., this experience lends credit to Polonius dismissal of the authenticity of Hamlets intentions, especially with reference to Hamlets larger tether and how he can get away with more. It also adds credibility to his opinion of Ophelia as susceptible to fraudulent affections; and it seems very good parental control and advice (even though it does not work out), especially when we find that Ophelia remains attentive, and that she shall obey, my lord., echoing Laertes appreciation of Polonius authority. Polonius may also be seen as a conformist, and someone that will happily change his views of a person to make them happy and improve his image upon them. This idea is presented by Shakespeare in the discussion of cloud shapes Polonius has with Hamlet, where Hamlet tests Polonius to see if he conforms to his thoughts. As a result, Polonius falls into the trap and agrees with Hamlet on three very different shapes; Do you see yonder cloud thats almost in shape of a camel? By th mass and tis, like a camel indeed. then a weasel, and finally a whale. However, Polonius is probably frightened of Hamlet by this stage, and is could be interpreted as not wanting to annoy him, in fear of his own safety. As we tend to sympathise with Hamlet, we also agree with him on certain matters. However, he does remark to the players to look you mock him not, suggesting a recognition of the respect Polonius still deserves from others not involved in his battle, and as a result we see Polonius, presented through Hamlets eyes as an important person. Polonius is also seen in a better light after Hamlet has killed him, where he makes cruel jokes about his corpse; when asked where Polonius is, Hamlet speaks of him being at supper, Not where he eats, but where he is eaten; a certain convocation of politic worms are een at him.. From this, we view Hamlet and his actions in a more inhumane way, especially as Claudius acts in a much more favourable manner in response, pronouncing Alas, alas! after he realises what has become of Polonius. It is evident through the shock of the King, Queen and Ophelias response to Hamlets less agreeable actions that Polonius is a very important man to Claudius, Ophelia and Gertrude. The aftermath of Polonius secret burial has large effects on many; his people go into uproar and when news travels to Laertes, he, in a fit of rage, declares he will go as far as eternal damnation to seek revenge. The people of Denmark are muddled, thick and unwholesome in their thought and whispers for good Polonius death and rise in rebellion to make his son king. It is safe to say that if Hamlet was truly right about Polonius knavish qualities that there would be no after effects of his death. After, when Laertes followers leave, Claudius manages to calm Laertes a little. However, when Ophelia enters and starts singing of a funeral, where in his grave rained many a tear, Laertes is distressed and angry at the person she has become since her fathers death. He is presented by Shakespeare as the man Ophelia loved, characterized by her mixing of love and death songs. Act 4 sees Ophelia drowning due to her madness, reported by the Queen to Laertes.

An Examination Of The Financial Challenges Faced By Students At The Ivy League School

An Examination Of The Financial Challenges Faced By Students At The Ivy League School Over thirty thousand people applied to Brown university this year, and only about twenty-six hundred made it in. Thats about an eight percent acceptance rate for all the poor saps who applied to that ivy league school. But they why do they need that schools name on their diploma so badly? These people are just out of school and shooting for the stars with their big dreams, but maybe a local university or even a technical college is more the speed some of these people need. Ivy League schools are ranked better, but are not better than other schools because: they are not financially accommodating, they are very stressful, and under the rug embarrassing. Financially, Ivy League schools may not be the best for someone who doesn’t come from money. Two thirds of the people accepted into ivy league schools this year of 2015 applied for financial aid. that does not mean they all acquired it, or even a reasonable amount that they may need, but they took the extra effort because they dont believe they can take on the financial burden. all of the applications for scholarships and grants that they applied for cannot cover their costs of living. Next year, tuition will rise an average of 3.76 percent at the Ivies—pushing the cost of attendance as high as $63,000 (Akane Otani). Students need about as much money for living than they do for basic tutions at a tech school. Spending money they dont have on: food, clothes, personal items (hair products, toiletries, cell phones, etc.). Thats not including if anything were to get stolen, such as textbooks or computers or anything from their dorm rooms. Theres too much to pay for financia lly with these schools for most of these kids to be attending it. seventeen percent of students who attend ivy league schools are the first of their families to attend school (Ivy Coach). that number triples for those who attend a technical college, so imagine the new burden that they have on their shoulders. not only are they the first to go to school, they are going to a big, brand name one. Stress on an ivy league college student can get so great that it leads to life changing decisions. â€Å"The stresses that comes with academia including pressure to get good grades, financial worries, failed relationships and conflicts with roommates are enough to force some students to leave college or worse. In fact, depression is the number one reason students drop out of school or die by suicide.† ( Pakistan Observer) .It can cause a person to feel a lack of self worth when trying to keep up with other students because they dont believe that they are doing as good as the others, or that they dont get the information as well as everyone else may be comprehending it. what they dont realize is that, most of the time, they all feel this way about each other. this type of emotional stress can lead to them ‘giving up and giving in’ to the pressures around them such as skipping class, slacking off, and dropping out. Embarrassing, not a work commonly used for Ivy League schools, but it’s still one to represent it. They underestimate themselves and develop a feeling of ‘checking your privilege’ (Rega Jha) which people who attend these schools shouldnt do because they are paying so much to attend these schools so they should have gloating rights. this feeling causes them to not want to stand out in the crowd and when everyone is busy trying to convince them how great it is and how well theyre doing, the person who didnt want any attention in the first place, now seems to everyone like thats all they wanted. Then these people who feel inferior to be in an ivy’s presence, expects these students to be geniuses on everything. They are bombarded with ridiculous questions that they never have or will cover in their classes because people expect so much and then are seen as dumb because they dont know the answer and are paying out the butt to have a better education, when in rea lity they could have gotten the same degree and education for a university in their state. It’s embarrassing to be just as smart as they guy at a university when theyre going to an ivy league school to get the exact same degree as the guy next to them. Yes, these schools are viewed as big names for a reason. they are prestige and only have the best of the best. Why is it then that these degrees mean so much more than one someone obtained from a university? because of the name. With so many years to build up the buildings and time to really make it better, how could anything compete? these schools are may even only be seen so greatly because they reject so many. With these schools not even having some of the programs people would need to become what they want most, why wouldnt they work to â€Å"Find the university program that loves you for you, the school that matches your values and specializes in the fields that you are passionate about† (Montesano, Mandell). as a student who goes to a technical college i can never give personal insight to someone who does actually go to an ivy league school. im a realist, so im not one to ever really fantasize or shoot for the stars when my rocket is made of cardboard. Though i admire the ones who shoot for those stars, i think they are crazy and dumb. i hope this paper has shown why my light shines on that idea of ivy league students through the financial struggles, the stress it comes with, and the silent embarrassment.

Patient Hourly Rounding Term Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Patient Hourly Rounding - Term Paper Example This understanding only reinforces the need for changes in the delivery of nursing care and health care services, towards excellence in ensuring patient safety and patient satisfaction. To satisfy this objective, however, the best means to changes that provide it have to be uncovered (Grove, 2008). Patient Hourly Rounding The concept of patient hourly rounding originated in England, where it was termed patient comfort rounds. Patient hourly rounding is built on predetermined definite protocols. The norm for protocols in patient hourly rounding is founded on four P’s, which stand for pain, personal needs, positioning, and placement. Other issues that could be a part of the protocol for hourly rounding include changing of dressings, administration of medications, and patient education. The concept of hourly rounding is based on compassionate care, and the strengthening of interpersonal relationship between the patient and the nurse, with the essential ingredient of anticipation of the needs of patients and meeting these needs (Charmel, Frameton, & Plantree, 2009). Patient hourly rounding are, thus a systematic nursing function that consists of nurses undertaking bedside rounds of patients, with a specific set of actions, and conducted over specific intervals. Thought the ultimate goal in patient hourly rounding is patient safety and patient satisfaction, the immediate objective is prevention of potential patient problems or to inhibit exacerbation of actual problems (McCartney, 2009). Recommended Change Patient hourly rounding is the recommended change in nursing care practice. The specific actions included in the patient hourly rounding are: Greet the patient Inquire if the patient needs toileting, pain control, repositioning, and blanket Place call light, telephone, tissue box, bed table, and TV control within convenient reach of the patient Provide mouth care, if required Give oral fluid, if required Provide any clarifications sought by the patient Inqu ire if the patient requires any other assistance Inform the patient when the next round will be performed (Adapted from Gardner et al, 2009, & Olrich, Kalman & Nigolian, 2012). The specific time interval will be hourly rounding. Evidence suggests that hourly rounding is superior to bi-hourly rounding in delivering patient safety and patient satisfaction (Meade, Bursell & Ketelsen, 2006). Theoretical Framework Lewin’s Change Model is an early model for planned change. The concept in this model is that a static state of behaviors in an organization occurs when the forces pushing for change and the forces striving to maintain status quo are almost equal. In other words, change is possible only when the forces pushing for change is increased, and the forces striving to maintain status quo is decreased. Lewin’s change model recommends a three step process towards attaining this objective in planned change. The first step is unfreezing, which consists of reducing the forces striving to maintain status quo. In this case, the first step is reducing the support among nurses for opposition to patient hourly ro

Electronic Customer Relationship Management Essay

Electronic Customer Relationship Management - Essay Example For businesses that have online presence, e-CRM systems provide the necessary relationship management with customers. This is a critical area because there is minimal human intervention from the company's employees when a customer logs on to the website. Hence, the impression and/ or the services that the customer gets exposed to from the website might be a decisive factor towards his/ her decision to continue business with that particular company. This paper presents an analysis of a business entity in form of an audit of its efforts to promote and use e-CRM systems. E-CRM theory is discussed and recommendations are provided to the business to improve the state of affairs. The target company for this audit is HSBC Bank Australia Limited. HSBC is a commercial bank based in London but has a huge network of branches around the globe. It is listed on the London, New York, Paris, Hong Kong and Bermuda stock exchanges and operates in a truly global fashion (HSBC, 2007). In Australia, HSBC has 35 branches and offices and provides a wide range of personal and commercial financial services in addition to other services like trade finance, investment advisory, treasury and other traditional banking operations. As a customer browsing a financial institution's websites, the ideal e-experience should not be distinguishable from the experience the user would have when he or she visits the bank physically. In a nut shell, this means that the contents of the web site should be such that no human intervention is required by the user to locate the desired information. One of the biggest advantage and disadvantage of a business website is the quantity of information that is provided on it for users (Feinberg and Kadam, 2002, p.435). This is because of the fact that the customer may not be able to identify and access the required information from a big pool of data provided on the website. Though, every piece of information might be there, yet it may take hours to find the one that is required. Hence, the website must be divided into areas with relevant information being clubbed into each area for clarity and ease of use. In addition, it should have a search facility to locate the desired information without having to navigate through the entire website for it. There are many ways that business may use to contact potential e-customers. In addition to the traditional telephone and cellular phone numbers, the business website should be able to store customers' email address, his or her website URL (if available) and other details. The electronic Customer Relationship Management e-CRM system must be equipped with appropriate records about users and customers and should use alternate channels to contact the customer. Similarly, alternate channels should be provided to the customers to contact the business. These might include email address, telephone, fax number, live chat and others. Ideally though, email addresses are easiest to use if there is no live chat feature available on the website. In addition, ideally the business website should remember the customer. This can be done by saving cookies on customers' computers that can be used during customers' next visit to the website, to track the information that they viewed during their last visit. The relationship with business

What does Katznelson mean by white affirmative action How do U.S Essay - 1

What does Katznelson mean by white affirmative action How do U.S. government policies effect non-white Americans - Essay Example Katznelson points out that African Americans were legally excluded from government programs such as; unemployment insurance, social security, grants, assistance of elderly and poor. The blacks were segregated through; theological justification, harsh enforcement, economic compulsions, political institutions, social conventions, and racist ideas (Katznelson 5). The age of whiteness was marked by restricting Black Americans from crossing the set social boundaries, and this was implemented by the police state that had the authority. In addition, the author mentions that; although, Europeans and African Americas fought alongside each other at the Second World War, some eastern and southern Europeans, through the white affirmative action, got full rights at the expense of African Americans. This paper discusses the meaning of â€Å"white affirmative action† from Katznelson’s point of view, and address how U.S. government policies affect non-white Americans. When Katznelson talks of â€Å"white affirmative action†, he refers to the way in which various government programs, which were constituted in the 1930s and 1940s segregated the blacks. The authority of white affirmative action was prescribed in the constitution, society, and peoples’ minds. In his context, when the government programs segregated the blacks, they worked on the opposite direction and favored the whites. Therefore, the government programs became affirmative actions for the white race. White affirmative action was seen when the government used; the Fair Labor Standards Act (1938) and National Labor Relations Act (1935) to formulate worker reform, which would result in getting rid of domestic, as well as, agricultural labor (Katznelson 62). In this manner, Black Americans became segregated in that they could not find employment. The white affirmative action within the U.S. government was propelled by

Host resistance and immunity Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Host resistance and immunity - Essay Example A detrimental colonization of the pathogen in the host body results in an infection. Variables that determine the outcome of a host body encounter with a pathogen include the infectivity, pathogenicity, virulence, toxigenicity, resistance, and antigenicity of the pathogens (Qureshi, S. 1999). Pathogenicity of an infection involves a mechanism that leads to the initiation of signs and symptoms of the bacterial or viral infections. An environment that favours the growth of the agent in the host body and its ability to damage the host determines the resultant outcome of the association between disease causing agent and the host body. High pathogenicity levels increases the risk of acquiring an infection. Therefore, once an individual gets exposed to a disease, the pathogenicity of the disease causing agent determines the possibility of the infection. On the other hand, if the bacteria or parasite turns out to be non-pathogenic, the risks of getting infection are low (Qureshi, S. 1999). Virulence refers to the severity of an infection and therefore a highly virulent strain produces severe infections. High virulent strains utilize resources from the host body and leads to tissue damage in host bodies. This increases the possibility of an infection and may lead to death of the host. Virulent strains speed up their growth in order to obtain transmission to new hosts. These strains struggle to gain subsequent transmission before killing the former host. Therefore, once an individual gets exposed to a disease, the virulence of the disease determines the level of damage. To counter an infection, one need to consider immediate treatment before multiplication of a strain that may be detrimental to one or more individuals (Sansonetti, P 2010). Toxigenicity refers to the ability of the agent to produce a toxin, which forms the main disease-causing element in a virus or bacteria. There are two types of toxins produced by disease causing parasites. They

Art and Fashion Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words

Art and Fashion - Essay Example Jewelry, makeup and body arts as decoration also used artistic and cultural concepts to elaborate on the person's appearance. This paper discusses several creative designs of the influential Vivienne Westwood, associated with punk looks and fashion, and Jean Paul Gaultier, known to challenge cultural and gender boundaries when it came to fashion. Keywords: Culture, Designs, Art, Fashion, Music, Decorative, Jewelry, Metallic Chains, Hip Hop, Punk, Rock, Fabrics, Collection Introduction Art has evolved over the years to influence and spur old and new developments in the different industries. In the last half of the 20th century, the diverse works of art tremendously progressed to change the lifestyle of societies, not to mention the massive contribution of both art and fashion in the political, economic, and social spheres. There has always seemed to be a convergence in fashion and artistic works, which effectively influenced the performance in both industries. In the century’s last decades, it emerged to be difficult for one to distinguish art from fashion works because they had moved forth to intertwine. ... Although the boom of the fashion industry came between the 60s and 90s, expounding more on the incorporation of each works across the industries, the chronology of using fashion designs in theatre costumes for appealing performances, and acceptance of employing the arts to design garments of different fabrics and texture patterns across the trading lands as of early 90s, demonstrate how early the relational trend began developing. Taking an example of the early 20s chemise dresses, the garments were designed to resemble a plain tubular shape like the painter’s canvas, which beside the underlying textile cotton was well decorated with ornamentation and beading aesthetics (â€Å"Fashion and art† n.d.). It was evident with the growth of the arts and the market expansion in the fashion industry that one could hardly mention or produce one of the products or works without including the other. Performing Arts in the Fashion Industry Performing arts, especially music influence was the greatest factor that contributed to clothing designs in the late 20th century. After the 50s, the music industry artists in rock, hip hop and punk music took the center stage of influence to the different genders and young people’s dressing. As a result, what people wore would tell more about their lifestyle, preference in music just by the clothes they wore at the time. Music became part of design in fashion and textile industries as the increasing support for the musical genre and influential artists came up. According to McNeil, tracing back from the former 19th century, â€Å"art and aesthetic theory played a major role in the transformation of western European dress and North American colonial dress in the Enlightenment† (2011, p. 22). With the desire

What does Katznelson mean by white affirmative action How do U.S Essay - 1

What does Katznelson mean by white affirmative action How do U.S. government policies effect non-white Americans - Essay Example Katznelson points out that African Americans were legally excluded from government programs such as; unemployment insurance, social security, grants, assistance of elderly and poor. The blacks were segregated through; theological justification, harsh enforcement, economic compulsions, political institutions, social conventions, and racist ideas (Katznelson 5). The age of whiteness was marked by restricting Black Americans from crossing the set social boundaries, and this was implemented by the police state that had the authority. In addition, the author mentions that; although, Europeans and African Americas fought alongside each other at the Second World War, some eastern and southern Europeans, through the white affirmative action, got full rights at the expense of African Americans. This paper discusses the meaning of â€Å"white affirmative action† from Katznelson’s point of view, and address how U.S. government policies affect non-white Americans. When Katznelson talks of â€Å"white affirmative action†, he refers to the way in which various government programs, which were constituted in the 1930s and 1940s segregated the blacks. The authority of white affirmative action was prescribed in the constitution, society, and peoples’ minds. In his context, when the government programs segregated the blacks, they worked on the opposite direction and favored the whites. Therefore, the government programs became affirmative actions for the white race. White affirmative action was seen when the government used; the Fair Labor Standards Act (1938) and National Labor Relations Act (1935) to formulate worker reform, which would result in getting rid of domestic, as well as, agricultural labor (Katznelson 62). In this manner, Black Americans became segregated in that they could not find employment. The white affirmative action within the U.S. government was propelled by

Art and Fashion Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words

Art and Fashion - Essay Example Jewelry, makeup and body arts as decoration also used artistic and cultural concepts to elaborate on the person's appearance. This paper discusses several creative designs of the influential Vivienne Westwood, associated with punk looks and fashion, and Jean Paul Gaultier, known to challenge cultural and gender boundaries when it came to fashion. Keywords: Culture, Designs, Art, Fashion, Music, Decorative, Jewelry, Metallic Chains, Hip Hop, Punk, Rock, Fabrics, Collection Introduction Art has evolved over the years to influence and spur old and new developments in the different industries. In the last half of the 20th century, the diverse works of art tremendously progressed to change the lifestyle of societies, not to mention the massive contribution of both art and fashion in the political, economic, and social spheres. There has always seemed to be a convergence in fashion and artistic works, which effectively influenced the performance in both industries. In the century’s last decades, it emerged to be difficult for one to distinguish art from fashion works because they had moved forth to intertwine. ... Although the boom of the fashion industry came between the 60s and 90s, expounding more on the incorporation of each works across the industries, the chronology of using fashion designs in theatre costumes for appealing performances, and acceptance of employing the arts to design garments of different fabrics and texture patterns across the trading lands as of early 90s, demonstrate how early the relational trend began developing. Taking an example of the early 20s chemise dresses, the garments were designed to resemble a plain tubular shape like the painter’s canvas, which beside the underlying textile cotton was well decorated with ornamentation and beading aesthetics (â€Å"Fashion and art† n.d.). It was evident with the growth of the arts and the market expansion in the fashion industry that one could hardly mention or produce one of the products or works without including the other. Performing Arts in the Fashion Industry Performing arts, especially music influence was the greatest factor that contributed to clothing designs in the late 20th century. After the 50s, the music industry artists in rock, hip hop and punk music took the center stage of influence to the different genders and young people’s dressing. As a result, what people wore would tell more about their lifestyle, preference in music just by the clothes they wore at the time. Music became part of design in fashion and textile industries as the increasing support for the musical genre and influential artists came up. According to McNeil, tracing back from the former 19th century, â€Å"art and aesthetic theory played a major role in the transformation of western European dress and North American colonial dress in the Enlightenment† (2011, p. 22). With the desire

Stirling Sports Essay Example for Free

Stirling Sports Essay Stirling Sports opened their first Store on Dominion Road in Auckland in 1964. The first Stirling Sports franchises were awarded in 1983 after Stirling Sports had invested almost 20 years in developing the best sports retail stores in New Zealand. Stirling Sports Dunedin’s mission statements asserts, ‘The Dunedin community speaks positively about their Stirling Sport experience’. Their logo is ‘We love our sport’, an apt summary of the passion held by management and staff for their products, service and the specialist knowledge they provide. Stirling Sports is the one of the New Zealand leading retailers of sporting goods. Stirling Sports has a huge range of sports clothing and mens and womens shoes, supporter gear and more. In 2004, Russell and Sue became aware of an opportunity to purchase the Stirling Sports Dunedin area franchise and made the decision to buy within a week. Since they originated from the Otago region, this was an opportunity ‘to come home’. After some negotiation they successfully acquired the franchise and began to determine how best to manage the two operations. After some deliberation, the  decision was made that Sue would move to Dunedin and manage that store, while Russell continued to manage the Kapiti store. Russell and Sue decided to buy the franchise with the existing staff at the Dunedin store. The store had to become profitable, so changes needed to be made. However, the change in structure and process did not suit everyone and staff left. Previously, the store had been managed from Auckland, so some having the manager on-site was very different from the previous management style. Stirling Sports adopts marketing strategies based on the seasonal nature of  various sports, student population migration during semester and holiday periods, public holidays and festive seasons Christmas is one of the biggest financial periods with equipment, clothing and shoes being in demand for Christmas gifts. In-store specials, glossy flyers, and newspaper and radio advertising are all useful means of marketing their products to all of their customer segments. The March/April period is the second-largest cash-flow period with the beginning of winter sports, such as rugby, soccer, netball, volleyball and basketball, traditionally boosting sales. September/October is also a peak period, with the focus particularly on fitness and getting ‘back into shape’ after the ravages of winter lifestyle choices. Sports such as cricket, tennis and softball also begin which may require the purchase of new equipment, uniforms and speciality footwear. Many sports are now played all year round, which is beneficial in maintaining an acceptable level of monthly sales in addition to seasonal cash-flow peaks. RETRIEVED FROM HTTP://STIRLINGSPORTS. CO. NZ Rebel Sport is a well known brand name throughout New Zealand and Australia. Until 2006, Rebel had no big-box sports competitor, prompting the use of the well-known slogan No ones got more sports gear. However, Lane Walker Rudkin, owners of sports franchise Stirling Sports, have announced plans to launch several large format stores across the country, beginning with a store in Christchurch, which opened in mid-2006. This followed the collapse of a deal between Briscoe Group and LWR a year earlier, which would have seen Briscoe buyout the Stirling franchise. Since Stirlings big box launch, Rebel has dropped their original slogan, which has been replaced with Lets Play, backed by a new  marketing campaign which targets a wider audience from the traditional club-orientated team sport audience. The company is also continuing their aggressive expansion programme, launching several smaller-format stores such as Napier and Taupo to allow branches to reach further into provincial areas. Briscoe Group. (n. d. ). Retrieved March 15, 2014 from http://en. wikipedia. org/wiki/Briscoe_Group The latest retail customer satisfaction report for New Zealand from research organisation Roy Morgan Research reveals that Rebel Sport has emerged as the  sports store with the highest percentage of satisfied customers. Rebel came in at at 82. 0 percent for the 12 months to December 2009 (up 4. 4 percent points from the 12 months to December ‘08). Stirling Sports was third with 77. 5 percent (down 2. 9 percent from the same period). â€Å"The category as a whole has performed below the average for all non-food stores. It seems all sports stores need to close the gap in improving their levels of satisfaction. † Sports Link. Sporting Goods Outdoor Retailing. (May 17, 2010). Retrieved from http://www. mysportslink. net/rebel-sport-leads-the-way-cms-837.

Explaining the Code Clause of the NMC

Explaining the Code Clause of the NMC The Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) of the United Kingdom is a corporate body of professional health care practitioners that form a committee called the council. The function of the NMC is to establish standards for nurses and midwives that will provide guidance in education and training also guidance that are principles and is known as the code (NMC 2002:1). The code is a professional duty that is required to provide care to people, client or patient. It secures peoples rights, decisions and choices during their care (Thompson 2006). To explain the code there are details of principles that practitioners should apply to throughout their daily practice to maintain high standards of how to behave, present one self and the principles shown during the care for people. The first stage of the NMC code clause (NMC 2008:1) state, the people in your care, this applies to people and the public that requires the need for healthcare support in a people centred practice. In order to provide care for these people there should be an understanding as to what care mean, who accessing the services, how the care is implemented by providers, what interventions occur during care and why nurses and midwives should care for these people. It is also important to know why nurses and midwives care but is it the reason because of empowerment, choice, decisions, personal care, safety, financial decisions or is it the obligation of the pledge they have made to become a nurse. The second stage of the clause states, people must be able to trust you with their health and wellbeing and the trust is to know your patient well but how can these patient able to provide that trust and how to communicate with them collaboratively and providing the right information on how to establish that trust. There should be continuity to reinforcing the trust in patient through encouragement, and promotion of their health and wellbeing. Not only does that, it stated that trust is to be justified and reasons why, it is to make the care of people your first concern, treating them as individuals and respecting their dignity (NMC 2008:1). Is it by treating people as they are, keeping information confidential and working as a team with families also ensuring patients give their consent but respecting the dignity of people. In discussing the code clause is stated very straightforward to understand but there are challenges introduced to raise expectation of the nurses and midwives bu t keeping up-to-date with technology and encouraging patients to maintain their quality of life. Hence, the purpose of the NMC code is to support nurses and midwives within their role. NMC (2008, p4) states the code protects people that are ill, helpless, vulnerable and requires support in your care. This guidance applies to nurses, midwives, professionals and students. Its purpose is to establish principles for best practice whilst caring of people in all settings (NMC 2009, p5). NMC (2008:1) states that the code has three functions, conduct, performance and ethics. The principles of conduct expresses how nurses are expected to conduct inside and outside the profession, performance is based on the knowledge and skills gained to be confident and consistency to deliver safe practice in the role as a professionals and students. The ethical care are the principles applied towards prioritising patients care which includes concerns, needs and interest for the people. The People in question are the people within your care and they are the one that matters and requires advocacy. Graham (1992 cited in Roper et al 1996) states, advocacy is doing things for patients and nursing has change to a more patient centred care to encourage patient to be more self-sufficiency in making choices and decision about their care. They are the people we refer to as patient, user, individual or client, but their vulnerability requires support from these professionals. Parsons (1951:1987 cited in Stein-Parbury 2005, p9) viewed people as patients or clients and they are ill person with needs for support and advice from professionals, whom they can release all responsibility and decision for their health. However some patient may not be able to make such decision while other patient can be self caring by taking on the role of responsibility for their care Guadagnoli Ward (1998 cited in Stein-Parbury 2005, p.9) Goodman and Clemow (2008) believes that if patient is define d then their value will not be identified. Caring is the spirit of love that is reflected in care, it provides hope for patient of their wellbeing, offering empathy and compassion, by displaying principle and commitment during nursing practice Farmer (1994 cited in Alexander et al 2000:999). Patients have a significant role that is why we put them first but some people are neglected due to barriers by not accessing the service because of isolation and not able to access the information to get the care required. People who are accessing the service are the one that gets the treatment and the service when it is needed (Sale 2005). The process of nursing commence when an assessment is done by gaining as much information about a patient, this is also referred to a nursing diagnosis. The diagnosis is being able to describe the patient problem with the help of the activities of living model for nursing Marks-Maran(1983 cited in Roper et al 1996:57). The model will help identify health issue and the first concern is performing an as sessment to determine if the patient is capable of maintaining a safe environment, able to communicate by the questions asked about daily activities, the level of breathing during physiological measurement, assessment of eating and drinking during meal time and mobility during personal hygiene. From these assessments the nurse is able to identify the actual problem then make a care plan. The care plan includes the problems, goal and intervention. The problem is what the patient admitted with and the goal what the nurse intend to do and intervention should include how the care will be given. The next step is to implement the care by providing the care, including multidisciplinary teams, medication for treatment. An evaluation is made of the patient care against the goal that was set to determine an outcome of achievement if there are changes a re-evaluation can be made of the patients care (Roper et al 1996). The reasons why nurses care are through obligation, ethical and spiritual belief. We cannot as carer avoid the difference in care but why we continue to care is because mainly of three reasons. The first is the pledge we have made as nurses with the obligation to patient (Brykczynska 1997). The pledge is reaffirming the commitment as promised by the nurses and midwives to the people to provide a service to deliver a very high standards of quality in care DH(2010). Secondly, the ethical care of knowing the right question to ask patients when trying to make an important decision or how they should respond when a situation arises but seeing the goodness in the patients (Brykczynska 1997). Nurse use their intuition or inner feeling or just common sense to make decision (Thompson et al 2006:49:50), but as students the knowledge through practical learning teaches to make ethical decisions and remembering from their teachings or the error they should not make by reflecting on the right and wrong to evaluate a good ethical decision. Other ethical reasons to care are, through quality care, a care which is deserved and should be priority in care. The empowerment of patients, by offering the right to make decisions about their care and offering patients choices to develop confidence while receiving hospital care. This confident encourage them to take control of what is happening in their lives. There are difficulties when making choice and being assisted by a nurse is an important decision that will benefit their health. Decisions are important and should involve planning the minute patients are admitted into hospital (Evans and Tippins (2008 cited in E-learning, PEP Module, Decision Making, p.2). The personal care would be assessed following the Roper et al model for nursing. The assessment will include check for safety, nutrition, manual handling and other risk factors. Management has to make decision on staffing team but a team that will provide a balance in the care. The financial decision is important on the expenditure and management of resources to maintain the operation of care but mainly the quality of care for patients. The nurses care is to support spiritual belief by encouraging safe practice during psychosocial distress or pain. Being an active listener, relating to the patient and answering their question truthfully could be comfort or relief for the patient. Anon (2005 cited in Thompson et al 2006), states that nursing is the balm that nourish your restless spirit, while other patients thinks that a balm could solve the problem to their pain. In order for people to trust you, being knowledgeable about the patient is the first step to patients care and being able to communicate and interaction will establishing a relationship that will help to provide a clear understand to the individual. All data must be up-to-date and accurate about the patients care and information should be available for feedback to the patients. The balance in the healthcare is to respect the confidentiality of patients information that they share and through commitment of trust (Hinchliff 2008). A professional relationship is looking after the patients interest and taking on issues of consent, respect, confidentiality but utilising the practical skill, experience and knowledge accordingly. The offering of informed consent is giving permission but the professional line must not be overstepped. Hinchliff (2008:193) Jonsdottir et al.; Gallant et al. (2004;2002 cited in Stein-Parbury 2005, p.9) states that patient and their healthcares needs to work in p artnership during care. DH (2008,p3) reported that people should working collaboratively as a team which includes patient and their families, nursing staff, social carer and the public. Therefore collaborative work with a multi-professional team provides a wider care to patients by communicating with teams and individuals with different training background who shares a common goal to offer a service that include nurses, doctors, physiotherapist, occupational therapist, social workers, dieticians, speech and language therapist, pharmacist, psychologist, ward clerks, cleaner, healthcare assistance, staff management, midwives and IT Technical Support Staff that can be trusted. (Marshall et al (1979 cited in E-learning, PEP Module, Working with others 2009/2010:3). Trust is ethical values that are accepted in the best interest of patients and giving truthful answers to questions about their health. This is what patients expect but a positive behaviour is what inspires the trust from the patient. It is important to ensuring patient is informed to establish trust then in time the patient can be open to reveal information that will help their health and wellbeing (Hinchliff et al. 2008). DH(2010) reported that peoples trust has been destabilised due to poor performance of practice, he believes that with commitment of teamwork trust can be regained. A proposal was made stating that nurses and midwives should reaffirm their commitments to care. The aim of this proposal is to reinforce the trust and confidence in people which will also help to maintain their health and wellbeing. If the patient is ill or well their health should still be promoted with a balance in care and the approach of individuals with psychosocial dilemmas. The nurses role is imp ortant and along with their performance which reflect in the care given to patient. Nurses can maintaining their health and wellbeing by accepting the right support which will result in improvement in practices and wellbeing of patients. To maintain the quality of health and wellbeing for patients the initial care should begin within patients own environment with their family. Living a healthy life is manageable by people who are confident, strong and receiving support from other whilst others struggle to maintain their health due to difficulties in accessing support or refusing to accept any form of support. The NHS mentioned that a strategy is designed to include the care in communities by local authorities and care partners, to help make social changes for the people with the aim of reducing unhealthy living (DH, 2008). The NHS requires people to gain access to the treatment that is most effective for their health. The NICE guidance purpose is to promote health and wellbeing and evaluate the intervention during care. It is stated that treatment should be given to patient after an assessment by a competent and experience nurse (NICE, 2008) providing the patient offer consent to care and in return nurses respecting the patients right to make the choice they desire. A competent nurse role is having awareness but to provide a plan that reflect and analyse the problem. The nurse should be able to cope well from being organised to achieving efficiency during management of nursing care (Benner 1984). Patient safety should be the top of priority for quality care. The trust is gained by maintaining patients safety and one example is to reduce any infectious disease within their environment and safety include the healthcare who are the people that provides care (DH,2008). The nursing team is expected to respect individuals and their families, not to discriminate during care and avoiding any risk or threat to the right or safety of any patient (NMC 2004). We can assume nurses do care but the obligation that nurses have is through the contract of obligation when they first make the pledge to work as nurses. The nurses role involves the concept of care which is to provide a service to patient that is caring, the first stage of learning is from their parents, friends and experiences in life and the training received will improve their caring skills (Brykczynska1997). To be treated as an individual is treating a person with ethical principles such as respecting the rights, autonomy and dignity of patients also to promote the patients well-being (Thompson et al 2006). To offer patient advice on methods to help prevent ill-health and by promoting positive way of living and to have power of owns health (Wills 2007). The patients right during quality care are their entitlement to shorter waiting time for treatment. A targeting system has to be implemented that will motivates nurses to listen to patents and the public to meet their expectation. Patient has the right to have good communication to ensure they understand the treatment to be received (DH 2009). Reflecting on experience with patient whilst working as a student during placement, some of the principles that had to be delivered are respecting patients privacy when washing or dressing by pulling curtains and closing doors and knocking the door before entering patients environment. The rights of patients choice must be acknowledged and not to disclose patients confidentiality which is respecting human rights and dignity. Also patient should have the right to make choices during meal time of what to eat and when to eat or the choice to refuse medication but it is the nurses role to encourage the patient and possible giving more time and listening to reason for refusing medication DH (2010). Walsh and Kowanko 2002, cited in Dougherty and Lister 2008, enquired with patient about describing their dignity and how they expect to be treated with respect, however patients wanted dignity to include being patience and spending more time to listen and acknowledge patients views and considering the reasons for patients emotions. DH 2010) states that nurses must be accountable for their actions, thinking of patients interest, protecting the dignity of patient regardless of choices but treating with equal concerns and respecting belief. Nurses and midwives should find the NMC guidance really straightforward, depending on the level of role and responsibilities, however Tschudin and Jasper (2006; 2002) states, that the NMC code of practice will not be straightforward to escape difficult situation during care. A student nurse or a registered nurse with limited or no experience of a new setting and will begin their role as a novice and requires support by the policies of the workplace along with the NMC code rules to guide their performance during their role of practice. The advance beginner will be able to perform acceptable because of the experience gained and put into practice the principles learnt but taking their role very important. A competent nurse who is experienced for two to three years is a more aware nurse that plans and analyses but needs to develop speed within role. The proficient nurse learns from his or her experiences, reflecting in action and is able to make effective decision immediately. The expert nurse has a very knowledgeable background, remembers patients, recognises changes and manages clinical decision within his or her patients care (Brenner 1984:20-32). The changes that have been made of the framework for the Nursing and Midwifery Council are more straightforward to understand during the professional development of nurses duties and their role of responsibilities. The aim of the code is to protect the health and wellbeing of patients. It will be a continuous development in practice (Hinchliff 2008). The change in the guidelines can cause indecision and could cause unnecessary stress for individuals (Lewis 1951, cited in McEwen and Wills 2007). The use of the Roy Adaptation model could be used as a guide by manager to help nurses become more educate about the changes to the guidelines (McEwan and Wills 2007). Changes however, could cause the guidelines to create challenges for nurses role by raising the expectation also expecting continuous development of the way they should work by providing quality care that will help to extend the life span of patients. Nurses should keep up-to-date with the new technology of accessing patients information by taking on additional training. The challenge for nurses is to encourage patients to improve their health and wellbeing by accepting interventions that will improve their quality of life but not under mind patients choices. The improvement of knowledge about the advancement of treatment and broader area of intervention and increasing standards will result in improved outcomes. High quality work for staff and patient is difficult but ensuring skills are up-to-date and not ignored but the quality of the workplace comes with excellent leadership management that is beneficial for patients wellbeing DH (2010). In summary, the code expects profession conduct from all nurses and midwives during their performance in all situations and should reflect good principles of ethical practice. These ethical principles will deliver the right care and should include patient spiritual belief. The belief in providing the right care is reflected in the roles and responsibility of nurses and midwives, this is very important and a huge responsibility to be in a caring profession. The pathway from a novice to expert requires knowledge and continuous development. Whether or not the guidelines of the code appear simple the NMC has revised the code to make it more straight forward for nurses and midwives to understand and implement into practice of care. Caring is about identifying the people who may be patient, client or individuals and treating them with equal concerns, respecting the diversity of people that are able to access the service. These patients are vulnerable and require trust, security and the pro spect of improving their health and wellbeing and need to make the right decisions and choices whether good or bad but gaining informed consent. The dignity of patient should be respected at all times and gaining consent is an approval of trust to provide care but remaining within the professional boundaries. To ensuring this occurs, the respect for privacy is maintained whilst providing care of personal hygiene. Nurses make diagnosis during patient care with the help of a useful nursing model to gain information from patient which must be kept confidential. Keeping information confidential is a way of showing patient their trust is being respected. Nurses are hoping to maintain the trust that builds partnerships with patient and families that will including the professionals collaboratively to develop the patients health and wellbeing. The NICE guidance is to promote health and wellbeing for patients medication and the NHS (2010:9) promised, to promote high quality care for all. The code should not be difficult but it is a challenge that healthcare professional will work towards by raising the standards to give more power to patient in making decision about their care and safety. It is the nurses and midwives obligation of the pledge they have made to continue reinforcing care and the support will come from managers by providing the training to broaden the knowledge of our professional. The changes will require higher expectation and a service that is keeping up with technology. A change that will be challenging for nurses and midwives is to encourage patient to maintain their life span through health promotion. The code has its fulfilling purpose which is the responsibility to provide guidance to nurses and midwives, of the care that should be given within the professional role.