Client Introduction Rosa Gonzalez - 1349 Words

Client Introduction Rosa Gonzalez is a 28 year old, Latino woman, who was raised in Tempe, Arizona. She came from a low socio-economic status family. Rosa’s records indicate that her mother was in prison while she was pregnant with her, and her father was out of the picture. She was placed in several foster care homes until the age of four when her father came back into her life. It was around the same time that her mother was released from prison, and began a relationship with her dad. She grew up with one sister and two brothers. She depicted having been psychologically, emotionally, and physically abused by her father until the age of 16. She conveyed that her mother was neglectful, even though she knew about the abuse (R. Gonzalez, personal communication, July 23, 2014). She disclosed that one of the hardest times in her life was when she was in high school. She had no friends, no self-esteem, no mother or father who loved her, and no reason to live. Soon after, she became homeless and became involved in minor/major criminal activities. Some of these minor/major criminal activities included; drug dealing, prostitution, and shop lifting. She indicated that she has been diagnosed with Bipolar II Disorder, Borderline Personality Disorder, Depression, and anxiety. She eluded to currently being in an abusive relationship (R. Gonzalez, personal communication, July 23, 2014). The purpose for this research paper is to integrate, connect, and exhibit how Contemporary AttachmentShow MoreRelatedClient Introduction : My Internship Essay1367 Words   |  6 PagesClient Introduction My internship began three weeks ago. This time frame has not given me the time to get to know a client well enough to use for this paper. I have decided to use a past client of mine. I met this client while working at child protective services. She came into our agency because of a domestic violence encounter. The children were removed and I was able to work with her for a period of 9 months. Rosa Gonzalez is a 28 year old, Latino woman, who was raised in Tempe, Arizona. SheRead MoreAnalysis of Short Story: Armor10060 Words   |  41 PagesANALYSIS OF THE SHORT STORY ARMOR BY JOHN BENGAN By Aireen Grace Asis Dongon Ron Ron Sawal Fabian Rosas Catherine Palacio Villagen Shiela Marie Ordinario Villaluz Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements in Lit 001 (Philippine Literature) Camarines Norte State College Daet, Camarines Norte March 9, 2015 Jocelyn A. Trinidad Literature Adviser CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION A short story  is a brief work of  literature, usually written in  narrative  prose. It is a fictional work depicting

IDEA †due process procedural safeguards Free Essays

Idea: Due Process A ; Procedural Safeguards IDEA stresses the cardinal importance of the function of educational decision makers every bit good as parent ‘s in the affair of each single pupil ‘s academic public presentation. IDEA outlines the necessary actions for a school territory to implement an single educational plan, besides known as an IEP. The first measure each territory must follow is to inform the parents of the pupil in inquiry. We will write a custom essay sample on IDEA – due process procedural safeguards or any similar topic only for you Order Now â€Å" IDEA sets forth demands for States and local educational bureaus ( school territories ) in supplying particular instruction and related services to kids with disablements, ages 3 through 21 ( US Dept. of Educ. , 2010, para.1 ) . The territory must besides supply a â€Å" anterior written notice † to the parents. At specified times, the school territory must supply parents with a â€Å" procedural precautions notice † which explains their rights under Part B of the IDEA. Prior to July 1, 2005 province and federal ordinances required school territories to supply the parent with a transcript of procedural precautions upon each presentment of an Individualized Education Program ( IEP ) meeting ( US Dept. of Educ. , 2010, para.1 ) . The typical province ordinance used today â€Å" school territories merely require the proviso of procedural precautions statement to be given to the parent one clip per school twelvemonth, during initial referral for rating for pupils, besides on the day of the month to do any alterations to the pupils IEP, every bit good as a parental petition for any extra transcripts, and moreover upon the first happening of the filing of a due procedure hearing petition or kid ailment is another clip a parent will have the precaution statement † ( DESE, 2010, portion B parity. 2 ) . Under 34 CFR AA §300.503 ( degree Celsius ) , each single school territory must give parents a written in the native linguistic communication of the parent and dated when any opportunities are made in the instruction of the pupil. Under 34 CFR AA §300.503 ( a ) the school territory must advise parents if a pupil is refused any educational services pending rating consequences. Taylor, S ( 2005 ) . Basically after eligibility is determined, parents are notified, and if in understanding, the IEP for the pupil will be developed and implemented. However concerns originate with parents and pedagogues of what is deemed appropriate for the single pupil. Typically a ailment made by either a parent or school decision maker deems a demand for a due procedure hearing. Each party will show their grounds with an ample sum of factual information to make a decision of action. Parents and pedagogues will explicate their grudges in an appropriate mode. Parents and pedagogues will routinely mention back to the pupils IEP. If plaintiff makes a ailment that is non portion of the pupils IEP, typically the consequence will non be favourable for that peculiar party. Each party demands to hold grounds to back up their statement. The end is to convert the justice to do a determination in favour of the grounds provided. The ailment must be caused by the school ‘s actions, or deficiency of action, refering to the pupils educational public assistance, and/or if the pupil is non having educational benefit that is stated in IEP and without disciplinary steps, the pupil ‘s instruction will be harmed. Each school territory must take appropriate steps, including the proviso of auxiliary AIDSs and services determined appropriate and necessary by the kid ‘s IEP Team, to supply kids with disablements an equal chance for engagement in instruction. Section 300.308 requires that the IEP squads finding the eligibility for kids suspected of holding a learning disablement are to include: the kid ‘s parents ; a squad of qualified professionals including the kid ‘s regular instruction instructor ; at least one individual qualified to carry on single diagnostic scrutiny of kids, e.g. a school psychologist or reading specializer. Section 300.309 ( a ) a squad can happen that a kid has a learning disablement if the kid does n’t accomplish adequately for the kid ‘s age or does n’t run into grade-level criterions. When difference declaration, mediation have non helped a due procedure hearing is the following measure to do a more definite program of action refering to a pupils educational demands. What is due procedure? A due procedure hearing is normally an functionary, test between parents and school territories. Each party will be represented by their ain chosen council. Harmonizing to William B. nor shall any State deprive any individual of life, autonomy, or belongings, without due procedure of jurisprudence. Typically a parent or school functionary will convey a compliant to either party. The compliant will include a description of the issue and possible redresss to the job or alteration. Then the following measure is a response, that is necessary within 10 yearss of reception of a due procedure petition ; the non-complaining party ( school or parent ) must direct a written response to the kicking party. Within 15 yearss, the hearing officer and the other parties must be notified in composing if the hearing notice is thought to be deficient. The hearing officer has 5 yearss to find the importance of the notice. Parents and members of the IEP squad meet to discourse and to seek and decide the ailments. Typically a hearing would be held within 15 yearss of reception of petition for hearing unless both parties: agree to travel to mediation or hold in composing to relinquish the hearing. In a Due Process Hearing, the Judge will do a determination based on testimony and facts submitted to the tribunal on a finding of whether the pupil received a ( FAPE ) free and appropriate public instruction and/or whether a procedural misdemeanor occurred. Either party has the right to appeal the justice ‘s determination to federal or province tribunal, or every bit far as the Supreme Court. The Due Process hearing can be financially dearly-won for all parties. The determination to bespeak a Due Process Hearing requires thoughtful consideration and should be contemplated merely after all other options have been exhausted. In the terminal a judgement is made and will necessitate one party to supply a service or pay a amount of money to the other party. Sometimes the losing party feels victimized by the Court and refuses to pay or go on with the judgement made by the tribunal. These actions typically lead to more struggle. An illustration of would be after the U. S. Supreme Court instance of Brown v. Board of Education, some Virginia school boards closed their schools. These school boards used monolithic opposition to avoid following with the determination. Harmonizing to Brown v. Board of Education, 347 U.S. 483 ( 1954 ) â€Å" Resistance besides slowed execution of the Brown determination in schools and led to many extra tribunal instances. For illustration, Prince Edward County, Virginia, closed all of its public schoolsaa‚ ¬ † for Whites every bit good as blacksaa‚ ¬ † instead than incorporate. The most influential instance I researched was TINKER v. DES MOINES SCHOOL DIST. , 393 U.S. 503 ( 1969 ) . This instance focused on pupil have oning armbands in protest of the Vietnam War. Petitioners, three public school students in Des Moines, Iowa, were suspended from school for have oning black armbands to protest the Government ‘s policy in Vietnam. They sought nominal amendss and an injunction against a ordinance that the respondents had promulgated censoring the erosion of armbands. However due to the insisting of pupils following in the political societal propaganda as their parents a choice of pupils fitting and decided to do a base by have oning armbands to school as a signifier of protest of the war. When word of this new sense of an anti-war message reached the school functionaries, â€Å" principals of the Des Moines schools on December 14, 1965, the school adopted a policy that any pupil have oning an armband to school would be asked to take it, and if he refused he would be suspended until he returned without the armband. The pupils were cognizant of the new school policy, yet ignored the warning. It upheld [ 393 U.S. 503, 505 ] the constitutionality of the school governments ‘ action on the land that it was sensible in order to forestall perturbation of school subject. 258 F. Supp. 971 ( 1966 ) . Harmonizing to TINKER v. DES MOINES SCHOOL DIST. , 393 U.S. 503 ( 1969 ) The District Court dismissed the ailment on the land that the ordinance was within the Board ‘s power, despite the absence of any determination of significant intervention with the behavior of school activities. The District Court recognized that the erosion of an armband for the intent of showing certain positions is the type of symbolic act within the Free Speech Clause of the First Amendment. The decision of the school governments was sensible because it was based upon their fright of a perturbation from the erosion of the armbands. Another interesting point made by TINKER v. DES MOINES SCHOOL DIST. , 393 U.S. 503 ( 1969 ) â€Å" Their divergence consisted merely in have oning on their arm a set of black fabric, non more than two inches broad. They wore it to exhibit their disapproval of the Vietnam belligerencies and their protagonism of a armistice, to do their positions known, and, by their illustration, to act upon others to follow them. They neither interrupted school activities nor sought to irrupt in the school personal businesss or the lives of others. They caused treatment outside of the schoolrooms, but no intervention with work and no upset. In the fortunes, our Fundamental law does non allow functionaries of the State to deny their signifier of look. † In the terminal, the instance was to be a â€Å" affair for the lower tribunals to find † The instance was reversed and remanded. TINKER v. DES MOINES SCHOOL DIST. , 393 U.S. 503 ( 1969 ) . What is interesting is that merely 7 pupils of 18,000 disobeyed the new policy sing the armbands. Five pupils being from the Tinker household ages 8-15. Another instance that demonstrates the usage of due procedure in instruction is, â€Å" West Virginia v. Barnette, supra, this Court held that under the First Amendment, the pupil in public school may non be compelled to toast the flag. Our job lies in the country where pupils in the exercising of First Amendment rights collide with the regulations of the school governments. † Another contention is the cost of the due procedure hearing. Parents and School Districts have to utilize the household nest eggs and or the school budget for lawyer fees, tribunal cost, and execution of either transit for pupils, new plans and or auxiliary AIDSs and learning resources for instructors. Parents worry about the preparation and experience of the instructors who are educating their kids. This is a important obstruction of trust and communicating that can be missing from both parties. Appraisal is critical in the early instruction of all pupils. The earlier any intercession can be performed the better a pupil will be to accomplish the satisfactory scene with equals. The stairss involved include doing certain the pupil is eligible for services, find what the pupil needs to be evaluated on, find what appraisal is best for the pupil, observe the pupil, evaluate and construe the findings, and so make a course of study that fits the pupils larning abilities best. Possible inquiries to remind an pedagogue during appraisal and observation is: Does the kid have a need/deficiency in the accomplishment or ability? Does the kid have a get downing degree of accomplishment or ability? Or does the kid have a mastery degree of accomplishment or ability? How to cite IDEA – due process procedural safeguards, Essay examples

Mobile Phones Should Not Be Banned in Public Places free essay sample

Last night, there was a piece on the news that was really eye-catching. It stated that, of the 6 billion people in the world, about 4. 8 billion people own a mobile phone. This figure shows how useful cell phones are and how common it has become to own one. Mobile phones should not be banned in public places, reasons being it is very useful during emergencies, its several features and applications have become indispensable and banning it would kill the very purpose for which one purchases it. Mobile phones can be a handy little device to own. It is especially useful in the time of emergency. Consider a situation in which one has a flat tyre and is in the middle of nowhere. With the help of a mobile phone, they would be able to contact any person who would be able to help them. If someone has met with a car accident, it has now become very easy to contact the police, hospital or any one who could be of help with a cell phone. We will write a custom essay sample on Mobile Phones Should Not Be Banned in Public Places or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page With the increase in the number of mobile phone users, telecom companies provide a very widely spread network area, which is essential in an emergency. Nowadays, mobile phones come with a variety of useful applications. The most common application is the camera. For instance, if one was out on a vacation with their friends and family but forgot to bring a camera along. Oh, wait! Mobile phones come with a built in camera facility such that they can capture those fun moments. Another feature that is also available is the MP3 player. Anyone can now listen to their favorite music or play games on their mobile phone. However, one has to remember to plug in their earphones so that they are not disturbing any one around them. The internet has become a very useful application especially for the people in the business field since they have to answer to their clients at any time of the day. They can send emails, instant message other people and also view and prepare presentations. One can also get the latest updates in news through the internet. With the help of GPS (Global Positioning System), which is available on most cell phones, it is pretty much impossible to get lost. It gives the user their exact location along with directions to reach the place where they want to go. The GPS application is very useful if they are in a new place or country where they are not sure of their way around. Banning of mobile phones would defeat the very purpose for which a cell phone was made. Mobile phones are meant to be used when a person does not have access to a landline. If it were banned from public places, the basic purpose of having a cell phone would be eliminated. Hence, restricting the use of mobile phones in public is not a very good idea. The multitude of useful applications, which makes a mobile phone so indispensable today, will be rendered useless and there would be no reason for one to own the device. Mobile phones should not be banned in public places. If such a rule is enforced mobile phone companies had better be prepared to go bust – who would purchase a â€Å"mobile† if it cannot be used when one is mobile?

Principles of Marketing Calvin Klein Case Study

Introduction Calvin Klein is an American fashion brand. Considering the modern situation at the market, it should be concluded that advertising plays crucial part in the competition. Product promotion is really important as it leads to the increase in sales and profit.Advertising We will write a custom assessment sample on Principles of Marketing: Calvin Klein specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More To understand the main principles of marketing Calvin Klein uses, it is important to check the three levels of product concept, to identify the most important factors in the brand expansion, and select the adoption level the brand meets with the explanation of the choice on the basis of the specific case study called The Rise of Calvin Klein (Chong and Diga). Marketing Principles of Calvin Klein Three levels of product concept Three layers of product exist in the marking which allow the company expand, such as core product, actual product, an d augmented product (Solomon, Marshall, Stuart 233). The core product is considered to be the benefit a specific product is aimed at. Calvin Klein’s core product is cloths it provides it consumers with. People buy this product to meet the demands of the society to be dressed and protected. An actual product layer has deeper consideration of the human interests and is directed at style, brand, appearance, etc. People have different tastes and they choose some cloths according to their personal desires and wishes. The use of ads underlines this specific layer of products as it shows people the specifics of each model and has different audience. The third layer concept is augmented product which is directed at the specific offers and opportunities the company can offer, like company stores, online catalogues, etc. It should be mentioned that Calvin Klein is the company with long history and it has some specific offers at each level of product concept. The Most Important Factor i n the Brand Expansion Considering the specifics of the brand expansion, the company has tried to create something different, an ad which could remain in human mind. The company referred to the provocative advertising campaign to stress that customers should want this specific product. It should be noted that no one predicted the success of this campaign, but this is considered to be the central factor of positive reaction. People noticed the ad and remembered it, no matter that their first reaction was negative and repulsive. The Adoption Level the Brand Meets Considering the adoption level of the innovation produced by Calvin Klein, it is possible to notice that the final, confirmation level is met. The Calvin Klein brand has achieved its highest level of recognition at the market.Advertising Looking for assessment on business economics? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More When a new product appears, many people buy it just beca use it is Calvin Klein. One of the main dangers of this stage of adoption as that there is nothing to reach, it is the final stage. When people lose interest in this kind of product, the company should use additional means of regulation, like presentation, communication, etc. Conclusion Thus, it may be concluded that Calvin Klein remains one of the leading fashion brands in the world due to the correct use of marketing principles. The implementation of the new products should come through some specific stages and the further work should also be based on the specific principles which allow this product remain in demand. It guarantees sales and recognition in the world. Works Cited Chong and Diga. â€Å"The Rise of Calvin Klein.† Marketing 3000. 10 March 2011. Print. Solomon, Michael R., Marshall, Greg W., and Stuart, Elnora W. Marketing: Real People Real Choices. 6th ed. New Jersey: Prentice Hall, 2009. Print. This assessment on Principles of Marketing: Calvin Klein was written and submitted by user Aqueduct to help you with your own studies. You are free to use it for research and reference purposes in order to write your own paper; however, you must cite it accordingly. You can donate your paper here.

SpeechNow.org v. Federal Election Commission

SpeechNow.org v. Federal Election Commission The well known and widely scorned court case Citizens United has been credited with paving the way for the creation of super PACs, the hybrid political groups  that are allowed to raise and spend unlimited amounts of money from corporations and unions  to influence American elections. But there would be no super PACs without a lesser known, companion court challenge to Federal Election Commission fundraising laws,  SpeechNow.org v. Federal Election Commission. The nonprofit political group, organized under Internal Revenue Service Section 527, is just as instrumental in the creation of super PACs as Citizens United.   Summary of SpeechNow.org v. FEC SpeechNow.org sued the FEC in February 2008 claiming the $5,000  federal limit  on how much individuals can give to a political committee such as its own, which therefore limited how much it could spend supporting candidates,  represented a violation of the Constitutions First Amendment guarantee to freedom of speech.   In May of 2010, the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia ruled in favor of SpeechNow.org, meaning the FEC could not longer enforce the contribution limits to independent groups.   Argument in Support of SpeechNow.org The Institute for Justice and the Center for Competitive Politics, which represented  SpeechNow.org, argued that the fundraising limits were a violation of free speech, but also that the FECs rules requiring it and similar groups to  organize, register, and report as a â€Å"political committee† in order to advocate for or against candidates was too burdensome. That means that while Bill Gates one his own could spend as much of his money as he wanted on political speech, he could contribute only $ 5,000 to a similar group effort.  But since the First Amendment guarantees individuals the right to speak without limit, it should be common sense that groups of individuals have the same rights.  It turns out that these limits and red tape made it virtually impossible for new independent citizen groups to raise start-up funding and effectively reach voters.   Argument Against SpeechNow.org The governments argument against SpeechNow.org was that allowing contributions of more than $5,000 from individuals  could â€Å"lead to preferential access for donors and undue influence over officeholders.† The government was taking the tack that its ruled are designed to prevent corruption. The court rejected that argument, though, in the wake of the January 2010 decision in Citizens United, writing:  Ã¢â‚¬Å"Whatever the merits of those arguments before  Citizens United, they plainly have no merit after  Citizens United†¦.Contributions to groups that make only independent expenditures cannot corrupt or create the appearance of corruption.† Difference Between SpeechNow.org and Citizens United Cases Though the two cases are similar and deal with independent  expenditure-only committees, the SpeechNow court challenge focus on federal  fundraising caps. Citizen United successfully challenged the  spending limit on corporations,  unions, and  associations. In other words, SpeechNow focused on raising money and Citizens United focused on spending money to influence elections. Impact of  SpeechNow.org v. FEC The  U.S. District Court for the District of Columbias ruling the case, combined with the U.S. Supreme Courts decision in Citizens United, together paved the way for the creation of super PACs. Writes Lyle Denniston on SCOTUSblog: While the  Citizens United  decision dealt with the spending side of federal campaign finance, theSpeechNow  case was on the other side - raising funds. Thus, as a result of the two decisions put together, independent advocacy groups can raise as much and spend as much as they can and wish to do to support or oppose candidates for federal office.   What is SpeechNow.org? According to SCOTUSblog, SpeechNow was created specifically to spend money advocating for the election or defeat of federal political candidates. It was  founded  by  David Keating, who at the time headed the conservative, anti-tax  group  Club for Growth.

Hire a Copywriter and Learn How to Be a Good Manager for Your Future

Hire a Copywriter and Learn How to Be a Good Manager for Your Future Hire a Copywriter and Learn How to Be a Good Manager for Your Future College is full of experiences and opportunities to learn, but the lessons and knowledge gained from first hand experience applies most readily to real life situations you will encounter in the future. When you enter the workforce you may find that your degree will get your foot in the door, but once you are there, your experiences from real life, and the on the job training you receive will be your true teachers. In you professional career, degrees won’t matter as much as results will and showing your employers your degree will mean very little when compared to showing them your performance. Experience Counts One way students can gain real life experience with a wide range of applications, is by managing employees or managing projects. Most college students quickly learn that college is full of projects, but few see those projects and papers as opportunity to gain management skills. But this is precisely what they are, and those students who take on the task with a mindset to learn management will gain the most from these experiences. Many college students understandably view projects and papers as a means to learn more about the subject matter they are studying in or majoring in. But if the student can see these as an opportunity to learn management skills, they will optimize their learning. A team project in college may take people management skills, leadership skills, as a team needs a leader to run well, presentation skills, if the team must present, writing skills for material handed in or presented, technical skills and more. These skills are above and beyond the subject matter being learned by he student. Skills Gained from Paper Writing If a student has an important paper due, this can be viewed as a project during which a great deal of management experience can be gained. You may improve time management and organizational skills as well. Skills Gained by Managing a Freelancer for Your Project One skill you may not have thought of is the management experience you can gain by hiring a freelancer to assist with your paper. Managing a freelancer requires communication skills, as you must convey your vision of the paper to them, insure they understand the vision, and communicate expectations for deadline, writing style, subject and other details. Hiring a freelancer is similar to having a remote, temporary employee. Since they are working for you, you must direct their activities as it relates to your paper or project. You must manage time to ensure deadlines for the paper are being met, so it will be finished by the due date. You must review content and give feedback when necessary. One of the greatest management skills one can obtain is the ability to motivate their employees and give feedback in such a way that they get the performance they need. If you have positive feedback for an employee you should give that to them, and if possible, give the praise publicly. This is extremely motivating and will help you as a manager to continue getting the performance you need. If you have negative feedback, or perhaps have something that needs to be changed, you of course need to give that feedback. The way you give the feedback is very important: it must be done tactfully, clarifying expectations, and if necessary, taking responsibility for unclear communication with the employee. Clearly, you are attending university to be educated on the subject matter of your chosen major, but don’t miss out on all of the periphery experience to be attained there. At our company you can hire an academic expert for writing a custom paper of any complexity, in more than 50 disciplines.

You are tasked with analyzing the last four years of accounts of a Essay

You are tasked with analyzing the last four years of accounts of a global mining company - Essay Example Graph 1 shows the company’s liquidity ratios over the four-year period. All the point ratios are less than one, and this means that performance of the company in management of short-term assets and liabilities is poor. In addition, current ratio and quick ratio have a declining trend, and this means that the organization’s management of liquidity worsened over the period. The two ratios, however improved from year 1 to year 2 before assuming the decreasing trend. Cash ratio reported an increasing trend but it was too low, with a maximum value of only 0.15. Correlation analysis of the ratios identifies a positive correlation between current ratio and quick ratio and a negative correlation between cash ratio and both current and quick ratio. Table 1 shows the correlation coefficients. Long-term solvency ratios are indicators of management’s efficiency in long-term management of resources. The ratios compare internal and external funding that an organization has and are inversely proportional to management efficiency (Thukaram 2007, p. 90). Times interest earned ration and cash coverage ratios are however inversely proportional to management efficiency (Mayes & Shank 2011, p. 118). From the graph, total debt ratio is low, over the entire period, and debt to equity ratio and equity multiplier ratio falls to lower values by year 1. The three ratios then decreases with time, indicating improved performance, which can be forecasted. Times-interest ratio and cash coverage ratio also show an improvement trend in performance because of their increasing trends over the period. Performance in management of long-term solvency is therefore strong and show improvement possibility. Asset turnover is another performance indicator that shows asset utilization in an organization. Inventory turnover, receivable turnover, and total asset turnover measures are directly proportional to management efficiency while days of realization and capital intensity are inversely

Great Depression in West Chester, PA Research Paper

Great Depression in West Chester, PA - Research Paper Example West Chester, PA1 is the village which had been ravaged by the Great Depression. The Great Depression took place in October 1929. The depression was triggered by the stock market crash. The crash was the offshoot of the social protest movements. The people had a growing sense that the government should step into the economic debacle. The people wanted the government, especially in Chicago, to directly give a positive impact on the ordinary citizen’s lives. The hardest hit community was Chicago. More than 50 percent of the 1929 Chicago factory workers had been retrenched due to the onslaught of the Great Depression. Chicago imposed taxes on its residents in 1928. In response, the citizens staged a strike. The strikes forced the Chicago government into bankruptcy because it could not collect the taxes needed to pay the government’s daily operating expenses that include government employee payroll. The 1929 Great Depression2 did not significantly reduce customer revenue in West Chester, P.A. On the other hand, the sales of movie theatre tickets increased during the difficult years. The West Chester movie scene indicates a stark difference between from the movie theaters in other parts of the United States. Specifically, the movie sales of theaters in other parts had declined to unprecedented levels. The secret of West Chester’s movie theater revenue increase is innovation. ... On the other hand, most of the movie theaters in many parts of the United States did not include a sound system. The movies were soundless. Popular movies during the soundless movie era included the many movies of Charlie Chaplin, a comedian. In terms of the movie theater industry, West Chester, PA profitably continued its sound-engineered movie theater programs. In addition, Robert Himmelberg (3) emphasized â€Å"unforeseen and unexpected, inexplicable and inexorable, the Great Depression was a traumatic experience for many of the men and women of the 1930s and exercised a profound influence on the generation that lived through it. In its duration and magnitude, it was infinitely more severe than any other episode of â€Å"hard times† in American national life and was unquestionably the dominant force molding the nation’s history during the long decade reaching from mid-1929 through 1940†. The Great Depression had established great hardship and economic difficul ties to a majority of the Americans, especially in West Chester. The 1929 Great Depression also produced a political and social environment that was ripe for a major negative transformation rippling across the entire range of economic, political, and social institutions and policies of the United States government. The 1929 Great Depression had created a strong impact on people’s everyday lives, especially in West Chester, PA. Many had suffered from economic hardship and insecurity. The majority of Americans escaped actual retrenchment from their current jobs or disappearance of their farm or home. However, the people’s faces shaped by the 1929 Great Depression in a significantly unfavorable manner because they had lived in an insurmountable fear that the 1929 Great Depression can easily swallow

Strategy Formulation Essay Example for Free

Strategy Formulation Essay Basic strategic planning is comprised of several components that build upon the previous piece of the plan, and operates much like a flow chart. However, prior to embarking on this process, it is important to consider the players involved. There must be a commitment from the highest office in the organizational hierarchy. Without buy-in from the head of a company, it is unlikely that other members will be supportive in the planning and eventual implementation process, thereby dooming the plan before it ever takes shape. Commitment and support of the strategic-planning initiative must spread from the president and/or CEO all the way down through the ranks to the line worker on the factory floor. Just as importantly, the strategic-planning team should be composed of top-level managers who are capable of representing the interests, concerns, and opinions of all members of the organization. As well, organizational theory dictates that there should be no more than twelve members of the team. This allows group dynamics to function at their optimal level. The components of the strategic-planning process read much like a laundry list, with one exception: each piece of the process must be kept in its sequential order since each part builds upon the previous one. This is where the similarity to a flow chart is most evident, as can be seen in the following illustration. The only exceptions to this are environmental scanning and continuous implementation, which are continuous processes throughout. This article will now focus on the discussion of each component of the formulation process: environmental scanning, continuous implementation, values assessment, vision and mission formulation, strategy design, performance audit analysis, gap analysis, action-plan development, contingency planning, and final implementation. After that, this article will discuss a Japanese variation to Strategy Formulation, Hoshin Planning, which has become very popular. ENVIRONMENTAL SCANNING This element of strategy formulation is one of the two continuous processes. Consistently scanning its surroundings serves the distinct purpose of allowing a company to survey a variety of constituents that affect its performance, and which are necessary in order to conduct subsequent pieces of the planning process. There are several specific areas that should be considered, including the overall environment, the specific industry itself, competition, and the internal environment of the firm. The resulting consequence of regular inspection of the environment is that an organization readily notes changes and is able to adapt its strategy accordingly. This leads to the development of a real advantage in the form of accurate responses to internal Figure 1 Strategic Planning Process   and external stimuli so as to keep pace with the competition. CONTINUOUS IMPLEMENTATION The idea behind this continual process is that each step of the planning process requires some degree of implementation before the next stage can begin. This naturally dictates that all implementation cannot be postponed until completion of the plan, but must be initiated along the way. Implementation procedures specific to each phase of planning must be completed during that phase in order for the next stage to be started. VALUES ASSESSMENT All business decisions are fundamentally based on some set of values, whether they are personal or organizational values. The implication here is that since the strategic plan is to be used as a guide for daily decision making, the plan itself should be aligned with those personal and organizational values. To delve even further, a values assessment should include an in-depth analysis of several elements: personal values, organizational values, operating philosophy, organization culture, and stakeholders. This allows the planning team to take a macro look at the organization and how it functions as a whole. Strategic planning that does not integrate a values assessment into the process is sure to encounter severe implementation and functionality problems if not outright failure. Briefly put, form follows function; the form of the strategic plan must follow the functionality of the organization, which is a direct result of organizational values and culture. If any party feels that his or her values have been neglected, he or she will not adopt the plan into daily work procedures and the benefits will not be obtained. VISION AND MISSION FORMULATION This step of the planning process is critical in that is serves as the foundation upon which the remainder of the plan is built. A vision is a statement that identifies where an organization wants to be at some point in the future. It functions to provide a company with directionality, stress management, justification and quantification of resources, enhancement of professional growth, motivation, standards, and succession planning. Porrus and Collins (1996) point out that a well-conceived vision consists of two major components: a core ideology and the envisioned future. A core ideology is the enduring character of an organization; it provides the glue that holds an organization together. It itself is composed of core values and a core purpose. The core purpose is the organizations entire reason for being. The envisioned future involves a conception of the organization at a specified future date inclusive of its aspirations and ambitions. It includes the BHAG (big, hairy, audacious goal), which a company typically reaches only 50 to 70 percent of the time. This envisioned future gives vividly describes specific goals for the organization to reach. The strategic results of a well formulated vision include the survival of the organization, the focus on productive effort, vitality through the alignment of the individual employees and the organization as a whole, and, finally, success. Once an agreed-upon vision is implemented, it is time to move on to the creation of a mission statement. An explicit mission statement ensures the unanimity of purpose, provides the basis for resource allocation, guides organizational climate and culture, establishes organizational boundaries, facilitates accountability, and facilitates control of cost, time, and performance. When formulating a mission statement, it is vital that it specifies six specific elements, including the basic product or service, employee orientation, primary market(s), customer orientation, principle technologies, and standards of quality. With all of these elements incorporated, a mission statement should still remain short and memorable. For example, the mission statement of the American Red Cross, reads: The mission of the American Red Cross is to improve the quality of human life; to enhance self-reliance and concern for others; and to help people avoid, prepare for, and cope with emergencies. Other functions of a mission statement include setting the bounds for development of company philosophy, values, aspirations, and priorities (policy); establishing a positive public image; justifying business operations; and providing a corporate identity for internal and external stakeholders. STRATEGY DESIGN This section of strategy formulation involves the preliminary layout of the detailed paths by which the company plans to fulfill its mission and vision. This step involves four major elements: identification of the major lines of business (LOBs), establishment of critical success indicators (CSIs), identification of strategic thrusts to pursue, and the determination of the necessary culture. A line of business is an activity that produces either dramatically different products or services or that are geared towards very different markets. When considering the addition of a new line of business, it should be based on existing core competencies of the organization, its potential contribution to the bottom line, and its fit with the firms value system. The establishment of critical success factors must be completed for the organization as a whole as well as for each line of business. A critical success indicator is a gauge by which to measure the progress toward achieving the companys m ission. In order to serve as a motivational tool, critical success indicators must be accompanied by a target year (i.e. 1999, 1999–2002, etc.). This also allows for easy tracking of the indicated targets. These indicators are typically a mixture of financial figures and ratios (i.e. return on investment, return on equity, profit margins, etc.) and softer indicators such as customer loyalty, employee retention/turnover, and so on. Strategic thrusts are the most well-known methods for accomplishing the mission of an organization. Generally speaking, there are a handful of commonly used strategic thrusts, which have been so aptly named grand strategies. They include the concentration on existing products or services; market/product development; concentration on innovation/technology; vertical/horizontal integration; the development of joint ventures; diversification; retrenchment/turnaround (usually through cost reduction); and divestment/liquidation (known as the final solution). Finally, in designing strategy, it is necessary to determine the necessary culture with which to support the achievement of the lines of business, cr itical success indicators, and strategic thrusts. Harrison and Stokes (1992) defined four major types of organizational cultures: power orientation, role orientation, achievement orientation, and support orientation. Power orientation is based on the inequality of access to resources, and leadership is based on strength from those individuals who control the organization from the top. Role orientation carefully defines the roles and duties of each member of the organization; it is a bureaucracy. The achievement orientation aligns people with a common vision or purpose. It uses the mission to attract and release the personal energy of organizational members in the pursuit of common goals. With a support orientation, the organizational climate is based on mutual trust between the individual and the organization. More emphasis is placed on people being valued more as human beings rather than employees. Typically an organization will choose some mixture of these or other predefined culture roles that it feels is suitable in helping it to achieve is mission and the other components of strategy design. PERFORMANCE AUDIT ANALYSIS Conducting a performance audit allows the organization to take inventory of what its current state is. The main idea of this stage of planning is to take an in-depth look at the companys internal strengths and weaknesses and its external opportunities and threats. This is commonly called a SWOT analysis. Developing a clear understanding of resource strengths and weaknesses, an organizations best opportunities, and its external threats allows the planning team to draw conclusions about how to best allocate resources in light of the firms internal and external situation. This also produces strategic thinking about how to best strengthen the organizations resource base for the future. Looking internally, there are several key areas that must be analyzed and addressed. This includes identifying the status of each existing line of business and unused resources for prospective additions; identifying the status of current tracking systems; defining the organizations strategic profile; listing the available resources for implementing the strategic thrusts that have been selected for achieving the newly defined mission; and an examining the current organizational culture. The external investigation should look closely at competitors, suppliers, markets and customers, economic trends, labor-market conditions, and governmental regulations. In conducting this query, the information gained and used must reflect a current state of affairs as well as directions for the future. The result of a performance audit should be the establishment of a performance gap, that is, the resultant gap between the current performance of the organization in relation to its performance targets. To close this gap, the planning team must conduct what is known as a gap analysis, the next step in the strategic planning process. GAP ANALYSIS A gap analysis is a simple tool by which the planning team can identify methods with which to close the identified performance gap(s). All too often, however, planning teams make the mistake of making this step much more difficult than need be. Simply, the planning team must look at the current state of affairs and the desired future state. The first question that must be addressed is whether or not the gap can feasibly be closed. If so, there are two simple questions to answer: What are we doing now that we need to stop doing? and What do we need to do that we are not doing? In answering these questions and reallocating resources from activities to be ceased to activities to be started, the performance gap is closed. If there is doubt that the initial gap cannot be closed, then the feasibility of the desired future state must be reassessed. Collins, James C., and Jerry I. Porras. Building Your Companys Vision. Harvard Business Review, September-October 1996, 65–90. Goldstein, Leonard D., Timothy M. Nolan, and J. William Pfeiffer. Applied Strategic Planning: How to Develop a Plan that Really Works. New York: McGraw-Hill, Inc., 1993. Harrison, Roger, and Herb Stokes. Diagnosing Organizational Culture. San Francisco: Pfeiffer, 1992. King, Bob. Hoshin Planning: the Developmental Approach. Methuen, MA: GOAL/QPC, 1989. Mellum, Mara Minerva, and Casey Collett. Breakthrough Leadership: Achieving Organizational Alignment through Hoshin Planning. Chicago: American Hospital Publishers, Inc., 1995.

The Theme of Racial Intolerance in Conrads Heart of Darkness Essay

It is commonly argued that ‘Heart of Darkness’ is nothing more than a racial tirade from a misinformed Englishman. Although Conrad is not misinformed and has no intention of fronting a racist point of view, when the treatment of Africans in the text is closely examined, the theme of racism is presented so deliberately all other themes merely fade into the background. Conrad’s evocation of the African environment and population preaches racial intolerance and creates a stark contrast between the life of Europeans and Africans. The constant slandering of the African population as â€Å"niggers† and â€Å"cannibals† and â€Å"savages† and the referral to the continent as an immense â€Å"Heart of Darkness† are the base examples of this racial intolerance. But despite this racist viewpoint, Conrad is merely conveying the language and prevailing attitude of the day; that Africa is considered as subordinate to Western civilization. However, Marlow’s observation of the Indigenous population of Africa develops on the idea of racial intolerance. The dancing Africans on the riverbank yield the first example of t...

Geography Reflection

This project was challenging from the beginning. We had difficulty identifying what we were going to center our project around. Once we got going however we did get a lot of productive work done. I didn’t contribute a large direct contribution to the paper, but I did the introduction and conclusion portions. I also worked closely with Yibo and Bobby to structure their arguments in their portions of the paper. Bobby found my assistance very helpful and him and I constantly worked on revising portions of the paper as we were writing them.Yibo asked for help and we gave him help as well as outlined how his paper should go, but he was unable to structure his part of the paper accordingly. If I were to re-do the project I would have liked to work more closely with Yibo on his part of the paper, and ensured we all cited our work as we went. We got mixed up in a few of our sources and it was a headache to fit them at the end, but we were able to crunch it out at the end. I felt the p resentation fell upon my lap for the most part and I would have liked more contributions from the other members as far as setting up the presentation.However I was very grateful that each of the members had their own knowledge about their sections of the paper. This project was challenging from the beginning. We had difficulty identifying what we were going to center our project around. Once we got going however we did get a lot of productive work done. I didn’t contribute a large direct contribution to the paper, but I did the introduction and conclusion portions. I also worked closely with Yibo and Bobby to structure their arguments in their portions of the paper.Bobby found my assistance very helpful and him and I constantly worked on revising portions of the paper as we were writing them. Yibo asked for help and we gave him help as well as outlined how his paper should go, but he was unable to structure his part of the paper accordingly. If I were to re-do the project I w ould have liked to work more closely with Yibo on his part of the paper, and ensured we all cited our work as we went. We got mixed up in a few of our sources and it was a headache to fit them at the end, but we were able to crunch it out at the end.I felt the presentation fell upon my lap for the most part and I would have liked more contributions from the other members as far as setting up the presentation. However I was very grateful that each of the members had their own knowledge about their sections of the paper. This project was challenging from the beginning. We had difficulty identifying what we were going to center our project around. Once we got going however we did get a lot of productive work done. I didn’t contribute a large direct contribution to the paper, but I did the introduction and conclusion portions.I also worked closely with Yibo and Bobby to structure their arguments in their portions of the paper. Bobby found my assistance very helpful and him and I constantly worked on revising portions of the paper as we were writing them. Yibo asked for help and we gave him help as well as outlined how his paper should go, but he was unable to structure his part of the paper accordingly. If I were to re-do the project I would have liked to work more closely with Yibo on his part of the paper, and ensured we all cited our work as we went.We got mixed up in a few of our sources and it was a headache to fit them at the end, but we were able to crunch it out at the end. I felt the presentation fell upon my lap for the most part and I would have liked more contributions from the other members as far as setting up the presentation. However I was very grateful that each of the members had their own knowledge about their sections of the paper. This project was challenging from the beginning. We had difficulty identifying what we were going to center our project around.Once we got going however we did get a lot of productive work done. I didn’ t contribute a large direct contribution to the paper, but I did the introduction and conclusion portions. I also worked closely with Yibo and Bobby to structure their arguments in their portions of the paper. Bobby found my assistance very helpful and him and I constantly worked on revising portions of the paper as we were writing them. Yibo asked for help and we gave him help as well as outlined how his paper should go, but he was unable to structure his part of the paper accordingly.If I were to re-do the project I would have liked to work more closely with Yibo on his part of the paper, and ensured we all cited our work as we went. We got mixed up in a few of our sources and it was a headache to fit them at the end, but we were able to crunch it out at the end. I felt the presentation fell upon my lap for the most part and I would have liked more contributions from the other members as far as setting up the presentation. However I was very grateful that each of the members had t heir own knowledge about their sections of the paper. This project was challenging from the beginning.We had difficulty identifying what we were going to center our project around. Once we got going however we did get a lot of productive work done. I didn’t contribute a large direct contribution to the paper, but I did the introduction and conclusion portions. I also worked closely with Yibo and Bobby to structure their arguments in their portions of the paper. Bobby found my assistance very helpful and him and I constantly worked on revising portions of the paper as we were writing them. Yibo asked for help and we gave him help as well as outlined how his paper should go, but he was unable to structure his part of the paper accordingly.If I were to re-do the project I would have liked to work more closely with Yibo on his part of the paper, and ensured we all cited our work as we went. We got mixed up in a few of our sources and it was a headache to fit them at the end, but we were able to crunch it out at the end. I felt the presentation fell upon my lap for the most part and I would have liked more contributions from the other members as far as setting up the presentation. However I was very grateful that each of the members had their own knowledge about their sections of the paper. This project was challenging from the beginning.We had difficulty identifying what we were going to center our project around. Once we got going however we did get a lot of productive work done. I didn’t contribute a large direct contribution to the paper, but I did the introduction and conclusion portions. I also worked closely with Yibo and Bobby to structure their arguments in their portions of the paper. Bobby found my assistance very helpful and him and I constantly worked on revising portions of the paper as we were writing them. Yibo asked for help and we gave him help as well as outlined how his paper should go, but he was unable to structure his part of th e paper accordingly.If I were to re-do the project I would have liked to work more closely with Yibo on his part of the paper, and ensured we all cited our work as we went. We got mixed up in a few of our sources and it was a headache to fit them at the end, but we were able to crunch it out at the end. I felt the presentation fell upon my lap for the most part and I would have liked more contributions from the other members as far as setting up the presentation. However I was very grateful that each of the members had their own knowledge about their sections of the paper. This project was challenging from the beginning.We had difficulty identifying what we were going to center our project around. Once we got going however we did get a lot of productive work done. I didn’t contribute a large direct contribution to the paper, but I did the introduction and conclusion portions. I also worked closely with Yibo and Bobby to structure their arguments in their portions of the paper . Bobby found my assistance very helpful and him and I constantly worked on revising portions of the paper as we were writing them. Yibo asked for help and we gave him help as well as outlined how his paper should go, but he was unable to structure his part of the paper accordingly.If I were to re-do the project I would have liked to work more closely with Yibo on his part of the paper, and ensured we all cited our work as we went. We got mixed up in a few of our sources and it was a headache to fit them at the end, but we were able to crunch it out at the end. I felt the presentation fell upon my lap for the most part and I would have liked more contributions from the other members as far as setting up the presentation. However I was very grateful that each of the members had their own knowledge about their sections of the paper. This project was challenging from the beginning.We had difficulty identifying what we were going to center our project around. Once we got going however w e did get a lot of productive work done. I didn’t contribute a large direct contribution to the paper, but I did the introduction and conclusion portions. I also worked closely with Yibo and Bobby to structure their arguments in their portions of the paper. Bobby found my assistance very helpful and him and I constantly worked on revising portions of the paper as we were writing them. Yibo asked for help and we gave him help as well as outlined how his paper should go, but he was unable to structure his part of the paper accordingly.If I were to re-do the project I would have liked to work more closely with Yibo on his part of the paper, and ensured we all cited our work as we went. We got mixed up in a few of our sources and it was a headache to fit them at the end, but we were able to crunch it out at the end. I felt the presentation fell upon my lap for the most part and I would have liked more contributions from the other members as far as setting up the presentation. How ever I was very grateful that each of the members had their own knowledge about their sections of the paper. This project was challenging from the beginning.We had difficulty identifying what we were going to center our project around. Once we got going however we did get a lot of productive work done. I didn’t contribute a large direct contribution to the paper, but I did the introduction and conclusion portions. I also worked closely with Yibo and Bobby to structure their arguments in their portions of the paper. Bobby found my assistance very helpful and him and I constantly worked on revising portions of the paper as we were writing them. Yibo asked for help and we gave him help as well as outlined how his paper should go, but he was unable to structure his part of the paper accordingly.If I were to re-do the project I would have liked to work more closely with Yibo on his part of the paper, and ensured we all cited our work as we went. We got mixed up in a few of our sou rces and it was a headache to fit them at the end, but we were able to crunch it out at the end. I felt the presentation fell upon my lap for the most part and I would have liked more contributions from the other members as far as setting up the presentation. However I was very grateful that each of the members had their own knowledge about their sections of the paper. This project was challenging from the beginning.We had difficulty identifying what we were going to center our project around. Once we got going however we did get a lot of productive work done. I didn’t contribute a large direct contribution to the paper, but I did the introduction and conclusion portions. I also worked closely with Yibo and Bobby to structure their arguments in their portions of the paper. Bobby found my assistance very helpful and him and I constantly worked on revising portions of the paper as we were writing them. Yibo asked for help and we gave him help as well as outlined how his paper s hould go, but he was unable to structure his part of the paper accordingly.If I were to re-do the project I would have liked to work more closely with Yibo on his part of the paper, and ensured we all cited our work as we went. We got mixed up in a few of our sources and it was a headache to fit them at the end, but we were able to crunch it out at the end. I felt the presentation fell upon my lap for the most part and I would have liked more contributions from the other members as far as setting up the presentation. However I was very grateful that each of the members had their own knowledge about their sections of the paper. This project was challenging from the beginning.We had difficulty identifying what we were going to center our project around. Once we got going however we did get a lot of productive work done. I didn’t contribute a large direct contribution to the paper, but I did the introduction and conclusion portions. I also worked closely with Yibo and Bobby to s tructure their arguments in their portions of the paper. Bobby found my assistance very helpful and him and I constantly worked on revising portions of the paper as we were writing them. Yibo asked for help and we gave him help as well as outlined how his paper should go, but he was unable to structure his part of the paper accordingly.If I were to re-do the project I would have liked to work more closely with Yibo on his part of the paper, and ensured we all cited our work as we went. We got mixed up in a few of our sources and it was a headache to fit them at the end, but we were able to crunch it out at the end. I felt the presentation fell upon my lap for the most part and I would have liked more contributions from the other members as far as setting up the presentation. However I was very grateful that each of the members had their own knowledge about their sections of the paper. This project was challenging from the beginning.We had difficulty identifying what we were going to center our project around. Once we got going however we did get a lot of productive work done. I didn’t contribute a large direct contribution to the paper, but I did the introduction and conclusion portions. I also worked closely with Yibo and Bobby to structure their arguments in their portions of the paper. Bobby found my assistance very helpful and him and I constantly worked on revising portions of the paper as we were writing them. Yibo asked for help and we gave him help as well as outlined how his paper should go, but he was unable to structure his part of the paper accordingly.If I were to re-do the project I would have liked to work more closely with Yibo on his part of the paper, and ensured we all cited our work as we went. We got mixed up in a few of our sources and it was a headache to fit them at the end, but we were able to crunch it out at the end. I felt the presentation fell upon my lap for the most part and I would have liked more contributions from the o ther members as far as setting up the presentation. However I was very grateful that each of the members had their own knowledge about their sections of the paper. This project was challenging from the beginning.We had difficulty identifying what we were going to center our project around. Once we got going however we did get a lot of productive work done. I didn’t contribute a large direct contribution to the paper, but I did the introduction and conclusion portions. I also worked closely with Yibo and Bobby to structure their arguments in their portions of the paper. Bobby found my assistance very helpful and him and I constantly worked on revising portions of the paper as we were writing them. Yibo asked for help and we gave him help as well as outlined how his paper should go, but he was unable to structure his part of the paper accordingly.If I were to re-do the project I would have liked to work more closely with Yibo on his part of the paper, and ensured we all cited o ur work as we went. We got mixed up in a few of our sources and it was a headache to fit them at the end, but we were able to crunch it out at the end. I felt the presentation fell upon my lap for the most part and I would have liked more contributions from the other members as far as setting up the presentation. However I was very grateful that each of the members had their own knowledge about their sections of the paper. This project was challenging from the beginning.We had difficulty identifying what we were going to center our project around. Once we got going however we did get a lot of productive work done. I didn’t contribute a large direct contribution to the paper, but I did the introduction and conclusion portions. I also worked closely with Yibo and Bobby to structure their arguments in their portions of the paper. Bobby found my assistance very helpful and him and I constantly worked on revising portions of the paper as we were writing them. Yibo asked for help a nd we gave him help as well as outlined how his paper should go, but he was unable to structure his part of the paper accordingly.If I were to re-do the project I would have liked to work more closely with Yibo on his part of the paper, and ensured we all cited our work as we went. We got mixed up in a few of our sources and it was a headache to fit them at the end, but we were able to crunch it out at the end. I felt the presentation fell upon my lap for the most part and I would have liked more contributions from the other members as far as setting up the presentation. However I was very grateful that each of the members had their own knowledge about their sections of the paper.

Learning and Development Essay

Strategic activities in organization or at work places are approaches to human resource management that provide a framework to support long term business goals and outcomes, these approaches vary in relation to the business activities itself. Schwab (1980) noted that the growing body of strategic research can be seen in two interrelated ways which are the substantive and measurement streams. The substantive stream refers to studies which emphasizes on the physiology or character of a theoretical relationship between independent and dependent variables while the measurement stream focuses on the outcome of the correlation between the underlying theoretical concept and operationalization itself (Venkatraman and Grant 1986). This academic article tries to look at more of the measurement stream in relation to training, learning and development based on previous academic articles and my own general understanding of how truly these strategic these concepts are or not. Learning training and development are human resource development activities and over time, two factors have influenced these concepts towards being part of the evolutional role of the formulating business strategy which are the centrality of information technology to business success and the sustainable competitive advantage offered by work force expertise (Swanson and Terraco 1995) Critical business issues from new marketing strategies to innovations in production technology are based on, among other factors, the performance capabilities of those expected to use these new work systems, this means that employee expertise itself has been expanded through effective programs of employee development. Therefore activities of human resource development in the work place such as learning training and development have truly been strategic by maintaining the pace with the increasingly sophisticated information and production technologies that continue to diffuse throughout vital industries of the world (swanson and terraco1994). The conceptualization of strategic human resource management as a management system which matches business concerns with human resource activities (Beer et al 1984;miles and snow 1984) have been referred to as a high performance work system(HPWS)(Bercker et al 1196) which is characterized by provision of employee development and training activities in with the business strategy(Aurthur 1994: Huselid 1995; Jackson and Schuler 1995;MacDuffie 1995) for example,selction, development and rewards involves the internal combination of procedures across the hr function. This shows the degree of emphases placed on the link between human resource activities and business need in relation to strategy (Baird and Meshoulam 1988; Lengnick-Hall and Lengnick-Hall 1988; Fisher 1989; Boxall 1992; Mabey and Iles 1993; Schuler 1992).  Successful internal integration of HR activities results in organizational benefits (Becker et al. 1996). This essay of mine attempts to show the link among learning train ing and development as a strategy to organization. Learning and development as an approach of strategy stands for how an organization make sure that the present and future learning and development activities support the achievements of its goals by improving skills and capabilities of individuals and teams.. it should be business directed, this means that it should be designed to help the attainment of business goals by promoting human capital management(Armstrong 2009). Learning can be defined as a means by which a person acquire and develop new knowledge, skills, capabilities, behaviors and attitudes† Armstrong 2011 pg 664. Honey and Mumford noted explained learning happens when people show that they know they didn’t prior to the time they are now. The enhancement of capabilities previously had which leads to skills, knowledge and attitudes through a continual process that tends to prepare people for more responsibities in the future is the act of learning. Estherby-smith et al (2000) agreed to the fact that there is a debate whether learning should be defined as change in cognition or behaviors, thus showing that researchers would agree with defining learning as a change in organizations knowledge and is a fuction of experience. Learning and development as a strategy is concerned with creating a learning culture that will encourage learning and will provide a basis for planning and implementing learning activities and programmes(Armstrong 2011) this means that for an organization to use the concept of learning as a strategy is has to imbibe the learning culture which is one that learning that is practiced from top management, line managers and employees generally as an essential way of doing things in the firm which they commit to and continuously done. A learning organization was deined by senge(1990) as one where people learn together, where collective aspiration is set free, where there is nuturinng of expansive pattern of thinking and they continuously enlarge their capabilities to create outcomes they truly desire. I have previously mentioned development with learning because both of the them are related when one think about it generally but would like to define it now in the next paragraph. i would be explaining learning and developments together as being strategic. Development can be defined as concerned withensuring that a perons ability and potential are grown and raised in the process of learning experiences or through self directed learning. Development is the end product of true learning which can be seen through changes in outcome of pre and post learning activities i. e the change from the present state of understanding and capabilitiy to a new and higher level of knowledge, skills and abilities. These processes of learning and developments wouldnot take place not to now talk of being strategic without individuals in the organization, this means that individual members are the organism through which organizational learning and development take place. The knowledge embedded in that or those individuals have to be reposited to other people in the firm to gain competitive advantage which is the whole reason for the strategy in itself which are affected by the following factors explained by Argote(2011). Firstly, the experience of the organization affects the organizational learning,this done not by characterizing experience at a gross level , but taking a fine grained approach to describing or noting its elements along with various dimensions( Argote et al 2002). the purpose of taking this approach is to be be able to tell when experience is positive or negative in relation to the processes and outcomes in order to be able to explain relationships amongst the types of experience and to design the learning experience in order to be strategic about the learning. Secondly is the process of organizational learning itself, which is conceived as having three processes: creating, retaining and transferring knowledge. Not much research has been done on creation unlike knowledge retention and transfer. Empirical research over at least the last twenty years that there would be significant difference innovative capabilities of a firm and its knowledge through it transfers within the firm (easterby et all 2008) this is key to the success of the ensuring of the strategy of the firm. This depends on characteristics of the individual that has the knowledge, recipient, attributes of the knowledge and the knowledge transfer process itself as an mportant factor to developing learning capabilities which lead to competitive advantage of the firm (Grant 1996) Another factor is the that could lad to learning being a succes is thr stratetic management it self,peopke whoput these learning and development strategy into place itself. Dynamic capabilities which is an example of strategic management are impotant concepts in relation to organisational learning and its sub process. ‘a greater understanding of how dynamic capabilities develop through organizational learning is needed† Argate 2011 pg Contextuality is also another factor that affects learning which is characterized by the situation and envitonment in which the company finds it self. Oragnisational learniong can do well in an environment which its stability varies with time or turbulent (herdberg 981) little inducement of learning occurs in an environment that’s stable while in a too turbulent environment, the organisation would not be able to interpret environmental responses(bierly and hamalainen 1995) if care is not taken,learning under ambiguity may occur which march and olsen 1975 defined as a situation where the environment is unanalysable and the learning cyle still continues and percieved as an interpretation or meaning. â€Å" Knowledge capabilities are at the heart of the effectiveness of organizations. Since the market and competitive environment of all companies is rapidly changing, the value of existing capabilities will quickly decay, resulting in a lack of competitiveness. It is imperative for organizations to focus on developing their knowledge capabilities on an ongoing basis, or they will face extinction. Organizational development must be centered on the continual enhancement of knowledge capabilities, as the foundation of organizational effectiveness in all fields† Dawson 2000. Armstrong(2009) identified the following elements needed for learning and development to be really strategic and they go follows: it should make a major contribution to the successful attainment of the organizations objective and investments: it should be integrated with and support the achievement of business and human resource strategies: it should be designed un such a way that it would achieve improvement in corporate functional and maximum development in skills and knowledge of people in the organization; equal opportunity for everyone in the organization to develop their skills and knowledge while attaining personal development through the framework of individual and self directed learning but still maintain the primary knowledge of knowing that this is dependent on the employee themselves who be guided and supported by their manager as necessary with the members of the hr department.

Louisiana essays

Louisiana essays Louisiana, known as a hunter and fishermans paradise, has been part of the Union since 1812. The land was part of the Louisiana Purchase bought from Napoleon for 15,000,000 dollars in 1812. It was named after Louis XIV. The capital was originally New Orleans, but was changed in 1849 to Baton Rouge. In 1861 Louisiana seceded from the Union and soon joined the Confederacy. In 1867 Louisiana was re-admitted to the Union. In 1869, sulfur is first produced in the United States. In 1838, the first Mardi Gras parade was held in New Orleans and in 1837 the town of Shreveport was founded. The new capital was completed in Baton Rouge in the year 1932. Huey P. Long was assassinated in the state capital in 1935. In 1973, a team of surgeons performed Louisianas first heart transplant. Two years later in 1975, the Superdome in New Orleans was completed at a total cost of 163,313,315 dollars. Louisiana was the eighteenth state to join the Union. Along with many different dates, there are also many emblems of Louisiana. The Louisiana bird would be known as the Brown Pelican. The state tree is the Cypress Tree. The state dog is known as the Catahula Leopard Dog. Our state flower is the Magnolia and was adopted in the 1900s. Louisianas highest point is Driskill Mountain at a height of 535 feet above sea level. New Orleans is the lowest point and is 5 feet below sea level. Our largest lake is half the size of Rhode Island. New Orleans is also our largest city. In 1800, Louisiana wasnt part of the United States. Louisiana covers 47,752 square miles and is somewhat larger than New York. It ranks 31st in land size among other states in the United States of America. It might not be the same in a few years because the land area is constantly changing due to land erosion along the coast. It erodes at a rate of 16 square miles per year. ...

Hard High School How It Affects Your College Chances

Hard High School How It Affects Your College Chances SAT / ACT Prep Online Guides and Tips Attending a tough high school can certainly affect some of your performance statistics. It's natural to wonder whether these shifts in your numbers are going to affect your chances of college admission. In this article, we cover what colleges are really concerned with when they look at your record, and we explain why you don't need to be worried if your high school is especially hard. What Is a "Hard" High School? There are a few reasons a high school might be considered "hard." Usually, it's because the school iscompetitive within the student body; there are a lot of students taking the really tough classes and doing well in them. Grading policy is also a consideration.Hard schools are slow to give out A's, whereas others practically chuck them at any student in sight. Size can also impact how hard a high school appears to be. At a large and competitive school, it's hard to get a top class rank- you're competing against a lot of other people. At a small and competitive school, it's hard to get a good percentile ranking because a slight difference in rank can translate to a relatively large percentile discrepancy. A hard high school is one where students who would otherwise get top grades and top ranking have a hard time doing so, either because the grading is so tough or because their peers are so competitive. What Colleges Look At Many students worrythat the relatively lackluster grades or ranking they achieve at a hard school may seem unimpressive to colleges. Basically, they're afraid they won't look smart. They think they won't be able to get into their desired college(s) because they didn't a perfect GPA and graduate as valedictorian. As it turns out, colleges, especially the more selective ones, do their best to view youwithin the context of yourhigh school environment. When colleges receive your transcript, they also receive a brief "school profile"whichsummarizes the school in terms of courses offered, the grading scale, average grades and tests scores, and the class size. Admissions officers will see that your school has tough grading policies and that an imperfect GPA doesn't imply a lack of understanding in your courses. Colleges are looking to see whether you sought out the most rigorous courses available to you and whether you excelled in them. Also, remembercolleges are looking for the whole package. Grades are a huge part of it, but they're also looking at test scores, extracurriculars, letters of recommendation, and personal statements. Colleges won't assign (or dock) you points based on how difficult your high school is- they'll do their best to be fair to students from all backgrounds. There areplenty of factors to weigh when it comes to college admissions. Ways to Boost Your Application You're essentially trying to stand out by means of some skill or accomplishment. Commitment to extracurricular endeavors is a great place to start. Quality trumps quantity here; it's better to be deeply involved in a few select activities than barely involved in a whole bunch. Stellar application essaysalso score major points. Spend serious time on your personalstatement, and get help revising and editing it. Make sure it has a balance of the personal and professional- this isn't a scholarly essay for an academic journal, but it's not a diary entry, either. Awesome letters of recommendation make a great impression. Choose your recommendation writerscarefully. It's alright to remind them of your accomplishments- describe the points you'd definitely like them to include. Impeccable test scores catch the eye. Standardized tests are a convenient place to shine. Invest your time and energy in preparing for the SAT and/or ACT ahead of time. The Final Word You don't need to worry about a college looking down on you because of your hard high school. The most selective colleges spend extra time looking at the context of your numbers, and the less selective schools are, well, less selective. The best you can do is perform your best at the high school you attend. Take the hardest classes you can actually manage, and don't worry overmuch about how the resulting grades will look. If it so happens that you don't get into the college you'd hoped for, remember there are multiple reasons why things may not have lined up; it's almost certainly not a matter of the hard high school you attended, but just the fallout of an extremely- and often unjustly- selective system. What's Next? Are you getting started on the college application process? Pay attention to the important deadlines listed in our article on that topic. If you're wondering what kind of application you ought to submit, read what our experts have to say about that very issue. Also check out this inspirational guideto how one student was successfully admitted to Harvard. Want to improve your SAT score by 160 points or your ACT score by 4 points? We've written a guide for each test about the top 5 strategies you must be using to have a shot at improving your score. Download it for free now:

Critical review of research artical Article Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Critical review of research artical - Article Example Special efforts were taken by the research team to obtain data from the business sector exclusively. Problem or objective: Employee misconduct is a serious issue in any organizational setting. The objective of the study was to throw light on the relation between the use of tactics and employee misconduct in the organizational setting or environment. The paper seeks to explore how belt-tightening tactics such as â€Å"adjusted work schedules, layoffs, reductions in compensation and/or benefits, hiring freezes, early buyouts, production slowdowns, and plant closures† have contributed to increased misconduct among the employees (Research Brief from the 2009 NBES, 2010, p. 1). Literature review: The study does not heavily depend on literature reviews as such. On the other hand, the literature reviewed in the paper consists mainly of the previous survey results and reports conducted by the ERC in 2000, 2003, 2005, 2007 and the Survey of Ethics in American Business of 1994. The literature review of the study seeks to identify major trends towards various levels of misconduct in the organizational environment brought out by ethics issues and belt-tightening tactics implemented by organizations. Population sampling for study: The sample population for the study consisted of 3010 responses among whom 158 respondents worked in the government sector and the rest of the 2852 responses were from employees in the for-profit sector. The eligibility of the participants was ensured by choosing participants who were eighteen years of age or older, currently employed and worked at least 20 hours per week in a company where at least two employees worked. Measurement: The data obtained from the study was measured using response rate calculations which were based on particular dispositions of all telephone survey calls. The eligibility requirements for the study were strictly maintained during the measurement stage and completed calls, partial

Ask week 1 m9 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Ask week 1 m9 - Essay Example Elaborate on the importance of each of the processes. In order to ensure that the governance framework functions as expected in every company, these processes must be followed. There is a need for concern over the ABC’s external stakeholders due to diverse cultural setting. How important is such a concern? There tends to be conflicts when people from different cultures interact due to differences in their customs and beliefs (Badaracco 1992). However, this should not deter a company from achieving its goals. What are ways through which issues of individual morality and organizational ethical responsibility can be managed? Badaracco (1992), Holt (2006) and McDonald (2010) provide four spheres on how to handle such issues. For example, development of a moral character can be used by managers to adjust morals and ethics to suit the situation prevailing in their environment. What are ethical problems in your organisation? These problems could relate to social cultural, sustainability, and corporate social responsibility (Mele 2011). Any commercial oriented organisation can expect to face such challenges. In the effort to find solutions on how to create a high performance teams, there is a need to identify ways to manage and solve ethical problems. What are some of the issues would you focus on towards this effect. This is important because achievement of a certain goal needs a clear framework of how to achieve it. Why is the selection and recruitment of executives an important workplace-based problem? According to McDonald, 2010, ethics have been considered on different levels among them being the individual level. In addition, the ethical behaviour of leaders is rooted in their personality (Mele 2011). In this regard, recruitment and selection of leaders is one of the many considerations to take in order to ensure a correct individual is hired. Your workplace-based problem involves ethical relativism. Why do you think this

IT and E-Commerce Outsourcing Approach in Walmart Coursework

IT and E-Commerce Outsourcing Approach in Walmart - Coursework Example From this paper it is clear that  outsourcing is the technique of delegating organizations business operations to external agencies that helps organizations in leveraging advantages such as low cost labour, enhanced product quality and service innovation. IT outsourcing helps organizations to leverage international knowledge base that increases their accessibility to world class capabilities. Organizations outsource IT for reducing certain business risks. Staying updated with the recent technology and for developing innovative strategies is an expensive as well as time consuming process. As a professional outsourced IT provider works with several customers and require keeping up on best practices of industry, they have full knowledge of what is appropriate and what not. Such knowledge and experience of outsourced IT professionals dramatically decreases organizations risks of implementing expensive wrong management decisions.As the report highlights  IT outsourcing decision making trends to be a complex process that ideally deals with issues within a broad area namely financial feasibility and technological for instance, performance metrics. Huge outsourcings decisions are taken by are taken by the management of the organizations that includes several stakeholders with multiple interests.  Deficiency of organizational resources and business expertise results to ineffective management decision making those results to disappointed organizational performance.

Adaptation To Climate Change In Mauritius Environmental Sciences Essay

Adaptation To Climate Change In Mauritius Environmental Sciences Essay Climate change has been the most debated environmental issue in the political ecology arena in the last two decades. After initiating global discussions in 1992 United Nations Conference on Environment and Development in Rio, the United Nations established the Framework Convention in 1994 on Climate Change (UNFCCC). Subsequently, the Kyoto protocol was signed in 1997 by nations except the United States. Many rounds of negotiations have been going on to combat climate change since then. Among other problems resulting from climate change, sea temperature rise in addition to modifications in the intensity and extremes of precipitation patterns and storms are of great importance. Consequent floods and droughts as well as rises in sea level are affecting water quality and aggravating water pollution. Observational records and climate projections provide abundant evidence that freshwater resources are vulnerable and have the potential to be strongly impacted by climate change, with wide-ranging consequences for human societies and ecosystems.(Bates et al., 2008, p.3). Mauritius forms part of the Small Island Developing States (SIDS) which are among the least responsible for climate change (UNFCCC, 2005, p.2.) but are more prone to suffer from its adverse effects. The UNFCC report also reveals that 60 per cent of the water supply for domestic, industrial and agricultural purposes in Mauritius comes from groundwater and boreholes found near the coast might be adversely impacted by saltwater intrusion (UNFCCC, 2005, p.17). Current solutions to climate change impacts vary from mitigation, which implies reducing the level of human activities that cause climate change, to adaptation, namely by finding ways to lessen vulnerability and minimise harm caused by the impacts. While mitigation is the most suitable solution, it will not bring immediate results and adaptation is consequently a heavily discussed option. As an institutional endeavour to handle adaptation to climate change in Mauritius, the government has an ongoing project under the Africa Adaptation Program, the ultimate goal being revision of policies and identification of adaptation measures for further implementation. However, for successful achievement of policy measures about adaptation to climate change, much public acceptance, understanding and participation is needed. The aim of this research is an understanding and analysis of the perception of undergraduates in Mauritius regarding climate change and adaptation to it, principally with regard to the water resources sector. The findings are meant to help the ongoing governmental program of adaptation to climate change in Mauritius by exploring in particular the perception of young academics with regard to the water sector, identifying their preferred adaptation options and assessing their willingness of participation in implementing measures. Introduction The threat from further global warming has catapulted the environment to the summit of the political agenda with climate change as a major concern. The environment envelops an extended range of inter-reliant troubles: flood, drought, desertification, water shortage, deforestation, storm surges, food and malnutrition, species extinction, human health, soil erosion and waste to name a few. As such, the link between the natural and social magnitude of environmental problems can be clearly made. The degree of impact of climate change upon different bionetwork and state economies will depend not only on the sensitivity of those systems to the problem, but also on their aptitude to climate change adaptation. Climate change in itself is a massive crisis and encapsulates several spheres such as impact on Food and Agriculture, Land usage for settlement, tourism, the fisheries sector, Human health, and water resources among others. Water is indispensable to human life and many activities. Our climate, our biosphere and our socio-economic systems are interconnected in an intricate fashion, such that a change in any one of these induces a change in another. Anthropogenic climate change adds a major pressure to nations that are already tackling the issue of sustainable freshwater use. The challenges related to freshwater are: having too much water, having too little water, and having too much pollution. Each of these problems may be aggravated by climate change. For that reason, the correlation between climate change and water resources is of primary concern and significance. So far, water resource issues with respect to climate change have not been adequately tackled pertaining to policy formulations. Consequently, adjusting to or dealing with climate change will become necessary in certain regions and for certain socioeconomic and ecological systems. The need for adaptation may be scaled by ever growing populations especially in areas susceptible to these extreme events. Adaptation now appears to emerge as a new potential solution to the climate change but is not always very comprehensive. From definitions, adaptation refers to adjustments in ecological, social, or economic systems in response to actual or expected climatic stimuli and their effects or impacts (IPCC, 2007). In other words, it refers to changes in normal processes, customary practices, and structures to restrain likely damages or to profit from opportunity related with climate change. It should be however highlighted that adaptation to environmental change is not a new concept. Our civilization has demonstrated throughout History a strong adaptation capability to different weather conditions and natural changes. T his recent global and local issue of adaptation requires a scientific, economic, political, social and cultural approach and is a multifaceted situation that calls for understanding and recognition by all stakeholders, including decision-makers and the society in general. The island of Mauritius forms part of the Small Island Developing States (SIDS) with special needs and concerns and is highly vulnerable to the adverse impacts of climate change. Human induced climate change such as global warming as well as natural disasters like tsunami and storms have a direct impact on the water resources of SIDS. Being categorized as high priority, freshwater quality and quantity in addition to management and planning demands urgent adaptation action and financial resources to support such action. (WGII TAR Chapter 17). According to the Least Developed Countries Fund (LDFC) established under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), countries should prepare and submit a National Adaptation Programme of Action (NAPA) which enumerates ranked priority adaptation activities and projects to facilitate the development of proposals for implementation. Under the Water Sector priority, SIDS which have already submitted their NAPA (as at Septembe r 2008) have been taken into consideration, to be able to derive similarities and consequent adaptation and mitigation actions to climate change planned by them. This will be used as a basis to analyse their applicability in Mauritius, which has not yet documented its NAPA. SIDS taken into consideration are : In the region of Africa: Cape Verde, Comoros, Guinea Bissau, and Sao Tome e Principe In the region of Asia and the Pacific: Kiribati, Maldives, Samoa, Tuvalu, Vanuatu In the region of Latin America and the Carribean: Haiti Analysis have resulted into specific key problem areas namely, the unavailability or limited availability of drinkable water due to changing weather conditions and the lack of proper infrastructures to manage and sustain water resources, the deterioration of the quality of potable water owing to several factors (for e.g. saline intrusion from sea level rise, soil erosion, unplanned sewerage development, bad waste water management amongst others in underground water sources), poor agricultural production and the negative effects on food security (for e.g production shortages, disruption in the vegetative growing, traditional irrigation methods etc) and other problem factors related to water specific to each SIDS (for example airports of Maldives suffered significant damages due to flooding in addition to impending threat of sea level rise, tsunami caused destruction of the poor sewerage systems, use of traditional sources of water for eg in Sao Tome e Principe) Various global and SIDS adaptation options being either implemented or proposed and which can be considered for implementations in the local context are listed below: Development of water harnessing, collection and storage infrastructures by building reservoirs and dams, encouraging use of individual water-saving devices and promoting safe rainwater harvesting through ground catchment and roof catchment systems, Elaboration of decentralized management plans on water production and distribution infrastructures, Elaboration and implementation of legislation and regulation, with practical modalities of application very defined, Design and construction of suitable sewage treatment and disposal systems to safeguard water resources, Establishing modeling maps and an information and monitoring system on water resources Institutionalization of management system, with the purpose of putting in practice the national politics of the water resources, Reducing leakage in supply systems, Carrying out participatory research on the knowledge of traditional practices of adaptation to the variations of the water cycle. As an institutional endeavour to handle adaptation to climate change in Mauritius, the government also has an ongoing documentation project under the Africa Adaptation Program, the ultimate goal being revision of policies and identification of adaptation measures for further implementation. However, according to Breton et al. (p.15), political measures regarding climate change will require a certain degree of acceptance and public understanding to be able to be implemented. What is climate change in the eyes of the public? What do citizens believe can be done to lessen damages caused by adverse impacts? A study by Leiserowitz in 2007 on international public perception states that social scientists have found that public risk perceptions strongly influence the way people respond to hazards (p.1). Thus, comprehension of how the public perceives climate change and adaptation is a key element in directing the actions that enable both raising awareness and motivating behavioral changes in the population at large. The study of public perception on climate change is of major importance nowadays, as Leiserowitz confirms Since 1988, numerous public opinion polls have found that Americans, Europeans, and Japanese are increasingly aware of and concerned about global climate change and supportive of a wide range of mitigation and adaptation policies (2007, p.3) and different international studies agree on the point that citizens concern for climate change is high. If we look again at the study carried out by Leiserowitz, the conclusion is that large majorities worldwide already believe that climate change is a very serious problem and are growing more concerned (2007, p.34). Globescan (2000 cited in Leiserowitz 2007, p.29) adds that on rating the seriousness of eight environmental issues, water resources ranks first and the results of a survey of 34 countries demonstrate very high levels of public concern about a wide range of environmental issues, from local problems like water and air pollution to global problems like ozone depletion and climate change. In a new survey of 30 countries, Globescan (2001 cited in Leiserowitz 2007, p.11) also finds that Worldwide, the potential impacts of climate change on human health were the single most cited, followed by drought and water shortages, species loss, and extreme weather events whereby drought and water shortages hold a second place as being one possible impact most concerning people personally. According to findings of another survey carried out on climate change belief in Britain (Poortinga et al., 2006, p.19) in 2005, an overwhelming majority of respondents (91%) believe that the worlds climate is changing. The survey concludes that a clear majority of respondents (62%) also indicate that every possible action should be taken against climate change (2006, p. 19), and almost half of the respondents would be prepared to take part in a public discussion or hearing about climate change (2006, p.13). A study by Maddison in 2007 of the public perception of agriculturalists in 11 African countries regarding climate change mentions that When temperatures change farmers à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ practice increased water conservation (p. 2). This research will be focusing on the perception of Mauritian university undergraduates on the topic of climate change and adaptation to it, particularly with regard to the water resources sector. The findings of the research would be made available to policy-makers to enable them to propose more practical, focused policies and measures and to deal with the priority level that academics give to adaptation. The background of the proposed study is of great interest because the university students will be required in the future to participate in the implementation of various adaptation and mitigation measures both as citizens and decision makers. Aims and objectives The aim of this research is an understanding and analysis of the perception of undergraduates in Mauritius regarding climate change and adaptation to it, principally with regard to the water resources sector. This research is meant to help an ongoing governmental program of adaptation to climate change in Mauritius by exploring in particular the issue of perception of young academics. Awareness of the perception of climate change and adaptation as well as attitudes and preferences of young academics in Mauritius can help in setting up adaptation priorities specific to the island. Fostering the involvement of young people can facilitate better design of guidelines to adapt to the concerns of the population and aid in producing more effective communication policies. The objective of the study is to discover the view of the university students with regard to climate change and its associated events and whether they perceive implementation of any adaptation measure in the water resources sector to have taken place by now. Another objective will be to ascertain the preferences of those youngsters on the subject of adaptation and mitigation options with respect to the water resources area. The paper will also target to find out whether academic youngsters notice any obstruction to adaptation and will attempt to discover the proportion of youngsters that are aware of climate change but have not yet reacted. Matters considered would be whether they believe climate change to be a very serious problem, their extent of concern for climate change, their view on the duty of institutions to overcome barriers to adaptation, their level of knowledge and information and their preferences regarding different adaptation options. Their rating of seriousness of wa ter resources compared to a range of environmental issues will also be assessed in addition to which extent they consider droughts and water shortages to be a personal concern. The research therefore endeavors to improve our understanding of the links between undergraduates perceptions on climate change and its impacts with regards to water-related issues on one hand, as well as adaptation and mitigation response options preferred by those youngsters, on the other hand. The research will also be carried out in an attempt to inform policymakers and stakeholders about the implications of climate change and climate change response options for water resources, in order to facilitate better design of guidelines to adapt to the concerns of the population and aid in producing more effective awareness campaigns and education policies if necessary. . List of hypotheses Based on several researches that have been done at global level regarding the public perception of climate change and adaptation in the field of water resources, our first hypothesis for this study is that large majorities worldwide already believe that climate change is a very serious problem and are growing more concerned (Leiserowitz, 2007, p.34). The second hypothesis of our study is that when rating the seriousness of a range of environmental issues, water resources problem is ranked first, as confirmed by the findings of the survey of 34 countries carried out by Globescan (2000 cited in Leiserowitz 2007, p.29). The third hypothesis is based on the survey of 30 countries carried out by Globescan (2001 cited in Leiserowitz 2007, p.11) whereby among a list of possible impacts of climate change, drought and water shortages ranked first and second respectively, as being one most possible impact concerning people personally. Methodology The study will be based on a structured questionnaire survey to be carried out at the University of Technology, Mauritius, and the University of Mauritius. The targeted respondents would include some 240 fulltime students, equally divided between each university. A batch of 60 undergraduates studying environment and sustainable development subjects at Level 1 will be selected, as well as a group of 60 level 1 students following other courses, as a pre-survey tactic. To get data on their level of knowledge, another set of level 3 students, 60 learning environment and sustainable development subjects and 60 studying other subjects will also be interrogated. The respondents will be selected considering gender equality and there will be no age limit, so long that the students are either at Level 1 or level 3 of their studies. The questionnaire will be prepared by considering the significance of the knowledge of the academics and to ensure that our objectives will be met. The feedback form will be in English language, which undergraduates will have no difficulty to understand. The interviewers will assist the participants by discussing all questions in the survey document. Survey questions will cover several topics linked to climate change and adaptation in the water resources sector, including: Awareness of climate change and its associated events; Awareness of adaptation measures that exist or can be proposed in the water sector; Perception that implementation of any adaptation measure in the water resources sector has already occurred; preferences regarding adaptation and mitigation options with respect to the water resources area; perceived obstruction to adaptation; Perception of the duty of institutions to overcome barriers to adaptation; Perception on degree of availability of knowledge and information on the matter; Degree of agreement to participate in public debates on the issue of water resources, and Proportion of youngsters that are aware of climate change but have not yet reacted to that, including grounds for action and non action. Open-ended questions will be used regarding grounds for action and non action as well as to gather any personal adaptation proposal not listed in the feedback form. The data obtained during the questionnaire survey will be summarized by making use of computer software for statistical analysis. Benefits of the research Policy-makers at the level of the State and local Government and local authorities will benefit from the findings of the research as they will be able to propose more practical, focused policies and measures which will help in solving the problem of adaptation to climate change in the water resources sector locally. The study will also help in setting up adaptation priorities specific to the island. The Ministry of Renewable Energy and Public Utilities, the Central Water Authority and the Waste Water Management Authority will benefit from the findings of the study when drafting their policy document regarding water resource and its sustainable management. The undergraduates themselves and the academic society in general would benefit from the findings which will indicate the priority level tertiary level students give to this question of adaptation in the field of water resources. Fostering the involvement of young people can also facilitate better design of guidelines to adapt to the concerns of the whole population and aid in producing more effective communication policies, which will be advantageous to the general public. The future generation would gain from the study as the findings would help the current generation in devising practical solutions which will foster sustainable development, given that adverse climate change impacts, if not mitigated, prevent a country from succeeding in the implementation of its sustainable development goals. Time plan The duration of the project is of 12 weeks starting as from Saturday 13 March 2010 till the Saturday 29 May 2010. Figure 1 shows a Gantt chart that has been prepared in this respect to illustrate the project task duration against time. The Gantt chart allows up to date monitoring of the project at any point in time and should the project digress against final plan, remedial actions can thus be taken without delay. Figure 1: Gantt chart for research project Cost Estimates Project Component Total Costs 1 Questionnaire Printing: Photocopy costs Rs 1500 2 Questionnaire distribution and Collection: Transport costs Rs 1000 3 Communications Rs 3000 4 Miscellaneous costs (stationery and others) Rs 500 Total costs estimates Rs 6000