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Organizational Change Management Streamlining Stabilizing

Organizational Change Management: Streamlining Stabilizing Transition Cassy M. Miller American Public University Executive Summary This essay will take a look at organization change management and how effective communication including transparency and reduction of ambiguity; approaching change and transition through a human lens versus a mechanical lens; implementation of strategic plans and successor development will lend to a reduction in confusion, fear and resistance. Leaders must be able to communicate effectively and actively engage employees in processes otherwise organizational change and functions will be inhibited. Leaders should consider how the changes may affect their staff and what perceptions might be†¦show more content†¦Leadership skill and traits will lend to a successful transition and reduce tensions among the workforce and create a sense of collaboration and pride in the organization. Extensive or overall changes that occur within an organization must be strategic in nature and involve many resources of the organization. Additional changes occur at the many levels of an organization to support the overall strategic plan (Nahavandi, Malekzadeh, Denhardt, Denhardt, 2014). Effective Communication Effective communication sounds like a simple term and one that can be exercised by simply listening. However, the key to effective communication is actually far more complicated in nature and most individuals make assumptions about their level of communication skills being effective. Leaders must be able to communicate effectively and actively engage employees in processes otherwise organizational change and functions will be inhibited. In order for communication to be considered successful, the sender must deliver the message in a way that the receiver can translate and interpret the data accurately (Mazurowski, 2013). There are several ways that that a manager can increase their effective listening skills such as asking clarifying questions, making statements such as, â€Å"if I understand what you are saying, †¦..† and being aware of other messages being sent such as body language,Show MoreRelatedThe Singapore Housing Development Board1502 Words   |  7 Pages wh ich without alteration - will hinder or prevent the change and growth of HDB (Jick, Peiperl, 2011). The first challenge to change is the balancing of heavy workloads of employees with change. This issue of ‘balancing’ must be addressed, since forcing employees balance the strain of large workloads and change strategies can result in the stretching of resources and the destruction of employees from both their routine work and the change agent’s goals (2011). Second, the full integration of aRead MoreInnovation And Change : Nursing Essay4333 Words   |  18 PagesInnovation and Change – Nursing Name Institution The need for innovation in medical care becomes a priority in a growing world, with the world population growing at an alarming rate, from 3.036 Billion to 7.125 Billion in just half a century from 1960 to 2013. The rapid increase in population has translated to congestion in urban centers leading to enormous waste production; a lot of pollution made due to excessive fumes from vehicles on roads and even water pollution due to a rapid increaseRead MoreEssay about â€Å"Utah Symphony and Utah Opera: a Merger Proposal†14805 Words   |  60 Pagesquality musicians but this also becomes a financial weakness. Since the orchestra musicians are covered by a collective bargaining agreement, wages cannot be adjusted. Their salaries are set in collective bargaining agreements signed by both labor and management representatives. Per collective agreement the symphony is to receive wage increase of 12.9% in 2002 and 6.8% in 2004. From a quick observation, the orchestra musicians’ s alary seems to be increasing more rapidly than those of a for-profit organizationRead MoreThe Management and Control of Quality 8e34169 Words   |  137 Pagesfocus on quality among both workers and their managers. Answer: F AACSB: Analytic Skills The measure of efficiency defined as the amount of output achieved per unit of input is referred to as productivity. Answer: T AACSB: Reflective Thinking Skills Management control refers to any planned and systematic activity directed toward providing consumers with products of appropriate quality, along with the confidence that products meet consumers’ requirements. Answer: F AACSB: Analytic Skills The transcendentRead MoreMarket Structure of Steel Industry4959 Words   |  20 PagesInter-Ministerial Group (IMG) is functioning in the Ministry of Steel, under the Chairmanship of Secretary (Steel) to monitor and coordinate major steel investments in the country. The Government also took various fiscal and other measures for stabilizing steel prices like significant reduction in import duties o n steel, major raw materials, including mineral products and ores and concentrates in last few years. Also, excise duty for steel is currently at 12%. The government has also imposed exportRead MoreThe Main Problems of Economic Development of Kazakhstans Regions11951 Words   |  48 PagesThe economic framework of local governance The economic foundations of the local government of the Republic of Kazakhstan are: - Municipal property; - Local finance; - Property in state ownership and transferred to the management of local governments. The material and financial resources, which are the economic foundation of local government, determine in fact the efficiency of local government. The economic foundation for local governance is a set of legal norms that regulate social relationsRead MoreEssay about Boeing Company Analysis15946 Words   |  64 PagesBoeing [pic] Presented by: Urvishkumar Patel Amitkumar Patel Bhavikkumar Patel Manojkumar Patel Vishal Patel Jonathan Mayes MG - 640 Management Policy Dr. Santanu Borah July 27, 2008 TABLE OF CONTENTS INTRODUCTION 5 Company Overview 5 Boeing Commercial Airplanes 5 Boeing Integrated Defense Systems 6 Boeing Capital Corporation 6 Background 7 Sales/Operations 9 Constituent Contributions to Corporate Portfolio and Revenue 12 Market Share, RevenuesRead MoreBusiness Information Systems31162 Words   |  125 Pagesbehavioral issues as well as technical issues surrounding the development, use, and impact of information systems used by managers and employees in the firm is called: a. information systems literacy. b. information systems architecture. c. management information systems. d. information technology infrastructure. Answer: c Difficulty: Medium Reference: p. 11 18. In a hierarchical organization, the upper levels consist of: a. managerial and professional workers. b. managerial, professionalRead MoreLogistics Management19517 Words   |  79 Pages21st century are time and service (responsiveness and flexibility). The notions of stabilizing flow and reducing variations are no longer competitive practices. More to point, three forces separately and in combination are driving today’s companies deeper and deeper into a territory that most of the executive and managers find frighteningly unfamiliar. These forces are the 3 C’s, customer, competition and change. Customers: - Seller no longer has upper hand whereas customers do. A customer nowRead MoreManaging Information Technology (7th Edition)239873 Words   |  960 PagesNIBCO’s â€Å"Big Bang†: An SAP Implementation CASE STUDY III-6 BAT Taiwan: Implementing SAP for a Strategic Transition CASE STUDY III-7 A Troubled Project at Modern Materials, Inc. CASE STUDY III-8 Purchasing and Implementing a Student Management System at Jefferson County School System CASE STUDY IV-1 The Clarion School for Boys, Inc.– Milwaukee Division: Making Information Systems Investments CASE STUDY IV-2 FastTrack IT Integration for the Sallie Mae Merger CASE STUDY

Barriers Can Limit Access to Opportunity Free Essays

Barriers can limit access to opportunity (Health and Culture diversity) When it comes to achieving opportunity, many people have to face barriers or challenges. For example, a child from a poor family background might have a goal of going to medical school and graduating with a medical degree. But in this case, the barrier could be financial. We will write a custom essay sample on Barriers Can Limit Access to Opportunity or any similar topic only for you Order Now Likewise, a person moved from his country to another country for work. He found difficulty in understanding his colleagues who speak a strong regional or national accent. This could be a communication barrier and might be challenging to him. These barriers can limit access to opportunity. Nurses work with patients from a range of ethnic, cultural and religious groups and a people from diverse social backgrounds. So nurses need to know enough about diverse groups to develop an awareness that enhances planning and caring for patients. According to the nursing code of ethics, her primary commitment is to the patient whether an individual, family, group, or community. She is responsible and accountable for individual nursing practice and determines the appropriate delegation of tasks consistent with the nurse’s obligation to provide optimum patient care. For example, a language barrier can be a challenge while provide quality care to patient. According to the nursing code of ethics, a patient has right of appropriate care, hence the nurse can confront with this barrier by assigning an interpreter who can work as a communicator between the nurse and the patient. It helps the patient to explore the real problem that is he facing. And a nurse can apply an appropriate method for his promotive, preventive and curative services which are the basic right of the patient. A Patient can also be from a different culture than that of the nurse. Hence, this could also act as a challenge while providing quality care. So she has to confront this situation by gaining more knowledge about the culture of the patient and respecting the patient’s morals and values. Failure to understand and manage social and cultural differences may have significant health consequences for people of diverse backgrounds. How to cite Barriers Can Limit Access to Opportunity, Papers

The Ball Poem Essay Research Paper THE free essay sample

The Ball Poem Essay, Research Paper THE BALL POEM by John Berriman This verse form is about losing something that you love, and larning to turn up. We will write a custom essay sample on The Ball Poem Essay Research Paper THE or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page It is about a small male child, who for the first clip in his immature life, is larning what it is like to see heartache at the loss of a much beloved ownership his ball. To us, the loss of a ball is of minor effect, and our reaction to it is to state O there are other balls. But to a small male child, this is non so. A dime, another ball, is worthless. Money is external, it can non purchase back our love, nor replace the things that we love: the things that truly matter. In this verse form, the male child s ball personifies his immature yearss and happy artlessness. In this universe, people will take balls merely as they will take away our artlessness and coerce us to turn up. And one time we lose this artlessness, we can neer acquire it back. Balls will be lost ever, small male child, and no 1 buys a ball back. This verse form goes to demo how, all throughout your life, you will be forced to make things that you don t privation to make ; and you will lose or hold to give up the things that you love. But, despite this, you have to larn to stand up to be strong and acquire on with your life no affair how much it hurts indoors. Because that is the lone manner you will last ; you have to larn to accept and allow travel and non cleaving onto something that you can neer hold. The poet uses imagination when depicting how the ball personifies the spirit of the male child s infantile artlessness. In the last five lines, we visualize how the spirit of this small male child, like the ball, is droping into the dark Waterss of the seaport. As it drifts further off, the male child learns to turn up, and that portion of him that is linked to that ball grows up every bit good, until it is no longer a small male child. This verse form consists of merely one stanza. There is no rhyming, but the poet alternatively conveys his significance through the beat, the tone, and his usage of words. E.g. in the lines I saw it travel, happily resiling down the street, and so happily over the short, alert, happy words allow you to visualise a ball bounce along. In the lines An ultimate shaking heartache fixes the male child as he stands stiff, trembling, gazing down. All his immature yearss into the seaport where his ball went. The words and beat is tragic, dramatic and harsh, which is suited for the state of affairs. Similar utilizations of tone and beat aid add to the consequence of the verse form, and assist stress the significance.

South Africa Essays (1353 words) - Afrikaner People,

South Africa Police In South Africa In the old South Africa before 1994 the police officers job was to squash subversion and his main obstacle was that most people hated him. Today after the 1994 years election the South African police force main job is to stop the growing crime rate. Which seems impossible for them to manage. The police officers main hurdle is his own lack of modern policing skills. Many policemen are barely literate, and are no good at the administrative tasks on which they spend seventy percent of their time. South Africa's murder rate is eight times that of the United States, and figures released on December 7th, 1999 showed steady increases in the other 18 of the 20 most serious categories of offence (The Economist January 22nd 2000). According to data released by the police, only one in every seven murders reported ends in conviction; and only one in 50 car hijacking result in a conviction (Business Day, 14 January 1999). School children can today in South Africa get hold of guns more easily than pencils. There are nine million legal guns and estimated to be three to four million illegal guns in circulation. Some hospitals now treat more bullet wounds than traffic injuries. Almost 18,000 new gun licenses are granted each month, and many believe that a firearm is their best defense. Guns themselves are often target for robbers; most of the 225 policemen killed in South Africa last year were murdered for their weapons (The Economist February 27th 1999) Corruption - Governance South African government official policy has been to downsize the government and make it more racially representative. The South African government tried to achieve this goal by offering generous severance packages to white public servants and then did not fill their vacancies. By early 1998 24,000 individual packages had been granted to white (After Mandela, The 1999 South African Elections, pg 15). This policy backfired on the South African Government since most of the people taking the packages were more experienced and competent public officials the public service could not afford to lose. Men and women who have been taken literally from the bush and without previous training, and they have been asked to run the governments. There are too many civil servants, and they often do not like each other. Some public servants claim multiple salaries and pensions, and the honest ones are often not paid for months because there is no money left. The South African government needs to focus on the core issues, job creation, crime, housing and education and try to solve these problems. Aids Nearly 13 % of South Africans in the ages of 20 - 64 are infected with HIV. Between 6 - 10 million South Africans are likely to die of AIDS in the next ten years (The Economist May 27th 2000). South Africa has failed to promote a safe sex campaign effectively. More than 1,500 South Africans a day are infected with HIV. Uganda, who has fewer resources than South Africa, reduced HIV frequency by half by their successful anti-aids campaign with use of education as the main method. Mr. Mbeki should use the Uganda method and urge people to sleep around less and use condom more. There was almost no sex education at all in South African schools for a long time, and is only in the last couple of years it has dramatically increased. South Africa should focus their efforts on the young; most children under the age of 15 do not have sex yet and are not infected, those are the once to reach. And it did not help that Mr. Mbeki for a long time took advise from scientist that argued that HIV did not cause AIDS. Mr. Mbeki finally has come to his right mind and believes that HIV does indeed cause AIDS. South Africa, with its advanced industries has started to suffer a shortage of skilled manpower because of AIDS. Companies have started to inform and raise awareness of AIDS among their workers because the companies cannot afford to lose any more manpower. Democratizing In the early 1980s the South African president P. W. Botha started to initiate a process of the South African political system. President Botha legalized for example black

Minnesota Iron Range Dialect Essays - Dialect, Language, Lexicology

Minnesota Iron Range Dialect Essays - Dialect, Language, Lexicology Minnesota Iron Range Dialect EngL 3851 Fall 1998 I am a Minnesotan. I have lived here all my life and may continue to do so. Stereotype me: The 10 o'clock news is my window dressing for the 10 o'clock weather (Mohr, 9). You betcha it is. Yah. I wouldn't want you to think that I'm not happy here-it could be worse. Lutefisk. . . umm, my favorite. Are you close; is this representative of myself and most my fellow Minnesotans? Forgive us, but this is slightly, no this is completely ludicrous. For these and all the numerous other stereotypes alike, whom can we blame? Can the Kohan brothers be blamed for their depiction of Minnesotan's in the movie Fargo? No, it goes much farther back than that. Better yet then, why not blame the Minnesotan of the north-the Iron Rangers. Surely most of them do fit the stereotypes. Most of their speech does indeed portray the above dialect which is a "consistently systematic, regional or social variation of a language" (Shepherd, ix) . . . where language is the vehicle of our expression, personality and culture. In this paper I intend to examine the dialect of the Minnesota Iron Range. I intend to tell you why I am analyzing this and where the distinct dialect comes from-its' history. As proof of existence I will offer numerous examples from both secondary information and primary observation. Wha t I will attempt to prove is that no amount of education will change the dialect of the range because its development and use is culturally and regionally based, it begins prior to education, and it will continue as long as the speaker is tied to the region. To begin, I want to express why I chose to focus on the dialect of the Minnesota Iron Range. Honestly, I did it because the way English is spoken on the Range is insane; it sounds illiterate and idiotic. I had grown tired of the Minnesota generalized jokes uttered by family and friends from, or living out of state, when I myself do not exhibit this dialect. I wanted an explanation; tangible evidence that proved that proper education could change Range dialect. Until very recently I was under the wrong assumption that education was failing the Iron Range Minnesotan. I have a godchild in Hibbing who I want nothing but the best for, especially an education. However, as a direct result of research for this paper I became convinced, as I have already stated, that no amount of education will influentially change this Range dialect. In The Origin And Development Of The Iron Range Dialect In Minnesota William Labov said that "one cannot understand the development of a language change apart from the social life of the community in which it occurs"(qtd. In Linn, 75). Certainly the Iron Range is no exception. The history of the area is rich and must be at least briefly examined. In the 1800's migrating Americans and European immigrants were seeking agricultural land in Minnesota (Underwood, 1). The Range at this time was a densely forested, almost unpopulated region not appealing to agricultural seeking individuals. The area would continue this way until the late 1800's-1880's and 1890's-when ore was discovered and mines began to open (Underwood, 1). The unique Range dialect essentially starts here. Michael Linn proclaims that "By 1900 operations had increased and the desire for cheap labor forced mining companies to import large numbers of immigrants from Europe. Until 1929 there was [also] a thriving lumber indust ry which too brought in large numbers of immigrants" (75). As can be imagined such change in such a short amount of time had an enormous impact. The area was not being settled by residents of our nation, but rather by immigrants of numerous ethnic backgrounds. "There was no base of English speaking residents in the area . . . during the settlement period" (Linn, 75). And thus, "the number of languages and dialects spoken on the Range had been estimated as high as Forty-three" (Linn, 76). All these non-English speaking immigrants were employed by a small number of English speaking bosses (Linn, 76). The relations formed were surely not that different from those of plantation slaves of the past. However, one clear

Baking as a Favourite Activity During the Holidays Essay

Baking as a Favourite Activity During the Holidays - Essay Example My brother became particularly interested in baking and, thus, he went on to join a culinary institute. I realized I am better with accounting and finances, therefore, I sought to gain the knowledge in business management and marketing as I horn my other skills from dedicated lecturers at a renowned culinary institution. Moreover, while in high school, my brother and I decided to have a bake sale to raise funds for a classmate that had lost her father to cancer and needed money to settle the medical bills and pay for funeral arrangements. To my surprise, the bake sale became such a huge success and people kept telling us how much they enjoyed them. This sparked my desire to own a bakery and my brother to come up with new innovative recipes. However, currently, I believe my raw skills and limited knowledge in business management skills are the only challenge to running this business. This is why I am fervent about joining an institution which is well known to ensure that my skills are better developed to ensure success in my chosen trade. I strongly feel that it would equip me with the necessary business management skills to set up a bakery with my brother and run it efficiently. In addition, I would like to interact with the different academicians at such an institution and seek their mentorship and guidance as I set out on my endeavor. Last year, my aunt was diagnosed with diabetes that made her less active and cheerful especially since she is well-advanced in age. This has further ignited my ambition as now my brother and I endeavor to create healthy recipes that would be enjoyed by all. This, coupled with the fact that we would like to use social media and new technologies to boost our business, has also contributed to my desire to join a university which will help us develop the necessary skills. This is because many universities, to my knowledge, always continuously aim to remain up to date in equipping their students with recent technologies and business trends that have helped to provide them with relevant skills while making them versatile. I look forward to participating in the extra-curricular activities offered at the university that I join, as I know they will enable me to further build my confidence and overall character. Therefore, I hope that at least one of the applications that I have made to various universities will come through as I am certain the learning environment will provide the ideal foundation as I set out to actualize my business idea. One of the greatest benefits that I have personally come to reap from being able to help the my aunt in baking is the confidence in my ability to do all the tasks that are assigned to me, most especially those concerned with the principles behind this practice. This new confidence in myself has enabled me to think of a greater role for myself in future than I had previously considered when I was still a child. Moreover, through the teamwork that developed between my brother and I, I have managed to see first hand how the skills displayed by bakers are necessary for dealing with prospective issues concerning health promotion. It has, indeed, been a privilege to work and share activities and experience with my aunt and brother, because they are individuals who were not only friendly, but have also supported me whenever I have experienced any problems. Moreover, all members of my family have

Neoclassical architecture in England Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Neoclassical architecture in England - Essay Example Soane's style is marked by clean lines, adherence to form, detail, excellent sense of mood and light in the interior, which can be attributed to his influence to classical architecture. His creations, which came to be known by the end of the Georgian era were overshadowed by the Romantic period and it was only in the 19th century that he was duly acknowledged for his contribution. Though Soane's life is marked by controversies, his creations have left their mark and have been a source of inspiration for many. Born in 1753, this son of a bricklayer, trained under George Dance the Younger and Henry Holland before entering the Royal Academy Schools in 1771. His hard work was rewarded when he won a gold medal for his design for a triumphal bridge and a scholarship to France and Italy. This trip was significant since it not only shaped his opinions on architecture but also enabled him to form valuable contacts that would be of use to him in later years. It was during this study tour that he studied classical architecture in minute detail and worked on designs for many public buildings. He drew influence from the work of Ledoux, Boullee and Goindoin and got the chance to meet Piranesi in Italy. He later moved to Ireland in search of good prospects but had to return to England and set up a practice. His early career comprised renovations and additions to country est ates and in publishing his designs. The turning point of his career occurred when he took over as the architect and surveyor of the Bank of England. A major task, which set the tone for his later creations, he was entrusted with the responsibility of enlarging and rebuilding the entire structure of the bank, a complicated task because of its form and structure. He reconstructed the edifice using the Roman Corinthian, a variety found in the temple of Sibyl at Tivoli, which, despite its shortcomings, was considered a great innovation in that era. His most popular work, The Bank of England embodies the values of Greek architecture and had a profound influence on commercial architecture of that time. Soane served many posts many of which were controversial and it has been argued that his unconventional style flourished largely due to the security of his position. He undertook many public and private commissions such as public galleries and renovating country homes. He faced a lot of ridicule for his designs because though they were carefully planned, his later creations had a lot of faulty elevation details and ostentatious ornamentation. This did not affect Soane who gained membership to the Royal Academy in Britain and seven years later was elevated to first class, where he replaced late William Chambers. In 1806, he became a professor of architecture with a commitment to deliver series of lectures annually. He then began collecting various forms of art and books for the benefit of students of architecture, which were later, offered to the nation after his death. A quiet and a withdrawn person by nature, his architectural affiliations were based on French theory and exuberance combined with the formal opulence of the English picturesque theory. He was deeply influenced by classical architecture as his lectures laid emphasis on "good taste" and "sound judgement". But along with these values, he also stressed on the need for character and

Describe the nature of Scared Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Describe the nature of Scared - Essay Example They developed the existing architecture from a several other nation they conquered including Egypt and improved it with their knowledge so it could fit with their wealth and the rapidly expanding urban population. In the Ottoman Empire, there was also a distinct connection between the nature of architecture and the cultural and religious beliefs and in many ways; the architecture reflected the Islam faith (Saound 2). For instance, Sultan Suleyman designed a mosque that had rooms that were specifically designed to accommodate travelers and strangers, engendering some of the basic tenets of Islamic faith. This paper is aimed at discussing Roman and Ottoman architecture in the periods between the 4th and 17th century in relation the religious significance borne. The designers of the first Roman temples were priest who lead in the practice of rituals in the period around 600-800 BC, at this point, the Romans were not the great nation they were to later become and did not even have an em pire. They would hold rituals aimed at the cultivation of Godly values, family and ordering the life of the society, the rituals would each get the formation of space deemed appropriate for them. With time, the priests would frame the space they needed for their rituals in the abstract; eventually, actual buildings were put up to contain the activities and this morphed into different temples; for different Gods and with different purposes. While Roman architects were expected to be practical in their work, beauty and grandeur were critical aspects of any construction commissioned especially for their Gods and Rulers. This is because the buildings were intended not only for the performance of public functions but also to impress not only the local but also visitors who would spread news of Rome’s grandeur. Gradually, the religious importance attached to Roman temples came to transcend the religions and the deities for whom they were constructed, retrospectively; Romans practic ed a syncretic religion with many gods who had temples dedicated to them. However, when Rome became the headquarters or Christianity in general, and the Catholic Church in particular as it still is, many of the temples were turned into churches and still functional as such to date. One of the greatest works of Roman architecture was the Madison Carree, located in Nimes, France; it was built in the 16 BC, however in the 4th BC when Christianity had entrenched itself in Roman social fiber, it was converted into a church albeit having served as a temple for the early secular Gods. A discussion of Religious architecture, Roman or otherwise, would be incomplete without a mention of the Pantheon; it was and remains one of the most remarkable and well preserved architectural works from ancient Rome. Built in 126BC, it has served as a Roman catholic church since the 7th century; it is made up of a huge Circular portico and there Corinthian columns made of granite three ranks of huge granite Corinthian columns (Moser). Probably the most amazing aspect of the design is the fact that the at the top, the temple is there is a central circular opening known as the Oculus making the temple a huge tourist attraction is even more popular during the rainy weather. Then, visitors can watch the rainfall from the top of the

The Neuropsychological Double Dissociation Psychology Essay

The Neuropsychological Double Dissociation Psychology Essay Uncomfortable bedfellows; according to Bishop this constitutes the relationship between cognitive neuropsychology and developmental disorders. Boyle et al. (2011) showed that one out of six children suffer from a developmental disorder. The ICD-10 (WHO, 1992) defines developmental disorders (DD) as fulfilling three categories: an early onset, a delay in developmental functions relating to the CNS or biological maturation and a lack of remission. The DSM-IV (APA, 2000) takes a different direction by categorising Pervasive Developmental Disorders as characterized by impaired development of reciprocal social interaction and communication skills and the presence of stereotyped behaviour, interests, and activities. Whilst the first definition describes DD like developmental Prosopagnosia (face blindness, DP) which affects around 2.47% of the population (Kennerknecht, Grueter T., Welling, Wentzek, Horst, Edwards, Grueter M., 2006), the latter definition matches the triad of impairments of autism (ASD) which has a prevalence of 1% (Boyle et al., 2011). Comorbidity of DD such as ASD and prosopagnosia can result (Bate, 2012). At the same time, around 20% of individuals over 18 years suffer from acquired brain disorders and diseases (Family Caregiver Alliance, 2012). Deficits in acquired and developmental individuals are commonly mapped out using functional models and explored via double-dissociations. These are usually derived from acquired disorder (AD) patients rather than DD patients. How these factors influence the debate of cognitive neuropsychology and DD making uncomfortable bedfellows shall be explored in the following. Several points will be discussed as having an influential role in the debate of cognitive neuropsychology (CN) accounting for developmental disorders (DD). These are: modularity, plasticity and compensation, competence and performance, differences between exploring AD and DD and the role of double-dissociations in relation to developmental versus acquired disorders as displayed in CN. The association between structural and cognitive development is gaining recognition. Developmental changes in task-specific processing such as that of faces have been argued to play an important role in the amalgamation of various brain networks and experience-based growth of neural architecture (Westermann, Sirois, Shultz, Mareschal, 2006). Also, a bidirectional interaction between behavioural and neuronal development has been established as learning supposedly influences brain structuring and vice versa. Similarly, the rate of neurogenesis arguably depends on learning and environmental circumstances (Westermann et al., 2006). (Bishop, 1997, p.902) Following on from that, cognition is executed by the growing neurofunctional network. This distributed parallel processing arguably is organised into interacting modules (Table 1), which comprise of different levels of complexity depending on the cognitive task or function carried out (Jackson, 1958). This can be illustrated by Theory of Mind (Baron-Cohen, 1995) in ASD: ToM proposes developmental impairment of the ability to appreciate own and others mental states (beliefs, desires or intentions etc). Adams (2010), Brothers (1990) theory of the Social Brain and Leslies (1991) ToM Mechanism argue that key features of ToM can be explained in terms of modularity. Marchery (forthcoming) supports this as modularity poses a crucial characteristic of biological development. Arguably, deficits are not due to minor developmental brain problems in lower-level input and consequential cascading abnormal interaction between input and higher-level systems that affect all cognitive capacities (Karmiloff-Smith, 1998; 1992; Machery, forthcoming). Nonetheless, this is what Gerrans P.,T. and Stone (2008) argue. Additionally, low-level deficits such as gaze and face processing prevent ASD individuals from having the same experience as typically developing individuals, caused by a deficit in domain-general capacity. This has the aforementioned cascading interaction effect during development rather than leading to a dysfunctional mindreading module. However, Gerrans et al. do not see development as single causality. Reconciling, Baron-Cohen (1995) postulates that ToM is either seen as innate module or explained by deficits in general learning mechanisms and unifies both in the intermediate model of Social Perception of Minimalist Innate Modularity. (Amaral, Schumann, Nordahl, 2008, p.2) Figure 1 displays brain structures associated with dysfunctions in ASD. Amaral et al. (2008) join the debate of modularity suggesting that despite functional identification of modules no clear pathology has emerged yet but rather, that e.g. Schumann and Amaral, (2004) have demonstrated that the developmental trajectory itself rather than the final product exhibits most disruption and by this posing a further point against applying CN to the explanation of DD. Functions of modularity imply, on the other hand, that one zone can belong to several overlapping neuronal networks (Damasceno, 2010).Disordered brain development can lead to structural disruption and thereby to several dysfunctions which may not appear as a specific deficit but as a syndrome (a collection of symptoms) as demonstrated in the triad of impairments in ASD (Wing Gould, 1979). Similarly, lesions to a localised brain area do not always cause isolated but sometimes collective symptoms (Kolb, Brown, Witt-Lajeunesse, Gibb, 2001). These are caused, i.a. by disturbances in interconnected regions which might appear intact on functional brain imaging scans. However, changes in neurotransmission, excitatory or inhibitory processes or blood flow might cause secondary symptoms not predicted by the data. One interesting example was proposed by Sandel, Weiss and Ivker (1990): their patient was described as amnesic after traumatic brain injury. Her impaired cognition was considered a secondary deficit as her EEG and other clinical tests proved negative. No other disruptions were present until she was eventually diagnosed with multiple personality disorder. Therefore several unexpected and seemingly unconnected functional disruptions might result from a single localised lesion. These points argue against the notion of using CN in explaining DD due to the assumptions held. Advancing to the next argument, functional (mal)development following lesions or disrupted neurogenesis might also demonstrate individual differences in brain structure, due to varying input, demands and circumstances. Thomas and Karmiloff-Smith (2003) added that specialisation/modularity is not directing development but contrarily, is the outcome of this. On the other hand, the brain activity of healthy individuals supports a normalisation process to facilitate models being created for generalisation purposes. As Tager-Flusberg (1999) counter-argues, functional variation in dysfunctional individuals is similar to that of typical population. Allegedly, localisation is universally alike thereby plasticity, compensation or adaptation to damage are neglected. Examples of compensatory processes and resulting behaviour (or v.v.?) are stimming in ASD for sensory overload (Grandin, 2009) or remembering haircuts in prosopagnosics for identification (Bate, 2012). Adaptation can express itself by change in neurochemistry, psychomotor stimulants and compensatory behaviour while it is argued that the behaviour triggers alteration in neurochemistry (Kolb et al., 2001). This in turn, points to the aforementioned bidirectionality of structure and learning which has implications for acquired as well as developmental patients and goes against explaining DD in a CN framework. At this point, double-dissociations are commonly applied to provide clues to brain-behaviour relationships. In 1955, Teuber introduced the term double-dissociation referring to mirror-deficit patients. Buchaine, Parker, and Nakayama (2003) proposed the example of NM, a prosopagnosic whose abilities support previous findings (Young, Newcombe, De Haan, Small, Hay, 1993) of a double-dissociation of identity and emotion recognition. Van Peelen, Lucas, Mayer, and Vuilleumier (2009) added that emotional guidance of attention to facial expression can be unimpaired and thus functionally differ from face identification. Interestingly, Teuber did not establish double-dissociations to discover networks within cognitive architecture (Van Orden, Pennington, Stone, 2001) as localising a lesion does not imply a responsibility for dysfunctions. Further, modularity of functional networks has not been unanimously established. Nonetheless, modularity is one key feature of CN serving the notion of double-dissociations. CN informs theories of normal cognitive function by analysing the break down of cognitive systems in atypical patients (Bullinaria Chater, 1997). However, inferring theory from damage patients is full of obstacles and depends on models of normal functioning. As Caramazza (1984) argued, double-dissociations are valid forms of inference but only if the cognitive model is well developed; only single-case studies can provide information relevant to our understanding of cognitive architecture. Contradicting, Shallice (1988) argued that a double-dissociation between two tasks does not necessarily imply a double-dissociation between cognitive processes. Since the argument concerning emergence of CN models and the role of AD and DD has not been resolved yet, a need of inclusion of further aspects becomes apparent. One aspect is Residual Normality which claims that atypical development impairs only specific domains while the rest functions typically (Thomas Karmiloff-Smith, 2002). Similar behavioural impairments demonstrated by adult brain damage and infant-onset disorders are assumed to support modularity of typical neuronal system structure. Opposing the assumption of RN, compensation due to damage causes alterations in various other modules (Thomas, 2003). Shallice (1988) introduced deriving knowledge about the neuronal system from behavioural impairments in AD and DD, such as malfunctioning ToM in autism (Leslie, 1991). As argued by Bishop and Karmiloff-Smith (1997; 1998) such an inferential process within the static model of CN leads to invalid explanations of dysfunctional development. Functional Models on the other hand do not possess a developmental component, and display what is expected to happen under various conditions in terms of functionality and processes (DMello Franklin, 2011). Thus impairments can be analysed under the assumption of RN as it has been done, for example in the study of autism and prosopagnosia (Thomas et al., 2002). Examples of models are given in Figure two and three. Despite this, it has been suggested to use connectionist models where in AD the damage is applied at the end of training and for DD prior to it as this is argued to reflect actuality in a truer light. Connectionist models indeed are suitable for the investigation of DD as behavioural deficits such as in autism (Thomas et al., 2002) can be captured well following simulated atypical development. It is highlighted that AD and DD are studied using separate models, thereby arguing against functional models within CN. Figure 2: Functional model of face-processing (Wright, Wardlaw, Young, Zeman, 2006) Figure 3: Models of Autism (Anderson and Herbert, 2008) The aforementioned factors influencing whether cognitive neuropsychology is suitable for explaining DD have given a mixed picture. Jackson and Coltheart (2001) defended the use of CN in DD stating that development itself (thus distal causes like genes or background) are irrelevant for the identification of un/healthy functions, given modularity. Whether acquired or developmental proximal (what is wrong right now) and distal causes can be deduced independently from each other. Indeed, Jackson et al. argue that common architectural issues in AD and DD can be established using CN. Bishop on the other hand postulates against this as deficits are focused on while intact processes are neglected. Further, top-down and bottom-up interactions are dismissed. Karmiloff-Smith (1998) deems these highly relevant for understanding DD. Thirdly a uniform modularity is assumed without accounting for alterations in development. Bishop proposed that AD should be researched using single-case double-dissociations while for DD, as they are likely to demonstrate associated deficits, group studies are recommended. Problematically, the debate on what constitutes a module has not been clarified yet (e.g. Fodor (2000): encapsulation, Coltheart (1999): domain specificity). Until this is established functional models and CN will not carry valid explanations nor reveal (mal)development well (Thomas et al., 2002). This underpins the view against exploring DD within a CN framework. Additionally, modularity/plasticitys scope of variation in DD and AD remains unestablished (Tager-Flusberg, 2000; Thomas et al., 2003). Humphreys, Ewing, and Karmiloff-Smith (2002) proposed the example of Williams syndrome patients possessing intact face recognition which is, however, achieved by applying processes diverging from typicality. Initially, face recognition was seen as intact despite visuospatial deficits, reduced sensitivity to inverted faces and lack of progressive development of localisation (Grice, Spratling, Karmiloff-Smith, Halit, Csibra, De Haan, Johnson, 2001). Hypothetically, assuming RN, this could be seen as double-dissociation between developmental prosopagnosia and WS. Basing modelling of DD on highly debated assumptions poses a problem for validity of the framework. Additionally, CN is accused of focusing on representational (competence) rather than processing (performance) deficits (Bishop, 1997). This, however, appears to be crucial in terms of applying research to DD. Weigelt, Koldewyn, and Kanwisher (2012) demonstrated a lack of qualitative difference (how facial identity is discriminated or remembered, competence) but rather a quantitative (how well, performance) difference in that ASD patients are impaired in memory and perception despite indication of intact face identity recognition. According to Bishop, this is another argument against applying CN to exploring DD. Concluding then, the much debated assumption of modularity held in cognitive neuropsychology overshadows exploration of disruptions during the trajectory of neuronal development. Applying double-dissociations to DD arguably yields invalid results and is more suited to acquired disorders. This is due to the assumptions within CN of Residual Normality, directionality of impact within disorders and its dependence on localisation of disruption, universality of localisation, neglect of plasticity and the focus on (in)competence. All in all, it has been proposed, while certain aspects could be overlooked, connectionist models rather than functional models would yield better results. Also, cognitive neuropsychology focuses on adult processes thus damage after complete development which is hard to match onto disorders of development. In order for CN to account validly for disorders, different models have to be applied for acquired and developmental cases.

Machines: Are They Helpful Or Too Much Trouble? :: essays research papers

Machines: Are They Helpful Or Too Much Trouble? The historiography and various phases of the Industrial Revolution were very important. Population increase and the expansion of capital, credit and commerce were one of the phases. The role of entrepreneurs, workers and inventions in boosting production were another phase. Textiles, coal, transport and public services started becoming of value to people. The social consequences included women and children working in factories and mines. Hard living conditions, crowded rooms, and many diseases.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  There were many positive effects, new inventions, that helped made living comfortable, and saved many lives. A vaccination was created saving many lives, telephones helped people to communicate, light bulbs gave light at night and when rain was falling. As people needed employment, they traveled to London to find work, which caused the population to increase. Developers built multi story building(apartments), and row houses making streets less crowded, and gave the people a newfound wealth and security. Steam engines made it easy to transport goods, the cotton gin made it easier to clean cotton, and made more money. Then technical schools began to develop, helping young people finish grammar school. Women also started working, they were very obedient and men started giving them more respect.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Along with positive, were also negative. Most people worked twelve to fourteen hours a day, six days a week, they had to pay constant attention to the machines and risked losing limbs in the machines. Child labor was another problem, they usually worked from 6 am to 7 p.m., getting paid only 10 percent wages of men to children. They would be severely beaten, and usually was deformed from machines. Many working-class children were not able to attend schools, because they couldn't afford clothes. Women usually spent long hours away from home and were unable to take care of children. They usually had a deformed chest or rib from the machines, and sometimes their hair and long skirt were caught in the machines. Some people had to work in mines, the mines were damp and ark, workers risked suffocation from the dust and drowning from underground floods. As population grew, people moved into urban areas. This was a very big problem, crimes and diseases increased, sometimes twenty families had to share the same toilets and water pumps.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The industrial revolution had many problems, but here are some solutions I would propose.

Organizational Behaviors Analysis in ‘Ocean’s Thirteen’

The movie ‘Ocean’s Thirteen’ is a good resource for the organizational behaviors analysis. And I will focus on the ‘Teams’, ‘Leadership’ and ‘Personality’ to analysis some facts in this movie. First I will focus on the teams of Ocean’s thirteen. The team is a highly organized and efficient team. I think they perform all 3 kinds of typical tasks which include production tasks, decision-making tasks and creativity tasks. And the team is comprehensive interdependence as all its members’ work will affect each other and also affects the outcome of their whole job.And although the members of Ocean’s thirteen include people with different race, ethnicity, age, personality, interests, knowledge, skills and abilities, but they have similar core value. And although they have a great chance to have relational conflict which may cause a very bad result, they surprisingly get along with each other and easily cooperate with each other. Here are some examples about Ocean thirteen’s teamwork. The team of Ocean’s thirteen has 2 plans.The first plan was to prevent the Bank’s hotel from winning the prestigious ‘Five Diamond Rating Prize’ and the second plan was to rig the casino’s slot machines and other games’ machines in the casino to let the players win more than $500 million in total across the casino in order to force Willy Bank to give up the control of that casino to the board. For their first plan, Saul acted as the fake reviewer for ‘Five Diamond Rating Prize’ and they bribed an ambitious concierge called Debbie to treat the real reviewer badly and led the real reviewer into a room that other 2 members of Ocean’s thirteen had already sabotaged.And they also gave money to a waiter to let that waiter tell the real reviewer that he could not enjoy a meal at an Italian restaurant which was actually empty at that time because he d id not reserve for a seat. And that waiter also advised the real reviewer to go to a Chinese-Sichuan restaurant called ‘Ling Su’. And then the real reviewer got the food which was changed by a member of Ocean’s thirteen and that food made him vomit in his hotel room later.And he found that there were a lot of small insects on his room’s bed sheets, so he was very angry of it and gave a very bad evaluation to that hotel for the ‘Five Diamond Rating Prize’. For their second plan, the members of Ocean’s thirteen work in the positions that they are good at. Denny Ocean commanded the overall situation and coordinated with different parties. Rusty played as a fake seismologist in order to convince Willy to put a ‘standard torsion seismograph’ equipment, which was actually a surveillance machine for the Ocean’s thirteen, on his office’s desk to register for the foreshock of an earthquake.Turk went to Mexico to deal w ith the strike of the factories that provided the dices and other casino appliances the Ocean’s thirteen used to cheat that casino later. Basher worked as a person to create ‘earthquake’ in the casino. Yen first acted as a Chinese super-high roller to get access to the central room of the hotel and then walked into the shafts from that room. Frank and Saul worked together to let Willy use the ‘Nuff Said’ at center of that casino. And Linus seduced Sponder in order to get into the room where Willy hided diamonds.And Virgil voluntarily asked to handle the task of hacking the casino’s computer after the original hacker Livingston was caught by a federal agent. And there are also many other facts that I am not going to list in detail show the highly cooperation in the team of Ocean’s thirteen. Secondly, I will talk about the leadership in Ocean’s thirteen. As the main leader of Ocean’s thirteen is Danny Ocean, I will focus on the leadership and personality of Danny Ocean. Danny Ocean is a great leader.He has a personality of conscientiousness and extraversion. He is knowledgeable, dependable, organized, reliable, hardworking, persevering, sociable and passionate. And he has great ability of summarizing other people’s ideas and drawing a final decision that combines the advantages from other people’s ideas. He also has great emotional intelligence. He has the ability to recognize and understand the emotions other people are feeling and the ability to control his feelings and quickly recover from some serious emotional experience.As a result, he can harness those emotions and use those emotions to improve his chances in leading the Ocean’s thirteen to successfully complete several tough tasks. In addition, he processes the consultative type of leadership. And he has transformational leadership. He mostly uses initiating structure leadership behaviors to make sure that every member of O cean’s thirteen to try their best to do the job as well as using consideration leadership behaviors by creating relationships with mutual trust, respect and consideration of feelings of other Ocean’s thirteen members.So he is able to make every member of Ocean’s thirteen to have a good mood at work and let the work efficiencies of Ocean’s thirteen remain high all the time. In brief, combining with the plots of other 2 movies ‘Ocean’s Eleven’ and â€Å"Ocean’s Twelve’, I think Danny Ocean is the main reason that Ocean’s members had a great performance in every major task they take. At last, I’d like to talk the personality of some roles in this movie. I have already talked about the personality of Danny Ocean’s personality in the previous paragraph.And I will focus on 2 people with entirely different personality – Reuben and Willy. Reuben has a personality of agreeableness. He is kind, cooperat ive, warm and loyal to his friends. So when he was destroyed by Willy, his loyal band of friends quickly got together and began to get revenge for Reuben, even to work with their enemy – Terry Benedict. In the other hand, Willy has a personality of Neuroticism and Extraversion. He is moody, insecure, jealous, unstable, assertive, dominant, greedy and sinister.He is a typical villain with no mercy and extremely low moral awareness. His employees were afraid of him and his partners hated him. So even though he had done a really good job in operating his previous hotels, many members of the broad of his new hotel still did not like him and many employees of him easily betrayed him by cooperating with Ocean’s thirteen. To sum up, the ‘Ocean’s Thirteen’ is really a great movie. And I also have a better understanding of the things I’ve learnt from Organizational Behavior course by watching this movie.

Michele de Montaigne on Making Decisions

Michel de Montaigne on Making Opinions In his three books of essays, Michel de Montaigne reflects upon his life to uncover some of the stable truths that will help to guide a man’s opinions. He claims that man is â€Å"miraculously vain, various and wavering. It is difficult to found a judgement [sic] on him which is steady and uniform† meaning that man and his opinions are unstable and fluid. It is possible for a reader of the essays to see how Montaigne employs his theories within his own life as he searches for the truth the natural world can provide. A flaw of humanity, according to Montaigne, is a lack of healthy doubt.Man takes facts and â€Å"ignore[s] the whats and expatiate[s] on the whys. † Instead of questioning facts from outside sources, man takes them as being the truth and blindly follows them. Humanity looks to tradition and history — the way things have always been done — and assumes them to be correct instead of being skeptical of the fluidity of events. In traditions of old, the â€Å"wavering† quality is found in Alexander the Great and causes him to change paths. He was considered â€Å" the most generous toward the vanquished† yet, unpredictably, had Betis brutally dismembered.Montaigne suggests that in order to enter the realm of well-considered judgment, one must first begin to reject commonly accepted traditions and historical ideas and instead look within for the beginnings of truth. Humanity, and everything in life is unstable and changing. Making sound judgments is difficult because the man and what is being judged are constantly in states of flux. Montaigne says to be â€Å"suspicious of the things discovered by our minds†¦of which we have abandoned Nature and her rules†¦Ã¢â‚¬  Through saying this, Montaigne declares that one needs to be faithful to his unchanging nature in order to find truth.As an example in his own life, Montaigne relates that he considers his actions a s â€Å"ruled by what I am and are in harmony with how I was made. † Montaigne believes that the first step to good judgment is finding stability in one’s self. Humans believe that experience is the key to understanding things. If one experiences, he can better form opinions. However, according to Montaigne, reasoning and judgment based on experience is just as unstable as reasoning based on thoughts. If experience could uncover the truth, why is it still that doctors all have different opinions?Years and years of experience do not improve the authority of the doctors because they still cannot come to a common judgment. What Montaigne appears to say is that the path to well-considered opinions comes from the search for truth in all aspects of life. And this search for truth requires man to take a skeptical view on everything and to turn away from the â€Å"truth† found in science and scholarship in favor of the power of nature—to look to what is unchangea ble, his own nature, rather than what is constantly in flux.Not only must man experience things, he must look at them skeptically and reject commonplace ideas and traditions to look within and to nature in order to uncover the truth in all things. Man needs to create an internal model of himself in order to find stability. In order to find certainty, one must discover stable truths, which can only happen through the questioning of everything and the doubting of all things, because this doubt will allow one to be constantly aware of the changing of the world.In Montaigne’s essays, it is possible to see the effects of this â€Å"healthy skepticism† in his experiences, especially in his continued reflection on life. Montaigne questions all things that can change in order to make sound judgments. He lives a life of skepticism and reflection because he sees it as a â€Å"mighty endeavor and a full one† and this reflection helps him to better consider his opinions. Ho wever, it is also possible to see that this search for truth is a lifelong process.Montaigne says clearly that â€Å"I speak as an ignorant questioning man: for solutions I purely and simply abide by the common lawful [Church] beliefs† and he makes no effort to prove that he has succeeded in finding pure stability of ideas in anything but Christian doctrine. Montaigne shows that skepticism must be a way of life in order for one to develop meaningful opinions. Bibliography de Montaigne, Michel, The Complete Essays. Translated by M. A. Screech. London, England: Penguin Books Ltd. , 1987. ——————————————– [ 1 ].Michel de Montaigne, â€Å"We Reach the Same Ends by Discrepant Means,† in The Complete Essays, trans. M. A. Screech (London, England: Penguin Books Ltd. , 1987), 5. [ 2 ]. Montaigne, â€Å"On the Lame,† 1161. [ 3 ]. Montaigne, â€Å"We Reach the Same End s by Discrepant Means,† 5-6. [ 4 ]. Montaigne, â€Å"On the Resemblance of Children to Their Fathers,† 866. [ 5 ]. Montaigne, â€Å"On Repenting,† 916. [ 6 ]. Montaigne, â€Å"On the Resemblance of Children to Their Fathers,† 871. [ 7 ]. Montaigne, â€Å"On Repenting,† 911. [ 8 ]. Montaigne, â€Å"On Three Kinds of Social Intercourse,† 923. [ 9 ]. Montaigne, â€Å"On Repenting,† 909.

Rock and Roll essays

Rock and Roll essays There were many musical sources that made up rock and roll. In fact most and if not all the "artists who could have been considered rock and musicians prior to 1955" were black except for Bill Haley and his comets. We first have saxophone which was made famous as a rock and roll instrument by "Jackie Brenston's solo on Rocket 88". The electric blues guitar was introduced by T-Bone Walkers' "Call It Stormy Monday", and later perfected by Chuck Berry. Professor Longhair brought the piano into the rock and roll scene by playing a mix of "offbeat Spanish beats and Calypso down beats. As for vocals go, they came mostly from rhythm and blues performers such as "Joe Turner, Ruth Brown, LaVern Baker."" Ray Browns' vocal talents also influenced Little Richard and Ray Charles. There were a few factors that led to the independent record labels being able to compete with the major labels. First was that fact that major labels assumed that audiences would always "respond favorably to gentle changes in popular styles."" The introduction of rock and roll threw this assumption out the window. Another factor that helped this was the introduction of "poorly capitalized independent radio stations that were desperate for inexpensive programming."" The final factor that helped out this chain of events was the marvelous introduction of the "45 rpm" record. This thing allowed all the independent labels to produce mass amounts of music at a low price on an unbreakable medium that shipped at low cost New Orleans could be summarized as the mixing pot musicians. The city was home to almost every ethnic background, and as we know, with every ethnic background comes a different musical sound. It ranged from African to Spanish to Cajun to Cerole and more. Supposedly, New Orleans is characterized as "the birthplace of jazz", partly because it was t ...

COBIT Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

COBIT - Research Paper Example The process through which organizations attempt to improve their business information systems, their performance and risk management is known as IT Governance. This process makes sure that the investments in information technology are returning appropriate value. In order to help the business effectively convince present business challenges through effective management of IT governance, ISACA has published version COBITÂ ® 4.1. In this scenario, control objectives for information and related technology (COBIT) is an information technology governance structure as well as supporting toolset that facilitates executives to bridge the gap among control needs, technical matters and corporate risks. COBIT allows the organizations to develop a clear policy as well as adopt good practice for information technology control all through businesses. ... ns as well identify and manage the associated risks, like that growing regulatory implementation as well as critical dependence of a lot of business procedures on information technology. In addition, the need for assurance regarding the worth of IT, the administration of IT-related risks and increased requirements for gaining control over information resources are at the present recognized as basic elements of corporate governance. In this scenario, value, risk and control constitute the fundamentals of IT governance. Additionally, the IT governance is the accountability of administrative staff and the board of directors, and consists of the management, organizational arrangements and procedures that make sure that the enterprise’s IT maintains and expands the organization’s strategies as well as objectives (ISACA2, 2011). In addition, control objectives for information and related technology (COBIT) offers high-quality performance all through business domain and struct ure and offers tasks in a convenient and logical structure. Additionally, the COBIT’s high quality practices demonstrate the agreement of specialists. They are powerfully focused on extra control, fewer on execution. In this scenario, this technology based practice allows the organizations to optimize IT-facilitated investments, make sure service delivery and offer a quantifiable approach against which to evaluate when things are not done correctly. Thus, for information technology to be flourishing in conveying against business needs, management should place a domestic control system or structure in position. In this scenario, the COBIT control structure applies these requirements through: (ISACA2, 2011) Establishing a connection to the business needs Put in order IT tasks into a normally accepted

Marketing research Statistics Project Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Marketing research - Statistics Project Example To evaluate the significance of the test, I formulated the hypotheses: In order to decide which t-value to adopt, I checked over the results of the Levene’s test for equality of variances (Allingham & Rayner, 2011; Wuensch, 2014). The significance level (p-value = 0.002) of the F-statistic (9.847) is less than the 0.05 level of significance adopted for the entire test. Therefore, taking a default hypothesis that the variances are equal, these results confirm that this hypothesis should be rejected (Lee, 2013). Consequently, the variances are not equal. This advises my option to adopt the t-value -2.762 which has a p-value 0.007. Since 0.007 is less than the default p-value (0.05) adopted for the test, I reject the null hypothesis. There is significant difference between the scores of domestic and international students. The one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) was carried out to establish whether there exists significant statistical difference between the students’ responses to item 5 of the survey based on their year of admission. All students in the survey were admitted into courses in the years 2003, 2004, 2005 and 2007. The hypotheses: The significance level (p Correlation analysis was carried out to determine whether any of the units 1 – 19 are related to item

Working while being a college student is bad Essay

Working while being a college student is bad - Essay Example Not every student is fit for a work study but a large number participate in the program since they have no other source of funds to cater for their educational expenses. Working while in college comes with some challenges that pose significant obstacles to the students in their pursuit to attain educational excellence thus making it a bad idea. It is prudent that working while in college is not advisable as it is associated with a number of drawbacks that include; careful in managing time for both the job and school work, stress related to the job as well as the wages earned might induce the students into dropping from their studies to concentrate on those jobs (Perozzi 37). Time is a precious resource for any college students since he/she has to balance all activities to attain both academic and extra curriculum excellence. Part-time jobs while in college come with an additional time obligation since the students concerned will have to set aside between four to twenty hours a week for working depending on the kind of jobs they undertake. That implies that students who take work study programs should have an excellent sense of time management for them to juggle between school work and job obligations. Conversely, a majority of the students who are working while in college they do not evaluate their time management abilities prior to indulging in the program rather the desire to make an extra dollar or rather financial constraints drive them to the program. Often students who do not manage to balance their studies with job obligations end up failing in their GPA or worse situations drop out of college before graduating (48). It is apparent that working w hile at college is something that comes along with extra demand for the students’ time thus imposing additional pressure on their lives a thing that a majority of the students are not capable of handling. Conversely, students are denied the chance to take other

Technology in the Next 100 Years the Futurologist’s View Essay Example for Free

Technology in the Next 100 Years the Futurologist’s View Essay Futurologist Ian Pearson discussed technologies of the future to more than 200 IT, security and finance delegates on the Aurora cruise ship. He spoke of IT security threats from smart bacteria, gadgets which are installed in the skin, the soaring of tax rates precipitating the emigration of graduates to low-tax economies, oil at 30 dollars a barrel, and the reversal of globalization. Gadgets of the future Electronics in the human body will record holiday and other experiences bungee-jumping for example and replay them into your nervous system, or someone elses. They will be able to feel the same sensations you did on holiday. This would surpass showing holiday snaps to friends and family. Games headsets are already recording some simple thought processes. Pearson also referred to active skin. Tattoos would be applied to the skin to provide interactive, touchsensitive video displays. One drawback: hackers may try to access your nervous system, though this threat will not deter all. Pearson referred to the digital mirror in which you see yourself as you want to, not as you are. And you could use active makeup to change your look during the day. Smart bacteria the biggest IT security threat to mankind? Pearson said that smart bacteria could be the biggest security threat known to mankind by 2025. They may land on keyboards and work out passwords. Even before [your password] signals reach the PC and get decoded by the software, they [smart bacteria] are already taking money out of your bank account. He told anyone in the audience who is working in IT security and is less than say 40-years-old: change your career. He referred to bacteria linked via infrared that form sophisticated self-organising circuits. Robots will replace IT workers the human-machine convergence Pearson referred to an optical brain in a conscious computer a billion times more powerful than the brain with emotions and senses. The conscious computer could be fully sentient benign or malicious. He showed on a slide the stages of man from homo erectus and homo sapiens to what he called homo machinus and bacteria sapiens within 150 years. By 2018 there may be a robot as smart as you are. Robots may have a higher IQ than humans and take over many intellectual and IT jobs today. Today many people work as smart machines. Machines will become much smarter. Research is being funded into making computers thousands and even a million times smarter than humans, he said. Why humans will still be needed the female-dominated economy But humans will add value because of the need for compassion. A robot will never be able to sit beside a patient, give them a cuddle and make them feel better. A robot can clear up a bedpan and give an injection, 2/6/13 Technology in the next 100 years: the futurologist’s view prescribe drugs. Compassion needs humans. A PC will be able to do what a human does today in an intellectual capacity. But a human will add value because of emotion and compassion. He said that workplaces will be designed for meeting people. Pearson spoke of the male-dominated economy coming to an end. Everything I do I could do with a piece of software if I spent enough time writing it. What my wife does, dealing with other people, I cannot do that at all. So she will have a job in 2020 whereas my job will be automated. We are heading very rapidly towards a female-dominated economy. Globalization in reverse Globalization is increasing. But it will soon start reversing. You cannot shake hands with someone or give them a cuddle across a network. Globalization, he said, will start to reverse thanks to the refocus on the care economy over a 100 year period. Oil at 30 dollars a barrel by 2030 Pearson made a case for the wo rlds energy coming from the Sahara and other deserts within 22 years, and oil at less than 30 dollars a barrel. He said that solar power from the Sahara, even at 12% efficiency, could replace carbon-based fuels such as oil, petrol and diesel. The Sahara alone could supply 40 times more energy than we need for the whole planet. One barrel of oil is the equivalent in energy of a solar panel, which measures one square metre, working in the Sahara working for six months. He spoke of solar farms in the Sahara, and super-cables to transmit the energy. By 2030 you cannot sell a barrel of oil for more than 30 dollars. At some point the maximum obtainable price will fall below extraction cost and the rest will be left in the ground. Obsolescence is great for IT and the environment Pearson said that the faster that technology becomes obsolete the faster miniaturisation will happen, which will reduce the drain on the worlds resources. Eventually we get a total sustainable future where everyone has all the IT they can dream of and almost no environmental impact. He added, The faster the obsolescence the faster we get there. If anyone tells you obsolescence is a bad idea, ignore them or argue with them but do not believe them. Do not ever limit your obsolescence cycle. That will slow down progress and increase environmental impact. As an example miniaturisation will bring everyday IT down to lapel-pin size. Agility is more important than being best-in-class Business will change faster. You should not focus on being best-in-class. You need agility. Optimisation is only a good strategy in a stable environment. Security too much will kill your company You cannot have a watertight security policy you have to give enough freedom to employees to do their jobs. In an extreme, your security department can kill your company better than any hacker. He said that boards of directors should beware of setting extreme goals for their heads of IT security. How can you have sensible security while making sure your employees can do their jobs well? Most blue chips do www.computerweekly.com/opinion/Technology-in-the-next-100-years-the-futurologists-view?vgnextfmt=print 2/4 2/6/13 Technology in the next 100 years: the futurologist’s view not do that very well at all. They stop their employees from doing their job. He warned that employees will bypass the corporate systems and do their jobs on home PCs, where there will not be any security at all, and then they will have their ideas stolen. Or they [employees] will be so inefficient you will not have a company. Tax rates will soar sending graduates overseas Pearson said there is nowhere near enough money in the governments pension funds to cope with a population that is living much longer.

Advertising Is The Non Personal Communication Of Information Marketing Essay

Advertising Is The Non Personal Communication Of Information Marketing Essay One definition of advertising is: Advertising is the non-personal communication of information usually paid for and usually persuasive in nature about products, services or ideas by identified sponsors through the various media.(Bovee, 1992, p. 7) Now lets take this statement apart and see what it means. Advertising is bringing a product and service to the attention of potential and current customers. Advertising is focused on one particular product or service. Thus, an advertising plan for one product might be very different than that for another product. Advertising is typically done with signs, brochures, commercials, direct mailings or e-mail messages, personal contact, etc. The first assumption that was queried related to purchasing itself, in terms of what advertising would achieve if it was effective. This assumption was advertising achieved the conversion. In the sense of converting loyal user of the other brand to loyal users of the brand advertised. We pointed out that this pattern, although it could on occasion be f9und in actual purchasing sequences, was actually quite rare. It also happen in this case: I have always bought brand B, but now I have the advertising for brand A has persuaded me that it is better in fulfill my requirement under the advertisement, so in future I will buy brand A The advertisement pointed out that strengthen of the product which mean its communicating with the people. First, what is non-personal advertising? There are two basic ways to sell anything: personally and non-personally. Personal selling requires the seller and the buyer to get together. There are advantages and disadvantages to this. The first advantage is time: the seller has time to discuss in detail everything about the product. The buyer has time to ask questions, get answers, and examine evidence for or against purchase. Next, the seller can easily locate potential buyers. If you enter a store, you probably have an interest in something that store sells. Street vendors and door-to-door sellers can simply shout at possibilities, like McDonalds retailer shop who call out, I say there, I would like to order food?, or knock at the door and start their spiel with an attention grabber. From there on they fit their message to the individual customer, taking all the time a customer is willing to give them. Disadvantages do exist. Personal selling is, naturally enough, expensive, since it is labor-intensive and deals with only one buyer at a time. Just imagine trying to sell chewing gum or guitar picks one-on-one; it would cost a dollar a stick or pick. In addition, its advantage of time is also a disadvantage. Personal selling is time-consuming. Selling a stereo or a car can take days, and major computer and airplane sales can take years. Nonetheless, although personal selling results in more rejections than sales, and can be nerve-racking, frustrating and ego destroying for the salesperson, when the salesperson is good it is more directed and successful than advertising. From the above, it appears that personal selling is much better than advertising, which is non-personal. This is true. Advertising has none of the advantages of personal selling: there is very little time in which to present the sales message, there is no way to know just who the customer is or how them is responding to the message, the message cannot be changed in mid-course to suit the customers reactions. Then why bother with advertising? Because its advantages exactly replace the disadvantages of personal selling and can emulate some of the advantages. First lets look at the latter. First, advertising has, comparatively speaking, all the time in the world. Unlike personal selling, the sales message and its presentation does not have to be created on the spot with the customer watching. It can be created in as many ways as the writer can conceive, be rewritten, tested, modified, injected with every trick and appeal known to affect consumers. (Some of the latter is the content of this book.) Second, although advertisers may not see the individual customer, nor be able to modify the sales message according to that individuals reactions at the time, it does have research about customers. The research can identify potential customers, find what message elements might influence them, and figure out how best to get that message to them. Although the research is meaningless when applied to any particular individual, it is effective when applied to large groups of customers. Third, and perhaps of most importance, advertising can be far cheaper per potential customer than personal selling. Personal selling is extremely labor-intensive, dealing with one customer at a time. Advertising deals with hundreds, thousands, or millions of customers at a time, reducing the cost per customer to mere pennies. In fact, advertising costs are determined in part using a formula to determine, not cost per potential customer, but cost per thousand potential customers. Thus, it appears that advertising is a good idea as a sales tool. For small ticket items, such as chewing gum and guitar picks, advertising is cost effective to do the entire selling job. For large ticket items, such as cars and computers, advertising can do a large part of the selling job, and personal selling is used to complete and close the sale. Advertising is non-personal, but effective. Facebook advertising method The red arrow showing the Facebook advertisement People treat Facebook as an authentic part of their lives, so you can be sure you are connecting with real people with real interest in your products. Facebook Ads provided CM Photographic the ability to target their exact demographic 24-30 year old women whose relationship status on Facebook indicated that they were engaged. Over 12 months, CM Photographic generated nearly $40,000 in revenue directly from a $600 advertising investment on Facebook. Of the Facebook users who were directed to CM Photographic website from the ads, 60% became qualified leads and actively expressed interest in more information. I have found [Facebook Ads] SO effective. My business wouldnt be anywhere close to where it is today if it werent for Facebook, and the ads campaign. Chris Meyer, President From the information given, Facebook Ads makes it easy and cost-effective to quickly set up and manage your campaign. G5 found success setting up a series of Facebook Ad campaigns targeted to college students at 21 campuses prior to Summer break for StorQuest self-service storage facilities. Real-time suggested bids for our auction-based system provided guidance that enabled G5 to hone ad effectiveness based on their various targeting filters (age, college level and location). The results from StorQuests Facebook ad campaign were one of their highest performing online advertising efforts: Over 50% increase in total rentals versus prior year at the same store. 10% conversion rate from visits originating from Facebook Ads. On par with Google AdWords on a cost-per-lead and cost-per-customer basis. $1.25 CPC delivered $10.25 cost-per-lead. When you have a broader presence on Facebook with Facebook Pages or Facebook Events plus ads for instance, you can turn your advertising message into a trusted referral by including content from a users friends who are already affiliated with your products. ANA took this approach by creating a Facebook Page to acquire interested users for on-going messaging opportunities and developing a compelling advertising campaign. ANA used a creative grouping of keywords to target advertising to users specifically interested in traveling and Japanese culture and developed ad creative that resonated with their audience. Average campaigns for ANA result in CTR of 8 12%. Facebook Ads resulted in a 25% CTR. Conversions resulted in positive ROI which is unique for ANA considering their product is not an impulse purchase for most people and Japan is not traditionally seen as a leisure destination. If the company is running a Facebook Ad Campaign, they can choose to target Social Actions in their campaigns. With this feature enabled, those people who fan the Page may see the Ad listed among their News Feeds. Companies can also use the Facebook messaging system to communicate with their fans. Banner advertising method The Arrow showing the banner advertising method A banner ad is an image shown on a webpage for advertising purposes. Along with animation, contemporary ad banners often use simple forms of interaction as a lure, taking advantage of  plug-ins  such as  Flash  and  Shockwave  to create banner-based games. As you can see, advertisers came to the conclusion that banner ads were not as effective as full-page magazine ads or 30-second TV commercials. At the same time, there was an incredible glut of advertising space, thousands of sites had a million or more page impressions available per month, and companies like  DoubleClick  began collecting these sites into massive pools of banner-ad inventory. The economic principle of supply and demand works the same way on the Web as it does everywhere else, so the rates paid for banner advertising began to plummet. Undoubtedly you know what banner ads are; youve seen innumerable ones as youve surfed across countless websites. You may have already clicked on a number of them. Banner ads take different shapes and sizes, and many forms and styles, but they share a common goal: attracting visitors! Banner ads usually contain graphics, sometimes they are entirely text and others they use graphics and text. The main idea of a banner ad is to present an interesting idea to the surfer and have them click on it for more information, leading them to the advertisers site. Banner ads come in many sizes, the most popular, is a full banner (468 x 60), but all styles are used. Some people claim you should stay away from using full banner ads as they are already so common that most surfers avoid them. Obviously placing banners that advertise your site on other websites costs money. There are several ways of paying for this type of advertising. You may pay per click on the banner; per thousand clicks; per sales to visitors directed to you, or another form. How much banner ads work for you will depend on a variety of things? Where you place the ads, how relevant the sites hosting the ad are to your site; what your ads look like, how appealing they are; how clear they are about what you are advertising, etc. Placing the ads on sites related to yours is vitally important, i.e. people surfing for watches will probably not be interested in an ad for parachutes. Your ads should be attractive, preferably animated, clear and to the point. They should be advertising a specific product or service, not just the name of your site. People who click on the ad should be able to find the product or service in question with relative ease. Ideally, the ad should lead directly to it. Pop-up advertising method A pop-up ad is an ad that pops up in its own window when you go to a page. It obscures the Web page that you are trying to read, so you have to close the window or move it out of the way. Pop-under ads are similar, but place themselves under the content you are trying to read and are therefore less intrusive. A typical site with two pop-up ads that appear on top of the home page A pop-up ad is a pop-up window used for advertising. When the program is initiated by some user action, such as a mouse click or a  mouse over  , a window  containing an offer for some product or service appears in the foreground of the visual interface. Like all pop-ups, a pop-up ad is smaller than the background interface windows that fill the user interface are called replacement interfaces and usually resembles a small browser window with only the close, minimize, and maximize options at the top. A variation on the pop-up ad, the pop-under  , is a window that loads behind the Web page that youre viewing, only to appear when you leave that Web site. Pop-up and pop-under ads annoy many users because they clutter up the desktop and take time to close. However, they are much more effective than banner ads. Whereas a banner ad might get two to five clicks per 1,000 impressions, a pop-up ad might average 30 clicks. Therefore, advertisers are willing to pay more for pop-up and pop-under ads. Typically, a pop-up ad will pay the Web site four to 10 times more than a banner ad. That is why you see so many pop-up ads on the Web today. Pop-up windows come in many different shapes and sizes, typically in a scaled-down browser window with only the Close, Minimize and Maximize commands. There is a strong resentment by some Web surfers towards pop-up ads. Marketers often do not realize the ill-will generated by pop-ups because it is easier to click the close button than send an email to complain. What  can often be seen is an above-average click-through rate, although some of this can come from false positives, unintentional clicks when the pop-up gets in the way of the desired target. Advertisers can get a better picture of the effectiveness of pop-up advertising by paying attention to conversion rates and return on investment (ROI). Pop-up ads are not popular with the average Web surfer, and there are several products that disable them, such as Pop-up Stopper, Pop-up Killer, and Pop-up Annihilator. One thing to look for in such a program is the ability to differentiate between user-initiated pop-up windows and others, because many other applications (such as  Webcast  s, for example) make use of pop-up windows. If a pop-up stopper utility cant tell the difference between a pop-up window that the user has requested and an unsought pop-up ad, the program may cause more problems for the user than it solves. The advantage and disadvantage of Facebook advertising method CHAN JIA JUN And remember how the way to improve this method to attract the eye of people and other u can understand The advantage and disadvantage of Banner advertising method Chan JIA JUN And remember how the way to improve this method to attract the eye of people and other u can understand The advantage and disadvantage of pop-out advertising method Chan Jia Jun And remember how the way to improve this method to attract the eye of people and other u can understand Conclusion Lai kai lin Need to cover and mention u The different between online and common advertisement What you more prefer on (common and online)+ why If only have 3 type of method that I mention, what online advertising method you will choosing Reference Link Pop-out ads method http://computer.howstuffworks.com/web-advertising.htm/printable Facebook ads mathod http://www.facebook.com/advertising/?campaign_id=217255663720placement=exactcreative=5813419712keyword=facebook+adsextra_1=334da685-4df4-51c9-6341-0000076a659a http://goabroad.zhishi.sohu.com/question/65860980.html http://www.wsu.edu:8080/~taflinge/addefine.html http://www.speedace.info/advertising.htm http://internet-business-advertising.com/ http://mk-mk.facebook.com/adsmarketing/index.php?sk=success Lai kai lin This no need do

Diversity in Colleges Essay example -- Race Sex Diversity

Traditional Diversity At UC-Berkeley, the course description for "Politics and Poetics" (Fall Course 2002) stated that "conservative thinkers are encouraged to seek other sections." (SAF 1). Though the instructor later apologized for the description, this is the sort of encouragement conservative-minded students are greeted with many times during their college experience. It is said that in class, students are taught that their country -- and Western culture in general -- is tainted by racism, sexism, and oppression (Stearn 2). Outside class, students are forced into consciousness-raising exercises that heighten tensions and bolster radical pressure groups (Stearn 2). For example, at Brown University, an organized coalition of fifteen ethnic and political student groups stole 4,000 copies of the Brown Daily Herald in March 2002 (SAF 2). The theft was conducted as retribution for the paper's decision to print an anti-reparations [for slavery] ad penned by David Horowitz, a well-known liberal turned conservative political activist (2). The director of Brown's Afro-American studies program defended the coalition's action, claiming, "If something is free, you can take as many copies as you like. This is not a free speech issue. It is a hate speech issue." (SAF 2). Horowitz's anti-reparation comments are entitled: "10 Reasons Why Reparations For Blacks Are A Bad Idea For Blacks And Racist, Too." (Horowitz, 10 Reasons). While Horowitz's title may cause some anxiety for reparation supporters, it is, simply, an individual opinion. However, Horowitz knew very well that the opinion published with this essay would induce some serious backlash, and all odds should be placed on his counting on the scathing rebuttals to open a wide d... .... Horowitz, David. "In Defense of Intellectual Diversity." Chronicle.com. 13 February 2004: 5 pp. Internet. Online. Direct page link. . Accessed 24 April 2004. Horowitz, David and Lehrer, Eli. "Political Bias in the Administrations and Faculties of 32 Elite Colleges and Universities." April 2003: 4 pp. Online. Internet. Direct page link. . Accessed 10 May 2004. Stearn, Peter. "Expanding the Agenda of Cultural Research." 2 May 2003: 5 pp. Online subscription only. . Accessed 14 May 2004. Students for Academic Freedom Website (SAF). "Bias Incidents on Campus." 12 May 2004: 14 pp. Studentsforacademicfreedom.org. Internet. Online. . Accessed 14 May 2004. Diversity in Colleges Essay example -- Race Sex Diversity Traditional Diversity At UC-Berkeley, the course description for "Politics and Poetics" (Fall Course 2002) stated that "conservative thinkers are encouraged to seek other sections." (SAF 1). Though the instructor later apologized for the description, this is the sort of encouragement conservative-minded students are greeted with many times during their college experience. It is said that in class, students are taught that their country -- and Western culture in general -- is tainted by racism, sexism, and oppression (Stearn 2). Outside class, students are forced into consciousness-raising exercises that heighten tensions and bolster radical pressure groups (Stearn 2). For example, at Brown University, an organized coalition of fifteen ethnic and political student groups stole 4,000 copies of the Brown Daily Herald in March 2002 (SAF 2). The theft was conducted as retribution for the paper's decision to print an anti-reparations [for slavery] ad penned by David Horowitz, a well-known liberal turned conservative political activist (2). The director of Brown's Afro-American studies program defended the coalition's action, claiming, "If something is free, you can take as many copies as you like. This is not a free speech issue. It is a hate speech issue." (SAF 2). Horowitz's anti-reparation comments are entitled: "10 Reasons Why Reparations For Blacks Are A Bad Idea For Blacks And Racist, Too." (Horowitz, 10 Reasons). While Horowitz's title may cause some anxiety for reparation supporters, it is, simply, an individual opinion. However, Horowitz knew very well that the opinion published with this essay would induce some serious backlash, and all odds should be placed on his counting on the scathing rebuttals to open a wide d... .... Horowitz, David. "In Defense of Intellectual Diversity." Chronicle.com. 13 February 2004: 5 pp. Internet. Online. Direct page link. . Accessed 24 April 2004. Horowitz, David and Lehrer, Eli. "Political Bias in the Administrations and Faculties of 32 Elite Colleges and Universities." April 2003: 4 pp. Online. Internet. Direct page link. . Accessed 10 May 2004. Stearn, Peter. "Expanding the Agenda of Cultural Research." 2 May 2003: 5 pp. Online subscription only. . Accessed 14 May 2004. Students for Academic Freedom Website (SAF). "Bias Incidents on Campus." 12 May 2004: 14 pp. Studentsforacademicfreedom.org. Internet. Online. . Accessed 14 May 2004.

Competence in the Work Environment Essay

2.1Compare the strengths and weaknesses of assessment methods. Assessment can take place in a variety of settings, such as classrooms, lecture rooms, workplaces (or in a simulation of workplace conditions), community and training establishments or examination halls. No matter where it takes place or what form it takes, assessment always involves observation, evaluation, or questioning or a combination of some or all of the three. There are many different methods of assessment, a few regularly used are:-observation, evaluation or questioning. Whether they are used formatively or summatively, the most important issue is whether the assessment is appropriate for the intended outcome. Each learner is initially given a learning styles questionnaire to complete. From this questionnaire the assessor can establish which from assessment may suit the learner best. Observation The assessor observes the learners as they carry out tasks defined in the standards for the qualification. This observation often takes place in the workplace, or the conditions of the workplace, but it can also be carried out in any other place where the learner is undertaking practical activities which is a positive. Assessors should ideally plan observations to take advantage of any skills or activities that occur naturally in the learning environment, and to make the best use of the available resources. There are times however when an assessor may spontaneously observe a learner carry out a task which can be written up as an observation. One of the weaknesses of observations is that some learners amy beome self –concious or shy/embarresed and feel they are ‘being watched and graded’. The residents or clients may also act differently if they are aware that an observation is taking place and can lead to a distorted picture of the true nature of the learners role . Evaluation In some areas, as learners work towards achieving their qualifications they will generate evidence in the form of products of their work. This is the case in qualifications in Health and Social care for instance which is primarily a work-based or practical qualification. Learners may produce CVs, diet plans, weight charts, reflective accounts which can all be used to assess their knowledge in a chosen subject area. These can be incredibly posistive and allow the learner to reflect and be proud of his/her practices and positives. The weakness with evalution is that it has to be done correctly, with enough time to explore areas that may need extra work and encourage the learner in a positive way. Questioning and discussions with the learner Questioning can be used whenever an assessor wants to assess knowledge and understanding and the various different applications of knowledge such as reasoning, planning, analysing and evaluating. Questioning can be used to: * confirm knowledge and understanding where it is not apparent from performance * Address gaps in knowledge and understanding in performance based units * Authenticate evidence by asking learners to explain part of the evidence and/or describe the process of producing it * Assess contingencies where it would not be practical or safe to wait until the skill or activity can be observed * You can use oral or written questions, depending on the requirements of the outcomes of units being assessed and the circumstances of the assessment. Your choice of method should reflect any special assessment requirements your learners may have. For example, some learners do not respond well to written questions — in any case, you should always ensure that the appropriate reading level is used Discussions give the assessor the opportunity to gauge the learner’s knowledge and highlight areas lacking which can be taught at a later date. A weakness in discussions and questioning is that the assessor has to be careful not to lead or prompt or give the answer to the learner as it may not be valid. Outcome 3Understand how to plan assessment 3.1Key factors when planning assessment When planning an assessment there are a number of factors to be considered. Who are you assessing? What do you want them to achieve? Where will the assessment take place? How long do you have? Once you have answered these you then need to look at applying a holistic approach. Using a holistic approach means that many areas of work and outcomes can be covered at the same time. The assessment process isn’t just about watching a learner complete a task it is about, discussion, planning, implementing and reflection. Areas of risk that may be involved when I assess a learner in the care setting are minimal but may still arise. An example of this would be assessing a learner carrying out a manual handling task. Has the learner had the appropriate training to carry out the task? Is there a piece of equipment involved and has it been tested for use. Is the learner competent and confident to carry out the task? Do I feel that I have assessed any risk involved and am I happy for my learner to proceed? If I am not happy at anytime then the assessment will be stopped and a further risk assessment carried out. During the initial meeting the learner will have completed a Learning Styles Questionnaire, this should have highlighted any areas such as advanced learning needs or dyslexia and the planning of an assessment should take this into consideration. 3.2 Benefits of using holistic assessment Using a holistic assessment enables the assessor to cover a large range of outcomes in a number of diploma units with one piece of evidence. Holistic assessment may for example cover infection control and manual handling. By referencing outcomes well the learner will see that good progress is being made and opportunities area taken. It saves time from both the learners and the assessor’s point of view. 3.3 How to apply holistic assessment when planning assessment As the assessor meets with the learner and plans each technical certificate or unit of work they should be thinking about how best a holistic assessment would fit into the plan and how it can be cross referenced. The learner must then be in agreement and sign the plan. 3.4Summarise the types of risk that may be involved in assessment When talking about ‘risk’ there are a number of different kinds. There is physical/environmental risk to learner, client and assessor and there is emotional/psychological risk. Environmental issues in care setting such as fire, health and safety, trip hazards, the clients themselves. Emotionally learners could feel they are being pushed if too much work is given at once or they may not feel they are being challenged enough. This creates unrealistic and unnecessary risk stress on the learner and is far from beneficial and conducive to good work being produced. 3.5.1 How to minimise risks through the planning process. Plan number one that is produced with the learner will have ensured that the learner is working in safe conditions and if needed any risk assessments have been done, i.e. if the learner is under 18 years old. The plan will also check that the employer’s insurance liability is up to date. The assessor will discuss with the learner how best to handle their work load to cause minimum stress. Some learners prefer large assignments whilst others prefer small chunks at a time. By knowing your learner you will know whether their work is authentic and justifiable, it is important that they are told about not copying and pasting articles as their own work and explain to them what plagiarism is. Outcome 4Understand how to involve learners and others in assessment 4.1 Explain the importance of involving the learner and others in the assessment process There are a large number of reasons why it’s so important to involve the learner in assessment. The diploma is for the candidate, it’s their work, and there goals and they need to feel as if they own it. By clear involvement the learner will know what is expected from them and clearly understand the standards and criteria. By involving others in the planning such as senior colleagues and managers then witness statements can be provided, time allocated for learning and support. 4.2 Types of information available to learners. In order for a learner to complete their diploma they should be given any necessary teaching and resources. This may include handouts, oral teaching sessions and websites to look at. Other types of information are items such as standards and the criteria they need to meet. The learner will be told how the evidence is gathered an in what format such as written accounts, reflective accounts, observations. 4.3 How can peer and self-assessment be used to promote learner involvement and responsibility? 4.4How can assessment arrangements be adapted to meet the needs of the individual learner? Each candidate’s assessment needs must be considered in relation to the assessment being undertaken. Most candidates will require more than one assessment arrangement. For example, candidates who have a visual impairment, hearing imparient or advanced learning needs . Outcome 5Understand how to make assessment decisions 5.1 When judging evidence we use the following terms:- Valid, authentic, current and sufficient. When assessing a learner’s evidence as an assessor I have to be satisfied that the work submitted is the learners own work and not plagiarised from a book or the internet. It is often easy to tell when this happens as the terms used and flow of the writing changes. Within the realms of health and social care the standards, policies and procedures are continually updated to ensure national standards are met, with this in mind it is important that the learners work is current and up to date with knowledge that his relevant and not historical. I also have to consider whether the work submitted is sufficient, has it covered the entire outcome required and does it show an understanding of the subject. 5.2 In order for assessment decisions to be reliable and fair between learners there are a set of learning outcomes and criteria that have to be achieved. Each learner is made aware of these outcomes and criteria and their work should demonstrate this. Each learner is assessed against the criteria and outcomes. Outcome 6Understand how your assessments contribute to the quality assurance of assessment 6.1 6.2 6.3 There is great importance of quality assurance in the assessment process as it shows whether the performance targets are being met against national standards that are in place. Within my workplace all work is quality assured by an Internal Verifier (IV). The IV is qualified and occupationally competent in the subject that they verify. The role of the IV is to provide support, advice and guidance to the assessing team. The IV holds regular standardisation meetings with the assessors and also gives one-to-one support and feedback on learner’s portfolios. When the portfolios of learners have been assessed and internally verified, and all the assessment criteria have been met, the IV should arrange for the centre to apply for certification for those learners. This will prompt a visit from the External Verifier to confirm the assessment and verification decisions made at the centre. The IV is responsible for ensuring that the details of the learners applying for certification, the assessor(s) involved, and the IV activity in relation to those assessors. The EV will visit the centre to verify the assessment and internal verification decisions made by centre staff. Where there are large numbers of learners this is normally done on a sampling basis. The sample is selected by the EV, to allow them to verify the work of all assessors across a range of evidence types and performance criteria and is based on the IV’s sampling plan. It may be necessary for the EV to sample more portfolios than was originally planned, or all the portfolio s in the group, so all portfolios should be available on the day of the EV’s visit. If a learner feels †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦. Outcome 7Understand how to manage information relating to assessment of occupational competence 7.1 7.2 It is important to follow procedures for the management of information relating to assessment for a number of reasons. The assessor should regularly update learning records to provide accurate information on the learner’s achievement. At my place of work we use a computer system called ‘Zylab’ which tracks each learner’s progress through a colour chart system. The up to date information contributes to evidence of quality assurance and standardisation, pointing out learners that need extra help or who are falling behind. I use the Zylab forms to show my learners how they are progressing, to see a visual representation of progress and can be extremely rewarding and increases willingness to learn and achieve. The use of feedback and questioning during the assessment process allows me as an assessor to clarify and judge the learners understanding and knowledge in certain areas. Giving critical feedback to someone is a delicate process. It is very important to assure that you approach the task with sensitivity to the person’s feelings to avoid the common problem of a very defensive reaction. An example of giving positive, negative and positive feedback is:- You really did an excellent job with that ‘Communication’ essay – everybody has been very impressed! In the future, it would be better to avoid naming people that haven’t accepted all the methods you outline. It’s great that you put so much thought into this and a lot of people are going to benefit from it!† This is often referred to as a feedback sandwich. Outcome 8Understand the legal and good practice requirements in relation to assessment 8.1 The organisation that I work for has legal requirements, polices and procedures in relation to assessment. Each visit to see a learner I ask whether there have been any incidents that have occurred, either emotionally or from a health and safety perspective. If there has been then I check an incident form has been completed (if appropriate), what measures have been put in place to ensure it doesn’t happen again and I take time to listen to the learner express themselves. All work undertaken is dealt with in a confidential manner. No names of places, clients, service users or staff are used in portfolio evidence and the learner knows that they can talk to me in a confidential manner. Clear records of learning are kept for all learners as mentioned before we use Zylab sheets which must be updated every Friday. The organisation has a responsibility to ensure that all learners are given equal opportunity to develop and learn and the organisation recognises the diversity in each on e. 8.2 The use of technology can make in the assessment process is invaluable. I have a learner with advanced learning needs who really struggles with writing and spelling. To overcome this we use a Dictaphone and use the recording as oral evidence. The organisation now offers on line training which for many learners is ideal as the use of computers within day to day lives and workplaces becomes far more common. It has to be remembered though that there are older learners that we assess that don’t have the computer skills and would rather use a paper portfolio. Each learner needs to be assessed as an individual. 8.3 There are legal and best practice requirements that have to be met in relation to assessment with regards to gender, disability, race/culture/religion and language. Each learner that enrols on a course is initially assessed as to any factors which could lead to advanced learning needs. These needs may be due to language barriers, religion or culture. For every learning need identified the organisation has a duty to ensure each one is recognised and the appropriate support is given.