Nuclear Family and British Social Breakdown

Introduction One of the biggest concerns of the contemporary British society is the issue society breakdown. This matter has attained the attention of not just sociologists and anthropologists but the general public as well. Many factors have been attributed to this social problem. Different theories have been fronted to explain the origin, causes and effects of this challenge.Advertising We will write a custom essay sample on Nuclear Family and British Social Breakdown specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More As they say numbers do not lie. According to statistics, the probability of kids in the Great Britain not been raised by both parents is the greatest in the region, except of Belgium, Latvia and Estonia. As we speak only less than two thirds of children under the age of 14 are living in the same household with their biological parents. This research was carried out by Organization for Economic Development and Co-operation (OEDC). Th e figures indicates that 68.9 per cent of kids under 14 live with both natural parents in United Kingdom while 70.7 of the same age bracket live with both parents in the United States, and 79.5 in France. These statistics form the basis of our critical discussion. In this paper we examine and explain the importance of nuclear family and its functions in British society. The paper goes ahead to elucidate whether the decline of nuclear family contributes to the wider British social breakdown. Contrast and exploration of the nature and functions of the nuclear family with other family types or structures Comparatively nuclear family demonstrates a couple of similarities and contrasts with other family structures. A brief description of nuclear family is that it be defined as a family that is composed of two sets of family members, parents and children, living together in the same home. Interaction within family is usually unlimited and usually very personal. This can be depicted by the close conduct experienced from time to time such as sharing household utilities and facilities. Family members in a nuclear family are generally freer with each other and forms closer ties as compared to other types of family structure. The core function of nuclear is basically supporting each other psychologically, socially, and economically. This comes handy when it comes to transacting vital undertakings such as inheritance of property where every member is expected to receive a share. In comparison to other family structures this exercise is less complex. In extended families such issues as inheritance can be termed as nightmare, this is probably because of the larger numbers. Extended family is the other major type of family structure. It can be described as a family with more than parents and offspring. Sociologist have moved forward and tried to classify extended family as follows. First is the vertical extended family. This branch is made up of three or more sets such as gr andparents, parents and children.Advertising Looking for essay on social sciences? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More Secondly, the horizontal extended family. This family consists of cousins, aunts, and uncles. The last branch is modified extended, commonly referred as Michael Gordon, after his outstanding contribution. This branch is essentially made up of two or more nuclear families living separately. One common distinguishing factor between nuclear and extended family is the level of sets representation in each of them. It is also clear that numbers do vary. Rarely will you find nuclear families with fewer people than extended family or vice verse. In terms of relationships, extended families have â€Å"weaker† relations as compared to nuclear family. In terms of functions the two differ a bit. In nuclear family the focus is primarily on the â€Å"immediate† members but in extended the focus spreads out to meet the needs of everyone in the household. The other fast developing structure of family is single-parent family. As the name insinuates, it is composed of a single parent and children. From statistics, they are more female single parents as compared to male parents. Sometimes this family type is referred as a broken nuclear because often it is a result of broken nuclear family. Single-parent family can be contrasted with nuclear by the fact that in nuclear family both parents work together for the good of the children while in single-parent family only one parent is involved. Advantages and disadvantages of nuclear family compared to other types of family unit The nuclear family bears many advantages and as expected some downside also. To start off is the strength of privacy. Matters conducted within a nuclear family are more likely to be secret, confidential and private. Privacy is a key factor searched by most people because it brings the element of integrity and creation of person al space. Financial stability is another most sought after factor in marriage and society. Nuclear family provides the most conducive environment for financial stability. Both parents are able to save, plan, and provide for the children. This makes the burden bearable for the parents and protects the children from unnecessary lack. Another noticeable advantage of nuclear family is freedom, comfort and avoidance of stress. Nuclear family creates that environment that is more likely to be free from stress and strain. In a way, members find their way to enjoy their life without much interference from other â€Å"external† forces. The disadvantage of nuclear family includes lack of support from the larger society in case of eventualities such as tragedy or death. More often, nuclear family tends to be â€Å"clogged† to itself and members might lack the â€Å"external† touch. This is might contribute to lack of social skills.Advertising We will write a custom es say sample on Nuclear Family and British Social Breakdown specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More Possible influences of the ‘breakdown’ of society The state of society breakdown can be contributed to many factors. For the purpose of this paper we shall discuss the following factors: Changes of family structure, career development and feminism. Changes in family structure can be attributed to the increasing threat of society breakdown. It is noticed that a fragmented family will yield to a fragmented society. This is a source of concern to our society. The traditional family has been interfered with and now what we are witnessing is new forms of marriages and families. These new development have resulted to the sad reality of escalating rate of divorces. Notably since 1960, there has been a tremendous increase in divorces occurrences in the Great Britain. Actually between 1961 and 1969 the number doubled and the same increase wa s recorded in 1972. The trend has continued to expand touching its peak at 1993 at 180,000. According to experts, some couples are more prone to suffer divorce. The group that married young and had children before the marriage or practiced cohabitation. The other vulnerable group is partners who have been married or gone through another divorce. Career development is the other main contributor of society breakdown. Marriages and families generally demand a lot of time and resources. In the same tone, career development is taxing and consumes a lot of time. The strength and wisdom to balance the two has lead many people to choose forsaking marriage and family at the expense of developing their careers. Holistically looking at it, at the end of the day it is the society that is hurt because this means compromise in other aspects. In such a case it is easier to cohabitate than to manage a family. It is easier and more prestigious to work towards job promotion than to sacrifice finances for the sake of family. The other could be associated with broken society is the aspect of feminism. From the onset I must clarify that this aspect is not entirely wrong but only some parts which are misplaced. As we know it is the responsibility of women to be â€Å"homemaker† in the family. This is a noble task that requires a lot of humility and patience. However, what are we seeing in the society? Women who are so agitated for their right such that they cannot simply be homemakers. The theory of feminism has good intentions but if addressed with wisdom then I am afraid it ends up doing more harm than good. A family needs both a man and a woman. The man is the head and woman supporting him. And together they form a nuclear family.Advertising Looking for essay on social sciences? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More Restoration of nuclear family Nuclear family is the most ideal family structure for restoration of the broken society. From the above discussion it is clear that the strengths outweigh the weaknesses. Restoration of nuclear family is a very possible mission. This could be achieved through carrying out programs encouraging especially the young people the significance of family and nuclear in this matter. This program could incorporate â€Å"success stories†, couples, families that have successful lived to enjoy the fruits of nuclear family. Conclusion From the above discussion it clear that decline in nuclear family is leading to the wider broken society in the current British society. In summary nuclear family plays a very strategic and vital role to the well being the society. This can be demonstrated by how much we, as the society, stand to gain if this family structure shall be restored. The following are the main contributors of the society ‘breakdown’ they i nclude Changes of family structure, career development and feminism. This essay on Nuclear Family and British Social Breakdown was written and submitted by user Amber F. to help you with your own studies. You are free to use it for research and reference purposes in order to write your own paper; however, you must cite it accordingly. You can donate your paper here.

The Call of the Wild by Jack London Quotes

The Call of the Wild by Jack London Quotes The Call of the Wild is a novel by Jack London (John Griffith London)first serialized in the summer of 1903 to popular acclaim. The book is about Buck, a dog who eventually learns to survive in the wilds of Alaska. Quotes From the Call of the Wild by Jack London ...men, groping in the Arctic darkness, had found a yellow metal, and because steamship and transportation companies were booming the find, thousands of men were rushing into the Northland. These men wanted dogs, and the dogs they wanted were heavy dogs, with strong muscles by which to toil, and furry coats to protect them from the frost.- Jack London, The Call of the Wild, Ch. 1He was beaten (he knew that), but he was not broken. He saw, once for all, that he stood no chance against a man with a club. He had learned the lesson, and in all his afterlife he never forgot it. That club was a revelation. It was his introduction to the reign of primitive law... The facts of life took on a fiercer aspect, and while he faced that aspect uncowed, he faced it with all the latent cunning of his nature aroused.- Jack London, The Call of the Wild, Ch. 1Here was neither peace, nor rest, nor a moments safety. All was confusion and action, and every moment life and limb were in peril. There was imp erative need to be constantly alert, for these dogs and men were not town dogs and men. They were savages, all of them, who knew no law but the law of club and fang.- Jack London, The Call of the Wild, Ch. 2 In this manner had fought forgotten ancestors. They quickened the old life within him, the old tricks which they had stamped into the heredity of the breed were his tricks... And when, on the still cold nights, he pointed his nose at a star and howled long and wolflike, it was his ancestors, dead and dust, pointing nose at star and howling down through the centuries and through him.- Jack London, The Call of the Wild, Ch. 2When he moaned and sobbed, it was with the pain of living that was of old the pain of his wild fathers, and the fear and mystery of the cold and dark that was to them fear and mystery.- Jack London, The Call of the Wild, Ch. 3He was sounding the deeps of his nature, and of the parts of his nature that were deeper than he, going back into the womb of Time.- Jack London, The Call of the Wild, Ch. 3All that stirring of old instincts which at stated periods drives men out from the sounding cities to forest and plain to kill things by chemically propelled leaden bullets , the bloodlust, the joy to kill all this was Bucks, only it was infinitely more intimate. He was ranging at the head of the pack, running the wild thing down, the living meat, to kill with how own teeth and wash his muzzle to the eyes in warm blood.- Jack London, The Call of the Wild, Ch. 3 For the pride of trace and trail was his, and sick unto death, he could not bear that another dog should do his work.- Jack London, The Call of the Wild, Ch. 4The wonderful patience of the trail which comes to men who toil hard and suffer sore, and remain sweet of speech and kindly, did not come to these two men and the woman. They had no inkling of such a patience. They were stiff and in pain, their muscles ached, their bones ached, their very hearts ached, and because of this they became sharp of speech.- Jack London, The Call of the Wild, Ch. 5His muscles had wasted away to knotty strings, and the flesh pads had disappeared so that each rib and every bone in his frame were outlined cleanly through the loose hide that was wrinkled in folds of emptiness. It was heartbreaking, only Bucks heart was unbreakable. The man in the red sweater had proved that.- Jack London, The Call of the Wild, Ch. 5He felt strangely numb. As though from a great distance, he was aware that he was being bea ten. The last sensations of pain left him. He no longer felt anything, though very faintly he could hear the impact of the club upon his body. But it was no longer his body, it seemed so far away.- Jack London, The Call of the Wild, Ch. 5 Love, genuine passionate love, was his for the first time.- Jack London, The Call of the Wild, Ch. 6He was older than the days he had seen and the breaths he had drawn. He linked the past with the present, and the eternity behind him throbbed through him in a mighty rhythm to which he swayed as the tides and seasons swayed.- Jack London, The Call of the Wild, Ch. 6Sometimes he pursued the call into the forest, looking for it as though it were a tangible thing, barking softly or defiantly... Irresistible impulses seized him. he would be lying in camp, dozing lazily in the heat of the day, when suddenly his head would lift and his ears cock up, intent and listening, and he would spring on his feet and dash away, and on and on, for hours, though the forest aisles.- Jack London, The Call of the Wild, Ch. 7But especially he loved to run in the dim twilight of the summer midnights, listening to the subdued and sleepy murmurs of the forest, reading signs and sounds as a man may read a book, and seeking for the mysterious something that called called, waking or sleeping, at all times, for him to come.- Jack London, The Call of the Wild, Ch. 7 It filled him with a great unrest and strange desires. It caused him to feel a vague, sweet gladness, and he was aware of wild yearnings and stirrings for he knew not what.- Jack London, The Call of the Wild, Ch. 7He was a killer, a thing that preyed, living on the things that lived, unaided, alone, by virtue of his own strength and prowess, surviving triumphantly in a hostile environment where only the strong survive.- Jack London, The Call of the Wild, Ch. 7He had killed man, the noblest game of all, and he had killed in the face of the law of club and fang.- Jack London, The Call of the Wild, Ch. 7When the long winter nights come on and the wolves follow their meat into the lower valleys, he may be seen running at the head of the pack through the pale moonlight or glimmering   borealis, leaping gigantic above his fellows, his great throat a-bellow as he sings a song of the younger world, which is the song of the pack.- Jack London, The Call of the Wild, Ch. 7

Intelligence Agencies Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2750 words

Intelligence Agencies - Essay Example Means of information gathering may include espionage, communication interception, cryptanalysis, cooperation with other institutions, and evaluation of public sources. The assembly and propagation of this information is known as intelligence analysis. Intelligence has now become big business with legal status and financial support. It is no longer sensible to pretend that it does not exist. By the end of World War II, with the Cold War looming on the horizon and USSR leading the intelligence world, the United States began the process of developing an elaborate peacetime intelligence structure that would extend across a number of government departments of various allied and third world nations. The operations of the U.S. and USSR intelligence community during the Cold War would range from running single agents, to marshaling the talents of thousands to build and deploy elaborate spy satellites. The intelligence agencies of the United States and Soviet Union have been used by government officials since the end of World War Two to guard and advance the global interests of their nation. Even after the end of cold war by the late 1990's, it continues to have a major impact in designing the structure of the various intelligence agencies. ... The Cold War was the period of conflict, tension and competition between the United States and the Soviet Union and their respective allies from the mid-1940s until the early 1990s. But in actual there was never a direct military engagement between the US and the Soviet Union. There was half a century of military buildup as well as political battles for support around the world, including significant involvement of allied and satellite nations in proxy wars. In most of these activities the intelligence agencies played a major part in both political battles (setting up and supporting of puppet government by USSR in Afghan) and proxy wars (Vietnam War). COVERT OPERATIONS A covert operation is a military or political activity carried out in such a way that the parties responsible for the action can be an open secret, but cannot be proved. Covert operations are frequently illegal in the target state and are sometimes in violation of the laws of the enacting country. During the cold war era, both US and USSR undertook a lot of covert operations in order to understand the military and political agenda of one another. The history of Covert Operations goes back far beyond the Cold War, with many operations during the two World wars and even long before then. Despite this long history the hay day of covert operations was during the Cold War where two opposing power blocks faced each other but were unwilling to risk an actual war. They undertook these covert operations especially in third world nations trying to install a government which supports their policies. US undertook a lot of these covert operations mostly in communist influential states. Some of the operations were CIA's help to the Italian Christian Democrats, and the help to the Iranian Shah in 1953 code name

Blank Activities in English Language Teaching Article

Blank Activities in English Language Teaching - Article Example The teachers can make students read the complete context. This activity makes students increase students reading ability, as they need to go to the material thoroughly. In this way, students get to know about the important and keywords used in the context. The more the students read, the more they improve their vocabulary. The teachers get to know about the student's that they take reading seriously or not. The Fill in the blanks activity is also used in psyche testing. Psyche testing is commonly used when recruiting military persons. Fill in the blanks is used in psyche testing in such a way that the sentence is incomplete and the portion of the sentence has to complete by the student. This technique can easily be evaluated by psychiatrists as they can figure out the person personality and aptitude by looking at the complete meaning which student has tried to deliver. This psychiatrist can judge whether the person has positive or negative thinking. Fill in the blanks technique is friendly for both students and the teachers. The students do not need to answer the questions in paragraphs i.e. lengthy answers are avoided. For teachers, it is easy for grading of the exam, as there are mostly absolute answers to be filled in the blanks, so they do not need to read long answers and grade them on a relative basis.

Design Management in the 21st century Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Design Management in the 21st century - Essay Example Thesis Statement: The purpose of this paper is to examine the significance of design management in the 20th century. The New Roles of Design Managers in the 21st Century In contemporary organizations, design managers are catalysts of change and core decision makers in continually changing organizational features such as the impact of technology. Additionally, design managers help in forming a bridge between creative design and quantitative business success, and in increasingly leading the business process. These measures are vital to the corporate world of the 21st century. According to the MDMN (2010), a greater understanding of the changing contexts within which design management practice operates is essential for design managers, and this can be promoted through research and new academic frameworks that integrate design management practice and theory. Design Management and Corporate Strategy According to McDermott (2007: 84), â€Å"design management seeks to position design as an essential part of business strategy†. There is an increasing move to professionalize and integrate design into business and industry. Strategic design management involves focusing on its use as a source of competitive advantage and a catalyst for change in the organization’s structure, finance and human resources. Business or tactical design management manages design as a proficiency to give rise to distinctive product concepts as well as new market opportunities. Operational design management focuses on the â€Å"efficiency and effectiveness of the design process, the design team and individual design projects† (Lockwood & Walton 2008: 28). Shaping the Future of Design Management In order to ensure that design management in future increasingly forms the core of new business development, there is a move to replace the term with design strategy or design policy (McDermott 2007). Increasing connectivity, speed and productivity as a result of advancing technology m ake it necessary for a new type of design management to replace the old rules. The design management is implemented for creating value, â€Å"design itself is being redesigned† (Cramer 2004: 7). The four most significant factors for achieving success through design management are: improved business marketing, operations, professional services the firm employs, and the management of finances. Conclusion This paper has highlighted design management and its growing significance to the corporate world in the 21st century. Though design management is increasingly being prioritzed in the management agenda, one of its limitations would be that the theory may lead to generalization and a narrow view of design. This needs to be overcome by individualizing design management concepts to the particular organization. It is concluded that an organization or business that incorporates design management concepts gains strategic advantage over its more conventional counterparts. Bibliography Cramer, J.P. (2004). How firms succeed: A field guide to design management. Edition 2. London: Greenway Communications. DMI (Design Management Institute). (2010). Research strategy. Research, Design Management Institute. Retrieved on 5th January, 2010 from: http://www.dmi.org/dmi/html/research/priorities_s.htm Lockwood, T. &

Effects of Consumer Switching Costs

Effects of Consumer Switching Costs The assumption about switching cost is rather natural to the extent that borrowers’ satisfaction or dissatisfaction about a bank can be different according to individual preference to banks’ services and borrowers can measure them exactly only after having the relationship. Switching costs may capture direct cost of closing an account with one bank and opening it elsewhere, the cost associated with other application procedures with other banks but also loss of relationship benefit between borrower and his former bank. A borrower faces switching costs in a relationship with an individual bank; it would be costly to borrow from a single lender if its primary bank is in financial distress. This implies that default risk would be more sensitive to our bank health measures if the bank-firm relationship is close. Overall, the following are the main conclusions for this study, each of these shall be discussed throughout the chapter: The respondents elaborated that the manner in which they were affected by the crisis when the international banking system collapsed leading to drying up of credit. Living in the credit-driven environment, both individuals as well as the corporate sector found it difficult to face the no credit situation. Government-driven rescue packages were being announced across the world to save their respective economies. The amounts were running into hundreds of billions of their home currencies. The magnitude was so huge and the event so wide spread, that it spread across various sectors and various economies. Image is indirectly related to the bank loyalty as perceived by quality. This is based on the results of large scale empirical results in a global level. Service quality is indirectly and directly related to bank loyalty in terms of satisfaction. Satisfaction has a direct effect on loyalty for the bank. It is now clear on level of the mentioned constructs that reliability or the quality dimension and the position in the market or the image dimension are both important drivers of bank retail loyalty. Therefore the quality of a bank should be more important for credit line customers than for other loan customers. We therefore apply and test the hypothesis that credit line borrowers are willing to pay extra for borrowing from a bank of high quality. A wide range of factors maintain the market power in banking. Entry into the banking sector is restricted by regulatory agencies, creating one of the preconditions for a degree of monopoly power and administrated pricing. Market power and an inelastic demand for retail bank products may also result from the existence of switching costs and asymmetric information costs. Switching costs may arise when bank customers consider switching from one bank to another, for example when a household intend to transfer its savings deposits from bank A to bank B. Costs of acquiring information and search and administrative costs are potentially important in markets where significant information or transaction costs exist. The costs are also expected to be high in markets with long-term relationships and repeated transactions (Sharpe, 1997). Generally the existence of switching costs results in market segmentation and reduces the demand elasticity (Klemperer, 1987). Moreover, even in the presence of small switching costs, the theory predicts that the smaller the proportion of customers that are new to the market, the less competitive prices will be. Thus, even with non-co-operative behaviour, switching costs result in a retail bank interest rate adjustment of less than one to a change in the market interest rate (Lowe and Rohling, 1992). Two main limitations are associated with this case study. First, we have not collected the financial performance data and therefore are not able to discuss cost effectiveness and profitability of the schemes. The second limitation is related to the drivers of customer loyalty in retail banking industry. Future investigations should focus on loyalty program component analysis, customer loyalty measures, customer attraction and profitability, and design and costs of loyalty programs. The findings suggest that the majority of the analyzed loyalty programs reward a repeat purchasing. The retail banks automatically record individual customers details and transactions that provide an opportunity for marketing people to organize segmentation and targeting, and create relationship marketing strategy as well as individual marketing offers to the clients. However, the research shows that the banks are basically concentrated on two customer segments the potentially profitable customers and the customers, who are willing to keep money in their bank accounts. Most of the retail bank loyalty programs offer their customers only a discount on the transaction costs. It could be viewed as an indirect price cut policy, which leads to the constant battle for the price. The critical issue for the most programs launched by the banks is to reinforce the value proposition of the bank brand, to enhance loyalty toward the brand, not just toward the rewards. Relationship marketing strategy and relationship based loyalty programs are important to retail banking service providers, because it is a right way to build relationship and loyalty. Furthermore, a conclusion is reached that retail banks are offering non-customized loyalty programs and that marketing specialists are not familiar enough with the factors that determine the choice of loyalty programs. Based on the results, loan securitization can be utilized as a strategic tool to soften the competition in the loan market. Like all financially troubled firms, a banks debt pricing strategy is likely to be driven by the need to generate cash to boost liquidity to fund investments or to raise short term profitability. The deposit pricing strategy chosen however may not be uniform and instead will depend on institutional factors and also segmentation between different classes of deposit investors. The most important institutional factor affecting pricing strategy of distressed banks is deposit insurance; the existence of fixed premium deposit insurance alters the nature of the more general creditor-owner conflict. For any distressed firm the incentive to generate funds to boost short-term profits or to gamble for survival exists; these funds in theory can be obtained directly through the financial markets. For most firms debt covenants make gambling difficult but for banks financing through depositors may be readily available to the extent deposit insurance exists. Because deposit insurance eliminates the incentive for depositors to monitor bank risk, it makes generating large amounts of funding, to use in risky investments, much easier. This seems to be, to a large extent what happened to financially distressed banks in U.K. during the time period studied. But the fact that all dimensions of bank deposit rates do not increase with distress and the fact that some increase more than others suggests that deposit insurance does not seem to be the only factor affecting bank deposit pricing strategy. Differences between classes of depositors allow banks to tailor deposit pricing strategies to best obtain funding in the most cost-effective way. Distressed banks tend to increase deposit rates only for the most investment oriented depositors (non-transaction account depositors) and do not significantly raise rates for the least investment oriented depositors (transaction account depositors). Additionally, not fully insured investment oriented (large time) depositors tend to be offered rates higher than mostly insured investment oriented (non-transaction non-large time) depositors. Thus distressed banks offer a premium both based on the increased risk (if deposits are uninsured) and for depositors being more investment oriented. Past works have generally suggested that troubled banks bid up deposit rates in a gamble for survival or that they may have to offer higher rates for uninsured depositors to compensate for the increased risk. The results suggest, that both explanations are partially correct in that they are both factors to varying degrees based on depositor class and that neither are significant factors for the least investment oriented depositors. The results provide fresh evidence that moral hazard is a issue in banking and moreover that it is increased by deposit insurance since distressed banks apparently raise rates less for investment oriented investors who have a larger portion of their deposits insured (non-large time non-transaction depositors) relative to more uninsured investment oriented investors (large time account depositors). The fact that deposit rates do not increase for transaction account holders as distress increases while other types of deposit rates increases is also important to consider; it suggest that moral hazard in conjunction with the convenience orientation of these depositors allows distressed banks to maintain this funding source at minimal cost regardless of risk. Thus the evidence suggests that both deposit insurance and the convenience orientation of a certain class of deposit investors imposes costs on the final creditor (the FDIC in this case) when a bank is in financial distress. Thus the results have important implications for regulators. The researcher documents the presence of positive duration dependence in relationships. In other words, firms become more likely to end a bank relationship as a relationship matures. Taken alone, this result suggests that the value of relationships decline through time, and those firms are able to end relationships early, possibly to avoid lock-in. This inference is strengthened by the fact that small, young, and highly-leveraged firms maintain the shortest relationships. Although theory suggests that such bank-dependent firms are the most susceptible to lock-in, our findings imply that switching costs are low enough to permit these firms to change banks often. Holding other firm characteristics constant, we show that competing bank relationships reduce the market power of any one bank, making long-term relationships more valuable. Although firms with multiple bank relationships terminate relationships frequently, they do so by terminating newer relationships and keeping long-term ones. Intuitively, the existence of alternative sources of bank credit reduces the ability for any one bank to threaten holdup. With lower holdup costs, a long-term relationship becomes more valuable to the multiple-bank firms. The researcher also finds some indication that firms terminate relationships as they outgrow their banks. Firms tend to switch from small banks to larger banks, and maintain the longest relationships with Norways two largest banks. However, we find no evidence that this preference for larger banks arises as a result of limited capacity at other banks. Instead, growing firms could prefer the higher quality services offered by the large banks. The evidence presented here should be useful to future theorists interested in modeling the value of bank relationships. However, one should take caution in drawing far-reaching conclusions from this study. Our data reveals very little about the actual nature of the relationships. We are unable to observe how the price and quantity of lending change over the course of the relationship and do not know the other types of banking services offered to customers in a bank relationship. Indeed, an ideal extension of this study would be to obtain a time-series of relationship-specific information about banks and their customers and examine the duration of the relationship as a function of relationship-specific variables. The constant effort of managers to stimulate customer loyalty involves customer integration in the firm value chain as a result of personalised marketing (Vesanen, 2007) aiming at intensifying the relationship between the supplier and its customers and increasing customer loyalty. Customer loyalty can be seen as a result of switching costs, opportunity costs and sunk costs based on technological, contractual and psychological obligations faced by a customer (Jackson, 1985; Riemer and Totz, 2003). All sources of these costs are based on the interaction with a customer during the course of integration. Switching costs increase due to the established trust towards the supplier and its capability to meet promised quality levels. If customers can be persuaded to invest significantly in a specific relationship, then sunk costs increase. Additionally, if customer satisfaction is positively influenced by customisation, then a customers opportunity costs increase as a defecting customer risks losing the net benefits of the current relationship (Riemer and Totz, 2003). However, not all companies will be able to draw profits from these saving potentials to a similar extent, regardless of whether they have already realised the existence of these effects. The degree of customer interaction is influenced by the characteristics of the good being  individualised, such as its complexity, the expenditures and the risks of its utilisation and  customisation. The paper contributes to the literature in identify new strength and weakness areas concerning the actual range of services offered by retail banks, the re-purchase intentions, the state of relationships with customers, and the competitors image positioning. The findings of this research suggest several implications also for marketing practitioners, as they validate the concept that relationship marketing orientation is critical for business performance. Firstly, since only when the satisfaction with the core service and relationship is high, the commitment will be higher, banks have to ensure that utmost importance is given to attributes like quality, product features, product availability etc. Moreover, the staff role is critical in understanding the customer needs and in satisfying them: the higher satisfaction will then increase customer retention. Secondly, relational switching costs can be increased only by investing in the soft or the relational assets (Nielson, 1996), in terms of various adaptations to favour the customer and also the investments in other soft assets like training for the working staff of the customers etc. Since the interaction is mostly interpersonal in nature, these outcomes hold major lessons for them. Finally, the moderating effect establishes that the investment in the relationship with the customer will raise the relational switching costs. This will help in customer retention, as the customer will not terminate the relationships even if the satisfaction is lower. It makes the entry of any other competitor difficult as he has had no investments in relationship so far. The findings of this study highlighted the strong role of social network in influencing consumer behaviour. Therefore, customers are more willing to participate and interact in the creation of the offer, since they feel a sense of belonging. Practitioners should encourage social network in order to minimise the switching behaviour (see for example the credit cards industry), upgrading their relationship perspective from customer relationship management to vendor relationship management (Berkman Center for Internet and Society). Minimisation of switching behaviour will lead to better customer retention, which will eventually lead to better bottom lines. Certainly, the analysis has some limitations, such as the sample size, the variables and the area considered; future research will be focused especially on the multiplicative variable, which was eliminated from the model probably due to the variables considered, in order to assess the joint effect of the three macro variables on customer loyalty. The results are consistent with the hypothesis that bank lending is characterized by borrower capture perhaps due to informational monopolies and other sources of switching costs -, as the firms that suffer most from increased market concentration are those that have no alternative lending sources. The efficiency gains of increased concentration are shared only with firms that hold loans from multiple banks. These informational switching costs become particularly relevant during episodes of rising market share. For instance, a firm that has established relationships with two banks that ex-post merge, losses its ability to limit lenders power through switching its funding source. Rising concentration and mergers thus produce borrower capture. Moreover, relationships are built through repeated contact between the client and particular bank officers. If these matches are broken over a merger, then valuable information on clients risk may be lost. The results point out to the fact that having alternative lending sources isolates firms from the adverse effects that rising concentration and mergers may convey. Thus our findings are consistent with the existence of informational monopolies and switching costs. Moreover, the efficiency gains that result from larger market shares are passed on only to clients that face lower switching costs. Switching costs are much lower if the firm holds loans from more banks, and can threat to move its business elsewhere if a lender charges higher interest rates. Alternatively, a firm that holds loans from multiple banks is more likely to face rate reductions when its lending source becomes larger and gains efficiency. Little is known about what governs recovery from banking crises. The first pass at these data uncover several robust patterns. Banks that are already in trouble tend to lend money to riskier clients. Another important factor for recovery is the size of the initial drop in profit during the onset of the distress. Third, it also matters the general climate of the bank after the financial shock. But no evidence was found that there was anything different about the banks that recovered from the downturn when many banks were distressed than during other periods. Fourth, recovery also depends the factors that the bank can control. Loan level data suggests that an important reason why the recovering banks manage defaults better is that they are tougher on extending credit to their riskiest customers. Regulators tend to disclose relatively little about what steps are taken with respect to banks that require intervention. Our findings suggest paying close attention to whether the distressed banks are being particularly vigilant in containing credit to high risk borrowers. To the extent they are not doing so, the regulators could push in this direction. For countries that have credit registers and credit ratings that are readily available this would be easy to implement. Likewise, where regulatory assessments concentrate on a CAMELS which means capitals, assets, management, earnings, liquidity and sensitivity to risk of the markets rating system, the supervisors might want to pay particular attention to the riskiest assets and customers. SME markets have a dimension that is local. This comes with entry barriers and switching costs and there is a room in exercising market power. In banking business both satisfaction and switching costs can be regarded as loyalty antecedents; however, satisfaction influence on loyalty is greater than the influence of switching costs. Researchers established a relationship between overall satisfaction and customer intentions to recommend a bank and to remain a customer. Despite the fact that financial products still are not differentiated, the customers in banking sector cannot make objective assessments of service quality, that is why the concept of trust is very important here. Switching costs inhibit a return to the local currency even after a successful stabilization effort. These well know incentive effects give rise to the conjecture that once de facto dollarization has reached a threshold, it may well persist, leading to the observation of dollarization hysteresis. Each of the foregoing indices depends upon a number of economic variables that reflect the relative incentives to hold the different assets described in both the denominator and numerator of each index. These incentives include relative rates of return as reflected by interest rate differentials, inflation differentials and exchange rate depreciation as well as the relative costs and benefits associated with network externalities, switching costs and risks of banking institutions. An empirical model was proposed for the strategic behavior of firms in the presence of switching costs. The models used the transition probabilities that are in strategic interaction of firms in order to derive equations that can be estimated. The proposed models novelty is its ability in extracting information for both the significance and magnitude of the switching cost. It can also extract information on the transition probabilities of the customers. In order to illustrate the model was utilized to a panel of banks in order to estimate the switching costs of bank loans in the market. We have found that the grand average point estimate of switching costs is about 4.1%, and may be as low as 0.2% when only banks with the largest loan portfolio are included in the definition of the market. When the market is defined according to the branch-network size the switching cost among the largest banks is about 2.1%. 23% of the customers added value is due to the phenomenon of lock in that is generated by the switching costs. As much as 35.0% of the banks market share is because of the bank-borrower relationship that is already established. The model estimates imply an average duration of bank-customer relationship of 13.5 years. All the above characteristics exhibit lower values for the group of larger banks whose loan portfolio is dominated by more mobile wholesale customers. To summarize, market bank loans switching costs are quite substantial and constitute a significant portion of the value of a marginal customer to the average firm. The presented technique may be applied to other markets in order to gain insight into the empirical regularity of switching costs. The major contribution from this study is that switching barriers affect significantly the level of customer retention, and also affect the relationship between customer satisfaction and customer retention. It does seem that switching costs could be used to predict consumers behaviour in the banking sector. Customer satisfaction has positive effects on the customer retention. Thus, manager may need to emphasize total satisfaction programme in an attempt to retain customers in the competitive banking market. However, the moderating role of switching barriers in the relationship between customer satisfaction and retention is indicative that for low involvement services as credit services switching barriers may play a big role in customers retention programme. Managers therefore, must significantly consider switching barriers and dimensions of customer satisfaction when making plans or focusing efforts in customer retention. The study attempts to differentiate the consequences of consumers behaviour in terms of exit and loyalty. However, the effect of switching barriers on consequence is significant only when customers consider to exit. One major area of future research is the role of government policy in creation and removal of switching barriers especially in a developing economy where government participation is crucial. Besides the switching cost, customer lock-in is essentially driven by relationship lenders informational advantage compared to outsider lenders. The researcher shows that higher switching cost, which can be thought to reflect greater concentration in local credit markets, does not necessarily lead to higher equilibrium profits in relationship lending. Adverse selection problem curtails price competition when the switching cost is low by discouraging outsider banks to make too aggressive bids. Threat of adverse selection gradually fades away as the insiders bank profits are reduced and the cost of switching banks increase. On the other hand, lack of competition starts to dominate for sufficiently high levels of switching cost, so that insider banks profits become increasing in this cost. The researchers finding runs counter to the Petersen-Rajan (1995) argument that competition is generally detrimental to relationship lending. The V-shaped pattern, however, is supported by recent empirical evidence in Elsas (2005) and, to some extent, in Kim et al. (2004). A clear tendency for a V-shaped relationship between availability of institutional debt and relationship lenders market power also arises in the empirical part of Petersen and Rajans (1995) own study. This is the case especially in the category of firms older than five years. The reason why the similar tendency does not emerge in start-up financing is probably because insider lenders informational advantage is not very pronounced in that category. If the model is solved assuming sufficiently inaccurate private information by the insider lender infinitesimal switching cost (=intense competition) is shown to lead to low profits and no clear-cut V-shaped relationship arises. The researcher also finds that allocation of financial resources is most efficient under intermediate market structures: low switching cost tends to augment adverse selection problem, while some of the good loan applicants are left without finance when the cost of switching banks is sufficiently high. However, if insider banks can invest in the accuracy of private information, the incentive to acquire information is stronger when the expected benefits from relationship lending are higher. Therefore more efficient information acquisition can potentially counterbalance the inefficiencies in resource allocation when the switching cost is either very low or high. According to our results, learning costs best explain perceived average costs, followed by continuity costs. Lost costs do not significantly explain perceived average costs. This regression tells us that to obtain a strong perceived average cost, one variable with a significant impact is learning costs. However, this variable is more difficult to manipulate. In addition, increasing learning costs may create induced loyalty, which would be perceived poorly. Clearly, making a financial institutions processes more complicated just to create barriers to leaving would not be a very good strategy. Continuity costs are a variable that financial institutions could control in order to achieve desired loyalty. For example, loyalty programs would grant customers special privileges. Customers would be less likely to leave, for fear of losing these benefits. Non-monetary privileges such as the increased availability of a financial advisor or simply the fact that an advisor knows a customers name can increase the switching costs perceived by customers. Banks can make substantial profits in some peoples eyes; they must also demonstrate transparency in their communications and position themselves as being in touch with their customers. They should not come across as cold businesses that are only care for people with money. They should welcome customers warmly and treat each one fairly, especially if they want to appeal to a younger population (18-30 years old). Younger customers should be treated in the same way and just as seriously as older customers. Switching costs have a minimal impact on loyalty even though, as we have observed, there is clearly a connection between perceived switching costs and loyalty. Nonetheless this variable is not a requirement in a loyalty strategy for young people. In summary, a loyalty program with special benefits for young people could be an effective part of a loyalty strategy, but financial institutions must first ensure that customers trust them and are satisfied with their products and services. This study also highlights the essential role of main bank power, measured by equity holdings, in enabling firms to change inside† banks. Apparently, switching to a new bank which holds equity of the firm reduces the switching costs. In addition, the researcher finds no evidence that main bank power has a material effect on firm performance, but it does affect the loan ratio by increasing the amount of credit with a term of one year or more. Banks with a high level of nonperforming loans are compelled to curtail lending due to their impaired financial health. In contrast, less capitalized banks are associated with higher loan ratio of their clients. Thus, the findings provide more fodder for the debate over the potential for banks to structure clients’ balance sheets. It is worth noting that whether and in what amount loans will be made is crucially dependent on the bank’s characteristics (i.e., how much money does it have to lend), whereas interest rates (measured by interest payments) are determined by the borrower’s creditworthiness. A core finding of this research is that firms perform worse after switching, which is in accordance with Degryse and Ongena (2001). Apparently, the firms that switch banks are seen as risky and, therefore, the new bank charges higher interest on the credit it grants. This is reasonable behavior on the part of banks as von Thadden (2004) argues that particularly low-quality firms are more likely to switch banks. It would be very interesting to discover how permanent this poorer performance is and to what extent bank health affects loan conditions. The issue of strong bank power implying high switching costs for firms is of great relevance to policymakers in that financial institutions tend to choose insufficient structures in the absence of sufficient competition and this situation can result in wealth redistribution in developing countries (Rajan, 2002). To guard against banks having excessive power, many developed countries set limits on the amount of equity a bank can hold in a single firm (Morck et al., 2000). This type of regulation is rare in emerging markets so far, making non-financial corporations quite susceptible to shocks generated in financial sector. Perhaps the most interesting empirical regularity uncovered in this study is that banking crises are not accompanied by substantial declines in bank deposits relative to GDP. Thus, while depositor runs have played a central role in the theoretical literature on banking crises, in practice they seem to be a sideshow at best. A possible explanation is that generous bank safety nets are present, and depositors have little to lose despite widespread insolvency in the banking system. However, our bank-level analysis indicates that deposits do decline in weaker, less profitable banks, suggesting that depositors are actively and accurately monitoring financial institutions. If funds withdrawn are re-deposited in healthier banks, than the stability of aggregate deposits can be reconciled with the evidence of runs on weaker banks. This is an issue that deserves further study. For instance, if indeed large scale reallocations of deposits occur following banking crises, how is the functioning o f the financial system affected? Can the payment system, the interbank market, and the supply of credit continue to work smoothly? Bank financial distress, be it the result of illiquidity or insolvency, may help propagating adverse shocks to the real economy if it forces banks to curtail lending to creditworthy borrowers. Banking crises do not seem to be followed by prolonged recessions: the slowdown in output growth is usually sharp but short-lived, with growth rates back to their pre-crisis levels in the second year after the crisis even though credit growth remains depressed. An open question for future research is how do firms finance the recovery in the immediate aftermath of a banking crisis, and at what stage if any — does the lack of bank credit become a hindrance to growth. The analysis of bank level data indicates that even healthier b

Our Town Critique :: essays research papers

Through December 5th through the 7th, I performed in Thornton Wilder’s play of Our Town. The only sets or props that the actors or actresses used where folding chairs for us to sit in, umbrellas to hide Emily (Julie Dumbler), and flats on both sides of the stage to hide the people behind them. The reason for the lack of set is so the audience can use there imagination of what the town of Grover’s Corner, New Hampshire looks like. All the rest of the props that the actors had to use were pan mimed and acted out to the fullest to make it look real. The only other experience with no set was with Miss Henery in Neodesha and it was a disaster so I didn’t know how well this was going to work out. But with the help of our director Peter Ellenstein and the rest of the cast, the pan miming was very successful. Our performance space was a modified thrust stage. The shape of the stage served us well for this play, but the back stage was horrible. All of the chairs that we had to use were folding chairs that made a lot of noise even if you hardly touched one. One neat thing about the play is that all of the sound affects were made by our backstage manager (Lisa Mitchell) or other members of the cast. In exception for the clock chiming at the end of the play. People who have seen the play tell me that it is a very heart moving play. I did not get that feeling because I was always backstage or onstage. Ether way I didn’t get to watch the play so I couldn’t see what was so moving about it. The only humor I got was from lines and the funniest person I heard was Professor Willard (Gary Mitchell). The audience is led through the entire play by the Stage Manager (Cory Venable). He literally talks to the audience between every scene explaining what is going on in the story. I thought Mr. Wilder did a good job in having a Stage Manager do this. The Stage Manager tells and shows us a story a young girl growing up and facing death, even after death . He show us how Emily Webb (Julie Dumbler) first gets to know her future husband George Gibbs (Eric Cole).

Organising & Delegating in the Workplace Essay

1.1 The importance of making effective and efficient use of people’s knowledge skills while planning the team’s work to achieve objectives is explained Organising is the managerial function of arranging people and resources to work towards a goal. In order to achieve objectives in an effective and efficient manner it is important to have a good knowledge of the team’s skills. Issues such as lack of motivation in the team or lack of confidence could mean the objective is failed and at the same time enthusiastic, motivated and given responsibility for their work team, can reach the targets and aims and objectives. Overall meeting the objectives of the company could be at risk and cannot be met if the wrong person is chosen. Organising is about planning for a situation; it’s about working together to achieve one goal. To organise I need to ensure that the people I manage and lead are the making the best use of their skills to do that specific task. In Hull Libraries I have to plan for specific times of the year. I know for example that the school holidays are a busy time in Hull Libraries. It is important for the right me mber of staff to be matched with their own knowledge and skills to the task in hand. An example of a task that is needed specifically in the holidays may be a craft sessions. Now I know that certain members of staff do not excel in art and craft sessions. It would not be fair to put a member of staff that did not feel confident and have the correct skills on this task. It would affect their confidence and their motivation. I instead put a member of staff, for example Karen, as the lead for this task. Karen loves arts and crafts, enjoys working with children and is good at these sessions. This means that the children will enjoy it and the parents will feel that the received a good level of customer service. When holding sessions in the past we have had very positive feedback for these sessions. In Hull Libraries if a member of staff is allocated to the wrong area of work then this may have a direct impact on members of the public. Objectives may not be met on time and/or to the standard which they should be. This will not receive the level of customer service that they deserve or expect which can lead to complaints being raised and an unhappy member of the public. This reflects badly on Hull  Library service which we do not want. This may also effect a member of staffs level of motivation and dedication. When this time of year comes we also have a ‘relief’ list of staff. Should we need more members of staff on the counter to cover activities as mentioned above, we can call these staff in on a relief basis to help with the demand. Covering busy periods at the library is quite easy. As a supervisor am I not always on the rota to be on the counter, I am sometimes planned to be in my office. Should demand increase I can go onto the counter to serve customers as and when needed. 1.2 One technique is used to identify the appropriate activity for a person To identify the appropriate member of staff for the correct activity I have used a skills matrix spread sheet (appendix 1). A skills matrix is a table that displays people’s proficiency with certain skills and knowledge. You can link this to the task in hand. Recently in Hull Libraries we have started to hold appointments for Blue Badge assessments, as well as this we also have a summer programme of activities to hold for children and the day to day running of the library. To plan and allocate the correct work to the correct person I have looked at each member of staff and rated their skills needed for the task between 1 and 10. From the skills matric I can also see training gaps and also areas for mentoring. I can see that Karen would be good at mentoring Julie and Anne for children’s activities as they do not have as higher skills, knowledge and confidence as Karen. I can see that it would not be appropriate to put Jacki or Sue on Blue Badge appointments as they have not yet had the appropriate training. This would not be fair on either the member of staff or the member of the public. The service provided would not be to the higher quality that Hull Libraries wants it to be. For the task in appendix one I can see that it would be good to have Karen running the children’s craft sessions, Julie holding the Blue Badge Appointments, Sue helping members of the public with I.T and Jacki and Anne serving the customers on a regular basis. Anne is also trained with the delivery of Bus passes and Rail Cards so she can issue these should a member of the public attend the library for one. A skills matrix can also be used to identify  training needs. I can see that Jacki and Sue need training for Blue Badges. Should the skills matrix have been for a different subject then I would be again ale to identify training needs for other people. 1.3 How human resource planning can be used to assure output and quality is explained Human resource planning is how companies can determine and analyse the requirement of, and supply of if need be, a workforce in order to achieve the organisation’s goals and objectives. HR planning predicts what will affect the availability and requirement of employees in the future. If a company also has too many staff HR planning for the future is key when it may come to making redundancies in a company. Hr planning also takes into account staff that on annual leave, sickness and maternity. This may result in temporary staff being brought in to support core staff. Hull Libraries do have a list of ‘relief’ casual staff who are able to come in should this situation arise. Part of HR planning is the training of members of staff. Training ensures that the right amount of staff have the correct skills and knowledge to provide the customer with the level of service they expect. For workplaces like factories this is slightly easier to predict as they have output of raw materials. They can predict how many items a certain line can make in an hour and plan staffing around orders and the amount of materials needed. Many factories can use formulas to generate their anticipated work load and work force. Many companies for examples can predict that an order has been placed for 100 items. Each member of staff can produce 10 items a day but they only have two days to turn the order around. This means that they will need 5 members of staff minimum to meet the requirement. This is a small example of what companies can predict. Large companies can predict when orders for 1000’s of items are placed. For Hull Libraries it is slightly harder as we do not have key figures as output. The output for Hull Libraries is customer service to the customer.  What the customer expects and what the customers gets. If Hull Libraries were short staffed and still managed to serve customers they would not receive the same quality and time they expect. Conversely, if Hull Libraries were short staffed and ensured that the customer was taken care of and received the level of customer service they expect then not enough customers will be able to be served. Either way, complaints are likely so HR planning is really important. Recently though with the changes that have been happening we have been able to plan staffing with output figures in mind. We know that each library has approximately 30 Blue Badge appointments each week, each taking one hour. This means we have been able to plan staffing to cover the 30 hours of appointments each week. In a couple of cases this has resulted in staff being moved from other libraries and in the long term plan it is going to result in new staff being recruited. Delegating to achieve workplace objectives 2.1 One example of delegation and one example of empowerment in the workplace is given â€Å"Delegation involves giving a member of your team the responsibility for part of your job and the authority to carry it out, but you retain overall control and accountability.† (Williams, 2006) Delegation is an important management skill. Good delegation saves you time, develops your staff and motivates. Poor delegation will cause frustration, demotivation and failure to achieve the task. Effective delegation is crucial for management and leadership succession. Delegation is giving responsibility ensuring that the member of staff knows what is required of them and the standard that is expected. The overall control is retained by me as a manager. This means that the task will still be supported and also the task will not fall behind time constraints. Some tasks are ideal for delegation but some should never be delegated. Tasks that should never be delegated include confidential matters, disciplinary action, appraisals and  counselling staff. Jobs that can be delegated include jobs which are routine, jobs where an individual member of staff be able to do the task to a better standard than myself and jobs of which are low to medium priority. As a manager I have delegated tas ks to members of staff on many occasions. Each month I have a full team meeting and devise a rota of jobs that can be delegated to staff. These are jobs that are a core part of library duties but are not vital jobs for me as a line manager to complete. Some of the jobs may take time when I can be working on higher priority jobs. One of the jobs which I have delegated in the library is the display work. I have delegated this job to Karen. This includes the general posters in the library and then creating the display work in the library including the children’s library. The reason I have delegated this task is for a number of reasons. The job is not a high priority task so I may have another task which need doing first, Karen is really good at producing display work and Karen has a passion for art and really enjoys producing displays. I am not as skilled and do not have knowledge of art and crafts to produce the displays to the calibre of what Karen can. By delegating this task to Karen she has excelled at the job in hand and it has motivated her in her work. Empowerment is a management practice of sharing informa tion, rewards, and power with employees so that they can take initiative and make decisions to solve problems and improve service and performance. Empowerment is based on the idea that giving employees skills, resources, authority, motivation, as well holding them responsible and accountable for outcomes of their actions, will contribute to their motivation. Each month during a team meeting I ask the staff if they had any ideas that they would like to put forward to improve their skills or to improve the customer’s experience of the library. If the ideas seemed a positive one and one we would be able to go ahead with I would speak to my line manager to have the idea authorised ready for implementation. If the idea was authorised I would then speak to the member of staff who had the idea and let them lead on this. One of the ideas that came from one of these meeting was from Sue, one of my members of staff. She had noticed a rise in people coming to the library to use the computers to search for jobs, create CV’s and general help with setting up e-mails and using computers. An idea she put forward was to start a â €˜work club’ at Greenwood Library. The session would be held on a weekly basis where members  of the public could drop in and have advise on the topics mentioned earlier. The management agreed this was a great idea. I then let Sue take the lead on this project as it was her idea. She really enjoyed taking the lead on it and her motivation increased. 2.2 One barrier to delegation and one mechanism to support delegation is identified Delegation is a very important management technique; it brings benefits to team members and team leaders. At times there can be barriers to delegation from team members and from team leaders. Some of the barriers from a team leader/supervisors point of view may be; I can do it better myself, my members of staff are just not capable enough, it takes too much time to explain what I want to be done, if it goes wrong I’ll still be accountable, delegation reduces my own authority, I’ll be shown up if they do too good a job, my staff prefer that I make the decisions and team members want to avoid responsibility. Some of the barriers that staff may feel is I do not understand what I am needing to do, I do not feel skilled enough to do the task asked of me and it’s not in my job description. The most important mechanism is to support your staff throughout the delegation process. Explaining the task in detail and with time to the member of staff is key. Explaining how important the task is and why the task is necessary. Always reiterating to your member of staff that you are there for them should they need any help is important as they will feel supported. Once the task has been completed give the member of staff praise and recognition for the task in which they have completed. It is them vital to pass credit to the member of staff. The will encourage them for future tasks and will improve motivation. 2.3 One technique that could be used to monitor the outcomes of delegation in the workplace is explained Monitoring tasks when delegation has taken place is vital. By monitoring it means the manager stays in overall control and be able to spot potential problems at an early stage. If this occurs the member of staff can then be guided and makes any changes necessary to get back on track. It is important when work is delegated that from the start objectives, time scales and key points are arranged. This is important so that whilst monitoring the delegation you can benchmark them against agreed targets. There are many ways you can monitor the progress and outcome of delegation. This can be by way of meetings with staff, statistical reports, observing the member of staff and gather information from others to name but a few. One I personally prefer is to have regular 1:1 meetings with the member of staff involved in the task. These can be regular informal discussions with the member of staff where I can ask the member of staff how they feel the task is going and if they need any further advice/support. If they need any further resources to complete the task this can be discussed. We can also look at the objectives and see if they are being met. It also gives me a chance to congratulate and praise the member of staff for completing/working towards completing the task. This gives the member of staff a sense of achievement and will increase motivation. Once the task is completed I will have a final meeting with the member of staff to discuss how the task went and what things we can do different in the future. Should it result in a task that may be ongoing I will carry on the meetings to make sure we are making best use of resources. 2.4 The effectiveness of feedback, recognition and reward techniques in the workplace is reviewed. Feedback and recognition is an imperative part of the delegation process. Its gives the manager a chance to speak to the member of staff involved in the task and helps the member of staff to learn from the experience. This may be for a positive part of the task or possibly a negative part. Feedback encourages staff to develop their skills and knowledge for the future. Giving feedback is also a key part of being a manager. Feedback and  recognition can help a member of staff to feel motivated and part of the team. The will feel more confident in future tasks and can be willing to help other members of the team. Some companies have reward schemes to encourage members of staff. This may be variable pay, bonuses, profit sharing and stock options. A business can choose to reward individual or group contributions or a combination of the two. Group-based reward systems are based on a measurement of team performance, with individual rewards received on the basis of this performance. These systems can encourage individual efforts; they also tend to reward underperforming employees along with average and above-average employees. A reward program which recognises individual achievements in addition to team performance can provide extra incentive for employees. It can increase motivation and improve staffs work rate on a regular basis. All of the techniques above help staff to be more motivated in the workplace and encourages them for future tasks. It is a vital cog in the wheel for a business or company. Without the final part staff may feel demotivated and will not be as willing to tasks further tasks on in the future. References Williams, K (2006). Introducing Management. 3rd ed. Oxford: Butterworth-Heinemann Appendices

New York Passes a Married Womens Property Act, 1848

New York Passes a Married Womens Property Act, 1848 Enacted: April 7, 1848 Before married womens property acts were passed, upon marriage a woman lost any right to control property that was hers prior to the marriage, nor did she have rights to acquire any property during marriage. A married woman could not make contracts, keep or control her own wages or any rents, transfer property, sell property or bring any lawsuit. For many womens rights advocates, womens property law reform was connected to suffrage demands, but there were supporters of womens property rights who did not support women gaining the vote. Married womens property law was related to the legal doctrine of separate use: under marriage, when a wife lost her legal existence, she could not separately use property, and her husband controlled the property.   Although married womens property acts, like that of New York in 1848, did not remove all the legal impediments to a married womans separate existence, these laws did make it possible for a married woman to have separate use of property she brought into marriage and property she acquired or inherited during marriage. The New York effort to reform womens property laws began in 1836 when  Ernestine  Rose  and Paulina Wright Davis began to gather signatures on petitions. In 1837, Thomas Herttell, a New York city judge, attempted to pass in the New York Assembly a bill to give married women more property rights. Elizabeth Cady Stanton  in 1843 lobbied legislators to pass a bill. A state constitutional convention in 1846 passed a reform of womens property rights, but three days after voting for it, the delegates to the conventions reversed their position. Many men supported the law because it would protect mens property from creditors. The issue of women owning property was linked, for many activists, with the legal status of women where women were treated as the property of their husbands.   When the authors of the  History of Woman Suffrage  summarized the New York battle for the 1848 statue, they described the effect as to emancipate wives from the slavery of the old common law of England, and to secure to them equal property rights. Before 1848, a few laws were passed in some states in the U.S. giving women some limited property rights, but the 1848 law was more comprehensive. It was amended to include even more rights in 1860; later, married womens rights to control property were extended still more. The first section gave a married woman control over real property (real estate, for instance) she brought into the marriage, including the right to rents and other profits from that property.   The husband had, before this act, the ability to dispose of the property or use it or its income to pay for his debts.   Under the new law, he was not able to do that, and she would continue her rights as if she had not married. The second  section dealt with the personal property of married women, and any real property other than she brought in during marriage.   These too, were under her control, although unlike real property she brought into the marriage, it could be taken to pay debts of her husband. The third section dealt with gifts and inheritances given to a married woman by anyone other than her husband.   Like property she brought into the marriage, this also was to be under her sole control, and like that property but unlike other property acquired during marriage, it could not be required to settle her husbands debts. Note that these acts didnt completely free a married woman from economic control of her husband, but it did remove major blocks to her own economic choices. The text of the 1848 New York Statute known as the Married Womens Property Act, as amended in 1849, reads in full: An act for the more effectual protection of the property of married women: §1. The real property of any female who may hereafter marry, and which she shall own at the time of marriage, and the rents, issues, and profits thereof, shall not be subject to the sole disposal of her husband, nor be liable for his debts, and shall continue her sole and separate property, as if she were a single female. §2. The real and personal property, and the rents, issues, and profits thereof, of any female now married, shall not be subject to the disposal of her husband; but shall be her sole and separate property, as if she were a single female, except so far as the same may be liable for the debts of her husband heretofore contracted. §3. Any married female may take by inheritance, or by gift, grant, devise, or bequest, from any person other than her husband, and hold to her sole and separate use, and convey and devise real and personal property, and any interest or estate therein, and the rent s, issues, and profits thereof, in the same manner and with like effect as if she were unmarried, and the same shall not be subject to the disposal of her husband nor be liable for his debts. After the passage of this (and similar laws elsewhere), traditional law continued to expect a husband to support his wife during the marriage, and to support their children.   Basic necessaries the husband was expected to provide included food, clothing, education, housing, and health care.   The husbands duty to provide necessaries no longer applies, evolving because of an expectation of equality of the sexes.

MONET1 essays

MONET1 essays On a Sunday morning I went to the Metropolitan Museum of Art. I saw many amazing, interesting and beautiful paintings and sculptures. As I was walking around, I spotted a painting by Claude Oscar Monet. This painting was called "Terrace at Sainte-Adresse," which is also known as the "Garden at Sainte-Adresse." Since I was so interested in this painting scenery, I approached someone who worked there and asked questions about it. Claude Monet was the best-known painter of the French Impressionist Era. He was particularly remembered for his water garden painting. The "Terrace at Sainte- Adresse" was painted in the summer of 1867 in the family house. He painted this view from one of the upstairs rooms. This painting made me think of happiness and serenity. The first thing that "Terrace at Sainte-Adresse" spotted my eye was Jeanne Marguerite Lecadre's white dress. Her white dress looks luminous among the red geraniums looking out toward the Atlantic Ocean. Jeanne Marguerite Lecadre is in conversation with a young man wearing a black hat and a black suit. The man seated is Monet's father, seen in three quarter views as the viewer, seeming as it was to look over his shoulder. I've noticed that there is abundance of flowers on the terrace that Monet's love of flowers seems to be reminding himself of the connection between pictures and making the painting almost look realistic. The painting reflects in its articulation of the sea, sky, the flowerbeds, his family members and the flags against the glittering backdrop of the sea. The painting appears composed and almost looking realistic and dreamy. His Aunt Sophie Lecadre, sitting right next to his father Adolphe Monet, is sitting holding her white umbrella. She seems like she is represented with respect as she over looks the Atlantic Ocean. The "Terrace at Sainte-Adresse" where Monet enjoys the breezy scene in front of him has a nice sunny day where someone can see lot...

Total Quality Management (TQM) Practices and Traditional Management Assignment

Total Quality Management (TQM) Practices and Traditional Management Practices - Assignment Example According to the research findings, the difference between Total quality management (TQM) practices and traditional management practices in relation with management systems is that in TQM, all employees of the organization play their role in improving the efficiency of the organization in order to achieve long-term success through customer satisfaction. Both management and the employees make their efforts to improve the business processes and policies. Whereas if we talk about traditional management practices, we can say that the management staff practicing tradition management is more concerned with business processes and the customer side is often ignored or given less attention. Another negative aspect regarding traditional management practices is that the management is less innovative and does not want to involve employees’ views in decision-making processes. Organizational structure refers to the way through which management of an organization use employees and department s to drive the organization towards the achievement of different goals and objectives. For any organization, such as healthcare organizations, the structure plays an important role in its success because structure clarifies roles and responsibilities of every employee. â€Å"Organizational structure provides the guidelines for the system of reporting that drives an organization†. TQM views organizational structure as one unit whereas traditional management takes it as different units putting their efforts to achieve their respective goals. TQM gives importance to collective efforts to reach organizational goals and objectives whereas traditional managers do not want to take ideas of employees in making any kind of policy and views all departments as different units of the organization. Management’s role is critical to the success of any organization. For example, in a healthcare organization, management assigns tasks to different departments based on the nature of task s and the departments make their efforts to complete those tasks. The role of management using TQM is quite different to the role of the management practicing traditional management style. â€Å"TQM takes into account all quality measures taken at all levels and involving all company employees†.

Setting up Connection at Home Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Setting up Connection at Home - Essay Example Moreover, a broadband modem is utilized for linking the network to the web/Internet. In this scenario, we can make use of a DSL modem with a phone line or a cable modem with the cable internet link (OpenBookProject). Problem Broadband Connectivity In this project we have to link a home based system that is running a Windows XP operating system, and Internet Explorer Web browser to access an ISP; to an internet broadband connection. In this scenario, we have to offer more economical and more enhanced connectivity to our users. For this purpose, I have searched for a number of solutions such as DSL cable, Cable TV, and Wireless connection: Proposed Solution With the passage of time, there has emerged a lot of innovative technologies and wireless technology is one of them. At the present, more and more people are going toward wireless solutions. This overall scenario demands better technology-based solutions for the better communication and working. The wireless broadband connection is presently more appropriate solution for establishing an internet connection (OpenBookProject; Nash). Overall Design or High-Level Description The vast majority of the world is yet waiting for broadband service. However, in the well-populated regions of the developed world, existing wire-line phone and cable TV communications structures are able to offer the broadband connectivity, and accessibility is now extremely high. All over the place else, the high costs of present alternatives, like that establishment of the new wire-line arrangements or large scale macro-cellular wireless models similar to WiMAX infrastructure, are big obstacles to additional broadband subscriber expansion. I have proposed the wireless broadband internet technology based arrangement that will be capable to offer an excellent support for establishing a connection for working space (Broadband; Ruckus Wireless, Inc.; TopTenReviews). Given below is the diagram of proposed network solution: Figure 1Network Diagra m for the proposed solution, Source: http://0.tqn.com/d/compnetworking/1/0/c/c/two-router-network.png Connectivity Wireless broadband internet connectivity is fundamentally a method of connecting all the systems/computers at home or work jointly and providing them with a means to access the internet and share information without making use of wires. In addition, wireless networks are as well recognized as Wi-Fi networks (Broadband; Ruckus Wireless, Inc.; TopTenReviews). Linking Systems If the only location in the home that we utilize the net is a desktop PC system and it is next to a phone socket then we almost certainly should not be paying attention in wireless communication networking. In addition, normally a family these days has more than one personal computer, and some of them will be desktops and some would be laptops. However, wireless networking formulates it simple for all these computers to share a common broadband connection. Additionally, there are additional devices th at could be utilized in order to establish a wireless link that we might not have recognized like that games consoles and a number of mobile phones (Broadband; Ruckus Wireless, Inc.; TopTenReviews).