How to Write a Reflective Account Essay

This is only guidance on what you need to include in your reflective account to provide evidence for the units you are doing, you will need to look at the units you are doing and be guided by the Assessment Criteria Ensure that when writing your account write reflectively, using â€Å"I† statements, i.e I recorded in the clients daily notes, not it was recorded. You need to ensure you are writing what YOU did, HOW you did it and WHY you did it the way you did. A brief history of the candidate, what you have changed the name to, and a brief description of your role in supporting the client, how did you find and: How you found out about the clients’ needs, wishes and preferences regarding communication and language, religion, personal care and any other activities you are responsible for How did you confirm with the client this was preferred language and communication method? How did you find out about any risks to the client, and your role in protecting them. How did you record and share information about the clients communication needs? How did you build your relationship with the client? How did you ensure that you valued the client as an individual, with respect for their dignity and privacy and respect the client’s culture, valves and diversity. How you carried out your work i.e personal care, and why you did it the way  you did, how you found out what support the client wanted from you. Did you support the client to use the toilet, with bathing, dressing and grooming, eating and drinking etc, how did you do this, what H&S precautions did you take and why. How did you encourage the client to identify what they can do for themselves and what they needed assistance with and who they needed the assistance from? Were there any changes in the client’s needs, circumstances etc, what did you do about these. How you ensured that the environment was sage and that you adhered to H&S procedures i.e when moving and handling, dealing with contaminated waste, storing equipment and hazardous materials etc. did you carry out H&S checks. What H&S issues did you identify during your work, how did you manage these, how were they reported and recorded. How you encouraged independence How did you protect the client and yourself from the risk of infection? How you talked to the client, encourage the client to talk about their daily life etc, what methods of communicating did you use, how did you ensure good eye contact during communicating with the client. How did you ensure that the client understood you and you understood them? How did you respond to any questions or concerns the client had, did you listen appropriately, did you need to seek advice about the clients or key peoples question or concerns where did you seek this from. Did you identify any discrimination, what did you do about this? How did you ensure that the client had the information about how to make a  comment or complaint. How did you obtain feedback from clients and key people on how you were working with them, and from your colleagues and supervisors. How did you identify any new knowledge or skills that might help you with training was identified, a after attending training, how did you use the new skills and knowledge, and was this of any benefit to you in your work. How did you review what you had learnt and how this new knowledge and skills have been useful? Did you observe any sign or symptoms of harm or abuse, what you did about this, how you reported and recorded this etc. Did you have to manage an accident or emergency, how did you do this how did you support the client and others involved, how and where did you record the incident

Essay on Foundation of Technology Essay

In this essay, there are components that differentiate an A paper and a B paper. The A Essay evaluates criteria or ideas in the forefront and subordinates the details to the ideas. If you read with descriptive detail, insights tend to be lost or insufficiently developed. It also focuses on the value added technology tool and the value added of what the teacher does with the technology. The same technology can be used in different ways by teachers. However; the teacher remains the most important element in maximizing student’s learning. For example, if a teacher shows a video, a strong paper addresses the value of the video and the effectiveness of the integration of the video before and after the video is shown. Strengths and suggestions for improvements are also addressed. Generally the strongest essay takes a critical perspective and evaluates what works are done and how they can be improved. It also goes beyond motivation. These two are critical aspects of any learning and should not be undervalued. However, the strong essays should go beyond motivation, in order to answer why a technology was motivating to students. Much of the true insight comes from asking the why question and sometimes asking the questions more than once. For instance an essay that argues that the students were motivated by the technology and were engaged the whole period, and that the students were captivated by technology and they explored different sites. The questions asked should be why the technology was motivating to the students and what engaged them and what made the technology captivating and how different soft wares advance learning apart from motivating (Bayne, 1998, p. 38). The essay also explores readings in depth and also exploring conferences in depth too. I chose to discuss how I will use my new website to improve my teaching methods. A website is very rewarding. It is fun and a great way keep in touch with your family and students. The website has made impact on my image and also given me identity and global presence. I use my presentation skills, without the presence of the internet. I can also download content and have them in cd’s for classroom presentation. Students can get information of upcoming events and changes from the web site. Teachers can now visit my website and download information for our thematic units. I can also help them design theirs. It has also been useful in situations where I have to update it with my students work for parents to see and assist in their studies back home. It’s necessary for teachers to have their own websites in the modern age in order to create sites that can help their students. The fact that students need computer education to help them access the net should not be overlooked. This makes it easier for them to access information whenever they need it. The No Child Left Behind mandates that students should be competent enough when it comes to technology since almost everything is technology based nowadays. They will have to know how to think critically, to be creative, analyze information, understand new ideas, communicate effectively, collaborate, solve problems, and make decisions (Bayne, 1998, p. 66). In my analysis, of my second lesson, I will design a lesson plan to guide me through the teaching process. The topic is about the importance of integrating technology, applying the standards of education and the use of assessments. I’ve realized that integrating technology enhances learning through encouraging and simplifying the seeking and grasping of the meaning of the content being taught. Application of new technology in classroom environment by students has helped to improve learning outcomes which involved deeper understanding. From the peer review conducted, I realized that the students enjoyed the integration of technology in the classroom and retained content in their minds. Introducing standards of education in the classroom will enhance the learning experience by pointing students to available design and marketing tools, and best industry practices. Knowledge of these standards makes the students align the educational concept with real-world applications and market issues. If students don’t learn about educational standards, they may need elementary instruction in their first jobs, have a higher propensity for operating outside of best or accepted industry practices, waste resources and fail in duties to align their products or services with desired markets. Without a guide line component in their education, students may graduate without knowing the barriers presented by using incorrect standards, and without realizing the importance of standards in marketing and product acceptance. If the regulatory standards in reference are not met it results into product non-conformance, or higher development or other costs. Students have to understand the need to design, from inception, to the standards required to achieve marks. When creating a lesson plan, the teacher should tell the students the objective of the lesson, teach the objective, and evaluate the objective. This means that the lesson plan should contain the key concept of the topic, objectives, pre-planning, learning materials, Anticipatory Set (How I will simulate the children so that they will learn what I want to teach. It will also have the procedure I will take when teaching and duration of my teaching process. Closure is also needed. This is the summary of the topic and finally evaluation (Bayne, 1998, p. 113). Assessment can be formal or informal when integrating technology. Most software packages have assessments or built in criteria in it. I have learned that incorporating electronic portfolio is another way to enhance teaching with technology or a teacher can design their own rubrics. However, innovative activities require a reliable and valid mean of measuring students’ progress along with student journals and designing projects. In conclusion, the lesson planning was great and I thank God I had the opportunity to integrate technology in my class and enhance learning for my students. Reference Bayne, J. N. (1998). Strategic plans for technology. New York: Hill crest.

Mixed Economy

This paper is to be submitted to Mr. Booker as an assignment. It essentially focuses on two questions: a) How does the free market deal with the fundamental question of micro-economics? b) What problems are posed by merit, demerit and public goods? Fundamental question of micro-economics So, first, what is economics? According to Paul A. Samuelson, economics is â€Å"the study of how societies use scarce resources to produce valuable commodities and distribute them among different people. † Very briefly, we may summarise that economics is the study of how people choose to use resources. The economic problem is said to arise when we have scare resources to satisfy our unlimited wants. As a result of this problem, which is sometimes called the problem of scarcity, choices have to be made over the following points: 1. What to produce? A classic question here that we often heard of is â€Å"Butter or cannon? † Should an economy produce more consumer goods, e. g. TVs, which can immediately raise people’s living standards, or put more resources into produce more machinery that would enhance the economy’s production capability in the long run? How to strike a balance over the quantities of diffident goods are going to be produced is well worth considering for the decision-makers. 2. How to produce? Generally, what we expect the market going to do is to obtain maximum use out of resources available. This is obvious, but some other issues besides purely economic concerns also should be considered. For example, even though we could produce more goods by forcing labours to accept longer working-hours; this is not something we should do, since there exists moral objections. So, the decision to maximise output and satisfy more wants would need to consider the full impact on the environment and any potential long-term health risks. 3. For whom to produce Though, on the surface, almost all the countries agree that the wealth allocating system in an economy should be â€Å"fair† for both the poor and the better off; in fact, there are some attempts to create a more egalitarian society through policies that re-distribute wealth and income society from the rich to the poor in some capitalism countries, but they are merely self-deceiving, from my point of view. The reason is quite straightforward: the powerful capitalists are the very people who actually operate the political machine in capitalism countries; never would they enact laws which may deprive them of their wealth, would they? (Pardon me for holding such an â€Å"extreme† opinion, Mr. Booker, but I have to be honest! ) Factors of production Now, in the next two pages, let’s sort out four types of resources involved in a production process, known as factors of production: i) Land. In economics, land refers to all natural resources, which can either be renewable and non-renewable. Renewable resources are replaced automatically by nature and so can be used on a continual basis, e. g. rivers; non-renewable resources, in contrast, are not automatically replaced, e. g. fossil fuels. Land is probably the most occupationally mobile of economic resources. However, land is absolutely geographically mobile- we can never move land from Suzhou to Suzhou! ii) Labour Labours are th e people who actually working in a production process. Labours are often not occupationally and geographically mobile due to a series of reasons, e. g. lack of skills or reluctance to accept a higher house price in another place. iii) Enterprise or entrepreneurship An entrepreneur is someone who put the other three resources together into production. Two functions that this factor carries out: a) To organise the other economic resources. b) To take risks involved in the production. Some risks, including fire, theft and flood, can be insured against but others, like costs of production rising, tastes changing, cannot. The entrepreneur is considered as the most mobile of economic resources. They are usually versatile. For example, an entrepreneur who is organising the production of a shoes manufacturing factory is very like to have the ability to run a clothes-making firm; they are also often willing to move from one area to another, since they are always seeking the place where they can make the most profit! iv) Capital goods Capital goods which may be also called producer goods are any man-made aids to production, e. g. ffices, warehouses or a printer. Most machines, equipment and processed raw materials are geographically mobile, even there may involve extra transportation cost, but goods such as factories, offices are not. Many specialised machines e. g. sausage machines are occupationally immobile; while others which are of general use, like a printer, can be occupationally mobile. Economic systems There mainly exist three kinds of economies, the command economy, the free market economy and th e mixed economy. 1. The free market economy In a free market economy decisions on how resources are to be allocated are taken by households and firms. The key point is that they interact as buyers and sellers in the market for goods and services. Prices act to indicate the likely market value of particular resources. Figure 1: A Circular Flow Diagram of a Free Market Economy Many economists believe that in a free market economy, the price system is an â€Å"invisible hand†, which brings together private and social interests in a harmonious way and the government is of no need to intervene the conomic activities; this is the fundamental philosophy underpinning the workings of the market economy. However, in my opinion, even though the markets can play a very important role to a great extent, the government need to intervene in order to obtain a sustainable, continuous economic growth. A best example could be U. S. , which was proud of having the most characters of the free market economy, is now in a great hurry to natio nalise AIG and many other banks in the economic crisis.

Conference and Event Evaluation Report Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Conference and Event Evaluation Report - Essay Example The motto of the agency is to provide better information and data to the public to enhance the health and living standards of the public. AIHW is a statutory authority and is answerable to the Parliament and works under the provision of Australian Institute of Health and Welfare Act 1987. The AIHW makes an elaborate national health report every two years which contains a wide range of information about health services, injury, diseases and health work force. This time the AIHW’s report release and conference fell on the same day which is 23rd of June 2010. According to AIHW(2010)â€Å"At the pre-conference dinner, 2010 Australian of the Year, Professor Patrick McGorry described his work in the field of mental health and in particular the prevalence of mental illness among young people†. The focus point of the conference was that the AIHW should create a transparency within the healthcare system to make the policy more comprehensive for the public Literature Review: Aust ralia Health Conference 2010 Australia is rated as one the healthiest nations in the world and their health awareness is of high quality when compared to other developed nation. The country was rated at third position for the life expectancy rate and health quotient among the developed countries. At the conference were present various health experts, high ranked officials of the nation and media persons to overview the health and welfare agenda of the body. According to AIHW (2010)â€Å"Launching the report, Minister Roxon said Australia’s Health 2010 was ‘a very valuable analysis of where we are as a nation, what we're doing well, where we need to pick up our game and the trends showing us the risks on the horizons that of course any smart government will plan for†. During the conference, it was understood that the death rate and major health problems such as cardiovascular disease, lung disease, asthma, cancer and injuries were decreasing .The report of the AIH W showed that the health of the citizens of Australia was really improving and there is more space for the country to develop in health sector. However, the conference also highlighted on the fact that the country needs to focus on certain areas of concern like obesity and diabetes.As per AGDHA(2010)â€Å"For the first time since 1995 the 2007-08 National Health Survey (NHS) has measured the height, weight, hip and waist circumference of respondents aged 5 years or more. Results from this survey reveal that in 2007-08, 61.4% of the Australian population are either overweight or obese† The health report of the AIHW shows that there can bring about considerable change in the obesity and overweight issues by bringing about change in the lifestyle of Australian citizen. The life style of a person includes their food habits, physical activity, alcohol consumption and smoking habits. According to the AIHW, the diabetes is one of the main issues prevalent among Australians which nee ds dire attention. Another important issue which was highlight in the conference was the prevalence of mental disorder among young generation of Australia. AIHW(2010)states thatâ€Å"An estimated 1 in 4 young people had experienced a mental health disorder in the 12 months before the survey—a higher proportion than any other age group. And in the estimates of disease burden for 2010, mental disorders

Pricing and Distribution in Marketing Decisions Essay - 1

Pricing and Distribution in Marketing Decisions - Essay Example This paper illustrates that for many years, the Ford Escort was among the top-selling automobiles in America. The Ford Motor Company uses the value pricing strategy to gain a market share in the global market. This strategy has been used as an initial step of eliminating the common costly customer returns. This initiative seeks to enhance the customer’s buying experience with a view to curbing the distrust in relation to the sale of retail cars. It is for this reason that the Ford Motor Company has at one time tried low-pricing on its vehicle models including the Ford Escort. Such moves are meant to increase the profit margins of the company. As a result, the scantly equipped models were eliminated. They were then replaced with fairly loaded automobiles which had comparable prices. The company eventually witnessed increased sales. A true account is that production of vehicles with similar options increases manufacturing efficiency. A number of models irrespective of the model style were sold for the same price. As much as many consumers around the world found it hard to believe the existence of such an offer, they still went ahead to purchase the products. Ford has also used price discrimination for instance in Great Britain and Belgium to maximize its profits. This pricing strategy makes economic sense in light of imposing different charges for different countries. The Toyota Motor company also used the price discrimination strategy. The Lexus Es was therefore sold for different prices for instance in the US as compared to the European countries. Toyota has also employed the predatory pricing strategy to market the Lexus Es as a luxury car. This strategy has been very common with Japanese companies. Toyota takes advantage of its profitable position in Japan. Toyota has since used its strong profit position in Japan to subsidize the aggressive pricing in other markets across the world. Predatory pricing has since received sharp criticisms from market sha reholders across the globe.

LEADING Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

LEADING - Essay Example through a process of training; education; self-study and experience and anyone can become a leader, provided he has the willpower and the desire to do so. Successful leaders, lead by example; establish missions; make a roadmap for success in the future; are decisive and solution-oriented. They do not isolate themselves from others; rather, they work as a part of the team; communicate on a positive level; are emotionally stable, and have the ability to deal with all kinds of emotionally stressful situations without keeling over. They are follower-centric and stand tall and strong with their followers. They are competitive with a high-level of conscientiousness; are bold and ready to take action and risks spontaneously. Judgment -The ability to judge is highly related to the ability to listen; absorb; as well as; to learn from other people; by asking questions of wise people and learning from their answers. Judgment and courage go hand in hand. One leader whose sense of judgment has often been spoken about and appreciated was President Reagan. He made some very correct judgments, on major issues of great national importance. (Johnson, P. 2005; Forbes 175 (10), 31) Humor is also a very essential ingredient of leadership. Although there have been a few leaders who were not known for their humor; even some of those leaders e.g. Margaret Thatcher has been known to crack the odd joke or two. President Lincoln, and President Reagan were known for their stories and one-liners respectively. (Johnson, P. 2005; Forbes 175 (10), 31) Subordinates always work with more gusto when there is laughter behind their work and the person they are looking up to in a leadership position makes them laugh and feel comfortable. Moral courage is probably one of the most important traits of a leader. It leads a person to adhere to whatever he believes in, despite every adversity; criticism or obstacle thrown in his way. Martin Luther King, Nelson Mandela and Mahatma Gandhi all had moral

Information Systems Theory Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 5000 words

Information Systems Theory - Essay Example This system has become the focused area of latest research (Bose and Lou, 2011). The understanding of societal, organizational, and human interaction with technology is good defined through the information system theory (IST) (Rose & Scheepersm, 2001). The basic understanding about information system is described in figure below. Social Theory Information system Information system practices Fig.1 Theme of Information System Theory This report surveyed the main ideas about information system theory (IST). Theory of critical success factor and international information system are elaborated in the second and third sections of this report. The second and third section of the report is also representing the general strengths and weaknesses of Theory of critical success factor and international information system theory (IIS) theory. The Forth section will discuss the ways in which these approaches could be used and evaluated. The Fifth section is about the summary and conclusion. 2. Theo ry of Critical Success Factor 2.1 Main Idea The core success factors according to Wong and Tein about the information system are efficient, effective with a high reliability. For the achievement of success factors key development practices are followed. From available literature list of critical success factors are identified by Wong and Tein, some of them are: the improved information system is required to maintain the change management culture, system integration, software development training and testing, performance monitoring and evaluation, information system management structure. From the study some factors are identified that become the reasons of failure. Some of the factors like risk management and change management are not properly focused. Mismanagement of information system, delay in shipments due to lack of coordination or no proper use of information system. All mentioned factors are critical and need to address seriously, which can bring the organization in a better position. These factors could be converted into critical success factors for organization. The concept of critical theory is about the ethical and moral queries. The work in this area enhances and improves the human condition (Lee and Baskerville, 2003). The contribution of Rockart (1982) in the area of information system theory (IST) is vital for the theory of critical success factors. The information system is all about computer related things, environment and applications. The Computer hardware, software, application area, and communication come under the theory of information system theory (IST). The changes in the field of information system are vital, as information technology is growing day by day and same is adopted in the information system. The progress in the information system is in the form of centralized processing of data and distributed processing of data. In centralized data processing method, all systems are located at same geographical location, while in the case of distributed data processing all systems are dispersed in the different geographical locations. The key areas of activity for information system theory require some critical success factors. These critical success factors may vary from company to company. The nature of organization also provides success factors for it. The set of management tools, techniques, and processing factors for getting the best performance in all

Continuation from Assignment 2 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Continuation from Assignment 2 - Essay Example The project plan includes the project organisation, project practices and measurements, project objectives, and project execution phases. In terms of project organisation, Starbuck’s project will consist of a project manager and four members of the management team including a member from each of the organization’s main departments – HR Department, Marketing Department, and Finance Department. Each of the members will have specified duties and responsibilities depending on their skills, abilities and qualifications; and all of them will report to the project manager. In terms of project practices and measurements, the project will be implemented through a series of activities: hiring independent contractors, purchasing materials, laying foundation of the stores, building the stores, furnishing and upgrading motorcycles to be used in marketing. These activities will be measured in terms of percentage to completion. Each of the phases of implementing the project wil l be headed by one of the project managers, and it will depend on the percentage to completion. Each phase will be undertaken after the completion of the preceding phase in order to ensure that there is no overlap of activities in the project management. The project will be run by a specialized group of staff composed of members with special knowledge and skills to run the project. The staff will be categorised as support staff or infrastructure staff. The staff will be trained on regular basis during the project progress in order to enhance effective project execution and development of new insights on project execution (Packendorff, 1995). Each member of the project team will be allocated specific tasks needed to execute the project depending on their levels of skills, knowledge and experience. The staff will work in groups in order to achieve higher results. The importance of staff working in groups is that it

Fix the report of HR strategy of BWM in china Essay

Fix the report of HR strategy of BWM in china - Essay Example There are different laws, rules and regulations of different countries which will affect the global business activities. Cultures will be different, environmental factors will also be different. So the business may face some constraints, challenges and conflicts which may be raised from different laws, culture and societies. To operate business outside the national borders a company should think about their planning and taking decisions and it will take initiative to incorporate international business related considerations. The management of the company have to decide at first that what will be the goods and services or ideas that will be fitted in the international market, how the company will deliver goods to that market. Is the company delivering from domestic production unit or it will make production centre in the international market and goods will be supplied from there. The company should enter in the international market through trade or through investment this will be anot her point of decision. Customer’s behaviour also can be changed in different country’s market according to the time changes. The company should maintain the features of the product or the way to offer its services in accordance with the customer’s behaviour. If customers wants to get fast and quick services on time in case of logistics and transportation then the related companies in this field should be updated and change their speed of services. They will take some operational strategy to provide fast and quick services on time to meet the requirement of customers. If they will unable to take such initiatives then they will not survive in the international market. Recession is another big point in case of international business. Revenue, profit and sales will be declined. Company will stop to hire employees or cut down some manpower. Generally it will reduce the income of people and at a time reduce the purchasing power. Market change also helps to reduce the

Traditional learning styles adaptation Essay Example for Free

Traditional learning styles adaptation Essay In the last decade, many universities have started to adapt traditional learning styles to new technologies. They have done so because flexible learning allows the student to study at their own time and pace, which fits in with their lifestyle with the aid of technology. Technology has allowed the delivery of lectures to become more varied and imaginative and therefore more accessible to a wider student base. They have also done so because flexible learning allows students to access university courses without having to step foot within a lecture hall therefore it has become more widely available to students as it fits in with their lives and can be worked around their schedules, whether they are in the outback, different country, working etc. Technology has allowed the lectures to be accessible anywhere anytime as long as you have access to internet. Task 2 1.Reference Lodge, J 2010. ‘Communicating with first year students, so many channels but is anyone listening?’ A practice report’. The international Journal of the First Year in Higher Education, vol. 1, no. 1, pp. 100-105. 2.Purpose and argument Communication with students is constantly changing with new technology, whilst many enjoy communicating through social networking and other online media sites, many also prefer a more traditional method of communication. Technology will continue to develop and getting important information over to students without it becoming lost within social networking sites will continue to become difficult. Therefore there needs to be options for getting messages across to students from all age groups. 3.Academic credibility Jason lodge is a psychological scientist and a well-known lecturer at Griffith University. He is also a researcher at the University of Queensland as well as other well-known Universities in Australia. His paper ‘Communicating with first year students: so many channels but is anyone listening: a practice report’ was published in 2010 making it fairly recent and not out dated. Most of his referencing is also fairly recent within the last ten years making it more academically credible. The other 12 end text references that Lodge uses are also based on factual information and published in journals and well known publishers such as Emerald Group Publishing Limited. 4.Headings and their main ideas Abstract In today’s modern world, universities have to keep up with the quick changing world of technology in order to communicate students. As technology changes frequently, it is difficult to find out what the students prefer for these communications. Social networking and other new online deliveries were generally met with a positive feedback from students. Background New technologies Higher education has radically changed with the modernisation of new information. Adopting new technology too eagerly has led to a situation where communication between and organisations and students are being lost. It is difficult to find which hi-tech channel is efficient and successful in getting messages across to students without getting lost and what is best for studying. The issues surrounding communication with first year students Various groups of students are entering higher education which presents complications in making sure communication needs of all students are met. The younger generations seems to be thriving on modern technology whilst the older generation prefers the more established lines of communications. However what is better for some students may not necessarily be good for others therefore finding something that works for everyone is fairly difficult. The current research Introduction Understanding students’ needs and preferences for communication channels within university life needs to be closely monitored and met. This needs to take into consideration, the wide age range within the first year of University life. Which communication method also needs to be observed as the more popular means of communication? Methods Social networking sites seem to be the most popular form of communications. With this in mind a group of students in their first year of studying were asked to complete a survey about which communication methods they preferred to receive messages from regarding administrative and educational issues. Results and discussions The result of this research showed that social networking sites were amongst the highest preferred methods of communications amongst university students for unofficial teamwork between students. However concerns were raised about the privacy of social networking sites when it came to communications with the university. On the other hand, when it came to communication about administrative or academic issues, students preferred to have contact either via email, in person or by phone. Recommendations The recommendations were that official messages from the Universities were best left to more recognized methods of communications but that the universities could use the social media outlets for more informal communications as long as they kept the messages short and to the point. The recommendation also suggested that it didn’t really matter what the generation gap was amongst the first year students as they were all catching up with the know-how of modern technology. Outcomes of discussion and reflections The problems of communicating necessary information to students seem to be across the board throughout other learning institutions. Students are continually inundated with information from the establishments therefore institutions need to make it simply for students to use and access, they need to present it in such a way that it is interesting, eye catching and encourages the student to participate with the organization as well as making it cost effective for the establishment. It was also established that social networking sites are probably best left for the students to communicate informally amongst one another rather than universities trying to communicate with students through these mean as their messages were largely overlooked and went unnoticed. As technology continues to grow and more forward, this will always present a communication problem for universities with first year students as they themselves are often also trying to not only cope with life as a first year student but also with the many new technical forms of communication that are constantly flooding the market. 5.Relevance or usefulness This reading will be very useful in doing my assignment because Lodge covers all aspects of flexible learning. He has looked at the problems that modern technology brings and how the different generations within the first year of learning will cope with it. How the delivery of the materials will be received from first year students and the problems that first year students face in accessing the materials as technology continues to grow and improve. Lodge has also tried to establish in what way is the best method for establishments to get their communications across to students.

Multinational Companies MNC

Multinational Companies MNC Multinational Companies MNC 1 Introduction Over the past couple of years Multinational Companies (MNC) had to face a number of new challenges in their daily business. Globalization changed numerous things for global players. Normally the structure of a typical MNC shows a focus on their main resources and departments like finance, technology, marketing, sales and production. This is because they want to have a large number of customers and also want to make a good profit. But if they neglect these new challenges coming up with the globalization they might not be successful anymore (Mendenhall et al., 2003). A big challenge MNC’s have to manage is their workforce diversity (Stern, S. 2008). Diversity means any sort of difference between two or more people. These differences might exist in terms of age, gender, race, education, social status and other terms. To manage this diversity MNC’s have to implement strategies that knit all employees together into a dynamic workforce (Miller, Dollar, 1950). Because of this enormous diversity one of the key success factors of MNC’s is the recruitment and selection of labor who offer valuable individuality. These individuals are forming the values and beliefs of an organization (Mullins, 2007). The management of this diversity is a challenge of the human resource management. In this paper I will focus on how MNC’s can improve their HRM and make their company staying successful in terms of managing diversity. It is hard to become a major player in the global market without an effective HRM. There are two major challenges within global HRM namely building global corporate cultures and developing global leaders that have to be mastered in order to manage diversity and be successful in the global business environment (Mendenhall et al., 2003). 2 Enhancing global business strategy Today more and more companies expand their activity internationally or are already an existent global participant. This requires new strategies. The HRM can contribute a lot to the success of an enterprise, if it adopts a truly globalize strategy in alignment with the corporate strategy (Mellahi et al, 2003). 2.1 Tasks of an international HRM The human resource management has to establish processes and policies which enable people to learn new skills required to compete successfully in a global business environment. A truly international HRM also involves the ability to move people easily from country to country. As companies become more global, they need talented managers with global experience. These people also need assistance in building international task forces and teams. Managing the administrative details associated with international assignments beyond the recruiting process is a complex issue. Therefore a good knowledge of the cultural differences and possible barriers is necessary (Holbeche, 2004). Human resource management needs to develop the policies, the processes and administrative agendas which have to become standardized and implemented in all locations. Though practices may differ between countries, a company needs some common standards across its subsidiaries that are strategically aligned with the organizations mission, for example a worldwide standard for senior management in evaluation, compensation and development. With this HR the organization can create social capital in locally adaptive ways and serve as a buffer between globalization and localization of strategic practices (Gomez et al., 2005). A company that is in the lead in implementing and creating a global HRM and is capable of all these tasks can develop a strategic resource, which is hard and expensive to imitate quickly. 2.2 The mission of international HRM When a company decides to go global, it does so to create unique competitive advantages, that is not possible in the domestic market. Therefore it has to adapt its strategy to define the new goals and the measures to meet them. Business strategies, which organizations adopt to maintain competitiveness, should be developed in conjunction with their human resource departments (Lengnick-Hall et. al 1988; Schuler et. al, 1984; Tichy et. al 1982). It is quite clear that the change from local to global has an impact on the techniques used in human resources management. By implementing HR issues in the mission, this will help enhancing the global business strategy. The mission can be defined as the reason why organizations exist. The purpose of an organization is the heart of the mission, but it is also made up by organizational beliefs, values and business definition (De Wit et al. 2004). To be strategic, human resource practices are expected to maximize employees effectiveness in accordance with their organizations missions, objectives and goals (Lengnick-Hall et al. 1988; Schuler et al. 1984; Tichy et al. 1982). When the mission is consistent and compelling to the employees, it can be a source of motivation and create an emotional bond between the members of the organization, which again can result in better performance tied up to the mission (De Wit et al. 2004). In a global organization, it is harder to create a mission that ties together people from many different parts of the world, and it is therefore crucial in creating a global mission, to consult and integrate HR issues into it. There are very different ways in businesses around the world in handling HRM, and therefore in trying to decrease the differences between domestic and international HR, it can help make the subsidiaries to work towards the same goals. The mission outlines the fundamental principles guiding strategic choices, and if it has guidelines on how to handle different HR issues, the different subsidiaries will use a somewhat similar HR management. To be able to integrate HR with global strategy development and implementation, senior members and top management of the organization need to promote HR issues, and try to address them in the development and implementation stage (Mendenhall et al. 2003). Collaboration among employees in MNC’s Employee behavior is perhaps the most critical challenge that multinational organizations have to deal with (Bartlett Ghoshal, 1990). In Multinational Companies there is a huge potential of conflicts, because of its diverse personalities. As a consequence of this tensions will arise among employees. Although these tensions are inherent to MNC and also desirable (Kilmann, 1985), they require increased levels of collaboration. An organization must therefore enable their employees to accept the tension and behave as one company. Nevertheless, in many large and multinational companies, employees tend to be silo-focused. They view their membership and loyalty as belonging to a certain subunit in the organization. Consequently they behave in a manner that benefits their subunit but could be detrimental to the organization as a whole. This kind of thinking of course leads to a higher effort of coordinating and collaborating employees to have a successful organization (Joyce, 1986). Many problems can arise out of the silo-focused way of thinking. Collaboration between units is hindered by personal conflicts between unit leaders, resources might be withholded from each other and insufficient communication between different units leads to a lack of trust in the whole organization. According to Sy D’Annunzio (2005), there are two major reasons for silo-focused behaviors. First, most employees reside in the same function (and often the same unit within the function), throughout their careers. They always work with the same people and probably never had the chance to work with other elements of the organization. Second, MNCs with complex structures require a higher degree of collaboration, compared to small companies with simple line structures. Mostly, employees have not developed the necessary social skills for this high degree of collaboration. Often, the â€Å"command and control† thinking in traditional hierarchical organizations is simply turned over in complex MNC’s, where it is predestined to fail. Therefore, possible measures to mitigate silo-focused behavior are providing trainings for social skills, defining clear expectations for behavior in the organization, working across functions to learn about different points of view and most importantly building relationships between employees of different units (Sy DAnnunzio, 2005). Diversity in MNC’s As a multinational company works in a global market it must be prepared to detect all possible changes in the global environment and it has to be able to communicate and adapt the identity of the company to them (Ali Camp, 1996). 4.1 Cultural diversity Nowadays cultural diversity plays an important role in a company. The criteria discriminating these groups include race, geographic origin, ethnicity, gender, age, functional or educational background, physical and cognitive capability, language, lifestyles, beliefs, cultural background, economic category, tenure with the organization and sexual preference (Seyman, 2006). The company can’t offer quality products or services to the customers if it doesn’t understand and take in account the impact that the culture has in all the processes (Maddock, Lois Viton, 2008). Workers usually think that their behavior hasn’t got any influence on the final product or service, but to be effective, every part must have a clear vision of the company and a clear mission on it. The social, political and enterprise structure depends on everyone in the company, so the internal area and the human resources, one of the most important areas of a company, must be developed with the rest of the company to achieve their goals (Seyman, 2006). The misunderstanding and ignoring of different cultures, language and historical background lead to disasters in the field of setting up multinational business. To avoid this, a general knowledge of another nation’s culture and history is essential. So general cultural knowledge, if coupled with prejudice and prejudgment, is an obstacle to effective global management (Ali Camp, 1996). 4.2 Communication and language barriers One important challenge beneath culture is language barriers. Communication is essential for management. Yet communication relies upon a shared language, a pre-requisite that does not exist in many international business situations and that is when the problems start. The most pronounced manifestation of the language barrier at work can be found in the relationship between a multinational parent company and its network of international subsidiaries. Several factors contribute to the difficulty of achieving and sustaining effective communications and a productive, collaborative relationship. Even if an employee is relatively competent in the language of the other party, loss of rhetorical skills is always present as the use of humor, symbolism, sensitivity, negotiation, persuasion and motivation requires a very high level of fluency (Harzing Feely, 2008). 5 Managing diversity in MNC’s through HRM To manage workforce diversity in MNC’s it’s a challenge for the human resource management to establish a global corporate culture. To identify with the corporate culture of the company is the most important thing for the staff. That is why building a global corporate culture is one of the most important challenges for Multinational Companies. But also the management in MNC’s has been changing. There is a need for global leaders. The formation of such global leaders is also a part of the human resource management. 5.1 Need for global corporate culture The situation within global enterprises has been changing for many years. According to the cheap labor in eastern world and other factors, there has never been such a need for understanding the different cultures in multinational companies (Crocket, 2003). Cultural empathy, integrity, and comfortability in dealing with people from various cultures, along with effective performance, highlight the necessity to think and act in relevant cultural terms. This does not mean that today’s managers must know in detail the cultural and historical backgrounds of other nations. Rather, it means that global managers need to think and act with an open mind and in socially responsive ways to events at home and abroad (Ali Camp, 1996) To be able to work efficiently in the global market and industry it is very important to build a corporate business culture. A corporate culture can be explained by convening several different cultures represented by numerous different workers, working in a Multinational enterprise (Mendenhall, et. al., 2003). As the word Multinational enterprise already expresses that the company is acting global, it is common that numerous different people with different cultures are working for this company (Stern, 2008). Furthermore every culture has its own methods, values, beliefs, habits, language and so on. Organizations acting global can never work without interference of the leader board to create a global corporate culture. That is why a Multinational company has to offer corporate values, beliefs, methods, habits and working processes all set in the global corporate culture. Of course it is necessary to respect local cultures because if an organization does not respect the local cultures, workers will not be satisfied and can never identify with the company they are working for (Mendenhall, et. al., 2003). In former times there was the so called colonialism style of leading people. Colonialism can be understood as the control of overseas colonies by imperial powers. A foreign power rules a large group of people and the foreign power uses the colony for wealth and has more advanced technology than the people of the colonies (Glossary, 2005). In other words the headquarters and the top management delegated the work to their staff and controlled the output. This is not possible anymore. They have to create clear global corporate values. These corporate values assist to improve workforce and working processes as the staff all over the world can identify with the vision and values, the corporate culture, of the headquarters and all other subsidiaries (Reggie, Fabish, McGaw, 2005). The global corporate culture should assist to create a standardized culture with respecting local cultures so that the Multinational Company has a unique and corporate appearance to the outside. This global corporate culture should be written down with all its values, certain behaviors towards customers, suppliers, stake- and shareholders, its working processes, communication methods and team forming habits (Lotti, Mensing, Valenti, 2006). A very interesting article states that there has to be paid much attention with forming cooperation concerning the global corporate culture. It says that the company cannot be global until its board of directors does not reflect the countries and regions in which it operates. The board of directors has to focus on regarding and respecting all cultures convened in one company. All these different criteria of all convened cultures have to be adapted to fit in the company’s global corporate culture (Nair Chandran, 2006). Accenture made a survey within 900 C-suite executives in the U. S., the UK, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Japan, Canada and China. These executives were asked to identify the greatest challenges with building global companies. Another thing Accenture wanted to know from these executives, was if there is a receipt how a Multinational company can succeed in the increasingly global market. The result to this question was that they found out that their chief concern is the ability to maintain a common corporate culture around the world. It means that half of the respondent executives believe that their companies are ready to succeed in this increasingly global market. It became very important that Multinational companies maintain their core values and their corporate identity across many cultures. Another thing getting very important is that the industry becomes knowledge based. Important as well is to understand local customs and ways of doing business in certain countries. A Multinational company needs the ability to service clients and customers effectively. Therefore they have to learn numerous things about how to deal with foreign countries and their cultures before they start to set up a global corporate culture in their company (Foster Mark, n. d.). 5.2 Developing global leaders The implication of managers has changed during the time. In a constantly changing world it is important to develop global leaders. Nowadays business works on a bigger field, within more different cultures than years ago. The more companies pursue global strategies, the more global leaders they need. How to find and train future global leaders has become a task for the human rescores management in global companies (Allen, 2000). 5.3 Why global leaders? It is important for the whole company that the leaders and the team of executives have the right skills and take the right decisions. The leaders should have global experience. If they do not have international experience they risk handling their work tasks incorrect. They will also have problems to communicate with their new employees from other cultures. Global leaders have to read their market right. This means that it is impossible to sell the same thing, the same way in different countries. There are different requirements that have to be profiled. So human resource management has to be adjusted to the countries they are working in. Leadership models have to differ because the importance of variables as relationships, short-term profits, hierarchies, ethics, and risk are different from culture to culture (Hofstede, 1994). The book Cultural Dimensions of International Mergers and Acquisitions shows that leaders build structure and control mechanisms based on their personal experiences and their national culture. Because they have such a big influence on the company’s strategy it is important that companies have good educated global leaders. Otherwise they might not be acclimatized to the global environment. The way to control a firm in France might not be the same way to control it in China. This example points out very clear that the way of leadership has to be adapted to local markets (Cardel et. al, 1998). 5.4 How to form a global leader? Some requirements for global leaders are that they have to be flexible, open and ethnocentric. They should also have the right background, which should feature an early international experience. This means for example an education from an international school with exchange programs and different teaching languages. On the other hand there are statistics showing that 50% of the learning how to be a global leader takes place though work experience, 30% through interpersonal relationships with bosses, peers, subordinates and professional contacts and only 20 % through formal education and training. This statistics can be interpreted in ways that through the right training on the job, nearly every manager can become a global leader (Lobel, 2007). How the company develops global leaders is very important for the company’s success, because 80% of their education take place on the job and not through earlier education. Aside from the development of global leaders it is for sure that global leaders are very important for companies because when a company enters a new market, the leader has to be keen to know what employees in the new country are needed to be able to compete in this market. They have to balance global integration with the local responsibility (Mendenhall et. al 2003). Global leaders have to learn themselves to integrate into a different social system. It is apparent that it is hard to find individuals that have all the right requirements to be good global leaders. Leaders should try to develop a global mindset. This means that they should be open minded, flexible and not egocentric. A very radical approach to encourage the open mind of global leaders is to abandon managers with homeless people. After such an experience leaders are usually less selfish and more open to other life styles and cultures. A less radical method to encourage a global mindset is the establishment of cross-border teams or projects (Mendenhall et. al 2003). 6 Conclusion In a growing global market companies tend to meet challenges if they do not focus on developing their HRM. It is hard to see the financial gaining of HRM and therefore many companies tend to focus on other aspects that are easier to measure and see the results of. But when operating in a global market with subsidiaries all around the world, the focus on HRM is crucial in creating a united company that works towards the same goals and visions. This is not possible without a well developed HRM strategy. A big challenge of HRM is building a global corporate culture. This means that the mother company needs to set corporate values, beliefs, programs, structures and rules. On the one side, it should help the company to deliver a corporate view of the company to the public. On the other side, it should help the staff working for the multinational company in the whole world to easily identify with the company with the help of the global corporate culture. The main issue of the next challenge of HRM is to find good global leaders, this because they affect the whole company’s opportunity to expand globally. The managers are the ones that make decisions about activity in the new global areas. Is hard to develop good global leaders, and the HRM has problems to find effective education for them. The leaders not only have to have the right education but also the right background, to become successful. All in all, focusing on only one of these prospective is not sufficient enough as they are linked together. MNC’s have to work on all of them to get a more effective HRM and a possible competitive advantage through this. HRM can be a tool to make the subsidiaries feel like a part of the global company, and work towards the same goals. Bibliography Business Journals Ali, A. J., Camp, R. C. (1996). Global managers qualities for effective competition. International Journal of Manpower, 17 (6/7), 5-18 Gomez, C., Sanchez, J. I. (2005). HRs strategic role within MNCs: helping build social capital in Latin America. International Journal of Human Resource Management. Vol. 16, Issue 12 Harzing, A., Feely, A. J. (2008). The language barrier and its implications for HQ subsidiary relationships. Cross Cultural Management: An International Journal , 15 (1), 49-61 Joyce, W. (1986). Matrix organization: a social experiemet. Academy of management journal, 29, 536-561 Lengnick-Hall, C. A. and Lengnick-Hall, M. L. (1988) Strategic Human Resource Management: A Review of the Literature and a Proposed Typology. Academy of Management Review. Vol. 13, pp. 454-70 Lobel, S. (2007). Global leadership competencies: Managing to a different drumbeat, Human Resource Management, Volume 29, 39 – 47 Mendenhall, M. E., Black, J. S., Jensen, R. J., Gregersen, H. B. (2003). Seeing the Elephant: Human Resource Management Challenges in the Age of Globalization. Organizational Dynamics, Vol. 32, No. 3, 261-274 Seyman, O. A. (2006). The cultural diversity phenomenon in organizations and different approaches for effective cultural diversity management and a literary review. Cross Cultural Management: An International Journal, 13 (4), 297-302 Sy, T., DAnnunzio, L. S. (2005). Challenges and strategies of matrix organizations: top-level and mid-level managers perspectives. Human Resource Planning, 28 (1), 39-48 Lotti, R., Mensing, P., Valenti, D. (2006). A cooperative solution, Strategy + Business, published by Booz Allen Hamilton Inc., 1 – 5 Maddock, M., Lois Viton, R. (2008). Diversity – Don’t innovate without it. Business Week, June 17, 2008 Reggie, V.L., Fabish, L., McGaw, N. (2005). The Value of Corporate Values, Strategy + Business, published by Booz Allen Hamilton Inc., 1 – 9 Stern, S. (2008). Diversity Champions are losing a good argument, Financial Times Unlimited, July 8, 2008 Stern, S. (2008). Diversity Gurus must try harder, Financial Times Unlimited, July 7, 2008 Books Cardel, M., Soderberg, A., Torp, J. E. (1998). Cultural Dimensions of International Mergers and Acquisitions. Walt de Gruytet, ISBN 3-11-015800-0. Berlin, 23 – 56 De Wit, B., Meyer, R. (2004). Strategy: Process, Content, Context. 3rd Edition. South Western Educ Pub. 118 – 134 Mullins, J.L. (2007). Management and Organizational Behavior, Eighth Edition, Prentice Hall – Financial Times, 122 130 Databases Hofstede, G. (1994). Cultures and Organization – Intercultural Corporations and its Importance for survival, Harper Collins, 23 – 27 Holbeche, L. (2004). A perfect match decoding employee engagement – Part I: Engaging cultures and leaders, Emerald, 6 – 128 Kilmann, R. (1985). Understanding Matrix organization: keeping the dialectic alive and well. In D. Warrick, I. Glenview, S. Foresman, Contemporary organizational development, 152-165 Mellahi, K., Frynas, J. G. Finlay, P. (2005). Global Strategic Management. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 15 Miller, N.E., Dollar, J.C. (1950). Personality and Psychotherapy, McGraw-Hill, 12 46 Internet Foster, Mark, n. d., Maintaining a Common Corporate Culture is a Big Concern for Global Executives, Accenture. Available at www.accenture.com/Global/Accenture_Blogs/Accenture_High_Performance_Business_Blog/Maintaining+a+Common+Corporate+Culture+Is+a+Big+Concern+for+Global+Executives.htm. Downloaded on the 11h of June, 2008 Glossary, n. d.. Available at www.historyteacher.net/EuroProjects/DBQ1998-1999/glossary24-99.htm. Downloaded on the 11th of June, 2008 Nair, Chandrean, 31st of August 2006, Columnists: Multinationals and responsibility – Cracking the colonial corporate culture. Ethical Corporation. Available at www.ethicalcorp.com/content.asp?ContentID=4483. Downloaded on the 11th of June, 2008.

Evidence Based Case Study Social Work Essay

Evidence Based Case Study Social Work Essay Evidence based practice (EBP) refers to integrating professional expertise with the best available external research, and incorporating the views of service users (Beresford, 1996). Evidence based practice has received its reputation by examining the reasons why interventions are necessary (Duffy, Fisher and Munroe, 2008). Within my placement EBP was important for refining my practice so the service user was provided with appropriate support for her individual needs. I used my EBP to carry out research to determine what evidence supported or rejected the use of a specific intervention; within this case I used a counseling approach. The principle of social work intervention is to provide good practice and should be based on a decision-making framework (Preston-Shoot and Braye, 2009). This framework operates on four concepts:- The legislation that informs a decision; Social work ethics and NISCC codes of conduct; Information to ensure a well-informed decision; Knowledge drawn from research, theory, practice and other professionals. In addition to powers and duties of social workers, legislation embeds notions of partnership, respect, rights and anti-discriminatory practice, which are key elements in social work practice (Preston-Shoot and Braye, 2009). My practice learning opportunity involved working with adults with a learning disability in a day care setting. The benefits of the day centre were to provide a service for local people to access support in living with, or caring for someone, with a learning disability. Northern Ireland statistics show that in 2008 there were 9,460 people with a learning disability in contact with Trusts (www.northernireland.gov.uk). From the 9,460 people with a learning disability there were 2,574 benefiting from care management, 42% (1,086) of whom were being supported in their own homes and 35% (898) being cared for in residential homes solely for the use of people with learning disabilities (www.northernireland.gov.uk). This evidence based case study is based on Miss A, a 35 year old woman, who has a learning disability and Spina Bifida resulting in her using a wheel chair for mobility. Within the past few years Miss As family life has changed dramatically. In previous years Miss A had lived in the community with her elderly parents, who cared for her. She is one of three children and has two older brothers. Miss As mother, after being diagnosed with Dementia, was admitted to a residential care home. Her father after having been moved to residential care himself passed away in November 2008 due to his physical health. Miss A now resides in a private nursing home and attends day care three days per week. In March 2008, there were 75 residential homes in Northern Ireland solely for people with a learning disability providing 898 places (www.northernireland.gov.uk). Miss A has been previously diagnosed with MRSA; it is currently located in her toe, having been previously present in her urine. Treatments from the residential care staff have the infection under control, however the infection still remains. The recent death of her father plays a significant role in Miss As life and continues to affect her socially and emotionally. Some of the stereotypical assumptions I had before meeting Miss A were that because she had a physical and learning disability that she would be hard to communicate with, that she would have limited understanding and limited verbal skills. I have challenged this opinion and realised that Miss A is a very competent individual with good communication skills, and can express her likes and dislikes proficiently. As for her physical disability this does not affect her cognitive or cerebral functions. I had also made the assumption that as Miss A had MRSA that it could easily be cross-contracted due to a lack of knowledge and education. After researching the issue and contacting infection control within the Trust I deducted that MRSA is a problem within clinical settings but can be easily controlled with proper preventative procedures. This can be identified as a risk, but should not be a reason to oppress or discriminate Miss A. After having initially met Miss A, liaised with her social worker, accessed her case file and Tuned In to her life issues, I met with Miss A to prepare for the initial assessment and gather information into how best to support her. My role with Miss A was to provide a reassessment since the changes in her circumstances and the death of her father. My role was to determine what support she may need, and to include her wishes and feelings. Assessment: History has shown that there has always been an importance to assessment in social work, but since the 1990s there has been specific importance to a new form assessment to include risk. The National Health Service and Community Care Act 1990 stresses the importance of inter-agency collaboration and a multi-disciplinary assessment process (Trevithick, 2000). The purpose of an assessment may seem evident; that is, to assess the needs of individuals who may need help and/or support. In recent history however assessment seems to mean a relationship between need and available resources (Whittington, 2007, p23) leading to a question if this is ethical or effective practice? There are many purposes of an assessment, for example to assess risk, to assess need, to act as an advocate for someone and also to implement agency and government policy (Whittington, 2007, p25-26). Coulshed and Orme (2006) explain that assessment is an ongoing process where the purpose is to understand people in relation to their environment; it is a basis for planning what needs to be done to maintain, improve or bring about change with the service users participation. The initial preparation for the assessment with Miss A included visiting her social worker and studying her case file. This enabled me to gather information to dispel any preconceptions I had about meeting this service user. The social worker passed on her knowledge of Miss A, such as medical conditions, family circumstances and finances, and also any previous problems that had occurred. I felt it was important to work in partnership with Miss As social worker so I could keep her up to date with events, and also contact her if I required advice about Miss A. The purpose of Miss As individual assessment was to gather information by interacting and communicating with Miss A and others involved in her care, this was also to gain a holistic perspective to her needs. Her assessment was guided by legislation such as, the Chronically Sick and Disabled Persons Act (NI) 1978, which places a duty on health and social services to investigate a level of need, and also the Health and Personal Soc ial Services (NI) Order 1972 which stipulates a responsibility to provide personal social services for the promotion of social welfare for the general public (http://www.understandingindividualneeds.com). As a model of assessment I used Smales (1993) Models of Professional Care which were useful in gathering important information about Miss A. I used the procedural and questioning model to gather information into how Miss A felt about certain issues in her life, such as the bereavement of her father, contact with her other family, and other issues she felt were working or not working. I used these methods of assessment as this followed Trust guidelines. I used The Model of Professional Care to gain a holistic understanding of information. I also included the Exchange model in the assessment as I considered Miss A to be the expert of her own life. I feel the use of the Procedural model was useful in certain aspects of the assessment as it worked in collaboration with the Trusts format of assessment and worked as a form of gathering information, but feel I could have used more of an Exchange model to communicate effectively with Miss A rather than just form filling. I feel Smales method of assessment provided me with tools to help Miss A identify factors that were important for her to maintain, but also issues she would like to change. By working in partnership with her I felt we would have an open and trusting working relationship. I also focused on Person Centred Planning (PCP) in regards to the assessment with Miss A. Person Centred Planning, which evolved from the White Paper; a government policy known as Valuing People, suggested four key principles; Rights, Independence, Choice and Inclusion as a proposal of changing services (Thompson, Kilbane and Sanderson, 2008, p9). This policy also helped inform guidelines for Northern Irelands Equal Lives Policy (2005). Person Centred Planning focused on finding out what is important to and what is important for (health and safety) Miss A. I found PCP a continual process of listening and learning, by focusing on whats important to Miss A now and in the future (Thompson, Kilbane and Sanderson, 2008, p27). By using person centred tools, such as a one page profile, I gained knowledge of what was important to Miss A including her family, her boyfriend and her independence, as well as knowing what was important to keep her safe and healthy. I used a person centred approac h to make others aware of Miss As great personality characteristics as well as the help and support she would like. I feel this was fundamental to demonstrate that Miss A is a person behind her disability. I found by using this approach was an essential skill in understanding Miss A and helped me to be anti oppressive and actively support her needs One particular piece of legislation which I found to be significant in the assessment of Miss A was the Human Rights Act (1998), which identifies Miss As right to family life. Since the death of her father and the institutionalisation of her mother due to her mental health, Miss A has been experiencing disintegration of her family and has lost the support connected to it. The Human Rights Act could have a great significance as Miss A needs emotional and physical support to visit her mother and has not been receiving it; therefore her right to family life is being impeded. The assessment identified that contact with her family and friends are imperative for this right to be upheld. Therefore as a result my role was to facilitate this right, and help to support Miss A in retaining family contact. The main objectives we (Miss A and I) identified within the assessment were; That Miss A had limited support to help discuss the death of her father. That Miss A was not receiving contact with her mother or other family and would like to. From the identification of objectives Miss A and I decided to work towards solutions by preparing a work plan. Planning: After the initial assessment was carried out with Miss A we proceeded to work towards formulating a care plan and targeting her objectives. A care plan provided clear information for everyone involved with Miss A and helped work in partnership with her and the Trust. For a person centred care plan the word ‘support is used in preference to ‘care because the verb implies that support is there to help people achieve their goals and ambitions† (Thompson, Sanderson and Kilbane, 2008). â€Å"A support plan is developed by the person with help where necessary, and it describes how the person intends to be supported in order to live their own life† (Thompson, Sanderson and Kilbane, 2008). I feel the use of a support plan with Miss A, rather than a care plan is an anti-oppressive method, as it incorporates Miss As feelings and opinions into how she wishes to be supported. I used the formulation of a support plan with Miss A to record the objectives she would like to meet and used these to formulate an intervention. It was clear from the assessment and one page profile that limited contact with her mother was an issue, and that the death of her father had a significant impact on her life. I then proceeded to investigate theory of loss and grief as I had never experienced a loss of Miss As magnitude before. I found the Kubler-Ross Model and the 5 responses to grief to be particularly informative. (Goldsworthy, 2005). This theory helped inform my knowledge and in turn helped me be empathetic to Miss A. I was able to identify that Miss A can experience the 5 stages of grief and that they are not necessarily in a specific order. I felt Miss A was at two stages of grief, some days she experiences anger at her father leaving, and other times she has deep feelings of depression of losing him. I was able to use Kubler-Rosss model to identify these stages in Miss A, and also to advise her that these feelings were part of the normal process of grief. The assessment also identified that Miss A had a lack of support in discussing her feelings of grief. Research suggests that people with learning disabilities experience many of the emotions of bereavement but are limited in the opportunities they have to resolve their feelings of grief (Cathcart, 1995; Elliot, 1995; Read, 1996). There are many reasons for this and Murray et al explains that historically, professionals, parents or carers of individuals with learning disabilities believed that those in their care did not understand the concept of death and thus were unable to grieve for the loss of a loved one (McLoughlin, 1986; Elliot, 1995; Read, 1996 cited in Murray et al. 2000). Kitching (1987) and Bradford (1984) highlight that the capacity to grieve is not dependent on a persons intellectual ability, but that a person with learning disability may experience grief in the same way as a child. Therefore research shows that people with a learning disability experience grief and loss but have a limited support network to discuss it with. I used this research to formulate a plan for the intervention with Miss A and we concluded that I could be support for discussing her grief. From the assessment and care plan with Miss A, and following discussions my practice teacher, I discussed that I would use counselling skills to help support Miss A with her feelings of grief. I felt Miss A needed her emotional needs met since the feelings of the death of her father were so dominant. Miss A and I also decided that I would facilitate visits to her mother for emotional and physical support, as her mother was in the latter stages of dementia and Miss A found it hard to communicate with her. Intervention: Rationale for Counselling Intervention: After having conducted an assessment and care plan with Miss A, and building a rapport over numerous meetings, it was decided that a counselling intervention would be the most appropriate form of support for grief. My practice teacher and I felt that if Miss A had the opportunity to discuss her feelings this would help her grieve more effectively and perhaps help her cope better. The two models of counselling that are prominent in social work are the work of Carl Rogers and Gerard Egan, who base their counselling approaches from psychodynamic work around inner thoughts and feelings. Both counselling theories â€Å"reflect the social work values of accepting the individual, using skills in listening to the information that is given, and work towards a joint understanding and decision making about ways forward† (Coulshed and Orme, 2006). I focused on researching counselling theory to help me understand how I could help Miss A through her grief. Trevithick explains that within social work, humanistic approaches to counselling have been particularly influential, specifically with the work of Egan (1990) and Rogers (1961), mainly because they promote personal freedom and are consistent with anti-discriminatory practice and anti-oppressive perspectives† (Trevithick, 2000). I found that the Rogers (1961) Person Centred counselling informed me that I cou ld show unconditional positive regard for Miss A and understand that she is the expert of her own grief. I also analysed Egans (1990) Skilled Helper Model and found it to be an effective theory for an approach to counselling. I found that the structure and framework of the model and the three stages were useful as a guide to follow. I found that although this method of counselling may not be as person centred as Rogers it could be more effective in helping Miss A understand her own grief as it followed a certain framework, could empower her and could be evaluated over time. This theory helped inform my practice by helping me realise that I do not need to be a qualified counsellor to support someone; I just need to be able to actively listen, to use empathy and be reassuring knowing that Miss As agenda is paramount. I consider this in itself to be a person centred way of counselling. I decided to follow a combination of Rogerian method and Egans approach to help support Miss A as an intervention. I decided I would use the structure of Egans model to help build a logical, consistent framework to the intervention, while using the core principles of the Rogerian approach to demonstrate my skills and values, such as working with respect, empathy, genuineness and good active listening (Coulshed and Orme, 2006). Counselling Procedure: Egans Skilled Helper Model form of counselling provides a structured and solution focus basis. It is a three stage model in which each stage consists of specific skills that the helper uses to support the service user move forward (Nelson, 2007). Egans model is described as a three-stage process: identification of the service users current issue(s); identification of the service users desired situation; and the formulation of an action plan to achieve this. This process is facilitated by the â€Å"skilled helper† using the skills outlines by Egan (Nelson, 2007). The goal of using Egans model with Miss A was to help her manage her grief and better understand the â€Å"norms† associated with it, such as anger or depression according to the Kubler-Ross Model. Egan (1998) claims his model is to help people become better at helping themselves in their everyday lives. To provide Miss A with the empowerment to help herself grieve. The use of Egans Skilled Helper Model was to explore how Miss A felt about her bereavement. I used it to ask open questions about how Miss A felt about her father. We explored her past and discussed her relationship with her father before his death. I also used this stage to focus on aspects of her father before he died and what she missed about him, this was to explore and gather information about what her relationship was like with her dad. I was able to use a range of skills to gather information about Miss As grief. Trevithick (2000) explains that social work skills are â€Å"the degree of knowledge, expertise, judgement and experience that is brought into play within any given situation, course of action or intervention† (Trevithick, 2000). Some of the skills I incorporated into Egans counselling were active listening, I used this skill with a range of non verbal cues to indicate to Miss A that I was interested in what she was saying. I concentrated on active listening as Miss A was portraying feelings and knowledge of the death of her father which was a sensitive subject and needed my full concentration. I portrayed active listening by nodding, giving eye contact and facing Miss A which were successful in helping build a rapport with Miss A, thus helping her open up. Another skill I feel I used well with Miss A was empathy. I feel I portrayed my feelings of empathy by responding appropriately to her answers and reassuring her that her thoughts and feelings around grief were normal. I found myself using Empathy a great deal with Miss A as I had never experienced bereavement before and she helped me understand how it felt. Its easy to imagine how someone feels, but when youre faced with helping them I felt I really neede d to place myself in â€Å"her shoes†. I also found I made good use of silences with Miss A, I used these to give her time to reflect on her thoughts and answers. I have found by doing this that the meetings were paced better, and showed that she was the expert of her own grief and I was just there to listen and to reassure her. I found that by using Rogerian person centred skills like genuineness, empathy, communication and active listening I was able to understand Miss A and show her that I was there to support with her agenda. Throughout the discussions of grief I feel Miss A was able to vent a lot of her feelings that she had since her fathers funeral. I feel I was able to support her understand those feelings and help her recognise that anger, depression, or denial are normal feelings that many people in her situation suffer. Throughout Egans Skilled Helper Model and each of the sessions with Miss A I found that she responded well to being able to discuss her feelings with someone. The Rogerian influence on the intervention enabled me to build trust, partnership and a good rapport with her facilitating an open working relationship and providing her with support. Some of the values I tried to incorporate into my counselling and indeed my relationship with Miss A were empowerment and self-advocacy, by letting her know that her agenda was central. I wanted to create a balance of power and to provide a supporting role rather than a dictator role, which I feel I achieved by being able to listen to her views and incorporating PCP. Social work has a distinctive value base with beliefs and principles playing an important role in practice (Thompson, 2005). Challenging my values has helped me to treat Miss A with unconditional positive regard, and with the respect and dignity she deserves. I have challenged my values anti-oppressively by researching MRSA and not making assumptions about the condition; I have challenged my stereotypical attitude around learning disability demonstrating that Miss A is first and foremost a person with feelings and issues before recognising she has a disability. Evaluation: On evaluation of the Egans Skilled Helper Model and my intervention with Miss A have shown that her agenda was central to the sessions, a balance of power was necessary to achieve the trust and respect of one another and that listening is paramount to providing effective counselling. I entered the sessions with Miss A being unaware of what to expect, I was troubled that I would not have enough knowledge about grief to help support her. After the initial session I soon realised that I didnt need to be a qualified counsellor to make a difference to her understanding of grief, I just needed to be able to explain her feelings to her and reassure her that they were normal and not as she phrased it â€Å"being mental†. I found that by working with Miss A using the Skilled Helper Model I was able to apply my skills of listening, communication and empathy to help her understand her feelings. I have never personally had a bereavement of Miss As scale before but feel as a direct result of working with Miss A I have learned that grief is a powerful emotion for anyone to experience and it can take a significant amount of time to recover from. The only regret I have of using the Skilled Helper Model was that I feel I did not have enough time to fully help support Miss A, I feel as I had a placement of only eighty-five days I did not have enough time to fully counsel her for the best outcome. I feel throughout the intervention process I tried to maintain person centred principles with Miss A by providing her with the opportunity to discuss what was important to her. Research shows that the use of Egans model is not person centred as it incorporates the counsellor to ask all the questions, and therefore have the control; but I feel by working in partnership with Miss A to discuss the death of her father was important for her emotional well being and empowered her to help resolve her grief. I also incorporated Rogers core skills of genuineness, respect and trust to achieve this Conclusion Through working with Miss A I have found the experience to be invaluable learning. I have discovered that there is a spectrum of ability with adults and their learning disability. I have found that each person is an individual, and that group care is not necessarily recognising of this. In regards to Miss A I have learned not to make assumptions or stereotypes before meeting the person, as this can lead to oppression and even discrimination. Miss A is an individual, with individual needs, and at this assessment and intervention her emotional needs were prominent. I feel I completed the aims I had intended to by supporting Miss a through her grief using Egans Skilled Helper Model. I incorporated Rogers core skills into this model to help facilitate person centred sessions, and create an understanding that she was the expert, and I was there to listen and support her. If I was to repeat the intervention I would use Egans model again as it provided me with a structured, logical framework to work with and provided me with the identification of the skills I needed to make the sessions successful and effectively counsel Miss A. I feel my future learning needs from working with Miss A are to use more formal language as I identified I talked to her informally using words such as â€Å"wee†. I feel I did this to appear more friendly rather than her social worker, but realise this is not a professional manner to work. Other learning needs I identified were to pace the sessions more appropriately and ensure that Miss A understands the conversation. I feel during the initial sessions with Miss A I spoke more to engage her in the discussion, and feel this was more of a nervous reaction to having to counsel Miss A. During later sessions I was able to take this skill into consideration and settle quicker into sessions to give Miss A the opportunity to discuss what she wished. Overall I feel my relationship with Miss A was good, I feel the assessment and intervention were successful, and I feel I worked in a person centred way incorporating knowledge, skills and values to inform my practice. I feel Miss A felt positively about our work together as her feedback from sessions indicated that she was satisfied with the support I provided. References: 1. Beresford, P. (1996) The Standards we Expect: What Service Users and Carers Want fromSocial Services Workers. London: National Institute of Social Work 2. Bradford, J. (1984) Life after a Death, Parents Voice 34: 6-7 3. Cathcart, F. (1995) Death and People with Learning Disabilities: Interventions to Support Clients and Carers; British Journal of Clinical Psychology 34: 165-75 4. Coulshed, V., and Orme, J. (2006) Social Work Practice. Palgrave Macmillan, Fourth Edition 5. Duffy P, Fisher C, Munroe D (2008). Nursing knowledge, skill, and attitudes related to evidenced based practice: Before or After Organizational Supports. Medsurg Nursing 17 (1): 55-60 6. Egan, G (1990) The Skilled Helper: A Systematic Approach to Effective Helping. Pacific Grove, CA: Brooks/Cole 7. Elliot, D. (1995) Helping People with Learning Disabilities to Handle Grief, Nursing Times 91 (43): 27-9. 8. Goldsworthy, K. (2005) Grief and loss theory in social work practice: All changes involve loss, just as all losses require change, Australian Social Work, 58:2, 167 — 178 9. Kitching, N. (1987) Helping People with Mental Handicaps Cope with Bereavement, Mental Handicap 15: 60-3. 10. McLoughlin, I . (1986) Bereavement in the Mentally Handicapped, British Journal of Hospital Medicine October: 256-60. 11. Murray, G., McKenzie, K., and Quigley, A. (2000) The Grieving Process in Individuals with a Learning Disability; An Examination of the Knowledge and Understanding of Health and Social Care: Journal of Intellectual Disabilities; 4; 77 12. Nelson, P. (2007) An Easy Introduction to the Egans Skilled Helper Solution Focused Counselling Approach. Palgrave and Macmillan (Online at www.f-e-t-t.co.uk) (Accessed 2 March 2009) 13. Preston-Shoot, M., and Braye, S. (2009) Social work intervention (Online) Available at: http://www.scie.org.uk/publications/elearning/law/law08/index.asp [Accessed 5 May 2009]. 14. Read, S. (1996) Helping People with Learning Disabilities to Grieve, British Journal of Nursing 5 (2). 15. Smale, G and Tuson, G. (1993) Empowerment, Assessment, Care Management and the Skilled Worker. London. HMSO 16. Thompson, N. (2005) Understanding Social Work: Preparation for Practice. Second Edition. Palgrave Macmillan 17. Thompson, J., Kilbane, J., and Sanderson, H. (2008) Person Centred Practice for Professionals. Open University Press. 18. Trevithick, P (2000) Social Work Skills: A Practice Handbook. Open University Press. 19. Whittington, C. (2007) Assessment in social work: A guide for learning and teaching; London.Social Care Institute for Excellence 20. Williams, P (2006) Social Work with People with Learning Disabilities. Learning Matters Ltd Other: 21. http://www.northernireland.gov.uk/news/news-dhssps/news-dhssps-october-2008/news-dhssps-101008-community-statistics-for.htm (10/10/08) (Accessed on 8 May 2009) 22. http://www.understandingindividualneeds.com/policyandprocedure/statistics.htm (Accessed on 24 April 2009)

Michelangelo Buonarroti Essay -- European History Renaissance

Michelangelo Buonarroti There was a time period from 1400 C.E. to 1600 C.E., referred to as the Renaissance. The Renaissance was an age of discovery shown through , architecture, poetry, art, sculpture, and theater based on a Greco-Roman culture. Among the many Renaissance thinkers there was a man named Michelangelo Buonarroti. Michelangelo was an architect, sculptor, painter, poet, and an engineer. He preferred sculpting because he felt he was shaping mankind, which reflected the Renaissance era. The Renaissance encouraged everyone to express their human potential and become a master of their universe. In contrast to the dark middle age ideas of a supernatural orientation to life, the Renaissance encouraged a more natural world and human life orientation. Michelangelo reflected the Renaissance ideals through his works of art; such as, the Sistine Chapel, many sculptures including David and the Pieta, and architecture including Capitoline Hill in Rome. In these forms of art, Michelangelo lived up to being the universal man, which meant developing yourself into an individual genious. Michelangelo reflected the Renaissance in the central panels on the Sistine Chapel ceiling. A particular piece of art showed how Adam and God became members of the same race of super beings, reflecting a mixture of Greek mythology and Christianity. The concept of combining pagan and Christianity is clearly shown in the central panel the Creation of Adam. God’s finger reaching out to Adam is transferring his godly powers to Adam .which depicts the Universal Man. Whereas Medieval art would consider placing man and God as equals to be wickedness, whereas the Renaissance ideal consider art depicting that men as gods was not evil. The Sistine Chapel showed that Michelangelo reflected the Renaissance, because he portrayed his paintings using shadows, boldness, depicting three dimensional objects. Causing the characters on the ceiling to come alive. In contrast to the Medieval age, art consisted of dull, flat without shadow or dimension. The Renaissance created an era where artists could express themselves through lively art. Art during the pre-renaissance era, the Medieval age, was greatly influenced by the Catholic Church forbidding nudity and/or equality between God and man. Michelangelo challenged the church by depicting his work in the nude, yet idolizing God. During the... ...hree dimensional, bold art that depicted man as real and as an god in his own right. . Michelangelo accomplished portraying the Renaissance era as a Greco-Roman culture of art along with the blessings of the Catholic church. The bleak formless Medieval art forms were gladly replaced by Michelangelo’s works of art. BIBLIOGRAPHY Kleiner, Tansey. Gardner’s Art Through The Ages Tenth Edition II Renaissance And Modern Art. Florida: Harcourt Brace & Company, 1996 Ventura, Piero. Michelangelo’s World. Canada: Milan 1989 Cumming, Robert. Great Artists The Lives of 50 Painters Explored Through Their Work. New York : DK Publishing, 1998 Britain Express. "Medieval Architecture and Art". 30 Dec. 2002 This Website is valid because the website states : Students researching articles in our History section have asked about the credentials of David Ross for citing purposes. Credentials include: BA in English History (Memorial University, 1979) Author of "The Essntial Traveler's Companion to Medieval England" (1066 Publishing, 1996) Kren, Emil. â€Å"Creation of Adam†. 12 Jan. 2003 This Website is valid because it had its own sources which it got its information from.

Helping Beyond Our Borders Essay -- International Crime

There are currently 14 names on the International Criminal Court’s (ICC) â€Å"Most Wanted† list (USA for the International Criminal Court). This is the list of the individuals that are responsible for the most heinous crimes happening around the world. It is the goal of the ICC to find these criminals and bring them to justice. American Involvement in the International Criminal Court, designed to provide enforcement and prosecution for crimes against humanity, is critical to its success in fighting those who are responsible for the world’s worst crimes. The International Criminal Court was first established in 1998 when 120 countries voted to adopt the treaty outlining its structure. This treaty went into effect on July 1, 2002, and 108 countries have ratified it as of 2008. The goal of the ICC is to bring the most serious international war criminals to justice and stop crimes such as genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes (USA for the International Criminal Court). The involvement of the United States in the ICC has changed with each president in office. During the Clinton Administration, President Clinton participated in negotiations with the ICC and signed its statute in 2000. However, he did not ratify the treaty because he believed it to be flawed. Then, in 2002, the Bush Administration announced that it would no longer participate in any ICC activity and would not support the court when it was established (AMICC). Since then, the Obama Administration has changed the United States’ relationship with the ICC f rom that of hostility to positive support. Under Obama, the U.S. has supported international criminal justice and principled engagement with international institutions. The U.S., however, does not wish to become... ...fference. Aggressive prosecution aided by the strength the U.S. would add to the process, would help deter future events. There are many people behind all of these horrific crimes, and American involvement in the ICC is crucial to its success in bringing those individuals to justice. Works Cited American Non-Governmental Organization Coalition for the ICC. AMICC, 2012. Web. 12 Mar 2012. MacPhee, Briony. "The United States Should Be a Part of the International Criminal Court." American Non-Governmental Organizations Coalition for the International Criminal Court (AMICC), 2008. Gale Opposing Viewpoints. Web. 9 Mar 2012. "U.S. Influence Being Felt at International Criminal Court." America.gov Press Release. 16 Jun 2010. SIRS Government Reporter. Web. 09 Mar 2012. USA for the International Criminal Court. Citizens for Global Solutions. Web. 12 Mar 2012.