Contributions to Misunderstanding Psychology Essay

Rose (1992) has accused psychology of â€Å"Engineering the Human Soul† (p. 351). This is a very odd statement for a sociologist to make because science, whether hard or social, by definition, requires conclusions to be based on use of the scientific method. Alas, the hypothesis that there is a human soul is one that that the scientific method cannot address because there is no way to provide empirical evidence that either confirms or disconfirms it. Indeed, even the phrenologists Gall and Spurzheim (discussed below), who mapped the brain into areas controlling all sorts of human attributes, found an area for â€Å"spirituality† (Myers, 2004), but not for the soul. Rose is, however, in the company of a medical internist with a Ph. D. from Yale in physical chemistry, i. e. , Collins (2007, as cited in Snyder, 2007), who has claimed there is evidence that â€Å"moral law is implanted in our brains by God† (p. 6). Nonetheless, despite psychology being unable to engineer an entity for which there is no scientific evidence, one purpose of this paper is to argue that Rose (1992), along with other critics of psychological research, has failed to recognize that the continued influence of the studies of individual differences beyond the early part of the last century, mainly the development of tests to measure intelligence, i. e. , IQ testing, has not been on psychology, but on education. Indeed, later psychological research on intelligence and cognitive development has been largely ignored in education (Perlmutter & Burrell, 1999). There is no disagreement that IQ testing had and continues to have a negative influence on education, but this paper addresses the waning of the influences of IQ testing within psychology itself not long after the development of these tests. What is psychology? Rose (1992) defined psychology as the study of individual differences, based on a â€Å"paradigmatic technique of . . . the psychological ‘test’ . . . (pp. 358-359). The goal of psychology, according to Rose, is â€Å"the isolation, intensification, and inscription of human difference† (p. 359). This definition is not the same as the one used in most textbooks on introductory psychology, where the discipline is defined as â€Å"the science of behavior and mental processes† (Myers, 2004). While psychological questions have been of interest from the time of the ancient Greek philosophers, psychology as a science did not develop until the latter part of the 19th century (Myers, 2004). Psychologists eventually conducted research in areas that began in other disciplines – and also came to be blamed for the wretched excesses of still other disciplines, notably education. In the early 19th century, phrenologists Gall and Spurzheim mapped out brain areas supposedly controlling attributes from acquisitiveness to sublimity and measured people on these attributes by feeling bumps on their heads (Myers, 2004). Despite the embarrassment phrenology caused scientists, late in the 19th century French and German neurologists, notably Brocca and Wertheimer, provided evidence of left-hemisphere dominance in tasks involving language (Deutsch & Springer, 1997). They used autopsy findings of those who suffered language deficits following strokes to areas in the left cerebral hemisphere (the dominant hemisphere for more than 90% and 70% of right- and left-handed people respectively). These findings were followed by further research on deficits in spatial abilities following strokes in the right cerebral (usually non-dominant) hemisphere (Deutsch & Springer, 1997). In the next century, researchers studied the performance of those who underwent a surgical procedure where the connecting fibers (the corpus colossus) between the two hemispheres were severed to control the spread of severe seizures (Deutsch & Springer, 1999). Later research, using equipment such as evoked potentials, was conducted using samples from the general population. The research provided evidence not that only one hemisphere was activated during performance of most tasks but evidence that one hemisphere was more activated than the other, for example, in language comprehension, the left hemisphere is more activated, but the right hemisphere also is activated in comprehending the emotional, metaphoric, and humorous content of language (Deutsch & Springer, 1997). Individual differences also were rare, for example, listening to music results in greater activation in the right than left hemisphere, except there is the reverse pattern for trained musicians (Deutsch & Springer, 1999). However, the history of research related to the cerebral hemispheres is an example of psychologists falsely being blamed for the nonsense propagated by those in education that there were left- and right-brained people – and teachers somehow were supposed to adjust their teaching for their right-brained students (Connell, 1990). In outlining the history of psychology, introductory textbooks place its beginnings in Wundt’s establishment of a laboratory in Vienna in 1879 for the purpose of applying the scientific method to the study of human mental processes: â€Å"On a December day in 1879 . . . Wundt was seeking to measure . . . the fastest and simplest mental processes. Thus began what many consider psychology’s first experiment† (Myers, 2004, p. 4). However, those in other disciplines, such as Rose (1992), seem to believe not only that psychology began – and ended – with the early work of those studying individual differences, but also that research in psychology actually is used in education. Individual Differences One important difference between the early work of neurologists on the human cerebral hemispheres described above and early work on individual differences is that the former research was based on beginning with basic or shared mental processes. Put another way, the law of parsimony is that main effects are studied prior to interactions (Kirk, 1995). The early work on individual differences in intelligence began prior to research on basic cognitive processing. Galton’s definition of intelligence (White, 2006) was based on an assumption drawn from Darwin’s evolutionary theory of the survival of the fittest, both between- and within-species (1859, as cited in Myers, 2004). Between-species, humans clearly are advantaged with superior intellect. However, if human intelligence had been defined as those characteristics that increase the probability of an individual’s survival, predominant attributes would be those related to the attainment of economic and political power. From the beginnings of civilization, world history has been a struggle for power, with members of prevailing powerful groups inhumanely dominating members of less powerful groups (Braudel & Mayne, 2003), a concept perhaps best expressed by John Travolta in Saturday Night Fever as â€Å"everybody always has to have somebody to dump on† (Wexler, 1977). Being powerful certainly does enhance one’s chances of survival, but how did anyone reach the conclusion that power was related to what we usually think of as intellect?

English for Specific Purposes

2 The development of ESP The best laid schemes o' mice and men Gang aft a-gley. (Robert Burns) From its early beginnings in the 1960s ESP has undergone three main phases of development. It is now in a fourth phase with a fifth phase starting to emerge. We shall describe each of the five phases in greater detail in later chapters, but it will provide a useful perspective to give a brief summary here. It should be pointed out first of all that ESP is not a monolithic universal phenomenon.ESP has developed at different speeds in different countries, and examples of all the approaches we shall describe can be found operating somewhere in the world at the present time. Our summary must, therefore, be very general in its focus. It will be noticeable in the following overview that one area of activity has been particularly important in the development of ESP. This is the area usually known as EST (English for Science and Technology). Swales (1985) in fact uses the development of EST to illu strate the development of ESP in general: ‘With one or two exceptions†¦English for Science and Technology has always set and continues to set the trend in theoretical discussion, in ways of analysing language, and in the variety of actual teaching materials. ‘ We have not restricted our own illustrations to EST in this book, but we still need to acknowledge, as Swales does, the pre-eminent position of EST in the ESP story. 1. The concept of special language: register analysis This stage took place mainly in the 1960s and early 1970s and was associated in particular with the work of Peter Strevens (Haliiday, Mcintosh and Strevens, 1964), Jack Ewer (Ewer and Latorre, 1969) and John Swales (1971).Operating on the basic principle that the English of, say, Electrical Engineering constituted a specific register different from that of, say, Biology or of General English, the aim of the analysis was to identify the grammatical and lexical features of these registers Teachin g materials then took these linguistic features as their syllabus A good example of such a syllabus is that of A Course in Basic Scientific-English by Ewer and Latorre (1969) (see below p. 26). In fact, as Ewer and Latorre's syllabus shows, egister analysis revealed that there was very little that was distinctive in the sentence grammar of Scientific English beyond a tendency to favour particular forms such as the present simple tense, the passive voice and nominal compounds. It did not, for example, reveal any forms that were not found in General English. But we must be wary of making unfair criticism. Although there was an academic interest in the nature of registers of English per se, the main motive behind register analyses such as Ewer and Latorre's was the pedagogic one of making the ESP course more relevant to learners' needs.The aim was to produce a syllabus which gave high priority to the language forms students would meet in their Science studies and in turn would give low priority to forms they would not meet, Ewer and Hughes-Davies (1971), for example, compared the language of the texts their Science students had to read with the language of some widely used school textbooks. They found that the school textbooks neglected some of the language forms commonly found in Science texts, for example, compound nouns, passives, conditionals, anomalous finites (i. e. mod-.! verbs).Their conclusion was that the ESP course should, therefore, give precedence to these forms. 2. Beyond the sentence: rhetorical or discourse or analysis There were, as we shall see, serious flaws in the register analysis-based syllabus, but, as it happened, register analysis as a research procedure was rapidly overtaken by developments in the world of linguistics. Whereas in the first stage of its development, ESP had focussed on language at the sentence level, the second phase of development shifted attention to the level above the sentence, as ESP became closely involved with the emerging field of discourse or rhetorical analysis.The leading lights in this movement were Henry Widdowson in P

Best Snack Foods

Running head: PROBLEM SOLUTION: BEST SNACKS INC. Problem Solution: Best Snacks Inc. University of Phoenix Problem Solution: Best Snacks Inc. Over the last few years Best Snacks has been faced with declined sales, decreased market shares as well as steadily decline stock market prices. As a result of these changes, Best Snack is currently no longer on top of the snack food industry. The current CEO Elizabeth Fairchild, has enlisted the assistance of Vice President of Organizational Development Sabrina McKay to help change the creative and innovative culture. The purpose of this paper is to provide solutions to the issues facing Best Snack that will allow the company to regain the new one spot in the snack food industry. The solutions will focus on the overwhelming need for a return to creativity and innovation into the organization. Describe the Situation Issue and Opportunity Identification The snack food industry is consistently changing and evolving. Best Snack currently has not been able to keep up with the competition. Several issues will need to address before a turn around can begin. The issues with Best Snacks are lack of creativity and innovation, which has led to the decrease sales, decreased market share and decreased profits. The time is now for Best Snacks to adopt a culture that fosters creativity and innovation or jeopardize losing even more. A full outline of the issues facing Best Snack is outlined in Table 1. As a result of the survey, Best Snack has several opportunities to address with the employees. Much of the research on innovative companies points to the importance of management practices that support creative employees and their ideas† (Best Snacks, 2009, p 4). Becoming a learning organization is one of the opportunities for Best Snack. Becoming a learning organization will encourage the changes that the CEO wants to implement. As the employees become more skilled and start to use those skills the creativity and innovation will be reinforced and become a vital part of the company’s organizational culture. Senge’s principles for designing a learning organization emphasizes the importance of building shared vision, by which he means building the ongoing frame of reference or mental model that all organizational members use to frame problems or opportunities and that binds them to an organization† (Jones, 2004, pg 379). Stakeholder Perspectives/Ethical Dilemmas Each stakeholder has their one ideas of how they relate to Best Snacks. The key stakeholders are the customers, the management team, employees and the shareholders. Each stakeholder has some investment in the success of the company and each stakeholder wants a high return on his or her investment. The investment and values of each key stakeholder is identified and explained in Table 2. The management team is looked upon by the employees, shareholders and the customers to make the decisions that will ensure the success of the company. These decisions include fostering an environment that fosters creativity and innovation to keep the company competitive. The employees are looked upon by the management team to provide creative and innovation ideas that can control cost and maintain product lines. The stakeholders look to the management team and employees to work in a manner which uses the Capitol in the best manner. The stakeholders want a decent return on their investment and want to know that the management team is managing their capitol effectively. The customers want to know they are receiving value for their money as well as purchasing from an honest and reputable company. Frame the â€Å"Right† Problem Best Snacks will provide all employees opportunities to grow and develops skills related to creativity and innovation. As the employees use these new skills, Best Snack will be come an organization that will lead the snack industry in using creativity and innovation to materialize the company’s strategic plan of increased market share, increased sales and increased stock prices. Describe the â€Å"End-State† Vision Best Snack has an upward climb to becoming number one in the snack food industry again. Major changes will need to be made and the best method for Best Snacks will be to incorporate radical innovation into culture. The company will need to evaluate both the business model as well as technology to see what improvements can be made. This will be a first in the snack food industry and will position Best Snack a true leader in the industry. The next step is to increase creative thinking and innovational skills on all levels of the organization. By looking at both internal and external sources for creativity and innovation Best Snack will have a consistent flow of creative and innovative ideas for developing and marketing products. The need for new products and marking ideas is essential to increase sales, market shares and stock prices. Identify the Alternatives and Benchmarking Validation â€Å"Making decisions on a product enhancement requires communications between many parts of the organization, including R&D, manufacturing, marketing and sales, and finance, as well as processes and criteria for making the decisions† (Davila, Epstein, & Shelton, 2006, p 120). Best Snacks R&D department is currently not producing the type of ideas that will lead to new innovation products required to keep the company competitive. By creating an outreach program Best Snack R&D department will be in contact with fresh and innovative ideas. â€Å"By 2000, it was clear to us that our invent-it-ourselves model was not capable of sustaining high levels of top-line growth. The explosion of new technologies was putting ever more pressure on our innovation budgets. Our R&D productivity had leveled off, and our innovation success rate—the percentage of new products that met financial objectives—had stagnated at about 35 percent. Squeezed by nimble competitors, flattening sales, lackluster new launches, and a quarterly earnings miss, we lost more than half our market cap when our stock slid from $118 to $52 a share† (Connect and Develop: Inside Procter & Gamble's New Model for Innovation 2006). This served as a major wake up call for Proctor and Gamble so the company began looking at university and government labs to create partnerships to assist both parties in product research and design. Proctor & Gamble soon realized that this process was paying off because of the best ideas had come from the partnerships outside the company. Lafley made it our goal to acquire 50 percent of our innovations outside the company. The strategy wasn't to replace the capabilities of our 7,500 researchers and support staff, but to better leverage them. Half of our new products, Lafley said, would come from our own labs, and half would come through them† (Connect and Develop: Inside Procter & Gamble's New Model for In novation 2006). With this new change in obtaining ideas, it was important that the culture of the company changed as well. As Best Snacks is looking to make changes to product line, the company could benefit from creating partnerships with universities and even individuals looking to sell product ideas. Procter & Gamble has created a website in which individuals can log in and provide new ideas. Best Snacks could add a link to the company website that could serve the same purpose. The link on the website could be a cost-effective way to begin to obtain new ideas. If the website generates valuable suggestions, then the outreach program can be expanded as-needed. The solution of a culture change and using an out reach program is the best solution for Best Snacks as it will lead to continued growth and development for the company. Evaluate the Alternatives Best Snack has attempted to use incremental innovation without much success and the CEO see this and is aware of the need for radical innovation and increased creativity. â€Å" She determined to make Best Snacks the first consumer snacks company to make radical innovation and creativity a vital part of the organization’s culture† (Best Snacks, 2009, p 1). The company will need to embrace the need for a culture change and work toward more products that will reach the target customers. Innovation and creativity is exactly what Best Snacks needs to regain the top position in the snack industry. The company will need to educate the employees and train them to think creativity and identify innovative thoughts. This can be accomplished by the management team identifying the behaviors of other creative and innovative companies. Once these behaviors are identified, the next step is to incorporate these behaviors in the daily routines. These steps set the ground work to empower the employees to introduce new products. Narrowed List of Alternatives When looking at the list of alternatives presented in Table 3, the best alternative solution is to look at gaining outside partnerships to assist the R team in providing new ideas. Before this solution can work the culture will need to shift to encourage creativity and innovation from all employees. The employees need to understand that the external ideas are not to replace the internal ones but to enhance the brainstorming sessions. The next best solution would be to create a learning organization. All of these steps are necessary as Best Snacks focuses on shift to a company known for innovation and creativity. Identify and Assess Risks Best Snacks needs to understand that each solution carries a different set of risks. It’s important these risks are taken into consideration before any decision is made. The current risk that needs to mitigate is the declining sales, declining market share and declining stock prices. Table 4 provides the risk and consequences of the each of the proposed solutions and most important it provides ways to lower the risk of each solution. The management team will need to have solid techniques in place to help the employees more toward the new organizational goals. Make the Decision When evaluating all of the solutions provided, Best Snack would benefit from all of the solutions in some manner. By developing the partnerships with local colleges, shifting the culture to foster innovation and creativity by implementing the behaviors of that lead to creativity and innovation will help to transform ideas to new product lines. The first step is to contact the local colleges to create internships program. This program will consistently provide the R department access to new ideas. The R team can take the ideas and brainstorm how to implement the ideas. The downside of this solution is that the R department may not take the ideas seriously and not focus enough attention to the development because of resentment. The second and third alternative is change the culture to foster creativity and innovation by identifying the behaviors of other creative and innovative companies. These two alternatives are interrelated as before one can occur the other needs to occur. The shift of culture will be hard from several of the employees because of resistance to change. The management team will need to provide change management training to employees because the future of the Best Snack is full of consistent change. The final alternative is to create a learning organization. As Best Snack is making the other adjustments to the business model, the company will have no other choice but to implement organizational learning. The benefit to this alternative is that the company will be consistently looking for new ideas and products that new learning will be required of each employee. As the employees learn and share new skills the company continues to learn and grow and in turn the product line will continually evolve to meet the demands of the customers. Develop and Implement the Solution Sabrina McKay the Vice President of Organizational Development has a full slate to ensure that all of the pieces are in place. Sabrina’s first action item is to identify the leadership behaviors are required to lead the company. These behaviors will be identified within two months. Once the behaviors have been outlined, over the next three months the review of the current management process will be evaluated. During this evaluation, the necessary changes will be outlined. During these evaluations, the management team will be review all polices and procedures to benchmark against the new set of behaviors and processes. The management team will have two months to complete this evaluation. Once the changes have been outlined, a new training program will be created by Sabrina and this should take approximately nine months to create and provide the training to all associates. While the training is being conducted Sabrina will also be working on the creativity and innovation plan. This plan will include the partnerships with local colleges. Sabrina will have eight months to create and identify the best college to use for the program. Once the partnerships and training is complete the management team can continue to outline the strategies for supporting the employees in all of the new endeavors. The support for the employees is vital to the whole plans success. The project will be reviewed every six months to ensure adequately progress. Evaluate the Results The focus for Best Snack is to become the first company in the snack industry actively using radical innovation in the organizational culture. The plan that was outlined in Table 6 and Table 7 has the project completed within the next 12 months. The changes that will be made during this time will need to be consistently reinforced by management. It is also very important that management support the employees as training and change is provided. This is the time for management to increase the trust factor between management and employees. As the trust increases, creativity will also increase. The employees’ surveys will be used to measure how well the management team is nurturing the increased creativity and innovation. Once partnership program is in place, Best Snacks will have consistent flow of ideas for the R team to brainstorm and transform into new products. As the R team is brainstorming both internal and external ideas this lead to additional ideas. Within a year, the R team will be able to provide more marketing ideas and products in a more efficient manner. Best snacks will a 30% increase in new products in one-year. The increase in products will start to increase company sales, market share and stock price within the year. With the consistent new ideas, increased creative and innovative thinking, Best Snack will see consistent growth over the next few years. Conclusion Best Snack has become very dependent on incremental innovation and the low risk factors that when change is urgently needed it is hard to stray from it. Best Snack is trying to become a leader in the industry but is stuck therefore the need to shift to radical innovation. The second level at which systems interact with learning is through their own improvement and the improvement of organizational processes. During the execution of a particular project, there is learning about the process itself that is captured. In other words, there is learning not only about the particular innovation, but also about how the company can improve its innovation processes† (Davila, Epstein, & Shelton, 2006, p 218). For Best Snacks to maintain the new competitive edge it is important to continue to foster the communication as well as the concepts of creativity and innovation. Best Snacks is now in a position to use the knowledge of the past to create a better future for the employees, customers and shareholders. References Davila, T. , Epstein, M. , & Shelton, R. , 2006. Making Innovation Work: How to Manage It, Measure It, and Profit from It, 1e. Jones, Gareth R. , 2004. Organizational Theory, Design, and Change, 1eChapter 12: Decision Making, Learning, Knowledge Management, and Information Technology. P&G’s New Innovation Model 2006 retrieved April 10, 2010 from http://hbswk. hbs. edu/archive/5258. html University of Phoenix, (2009). Best Snacks Scenario Inc. Retrieved March 21, 2010 from University of Phoenix rEsource Center. Table 1 Issues and Opportunities Identification |Issue |Opportunities |Reference to Specific | | | |Course Concept | |Business Model Change to drive |The CEO Elizabeth recognizes the company’s need to make|Davila. , Epstein. , & Shelton | |innovation in the following areas: |some innovated changes. The changes to the business |2006, p. 32 | |Value Proposition |model will help Best Snack Foods become more | | |Supply Chain |competitive. The first change will be to look at the | | |Target Customer |value of the items for sale and make the necessary | | | |adjustments to provide more value to the consumers. | | |The next step is to look at the supply chain and make | | | |the necessary adjustment. The changes should provide | | | |product to Best Snacks at a quick and lower price so | | | |that cost savings can be passed on to the customer as | | | well as increased margin for the company. The final | | | |step is to determine the target customer for the new | | | |product or the enhanced product. Best Snack foods to | | | |look at what areas that they have no presence and what | | | |areas they need to increase product presence. This | | | |will determine which customers they are not reaching | | | |and then can determine value of reaching out to a new | | | |demographic. | | |Technology Change to drive innovation |The CEO Elizabeth recognizes the company’s need to make|Davila. , Epstein. , & Shelton | |in the following ways: |some innovated changes. According to the survey the |2006, p. 5 | |Product and service offerings |associates believe that management does not quick | | |Process technologies |decision regarding new products. The company has | | |Enabling technologies |introduced only five new products in three years. The | | | |company needs to determine what products they want to | | | |improve on or, which new items to produce. This new | | | |products could also require some changes in the | | | |technologies. The company has just implemented an | | | |automotive packing system and will need to find other | | | |technologies that will help decrease cost associated | | | |with production. The nest step will be for Best Snack | | | |food to look communication between vendors. The close | | | |relationship can also help to reduce cost. | | |Organizational |The executive team should begin to outline the learning|Jones 2004, p. 376 | |learning The process |for the individual through the University. Once the | | |through which managers |learning continues with the individual, the new | | |seek to improve |knowledge will begin to have an impact on the group and| | |organization members’ |when the group is learning the whole organization is | | |capacity to understand |learning. Best Snack needs to outline training classes| | |and manage the organization |for all levels of the company. As the company | | |and its environment |continues to learn the groups and individuals will | | |so that they |begin to look deeper into process to determine ways to | | |can make decisions |streamline and reduce cost. This is creating an | | |with continual organizational |environment that fosters creativity. This will so help| | |effectiveness. The following are |to decrease the fear of taking risk within the company. | |types of organizational learning | | | |Exploration | | | |Exploitation | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |Organizational decision making is the |This is what the executive team is currently working |Jones 2004, p. 368 | |process of responding to a problem by |on. The CEO has outlined the problem, which is the | | |searching for and selecting a solution|company is not as competitive and innovated as the | | |or course of action that will create |competition. As a result of these issues the company | | |value for |is beginning to suffer financially. The executive team| | |organizational stakeholders. |is working to find the proper solution that will | | |This type of decision model has five |provide increased profits and margins for Best Snacks. | |different models | | | |Rational Model | | | |Carnegie Model | | | |Incrementalist Model | | | |Unstructured Model | | | |Garbage Can Model | | | |Decision making drives the operation | | | |of an organization. At the | | | |core of every organization is a set of| | | |decision-making rules and routines | | | |that bring stability | | | |and allow the organization to | | | |reproduce its structure, activities, | | | |and core competences | | | |over time (Jones, 2004, p. 375) | | | |Learning in a innovative organization |Sabrina will be able to provide this characteristic to |Davila. , Epstein. & Shelton | |has the following characteristics: |Best Snack foods once she is has completed her new |2006, p. 212 | |Process learning is linked to |assignment. The first step that she has completed of | | |strategy |the employee survey is an excellent start to determine | | |Systematic approach to complex |the current state versus the new look of the company. | | |organizational dynamics |She is also looking at the values and the mission of | | |Shared vision |the company. Both of these will more than likely be | | |Flexibility and agility |updated to reflect the new strategy. Once the new | | |Timely anticipation of challenges and |strategy is determined the company will be working | | |threats |toward a common goal and will be able to foster a | | |Collaborative and challenging |creative environment. The company currently has a Best | | |environment. |Snack University for the students but the courses are | | | |not mandatory. The company should look at requiring so | | | |many hours a year so that each employee can continue to| | | |improve upon there skills. | | Table 2 Stakeholder Perspectives and Ethical Dilemmas |Stakeholder Perspectives and Ethical Dilemmas | |Stakeholder Groups with Competing Values | | | | |The Interests, Rights, and |The Ethical Dilemma Based on the Competing | |List: Group X Values of Each Group |Values | |versus Group Y | | | |Executive Management vs. Employees |Fairness, accountability and social responsibility |The employees completed a survey and it is up | | |The interest of employees revolves around Best |to the Management team to make the right | | |Snacks ability to provide job security, market share|decision with the answers. It is important the | | |security and on the job training to improve job |management use the information to provide the | | |skills. The Executive management has the |necessary program to the employees and support | | |responsibility to implement the organizational |growth and development. | | |changes in order to maintain competitive. | | |Executive Management vs. Shareholders |Increased return on investment, |The main interest is the history of innovation,| | |Loyalty, respect, responsibility and reputation of |market shares, stock performance, operating | | |company. |profit, return on investment, and | | | |profitability. The shareholders are fearful | | | |about their investments not increasing and the | | | |shareholders want to know that the capitol is | | | |being managed properly. If the capitol is being| | | |managed properly then there should be a return | | | |on their capitol. | |Executive Management vs. Customers |Customer is interested in cost and quality. The CEO Elizabeth Fairchild has meeting with | | |The customer is also wanting accountability and |customers to talk about values and how they | | |honestly from the executive team. |compare to the competition. The customers are | | | |expecting that the company to take their | | | |answers and work to make the necessary changes. | Table 3 Analysis of Alternative Solutions [pic] Table 4 Risk Assessment and Mitigation Risk Assessment and Mitigation | |Alternative |Risks and Probability |Consequence and Severity |Mitigation Techniques and | | | | |Strategies | |Identify and individual and |Ineffective due to lack of |According to the survey results, |Management team will communicate | |organizational behaviors that |participation and rejection by |the employees do not believe that |how creativity and innovation will | |foster creativity and |employees – high |improved innovation and creativity|assist the company to reach the new| |innovation |There is littler or no growth – low |is achievable –high |goals | | |Inadequate management of strategies |Will not have immediate impact on | | | |structures, or cultures – low |product improvements, finance or |The management team will also need | | | reputation-medium |to understand all of the dynamics | | | | |that affect growth. | |Create organizational learning |Employees are hesitant to follow the |Increase turnover as employees |The CEO and | | |organizational learning system- high |will not make necessary changes – |management team will need to | | | |medium |define and communicate the | | | | |organizational learning process. | | | | | |Adapt a culture that focuses on|Creation of goals for employees to have|Will not address all of the |The management team will focus on | |creativity and innovation |continuous learning – medium |important issues. – high |creativity when outlining the new | | | |The major issues will still need |vision of the company | | | |to be addressed | | |Create partnerships with |Current employees will resent the ideas|This will generate new ideas that |The management team must | |colleges to generate new and |from the outside -high |can be implemented by the current |communicate the program and foster | |creative ideas. |R&D team with the necessary |the culture to accept the ideas as | | | |modifications to fit the needs of |if they were generated from the | | | |the company. – Low |inside. | Table 5 Pros and Cons of Alternative Solutions |Alternative |Pros |Cons | |Create organizational learning |All departments will be on the same track |The training can be c ostly and be hard for some| | |toward the new goals. employees to make changes | | | | | | | | | |Adapt culture that focuses on creativity and |Company will operate more efficiently due to |The current culture may be too strong to allow | |innovation |all of the new changes in operating models and |the shift in focus and implement the new ideas | | |technology |and concepts | |Identify individual and organizational |Increased competences for employees that can |Products are not improved | |behaviors that foster creativity and innovation|improve product lines |Products may no longer meet the needs of the | |and implement the necessary changes | |customer | | | | | | | | | |Create relationships with colleges to generate |New ideas that are not bound by boundaries from|Current team members might feel threaten by | |new ideas |the culture of the company |ideas | | |The customer is provide suggestions to improve |Students that create ideas may not be involved | | |value or products |in w hole process. | | |Ideas that are generated can be modified by the| | | |R&D team to fit the business model | | Table 6 Optimal Solution Implementation Plan Action Item Deliverable |Timeline |Who is Responsible | |Proposal for new employee training |9 months |Sabrina McKay, VP of Organizational | | | |Development | |Organizational strategies for supporting the |12 months (continual) | Executive Management Team | |employees | | | |Creation of Creativity and Innovation Plan |8 months |Sabrina McKay | |Review of all policies and procedures |2 months | Executive Management Team | |Identify leadership behaviors |2 months |Sabrina McKay | |Identify management process |3 months |Sabrina McKay | Table 7 Evaluation of Results End-State Goals |Metrics |Target | |Best Snacks will be the first snack company to |Innovation and creativity will become a |With in a year, radical innovation will be | |implement radical innovation and creativity as|integral part of the companies ongoing |encouraged regularly. | |part of the companies organizational culture |processed | | |Best Snacks encourage creative thinking on all |Best Snack will now be known as a cutting edge |All employees will be trained on creativity and| |levels by using new skills |innovation organization |innovation skills within one year. |The development of new products will be more |With in a year, Best Snacks will see an |The will be a 30% increase in new products | |innovative resulting in an increase in sales, |increase in development of new products as a |within one year. | |market share and stock prices. |result of new ideas from both internal and | | | |external sources | | |The executive management team will create an |The results of the assessment show that |Full employee involvement with in 4 months. |assessment to increase creativity and |management is following the new organizational | | |innovation throughout the company |plans for the company. | | |Best Snacks will become number one again and |Best Snacks leads the industry with creative |Within one year, Best Snacks will have | |will remain competitive due to organizational |and innovation products and will increase |increased profit margins and increased | |changes |revenue and operating incomes |creativity. |

Journal opining article Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Journal opining article - Essay Example Additionally, spending policies need to be well scrutinized prior to making any economic moves, especially in the present day world. Wessel adds on to indicate that, being able to change the spending policies and the tax policies is essential whilst considering the current economic times and changes in governance (11). Wessel explains that if tax reforms focus on increasing the economic growth rate, then the scorekeepers need to take into account the growth spurt including the extra revenue collected in a specific financial year (12). This aspect, which has a direct implication on the economy, finds support and backup from numerous persons. Wessel is of the opinion that significant legislation in the normal routine gets tweaked such that the tally matches the promises of the proponents not just for bragging rights, but it clears the hurdles in parliament (11). Wessel, in his article, claims that when campaigns culminate and there is legislation of the promises, the joint tax committe e and the congressional budget office makes decisions on the various proposals made (12). According to Wessel, so as to stabilize the economy, there is a need to consider basic precepts (11). This is to mean that the economy growth requires clear guidelines and operation mechanisms. Wessel explains that the precepts are that accounting should not interfere with the congress in passing legislation which improves the growth in the economy (11). So as to have quick glimpse of economic growth, accounting should not permit to the pretense of the congress that every cut in tax caters for its expenditure. It is also vital to note that accounting should also not allow the assumption by the congress that there is a cost free spending on education. This spending, according to Wessel, not only increases the productivity of workers, but also has a massive positive impact on the economy (12). Wessel also argues that at some point when there are numerous changes in the tax plan, the various autho rities that have the function of implementing the changes, figure out that people and businesses respond in the event that the congress puts in plans and changes (12). Some of the changes in relation to Wessel include cut capital-gains in the tax rates whereby, shareholders sell the profits that they have and consequently lead to a surge in the revenue on a temporary basis (12). Ian endeavor to increase spending and elevate the economy, there is a need to set aside funds to the Medicare providers. In the long run, this will lead to an increase in spending in the economy. Changes in the subsidies for farmers make them dedicate more energy to production, for instance growing more crops leading to more profit, which in turn are dedicated to raising the economy. According to the article by Wessel, official tags on legislation do not consider the results of a bill on the overall economy (11). In the view of Wessel, this can, in simple terms be referred to as dynamic scoring (11). Additio nally, whilst analyzing the fiscal policies in an economy, it is vital to note that the bodies that implement the tax rates do not incorporate the macroeconomic effects. Changing the rules made by the congress will therefore become incomplete and consume a lot of time. Changing these rules, in regard to Wessel, also depends on the models of the economy and requires judgment calls (12). The author explains that some of the bills put in place focus on extending income

Sandel, Doing the Right Thing Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Sandel, Doing the Right Thing - Assignment Example Sandel presents an array of moral dilemmas, some of which are real while the others tend to be hypothetical. In that context the moral dilemmas presented by Sandel culled from the real life are more interesting, especially the moral dilemma regarding the awarding of Purple Heart to the veterans suffering from psychological injuries. This is because such moral dilemmas tend to take the collective social conscience to another level of debate and makes it grapple with issues that are hitherto not considered or are ignored. In that context a discussion on ethics is necessary because the democratic societies do time and again have to deal with issues and make decisions pertaining to those issues, which have an element of virtue and morality attached to them. Sandel’s discussion of ethics tends to relate to Weston’s discussion of ‘counterfeit ethics’ as both the discussions tend to delve on the intense debate and moral counterarguments imminent on the ethical reasons backing practical decision

Support the argument that warfare in the Napoleonic era is Essay

Support the argument that warfare in the Napoleonic era is fundamentally similar to warfare as it practicted today - Essay Example Today, we look back to the Napoleonic era and we find a direct link in the military reforms and tactics that were used during the 1792-1815 French revolution having a direct impact on our very own military structures and organizations (Brian 46). France revolution was the of a monarch regime breaking loose and transforming into a nation founded on equality for all. This evidently was not an easy process as it meant doing away with monarchial rule, the nobles and breaking free from the church. It also meant that people would seize from being referred to as subjects, and embrace citizens as a title (Stewart 29). This was a task that had the rest of Europe at odds with France. Late 1791, the French King sought the help of other Europe rulers to aid in his reinstatement. This officially resulted in the emergence of the French revolution in April 1792; with the French new nation aiming at bring change through battle throughout Europe. Their first victory was marked in Belgium at the end o f 1792 (Paul 25). The French armies were now composed of talented men from all parts and class of France as with a nation structure, citizens were all equals unlike subjects who were greatly divided by the class system. This was one of the strengths of the French military as with such a tactic, it had more soldiers at its disposal than others (Brian 45). Moreover with a common goal, and the zeal to overcome whatever form of obstacles, the French military had a bond that was previously scarcely heard of in Europe, the ‘trust’ bond. Soldiers from France were able to with ease exploit tactical maneuvers hence breaking logistical constrains a factor that proved to be advantageous in battle and a contributor to their numerous successes in the fields (Stewart 29). War had been declared and the first coalition was formed by seven nations namely: United Provinces, Great Britain, Spain, Austria, and Prussia. This was at the beginning of 1793, marking the beginning of the 23years of struggle by France against these Nations. This is what created the need of an exceptional military leader who could face up to this challenge (Paul 25).The leadership of the French army was dynamic and strategic, especially since March 1796 when the great Napoleon Bonaparte took over the position of general. Napoleon was a brilliant soldier, a genius of sorts. He was a leader who could gather troops of up to 300,000 or more troops and maneuver them to success against their enemies as was the case in 1812 in Russia. The treaty of Campo Formio is an evidence of the organized and brilliance of Napoleon as a French army leader as it resulted from the defeat of Sardinian and Austrian forces back in Italy that led to French domination of the Belgium and Luxembourg then known as Austrian Netherlands. These two regions were the first additions of the now growing French Republic (Stewart 30). The French made organizational changes to their army that increased there lethality and sparked military reform in other states. Under the governance of Napoleon, greatness was curved for France and other states. Napoleon went by

Foreign Market Entry and Diversification Assignment

Foreign Market Entry and Diversification - Assignment Example Overview Foreign market entry and diversification are considered to be the two most important aspects of an organization as the brand name and the success of the organization completely relies on proper planning and strategies that would lead them to be the prime leader in the foreign market as well as in the domestic market. The main objective of this paper is to provide a clear view on the different factors, strategies and the measures that a company i.e. XYZ should consider while deciding to diversify in foreign markets. Argument for Diversification Market entry and diversification is considered to be the major decisions in an organizational life cycle, not because it includes investment of huge amount of money but failure to establish the determined objectives would lead in decreasing the goodwill of the company and would also result in great financial losses, which might again hamper its sustenance in the long-run. In the modern day context, international diversification, throug h foreign market entry has become a vital concern for many companies to obtain competitive advantages (Czinkota & Ronkainen, 2009). XYZ operates in the highly competitive market environment of fast food and beverage industry, which exhibits the characteristics of a free entry and exit trend, increasing the threats of new entrants along with substitution effects and bargaining power of the consumers (KPMG, 2012). Additionally, it has also been viewed that the company faces the challenges of narrow market segmentation, wherein almost all the markets of its home country have been already penetrated by the company. In contrast, the prevailing market opportunities in the global platform remain untapped by the company in comparison to its competitors (Nagel, 2012). It is thus suggestible that the company i.e. XYZ focuses on diversifying in the form of foreign market entry in order to enhance its competitive positing in the industry and assure its sustenance in the long-run. Strategy for D iversification It is very essential that any diversification strategy is planned or made after analyzing the trends that are followed in the targeted market, rendering due significance to the needs and requirements of the prime customers of the company in the foreign market environment. Apart from focusing on the market trends and the buying behavior deciphered by the targeted consumer segment, XYZ also needs to assess the competitors’ motives and their strengths as well as weaknesses prior to enter a foreign market. Accordingly, due consideration must be provided to identify and analyze the strengths and weaknesses of the company in compare and contrast to that of its large competitors in the targeted foreign market. It will also be very essential for XYZ to conduct a thorough research on the market structure, political and economic climate as well as other external business factors, which might affect its performance in the foreign market. It is based on these inferences th at the company should decide upon reforming its marketing strategies and making requisite changes in its product line or targeted customer segment, when entering foreign market (Czinkota, & Ronkainen, 2009). Identifying and discussing the foreign market and the suitable strategies of the company On the basis of the recent economic

Macro Project Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Macro Project - Assignment Example Attributed to their low population, the two countries have achieved one of the highest employment rates in the world. As the statistics have it, the two countries have achieved above 90% employment rate and hence the economy grows rapidly. The rate of inflation in the two countries is very low, though some disparities are clear. When it comes to exports, the two countries export petroleum products as their principle source of foreign exchange. However, Qatar exports fertilizers and raw aluminum while Kuwait exports cement and ships. Their chief imports include cars, jewelry and aircraft; and food, construction material and vehicles for Qatar and Kuwait respectively. Qatar has favorable balance of trade as the difference between the export and import is very high. This means that the currency in Qatar is very strong against that of the trading partners. This implies that the country earn a lot in terms of foreign exchange. As such, it is important for the country to maintain its export at a higher level as it directly impacts its economic growth. Other significance of a higher net export is that the country will have better terms of international trade and higher bargaining power in international trade and other affairs, Hightower

Icon Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Icon - Research Paper Example Similarly shapes tend to impact mind in informative way (Ciotti par 1-5). The Icons used by Microsoft represents freedom and four colored blocks in the icon tell about aspects and range of products in which freedom is claimed. The information shared from an Icon design is easy to remember. The products aim at fulfilling consumer demands created by market dynamics. They are changed in order to have greater audience and fixate consumers with product characteristics. History of Icon creation is old and dates back to the Greek era. Churches, Citadels and certain Buildings wore Icons to make people feel their imposing presence. Today Icons are created and re-launched in different ways to convey variety of messages; there are fonts, shapes, abstract images or even simple lines to represent ideas, groups and consortium etc. For example some icons are colorless like that of Apple, Mercedes and certain news channels. They actually convey neutrality, balance or a message of calmness. Toblerone, one of the finest chocolate companies from Bern, Switzerland has a hidden silhouette in its Icon. A bear in mountain illustration conveys the product to be originally from Bern, The City of Bears. Icon used by Baskin Robbins flashes a figure of 31 whenever seen or reminded of. Similarly an arrow that forms a smiley under amazon.com has a tail on ‘A’ and head on letter ‘Z’. It conveys availability of almost everything one needs (Ad par 4 -8). These icons convey in variety of ways and are helpful in marketing of products and services. With time some icons lose their attraction or magnetism in the face of human psychological process of habituation. People stop paying attention and sometime more attractive and imposing icons surface as competitors with better marketing stunt. Microsoft can be cited as an example. The internet explorer in Microsoft operating system is not being used by most

Sweden, Barzil and vietnam Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Sweden, Barzil and vietnam - Research Paper Example Sweden has an outlook which leans mostly on the exports and it has a well modernized system of distribution, highly developed communications systems both externally and internally and a highly skilled workforce. It economy is based on iron ore, hydro-power and timber. The country has a highly intensified international trade outlook. Its economy is boosted by a higher standard of engineering which ensures that the country is a leading force in technological innovations in various fronts. These include telecommunications, pharmaceuticals and automotive industry. The economy is also helped by a well developed agricultural industry and this accounts for two percent of the gross domestic product and also the employment of the country. In this respect Sweden is ranked eighth richest country in the world. The country have taken the policies of non-aligned and neutrality for over a century has ensured that it has one of the most enviable economy of the world. This means that the country is o ne of the richest countries in the world being ranked the eight richest country in the world. This has been ensured by a continued political stability for a period of time and the country being endowed with an enviable resource base. The government has played a very important role in ensuring that the economy of the country has been growing from strength to strength (Torsten , 129). The leadership style o... However, the central aspect of conservatism is the leadership outright support of the status quo and the status quo ante. A conservative party in Sweden is the Moderate Party which is the leading party in a coalition government which was formed in the 2006 general elections of the country. Most of the country's policies especially in relation to leadership and economy tends to lean towards the conservative policies. This can be witnessed by the fact that many of the country's leadership have been following the conservative nature of leadership. The country also advocates for free market, privatization, tax incentives and personal freedom. The Moderate party supports the social benefits that had been introduced in the country in the 1930s (Richard, 129). The conservative policies of the country have contributed very much in the economy of the country. One of the policy is that there is freedom from internal control and this have helped very much in ensuring that the the investors can indulge in any form of business they feel is more profitable to them. The economy of the country has also been aided by the fact that there is freedom of speech and a fair way of governance. The country have also stuck to one currency and has defied the influence of the European Union currency. This has helped very much in stabilizing the economy (Einhorn, 36). Comparison of Brazil and Sweden Brazil is a highly liberal country unlike and has been opposed to conservatism since its establishment and it continued in this trend after attaining independence from Portugal. In economical terms Brazil and Sweden have almost similar policies. Both countries have emphasized the need for a free market. Both countries also command a heavy presence in the world market and hence they have

Conscious Awareness and Brain Processes Essay Example for Free

Conscious Awareness and Brain Processes Essay A number of scholarly studies on human consciousness identify a close relationship between human consciousness and the brain processes of a human being. This study is an examination of the literature existing on these two areas with an aim of establishing whether there exists a relationship. To achieve this, the study will evaluate consciousness and its functions in a human being, evaluate brain processes and their functions and from the two analyses, make efforts at establishing either a similarity or a distinction exist between them. An evaluation of consciousness Questions about consciousness have been with humans for a long time. According to Pearson (1999), traces of the questioning on the nature of human consciousness were there as early as during the Neolithic period, when burial practices expressed some spiritual belief which had some connotations on some reflections or thought on the nature and existence of human consciousness. The earliest forms of cultures and intimation into human consciousness are therefore only available through historical connotations on the then existing people’s reflection on some aspects of human consciousness. There are those scholars who argue that consciousness, as it is known today’ is a phenomena that arose much later in the development of humans, as late as after the Homeric era as postulated by Jaynes (1974). In this view of the development of consciousness knowledge, earlier humans acted without necessarily correlating their actions and thoughts. As such, they were unconscious of their actions and acted primarily on a response to physical threats as opposed to awareness of need. Earlier scholars who attempted to define consciousness included Rene Descartes in the 17th century and John Locke, in the period of late 17th century (Stanford Encyclopedia, 2006). Their efforts to define consciousness have formed a basis upon which modern human consciousness is constructed from. In Descartes, ‘Principles of Philosophy’, written in 1640, he defined human consciousness as self-awareness. Locke, in 1988 correlated consciousness to both thought and personal identity (Stanford Encyclopedia, 2006). Modern attempts to define consciousness have been attempted by scholars (Gennaro, 1995 and Carruthers, 2000) who postulate that the word consciousness is a broad umbrella term covering a broad range of metal phenomena. In its wide range, consciousness can refer to a state of an organism in its wholeness, also referred to as creature consciousness or to a certain mental process or state also referred to as state consciousness. Since consciousness is a broad term, this section will highlight the meaning of consciousness in different contexts. A person, or a cognitive system, may can be said to be conscious in a number of ways; the first sense is what Armstrong (1981) referred to as sentience. A sentient creature is one that is able to sense its environment and respond to it. In this sense, the ability to sense and respond to an environmental stimulus is equivalent to being conscious. The challenge in this definition lies in making a distinction between the responsiveness portrayed by living and animate creatures such as animals and humans and the responsiveness inherent in inanimate objects such as flowers and trees. This is because a flower responds to physical environmental as evident in withering during the dry season. The other sense of defining consciousness is wakefulness (Cole, 2002). In this sense, an organism is considered conscious not only by possessing inherent ability to respond to the environment but by being in a state or a disposition to actually respond to it. Consciousness in this sense refers to being normally alert or awake. In this definition, an organism would be considered unconscious if it were in a deep state of comma or sleep. In this definition too, there also lies some blurred explanation since by defining consciousness as so, one may need to define it further in terms of levels of consciousness. For instance, it is possible for a creature to be half-asleep, implying that it requires a slight arousal for it to be conscious, as in the definition. Another form of consciousness, identified by Carruthers (2000) is self-consciousness. This is a high level order of consciousness in which the creature is not only aware but also having the correct understanding of the state of its awareness. Among humans, self-consciousness may denote ones ability to differentiate himself from others, in aspects such as language, hierarchy, status etc. One who is unable to make such a distinction would invariably be referred to as self-unconscious. In philosophy, self consciousness is equivalent to self-knowledge, which is used to commonly refer one’s knowledge of particular mental states including beliefs, sensations and desires (Stanford, 2003). A challenge that lies in this definition is that it disregards conscious forms of life, which may still be undergoing growth and development. For instance, a young child may be unaware of his status or privileges and as such, when consciousness is defined in this manner, it may assume that such is not conscious. Features of consciousness As mentioned earlier, consciousness is an umbrella term enveloping a broad range of issues. To distinguish consciousness, it becomes imperative to assess the features that combine to bring out the conscious phenomena. By analyzing these features and later analyzing the features of the brain processes, it will be possible to assess the existence of a relation between the two. The characters of consciousness as identified in literature include; A qualitative character- Siewert (1998) had suggested that there exist some experienced desires or thoughts in all forms of consciousness. These are the ones that form the qualitative character of consciousness but they do not necessarily refer to sensory states. In essence, consciousness embodies some kind of feelings, though it is itself higher than normal physical feeling. When an individual is conscious of something, there is a ‘feel’ attached to it, which happens beyond the physical human feelings. Phenomenal structure- phenomena as applied in both psychology and philosophy denotes how things in the world or the world in general appear to an individual. For consciousness to be complete, this feature ought to be present, that is, there should be an effort deep within oneself that attempts to interpret a certain event or knowledge of the world around an individual. The phenomenal structure of consciousness, as portrayed in theory shows that consciousness is made up not only of sensory ideas but also by complex representations of space, time, body, self and the world (Siewert, 1998). Representational theories of consciousness as published in the Stanford philosophy encyclopedia shows that representation of the world as it is has evolved slowly to become an important theme in the study of consciousness (Stanford Encyclopedia, 2006). Subjectivity- Consciousness is subjective in the sense that what is conscious can only be experienced by that creature in the prevailing condition. Creatures with similar capabilities are the only ones that can understand the’ what-it is like’, a common phrase used to define consciousness (Nagel, 1974). In this sense, consciousness is subjective, that is, it is understood from the creature’s point of view as opposed to being objective where facts would be understandable based on available evidence. Self perspective- According to Searle (1992), conscious experiences exist not as isolated events but as states or modes of a conscious subject to self. For instance, the consciousness of pain is a happening experienced by a conscious subject. The appearance of the sky as blue is a phenomena that appears as so to a subject. This implies that for consciousness to exist, the ‘self’ subject which can be identified by, ‘I think’ needs to be there. The self perspective is a crucial feature in consciousness since for any event to be reflected to the level of awareness; there is need for the intellectual participation of the self through past experience. The requirement for this intellectual part in the subject is an important aspect of this study since intelligence forms one of the brain processes and therefore serves to suggest that there is a close link between consciousness and brain processes. Unity- a conscious system involves some form of unity. Cleeremans (2003) postulate that consciousness has a unity characteristic; this unity is that which arises from the subject’s ability to connect varied information’s and representations and make a coherent judgment. It is this unity in consciousness that can enable an individual to make a relation between past and present interpretations and therefore direct consciousness in a focused direction. Other features that are associated with consciousness include intentionality and transparency, a feature that recognizes the arousal of consciousness about an event due to an individual’s intent to do so (Cole, 2002). For instance, one’s consciousness about the 9/11 attack comes to an individual through an intentional thought. Once the intention matures, the inner self becomes conscious of the event and the individual is said to be ‘aware’. There is also a dynamic flow of information in the conscious state. This dynamic flow is also referred to as a stream of consciousness in which the subject conscious state is active and visualizes events in a dynamic manner, just as in real live (Stanford Encyclopedia, 2003). Through these features, consciousness in a subject performs some functions/ processes, most of which may borrow from both sensory and cognitive aspects. Consciousness plays the first role of flexible control of the physical actions of a subject (Anderson, 1983). When consciousness is defined as self-awareness, it implies that an individual measures and weighs options concerning an issue and as such, all actions are controlled in a state of awareness. In addition, consciousness enhances capacity for social coordination. Humphreys (1982) argues that a subject that is conscious is not only aware of itself and therefore its immediate needs but is also able to extend the awareness to other similar creatures. In a human context, being conscious therefore enables an individual to be conscious of others surrounding him which results to responsiveness to the events occurring in the social arena. Participation and responsiveness to the social environment leads to an integration of the like-subjects so that the social system develops values, beliefs, structures, intentions and perceptions. In addition to social coordination, consciousness presents a subject with an integrated representation of reality. By combining experiential organization and dynamism inherent in consciousness, it presents the world in an easy to understand frame. According to Campbell (1994), the features of consciousness help to constitute a meaningful structure of the world. Additionally, consciousness plays the following functions, all of which are additions, either to physical or cognitive processes; it enhances informational access, enhances freedom of will and intrinsic motivation (Wegner, 2002). Going by these explanations, it is evident that the realm of consciousness is made up of both sensory functions and intellectual processes, implying that a significant part of consciousness is dependent on brain processes. In the section below, a brief outline will be made of what constitutes brain processes and make efforts to establish a correlation between them and the features and functions of consciousness discussed above.

Evaluating the Sustainability of the Eu Policy Essay Example for Free

Evaluating the Sustainability of the Eu Policy Essay

Relationship among Organizational Citizenship Behaviours

Relationship among Organizational Citizenship Behaviours Abstract Organizational citizenship behaviour is an important factor that aggregate promotes the effective functioning of the organization (Organ, 1988). And the job satisfaction is defined to be a pleasurable or positive emotional state resulting from the appraisal of ones job or job experiences (Locke, 1976). Researches have been done to measure the relationship between the job satisfaction and organizational citizenship behaviours. Some results show there are relationship between job satisfaction and organizational citizenship behaviours while some argue there are little relationship between this two factors. The aim of this paper is to find out the relationship between job satisfaction and organizational citizenship behaviours and measure whether other factors such as age and service length by using the questionnaire to collect data. Introduction In recent years a number of studies have expanded the understanding of organizational citizenship behaviour within the workplace. Organizational citizenship behaviour refers to individual behaviours that are discretionary, not directly or explicitly recognized by the formal reward system, and that in the aggregate promotes the effective functioning of the organization(Organ, 1988). In the early 1980s, the term organizational citizenship behaviors was created to depict extra-role those behaviors previously described by Katz (Smith et al., 1983). Katz maintained that organizational citizenship behaviors are vital to organizational survival and effectiveness. He also provided several examples of important extra-role behaviors, among them are actions that protect the organization and its property, constructive suggestions for improving the organization, self-training for additional responsibility, creating a favorable climate for the organization in its surrounding environments, and coop erative activities (Katz, 1964). Katz and Kahn (1966) suggested that organizational citizenship behaviors were spontaneous and innovative. Moorman and Blakely (1995) pointed out that organizational citizenship behaviours were beneficial and desirable from an organizational perspective, however, the behaviours were difficult to be increased through contractual arrangements or formal rewards. Bolon (1997) emphasized that organizational citizenship behaviours were not enforceable requirements of the role or the job descriptions, which were the clearly specifiable terms of the persons employment contract with the organization. The behaviors were matters of personal choices. The omission was not generally understood as punishable. Organ (1990) pointed out that the definition did not necessarily imply that organizational citizenship behaviours were limited only to those behaviours, which were lacking in tangible return to the person who performs such behaviours. He also maintained that a continual demonstration of organizational citizenship behaviours over time may influence the impression of coworkers or supervisors who develop concerning a particular employee. The impression could play an important role in future reward considerations, such as a salary increase or a promotion. Organizational citizenship behaviours have been linked to many work-related factors, for example, it has been associated with organizational commitment (Bolon, 1997), and transformational leader behaviours (Podsakoff et al., 1990). Studies have found that organizational citizenship behaviour is associated with job satisfaction (eg. Bolon, 1997). Job satisfaction has been gaining steady attention. Job satisfaction could be defined as a pleasurable or positive emotional state resulting from the appraisal of ones job or job experiences (Locke, 1976). The term job satisfaction was first coined by Hoppock in 1935. He defined it as the satisfactory feeling on both psychological and physical sides of the employees about the working conditions. It is the subjective responses of subordinates to work situations. Porter (1973) suggested that the extent of job satisfaction was the difference between the one who really acquires from work and the one who believed that he should acquire from work. A common view among managers is that satisfied employees were more productive than dissatisfied employees. Robbins (2001) suggested that job satisfaction was not only a general attitude toward ones job, but also the differences between the amount of reward workers received and the amount they believe they should receive. In addition, he presented that the term of job satisfaction refers to an individuals general attitude toward his or her job. A person with a high level of job satisfaction holds positive attitudes toward the job, while a person who is dissatisfied with his or her job holds negative attitudes about the job. As a psychological need and a factor to well being, job satisfaction is believed to have an environmental and genetic component (Arvey et al., 1989). There are several different variables, which are related to job satisfaction, such as cultural values, transformational leader behaviours and organizational commitment (Kirkman and Shapiro, 2001; Podsakoff et al., 1990; Feather and Rauter, 2004). There has increasing attention to the possible relationship between job satisfaction and organizational citizenship behaviour. Transformational leaders are those who broaden and elevate the interests of their followers, generate awareness and commitment of individuals to the purpose and mission of the group, and they enable subordinates to transcend their own self-interests for the betterment of the group (Seltzer et al., 1989). Transformational leadership is one of the groups of models describing leadership as an influencing social interaction or process. The process refers to one or a group of individuals which influence the behaviour of other people in an organizational setting for the purpose of achieving or accomplishing organizational objectives (Yukl, 2002). Transformational leadership behaviours raise the consciousness of followers about what is important, move followers to transcend the self-interest for the good of the organization, and raise their concerns for higher level needs on Maslows hierarchy (Bass, 1999). Studies have found that transformational leadership behaviours were positively assoc iated with followers job satisfaction, and transformational leaders could increase followers job satisfaction motivated their followers (Podsakoff et al., 1990; Morrison et al., 1997) There is substantial support for the relationship between job satisfaction and organizational citizenship behaviors. Bateman and Organ (1983) found a significant relationship between general measures of job satisfaction and supervisory ratings of citizenship behavior. Schappe (1998) also suggested that cross-lagged patterns of the relationships between organizational citizenship behaviours and specific facets of job satisfaction revealed essentially the same results as overall satisfaction. Smith, Organ, and Near (1983) identified two separate dimensions of OCB: altruism and generalized compliance. Altruism refers to behaviours aimed at helping specific people directly and intentionally. Generalized compliance refers to a more impersonal type of conscientious behavior that does not provide immediate aid to a particular individual but is indirectly helpful to other people in the organization. Job satisfaction could be a major determinant of an employees organizational citizenship behavior. A satisfied employee seems more likely to talk positively about the organization, help others, and go beyond the normal expectations in their job. Moreover, satisfied employees might be more prone to go beyond the call of duty because they want to reciprocate their positive experiences. Organ suggested that the empirically supported relationship between job satisfaction and organizational citizenship behaviours could be described as a reflecting relationship between perceptions of fairness and organizational citizenship behaviours. On the other hand, he also suggested that the cognitive component of job satisfaction appears to be related to orgaizational citizenship behaviours probably reflects the influence of perceptions. However, some studies argued there are no association between job satisfaction and organizational citizenship behaviours, which were considered to be related to other variables, such as transformational leadership behaviours (Podsakoff et al., 1990) and personality (Organ and Lingl, 1995). Other studies show that there is a positive relationship between job satisfaction and organizational citizenship behaviours (e.g. Chiu and Chen, 2005; Foote and Tang, 2008). Researchers suggested that job satisfaction could be a mediating variable between organizational citizenship behaviour and other variables, such as job characteristics and team commitment (Chiu and Chen, 2005; Foote and Tang, 2008). Studies show that both job satisfaction and organizational citizenship behaviour are associated to organizational outcomes significantly (Koys, 2001). Job satisfaction and organizational citizenship behaviour could thus be important variables for both employees and organizations. Methodological differences Methodological differences could explain differences between studies. Most of the earlier studies were based on samples from America and Australia, and almost all participants were employees in industrial companies. There is little focus on people with a higher education level, for example academics. The relation of job satisfaction and organizational citizenship behaviour could be different among academics, because of the high education level and features of academic work. The purpose of the study was to investigate and get a better understanding of the relationship between organizational citizenship behaviour and job satisfaction. In order to guide the investigation, the following specific questions were formulated: 1.What is the relationship between organizational citizenship behaviour and job satisfaction? 2.Are age, gender and length of service related to job satisfaction and organizational citizenship behaviours? The hypotheses of this study are: H0: There is no significant correlation between organizational citizenship behaviours and job satisfacton. H1: There is a significant correlation between organizational citizenship behaviours and job satisfaction. Methods Survey questionnaires were administered to staff of Department of Human Sciences in Loughborough University. Both academic staff and support staff were invited in this study. Participants were invited to participate in this study by e-mail. The e-mail outlined the survey details, such as the research proposal and the type of questionnaires. Volunteers read the study information and filled in the informed consent, using tick boxes to agree to consent before completing the questionnaire. Data collection was based on an online questionnaire system (Surveymonkey.com). The system provided a completely anonymity system. Participants filled the online questionnaire in directly to enable anonymity and confidentially. Data were collected automatically by the survey system. Of the 61 total personnel involved in such teams, 32 participated in the study. Of the respondents, 62.5 percent were female. Further, the mean age of participants was 45 years. The mean length of service was 11.5 years. Measures Organizational citizenship behaviours. To measure organizational citizenship behaviours, a 13 items five-point Likert scale (from 1= strongly disagree to 5= strongly agree) was using (Smith et al., 1983). The 13 items questionnaire assesses citizenship behaviours and gestures through items such as I am willing to help others who are not able to work, I am willing to volunteer to give orientation and guidance to new members who join our team and I make innovative and good suggestions which help to improve the department. The instrument has two sub scales, which measure altruism and generalized compliance. Altruism refers to behaviours aimed at helping specific people directly and intentionally (e.g. giving orientation to new members, assisting others with a heavy work load). Generalized compliance refers to a more impersonal type of conscientious behavior that does not provide immediate aid to a particular individual but is indirectly helpful to other people in the organization (e.g. punctuality). In the study by Smith et al. (1983) the coefficient alpha reliability estimates were .91 for Altruism and .81 for Generalized compliance. Job satisfaction. To measure job satisfaction, a 5 items five-point Likert scale (from 1= strongly disagree to 5= strongly agree) was using (Hackman and Oldham, 1975). There are The 5 items questionnaire assesses job satisfaction through items such as Generally speaking, I am very satisfied with this job and I frequently think of quitting this job (reverse items). In the study by Hackman and Oldham (1975), the coefficient alpha reliability estimates were .74. Statistical Analysis The data were analyzed in order to provide an answer to the research questions and test the hypotheses. To test the hypotheses and assess the correlation between organizational citizenship behaviours and job satisfacton, Pearson correlation analysis was preformed. Statistical analysis was performed using SPSS version 16.0. Discussion The statistical analysis results show that there are relation between job satisfaction and organizational citizenship behaviours, while either age and length of service do not influence job satisfaction or organizational citizenship behaviours. However, some researchers have found that there is no relationship between organizational citizenship behaviours and job satisfaction (e.g. Podsakoff et al., 1990; Organ and Lingl, 1995), while other studies reported significant correlation between the two variables (e.g. Bateman and Organ, 1983; Schappe, 1998). A possible reason might be because the features of samples are different. As personal choices rather than duties, organizational citizenship behaviours could be influenced by culture, education level and organizational commitment. One limitation of this study is the response rate. In this study, the valid response rate is about 50 present. Moreover, the sample size is relatively small. Another possible problem is that people who have higher organizational citizenship behaviours levels are more likely to participate the study than people who have low levels organizational citizenship behaviours. In addition, one limitation of the study is that university staff need to do more individual duties rather than co-operations. For this reason, the results of the study may not be suitable for organizations which need more co-operations, for instances, customer services companies or manufacturing industry Future studies In this study, the sample size is relatively small. The larger the sample size, the more sensitive the research in exploring the relationships of the variables. Subsequent studies could cover more samples. In this study, the questionnaire of organizational citizenship behaviours were answered directly by the employees, which was not appraised by their supervisors or co-workers. For this reason, the self-reported data may be inflated. Therefore, subsequent researchers may improve the design of surveys to avoid the bias Conclusion As the data gathered from Loughborough University Human Science department suggest that there are significant relationship between job satisfaction and organizational citizenship behavior while there seems no correlation between the job satisfaction and the stuffs age and service length. This conclusion may only apply to those workers who engage in more personal works and a different result could be expected when using workers whose duty includes more co-operation with others.

Bipolar Disorder Essay examples -- Causes of Bipolar Disorder

In life we all go through experiences that cause our moods to change for better or for worse. There are times that we experience degrees of great joy and happiness just as other times we experience great sadness and despair. These polar emotional opposites can be brought about by a cornucopia of circumstances such as the joy and excitement of getting married or the birth of a child to the deep sadness and grief over the loss of a loved one or one’s employment. Feelings of joy and feelings of sadness are normal parts of human life. Some however are unfortunate enough to be force to cope with these emotions to the extreme and on a regular basis. Some individuals must further cope with an ever present emotion rollercoaster, switching from one emotional extreme to the next with regularity. This personality disorder is known as bipolar disorder. Bipolar disorder is the condition in which one’s mood switches from periods of extreme highs known as manias to periods of extreme lows known as depression. The name bipolar comes from the root words bi (meaning two) and polar (meaning opposite) (Peacock, 2000). Though often bipolar disorder is developed in a person’s late teens to early adulthood; bipolar disorder’s early symptoms can sometimes be found in young children or may develop later on in life (National Institutes of, 2008). Bipolar disorder has been found to affect both men and women equally. Currently the exact cause of bipolar disorder is not yet known, however it has been found to occur most often in the relatives of people diagnosed with bipolar disorder (National Center for, 2010). Individuals with bipolar disorder typically experience unusual extremes of happy and sad emotions compared to those without bipolar disor... ...otechnology Information. (2015). Bipolar disorder, ncbi.nlm.nih.gov Web. 21 July 2015. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmedhealth/PMH0001924 †¢ NIH, National Center for Biotechnology Information. (2015). Cyclothymic Disorder, ncbi.nlm.nih.gov Web. 22 July 2015. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmedhealth/PMH0002517 †¢ Russ Federman Ph.D., (Feb 13, 2014). "Misdiagnosis of Bipolar Disorder". psychologytoday.com Web. 15 July 2015. https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/bipolar-you/201402/misdiagnosis-bipolar-disorder †¢ Abraham, R.A. (2015, February 25). â€Å"Causes of bipolar disorder†. webmd.com Web. 28 June 2015. http://www.webmd.com/bipolar-disorder/guide/bipolar-disorder-causes †¢ Frans, E.M. (2008). Advancing Paternal Age and Bipolar Disorder. Arch Gen Psychiatry, 65(9), Web. 19 July 2015. http://archpsyc.jamanetwork.com/article.aspx?articleid=210144

Bruce Dawes Poetry :: essays research papers

Discuss 2 of Dawe's poems which illustrates his belief that ordinary things in life are a good subject for poetry.Bruce Dawe poems illustrate his version of "ordinary". The poems I have studied of his work have been about life and how people deal with everyday living. Such poems as Drifters and Homosuburbiensis are good examples of how Dawe captures the meaning of "ordinary". Drifters is about a family who move from place to place, as the father needs to move by the demand of his job. The young children are growing up to learn no other way of life, as they are all waiting for the day they shall move again. The children get very excited about this, as it is something different and is of course an adventurous, in ordinary life.The eldest, she is seeing what she is missing out on and is becoming aware that there nomadic lives may never change. She who once was one of those excited children, realises she can not lead a normal teenage life as she is not stationed long enough, to become friends with people her own age. She is becoming frustrated with her life. She becomes upset but knows she has to accept the inevitable. From the above Dawe shows compassion for the eldest as she has to go through this more than once. Also the young children are going to grow up to realise they will too go through the same thing. Dawe also shows a serious side in the poem, as the mother just wants to settle down and have the bright future she has always dreamed of. Dawe has a sympathetic outlook towards the mother, by outlining her hopes and dreams, also asking her husband Tom to make a wish in the last line of the poem. Thus hoping he will choose the same path in life that would be concrete and will bring them closer together. Because this is a continuous event the mother is getting frustrated as at the time of packing once again she finds that she has not unpacked from there last move.This poem is not everyone's ordinary life but a life the have to lead in order to stay functional. The family have to make sacrifices because it is more of a necessity. This life they lead is ordinary to the young children but frustrating towards the eldest and the mother.

A Review of Peter Brown’s Augustine of Hippo Essay -- Augustine Hippo

A Review of Peter Brown’s Augustine of Hippo   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Peter Brown’s Augustine of Hippo is a dense, scholarly work outlining the entire life of the Catholic bishop.   The University of California Press in Berkeley, California published the work in 1967.   My version was the 1973 second paperback printing, found in the University library.   Its smallish, scholarly, serifed, typewritten font allows for a instant respect for the subject matter:   the words are at first imposing, but then revealing as their serious tone complements the complexity of the text.   The pages are studded with footnotes, filling out this work with evidence of Brown’s exhaustive research.   There is a three-page preface before the work, and, after the work, a seventeen-page bibliography, and ten-page index.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Brown’s book is organized, like any scholarly biography, chronologically according to Augustine’s life.   It is separated into five parts, each corresponding to significant portions of Augustine’s life:   his pagan life, his conversion, his actions against the Donatists, his actions against Pelagians, and his final legacy and death.   Each part opens with a chronological table of events both directly involving Augustine and the world he lived in.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   The first part begins with â€Å"Africa,† a chapter detailing the section of northern Africa:   its Greco-Roman literary and political history, painting a picture of the world Augustine came from.   The next chapter, titled â€Å"Monica,† describes Augustine’s parents, particularly his mother, and their religious beliefs and socioeconomic status.   â€Å"Education,† the third chapter, is about the future bishop’s early education, focusing on his introduction to his favorite school subject, Latin literature.   T... ...uum:   Writing the ‘City of God,’† rather than just â€Å"City of God.†Ã‚   (This chapter is actually misprinted in the table of contents as â€Å"Opus Magnum† rather than â€Å"Magnum Opus,† a small error, but one easy enough to catch in proofreading, for this second paperback edition.   Also, Brown has a penchant for Latin or French phrases, inserted randomly to convey special meaning; this could be forgivable if they were translated or explained, even in the spacious footnotes:   they are not, leaving the layman reader frequently confused and agitated.   But, this book is not intended for the layman; it is a scholarly work, and most readers would be in his field of antiquity, and most probably know Latin, and be more acquainted with familiar French phrases.   Augustine of Hippo is not perfect, but it is an extremely good biography, being both exceedingly thorough and fully captivating.

Adolescent Sex Offenders and Social Workers Role

One of the most significant problems of the Western world is sexual assaults which rank among the societies’ illness that connects to other crimes such as nonsexual crime, spread of infectious diseases, substance abuse and environmental damage.Victims of sexual assaults are increasing on a large scale basis according to the 1987 surveys using stratified random samples of selected population.Sexual assaults during the past decades have shown that one half of the number of women interviewed say they experienced sexual victimization before reaching the age of 14 while one in four of the adult female respondents say they were sexually abused before the age of 18. Although most of these assaults were committed by adults, male juvenile sex offenders are beginning to take the limelight in committing sex offenses more than any other records we had decades ago.Male sex offenders are those persons convicted in court of sexual crimes that include rape, sexual intent such as molestations and sexual component which include rape with murder. Categorically there are two types of sex offenders and these are the adult and adolescent offenders.While the adult sex offenders are fully sanctioned by the law, juvenile or adolescent sex offenders are treated differently because they are still under the age covered by juvenile criminal justice system which separate them from adult system.In the criminal justice system, the court considers a young person a sex offender when he or she cannot be responsible for the criminal behavior because of his or her age. In American jurisdictions, when a person is younger than 12 years old, he or she is considered a child so they cannot be convicted of sexual crime because sexual crime covers only those who are 13 years and above.Juvenile or adolescent sex offenders, however, have ages of 12 up to 18 therefore they are within the juvenile court system and consider them as juvenile sex offenders. They can be held liable for sexual offense beca use according to the court they can be criminally responsible for the crime because of their capability to distinguish sexual offense.According to the US statistical data, from 1985 to 2000, 91.8% of sexual offenses were committed by young males with ages 12 to 17.In a study conducted in 1983 by Ageton, he estimated that approximately around 20% of all rapes and child molestations were caused by adolescent male offenders. One of the most recognizable characteristics of adolescent sex offender is their deviant sexual behavior.This behavior includes sexual behavior on child molestation, pedophilia and fetishism. Sexual deviation is often interpreted as â€Å"sexual perversion† or â€Å"paraphilia†.   Paraphilia is defined in the medical or behavioral science as a behavioral condition that refers to sexual deviation, sexual anomaly, sexual perversion or a disorder of sexual preference.Adolescent sex offenders suffering from Paraphilias are mostly males who develop this condition during their early puberty and may suffer from it until the age of 20 (Barbaree & Marshall, 2008).In 1994, the American Academy of Pediatrics has published its last policy statement that includes information on rape and sexual assault by adolescents, victims of these assaults and the perception of these adolescents about sexual assault or sexual offense. Sexual assault or sexual offence may vary in definitions.It may connote rape, acquaintance, date rape, molestation, statutory rape, treatment and management of the victim. In sexual offense, there is usually sexual contact with or without penetration that occur either with the use of psychological coercion or by physical force. It can also include touching the person that violates his or her persona or touching the person’s sexual or body parts or even touching the clothing that covers the intimate parts of the person.There is molestation even when there is non-coital sexual activity between a child, an adolescent o r an adult. Molestation which is one form of sexual offense can also include encouraging a child in viewing pornographic materials, fondling of the genitals or breasts or through oral-genital contact.According to the national data, victims of adolescent sexual offense are mainly composed of adolescents themselves. Although adolescent sexual offenders may victimize any age group, according to the 1998 record of the US Department of Justice out of the 1000 males and female victims of sexual assault annually, 3.5 % are of ages 12 through 15 years of age and 5 % are of 16 to 19 years of ages.These are only conservative data because accordingly cases are not all reported due to the fact that the assailants are of their acquaintance or relative of the victims.Usually the persons involved in the treatment of these victims are pediatricians who are responsible in the management of children and the well being of the adolescents. This is because they are trained to conduct forensic procedures that are necessary for documentation and evidence collection which the pediatrician must refer to an emergency department or rape crisis center when there is the case of adolescent rape.Rape cases may involve Colposcopic procedures that will allow examiners to check on genital trauma as seen in rape cases. Pediatricians who are tasked to treat sexually abused or assaulted patients must be aware of the legal requirements which include the completion of the needed forms, documentation and reporting to the authorities.In case there is diagnosis and management of Sexually Transmitted Diseases (STDs) blood and tissue specimens should be obtained and checked as most of the victims of adolescent sex offenders may suffer from these kinds of diseases and infection (Kaufman, 2008).But what causes male adolescent sexual offense and what are the treatments? According to studies adolescent sexual behavior develop during childhood. Because of exposure to non-profound sexual values and absence of bonding with their families, the young mind of a child learned to trust no one.They may be exposed to sexual behavior and values that victimize people or live in a very complex family setting where they see their parents getting involved with other partners. Because of the lack of stability and consistency in mind, the children’s confused world affects their sexual identity.Since they lack psychological support from their families, what they have in their environment confuse them to the point of getting confused by his own sexual identity. As they grow up, they cannot categorize what is right from wrong when it comes to having relationship particularly sexual relationship.Psychiatrists can be able to see this abnormal behavior based from the adolescent’s background. They can also see the difference between normal boys and young sex offenders. A normal boy is usually self-absorbed but also much aware of other people and his surroundings while a boy with adolescent sex offender tendencies is usually motivated in satisfying his own needs with no regards for others.In the case of a normal adolescent male, as puberty sets in he will take interest with the opposite sex. Although this is also true with an adolescent male sex offender, the problem is he can both become attracted to males and females but this attraction is not based on respect but with manipulative and opportunistic desire that involves inappropriate sexual fantasies.While the normal adolescent boy begins to seek friendship with his peers, the offender will only wish for sexual relationships. Because of this unusual personality, the opposite sex may find him unsuitable for friendship and avoid his companionship. In view of this the offender may just commit sexual gratification by other means and to what satisfies him regardless of consequences.Since this condition may become too emotionally deep, extensive study of the offender’s background and psychiatric test must be provided to prevent re-offending. Treatment must be applied and people in charge of the treatment must start with orienting the offender of his condition to prevent the status of denial and begin to process individual motivations, detect the signals to offending, monitor emotional responses and pattern of offense.The offender must be taught to assume responsibility of his own behavior and must be told that his deeds make him to act antisocially. This process will enable the adolescent to understand his condition and can motivate himself to seek help to prevent future conflicts. This usual therapy can help in making the offender analyze and acknowledge his offenses so that he can have room for potential change.Some important treatments that are involved to alter abnormal sexual behavior is altering the deviant sexual fantasies of the offenders and stop the habit of masturbation, improving the development of conscience and feelings of empathy. Patients subjected to group therapy experience faste r treatment and this is where the value of the social workers comes into place.The social workers can significantly assist treatment and therapy to enable the patients to coordinate events, thoughts and feelings that trigger his offending behavior. In case they bypasses boundaries of good morals, the social workers will reorganize and restructure their thoughts by teaching them re-routing their energies to legitimate leisure activities to prevent immersing themselves to boredom which can trigger offensive behaviors.One of the most important aspects of treating an adolescent sex offender particularly in males is abandoning the objectification of people specifically of those sex partners so that he will learn social skills and attracting a person to a commitment of a true, loving and committed relationship. Getting him exposed to be moral is the main objective of therapy and treatment.Truly, it takes a lot of effort to make an offender get on the right track because as we have said, h is mind and abnormal behavior developed during his younger years of mental formation that is why treatments sometimes seem to be overwhelming.There are different forms of treatment and therapy with this condition and they take in many forms. Social workers, however, does not rely on drugs or other forms of treatment that uses chemicals in enhancing treatment but instead they condition the mind of the offenders through the use of lectures, discussions, exercises, movies, instructional videos, role playing, oral treatment plan assignments and so on.Usually social workers rely on the use of role models that are once adolescent sex offenders and can serve as rich source of experiences. Social workers are especially trained to share personal anecdotes in teaching the fundamentals of responsibility, sexuality, morality, social skills and communication, preventing relapse and emotionality.They encourage their subjects in watching television shows and news programs that offer rich sources o f discussion that provokes moral interpretations and judgments.As have been mentioned before, group therapy can be the most significant treatment of all the choices provided by the social workers because a group mobilizes peer pressure and can be a powerful motivator for change and it presses confession and conformation as well. Counseling is also done to individual inpatients and outpatients on a weekly basis (Lakey, 1994).  However since this discussion is primarily pointing at what are the causes and treatment of adolescent sex offense it must also be noted that prevention must be considered to altogether stop or spread the cases of this clinical condition.We all know that 95% of the time, sex is rooted out in our childhood because as children, we have an inborn curiosity about everything including sex. A child who starts to mingle with other children accelerates this curiosity to an astonishing degree and therefore this is where the guidance of his family must come to play.Onc e the child begins to notice the opposite sex it means his curiosity starts to accelerate removing himself to his confinement with his toys and playthings. However if the child cannot get from his parents the information of what he is curious about, his tendency is to run to his peers or other adults for the answers. Unfortunately, pedophiles are most aware in this factor and may use their advantage to gain the trust of children.The result of the curiosity of the child may be disastrous in this manner. That is why sex education at home should begin the earliest possible time or when the child starts to ask questions about sexuality. Male child may ask about simple things but the parent must answer the child with very basic answers that do not need to talk about pure sex.The parents must also correct misinformation that deals with sex contributed to him by his peers, classmates or other adults. Remember that everything that the child ask and see becomes imprinted in his young mind an d will carry and lead him to other aspects related to what he learned during his developing years.When the child starts to enter his adolescence he begins to experience confusion and will try to discover his true identity. Inadequate learning from his family or misinformation given to him by other people may confuse him deeply which can affect his personality and his view toward sex may become abnormal.Being in the stage of budding adolescence is where the role of his family becomes critical because he will see that something different takes place on his body and at the same time notice that opposite sex attracts him. If misguided and the adolescent has no one to talk about the changes he feels, depression may result and he can have a puzzled adolescent life (Prendergast, 2003).No man has desired to be a sex offender but unfortunately we cannot always direct our lives due to the fact that there are many influences that may put our child at risk. However, the US government is very an xious about this and so every US state are encouraged to put up their adolescent prevention program to put a hold on the growing criminality caused by the offending youths.According to The Safer Society Foundation, in 1986 there were about 346 programs in the U.S. treating adolescent sex offenders with ages ranging from 12-17. In 2002 these programs rose to 937. But with the rising offenses during that period around 410 programs were also established for children under the age of 12 due to the rising trends of younger offenders.Government programs were the result of these data because suddenly there was the need for establishing programs for juvenile treatment as referred by state courts (â€Å"Juvenile Probation and Court Services Department,† 2006)For the conclusion of this discussion, checking on the data plus the concern that affects some of our youth, there is a point indeed for concern for the need to answer the growing problem of adolescent sex offense. Through the yea rs, this information tells us that not only adolescents are affected by this conditions but even younger males.There are now researches to back-up the need for rehabilitation of the offenders because of the massive data that have been supported by studies and information from the US National Statistics and other government programs. Giving hope to these children through treatments encouraged by different programs is the only recourse we could do because we want to prevent further debilitation of culture and future of our youth.eferences:Barbaree, H., & Marshall, W. L. (2008). The Juvenile Sex Offender, Second Edition (2 ed.): Guilford Press (book)Juvenile Probation and Court Services Department.   (2006). Retrieved from http://www.cookcountycourt.org/services/programs/juvenile/innovations.html#jsoKaufman, M. (2008). Care of the Adolescent Sexual Assault Victim. Pediatrics (Journal), 107, 1476-1479.Lakey, J. F. (1994). The Profile and Treatment of Male Adolescent Sex Offenders. Ado lescence (Journal), 29(116), 755-761.Prendergast, W. E. (2003). Treating Sex Offenders (2nd ed. Vol. 1): Haworth Press. (book)